'The Tortoise and the Hare'
In that fable, the Tortoise eventually overcomes the overconfident Hare, who is so self assured of victory, he takes a nap, in the middle of the race.
In England's loss, yesterday, it feels like it was the Tortoise that got too cocky ("We got this! It's 1966 all over again! No doubt about it! Just seconds run, baby!"), turtling way too quickly, and the Hare frantically woke up from his nap, just in time to catch up, and speed past the Hare.
By the way, and it's probably been mentioned before here, but I'll be glad for Alexi Lalas when this World Cup is over, so he won't have to deal with that "other guy" any more. (I do keep in mind, that it could all be an act, like WWE.)
Link:
Aesop
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I'll be glad when I won't have to listen to Stu Holden anymore.
He sounds like Linda Cohn.
(In response to this post by HokieNL)
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I thought it was a little unfair to gripe about the public speaking abilities of the former special teams coordinator with such a specific comparison 😂
A+ reading comprehension on my part right there.
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You can tell Alexi was like, "this is my job for two decades and my career and this other guy will not last, so let me bite might tongue and just get through it." At least, that's my perception of Alexi's mindset.
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Not sure what other guy you're referring to here ...
Zlatan or Thierry Henry. But the large majority of the conversation around the trio has been about Alexi being the worst of the three when it comes to his input.
Yeah, it could be a WWE style thing, but there seems to be real disdain from the other two toward Alexi. That's nothing new for him, though -- I think a large portion of the US soccer fan base regularly wishes he'd shut up.
(In response to this post by Hate2SeeItEnd Hokie)
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Alexi is working with the Smart ass (I forget his name) and then Zlatan. Alexi has been doing it a lot longer. We can debate who is better or not all day long, but Zlatan is a borderline sociopath. He's the kind of guy that might not show up or just walk off the set if you know his history. If you think Alexi is the Alpha Narcissist, then Zlatan is a whole other piece of work. There are tons of videos on Zlatan with his antics over the years.
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** Edited by MP4VT2004 at 7/16/2026, 8:04:47 PM
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(In response to this post by Hate2SeeItEnd Hokie)
I'm very familiar with Zlatan
Heck, Ted Lasso introduced a character just to poke fun at him and his antics.
Just because you've been doing something for longer doesn't mean you do it better, though. Alexi has also been criticized for his lack of insight and his "hot takes" for much longer than the other two.
(In response to this post by Hate2SeeItEnd Hokie)
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person there who would say they'd been doing it this way for 20 years (or whatever). I always had to be tactful and let them know they'd been doing it wrong for 20 years.
(In response to this post by Nova Hokie 95)
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I eluded to it earlier that who is better is debatable. But, for the fact that Alexi (who I'm not a huge fan of) has been doing it for so long, the networks have to be content or happy a little bit, or they would have canned him. I thought Z did a good job.
(In response to this post by Nova Hokie 95)
He generates clicks and he's American. That's the only reason he's on Fox
at this point.
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down in previous games. He should have kept pressure on them when they went up. England also was running on less than fumes from the previous matches. He probably realized his mistake after the tying goal but he was out of substitution options. The ending was inevitable.
(In response to this post by HokieNL)