and how that all fell apart uh really quickly but how about for you what has this adjustment been like i've been so used to doing games broadcasting games you were the face you are the face of the dynamo i still think i mean everybody considers you the face of the dynamo still um what has this transition been like and how have you adjusted to it

yeah look i i kind of felt it coming um a little bit because, you know, I was disappointed that when people are passionate about a game and they want it to be better, and in this case specifically, the MLS and NWSL product in Houston, I think when you get outside the, what would I call it, message management of the way these teams in MLS want it to go, You're treading in choppy seas, I think, a little bit.

I've been involved with the sport here since 84, since I was 22 years old.

I came here to play on a professional soccer team, which was very different at that time.

transitioned into youth coaching, spent a lot of years in that, got a break in television, decided to start a radio show.

All of this stuff was out of the pure passion and love of the game, which is more my generation, right? We grew up in New Jersey, me and my friends, and it was all about the game.

We were taught that by our coach.

But how do you kind of keep that path forward moving forward?

You know what story I'm talking

about.

You know what? This story is crazy, man.

And it was just kind of the bloopers of being a rookie.

Like, you know what I mean? Yeah.

You know, we had an opportunity to go overseas for our training camp.

And then the cool thing about our training camp, it had a theme.

You know, this is my first

And I don't think, I think

too at the time, Paul, I think what hit us and I understand what you're saying there is we sort of, we didn't grow out of the band.

There was no social media like we have now.

So we couldn't see from Australia, we couldn't see what was actually happening in America.

Yeah.

at the time and how big the band was because um i remember through that in excess.com i ended up um and i wasn't i've never been a computer savvy person but i got onto the in excess stuff straight away on the home computer and i ended up chatting in an in excess group to um to a lovely girl named dina who you guys might know, Dina.

She lives in Washington.

You both came to the second anniversary of the podcast, and we're six years, so, yeah, four or five years.

and uh i think we're on our way to class i said there was no time to really stop and chat but as fate would have it we found each other at lunchtime and started chatting and did you know this and did i know that and the conversation flowed on that

i remember i remember you you knew someone that took the photos of the band at the opera house and you had actual photos of it i remember you came into class and and showed me those pictures and i was in absolute awe of that and um Yeah, that was my third high school.

So in that 12 months, I can't remember what part of the year it was that I ended up at that school, at our high school.

But by that stage, I really didn't give a damn.

I was sort of very rebellious.

I was young.

I was fully into the Oz rock scene.

So you kept your job.

of how the Trump administration did, Andrew Giuliani, how all these games went off, and your thoughts of how we did hosting this World Cup here in America.

Well, I am a proud American, I can tell you that, because my father fought in World War II in Okinawa, was a Marine.

But I think the tournament was unbelievable.

I mean, the amount of effect it had on people all over the world.

I was doing these games for a world feed.

I was getting messages from Nepal and all these different places all over the world.

But the U.S. bought into this.

Glenn, your thoughts on what happened?

They stayed with it and added a second goal, which then we saw the next day England go the other direction.

Yeah, I think, well, first of all, Spain does it through possession and pressing, and they're never going to sit back.

I mean, that's just a mentality and a mantra that a team carries, and that's based on the way they play the game.

But I think what you have to add into this is that when you all of a sudden, in a game, 180 degrees, and I know this because it's happened to me, and of course it wasn't at a World Cup level, but When all of a sudden your coach tells you to go this way, drop off towards your own goal, it's a mental thing too, right? It mentally changes the way you're now looking at the game.

So now you're really just looking to protect, survive, defend.

And I will tell you, more times than not, this backfires.

So to do this... against Messi in Argentina, to me, was tantamount to suicide.

Really impressed with him and that entire team.

well and the state of texas will be in the center of the spotlight tomorrow uh with france and spain and i want to preview that for you but let's talk about how they both got here you called the spain game with belgium and then france has been the the most consistent and best team of the whole tournament what were your takeaways of both of those sides in their quarterfinal wins

yeah well let's start with spain um You know, Spain is just a great possession-oriented team.

They love the repress.

They love to control the tempo of the game.

Obviously, they have Laminia Mall.

I think Laminia Mall against France is going to have to really – he's a big piece to getting past France.

He's got to step up from the standpoint of actually scoring goals and more chance creation.

from being anywhere near this level of international soccer?

So for those who are just kind of getting into the sport, can you take us inside that decision, whether or not you agree with it, and just how rare it is to see something like that in a match?

Well, I'm probably like most everybody.

I didn't agree with it.

This is a center forward, Fowler and Balligan, who's been battling defenders the whole game.

You know, watching these games, and I think everybody might agree with this, and, of course, I'm calling them.

We see every game, every game, we see these slow-motion replays of guys that are missing a tackle, missing the ball, and are stamping on somebody's foot.

And nobody's getting sent off.

In terms of this U.S. team, Glenn, you know, outside of this red card of the impact it could have, the U.S. just being in the spot they're in, what has really stood out about this team compared to other U.S. teams in the World Cup? Why does it feel like this team is so much better than some of the teams we've seen over the last 30 years?

He gave us a preview of USA-Bosnia tonight from San Francisco.

Yeah, no safety net now.

Um, this is why, uh, the way this is set up, it's given us 16 games of consequence, right? It's pr- it's pretty amazing.

Um, every decision, every pass, everything gets magnified at this point.

Look, I expect the US to do what they did in the opener against Paraguay.

They know they're gonna have a deeper, depending, you know, sort of a 4-5-1 or 4-4-2 Bosnia.

Bosnia's gonna try to, to hit the US if they're over-committed in transition.

in the third match played their way into more playing time, played their way into maybe a substitution that wasn't made in the first two games?

I think there were players.

I think it was, number one, great.

You make nine changes.

I mean, you can't expect it to be cohesive, right? I think the best thing that came out of that is they remained aggressive and fought.

Some players scored World Cup goals.

People got minutes.

What happens if they don't, Glenn?

judged on the World Cup.

It's all great, the friendlies.

It's all great, the other stuff.

Look at some of the U.S. after the Paraguay or some of the reaction, not just U.S. fans, but fans.

Oh, Paraguay is not very good.

They're one of the best defending teams ever.

in South America and we went out and shredded them and won the game in the first half.

that can sprint.

Always fun to catch up with Glenn Davis.

Well, first off, Mark, good to see you.

It's always a pleasure coming on your show, and I, I always enjoy it.

Uh, I think overall, you know, the, the World Cup is getting, uh, uh, real high ratings right now.

I think what we've seen here in Houston is people coming to games.

Uh, they're, they're unified, fans from the different bases doing things together.

Uh, I think around the country it's been pretty remarkable, the support for the US team, who put out an iconic performance in their first game, where, um, they just absolutely shredded one of the best defensive teams in South America, in Paraguay.

[laughs]

But just for those of us and for the folks who are just sort of coming to soccer here in the World Cup as it's been in the United States, can you kind of contextualize how incredible it is that the run that Messi has been on in this World Cup and over the last few years?

I don't think I can, but I'll give it a try.

Because the man is extraterrestrial.

I mean, he's just out of this world.

The way he approaches a game, the way he sees things.

The one thing that I like telling people is he has not lost.

Like, we all have a shelf life, right? Athletes have a shelf life.

Seems like a great one so far.

Have your expectations changed at all, given how they looked in that match against Paraguay with Balaguna and how prolific he has looked?

My expectations were always quarterfinals, but I would love to see somehow the U.S. get to the semis and reset the bar again.

in history for our country.

And this can temper everybody because this will be something this group of players have done that no other group of players has ever done before.

So that's my first thing.

I would love...

I want a semifinal run, but first things first because it's only one game, right? But this was...

How much of that is potch? How much of it is the group collectively just being more mature than it was the last go-around? I

Have your expectations changed at all, given how they looked in that match against Paraguay with Balaguna and how prolific he has looked?

My expectations were always quarterfinals, but I would love to see somehow the U.S. get to the semis and reset the bar again.

in history for our country.

And this can temper everybody because this will be something this group of players have done that no other group of players has ever done before.

So that's my first thing I would love.

I want a semifinal run, but first things first because it's only one game, right? But this was...

To me, the most iconic game a U.S. team ever played.

How much of that is potch? How much of it is the group collectively just being more mature than it was the last go-around? I

I mean, is he, could he really be that kind of difference maker where he's the best player on the pitch against just about everybody?

We have to believe that he is incredibly talented.

Again, I think his biggest worry for me is durability and but incredibly gifted technical player.

And like I said, to have Dest doing the same thing on the other side of the field and Pochettino moving him higher was a stroke of brilliance.

Because then that counters Pulisic, right? If you have somebody equally as dangerous, and he was Dest, in that game on the opposite side of the field it becomes problematic for opponents but um it's been a lot of pressure on this guy he's taken a lot of criticism that i don't think he deserves i think he could have had a little bit more support from some of the former national team players but i think a lot of the buttons being pushed here are now being pushed by a coach who also was maligned a lot during this whole process, right? You know, what's he doing? You know, you got to have an American coach and all this.

I was really excited Pochettino got the job because we needed somebody with a fresh, fresh look at these players.

Not somebody from within the system, somebody from outside it.

So a couple of teams that are thought of pretty highly did not have the starts that were expected of them.

What kind of team is USA bringing to this event, and what should our expectations be of them?

So they're bringing a team that, in the history of the U.S. men's national team, has a core group of players in Europe on bigger clubs.

That's number one.

Also a core group of players that have been through a World Cup already, right? Because when we had that devastating World Cup where we failed to qualify in the last game against Trinidad and Tobago, it accelerated a lot of these younger guys.

So from my perspective, the expectation should be quarterfinals, or more based on the fact that you are a host country.

Um, and you got to raise the bar high and you have an opportunity in a group with Paraguay and Australia and Turkey to win the group.

And if you win the group and your pathway can become easier, but, but I don't think there's any other way to go than have high expectations.

Now, as someone like me who I know Messi and Ronaldo, who am I going to learn about in this tournament? Who is the big star that I might not have heard of and casuals may not have heard of but is going to be a household name?

How do you launch yourself from that 2-1 loss into the World Cup? Is there any mojo difference, or how do you see that affecting the team?

Yeah, I don't think – I think there were so many positives in that game for the U.S.

They outshot Germany 11-4.

We have to remember it's a friendly.

So either way, right, either way, you have to be careful.

You can be happy about your performance in that game.

They moved the ball really well at times.

Is that an accurate statement?

How big of a deal, and Glenn, we see this across the MLS, But how big of a deal do you think it is for Messi to be coming to Houston and for the crowd that might be there at the stadium coming up on Sunday?

Yeah, this is a huge deal.

So there's a couple things.

This will be the fourth time he's been here.

By the way, in the Copa America against the United States when they blew the U.S. out 4-0, he broke the Argentine goal-scoring record that Batistuta had with an amazing free kick.

Argentina loved coming to Houston, by the way.

I heard that from a lot of people who were in and around the team.

When are we going to see this team break through? with what we're calling our golden generation?