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In short
The episode of Guardian Football Weekly covers World Cup group-stage matches and what they mean for England, Croatia, Portugal, and Algeria, plus preview chat for upcoming fixtures. England draw 0-0 with Ghana: panel calls it a “legacy” second-game performance—slow, hard to break down a low block, and England created very little beyond a Kane chance and late corners.
Key claims
Ghana should have had a penalty; Pickford’s collision may warrant a red; Tuchel/Ghana’s coach Carlos Queiroz is praised for an “indestructible” 5-4-1 low block; England’s midfield lacks a “cultured” passer to play through lines. Examples: Garner’s slow passing stats; substitutions like Saka and the lack of Ivan Toney. Croatia beat Panama 1-0: Panama counter-attacked well; Livakovic made a tournament contender save; goal from a full-back overlap. Ronaldo scored twice for Portugal vs Uzbekistan 5-0: first player to score in six World Cups; Portugal’s set-piece coach Austin McPhee credited. Algeria beat Jordan 2-1: Mahrez denied, Jordan led, then Algeria scored twice from set pieces. Guests/panel: Barry Glendening, Mark Langdon (Racing Post), Lars Sivinson, plus interview with Jacob Steinberg (post-match England chat).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOWelcome to the Football Weekly
1:45 to 1:56
Introduction to the Football Weekly episode and topics to discuss.
England vs. Ghana Match Overview
1:56 to 2:49
Discussion on England's lackluster performance against Ghana.
“Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly.”
Analyzing England's Performance
2:49 to 4:00
Insight into England's tactical struggles and missed opportunities.
“Some new Football Weekly inspired music.”
Group L Standings and Reactions
4:00 to 6:15
Discussion on group standings and public reactions to England's game.
“I think there's a case to be made that he might have been sent off for that.”
Tactical Breakdown of Ghana's Defense
6:15 to 8:10
Examination of Ghana's effective defensive strategy against England.
“Yeah, so I actually have a question for you guys.”
England's Squad and Future Matches
8:10 to 9:14
Discussion on England's squad options and upcoming games.
“King and Gordon have, and they can't really use their, they can't usually use what they're good at in a game like this.”
Reflections on England's Playing Style
9:14 to 12:20
Discussion on England's playing style and its evolution over tournaments.
“Yeah, but I suppose the idea is, you can't have runners if there's nowhere to run, Mark.”
Post-Match Analysis with Jacob Steinberg
12:20 to 14:00
Insightful analysis of England's performance from journalist Jacob Steinberg.
“If it was just a bit, it just felt so muscle memory.”
Analyzing England's Performance Against Ghana
14:00 to 19:15
A breakdown of England's recent match, discussing the atmosphere and tactical decisions.
“It was a very different game to the one against Croatia.”
Off-Field Controversies and Reactions
19:15 to 19:44
Discussion about players' interactions and the legal issues surrounding Thomas Partey.
“Just to note, there was a lot made before the game about whether the England players would shake the hand of Thomas Partey.”
Show all 17 chapters
Croatia's Win and Panama's Performance
21:11 to 25:55
Review of Croatia's match against Panama, emphasizing Panama's strong performance.
“Summer is here, which means the group chats are already spiraling with festival and summer plans.”
Ronaldo's Historic Achievements
25:55 to 28:03
Discussion on Cristiano Ronaldo's records and performance in the recent match.
“I thought you were going to say we owe him an apology.”
Ronaldo's Return and Criticism
28:03 to 31:37
Discussion on Ronaldo's performance and criticism surrounding his role in the team.
“Messi, Ronaldo and Michael Loudrop, which is quite an achievement.”
Ronaldo's Return and Criticism
31:39 to 32:10
Discussion on Ronaldo's performance and criticism surrounding his role in the team.
“And the best part is you can spend the money you get right away anywhere Apple Pay is accepted.”
Algeria vs. Jordan Game Breakdown
32:10 to 40:08
Analysis of the Algeria vs. Jordan match and implications for the tournament.
“Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly.”
Scotland's Challenges Against Brazil
40:08 to 42:01
Examining Scotland's upcoming match against Brazil and their tactical approach.
“of Scotland's midfield up against that Brazilian midfield that hasn't quite settled yet, I think it actually matches up quite well.”
Listener Interaction and Final Thoughts
42:01 to 42:52
The hosts discuss listener feedback and share final thoughts on the day's episodes.
“I'm sure Tone Locke could have done a good version of it.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This is The Guardian.
0:30And the best part is you can spend the money you get right away anywhere Apple Pay is accepted. Every payment is secure and protected by Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode, and your transactions are never shared on a public feed. Set up your Apple Cash today in the Wallet app. Apple Cash services are provided by Green.Bank, member FDIC. Terms apply.
0:52Mark Langdon:Hi, PodFans. Max here. Barry's here, too. Hello. Football Weekly is supported by Hotels.com. Now, Barry, question, when you're booking a hotel, do you use Hotels.com? Actually, you're probably just going to say, I don't know. Producer Joel does it. I don't know. Producer Joel does it. Well, I think you should give it a try for yourself. Obviously, it's a massive summer of soccer and loads of our listeners will be travelling to watch the tournament and needing to book somewhere great to stay. So it's good to know that when you're a Hotels.com member, you can save up to 20 % on hundreds of thousands of hotels.
1:19Mark Langdon:Plus, you earn rewards on every stay. So each trip you take helps pay for your future trips. Just use those rewards like cash. and importantly, there are never any blackout dates. What's a blackout date? Well, it's a date where you can't use travel rewards. Frustratingly, usually on or around major holidays or other peak travel periods. But there are no blackout dates with Hotels.com rewards. Superb. Yes, so next time you're booking somewhere to stay, just book it at Hotels.com. Hotels.com, it's all in the name.
1:56Mark Langdon:Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. Let's pop the England enthusiasm balloon, an agonising watch. The first half up there with the least eventful 45 minutes in living memory. The second, not too much better. They just couldn't break down Ghana's low block, a masterclass from the great entertainer Carlos Kieros. They kept their shape, headed every set piece away and thoroughly deserved a point. If anything, Ghana had the best, if slightly chaotic, chances until Harry Kane ballooned over a glorious opportunity with five minutes left. It's not a disaster, but it also isn't good. Quite how Thomas Tuchel expects the podcasters to get 20 minutes out of that.
2:28Mark Langdon:Pray for us. Croatia saw off a spirited Panama. Ante Budimir at just 34. Croatia's youngest ever player with the winning goal. Also today, we suggested Uzbekistan might be the perfect opponent for Cristiano Ronaldo to score a couple. And he duly obliged. Decent finishes and the first player to score in six World Cups. Despite what some podcasts told you yesterday. Portugal's highest ever scorer. The opposition weren't up to much. We'll look ahead to tomorrow. A big food idea. Some new Football Weekly inspired music. your questions and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly. On the panel today with me in LA, Barry Glendening, welcome.
3:02Mark Langdon:Hello. And Mark Langdon from the Racing Post. Hi Max. And over in Dallas, Lars Sivinson. Hey Lars. Howdy Max. Let's begin then with Group L, which looks like this. England are top with four points, Ghana have four, Croatia three, Panama are out of the World Cup. George says, how many times have we watched this exact performance from England at a major tournament? JDK can we get the overreaction out of the way early and just admit it's difficult to break down a low block and hairfree carefree says with England being diabolical against an average team has the World Cup truly started uh Barry what did you make of England nil Ghana nil um it was a
3:38Max Rushden:tough watch it wasn't a very entertaining game and I was surprised by how poor England were to be honest I thought they'd win this fairly comfortably and they huffed and puffed a great length and could not blow the the Ghana house down and in a way I think they dodged a couple of bullets because I think Ghana should definitely have had a penalty for an Esri-Konsa foul on Prince-Adu and I remain undecided as to whether Jordan Pickford should have been sent off or not for that collision he had with Prince Adieu where Pickford was awarded a free kick inexplicably. I think there's a case to be made that he might have been sent off for that.
4:27Max Rushden:So in that regard, England were a bit lucky. But yeah, they didn't really create any... The Kane chance and the Nick O 'Reilly header off the bar. So we'll chalk that down as one chance between them because one led to the other. And then they had a flurry of corners right at the end and didn't do much with any of them. So Saka had a shot as well that was well saved by the guy in the keeper. But apart from that, England did very little. I don't think they deserved anything more than they got.
5:00Mark Langdon:We watched it with Archie in touch, Mark, who described that as a legacy performance. And he's right, isn't he? Yeah, absolutely. We've seen it from a number kind of down the years. We were actually during the first and the second half. We were going through the worst ever games. And it's quite some catalogue really of dreary England performances. It is difficult to break down a team that was in like a 5-4-1. It's even more difficult when you play as slowly as England did in the first half. The left-hand side didn't create much. Jed Spence was a more defensive selection. than Nick O 'Reilly, Anthony Gordon.
5:43That's now two games where he's failed to impact any kind of attacking influence on the England team. But I think you read out one of the messages earlier. It's not a time to panic. It's still top of the group. You do get these type of performances in a tournament. It's a long old tournament. I would say whoever wins it is probably not going to put in seven great performances. No. It's good to do two in a row.
6:13Mark Langdon:Don't peek too early. Maybe England have got it out of the way, Lars.
6:16Lars Sivertsen:Yeah, so I actually have a question for you guys. When you were watching it, the England band, were they very active or was I simply hallucinating that? Because I was just kind of thinking, it's a hot summer day. I'm sat here, I'm watching England sort of put in quite a slow, turgid performance against the low block, kind of passing the ball around, not going anywhere. And I feel like I just hear the sound of the great escape going over and over again. But I'm not entirely sure if that was just memory from having seen this exact scenario so many times on so many different continents that that just kind of came into my mind.
6:48Lars Sivertsen:It's not entirely clear. Thing to be aware of here, like you were up against a Carlos Keros joint. And this is not Carlos Keros's first rodeo. This is his fifth consecutive World Cup. He's done this before, usually with Iran, of setting a team up in this sort of indestructible low block, making it intensely unpleasant to play against them and genuinely difficult to open them up. And I think I want to not give England a pass, but just have some grace for the fact that when you come up against a team that's really committed to that way of approaching the game and you don't get lucky, you don't get a goal that goes off on someone's backside or a set piece or something and you keep chugging away.
7:30Lars Sivertsen:it becomes a little bit difficult and I don't think it's something the England squad is very well set up to do I think there's a lot of physicality and running and athleticism in that team we saw they just kind of bowled Croatia over in that second half but maybe there's a slight shortage of guile in these little tight spaces that was the only thing they had left to operate in and yeah you are of course right Barry I completely agree with you that that should have been a penalty so they got lucky there but also on most days Harry Kane will score that volley so it wasn't a good performance they were stopped by a coach who was extremely good at turning football bad and good luck to him for achieving it yet again
8:11Mark Langdon:I suppose the guile is Barry, players like Cole Palmer and Phil Foden, I'm so reluctant to talk about players that aren't in the squad but it's the idea that when we play against teams if we play Spain or France they are not going to play the Carlos Quiroz way and so then you do want pace which is what Mataway A. King and Gordon have, and they can't really use their, they can't usually use what they're good at in a game like this.
8:35Max Rushden:England were just sort of constantly passing the ball, horseshoeing the ball around in front of Ghana. They needed to move it quicker. They needed to get it to the wings. The crosses need to be better. And then you can always have Harry Kane doing that thing we often criticise him for doing, where he drops a bit deep, but then have runners going through. and get the ball forward to them. So to try and do some damage or get pullbacks in from the byline. And the players in England's squad should be more than capable of doing this, but they didn't do it today.
9:14Mark Langdon:Yeah, but I suppose the idea is, you can't have runners if there's nowhere to run, Mark. No, and Garner were very deep. At the first hydration break, they put the stats up and they'd completed 25 passes, Garner. See, one a minute. Carlos says, you have one pass a minute and that's it. So they were just hoofing the ball back and doing what Carlos Kiyos' team would do. I agree that when you pack the defence and midfield, I think you do negate Kane's ability to drop deep because there was just no space and there's no space to run in behind. So I think I would have liked to have seen Thomas Tuchel be bolder and try something different.
9:54he made some substitutions Saka definitely helped on the right hand side but it wasn't anything dynamic in terms of the changes and you maybe think well if you're not going to pick Ivan Toney in that kind of scenario when he could get the ball wide and start putting crosses in then maybe he's only coming on if it comes to a penalty shootout so he did have other options he just chose to keep doing the same thing and hope to get through Lars?
10:24Lars Sivertsen:No, I enthusiastically agree. I was sat... It's a very new sensation for me. I've never been sat in a sofa and just thinking, I want to see Ivan Toni right now. Where is he? That's never really anything I've felt before. But if you're bringing the guy, surely this is the exact scenario. Well, this and a penalty shootout that you really want him for. Because yes, it was clear that they weren't able to pick their way through that defense. And it's really, really difficult. So I guess plan B, get someone who's a really good header on the ball and a difficult customer to deal with in the box and fling some crosses in at him.
10:57Mark Langdon:I suppose the interesting thing, Lars, is you need to be patient to break down a low block, right? Because it's making the right pass, but at the same time, we want England to play quicker. So that is a difficult situation. And that pass, if they're deep, that through ball is actually incredibly difficult to do.
11:17Lars Sivertsen:And this is, I'm loathe to do, like you said earlier, talk about people who aren't here, because that's a little bit pointless. But I am just surprised that in the run-up to this tournament that there never seemed to be a real case of looking at Adam Morton for this, like a slightly different type of passer in that midfield. Elliot Anderson's a brilliant footballer. Declan Rice is a brilliant footballer. But they are kind of all-action, box-to-box guys who like it when the games are open and there's a lot of running happening. But this lack of a more of a cultured midfield pass guy, this goes back decades for England now.
11:48Lars Sivertsen:We've been talking about this for as long as I've been on the pod, I think. and before that as well. So this is just a permanent fixture, I think, which is why maybe just kind of embrace the fact that you don't really have that and instead, like, inject big man and go into hoof mode.
12:04Mark Langdon:Since 2018, all the tournaments since 2018, England have drawn the second group game, nil-nil, against Scotland in 2021, USA 2022, Denmark 1-1 in 2024, and they also drew the third group game in that one. So no time to panic. on your Barry on your fearometer do you feel a lot better now?
12:22Max Rushden:No look England barring an absolute disaster we're always going to get into the knockout stages and they are in the knockout stages so while this performance was pretty stodgy the result was fine and they still have to play Panama and we'll well should beat them although I was pretty impressed we'll get to them later I was pretty impressed with them today. So, yeah, it's fine.
12:56Mark Langdon:It's fine. If it was just a bit, it just felt so muscle memory. That's what it felt like. But also kind of nostalgic, I get to see that. Anyway, I caught up with Jacob Steinberg just after full time, and this is our chat. Jacob, what did you make of that? It was very Carlos Quiroz. It was the typical England second tournament game. We saw it under Gareth Southgate, saw it at the Euros in 2020 against Scotland, saw it at the World Cup in Qatar against USA, saw it against Denmark two years ago at the Euros. It felt very familiar, felt like it could have been Southgate on the touchline, to be honest.
13:33It felt like that kind of from the start that it wasn't quite the same kind of energy and flow as we saw against Croatia. And perhaps as well, just looking back to those tournaments, maybe less so the Euros in 2024, given how badly England played across the whole thing. maybe not to panic because England did do well in those other tournaments. And I think Thomas Suckel has gone and said that he saw this coming as well against a very determined, I think he called them courageous Ghana team as well. And, you know, they defended very well. It was a very different game to the one against Croatia. To be honest, I'm not sure how much it actually tells us about how England would do against a better side because Ghana was so deep and defensive and negative.
14:15they really just didn't want to play kind of until the second half when they came out a bit more had those couple of moments where they got behind England and a lot of people will talk about the concert challenge and whether that pick for one might have been a foul as well so it's quite a hard game to exactly work out what England's level is because when they play against the better side it's not going to be like that they're going to have more space and the strength they have in the wide areas probably become easier to exploit because they'll have the ability to use that speed. But I do understand why people will be quite down on it because it was a hard watch.
14:52Mark Langdon:It was hard. We've had games like this in the past, right, where the England fans have booed the players and stuff. I just wonder, in the stadium, we couldn't really tell the atmosphere. Did it feel like there was negativity or the England fans sort of with the team for the whole thing? Not really. I think you probably have a different kind of England fan here I'm not sure how many might have travelled. I don't really know, but I think you'll have a lot of people, a lot of expats over here, who might not have the same kind of presisterous reaction like the one we saw in Cologne after the Slovenia game, where I don't think there's any chance that Tupel's about to get pelted with empty beer cups, put it that way.
15:32And also, the Ghana fans were fantastic as well. It was a huge result for them. It keeps them level with England. and to be honest, at the end, the real takeaway was how they were celebrating the draw.
15:45Mark Langdon:Yeah, I find it sort of quite nostalgic just watching that and being reminded of England games. Did you see anything from Tuchel on the touchline or anything that we might not have seen from watching on the TV? I think, you know, around the hour, you could see him starting to get more and more, I think, agitated. I think that he wanted more incision, more pace, more intensity to England's passing. I saw this drill on Saturday at open training. You don't often see that much at open training. And it looked like they were really focusing on the drill they were carrying out, on accelerating the play, opening the play up.
16:21It was really focused on what foot each player was taking the ball on when they got the ball. And you just didn't really see that. Half-time I thought was quite interesting was that John Stone seemed to be having a very, very long chat with Mark Gahey. Obviously, Gahey had come in for stones. And a big part of that is going to be how they pass out from the back. And I think ultimately that's going to be one of the big things for England is that they just seem to struggle to play through the lines. And that maybe comes down to partly the centre-backs. Was it perhaps a little bit too cautious to play Jed Spence at left-back?
16:53Was that a bit Kieran Trippier at the Euros, right-footed, left-back playing in that position instead of Nico O 'Reilly, who obviously gives you that attacking intent and almost scored at the end when he hit the bar with that header? I'm going to guess that there's going to be a lot of people who are going to come away from this and say he should have picked Cole Palmer he should have taken Phil Foden I feel like that's almost asking the wrong question because I don't really feel like this is something where individuals are going to change the way that England play as a team I think those two players they haven't had great seasons they've not really done it for England over a sustained period Tupel has picked creative players It feels more to how England play as a team.
17:38Off the ball, not the kind of movement that you see from maybe France or Spain. Not the same kind of passing. The wingers, I feel like England really need to get to a point where Saka can start because Madiweke does a lot of good stuff. But that reluctance that he's got to go down the outside is quite frustrating. And I feel like Saka, when he gets going, it just gives you a little bit more. I don't feel like it's been a great couple of games for Anthony Gordon as well. But then I always feel like Rashford, when he starts for England, I'm not sure you get the same kind of consistency as you do when he comes off the bench and he has more space to attack.
18:11The Bellingham-Cain connection wasn't really there as it was in the first game as well. I think Bellingham's come out and said that he doesn't deserve demand of the match award, should have been one of the Ghana players. And Cain, again, with three touches, I think, inside the box, it's quite unusual for him as well. But this does happen to England in tournaments. And it's happened to other teams. in this tournament as well. Spain drew with Cape Verde, Portugal drew with DRC, so maybe people don't have to panic too much just yet.
18:37Mark Langdon:The message is don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic. Almost more than the way they played with the ball is that I think I was worried about the defence coming out of the Croatia game. And I think against Knight, the few moments they were under a bit of pressure, it looked a little bit ropey against that Ghana attack. You know, Semenya, when he went on a couple of runs, I think it's almost actually think France or Spain, Argentina, they would have scored in one of those moments. Ghana weren't quite good enough. I think the undoing is probably going to be that. It's going to be the defence. I don't think it's good enough.
19:11Mark Langdon:All right. Thank you, Jacob. Appreciate your time, pal. Cheers, guys. Jacob Steinberg there. Just to note, there was a lot made before the game about whether the England players would shake the hand of Thomas Partey. They all did. Declan Rice embraced him. Jed Spence was the only one who chose not to. Partey is scheduled to go on trial next year at Southwark Crown Court after he was charged with five counts of rape and one of sexual assault last year. He was later charged with two further counts of rape. Parties denied all the charges, with his lawyer insisting that he welcomes the chance to clear his name.
19:38Mark Langdon:Thomas Tuchel was asked about this and said he couldn't comment for legal reasons. And that'll do for part one. Part two will begin with Croatia's win against Panama.
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21:06Hi, this is Becca Moore of For the Girls Podcast. All right, a quick shout out to our presenting sponsor, Apple Cash. Summer is here, which means the group chats are already spiraling with festival and summer plans. And we all know the worst part of being the one who fronts the money for the passes or housing. That's why this year we're only using Apple Cash. It's a super easy way to settle up because you can do it right in messages. Just tap the plus sign to get started. And the best part is you can spend the money you get right away anywhere Apple Pay is accepted. Every payment is secure and protected by Face ID, Touch ID, or passcode, and your transactions are never shared on a public feed.
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21:52Mark Langdon:Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Croatia beat Panama 1-0. And I agree with you, Baz, as you mentioned at the end of part one. I thought Panama were great in this game. I think they were really unlucky in those two games to go out of the tournament.
22:03Max Rushden:Yeah, well, the problem is they didn't score any goals. And I thought they were pretty unlucky to lose that last gasp Ghana goal. And today, it was a really good counter-attacking performance from them. they caused Croatia all sorts of problems down the right side with Murillo and Christian Martinez Christian Martinez had a great game I wasn't really familiar with his work, he plays in the Israeli Premier League Dominic Livakovic made what I would say is the save of the tournament so far from Rodriguez header but unfortunately they conceded after half, not too long into the second half and were unable to score an equaliser.
22:51Max Rushden:And I think they deserve more from this. But you've got to score. Yeah. What did you make of it, Lars?
22:58Lars Sivertsen:I completely agree with Barry. I was really impressed by Panama over both games, really. They've been better than I was expecting. And I think they're very unfortunate. I think with Croatia, you see moments of high technical quality in the things that they do. But overall, it's a little underwhelming. The goal they scored, I enjoyed. just because of what a classic football goal it was. It was like a full-back overlap who sends it into the middle for a big striker. You know, this is football. You know, this is what we like to see. But overall, you do get the sense that Croatia are kind of between two generations here.
23:31Lars Sivertsen:The sunset of that golden generation that we've enjoyed watching, whereas the new one hasn't quite come through yet. Though I did think Martin Baturina of Como, who played as kind of a number 10 in this game, as a lively customer and someone who I think can grow into becoming one of the better playmakers of the continent.
23:50Mark Langdon:Yeah, good energy, I thought, Batarina. Croatia aren't vintage, are they? I mean, you've got to say 200 caps for Modric. Made his international debut against Argentina in a friendly match in 2006. That's extraordinary. Yeah, it felt like a changing of the baton kind of game, really, because definitely Batarina was probably like that Modric of 15 years ago. at times, but I just, I think we should just celebrate Luka Modric, you know, the heart of a lion, he's got like the finesse of a ballerina. The first time I saw him was, do you remember, the wally with the brolly night, that was the first time I can remember seeing Modric and he played exceptionally well on that occasion, then he then moved to Tottenham in the kind of April, signed Euro 2008, played really well, then he moved to Real Madrid, he's never that player that gets the goals or the assists but he's always delivering the pass before the pass that gets the goal and he's never going to lose that ability to just ping one with the outside of the boot with his left foot but he struggles to get around the pitch as most people would at his age so it's still a delight to see him there's even talk that he might just call it a day completely after this World Cup but when we know we've got at least two more matches of watching Luka Modric and that's never a bad thing.
25:12Swansea fans thinking, oh,
25:14Mark Langdon:go on. Centimid with Snoop next season. Just saying on this game, Ian Crocker was doing the international commentary. Not all the commentators are dear to our hearts, I think it's fair to say. But I love Ian Crocker. It's amazing hearing him doing a game that isn't Hearts v Aberdeen, but he's got such real, genuine, you feel the enthusiasm and you totally believe it. Speaking of struggling to get around a pitch, Portugal 5, Uzbekistan 0, so the Columbia DR Congo game is happening after we record so we'll talk about that tomorrow but Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo has 975 career goals the most goals for Portugal ever overtaking Eusebio the first player to score at six World Cups we gave Messi that accolade yesterday but we were wrong and Baz we might not be the most positive Cristiano fans but that is an extraordinary record his finishes in this game were great he was very close to getting a hat-trick so I guess we do owe him some credit.
26:16Max Rushden:I thought you were going to say we owe him an apology. No, no, no, I'm not going that far. No, we don't. No, his two finishes in this game were very good and I suspect he will end that game being obviously pleased that he scored his first, I think, big tournament goals in 11 games and he'd also be furious that he didn't score several more because he had quite a few chances that he didn't put away. But the ones he did score were excellent, so fair play. He also took immense credit for the Nuno Mendes free kick where he shaped to take it and then Nuno Mendes took it and stayed. I would suggest Austin McPhee was the man of the match in this game.
27:05Max Rushden:Oh yeah, good shout. Because he is Portugal's set-piece coach, I think. Yeah, he is. And they had that free-kick routine, which worked. Another one that nearly worked, which also involved Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes. If that had been pulled off, that would have been a sensational, very clever goal. And the Bruno Fernandes corner, from which Uzbekistan scored their own goal. So a very big tip of the hat to Austin McSett piece for his work there. I did say yesterday Ronaldo will probably go and score a couple against Uzbekistan. He's done exactly that. And he deserves credit for it. But Uzbekistan's defence was atrocious.
27:50Max Rushden:Oh, he also had one hooked off the line, I think, didn't he? By Kushanov.
27:54Mark Langdon:Yeah, he dinked one, yeah. I mean, among nations with more than one goal scorer, There are three players to be both the youngest and oldest scorer for a side at the World Cup. Messi, Ronaldo and Michael Loudrop, which is quite an achievement. He stared into the camera and said, I'm back. I'm back. When asked about it, he said it was only so they, his critics, don't forget 23 years like this. I'm very happy. The most important thing is the work the team did and the confidence it gives us. Obviously, personal records are always nice. My goal is always to help the team achieve its objectives. there was on our commentary Mark I had Lee Dix on the UK coverage when he scored his first goal saying everyone who loves football will be delighted he scored and I was thinking I'm not sure everyone who loves football thinks that.
28:37Mark Langdon:Darren Fletcher did the Sioux celebration which is a step too far for me Mark You also called him CR7 on more than one occasion which was slightly uncomfortable listening I don't know, was Ronaldo calling out Barry directly there in the post-match that he's been getting a lot of stick even back in Portugal which is almost unheard of been question marks in big daily newspaper pieces is this the time to drop Ronaldo and I know that kind of been having that discussion maybe 6-7 years ago over here but in Portugal he is a god and so it takes a lot to question his ability I think he was aiming it domestic critics.
29:27I thought he played well. I thought Portugal played well against a team that was completely out of their depth defensively. They actually put together some lovely moves going forward. That screamer that was disallowed would have been one of the goals of the tournament that was ruled out correctly for a foul. But just from Portugal's point of view, only one change really from the team that struggled against DR Congo. and that was João Felix in for Bernardo Silva a more attacking move and João Felix does get on particularly well with Cristiano Ronaldo they play together at club football they're friends as well off the pitch so I just wonder if Roberto Martinez is just trying to do everything to make sure that Ronaldo is in the best shape possible
30:13Mark Langdon:I could just imagine that phone in in Portugal should Ronaldo start or not it'd just go 24-7 couldn't it Yeah, and that disallowed goal, it was, it feels like it was the first foul that's been given in the last, like, six games, doesn't it? It had a real Mexico 86, just whack it in the top corner vibes. Any more thoughts on this, Lars?
30:33Lars Sivertsen:Just that I think we need to congratulate FIFA on their moment of glory here, because, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo shouldn't have played this or the last game. He received a straight red before the tournament and should have been banned for these two games. FIFA went against all president and just kind of spontaneously unbanned him. presumably so that they would have this moment of him scoring in front of a packed house in the US. In the first game, he very much did not oblige, but here he did. So FIFA had what they wanted.
31:01Mark Langdon:So yeah, Columbia D.I. I can't go kicking off late kickoff over here. So we'll cover that tomorrow. We are live at Vicar Street on the 1st of September. Soho Theatre, Walthamstow, September the 9th. Tickets are selling well. It still says in the script. Have we checked that? Is that a rewrite? Are we still going with that? Well, look, please come along. guardian.co.uk slash football weekly live it'll be lovely to see and that'll do for part two part three we'll begin with the late game from last night Algeria beating Jordan
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32:20Mark Langdon:Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So, Group J looks like this after the Algeria-Jordan game. Argentina have six points. They're through. Austria on three. Algeria on three. Jordan out with nought. It's a shame for Jordan this, Barry. You know, they took the lead. That was a great moment when they scored.
32:37Max Rushden:Yeah. Riyad Mahrez made the hames of a good chance earlier to put Algeria ahead. and then he was denied by an excellent save by the Jordan keeper, Leila. And Jordan went ahead. Nisar Al-Rashton into the bottom corner. After one of his teammates had sort of mis-kicked a pullback, but it skewed into his path and he slotted it home. Lucas Zidane got a big hand on him, couldn't keep it out. Hasn't looked the greatest goalkeeper in the world now in the two games I've seen him play.
33:14Mark Langdon:Must be hard being Zidane.
33:16Max Rushden:Yeah, I guess. Well, maybe that's why he's a goalkeeper. Possible.
33:21Mark Langdon:Maybe he's amazing outpitched, but just not quite as good as Zinedine.
33:25Max Rushden:And then Jordan conceded from two corners. Sloppy goals. Keeper's questionable, I think, for both, isn't he? They were dodgy from set pieces in the first game as well. This was a game where I think the jet lag had kicked in slightly when I was watching the second half. so I may well have missed one or two decisive moments but Algeria, their tournament was on the line at half-time and they came out and were much, much better in the second half and they can now look at it and say, well, we lost to Argentina and Messi scored a hat-trick, that can happen to better teams than us and they've now got three points and they go into a game against Austria where there might be a handshake before the game.
34:11Mark Langdon:Well, Lars, this is quite interesting, isn't it? because they could play out a draw and both get four points, which will get you through to the last 32. Yes. So Austria could make up for the disgrace of Hihon 44 years later. What, by having another disgrace? Yeah, having another. One disgrace outweighs that. It's like carbon neutral. If you have a disgrace, you should go back to Munich, Barry. You could undisgrace your disgrace. It does seem a bit of a... How exactly would Barry do that? I'm curious about how you undisgrace that, especially disgrace. is this a flaw Lars you know because you've got this Australia Paraguay thing you've got Austria Algeria there may be others by the time everyone's played twice I just think the 48 team
34:52Lars Sivertsen:format is stupid it's stupid for a lot of reasons and this is one of them like the the it's a bad format there are too many games having a having a certain number of third place teams go through is stupid um I don't like it fair enough Mark yeah I agree with Lars there's definitely too many games
35:11Mark Langdon:are you feeling it we've got 27 days left barry we're at breaking point we're about to go into
35:17Max Rushden:six a day um from uh you know we were discussing before the pod how you know we we can't complain it's like you said it's like groundhog day but we can't complain about it it's sunny we're watching football get an hour off to sit by the pool etc someone said you know well at least we're not sweeping the road you know it could be a lot worse and i i just sort of went i'd take a day on the bins you know just just one if anyone in la is listening and we could you wants to swap in for
35:45Mark Langdon:barry for a day and darry barry can do your day on the bins absolutely we are we're all here i've
35:50Max Rushden:always wanted to ride on the backstecker have been lorry okay we could make your dreams come
35:55Mark Langdon:true or a garbage imagine if you love it so much and you stay in la as a refuse man well i don't think i'd be loud oh but you never know but you could well hang on you've got your friend haven't you?
36:08Max Rushden:I haven't heard from her
36:09Mark Langdon:okay, you marry her you get the green card could be a brand new life I'm sure Christine Quinn could have a word the new star of this podcast Christine Quinn from Selling Sunset although she's not aware she's such a star of this podcast but the amount of people who are excited or whose partners are so excited that we're all living next to Christine Quinn she came in today wearing an amazing at Selling Sunset outfit sort of full leather, in this weather it was quite extraordinary But isn't leather quite cool? It's leather cool. It doesn't seem cool. I don't wear full leather often. I like to find out.
36:44Mark Langdon:I'm just going back to my gimp days.
36:52Max Rushden:I don't know. I seem to remember being anxious, but cool.
36:59Mark Langdon:And then you realise it wasn't for you, was it? You couldn't murder a day on the gimps. Is that a thing? I don't know. anyway tomorrow's games right so it is the culmination of groups A, group B, group C blimey shall we talk about tomorrow is that okay does anyone have anything that jumps out from them in these groups Mark it's a handbrake turn there Max Scotland against Brazil of course Scotland against my apologies that is a massive game and I'm very excited about it I was at Heathrow on Saturday there were so many Scottish fans there must have been a flight to Miami around about the same time there were just so many of them that were clearly you know going over for that game the fans were having an amazing time already playing Brazil in a World Cup just adds to it David Nairi don't scare them David what year was that 86 or 82 David Nairi puts one in the top right hand corner and then Brazil were like I'm not happy about that well this Brazil team is not that no true so you know Scotland I just feel like they need to believe in themselves a little bit more it does feel to me the fans sing no Scotland no party and it just feels like they're having a great time but actually against Morocco they didn't feel like they believed that they were going to do anything in that game and it wasn't until the last couple of minutes when they started to go forward and maybe the floor in the format means a low scoring defeat will be enough and so it's a clever thing to do to just if you can lose 1-0 then so be it but I do feel like this Brazil team is capable of kind of not winning matches like this and Scotland need to, like I say repeat myself, but to just believe in what they're doing and to be more aggressive I don't mean that in sort of kicking lumps out of them although maybe against Vinicius there might well be you know Patterson there on the right hand side might get involved in a bit of that but Vinicius B Grant Hanley feels worrying to me yeah it does but look you know we'll go back to that Haiti game you know I expected Brazil to win that against Morocco they were really poor they were so average in midfield and the big thing for Scotland is do they actually genuinely believe they deserve to be on the pitch with Brazil and it's that kind of just playing against the kit It's an inspirational tea towel, Marcus.
39:29Mark Langdon:Just believe in yourself. Yeah, well, Steve Clarke would be the opposite of that, wouldn't he? He's quite dreary.
39:35Max Rushden:Do you think Scotland are better than Steve Clarke gives them credit for? Yeah, I do. I do as well. That midfield, McTominay, McGinn, Ferguson, is a very good midfield. Robertson at left back. There are issues up front. They haven't got that quality. and even in defense, they can't really pass the ball out. But there is a midfield that could compete against better teams. And they didn't do that against Morocco.
40:04Lars Sivertsen:I mean, I had this really, just from a tactical perspective, I totally agree with Mark. I think because of the strength of Scotland's midfield up against that Brazilian midfield that hasn't quite settled yet, I think it actually matches up quite well. The problem is the venue for me. The problem is that they're doing this in Miami where, I mean, a friend of mine made this little app that you can go in and check the weather conditions at the next game at any venue in the tournament. It's very, very useful. And I'm looking at it now, and it's forecasted to be 31 degrees, but with 63 % humidity. And the sort of wet bulb comfort, which is like for how it's going to feel, is set to dangerous.
40:37Lars Sivertsen:Right. And the description is hot with oppressive humidity. Bring water, wear light clothing, and take breaks in shade. Dangerous conditions for those not acclimatized. It just doesn't feel like the right time for John McGinn to beat Brazil.
40:49Max Rushden:No, they should wear leather.
40:50Mark Langdon:I was going to say, it doesn't sound like time. leather tartan God save us was that your speciality was it what an app that would have been Ben says dear Barry and Max I'm sure I'm not the only listener who's noticed the various mentions of intimate panel member dinners you've been hosting I must say my cynical mind first went to jeez are the Guardian overlords such cheap bastards they all have to eat at the flat together my nice aside thought they're just simple homebodies in a foreign land then it hit me every mention of Max's quite nice bolognese is just laying the groundwork for the upcoming Guardian Football Weekly cookbook Inverting the Food Pyramid edited by Jonathan Wilson you sly dogs Ben well we it's every man for himself the last couple of nights people are interested in your vegetable count Mark well you you tried to get strawberry milkshake in late doors yesterday what's happened today?
41:40today honey nut Cheerios again for breakfast while I was watching the Portugal game lunch was a they had margarita pizza so it's tomato no but I went for the cheese one instead right okay I had that and a lemon meringue pie which I've not eaten yet lemon I've not eaten it yet and we've not had dinner but I would imagine that it will still be zero this time tomorrow excellent
42:07Mark Langdon:Liam McClare our friend has been in touch excellent musician said I heard on one of the preview pods a possible loopable moment I gave it a go presumably so much football has been played at this point you have the answer to who is fresh and who is rusty but nonetheless here you go as you are in LA It's only a matter of time before one of the major labels will sign Barry in after this vocal performance. Cheers for the pod. All the best, Liam. It's got a nice beat to it. I'm sure Tone Locke could have done a good version of it. Anyway, that's it for today. Sean's brother. Exactly, yeah. We're all off to get suited up in leather and have a great evening.
42:43Mark Langdon:What happens in LA. Anyway, thanks everybody. Thank you, Lars, out in Dallas. Thank you. Have a good day, everyone. Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark. Cheers, Barry. Thank you. Football Weekly is produced by Rory Simon and Matt Bentley-Viney. Our executive producer is Joel Grove. And we'll be back tomorrow. Are they rusty?
42:59Max Rushden:Are they fresh? Are they rusty? Are they fresh? Are they rusty?
43:14This is The Guardian.
43:21Thank you.