MidDays with Gerard Gibert 2026-06-22

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
MidDays with Gerard Gibert is on the air. MidDays with Gerard Gibert is powered by C-SPYR. Power your home or business with C-SPYR Fiber. To learn more, visit supertalk.fm slash C-SPYR. C-SPYR Fiber powers SuperTalk Mississippi.
Get ready to go beyond the headlines and join a meaningful conversation with people from around the state. You're listening to MidDays with Gerard Gibert here on SuperTalk Mississippi.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:02)
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to MidDays, SuperTalk Mississippi. I'm your host, Gerard Gibert, along with Rhino in the Element Well studio, guiding you through the middle of your day with facts, fodder, and fine music. Morning there, Rhino.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:18)
Howdy, howdy.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:19)
Okay, I'm trying to get one of the ears in my headset to work here. You know how dead gum annoying that is? See if I can move the cord a little bit. Usually that'll do it.
You know, when you wrap these cords up every day like I do and stuff it in the little carrying case, it can mess them up, can't it?

**SPEAKER_4** (1:37)
There's about 40 different failure points in a pair of good headphones. It's kind of ironic. It's like the Jeff Foxworthy joke about the cheap sunglasses.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:46)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_4** (1:47)
Like you spend good money on a pair of sunglasses, you'll lose them or they'll break. You go buy a cheap pair of sunglasses, you could be on a cruise ship, lean over, they fall in the water, a scuba diver is going to come up and go, hey, you lose some glasses?
Same thing with headphones. The cheapest, most nondescript pair of headphones could get run over by a bulldozer and still be fine, whereas the good ones, they're finicky.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:08)
Yeah, I hear you. Well, did you have a good Friday off, enjoyed a little soccer?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:13)
It was glorious.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:15)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:15)
We're now 2-0 at the World Cup in the group stage matches.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:20)
Was that expected?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:22)
I expected it. I predicted a 2-1, 3-1 win. We won 2-0. So I mean, we won by 2 That was what I predicted.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:30)
So what's next for the US team?

**SPEAKER_4** (2:31)
Next, we take on Turkey for the final group stage match, late this Thursday night. I am a bit worried about that match, but not because I'm worried about the result. Because with winning the first two matches of the group stage, the US has already clinched our spot in the knockout rounds. We are moving on.
But we've got several players sitting on yellow cards, in the group stage. If you get two yellow cards, you got to set out the next match. So if those players got another yellow card in the final group stage match, they'd be sitting for the knockout round match, and that would not be ideal.

**Gerard Gibert** (3:06)
Gotcha.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:07)
So what's worrying me is we've got all this momentum. You've got this groundswell of support, because America loves the winner, and we've won twice now. And you've got people starting to recognize players on this team, players getting attention they haven't previously received from people who don't usually watch the game of soccer.

**Gerard Gibert** (3:30)
Yeah.

**SPEAKER_4** (3:31)
And I'm worried some of those players might be sitting for the benefit of the team and the tournament play.
And you're going to have some people tuning in because they're getting excited, and they might be a little disappointed because they don't recognize the people on the field, or the people on the field might not gel as well as the first squad. So Thursday night's going to be a bit antsy, but at the end of the day, win, lose, or draw, it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things because the US is moving on. They will be playing in a round of 32 matchup. Right now, the way it looks, that could be against Bosnia or Qatar, which would be favorable matchups for the US. Think we could win those. Not going to get too far ahead and go out all the way down the lineup, but yeah, it's been a good time to be a US soccer fan, and there's plenty of room on the bandwagon. If you're coming up on July 4th, you might as well get patriotic and pull for Team USA.

**Gerard Gibert** (4:27)
Now, were they without their star on Friday?

**SPEAKER_4** (4:30)
They were, and that was a good sign that the team could shift and change and tweak and modify their strategy and their tactics and still come out with a win.
I would not be surprised if you see Christian Pulisic play Thursday night against Turkey, because you want to keep him sharp. I would be really surprised if he played the full match. But I also wouldn't be surprised if the coach sat him for another week, let him get fully rested up and healed for the knockout rounds.