PTI - Did Messi Play his Final World Cup Game?

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Michael Wilbon and Tony Kornheiser discuss the World Cup, the British Open, and the MLB. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Pardon the interruption. but I'm Mike Wilbon. I'm back. After being out nearly two weeks, Tony, did you miss me? I'm Tony Cornhars. Wait, I know you. You were my original co-host, right? Aren't you that guy?

Not Pablo, not Frank, not Mina. No, no, it's you. It's you. Remember that? It's you. Wait, that's coming to me. Mike, Mike Wilbon. Wow, there you go.

Brother of Don Wilbon. Yes. Brother of Don, welcome to PTI. boys and girls. In today's episode, drama at the British Open, 13 straight wins for the Red Sox and a backflip Pratt ball from Cam Scataboo. But we begin today with Spain beating Argentina won nothing yesterday. I did not say one-nil, won nothing yesterday in the final of the World Cup. Spain dominated the action. They had 12 shots on goal in the 120-plus minute game, counting extra time. Argentina had no shots on goal. None. Lino Messi was left in tears at the end

of what is assumed to be his final World Cup game. Wilbon, what struck you about Spain's win, and where does all this leave Messi? Wow, Tony, it's hard for me to know where to start. I'm going to start, actually, with Emmy Martinez. The Argentine goalkeeper, who, without him, it's like five-nothing. I mean, you know, he made just one incredible stop after another, after another, and the way he played, and he had no chance on the one goal, Spain did score.

But we move on from him. and we get to Spain. And the defense they played on Messi. I mean, just defensively to keep him to 20 touches in the first half, and he had only like seven in the first, you know, 30 minutes of the second half. And you're like, wow, Messi can't, it can't even find Messi. Of course, he's the great playmaker. And I'm struck by the thuggish nature of the way Argentina plays.

Surrounding players and standing over them like gangsters. and confronting the referee and encircling him and physically threatening him. And, you know, all these soccer experts on our air and others are tripping over themselves, not to say that Argentina plays a thuggish brand, a brilliant, successful championship brand and thuggish. Now to Messi, my God. In the other games, he was so fabulous. Yesterday did nothing.

Everything he does raises him to me, Tony, as a latecomer to international to world soccer and messy and only paying attention to him the last eight years or so. What he did in the previous games against England and against Cape Bird, he's so stunning and the pasts and the way he puts them on people's noggins to win games, he's stopped. It does nothing. A loss does nothing too messy for me.

Everything that happens raises him in his all-time stature. I know because we spoke this morning, and you used the word thrilling to say how you felt about watching that game. You were thrilled to watch it. What strikes me most about Spain is it for large chunks of that game, they appeared to have no opponent at all. Not only were they masterful on defense, but they pressed all the action on offense. The goalie for Argentina, as you said, made 11 stops. The goalie for Spain could have eaten a three-course meal during that game. He could have had it delivered onto the first.

field. The Argentinian guy makes 11 stops. The Spanish guy in eight games in the World Cup only had to make 10. Spain pitched a shutout. It's the seventh shutout in eight World Cup games. I'm going to go over the bell. That is a record. They only gave up one goal in the entire World Cup and that is a record. The only thing that made that game mildly interesting to me was Argentina's habit of scoring late and winning. games. But they were down to 10 guys. Because as you're saying and alluding to, they play a brutish

brand of football, you know, as they call it, soccer football. And they could have 18 yellow cards. I mean, they were, you know, they were all over. They had nothing at the end. They had nothing that threatened in

any way what Spain was doing. I mean, I think they set a record for no shots on goal in a World Cup final in the 23rd. World Cup final. I'll be brief on Messi. He's going to be 43 at the next World Cup, so I don't think we're going to see him at another World Cup.

There's a big difference between going from 35 to 39 and going from 39 to 43. I expect to see him in the pink jersey, playing from Miami in the MLS and being, as he is now, America's favorite soccer player. Just great.

Yeah. It's, you know, on to the British Open. New Zealand's Ryan Fox barely made the cut Friday but sunk a 12-foot birdie put on 18 to win the final major of the year by one stroke yesterday over Cam Young. Bryson Deschambeau finished six back, in part due to a two-stroke penalty, he had to take Friday for legally improving his lie. So what did you make of Fox's win and the DeCambeau controversy?

All right, Aaron Fox won this tournament, and he won it by birdying four of the last six Holes, including 18, which all week, Ryan Fox, what did I say? Did I say Aaron? I've been saying that all day. That's all right. Ryan Fox. He won it, and he won it by birdying four of the last six holes, including number 18, which had only yielded, I believe, 26 birdies all week up to that point.

But he could not have won it if Sam Burns and Sewell Kim did not lose it. Okay? Sam Burns opened up with, not opened up, but in the front nine, he had three. three consecutive bogeys. He went from the lead at minus 11 to minus 8 and see you later. This is a guy who had the greatest two back-to-back rounds in the history of the British Open on Friday and Saturday, 62 and 65. He gagged.

He gagged on Sunday. He finished over par and he's a great putter and he didn't make a putt. Siwu Kim at one point had the lead at minus 10. And then bogeied four of his last six holes and that's goodbye for him. Ryan Fox won this, but could, you know, could not have won it if they didn't allow him to win it. Cameron Young put pressure on everybody early. He was in there for like three hours waiting. He was like the Spain goal.

He was like, but he'd 18. And nothing happened. I thought that was going to be a playoff. I thought it'd be a playoff. And now what we have is with, and this is why I say Aaron Fox, because Aaron Rye, winning the PGA and Ryan Fox winning this tournament, the British Open, we have two guys who are first time winners at May. never be second time winners, and I'll let you talk,

and then I'll get to DeCambo. Go ahead. No, Tony, and you and I talked about DeCambo a little bit. Yeah, we talked about it in a lifetime, and I, it's too much. First of all, if you're going to issue a statement and say it's inadvertent, then why is there a two-stroke penalty? It's one of those things, I

understand why, because golf, every sport, every sport has its tradition. They have rules. And it's rules, and it's customs. And I hate some of them. You know, they seem to have finally done away with fans, calling into the truck to call a penalty on somebody in previous years. Golf seams, I don't know if they've gotten rid of it officially, but I haven't heard of it in years.

I hate that. And so I'm not a Deschambeau fan, but I thought the penalty was harsh, to say the least. Ryan Fox, man, to stare down those last, as you say, Tony, those putts that he made late. When others couldn't and the conditions were difficult, I know you weren't, you were into the leaderboard. I'm not into that. I'm into whoever's here now. Who's here now? Because you know what more you know those guys are doing?

They're at the crib. That's where they are. So I like these guys. Let me get to this. Let me get to Deschambo for a second in this regard. I was very interested in what other players had to say about him. And most players said, we don't believe he cheats. Scotty Sheffler said that specifically.

I don't believe that he cheats. But they also said, this is the rule. We all know the rule. And it is a two-shot penalty. You don't like the rule. Change the rule. Rory McElroy said, I don't like DeCambeau. That made me laugh.

And he called him performative. My problem is this. This is the only problem I've got. If you say it's inadvertent, then you're looking for intent. The NBA speaks to intent when they review a flagrant foul and they downgraded if they don't think it's intent. Maybe there's something that golf could do about that. I'm not certain, but it is the rule, and they all know the rule. Let's move to baseball.

The Boston Red Sox completed a four-game sweep of. first place Tampa Bay yesterday, all at Fenway. The Red Sox have now won 13 games in a row and 18 of 20 overall. They fired a manager early in the season, had no great luck with the new manager until now. Wilbon, are you convinced the Red Sox turnaround will be lasting? Lasting, no. Am I convinced they could do it again? Yeah.

They got like the fourth best pitching staff of starters, maybe overall, everybody, starters and bullpen, in baseball. So yes, they can do it again. Lasting? No, because I know that everybody will go crazy when it's the Red Sox and the Yankees. My team has done this this year. Won 20 out of 23 with two separate 10-game winning streaks. And it didn't last. They were able to do it again.

And then after going in a hole for a while, they come out and they win 15 of 19. It wasn't lasting. It's doing it again. The Red Sox, particularly in the American League, where you don't have anybody who's great. I mean, I'm not willing to go Tampa great yet. Yes, the Red Sox can do it again.

They probably will do it again, Tony. They have, when you were alluding to, they have the fourth best ERA in baseball. The only teams with better ERA, and they don't even have crochet. And when they had crochet, his ERA was 6.30. The only teams with a better ERA are the Yankees and the Brewers and the Dodgers.

And those are all good teams. And as you say, yes, the Red Sox are in the weaker league. they are more prone to winning again. I'm one of those people who sort of believes that a body set in motion stays in motion. So if you tell me they're losing at the beginning of the year, I'll tell you they're going to keep losing. You know, now they turn it around.

There's a great stat I've got for you. They're now 30, they were on June 25th, they were 32 and 46. Tom Verducci, an alumnus of Newsday, as I am an alumnus of Newsday, has this statistic that in the history of baseball, there have been 473 teams, 473. that he either had that record or a worse record through 78 games. None of them made the playoffs. None ever. And at the moment, the Red Sox are sitting in the third wild card.

And look, I remember the Washington Nationals in 2019. At the end of May, they were 19 and 31. They were a last place team. They were a bad team. They got caught on fire, Mike. They went 74 and 38, and they won the World Series. So you're right. You have to do it again.

But you get the opportunity to do it again. Because baseball lasts a long time. Absolutely. They do. Let's take a break. Coming up, did the more notable injury news of the weekend concern Aaron Judge or Shohei? And how badly did the thunder hurt themselves by dealing away? Lugentz, Dork.

So let me go back to Deschambe for a second. I felt badly for him, Deschambo. But when he got a triple on number 11 yesterday, I figured that was karma. Because he threatened not to play Saturday. He did. And he held everybody up. He did. We helped everybody after hours, right?

Yeah, they've got to get rid of that rule, though, tone. Change the rule. Just change it. Okay, but if it is the rule now, you have to follow it now. Yes. Pardon the interruption is brought to you by Coca-Cola. Always the real thing. The first ever All-Electric 26th Subaru Trail Seeker is the EV for the trail obsessed,

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Whoa, what is that? Let me get the first one here and go to the glasses. Did the more concerning injury update from the weekend involve Aaron Judge or Shoaheotani? Aaron Judge, Tony, it is not even close to me going from the 15-day, what I still call the D-L, to 60 day because the Yankees are really good and they are division winning style team, league winning style team with Aaron Judging that lineup. There are two games under 500 with him out of that lineup. I know Shoah, you don't want to lose Shoah either.

My God, you just don't want to lose him. He can still hit, though, even though he's missed a start. He's been pushed back. He hasn't pitched. We've been on the eggshells with him since before the All-Star game. But the Dodgers have an embarrassment of riches. If they had to sit Shohei down for 15 or longer, they're still going to survive. They're not going to be two games under 500 just because Shoah is not there.

Aaron Judge being absent from that Yankee lineup is a potential disaster. Yeah, I'm going to disappoint all of our viewers, all the dozens that watch this show, because I'm going to agree with you completely. The answer is Aaron Judge. He's kicked up to the 60-day injury list, but he can come off it at the end of July. lies. It's only like about a week. We can have whatever that is. Now, he needs a full body scan at the point where he's ready to play and he cannot engage in any baseball activities until he gets cleared. So it may take a while to jump back in this. They need him because as you say,

they're 18 and 20 without him. They're 36 and 23 when he's playing. Shohei has a knee problem so he can't pitch. But he can hit. He can hit. He's got 22 home runs and 60 RBI. You give me half a show hay over no judge. Of course you make that deal. And to me, Mike, I think the judge is a little bit more iffy in terms of coming back. It sounds like that, Tom. Like, are they going to get him back with any time, real time, left in this season? Here's the next one.

Does the thunder trade of defensive specialist Lou Dort make sense to you? Tony, it does because Oklahoma City knows what it's doing. No one's better at scouting than Oklahoma City. And you can throw scouting and developing in there too. And that means they got picks. They got other tradable assets. They know exactly what time it is. I mean, when you send Dort to Atlanta, by the way, it gets interesting.

Because now they got a team with Jalen Johnson, Dyson, Dyson, Daniels, Nikol, C.J. McCollum, a congwu. I mean, so they can get rid of researche, and it can go on one of these three, four, five, six team trades. and then Atlanta still got a bench. But Oklahoma City, Tom, they know what they're doing. They get rid of Wiggins and Doort, and they both go into Atlanta. And I still trust.

I trust the staff of OKC to know how to fill that in by the time we get to Halloween. So this trade is made because of the second apron. The second apron is not something I completely understand, but it seems to me that the second apron penalizes successful teams. When you are successful, you have to shed salary. You have to get rid of players. Players that you found, players that you develop, players that work for you, you have to dump them in the name of parody.

And I don't think that's a good thing. The thing that interests me about this trade is not Lou Dord. It is Zachary Resachian leaving Atlanta and going to Dallas. This kid was the number one overall pick in 2024. Is Atlanta that certain that he can't play? because if I'm Dusty May and I'm Cooper Flag and I'm getting a big guy, I'm pretty happy about that and I'm getting them basically for nothing. So that's how I looked at the trade, not so much Dort,

but Ries Lachet-Shay moving over to Dallas. The Ries-Sachian part is-Under. It is huge. I mentioned Atlanta, though, because I think they look at their roster of those guys, I mentioned, including depth, they're 10-deep, and Buddy Heel doesn't even sound like he's part of their plans necessarily anymore. And you go, wow, by the way, your guy, Alex Sar. the second player chosen in that draft,

he has been better than Risa Shea. He has been. We'll see what happens. Nobody's going to miss Trey Young in Atlanta, I'll tell you that. Enough of your emails. Let's take one last break, but still to come, Cam Scadaboo's attempt to prove his good health goes bad.

And did the Warriors snag a star in Yaxel? I told you they did. I told you that kid was going to be great. I loved him. You liked him in the regular season. It didn't make sense that he went 11th. or something in the draft. That was insane. I'm working on the difference between Ryan Fox and Aaron Fox and D. Aaron Fox.

Well, there you go. Whether life serves you an ace or an unexpected backhand, the high-protein yogurt, Oikos Pro, is there to feed your strength and help you turn every challenge into a smash. Oikos Pro helps build strong muscles and support muscle recovery with high protein and contains no added sugar, because true strength isn't about being able to take the hits. It's about being able to bounce back. Oikos Pro. Feed your strength. Visit Oikos.C.A. for more details. When WestJet first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different.

People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at WestJet.com. slash 30 years. Happy time, people.

Happy 30th birthday, Ben Simmons. Remember him? Ten years ago, Simmons was the overall number one pick in the NBA draft by the 76ers. He won rookie of the year. He was a three-time All-Star, a great defensive player. But a combination of injuries and the perception that he did not want to shoot open threes diminished his value. Simmons last played in the NBA for 18 games with the Clippers in 2025.

And since then, Simmons has become a champion in order. organized sport fishing. He owns the South Florida sales, who this may won the Blue Marlin Open in the Bahamas. Simmons began fishing in his native Australia, but wait, there's more. A recent ESPN story talked about how Simmons is training for a potential NBA comeback,

maybe in Philadelphia or Miami. What do you think? He's only 30. Tony, maybe fishing will give him a sense of calm and he can bring back to the NBA. The problem was, and he stopped shooting threes, the problem was he wouldn't shoot at all. Why, I think it was a point.

playoff game where he would not shoot, you know, against a six-foot player. I think it was Trey Young. So, no, you can't do that. But he has so much talent in there. I would love to see a second act from Ben Simmons. That would be great. Happy anniversary Hank Aaron. This is posthumous, but on this day, 50 years ago.

Hammer and Hank hit his 750th and final home run. Aaron hit his last 22 home runs as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, not the Atlanta Braves. Milwaukee, of course, was where Aaron began his career when the Braves played there. At the 2021 All-Star Game in Colorado, there was a lovely tribute to Aaron. Aaron's wife, Billy, was given in Aaron jersey

that had each All-Star signature around the border and a painting depicting Aaron's journey from his young days to becoming a Hall of Fame player. And the 2025 All-Star Game in Atlanta, there was a phenomenal tribute where Aaron's record-breaking 714th home run was projected onto the field than a reenactment of sorts.

Of course, Tony, people under 60 or so may consider someone else the home run king. But we ain't those people. I know who you consider the home run king and you know who I consider the home run king. And I have sat with Hank Aaron and looked at a record book and him talking about physically

what he couldn't do from 38 to 39 to 40 as his home runners who is down. And what he didn't take. And Hank Aaron is a hero to me. And I know he occupies a hell of a story spot on the top shelf to you as well. Happy trails to a successful backflip for

Cam Scataboo. The Giants running back attempted to illustrate the strength of his surgically repaired right ankle by back flipping on stage at Fanatics Fest on Saturday, only to land awkwardly and tumble backwards onto his tuchus. That did not dissuade Mr. Scatibu from celebrating as if he'd nailed it. He later blamed

the mishap on bouncy floors that launched him higher than he expected. Added Scatibu, quote, perfectly fine. Nothing happened. I'm just going to keep being mean. If they want to say I'm brain dead and I don't have no brain, then who cares? Bleep it, unquote. If the Giants turn

out to be any good while he's there, he'll be eccentric, maybe charismatic. If they're not, the word dope comes to mind. I'm just saying. There are options. Very quick to the big finish. Jackson Lenderberg and the Warriors won Summer League over Camboozer

and the Grizzlies. You impressed? With both, but I told you about Yaxel. I did. We knew Boozer was going to be terrific. They're both great promise. Hunter Goodman of the Rockies had his second three homer game of the season. Isn't that a big deal? He's hitting home runs as a catcher like Calroly did last year. Michigan, AD, Ward Manuel will step down at the end of the year.

Makes sense? Won some championships in both big sports. We knew this was coming. It makes sense. Scotland's Josh Curris to the new world record in the Mile. I know how much you love the Mile. Yeah, we're in 342. I think that Roger Bannister breaking up.

to four minute miles, one of the ten most important things in the history of sports. Last one. Miz is on the mound tonight against the Mets. What do you expect? The Mets are a bottom five or six offense. I expect seven innings, no earned against the Mizz. We've got to keep up with the Brewers. Out of time.

Try to do better the next time. I'm Tony Corner. And I'm Mike Lobon. Same time tomorrow, knucklehead.