Back in March, Turner Sports and the U.S. Soccer Federation announced that Turner will become the television home for the USMNT and USWNT starting in 2023. In an effort to promote the 8-year deal that begins in 2023, the Inside the NBA team got jerseys, and Charles Barkley made clear that his jersey comes from the women’s team, because “the American men’s team sucks.”
Fast forward to Tuesday night and Barkley changed his tune up on the men considerable. The USMNT beat Iran, 1-0, earlier in the day to get out of the group and set up a knockout stage matchup against the Netherlands on Saturday. As a result, Barkley is fully on board, to the point that he predicts that the Americans will “open up a can of whoop ass” against the Dutch before giving a signature guarantee that they will advance to the quarterfinals.
“I GUARANTEE THE NETHERLANDS IN TROUBLE”
Charles is all in on the @USMNT pic.twitter.com/QL5Idqydrk
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) November 30, 2022
Barkley shouted out American captain Tyler Adams before going through a list of other countries — Spain, Brazil, Germany — that he wants to see the USMNT play. He included France in the list before remembering that they have Kylian Mbappe, who he correctly states is “no joke.”
The Americans made it out of their group with draws against Wales and England before beating Iran. The Dutch, meanwhile, beat Senegal and Qatar while earning a draw against Ecuador.