The Adam Friedland Show (Cumtown) - Three Semi’s | The Beautiful Pod

Episode Date: July 11, 2026

Adam is joined by Elliot Smith and producer Sam to talk the remaining quarter final matches and review France vs. Morocco.Host: Adam FriedlandCohost: Sam SerxnerGuest: Elliot SmithExecutive Producers: Adam Friedland, Marc Fineman, and Mason KleinWriters: Adam Friedland and Sam SerxnerProducers: Sam Serxner, Julia Cassidy, and Chris WholersEditor: Jon RoemerStudio Tech: Adam Tarin--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/@tafsclipsThe Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the beautiful pod. We got the beautiful boys here today. Producer Sam, Adam, and very shortly, Elliot Smith. No, not that Elliot Smith. That one is still in heaven with, you know, the rest of the rockers. They all get in? If you're a rocker, you get into heaven. Because God is like, listen, you did some bad things, but you're cool.

And God cares. God is a bit of a clout shark. Is that what they call it? Do you think Phil Spector's there? Phil Spector, because he's cool. Yes. In fact, there's a band. They're gigging up there right now.

It is Jim Morrison, Elliot Smith. You've, of course, got, who else? The Big Bopper. Richie Valens, unfortunately. What about the Who? The Who? What do you mean? Are dead?

Do they all get in? Keith Moon is the only dead one. The beautiful pot is. is brought to you by Fandul this summer, America's number one sportsbook is making it easier than ever to get in on the action across all your favorite sports. Think you've got today's home run hitter picked.

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18 plus DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. gambling, gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler. Call 1-88-7-8-9-77, or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. We're going to be going through a reaction

to yesterday's match, French match, I believe. Sam, I kept you on the phone for about two hours trying to convince you of some sort of narrative. And I do think, unfortunately, I'm going to read you my text to Nick Wright, and then we're going to show you

the tweet that he tweeted out yesterday. And I do think that I have kept his cold streak alive of betting in the World Cup. I text Nick this yesterday. Can I give you a heater? A heat. What? Can I give you some heaters? I thought I was going to give this to him so he could say it's a Broussard and all the other guys in the studio.

I said it was the guy who got them to the World Cup semi and two Afghans. his setup was way more let them have the ball and hit you on the break they played a back five sometimes okay the current manager

plays a far more adventurous system but we can assume that they're quite comfortable playing without the ball and the game state against France will require that France has really looked only kind of good at that point in the round of 32 match France hasn't played anybody

Yeah, well, they looked good in the round of 32 against Sweden. Again, I questioned the entire... This is what I was telling. Oh, my God. Okay. Senegal were peppering them with chances in the first match. It could have easily gone their way. The main problem with their setup has yet to be exposed,

and is that they're playing a two-man midfield with four attackers, and they could easily get exposed by a halfway decent opposition. Paraguay Lo blocked the fuck out of them, and they did not deal with it well. So you're saying I should bet on Morocco, correct? I said, yeah. I said, not necessarily, but it could go bad for France. There's a lot of history between the sides, six Argentine refs, but that's just the argument against France.

If they put in Zaire Emery in midfield and pulling an attacker, they could boss it. But De Shamps is a more, Deschamps. I meant Deschamps. I actually thought tactically he was pretty spot on. I think he was pretty spot on. Moving and Bobpe to the left was really. It was really smart because it forced Hakemi into these weird spots where if he marauded forward, which is what he does best,

he's leaving huge spaces, which is how France won that penalty. And then Nick said, and I think I've ruined my relationship with him, I should be taking you to this game instead of my wife. And I said, here's another good one. Out of the teams remaining in the tournament, who could have held on at the second for 40 minutes with 10 men? There's only one answer, potentially Argentina. Okay.

Has England shown us that there is a second team, that can do that, that could hang in. We don't know. Against France, you're saying? I'm saying, could France have held on for 40 minutes at the Azteca like England? I see, like England did. And I'm not convinced that there's, when I saw Dan Byrne go in, like Chris was saying, I'm not fully convinced of the fact that there could.

The French personnel. The French have the personnel. I'm not convinced that Spain has the personnel. And then the other teams, I don't really think. but here I'm going to eat my words on this, but I think that those are the four, the final four teams.

You know, but certainly I don't think Norway have the personnel. I said because Argentina have played bad teams, they actually haven't been able to play the game that they're set up to play with 10 psychos low blocking the fuck out of you. Ironically, because the quality of their opponents, they've had

too much of the ball. France, lose that game. Spain probably lose that game too. England has the South DNA think the way in the Knicks had Tibbs DNA in their roster in this last championship run. Also psychologically the England players have been there

before. They fucked it so they know how thin the margins of error are. So that means that he will be putting it all on England tomorrow. And if you guys want to go on Fandul, is that correct? Yeah.

Fan duel. We're taking Norway because I'm convinced Nick Wright to put put the house on England. Let's show his tweet from yesterday. It's a picture of him and his wife. He's wearing a Morocco bucket hat. I feel really bad.

And this is a public apology to Mr. Nick Wright, who is, I think, 0, 4, probably 48. How much did he put on Morocco? I didn't ask him, but I should call later on and see if we still have a relationship and apologize to him. Okay. So let's go ahead.

Let's talk about France And let's talk about Morocco. I think the inevitable is coming. I think they certainly look like the best team in the field. Would you agree, Sam? Yeah, I don't really think there's an argument for anybody else. I think Spain are growing into the tournament a bit. And to go along with the point you said about the two men midfields,

I think that's the way that France get eliminated. And the only team that can really take advantage of that is Spain. Yeah. Because they'll press and they'll keep the ball. And that's how you can hurt France. I would tend to agree. But, like, let's just look at the Paraguay match. You need, but what we saw was that they low-blocked them

and they need the penalty at the end. I think it is the roadmap to finding some joy against this team. And then that, to me, is, I think we're, this is like what Waz said a couple of last week's episode. It's like trying to find a, way to say that there's a weakness in the prime golden state warriors uh yeah i think steff's defense is bad you're just you're just picking nits they have overwhelming attacking attacking talent and the format is suited to them it's like it's an NBA style format almost and when you

have guys that can get to the bucket and score that's how you win yeah um obviously spain belgium has just happened um so congratulations romolulu lukaku we should talk about for your eight goals. And now you have 10. You're tied with Mbapé at the top of the golden boot. And Messey. And Messey at the top of the golden boot race. What do you make of this thing?

It's like, Messi keeps taking over as the top goal score in World Cup history. And then it's just like, yeah, there's another guy who's got 17 World Cups left that is just like keeps tying you. Is Kiliad Mbapapie potentially? what does he have to do to become the best player in World Cup history? I mean, I think arguably he needs three. Arguably, who do you have is in the top five at this point? In just World Cup history? Just World Cup history.

Pele. You'd say Pele, Messi, Garincha, you know, are we looking at R9? And then in Bapa, Zedon, I mean, I think it's those two probably that are looking at the top five. I think him Boppe needs one more. You want to tell me a little bit about this fella Gorincha from Brazil? He was bow-legged, first of all. He was bow-legged, yes. They say that he's like the dumbest man to ever play for Brazil.

They say that. I never met him, but potentially, I think he would. Yeah. And also potentially, I think he did, we're not going to talk about it. We're not going to say what he did, the animals? No, but we will say that he was, he loved animals. He was a lover. He loved animals.

and apparently at that time, a lot of people loved animals in Brazil. There was their style. Yeah. There were a lot of animal lovers in Brazil, and that was a common thing, specifically, donkeys. And now for a quick word from our sponsor of Fandual. Tafts is brought to you by Fandual when the stakes get higher. The matches go longer. And on Fandle, your bets can too, because when extra time changes everything,

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gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler. Call 1-888-78-977-7-7. Visit c-cpg.org slash chat in Connecticut. Elliot Smith from the Arsenal Vision podcast is joining us. Everyone giving up for Elliot. Okay. Just to finish up, Brazilian legend Gorincha famously failed a pre-tournament IQ and psychological test ahead of the 1958 World Cup

scoring in the low 70s, despite testing as an intellectually... Okay. He struggled with complex instructions, but he possessed an extraordinary on-pitch intuition, and he led Brazil to a two famous World Cup victories in 1958 and 1962. When you watch highlight clips of Gorincha dribbling, it looks like modern.

I think he's... Sometimes when you watch stuff from like the 1950s, looks like the olden days. When you watch John Havlicek highlights, you're like, they're like, they're like dribbling like this. Yeah. You mean Bob Coosie? Oh, yeah, yeah.

Bob Coosie. Sorry, dude. Fucking. Sam. Okay. Halichick was a Ford. Fine. But they still dribbled like this, you know?

But yeah, Gorincha looks like Ronaldino or something. I mean, you can't take the ball off him. So his IQ was too low to be in the U.S. Army. Listen, he had a crooked leg, he had a low IQ, and he was an alcoholic, but that did not stop him from two famous victories in the World Cup, 1958 to 1962. Elliot, question for you, what is required for Mbapé to become officially the best World Cup player ever? Like, what in your mind? When all is done?

I mean, apparently drink copiously and fail an IQ test. Yes, and have a crooked leg. I mean, I always think these comparing across generation things are really difficult because not only does the standard of play come up as there's more talent globally, but the game changes in terms of the amount of goals scored, the way attacking is done. But for me, with Mbapé, I think the mediocrity of the Raya-Madrid team has obscured his brilliance and the extent to which he is the best player in the world and has everything in his game and he's going to be the

all-time World Cup leading score and probably going to win his second World Cup. So, you know, I don't know what else you have to do if you're killing Mbapé to prove to people that you are one of the all-time greats. Yeah. I mean, I think that if you think about, like, his, like, if you think about Wayne Rooney,

like you close your eyes, you imagine a Manchester United kit on it. Do you see Wayne Rooney when you close your eyes? I do. Oftentimes, yeah. Yeah, yeah. We both love our grand others. Or is it just the Shrek movies? No. No. No, I see yes. I see

Donkey, Princess Fiona. I see, of course, Lord Farquod, and I see Wayne Rooney. Do you think he's aging gracefully? I think he's really nice to us, okay? Right? Skoles is a jerk, right? Ferdinand is a jerk to us.

I think Rooney for some reason seems to be a fan of our favorite team, but we I talk about our favorite team too much. But I do think like, just for instance, like if you think of Wayne Rune, you think of Manchester United, I think when all of a sudden done legacy-wise, you think of the France kit on Mbapit. I don't think of a PSG kit or a Rail Madrid kit at this moment, I think. And what is when just in looking at yesterday and looking at this tournament, I think that something has occurred to him.

He scored a hat trick in the best final of all time four years ago, eight years ago. and 19 years old, he won the World Cup. I think that this is an opportunity for him career-wise, legacy-wise, to solidify his status and greatness. And I think that it certainly is something that's motivating him in this World Cup. One potential counterargument, this is hokey, and it might be like stupid to even speculate. But if there is a rematch, I think one thing that could potentially hold him back

is the possibility of him kind of hyping himself up too much. If potentially he faces messy again in the final, you know, we could, the only thing that could prevent this from happening is if he's

just like, you know, too haunted by four years ago, we don't know these guys. We speculate to their state of minds all the time, so I don't even think it's worth going there. But right now it certainly looks like the inevitable will occur if I had to guess. Would you agree with it?

Not necessarily. I mean, I think France will get to the final. I do think Spain, France is an interesting matchup if that's what we get. And obviously Spain beat France in a semi-final in the Euros last time around, but a very different France team where they went more defensive with their midfield. They didn't lean in their attacking identity, and I don't think they'll make that mistake this time. As for Argentina, I don't think it's by any means a foregone conclusion. This is an Argentina team that kind of had to rescue themselves against Cabo Verde

and had to rescue themselves, as some would say, with the help of the referees against Morocco, and they could be staring down the barrel of England in a semi-final and famously have never had any success against in the world. I'm kidding. But like I think that England has the right kind of talent in many ways to give Argentina a lot of trouble if they're able to get past. I'm going to go, this is Joker mode.

IQ. This is Galaxy Brain. Argentina have faced weaker opposition consistently throughout this tournament. But if you look at the way they are set up, potentially facing weaker opposition has forced them to keep the ball, right? And potentially

this roster is set up in the opposite way. In fact, they have played matches that ironically have prevented them from playing the actual game that they or ideally set up to play, which is 10 psychopaths behind the ball,

and then God, God just kind of looking like he's, I don't know, like, is he distracted, what's going on? And then in 15 seconds of chaos, and then the goal, the ball is back in the back of the net. Like, you know, is there anything to that in your mind, like Elliot or Sam? And we go to Sam next? Yes, Sam. What do you make of it?

Okay, yeah, Sam. What do you make of it? Because he wants to copy what you're saying, Sam. I think most good teams want to have the ball. So I think if you asked Argentina, what would you want to do? I think they would want to have the ball more than they would not want to have the ball. Now, if it's against France, there's a different strategy. So what you're saying is they sit in, that's fine.

I think that with their midfield, when you look at McAllister, when you look at Enzo, you look at Tiago Almada, Messi, Julian Alvarez, these are not physically robust players in the way that I think we're kind of describing. So maybe if we see DePaul or Palacios, that's a good fit. I tend to think, though, that when you have Messi on your team, you want to play with the ball. You want to get the ball to Messi whenever you can. Frances a tax back. Can I, should we call him?

Yes. Real quick, Mike. I'm just like looking. I think I kind of want to pick a couple of winners in this World Cup. It's just seeing who you're taking. You can't ask me. I don't know anything about it. But, like, if you're, you've been watching the World Cup, like, who do you, like, who do you got?

Like, if you, if you just had to throw a, uh. If I thought who is the best team I've seen? Yeah. France. France. Okay. Cool. All right.

So I'm going to put it on France. I think, yeah, I think I would agree. You know more than I do. Yeah. Well, who do you make it? What do you make of this messy kid, though? Messy kid. I mean, that's true.

I mean, I don't know. I'm 30. He's the, he's, he's, he's 39. I guess, yeah. He's been around a long. He's been tired. Is he? This is his last world cover.

No, I know. It's kind of a last dance. It's a little bit of a Jordan situation, no? Well, it could be, I guess. You know, they're one of the favorites, if not the favorite, to win it yet. All right. Well, okay, I'm just... From what I've seen it, I know nothing about soccer.

Nothing. Yeah. Okay. I think France is the best thing. All right. Okay. I appreciate it, Mike. All right. Do you live in Vegas? No, no, no, I'm from Vegas, though. Yeah, I'm from Vegas.

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, Mike. I'm going to have my producer reach out to your guy and then we'll set it up for late August. Yeah, I'll text your Mons and stuff and you can set everything up with him. Okay, incredible, incredible. All right, take care. God bless. Okay. You forgot the most important question. Okay, we're not going to ask him about Giambi. Why not?

Hey, Mike, what do you think about this Giambi kid out of Argentina? All right, Mike Francesa, everyone. Oh, my God. How, Elliot, how amazing was that? Amazing. I can't believe my wife. I can't believe. I can't believe.

There's an incredible New Yorker profile about Mike and the Mad Dog from the early 2000s where they were on the road covering a Yankees playoff game. I think in Kansas City, and they would always, Mike would always have to have a better hotel room. And through some sort of scheduling mixup, they had to share a hotel room for a couple hours during a day. And the journalist walked in on them, like silently watching the end of the Robert Redford film, The Horse Whisper. And as the credits rolled, he turned to Russo and he goes, dog, he did what he had to do. And the reporter was just in the room with them? The reporter was, because he was like covering,

he was doing a Maison Sen, you know, New Yorker piece. Okay, I want to talk to you about the two matches tomorrow. I think those are the most kind of like, by the time this air is, obviously, we will, Robill Lukaku will score eight be at the top of the golden boot race, and we will see him in the quarterfinals.

Obviously, we have Argentina, Switzerland, the nightcap, and England, Norway, in Miami, 5 p.m. in the heat. guys some of these guys play for Bodo Glimps some of these guys play north of the Arctic Circle

which guy I don't fucking know I don't want to know his name I don't want to know that's right so yeah Sam you're a big skull guy you're a big rowing guy

you're going Norway what do you think no I think I think Holland eats those guys for a long I think genuinely constant

I like consa more than Gahey, to be fair. Well, Gayi might not be available, as I understand. So it could be Big Dan Byrne back there. Yes. Gaye, of course. John Stones would come in, I think, right? Yeah, probably John Stones. Yeah.

Big Dan Byrne. There was a moment in the last, in the Azteco, when Dan Byrne came in, and I just nodded. I just went like this. I was like, yes. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, as I mentioned last week, the altitude affected him even more because he's six foot seven. So, yeah.

No, genuinely speaking, England, Norway, what's the argument against England? Because I feel like all three of us agree, am I correct, that England's going to win? What is the argument against England, Elliot? I'm not sold that England just win this game. I think Erling Holland is probably the best player on planet Earth right now, and I don't think he could be stopped. He's worth at least a goal every game. And England have terrible centerbacks.

Like, I don't rate gay that much. I don't rate Kanzah. I don't particularly think John Stones is up to the task at this stage of his career. You know, I think obviously a lot will be on Declan Rice and Elliott Anderson to protect them. But if he steals a run on those guys in England are going to have the ball.

They'll be up the pitch sometimes. I know Norway had a lot of the ball against Brazil. I expect it to be more even than it was. but I just think Erling Holland scores in this game at least a goal. Now the problem for Norway is I don't think defensively they're very good either. This could be a surprisingly fun game.

This could be a surprisingly four three, three two kind of game. I don't think it's a fate of complete personally. Sam, what are you saying? I think not to big you up here, but terrible defense seems a little bit crazy. I don't think the England defense is terrible. I don't think any of those players. Is it the opposite of bigging on loan?

Who do you really? You're downing him down. You're downing him down. You're downing him down. Small him down. Small him down. Small him down, sir. I'm going to big you down.

Oh, no, no. Sam is 5'3 huge. Baby, let me bring you down. I'm taller than you. Okay, I'm taller than you. Okay, continue. We've done this multiple times. Okay, continue.

I'm 5 foot 9. Just in case any girl, and there are no girls watching, Sam is 5 foot 1. Okay, continue. I think Conce is a good player. I think Stones is a good player. I think the main.

Conn's been terrible in this World Cup. Again, like, I don't really agree with terrible. I don't think he's a fantastic player, but I think he's primarily proven. And I like the body. I like the speed. And I think he's got good technical quality for a centerback as well. I think the main issue for Norway is the strength of their game against Brazil was essentially Odegaard. Odegaard ran the show.

They couldn't press him. They couldn't get Bruno and Casimir, could not get near him. I think when you have Rice, Jude, and Anderson pressing, it's a different story. I don't see him sort of dictating the game in the same way. And I don't think, as you said, Elliot, the Norwegian defense is good enough to hold off an attack of Gordon, Kane, Bellingham, Rogers, Saka, even our boy, Noni Madewa. Yeah. He does a good job holding himself off. But, no, look, the fact is where I really agree with you, right, is you got a Brazil midfield that was not able to control the game against Norway.

They played Martinelli nominally in midfield. So it was really a two-man midfield with Gimeride. and Casamiro. And Bruno, as good as he is, I think, cannot make up the ground that Casamiro's seed. So it was very easy for the three technical players at the heart of the midfield for Norway. Sandeberg, who plays for Fulham,

he's a good on-ball midfielder. Berg, so there's Berga. And there's Patrick Berg from Boat-Glimp, really good on the ball. And Odegaard, who had 100 passes in the game. What a player. What a player. Tremendous.

I mean, I think his transfer value is skyrocketing. I would say Odigar, is maybe at 120, 130 million pounds at this point. Straight swap for Vinnie with Real Madrid? I'm saying that any team would be stupid not to take him. Yeah, I do think...

If I'm Rayal Madrid, I'm calling and I'm saying straight swap for him and maybe Artagooler. I'm not doing that. Yeah, plus cash. Look, England has a much more a bad of athletic midfield. With Elliot Anderson and Declan Rice, they're going to be able to

recover the ball. They're going to be able to... I think Bosch the midfield a little bit more, right? Especially with Jude is in there as well. That's a big physical athletic midfield. But that means Holland is attacking space more. And England have looked like they can be hit on the counter. They do not defend in space well. For me, Gahey and Kansa, if that's who it winds up being in the middle.

And even the best defenders, just ask Gabriel Magalias, struggle when Erling Holland gets a run on. So maybe England has too much for what is, I agree, say I'm a weak Norway defense. But I just think at the current moment, Holland is good for a goal every game. I don't see England keeping them out. And Pickford has this magic where he could put on that. He's like Christian Romero. When he puts on the Argentina shirt, it's different. He was the captain of Spurs and he was like, I don't want to be here no more.

He tried to go watch a Sunday league match in a. Argentina instead of play the game that would keep them up in the league. But somehow, like, Pickford, for me, looking at that roster prior to the World Cup, I'm like, Pickford is due like a kind of the, like a U.S. third goal or Belgium third goal in the U.S. match moment. Well, he already had a hell already. He was beaten at his near post already once poorly. I think that there's something about him where I'm like, this could be more of a disaster than

It's been the first save against Mexico, I think, like, wow, pick for, like, that completely changed the profile of that game. And, you know, credits to him. The keepers matter a lot in knockout stages. I think people forget that every time. And, you know, we have Emmy Martinez at Argentina. I think he's good for any penalty shootout Arsenal legend, F.A. Cup winning Emmett Martinez, who was, injured, or who came in because of an injury against Brighton, it's really crazy how the world changed because of that Burnlando injury at Brighton and the famous Arsenal fan TV clip

about, my pay is a cheat. You know, literally messy with the World Cup as a result of that, that one moment. So it's crazy, the butterfly effect. I want to talk. I want to talk. Real quick about Argentina, Egypt, before we talk about Argentina, Switzerland, the team that I keep forgetting is still in the World Cup of Switzerland. Zoran Mamdani does not look healthy for this match. Is that correct? I think Menzambi may or may not be fit. We'll see.

Sorry, Zoranamani might not be fit. I think, is he going to Newcastle? They say it's an agreed fee. They say they've agreed terms, but I think someone might come in and steal them still. I mean, that is already one of the best ones. They're selling their whole midfield. What is going on? Can I ask you a question, Sam?

They have Joe Ewan. Have you watched much of money? Can I call them Mon Zombie? Is that okay? Or do I have to call Monzondani? He was Sam's pre-Tournament pick. And I was like, look at this freaking socialists over here. But yeah.

It's on the rise. But can I ask you? Because I haven't watched really much of, if any of him at Freiburg. And as I understand it, he plays in a deeper midfield role there, and he's looked so explosive for Switzerland as an attacking player. Is he a six? Is he a deeper midfielder, or is this someone who's going to naturally have their game evolving to be more of an attacker, like a winger or a 10?

To me, he's just a modern midfielder in the sense that he's positionless. It's like in the Enrique system, you could see him playing any one of those three. You could play him off the left. As far as what I've seen of him at Freiburg, you know, originally I was just looking at his statistics. and before they took down the FB ref, like, percentiles, I was interested in because they were just off the chart. Why did they do that?

Because of betting in the World Cup? Because of sports betting. It was giving, like, too much valuable information. We should make a clone website. I think it might be too much. We were so stupid, Elliot. We could have made a clone website. But he, yeah.

No one's thought of that, actually. It's the first time it's been thought. When they played Villa in the Europa in the Europa final, despite them getting absolutely crunched, He was the best player on the field by a mile. And that's on a field with, you know, Rogers, Onana, Tileman, Wawkins. He was the best player and it wasn't close. And I was like, okay, he's going to explode for the Swiss team.

That's what's happened. Yeah. So he's potentially out, Argentina, Egypt. I mean, it's been two fucking heart stoppers in a row. Siempre leo. Siempre mess. This is the easiest path to the World Cup final. All they've had is basically the potential of England.

in the semi-final, I'm sorry, Norway. The way that Messi kept that ball down, any other player who takes that, who fucking swings it at that, like, it goes fucking, as Elliot would say, Roseette. You know, like, I-Zad. Jose, I mean, the way it just clipped the bottom of the bar, I'm like, you just saw it rising.

And like, when he snaked, like, he was, like, coming down the right, and he snaked that defender. I was like, it's, It's really just, I keep gushing about it. But it's really just awesome. We get to keep watching him play ball. And guess what?

If the VAR has to help us out, I don't. It's always. It has to cheat every opponent of Argentina. It's always been corrupt, okay? It's always, they used to have Kissinger threatening the Peru team's laps, okay? Would you make the last 10 minutes, guys, of the Egypt match? I loved it.

I thought it was captivating football theater. It was why do we come to the World Cup. I mean, obviously, a lot of people feel it was tarnished by the overturned goal, but you had the Egypt counterattack that was blown where they could have made it safe. You know, you had the messy goal, which is obviously the moment of the tournament. So far, Enzo's header. And anyone who watches football a lot has been on the, the Egypt side of this.

You're winning, but you know the nerves are there. And you know if they get one, you're in trouble. They say two nil is the most dangerous lead in football. And you know why they say that because anyone who has supported a team that's trying to defend a lead late knows that quicksand feeling. That this team hasn't scored

a goal against DeSalle game, but somehow there's an avalanche of them coming. And I felt for Egypt, because we've been on the other side of that, certainly as Arsenal fans down the years. And like, that feeling of inevitability in football is such an extraordinary thing when it's palpable like that. I thought it was captivating. Yeah, I loved it. Yeah. We have been on the other side.

I mean, there was a 4-4 at Newcastle if you want to relive it where Arsenal were torn up. You know he's dead. Tiotte. Teota is dead. Oh, yeah. What do you think about the precedent of Var going that far back? Now, I know technically it's still in the same phase of play because number 12 on Egypt who had a great game was dribbled by four people in that sequence through the back third to the middle third to the front third. Do you think that

that opens a can of worms potentially for how VAR is used moving forward? So here's the thing the way I look at it. If you want to look at the American sports angle, like forget this is football, pretend this is NFL. American sports would absolutely rule that game out, I rule that goal out

because it'd be like, well the foul is how they got the counterattack. Yeah, it was off It's a much more fluid game in terms of how it thinks about the application of the laws. I don't like the precedent of going that far back to overturn it, but I understand the logic that that foul is how they start the counterattack that leads to the goal. So it felt very contrary to the traditions of football. You know, against Liverpool, against Liverpool, on the edge of the box, I think there's this time where Martin Oedegaard had a hand.

ball. Well, I didn't see it. I didn't... I didn't... That was ruled out. There was a similar situation. Martinelli had a great goal at Old Trafford to what would have been, I think, when it's the game in Old Trafford, and there was a foul.

I think Martin O'Degard committed taking the ball off United and they brought it back for that foul. Yeah. I think I was someone, I said Nick Wright, he was talking about the bullshit red card against Baligan, and I just sent him the David Louise red card against Wool. And I was like, you think, what do you think? Red card and penalty. And penalty.

I have night. I think that's the worst one. Guys, we got to stop. No, but, oh my God, I have nightmares of that one. Just how. How? I still don't see it. Okay.

Guys, there's no way that's worse than the rice sending off for kicking the ballway. For being, for being assaulted in an alleyway at night. Joel Veltman. Joel Veltman, who, you know, just got, I mean, a kick from him might feel like, like, it's, like, you know, like a... He swung through him. I was shocked. He wasn't sent off in that game. He was attacked.

He was attacked by him in broad daylight. And then they blame us. They blame the agenda. And guess what? This year, they finally started calling it right. Because some, because they definitely wanted Man City to not win the other. Anyway, guys, let's go ahead, just finally, Argentina, Switzerland. Shaka still looks like I think their best midfielder, I would say, at this point.

You know, Argentina just have better players across the 11. I mean, it's as fair. That necessarily doesn't translate all the time in the World Cup, but, you know, it's going to take, I think, probably some sort of freak, weird thing, but we've seen that happen. I mean... I think without Mnzambi, this is game over. They need an X-Fact.

Sorry, Mundami. If Zora and Mandami is not able to play for Switzerland, then I think it's game over. Yeah. You know, we're going to see him in the final. I think what is a... Johnny Baby won. I mean, in a final, I think ratings-wise, I think you want the rematch.

You want the rematch. And I think I'm really excited. I mean, in a semifinal, I think it sounds pretty much like we all have Spain, France, and then we have the Geezers versus Argentina. Is this the worst World Cup quarterfinal draws that we've seen? It does feel like a round of like 16 or 32 or whatever. Are you guys not excited for England, Norway?

Like, I feel like I'm on an island by myself thinking that that's a fascinating, fascinating game. I think they might have to walk it for a while because it's the 90s. The best record of any team in Euro qualifying. They scored like a million goals and conceded almost none. Why are they being taken for granddad? Well, Sam and I went to Norway, Senegal, and they looked pedestrian. So I might have a little bit of a bias against Norway. But, you know, granted, they have the best.

I mean, Elliot, how many players from Norway get into the England team besides Holland? And he was born there! And he was born there! But maybe even Holland doesn't, right? Like, depending on the personnel, you might want Kane and stop. Stop that. Stop that. No. You think Erling Holland is definitely, without doubt, a better footballer than Harry Kane? By a big margin, yes. Yeah.

I don't know. To me, to me, they feel pretty equal. I would personally rather Holland as well, but I think they are of the same level. I think it's different aspects of their game. I play them together. I'd play Kane and Holland together and that came be like a nine and a half. But then where's June? I mean, now you're starting,

now you're thinking Deshaun. Now I've got the Gareth Southgate problem, right? I'm picking Foden and Palmer. I don't know what I'm doing. But it's all very FIFA too. Like, yes, they've got a lot of talent. But if you tell me that you think Rice, Anderson and Bellingham is a coherent.

midfield, I can poke holes in that. I don't think that those profiles. I think you need a proper eight to connect Rice and Bellingham. Otherwise, Bellingham is either coming too far back and trying to do Royal the Rovers, everything, which worked against Mexico. But I want him higher up closer to Kane. And I don't think Ely and Anderson and Declan Rice both need to be in there. There's duplicative qualities in there that I think redundant qualities.

I think what we're seeing is Rice because he's so comprehensive. of it. I mean, the thing that Rice does, and he does it for us, is that he, he fixes, like, 20 fuckups a game, right? And there are little, little, like, fuckups that could just lead to, like a leak that could just lead to, like a, like a, just the entire damn breaking. I think because he's that guy, Elliot Anderson can then roam and hunt, right? The funny thing is you should put Anderson on Norway for Sandoberga and put Odegaard into England I would say, I was going to say, if I could, Sam, the answer to your question, who would I, who would get into the England team? I would start Odigard over Jude.

I mean, it's simple. And if you're Rayall Madrid, if you're Rayal Madrid, I think you want, I think you want O'Digard. And then I would swap him for Jude any day. But even if you put Odegaard into the team, and by the way, Elliot, I think you're right. I think that is a more balanced midfield. Rice, Oedegard, Jude is better than Rice Anderson, June. I think you're right, too. But who else gets in?

So you say Holland, you say Odegaard. I don't think, and the funny thing for me is, I don't know that any other Norwegian player is even that close to being substituted, is even like an impact player off the bench. I don't know how many make the team. I agree with you. I mean, I think...

But that's why I think England, England, if England play well, they will win this game. Would you... If they play okay, they'll probably win this game. Would you rotate in Oscar Bob on the right? Yes. Yeah. I think Oscar Bob could maybe be a real...

rotation piece on the right. Oh, for England? Yeah. No. You would just take Cole Palmer if you wanted Oscar Bob. No, I would I would put in I would put in I yes you're right. I would say Noni Madi Waka is looking like a 250 million pound player. But Noni Baduakei walks into that Norway team. That's the funny thing. He does everything so well except for one thing. The most important thing. How many guys have you had like that? I mean Gabby Jay. I mean he's he's a Dama Trioari. Like it's it's it's the same kind of situation. Gabby Jay does everything perfectly except for one thing and that's

the thing that his striker needs. Anyway, enough about Arsenal guys. Elliot, thank you for joining us. We're going to do a real fun game. Sam wants to play a game with us. I think Elliot, you'll do a round. I'll do a round. I just want to make sure you have me back when England

win 5-0 over Norway so I can disavow anything I've said about. Yeah, yeah. We will. We will. We're going to have a Mayo Colpa segment on Tuesday with CR. We're going to do what is a game of what this or that.

This or that. Him or that him. Him or her. Him or her. Okay. So yeah. Yeah. So we're talking

21st century footballers. Yes. Elliot will take the first one. I'll take the second. And this will be really fun. Okay. Elliot.

Michael Alise or Bucay Osaka? Oh, fuck. Why are you? starting there? Because I want to test his... Why are you fucking asshole right now? This is who I... Like, if I'm starting a team, I have to pick one of these players.

So in the 21st century, let's say, view it most importantly over like the peak of a three-year run. But 21st century. Bukaiosaka, Michael Lisei, who do you think is a better player? No, you know what this is going on the internet. I'm just going to do the stuff thing to say, Bukaiosaka.

Why? Stop it, Sam. Why are you being so mean to us? Because I love him. He loves answering questions. What do you mean? Because I love him. and I believe that if you ignore the Achilles issue,

if you ignore the Achilles issue, I think Bukaiusaka has the ability to be a Muhammad Sala level wide player if he can just get back to full fitness. For what it's worth, I actually think Michael Lisei, say maybe one of the three best players in world football as well, but I'm still picking Bikaiusaka because I love it. And there's really no other reason. Have we ever seen evidence?

Stop it, stop it. Stop it next. Okay. Riyadh-Marez or Vinny Jr.? Vinnie Jr. Vinnie Jr. or Sadio Mani? Vinny Jr. Vinny Jr. or Alexis Sanchez? Alexis Sanchez or Antonio DiMaria?

Alexis Sanchez. Anhelle. On hell. Oh, on hell. Yeah, I don't know why I said Antonio. Oh, I got you. I sand you. Yeah, you did.

Okay. Alexis Sanchez or Dembele? Alexis Sanchez. Sanchez or Robin? Iron Robin. Robin or Kvarath Scalia? Iron Robin. Robin or Hazard?

Iron Robin. Robin or Bail? Iron Robin. Whoa. I think I and Robin when Fit was the closest thing we had to like a messy level player for a couple of years. So are you saying it's peak? Well, I guess it's up to your interpretation. I think the only player who's really ever seemed like messy to me was Namar.

Yeah, exactly. So, okay, Robin or Muhammad Salah? Salah. Salah or Yamal? Salah. Salah or Namar? Namar or Ronaldinho? Ronaldinho.

Ronaldinho or Cristiano Ronaldo? Ronaldino or Messi? Messi. Okay, so Elliot thinks that Messi is the best winger of the 21st century. I think he's the best any player on the pitch of the 21st century. I think he's the best goalkeeper, five and six. This is like the people who commentate on football and go, is it time to discuss whether Messi might be the greatest of all time.

I think it is time. I think it's about damn time. All right, Sam, hit me. Midfielders. You want attacking mids or center mids? Center mids. Okay, Adam. Do you know any of those?

Tiago or Joshua Kimick? Tiago Alcantra? Yeah. Tiago. Tiago or Schweine Steiger? Schweine Steiger. Schweine Steiger or Vidal. Vidal or Macha Lele?

I didn't really watch as much. Okay, Vidal or rice Rice. Rice or Pierlo? Comprehensibly rice. Rice or skulls. Oh, fuck. Fuck. Fuck you. I think you know the answer.

Skoles. Rice. Rice. Rice. It is rice. It is rice. It is rice. Okay. Rice or Alonzo. Jabi Alonzo. Fuck. Jabby Alonzo or Roy Keane. I didn't watch Roy, but like Jabby Alonzo. Alonzo or Javby Alonzo. Javi? Javier Nandez?

Yeah. I would say Alonso. Alonso or Gerard? I might be wrong, but I didn't watch as much Steve. Okay. Alonso or Conte. Conte Riviera. I mean...

If you don't pick Patrick Beard, I'm walking off the show. Patrick Vieira. Why? Because he's ours... No, Conte. Conte. Conte is... Conte and Torre is the best midfieler.

Conte went. Lester Prem. Chelsea Prem, World Cup Champions League. Okay, fine. Yeah, Conte or Cruz. Well, Vieira went invincible World Cup. World Cup 98.

Premier League, Premier League. Invincible. But it's World Cup 98. He won a Euro and two Prems, and then he sort of sputtered out in Italy. He kind of was, he was fading by the time I started watching. He was on YuVe when I started watching. Yeah, Yuvay and then what, Inter?

And then Man City. Man City legend, Patrick Vieira. Yeah. Okay. I think we're Patrick Beard. Just to make a point about him, I don't think he was a whole, midfielder strictly.

I think Conte was better deeper, but I think Viera was better bringing the ball forward. He was box and box. I think Vira was definitely a better player than Conte, but as far as Conte was good for a fucking rocket, though. He was good for a pop. Yeah, he had a couple. I don't know.

When did Conte? Vieira. Viera. Vieira or Cruz. We're almost done. Viera. Viera or Rodry. Vieira Rodry.

Yeah. Okay, wait. He won one euro. Roderie won euro. He won what, four or five prems, Champions League, Ballandor. He didn't win a knockout until this year. In the World Cup. Yeah, but they might win it.

De Nogne. The era. You're that confident that Spain can't beat France? I don't know. With the drinks breaks, I don't know. Continue. Just say the one. Say the one I love.

Say the one. Rodry or Modrich? No, no. You have to answer this one first. It's hard. It's a point. Luca Madrich. Madrich or Busquettes.

But he, oh, oh, oh. You're like Larry David. Iniesta, Yaya Torre, one, two. Fuck you. Fine, fine. Yaya Torre, the best player I've ever seen. Vanger wanted to make him a nine. He played centerback in Barcelona.

I wanted to have 11 of any player on the pitch. she'd pick 11 Yahya Tori. He's the best player I've ever watched. What about 11 Cesar Espeliquitos? What about 11? That's a deep cut, Adam. You probably wouldn't get it. Aspiriquita.

Do you remember where that's from, Matt? From what, Chelsea? Yeah, no, Marino said that if he could pick any player, he'd want 11 asesar Aspili Quetas. Dude, Marino said if you could be, I would want 11 Mario Balotelio. That's who I would want.

That would be awesome. All right. Elliot has been great. Sam, it's been great. Let's give Sam a Fott mob rating. I would say you're a fucking, that was a 9-2. Really? Yeah, 9-2.

8.8. You had a hat trick of assist. What did I do wrong, Elliot? What can I do better? First of all, you forced me to pick sack. You forced me to pick sack. You're such a that. You were a real one.

You picked me down. You picked me down. I didn't enjoy that at all. You went with Antonio, D. Maria. That's another one. It wasn't Antonio D. Maria. That's a howler. That was a howler. That was a lone goal.

Guys, thanks for joining us. We'll be back next Tuesday with CR. Guys, I'm really bummed. It's one game a day and then it's two tomorrow and then we're going to stop having games every day. And what are we going to do? Talk to our families. Go to Dublin and watch

Arsenal Ray Al-Bettis in the pre-season. You're amazing. You're a man with the code, Elliot. Thanks for joining us. Check out Elliot's podcast, Arsenal Vision podcast, post-match podcast, whatever the fuck is called. All right, they have the best club-specific podcast.

I think they're award-winning club-specific podcast, if that's right. You won that at the AVN Awards, the best club specific. Okay, okay. Thanks a lot, guys. Bye. 21 plus and present in select states

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