SoccerWise - First Touch '26 World Cup Daily Show: Spain's Late Heroics Knock Out Belgium, Haaland, Kane & Messi Take the Stage

Episode Date: July 11, 2026

Mikel Merino's winner sent Spain past Belgium and into the World Cup semifinals. David Gass, Michele Giannone and Matt Doyle break down Spain's dramatic quarterfinal victory before previewing the final two quarterfinals: Harry Kane and England's showdown with Erling Haaland and Norway, plus Lionel Messi and Argentina taking on Switzerland with the last two semifinal spots on the line.0:00 Intro5:18 Belgium Comes Up Short, Courtois Injury13:04 Spain, Lineup Decisions & Looking Ahead to France25:00 How Does Norway Setup Against England?30:13 Starting Lineup Questions for England32:35 The World Cup of Erling Haaland36:30 England vs. Norway Predictions41:26 Argentina Starting XI Decisions48:38 Can Switzerland Challenge?

The double header is back. We've got games on, games on games. Finally again at the World Cup today, a double header coming up in the World Cup quarter finals. I'm David Goss with your First Touch 26 Daily Show here live from New York City, which will be hosting the World Cup final in about a week and one day. And it will be in New Jersey,

but I'm still going to call it New York. Anyway, David Goss here with Matt Doyle, with McKelley Gianone. So a big show. for you. We have England, Norway coming up 5 p.m. Eastern Time today and then after that, Argentina against the evil powers that are Switzerland, trying to save us all from the doom that could be watching Switzerland. Again, at a World Cup match. That one at 9 p.m. Eastern Time out in Kansas City, which I have to say, I thought coming into the World Cup, KC. might be the best, like,

venue just because it would feel big enough there because it's not an overwhelming city. and I think Casey got their return, which is I think they got like the Vest fan bases across the World Cup. They got Rock Chalk, Algeria, they got the Netherlands, they got Argentina, they got Columbia.

Yeah. I mean, it feels like they've done pretty well. Yeah, I kind of feel like everybody's done pretty well. And I don't feel like I can comment on this because I've been, you know, doing this very narrow corridor in New York the entire time. And we're lucky enough to get every fan base here because we're new.

York. But like, everybody's been impressive. Yeah. You know, like, I don't, I don't want to, I don't particularly want to knock anyone. Let's do it. Let's offend countries. I know that you're ready to go in on Swiss fans. Always.

Yeah. I live there. Yeah. That's my, that's my natural state. You have to get me out of that. What's, Switzerland, do you? I've told you a million times on this show. Just playing boring soccer.

No, I've been around their fans for two World Cups, 2014, 2018. Least enjoyable fans I've been around. But in what, in what way? Boring. little bit prissy, not as nice to locals as I felt other countries were. Honestly, like you're at a World Cup. It's a party. And so I like, like, so you feel like they were bad and maybe arrogant travelers.

Yes. Okay. And here's what Kansas City would have experienced because Kansas City not as central a place as New York. When you're in markets like that for a World Cup, it's the teams that are playing that roll through. So the vibe shifts heavily every three days. Yeah. Because you're in a market.

And then when that team leaves. all those fans leave and the next set of fans come in and they dictate like what it's like. It is what I think one of the reasons many people don't like England fans. Because when England fans, it's not as fun. Right. And Boston experienced a little bit with the Scotland versus England fans this World Cup. So I've experienced it with Swiss fans in two different markets at two different World Cups on two different continents. And I've had enough.

Okay. Cool. Okay. You all good? You started hard, huh? Yeah. I'm happy that Kansas City is getting the love. I love Kansas City.

Me too. I think it's such an underrated place city. and which is why it's great Kansas is going to shell out $500 million in tax dollars to build a new stadium. Yeah. Like Salt Lake City, when people talk bad about Salt Lake City, I want to fight. Salt Lake City is amazing. It's so good. And Kansas City, I had the opportunity.

Remember Gold Cup 2021 when still there were like COVID restrictions? So the USM&T picked to play their group stage. Yeah, yeah. Or what Concordcaf gave Kansas City the group that the U.S. was playing. stole a win over Canada. Okay. They scored like minute three or something, and then it was a terrible game.

So I was in Kansas City Station for like a month, and at the beginning you think, oh my God, a month in Kansas City, what I'm going to do here? And it was the best time of that. Yeah, it's the only issues you have to drive, but everything takes seven minutes to get to because it's Kansas City. There's no traffic.

Yeah, and now they've got the light rail run in. You guys, let's all just move to Kansas City. Easy, easy. Easy. Easy. Okay. The meme I get sent once a week as friends being like walks through the most expensive neighborhood of a city they're not in on vacation and goes, I could live here.

That was my experience with Chicago. I was like Chicago's great. I've never really spent time here, but it's like New York but clean. It's like, oh, just in the West Loop, just on a weekend in June when it's 71 degrees. That's perfect. Okay. Well, as I said, we've got a lot to talk about. We've got two games coming up later today.

and then of course we've got Spain versus Belgium to go back over. We'll be back live tomorrow to recap the two games we saw to give a first primer towards the semifinals. And then Susanna is going to be back with us for the week. I could live in Knoxville. You can live in Knoxville. No, I don't think. Yeah, apparently great bagels in Knoxville. Really?

Something that I was unaware. Okay, C. Yeah, I know there's good hiking. Get to watch Shay all the time? No, no, no, okay, see? I don't think so. We've reached his limits. I've been to OKC, but I've been at the nice part, and it's the same thing.

Oh, this is very nice. And then you like step out a mile. No. I didn't know. I didn't know McKelley was a landman guy. I'm a landman guy. Just building the oil rigs on his free time. Let's start with Spain versus Belgium.

A tough day for Belgium on a couple different fronts. Starting out your captain, Yuri Tillamins, injured in warmups, trying to move around the field in basically a rondo. and ends up pulling up, there was video of it, as Spain takes the two one lead. There was video of it that, I know Fox grabbed at some point, which he looked somewhat unsure for a moment. He goes over and talks to the coaches,

then he like rips the penny off. But this is something we see very rarely for someone to get changed out of the lineup because he was put into the starting lineup. And I talked about how he could be best living at this World Cup about 24 hours ago. And I think for Belgium, it was as big a hit as you could take at the same time. It felt like they reacted pretty well to it.

They reacted well, and it wouldn't have made a difference. I don't think Yuri T. Even though it was a one-gold game, I don't think Yuri T-Lunans would have put them over the top. But it just stinks. At this point in the tournament, in every tournament, you want to see the best players in their best form with their best health out on the field. And we were deprived of that a little bit with Belgium. but obviously that's not the big injury that everybody's talking about coming out of this game, which is even worse for Belgium.

So Spain takes a 1-0 lead early on. The goal from Fabian Ruiz, who you talked about yesterday, potentially being in the starting lineup or not. He was inserted into the starting lineup. It felt like to gain some of that control for this team and let them set the pace. So he scores the opening goal off a rebound from a save shot from Tebow-Corto. Then Belgium scores. the first goal conceded by Spain at this World Cup. So I have the minute somewhere in here.

I don't have the minutes somewhere in here. But it's been over 600 minutes that Spain has not conceded. 649 minutes without conceding a goal at the FIFA World Cup. Then they concede to who else, Charles de Ketlier. In the 41st minute, it was a secondary recycled set piece that they put in. He scores to make it 1-1. and then as Doyle mentions, Timor Cotroix goes down in the 60-something minute. He's down for a little bit, gets back up, stays in for a moment, then gets replaced,

and then his replacement in Cene saves the ball directly into the path of who else. Mikhail Marino. And it was the big flashpoint of this game that one of the great players in Belgian history, he continued but then doesn't continue, and then of course his replacement's the one who helps concede the goal. And it sucks because Lemons is a really good goalkeeper. He's a Manchester United starter. And for goalkeepers, it's always tricky because they're not actively warming up with the guys on the bench. So he came in the game cold.

Yeah, the goal wasn't immediately after that. But still, I don't think we're going to be talking about this in four years when we talk about Belgium and Lemons is potentially going to play on the next World Cup. It's just going to be like a blip in the radar. But yeah, it sucked for Belgium overall in the sense. It's off like you get Tilleman's that gets injured on warm-ups. You didn't have Onana from the starting, you know that. But they decided to bring DeBroni back to a starting lineup. But I think at the end, the two-one didn't reflect.

I thought Spain was really good. Yeah. Was really, really good. And I thought Belgium was really good in their defensive blocks. Yes, right? Like Spain had a lot of dangerous possession that they didn't turn into dangerous chances because that really back six the way Belgium were playing.

did their job yeah and both goals came off in my opinion goalkeeper errors Cortois could have done better on the first one and then obviously the Lamar's one whether we're talking about it four years we might be talking about it four years from now this is a type of error that can end up being career-defining even for a really talented young goalkeeper Belgium that their defensive rate was incredible but at the end well then you got to make a choice when you play teams like Spain right they had to sat deep

and that left the catalare and then Lukago when it came in they were isolated like they didn't dooku didn't have a good game then they switched Doku to the left to the right side on the second half that was my original idea I thought that

Doko would have been more effective from the gate go on the right side so he can attack Kukulela and help on that side so they go one to halftime it was something else like we were talking yesterday is like empty the tank try to get to halftime with something to work on.

They did. But it's funny because Spain was really good. But at the end, we're still not seeing Spain as this machine that we're used to it before the tournament. So you have this like bittersweet taste in your mouth that they're really good. They play really well. But they're still left something to be desired. Ojarzabal, second game, very underwhelming. He's a great striker, a great finisher.

but he's not a presence on the box. Like, for example, in the past Morata, who was a president in the box. Whoever hated. Right. But he could just, he could dominate his guy in a physical duel in a way that Oryathabal does not.

Right. So typical Oiyarbale is the perfect striker for these Spain models that they're going to pass the ball 60 times and then get through, break a line and then score. But it doesn't give you like that dimension of that Morata gave. So obviously, France is going to give you more space, but I don't know. I don't know.

We've got three days to preview this game, and I think we won't land on how this game gets won or what it is. This has the potential to be the best game we've ever seen. You've talked about the 2022 World Cup. I think this one will have as much hype, and these, for most people, these were the two favorites. They are two very distinct styles. They are two very differing. They are two super-powered, star-powered team. I wanted to give this quote on Quartois before we move to fully to Spain,

which was he said post game. Ultimately, the team comes first. I can understand it because Seney's a good goalkeeper. I was willing to stay on for another five or ten minutes, as long as I didn't have to kick the ball very far. I've had to do that a lot in recent weeks. At a certain point, your body has had enough. And Rudy Garcia agreed with this and said,

it was my call. If you're not 100% you can't play at this level. I think it's, I thought it was odd that Cortois stayed on. Like he went down. Then he gets back up and you're like, okay, he's wasting time because he stayed on. And all of a sudden, then they make the substitution. If he's capable of playing, he's on the field. If he's incapable of playing, you take him off.

It was very weird to me the way this was handled. It's bizarre to me that Cortez saying, oh, I could stay on. I just can't do like 30% of my job. And then it kind of came back around. I feel like I think Rudy Garcia is under a lot of pressure for a lot of reasons. and has had a vibe of a tournament to push it on him. But I don't see this as Rudy Garcia's problem. Like, Tebow Corto is injured.

He's incapable of playing, therefore he should not be on the field. And he'd already made a mistake in the game, a big one. So, no, I don't really have a problem with what the coach did here. But there is going to, I'm sure there are all kinds of recriminations in the Belgium press and the overall Belgian discourse based upon the fact that the replacement did come in and did commit the type of catastrophic error that is unforgettable. Yeah. And it's a Belgian team that loses Onana in the game before.

You lose Quartois, you lose Tillamins. It was probably a step too far. On the flip side for Spain, I want to start you here because it's your boy. They showed Pedri on the sideline. Didn't get the start. He looked like a seven-year-old who got invited to the World Cup game the way he was sitting on the sideline for this one. He's one of your favorite players in the world.

You've talked about how he's underperformed. What do you make of the decision to not just bring Fabio and Ruiz in, but to take Pedri out? I think it proved to be the right decision. Pedri has like underperformed. He hasn't been incisive and he hasn't created those sort of downhill movements that are so overwhelming when he plays for Barcelona. And usually when he plays for Spain, I think it's worth noting. I feel like Laminia Mal has also underperformed. Yeah.

By his standards, he has not been, now, he helped create the first goal with a bit of clever movement and a secondary, well, it didn't end up being a secondary assist, but it was a type of play that would be a secondary assist in MLS. But he had real trouble winning his 1V1s. And, you know, he's always bending the defense towards him. He's usually able to make more of it than he did yesterday. Credit to Belgium for that. but this is Barcelona has used these guys a lot the last two years like 8,000 minutes each over the last 24 months. And maybe it has worn them down. I didn't think Fabian Ruiz was great, but he's a little more linear in how he plays.

He's always looking to play downhill. He doesn't have sort of the upwards gravity that Padre has in terms of drawing pressure to him and then reversing it. But he does play downhill, and I think Spain needed a little of that for the first hour. It's worth noting, I thought that the last half hour of this game was the best Padrejury has looked in the World Cup. So maybe it was a little bit mental as well. But my guess is for both those guys, it's fatigue. The other aspect of it, Nico Williams came on for the last 20 minutes as well. And he presents a downhill threat in the way that few players in this Spanish.

There's a huge difference at 2024 euros from the failures for 10 years where it was one speed, one thing, to we won a championship. Yeah. He, and maybe it's just a factor of having that kind of penetration because buying, I think Bayan is really good. It's not as good as Nico Williams, a healthy version of Nico Williams. And he doesn't run through the line the way Nico Williams does. Byrathabal I love, he doesn't run through the line. Lamin Amal can, but he's so incredibly valid. as a playmaker that he's usually dropping a little deep and pulling defenders with him.

So it could just be a factor of needing that balance in there. And then the other one is Fermin Lopez. Fermin Lopez injured before the tournament even started. He's not a Spanish player. He plays like an English number 10 where he's just all action all the time. He doesn't make magic with the ball. But he gets into spots that make the... opposing backline on comfortable and I think they've missed that.

Speaking of not fully the Spanish archetype, Marino has been a difference maker now. Two games off the bench, two goals. We sought for Arsenal this year. He plays as a center forward. He plays as a 10. He plays as an eight. But the main part of his game is he makes runs forward.

He takes risks. Yeah. He tries. And the risks here are just the effort to maybe there is a rebound. And it's been the difference maker. And clearly Delafonte has that pulse of like, okay, this is the time to use him and use that skill set when the game kind of breaks down late on.

Something similar to what we saw with Ferran Torres, like it's Portugal, right? When the game needs that change of speed, that crashing the box, that presence, because again, Ojarzal was given anything on the box. So, but that's, when you're talking about La Milia Mal and being underwhelming and Pedri being overwhelming, but just mentioned basically half of the roster

that has played or played on this game. And that's why Spain is so difficult to beat. And that's why, again, to my point with Belgium, the Catalare and Lukaku on the field were so isolated because Belgium was doing such a great job, covering ground. Like the Kipers, what a game by the Khypers. Having to deal with, not Yamaal,

but Pedro Porro was right there with Jamal. And then you have Kukulele on the other side. Like Spain pins you down. France is going to give you spaces that Belgium didn't got, and that's why I think that's going to be a great game. We're going to see the best version of Spain. But you have these resources from the bench, Ferrand Torres, who's actually, I think he's going to sign for PSG now.

The report said yesterday, I think Fabrizio Romano. He's like, oh, it's fun dominating the ball moving around and winning everything. Luis Enrique. And I wouldn't be shocked if Luis Enrique plays him as a nine on his, on his system as of nine false nine so um yeah i mean having having those options and we've seen that that with arsenal marino coming in the last five 10 minutes and being that presses on the box crashing the box now it's what are you going to do against france and i and i know i'm we're going to have days to talk about this but you have conne and and and and raviou right

i don't think i don't think spain can play against france we're with Pedri and Rodri on the field. Interesting. I think they're too slow for, because Roderie with the ball is a magician. Like, he's unbelievable. The way he turns and controls the game. He's even more physical than Busquettes.

He doesn't have the quality, but he's so big. But I think he's very slow. And that's why I think to deal with that Belgian presence. Now, for Spain's lock, quote unquote luck, Tileman gets injured, but I think that's why he picks Fabian Ruiz over. Pedri because Favian Ruiz is just he's he's a machine he's a box to box midfielder he's going to cover a lot of ground and so I wouldn't be shocked if Pedri starts on the bench or now he sits Daniel Mov who I think was spectacular yesterday and he plays with Roddy

pedri and he plays Fiong and Ruiz to cover more ground against France but I'm I know we're good we still have three more days to talk about it it's the thing where it's in the end Spain to beat France will probably have to play their game to perfection Any mistake becomes a true counter-attacking opportunity for the most dangerous transition team in the world. And then for France, if they do sit in, you have to play to perfection because any gap, any opening you leave will be taking advantage of. One of the underrated, I think, plays of this game was there was a Spanish corner kick that Belgium was out in transition on. And I think it's Danny Olmo who makes the interception to Kent Lear is trying to put, I don't know if it was Doku through or whoever it was running with them. It would have been 2-1 if Belgium goes up and scores.

And that's sort of like the game recognition moments. I think people forget about it. It's like, all these players are elite players. I was like, oh, Spain plays one way. They do one thing well. It's like, no, they do a lot of things well. Otherwise, teams would beat them every time they made mistakes. This is, in the modern era, it doesn't feel rare.

But this is still rarefied air for Spain. This is their second semifinal of a World Cup. It's crazy to think about that. Like 2010. This is not a country that has 70 years of history. Even France, with Platini. in the 80s and then in 98 on, they have all this World Cup history.

A lot of people who are newer to the sport like see Spain as a power and a favorite every time. It's the second time. It's also the second time that a reigning European champion has made it to the World Cup semifinal and the other was 2010. So when they go, they go big. And they won it in 2024.

They beat France and the semifinals of the European championships in 2024 to 1. And you mentioned yesterday, I think the 2025 Nations League semi-final, which is at 5-4 win for Spain. And that was a game, Spain completely controlled for 70 minutes. And then for whatever reason, the final 20, I don't remember precisely what happened, but the final 20 minutes of the game, the breaks came off. And I'm pretty sure France scored all four of their goals in the final 20 minutes. And they were just getting free runs at the

goalkeeper time and time and time again. There's a lot of films. to look at, and we'll go over it over the next few days. But what we saw, what we've seen throughout this tournament is that Spain is at their best when Kukorea is getting way up high on that left side, and they're controlling the ball and using him as sort of the one who creates dynamic superiority. We always know they're going to have positional superiority. We always know that they're going to have possessional superiority. What they struggle with is creating dynamic superiority,

turning all of that possession into these downhill movements. They're getting it from that left side. They're not getting it from much else. And credit does go to Belgium for that yesterday. But they need to figure some stuff out before the semifinals. There was one or two moments where I thought Yomal was closer than he has been. He didn't break through. He comes back.

He gets it. He turns up field. swims between two defenders and you expect the explosion to come. It wasn't there, but it felt closer. And he felt more willing to risk it than it did in the three rounds before where we've said, oh, he's in third gear. He's in fourth gear. So I think fingers crossed the hope would be the game was on Thursday.

Semifinal will be on Tuesday. So there's enough of a Friday, sorry. So I don't know if there's enough of a layoff to get there. And all these players are now kind of in scramble mode trying to get there. For Spain, they are now unbeaten in 36 consecutive matches. last loss came in 2024 to Columbia. Last time they went on a 35-game win streak. They lost to the U.S.

and the Confederations Cup semifinal. Going back to that Nation's League 5-4 game, at the 55 minute, Spain was winning 40. Yeah. With Pedri, Yamal, Merino, Nico Williams, and when we, looking at the lineups at that day, the front three first play was Nico Williams, Ojarzabal, Lamal, the midfield,

Merino, Zuvimendi, Rodry was injured, big difference. and pedri. Cuculele and Porro as the fullback, same thing. Simone on goal. And Hoyschen, who didn't make the team and Lenormann. The centerbacks are different, but it's basically like the big change

will be Zubimendi. Right. Plain instead of Roderri. And France was the same. Coner Rabio, Doure, Olise, Dembele, and Bappe. Yeah, difference at centerback. And then the big difference for France, and we've talked about over and over,

20-24 euros, they scored one open-field goal. Olise was not in the team. Olese is in the team for this. They scored four. It just wasn't enough to win. And that, so I think the combination of Roderie coming back into the team and O'Lise changed both these teams' DNA, which is why this is so exciting. I think these are the two best teams in the world right now.

To see them in a semi-final is great because finals sometimes underwhelmed because there's so much build-up and there's so much pressure. Sometimes you sneak the better game in at the semi. So this is going to be a delicious one. It will be happening, I believe, down in Texas for In Jerry World. So let me just make one more point about this. Remember last week when we were doing Best 11? And I called Powell Carbarcy, the 19-year-old Spanish Tim Riem.

De Catteler felt like that was an apt comparison. Dunked on him. Absolutely dunked on him in the exact same way. He dunked on poor Tim Riem. Anyway. All right, let's move to today because we are going to set our other semifinal. So the semifinal coming up on Wednesday will be the size. with the two opponents that are coming out of the quarterfinals that we will see this afternoon.

So for starters, we have Norway versus England. That game will take place theoretically at 5 p.m. Eastern Time in Miami today. I would be shocked if that game kicked off on time. It's going to be raining from now through 9 p.m. the next day. But that game is going to kick off. I have seen videos of the Norwegians doing the row down on South Beach. What? Except that one guy.

Except that one guy. Yeah. He's fun of parties. Yeah. And the English fans have obviously invaded Florida, I don't know, about 47 years ago and never left. So they're all hanging out and enjoying themselves down there. They think it's the best place in the world. And there's a lot of different angles to take with this game.

It is the 13th all-time meeting between England and Norway. They have not played, though, since 2014. So these are not two countries that are super familiar with each other for Norway. soccer culture. England is a huge part of it. There are massive Liverpool fan clubs and Manchester United fan clubs. And then of course, Erling Holland was born in England while his father played in England at the time for Leeds, ended up playing at Manchester City. And now Holland, of course, makes his name at Manchester City and Odegaard at Arsenal and many of the other players playing over there. So there are tight connections between the two of them. And this is a huge

moment for both these countries for England, trying to go back to a World Cup semi-final for the time since 2018 trying to win just a second one ever. And I don't know that they'll ever get a better road to a final than the one that they have set up before them. And for Norway, of course, you never know if you're going to be back here because there is not a ton of experience in spaces like this. Here's a fun fact. Norway have never beaten a Uypha side at the World Cup, two draws and four losses. Now, they haven't been at the World Cup since 1998. They lost one zero to Italy back then, Italy used to play in World Cups. That's the thing they used to do, but they don't do anymore. And so this is a huge moment for them. And they come in as underdogs, but slight

underdogs. They have, I think the lines I saw are pretty tight and pretty close. We have our football manager, First Touch Tactics Board presented by Football Manager 26, where Doyle broke down a little bit of how they're going to play. Let's take a look at that. Norway didn't counter Brazil off the park. They controlled it. Tilting the field. in registering over 65% possession. So why would they sit and counter against England? Brazil set off. Content to let Norway have the ball betting their individual quality would punish mistakes. Norway patiently probed that low block for 79 minutes until fresh legs, sheltered up and Bob, found the gap. It was control rather than chaos. England's threat is concentrated

not systemic. It runs through set pieces, Harry Kane's overall brilliance, and Jude Bellingham's ability to find gaps. If Norway presses high, and squeezes those central pockets. They cut the supply line at the source, the same way Norway's control suffocated Brazil's individual quality by starving them of service. The cost of space and behind. Push numbers forward, and England's pace on the counter is a threat. That's the trade-off. Compress the midfield, mistake disciplined enough not to hand England exactly the kind of transitions they used to beat Mexico. Ultimately, it's a bet on which version of control matters more. Control of the ball or control of space.

Paul did a good job there. Sitting directly in front of El Profe, Paul Tenorio's book, The Messy Effect. Matt Doyle breaking it down for us. You kind of queried the question in there. Have you come to a different conclusion since recording? Nope. I'm glad I don't have to make the decision because England, even though it's a little like Spain where it feels like they haven't hit their top gear, we all know the amount of talent. have and we all saw what they did to Mexico playing primarily on the break. They can be really, really dangerous.

They can beat anyone. At the same time, Norway is better when they have the ball. I feel confident saying that about them now after what they did to Brazil. Do you play to your strengths and open yourself up to getting defeated by the other team's strengths? or do you play a more cagey style of game? I don't know the answer to that. And I am afraid that we are going to find out

in the presence of Anders in a negative way. It is, as I said, a huge moment for this Norway team. One of the questions around the starting lineup, we've asked the question around Soriloth and his addition to both wingers at halftime of the last game has to open up the idea that you don't know. which of the four are your true starters and one note is Antonio Nusis sitting on a yellow card. So if he picks up a yellow card he'll be suspended for the semi-finals. He's the only

player on Norway sitting on one. There are four players for England sitting on a yellow card. Mark Gehhee, who we'll talk about in a moment, Nico O'Reilly, Declan Rice and Jude Bellingham. You know, it's Pyrrhic victories when you come out of the Azteca. So for this group, there's some starting line of questions for Norway as well as for England. For England, per BBC. The BBC. The BBC. Legit.

Good news. I always say great news. Declan Rice, Mark Gehie, and Reese James all participated in full training yesterday. So the assumption would be Gahey would start at centerback. Reese James would start at right back. And obviously, Declan Rice is a starter if he's healthy. So that would be big for an England team. I mean, full training, massive minus one.

Yeah. You're good. Gahy, massive. He's been. heart of the defense. And then Reese James is the piece off and on. It feels like they're missing at that right back spot. Yeah, and his leadership. I mean, he's, he's, he's, he's a great player, both for club and country. And he's, he's, is he, is he, is he's a captain, right? He's captain of Chelsea, right? Yeah. Reese James. And he's, and we've seen how Chelsea, how well Chelsea have done the

past couple years. He lifted the club world cup trophy in New Jersey last year, alongside one of his buddies. So we know that he's captain of that team while he tried to figure out when you're supposed to lift that for control. I'm sensing that you guys don't like Reese James. No, I like Reese James. I think he's a good player. I think Reese James is one of those players that the conversation on social media happens so fast that people

are trash immediately. Right. And he has spent now six years since he's been trash being a really good player. He gets injured a lot. He gets injured a lot. I don't know that he's a world class right back, but to your point about leadership and culture, he's someone who I'd want in my 11 fairly often and I think he can play multiple spots

inside of it. The issue is we're talking now about three guys who are carrying injuries or are at least carrying rust in Reese James, Declan Rice, and Mark Gehe going against a front line of Alind and Nusa, playmaker of Odegaard. On the other side is either Sourloth or Bob, Sheldrup coming in off the bench or maybe starting. It's not an ideal situation for England. At the same time, they do have the overall talent advantage. Yeah. If both teams play to their level in theory, England should win the game.

There should be no pressure on Norway. Like I think they're on house money at this point. And I think you see that in Holland's personality. Like everyone has fallen in love with this guy. He is now the 2026 World Cup. Yeah. Yesterday we talked about this. Two things.

Yahoo Sports took a tweet that went viral. and ask a question. The tweet said in the last two weeks, Erling Hallen on the field and social media has done more for soccer in the U.S.M&T. Do you agree or not? I'm just going to give my personal experience because I'm surrounded.

All my friends mostly are non-socker people. And yesterday I was with two of my best friends where I live were watching after the game and they couldn't care less about anything. All their questions were about Holland. Where does he play? How is this guy? They started following him on all the social media.

They don't know anything about Pulisic, about Reina, about the USMNT. They didn't watch the USMNT games. They're non-s Soccer people. And they were singing, Holland, Holland all day. This morning I was like on the train in Holland. I was like, God. So this guy is so likable. I love him so much.

And this is going to be very obvious, but I have a stat here that says that Norway wins less than a third of their games where he's not on the score sheet, so he has to score. And looking at the numbers, so I found this stat, which is incredible. Erling Hallang has the fastest ratio

for minutes per international goal. So he scores with Norway every 71 minutes. The second best is Hurricane, with 108. For example, Messi is every 134 minutes. But Messi is not a striker, fair. Mbapé, every 126 minutes.

So this is going to be obvious. This is, I think it's very basic, but Norway has a chance in this game as long as Holland scores. I mean, it's... In the last 14 competitive games Norway has played, Holland has scored in all of them, 27 goals. Jesus.

Now, what we saw in the Brazil game was the reality, though. if the game's against you, you don't play through him. If the game's against you, he can't pull you out of it. But I was talking to our Norwegian friend, Pamoduka, who played for the Norwegian national team, and he said, there's a confidence that you have knowing he's there. For the Norway players, rather than,

we've talked about gravity of like, okay, if the game's against me, I get it to Pedri's feet. He'll solve problems. Now I can breathe. It is, if the game's against me, as long as we can hang on, we'll get the one chance and he'll score that goal. Yeah.

and it's a superpower and we've seen it happen time and time again both for club and country 62 goals in 54 national team games it's insane he's he's like a like you generate this character playing a video game and then you have to toss him out

because it would be unfair Mark Kaye, he wanted the opportunity to get dunked on so he made sure to fight his way back for this game a huge moment for England of course trying to win their second ever World Cup, the first since 1966, and it is... Do we count that one?

As a line is coming home. Because I think if we had VAR then, it's no goal from Jeff Hurst. It would go to penalty shootout and we know who's winning that one. Well, we invented corruption for host countries about a week ago.

That was the first time. That's right. 1962 doesn't count. Right. I don't think Mussolini's World Cup counts. Right. Two of them. Two of them.

Yeah. So I think we just invented that. So England in 1966 at home, the only World Cup they've ever won, was definitely legitimate in every single way possible. I want to ask you guys who you think is going to win and your previews. Oh, my God. Don't know you can go first because McKelley almost just cried. Yeah, I think England's going to win. I think they have too much overall talent.

And I honestly think we just spent 10 minutes talking about Erling Island. I honestly think Harry Kane is a better soccer player. Okay. His ability to not just convert the one opportunity, does it in a different way. than Holland does. But we saw against D.R. Congo that goal he scores from the top of the box, the way he was able to stay completely on balance and then get that much power on it. But also to orchestrate the game as well, to make Saka better,

to make obviously Jim Bellingham better. He is as complete AA striker as I have ever seen. And it's all organized to make him the focal point. And I still think that was a little bit of a mistake from Tommy Tactics, because you want to have other clubs in the bag, but he's just going to keep playing his best card and play it and play it and play it. And so far, Harry Kane has not let them down. And as good as the Norwegian backline has been,

I do think that is a bit of a weak spot. Yeah, England. And also, I'll be rooting, honest, for Norway, but I think in England is the best the best team. Like you said, it's funny that you mentioned this because he was asked yesterday on the press conference Match and Minus 1, how was him compared to Holland? And he said we're very different players.

Holland is a number nine box, Terminator, finisher, I'm more of a player like you just mentioned. I think Harry Kane, I said it, I think yesterday or two days ago. I think he's the golden ball for me to this moment. and I really want to see England, Argentina, semifinal. I think historically with the Hand of God and the Maldivas, and I want to see England crush Argentina. We're going to talk about Argentina later.

But now, yesterday I was so sad, man. I was so sad because in the same press conference, Hurricane talked and admitted that he played golf with somebody that we don't want to mention 18 months ago, and he was like giving praise. And I was like, oh, why are you doing this to me right now? I'm rooting for you, dude. Anyways.

Yeah, Harry Kane, the big old head sitting up top. Jordan, why don't you bring up my screen real quick? Because I'll tell you who I'm rooting for. This is the Financial Times of Norway, and they did a feature in New York City at a bar, and you can see bartenders taking shots of Aqua Vitt. This is my guy who helped us out, Tom, the entire day. And right here, right in the middle,

is David Goss in the Norway Barcliffe. Mr. Worldwide, David Gosh. Ooh, it was an epic day. I did more shots of aquavit directly out of bottles from different angles than I'd ever imagine in my entire life. I told you we had salmon fish and chips, which was awesome. And then this is Anders and Paola.

This is my guy, Yesper, right here. Yesper was having a good time. Came down from Boston just because he watched in Boston at a Norway party. That was mainly families. And he's like, I scream too much. and everyone was uncomfortable. So I drove to New York to watch this game.

And it was a good time. So I'm picking Norway 2-1, baby. Early Holland. The decimator dunks over a couple people. And for all the house money stuff on Norway, I think if England takes the lead early, it gets bad to your point because Norway's back line gets stretched.

They can't control the game. If Norway scores first, all of a sudden, for every England player, the entire reality, which is what has happened for 60 years, falls onto your shoulders of, we should win, we're supposed to win. I will also wonder, I know it's been a long layoff, but Azteca to Miami is a really tough stretch for England. And England, I thought it was interesting the way the Federation worded it internally.

They broke the World Cup down into four stages. And they talked about winning and surviving through each of those stages. And they called the last segment, which was, from Kansas City to Houston, Hughes or Atlanta, back to Kansas City to Mexico back. They called that the tough stretch. Like that was the feeling,

it was going to be the most travel plus the altitude. That was going to be that far. Followed by the heat. Now, though, if you focus on that that way, now you come into something that is equally as tough in a different way, and that shift of mentality

and that shift of energy has to come. And if they fall behind in this one, I think it's going to start to get a little bit hairy, and it'll be fascinating. So this game, 5 p.m. Eastern Time to start us off. Then we finished the night with Argentina against Switzerland and Kansas City at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Argentina attempting to go to another World Cup semi-final. Messi, I got the T-shirt on, attempting to go to another World Cup semi-final himself.

If you scale it back to 2014 and they were able to get to this. I found out, I believe it would be his seventh semifinal with Argentina because you had two Coppa Americas and back to back here. 14, 16, 21, 22, 24, 26. Wow. So this is our soccer.com segment. Carry the crest as you represent your team this summer. You'll find the widest selection of World Cup gear at soccer.com. Get a free goal club membership with the purchase of any World Cup jersey using code kickback. I've got the Argentina jersey right behind me. You can go get the special balls. You can go get scarfs, different t-shirts,

and of course you can get the kits to represent your squads over the course of the World Cup. And then beyond, because these are the kits you're going to want to say, oh, yeah, I have that 26 kit when things go well. Argentina have won both their World Cup games against Switzerland. 2-0 in 1966. What a day for 1960s and 1-0 in 2014, which is the last meeting between the side.

Switzerland had never beaten Argentina. in seven attempts in all competitions. On the yellow card side of things, only one player in Argentina has one, Gonzalo Montiel, because Argentine players don't foul. They don't really get caught up in anything. Three for Switzerland coming into the game. Dennis, Zacharia, Granite Jaka, and Miro Mujim.

And of course, Jacques, and Zaccaria will be under a ton of pressure in this game. Anyone who picks up a yellow card in this game, if your team goes on, you will be suspended for the semi-final. You've mentioned Argentina, being a little underwhelmed by this team. What do you make of this matchup for them? I'm fascinated by the choices that Escalone is going to be forced to make tough choices. He switched the tactical system.

He's Saar Almada to put him Paredes against Egypt. That helped free Enzo Fernandez and McAllister. But everything starts even on the right back position. Molines is a starter. He's a more offensive player. But he got stopped by Montiel when they were down two. zero and actually Montiel looked better in offense because Montiel normally is brought back at the end of games to like defend but of course I mean when you're down to zero it's we gotta give context right

Argentine was all out yeah on offense so Montiel looked really well but for miss the midfield we said he sat down Almada putting Paredes to play us a five and that gave freedom to the Paul McAllister and Enzo Fernandez they're stock in Argentina that Nico Gonzalez my coming to play in the starting lineup. He's a winger. So if you do that, you have to sit down one of the midfielders. Rodrigo de Paul has been bad, this World Cup. Bad, period. He's had a couple, like, fine moments, especially on the opener, I think.

But to give you context of what DePaul has been on this World Cup. And I'm comparing him to Rodrigo de Paul 2022 to his standards. I'm not saying he's been, he's not a terrible, obviously he's not a terrible player. To his standard, he's been poor. So before the World Cup, the pole has been the player that Escaloni has used the most minutes during his tenure. 73 games started with Argentina. Just three times he got sobbed out before the World Cup. He's been sobbed out three times in the last four games.

And the other game he didn't play he was on the bench because they rotated. So I know the poll, it's very important for Scaloni. It's the player he has used the most. but if he's going to make the choice of bringing in Nico Gonzalez on the sudden lineup, he has to sit the ball. He cannot touch Paredes, Macaliser and obviously Lienzo Fernandez, who's his best midfielder.

And also, do you repeat Julian Alvarez, who's not a number nine? That's the other big question. Or you play with Lautaro that gives you a number nine box presence, who I think is fantastic. He hasn't had a great World Cup, but I think he's a great number nine. So I'm excited. I'm counting the minutes to see that Argentina starting lineups.

Yeah. Julian Alvarez Lataro. Alvar is a better player all around. He came in injured, so he's not fully sharp. I think that's what we saw partially against Egypt. He wants to do more. Lataro doesn't. Lataro knows his role.

Right. And that almost feels better because Messi does the more on this team. Yeah. I think that sums it up right there. Like if I was starting a team and I could have either of these guys at age 25, I would probably take Julian Alvarez because he's a better overall soccer player. Lautaro is a better fit for this team, and I think we saw that. Nico Gonzalez coming in is interesting.

It does mean the switch to a 433, likely with messy playing as an inverted right winger, just occupying that left half space. And then it means Montiel, likely at right back, do you think, on the overlap? and then the question is, all right, is it Paretis, Enzo? Enzo's written in Penn, and McAllister in a midfield three, and then obviously DePaul gets dropped. So there's, for this deep in the tournament to be dealing with that many questions is unusual. They have Messi, so I'm going to pick them to win anyway. They're going to have 60% possession, and they're going to attack a Swiss defense that's been really good.

keeper kubal has been really really good they are comfortable suffering and and defending really deep um they could easily win this game two nil on counter attacks and set pieces argentina leave themselves open on countertrak i mean we saw we all saw the egypt game yeah they leave themselves open especially when they're chasing uh on countertacks to me they just have enough final third quality even if the structure's not necessarily there to win this game it's fascinating that Scolone's reaction to the Cape Verde game was Julian Alvarez and Paredes back in

because they were almost two differing things. Okay, Alvarez brings more in the attack. I think part of it was probably can Alvarez bridge what Lataro and Almoda did? Right. Because I'm taking out one of those pieces. And then they were more exposed against Egypt and they looked

worse. So you got none of what you were looking for and then you go and win. And so it's like every time he tries an answer, it's wrong. but then they still pass the quiz and now he move on to a new situation and right now I think to your point of like

they look worse than 2022 where they felt like they grew in strength as the World Cup went along. From the Netherlands game as they went through that World Cup it felt like it got more cohesive of everyone does the work. Alvarez was stretching the field a little bit messy playing underneath

but all of that was still late goals and like late pushes. The margins were still very thin at that World Cup. There's only so long you can. can go on thin margins. The question is if Switzerland has enough to step out and beat them. They didn't against Colombia, right? They were fortunate that Colombia couldn't finish.

Now, Colombia's rest defense is better than Argentina's, and Colombia's natural defense is better than Argentina's. But there was a real lack of ability to get out and hurt in transition. I mean, if Manzambi was healthy, I would actually pick what you're going to win this game, but he's not. Right. So now the question is, can Jacques get you out? And does he have the options to play out to?

and it's our fall to Vargas and Ambola. And Vargas or one of them is going to have to have their best game. Because one of them's going to, what we saw with Egypt was, yes, you can get out in transition. You're going to have to beat someone one v1. Now, there's a lot of players in this Argentina group who will take risks and try and win it from you early rather than chase.

Yeah. But you have to beat someone one v1 to get that final opportunity. And Egypt did it three or four times. And they scored three times and they only got two to count. But like at some point, and I think this Switzerland team against Colombia, was very risk-adverse in that way. And even when they got into final thirds quickly, it was let's recycle possession, let's turn it back around,

hence getting one shot for the final hour and a half of this game. Yeah, you have to finish because Egypt had three short on goals, three goals. Di Bo Martinez didn't have a safe. Switzerland is going to have one or two chances. Are they going to take it? That's a big question mark. Two interesting facts here to close on, not related specifically to this game,

but probably to both games. So one is the team that has shot first in penalty kicks has won less than 50% of the time at this World Cup. That's unusual. And the common refrain for people was 60, 40 if you shoot first. The pressure's off a little bit, you set the tone. One of the data groups went through a couple other competitions, all fairly specific, but opened it up a little bit more.

and of the five they looked at only one, the first team had won over 50%. So maybe that logic is starting to shift. I don't think we've seen a team choose to shoot second, but now I wonder if understanding what's required of you and matching the thing before has shifted the pressure rather than, oh, no, I have to score because the person in front of me did. The other is centerbacks have been terrible.

Absolutely terrible. It's a small sample size. It's a World Cup. But I think about that with Manuel Akangi. I mean, we've seen four centerbacks just hoof the ball over the crossbar. And it's like, oh, that's a great 60-yard ping. Congratulations. Fernando Yaros not walking through that.

I mean, ta, right? And we've just seen it over and over again. So as we get to penalty kick shootouts today, if it happens in one of these two games, which I would not be shocked by, keep that in mind that that pressure has shifted between first and last. Of course, Messi has missed two penalties at this World Cup,

but historically has been really good in PK shootouts. But you never know. Well, he won a World Cup. He did, but that was against the historical precedent. Precedent. Don't you remember what happened in all those Copa America's? Yes. Copas Americas?

Yeah, yeah. Copa Centennarios. Yeah. And hopefully we'll get another one. We'll get another centenario coming up in two years back here in the U.S. Well, it's going to be a great day of soccer. It is our last day with multiple games. So enjoy it for every last morsel.

I hope both games go to penalties. I hope we are all. dead by the end of this after eight and a half hours of high-intensity soccer. Very thin margins between these two teams. So they should be really tight games. We'll be back tomorrow, 9.30 a.m. Eastern time. We will have your recap of all of this.

And then going forward through the rest of the week. We're going to shift the show a little bit on Monday and Tuesday. Are we at 930 tomorrow? We're at 930 tomorrow, according to your schedule. I wouldn't mind 1230, though. Monday, 12. We'll be on tomorrow. We'll be on on Monday.

We've got a couple specials that we're working on. We've got some guests that we're going to pull in. Of course, we've got the World Cup semifinals, which is going to be one of the coolest events we ever see. And then in a week, we have the World Cup final. And I am reminded by people that I live around that we have the third place championship match on Saturday in Miami. I love the third place match.

You do? Because it's open and no one cares. Yeah. I can kind of remember the Morocco one. I promise you I did not watch the Belgium, England? game in 2018? Was that what it? I can promise you I didn't watch that. I had tickets to it though because I bought a St. Petersburg package and that was included and I could not get anyone to buy it for face value under. Just take it from me and no one would. So maybe we'll send Doyle down to be a

correspondent from Miami on Saturday. I wouldn't say no to that. Okay. Thank you to all of you for listening. Big shout out to Jordan for being here on the weekend. Thank you to you to you too. Thank you to all of you. We will talk to you again very, very soon and no thank you to Connor as always.