France vs Morocco recap

In this episode we recap the game between France and Morocco. Can anyone stop France? Also, a lot of tension and drama in the Colombian national team after the loss against Switzerland. 

Tune in!

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:28

And we are back, everyone. Another episode here of the Friendly Foes. After a few days of grief and despair, after the Colombian loss, we're back with another episode, but with the first episode of our gardening podcast. So we got ourselves a couple plants, some pots. We figured that football was a little bit overrated. Nobody cares about it anymore, anyway. You got a couple of succulent. Is that your first plant? Yeah, we got a couple succulents. Got some water. Anyway, man. Perfect. No, no. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just for them to die in a couple of days, because I'm terrible at taking care of them. But no, we're we're we're back talking about semi-final, excuse me, quarterfinal started today between France and Morocco. But uh first of all, how you been how you been holding up the past couple of days after the Columbia loss? Have you been grieving with the pain? What stage in the grief process are you at right now?

SPEAKER_05 1:25

My wife's been bringing me breakfast in bed every morning, so nice. You know, it's been it's been uh it's been okay, I guess. You know, she's been taking care of me. So that's good. That that makes it good. That's a plus. That's a plus. But I mean it's still uh still hurting, still hurting a lot, man. Still it still hurts deep inside. Like I close my eyes for a second and then I see compass miss that and I'm like, oh my god. Oh no, no, no, no. Like I have to like jump. And then like I'll like I'll turn on the TV and then I'll see like Argentina, Switzerland Saturday night, and I'm like, oh fuck, no, no, no, no, it should have been us, no.

SPEAKER_04 2:03

No That was us, that was us. Why, Lord, why, why?

SPEAKER_05 2:07

Yeah, I mean I see Swiss cheese and I start crying.

SPEAKER_02 2:10

Man, it's the craziest thing. I was yeah, I was making myself lunch this morning, and I just I was sitting there and I was like, Man, that fucking compass, bro. How'd you miss that, dog?

SPEAKER_05 2:21

Dude, it's I think I'd be happy to think about it for for a while, for a couple days. For a couple days, but that made my head rent-free.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

For for the younger people, man, if if this is your first heartbreak, man, the the first one's always tough. I remember 2014 against Brazil in the quarterfinal. The Erago de Jeppes. That one broke me. You know, I had I had Nikki call me. Weeks.

SPEAKER_05 2:46

I had Nikki call me yesterday and he said, bro, this one stings more than the one in Brazil. Because at least in Brazil, we get we got knocked out against Brazil in Brazil in the quarterfinals. And I'm like, that's a good point. That is a very, very good point. I don't know what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 3:01

I don't know if it stings more, if I'm being honest, because at that time, I mean, I felt like we were unstoppable. That 2014 team felt unstoppable. And Hamas was having the World Cup of his life. I to many people, he was the best player of that World Cup. To me, he was. Oh, he was, yeah, for sure. 100%. And the way we got knocked out was just so painful. So, so painful. Uh, because we were almost there, and it sucked even more because Brazil lost seven to one the next game. I think that's what sucked even more. Would we have beat Germany? Probably not. I'll tell you what, we were gonna lose seven to one. That's for damn sure. Maybe like five-zero, but I don't know, not seven to one.

SPEAKER_05 3:46

That's the craziest score line I've ever seen in a World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

Yeah, man. Ever since then, Brazil's just been downhill, it hasn't been the same. Yeah, but uh yeah, I don't know if it's worse. Germany smack the Joga bonito out of them. Germany put the freaking Geisenspreisen into them. They're crazy, man. Yeah, I don't know if this one's worse. I don't know if this one's worse. Because it it's it's almost it's not that bad. Well, it's bad, but it's not as bad as that one to me because I've I was almost expecting this after we went to penalties. I was just expecting it to happen. And there's yeah, there's there were a lot of this was the last dance, you know?

SPEAKER_05 4:28

Yeah, we were so good, we had such a good team, bro. Like our team was so good, other than not having a striker. We were so good as a unit.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

As a unit. You know what's crazy is I saw this stat out of our last eight World Cup games, we've only got scored on twice. One of them was a penalty against England, and the other one was a freaking idiotic mistake by Camilo Vargas against Uzbekistan. Wow, our defense is top-notch.

SPEAKER_05 5:00

Solid, man. Solid.

SPEAKER_02 5:01

Solid defense.

SPEAKER_05 5:02

I don't know what we're top that means on sense.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

We suck. And and and I think in I think in turn, man, I wish I had to stat in front of me. I forget where I saw it, but I think on the flip side of that, we had on out of those eight games, I think we scored eight goals, eight or nine goals.

SPEAKER_05 5:19

Well, I mean, a goal per game, I guess, but we we just don't kill teams. Like our games are usually very low scoring. We don't finish them off.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

We have to, we have to finish them off because we get the thing is like we get the opportunities too, and we just don't, but man, yeah, it's been it's been a sad couple of days. Still getting over the pain. If it's your first heartbreak, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_05 5:41

Welcome to I'll tell you what, the World Cup wasn't as fun today. Like knowing your team isn't in the tournament anymore. It's just it really just kills the fun out of it.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

It does, it does kill the vibe a little bit.

SPEAKER_05 5:52

I mean, it's fun too. I want Clumsia to be good as well, you know.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Right, like the party's over, man. Like, we're not hanging out no more, like the family's not coming over to watch no games, like nothing, man. Like, we're not getting together like on a random Tuesday for no reason for to watch the games. Like, it's over. Like, what do we it's over, man? Everybody back to work and like back to work.

SPEAKER_05 6:12

Yeah, all right, all right. Fun's over. Fun's over. Yeah, fun's over. Another four years.

SPEAKER_02 6:16

Exactly. Fuck, dude. Another four years. That's the crazy one. I mean, we got Copa America in a couple of years, but it's not. I mean, it's not the same. Yeah. Like you said, I think I think you said it best. Like, this was the last stance for many players. I mean, James, Santi Arias, Quintero, I mean Cabilo Argas, Davido Espina, who was there the first two World Cups.

SPEAKER_05 6:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

Yeah, man.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

And then, you know, players like Munoz, Sanchez, they all gotta win their spot back. I mean, they'll be 34. I'm sure they could definitely make it back, but they gotta they gotta fight for it.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

They gotta fight tooth and nail. So we gotta give we gotta give younger players more of an opportunity now, between now and and four years. We gotta continue to find some strong talent. I mean, we had that under 17 South American Championship. We beat Argentina in the final on that for the U-17s. So I'm sure we got a lot of good talent there. It's just a matter of continuing to develop that talent because we see uh we see it so many times. A lot of young Columbia players have a lot of promise, and then they never turn out to be much. So yeah. That's true.

SPEAKER_05 7:20

We just gotta have 11 good players at the same time. You just gotta have a good generation, bro. Because I mean Falcão came up when there was really nobody good playing behind them. Hamas came up a little bit later, like in that World Cup in 2014, and then he got injured. So they never really got to play together in their prime, you know?

SPEAKER_02 7:38

For the national team, because they played together in club.

SPEAKER_05 7:43

Yeah, we never got to see like that really come to fruition in the national team.

SPEAKER_02 7:47

Unfortunately not, man. Unfortunately not. So that would have been lethal. Yeah. But anyway, we'll get back to the the Colombian national team here in a second because there was a lot of reports coming out today about a lot of tension within the in the dressing room, some uh rupture, breakdown, and relationships between the player and Nestor Lorenzo. But uh before we get to that, we had France and Morocco quarterfinal, first quarterfinal game. And uh boy, did France just steamroll right over them, man. Like it the scoreline didn't really showcase it too much because Bono is an absolute phenomenal goalkeeper. It's incredible to me that this guy is in Saudi wasting his life away. He could easily be in a top, top team. Top top team.

SPEAKER_05 8:32

Yeah, I think he's he's older now, too, though. He's just like six.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

He's like mid-30s, yeah. But still, he's still crushing it. I mean, yeah, saved the penalty against Mbappe.

SPEAKER_05 8:42

He had I think he won a five year Europa League with Sevilla. I mean, Sevilla's not a top-tier club, but yeah, he he did.

SPEAKER_02 8:49

He was at Sevilla whenever they were they were winning those Europa League titles. Yeah. The or the the most recent ones, but then he just went to Saudi, and I don't blame him at the end of the day. Go get your money, get your bank, get the check. But he could easily be playing for Premier League, still in the Liga, say yeah, Bundesliga, anywhere. He's a baller. He's a baller for sure. But uh France, man, France still looks scary. And I think the scariest thing is that they don't even look like they're playing that hard. It's just they just it's just everything clicks.

SPEAKER_05 9:17

Like they were suffocating Morocco today, man. Dude, they really were. I thought Morocco was gonna put up a little bit more of a fight. I know they don't have their starting striker, but Morocco's a good team. They've been showing they're a good team. They gave Brazil a hard time, they gave France a hard time, last World Cup too, but same scoreline again. 2-0 line. And I mean, when you have players like Mbappe, Elise, Dembele, Barcola, Due, it's it's very hard to defend against that.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

It's impossible. It's impossible, man. It's impossible, man, because one of them has a bad day, but the other one's gonna come right at you, man. And Mbappe's taking notes out of Messi's book, missing a penalty, missing the easy one, and then scoring bangers. Bangers.

SPEAKER_05 10:00

Yeah, and they're both now tied with eight goals for the golden boot.

SPEAKER_02 10:03

This golden boot race is insane.

SPEAKER_05 10:06

They might see each other in the final and each score a hat trick. Like they did last year.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

That happens again. That happens again. That'd be nuts. But the golden boot race, man, the the stars came to play because we got Messian and Mbappe with eight goals each. You know what's crazy is that last World Cup Mbappe won the Golden Boot with eight goals. He's got eight goals now, and we just finished the quarterfinals. I know. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 10:29

We have one more game this World Cup, but still it is pretty crazy.

SPEAKER_02 10:32

Yeah, it's one more game, but at the end of the day, it's not like we're at the final yet. He's like we just finished the quarterfinal, he's already at that mark at that point.

SPEAKER_05 10:40

That guy's a dog when it comes to the World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

He is something else, man. But yeah, we got him and Messi are tied at eight, and then uh Holland has seven, so he's at one behind him. He's playing on Saturday.

SPEAKER_05 10:51

He's got like five, I think.

SPEAKER_02 10:52

He's got six. Harry Kane's got six, and then Dembele has five. Dembele scored his fifth goal today. Yeah. So here's right up there. Here's uh here's a good debate. If France wins the World Cup, who deserves the Ball on d'or? Is it Mbappe? Is it Dembele? Or even is it Michael Olisa?

SPEAKER_05 11:10

Oh, that's I mean tough for Olisa to get in there if I'm being honest with you. It would have to be between Dembele and Mbappe. I mean, shit, dude. That's that's very, very hard. Because if we're gonna include the club accolades, obviously, then Dembele would win because he won the Champions League. So probably yeah, probably Dembele because he has a Champions League. Mbappe didn't win anything with Real Madrid. It would have to be Dembele. I think Mbappe might win the he Mbappe might win best player in the World Cup, but the actual Ballondoro, I think Dembele would definitely win it. You think it goes back to back? If they win the World Cup, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

If they win the World Cup. Yeah. Here's my argument. Here's my argument against that. Because the Ballond d'Or is an individual award, meaning how well you performed individually throughout the season. Dembele only started 11 games in League A for PSG. He played about 60% of their total games in Liga. So he was gone for a significant portion of the season. If you compare that to the Champions League, he started 11 games in the Champions League. So the same amount that he started in League A. League Aw is a much longer season. Champions League, there was only 13 games, and you can make it to the final. And granted, yes, he made it to the final. They won. They went back to back. But I think individually, Mbappe had a better season. Even though he didn't win anything with Real Madrid, he was their top scorer. And now he's on the World Cup and he's been undoubtedly France's best player. And to many people, between him and Messi, he's been the best player at the World Cup. And if he continues to perform this way and win the World Cup, I I have a pretty strong case as to why Mbappe should win that Ballon d'Or. And I'm saying that as a Barcelona fan, because I don't think that Dembele, I don't think if you don't, if you don't play that many games during the league, you should deserve it because he only got to showcase like towards the later months of the season. And he yes, he showed out, he played well. Obviously, he won Champions League back to back with PSG. It's very impressive. But I could also make the argument that PSG wins the Champions League with or without Dembele. They are that good. I don't think Dembele is as crucial to PSG as Mbappé is in that France squad.

SPEAKER_05 13:25

Okay. In that France squad? Okay. No, yeah, that's that's definitely I agree for sure. But again, at the end of the day, the votes are gonna look at the Champions League. That's what it always is. And people aren't gonna look if Dembele was playing in League On or not. Like people are are never gonna look at that. People are gonna look at the show. What did you do in the Champions League? But they're not going to. They're just not going to. If you won the Champions League and if you won the World Cup, and Dembele was a big piece in the Champions League, too. It's not like he was just playing. He he was scoring goals and he was the one scoring the vital goals. I think against Liverpool, he scored two goals against uh who they play in the semifinals.

SPEAKER_02 14:04

Uh Byron.

SPEAKER_05 14:06

Byron, he scored goals. Bro, he he scored goals like in every knockout round. So that's what I think. He did. I'm not saying I'm not saying that's what's gonna get you votes for the Balon de Oro. It's just I I get your point, and I mean I I agree with it. It's kind of like the NBA. If you play, I think it's like 65 games, yeah, or you have to play 65 games to be able to be considered in the MVP race. I get that. I mean, yeah, he didn't play enough games in in League on, but everybody knows what kind of player Dembela is, how good he is.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

For sure. But do you think he's had a better World Cup so far than Mbappe?

SPEAKER_05 14:42

World Cup, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:43

And Mbappe was the leading goal scorer for Madrid. Like he's gone back-to-back seasons where he's their leading goal scorer. Playing as a striker, theoretically, he's out of position. Yes, they didn't win anything.

SPEAKER_05 14:52

But to the eye test, Mbappe is a better player.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Mbappe's a better player.

SPEAKER_05 14:57

Yeah, he just is the all-around better player for sure. But he just he didn't win anything at the end of the day. That's that's what counts. Well, he's league and World Cup. They almost gave it to Varon that one year just for winning Champions League and World Cup.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Yeah, that's crazy. That's crazy to me. But you know, uh yeah, that's that's the question. Is I I'm curious to hear people's opinion on this as well because France does seem like they're gonna go back to the final of another World Cup. They're already in a semifinal again. I mean, they're the the the past three World Cups that France has had has been absolutely amazing, and they seem even better now than the last two. They seem much better. I genuinely don't know who's gonna stop them. They're more than likely going to face Spain in the semis. Depending on what happens tomorrow. But Spain was the one that beat them in the semis at the Euro as well. So if anyone can potentially stop Spain, excuse me, France, it could be Spain because Spain has had the best defense this World Cup. They still haven't been scored on. And we'll see if if Lamin Yamal is able to turn it on tomorrow and it for the remainder of the World Cup, they they could give them a run for their money. It could be a very, very exciting game. But France is still mindful of the game.

SPEAKER_05 16:09

No, I mean just from what we've seen in the World Cup, France is playing so much better. Spain has been very organized in the back, but they've been struggling to score goals.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

So yeah, they have. The last couple games have started to look a little bit better, like little by little. We'll see how they look tomorrow. But France is just yeah, like the way they're gonna be able to do it. France it just doesn't even look like they're trying.

SPEAKER_05 16:31

Yeah, yeah, but the the way they play today against Morocco, I was like, wow, dude, I don't I have no idea who can stop them. It's crazy. They are so good, so good. Like they just have weapons everywhere, dude. You look and it's just it's ridiculous. Even Lucas Digne is fucking killing it, bro.

SPEAKER_02 16:51

Dude, he almost had a sick goal. Yeah, yeah, he almost had a big game. He almost had a sick goal. Yeah. That would have been insane if that thing went in. But anyway, I was just curious about that. I was thinking about that today. I was like, who would actually get the ball in the door? I think you're right. I do think more votes are would go Dembele's way just because he had a better club season in the sense that like he won he won the Champions League and he won the league trophy in France. But in my opinion, I think Mbappe had a better individual season, and that should also count. Yeah, for sure. That should also weigh heavily, and he played more games, and he's being the superstar of this World Cup. And I think whenever there's a World Cup year, that should weigh much, much higher than any sort of trophy during the club World Cup, during the club season, excuse me.

SPEAKER_05 17:36

Yeah, well, we saw that with Messi in 23. He literally rode that World Cup until the following October. It's because it happened, bro.

SPEAKER_02 17:45

It happened off it happened during the off-cycle. It was the it was an off-cycle World Cup that happened in the winter. So I know that's why he rode it for such a long time. He rode that way for a while. He did, yeah. But but if hey, if Argentina wins it, get ready for the ninth. Start shining it up.

SPEAKER_05 18:01

Honestly, honestly, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Start shining that ninth Ballon d'Or, man.

SPEAKER_05 18:05

It's inevitable if that happens.

SPEAKER_02 18:07

But that's curious. I'd be curious to hear what people think about uh Dembele versus Mbappe. Who should deserve it and why? We'll we'll put this on on the internet. We'll hear people's comments on it. But yeah, France is looking mighty mighty good. Mighty mighty good. Mbappe is uh really good. Dembele's also scored a sick goal, sick goals.

SPEAKER_05 18:29

Yeah, Ulisa hasn't scored yet, but he's no, but he's assisted.

SPEAKER_02 18:34

Yeah, he's got the most assists. Yeah, and Mbappe had an assist today. Mbappe had a goal in it. And is this man of the match performance by Mbappe?

SPEAKER_00 18:43

He's on fire.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

He is on fire, bro. It's it's it's absolutely incredible. I'm trying to look at the uh how many assists freaking Olisa has. So he's right now the leading assist provider. Behind him were Bruno Guimaraes, who's knocked out, Brahim Diaz, who just got knocked out today, Roberto Albaral, and Florianvert, who are all out. So the only one who's close to him that are still playing are Killian Mbappe, Martin Odergaard, and Andreas Schlutterblerp. I don't know how to say that guy's name, but he's another uh Norwegian guy. Schlutterbruhrp Lurp Lurp Lurp. Anyway.

SPEAKER_05 19:17

Which looks like Bruno Gamadaish might be going to Arsenal. Might be a good one.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

Oh, I missed that. Really?

SPEAKER_05 19:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're pushing for him. They're pushing for him.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

He's a good player, man. I like him. I like watching him play. He's a good player. Anyway, we got the game.

SPEAKER_05 19:31

I was gonna say his replacement in Newcastle. Just a quick transfer rumors here. Looks like Joker Zombie might be going to Newcastle, too. I don't know if you saw that.

SPEAKER_02 19:40

I didn't know. I have not been really following any transfer news too much. The only thing I know is that apparently Barcelona is going after Adayemi.

SPEAKER_05 19:48

Yep. They're going after Adayemi.

SPEAKER_02 19:51

And we're still going after Julian Alvarez. So I don't know how I feel about Ariemi because I think he's a good player, but he's been kind of very inconsistent in the last couple seasons. And I was looking into it as well. That's it. That's apparently Hansi Flick specifically requested him. He's incredibly fast, really, really good on the ball. I think he would be a more of a death player because Rafinha and Lamine both dealt with a lot of injuries this past season. And we've seen it the past couple of seasons. These players are playing way too many games, especially with the World Cup. We need we need some death. That's what we got. Anthony Gordon. That's what we're probably going after out of Yemi. We need more of this stuff. But he's I was looking into him a little bit, and he he has a pretty he's a pretty injury prone player since 2021. He hasn't played a full season.

SPEAKER_05 20:38

Yeah, honestly, I haven't heard much from him since that uh 23 season when they went to the final.

SPEAKER_02 20:42

Yeah, yeah, he was like a huge breakout player. He's been he's had he's struggled a lot with injuries, and if we're gonna add him for death, adding an injury prone player for death, it does not make sense to me. It just doesn't. It's like oh Lamin Yamal is hurt. Let's get an Adiyemi and boom, he's hurt too. Well, now we're back to square one.

unknown 21:00

What the fuck?

SPEAKER_05 21:01

Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

That's great, ridiculous. Typical Barca. Anyway, what other transfers rumors we got? What other transfer rumors we got? I know Arbolo is over at Fulham now.

SPEAKER_05 21:11

Arbolo is over at Fulham. Klopp is taking over Germany.

SPEAKER_02 21:14

That's right.

SPEAKER_05 21:15

Who would take over Germany? Kloppow. Kloppow. I don't know why. I don't know why I didn't, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 21:20

I don't know why I didn't think of that.

SPEAKER_05 21:22

It was so obvious.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

It was such an obvious pick.

SPEAKER_05 21:25

Because yeah, we talked about it. We're like, who would take over Germany?

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Come here, ding dongs. It's gonna be Jorgen Klopp. Freaking idiots.

SPEAKER_05 21:34

Yeah, but I have no idea what other transformers that is. Yeah, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

I don't know what else is I don't know what else is going on. I really haven't been keeping up too much with the Fabrizio Romano pages have not been loading too much on my timeline. Just the just the final score lines of every World Cup game. But anyway, yeah. No, he still has to do his job. Yeah, he's still I don't think that dude sleeps, man. He's always posting. Always. He's always got something going on.

SPEAKER_05 22:02

And it's funny because he's always replying to the haters, too.

SPEAKER_02 22:05

He is. Some people do hate on him crazy, man. Some people say he's a he's uh he's basically a tap-in merchant. That he just he just takes everybody else's news.

SPEAKER_05 22:18

Listen, man, I don't know about that, but all I know is that when he says it, it's pretty much official.

SPEAKER_04 22:22

But that's what that's all I'm if he said it, it's it's good to go, man. Yeah. I think he's been wrong too many times.

SPEAKER_05 22:33

But they only get to keep up with like 30 teams, bro.

SPEAKER_02 22:36

I was gonna say, what his for Fabrizio's job is 50 times harder because he's he keeps up with world football. Exactly. Sometimes he's putting transfer rumors about stuff that's going on in Colombia. I was like, what the fuck, bro?

SPEAKER_05 22:49

What's going on here? It's like, yeah, well, how do you even have the scoop for that? Why would you know this?

SPEAKER_04 22:55

Why would you know this? Yeah, he's got it all, man.

SPEAKER_05 22:59

He's got the scoop for everything. He's got how you start to be somebody like that.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

But I've yeah, I've heard his story a little bit of how he started.

SPEAKER_05 23:07

He basically something it was like Icardi, right? It was with Icardi.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

It was with Icardi, yeah. It was with Icardi. It was a it was because Icardi at the time was over in Barcelona in La Macia, and he started getting in with the agents of La Macia and people within La Macia, and they basically gave him that story to go with it, and that's what set him to the moon. And he just he just kept those relationships. So get around with it. Crazy. Good for him, man. Good for Fab. Fabrita Raman. Anyway, we got uh we got Spain Belgium tomorrow. I think we both agree that Bel oh, excuse me, Spain's gonna win this game unless for whatever reason. Do we think Rudy Garcia is also gonna pull the no KDB, no Lukaku, no Yermi Doku again?

SPEAKER_05 23:48

Because they played a lot better without them. Definitely no Lukaku. I kind of got a feeling he doesn't like Doku and KDB either. So I think I I really think he might repeat the lineup.

SPEAKER_02 23:59

He's gonna have to, man. He's gonna have to repeat that lineup because they played phenomenably well. Uh Trosard had a phenomenal game against the U.S. Yeah, he did. Completely eaten up Alex Freeman and Sergio Test down that side and Chris Richards and everybody. So I do think they repeat lineup.

SPEAKER_05 24:14

He's been playing on the right the whole time because Doku's been taking care of the left side.

SPEAKER_02 24:18

So then he moved him over to the left side, yeah. Yeah. Interesting. I'd be curious. I think I think he is gonna repeat that lineup. I think KDB and uh Doku are gonna be left off, and then Lukaku's gonna come on and score some goal at the end again. So but anyway, I think I do think Spain takes it. I'm hoping to see a lot of Lamin tomorrow. I'm hoping to see Lamin perform very well. And uh, well, who knows? If things go tough, go south for Spain, just bring on Super Sub Mikel Marino, and he's just gonna he'll solve those problems real quick. Right, real quick, dude.

SPEAKER_05 24:50

That's crazy that Spain and Belgium played tomorrow. I'm looking at it because they have a day less of rest than England and Norway because they played on Monday, and then England and Norway played on Sunday. Why the hell does that happen?

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yeah, that's weird. You know what? And not only that, like they get a day less of rest whenever they play France. Because France played today.

SPEAKER_05 25:13

Yeah, that's dude, and in tournaments like this.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

That makes a huge difference. Yeah, that's a huge difference. Because you're traveling from, especially if you're playing in the US, it's a fucking massive country. They're going from LA to Dallas. That's not like down the road, brother. That shit is a far head, that's a whole different time zone. Exactly. So, and same thing with France. France is going from Boston to Dallas. It's a long ass flight.

SPEAKER_05 25:38

So it's the first time they like move out of the northeast, though. They've been in the northeast this whole time.

SPEAKER_02 25:43

France?

SPEAKER_05 25:43

Yeah. They've been Philly, New York, and Boston. They haven't moved out of there.

SPEAKER_02 25:47

Yeah, how come Columbia didn't get that treatment? That's fucked up.

SPEAKER_05 25:50

Yeah, right. What the fuck, dude?

SPEAKER_02 25:51

We have to travel to every country.

SPEAKER_05 25:53

Literally, bro. Every single country.

SPEAKER_02 25:58

The fuck. Hell out of here, man. Man.

SPEAKER_05 26:00

They wanted some one deja paisas over there, that's why.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

They wanted something, dude. They wanted something. But speaking of Colombia, man, we put this, we put this out earlier on our socials because Pipe Sierra, Pipe Sierra, for people who don't know who Pipe Sierra is, he's a news reporter in Colombia. Basically, I guess the best way to describe him is that he is the Fabrizio Romano of Colombian football. This guy's in the know of everything down in Colombian football within uh the Colombian league, within the national team, within everything. And he went, he's uh he's all he's on streaming platforms as well. He's gone on his kick and he went on La Luciernaga, which is on Caracol Radio, and was basically saying that there was tension and uh breakdown in relationships between some of the players within the national team and Nestor Lorenzo because of the way that he was treating them throughout the course of the World Cup. And the breakdown of relationships specifically happened after the game against Ghana because there were some players that were questioning Nestor Lorenzo's decision making and squad management and everything. And even prior to that, they were questioning some of the way that he was doing training. Apparently, Nestor Lorenzo split up the squad completely, and he had his 14 core group of players. So his starting 11, which we all know what the starting 11 was, but the same with pretty much every game besides Portugal, he switched it up a little bit, and then his three very typical substitutes which were uh Richard Rios, Juan Fer Quintero, and John Córdoba. And John Cordo and Luis Suárez kind of switched off their roles, middle of the World Cup. So it was those 14 players were always training with Nestor Lorenzo. And then on a completely separate training session were the other 12 players. So there's 26 players total that make up a World Cup squad. 14 were training hard with Nestor Lorenzo, the other 12 were to the side. So the 12 that were to the side felt like they were never really given a fair chance to prove themselves in the World Cup. And if you look at it and you start thinking about like, yeah, like Nestor really only did use the same subs pretty much every game. And the if you look at the number of minutes played, those 14 players played the most amount of minutes. You saw Cucho Hernandez get some minutes the first game and the last game. You saw Hamington Campas get some minutes the first game and the last game. But aside from that, no other difference between players who came on. And then on top of that, there were players that were very unhappy with how physically demanding the training sessions were for Colombia. Because not only was the travel really getting to them fatigue-wise, but also these training sessions were very physically demanding to the point where players were saying that this was too much because of the grueling seasons that they had as well with their club. Some of these players played, you know, between 50 to 70 games during the season. And he's having them out here doing some pretty physically demanding stuff. And then I guess what really broke down the relationship was after the round of 16 game, there were some players allegedly saying that they were unhappy with Nestor's squad selection because they weren't being given a fair chance, and specifically talking about the treatment of some star players that weren't performing that well, and they felt like the squad needed to change. To which Nestor again allegedly replied to them and said, One does not love all of his children the same. If it were up to me, some of you wouldn't even be here. That's crazy to me.

SPEAKER_05 29:24

But he's he's got the one that he or he is the one with the final say. So if he doesn't want somebody there, I I feel like he could easily just unless there's somebody above him that it's like, no man, you gotta call him up, you know.

SPEAKER_02 29:37

Well, apparently, and who is that? I can't remember if we talked about this or not, but whenever prior to the squad selection that came out, and Peeper was talking about this on his kick channel, and it it's like an hour-long streaming thing. I would recommend everybody go and see his stream on kick. But he basically said that prior to him, and he said this months ago as well, prior to Nestor giving his squad selection for the World Cup, he was gonna call up Sebastian Billa, who Sebastian Billa, I forget where he plays right now, somewhere in Argentina, but he's a really good player. The problem with Sebastian Villa is that he has domestic violence cases against him. So because of that, he hasn't been called up to the national team for a long time. And apparently Nestor Lorenzo really wanted him, but the Federation, so the people above him, his bosses, told him you can't call him up because if you call him up, our sponsors are gonna pull out. So instead of Sebastian Villa, Kevin Castagno came on.

SPEAKER_05 30:28

That's just one player.

SPEAKER_02 30:29

Yeah, that's the only thing I know about one player. I don't know about the remainders, but that's just one example of why Nestor Lorenzo doesn't really have apparently he doesn't have full say, and apparently there was some of people above him who wanted him to bring certain players. Don't know why, I don't know the full story, I have to look further into it.

SPEAKER_05 30:47

Yeah, so yeah, I mean, that means he's not making the final decisions then and who's coming into the squad, which I don't like that. I want my coach to have full freedom of who full account, full autonomy of who he wants. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 31:01

But I I think one of those is also Juan Ferre Quintero, because I think Nestor and Juanfer do not get along. Yeah, they don't they don't get along.

SPEAKER_05 31:10

He didn't he retire from the national team? He did for a little bit and then he came back.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

I don't I didn't keep up with that story too much, but yeah, it was it was kind of brushed under under the table, under the rug a little bit, but and people talked about this. Juan Ferre Quintero in 2025, after a World Cup elimination game against Paraguay in Barranquilla, we tied two to that game, excuse me, but he was on the bench and people were chanting his name. Quintero, Quintero, and Nestor, obviously the substitution is Quintero for Hamas. James wasn't really playing a good game. Nestor took James out, but brought on Hamington Campaz, and that really pissed off Quintero. So Quintero allegedly, again, this is all what Peepa is saying. Quintero told the Federation, I do not want to come back here until Nestor Lorenzo's gone.

SPEAKER_05 31:56

Yeah, then the Federation kind of calmed them down and they were able to tell him to stay, but that's pretty crazy, man.

SPEAKER_02 32:03

So after Nestor said that to some of the to the players, if it were up to me, some of you wouldn't even be here, tensions started rising. And another one that I think has a lot of issues with Nestor is John Arias. Because if you look at every single game of the national team, John Arias getting subbed off. Always getting subbed out. And Peeba pulled up a stat and said, out of during Nestor Lores' campaign with the national team, John Arias has been the one that has been subbed out the most out of everyone. He's always getting subbed out. And then there's this other guy, Juan Camilo Arias, who does he's basically like the Mr. Chip over there in Gol Caracol. He put out a tweet. Check this out. Colombia lost eight of the 43 matches that John Arias played. In five of those eight, Colombia lost after substituting Arias. Colombia did not lose any of the ten times that Arias played the full match. Seven wins, three draws. Why the fuck are we taking out John Arias?

SPEAKER_05 33:02

Dude, that was my question on Tuesday against Switzerland. Yeah. Why the hell did we take him out? That was my biggest criticism about Nestor. Is why the hell did we take John Arias off, bro? And that's what even everybody every game kills it, bro.

SPEAKER_02 33:16

Every single game. And the crazy thing is that John Adias is playing out of position at the national team level. He's been playing out of position for the past two, three years because he is essentially a winger. At Fluminense, he was a winger. Al Palmeiras, right now he's a winger. He plays better on the wing. But Nestor.

SPEAKER_05 33:34

But he's killing it in his role, though. I'm not going to play with the water.

SPEAKER_02 33:36

He does because he is such a good player overall. But Nestor puts him in the middle, which doesn't even give him the full capabilities that he has as a player, but he puts him in the middle and he still kills it because he is the man. Again, one of the most underrated players in the world, if not the most underrated player in the world. But that's beside the point. The point is why why so much? I don't want to say hate, but what what does he see in John Arias that nobody else sees that he keeps taking him out? Because he was literally our best player against uh Switzerland and he took him out.

SPEAKER_05 34:07

Yeah. So I don't know, man. I don't know. That that is a little iffy to me, but I don't know. Nestor says the Copa America. I mean, I liked him with the Copa America. He had a run where we were undefeated for a while.

SPEAKER_04 34:19

For a long time.

SPEAKER_05 34:21

Then we had a little bit of a slump there. And then the World Cup. I mean, I I can't say it was a success, but I can't also say that it was a failure.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

No. But apparently, even during the World Cup qualifiers, there's been some tensions within the squad as well. Because a lot of players specifically, well, I don't I don't he never mentioned any names, people never said any names, but some players mentioned Hamas's name and basically said Hamas is not up to play. Hamas can't play anymore.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:49

So some players were wanting to get not Hamas out, but get Nestor to realize that Hamas is just not, he's just not the same level. And we saw it at this World Cup. He's just not at the same level. And that's okay to say he's still the best player to ever put on the national team jersey. But he's his powers are fading away, and we saw it. So some players were very unhappy with the superstar treatment that Hamas continued to get, even though he wasn't performing to the level that he needed to perform. And same thing with Luis Diaz. Luis Diaz was getting a hell of a superstar treatment, and we didn't see other players too much, like even the Hamilton Campaz or Carlos Andrés Gomez, who does really well over at the Brasileirao. We didn't really get to see much of these players, man. We saw the same again 14-15 players over and over again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 35:35

Well, when a coach has a system, when a coach has his squad, that that's it, man. You know? And he had his 14, 15 players that he knew he could count on, and the others, they were just there in case he really needed them. Yeah that that that that that's basically it, bro. Like, and and to be honest with you, I can't really fault him for that. I can say maybe the treatment could be a little bit better. I don't like how they're training separate. Everybody could train together, you know, yeah. With the same intensity, but I don't fault him for having like a core group of players. I mean, if it's working out, which it was working out, we didn't win, but we we weren't playing terrible, you know. And to be honest with you, like those are our best players, I think. I would have liked to see a little bit more of yeah, like the um what's his name? The guy that plays at Brasil Brasileirao. Carlos Andres Gomez. Yeah, yeah, I would like to see him a little bit more. Well, Carrascal too. Sometimes he does pretty good week when he comes on. We didn't get to see him. I forgot he was even there. Yeah, we didn't even get to see him. But I mean that he just he has his core group of players. That's just what it is. He likes who he likes, and those are the players that give him confidence to go far in the tournament. Yeah, and that part I don't know for that.

SPEAKER_02 36:46

Yeah, in that part I don't necessarily agree with. However, as a coach, you also have to be able to think on your feet and say to yourself, I can't, I can't go down swinging like this because I'm just swinging and missing. Because some of these players weren't performing up the par like we talked about Luis Diaz last episode, like we talked about Hamas, right? And Hamas would get summed out, he was never up for 90 minutes. But sometimes you have to think to yourself, okay, I'm in the round of 16 of a World Cup. This is a winner-go-home situation, literally. How do I get the win? And it just didn't seem like he was trying to go for the win. It was just let me put my same core group of players, which nothing changed between the first three games. We played well, but we still needed to score. Our big problem was we needed to score. There was no problem solving within that. It was just let me take John Arias out, let me put Richard Rios in, let me take Lerma out, let me put, or let me take Hamas out, let me put Quintero in, and then let me take John Cordova out, let me put Luis Suarez in, let me take Luis Suarez out, let me put John Córdoba in, and then maybe we'll throw in a little bit of a sprinkle of Hamington Campas and a sprinkle of Cucho Hernandez.

SPEAKER_05 37:53

And I think that was it. Córdoba's injury really sucked though, because we could have used him, and I think he would have played definitely more minutes.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

For sure. You know, and apparently that injury was caused by some of the physically demanding training sessions that Nestor Lorenzo was having the players do. Again, and uh anyway, so there's a lot of a lot of speculation and rumors that are coming out of Colombia right now. People that say just expect the Federation to deny all these. They always do, they always deny all these allegations. And again, he's a very, very reliable source. He is somebody who is in the know down there. He is literally the Fabrizio Romano of Colombian football. Fabrizio Romano follows him to post his stuff about Colombian football. Whenever I said he's posting stuff about Colombian football, is because he he gets it from Pipe. So he's he's very reliable. So I I don't know how I feel about everything that's come out because it everything is so fresh, so new. Like part of me, like listen, I love Nestor. I think without him, we wouldn't have gotten to where we are today. He got us back to a World Cup after not qualifying in 2022, and he got us to a final in Copa Medica for the first time in 23 years. So it's hard to say that we should part ways, but I don't know. How do you feel about that? Because there was a report that came out, his contract ended after the World Cup, and they just offered him a renewal. How do you feel? Especially after hearing all these. I don't know. I would assume for another four years.

SPEAKER_05 39:20

Well, I mean, I think we could give him another chance. Like you said, he he did take us to a World Cup when we missed out in 2022, took us to our first Cup America final in 23 years, so that counts for something, right? I think we could do a little bit of regroup with without James, Quintero, you know, get rid of some of the older players, Santi Arias, no, no more Camilo Vargas, David Ospina, and have a good mixture of young players and and experienced players and see how he manages that. We'll see how he manages this this next uh qualifying round and the Cope America, and then we'll go from there. But I I say yeah, at least give him to the Cope America for sure. Yeah, the Cope America. Because I mean we we got a good sample size and we know the team can definitely perform, but if the Federation or he has a talk with the whole team and they kind of get into an agreement of hey, let's not do those intense training sessions when we just had a 60-65 game season when it comes to those tournaments in Cope America or World Cup, like let's let's keep it a little bit lighter and have some sort of mutual agreement between the player and Nestor Lorenzo. I think we could go pretty far with Nestor. I like Nestor, I do.

SPEAKER_02 40:31

I like Nestor too, but apparently that was the problem is like they were trying to come to a mutual agreement and there was no mutual agreement. He just said basically go fuck yourselves.

SPEAKER_05 40:40

So well, I don't I'd give him one more chance. I'd give him one more chance.

SPEAKER_02 40:45

Yeah. Here's here's my this is a this is gonna be a little wild, but there's a certain bald guy over in Barcelona right now who doesn't have a job, goes by the name of Pep Guardiola. I know that's crazy. I know that's crazy, man. But he said that he's wanted to manage a national team. He's not he's probably never going to manage Spain because of his whole Catalunya background, and it it's it's very complicated.

SPEAKER_03 41:09

But why don't we why don't we give him a little bandeja paisa? Why don't we hey why don't we bring him to Barranquilla? Hey, what are we doing, eh?

SPEAKER_05 41:17

Hey you think so?

SPEAKER_03 41:19

Find them a little Shakira why don't we show him a little bit of Medellin, okay? A little bit of take him over to take him over to El Tayrona.

SPEAKER_02 41:29

You know what I'm saying? Show him a little bit of something.

SPEAKER_05 41:32

Guardiola wouldn't know what to do over there. He wouldn't. He'd go crazy. He'd come back. He'd go crazy with all those Colombian girls, man. He wouldn't even freaking be he he wouldn't be able to focus. He just wouldn't. He'd have too many Arepitas, too many empanadas, Medellin all the time. He'd be like, what am I doing? What am I doing coaching the national team?

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Man, that's that's all I'm saying. Call me crazy.

SPEAKER_05 41:55

That's call me crazy. That's a hell Mary, bro. That I think you got a better chance of getting struck by lightning than that happening. If he coaches a national team, it's gotta be a Brazil, a Germany, an Italy. Like, he's gotta coach one of the top dogs. He's not gonna coach Colombia, bro. I mean, it would be pretty sick.

SPEAKER_02 42:13

He could take us to the promised land. Everybody has this could be his opportunity. Everybody has always said Gordiolo has only done it with the big teams. He's not that good of a coach. He's only done it because he's got good players around him. He only does it because he's got money around him. This is this is my challenge to you, Pep, and I know you listened to this. Come to Colombia and take us to the Promised Land 2030, 2030 World Cup champions with Pep on the sideline. Hey. Doing one of these, talking to the to the bench next to him with nobody there. His his meme.

SPEAKER_05 42:48

Our listeners on our podcast are gonna love that one.

SPEAKER_02 42:51

Man, yes. I would love this. I would love this. Bring me pep. Let's put let's get a GoFundMe together. Let's bring Pep. I'm telling you, this would be a great challenge for your resume. You could finally show the people how good of a manager you truly are. You you bring a World Cup to Colombia, bro. Dog. You become president the next day.

SPEAKER_05 43:10

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_02 43:11

The next day.

SPEAKER_05 43:12

Yeah, literally. Like nobody's actually gonna listen to the president. They're gonna be listening to Pep Cuartiola.

SPEAKER_02 43:18

You you do whatever you want. Whatever he says goes. We build a statute of you in every corner, okay? Everybody's gonna shave their head. You bring you bring Columbia World Cup, we all go bald, okay? Everybody.

SPEAKER_05 43:29

Just bring us a Cop America, we'll all go bald, bro.

SPEAKER_04 43:32

True, true, man. Bring me a little bit more.

SPEAKER_05 43:34

Just give us a Cup America. That's all I ask for, dude. Bring me that and take me to the semis in the World Cup. That's it. That's all I ask for.

SPEAKER_02 43:43

Man. That's obviously it, like you said, a Hail Mary, a long shot. But I was thinking about that today. I was like, hey man, he doesn't have a job. And he's always said he wants to coach a national team.

SPEAKER_04 43:54

Why don't you come over?

SPEAKER_02 43:55

Come on over. I dare you.

SPEAKER_04 43:57

Can you imagine?

SPEAKER_02 43:58

Hey, that'd be no serious. You know how we're gonna end up? If we don't get nester, we're gonna put freaking El Bolillo Gomez again or somebody that does it fucking black. Yeah. We're gonna go again for like Reynaldo Rueda or Juan Carlos Osorio or uh Jorge Luis Pinto or the if or Marcelo Bielsa. I know they're gonna look at Marcelo Bielsa and they're gonna be like this guy should coach the national team. I'm gonna tell everybody right now do not get Marcelo Bielsa anywhere near. Don't get him anywhere near Colombia, okay?

SPEAKER_05 44:32

I mean I don't I have no idea who would be the next coach of Colombia, honestly.

SPEAKER_02 44:35

No, I don't either. Pep Guardiola. I'm telling you.

SPEAKER_05 44:37

I got no idea, bro.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

Pep Guardiola.

SPEAKER_05 44:39

Ronald Coleman's available.

SPEAKER_02 44:41

Fuck's sake, no.

SPEAKER_05 44:44

Roberto Martinez is available.

SPEAKER_02 44:46

This guy, this guy that Roland Coleman would put freaking Juan Frequintero as a wingback.

SPEAKER_05 44:51

Oh my god, dude. Can you imagine that we would we would allow at least 10 goals a game? Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 45:00

No, but uh going back to that topic, I do think Nestor's gonna resign. Re-sign his contract. Not resign. He's gonna sign a new contract. I think he'll stay on for at least two more years. We'll see how it goes up leading up to the Copa Medica and the first part of the World Cup qualifiers. And if things don't go well, you get rid of him and you start a new cycle with a new coach. But he does have to he does have to bring in fresh legs and he does have to bring in new people. And there's there have to be changes made because we can't continue to keep doing this of like, oh like we were so close, we played so well, thank you guys, like all these things.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

Yeah, no, I want to see more results.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Yeah, I want to see more results. And I want to see the players take a little bit more accountability as well. The only one who I saw that actually came out and said something was John Adias. John Adias was the only one that was like, Yeah, like we have to be better, we have to perform better, we have to make changes, otherwise, we're always gonna stuck like this. And I don't know about you, but it always makes me upset whenever the Colombian players come out after a big loss and they're like, Well, like, it wasn't what God wanted, so I guess this was just not what he wanted us to do.

SPEAKER_05 46:04

Like like what Munoz said?

SPEAKER_02 46:06

Yeah, dog, that shit pisses me off. And like, listen, like, I d you can be very strong within your faith, you know, very religious, devout, Catholic, Christian, whatever it is. That doesn't bother me. What bothers me is that you don't take accountability. Like, if it's not what God wanted, why the fuck are you here in the first place, dog? Like, why you why you even bother showing up?

SPEAKER_05 46:25

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 46:27

No, that that that shit drives me nuts. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_05 46:31

It's like if my boss tells me to take a phone call and I tell him, nah, because God didn't want it that way. What am I supposed to do? Exactly, dog.

SPEAKER_02 46:38

It's like if I'm if I'm yeah, dude. It's like imagine you like like you're in sales. Like, I'm in sales. If I if I tell my boss, it's like, hey man, like I didn't close that deal just because God didn't want it to happen, man. You know what he's gonna do to me? He's gonna smack the shit out of me. Yep, yep. I can't, I can't be coming up with stupid excuses like that. Come on, man, just take a little bit of accountability. Like, you can thank God, you can do all you want, but just don't don't be saying things like that, man. That should be pissing me off. Anyway, anyway, man.

SPEAKER_05 47:08

We move on.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

We take this loss, we keep being depressed. We keep being depressed, yeah. We we keep grieving. We'll watch Spain and Belgium tomorrow with uh zero skin in the game, with no emotion. Anybody who scores, I'm just gonna be like, that's great for you. Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_05 47:24

Watching the World Cup now is a completely different vibe. Yeah, I just I don't care for it anymore. I I really don't. I just don't. I want it to be over. Yeah, club focus again.

SPEAKER_02 47:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 47:36

When is I'm just being petty, but still true.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

That's why I was checking like the transfer news for Barcelona. I was like, what we got going on? Yeah, what's happening? And then I saw Addy Yemi and I was like, oh fuck this.

SPEAKER_05 47:46

Is that who I want, man?

SPEAKER_02 47:48

That's not who I wanted, man. This is coming. Is Julian coming or not? Are we getting what's going on? Are we getting a center back? Are we what are we doing? Well, Cancelo apparently is almost done, almost done deal as well. Yeah, he wants to. Alright, man. It's time to it's time to wrap this thing up. It's been good. It's been good talking to you. Uh thank you all for listening to our shenanigans today. But we'll be back again tomorrow to break down the the Spain-Belgian game, see how things are gonna look for that semifinal. Who's it gonna be? Spain and Belgium. It's looking like it's Spain, man. And that's gonna be a France, Spain, it's gonna be a battle of the ages.

SPEAKER_03 48:26

It's gonna be a good one. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

We'll keep you all updated, man. Anyway, thank you guys for listening. Be sure to subscribe, rate, review the podcast wherever you guys are listening to us. We appreciate all the support, all the love. Appreciate to everybody supporting us on Instagram specifically. I think we're up to like 730 followers, which is a lot to us, man. I think before the World Cup, we started at like 400 or something. So we appreciate all you guys uh putting up with our shenanigans and all of our you know, idiocies that we do for this pod and during the World Cup. But we do appreciate the support. Be sure to tell your friends again, your your lovers, your neighbors, follow us at friendlyfc on all social media platforms, guys. And we'll see you back here tomorrow. Peace.