What Went Wrong | The Beautiful Pod
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to the Beautiful Pod, it's Adam Friedland. At the top of the show, I'm joined by Nick Wright of Fox Sports to do a post-mortem on the 4-1 loss, the United States against Belgium in the round of 16, the catastrophe of Seattle, they're calling it. And then after that, I go back in time to yesterday, where I talked to C.R., about the Azteca, and of course about the messy, the messy, it shouldn't even be messy, it should be Cape Verde. The Cape Verde, it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. It makes me want to cry. Do you remember when the tournament was beautiful?
What happened in the USMNT’s 4-1 loss to Belgium and why is it being called a catastrophe?
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Nick Wright, I talked to you. You were in bad shape last night. We're good friends. Dear friends.
Dear friends. Last night, we watched a noble 4-1 defeat. No, we didn't. There was nothing noble about it. My question for you is, how does this affect LeBron's legacy? Okay? 30 seconds. Almost. Well, I mean, I do think Cristiano Ronaldo's performance, you know, has enhanced LeBron's legacy. I heard on the broadcast yesterday that he, you know, I think Landon said he's in the best shape of any 41 year old. And I was like, oh, no, he's not. So in that regard, like, can you still be performing at the highest level at 41 or should we cut? You know what I mean? Just for the record. So it wasn't so much the U.S. men's national team that made me think about LeBron, but it was Cristiano Ronaldo limping around out there.
But that was a catastrophe. And I respect you.
Yeah, well, you started there, so I figured I'd go there. That was a catastrophe for us, bro. And this was the only thing that mattered was, can we break the hard ceiling of the round of 16? And the answer was resoundingly no.
Yeah, they're not very good. I mean, we lost to Turkey. We're dog shit.
Yeah, but that one I didn't... That was our B team. That was our backups. They weren't very good. I mean... They weren't very good in that game. And listen, if we're going... Here is the way... I think sometimes we patronize like the sports that American media kind of parachutes into. Then don't give it the full respect of the full American media take storm. So can we please give the US and international team the respect to have the discussion we would have if this were one of our major American domestic sports, which is Christian Pulisic. CP. Was a total no-show the entire tournament. You have to feel for him, though, right?
Why? Okay, you put on the hat, the red hat, right? And then he goes ahead and changes the rules in an unprecedented way. Donald Trump goes ahead for a British guy. And you're like, I've been wearing the red hat the whole time. Why are you trying to save a British guy an unprecedented move in World Cup history?
And I'm wearing a damn red hat. I disagree when people say how unprecedented it is. People are like, in all of World Cup history, the vast majority of World Cup history didn't have any red cards given out due to VAR. So I'm going to throw all that history out. You know what I mean? Previously, in order to get a straight red, you had to do something so egregious that in real time on the field, the referee was like, holy shit, what happened? And so he gave the red. So I don't really care about that piece of it. And I don't buy the idea that Trump stepping in, it was bad juju for the U.S. He never suspended a red car's suspension. Suspension of the suspension. They've never done it.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:05–0:41
2
What happened in the USMNT’s 4-1 loss to Belgium and why is it being called a catastrophe?
0:41–7:08
3
How did Cristiano Ronaldo’s role and treatment at the tournament spark debate about his legacy?
7:08–11:51
4
Why was Christian Pulisic criticized for his World Cup performances and availability?
11:51–33:25
5
Can tactical, system-based soccer survive knockout football—what went wrong for the US?
33:25–56:43
6
What made Argentina vs Cape Verde an unforgettable World Cup match?
56:43–1:09:28