Will Cain Country - Bronny James Out Of The First Round, Plus American Soccer Superstar Landon Donovan

Episode Date: June 28, 2024

Story #1: Bronny James failed to be picked in the first round of the NBA Draft. Is this a win in the fight against nepotism? Would it be wrong to use Bronny in order to help sign his father, LeBron James? Story #2: How does the U.S. Men's National Soccer team get to the level of Argentina and Brazil? An awesome conversation with one of the greatest players in American soccer history and FOX Sports Match Analyst, Landon Donovan. Story #3: The one comment on Will's interview with Kevin Costner where Will has to say touché. Tell Will what you thought about this podcast by emailing [e-mail] Subscribe to The Will Cain Show on YouTube here: Watch The Will Cain Show Follow Will on Twitter: @WillCain Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

One, Brony James not drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. Does that hurt your ability to get LeBron James? Which, would that be wrong? Would that be nepotism? Two, how does the United States get to the level of Argentina? An awesome, and I mean awesome conversation. with U.S. soccer superstar, Landon Donovan. And three, the one rebuttal, the one comment on my interview with Kevin Costner,

where I just have to say, touche. It is the Will Kane Show, streams live every Monday through Thursday, 12 o'clock Eastern Time at Fox News.com on the Fox News YouTube channel and the Fox News Facebook page. Canaan Sports, the Friday edition of the Will Cain Show, is always available by hitting subscribe at Apple or on Spotify and subscribing on YouTube. Today, an absolutely incredible. And I mean that. I was so into this conversation with Landon Donovan, including his willingness, his interest, having fun with. The fact that he went viral over a hair transplant.

That's coming up in just a moment here on the Will Cain show. Landon Donovan. But let's get started with story number one. Bronny James, the son of LeBron James, not drafted in the first round of the NBA draft. Somebody just set themselves behind in selecting LeBron James in free agency, in earning the signature of LeBron James in free agency.

Some of the guys at work on the Will Cain show here. Notably tinfoil Pat, considered this a victory. A victory against nepotism. Two a day's young establishment, James and tinfoil pattern here. I looked up the definition of nepotism. And the definition of nepotism, according to Wikipedia, is as follows. Nepotism is the act of granting an advantage, privilege, or position to relatives or friends in an occupation or field. These fields may include, but not limited to business, politics, academia, entertainment, sports, religion, or health care. I'm not sure how health care got in on that list, but health care, apparently, big problem in nepotism.

Apparently nepotism started with the assignment of nephews and sons to important positions by Catholic popes and bishops. So there you go again, tinfoil. It's you Catholics. Always the problem. But I told you this. I don't think this is some great victory against the battles of unearned positions. You know, I don't, I don't, and nepotism exists. It ain't very hard for us to find examples, right? Wikipedia has examples. The Coppola's, you know, Sophia Coppola.

Oh, your daddy's Francis Ford Coppola. We could go on and on and on and on. Here's the thing. A lot of nepotism is built on the idea, that you get something extra other than just a favor to the relative. So in entertainment, I hire somebody who has the same last name as somebody else. You know what I get? Name recognition. It's a real marketable value, right? If my dad is famous in some respect and I go into the same business, I get the same kind of fan.

Bush's, same kind of fame. Bushes, Golick, whatever, right? You, I'm not taking shots, it's a fact, and everybody knows. Now, just because you're the beneficiary doesn't mean you, you know, you can't still earn your place.

You know, you can. It's just, it's like I said earlier this week on the Will Can show, all right, you were born on third. Did you bring it home, or did you retreat to second base? So that's the real analysis. But what I'm getting at is nepotism isn't just corruption. it also has a true market value. So, you know, you could call this corruption,

but the politician's son who ends up on the board of a gambling company and that sports gambling will soon be legalized in that state. What do we got here? Nepotism, corruption, but for the gambling company, real value, not just a handout to somebody with the same last name. And I'm bringing this back home now. the point of brawny james being drafted wasn't to do a solid for lebron i guess that's sort of how i feel about nepotism are you just doing a solid for someone the idea was if i draft brawny i have an

increased chance of signing lebron and if that were my team the dallas mavericks draft brawny if you get a better chance of signing lebron to add to kairi and luka then draft brawny and I don't have a problem, even if you call it nepotism. Your rebuttal quickly tinfoil. I don't know. I think that in our country, we've seen what the Bidens have been doing, especially with, you know, using their family name and connections. I think people are going to grow on tired of it. And I think I'm with you on this, on this connection, but I do think people are growing tired of

people getting over just because of their name. They can get tired of it, and the Biden's an extreme example of that. I guess, okay, I want you, young establishment, James, you're going to be the most into nepotism by your brand. I got here all by myself.

Your team, your team drafts Brony in order to maybe sign LeBron. And if you don't like those particular characters, just replace it with something else. I don't care, you know. Sines Thanasis antitacumpo so that you can more likely sign Yannis.

You have a problem with your team signing the Nassus? Because it's got a better chance of helping the team than a second round pick probably does. What are the odds of the player makes it out of the D league? Right. Second round NBA draft picks don't make the team anyway. rarely, rarely. And I know that people are going to come up with stars.

There are some stars. But I don't know. I guess I don't like nepotism in concept. And then I see an application like this with Brony James. And I'm like, I would have zero problem with that two a days. I'm okay with it because if you're set up to fail, you're going to fail on a national stage. Like if you get hired at an insurance company because your dad owns it, you can hide away a little bit because of nepotism. But with Brony, he is going to be out there.

and he's going to have to prove himself and he's not he's right back out so it's fine with me all right more power to you you still have the second round by the time this is published perhaps we will have brawny james as a member of the dallas mavericks which means we will soon have lebron james dallas maverick awesome awesome conversation coming up with soccer superstar landon donovan plus the one comment to my interview with kevin costner where i just have to say tusha that's next Will Cain Show. Following Fox's initial donation to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund, our generous viewers have answered the call to action across all Fox platforms

and have helped raise $7 million. Visit go.com forward slash TX flood relief to support relief and rebuilding efforts. Fox News Audio presents Unsolved with James Patterson. Every crime tells the story, but some stories are left unfinished. Somebody knows. Real cases, real people. Listen and follow now at Fox Truecrime.com. Welcome back to the Will Kane Show. Normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday, 12 o'clock Eastern time at Fox News.com on the Fox News YouTube channel and the Fox News Facebook page. But as you are well aware, with the Canaan Sports, sports exclusive episode of the Will Kane Show, you get it by subscribing on Apple or on Spotify. Man, I was super excited about this conversation. Didn't know how it would go. I knew how to address, I wanted to address the elephant in the room. Landon Donovan. I mean, by most accounts,

the best American soccer player in history. Landon Donovan, Fox Sports Analyst, doing the Euro 2024s, I was going to jump on to talk about soccer. But I was like, well, he did go viral this week for a bad television shot of his hair transplant. I feel like I need to ask him about it. And he did text his buddy about it, which made its way on to Twitter. He seemed to have given a thumbs up.

So I asked him ahead of time. Well, and this is how they interview went with Landon Donovan. Join now here on the Will Cain Show by U.S. soccer superstar by many, by most estimates, the greatest soccer player in U.S. history. It is Landon Donovan. What's up, Landon? How you doing well? You know, soccer, you know what's interesting about the word soccer is we didn't come up with this. So I don't know why we get such a hard time about it.

Landon. My guys, I'm a big soccer fan, but my guys on the show are not, and I've been trying to sell them on soccer, and what I'm just learned, hey, you Brits, you came up with the word soccer. We didn't, like, invent some new word. This is your thing. It was your slang. We just started using soccer. Yeah, I mean, to be honest, I call it whatever you want. I mean, we can, I just, I love the game, and I think it's funny. People get all out of sorts about what it's called and you know but they did invent it so i don't know why they ran to run away from it from the name right soccer association or some like association football they just started calling it i don't know what it was soccer as slang um speaking of of sort of europe and soccer uh for those that

listen to the will kane show know i'm super into it i'm into it as a fan but more importantly i'm into it as a dad my boys are super into soccer and they play you know the money sucking uh play in the money-sucking industry of club soccer world at FC Dallas. But one of the things I'm always fascinated by, Landon, is the way American players have been treated in Europe. I'm just curious, I mean, you went on loan to Everton, you went on loan to Byron Munich. You were part of Byrne Leverkusen. I'm just kind of curious to your experience on that. Like, just being an American, how did that mean you were treated in Europe?

Yeah, early in those days, well, it was. way, way, way different than it is today. Nobody explicitly would say, you know, you're American, you don't know what you're doing, but there was always this undercurrent of, like, disrespect, and you could just feel it from people. But what's happened over time is we've kind of, all of us have just kind of chiseled away at the perception that Americans don't know what they're doing. They don't know anything about soccer, et cetera, et cetera. So it's been actually kind of fun to be a part of and watch it evolve over the years. And now it's the complete opposite.

Now it's like, oh, yeah, Americans know what they're doing. They know how to play. Teams don't underestimate playing the U.S. anymore. Players are accepted everywhere they go as good players, not American or not American. They're just accepted as good players. And it's been really fun to watch them develop. Yeah, I would assume that to be the case for, like, Christian. or you know timothy way or any of these guys unis musa who are at big clubs and big leagues

in europe but i just and those listening won't know i i i think this is one example brian i think he's named brian reynolds right he said right back played for fc dallas sold really young to roma and i'm just really curious and there's there's there's you know a dozen or so of these guys like brian that they're really really good players and they're getting increasingly picked up by big clubs in europe i'm just always kind of curious what what it's like when he lands in Rome and what he's treated by, treated like by his teammates. And you're telling me now, as opposed to when you were doing it, now they're just way more accepting of Americans? They are, and part of it is Americans have just gotten better at the game, but also part of it, you know, for all its flaws, social media has a part to do with it too because players are just aware of other players around the world and what they're doing.

So in the past, in 2001, when I went to buyer lever because no one had ever heard of me, seen me, knew anything about me. Now when a young player goes over, there's highlight videos, highlight reels of what the player's done, their whole resume, where they've been, who they've played for, and people have access to that. So that's also part of it, too. And the world's just getting smaller. So more players are playing together. Maybe you would have played against someone in a youth tournament, or you played together in a youth tournament. So players are just more aware of it, too, but the biggest factor is that Americans, we've just gotten a lot better at soccer. Right.

Well, okay, you opened the door. You brought up social media. So I'm going to be honest with the audience. I asked Landon ahead of time. I said, hey, man, can I ask you about this? And I wouldn't normally, but for Landon himself addressed it on social media. So you're covering Euro 2024. You were on camera.

Bad Hair Day for you. And then your buddy, who I don't know who he is, but he seems like a buddy of yours that maybe is like in the vodka business or something like that. Put out a text between you and him where you're like, yeah, man, I had a procedure and thought it would all be cool, but it's not. And then you told him he could post it on social media, which is awesome. And you told me, yeah, let's have fun with this. We can talk about it on air. So what happened, Landon? All right.

So I'll try to keep this condenses to not bore people. So I had a hair transplant procedure done, obviously terrible timing. about a week before I came over to Europe to commentate on the euros. And as part of that procedure, they basically shave the back of your head. They take hairs from the back of your head and put it on to the top of my head, where I'm significantly balding, have been since I was 20. Anyway, if anyone who wants to go Google it, you can see online what that looks like when the back of your head is half shaved and half not.

And it would be fine except that I was on the sidelines doing pregame hits in front of millions of people on Fox while commenting for the Euros. So when I turned my head to see the side of it, and let's just say it's less than flattering. So my buddy texted me that night. I'm not on social media much. He texted me, he said, hey, man, you may want to check your Twitter and probably fire your barber. um he didn't know that i had had the hair transplant so we had a back and forth i said i had a hair transplant this is obviously a terrible look and at the end of it he said do you mind if i tweet this and i said i don't care like i'm married with three kids you know we'll have fun with it

it's fine so that's the story um certainly wasn't a great look for me but that's okay that man which is wild about this is the level of confidence that you obviously have to about it, which you got to own it, and I love that you have. But then, like, you measure that confidence against, and I'm not saying this is the case, but people presume, oh, you got a hair transplant. That's coming from a place of insecurity. So you're balancing this level of insecurity and confidence that's kind of awesome. And here's the truth. I would do it. I would absolutely do it. My only hope, Landon, is they're getting really good at it. Because I've seen a lot of failure. I want the Matthew McConaughey special. Wherever McConaughey went, that's the

guy I want. I hope you got the McConaughey. Yeah, I went to the best, and you don't want to do it halfway, and the conversation I had with him, he was great, he said, listen, if you are going to do it, and he wasn't pushing me on it, he said, if you're going to do it, now's the time, because you're, you know, your hair's thinning everywhere. So if you don't do it now, you're not really going to have a chance to do it. So it's either, you know, I'm going to get significantly balder in the next five years and probably have to shave my head, and I have an ugly head, and didn't. want to do that or you can do it now and I said, all right, let's do it. Let's just do it. I'll live the rest of my life. Looking the way I do now, I can live with that and get on with it. More power to you. Wayne Rooney, success story, I think. You know, so I, I love it. And I love that you're owner. I think Wayne's took. Wayne's got a good hair transplant, right? Yeah. Good on

Wayne. Yeah, did well, yeah. Yep. Yeah. All right. I want to go back now to soccer. Thank you, man, for being awesome and talking about that. go back to soccer so so everybody in the soccer world and i think those in the casual world of of just loving the united states like win win 300 million people when do we arrive when do we become a powerhouse in soccer and it feels like we're inching there it does landon like we talked about more and more players getting better arriving at the biggest stages performing on the biggest stages the question when we as a nation do so is the answer do you think the answer answer is Copa America, 24. Is it that we are now going to be able to compete? Good, at the time

you and I are talking, good first game against Bolivia. I haven't yet played Panama at the time we were talking, but it's all going to be measured by how we play against Brazil and Argentina. Is it now, or are we still, I don't even know, four, 10, 12 years away? When is America? If ever, because I'm sure some in Europe will be like, what do you mean? Why do you presume it's just a matter of time. I do think it's a matter of time. So win for America. It is a matter of time. The way you get there, though, is not hoping that during one tournament you have a great run and win it. The way you get there is by being able to compete every time you're in a major tournament to win a trophy. So we don't say, you know,

I'm covering the Euros for Fox right now. I don't say, oh, this is France's one chance to win the Euros. This is Spain's one chance to win the Euros. This is Italy's one chance to win a World Cup. You go into every tournament going, oh, Italy could win, Spain could win, France could win, Brazil could win, Argentina can win. But nobody goes into a tournament saying, oh, the U.S. could win this tournament. And we need to get to a point where we're competing to win it every time. And then eventually it'll happen because you'll have the right players, right coach, right timing, everything. But the way you get there is only through the development. of players. And right now in our country, that is where, you know, you just alluded to it,

you know, you said, whatever you said, the money pit of youth soccer or club soccer, that is the problem, right? The problem is not that you have to pay money necessarily, someone has to, someone has to pay for that, but the level of coaching is very poor for kids and the incentive around coaching is completely backwards. As you know, everyone's focused on win this game, win this game, win this game versus we need to develop this player and that player and that player. And in other countries, they could care less. If you lose 7-0 as an 8-year-old, but that player ends up playing for the national team, they think that's a success.

And in America, we would say, oh, no, that's a failure because we lost 7-0 as an 8-year-old. And we have to change that dynamic. Back to the coaching, though, you would think with the – what people talk about is, yeah, and I'll be honest. I mean, it's over $3,000. When Mike, I used to live in New York, Landon, and my kids were part of a really unique soccer system in New York that was ran through their school, even though it was a club. And the idea was built to kind of subvert the whole, you know, rich, suburban pay-for-play development system. It was to bring kids in who couldn't afford.

And it succeeded, by the way. They've put kids into the Red Bulls Academy and NYCFC's Academy. But then I moved to Texas where I'm from, and it's all about the, you know, cost $3,000 plus a year. to be a part of that. And you would think, though, with that kind of money, you would be able to attract top coaching. And there are some coaches who are great. That's not the point.

It's really about the depth and breadth of the coaching, right? So you would think, though, if we're paying for it, America, we'd attract some of the best coaches from across the world. Yeah, you would think so. Unfortunately, what happens in our country is for coaches, too, they are incentivized to win. so if you're a youth soccer club director you get more kids signing up for your club if you can say we won the under 11 championship at Dallas Cup right and so the coaches say well I have to win I can't I can't just focus on developing players or giving a player's opportunity to play I have to win or else our club's not going to do well which means I'm going to get fired which means I don't have a job so that's problem number one if the incentive base for the coaches was changed to, hey, if that player ever plays for FC Dallas

or that player plays for the national team, you're going to get a million dollars. Well, all of a sudden, you'd say, oh, okay, well, I could care less about winning this game. I'm going to develop this kid the best I can. And if that's the incentive, then it changes. When I went to Germany when I was 17, the coach of our under 18 team for the team I was at was a 60-year-old man who couldn't care less about winning soccer games. His goal was to develop players, and he was really, really good at it.

He probably made $200 grand a year. He had job security basically for life, and he was the best trainer of 17-year-olds, probably in the country. And he was good at it, and he had no ambition to go be the first team coach. He just wanted to be really, really good at his job, and that's what he did.

So we need the men and women who are, best at training a six-year-old, keep them there. And think about teaching, Will, you wouldn't want someone who's a high school math teacher teaching a third grader and vice versa. It doesn't make sense, right? So you need to keep those people in their lane, what they're good at, and let them be good at that. So on that note, like, just a couple more on this, and this is me nerding out and loving

talking about soccer. Do you think, here's my observation, Lannon, I'm curious if you're, you're, you disagree with this. I would suspect you may say, and most may say, American soccer players don't develop technical ability to the rate of world soccer players. And for those that aren't soccer fans, technical ability is just, you know,

foot skills, ability to manipulate the ball, constant, you know, touch, good first touch, constant juggling. That's technical. And maybe that's right. Maybe that's true for some of the youngest players. Maybe Americans focus, oh, he's fast, so he can outrun everybody.

But my boy's a little older now. I've got a 13-year-old and a 16-year-old. And what I see a difference in coaching is in tactical development. And that now is about strategy and how you play the game. So what I'm getting adding is I feel like my biggest complaint when I look at soccer is they constantly reward natural athletes who think they can dribble between 11 guys. And nobody can, not even messy, right? Now, maybe that's a necessity because you are going to have to dribble one or two guys.

But when I watch soccer, I guess I wish I saw. saw more development in terms of what do they say you touch the ball 2% of the time so what are you doing the other 98% like how are you positioning yourself off the ball how quickly do you move on the ball move the ball off of your feet once you get it i guess i feel like we're i i wish the whole world played like kevin de broina at belgium and i don't see enough players being taught to see the game and play like de broina well it's all age related so you're right but up until a certain age Listen, I'm not the expert on this, but I know, I know enough to know. Probably up until the point you're, let's say, 10, 11, 12, the majority of what you do should be technical,

meaning you are so sound with the ball that nothing else is going to matter. Nothing's going to ever change in that way. So you've touched the ball enough times where you are technically proficient. then as you get older, you can start to work on how you understand the game tactically, how you move, et cetera. The problem is, is we have coaches trying to teach six-year-olds spacing and how to move on the field to receive a pass and these different things where they actually just need to touch the ball a lot more.

You know, when I did, I had an amazing coach growing up from 10 until 14. Everything we did, everything will, was with a ball. ball in practice where there was no running sprints fitness everything we did was touching the ball as much as possible and until 14 when i got yeah when i became a professional i didn't have to think about the ball it was like when it came to me i knew how to try i didn't even have to think about it i knew how to dribble i knew how to touch and then you can learn the other things as you get older but the timing matters um that's really yeah that's that's interesting um last thing on on america like and I don't know your relationship so I don't this isn't about Greg Burrhalter it's not about anybody so I'm just curious like how significant I don't even know how realistic but you know Pep Gordial is a guy that they say okay he'll move on from someplace like Manchester City at one point he likes New York he likes America he's not yet achieved something on the national team stage he's he's done you know Barcelona and and Ryan Munich and and Manchester

city, but maybe he needs to do a country next. How significant for us would it be if that were the USA? Well, very significant to answer your question. My only hesitation is coaches who coach club teams very well have a really different skill set than coaching a national team. So I'll give you an example. So Pep, over the course of years and years and years, has been able to mold his man city team and his other teams to to play exactly the way he wants them when a national team

comes in most of the time they players play a game on saturday they fly sunday let's say to new york from europe or wherever in the u.s they have an off day on monday they train tuesday they play wednesday so it's it's impossible to be able to get a team to play the way you want with a day or two or three of training which is mostly what you get as as a national team coach. So that's why I'm so big on continuity. And after the World Cup, I was vocal about, I think, you know, thinking that Greg should stay on as the coach because continuity is really valuable

when you don't have much time with the players. So it would be significant. Right. But only if Pep had enough time with the players to get him, get them to play the way he wanted. And so on that note, beyond continuity, what's the most important? So two different types of coaches, club and national team coaches. So then in looking for a national team coach,

what is the most important quality that you'd be looking for? You've got to bring chemistry together really quickly. You've got to pick the right players, so it's kind of a GM-type role. Like, what are you looking for for a successful national team coach then beyond just giving him time? Yeah, it's a great question. So it is evolving.

but in the past it had been can you find somebody who can quickly get a team to gel right and that's on and off the field who is you know when you come from your club environment it's so stressful so hectic there's so much pressure a lot of times when players come in

they need a day to just breathe and relax when they get in because there's so much stress surrounding your club environment so you travel a long way you need a day to just chill and relax. So that, I think, is a super important quality for a coach of a national team to have, to have a demeanor and an energy that it just allows the players to just breathe for a second. All of the tactical and the game model as to how you want to play is secondary

because you need the players just to perform a day later. and you don't have time to inundate with them with tactics that are going to overwhelm them. So that's traditionally been the value of a national team coach and the most important characteristic. But now, as the game keeps evolving, you're seeing that you need more than that. And, you know, I'm covering the Euros here for Fox, and you see a few national teams that just aren't evolving. They have great players.

Their coaches are good man managers. but they just don't, they don't have any specific way of playing that allows them to differentiate themselves from everyone else. So they just become ordinary. They become like every other team, and that's when, you know, that's when big teams can get beat. So let's, we'll, not to bury the lead, but here towards the end of our conversation, let's talk about Euros. I'm watching it, and you've alluded to perfectly where I wanted to ask you.

It's like all the best teams, accepting, perhaps. perhaps Spain, don't look that great. England, certainly. I mean, the only problem with England is it's kind of what we always say about England, full of stars and underperforms. But they're definitely underperforming right now in euros. But for the first time, we could say the same thing about France kind of as well, right? Like, they don't look, the only nation with more superstars on the field

than England might be France, and they don't look overwhelming. I'm a big fan, as you heard me say, man to go of Kevin DeBrona. So by proxy, I always root for Belgium. Same thing, though. Like, there's some studs all over the field on Belgium, and they're not performing. So what's going on with the big countries in Europe? I think there's a lot of factors. In some cases, the coaching factor.

In other cases, I think a lot of these guys look tired, honestly. It's the end of their club season. So a lot of these guys have played 45, 50, 50 games this year, and they just kind of look tired and drained, even if they're physically okay emotionally going through a premier league season for instance is so draining and if you're in champions league and all the other tournaments it's really draining so you're seeing a mix of a lot of different things the spanish team to your point and the germans i would say for the most part too they look fresh they look um like they gel

they look like they believe in and trust their coach and they're playing the best and a lot of the other countries just there are flaws with all of them and they're becoming ordinary against teams that are much better coach or more fresher you know austria as a team they were in the france netherlands group and they finished first in the group and they just look fresher they look fitter they look like they care more and for a lot of these top top players on big teams they're just to me they're looking exhausted and they're looking like a little bit like they don't care right now. So I'm going to sound this out to you, and I'll see what you think, Landon, and I'm not getting

political. I'm actually, so I think it ties into what we're talking about. Back to that continuity thing, and you've got to bring a team together in a short amount of time. So what we're seeing as well is countries like Georgia, you know, all of a sudden like, wow, look at Georgia, look at Slovenia, whatever, who kind of fly under the radar, right? Not traditional European soccer powerhouses kind of announced themselves here at this tournament. and i don't know if maybe maybe the court larry is like american college basketball so you know you got the kentuckies of the world that so forth get freshmen the best athletes in the world right

all the best basketball players and then john calipari used to be john calipari whatever you have to mold them in a short amount of time into being a great team where butler has three or four years with these guys and has an identifiable culture and can play in the mid-majors and make a deep run in the tournament. And I'm just kind of making the corollary like, okay, here's Georgia or Slovenia or who else is doing well, Albania, I don't know, who fly under the radar, who might, I don't know, might have a more identifiable culture, soccer culture, and maybe more continuity when it comes to coaching, whereas France, you know, a bunch of all-stars on the field that you got to bring together in a short amount of time, I don't know about a cohesive soccer culture, that

society, by the way, French society and Germans as well, has changed. So like the ethnic makeup of these teams has changed over time. And not that that has any impact positive or negative one way or another, I'm suggesting. It's just these squads are incredibly talented, but incredibly prone to turnover and change. They are Kentucky. And these other programs, again, we'll pick Slovakia. I don't know. They're Butler. What do you make of that analogy. I almost don't have anything else to add because I think it's a perfect analogy. I think it's an excellent, excellent analogy.

You get guys Butler, you get a fourth or fifth year point guard or two or point guard shooting guard who've played together. They understand everything they need to do. And they're better than a, you know, a freshman who's way, way, way more talented because they have the experience and they're an actual team. And I think my overwhelming takeaway from the first round of the Eros is the team, the collective team, has been better than the star individual players. And that's shown itself over and over and over. All right.

Last thing with Landon and Donovan here. I'm just curious. You've got maybe one of the most – you've got maybe the most important moment in American soccer history. We were going to do a thing. We will at some point, like the Mount Rushmore of best plays. and, you know, Jordan hitting a shot versus jazz and so forth. So I'm going to kind of build off this idea for a moment. What's the high point of your career?

Is it that? And when I say high point, actually, I'm going to put it this way. When were you happiest, Landon? Was it L.A. Galaxy? Was it on loan to Europe at one of these times? Was it when you're a kid? Like, you're done. What was the high point of happiness in your career?

Yeah, good question. It was, I would say it was more of a time frame than that moment. So I would say 2009 and 2010 were on the field my happiest years. I had gone through a few years of therapy at that point. I learned a lot about myself. I was newly single, which actually played into it because I was free. I was happy and I was at peace and life. And that all correlated to my performance on the field.

So I would say that was kind of a culmination, that 2010 Algeria moment, of the prior two years of really just being at peace and being happy. Awesome. All right, man. This has been an awesome conversation. Go enjoy your off day in Amsterdam. We'll all guess what that means. I'm sure it's going to be – you're going to go to the Van Gogh Museum. That's what we mean by that.

So go enjoy Amsterdam. And we'll be watching you on the Euros. Landon Donovan. Thanks for being on the Will Cain show. Well, I really enjoyed it. Thank you, man. Thanks, man. There you go. I hope you enjoyed that. I think awesome, awesome conversation with Landon Donovan, U.S. soccer superstar. He's covering the Euro 2024 on Fox and FS1.

Go check him out. All right, coming up, the one comment of yours, when it came to my interview with Kevin Costner that I just had to say, touche. That's next on the Will Cain show. This is Jimmy Phala, inviting you to join me for Fox Across America, where we'll discuss every single one of the Democrats' dumb ideas. Just kidding. It's only a three-hour show. Listen live at noon Eastern or get the podcast at Fox Across America.com. Welcome back to the Will Kane show, normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday, Fox News.com, the Fox News YouTube channel, and the Fox News Facebook page. Just hit subscribe on Apple or on Spotify. And you go back and you can get past episodes, including our exclusive interviews, the likes of which include Dwayne the Rock.

Johnson or Donald Trump or this week movie superstar Kevin Costner earlier this week I sat down for a one-on-one with Kevin Costner where we talked about among other things our mutual love for the old West sports America and his desire to see a better form of leadership in America in the moment I don't think I fully appreciated his earnestness his sincerity his thoughtfulness. I shared some of your comments, some of your reaction to our interview with Kevin Costner, a little bit earlier this week on the Will Kane show. But I missed one comment. I missed one rebuttal. FoxNews.com and the Fox NewsX account and Instagram posted a clip

from our conversation. I left a comment underneath that clip on Instagram. I wrote, the more I sit with this interview and re-listen to what Costner had to say, the more I hear how he's thinking through things, cares, and is willing to change his mind. Pretty rare. Well, to that, there were a couple of responses, rebuttals,

including Shirtsfam 93, who said, The interview was so heavily edited, but keep thinking that. Thumbs up. Well, Shirts fam, the clip, as is often the case with clips on social media, was edited. But the interview, to which I'm referring, which aired in full in the Will Kane show, 20 minutes, was completely unedited. In fact, one camera shot, zero cuts, 20 minutes, fully unfiltered. But you got us.

60 seconds on Instagram, edited. But then there was a comment by nude blooms. Nude Blooms, who runs apparently, according to his Instagram profile, flower shop, florist. nude blooms says my introspective comment in response to the more i hear he's thinking through things cares and is willing to change his mind pretty rare the more i tried to be sincere nude blooms offered up this rebuttal gay and to that i say to she not much you can say to the hammer drop down with gay all right that's going to do it for today here on the Will Cain Show.

I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Landon Donovan. Leave five stars, leave a comment, subscribe. We'd love hanging out with you every day here on the Will Cain Show. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus

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