MidDays with Gerard Gibert 2026-06-23

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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** (1:01)
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to MidDays, SuperTalk Mississippi. I'm your host, Gerard Gibert, along with Rhino in the Element World Studio, guiding you through the middle of your day with facts, fodder, and fine music. Morning there, Rhino.

**Rhino** (1:17)
Howdy, howdy.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:19)
Okay, so please pronounce the name of the opponent for the United States soccer team today.

**Rhino** (1:25)
Turkey.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:26)
That's not the way they said it when I heard it on the news, but it was awfully confusing.

**Rhino** (1:31)
Yeah.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:31)
Like Turk-I-A or something.

**Rhino** (1:32)
Turk-I-A is the pronunciation. The country of Turkey has asked the world to give them.
I just don't really agree with that notion because, I mean, you usually call a country a name as it's given in your language.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:53)
Yeah.

**Rhino** (1:54)
It's very rare for another country to say your country's name in the home country's language, if that makes sense.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:04)
Okay.

**Rhino** (2:04)
Like you don't call Japan, Nippon.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:08)
Yeah.

**Rhino** (2:09)
You don't call France, France. I mean, you just don't do that. So if the governing bodies want to show them the respect of calling them by the name, they like to be called, that's perfectly fine. That's well within their right to ask them to do that. Just don't ask other countries to call you by a different variation of a name when it's really close to the original. It has a feature, the umlaut, that is rarely used, so it's going to be annoying to try to use it in any text form.
And it gives a little bit of smack talk if I don't play into what they want to be called and just call them turkey.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:49)
Well, I'll have to admit when I caught that, caught the announcement, the story in passing, and I thought, is there a country I'm not familiar with or is this Turkey? I really was unsure. Certainly there's not another nation that's that close, but it actually has the accent mark, like over the E, right?
Turkey A, is that what you said? Oh my gosh. What time is that event today?

**Rhino** (3:18)
That will kick off on Thursday night at 9 p.m., late night.

**Gerard Gibert** (3:24)
Overall though, we got to be pleased with the performance of the American team.

**Rhino** (3:30)
Oh, yeah.

**Gerard Gibert** (3:31)
It's pretty dang good, I would say, and I'm impressed for sure, but...

**Rhino** (3:37)
I mean, they're pulling off stuff that hasn't been pulled off by an American squad since the very first iteration of the World Cup back in 1930 And love it or hate it, the world of soccer doesn't really put a whole lot of stock in the records from that tournament and the strength of that tournament. They recognize it as the starting point for the World Cup that we all love, but I mean, even statistics wise, there aren't a whole lot of statistics from that tournament. Most statistics for the World Cup start in 1966 when England hosted it, because they kept meticulous statistics and everybody followed suit after that. But in that first World Cup, the US showed up, won their first two matches, made it to the semifinals and got beat.
That's the farthest the US have ever gone. They made third place in that World Cup. But you got the big powerhouses in Europe that didn't feel like getting on the boat for three weeks to come to Uruguay to play in the first World Cup. So the level of competition is questioned.

**Gerard Gibert** (4:47)
I mean, everybody's here for this one, right?

**Rhino** (4:49)
Right, so when you fast forward to now in 2026 in America, we've won the first two matches.
We've scored more goals than we have since 1930 We're doing these things with this level of competition, not the level back then.

**Gerard Gibert** (5:06)
Well, no doubt, though, the best part of the whole deal has been the reaction from the visitors. It's incredible.

**Rhino** (5:16)
We had a video of Times Square yesterday where apparently they have a yoga session in Times Square every morning or some mornings. And usually, I mean, it's New York, it's well attended for an event, but it's not thousands of people at the yoga.