The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Spencer Hall on Maradona’s Hand of God, Zidane’s Headbutt & the World Cup’s Wildest Moments | 06.16

Episode Date: June 16, 2026

Bomani Jones is joined by Spencer Hall for a Time Machine Tuesday edition of The Right Time to revisit some of the most chaotic, controversial, and unforgettable WTF moments in World Cup history. Bo and Spencer break down Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup, the geopolitical weight behind Argentina vs. England, and why Maradona followed one of soccer’s most blatant acts of cheating with one of the greatest goals the sport has ever seen. Then, they jump to the 2006 World Cup Final and Zinedine Zidane’s stunning headbutt against Italy, discussing how trash talk, pressure, and Italian defensive dark arts helped create one of the most shocking exits in sports history. Plus, Bo and Spencer look ahead to the 2026 World Cup in North America, from brutal summer heat to public transportation problems, stadium naming chaos, and why international fans may not be ready for how big — and inconvenient — the United States really is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wave. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. A Wave Original. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars.

I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is Time Machine Tuesday, where today we will talk about great WTF moments in the history of the World Cup with our good friends. in, check him out at Channel 6 and shut down full of cast in many other places, the best college football writer in America. Spencer Hall was going on. I'm so thrilled to talk about this for you because, one, we don't have to be great all the time at soccer, right? We just have to come in once every four years. Yes. And we get to be, we get to just be butt ignorant in some ways. Right? Like you see a country and it's just go or stop. You see a country and you go, hey, do you know who I'm

feeling like today, coat devoir. That's right. Always loved coat of war. 100% would die for coat to four. I adore that kind of endorsed safe, mostly safe, watch a piece and cues, parachuting into a fandom. Love it. So I jump in very simply. One, I typically root against colonial powers, especially when they're playing against their former subjects. Ooh, I like this. Rules. Rules. I like this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, geopolitics really come into play here when I am watching the World Cup. Then it goes down to the other level. Like remember what I told you about?

I was in Barcelona and I went to go watch France and Spain. And I was trying to figure out where to watch and I decided to go watch a French watch party because I was afraid of Spanish watch party. I knew just enough Spanish to hear the racism. And so I didn't want that. So I went and I followed these guys that I saw on the train. Like I was in Jason Bourne movie.

Like I literally hung behind them and followed them to the destination and went in there and it was kind of cracking. So yeah, like once that, happens i got to make my decisions i had a friend who made a point i hadn't really thought about this but like with victor went by yama she got a bit of a dilemma because she from haiti and he from france and i hadn't really thought about that extended over to the blacks also but it's it's still a thing he's a frenchman it is it can get confusing because france has an extremely diverse team and while france is pretty diverse sometimes the fandom french soccer depending on which side of the aisle you're on

can favor one or the other. And that's a problematic thing, right? Because you go, oh, man, if I were, if I were black and you see the French team, you go, I don't know, it's pretty viable, right? Yes. And then you consider France. And you go, at all steps, by the way, this is now complicated in 2026 by you being American. And you're going, practice this with me, everybody, okay? if the United States does something good in your American,

okay, which is, right? Like, we win. Yay. Yeah, sure. Yeah. It's confusing. It's also part of a long-going contradiction, which is when the United States women's team does anything,

it's awesome, all right? And they've been the better team, period. Like, not by a little. I mean, they've been one of the world's best teams and they have been the best American, like, national team in soccer. for ever. But it's very funny because even like when they do anything bad, it's like, oh, I don't know. They tried hard. That's awesome. Like, like they've earned so much credit. They're so far ahead in the books that you go, you know what? Love you all anyway. When the United

States men's team only beats Trinidad and Tobago by a goal, you're like, trash. Yeah. Trash. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, no. I waste my time with this. Yeah, we don't, we don't, we don't, we don't, we don't believe at all. We don't now. A country that does believe is Argentina, three-time World Cup champions, Argentina. And we're here to start, talk about

a moment that, honestly, I went and watched the video again of this this morning. The most ridiculous, one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen, which is the Maradonna hand of God goal from the 1986 World Cup, which I believe was played in Mexico City.

I believe they really need to be glad they weren't playing against Mexico in that game. because Mexico would have burnt it down. And for those of you who have not seen this play, you can look it up on YouTube. It does not take long. It's Diego Maradonna, who doesn't look real, right? Like, it's like watching specifically when Kyler Murray runs down the field,

but imagine Kyle and Murray doing that in high school while also kicking a soccer ball. That's what Maradona looks like, and he gets down and his kick goes up, and he and the goldkeeper are like on the same line trying to get it. The goalkeeper got his hands. up, but he doesn't get it because Maradonna hits it with his hand and then Maradona gets a goal. Now, I'm not sure how familiar you are with soccer, but the goalkeeper is allowed to touch it with his hand. Maradona is not. He makes the goal and after the game refers to it as the

hand of God, which on one hand, on one hand is an incredible excuse. On the other hand, you stop and realize that since it was actually his hand, is he saying that he was God? I'm not. not sure. It is an all-time moment of cheating that he got away with because the official basically was like, dude, it shit was crazy, man. I was just watching. I ain't even know. It was just so wild. Then Maradonna has the nerve to follow it up later with what was voted the goal of the century in the World Cup. And an unreal, I am better than all of you. But let's get back to, we can start with Maradonna. You and I did a podcast many years ago where we talked about that Maradonna documentary. at this point, widely considered, at worst, the second best player in the history of soccer, right?

Yeah. Also, in Argentina, considered to be black, which tells you a lot about Argentina, because someone has to tell you that he's black. I will also tell you, I went to Argentina a couple of months ago. I have a Maradonna refrigerator magnet, and the first picture I see anybody from Argentina was a picture of a painting of Maradona from the restaurant in my, I mean, from the restaurant in my hotel that I immediately sent to Spencer because Maradona. Donna is that guy.

He is that dude. And you need to know, too, that this Argentina, the team referred to as the Alba Celeste's and as, you know, their nickname, that this had been a very fraught run up to this World Cup. You need to know that this is a pressure cooker and the hand of God goal is finally the vent. This is when we let it off. And on multiple levels, because the hand of God goal involves this. It involves a change in tactics. Remember, prior to this, the idea behind Argentine football was not too dissimilar

than the basic appeal of Brazilian football, which is this, that when you played soccer, you were to seduce the viewer. It was to be beautiful, right? And you're like, you were going to do elaborate, gorgeous things. You were going to be very Maradonna-ish, right? Very much like a Brazilian midfielder even. And that was a complaint levied at this team because they had bombed down 82. they had change managers.

Right. As the defending champions. Right. And they were, they bombed out and they changed management. And Ballardo was the manager and he installed what was considered to be a very mechanistic style of soccer. Okay. If this sounds familiar, it should be familiar to anybody who has watched a team go from a high-flying offensive machine to a low-scoring, efficient defensive machine, right? I am this guy. I am this fan, right?

I understand this. When you go, you go, well, but it's winning. And you're like, yeah, but it's ugly. I hate it, right? The aesthetics. Have you considered the aesthetics for you? Are you referring to Will Mushchamp football? I could be referring to like 8,000 different coaches.

Will Muss champ is up there except he didn't win. So, like, there were headlines. There's a Buenos Aires Herald article from a couple of days ago that covers the buildup to this game. And there's a headline that cracked me up, which was Argentina beat Venezuela and a qualifier, right? They beat Venezuela. And then it goes, dot, dot, dot, but play a poor game. You go, what, okay, I see what's happening here, right? This is an approach that was working and that Ballardo was constructing on the way to this World Cup that everyone kind of hated and no one really liked it. But he did something else really clever that this article details. And this shows you like how powerful psychology is,

right? And I think this is something Maradona understood because Maradona used to do that thing where he would come out and he would warm up the middle of the field, right? And he would bounce the ball off his foot and he would kick it higher and higher and higher. And nobody else in soccer, in soccer, professional soccer, could do it more than four or five times. And Maradonna could keep the ball up for like, you know, forever. How long do you want me to do this? This is easy for me. I breathe and I do this. It's simple for me. One thing Bellardo did is he had that Argentine team in their training go to northern Argentina to a higher elevation to train. Because Mexico City, is it elevation?

It is a factor. But the trick is that by the time Argentina got back from that training, they would have lost all their accliminization. They would have lost their ability to adapt to altitude. When the teen doctor informed Ballardo of this, he goes, I know, but they don't.

Right? Meaning, hey, I'm going to, you're going to be great. You're ready, boys. You've already been at altitude. And the guys would hear that and go, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, you're right. Yeah, we're good. We're good. And it worked. It 100% work.

The last layer of this in my monologue. And you talk about geopolitics. Geopolitics in the World Cup. It's a dangerous thing to play with, but it's also kind of fun. If you do it right, in this article, the islands are referred to as the Malvinas. You know them as the Falkland Islands. There was this conflict in the early 80s between Great Britain and Argentina over the Falkland Islands. And the Falkland Islands were a flashpoint between the two countries,

ultimately Great Britain kind of ends up winning that thing, although that's, but winning is a strong word there. They end up on the high side of that conflict. But not the way Argentina sees it going into this game against Great Britain. A couple of veterans groups talked to, or they sent letters to the team saying that they wanted them to play like exoset missiles. Like the ones that sank British ships during the Falkland Islands conflict, Just to give you an idea of the beef between these two countries.

I had completely forgotten that there was the Falklands element going on with this. And it was fresh. Very fresh. Fresh enough that veterans groups could say things like, yeah, you guys need to hit them like exoset missiles, baby. You need to sink them like we did just a couple of years ago. Yeah. Yeah.

This is a loaded Argentina team in terms of pressure that going into it also has this geopolitical element that really in terms of a payoff could not be more substantial. It's a big part of the hand of Godgole. I also want to throw in there that as I hear what you're talking about it, we made the comparison directly, but college football is a very helpful thing to inform this where people don't just want to win typically. They have ways in which they want to do this. They have a type of ball that they enjoy watching, right? Yeah.

And what you are saying is they went from playing that, that South America soccer that makes you really love the idea of watching soccer. It's like you're watching somebody in college basketball that used to run to press, right? It's like, oh, yeah, they're going up and down. And now they're like, no, you're out of the Princeton offense. How about the four corners? Would you like to run the four corners? They'll never take the ball from us if we run the four corners.

Yeah, you'll hate it, but we'll win. We'll get out of group play. you might despise it. There are teams, by the way, that don't necessarily want to do fancy stuff. Like Italy historically has, and this is one of the reasons that I can't stand watching Italian national soccer for the most part. Like, last couple of years actually have been okay. Well, except they haven't been okay.

Okay to watch. This should say something, right? I'm like, oh, they're much better to watch. Did they make it? Nah. They're terrible. Yeah. I'm kind of okay with that two ways, actually.

But they like lockdown soccer, right? Go ahead, score a goal early. And then their idea of fun is watching you beat your head against the door for 70 minutes, right? And tough defense. Italy is one of the few national sides that will sing the glories of not just their goalie, but their defensemen, right? Like they'll, they're defenders. They're like, oh, yeah, our defenders, man. That's, yeah, those are our guys.

Like, it's very odd. Italy, you would assume you're like, oh, the flash, right? the sort of like brav the bravura that they have. Nope, nope, they like goons, dude. They absolutely love goons. So I believe what they call that. Would you describe from the Italians as parking the bus? Is that what they call it?

Yep, yep. We hit you with the bus, then we park it. Yeah. But with the head to God, like, I'm just trying to imagine what would happen in this day and age and everything going around. And for people who don't really do soccer like this, you understand that you're not allowed to touch the ball with your hand.

But the consequences for this are incredibly dire, right? Like there is a red card, which means the guy can't play no more. There is a penalty kick, which means you basically do everything but give you a goal for this. And it would be against who was then the best player in the world. And it's not like he went up and like, damn, the ball accidentally hit your hand. There's no reason in a soccer match for you to have your hand where he had it unless the goal was to come out there and cheat. And what I think is so amazing is the idea that he thought he could ever get away with it.

Yeah. And if you watch too, a real physical genius considers the angles of every goal of every spot of every eye on the field. If you watch it, the way that he spikes it is so coordinated. It's so obviously trying to hide the fact that he's, he's like smacking it in with his hand. Like it's just behind his head. It's very hard to tell. Remember, this is 86.

We do not get VAR. We do not get replay from a thousand angles. It happens. It sucks for England and you got to deal with it. Like it is, and pardon the phrasing, but it's deeply appropriate. It's one of the most eat shit moments you've ever seen in your life.

Just, just, ah, I got to, that's what's happening. I can't do anything about it. There's no recourse. None. Do you know when you get it back? Four years from now, maybe.

Yes. Yes. Yeah. And to, I guess, to make it worse, like we got to kind of jump in time to after the game before we get back into the game. But to really have the nerve to call it the hand of God after this has happened. Can you imagine how infuriated you would be?

if you were one of these British people after this has happened. And that's the story that he's given. Yeah. That's, to say naively, right, with a smirk on his face. Ah, I'm just blessed. That's all. That would be the modern equivalent. Let me translate it to American.

If you did this and, and you're in the press conference afterwards, they'd go, I don't know, man, I guess I'm just blessed. I guess God was on our side. And I guess you're just going to have to deal with that Because that's not up to me, Diego Maradona Vehicle of God Himself That's up to the big man Send your letters

Send your letters that way, not to me. Vehicle of God himself. And the thing is, it was what, nil, nil at that point? I would have to look up the score at that point. Like I think that is the, yeah, there we go. It finishes 2-1, I believe. Yeah, yeah, that was the first.

first, that was the first goal. Mm-hmm. And then the second would. Like I said, I gave the comparison before of what the second would look like. I just can't think of anything else. Like, that's the one. It was just like, hey, man,

so what's this Maradonna guy I've heard so much about? You don't have to know anything about soccer to understand what's going on here, that this is a guy that's better than everybody. Like, it's, you would have thought he had the Mario star on, right? Because dudes are like falling down everywhere he goes and he just gets to where he needs to be. that goal is consider that one the first that happened um is an accident of fate right and then

the second thing that happens is a decision by fate an accident of fate is i hit the i hit the ball with my hand right and um and we're okay we got to deal with that the second is i'm diego meridona and you're done that's you know like of all the things that you had to face right now. It'd be cool if you had to face some second team French striker. It'd be cool if you had to face some American player from MLS, right? At this point, at any point in history, right now you got to deal with the man. And that's, I think, the thing that makes the hand of God goal doubly frustrating is you could say, well, he's a crap player, right? He's a crap player. He didn't do anything in that game except cheat. Well, except for the second goal, buddy. That's a

It's a lot like this. Okay, so we were watching SGA in the finals or in the Western Conference Finals, right? And in watching SGA in the Western Conference Finals, I know everyone came in and said, hey, that guy's a foul merchant, right? This guy's basically mid-range James Harden. He's constantly working the refs.

And then he comes out in Game 7, and he does the thing where he actually just creates space and takes jumpers. And everybody likes watching people get buckets, right? That is 100% why you should love Maradona, right? because that dude gets buckets. People love watching somebody do that. And that's all that SGA did in game seven.

That's all he did was just score. And it was awesome. It was incredible. I know they lost, okay? But that kind of performance is what you get out of Maradona. And by the way, you get that multiple times in the 86 World Cup. It is his masterpiece. Also, I did not realize two things.

One, he said the goal was, quote, symbolic revenge, quote for that war, which is, all right, now we're stretching baby. However, that's giving the people what they want, right? You know, you look out of the crowd and you go, do I want a cheap pop? And I'm going to give you the answer to whether you want a cheap pop. Yeah, you do. You'll take it. Cheap eat all day. Then here's this quote from his autobiography that I will not read to you in Spanish. Yes, I'm just getting this off the wiki, but it's still amazing. He said, now that I can say what I couldn't at that moment, What I defined at that time is the hand of God? What hand of God?

It was the hand of Diego. Again, the man chose cheap heat at every turn, okay? And whether that's your thing or not, he was very good at it. Yes, yes. If you get the chance to watch that Maradonna dot, please check it out. We did an episode about this many years ago. That country loves him in a way that is impossible to explain through all the trials through the tribulations, through everything,

to him going to play for the mob soccer team in Italy, basically, and everything else, to him coming back and becoming the coach of the team. And nothing about him implies that he should have ever been coaching anything. To him getting fat, to getting back skinny, everything else. And he did this cheating thing. And they all down there, like, hey, man, got to do what you got to do sometimes. Yeah, if you want, if you're a Maradonna hater, there's a lot in his biography that will satisfy you.

There is. And most of it is self-inflicted. Most of it. He does, he gets popped for drugs. He gets popped for drugs legally and competitively. And there is a farce in the 1990 World Cup where Maradona tries to run it back. And it doesn't go as well because I'm going to let you in a little secret. If you hang out with mobsters and do cocaine all night while playing professional soccer,

even if you are the greatest player in the world, it doesn't go well for you. that's a sport where you run seven to eight miles a game and you have to do it all the time. And I know cocaine is great for keeping you awake. It's not so great for keeping you in peak physical condition. It can work for a while though. Diego proved that. It could work for a while. You just got to know when to fall off.

Lawrence Taylor, you know, but it never affected my plane. This is the thing. Okay. So they just had the enhance. games, right? The enhance games where people on PEDs try to set world records and for the most part they failed. And that was because I think in large part they did the wrong steroids. That's not even a joke. There were controls on what they could take and how they could take it and whether it was going to be approved. If you wanted people to set world records, you should just open up the pharmacy

doors, buddy. Like, that's how you do it. The thing is, the thing that most of them are not our top elite athletes. They're not. In Diego Maradona, on cocaine or off cocaine or hungover, is still a better athlete than 99.999% of the people ever born. So people will say, well, the Coke did this to him and the Coke did that. True. But what an experiment in what's possible with elite athletic genes

and the commitment to excellence that he had. Yes. Like, it's amazing. He was basically an astronaut. He was basically an astronaut. right we were like hey we need one person on this planet to try to be the best soccer player ever and to see how much cocaine you can do at the same time and maradona said that's me i got this i got this for science yeah bet bet it's the cam newton towel yeah yeah yeah you want to see you want to

see you want to see if mafia cocaine living can put this boy down let's go let's go i also want to note that that happened to the quarterfinals like the pressure to win has to be through the roof after this, right? Yeah, you know, they end up, like to show you how long ago 86 was. First, look at the graphics. Mexico 86 has some of the coolest, like, look of any of the World Cup. Like, if you can get a Mexico 86 shirt or a hat, do it because they look sick. Mexico killed it.

Second, they play West Germany in the final, okay? That's back when we still had a, a diversified Germany. Yes. West Germany was trying this. And East Germany, they were doing something. different. They play West Germany and they Maradona again goes off in that game. Like he's he's phenomenal in that game as well. This was like this was Mr. Big Time. He's the guy who if I had to explain to people who he is in soccer you would say well think of your guys who by the numbers like

think of Larry Bird or think of DiMaggio or Mantle. Think of somebody that you know think of I think for the kids now is Jordan right when you go well you don't understand. understand. You can look at the numbers, right? And the numbers are awesome, but that doesn't cover it. Or it's not, it's not in the moment for what he was, you'll never understand it because you weren't there. And that's very much what Maradona was. I was a baby and watching on a tiny little TV. And even then it was like, nope, nope, that guy. That's trouble. Every time just it looked like a, it looked like a horde of bees wherever he was. Right. And otherwise talented athletes, right? Physical. Like you have to understand going through England and going through West Germany,

these are teams that beat people up. And all Maradona did, despite being the prime target, by the way, despite being the guy that they wanted to harm and kick out and kick down and keep out of the game physically, it just didn't work. It did not work. I tell you this, the only thing I know, I mean, I know West Germany, they was good at a bunch of stuff. And we got all kinds of stereotypes about East Germany.

I only remember one athlete from East Germany, bet you know who I'm going to. talking about. It depends. I have, I have ulterior motives. She was the greatest thing to East Germany sent us. Was it Katerina Vitt? Yes, sir. Thank you.

Thank you. Full disclosure. Like, I know there were other East German athletes. I know. I know. I know. I know. I know about what.

And brother, we had, we had her on. highly questionable once when I first got on there. And she broke us down. She had dead a sweaty, stuttering mess. And I did my best to hold it together, but it was only because I was focused on. That was it. Were you looking slightly to the side?

Man, it was just, just had to turn it all off. Just like you can't, I can't break, but I wanted to. Understand that woman's got a smile too. She's got like a little, she's got game. Like that. She got it all.

Yeah, that's the thing is that Katerina Vitt had charm. And I mean wit and she was quick. And she was, yeah. Oh, yeah. It was very aware, very aware that she was the coach. She understood what happened when she pulled up. She'd been doing this a long time. Trouble.

Trouble. That's just trouble right there. Yeah. Keep in mind, you are hearing two grown men who came of age when Katerina Vitt was coming up. So particularly vulnerable. I'd rather do full disclosure and be like, you know, I'd like to say something else.

But I can't. Yeah, Katerina Vitt was one of those where like, you could come over to our house and even tell the truth about that one. Be like, you know, I ain't really into white girls like that. But that Katerina Vitt. Woo! Different game, boy.

Different game. But coming up next, we have another great WTF moment in the history of the World Cup for you, involving a very angry Frenchman. The biggest stage in world soccer is here and every goal changes everything. And now, Fanduil is giving you a reason to root for every single one. Introducing every goal pays. Bet on a match and get bonus bets for every goal scored in that match. That's right.

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All right, we are back with Spencer Hall. The WTF of Veridata throwing his hand up to hit the ball, which is, hey, I guess anything to win, but also has to be a bit of just a short circuit. Like, you're never going to be able to convince me that in that moment, you could turn off everything you've ever been taught and everything that you ever had to do. And just right then, in a nil-nil-nil match, you're just like, all right, let me just go ahead and risk it all right here, right? That has to be a glitch, right?

It is. It's also this. It's strategy. It's strategy because Italy, that 06 Italy team, when I talked about classic Italy, right? We get like new Italy and classic Italy. Classic Italy and soccer is the team that I hate watching the most, right? It is the team that I despise watching how they play. And I also have to begrudgingly admit it is exactly how I.

I would play if I were a soccer manager. Because you know, you could try to do all of these constructive, beautiful things. I could try to build a hole, right? I could fill Jackson it. I could sit there with the drum, right? And beat it and go, listen, just listen to the rhythm. Triangle, boys, triangle. Like, I could do that.

Or I could do what every Italian team manager has done since time immemorial, which is this. I need you to kick the shit out of them. And I need you to score one goal. maybe two, maybe two. That's a lot, okay? And then after that, what I need you to do is beat the shit out of it. That's it. I need you to knock heads.

And that's what Italy did. Italy was clinical. And what they did to opponents was piss them off. And most teams, most soccer teams, don't play better when they're pissed off. They're distracted, right? They're not thinking clearly. They're not playing clearly. They just wanted to bust up your flow.

And that is what they did beautifully. So I know people will say Zendin Zedan did that as a glitch. I know he say that, you know, he, you know, is a hot-headed player, which is true. He's very, very, very, like Zedon occupies a very specific spot in French soccer, okay, of Algerian descent, playing in a place where he is sometimes the victim of, you know, racism on the part of French soccer fans, much less everyone else. and yet beloved by the majority, I think, of French soccer fans. And beloved, I think, generally internationally. Like, I think everyone, he's a well-respected player. But that's not, I don't think that's entirely what happened.

I think what happened is that Italy just kept poking and poking and poking. They said Kealini's big ass after you where he's just in your face. He's just taunting you. He's saying some of the worst. You know, the things that Keelini is accused of. saying about Zedon and trash talking are insane, absolutely insane, right? Talking about their mother, like allegedly talking about Zedon's mother, who, by the way, Zedon's mother was ill at the time.

Like, she was not well. Yeah, well, let's do this. Let's set this up just a little bit from people, right? This is the final of the 06 World Cup. Okay? And the game was still in doubt, right? Yes, yes. And the game is in doubt.

We are, we are, we go into, the official score of the game is 1-1 at the end because it comes down to PKs. Because they went to PKs, yes. Yeah, and Italy wins 5.3, right? Because this is again, what is a perfect Italy match if we can't go out 1-0 in the first four minutes? Okay, we'll just play 90. Nothing will happen. And we'll go to P-Ks and we'll win there, right? Because we pissed you off to the point where you're not even going to be able to concentrate during penalty kicks.

Again, I hate watching it. It is exactly what I would want to do. an opponent, right? It is the most like, I will wall you up and taunt you while I am breaking you in kind of like cask of a Monteado soccer. And it's really, really fun to play. And if you were a fan, you would love it.

As a viewer, it's terrible. But Marco Monterezzi is the defender there, right? And Matarazi allegedly, okay, said something. Yes. And what you need to know, okay, is that this set Zidon off so hard, so hard. that he doesn't punch him. That's the thing for like, he doesn't punch him and he doesn't kick him.

He head butts him. In the chest. In the, not in the face. Like, okay, if you've been in a couple of fights, the head butt for somebody like me who's got a 10 gallon head, great move.

It's an awesome move. Okay. But you got to know, one, it's going to hurt you more than you think it's going to hurt. And two, you want to aim it somewhere where it's going to disorient

that that is not even the point. Zedon's just so, Maddie headbutts him in the chest. Now, Matarazi, who is, again, grudging respect and loved Italy, because Matarazzi is such a heel that when Zedon hits him in sternum

with his noggin, Matarazi does a Rickflare flop. Yes, he does. Like, it's much respect. I mean, arms back, full, like, ass over tea kettle, to the floor. And this change.

just the course of the game. This is, like, respect. Zedan is booted for his actions and says he doesn't regret it. That's a wild thing to say. You know what? That is the most French thing. When you go, man, how French is Zedin Zedan?

And you go, he's so French that when he got booted from the World Cup final for headbutting someone, he's like, nope, it was a truly gallant act on my part. I have no regrets. part of what's interesting and I hadn't really thought about it in these terms until we started talking about this

was Zaddam being Algerian and everything that comes with it is in the United States at least we pay lip service to the idea that this diversity thing is a feature, not a bug, right? Like this is what makes us dope because this is a country

that kind of had to, I mean, all of our recruiting was done out of state, right? Like you had to get to players from elsewhere. We're the University of Oklahoma, basically, of the work. right we got we got to go get guys yeah from everywhere we're Tennessee or Kansas state we got to put them all planes right we can't just go go get players from right the rest of the world doesn't necessarily feel like that they're like yeah people show up sometimes and every now then we let a couple of them in right and there you have friends

where all the people they went in Concord eventually want to come there and they're like yeah yeah although it does help they go well I don't know about this but you know as long as you speak French, right? That's the thing. As long as you speak French. Do you like that is the key. And when you say speak French, they mean speak French. They mean speak French, but they also mean do you download French. Do you download French.E and hit run?

Yes. Do you implement the new app called France, right? Where we, you, you go like, butter is awesome, right? And the greatest poet and prose author of the 19th century is Victor Hugo, right? Like you have to, you got to do all the French stuff. You got to do. Water, flour, yeast, salt. That's bread.

Academy Francaise, right? Like, you got to do all the things, right? Like, it is very, people go, well, that's very strange. No, it's not. We do that too. Like, we 100% do that, right? Like, hey, what do you drive? It's a Ford F-150.

Yeah, buddy, you downloaded America. Good job. You got it. Like, France is very much about that, but it's very codified because they've been around a lot longer. So, you know, they're going to have a list of things. We might be kind of, as if we're French, we might be slightly ambivalent at best about the idea of diversity and immigration,

we get a little more friendly to the notion of we start winning World Cups again. Yes. That does help a little bit. And when we started getting into basketball. When you have a Victor Wibinyama. Yeah, oh, man, we started with a Tony Parker. Like they've started with Tony Parker, yeah. Their hatred of Joel Embed is hilarious because he fooled them.

They thought that he was going to go play for them. And then he was like, nah, I'm. sticking around in America. Get you a couple of rugby players too, buddy. Come on. If people don't know this, like I love the notion that, you know, France, like the caricature of France historically in the United States

has been that of like, oh, yes, those those surrender guys, right? No, but they play rugby. Have you ever seen the French rugby team? They beat doors, dude. They knock people to help. They had a guy named Sebastian Chival who was referred to as the caveman. Go look him up. he's like six a billion and weighs 400 pounds and looks like the mountain.

Yeah, he's, he's and has like long hair and a beard and you don't want to get hit by him. They play mean rugby. You know what it means to play mean rugby? That's like saying you play physical football, right? That's like saying, yeah, the Baltimore Ravens in their prime, the defense, the whole defense. That's what they play like. And this is the country that Zittaddezad represented when he put his head in that dude's chest. Like even being somebody who doesn't really do this game, like,

that was like, yo, you can't do that. That is the craziest thing I have ever seen. I, you know, you say you can't do that, okay? You say you can't do that. But I did watch in a World Cup final, right? In a World Cup final, somebody do something almost as crazy. Not not quite as crazy, but close. And that was when in the, that was when Nigel De Jong,

for the Netherlands, okay, against Spain in 2010. Nigel De Jong kicked a dude in the chest. I mean, Bruce Bowen style. Like, flying, absolutely annihilated a guy in the chest. Nothing. It's fine. Play on. Like, we're watching it, and I'm watching it in a bar,

and I see this dude turn around and go, yo, did he just kick that dude in the chest? And I'm like, yeah. He just, like, I don't think you can do that. Yeah, he absolutely annihilated Shabby Alonzo in a World Cup final. And, and, you know, got a red card. But people still do it. That's how much pressure there is, right?

I say nothing happened. He got a red card. But people still do it. That's how deep. That's how intense the pressure is, is that I think players revert to what they are. you know, under pressure. And Nigel Lejean is a guy who likes to kick people in the chest. And Zedin Zidon is an extremely, extremely emotional player.

By the way, Mada Razi, when he was talking about his mother, like that's, you know, saying like, Montarazzi, two things happened that were really interesting coming out of that. A couple of Murdoch papers, including the son, got lip readers to find, because everybody was wondering, okay, well, what a Monta Razi say? And these lip readers said that he called Zindin, Zedon's mother, like a terrorist, something like that. Yeah. Or that, you know, he was the son of a terrorist or something like that.

And Matarazi ended up winning a settlement out of those papers because Matarazi denied saying that. Monarazzi's mother died when he was 15. And that was something he said afterwards. He goes, am I really going to talk serious shit about his mom? Possibly, though, to be honest, right? It's all the board. I mean, it's all in the game.

You're playing Italy. They're going to get you. and hard to argue that it didn't work. Hard to argue, because you know what you took off the board? You took their best piece, you took their midfielder, you took their central processing unit off the board. You took Zedon out of the game. Also imagine it hurt like hell.

Like somebody putting their giant head dead in your chest and you didn't see it coming? Yeah. I don't think it was much of a sell job. I think he did embellish it a little bit, but you know an Italian soccer player embellishes a stiff wind this was light work for them. I would try to think there is Akeem Olajuwa, punching Mitch Cupcheck right before the end to game five of the 86 Western

Conference finals before Ralph Sampson hit that shot. Worked out for the Rockets, they won, they were way up in the series, da, da, da, dot. I'm trying to think of what would happen in this country if like this is kind of the equivalent of LeBron James. Oh, yeah. All of a sudden, in a tie game would fire. minutes left just choke somebody out like LaTrell Spreewood. Yeah, not.

It has to be flagrant, right? It can't be, oh, well, I kind of elbowed him when I was going for a rebound. It can't be that. This has to be Robert Parrish, hammer fisting, right? Like, hammer fisting Bill Lambier. That's what this has to be. It has to be that obvious, that flagrant. Like, it'll never happen in football because, honestly, violence is indistinguishable

from what football is about anyway. Yes. It's not indistinguishable from a thousand things that happened to. two seconds after the play. But yeah, it would be like if you're in the middle of a tennis match, you jump the net and just started wailing on somebody. Like it would be, that's the closest thing I can come to. And you're the,

and you're like up there in the discussion for best player in the world. And it's Wimbledon. And it's like Wimbledon center court and the queen is there, right? And playing a border country. Yeah. And yeah, you're playing somebody that you're playing somebody that it matters, right? You run into them on holiday. Right?

I don't done some wars. You've done some wars. You argue intensely about what constitutes a sauce or what doesn't constitute a sauce, right? Could run a fork through it. No, no, no, no, no. That is not a sauce. Like important things like that, Beau. That's what we're talking about here.

And then like the biggest thing in the world. Yeah. I know. I feel like I keep saying the same thing's over. But it was really that crazy in the moment. Like, again, that's another one. If this happens now, that's right before the social media ecosystem. of has really gotten cracking, right?

There's no instantaneous responses yet at that point. You do get, listen, there's some really good early memes on that, including Zidon headbutting or Matarazzi into the pit in 300, right? Like King Leonidas. Yeah, there's a couple of those. So it's like the birth of that ecosystem. With all this in mind, I have to ask, are you ready for our country to like,

or just hoping we don't embarrass ourselves in front of the world when we get this whole thing going. You know, you just want to make it out of group play. Let's just make it out of group play. Oh, no, I bet the whole country, right? Oh, the team. Oh, listen, the team is a limited variable I can control. I know.

I'm going to give you a preview. Would you like my World Cup preview of how we're going to be evaluated? It's too hot. Step one, it is too hot. Every European is going to complain about how it is too hot. Sirs and madams, I agree. is too hot. Nothing I can do about that.

You were the ones who scheduled games in Atlanta, Houston, Miami? Miami's got one. Yeah. That's dumb. What were you doing? Hey, man, they're like,

we can sell tickets down here. We can sell tickets down here. Okay, cool. Y'all enjoy that. Enjoy, like, we're going to take a water break. Okay, sure. That makes the game longer. You should just get it over with.

Yes. You should all take IVs at halftime. Well, they go love Toronto and Vancouver. They're going to, like, the places where summer means summer. We have this great national confusion, by the way, but yeah, summer. Summer's awesome. Summer's awesome for Buffalo. Summer's awesome for Wisconsin.

Summer's awesome for Seattle. Summer's awesome for New York. Do you know where summer's not awesome? The South. It's a punishment from God. That's what it is. I don't even believe in God, but summer is a punishment from God. and it's all like the idea of playing the world Kansas City you know Kansas City's the mid-continental

climate it's gonna be miserable they in Houston and Dallas why you didn't have to do that LA ain't even a reprieve no more no San Francisco like I think he'll be playing a cent oh no that's gonna be a Santa Clara that sounds like it's going to be really hot oh you the Santa Clara is gets us to the second thing, which is your public transportation sucks. No, it doesn't. We don't even have it. That's the joke. Jokes on you.

I wanted to take the train to the game. That's your fault. Did you look one thing up? No, we don't have that. So, you know, that's the giant problem in New York. Obviously, there's been a thing about New Jersey Transit trying to charge people a zillion dollars. But that stadium, generally speaking, does not have, like, it's not a public, it's not made for public transportation. It's made for people to drive cars.

And FIFA does not want people driving cars. Yeah. I think they're afraid of somebody blowing that bitch up. So they don't want cars. But this place, this country is a car country. Like, unlike the rest of the world, we've developed in the era of cars. It is a car country. And if you don't have one of those, you're going to have to rely on some of the most convoluted last minute patchwork solutions to public transit you have ever seen.

Also, you're going to have to enjoy some of the compromises that you have to make when you deal. with FIFA. There was an entire curfuffle here in Atlanta about branding. What is on the side of our stadium? A big old Mercedes-Biz logo. It's just part of the stadium. And FIFA, FIFA in their wisdom said,

you know, it'd be cool if you can get that off. It's the stadium. It's part of it. But I love this. FIFA's like we don't give no, we don't give the milk, milk away for free.

So all these stadiums that have corporate names are Now, like, for example, Mercedes-Biss Stadium in Atlanta, it is Atlanta Stadium. Atlanta Stadium. It is Boston Stadium where Gillette in Foxborough. They're going to have to change the name on that. I'm assuming they finally got their money for security that Trump did not want to give them. That's a whole other story. But all these places that are sponsored, FIFA is not allowing that, right?

Right. I will say this, though, about public transportation. It would be funny because as much as Atlanta has a substandard public transportation system, it will work for this because most of these people coming in from out of town will be staying between downtown and midtown and the train does well to get you to that stadium. Problem is nobody ever really actually takes this train. They're going to be so unaccustomed to people actually using it. And in a lot of ways, it will take on the true name of Marta. And those of you who are not from Atlanta, we're like, Marta, what is that? It's a public

transportation system. You're like, oh, what does that stand for? And you could probably stop and take a moment and you would say to yourself, oh, metropolitan Atlanta, rapid transit authority, and that is what they thought it would be an abbreviation for when they opened it. But in reality, martyr stands in truth for moving Africans rapidly through Atlanta. And I guess there will be some Africans.

There will be. But it will be the murder in large part. I was going to say, for once, can be mostly, that could be somewhat accurate, right? like you're like, no, there's literally African soccer fans on the train. Yes. Yeah, for once. I'm glad you said it and not me.

Yeah, that was one of those where I wondered if white people told the same joke but with a different tenor. You know what I mean? Nope. Nope. That's, that's what the worst people here will tell you. Hey, you know what it stands for. Yeah, dude, I know. It's funny to us.

I had thought about it being in the other way for them. Yeah. It is one of a thousand little challenges that the World Cup will throw up in terms of moving people. There are people, by the way, and this happens to Americans, too, when they plan trips. There are people, I have no doubt, who being blessed with ample cash in time, will say, hey, I want to go to a game in Miami, and then I thought I would just jet over to Houston for a game. You can do that. And they're like, oh, but we could drive.

Don't do that. You have no idea how far things are. Yeah. Like, there's probably one or two people from the continent listening to this right now who might be going to the World Cup. and they might have notions like this. And let me tell you, don't, don't. Are you thinking of going to a game in Philadelphia and New York? Logical, great, do that.

Are you thinking, oh, I should go to a game in California. And then I should go to a game and, you know, Kansas City, don't do that. No, no, no, check that map out. Yeah, stretch that, okay, because the spaces are ridiculous. Also, Kansas City, not equipped with the kind of airport that you really need to make these things happen. evidently is a little better than it used to be but yeah Kansas City is going to be Kansas City apparently in terms of hotel demand.

They're always, by the way, this happens every single World Cup. I know it's probably a real issue. I'm not saying it's not a real issue. But there's always, oh, well, people overestimated the amount of hotels people would need. Kansas City is one of the places where that number is huge in terms of hotel vacancies. So maybe I just talked myself into, hey, that's the bargain.

Go see a game in Casey. This is Spencer Hall. Check him out on Channel 6. Also check him out. Shut down full cast available. We're all five podcasts. Are giving away for free. My brother, I appreciate you.

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