Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Blue Jays Are A Wagon

Episode Date: July 22, 2025

In hour one, Mike Halford & guest host Jamie Dodd look at the previous day in sports including a historic Blue Jays home winning streak, they chat with Whitecaps midfielder and MLS all-star Sebastian Berhalter (26:55) ahead of tomorrow's All-Star Game as well as Saturday's matchup versus Sporting KC, plus the boys make some Team Canada 2026 Winter Olympics roster predictions. 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.

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Yeah, he's gone. Thank God. Good morning Vancouver 601 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody. It is Halford and his breath with Jamie Dodd in his Sportsnet 650 and we are coming to you live from the Kintec studios in beautiful Fairview slopes in Vancouver. Jamie, good morning. Good morning. Ada, good morning to you. Good morning.

And basketball Ben, good morning to you as well. Good morning. Half of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates, BC's first and trusted choice for debt help with over 3000 five star reviews. Visit them online at Sands-trustee.com. We are coming to you live from the Kintec studio. Kintec, Canada's favorite orthotics provider powered by thousands of five star Google reviews. Sore feet. What are you waiting for? We got a big show ahead. Guest list was another four guests are here on the Haliford and Brough show on

Sportsnet 650. It begins today, 6 30 in the morning. Whitecaps midfielder and MLS all star Sebastian Burrhalter is going to join the program live from Austin, Texas, the site of this year's MLS all-star game skills competition tonight, MLS all-star game tomorrow. We will talk to Seb about the year that he is having and what a year it is made his debut for the U S men's national team. Having a great year with the white caps. And of course an MLS all-star will really get into the nitty gritty of the skills competition as well. Figure out the format, what he's doing,

what he's excited for, all of it. First and foremost, are you involved in the crossbar challenge? Brought to you by Gillette. Gillette, we love crossbars. Yeah, we'll talk to Seb at 630 this morning. Just a great year for him and a cool backstory for those who don't know. His father, Greg Burhalter, one of the more decorated U.S. nationals of all time, had a very extensive

coaching career as well as currently coaching now at MLS. So talk to Seb about all that at 6.30, seven o'clock, Kevin Woodley, NHL.com and Ingoll magazine is going to join the program. There's going to be a fair amount of discussion today about Olympic teams, Olympic rosters. This of course, in the wake of yesterday's announcement of Canada's coaching staff for the 2026 Olympics in Italy. I wouldn't mind getting into some of the goalie situations with Kev, as both Caddocks goalies appear on a trajectory to at least be in consideration for the Olympics. Lankinen obviously with Finland.

The big one of course is going to be Thatcher Demko with the US if he will make that team or not. So we'll talk to Kev about all that at seven o'clock seven 30 Dan Rosen, senior writer from nhl.com is going to join the program. He's grinding just like we are trying to get some mailbag content for nhl.com. I'm going to ask Dan about the teams that he covers the closest, all the New York teams and recap the off season that the Rangers and the devils and the Islanders had a big one as well. So we'll talk to Dan Rosen from nhl.com at 7.30. And then finally at 8 o'clock, Buck Pierce is going to join the program.

BC Lions head coach coming off a disappointing 33-27 loss to Saskatchewan at home on Saturday. No rest for the Lions. They're right back at home on Sunday with an opportunity to ride the ship and get back to 500 with a home date against the Thaiicats. Though that won't be easy. Hamilton is tied for the East lead at four and two and they've won four straight. So working in reverse on the guest list, eight o'clock Buck Pierce, seven 30 Dan Rosen, seven o'clock Kevin Woodley and six 30 Sebastian Burhalter. That's what's happening on the program today. Ben, let's tell everybody what happened. Hey, did you guys see the game last night? No.

What happened? I missed all the action because I'm We know how messy your life can be. What happened? You missed that? What happened? 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 We are going to begin with the story and the wagon That is the Toronto Blue Jays. Bo Bichette hit a go-ahead two-run double in a four run fifth inning to break the game

wide open another terrific performance from Kevin Gossman on the bump and the Blue Jays beat the Yankees 4-1 for their 11th consecutive and franchise record 11 straight home wins. Here's what the Bichette game winning RBI sounded like all the way back in the fifth inning. to left field and it's into the corner. Springer is in to score. Guerrero is getting the wave. And he'll come into a two-round double for Bichette to give the Blue Jays the lead. And that was all they needed. So to put this in perspective,

they won 10 games in a row at home 40 years ago back in the old exhibition stadium. All those great Blue Jays teams that have come since then, including the back to back World Series champions, never won 11 straight at home. This is unprecedented. I'm gonna say this, for the listeners that maybe don't like the Blue Jays,

maybe your baseball team is one of the others. Maybe you don't like Toronto content being forced down your throat from Sportsnet and Rogers. I will tell you this, this is a genuinely fun team to watch right now. They play a brand of baseball that I think crosses all aisles in terms of being exciting to watch, proper baseball, and there's a really good energy about the team.

And I'm not again, not just putting this on for show. Watch that game last night. You just had a feeling that the way that they pick it and pick it and pick it and keep getting after it, that someone's going to break. And eventually it did. I really liked the way this team plays. Now I will say, I think you're right about the energy and certainly the energy in the building. And I mean, we played that clip of the chat with the two RBI double and you know you didn't really hear it in the call but Vlad E not just getting the wave home and scoring but like the belly plot act doing a belly flop at the plate attacking the plate like he was angry at it when he

comes home to score. Look I'm a Jays fan so I'm excited I'm fired up I want the good times to keep rolling and it really even beyond this 11 game streak you go all the way back to like late May they've been just I think they've lost like four times at home since then they've been absolutely on fire even before this 11 game streak. I will say and I'm not going to do the run differential thing or anything but you isolate it just to last night and I get it. Hey they're putting the ball in play all of that. I love it that the infield defense from the Yankees is a tro that was sub. We were talking little league yesterday that was sub little league level. Like you're in the

little league all star coaches will be like guys, what are we doing? Come on, especially the Volpe one. That's as routine as it gets as routine as it gets. So I get it. And you know, there's some good at bats there and they're grinding it and look, you put the ball in play and you never know. Good things might happen. Probably not a sustainable formula. They were like, Hey, maybe the, maybe the shortstop, the major league shortstop will just completely throw this one away. Although for no discernible reason, it does have 12 errors. That's true. Not a player in the American league. The ball to bull play. I will say this just to counter that. The idea of a team willing to just sort of hack away

and maybe focus more on putting balls in play as opposed to trying to go yard or, you know, punch a ball on the outfield or go oppo. There was a, I think if you didn't watch a game last night, there was a moment and it was more than a moment because it felt like it lasted 27 minutes, but David Schneider's at the plate. It's a 14 pitch at bat.

He fouls off nine and it's just the most. It's the quintessential grinder at bat because it ended up with a pop out. But the idea that he was able to change the flow of a game and, you know, alter the course without doing anything other than seeing a bunch of pitches and eventually popping out. It does it kind of encapsulate everything that this team does. And this is like you got to put pressure on the defense. Yeah, that's the thing, right?

Like if you've got a bad fielding team like the Yankees are in the infield, I think that a game plan would be like, hey, let's make sure that, you know, if we got if we're in a two strike counter, whatever, we're choking up on our bats, just like in Lillie. And we're just trying to chop stuff into the infield. All right, we want to make these guys make plays to get us out. And it takes a certain mentality across the lineup.

I do think the Jays have an advantage here in that it is made of a bunch of like, instead of the Blue Jays, I've seen people calling them the Who Jays. Like, I don't know who half these guys are, but they've all got that mentality where it's like, we aren't superstar players our superstars aren't exactly carrying us at the moment so we feel

like we're contributing and we're gonna do it in any manner in any fashion whatsoever so for a nice for the one thing I will say for the Jays is and I think this is what makes what you're talking about work is typically and I was a little different lineup last night they had like Leo Jimenez in there who can't really hit and some other guys but usually on a night to night basis they don't really have any zeros in their lineup like they don't have anyone where you're like oh this is a pointless at bat we as well just turn it over rightly even guys like Miles straw have had

moments you know Nathan Lucas certainly has done a good job for them a really good job for them this year we've talked about Addison Barger so seven, eight, nine, there's guys who maybe it's Davis Schneider grinding out at bat. Maybe it's somebody who can try to bunt for a base hit and use their speed. There's guys who can do different things other than, you know, just take up a spot in the batting order, which has been an issue for the Jays in the past where you'd get down here like, man, this guy's definitely not getting a hit here. So Matt and Surrey with an early ask us anything which is fine because it's the summer doesn't even matter that it's Friday, it's Tuesday

completely off off like schedule, but that's fine. Good question here. If the Jays continue the way they're going right now or close to it, is John Schneider gonna get consideration for manager of the year. That roster isn't exactly a list of household names. OK, so there's two talking points here. One with regards to the manager of the year, I think it's pretty much A.J. Hinches, like, yeah, you know, I know Schneider's done a remarkable job, but what if you go to the betting markets first and if you look at that,

it gives you an idea that Detroit, what Detroit's done, what hinge has done, that's probably going to be the favorite. Although things can change. It's still only July. Yeah. And I wonder, I mean, if the J's have the best record in the AL, yeah, that'll turn the tide for you all. If you also want to look at, you know, you do the classic thing, you're deciding coach or manager of the year. And it's like, well, who has the worst team? Basically, who has the worst roster to deal with? The Tigers have Scubal, right? So they've got the likely Cy Young winner

in the American league. And does that weigh against Hinge's candidacy a little bit? Because the Jays aren't going to have any major award candidates. There's the other good point. Nice work, Jamie. Yeah, because here's the thing about the Jays. They do not have a clearly defined major award candidate either on staff in the rotation or in their lineup. Vlad and Bo are not in the MVP conversation.

As solid as the Jays rotation is, there isn't anyone that's screaming out for the Cy Young like Scoobal is in Detroit that Honestly might end up having a lot of voters look at this and say well, what is it? How is this team able to and we're talking about one of the best teams in baseball record wise? Stylistically, whatever and I do wonder if people are gonna look at Schneider and say hey Maybe he does deserve some attention for this But again to answer Matt's question in terms of the betting markets, Hinch is still the favorite and it'll probably be like that.

I would say until the Jays and I'm saying like it's an inevitability to now overtake Detroit while they play them later, they'd have to sustain and probably jump over to try it for him to have a chance. But he's going to be in the mix. He's going to be get votes and be in the running. Yeah. And look, it is it is a super, super fun. And I would say unexpected story for me, especially how last year went and how the early stages of the season went,

did not expect them to rip off something of this nature. I know it's baseball. I know these things do occasionally happen where something comes out of the blue, but you and I worked an event, was it last summer? I think so, yes. The Jays Mariner series. We did an event where it was a watch party for it.

So we were there, watched, I mean, I don't, I can't remember the last time I sat and watched an entire series. Yeah. Like tip the tail, but that's what we did. And do you remember what both of us said about the way that Jay's played baseball? He was very uninspired baseball.

It was like, get up, try and go yard. If not strike out, go back. There was no sort of run manufacturing. There was no sense of like, you had a particular style that you wanted to play. It's almost like they just went out and played baseball. There was no identity. Just go do whatever. Right. Yeah.

And I know that it's, you know, it was a very small snippet of the season, but that series, I just remember walking away from it saying like, this team is really sort of joyless. And I can understand why people soured on them, not just because of the record and the losing, but you know, especially in Toronto with the make-ups of the different teams, you do kind of want to get behind a team sometimes that isn't led by the highly paid guys, it has more grinders and has a sort of workman-like attitude at times.

And the J's have established that, which is a really neat thing. And you know, again, I'm not putting it on just for the fact that we're on the air and it's summer and there's nothing else to talk about. It is a very fun team to watch. And they're right back at it tonight. Second game of this three game set

against the New York Yankees, where if they win tonight, they're going to win the series. So there's a lot to look forward to there. Okay, let's pivot to the other news of yesterday. Canada announced its coaching staff for the 2026 Italy Olympics. And to nobody's surprise, the entirety of the gold medal winning team from this year, Four Nation Face Off, the entire staff is back.

It starts with John Cooper as the head coach, and he will be assisted by Bruce Cassidy, Peter DeBoer, Rick Tauket, and Misha Donskoff. So the exact same crew is back for another run at it. No huge surprises here. The only thing I thought Hockey Canada might do is change out DeBoer, only because his tenure in Dallas ended so poorly, obviously with him losing his job

following the Western Conference exit to the Edmonton Oilers. But I guess the counter argument would be, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And you you as Jamie astutely brought up prior to the show today Peter DeBoe are not being employed by an NHL team. It's got all the time in the world on his hands You're not doing anything. They're like we're gonna give you every assignment for this tournament And I also thought about whatever riffs you might have had in the Dallas room Don't really matter for team Canada. It's just Thomas Harley who's going to be in the mix and Dallas doesn't have

any anybody else that's in consideration. Why Johnston? Yeah, I play myself in the mix. I thought about that and I suppose it's possible but we'll get into this exercise later. Boy, will we ever when you look and we're going to dive deep, deep into that roster. We're gonna dive deep deep into that roster when you look at that Canadian roster The the guys that are already locks, especially at forward. It doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room No, there's a lot of guys trying to wiggle into that room. So we'll take a look at that in a minute but with you know the news that Former Vancouver Canucks head coach Rick talk is back in the mix as an assistant I did kind of start to think about how many Canucks players are going to be, I mean, it's going to be a big part of next season.

The NHL has obviously carved out a three week break. We did a ton of schedule talk last week when the schedule was announced. You got a three week break for the Olympics. And as we saw with the four nations, there was a divide between the players that went and the players that didn't. I mean, you want to talk about the injuries specifically to the Kichucks in that tournament and to Charlie McEvoy. There's always that risk when you've got guys going and playing and again,

playing in high stakes hockey. And it's also very curious to see now that the field obviously has expanded beyond the four nations to the entirety of it, how many Canucks might actually be at this tournament. So for certain goes without saying anyone that's been listening to the station over the last few months, we've said it countless times, Queen Hughes and Teddy Bluger were first six choices for the U S and Latvia. So at the very least the Canucks are going to have at a minimum two players going to represent their countries in Italy for the 2026

Olympics. I'm going to safely assume that Elias Patterson is going to be a member. Boy teams if he isn't then we're going to be having some fascinating conversations. Your co-host Jason Brough is going to be loving life like the drop off especially you look they're not that deep at center. They've got a very good team but it's not like they've got this this massive group of young centers waiting to take his place in the NHL. So he would have to just completely crater. It would have to be like last year, no change, no improvement whatsoever. And even then he might get on still the most damning thing for him and his national team candidacy, which again, I do not think is in question in the

slightest. However, given what happened last year, the earlier this year at the Four Nations, it does have to give you the slightest pause because, you know, Bruff brought this up numerous times on our show. That was one of those moments where the rest of the league kind of took notice to what was going on if they weren't paying attention to Vancouver's story

or maybe only had the snippet of, well, you know, Pedersen and Miller weren't really getting along, but that's okay now because they traded away the quote unquote problem. I know like Fludo Shinzawa of the athletic out of Boston wrote about this extensively and a lot of national pundits picked up on it that, whoa, this is a guy that now we're seeing it in this great tournament, best on best. And he's again brought that sort of inferior play, but this time to a different state.

Well, and not even just media people, but like team Sweden, that was the arc for team Sweden. If you go back and look and remember, when they were there practicing before the tournament and people were talking to the team Sweden players about, oh, Patterson, he's struggling this year. And they're like, oh man, no, he's going to be great. We trust him.

He's just going to have so much fun here. He's an amazing player. And remember there's a practice and he's skating around smiling and everyone here in Vancouver is like, Oh my gosh, he's having so much fun away from JT Miller. Every was all optimism was all everyone's so excited to see what he could do in that environment. And then he got on the ice and everyone was like, yeah, it looks the same. And team Sweden was like, what? And he didn't play by the end of the tournament. And that was another big red flag was that despite the fact that Sweden head coach Sam Hallam said all the right things publicly.

Yeah. The ice time or lack thereof kind of suggested something else. But anyway, let's just say for sake of argument, the Pettersson is in. And just to illustrate this, even with his incredibly poor performance last year and only playing 64 games, he was still 12th in scoring in the NHL for Swedish forwards. So if you assume there's even modest improvement, he's a luck. There's just not enough candidates to replace him. But man, if he's on the cusp or if he doesn't make it, oh boy, it's going to be fascinating.

Rob and Suri text into the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket at 650 650. By the way, get yours. What we learned in now we're going to do them at 830 hashtag them WWL. What did you learn over the last 24 hours in sports? Rob writes, I think it's safe to say that Philip Ronek is a lock for Czechia to yes, he is. I was actually surprised that he didn't make the, the first six, although I'm not really sure exactly what goes into those, especially with the international selections. Who knows? It doesn't matter. Hironic's going to be a lock for Czechia. I think the interesting one there is that

NHL.com has done roster projections recently. They did them all in June and July and they used their sort of international bureau of writers. So they had a Czech based writer putting together the team and Philip Heidel is very much in that group of 14 forwards Which makes sense given if you look at the Czech roster It's probably not going to be comprised of all NHLers They've got a handful of guys playing in Europe that are gonna make the team The matter of fact they went so far down the road to suggest that Hedl could end up being the 2c for the Czechs at the Olympics, centering

a line with Marty Nacius on his wing. Nacius obviously has had his name bandied about when it comes to the Canucks, so there's an interesting little wrinkle there. But I would fully expect that if he's healthy, him and Hronik will both be going. So that's something to keep an eye on as well. Go down the list a little further. We'll save the goaltending for a bit because we can end with that. I did wonder as we get back to Sweden about Marcus Pedersen's candidacy to be on that team. But then I was reminded that

the strength of that Swedish roster is the blue. They're just so deep. And so I think you'd have to be looking at multiple injuries, probably, to the kind of clear top eight guys. So the top eight, I'll rattle them

off. This is just the leg in a list compiled by one of the Swedish writers for NHL.com. Rasmus Andersson, Jonas Brodin, a clear top eight guys. So the top eight, I'll rattle them off. This is just the leg in a list compiled by one of the Swedish writers for NHL.com. Rasmus Andersson, Jonas Brodin, Rasmus Dahlien, Matthias Atkolm, Gustav Forsling, Victor Hedman, Erik Karlsson, who maybe you can put an asterisk next to, and then Hampus Lindholm. That is a very, very deep and very, very talented eight.

If you were gonna go to the nine hole where Pedersen would maybe slide in, you gotta say, well, I think Philip Broberg would also very much be in the mix. So you're looking at a group of 10 and is Pedersen in it remains to be seen. So that's going to be a stretch for him. I think you're right. I think it would have to be a lot of injuries that have to be fall the the Swedish blue line before he got a shot or, you know, like at homes getting a little older, like his play just drops off massively or something. But for the most part, I think it's going to be pretty tough to crack. And then I think on the conductor into like

the Brock Bester conversation, but I kind of think that ship has sailed. I don't know if it's just so deep and you look at the guys they left off like Tej Thompson and Clayton Keller and he'd have to jump over them right. Even if you're knocking out some players from the four nations, so they've certainly got some guys they can drop from that four nations. Oh yeah. Like I don't think Chris, do they? I don't think Chris Crider will be back. I'm not sure Brock Nelson will be back. Yeah. I'm not sure. That's a drug check.

I'm not sure it's a Brock for Brock switch because they did leave off some young guys that looking back as well, some more high end offensive guys because in that the gold medal, and I know we're cherry picking a final and a gold medal game but after the first two lines it really felt like they ran out of scoring on yes remember people clamoring like where's Cal Conner yeah in this game and I know that they relied on some vets to try and give leadership and some other intangibles there but I do wonder if it's just become like keep it simple stupid and just put the best scorers out there for a tournament like I'll throw out a dark horse for the Canucks.

Ah, two or two to sneak on about team Finland. Good one. Nice. It would be, it's a, it is a dark horse. I'm not out here planting the flag or anything like that. But again, it's this team where the high end is amazing, but the depth does tail off at the NHL level. If he comes in and is doing the job as a third line center,

and especially as these teams look to kind of check boxes at the bottom of the roster, if he's a face off ace, right, and doing those sorts of things again, it's a stretch. He'd have to be on pace solidly for like at least 35 points or something like that to show he can be productive. But that was the other name that kind of stood out. Like if the stars align, if he claims that role in the NHL and everything's

going well for him and he's really living up to his, his pedigree and all of that, at least in with a shot. Yeah, I, I'm with you on that. The interesting thing with all of these selections is how much are these selection committees going to put stock in the first three months of the season? Yes. Because with Canada last year at the Four Nations, at least by my understanding, no one really played their way on from October to January. Like, it's just, you could have had an amazing year and it still would have been like, but we're going to go with the guys that we know and we trust. And I

think a lot of that trust is built even further from the executives that have, especially the guys that did well at formations, right? Like the goaltending situation for Canada. I remember we had Laddy on the show, saying it's definitely like, I don't even think the three best goalies are going based on current form in the NHL, but they sort of put that on the back burner and said, we're going to go with guys that we trust. And in the end, Bennington ended up being the right choice, right?

They got it right because they won. That's how these things are measured. I just wonder if any of these... So, back to bringing it back to Ratu, I think the idea here would be he would have to do several things. He would have to come in and make the team opening night roster out of camp and not just be a guy who gets a look before going back to Abbotsford. No. Like you're fully in the mix. No, you got to be a clear-cut, productive NHL player who's filling a role for a decent team to have a chance. Then he'd have to thrive. Yeah.

And I don't know if even there'd be enough runway through the first few months of the season. The other ones that we will get to, and it's appropriate that we save this because we'll talk to Kevin Woodley from NHL.com and Ingo magazine at seven. We do need to talk with Kevin Lankton and then the big one, I think the biggest one for any Olympic roster decision as it pertains to the Canucks is Thatcher Demko. at seven. We do need to talk with Kevin Lankin and then the big one, I think the biggest one for any Olympic roster decision as it pertains to the Connexus Thatcher Demko because it's such a interesting, convoluted, confusing dynamic. There's a lot of different facets to it with

regards to health and form. Would they want them to go? I'm assuming Demko would absolutely want to go having missed out on Four Nations. So there's a lot there We can talk to Woodley about that coming up at seven o'clock Sebastian Burrhalter is gonna join us on the other side MLS all-star game is going on tonight is the skills competition in Austin tomorrow is the game Burrhalter is a first time MLS all-star and what's been a fantastic year for him So we'll talk to Seb coming up in just a little bit before we go to break I do need to tell you about Jan Pro from conference rooms to kitchenettes and everything in between Jan Pro keeps workplaces tidy, clean, and disinfected for a free quote. Visit them online at JanPro.ca.

Whitecaps midfielder, Sebastian Berhalter live from the MLS All-Star game in Austin, Texas, joins us next on the Halford and Breff show on Sportsnet 650. ["Sportsnet 650 Theme Song"] Look at the interchange, Rios! As it blocks, Burt Halter! Why not? 6.33 on a Tuesday. Happy Tuesday everybody, Halfferd and Bruff with Jamie Dodd, Sportsnet 650. Halferd and Bruff for the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Learn

how a consumer proposal reduces your debt by up to 80% with no more interest. This is them online at Sands-Trustee.com. We go now to the Power West Industries hotline. Our next guest joins us live from the MLS All-Star festivities in Austin, Texas. Whitecaps midfielder, Special Burrhalter here on the Haliford and Breast Show on Sportsnet 650. Morning Seb, how are you? Morning, how you guys doing? We're good.

Thanks for taking the time to do this. How's Austin so far? It's great. It's a great city and a lot of things going on, so it's great. You know, it's a great city and you know a lot of things going on so it's fun Let's talk about tonight first and foremost the the MLS skills competition Which we've all been waiting for with the five different events that you guys are gonna take Place in how much prep goes into this from your side of things like, you know exactly what you're doing Are you doing all the challenges? Do you sort of find out when you show up?

Do you know you know, I know there's, you and nine other MLS All-Stars are gonna be taking place, but as the sort of appetizer to tomorrow's MLS All-Star game, what do you know about tonight? Yeah, I think yesterday was a prep day and we went out to the field and we had everything set up for us. And then we, you know, we tried some of the events

and then, yeah, I'm doing three out of the five. So, should be fun. What ones then, yeah, I'm doing three out of the five. So it should be fun. What ones are you doing? I'm doing the passing. And then I'm just like crossing for the other, the shooting one and the crossing volley one. So this has obviously been a great year for you. It's only July, but there's been a lot of great accomplishments

with regards to making your US men's national team debut. Obviously a great start to the season with the Whitecaps. Rewarded with this MLS All-Star nod. I was listening to some of your audio from media day yesterday and you said that you were trying to keep it in the moment, but how much or how often do you just kind of look back at the first half of 2025 and really appreciate all the things that you've accomplished

this early in your career? Yeah, I don't think we're there yet. I think, you know, we're still only halfway. You know, we haven't, you know, my goal is to win a trophy with the Whitecaps, you know, and we haven't really, we haven't done that yet. You know, it came up short in the final. So yeah, I think the reflecting can happen at the end of season

and now we're in the moment and we're chugging along. Let's talk about your gold cup experience with the US. Obviously representing the US was a very special thing for you given your dad's ties to the program both as a player and as a manager. When you look back on that gold cup experience, what were some of your big takeaways? Yeah, I just think the intensity level plays a little bit higher and that's great. It raises your level. And then, yeah, playing in front of these atmospheres that are, you know, super intense and a little bit

hectic, you know, I don't think you get that a lot in MLS, like these guys, you know, would die, you know, that their fans would die for their country, you know, and you can just feel that and, you know, anytime you're, you know, they're running with the ball, even just a half field, you know, the fans go crazy. So it was a cool experience. I'm glad you brought up that aspect of the passion of representing your national team, because as I mentioned, your dad,

an incredibly decorated international, appeared in two World Cups for the US. And I know that you got to experience some of the, in your early days, watching him both play and manage the US men's national team. So what did it mean to you to finally make that debut and pull on your country's colors to represent them internationally?

Yeah, I don't think words can describe it, honestly I was even more proud and honestly more emotional than I thought it would be. It was a dream come true and ever since I was a little kid this is what I wanted to do, what I dreamed of doing. So putting on that jersey for the first time, it really meant the world to me. So we've had the sons of professionals come on the show before. As a matter of fact, one of the most recent pickups from the Vancouver Canucks, Chase Stillman, we had him on the show last week. His dad, Corey Stillman, played and he won a couple Stanley cups and played a long time in the NHL. And he had a funny anecdote saying that, you know, when from his growing up he had a different childhood than everyone else. He remembered when he was in elementary school,

thinking that everyone in his elementary school, their dad also played on an NHL team. That's how the classes were made up. I thought it was pretty, it was funny the way that he explained it, but for you, you know, for the people that might not know, your childhood, you lived in a lot of different places, both in the US and Europe, because of your dad's career.

So looking back on it now, what were some of the fond memories that you have about that pretty unique childhood and growing up always sort of around the game of football, but moving around to a lot of different places? Yeah, I think one, learning different languages. And that's, you know, was the coolest part, you know, learning German, learning Swedish, that was, you know,

pretty cool. And then also you just, you know, you find different life skills, you know, how to, how to adapt, you know, how to, you know, come in an environment and try you know, how to adapt, you know, how to, you know, come in an environment and try to make new friends. And, you know, that's something that I've taken in my whole life now, you know, and now anytime I go to a new place, you know,

I feel comfortable and, you know, it's not like I'm, you know, out of my depths and I feel fine. So, yeah. How big an impact, I think this goes without saying, given your dad's history and still coaching right now in Chicago, how big an impact has your dad had on getting you to where you're at in your career right now? Yeah, honestly, the

biggest, I mean, my mom, the biggest, they close and poured me so much and you know, they always, you know, just said, if this is what you want to do, you gotta, you know, you gotta work for it, you know, and it was up to me, you know, they never really pushed me to, to play soccer. They said, you know, you don't have to play soccer. it's up to you. And, you know, once I did it, they were really supportive. Sebastian, you're at the MLS All-Star Game and we're talking about your experience getting to represent your country at the gold cup as well. And of course, those are byproducts of the really

successful and good season you're having for the Whitecaps. And, you know, you'd been a regular player for the Whitecaps for a few seasons and then you really take it to another level this season. Going back to the beginning of this campaign, could you, did you have a sense that maybe you were ready to take that next step? Even, you know, going back to training and training camp? Yeah, I think each, you know, each year I've had a special, it's been a steady increase. You know, it's never came, you know, super quickly.

I think you can see the end of last year, starting more games and being a more important player. I just knew for the next year, I'm like, I want my role to be even bigger. I'm going to work hard in this off season and give myself the best shot at that. So that's what I try to do. What can you say about the job that your manager, Jesper Sorensen, has done this year? No, he's great. He's changed the way we look at things.

He's got nice tactics. He really understands guys. And he's really the complete package. And it's what we needed. And he's got the group going in a great direction. And we just got to keep going. How early in the process? Because Jesper, to a lot of us, was a complete unknown

when the hire went down. I don't know how much you guys knew about him before he came on the job, but how long did it take before you realized, Oh, we've got something good. We've got some special here with our gaffer. Yeah, I think, I think regardless, I think, you know, this, our group's been together for three or four years now, so we knew it was going to be a special year, you know, regardless. And, you know, when Yessir came in, it was just that perfect mix of like, you know,

having a great group and then him coming in and, you know, steering us towards one direction., you know, having a great group and then him coming in and you know Steering us towards one direction and you know, he he really changed it. I probably like after preseason Okay, like, you know, we have a chance to do something really really cool this season We've talked a lot on the show about you know the length of the MLS season and how there's all those these different sections of it and phases of it for you and In your team and you know early on it was an incredible run of form for the white caps then a little bit of a lull and you've got some good results recently it seems like maybe coming out of it a little bit how important is it for the team for the manager for everyone involved to just try to keep an even

keel because it is such a long season right and I imagine if you're if you're riding the roller coaster of every result you're gonna be exhausted pretty quickly yeah I think we do a really good job of that you know we have really humble guys here and you know we're not trying to be more than quickly. Yeah, I know that's, I think we do a really good job of that. You know, we have really humble guys here and you know, we're not trying to be more than we are. We're just trying to, you know, go play, play some soccer games and, you know, try to win them and it's not nothing much more to, uh, to it than that. You know, you've had a couple of different interesting managers this year for the first time you had.

Yes, for Sorenson with the white caps and going back to the U S men's national team, you had Pachatino as well. What was it like playing under Pach? Um, he was great. honestly, he was great. I feel like he really understands the person, not just the player, which is really cool, and takes the time to understand you, which was, yeah, it was really cool.

And he's obviously a world-class manager, him and his staff, being able to work with them, they work at a really high level, so it was great. Well, Seb, we wanna thank you for taking the time to do this this morning. We really appreciate it. Best of luck tonight and tomorrow at the skills company in the All-Star game. And best luck in the second half of the season with the Whitecaps. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Thanks for having me on.

Yeah, thanks for coming out. We appreciate that. Sebastian Barahalter, Whitecaps midfielder here on the Haliford and Bruff show featuring Jamie Dodd on Sportsnet 650. For the yes, I tried to go down the road of his childhood and growing up and everything, because his dad had a very distinguished career as a player, but also not just in North America internationally. He played at Crystal Palace. He played in Germany. He played in Sweden and then went back and managed there as well. And I remember when the Whitecaps Burrhalter, they got him for

really a really like low acquisition cost. And was it GAM? I can't remember if it was TAM or TAM. I can't remember which one it was. It was one of the it was one of those. But the only reason it drew any sort of attention was because of the surname. Like, oh, it's Greg Burrhalter's kid. Outside of that, he was kind of, they were still unsure what he was gonna be as a professional because he was young, he was still in his early 20s, he's only 24 years old now. That ascension that he's had from last year to this year,

although we did see it in the latter stages of the Vanny Sartini era to this year, he's become a central figure in terms of one of the best midfielders in the league and on a US men's national team that I know that it wasn't their full squad at the gold cup, but he came in, made his debut, and then was like a central figure right away. Like he was one of Paciottino's guys. And that was kind of interesting because I wonder like moving forward, of course, to the 2026 World Cup, how big a role he's going to play. But he's been super dynamic for the Whitecaps this year. He's been a big reason, big reason with him and Kubas and now Vitae's gone. Obviously, that was the best midfield in the league to start the season. It's been picked apart by injuries and transfers a little bit.

But for halters, been one of the keys to that whole thing. Well, I had a very good year. Yeah, I'm not as locked in on the Whitecaps as I used to be. But for years that it's just like one I had a very good year. I'm not as locked in on the Whitecaps as I used to be, but for years that just like one high level midfielder was a desperate desperate hole on the roster. And then he has really helped solidify things. As you said, there's been absences now and VT is leaving. So maybe you're not looking at it as the best midfield in MLS still,

but you still have Burlter there, right? And it just that that that metronome, right. To use kind of the soccer cliche in the middle of the pitch is so important. And he has filled that role really like I can't really remember other guys, even in Whitecaps MLS era that have done that for an extended stretch of time. So you can tell by watching him that he had a ball at his foot from like the moment he was. He hangs a ball better than, I'd say probably better than anyone on the team,

maybe not Ryan Gould, because Gould's left foot has also been kind of like kissed by God, but Berhalter can absolutely ping it in a way that only a handful of guys can. And that's like, again, comes back to you had a ball at your foot from the moment that you were born and you've played constantly

and just worked at your craft in terms of like the set piece delivery, the corners, the free kicks, the amount of goals that he scored this year with the shot that he's got a real ability to drive but also be able to put it on target with regularity. It's been a really nice story for the Whitecaps and hopefully it continues in the second half of the season.

Okay, we started talking about the Olympic squads in the first half of the show, in the first half of the first segment, in light of the fact that Hockey Canada yesterday announced that they're bringing back the entirety of their staff coaching wise that led the country to gold at the Four Nations faceoff earlier this year. So Cooper's back, Tauket, De Boer, Sweeney, and Misha Donska off there all back. And then we started going on the road of, well, what are the Canucks going to look like as they go into the Olympic break with all the number of Canucks? The other really interesting thing,

I think, is going to be the Canadian team because it's pretty much understood that things went well at the Four Nations. Everyone was happy at the end of it. They won, you know, and ended off with, you know, Connor McDavid scoring the golden goal and a lot of the big guns firing and the goaltending came through in the end. And if you were to look at the projected roster for 2026, you'd have a hard time knocking a lot of guys off it. Now there's gonna be some turnover, no question,

because of injuries and age and everything else, but generally speaking, when you win, much like with the coaching staff, there's a nod to let's just run it back. Everyone gets a leg up. Everyone who was on the roster gets some bonus points, right? And you talked about how there's not that much of a runway now. I think they're naming the rosters a little bit later in the season for the Olympics and they did. It's going to be in by the end of December. Yeah, But the four nations, it was like the beginning of December. It was quick, right? You're really talking about, you know, like

eight weeks of NHL season to try to sway the decision makers. I think there's a little bit more runway now, but still, if you were on that team, you have a leg up. Although I will say, I do think it matters how your four nations went because we definitely saw when we talked about with the American roster right where by the end of the tournament they were probably wondering like man. Why did we bring Chris Crider? Why did we do this and there was nothing as extreme with team Canada, but you look at like Thomas Harley who comes in as the injury replacement was

not on anyone's radar like it's not like we were talking about my god Thomas Harley just missed me making the four nations. He wasn't on anyone's radar. He comes in as an injury replacement and immediately it's not like we were talking about my god Thomas Harley just missed me making the four nations he wasn't on anyone's radar he comes in as an injury replacement and immediately it's like well you're playing way more than Travis said I mean we you are right away you are way better suited to this you're a better fit you're logging major minutes so Thomas Harley to me is a lock now even though he wasn't technically on the roster and then what does that mean for Travis Sandheim I think he might be potentially on his way out. I would agree. I'd look at also like Mark Stone.

Okay, so let's start at the forward group, okay? Let's say for sake of argument, it was a break this down that the following are gonna be locks at four. Sydney Crosby, Nathan McKinnon, Connor McDavid, Braden Point, we're ready to lock him up. I think he's been named already. Yeah, Sam Reinhardt, Sam Bennett.

I'll throw Mitch Marner in. Absolutely. OK, Marner's a lock. So now you mentioned Stone already. Yeah. In a in a in a way, I actually think Stone could be more of a wild card than Brad Marsh on, even though Marsh on 37 years old. I I think Marsha kind of played his way on in the playoffs. I do, too. Here's the thing, if you're going to do the resume on Marshawn

and you're going to say, well, what's he bring into the table? Everyone said that, you know, his personality and his attitude meant something to that Canadian team at the four nations. And the turning back the clock as a third liner, which is kind of the role is going to mean maybe third, fourth line with Canada. But as a third liner in Florida, it was the kind of performance role he's gonna, I mean, maybe third, fourth line with Canada, but as a third liner in Florida, it was the kind of performance that you say, hey, he's a gamer. In those smaller sample sizes, shorter windows,

where the pressure's on, you've got a guy that's got the experience to fall back on that, you want that in those moments, when you're in the trenches or whatever sort of like, cliche want to use. So I do think that he's on. I think the issue with stone is that on talent level and intensity alone, you absolutely take him with his health. It's just a major concern because he doesn't, not that Marshawn's a burner right now either, but like stone doesn't look fast.

Well, he's never been a fast skater. And at his age, I didn't think you saw that at the four nations, like, can he keep up? Can you play him with a Connor McDavid or sorry, Nathan McKinnon up on the line up? And I read an interview with Doug Armstrong at NHL.com and you know, he was asked, Oh, how difficult is it to resist the temptation of assembling an all star type of roster? And he was like, we want to build a highly skilled team that can play with pace it's pace

pace pace they want to have that speed and skill element and I don't know if it's stone is going to fit in with that anymore at his age so I would say I'd also I liked Hagel enough that I would have him back it was a lot I don't see any reason why he wouldn't with the Cooper Cooper connection, like he's a lock. For sure, keep Hagel. I think that's a great call. For Marshawn though, you just said he's a third or fourth liner, but he was producing against third

or fourth liners in the NHL. No, that's fair. That's a valid point. And when he was playing top tier talent in the four nations, it was like, you don't look like you belong out there. Like you're playing first liners every time you're out there. He's too slow. He wasn't able to produce at a high level.

Are you saying Marsha off? I am. Whoa, I love that. I just think that like he doesn't bring enough to the table at that elite level anymore. It's absolutely fair because of the guys that were off looking to play their way on, right? Like, are you gonna make room for Tom Wilson?

Are you gonna make room for Macklin Celebrini? Are you gonna make room for Nick Suzuki? I think the number one, if I going to make room for Macklin Celebre? Are you going to make room for Nick Suzuki? I think the number one one. If I had to rank number one guy who didn't make it at forward, who's got a chance to make it Robert Thomas out of St. Louis with the Doug Armstrong connection, you also just look at his production over the last three seasons for NHL forwards.

He's right there in the mix. He kills penalties. He's a right shot center. He brings all your time. Oh, we need speed and pay and skill, but also guys who can impact every facet of the game. Like he may as well be talking about Robert Thomas. Well, I agree with Ben on Marshawn. There is one thing to consider in the fact that he's a very, very well known big game player. He shows up in big moments, gets big goals. He did that in the playoffs this last season. And yeah,, he's not he's slow now. He's old

He's not you know He's not able to keep up with the highest caliber of players anymore, and that's not a slight to him It's just his age But he still gets you those big goals when you need them the Marchand thing is fascinating because if he had stayed if he had Exercised his full no trade clause and said you know what Boston I get it, but I don't want to go anywhere I'm a Bruin for life and stayed in Boston. I think we're all saying he's off for sure. Yeah. No doubt about it. He's off for sure. It actually reminds me a little bit of like international soccer where guys will leave a team specifically because like I

need Champions League action to show my national manager that I can still play at that level. That's almost what happened with Brad Marshawn where he go went to a better situation got to show that he could still do it in big moments. And now I'd be surprised if he's not on the team. Yeah, like, let's be clear. Last year in Boston was an abject disaster. It was a nightmare of a season, right? They were all awful. That was one of the worst teams they've had in the last two decades. They stunk and they were playing out the string by January, February.

They knew they weren't going anywhere and they sold at the deadline. So I've got time. That's a good soccer analogy. Thank you, Jamie. We like soccer analogies here on the show. So, okay, so let's put, for the sake of argument, we've got our locks. By the way, I think Seth Jarvis is pretty much back too. I'd have a hard time saying no.

I don't know. I could see it. Like, couldn't you see Nick Suzuki out playing Seth Jarvis? You know what I like about Jarvo is the style that they play in Carolina Sure is he's kind of trained to be like you're gonna go and you're gonna do certain things Buck retrieval and straight lines and we know you can do it because you play it 82 games Yeah, I like stuff Jarvis don't get me wrong, but I think I don't think he's a lock

I think there's room like if you're talking about the Shifely, Suzuki, Thomas, Wilson kind of class, he'd be one of the guys they have a target on. So the guys that are probably on the bubble are Marshawn, Keneckney, Stone. Do we need to bring back Anthony Cirelli? No. Do we need, and I know Cooper would bring every Tampa Bay Lightning player if he, yeah.

But I do wonder if they saw Cirelli at the Four Nations, they're like, yeah, you're fine. But there's other guys that can do what you do and maybe at a higher level. So that could be a real simple like four in four out. Remember, I think the rosters are going to go 14-8 and three. So 14 forwards, eight defensemen, three goalies. And then when it comes time to dressing,

who's actually going to play? That's an entirely different matter. But you guys land on the Celebrini, Bedard area in terms of. Celebrini I think is a very good chance he makes it. Bedard, it all comes down to how well he plays this year. Because obviously he didn't do very well last year. So you fall into the camp of see what happens in the first half. I'm in the camp.

What have you done for me lately, right? I'm in the camp of the two. I think Celebrini right now has a better shot at making it than Bedard. Definitely. Does that disagree with that? No, no. how much of an emphasis do you put on? Giving these guys an opportunity at a young age whether it's one of them or both of them to play beside McKinnon Crosby McDavid at McCarr highest level. It's the Drew Doughty and Jonathan Taves in 2010 He's a argument all over again

It's like that if you hear them talk about her, anyone else talk about it, like not only did it teach them certain leadership skills and you know what it takes to play at that level by being around those professionals, they also raised their game within the tournament and that young energy, it helped, right? I think a lot of it is also naivety. You don't understand how big the event is

because you're just kind of thrown into it One of the rosters have to be finalized again. It's January end of December beginning of January Yeah, so like if the dart is going on a tear going into January Then I could see it making it like if he's absolutely playing out of his mind, right? I to the level that he's I think but dart would have to be Like top 10 and NHL scoring. Yeah to have a chance. Yeah, he's got the skill set that would allow that. Potentially. But Celebrini has more of the battle-winning, mature physical game already. So he still has to, like, I think

it's going to be an uphill climb for both of them, even for Celebrini. Celebrini has a clear path. Like, with Bedard, it has to be undeniable this guy is an offensive force at the NHL level now, because there's still going to be questions about his all-around game His physical makeup all of that whereas Celebrini You can see him more in an energy type role for the team because he's just more physically developed

We'll pick up this conversation throughout the show. Trust me coming up on the other side of the break We're gonna talk to Kevin Woodley from NHL comm and in goal magazine He's gonna join us as we get back to the Canucks side of things, Lanken and Demko Olympics both going, one almost for sure in Lanken and the other one in Demko. Really fascinating discussion about what's going to happen there. Woodley's going to join us at 7, Dan Rosen at 7.30. Lots of hockey talk today. You're listening to the Halford and Brough Show on Sportsnet at 6.50.