First Things First - Paraguay beats Germany, Morocco beats Netherlands, Brazil beats Japan, Darren Fletcher joins

Episode Date: June 30, 2026

(0:00) Germany eliminated by Paraguay, Time to believe in Brazil? (27:36) Darren Fletcher joins (45:41) LeBron and AD trade rumors (51:28) Netherlands lose to Morocco, How surprising was this loss? (01:11:08) Malik Beasley, Ed Davis indicted in sports gambling scheme (01:23:13) Will Haaland or Mbappe have a bigger game?  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The excitement of the FIFA World Cup is now streaming live on Fox One, the official English streaming platform to catch every unforgettable moment. Fox One brings the action straight to your screen so you never miss a goal. Download Fox One and experience the FIFA World Cup live. Not quite able to want to bring it under control. Sano's broken that up in the middle of the field and carries on with his run. Sano has scored! Gabriel, yet another cross, and this time,

Hand side, cut back and not taking advantage of it. Tanaka's given the ball away there. Bruno Gimerize. Oh, and here's a chance. Matinelli. Position for Paraguay. Filled with upsets, it's the first hour of first things first. One non-ups.

What do you mean? Three games yesterday. One favorite one. Barely. I'm kind of lucky, but they got through. You, winning in advance. It's their latest. winning goal in the history of the program and the country.

It certainly, they certainly didn't have as tough of the time as the other two favorites yesterday. Yeah, but they were in third. They certainly did. First hour, first thing's first today. After a somewhat impressive win, do we think Brazil can now win? Meanwhile, LeBron to the Warriors, the coolest movie can make or just a leverage play? Oh, man. And finally, voice of the World Cup, Darren Fletcher joins the show.

Starring role in yesterday's program. And he'll be with us today as well, alongside Chris Broussard. I'm Kevin Wilde, who has some ideas. I have some great ideas for Darren Fletcher. I can't wait to talk to him. I also am watching that Mboppe gifted that goal. He didn't get near the who were they playing? I don't even remember when they win France.

I think Qatar. Didn't get nearly the venom for the win. Haiti was giving up goals to my beloved Brazilian. Well, he keeps scoring. That helps too. We're starting today's show in Boston. Germany is going home. Despite controlling the game, the German team missed three penalties

in Paraguay pulled off the fourth largest upset in knockout stage history. Germany was FIFA ranked 10. Paraguay was 41. Here was Haveritz after the game. after the game? Yeah, I don't know. Shock probably is a good word. It's hard to find words after something like this because we came here with a goal in our head

and especially also after the last couple of tournaments. We had big goals and I thought we were in a good way and then to go out like this, not easy. Okay, Bru, what was your biggest takeaway from Germany being upset? upset. Well, my first thought was they are what I thought they were. All right. Now, I told you guys last week, when Nick was saying they

could compete for the championship, I said, give me the U.S., give me Portugal over Germany. And here they are gone. They're no longer one of those top tier powers. Their head coach said it after the game, right? Like the last

two previous two World Cups, they didn't even get to the knock out round. This one they get bounced by, I mean, shout out to Paraguay, but they were one of the last teams to qualify for the round of 32. So

this is a huge upset and my second thought, Wiles, was, this is both a warning and motivation for Team USA. Okay. A warning in that don't take anybody lightly. And I'm not saying, I mean, maybe Germany

did take them lightly. They didn't play well, obviously. But don't take anybody lightly. Anything can happen in this tournament. That's the warning. You got Bosnia. You're supposed to beat them handily, but don't take it lightly.

Germany was a much bigger favorite over Paraguay than we are over Bosnia. Just for whatever it's worth. And we blasted Paraguay. So don't let this get you big-headed. And like, oh, wow, Germany lost to the team. We took out easily. Secondly, the motivation, same thing.

Anything can happen. Just what Poitititino's been telling you, why not us? If Paraguay can beat Germany, why can't the U.S. beat anybody in this tournament? We got to stay locked in. I know it sounds huge. Collectively, we all need to stay locked in on Wednesday. I'm not predicting they will.

I'm just saying this shows you that you could lose to anybody, but you could beat anybody. So you have to stay locked in to your point. And so, yeah, I think it's good for the U.S. And they can learn some lessons for this and shame on Germany. You know I'm beloved around the world, right? You are. We have someone visiting the show this week from Singapore just to meet you.

Excellent. That's true story. Yeah. All the way from Singapore, longest flight in the world, 19 hours to meet Kevin Wild. So I'm beloved around the world. Great. At the same time, some of my World Cup. uptakes, putting a little stress on my international treasure title.

International treasure. International treasure. I didn't as well as well. Just because I'm out here tweeting, hey, Germany, this is when their goal, before their goal was disallowed, I wrote Germany had got their second goal at minute 102. We scored our second goal in minute 31, and we won four to one. Little transitive property, little bit of common opponent. I think it is very fair to say, hold on, how good is Team USA? If Paraguay looked pretty good, they just beat Germany.

We, be honest, we crushed Paraguay. So before we talked about this journey, how high do you think I am allowed? Do you think it's unfair? And we know all the, you know, transitive property, common opponents. It's not perfect. It's not perfect, but something. No, I think it does speak to. Our view of Paraguay was colored massively by our probably subconscious view of the U.S.

team, which is, I think we went into this tournament feeling like, hey, the U.S. team is definitely solid, hopefully good. And when the U.S. team dominated an opponent like that, yes, it improved our opinion of the U.S. team, but I think subconsciously or consciously, we were like, and that team must be off. And that was the prevailing wisdom. Correct. And then you see them.

Now, listen, Paraguay got, I thought, outplayed yesterday, but not outplayed enough to where it wasn't within the margins. You know what I mean? And so the, I didn't feel like Paraguay dominated Germany, but they, they were able, you know, to make the big, make some big saves. they got a little fortunate on the call, but they showed they could hang with them for 120 minutes and then the penalty kicks become a bit of a coin flip.

And then you dig a little deeper into while we got into it a bit yesterday because I don't care as much about friendlies as some. I do care a lot about your path in qualifying. Because in qualifying, in theory, you're playing as many of your best guys as you can. To qualify for the World Cup, Paraguay, beat Brazil. They beat Argentina.

They beat Uruguay. They had a draw with Colombia. They had a draw with Ecuador. Now, they also lost to those, a few of those teams along the route to qualification. It wasn't like a single elimination. But my point is, they have played a number of games of the last 18 months or so in the lead-up to the World Cup. Again, some of the, all those teams are still. Turkey.

Turkey-A, beat them. Turkey A soundly. But I was just listing teams all that are still in the tournament. Yeah. And now Germany, and they've beaten them. So I do think it is fair KW to say if you're one to 100 confidence in the U.S. going into yesterday's game was an 82, that now it's an 85. Or, I mean, I don't know if you, again.

Higher. No, that's, do you want to go further before I do a Germany thing? The one other thing that makes me a little bit nervous about our game against Bosnia, Hertzcomania, is the fact that some teams go into these games thinking, let's get it to penalties. So here was Germany versus Paraguay by the numbers. Germany had possession for 76% of this game. It's the third highest by any team in a knockout game since 66. This is the one.

One shot to seven. Expected goals. I mean, they literally had one taken off the board. your opponent's half, 522 passes to 76. Paraguay is just going to sit back like, hey, let's just put up a wall and hope we can get to penalties

and it worked out. Japan didn't do something. We'll get to Japan. Didn't do something similar against Brazil when they were holding on to that one. It's also why the U.S.'s ability

to score early so critical. Yeah, that's true. Paraguay wouldn't have been able to do that had Germany scored early. Yeah. Like, that's how those things can change. just said Paraguay had a lead going to the half. I do, for 60 seconds here,

I have to say some about Germany. Because for the entirety of the history of the World Cup, up until a decade ago, and maybe still, but two teams have levitated above the tournament, Brazil and Germany. As of 2014, they had four championships

and the rest of Europe combined post-World War II. had four championships. They, from the end of World War II until 2014, I put this in tweet form, so I'll just go through it. That's, I'll explain it quickly. There were 16 World Cups from 54 to 14. Germany won four, came in second four times, lost in the semis four times,

and lost in the quarterfinals four times. A loss in the quarterfinals was a catastrophe. It was the worst they had done. Sure. Since then, they got grouped, they got grouped, and then they lost pre-round of 16, which used to mean you got grouped. It is incomprehensible what has happened to the German soccer team

over the last three World Cups. KW, they had either one, they had played in a final every decade from 1950 until the 2020s, and that's now snapped. So I don't, listen, I'm not smart enough to figure out, you know, why, what's gone wrong, how much is bad luck, bad managing, I don't know. But it is insane what has happened to this, you know, arguably the second greatest soccer nation world history. All right.

The Paraguay faces the winner of France, Sweden, which is happening today at 5 o'clock on Fox. All right. Well, head to Houston, where Brazil scores their late. latest game winning goal in the team's World Cup history. Martinelli subbed on in the 65th minute wins it 40 minutes later. Brazil moves on. Japan goes home. Nick, you predicted a 2-1 win that would leave me unimpressed.

That was an excellent call. Are you more confident in Brazil after their comeback victory? Absolutely. I thought they were more than shaky for 10, 15 minutes after the hydration break. I thought they dominated the first 15 minutes of the game, and then right after the hydration break, they seemed, they didn't play well at all. And it looked like Japan, once they got that goal, Japan might be able to just sit there and dare them to score. But then in that second half, Brazil could have scored four times. And this is now a fourth straight game where teams have not scored a single goal against Brazil is what all called.

set defense. Like if you look, they've allowed two goals this tournament. Both have been on their own mistakes, on passes at midfield. And what I, again, I'm going to mix metaphors here, but I would call kind of breakaways. Now, again, that can get you beat, but that is not the, what you haven't seen. I mean, that's how Japan scored. And if we show the Morocco goal and you're going to see, it's a very similar circumstance. Yeah, it's playing out of the midfield. Yeah, playing out of the midfield and go and score. No one has scored or even come close to scoring outside of those two plays. And the box score stats that you just showed are even more dramatic in this regard for

this game. Not quite the possession. The expected goals 2.1 to 0.3, big chances 5 to nothing. Shots 19 to 5, shots on target 7 to 2, touches an opponent's box 35 to 10. You then add to it, KW, that I think as the tournament progresses, and I said this, This is not, you know, Monday morning quarterbacking, or revisionist history. I said it when it happened. That Morocco tie is going to look better and better as this tournament goes on.

Like, I think Morocco has a very real chance of being in the semifinals again, like it was last World Cup. And then you also have the reminder that, in my opinion, they have a guy on their team who might be the best player in the world. he might be. For as much as we talk about Mbapé, he's a good player. He's very good. I wouldn't go to have. Well, this is what I'll say.

He and Mbapi play on the same team. He has finished top two Bollendor. Mbapé hasn't. He was the FIFA men's player of the year in 2024, not Mbapé. He has not performed at the World Cup like Mbapé. Mbapes is a World Cup legend, and he has... Ambapy doesn't have it, Valandor? No.

Dimbele does. But Mbapes' best Ballandoor finishes third. He finished 7th. second two years ago. And you saw this play from him that didn't result in a goal. But it was, this was as good as any play from any player in the tournament. That's not a call, I guess. I mean, it was, and so, and I believe they'll have Rafenia coming back.

And they said after the game like, hey, if we needed Namar, like they were ready to go with him. So all of that, plus the fact that they might have the greatest manager in the history of the sport on the sideline, fully calm, I don't know after watching yesterday how you could not be more confident. But was I, I was correct on my score prediction, was I correct on my, don't play the video because KW said it, was I correct on my other prediction that Brazil would win 2-1 and you would be out here unimpressed. I wasn't overly impressed. I knew you were going to do this.

With Brazil, when you need a goal in the 105th minute. Well, that wasn't the 105th, but that's fine. But 95th at most. It couldn't have been. It didn't go to extra time. Oh, okay. The 100 and the sorry. 95th.

95th minute. Yeah, I didn't, I thought it was, they were fine. They won the game in Japan. Japan was trying to hold on. You picked Japan to win. I know. And they almost won. They didn't almost win.

You can't say a team that. Brazil had their latest winning goal in the history of their World Cup. They didn't win for one. Like, if France, I'll check, if France wins today for nothing, I'll be like, was that impressive? There's no other answer except yes. I under. If France wins in the 95th minute, 2-1, I think it's fair to say, eh, I wasn't that impressed. It was good victory, but I wasn't that impressed.

That is totally fair. But then, but then, and again, I don't want, what do you say? You were nervous. I don't want to disagree. How long were you nervous in that game? I was, I said it to halftime. I was never nervous once. You were never nervous in that game?

You weren't nervous down one-nothing? No, I wasn't. I did not think Brazil was going to score zero goals. I did not think that Brazil was going to all of a sudden not figure out how to score against the team trying to park the bus. What about the potential of it going to penalty kicks? But it wouldn't know. I mean, to me, it was never had a potential to go to penalty kicks because this is the part that I am frustrated with your. Had they not scored that final goal, Japan then was going to have to hold on for another 30 minutes.

I didn't think they felt like the dam was going to. Exactly. And so the, but what is you got, and there's what I was trying to say. What do you say? I don't want to be disagreeable, but I disagree. Yeah. You got visibly annoyed with me yesterday when I said, I think Brazil's going to win two one. And you're going to say you're unimpressed.

And you said, no, I think Brazil's been fine. I just wanted them to score six against Haiti and they didn't. If they came out in the first half, it was two nothing and Japan got sort of a garbage time goal. That is a very different 2-1 score than being down 1-0, scoring one goal in the second half and one goal in the 95th minute. It's still 2-1, correct? Yes, of course. I thought you agreed with me that Brazil thoroughly and utterly dominated the second half.

Yes, I disagreed with Japan's style of play. I think Japan had no chance at winning the World Cup. So, man, just go out there and play. It's not, especially when you see that your defense is not. not going to hold up. But that might be why they didn't get beat for nothing. That's my point. Like you're kind of having it both ways.

Like they played a very defensive style, which made it very difficult for Brazil to win by margin. And so like that, to me, it cuts against each other. Look, I wasn't impressed either. But I said it during the NBA playoffs, and I say it now. I think it applies to the World Cup too. Win in advance. Winning advanced.

That's right. That's all they did. They advanced. And I will give, I thought their coach made a couple of nice substitution in second half. Getting Indrick in there. I think that was a big part of their second half attack. I mean, yeah, they played just so much faster with him. And then Martinelli, who a lot of people, I don't know if they thought that early,

but some of the Brazilian fans may have wanted to see Namar, you know. And he goes in there, hadn't, you know, hadn't lit it up and scores the winning goal. halftime, the commentators were calling for him to bench Casamiro. Yeah. And then he left him in and Casamiro was great. Angelotti is the most important person on the team other than Vinny. Brazil awaits the winner of Norway Ivory Coast, which is today in Dallas. We're going to head to the NBA.

John Morant's run in Memphis is over. He's headed to Portland in a deal that sends Jeremy Grant and Chris Murray to the Grizzlies. Only played 20 games last year, bro. Put up some career lows and shooting percentage. like this fresh start for Jah and the move for the Blazers. Well, this was a salary dump for both teams. I mean,

Jeremy Grant, they've been trying to get off Portland been trying to get off his two years $70 million that's left on his contract for a year. The Grizzlies obviously trying to get off Jai couldn't really find any takers. So, here's

the thing. For Portland, a couple of months ago, looked like a young team that was building something. Now, I get it. You're in the West. You got San Antonio and O KC right there. That's tough.

But they looked like they were building around. Denny Avdia, he's going to be our focal point. Say it, bro. And Donovan clinging. And then you got, you got, what? Say it. One other young guy, they're building around. Oh, Scoot.

Scoot is on the team. I really thought. I really thought of him about to say they're building around a little bit. For a couple days, they might be getting moved for all we know. Sorry, I'm going to get to that. But then you were going to bring Dame Lillard back and Drew Holiday as like veteran leaders that maybe can help establish a culture for the young guys. All right.

Now they look like for all John's talent, and I think I'm the one on this show that holds out the most hope for John and that hasn't completely written him off and all that. Obviously, he's talented beyond measure, but now they look like a potential powder keg. I mean, maybe not even potential powder keg. They got John Morant, Dame Lillard, Scoot Henderson, Shaden Sharp, and Drew Holiday in their back court. Who's, I mean, how is that going to work? And then they don't have, they're short on front court type players. Can I jump in real quick just.

We're going to get to the coach in in in a second. No, not at the last. I know, but when you say, I just think people might take what you said out of context. When you say powder keg, you're talking about purely in not enough minutes for all these guys to play. Yeah, I mean, which leads to bad attitudes. People being upset. Scoot Henderson's trying to establish himself. Yes.

And now you're bringing in job. I mean, what it looks like to me is there's a second move coming. I agree. And whether it's sharp and scoot, as you mentioned, maybe. try to get Jalen Brown for that, but they can, to go into the season like this, with all these guys who you can say deserve minutes and are at different points of their career, dames coming back to his team, you know he wants to play and should, Drew is still incredibly productive, was your best player in the playoffs maybe,

or next to Avdia, and then Sharp, they just gave four years 90, million on an extension and Scoot's trying to establish himself and Jai is trying to resurrect his career. They're all going to want big minutes and you have a coach and Micah Norrie who I think can be a good coach who is on a one year prove it deal. So all these players are going to want to be playing. The coach has no authority because the front office and ownership won't back him. So it's going to be so tough on him to.

to make these decisions. He can make them, and then guys are going to be upset, and they know he has no authority there. So that's what I mean by a powder keg. Now, if a second big move is coming, then that'll be great. But right now, a lot of talent, John Dame in the back court, maybe years ago, you would have been like, oh, that's great.

But remember, I've had the ball in his hands last year. So he's not going to have that this year. Correct. So it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it, It's a mismatched roster, say to least. They've got to be doing something else. And I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just wanted to clip.

When we're talking about a player who was pantomime throwing grenades into the crowd, I figured it was a powder tag guy. I want to make sure everybody knew. That wouldn't even think about that. I know you weren't. I, my reaction was I feel sick for Memphis fans, that this is the way it ends. After year three of John Morant's career in Memphis,

he was coming off being the most improved player, All-MBA second team, averaging 27 a game. His running mate, Jaron Jackson, Jr., won defensive player of the year. They won 56 games, and they threw a real scare into the Golden State Warriors who would go on to win the title, I believe, that year. And Jock got hurt in the series. You know what I'm not saying they would have won, but still, you don't. They look like OKC. Like the, you know.

The OKC from a couple years ago, absolutely. And since then, since that series, John Morant has played 82 games, including the playoffs. Since that offseason, the following offseason, pardon me, I apologize, not since that series. The next year they won 51 to loss the Lakers. And since then is when he has played 82 games since then. And that was the off season where he had the second video of the,

gun stuff and that suspension plus the injuries plus what I consider to be a shocking decay as a player. Yeah. I mean, we talked after that year 3KW. All he needs to is out a jump shot. That's going on the other direction. He's one of the worst jump shooters in the league. He's had his worst three-point shooting year in the league.

And so I- And not getting to the rim like he used to. Correct. And so I, the, I think this is a great spot for him. KW. Like it is, I wasn't joking when I said,

I think Miami would not be a good place for him. Like Portland, I think, is, you know. You just mean the city? The city, yeah. I just mean being a place where

there's, yeah, where you're kind of off on your own. There's not as much other things going on. Memphis is on its own as well, but Memphis is, you know, maybe there's a little more.

Good leadership challenge for Dean, too. It's like John's not going to be the leader of the team. I think, I assume Drew will go somewhere else. But I agree with Brew that another trade might be. Darren Fletcher joins us next

to talk about Brazil's win. Brazil will have their eyes on this game since they play the winner of Ivory Coast, Norway, which is today at 1 on Fox from Dallas. Stay with us. When you're a mid-sized business, you need every competitive

advantage you can get. Like an AI solution that works for you, not against you. SAP Grow is built with AI embedded at its core working across every system and it's ready to go from day one so you can hit the ground running bring it with sap grow AI cloud ERP for any size business welcome back to first things for i love holland if he didn't just sit on the bench for the old french game i he scored twice his first two games he didn't play against this you don't love the rowing the rowing you're over it

it's all right you you won the low i i know Norway lost Norway lost Norway lost me when no one played against France. Yeah. I just, right. You so. I loved the rowing. I loved the enthusiasm. I loved the hats with the horns.

But I also love watching superstars play and not just rest. Up for the Ivory Coast. See if you can get on the board with Ivory Coast today at 1. What are they called? Viking helmets, I think. But I like hats with horns to me. Winner of Norway, way, Ivory Coast will play Brazil after their late victory over Japan yesterday.

Some people like Nick are very high on Brazil. Some people take a more measured approach to their prospects, like our next guest, one of the voices of the World Cup on Fox. Darren Fletcher, Darren, thank you for your realistic and measured takes on Team Brazil's chances. We've had to deal with Nick's enthusiasm. We feel like it's gone a little overboard. We appreciate you tamping it down on the broadcast. Yeah, well, look, I mean, I've seen a lot of Brazilian teams going right back to 1982. And I made the point during the broadcast the other night that I think this is probably the worst Brazil team I've seen in a World Cup.

The caveat would be that doesn't mean I don't think they can potentially win the World Cup because they've got the best coach in the tournament. They've got maybe the two best central defenders in the tournament and arguably the best goalkeeper and Vinicius Jr. but I'm thinking about these great Brazilian teams in the past that we're all about attacking football, Zico, Socrates, Romario, Ronaldino, R9, I mean, some great players. This is a different type of Brazil team. And I just don't see that wonderful ability to entertain an attack, which is pretty much the Brazilian hallmark.

I was thinking this morning, you know, the New York Yankees can't become Billy Beans, Oakland A's. They've got to be the Bronx bombers. And Brazil have got to be a certain type of team. So even though they could potentially win it, I just think there's a lot of flaws in this particular Brazilian version. Oh, wow.

You see what's happening? Hold on, do you see what's happening? You, much like my buddy, KW, is trying to prime the pump for if and when Brazil does win the World Cup. One nothing. You can still be like, you know what? Not that impressed. I've seen better.

Like, that's what's happening here. Squeaking out. And so, Here is, because you laid it out a lot of my rationale, which was, I think that Carlo Encelotti being the best manager maybe ever, I think the best in this tournament, huge checkmark in their favor. An excellent goalkeeper and maybe the best defense in the tournament, or certainly top three, huge checkmark in their favor.

And I think the defense has been shown by the fact they haven't allowed a goal in the tournament against their, what I would call set defense. and then who I think is underrated in America's eye in Vinny Jr. Because he hasn't performed at the World Cup like the other best players in the world have. How much, you know, given that and what I thought was a dominant 2-1 victory over Japan yesterday, even though the goal line didn't show it, are you starting to believe a little more in Brazil? And then we'll leave you alone on Brazil. What I would say is I think in this World Cup, the coach is more important than ever.

And I heard you guys talking about the prospects for the US earlier. And I think the fact that Maricio Pocetino is the head coach of the United States gives you a greater chance in the tournament than you would have had with previous head coaches. And I think the hydration breaks, the match break, whatever you want to call them, that gives a coach like Ancelotti, a coach like Potitino, the chance to make a just Obviously in football there's no such thing as a timeout so a coach can only do his work in a certain way. But when you've got a situation where you've got the best coach in the tournament and you've got a break of three minutes with your team, you can make a lot of changes, a lot of adjustments.

You can affect the game in a different way. I also think the conditions are very much in Brazil's favour. I think European teams will start to find it difficult the longer the tournament goes, particularly with an extra round, the round of 32. So I think there are a lot of factors in Brazil's favour. And the man on the street at the moment, I think, is maybe a bigger factor than some of the players that we've spoken about. And yeah, look, there is a scenario where they could win the World Cup. But I just look at France and I look at Argentina. And right now, they feel a long way ahead of everybody else in terms of where the tournament actually is.

I think everybody else is kind of fighting for that next level. And I've put Brazil in that level. Having said that, Brazil against Argentina, if they meet in the World Cup, is so unpredictable. because the rivalry goes back such a long way. So that would be great to watch. But I just look at the impact of Mbapé and the other three attacking players on the French team. I see Messi in the way that that entire Argentina team

galvanizes itself around that individual player. I just think they're in front of Brazil. So while you can make a case for Carlo, the defenders, the goalkeeper and Vinnie maybe being good enough to win the World Cup, I just think everybody's behind the two nations that I've just mentioned. But you mentioned Mbapé and France play Sweden this afternoon. What are your, I mean, expectations, it sounds like, for France to win. But tell us a little bit about that game.

Chris, it's the game that we're going to call later today, Owen and I. So we're really excited about it. We've seen Sweden twice. I saw Sweden play against the Netherlands and concede five goals. I then saw Sweden in the next match get a 1-1 draw. Two brilliant Anthony O'Langer goals by the United. the way, in both of those games. But they're only in this situation because they scored five against Tunisia. A lot of people think they shouldn't actually be here because they only got two

points in qualification and based on Nations League form, they got themselves into the playoffs. There's a huge chasm between France and Sweden. If Sweden beat the French today, that's going to be one of the big shocks of this tournament because the gap between the nations is vast. I have no idea how the Sweden defense can cope with Dezere Duay, Usman D'Ampe, Killein Apape, and Michael Alise. I just don't see it. I can see this being decided heavily in France's favor because I just can't make a case. Even though what we saw yesterday, penalty kicks, shock results, I don't think this is going

to be one of them. So that's my question. I'm a little bit, I was a little bit worried about even Team USA and France is my second team that could Sweden use a technique like Japan tried like Paraguay was successful doing, where Germany had the ball for 76% of the time. They had hundreds of more passes completed than Paraguay. But Paraguay said, we're going to sit back and hope we get to penalties. You don't think Sweden can execute that strategy?

Kevin, I don't. Simply because when you look at the four players, the attacking four for France, They are so, they're so consistent in terms of taking the chances. If you look at the Germany team, this is not a strong Germany team. And if you look at the way the Netherlands played last night, they didn't try and win the game. So there are factors against those nations. Germany have not been good for a while. I saw you having a conversation earlier and looking at how they've been in World Cups in recent times.

For some strange reason, they now don't produce German players. I was speaking to Owen about this this morning because he was at Bayern Munich. And he said there was a particular type of German player, a physically, player. It fitted the ethos of what a Germany team is going to be in a World Cup, whether that's West Germany or a unified Germany, and they don't build those kind of players anymore. But if you're going to try and use the statistics that we saw yesterday to try and make a case for Sweden being able to win, this is maybe the deadliest front four in the entire competition. You think about the number of goals and Mbapé scores for Real Madrid. You think about the ability for Alisei to create

and score. Duay has dominated a Champions League final as a teenager and Demp Valle's won at Ballondeau. These players don't turn up on the big occasion and then somehow fluff their lines and don't get the job done. I mean, this is a clinical football team. This is a football team that once it's scored one goal, it wants to score two goals. When it gets two goals, it wants to score three goals. What they want to do is put their foot on your throat and make sure you really know that you've been in a game against these guys. This is going to take one hell of a team to stop them. And I think the only team that I look at in the tournament that's built that way is Argentina because they're a group. They're a solid unit. They're a team. Everybody

sacrifices for each other. So there is a possibility that they could do it. But this is a huge mismatch today between Sweden and France. Make no mistake about that. Imagine how frustrating it's going to be for France on July 19th and 100 degree New York weather when Brazil is just absolutely holding them to zero in the world. Cup final. Just imagine Carlo Aiglotti wearing a three-piece suit not sweating a drip. It's going to be glorious.

All right. So I think one of the stories of this tournament has been the continent of Africa and the African teams overperforming and we saw that continue yesterday with Morocco

not just beating the Netherlands but Morocco I thought thoroughly outplayed the Netherlands and almost scared the Netherlands into a very conservative game plan. After the game, I thought Thierryon-Ibrahimovych were unbelievable in, you know, really showing their, for lack of better term, disgust with the Netherlands not playing what they called Dutch football.

What was your takeaway on the Netherlands approach to the game yesterday? I want to give Morocco credit, but it also felt like the Netherlands almost played into Morocco's hands. Nick, I agree with what you said a few moments ago. Brazil result against Morocco will look better the longer the tournament goes. They're a good team, and we shouldn't sleep on Morocco by any stress of the imagination. Saibari's one of the stars of the World Cup. He's a growing star on the European scene as well, a player that we all enjoy watching. I was so disappointed yesterday from a Netherlands perspective, very similar to Brazil. I've been brought

up on great Dutch teams. You go back to Croix team in 74, the team in 78 that got to the final in Argentina. You think about Hullet, Reichard, Bambast and the team that won the Euros in 1988, some great players, attacking players, players who get you on the edge of your seat, get you to stand up and applaud in stadiums. It was such a bad game plan yesterday for Ronald Kuhmann, not giving his team the opportunity to win.

And by the way, they should know better than anybody that the Dutch and penalty shootouts mix about as well as oil and water. So that's not a tactic that the Netherlands want to employ. They cannot win penalty shootouts. It's virtually impossible. I agreed with Zlatan Thierry, the guys in the studio, they had to be more expansive, they had to try and win the game. And the fact they didn't, I think it was the right result for football, the fact that Morocco went in. But isn't it great?

I mean, I was privileged enough to be in the stadium the day that DR Congo got the draw against Ronaldo and Portugal. To see the faces of the supporters who have sacrificed so much to be there, to see what it meant to them, to see what it meant to the players. I mean, so many great stories in this World Cup. And wouldn't it be great if come World Cup final day, there's an African nation in continent so proud? Speaking of strategy and approach, Darren, Norway, we frowned on Norway not playing their players, particularly Holland, during, against France. Are we overreacting, you know, we Americans, like, get out there and play it's the World Cup. As a show, we're out on Norway. Did we overreact?

I heard some people say that's just their mindset over there. What did you think about that? No, we were surprised as well. Owen and I were sat in a restaurant when the team came out. And I couldn't believe because they could still win the group. If you get the result against France and you win the group, then your pathway to a potential place in the final is obviously easier. I couldn't believe that they'd almost decided, well, we can't win this match.

So we're just going to rest everybody and then we'll take whatever route we get because that's, I think from the coach to the players, that's the wrong message to send. You've got to be saying to your team in this tournament, listen, we can be anybody, we're here to win the whole thing. We've got to go at the top end of the pitch as the best in the world in Erling Harland, so if we can get chances for him, we can score. The fact they didn't do that, I think sends a really negative message to the entire group. And I'm going to be fascinated to see whether that leaves an impact on them.

Because if they were playing Sweden today, then that's a far easier game than the one they've actually got. Their pathway to the final now is a lot more difficult. And I think that's a massive own goal by the coach. You just can't do that. I mean, they're playing every five days as well, guys. It's not as if you're playing every day. So all of a sudden, you've got to be resting. Oh, we got to go to Dallas. They complain about the

travel. Yeah. And by the way, and by the way, even if they beat Ivory Coast, Norway set themselves up to play that juggernaut Brazil, which nobody wants to do. All right, just very quick, before you go. Because I said this off the air and on the air. Listen, we have

some amazing broadcast duo calling this World Cup. Ian Dark is an all-time legend along with Landon, obviously John Strong and Stu Holden, who are friends of the show have done it. I think you and Owen are as good as anybody and it was really thrilling to

hear you guys mention our show during the broadcast. So we thank you for that. You then told us that over in Europe, you listen to our podcast when you're walking the dog, so you might be familiar with some of our bits. So I'm not you've already done a lot for the show

just some I a couple ideas quickly is you open to taking these well is you just get he's not going to turn off the Zoom so just an idea similar to Gordon getting Mboppe to do the flute yeah if during a game that you're calling

a team is right about to win or maybe make it further than they've ever made it first things first no KW I don't know I think it's a I've got, I've got, just let me, I got this. This is for you, though. My God, Owen, Sweden, on the doorstep of destiny.

That's an idea. Just an idea. Doorstep of destiny. I'm going to write this down. I'm going to write this down. Doorstep of destiny. France is on the doorstep. Okay, that's fine.

But I'm just saying, I'm not saying where it has to be. So doorstep of destiny, if it's a team, like, going further than they've ever gone. First thing. Just hold a horn. Oh, we're about to kick off. First things first. Please let me, I got one. 10 o'clock on FS 1.

First thing, you could say first things first. That works too. But what a wild goal. Hold on. Kevin Wilde. Make me a sandwich. No, I've got one for you, Brew. I promise.

I thought, I put a lot of thought into this. Sorry. You're ruining it. Sorry. If there is a substitute, a controversial substitution or penalty decision by the referee, say to Owen. Owen, I don't like that. I love it.

Like the old misdirection. And this one's maybe obvious if a team similar to Brazil yesterday, like it looks like it's in peril, but it never really was. Right as the game's ending. Oh, and I've got to tell you, there was never a doubt. France would win. Just an idea. Just an idea.

If you could drop one of those in, just an idea. Listen, I can promise you, not only will I drop one of those in, I'm going to get all four in. Today during France, they're all getting in. I don't like it and I love it. Oh, my God. Here's the go. This is easy enough.

What I do need, I need by way of repayment, though, Nick, from you. So we're heading to Kansas City on Thursday for Columbia's game against Ghana. So I need great barbecue in Kansas City. So listen. Where do I go in Casey? So you can't go. So you can't go wrong, and everyone's going to tell you Jack Stack, they're going to tell you Joe's Kansas City.

Those are all, they're going to tell you Gates. Those are all great options. But if you want an authentic Kansas City barbecue experience, go to Arthur Bryant's in the historic Jazz District, and down the block from Arthur Bryant's is the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame and the Jazz Museum. You can make an afternoon out of it. You can see the Negro League Baseball Hall of Fame,

the Jazz Museum, Arthur Bryant's, get the burn ends. It'll be the best afternoon you can spend. For real. That'll be great. Excellent. Super. You know what I'm going to say to that? I don't like it. I love it.

Yeah. You nailed it. You nailed it. All right. Thank you, Dan. All right, we're counting down to France, Sweden, today at 5 from New York. Darren will be on the call. Mbapé will be on the pitch.

Dembele, looking for his feet. fifth goal. He was the second fastest hat trick on World Cup history. That's in six hours and ten minutes. Listen to Darren on the call. Thank you, Darren. He's the best. Thank you guys. Thank you. This spring, denim gets a softer, lighter update. Introducing Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg, a new fit that moves with you. It's everything you want denim to feel like for summer. Easy, breathable, and effortlessly cool. With a fit that creates natural movement and a wide leg that feels modern, not overwhelming.

Plus, that signature, wait, for this price, moment. Old Navy's drapey denim wide leg. The afternoon headlines sponsored by Hilton. Hilton, it's for the stay. Yesterday we talked about the elder statesman dream team. Steph, LeBron, Draymond, and AD. Now it's time to talk about Ronnie Realism. Windhorst says this all might just be a leverage play.

Everyone stays on their current teams, gets paid a little bit more, and doesn't win the championship. That's the last part of my words. More likely this dream team is a reality, or is this just a leverage play? Well, I hope it is a reality, because it would be so much fun. And they would be a good team. I wouldn't pick them to win the West, but they'd be a top four finisher, I believe,

and, you know, have a shot. If everybody was healthy, the big thing is just the health of those guys. It's hard to believe they would all be healthy for the playoffs. But it does, look, there's AD, Anthony Davis is 33. So he definitely thinks he's got another long-term max deal in him. Obviously, if we were healthy, he would. But if I'm Washington, there's no way I'm trying to give that up. But Rich Paul is smart.

These are all clutch guys, Draymond, LeBron, and AD. They're all great friends. So I'm sure Rich is trying to do whatever he can to get that. max deal for AD. And so this does give him some leverage at least. LeBron, if he wants to really stay in L.A., then this could give him leverage. And if I'm LeBron, as enticing as it is to play with Steph, and if he just does that by himself, that's still fine.

But if I go there and leave my family in L.A., then I do want Anthony Davis coming with me. because then we have, at least on paper, a legitimate chance. Without that, it's a great time. It's fun. You're a fun, good team, but really no chance of getting to the final. So look, they may just be, both could be true. If it doesn't work out and we can't get you all to Golden State, it's still leverage in possibly getting you better deals.

So both could be true. Yeah, like the Lakers were ready to offer Austin Reeves $130 million, and then it came out somebody was going to offer him 180 and all of a sudden he got 185. So like that is a thing. If I'm Anthony Davis, I don't know what Anthony was thinking two weeks ago about what his next contract should be,

but if I see the team I work for give Trey Young four years 212, I'm like, okay, I'm worth, I don't care about my injury risk. Like if Trey Young is worth $53 million a year, pencil me in for 54 at the very least. And so, and like that, and it doesn't seem like the wizards want to go there. And so that piece of it. And then if I'm LeBron with the Lakers, I don't really want to hear about age and injury risk when I was the last man standing on the team last year.

When I was the guy the year before that finished sixth an MVP voting and Austin, who again, I really like Austin, but Austin has not played his best in the postseason. Luca has played his best in the postseason, wasn't available this postseason. Braun's like, I'm like 210 playoff games in, never missed one. So whatever you think I'm going to be available for the regular season, the playoffs, I've always been available. And if I'm LeBron, because I agree with UKW,

this is the more fun option. If I am LeBron, I am also saying myself, hey, when we meet with the Lakers, I would like to hear what your plan for contention next year is, I leave. Like, tell me. If you leave. Yeah, like the Lakers, the idea,

if I, the, it just as a thing. They probably can't understand. And they may understand that without LeBron, but it's just,

we're starting in our new direction. My point is, maybe I phrased that poorly. My point is for the Lakers to be, you know, hardballing LeBron in negotiation,

unless it's a total bluff, it would have to be, because we think without you, we still can compete for a championship. I'd be very interested in how they think that's going to happen. Because the best free agents available, like actual free agents, are Jonathan Kaminga, Norman Powell, maybe Mitchell Robinson. You don't go down too far on the list before you see Matisse Tybal, who had trouble getting minutes for the Blazers.

The other guys are restricted free agents, which you have no control over. You know, Jalen Duren looks like he may be available. We've talked a lot about Walker Kessler, Peyton Watson. The Hale Endurance stuff is interesting to me. It is, but he's connected more to the Kings than to the Lakers. I don't know. Why? Because they could do a sign and trade with Sabonis.

But regardless, my point is, I think the Lakers are playing a bit of a game of chicken and that we don't want to offer LeBron the amount of money we would offer a player that we really need. But for this coming year, we really need him. And you know what I mean? And so the, and I'm sure if he leaves and they don't fill it out, they'll explain to everyone. It's fine. Joker, 27 is the plan. Just three years of punting on Luca. Yeah.

And then that's the plan. That has been floating out there. Yeah. I mean, that's, it's floating. All it tastes is one high-five in an all-star game. No, no. We're counting down to Ivory Coast, Norway. Ivory Coast has scored first in each of their World Cup teams this year.

Norway rested everyone against France, so they should come out of the gates just fire. They should be ready to go. Well rested and energized from Dallas. Live from New York. Show it's got the Legos out. Where's the, oh, hold on. Oh, did you see this, Dax? This is how we're making calls now.

Is Dax finally going to admit Brazil can win the world? Dax, get a look at it because sometimes it's on it. It was on one edge. Oh, look. Chuck, what does it say, KW? You can't read your old. I should have shown it. Does it say absolutely not?

It's very likely. Very likely. It is what it says. I did say they can win the World Cup. Hey, we got all the toys. Unstoppably, yes. I didn't even know that was an option. Time to give credit.

Second hour of first things first. Today, after a somewhat impressive victory over Japan, can Brazil win it all? Meanwhile, Mbapé and Holland in action today. They were supposed to be in action last week, but Norway sat everybody. Mbapapé said, fine. We'll score other goals in Belmont.

always go really well. But will Dumbeli actually be the brightest star today? Could be. But right now, Dax is back in his linen suit looking just wonderful. Germany's headed home. They lose in penalties despite controlling large swats of this game, Dax. Your reaction to the historic upset? Surprising loss. But when you look at Germany, the last couple of World Cups, really kind of on par and on trend with, I think, where they're at right now as a country. When I think of German soccer, when I think of German football, you think about extremely tactically disciplined and highly efficient both defensively and in the final third. Miroslav Kloser, Gerd Mueller, Thomas Mueller, highly efficient players who didn't need many chances

to score goals. And you watched that game against Paraguay and you thought, okay, you showed the stats, right, the possession, the expected goals, all of that stuff. It doesn't mean anything if you get in and around the box, in and around the goal, and you aren't going to take advantage of that positional dominance. The game was played on Paraguay's terms. Paraguay incredibly comfortable sitting in a low block, suffering, defending, and taking their chances when they could in transition to go forward.

That is their identity. That is how they got through that brutal cauldron of World Cup qualifying in South America. And when it came time to step up and put a lot of pressure on yourself to see who was going to hold their nerve and penalty kicks, absolutely terrible penalty kick shootouts, by the way, like plenty of drama, but not high on efficiency. Tons of missing the target. Tons of missing the target, tons of nerves. It was Paraguay that held their nerve better than the Germans, which is a complete 180 from what we think of when we think of German soccer. So is it a surprise a little bit? A lot of people had Germany

going through, myself included, but Paraguay fully deserved to win the game. Can I ask before because I know we're going to talk the U.S. side of it quickly, but can I ask a question just about penalty kicks? Yeah, please. For the guys like that, in practice against a goalkeeper, how many, if they were to take 100, how many would they miss the target and how many would they, you know, get stopped? I would think the numbers would typically bear out. So maybe you would miss the target five times and a goalkeeper would save it eight to ten. times. You should be scoring 80 to 85% of your penalty kicks. So that's, so that's why I'm asking.

So it's, it is really, it is the delta between that and what we're seeing is truly the nerves of the moment. Absolutely. We saw 22 penalty kicks yesterday and 10 were missed. Oh, that's wild. Either either, I didn't realize it was that. I think five or six, straight up missing the target and then a goalkeeper saving them. So I've never taken a penalty kick in a World Cup. I have taken a penalty kick before. There is pressure. You feel pressure. Your heartbeat is beating a million miles a minute. And the players, forget if you play in the biggest league in the world in the Premier League or if you've played in the Champions League or if you play in a smaller league. It's still the moment who can slow their heartbeat down the most. I guess the best I can

equate it to is a guy in an NBA finals stepping up to take a must-have free throw. Right? Whenby missed those ones. Before we go to Team USA, I did have a question about the D. I did have a question about the disallowed goal. We talked about it upstairs. I thought Germany had this game. They were peppering the goal. And it's like, all right, they finally broke through. But on VAR, it was ruled that the goalkeeper was impeded. And Peter Schmichael, I think afterwards, or maybe it was Schmichael. It was one of the greatest goalkeepers. Yeah, Schmeichael said he didn't think it was a foul. I think it was, I forgot who was it Klopp or Clemsman said that Arsenal wouldn't have

one. Okay. Wouldn't have won the Premier League because that was one of their strategies. He's German, by the way. Yeah. To sort of impede the goalie or just like be around the goalkeeper. Sure.

Can you, did you think this was a foul? What did you take a? Brew, I don't like it. And in fact, I don't love it. Okay. Sorry. No, it was great. Poor delivery.

Well, that. No. We all can't be the fespians. I don't like, I don't like the call. but as I tweeted yesterday, by the letter of the law, if you are going for the literal interpretation of how it is written in terms of protecting the goalkeeper from picks, screens, it was interpreted in the correct way,

and the referee got the call correct. I don't like it. I think that goalkeepers are patently overprotected almost constantly. The problem here, though, with this- It did look like a pick to me. With this specific play, the problem here with the, with Anton is in right before the ball goes over the goalkeeper's head is that his arms are out and if

you are making any contact with the goalkeeper with your arms maybe either surrounding him either pushing him blocking him I think of Anton if he just stood there and he didn't make any movement whatsoever and the goalkeeper just ran into him and fell I think it should not absolutely unequivocally been called a foul but because of the arms being out in a deliberate motion to kind of move into the path of the goalkeeper it's harsh, but by the interpretation of the law, it is the correct call. It feels like VAR manipulation to me. A little bit.

That pre-VAR, you wouldn't have fallen down while the ball is in the air. Correct. You're like, I'm going to get this. This is goalkeepers absolutely taking advantage of the fact that they know that it can go and be reviewed. No question about it. Reviews make it. And it's slight, it is slight embellishment because in that play, if a goalkeeper, by the way, that guy's 6-6. He would never fall down with the contact made.

Never. Go ahead. Bruddy, you want to talk to Team USA? You can go ahead. I mean, I just thought this game, Dax, was a reminder. I saw what you said earlier, spot on. Yeah. Absolutely.

Because what was it? They were the fourth biggest favorite to advance. I mean, that's the beauty of soccer, the beauty of football. This game, it doesn't matter how big of a favorite you are. On any given day, when the tactics go perfectly right for one team and the other team is having an off day in front of the goal, any team can beat anyone. I'll tell you who beat Paraguay, USA, 4-1. Easily.

Easy victory, which also means we are better than Germany. Put that on your power rankings. All right, in the early game, Japan had Brazil on the ropes. But the Brazilian squad battled back Gabriel Martinelli scoring the game winner in 95th minute. Dreading this segment. You've been, I don't know if it's fair to call you a Brazil skeptic. No, you're the biggest Brazil skeptic. I'm not a Brazil skeptic.

I'm not just ready to, you know, put them in the soccer hall of fame. We all have to pick a winner. Like, I'm not ready to crown anyone. I just think they're the most likely to win. I think France can win. I think Ardina can win. You guys have just been adamant. Brazil can't win.

That's been the problem. I think I'm firmly in between you and your skepticism. I'm following you. I'm not leading. You are living. I'm not leading. You're the only one who picked them to lose. They almost lost.

Go ahead. It's the 95th minute. I did pick Brazil to win, but what did I say? I thought it would be a very close game. I thought it was actually going to be a game that went to extra time. And if Japan would have gotten out of their own box with eight players in Brazil's two, then yes, the game would have gone to extra time. It is finally time, fellas, for me to give Brazil a lot of credit.

A lot. And I was not enamored with their performance in the first half. I thought you hit the nail on the head with their first half. They started the game well. Japan was very organized, defending. And Brazil was a little bit ponderous, a little bit slow in possession. They weren't really creating any real danger to the Japanese. And then when you lose the ball and in transition,

that goal is the perfect microcosm of what I saw before the tournament with Brazil and their midfield specifically defensively with Casamiro, which is why I still have my concerns about them at the highest level. Casamero had a very poor first half. He's one of my favorite players of all time, but that is a player who as a number six just does not have the mobility anymore at his age right now to be able to put out fires.

Most defensive midfielders in the world would be able to catch up to that and potentially stop that counterattack. And so Casamiro, he got a needless yellow card and he could not stop that play. And yet, Ancelotti, which he is their X factor. Other than Vinny Jr., Ancelotti is the most important person in the Brazilian atmosphere, right?

And I think Fletch said it in the interview. You've been adamant about how great of a coach he is, which is spot on. And it just matters more in this world. Absolutely. You have more substitutions and you have two timeouts essentially to discuss the tactically. And so that was the key is that the two biggest tactical adjustments that have come in this World Cup, Ancelotti, benching Igor Tiago and putting in Mateus Cunia to really kind

open up that Brazilian attack. Fantastic. And then at halftime, when Pakata was injured, he did not replace him with a midfielder like for like. He put on another attacker in Indrik because he saw how Japan was defending. He saw how they were playing and he said, I have to start flooding the box. I need more numbers in the box. I need more players forward to put more pressure on Japan. And Japan, quite frankly, wasn't good enough in the attack to actually relieve any type of pressure. And once you play a team like Brazil where they gain confidence and they get the goal from Casamiro, which a lot of people thought he should have been subbed at halftime, and Ancelotti sticks with him. He scores the equalizer, subs in Martinelli and Martinelli gets the game winner.

That is going to be the difference with Brazil and their chance to win it, which they absolutely can win it at this point in time. Will they? I still think they aren't on the same level as French and Argentina, but Brazil deserves a ton of credit because I wanted to see them beat a good team. That is a good Japan team. And listen, if you want to, if the opinion of Brazil is they are the third best team in this tournament, I think that is not only totally legitimate, I think that's probably the smartest opinion. Like France has the best roster. Argentina has almost assuredly the best player. I do think they're better.

I think they've played better than Spain. I believe in them more than Spain. I also think their draws better than Spain. So all those reasons. I don't think we've seen that now. We haven't seen Spain play great yet. And so, but the, and so the, oh, the point that I was trying to make earlier that I'll maybe make more delicately here is my pushback on like they could have lost or they were about to lose. If that goal in the 95th minute was to tie the game, then objectively what you're saying is correct.

My point is, had that header gone wide, there was close to no chance Brazil was not going to score in the extra time, and Japan had stopped showing any ability to score. And I think the stats on the game show a game of dominance from one side. Like that, because they weren't, you know, moments from penalty kicks. There were moments from another, you know, basically a third half. dust, I don't know if we can show the box score or not. I know we got to move on. But the Brazil, the expected goals, that's 7X. Big chances, it's 5 to nothing.

Japanese goalkeeper stood on his head in the second half. Right. Like, it was, it would have not been unreasonable for us to be talking about a 4 to 1 Japan loss given if you only take a couple slight adjustments in the second half. And so I just, I did. I'm not going to act like that first half went perfectly. And when you're down 1-0 in a World Cup game at halftime, you can lose. Ask Germany.

They were down 1-0 at halftime, and they weren't able to get it back, and they dominated a lot of those similar stats. I just thought that other managers would have panicked. And your point about Casamiro, the broadcast was saying you've got to take them off. They didn't, or the halftime show. I just think that is. I think that's fair. I just am expecting today's game, France, Sweden,

to come on tomorrow and, like, were you impressed with France's 3-0 victory? Like, oh, yeah. Like, that's dominance. They look like the best with no caveats. Real quick on that. Yeah. One is, I don't think Sweden's as good as Japan, but more importantly, I think France's best games are going to look better than Brazil's best games.

Because three of Brazil's four best players are goalie and defenders. So, like, zero is zero. You know what I mean? No matter what? while France, four of their five best players might be goal scores, so they are certainly more likely. They're exclusive. Brazil's pragmatic. Yeah. So I just think that's what you don't like.

I don't like it. But I agree with you. I think France is best. I don't love it either. I agree with that. All right. Quickly, we're going to talk about Morocco. They are moving forward after a win over the Netherlands via penalty kicks.

Zlatan post game, not happy with the Dutch approach. Take a listen. Dutch school you learn the way you play football. I was there three years and the only thing I was learning they were teaching me was attacking. They're not playing with their identity today and Kuman looks like an Italian coach today, playing not to lose. When the Dutch team plays, they play to win. You can see the way they're playing, they're not even comfortable.

It looks so bad and it's all on Kuman. So I don't like it. I don't like it at all. Even if they win, they need to change their approach. They need to play with their identity. Okay. Harsh words from Zlatan. He was proven right.

Did you agree? Harsh words from Zlatan, but 100% spot on. Could not agree more. I thought it was the best bit of analysis that Zlatan's given us in this World Cup. And the Netherlands scored 10 goals in the group stage. Joint top for after three games. They showed attacking impetus.

They showed injuneration. They showed an ability to break down teams with great play through midfield and winger play and Brian Broby in the box. And yet they completely changed their tactical identity to try to stop one player on the opponent. And it was a fullback. And now, Hakimi is the best right fullback in the world. There's zero question that a lot of what Morocco does well comes down that right-hand side. Plenty of overloads. They give him the freedom to go forward.

he's their best player, their best defender, best chance creator, literally everything they do goes through him. But imagine being one of those Dutch players in your pregame meeting. And you say, we've just won the group, we scored 10 goals in the group stage, and we've played generally fairly well. And our coach is changing up our entire tactical approach. He's taking out a midfielder and adding another defender

just to try to stop. one player on the other team and a very good player at that. The seeds of doubt, they're already sown. I'm walking out of that meeting and I'm thinking, okay, so does he not believe we can go toe to toe with Morocco? And Morocco, by the way, is a fantastic team. Easily one of the best teams in the world, they've proven it. They are absolutely carrying the torch for all the African teams as well

that have performed very well in this World Cup. But Morocco are the standard bearers. If you are the Netherlands and you know that that is the case, there are ways that you can adjust around that tactically without completely shedding what got you there in the beginning. You can play a little bit more pragmatic on the left-hand side. You can shift your centerbacks over to go and help. You can leave Denzel Dumfries, who's one of the best right fullbacks in the world, 1v1, and isolate him to be able to deal with the left side of Morocco. But to completely change your identity is coaching malpractice. And Kuman should absolutely take the brunt of responsibility. for this. Morocco was the better team.

The soccer god said, you know what, we are going to let the team that wanted to go and win the game, win the game in penalty kicks. That is justice, and I love to see it. I picked the Netherlands to win. My bracket is busted, but at the same time, I am happy that Morocco advanced because soccer won. You know who's also having Morocco advance?

We and Brew, who had Morocco advancing. Soccer sharps over here. Experts. Experts. That's right. Experts. We are counting down to Mboppe. and France. Dembele had the second fastest hat trick in World Cup history.

Let's see if you can score early again. But first, here's James Gordon with Jude Bellingham. I'm being deadly serious about this, but there might be a path for you in like movies. I'd love to be in a movie. Would you? People always say to me like, what's the thing you want to do outside of football? And I never really give it that much thought. But when I have, I've always come to, I'd love to be in a film. What kind of film? I'd love to be James Bond. I've watched all. All of them. I've watched the Connery ones, Roger Moore. I've seen all of them. I love James Bond. I swear I'd love to be, you know, in the back of a James Bond film. I think, I think James Bond himself. Yeah, no, no. Be in the back? You've got to walk. No, no, full Bond. You've got a crawl before you. Well, listen, I think we, they haven't found a new Bond yet.

We haven't, have they? So I'm saying, let's treat this like an audition. So right, look straight down this camera here. Right? Look down, look up and give us your best. The name's Bond. James Bond. Ready. Okay. Go on. The name's Bond. James Bond. Do you know what, though? Do you know what, though? I've got a shot. It's all right.

I think I've got a shot. But I think maybe let's show some range. Yeah, yeah. Let's do a little scene, the two of us, okay? So you say, you want answers, and I say, I think I'm entitled to them. Ready? Go.

You want answers? I think I'm entitled to them. You want answers? I want the truth! You can handle the truth! Okay, give it a bit more. Really, really put you back into it. Okay, ready?

Jack Nicholson, you're on the stand. Hang on, I'm going to be Tom Cruise. A bomb. I'm going to Tom Cruise. Ready. Okay, go. You want answers? I think I'm entitled.

You want answers? I want the truth. You can't handle the truth. Dude. Just. Tonight at nine from Mexico City, Mexico, Ecuador. Ecuador, not afraid of a draw. Last 22 matches, nine wins, 12 draws.

Only one loss, so we might see another game go to penalties tonight. That is in nine hours, 30 minutes and 70 seconds. Good good game. He'll be great. Head to the NBA where Malik Beasley. And the federal courthouse. True, was one of several people indicted on charges related to sports games. For Ed Davis.

The indictment sites this game were showing where Beasley grabbed his fourth rebound in the last second of the game when the line on his rebounds was three and a half. So you got over on that. Yeah. Also this curious video, him sprinting down to catch a dunk in the waning. seconds of a game to affect the point spread. He's accused of losing millions of dollars during his career, Brew. Your reaction to this latest game news. Well, you said it the latest. It's getting worse and worse.

And gambling has become so commonplace in our culture now, in large part because of the leagues getting in bed with the sports betting companies. And in fairness to them, they've only done it because the Supreme Court, you know, changed the law to allow it in 2018. But it's so commonplace now that it's going to be hard, it's basically impossible, to keep it from touching the players. And so a player, because in Beasley's case, and like many of the others, he was in debt

because he had lost gambling bets. And so he was coerced into, you know, throwing games or whatever you want to call. it shaving points or however you want to impact his performance as individual player props right and then that of course you know puts in jeopardy the integrity of the game but

it's easy you can't bet on your own league games right but if a player gets in debt betting on other games from another league another sport then this can happen the temptation for you to do something

think is minor, right? Just don't get four rebounds or don't, whatever. The temptation to do that and pay off your debt is huge. And so it's no coincidence that up until 2018, it was rare to see a point shaving scandal. You saw them, but they were rare. And it was almost exclusively college sports. Yeah.

And you had Pete Rose. That's why that was so big. And the, and the, and. these individual player props didn't really exist. Certainly not in the mainstream way prior to legalized sports gambling. If you walked up to even where gambling were legal and like, hey, I'd like to put $20,000 on a role player's rebounds. They would laugh you out of the sports book.

That wasn't a thing you could do. But go ahead. No, no, but I'm about finishing. To me, it just seems like it's clear what the right. right thing to do it. Because now since 2018, it feels like every couple months we're seeing this type of thing. But greed

when a part of leagues and the money that can be made is stopping them from doing the right thing. My reaction, we discussed putting this in the show, where to put it in the show, how we want to do it because it's kind of last year's news, kind of tied to some of the other gambling stories,

was, and I was debating it, I'm like, man, when I was growing up, gambling, was a catastrophe. Right. And I have seen it recently move from a catastrophe to a crisis, to a scandal, to maybe an incident, to even with Brandon Sorsby now, it's like, you know, basically a misstep. When we were growing up in 1989, two things happened that really, I guess, formed my sports brain.

Pete Rose was on the cover of Sports Illustrated, one out of every 20 episodes, I did that more of issues. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated. The sports world stopped down. This is Pete Rose in the course of one year, his whole gambling scandal. Also, 1989, Field of Dreams came out. And the crux story of Field of Dreams was the Black Sox scandal. And I was like, holy cow.

And from 1919 to right now, we're living. in it. Two things have happened in the course of 70 years. Wow, it was the Black Sox scandal and Pete Rose. It's CC and Y College Basketball here in New York through a title in the 50s. In the 50s that my grandfather would reference to me growing up. Remember, there was a handful of UNLV players in the hot tub. Like, holy cow, is that the Black Sox scandal? Like, not quite. And Bartlett Giamatti, in his statement, Nick, when he's talking about investigating Pete Rose. He said, baseball had never before undertaken such a process because there had not been such grave allegations since the time of Landis, which was just in the teens. And I was like, wow, these are such grave allegations.

And now I haven't written a lead VO about a gambling since Brendan Sorsby last week. Yeah. So, and I'll toss it to you. I think we're in this funky time where you see, and it's not totally different than a lot of vices, and I don't want to get over my skis, I'm not a sociologist, where a lot of these stories are being put in the personal responsibility bucket, where maybe they should come out of the personal responsibility bucket and put into the societal ills bucket. and what responsibility do we all have

to wrap our heads around this and again, I don't know if it's legislation, I don't know if it's a general attitude, but it's not just, these guys are also victims, like you said, they're not you know, they're the culprits and the victims. It seemed like Malik Beasley was being

for lack of better terms, more crass language, but I'll say used by Ed Davis and, all right, so I am I have two points to but, you know, the disclosure on the front end from me is I am, and everybody knows this, obviously, a lifelong gambler. Like, it's been long enough. My dad doesn't necessarily love when I reference it. I had $100 on you starting like that.

Yeah, I mean, sorry, good job. My, you know, my grandfather taught me to play cards when I was seven. My dad, before he became a fireman was, you know, a, I think I can call it a professional gambler. It's how I came up. It is in my blood, you know, that's literally a... it can be. I am not moralizing on it and maybe a good podcast is a longer form discussion on it. For years, people, you know, when they find out what I do, especially because I play a lot of cards, people, all card players thinks games are fixed. It's like, ah, the fixes it ain't because they

lost a bet. And what I've always said is, like, well, maybe some college games, because kids can, you know, $5,000, $10,000 can mean a lot to these guys, particularly pre-NIL. So you don't really have to worry about it in pro sports. And when I saw this story, I read the full indictment. Like, Brew listens to press conferences. I read gambling indictments, and I scroll for names, and I do the whole thing. One of the things in this was Malik Beasley texting Ed Davis, I hope to have that $2,000 for you by the end of the month. Molic Beasley was, the year he was doing this was on, I think, a $12 million contract, or it had just ended. He's made like $60. And for the same reason why anybody who's ever had a job,

where they handle money and there's a big credit check, what their checking is, oh, are you in financial trouble to where we don't trust you to, like, just drop off the restaurant's deposits at the end of the day or whatever? If pro athletes and the easiest way to lose millions of dollars, if it's not bad real estate deals or having stolen from you, is high-stakes gambling, which doesn't have to be sports betting.

A lot of this is, and this gets my second point, guys who hang out at the casino, bet big money, and then meet these other guys. So I just want to put out there as almost, because nobody wants, I'm not moralizing on it, but I would like to give good advice to pro athletes. One of the, first of all, the guys, other,

the people involved in this are total dopes thinking they wouldn't get caught. One guy bet 20 grand on Beasley's rebounding under. Another guy, maybe the same guy, bet a $25,000 parlay on Beasley's points and rebounds. You're getting flagged immediately. You're getting caught. You're working with guys that don't understand it.

But the other thing is the names of the other indicted people. One of them is Rob Gordotsky. I'm not certain it's the same Rob Gordotsky, but 10 years ago, USA Today did a long profile on a guy named Rob Gordotsky, who was a professional sports better, and was winning millions of dollars, and it was friends with Odell Beckham and friends with Damon Jones and living at the casinos, anybody who spent time at the Aria 10 years ago, knew Big Rob.

And then four years later, it turned out he had just embezzled a bunch of money, and that's what he was betting with, and he went to jail for three years, and now Rob Gordatsky from the same state, appears to be the same guys involved in this. The other person named in this is Ernesto Placencia, who is in the indictment saying his utility was he's friends with a lot of pro athletes.

Again, I don't know if you guys watched the starting, five, but in the starting five, the person being interviewed as Jimmy Butler's dear friend is a guy named Ernesto Placencia. And so I say that to say this. As much money as a lot of these pro athletes have, they show up in gambling environments, and very often they are the mark. No, no, take this $50,000. Don't worry about it.

Take it, take it. All they want is for you to owe them money. And then they can try to then go make a bunch more. And so that's the, these are not, you know, new characters in the gambling world. The new character is the pro athlete. The other folks you've seen around. And so you're going to get caught because you can't bet real money on these individual player props and not have it flat.

So not get to, not to get to extend it too much. But do you buy into Sunshine is the best disinfectant? I buy into that it is absolutely true that because it is legal it gets flagged the conflict is because it is legal bets exist that otherwise

didn't so you are more likely to find out about a fixed game now than you were in the past but you are more you are exponentially more likely to have guys be able to do things that they can morally wrap their mind around that isn't fixing

a game it's just oh I'm just not going to get I'm just going to grabbing an extra rebound. Or I'm going to try even harder, get an extra rebound. And those bets didn't exist on a high level across the board. All right, we're headed back to the World Cup. We're getting closer to Norway, Ivory Coast live from Dallas. We're in one hour and 18 minutes. There's Holland.

Holland is one of my favorite players. You think he's going to, this is his last game, bro? You'd be. Yeah, I've got Ivory Coast. I've got Ivory Coast. I've got Ivory Coast. I've been hot. Mexico City tonight.

Mexico, Ecuador. Mexico has played nine World Cup games at Estadio Esteka. Never lost. Seven wins, two draws. But you've got a small upset alert here. That change? Got a little upset alert here. Wow.

This would be a. Nobody would be happier about that than England. For real. Yeah. No, yeah. England does not. Either way, England's got to play the round of 16 game in that stadium. They don't want it to be against Mexico.

If Mexico goes forward, then we're like the, then we should go for it. Yeah, every home host. Top performance presented by Capital One. Capital One, what's in your wallet? Two games on today's slate outside of Mexico, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Norway, today at one, followed by France, Sweden, today at five. Mbapay and Holland, both expected to find the back. in the net. Which superstar has the most impressive game? Dax, what do you think?

Well, I would expect both Mbapé and Holland to score because Mbapé, you know, he let Dumbelli get his hat trick last game, still challenging for the golden boot. But Holland, not only do I expect him to score, I expect him to be the Energizer Bunny out there. Well-rested. He better not stop running. All right, he didn't play the third group stage game. So I expect him. him to be ready to go. But Holland has the more difficult task. Make no mistake about it. Ivory Coast has been fantastic defensively throughout this tournament.

In the three group stage games, they've only conceded two goals. Their centerbacks are extremely mobile. They're big guys. I think they will be absolutely locked in on trying to frustrate Holland, trying to play physical with him. I still think he gets on the score sheet, but I like you, KW, we're kind of tethered here at the hip with Ivory Coast. upsetting Norway.

But Sweden. Seven goals conceded in the group stage, just generally a little bit more loose defensively. Sweden, a very good attacking trio with Isak, Yokorez, and Anthony Alanga. I do not think they will be able to live with all of France's attacking options. And I think it is absolutely a game where Mbapé not only scores one, I think there's a decent chance that he scores a brace again in this tournament.

And I think France wins that. game by multiple goals. Yeah, I'm going to go with Mbapé. You mentioned earlier that Sweden had given up five goals in the game. He didn't score last week, last game. And so I'm sure he's dying to get. He's due. Yeah, yeah, he's very due.

And you mentioned this the other day, Nick, of his 16 World Cup goals, which is now tied for second all time, eight of them have come into knockout stages. Big game player. Yeah. I think he's going to be huge. Listen, he's an all-time great World Cup performer. Like, what's interesting about France is I think there are a fair amount of people who, in general, don't think he's the best player on the team as far as individual.

I mean, the reigning Ballandor winner is on. You can make an argument for the other two or three other attackers. But that's as far as, in my opinion, where you rank them over the course of a season with their club teams. Correct. But come the World Cup, there's no question he's the best. player on the team because he's just been unbelievable in this tournament since he was 18 years older. Yeah, on the World Cup at 18.

Yeah, 18 years old. Holland on the other hand has a different level of responsibility because he is the Netherlands offense. I'm not the, sorry, Norway. His name is Holland, he is not from. He is. I understand it. He is Norway's offense.

So there's a scenario where France looks as good as you think they're going to look. And Mbabe doesn't score. Well, sure. That exists. So I want to just kind of pivoted it just a tiny bit to if you guys are right about Ivory Coast pulling off the upset. It wouldn't be a huge upset, but it would be an upset. And I do think that we are approaching the sample size getting big enough to say, okay, the odds makers, the FIFA world rankings, all of it have undersold the African.

teams by a bit. Like when nine of the 10 advance, when we just saw Morocco beat one of the tournament, you know, kind of sub favorites, the, if now we have another team in Ivory Coast that is considered, again, not like some huge Cinderella, but a tick beneath Norway, with Norway fully rested, all of it, you know, if they then beat them, I just think that should impact how we talk about this tournament moving forward. and about who has a shot to pull off an upset and what an upset truly is. I tend to agree with you guys as far as we all think France is going to win,

and I tend to agree with you guys on Ivory Coast. If Norway's going to win, I think Holland has to have the brace you're talking about in Boppa having. I know we've been hammering this point, but France and Norway is the final group stage game. They approached it in totally different ways. France played everybody, Dembele, was playing totally fine. He had a goal and an assist. He ends up having a hat trick in the first half.

Norway rested everybody. How do you think those two different sort of strategies leading up into the knockout stage show up in today? Yeah, I think there's absolutely a psychological element to it. You actually, by what Norway did, by resting your best team, your starters, there's actually more pressure now on you to go the Ivory Coast. You have actually invited more pressure on yourselves rather than playing your starters against France, trying to go toe to toe to with them from the beginning, prove that you not only can go toe to toe to

with the quote-unquote best team in the tournament, but that you could potentially win the group and potentially make your path a little bit more friendly. So there's no question that there's way more pressure now on Norway because of how they approach that last group stage game. And France, they're going to put their best team on the field no matter what. Darren Fletcher said, you still, you have five, six games in between each game. I don't think unless you are talking about the U.S.

men's national team who already had the group wrapped up or resting a Tim Ream or Cristiano hasn't rested, but a messy or whatever. You should not be resting your players, especially when you have the chance to win the group. Hey, y'all, it's Kelly Clarkson with Wayfair. Ever order furniture online and wonder, what if? Like, what if it doesn't hold up? That sofa was four days old. You should have ordered from Wayfair.

With Wayfair, there's no what if. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home.