PTI - How do you assess the USMNT's loss?

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

Tony Kornheiser and Frank Isola discuss the USMNT's loss, the World Cup and Wimbledon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Wayfair, every style, every home. Part of the interruption, but I'm Frank Isola, it's Global Forgiveness Day, Tony. Who do you think deserves forgiveness? I'm Tony Kornheiser. Please forgive me for what I'm about to do to you in what's the word. Yeah. You'll be routed.

What's the word? Coming in strong. Well, I mean, it's not like with Wilbon and went to a fancy private school. You and I both went to public school. It's an even play field, right? Public school. Welcome to PTI, boys and girls.

Wilbon couldn't make it to Tuesday, so I am joined by our great friend from the starting lineup on Sirius XM, Mr. Frank Is Solo. Come on, my name! Come on, come on. Iceon Frank. The U.S.

And we begin today. We begin today with last night's 4-1 drubbing of the United States World Cup team by Belgium. This is the same Belgian team that beat the United States 5 to 2 in a friendly in Atlanta, a couple of months before the World Cup. Even the presence of Folleran Balligan, I hope I get that right, couldn't stop this route. Frank, what did you see last night and how does this disappointing finish affect how you see the United States' overall performance in this World Cup? Yeah, you said disappointing, it's discouraging. I think ultimately it became a little embarrassing

some of the things that happened in the second half of that game. You know, I think if you go back to everything surrounding Balligan being allowed to play, to me, that kind of removed a lot of the good vibes surrounding this team. You're getting the White House involved with FIFA. It's a bad look, because you know this, Tony. The American way is to kind of be the underdog. And I think if we went into this game as the underdog with that kind of attitude,

I think that would have helped us. Belgium went into that game with an underdog attitude, and they're better than us to begin with. And Tony, they had players on the bench, like Kevin DeBroyne. It might be the greatest player in their history, didn't even play. They brought on guys who were great players in the 70th minute. They were just a better team. And if you look at what happened in the first minute, they come out, the goalkeeper for the U.S.

Matt Freeze has to make a great save. And right away, you're thinking, wow, we don't look like we're ready to play. And sure enough, we weren't. We fall behind one-nothing. Then even after Tillman scored that great goal of the free kick, after the restart, We give up a goal 52 seconds later, which, by the way, Tony, came over the turnover from Christian Polisic. So everything, the four goals that we gave up,

first two defensive lapses, last two mental lapses, all the good vibes we built up, all the good play, it disappeared on one night in Seattle. So let me ask you a question. I'm going to go off script here completely. I'll get back to my notes later. But you raised an interesting point. If they hadn't played him,

if they said you're not going to play or played him as a sub. If they hadn't started him, do you think that would have changed anything? Would that be a strategy you would think about? I'm telling I think he was always going to play because I think the manager

Mauricio Pachatino looked at it as he's eligible to play. He's been our best goal score he's going to play. But had the suspension stood, I do think our attitude would have been a lot different. We would have had a bit of a fighting spirit. We didn't have that last time. You watched it. Did we look flat all 90 minutes or what?

It's hard for me because I don't, I mean, I don't know anything about soccer. So, I mean, what I look at here is that this is the round we always go out in. That's right. The last four times we've made the World Cup, we have gone out in this round. We lost to a team that we always lose to. The only European team that we ever beat is Bosnia. Like, we don't beat Belgium. You know, we had the, we're down 1-0 early, like you say.

Then we make this wonderful thing bounces off a guy's head, and it goes in a, on a free kick. And then within a minute, within a minute we're down again. We were thoroughly beaten in this game. Thoroughly. I mean, and I think that Belgium was able to, as you say, to consider themselves the underdog because of this imposition of the red card situation. And afterwards, what did they text? Overturn this, right? I mean, that's funny. Overturn this. I just, look, I don't want to go too long. I don't want to hear from the soccer poets anymore. I don't want to hear what a beautiful game. It's not our game. It's not our game. It's not our game. I mean, you know what our game is? Our game is the NFL. Let's see Belgium beat us in the

NFL. We're going to come back in four years, Frank, and we're going to sing this same song, because it's just not ours. Well, stay with soccer, though. Leonel Messe in Argentina fell behind Egypt early this afternoon. Messy's attempt to tie it with a penalty kick was batted away. Egypt then went ahead two nothing twice in the second half, with the first one being overturned on review. The defending champs looked to be out, but then made a fury. comeback to win scoring thrice late, including one by Messi. Frank, your thoughts on this result and the impact on both Egypt and Argentina? Yeah, I think Egypt deserve better.

And if you listen to the players and their manager after the game, and once again, I think this is some of the residue from what happened with FIFA allowing Balagan to play. They felt like they were doing everything they can to get Argentina and, more specifically, Lino Messi, into the next round. That goal that they called off, which should have been the second goal, That was a foul that happened 90 yards away. Okay, you're going to call that off.

And then late in the game, with Argentina up 3-2, Mosalo, who's their best player and has been a great player playing in England, gets tripped in the box, and they don't even review that play. So if you're Egypt, how are you not sitting there thinking, why are you overturning that goal, but you're not even checking this one? Now, in the case of Argentina, to their credit, they scored three goals in 11 minutes. They were down too old.

They looked dead in the water. And I'll relate this to basketball a little bit. In 2004, that Argentina basketball team, led by Manorinobley, they're a bunch of pit bulls. We get Leon O'Messi's a great player. He's surrounded by pit bulls that fight. And when they were down to nothing, they looked dead in the water. They don't give up. So to their credit, with a little help from the referee, they advance.

So I'm watching some of this game. And I notice that it's 2-0 Egypt. And I say to myself, this is probably a big deal. If Egypt would beat Argentina, this is a big deal. Because, I mean, growing up where I grow up, if somebody asks me, well, who's good in soccer, I look south, I see Brazil, I see Argentina. I think that they're great powers. All right. So now Egypt is ahead to nothing. Norway has already beaten Brazil. And now Egypt is going to beat Argentina. And I go, well, how can this be? This isn't possible because I don't consider Norway and Egypt on the class of Brazil and Argentina. And then I think to myself, well, this could be Messi's last World Cup. game ever. Four years from now, he's 43 years old. He's not going to play. And then all of a sudden they start scoring. They score once. They score twice. Messy scores. He makes a fantastic goal. And I think to myself, okay, they'll run it out. They're in extra time. They'll run the thing out

and be penalty kicks. I'll catch my breath. I'll know what I'm doing. They score again. This is impossible to score three times than that amount of time. And I have to throw all my notes out the window. I have nothing to say because I was. prepared for Egypt to win. You know what? It's funny you say that because at 2-2, when they tied it up, all of a sudden what they say is the game got stretch and it was end-to-end. You would have thought that both teams would sit in, play for the 30-minute overtime, but both of them went back and forth. Egypt could have scored.

Argentina ends up scoring, Enzo Fernandez, who's a terrific player. But Tony, think about this. You mentioned Messi. His penalty kick got saved in the first half. How about him sticking with it, sticking with it? And that was a beautiful goal that he had to tell. tied up. Once again, the mark of a great player. Look, you know a lot more about soccer than I will ever know, but there were times when I watched that game, it appeared that Egypt had 17 people on defense. It was unbelievable to me what it looked like, right? Yeah, they call it parking the bus. That's what they were going to do. They were going to defend. All right, and now to today's women's results at Wimbledon.

Seven-seated Cocoa beat four-seat Jessica Pagula in three sets to make the semis while no way of Saka fell 7664 to Carolina Mujova. Tony, which of these Wimbledon results stands out most to you? Well, I mean, to be honest, I don't find either one particularly surprising, and I guess I should explain why. I mean, I know that Jessica Pagula won the first set and is a higher seed than Cocoa Gough. But Coco Gough looks like a real contender here. I mean, she looks like somebody who could win.

She won the last two sets, six to three. the crowd was completely behind her the whole way and she responded to it. You know, she's now made the semis in all four majors in her career, and she's a kid. I mean, it just looks like she's something special. In terms of Osaka, it's interesting to me because yesterday on the show, Mike and I talked about whether or not Osaka could win. She had just beaten Sabalanka. Could she win Wimbledon? And I said, I don't think so.

I think it's a long shot because grass is not her best surface, and she has to win three more. matches. And she, again, the crowd loved her today, and she played fine, except when it got into crunch time. If I remember correctly, the first set tiebreaker, Frank, she went down 5-1. That's almost insurmountable at that point, and she didn't win it. In the second set, I believe it was 4-4, and then she got broken, and then lost at 6'4 at love. So, you know, Mohova was a better player out there today. So, you know, both of them are in line with what I thought. what might happen. Yeah.

You know, it's funny with Cocoa Golf, when we first heard about her, was at Wimbledon. And in all these matches, it was the same formula. She lose the first set, and then she wins the next two. It seems like she never loses a third set at Wimbledon. She's got a toughness about her. As for Osaka, like you talked about, so when she beat Sabalanka, that's the first time on clay or on grass, she beat a top 10 seed at a tournament. It's almost hard to believe.

To your point, that's not her surface. I give her credit for going forward. No, she's a hardcore player. Hard court. Yeah, exactly. When you watch her play, and I'm thinking back to whether it's Martina or Pete Sampras or Roger Federer, these great serving volley players, she just sits on the baseline and is crushing the ball. She never wants to, I get it.

The game has played a little bit different now, and the surface there has changed a bit. But it tells me, three years after giving birth, she looks fit, she looks the best that she's played in a long time. time. I think when you get to the U.S. Open and to your point, she's playing on her surface, I think about six weeks from now, she's going to be really, really tough to beat. Just someone get in my ear if I'm wrong with this. If Goff were to win this, I think Goff would then have won on clay, on grass, and on hardcore. I mean, that's right. People that do that, they have a chance to become all-time players. Let's take a break. But coming up, What is the word for Brad Stevens' explanation as to why the Celtics traded Jalen Brown?

And we'll try to describe the performances of Darren Peterson and Camboozer in last night's Summer League matchup. By the way, Yonik Sinner went through in straight sets, which is what the number one player is supposed to do in the quarter. That's right. You know, you're facing somebody who's not particularly ranked and you go through in straight sets. Time to fill in some blanks with fill in Frank. That's a pretty good line. what's first. The Celtics explanation for the Jalen Brown trade was blank. So my word is meh. I think that's a word now, ma'am. Brad Stevens went out there and he said that he wanted to get some bench strength and he wanted to diversify his offense and didn't want all the money tied up

in Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown and he was disappointed with playoff results recently. And I know that in New England, everybody loves Brand Stevens. And they should. He's done a great job. But he traded Jalen Brown from Paul George. Are you kidding me? He traded an MVP candidate for this guy? You know, you can pick up, Frank, all the draft picks you want. Van Morrison once saying you can take all the tea in China

and put it in a big brown bag from me. This is a me explanation. There is no justification for this trade as yet, as yet. Yeah, I'm going to go, my word is going to be safe because I think they said all the right things about Jalen Brown, as they should. Unbelievable 10 years there, they went to two finals. He was a finals MVP.

They're not going to sit there and start bad-mouthing Jalen Brown. But I do think what they really were thinking is we're not paying him $70 million a year. The day after we lost, he goes on his Twitch stream on social media, and he's talking about how it was his favorite season. It was your favorite season while your running mate is recovering from a potentially career-ending injury. So I think after all this time together, Tony, this idea of that tandem, everyone wanted to break them up. I think it was going to get to a point

where Jalen Brown is thinking, it's my team. Look at how we did. So I think that they figured, let's get rid of them now. But to your point, what really wasn't asked and what wasn't answered,

if you were going to trade him, why did it have to be Paul George? Because who knows, maybe the answer is nobody else wanted him. Maybe that's the answer. Well, and he's got an onerous contract as well. And he's got no playoff history. And this guy was the MVP of the finals one year.

I mean, everything you're saying is right. They were in a position where they had to trade him, but they didn't get back what they should have. They did not. I agree. What's next? I agree. Darren Peterson and Cam Boozer put on blank performances in the Summer League last night.

I'm going to use the word credible. These guys went out there and they looked like pros. I mean, you know, they're playing with a bunch of guys who are never going to play in the NBA. So this is not about competition. This is not competition. It's how did they look. They looked very good.

They looked like two people who could step into any starting lineup in the league. No questions asked. Cameron Boozer goes out there. Look, by the way, calm and complete as a player. I mean, really credible as a player. He had 18 points, seven rebounds and four assists, shot six of nine from the floor, four or five from three. I mean, what are you looking for?

Darren Peterson had none of the physical problems that had been associated with his tenure in Kansas. Kansas. His numbers are amazing. 25 points and 12 assists in 28 minutes. They can shut them down now, Frank, and just wait for the first day of the season. Yeah, which will probably happen after Peterson plays the number one overall pick, A.J. DeBonsa on Thursday. My word is convincing for the points that you bring up, because here's the rule of thumb

with Summer League. If you're going in as a high pick, you better play well. And if you're a second year player, you better dominate Summer League. And we've already seen thus far with Boozer and Peterson, how well that they've played. And you're right about Boozer. I've had people tell me, you know, Malik Rose, who played with Tim Duncan said, he reminds me of Tim Duncan. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. He's just a solid basketball player.

Peterson was a big question mark, Tony. You know this because he load managed during the season. And everyone was wondering, what's he going to be like? Think about the way that he's kind of changed his image a little bit. He gets drafted. The first thing he says, he's happy to be in Utah. I think it's going to be great. And look at the way that he's played.

You mentioned the assist. He only had two turnovers. In his debut, he had eight. And going into the draft, a lot of people thought Peterson was the best player. And thus far, he looks like the best player. But if you're a one, two, three, if you're a lottery pick, you better dominate Summer League. Yeah, or else there'll be all sorts of questions about you. And they answered them before they even asked, I thought.

You're right. Very good stuff. That's the final word. Let's take one last break. but still to come, Cristiano Ronaldo sounds satisfied with his World Cup efforts. And Jalen Brunson has surgery for something that had apparently been hampering him throughout the playoffs. You mentioned Utah. Last year's number one picked by them Ace Bailey, correct? He didn't sound that enthusiastic to go to Utah. And this kid is enthusiastic to go to Utah.

That's all you can ask for. Happy time, people. Happy 54th birthday, Lisa Leslie. The Hall of Fame 6-5 Center was Naismith Player of the Year in 1994, her senior season at USC. Leslie averaged 21.9 points, 12.3 rebounds, and led the then-packed 10 with 3.1 blocks per game. Leslie signed with the WNBA in 1997 with the Los Angeles Sparks. She played 12 seasons in the WNBA, all with the Sparks, where she won two titles and was finals MVP on both championship teams. Leslie was a three-time league MVP and a two-time defensive player of the year. In the WNBA, she averaged 17.3 points and 9.1 rebounds.

Apart from the WNBA, Leslie was on four United States Golden Medal Olympic teams. Yeah, she had a remarkable career, and there was a time in L.A. She's playing for the Sparks and had Shaq playing for the Lakers, so the two most dominant centers in the league, both playing in L.A. Here's something for you. We're coming up on the... the 24th anniversary of her getting the first ever dunk in a WNBA game. How about that?

Oh, I didn't even know that. I didn't know she dunked. That's good. Happy anniversary, Philadelphia Phillies. On this day, 19 years ago, the visiting Phillies rushed out of their dugout to help the Rockies' groundskeeping crew locked down a wind-ravaged tarp that threatened to blow away during a storm. This is a quote.

That was the worst ever, said Mark Rasm, Colorado's head groundskeeper. The wind was so strong. couldn't hold it. When it draped over the guys, I was worried somebody might suffocate. It was really cool that the Phillies came out and gave us a hand, unquote. You can see Shane Victorino and Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and Michael Bourne giving their all to hold down that tarp. Even the umps were out there working.

That Marlins crew we discussed last week could have used help like this. I covered a baseball beat for two years, which is really like 20 years and dog years. I was actually at a game in Florida where the same exact thing happened. And they had to rush over to get the poor guy that fell under the tar. That is dangerous, scary work. I ain't doing it. I'm not doing it. Happy trails to the World Cup for Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Portuguese star confirmed that yesterday's loss to Spain would be his last World Cup match. Many wondered whether the 41-year-old should have been subbed off to get younger legs on the field. But Coach Roberto Martinez said, quote, when you are a team who needs a goal, you cannot take him off, unquote. Ronaldo, who played on six cup teams but never won a title, said, quote, before Cristiano, Portugal had never won a big trophy. The best trophy I won with the national team was the Euro in 2016, which for me has the same dimension as the World Cup. I leave here with a clear conscience, unquote.

And I'm not so sure about that. As for the coach, Roberto Martinez, this was the problem. Ronaldo could play 60 minutes. So you've got to decide whether or not you're going to start them or bring them on with 60 minutes left. And then if the game goes into overtime, there's the 60 minutes that he would play. You know, he said if you need a goal,

you leave him in the game. Against Croatia, he came off when they scored the game-winning goal. And that was Gonzalo Ramos, who's a younger player and had a much better club season. Portugal blew it big time. Think about it, Tony. Belgium, they sat their legendary players yesterday and won. Portugal made a big mistake by making it all about Ronaldo,

and now their World Cup is over. Let us go to the big finish. Jalen Brunson is having surgery on his left wrist and forearm area. He will be out for two months. Your thoughts? Training camp is in for a while, and we know what's going to happen in the fourth quarter of games, especially in the playoffs.

Jalen Brunson is going to be the best player on the court. He certainly was that in the NBA finals. What a series he had. Calf Star Donovan Mitchell agreed to a four-year $273 million extension Does that make sense? And I don't know the numbers of it. I think he's a very good player. I also think that if they lose early in the playoffs,

he's now going to get all of the blame because he's getting all this money. Elliot Ramos, the Giants had a Little League home run and two real ones. And the Giants 10 to one win over the Jays. Are you impressed? Yeah, the Little League home run, that's the triple plus the era.

By the way, that ball that he hit, it would have been out in 29 other ballpark. But the inside the park home run is one of the more exciting plays in baseball. Paul Skeen's on the mountain tonight for the Pirates. What do you expect? Well, I expected his velocity is going to go up. It's been down lately.

If it is, six innings, two-hundred, eight strikeouts. Last one, Kyle Lowry retired. How will you remember his career? Another great Villanova player who did win a championship with the Raptors. So like you, he's a legend up in Canada. Yeah, and that's why I'm waving this flag for him and for me. We're out of time. We'll try to do better the next time.

I'm Tony Kornhizer. And I'm Frank Isola. Thanks for watching.