USA Men's Soccer Team Choked

**SPEAKER_2** (0:04)
You're listening to the Hammer and Nigel Show. I do love how every stadium that has a World Cup is playing this song and everybody's singing along with it, no matter who's playing. It's not just the United States.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:16)
Yeah, but after you get your ass kicked, doesn't hearing this kind of tick you off a little bit?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:21)
It's a little disheartening.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:23)
Have you seen the sequel to Major League, Major League 2? Have you seen that?

**SPEAKER_2** (0:27)
Yes.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:28)
So there's a part in that movie where there's a guy named Jack Parkman, and he's the big free agent signing that the Indians have. And at one point, he does his little shimmy at the plate, and you hear Harry Doyle go, it drives the women crazy. As he gets traded to the White Sox and comes back, you hear Harry Doyle go, it makes the women here in Cleveland puke.
And I'm kind of there with Country Roads right now. When our team is winning, I'm like, Country Roads! But then when they get their doors blown off last night, I'm like, John Denver's full of crap.

**SPEAKER_2** (1:03)
I love the comparison. USA men's soccer blown out by Belgium in the World Cup, Sweet 16, whatever you want to call it. Last night, four to one.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:13)
That's like a basketball equivalent of getting beat by 25 or 30 Isn't it a four to one blowout in soccer?

**SPEAKER_2** (1:19)
Man, oh man, that was such a disappointment last night. The United States just kind of looked like they didn't belong there.
It looked like they were a little scared, a little timid, a little intimidated.

**SPEAKER_3** (1:32)
Not good enough, right? Listen, the real reality is the best athletes in this country still play football and basketball. The best athletes everywhere else in the world play soccer.
Or if it's a winter sport, you know, hockey. But for the most part, our best athletes don't play soccer. We're getting better. Like years ago, the US would be like lucky to win a game. Now we got to the round of 16 and we're like, all right, let's go. Everybody was watching. We were fired up for it. Country roads.
And then reality set in, right? Here's a little bit from last night.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:10)
In field, the US is hesitating. A bouncing ball picked up in the box. And that's the opening goal for Belgium. It was to Ketelara. First to react in there in the cross. And now they're in an early hole against Belgium.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:23)
There's a man lying down behind the wall.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:26)
There's Malik Tillman. Lightning strikes twice. And the United States has tied the game.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:34)
That was fun.
For 90 seconds. He's rising up.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:39)
And Belgium retake the lead. Moments later, his second goal.

**SPEAKER_3** (2:44)
Well, don't concede another.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:45)
Lukaku on the loose ball. Scores. Romulo Lukaku.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:53)
I was asleep by this one.

**SPEAKER_4** (2:54)
It's Friday afternoon for a showdown with Spain. The World Cup. OK, OK.

**SPEAKER_2** (2:59)
I got it. I got it.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:00)
I mean, I don't claim to be Alexi Lollis here. I'm no Pele.
But my soccer friends say that was a bleep performance by USA last night. Looked lazy, like they didn't want to be there. The coaching wasn't great.

**SPEAKER_2** (3:18)
How? It's in Seattle. It was a home. No matter how you look at it, these have all been home games, basically, except for maybe I think they played in Toronto.
But still.

**SPEAKER_3** (3:30)
I have no idea. But it wasn't pretty. Like, I'm no expert, but I know a bad performance when I see it.
If I were the US coach, that guy that kind of looks a little bit like Russell Crowe, I would have walked out to the microphone after the game and just quoted word for word the classic Jim Mora rant.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:51)
We got our ass kicked in the second half. We just got our ass totally kicked.
We couldn't do diddly poof offensively. We couldn't make a first down. We couldn't run the ball. We didn't try to run the ball. We couldn't complete a pass. We sucked the second half. We sucked. We couldn't stop the run. Every time they got the ball and went down and got points, we got our ass totally kicked in the second half. That's what it boiled down to. It was a horse performance in the second half for I'm totally embarrassed and totally ashamed coaching or coaching did a horrible job. The players did a horrible job. We got our ass kicked in that second half. It sucked.