SoccerWise - First Touch '26 World Cup Daily Show: Semifinals Set! England, Bellingham & Messi Leads Argentina Through

Episode Date: July 12, 2026

And then there were four. The final quarterfinal matches are in the books. David Gass and Michele Giannone break down all the controversy, tactics and key moments as England edged Norway in extra time and Argentina found a way past Switzerland to set the stage for the World Cup semifinals.0:00 Intro3:55 Kickoff Time in Miami7:04 Norway vs. England Breakdown10:50 Jude Bellingham’s Legacy17:56 Controversial Calls & Spidercam Wire23:49 Subbing Haaland, Norway’s Outlook & Sorloth’s Performance29:51 England’s Postgame Comments34:27 Gareth Southgate vs. Thomas Tuchel 39:10 Breel Emobolo VAR Decision47:25 Argentina’s Underwhelming Performances52:32 England-Argentina Rivalry & David Beckham1:02:37 Messi vs. Maradona Discussion1:05:40 Closing Thoughts

Folks, we've got a semi-final. We have four final teams at the 2026 World Cup. After our final double-header day, it was a day of wild action. We will dig into every single cable that is crossing the stadium, every single VAR call, every single camera angle, every single stunning goal and everything else that we saw in this match. I am David Goss with you here for First Touch 26, our daily World Cup show. a couple off days now of games, but we won't go anywhere. We will be coming live from New York City every single day. And to join me today for this one is McKellie Giannone.

After a wild day of games, Matt Doyle, we needed to, you know, Declan Rice style, stretch him out, give him a couple minutes, let him do a regent session. So it's going to be a one-on-one show today. I love it. I'm just a little bit bummed that this morning, instead of celebrating the two games that we have ahead. We're talking about. Yes.

And cables and bowls and bowl. Boles and... Let me give you this. For the first time in World Cup history, the semifinalists will be contested by the four highest rated sides from the FIFA rankings. France and Spain are 1 in 3,

Argentina and England are 2 and 4. So we got excellence and cream rising to the top. Yeah, I agree. And I think when everybody was doing their brackets, I think it was the most likely scenario that we are seeing right now. We had Colombia getting to the final, at least,

when we did our brackets after the round of 32, probably Brazil a little bit farther than the round of 16. But overall, but what the teams have shown, especially France, Spain and England, I think it's pretty fair that they are here. Argentina hasn't been that great,

and I think we're going to talk about that. But given the rivals, their path was easier than England's, especially going to a lot. Osteca and yesterday against a great Norwegian team in the heat and humidity of Miami. And I don't think there's any doubt that France and Spain we're going to get on that side of the bracket. So I'm pretty happy. Hopefully we can move on after today and stop talking about raths and cables and balls and sensors and diving and reds and enjoy because I'm going back to my initial point that it's when we're talking about March Madness and the bracket.

Like yeah, a Cinderella is nice here and there. But I won the best teams at the end. And we have the best teams at the end. Yeah, I think we're going to have two semifinals that we're going to talk about for a really, really long time. You mentioned it. We're going to talk about the games. We will dig into the Norway-England match. And we will dig into the Argentina-Switzerland game as well as starting to look forward to those semifinals.

But before we get into that one, some heartbreaking news coming out yesterday after our show finished recording from South Africa, where Jaden Adams, 25-year-old, who played at this World Cup, suddenly passed. away. The Players Union in South Africa, the South African Football Players Union put out a statement saying, we are devastated by the untimely passing of Mamaloney sundowns and Bafana, Bafana midfielder Jaden Adams. Jaden had only recently represented South Africa at the 2026 World Cup, carrying the hopes of the nation with pride, courage, and distinction. His passing is an immeasurable loss to his family, teammates, clubs, the football fraternity, and the country at large. We shouldn't need this reminder ever, but it is one.

that life is fleeting. So reach out to the people around you, give your loved ones a hug. And if you ever need help, reach out to the people around you as well because everyone, I can guarantee you is willing to reach the hand back if you need it. So a really sad moment for someone cut down at such a young age. Let's move into the games now and talk Norway versus England. England, 2-1 win in extra time in this one, a game that had a multitude of big time. moments back and forth. It was a historic game for Norway. They had never won a knockout round

at a major tournament. So just getting to this point was a huge moment for this team. But I want to start before we get into the game. This is a 5 p.m. local time kickoff in July in Miami. Yeah. It was real feel of like 94 degrees when the game kicked off. It is just, we have both lived there. It is absolutely absurd. I play pickup. And I don't try for the first 45 minutes until the sunsets past the building and I'm in shade. Like this is, this just was an insane thing to do. And this goes back to in 1986, in Mexico, the World Cup games were kicking off at noon so that they could be put on local TV in Europe and in Africa in different places around

the world. I can't even wrap my head around the fact that this game got played and we saw it, right? Hegham goes down pulling up with cramps late in the game. He gets subbed off because they get the extra substitution going into a stoppage side. but I just, I still can't fully comprehend that this game occurred in the way it occurred. And we talked about it a little bit going into it. And I think from the comments coming out of it,

from Jude Bellingham, that was a huge part of what he was saying, was like what we just suffered through. And it was self-imposed by FIFA. It didn't have to be a 5 p.m. local time game. It's BS, period. Who's hosting? The U.S. or Europe?

Yeah. Who's hosting? U.S., right? So why are we placating for Europe? Yeah. And it's what we saw. And it's going to be the same BS with semifinals. Both semifinals at 3 p.m. Eastern Time.

Yeah, at least they're inside, but then the finals. It doesn't matter. It's the time of day. For sure. And then the final at 3 p.m. in New Jersey is going to be hot, in humid to placate the European market. When the World Cup is in Europe or in Russia or in Qatar or in Australia, New Zealand. And South Korea and Japan, the prime time. the games were played primetime where the World Cup was being played.

Yeah. So this game yesterday should have been at 8 p.m. 7 p.m. kickoff. The semifinals should have been a 6 p.m. 7 p.m. kickoff on Tuesday and Wednesday. And the final should have been prime time here. BS. Yeah. BS and the teams are, yeah, both semifinals are going to be on a dome. Fine. It doesn't matter. It's the middle of the day of a week day. Yeah. I totally agree with you.

It's ridiculous. But anyways. And yesterday, the soccer suffered. Yeah. The show suffered. The game wasn't as good because you cannot tell me that Holland wasn't impacted by the weather. You cannot tell me that Declan Rice wasn't impacted by the weather, even though Tuchel said that the plan was initially to play him just 45 minutes or until the water break on the second half. But he couldn't play anymore.

So I'm, especially the two semifinals, Tuesday and Wednesday at 3 p.m. Eastern time. It's just disgusting. I absolutely agree with you. So let's dig into the game. I thought Norway was really good in the first half. England starts to pick up control as the half goes along. But I thought it was played the way Norway wanted. They had possession for some time.

They proked and prodded a little bit, not super dangerous. And then when they sat in against England, they were not pulled apart. Their lines were fairly clean. There was enough of a threat in moments. I mean, there was a few moments where Holland's basically pointing at, you know, whoever dropped in, Declan Rice, whatever, being like, we're not marking him. He's standing here. and no one do anything.

And Rice and Anderson kept trying to hit long switches to try and get quickly. Unfortunately, I think he kept landing to Madueke, who, one, you don't have a natural right back. So he doesn't have an overlapping run. He doesn't have assistance. And two, is not the most creative player. Hence why Bukai Asaka had the assist against Mexico

and comes on to the field and makes a difference in this game as well. And then you get the goal for Norway. Shal Lurlup scores the goal. It's a goal of a lifetime. Yeah. Shot cross. We don't know. I think he said after my grandmother, my deceased grandmother helped guide it in.

It's like never good to then be like, ah, that probably wasn't purposeful. But the technique's elite. And it's an elite moment in the game. There's some controversy VAR check that Harry Kane was fouled, winning the ball back, which was actually in the attacking third. So it would have been a reasonable call if they made it. But it's an unbelievable goal. And it was an example of Norway's in this game.

England were favorites. but Norway we're always going to be in this game. You get an unbelievable moment like that and you've got a real shot in a matchup like this. Yeah, I think Norway played the game beautifully and masterfully on the first half. And we're going to touch on Thomas Tuchel's postgame comments. I think he was a little bit hard, sure,

than he should have been. But he wasn't far off from what England showed on the first half, especially until the first water break on the first half, I think Fox, the broadcast that we're watching, show the numbers. England had 40-something touches

on Norway's side of the field, but it was nothing. They never created anything. And Norway had four. No shots on goal. England was sloppy, was slow, sideways passes. Gordon gave you nothing

until the assist to Bellingham goal. What a goal. Madweke gave you. nothing. And I was shocked when I saw the lineup that Saka was going to be on the bench. But then Tuchel explained post-game that the plan was using Saka. On the second half, when Norway was probably tired and used Saka and he speed and he showed that on the second half.

England had nothing on the right side, like you said. A natural centerback playing as a right back in Madweke that barely touched the ball, even if, I don't know if he even touched the ball. I think if the cable touched. the ball. He did more than Madouac on the game. And then Norway was playing their game. I think Norway was kind of shocked that England wasn't doing anything. So Norway was very comfortable on the game. And as soon as they started taking chances and committing numbers up front after the water break, they were the better team for the first half. Yeah, they were good in the beginning. And then Norway

really bounced out of the water break. They played aggressive. They were really good. They start to push. They will be heartbroken that they concede the goal at the time they do. Jude Bellingham scores in 45 plus two. Can you get, if you get to half time up one zero, now all of a sudden the Declan Rice decision becomes a little bit tougher. Yeah. Maybe for Thomas Dukle. The soccer decision becomes a little bit tougher for Tuchel. And we talked about it on this show. England had expectations. They had to win yesterday. Yeah. The pressure would have been different in that halftime locker room than what it ends up being. And it's not because Jude Bellingham is world class. Is he world class on the same level as Zadant? Probably not. But where we stand right now,

he is one of the 10 best players on the planet. He is a big game performer. He is still entering his prime. He is not there yet. Like that's how young he is. This is not even his first major tournament where he's making a difference. He did it for Dortmund. He has done it for Real Madrid, even with drop-offs at time for Real Madrid. His first year at Real Madrid, he was the guy and he was playing center forward and he was playing as a 10 and he was playing as an eight and he was doing all of it and we saw it against mexico and you see it again in this game the first touch is clean on the run but he has that understanding to half slow himself to then accelerate past the defender and the whole time he's got the field map and he knows that if i can get this turn

then i don't have to hit it with power i can hit it cleanly to the far post because the goalkeeper is coming towards me. It is perfection and it's all the things that England fans have celebrated Stephen Gerard for and Frank Lampard for. And Drew Bellingham, I assume, will start to get that level of credit and that level of love and affection because he has carried them to this moment. This goal is huge. Obviously he then goes on to score the winner in the 93rd and Thomas Tuchel can thank him for keeping this team in this tournament. And you have to go back even to a Mexico game when he was this start and you call it at, what do you call it at? generational game, what do you call a legacy game?

So I'm glad you mentioned some of the names that you just said because in the England Lord, and you would agree, because they also did a lot on their club level, when you mentioned Stephen Gerard, Frank Lamper, Paul Scholes, even Debbie Beckham, people will put them top 10, top 15. Let's say top 10, especially Gerard, in the history of British soccer and England soccer.

they never came even close at a major tournament to do something like Jude Bellingham is doing right now. So, and I'm going to, I'm going to try to be not as harsh here. Okay. But, and we're talking about this before the game, when you hear the English pundits talking about Belmont, talking about Bellingham and what he brings on the field

and when they compare and they mention players that are around him or above him in the history of the game and we know there's a big factor there that plays when he doesn't get the recognition

that he should start getting right now especially after Back to Back Games, Mexico and this we all have an idea of what I'm talking about Yeah. And all the other people you named are white. Yeah.

Yeah. And we got to remember the attacks, the vicious attacks at players like Saka, God, after they lost to Italy the Euro final in 2021 because of the color of their skin. Yeah. So hopefully Bellingham in England gets a recognition because he's, what is it, 23 years old? He's 23. 23? That's just...

How ridiculous is that? It just impossibly. He still, I don't understand it, how he does the things that he do at 23. He's been to two Euro finals. Yeah. And he is now going to a World Cup semi-final at 23 years old as the start of the team. Now, one piece I will say that I do think is different is he left England at a young age. Yes.

So he came through, although he played at Birmingham, he came through at Dortmund. Yeah. And then to Real Madrid, which is unconventional nowadays for English players. Back in the day, players would go to Syria. they would go to, they would go to Real Madrid, whatever it is. That doesn't happen that much anymore because the Premier League is the highest money league in the world. Yes.

So that has taken him at times outside of the zeitgeist and conversation. These international tournaments, these are where you make your name. Diego Maradona is who he is because of the World Cup. Pele is who he is because of the World Cup. That's the nature of how big these competitions are. My assumption is, at this point now, Jude will for the rest of his career and his life be elevated into these conversations we're talking about because of this. He has six goals in this World Cup.

Six, he's tied with Harry Kane. I think he has, let me make sure I have this that right, but I'm pretty sure. So in his career, he's got 12 international goals, 11 of them at major competition. That's absurd. So he scored at the Euros and at the World Cup, and otherwise, don't call him in.

Don't invite him. So, for example, you see people in the comments already saying, well, Lampar Jarrah's goals at a club level. But that's my point. and it's the same conversation that I was telling you and asking you, how about it's, hey, who, who,

which, which career would you take? Yeah. Cristiano's or Embabe. I will take the national team career over anything at club level. Also, Drew Bellingham's won a Champions League.

Yeah, and he's 23. Yeah. This is the peak. Winning a World Cup, it's the peak of the peak of excellence. You can win a thousand ball and doors, a thousand Champions League. Nothing compares to winning a World Cup.

And if it is, England wins the World Cup. He's going to beat the Golden Bowl winner. Right. Yeah. 23. Absolutely absurd. And ends up with the winner in this game. So a couple of the notes that came out of this match as it went along. So at halftime, Declan Rice subbed off. They were saying that we mentioned yesterday he's been sick.

And so he didn't have the full game in him. And Tuchel sort of his comments were. But so what's interesting here is Tuchel said post-game, I was going to take off him or Anderson. So there was an acknowledgement that he was making a tactical change. Yeah. That has to be noted. Then he says Rice only had X amount of minutes in him. If I took off Anderson, I would have still had to sub Rice later.

So I sub Declan Rice here. But it was still an acknowledgement that Tuchel was making a tactical change. He brings on as a who's more of an attacking player. He slides Jude Bellingham a little bit deeper. It didn't work. No. They were against the game. From that moment on, they were against the game for the next 20 or so minutes.

So he brought on an attacking piece. He lost possession of the game. Now, Jude Bellingham and Eze have to defend even more. And I think Tuchel got this one wrong, which is why it's also fascinating that postgame, he's on the field saying technically we were bad. Now, I guess he's trying to say, I put the guys in the right spots and they didn't perform whatever it is. But it comes back to the Azteca thing, which is this team is grinding it out. This team is staying in matches. They're defending as a group.

And for all the talent that they have, they aren't beating themselves. and it keeps them in games and it keeps them alive. You have a goal called off in the second half in which Erling Holland gets called for shoving Anderson off the ball before the corner kick gets taken. Corner kick gets knocked down, knocked around. Ajaire ends up putting it in the goal and it gets called back. We've had this conversation a couple times.

I understand the foul called. It's a fault. If I'm Elliot Anderson, I'm embarrassed the way I went down on that play. Yeah, I agree. And if I'm his friend or his teammate, I'm making fun of him for the way he went down. He flops, but it's a foul. Soft. But it's a foul.

Then if it's a foul, later in the half on another corner kick, a ball gets played off the crossbar. I believe it's Adjir again who's closing on it to head it into at the time an empty net. And Kansa comes up behind him. They both leap for it. Kansa's arm goes into the Norwegian attacker and extends slightly high up. up along the head, he goes down, no call me. And that should have been a foul. If one's a foul, they're both a foul.

Yeah, I agree. But one was a foul and the other one was it. Just putting it out there, just stating it. Judge Spence picks up a penalty kick the other way. It gets called a penalty on the field, and then the VAR calls it back for a review. A good use of the VAR. Oh, so VAR works. Oh, it works.

Yeah. We like it now. You skip the cable gate situation. Cable gate. It will comes later. So then because of all of that, we get to extra time in which the ball gets cleared out by Nyland. It comes down.

It's controlled by Anderson. He plays it up to Gordon. Gordon ends up working the ball back inside. No, the first goal. Oh, it was the opening goal. That's Bellingham. Yeah, that's Bellington. Yeah.

So there was the opening goal. Before you said anything else, I've seen the replay a million times. I don't see the ball touching the table. I don't know people. or say, no, you can see it clearly. I don't. So it happens right in midfield. The Norway coach, Stalin, Stalin Bakken, Stolkevaken, whatever.

He's yelling at the ref after the half ends, because the half ends like two minutes later. Holland's pointing at it. I think Odegaard got, you know, caught talking to the referee, pointing at it. So the Norwegian players react right there. The view that we are being shown, you can't see it on the original broadcast.

Then Fox ends up running an angle from behind the goal in which they like hyper zoom into it. And it does look slightly like the ball changes direction. But you can't see the liar to your point. So I don't know that it actually does. Yeah. It looks awkward. And enough people around it react to it where I don't know. They're not NFL players where it actually happens.

I'd be shocked if anyone on Norway has ever actually seen that before that they would react that way if they didn't. But it's not enough proof to say it happened. Then we got the EKG baby. We've got a little technology in the ball. The ball's supposed to, as we saw for Croatia, for every follicle of hair, it's supposed to show a touch.

It does not show a touch. Now I'm seeing some reports that are saying, well, the sensors for the ball to show the touch are located like on the field. So it might be too high for the sensors to even locate it. And then you've got some people who went to BBC where they

have this like 3D monitor of the game and the 3D monitor shows the ball change direction at the top. I've then seen like 20 clips of the ball on that thing in other games just disappearing because like not a perfect piece of technology. Right. And we land on camera wire gate. And this is where we live now. What do you make of how you're supposed to handle this? Again, I don't see that the ball changing trajectory. I don't. And I've seen, we were rooting for Norway. We wanted Norway to win. And I will... Roo!

Roo! And we're watching with our good friend Anders. Yeah. And obviously, I would love to sit here today and yell and scream.

I just didn't see it. Yeah. I don't see it. Sorry. I agree with you. And I think some of the things that I find difficult, we'll talk about it with the Argentine game.

And again, and if FIFA or the ref would have wanted to benefit England, then the PK doesn't get call off. They call the foul on Kane on Norway's first goal. That's my point is. There is a feeling right now, and I get the feeling. The feeling comes from Ronaldo's suspension being lifted

coming into the World Cup, and the feeling comes from Flo Bolligan suspension to being lifted. And because it all happens in this cloud of secrecy because FIFA is incapable of being open about stuff, there's like a huge uncomfortable feeling for people that there's a fix-in. And every time Argentina wins, in the manner that they have won, that feeling, I think, gets elevated. And so with the top four teams getting in and the superstars moving on, although Holland's a superstar clearly in his own right, there is this like overwhelming feeling for people that the fix is in.

And that it goes off the cable. Going off the cable is harder than a judge spends penalty that was called on the field where there is contact. Yes. The contact is caused by him sticking his leg back. But that's an easy one for the ref to leave or to take away the Harry Kane or to take away the opening Norway goal because Harry Kane there is contact once again. Those are reasonable calls that the referee could have made. Yes. He did not.

And then you end up in a situation where England wins the game off this and then it's, well, it's all BS. Yeah. Which I agree with you. I think that there's too much there for not to go into. So England ends up hanging on. They're able to hold out. Last interesting piece here, and then we'll get to the postgame comments. Erling Holland comes out at the end of the first half of extra time.

We don't know the exact details yet. We haven't seen why there were some people talking about. You could see him kind of moving oddly off a deadleg a little bit earlier in that half. He has played a lot of minutes this year. He played for Manchester City. He has played the bulk of the minutes for Norway. I think I was sitting there and my confusion was you knew the game states for the next 15 minutes. It was going to be standing in the box and try and finish crosses.

I understand to Rudy Garcia's point yesterday about changing Corto, if you're not 100% at this level, you probably shouldn't be on the field. It feels like with what Holland does well and who he is, he's the one guy that you say, all right, we're about to bash 15 crosses in. we don't need you to run, stand between the PK spot and the top of the 18 and just don't move. And if it falls to you, we trust you more than we trust anyone else. It's probably not the right way to run a team, but it just felt like, of all the scenarios that you leave, maybe a slightly injured player out there, this was the one.

Yeah, it's not the perfect example, but take it to Argentina, Egypt. When Argentina is losing 2-0, Couti-Romero, the centerback just, he goes up to play as a center forward and he doesn't come back to defend until they get the one too, which is course, by the way, and then that's what you have to do. So I was telling you guys yesterday about a lot of friends that I have that are non-socker, that are not watching all the games, they, even that they're Americans, they didn't watch the USA, they're non-socker people. They've been watching the games just for fun, right?

Because that's what the World Cup does. It just sucks. everyone in and while the hallan thing is it's happening he gets up i get multiple texts from my friends yeah what is happening why is hallan getting off the field explain this to me i can't we we can't there's no there's not a statement there's not a uh a mixed zone answer about why did the sup happen but i agree with you even if you're dead if you can't run you guys you guys you can't run you guys got to stay in and be a press in the box. Yeah.

So I don't get it. And with the way he plays, I don't know that the England players would know and know that they don't have to mark him because. Right, because he doesn't. Because he doesn't move anyway. Yeah. So he doesn't run. He picks his spots.

It's baffling. It's baffling because there's no, there's, there hasn't been an explanation from Norway. Either way, it was probably a long shot that Norrie was going to score the goal there. I said to you before we came on, what I said to Anders is. we hear we're happy it happened, we're not sad, it's over. It's the first time ever for Norway to win a game, as I said in knockout stage. They win two.

They beat a really good Ivory Coast team in an incredible game. They went behind. They come from behind. They beat Brazil, who I know we made the jokes. They're undefeated against Brazil. But in the pantheon of Norwegian sports or Norwegian soccer, not sports, because they've won everything else a million times on gold medals, that will be the greatest game they ever play.

that will be the greatest moment. And then they come into this game and they go to extra time because they deserve to. And they went toe to toe with an England team that is in their fourth semi-final of a major competition

in the last eight years. Yeah. And you have the pieces to keep building. Bob, Nusa are very young. Obviously, Hallen is very young. It'd be cool if Oscar Bob played more.

Felt like he was a huge difference maker yesterday. I mean, I would be shocked if in the next cycle the front three is not Bob, Holland, and Nusa. There's a lot of players, all the players that are going to move on,

maybe Sorloth becomes a bench player, a role player. Maybe he doesn't... People are big mad for reason. That Sorloff doesn't lay that ball across the Holland when they're on a two-on-one break. People? We are, actually. I was screaming. I was like it's 2-1 as they go on the break.

There's a camera angle on the other side from the pitch that you can see the channel if he hits it first time with his left. Yeah. it's it hurts man once he doesn't hit it with his left it hurts he has to hit it with his right and there's no angle there well he would have to push to his right foot to get past the defender to cut it back which is not a hard play to make but it's everything Alex Sorloff has never done in his life he's a true center forward who likes to get to his left foot yeah so pushing to his right foot to square

ball even as simple as that ball would have been for the best finisher on the planet it's why he's not out he shouldn't be out there in that spot. That was a two zero, by the way. That would have made a two zero. Yeah. Because that's not what he does. And he was in the wrong spot and his coach put him in the wrong spot and he did so for five of this. And he doesn't make runs.

And we're yelling at this at the screen on the first half. Yeah. He doesn't make runs. No, he doesn't make runs. And when he got the ball along the right side, he was actually very passive and would recycle possession. Then Bob starts to take people on. Now the positioning changes. And he did so after Rearsen went off because Bob comes on out.

after. Rearison's one of the best attacking fullbacks in the world. He's a bad defender. That's why he's out there to go forward. Bob could have helped him do that. And so all of that I think is pretty frustrating. But to your point, Sorloff 30 years old, probably not going to be a major starter for this team. Probably moving on, the hope is that with what Boto Glimp has built, there's more pieces coming through. And it felt very much, obviously, once Berg got into the team, the soccer brain of the way Boto Glimb play is going to be what the Norwegian national team will be built on outside of Holland. And so there should be more technical players coming through and players who can be a big part of this. And the good thing is that in two years, we have

euros. Yeah, which they could potentially qualify for. Yeah. Because they have not qualified for that in 30 years. So that would be a big moment for them. On the flip side, Morgan Rogers with the long shot, Nyland pushes it away. Jude Bellingham scores. Jude Bellingham gets England into a World Cup semifinal for the second time in eight years. England attempting to win their first World Cup in 60 years. They have not won a World Cup outside of home soil. We're going to talk about 1966 in a little bit coming up. But the post-game comments were interesting.

So Tuchel on the field was asked about the game, and he said we were bad. We were poor. Then there was a back and forth with the reporter who was doing a terrible job interviewing him by interrupting him constantly to ask third and fourth questions rather than letting Tuchel explain his point. and he brought up mentality and two goals like what are you talking about mentality? We won on mentality and this is now the second game. They have won on mentality.

The ability to stay together to not be panicked, to not be panicked when the crowd's against you, to not be panicked when you're trailing. That's the essence of the definition of what we talk about with mentality in this game. But I can understand his point that the quality is not there. And I can understand his feeling that this is probably a game that they should have dictated. Rather, they reacted to it. Bellingham's good enough that in those reactions, or a cane is good enough against the R. Congo, that in those reactions, you have that moment of brilliance to get you over the top.

But we have not seen anything from England, like what we've seen from France, and at times what we've seen from Spain. So you can understand the reaction from Tuchel there. I thought it was an odd thing to say, because everything's moving in the right direction. And then Jude Bellingham gets asked about it afterwards, and he's told what he said, and he goes, I think he got that one wrong. Yeah. Like, I don't think he realizes how tough this is. We went from the Azteca. to a 5 p.m. July game outside in freaking Miami against the best finisher on the planet and a good team. And I think Jude Bellingham was right to make his point.

And he literally said, things are going well. Like, why would we say that? And I think he was right. I'm going to try and find another angle to defend Tucka a little bit and giving the benefit of the doubt that the journalist, like you said, did a terrible job with the question. not letting him finish, right? Not letting him finish.

And yelling mentality. What's the mentality? Just like, shut up. Let the freaking manager speak. And I think in the heat of the moment, I think, I'm trying to be devil's advocate here. I think Tuchel was so exacerbated with the journalist and trying to explain how it was in a mentality issue that trying to explain it, he went too far. I think he went too far

And I'm pretty sure he regrets it Right now if he listens back to it But yeah Regardless If he was harsh on purpose To try to send up a message to his team I'm really glad that Bellingham came out And spoke the way he came out

Because Bellingham and Kane can do that And Tuchel is going to say Okay sure I'll take it Yeah and now Thomas Tuchel's from Germany So he's a central European So he's going to be blunt In a way that's uncomfortable and unnecessary That's how all Dutch people are.

That's how all Germans are. I don't know the Swiss that well. Clearly, I'm not a huge fan. Maybe the Belgians are like that too. That is the nature of, if you've ever worked with or worked around Germans and Dutch, they just say things and they say things in a very blunt way. And they're not wrong often when they say them. What he said was not incorrect.

This was not the best soccer game. Madueke, you talked about his struggles. This was an England team that did not pull Norway apart. They didn't dominate possession. They didn't create maybe as many chances as they want. I didn't even look at the total stats in the end England, 52% possession, slightly over 1xG. So like not, yeah, not a super impressive game. Who cares at this point?

You're in a World Cup semi-fowl. If you win a World Cup this way, no one will ever talk about it. Spain, no one talks about it from 2010. Argentina, no one talks about the style from 2022. Like that's not the way this works. That's not what happened. So it was odd to me that Tuchel felt the need to bring it up. I think you're right that he got thrown off by as the interview went along.

And again, I thought the mentality answer, was really good. Yeah. Where he, because I'll put my cards on, say, well, every British analyst and journalists is just trying to find a cliche to land on, and this one decided to land on mentality

because, of course, the boys, the lads, they're not there. And he couldn't get there because Tuchel didn't let him. And Tuchel said, that's an absurd thing to say. And especially coming out of the last game where they defend man down at the Esteka, how can you say over the course of these two games that there's anything wrong with the mentality?

what I find interesting about all of this, and this is what I anticipated coming into it and is the reality. This is Garry Southgate's style. This is his team. And I think it's fine to say you need a new voice at some point. But Garry Southgate went to a World Cup semi-final and two European championships.

And the reason he did that was because of the culture that he built around the team. And it's the first time in my life that there was a culture around the England national team. And he went from, this is an all-star team and how can we fit Lampart and Gerard and Skulls and Terry and all these players they all have to play at the same time how can we fit them all together to we're going to play the best team that works and we're going to build a culture where the players want to be

around this the players feel supported the players feel safe and therefore they feel like they can play at their best and that's what Tuchel has done in this tournament so I get having a new voice but there has not been a sea change from Garis Outgate to Thomas Tuchel. It's just the nature of things, which is they're in a fourth semi-final for the last eight years. Well, you have better quality.

You have a better Bellingham. You have a better cane. You can make the case. You have a better midfield. I think Elliot Anderson runs laps around what, Jordan Henderson, what is his moment?

Southgate stuck with people like Jordan Henderson, who's on the squad, by the way. Yeah. But he hasn't seen the field. field and now you have more quality especially on midfield where is where England has always came up short going back to that generation back that you skull from even even way back with gas coin and and and and all that era and then you go back to skulls and the Manchester United

people with and then Gerard and my point also is that and and and there's a big I think it's BBC. They did like, if it's not BBC, I'll, whatever. They did a TV show about the England team under Southgate. It's like a documentary. Oh, the fake one, it's a movie. Yes, no, it's a show. It's a show or a movie.

I think it's a show. With actors. Yeah, with actors, but they... It's about the therapist coming in. And it's about Southgate and when he took over. And I think it goes from both Russia and, and Carter. And you could see at that time,

there are players still players like Rooney on the team when Southgate comes in. And the culture and the mentality is broken. There are players quitting the team. There are fights all the time in the locker room. And that's what Southgate brought. He did a great job. He made, what he made? Semifinals in 2002.

He got beat by Croatia. 2018. 2018, sorry. Then he made the final in the euro in 2021 that he loses in PKK. And then the final against Spain. Exactly. So now this, I understand your point that this is a very similar team, but you have more quality. And that quality and mentality that Southgate helped build, it's what you're seeing right now.

And again, if you're questioning the mentality of this team, like the journalist on Tuchel, what did you see against Mexico and against Norway yesterday? Someone in the chat to their point says the subs for Tuchel changed the game, Reese James coming in. Yes. Morgan Rogers was fantastic. Morgan Rogers was great. Fantastic.

My guess would be if Rice can't go because now the games are tight together. Yeah. And obviously coming off this, he may physically not be out. My guess would be Morgan Rogers is a starter in that central midfield position. I will agree with that. The only other thing would be if Reese James can give you 90, can you slide Kansa back inside and push John Stones to demit? But I don't think John Stones has 90 minutes in him.

So even if you did that, whether it's with a mix and match with Rice, whether it's a mix and match with Rogers, I think it's very clear you don't pull Bellingham deeper if you don't have to. Keep Jude High. Play Morgan Rogers in that spot. Play John Stones in that spot. Pick Anthony Gordon to run around. Like it literally doesn't matter. It is a weakness in the team that there's not a clear fit as someone who can play in this. And so we will end up now watching to see if Declan Rice is able to get himself fully back. Kobe Mino would be the other one. I doubt you're going to give a 21-year-old his first World Cup start in a World Cup semi-final against Argentina. But this is the fun part about this show. We've got a whole week to still talk about this stuff. We've got a show every single day. Let's go to that next game.

Argentina, in extra time, once again, they survive against Switzerland in Kansas City. We celebrated Kansas City yesterday the final game in KC of this World Cup. It was a 3-1 victory for Argentina. Argentina in this one. So they are going back to a World Cup semifinal. It is their fourth major semifinal in the last five years between two Copa Americas and a World Cup. They won the other three. So now they're going to try and do so once again. It was Alexis McAllister with an early goal, Enjoy with the equalizer in the 67th. Julian Alvarez with an unreal finish in the 112th minute to put them up to one. And then Lottaro Martinez gets the garbage goal at the.

the stoppage time of extra time to make it a 3-1 win. But the big story, Breel and Bolo shown a second yellow card for diving after VAR review and sent off in the 72nd minute. You want to talk game first or you want to talk right card first? We got to talk the red card, right? Okay. Shoot. I think there's a red card.

I don't, by law, it was the correct decision. Now, now, I'm going to give you a counterpoint. Okay. And you're going to tell me how you feel about this. Okay. So it's a clear second yellow, clear second yellow, clear red card, and it sucks that it happened when it happened, and we're going to talk about that. But the VR check comes because Leandro Paredes gets given a yellow card to the supposed foul.

If Leandro Paredes doesn't get a yellow card on that foul, even if it's not a foul, There's no a VR. Right, because there's no mistaken identity. Exactly. Why is Leandro Paredes getting a yellow card on that supposed foul? I don't think that's a yellow card. If it's a foul, it's not a yellow card that triggers everything that happens after. But after it happens, and I understand that people think that FIFA is Argentina, that FIFA is messy,

it was a clear dive, a clear second yellow, and a clear red card. My issue is, why are you giving Leandro Paredes to tar with a yellow there? So, because I don't think it was a yellow. To understand what's happening. Yeah. A yellow card was given to Paredes. It was then reviewed because mistaken identity, the reason it came in with VAR was, me and McKelley are both defending, I go in for a tackle.

and the referee accidentally shows the yellow card to McKelle, the VAR can say, no, you didn't mean to do that because he wasn't a part of the play. It happened in the Paraguay-USMinty game with Riemann and Al-Miro. No, that's different. That's this play, though. My point is that's how mistaken identity was originally one of the four staples of VAR.

The four things you could review were penalty kicks, red cards, goals, and mistaken identity. And the reason mistaken identity was a clear one was it felt very obvious. Sometimes referees turn their head and they just give the card to the wrong play. and the VAR was supposed to be able to say that's the wrong player. This is a different interpretation of mistaken identity. This is not, you gave it to Paredes, you should have given it to DePaul.

Right. This is, you gave it to Paredes, but there's not really a yellow card there. And then actually, Mbolo is embellishing. So now you've switched the yellow card to another team. And to your point, if Paredes doesn't earn the yellow card initially, you don't go review this for a dive because it's not a, big enough deal in the middle of the field to go review it. I have no sympathy for Brillambolo embellishing to such an extent that he sold a yellow

card to the referee that therefore he gets punished the other way. The dive out, the grab of, he grabbed his ankle. No contact he grabbed his ankle. And I'm supposed to feel bad for him because he gets shown a yellow card on review because he did such a great job acting that the referee gives a yellow card in a tournament in which we spent yesterday joking about how Argentine players don't get yellow cards and they don't get punished. At a moment in the 70 plus minute of a one-one game where the refs trying to get some control and who are you going to do it against?

Leandro Paredes, right? He's the guy where you're going to set the tone and say, okay, this is unacceptable for the rest of the game. So I fully understand what you're saying. I get the people who feel like this is an overextension of VAR. I don't feel bad for someone literally acting on the field that they got punished for acting. I agree. So. Why is it calling mistaken identity?

I think that's part of the problem. I think it's just, it's mislabeled. I wrote this down. So the IFAB wording before the tournament was, when the referee shows a yellow card or red card, but has clearly penalized the wrong player of either team for the offense in question, the offense itself cannot be reviewed

except in the context of mistaken identity. So because I think they added the either team part, you can then go and find the right decision when you revisit the incident. And there's no scenario in this one where you go and watch it and you say, oh, it's Enzo Fernandez's yellow card because no one makes contact with him. So how do you review that? How do you watch this? If this hadn't been called, we'd all be sitting at home yelling at a TV saying

he just got a yellow card for not touching the player. Yeah. So do we want those injustices done or not? I don't have a clear answer for this. Again, we talked about this yesterday. I am fine with the concept that VR, except for an elbow to the face, lives inside the attacking thirds. And the point, to your point, I think on the yellow card is,

why is Perretti's getting a yellow card for a guy going away from goal, taking him down? But it's 72 minutes of him making tackles. And again, when you watch it, Breel and Bolo flies out. And then he's grabbing his ankle and rolling on the ground. I think it should be embarrassing to grab your ankle and roll on the ground when there's been no contact. sorry that's just me and I'm the only one on that side of things

so would you would you change my point my question let me rephrase yeah will you use VR on those instances so what's interesting is the

Almy Rone one was in the box so it would have been a penalty no no it was it was a way of the box no I thought it was in the box no no no coming into the box he was coming into a box it was out on the edge of the box yes yeah yeah

I would like diving to not be a major part of the game. So if now in the next game, Lottaro Martinez doesn't roll around and hold his ankle when he's sitting on a yellow card on a fake play because he knows there's a chance he could get red carded. That's kind of the way the rules are supposed to work. Right? Like, we don't give you a red card for elbowing someone in the face

because it's fun. It's to deter you from doing it. The assumption would be at some point this would deter players from doing this, and you wouldn't have to make this call very often. I think the issue with which most fans have, and we have, is that VAR hasn't been consistent.

Yeah. Right? Yeah. And I'm going to take, again, Miguel Al-Miron, covering his mouth, getting a red. It has happened a hundred times after that of players. Yesterday, it has to be in a confrontation. Players covering their mouth, a red car,

and Miguel Al-Mironi has been the only one that has done it. How do you know it's a confrontation? They're clearly covering their mouth. You don't know what they're saying or you're reading lips. So I think the issue is that it's not being consistent because if you're going to go to VR to check a dive, then you're going to have to go to VR 97 times during a game to check dives. Yeah, absolutely true.

Yeah, that part's absolutely true. And to your point then, if Paredes doesn't get the yellow card, it just happens. Right. And that would be the case. It's just a bad call on the field for the rest. And that's it. We move on. Yeah.

You want to talk soccer? Yes. I've obviously given them a lot of shtick. So it's going to battled to their credit, right? They were not good in this game. They were never the better team. No. But to what we just said about England and the way they played, they stayed in the game.

They made it tough. Yeah. They get the equalizer in the exact. in the exact way we thought it would. Quick transitions. This is an Argentine team that struggles to make big tackles in the open play, and they commit a lot of numbers to the attack

because they're trying to create chances and win on that side of the field. And up until the Ambo Red carded 70 second minute, they're tied 1-1, going towards extra time. Yeah, and what it talks most about the red is that it happens just after the goal, and when you feel how everything changes and everything shifts.

man Escalon is the most loyal coach you will ever meet. He went with the same 11 that started against Egypt. Argentina was poor again. And again, I'm not saying Argentina is a poor team. I'm comparing Argentina to Argentina. This is basically the same squad, except Di Maria and a couple other names,

that won the 2022 World Cup. So I'm comparing Argentina, 22, Cop America, 24. There are standards. You're comparing Tiago Almada in 2026 to Anhelde-D-Maria in 22. Right. There's like four, there's like four changes. And you're comparing a Rodrigo de Paul that is four years older and you can see it. Ote Mendi, Tagliafico. Montiel, Molina, Tagliafico. I'm comparing Argentina to Argentina right. And by that comparison and that standard, Argentina, especially during the last three games, have been very poor. Yeah.

even close to what they could be or what they were in 2022, 2024, when did it win? 21. 21, 21, the Cop America. Yeah. So anyways, this team yesterday, as every time Cape Bird, Egypt, especially Egypt, because Egypt cannot attack three times, they scored three times. Yesterday is Switzerland. As soon as they committed numbers forward, and like you said, Argentina, when it's time to defend in transition.

they are like butter teams just run by them like a hot knife the midfield is an issue again the poll with a poor game to his standards again to his standards because argentinans go crazy in the comments and i'm trying to put context of what i'm saying poor i'm comparing them to what they can be and they've been and i mean it's it's It sucks to say, but Argentina is in the semifinals because of the opponents they face and the path. Yeah. They are, Argentina is Teflon. They do, they move with the opponents and they do just enough to beat them.

And what we're going to learn in the semifinal is when the quality of opponent goes up, is there, are they 1% better? And the reality of the way they play could be that they take on the personality and the style of the opponent. Yeah. And then Messi, and this game, I think, Julian Alvarez, does just enough. And Enzo Fernandez, right? It feels like those are the three players. Those are the three players who are world class in this team. Everyone else is at service to...

Who? Messi? Alvarez? And Enzo Fernandez. I will put Laotaro there. But it's a... He's a world class in a very specific... He's a world-class striker. Yeah, yeah. In a very specific category.

If you're talking soccer players, fine. But... Yeah. Also, that's a category. as we've talked about, that doesn't really exist anymore. Yeah. So he's a world-class true number nine at a time when most players are not that anymore. Yes, he's on a top-10 list in there.

But he doesn't really play that way for Argentina that much. We questioned Alvarez being in the group because of what Lataro brings. This is why Alvarez is in the team because he's capable of this. And only mess he's capable of that goal. Now, otherwise, now my assumption is on 40-plus minutes up a man against Switzerland in what is basically Rosario because of the way every crowd is for Argentina that they would have scored at some point

if it wasn't a moment of brilliance from Julian Alvarez, but it starts to weigh on you and the pressure starts to come and it was a huge moment for him that's probably his signature moment now for the national team and when he takes over for Messi in 10 years when Messi finally retires

this will be the moment that everyone will reference back to. So McAllister scores minute 10. Yeah. Then Argentina. a Lionel Messi led Argentina world champion Argentina

goes nearly 90 minutes without another shot on goal against Switzerland they had less possession in the first half after the goal but God forbid you said this is a lesser team

so it sets up a World Cup semi-final we have France, Spain which I have France, Spain, which I I said yesterday might be nobody cares the greatest game we ever see nobody cares and then

to top it off we get England versus Argentina as the other semifinal can I read through the history a little for people yes so if you didn't listen to our first touch episodes about every single country I would recommend going back and listen to them because I think they're really fun we talked about the history

of the game in every country how the game developed the culture in those countries we did things about music and food and different parts of geography and history we talked a lot about some of the cult figures in each country. Most of them start with the game was introduced by English, right? The British colonized the world. They traveled the world.

The English and the Scots invented the game. They traveled out into the world. And for the most part, most places that you go to, you will find that it starts there. So it was often rail workers or people that worked on boats that went and played the first soccer games in many countries. In Croatia, it was literally Navy men who came up. off a boat in Turkey. It was the same. It was rail workers across Peru building rail lines to go from west to east across South America. Like this is how the game spread. Argentina is no different.

And Argentina and Uruguay are both very proud of that history and that connection. And there are some really famous characters that are a part of it. If you go through a number of the great Argentine football clubs, their history, their colors, their crest, Arsenal is literally a club in Argentina Arsenal literally named after teams from England

so that combination has always existed Argentina was the first team I didn't know this outside of Scotland to play at Wembley against England because England refused

to play in the World Cup so they didn't play in qualifying any of that stuff in 1951 but this is where the rivalry begins and it is

you could argue the biggest non-regional rivalry in international soccer oh without a question like I don't think there's another one for two countries

that don't play in the same region, therefore play whether share borders like Brazil, Argentina, or Germany, Holland, or playing in regional championships. This is the biggest intercontinental one. And it started in 1966. Antonio Rotin, who actually passed away yesterday, by pure coincidence, at 89 years old,

so lived a very long life. He was the captain of Argentina in 1966 at the World Cup in England. He was sent off against. England. He was sent off for verbal abuse by a German referee who didn't speak Spanish. So he felt the calls were incorrect and he didn't fully understand that he had been sent off, apparently as part of the story. He proceeds to go and sit down on the red carpet that had been rolled out for Queen Elizabeth to come in and out of the game on. Two policemen had to come out

of the crowd to drag him off the field and he grabbed a corner flag which had the Union Jack on it and started to crumple it up. What I have been told is the reason that physical red and yellow cards are shown by referees is because of this moment. Because they would tell them they had a red or yellow card, but a German referee and a Spanish-speaking player didn't understand each other. So now they have physical cards that they're shown. That's all the way back in 1966. And the Argentine's feeling was that the Germans and that the English were working against them. Then you get into the off-field stuff.

In 1982, the Falkland Wars occur. So it's an overseas British territory. It's located 8,000 miles from the UK and 300 miles from Argentina. It's a small archipelago off the coast of Argentina. The population, a little over 3,000 people. Argentina soft invaded it in 1982. Margaret Thatcher sends the Navy for England, and after a couple months, England, quote unquote, retakes the islands, and it is still a British overseas territory.

It was considered a massive shame for the Argentine. government at the time, and it was considered a huge travesty. And it then rolls over four years later at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico, where Diego Maradona scores both the hand of God and the greatest goal in history. And Maradona has said about that, sometimes I think I preferred the one with my hand. It was a bit like stealing the wallet of the English. He wrote in reference to the Falkland conflict, it was as if we had beaten a country, not just a football team. Although we had said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Falkland Islands War, we knew they had killed a lot of Argentine boys there,

killed them like little birds, and this was revenge. It's a pretty heated way to have a soccer rivalry, and that game alone is Maradona's legacy, wrapped into one because he was a man of the people, of the Argentines, and that's how the people of Argentina felt about England. And he, to his point of stealing the wallet, there is this Crioja culture of the way the game can be manipulated and played and snuck around, which at times in parts of South America can be even more,

have more modulation than pure skill and talent. And Maradona was the essence of both. Literally the two goals. It's the greatest goal in World Cup history because of quality. And it's the greatest moment of trickery in World Cup history because of the hand of God. That creates, they played friendlies back and forth for the next 10, 15 years. Then you get to 1998 World Cup where Diego Simeone draws a red card against David Beckham in his big what should have been breakout moment.

He knocks Beckham down. He kind of pushes Beckham when he's down. Beckham kicks out when on the ground and he gets sent off for a red card. And that then Argentina goes on to win the game in penalty kicks. And Beckham is like shamed basically for four years after that until 2002, where Argentina and England gets drawn to the same group at the World Cup in South Korea. And England wins one zero on a penalty kick that was scored by David. Becum conceded by, I didn't know this.

Mauritio Pucetino. Yeah. And then we come now to 2026. So four World Cup games. All four have been controversial and monumental. And now we get a fifth in the semi-final. That game in 1998, it's one of those moments where you knew where you were. You remember exactly where you were doing, watching the Michael Owen goal, one of the best

goals you will ever see, 18-year-old Michael Owen? Yeah. Or is it? Am I going too young? 18. He was 18. He posterized, and then musterize, but like Ayala, it's like a statue. And then he puts it and he's put it in, on the, how do you, how do you say that in English? The top corner. Top corner on the seven. Yeah, yeah. Top corner. 18 years old, Owen. And then he's going to, and he wins the golden ball that year or the next year. Simeone, a couple of years ago, going back to a play, he admits that it shouldn't have been a red.

He said it should have been at most a yellow. But I remember. mistaken identity. Yes. They could have overturned it. Yeah. If only we had VR, even going back to 1966, England potentially didn't. England, Germany, yeah. They won a World Cup with a goal that you shouldn't have been a goal.

So anyways, Beckham was treated like trash in England for the next few years. And he saves it part with the free kick against Greece to qualify. for the World Cup. England was not going to qualify. And then he scores a free kick at Wembley. It's one of the great, if you ever watch that game, it's one of the great, he's the only player on the field for England. Everyone else had given up and Beckham drags them back into it. And I know there's a lot of people, especially young people that are getting into soccer and they see Beckham in this, either Miami commercials. Beckham was an incredible player, incredible player.

Go watch his, it's in Netflix, the documentary. Yeah, I haven't watched it. It's really, really well worth it. Yeah, I actually read his book. He talks about this a lot in his book. I don't know why I read it. Bacon was unbelievable. My mom was like, oh, it's soccer.

You'll like it. And there's a story when he goes to, so before he comes to LA Galaxy, he signs with the Galaxy, I think in December or January, still in Real Madrid. Yeah. And Capelo,

who's the coach. Yeah, pushed him out. He said, oh, you're leaving and you're saying when he sat Beckham down. He wasn't playing him. And then at one point, Real Madrid had a lot of injuries at midfield, in center midfield. And kind of a, maybe kind of a punishment, he starts playing Beckham as a six and as a box to box. And he balls out. He drags them to that title.

Please, people that don't, that never saw. Beckham as a football player, just go watch him. He was incredible. The other thing I will say, and it is, so Simeone ends up at Manchester United. Yeah. So that's like a whole story. If you don't know this, that's a whole story that comes later. Veron.

Veron ends up at Manchester United, who's part of this story because there's Argentines who think Veron tanked the O2 game to get himself. And Argentina gets grouped in O2. They don't even get out of the group. They call Veron El Inglés, the British guy in Argentina. They hate him in Argentina because. for that. Yeah.

El Inglis. And, but then he went back and won the title for Estudiantes is one of my favorite titles of all time in all of the world game. Stop with that. It's true. It is true. Bielsa gets grouped in O2 because of the loss, partially because of the loss, to England, which is like this huge overcoming moment.

I would say, based off reading Beckham's book, my assumption is Beckham is not stoked about this because he doesn't like talking about 98. Now he's gotten over it. He's obviously lived a full life. And you know what? There's probably millions of dollars he'll make. because he's back in a conversation.

I mean, he's been the face of this World Cup. Yeah. What, 20 years after he retired? Nice, hard job. But I will say this. We have lived through a long time where Messi sat in the shadow of Maradona. Yes. Because they were everything opposite.

Maradona was a kid from the street who grew up in Argentina, who cared about Argentina, who played worse for his club than he did for his country. Yeah. And Messi was. The opposite. moved to Barcelona and played better for Barcelona than he did for Argentina. We're past all of that now.

We're clearly past that over the last six or seven years. But for 10 years from 2010 to 2020, that was the whole conversation. Messi was getting booed at one point to Argentina. He quit. He quit the national team twice. Yes. Publicly. One time more rash in the moment coming out of the centenario.

The other time is the real turning point, I think, in his career, which was there was like a campaign of fans, mainly young fans, who didn't remember Maradona, who were like, please come back, please come back, please come back. And that pulls him back in, and then he goes and wins Cop America in 2021. I say all that in saying, Messi has done what he's done and he's fine now. But the one thing that he hasn't done is he hasn't beat the English in a moment like this.

And you couldn't have told me there was anything left for Messi to accomplish besides winning another World Cup until this matchup came. up and I realized this is Diego Maradona's legacy for the country was the revenge against England from the Falkland Wars and Messi now gets a shot to enter into this pantheon. Yeah. There's no world that anything Messi does overtakes the hand of God or the goal of the century in 86. But in the story of Argentine football and we're talking about poetry and legacy and stories, his chance to add a chapter this is a pretty special one more thing. And I like that that you took a there because we think and the world thinks or most of the world thinks that especially after

winning that 2020 World Cup that the debate was over messy is viewed as the best player of all time not in Argentina no most people in Argentina if you don't know I live there to this day they consider Maradona to be top of Messi by a wide margin. Maradona is God. Maradona is above everything in Argentina. And even, and I'm telling you something, even if Messi wins this World Cup in Argentina, he will never, ever reach Maradona. But if he's ever going to get closed, this is how you do it. And for him, this is his legacy. I don't agree. I'm just saying what it is. No, I know. Oh, because I'm just stressing the point, because there's people that hear things the way they want it. I'm talking in Argentina.

Argentina, Messi has never reached Maradona yet, and he will never do it, even if he wins this World Cup. Well, you can say that now, but let's see what happens after it. Either way, these are the tea leaves that we are laying out for everyone to get prepared and to get ready for what's going to happen over the next four days. France versus Spain, two best teams on the planet, 5'4 in the Nations League last year. They played in the semifinals of the Euros in 2024. probably the faces of the games,

one for Barcelona in Laminia Mall, one for Real Madrid in Killing Mbapé, facing off in a semi-final. And then the latest installation of a 60-year rivalry, the best in intercontinental history between Argentina and England. That's what we've got on tap on Tuesday

and Wednesday. We'll be back tomorrow to talk about some of the news around the global game, Pao Chow, let go at Senegal. After their performance in the World Cup, We'll talk about some of these other stories around the World Cup. For Tuesday and Wednesday, we're going to shift to a post-game show.

So we're going to come to you live after the France-Spain game. We will talk about everything we saw. We will preview the Argentina-England match for you. We will do the same coming out of that game. And we will, of course, start looking forward towards the final. We've got awards that we have to give away. Thank you to football manager. We're going to give away our tactician of the tournament,

our level-up young player of the tournament and many other awards. And we still have some specials that are going to. me coming out. We'll talk about the future, both for the U.S. men's national team and for the big teams in all of these regions. So a huge thank you to McKellate for being here. Big shout out to Jordan and Connor for being with me on a nice little quiet Sunday afternoon. Try to enjoy a day even without World Cup soccer. Remember, as I said, the good times we had. Don't be sad. It's over. Be happy that it happened. We'll be back tomorrow with another show. We've got two semifinals on tap, so we're not done yet.