WHO REMEMBERS? The UK Nostalgia Podcast
A nostalgia trip for anyone in the UK who grew up on dial-up Internet, Findus Crispy Pancakes, and playground rumours that couldn’t be fact-checked online. We’re not historians — we don’t do dates, and we barely do facts — but science says reminiscing gives your brain a dopamine hit, so think of us as your weekly dose of hazy memories, childhood flashbacks, and confidently misremembered events.
Expect frequent arguments about who remembers things properly as we rummage through the UK’s collective memory box.
WHO REMEMBERS? The UK Nostalgia Podcast
World Cup 2026 Review (with Mo Money Meakin)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Azteca at pitch level and suddenly all the pre-tournament cynicism disappears. We start there, because the opening night in Mexico reminds us what the World Cup is meant to feel like before the hydration breaks, ref cam gimmicks and endless off-pitch noise drag us back to reality.
Mo Money Meekin joins us to rewind through the 2026 World Cup chronologically, picking out the moments that will actually stick: the BBC versus ITV broadcast battle, studio weirdness, Fox Sports clips going viral, and group stage folklore. We talk about how the expanded tournament played out, why the underdogs have their scenes without getting the endings, and how a few baffling decisions make suspicion part of the viewing experience.
Then we get to the emotional centre: England vs Mexico at 2am, delayed kick-off chaos, penalties, panic defending, and one genuinely heartwarming sideline moment that somehow cuts through the intensity. From there it’s VArgentina talk, England’s semi-final self-destruction, a third-place play-off that’s way better than it has any right to be, and a final where Spain deserve it and Argentina never show up. If you’ve got a strong memory of this tournament already, we want to know what it is. Subscribe, share the episode, and leave us a review with your one moment you’ll still be quoting in 20 years.
Welcome And A New Kind Of Nostalgia
SPEAKER_03Hello and welcome to the podcast Who Remembers? This is a UK nostalgia-based podcast, but in this one, it's a little bit different. We're going to ask who remembers the 2026 World Cup?
SPEAKER_02Who remembers last month? Who remembers a couple of days ago? So yeah, so we we had to do this realistically, because it it is I do think.
SPEAKER_03We wanted to do this.
SPEAKER_02We wanted to do it, but I always do like I think it's good. I mean, obviously on the old mainly feeders we'll we'll try and get them all across at one point. We did we used to do every euro review and stuff like that, even though that wasn't technically technically nostalgia, because I think it is good to chronicle, and I quite like going back to him and seeing what we thought like straight after the event. And obviously, this tournament finished Sunday. We've we're recording on Tuesday, and we are joined once again by Mo Money Meekin. How's things, sir?
SPEAKER_00Things are good, thank you. Pleasure to be back. I obviously enjoyed doing the 2010 World Cup recap with you guys, and then uh well, you and I certainly, Andrew, have pretty much watched most of this world. Well, all the England games together, pretty much. So uh yeah, I'm I'm looking it's been a longer World Cup than normal. So when I was uh thinking back, there were loads of stuff I'd forgotten. So yeah, I'm gonna go back to the book. Yeah, we should what we should have done in chronicling them.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we should have done in hindsight as one of those top 50 moments that they used to do on BBC, you know, like we Oli Merz and Rio Ferdinand, and you'll not believe what the French did at number 38. Bam bam bam bam. But we are gonna go through chronologically, and uh, I'm gonna start with you actually, Pam.
Azteca Brings Back World Cup Magic
SPEAKER_02Because I remember I were in Ireland for this first game, but we watched it in a pub in Ireland full of Mexicans, actually. And it was interesting looking at the group chat that we've got. You all and us, like when we were in Ireland watching it, were amazed by the Azteca Stadium and the opening ceremony.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think we've gone into it slightly. Certainly I would gone into the work up slightly cynically, you know, with all the sort of FIFA Trump nonsense and the expanded tournament, and you know, only only so many teams even going out in the group stage and all this. And I was I knew when it kicked off I would be like into the football, but there was just something about seeing the Azteca from pitch level, which a lot of the uh I think it was ITV had the first game, didn't it? But they like they were sort of showing their their coverage from pitch side from a couple of people who were there, and it's just like, oh wow, this is just a a breathtaking stadium. It obviously has the historic factor for England fans, it was before my time, but even you know, even I know the Azteca from 86 and what have you. So yeah, it was just um it was just a great way to suddenly put all the bullshit to one side and actually have a game of football with like a a rabid, passionate crowd as well. So yeah, it wasn't.
SPEAKER_02I think that was the difference. I don't know about you, Lou, if you thought the same, is that we were all a little bit, oh, it's gonna be in America, how much are they into it? There's a lot of college stadiums being used, or stadiums that are not there for for what they call soccer. But when that came up, the Azteca and all the opening ceremony for that, it felt like a proper, proper World Cup, I think.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, it's a perfect place to open a World Cup. It kind of almost feels like wherever you host it in a world, it there's a debate you should have the opening game at the Azteca. But yeah, I just thought it was incredible. I I kind of expected it to be one of those because there's so much hype before it uh it's gonna be a little bit disappointing, it's gonna look a little bit dated. I was just blown away by it. The the colour of it, the vibrancy, just incredible, yeah. Great start. And and I completely agree with what Ben said. There was so much speculation about all the FIFA and Trump nonsense that to actually just get it going and think, oh, the the football has started was brilliant.
SPEAKER_02And what did you think to the first game itself? Obviously, not gonna go game by game, but obviously that is the opening game. What did you reckon, Ben?
SPEAKER_00You want the host nation to do well at World Cups, I think. It does it does just get everything, get everything going. Um, south so it's Mexico, South Africa is the first game. South Africa offered very little resistance. And in uh, I mean, we're we're obviously not really gonna like uh break down much of the football here, but it's it's kind of South Africa got through to the second round, right? Did I have a lot of things? Yeah, they did, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Somehow, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I mean that's that if anything is a bit of a referendum on this on this format. So one of them they were appalling. But um, I think the most the most memorable thing from this game is uh well not only that South Africa had a player called uh Sitole, as I believe it's pronounced, but it's very much is hard to not read it a shit all. And he had an absolute mare, didn't he? He basically put one on a plate for uh Mexico after 10 minutes, he got sent off like five minutes into the second half, and yeah, it was uh it was a shock. It ended up being three red cards in that game as well. Yeah, the referee referee went like slightly crazy, and then I wonder if every all the other refs sort of got together and were like, mmm, let's not do that anymore. Because they were all very red cards on that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, they were really fair throughout like the ref on that uh the ref cam was a massive thing. I mean, I remember Lee Dixon saying first time it's worked for me that when it was like the Qatar Switzerland game, like five five games in or whatever it was. I thought it were amazing the ref cam.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I feel like it's been sort of it's been in the Premier League, right, last season, but they leaned into it much more, and it's it's a it's a cool view, I like particularly for you know goals and more goals more than decisions, really. It's just a it's just a really cool camera angle. I'm thinking particularly of like an Mbappe goal where he just cracked it in from 25 yards as the uh as the ref was like trailing in his wake. And yeah, it just uh it added to the coverage definitely.
SPEAKER_03It is an interesting view as well when you see sort of a tackle flying across the ref's field of vision, and you kind of feel like, yeah, it's not maybe not that easy to get every decision right first time. Yeah, it's almost like the human,
Ref Cam Hydration Breaks And Momentum
SPEAKER_03isn't it?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh this was obviously the first of met well, every game of hydration breaks, which we've never witnessed before in football. What did you think to that, Liam? Like sort of did you get used to it quite quickly? I did to be honest. I want more of these, like, oh I then after a while you're like hydration break coming out, go get a cup of tea, or like yeah, I'm I'm not offended by it.
SPEAKER_03I don't like the the clear attempt to split the game into four quarters. The the fact that very quickly we all latched on to the fact it it's not hydration break, it's an advert break, and in that period of time they can drink some water. And yeah, I don't I'm not I'm I'm not dead against it in a sense that it didn't ruin a game for me, but it kind of adds a slightly different dynamic where it definitely did shift momentum in some games. I don't want to see it again, I don't mind that it was a thing for this particular tournament. And and I do think actually, when you're playing in real excessive heat, there's an argument if it keeps the standard up higher, then I'm not dead against it. I mean, some some of the music was incredible, some of the choices. I'd love to know who was sort of making a decision. So Jongiove, uh I want to dance with somebody, Whitney Houston. That would brilliant.
SPEAKER_02That was a highlight for me, definitely. Were it Switzerland Qatar where everyone were ready to kick off the game again? And they had to wait until the edge film was. Oh, I want to dance with somebody. They were just like waiting, looking at like referees having to like all his hand up, now you can't take it till Whitney finishes. Ridiculous.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, um, not a fan. I mean, obviously we had them in 2022, didn't we, when the temperature was above a certain threshold, and yeah, and that makes sense. But yeah, I'd I'd I really wasn't a fan at all. I mean, it it did turn the game in like tactically into four quarters, you know, particularly uh some of the more uh I'd say like physically taxing England games, like in the knockout games. It the game like would completely change around those breaks, whether it was sort of you know the manager changing something at that point, or the teams being like, We'll get through the first quarter and then we'll have a go, that kind of thing. So I'd say it, get rid.
SPEAKER_02And it changed the game at Germany, Curakau in this in the in the in the group stage. They just scored as an equaliser, and then they were on the attack again, Curakau, and then they obviously went for the hydration break. And I've seen so many people say that just stopped their momentum. Germany were panicking, but you get that like little 10 minutes to sort of say, come on now, chill out, you know what I mean, calm down. And then this is where Tuchel it looked like we're doing so well, but obviously we'll get to the semi-final at a later date.
ITV Beats BBC Plus Studio Weirdness
SPEAKER_02Um big news, I think, in the group stage were probably the BBC, not being a good one.
SPEAKER_03This blew my minders, yeah. That it was a green screen or blue screen or whatever they do behind them now, and that they weren't there. And I think the the sort of juxtaposition of ITV having this luxury studio overlooking New York, and I don't know, it it kind of put BBC on the back foot for me right from the start. I I understand they're under pressure that that you know people are cancelling subscriptions. I get they tried to save some money, but for me, I it just didn't have the same feel. I I didn't like it. I understand it, but I didn't like it.
SPEAKER_02I agree with you, reckon, Ben. I I I was not impressed uh by these early stages in the beat.
SPEAKER_00I got used to it after a bit, but yeah, I wasn't that arse to be honest. I mean, particularly with ITV, they just you know, they kind of just stayed in that studio, didn't they? Which wasn't, you know, it wasn't like overlooking a stadium or anything, it was just like overlooking New York, wasn't it? And the the Hudson River. And yeah, I I don't know, this doesn't bother me too much to be honest. I I actually got annoyed when the BBC did turn up, and obviously we lost straight away, which just made me made me think of the uh the Wednesday band turning up for um England women in the World Cup about eight years ago, where England women were doing really well, and then the Wednesday band turned up for a semi-final and we uh immediately lost. So yeah, I'm blaming the BBC. But I think this is the first world certainly the first tournament I can think of where I I could you could credibly claim that ITV were a superior broadcaster to the TV series.
SPEAKER_03Absolutely agree.
SPEAKER_00I think they had the edge on uh pundits as well, I'd say.
SPEAKER_02But you revealed last week, didn't you, Lee, on last week's pod, that you actually walk well, you said you were gonna watch the final on ITV and you said where it was available.
SPEAKER_03I think I said in the group chat, I've been institutionalised by Sky now, I don't mind the ad breaks. I actually think they've not got loads to say, they've they're repeating themselves a little bit anyway on the punditry at half time. I I'm uh the ad breaks I can live with, I'm not bothered. I just preferred the feel of ITV for this particular tournament. I mean, I know there's I don't know if we've got this in the notes anywhere, they've sort of reviewed the pundits and how well they did, but I think just at this sort of moment, if we mention that potentially, do you know if you were gonna sort of make a team of bouncers out of a an on-screen pundit team? I think the fact you get Roy Keane, Big Duncan Ferguson, and uh Ange Posterkoglu all in one panel is like that that must be the sort of most up bouncer type setup we've ever had, really.
SPEAKER_02Scotland Morocco, that was, and uh he cuts to them with those three, and I was like, Jesus, imagine those three, like and then it somehow make look make Pugash look hard, I thought as well. It's like he's on the edge. Yeah, he's like the yeah, the leader, he's like yeah, you you it's like a gangster sort of thing. Yeah, you sort them out. Like, do you know what I mean? Yeah, brilliant.
SPEAKER_00But there were a few strange moments of the ITV coverage, which we I don't think we've noted down, but uh it was the guy that was because they had the main studio, obviously, overlooking the um overlooking the river, and then like off to the right as the camera looks, it was like a sort of seating area, yeah, like an annexed bit where they just basically had like celeb it was it was like some guy from Man vs Food or something, like yeah, yeah. That was that was weird. Like having a sort of a more celebrified chat about football, and then there was was it Wycliffe John that like there's uh just completely uh making Karen Carney look completely uncomfortable, man. Pretty much sitting on her head in the studio. It's so weird.
SPEAKER_03I mean, we've we've still not seen the footage yet of Duncan Ferguson throwing him into the river behind. Yeah, I'm assuming at some point that'll be gone until November.
SPEAKER_02I'll be gone until November. Um but yeah, obviously Gary Lineker turned up on ITV as well, which everyone blew everyone through the city.
SPEAKER_03Which could have been incredibly sort of cheesy, but I I actually liked it as a I still feel a bit dirty.
SPEAKER_00I didn't like seeing Lineker as an advert on ITV for his um, wrestling football in it on Netflix, isn't it? But the adverts were running on ITV during the coverage like, oh, it's just yeah, it made me uncomfortable.
SPEAKER_02Well, Fox Sport, obviously, as well, not in the but obviously we got a lot of clips, and I think you want to talk a little bit, don't you, about Thierry Henry and Zlatin versus Alexei Lallas.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. So obviously we don't have Fox Sports in this country. We you see the clips, and yeah, they they had um a pretty all-star lineup with Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovich, and then Alexi Lalas, who is you know, nowhere near that level of status.
SPEAKER_02You say this, by the way, there's a film, I can't remember what it's called. I can't remember what it's called, it's one of those crap soccer films that America used through the 90s. And someone said something like there's a line in it, and it's something along the lines of, yeah, he's our answer to Pelle, like points to Alexei Lallas. And it's like Alexi Lalas is in that film. Why has he not said whoa, hang on? I'm just a centre off. Like, I'm I'm just an I never did anything.
SPEAKER_03I had to look up who he was, I didn't know who he was.
SPEAKER_02Yes, I remember I do remember him scoring against England, but yeah.
SPEAKER_00So early doors, he's talking about uh James Corden, I think, was doing maybe like uh part of an opening ceremony kind of thing for for one of the games, and he I mean it sounds very much like he says uh uh he's a he's a fucking wanker. Yeah he actually says he's a full kit wanker. Yeah, he does, yeah. Not really any better. Sort of, I guess it was like one in the afternoon on Fox Sports. Yeah, so that was funny. Um and then later on, uh during a France game, I I think it was a game where they were maybe not that impressive for a little bit but ended up winning anyway. Uh maybe the I think it was the Senegal game or something like that, where they you know they got pegged back a bit later on. But Lalas was basically saying, like, France, uh, you know, they're they're they're they're playing in an arrogant fashion and a complacent, and Henri was just like sitting it out, like you know, I'm uncomfortable about the uh the white man talking about all these black footballers as being arrogant, and Zlatan just steamed straight and is just like no, I I think that's that's just something that ignorant people say. And Henri's face when Zlatan says ignorant is absolutely incredible. His eyes almost bug out of his head, as he's like, I am not touching this in the slightest. But yeah, it was amazing.
SPEAKER_02I do like the moment I do like that. I mean, obviously, we we only get when I were in Ireland, it was funny actually, because we watched the South Korea game afterwards, like two o'clock in the morning because we just got back, and there were three pundits on. I have no idea who any of them were, genuinely. Like, but it was amazing that Fox obviously got these well, two people that you knew just by looking at, to be honest. But probably not the most stylish people, because obviously, as you've said here, Ben, uh Potticino. I think we're all impressed by Potticino.
SPEAKER_03Sorry, just on them before you move on quickly. I assume it's not AI. Did you see the little bits of sort of skills and tricks that Henri and Zlatan were doing together? I thought it was incredible. Someone a little bit.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, and he does one where he absolutely back heels. Have you seen the one where he he goes to like pass it to Lalas and instead sort of drags it back and just stood there looking like a complete idiot? It's fantastic. Yeah, but I think they probably have quite a low opinion of him, to be honest. But um, yes, most stylish is uh definitely Mauricio Pochettino. He's never looked like that, he's never looked like that before.
SPEAKER_02He's been in England as a manager in the city. Brilliant because as a player, he has a put he had a ponytail, didn't he, as a player. Looks nothing, you'd never pick him out like Portuccino, you'd never say, Well, that's Portucino unless this he obviously gave a penalty away when Beckham scored in the 2002 game. See him who trips out him, and then he went from that to like he looked quite hard, I thought, in the Premier League when he first came in. And then now he's just like Russell Crowe. Just this man, there's like he's a bit not like you have the Mike Baldwin effect, Liam. Maybe the Potticino effect, maybe they're all different people, different versions.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I don't know, but yeah, he did look good. I mean he looked like and this is not a dig at Russell Crowe, because obviously he's he's getting on a bit, he's been around a bit, but he's put on a bit of weight, but it it kind of looked like sort of peak Russell Crowe. I thought he looked he looked excellent.
SPEAKER_00See, I watched the film uh The Nice Guys, which I know you won't have seen, Andrew. Have you seen that, uh Liam? Possibly, it sounds like Nice Guys, yeah, with uh Ryan Gosling. Um but anyway, well I watched it like maybe a week before the tournament started. And genuinely it's that is exactly how Pochettino looks right now, because uh Crow's playing like a sort of a slightly, slightly gun-to-seed hard man type, you know, like a bit of a hitman in his like in his 50s, and yeah, it's just exactly what Pochettino does.
SPEAKER_03I'm looking at it now, yeah. I have seen it, yeah. And it yeah, it is. It's that kind of
Fox Clips Pundit Drama And Viral Moments
SPEAKER_03but quite cool. Yeah, I mean it actually looks genuinely like that. That could be him, yeah. Yeah, crazy.
SPEAKER_02Uh you you wanted to mention here as well, which I've not actually seen this, Ben. Um, but I'll I'll we're gonna try and share a few clutch with this episode. Uh Kirakal scored against Germany and um Tel Mundo, which is is that Mexico? Spanish.
SPEAKER_00No, well, it's a Spanish language, uh like American broadcast. I think it's mainly broadcast in the US, but presumably maybe it is in Mexico as well. Um, yes, it's Spanish language. Uh, I only learned about this after the fact, otherwise, I think we would have been uh impersonating it all the way through the World Cup. But Curosaw, as you mentioned, obviously scored a goal against Germany, which at the time was uh you know pretty momentous occasion. They they equalised against a team that were fancy to win the whole thing, and they have a population of like is it 200,000 or something like that? I should know this since we did a pub quiz on it um before the tournament started. Anyway, Telemondo celebrated that with a 52-second goal. I will share this because I want to go through it there, Ben. I'll throw you down with all of it. I'm not gonna subject people to it. So it's not just it's not one continuous, but he does basically do that noise with a couple of like repeats of 52 seconds. It was the longest goal of the tournament, apparently.
SPEAKER_02I were watching when England beat Mexico, I was watching some streamers from Mexico, and I couldn't understand a word they were saying, but they were subtitles, obviously. And when England scored, they had this woman in the background who was Mexican, and like England had scored, and they go, Oh, no, no, no, I did it. And goal! Like just so on the pro they're all like really sad. Do you like when Kane scores his penalty? Goal, they've all got their head in their hands. It's like if that were my team conceding, and some someone who supports us is in the background going, go. I've no way am I having that. Not a chance.
SPEAKER_00Traveling we catch travelling blade doing that on the court next season, isn't it? Oh, don't, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Do you know what? Now you've said it, there's a chance he might go for it if he's had several beverages. He might do a 10-minute goal.
SPEAKER_02A couple of things I wanted to mention from the group stage. I don't know if any because obviously I don't know if we I don't think these are on the notes. This is on the notes, but uh, I work later than you two. You have to get up because you're normal people. So I were allowed to watch, I were allowed to watch. Like my mum were gonna send me to bed, but I were allowed I were allowed to watch uh the late game. So I stayed up for most of the games if I could stay awake. And I think you two missed quite a few, didn't you? Like some of the things. I miss loads, yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I must have watched less than half the games to my chagrin, because I'm normally a a hundred percenter when it comes to World Cups.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, my take on this tournament that I I've really enjoyed it as a tournament. I think it's a strange one though, where we've added additional games and I feel like I saw less of it. It's a it's a slightly strange dynamic. But you know, I I get it. If it's other places in the world, it works on different time zones. I don't know if it's because football wasn't as big in USA or around the world at the time, but definitely felt like 94 had more sort of watchable time slots. Like it felt like that.
SPEAKER_02I wonder if that's because you were younger though, because you were younger.
SPEAKER_03I don't know, you know, it felt like I could felt like there were earlier games, whereas this time felt like we were waiting all day.
SPEAKER_00I don't think that's a false memory. I'm sure I saw this before the tournament. There were loads of games like kicked off around sort of noon US time, so you know, there'll be like 8 p.m. Uh yeah, it'd be like 5 pm, 8 pm here. So I think there's an element of like it's really bloody hot, we need to kick off later for a lot of these games. But yeah, the kickoff times were all over the place. I mean, it wasn't I caught a lot of what happened because um my daughter fortunately is is at an age where she was like actually quite into this, so we ended up watching the highlights every morning anyway. So I ended up catching up on most of the main things, but yeah, sadly, sadly wasn't able to experience a lot of these great moments live like you were. Well, that's it.
SPEAKER_03What those moments where you could sort of sneak in a game where you were kind of supposed to be working and you got it on in the background or you've got the radio on it, it felt like these were all quite accessible games.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, what I one of my uh guy who I worked with, he was working overnight when England played Mexico and he avoided the results. If I finished at 5am and he thought I'm just gonna run back and you know, I'm just gonna get to the game, I'm gonna completely avoid it. As he were like going back to his house, two lads were walking back, obviously from the pub, and he just overheard him said, So where are we gonna see the Norway game on Saturday then?
SPEAKER_03It's such a dangerous game now. My dad once did it. I mean, this this sounds like a sort of fake story, but my dad assures me it is true. Um, he once avoided a game result to to watch it later on or to watch Manchester Day or something. And my granddad said to him, uh, I won't do the Irish accent on this occasion, but my grandad said to him, uh, I won't tell you one, but don't worry, there wasn't a winner. Just a ridiculous thing to say. My dad actually, I I know we're jumping out of there. So it might have been worse than that. He might have said, but don't worry, you didn't miss any goals. That might be it.
SPEAKER_02My dad um didn't watch the Mexico game and he got up at 7 a.m. or whatever to watch it, and he said, Oh, I thought we'd lost. And I said, Well, why? And he goes, Well, I just didn't hear anything on the streets. Well, what are you expecting? Like machine gun man like that, Saudi Arabia.
SPEAKER_03I just think it's so hard now to to even because even when you click on whatever you're gonna watch it on, it's quite often titled like England beat these, or like it I think it's very hard. Unless you've got somebody else who can set it up for you the next morning, say, Can you start me the game?
SPEAKER_02Yeah. But they're a great one. Because obviously the next one. There were a Scotland fan who said he were watching the England uh highlights against Mexico, and it were 3-3 90 minutes, but there were 10 minutes left of the highlights. They thought, well, they've obviously scored. There's obviously an equaliser. And little did he know the last 10 minutes were just England celebration. So they were absolutely gutted. Amazing. But one of the games you missed by the way on the overnight's the reason I brought it up is because they were a fantastic bit of West Swedish player. Yati Niara scored against Tunisia, and he didn't celebrate uh because his father's Tunisian. And they were like making a big thing like, oh, really respectful, you know, his father's Tunisian. But then in the second half he scored again and he went mad, like slid on his knees, putting the ear cups up to the Tunisia fans. And I thought, what's changed? Like his dad messaged him and said, You son of a bitch. Like, do you know what I mean? He's just like sort of.
SPEAKER_03Did he get booed for not celebrating? Was he doing it to his own fans? Or I I struggled with the logic in this one.
SPEAKER_02No, he went straight up to the the Tunisia fans, slid on his knees, giving it the cup tears.
SPEAKER_03But the first time I gave him one day, like you can have you can have one. I'll have one respect for you.
SPEAKER_02And then after that, you can get away. I've done my time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
Group Stage Madness Red Cards And Scotland
SPEAKER_02But another big thing I think in the group stage will everyone will always remember Paraguay versus Turkey. Again, this is an overnight one that Util have probably missed. And I I had this game on, but I one of those were all like sort of fallen asleep. And I didn't I didn't clock this until the day after when everyone's talking about it. I'm sure people know what I'm on about. After review, number 10, Paraguay covered his mouth. Red card. Red card.
SPEAKER_03Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I thought I've got to go and hear that.
SPEAKER_02After review, number 10, Paraguay, covered his mouth. Red card!
SPEAKER_00He rolls the R as well.
SPEAKER_03I love to see the tone of it as well, though. Red car. Red car.
SPEAKER_00Brilliant how he does it. It reminds me of this game called the. Sorry, Eggbeg, go on. I was gonna say this is gonna be one of like three things I quickly remember from this World Cup in 20 years. Oh, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02Definitely a standout moment, yeah. I hope all the English ref start doing it. There's a day there's a game called Euro, or was it Football Champ, which I've sometimes mentioned on here, but on the Amiga. And it's like a bit of a comedy game, you can punch the ref and stuff. And when he sends someone else, he goes red card! It just like reminds them to be.
SPEAKER_03I just think it's brilliant.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely that's why uh Anthony Taylor's resigned today. You can't do it. Ben, you wanted to talk about Bielsa, which I did claw, uh, I didn't realise at the time. Uh obviously seeing the behind footage stuff, Bielsa for Uruguay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, maybe I should have mentioned this when talking about the opening game, actually. But I I actually really like this as uh again, it's nothing hugely new, but it's just uh it had another wrinkle to like the pre-match build-up. But when the team teams were being announced, every player had like a sort of two-second video clip of them, like you know, patting the badge or punching the air or whatever. And the managers did it as well, the managers were on it, and Bielsi was managing Uruguay, just just stared at the ground because he said he's I think he said afterwards as like, I'm not a model, like that was his take on it. He just he he was basically just like, I just don't want to be involved in this.
SPEAKER_03I think they missed a massive trick by not AIing him to sit on a bucket and just zooming in on I think that would have been great.
SPEAKER_02What would you do, by the way, if you were um on the spot for that? Do you know what I've thought about this more times than I should have? And I and I and I think I'd probably go with the Hulk Hogan ear cup. Do you know, like the the the over-the-top ear cup? I think I'd do that. What about you two? Is it like a like a finger gun? Oh, that's a good one. A finger gun.
SPEAKER_03What would I do?
SPEAKER_00Um don't overthink it.
SPEAKER_03I've got it, I've got it. Do you know um on the flash show? Running away like a moonlight shadow. I've got that go over my own.
SPEAKER_00Head Dave Angel, shadow, shadow. Like the guy from the parish council meeting.
SPEAKER_02When do we plan to start?
SPEAKER_03Walk away and then look back over my shoulder. I think that'd be a brilliant thing.
SPEAKER_02When do I plan to score? Um yeah, I we can't talk about the group stages without having to go at our dear friends, the Scots, who once again went out in the first round. And I found it amazing how quickly they went back into their normal roles of just buying shirts for whoever England were like they were all genuinely. You forgot they were there, didn't you, after a while?
SPEAKER_03I don't know. Obviously, I can't speak for Scottish fans. I I think and I hope they like the fact that we don't want them to do well. I think they wouldn't. Oh, come on, Scotland. We hope you're doing well for yourself. Um they surely want us to see them as a rival. And and alright, yeah, they they you know, they haven't got a history of delivering the major tournaments, but I I hope they embrace the fact that we want them to go out as early as possible. Like I don't like this. Britain do alright, let's hope that they get through. I I didn't want them to lose every game, to be honest, and I'm sure they wanted us to lose every game.
SPEAKER_02I I found it really funny the way they went out this time, I have to admit. Um like I say, they're laughing at us for losing to the arders. They don't I think it's all good natured banter. Um I I do find it that they went out because they were they had to wait around in America for like five days, knowing realistically they were going home, but they had to just imagine how depressing that'll have been.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, you just they were just waiting to be told, weren't they? And I think I don't know, like again, I'm not mocking them because I appreciate that you know the ranking in sort of terms of FIFA, it is what it is. But I just think there was something quite nice about the fact that they'd actually made it quite hard to go out of this World Cup and they still found a way. They still didn't make it. And and again, like I said, it's genuinely I don't mean that in a well no, I I do mean that in a mocking way. I I do think like I I enjoy you laughing at them and I'm sure they enjoyed watching us get beat to Argentina. That's that's the nature of of sport.
SPEAKER_02Absolutely. Um on the late night games, going back to that by the way, Ben. Um I feel a lot of people miss this, so I am definitely gonna I am gonna I am gonna share this, but you want to explain probably the most bizarre bit of commentary in the entire tournament, Portugal versus Colombia.
SPEAKER_00So you know what? I've not re-watched this recently, but it's uh who is who is the BBC comparing for this one? Is it is it Steve Wilson? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, sorry, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so is it is it's Portugal versus Colombia, and yeah, as you say, it's the middle of the night, so uh I didn't see it, it was only when it was shared afterwards. But for some reason, uh Steve Wilson just just like randomly starts talking about uh Escobar, which is who obviously was uh was was killed uh around night four. Yeah, and um I just think that's one of those things that you just you just wouldn't ever touch as a commentation. I mean if I was a commentator going to a Columbia game and be like, just don't whatever you do, don't mention Escobar. It's literally don't mention the war, isn't it? I think I mentioned it once I think I got away with it. There's absolutely no need to ever bring this up unless you see somebody holding a big banner with his name on or something, just no need to need to bring this up in it. Not only does it bring it up, but like it's it's just it's talking like like Columbia are like no strangers to tragedy, like out of nowhere. Stephen Warner, the co-commentator, just completely ignores him and starts describing like a replay instead. And then both of them, as the camera cuts to Matt Damon in the crowd, just like lose it with excitement. Like, it's Matt Damon in the crowd.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna I am gonna share this, keep an eye out. I am gonna share this because I feel like it's got a lot of people.
SPEAKER_03I haven't seen that by the way. Are they genuinely excited to see Matt Damon or is that just a way out of a situation? I think it's a way out. I think it's a way out.
SPEAKER_02Stephen Warnock doesn't say anything, rightly so, because he's probably thinking I don't know what to say here. Where does that take you? And then Matt Damon, hey, Matt Damon's here. Thank God they went to Matt Damon there. And I'd love to have seen if Warnock could have never replied like for the rest of the game, if they hadn't seen Matt Damon. It was perfect for him that. I am gonna share that.
SPEAKER_03Uh, an alternate universe though, where Warnock sort of says, Yeah, I mean, it makes you think of some of the other football tragedies. And like they both just ended up. They just go through them all, yeah. It's an outrageous way to tell you. No reason, I haven't heard of it.
SPEAKER_02It was an incredible game, that as well. I I did watch that, but I had the contract because I were away and my dad were asleep like thingy on. So I did I had the contra at a loss. I didn't sit here at some proper end-to-end match. That Portugal club, no need to mention that at all.
SPEAKER_00We'll come back to dark. I've got a bunch of like just tidbits from the rest of the group stage that I want to throw in here.
England Side Stories Barry Spence And Superstition
SPEAKER_00Most of them around most of them around England. We weren't really talking about yet, but uh Anthony Barry's like bizarrely box office halftime talks. Like, I so I've not really paid attention to England since the last Euros. I didn't really know Anthony Barry was. I was like, What's this guy saying how crap we've been and what we need to do better every time? But it became like appointment viewing, it wasn't half-time analysis, it was like when's Barry on? When's Barry on? What's we got Barry does?
SPEAKER_02We were obviously like you said, Ben, we watched all these in the pool, but I were like looking at my messages. What's Barry said then? As if like somehow that were gonna do you know what I mean? What's he said then at half time, Barry?
SPEAKER_03That sort of honest reaction at half-time from somebody so close to it. It was quite quite intriguing, I thought.
SPEAKER_00I think that well, I think that's why it became appointment viewing because it was so particular. I think, yeah, the first one obviously was the Croatian game where we'd like conceded just before half-time and it got back to two all. And yeah, he sort of went slightly nuts about it. He was like, Oh, this is quite revealing as to what Tuchel's probably thinking. Um, speaking of what Tuchel's probably thinking, um I love how he was like he spent most of the first three games of the tournament like going nuts at Jed Spence.
SPEAKER_03Jed, Jed, sort of leaping up and down, and like it was absolutely furious. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It was brilliant that he did an interview with Spence. Um, I don't know what it was, like the third game or whatever. He says, Do you think uh Thomas Turkle shouts at you more than the rest? And he just went, Yeah. Yeah, he does, yeah. Clearly, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, a Ghanaian witch doctor cursed Harry Kane before the game with England, and obviously that was early. We always get this at World Cups. Kane missed a late chance, but hey, I mean, look, it's it worked, and he uh you know, fair play to the guy, he said he was lifting it afterwards, and Kane obviously went on and scored again in the uh in the knockout game. So, yeah, he he he knew what he were about. That that witch doctor, yeah. Um this is very much a me thing, but uh I think no, you've ruined this for me, Ben.
SPEAKER_02I'm not gonna lie. Uh you are because I were away for this and you messaged me once, and I and I could not stop hearing it after that.
SPEAKER_00Sam Matterface in our game against Panama. Just stop saying Panamanians. He must have said it 500 times during this game. Like, just say Panama. You'd have to say the Panamanians constantly. It clearly learned that that was the the word for people of Panama. It's like I'm just gonna say this constantly, but yeah, I said it to you, I sent it to you, and yeah, I think it was then stuck.
SPEAKER_02You said it to me, and I heard it about four uh you sent me about half an hour to go, but it were just like yeah, the and the Panamania. And every time he was saying, I went, oh fuck, oh fucking.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'm quite happy to lean into some of my facial nonsense, but I do get why it infuriates people.
SPEAKER_00It really does. And my my final thing from the group stage, it's not an England thing, um, but it was a referee getting cramp in the US Australia game. I was just, I mean, you you just have to retire, don't you? If you the referee getting treatment, I think in the first half, or maybe it was the second half, but you know, he's got the physios running on to stretch his leg. Like, come on, mate, it's my time to hang it up if that's what's going on.
Knockouts Begin Wonderwall And Tuchel Rage
SPEAKER_02So if we move on to the last 32, England beat uh Dr. Congo, as everyone would call him. Um, probably not as much as I called it him, to be completely honest. But uh and this was probably the first time Wonder Wall, I felt, became the anthem of the team. Mike Parry delivers an appalling version of it, which again I'm gonna share because again, I don't know how many people have seen these clips. I think a lot of clips get lost, don't they, because there's that much going around. But Mike Parry.
SPEAKER_03When he's doing it, morale.
SPEAKER_02He's like, does it gonna be the day and we're gonna do it back to you?
SPEAKER_03I think he's got an England scarf tied round his head though, as well. But I'm not sure, I'll have to say it again.
SPEAKER_02But I want to actually and you, Ben, as well. I'm gonna say something might be controversial here. I don't think that was a good anthem for us, Wonderwall, personally. I don't think it really makes much sense. It's too slow. I didn't like it as an anthem.
SPEAKER_00It's a good better than Sweet Caroline, right?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that. I don't get Sweet Caroline. I I don't know if that's come from Boxing and Tyson Fury or if it was around before that, but I I I don't get Sweet Caroline. I kind of get Wonder Wall as a kind of indie British anthem. Uh I don't like it because it's generally my karaoke song that I can do an okay version of, and I thought, oh, everybody's gonna be doing it now.
SPEAKER_02So well apparently Alan Shearer did it uh at at the BBC party after.
SPEAKER_03Oh yeah. Everything I do, Shearer's just right behind me, any doing the same thing.
SPEAKER_00But all the same we leave it in America, to be honest. Oh completely agree.
SPEAKER_03It was a tournament anthem. I think had we won it, that'd be a different thing. I wouldn't mind us carrying it forward then, but I think we have to leave it there now.
SPEAKER_02It's like Sweet Caroline were good in 2020. That were quite a unique thing, I thought. Oh, yeah, but then it's like off fuck, fuck off. We've had enough.
SPEAKER_03Unfortunately, it's not three lions, which yeah, that's that's the only thing I'd say. And and I love three lions, but I I don't like the idea of us singing that after every game.
SPEAKER_00No. Unfortunately, the Wednesday band uh will be playing Wonder Wall on repeat at every England game from now on, I imagine.
SPEAKER_02So uh you don't have to do this, you do not have to do this.
SPEAKER_00The masters of not reading the room.
SPEAKER_02You will do the bit as well, won't they? Oh crap. But England go one-null down in this and nearly go out, actually. And uh, me and you talk about this, well spoke about it quite a lot better, actually, then Tuchel's reaction to Congo's goal. I don't know if you've seen this. Absolutely fantastic. I don't know that.
SPEAKER_03I think I might have seen it when you mentioned it. I don't know it as a as a reference point out.
SPEAKER_00I think uh I think Andrew was like ready to string Tuchel up by the end of the tournament, but I uh he's got a lot of credit in the bank for me, and uh there's things like this that I just really enjoyed. He was basically he was clearly explaining to uh Anthony Barry, his assistant, like where England were going wrong, like as Congo were on the attack, and then obviously they scored from the end of it, and his reaction is like he just he sort of he almost like if he had something in his hand he would have lobbed it away in frustration. It's like a I I likened it to um when you're playing Call of Duty and you're just having a really you basically you're on tilt, you're like you just can't do anything, just dying constantly. And that's basically how he writes it's like for fuck's sake, this is exactly what I told you what was gonna happen. And yeah, if there'd been something in his hands, he would have to be. It's brilliant.
SPEAKER_02You're right. It's like playing a computer game, and you're like, you're I didn't press it that way. Uh look, look, what's gonna happen now? Obviously, that's happened, yeah. It's like you see he knows exactly it's almost like quite happy that it's happened, I think. It's like a little bit satisfying. I'll have to watch that. I don't remember it. Yeah, but obviously England come back, win two-one uh and go through very unconvincingly, but it looked a lot better because I think it was the day after that Germany lost on pens to Paraguay, and it's the first ever defeat in a World Cup for Germany on pen. None of us thought Germany would lose on pens ever, did we? First time weaver we they've lost one in the Euros, but that was 76. I think it was the first ever penalty shootout they were in, and then they've they've always been the masters.
SPEAKER_03Isn't there a start that they missed more in this one shootout than they have in all the past previous penalty shootouts? Is that right? I think it's certainly World Cups, yeah.
SPEAKER_0275% of all the penalties they've ever missed in a tournament apparently came in that penalty shootout.
SPEAKER_03Do you think the cracks in the sort of German efficiency? Do you think are we? Because that's the word everybody should have.
SPEAKER_00I'm not the first person to say this, but we're the grind it out efficient, find a way to get it done, team these.
SPEAKER_02We just haven't got that last bit there. But up until that, I agree. I've be I've been saying for the last two tournaments, England or Germany, they're that team and go far, and everyone goes, how what how did they end up here? Yeah, they've got played well once they're doing here. Yeah, there weren't any shocks at this tournament, I'd say. No, Kate Verde or the standout, but they didn't actually win a game.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I think it was the tournament of like the underdogs sort of had their moments in a lot of games, but then the favourites won anyway. And Germany getting knocked out was probably one of maybe two or three genuine upsets. Even I don't even know if there were that many, to be honest.
SPEAKER_03Like, I don't know if they called Brazil an upset the way they play, and I I expected him to turn it on, but yeah, this is arguably the upset of the tournament. And I think Yeah, for a for a for a tournament where we had additional teams in, I think FIFA must be kind of delighted because they got all those extra games and all those extra countries involved, but yet the top four teams we'll find out later on end up came to the last four. So yeah, I don't know, it's a weird one. It kind of played out as it should, it seems like.
SPEAKER_02Kate Verde obviously nearly knocked out Argentina, but it was their goalkeeper Vizinha, who came with the breakout star heart. And his inner Instagram account went from 50,000 followers to 27 million in a week. Incredible, absolutely incredible. It was the coolest goalkeeper in town as well.
SPEAKER_00I think it was 40 years old. 40 year old, yeah, it was one of the the many 40-year-olds at this World Cup, actually. It was a real old man World Cup when it was a lot of players. I was like, is he still playing? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I mean that's such a jump. That's like, you know, when you sort of you watch some of these sort of people who do video on YouTube, a few hundred, and then all of a sudden it's five thousand the next day.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you go to sleep one night, you wake up at morning, it's like, oh, it's 100,000 views for that video we had 14 for yesterday. Yeah, um, but yeah, I think um Kate Verde have just said like they didn't win a game. I should say as well, they didn't lose a game in 90 minutes, and they played Spain and Argentina. I mean that that's an incredible tournament for Mbart. They're not Uruguay out, you know, one of the bigger nations, I think, at football still. If they'd have beat Saudi Arabia, they might have won the group, but and they were all over at Watch Star.
SPEAKER_03But this is the problem we're doing these extended tournaments, is it's a bit patronising though, isn't it, to say, oh well played, lads. You know, you didn't actually do anything, but brilliant, well played. Uh you nearly did. Yeah, you never did something good, but you didn't.
SPEAKER_02But you know, but they drew look, they played the two finalists and didn't lose in 90 minutes. No one else can say that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, but but so what? The the two finalists went through and they didn't.
SPEAKER_02The crap aren't of these Kate Vernon. Oh, they're not qualified next time. It's a round of 16. Paraguay uh played France, by the way. I think there's 27 million followers.
SPEAKER_03I I did not say that.
SPEAKER_02Paraguay uh played France. I don't think you watched this one, did you, Ben? I think you did, didn't you, Liam? I think I fell asleep and dismissed that.
SPEAKER_03This was the most probably disgusting game of football I've ever seen. I found it. Yeah, I mean if you get to a point where it funny it's like do you know those sort of weird, like I don't know, Stuart Lee type jokes, where the funny then they're not funny, then the funnier you get. Yeah. This was like outrageous, then quite funny, then outrageous, then quite funny, and then like genuinely disgusting. It was awful. So they're just bullshit, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Obviously, we spoke us three spoken in the South Africa pod with uh traveling. Holland basically their tactics were we can't compete with Spain, we'll kick the shit out of them. This were that times 4,000 million, but they didn't get a booking.
SPEAKER_03They didn't get a single booking. When you've introduced technology to be able to review decisions, it it's unacceptable that that you can get away with some of the things that have been got away with in this particular tournament. I think I I get it in the moment the referee doesn't want to kill the game, he doesn't want to book somebody too early on, he doesn't want to send somebody off too early on. But but when you've got technology in place to spot some of these horrible decisions, I just don't get how we get end up in this situation.
SPEAKER_02They were so funny because they were about five minutes to go and it books Elise for it wasn't a foul, and you're thinking this is a this is a joke. And I want the France to lose, obviously, I always go for the underdogs. But by the end, I was just like, if Paraguay win this, this is an absolute dramatic.
SPEAKER_03It was like a sort of sketch, like a big train sketch, where it sort of says on on the replay, he's actually wearing knuckle dusters when he struck in with the red play. He's not seeing it. He's not seeing it.
SPEAKER_02It was incredible. Uh but yeah, they go out. France win 1-0. On this is the most some may say this is the worst part of the competition.
Balogun Ban Paused Trump Shadow And Suspicion
SPEAKER_00One controversy to another.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, oh go on. I've forgot uh what's his name? I forgot the guy's name, the striker, the USA striker. Sorry, Balogun, Florian Balogun, yeah, former former Borough player. Um he gets sent off, and it is un you know, he's a bit unlucky. He really is unlucky against Bosnia. Stamps on someone, doesn't mean it. I don't think it's a sending off, but it but it happens. And then do you want to take away what happens better after this? Because this is like, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so sorry, it's uh I said Florin, it's following, sorry, I always stumble over that. Following Balogun. Um, yeah, then then suddenly FIFA out of nowhere are like, yeah, we're suspending the suspension. So they didn't overturn it, which is like the I don't want to go on about this too much, like, because it's yeah, it's been done to death, I suppose. But yeah, the suspension wasn't overturned. They just said, by the way, we have a rule, like a rule that basically lets us do whatever the fuck we want, whenever we want with things like this. And we're invoking it now. So uh we're gonna suspend his suspension, he'll be able to play in the last 16. Um, and then obviously, Trump, of course, is is is his one. So funny this from Trump. Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. FIFA basically denying any involvement from anyone, and then uh, yeah, the the US president's like, yeah, I rang him up and they just uh they decided to do it straight away. And it it it did it it did throw uh doubt over every bit of like officiating and decision making through the rest of the tournament. This this is by far the most like suspicious. Tournament, I say that I've watched. Well, and look, I'm I'm I'm not an idiot. I imagine most of it is completely unfounded, but a mul probably 15 to 20 times during this tournament, there was a moment where I went, hmm. Sure about that one. Like this is the this is the genesis of it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, well, there's one in the in this round, actually.
SPEAKER_03I mean, to know there, so Ronaldo has had the same decision in a previous tournament. Which doesn't make you right, it doesn't make it okay.
SPEAKER_02No, it's this tournament. It was this tournament, but it was in the qualifiers before the tour. Do you know what I mean? So he would have missed the group again. Right, it would have met they missed the group.
SPEAKER_03So they have invoked this rule before, but the the bit that felt particularly scandalous about this is exactly what what you said there is we kind of almost know some corruption is going on, but we can't prove it and we have to just kind of accept it. But when he comes out and basically tells us that, yeah, we I made them make a corrupt decision. I mean, he even says something like, uh, I I heard this red card, I don't, I didn't know what the red card is, and they say, Miss the game, and I say, No, they can be right. It's like he doesn't even know the rules. And what did he say after it as well? He said something like, Oh, I should have looked this bit up because it made me laugh out loud. He said something like, Uh, and Jenny, he's a great guy, he's a great tough guy. Great tough guy.
SPEAKER_02Great tough, he's a great tough guy, and in one minute, everyone who were really, really behind the US in this tournament, I think, played some great games.
SPEAKER_03It just killed the momentum, didn't it? Yeah, no, I agree.
SPEAKER_02And and I think that got the better of him. And I watched this game, they got armoured by Belgium, and I didn't see it coming at all. And the USA was playing some really good stuff. I honestly think I do honestly think it ruined the tournament. I genuinely think it ruined the tournament.
SPEAKER_03But this is where Trump's ego is so overpowering. Because had Trump come out and said, I'm not sure Jenny got this one right, you have to play by the rules. He could have played, even if he had influenced it, he could have come out and pretended he didn't. But the fact that he kind of just owned it is he's that arrogant and used to get in his own way that he just kind of said, Yeah, yeah, this is what I did. And it's like everybody sort of just collectively like rolled their eyes and said, Well, well, that that you've ruined it then.
SPEAKER_02I mean, did start it did snowball all the stuff after, to be honest, which we'll get on to. But you ought to mention the Iranian FA as well, uh Ben.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's pretty funny. Obviously, uh Iran, I'm not sure if you noticed, but uh the US are at war with them at the moment. Um, and yeah, they they were treated pretty shoddily in terms of like their visas and stuff. They had to basically get out of the country immediately after full time for every game and get back to Mexico. And yeah, the uh the uh I think it was the US Homeland Security Secretary said he'd like he basically you know put a statement out when Iran got knocked out saying that the visas have been revoked immediately, they need to leave the country. And uh he said he'd done a happy dance when they got knocked out. So of course Iran uh Iran weren't gonna let that slide, and uh when the US went out, they shared a uh an image on their social media of them drawing nil-nil with Belgium, who had obviously just whooped the USA 4-1 and knocked them out and just put dance with me at the bottom of it.
SPEAKER_02It was such an undig uh really because as you said, you want the OS Nations to do well. I really sort of I won't say we're back in the USA, but I thought they're gonna get to quarters this year, and then who knows what happens after that. They were playing some really good football. I felt like a lot of people were behind them, and then that one thing, and everyone was just like, Oh, fucking glad they've gone. I mean, it's just like it's not obviously nothing to do with the players or the nation, just that one thing. But uh Norway beat Brazil uh in this uh last 16 as well, where incredible result, probably the last shock, I think, of the tournament. Um, like Blame said, it might not necessarily be a shot, but I mean I did think Brazil would come good in this, but obviously I think they were pre-tournament favourites, weren't they?
SPEAKER_03I I picked him to win the tournament. I just thought they'd they'd find that quality once they got through to the later stages.
SPEAKER_02But I thought we had Chalotti as well, that might have. Yeah, they didn't. Neymar bowed out of the tournament looking like the dick that he is by trying to mock. He scores a pen, he's 2-0, there's one minute of injury time to go, or whatever it is. Uh, and he's trying to mock the goalkeeper who's just knocked his side out by pulling two incredible saves off in this game. And it's just all about Neymar, isn't it? And everyone has to go at Ronaldo and people started having to go at Messi. This guy's on another planet.
SPEAKER_00I think he got off quite lightly with that in like certainly in the British uh English media, anyway. There wasn't really that much comment about it. But yeah, it's just just a total knobhead, and yeah, he he really made himself look like an ass, to be honest. He should be uh he should be globally shunned for that alone, I think. Um, I just want to we haven't really mentioned it here, but Norway obviously did their uh like Viking rowing celebration after the games, which uh I think was among our friend group was quite quite divisive, I think.
SPEAKER_02Well, no legmans didn't like it because he's a dark he's a proper straightforward yorkshireman and all of his crap, but yeah, yeah, it was a bit quite uh well.
SPEAKER_00He will have found some affinity with the one Norway pedant who refused to join in because uh, in his words, Vikings didn't row across the Atlantic. I've I've got so much time for that level of pedantry. Him just sat there motionless while like a thousand Norwegians in red shirts are doing a rowing gesture around him. Um weird. This is this is weird. Like Rooney said he'd rode the River Mersey if Norway reached the quarterfinal.
SPEAKER_01So basically not that likely.
SPEAKER_02No, yeah. Ivory Coast, which but they're always sort of gonna play. Don't understand what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_03They've got arguably the best goalscorer in the world. It's not like it would be a complete shock that they are in the world. Yeah, they've got old guard and yeah, and uh got Berg and all that, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Deed, yeah, the good side.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he apparently rode in the uh the Hudson instead with uh Joe and Micah Richards, which which I missed but fair play, too. Just a weird, weird claim. And then we get to the the highlight, I think, of certainly from our point of view, the entire World Cup, I think.
England Mexico The 2am Rollercoaster
SPEAKER_00The thing that actually I will remember for forever, probably.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, England, Mexico. I mean, did you did you am I right in saying your telly went early before we get started on this one?
SPEAKER_03So I was getting a lot of glitches with uh I I watch TV through the PlayStation basically. So I've got an ITV X ARP or a BBC ARP, I can't remember which one it was on. But particularly ITV kept crashing out in this tournament. Um not so much in the sort of bigger games I was watching, but but I don't know, it just seemed to be like in after the game or or kind of when I was watching some of the build-up and stuff, it kept doing it. And yeah, I had multiple clashes before. By the way, I think what what's worth saying is they moved this game originally, and everybody thought, oh brilliant, and everybody changed their plans, and they they had made an official announcement, it wasn't just a rumour. So, me particularly, I said to the girls, look, you you could you'll be able to stay up and watch it, arranged with my dad different times, and then obviously they put it back to the the 2 a.m. start. We're gonna say Sunday night this, like everyone's got away Monday morning, and they also put it back saying it's very likely to be delayed because there are still stormwater. So the reason they moved it still existed, but they didn't move it. And and yeah, I mean, in part as well, it just got solely. I I listened to it on Talksport, I didn't watch it, I watched it the next day. It's gold. Something happened where it it rewound some of it because it I thought the same thing was happening again. I don't know if it was I was kind of half asleep listening to it, and it sort of said something. I thought, oh brilliant, and then and then it it sort of said the same thing again. I thought, what's going on here?
SPEAKER_02You wake up thinking we've won 5-1. Bellingham got five, didn't I?
SPEAKER_03Like, yeah, I think it's Bellingham scored like 16 in 16 minutes, yeah.
SPEAKER_02But yeah, we were we watched this one together, didn't it? We've been, and yeah, like you say, the kickoff got changed. We were in the pub, and it was like it's been delayed as soon as BBC came on. But before that, everybody seemingly in the country were watching pointless.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, which I've never watched before, I'm pretty ashamed to say that was my first pointless experience. Um, but I enjoyed everyone going mad at uh at the uh the couple winning, and there was a guy like came running in from like clearly from the toilet in his England shirt, just like with a look in his face, he's like, Well, have I missed a goal? Like, what's that? Everyone fell like yeah, it's because he got the pointless answer.
SPEAKER_02Guy come running in, like, really, it's just like what could he have possibly what could he have possibly thought of? It were 1am, they've kicked off early and immediately scored, like ridiculous. But yeah, he got to 2am, and this is this were a horrible match to watch, but one of those horrible matches that you're glad happened because the the payoff is that. Yeah, that's exactly it.
SPEAKER_03The payoff is then bigger, isn't it? I don't I don't advocate for that, I'd much rather watch my team win comfortably, but there is something to be said for a sort of win that didn't feel like it was coming.
SPEAKER_02And you talk about moments of the World Cup then, umes that you remember. It's gotta be this, haven't you, as well? The Mexico manager.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh Javier Aguirre, Aguirre, I think it is, and yeah, he's having a word with Bellingham on the sideline, uh, and it's unclear what he's saying, but it seems very, very amiable. They're like really uh you know, they're kind of in each other's in his each other's ear if you like. But then Bellingham walks away, Gordon enters the shot, and he I mean you don't have to be a lip reader, but he just shouts, Gordon, and then Gordon turns to him and he shouts, fuck you, and then just laughs. Like the transition to his his immediate laugh. That the thing is, what I don't understand is Gordon reacts almost like it's scripted, almost like he knew it was coming, almost like it's been happening all game or something, like he's been pranking him all the way through the game. And yeah, it's it's a really nice moment. I didn't I don't remember seeing it at the time, it was more the next day, but for what became such an incredibly intense emotional game, I thought that was a really nice moment. That was very heartwarming that sorry, Ben. Yeah, carry on. Sorry. No, I was gonna say it's just very heartwarming that uh two competitors like in the heat of battle were just you know having a laugh, basically.
SPEAKER_02Well, they were great because obviously before the game, there were all that altitude stuff, and all the journalists you see this, Libra, all the journalists are doing 5k runs around the stadium where I'll tell you what I can't know it was actually the woman on BBC and she's jogging. I'm 4K in and I'm I I can't breathe. Like you're talking to a camera, it's gonna be that bad. Like, what are you doing? I mean, I I run 4K, I'm not talking to anybody, that's just on the streets of Sheffield.
SPEAKER_03I don't know if we have to sort of let this altitude thing go. I'm I'm sure it is a thing, but I'm I'm also sure that they've got oxygen chambers and ice baths and and every sort of bit of technology possible to make sure they're at peak fitness.
SPEAKER_02So I think Tuchel played this really well where he was sort of make, yeah, these are the favourites, obviously, because you know the altitude, and I think he played it down to you know to set the pressure off and stuff. But obviously, England goes two and a lot. Uh yeah, two and a lot, Bellingham, two goals. We hadn't played well at all, actually. Um he's got two goals out of nowhere. Mexico onslaught after that, which is one of the most horrible 15 minutes of football I've ever watched, I think, where Pickford pulls two great saves off. Then Quanta gets sent off for it is a sending off at the time. I I did not think that, as you know, Ben. They made it 2-1, they made it 2-1. Sorry, they did make it 2-1, and then Quanta gets sent off, and you're thinking this is all going against us. This we get a penalty, Harry Kane puts it in. We concede a penalty, which I still don't know if it's a penalty, Harry Kane giving it away. They score, and how bad was that 30 minutes, and how good was the you know, the after. I could not sleep when I got home, even though I didn't get out until like half four or whatever it was.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was um I mean we basically just decided like we're just gonna defend our penalty area for half an hour, um, which was a tactic that did not work uh in a in a later round, but in this round it actually did work. Um it was the advent of big Dan Byrne, came on and had an incredible sort of 15-minute cameo. I mean, there's somebody, I think it was it might have been Adam Murray, actually, the uh football cliches guy made he made the video with the BBC's 3D like visualizer thing. But you could just watch Dan Byrne heading it away in first person, like for 15 minutes. It's amazing. Um, but yeah, the incredible relief at full time. Uh Jordan Anderson gets booked without coming on the pitch and then manages to break his arm in the celebrations as well, which is is impressive. Uh Harry Kane gives one of the all-time great interviews afterwards with uh with the BBC where his voice just completely gone, we ought to fight. And uh Kelly Sommers is like just absolutely cracking up as she's trying to interview. I think it's such a nice moment, and then um obviously with uh Henderson having to broke his arm, there's uh John Stones pranking Tuchel in the changing room afterwards with a brilliant bit of acting from Declan Rice, actually, like trying to break up the celebrations in the dressing room to attract Tuchel's attention to suggest that John Stones has also injured his arm, yeah, and it turns out he's just doing some uh flexing his bicep to the music.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I think that's the first time all tournament. I know we get a lot of stick England for being arrogant. The first I wouldn't even say whispers, I tell you what, that could be the catalyst that this could be our year, those sort of thing. Go to Mexico, all the ghosts have had the Azteca, and everyone starts getting very, very excited after this, and yeah, we'll see what comes next. But I find it funny that England fans, this is where because England fans get one of those historic games where everyone on Twitter or social media were ever like unbelievable, and you always get those edgelords. I'd rather my club team win a throw-in than England win against that. You just sound like a complete dick. If you don't support England, that's fine. But I don't need to you would not someone said, like, I'm more nervous about my pre-season, Villa's pre-season game or whatever it was. You're just like the worst sort of people in the world just had this historic win. The whole country's on this massive eye, everyone's gonna work half pissed. And you're talking about how much you'd rather your club team. Um, yeah, but it's even at this stage, it's looking very much like it's gonna wind up.
SPEAKER_03It seems seemingly, despite being quite a lot of hostility and and clear rivalry, there seems to be a lot of kind of affiliation between England and Mexican fans after the game. It seemed like we we bonded quite nicely over it.
VArgentina Talk And England Norway Grind
SPEAKER_02Well, it looks like at this point, this is where the first real talk comes in that we might be playing the Arges in the um in the semi in the semi-final because our Argentina have got had a really easy run so far. And in this round, they've got Egypt, and this I think maybe you're a more suspicious character than me, Liam, but I think this is the first time Vargentina came into play, or Argent FIFA, as people were calling them.
SPEAKER_03See, I like uh VA Argentina, I I like that. Um yeah, no, this this was a moment of absolute you know, we talked about Trump's interference, but this was an on-field moment that you thought that's not right. Like they they went back all the way to the running pitch for a foul, which probably was a foul. But I've never seen that done before. I don't know what the rule is that allows them to go back that far. I don't know if they'd say it's the same phase of play, but we've certainly seen other goals scored with fouls in the build-up that were never gone back in review, seemingly. It was an absolutely incredible goal that Egypt scored as well. That's that's yeah, it was kind of made it feel even more of a body blow that it was a proper, like, oh wow, moment. And then, you know, and obviously my dad supports Man United, I watch a lot of their games. I I like the butcher, I haven't got any problems with him. But I I don't know why we went back to give the foul against him there so far away from the event. There's so much that has to happen perfectly for that goal to happen. To go back that far and look for a moment, yeah, it didn't sit well.
SPEAKER_02And this is where it all started. They're they're they're doing it for Messi, they want Messi in the final, and as we'll come to that, that wasn't the last weird of that. In the quarterfinals, England beat Norway, Ben. And um, I'm gonna not sort of throw you under a bus here, but you you were right in the end. After about two minutes, you turned to me in this game and gave me a wink and said, We've got this. I forgot about that. Yeah, I think it's because Manweki took his man on and then obviously booted it out for him. But it did seem like we're getting space in fairness. But I was like, Yeah, we're looking good. About five minutes later, we're all like, This is shocking. Like, what's happening here? But England managed to get through. England managed to get through with a really inconvenience, like I said, this is the most German sort of England performance, I think, of the tournament.
SPEAKER_00It's not a game I'm gonna revisit particularly. Um, the thing that I do sort of uh does make me smile apart from the goals is the the sort of return of the Bellingham Haaland bromans, because obviously they played together at uh at Dortmund. Um yeah, it's just Bellingham, like it I feel like he's he gets I don't know, he he gets quite a bit of stick, doesn't he, for his like his personality, I guess, was off not off field stuff, but you know, there's there's a lot of reports like the last Euros. Maybe he wasn't in a great place mentally within the team at that point, but there was like you know, reports of him being like quite a difficult character in the change room stuff. And yeah, he he just seems like a quite a funny guy to me. So he's as they're lining up in the tunnel, and you know, everyone's like greeting Haaland or giving him a high five and stuff, and then Bellingham just walks around the corner and just boots Harland up the arse, like like they're in year nine or something, isn't it? I love that.
SPEAKER_02It's like a little kid's like you do like when you see a mate in year ten, you're like, right mate, like kicking up the arse.
SPEAKER_00Not hard or anything, but just like just sticks his foot into his backside, and then there's a great moment where Norway have a free. I think it's I think it's Norway have a free kick, and uh Bellingham's he's doing his utmost to get over and get near Haaland, like to the extent where he ends up uh like getting a slap in the balls from another from a Norwegian player, yeah. He's bent double, like what you'd done that for, and then he's he's essentially trying to get close to Haaland so he can pinch his backside, and Haaland's like trying to brush him off, and like eventually his poker face cracks, just get off, get off like his big stupid face cracking into a smile while Belling was trying to keep a straight face. Yeah, I just I just love that. It really uh it really made me smile afterwards.
SPEAKER_02Joe's interested with this game as well, from a personal point of view, with me and you, Ben, is before this game, we were genuinely talking about how much we were fed up at Gabriel Clark. Alright, because he he he's in the dressing room before the game. Oh, for God's sake, he's doing one of his monologues, his Shakespearean monologues again, no doubt. And then obviously he becomes the story after the game, Tommy Tuchel versus Gabriel Clark. Bad vibes. I may or may well I may or may not have written to Ofcom about this uh in a in a in a in a fit rage, and may have put it's as much a complaint. I just put Gabriel Clark giving bad vibes in the England versus Norway game. So yeah, I'm I'm yeah, I'm ashamed to admit that, but that's what happened.
SPEAKER_00But I do think by it.
SPEAKER_02Sorry, yeah. Go on Liam, sorry.
SPEAKER_00No, no, go on, Liam, sorry.
SPEAKER_03Uh yeah, no, I I I don't like it, it didn't sit well. I I don't think I don't know, I I'm sort of tornless into the the aftermath the next day that I get it, I suppose he is there to to generate headlines and and get something interesting out of people, but yeah, I it was a weird one. I think he's he's kind of head to head with Tuchel to start with, and then whether that sort of triggered him to think, right, I'll stir this up then if that's if that's what you want to do. And then yeah, to kind of to sort of stick it on Bellingham and try and sort of. It was very divisive, didn't it? It felt like well, he said this about you, so go on, slag him off back and let's see what what's what we can stir up in.
SPEAKER_02It reminded me so much of David Brent when he goes slagging you off. Like, what just me? Yep, and K. What? Yeah, yeah, and Harry Kane. Yeah, you said you England lot of shit. Like I'd more respect if you did that. I'd just like, you England lot is a little slugs with no pissing on the back.
SPEAKER_03I mean, I've never been a Gabriel Clark fan, but in that particular moment, I just thought it was so No one eats everyone's gonna hire him. I mean, apparently, like from what I heard that the Argentina team, their media was sending them in sort of pizzas and like presents and sort of trying to really show them that the Argentinian people were right behind them, and then we've kind of got a prominent journalist sort of seemingly trying to stir division in in the squad, and I I just didn't like it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, uh the other one obviously sent me eight quarter final, should I say uh well, there's another two France cruise past Morocco, Spain just get past Belgium, still not looking great at this point in Spain, I don't think, really. But yeah, the Argentina beat Switzerland and in more controversial fashion, where a Switzerland player gets sent off a dive in on the halfway line. It is a dive. I I just I don't know if any I don't know if Messi does that. Does they pull that back? I'm not sure. And Grant Zacker says he he makes a gesture saying just give it a give him the World Cup, give him the World Cup, and that's two teams in a row, because obviously we should mention the Egyptian team went mad after and basically said it were a complete fix that that that game was a fix, like all the players came out and said it.
SPEAKER_03By the way, it is uh grant I think it's Granite Jacker. I think you're thinking of Grant Mitchell.
SPEAKER_02Oh, that's a Grant. I have put yeah, I have written Grant Grant Jacker. He turned into Grant Jacky, we're that mad after. But but yeah, so that sets up the semi-final, which is France, Spain and England, Argentina. It's a semi-final, nothing it's a shock. I think most of it had France to win that one. Spain turn up to the party, just look incredible as a team. You know, France have got all these individuals and they just shut them out. And it were I think that's possibly the best team performance of the tournament, would you say?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's gotta be.
SPEAKER_02I think so, yeah. Yeah, because no, it's France, everyone was saying give the trophy to France like after the group stages and stuff, and they just they just completely dismount it.
SPEAKER_03I mean, there's an argument that France were very poor as much as Spain were very good, but but yeah, I don't I I don't know. That certainly looked against supposedly the easily best team in the world. It it felt really comfortable.
SPEAKER_02But you meshes me and Liam, and I think a lot of England fans were like this, where we were all expecting even if you get to the final, France is just gonna blow us away. I think you said it as well, Ben Lad, we need five of their players to get suspended or something before the final. Um when Spain won, they are obviously a better team, they are the best team in the world. But because they haven't got these stars, your brain does start thinking. It just felt like the vault at all. You never know.
SPEAKER_03Is there a way in for England here, actually?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, is there a way in?
Semi-Final Collapse And The 1-0 Problem
SPEAKER_02Because you know, we've played them before at the Auros, but then England crash out in I think the most shambolic fashion since the Iceland game. I don't know about you two.
SPEAKER_00I think this is you've you've taken this worse than I have, I think, although I was very, very pissed off. Bizarre, even though I didn't bother watching it, uh winning the third place playoff has uh has made just slightly better and Argentina losing the final. I'm not sure I would have um agreed to that. Yeah, agree on both those, yeah. Um yeah, it it was bad. It was it I'm pretty sure I said this at the time I was like that is a legendarily bad loss. Um it was yeah, I mean Argentina aren't obviously not a terrible team, they're one of the the best four teams, I think you'd say, definitely. But yeah, like we had the game in our hands and we seemed to choose not to finish the job, but it was really, really frustrating.
SPEAKER_02Just giving the best player of all time the have all the space you want, mate, and crossing me. We're not here for tactics, you get that. Everyone's from sick of it.
SPEAKER_03But the genius of Messi is that he identified his pocket of space on the right, so he moved over there. Well, that's fine, but then we've got you know, we're lucky enough, as all football teams are, to have a manager stood at the side of the pitch who can see what's going on. I I don't know why we didn't reorganise. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's kind of why he was brought in. And it was almost like it's almost like the players triggered some insecurity in him, and we kind of went down this sort of spiral of of negativity that because the players dropped off, the manager thought, well, I need defenders on. Because he brought defenders on, the players thought, Oh, we've got to defend that really deep now. And and it just felt like we we were absolutely the masters of our own downfall. We average completely into their hands, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_02It might be the only England exit. It might be the only England exit where I've not in a deep when we've gone deep, I've not had a what-if moment at all. So when you play in Italy, you think if Rashford has scored that pen or even the Spain one, like if Cole Palmer scores if we had a throw-in just after that, and you think if you know if you're gonna get off, did we for four minutes? No, no, no, there's no what-if moment.
SPEAKER_03There was no it was basically a training game where where we said to them, look, we're just gonna defend now, you see if you can score.
SPEAKER_02I don't think England has ever been as united in it all agreeing exactly why we lost.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you you want to two call out of there, weren't you? Get him get him out of the room.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I were fuming because I just I just thought that last 30 minutes was just so I'm not saying England should have won this World Cup. I don't think they ever looked like World Cup winners realistically, but should have won this game. They should have won it, maybe even not win it. Maybe not certain maybe not win it. They shouldn't have lost in that fashion because we played like a non-league team going up against Arsenal away in a cup, and uh, it was just ridiculous. Two things.
SPEAKER_03It's sort of the elite manager can't do this. I I don't know, but I think what pissed me off and seemingly a lot of people off the next day is had he come out and said, Look, I'm a winner and I was brought in to win, but probably in hindsight, I I compounded the way we were playing. I wouldn't do that again. That's that's why I need to be here for the next tournament. It was just like your DNA shit, innit? Yeah, it's kind of like around, but I didn't realise England couldn't couldn't win games like this. It was almost like a bit of a kind of shrug, and I I don't know, maybe behind the scenes he has said some of that.
SPEAKER_02I don't know if that's his style or what, but well, Daddy Garrock are really good at protecting the players, whereas Tuchel is very much like I don't know what the fuck they were doing, to be completely honest. Um set you three a start, obviously. England in the big three out of the last four semis or finals they've played, they've gone one-nil up, and between in all those three games, after going 1-0 up, they've had one shot combined in all three games. Is going 1-0 up gonna be the new England never win penalty shootouts? Because obviously we have one penalty shootout shootouts now, so we can't really say, Oh, we always lose them. Are we gonna go 1-0 up in a semi-final, say the Euros, and everyone's gonna be going, oh, here we go.
SPEAKER_03I think sports psychology would sort of say that we are creating a weight of of a situation on top of ourselves that's gonna be quite hard to get out from underneath. Where there is a collective mindset now that we go one-nil up and everybody's looking at each other thinking, oh god, are we gonna do it again? Yeah, I d I don't know. I think you you need players to break that, and you you also need a manager brave enough to to make some stuff seemingly not even white. That's what annoys me. We didn't even need him to do anything wild, we just needed some pace to come on to get us out.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, conversely, we're great when we go behind, as long as it's not in the last five minutes. Yeah, I said to my dad after this.
SPEAKER_03Had we gone one-nil down in that game, I actually think we might have won it, which is and it's so sort of like clear. What was Glenn Hollow's that the the problem was we scored the third two early. Oh, Keegan, rest in peace, Kevin Keegan. Oh, it's Keegan.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the bad news is 2-0 up already. Um two things happened in this game which I'm deeply embarrassed about. You've uh highlighted one here, Ben. The reaction to Jed Spencer's tackle at 1-0. You're deeply embarrassed about this? It's more okay. It was just this fucking come on! Yeah, it was a big stream. Yeah, 60 minutes or what were it 65 minutes gone or whatever?
SPEAKER_00Thereabouts, yeah. We're one one. We're under the kosh a little bit at this point, but it hasn't become the complete onslaught. Um, yeah, Spence Spence was on the verge of being a breakout cult hero, I think, at this at this World Cup. If we'd won this game, he might well have been. Yeah, he makes a he makes a great sliding challenge on the counter totack to stop a probable goal, I think. And he obviously gets up and goes nuts and all his teammates mob him, but yeah, we were watching this in the Abdale ballroom, and I honestly think it was only it was less than 10 minutes before after we'd scored the goal. I honestly think the reaction to this tackle was on a par with Gordon's goal.
SPEAKER_02I think if you're in the toilet, if I'd have been in the toilet then and I'd have heard that, I'd have been obviously scored, but clearly scored again.
SPEAKER_03And I think the only defence I can make for that is because I think a lot of us had our doubts about Spence, and it kind of felt like if if even he's gonna be this guy, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and the other thing that was slightly embarrassed about in hindsight, because we were obviously that deep, anyway. Dan Byrne comes on and again gets an incredible evasion for coming on, and in hindsight, that was just basically the final. Yeah, we are not even attempting to try and get out of our off in this game, and it can only end one way.
SPEAKER_03But it should have played a pro man, weren't we?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're like a round of applause for that for being tall. Um no, but I I think it's something I should look into. I'll I'll expect it next time I see you.
SPEAKER_03Next time you're in triple point.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it should have brought you on. But yeah, so Dan Byrne comes on. The the nation goes wild because of his performances in the in the previous two games when he's come on. Little well, I see I I don't know. I I think we all just thought I don't know what we thought Dan Burn were gonna do realistically, but with these thousands of crosses coming in, he were gonna head everyone away. But yeah, so that's another regret. But the third place playoffs. Sorry, carry on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, as as soon as Argentina equalised, it wasn't like, oh god, we need to like you know reshape for uh extra time. It's like, oh no, this this we're gonna lose before the end of 90 minutes, it's definitely gonna happen.
SPEAKER_02I'm glad we did. I really am glad we did. I I I I saw Goldbridge after saying when it went to one-one, so uh I hope they score now. And you do say stupid things like that at the moment, but I if that had gone to extra time, it genuinely could have been about four-one, that and it would have been a total humiliation. We were so shit after they scored like the second goal. I have never seen such an appalling attempt to try and get back into a football match. Conta with his looped crosses, uh sorry, his loop throw-ins even that he tries to do two crosses. We end up somewhat like I keep seeing it. We ended up with uh Ivan Toney and Dan Byrne up front in a in a World Cup semi-final, and Pickford's just booting it. Appalling behaviour. Appalling behavior.
SPEAKER_03What you said earlier when you said Tuchel kind of was like almost not pleased, but was kind of like, see, I told you this was coming. I reckon everybody watching if they score, we've had it, because we we can't go on and win the game from here. We have to win one-nil or we've or we're done.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, appalling behaviour.
Third Place Fireworks Then A Flat Final
SPEAKER_02Uh the third place playoff was really good. You two missed it. Um, it was I was gonna miss it um because I thought I was really pissed off. Still am, to be honest. But I just watching protest, though, from there, yeah. Yeah, it was, it was a dirty protest. I watched the film instead, yeah, and and I uh put it on, I were doing something in the background, and we scored fairly early, and I thought, I'll see what happened, but they're gonna throw it away. And then when they were phoned up at half time, I thought I've got to carry on watching this. Then it went to four or three, and it was just a fantastic, it was a nothing game, it doesn't mean anything. But like Ben, I don't know, psychologically calmed me down really slightly because I just thought, uh, it's you know I mean, I absolutely agree.
SPEAKER_03The only thing I'd say is, as someone who didn't watch the game, and I haven't even watched the highlights, I've seen the goals, I've not seen the sort of extended highlights. It seems like they turned up not bothered, thinking we wouldn't be bothered. We actually were kind of riled up and went for it, and then at half time they had a big bust up in the dressing room saying we can't lose like this, getting embarrassed. So they decided to play then, and then they won the second half 4-2. So I'm not I'm not downplaying it, I'm delighted we scored six against the best team in the world. I I suppose I am I am exactly downplaying it, but what I'm trying to say is I agree, it does leave me thinking, well, that's quite a nice way if you've got to go out to go out, but had France turned up with the same mentality we did, I don't know if we'd have been.
SPEAKER_02Well, our message we'll never know. Our messaging uh Dazu, me and um then watched a few games with this World Cup, and we were saying, imagine if this were World Cup final, you've four up at half time, then it goes to four-three. I think people just been being sick in the middle of the floor, I think like the people have just been like going mad, like putting the pants on their heads, like do you know what I mean?
SPEAKER_03Like sliding through walls and like just yeah, people dropping from the roof and stuff.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know, but I don't I don't know what the guy at work today, me and him were talking, saying like uh that felt like that should have been the final, but it seems such an obvious thing to say, but the final wouldn't have been played in that way, it just wouldn't have no well on to the final all World Cup finals, invariably pretty much 90% in my lifetime have been a bag of shit, and this was no different.
SPEAKER_03This felt particularly bad though. I don't know if you guys agree. Uh maybe it's just recency buyers, but this one felt particularly awe, I thought.
SPEAKER_02It was the most one-sided World Cup final I've ever seen, and yet it wasn't like a if it were like a seven or eight nil, which it possibly could have been, then it it goes into the history books of being like a real and memorable final. The fact that it went to extra time, they only won it one nil. Argentina didn't have a shot on target at all, in fact. Did they give them one?
SPEAKER_03I heard I don't know if it's conspiracy theory, but they gave him one for like a looped effort. I don't know if they're gonna be on the room.
SPEAKER_02117th, yeah, not on target, but the 117th minute is when they made the first shot. Absolutely pathetic from Argentina and that United.
SPEAKER_00The last time we were in the Premier League, losing 6-0 every week. We still had a shot every now and again. Do you know if I played 90 minutes without a shot?
SPEAKER_03If I played Spain, just me in the World Cup, sorry, uh Argentina in the World Cup final, I think I would have a shot on target, even if it's just from the kickoff.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, just you know, one versus.
SPEAKER_03You might get one on a goal kick. I'll have a crack at a goal kick in 19 minutes. Yeah, that's what I mean. From the kickoff, I'll I'll try and just force a save, just a long shot. And because they're gonna score a few games for me, I'm gonna get a lot of attempts. So I'll I'm gonna have a shot on target in that game. They were a pull.
SPEAKER_00We thought this through.
SPEAKER_02They were a pull in Spain were worthy winners, they shouldn't have been. I won't be surprised. It'd be brilliant that there's that many people in the next World Cup they're having to put Liam in. Liam versus Argentina, like it's the native Liam. Yeah, population of one. Yeah, uh, but yeah, I I I I I I don't know, like everyone's expecting like this could be Messi's time again, you know, two finals in a row. He did nothing, none of the big players turned up, Yamal were poor. Rodery played well and obviously got the player of the tournament. But it was just another forgettable final. We should have at least had two sendings off, proper sendings off in the game for Argentina. It looked a bit dodgy again that they were.
SPEAKER_03It even felt like despite their sort of rough tactics and general shithousery and and sort of attempts to ruin the game almost, that that they were still tired and picking up injuries and having to come off. So it didn't even felt like they could be as sort of dirty as they wanted to be. So it was kind of like I mean it did feel a bit like you know, good versus evil almost in the end. That you just thought however it happens, Spain have to win this game.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_03And they did, so I did feel some relief, but but Messi let himself down as you've put here, Ben, actually.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, ah, what a what a donut. Yeah, I know. Obviously, uh Enzo Fernandez gets sent off just at the end of uh normal time, which was delightful, like genuinely couldn't have happened to us.
SPEAKER_02I cheered that at the scumbag as much as the uh the Panama second goal for England. I cheered that sending off as much as that. It was like a come on, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That was that was that was a lovely moment. Um, but yeah, then I think it was possibly in the aftermath of that. Like Kukarea is sort of talking to Messi, and he sort of he goes to cover his mouth a little bit, but he's obviously like in a sort of I'm trying to get my words across to you, like I'm trying to make sure you hear me. And Messi just walks like nah nah. Like he's like waving to the referee, like going, Ah, he he covered his mouth, go and have a look at that, get him sent off as well.
SPEAKER_03Argentina trying to get some set off for of all the most pathetic moments I've ever seen on a football pitch, that is right up there.
SPEAKER_00Because I think even he looked embarrassed to do it, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03I I think he's trying everything he can, but I think it's quite clear if a player comes up in anger and covers the mouth because they don't want it to be heard or seen what they're saying. But I mean, seemingly he goes over to say, you know, you're alright, aren't you, mate? Or whatever he said to him, it looked to be a polite conversation. Yeah, yeah. And there's there's no anger, there's no and even Messi's reaction is not one of, I can't believe you've said that. It's like, oh, hold on a minute. You you kind of covered your mouth there. I might be able to get you sent off, I might be able to get you sent off. It's pathetic.
SPEAKER_02The fact people are feeling pathetic. The fact people are feeling sorry for Kukara. Yeah, that says something, doesn't it? Yeah, but yeah, it wasn't a good final at all. Um, like you said here, Ben, like the the atmosphere. I don't know if you've seen this, Liam. The goal when Spain scored the goal. It's so bad in the crowd.
SPEAKER_03Like highly filled with Argentinians, though, wasn't it?
SPEAKER_02So there's one woman supporting people. There's one woman in the stadium, Spain score, she's wearing an Argentina shirt at top with Messi on the bike, and she cheers, and then she puts her arms down. She doesn't know what's happening, she doesn't know the rules. Yeah, she doesn't know the rules. She doesn't know what's happening.
SPEAKER_00And the camera, the camera pans round, and there's like five Spanish fans sort of clapping politely, and everyone else just stood there. Because yeah, it's the I don't think the Met Life is is is probably not in the top five stadiums that we used at this World Cup, like even in America, forget forget the Aztec. Um it's not a it's not a particularly good like NFL stadium, like compared to all the other ones either. Um it did look like a World Cup final, did not look like a World Cup final. And then there was a point where I sort of messaged in the first half. I was like, is it is it just the sort of the have I just not got the sound turned up loud enough, or is the atmosphere like really shit? Like I can hardly hear any fans at all. You couldn't even see all of the pitch, could you? Because of those like stupid temporary uh like bleacher type things that they've put in. Yeah, it was uh I think they wasn't good spectacle.
SPEAKER_02Because the 94 one was held at the Rose Bowl, and that did did feel like a World Cup final. But this didn't feel this felt like a group game to me. It didn't feel like anything.
SPEAKER_03It felt like an MLS game, and and I don't mean that structurally disrespectful, but it it just felt like American soccer. But I I don't know, I kind of want more of a feeling for a World Cup final.
SPEAKER_02And we'll go to the expert here, Leon, because you didn't watch it, did you, Ben? And I didn't, to be fair. The half time show, which we have to speak about.
SPEAKER_03Well, no, I I didn't watch it, so I missed the Madonna. I went into the kitchen. My dad, I left my dad watching it, and I just went and sort of You watch that, you stay there and watch that. I made some I don't know if I did the pack lunch for the kids for the next day. I don't I don't know what I did, but I sort of drifted in and out, watched bits of it. Um but yeah, uh the the bit I assume that you want to mention because it was incredible, is uh when they talked in the studio about it afterwards, and they were you know they were quite dismissive, and Gary Neville kind of said, Well, look, I I don't mind so much what they want to do with it, it's an American tournament if they want to make it American in terms of the the way they do it, but extending the half time doesn't work for me, and Keem was kind of like nah, it's not it's not great. And uh, yeah, there's a I should learn the line actually, but there's a brilliant bit from Ian Rye, and if it if it goes viral, I advise to try and find it. But the Muppets obviously did a did a bit on it, which again I caught a little bit off. But yeah, they said it to Ian right. What did you think of it? And he said something like, Well, it's you know, it's not for me, man, but I tell you what, it's great to see animal again. It's great to see animal again. And then again they sort of chuckled a bit and he went, No, honestly, I I love that guy, man.
SPEAKER_02Great to see animal again. Great to see him. Tom Cruise obviously did it before as well. He came on. I would just I only got the end of that.
SPEAKER_03I couldn't watch that. And and by the way, that it might have been great, it might have been really rousing. I just when he came out, I thought, I can't this is too much for me, this I can't do this bit. So I kind of knew he was doing something. I don't know what he said or how long it went on for.
SPEAKER_02I said to Ben that if it were in England, the half-time would have probably been a man with a firework up his arse, uh like the half-time show. Might Parry do his cinnamon challenge. That'd be brilliant, wouldn't it? Tune in for this. Honestly, that'd be fantastic, wouldn't it?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and then like, yeah, just just as it sort of we get ready for the second half, we just get parry on the big street, I pass a challenge in the tunnel, and then the whistle goes and it kicks off. Brilliant, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, um, and then obviously Spain win uh the clean up. I would convince Messi we're gonna win player of the tournament, but obviously Rodri got the clean up.
SPEAKER_03I think rightly so, yeah, for what it's worth. I know we're not doing a huge amount of analysis, but I was impressed with what I saw of Rodri.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've not had a great season either.
SPEAKER_03But I you know, I don't I don't for those who were sort of saying this easily settles it, he's far better than Ronaldo. In this tournament, Ronaldo had kind of clearly kind of is he's well over the hill now, and he's he needs to sort of walk away from these big tournaments, but it it doesn't instantly settle the debate for me as to who's better at this tournament.
SPEAKER_02Messi were always going to end up as a better player because Ronaldo were always about his physical attributes, whereas Messi never was, so we're always gonna go on longer. But Spain lift the cup, and in one final insult to the tournament, Trump refuses to get out of the way in
Trophy Chaos Ratings And Farewell
SPEAKER_02the celebrations to the point where Infantino has to run to push him away, and he still doesn't go. No, it's like a carer of an elderly man in the uh so good, so good, because it's like pushing him in Trump's like now. It's a brilliant clip. There's a thing in I think it's the Guardian, isn't it, where there's a uh a caption and it's him trying to push him and he goes, uh Infantino explains to Trump that he's not part of the Spain squad.
SPEAKER_03But by the way, for what it's worth, like I I know Trump obviously will rightly so get a lot of stake for the way he's conducted himself, but Trump Donald Trump has done what Donald Trump was always gonna do. Uh yeah, I it doesn't shock me one little bit. The way FIFA handled Donald Trump in this tournament, I agree, I think he's absolutely embarrassing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Infantino were disgusting, yeah. We're somehow not really mentioned Infantino during this, but uh I'll just say that I'm I'm ready to not see him again for four years, much like Trump, to be honest. So yeah, he's just a a really odious human being.
SPEAKER_02Like everyone started this tournament thinking, like, oh, what's Trump gonna do, or what the Americans gonna do, or is there gonna be fighting, and and and you know, with it when England went to Mexico. And somehow he's come out as the villain of the peace by far, Infantino. By far, people like talking about Messi or Argentina or whatever.
SPEAKER_03Should mention it, by the way, Argentina's reaction at the end is appalling behaviour as um yeah, as uh but again though, I think I think a bit like Donald Trump, Argentina acted as I expected Argentina to act. I think FIFA needs to be stronger on dealing with some of these things, and I think FIFA had some clear opportunities in this tournament to act with credibility and and to kind of do the right thing. And they've proved that you know they haven't proved there's there's corruption in a sense, we've not seen any money change hands, but they've they've proved that they're not there to do the right thing, they they they have an agenda. Now, now I can't you know I don't know whether that's based on backhanders and obviously well why why would why would I know any of that? But what's clear is that they're they're not fair and just they have an agenda.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, and it did mat it did leave that. That is the biggest sort of sour now on the tour, which I didn't try to by the way.
SPEAKER_03Was that am I opening myself up to some sort of legal action from infant from Tough could be a many? I'd be amazing. In my opinion, in my opinion. Well, I don't know because we've got Ben on this one, so we we might have lost a bigger audience. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've jumped from 50 to 27 million or whatever it is from having that yeah, can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, but yeah, uh, what do you give of the tournament out of ten as a whole?
SPEAKER_03Uh seven and a half. I thought it was a good one. I think my expectations were lowered before it by a lot of the nonsense off the pitch, but I've I've enjoyed it. I thought stadiums were generally good, the football was generally good, the better teams got to the latter stages, which uh maybe you want some shocks, but I don't know. It meant the the big teams stayed in for longer. I I don't know, yeah. That's seven, seven and a half, somewhere around there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, similar, really, yeah, kind of eight out of ten. Like not masses of memorable games, but I think, yeah, as you said, you know, all the best teams all stayed in it. The big thing for me is all the like if you made a list of the five best players in the world before the tournament, all of them had great tournaments. That's a good point, yeah. And that's like that never happens. Like, you know, if you try and bet on the golden boot winner before the tournament, invariably it's like some guy you've never heard of ends up winning it or coming like second or something like that. And yeah, this one, you know, Mbappe, Kane, Haaland, Bellingham, uh, yeah, Rodri as well. It was just like uh even Vinnie Jr. obviously went out quite early as well, but you know, still still scored like three or four goals. They all turned up and you know enjoyed watching them. More shocks have been good, less corruption and bullshit, and VAR intervention would have been good. But yeah, overall, football is good. Like that was that's my takeaway. Of like, no matter what crap FIFA or USA can you know inflict upon a tournament in that country, sport the sport of football is uh can still rise above it and keep us entertained. Beautifully summed up. Some innovation walking off into the sunset.
SPEAKER_02Beautifully summed all, but I think that's a great place to finish it. Thank you, Ben, for once again joining us. And uh yeah, thanks for everyone for listening. And yeah, we get to do it all again in a way in two years for the Euros, which is gonna be in the homeland. So I can't wait. Can't wait. Get the fireworks ready. We've got two years of my opinion, dull football, um league football, just purely because we all support Sheffield United, and I don't think anything's gonna happen there, but yeah, so I'm all on board for the Euros. So yeah, thanks Liam and thank you, Ben. Pleasure, really enjoyed it. Cheers, guys. Thank you for listening to Who Remembers. If you want to get in touch with us, you can find us at WhorremembersPod at outlook.com. If you are a right wing fascist, you can find us on Twitter at Who Remembers Pod. Or if you're a wokener, you can find us on Bluesguy at WhoremembersPod. Once again, thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time for more remembering.