First Things First - USMNT’s ‘best win ever’ vs. Paraguay, France beats Senegal, How did the Knicks win the NBA Finals?

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

(0:00) France beats Senegal, Was USMNT’s win over Paraguay its best ever? (17:59) How did the Knicks win the Finals? (28:04) Spurs deserve to be Title Favorites? (35:10) Dax’s Updated World Cup Power Rankings 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. Welcome in. It is First Things First OT. I'm Danny Parkins here with U.S. men's national team midfielder, Dax McCarty, who I noticed did not hesitate to roast me for my next takes. You and the rest of the Internet.

Thank you very much for that. the music on those shortly. But first, of course, we need to begin here in World Cup Corner talking France, Senegal. France, Senegal, it is just wrapping up to 1 now. Senegal put one in in 94th minute and breaking news within the last two seconds. It is now 3-1. So things got crazy in the second half of this game after a pretty sloppy start for France. You know, Mbapé, Barclough got the lead.

Then Senegal got it to 2-1. got a little tight in the 94th minute, and then France gets that insurance goal late. Were you impressed? They were your picks to win the whole thing. They were the favorites. What did you think of France is very adventurous, we'll say, start to this World Cup? Both sides of the spectrum for me with the French national team.

They are the favorites going into the World Cup along with Spain. First half, what I have written down on my notes here, Danny, dreadful. Okay. It was a dreadful performance in the first half. You're a tough grader. From the French national team because the expectations are so high. They were sloppy. They were ponderous in possession.

They created absolutely nothing, killing Mbapé, with some really uncharacteristic poor first touches. But that's why they're France. In the second half, a really good tactical adjustment from Didier Deschant. He moves D'Ambele from the middle, out wide to the right, and he moves Olise. Their best player of the last six months inside to more attacking midfield role, and France really turned it on in the second half. They were dynamic. They were dangerous. Their combination play was a little bit better.

Mbapapé on his goal, it's such a great ball from Olise, the pace. of the pass is perfect. And Bapé's right there in the six-yard box. He knows exactly where he is. Kula Bali, the centerback is a split second late. And Bapé says, you know what? My first touch was off the entire first half. I'm going to finish this with one touch, and it sends France on their way. The second half team of the French national team that we saw today, that is the team that I expect to see the rest of the tournament. It's funny. One of the more overused cliches in the sports media is like, what a finish? What adjustments did you make at half time? Because often it's just like, We rested, we went to the bathroom, the coaches,

back to the drawing board, set a thing or two, right? Like, what you're saying is this actually was a game. 100% of a halftime adjustment, because to my untrained, I, just as a fan, they did look like an entirely different team. Correct. Because we saw a lot of favorites just yesterday with draws not really make the adjustment,

not really wake up. Exactly. And it just looked like an arrogant performance from France in the first half. It was way too casual. And that is something that we've kind of come to associate with some of these bigger teams. now in the beginning of the World Cup. Sure.

It has been a little bit too casual. And maybe that is maybe a result of an expanded World Cup, where third place teams go through. You know that you can kind of get better as the tournament wears on. But I'm really impressed with Didier Deshaunt. The tactical adjustment really helped France be more dangerous in that second half. Is there anything to like Argentina last year in their opener? Absolutely. Or Spain in 2010 in their opener.

They both go on to win the World Cup despite like early stumbling blocks. So like we wait for this thing for four years. Of course. And then there's these favorites and there's all of this pressure. But really, for the teams that know they're going to advance out of the group stage, that know they're going to be there at the end, the old marathon, not a sprint. Exactly. That they kind of sleepwalks may be overstating it a bit,

but they overlook these teams early and we don't see their best. I just think that they kind of underestimate them a little bit because they know they're the favorites. They know they have the more talented team. And if they could turn it on at any moment, they will. But then as you saw with Spain, you go throughout the game. and you get Wozignat, right? Absolutely otherworldly performance from the goalkeeper. It seems like he stood on his head,

and then Spain was wasteful with their finishing. So, yeah, I believe that with the expanded World Cup, there's a lack of urgency from some of these bigger teams in the beginning of these games in the first halves, and yet France doing what they do best as a favorite of this tournament, turning it on in that second half, really impressive. And, you know, it's a tough group, right,

with Senegal, Norway is there, but the second half there, I feel like the teams that are the favorites that have the forwards, the attacks, the lines, the superstars that they have across the board, and you see the highlights there. Like, France is going to come out of this feeling. Yeah, of course we're still the favorites. Well, imagine being Didier Deshaun, as you look at this ball from Rabio and midfield, just the perfect weight of the pass. They had a lot of chances. You bring in a guy, you bring in a guy off the bench, Bradley Barclay, who could start for 40 other teams in this World Cup. That is the type of depth and talent that they have at their disposal in the attack.

I said earlier that their front three of Olise, Dembele, Mbépe is the best attacking Trident we have seen since the 2002 fantastic World Cup champion of Brazil with the original Ronaldo, R9, Rvaldo, Rol Dino. This team, the first half, I think it was a good wake-up call for them. And unlike Spain, they woke up in the second half and they finished their chances. Well, in the 51st, 52nd minute, it seemed like the story was going to be the non-penalty on Mbapé in the box. And then people are like, oh, you know, is soccer slow? What is happening? It's low score.

It's like it's nil-nil at that point. We think the story of the game is going to be a controversial no-call. And then it ends up being 3-1 in a comfortable win. And this is a great no-call from the referee. There's barely any contact. And I'm happy that the referee stuck with his decision on the field. The VAR calls. Pretty aggressive slide, though.

It's a sloppy tackle. And if Mbapapé doesn't jump over the tackle and there's more contact, the referee will give a penalty. I'm glad that the referee stuck with his decision on the field. The VAR is typically supposed to call you over when there is a clear and obvious error. There is no clear and obvious error there. So I'm glad the referee stuck with his decision on the field. This was really the first kind of big refereeing, quote unquote, decision controversy, which shows you the level of refereeing in this tournament has been very good so far.

All right. So this game felt like it was maybe bordering on kind of sort of about to be a stunner. Yeah. Yesterday we got one. We did. So let's talk yesterday in the Spain, despite owning a 74% type of possession and being the heavy, heavy favorite, Sergeant Nick Wright. Spain ended in a zero-zero-zero draw with Cape Verde. Here's Clint Dempsey on the shocking upset result. You got to go out and play the game and the opponent that's in front of you and take nothing away from what Cape Verde did. Spain still had their chances to win this game. They didn't put it away. They need to be more clinical.

They're going to go back to the draw on board, look at tape. and maybe this is something that's going to fire him up, like what happened with Argentina versus Saudi Arabia, that little kick up the backside to let you know that you're not as good as what you thought you are and humbles you a little bit and makes you a little bit more hungry to go out with a point to prove. All right, so Spain is basically the co-favorant with France.

France had a stumble, ends up winning 3-1. Spain a straight-up stumble. Legitimate. That is a huge moment for Cape Verdei, the shocking moment so far of the World Cup, albeit early. It was an 11-to-1 odds for them to end up having that, be a draw. Should Spain fans be worried? If I was going to go through a panic meter, one being

not worried at all, 10 being absolute catastrophe, I'd be at about a two if I was the Spanish. So no. So I'm not that worried about Spain right now. This was the perfect storm of circumstances. Your lackluster finishing, you were a little bit ponderous in possession. There was a lack of cutting edge, surprisingly, from the Spanish national team, which with injuries to Laminia Mall, where he did get 20 minutes, and Nico Williams, who came on in the second half, those are are your two best one v one attacking players. And when you play against the team in a low block, like Cape Verde was, when you play against the team that's got an unbelievably hot goalkeeper who is seemingly saving anything and

everything around him, you have to be perfect in your finishing. And Spain was really sloppy in their finishing. I think Lamin Yamau absolutely changes the dynamic of this team. His gravity, the way that he pulls different players and defenders towards him, so he can go one v.1 and maybe find the open man or just create a moment of magic on his. zone, that is going to be the key for Spain moving forward. As long as he came out of those 20 minutes that he played fully healthy, I expect him to start the rest of the games in this tournament, and I expect Spain's attack to get significantly better as the games wear on. So that's the question,

right? So I picked Spain to win this thing. And I feel the same way as you to one, I'll stop one point short of that, though. Like, if Laminia Mall and Nico Williams are playing, they're playing 19 minutes and three minutes respectively, they're not winning this tournament. Like that's a star and a phenom, right? Arguably they're two best players, two of the best players in the world. Yeah. So it's not the result at all. Correct.

Weird things happen. Like if we throw up the stats just beyond the 74% possession and some of those things. Yeah. That is a... That's domination. Wouldn't that to you suggest, if I told you one team possessed it 74% of the time, you outshot your opponent 27 to 6, 51 touches in the box compared to 6, wouldn't that box score tell you 3-0, 4-0?

Absolutely. And Luis de la Fuente, the head coach of Spain, was asked after the game if he was concerned, and he said absolutely not. We dominated the game. We came up against a great goalkeeper in a team that took a lot of pride in defending, which, by the way, a heroic performance from Cape Verde. Take nothing away from the way that they played that game for their first ever World Cup game.

But look at Ferran Torres. That's a chance you have to bury if you are going to be an attacking player on the Spanish national team. And you want to compare France and Spain. France, they brought players off the bench that changed the dynamic of the game. D'Dia Deschance made good tactical substitutions. If Dembele or Olisei or any of these, Mbapé, if they are injured and they have to come off the bench, well, they have significantly better options than Spain does.

Do you think that's like the youth thing for Spain? Like they're a very young team? They are a young team, but I just think it's an overall depth, quality of depth thing. And look, the Spanish national team, the way that they play is a little bit different than France. They want to hurt you with death by 1,000 paper cuts. They want to pass you to death, but you eventually have to land that killer blow. France, much more balanced. They can keep possession. They can hit you in transition. But Spain, I'm not worried about them because now they got the poor finishing out of their system. They will be working on that in training significantly for the

remainder of the week. And I have no doubts that Spain is going to be fine and make it very far in this So it's muscle injuries, right, hamstrings for Nico Williams and Laminia Mall. And it's six days between games. I guess I'm a little surprised to hear you say that they're going to go from 19 minutes and three minutes to 90. Because if they're able to go 90, I was watching that game and I thought at halftime we were going to see substitutions. It felt to me like they were so confident because of the shots, because of the time of possession, because of where the ball was on the pitch, that they were just like, oh, well, we're going to break through and maybe they weren't going to play those stars at all. And then they put them in super late. But now you

think because they only got one point, they're going to go from, that feels like going from zero to a hundred? I don't think they're going to play 90. I just think they're going to start the next game. I got it. I think you start the next game with your best, most dangerous dynamic team. You let them build into the tournament. You get a lead. If it's two zero, three zero going in to the third game, bring them out in the 60th minute. There is no need to push them too hard too soon because like you said, muscular injuries are the biggest concern in the World Cup. You have a number of players, a number of great players that are going to have to have their loads managed in terms of how quickly you push them.

Let me, I mean, let me in you all. He's 19 years old. So you know what? He's going to be telling his coach, I want to play every minute of every game, but it's obviously on the coach to make sure that you kind of protect the players against themselves. See how the game goes. See how it plays out. See how fatigued he gets towards the end of the game.

It's been really interesting watching France, Spain, these top teams through the prism of what we saw from the U.S. team. So let's get to Team U.S. and the men's national team, still riding high, 4-1 win over Paraguay on Friday night. Now, they look ahead to Australia this upcoming Friday. So here's Team USA's own Tyler Adams on the matchup and the look ahead. It's not about any individual performance.

We obviously have so many talented players, but if it doesn't all come together, then you're never going to win a football game. And I think that's the most important thing for us and what we have to continue to focus on is we just need to continue to respect the process because there's been moments throughout the process where things weren't going amazing.

Now all of a sudden, you know, some people consider it amazing, whatever it is, but we've stayed completely humble in our approach to every single game. We just need to continue the same approach. We can't get to ahead of ourselves. It's time to flip the page. Australia is an incredibly tough opponent. So, yeah, that's where the focus needs to be. All right.

So they're saying all of the right things on social media Friday night and the immediate reaction was like, well, this is the greatest moment of the history of American soccer. So, you know, we can get out a little bit over our skis there. What message do you think the team USA sent? Well, first of all, that's a true leader right there in Tyler Adams. He might not be wearing the captain's armband, but that is a captain's type. He easily could have been. Oh, no question about it, because he is the emotional leader of this team.

But I love what he said about humility. I love how he said we have to stay humble because he mentioned the process. And the process was littered with terrible performances, bad results, disjointed team play, injuries galore. And so, yeah, there were question marks. I had question marks about this U.S. men's national team going into the World Cup, and they were absolutely answered in that game against Paraguay. But Tyler Adams said it perfectly. We're not going to get too high if we have a performance like we did against Paraguay,

and we're not going to get too low if we maybe have a little bit of a letdown, but don't have a letdown. You have the entire country behind you right now. You have so much momentum. And if it wasn't for that second half of France, you would have to say comprehensively, top to bottom, minute one to minute 90, the U.S. men's national team had the best performance of the World Cup so far. That is not an egregious statement.

That's not an outlandish statement. The way that they played against a very good defensively sound Paraguay team, they completely wiped the floor with them. They broke their will early and often. So this U.S. men's national team should have a ton of confidence, but I love the message coming out of them, especially going into a game against an Australia team that has been disrespected. This Australia team feels very disrespected from a lot of people in the U.S. media.

a good buddy of mine, Mike Grella, has said some things, and it has gone viral in Australia. So I think this is going to be a much more difficult task going into this Australia game. I thought what they did was they captured hearts and minds. Absolutely. Right. Stanley Cup finals are going on. NBA finals are going on.

Everyone was talking about the U.S. men's national. And I know it's a Friday night, and I know it's the opener. Yeah. But if that is the best performance in the history of the U.S. men's national team in the World Cup, in a year where you are hosting the World Cup when four years ago, largely, I know not completely,

but largely this same collection of talent, the so-called Golden Generation, played four World Cup matches and had three total goals. And then they have four goals in their opening match. Sure. I don't care who you were playing. The takeaway has to be,

well, this might be different. I am not yet ready to say there's a 7-1 result and France's, more talented. I don't know and I don't want to overreact or underreact to one game. But just comparing before I'm ready to compare Team USA to Spain or France, I will just compare the U.S.

men's national team to the previous U.S. men's national teams that I've seen. Correct. And I told you, I know I watched the friendlies. I read it. I was following this team in the lead up to it because of this job as closely as I ever have before. And I still wanted to see them put the ball in the back of the net.

And they did. Yeah. Like they created that chance that led to the own goal. Then Baligan was clearly the difference. then they give one back and then Raina comes on. And it was just like, oh, they can hang a crooked number on the board. They can put a lot of goals in the back of the net. And it felt like this team was just going to be different.

The most important thing to keep in mind with regard to the U.S. men's national team performance is that you do not win the World Cup after one game. Correct. There needs to be a pattern of consistency and momentum that has continued to carry on. I remember before this tournament started, we were talking about, you know, what does the U.S. men's national team have to do to get off to a great start in this tournament? Well, they have to play the first 15, 20 minutes and capture the hearts and minds of America. And they have to prove that regardless of if they play fantastically well, if they don't play great, that they are at least going to fight.

They're going to show that American grit that people want to see and then hopefully their talent will shine through. Well, you have to do that again. You cannot follow it up with a dud. You cannot lay an egg because then the doubt creeps in and people start questioning you. So let's see a level of consistency that they can keep because quite frankly their results have been. littered with inconsistency. Correct. And so that was quite honestly the perfect result other than little injury to Christian

Polisic, which they are. They say he's fine. They're underplaying it, which I trust them. And a needless yellow card to Tyler Adams where really you don't want to see him put himself in those situations because he is a top three most important player on this team. But other than that, I'm still riding high off of that performance. I think anybody who follows and cares about this team is, and this will not be the last time I say it before the game against Australia. The last time Team USA won back-to-back World Cup matches, 1930.

Let's change that. So it's been a while. I'll be facing the music on my mix takes that, well, they aged like milk and avocados next with Al-Harendon. All right, and Leonel Messi in Argentina, looking to go back to back. The countdown is on Argentina and Algeria. Cup opener tonight. You know where to get it. 9 o'clock on Fox. The countdown to Iraq, Norway is off and running and you are looking at Norway fans heading into the stadium and they're doing the little Viking row. Erling Holland and Norway looking to start hot in their World Cup opener tonight. 6 o'clock Eastern, of course, on Fox. I simply do not believe that you can win a championship with Jalen Brunson and Carl Anthony Towns as your two best players. I have been very wrong about the Knicks.

If the Knicks win the title, I will spend a literal night in a museum. Spurs in five. I still think the Spurs are going to win. The aggregate numbers say that the Spurs are the better team. I was wrong. I'll probably get this wrong too. No. I don't think the series is over.

I think the spurs are going to feed the big guy in the post, and that's ultimately going to be the reason they went to the game. Shout out to our boy Danny Parkins, by the way. Who else? On a segment we had on Friday. He chose Boligan. He's the most important player, and he was proven right, which I think is a rare sighting these days with his next day. Oh, wow. Whoops.

Got that one wrong. And here's the thing. As someone who has enjoyed saying I told you so when I get it right, which feels like it's been a long time, frankly, I know that I now live in New York City and for the rest of my life, any person I meet in public is susceptible and totally within reason to say that I was wrong for the rest of time. I honestly don't think I've ever been more wrong about anything than I was wrong about these New York Knicks. So a tremendous humbling. The producers here are very excited about all the content that they can clip together to make me look wrong. But hey, serious congratulations to the Knicks. It was one of the all-time champions.

Cannot wait for the parade on Thursday. Congrats to all the long-suffering. Knicks fans and my new friend Ben Stiller. All right. Who could have seen it coming, though? Well, Al Harrington, although I guess he predicted a sweep. The Knicks ended the Spurs gentleman's sweep, 45 points from Jalen Brunson, just part of what earned him finals end.

MVP, he was spectacular. When you look at the Knicks this postseason, they made history. Point differential, the best in the history of the NBA playoffs. Their record when trailing by double digits, the best since we've been tracking such things. All right, Al, you believed in your Knicks. Yes, you were a little biased. We appreciate you joining us now. How did they get it done, my friend?

And congratulations. Man, there's so much to unpack here, especially when you talk about how do they get it done. man. Obviously, you got to start with, like, they were a resilient team, right? You know, they were down 14, game one, came back. Down 12, game two, came back. Game four, down 29, came back. Still can't believe it. Down 16.

Came back. Now that, like, what I love about these championship runs is, like, when it's over, all the things that start coming out, right? And one of the things that set out to me was James Dolan's meeting with the team before the playoffs. We told him, look, we have 10 weeks to get this done. And for me, he was saying it was championship or bus. And when I really watch it and I unpack what he really was saying to me,

I felt like he was saying it in a nice way to like, if you guys don't win it this year, I'm breaking this thing up. So I feel like they might have had a little bit of pressure on them to get it done. But at the end of the day, got to put this crown on. I know we tried to give it to Winby saying he was the best in the face of the league and the best playing the league. It was Big Body Brunson, baby. The Knicks had the best closer in this thing.

You know, we were talking about, we wanted to give everybody the MVP, including myself, right? We talk about Kat. We talk about OG, right? But Brunson came out in Game 5, and he put on a historic performance, the likes of Michael Jordan,

Kobe, Janice, and he just said that, you know what? We're going to end this thing here in San Antonio, and it's going to be because of me. And, you know, there was times when they were struggling and he got basket after basket. And I think at the end of the day, the reason why the Knicks won this thing

was because, yes, you know, San Antonio had the bigger player, had the guy with the most talent, had, you know, the, you know, I think we crowned them too early to, you know, king of the league or the best player in the league. But the Knicks had the best player in this series. They had the best closer. And that's the reason why the Knicks won.

Listen, I think that is spot on. you know, Brunson was not the best version of himself by his own admission through four games, but no matter how inefficient he was, no matter how much Castle was given him problems, or Wembe was given him problems, or his percentages were down, you never had any doubt that the Knicks had any doubt of when it got to crunch time who they were going to play through. They knew what they were. They knew their identity for better, and at times in this series for worse, but they won in five, so mostly for better,

whereas the Spurs came out hot, landed the first punch, and then kept fading, and then when they were fading, do we turn to Wembe? Do we turn to Deerrin Fox? Do we turn to Dylan Harper? Is Dylan Harper even in the game?

Is Castle now going to be in this game? Why are we subbing out Wemby with five minutes left in game five? Hey, can Mitch Johnson call time out? The Spurs didn't know who they were in crunch time, and the Knicks said, we've got Jalen Brunson. And so I think that that is 100% the top thing for the on-the-court reason for the Knicks.

And then not to defend myself here, but just to, I, the defending myself for the take is one thing. And who cares? I got a prediction wrong. It happens. It'll happen again. But just to try to put this into historical context, this is one of the most dominant out-of-nowhere runs in the history of sports. Like, forget the NBA for just a second. Normally when teams are this dominant in the playoffs,

they were dominant in the regular season. So I want to show you the Knicks numbers in the playoffs compared to the regular season. Left-hand column, 6th, 5th, 10th, 8th, 20th. It's like, they're a good team. In the playoffs, they are the best across the board. And then we know about the win streak that they went on and, you know, sweeping the second round,

sweeping the conference finals, everything they did since being down 2-1 to Atlanta, gentlemen sweep against the Spurs. The teams that have that caliber of record in the postseason with three or fewer losses, every single one of them over the last three decades, were one or two seeds during the regular season. We're talking Shaq and Kobe Lakers.

We're talking, you know, Stefan Durant Warriors. We're talking 96 Bulls. We're talking Duncan and Robin. We are talking about iconic teams with iconic players. And the Knicks, to be clear, 100% deserve to be in that grouping of playoff performers, but the teams that had previously accomplished what they did in the playoffs showed that level of dominance in the regular season. So that's why this to me is going to be so singular in my brain and my memory, because

we've had champions that have been surprising before. But I don't think we've ever seen a champion that was this dominant that was surprising. Normally the dominant champions are the teams that were dominant in the regular season. So that's how I personally will remember the Knicks. Well, I mean to that point, right, you know, even in my playing days, right, you want to get hot at the right time. You have some players or some teams, excuse me, that, you know, a rolling all season. And then after all-star break, they start to stumble. And then you see they get to the playoffs and they don't end up, you know,

achieving what they ultimately thought they were going to achieve early in the season. The Knicks, specifically in this year, they got hot at the right time, right? When they lost that game in Atlanta and they were down to one, you know, I can remember reading things and hearing things like if they lose this series, Mike Brown's going to get fired and they're going to break this team up and all these different things, right? I said all of that. What did they do? They got right back on the horse. Not only did they blow Atlanta out every single game, the rest of that. that series, they carried it on to Philly. And then they carried it on to the Cavs. So during that

time, what I think happened is they just gained more and more, not only momentum, but confidence, right? That's what it was all about. It was like they were the most confident team in the playoffs. And it just resulted in win after win after win. And then when you get into this series against the Spurs, yes, they were a young team. But still, being down those amount of points, teams that aren't good and aren't really together and are mature, they lose all of those games. They lose those games.

But these guys, they just had this unbelievable belief in themselves. You know, you hear Jane Lane with a lot of these interviews now since they won, it's always been like next play, next play, next play. And you're taught that as really young. It's like things might go bad, but you got to get to the next play.

And they embody that, this entire playoffs, and that's the reason why they had that historic run, in my opinion. cliche, but it really was a team. Like it was a capital T team. It was not a super team, but they just all played their roles to the best of their ability. And like you said, peaked at the right time, a truly historic championship to end a 53-year drought. But coming up, the Spurs. Well, they're the title favorites for next year. Do they deserve it? We'll discuss with Al-Harrington coming up. And of course, the countdown to Argentina, Algeria. We are under three and a half hours away to Messi. It's only his sixth World Cup, him and Ronaldo, tied for them both. hosted history. We cannot wait. That's tonight. Nine o'clock on Fox. Today, Norway makes its return to the World Cup for the first time since 1998. You know, a Viking row is an appropriate way to move up an escalator. I like that.

That game coming up at 6 o'clock Eastern, Norway, Iraq, 6 o'clock on Fox. All right, so the Spurs lost the finals. And, you know, Knicks fans didn't really believe in everything they had going on. Stephan Castle at his end of the season interview yesterday. Here he is kind of trying to put this season and series loss into context. Take a listen. Hey, I mean, we felt like we could have got it down.

I mean, like you said, we were one step away. But I mean, I wouldn't look at this season as a failure. I thought we did a lot of good at this season, but obviously we didn't accomplish the main goal. But I mean, just trying to use it as a failure. you know, fuel to the fire for next season. Well, speaking to next season, the Spurs are already the favorites. And the Knicks get to play that nobody believes in us card already.

They're the fourth favorites to win next year behind the Thunder and the Celtics in addition to the Spurs. So Al Harrington still here with us. Al, do you think the Spurs deserve to be the favorites for next year? I don't think they deserve it. You know, I understand it, right? You think about this team, right? They have three best players are all 22 years, O and under.

Right. They won 62 games this year and they beat the defending champions, right? So when you see that, you know, you think that this team should just only get better, right? But the problem is, to me, is they're still bringing back the same roster. These guys are only going to be a couple months older. You know, how much is going to change? How much did they really learn, right? We have to see those things before we can crown them and say that they're the best team.

And, you know, they're the best team to be favorites to win. win the championship. I mean, I think there's some instances I was talking to an NBA executive yesterday where like most teams might look at them next year and be like down 15, 20 points in games and keep telling themselves, we're not out of this game. They'll let us back in. You know, so, you know, they have some work to do. You know, Victor has to get a go-to move like we talked about.

You know, Castle has to become a better shooter. You know, if Harper just, you know, if they put Harper in the starting lineup or not, he's going to have to, you know, get better, find better shots, not foul so frequently in bad positions. And, you know, so it's a lot of things that they need to get better at before I would say that they, you know, are favorites to win the NBA championship next year. Favorite show of all time, The Wire, Snoop Pearson, front of the show, she's been in here. She said in the show, whatever great lines was, deserves got nothing to do with it.

Like, they just lost to the Knicks. They don't deserve to be in front of the next. Knicks, they just beat the Thunder. They don't deserve to be in front of the thunder, but so much of what these odds reflect are, it's a projection. It is all of the young guys getting better, and it's anticipating who is going to bet into the market and at what cost. And it's like Victor Wembeyanaman defensive player of the year. He's going to be the overwhelming favor for defensive player of the year every year for the next decade, unless he goes into the season with a massive injury, because people see it as he's clearly the best. I think when you watch this guy who's

seven and a half feet tall at 22 years old, make it to the finals, average what he did, beat the champs, like you said, win 62 games in the West. Everybody acknowledges that they're not yet at their peak. There is a feeling of, well, they're inevitable. Like, maybe Boston gets Janus and maybe Boston gets back, but it's not inevitable. Maybe the Thunder, you know, can make it back, but they're going to lose a couple of pieces for money reasons. Maybe the Knicks can repeat it. But I think everybody would say the Spurs are going to get one eventually, and they haven't gotten theirs yet. So that's why they're going to be the favorite. And I would just say, don't forget about my thunder. Like they were so injured, and they took

that Spurs team to a game seven. And their big three of SGA, Chet Holmgren, who didn't play like a member of the big three in that series, but still it was an all-N-B-A player this year, and Jalen Williams, who was all-N-B-A last year, they played 32 out of 97 games together. You know, and they were the one seed, and they went to Game 7, and J-Dub wasn't there, and all of those things. So, like, I could make Kate,

and Boston might get Janus. So, like, what I think we have learned in the NBA is that, yes, there are teams at the top, but we now have a, different champions in the last eight years. It is a wide open league. Indiana can take the thunder to game seven last year out of nowhere. And by the way, they're going to be much better this upcoming year with Halliburton

back and whatever they add in the draft and all of those things. The Knicks in the regular season were a good but not great team, and now they're a historically great playoff team. So I don't think anybody deserves to be an overwhelming runaway favorite anymore in this new NBA where it feels like, anybody can win. And to your point, right, you have to compartmentalize every season because they're all different. You know, you never know how it's going to go to your point of like injury, all these different things. Now with the Spurs, I've been saying the whole time that their youth was going to

catch up to them, right? And usually it takes a team, you know, one, maybe two, even three years of heartbreak before they can kind of get over the hump, even with the Knicks, right? The Knicks have been getting at this and grinding towards this for the last three seasons and they finally got over the hump. OKC had some bumps in the road before they got there as well. But next year, to your point, there's going to be so much. The teams are going to be retooled, right? Oklahoma City, if they were healthy, I don't think San Antonio gets there. Just being all the way honest, right?

Next year, Janice makes a move in the Eastern Conference. Maybe the NICs don't get there if he stays in the Eastern Conference. Every season is so different. And the good thing about what's beautiful about the NBA right now is that there's so much parody. And it's so, it's an even playing field now for the first time in a long time. time and we don't know who's going to be there. So if I had to redo that final four, for me, it would be Knicks first, it will be Oklahoma City second, Celtics, and then San Antonio, if you want me to be honest. Listen, I always want you to be honest, and I think that's the beauty

of it. You can make these arguments for different teams at the top. The spurs will get better, but a lot of other teams, like you said, are going to be getting better as well. Al, great stuff, man. We love talking to you throughout these finals. We'll talk to you soon. Coming up, back to the World Cup. Dax McCarty is out here. We're going to show his big board. Spain has to drop, but how far as you get a look at beautiful arrow, you get a look in Kansas City? Three hours and 16 minutes, Argentina and Algeria coming up. Messi makes his World Cup debut as the defending champs. Can't wait. Leone Messey and Argentina gearing up for their World Cup Opener against Algeria. Messi, it's a casual sixth World Cup. Not bad. 13 career World

Cup goals for the greatest of all time. Argentina taken on Algeria tonight, 9 o'clock Eastern on Fox. All right, back here in World's Cup Corner, we debuted Dax's Big Board last week. His power rankings are the top 10 teams this World Cup. There's already been a ton of action. I wasn't sure if we were going to come in today and have much movement, but given how crazy this tournament has been off the start, Dax. I know there are going to be teams moving up and down your big board here.

So take it away. Where's the changes? Well, first of all, this is a fluid, big board, okay? Of course. And a lot of this is going to be based on form, okay? And it's not necessarily, oh, if I move a team into the big board or a team up because of a great performance, that they're going to win the World Cup. That's not what I mean. But based on form.

How they're looking now. How they're looking right now at this moment. So, you know, you have a tough result. You draw Cape Verde. Guess what? You're going to drop a few places. But we'll get to them in a second. First things first.

Oh, you like that? Oh, my God. he's been here a week. Brazil, Nick Wright. Really poor result draw on the first game. Played against a good Morocco team, which isn't going to drop out of my big board. I have higher expectations for Brazil. You're off.

Wow. The Netherlands. Sixth favorite of the tournament. Netherlands, an underwhelming draw against a pretty good Japan team. I didn't like how the Netherlands tried to see out that game. They took the lead twice, conceded two equalizers. You're out. Netherlands.

Morocco. Now, they're going to drop a problem. place in my rankings merely because they didn't get the full three points, but I was really impressed with Morocco. They controlled that game against Brazil. Iu Buhadi, remember the name, 18 years old. He controlled the midfield against a Brazilian national team that is struggling. But they drop a spot despite a draw with Brazil. Correct. But Brazil's out. Brazil's out. But you know, I understand. But you know why they drop a spot? Because the U.S. men's national team, The powerhouse against Paraguay.

U.S. men's national team. They move up to seven. And I got a lot of people chirping about my big board and about some of the things I said about Paraguay and disparaging this Paraguayan national team. Who, by the way, in World Cup qualifying, they beat Argentina. They beat that average Brazil team. But they did beat Argentina. They only conceded 10 goals in 18 games. This was a Paraguay team that was in pretty good form coming into the tournament.

We completely wiped the floor with them. But pause here for just a second. I mean. Too high? Well, it's not too high. It's just powerhouses and then the U.S. It's very exciting. Like that visual image right there is very exciting.

Feeling like they're knocking on the door. Find me a more comprehensive performance from minute one to minute 90 other than France in the second half today that a team put together other than the U.S. men's national team. That was one of the best performances of the World Cup so far. They're at home. They go up to number seven and that's final. That's an amazing image. Spain, Spain, Spain, Spain.

My pick. Who got Vosignan. They're not out. Relax, everybody, okay? We are going to move them into the sixth spot because their performance wasn't great. Wasn't good enough. Now, listen, it's realistic to say two things can be true. Spain was wasteful in their finishing.

They didn't look incisive enough in the attack. They lacked ingenuity for a Spanish national team. They were too much, they were too pragmatic in their approach. of shots, but not many on target. Seven saves from Bozina. When they get Laminia Malback, I expect them to slowly start climbing up this board. But by virtue of not playing yet, you get all these teams. Argentina plays tonight.

You go up to two. France, you stay at one after a brilliant second half, by the way. Portugal, you're moving up to three. England, you are moving up to five. And up to four. Up to four. And we have the German men's national team. You guys are moving up to five based.

You know what? You didn't get Spain. You did what you needed to do against Curacao. And now we get two additions to the board. All right. Who do we got? Very impressive Ivory Coast team, who by the way, their best player, winger Jan Diamande. If you don't know the name, remember the name. He actually grew up as a teenager playing some soccer, an hour from my hometown in Florida. And now he's on a metoric rise. A lot of big club teams circling around him. one of the most dangerous wingers in the tournament, keep an eye on him. And one of the more impressive teams, South Korea, very happy with South Korea's performance against Chechia. They play a beautiful brand of soccer, possession style, very similar to a Spain, except they were more

effective. They were fantastic. Kang In Lee, remember the name from PSG, one of the most creative players in the tournament. This is my big board as of yet, and I want to give an honorable mention to Mexico, who had a good victory. Australia, a good victory against Turkey. and Sweden, who clearly they played a weaker team. And you're saying, again, this is a snapshot in the moment. So not necessarily that Ivory Coast would be Brazil. No, no, no, no. These are my power rankings.

Again, this board is very fluid. And you know what? If you disagree, fair enough, send me your big board, okay? That's the thing about people's top 10 lists. Of course. You got to actually make a top 10 list. They can crush yours, but they won't send you there. Anyways, I'm okay.

This board for right now, for what we have seen, we'll see what Argentina, Portugal, England can produce later in the tournament. So I want to talk about Argentina. So they move up a spot, but they haven't played yet. These other top teams have had an opportunity to make first impressions. Argentina has started World Cup slow, the last two World Cups out, but of course they were the champs last year. Are you expecting a hot start from Messi in Argentina tonight?

I'm not. Okay. I'm not expecting a hot start from Messi and Argentina. Firstly, because we're not sure if Lino Messi is going to play this game from the start. Now, he's coming off a 20-minute cameo in their last warm-up game. Seems to be fully fit. But if you're Lionel Scaloney, I do think you need to manage his minutes. And so it remains to be seen whether he starts this game from the beginning in the starting 11 or comes off the bench.

And I wasn't enamored with Argentina's buildup to this tournament. They played six teams. And the highest ranked team that they played was Honduras at 66th ranked team in the world. I don't think that's a murderer's row that's going to challenge them. But does that matter when they're bringing back 17 starters from the championship? championship World Cup team four years ago? It does matter because it's 17 players. It does matter because now the games get real.

And you haven't tested yourself near enough. And you're going to play an Algeria team who has one loss in 19 games, a team who had to qualify through a really difficult African qualifying process. And I think Argentina is very likely to see a slow start to this tournament, strictly because Messi's fitness is a little bit of a question mark. Okay. Is there anything to Switzerland, eight years? ago, Saudi Arabia four years ago, one was a draw, one was an outright loss, like anything

to, like they're just slow starters? Yeah, I think there is something to that. And I think we've seen in this World Cup, especially with some of the bigger teams, some slow starts. And so, you know, Spain is the poster child for that in this tournament, but Argentina, the sky was falling in 2022. So I expect them to start a little bit slower. It's very possible that they could beat Algeria 340. But based on where they're at, based on the fact that I think Algeria is in really good form right now. I see that game being a draw, and then I see Argentina being able to build into this tournament and continue to build momentum. And so they'll be there at the end. They're going to be one of the last four teams in the tournament.

But I do believe that you can talk about all the continuity that they have, but they're also four years older. Their best player, four years older. Where is his fitness at? That's with a question for me. We haven't seen a repeat back-to-back champ in the World Cup since Brazil in 1962. You're saying right now, we won't again. They won't repeat. Big board. It brings out all the big takes. Stacks.

It's been an amazing start. Great stuff. That's the big board. Like you said, leave yours in the comments. Enjoy the games tonight on Fox. We're back tomorrow on FS1.