​Former Fox Sports and ESPN sportscaster Kevin Frazier joined Thursday’s edition of The Dan Patrick Show and wasted little time delving into a heated critique of U.S. soccer and Fox analyst Alexi Lalas, just days after the United States failed to advance in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
“I’ve been dying to come here and talk USA soccer,” said Frazier, who hosts Entertainment Tonight. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to come here and get this off my chest.’”
Patrick pressed, “Wait, what’s wrong?”
“Listen, man. We’ve got to stop Alexi Lalas,” Frazier replied. “What’s going on? What’s happening? Alexi, slow down, bro. Slow down. I’ve been listening to some of his takes. I thought Thierry Henry was going to kill him. Zlatan wanted to take him out at one point.”
Frazier continued, criticizing Lalas’s frequent explanations, especially in the wake of U.S. men’s national team disappointments, noting the pattern that emerges every four years. “And then he gives his explanation. He’s like, ‘Oh, the pay-for-play system works, and it’s okay.’ And I’m like, ‘Alexi, what are you talking about?’ You benefited from it, like a kid from the suburbs. But back when U.S. soccer really struggled in Italy, you were part of the problem. You are part of the problem. Stop talking about U.S. soccer like you know it. You don’t.”
Patrick teased, “Wow, you are coming in hot today.”
“I was so hot when I read; he had a recent tweet about ‘there’s nothing wrong with the system, blah blah blah,’” Frazier explained. “I was like, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’”
“Isn’t it good TV, though?” Patrick asked. “Are they providing good entertainment TV?”
“I think it’s going to be cool until Zlatan gets up and just kicks him at some point,” Frazier replied with a grin. “Right? It’s crazy! It’s crazy!”
“I hate when they say ‘this is just the start,’” Patrick observed. “This has been ‘just the start’ for 30 years.”
“Dan, we’ve watched it over, and over, and over again,” Frazier said. “I used to follow Landon Donovan around. When he went to Germany, I went to Germany to see him play. I remember when we did so well in South Africa in the Confederations Cup, and I was so excited. And I was like, We’re building something. We’re building something.”
Frazier went on to describe what he believes is at the heart of the U.S. soccer struggle: a tension between wanting the sport to be the No. 1 national pastime and pushing to make it the most profitable one. “And so, what they’re doing is making money off of kids in the suburbs… I’ve spent the last 10 years because I have a kid who plays at the highest level… the last 10 years, I’ve watched how they really gatekeep. And some of these best kids from the city… My son’s playing in Beverly Hills. He thinks he’s Pele, right? And I’m like, ‘Dude, you can’t play.’”