FIFA TAKE OVER Intercontinental Joy w Nicole

the world just watched the biggest World Cup in history close out on home soil — 48 teams, three host countries, and the tournament's first-ever halftime show — and your girl needed someone who actually knows a corner kick from a header to break it all down. enter Nicole, football fan, forever babble buddy, and this week's very patient guide through the offside rule.

we're recapping the whole beautiful mess: Spain outlasting Argentina 1-0 in extra time at MetLife, Ferran Torres coming off the bench to bury the winner in the 106th minute, and what might've been Messi's last World Cup bow. Nicole tries to explain why a 1-0 game is somehow thrilling, i ask the questions you're too embarrassed to google, and we get into the part that actually gets me every time — a whole planet holding its breath together for one bouncing ball.

whether you screamed at a screen for a month straight or you're just here for the vibes and the snacks, pull up a chair. this one's for the die-hards and the "wait, which team are we cheering for" crowd alike.

Transcript

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I feel like that's what I love about the World Cup. It's the way that people come together all the time. And there's just all of these other fruits of it. And I love that. Oh my gosh. It has been so long. I have missed you guys so much. But you know what? Life's been life in, and that's okay because that happens. And if anything, I just want to be a reminder that you can take a break from things and you can come back. Just because you take a break doesn't mean you failed. Anyway, hey, welcome to the bubbly babble. It is me, Sherry Lee, and I am so excited to bring you a fun little conversation about the FIFA 2026 World Cup competition. I have a friend Nicole who has been so excited over every single game. And the thing about it is that like it has made me want to watch. It has made me want to be involved. And also one of the things that I love about what that I do love about the area that I live in and the places that I work is that I have so many friends from so many different places. And so it's actually really fun here to see everyone rooting for somebody different. And it's it's playful and it's fun and it's I just really love it. I've really, really enjoyed this World Cup experience. And so um yeah, my babble buddy today is my friend Nicole, who is a football enthusiast, and I love learning from her. So stay tuned. We're gonna have a cute little conversation, and uh I hope you enjoy. Also, you guys, I'm so sorry. My audio is a little bit wonky, and I promise you it is gonna get better and better. But letting me stop that from bringing you this conversation just wasn't a thing I was about to do. All right, let's go. Without further ado, let's talk football. Okay, well, my babble buddy for the day is my friend Nicole. She's my new friend. Yes. And what I have seen from you over the last, you'll, I'm sure you'll be able to tell me specifically how many weeks is the most passionate consumption of the FIFA World Cup competition. Yes. And I have loved it. You have like flooded Instagram stories with your reactions, like every game. Like, I think I've texted you a few times, like, who are we rooting for? Because you watch every game. Yeah. And you're so excited about every game and you know so much about every game. So, and so, like, I want to learn a little bit about it from you. Yes, I shall. Okay, all right. So, let's start. So, welcome, welcome to the pod. Welcome to my bubble. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. You're so funny. So, some like really interesting things just about FIFA in general and World Cup in general. So, there are more countries in the FIFA organization. Did you know this? Yes, than in the UN. That's incredible. That's incredible. So there is 193 countries in the United Nations, and there are 211 member countries in the FIFA organization, which you probably know better than me. Federal International Football Association. Yes, yes. But what's interesting is it's like half French and half English. It's like Federacion International Football Association. Okay, okay, which is why they keep it FIFA.

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FIFA.

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Okay, so the FIFA organization was founded in 1904, which is actually crazy. That's crazy. We're 122 years later. That's pretty cool. When they were playing with leather soccer balls, man. I have another fun fact for you. Okay. Okay, so it was founded by seven nations and a back room in Paris. So, like, there were probably just seven guys who were like, let's do this. They were probably drunk. Probably. Pints on pints and baguettes, because it was Paris. Paris, right? Maybe it was wine. Maybe it wasn't even a wine. Maybe it wasn't. I'm not a wine. Maybe we were a wine. Belgium, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. A French journalist was its first president. Wow. Weird. Okay. A couple of things about this one specifically. The 2026. There are two historic facts. It is the first ever 48 team World Cup. Yes. So how many teams are there typically? Um, I believe there was 30 something. I I can't tell you the exact number, but I know they're even trying to raise it again. They want to add even more now. Okay, what do we not have enough? That's what I'm saying. This is the first time. I'm I'm I'm loving these facts. Okay, and then the other cool one, because you mentioned that they were playing with leather balls. Yes. The official ball this year is different. Yes, it is. It's very cool. They're adding a lot of tracking technologies in the balls now, which work and then don't work sometimes. I'm gonna be honest. If anybody watched the uh Croatia game, they would know that the ball can feel even the slightest touch of hair now. So technology has come so far where if there's a handball, if there's an interference, the ball has a sensor within it that can allow the VAR, all those people to know hey, something touched that ball. That's gonna touch it. Very cool. You know who could use that? Who? American football. Absolutely. A hundred percent. Because I'm an American football football girl. You like eagles, right? That's right. Go birds all day. All day, every day. We're getting there. I'm ready. Yes. It also is a trionda. It's an Adidas Trionda, is what it combines try, representing the three host nations, and onda, the Spanish word for wave, and it ditches the traditional 16-panel design for just four panels. For me, it looks like one of those things I used to get in one of the you like put the coin in. What am I saying? The thing where you put the coin in. Well, now now we're now our kids do claw machines. Oh, like the little things where you stick the coins and you do like exactly. Okay, yeah. I'm fairly certain you said the same thing. I said, Yes, that's probably what I'm seeing. It's the visual. You gotta be honest. What is the like process? There are 48. Because I was very confused by the game. What is the process like? What are the like levels of the World Cup game? So you have your qualifiers, right? You gotta first even have to qualify. And then you do matches against your group. So you're put into groups, each other. There is no winner, there is no loser. It goes by goal differentials. So the first the first bunch of games, it's not like a if you lose, you go home. It's uh you want to score the most goals because those goals are gonna be calculated into whoa, you know, into a tally, and then three teams with the most goals move on. And that's out of one game. No, they play four. Okay, so I'm if I'm a team, I play four games. Right. Everyone plays four games, and then they list the best score combination. Right. So if you lose, if you lose, you're like minus six. If you win, you're plus six. If you tie, if it's zero, zero, it's good. And then you have to qualify. You gotta get into the bracket. If you don't get into the bracket, you go home. You're done, you know? And then you have your knockout. Now you're playing, now you're playing the winner to lose, right? You you go through that. Then you go through the next stage of, you know, I'm sure you've seen the brackets. Have you seen the brackets? It's like March Madness, right? You're slotting adult. 16, your knockout rounds, and then you have you start meeting in the middle. You start your teams start meeting up. Like you saw Korea loss. That was heartbreaking for me. Okay. So then while we're doing this, because I got ADHD. So and if you're listening, you probably have ADHD. So do I. So explaining this to you. So who was the first team that you remember getting? Who who got knocked out first this time? From the teams that I was cheering for? Yes. Korea. We we we didn't even get to the top three. We did so bad. We got through knockout? Uh no. So we you're like qualifiers. We got to the first knockout. And that's where we, yeah, South Africa took us. We were sleeping on the field. We were sleeping. It was some of the worst performance I've ever seen in soccer history. We were sleeping on the field. South Africa won that one. They got to move on. We did not. Okay. And then Japan did so good. They were killing their games. Brazil ultimately ended up knocking us out. We lost. Do you know that Brazil has played in every World Cup? Brazil is a great team. I don't know. They've won a lot. They got a lot of people that there are two teams who have ever won back to back. Okay. So Japan did well, but then Brazil beat them. Yes. Which we were shocked because Blue Samurai didn't make it that far. It was pretty good. It was a good year for them. All right. Um, and then, as as you your listeners may already know, everybody is on the Norway train, right? Everybody's on the Holland train. Yeah. So good. Why are we on the Holland train? Is there like a reason? Number one, he's just a great guy. Very humble, funny guy, silly guy. Everybody loves a good meme, great meme material. Okay. Um he's also really good. He's really good. Norway's never made it this far before. So it didn't come out as far as they did. Incredible. Okay. They beat Brazil. They beat Brazil. Oh. Like incredible work. Okay. All right. Uh, it was England that ultimately sent us home, which is insane, if you ask me. Because, and you told me something about England. I've never done it. Yeah, I mean, it's been years and years and years, and and there's always the joke like we're gonna bring it home, football's coming home. Uh, it's not, you know, it's not. It's not another funny thing that I learned as well is that England was not a part of the original council that I mentioned. So I think it's so funny because you you'd assume that England would be like the home. Yeah, but France, Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden. It's incredible. Yeah, but a lot of the good clubs come out of England, so that's that's why it's like a lot, like it's so funny because Argentina beat England, right? But one of the guys, Fernandez, he's on that team, he plays for England. He had that last. Did he get that last goal? Yes. Yes. See, I was watching. He did watch it. He was watching, he was handsome. He is, he is. His tattoos every every every few years he's got more and more tattoos, but it's funny because the joke is like he's not gonna be welcome back to his club because his club is in England, you know, like, oh gosh. Yeah, we'll see. We shall see. I mean, they should be proud. They did post something about his goal and then immediately have to take it down to the internet bullying and hate really it's really right. There's a whole subculture that I don't even know about. Yeah, there's some really crazy. It's intense. I mean, I've seen the like colored faces and the crazy hair hat. Yeah. But football, football fans are it's pretty serious. It's pretty serious, but it's it's kind of unique this year. I think maybe because it's in this in the state where the time zones it a lot more for Americans to be able to watch. Interesting. You know, where when the games were out in different countries, they never really fell until our time. Like some of these games would be 2 o'clock in the morning American time. So like you're not staying up to watch them. Yeah. But I think because this year, it being in America, more Americans are kind of on the football bandwagon now. I agree. Which is exciting, but it's also kind of rough because you know, you're sitting there and you're trying to explain the rules of how fouls work, how penalty kicks were, how all this were. Americans don't like to learn things. Yeah, but yeah. Um, but yeah, no, it's been it's been fun to see this spike in interest, right? But it's also crazy to see like everybody was for Norway, like Americans for Norway. It was great, it was so cool. It was so fun to see. Um, and now I think everybody's faint because nobody wants Argentina all the way. Okay, so Argentina, the the final game, Spain and Argentina. Gonna be fun. It's gonna be fun. Yeah. I don't think you sound certain. It's gonna, I think it's gonna be a good game. Like okay, it's gonna be a good game. It's Spain is a great game. So I, you know, I think I think they could take Argentina. I think they could. Okay. And Argentina is the reigning champ. Yes, they're going for two years ago. So they're going for a twofer. Yes. And if it happens, it will only be the third time. It would be nice too, because I think this is definitely Messi's last year. Well, I think for me, being like an outsider, and I did watch that game, I I I really thought England was gonna take it. That's so crazy. They they played, you know what happened though? They parked the bus. You know, park the bus? Tell me. Park the bus is when you no longer are trying to strike the goal. You're no longer trying to make any goals, you're just defending, right? So, this is a lot of the times where they sub out their strikers or their good midfielders, and they say, All right, get everybody that's good at defense, and we're just gonna defend, defend, defend, no more. You never want to do that when you're on like a one-zero, even a two-zero, because anything can happen. You do that when you're 3-0 with like maybe half hour left in the game. They parked the bus with still 30 minutes of gameplay. One-nothing. One nil. Yes, one nil. Exactly. And that was their biggest mistake. I mean, they shouldn't have parked the bus. Yeah. They they could have taken it, but they they got waxed. They said, you know what, let's just let's just sit around. There were so many opportunities that they could have taken, but they didn't. And that's on them. I people can sit here and say, no, the game was rigged. They gave it to our no, it was no, and the thing is that I also read, because I'm all I know is from Chat GPT. Um at least you're getting information. Shout out to my boyfriend Cloud. Oh, I love that. With a car. Cloud C. C. Oh, okay. I love that. Um Argentina is known for being late strikers. Yeah, they're known for coming in hot right at the tail end. Look at the age of games that people think is right. Tell me about it. They were down, they were down zero, two. Next thing you know, game three, two. Ow. You blink, boom, they won. Because people get comfy and they just wait. They're very also too with Argentina. One thing I've always known is all it all they need is one goal and then they get excited, like lights of fire under them, and they're like, that's how I play. If if once I get it and they start to get hyped, and I can see where where the holes are lying in their defense and stuff, they're analyzers. If you ever watch Messi out there, he's sitting there and he's thinking calculating. He's watching, he's watching everybody. And then he's these past two games, he's like the playmaker. He's not even trying to make goals anymore. He's he's making the place, he's passing the balls, and he's finding those openings. And it's it's fun to see. You call it what it is, people can say what they want, but they're a good team. I think play's pretty cool. I think that's cool. I think it's good stuff. So I don't know how this works, right? But like I feel like for Messi. I feel like he's been around my whole life. You know, it does feel like listen, he was 19, which is Yamil on Spain, his age, right now. So wow. And how old is he now? He's he just turned uh 39. Just turned 39. Dang, we're the same age. Yeah. I'm gonna turn 39 again. This age for football is is rough now. The knees are gonna start to give, you know, the althritis. Listen, I'm I'm gonna Ted Lasso rewatch right now. You don't have to tell me Roy Kent just got taken out. This is where this is where your body starts to break down. It's his retirement age. So um, but like for me, I feel like I would love it if he could win. And then just like that, could that be his last game? That's what you know. He he mentioned retirement four years ago, and he decided to stay around for one more and they won. And it was my husband, his family's from Argentina. He's his mother born and raised Argentina, so they're very passionate. We have like a flag hanging in the living room right now. Oh my god, everybody hates us, everybody hates us. Our whole community is is Brazil fans, they hate us right now. As a Philadelphia Eagles fan, we have a phrase. Yeah, no one likes us, we don't care. Yeah, that's that's we have a whole song for it. Oh, I love that. No one likes us, no one likes us, no one likes us, we don't care. I love that energy. We're from Philly, Philly, no one likes us, we don't care. I love it. I love it. So, like you could just borrow that from the city. That might have to be the anthem for the season because we are so hated. Even the other day we were out, I said, Do I want to wear the Argentina jersey? I was a little scared. Oh I mean, I'm not gonna, I'm I'm not gonna throw you under the bus, but you're not wearing an Argentina jersey right now. Hey, hey, all right, it's the blue samurai. I'm I'm wearing my Japan one today because I I like the color. If the color is a nice blue, it is very nice. And my Norway one is still missing in the mail. How many jerseys do you have? I have about 16. I have many different ones. Okay. I have Emirates, I have Manchester City, Manchester United, I have a South Korea one, I have Cannes, I have Spain, Argentina, I have uh, I have a bunch of club jerseys. I have Miami, the nice pink one. Okay. Because when Messi went to Miami, I said, I gotta have that. Um, there's more. I love that. I have my fake Norway one because my other one got lost. I have the one I got from Norway Nepcot. I have one fake one. Yeah, what do you have? I have a Columbia jersey. Oh, very nice. It's a nice color. It is a really nice, it's it's a gorgeous yellow, so I went with my friend, Christian. That out. Poor guy. I feel so bad for him. Which means Columbia Log. Oh my god. I went to the friendly in Orlando with him and his family. Oh Columbia Czech? Yes, Columbia Czech. Which speaking of Czech, that was uh another team that Korea beat in the beginning, my husband's Czech, because I was he was cheering for Czech and I said I made him watch it somewhere else. So you are a house divided sometimes. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I have I'm gonna probably wear my Spain jersey tomorrow. You are just to be just just to be that guy, you know? No one likes us. Uh we don't care. I'm just gonna do what I want. Okay, so what are your official predictions for tomorrow? What are you looking forward to the most? I'm looking forward to just an even map. I really think that I really think Spain can play equally with Argentina. I think England put up a good fight, but their styles are very different. Like Spain plays very similar to Argentina. It's I'm I gotta tell you, I think it's a little bit of that just like Latin Blair. I think you get hype. White people are so like contained. Yeah, I I like to call it like a like a street ball. You know, like in in basketball, right? You have some teams that are very like to the book. And then you got like the Celtics sometimes. The Spurs, they play really dirty, they play street ball, good old-fashioned street ball. You're gonna get bumped, you're gonna get bruised. Suck it up and keep going. You know what I mean? Like unfortunately, but fortunately I guess FIFA has a lot of strict rules. Like it's very much like you just look at someone the wrong way, and and the the you know, for example, if you brush me ever so gently, but I can pull off the Oscar winning, flying off the ground, tumbling into a roll, I can get a penalty. You didn't even do anything. All you did was gently graze me, but if I could play it off, I get a free kick. I feel like that's hard of the game. Yeah, it is. It depends on who the better actor is sometimes. And I'm sorry, that's just you gotta play the game. Yeah, you gotta play the game. Uh unfortunately, I don't know if you saw the game with Argentina and uh Belgium. Okay. And there was a there was a player who ended up getting sent off with a red card. He was already on a yellow, which is your first mistake. When you're already on a yellow, you need to be on your best behavior. Okay, like this is like when mom already yelled at you and told you like one more chance and we're going home. Like now you're going home. Now yeah, you're on your best behavior. Okay, just to be clear, you only get that one first chance, right? You get a yellow card and then you're then a red? You yeah, on a second yellow. So if you get a yellow and then a second yellow, now you're on a red. The only time you're ever just directly on a red is if you do something like crazy, crazy. Like, you know, like very intentionally hurting someone or already on a yellow, he decided. And this is crazy because he wasn't even in. So if you get fouled in the box, right? That box in front of the goal, that's a penalty kick. That's a that's a kick. Nobody's in your way, there's no wall, it's just you and the goal, right? It's not like a free kick where they can build their wall or a corner kick. It's a straight direct. Either you make it or you don't, and it's on the goalie, right? That's normally when people like to do these very over the top balls. This guy on the Belgium team decided already on yellow to just throw himself on the ground. Like it was so absurd. It was so absurd. Like he wasn't even touched, it was very clear, but he just did a performative block. And originally the Argentinian player got a yellow because they thought it was a trip. They're like, oh, you trip, you foul them yellow. Um, but then they had a review. They had a review it because you have to give a yellow, you gotta review. And in the review, they were able to see that this guy just blamely threw himself on the floor. So, in order to reverse the yellow in Argentina, they ended up having to give the other guy another yellow, which resulted in a red ejection from the game. Now you're down a player because you can't sub in somebody else. When someone gets removed from the game on a red, you're down that player. So your predictions are Okay, um, I think this is rough because I'm thinking it's gonna be a two-three. I think it's gonna be a two-three. I think Spain is gonna come in hot in the beginning too. Okay. I think I think Argentina's gonna answer once. Okay. I think Spain's defense is gonna be real tight. But we may get some opportunities. I think there's gonna be a penalty kick in there somewhere. I don't know, I just feel it. Really? Okay, because I feel like I haven't seen one yet. Like I've seen free kicks. Okay, but I haven't seen a penalty kick so far. Wow, yeah. I wasn't paying attention. Bope had one, he missed. Messi had two, he missed, which is incredible because he normally doesn't miss. Yeah. He hasn't been good with his penalties right now. I don't know what's going on. Um, but I think I think Argentina might take it. 3 2. I think it's gonna be a close game. I think it's gonna be a really stressful game. Today I'm excited. People are calling today the the fake finals because it's England and France. Okay, so tell me about England and France. So when you get to a certain place, you have to play for third. You have to play for third, which stinks because you already won't, right? You're not even gonna win the World Cup. Like some of these guys are like, ah, this is just a game for funsies. Um it's England and France. France. Which is fun because right now we have in the golden boot race, we have Messi, which is the most the most goals in the World Cup tournament, right? So Messi's up there, then you have Mbappe, who's like literally, I think he might be tied with Messi. And then you have And who where's he from? Mbappe's from France. Okay. He's like they're Messi. Okay. And then you have Harry Kane, who's also in there. Holland was up there, but now he's out. So both two. Harry Kane or Mbappe have a chance to overtake Messi in the golden blue, right? So even though they're out and they're not gonna win, they can still win themselves the golden blue trophy. Yeah. If if they can that is kind of fun, that is not that it it gives you something to look forward to. And I feel like that doesn't typically happen in the third place game. No, it doesn't. So that's that's if one of them pulls a hat trick, game over. Messi would need to play for three goals in the next round. So that's something to look forward to between the two of them. Okay. Um, I'm excited to just see England play one more time. I thought I thought they did a great job. I I agree. I think they did a really good job because I did watch that game, and I think their goalie was their goalie was for incredible. Like incredible. And then and then they got that last one in. The last two in, and they were they were gay goals. I mean I mean, corner kicks can be so scary sometimes like that because a lot of the times you're just you know what though? One of the goals, their second goal, I want to say. It was so insane because it should have never happened. It was England, they thought that uh one of the players was fouled, so they all turned to check that out, and there was a perfect hole to just be like get it right in. That was just sad. Yeah, it was sad. It was it's funny because I mean it's not the same, right? It's a TV show, but I am I am redoing Ted Lasso in anticipation of season four. And the episode that I watched last night, you've seen it. No, you know what's crazy? My sister, who doesn't even like football, like she's not into any of that stuff. She's watched very random, very random. Okay, I feel like you have to. I feel I feel like that's you knew what it was. No, that's your homework after after the World Cup is over. Okay, that's one with the guy with like the mustache and like the visor. Yes, okay. Yes, I feel like I have to. Well, after World Cup, I got my clubs, but all right, okay, okay, that's fine. There are only 30-minute episodes. I can do it. I can no longer tell you what I was about to tell you, though. Ah so thank you so much for telling me all about football. Yeah, I think that's a good one. This was so fun, and I truly like your passion about it, made me want to watch it more. I love that. Like, genuinely. I love you asking questions. I love it. Yay! Right? Like, it's just it's very fun, and it's you've encouraged that community. And also, like, even where we work, I've kind of loved it. People who don't normally talk to each other, have you noticed? Yeah, everybody's talking about it. Yep. I love talking to Emily in Norway. I'm so proud of her country. I feel like I feel like that's what I love about the World Cup, right? Like, talk's great. Yeah, like I'm an American football girl, but also like it's the way that people come together all the time, and there's just all of these other fruits of it. Yep. And I love that. So thank you for sharing your passion so welcome. So boldly, so that I could also be included. Thank you for giving me so much information, too, because there's so much that even I don't know, you know? I love the game. Cloud. Yeah. I love the game, but there's some stuff that I'm like, I don't I want to know more about that. Look at facts. So I am I'm low-key. I want Argentina to I want them to win. But I want them to win because I know would be so happy. But just to piss him off because I love a little spice. I'm gonna try to cheer for uh I'm gonna try to cheer for Spain. There you go, there you go. Get him riled up and then let him win. Yeah, that's a great night. That way he feels even better about spice. Absolutely. Okay, thank you so much. This was literally so fun. You are welcome. It was an honor. You're welcome into my bubble anytime. I love it. I love your bubble. It's so bubbly and positive. Thank you. Thank you. We'll uh we'll let you know who won. Okay, if you didn't watch. You guys, it is the Monday after the World Cup final game. And so if you already watched, you know, Spain won. Nicole got her way, which is crazy. Uh, we both expected a totally different game, as you can see if you watched it. Uh, I had also asked her to send me some notes about her final thoughts. So I'm gonna include those now, and then we'll see you guys for the next one. All right. Bye. Okay, final thoughts. That was uh good game. It was a good game. It was always Spain's game. I think Spain had control of that game the entire time. That field was Spain's field. I mean, look at the possession, look at the attempt at goal 20 to zero. Like that's insane. Um, I was so wrong. That that three, two was um absolutely a fever dream. That was crazy because um, yeah, I mean, one zero. There was those two goals, one off sides, one with a foul. I think those are fair calls. I think there was some questionable calls against Argentina, but regardless, I mean, Spain deserved the win. It was it was good. Their defense is no joke, and that makes sense why they never gave up a goal the entire World Cup. So congrats to Spain. And uh now we wait one more year for another banger, and I hope it's always here. Yep, bye bye.