Alexi Lalas’ former USMNT teammate explains Zlatan and Thierry Henry’s issues with World Cup colleague

Alexi Lalas’ punditry has come under fire throughout the World Cup.

Paired with soccer icons Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry, the former USMNT star has appeared out of his depth at times.

FOX Sports landed two of the biggest stars in world soccerGetty

A clip of Henry humbling Lalas with a sublime piece of footwork in the studio is all over social media, and the American has sometimes seen his views dismissed live on air.

A brutal hit piece from the Guardian really stuck the boot in, with the headline ‘The French aristocrat and the all-American idiot.’

Aaron Timms wrote: “Often over the course of the tournament’s opening days it has felt as if Lalas’s fellow panelists are laboring under a contractual obligation to find him interesting, a burden felt in every strained nod in agreement and forced round of laughter.”

USMNT icon Brad Friedel has come to the defense of his 96-cap teammate.

“Yeah. Okay. So, let me let me sum Alexi up,” he exclusively told talkSPORT. “So first, he’s a friend. He was a teammate. Okay.

“He has always been on TV for the clickbait, so to speak. He’s the one that will just go against what other people on the panel are saying just to create a debate whether he believes it or not.

“What’s happening right now is he’s got two of the most accomplished players in world football alongside him on the desk that that really know what they’re talking about in Zlatan and Thierry Henry.

“And things haven’t gone as swimmingly for for him, I should say when it when it comes to actual analysis in the in the games, because that’s not what Alexi is all about, you know, and I think there’s some of where he stands politically has come into it now and it’s not been great for Big Red.”

Alexi Lalas on James Corden

Lalas’ X-rated description of James Corden as a full-kit w*****’ raised a few eyebrows across the pond.

Some have accused him of being deliberately controversial, but Friedel — who spent much of his career in English football — thinks it was a genuine mistake.

View Tweet: https://t.co/KHEROKjr2Z

Lalas has appeared the odd man out at timesGetty The USMNT won almost 100 capsGetty

“Well, and I’m pretty certain Alexi had no idea. I think he knows what means, but I don’t think he I don’t think he thinks that you can’t say it on national broadcast in the UK.

“I’m I used to do stuff back in the day with Fox. And I’m I’m 100 percent sure someone called him after and said, ‘Lex, like that means…’

“Because right after that, he said something about the bass shiver in his nether regions and they’re on mainstream television. Like, so I’m pretty sure someone had a word with him.”

Friedel is referring to Lalas claiming, “My nether regions are still vibrating from the bass, wow!” after a musical performance marked the USMNT’s opener.

Henry looked visibly disgusted and Lalas appears to have toned down some of his slightly more lewd outbursts.

Lalas, of course, may not care what others think.

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His name is all over the place and his country has six points from two games.

The defender, who rocked a distinctive ginger beard in his playing days, is not afraid of being outspoken and launched a pre-tournament dig at England.

“Here’s the deal when it comes to England: anybody but England this summer. I don’t care who wins the World Cup this summer, but it cannot be England,” he said.

“Can you imagine England, who haven’t won a World Cup since the 1960s, if they were to come to our shores, by the way, on our 250th birthday, and win the World Cup?”

Expect plenty more hot takes from Lalas — especially if the USMNT keeps winning — and more sidewards glances from his esteemed co-hosts.

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