The Adam Friedland Show (Cumtown) - USMNT Is 2-0, Messi's Hat Trick, and More World Cup Reactions | The Beautiful Pod

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

Adam and Chris react to the USMNT's second win of the World Cup, defeating Australia 2-0 in Seattle. Then they discuss Tunisia's new coach Hervé Renard, ask whether England peaked too soon, go over their biggest takeaways from France's win, talk Messi's hat trick, and get into even more World Cup reactions. (00:00) Welcome to The Beautiful Pod(01:20) USMNT Defeats Australia 2-0(09:30) Manager Watch: Hervé Renard(15:15) Did England Peak Too Early?(27:00) Takeaways From France's Win Over Senegal(36:15) Messi's Hat Trick(44:40) Quick Hits Host: Adam FriedlandCohost: Chris RyanExecutive Producers: Adam Friedland, Marc Fineman, and Mason KleinWriters: Adam Friedland and Sam SerxnerProducers: Sam Serxner and Julia CassidyEditor: Tucker TashjianStudio 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/@tafsclips Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The Beautiful Pond. This is our instant reaction to acintillating 2-0 victory in Seattle. Washington Beast Mode was there. The United States just dominated the suckaroos of Australia. I thought it was a crap second half. I'm Chris Ryan. Oh yeah, what, Chris? I'm Chris Ryan, and I'm joined by my co-host, Adam Friedland.

When Westcham first took flight in 1996, the vibes were a bit different. People thought denim on denim was peak fashion. Inline skates were everywhere, and two out of three women rocked, the Rachel. While those things stayed in the 90s, one thing that hasn't is that fuzzy feeling you get when WestJet welcomes you on board. Here's to WestJetting since 96. Travel back in time with us and actually travel with us at westjet.com slash 30 years. And how are you? How's Los Angeles, Adam? It's great.

Marshawn Lynch, Robert Kennedy Jr., also in the building for USA. Really? He has a son. Wait. So nice they named, they named it twice. It's weird. There should be a junior for the third one. The third. You know, yeah. Yeah, but the third, you just get a number. There should be a name for each two. Okay. Wait, you have that flag in front of your house, the rigor flag? Yeah, this is my house. You got that next to the guy that don't tread on me. That's right. I saw that on Google Maps. And if you want Chris's address, it is seven, three. So, yes, the United States' men's national team looked phenomenal in the first half. It looked like a proper side. I think we were talking over text a little bit about who the real teams are. And what real team indicates is who is just has an actual tactical identity. And so I think we put it, the U.S. certainly does fit into that category, I think. It's safe to say. They are for real. No hipster hat on me. I'm ready to, I'm ready to give my, my flowers.

to poach. I mean, the thing that I think that they do, that the best teams in the tournament so far have done is run their ass off and take the game to the opponents and really boss it. That was the international football to me is always like really safe. It's playing poker for hours on end and this has been more like, let's play blackjack. Let's win this game. It's cool. It feels like this tournament has elements of what we love about club ball. The Japanese are certainly, as we were saying before, the best example of like a kind of cohesive tactical. identity, but I think, I think England are as well, and we'll get to England, but like, definitely you can see two people's fingerprints all over their tactics. And especially in the second half, the first half they were shaking off kind of a hostage situation that they were in, yeah, Tommy Stetford backup keeper was taken hostage. It's just the curse of Sir Bobby Robinson that they've had on this trip. Sure. Honestly, who the hell is coaching this team? Chase, you know? What are they on a national lampoon-style vacation? They're going to Wally World next. And now they've had a hostage situation. Mark Gahey was nice enough to use evangelical

church funds. But let's get back to the United States. The country from whence we come from, it's not from whence, the country that we're in right now. What did you make in that first app, Chris? I thought that there was probably some lucky breaks for the states but they played that they took advantage of them so they get the own goal they get a I wouldn't call it very like close VAR decision that goes their way so they go up to nothing

and then when Australia tried to kick the shit out of them and play like early 2000s Millwall they actually stood up and and took it back to them so I thought all in all like a really impressive performance even without yeah I mean they're league one bro I mean, that was disappointing.

That was a championship relegation battle side. I mean, it's kind of, and what I will say is I, from not mistaken, their coach likes to chat a little shit. And so I'm glad Landon Donovan, it really pissed him off, that Australia's coach has been chirping us for months now. And guess what? It didn't work because we can't understand what you are saying. Yeah, I mean, I think that,

It's strange. Aaron Kunda, who's the hero of the first match, did not start. He was stepped on at halftime. He was the most dangerous player they had, though. Most dangerous player they had. Great story. He grew up in a refugee camp in Burundi,

which I had to look up as make sure it wasn't an Australian slur for something or other. It does sound like one. I look at a bunch of Burundis. It does sound like, you know they have a slur for everything there. They do. They do. I was there was there in Australia was and they were like, you know, when I got around there, it's a bunch of lembos. And I was like, what, like, like, like lesbian? They was like, no, Libanais. I was like there's like three million. Like it's just like, it's so specific. I mean, they're passionate people. There are a bunch of white people on the other side of the world just making up words.

Do you know what Alex Freeman's nickname is, Chris? What's Alex Freeman's nickname? Alex Adam Friedland Freeman. Alex Freeman. Yeah. He's my favorite. You think he's a fan? I mean, whether or not he's a fan, he's my favorite player on the team because his name kind of sort of sounds like my... Oh, Chris, I know we're a herky-jurkey start today, but I just want to show you something. I have a surprise for you.

Okay. Guess, check it out. It's a recliner. You got a recliner. I dropped something underneath his chair yesterday. I found it was a secret, and it doesn't even communicate as a recliner. It looks like, okay, that's it. You can cut off.

All right. Let's get back to the United States Special. What do you... Okay, here's the thing. This was an outdoor example of a Potch, like, a system team. Apparently it was hot in Seattle. I think maybe, could we speculate the second half was a little bit of fatigue. It was silly. A.F without their talisman, Mr. C.P. himself,

which doesn't stand for what a lot of people in the... comments are saying it stands for. That's a horrible joke to make about Captain America. It doesn't stand for that. Did you also almost just call him chat GPD? Mr.

Mr. Chris Christian Chapit Polisich. No, a lot of people are claiming that we're calling him CP because it's also an acronym for something horrific.

And I would never make that joke. No. And I would... You're better than that. And you respect the flag and you respect the USMNT. I didn't even know that that was an acronym. Okay, so maybe you're the one that likes it. Do they wrap him in ice for the last two group games now that they're through? I mean, they have qualified.

Do they win the group? I think they still have to, like, Paraguay needs to win tonight and they win the group or something like that. No, no, no, Turkey. Australia needs to score a ton of goals in their last match if we and if we lose the next one. So we're basically qualified. I think we looked fine. We looked co-hero without him in the first half.

The ball was moving. Dest, we were saying Sam and I, his face right now, the way Sam is looking at me. The way he's just like, the way he's reacting to my commentary. It's like, you don't know ball? Because he just think, yeah, it's just like, evaluating, evaluating, evaluating. But when he likes something, he's like,

Yeah. I guess like what did we learn about the United States team for this match, Chris? What are your takeaways here? That they're tough. That nobody can like kick them off the field. And that that poach is probably one of the better managers in this entire competition. I thought it was smart him rotating the fullbacks. It kind of reminded me of Tuchel bringing on a whole new front three for England the other day. It's like these smart hockey subs that people are making. So I just think we're playing with a full deck.

Yeah, we were both saying that as well. We were like, it's like professional rotation and substitutions. Like it was, it's a real coach. And a lot of teams, like France, for instance, we'll get to France. It's a lot of teams are like the Eastern Conference All-Stars, if you know what I mean. Like a lot of teams are a collection of talent that are really communicating in a system. And a lot, the real teams, I mean, I think we said to Austria also, I guess under Ragnac. But like, will that be an advantage?

Is this a time where you have to start playing this way in the World Cup? And seeing this for the first time be a thing in the World Cup is really cool. Well, it's also like a testament to the fact that guys like Tucho and Pocchio could probably still manage Champions League football. I mean, they definitely could. Are choosing to be an international management and maybe bringing some of their sensibility from club teams to nations. It's like that's actually a competitive advantage because you've still got guys like Deschamp who were like, I cannot fucking lose. That's the biggest thing.

Yeah. And let him, I'm scared of him. That's Deshaum's other strategy. It's like, please don't yell at me, sir. He's best friends with the president. You know what I'm saying. You know who I'm talking about. You know who I'm talking about.

He makes everyone worse. But we'll get to Mbapé later in the episode. I did want to just report one big news story. It rocked the trains, if you will. The soccer news. and what every soccer, everyone, footballer reads every morning. It's got like the sanitation news that Tony Sopranor reads.

I want to get to our consistent, I guess, kind of segment that we've been doing, the Gaffers. There was a huge move. We only briefly touched on this the other day. Yeah, there was a huge move. I said briefly, and I wasn't saying it was a joke. there was a huge kind of front office move.

Herve Renard was appointed as the new coach of Tunisia after La Mucci, was that his name? Lamucci more like the Jamal Khashoggi, if you will, of this tournament. Jesus Christ. I'm sorry. There's this. I'm sorry, they shouldn't have killed their coach after just, just. playing every single player out of position. But no, they brought in her regard.

Let's put a picture of this gentleman up there. Honestly, looking at pictures, diplomatic immunity. It is, it is very, but that's South African. Yeah, but it is very lethal weapon too. Yes. The diplomatic immunity. Yeah, this is, oh my God.

First of all, how is there no wrinkles on this shirt? And also, can you size up on the shirt? They don't even sell this at Uniglo I don't know where he got this. The way it grips his breasts. I mean, this is the most French. This is the most French like a settler colonial. The French foreign lesion kind of like,

I just go to Africa. He's coached Zambia 08 to 2010. Angola 2010. Zambia, back to Zambia, 2011 to 2013. Ivory Coast, 2014, 2015. Morocco, 16 to 19. Saudi.

he coached 19 to 23. Then he coached the French women for six months, I believe. And they all got so horny that they had to send him back to Saudi 24 and 26. Tunisia 26. He's back. They probably did. I mean, how can't even look at the, looking at the picture makes me uncomfortable of this guy.

I mean, like, listen, they've brought the boy back. He's going back to Mother Africa to yell at Africa. I guess. Like, this is the guy's specialty. Of course, if you want to get to know him, he was the coach of Saudi Arabia during their famous match against Argentina, the last World Cup. And just to get a sense of his vibe, let's play a brief clip of his speech at halftime, his inspirational speech.

What are we doing here? Salé. This is oppressing? What actor is this? What actor is this? You will go eye. Mati, last time, Messi, at the middle of the pit,

he has the Lord, you stay in front of the defense. You want to go to Mark him in the middle? I love the translator. Translator is doing method translating. Yeah, he's translated pills. You're in front of defense. You are in front of defense. You have not.

What actor is he said what you did you see what you did you see what you did you do you don't feel something here you know what's the mrs. you don't feel we are able to come back okay I think we got a good idea okay he was like he is he he's like that actor that actor that plays the other thief in the oceans movies yeah Who's that fucking guy? It's Vincent Cassell. He's Vincent Cassell.

Yeah, he's the Night Fox. Okay, so this speech actually worked. It inspired them to a famous performance against Argentina. And then the team that won the World Cup, to be fair to them. And they were promised every player a Rolls-Royce after this victory. Fake news. And they weren't, Sam, shut up. And the stingy Saudis did not give it to them.

Classic. Listen, this is a terrible move. Chris, do you agree with me? There's only one man that could write the ship. Herve. And I think we know who it is. No? This was the wrong hire.

No. The thing about Herve that you got to understand is that if you play 53 seasons of football manager, that's when you start managing every Africa national side. It's just unbelievable that he does this in his normal life. Well, we looked up, like, let's go back to a picture of this guy. First of all, he's, he's glowing, okay? His skin, he's like, he's so wet, okay? He's like, as a guy.

We looked it up, like, he could be any age, right? Because he is a guy when you're at vacation with your girlfriend who's at the pool and then he's just staring at her intensely as he's like in his speedo, jumping in and doing the best dive you've ever seen. And it's like, go ahead. Honestly, like, I'm not, come on. You can have her. I mean, what am I going to do?

I mean, just imagine him having sex. else on this on this mercenary on this ffell just this beau travail style killer clare did he's this guy who just continuously just goes to africa to yell no i think you summed it up yeah we got a vincent itself okay let's talk about our voice chris is it coming oh um did you did you feel anything did you watch them sing along to wonderwall after the game Um, I felt something during God save the king. Yeah, I have to say.

I, I've, my attitude to the royal family has been, I got to admit where I'm wrong. I was wrong about them. I, I think they're good. I, I, I was all mixed up and, uh, I can't stand how disrespectful Megan has been. Okay, let's continue. Uh, no, I'm definitely, when they sang Wonderwall, it's, uh, yes, it's the lads on a stag dude. They love a holiday, right? And it's like there's something about, and they love America also.

They love L.A. They love it there. You have to deal with that over there where you are. That's why I stay here where it's illegal to be British, according to Mamdani. Did England peak too early? Wait, in the second half of the game? Yeah. I mean, in the first half, I wouldn't call that peaking necessarily. I would say second half running rampant, concluding with the entire home end or the England end of the

Dallas Stadium singing Wonderwall to them is like as good as it's going to get. You're saying peak England. Yes. You're saying peak England. I don't know. They could all like what if the entire team got veneers that are too big for their mouths? I thought Hurricane, Hurricane safe, messy, and Holland basically put in the best performance I've seen in the World Cup so far.

He missed a penalty in reality. In reality, but he was also fucking dealing. He was absolutely dealing from like that deep line forward position. I would say he went into the tournament, the best striker in the world. I would say Holland looks like the best striker in the world right now. It's one match. What are we going to conclude? That was bullshit.

That was bullshit. That was absolute bullshit. And if I was, if I was Croatia, I would just be like, I would, it would fuck with me the rest of the first out. It was also pathetic that it was on Madritch. It's like, I can't believe that they're calling penalties on the greatest. midfielder of my lifetime. Well, there's, no, it's more of the retake. I mean, like, like, also it's just a stupid rule.

He's got a stutter step, right? Like, why is it? It's just like, what do you? It's just stupid way. Like, saving a penalty is like, you have probably, what, a 15% chance of the guy not scoring and saving one. I mean, most of the time it's a guy missing the target, right? Yeah. Save your penalty for a, for a keeper is like, what, less than 10% thing, probability-wise.

Unless you're Emmy Martinez, yeah. Unless you're Emmy Martinez and you're just like, I don't know, acting like you're like a, like a, what, like he's like, like his testicles are big. What's he doing the big ball, touchdown dance? He does Sam Cassell. He does onions. I don't get what he's doing, but it works. And, uh, but spotlight on Sam.

Sam, Sam said the Croatian keeper was making a meal out of all his saves. He said that the Croatian keeper was over saving. It's enough. It's enough of it. If I have to watch like an over dive with like a fall to the ground and a collapse and all the teammates coming around and giving him a kiss. That's hat. Yeah. The other path.

You don't, you like when men are men, right? You don't like when... It's not even men are men. It's just get on with it. Yeah. Gary Cooper is so excited.

That's right. High noon back there. You're acting the way that people acted towards Arsenal this year. Everyone, the celebration police every guy. It never does that. We weren't allowed to celebrate. Now you're being like them.

The, yes, you mentioned it earlier. The three men substitution really stood out to me because I'm like, damn, they got more guys. Yes. And it really like,

they just like, they brought on like just a, like just three like incredible players at once. And I mean like what did you make of that? Like was that was the moment to me where I was like, oh, oh shit. I mean, they actually have something. That was a cheat code. They also brought on Spence and they got like 25% faster.

And Croatia just had no answer. Because they brought on Rogers, Saka, Rashford and Spence pretty much in a cluster. And then all of a sudden we're just like 10 yards ahead of Croatia for the rest of the game. It was insane. Yeah, I think the real losers. are like Phil and Cole Palmer when we found out that like the right side is better to have

Noni who is dribbling six guys and then skying it and sack on one Achilles than the Cole Palmer and Foden so that's what we found out. I'm not saying that because I'm an Arsenal fan. I'm saying it because we saw a system employed that was actually cohesive

and the ball moved. The other thing was that they didn't bring Phil Cole and Trent had a bad season but I thought they would, you know, Train Alexander Arnold is a creative, like, genius for England and for his club teams when he's in form. Didn't bring any of those guys. And it turns out it doesn't matter because they have Elliott Anderson. And they have... He really impressed me. Yeah.

He really did impress me. And as I said, they have came. They have came. In our preview episode, I was like, I don't know how that three-man midfield works. It worked in that first match, we'll say. It was silly season in the first half. But granted, the English players didn't get much sleep because they were haunted last night by the good. goes to Sir Bobby Robson, in fact.

And he was like with chains. Like it was a Christmas carol. Yeah. Ooh. Oh. It's okay. That's just, it's, that was stupid. Why don't, why do I even talk?

Um, yes. My main takeaway in terms of low, lighter negatives is you, Pickford cannot play with his feet. Nope. And it's a big problem. Problematically. Yeah. Yeah.

Um, my prediction of Jordan Pickford being number one on hooked instinct watch actually i think vini was number one for me but uh it is a real problem uh they're their their center back pairing and uh they're goalkeeper and uh they can they can uh you know provide a platform for silly season for other for other uh countries that they're playing and i think that that's what we saw like uh gay he's uh undersized uh stones is so stones is like slow at this point of of this career i think he used to have some some uh some what do you call it some pace We're going to talk to Ben Foster

on Tuesday I want to talk about keepers and I also want to ask him if he feels bad for getting Ramsdale transferred basically because he's the number

one concern it's hard to pay attention the entire match and then I'm like oh oh no don't say that dude just say I pay attention the whole match

just why we should get Aaron Ramsdale to do Jeff Teague's podcast and see what he what revelations came out of that that would be Unreal. Yeah, they take him to, what do you call it?

To, uh, magic city. Thank you. Sam, I've been there, actually. Have you been there? Sam? I've never been to a strip club. I'm going to take you there and get the lemon pepper loos. Okay.

What do you make of our boy Jude? Uh, fantastic, man. He was rampant. He was back. And he also was getting to play a little bit further up, uh, getting to make big runs. behind the defense, which is where he was for Madrid two years ago, before Killian came and

put fascistic military rule over Real Madrid. So, we should get, we should revisit that, but I think we're gonna go France next. I thought June was the best player for the English national side. I thought he stood out to me,

and it's great to see him back. It's just like that, yes, I think maybe one of the other losers, I mean, in the same sense of Foden and Colb is we're seeing direct evidence that maybe Mbapé

makes other guys worse. Can I just do one more loser for the England team before we move on? Let's hear it. This Harry McGuire humiliation tour is unbelievable for me. Him going on this Netflix show and just being like awkward conversation

with Thomas who didn't dress the issues at hand. And he's like making a complete asshole of himself. And now apparently he's in New York City doing Panini sticker sign out of a truck? Is his family in economic crisis? What is happening?

Don't go to the World Cup when you weren't invited. And he's just like, yeah, he's so awful. He's acting like such a fucking BPDX girlfriend. He's like, if you don't start, if you don't select me, I'm going to kill myself. If you don't select me, I'm going to do a fucking, I'm going to do a signing in the parking lot. Meet England's Harry McGuire,

who once was arrested. for a fight in Abiza. And, yeah, that is a great, that is a great pull. I gotta be honest. And,

and another quick, quick shout to Declan Rice's quarters. I mean, like, what we say about Arsenal being set piece, FC, I think what is kind of, what's lost in that label

is that the two of those guys, I think, and probably 80% of the equation is the delivery that those guys provide. And even on an outsweyer, Rice just put it on a plate. I think like it's not even about Gabrielle or like the guys in the middle.

It is about literally the two best fucking examples of like quarter takers that I, that I know of. I don't watch every fucking game. Also, just for as much as we've just talked up poach for, uh, for the U.S. Tuchel apparently going in to halftime and being like, I don't really care if we lose. So like if you can't stop a goal and we have seven guys in the back, you might as well just go for it and take the handbrake off. and I thought that was awesome. Yeah.

One last thing for England, Chris, I wanted to, I had made. I made this thing. It's kind of like, the two of us like we know and we acknowledge that it's obnoxious for Yanks to be talking football. And like no one wants to hear about what we think about like, you know, Croif's invention of the modern six.

So I, I wanted like at halftime, I wrote a halftime team talk. Okay. And I've used AI. I, excuse me, I'm sorry. I used AI to change the accent so that it wouldn't sound like I'm lecturing

the England national team. It would be obnoxious of me to do. So did you put it in a German accent? No, well, no, I didn't actually do it. I assume if I were there, I'd be English. So I just wanted to play this for you. Oh, I see. If you got caught for having a wank

and somebody walks in, but you keep wanking, then who looks like the idiot? The guy watching you having a wank, right? That's exactly what it's like with your posting content. If you give up, then you look an idiot to the rest of the world. But if you keep going, then everybody else thinks fuck. He's actually going to get somewhere.

Why the fuck shouldn't I do that? That's exactly what consistency is. That's how you build trust, and trust is how you sell. Yeah, so if you get caught out of your way, if you have to keep doing it, and then people might be like, what's he on about? So that's what I would have told them. And I know that's a bad word,

and I know that that has gotten Alexi Lawless sent to Guantanamo Bay. Do you see Zlatan? Because Alexi went to Seattle. to hang out with Carly Lloyd and Clint Dempsey, and so then Zlatan was like, you're welcome America? I think a little bit like, they need to be like, just,

you don't act like you're his best friend, but like, be a little nicer. It's a little bit like, yeah, these guys sucks next to me. We all know he sucks, letting him suck. Oh, wow. Slotan, stop telling him he sucks. Getting Alexi's back.

And he's gonna be a guest on the show, actually. So we, we, honestly, Alexi Lawless has been must see TV. so maybe a little bit more respect on the pedal. It's a lot of thought. Okay, let's get to France. It pissed me off. I got pissed.

I was pissed. I was sitting there pissed. First off, you like, Chris, you want to share your takeaways and then I will go in on a screed. Only say is him. That's my takeaway.

Only says is, is maybe the best, the best young player in the world. I don't even know what the categorization would be, but I couldn't believe how good he was. Sam? You're Lemini yam

one of the best things about the show is Sam's faces he's like Sam you know what the best ability is availability kill that's true

that's true but we'll see what happens in the knockouts I feel he said Yamal is the best young player oh he said

yeah okay fine they're both unreal world class and geniuses of the game it's weird

he plays for France he has no like he sort of has a connection of friend I think he wanted to play

for because it's harder to get on the national side. I literally think that that's why he did it. That's incredible. He's from England, right? And he also has another citizenship as well. A third one. I don't remember what it is.

But I think he's like through his parents or something. It was like, you know, I'm going to try France. I'm going to try the team with Mbapapé on it, the best player in the world. But actually, let's get to that. I, like the, okay, so Mbapé scored a worldy, at the death and it just felt like stat pad, FC type of business. I looked at like how the other players around him looked and they looked terrible. And if you want to contrast to that to the Argentina match, which we have to just talk to and mention,

we're going to on Tuesday have a longer conversation about Messi Rinaldo, which I think is the juiciest subplot of this entire tournament. but if you want to compare it to how messy affects everyone around him, right? And it is an example of how genius elevates those around you. Everyone he touches, literally he touches a baby and it becomes your mall. Like literally. Like, how did that happen? He just, how, it was, they could have had any baby.

How did that happen? And he's literally, I mean, everyone he is touched. It, uh, his coach pep becomes the best coach ever, right? The midfielers that play behind them are the best midfield trio ever. It's literally everyone that surrounds this man. He's part of two of the best forward lines to ever play in Europe. Yeah. Correct.

In my opinion, Suarez Neymar Messi, best at mess in history. Everything he touches, what we're seeing right now is one, I, like if you really, if you exclude league titles, which is like it's a fucking farmer's league with one team. that is owned by the oil industry. The last time we won was the World Cup eight years ago. And I mean, it has to be said that he has, he won at Monaco as a 17-year-old,

and he won the World Cup by the time he was 18 years old. And we haven't seen him win anything of significance since then, and it's bizarre to me. and the conversation has to be what does its effect on those around him? I mean, look at Deh Ballet's performance all year for PSG in a fucking cohesive system

with a proper coach and look at how abject he looked in this last match. I think there's an individual that is playing for himself and guess what? He is so good that it is possible

to just stink up the room for everyone else and just will it individually. Think about it. Honestly, I know, I know, I'm not contradicting myself, but think about how bad Messi's team was in 2014. Think about how bad those guys are. And if you're like the best in the world, you can't actually just carry 10 guys to a final.

But like, this is, it sucks because there are so many good players there. And he's pulling a Ronaldo early right now. And that's what we're seeing. I know he's much more talented than Ronaldo. I know he's scoring Worldies and stuff like that. but he's pulling a Ronaldo in terms of what his needs are versus what the teams needs are. Yeah, and he's also best friends with the president. I mean, like, just like what it, like, it's a little bit like he's become bigger than

Claire Fontaine at this point. That's true. I see. One thing is, is that he plays a different position than Messi. He's not as much of the creative folkroom. He's the finishing leading edge, whatever. Messy was a nine also. Yeah, but he dropped deep.

And, like, once he started doing that, he's, like, he's not. for Barcelona. I think Argentina started utilizing him that way. At least Scoloni did. But like it doesn't even really matter. I agree with you about a lot of it. I think that some of it is France is always going to feel disappointing because

you feel like France should be winning every match four nothing. Five nothing. They this, I literally, I said if they are, what I thought they were before the tournament, I don't understand why they don't have five goals every match. At least. They have eight guys that are fucking sniper

finishers. And guess what? That first half, they got fucking peppered. You know, Santa Claus finishing held them back, in fact. Like, yeah, that could have been a three-three. Nicholas Jackson's, uh, excellent, excellent timing. You can just learn the rule in the game. You're so, he's just, has he ever been on side? No, I guess he really hasn't. Has he been on side, Amber? Because then you see the finish. You're like, oh, he's fucking good. Right? What is he going to do they have to have to have some guy holding a rope? He's probably holding on to hope that like they change the offside rule before he exits his prime. Well, Venger tried an exact vote in this year.

It's not fair. It doesn't make sense. Okay. I just think that like, listen, this guy needs to win. It's like it feels like it's not the same exact situation with Kobe Shack, but like we saw Kobe have three titles by the time we were 22. Right? And like we saw Tiger have so many times where we're like, out. far does this go and then it sucks when he goes away he needs pow he needs pal pal is

olise for him because he's olesea's the one who like he locks him he's the one who like he they time the runs perfectly with each other that's why florentino should pony up 200 for him how is shack pogba oh we could we could go somewhere with this no they don't it's too much dinner who's Declan Rice anyway yeah I mean I just like listen they're really good

they're going to win their group stage they're going to make it deep they feel semi-final right now it feels semifinal to me and to me it should feel like everyone it should be shitting their pants not to play I know we haven't seen Germany twice but that is the

I think Germany France are on the collision course in the in the 16th Round of 16 maybe. Or, yeah, and then Spain, France is in the same I, I think. Yeah, yeah. So it's like they have like a tough road to the final, but that Germany-France match is going to be very illuminating. Not only for this World Cup, obviously, because one team will go home, like going forward because they're both youngish teams. How annoying would it be if you were on a team with someone who's like, yeah, I talked to the president and we just talk about just basically anything.

Just talk. Yeah, me and the president were like best friends. just talk like how annoying is that like what a suck up yeah pretty much the president is one of my best president

I mean like this guy's a loser the president sucks we're punk okay we're just French footballers we're the dead Kennedy we're jello by afra okay I think they're really good

it's not a panic meter it just sucks because I want to see the ball just like I want to see it humming right now. I know. If you look at the roster, he's just like, he's, yeah, he's stat patting and, you know, aiding a fucking worldie. He has the fucking talent. But I just want to see Dewe and Debele and fucking O'Lise and fucking, uh, fucking, uh, Marcus Taram.

Yeah. Marcus Taram and Jean-Philippe Mateta. John Philippe Mateta, make this seem fast, guys. You'd rather watch Crystal Palace players than Mbapé? I'd rather see Mateta with a shirt tucked in, respectful of the crowd. Listen, they paid their harder money. Mateta's tucking a shirted. And like, I'm sure him or Rodry are respectful enough.

We should get like Roderie and Mateta just tucking each other's shirts in. They're the two guys. They're the only two guys with any matters in this whole goddamn sport. Yeah, no, let's move on. I kind of want to talk messy briefly. briefly because we're going to get we're not a larger conversation about kind of I think what we were talking about is

just the narrative of these two stories and where the stories are at right now and how they might end and one's a happy ending one's a sad ending yeah the drastic the like the the contrast between the two is just uh it's there's like it's Shakespearean and I know

when I say things like that you'd be like oh yeah what Shakespeare is that and I'd be like the best probably pretty much just uh midsummer night street yeah for sure much too about nothing yeah uh pretty much taming of a shrew uh no uh yeah i uh it's it we he he we he messy's responsible for more times in my life where i was like i can't believe i'm lucky enough to watch sports and that's really that's really like sappy but that's that's

literally how he makes me feel when i get to see him i and it's corny to say i like literally tweeted it, but like we, it's been in the last 15 years of my life. I've just seen this. And it's like, we share a planet with this and like we're watching this. And yeah, at 38, 39, I think his dad is not doing well too.

His dad was the didn't bring him to Catalonia and get him out of Newells and then get him his medication when he's 13. And he's incredibly close with his family. Basically, like he's, all of his time off the pitch is basically

spent with them. There's something about the fact that we've gotten to watch this. And it's like, it's, it's almost too obvious to say this, but that means that we don't even fully grasp how, like, amazing it is. It's just amazing. I can't. I, like, I remember the last World Cup final, and I cried. I cried because I wanted him to have that one last thing, right?

And I saw the way that he was treated by that country for all this time. And it wasn't fucking fair. Right. They were like, you're worse than the cocaine that was good for like five years. His most famous thing is using your hands, which is the number of, that's the first rule of soccer is don't use your hands, bro. No, I mean, Diego Armando is like, was obviously a genius himself. And, but it should have been that he is the new one. And I know that that was, that people did say that.

But it should have been like, oh, we have another. there's a term in golden boy it's called in Argentina. It's just the way he plays ball is just so, it's like no one else could even do, no one else has the option of doing that. It's also, yeah, it's so increasingly rare now because everything is data analyzed down to like the last step and to like, you know, how much are you reading the game?

Where's your efficiency or XG or whatever? And I'm not even going against analytics, just to see a guy who's like the whole point of my game is that I walk for half of it. It's not even walk. He's standing now. He's literally still now. He's literally like the loser that they put in center field with like it's tee ball. And he's like picking flower.

He looks like he's just completely dead faced. And then there's something about him where I like I think I was trying to decide. Is it that he could see the future or is it that just like every single efficiency is occurring in his five foot. six body where every single usage of energy is like, is optimized. And it's, it's, he's not thinking. He's like, he's flowing. Yeah. Like, I think I sent you on the phone.

Have we seen him use a skill move in his career? Were there times where we saw, oh, that messy stepover? Right. Like, no, he's just playing orthodox, like, by the book, a ball at a level that no one ever will again. I'm sorry. I know people say this in sports, right? Like, I know, like, no one's ever going to be as good at Babe Ruth again or something.

But, like, no one can do this because it's not, it's not possible. Just look at all the other guys around him from his generation, from older generations, talk about him. There's not a single hater. Every single one, like, from Tierraun, PEP, his Laton. Yeah. It just is foil. And, yeah. Yeah, no, everyone recognizes it.

It's true, except for his entire country who's mad at him for wanting to get medicine when he was 12, right? And like, and he had to leave his home. And his entire life is his fucking family. And he had to go leave his grandparents and leave his home so that he could do the thing. He just likes playing sports. That's it. There's no like, there's no kind of like trauma that like justifies. this is like a this is what

like where the mamba was born there's nothing he is just it is it is it's not about like Michael Jordan and Kobe needing to shed their humanity to achieve greatness right he

doesn't have to motivate himself in any way he's just go I'm going to my job I don't think he now that I'm talking about him I can't stop and I know we're going to get to this on Tuesday I want to compare and contrast this with Rala. I know yeah But he, I don't know if he has a concept of the fact that he's the greatest player of all the time.

And I don't think it matters. I think he does because I think he loves competition that much. I don't think he's unaware that he's playing of sport. You know what I mean? Like there are some guys where it's just like, I just like being in the flow state and being out there and playing, but it's not like that deep to me. I think all this stuff really matters to him. You can tell. Does he actually like competition?

Yeah. Yeah. You think does he get mad at it? Does he hate Ray Alvin. I don't really think so. I don't know if it's that as much as, but like, I've heard Pep talk about his competitive instincts before

and they sound pretty singular. Yeah. We'll get into this more, but like, it is special. And I mean, I said it to you last night. He won the fucking Ballin' Door and the World Cup at Inter Miami. You know what the best thing about this cup so far has been is that, like, I think all the stuff,

the ancillary bullshit that sometimes happens in tournament football, whether it's refs or the state of pitches or the weather or whatever it is. And we can complain about hydration breaks is that stuff's all moved to the background or fallen by the wayside. And we've been able to be like messy is the goat. England is looking really good. You know, like we have been able to concentrate on the football and like the stories.

And like the stories that are coming out are the stories that actually matter. So yeah, it's, it's bored out of the last 20 years of that I've watched this board, it feels like it matches perfectly. A lot of the times it sucks, right? And in fact, Zamb was saying earlier, I think it's a good point. Like the hydration breaks have created

kind of the competitive parity. In the way that they suck, we have had, we haven't had a one dominant force that just is pulverizing. There is, there, you can do a,

what are you, Cape Verde? Only, we only had two blowouts. Yeah. Yeah, we only had two blowouts. and I'm really just like I was thinking about like oh

the corruption of FIFA and the oh the you know like the them giving Trump an award I'm like oh fuck this and like but no it's really I'm really loving it I think by like pretty much the third match I'm like I'm locked I'm loving that I'm watching ball

this number it's cool we get four games a day again it's awesome it's unbelievable I thought I would hate the extra teams I'm going to be annoyed when I feel like there's some third third place group finishers who get through who I don't feel like deserve to be in the knockouts or whatever but yeah this has been an awesome tournament so far well all they have to do is extend it to what uh how many more teams do they need to make a round of 32 the top two so yeah 64 team world cup yeah yeah no no no but like Vatican city does you know the Vatican city all right

let's keep moving along I just want a special shout out to Norway I think I underrain them having that on your team it's again like we were saying the first match where we watched the United States like having

flow is a finisher and it's the minority of teams that have someone that can that can bang it that good he's the best in the world he is a juggernaut It's also funny to see like... For as much as football is obviously the most popular sport in the world. But like to see a whole new group of people be like, who the fuck is this guy?

Oh my God. You know, like people who are just watching football for the World Cup, seeing Holland play is incredible. Yeah, it's, uh, it is maybe the best box presence, like dominant, uh, I've ever seen. I think so, by far. Like, honorary can do everything, right? He's the best forward I've ever seen. Holland is just, he, he, yeah, I've never seen someone so dominant as like a, and someone that needs four touches and has five goals, you know, like, it's just like,

the guy, the guy is incredible. I will be at the Norway-Senegal match on Monday night with a palmy of this Norwegian, and it's going to feel fucking weird to be sitting with the guys that look like that. rooting against Senegal. I don't, as in Jew, it's a little.

It's the Herr-Vernard seat. Yeah. Well, I don't, it's weird. I don't know. I was strange. Okay.

Let's get to, like, we'll get, of course, more to Finnish Naldo on Tuesday, but he is, is Finnish Naldo now.

Are we moving him out of the Finnish Aldo category, the category for which he's named and putting him on the junior or perhaps Livia Suprano watch list.

Yes, he is in the home. He's also now causing divisions within the camp, which, I mean, he always, he has for the last couple, but like the Zhao Nevis like thing and on Instagram where like now there's like 150,000 Ronaldo bots in his mentions. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, Roberto Martinez is at the wheel.

He's got this, I'm sure. Dude, that's the huge difference between England, US, Brazil even, and Portugal is like, they don't have a guy who's going to be like, I am taking you off. I am telling Namar to go train by himself. Yeah, yeah. I think this, like. But he's not because, like, Junior is just like senile. He doesn't know where he is.

No, Livy is the better shit. He's Libya because he's ruining everyone's lives around it. And like Janice has come back and, oh, that is Christiana Ronaldo. We got to put her in a fucking CR7 jersey. It's undignified. He shouldn't be doing this himself. and he wants to play the next cup because it's in fucking Portugal.

And it's, uh, you know, just a quick preview to Tuesday. Like, we're seeing someone that is terrified of not doing the one thing he's done. I want to see everybody play twice. Let's see him play twice. Then we can,

then we can close the, the mausolean on him. He will be even worse. And shall God strike me down. If that doesn't come true. I will literally, literally cut off my right arm. Okay.

Sorry. Yeah, it's hard to see this. I mean, that midfield is a joke. Like how? Like, yeah. And to be fair, Mapa, not a comment on his talent, but a comment on his impact, is doing that now. And I'm being overdramatic on the Mbapé thing.

They're going to win a lot. Yes. But I think it's kind of Deschamp is just winging it. It seems like. Anything else you wanted to hit before we get out of here? No, I think those are the matches I want to talk about.

Austria and Jordan. Fine. Arnadovich. We'll put him on Asimu, Yon watch. Columbia, Uzbekistan, Borat,

whatever, check. I thought it's Kazakhstan. The only thing, only thing is Andre, Andre R. Chavin was at the

Uzbekistan game. My God. my hero and yeah Kuzanov looks like 10 crews everyone knows that Switzerland and Bosnia Monzambi that's number two on your one swat number three number three okay thank you Canada versus Qatar

It's just incredible videos of the Bosnian fans marching through Englewood Yeah the most player that's ever been in Englewood. It's scary Canada Qatar 6-0 Jonathan David whatever not that good, terrible injury that we saw Jesse Marsh thinks he's fucking Pep Goreola.

He's the main character. Yeah, he's going to get them in trouble. Yeah, fuck him. Mexico, South Korea, still bad Mexico. I'm not even going to talk about it. Heroic last second chance, clearance. Yeah, stillsuck, don't care. Fuck off.

And I'm not, I love Mexico as a place. You just don't like El try to get out of the group stage. Yeah, I'll try and get out of the group stage. Okay, so that is a roundup of the week. We'll be back on Tuesday. We have a lot of cool. sandwich, an interesting thing that planned. United States,

probably going to win the World Cup. Yeah. Of FIFA, soccer. Yeah, for sure. For sure, bro. It was a great day. Thanks for joining us. Pris, you had fun?

I did. That was great. Thanks, man. Anything else? You want to add? No. Not even that thing you sent to me before the episode.

I thought that word was in mad taste. We could see if the censors. Good night, guys.