Now that the U.S. men's national team is back home, they are doing a fair share of media, with Landon Donovan leading the way on the talk show circuit and head coach Bob Bradley doing his part by throwing out the first pitch at a recent Yankees game and ringing the bell at the New York Stock Exchange.
Donovan and Bradley got together for an appearance on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and if you haven't seen it yet, it's pretty funny.
Enjoy:
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
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Do you think US Soccer charging $68 for supporters seats to that game is helping to increase their 10 fans? What a joke! I spent every penny I had to go to South Africa and I had RB and Metro season tix (AKA a Giants Stadium regular) and I will be sitting out that Brazil game. The fed is more into earning a buck than growing their fan base…sorry my rant there
I love Landon, but good God is the guy boring to talk to. Stewart was trying so hard to make him interesting. The USMNT needs more public reps. Howard, Bocanegro, and, Altidore have always seemed like fun guys in interviews. Maybe bring in Torres for spanish shows.
Couldn’t have had two drier guests…
“RedStateJim”
I’m sure your not so subtle political affiliation has anything to do with your consistent ignorant posts.
Go form a rally or something.
+1 – Agreed.
Have you been to Naples? that city has a lot of great history, but is essentially one big, black market now. That, and the trash pick up is almost non-existant. I think he’d much prefer London.
Point taken, I should have written that we were a threat in that game, and my main point is that this isn’t the first time in 80 years we’ve been past the group stage, as I’ve read people saying…They just weren’t as aware of it those other times.
that would have been awesome!… though he’s not high profile enough for everyone in the audience to be in on the joke, to make it work…
my sentiments exactly. Seriously, this tournament was a huge disappointment to me. Even more disappointing is the lack of professionalism shown by some of the players. Beasley cared more about “shoe contests” then the world cup. Get these idiots off twitter!
I appreciate the long-term benefits of added exposure, but this was a problem this Cup. The two-day turnaround didn’t help, and neither did the giddiness over all the attention they were receiving back home. It’s a shame because it COULD have been special — now? — it’s more of a coulda-woulda-shoulda disappointment.
Have you seen Napoli play? They have much better players than Fulham and Dempsey would learn a lot playing in Serie A. It is a big step up from Fulham, especially without Hodgson who was the best thing about the team. Playing with Hamsik, Lavezzi, and Quagliarella is a huge step up from Simon Davies, Zamora and Gera. And the quality of life and weather in Italy is much better than dumpy London. That’s a no brainer move if I were Dempsey.
Why would Eriksson be so bad? Just because he couldn’t manage Mexico (why did they hire him in the first place?) doesn’t mean he isn’t a decent manager at the club level. He’s had success in the EPL and Serie A.
I heard a rumor here in the UK that Hodgson might take Dempsey to Liverpool. Now that would also be a step up.
Except for the fact that the Daily Show, Letterman, Live with Regis and Kelly and the other programs that Donovan has appeared on this week are filmed in New York.
The big picture is what’s important here. Attention from the media will help the sport grow here in the US and cultivate new fans, hopefully to the point where the US can finally play a World Cup qualifier against some Central American banana republic and not be outnumbered by the other team’s supporters.
And then maybe one day we’ll be able to outnumber the opposition at a Gold Cup final vs. Mexico at Giants Stadium 15:1 instead of the other way around.
Donovan, Buddle, and Bornstein are the only WC team members who came home to LA — everyone else’s homes are in SLC, Mexico, or overseas. Makes perfect sense that of these three, Donovan is the one who would make the talk show rounds.
I agree. Looking at the big picture though, any and all media exposure is a plus for US Soccer, especially when someond as influential as John Stewart is joking around with Landon and Bob. Also, painting the picture that the US did an acceptable or “special” job at the cup helps to chip away at the “US Soccer sucks anyway” mentality a lot of people in the country hold. So yes, to us experienced fans here at SBI it’s clear that calling the World Cup performace “a success” might be stretching it a little, but overall the benefits outweigh the downsides in my book.
and Bobby Huggins
Just because a person played college soccer doesn’t necessarily mean they know soccer. But Stewart sure knows the game. I got a chance to speak to Steewart on an airplane, no less, a few years ago and the man knew the game inside and out. He talked about his experiences playing at William & Mary. I was quite impressed. We made a few jokes hear and there but he almost had a serious tone when talking about the game. I’m always appreciative to guys like Stewart and Drew Cary who have not hiddenm their love for soccer and the US national team.
I understand why LD is doing tons of publicity but why can’t it be some of the core guys ie Bocanegra, Howard, Altidore, Dempsey, Bradley?
Surely a few mins of them doing a live broadcast on Letterman would be alright.
Play up how they’re unknown here but in their respective leagues they’re pretty known and get recognized on the streets of Liverpool or Berlin. something like that.
Donovan is the star and scored 3 goals, I understand that but what about Dempsey? He’s our greatest field player in Europe atm.
Good point. Hard enough for many foreigners to succeed in Italy. The culture, language issue and etc. Especially with more match-fixing and corruption and fan violence. But Dempsey could succeed there. It’d be quite a challenge.
To show the world we can play we either need to dominate leagues or have a world-class star in them.
Atm the moment a dozen or so Americans play in the PL. We’re growing in numbers there cause we’re cheap and work hard. But to show the true doubters we need a “Dempsey” or a “Donovan” in Italy or Spain.
the oranges almost made me fall out of my chair.
great banter with good questions for the most part. I especially loved the gooch….
I loved John Oliver’s segment in this broadcast. Spoken like a true Englishman!!
I lol’d. Surprised he wasn’t wearing sweatpants tbh.
You are an idiot…you must not watch the show much or realize that when you run a funny show and the people you are interviewing aren’t comedians you probably have to try to throw some jokes in there.
Great exposure, very funny, and glad we are getting some different press exposure not just ESPN and sports radio…
I really do not think Dempsey should move to a team like Napoli. To be honest, Napoli would not be much of a step up…and as it is, Dempsey is established at a good team in a superior league.
However, if Eriksson becomes the new Fulham manager, I would support a move away from the Cottage. Sven would certainly lead the team to the bottom of the table and be replaced mid-season.
I wish wish it were more about the guest(s) and less about Jon Stewart but that is not how he does his shows. Good to see the exposure.
Would Napoli pay more than Fulham? Hard to think so. I would think he would want to get to a CL-caliber team.
I bet it’d be hard to leave London for Naples, that place has seen better days.
The bit where he told fans from every other country to, “F*** off!” if they weren’t rooting for England was awesome. Especially the Mexican fans
Just like the blown perfect game in MLB this year. Americans hate getting screwed, but love holding grudges
Ugh…
“or the even the fact that eight years ago we were a missed German handball on the goal line away from making it to the semifinals.”
We still would have needed another goal… so tired of this we would have advanced nonsense.
However, the soccer coverage is great but it also means I have to hide in my cube at work so people don’t give me scores! This clown I work with spoiled the Champions League final last year for me by running over and yelling the score as if I wasn’t recording the game.
O/T but is Dempsey leaving Fulham? Could he make it at Napoli? Dempsey sure seems to love a challenge so why not right, but if he stays at Fulham he’ll be a starter for years to come and become a LEGEND ala McBride but I rather have a “hungry” Dempsey than a “content” Dempsey.
Exactly RK.
i believe much of the whole bad reffing helped gain more interest in the team.
As I told my best pal in 30-40years we’ll be a proper “football” nation but no 1 wants to wait that long. It’s up to our Yanks to make it abroad and pave the way and to help the NT perform. Quarterfinals or better i say.
I watched this last night, and thought it was clear that BB and LD are still very much newbies to the whole talk show thing. They both looked bit nervous and uncomfortable, even given that they were talking with a major soccer fan. The funniest part of the show for was me the reason given by the geek guy for including Ghana as a surviving ex-Nazi country in the QFs and the total silence it got from the studio audience. John Oliver has been a hoot throughout the WC too.
Due to ESPN’s great coverage, the rise of social media and the Web in sharing and disseminating information, I’ve never seen this amount and quality of soccer coverage before.
Many new fans think that this is the first time the US has gotten out of the group, forgetting about 1994 or the even the fact that eight years ago we were a missed German handball on the goal line away from making it to the semifinals.
I’m sure that the massive amounts of debate on replay and goal-line tech in the US have had an effect on Seppy Blatts’ recent statements on addressing the issue again, where it looked like it would never be brought up again.
Even my local sports talk guy talked about how he was envious of other countries having so much total devotion to a team and a sport, and he admittedly has no interest in the game itself.
Sure, you’ll have your bashers, but I’ve seen and heard fewer of them than back in 2006 and their declarations ring hollow now with the facts that soccer is here to stay.
Ironically, some of the awful officiating make work in our favor — it has given pundits and sportscasters and Americans something to talk about, keeping the conversation going.
This is kind of something that shouldn’t be made fun of, but was anyone else waiting for Donovan to raise his hand and say “I might have a baby mama” when Stewart was talking about how the team has no prima donnas or controversy? Just saying…
Not only has the attention from the media been great, but they seem to know more than ever about the sport. There are still those who don’t get it, but I’ve heard a lot of knowledgeable debating on daily TV and radio shows.
The general interest is also fantastic for the growth of the game. With the US team in the spotlight, the popularity of soccer will grow. We need kids to look up to our Yanks like they look up to Tom Brady or Kobe Bryant. If soccer was our number one sport, we would be a superpower.
Yeah, US Soccer has had about 10 fans up until this cup. Yes, I know this is an exaggeration. But, when you are teaching the majority of the bar about the team before gametime, it’s a bit of a problem. We constantly are outnumbered in attendance even at home, and, as I’m sure you know, we schedule our games in the middle of nowhere to try to alleviate some of the foreign fan influence on the game. They deserve a little love. I still want to throw up for that exit. Semis were CERTAINLY a possibility. But, I’m trying to get over it. US-Brazil at the new GIANTS STADIUM (sorry, Giants fan here) should be fun.
@David, people are just showing their love dude. There is nothing wrong and they should bask in it cause most likely their names may be forgotten in a few weeks.
we’ll be ready for 2014, no worries.
Losing to Ghana in the second round… yeah, that was special alright.
A second round exit at this point isn’t time to be basking in glory. Sure, they should be happy they got out of their group, and winning the group is note worthy, but losing to Ghana? Again?
No, this World Cup wasn’t a success, it was what was expected of them, nothing more, nothing less.
Ha – I really felt like Stewart was more interested in talking to Bradley than Landon…a Jersey bias, perhaps?!
Great way to start the morning. Thanks, Ives. Bradley really is a good guy. He coached me at a Rutgers Soccer Select Soccer Camp, Summer 1986. Man am I old, lol.
Bornstein is basking in his moment of glory
Not as funny as when Lalas was on Colbert after the Confederations Cup but still funny nonetheless.
i swear, Bob is like a cross between Robert Duvall and Paul Newman
Thanks Bob for dressing up.