Futbol Americas: CONCACAF Champions Cup Recap + Herc's USMNT Striker Picks + Is FIFA Scamming the Fans? + Marcel Ruiz Health Doubts + Drippin or Trippin

MUSIC Nothing like hearing an LAFC goal in Korean. And I never knew that I wanted to know how Krusasul was spelled in Korean. Well, I agree with the commentator. He's absolutely right. You got to cut that angle right there. Yeah, absolutely. This is a new skill that our Hercules comes in. Who are you laughing at? Nothing, nothing. Happy Thursday. It's a business casual back in business here. Shaka, his lover, to these Gomez. What are you? What do you mean? This is business casual. You two. Going to a sporting event here. I'm wondering if it's business casual business. Doesn't make sense. I like to make this my thing. OK, don't take it away. Nice Dina Mokyev jersey though. Yes. Yes. That's a nice shirt. Yeah, it could be a little bigger, but I like it. That's right. Notes. Notes for the next one. Coming up, Herc will break down a little bit what he's expecting with the US men's national team, striker depth chart with the unfortunate Patrick Ajimang at news also. It seemed unfortunate, but is Marcel Ruiz gearing up for a comeback in just a short amount of time? We will get into that. But first, let's take it back to the Conta Cap quarterfinals. Leg one, LAFC hosting Cruz Azul. We're going to take it into ninth minute. Gabriel Fernandez's header saved Herc. Yeah, Ogo Louris doing very well to get down low. It's a good ball. You know that Fernandez is very good in the air. He gets down low and he keeps it 0-0. Yeah, it's a great save. We'll take it into 30th minute. Mathieu Chouanier with the cross. Huming Sun scores, Shaq. Chouanier finds a lot of space on his right hand side. Huge pocket that he just sits in, and exposes as a really nice ball to Huming Sun to tap it. Hey, goal so nice, we got to see it twice. David Martinez, spring pass, taking care of business here. This is just terrible defending from Eric Lita. I know he doesn't play there. He's not a center back, but you can't get burned for pace when you got the sideline to your advantage. He gets burned for pace, and it's 2-0. Got scorched for pace. What? How about that? 43rd minute, Denny Buonga with the fancy footwork shack. Just loses his defender. Little cut back, and not Mag. Bye-bye, hips. That's Lita again, too. And then throws it across with nobody there to finish it off. Yeah, no one had a rougher night than Eric Lita and Cruz Azul down at 3-0 now, Herc. David Martinez and LAFC fans have been waiting for him to explode. It's maybe his coming out party to the world. He's already had a good season. He's doing well under Magdo Santos. That's three. I mean, in that celebration, too, just putting a bow on. Cruz Azul trying to get one back in the 82nd minute, but nothing for Paradella. Long way out. Heal, allure, sees it coming all the way. Gets a little touch just to make sure. Yep, so LAFC takes this one at 3-0 with Son. It's now 12 goal contributions. That's two goals in tennis this season, and in all competitions, extending his lead among MLS players. 20-year-old David Martinez becomes the youngest LAFC player with a multi-goal game in Conk Cap Champions Cup. The team made competition debut in 2020. Cruz Azul's first shout-out defeat in Conk Cap Champions Cup since the 2021 semifinals against Monterrey and LAFC. That's their biggest margin of victory against a Mexican team since a 3-0 win against Tijuana in the 2024 League's Cup. So a lot to break down here, but Herc, it's hard to say that the star of the night wasn't David Martinez. He pretty much took all the opportunities and turned them into a goal for LAFC. A great player, great night, scoring two goals, and yet you're still overshadowed by Hong Chi-yong Ming-sung, who got himself, yes, second goal this season, but he's got 12 assists in the season now, or excuse me, 10 assists in the season now, and who I think just keeps being a Mexican killer, a Mexican club killer, and Danny Bawanga. So I'm gonna sit here and talk about David Martinez, because I think he deserves it, but you could easily be overshadowed by those two in a night where maybe for 15 minutes Cruz Azul was in this game, but then it was just LAFC, and it could have been a lot worse, but David Martinez, the Venezuelan U23 player, he comes over, failed Olympic dream for Venezuela, comes over to LAFC, and you see the player who was there. You see the player who many were expecting to out of the gates break through with Steve Chirundolo, and yet he doesn't. And you're wondering what happened to that player that you saw a glimpse and flashes of with the Venezuelan national team that you saw a glimpse and flashes of in preseason, or at times with LAFC. Why isn't he the same player? Marc Dos Santos comes in, and they've given this kid the freedom to just let loose. Nobody is on him when he doesn't give up the ball. They run off of him, clear lanes. He's been taken under the wing of Danny Bawanga, and look at this, and Hyeong-min Song, they seem to have taken to his abilities. This is a team that is scary in transition, and he fits that system very well, but this is a very creative, very, very good 10-type player. In the likes of, if you fought in Atlanta, United, in their earlier years, Miguel Almirón. That is the same type of player you are getting, same type of confidence, and same type of ability when he goes at you with that left foot. He's a very good player, and yes, he would be the star of the night because of the two goals, but if you watch this game, Danny Bawanga terrorizes teams, and Hyeong-min Song, excuse me, he is just so instrumental in everything they do. He scored his second goal of the season, and yet he's probably the best player in CONCACAF right now. Yeah, and it's very much true. I mean, he landed so softly here, and so nicely for LAFC, and he's constantly been showing that. Shaq, has this been his biggest factor positively here? For Hyeong-min Song, is his consistency? Well, with all question, listen, we kind of knew the talent that he was arriving with, the star power that he brings, and you see it. And still a player with incredible pace, and I think that adds in to Bawanga and Martinez, and the way that LAFC are playing right now. The way they were able to expose Cruisesoul in sitting in pockets of space, and almost feeling untouchable once they got the ball in behind that midfield, and were allowing any of that front three to pair up with Cruisesoul's back three. They just exposed Cruisesoul time and time again. And it just feels like this front three is gelling so wonderfully well. Grabbing all the headlines, rightly so. You can share them about how you like, as Hyeong-min was saying, and everybody in behind understanding that, doing their jobs. This is a good LAFC team, but led by a front three that have an understanding, and a real chemistry between each other. That, again, just play with pace, that nobody really is able to keep up with. Yeah, and Cruisesoul clearly could not keep up with anybody from LAFC. I know you mentioned Eric Lida, and I agree, Denny Bawanga just had them losing their minds, their hips. J.C. Shadow, right? Yes, just a little bit of everything. But what went so wrong for Cruisesoul to now looking down the barrel and seeing this three-nil? Cruisesoul has a penchant for just letting themselves go. They are such a good team within Liga and Metcys. They're in the top two, I believe, at the moment, and we saw this last year as well. As good as that roster is, as good as they go forward, they seem to really struggle with teams that are fast and vertical. You go back to League's Cup, it was the Seattle Sanders who dropped seven on them. Touchdown at an extra point. And they lack the understanding of, and Shaq, you've been there of, all right, there's a two-game series. We may give up one, maybe two, but that's it. We're shutting it down. We'll take it back and take our chances in Mexico, and they leave themselves exposed. They don't know a different way of playing than how they do by combining numbers and trying to overwhelm you with possession in the flanks or in that final third. And in so, Shaq said it, they leave themselves exposed. And when you can't control exposure in that defensive third against teams that thrive under that, against teams that just want to rope a dope you, like LAFC has no problem if you have the ball. They feel comfortable in that. Seattle Sanders, they feel comfortable in that. There are a majority of teams within Major League Soccer who feel comfort in not having the ball. That's when they get themselves in trouble. They don't know how to change and play differently. To that point, there's a saying within football that you can't lose a two-legged tie. You can't win a two-legged tie in the first leg, but you can certainly lose it. Absolutely. Things aren't going your way. You've just got to shut things down. Today is not our day, but we can't afford to lose the tie in this first 90 minutes. And that's what cruises all things we're not going their way. And rather than try to adjust and just shut it down and keep themselves in it, they continue to play it as though it was all going to be decided on the night. And in the end, they probably have lost this two-legged tie over the course of 90 minutes, unless LAFC do something silly, which I do not. Even if they do something silly, Shaq, it takes one LAFC goal, and now Crissel has to score four. You see this as it's done for Crissel. It would be... Yes, it's done. Yes, it would be the most humiliating fashion of a failure, fracasso, a letdown for LAFC, if they... Crissel even made this close, to be honest. This would be historic if Crissel turns this one. And we've seen this before within the North American landscape, whether it was a Canadian team like the Montreal Impact back in the day, going to Torreón with a three-goal lead, and then having that unravel, or whether it was certain teams doing so within Major League Soccer and having it unravel on Mexican soil. Mexican teams are very good in Mexico, and Major League Soccer teams, not so much. Yeah, we'll have to see if they can take advantage of this, but it seems very, very tough here for Crissel to really turn things around. Mentally wise, historically, we know this team very well, and it will take a monumental change, which is tough to see maybe Eri Gleedah in a different position, like you said, playing out of position, but it's tough to see someone get beaten so easily on pace. We talk about LAFC, and Perisabeth was whispering right now about LAFC, and rightfully so, but LAFC doesn't have to play against one of their biggest rivals, or their biggest rival this weekend. Cruz Azul does. Cruz Azul has to contend with Club América in La Ricanon after another embarrassing defeat at the hands of a Major League Soccer team. Now has to play against Club América, and you know how things are in Mexico, Cris, if he doesn't get a favorable result, or it's a humiliating result. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Yeah, it's tough. It seems like a lot of the pressure obviously is for Club América, and that we will get into here in a little bit with that result, but we know that the pressure is also very much. The Concordcalf Champions League, now for the future of these coaches, has become significantly more important over the years, so it's not just another game here for Cruz Azul. Let's take it into some more quarterfinal action that we saw leg one another. Mexican team versus MLS here, Toluca versus LA Galaxy. Let's take it into the 12th minute. Federico Pereira here plays a sensational overhead pass. Nicolás Castro brings it down, cool, calm, collected, her. Yeah, it's easier. It looks like an easy finish. It is not. He brings this down, it is bouncing, he's at full speed, and he just smashes it wide, side netting. Just reads that perfectly. 43rd minute, Jesús Angulo setting up Paulinho here. It's another great build up to the 2-0 lead here, Shaq. How about that? Toluca just still got on the counterattack here. Getting bodies forward quickly with pace, no real hesitation in getting the ball forward vertically, and with pace, Paulinho tapping in after a very awkward finish, but comfortable finish. Yeah, with how LA Galaxy's defenders were looking it seemed like it was going to be an easy night for Toluca until LA Galaxy bringing one back, Kirk. Gabriel back, there is life. He catches a goalkeeper sleeping, cheating. Shaq, you can't cheat like that. No, you can't do that. 73rd minute, Paulinho, arriving to the right. But this time trying to get it clear, but no, Toluca 3-1. Ball just seems to find him. Gets a deflection on Paulinho, who just continues to run from the top of the box, Paul's perfectly for him. Nice finish. 77th minute. Galaxy trying to get another one back. Lucky bounce here, Kirk. Lucky bounce, misfortune, it goes in, and that's a second away goal. There is life. There is life indeed. Toluca said there's life. Let's try to bring some life back to us. What an interesting play, Shaq. Yeah. What an interesting, what a weird goal. Paulinho, I thought he'd gone for goal first time, but then it just kind of pings around, and he just blocks the clearance and goes in. I guess they all come. Yeah, strange results indeed. Let's take it into some more quarter-final action. First leg, Dígarez versus Seattle Sounders. 44th minute, Otholo concedes a foul, though. Here in the 44th minute. Yeah, take a look at Linus. Linus goes past him, says across. Look at here, he falls down, and he comes back on the field till they stop play. This is the era of Var. Watch Nohutolu and just stomps over that ankle right there. Var catches it, and we're going to the spot. Yeah, so it looked like it was gonna be smooth sailing, but sailing Shaq over the goal. For Anca, yeah. I got Correa. Goes for power, just overcooks it. 51st minute. My goodness. No problem though, Hurac, how about this way? How about this? Go right down right here, watch us. Back heel, no silly, Herrera. The way he finishes it off is deserving of such a beautiful assist. Again, this little cheeky back heel, that's 90% of the goal. I completely agree, Herrera does a good job at making sure that hits the back of the net. Dígarez up, one nil, 76 minute. Jackson Reagan though, into the back of the net. Two nil for Dígarez, Shaq. Just powering in, nobody checks his run. Defending line, can't react in tap. Tough deflection there, tough for Seattle. They're down at two nil. How about Nashville here, welcoming in a club, America to their house. Seven minutes, Hany Mukhtar Shaq takes a deflection, Rodolfo Cota on it, Hurac. Yeah, Cota has a bit of a misfortune here. He tries to cradle in, kinda goes unlikely away from him, corner kick, but that's a Nashville show and they're worth. Yeah, America trying to open things up. Alex Zendijas, good goalie action on this one, Shaq. I'm gonna see if Zendijas comes in, three legs of defenders, makes it awkward, but one you'd expect to keep it to me. And Nashville was still knocking on the door, Sam Sturge brought down in the box. Rep says no penalty here. Yeah, Sturge had a couple of chances where probably won too many touches and makes a meal of it, that was one of them. 90 second minute, Alex Mule, the light run into the box, puts it over the ball, Shaq. The defenders coming out to him makes it awkward, but still had time to pick a spot, but overcocks it yet again. So a nil-nil results will have to see who benefits more from their results, but I will ask this first, Shaq, which MLS team has the best shot to advance to the semifinals? I go for Nashville, I go for Nashville because in the Ougos, in this competition, Ougos count, you go to Club America, you get one and all of a sudden, it's a very different game. This is harking back maybe five or 10 years ago in European football, European club competitions. This was a regular tactic for many coaches, who was a marino for some reason, springs to mind. In the first leg, especially when you're at home, a nil-nil is a good result because you go on the road and one goal changes the entire complexion of the tie. This is making me think of those moments. So I go Nashville as being the most likely of that three to go ahead. It's funny because what Shaq is talking about, I could not agree with more. Think about this, if you had the choice of hosting the first leg or the second leg, most would say, host the second leg. Not if it's zero-zero and you didn't get an away goal, all the pressure is on you. So now Nashville has the ability to say, well, let's push forward because even if they score on us, we can give one up. We can play freely. A one-one tie is still gonna allow us to go through on away goals. So the team right now with the advantage, in my mind, is Nashville. And the team with the pressure, not just because they're the bigger team, not just because they're playing at home, is Club America. And if we also see the overall balance of the first leg, Nashville was a better team. Nashville was more dangerous. Nashville, on every transition, looked like a dangerous team. I mentioned Serge and how many touches he had and kind of squandered things. I don't think he will squander things the same way. If he gets the same opportunities presented to himself, I think a player like Christian Espinosa, running at Club America in transition, could be very dangerous. Hanim Mooktar, former league MVP, I don't need to explain why he could be so dangerous. And the moment of Club America, Club America is not in a good moment right now. They don't feel confident. The Brazilian players they've brought in in their transfers have not been up to snuff. There are massive doubts about this Club America. They lack punch. They have no nominal nine playing at the moment. Batu Salas is a 9 1 1 1 1 10, really. Doesn't play their young guy. Henry Martin isn't playing. La Pantera Sunica is a guy they don't have trust in, who comes in when he comes in. It's a team right now, low on confidence. And I repeat, they've got Cruz Azul this weekend. And that could be a massive game for Andrés Jardine, the Club America coach. And Nicolás Larcamón, the Cruz Azul coach. Yeah, that was the next question I wanted to ask you. I know you heard because we know that America has kind of, they've always put the pressure on themselves, right? Any tournament that they dispute, they have to win, barn on, there are no excuses. But this one in particular, if they're out, especially at this point in the competition, because they're hoping for a final and an international title finally for America, Andrés Jardine is out if America is out. He may just leave on his own at the end of the season, no matter what. I don't think this America has the luxury. They've gone all in. They've allowed Andrés Jardine to pick his transfers for the first time. He brings in a string of Brazilian players. That's not work. I think they'll give him to the end of the season. And then he'll go right off into the sunset, like the legendary coach that he's been in the last three and a half years within Club America and what they've had. Three Pete, four straight finals. That'll be that. But in terms of international competition, this international quest for a Concave Champions Cup or a League Cup, it'll be another falcasso. Again, at the hands of Nashville, I don't know if people remember about maybe a year and a half ago, two years ago, we might have been sitting in this very same show and we were talking about the penalty kick shootout is over between Nashville and between Club America and Nashville loses. And then the referee goes, hold up, bring it back. I know you guys are celebrating, but we're gonna bring it back two minutes later. Nope, he moved off the line. Let's redo this. And then it's Nashville who ends up winning. So there's a little bit of history here. A little bit of skeletons in the closet between these two. And I don't like the matchup for Club America in terms of fights, in terms of styles. Yeah, absolutely. Nashville has much less to lose than Club America does at this point in their season with Andres Jardine, who at this point doesn't have to prove anything else here to the fan base and to Club America in general. We do want to remind you that ESPN FC is available daily on ESPN Plus. From 30 for 30 podcasts. Brian Padda, senior defensive lineman from Miami. Gunned down. The key to this case, it's Brian. Oh, my God. An hour before he died, he was on the phone arguing with somebody. This might be a hit. You want the truth. They just want a conviction being placed under arrest. We had a killer amongst us. Murder at the U. Listen now. Yeah. I'm a kid who was nowhere near the picture to being so close to a World Cup, you feel for him. Yeah. Because the last thing the player wants is to have, it be taken away this way. I'm not about speculate here, but it looks very Achilles tendon-like. It looks very Mr. World Cup-like. Well, yes, yes, yes. Absolutely, though, sadly for him. And we don't quite have the updated information, but what I would say is that if it is down that path, then sadly for Patrick Ajamon, it becomes the end of the road in terms of potential being part of the World Cup team. Yeah, unfortunately, all three of you were on the money. This is news that we hate to see. USM and T's Patrick Ajamon will officially miss the 2026 World Cup after suffering a serious Achilles tendon injury on Monday in Derby's 2-0 win over Stoke City. Now, Derby in a statement said, quote, at this stage, it would be wrong to put a timeline on his recovery. Ajamon, who has scored 10 goals since his arrival last summer and has helped with potential Premier League promotion, but obviously our focus is on the USM's national team. Herk, you even said it on Monday. This is something that really just hurts. You hate to see it for any player and so close to the World Cup. Every footballer's dream is to play in the World Cup. It's the pinnacle. It's what you dream about. It's what you want to achieve. And he was nowhere near the picture about a year ago. And he starts in the summer series gaining some momentum, playing some games because of the confidence of Marisa Pochettino. It makes a big move and it starts banging in goals. And I repeat the profile. He is so different to the rest. So whether he was your cup of tea or not, that set him apart. And he said, you know what? In a pinch, in the time I need, this could be a guy that maybe Marisa Pochettino turns to. Now he won't be in the picture, but as we've learned in the past, somebody's misfortune could be somebody's gain. So let's get to that because we know that this has kind of been the constant struggle. The number nine, the depth chart that sometimes is nice and extensive, but most of the time it's been a little bit short. So we're going to put you, I don't even want to say to the test. I mean, you know this line up pretty well here. So let's go with your striker depth chart. Let's start with your number four, Herg. With my number four. All right. One, two and three. We know who the guys are. Maybe the order changes, but we know who the guys are. Four and five. Should we start with one, two and three? You want to do that? Because I think that's going to be, I don't think there's any drama here. Let's build this up. It's TV. Okay. It's Faller and Balagan. Flo's an unbelievable moment. It's been quite some time that you've had a nine who's really put it together completely. Been that package and that is Faller and Balagan. He started off very slow. It was a slow burn. His biggest moment of yet was a goal versus Panama at Copa America. And you know what? I take that back. He had a Mo, a Geo-Rena against Canada in the Nations League final. That was it. And you're like, when is he going to explode? When are we going to see that Faller and Balagan that we were promised? You're starting to see it. Champ is he he's banging in goals. He's got PSG as one of his hijos. He owns them. This is a player who's coming into his own with the national team. And he's shown a pension for linking up with the most talented players in your squad, Christian Polisic, Giovanni Reina. He's a clear cut number one right now. Okay. Yeah. I know you've particularly liked him with Christian Polisic. And if Polisic is happy, US men's national team in general is happy. Who's your number two? Okay. Number two. So Faller and Balagan is a player that has the ability to separate himself from the pack because of what he can do 1v1 and how he can link up play. This player has an ability to separate himself out of the pack because he's a poacher. He's a goal scorer and he finds the ball in the area and all types of way off of his head with the right foot, the left foot in movement, in transition, on set pieces. I'm going to go with Ricardo Pepe. I think Ricardo Pepe gives you a good six sense in and between the box. He knows how to move and you give him chances. He's going to bury it. And that's the one thing I think he has over the other strikers is he doesn't require a lot of chances. He's a goal scorer. He's a poacher. He's my number two at the moment. Okay. Okay. So before we get to your three and four, I think a lot of our viewers are asking where if you're listening on our screen, we have players like Christian Polisic, Weston Rikini, and Timothy Wea. Yeah. I mean, the question is, do you want to know why? Do you want to know why? And I will ask you. Do you want to know why? Okay. It's very easy. Josh Sargent is nowhere near the picture. He went to MLS. He just scored a goal, by the way, but it seems like he's on the outs. He's been a far cry from his usual stuff when he was banging him in the championship, a player who made an appearance or two at the World Cup. Exit was not good. Damien Downs, same thing, not really in the conversation. So you're thinking to yourself, if he's going as far as using Christian Polisic as a false nine, well, he'd probably do the same thing with Timothy Wea, who has a penchant for playing there, or Weston Rikini, who's Paletti, his coach at Juventus, has said, is the perfect striker. So that could be a possibility. But who are we kidding ourselves? Haji Wright, and I could be doing Haji Wright in the service. He could be number two, and he is out of this trio of forwards, the only forward with a World Cup goal. Let's not forget that. The only forward with a World Cup goal. And I mentioned Faller and Balagant and his link up play with Christian Polisic. This is Christian Polisic's boy. They played U17s together. They know each other from back on the day. Actually, Christian Polisic is a big reason. He was called in in the first place. And if memory serves me and you correctly, in one of his first games, there's a penalty kick. Christian Polisic gives him the ball. Haji, my boy, you take it. They understand each other. And this player right here, he's got a distinct ability of playing multiple positions, and he could still be a goal scorer. So even if he's not at the nine, there are ways for him to come in and affect the game. He wasn't here last camp though. Yeah. And this is the last camp. These players had a case to make with Marisa Pochettino. And maybe that means that Ricardo Pepe didn't fare too well because he played the least out of all the forwards, but he was there. Or maybe he's already convinced what Ricardo Pepe can do and wants to see maybe who else is on the bubble and could pop that bubble and make the roster. Ricardo Pepe, Haji, right? I mean, we know that Marisa Pochettino maybe hasn't been able to see them as much. We know they've struggled with injury historically, especially when Marisa Pochettino took over. So the question mark remains at your number four, the drama up to this moment. Who is your number four? All right. Christian Polisic has proven that he is not a number nine. He's not a false nine. He doesn't feel good with his back to goal. He was beaten up against Portugal. He was very frustrated. I don't know if you remember him kicking Vitinha. That's how frustrated he was in this game. He's best when he gets to face players up. He's best when he gets to control and go out. When he gets to link up with the player, who is with his back to goal? That's not Christian Polisic. Leave him out of that. Western McKinney, do I really want to move Western McKinney out of a deep line position? Because he is best when he attacks the box. The goal from midfield. That second line arriving late. Why do you want to take away his best trait? We're not going to do that. But something about Tim Wey or something about his ability just be so direct. If you go back to the World Cup 2022 and think about the goal versus Wells, down the heart, down the spine in transition. He's a guy that's got a good sense for goal. He leads the line very well. And I don't know if you've ever heard of his dad, George. Look him up. Pretty good forward in his time. I think he might have learned a thing or two. That would be my flyer right now. There's no Brandon Vazquez. There's no Josh Sargent. To me, there's no Damien Downs in the picture. This is pretty much what you got. And if you want to add one of these guys, fine. If you want to add a Christian Polisic or Western McKinney, fine. I don't think he's going to go that route. It would be like this. Timothy Weyer would be your fourth man in, odd man out, if you'd like. I think there might be something there. I don't think we'll get to there. I don't think it should be an option. But if you ever had to go that option, out of these three, I would go Iceman. Timmy Weyer. All right, so not the traditional number nine then. But if he is there, then there's a spot open somewhere in the roster. Do you see somebody benefiting from that? Well, any time you move one of these three players, you're going to get a benefit to the likes of Alejandro Sendeja, Brendan Aaronson, that type of player, Malik Tillman, that type of player, because they're going to have a spot guaranteed underneath. They're going to have a spot guaranteed within a wide role. We still don't even know. Look, I know we're thinking that Pochettino's married to three centerbacks. He says four. I think it's three. To the wingbacks, that can go out the window. We've not seen natural wingers that can go out the window. He's shown he doesn't care what we think, what you think. He will try things. So if a natural winger or wide player or vertical player like Timothy Weyer is out of that equation being put up top, it opens up an opportunity for somebody else. And Dejas is your boy. I think he would do pretty great in the World Cup, giving the opportunity. Double six, eight, out wide as a nine and a half, as a 10. He's your guy. All right, here are our guys. Gavin Jules, The Gavin Jules Show, available on ESPN's Pod Center and Apple Podcasts. ["Mine, One, One, Where's the Emergency?" It's the middle of the night in a small town on the Jersey Shore. Someone reports an abandoned car on a bridge. A search gets underway for the missing driver, 19-year-old Sarah Stern. Is it a missing person? Is it a suicide? At this point, nobody knows. Old friendships, buried cash, and a sinister plot that was once pitched as a movie plays out in real life. I'm Juju Chang from 2020 and ABC Audio. Listen now to Bridge of Lies, wherever you get your podcasts. All right, onto some interesting news from FIFA. I don't know how else to put it, but they're under fire after World Cup ticket buyers accused the entity of misleading them with stadium maps. Now, FIFA priced their tickets into four categories, category one being the most expensive, but now some of those category one ticket holders were placed in category two sections in some stadiums. The color coding was confusing, so a lot of fans have been left confused by the price they paid versus the seats they were allocated. So it all just kind of seems like a jumbling mess of confusion, shak, reading this, how surprised were you to see this, or what did you think initially from the news? It kind of goes along with so much about this World Cup. Jumbling mess of confusion, I thought that's as well as I've heard it ever put. Because I'll be honest, listen, it's been one trial after the next with this World Cup, and for any number of reasons. The amazing thing to me is that FIFA are now adding to those issues of their own doing, of their own accord. This was always going to be a difficult period to navigate for reasons that I don't need to get into on this show. The one thing you hoped, given the spectacle that it is, that it always is every single four years, that FIFA would have figured this out by now, understand what it means to the fan base, and how to make this a seamless process as possible for those fans from all four corners of the planet. Yet somehow, it's been gone horribly wrong as well, in a way that I can't explain. And it just seems to be, again, centered around how can we make as much money as possible out of this? How can we get another dollar out of the fans who have been saving for four years and planning for four years, praying that their country qualifies so that they can be here, and now we are left even more confused than before. Not quite sure what we're looking at. And again, with everything else that fans have to navigate, you would have thought tickets would have been the most simple and straightforward of those issues. You know why it happens, Shaq? Because people will pay for it. Yeah, but that... And I'm not saying that's correct. That's why. It's not a good why. It's not a good why, but we've been to World Cup, Shaq. I was fortunate enough to go to a World Cup as a player, and you think you understand it. You don't really even realize you're there. And it goes by in a blur, and you have no idea what's going on, and the fan fest, and the actual fans, and how they're enjoying, and the actual feeling of being in a World Cup. As a player, you don't really understand it. It's great being inside the stadium, being on the field, and hearing your national anthem, and hearing and seeing the crowd. That is an amazing moment, but you have no idea what a World Cup is. You really don't. You cover it, and you go as a fan when you cover it, and you see the fan fest, and you see the people, and you see the celebration, and you see how they come together. And I'm sitting there, and I'm covering the United States, I'm covering Mexico, I'm covering the World Cup, and I have people who take second mortgages, people who take out short-term loans, people who sell what they have. It's bucket list. And go without having tickets, and they'll come up to you, help me get tickets, do you have tickets? And like, what do you mean? You came halfway around the world without a ticket, and they don't care. They wanna see their team, they wanna be part of it. Bucket list is what you used. Yes, absolutely. And because of these people, and how FIFA sells, and not just FIFA, how the game is being sold on nostalgia, they take advantage of it. I am still an LA resident. I had the ability to purchase tickets for the Olympics. I go in, I look at women's finals for soccer at the Rose Bowl. There's about 100,000 people, less capacity, 90 something thousand at the Rose Bowl, okay? Category C tickets, $520. There is $125 and six cent fee, service fee attached to my ticket. And it's not just the Olympics, it's not just the World Cup. I feel for people. You go to a concert. You go out and you're a family man. You have kids. I'm a family man. Anything you do now costs money. Anything you do now, it feels like they're trying to take advantage of you. And the one, the one game you think it wouldn't happen because it's the world's game is this. And it feels like it's happening. I'm not accusing them because I don't have all the details. But it feels like we are being taken advantage of. And that's disheartening. That's not why we got into this game. That's not why these people, sell everything they have to go see their team. Yeah. I have lived and breathed the sport since I was 11. It's very, very specific, but that's a year that I really just started to get into the game. I've never been to a World Cup as a fan. I've never had the opportunity in my career to cover it. And now that it's on home soil and we live a train ride away from where the final is going to be, seemed like a brilliant opportunity. And I didn't even try to get tickets. I didn't even venture to try to figure out how to, not because I knew this was going to happen, but I guess part of me just didn't want to be disappointed with the price that I was going to pay. I didn't care what game I went to. I just wanted to say that I went to the World Cup. But I think it's also a reflection and a consequence of how the game is being sold constantly, not only from FIFA, but we're seeing it from the entire world. FIFA, I think, is the worst at doing it right now. And like you said, taking advantage of the fan, but the term milking it, I think it takes it even a step further, right? You're really just taking everything that the fan, the true fan is willing to do and you're milking it. And then a lot of people who go to the games are doing it just for the social media aspect of it. And that's something that we won't get into because it just kind of gets into muddy territory. But it truly is disappointing. The Athletic, by the way, who wrote this article, really just detailing the experience of these fans that kind of realized that the price they paid wasn't going to be worth it. But, Shaq, I think you said it perfectly because it's something that we were talking about it in this way and where we're disappointed, but we knew this was a strong possibility. We want to be proven wrong. We really, really do. But this World Cup just already has a bitter taste. It does. But here's the other aspect to this. I wonder once it starts, if we can forget about it. If we can forget about a lot of the issues and the challenges and we're more worried about them right now, feels more scary now, I'll say this. In 2022, there were a lot of questions about Qatar's hosts and any number of issues, social issues around that. I thought they put on a wonderful tournament. 2018, similarly, Russia, we had a lot of questions about Russia as hosts and their records and human rights and a number of different issues. That tournament went off and we loved it. And so you just wonder if in recognizing that is why FIFA, and it's not just FIFA, by the way, everybody's kind of jumping in on the back of this. I live in Massachusetts now. Foxborough is a host stadium. Three days ago, they put out a notice that transit was up to go from this because Foxborough is well outside the city. To go from Boston to Foxborough would have been $60 or something. 25. No, it might be. And it's going to go during the course of the tournament, it's going to go up about three-fold or something. Now and all, again, that is not FIFA, but it just kind of leans into... Yeah, it's just applied demand. Yeah, how everything about this tournament is progressing. Not defending FIFA, but we love to see FIFA as the entity, the big bad wolf. Brazil had its host of problems as well and there were government officials taking money to use it on things that they didn't really need. South Africa, the same deal. Russia, you've already mentioned. We can go here and trust me, we're all part of this circus and it feels... No, we are. It feels like the everyday individuals are one missing out. It feels like if you have means, you'll just discard it as capitalism and nothing matters. But it does leave a sour taste in your mouth when the game you grew up playing isn't the game you're seeing today, but there's a reason that these prices are going around. 1994 is still to date, the most successful men's World Cup in the history of the game. Over three and a half million people turned up at the gate. They're projecting anywhere between six and seven million this go-around. You mentioned Qatar and all the problems in Qatar. If we do a ranking of the best World Cups on the field, Qatar's gonna be up there. It really would. It would be up there. The finals, probably the best final we've ever witnessed. And I agree with you. I think in spite of everything that we've experienced about Qatar, we've experienced about some of these countries, it went off at the World Cup as best as they could have imagined, I think. But it's, and again, I'm not defending. It just feels like no matter what we do, it's just be said in vain. The other aspect to this, that I am not privy to these kinds of details. But if you wanna draw comparisons with 1994, more and more the lion's share of revenues comes from TV, from the broadcast rights. So while those, and they continue to get larger and larger with each cycle, exponentially larger. So my question would be, if those TV revenues continue to grow as they are, continue to command as much of a percentage of revenue as they are, there isn't that need to continue to hike prices up as a result. Because the difference, the difference, well, yes, it's more money in your coffers, but as a comparison or as a percentage, it becomes lesser and lesser. And it takes away from that fan experience. So as those TV rights revenues grow, can't you keep those prices a little more reasonable? So the true fan who has traveled halfway across the world to see their team, probably thinking their team is only gonna be playing three games in this tournament. Can't you make that more accessible to them? Yeah, and producer Beto just told me that Foreign Office Sports is reporting that the LA Fan Fest will not be free. No, so I've never experienced a Fan Fest myself. But in 2006, my wife and kids went to Germany. The Fan Fest were free. Now, trying to be able, we were all to the group stage as a team, we went back to Trinidad. So I did come back to Germany for the latter stage of the tournament, but at this point, everybody's gone. The vast majority. And my wife speaks about that Fan Fest in the most glowing of terms. Now, while, well, in 2006, 32 teams in the tournament, vast majority of them, if they get to the group stage, that's a bonus. They're there for the experience, right? In any World Cup, you have maybe 10 teams who think we might get to semi-final, five or six, maybe we get to a final. Everybody else is just there for the experience. Now, my wife talks about going to the Fan Fest, walking and people from every country have their booth set up. And it is a matter of national pride. Come taste our food. This is our music. Explain everything about their culture. This is well away from the game. People are there to represent who they are, to show the best of their countries in these Fan Fests. Now it's become a money owner. And again, that just takes away from the essence of what the World Cup truly is. Final thoughts? I don't think I've been to a Fan Fest. I'm trying to think Russia. I went to Champions League Fan Fest. Did not do the Fan Fest. And Qatar, while they were Fan Fest, just didn't feel like a Fan Fest. I don't know what your experience was like in Qatar, but the areas that our studios were in and around, it felt like unless it was a V-game day, there wasn't that environment, if that makes sense. Yeah, so I couldn't tell you what it would take and what they're missing when it comes to a Fan Fest. Yeah, I went to Fan Fest of Swartz in 2014. I did an internship in Buenos Aires. I was there for the summer. Argentina amazingly, you know, amazingly I mean about the timing, not that they would make a final, but played that final in Germany. And we went, you know, I went to Fan Fest with my friends and that's a core memory for me. And just kind of living the experience, obviously not being in the stadium for the final. It wasn't in Argentina. It was very close to Argentina, but we were poor students. But still being able to live that experience is something that I just hold in my heart and I can talk about on television today. Yeah, it's sad, but hopefully this is kind of, we're living like the transitional moment, the push and pull and hopefully by 2030, which also seems to be very old. The good thing it's only soccer, that's expensive now. Oh yeah, I know, right? Yeah. Not gas prices or anything, especially outside this state. I want to remind you, this is something accessible to you all. Barcelona, first Espanola Saturday, 12 30 PM Eastern on ESPN plus, Sevilla versus Atlético de Madrid, Saturday, 3 PM Eastern on ESPN plus. You're here already, might as well stick around this weekend. Marcell Ruiz, speaking of the World Cup, had been ruled out of the tournament with the torn ACL, but now Ruiz is working to come back in three weeks for Toluca after his injury was upgraded to a partial torn ACL. Therefore Ruiz was able to avoid surgery and the World Cup could still be in his future. Here's what his coach, Antonio El Turco Mohammed, had to say about his possible return. For Marcell, he has to do what his heart tells him to do. So I would do the same thing, if I had a ball I would spend it. So we'll see what happens. We'll see. These days, this week, it will be a decisive one for him and that it will be the best. We won't put any pressure on him, it's a decision that will be made and that will be the best thing for him. We won't put any pressure on him, it's a personal decision, obviously it's his body and we're supporting him in everything. Well, fate will tell. Well, why is Marcell Ruiz trying to come back in three weeks time? He's trying to prove to the national team coach that he can play on a partial torn ACL and be taken to the World Cup any footballer's dream. That's what you dream of. The moment you kick a ball, the moment you find out what a World Cup is, that's what you want to do. And he just won his starting position this summer. On that Gold Cup team, that won the Gold Cup for Mexico, he just earned his starting position and he's been keeping it. And in the midst of all this uncertainty, this player doesn't show up, this player doesn't show up, we don't know who the right back is, we don't know who the goalkeeper is, we don't know about this defender, we don't know about... You knew about Marcell Ruiz. He was one of the few constants that the Mexican national team had and you thought you can count on. In comes in this ACL injury and somewhere along the lines, it gets into his head that he can play on a partially torn ACL. He's 25. He'll be 29 at the next World Cup. If that's in his future, maybe he doesn't want to take that chance. He's doing anything and everything to make it to this World Cup. Here's the issue. Sometimes you need somebody to save yourself from you. Sometimes you need coaches, doctors, somebody within that organization to say, this isn't safe. The next step is a need for an ACL and what it does is it protects the knee. You can sprint forward all you want, that's not going to affect your ACL. We saw it at the Olympics with Lindsey Vonn, downhill skiing. She looked good in the training videos, obviously a different age group. But the moment he needs to plant, the moment he needs to cut, the moment he's put into a high pressure situation, how will that knee hold up? It may not. Best case scenario, he makes it through the World Cup. Best scenario, he has for the world to see a moment that you could have just made sure did not happen. I'm hoping he realizes it's not worth it. I'm hoping he's safe about how he goes about this next three weeks of playing. And I'm hoping it goes well for him because there's a reason that most players, if not all, don't play on partially torn ACLs. There's a reason they get those reconstructed. Jack, thoughts? Yeah, when I read the news that he's thinking about coming back, I thought it absolutely bizarre. Even for a partially torn ACL, I didn't think that was at all any kind of a possibility. Yet here we are now. Again, so my assumption, looking from the outside, is that it was just the smallest of tears that somehow he... He's able to address and play with, or is able to heal. But it made absolutely no sense to me. I'm with her, come this, and I understand the need, if not the urgency, in wanting to play in the World Cup. But in four years' time, you don't want to... In chasing that dream, you don't want to kill all your others. Yeah. And that's my concern. That's a great point, Jack, because I know that we discussed a little earlier about the timing of it, right? He's 25 years old. We know that the World Cup is right around the corner. And this at the end, and I know we've had this discussion before, about it being a personal decision, but this is a radical decision at the end, her? I've been exactly where he is. Made my National Team debut, and then the following week, after I get back from Copa America, blew out my knee in a training session. And I didn't just think that my World Cup dream was over. This was 2007. I had three years to the World Cup. I thought my career was over. I thought I'd never be the same player. I thought this is it. Do you go into a dark place? If somebody would have handed me a lifeline, and said, hey, there's a possibility you could play, I don't know what I would have done. I don't know what I would have done. But I know that you need good people around you, and you need always somebody to save the athlete from himself. So you don't think you should go to the World Cup? I don't think it should be his decision. I think it should be a medical opinion. If there is really a doctor out there who says, as Shek put it, because I think it's very important, you play, you're not going to re-injure it. You're not going to make it worse. And the possibility of making it worse could include you are altered for the rest of your career. He's 25 years old. It's a long, long career ahead of himself. If that's a guarantee from a medical professional, then it's something that I maybe get behind. But I don't know which one's going to recommend that. 25 years old to have to make this decision when a few weeks ago things were looking very different for Marcel Ruiz. I'm sure the same thoughts are surrounding even the Mexican national team and the possibility of not having him. Before it was they're not going to have him at all. Now it's maybe they'll have them back. And now it's, is it even a good decision to give him minutes in the World Cup to take him if he's going to want to play the full 90, etc. But at the end we are not psychologists. We pretend to be, or at least I pretend to be sometimes. So hopefully at the end it would be the best decision for a very young 25 year old Marcel Ruiz with a long career ahead of him. But let's take it into tripping or tripping. I'm very interested in y'all's reaction to this. Nike's not to Jorge Campos. You know the legendary jerseys here from the bully. Colors were included. See, there you go. If you can walk around with the soles always showing, then yeah. Yes, absolutely. Drippin'. But since you can't walk around with the soles always showing, that's a better one. That is a better one. Those are so... That's a better one? Yes! Yes, that's a better one. No, I'm ready for this one. Those are flashshack! No, no, no, no. That's not out, shack! No, no, no. Yes, they are. Which ones do you see in your like Jorge Campos? The first ones or the second ones? Second ones. Of course. Second one. That's why I said that if you could just walk around with the soles showing, sure. Yeah. But you can't. Yeah, no, I'd go with the second one. Or with the... No, the Air Max 95s. You would wear the first one, shack. I'd wear the first one. Yeah, this would look cool on you. Those are the dunk-loaves. They just look like, you know, somebody let a kid loose with a turnip on their old trainers. No, no, no, that was all these jerseys, though. Yeah, but I don't... It just looks so together. This is such an opportunity, miss. Production should have had shack in one of the Jorge Campos uniforms. Oh, I had some doosies back in my day. Don't worry about that. I had some doosies. I need to see those. I need to see those. I had some doosies. I would have... The first ones, I'm having those all day. I don't know if I'll wear them myself, but I'm having those. These are dripping. The Air Max... Shep's kiss. Shep's kiss on those. All right. Some more World Cup news surrounding. This is really great because Katia and Cel Garcia and Cesar of Turramos, they were both named. They were both selected to participate and to officiate in the World Cup. But Garcia is not only among six women selected to officiate the World Cup. She will officially become the first Mexican woman to be a center referee in a World Cup. It's history. We absolutely love to see Cesar of Turramos. We know is already a veteran in this. All right. We do want to remind you we have a new hour on Football W. Every Tuesday now at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific on ESPN. Plus, we will see you there. But for now, we say our goodbyes. I would pay a lot of money to see Shaq wear the Jorge Campos Air Max's with the Jorge Campos jersey. You would though. You would. For us, you would. I'll charge a lot of money to wear them. Okay. Who's taking advantage of who now? We will be back on Monday. Thanks for hanging out. Huh?