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Chapter 1: What World Cup action is being discussed?
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Hey, One to Watch, brought to you by Limitless AV, Vancouver's most trusted audiovisual integration experts. No shortage of games to watch today, but I am most intrigued by the first on the slate. It's a noon kickoff our time. USA. USA taking on Australia. And that's got a lot of really interesting backstory. Seattle, right? Yeah, a lot of interesting backstory to it.
Chapter 2: What are the latest hockey news updates from Luke Fox?
No Pulisic? Also... A lot of American pundits, including one in particular, were slagging the Aussies when the group stage was announced. They were saying, like, this is a group that the U.S. should be able to win. Australia isn't that strong of a team. And then, of course, Australia came out and won that opener against Turkey rather surprisingly.
Chapter 3: How does the sign-and-trade of Darren Raddysh impact the Leafs?
Yeah. Australia and the Socceroos have really used this as a rallying cry that no one respected us. Because if you'll recall, Turkey also was kind of disrespectful to Australia prior to that match. And Australia came out and punched him in the mouth and won 2-0. So, one to watch today.
Even though I'm kind of like in the corner of the Socceroos here, our boy Sebastian Berhalter, Vancouver Whitecap, playing for the U.S. I think it's going to be a fantastic match, and you're right, it's down at Lumen Field in Seattle, in Washington. So that kicks off at noon.
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Okay, let's do some Ask Us Anythings. We'll dive into the Dunbar-Lumber text inbox. Jordan in Vancouver, Ask Us Anything. As a North American sports fan, has there ever been a more exciting year in sports? World Cup, great NBA finals, great Stanley Cup finals, incredible World Series, and as a West Coaster, the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl and the Whitecaps going to the final.
Do we count the World Series as this year, though? No.
Did he mention the Olympics?
No.
But it wasn't... Yeah, as a North American sports fan, I mean, we had Canada versus the United States in both the men's and the women's hockey games.
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Chapter 4: What exciting moments are highlighted from recent sports events?
Now, it wasn't great for Canada, but it's been... The Americans seem to enjoy it. They had a great time when they were in North America. They were giving away congressional medals for it. Look... That were disrespected by Winnipeg. And Toronto, apparently. Okay. We knew going into this year... Like, our show likes to look ahead at a lot of stuff, right?
And we knew going into 2026 that there were some big, like, landmark things on the horizon. Yeah. Which kind of made this year a layup. So... When the texter's saying, like, is this the year? It is, but it's kind of almost coming to fruition. Like, I expected the return of best on best at the Olympics in the NHL to be amazing. And it was. The tournament was great. Yeah. Right?
I expected hosting a World Cup to what we're seeing right now, where clearly the FOMO has kicked in for a lot of people. Oh, yeah. I think a lot of the people that were down on the outrageous pricing and the cost that it was going to be to the city, and maybe it was like, well, we only have seven games in Vancouver. That's been washed away. Yeah.
Like, I sold my car because I want to see Canada and Switzerland.
Right, I don't have a house anymore, but I am going to the Swiss match, right? Like, that's the vibe that you're getting locally.
By the way, we're at Duik, and they'll give you a good train-in price.
For your house or car? Yeah, no, probably more your car. But regardless, I think the texture's on to something there, and that it's actually lived up to the billing, which is tough to do, because sometimes we have a tendency to overhype things.
But I think it's more than lived up. Yeah. I mean, did you see the Knicks winning the NBA Finals? That sort of thing.
Okay, I'll expand on this a little bit further. I do have to say that, I mean, we talked about this on the show already, but... The NBA Finals and the Stanley Cup Finals. The NBA Final didn't necessarily peter out, although it only went five games. I think it fell short of the full drama that we thought we were going to get.
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Chapter 5: What are the Ask Us Anything questions from listeners?
They packed a lot into those five games. Yeah. Historic comebacks, the Game 3 at the Garden with Trump there and everything. That was huge. Well, Game 4 was incredible. The Stanley Cup Final really petered out. Yeah. And it's crazy because after the first four games, we were talking about being an all-timer. It was amazing. The theater was great, but...
It really kind of marnered in the big games.
It marnered big time in the big games.
Okay. Call in to us and ask us anything. Where does yesterday's Canada win rank for you in terms of all-time Vancouver-hosted sporting events? All right. Farhan brought this up yesterday. There was some pushback. It's got to be up there. But, I mean, for me personally, Sid scoring the golden goal was bigger than yesterday.
Yeah, it is. And this is coming from a soccer-forward individual. One ā championship game, right? Gold medal game. Two, the theater, sometimes when I look back on 2010, I'm still amazed that the storybook ending actually got written and came out fantastic for Vancouver because it doesn't often happen that way here, right?
having the gold medal and sid scoring in overtime and the golden goal and then an hour later you're like and now the closing ceremonies right we're shutting down the olympics so i think it's it's always going to be hard to match that yeah and here's the thing about yesterday's game it was very chaotic
You know, like it was a great result and it was historic for Canada, but it was very, very chaotic. And the injury cast a pall on it too, right?
You and I had a bit of a, we had a bit of a fight yesterday over texts.
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Chapter 6: What are the implications of Canada's recent victory in soccer?
And I don't know if I, if I won the argument, but it started with this question. How the hell did Qatar get a point off Switzerland and, And then I told you, I just looked at their qualifying path to this World Cup, and they were not good. And I was like, this is a bad, bad team. And I don't even think their FIFA ranking is accurate because they should be ā
They should be almost the lowest team in this tournament. I think there's more quality on New Zealand, frankly, than Qatar. And again, they actually had kind of a hilarious qualifying. They went up against North Korea. They lost to Kyrgyzstan. They weren't very good. And it actually leads to a question of, does Asia have too many teams in the World Cup? Because that is... That is...
the conference or whatever you call it, that most people seem to think is overly represented and maybe generous. And then you look at UEFA, and I know UEFA gets a ton of countries, but... You know, when Qatar is in the World Cup, and we see their quality yesterday, and I realize they drew Switzerland, okay? I realize it.
But when Italy and Denmark aren't in the World Cup, it's kind of like, really? Like, there are obviously teams in Asia that deserve to be there. South Korea, Japan, Australia, Iran. And then after that, you're like, ooh.
Okay, which part do you want me to answer first, the Qatar part? Wherever you want to go. Okay, so I actually erred in that text with you. It wasn't the Asian qualifying that they did really well. It was the Asian Cup where they did really well, where they won it, and they beat Iran, and they beat Jordan, and they beat Uzbekistan along the way. I got that mixed up, so that was on me.
That was my bad. They're a weak team. There's no other way to look at it, and I think the Swiss draw was ā
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Chapter 7: How does social media affect athletes' mental health?
a proud moment for them, and I think they battled exceptionally hard, and they used the elements to their favor, but they were completely overwhelmed yesterday, which you would say shouldn't happen at this level, but it already has. Curacao was widely, widely overmatched and overwhelmed in their opening against Germany. It was very one-sided, even though they scored.
you're going to get this at a 48-team World Cup if you're going to have representation so you could try, and this may be like really Pollyanna and naive of me, but if you are going to try and get some of these countries, smaller nations, developing football markets and countries to elevate and to be competitive, you need to have them in these competitions.
It's not unlike what they talk about with the World Juniors when you've got like... whatever, I guess Austria gets pumped from time to time, Denmark, all the other ones. The minnows of the... They're like, you need to get them there to participate so they understand what it looks like, and you make those qualifying roads matter, right? For example...
New Zealand's in this tournament, and it was always impossible for them to get out because Oceania is such a small federation, and we usually only get a half spot. It was tough for them to get in.
Now they go, and it's like, when you do something like Cape Verde did, or you do something like Congo did, and you get this unexpected result on that stage, it does a lot for your organization, for your country, for your program. The flip side of it is what happens yesterday. I was reading the AP report from the Qatari side of things, and they are... It's beyond disappointment, right?
They're probably embarrassed. The keeper was crying on the pitch after the match, and their players were beside themselves, and the manager was a shell of himself afterwards because it's embarrassing to get shellacked that badly. So it's a give and a take. As for that zone, Asia having too many qualifiers, I think it's a fair argument to make.
Again, if you want to try and grow the game in places where there hasn't been a lot of historical representation, you have to do this.
The tournament doesn't have to be perfectly balanced. No. It really does. I mean, it is a World Cup.
But here's the slippery slope now. You've gone from 32 to 48. At what point are you going to 64? And at what point do you really water down the group stage?
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Chapter 8: What can we expect from the upcoming NHL season based on recent trades?
But to go back to Colin's question about... Where does it rank in terms of all-time Vancouver-hosted sporting events? Man, it's up there, right? And if you were in the building yesterday, first of all, I'm extremely jealous, but congratulations that you got to be in the building, and I'm happy for you. I'm not really, but I am happy for you. And feel free to rank it number one. It's a ranking.
When I went to that LAFC game, I was like, that's one of the best events I've ever been to. And it mattered because I was in the building and I was experiencing it. So my buddy texted me, and this isn't something I normally get excited about. He texted me a video of the wave that ran around at BC Place. And I was like, that is the purest wave I've ever seen.
Like, I might even engage with that wave.
This is a wave you can get down with?
Yeah. I was joking. I was like... man, that's like a 1985 Lions-Bombers wave at BC Place back in the day. Rick Dollywell was like, I was at that game when the wave went. I was like, that was every game at BC Place in the 80s. It was awesome. And I think where you rank these things often comes with your personal experience. I wasn't in the building.
in 2010, but I remember I watched the game with my closest buddies, and we all went through it together, and then we all went downtown to celebrate afterwards. Of course that's going to add to your experience and where you rank.
BC Place is on a bit of a run here.
Well, I did want to talk about... having a moment of appreciation for bc place because jason brough yeah we run it well we run it down a lot and it is probably not the answer for the whitecaps long term in this city but i'm glad we have a stadium like bc place in the city that place if you think about it over the last, what, three or four years, has hosted some pretty big events.
And these are events that we would not get otherwise. If we didn't have BC Place, because Vancouver is a big city. It's a global city. But if we didn't have BC Place, you know, I don't think Taylor Swift would be coming, right? Probably not. Probably not, right? And, you know, some of the big bands that have come through, ACDC, Elton John, Coldplay, Rolling Stones, Ed Sheeran.
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