Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Best Of Halford And Brough 7/9/24

Episode Date: July 9, 2024

Mike looks back at the previous day in sports, he debates with the dogs on who the Canucks would be better with - prime Rick Tocchet, or prime Adam Foote, plus he previews tonight's Canada Argentina semifinals matchup at Copa America with OneSoccer's Oliver Platt. This podcast is produced by Andy Cole and Greg Balloch. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rogers Media Inc. or any affiliate.

You're listening to the best of Halford & Brough. You're listening to Halford & Brough. Hello Canada, Alfonso Davies here. I just want to say thank you guys for all your love and support. We'll keep fighting, we'll keep pushing to make it to the finals. And to all those people that have chosen to disrespect the player, in this case me, have a good night. Good night, good night. I was saying balloons.

Good morning, Vancouver. 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday, everybody. It is Halford. It is Brough minus the Brough. We are coming to you live from the Kintec Studios in beautiful Fairview Slopes in Vancouver. As mentioned, Jason Brough is still on vacation. I am Mike Halford.

I am flying solo, but I've also got the dogs with me. Good morning to you, Andy Dog. Good me. Good morning to you, Andy Dog. Good morning. Good morning to you, Greg Dog. Hello, hello. Helping me out for the morning is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for,

be it sales, financing, service, or parts. We are in hour one of the program. Hour one is brought to you by North Star Metal Recycling. Vancouver's premier metal recycler pays the highest prices on scrap metal. North Star Metal Recycling, they recycle, you get paid. Visit them at 1170 Powell Street in Vancouver. As I mentioned, this show is coming to you live from the Kintec Studio.

Kintec is Canada's favorite orthotics provider. It is powered by thousands of five-star Google reviews. If you have sore feet, Greg, what are you waiting for? Very well done. We got a big show ahead on a Tuesday. Just to lay everything out, this will be the last solo voyage for yours truly. Josh Elliott Wolfe, the youngster, the kid they call him.

He'll be joining us Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. They've heard enough of the solo Halford show. They got two days of it. Technically, one's in the books today. We'll see if I get to nine o'clock. You can't let this continue. There's one of our bosses waiting outside the door with a big hook, like we're on a game show, just waiting to pull me off the air.

Just waiting to pull me off. 6.30, Derek Van Deest is going to join the program from NHL.com. In addition to being the Oilers writer for NHL.com, he was also one of the three tasked with putting together Team Canada, the fantasy draft for Team Canada's roster at the Four Nations Faceoff and then looking ahead to the 2026 Olympics as well. So we'll talk to him about an exercise that we did last week trying to put together Team Canada.

Who's on? Who's off? What does it look like? What are some of the surprise picks? What are the goalies going to look like? Derek Van Deest from NHL.com at 630 is going to join the program. 7.15, Oliver Platt from One Soccer is going to join us. He is live.

Not the actor. No, not the actor. Oliver Platt, the soccer pundit from One Soccer is going to join us. He is live. Not the actor. Nope, not the actor. Oliver Platt, the soccer pundit from One Soccer, is going to join us. He is live on location, East Rutherford, New Jersey, for the biggest match in Canadian men's soccer history tonight. Yeah, I said it. Yeah, it is.

Canada, Argentina, Copa America semifinals. Winner goes to the final. Oliver Platt's going to join us at 7.15 to preview the match. A reminder, that kicks off at 5 o'clock tonight. 5 o'clock is when Canada and Argentina will kick off from East Rutherford, New Jersey, MetLife Stadium. Expecting upwards of 70,000, 80,000 people in attendance for that one. Just a huge match.

The center of the sporting world, perhaps, tonight. And Canada's smack in the middle of it. 7.30, good friend of the program, Softie Mahler. Dave Softie Mahler from KJR Sports Radio in Seattle. We will talk to Softie about the Blue Jays' annual invasion of Seattle over the weekend. Can talk to him about the erratic Seattle Mariners. He made a lot of friends, I think. I heard that Softie was just a social butterfly.

He loves Canadians, and he loves it when they invade Seattle made a lot of friends, I think. I heard that Softie was just a social butterfly. He loves Canadians and he loves it when they invade Seattle for a weekend of baseball. We can also talk to him about the Seattle Kraken. What the excitement level is like for them after a fairly eventful, by their standards, July 1 in NHL free agency. So Softie's going to join us at 7.30.

8 o'clock, it's Rick Campbell, BC Lions head coach, is going to join us after their big win in Hamilton on the weekend. We'll start looking ahead to the big game Saturday, 4 o'clock, it's Rick Campbell, BC Lions head coach, is going to join us after their big win in Hamilton on the weekend. We'll start looking ahead to the big game Saturday, 4 o'clock, from BC Place against the undefeated and Western-leading Saskatchewan Rough Riders. 8.15, Tarek El-Bashir is going to join the program. Capitals insider from Monumental Sports Network. Caps put a new GM in place yesterday.

Congrats in order to Chris Patrick, the longtime assistant GM there. I want to talk to him about that. I want to talk to him about the seven additions this team made around Alex Ovechkin in the offseason via trades and free agency. I also want to talk to him about Alex Ovechkin because as we were talking about yesterday,

some photos making the rounds on social media of Alex Ovechkin looking in offseason form, I'll put it. Prime off-season form. Very off-season form. So working in reverse on the guest list. 8.15, Tarek El-Bashir. 8 o'clock, Rick Campbell.

7.30, Softie Mahler. 7.15, Oliver Platt. 6.30, Derek Van Deest. We got a lot to get into. Without further ado, Laddie, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night no what happened i missed all the action because we know how busy your life can be what happened is brought to you by the bc construction safety alliance making safety

simpler by giving construction companies the best in tools, resources, and safety training. Visit them online at bccsa.ca. Monday, an incredibly light day and night in the world of sports. Light on baseball. There was no footy to dive into. All quiet on the NHL front except for a signing out of Utah, which we'll get into in a sec, because we're going to turn it into a Canucks conversation. But the big news from yesterday was Canada and the gaffer, Jesse Marsh, doing media and prepping for their massive match

against Argentina tonight at MetLife Stadium. So here's what you need to know. Kickoff, 5 o'clock our time. Canada comes into this one on a bit of a roll. Having lost to Argentina in their tournament opener, they've since beaten Peru, drew with Chile, and then beat Venezuela in penalties

to get to this spot. Canada, again, still a massive underdog in this match. They're an underdog via the FIFA rankings where they're 48th in the world compared to Argentina, who, oh, by the way, is still number one in the world.

If you go to most sportsbooks, Canada is plus 850, a pretty massive betting underdog in this match to advance through and get to Saturday's final. I will remind you, speaking of Saturday's final, is that Canada win or lose is not done in this tournament. Yes, like most major international tournaments, there is the always popular third place game at stake at this one. So Canada, should they not get past the best team in the world right now

in Argentina, would play the loser of Colombia and Uruguay on Saturday. And that one would be in Charlotte. The winner of this match. The loser meetup. The loser meetup. The winner of this match will be playing in Miami in the final on Sunday. I should point that out. That's a Sunday final.

So the question that's out there for everyone, and specifically Jesse Marsh, is if you're going to pull one of the bigger upsets in recent memory, if you are going to topple the defending World Cup champions and the odds-on favorites to win Copa America, how are you going to do it, and what is it going to look like? the defending World Cup champions and the odds-on favorites to win Copa America. How are you going to do it? And what is it going to look like?

Let's play some audio from Marsh now on Argentina as an entirety, as its unit, as a team, because there's something to consider here. One is how do you defeat the group, the collective 11, and all the substitutes that Argentina is going to throw at you. And then the second part is, how are you going to deal with Messi specifically?

But we'll start with Jesse Marsh on the task at hand, how Canada plans to attack and defend Argentina. I really don't think we've even thought about dreaming about big moments. We're really just focused on exactly what Argentina is, tactically thinking about how we want to manage the game. Trying to limit their best players from finding too much space and time on the ball, finding a way to tilt the game in our favor of being good in transition at

moments. And, and, and then, you know, finding ways to still with the ball command the game. We don't want to just play for penalties. We're going to go out and play the way we like to play. We're going to use it as an opportunity to be at our best. And that in the end is really the focus. And what an incredible opportunity to do so. So there's a few takeaways there. I think the not playing for penalties is a pretty interesting one, because I think a lot of people are looking at this match and saying, like the don't do what Donnie don't does. Don't do what you did in the opener against Argentina,

which was at times open the match up to allow Argentina to have some very, very quality chances, some very big chances in that match. If we're being dead honest, 2-0 might have favored the Canadians in terms of how that match should have actually played out. Argentina was probably good for more than the two goals, given the quality

of chances that Canada conceded and the quality of netminding that Max Crapo gave them in that match. Crapo was brilliant, made a ton of big saves. There were some squandered chances from the Argentinians as well. Now, that being said, Marsh has pointed out on a number of occasions that he thought

there were some good things, especially an attack that Canada did in the opener. Maybe unfortunate to walk away goalless from the match. Some interesting things of notes here. Canada has actually done a good job of holding and retaining possession in this tournament.

It has not been going into a defensive shell, letting the other team hold the ball for extended long stretches, and then trying to bust somebody on the counter. In the wins that they had, now one of these comes with an asterisk because against Peru it was basically 10 men. They had 104 and 117 possessions.

They were probably saying, Halford, what does that stat even mean? Well, the tournament average in terms of amount of times singular entities in which you possess the ball was around 85. So Canada was well above

the tournament average. As a matter of fact, they've averaged 94 actual possessions of the ball in every game this tournament. That's the second highest in the tournament. Second only to Venezuela.

So Canada's actually done a nice job of having the ball in its feet being able to keep it away from the opposition not necessarily creating a ton of chances because they've done most of their chance creation on the counter-attack and being very direct and going at them with speed and power and the things that jesse Marsh likes to talk about. But there's been some tactical switches from the early things that we saw in the Marsh matches against Holland and France,

which were totally different beasts given where this team is at right now. There's another thing here, and this is more of an attitude and an approach and the mental of this entire thing. The Canadians have shown really, really, really remarkable resolve in this tournament. It is a difficult tournament.

They've overcome searing heat in the Peru match where one of the linesmen overcame with heat stroke and fainted on the sideline. Very cynical physical tactics from the opponents. Peru and Chile especially. Both those teams ended up going a man down due to red cards in part because Canada was able to keep its head, draw fouls, and not be drawn into, you know, after whistle fracases and scrums. And they didn't lose their cool. They didn't lose their composure. They didn't lose their discipline. Dodgy refereeing throughout this tournament. I think anyone that has watched it for a period of time has noted that the officiating has been,

at best, suspect, and at worst, criminal. Sus. Yeah, you were really angry about that on Twitter. I was. A lot of anger. At a certain point, at a certain point,

the amount of physical contact that, in particular, Jacob Schaffelberg was receiving warranted some whistles. Because I think that the referee, honestly, if I'm being dead honest, I don't think he knew what to do with Schaffelberg. There's not many players like him because of the way that he plays. And by that I mean run a million miles an hour, get knocked down, bounce right back up, and then do it all over again. Right? I think we're all very... He's just a guy just staying down and playing the actor.

Bingo. Oh, my arm! Oh! Right? Oh, he barely raised me. I don't think... The soccer special, man. Yeah. Schaffelberg would get hit, bounce back up, do it all over again. Yeah. And to the referee, I think he thought, well, the fouls can't be that serious. This guy is just playing through all of it.

Yeah. Unfortunate, cynical part of the sport. I don't even want to go down that road and litigate it. It's tough. But, okay. So, I do think that the mentality of the team has gotten better and better as the tournament has gone along. I think they've been able to take a negative in losing Tayshaun Buchanan to a broken leg

and turn it into an inspirational moment. I thought the Schaffelberg moment where he scored and went over and grabbed Buchanan's jersey and held it up as a tribute to his fallen teammate. I think that was very instrumental for this team in terms of belief, in terms of inspiration, in terms of that magic and that momentum that you can't really just make or draw up. I don't know. And that shot's become quite famous.

It's seen everywhere now. Sometimes you do need something bad to happen for something good to happen. I hate saying it that way, but we've seen countless teams have their rallying cry. And maybe this is Canada's. Buchanan was a fundamentally important part of this team, and they know it.

They know that they're a worse team without him than with him in the lineup. And I do wonder if they're going to be able to turn this into we're doing this for Tayshaun in the biggest moments, which is tonight, right? This is a huge moment tonight. Now, the reason this is a huge moment tonight is not just because of the opponent,

but because of who the opponent features. And Jesse Marsh makes no bones about this. He calls Lionel Messi the best player to ever play the game. And I'm going to play a clip now. He was asked by an Ecuadorian journalist yesterday, straight out, what he plans to do to stop Lionel Messi because Ecuador had some success against Messi in the quarterfinal match which they took Argentina penalties eventually lost in penalties

so he wanted Marsh's blueprint Marsh joke he's like I don't think I'm going to give you my game plan right now but he did talk about what they have to do having already faced Messi once in this tournament here's Jesse Marsh on what Canada needs to do against Messi tonight in the Copa America semifinal. Yeah, look, look, you, we didn't do well enough with Messi last match, right? And he was able to run free at our goalkeeper too much. We don't, we won't man mark him. Okay, we will, but we will certainly,

he's an emphasis of how we will defend and our ability to keep track of him will be really important. We have certain things that we'll try to do to try to make it difficult for him. But we know that limiting his space is the number one thing. We don't want him free and running at our back line and running at our goalkeeper like last game. That was not good enough.

But we all know he's the greatest player to ever play the game. And the respect that we have for him, I think, worldwide respect for who he is, and certainly the stadium will reflect that tomorrow. But it's always, I think, a privilege to play against a player like him. And our players will be up for it. They'll be excited. And the challenge is big. So we'll see if we can do a little bit better than we did in the first match.

Oh, hold on. That's the Canadian coach praising the opponent? Mm-hmm. And not saying whatever John Herdman said. What a stark contrast. He's like, I'm

going to do the opposite strategy and see if it works. Don't do what Donnie Don't does. Argentina outshot Canada 19-10 in that opening match,

including nine of those on target, which I remind you, Max Crapo, who might end up being a huge difference maker yet again, as he has been throughout this tournament.

And I mentioned the possessions earlier. Argentina had 64% of the possession in the opener. So not only did they dominate from a chance creation and shot metric, they also dominated from the possession standpoint as well. Canada was the second

best team going into the first match, during the first match, team going into the first match during the first match. And then after the first match, and they will probably be at times tonight for lengthy stretches, the second best team on the field. What they need to do is find those individual moments. And I will be curious to see if they will be able to come out with the sort

of directness and speed that they did in the Venezuela match. Because they set the tone against Venezuela early as to what they wanted to do. And that was be direct and use their power and speed to take advantage of a team that didn't have the same athleticism. And that is the one thing that Canada is going to have an advantage of in a lot of these games is that the athleticism and the speed is something that some of these older craftier South American teams and Central American teams don't have it's going to be very interesting to see what else is going to be interesting to see is the

moment this is going to be from a global perspective this match is going to be in the millions and millions and millions of viewers like the numbers on this are going to be in the millions and millions and millions of viewers. The numbers on this are going to be huge. This is the greatest living player playing in a major semifinal at night in America, just outside of New York City, in front of probably 70,000, 80,000 people in the stadium. And Canada's taking part in that. It's pretty remarkable. There's not another national team right now,

honestly, outside of maybe a couple in Europe that would get the draw that Messi and Argentina would get right now. It is profoundly big. And the fact that Canada gets to go through this is exactly why qualifying for this tournament in the first place was so important. Opportunities like this just don't come around all that often. Opportunities to beat a team of Argentina's stature

in a tournament of this nature do not come around that long. And that's why Marsh was saying that they're, they feel fortunate for the opportunity. It's almost a privilege at this point to get to do what they're able to do. So tune in tonight. Make sure you watch it.

It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be a good Canadian moment because to get to this point, they had to do a lot of good things and let's hope they can do a few more. Okay. I do want to do some hockey talk here. Very interesting thing happened yesterday in the NHL. And it's not so much about the deal, but what the deal represents. So a minor signing, but the Utah, formerly Arizona Coyotes,

the Utah Hockey Club, signed Barrett Hayton yesterday to a two-year contract extension, basically avoiding arb with the guy. Most people remember Barrett Hayton from the 2018 draft. Barrett Hayton was taken fifth overall by the then Arizona Coyotes in what was considered a reach at the time. People were hating that pick. Now, Hayden's been okay since he's gone to Arizona. He suffered through a ton of injuries last year.

He only played 33 games, so it was kind of a wash of a season. The one full year that he had, he played with Keller, and I want to say Schmaltz. He played all 82 games. He had like, he was like a 20 goal, 40 point. It's like good production,

solid production. But in Vancouver, Hayden will probably forever be known as the guy that Arizona took fifth. One of the two really questionable picks Zedina going six to Detroit that allowed Vancouver to land Quinn Hughes at number seven in the draft and really forever alter the course of franchise history. And that's not hyperbole for me, guys, dogs.

That's not hyperbole. Getting Quinn Hughes has put the Canucks on a different course than they've ever had through the last 50 years of existence, because right, it was like, ooh, he real good. Having Barrett Hayden wouldn't have had the same trajectory impact on this Canucks team? I don't know, Greg. What do you think? Hey, you called him a 20-goal, 40-point, pretty solid guy. It's solid center. Who knew that having a Norris Trophy winning defenseman

would alter the course of your franchise's history? So this is it, right? Like the way that things broke in 2018 at that draft forever altered the Canucks. First ever Norris Trophy winner in franchise history. Are we already ready to call him the best defenseman in franchise history? He was the second he laced up his skates.

Okay. So yesterday on Twitter, I'm throwing out there and I want to map out the rest of the week. I'm like, what are we going to do on the show? I'm throwing a lot of footy talk at out the rest of the week. I'm like, what are we going to do on the show? I'm throwing a lot of footy talk at the listeners and they've been really nice about it. There's only been a couple people that have made me cry. Who has two thumbs

and hasn't cried this morning? This guy. And I'm thinking, okay, yeah, it's still early. Okay, well, let's ask everyone what they want to talk about. So I said, you know, mapping out the rest of the week on Sportsnet 650, your home of the Canucks. I got Josh Elliott-Wolf coming in for the rest of the week. Send your best Canucks-related barroom debates, Mount Rushmore's,

what-ifs, the superlatives, power rankings, whatever you want, hypotheticals, whatever you want us to talk about, we'll talk about them. So a buddy texts me like an hour after seeing it and says, hey, on the subject of like revisiting things, relitigating things, if you had to redo the 2018 draft where Quinn Hughes went seventh overall to the Vancouver Canucks, a forever altered franchise history, where would that draft look now that we're year six out of it, that the Stanley Cup has been awarded this year, the Norris and all the other awards have been handed this year? The trajectories of these guys are, for the most part, set. Where would it go?

Hughes would probably be first or second. Hughes would be first overall. Yeah, and Brady Kachuk probably number two. Is that where he'd go? So, okay, let's reset this real quick. So, right now, if you recall, the draft went, Darlene went first overall to Buffalo. Yeah.

And that was a lock at the time because he was considered the generational foundational defenseman. The sweepstakes was basically the lose for Darlene sweepstakes. Svechnikov goes number two to Carolina. Jesperi Kokuniemi goes three to Montreal. Brady Kachuk goes four to Ottawa. Then Hayton and Zedina, which we've already talked about. Then Hughes.

If you're redoing that draft. Maybe Svetlankov third, actually. Dallin fourth. If you're redoing that draft. You drop Dallin to fourth? No, I would go Hughes first and Dallin second. Yeah, I would go Hughes, Dallin. I don't know.

Yeah, I mean. But I would definitely. I might put Kachuk second. He's not his brother. Yeah, but he's still amazing. Yeah, he's good. Big Kachuk guy over here. You're a big Kachuk second. He's not his brother. Yeah, but he's still amazing. Yeah, he's good. Big Kachuk guy over here. You're a big Kachuk guy?

He's really, really good. Yeah, I would go, I mean, just because of the value of defenseman inherently. Yeah, that's fair. I mean, honestly, two to four could be interchangeable. By the way, feel free to weigh in on this. Dumber Lumber text line is 650-650. If you want to weigh in on any of these, if you want to get your own questions and Mount Rushmore's and power rankings and superlatives and all that stuff, Dumber Lumber text line is 650-650. If you want to weigh in on any of these, if you want to get your own questions

and Mount Rushmore's and power rankings and superlatives and all that stuff, would there be any doubt that Hughes would be first? Is there anyone out there, anyone out there that wouldn't take him first overall right now? Even Buffalo. As much as they probably like having Rasmus Dahlien in the fold, you would have to take Hughes at this point, would you not?

Yeah, I'd think so. So let's say Hughes goes first, Darlene goes second. The other interesting thing to look at this draft is that now that it's all sort of shaken out, that draft, that first round was flush, flush with really good defense. Defense, I was about to say, yeah. Which I didn't,

when you looked at the pre-draft, there was Darlene and then there was Hughes and then there was considered a drop-off. But right now, like you could make the argument that the guys that went 10th overall Evan Bouchard and 12th overall and Noah Dobson those guys would jump in to the top five yeah right like I would I mean at this point I'd be tempted to take Dobson or Bouchard over like a Svechnikov I don't know if you'd take him over

a Kachuk but this re-itigating it this many years out, you can make the argument that this would have been like a defense-rich draft. I still can't believe Arizona-Detroit passed on Hughes, especially Detroit, but I mean both of them. I was just like, even at the time, I remember being like, wow, that's insane. What a slam dunk for the Canucks here.

It was one of the- How lucky. I used to talk about it back when we were at the old shop at 1040 before. Because I remember following a lot of the pre-draft stuff on Hughes and then he played in the Red Wings backyard

at the University of Michigan. It just seemed like a no-brainer. We're not getting this guy. He's too good. He's from Michigan. He went to the Worlds with the U.S. team that was coached by Jeff Blaschel, who at the time was the head coach of the Red Wings. So he would have seen, better than anyone, the skill set that he had. It was baffling that they passed on him.

Yeah, I mean, I had lots of Red Wings fans in my timeline, guys, that I followed as well. Not to say that they didn't like the Zedina pick, but they were still like, wow, we really, really missed on Houston. Now, the argument out of Detroit was like they had their board, they had their thing, and they didn't think Zedina was going to fall to them at six. And he was supposed to be good.

He was projected to be a very good player. So when it happened, they just went with their board. They're like, we're going to go with our scouting and go with we trust. It's not like Zedina was an awful pick. It's just like... A pretty awful pick. In hindsight. In hindsight, obviously.

I'm just saying at the time, it's not like it was, but it's just like based on what you just said there, like all the points that Hughes hit in terms of the Red Wings farm system and like what they were looking for in a player, it's just like, I don't know, crazy they didn't take him. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. You're listening to the best of Halford and Brough. 703. A lot going on there.

Hey. Tuesday. I respect it. What a way to start a segment. Hour two kicks off with a bang. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. No Jason Brough for a good while here. He's on a European vacation.

It's just me and Mike Alford with you. Though that's not entirely true, because Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week, young buck by the name of Josh Elliott-Wolfe is going to be in the chair with me. What do we call him this week, Andy? Zoomer and Boomer. I hate that.

I hate it all. You are the Boomer. Thank you. You're not actually a Boomer. That's probably the reason why. For the purposes of the show title, the clever rhyming show title, I will embrace boomer status.

We are in hour two of the program. We got about 10 minutes here of dead air. No, we got 10 minutes until we have Oliver Platt on from East Rutherford, New Jersey. Just a stone's throw outside of New York City. That'll be the site for tonight's Copa America semifinal between Canada and Argentina. Before we get

to that, though, I got a bunch of stuff we need to do. I need to tell you that we are in Hour 2 of the program. Hour 2 is brought to you by Primetime Craft Beer. Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor Meticulously brewed for quality and taste. Primetime is full flavor without compromise. You can get some, get some, at a liquor store near you.

Or you can visit the brewery to see how it's made. This entire show, the entire shebang, is brought to you by Vancouver Honda. Vancouver Honda is Vancouver's premier destination for Honda customers. They have a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can help with anything you're looking for. Sales, financing, service, or parts. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec outfitted Andy with a pair of hokas earlier, so he gets to do the kicker on this one. Kintec is Canada's favorite orthotics provider,

powered by thousands of five-store Google reviews, sore feet, A-Dog, what are you waiting for? Kin-Tac. Very well done. Okay. Before we get to Oli Platt, who will be joining us to preview the Copa America, I kind of wanted to reset a thing we're going to be doing this week. Throughout the shows, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, probably next week as well,

if we can squeeze the free content out of you guys. I threw something out of there out there on Twitter yesterday asking, hey, we're mapping out the rest of the week. You know, Wednesday to Friday show Sportsnet 650, your home of the Canucks. I'm going to have Josh Elliott-Wolf in here. I want you to send us

your best Canucks-related barroom debates, your Mount Rushmores, your what ifs, your superlatives. We'll slurkle the ones we like. Yes. There it is. I was waiting for the first slurkle reference.

Took you to 706 in the morning. Well done. Power rankings, hypotheticals, all wall charts. I don't care. We'll tackle as many as we can over the coming weeks. Just fire away. So kudos to our boy, Justin don't care. We'll tackle as many as we can over the coming weeks. Just fire away.

So kudos to our boy Justin in East Van. One of our favorite listeners named Justin. This is a great one. Who would make the biggest impact if added to the current Canuck roster? You have two coaches to choose from currently behind the Canucks bench. Prime Rick Talkett joining the top six forward group or Prime Adam Foote joining the top four defense group? That is a really hard question to answer.

So a couple parameters here. You can't add anybody else into the mix. You can't say, well, what about Sergei Gonchar? I thought about it because Gonchar would be a very legit candidate. This conversation works better as an either-or. Right? I mean, let's just be honest. So... Yeah, you can only pick one.

Yeah, you can't add a third into the mix. You either go forward or you go defense. And in this case, we're going to go with foot over Gonchar. That's just the rules. They are unflinchingly rigid. Deal with it. So I thought about this for a good long while,

and I'm like, okay, I'm going to make the case for both here. So Talkett, I think it obviously goes without saying that Coach Rick Talkett would probably be a big player Rick Talkett fan. Rick Talkett's a big Rick Talkett guy, right? I think that goes without saying. We don't know that.

Rick Talkett likes the way this Tockett kid plays. Right. Scored 40 goals in the NHL three-plus times, including a career-high 48. So you know that the finishing is there. The offensive prowess is there. Well, he wouldn't have had to sign DeBrusque. I was going to get to that in a moment.

He's going to slot right in there, I think, with 40 goals. He's got him beat. Noted playoff performer as well. When they won the Cup in 92 with Pittsburgh, they had 19 points in just 14 games. So here's what I'm thinking. Let's say that they keep – let's say they sign DeBrusque anyway, right? Let's say you put Petey on a line with prime Rick Tockett and Jake DeBrusque.

Oh, man, that'd be so sick. Then you keep Besser, Miller, and Hoaglander together as a unit, right? So now you've got, that's your top six. Your third line is the third line with Garland, Bluger, and Joshua. Then your fourth line is Dan Heinen with Pugh, Suter, and Kiefer Sherwood. Isn't it crazy how one really good winger can make the team so much better? It's not even a hot take. It's just that would be the case for Talkit.

That'd be a hell of a four group. So that's the case for Talkit. His primary Talkit in this group would be, you would just make that group so dynamic. I was going to say Foot, but I think you might have convinced me Talkit now. Well, hold on. I got to make the case for Adam Foot now.

All right. Okay. So first and foremost, Talkit has a Stanley Cup, right? But in terms of winning pedigree, there's not a lot of guys that have the hardware that Adam Foot has, the championship pedigree. So we're talking two Stanley Cups, Olympic gold medal with Team Canada, and a World Cup in 2004 with Team Canada. I always look at those and say, when you get selected to Team Canada with the wealth of defensemen that they had at those times,

it means something. It means that you're regarded by your peers and by the coaching staff in a way that goes beyond counting stats and Norrises and everything else. They were like, yeah, Adam foot makes this blue line better completes it. He does the things that other guys don't do. I think in his era,

if you're putting him among defensive defense, when a lot of people, I was doing diligent, diligent research last night. And they're like in that era of really grindy, super physical hockey, you're putting foot in that sphere with like Darian Hatcher and Scott Stevens. Like that's where you're putting him.

So that's what prime Adam foot looks like. If you put him on this team, you're getting, I mean, I think the biggest thing is you're getting a defensive partner for Quinn Hughes, right? That's your righty lefty right there because foot was a righty, right? So all of a sudden you go

quinn hughes adam foot prime adam foot and for someone that's just tuning into the conversation right now they're probably like what the hell is this guy talking he's going out of retirement yep isn't he like 55 um then you let heronic play on his own pairing, probably with Susie. You find out if he can carry his own pairing, finally. Then your third pair is Tyler Myers with, like, Forbort. My son is also named Forbort. A traveling variety of different. Sure. And then you're deploying Tyler Myers in a third pair,

which I think a lot of people want to see anyway. So that, to me, is pretty enticing. That blue line all of a sudden. It is, but I mean, and I was going to, for the record, I was going to pick foot initially, but after seeing the four group with prime talk, it slotted into the top six. It makes the four groups so much more dynamic that I think I would probably pick talk. And even though I would admit our D our D core needs more work than our four group at the moment like Canucks currently constructed

you know what I'm saying so even though I would say the D core needs more work than the four group as far as the team's currently constructed based on how good prime talk would make the four group in terms of how you laid it out there slotting them together that way I would probably pick talk can you do both

yeah you can that's the great part of the debate is why I actually didn't put Gonchar in there laid it out there, slotting them together that way, I would probably pick Target. Can you do both? Yeah, I could. That's the great part. That would be perfect. No, no, the great part of the debate is why I actually didn't put Gonchar in there, is that you have to go forward defense. And I think the understanding, I'm going to just speak for Justin and Eastman here. I think the understanding is like they're both sort of big, tough, rugged, physical guys. Like you'd get one at forward or you'd get one on the blue line.

I think I'm tempted to go foot on the blue line because I think he would be the perfect, perfect complement for Hughes. Not that he doesn't have one right now with Hronik. It might have been the best pairing. Yeah, but you don't know if Hronik can carry his own pair. But you get to find out. Yeah, but what if it doesn't work? Then you just put Adam foot down and you put Hronik back up with Hughes.

Back to the bench, Adam. He doesn't take his skates off. He just climbs up back behind there and keeps coaching. Someone just texted in Talkett with Miller and Besser would be so annoying to play against. I did think about that that instead of putting him on Petey's wing

you put Besser. Yeah, and Hoagie and Petey have had chemistry and success. Sure. And DeBrusque is going to be the guy there. I mean, I think Alvin's already kind of stated that. Yeah, and Hoagie and Petey have had chemistry and success. Sure, and Dabrowski is going to be the guy there. I mean, I think Alvin's already kind of stated that. Yeah, so Hoagie, Petey, and Dabrowski would be a six-second line. Having Tocantin and JT Miller out there together as a duo, right? That would just be pure chaos. It would be very physical.

It would be very fun to watch. Very intimidating. It would be very physical. I don't know. Speaking as a goalie, you know, there's nothing more impactful to a game than a defensive defenseman, and I say that sarcastically because I think the 40 goals that Tockett brings, as good as Adam Foote was defensively, there's no replacing that.

And I think for that reason, I would choose Tockett over Adam Foote. Do we need to take into consideration how their games would fit? And now we're going in like, I think they're going universes versus universes here. Well, yeah, Prime Talk would have an easier time playing in today's league than Prime Foot would. Correct. I think that's the right assessment. Because Prime Foot wasn't super fast, and he definitely was tailor-made for that style

of game in the era that he played in. I do wonder how much... Not to say he wouldn't be successful today. Like, he was a very good defensive defenseman. He'd still be good. He had more offense than I think a lot of people understand. Yeah, no, he was good. He had a year in Colorado where he scored 11 goals and had 31 points.

He could, but that was on a really great Colorado team. Sure. But he was definitely tailor-made for that era. Here you go, Joe Sekic. Yeah, right? Here you go, Peter Forsberg. I do wonder if a lot of the physicality that made Adam Foote such an imposing figure and such a valuable defenseman isn't necessarily in the game anymore. I mean, you always need a guy that clears the net front.

I get that part of it and everything. But the rest of it, there was a lot of physicality that just isn't in the game anymore. So I'll be very curious on that one. Anyway, if you want to weigh in on this, the Dunbar Lumber text line is 650-650. You can text in to 650-650 at any time during the show

with your thoughts on any particular conversation or if you want to give us a what we learned. We're going to do those in the 8 o'clock hour. Hashtag it WWL. Let us know what you learned over the last 24 hours in sports, or if you want to weigh in on the Canada Argentina match tonight, Oliver Platt is going to join us in just a moment here. We're going to talk to him live from East Rutherford, New Jersey,

the site MetLife Stadium of tonight's game. Dunbar Lumber, the Bridge Street Dunbar Lumber in Ladner has moved to Progress Way in Tilbury's Industrial Park. More room, more product, more awesome details at DunbarLumber.com. So way in a bunch of you are already. We're going to continue to do these throughout the week. Get me on

Twitter as well. Mike Halford 604 is the at. I'll repost the question that we're asking, which is basically like, give us your best Canucks, anything, barroom debates,

Mount Rushmore's power rankings, any hypothetical questions, any of these weird, like who would you take in your prime time questions? It's July, man. Like it's July 9th. We are going into the abyss of the summer.

We're going to try and come up with some fun, new creative conversations to have around the Vancouver Canucks that aren't relitigating what's happened in free agency and whatever else has you. So, again, if you want to weigh in, Dunbar-Lemmer text line is 650-650. We're going to dive back into the footy talk now. We've done a lot of it today.

Very happy to have our next guest on the program from One Soccer. Oliver Platt joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650. Good morning, Oliver. How are you? Good morning. I'm doing well, thanks. How are you? I'm great. I'm excited for tonight. I'm very excited for tonight. I imagine you must be as well, being live on location in East Rutherford. For our listeners that don't have the benefit of being there,

can you set the stage, the mood, the vibe, the anticipation? It's MetLife Stadium, the center of the, you know, this is the center of the sporting world tonight, given where we are in the sports calendar and how big this match is with Argentina and Messi in a Copa America semifinal and Canada participating in it. Can you set the stage ahead of tonight's kickoff from East Rutherford, New Jersey?

Yeah, it's pretty remarkable, right? Like you've got four semifinals, two of the Euros and two of the Copa America happening over the next couple of days. And you look at the list of teams involved and to see Canada on that list is something I don't think anyone would have expected coming into this tournament. You know, new head coach who had very little time with the team. You know, a team that has had a rough go of it over the past 12 months, really. You know, the momentum had kind of disappeared a bit since the Qatar World Cup.

And now to be here and there's going to be 82,000 people in that stadium tonight, the vast majority of them obviously cheering for Argentina and Messi. But to get the opportunity on that stage is something that doesn't happen very often and is, you know, difficult to achieve even for the best teams in the world to get to a semifinal of a tournament like this. And we saw it with Brazil knocked out before Canada at this tournament. So it's something really special. And I hope it lives up to expectations tonight.

I'm sure it will. What has the messaging been from Jesse Marsh when asked about what needs to go differently from the first time that Canada and Argentina played? It was a 2-0 loss for Canada in the opening match of the Copa. And what needs to happen this from the first time that Canada and Argentina played. It was a 2-0 loss for Canada in the opening match of the Copa. What needs to happen this time around in the semifinal? Well, I think

taking care of Lionel Messi a little bit better is a big part of it. Obviously, that's probably the most difficult thing to do in soccer is to just keep this guy in check. And that was where I think it got away from Canada a little bit in the second half. It's so difficult. It's calculation of you know how much attention do you pay to Messi how much do you try and uh tailor your game plan to stop him knowing that Argentina do have a lot

of other good players who can hurt you as well so um Canada I think took a high quite a high risk approach with with Argentina in the first game uh They tried to squeeze them, stay very compact, and had a very high defensive line, which created a bit of threat behind. But I think for 45 minutes, it works pretty well. It was just after halftime when Argentina was able to maybe get to grips with things a bit and make some adjustments that it started to come apart

a little bit for Canada, and the game got very stretched. So doing it for the full 90 is the real challenge. There is at least the advantage of no extra time in this tournament. So if you can get through 90 minutes at least level, you'll get that penalty shootout. But yeah, it's just a mammoth task and you speak to

some of the players about Messi and they tell you you can have the perfect game plan and you can do everything right and he still finds a way to win a match. so it's an enormous ask of the canadians but i'm sure they'll be prepared for it you know you mentioned penalties there and marsh did say we played the clip earlier in the show that we're not playing for penalties now i'm sure if it gets there he'll be like okay great that's that's that's fantastic but i think i understand what he's trying to say is that they have a way that they want to play and a way that they want to attack in particular that they've worked on and they've honed.

And, you know, he talks about the maturation and the process here in terms of trying to mount an attack with possession and then the quick strike. What would it look like ideally for Canada tonight if they are going to try and, quoteunquote play the way they want to play well i think that is what has got canada through this tournament and see this stage is they have certain qualities that so far teams have really struggled to deal with and obviously we're particularly talking about peru and chile and venezuela and it has to come with the caveat that canada hasn't always taken those chances and put the ball in the back of the net which obviously has to change tonight. But even in that first game against Argentina, they did have moments. They did create danger.

And it's just the pace and directness they have that I think a lot of teams really do struggle to deal with. You know, the way Jacob Schaffelberg has come into this team, he's just direct, full of running, never stops. The front two of Jonathan David and Kyle Lahren, again, I think have a real kind of athletic presence to them and never stop running, never stop threatening in behind. Plus Davies, plus Larea. You know, Jesse Marsh, I think, has done a really good job very quickly at bringing out the best qualities in those players.

And there certainly have been teams at this tournament, again, certainly in the past three games, that just haven't really looked like they've had much of an answer to that so Argentina are obviously a level above in terms of the quality of the opponents they've faced but I do think that there are some some characteristics in this Canada team that can give them a bit of a headache. How much is Schaffelbergberg stock rose at this tournament? Yeah, it's been amazing to watch, you know, from someone who was probably kind of on the periphery of will he make the 23 or not, you know, over the past year or so to what he started to do for this team.

I think he's someone who's kind of been underestimated a lot of his career. You know, Toronto FC didn't really give him an extended opportunity. They decided to trade him in the end. He went to Nashville and did very well,

but there's still, you know, is he a starter, is he a sub, and then coming into this tournament, I think that debate was, okay, he's doing great off the bench, but can he do it in the starting lineup,

or is he better later on in games when, you know, defenses are a bit more tired and it's a bit more stretched, and, you know, he just keeps, he keeps running with every opportunity he's given. So you have to give him all the credit in the world. And, you know, Jesse Marsh said it himself

a couple of days ago to me that he wasn't going to make the same mistake again of not starting Jacob Schaffelberg and giving him that opportunity because he keeps taking it. We are speaking to Oliver Platt from One Soccer, live from East Rutherford, New Jersey, which is the site, of course, of the Copa America semifinal tonight.

Five o'clock our time between Canada and Argentina. You mentioned Jesse Marsh there, Oliver. Full disclosure, Leeds United supporter, so I was very familiar with Jesse prior to getting this job. And while it didn't go great at Leeds, I was optimistic about him and this hire for Canada because I did respect what he brought tactically and his clarity of vision. He always seemed to know what he wanted to do, even if it didn't necessarily get executed perfectly. He always understood exactly what he wanted done with Canada, but what his native country, the U.S., has floundered so badly. And now they're looking and saying,

look what one of our guy that was in contention for our national team job is doing with our neighbors to the north. Yeah, it's really interesting because I think Jesse Marsh probably had opportunities before this to go back into club soccer at a pretty high level that he said no to. And I don't think many people would have described Canada soccer in recent years as somewhere that you go, there's more settled, there's calmer, that you don't have to.

He said it was not having to deal with the BS at his press conference. I think you kind of feel like this is a place where there's been a lot of that recently. For whatever reason, he seems to have found something that works, something that's kind of clicking with him and is stuck. And yeah, I think it's been a perfect fit so far. And there is obviously that contrast with how it's going in the U.S. right now. We're speaking to Oliver Platt from One Soccer here on the Halford & Brough Show on Sportsnet 650.

OK, Oliver, we're right up against it for time, but I did want to ask you, I know I think where your heart and your feelings might be on this one, but realistically, how do you see the outcome of tonight's match, Canada-Argentina, Copa America semifinal? Well, what I would say is that Argentina aren't a team that necessarily blows teams out. They tend to be more of a 2-0 type of team, so I think Canada will be in this game,

and it will be close. What you have to say, and you have to give them the respect that they deserve is that when they get to this stage of the tournament, Argentina, they tend to turn it on. And you saw that at the World Cup in 2022. It'd be Croatia 3-0 in the semifinal. It was pretty much a stroll for them. And then even in the final, I know that game ended up going the distance

to the shootout, but Argentina went 2-0 up and were totally dominant in that game. And it was really just Kylian Mbappe producing something pretty incredible that took that game to extra time. So I think there is the potential, absolutely, for a pretty dominant Argentina performance tonight. But you wouldn't have imagined feeling as good about Canada's chances, I think, as people will justifiably feel going into a game like this against an opponent like this. However it goes tonight, it's going to be a lot of fun, and I'm insanely jealous that you're there to experience it all.

Enjoy it all tonight. Enjoy the match. And thank you very much for doing this today, Oliver. Thanks, Mike. Appreciate it. Thanks. That's Oliver Platt from One Soccer. Live from the Meadowlands, East Rutherford, New Jersey. That'll be the site. He said 82,000 in attendance tonight. I understand, courtesy of the Dunbar-Lumber text message in basket,

a couple people texted in. And I did read a couple different tweets that there's still some tickets available at a fairly reasonable price. It's like $300 get-in price for tonight. Part of that probably has to do with inventory. There's a lot of seats at MetLife Stadium. And it is a midweek match. It's a Tuesday night.

But, I mean, you talk about the biggest stage, like one of the biggest stadiums in the U.S. It's going to host World Cup matches when the World Cup comes in 2026. You know, the home of, you know, and I think, I don't know who's using the New York Jets change room tonight. I think it might be Argentina, actually. But it's just, it's such a huge event. And I'm not just putting this on because I love the sport and I've been a follower and supporter of the national team for as long as I have. I think if I was just a neutral that had no investment in the sport or the team whatsoever, I'd be very, very intrigued by tonight because it's just such an unprecedented feat and such

an unprecedented moment for the sport in this country. And I do innately get behind all of these national teams when they get to these moments. It'll be the same for the Canadian basketball team when they begin their Olympic quest later in July and then throughout August. And in part because they're not just there to make up the numbers, right? They're not just there to fill out a quota sheet or, you know, you qualified because a bunch of other teams from your region didn't like they've earned every bit of this. The Canadian men's basketball team earned every tough stripe that they had to

get along the way to get to the Olympics. And so too, you can say with the Canadian men's national soccer team going up against Argentina tonight, like they fought tooth and nail through a very difficult group and then a very difficult match

against Venezuela to get here. Do you think those words would ever come out of your mouth? Nope. Canada versus Argentina. Nope. Like a knockout game in any tournament.

Canada versus Argentina in a major tournament. And then like for basketball, like it could be Canada versus Argentina in a major tournament. And then like for basketball, like it could be Canada-US gold medal. The dream team against Canada. Yeah. It's an amazing time. It really is.

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