Episode 56 - Colombia loses and we are done with the World Cup

On today's episode we discuss Colombia loss in penalties to Switzerland... History repeats itself, sadly.

And Argentina escape another African team due Messi still being brilliant at 39. 

Quarterfinals are all set and we make our last predictions. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Well, I don't even know how to start this. It's another heartbreak, another tournament, another World Cup, another penalty shootout, and Colombia loses once again after gaining the hearts of every fan across the world after having every stadium packed with yellow jerseys after being the home team at every single stadium after being one of the best performing team best performing teams in the World Cup. We go out again in the round of 16, and it's yet another heartbreak. What a sad day to be a Colombian American specifically, because we had the U.S. men's national team losing yesterday in a pretty embarrassing fashion. And then today, penalties took Colombia out of the World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 1:20

Double whammy.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Double whammy. It's tough. It is sad. I am heartbroken. I am dead on the inside. I'm not sure I even care about the World Cup anymore. I think I might be more of a.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Me and you both.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

I think I might be more of a tennis guy. I think Wimbledon is going on. I saw Djokovic went on to the semifinals. Might have to do a tennis podcast after this.

SPEAKER_02 1:45

Yeah, you might be by yourself because I have no no knowledge of tennis. So I think you're gonna have to ride solo there.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

We can learn together.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

I think I think we can do like an NFL podcast or MBA podcast. That'll be a little bit more into our into our taste.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

Well, both of those are off season right now. So anyway.

SPEAKER_02 2:11

Well, this is depressing. It's very depressing. This is the sad pod. Wish we could come in here and you know be completely happy and smiley and jumping up and down and laughing and doing all the things we usually do, but we're just This is terrible. This is out of the gutter, man. It feels like we're at a funeral.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Why do we even like sports, man? Like, why do we do this? There's no point. Yeah, there's no point. Why why can't we be into, I don't know, like like gardening or some shit? Like, why can't we be into something that's either break my fucking heart?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

I look at people that don't follow any sports and they just look so happy all the time. They look so happy, like not a care in the world, nothing worries them. And rightfully so. I might have to be one of those people.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Yeah, man. I mean, this guy at work, he's on vacation right now in Nova Scotia. I was asking if he was watching the World Cup. He's like, no, I haven't watched a single thing. I'm just enjoying my life here. I was like, man, aren't you a lucky bastard? Uh at first I was like, how are you not following the World Cup, bro? Now I'm like, I kind of wish I was that guy. I wish I was ignorant to everything that was going on right now. Just so peaceful, man.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

He's so peaceful. He's at peace. He's just chilling. He's on the city.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

He's at peace with his life. I'm here figuring out if I want to smash my head against a wall or if I want to lay down in the train tracks right over here.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah, I think both sound pretty good right now. Either or could work.

SPEAKER_01 3:42

Either or just put me out of my misery at this point.

SPEAKER_02 3:48

Yeah, maybe hanging out with Pablo, Escobar, and the gang back in the day. You know, maybe that that sounds a little bit more fun.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Yeah. I'd rather go step on a thousand thumbtacks right now than go through this pain. I'd rather walk through a set of Legos chasing after my son than go through this pain.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

That that sucks. If you've ever experienced that, if you ever hit yourself with a Lego or a freaking dinosaur or whatever the hell that they just leave around, that's the worst pain. That is the worst pain. It might be in part with this.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

It might be. Or if you if you you stub your toe with the corner of a kitchen table or something chasing after them. Oh yeah, there's no pain like it. No, that's no pain like it. Take me out for weeks, man, brother. So you know what's crazy? I don't know how you felt during the game, but as soon as we went to penalties, I had a really bad feeling.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Well, yeah, dude, because every time we go to penalties, we lose. Against England, we lost. I was in Argentina, we lost. Who else did we lose? We lost to Chile Chile in 2016, was it?

SPEAKER_01 4:58

I was looking at I was looking at this because I I went back and looked at it, and I said, How like how have we done exactly like in the last few penalty shootouts that we've been to? And we've been to seven total since 2015. And we've won two. One against Peru in Copa América in 2015, and one against uh Uruguay in Copa América in 2021. We lost against uh Argentina twice. We've lost against England, we've lost against Chile, and now we lost against Switzerland. We are terrible at penalties. Yeah, we can't know how we don't prepare ourselves for this. I'm sure we do, but we have to prepare much better because the moment gets too big for us whenever it comes to the penalty show.

SPEAKER_02 5:46

Or how about let's just prepare ourselves to not go to penalties? Let's just not go there too. How about that? How about we just prepare on finishing the frickin' ball, man? Hamidon Campas, bro. That's gonna live with me for the rest of my life. And it's right sad, bro. He was right.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

You know why it's so sad? Because he came in and he actually did really well. He had such a good game whenever he came in. He changed with you, I think. On that right side.

SPEAKER_02 6:14

I didn't think so until like extra time when there was an added time.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Extra time. Extra time is when he started doing it.

SPEAKER_02 6:20

And extra time is when he started doing it. When he came in, I was like, what the hell is Nestor doing taking him or bringing him in for Joan Arias? Because John Arias was absolutely killing him. I liked all the substitutions except that one. I did not like that he took John Arias for Hamington Campás. That killed it, man.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

That killed our momentum a little bit. I hated that as well because Joan Adias, you could argue that Joan Arias has been our best player this entire World Cup. And he he takes him out every single time and so early. He takes him out at like the 62th.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Yeah. Yeah. I didn't understand.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

He was bossing the midfield. He's a player that knows how to control the midfield, knows how to control the ball, knows how to gain back possession, does rarely ever get dispossessed, can distribute the ball well, knows how to come in into the box attacking, and then we're gonna take him out. And I'm sure, I'm sure he could have taken a penalty as well. I'm sure he could have taken a penalty as well. And that's the thing is that we took out some players that could have potentially taken a penalty, like Luis Suárez. I understand why we took him out, but then I'm like, he could have taken that instead of Pucho. Then I I think of Hamas, and I understand that Hamas is not even fit enough to play 90 minutes, let alone 120. But at the same time, you we would have loved to have had you in that penalty shootout.

SPEAKER_02 7:43

Well yeah, but it's just that's not realistic thinking. Quinteto stepped up good, at least. No, Quinteto stepped up good, but Hamas isn't gonna last till a penalty shootout ever. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

But what what I'm saying is what makes me upset is that he's put himself in that position. He's put himself in that position to not last for 120 minutes. And we need our best player to do that. That's what makes me upset. So anyway. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Well yeah, speaking about our best player, Luis Diaz, I think his performance in the World Cup wasn't what we expected. And that correlates with our World Cup exit right now. I think if we would have had a better performance from Lucho, I think if he would have finished his chances, wouldn't have been so antsy. And maybe it's just such a long season too with Bayern Munich. I understand that. But I mean every player has that excuse too. Yeah. But it just it wasn't enough for us. And and I I wouldn't say it was solely because of that that we got booted early, but I mean, it correlates with why we are getting booted early because our best player needs to perform in the biggest stage, and he just didn't. He didn't. We didn't have a difference maker.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

No, we did not, man. And today during the game, it was the same thing. He's very energetic, he's he has a very high work ethic. He runs all over the place. But man, it's I don't know what's what was wrong with him. But every time that I would see him on a one-on-one situation, he would never beat the defender. Never. Yeah. He would never. There were a couple situations where he was he was isolated out on the wing, and this was multiple games, especially the last three games, where he was isolated out on the wing and he could have taken on the defender, like to the left side. He has no left foot. It is actually almost embarrassing to watch how bad his left foot is. He uses the outside of his right foot all the time, or he tries to cut into the right all the time. Even when there is two, three, even four defenders on the inside, he'll try to cut into the right every single time. And they dispossess him every single time. They take the ball away from him, or he shoots and it lands into a defender. When I wish he would just take the ball out onto his left and either cross it back in or get a good shot in with his left. I would much wish him do that because he has a much better opportunity to beat the opponent. He has the talent and the skill to beat the opponent, to take people on, to take on these defenders. He does it. We've seen him do it in Liverpool at Bayern Munich. I don't know what happened to this World Cup, man. I was same boat as you. I was expecting a lot more out of him, and he was very disappointing. First game he played well. Second game, he did okay, and then the last three games, it was just it was not good. It was not good enough. And same thing with uh with our strikers. Same thing with our strikers like Luis Suárez and John Córdoba. Luis Suarez, how are you the leading goal scorer in the Portuguese League? And you come to the World Cup and you can't score a single goal, man. John Cordova ended up getting hurt. But our strikers didn't score a single time. Not once. Our leading goal scorer was a right back. That's a problem. If our leading goal scorer is a right back, that is a huge problem.

SPEAKER_02 10:55

And that's something that we have to score goals. We have no one that can score goals, which is sad. That's another one I expected a lot out of Elizabeth Suarez from his season that he had with sporting, but he he's not it. He hustles a lot. I like the way he hustles for sure, and he pressures very well. I like the work that he gives us. It was cool to watch, and that goal against Ghana came from him, came from his his boot. I mean, no, he's he's a hustler for sure, but we need him to score.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

We need him to score in the way of doing that.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

We need finishers, and I wish we we would have seen a little bit more of Cucho Hernandez, too. We only got a little bit more. Because he's a hustler as well. He's a hustler as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

I wish we would have seen more of him. I thought he came in put in a good shift too.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

We don't have any lethal finishers. No. If Falcão was on this team, oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, prime Falcão would have been salivating at the math. Even freaking, even somebody like Jackson Martinez or Carlos Baca or Teo, Teofilo Gutiérrez. Anybody, even fucking like Daito Moreno. Bring me, bring me Daido Moreno with with his aguardiente in hand, and he he's gonna finish some chances, bro. I mean, granted, he's like 40 years old now, but the thing is, is that we don't have, like you said, a lethal striker, and we don't have anybody who can finish these opportunities that Juan Fit is putting on there literally on a plate, silver platter for them, or Hamas would, or John Adias would. And we have to be better at that. We have to be better than that.

SPEAKER_02 12:32

We're not gonna win anything without a striker. Never mind.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

We're just never going to, and our defense was like this. And I gotta I gotta I gotta give a shout out to our defense. Our entire defense was solid from Dani Munoz to Johan Mohica. They were phenomenal, this World Cup. And Camilo Vargas, we came in saying that Camilo Vargas was our weakest point, and we were really scared about him, and that turned out to be not the case because he had a phenomenal performance today. He kept us in the game multiple times. He kept us in the game multiple times against Portugal as well. He had a great performance. What ended up being our weakest point was our attack and our strikers and not being able to finish.

SPEAKER_02 13:11

So sad to see, man. Sad to see. Compas had it right there, bro. He had it right there.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Like, yeah, whenever that happened, I was like, that's it. I was like, that's it. It's over, it's over, it's over. And then he sent it to the move. They're still looking for that ball. It was it was harder to do what he did than to just finish it off. He tried to be so he tried to be all fancy and get all cute and try to put it top corner. Brother, just slot it past the goalkeeper. That's all you have to do. Just put it, just leave it on the ground, slot that thing past the goalkeeper. And he decided to go top ends. I'm gonna have nightmares with that, bro. So is he. I honestly feel bad for him because he's gonna have nightmares about that. You know what that reminds me of kind of? That Kolomuani last minute in the lat in the final of the World Cup in 22, where he had that one-on-one situation with Diu Martinez, and DiVo Martinez saved that. Colomwani isn't even on the national team anymore. And he hasn't been the best, the same player since.

SPEAKER_02 14:10

Yeah, that's tough to come back from that psychologically. But at least that was a great save from Dibu Martinez. Like he got to give Diu Martinez a lot of shit. True. This guy literally completely just whiffed it, bro. Yeah. Completely whiffed it. That was that was the worst miss of the World Cup. I started to scream goal before he even shot it. I was like, that's it, that's the one. That's the one. We're we're going through. We're gonna play Argentina, we're gonna play that little midget. We're finally gonna eliminate him. No, no, none of that.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

None of that happened. None of that, man. And yeah, and as soon as he missed that, I was like, we're gonna go to PK's and we're gonna lose. I just know we are. I was not confident in the PKs.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

And then Davison Sanchez, I don't know, man, I don't know about you, but as soon as he was walking up and I saw that it was Davison Sanchez, I'm like, why is Davison Sanchez taking a penalty right now? Yeah, why the fuck is Davis on Sanchez taking a penalty right now? Why is that not Richard Rios? Why is that not Gustavo Puerta? Why? Why do we have Davison Sanchez as soon as I don't know, man, he's missed him before. Has he? Yeah. He's missed him before.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

I can't remember exactly.

SPEAKER_02 15:16

You just look at him, he's not a penalty taker. He's just not center back, shouldn't be taking penalties on the game with Sergio Ramos.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

He tried to go for power and he just he hit the crossbar and it went down and it didn't even go crossbar and in like Zidane. It went crossbar and out. Uh man, that I I had the same feeling as you. As soon as I saw him walked up, walking up, I was like, he's gonna miss this. But I mean I'll tell you what, when a when a kanji missed, that put me back in. I was like, Me too. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:45

And then right after we who was the other one that missed?

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Cucho. Cucho.

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Cucho, yeah, yeah, Cucho, Cucho. That was a good save, though. That was a really good save.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

It was also very poorly taken. He pretty much told he the goalkeeper read him like a book. It was very obvious where he was gonna go. He put it mid-air, right where the goalkeeper was gonna be. It was a good save, but it was also a poorly taken penalty. He sh all eyes are on you. So I do appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 16:15

You feel like you're gonna cramp up when you take a shot. You know, players gotta be 100% healthy to go up there and take it because when you really start cramping up, players get scared that they're gonna cramp up when they go take the shot.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Yeah. And Compas almost missed it as well. I I almost punched my TV. You know, like we got lucky that it went right under the goalkeeper.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Yes, yes. If he would have missed that one, that would have been it for him, bro. Yeah, that would have been it for him. I feel bad because he's not a bad player. Like I like what I saw from him on an extra time, but that miss just completely. That's all I'm gonna think about now every time I see this guy. It's just that miss. Every single time.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

It's tough. It's tough. It's a tough day. I think overall the game itself for 120 minutes, it was uh it was it was like kind of boring. It was very closed off. There was really hard fought battle, though.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Yeah, not not a lot of opportunities from either side, but it was just it it it was very uh fought. It was very even very even, and in the middle of the pitch, I felt like it was that's where the battle was.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yeah. And I didn't like because of that, I didn't like the fact that he took out Jefferson and Lerma because Lerma is that He was just tired, bro. I think that that that's what it had to have been, right? He was that he was tired.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

And you can tell the whole team was gas, bro. And it it really does come down to those small details. Switzerland was in Vancouver the past three games.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

You're right.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

We were one of the teams, I think maybe the team that traveled the most during the World Cup. I think we're the only one that went to three different countries, all three of Mexico, Canada, and U.S. And that's not fair, bro.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

It's not fair at all, especially whenever, like you said, Switzerland played their last three games in Vancouver. They had so much time to rest. We were fatigued. We it did we were in three different time zones. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Three different countries. Like all we went from Mexico City to Miami to Kansas City to freaking Vancouver. Like that is that's a lot.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

But yeah, I'll give credit to Switzerland though. They definitely were our toughest opponent in in this World Cup for sure. Yeah. So I'll I'll give credit to them because of that. But I would say that.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

And they had three of their starters missing. They had arguably their best player not there, three of their starters not missing, and we still, we still could excuse me, we still couldn't do it. Yeah, no. I don't think we got outplayed. We just No, we didn't. We just couldn't finish. We just couldn't freaking finish. We couldn't finish. And that's the it is all you needed that that game was just it was a replica of somebody's gonna make a silly mistake, and that whenever that mistake happens, the other team has to capitalize. And Switzerland was the one who made that mistake, and we did not capitalize on it. And that's just gonna haunt us forever because penalties are not in our favor. We were almost playing like we wanted to take them to penalties. It was the same thing that I saw. It was the same thing that I saw in the Copomerica final in 2024. We were playing like we wanted to take Argentina to penalties. Why the hell would we do that? I don't know. We suck at penalties, Argentina's good at penalties. We suck at penalties, it looks like Switzerland is better at penalties than us. So I don't know why we would want to go to a penalty shootout, why we would have that type of mindset. We should just try to go all out and finish the game in 90 minutes. That's the difference between good teams and great teams. And we'll get to Argentina later, but that's the difference. You see, Argentina, Argentina did not want to go to overtime again. And they finished that game. They came back from being two-nailed down, playing terribly. They were getting absolutely outplayed by Egypt. And that is the grit and determination that Colombia needs to have if they want to make it far ever in a tournament. Because Argentina was getting outplayed. Argentina now played well. The only reason they went through is because they have grit and determination and they wanted to win. And that is the experience of a world champion versus the experience of a team that's good, but that has never made it to that stage. It's a massive difference. And that's the type of stuff that we need. We need to finish the games off in 90 minutes and stop thinking about penalties or stop thinking about oh, well, we're going to overtime. Or no, just finish the game off. Finish it off anyway.

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Sad.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Either way, like you said, it's not like it's not like we got our played. It was a very even match. It was a very tactical game. Both had pretty decent opportunities. Goalkeepers were very good, had a really good night. Strikers on both ends did not have a good night. We talked about Lucho. I wish Lucho would have performed a lot better. But yeah, even whenever Fuanfit came on, he was trying to find spaces and everything. And it was tough for him to do that. It was really difficult for him to find space because Switzerland was very closed off at the back. They were not providing any sort of space for for anything. And one thing that I've noticed too, I can't remember if we talked about it, but when I I feel like whenever we have the ball, especially where we're touch we're passing around in the back and everything, there is no movement up top. No movement whatsoever. Because we always try to do this thing of we're passing around and then eventually we'll kick it up to Luis Diaz and Luis Suarez. I don't know why we would play that game, because it's just basically giving the ball back to Switzerland. Their defenders are five inches taller than Luis Suarez and Luis Diaz. When have you ever seen Luis Diaz win an aerial duel with anybody? I understand he's fast and you want to put him on a one-on-one with these defenders, but that that was not the case. And there there's barely any movement up top from Luis Diaz, Luis Suarez from high. Hamas from anything. So we would just play it around all the time, play it around, and then kick it up and then lose the ball. And then we would win the second ball and do the same thing. It was literally pointless possession because we weren't creating anything. We weren't creating anything. And that's exactly where Switzerland wanted to be. That's exactly. And we we just need to have better movement up top. Up front is where we lack a lot of depth and a lot of momentum and a lot of what's the word I'm looking for? Preciseness, clutch. We need to be better up there. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Yeah, that's uh that's our weakest factor. Like you said, we we thought it was gonna be Camilo Vargas, especially for from the two friendlies that we saw from him before this World Cup. It was just not good. And it's just that was our weakest link, but no, it's it uh it ended up being our attack. We only ended up scoring one goal against Congo, one goal against Ghana, went goaless against Uzbestan, Portugal, goaless against uh Switzerland. If it wasn't for those three against Uzbekistan, it would have been a complete failure. I mean, in our defense, our defense was really good. Our defense was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Our defense was solid. We literally made one little stupid, little silly blunder of a mistake against Uzbekistan, and that was the only goal we got scored on the entire game, the entire World Cup. That's pretty impressive. So our back line is strong, but now it's crazy because now what happens next? That's the question. What at where does Colombia go from here? Because that's a good question. What's really what's really sad is that this is Hamas's last World Cup. It's more than likely Quintero's last World Cup. Camilo Vargas is 37. This has got to be his last tournament, probably. I don't think he's gonna last much more. I don't even think we'll see him at Copa Merica.

SPEAKER_02 23:47

Yeah, who knows?

SPEAKER_01 23:50

Uh players like Lerma, Davin Son Sanchez, Dani Munoz, they're in their Luis Diaz, they're in their late 20s, early 30s. Four years from now, it's gonna be a lot different than what it looks now. Where do we go from here?

SPEAKER_02 24:04

I mean our defense could still we can still hold on to them at least one more year. Johan Mohica, I don't think so. But Sanchez, Lukumi, and Munoz, I think they got at least one more World Cup in them. Our midfield, Gustavo Puerta, Richard Rios, they're young. I think that might end up being I think that might end up being our our duo after Lerma leaves. But we need somebody with a little bit more physical presence there for sure. Yep. Yeah I don't know what's gonna happen with our number 10, or if we're just gonna try to find fast swingers and good strikers. I don't know, man. I I have no idea. I think that should be our priorities find good strikers and keepers too, because we don't we don't I mean after Camilo Vargas, he's 37, Cospina's 37, Montero's like 34, 33. So we have no good, so yeah, exactly. So our our priority right now should be to enforce the attack and find a really good goalkeeper. I think our defense could last one more World Cup. At least Muñoz, Tukumi, and and Sanchez.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Lukumi for sure. Lukumi is I think he's like 25, so he's got more in him. I think Sanchez is 28, 29, 30.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I believe he's 30, yeah. 29 or 30. You're on Muz.

SPEAKER_01 25:17

He got like one more World Cup and Munoz is 30. Munoz is the same thing. Munoz is like 30. He's not gonna have that same energy and that same. No, but he could be maybe like uh he could have like the Santi Ayas role.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that we missed out on the opportunity of this, the end of this golden generation that we had with Colombia to do something big at a World Cup. We did it at the Cobo Medica. We got to the final, we were so close. That was still very fun to watch. It was great to see them get that close. But I would have loved to have seen us go further in the World Cup because we deserve to go further in the World Cup, because we needed to go further in the World Cup and because we could.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

Yeah, we're good enough to do it. We were good enough.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

We deserve the recognition. Exactly. And it's the same old thing with Columbia of every single time at a World Cup. In the 90s, it was the same thing. We supposedly had the best team in the world. Pele was saying we were gonna win the World Cup in '94. What did we do? In 1990, the only that was the only time we made it past the round, excuse me, past the group stage, and it was because we were one of the best third place teams at that point that that's how.

SPEAKER_02 26:27

Well, Jane could stop doing that because Kafoud just said it too, I think last week. They asked him who's gonna win the World Cup, and he said Colombia.

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Well, that's the thing is that's not even their fault. That's our fault. Well, that's our fault for letting it get into our head. We need to, we need to people should be able to say we're gonna win the World Cup and win the World Cup. Look at France. You think France, people's just saying because France is gonna win the World Cup, they're they're jinxed or Argentina or Spain. No, they're still in that. They're still going at it. We have to stop letting it get in our head. If people are gonna say we're good enough, we have to show that we're good enough. That's it. Like, yeah, I understand. Like I don't want to be jinxed, I'm like all these things, but we we just have to be better. We have to perform better, we have to have the right mentality. And it's that's what the the in in South America they call it La Teoría del Colombiano. The theory of the Colombian, right? Is that we show up at like the most random moments and provide moments of brilliance, but when the where we're under the the lights and everybody's watching, we come we crumble. We they call it over there petrofrío. We're just petrofríos, bro. It's happened since the 90s. In the 90s, we had supposedly one of the best national teams ever assembled, and we couldn't, we couldn't even get past a round of 16. Got bounced in 94 in the group stage, got bounced in 98 in the group stage. We didn't qualify for a World Cup in 16 years. Got back to it in 2014, made a phenomenal run, and we thought this is it, this is our golden generation, we're gonna make a great run. That wasn't it. And this was the last opportunity to showcase what this Colombian golden generation was because everybody's like towards the end of their career. We'll see what the youth brings up. I'll have to do a little bit more research into what our U-17 and U-20s are looking like. We were talking with Alex, apparently our U-20s are doing pretty well. But I'd be like, No, and there's that one guy that signed with Liverpool, too, he's like 17. Right. Yep, there is so we'll see, man. Anyway, Columbia loses in a very depressing fashion to Switzerland, and we're out, and the dream is dead. The dream is dead. So but the last standing South American team is Argentina, and they almost lost today as well. They almost uh fucked it up for themselves against Egypt, another African team giving them a really, really tough time. Egypt uh outplayed them completely. They were up 2-0 up until the 80th minute. Everybody thought this was it. Egypt was gonna have one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history. I definitely and Messi came out of nowhere, he appeared, and like we talked about yesterday on the pod, whenever your team needs you the most to bail you out of misery, that's when you need your best players to perform. And that's what Messi did, because he provided an assist and then he got the goal to tie it up 2-2 in the 83rd minute. And that's that's all you need. He missed a penalty too, though. He missed a penalty missed the five.

SPEAKER_02 29:32

He had two penalties this World Cup. Yeah, he does not like scoring penalties.

SPEAKER_01 29:36

He just doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to do it because he doesn't want people saying all he does is score penalties. So he gets a penalty. He's like, I'm just gonna miss this on the city. All right, that's why. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's why. I don't blame him. I don't blame him. So he's not he's not scoring.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

He he doesn't want to break the record scoring penalties. All right, respectable. Yeah. Respectable. Yeah. He doesn't want to do it. He doesn't want to do it. So he doesn't want to be the leading goal scorer, scoring penalties. All right. That's pretty honorable. All right.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Yeah. He said, I'll just do it a different way.

SPEAKER_02 30:05

I get it. I guess if anyone can do it, it's him.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Yeah, and he's still breaking records. I think it's now like what, eight or nine games in a row in a World Cup that he keeps continues to score, so he keeps breaking his own record.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

He now has eight World Cup goals in this World Cup, which is more than he had in the previous, any previous World Cup, honestly. Eight is how many Killing Mbappe had last World Cup, and Killing Mbappe won the golden boot. And this Golden Boot race is heating up.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:36

And it is phenomenal to watch because it's Messi versus Mbappe versus Holland and versus Harry Kane, who's right there behind him.

SPEAKER_02 30:44

That's probably the only good thing left to watch in this World Cup is the golden boot race. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

The golden boot race.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

I have no desire to watch the World Cup right now, man. No TV.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Zero desire, man. I still obviously, as a Messi fan, I, you know, want to see Messi succeed. As a Barcelona fan, Spain has a ton of Barca players. Lamin, Beliecuarci, Gaudy, Daniol Moferran, Edigarcia, Joan Garcia, all these players. So I want to I wish them well. I want to see them do well. But it's just not the same, obviously. It's not the same as watching your own national team out there. And it's just not the same. So it's gonna be really sad. Tomorrow we don't even have any games. But anyway, go going back to the Argentina-Egypt game, that was probably one of the best games at the World Cup again. That was a very that was a very exciting game.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Yeah, that's true. They're gonna be gassed facing Switzerland, though.

SPEAKER_03 31:57

Oof.

SPEAKER_02 31:57

They were gassed at the end of Egypt. I think Switzerland should be licking their lips right now, seeing that Argentina hasn't been playing the best. So I think it's gonna be a pretty good game, honestly. I don't think Argentina I don't think Argentina's just gonna easily win that game.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

No.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

No, I don't think so either.

SPEAKER_01 32:17

We've said Argentina's gonna win this game easily, the last two games against Cape Verde and against Egypt, and they've almost lost both of them. So Switzerland. But they found a way to win. That's the difference between having that grit and determination and being a team like Argentina, being a national team that is widely recognized as one of the greatest of all time. That's the difference between the US and the Colombias of the world. Because even when they're not playing well, even when they can't find the back of the net, somehow, some way they will figure it out to do it. And their best players will perform and they will figure it out, even if it's for five or ten minutes. Because Messi was completely taken out of this game. Every time he touched the ball, there was two or three players on him. And credit to Scaloni because Scaloni switched up the scheme, the tactics at halftime, brought on Nico Gonzalez, took out Rodrigo de Paul, put Nico Gonzalez out on the left, brought on Lautaro Martinez, played a double striker, put Messi out on the right to isolate him a little bit more, give him more space, and it worked out. It ended up working out perfectly. So, man, I see that.

SPEAKER_02 33:29

And I just really wanted to face Argentina, bro. I just really wanted to face it. I did too.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

I did too because I know we were I know we're I mean, Switzerland gave us a freaking hell of a game today. So I think Switzerland's gonna give them a hell of a game too.

SPEAKER_02 33:41

But I know there's been so many times that they've eliminated us in the Copa America, so many battles and and the Come Ball qualifiers.

unknown 33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

And we barely ever get the best out of them, you know, especially when it's knockout football time. So I just really wanted to.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

We're just not the best at knockout football, man, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_02 33:59

We're just not Cup America, we did good.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Yeah, but we could do it. That's the that's only the third final that we've ever reached in the history of our national team. But we can do it.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

And this is basically the same group of players that went to the Cop America. We could have done it for sure, man. But that's what's so sad is we had the talent. And I think if we play Argentina in the quarterfinals, we could have beat them.

SPEAKER_01 34:22

We could have.

SPEAKER_02 34:23

I think we could have beat them. And I think we could have beat England or Norway in the semifinals, too.

SPEAKER_01 34:28

For sure, we could have beat it.

SPEAKER_02 34:29

I think so, bro. I think we can go toe-to-toe with any of those teams. None of those teams are better than Legacy. I really don't, I really don't think so. The only team that I'm like, yeah, for sure, this team is better than us is France.

SPEAKER_01 34:39

France. That's it. France is the only team that I see that's better than us. For sure. Every other team. We saw it today. We saw it today with Argentina. We talked about it last week. Argentina without Messi is nothing. And you saw it today. They completely man marked Messi. They try to isolate him from the game, and Argentina couldn't create anything. They played so bad today. Argentina played really, really poor today. But that doesn't matter because they still found a way to win. That doesn't matter, man. Whenever it's knockout football time, it doesn't matter who's playing better. All that matters is who can shine bright in those little moments. Who can find the right time to come back? That's gonna be one of the best comebacks that I've ever seen at a World Cup. I'm trying to think of another comeback. In the last 10 minutes of the game, or excuse me, 15 minutes of the game, where they were down 2-0 and then they ended up winning 3-2. I thought we were gonna get another overtime for Argentina. Well they did not want that.

SPEAKER_02 35:36

Senegal, Belgium, actually, in this past World Cup was pretty good. That was like in the 85th minute. Belgium was losing 2-0.

SPEAKER_01 35:43

That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's right. Belgium was losing 2-0. But they went to did they go to overtime? I can't even remember. Yeah, yeah. It was the round of the city. Yeah, it was it was 120 minutes.

SPEAKER_02 35:52

It was 120 minutes. Okay, but still.

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Yeah, because Tieleman scored a penny in the 125th. Yep. They tied it at the last minute. So they tied it within the like with the last three minutes. Because yeah, you're right. Senegal was up 2-0. Then Lukaku and Tieleman scored within three minutes of each other. They went to extra time, and Tieleman scored in the last minute to win the game. That's another big one, yeah. But man, what a comeback. What a what a hell of a game. Uh Messi still being Messi at the age of 39 is crazy. It has scored in every game so far this World Cup. He's literally just out there having fun, man. And you saw how much it meant to him, too. You saw how much it meant to him, man. He was crying at the end. Escaloni was claring at the end because they thought it was over. They really did. They thought that it was over. Messi said he felt bad for missing that PK. He did. That's another thing. You he he let out the emotions because he was like, man, I almost let my country down.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Yeah. He's a pretty emotional guy, man.

SPEAKER_01 36:48

He is interesting.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

We saw it in the Cope America 2016 and the last Cope America too when he was injured, which I was like, damn, he's really crying like that. That's crazy. Because he had already won his Cope America, he won the World Cup. Like there was nothing uh else to prove there, but that just shows how much passion he has for his country and for the sport. And how much of a winner he is and competitive he is, you know?

SPEAKER_01 37:09

Yeah, that's the thing, is like people always say that people always try to say, oh, you know, Ronaldo's got more hunger or more competitiveness. And Ronaldo does, but they try to diminish them to what Messi, the type of competitive player that Messi is, and the hunger that he's got as well. But and also he's he got really emotional, man, I would assume too, because of everything that's going on with his dad. I mean, his dad's going through a really tough time, having some health issues at the moment. He's been in the hospital, in and out of the hospital. So I'm sure he's going through that as well. But yeah, he ended up missing that penalty, probably thought about it the entire game, and then whenever he scored that second goal to tie it up, he let it all out, man. That shit. Yeah. He was screaming at the top of his lungs. I can't even imagine what it's like to be in that stadium. That was crazy.

SPEAKER_02 37:55

Yeah, man. The vibes must have been electric. Yeah, electric.

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Yeah. Anyway, man, Argentina and Switzerland move on to the quarterfinal. They play this Saturday in Kansas City. Um, so the best eight of the World Cup are officially set. We got we got a break tomorrow of the World Cup. I don't even know what I'm gonna do with my life. Then we we went from having like four or five games a day. Now we're gonna have one game a day. So we got Except Saturday.

SPEAKER_02 38:26

Saturday we have two.

SPEAKER_01 38:27

You're right. Yeah, Saturday we have two. So we got Thursday, we got France, Morocco. Friday, we got Spain, Belgium, and then Saturday we got Norway, England, and then Argentina, Switzerland. Those are gonna be super fun games. Who do you got in the in the final now? Because you said you before the the knockout started, you said you had Portugal, Colombia. Yeah, that's holy fuck did that not work out. Your bracket's completely busted. It's done, dude. It's done. So what what you got now? What what you got now, realistically speaking now?

SPEAKER_02 39:07

Bro, I'd rather just freaking claw my eyes out if I'm being honest with you. I don't want to watch any more of this World Cup. I'm so depressed. My goodness. But nah, I mean, realistically, I I would love to support one of my Madrid boys, Raheem Diaz, Jude Bellingham, Courtois. Who else is still in there? I think that's it, right? Well, this guy's this guy freaking dictator. Yeah, you're right. He's already got his freaking World Cup. Though, um, dude, it would be pretty cool to see Morocco win it. Morocco or Norway, I'm not gonna lie. That would be cool.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

A Morocco Norway final would be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

Yeah, that would be pretty Yeah, that would be pretty epic. I'm I can't lie there. Yeah. But England winning it would be cool just because of Jude Bellingham. That's it. Only because of Jude. I think if England wins it, they'll be so annoying. At least the fans would.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

The fans will be very, very, very just kind of like Arsenal fans winning the Premier League. Yeah. They'll be super annoying.

SPEAKER_02 40:12

If it wasn't for that, I would I think I would definitely be rooting for England.

SPEAKER_01 40:16

But just to picture how the fans are gonna be acting, if they do win the World Cup, is just man, like I wouldn't want to go on the internet for an Argentina-England semifinal would be electric. Electric. Yeah. Because that is a that is a big rivalry there between the two of them. That would be super fun to watch.

SPEAKER_02 40:42

However, I'd definitely go for England there.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

I would I don't know, man. Norway's on a hot streak right now. I would not want to, I would not want to be playing against Holland at the moment.

SPEAKER_02 40:51

Yeah, maybe.

SPEAKER_01 40:52

Not me. But so wait, who do you got? What's your you didn't you didn't give me anything? You just said you're going for your Madrid boys. Who's in Who's gonna win it? I think France is gonna win it. Who's the final though? France against France.

unknown 41:05

I guess.

SPEAKER_02 41:06

Why do I feel like it's gonna be France, Argentina again?

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Let's back up a little bit. Let's back up. So, okay, France wins the quarterfinal against Morocco. Who wins? Spain or Belgium? Spain. Spain, okay. Norway, England.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

This is a tough one. This is a really tough one. I mean, if I had to choose one, fuck, dude, this is tough. This is actually really, really hard. I have no idea because it could go either way.

SPEAKER_01 41:29

This is the hardest one to pick, I think.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

I guess England, dude. I'm just gonna go.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

You do it, England. Okay. And then Argentina, Switzerland. Argentina. Argentina. Alright. And then you said the final is France against England.

SPEAKER_02 41:41

No, I feel like it's gonna be France against Argentina again.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

I think so too. I think it's gonna be France, Argentina.

SPEAKER_02 41:46

It's gonna be another France-Argentina final.

SPEAKER_01 41:48

I think it's gonna be another France-Argentina. I think France goes to the third World Cup final in a row.

SPEAKER_02 41:54

And I think France wins in.

SPEAKER_01 41:56

Yeah, I think it's so good. It's gonna be so difficult to beat France. It's gonna be kind of crazy.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

I mean, the only one that could do it or well, the only ones that could do it are either Spain or France. Those are the only two that's gonna be. Spain beat France or England. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 42:13

Spain beat France in the uh in the semis of the Euro a couple years ago.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

Yeah, they did.

SPEAKER_01 42:20

Yeah, a couple years ago. They made it away.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

I think Lamin scored, didn't he? He scored a goal a lot.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

He scored a fucking banger. He scored a banger. So we'll see again. Lamin loves to play against Mbappe. He's beaten Mbappe like eight different times.

SPEAKER_02 42:35

Yeah. So that's gonna be a favorite opponent.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

It is. Um but it's funny. Before the World Cup started, I had Spain-Argentina as the final. Uh, but the way France has been playing has been electric. Now, I will say we talked about this yesterday too. Spain just hasn't been scored on. They have a really, really solid defense. I mean, they have to get through Belgium first, and Belgium played so well against USA that they confused the hell out of me. But I still think Spain makes it through. And I don't know. I just just seeing the way France is playing, I think it is gonna be another France-Argentina final. Yeah, I do think I would love to say Norway's gonna beat England, but I think England is gonna edge him out. I think the battle between Harry Kane and Erling Holland is gonna be super amazing. But I think England's gonna edge him out, and that England-Argentina semi is gonna be an all-out war.

SPEAKER_02 43:29

But uh Yeah, it would be. That would be a big semifinal.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Before before we before we end the pod, and let's keep this a little bit short, because I want to get your opinion on this. There's been a lot of talk about the Egypt goal that got called back, that made a two zero by Zico, and then it got called back due to a foul on Lisandro Martinez on the build up of the play. What did you think of that?

SPEAKER_02 43:55

That's a foul. He stepped on it.

SPEAKER_01 43:57

Yeah. It's a crazy.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

Is complaining so much.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

Egypt is out here pretending like I don't know. They are complaining a hell of a lot. They're like, oh, this is rigged. No, there's no reason.

SPEAKER_02 44:09

No, no, no, no, no, no. I don't think so. I think the ref did a good job in all his calls. I think the result was fair. They're just pissed off they couldn't keep that 2-0 lead. That's it.

SPEAKER_01 44:19

At the end of the day, they have to look in the mirror. They were the ones that bottled it.

SPEAKER_02 44:23

A lot of people are out here saying robberies. And it starts with their coach. Their coach is the one that's you know making this accusations. So no, bro, have some self-accountability.

SPEAKER_01 44:38

Exactly. Hey, this is a this is a Ronaldo Real Madrid fan talking here, too.

SPEAKER_02 44:44

Yeah, no, for sure. No, no. 100%, man. I could understand. But right now, Messi's on a different level.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

He is. And Egypt, like you said, Egypt completely bottled at. Completely bottled at. I can understand what some people, some people are saying that the ref let the play go on for too long. Like there shouldn't be a reason why a play should go 80, 90 yards before a referee gets inter intervenes with that because it takes away from the scene and the emotion of everything. And that I agree with, but that's what VAR has taken out of. Look at the Croatia offside goal with a little bit of a hair type.

SPEAKER_02 45:26

They gotta finish the play.

SPEAKER_01 45:28

Yeah. So for the VAR rules. Pur the VAR rules, as long as the opposing team doesn't take possession back, they can overturn that decision. So there's absolutely no no no problem with the way that was called. No problem. But all right, man. We gotta wrap things up here. So we'll uh we got our we got our prediction set. We both think it's gonna be a France-Argentina final. You're s you're saying France is gonna win it all. I'm gonna I'm just to be different, I think Messi's gonna do it again. I think Messi and Argentina are gonna do it again. I think they're gonna go back to back, and they're gonna be the third nation to ever go back to back.

SPEAKER_02 46:13

If that happens, I'll stop watching football. I cannot see Argentina go back to back again. I cannot see that, man.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Man, so anyway. All right, guys. Well, we we appreciate you all tuning in. We're gonna go mourn the loss of Colombia and the U.S. back to back days. That's crazy. And you had your boy Ronaldo lose yesterday. That's yeah, yeah. Everybody lost, man.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

All my teams, all my teams are done. You're really down bad. There's nothing to support. Nobody, no team. You're super down bad.

SPEAKER_01 46:45

Well, back to back to back, bro. Yeah. Bing, bang, bang. Couldn't even catch a break, dude. Couldn't even catch a break. All right. Well, for three. You guys enjoy enjoy your day off tomorrow or today, whenever you're listening this off uh of World Cup. Be back at it again to catch up on everything that's going on with the quarterfinals leading up to the semis. Again, we appreciate all the love. Be sure to rate us, give us a review, subscribe to the podcast on all platforms. Be sure to follow us on social media. We surpassed the 700 followers on Instagram. Let's go. Let's go. Appreciate 200 on TikTok. Here we are. Uh so let's keep it moving, man. We're posting daily content on there for all of you at friendly foes if see. Be sure to share that with everyone. It wouldn't mean the world to us. But uh we'll catch you back out here in a couple days.