Halford & Brough in the Morning - The Bread Olympics

Episode Date: July 3, 2026

In hour two, Mike & Jason get OneSoccer lead analyst Gareth Wheeler's (6:30) thoughts on tomorrow's Canada vs. Morocco Round of 16 matchup, they look ahead to all the top World Cup games this weekend with The Athletic FC's Jack Lang (35:39), plus the boys debate if they could throw a piece of naan or a baguette farther (43:31).  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.

7.05. Happy Friday, happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. It is Halford. It is brough. It is Sportsnet 650. Halverdenbrough in the morning is brought to my Sands and Associates. Their clients often say, I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off me. Don't say it. Okay. I won't. If dead...

I feel like a huge man has been lifted off me. I urge 46-year-old male. If debt is weighing you down, visit sands dash trustee.com. I feel like Sands is going to take that one out of the rotation. They might. It's calling it a hunch. Please never read that again. We are in hour two of the program.

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Step strong with orthotics and footwear from Kintech. on SportsNet 650, call in on the ABLE Auctions hotline. Email sales at abelle auctions.ca to get your business assets sold and your building cleared. I didn't have a Norm MacDonald come back. I bet they spell bored, B-O-R-E-B. So before we get to A.J, who's patiently waiting on hold, I do need to do the one to watch. Brought to you by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts. Even though I have put their chances at approximately Z.

0 to 0.1%. Cape Verde. It's Argentina today in the round of 32. Can they pull off what would be, I would say, the greatest upset in World Cup history? It is a storybook, Cinderella story already for the tiny African nation.

They are going up. I believe Argentina, are minus 700 on the money line today. and it'll be played in Messy's hometown, Miami Gardens in Florida. It's a 3 o'clock kickoff our time. It is the tallest of orders, but can Cape Verde somehow pull the episode against Argentina? That is your one to watch. Brought to you by Limitless AV,

Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts, specializing in seamless video conferencing solutions and hybrid workspaces. Book your personalized tour of their experience center today at limitlessAV.ca. I guess we do need to remember that they held Spain to a nil-n-n-l-dra. They did. Slightly different circumstances now, though, as opposed to the first match for both in the World Cup.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, true. We'll see. They're big nil-nills, though, because they drew Saudi Arabia nil-nil, too. They love a nil-nil. Yeah, yeah. They love it there. Let's go now to the ABLE Auctions hotline.

Our next guest is the owner and proprietor, co-owner and co-proprietor, I should say. Shout out, Teresa. AJ from AJ's pizza on East Broadway here on the Halford and Breft Show on Sportsnet 650. What up, AJ? What is going on? What exciting times? It's awesome.

I like like it's awesome. I have loved the never-ending pivot at AJ's. So just to recap, over the last two months, you guys have gone from being a Montreal, remember when they were a Montreal Canadiens Bar? Yeah, that seems like five years ago. 10 years ago, right? So that was a chapter in the history.

Then a Knicks bar and that turned out great. And now, so get this for the weekend. There are, okay, confirm in the positive here, there are still spots available at AJ's to reserve or to show up Saturday morning. You guys are going to open at 9? Yeah, we'll open at 9. And honestly, I will get you in. I know the owner.

Oh, okay. That's fantastic. Come and enjoy. Just come and enjoy. It's been amazing. Honestly, I, and obviously every Canada game has been awesome. And as I text you, Mike, it's going to be upset Saturday, man. So Canada paragraph.

I'm telling you. A little spoiler for the folks at home. We do text ahead of time. And AJ is calling upset Saturday where Canada upsets Morocco. but then Paraguay upsets France. I love this. I don't think Jimmy Ais says advise you on this one. No, he did.

He knows nothing about footy, but nobody cheers for the French. Come on. Okay, fair. Besides the wine and food. And then Sunday, happy hour all day at AJ's with what is the match of the round of 16? England, Mexico, from Mexico at 5 o'clock. So there's a lot of reasons. And we have lovely, and we have lovely, we have obviously lovely kids from Mexico who work from us

and then some real diehard English fans. So it's going to be fun on Sunday. I have flags up for both of them, so it's all good. It's a beautiful thing. It's a beautiful place to go this weekend. Check them out on Saturday and Sunday. AJ's pizza at 325 and 327 East Broadway. AJ, enjoy the weekend, buddy.

It's going to be great. Yeah, you guys too. It's going to be awesome. Go Canada. Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. That's AJ's Pizza on East Broadway here on the Halford and Brough show on Sportsnet 650. What you're reading there?

I'm reading about the USA soccer chant, which is so lame. They're looking good. I'll be cheering for Belgium, but they are looking pretty good, that American team. And all three host cities. That Monday, that Monday is 16. I know Sunday's great. Brazil, Norway is the first match and then England, Mexico. Monday, July 6th, coming off of Independence Day, Week.

in the U.S. because obviously July 4th is Saturday. Portugal, Spain is the first match. And then at 5 o'clock from Seattle, where they've really like embraced not only just being a World Cup host city, but also this U.S. team, USA, Belgium from Lumenfield in Seattle, 5 o'clock on a Monday. That is going to be electric. And the U.S. team has looked very strong, especially in dispatching of Bosnia and the most recent match as well.

Do we have a wheeler on the line now? Okay, this is great. We're going to go now to the ABLE Auctions hotline. we're going to continue with the footy talk. Joining us now from one soccer, as he has throughout the tournament, very happy to welcome back. Gareth Wheeler to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Gareth. How are you?

What's going on, guys? How did the game go last night in Vancouver? So it was, it sold out, which was great. You know, and I know that the ticket prices, I believe it ended up being the lowest get-in price for a match thus far. I know definitely in the round of 32. I think that speaks to the fact that so many people, had bought in anticipation of Canada being there

in the round of 32 and then getting the Swiss and the LJos, but I'll tell you this. Like, now I've seen Switzerland play twice. I've seen them in the qualifying and in the lead-up as well. I know the opponents haven't been the fiercest, but what a tidy professional performance they put forth in their last two matches. I know that they've got, you know,

Argentina on the horizon and then Colombia before that, but I've been very impressed with the Swiss. Yeah, it felt like in the group stage you never really had to get into second gear. And they have pedigree. Like I feel like they are a tournament team. They play within themselves. They play within their structure.

They play as a group. Like I was at the game in Toronto last night. It kind of reminds me a little bit of Croatia just in terms of the way that they're played, like really well managed, really well versed, which is very difficult in international football, the way that teams come together. I think you need a really good coach to get the most of the team. And I think that's exactly what the Swiss have. And advantage to them, they get to stay in Vancouver again.

end and played the next game. That was the disappointment in the end of Canada being in Vancouver, home crowd, then the potential for two games being played, you know, without moving anywhere. So, yeah, it looked great last night. It just, it also the order of the games last night, like, it kind of played second fiddle in a wild, you know, Portugal, Croatian match. It was, like, that game just had a little bit of everything, just an instinct classic. So I did watch the nightcap.

It was worth watching. but it was hard to come down from the Croatia-Portugal game, to be honest. So you were there? You were at BMO yesterday for that match, correct? Yeah, it was off. It was just a wild day. It started off in the afternoon. Like, I can't even tell you how many Portuguese people were on the street.

But then when he got to the stadium, I was like, okay, like 5% of the people that were actually on the street's party actually were in the stadium. And there was a Croatian crowd that was more into it and loud. engaged and like I said the game just had a little bit of everything like the Ronaldo side show Modrich was absolutely unbelievable Roberto Martinez tried to do his best

to throw away the game at one point like it was just it was just crazy bad and it had everything okay let's turn our attention now to Canada and Morocco we've spent a lot of time discussing it already gone over it up and down left and right so I'm glad we've got you on because I wanted to parse through some of the stuff that you were asking earlier

Jason and I think the first one is like real simple. If Canada is going to somehow pull this off, how do they pull it off? What does it look like? What does it look like? The first thing I think they need to do, I know there's been some talk about

potentially Canada playing with five at the back. I just don't think that that's the way to do it. I think they need to add a player in the midfield. I think that like the stubbornness needs to come to an end for Jesse Marsh. It can't be Jonathan David playing in central midfield.

because if you lose the midfield or get dominated in the midfield like the Netherlands did, you're going to lose the game. Like that was the thing that stood out for me the most. It was like Gravenberg and De Jong. I was like, where's the Dutch midfield? Like there was no engagement in those areas. So March needs to add another player, like whether's Nico Seguer, whether Jonathan Azor. Like I'm not even picky on who that player is, but you need someone that's able to engage

and make sure that that part of the field is solidified. If not, you're just going to be chasing shadows. Look, Morocco is very good in wide areas, but I think that the two probably best Canadian players have been our fullbacks in Alastair Johnson and Richie Lorea. They've been consistently good, and I have faith that those players can at the very least hold their own in those respective positions,

but there needs to be much more in the midfield. Yeah, see, it's interesting. We talked about it, and I thought that if the, and I know the only reason I'm really, really highlighting the five at the back is because, as you know, Marsh brought it up after half time of the Swiss match where he said his regrets where they didn't go

to five at the back. And I was thinking that in some way, it might be interesting to see if they were to have all three centerbacks on the pitch at the same time with Bombito and Cornelis and DeFusurl, almost leaning in to the fact that Bombito's available and DeFusoros had this great glow up on this stage.

But you bring up playing three in the center of the midfield. And I went back and looked at the Paraguay win over Germany. And a lot of the credit there was that they were playing a four, five, one, and that the three in the midfield, of course, Andrei Kubas played a big part in it, was the tireless work and the way that they were able to shut things down, not necessarily at the back, but in the midfield.

So if they were to go to that, would you go with Eustachio, Saliba, and then be Seguer would be the third? Probably. Yeah. Because Seguer at this point has more lags. I know the Schwanier can play a role. I just really like Nico. Yeah.

And I kind of wish that I think that Marsh kind of pulled the right string against South Africa and put him into a game. Whether it'll be that much more adventurous against the team that's going to attack them, that remains to be seen. Like he could turn to Schwanierre. But it's funny. Like when March came out and said that he regret not playing five at the back, like I called BS, to be honest with you. Because he's never done it before other than the end of games. Yeah. But now that he said that, I'm kind of in a good.

agreements with you? Like, I think he might go there. I think he might do that, which I think would be a significant mistake. First of all, like, I know that Moise Mbino played 58 minutes against South Africa, but how many times was he legitimately challenged, like, twice? Yeah. Like, South Africa didn't do anything. And if he can't go anything more than now, then what's the point?

And in the back of my head, I'm also thinking, okay, like, penalties would be a wonderful scenario for this team. And what I do know is I don't want Luke DeFuge Roll anywhere near the field. If the team is going to penalties, I've seen them take two penalties and both like we're unmitigated disaster. I don't need to ever see that again. So I prefer to have the opportunity to bring on Bumboito. I don't think the Fuzerol has done anything wrong in this tournament.

I think he's being quite good to be fair. So I think it's wishful thinking to think that a player like Bumboito, a player like Davies, players that just haven't played are capable of going out to the field and doing a job with a really steep, a steep rise in terms of quality that you're playing against. It's funny the way that everything is as being framed. Like, I just look at this tournament thus far. Yeah, sure, it's been a success based upon Canada playing in a round of 16 game. And you hope that there's a knock on effect in terms of legacy and willing investment into the game in this kind of.

country and all those good things. But where Canada are, like, they've done what is being expected of them. Like nothing more, nothing less at this point. They've got the easiest path, the easiest set of games that anyone has ever played in World Cup history. They drew the 61st ranked team in the world. They beat the 59th ranked team and they beat the 54th rank team.

That's it. Like, this is table stakes when you're hosting a World Cup. So although it's great and we can go out and celebrate. how far they've gone and this ride. Like, if they didn't get to this point, there would be, I think it would be travesty based upon that. So, and I even look back on the two years that Jesse Marsh is in charge, like, what is Canada's signature win under Jesse Marsh

when they punched above their weight and beat, you know, a really big team in a really big moment? And there hasn't been one. They lost in the two competitions they were playing something. in the Nations League in the Gold Cup. Like they beat some teams and friendlies. Yeah, they played well against Romania and Wales. Neither one of those

teams are at the World Cup. And during that window, both of those sides had World Cup qualifying games to play against. So it was the second most important game in those window for both teams. Was it Venezuela in Copa America where a team, again, that was

outside the top 50 in the world, took them to penalties? Like, there has not been a signature win under Jesse March where the team has shown that they can punch above their weight. There's been results like hard fought draws, but you've got to go in and win this game. You have to win this game. And so I still think that despite where they're at right now, there's still a lot to prove and a lot to show in a game like this tomorrow. I just think it's really unfortunate all the injuries that they've had to deal with.

And I'm typically not a guy that brings up injuries as an excuse. but I mean it's been pretty ridiculous. Like their best player has played, what, 20 minutes? And, you know, there's a huge question mark of whether or not he's going to be able to be a factor against Morocco. They lost one of their best players mid-tournament and that was after, you know, the lead up to the, it was easier to name the players that were healthy than the ones that were heard. I mean, it is a factor. I'm not one for excuses.

If you look at some of the other teams, the top teams, I mean, I'm thinking about like England, who's going to go play Mexico, they're healthy. You know, Saka's maybe a little bit, like he's not 100% there. But like, compared to Canada, they're unbelievably healthy. And I think it's going to be really tough, even if Canada loses to Morocco, to really judge how good Canada could have been at this tournament. A couple of shots. I mean, England have lost, don't have their starting right side.

Reese James is out. That's true. Yeah, yeah, that's true. Like, I think if you if you go through, you know, the big nations, like a lot of these teams have lost players and they're injured, they're just exceptionally deep. But that's the thing. Going to this tournament, March

raved and boasted the fact that they're at least too deep in every position. And his overall face that any player's stepping in and stepping up can do the job. And if that's how he's portraying things to the country, then we have to take him is word.

So there are competent players. Like, there's still, I agree, they're still deeper than they've ever been.

And when it comes to the World Cup, like, there's no excuses. You need to be able to find a way. Now, like, if they lose to Morocco,

tomorrow, there's absolutely no shame in that. But I, I didn't like how he said immediately following that winner

over South Africa, that this game was a free hit. Like, I, again, I don't buy that whatsoever, like,

using a poker analogy. If you have chips on the table, you're still in the game. And you need to find a way to use those chips that you have available to put yourself in a position of strength. And this is why Jesse Marsh has paid the big bucks to come in. He's getting paid a lot of money to come in and preside over this team. He comes with with some swagger, with a reputation, whether that be good, bad, or indifferent. But this is why he's being brought in to get the most out of this team. And I'm sorry, like, I understand that a lot of people like the guy, but if you have any other manager with Canada be in a different spot right now. I don't know if that's the case. So March needs to get

the most out of this group tomorrow, or I think it will be a disappointment. Like, again, that doesn't necessarily mean going out to win the game, but you've got to give it a go. And I just didn't like setting the table, building in an excuse right away, not only for the players, but specifically the fan base in terms of setting expectation, a lot of new people that have just been. And I'm just started following this team. If you're using terms like free hit, what kind of message are you sending? Again, you beat South Africa and you beat Qatar in this tournament. Like, let's go.

Like, really give it a go in this game. Let's see if you can come up with something. Paraguay wasn't saying it was a free hit against Germany. You're in a round of a World Cup. I do have expectations around this team, at least in the way that they're going to perform, because they'll say this about the players. They never cheat you on effort. like ever, ever, ever.

This team like refuses to back down. They're confident in their ability. I think they relish games like this. Part of the reason why the country fell in love with them during Copa America is because they played really well against teams like Argentina, right? Like that's why people kind of like the demeanor and their style of play because there's a relentlessness to this team. And I fully expect that we're going to see that tomorrow as well. Yeah, you know what, like watch.

It's funny that you mentioned like the heart and the grid of the team because watching Algeria, fall behind 2-0 to the Swiss yesterday and kind of similar fashion to how Canada did Algeria and I know Canada had obviously like a very partisan BC place crowd behind them to urge them on but Algeria had nothing

nothing after they fell behind 2-0 whereas Canada was able to muster something get a goal and I know a lot of the chances at the end were speculative at best but still they were able to have that push and you know I think that's part of the Canadian identity here is the longer these matches go saw what these

Stacchio winner in added time against South Africa. Like they've got a good fighting spirit to them. I'm not sure that can carry them through the day against Morocco, but I wonder if it can, like you said, maybe play into this where it's go for it time and they can really lean into the grit and guile and the caginess of being Canadian. Yeah, I mean, that's what we've seen.

I think that's the biggest thing that we've learned about Canada over the last couple of years is that they are combative and they're able to play teams, teams close and tight, and they're difficult to play against. And despite giving up some real good goal-scoring opportunities to their opponents, they never seem to concede them. I don't know how. I don't know if it's like a kiss of luck.

I don't know what it is. But Canada are pain in the ass to play against for all those aforementioned reasons. So that's what's going to have to be like tomorrow. Canada actually are probably a better team and they're playing on the counter-attack anyways. They look more comfortable to me. But I think that if Marsh sets them up the right way, I would bring Ali Ahmed back in the team because he can press, he can tackle. I play him down the left-hand side.

I push Jonathan David up and play him as a lone striker. Yeah, I think it hasn't been a great tournament for Téjean, Buchanan, but he does have that X factor about him. Three in the midfield, you have your back four? I think that's a pretty good foundation to build from, to at least be combative and keep this one close. Like, as good as Morocco looked, I thought that the Netherlands were cowardly in terms of the way that they played them. And I think if they played them in a different way, they could have given them a little bit, a little bit of a game.

Like, they're not playing a team full of Leonel Messi's here. They're playing against the team, a country that's invested a lot of money, has found some really good players. They play aggressive. They play quick. They're technically strong. But you're not playing a bunch of like, you know, $80 million players in this team. They're just a really good group collectively. So, but I think that this Canadian team has proved they can punch above their way time and time again as well.

So let's just see how it plays out. Like David Goliath may be sure. I think it's probably a little bit closer than that. But there's no doubt Canada will be underdogs, but I expect them at the very least to give a puncher's chance here. We will find out Canada's fate in just over 24 hours. Garrett, thanks a lot for doing this today, man. We really appreciate it. Enjoy the match tomorrow.

Yeah, it should be a lot of fun. Keep up the great work, guys. And I'm sure we'll chat before the tournament's done. too. Thanks. That's Gareth Weiler from from one soccer here on the Halford and Breft Show on Sportsnet 650. Before we go to break, I need to tell you about VGH Plus hometown heroes lottery. They need your support to help change lives and save lives.

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That's only $21 and $25 per ticket. Don't wait. Buy your tickets now at Heroes Lottery.com. You're listening to the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Hey, it's Jamie Dodd and Thomas Strance. Get your daily dose of Canucks Talk with us weekdays from 12 to 2 on SportsNet 650. Or catch up on demand through your favorite podcast app. 735. 735.

On a Friday. Happy Friday, everybody. Sweet, sweet Friday. Someone said, Halford's saying, sweet, sweet Friday. Like you put in a full week of work. Well, I mean, yeah.

Was this your third day of work? I worked 13 hours this week. Oh, that's your, yeah, it's your, because you worked on the holiday. I'm exhausted. An extra hour on the holiday, too. What kind of person works 13 hours in a week? I mean, that's insane.

It's too much. Is that even legal? I would consider Halford watching the World Cup to be working. I have tried to spend that. Yeah. Yeah. It's your job. I'll be on the couch at home. And I'll be like, hey, I'm working. There's a good theme of, I think it's a picture,

a bunch of pictures of Ryan Gosling just enjoying life around a various city. And it's like, this is what unemployed people look like during the World Cup. He's always having a good time. There's always something going on. Anytime you flick on the TV, you can go out anywhere in Vancouver. There's always something going on right now. One of the happiest times of my life was in my Twitter. 20s when I was unemployed for like half a year.

It's pretty great. So like, we went out to the beach today. It was a different time. I mean, I was very hungry. Yeah, but repeatedly. Repeatedly hungry. But it was pretty great. Hold on. I got to do some business here.

I didn't do any of it. You are listening to the Halford & Brough show on SportsNet 650. Halford and Brub of the morning is brought to you by Sands and Associates. Their clients often say there is no judgment you feel care for and understood. Get debt free at sands dash trustee.com. We are in our two of the morning. program. Our two is brought to by Jason Homonock at Jason.org. If you love paying too much for your mortgage,

then don't let Jason shop around to find the perfect mortgage for you. Visit them online at Jason.orgia. We are supposed to have Jack Lang from the Athletic on the show right now. He's a football writer for the athletic. He's got a feature piece up now titled, next up for England, the Estadio Azteca, where Mexico look invincible. Now, this is an interesting one for us because, well, me in particular, having followed the Canadian men's national team for a while,

I know all about Azteca. I've seen Canada go there and get demolished more times than I care to remember. I've heard all the anecdotes about the bags of urine being chucked at the players. I know how heinous a place this can be for visitors to try and play. But the English are about to find out. The English are about to find out what it's like to go through Conca Calf, qualifying essentially minus having to go to Honduras and Haiti

and all those other places. But it is pretty crazy though that this game they're playing is at Azteca against Mexico in a stadium where the hand of God occurred. Yeah. There's a history with England and this stadium and

I also think that England's going to be a huge disadvantage with the elevation and not being used to it. And they basically conceded it. I said there's no way we can do anything about it now. You need

days and days to become acclimated to it. Yeah, they're not doing it. It'll just be an advantage for Mexico and Mexico. If you watch the Ecuador game, they ran those guys off the pitch. So how many of the Mexico games have you watched so far? I watched their game against Korea. Yeah. And I watch the

game against Ecuador. Yeah. So they're full-blown game plan. Their whatever you want to call it. They come out with their hair on fire. It is frenetic at the start. Now, here's the thing. They're only human.

So their energy levels, throughout almost all the matches, including the Ecuador match, does drop. But their goal is to take the elevation, the frenetic energy of the crowd, the hostile environment, and to pounce on an opponent early.

And they've done it with ruthless efficiency. The other part of it is, and I don't know if enough people are talking about this. Defensively, they've been one of, if not the best teams in the tournament. They've not conceded through four games. Here's a question for you. Yeah. How many of the Mexican players would make the English team?

Oh, that's a great question. It's, and this is where you get into the most intriguing part of the matchup. I mean, the answer could be none, right? Could be. Yeah. I think if you're talking of the 26-man roster, there'd be a few on there. The starting 11 might be a little. little tougher. But anyway, but this isn't to say that they've got a vastly inferior squad by no

means. But there's so many levels of talent in soccer. Like you've got, you know, you can have this conversation about Mexico versus England. These are top 20 teams in the world. This is incomparable to the, you know, who do the Qatar players play for? Right. There's many levels, especially at this World Cup, with 48 teams being there. But England is actually, according to the odds makers, the favorite in this games,

but I think Mexico is going to win. And I'm an England supporter. This has been one of the most difficult matches for me to predict, because I'm still not 100% sure what this Mexican side will look like when pushed by a talented opponent at Azteca. Ecuador was very good, but Ecuador was very overwhelmed. And to be honest, they didn't have the punching power

after they went behind 2-0 to really get back in the match. They had some chances, but they were also, they had thrown so much forward that Mexico was, you know, doing the business on the counterattack. This is the most difficult opponent, I'd say by far for Mexico. With all due respect, is there going to be a size discrepancy in this one? Because the guy I would like, as an England supporter,

the guy I would like to see more involved in this one is Jude Bellingham. I know Harry Kane was the hero against Congo and he always scores. But Jude Bellingham, to me, is just such a freak athlete. He's got size. He's got power. And I feel like he could be a player that the Mexican team, haven't like how do we handle this guy yeah so i you know they're cane's tough to deal with in the box the finishing the prowess the comeback against congo and the fact they needed a comeback against

congo i know we had this conversation yesterday but you could put him in the conversation alongside earling holland of who's been the most impactful star for their team in terms of carrying the load like they're i mean point blank i'm not sure that they're alive right now if cane doesn't do what he does last match i know that it's a massive issue for England that they only seem to have one guy that can score. The Mexican squad, like Raoul is 35 years old now. He's had this

late career renaissance. He's played in the Premier League for a long time. He's played with Wolves, played with Fulham. He's a very talented striker, and he's played very well for Mexico. The interesting one for me is the diminutive 17-year-old forward Jealbel Tomorah, who's already getting overtures from England right now. Apparently Liverpool's interest. He's the wonder kid

of Mexican football right now. They seem willing to sort of let the kid cook right now because he's such a talent. And there is where you're talking about a guy that can play on a level where he could cause some real damage and some real issues for the English.

So we'll wait and see how that progresses. How are we doing with our guest? Is that looking like a no-go here? He is in Mexico and for some reason his UK-based phone is not accepting international calls. Okay. Okay. that might not work.

But I think we've done a decent enough job we're running through it. Let's go now to the Dunbar Lumber text message in basket. Real quick reset. It is Friday. It's Ask Us Anything Friday. We have not anointed the winner

of the $100 gift card to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. So you still got a chance to win. Hashtag it, AUA, and put a pizza emoji into your text. The best ask us anything. So this is indeed a contest. We'll get the $100 gift card

to AJ's Pizza on East Broadway. Do you have some on the road? Yes. Plop with an ask us. anything. What is your favorite deep cut soccer player and why? Is this just one of those like

let's name some guys? I think we're stealing other bits from SportsNet 650 programming if we do this. No, no, no, it's okay. No, I think they do this, but it's fine. No, I know, but that's just not a SportsNet 650 thing. There's lots of, I guess you know, on the internet. People do it on the radio. So when it comes to the Kanax, I'm always like, Robert Nordmark. Did he say soccer player, though?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So Canadian? No, it can be anything. Do you not understand this game? Just like, okay, I'll start. Ivor Evans. Comes to mind.

That's a good one. That's a good one. Super sub. Yeah. For the old 86ers. And the other one that would come to mine, Carlos Valderama, the Colombian player with the big hair.

So yeah, okay, I'm going to go. I think this is the idea. I'm going to go really deep cut. Okay. Well, don't go so deep cut that no one knows what you're talking about. My favorite ever Canadian national team is not one that jumps to mind. It's not the one that qualified in 86. And it's not the one

that got all the way back to Qatar in 2022. They had a team. The gold cup team? Nope. No. They had a team that was trying to qualify for USA 94. And they had to go and play the Oceania, Australia, in a playoff to get to another

play Argentina. This is what it was really tough to make the World Cup. Okay. Okay. That team fought so valiantly against the soccer ruse and eventually lost on penalties. And that team had so many like those guys. I'm using that in air quotes. Lyndon Hooper. Jeff Onger. Nice. John Califf. We and then we had Caliph was more than just some guy. But Caliph was on just scored and scored and scored. Yeah. Dolly was in net and Craig Forrest was the other goalie for that squad. The interesting thing is that in that one, here's another

random that guy. Australia had their starting keeper red carded and then they had, and then they had their second keeper hurt. So they went to a third keeper. A guy who later had an unbelievable Korean England by the name of Mark Schwarzer. Okay. He played in the Premier League for forever. But he kind of had his glow up with Australia in that. And he actually stopped a couple penalties in the shootout as well.

So there's a bunch of that guys for Plop. How are we doing on the phones there, boys? It sounds like we might have made connection with Jack Lang. This is really exciting. So just to walk you through what's been going on for the last 16 minutes. Jack is a football writer for the athletic. He is in Mexico. He is covering this game on Saturday between Mexico and England.

He's got a feature piece up on the athletic titled Next Up for England, the Estadio Estega, where Mexico will look invincible. And I believe we've actually got him on the Able Auctions hotline right now. To where we go. Jack Lang joins us now on the Halford & Brough Show on SportsNet 650. Morning, Jack. How are you? Good morning.

Yeah, I'm great. How are you guys? We're great. This is awesome. We could connect. And thanks for taking the time to do this. While waiting for the call to go through, we sort of went back through

Canada's history, and it is a vast one of playing in Mexico at altitude at Azteca throughout various Concaf qualifying tournaments. Spoiler alert, most of them, almost all of them went bad for Canada because of how daunting it is. What's it like right now

for the English fans, the English media, and the England team itself, getting up to speed, I guess, to a certain degree with being prepared to play in Mexico at the Estes. As you can imagine, there's a lot of attention on this stadium, on this city. I've had a lot of phone calls in the last few days. So I have been here for the last three weeks I've been at all of the games at the Outta

Tegas so far. It's been my beat this summer, which has been great. And I suddenly am the expert on altitude, on the intimidating crowd, on these slightly chaotic transport situation in Mexico City, and all of this has gone from kind of a fairly niche World Cup storylines south of the border to being, yeah, the main thing that the English media is now focusing in on. I think it's going to be, yeah, an interesting game. I think England probably would be confident of winning in neutral conditions.

I think there are a slightly better team. But I think there is a lot for Thomas Tickle to be worried about. we've heard yesterday that there are plans for a kind of roadblock perimeter around England's hotel to prevent what we saw with the Ecuador team hotel which was Mexicans making noise like drum kits honking horns late into the night I think England are concerned about that and I think the altitude is going to be is going to be a real factor because they're dropping in two days beforehand and there was always this kind of idea in

South American football as well that oh, well maybe if we drop into altitude at the last minute, it won't affect us so much. I don't know about that. That has been debunked, I'm afraid. I think that dropping in a 48 hours notice there's going to be a few

heavy lungs going around on come game time. What's the atmosphere going to be like for the English fans that are, there's surely going to be a strong contingent there but they are going to be outnumbered by a large number by the Mexican fans. And if you've seen any of the, I'm sure you've experienced it just the atmosphere in Mexico City right now,

it seems absolutely insane. Yeah, it's honestly, it's been brilliant. There's been a classic fear of the unknown, I think. The last couple of days I've seen some stuff in the English media. Like, oh, you know, is it going to be a bit hairy, a little bit kind of, hostile. And from my perspective, I don't see that way until. The fans here have been fantastic. It's a really festive atmosphere in the stadium. Like there's music, they're dancing. Of course they boo the opposition. Of course they kind of try and get into their heads a bit.

That's standard, isn't it? But I haven't seen anything that suggested to me that it's going to be nasty or anything like that. I think for the England players maybe, I don't think, any of them will have experienced a kind of central South American football atmosphere. So I think that will, you know, take some getting used to. The strength of the booing, maybe like the, you know, the screaming at the team buses, all of this, maybe on a slightly different level to what they've experienced. But to the fans, I think they're going to have fantastic time. The Mexicans have been incredibly welcoming to all of the visiting fans I've seen so far.

And yeah, I think it's going to be a great occasion. Hopefully, the football war will be the story. Who do you think is the favourite here? Oh, honestly. England haven't been playing that well. I think there was that moment of communion at the fans at the end of the D.R. Congo match. And I think that could actually be really important. Until that late comeback, I think there'd been a bit of emotional distance.

But I think that little thing along with the fans in the stadium, I think that has actually brought a lot of people on the side. I think man for man, England have more individual quality. But Mexico, honestly, I've done all of their games, but apart from the one they went to Guadalajara for. And in the group stage, I thought they were impressive, but the opposition wasn't great, to be honest. But they really took my breath away against Ecuador,

especially in the first half. Might I, in a non-altitude, take my breath away. Yeah, they took Ecuador's breath away, too. oh yeah they just flew out of the traps and they were passing brilliantly the kind of stretching equity on all these different ways

and I I think that will happen again I think Mexico will come really hoping to score an early goal to get the crowd behind them and I think a lot is going to depend in that first 30 minutes

if it's if it's nil-neal after 30 minutes I would I would find to England to scrape it but if Mexico if Mexico if Mexico is school, I think it's been really hard-finging to get back in it. Do you have any health updates on England, right back?

Is Saka going to be able to start? Where are the health-wise? Because, you know, if the first few minutes are going to be important, as an England supporter myself, I'd like to see them as strong as possible out of the gates. Yeah, so what we're hearing is that, well, one of my colleagues, David Ornstein, had a quick word with Reese James after the D.L. Congo game. and Reese James seemed to suggest that he was okay, so maybe he will...

That sounds like a lost. Yeah. That sounded very ominous. That's all right. He's lost into space. That was a kid to... Don't worry about it, Ed Rock. Don't worry about it.

Yeah, we're up against the time anyway. So that... Rees James is, I don't know. We'll never find out. That was Jack Lang, by the way, a football writer for the athletic, who has been working the beat in Mexico during this World Cup,

and now, of course, we'll be covering his native Englishman, as they take on Mexico in the round of 16 on Sunday. That is a 5 o'clock kickoff our time. It is, again, it's the match of the round. And that is saying something because there are some outstanding matches in this round. Round of 16 has some great ones. God, I mean, you look at Sunday alone, Brazil, Norway,

with everything that Brazil brings to the table against this Erling Holland-led Norwegian team, that's going to be a fantastic match. You want to look at Monday. You're talking about the U.S., the host, playing, against Belgium on home soil. And then prior to that, Spain, Portugal. I mean, there are some absolutely thrilling matches on tap in the round of 16, but nothing, nothing is going to match that sort of once in a lifetime feeling that you get with

Mexico hosting at Azteca having a team with all of the star power and traveling support and quite frankly notoriety of the English national team. You do kind of get this is a once in a lifetime kind of unforgettable match, especially in the backdrop of 86, Maradonna, Hand of God, all that stuff. This does feel like a once in a lifetime opportunity. I love this show

because we talk about hockey, talk about soccer, and then it's Ask Us Anything Friday, we've got to text in. Do you think you could throw a piece of non-bread or a baguette further? So really interesting question. We're assuming

the great question. This is... You never had this before. So this is, if we're breaking it, by the way. If we're breaking this down, we're talking it. Honestly, laddie, that was, that was the biggest well actually. Did you say Nan? He said non-bread. I said non-bred. I said non-mead's bread. You don't say bread, bread,

okay. It's just not. But I say tuna fish sandwich, even though it's inherently a fish. Just go on. Okay. So the obvious inference here is this is biscuit. I'm going to call it non-bread for the rest of my life. You'll be ridiculed by. Hey, can I get some of them nan breads over there?

And bread? So this is obviously discus versus javelin, correct? Baguette is so much more weight. Javelin style, you could throw it way farther. No way. No way. I think you frisbee the non. The frisbee nature of the nan bread might travel more distance.

Yeah, I'd throw a baguette farther than nan. Would you throw a, you throw a baguette chivalin style? Javelin style. Yeah. It would be a disaster. Maybe if it's super stale, you'd have a chance. It can't be like freshly baked and puffy. It has to be older and heavy.

I'd actually like to watch you try and throw a piece of baguette. It would be like Lamar and preventive. No athletic ability. Hey dog, slippers to throwing style. Yeah. No athletic ability except this one specific thing he's really good at for some reason you can throw baguette really far. Also, are we someone?

A throwback. Yeah, that was a good throwback. That was a good one. Could we have some sort of bread? Olympics. What would be the shot put of breads? Would it be one of those sourdough loaves that you hollow out and put a spinach dip in? Those heavy ones.

Yeah, I remember eating a dense ball. I remember eating some bread in Italy. That was the heaviest bread. I was like, they needed a chainsaw to come into that fat. The Italian's like a heavy bread, a dense bread. If you were to kick that bread, it would hurt. Right. We should do, we should do the bread Olympics.

We should. Yeah. This is a good summertime activity. Got to fill content somehow. Don't waste it now. See it for the summer. Okay, we got to go. Is there a croissant eating competition?

Because I might win that one. Oh, yeah. I mean, I'd hospitalized myself, but I could eat a whole box of those. Yeah, someone said save this for a quiet summer day. You are right, Mike. We'll save it for now. We've got to go to break anyway. When we come back, Thomas Drans from the Athletic,

we'll join us for some Canucks talk. And then to close out the show and the week, we'll do what we learns and ask us anything to the final half hour. You're listening to the Halford & Brough show on Sportsnet 650.