SoccerWise - First Touch '26 World Cup Daily Show: Spain and France Showdown, World Cup Expansion & New Coaches

Episode Date: July 13, 2026

Just four teams remain, David Gass and Michele Giannone preview a blockbuster UEFA showdown as France and Spain battle for a place in the World Cup Final. They also play Buy or Sell, talk about World Cup expansion and coaching changes and rumors in Italy, Germany and Uruguay.0:00 Intro2:59 Buy or Sell: England & USMNT8:52 World Cup Expansion16:36 Fresh Start for Italy 22:11 Pep Guardiola as a National Team Coach?27:40 Jürgen Klopp To Take Over Germany30:56 Diego Forlan To Lead Uruguay?34:25 France vs. Spain Preview & Predictions44:38 Closing Thoughts

Welcome to First Touch 26, our daily group therapy session as we head towards another World Cup semifinal. A day without World Cup soccer. It is a sad one for everyone. But we're here to talk about all the biggest stories around the global game, as well as get you ready for the biggest game of the year, France versus Spain. I, of course, am David Goss. We are going to dig into that France-Spain game. Coming up, we're going to talk about some reports around an even bigger world.

Cup potentially in the future as well as some big time coaching announcements that have happened across the international game and to do so with me who else but michelle gianone mckelly there's some good news in here for you as well you found a way to insert italy into the conversation even when you don't make the world cup every day every day somehow somehow but it's good news it's great news i was looking at um one of the stats that said based off fifa rankings which are not super accurate You think? Argentina has had the easiest path to a World Cup final since Germany in 2002, and then Italy in 06 was second easiest.

I'm going to say something that I never thought I would say. I'm proud of people in the comments of our social media on Instagram and on YouTube. Okay. There were a couple of comments of the clip about us talking that this Argentina is not as good last 2022, 2022, 24. And there are a couple of comments of people. I'm Argentinian, and I agree. It made my day.

It made my weekend. Just beautiful. You never thought of it happened. You never thought the day would come. We are always proud of all of the people in the comments for our shows. That was extra special. Currently shouting out my Vermont Green jersey. Vermont Green's women's side is going to the USLW final out in Seattle.

Again, Samin Bay FC. So very excited for that. And the Vermont Green Men's side has won their regional. championship so they are going to be hosting a playoff game coming up. Championship City, baby, Burlington, Vermont is known for its rings culture. Okay, as I said, we've got a lot to talk about. We are very excited. Susanna will be back with us tomorrow. We are going to be doing a postgame show, reminder. So we're going to be coming live directly after the game finishes between France and Spain. We'll talk about everything going on in that game. Doyle will be with us as well. And then we

will do your preview for the England-Argentina game at the end of that so that you have the full day to sort of consume that one and think about that game as we head into the Wednesday afternoon game as McKelley mentioned last time 3 p.m. Eastern time 3 p.m. local time for some of these games actually the one in Texas is technically 2 p.m. local time on a weekday for world's cup semi-final because this is what we do so McKelley for now this is your last show with us. Last show. We've had a lot of fun and we have loved our buy or sell segment and you've got one last one for me. one. Yeah, I got to get, I got to go back to my bank. I got to make sure I have all the resources I need, because I feel like these are going to get expensive. You've been buying a lot. I have been buying a lot. Listen,

I was told out of the Belgium postgame show that I'm the positive one on the show. So I'm in favor of everything. So everything you give us, I'll buy, I'll believe. What do we have today? So I have a couple. I mean, they're not very creative. I'm going to say that, but there could be some, some spice on it, some some spice. Yeah. So I know we're going to talk France or France-Pain today, but I'm not going to be here to talk England, Argentina. Okay.

So I've been listening to some of the pundits in London. Oh. And they're talking a lot with much confidence about this game. So I was listening to a clip from the Good Garden Evil, great pundit, really like him. And he said, I'm confident that England is going to score at least two goals to this Argentina. And he was talking about how the centerbacks and the fullbacks are not great. So my buy ourselves for this is buy or sell. England is going to win by two or more goals against Argentina on Wednesday.

I'm going to sell. If you had cornered me in a different way, there's a chance I would have bought it. I think England are favorites. I think they have a right to believe they're favorites. you're saying Gary Neville said, which I didn't watch. I only watched the clips where Roy King complains about everything, otherwise I don't watch. Can I stop you right there?

Yeah. What Roy King said and did about Halland's father, disgusting. Yeah, yeah. Disgusting. Yeah, he said he was drinking and therefore he has no idea, yeah. Also, I'm pretty sure Roy Keen watched. No, they hate each other. Oh, really?

Because there's a, he played for Manchester City. And Hallan's father injured, King one time. Also. And then Roy Ken, Roy Kean said when I'm coming back, I'm going to target him. And he came back the next game after him and he went with studs up to injure him. So there's a bit of rivalry. But take it to where Keen took it yesterday. I thought it was pretty lame. Also his comments about the referee, his complaints about the referee made it seem like he didn't watch the game. He's like, oh, there were some 50-50s that could have gone this way. It's like there was like the five most controversial calls of the World Cup in that match.

Oh, so he's just Stephen A of the NBA. Potentially, yeah. He talks about the NBA by watching anything. I mean, he's definitely the Charles Barkley and Shaq of soccer in which kids these days. We don't talk about our Charles. Sir Charles, I respect. But he's the best who's ever done it and everyone else is just copying him. If I was an England fan or an English analyst, I would understand the confidence.

I've said over and over again, this Argentina team struggles to tackle an open play in 1V1 in a way that we've never seen for a team at this level, aka World Cup semi-final. So if it was me, I would believe that Jude Bellingham and Bukaiusako and probably Morgan Rogers to an extent, and Harry Kane will create chances. There is this thing that is happening, this elastic thing, where my guess is in the end,

Argentina will find 1% more, and Messi will score in the 93rd minute, and Argentina will win by one. But I do think we're looking at like a 3-2 game. I would be surprised if it was an extra time. and if I was England, I would look at all the chances that Argentina has conceded and their inability to stop it up by adding Paredes and it still doesn't get any better, rotating centerbacks and rotating fullbacks,

and I would say that I have a ton of confidence that we're going to create chances. Okay. So I'll buy the over two goals. Two goals are over. I guess one and a half would be my line there, but I'm going to sell that they win by more than two. Okay. Okay, I see what you did there. I'm cutting up my portfolio.

You cover all the angles. I see what you did there. Last one, easy. We haven't talked to USMNT for a while here. We are going to do a special USM&T show that we'll be coming out on Thursday or Friday in which we look forward to the future. So in a parallel universe and the bracket shapes in a different way. And the USMNT would have faced this Argentina.

Don't do that. Yes, by herself. This USMNT, the same team we saw against Belgium, would have beaten Argentina. Sell. Sell? Yeah. The performance against Belgium was U.S. imposed.

Right? They played poorly. They came out and played soft. They played scared. They were unprepared for the moment. Belgium took advantage of that, but Belgium didn't enforce that. And Belgium came off a run where

they had been underwhelming. They had been struggling. They had rotated their stars out. They weren't sure what direction they were going in. So everything was, we're talking about Argentina was the case about Belgium and Belgium beat the U.S. 4 to 1. And so the like chance to beat Argentina, yes, of the four semifinalists, it would be the one I would

want to play. But it is not easier than playing Belgium. And I think if the U.S. would come out and play the way they did, it wouldn't matter who they played. Okay, that's it. You agree? I agree. Really? Yeah. You thought you were going to catch me on that one? Yes. Nice. I'm not that positive, I guess. I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I guess. I'm not blindly positive. But hopefully, part of what we'll talk about is hopefully we'll see it in Copa America over the next two years. And I've got a, I'm working up a crackpot Nation's League thing, a Conmabel Conccaf crossover

that I'm going to introduce on that show when we get ready. But let's talk about the big news of the 24 hours. And it is, if you thought 48 teams was a lot to learn and know, strap in, baby, because we're talking 64. Gianna Infantino has confirmed. FIFA will discuss expanding the Men's World Cup to 64 teams after the 2026 tournament. Now, their story had come out about a year ago because in Conma Bowl executive out of Uruguay had originally proposed this idea. Now, the 2030 World Cup to our understanding.

And it used to be when I talked about things like this, I would say like, this is what it is. And like it's already been reported. Now everything around FIFA has become so malleable that I'm just going to say what we think is going to happen. The 2030 World Cup is supposed to start with one match in Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It's a 100-year anniversary of the World Cup. First World Cup ever was played in Uruguay. My guess, this was 10 years ago, I kept making a joke to people that we were going to rent a boat on the river plate and live there because I thought Uruguay and Argentina would co-host the 2030 World Cup.

Just guessing, right? The rotation had come around to South America. It's too big for Uruguay to host by themselves. It's probably too expensive for Argentina to host by themselves. that's the only way to get it done and it's an anniversary of the 100 years and Uruguay and Argentina are the birth and growth of the game in South America the first 30, 40 years they were playing each other

in these fake tournaments and all of that to kind of grow the game. The understanding now is as a way to skip forward quickly to get Saudi Arabia on the docket back in Asia in 2034, which would of course be a quick turnaround from Qatar. But when the money flows, the money flows. Aramco, obviously, the believer in.

both and all young players around the world. They're now putting South America on for three games to open the 2030 World Cup to skip South America. Then the World Cup goes to Europe and Africa because Morocco, Spain and Portugal, where the other, in theory, based off this year, 101 games would be played. And then you would go to the World Cup in 2034. So as part of that, there was a Uruguayan executive who was pretty high up and comable who had proposed expanding the World Cup so that you could get a group in each of Uruguay,

Paraguay and Argentina and then you move the rest of the teams over to Europe and Africa. So this report had already been out there, but Gianni Inventino confirmed over the last few days that it is being discussed. It's being researched. His quote was, every nation should have a chance to dream of playing at football's biggest event. Sure. I don't know why they don't have that right now. And that the 2026 World Cup, which was the first six pan to 48 teams, was a massive success. He said, when you organize a World Cup, it's important, you organize it for the whole. whole world. It's not just Europe and South America, but the entire world effectively.

Every nation to be able to dream of taking part of it. We can see that the quality of teams extremely high and it's getting higher and higher. Everywhere in the world, if you don't give smaller countries the chance to participate in the World Cup, they also lose the incentive to keep improving. So two things. Sadly, like you mentioned, I think the only country that could host a World Cup in South America is Brazil. Yeah. Because the other ones, not even Argentina, have... And they have empty stadiums from 2014. Infrastructure, yeah.

So I'm going to guess right now that the game that is going to be playing in Argentina is going to be in Monumental Stadium, River Plate Stadium, and... Sorry, and Uruguay is going to be Centenario. Montevideo.

I did a World Cup qualifier game there, a broadcast, Venezuela versus Uruguay. Epic. I've never been so in awe walking into a stadium that is... Top of my bucket list. It's unbelievable because it has...

I don't know. This was 15 years ago. It was a long time ago. And I don't know if they make changes of it. It's a really old stadium. So it needs a lot of work, but it has the capacity. And but it's so when you came out of the, when you come out of the locker rooms, there's like around the, so between the field and the, and the stands, there's like a, there's like a water section. it's like a little divider and you go so you're coming up from the locker rooms and then there's like a little bridge that takes you over like the water part

and you don't see the field or anything until you pass and then everything opens up and then you look up and it's just unbelievable so I'm really excited to see because they're gonna

they have to put a lot of work into it because it's very very old and has had some It doesn't work recently. They did renovate it. It's not as the standards that I woke up demand. So that'll be fun. Second, I just love that good Janifantino says, we're going to study it.

We're going to, like it's not already decided. Come on, dude. This is going to be announced. It's going to be 64. What I hope, because it doesn't matter getting angry anymore, it's going to happen, like the same like the 48 team happened and you can fight it and get angry at it whatever what I hope it happens with the 64 is basically 16 groups of four top two advanced or run of 32 and we are done with the third place I didn't like the third place thing

situation here on this World Cup so that's a silver lining that I'm taking that's the one part it eliminates is it takes away it makes it easy easier to push teams through the World Cup into the next round. It makes the numbers a little cleaner. Now it obviously makes the amount of games unruly. And now you talk again about who can possibly host this. You have to have space for 64 teams to have base camps, to have training facilities. You have to travel them around.

And then you have to have stadium that could host all of these vents. And we can tell you being here in New York, the city shuts Midtown down for the eight hours around every game. No truck deliveries are allowed in and out of Midtown, and they are closed streets down to run special buses. And all of that, that workload, I mean, in theory, would be doubled. And that's in New York. Yeah, well, when the three games are done, and then it's Spain, Morocco, and Portugal,

like the national teams that are in Europe are not going to move. For sure, but the three games is in a scenario, one where there's only 48 teams, not 16. Yeah. So I think the point of the bid is, if there becomes 64, you'd put three groups in South America. They would play in South America, then they would travel from there to expand the games. But even then, the load on Morocco, Spain, and Portugal is going to be larger than what it is already because there's more groups, more games. Yeah.

So the only advantage you have there, quote unquote, is because of the third place teams, you don't increase the amount of games any player has to play from what it is now. So the round of 32 was added for this World Cup. That would be it. It would be three group stage games into the round of 32. Because of the way the third place was done, they kind of jerry-rigged it so that it ended up being this tournament. So at least, at a minimum, you're not making it worse by making the players play more games.

And that's the real test on that, is going to be on the teams that go deep. If you add more games to the competition and you extend it, now you have a Jude Bellingham who has to play in eight games to win a World Cup, which is a lot of load to put on a body in an off-season, where then they go back to their club team. Yeah. Do you think Italy will be back with six?

We could talk about that. We have three pieces of news to hit. Normally we like to focus on teams that were at the World Cup, but McKelley's here. So we'll talk Paulo Maldini, one of the greats all-time in Italian history. Excuse me. That's bigger news than the other ones that you're going to mention.

So let's get that right. I mean, Paul. Let's start with he's the best defender in the history of the game, you may continue. Start and finish there. And now he was going to be the technical director of all Italian national teams. It's, without a doubt, the best news that Italian soccer and the fans and everything involved, we, and I included, have received in the last decade.

Paolo Maldini, it's a great mind. and of course he was a great player, the best defender of all time again. He was very involved and he was part of the management and I think he was a sporting director or assistant to a sporting director alongside Leonardo

when A.C. Milan was great the last time when they won the Scudetto with Slatan on the team. So Paolo Maldini has done a really good job everywhere he has gone as part of management teams after his post-playing

career. Now we have a new president in the Italian Federation who was until this new job, the president of the Olympic Committee, that during his tenure, Italy has become

a powerhouse on the Olympics. Both summer and winter. Which we saw when the one they hosted. Correct. And now his first hire is Paolo Maldini as technical director. And now Pablo Maldini is going to be in charge to hire the coach. The front runners are Roberto Mancini, who I'm not excited about even though he won the euro in 2021. The other one is Antonio Conte.

The issue with Conte is that nobody believes he's going to stay. the whole cycle for years. He burns bridges fast. Fast. But this feels like with this new structure, this feels like we might, I'm not going to get excited until we start seeing results. This feels like it's for me

and for all the Italian people and fans and everyone in the media, etc. And I guess you guys also, like people want to see Italy in a World Cup. They are a big name. They're a giant. And now them losing is fun And it's a huge meme across the world

And it's enjoyable There's a lot of elements of the Italian game That are pretty bad So I think people enjoy when those parties lose And every time they lose And you think it's going to change These same old men come out And they say something despicable

And then you're like, okay, cool, keep losing I think that gets tired at some point Like I say this college sports is the biggest example Like I didn't grow up with Kentucky being good And everyone hates Kentucky and they're like, well, they're giants. And I was like, oh, where are they? Because if you're in the wrong time period,

aka if you are anyone who remembers soccer from 2007 to now, which is a large amount of people, that's a 19 year gap, you don't know that Italy losing is a meme because that's all you're aware of. So they're not this heigante that falls off. Correct. It's more like when people experience Manchester United now. If you have only been watching the game for 10 years, which is a long time, you don't know that Manu used to be a giant.

and therefore is chasing that. They're just a name that you get talked about a lot. So Italy has a place to play, and there is a romance to the game there, and obviously there's a ton of history there. Correct. I don't know that I really care, if I'm being totally honest, except for you.

Thank you. I want you to be happy. Thank you. Appreciate that. So now under this structure, there's a lot of hope, especially because you have a name like Paolo Maldini that cares and bleeds.

And can tell people no. Right? Exactly. There's clearly some rotten nature across the game in Italy. And I think a lot of this is cultural. It's deeper than soccer. It is part of the issues in Italian culture, which is where the country sits between first world,

second world and all these other things that are common conversations outside of the sport. It was so rotten and so corrupt that it took three failed World Cup qualifications for the Federation president. to be dismissed. That's how corrupt and rotten was everything inside. So this is literally a new beginning and hopefully

they can work well with the youth teams that are coming up. The U-21 in Italy is always good. The U-20 is always good. The U-19 is always good. U-17 is always good. But now it's time to reform everything in Italy

and it starts with having a good structure that affects both the national team structure and the league structure because the young players need to play. That's one of the big issues. So I'm hopeful. I'm excited and that's what I can say. All I can do is being hopeful. That's it. You mentioned two coaching rumors there. Yeah. Connections. You did not mention Pep Cordial. Yeah, I was leaving it to you. Oh, okay. It's been reported that he has been reached out to by Paul O'Mell. about potentially taking over Italy. He's resigning from Manchester City.

We already know that. So he currently does not have a job coming out of this season. He's considered by many to be the best coach in the world. He has never coached a national team. It feels, I think, to many people, obvious that if he's going to coach again, it'll be with a national team. You've coached Barcelona. That's your lifeblood.

That's your club. Yes. You then went and coached Byron, best team in Germany, and now you've coached Manchester City. So short of coaching PSG, which probably won't happen with Luis Enrique's success, there's not really an obvious club for him to go to. And then you move to national team where the intensity of the work is a little bit less, which is I think why Juergen Klopp, who we'll talk about, is choosing to go that route.

Now, what's odd for him is Spain are successful. He is Spanish. He played for Spain. It doesn't seem clear like what he brings to the Spanish national team. That would be much different because they're on the verge of going to another World Cup final. They just won the Euros. And there's not really a clear opening that they should fire Delafonte and bring him on. So if it's not Spain, who is it?

And I will say I was shocked to see that it could be Italy. Well, he has a big relationship with Italian soccer. He played for many years in Italy, especially we all remember the Brescia team that had in midfield. A young Andrea Pirlo, him and Roberto Bajo, a team in Brescia that was just fantastic to see. that was pure soccer champagne with those three linked up. It was just absolutely beautiful soccer to watch. He vacations a lot in Italy, and he has mentioned in the past that he will be open to coach in Italy.

Interesting. So when you see the options that are open, Italy will be the best job on paper, because also you instantly become a savior of the program. So that's, again, I don't know how I feel about Wardiola. I obviously think he's one of the best managers, of course. I'm not saying anything that it's new of all time. But he hasn't shown that on the national team.

And on the same note as Conte, right? do you trust he's going to marry to a program for at least four years? Yeah, I have no idea. I don't, I think, and we saw with Carlo Ancelotti, I think it's tough to assume a club coach becomes a good national team coach. I think there are two different jobs. Well, you've got to get time, Ancelotti a little bit. He took the job less than a year ago.

For sure, but we still don't know if it'll work. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's not instant, but that's part of what I would say. Right. The cycle it takes to affect the national team is so long, because you have so little time to work with them that it has to be four years. Because there's no world in which a team plays

Pep Cordeola soccer meeting three to four times a year within a year or two. So you're going to have to deal with, one, the downs because it's probably going to look pretty bad. Early on, that's probably the next euros. Then he has to be in it for the long haul for you to then get the ups. And on top of all of that,

people, I think, overrate what an international manager can do. The problems in Italy, are not the manager of the national team. The manager of the national team should be good enough to get them to a World Cup. But the issues that occur, and you talk about it, the quality of the youth ranks

that doesn't get to the senior ranks, that's happening outside of his purview. Now, Pep Guardiola, similar to Maldini, carries such a big presence that he can go into conversations, but he's not sitting there making sure the careers of every U-19 player progress through their club teams.

Correct. So if I'm Pep, I don't know that that's worth my time, where I would look at it and say, Portugal are probably a team. that's on the verge of doing something bigger. Can you be the one that accelerates it? And I think those players fit his soccer. They already have a new coach.

You think Jorge Jesus is hanging on if Pep Guadriola says I want to be coach of Portugal? I mean, they already announce him. I don't disagree with you, but I would say, and then obviously Germany would have been one he would have been connected with after his time at Byron, but Juergen Klopp is now taking over there.

And so maybe there's not a logical move. The other one would be, if he wanted to, and from a lifestyle point of view, I wouldn't, but he might, is he finished his career playing in Mexico. because he wanted to play for Bielsa and he wanted to go to Mexican soccer culture because Bielsa told him to, would be another nice job for PEP Cordiola to end up in, move away, probably be a little bit disconnected. Now what Tata learned is, it's way harder than you think it is there, but it would be another one that I think would be on a list if you ask me,

where do I think Pep Cordiola ends up. Those would be the teams, I would say. What about the USM&T? Again, I think a lot of the issues are things that the national team coach doesn't work on, so he would have to to decide how much of that work he wants to do. He lived in New York City when he took his sabbatical. I saw him, actually, on the Upper West Side. He was on Central Park West. What's up, Pat?

Getting a little falafel with me. But you would never say no to him. He would also cost eight times more than what the U.S. has to spend. So they would need to go and get a rich person to pay for it again and would decide if that's the move they want to make. I mentioned it. Yorgon Klopp taking over Germany. It felt fairly obvious coming out of the world.

Cup. There was some awkward moments where he was on German TV covering this team where he made allusions to the fact that he would be the coach. And Nagelsman, I think, was frustrated by a lot of that. Probably doesn't matter because Julian Nagelsman didn't get past Paraguay. So what doesn't really matter? It feels like the right fit with Klopp. He has been a revolutionary in German soccer in the past, the way he emerged up through the coaching ranks at Mines and then into Dortmund. him and Ralph Ragnick were the two that were promoting Geigenpressing, but they were also promoting the concept that tactics could overwhelm talent.

And the assumption in Germany before that was, talent's the only thing that matters. And there's a really famous television interview from like 2001, in which he and Ralph Ragnick were on a post-game show, that neither of them were very famous, and they talked about their ideas of how a coach can affect the game. And it was like a light-ball moment in Germany.

That's obviously a long time ago, but it's Juergen Klopp's reputation. I also think at some point, with the national team, you're talking about culture and you're talking about vibes. Can you make it light for players to be around it? This is what we talked about with Southgate and Tuchel. Can you make it enjoyable for players to be around it?

Can you take some of the pressure off? There's only so much tactically you can affect. Can you make it something so that players feel like they can perform their best? And famously, I think that's one of Juergen Klopp's best attributes. But Dara, I've learned with the USMNT and with Greg Berhalter, especially when he came back, that is a very thin, dangerous line.

when you give the player too much comfort and too much liberty when you come to a national team. Yeah. We saw that. Yeah. And that's specifically why Mauricio Pocetino, as soon as he came here, he said several times, the first thing that I need to change is the mentality of this group. So that's a very thin line. Do I think club is going to be like a, yeah, do whatever you guys want?

No, of course not. But he will be, I mean, I don't know, obviously both of them in person. But what I can sense and seeing Klopp the way he handles himself when he was coached in Liverpool, is that he's going to be way, way more softer than Nagelsman. With Nagelsman, the problem was there wasn't a reward on the other side, right? Like people listened to Sir Alex Ferguson when he was an asshole. because then he made the right coaching moves and then you won.

Right. Naglismund doesn't win. He hasn't won for a while. He's never won big things. So he has an air about him because he's this, you know, boy genius. But Klopp brings a level of respect, I think, from that room that is different.

It'll be fascinating to see his Dortmund connections. How many Dortmund players are he calling up? Does that start to get tagged a little bit? He also is someone who has historically played a lot of young players. There's a line where you kind of can't, coach, again, you can't pull a guy who you think's better than his club team thinks he is, because if they're not experienced, they're not ready to play, but Leonard Carl, who was injured for this World Cup should be the future of that national team. We'll talk more about this as we go

forward. And then the other one, the reports very heavily that Diego Forlan is going to take over as both the U-20 and the senior national team coach for Uruguay to replace Bielsa. That's interesting. Yeah. I've never seen or heard anything about Diego Forlan being a coach. Yeah. I honestly don't know what to make. So he is from, I want to say this right, but he is from a, like, royalty family. So his family, I believe he's the third generation national team player for Uruguay. And I think his entire family also has worked in the upper levels of the game as well.

So he comes from this sort of like executive Uruguayan football culture. He obviously then played at a really high level. I mean, I know that Enso Francescoli, it has a big, big time name, and he was a big, big time player. But if we take what Diego Forland did on his club career in Europe with Manchester United Athletico Madrid, and what he did for Uruguay on a World Cup, on several, on multiple World Cups, you're talking about potentially the best your wine player of all time. Am I wrong? No.

Uruguay has a weird history, so he's probably not because you're talking about guys in 1930s and 1920s. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, but. But of the modern era, yeah, for sure. It's like him and Rikoba. Yeah. He's like the two. I guess Diego Godine, but all that's debatable.

He's in that conversation. And I think he carries as much respect as anyone in the Uruguayan football world. And again, back to the same combo three times. Yeah. I think culture matters. Yeah. I think coaching tactics matter less, especially with Uruguay, where there's so little you can do because the talent pool is pretty small. Yeah.

And if he's coaching at the youth ranks, he's learning these guys and help progress them through, which was a key to Peckerman turning Columbia around. Was Peckerman coached at the Olympic into 20 levels and got to know the players? And he pushed them into the senior national teams early enough that Ahmes Rodriguez could pop. And I think we saw it happen as well in Uruguay. When post-02-06 failures, they started to turn things around was there was a top-down coaching group that was around. to all of the teams, so they're around the players as much as possible. So that part makes a little bit of

sense, but for Alana, yeah, it's going to be a shot in the dark. There's a really good chance he's completely unqualified, and we realize that in two years at Copa America. And we've also seen on big nations, and I'm going to give the example of Germany under Juergen-Klemsman,

that it also helps how good you surround yourself with your working standards. We got to remember that that Cleansman, Germany, that lost the semifinal at home in 2006 to Italy, it was heavily assisted by Joaquin-Lough, who then became the coach and then took Germany to the next step. So as long as Forlan surrounds, and I'm not putting into question that he can be a great coach, I just don't know.

Yeah, yeah. So if you're new to it, if you surround, but you surround yourself with good people and a good training staff and a good technical director and people that could see oversee what you cannot, why not? Yeah. My work out. All right.

Let's move into the games coming up. We are roughly 24 hours away from Spain tipping off, tipping off, kicking off against France. It is going to be one of the biggest games I said, probably of our life. times. They are the top two teams coming into this competition. Spain are the reigning champions in Europe. France now, this is their third straight World Cup semi-final. They went to back-to-back finals. They won it in 2018, and they have played at the highest level of any team coming into this World Cup and came in as the number one ranked team in the FIFA rankings. It'll be 3 p.m. Eastern Time in Dallas for this one to start. For France, it was fairly comfortable in the end

against Morocco. Now, there's one thing that stands out to me, which was Morocco didn't play with the center forward. We talked about it. And so everything they did was hard. And everything they did had to be tight combinations playing through France's shape. I don't think it actually went terribly for Morocco. The problem was when they got to the middle third, they couldn't break out. It didn't lead to anything. Spain, of course, is a team that wants to pass around you. They want to play in possession, but they also have Arothabal who can give you a centerpiece in Laminia or potentially Nico Williams, who can stretch the field for you. So this is, I think, a similar matchup for France.

It's just at an even elevated higher level. Yeah, and we saw it the last time they faced each other on the Nations League semifinal. They came into the 5-4. So we predict it's going to be an open game because these are two teams that like to have the ball and leave open spaces. And I think we already know what the starting 11 of France will be. should be the same

that beat Morocco. But I'm fascinated to what Luis de la Fuente is going to do because we've seen that Spain they've been really good in the tournament but they haven't been the Spain that we all expected

but they still have been very, very good. And some of that is, and we talk about this, like the last two games Oyarsabal hasn't been sharp up top and he's not a presses in the box. So sometimes

when your typical game, when you pass the ball 50 times and you murder the rival with a thousand cuts, and then Ojarzabal comes and makes a run and finishes, we didn't see that against Portugal and against Belgium, right? Yeah. So, and Spain didn't have an answer for that because they don't have a player like Alvaro Morata. in the past that gave you that different game plan, right? The game plan was putting basically midfielders like Merino or Fernand Torres, who's more a winger, board players that are like just run at you,

at crash the box, right? And like Merino, the two times he came in, he just like a lose ball and he just basically taps it in. I'm very interesting in the choices that Luis de la Fuente makes because when we see the lineup that he played against France on the last game, he played merino pedri and i'm blanking their name but it's um um rodri wasn't there right so oh you're saying last year last year on the five four uh game that spain's uh that that spain wins do you want more legs do you want more physicality at midfield or you sacrifice that and keep

playing danny olmo who is more offensively mind the player, but it's going to give you less defensively to match up the very physical nature of France with Cone and Ravio. So I think that's, I mean, I'm not saying anything super deep here, but the midfield and the choices that Luis de la Fuente makes, I think they're going to dictate this game. It was Zubimendi in the last game. It was Marino Pedri and Zubimendi, which I think does show, even in the 5-4 loss, that he was trying to go a little bit safer.

and we talked about this if you played Fabian Ruiz, Pedri, and Rodry, neither of them is a true natural 10 who's going to flow in only try and attack. Correct. All of them are capable of playing the final ball. All of them are capable of being a late runner and finishing on a pullback from the top of the box, which is a huge factor in Spain's game model. But it maybe makes you a little bit safer because Pedri, for maybe the lack of work he does as an 8, as a 10, it's a pretty high level of work.

I thought this quote was fascinating from Unae Simone. He was asked by a journalist how Pedri was doing because Pedri didn't start in the last game and he said, are you asking because he didn't play? And he said, of course, he's extraordinary. And Unae Simone goes, and Fabian? And the journalist goes, Pedri's a global figure and he goes, Fabian's won two champions league in a row.

And I think that is the feeling in the team, which is all of these guys are good enough to win at this level. Correct. And for all of what we talk about with profiles of players and you have to have Pedri on the field because Pedry's world class. You have to have Williams if he's healthy on the field because he was your difference maker in 24. I think the feeling in the group is all of these guys can play and all of them can make a difference. And Fabi and Ruiz, of course, scores in the last game, which is not why he's in the team.

But it showed that he can read the game and affect the game in a similar way. And he covers a ton of ground. So I wouldn't be shocked if it was the three of them. There's also a chance that you slide Danny Elmo out wide, if that's the case, rather than starting Biana if Williams can't go from the start because he will play direct. He will stretch the field. He'll also come inside if Jamal is able to get to the end line and be a second finer for you in those moments. And you do need to pin Francis Fulback's back a little bit. So I think that's, there's a couple different options Delafonte has in there. But no matter what, Spain has to

dominate possession because they can't defend against this France team deep. It's just not the natural state for most of these players. They're players who always play on the front foot. They're players who are most comfortable playing going forward. Where they're going to be exposed is the mistakes they make and how much they try and take risks to create the chances. On the flip side for France, you mention it. For the most part, the starting line upset. I think Kone and Chiu-a-Mene is like really the only decision to make

and then Duet and Barcoa. Yeah, after the game in Morocco, I don't think I think Kone. Do you think Duet starts over Barclola as well? Yes. Yeah. I think why not? Especially Kone, I thought he was the best on the field against Morocco. And I'm glad you mentioned the foolbacks because France fullbacks, people see them as maybe their weak point, especially Dini on the left side.

Yeah, who just got signed by PSG. And that's where LaMille Amal attacks, right? So, and we saw against Belgium, it wasn't very effective, but Spain, and is going to, Spain has options to deal with LaMille Yamal attacking and not having to worry on defense. The same way as France doesn't have to worry. We do where Ordenbele attacking

because they can cover space and that's where I'm saying that Coné was the best on the field because every time we saw especially De Nye going forward against Morocco Connese slide on the left side to cover ground.

So it's going to be a change in the way Spain's attack because against Belgium, we saw Pedro Porro and LaMille Amal both at the same time attacking and overlapping each other, that left side of Belgium, which the Kuypers did a great job.

But I don't see Pedro Porro going as wide and as forward as he did against Belgium, because one, you have LaMille Jamal, and two, you have to deal with Duwe or Barcola on that side. Same thing goes with, with Cuculella on that size and bella attacking you. So it's

all of this to say this game is on the margins. Like the smallest margins. I wouldn't be, of course I've said France is the prohibited favorite before the tournament start. And if we have to match both themes,

I will say like France, it's slightly favorite. But I wouldn't be shocked is Spain wins because Spain's Spain and the last time they played Spain won. So I think this is just going to be decided by the smallest of mistakes. But hopefully we get like another 5-4 game like we saw in Nations League. All right. The World Cup takes a breather.

You can still bring the game home with the Trianda Pro on soccer.com. Get yours today at soccer.com. Your destination for the official matchball of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. You can get custom game match balls. If you're going to get one, France versus Spain and a World Cup semi-final in what are maybe the two best teams matching up before a World Cup final that we've ever seen in the history of the game, this is probably the one you're going to want to do it for. And in saying that, you just talk through the margins.

Give me the prediction. France first, Spain, 26 World Cup semifinal. The winner will be, and by what score? I... I... All right, I'll go first. Sorry. I think that Spain wins in penalty kicks after a two-two game.

I think Spain controls the game. I think they get cut open. early on a counterattack to go down one zero, then they push and they push and they push. They equalize. They take a lead. France takes control. They score the goal. Both these teams play out a dramatic extra time and Spain goes through on penalty kicks after a two-two draw. Yeah, my doubt is because I'm fighting myself here because I've been praising France. You said France against the field. France against the field. But I really like Spain in this game. Okay. I really do. Wow, are we both picking Spain? Yeah. Congratulations to France for winning the World Cup

semifinal because both of us big Spain. The two guys who pick Colombia in a World Cup final, we have officially cursed you. We will talk more tomorrow afternoon about the big Argentina against England game. You said it. You won't be on tomorrow. You gave it us a little bit in the buy or sell. Any early thoughts about that game as you're getting ready for Wednesday? England over two goals.

Okay. And winning? No, no. England winning. Oh, buy two goals or more. Yeah. I didn't phrase that right. England wins with a comfortable margin of two or more goals.

Argentina is done at this World Cup. Either way, you can find McKellie on social media. I'm pretty sure that's going to always flood us if you've got responses to what McKelley said. McKellie, it's been a blast. You're going to be back around hanging out with us, but you have to go to El Trafico this weekend. MLS is back, baby. You'll be at where? Is it Carson or is it in whatever it's called now, BMO?

It's in Carson. Okay. in health dignity sports park the cultural home of major league soccer hey one of the originals hey it is it is where belgium ended up training going into their world cup quarter final against spain because they complained about their other one uh it's been a blast it's always fun to talk thank you it's been the greatest most fun three weeks almost a month yeah um it's been great sharing and talking world cup with you guys and yeah thank you for having me to all the production team and all the people here for trusting me with the content and

and being here, and I'm excited for people to now pick it up after World Cup and go to MLS. Like you said, I'm going to be Friday on the Spanish broadcast of El-AFC, Galaxy, consider it home, against L-AFC.

You can watch it on Fox. You can watch it on MLS on Apple TV in English. But I will suggest, if you want to support your boy to watch it on the Spanish broadcast with Sammy Sadovnik and Diego Valeri, in Spanish is always more fun. All the Telemundo stands.

out there and now can come over to you. Everyone who is a Noan Wilson fan is now watching McKelley in Spanish. So I'll see you there. And we don't stop. We don't slow down. As I said, we've got the postgame show coming up tomorrow. We have this special USM&T segment we're going to do looking forward, which is going to become one of our staples here at soccer wise.

Myself and Tom recording an MLS return show that's going to be coming out ahead of the games, which start on Thursday night. Jordan Angelie is with Jill once again this week to talk end of the. WSL coming out of a dramatic weekend of action, including Casey falling apart down in Orlando. We will, of course, have more First Touch coverage, which is our global game coverage. We'll talk about some of these big stories around national team coaches and all the different teams going forward. We'll talk about the futures in each of the regions coming out of the World Cup, and then we've got a lot more content ready for you all.

So thank you once again to McKelley for being here with me. It has been a blast. Big shout out to Derek, Theo, Morgan in studio with us today, and of course to Connor. as well and we'll talk to you all again very, very soon.