Knockout Nail-biters!

27:18But that was a risk, wasn't it? This Casemiro thing, Frank, was a risk. Yeah, it was. Because not only was he on a booking. He was on a booking, yeah. But the goal for Japan, they were talking on the commentary about he couldn't make a tackle because he was on a booking. He couldn't make a tackle because he wasn't quick enough to get across the ground. And that was the issue as well. So there was a huge calculated risk at halftime with a guy who didn't have the legs to get around the field. He was on a booking, but as Don said, he's a threat from these set pieces, and the risk paid off. I think Ancelotti learned the listening of the others and the players.

28:01And I'm pretty sure, I wasn't in the dressing room like Don, but I'm pretty sure he talked to Casemiro. He said, listen, I don't want you to leave the field with the red card, So be careful, pay attention on what you do defensively, just get back in position. But I need you offensively. I'm pretty sure he said that. And players, they listen to a guy like that. He's like the wise man of a village, you know. And he earned that because throughout all his career, he got the right decisions. And that's what it is. And today, it made a difference comparing the first half with the second half. When they came back from the dressing room, something happened.

28:43Even the influence of Endrick in the game was tremendous. Jürgen, Carlo Ancelotti, I've heard you on this show many times speak about your admiration for Carlo and your friendship. How did he influence this game for you?

28:56Well, his philosophy is all man management. So he only thinks about how do I get the most out of my players and how do they match up the best possible way. That means, you know, if I have Casemiro with his downsides, How can another player kind of cover his downsides so he can show his upsides? So he always trying to kind of put the pieces together in his puzzle that one helps the other one. And obviously his calmness and his experience is second to none. So he empowers his players. And this, I think, especially for the culture in Brazil, where they want to express themselves. They want to attack.

29:33They want to play the Jogo Bonito. So it is very, very important to let them, like Greg said, to let them go and do their things. And I think he fits that environment perfectly. And that's why he was so successful at Real Madrid with all these galacticos of players. Because he just let them do their thing. He puts them into, obviously, a fantastic tactical shape. He's trying to start us working every time, but most of the time. And then he makes sure that everybody covers each other. And I think this team will only grow. It will only get better the more games they are now into this tournament.

30:10And obviously you see now how the bench is celebrating with it, how Neymar is getting ready. Maybe I come on, maybe not. And it seems like the chemistry is just getting better and better for this Brazilian side. So obviously they are not on their top level yet, but they are on a good path. Jürgen mentions Neymar, Craig. If you don't use them in a game like this, when you need a goal laid on, and a Japanese side that are sitting back, when are you going to use them? Good question. It came on in the previous game. I think it was the previous game. Looked like a player who was in his 30s. Scotland game.

30:49Was it the Scotland game? Looked like a player who had been injured for a long time. I don't know. I think listen the one thing Kev that's never been beaten as far the time and you hate saying it about great players like Neymar but he's going to get minutes when Brazil are 2 or 3-0 up or there's 15 minutes left on the clock and you're not winning and you've got to roll the dice and throw them on in a game like that where it was destined to probably go to extra time it wouldn't have been the right time to bring them on because you've got the whole of extra time to play when you're not in possession you're carrying them a little bit.

31:26They scored at exactly the right time. So he'll get minutes when they're comfortable in the game. Will they be at that stage when they progress in the competition? And when I saw him, come on, and thanks for reminding me, it was that game against Scotland. I looked at him and I thought, you don't look like a guy that Ancelotti is going to go to in a time of need because of his fitness. And because of his lack of weight to Martinelli. What an impact Martinelli made here as you look at the late game winning goals here, World Cup knockout stage games. Remarkable to think that this is the latest equaling Francesco Totti.

32:02What an impact he had. I mean, we're talking about it for a reason. Carlo Ancelotti is arguably, he's absolutely one of the greatest managers of all time. And the influence, I think, was there for all to see today. Martinelli seemed the right pick. Yeah, yeah. So you can see it's a little bit of luck and you don't really plan it. But you know that Martinelli can bring something if he's at 100%. He can bring something special. But I think Don talked about it. The cleverness of Bruno Guimaraes on that matter was fantastic. Where he saw, he could have shot and many strikers would have taken the chance.

32:41He decided to give that fantastic ball to Martinelli, who was in the right position at the right time. and show as well some cleverness to finish the job. But the pass, the assist from Bruno Guimaraes was just exquisite for me. If you think about Martinelli at Arsenal, you don't always think about end product. You think about a player that sometimes rushes that final shot or final pass or final cross because he's doing things too quickly. But I don't think people realise that the two touches he had to take, the touch to set it up and then with little back left to finish was brilliant. It really was because he's in such a tight space that if he gets the touch wrong, then it's going to get away from him or a challenge comes in.

33:28And he knows he doesn't have time to set up for a huge back lifted strike. So he gets that quick touch and then it's almost like just a snatch at it. And a really difficult skill, particularly at that stage in the game. And with that kind of pressure on, it was brilliant. And the man in the match at that point was Zion Suzsuki. Suzuki, the goalkeeper, 23 years of age, who plays for Parma. He was absolutely brilliant. Four saves in the game. Gets a fingertip on it. But Martinelli scores, meaning Brazil advance to the round of 16. They'll face the winner of the Ivory Coast and Norway. Scotland are still in.

34:02Scotland are still in. We're still in. Yeah. We're still in. We're going to the Azteca. No Scotland are no purges. Come back. Come back, guys. Look at that graphical. We're still in. Morocco Netherlands. When we come back. This one was drama-filled. We're still in. You drive dreamers. You're dreamers, guys.

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35:57Welcome back in, folks. Tomorrow afternoon, noon Eastern time. ESPN FC is back at it, getting you set for all tomorrow's games. He's got three brilliant games in store, so do not miss it. ESPN2 is the home. Back to the action we go. The Netherlands taking on Morocco in the late game on this Monday. Cody Gakpo, an emotional week for him. He opened the scoring, announcing during the week that he and his partner had lost their baby boy during pregnancy. So an emotional celebration there for Gakpo. It had to be him, but then very late on, Issa Diop, centre-back for Fulham. Powers home a header inside the area.

36:311-1, it goes to extra time where we saw Verbruggen with a phenomenal save for the Netherlands. Goes all the way to penalty kicks and that is when Morocco would get it done. First African side to make it to a World Cup semi-final four years ago, ousting the Netherlands, a side that have been beaten in three World Cup finals. It's not their time, the Netherlands. They sent packing here on penalty kicks. Frank de Boer, the Netherlands' performance for you was what? I like to call me Frank De Boer first. He was a great player. That's all right. That's all right. I love that player. To me, it's a Dutch.

37:10Can I say? He's a Dutch, but that's okay. That's okay, but I love it. Frank De Boer on the mind. Don't bother. Don't bother. I love it. It's a last segment. Yeah, that's okay. What can I tell you? You know what? When you have such a low amount of the position of the ball. 30%. 30%. And you were showing me the graphics, you know. of the extra time, the expecting goals, everything. It was a disaster, that game. They didn't show any strength. They didn't show anything. They didn't show any pace. Some players that you can think that they are leaders, like Van Dijk, at the 19th first minute of the game, not bothering for what's going on behind him.

37:57That's impossible for me. I don't recognize that team who made me dream when I was in the 70s, you know, playing football in my garden. When you have the total football, that was great with Cruyff and Isken. They lost almost everything. And we talked about Germany before. We are talking about that team. We can talk about Italy. There are some national teams we don't recognize. And on penalty shootout, we talked with Jürgen about the penalty shootout. again, why they don't have a coach to learn how to kick a penalty because that's awful. Everything has been done in the American side or especially in the Netherlands side, they don't know how to kick penalties.

38:39They make mistakes. They don't even get the net. It's impossible and the way they play, they don't deserve to go. I think with the inexperienced players and they did have quite a few inexperienced players off the bench, Holland that is in the game at the end. I think I'd really want my skipper Van Dijk to step up and take the responsibility of a penalty kick. He's a good striker of the ball. Unless he was injured I don't think there's any excuse for your skipper to stand up and take that pressure. But he did not. Again. For the third segment in a row I'm going to shoo on Scotland into this slide.

39:17It's impossible. Are you a graphic separator as well? We're still in it. Well, the third segment I wrote, I'm going to shoot on Scotland into this live ESPN2 show. And I'm not a big stats guy, but Scotland had 41 % possession against Morocco. That was 11 % more than a Dutch side that had been brought up in total football. And you were telling us about, and we don't want to be stats heavy here, but you were just saying an extra time, it was 16%. Yeah, second half extra. Yeah. And let's take it, Morocco were very good. Yeah, but it's Morocco. They're decent. They're a bit lightweight up front, but they're a decent side.

39:56They pass the ball well. They've got some good players. But it's not France, and it's not Spain in the heyday where they're just passing you to death. And to secede that much territory, you're almost like playing for penalty kicks. Whether the Dutch were tired or not as fit as the Moroccans, whatever it was, but Morocco in extra time were on the front foot and looked the more dangerous and then once it gets to penalties it's a lottery, of course it is and there's a lot of pressure there, but again I'll go back to it if I'm Ronald Koeman I think I want my skipper to step up and take the heat and take the pressure on my shoulders and take a penalty kick, because centre-halves can take penalties I played with Frank DeBoer

40:46and Big Frankie He took lots of penalties. 56, wasn't it? That's just my opinion. 56. Scored 52 of them. Yeah, I was pretty good at that. But Morocco could be dangerous in this tournament. Jürgen, we've been speaking about the backlash in Germany. I assume the backlash over in the Netherlands is not going to be pretty, given that performance. I think they're in two very similar situations. And you added Italy on top of that. Those are nations that are used to play a different type of football and they're not capable to do that right now. I mean, if you put yourself in Ronald Koeman's shoes, maybe he wanted to play total football.

41:26He wanted to play a high-pressure game. He wanted to dictate the game, to tempo the game. And he doesn't have the players to do that. Simply, they're not producing the players of quality at the moment. Scored five against Sweden. but to do it on a regular base, to do it consistently and if you look at now these two Germany and Holland going out on penalty shootouts, missing together 10 penalties 10 penalties I mean this is crazy, this is absolutely insane there's no excuse for it and yeah I mean I totally congratulate Morocco because they dictated the game, they had more of it. They tried harder to get for the winner already during the 120 minutes.

42:13They deserved it and they deserved it also then in the penalty shootout because they really, really have done far more for the game than Holland did in these 120 minutes. But it's something that also now Holland has got to go back to the school board and start all over again. Looked flat, didn't they? And it's surprising how a team like Holland with Frankie de Jong and Ryan Gravenberg in midfield could be starved of the ball because those two are very very top players very good top players gravenberg did not have a good season no but but but he's still a very good player so when when you analyze the midfield of holland you go on paper you go that's two players that should take care of the ball and not give it away and give it up too cheaply then on to craig's point with the forward line they don't scare you holland at the top end of the pitch in the number nine they don't scare you so on top of all of that and mickey van der ven's playing left wing because of shoehorned ake into the side it's again it's like it's a bit like scotland with with andy robertson and kirantini you're trying to get them both in the 11 because you feel as though you have to um i i just watched that performance and especially extra time holland run out of steam and then the fitter side and morocco took over it felt like they were playing not to lose.

43:30Ronald Comanson's taken over the latest stint here 2023 versus top 25 teams, Craig. Zero wins, six draws, eight losses. Did that mentality seep in here toward the death? I think in quite a few games, even when he's played four at the back, they've been in good positions. I'm going back over his tenure. He's gone back to a back three and got very defensive late in games. I think that was a mirror image today is that extra time wore on. It's a bit like they haven't had the success over the years that Germany have had, Jürgen's Germany, but there's still an expectation in Holland because of the type of players they've produced over the years.

44:11There's been like a conveyor belt of some of the most talented players in world football and that's just not there anymore. There's a few but not enough and then you add that into people like Gravenberg having a, you know, it's not the season he had when he won the title at Liverpool when he was brilliant, as was Alexis McAllister, who had a poor season at Liverpool. So sometimes for a manager, the timing is an issue as well because players come in, they're either injured or some of them are in good form, some of them have had bad seasons. When you're an international manager, you can't control that.

44:47You just can't control that. And I think in the engine room today, in that shape, there was only two of them really in there. they didn't really get control of that middle of the park. And that's why Morocco were able to dominate the game. I think when you play for your country, you have to know the importance of doing so. And I saw Morocco giving 100 % for their country. When I see Mazawi, for example, who only played 20 games this season for Manchester United, I saw him absolutely tuned in, and willing to do the best for his country and his team. And that's what I liked. They never gave up. Where the Netherlands, it was like, well, that's okay.

45:33It's easy. It's going to come up, and whatever it is. And it's not possible. If you don't play 100%, and even more than that for your country, if you're not ready to sacrifice your life for your country and your team that you are playing for, you're not going to achieve anything. That's as simple as that. You gave everything during your career with the Netherlands. Right, Greg? I did. I did. I did. And I don't remember if I'm Ronald or Frank Dubois. I don't remember if I'm Ronald or Frank Dubois. That was the best part of your career. You look ahead here. You're going to be Ronald in the next segment.

46:08Ronald McDonald advancing to take on Canada. That game's in Houston Stadium. Morocco up against Jesse Marsh's boys. Jumping aside here very quickly, talking U.S. men's national team. Bosnia. When we get back, we're going to hear from some of the stars. I mean.

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48:28Welcome back in, folks. Time for Pitch Preview presented by DraftKings Sports. And roll on Wednesday evening for the U.S. men's national team from San Francisco Bay Area Stadium, taking on Bosnia and Herzegovina for a place in the round of 16 and the US looking fully healthy and raring to go here. Let's check in on some of the stars. Dest, Reem, Reyna and first Balogun on the opportunity. There's no hiding. We do have the opportunity to do something extremely special. So, you know, you can't have the good with the bad. You know, we have the opportunity to do something very special, but we also, you know, can lose and, you know, it'll be a lot of commiserations and a lot of annoyed people and upset people.

49:11So, as I said, you can't have the good without the bad, but we definitely do have the opportunity to really make a fantastic run. It's not going to be an easy game by any means. We'll keep reviewing film the next couple of days, and I'm sure the coaches will come up with the best game plan to set us up to have success. But, yeah, definitely not taking them lightly. There is a little bit more pressure, you know, because you have to be sharp, you know. You cannot be, you know, like, loose in these moments. you know, you got to be sharp at all times and yeah, that gives you a little bit more pressure but also kind of a boost, you know, because even though for example sometimes if you play against opponents that are better on paper, you know, you just need a lucky day.

49:55So I feel like it's a pressure for everyone, you know. We expect, you know, great things from ourselves and good performances and that doesn't change whether you're in the group stage or knockout rounds. Look at the history between Bosnia and Herzegovina and the US men's national team. Just friendly games so far, but here we go. On the biggest stage of the World Cup, Jürgen Klinsmann, former national team head coach here. How do you feel this team is primed for this matchup?

50:25Well, I'm sure they are 1000 % primed for this matchup because he gave 10 players off the last game. I mean they utilized the turkey game as a test for the second group which is fine to do. Obviously you don't send out your players that are on the yellow card in that moment. And so they should be all ready. They should be hungry and they should be all positive. I think they set themselves a very high bar with the first game against Paragwai. the first 45-60 minutes, which was outstanding. And if they go anywhere near that quality of a game, they're going to be the winner in that battle against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

51:11I'm 100 % sure. Is this a real banana skin game? Looking at what's played out with Germany and the Netherlands here, Craig, have we much to worry about? I think once you get to the knockout, then everything's a banana skin. It depends on performance. Jürgen says, and I agree, I think if they can harness that first certainly 45 minutes that they did against Paraguay, that they performed against Paraguay, I think they win the game. The big question is, can they repeat that? Because it was excellent. It was pacey. It was powerful. They were passing it quick. They were passing it forward. They were getting in behind.

51:47And they just looked super confident. And it just looked as if they were enjoying being out there. This is a different pressure. This is a pressure where you make a mistake and all of a sudden you're out. You don't have two more games to put it right. So we're going to find out. But I think this USA, they're in really good shape. Bosnia and Herzegovina don't concede many goals. Only once in their last 10 games have they conceded multiple goals in a game. That was against the Swiss and they were down a man. Correct. But the team talk for Pochettino is a very easy one. You score against this team.

52:15They're feeling good. Score early. Don't have any pressure. No stress. Set them out to be fast. I always get the impression when I watch this side, they're at their best when they play high-tempo football. They're not a tippy-tappy side. You get a Bosnia, you score the first one, I think in the end it'll be comfortable. But you have to be strong on set pieces as well, you know, because they have strong guys like Dzeko, maybe if he plays, or Kolasinac and others. Bosnia, they have only tools, I would say, offensively on set pieces. Otherwise, they won't be dangerous. They're going to wait for the US national team to dictate the game, and they're going to try to maybe get something if it's possible and be a little bit tricky, like they know how to do.

52:59So the players will have to be not naive if they want to achieve something against them. The opportunity has never been greater. Knockout football, it's the World Cup, a chance to play either Belgium or Senegal in the next round if you get through. But they haven't had players yet, the back four, that have really tested them in terms of pace and running away from them, because most of the back four don't play in the Turkey game. The good news for them is that the Bosnian side are not the paciest of teams. Dzeko's still getting a game. Great player, but he's 40. So they don't have that worry of that pace in behind.

53:33Because don't forget Tim Ream's 38. When they get that pacey team, if they get to the next stage, they have to worry about that ball in behind. I think the key is Tyler Adams and Weston McKinney. Use their energy and play with pace and power. Run all over them. It's exciting. Massive, massive opportunity. And you can get hyped for this one. Football Americas Wednesday, 7 p.m. Eastern. Join us on ESPN2 and ESPN Plus right before the U.S. Bosnia game. We'll be right back, folks. Here we go. South Korea arriving home to booze, to drums. I want to ask you about this, guys. Uh-huh.

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54:34South Korea arriving back, failing to get out of the group in the World Cup. They arrived back at 4 a.m. expecting that maybe things will be a little bit quiet. The absolute opposite. Even the president of the country has spoken out about this. He's utterly baffled by the performance, Craig. Wow. Big response here from the public. Well, when I get in at 4am, I get booed as well. A nightly occurrence. Usually a bit more than that, to be honest. Even the dogs boo me. Well, look, I don't know. I mean, look, I don't know what the expectation is, but I'm sure every country has these people that want to let it be known.

55:13Real quick thought from you, Jürgen. You know this team very well in this country. Well, the expectations were high. The expectations are similar to Japan to make it at least until the round of 16 is the minimum. But they're dreaming at least about a quarterfinal. And them going out in the group stages is a disaster. Similar to Germany. Yeah, it certainly is. Did they do that for you in 2002? No, of course not. We won the World Cup before the European Championship before and the Confederation Cup in three years. All right, stop wagging on. Folks, we love you. We gotta go. Thanks so much to Jürgen Klinsmann, Drake Burley, Don Hutchinson, and Frank DeBoer.

55:54Top man, Frank. Thank you. Chat to you.

55:59Zero.

56:07Welcome into our ESPN FC studios, Craig, Don, Frank, and Kev. Absolutely buzzing that you are with us. This is ESPN. Oh, look for time. Jürgen Klinsmann is with us as well. World Cup champions here. Frank and Jürgen. We're going to get into some extra time questions if we can here. First, I'm diving in on this one. The first one comes to us and says, Kevin, if you had to choose among the panel, who would you make the best professional wrestler based on their background history as a footballer? Would it be Frank? He's got his acting chops. Craig can definitely play a heel. That's the bad guy, Craig.

56:43And Don, you can play the hero. I'm not a wrestler. No. Take me out of that, I'm not a wrestler. Craig, Craig. I've got no left shoulder and no right knee. I'm out. Who is that wrestler that you... Can I say that? Yeah, yeah, Drew McIntyre. Yeah, yeah. Drew McIntyre. A Scottish guy. A proud Scot. Big Craig. Seamus, the Irish boy. Seamus, a great lad. Big friend of yours. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seamus is... You're a friend of the stars, aren't you? Seamus is a Liverpool fan. But why did you have to wear those stupid jackets, you know, when you were doing it? I want to know that. All right, you're not getting picked.

57:18I'm picking Craig Burley. Craig Burley, a bad guy. I'm not really a fighter. No, but you'd be a boss. Jürgen's too nice. Jürgen's too nice. You'd be a manager. Yeah, Jürgen might be too... He's a hero. But you're going to be loved by everybody. He's already loved by everybody. The fans would love Jürgen. All right, Don, how long does a Scottish World Cup hangover typically last? What, for a fan or a player? 28 years? It's gonna be a sore one. I think they'll get over it pretty quick knowing what the Scots are like. And we're not talking about the drinks. Listen, I think the Scottish fans have been an absolute credit when you've seen what they've done in Boston and how well the guys in Boston have talked to the Scots and how well behaved they were and all over social media have been fantastic to watch the fans.

58:11I think they'll get over pretty. Have you seen the shot, apparently, they've shot all the fanfests in Boston now? I'm being serious. They shot them down? Yeah, somebody died. Yeah, yeah. Sorry? What? In the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, how do you call that? Did you call that the, the, the fest? The fest. It's where, yeah, everyone watches the games. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody, somebody was shot in, in one of those, yeah, yeah. But it's, Not in Boston, sorry. But it's somewhere else. But you know what I like about the Scots? They show the pleasure of being together and partying. And football is a party.

58:50When I see the pictures of South Korea, I think it goes too far. It's just a game. It's just a game of football. Yeah, I guess. I don't think it's just a game to the Germans, Jürgen. Is it tomorrow morning when they wake up? Oh, no, better don't wake up tomorrow morning. What's the headlines, Jürgen? What's the headlines tomorrow? Oh, no, they're all over. They will be all over the team. They will be all over the coaches, obviously. No, this is a huge, huge, huge disappointment, unfortunately. And after the disasters before in Qatar and in Russia, I'm number three in a row. That doesn't go well with the German public.

59:31All right, Jürgen, this next one to you. What's easier to deal with psychologically, getting blasted or going out on penalties? What do you think? Well, I definitely think it's easier to deal with getting blasted by the media or by, you know, whatever critics for whatever you did wrong. Because when... I think they mean getting beaten convincingly in the game, you know, like 4 or 5-0. Oh yeah, I mean, if that happens, then you give your opponent just a compliment and say, You know what? You just outscored us. You just were far, far better. Going out on penalties is something that, especially for the player that misses a penalty, is something long-lasting.

1:00:14It's something that never goes away with you. If you now in a World Cup miss a penalty, this will not leave you anymore for the rest of your life. So I'd rather take a 4-5-0 beating in a game than losing on penalty shootout in a big tournament. I think what's worrying now for players that miss penalties in such high-profile games, particularly for younger players, is the constant beating they take on social media. Almost to an extent, it's borderline threatening. We didn't have to deal with that, and I suppose they don't if they can switch it off, but most of these players can't switch that off now.

1:00:56and if you remember back to when England lost the Euros to Italy and I think there was a few young players, Jadon Sancho, Bukaya Saka, missed penalties and they were just abused. And that's unfortunate, that's kind of where we are. It doesn't matter what country you're playing for. That's kind of where we are with society these days. So it's a kind of stigma that sticks with you it's a bat that they beat you with, even though you're just trying to do your best. It's the memes as well, though. It's the memes like Jonathan Tarr's penalty. There are memes everywhere about that ball still travelling to the moon and all that sort of stuff.

1:01:37But I'm sure as players, you can't avoid it. Even if you tried, even if you were very good at avoiding it, people will constantly tell you, even loved ones. John McGinn said as much about a Roy Keane comment, and he said everybody kept sending it to me. In other words, I couldn't get away from it. No, but Jürgen's right, though. If you miss a penalty in a World Cup and you've gone out, Yeah. My days, you just put your head on the pillar that night. I mean, the boys that have missed a pen tonight for Germany, they'll be absolutely distraught. Aren't they? And then it'll be the same tomorrow, and it'll be the same next week, and it'll be the same for a long, long time, because that's what we do as footballers.

1:02:08You can have great games and you make one mistake. The first thing you think of when you go back to your hotel room or back at home is you think about the mistake. That's how we live. Well, I was part of a Scotland team at Euro 96 when Gary McAllister missed a penalty against England at Wembley. They were in our group along with Switzerland and Holland. And Gary was Scotland captain. He was a fantastic footballer. Amazing player. Great player. And yet that stayed with him and he took that so personally. I know how much it hurt him, but I know how much he stood up the next time when he had the chance to take a penalty.

1:02:44and he stood there like a man and would take it. But yet, three or four years later, some moronic element of the Scottish support was still abusing him at games. So, you know, and he's an experienced player, so it's very difficult. I made my debut coming on for him and the Scotland fans booed him off the pitch. No. That wasn't at Celtic, was it? I don't think it was. Anyway, you know, it's not a nice feeling. Let's shift the move to something very positive for you, Craig. The question is, have the hydration breaks added a new dynamic to the matches? The swings and momentum have been nothing short of enjoyable.

1:03:20That's got to be sarcasm. That's got to be sarcasm, Matt. Do you know when the first games started to reel their heads very early on? I honestly, a couple of times, thought it was half-time. Yeah, me too. I thought it was half-time. See, it comes early. Look, I'm not a big fan. We all know why it's happening. it's not the Americans it's not American soccer it's FIFA and that's what they want and it's giving the broadcasters an opportunity to sell more advertising space to make money and it does I don't like the disruption of the game either way but changing the sport changing the sport is it here to stay you think?

1:04:06I think it is but I think it's been here before anyway this is not a new thing this has happened in the Premier League, this has happened over the last couple of years, where if it is a boil... Not like this. No, no, no, not like this. Of course not. But you've got to use your common sense. Hydration breaks are happening in air-conditioned... No, I get that. But my point is, if you're playing in boiling hot conditions, whether you're playing in England, Germany, France, Spain, wherever you're playing, and it's a ridiculous temperature, players do go off. They've been going off for years now. But not like having three halves, if you like.

1:04:36it just seems ridiculous because coaches are coming on and making tactical subs or giving information if you want to do it properly you can take the players into the middle of the pitch and give them a hydration break and forbid the coach to be involved for me that's the point you want to do a hydration break bring some water to the guys but seeing the coach giving advices to his players that's not a good thing, I don't like it Alright, for Mr. Leboeuf, centre-backs generally miss crucial penalties. Is this due to a lack of practice? No, I think everybody is missing penalties. And we saw that, we saw strikers, we saw everybody.

1:05:18I mean, I don't think Claude Wurt today was playing as a defender. Timbers pen. Timbers pen. Yeah, Timbers was awful. It was like two yards away from the net. I mean, they don't practice. It's crazy because they have supposedly coaches for set pieces and throw-ins, whatever it can be. Why do they not have a coach for penalties? Because it's very important. And Jürgen, during the show, was saying that if you want to go to the final, you have to think about going through two shootouts at least. And they're not prepared. They have the tendency to play with the goalkeeper. One of the best penalty takers I ever met was Niskanth.

1:06:02Niskanth at the time was telling me, you close your eyes, you pick a side and you go strong on the floor. That's how you're going to score a goal. And he always scored a goal. And that's what it is in the final of, I think, the World Cup. I think he shot the penalty and he scored. but that's something you have to stop doing, the players who stop their runs, make some high knees stutter. That's stupid. You don't do that. I was running fast and I was picking a side and I was shooting strong on the floor. And I scored 94-95 % of my penalties that I shot. And I shot like 56 penalties in my career.

1:06:45because I stopped thinking about what the goalkeeper is going to do. I don't care about what the goalkeeper is going to do. He's not going to do something about what I'm going to do. Penalties are... People think they're easy when... Penalties are easy when there's not much at stake. And when there's a lot at stake, it's a mental battle. Because you're now thinking, particularly when you get to a stage like this. It's why the more you think you I took three penalties in a Premier League game once And trust me, when I got to the third one I had no idea where I was going In the same game? Yeah, in the same game I took three Scored the first two I missed the third one Because you're second guessing yourself You're second guessing yourself And where the goalkeeper's going to go So when you put that in the stage of a World Cup And you've got time to think about it The demons in your head Are you thinking about You're going to go to you're going to hit it low to the right.

1:07:42No, I'm going to hit it with pace that way. What way is the keeper going to go? You have all these thoughts going through your head. And sometimes even you may change your mind and you run up because the keeper does something. But the one thing I would say, in theory, it should never have been easier to score a penalty. And I'll tell you why. Because the goalkeepers are restricted now and their movements are moving off the line. When we were taking penalties back in the day, as they say the good old days the goalkeeper half of them were halfway to the six yard ball Neville Seltar would be all the way up yeah they were the goalkeepers were off the line they were moving and so they narrowed that angle a little bit so in theory it should be a little bit easier but because of the what's at stake then the mental demons in players' heads that's what and of course technique the goalkeepers now have got all the information on their bottles on top of it So when you take a penalty, it's two things, right?

1:08:42It's technique and it's the bottle. Can you back yourself? Because as Craig said, when you're walking up to take a penalty and you're thinking, I'm going bottom left, I'm going bottom left, and then all of a sudden the demons come in and you think, what if the goalkeeper's got me bottom left on his little bottle? What if he knows nine times out of ten I'm going that way? And then you change your mind and you go right and it's saved. That's the bit you can't forgive. Jürgen, you've been that expert on the field and as a coach as well. What's your advice to players? I know follow your first thought, obviously.

1:09:17And if you have doubts, then have a plan B ready and you got to train it. I mean, absolutely. You have to train it. The moment you you're done with a group stage in a competition like a World Cup, you have to train every day penalties. It is just it's just important. And then you build a confidence level. and obviously, it is like this, you can score 100 penalties and you will always remember the one that you missed. It's just, that's just life, you know. And hopefully it's then the one that you missed, it's not part of a World Cup. But today we saw two games and we saw 10 missed penalties, which is insane.

1:09:54Yeah, it really is. Now don't, you're not, are you? You're not. You gonna do it? What's that? You're gonna ask another question? One more. You know what time it is? I know. Jürgen's in a different time zone. You know what time it is in these course? I've got one more. It's very late. 1.14am Eastern. You've got a sports centre at what time? In about five hours. You've got a sports centre in five hours. Craig, make it a quick answer. Here we go. Have you ever played in a game where the goalkeeper kicked the ball into his own net during a penalty kick here? This happened today. Yeah. Yeah, on Bruggan.

1:10:25It's very unfortunate. It's almost a non-goal, isn't it? Is it? But it's in the one action, so that's why I've never seen that. It was so unfortunate, wasn't it? he saved it it goes under his no I've never seen it it goes under his body and then it hits his Achilles or his heel he kicked back he kicked it back into his own you've seen it but not from pens you've seen it in general play when someone has a shot and it might hit the post or hit the crossbar and it hits the goalkeeper and goes in I can't remember seeing one from a pen that's insane it's so sad for Verbruggen because there's nothing he can do on top of it so it's sad I remember seeing on the social network the guy who hit the penalty The goalkeeper saved it, hit the crossbar, so the goalkeeper thinks he's saved.

1:11:10And he makes like, I'm happy. It was A.I. Frank. No, no. And he hit. And the ball goes back on the six-yard box and goes slowly to the net. So it was a goal and the guy looks stupid. Have we got time for you to tell us how many trophies France won again? Have we got time? You know what? It's me. It's me in France when I work with you, my man. when I go to bed around 1 o 'clock and you are telling stories will last long. Jürgen, we love you. Thank you so much for joining us from afar. And sorry about your loss today with Germany. No. Thank you, guys. Good night. Have a short sleep. Yeah. Take care, Jürgen.

1:11:52Big, big day in store tomorrow with three games coming your way here in the World Cup Round of 32. And a reminder, ESPN FC is available every single day. Do not miss an episode for Craig, for Don, for Frank and me, Kev. Take care. Mucha tision.

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