Euro 2024 and COPA America Soccer Futures and Best Bets
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00:00Michael Dicorsi, who's just so well-versed on a number of different topics, we can throw
00:08anything at Michael and he can throw it right back at me.
00:11We'll see if that happens today.
00:12We'll play a game of Let's Talk About This.
00:14We'll start off, Mike, thanks for coming on.
00:18Let's start off with some soccer here.
00:19I know Copa America, everywhere I go here in South Florida, no matter where I go, it's
00:22on TV somewhere, I've been noticing this.
00:26And so certainly I know the world is watching, Mike.
00:28How about you?
00:29Oh, without a doubt.
00:31There have been some great games and some interesting games.
00:34Brazil with some of their struggles, shocking the hemisphere, I guess you'd say, with their
00:42inability to score.
00:45And then, of course, Argentina struggling, but finding a way with Lautaro Martinez being
00:50such a terrific player.
00:52And of course, the United States and their 2-0 victory to open.
00:57This evening, they will play their second game in their group against Panama.
01:02Panama has been a tough opponent for them, a team that always gives them, in circumstances
01:10that are somewhat neutral, and I think you can count the Copa America as that, they always
01:15give them a difficult game.
01:17The U.S. lost down in Panama in the most recent World Cup qualifying, lost to them in penalties
01:24in the most recent Gold Cup.
01:26So it's a challenging opponent for the Americans tonight.
01:30It will be, and we'll keep an eye on that and talk about it here on the show tomorrow.
01:33But let's start off with this Georgia-Portugal matchup.
01:37Naturally, as you take a look at this, a really exciting game right down to the finish.
01:41What does it mean for the future?
01:43Well, I think it's hard to judge what it means for Portugal, because it was a rotated squad.
01:51They had already clinched a victory in the group, so they did not play a lot of their
01:57better players.
01:58They were resting them.
01:59There wasn't a whole lot for them to gain.
02:01But by virtue of the way other groups broke, they wound up in an absolutely loaded bracket.
02:09Same half of the draw now, with 16 teams left.
02:11The same group of eight that includes France, Germany, Spain, a really difficult series
02:19of games.
02:20There's not really much fault to Portugal in that.
02:22It's just the way it broke for a lot of other teams.
02:25So it's going to be a real challenge for Portugal to get out of that half of the draw and into
02:30the final in Germany.
02:32Let's look at the Eurofuture's odds.
02:33Tell me where you think we stand here, with England being plus 300, also Spain plus 320,
02:39Germany plus 480, France plus 550, and Portugal has slipped to plus 600.
02:45Netherlands at 12 to 1, Mike.
02:46Is there any value here in jumping back on the Portugal train?
02:50Well, I think because they're in a difficult draw, I'm not sure that I would.
02:54I think the value might be in Netherlands, plus 12.
02:58Again, they are in the half of the draw that's all but cleared out because of the way other
03:04groups fell.
03:05And their own finishing third, it really worked out great for them.
03:10So if you're looking for value, I think that's where you look.
03:14England is a terrifically talented team, but has not been a terrific team in this tournament.
03:19Now we've seen in these tournaments, and you could look at the U.S. women in World Cup
03:252015, where they did not play great in group.
03:27They didn't even play great in their first knockout round game and then rampaged to the
03:32finish with a great game against Japan.
03:36That could happen, certainly, for some of the teams that have not played well in group
03:42with a team like England with so much talent.
03:45They really should find a way, but it hasn't looked like it in any of their three games.
03:52I want to focus now and move ahead to this big story that broke yesterday with the Olympics
03:56coming up.
03:57Because I think this probably surprised some people, and Mike, you're obviously more familiar
04:02with this than people that follow soccer very closely.
04:05But when you associate women's soccer, you think of Alex Morgan almost first.
04:10The announcement was made yesterday that for the first time since 2008, she is not
04:14going to participate on the U.S. women's team.
04:17Now, for me, I did some research here, and again, not being as completely familiar with
04:22this, I really didn't feel like I came up with a good answer for why that she's not
04:27on this.
04:28Some injury speculation, some age speculation as well.
04:33Nothing that I read led me to believe that there's a clear answer here.
04:37Well, honestly, Craig, I think the first answer, I almost wish that this were a World Cup because
04:43we would know, what exactly does Emma Hayes have in mind?
04:47She was constricted.
04:48She's the new coach for the U.S. women's national team, came to the United States earlier in
04:53her career, and now is coming back as the champion of England's women's Super League
04:59with Chelsea, considered to be one of the great tactical coaches in soccer.
05:06In this case, she only has 18 players available to her.
05:09That's a really limited roster.
05:11And so, first off, there's just the numerical factor, and then there's the factor that Alex
05:16is a center forward.
05:17She doesn't do anything else.
05:20Most of the forwards that were chosen for this team are very versatile.
05:24Kind of lacks a center forward unless they play Katarina Macario there, which they may,
05:29but the fact that they decided to use a lot of versatile players to cover for the fact
05:34that they're only allowed 18 really put Alex in a tough spot.
05:38I would be very curious, if this were a 23-player roster, how would it have gone?
05:44Would she have made it?
05:45I really wish I could get an answer to that, but obviously it's all suppositional.