Hello and welcome to an emergency total soccer show. My name is Daryl Grove and I'm joined by a man

who committed to the United States long ago. His name is Taylor Rockwell. Hello. I have committed.

I have yet to be capped. So I'm still eligible for no one else. There's just a delay.

Yeah. Okay. All right. I say emergency. Normally something bad's happened. It is the case. Yeah. We need a new name because this is like emergency because something good's happened. Happy emergency? Happy emergency. Yes. And a happy emergency to you too. And to you. And also to you. You've probably heard by now that Sugenio Dest made his decision this week and he's taking his talents to South Beach.

I mean, kind of. And then the rest of the United States. Yes. I hope that's how he announced it as well. So here's the actual quote from, I think we should start with a quote. This is what US soccer got. Quote, I am happy to announce that I've decided to keep playing for the US men's national team. of course it was a tough decision for me when the Dutch men's international team

showed their interest

but I've built up a very good feeling

right. to announce that I've decided to keep playing for the US men's national team. Of course, it was a tough decision for me when the Dutch men's national team showed their interest, but I've built up a very good feeling with Team USA over the last couple of years, and I strongly believe in the plans and potential of US soccer. So B plus for grammar, but we love hearing it, right? We do, we do. And worth remembering, he's probably speaking extemporaneously.

Yes, of course.

Yeah.

It's always interesting when people have to do that, and you can see the changes of pace and where they threw in different ideas. And in the case of certain presidents, it gets even more difficult. So here I would say Sergenio Dest did well. Wow. Shade thrown at Taft. I am right? We also both watched an interview guest.

Big old fat guy.

We can't say that about Dest at all.

You cannot, but... Shade thrown at Taft. I'm right. We also both watched an interview.

Big old fat guy. We can't say that about Dest at all right. You cannot. But Taft, I believe they had to change the size of the bathtub in the White House. That's how big he was. I have heard that. So there was also an interview that Dest gave to Iax TV, like the state TV of Iax. It's basically what it is. And the interview asked him good questions, right?

And he spoke in Dutch, so he definitely could speak without that layer of extra thought. You know what I'm saying? Like it's more natural. And he basically said it was about the emotional feeling of the United States and about how he's played for the U-17s and the U-20s. And that maybe people have argued that playing for the Dutch national team would be the more rational thing because he's already in the Netherlands because he's born in the Netherlands because that kind of makes sense but he has a feeling for the US which is basically the quote he gave US soccer here so I am I'm going to take Sajunia Dest at his word because he told us I'm going to take a break and make a decision it's exactly what he's done right so I'm I feel like Dest passes the, he has a track record of telling the truth, like George Washington and the cherry tree. Yeah, and I would jump in here to say we would have been, I think, pretty, like, positive neutral on it. We have not overreacted. We have not tried to read too much into things. Twitter's being chaotic negative.

Indeed.

But you, Daryl, I think, were more positive about this process from the beginning.

And I do think part of that was your sort of belief that he was speaking directly and honestly.

That this is also a time period. It's kind of a Dutch thing to speak directly and honestly.

Calvinism, there we go.

Maybe I've been reading about Johann Kreif and maybe I've been reading about the Dutch political system of the last like 70 years. Anyway, I do think that if you look at the time period that we're talking about in which he gets his first senior call up for the U.S. national team then decides I need a little bit of time to figure things out. So that's September. then figuring things out is October. Yeah. Announcements in end of October ready for November. But this is also at a time period when a teenager is starting to play first team competitive football for a club like Iax in the Champions League, in the Air Divisi. And you can understand then, like looking back on it now, hindsight being 2020, how that would be a lot to try to process yeah

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