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Speaker 1: This is the Bloomberg Business of Sports show, where we

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Speaker 1: explore the big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: I'm Scarlett Food here with Damian Sassaur. Michael barr is

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Speaker 1: off for this week a much deserved break. The Fieful

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Speaker 1: World Cup is coming to a close with the final

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Speaker 1: set between Argentina and France, and despite being eliminated earlier

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Speaker 1: on Team USA, the US men's team did better than

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Speaker 1: they have in recent memory. Yes, the sports been growing

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Speaker 1: here in the US and as a matter of fact,

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Speaker 1: the head of the World Cup, we spoke with the

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Speaker 1: gentleman who's played in four different World Cup tournaments for

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Speaker 1: the US, to Marcus Beasley. The Marcus told us that

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Speaker 1: the future is break for soccer in the United States.

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Speaker 1: It's all about player development. Now you've got guys like

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Speaker 1: Western McKinney, g Arena from the n y FC City Academy,

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Speaker 1: Tyler Adams UH twenty three, he's are captain for this

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Speaker 1: World Cup and he started in the New York Ripples Academy.

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Speaker 1: So you're starting to see that that investment payoff. And

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Speaker 1: I think that's great to see that we have such

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Speaker 1: such young talent coming from are getting coming from MLFT

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Speaker 1: Marcus Beasley on the Bloomberg Business of Sports show just

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Speaker 1: ahead of the World Cup. You can listen to that

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Speaker 1: full conversation on the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast wherever

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Speaker 1: you get your podcast. Okay, but we have to talk

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Speaker 1: about this your's cup right and talk about the state

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Speaker 1: of soccer football in the U S and no soccer

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Speaker 1: because we're talking about the US right now. So let's

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Speaker 1: bring in another star of the sport, National Soccer Hall

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Speaker 1: of Famer Bruce Murray. Bruce, Welcome to the Bloomberg Business

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Speaker 1: of Sports. Oh, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Scarlett,

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Speaker 1: so great to have you on. I've got to ask you.

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Speaker 1: Argentina and France in the World Cup finals seems like

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Speaker 1: they were kind of destined to find each other. Here

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Speaker 1: it was. It was really complicated from the first game

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Speaker 1: when Argentina got you know, here we go again. Argentina

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Speaker 1: is not gonna messy, won't live up to expectations. But

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Speaker 1: here we are. Um, you know, a month into it

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Speaker 1: at the final and here's Messi carrying the country on

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Speaker 1: his shoulders. And you know this, this is such an

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Speaker 1: amazing moment for for for a man who plays the

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Speaker 1: game the right way, and he doesn't, you know, he

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Speaker 1: doesn't want he gets back up after he gets kicked

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Speaker 1: and and it's it would be amazing for me personally

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Speaker 1: to watch Messi left the trophy because there's so the

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Speaker 1: expectations of Diego Maradonna, the previous generation where he carried

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Speaker 1: you know, he carried the country's hopes and actually delivered.

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Speaker 1: If Messi could pull that off, it would be an

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Speaker 1: amazing story. Hold on, Bruce, are you talking about flopping?

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Speaker 1: I mean, I thought flopping was an art form. I

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Speaker 1: thought that was part of the I'm just kidding now

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Speaker 1: I can't standard you know, but let's talk about let's

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Speaker 1: talk about Paris and Tremaine. Let's talk about PSG. Let's

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Speaker 1: talk about the representation of people like Messi and Umbob

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Speaker 1: and Hakimi and how they have managed to rise to

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Speaker 1: the top here. I mean, so, what are your thoughts

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Speaker 1: here if you had to pick a team. I mean,

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Speaker 1: we've got Argie France coming up. I mean, we do

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Speaker 1: we think Messy and his fifth appearance, that he he

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Speaker 1: finally gets it. You know, it's such an unbelievable talent

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Speaker 1: on both teams. You know, it's almost like the game

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Speaker 1: will will get stuck in a bit of a quagmire,

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Speaker 1: like because there's so much talent here. Everyone knows if

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Speaker 1: I if I try and do something extra or I

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Speaker 1: do dive in that that I'm going to get roasted

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Speaker 1: on the other end. So you may find a little

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Speaker 1: bit of a chess match. Um. But but as soon

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Speaker 1: as the goal scored in the final, assuming a goal scored, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, no, no question about it. And with with

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Speaker 1: the talent you have on the field, Uh, anything can happen.

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Speaker 1: We talked so much about Messi, but who are the

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Speaker 1: other players you are keeping an eye on who could

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Speaker 1: play a big role here that you know maybe is

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Speaker 1: kind of under the radar because the focus will be

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Speaker 1: on the biggest stars. You've got grieves Man, who is

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Speaker 1: really uh coming into his own in this World Cup. Uh.

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Speaker 1: You gotta watch the French team on free kicks because

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Speaker 1: they got a lot of size, They got thronged, they

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Speaker 1: got some big boys, uh you know coming up from

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Speaker 1: the back. Uh, and so that's gonna be an issue.

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Speaker 1: I would also say, um that Argentina has all these

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Speaker 1: young guns. Um, you know the kid that scored all

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Speaker 1: the goals. Now you've got You've got guys everywhere on

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Speaker 1: the field from Argentina who can who can score and

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Speaker 1: so uh, you know, Messi is not the only person

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Speaker 1: the only uh this this messy team has a big

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Speaker 1: crew of support behind them. Uh. And you know, like

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Speaker 1: I said, anything can happen, but it's gonna be really interesting.

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Speaker 1: I say, I say, keep an eye on Griesman for France.

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Speaker 1: He's gonna be a real danger player. And obviously in

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Speaker 1: and and all the other ones. Now, bus, I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, going back to your career, I mean you

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Speaker 1: were the all time leader in both caps and goals

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Speaker 1: for the US before you know, obviously the Es. But

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Speaker 1: you know what you were really known for with those

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Speaker 1: wicked free kicks. Now, I know that's different than a

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Speaker 1: penalty kick, but I wonder if you could just share

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Speaker 1: some of your thoughts with us on you know, some

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Speaker 1: of these missed penalty kicks, you know, when it matters

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Speaker 1: most I'm talking, I'm talking, yeah, well Harry Kane exactly.

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Speaker 1: I didn't want to mention anyone, but you know, I mean,

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Speaker 1: just talk to us about you know the importance of

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Speaker 1: penalty kicks. How as an athlete do you prepare for

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Speaker 1: that at this stage of the game. I never, ever

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Speaker 1: once was the guy who was like, Oh, what's gonna

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Speaker 1: happen if I miss? I didn't care. I just went

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Speaker 1: up there and just smashed it home. I picked, I

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Speaker 1: picked the spot. I never gave my eyes, would never

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Speaker 1: give away where I was going. I would just keep

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Speaker 1: my head down. I knew where I was going, and

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Speaker 1: then bang and I would execute the play. I think

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Speaker 1: now penalties have gotten to the point where guys are

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Speaker 1: trying all kinds of tricks and they're they're outsmarting themselves.

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Speaker 1: You you saw it the other day, you know, Harry Kane,

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Speaker 1: and and you know, you know that ball is still

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Speaker 1: flying down the highway. You know it's it's so you know,

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Speaker 1: I say, pick your spot, don't give it away. Trust

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Speaker 1: yourself because the distance versus the goalkeeper's ability to get

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Speaker 1: there is the all the all the probability is with

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Speaker 1: the kicker. Uh, you know, just execute the play. And

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Speaker 1: I think, I think you get all this craziness now

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Speaker 1: where guys are trying to outsmart themselves. There's a dance,

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Speaker 1: there's a hop, there's an Irish dance up to the ball,

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Speaker 1: and it's crazy. Just go out there and smash it home.

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Speaker 1: If you watch Leonel MESSI hit that penal the other day,

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Speaker 1: that thing ripped it. I meancas forget the pananca, go

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Speaker 1: smash it. Well. Bruce, you are the athletic director. You're

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Speaker 1: the head of soccer at accelerated school, you know, the

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Speaker 1: Bruce Murray Soccer Academy. You know, you've you've you've you've

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Speaker 1: trained many many US athletes. Talk to us, you know,

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Speaker 1: as we look at to when the US is actually

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Speaker 1: hosting the World Cup, you know, talk to us about

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Speaker 1: the U s as chances there. I mean, are we

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Speaker 1: are we expecting big things? Can we can we see

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Speaker 1: some improvement over this year's you know kind of? I mean, look,

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Speaker 1: we we made it through the you know we we

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Speaker 1: kind of made it through the group stage, but you know,

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Speaker 1: it would be nice to go further. I mean, what

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Speaker 1: are your thoughts for the US as chances if we

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Speaker 1: look ahead? It's a great question. And the US soccer

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Speaker 1: fans have a lot to look forward to. This generation

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Speaker 1: uh will just be coming into their prime. So you've

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Speaker 1: got your pool sitch as, your rain is Um, You've

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Speaker 1: got your errand sentence, You've got Sergio deff So you've

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Speaker 1: got all that happening, and how you've got this whole

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Speaker 1: new group that's coming through, um, and you know, will

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Speaker 1: we find the nine, will we find the two center

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Speaker 1: backs that we've always been looking for? Is you know,

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Speaker 1: we have all these pieces now and now we can

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Speaker 1: add luxury to it. So um, you know, and if

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Speaker 1: you look at our group stage performances, we were the

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Speaker 1: better team against England. Now again, what was England doing?

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Speaker 1: You know, I I don't know. They look scared to me.

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Speaker 1: I played England twice, but you know, it's unbelievable to

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Speaker 1: me to watch us go toe to toe with a

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Speaker 1: world giant in England. And yeah, we won the middle

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Speaker 1: theory there, I agree with you, there's no doubt about it.

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Speaker 1: And if we had, if we had a goal score,

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Speaker 1: I think that's the one thing. And so I've always

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Speaker 1: said this, um damon is is if we could if

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Speaker 1: we should have known earlier that we didn't have that

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Speaker 1: number nine, that big strong player up top, And if

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Speaker 1: that's the case, then you have to go to a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a three man wing system up top

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Speaker 1: and the words you have three players up top who

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Speaker 1: just can go wherever they want, and the two banks

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Speaker 1: of four behind them defend and you know, and I

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Speaker 1: feel like in that sense the U S didn't get

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Speaker 1: it right. But you know, um Liverpool plays that way right.

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Speaker 1: They don't have a big, strong guy at tops, so

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Speaker 1: they have three wingers that run around so um, you know,

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Speaker 1: again that's something that we have to either find or develop.

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Speaker 1: And then the two center back issue is a big issue.

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Speaker 1: But but the amount of talent is going to be

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Speaker 1: coming through in the next four years is unbelievable. And

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Speaker 1: you know this World Cup, you know, Katar has done it.

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Speaker 1: I mean everything has just been amazing. The proximity of

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Speaker 1: the stadiums, that's going to be an issue that, Um,

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Speaker 1: the hosts are gonna have to talk to the host

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Speaker 1: of of our World Cups. You know, they're gonna have

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Speaker 1: to build in new new travel days. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: play arrest. I mean there's no World Cup you know

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Speaker 1: ever where we've had this kind of luxury of traveling,

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Speaker 1: you know, twenty minutes to get to the next stadium. Um,

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Speaker 1: you know it's gonna be a lot different over here.

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Speaker 1: So will they build in another travel day? Um. You

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Speaker 1: know some of the things that that you know that

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Speaker 1: that was very impressive here was you know, all my

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Speaker 1: friends that are over there right now, you know. And

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Speaker 1: I said, well, what happened with the beer stuff? And

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Speaker 1: they said, I'm not You can get a beer anywhere

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Speaker 1: you want, it's just you can't. You can't get one

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Speaker 1: during the game. Um. I played at Millwall, one of

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Speaker 1: the toughest places to play on the planet, and drunk

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Speaker 1: fans are not a good good site anywhere. And so

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Speaker 1: you know, that might be something we learned that when

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Speaker 1: the World Cup comes here, drink before the game, drink

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Speaker 1: after the game, but don't drink in the stadium. So

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Speaker 1: I don't think that's the lesson we're going to learn

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Speaker 1: in the US. You think you think Budweiser is gonna

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Speaker 1: go with that, I don't think so. Yeah, I think

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Speaker 1: that's a lesson we will just ignore. Now. I was

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Speaker 1: just saying that that I just think that, um, you

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Speaker 1: know this this, I've just seen a great World Cup

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Speaker 1: and just amazing games. As a parent and Damian's apparent two.

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Speaker 1: In the suburbs of New York, every kid grows up

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Speaker 1: playing soccer, and youth soccer is you know where everyone

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Speaker 1: gravitates to when your kids are four or five, And

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Speaker 1: then over time, the ones who are good state in

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Speaker 1: it and move on to travel teams and their their

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Speaker 1: school teams. Everyone else kind of drifts off into other things.

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Speaker 1: And a lot of it is because football has become

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Speaker 1: has has more of a stigma. Now, right, it's dangerous,

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Speaker 1: you can get concussions, all of that. But there is

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Speaker 1: a risk of brain injuries concussions with soccer. And this

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Speaker 1: is something you know pretty well, Yes, how do you

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Speaker 1: advise parents who come into soccer thinking that this is

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Speaker 1: the safer sport? You know, there's no question that it's

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Speaker 1: not a safe sport. UM at that high level, UM,

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Speaker 1: the impact, the velocity of the ball, all the studies,

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Speaker 1: UM ex players. I've dealt with concussion issues and repetitive

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Speaker 1: heading issues UM into my adult life, and UM, we

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Speaker 1: have to find a balance in a way to make

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Speaker 1: it safe for children. You know, children should not be

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Speaker 1: heading the soccer ball. Bottom line, A developing brain cannot

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Speaker 1: be heading the ball. It's not. And and so what

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Speaker 1: we've done now is we've we've we've we've kind of

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Speaker 1: knocked age down to ten or eleven years old where

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Speaker 1: you can't have the ball at all, um now and

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Speaker 1: as you go older, you can you can have the

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Speaker 1: ball in certain situations. What is that? What is the

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Speaker 1: final model gonna look like? It's gonna change. It's gonna change.

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Speaker 1: I don't know if it changes in the next four years,

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Speaker 1: for the next World Cup, for for the for the

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Speaker 1: for the adult men or women. But something has to

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Speaker 1: be done because it is not a sport that is

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Speaker 1: um as safe as you know it's supposed to be. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you look, if you look at the

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Speaker 1: best players in the world, they never had the ball messy.

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Speaker 1: You know, rarely do they had the ball. Um. You know,

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Speaker 1: how many times do you had the ball before you

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Speaker 1: get an injury? Um? How hard does the ball have

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Speaker 1: to be coming? In all this stuff, it needs to

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Speaker 1: be researched. But the bottom line is young children growing

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Speaker 1: up do not need to be heading the ball. You know,

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Speaker 1: the ball Uh can be played on the ground and

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Speaker 1: everyone can have a good time and it's still soccer. Um.

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Speaker 1: You know, let's figure it out for the older players

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Speaker 1: as we go forward. But you know, for these younger players, UM,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'd like to ban heading, you know until

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Speaker 1: at least fourteen or fifty. Maybe it's like checking in

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Speaker 1: his hockey, right, you don't check until you're fourteen or fifteen.

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Speaker 1: First I have to ask you, you you know, I mean

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Speaker 1: we've now seen we've seen, um, you know, the World

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Speaker 1: Cup come to Russia. We've seen an outcome to Cutter,

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Speaker 1: you know, obviously playing and Cutter. You know, we've we've

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Speaker 1: heard some of the stories about you know, Budweiser moving

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Speaker 1: its tents. We've heard about all of the stuff that

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Speaker 1: goes hand in hand, you know, with that when it

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Speaker 1: shifts to the US, Mexico and Canada in six you know,

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Speaker 1: we hear about this all the time. The reason a

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Speaker 1: lot of cities don't want to host the World Cup

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Speaker 1: is because of the expenses tied to it. You know,

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Speaker 1: I understand. We have you know, MetLife Stadium, we have

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Speaker 1: Sofi Stadium. You know, we have a T and T Stadium,

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Speaker 1: brand new, modern, billion dollar stadiums. But you also have

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Speaker 1: Arrowhead in Kansas City, right, So there's gonna be some

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Speaker 1: money that's gotta you know, go into getting these stadiums,

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Speaker 1: you know, game ready in four years time. And by

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Speaker 1: the way, that's the U s. I'm not even talking

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Speaker 1: about the Studio STEC in Mexico City, right, So, you know,

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Speaker 1: talk to me about the amount of money that needs

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Speaker 1: to be spent and whether or not, you know, forget

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Speaker 1: about the U S. Maybe can Mexico maybe even kind

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Speaker 1: of can we I mean can they stomach this? Is

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Speaker 1: this something to be concerned about. Yeah, that's a great question.

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Speaker 1: I think in the United States of America. Uh, it's

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Speaker 1: something that you know is gonna be able, It's palatable.

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Speaker 1: We already have the infrastructure in all these big cities

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Speaker 1: we have we have the modern stadiums. Um. Do we

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Speaker 1: have that in Mexico? No? But the two the two

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Speaker 1: areas are talking about are the wealthiest kind of enclaves

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Speaker 1: of Mexico in terms of where they're going to put

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Speaker 1: their games. Canada is the one that there's a little

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Speaker 1: bit uh, you know, worries. So I guess because uh,

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Speaker 1: most of the stadiums in these World Cups. Uh, when

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Speaker 1: you know, once once the circus leaves town, Um, you

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Speaker 1: don't have any real If you look at Russia, I

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Speaker 1: mean they've got all these stadiums and they have nothing

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Speaker 1: to do with it. I know, Katar has um ways

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Speaker 1: that they want to you know, move the stadiums down

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Speaker 1: to Africa. They talked about or disposable. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: obviously that's another thing that they've done. I thought in

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Speaker 1: a good way that we can learn from nine. But

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Speaker 1: but yet Canada is going to be complicated because it

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Speaker 1: depends on how many games and where these games are. Um,

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Speaker 1: because they don't have what you call uh an a

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Speaker 1: T and T or a sofi or MetLife. They don't

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Speaker 1: and and it's gonna be interesting. Uh will they be

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Speaker 1: able to stomach it? You know? In the economy, I

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Speaker 1: don't know. I think we already we were kind of

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Speaker 1: already built for it, which is why it's a little

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Speaker 1: I I just don't I couldn't figure out why all

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Speaker 1: three of us got the bid. Um, you know, because

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Speaker 1: we had the we had the World Cup here. It

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Speaker 1: was fantastic. You know, the country really got into soccer.

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Speaker 1: And now everybody is into soccer. So it's not a

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Speaker 1: case of like building the game in ninety four. You know,

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Speaker 1: this is a case of you know, every every time

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Speaker 1: Dick and Harry walking down the street is gonna it's

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Speaker 1: gonna debate the merits of Western McKinney versus Tyler Adams.

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Speaker 1: I mean, every every guy who knows nothing about the

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Speaker 1: game will know everything about the game when the World

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Speaker 1: Cup comes here, so you know, to have the three

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Speaker 1: countries doing it, I know they I know they're they're

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Speaker 1: doing it like Korean Japan did in two thousands. To um,

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Speaker 1: I just don't know if if you know again with

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Speaker 1: the travel, Um, you know, I know the United States

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Speaker 1: is going to get of the games and ten and

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Speaker 1: ten on the other side. But what we'll see, we'll see.

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Speaker 1: But to answer your question, Um, I also have concerns

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Speaker 1: about Canada hosting, just in terms of what are they

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Speaker 1: gonna do and how much it's gonna cost. Right. I

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Speaker 1: suspect part of having Canada, Mexico and the US together

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Speaker 1: as the host was part of the bid to make

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Speaker 1: it more attractive. Just as a collective package. You got

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Speaker 1: to make a call here Argentina or France for the

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Speaker 1: for the final who gets the hoisted trophy and how

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Speaker 1: much are they gonna win by? What's the score? And

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Speaker 1: who gets the golden dude? Yeah, So you have your

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Speaker 1: you have your your betting or your emotional side. Sorry,

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Speaker 1: you have your emotional side and your betting side. My

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Speaker 1: emotional side tells me I want to see Leonel MESSI

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Speaker 1: would dad. He has five children. He gets up every

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Speaker 1: time he gets kicked. Uh. You know, he doesn't complain

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Speaker 1: about making a hundred million dollars like it does, so

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Speaker 1: for me, that's my guy. However, however, on the other side,

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Speaker 1: we've got my mind and my betting heart, which tells

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Speaker 1: me that France is just has too much talent to overcome.

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Speaker 1: So that that's my prediction, which is no prediction. So

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Speaker 1: France the first back to back winter since Brazil, and

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Speaker 1: I think again in sixty to go figure. I mean,

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Speaker 1: at least the betting side, which is the only side

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Speaker 1: that really matters to us, go home and be upset

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Speaker 1: now about a hundred million dollars. Yeah, but you know,

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Speaker 1: you can't tell. You can't tell any of You can't

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Speaker 1: tell any of the are forget about Leo but his team.

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Speaker 1: You can't tell any of these young kids that you

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Speaker 1: know not to you know that they're gonna come in.

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Speaker 1: They have no fear. So you know that that adds

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Speaker 1: an element of of uncertainty to the whole equation. But

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Speaker 1: I I take your point. I mean, France is so talented,

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Speaker 1: They're both so talented. It's gonna be very it's gonna

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Speaker 1: be awesome, it's gonna be grateful. It is and you know,

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Speaker 1: just hats off to UM the Middle East for hosting

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Speaker 1: this event. It's been fantastic UM. All the controversies and everything.

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Speaker 1: I think they've tried to deal with everything and they

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Speaker 1: they've just done an amazing job. And I hope that

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Speaker 1: our hosts can learn from this World Cup and they

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Speaker 1: get together and and and because there's been a lot

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Speaker 1: of good that came out of this World Cup. Bruce,

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Speaker 1: thank you so much for your time, thank you for

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Speaker 1: sharing your thoughts on all of this, and we will

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Speaker 1: of course be watching the Argentina France final and thinking

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Speaker 1: of your prediction as well. Bruce Murray joining us here,

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Speaker 1: Hall of fame US soccer midfielder and ford also of

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Speaker 1: course owner of the Bruce Murray Soccer Academy and athletic director,

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Speaker 1: head of Soccer at Accelerators School. This is the Bloomberg

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Speaker 1: Business of Sports show. We are here each and every

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Speaker 1: week at the same time. Of course, we're also online

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Speaker 1: on demand wherever you get your podcasts. Catch us on Monday's,

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Speaker 1: Wednesdays and Thursdays for new content. I'm Scarlet Fou. I'm

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Speaker 1: on Twitter at Scarlet Fu and I'm at the Sass

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Speaker 1: Hour on Twitter and Of course, don't forget to catch

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Speaker 1: our podcast Monday's, Wednesdays and Thursday is across all your

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Speaker 1: podcast platforms, right here on Bloomberg. Business of Sports from

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Radio