Paradigm Shift
The Everything Podcast, hosted by the dynamic duo Rob and Jesse, is your weekly dose of unfiltered conversations that truly cover everything—from the latest crypto market rollercoasters and tech breakthroughs to wild life stories, random hot takes, and whatever absurd rabbit hole the hosts tumble down next. With Rob's sharp, no-BS insights and Jesse's laid-back humor keeping things grounded yet unpredictable, each episode feels like kicking back with two old friends who aren't afraid to dive deep, roast bad ideas, or just geek out over the weirdest corners of culture and current events. Whether you're into finance, memes, or pure chaos, it's the show that somehow makes it all connect.
Paradigm Shift
Paradigm Shift, FIFA World Cup. Who Will Win It ALL?
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Big Rob & Jesse Discuss All Of The TOP Story Lines Coming Out Of The FIFA World Cup So Far & Who Will Win It ALL And WHY
All right. Welcome back to the show, guys. Welcome back to the Paradigm Shift. I am, of course, Big Rob coming back at you with my partner in crime, Jesse. What's happening, buddy?
SPEAKER_00Hey man, doing well today. Looking forward to today's episode. Um, I'm not sure if you've been following the World Cup over the last uh gosh, it feels like it's been going on for a month. Maybe it has. I don't I don't even know. It's been going on quite a while now. And uh it's it's been a lot of fun, pretty good tournament, a lot of things to cover here.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, yeah. And it is what everyone's talking about. I haven't been paying too much attention to it. Busy, busy guy, but and you know me.
SPEAKER_00Hey, come on, it's just because you're Canadian.
unknownIt is, yeah.
SPEAKER_00You guys only care about hockey.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Everyone around me is talking about it nonstop. And so Canada, uh, a couple weeks ago, I think it was. People are kind of so Canada got eliminated. I'm like, didn't know they were playing. Didn't know they made the tournament.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Good to know. Just a busy guy. I play, I know, like right off the hop. Again, I'm a hockey guy, I like baseball, I like basketball, but undeniably, uh, football, to say it correctly, is in fact the world's largest and most popular sport. It is. So full respect. And honestly, I couldn't run a kilometer-long field to kick a ball. So I I have so much respect for the cardio of these guys, it is insane.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I I agree with you. You know, the uh the cardio to to be a football player at that level is crazy, especially to make it like an entire game. And you know, I do have to say that some of these games in the World Cup have gone long, and you see them start subbing guys out, you see guys cramping up, and you know, I mean, it's been a hot tournament, you know. The humidity is up there, you know. Some of these guys are coming over, like uh Norway, for example, made pretty far into the tournament. I mean, they're they're from Norway, you know, and they're playing in like Miami. A little different, you know.
SPEAKER_01Just a little bit, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, I do have a list of the top uh storylines coming out of the tournament so far, but I wanted to know where where do you want to start? I know you've been watching very intently, so where would you like to kick things off?
SPEAKER_00Um let me let me start at um just saying uh you know, let's talk about the setup, right? So I um outside of the World Cup really don't follow football too much between the different leagues, right? Um, the World Cup, for whatever reason, to me is kind of like watching the Olympics. And I I sort of like get engrossed in it. And what is just so cool about it is like the passion of each country, and they're all different, you know, like every country's different. Like, so to give you an example of this, um, Scotland. Every time Scotland played, like apparently they have like a live band that, you know, it's like its own parade, like whatever whatever city they were in, the band shows up, you know, they take over the streets, they're like, you know, celebrating and dancing down the road. And then, like, like what's really crazy to me from an an American view is that, you know, I'm used to like our sports that at the beginning of whatever the sport is, you know, they do like the national anthem, right? And there's always like one singer. It's just one singer and they're doing it, and everybody's sort of judging them, and you know, it's like, are they doing a good job or whatever? What I really like about the World Cup is there is no like one singer, like literally the entire crowd of that country is like belting the national anthem at the top of their lungs, you know? It's pretty cool. Like it's it, and you know, it's it's kind of highlights also like I saw a post that said something about, you know, um, if you watch the World Cup, you kind of realize there really aren't all these differences that the news media likes to make it out, like, you know, that we're against this country or that country. Honestly, just get them in a football match, and then it's like good fun. And it's like, yeah, let's go, you know, this is awesome. So I've I've really liked it so far, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like they say, there's there's far we have far more in common than we do have not in common, or however you want to order it, right? The difference, the the similarities between us are far greater than the differences.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Um, so anyway, I I would just say um in in setting it up, there's some sort of like unique things like that. I really like the unique um feel of of certain countries. Like, to give you another example of this, I don't know if you've seen it, um, but the nor the Norway team uh made it really far, right? Like they made it to I think the final eight teams, something like that. And one of the things that they started doing is the Viking row. Have you seen this? No, you haven't seen the Viking row, it's pretty funny. So basically, like midway through the match, everybody in the stands who's Norwegian starts rowing, and like somebody's got a drum and they hit the drum, they go boom, boom, and the whole crowd goes row at once, and they all kind of pull back. And and it's really cool, like when you see it in a video, especially from the side, like the the entire Norwegian side will like row at once, and so every time they would win a game, at the end of the game, all of the Norway team would go down to like their their side of the field where all their fans are, and sure enough, they'd do the row, like somebody'd have the drum and they'd hit it, you know, and the team would do it, and the fans would do it at the same time. It was cool.
SPEAKER_01See, that's that's what makes going to sporting events fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01Like that's that's I remember like I'm not gonna make it about hockey, but I remember once we went to went to Minnesota to watch an Edmonton Oilers and and and uh Minnesota Wild Game. And I mean, we were these four Canadian guys came down, we were wearing Edmonton Oilers jerseys, even though I'm not an Edmonton fan, but you know, we're there being obnoxious because it's a sport, it's fun. We're there to be obnoxious, right? You're the visiting team.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And unfortunately, Edmonton lost and we got booed out of the building, but you know, it was all in good fun, though, right? Like they razzed us, we razzed them back, yeah, and it was a good time. There wasn't uh there wasn't a need for violence or you know, any of that kind of stuff, and and that's what what you're saying kind of you know bleeds into that a little bit is that when you have people not only you know from from different sides of the planet being able to come together and just have a good time with it, you know, give each other a hard time, raz each other, but all in the name of good sportsmanship fun, you know, that that's what really brings us together.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think so. And and you know, it it's funny you say that because each game is so like patriotic for whatever country that's in it, that I've I've watched all of these, and like at no point have I seen like your typical like stadium vendors, like the guy with you know the beer cart, you know, like the people kind of like walking down or like people throwing peanuts, or you know, you know what I mean? Like, like at a typical like NFL game, yeah, I mean half the game is is drinking, right? And like where I'm at, like the police are often in the news because they're like just beating the crap out of somebody at like a game, you know, it's like holy cow, you know, and and I haven't seen any of that in these games, like it's just straight up like country against country, and um, you know what's kind of neat, you know, you're talking about good fun of it. Um maybe a week ago, uh Mexico, uh so so for this World Cup, it's being hosted by North America. So it's it's Canada, it's the US, it's Mexico. So Mexico made it far enough that they actually had a home game in Mexico City with Mexico playing England, right? And England's a really good team. And so what what's crazy about this game was that uh Mexico ended up not winning the game. They lost the game, I think it was maybe 3-2 or something along those lines. But the funny part about it was even though they lost, apparently the fans of both teams like just did like a street party after the game. And I've seen like in some of England's games after this, like one of the English games um that was on just the other day. I can't remember who they were playing, but uh one of the English fans was wearing a sombrero. And it just goes to show you, you know, like they're traveling around to like wherever the the game is, and you know, he got the sombrero in Mexico and now he's in Miami. He's like, Yeah, we're still in it, you know. This is funny.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome. Yeah, that's awesome. Uh maybe I'll go to a game one day in the future. I don't know. It sounds like it's it's a lot of fun, but it is. I mean, people are having a blast just watching it. I I gotta say that you know, I'm sure you've witnessed the same thing, but here in Canada anyway, soccer was never really, you know, a thing anybody really even talked about, really. Even even the the FIFA, right? But this time, over the last few years, everyone's there's like a craze about it, right? Now, I think that it could be a combination of things. Maybe people want something new, something different, uh, as opposed to just the norm. Uh, but we've also had so much immigration into our country over the last decade that I mean, odds are we're a lot of football fans, right? Are here now, and we have to cater to that or we have to accommodate that. And it's a it's bringing in a whole new generation of fans to adopt the sport here in the West.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I could see that. I think that's true. I think, you know, like in the US, um obviously we always called it soccer, which I feel like is really dumb. You know, let me let me just a little sidebar here. I didn't realize the countries went by different names until I went to like foreign countries. And I was like, wait a minute, that's spelled differently. And it's like, yeah, like we we just call it the American version. I'm like, what? Like, why don't we just call it the actual ver? Like, if you go to like Italy, none of the cities and nothing is like what we call it like in American English. It's like totally different, you know.
SPEAKER_01Oh, we just call it this.
SPEAKER_00So, anyway, you know, back to soccer versus football, right? So in the US, soccer is really popular for like younger kids, right? Super popular at a kind of like at a younger, maybe even all the way up through like high school, and then it like somewhere around college, it kind of just trails off somewhere, you know. It's like, yeah, there's collegiate teams, and yes, there's like the MLS, but it it kind of historically it hasn't really gone all the way like it should, right?
SPEAKER_01And like it really should be not like hockey and basketball and and football.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And and maybe what it is is you know, marketing, right? Like you and I have talked about marketing before, right? If you think about it, you know, you need stars, you need stars to sell it. Um, even you know, like a great example of this is like Michael Jordan, right? Like Nike was absolutely nothing until he started wearing their shoes.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Now Nike's a global brand, right? And David Beckham came to um Miami to MLS and he recruited Messi onto that team. So now you have like some of football's biggest stars here in the US, and you can kind of see like the more and more people are following this. And what's really kind of interesting in the US is for whatever reason, like Kansas City loves loves football, loves it. I mean, they they are like diehard, I keep wanting to say soccer, diehard football fans, right? I mean, they really are, you know, and so if you think about it, like I I think it it it's just it's never been marketed the right way before. But with with the World Cup right now, like it kind of has like it it may have finally broken through because I know like some of the ratings that they've been getting on like Fox One and on Peacock have been like through the roof for the World Cup.
SPEAKER_01Well, one thing I've noticed is that it's it starts at youth, and like my son, for example, we we had him in soccer, and I just don't think we have the organizational leagues for children, and I think that that is another thing that kind of hinders football from really kind of taking off in the West. Like like I said, my son played soccer, but none of the kids were actually there to play soccer, and the even the coaches were I mean, they're just teaching them, you know, I don't even know, like nothing really in terms of like when when you for example, when you have your kid in hockey, right? The your kid is learning all about teamwork, he's learning about so many different aspects of the game and uh you know skill development and you know all kinds of stuff like that. That that something like hockey builds character ethics, um you know, for life skills and stuff as well, right? Uh what do you call it? Uh attributes to your character, right? Uh that are gonna make you a better person. And I just don't think that that same effort is poured into youth soccer or sorry, youth football here in the West.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I'd I'd probably agree with you. I probably agree with you. Like I would say um kind of down near where my parents live in uh Florida here, there's a place called uh the Voletary Academy. No, sorry, it it's now called IMG, right? And it's all about training these kid athletes to become professional athletes. And it started as a tennis academy, and it was the same deal, right? Like there was kind of loosely, you know, no real apparatus around this. Now, all of the best tenor tennis players in the entire world all go come from IMG, all of them, right? They all go through there, and so you know it's it's kind of case in point that's like you you got to have that like professional kind of rail system to foster these kids and turn them into like professional athletes. And it, you know, like the thing is I think the games are very different by country, like you can kind of tell they're different. Like the European teams, like like Germany or France, they have a certain style that's really unique. It likewise, like Argentina has a very unique style. You know, you can kind of see the differences between the the countries. Um, funny sidebar when the US lost recently to uh Belgium, I saw a reel where a guy was talking about, you know, like, yeah, you know, we had our shot. And he's like, he's like, you know, that was like watching somebody throw a shoe at a bear. He's like, you know, we got like one, you know, goal, and then they they easily were like, yes, so what, and got another three.
SPEAKER_01That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So tell tell me about the um, I'm probably gonna butcher the name, but uh Halland's generational scoring spree.
SPEAKER_00Erling Holland, yeah. So Erling Holland uh is a player for Norway, and apparently in the World Cup lead leading up to this cup, Norway had gotten seven goals all time. Ever. Like altogether, cumulative, yes, all time. He had over seven in this tournament alone.
SPEAKER_01Wow, yeah.
SPEAKER_00He he's kind of like a like a Michael Jordan type player uh for Norway, and he is 6'5. He looks like a Viking, like he legitimately looks like he's right out of the show Vikings. Um, so Norway had a game against um England. That that was the one that knocked them out, right? When when they got to the final eight teams, and like people were making AI videos of like, you know, kind of historical, like the Vikings invading England. And and it's Erling Holland, he's got the shield, and he's like banging the axe on the shield as he's like walking up, you know. And then they were showing like on the English side, they're like in the castle, and uh one of their big players is like Harry Kane. He's up there, he's got like the armor on, and then David Beckham's there like surveying, and it was it was really funny, but uh but anyway, going back to the player, right? So Erling Holland is 6'5, he's like their striker, and I mean this guy just throws his body in there, he shoves people out of the way, he'll do the crazy kicks and headbuts and all this stuff. And arguably, the game that they lost against England, uh, one of their guys and him were running down the field, the two of them, and the guy didn't pass it to him. And if he had, they would have had that tying goal that they ultimately lost. I think it was like 3-2. Um and so just a phenomenal player, cool personality. Um, fun fact about the Norwegian team: apparently they didn't want to eat any of like the shit food in America, so they brought in their own food from Norway.
SPEAKER_01Can you blame them? Let's be real. I can't. So the guy who didn't pass it to him, it's funny how in one play or in one tournament, sorry, two guys' careers can go in complete opposite directions because you know that the guy who didn't pass it to him is like the most hated man in the country right now.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, oh yeah. He's been getting death threats and all kinds of stuff because everybody's like, dude, like you had our star player running like diagonally right. All you had to do was one little pass, and he would have tapped this right into the goal, and you didn't do it, you know.
SPEAKER_01Did he shoot instead?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he he waited, he tried to do it himself, and then they blocked it. And everyone's like, Oh, and and you can see like uh Erling Holland's body language, he's looking at him like, dude, like like I was right there, and you didn't give me the ball, you know. I had to shoot my shot. Yeah, like no one's here to see you, you know, they're here to see me, or Erling Holland, you know.
SPEAKER_01Wow. Imagine being that guy. I feel I feel for him, my heart breaks for him. Yeah, at the end of the day, people gotta remember it's just a game, right? No lies.
SPEAKER_00I don't know if I'd say that around crazed football fans, man.
SPEAKER_01Well, I'm a crazed, I'm a crazed hockey fan, okay? And as a Leafs fan, you know how frustrated my whole life has been as a fan. Yeah, I got passion, man, but at the end of the day, I don't send death threats to players because they do something that I don't like, because at the end of the day, I understand it is just a game, right? And they are human beings, and they they make apparently mistakes. I don't know if it was shooting a shot or if it was a mistake, but I'm gonna give them the benefit of the doubt on this one.
SPEAKER_00Hey, hey, well, you know, the US just took Canada in the Olympic gold men's hockey. It's just a game, though.
unknownOh, exactly.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. It's just a game. I mean, Canada get over it, just just eat that one, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, you guys ate the golden goal, right?
SPEAKER_00So yeah, I mean, Canada knows they had a better team, but you know, I don't USA was scrappier. I don't know. Those damn kachuks, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, those damn kachucks. I really do hate that. Even if those are they were on my team, hate those guys.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_01Even if they're on my team, trade them. I hate those guys. Kick them out of the league. God, they're annoying. Yeah. Um, it's um unbelievable though. It's it's always good. You know, his career is gonna take off now, uh, if it wasn't already. So good for him. It's always good to see players.
SPEAKER_00One thing though, before we wrap up Erling Holland, I would say that I think somewhere after that play happened in that game, his body language the rest of the game was like pouty and mopey. And the team, looking to him to be the leader, kind of became pouty and mopey. And eventually the the coach pulled him out of the game and they subbed in someone else. He didn't even finish the game, right? And I I think there was a learning lesson here for. Erling Holland that even when it turns to shit, like you still gotta be that guy because everyone's looking at you. You know what I mean? And he kind of he fell flat a little bit when the team needed him the most. He didn't he didn't get a single goal. I think that whole game he got one shot on goal and it was a header that they blocked. That was it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, see, again, I gotta relate it to hockey because that's my sport. Whenever I whenever I see a player with a bad attitude or or that kind of mentality, I'm always like, I'm not sure I want him. I don't care how skilled he is because that kind of a thing, like you just alluded to, that thing can spread like a cancer, that kind of attitude through the entire locker room.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and the best players, what whatever sport, they have that X factor where they can just put the team on their back and they have the will to win, right? So yes, absolutely, right? He's definitely got it. But when they uh Norway played England, um, England has a player, Bellingham, he's exactly like that. The guy scored two goals. I mean, he when he played Mexico, you you could see him at the end of the game, he was gassed, like he had nothing left, but he gave it everything, and I mean he's like fired up. I honestly don't even think the English team is that good, but Bellingham is really good, he's really good, and and he's got like if if Erling Holland had had the fire that Bellingham had, then maybe Norway would have pulled it off. But Erling Holland, you know, af after he didn't like get that and kind of nothing was going his way, he started pouting around. And truthfully, I I think the English team, what they are really good at is they're really big. And so like Mexico had a really hard time with England because the English team is just so big they couldn't get through the defense, and all the Mexican guys are like a foot shorter, you know. Um, but you know, like with Norway, I mean Erling Holland's 6'5, he's massive, but he still couldn't really do anything, you know.
SPEAKER_01That's too bad. It's too bad to see a bad attitude, and again, that's something that's taught when they're kids. Is you gotta teach them to not develop that kind of an attitude, you know, for the game when they're young. Otherwise, it's too late, it's too bad. Yeah, yeah. Um, what is this uh modern era performance ends in round 16 in heartbreak for US MNT's best modern era?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're talking about the US men's team. So the US men's team historically, I think this is the first time they made it to the round of 16 in 24 years, so quite a while, right? And historically, the US men's team is usually all defense, and there's one guy that's like kind of cherry-picking on offense, and and like if they win, it's like one-nothing, you know, like that guy happened to get their one goal. So they had this era, and the players were like Tim Howard was the goalie, um, Landon Donovan was on the team, they had uh Josie Altador, and Clint Dempsey was that guy that and and he would mope around too. He wouldn't he wouldn't do shit half the time. Like after soccer, he became a rapper. And it's like, dude, like what are you doing? You know, I I don't know what the deal was with him.
SPEAKER_01It's the most random thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know, I'm gonna be a rapper now that soccer's done, you know, whatever. Um, but but this team, I gotta admit, actually looked like a real soccer team, like it was a much more cohesive team. And I would say also that that prior era, there was a coach. Um, I want to say his name was Brian Bradley, but that might have been his son. Anyway, Bradley was the coach, and he and his son was also on the team, and he was kind of like an older white guy, and the and the team just sucked. They like they just they couldn't get it together, like they look like a half-baked team compared to these others. And so now, and this is interesting too in the World Cup, is that the coaches aren't necessarily country specific. So the US coach is from Argentina, okay.
SPEAKER_01Why do you think that is? Is there no good coach, no, no coaches up to snuff in the United States or as opposed to the competition? Do you think that's like why because you don't see that in the Olympics?
SPEAKER_00You might see that a little bit in the Olympics. It does happen a little bit. Like, for example, a lot of the Olympians they all train in the US, but then they represent another country, you know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's what I mean, but you would never see like a uh coach from Finland coaching team USA in men's hockey in the Olympics. You would never see that.
SPEAKER_00Not in hockey, but you do see it sometimes. I I think you see it in things like gymnastics, where there could be like a Russian coach, you know. Yeah. So anyway, they have this Argentinian coach that kind of looks like Russell Crowe. And uh, and and so apparently, as a reputation, he he doesn't necessarily have the best reputation around the world, but he's far better than anything the U.S. has ever had. Far better, right? And so for us, it's a huge deal to have a guy like that as a coach. And so the point is that it looks like a much more cohesive game with him as the coach. So I do like that move that they made. Um, and the US team. So here's what derailed let's we'll talk about this. So the U.S. team started out great, right? I mean, they were like firing on all cylinders, they were hitting multiple goals a game, they looked awesome. And then what eventually happened was their star player, a guy named uh Fulleren Bolligan, and and this is funny too. Like he he's born in Brooklyn, but uh grew up in London. So he's playing for the US, even though arguably you should probably be playing for the UK, you know. But we'll we'll take it, we'll take anything we can get. Yeah. So, anyways, so he's their star player, he's the striker up front, right? Um Christian Polisic, he he didn't do shit like the at the end. He kind of he started great in the tournament and then kind of went downhill. And so the game before uh Belgium, the U.S. played Bosnia-Herzegovina, right? And at one point in the game, uh Bolligan and another guy are running for the ball, and they're kind of in the air, and Bolligan lands on the dude's ankle with his cleat. And so FIFA reviews it, the ref, uh, you know, the umpire for the game, and and gives him a red card. And so, if if you get a red card, that means that you're suspended from the following game, right? So that's a really big deal. And so he got the red card, they kicked him out of the game, and we were kind of like, ah, shit, you know, and and the US managed to win the game, but then we were playing Belgium, and arguably this wasn't even Belgium's best team coming into this. But so apparently, in the entire tournament, they had handled out, I think at that point, like 11 red cards. Everybody else was suspended the following game, right? In this one, Trump comes out publicly and says he called FIFA three times, which is not surprising. I don't even know if it's true or not, but it's it's just him hijacking something in the news and making it about himself, you know, which is just infuriating.
SPEAKER_01What's FIFA's phone number, Trump?
SPEAKER_00Well, if you didn't know, like six months ago they gave him the first annual FIFA Peace Prize. This is before he started a war with Iran. This is back when he was pitching about the peace prize and how it should go to him. Well, they they made one up and gave it to him to kind of stroke his ego leading up to the World Cup, right?
SPEAKER_01The irony, yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So so, anyways, so what happens is that the team was practicing all week long for the game without Balligan, right? Because he was supposed to be out just like everybody else. And literally, like the day before, FIFA comes out of nowhere and says, Hey, we're allowing him to play, but he's on uh probation for a year.
SPEAKER_01What does that even mean?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like they sort of like made up a rule, you know. It and so the Belgium team was pissed. I mean, they were like livid, they're like, This is bullshit, and they had their their uh team like attorneys like draft a whole thing and send it over on all the ways that this violated the rules. Oh, yeah, they were pissed, man. I understand being pissed, but wow, involving their lawyers and geez. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is a big deal, right? And so Bolligan gets to play, but it it completely screwed up the rhythm of the team because first of all, they were practicing all week thinking he wasn't gonna play. Now all of a sudden he's playing, right? They also didn't have this political distraction bullshit until Trump hijacked it and made it about himself, right? So now that cloud's hanging over the team, like, well, if you guys win and we all know it's bullshit, you know, and it's like, come on, you know. So so so the team was like completely flat. Uh Bolligan, I I think he maybe only got one shot on goal the whole game. He played like crap. The whole team played like complete crap, except for one guy. We had one really good penalty kick that was awesome. And then it was like Belgium decided they were just gonna like stomp our guts out, and apparently they sat their two best players, and then they brought him in at like minute 70. So between minute 70 and 90 is the end of the game, they brought them in at the end of the game, and of course they score, you know, to rub it in even more. So that's what happened. So the US team like started with all this hope in the best team we've seen in years, and then they all went down in flames. Because it's most things, Trump touches it turned to shit.
SPEAKER_01Of course, of course. What was that alone? What was Spain's late drama to reach the semifinals?
SPEAKER_00I don't know if I know that one. Um I would say with I don't really know that story, but I do know that Spain has one of the best young players on their team, and uh he's he's looked really good. Like he's like high school type age, and uh he's almost unstoppable. Um, but I don't I don't know this the Spain drama.
SPEAKER_01Well, apparently it just says uh Spain edged Belgium 2-1 in the uh quarterfinals with a late winner from Mikel Marino.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01Uh looking a blockbuster semifinal against France.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that's actually going on right now, and I'm trying not to watch it because I don't know if you have this problem. My wife, she's like, You can't watch it without me. Like, are you kidding me? Like, I mean it alerts all day long with the game score. I can't watch it. She's like, You can't watch it, you gotta wait. I'm like, uh.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, funny story about that. Um, you remember The Walking Dead, yeah. So when it was like season four or five or whatever, I I told my wife you should watch this, and she's like, Ah, I don't like she doesn't like horror movies and that kind of stuff. I said, No, no, no, no. I said, listen, it's not the show doesn't revolve solely around zombies. There are there are characters in the story and there's storylines and stuff that you know it's it's an actual show. So she watched it and she was so against it, she ended up obsessed with the show, right? She's so much so that she watched all the spin-offs and everything as well, and you know, trying to line everything up with this Morgan character, going from fear of the walking dead to the walking dead, anyway. Not last night, the night before. I sit down on my lazy boy, and my wife is over in the other room. And I'm like, you know what? I haven't watched The Walking Dead. I'm thinking to myself, in like three or four years. I'm gonna I'm gonna watch The Walking Dead.
SPEAKER_00No, you're not.
SPEAKER_01But I put it on, the the yeah, the intro comes on, you know, the the song or whatever, and head comes peeking around the corner. What are you doing? I can relate to this 100%. What do you think you're doing? I'm like, I'm watching a show. It's like you're watching my show. I'm like, would you like to watch it with me? Not right now, but you can't watch it either. I'm like, great, fair enough. Yes, I'm watching House of the Dragon tonight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, hey, that's what happens, though. You know, we have like a running joke that I'm behind on everything. Like, it took me a decade to watch Breaking Bad, and it's the same way, you know. It's like she's like, You can't watch it without me. I'm like, okay, well, are you gonna come over? No, I'm not ready. I'm like, are you kidding me? So then I can't watch anything. You can't watch anything, watch something else. I'm like, there isn't anything else. I turn on something else, she's like, I kind of want to watch this, stop watching that.
SPEAKER_01I'll just watch the Smurfs. Is that okay with you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, there's only a select couple shows that I can watch without her. Like, I'm like, hey, I'm gonna watch Ted on Peacock. She's like, you can watch Ted. I don't like that one. I'm like, okay, good.
unknownYes.
SPEAKER_00Got one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we call uh here in the West, we call soccer football. Or sorry, we call I have a saying, we have we call rugby football and we call football soccer. That's what we do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, the truthfully the NFL should just call itself the NFL. You know, uh I I don't know, this idea of calling it football, it's just it it's outdated.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I agree, and I I think that the NFL needs to open up to other countries too. I got I'm sorry. It's trying to read it's the reason I've never been into the NFL my whole life is I remember I was probably 17 and I was I was watching it was a Super Bowl, I think it was like the Pittsburgh Steelers and uh the Dallas Cowboys or something like that for the you know for the Super Bowl. And uh I think Pittsburgh won. I want to say Pittsburgh won. And anyway, the commentary came on, I was like, it was all excited. I was like, wow, you know, I think I could really watch football, and then something the commentator said just kind of resonated with me, and I could just never let it go. And he's like, Oh, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the champions of the world or the entire world or something. And I remember thinking, Well, you're the champions of you, like of the states, but no one else in the world plays with you, so you're not really the champions of the world. Yeah, that's like me playing Monopoly by myself and saying I beat everybody.
SPEAKER_00That's funny. It's true though. I mean, you got a point, right? And now they are starting to bridge a little bit beyond um just sort of the main US. Like, there's a lot of Polynesian players, like the big like Samoa type guys, bunch of them. Um, there's a few from um like Australia that are kind of along that rugby line uh that are in the NFL. So they are branching out a little bit. And I would say that the the NFL, um, like with our team here in Jacksonville, they play um, was it one or two games every year that's in in London? So they they do play London games, and they've been branching out further into like Spain. Um, last year they did a game in Berlin. Uh, I don't know if I ever told, I don't know if I've talked to you about that. So this was wild, man. Like the game in Berlin was at the stadium where they did the Olympics when the Nazis were there. It's the same stadium, okay? Wow. But like it looks like a Nazi stadium, but it's still there. I mean, it's just a wild looking place to play American football in the stadium that was built by the Nazis for the Olympics, you know?
SPEAKER_01Oh yeah, maybe maybe build something else. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00Just putting that out there. It it was wild, man. I actually kind of liked it. And um, you know, what is kind of neat, I think, too, with the uh foreign fans is like with with football, aka soccer, football, you know, they'll like sing through the matches and they got songs, they're very vocal. The whole crowd is very vocal, right? Um, and and it it's the same thing even when American football is going on in those countries, whereas like in the US, you know, it's it's not really like that, you know.
SPEAKER_01I think that for wasn't there talk of an NFL team? It might have been about 10 years ago now, eight to ten years ago, an NFL team coming to Toronto. What was that talk about? There was talk of a team coming to Toronto, and I think that would be a wise step is to get a Canadian team in there first. And Toronto would be the city to do it. I mean, but there's an NBA team, there's a there's an MLB team, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. Uh Toronto, um what is it? Vancouver. There's a few spots that you know you you could definitely do it and make it work.
SPEAKER_01Um but Vancouver, Vancouver, I mean, they couldn't maintain the Grizzlies, right? Like the wasn't that their NBA team, the Grizzlies?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but again, you who who was the star on that team? You know what I mean? Like, like if you never have any stars, no one's gonna go to the game, you know.
SPEAKER_01Um I think NFL would would pick up ratings big time in Canada. I don't know if they care or not, but if they had if there was uh if we had an investment, like an interest, right? If there was a Canadian team, yeah, um I think that instead of just using the CFL as either a farm team for players, like a place to draft from, and or a place for older players to go continue playing when they're past their prime, right? So yeah, that's what the CFL is.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the CFL reminds me of like the KHL in hockey that you know all the Russian players are in. It's sort of the same thing.
SPEAKER_01The minor leagues.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you're right though. They should expand to Canada. I mean, honestly, why not? Like if you're a business and there's more money, you're telling me there's no money to be made in Canada? Bullshit. If there's fans that are willing to go to a game, then there's money to be made, you know?
SPEAKER_01Well, they said I think it was in the in the playoffs, like for hockey, whenever there's no Canadian teams left, like they I think it was the Stanley Cup final series. They said that if it's two American teams, the ratings from Canada drop, they plummet, right? But that's in comparison to when there's Canadian teams in the in the in the playoffs. The equivalent of the ratings from Canada, from what they'd said, was basically like the ratings from New York. So if new if all of New York said we're not watching the playoffs anymore, that would be it, right? So it's not a huge loss. The whole country of Canada. Yeah, it's like New York for ratings. That's funny.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we're important, damn it. It's it's all about marketing at the end of the day, right? I mean, really, that's all it is. You just need a uh I mean, what where the where's the billionaire in Toronto? There's gotta be a few of them over there that have a ton of money.
SPEAKER_01We we had uh I can't remember his name, but there was one here, and the league like he wanted to bring a second NHL team to Toronto. I think it was. I think that's what it was. And the all of the other owners of the league were like we don't like this guy, we don't approve of him to be a team owner in our league. And that's basically so they he ended up he fought them for like two years or something like that, legally, and uh trying to get a team, and the other the other owners were like, we don't like this guy. Apparently he was more of a I don't know, not your typical billionaire in terms of how he conducts himself. So they were like uh we we this guy doesn't fit. Um so they were like we're better than him, kind of thing, right? And they wouldn't let him. I don't remember who it was that was trying to bring an NFL team. I can't I can't remember who which team it was. Was it was it Buffalo or so? I was close.
SPEAKER_00It could have been. Yeah, it could have been. Well well, you know, the thing with Buffalo is Um Buffalo has these diehard fans because they're in Buffalo. I mean, it's like that place just gets dumped on with snow from the from the lake, you know? And uh the the interesting thing is like in the NFL, for you to be competitive, you have to have like a nice new stadium. I mean, the stadium experience has been amplified exponentially to try and keep up with how nice it is to just be at home, right? Like you really gotta compete. And the thing is in in the Buffalo Stadium, like they've had the same crappy garbage stadium for like you know their whole existence. Like they have like crappy aluminum bleachers, and you know, it's outside in Buffalo. I mean, like, talk about just a miserable experience. And so I could see where the team could like a lot of times when the team can't get a stadium approved from the local government, you know, they'll they'll threaten to leave, you know, and why wouldn't you go to somewhere like Toronto that could easily support an NFL team and you could get a new stadium, right? So new stadium means more bodies, more bodies means more money, right?
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, Toronto is one of the only, I think it is the it might be the only, but it's one of the only cities in the NHL whose farm team, the Marlies, minor league team, is in the same city as their their main club, right? The the Toronto Maple Leafs. Their farm team, the Marleys, is just down the street, right? No other like Winnipeg, I think that their farm teams in like I don't know, Arizona or something like that. I don't know, you gotta you literally gotta fly somebody over, like there needs to be notice and prep. And yeah, I don't know of any other NHL team who has their farm team in the same city because the city can't sustain it, right? Nobody will support the minor league team, but Toronto is such a mega city that they do. They have the the the Blue Jays, they have the Raptors, they have the Leafs, they got the Marlies, they have TFC, right? They have their soccer team there as well.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So um so yeah, I think that they I do think they could sustain an NFL team as well. They also have the uh Argonauts. It's the Argonauts, right?
SPEAKER_00I think so. Yeah. Quick question though, who is their football slash soccer team?
SPEAKER_01Uh that's owned by the T uh uh they're owned by uh Toronto Maple East Force Entertainment. Uh what what is their name?
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna have to look it up. Uh watch of them. Um TFC, yeah. The Red, also known as the Reds.
SPEAKER_00The Reds.
SPEAKER_01Toronto, they call it Toronto FC. TFC.
SPEAKER_00TFC.
SPEAKER_01Whenever you yeah, whenever you hear somebody say it, they say Toronto FC. And they're talking about the team.
SPEAKER_00So interesting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, they're owned by uh M ML MLSE, Toronto uh Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the same company that owns the Blue Jays and the Raptors and the Leafs.
SPEAKER_00So you know, um a little sidebar here. I've I've lived in Florida for the last, you know, however long, quite a while, um, over 30 years. And one of the things that I've always that I don't like about Florida is that we have multiple really big cities. So there's Miami, there's Tampa, there's Orlando, there's Jacksonville, uh, you know, Tallahassee, etc., right? And the problem with that is that we have so many big cities, the teams get spread out across the state, you know. So Orlando has the the soccer team, right? Uh Tampa and Jacksonville have the NFL teams. Uh the hockey teams are in Tampa and Miami, you know, and and I I guess you have the uh the Dolphins also in Miami. But in saying all this, what I'm getting at is that with Toronto, you know, some of these cities, when everything is there, then that city can support anything, right? Truthfully. Um, so really it just comes down to there's got to be like political will uh to to really grow soccer, aka football in Canada, and and make it work. And likewise, American football is the same thing, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, here's the thing though about TFC. They have a really big fan base. Like they have really big, like they won the they won the uh their their leagues championship uh a couple years back. I remember, I think it was a year before the Raptors won. Uh, so it was just like because then everyone just turned to the Leafs and they were like, okay, so TFC won the championship, the Marlies won the Calder Cup, the Raptors won. Um Leafs. Going on, guys. Not so much, and that's where we're done. I think I think even the Blue Jays uh you know made uh made us uh a splash in the World Series or whatever. It was just like uh and the Leafs just tanked.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that's funny. That's funny. All right, um, so let's get back to uh World Cup here. So oh, so here's a here's a story. So from the fallout of the supposed Trump call to the to FIFA, uh you the all the various legislative bodies of Europe are all calling for investigations into the head of FIFA. What? Yeah, yeah, like they're all going after him. And I don't I don't know. I mean, you know, let I I I kind of feel like let's let this sleeping dogs lie, let's let's leave this one alone. Like the U.S. lost, they got their ass kicked, let's all just move on, you know. But apparently they want to like penalize the guy.
SPEAKER_01It sounds like uh poor sportsmanship whenever I see stuff like that. You know, like lose with grace. I'm not saying you lost, you know what? Again, it always comes back to hockey for me. But do you know how many games I've watched, whether it's my team or anybody else's team, where I've seen a bad call and a team gets eliminated or whatever the case might be, and it happens.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I I think with this one, it's because this is the one and only player that got the suspension revoked. Now, the US still got their ass kicked, so it's like just just take the win and let's move on. You know what I mean? Like, like we still lost, and not only did we lose, like we lost like an embarrassing loss. Um, like at one point, the the U.S. goalkeeper, for whatever reason, has this bad habit of getting outside of where the actual goal is. And every time he does it, they they kick it right around him and it goes straight in the net, right? And so so he had a moment in that game where he was out like legitimately like 40 to 50 feet away from the goal, and he goes to kick the ball and he stubbed his foot right into the grass, and then they just took the ball from him and kicked it right in the goal. Like, come on, man.
SPEAKER_01I'm not getting I'm just gonna lay here in the grass forever. I'm not giving up until everybody leaves.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that was kind of funny. Um okay, here's a here's a good thing to talk about for World Cup. Uh, this is kind of like the last hurrah for some of the biggest names in football. So Messi, this is his last World Cup. Um Cristiano Ronaldo, this is his last World Cup. And uh Portugal already got eliminated. Obviously, Argentina, they're still in it. They play uh England tomorrow, um, which will be you know a huge game for them. Apparently, Argentina, I didn't know this. They're kind of like the Kansas City Chiefs of the World Cup. So, like the the joke with the Kansas City Chiefs is that in the NFL, they never they never get any penalties called on them, like the whole game. Like the whole game, it's just not a single penalty, and they're literally holding like every single play, every one of like Mahomes' big plays they're holding, all of them. Sounds like the Boston Bruins. Yeah, yeah. And it's kind of like, okay, you know, so apparently, um, so there was a game that Argentina had against Egypt, right? And I don't know if you know this with soccer, but there's like an offside rule that happens. And so basically, if like somebody kicks the ball down the field, the defenders always have to be like a line. You can't be beyond the defenders, it's like a way to get around that kind of like cherry-picking mentality, you know.
SPEAKER_01Same as hockey, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and so what ultimately happens is they end up calling back a lot of goals that it's like it was he barely offside. I mean, it's like, come on, you know, and and so they called back a goal that Egypt had. And so Egypt was up against Argentina 2-0, so so 2-0 at 80 minutes into the game, and at 90 is when the game's over, right? Argentina won the game 3-2 in the last 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that hurts, man.
SPEAKER_00Oh man, the the the Argentina or sorry, the uh Egyptian um coaches were pissed. I mean, they were like raging. One of the guys kept doing this like X symbol with his hands, which apparently means that there's racism in the in the stadium, and he kept doing that, and then the the uh referee gave him a yellow card. That was pretty funny, but uh, but anyway, that was the furthest, uh kind of like Norway, the furthest Egypt had ever gotten, right? And I mean they were on the verge of making it into the next round, and then they they just got shellacked in like the last 10 minutes, and everybody's like, What? Like the refs, they they turned it on a dime for Messi to you know propel them forward. And I don't know if I buy that, truthfully. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01I don't buy it either. At the end of the day, again, I gotta relate it to hockey. I've seen it happen a hundred times, you know, gold gets called back, something like that, due to like just a just a like an inch, just a tiny little you know, offside, like it like would it have even made a difference that inch kind of a call. Uh, but the you know, and the same thing goes with like penalties and all that kind of stuff. And for me, you know, it used to frustrate me, but I I agree with the saying. They say, okay, yeah, it sucks, it's hard to deal with and stuff, but the game is still on, and it's still up to the players to play, to to win. Go out there, it sucks. Meet adversity, go win.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and and great point. Like, they didn't just let up one goal, they let up three. So, so I mean, you you honestly just lost the game, and and you know what's the difference between like the really good players and and the rest of the guys is they have like a laser-like accuracy, right? So you get messy anywhere near the goal, like like he kicks the ball so hard that if the net wasn't there, it'd it'd be in like the 40th row, right? Like, like no shit. I mean, he is blasting that thing, right? But but he is like deadly accurate. It's like in the one corner of the goal, there's no way in hell the goalie can get it. And the the rest of the guys on the teams, they don't have that accuracy. So you like you'll see them get these breakaways, and everyone's like, Oh, here he goes, and then he like kicks it into like the 60th row, and you're like, what the hell was that? Like, you just blasted it way over the goal.
SPEAKER_01I mean, or right into the right into the crest of the goalie.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so the really good players, though, like Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe. I mean, this is exactly why they're so good, they're accurate, you know. Uh Erling Holland, another great example of it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's that's why they're so I mean respected globally, and they get the endorsements, and you know, that's why they make absurd amounts of money and stuff because they are so like, and it's it's funny because you see people, even myself, I see them on TV, and I'm like, oh, I mean, come on, you know, you're you're kicking a soccer ball. But oh, it's it's more than that, man. They'll kill you with that day, right? Like the accuracy and and yeah, the like the everything that goes into it, it it's always easy to look at it on a screen and go, that's that's nothing, but it's it takes so much to do what they do.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you know what was a storyline in some of these games, especially versus like the smaller countries, like Cabo Verde showed up this year, and everybody's like, Where the hell is that? I even had to look it up. Like, where is Cabo Verde? Islands off of Africa, right? Never even knew it was a country, and uh, and so anyway, uh it's been a storyline in multiple games that you have one player on the opposing side that's worth more than the entire team on the other side. Yeah, so in the case of Messi and Ronaldo, they're billionaires, yeah, billion, okay. Like, what these guys are billionaires. I mean, it's it's insane, you know. And then they're playing like a Cabo Verde that it's like shoestring budget, you know. Like, I don't even know how they afforded the flight over here.
SPEAKER_01They could buy that team and own it, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Kind of a a wild story, but um, anyway, another storyline that's been going on in this World Cup is how loaded the French team is. So France is stacked, okay? Like they've got Mbappé, and and so in the all-time uh World Cup goals list, Mbappé is like maybe two goals behind Messi, and Messi is like 10 years plus older than him. So Mbappe is gonna crush his his record at some point, right? But so they've got Mbappe on there, he's he's like unstoppable. Um, they've got uh Dembele, he's he's really good, another really good French player. They've got Duet, like the the whole team is kind of like an all-star team, honestly, for the French team. Now, I say that knowing that France is playing Spain right now, and I can't watch the game. So uh, you know, if if some crazy thing happens here, I I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Are you are you recording you're recording it, I assume, right?
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah, yeah. I will I will absolutely be watching on Peacock later, of course, you know. Um Darn it wife. Yeah, sorry. Um, yep, thanks. Um but anyway, so so in the final four right now, you've got France, Spain, and you have Argentina and England. And England, like I said, big bodies. Bellingham has that like fire of like a Michael Jordan. I mean, he might he might take them all the way. Um we it it sounds kind of crazy to say that because England hasn't hasn't been that far in a quite a while. Um, but they look really good. Argentina looks good uh at times, but other times they they look crappy for like the most of the game, and then they just sort of turn it on like they did against Egypt, right? Um, and then Spain, like I said, has that really young guy, the the phenom, who's gonna be another great player. So uh overall it's been a hell of a tournament. Really good.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so to wrap things up here, are you ready to hurt some feelings?
SPEAKER_00If I haven't yet, I mean uh come on, you know. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Who's who's winning it?
SPEAKER_00Ooh. Okay. So my son, the whole time, has been adamant that it's France from like the day one. He was like, France's gonna win it, they have everybody. France is in the the final four, you know. They have everybody, but he's he's kind of got a point, like they got everybody, right? Um now, granted, I don't know what's happening in the game right now, but France should beat Spain, should. Um, when it comes to Argentina and England, Argentina has Messi, the best player in the tournament, no question. But England has a really good defense, and Bellingham has been on fire. So I kind of feel like England could upset Argentina, and if it really came down to England and France, um raise yourselves. Oh god, this is a tough one because again, France has so much power, it it would be really hard to go against France, but England has really good defense, and they've got Bellingham. So it would be an upset if England won and beat France. Um underdog? Here's here's the here's the hangup I have, right? This this is my hang-up, and this kind of goes back to the NFL. A good defense always beats a good offense, always.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_00And so here we are in the World Cup. The good defense is England, the good offense would be France. I I hate to say it, but I gotta go England, you know?
SPEAKER_01Gotta go England defense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm going defense.
SPEAKER_01So the uh the uh the immovable object and the unstoppable force.
SPEAKER_00I know, I know. It's it's tough, and ultimately, maybe France will uh just dominate everybody. I don't know. But but England has had a really good England has um there's a guy they've been bringing in, I think his name is Byrne. They bring him in, he's like lurch, you know, he's like 6'8 or whatever, you know, big lanky English guy, and they put him there in front of the goal. It's like good luck scoring anything, you know. Yeah, yeah. I I mean, you know, when when Mexico played England, I kind of felt bad for Mexico because they they had like the fire and the finesse and the fast legs, and England was just bigger than them, you know.
SPEAKER_01Well, there you have it, guys. Hopefully we hurt some feelings today, and uh uh maybe you'll rub it in our faces later because I'm gonna have to go with uh with with Jesse on this. I'm gonna have to say defense is gonna win it. I am a hockey guy, and as we see in the playoffs, it's it's not the star forwards that get it done in the playoffs, it is the depth scoring, and what provides the depth scoring the opportunity to do what they do, the defense.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, and and and not only that, I think that Bellingham has been very complimentary to the English defense in the sense that he he's just been on fire. And so if he has a good game these last two games, England is very formidable. Um, and the and the funny thing too with England is that the star power name is Harry Kane, their their other kind of main striker. But truthfully, Bellingham, Bellingham's where it's at. I mean, God, he's really good, really good.
SPEAKER_01All right, guys. Well, there you have it. Let us know who you think is gonna win, and we'll see who ends up being right. Could be fun. Maybe we'll do a follow-up episode in the final two, and we'll see.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and let me just say also that just because I'm picking England, I am not telling you to go bet on Callshi or Pro Polymarket that England's gonna win the game. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying my personal pick is England.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, not financial advice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01All right, guys. Well, as always, give us a five star review. Like, follow, subscribe, do what you gotta do. For myself, big rob, take care, guys. We will see you next time.
SPEAKER_00Shift out.