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Friday, June 28: Copa America Update With Jon Nelson
>> Hello, everybody, this is Joseph Asick, and welcome to Copa, America update with the Hall of Famer, John, who has been at two matchups in Atlanta, one was Canada, Argentina, one had a big play in the game, but he lost. And the other one, he's from the United States, and he made his country lose. Okay, so first of all, take me through the atmosphere before we preview the rest of the games, the atmosphere at the Mercedes-Benz dome. >> Insane, and if anybody says it was different than they are mistaken about how the southeast can be a hub for the sport of soccer. It was a Thursday night, six o'clock match, so literally the Dinnertime match on a Thursday night, you end up with 59,000 folks in Mercedes-Benz stadium. It was anticipated that only 50,000 tickets have been sold going into the last day. So you had 20% walk up heading into this matchup with USA in Panama, and so it was a great crowd, it was a hot crowd to use our wrestling parlance that we like to use. It was a hot crowd, especially after what happened in the first 20 minutes of the match. And if anyone, I will challenge anyone that sits there and talks about how soccer in the southeast isn't catching on. They are sadly mistaken, especially after what happened in the first two matches that the Mercedes-Benz stadium got involved in Copo America with Argentina and Canada, and with the United States in Panama. >> All right, so let's quickly, there's two big matchups tonight, Friday, 6 p.m. first game, Colombia Costa Rica. >> Well, and the question is, does Costa Rica make a point to frustrate everybody else, as they work their way through? Costa Rica decided, in group play, to take a chunk out of Brazil, and they did it, and completely and totally frustrated, Brazil, and Brazil is another story entirely. Costa Rica right now understandably a big underdog, and what we saw from a hummus in Houston, to completely and totally make a mess of the match with Paraguay, where Paraguay was having to fight uphill, Colombia to me is going to be an interesting challenge in which hummus you get on any given day. I think Colombia, let's put it this way. Colombia should take care of business at a minus 333, but we saw what Costa Rica did to frustrate the ever-loving daylights out of Brazil, can they do it again? That's the big question. >> All right, and but you're saying Colombia will win? >> Colombia should win, let's put it that way. Costa Rica frustrated Brazil, can they pull the same stunt that they did in frustrate Colombia, and we will see, I don't anticipate it happening, but we shall see. >> Paraguay? >> Brazil tonight at nine. >> Yeah, Brazil should take care of business here, there were a minus 303, they're probably going to be mad and had a stern talking to after the matchup against Costa Rica, so they should take care of Paraguay. Paraguay was very, very quiet offensively in the matchup against Colombia, so Brazil should take care of business and we'll see what happens, Brazil should win, Colombia should win, Paraguay really didn't have a whole lot to bring to the table offensively in their matchup last time against Colombia, so Brazil should end up with full points, Colombia should end up with full points, but I think Colombia's got a trickier matchup than Brazil does. >> All right, so tomorrow eight o'clock, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina. >> Yeah. >> Peru. >> There should be some rotation in the lineup from Scoloni, we have heard that Messi will not play in this one because they have already clinched the advancing to the knockout, and they're at a minus 204, Di Maria also is being looked at possibly as not starting for the matchup. Simultaneous starts because it is the last match in group play, so Argentina should win, it'll probably be a lot closer than folks would anticipate going up against the Peru side, but I've got Argentina winning this one, I think the more interesting matchup is Chile and Canada, and that's the other matchup that's happening at eight o'clock Eastern. Chile favored at a plus one ten, Canada in the composite of plus 271, what happens here after Canada made their inroads in their matchup? So what happens here, that's the interesting part for me, and I think that Argentina wins, I think it's going to be an interesting contest for Chile, I think Chile wins as well, but it'll be a tighter mark. >> No, it's going to be a draw, it's going to be a draw, and spoken by the president of the provinces at Canada, right? >> You've got to promote your boys, I get it. >> Of course, June 30th, eight o'clock, another great matchup here, Mexico and Ecuador, and also at eight, Jamaica, Venezuela, whichever one you want to take first. >> Yeah, I think Venezuela gets the win. Jamaica has had some absences because of injuries and stuff, they have Jamali weight between the sticks as opposed to Andre Blake because of Andre Blake's injury. So key absences for Jamaica at a plus 333, a minus 111, so I've got to go with Venezuela in that one. I think this one ends up being a draw, Mexico and Ecuador. The juice boxers are kind of hedging on this one, Ecuador is at a plus 170, Mexico is at a plus 184, Mexico is not sound offensively. I expect a low scoring match, I expect a draw at a plus 206, and then probably math to be involved when it comes to figure out who advances out of group. But yeah, I have not been impressed by Mexico as they are trying to turn over their roster and have some of the younger players play. The injury of Edson Alvarez not having him involved for the remainder of the group stage creates issues for them for the offense that they did have. Right now, Mexico is just not putting the ball on the back of the net, it is showing, so I've got to go with Ecuador or a draw and Venezuela beating Jamali. >> All right, we're joined by the coach, Carmen Osaka, who's here looks, I don't know, looks horrible. But anyways, wow, yeah, he can't even hear what I said. Can you hear me? No, see, he can't. >> He's setting it all up. He's got that beard going too. >> All right, and it's great working with you all these years. All right, so then on July 1st, Canada Day, Happy Canada Day to Carmen Osaka and all Canadians out there, including John Nelson, all right? July 1st, USA, Uruguay. >> Yeah, and this is a show in and of itself, frankly. It was Panama winning 2-1. You won't have Tim Waya, you may not have Matt Turner. You've got a Pete Uruguay who is the best team in the group right now, putting five on the board against a substandard Bolivia side. So, look, the United States has to win. They have to win at Arrowhead. They have to. Because then if they don't, then there's the prospect of not getting out of group and then that turns into separators and a bunch of other things entirely. So it's a tall order for the United States, going up against Uruguay and El Loco, Marcelo Villalza. Right now with the absences and the other issues. USA is favored. Uruguay probably rotates, but we don't know to what extent. And Uruguay is a plus 191 right now. I think the U.S. gets a win that they need to get out of group. But this group could be chaos because here's your math and here's how things are. If Panama beats Bolivia, and remember, Bolivia is 40 spots lower than Panama in the World Bank. And they are going to win. That's good. If Panama beats Bolivia, the U.S. has to beat Uruguay and then you've got to look at gold difference. Panama Bolivia draw the U.S. advances with a win or a draw because they'd have superior gold difference. And then Bolivia, if Bolivia beats Panama, the U.S. would advance with a win or a draw and a loss would leave gold difference as the determining factor. So Panama obviously going to be favored to beat Bolivia as they should. U.S. is currently favored right now. To beat Uruguay, I guess the juice boxers are kind of sitting there going, yeah, they're probably going to rotate. So we'll see what happens. Panama favored, I think Panama gets the win and I think the U.S. has to beat Uruguay. I want to see what Villalza does when it comes to rotation. That's the biggest thing for me. All right, finally, July 2nd. And notice, the first games are at 8 o'clock. July 1st and July 2nd are at 9 o'clock. Costa Rica, Paraguay and Brazil, Colombia. That's going to be huge. Yeah, I think Paraguay, Costa Rica probably just parks every bus. They're going to grab every piece of TTC that they can and put it in front of their goal. Make it difficult for Paraguay to advance and get any kind of points. Paraguay is at a minus 105 Costa Rica is at a plus 300. I think the draw happens at a plus 236. Brazil and Colombia. Brazil, I'm not impressed. I think I've got to go Colombia right now is at a plus 319. I'm going to I'll go with Colombia here. I'll take Colombia to get out of group at a plus 319. Brazil at a minus 112. I don't bank on it at all. And on July 4th, they're going to play those games at 9 p.m. So you have fireworks and then you go have your hot dogs and all that and watch these games. But what did you think of Copa America compared to the Euro so far? Obviously, Euro has more teams, but the play in Copa America has been very I'm not going to say violent, but you know, you can see a lot more physical. Yeah, you you take what the refs give you. And I think that for the concucab teams, it might be a bit of a wake up call as to the physicality of what's going on. So, you know, we'll do they adjust the biggest thing in this kind of a tournament. You take what the ref gives you, you find the line as early as possible. Panama found that line last night and they just kept pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing 17 fouls to four. I think it was the number for Panama over the United States. You had a bunch of cards. And like I said, the the match in it of itself is a separate show, which we can go down a bunch of different roads, but suffice to say that even Barton once again did not make any friends in this particular hemisphere when it came to him being at the center center reposition for all this stuff. All right, Carmen's now can hear us and all that. And now unfortunately, we're going to finish the Copa America show. Carm stay in. We'll be I'll be getting you. You can't hear me. All right. This is the best I ever sounded. All right, John, tell everybody how they could get a hold of you social media wise right there at OSG Nelson on the 280 character app. You can also go to cute sports guy on the grammar on threads. And you can also go to noble, strong lessons in destiny on Amazon, a great book about a great family and a crisis that we have to go through. So author, or sorry, author book, book, author, noble, strong lessons in destiny right there at OSG Nelson on the Twitter's that's where. All right, John, have a great weekend. Happy Canada day. You don't speak. Happy Independence Day in the United States on Thursday. Yep. And enjoy the footy this weekend next week. We'll do that, my friend. Thank you very much. And belated. Happy birthday to your wife and yourself. You don't look bad for 74 years old. Don't I though? I look a lot better at 74. Yeah, it looks better at 74 than somebody named Norm at 69. Exactly. Nice. That's it. All right. Thanks
Friday, June 28: Copa America Update With Jon Nelson by FiredUp Network