SoccerWise - 2026 World Cup Golden Boot Draft presented by Soccer.com

Episode Date: June 8, 2026

David Gass, Matt Doyle, Susannah Fuller and Tom Bogert go live from Soccer House in Chicago for a World Cup Golden Boot Draft, building their teams and predicting which stars will lead the tournament in goals. The group also discusses breakout candidates, tournament favorites, favorite World Cup memories and the fan cultures that make the tournament special.Please note: This episode was recorded live at Soccer House in Chicago ahead of the World Cup. Audio quality may differ from our standard studio recordings.

Thank you so much for being here. First of all, let's give up a big applause for Soccer House. We obviously at Kickback are very passionate about soccer people doing soccer things, so we're very proud of Garrett and everyone else involved in this place. Thank you to all of you for coming out. I hope everyone is excited for what is going to be highway robbery. Everyone here is out to just steal from me and ruin my night. We are going to be doing a World's Cup Golden Boot Draft

live and in person for the first time ever. You guys are all part of history. with me as a shot of Mallort. So this is my first time in Chicago. My whole life, I've never been to Chicago before, and I wanted to do it right, and I want to make sure I have a Chicago handshake, or do we call it a Chicago handball here?

Like, what is the, all right, so Chicago Handshake. I have never had a shot of Mallort at some point during this show. It's going to happen, and we'll just see what happens. We'll see how it goes. We're living life on the end. I'm concerned. This is all because. As the native Chicagoan here, I'm very excited to see this reaction live.

I respect your culture and I'm not afraid of it. Okay. All right. All right. I like that attitude. And from Downers Grove. Thank you. We have Susanna Fuller with us.

Big shout for Susanna. I didn't say your name, Doyle, because I didn't need to. Suze, are you excited to be home? I love being home, especially in the summer. Yeah. This is Primo. This is Peak Chicago. right now and I'm so glad it stopped raining.

I'm very excited we were going to be on the roof but we're not but it's okay because we're excited to be inside just packed in with everyone else. And the last person of course is the biggest name in all of newsbreaking around the Jordanian national team. Holy shit, it's Adam Schaefter.

That's who you went with. Tommy Scoops, big shout for Tommy Scoots. I mean I could have said Diana Rossini. We are as many people know, 38 minutes away from me and Tom's greatest moment of our lives in the New York Knicks Go Up to zero on the San Antonio Spurs.

But until then, we're going to do our Golden Bootraft. And Tom was nice enough. He actually sent me exclusive breaking news about the Jordanian national team's goal scoring and PKs today because he's looking out for me. I'm just a good friend. I gave that tip to you, not to them because I'm a good friend. You need to move that centerback way up your draft.

They'll never see it coming. Can you name a single place? person or anything about Jordan? That they're in the World Cup. Respect, Tom. Respect, Tom. We're going to do our golden boot trap, so we're looking at five rounds. We're each going to select players. What? I thought it was six or seven. That's okay. If you want to be casual, you can be casual.

Tom, how deep is your degeneracy that you are ready to go on this? We do a soccer podcast. We do a soccer podcast. Speaking of, we're going to be doing a daily World Cup show, starting at 9.30 a.m. Eastern Time every single day of the World Cup. Our first show is on Wednesday, June 10th or Thursday June 10th, which is this week. And we're so excited. We're just going to sit around and we're going to chat soccer every single day. I know the World Cup's not perfect the way we all wanted it to be.

This is my dream show. To do it with my friends is the most exciting thing I've ever done. And I think we're going to have a lot of fun. And I hope everyone's able to enjoy it with us. If you're just looking for a place to hear a ball and hang out, we're going to be the place to do it. So as Doyle plays with his mic and ruins my night. Is that what I'm doing?

I don't know. I'm trying to figure out who that was. Oh, look at that. That was you. Just stay away from each other. So to start with, let's start one thing you're most excited about for the World Cup, and then we'll get into our golden boot draft. Tom, let's start with you. I'm excited for the games to be here.

As silly as it sounds, we've been talking about this tournament, talking about this day coming, and there's just a lot of gut punches along the way. Ticket prices from VFUF is this made? Just keep going. Okay. Tickets. Ticket prices. It's the water break, aka just adding more commercials.

It's the U.S. soccer not playing well leading up until that, at least the Senegal game. It seems like at every turn it's negativity, and at every turn it's everything but what we want. And the games are going to get here, and it's going to be easy to forget about some of those negatives. I just can't wait for the games that get started for us to be doing what we love, rather than talking about the tournament and talking about all the things coming around. Oh, Tom. That's beautiful. Yeah.

Sus, do you have something? Nick's win one game and he gets so fucking sentimental. No, I echo everything that Tom said, and I think he hit the nail in the head. I think for me, one of the things I've always loved about World Cup is that inevitably, their stars are born on this stage, on this global stage. And it's like a young player that nobody has ever really heard of or paid attention to. And suddenly they emerge in the biggest way, on the biggest stage. And it gives me chill is like talking about it.

So I love those moments. It's part of the reason why I fell in love with soccer. And I'm so excited that we are literally days away from getting to see the start of someone's incredible journey like that. So, yeah, for me, that's number one. I mean, I'll echo that. If you're in this room, you probably measure your life in four-year cycles. Like there is the Mbopi breakout and there was messy finally getting the trophy. There was, you know, the 7-1 Germany.

over Brazil. That's how I remember each four-year cycle. And I'm just looking forward to what that means, and I'm hoping that this time around somehow it involves Alex Freeman because it's been like he's so good and I cannot wait to see this guy break out for

the national team this summer. Love that. Yeah. Did you know his dad played football? No. Really? Can I read about that in the athletic? I think John Strong just stole your notes. I will say similar to all of you though for me the most exciting part I was just talking to someone who's iranian who's going to go to the iran games I think as everyone sees these fan bases that are around the

u.s that are excited for this uh I think that's going to be big so I think just watching if you saw the Haiti fans at chase field which is trash and took nine hours on that day because it rained like crap that's why I wasn't there I'm committed to the Haiti team and Tim pain if you look at the iran fans are going to show up if you look at Colombian fans we're going to be partying like There's so much in this that I think is going to be a special moment that people don't realize exists in the U.S. or Canada or Mexico. And our friend Valer, who was in Mexico with Iraq, he was like, I'm Mexican now. Like the Mexicans love me, they love us. And I'm so excited for that to just be the vibes where people like, like what you said about stars breaking out.

You also connect those moments with places like everyone knows if I say Recefei what I'm talking about, right? You're talking about USA Germany. Now that's going to be like Levi Stadium. Just a little bit less romantic. Maybe it'd be San Francisco or Bay Area, but that's going to be the vibe for it. Okay, we're going to do our golden boot draft, so the way this is going to work. I guess I talked to Suez before and I didn't realize we didn't fully establish. Oh, my God.

Suez was brought out notes. Thank you, thank you. As Tom would say. I got to win this thing. I got to win this thing. As Tom would say, Big Dog. Alpha move. Alpha move.

So we're going to do five rounds. We'll go in an order. it is not picking who will win the Golden Boot. It's the combined goal scores on your team. That will be the winner for the four of us. And on the Daily Show, we're going to build out a graphic because Steve hasn't worked hard enough and we're going to keep updated with that.

We're going to keep working on it as we go forward. So that is one thing to know. And then the other thing to know is what is our tiebreaker? Assist. Oh, you're a giver. I didn't realize that. Yeah. I'm curious, like the Golden Boot draft, people don't think it's XG? We do it.

No, XG should be it. We do it for- We do it for- analytically is the most important thing. Thank you for traveling over that. I'm just curious. Who's in first right now in our MLS? Quite honestly, I don't know.

Team Tom K. Withie. Oh, so three people picked one team and everyone else had to work by themselves. What? Okay. Let's do this. We're going to do cheese.

and the loudest cheer will be the first pick. I have no idea how I'll judge this. Matt Doyle. I got some people. All right. Susanna Fuller. Tom Bogart. They felt like they had to.

That one felt like they had to. Yeah. Double, double the Doyle though. David Goss. I was sarcastic. Yeah, I think Seuss. All right. We'll do the Seuss first.

Thanks, guys. Then we'll go. You were second. Then we'll go. Well, I don't want to do. Oh, we'll go. because I'll forget. All right, whatever you want.

Here's the key. Okay. I'm not really going to write them down as we go. Wow. All right, I'll write it down. Tom just got... That was the thing that made Tom the most upset of the day. Todd's like...

Todd's got it. Todd's like I'm managing this. Okay. So we will start with Suze. Oh, my God. So with the number one pick, okay. In the first ever, historically done...

kickback golden boot i didn't know where i was going to go yeah was it is his first cut um yeah sorry uh world cup draft susanna fuller steps to the dais the pick is yours okay um so i i thought long and hard about this because i i had a feeling i was going to get the first pick i really did and i was torn between two players but there was one that just like i thought i would be dumb i would just be dumb i would just be dumb if I didn't take this person when I had the opportunity. And that would be Erie Kang of England. Oh, my God.

Not only. Wow. Yes, Harry Kane. He takes all their penalties. Right. He is basically their only true goal score. Yeah. What about Yvonne Tony of the Saudi Arabia?

That's, yeah, also true. Ari is going to be playing at 4 p.m. in Philly. This man is going to melt. Round of 16. He is going to spontaneously combust. Erie Kane. All right. Every cane.

I hope he hydrates. The 2018 World Cup Golden Boot winner and the co-Golden Boot winner at the 2024 European championship. Let the record speak for itself. Let the record speak for itself. So with the first pick, Suez went to her roots, which is England. And now Matt Doyle, you're the next pick. I feel like I got a gift.

I feel like the Spurs passed on Victor Wenbana. I'm going with Killingh Mbapé. Chairman Mbapé? I'm going to Chairman Mbapé. That's correct. I thought he was going to go number one. He scored a hat trick in the previous World Cup final. He can become the all-time leading World Cup scorer in this tournament.

I kind of expect him to do it. Yeah, I mean, you did me a solid, Suez. Listen. All right. I still get about my cake. Okay. No regret. I mean, Harry Kane was number two on my, you know, but like, yeah.

Killing Mbapai, done. How do you feel about the fact that Killing Mbapai is the laziest defender on the planet right now? We're only talking, we're only talking about goals, mate. Defending is for nerds. In soccer, we have an important analytic that outweighs all other analytics. It's called the score. Oh, okay. I just think it's impressive to be the best at anything.

So if you're going to be the worst defender on the planet, be the extreme worst. Don't be somewhere in the middle. Okay, I'm going to pick someone who no one in this building has really ever heard of. It is a bit of an under the current one. It is the face of MLS season pass on Apple TV. Kaywin Carr? Kaywin Carr? Yeah.

It is the number one, the only major league soccer owner at the World Cup. It is Leo Messi. Okay. He is going to do that thing where he's going to score one goal in every game that matters. and they're going to win one zero like they did. And we didn't really go through theory here, but I have a split theory. One is who's going to score six in the group stage

against Qatar or whoever is Bekistan or whoever's going to be fodder? Yeah, one game could literally make. Or who's going to go deepest and keep scoring like Akirian Ababa. So on this one, I decided to go with that. I went with Leo Messi, and I hope Argentina loses in the group stage,

Algeria. And I won't step back on that. Which is always my problem with these things. Yeah. Doyle's looking at his notes now. Tom, I'm good. We are up to you. Your first pick.

And you're not allowed to bring two more people in to do this with you. You have to do it by yourself. Yeah, sure. Cool. I'm sorry as I'm not paternity leave with my son. Sorry that I missed that draft. So that's another person you brought in with you. There were four of you.

He's a leader. I'm going to go with Erling Holland. That was his first World Cup. The worry here is that Norway doesn't go far enough. And they're in a good group. They have to play France. He's still a gold machine. And there are too many questions.

around the next year, guys. I thought there was a clear top four. Yeah. We hit that four. I'm going to go home. Three times in a row, Golden Boot winner in the EPL, 16 goals in World Cup qualifying,

but five of those were against Moldova. Moldova's not walking through that door. Are they in that group? No. They're close. But we all know Iraq's going to win the group. Shout out to Valer, but he's got to play against France and Senegal,

which will be huge. So that is through our first round of the 2026 World Cup Club. I am writing them down. So is Todd. So is Todd. I'm sorry, Todd. Suz, you have taken so far, Harry Kane. With someone like Harry Kane, who's never heard of a Rubin before, I watched this on Instagram.

That was the worst video I've ever seen. Do you regret your pick? No, he wears sketchers. You know, we know what we're getting with this guy, you know? Let's be honest. The Tom Brady of the World Cup. It's not about the personality is it. All right, Sus, Suz.

What are you going to do for us for the number two things? What's on the notes? There's a few names that are in my... So I broke it down into tears. So I've got my tier one players and I've got a couple names left on my tier ones. One is a guy that I just, I hate. And so like, I like, on principle

don't want to take him. Who's that beat? I know. Are you going to take him? I don't think so. Okay. Because Tom is a fellow Liverpool. Oh my God, they're going to cry. I want to see my boy Luis Diaz do his thing for Colombia. Okay. And he has been so, so, so good

for Byron and I just feel like he has the potential to really unlock in this World Cup and so I'm going with Luis Diaz. I like that. Yeah. That's a good pick. Team Bayern Munich for Seuss. Yeah, true. My little stat was

Columbia was top goal scoring team in Commonwealth Bowl qualifying and they were tops at 2024 Copa America. So you're getting goals. You might be out in the round of 32. Because the backups are like 40 years old. There's the weirdest roster on the planet. Yeah.

Fun are in this season, maybe. Yeah, yeah, true. But I love that pick mainly because I had that one as my next pick. All right, we are on to Matt Doyle. Have we approached the Mallorch shot yet? Yeah, we're approaching it. I don't think we're there quite yet. But we might be after I try to pronounce this next name.

With my second pick, I am going to go with Spain's top goal score. Mikel Oryopal. Did I get the... Did I get the... Did he do it? Did he do it? Yeah. I did he do it?

Yeah. That was really good. So I, Spain. Jamie Watson noted Northern Spaniard. This man is calling the world feed. All right. We should take his word as gospel. I just think that Spain is going to go really far.

Oryathol takes their penalties and he's a good goal score on top of that. So I think he's going to end up having like five, six goals. And the issue with Spain is Laminia Mall, we think, won't play at least two, if not three new stage games. the assumption is that Spain will go far so you're probably getting a lot of games but the question is who you pick from that group and that's where you landed. I was considering Ferran Torres

but I don't think he's going to start. Yeah. So now you've just given us all your next pick. I like that. No, I'm done. We're done picking Europeans. Only Concord Cat from here and out. Okay, so...

You're ready to learn Anibal Godoy, buddy. I already know the flaws of my personality. I know many of them. One is that I lose every NCAA bracket because I pick all underdogs and things I want to happen. And I have a huge love for the Brazilian national team. I cannot get rid of it.

I went to Brazil for the 2014 World Cup. It was romantic and beautiful. It wooed me. They've never performed, and I get wooed anyway. And I'm taking Vinny Jr. Oh. I think the secret with Vinny is he played his best soccer for Carlo Ancelotti, not for the national team.

Then Carlo Ancelotti left, and he played like shit for Real Madrid. And now his national team is coached by the one guy he likes. likes playing for. He's going to be the center of the team, and I think he's up for it, and I think Brazil is going to go further than people expect. It's a tough path with Morocco in the group opening game in New York City during game four of the NBA finals. What a big night. You guys, everyone, as we've said, watch out for old running backs right now. This is a dangerous time to be in a whiteboard Bronco with the Knicks and the NBA Finals in a World Cup coming to the U.S. borders. But Vinnie Jr. is my pick, and I now have Messi and Vinny.

love. Yeah. Team Comic Ball. It's a really good pick. I just want to say, Brazil does not have a center forward who is like a real like box predator. It's going to end up on Vinnie's foot. It's a good pick. Thank you. Well, I thought you were going to be sarcastic at the end of that.

No, I'm never sarcastic. Unreal. All right, Tommy Scoops. We are back around to you. You so far have picked Channing Tatum and that's it. I'm torn here between some of the older veterans or secondary scores on top teams.

Mike, Mike. You yell at me to be too loud, now I'm being too quiet. It doesn't matter. I'm going to go with Julian Alvarez. Okay. I think that, yes, Messi will take penalties. Messi will be probably leading score of Argentina, but I think Julian Alvarez is too good to be ignored.

This is the news you need to know. Julian Alvarez has received plasma treatment on his ankle to help his recovery with. that he got in the Champions League. So you've got the plasma on your side. I don't know if it's cow plasma. I don't know if it's goat plasma, but you're going to be praying to the plasma gods

for the next few days. We got it. All right. Julian Alvarez off the board, two Argentines off the board. We are back around. We've gone South America heavy, surprisingly, on this one.

We're back around to Susanna Fuller. Okay. For the third, her third pick in the draft, already Arikei and Luis. Yeah, so I'm actually on record as saying, I think, like, the way I talk

about these players that have these breakout moments. I think that this guy is going to have a breakout World Cup. So I'm looking at one of the host nations. Uh-oh. And I am going with Jonathan David. Wow. New York City's own baby. Yes, yes.

Yeah. Johnny David. Yeah. Why not? I love it. Why not? And that is the, he could score three against Qatar and that might be enough. He absolutely could.

He scores one against someone else. Yeah. You know Jesse Marsh is playing the full 11th, 90 minutes. Right. They're going to run as hard as they can. Does he have the goal now? Because Canada's up 1-0. No, they did just score against Ireland.

It was an own goal. Don't you dare. Tom asked immediately when I brought this idea up, when can he take own goals? No, no, no. That was making fun of you, that you were going to take on goal. I'm just trying to win the game. I'm always trying to win. I did hear it's a heavy contingent of Ireland fans from Toronto who busts to Stats Subudo for this game.

Oh, wow. Yeah, so I think it's a vibe right now in the goal. Okay, so that takes us to Doyle who's currently sitting on Killian Mboppe, and I probably should have been prepared myself. Miquel or a hoop job. That was worse than mine. Yeah, it did a bad job there. So this next one, I actually believe in him, and I believe in his team more than I think the typical fan does, including the cabby who brought me here, who said that Mexico sucks, and they're going to go out in the group. He's from Mexico.

He's really down on his team. I feel the other way. I am pro Mexico in this World Cup, and I am picking this guy strictly, though, to cause David Goss pain because I knew he wanted to pick Julian Quinoes. I hate you so much.

You're welcome, buddy. You're welcome, buddy. Have you been watching my hype videos on first stage? Getting ready for the World Cup? You know what I have? It's a really good show. I've learned a lot from it, including my Golden Boot draft Big Board.

Everyone will have a daily World Cup show on there, so make sure to tune in. When he does not start game one, I'm going to laugh in your face. It'll still be worth it, just to know that your stomach dropped a little bit when I said his name. I was told by a little birdie in the crowd that this could be possible, and I thought they were trying to gas me up to get overly aggressive early. I thought it was a double chess piece move, a 3D chess piece, and I didn't know. No. And Doyle is a troll once again.

I'm only ever playing 2D chess. I don't even deal with the third dimension. It's a waste of time. Okay. So we are up to me for my next pick. And I think with my next pick, I am going to go with someone who has a teammate that's already been picked. But I am going to go with Uzman Dembele.

It's hard to guess who on France is going to score the other goals. Right now, they're a favorite to go to a semi-final or a final. And he has been, went on the field and healthy, you could argue the best player in the world. and I like how it pairs across my front three with Messi and Vinnie Jr. So now I've got my third pick. We're up to you, Tommy. All right, somebody's got to do it.

I'm going to do it. Most selfish player at the tournament. You know he's going to lead the tournament in shots. Some of them will go in. He's going to dictate whether he plays or not. Going to leave the tournament in what? Here we go. Shots!

Yay! That's all I told me. Cristiano Ronaldo. I already wrote it down. I already knew which way you wrote. You went for that beer very quickly. I'm just saying. A little sideline interview, Doyle.

How do you feel after the Mueller shot? Honestly, it was okay in the moment. Can you describe it, please? It's a little terrible now. So it was sweeter than I thought, and there was less burn on the palate, but then when you finish, it stays with you in a place where it's not really supposed to stay with you. It lingers. Yeah. Okay, so that takes us all the way back around.

We've got three picks per every team. So we're going to get into our fourth round. We've got two more rounds to go. Susanna Fuller so far Luis Diaz Ari King Jonathan David I feel good about this

Yeah they're all people with like two first names too I guess Kane's not a first name But Man Yeah the research is Is working for you so far Yeah no I but now I'm kind of like I could go in a few different directions here

And I feel like Okay I feel like I I want to take Sunny Oh Yeah It's also like just a warm

fuzzy. I want him to do well. And so, like, now it's, it'll be too full for me. Like, if he scores a lot of goals, it's good for my golden boot draft. And I'm just happy. That's the absolute inverse of the feeling I just had. Okay. So I'm happy for you. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going with vibes. Tom found a way to hate himself and we didn't even really set the rules up that way. The way I gamed it out, South Korea would play Switzerland in the round of 32. Okay. South Korea finished second and Switzerland finished second. I think that's a winnable game.

That's a winable game. So I think you can go to a round of 16. Okay. And they are their training in Mexico. So they should be the most comfortable team at altitude compared to some of the other teams in the tournament. All right. We're up to Matt Doyle. Matt Doyle,

so far. Kiela, Chivala and Julian Kinoa. You're getting closer every time. I'm actually just drinking Malore each time I think about it. Right. So I didn't even realize that this team was going to be a bit. But I just realized I caused David Payne with my previous pick,

because it was someone he really wanted and now I get to cause both Tom and Sue's pain with this pick write it down Mosala Yeah I was hoping he was going to stick around Sorry about that I don't actually believe in him

I actually think Egypt is going to be pretty bad I was going to say Doyle there's no way you think It's just for the bit Yeah If Doyle wins I'm going to be so good Don't let him do this don't let him set the expectations up oh I wasn't even really trying It becomes unless

Exactly don't don't let him That's a false flag. Okay, so that takes us to my next pick. I'm going to stay in the same group as Doyle. So it's a group with Iran, with Egypt, with New Zealand, I believe. And so I think there's some red meat and barbecue chicken in there to pick up some goals. I also think this is, I set it on the show with the Stadio guys. I think one of the breakout stars known, but will be established as one of the five, six players in the world.

At the end of this is going to be Jeremy Doku. Oh, yeah, that's a good shot. He was on my list. I think that Belgian team is good enough without being star-driven, that it will be we're all good enough to defend and stay with the game. Tillamins in midfield, some of the other pieces in midfield that can control the game.

And I think it's going to be Dooku, we need your moment of magic, whether it's goal scoring or creation. And so Jeremy Dooku's going to be, you know, Tom Brady's going to know who he is by the end of this World Cup. Rob Donkowski and James Winston. They're part of the broadcast, the part of the coverage in some way,

because you have to be. Blatown might know who he is too. He'll just talk about himself in the third person. Tom, you have Erling Holland, Julian Alvarez, and Cristiano Rinaldo. I think that the player I'm going to draft, I could have gotten in the next round, but I'm not going to risk it anyway.

He's going to game himself. Darwin Nunez. I love that. Oh, my God. I miss him. I want him to score so many goals. Do we know where he's actually going to be playing his club because he got released from his club in Saudi Arabia, right?

But that's why this is such a big World Cup for it. I feel like he has the potential to just like... He laughed. Like Saudi Arabia and Cabo Verde. I want him back on Liverpool. Now that we've got a new man in charge. He last played a club game on February 16th. All we're good.

Yeah. He's fresh. He's fresh. Yeah. Would anyone here pay a thousand dollars to watch Euroble I play Saudi Arabia in Miami? in Miami outside during the day. If you do, I have a friend who's selling, so let me know.

Your reaction is the same as every other reaction I've gotten. Did you draw me a logo? Unbelievable. Oh my gosh. That's so good. We're a very litigious company, so we're going to have to have you sign off the IP in a little bit, okay? But I'll have you talk to my CEO. We'll figure it out.

We'll talk. My people will talk to your people. That's awesome. Thank you. Unbelievable. We literally have a new SoccerWise logo, so I can get rid of everyone else. Okay. So this takes us around to our final pick of the draft.

This is very exciting. This will lock in your fate, your hopes, your dreams for the next four to six weeks. Yes. Because I have no idea how long this World Cup is. There are so many games. You said you brought a list of about 30 names? Yes. I think there's like 27 here.

And how much of that has got, like is a large chunk of that gone? Yes. Yeah, no. We've pretty much stuck to script. a few outliers. Is there anyone Knoxville recruits on that

on that list? Could be if they like the country. No, have we picked anyone from Germany? Yeah. Okay, so that's where I'm looking next. And there's two

potential players here. One, obviously, is a Liverpool player in Florian Vert. But I'm actually going to go with Denise Undoff as my...

I love that pick. I love that pick. Because he has kind of become the guy for Noglesman and he I mean he's low key has been tearing it up for Stukk all he does is score goals

and so I think yeah I feel like Germany I think are going to go far in this tournament and I think it's going to be on the back of guys like that so yeah und dove I love that pick poor moi yeah all right Doyle so far Killing and Bappe

McElhushin's leading score that was closer yeah Julian Kinos and Moe Sala. Yeah. So you've got, let's just, you've got UEFA, UAFA, Kanka Kaff, and Kaff. Yeah. Pretty spread out. So a New Zealand player now, Tim Payne. Well, you know, I trolled you. Chris Woods. I trolled you with my third pick. And then I trolled Tom and Suz with my

fourth pick. And now it's time to troll myself. Okay. I'm going to pick Christian Pulitzer. Yeah. A little, like he might be injured. Wow. Worries and fears right now. All right. So Doyle, I did actually think, you were going to take out of did franny perrull go to yukon there is a yukon player right his younger brother francy's younger brother france went to yucon the team or not on the team i thought you were going to pick a yukon guy i thought that's what i was going to try to pick a yucon guy but you couldn't even find it yeah yeah okay we're up to me with my last pick now and now i'm skimming through my notes to make sure that

everyone who was supposed to have been picked has been picked there's another pick i could make which would totally kill me but i'm not going to do it because i would be picking a second brazil player which would be an insane thing to do because Brazil will go out in the group stage if I do that. And I am going to pick with my next pick on advice from my analytical genius

and my assistant GM. I'm going with Iase Aiweida for Japan. Top scorer in the Dutch League. I love this Japanese team. The issue I have with Japan is they have so much depth at the center forward position.

It's one of the best position pools in the entire World Cup. But I have a lot of belief that this team's going to go deep and there's a lot of goals out there, and that's what I'm going to go with. So my team is complete now, and we are on to, for the final pick, Mr. What's Irrelevant? Is that the last one? Yeah, which is Tom, too.

I also realized we didn't do a snake draft. Yeah, I didn't realize either. About three rounds in, I noticed, oh, Tom should probably be getting some advantages. That's okay. Do you want, like, a... No, I want nothing. Yeah, I know. I want nothing.

Raise the rent? Raise the rent. He told his four-month-old child to raise the rent. I got to figure it out. By the time I get home, he better have it better be working. Erling Holland, Julian Alvarez, Christiane Rinaldo, and Darwin Nunez. I mean, yeah. So half your team is eating applesauce only because they're a thousand years old,

and the other half's pretty young. Where are you going to fall right in the middle here? I don't love any of my options here, but I'm going to go with the heart. I'm going to go with Al-Zan or Isak to Sweden. Off of that goal he scored in a 4-1 loss. So I don't know how long they're going to stick around in the store. tournament, but he is too good doing it. If they beat Tunisia,

yeah. They should, I think, three points should get to do it? So the math, so the math that I saw, which someone ran 100,000 simulations is six points, 100% qualified. Four points, 99.8%, 3.67%. Basically, if you have three points at a worse than negative two goal differential, you're probably going through. Right. I think Tunisia is going to beat Sweden. Wow.

Love it. It will be fascinating if team. in those games where you know you're playing for that group tie early in a group, like what happens later, how you push forward. But basically the excitement of this World Cup is when you get to the last group stage game, everyone's still going to be eligible.

Because if you win, you're in, most likely. And that's going to make that final group game fun instead of these dead rappers. Yes, we're done. Wow. I thought we were halfway through. Thank you. More Malort. Yeah. I'll do it around. Come on.

Let's see who. let's see who the crowd thinks will win. So let's start, Suz. Harry Kane, Luis Diaz, Jonathan David, Sung Young Men, and Dennis Under. What do we think? Yes, no? A little bit, not a lot.

Matt Doyle, Kiliin Mbapai, Mikhail Lujabala, Huling, Quinoez, and Mosala. No law. And Christian Polisic. And Christian Policic. I was a second out one shirt, and if I didn't see any applause from that. For Germany tomorrow, what do you think is going to happen? Well, I don't think it's going to be 1-0.

Sorry, Brad. I don't know. I think the U.S. is going to play well, but I think Germany is a level above. It wouldn't surprise me if it was 3-2-3-1 Germany. How bad do you think it is for the morale, idea, whatever, if the U.S. loses to Germany going into the World Cup stage? I don't think it's diabolical. I think, I mean, Germany is a very, very strong team,

and I think the U.S. know that they are underdogs heading into this. as long as they put together a good performance, whether they don't wipe the floor with them, then I think they should feel fine. So I'm not overly concerned about them entering the World Cup on an L, especially against a team like Germany. I think the win against Senegal really lived,

because if they had lost that game or performed poorly going into the Germany game, it would feel a whole lot more pressurized. But as long as, like you said, they don't get embarrassed, then you say, okay, well, we beat Senegal and, you know, we're going towards the World Cup. But I think that that did wonders for not just the team, but Poo was sick for the attack. Without that game, this would be a much different proposition. But they have, they've lost all four games against European opponents under Pocino.

The last time they beat a European team was in December against Basia and Herzegovina, who are not one of the strongest teams. And that now was their D-Squod. It was a non-Fiva window. The last time that they beat a European team. in a FIFA window was March of 2021, Northern Ireland. Wow. So traditionally... Do you think this Germany team is as good as that Northern Ireland?

We're going to have to find out. We're going to have to find out. Can I give you a nightmare scenario? What we saw coming out of the Senegal game? Germany lays an egg. Danish Undov gets cut from the team because he plays so poorly. And Zeus is down to four players in the Goldsurcha. Horrifying.

Do we have a backup? Can she get Kai Havert's if that happens? We don't have anything built into the system. So we'll ask Katie. Katie's the only person I trust. Katie can come to a justful ruling. Let me ask you something serious, Tom, because you were at the presser today. Did you get the sense that Pachitino is going to tinker with the lineup?

Do you get the sense that the Chris Richards news means he's, and for those of you who missed it, Chris Richards is not going to play tomorrow. The ankle injury is lingering. Do you get the sense that there? there is any chance that Chris Richards is not going to be healthy for this thing? I don't think that there's a chance that he'll be replaced on the squad at this point. Well, they brought 19 centerbacks. Yeah.

First of all, they're covered there in second of all. So what, Tanner Test and Anita Moore's comes after the heartbreak and not playing themselves. Whether he's not available for the paraguigan, I still think he will be. But like, it was interesting today. Potatino kind of maybe let it slip of, he didn't name Crystal Pallas directly, but it was like, yeah, we've got, we've got bad information. He kind of called them assholes. He's like, you know, because he was picked to the bench in the conference league, we thought he was good to train, and he came here and he can't train.

So he was doing individual work today, which is the first time he has done that. He keeps saying, I'm good, I'm going to be good. I believe that. Whether he's 100%, that's a different story. But the lineup, to ask, do you know I get the sense? I don't get any sense from this man. And if you try to get a sense from this man, you're going to be wrong. You're going to get, like, I have no idea what the lineup is going to be.

He got asked that question, and he did like a wide-ranging four-and-a-half-minute answer about social media all hates, we'll all hate you. You know, no matter what you do, it's like immediately just defensive about getting criticized. And he's like, well, if it goes well, then they're going to say good job, but if somebody gets hurt, they're going to say you're an idiot. And like, he didn't answer the question in any way. Right. Going to Senegal, we've had a feeling of Matt Fries is the starting goalkeeper,

Balgans is a starting center forward, and a few other things in the squad. Well, Matt Freez doesn't play. Bowlingham doesn't start. Giorana starts. Recona Peffi starts. So I have no idea is my overarching point. And I don't think anybody does. Yeah.

To the point about Richards, though, if there's anyone that you're going to keep on the roster, even if they're like nursing an injury through the first two group games, but could potentially be okay by the final group and then the knockouts, it's Chris Richards. I agree. Him and Tyler Adams would be the two.

So I'm not actually... Yeah. Yeah. But, like, I think it's going to be a big moment for Mark McKenzie tomorrow. Like, that's... Because he's the one who's starting in the middle of that back line. It's going to be a big game. Is anyone going to the Germany game?

Love that. All right. We will be out at the American Outlaws pregame Tailgate hanging out. All right. We're going to be doing a lot of stuff with American Outlaws All Tournament. Big shout out to Soccer.com, who is here now, who is helping us put together everything this summer to do, what I believe will be the best World Cup Cup conference.

the most fun World Cup coverage, a daily show that we're going to be doing every single day. First off, can I get me... I will not be drinking malort during the daily show. Can I get a big applause for my guest host here? I need everyone I know Suz will join me here to give a big applause to Douglas Reyeserone, one of our producers who killed himself to help me get this show up. And if you can all do me a favor, can we get a big applause for everyone who's part of the kickback family? We have a lot of people here that make everything happen, and we're doing an unbelievable job.

We are passionate about the work we do, and I'm so appreciative to everyone who's here with us. And on that note, you guys can stop listening to us talk. You can tune in for a little bit of Ireland game, and we're going to hang on and drink with everyone until Tom runs into a Knicks player. We have to Nick's? Bye, everyone.