The Adam Friedland Show (Cumtown) - The Adam Friedland Show Presents: The Beautiful Pod With Chris Ryan

Episode Date: June 11, 2026

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Beautiful Pod. For the next six weeks, host Adam Friedland will be joined by The Ringer's Chris Ryan and famous celebrity guests from the world of entertainment and sports. In this episode, our hosts preview what is certain to be the greatest World Cup of all time. They discuss the incredible cultural exchange happening in America right now as teams marvel at the country’s advanced infrastructure, resilient democracy, and delicious food options (spaghetti, tacos). They also touch on Team USA’s prospects in the tournament, in addition to all the other countries that will be losing to America. At soccer. Host: Adam FriedlandCo-Host: Chris RyanExecutive Producer: Adam Friedland, Marc Fineman, Mason KleinWriter: Adam Friedland, Sam SerxnerProducer: Sam Serxner, Julia CassidyEditor: Jon RoemerDP: Caroline Jannace, Justin Nardecchia --See Adam on tour https://theadamfriedland.show/pages/tour--JOIN THE FRIEDLAND FAMILY FOUNDATION / PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION:https://www.youtube.com/@TheAdamFriedlandShow/join--Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheAdamFriedlandShow--Buy our merch!: https://theadamfriedland.show/collections/new--X: https://x.com/adam_talkshowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theadamfriedlandshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adamfriedlandshowclipsYouTube: Subscribe to @TheAdamFriedlandShow here:https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAdamFriedlandShowSubscribe to @TAFSClips here: https://www.youtube.com/@tafsclips--#adamfriedland #thebeautifulpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high interest savings account. Always earn high regular interest rates that grow the more you save and invest. Conditions apply. Visit scotiabank.com slash hisa to learn more. Scotia Bank, you're richer than you think. Hello and welcome to the beautiful pod. For those of you who are confused about seeing this on your feed,

The Adam Friedland Show is currently in pre-production on season three. It's returning in July. And this is a special limited run series from now until the end of the World Cup. For any of you who are confused, this podcast will be coming out on Tuesdays and Thursdays, along with Tafs unplugged every two weeks on its normal schedule. And the show will return in July. We have some big guests. We've done a couple of them. Stay put.

I want to introduce my co-host in Los Angeles. Chris Ryan. What's up, man? Hi. Hi, how's it going? I'm excited to be doing this, man. This is my dream. I mean, I am now in your world.

I get to power rank everything. Yeah. I get to view the world through goat debates. You can power rank co-host. The cultural exchange that's happening right now in this country because of what we're seeing on the streets of America, the energy for Team USA, just the passion that people have. On the streets of New York, for instance, after every Nick game,

people are out on the streets for Team USA soccer. I don't understand why it's coordinated with Nick games, but it seems like people are really excited about Team USA soccer. Chris, how are you feeling about the World Cup? They're good. Are they doing, I believe, we will win chance in Harold Square, kind of, like after Nick's games? Oh, no, I'm just, I assume that after Nick's games,

people are remembering that we have Team USA competing in the World Cup, summer we're hosting guys uh no it's going to be a great tournament there are uh i think they added 150 000 teams it's an insane number of matches they all happen in time zones that we can actually view them in so this is like three matches a day for weeks on end we're going to be deep in haiti tape nobody's going to know what we're talking about and then the fun part is is that you get to watch all these players that you get to see during the club season you know some of them are going to be the only good player on their team some of them are on the bench because their team has like 14 all-world players. So it's exciting time to watch to watch these dudes cook all summer.

And also we're going to see guys that we only see every four years and then somehow, I don't even know where they go. Yeah, Bosnian plumbers. I don't know where Memo Choward goes. I don't know he goes like he goes into high. Yeah, Edder Valencia. I don't know where he is, but I know he played for West Ham 10 years ago. But somehow every four years, he's a like, you know his name. It's a, it's the Asimboa Gion all stars. Basically. The guys that are like, We just have massive moments in this one tournament. But yeah, I'm excited to get started on this. I mean, I think it's, there's a preview show for the World Cup.

I still feel like I'm going to get arrested by Gianni Infantino for saying the word. There is a little bit of a weird legal moat around saying World Cup. That's why our title can't be like Adam Friedland's show, the World Cup podcast. But hopefully people will put it together, you know, logical. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, what I would say to him is that your name translates to Johnny Baby, which we found out yesterday. I think he's one of my favorite Swiss, Italian, Lebanese heads of a non-profit organizations.

In fact, if anyone had to ask me who my top Swiss, Italian, Lebanese head of a nonprofit, well, I would be a power rank of one. but Gianni Infantino. How much bracket, like, mock brackets have you done or bracket simulations have you done with this? I did one, and, yeah, I did one. It seems like there are like some clashes in the knockouts that are kind of destined. Yeah, like, and taking out some of our big teams

a little bit earlier than maybe we would expect or we would hope. For instance, Mexico, right? They have a toxic fan base, right? They act like they're fucking Rayle Madrid. They have a layup against my team, the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, on Thursday tomorrow, of course. And so it's just like, you know, I can see them on one level.

If you look at their roster, they don't have anyone in Europe, except for like one or two guys. And they have a 17-year-old star boy, apparently. But it doesn't seem like they have any pedigree right now. And it seems like with one loss, the entire nation turns against them. it just becomes a mess. And also, they won't stop doing the homophobic chant. They just lost the appeal.

They just lost the appeal to defend their homophobic chant. And so the nation is in mourning right now. But unlike the U.S. where I don't know where the cradle of soccer or football is in this country. Like, Mexico will play matches, knockout matches if they get there at Azteca at their national stadium in front of a home crowd. At altitude in the heat. And it's like, I, there's, you're absolutely right. It could even be like an app of a friggin national disaster for them or it will be one of the like craziest runs because this team is basically playing home matches against England gasping for error. The fun thing about the World Cup is that there, there are hokey elements that kind of do work, right?

Like there is an aspect of like the host nation bump with the, I mean, at the exception of South Africa maybe and Qatar. But like conventional wisdom is if you're a middle class team and you're a host nation, you're going to advance at least to the knockouts. Yeah. But I kind of also, you know, I see the roster and I'm like, this is the worst Mexican side I've ever seen. I used to see like, you know, there were guys that we knew. There was like Hector Herrera. There was like Chi Chichorita. There were like guys that played in Europe and, you know, it just seems to be a kind of very anonymous side. When it comes to the United States, I mean, we get into it now. Sure. This is

Is there a host nation bump? Is there an excitement in the country right now? I don't know. We'll kind of know when the tournament starts. But like is that advantage like going to come into play? I'm not sure. Also, it is on paper the strongest roster, I guess that they've had in some time.

But it feels remarkably swagless. How are you feeling right now about that? Like my relationship to the national team is kind of weird like obviously like I have affection for them I usually cheer for England because that's where my dad was from and like I just follow those guys all year long so I have anglo pop yeah and I have just like a weird parissocial relationship with like a lot of the players because I watch them play for their clubs when the US plays like you're right it's just not really that attractive football I thought I got a little bit the hair on my arm stood up a little bit with the anti

Robinson goal against Germany the other day and I was like oh maybe I'm feeling this But the thing that I think that they'll have an advantage of is, which probably hasn't been talked about a lot yet, is the weather. And they're sort of being acclimatized to humidity, to hot temperatures, to some of these fields that I don't think that like guys who were playing on like carpets in Europe are going to be quite used to. Japan left their training ground that they provided them with because they were like, this is atrocious. And I am like actually, before we get into the weather, because people, people will die. I think people, that is my, that is one of my hot takes. France is actually playing one of the hottest, uh, uh, qualification, uh, uh, uh, runs out of any team. I think Algeria is the hottest. It is the most talented side we've had, but so is

everyone else. So it's like, doesn't, does that really like, how much does that mean, you know? Yeah. Also, I told Bill this, like, Tim Riem is doing like bedwetting advocacy. Like, did you see that? He's like our center. I mean, like he's just like he said you know one in five kids were uh yeah there you go is this a players tribute piece right before the fucking world cup like it's just like this is how swagless this side is do it go to a brothel like what like one of them one of them uh just like get in trouble for like huffing nitrous at a brothel okay like the french boy what do you say i understand it was probably hard why are we talking about it right now here's the element that that we have going for us right

now. There's going to be a lot of politics in this tournament, right? Mm-hmm. We're a country that we're at war with is playing in the United States. Yes. Yeah. CP might be might do it for MAGA. That's what I'm thinking. Captain America, Christian Pulitzer. Herschis. Hershey's for the boy. Might by by do it for the boy Donald Trump for the midterms. He's he's America's name are. Listen, okay. He, any guess what? On a sincere note, he always cooks for the United States of America. Everything is a mess right now. Okay.

Alexi Lawless is talking about that we're that for 1776 and that. Oh, yeah. The vice. Yeah. The anniversary. He thinks that we're rivals with England. Okay. He thinks that's our rival club because we beat them in 1950.

Just like relax, guys. Okay. We will see. But what I will say is I had an affection for American teams of the past that I kind of don't feel right now. Yeah. I mean, I think that Donovan Dempsey years were fun and I loved the boys. I love the Gucci-Junei was the, you know. like the Germaine Jones like there was like there was just a team that was like that was

scrappy and fun this this team feels to me like more generic in terms of like the personalities we should have done a better job nationalizing guys who were you know possibly on the fence of their other home country and just getting them involved in t in usmn like Brazilians who once visited Atlanta you know like they were attempting that for a while but i don't know if that was like a full core press the problem is is that the development system in the states, we need to be sending them over earlier. And I don't know if that's kind of like, it comes from team from USA soccer down. And Jesse Marsh, like, when he didn't get the job, he's up in Canada talking mad shit.

Yeah, he's mad at home. He's getting me a little tight. I'm not rooting for American necessarily, but if you talk about them like that, what are you doing? You're American, you're American. What he's up there? What is he Benedict Arnold up there? He's talking match.

Well, they have, he has a chip on his shoulder, but he's a great coach. And I think that team could overachieve. That team could achieve. Yeah. I have them on my list. But, but, but for the most part, like, he said that the, the, it comes down from the FAA, right? He said that there is a problem with the structural aspects of the, of USA soccer. And, you know, and it does, it does really start from youth development.

Yeah. Like, we, we know that we needed to get players over to Europe and into, academies earlier, but like the truth is, is that soccer costs money for kids here in the United States. Athletics is free elsewhere. And, you know, and what it requires getting them into like La Mascia and like youth academies or like, you know, Cobham. I-X whatever, yeah. We're required just, you know, getting, taking boys and sending them to Europe. I know, it's weird. It requires a little bit of trafficking. No, but like in reality, like this was supposed to be year that we're building to also potch i like i don't i don't know how necessarily he wants to run this

he seems a little bit like a short timer now like i thought maybe he was like this is amazing i'm going to be here for 10 years i love living in america and now he seems like yeah next big club the calls i'm gone over under on him taking another job middle the tournament it's not out of the question it's not out of the question he's like middlesborough called by Lamps is leaving Coventry. I'm in Kansas fucking city in the heat. Hey, so when we're getting into the favorites, right? I wanted to just throw one factoid at you as we,

because I bet you and I are both going to have pretty Eurocentric lists, right? I mean, listen to us. We're, we don't even support our own country. We're, we're hipsters. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. And I think, yeah, for the most part, that's why we are anglofiles. I mean, like, you could turn it off, but like we are doing this for the stones, the Beatles.

That's right. Blur, oasis. This is like, we're those kind of guys, no. Yeah. No, yeah, continue, though. My only little factoid here was that only one European team has ever won a World Cup in the Americas. And that was Germany and 14. And otherwise, they've all been.

Yeah, but that's a home game. Yeah. Marathon man style. Okay. What you talk about? Come on, bro. Allison Becker. Giselle Bunchen?

What do you think that? is. Come on, bro. But otherwise, they've all been won by Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay back in the 30s. So that would be an achievement in and of itself if we get one of our top two or three European countries playing for this thing. Another fun one to remember is that no foreign manager has ever won a World Cup. Right. So I'm having a lot of fun seeing where we're putting all these fucking teams around. Like, for instance, like, we put Democratic Republic of Congo in Houston. a country where 23% of people are starving in a city where 70% of people are classified as obese

Can you imagine what it'd be like You see you go to a place where everyone has so much food That they're literally dying from it How offensive is that? It's really ridiculous I love it also Congo has the the Patrice Lumumba statue guy That just stands like this like completely still Right the entire match

I love that I have these guys getting out of the group. I love these dudes. I love these guys. They have to be in a Houston. Their country needs it too. The CIA killed that guy, the statue guy, not the real. Anyway, but sorry.

What, no, I'm not going to say sorry. The CIA killed like, anyway, the statue guy. He's not going to be there. Anyway, you know, okay, but I want to go through. The main story here is that Argentina landed in Kansas City. Yeah. And the first day they were there, there was a tornado. Yes.

And subsequently, there were, there have been a crackdowns on both a human trafficking and cocaine in advance of the World Cup. What do you mean that there have been crackdowns by the Argentinian team? I was looking up the news. I was looking up the news, no, in Kansas City. Oh, so it's not like Enzo is not going out and cleaning up the streets. It's like Sicario, yeah. No, but actually the good point you bring that up because we have. placed, who did we place? Oh yeah, we placed Columbia in Hylesco, Mexico. They placed Colombia in the

middle of the cartel war. Okay. Also, Saudi Arabia, another one was Saudi Arabia is in Austin. Yeah. Because they're, because they read comedy festival, they were feeling so much, they were like, I have to go see Kill Tony for Real. How fire is that? I'm loving that. Which other ones have you seen? England, of course. England's the most amazing one, because they get introduced to American culture in such a hardcore way with with Kansas City the gun yeah so they've already had a shooting they've already had they've already had a fucking earthquake there it's hot as hell in the Midwest right now it's like 90% humidity I don't know how these guys are going to do it they've also separated uh England in England's in the Casey Moe yeah and then they got

Argentina and Casey Kay and we're going to get Nick right on the phone and he's going to explain to us the significance of that and we're going to be we're really there's going to be really interesting. The other big one is Ivory Coast, I believe, is in Chester, PA, which is outside of Philly and is in Delco, which is essentially like where Maravistown takes place. I don't understand why they couldn't get those guys in a, in a city hotel, but. Do, they're going to be like, they're going to be watching Shane Gillis clips. Do I really hope they don't go to G-Nos and try to order a steak in their language, whatever language that is. Imagine they go to G-Nos. How many games are in Philly? We have a lot of countries coming to Philly. There's like three, there's a fair amount of matches in Philly. And there's a knockout on July 4th. Your boys better act right.

Yeah. That's all I'm saying. Your boys better kind of like, you know, especially some of the elements that don't like the, you know what? We get a bad rap. We're fine. All I'm saying is G. No better act right, okay?

Okay. And they, yeah. And they better not lick a piece of poop after Ivory Coast wins. Yeah. What? You big dick, Nick. Oh, what else did I get? Oh, yeah. My favorite was the Austria team is in Oakland, California, and they were greeted by a fan.

I think I want to play the clip. This is why I have Austria and the knockouts. They're getting through. This is a great greeting. Why? Because they're meeting some girls. They're meeting some ladies in Oakland. Oakland's a great town. I love that. These guys are getting the real white glove treatment. This is awesome. Yeah, they're going to start, they're going to start, uh, the whistle, the whistle go, woo, woo. They're going to, yeah, they're going to listen to, yeah, they're going to listen to, they're going to, I love that that there, the country where, you know who's born in Austria? Uh, Hitler.

Arnold Schwarz is a thing. Oh, okay. Why you just bring that up? Well, you mentioned goblers earlier. Why would you do this with the fucking soccer podcast? Can you give, wow, really bringing down the vibe. Colombia's in high Alaska province. What other funny ones that I see?

Oh, yeah. Just, yeah, the last one, of course, is Portugal is in Palm Beach, Florida. This is amazing. Which we get CR7 in Mar-a-Lago. It's got to happen. It's going to be amazing. Honestly, Donald Trump, there's a lot of similarity. Between CR-7.

Well, the alcoholic family members, right? Yeah, you see, yeah, see a sibling, you have substance abuse. And that was a kind of like, yeah, I think there is a kind of, yeah, I think there is kind of like just a inferiority complex. We're not, we don't have to. Wait, you know who's born in Austria? We got Sheila, the artist. Did you know?

Actually, fun fact, this has nothing to do with soccer. He applied for the Vienna College of Art the same year as Hitler. Did he? We got it. And Hitler did not. And Hitler didn't. Can you believe it? Sliding door.

I love the pink. Yeah, he did great with, okay, anyway, the paintings were, they're not that good, honestly. Have you seen them? You cut all this, but they're not that good. I don't want to, you know, with this cancel culture, I'll go out there and say it. Hitler, not that he was mid as a painter. Okay, why don't you give me your list? I'll give you my list and then we can just go team by team, a real lightning round. Okay, my number one is Spain.

I think that France is obviously that probably the deepest talented team, the most talented team. But for me, Spain just looks the best right now. I'm all in on the idea of them turning it over a Lameen. I think they have the best midfields maybe in the tournament with competition from Portugal and they have a bench

which they're going to need in the heat and I think depth is going to be a huge part of this tournament. So Spain is my number one right now. Yeah, I have them number one as well. I'm back and forth with them in France. The midfield isn't, for me, I guess Portugal I would take as a better. midfield, but the depth is disgusting.

I mean, they have, like, they have six guys that are, are incredible. I mean, it's, it is, the thing about Spain is that it's a system. They play like a, like a real team, like a club team, right? And so that is their, like, real advantage. Like, you know, the golden generation of Belgium, for instance, like those bombs, they were all, like, you know, like, you know, Corto was having sex with, like, DeBoid's wife or something. And they were like, it was, a lot of teams that have just a collection of different

players from different places can play be lesser than the sum of their parts. Spain has a philosophy and a system to them. And when we get to France, that's going to be my main question about that. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I see that maybe on the left of the left side of the back line. They're a little unathletical, a little important. If they hold the ball for 80% of the game, I don't know how much that's going to matter.

It doesn't really matter because they're going to be across the halfway line. They have arguably the best player in the world. And he's so young and, you know, we're just, we're witnesses. He's just a kid from Akron. He's unbelievable. I don't like the new hair. Lemines? He looks like Pedro on the, on the Mets.

Yeah, he's got that, he's got the same hair. I mean, not to criticize a boy. Hear that? It's your money calling. It wants a promotion. Elevate your savings with the Scotia high interest savings account. Always earn high-regnest savings account. interest rates that grow the more you save and invest.

Conditions apply. Visit Scotia Bank.com slash H-I-SA to learn more. Scotia Bank. You're richer than you think. All right, number two, who you got? Franz. Me too. But I'm back and forth.

I saw Lisa's hat-trick, and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing? I know. I'm like, the question is Deschamp, right? The question is the setup. Because like, the final last year, or last World Cup was, A, the best game we've ever seen, the best final we've ever seen. And also, like, traditionally, these, you know, especially knockouts are like KG and low scoring and like one nil-nills in the end

shoot-nil-nil shootouts. And people play it really tight in these, in the tournament play. Fred's, if you look at the roster, there's eight guys. There's eight guys that could bag, right? and the question is like where the midfield I'm fine with the question is like

is the Lima fit and then is Upa McGuire gonna do some some super shit? Opa McGuire might do some might do some some dumb ass shit but like

but it's the same question with every France team which is like who's is somebody going to fuck this whole thing up by losing their mind over the course of the tournament It's either Rabio or Mboppa. He can still, I, the talent is just too, like, robust to even have Mbapapap fuck it up. The attacking talent, but for me, like, Deschab played an open system.

When they were in the final against Argentina and the World Cup before that. And that's how this roster is set up. In the Euros, it, like George Graham for Arsenal, like, he became, became like a boring, boring arsenal because they had a loss of the Champions League to Porto, and he's like, I'm going to make it impossible to play against us, right? And Deschamp, like, just I think a little bit lost his mind before the Euros. And if you remember, they, like, went through to the quarters of the semis without scoring a goal. Embabe eventually scored, but they were, like, winning with own goals and in shootouts. Yeah. And they completely played

like a just dramatically different system. And it's like, with this, is like God forbid for me to to have a you know stupid yank idea but like just score eight goals just score ten goals again they literally could do it like don't be like you're not set up for like for it to keep it tight and cagey and like if DeShop is going to like repeat that from the euros then why did you pick this roster right like that's that's the question for me so they're cut that's an unknown for me that's why that I think Spain is my top side.

Yeah, the only thing I'll say about France is they've got a tough path. They do get, they will probably get Germany in the round of 16, I think, in Philly, on July 4th. Yeah, and I think they're kind of, it's like leading up to a Spain-France semifinal if they qualify, which is the two best teams in my opinion. So I have Brazil third. You can get to Germany. Yeah, but I have Brazil third because I needed to break up this.

European Union. Oh, okay. So I put Brazil in because, first of all, just like, they'll have like a huge fan base in the States. I know that they're not, this is not a vintage Brazil team, but it's also a new Brazil team with their new coach. They have Vinnie. They have Endrick. They have like younger talent that's coming along ran. But I don't know.

I'm not familiar enough with like, this is not Yoga Bonito, but it's also not like, crazy defensive. So it's like what Ancelotti finds will be like the real the real question that I'm asking is like what kind of ball does he play? Yeah, I mean that's that's the thing like there is hokeyness that it works in football. There is like a romance in it like Carlo would face pep and pep would be losing his mind trying to like come up with some sort of psychosystem where he's like I'm going to put Kyle Walker as my striker they'll never see that coming. I'm going to like you know what I'm going to put a, I'm going to put, I'm going to put the goalie as my left winger. And he was like, Don Carlo will never see this coming in.

Carlo looks like a guy that's at work that's not doing his job, right? He looks like he does no work, right? And then there's a magic of him, right? Where like the tactical genius, the pep cardio, the best manager of all time, like, just was just frustrated by him, right? And like, there is something to be said that, like, and he's coached a lot of these guys as well. That's another advantage they have.

I mean, they also just have him. They have him back and he's going to be on the bench. I just, that's why I'm, I had it on the lower in the document, but like, in my, in my notes, but like the return of Neymov. Let's talk about it. Because this is the last, probably the last cup for three. Neiman. Iconic players in football history.

He has only cooked for Brazil. And Vinny's coming off of kind of like a, a. stinker this year. Well, he had a tough and I just want to see the prodigal son return. Can you imagine how amazing it would be? Is Casamiro, is stodgy and cooked? Maybe is Bruno going to commit a like a

crime, an assault in midfield? Is he going to kick someone's head off? De Jong style? Yeah. Peketa's, I thought he was in jail for gambling. No, he went back to Flamingo and he's like, it saved my life. I'm back in Brazil. Like he's, he's loving life right now. Yeah, why would

leave. It sucks. Imagine going to Manchester. You're just getting rained on. You should be at Carnival. I mean, I think CR R9 used to actually just go home like after games.

Yeah. He's just going to Brazil. He's like, it sucks here. I'm no. I'm not, what am I doing in freaking in Holland? I'm going to go back to where it's nice and everyone's having sex with each other.

All right, Spain, France, Brazil. There is a magic of that guy just coming in there. And if I could just see something where it's like, Carlo has, if he wins the World Cup, he wins football. Yeah. That's the last thing. And can you, if any manager in the world could like be the first foreign manager to win the cup, it's that guy who just has a heavy pasta meal.

It's also so fucking quality. He chose to do this with Brazil, like that he was like, I'm going to Brazil. So cool. It's so cool. Because if you're a real one, you're like, that's the job. That's the job I would want I would want to be the Brazil national manager and take them to a World Cup That's just incredible. Oh my god. It's the country that's like fallen into like a kind of like a fallow period of their International success. I mean it just him just sitting there smoking six I think he quit but like you know he for a long time he he grew up eating like 80 to 90% pork based

diet when he grew up on a farm And he's just obsessed with food It's a great stat. He'd have them all have a heavy. He'd make his players the night before every match have a heavy pasta meal and red wine. Because he said it would make them good the next day. Genuinely speaking, like, we'll see what happens. But that they could win the whole thing with him.

To me, they're six. I have them sixth. But if it when I see it, I'm like, oh, it's. They're your sentimental favorite, it sounds like. My third was England. Where'd you have them? I got England. Fifth, because I'm worried about them in the heat.

I actually really like the squad, and I don't mind that he, Thomas Tuchel, Tuchel left behind Trent, and he left behind Foden, and he left behind Cole. So he left behind a lot of creativity and a lot of flair. But I think he got the team he wanted. And I think it's among the more solid rosters,

but it definitely, watching them in Florida and, like, at camp, I was like, these guys are baking. Yeah. Like, they looked pink out there. Yeah. Well, they always are when they go to Ibiza and stuff. Right.

But they usually don't have to play, like, two a days and, like, then do a scrimmage. So it's like, I think. I'm pretty sure they're practicing not doing anything bad, whether or not for sure. I think they're pretty sure. They get Maroon those boys on vacation. Yeah. And this is another team that I think I have a, my eye is on them. They might have Mexico in Mexico City.

You got a balanced Jude and Rice, right? They've always had trouble doing that. The only roster decision I disagreed with was Adam Wharton, not being on the roster. I mean, he would have been, it would have been fucking dime city. Yeah. He would have been, boy, God. He should have brought one of Wharton or Trent. Yeah.

Yeah. When I look at the front line, Sacka might die. He literally might die. I mean, he's just, he's being, I don't, I'm afraid. He's my favorite player of all time. I'm just terrified for him right now. he might just like literally i don't know how he's going to do it um and to go off that point these guys have all played at least what like 38 to 40 hard matches like this isn't

they have not played they have not had a vacation about six years yeah garrett southgate would play sac a 120 minutes every three days and then he'd come back to arsenal but i i really think he's been at 70% health or 30% uh health for for about five years though And he's still somehow been our Starboy. But, I mean, this year we're starting to see a little bit of a toll. He was England's player of the season two or three three years? Three sure years? Two.

It's two, but we'll say three. The other thing is this. And I'll put it in ringer terms. We've never seen a Harry King game. We've never seen it. And like, he is arguably the best player in the world right now in terms of form. He had his best season of all. It was one of the best seasons of all time.

I don't we haven't seen it for for England and like the main flaw in that is the central defense that's that's like what and Pickford is do a howler I'm sorry Pickford is like overachieved as their keeper he in the prem this year he was just fucking up left and right

but I mean they have three central defenders they have Consa they have Gayee and they have Johnstone and that is That is terrifying. And Byrne, who's pretty much there for vibes, but they brought him with. Dan Byrne is there just like to reach things on the top of the shelf. Him and Hendo are kind of like locker room guys.

Oh, no, Hendoo is going to get serious, burn. I mean, that was the, that you should have put Adam Wharton instead of Jordan Henderson. Yeah, I think he likes the way that Henderson, like, is like a coach on the field or like an extension of the coaching staff. Yeah, yeah. Well, he should be the coach. But yeah, I had it. No, but that's the argument against them. But I'm sorry.

No, make the argument for them. Now I want to support them, okay? And it dawned to me yesterday. It's four of my boys and Morgan Rogers, five of my boys. Okay, I got to, why am I not hype? Why am I not hyped? It's got five Arsenal players, Morgan Rogers is coming.

Actually, I'm reporting it. Morgan Rogers, here we go. And so like, there's that. I got to go, I got to go hard for them. But no, they play in the prem. Yeah. And we forget that. They play in by far the best league in the world.

and they are like just battle tested and they're by far like anyone that kind of tries to run at them they are going to be stronger and they're going to be fast the league is is stronger and faster and think of it like kind of like a

the way Tibbs kind of like ground them into mush by playing them 47 minutes a game but like somehow like the kind of what they have a lot of Tibbs in this team they just Mike Brown's like I'm going to rotate my fucking my fucking roster. Yeah.

Think about it that way. Like these guys are coming out of the best league in the world and we're kind of discounting that. That is, it's quite frankly an advantage. They've also gone very deep in several of the last few tournaments that they participated in. Who did you have at the fourth team? Well, my fourth was Portugal, who were kind of this sexy pick. And have, I know I said this about Spain, but if there's another best midfield in the world,

is definitely Portugal with Lutina. Bernardo Silva, Bruno, Bruno Fernandez, John Navish. I mean, like, it's, it is such an overwhelming amount of talent in the middle of the park. The case for, case against, really revolves around Ronaldo and, like, how much this team is, like, if he's, like, coming off the bench as super sub of all time,

which I don't think he will do. That would be amazing. And they've already lost Liao who got into a fist fight and a friendly and is now, I think, going to miss the first two matches, right? Why doesn't Tim Riem do something like that? Well, no. To be fair, Liao got in the fist fight because somebody made fun of bedwetting. And he was just like, hey, that's a serious issue.

Oh, okay. And it is a serious issue. I don't want to diminish it. Chris is talking to me about a little bit before. I'm doing it right now as we speak. Yeah. You're not in bed, though. Your chair wedding right now.

You know that chair wedding happens to one in three podcasters? No, but yeah, it's the baby. You know he wants to play the next World Cup. He's going to be like Brady, yeah. But he's not like, I mean, this isn't TB, Brady. This is, this is after. It's way past that. Yeah.

And he's scored 31 goals in his season in Saudi. And I just don't think he has it anymore, but he's not going to let it go. And he's throwing a tantrum if his teammate scores. And he's, you know, yeah, that's the main question. It's the group stage merchant. What happens with him? You know, what happens? When will Panaldo be Ben Shnaldowed, okay?

And is he finished Naldowed? Okay. That's my question. He really does take the air out of the room. Here's the reason why I don't think they're going to be able to manage it. Because Roberto Martinez is a loser. Yeah, that was the other thing. I he's a sick of a fan and a loser as soon as I get high on them I remember who their coaches yeah he's like he's like a he's like a Democratic party consultant he somehow loses every time but gets a better job I don't understand like right like Roberto Martinez is like he's like you know what he's like he's like the Nick Kroll referee character uh-huh he's like what do you guys do it after the game like Ronaldo great abs dude I mean like honestly he's like can I get your autograph that I mean but if you look beyond

that like uh just like that midfield just is an absolute joke based on their last friendly they're fucked right like Portugal is like i think a sexy pick but i think it's it's kind of uh it's discounting for the fact that the elephant in the room yeah i mean like uh you you can't look beyond that okay your next team um my next team is argentina even though uh it's prohibitively impossible to repeat um they have yeah still a very messy-centric team but they have a lot of depth they have a lot of grit and they have a lot of experience they got emmy in the in the goal or is he actually starting or is he just like a figurehead for the team now he's still starting chris he is still starting actually yeah and scolari is a great

coach he is like the anti martinas it's like i never lost right exactly i'm not super worried about them in their group because they've got julian alvarez they've got lataro like they've got guys who can take up like the the brunt of that um but as somebody who watch alex Callister barely be able to sprint for a long time this season for Liverpool. There's some questions in their midfield. Enzo, like, I mean, he was great in the last cup, but like, what will he do this time? Yeah, I mean, that's the other thing is like a bunch of these guys are coming off of stinker seasons.

Romero wanted to, like, go watch a game instead of play for Spurs at the end of the season. What did he go with? But is he still on top of him? Yeah, he's like, can I go to? to Argentina instead of play for Spurs. And he was the captain, right? Yeah, and he was supposed to watch them. Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you, Sam. Let's run again. He was their captain. So. But yeah, Lysandro had a stinker. Anzo, he's got a crap attitude. But the other thing is this, when you are going back and play for a white supremacist country,

you tend to have a really good attitude when you're doing it for the country. Messi's still good. And guess what? Like, I just want to see him play well. the main thing, and we can just kind of adjust the format, because I had this lower on in the document, but the main thing is that they are on a collision course in the quarterfinals, the two of them.

It has to happen. And the world is going to explode. Johnny Baby and Trump and everybody needs to get together and make sure Messi plays Ronaldo. Alts and Powers, Johnny Baby, Cristiano Jr., The right, did Christian, you see? I was looking at highlights. Okay.

No, no. John, yeah, really, they've never faced each other in a knockout. I don't know if I can handle it. I think about it, and I get nervous. He, Messi has to win. He, like, I think, I'm just, he can't. Honestly, let me give you a little prop bet. Cristiano Ronaldo, plus over under 1.5 cries in that game.

over over i'm thinking two cries maybe because you get one for your miss and he'll get one for his sub so it'll be he famously cried he cried because he missed uh a penalty and it was in the euros and then uh he was crying because he his uh penalty streak uh was broken not because his team was he was he was crying because he he uh his penalty streak had been broken uh there's a really thing also in understanding those two guys and like Chrissiano Ronaldo I was saying to you before but like he comes from a family where his father and his brother had substance issues and his what his like the gestation of what became CR 7 like the jet what he became uh he thought that if he got good enough he could maybe get them to stop killing themselves with substances

and then they yeah that's genuinely it's so sad he bought them a house like And they're both dead. There's a tragedy about this man. Yeah. But it's also just like, bro, like, he's open. Like, there's that element to him too. Messi, on the other hand, like, didn't speak until he was like, maybe like, I think 25 years old. Yeah.

And like somehow it was just a gift from God to be like this savant, this angel. And so it's just like there are these two. There are such opposites, right? And the best thing is like how much like Christianaun has to be. told he's the best player ever and like how much it pisses him off that he's clearly not the best player ever like how much he has to go on pierre's morgan interviews and be told like thank you thank you pierce like thank you for saying i'm the best you know like it's just like uh he needs like he clearly knows that like just on paper if you take away just every single accomplishment that they

both have had messy just has another list of accomplishment yes including a world cup yeah uh so that That quarterfinal is going to... Do you have anybody else that you think is a legitimate favorite after that? Germany and Netherlands. Okay. I can give you all. Germany, there's second phase of a rebuild, right? They got knocked out of the group stages twice in a row.

But it's a real team. There is, like, there's creativity across all three phases of play. Honestly, like, there's, like, I can make a case for Germany actually being better than people are acting. And then Netherlands, I think they have the best of backline in the tournament, even though Timber is out now, but they, yeah, they have Van Dyke, Van Hecker, Van de Van and Dumfries. Yeah, it's a really good, they have a very good backline. They also have, like, could, might they go insane? Also mean Van Dumfries. Go ahead.

They might, like, will they go insane? Like, that's always a question. But the Netherlands, like, France is like, will they have, like, an absolute bust up, like, team falls apart moment? Yeah, that's the thing is that I think there's like a, I think there's like a, I think there's like a, I. Bill was saying this the other day. I think there's a pressure of like consistent like it's not happening. Yeah. Like they had like in the 70s,

they had the best team of the world. And then they're in the 80s, 90s, they also just had the best team in the world. They had the best striker in the world. I mean, the way that people talk about Van Basten, which was also a tragedy, he had to retire at 30 because his body is like, his knee fell apart.

Yeah. And some shady, uh, uh, uh, uh, just like the cause him to play in excruciating pain. But the way like, like players that got,

or they got to watch him talk about him is as if it's the best striking of all time. And then like, you know, they had our years that we watch, which was the Robin years. Yeah, Robin, Van Percy, Schneider. And very perky. Yeah.

Yeah, they had like, they had snipers, right? And it's just like when it doesn't happen so many times, it's, that's, there is a problem of, of, kind of pressure that it puts on, on the shoulders of your country. I love Frankie and Gravenbergh together in the midfield. Yep.

I love their back line. I love, you know, and then here's the, here's my case for their front line. Okay, they have like, they have like, uh, uh, uh, Brabby. They have, uh, they have, uh, Daniel Malin. They have guys that are like, kind of like, oh, that's not like a world class level. They have like, Somerville. Yeah. They have like, they have like guys that could body you.

I remember I was watching Broby play. against Arsenal this year and I was like he was just Saliba and Gabrielle were he was giving them fits he's so he's a brick shit house and I can see like one of those kind of guys uh that's like prem tested again like I would say with England guys like you don't expect to have a tournament like a like a like a Donnell Brian like a brabby right like a or a donnell Malin like have like bag four I would say uh one thing going against Netherlands Dumbass coach. Worst coach.

Like absolute. First coach. Yeah. Absolute. Ronald Kuhl. Yeah. Yeah. I would love it if he gets, if he leaves mid-tournament and we get the God back.

You know who I'm talking about. Then all. Run it back one more time. This time he's redder. Yeah. We get that we see the reddest von Hall of all time. Just standing there just red. Just like he's purple at this point.

We see he looks like Barney at this point. They should have an option that when, if Kirk Cow goes out, Advocate comes and coaches Netherlands. Yeah, we can get him, or we can just get half their players who are all from the Netherlands. Right. Right. Let's get into teams that I cook. We've touched on a couple of these, but I kind of want to go through our list. Yeah.

And I had fun putting these together. I'll go first. Turkey. Kenaniel Dees and Arta Goulare. really like it's a two-man team as far as I'm concerned but those two are my favorite kind of player which is just crazy creative attacking mids or wingers who can do anything and this is the kind of thing that happens pretty much every World Cup where like dudes like this get introduced on a world stage so even though Galera is already on Real Madrid and Yildiz is already on

Juventus I just think that like a global audience is going to get to see them for real for the first time. Actually, I had them in teams that might suck. Well, this is the thing is that they are it's a team that always underachieves. They're a Belgium, you know, or Egypt under Saul. Yeah, but this is a new generation. Like, these guys were born when Turkey was fucking up like 12 years. Like, well, they were obviously born 12 years ago. But like, they're Turkey that we know historically, like these dudes don't know anything about it. I think in the last couple tournaments, uh, we've seen it again. But like, uh, I would, I mean, I like Guler a lot. Both of those players, I like a lot. I also like, uh,

Who's the fullback on Brighton? What's the same? Fetti, Kadiaglu. Oh, yeah. Yeah, my number one team that might cook, Iran. Oh, yeah. Most UNESCO World Heritage sites is home to Asia's tallest volcano, and it's the nose job capital of the world.

But in reality, I think we can have a real conversation about this. It is, as a narrative, it's, you can't ignore the fact that they're at war with with the country that they're literally gonna be playing in. And I do think that it's interesting to see how sports kind of intersects with that, like if that's a motivating factor. I mean, Tremi literally wanted to quit Ball to join the IRGC.

Like there is like kind of like us against, you know, it is, it's crazy. Literally we didn't go to the Olympics in 1980 because of a cold war. Right, and Iran's here. We're seeing this right now. we have them scheduled two games in Los Angeles where we're going to see like the Beverly Hills BMW, Black BMW Mafia, just in the car park.

Yes. They literally are going to, they have to evacuate them for the same. It is kind of psycho. And then the third game that they're playing is in Seattle and it is against Egypt and it is the gay pride match of the, they're making it the gay pride match. And literally, bro, Trump, that's a Trump. Trump had that has his fingerprints all over that There's some troll in the White House He was like guess what I mean

Infantino is like make one of the The games gay Just go ahead make them play the gay game I mean it's just like a two countries Where it's illegal to be gay I mean it's so odd This whole thing There's so much off with a lot of this tournament

That I think we could maturely acknowledge Yeah I mean they've just like banned a Somali referee From coming into the country Like teams are getting like strip-churched when they're arriving, it's crazy. Most interestingly, if they finish second of the group, US finishes second of their group, they will be playing in the knockouts in Dallas, Texas,

which is, I mean, that is, that is, I don't, I think there is an aspect of like the world kind of maybe pulling for them right now because the unpopularity of the war right now. It's just that there is a lot of this stuff that you can't ignore about the cup. And yeah, I mean, thank God our president is the recipient of the FIFA Peace Prize. What is that even?

They made it up for him? They did, I think. I don't remember anybody else receiving that before. Who are they giving it to next year? Gary Glitter. Why does that name come to my mind? It's the weird. What is wrong with my brain?

Okay, second team for you. So I'm going to go Ivory Coast. for my first team that might cook and this is really the first i guess african nation we've really talked about but uh i have i have that one my list amad from manchester united diomande who's on leipzig but is probably going to play for liverpool pepe old gunner um i don't know i still rock with him so just a lot of talent i love yeah did you have an afric nation that you thought might cook i'm sanegal and ivory coast i love i love both those sides and they're both on this list for me i mean they are chalkful of fauna

and Mendez and Diomandes. I mean, genuinely speaking, the Paris suburbs are like the major football factory of the world. South London, arguably, as well. And, like, there are 75 players of French or, like, that were born in France playing in this cup. Yeah. That aren't playing for France right now.

And so, like, that's a crazy stat. It's hoopers, bro. They just have pure hoopers that come from, like, from the like streetball in the paris suburbs and they're just like fun they're fun teams you know and like senegal also won two the last three afcons they're although their their manager is still doing a contract holdout i think he's still in is he really i think he still is there which is fun you know and then also just i want to just recognize like sari omani the work he's done and especially he's got a passion for helping the youth and just uh mm-hmm he's not a lot of good

work with it anyway uh liverpool legend sari amane of course you have uh yeah but i'm just both those it's just they're like incredibly fun dynamic awesome teams and i i those are teams I want to see overachieve. I had Canada on my list. Jesse Marsh has hate in his gut. Over under 0.5 Trump tweets about Jesse Marsh on truth social. From Trump about Jesse. I don't know if Jesse's going to rise to Trump's level. Absolute losers. Yeah, I don't think he's going to get there. What a loser, Jesse Marsh. He's the reason the Alberta secession failed. I mean, the main reason why I think Canada is, listen, they are, he's a good coach. I, I liked it when he was England and Germany as well.

They have the Iceman bump, right? You know, and that's going to be huge for them. I think Drake dropping the album is going to solidify the nation. I do have one left. It's really an unpleasant team to watch, but it's Ecuador. And I'm trying to also just put a little bit of weight on the scale because of what Hemisphere were playing in, crowds showing up for these teams,

other teams being a little uncomfortable in the weather and Ecuador's backforce nuts. They're just a fucking steel safe. So if they want to get into it where they're winning games won nothing or winning on shootouts or whatever, like they can do that. And for them to have

Incappy and Paco from PSGs just like they've just got like a real lockbox backdoor. Yeah, and that's how they're set up and they've been playing in the... It's miserable to watch, but it's very effective. If you're set up like that in the World Cup, you have a puncher's chance.

And any team that sets up that way is going to, like could go on a run. See, like there's been some like, oh, like this team or that team, like for instance, like Norway is a pretty attractive, like Dark Horse pick right now. People are really loving like Holland and Odegaard and stuff.

But I don't really think that those guys are going to enjoy playing in the States. And I don't think that the weather, that's a team that I think the weather could affect. Yeah, three of them went to the hospital because it was like 68 the other day. Yeah, I'd rather take a flyer on Ecuador or Uruguay than Norway or Sweden. They play a Bodo Glimt, which is above the Arctic Circle. They literally play above the Arctic Circle.

What the hell are they going to do in Kansas City in the summer, an Arrowhead? This is going to be a disaster. No, last team, the cool team, Japan. They are the system team. Yeah. And it's really impressive because I think they hadn't made a World Cup until 98. They started their soccer program basically like 40 years ago, like not very long ago. And they set up the J League in order to like start soccer in Japan.

And it's been like just a complete like it's been like really impressive like to watch. The problem is they have a couple of injuries. Mitoma, yeah. Toma, yeah, yeah. If you go through their, like, starting 11, they're all, they all play in real teams in Europe. Yep. And, like, they're the opposite of Mexico, basically. They all have European pedigree.

They're all, you know, they all, like, compete at the top level, and they're so fucking cool. I saw a clip of them playing Iceland in the warm up, and what happened was there's a new rule that if you don't get off the pitch in under 10 seconds, the substitute dude has to wait 60 seconds to come off. Oh, right after you walk off. So it's like a power play almost. Kind of like a, which I think soccer needs, right? I think the red card is too like, putative, actually. Like, there should be something where, like, you have a man advantage for an amount of time.

And that would make it very exciting. The Iceland players move back. They try to park the bus. They had back six eventually for the throne. And just without. you know that no one's talking right they just noticed a man advantage on the far end and there was a back of the net like uh the the japanese team are like the most well drilled and well trained and like a collective i think a team in the world cup let's talk about the teams that we that might

suck yeah we could just run through these pretty quickly we don't even have to let's run through them easily because i brought up i brought up a lot of it um i'll go first england how does the ball move that's my question about england how is the ball progressing how does it progress through midfield and I can't see it in my mind right now. The midfield seems like a little bit of a bottleneck and like we need to know how Tuchel's gonna set them up. And I think it's a fair point about the weather. Like if he's gonna be like just doing like a fucking like making them pressy as fuck,

if he's gonna make them like play like a like a German side. Yeah. Like the gangen press, you know, heavy metal football. they're going to expire on the field. They played in Florida last week, and they were, first of all, they were real pissy about the state of the pitch, but then second of all, they were like, oh, we realize, like, we can't really do some of the stuff

we've been training to do before we got to the states because it's too hot and we got too tired. So we basically have to, like, calibrate how we're playing so that, like, at 65 minutes we turn it on rather than at the first whistle. You know what? I can criticize America. They can't.

We gave you there's a fucking boat in that fucking stadium. Okay. That's where that's where Tom won his last ring. Shut up. Other teams that might suck. We kind of hit on this, Argentina and Portugal, just idol worship, like, past their prime. Argentina defending at World Cup Portugal going too long with this. And like I said, Norway.

I had a similar pairing. You said Norway. Yeah. I had a similar pairing in USA and Mexico, which are related. And I think we brought those up already. I think if Mexico fuck up the opening match their advantage is that they have

South Africa the mighty Bofana Bafana my homeland in the opening match how many times are they going to do that like whatever I mean it's but an honor but what do you mean the what that's the name of our team

I know it's just the way you say it was such swelling pride it's really nice the Bapana Bapana Bapana okay No, they have a good matchup at home at the S-heka. They'll build some belief for them. If they fuck up that result, it's going to fall apart. They are one fuck up away from like their fan base imploding.

And like, yeah, they have a very toxic relationship. Yeah, if the USMNT has a slow start, I don't think like first take is going to be leading with like, what's the matter? They need to step up, you know? no one's going to care yeah we're gonna have like uh we're gonna have uh chris broussar be like they need it they should have got palais palais palet do you see that clip do you see that clip broussard amazing what's your favorite world cup every one word palais palais palet uh okay moving on uh last time i had is morocco yeah very good Yeah. I think Morocco is the Afco, they arguably, who won the Afcon, I don't know.

They overachieved the last World Cup, obviously. I think the problem is this. They had a manager after the Afcon that was fired the next day, right? And he was the, he set them up for like all their success. And they, new managers been hired in March. The way they set up and were successful in tournaments, when we were talking before, is they were playing a back three and they were playing it tight,

and they were hitting you on the break. And this guy wants to play an open, free-flowing, modern brand of football. If you're, the concept of national side, which has been playing club football for the most part since March, having two weeks to set up a free-flowing attacking operation. Yeah, yeah. Hugo de position or whatever I don't

I think that's first of all that's stupid That's not what they should be doing with this roster The second of all like It's a it's just it seems like a fool's errand I will say this There's sometimes in cups you can get Like a little bit of a uniformity In how people play and everybody's just like

We're gonna set up defensively We're just gonna kind of take our time We're gonna look for a counter attack There's a couple of teams to play with their fucking hair on fire and like Uruguay does that There's a couple of teams that play incredibly aggressively. And really like high press, quick transition stuff. So it'll be fun to watch.

It'll just, but if it goes wrong, like if they try to play like their Barcelona, they're going to get blown out. And they've had two weeks to learn how to be Barcelona. Like it's just like to me, that's like a disaster in the making. We had a little section that we wanted to do called Passion Projects. Yeah, we can wrap up with this. This is good. We wanted to be like, what are you going to be enjoying during the?

tournament what are you one of the things you're to be looking out for it doesn't necessarily even have to be on the field uh so yeah you want to give us just uh what what your list is yeah the two kinds of thing players that i love at world cups are the dudes who are like at the sort of middle stage of their career who jump up a huge notch so that's like frank rubri or andre arshaven in previous tournaments whether it's euros in the cup i know arshaven i guess i guess i The other one that I love, the group of players I love watching is the young dudes, the guys who were under 21 who people maybe haven't gotten a chance to see on a stage like this. Scouting youth gotten a bad name over the years, but I think we can reclaim it. When I play FIFA, what I usually like to do is take charge of a championship club, sell everyone, get Michael Edwards with it, and then bring in a bunch of players from the Guardian's, like, best young footballers list.

with that in mind, like the guys I'm watching out for, I mentioned Jan Diamande before, who plays for Leipzig, is going to be a Liverpool player, sorry. And then also Martin Batarin, who plays for Croatia. He and Nico Paz are both on Como in Italy. They play for Cesar Fabergast. Nico O'Reilly, people probably saw in Man City, but I'm excited to see what Tuchel does with him. And then Warren, Zaire, Emery, and Dure for on France, who, if they get enough playing time, could blow people's minds. Yeah, I, the standard back just from Vuskovich from Croatia. Yeah, a spur.

He's, well, no, he doesn't want to go back. They bought him, loaned him out, and he's like, I don't want to go. Please don't make me go. Wuscovich, he is just, if you watch his highlights on YouTube, he's incredible. He's, he's both huge, Rolls-Royce, like William Saliba, like you, like on a, if they try to go root one or over their heads, he's like, he's boxing you the fuck out. you're not even getting close to the ball. But he's so technical with his feet. I mean, he's just, he's, yeah, he's kind of the one of the, the one I'm looking out for.

There's a couple more. But I want to give you my, my passion projects. The first is I just want to keep an eye on the way Tieri-on-R-Ree and Zlatan just interact with, what's his name, Wallace. Because clearly they're three of the best players of all times. that we've ever watched. There are three juggernauts. Yeah.

There's Titans. There is going to, I mean, this is a disaster in the making. Zlatan, Zlatan is going to say something. He's like, you bet they'll watch your mouth. You know, because you're just going to say like, that, the coverage, the American coverage, like the way that we handle soccer is, is always real fun. And the way Fox does it is always really fun.

They have a lot of guys that are good. I think Len and Donovan is pretty good as a color. We're going through some weird stuff with the hair, but he's, he's generally like a really, a pretty decent commentator. Yeah, yeah. Well, he went to Turkey. He didn't. He's got a wig on. It's a wig.

It's a wig. It's a wig. It's a piece. Yeah. Really. Oh, you're a truther. No, I'm not truth. He did a whole video.

I was wondering, how did Eric Adams, the former mayor do? I know there's nothing to do the soccer. Go to, like, have a scandal with turkey and not just come back. Yeah. And just like those teeth that like British people get. Why do British people get like, you're like, they're blinding? The veneers. Yeah.

The veneers. They're like, they're too big for their mouths. I can't wait to get those one day. Okay. My other passion projects, uh, I mentioned before Messi Bernalto quarterfinal, it's just, it's going to be, that's history. Um, the German guy that's like, it was in Atlanta and went to like taking pictures at Wendy's and Magic City.

Yeah. It was just like, I love the infrastructure. I love that guy. Yeah, yeah. He's reacting to it as if we're like the, it's the year, uh, two, uh, 2075. He's in like tomorrow land. He's like, why is everyone telling me

to go to this magic city? Okay, then this is going to be a series. I'm going to bring up one guy every much. I'm going to go through their thought mob transfer projection, like whatever their projected transfer amount is. And it's guys that I'm going to ask Spotify to

buy for me and live in my house. So the first is Tommy Smith, defender from Australia. He's a 52K. Come on. Yeah. Why are they looking away? Come on.

That's nothing to you. What would you do with him? Come on. I make him live with me. He's a, he played at Brain Tree Town, who's relegated from England's fifth to sixth tier. And when I googled Tommy Smith, uh, Tommy Smith died was a suggested, uh, search. I was timing it and said, Tommy Smith. Oh, never mind.

He's, you know, that's obviously. Then there's obviously, what's his name? So wait, just to recap that idea is that you want Spotify to purchase the transfer, the player rights for an inexpensive player to come live with you. Yeah, so they come hang out with me and tell me what brain tree the town is like. I can tell them my joke about how that's funny. It's like a tree that you try to get some brain, you know, like whatever. And then last is just the stinkers that I want to watch. I'll put this under Passion Projects.

Here are the five, five, like, hooked in the stinkers that I want to see happen. Cr. 7, obviously, I need to see Vinny yanked and see prodigal son return. I need to see Namar Cook. It would be the most romantic, incredible thing if he, like, returned. And he's had such a difficult career. He's a family man, Chris. Oh, I loves his family. I need Jordan Pickford got a guy yanked.

Uday Simone, if he's starting, I'm sorry, David Rye is the best keeper in the world. I don't know why Spain doesn't use him. It's kind of insane to me. He's very specific kind of keeper, though, yeah. And then finally, Victor Giocharest. I want to see him hooked and stinkered. I had to watch 50 games of this guy this year. I have to, I had to, I'd want, literally.

I hope he loses his legs. Here's what's going to happen. And we can both, before we wrap, just say, these are our predictions for the tournament, just how the tournament goes. It's going to be a slog. We're all going to say that it sucks. And then something is going to happen

and the world is going to explode and we're going to be losing our minds. Whether it's a Ronaldo and Messi meeting in a knockout stage for the first time of their careers, whether something like that, there's something like that unbelievable. that happens and it's every time. I mean, like last last tournament, obviously there were like,

you know, people had issues with Qatar and their human rights policies, etc., etc. We weren't that excited about watching the World Cup and then we got to see Messi get a chip. You know, like, uh, there's, we're going to just keep watching this crap. Yeah. I mean, I can't turn my eyes away. Like it's, I have to watch this crap. Yeah. This is good. We're going to do this Tuesdays and Fridays, right? I might not be on every one of these. You're going to have some guests. We're going to have some. other folks like moving in and out but Tuesdays and Fridays and it's not going to be like hardcore recaps of games we're going to kind of take the temperature of where the tournament is

twice yeah I'm a I can't watch like 75 uh games a day I'm not allowed to no no listen to the year to listen to yanks talk about our our opinions okay which we're allowed to have yeah it's our tournament okay we're only giving Canada two cities it's out I love how it's 75% hours. We're being nice to the other guys. What's interesting to be about this is the culture around it and the jokes around it and seeing the Austrians street harassed in Oakland. There's going to be a lot of funny stuff.

And we're going to see some purple English guys. Literally, they're going to have to stretch around fans. Think about those Ibiza guys in the crowd. Did you see they were trying to do the Mexican wave and they were like, they were flip. They were, did you try to see they were doing the wave in Tampa? they were like, go fuck yourself. Would they be like this?

Yeah. They were like, yeah, to the wave. Yeah. The fun thing about the World Cup is cultures coming together. It is the supporters groups. It is how embarrassing people act on vacation. It is. And there's, I'm really excited to be doing this podcast with you every Tuesdays and Fridays.

And then, yeah, I want to thank Gianni Infantino. Yeah, thank you. President Trump. Bill Simmons. Bill Simmons, Daniel Eck, and Phil Jackson. Gary Glitter.

Mark Van Bommel. Mark Van Bassen. Yeah. Who else? Chichorito. McHaretheta. You say congratulations. Congratulations.

Let's wrap it up there. Congratulations. Thank you.