Transcript of Jessica Smetana Bullied A Psyop Off The Internet? | Hour 3 New

Denk an den 31. Juli!

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Last Call für deine Steuer!

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Bei Wieso Steuer? Das ist wie Steuererklärung, nur ohne Stress.

Ist das einfach?

Klar, macht fast alles automatisch.

Dauert das lange?

Nö, einfach per App.

Na dann.

Hol dir jetzt dein Geld zurück mit Wieso Steuer. Bis zum 31. Juli abgeben. You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App. Now live in all 50 states. Quick update. We were discussing Kevin O'Connor last segment and his comments on The Heat, and we saw guitars behind him and we wondered, are those just for style?

No, no, Chris, your father accused Kevin O'Connor of being a fraud and said he didn't play guitar and said he's done the reporting on it. It wasn't— it wasn't unclear. Your father called Kevin O'Connor a guitar fraud.

And I did some reporting on this and I saw that he had— has a Twitter account that he calls Kevin O Catch These Riffs. In which he releases videos of himself playing guitar. He hasn't released one since 2021, but they do exist.

Curious.

Why wouldn't he?

You know, long time between riffs. No, Greg is right there.

Like, it is a long time. It's been 5 years. You haven't posted anything.

I wonder why not.

But, but what would that mean?

Yeah, I'm gonna get to the biggest game in the history of U.S. men's soccer, uh, in a moment. But before we do that, I wanted to bring in Jessica here and have her settle some conversations and disputes we've had around here because Greg Cody just left the room moments ago and announced, I've never eaten half a donut. Put it on the poll, please, @LebatardShow. Have you ever eaten half a donut? And let's start there with Jessica. Jessica, you are a famous eater and you like, you like these kinds of goods too. So a donut, have you ever eaten half of one?

Never.

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, I don't know why you're thanking—

why is that something you would thank someone for?

Because Jess is supporting me.

Thank you, Billy.

You don't need half a donut. A donut's not that— it's a snack, if that. A donut's that—

I love eating a half a donut on a Monday. You know, the diet always starts on Monday.

You get the—

you see the donuts on a Monday, donut, and you're not— you know what, let's have a good week. We're gonna have a good week here.

We're gonna eat a half a donut.

Okay, right.

On Thursday, I mean, donuts today. Is that why this is— oh, were the cupcakes gone? What's going on there?

See, the media is totally burying this story.

We had an accusation filed that someone had eaten half of a donut, and we found through surveillance footage that it had been Rose. That Rose— we thought we had a lot of accusers. We had a lot of people who we thought were guilty. We did not have Rose as leaving half a donut.

Dan, it was more than just half of a donut. It was 3/4 of a donut that was eaten. Only a quarter of the donut left. So half a donut normal because you can cut in half, but somebody cut it into 3/4 of a donut. And the real breakthrough in our investigation was later on in the show when Chris Cody ate that donut off the floor, he had no idea that it was a garbage donut.

Yeah, it had been put in the garbage.

Yeah.

Okay, so 1/4 of a donut left tells me she said, "I'm only gonna eat half," and then it was so good she said, "Mmm, I just need one more bite." Been there.

Is Robin a superhero? Batman and Robin. Is Robin a superhero, yes or no?

He wears tights. I'd say yes.

Fork or knife for pizza? Fork and knife for pizza, yes or no?

Claws. Hands. I'm using my claws.

Fork and knife.

My feet.

Fork and knife for donuts, yes or no?

Never.

Best comedy of the last decade?

Bottoms.

Worst musical instrument?

Oh, I thought, I thought the question was going to be worst instrument. I was going to say the speculum, but musical instrument, I'll go with the clarinet.

The clarinet is worse than the harp, worse than the bagpipe, worse than the accordion.

I mean, by far. Yeah, I just— it connotes Squidward to me.

Worse than the harmonica.

The harmonica is great.

Harmonica is so cool, Dan. You're off base. You're using the blues. It's dumb. No, Stevie Wonder. Terrible.

You ever hear a bump, Dylan?

I think harp is like top 5.

You ever Hear of Bob Dylan, put it on the poll at lebaterrace.com.

I almost said that.

Stevie Wonder!

Greg is on the same wavelength today. I'm being told that you are a— and I did not have you being this— you are an internet bully, that you are somebody who grabs the pitchforks and runs off people from the internet by shaming them. I would not have guessed that you would ever be that person. What happened to make you that person?

Well, uh, you could go back to the, uh, C* days, Dan, when I may have accidentally bullied someone. I didn't mean to, though. But I retired my internet bullying days because I didn't want to be in the middle of an internet melee like that anymore. But then something happened this week, which I think I feel bad about, but I don't know, maybe you guys can tell me if I should feel bad about it or not. But it involves the World Cup and its most famous fan.

This Freddy person you guys have been talking about, is he the most— is he the most famous fan?

Well, to be famous you have to be recognizable. No one knows what this gentleman looks like.

Internet famous, I think, is its own category. I'd say he's the most internet famous. So Dan, I don't know if you've been following his escapades. We have mentioned him on the show a couple times, but he's a German fan who has been tweeting his way through the United States in shock and awe of all the wonderful things he's seen, such as the Buc-ee's, which we talked about a few weeks ago. But he, I mean, he really reached like peak American experience internet grifter territory this past week. Like, he's getting free stuff from celebrities, like J.J. Watt's involved somehow. Like, he really, he really kind of reached a peak and people started getting annoyed with him. I wasn't really annoyed with him, but I did think he kind of gave me CIA vibes because he was like going through small town America and tweeting about how wonderful America was and just doing the types of things that like, you know, the CIA would do if it were perhaps the 250th anniversary of America this upcoming weekend. They wanted to make people aware of how great this country was. And so there were a lot of people, it wasn't just me, it was a lot of people online saying like, this guy feels like he's, this is like a psyop, like this doesn't seem authentic anymore.

It doesn't seem like he's a German tourist who's in the United States for the first time experiencing things for the first time. But Dan, as I'm sure you know, Germany lost the other day. They lost in the knockout round, so they're out of the World Cup. And Freddie is, of course, a fan of Germany, so he tweeted about his disappointment in this. And, and he had tickets throughout the World Cup to go to all Germany's matches. Like, he was, he was hoping that they were going to at least make it to this upcoming weekend. Um, but he tweeted his disappointment, and I quote tweeted it, and I said, back to Langley you go. Now, I was not the only person making CIA jokes about Freddie, but I was the only person who— David Cavucci, the author of FOIA Ball, who's been on Pablo Torres' show before, um, this guy likes to do internet deep dives on people. Famously, he FOIAs athletic departments and writes about it on his, uh, college football newsletter. But he went back and went through some of Freddie's Twitter history, which as we know is never a good thing, and found a tweet And this tweet revealed that Freddie had been in the United States before, and in fact may have been in the United States a number of times before this trip.

So some of his wide-eyed admiration for the United States started to seem a little phony. But then if you really read the tweet where he is admitting he's in the United States, it actually gets worse because this tweet is about Americans using the N-word during rap songs at concerts that he's been to, and it's from 2023. So he got milkshake ducked pretty abruptly. And then within, you know, so I should, I should add context here. David found the tweet, quote tweeted it, that blew up, and then people started digging into some of his older, other older tweets. So then he completely deactivated his Twitter account. And so when I woke up yesterday morning and saw that he had deactivated his Twitter account, I didn't think it had anything to do with me until I read this week's newsletter in which It appears that David Cavucci finding my tweet calling him a CIA operative was what spurred him to go back into his Twitter. And so I indirectly led to him deactivating his Twitter account and ruined something.

It sounds like you guys were enjoying when you go straight to psyop. So you're giving this—

we stopped enjoying it, Dan. We stopped enjoying it. It was wide-eyed enthusiasm. Even that Confederate monument that he passed by, we could argue he didn't know it was Confederate. It was fine. It was fun. But then he would start landing into towns and started going with, "Uh, the travel issues. I'm not gonna get to see Germany." And then a line of companies and celebrities, "Freddy, we gotcha. Freddy, we gotcha. We're gonna help you out." And he's just posting all the cool stuff that he gets without ever posting himself. He wants all the benefits of celebrity while remaining completely anonymous Throughout the entire thing, my questions immediately were like, "Is this a plant?" I could see how it could be a plant, and then he kept acting like a plant.

But a plant.

And then before he deactivated his account, he's like, "I'm gonna go back to anonymity. The influencer life is not for me." Funny that you tweeted that from a G6, my man. And now he's deactivated. I'm not saying he's a plant, but this is plant-like behavior.

You guys are on the spectrum here from plant to military operative.

Like, what do you think's planted them?

Intelligence, intelligence operative, Dan. I think that, yeah, like, if you wanted to drum up enthusiasm about a very unpopular World Cup and drum up enthusiasm for European tourism coming to the United States and being impressed and enthusiastic about what the United States has to offer, this is probably what it would look like. We've seen, you know, I've read— I'm sure, Dan, you've read all these articles about these like bot farms and all of these marketing companies that are creating fake engagement to make things go viral now. Like, this is a whole thing using AI and technology to create fake viral things. So people are on guard, and I don't think that that's wrong. I do think, like, you know, you should have a healthy amount of skepticism and cynicism about everything. And do I actually think Freddie works for the CIA? No, in my heart, I don't think he does. But I do think he was doing this thing called, like, you know, farming or like, aura farming, whatever you wanna call it, where he's exaggerating his reaction to things to get reactions from people. And so he was able to do this, and now because of the way that our algorithms work and the attention economy works, Dan, he's able to get benefits from these things that most people don't have access to.

And so that's, I think, what turned people off to him was like, well, now JJ Watts getting him a luxury suite at a hotel in Houston, and he's getting offers to ride in private jets, and he's getting his, You know, everyone has issues with travel domestically in the United States, but he's getting special treatment. So I think that pissed a lot of people off. And then also the accusation that it wasn't authentic, whether, you know, you think he's a psyop or not, or you just think he's lying about his first time eating Raising Cane's or whatever it is. I think people really got turned off by the whole experiment. And then when you add on top of it these tweets where he revealed he was in the United States before and also thinks that in the United States, like it's fine when everyone yells the N-word at concerts during rap songs. And you can see why if he's a real person, he's like, I should delete my account and get off Twitter. And a lot of people, not myself, and that's why I'm asking, I don't know if I should feel bad about this. They're saying, well, we knew something was, something didn't smell right with this guy.

There was never a selfie vid. And look, people don't wanna be on the internet, they don't wanna show their face, it's a real thing. But there was nothing ever to humanize this person. There was no selfie, hello Twitter world. There was none of that. And here's my prediction. He deactivated his account, but we don't know what this person looks like, sounds like. We don't know anything about this person, or other than like he went to a concert and the n-word was flying around. I think this account comes back. It obviously has value. Someone can assume it. You'd be none the wiser.

This—

he has made money off of this. It's like the, the Dove NFL account. You can add this person, or whoever created this account is going to be able to make money off of this, sell it to someone else. Either they become one of these, you know, prediction market accounts and influencer accounts. They could start showing their face. You would never know, Greg.

Jess— Jess has done Pablo Torre style investigating here. I think she deserves a Pulitzer Prize for ferreting out this. $5.

Because let me tell you something—

wait, interrupt me. Let me tell you something. This is the biggest scandal since the Kevin O'Connor guitar scandal. And I think you have exposed this man. $5. You know what?

Not a hard scandal to be overcome.

I need to break a $10 and I didn't know how to do it, so now I can do it. This is like great. Worked out great. Are you kidding me?

Worked out, but it was a little rude.

I didn't like it still.

I know.

What did you need to break a $10 for?

Well, I tipped $5 to the valet downstairs.

Oh, okay.

And if we're being honest, he usually tries to break the $5.

I don't want— I don't want to get carried away and give a guy $10 for, uh, you know, a minute and a half work. You know, I miss that guy.

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Dan Levitar. I heard that as a woman faking pain. I didn't think that sounded real. I really didn't. You know?

It was not fake. It was in no way fake.

You can spot a woman faking it?

Great, Cody! Yes, I can, Jess. I've been married 40 years.

This is the Dan Levitar Show. Jessica, I'd like for you please to inform me because this is something, a distinction you just made. I thought that PSYOP was always military adjacent, not just intelligence agency.

They ran a couple on you then, huh?

So PSYOP is not always military?

I mean, I think they're, you know, I don't know if the distinction is—

It's psychological operations. It's not a military operation.

Understood. But when she kept saying PSYOP again and again, I'm wondering, how did this internet person become not just an intelligence agent but a military operative who's working with intelligence? That's what I do with PSYOP. But I, I'm genuinely asking you because I don't know. I think I'm getting it— I'm getting it wrong.

I think of something— well, but like, is the CIA completely separate from the military? I would say they work together.

They work hand in hand. But that's the intelligence.

So I think You don't need to— I don't think you need to make a distinction, Dan. It's all for the cause of promoting the United States in this case.

Let's move on to other subject matter here because I am just curious. I don't know where you are. I don't think you've joined us from this particular setting. New York— New York is totally insane right now. Are you in New York? Because this has been a pretty good month for New York.

I have an investigation— that's South Carolina. There's a Clemson logo in the back.

You're correct. I'm in South Carolina right now, but this has been probably the greatest June in the history of New York, Dan, because of the Knicks, obviously. The World Cup has the city abuzz. But Dan, what do you know about that Commissioner's Cup last night, huh?

Supreme for the libs.

There you go, Zazz. So now we've got a possible scenario where the— Mike, were you the one that called it the, the domestic double, or what were we calling it?

Yeah, the Knicks won the treble. They won the NBA Cup, the Eastern Conference and the NBA championship. That's a treble.

So we could get that for the Liberty as well, although their playoffs are, are differently set up. But we could get a Commissioner's Cup for the Liberty and then a, a Liberty championship in the same season that the Knicks won the NBA Cup and then won the NBA championship. Dan, that would be— I think this would go down as the greatest year in the history of New York basketball in the city. I don't know how you could top it.

Where is your fiancé in terms of being still sedated from the Knicks winning? Is he a— is he an altered human being? Is he still floating around a little more sunshine than usual?

Um, I asked him about this the other day because I was like, you seem like you kind of have just resumed your typical behavior and feelings and emotions about things. And he was like, no, I have basically thought about it every second of every day for the last, like, you know, 2 weeks. And I said, okay, fair enough. Um, I think there's, there's consternation about like what's going to happen with, with Mitchell Robinson now and hit it, aprons and all of that.

I have Mitchell Robinson news.

No, what is it?

Free agent center. According to Sham Sharania, Mitchell Robinson has agreed to a 3-year, $47.4 million deal to sign with the Boston Celtics.

Whoa. Wow.

Oh, that's gonna bring down the vibe a little bit.

Uh, the—

how would the vibe— how would the vibe work? I mean, they're reigning NBA champs. They've— we've spoken to Knicks fans, they never wanted in on LeBron, and all that stuff was justified. They won the NBA championship. Where are you on this LeBron thing? Miami, Cleveland, does it impact the Knicks at all? Do they even care?

I think, I think Maybe. Yeah, it definitely impacts the Knicks. I don't know if like, I don't know how much they care really because they won a championship. Obviously you get addicted to winning. You want to win more. Like, you know, was, was 2 enough for Heat fans during the LeBron era? Of course not. You want, you wanted not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4. Dan, remember famously. But I do think, yeah, he's probably going to end up on a team that they will have to face in the playoffs, which will stink. I think the Warriors would have been— everyone would have just kind of been like, okay, cool. Yeah, that's, that's fine. And it would have been more fun for the Western Conference to have him there. But yeah, Mike, I don't know if it brings down the mood per se.

I follow up that conversation.

Go ahead.

Are we, are we pathetic? Yeah, obviously for wanting LeBron back and falling for it all again because Dan says this is legit. It's got traction. That this is Miami's plan, they're going for it. And it's been reported that Miami is in the mix by all the reputable insiders. Are we pathetic?

Yes. I don't know. I'm not saying that this is why you're pathetic, but just in general.

Yes.

Yeah, I realize that I gave you—

was always under the mat. So, I mean.

Oh, good callback right there. That was a confused Pat Riley 5 years ago during Freedom getting fined $25,000 while saying the key was still under the mat. For LeBron, so he was fined tampering, uh, and he had a glass of wine while he was doing it, and, and it cost him $25 grand.

But I'd ask him about amino acid—

I— but I asked him about Dwyane Wade, and he took it to LeBron. I think he got fined for tampering for misunderstanding my question, didn't he?

Oh, that's probably not a good thing, Dan.

Yeah, not great. Yeah, I think, I think that's what happened. I don't remember entirely. That night is a bit of a blur. Um, the, the, uh, Madison Square Garden, is it going to indeed house the wedding of Taylor Swift? Are there going to be that people at her wedding? And what do you think of that as a— is that real?

I think it's real. I think like media outlets and journalistic outlets are operating under the auspices that this is happening and they're ready and prepared to cover it. And it's going— there's— I read recently the latest, and there's going to be some sort of Thursday small venue thing, party thing. And then Friday would be this huge 1,000-person-plus multi-hour event inside MSG, including a castle is being built inside or something like that. Um, look, I'm not saying— I just mentioned C*stricks in this segment, so I'm not— I'm gonna be careful about what I say. But people are throwing a word around, the word tacky, and I'm not, but other people are. I will.

Tacky.

Careful, careful.

I'm not throwing that word around.

I do love—

I do love how Dan has people sitting in section like 128. Like, I'm pretty sure they're gonna like set it up so it's like just on the floor.

Oh, but it's, it's a pretty terrible setting for a wedding. Like, no matter how you're doing it, I saw some awful settings.

I saw some renderings that I believe have to be AI of what it could look like, and it looked magical. I mean, yeah, huge news. Oh, the seismic— the Florida Panthers have signed Ratko Gudas to a 6-year contract, $1.5 million per year.

Talking about How many years?

6 years at $1.5 million per year.

The annual value is fine.

Thank you.

But you're talking about—

man, I thought this was going to be about LeBron. You guys really got me.

Check out her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes. Is not, not, not an echo with Mike Golick Jr. Congratulations, incidentally, to the Golicks headed back to ESPN Radio. Love them as a father-son team, and I'm happy to see all of that get reconnected. It's a very difficult media time. So it's very cool to see that a father and son can continue to make really great and fun content. And they go back to ESPN.

Thank you.

So—

and I'm sorry to lying to Zazzle last week when he texted me and asked me about hearing that rumor. And I said, I don't know, I haven't heard anything.

I understood what was going on. You didn't lie to me. I brought— I brought the info to you. I clearly knew.

Yeah, they offered that to Christopher and I. We turned it down. But I'm glad for the Goliks. Okay.

Thank you, Jessica. Appreciate the time.

Nice chatting with you. Uh, wow. The Los Angeles Lakers are acquiring Walker Kessler from the Utah Jazz for unprotected first-round picks in 2031 and 2033 and swaps in 2028 and 2030 where Kessler will sign a massive 4-year, $130 million deal with the Lakers.

Wow.

They only have white people. That guy's getting that much?

Pretty good.

That guy.

I know, I know.

But, but they also gave up 2 unprotected picks.

That's crazy. All right.

The Lakers have lived a charmed existence. I'm going to go ahead and ask you guys to do this off of memory here and see what you can do. Can you guys go ahead and give me the last Laker team that you guys can remember that hasn't had a star on it? A legitimate superstar?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right after Magic left. And I feel like Sedale Threatt was their best player for a couple of years. Eddie Jones, mid-'90s.

So, so mid-'90s, like that, that run, okay, no matter what— think about what just happened in New York, okay? New York's a plenty big city. So whatever credit you're giving to, giving to Los Angeles, what an amazing run of superstars they have had in Los Angeles. When you can transition fairly effortlessly to Shaquille O'Neal, to Kobe Bryant, to LeBron James, the Doncic thing, the way they redid did that team at the end of LeBron's career is a fairly amazing achievement for the Lakers to always be in the Superstar Game.

Dan, I, I actually brought this up on my podcast yesterday. You can go way before that, all right? It's, it's Jerry West to Kareem to Magic to— yeah, that small period that I just referenced— to Shaq and Kobe, and then it was just Kobe, and then LeBron and now Luke. Like, they had some slim years between Kobe and LeBron. 2017 is rough. I'm looking like Julius Randle. That's true. They had like 2 years. There was Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram.

Okay, Josh Hart. My bad. I thought that for— I'm just remembering Kobe forever. Like, I just feel like there's a Kobe stretch there where he has to be traded to the Clippers, and that was as turbulent as it got. But the point stands on that team and that city are able to reinvent themselves in a way that's a bit crazy. Dan Levitar.

Baker Mayfield tearing up Tampa Bay, 38 for 45. Greg Cody, shred 'em!

This is the Dan Levitar Show. I want to move on to something here, even though we don't do much in the way of previewing, I do want to honor and talk about for a second the game that the United States plays this evening. Okay, wherever it is that you are in American soccer, and if you've been listening to this show for a while, you remember how excited we got about Landon Donovan scoring late and the United States men having an achievement that, while it pales compared to what the women have done, having an achievement that made it feel like soccer from that moment on was going to do nothing but grow in America in a way that would make it so that when this World Cup arrived, we would not be having to summon some lost-to-go momentum. We would have 20 years— what is it, 15 years? I don't know, I, I have my timeline screwed up, so you'll have to help me on when that late Landon Donovan goal was on an uninteresting United States team that everyone knew wasn't going to go anywhere, and they were going to have to win by one goal in a low-scoring game because we didn't have any firepower.

But it It was the beginning of, oh, Landon Donovan is going to be an American soccer star. We're going to have stars in this sport and we're going to matter and compete against the world. The 20 years since have been, if not a drought, really disappointing at every turn. This team so far, I think you can make the argument, even in an easy bracket in a host country, has properly achieved. The games have been more lopsided and they've looked more impressive than I thought they were going to look in the first two games. Offensively, very good. This game ranks where in American history? This one game, a winnable game, a win— the last of the winnable games. They will be underdogs the rest of the way almost no matter who they are playing, I believe. I, I, I believe this is the last of the games that they will be favored to win. I do not believe that the, the first two games are as real as the last one was, where they're capable of losing a game defensively and easily to a team that isn't that good because it is a team you don't totally trust.

But where are we on the size and the stakes of today's game?

Well, the last game they lost in group play was to Türkiye because they had 8, 9 different players. They, they emptied their bench in that game. They didn't need to win and played like it. They're going to beat Bosnia and it's their biggest game until the next one because I disagree with you when You say that the next game they're going to be an underdog. I think against either Belgium or Senegal, they're right there. All 3 teams are in the rankings between 10 and 20 in the FIFA world ranking. So if they beat Bosnia, which I expect— they can't lose to Bosnia unless they're overconfident.

Will they beat Herzegovina?

They'll be both all at once. I say Bosnia. I had a B and H, whatever. The next game will be the biggest game because if you beat Senegal or Belgium, and all of a sudden you're in the quarterfinals. You have arrived.

Greg, you can't, you can't do the next game before you win this game. This game, you can't, do not look past, are you crazy? Are you crazy to just look past this game given the history of American soccer?

Yes, because this is a different American team. This is the best American team I have seen. This is the best American team I have seen. Bosnia is ranked number 61 in the world. If the U.S. loses tonight, it will be a deflating experience.

What's Hrvatskovina's ranking?

This is crazy.

61.

Mike, what he's saying is crazy because I don't believe that you could look at American soccer and do the overconfident expectations of see you in the round of 8.

So this is a new round. This is the knockout stage, but it's an expanded World Cup. So the United States has been further in this tournament because this is a newly invented round. But I think what is so exciting about this match is the bracket opens up nicely. I kind of do think we'll see what happens today. But I mean, the U.S. did just beat Senegal and Belgium has not impressed me. And when you factor in home field advantage, I think the U.S. can be favored in those. We'll see. But it's huge because what's in front of them, because they can make a true run to the semifinals. Biggest game, I think the one against Belgium where Tim Howard kept us in that one was bigger when you consider the opponent. There was a Fourth of July matchup, I think against England that was on the line a little further in the tournament. And in '02, different expectations. It was across the globe in Korea and Japan, but in '02 they had a round of 16 match against Mexico, their arch rival. They beat them. They got to the quarterfinals against Germany. And if they beat Germany, they would have been in the semifinals.

And those people that know American soccer know they got totally hosed on the goal line because Thorsten Frings had his hand and he hit down a sure goal and got away with it. They would have been in the semis in '02.

I thought the previous to this one biggest win in U.S. soccer history is when they beat Jorge Campos and Mexico in 2002. I thought that that was— that, that for this century, that's the biggest thing that we've had, the beating of the rival Mexico. It was low-scoring game, right? It was 1— was it 1-0?

Like, the '02 run was like a fever dream because all the games were at 3 in the morning and they were beating Portugal and they're getting, getting results against Portugal and, and beating their archrival Mexico. And no one— it was on the heels of a disastrous World Cup in 1998 where the US just burned up any of the momentum that they had from '94. So we had a young team. Nobody expected anything. So I think when you apply that context to it, yeah, you could make a solid argument, even though there's a round of 32. That team that went up against Belgium had some talent, right? We— I think that Belgium one's just a notch above that. But if they get into the next round, that's the biggest match of all time for the men.

Biggest game in 20 years. Is it?

It applies for sure.

What? Yes. Biggest game in 20 years.

Tonight?

Biggest game in 20 years.

Oh no.

Biggest game in 20 years.

Tonight is the biggest game in 20 years.

Biggest game in 20 years.

And Greg, and Greg will be that hammered for it.

Oh, what a big game in 20 years. Wearing my U.S. shirt, I'll tell you that. That's my home team. My home team doesn't play in Miami. My home team is the USMNT, along with the women's team, which was a lot better. Oh, the biggest game in 20 years.

All right, let's ratchet it up right now. Over the last 6 minutes of what we have in this hour, let's ratchet up the flames to the greatest thing in sports. Okay, patriotism. With your sports. 6 minutes. Yes, I want—

yes, that's a long time for Chris.

Clearly he's exhausted already thinking of having to do 6 minutes of enthusiasm content for tonight on what was mentioned is the biggest game in 20 years.

Biggest game in 20 years.

The best thing in sports. The best. Better than a surprise. Better than an upset.

For 6 minutes, you're gonna need a nice little 8-beer buzz, Chris Cody.

At least The best thing in sports is patriotism. There are any number of reasons at the moment—

go on—

to be down on a divided America where the states—

never mind—

don't seem united.

What's this guy doing? Stop talking. It's July 4th week, Dan.

We've got a green pool near the White House. This guy, this guy. We've got an incredible Great Fair that has fewer people than your average Flanagan's.

100-yard box cutter.

You've got, uh, cockfighting on the White House lawn, and the rest of the—

Hey, that was great! Hey, stop that, that was great! Stop hitting me up about the eagle, all right, and the 11 stars. It's looking the total opposite direction. It's gold, it's gold. It's not the same.

You may not be as proud of America as you once were. However, tonight, tonight, wearing the colors of your country in sport, the United States is favored to win a game That will produce the next biggest game in 20 years.

Biggest game in 20 years.

And I demand that this crew of people and the American public that loves sports rally behind this team and soccer in a way that it has not yet done this century.

I want to get there, but may I offer just one cause for concern?

Uh-huh.

Christian Pulisic. Off injured, worried about him already, missed some time in this World Cup. He's near that electrical substation.

Uh, what?

The 49ers won?

The game's being played in Santa Clara.

They're moving there.

They're—

the 49ers are moving. Colin Cowherd called them brittle, which is a funny thing to call an NFL team. He called them famously brittle.

No, they get most brittle soccer player, the guy that we need to be great to get to where we want Pulses in his ass. Whoa, what, what, uh, what?

That's what travels up.

Damn, that's what it would sound like. What would it sound like if I took a pulse and did it, uh, pulsed Greg Cody's ass?

Uh, what? Uh, what? Uh, what? Uh, what? Uh, what?

Only 3 more minutes.

A what?

A what? A what?

A what?

A what?

A what?

A what? A what? A what?

Scranton, let's go! 2 and a half minutes left. All right, now Chris is ready. I appreciate that.

Too thin.

Greg, Greg has been doing— Greg has been doing that sound.

What?

That sound for 40 years I've heard it.

I would have went on the Catchphrase Countdown, but I couldn't figure out how to spell it. How do you spell that?

So wait a minute, it's not in your top 20?

Well, I'm not saying. I mean, we haven't announced that yet. It could be. It could be. You know what, it's a top 71.

He's adding things.

Top 71. Okay.

What is it supposed to be, Greg? Is it like parrot very good, or is it like a different animal?

You know what? Tony's on to something. I think it may be related to very good.

It's like it usually that into a very good.

You should know. Maybe it's a good point.

You did. You fogged up your glasses. That is not where I expected to end up hyping up the biggest game in 20 years in American soccer. We've derailed into— I don't know when that started. I know that I've heard it since the Herald newsroom. Yeah. I have heard you have been making that sound, and I'd like to know the origins of it. And I don't think it's in your top 20. I'm guessing you forgot about that sound which you have made for more than 40 years.

You know, it's a variation of when you say something surprising to me and I go, "What?" It's just sort of, you know, taking that and leaping with it.

So it took us a few minutes, and by a few minutes I mean a few hours, but we finally found the Roy video, uh, the terrible interview with Sergei Bobrovsky where he went on an expense account to Canada and came back only with a guitar riff.

Uh, been many All-Star Games, and right now you are in the All-Star Skills competition, uh, tomorrow you're in the one-on-one competition, and you probably don't know what's gonna happen, so are you just gonna go ahead and have fun? What are you gonna do?

Yeah, to be honest, I don't know what happens in next hour.