USA blast out of the blocks and Canada get first ever point: World Cup Daily

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0:48Hi, 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, plus you earn rewards on every stay, so each trip you take helps pay for your future trips.

1:20Just 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.

1:52Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly, day two of the World Cup and let the Christian Pulitzer its love in commenced. The US demolished Paraguay. They were relentless from the off. A brace for Balogun. Western McKennie dominated midfield and Sergino Dest was brilliant on the right. Might they be good? Good. Also today, Canada fight back to draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina. For a lot of the game, it was just Syed Kolasinac just heading everything away and clearing one sensationally off the line. Jesse Marsh made some good changes and the pressure finally paid off. It was the least they deserved.

2:19We'll look ahead to tomorrow's games. Scotland, Australia and Brazil all playing and then to the big stuff. Listeners trying to diagnose Barry's ankle injury while Has the Ham Come Out? All that plus your questions, and that's today's Guardian Football Weekly.

2:36On the panel today, Barry Glendening, welcome. Hello. Our first ever pod for the Guardian US soccer reporter, Pablo Mauer. Pablo, hello. How are you doing? Yeah, good. Good to have you on. And out in Houston, Seb Hutchinson. Hey, Seb. Hi, Max. Hi, everyone. Nice to have you on. Let's begin then with that amazing victory for the USA in LA. 4-1 over Paraguay, the largest margin of victory for the U.S. at a World Cup since 1930, where they beat Paraguay again and Belgium 3-0. They were relentless from the off. Were you expecting that, Pablo? I mean, yes and no. I think mostly no. My own pregame prediction was 2-2.

3:11Paraguay, you know, pretty defensively sound team. Typically, you know, hard-nosed, hard-charging South American team. So no, I mean, actually, I'll just be realizing I'm shot. I'm completely shot. It's ridiculous. You changed a lot in the last 10 seconds. I did. I was trying to couch it or something. It was absolutely ridiculous. Yeah. Where did it come from? I have no idea. I mean, it is a home World Cup, obviously. It's a huge crowd at SoFi. The U.S. looked very good in their final tune-up against Germany. But I did not expect that at all. I didn't expect that out of Pulisic. I didn't expect that out of McKinney, certainly in a ballot.

3:45I mean, it's just ridiculous. Yeah. It was fun. It was fun. It's rare to have fun watching the U.S., so I'm thankful for that. Yeah. And would you say the best ever U.S. performance you've seen at a World Cup? I mean, it has to be. The only thing that would compete would be their opening group stage game in 2002 when they went up 3-0 against Portugal. But they very nearly drew that game. They played a pretty terrible second half, and they played a pretty serviceable second half in this one. So, yeah, it has to be the most complete 90 minutes the U.S. has ever played at a World Cup, I think, bar none.

4:16Yeah. Barry, I mean, we have always been big fans of Christian Pulisic on this podcast. Others have doubted him, but we never had. And finally, all that love and praise from us paid off in that first half.

4:28Max Rushden:Yeah, he was quite sensational and unplayable. And the fact that the guy who's supposed to be trying to contain him, Caceres, got booked quite early certainly didn't help Paraguay. But Pulisic was the standout player in the first half. But there were so many good American performances. Weston McKinney, Sergino Desch, Anthony Robinson. Tyler Adams is great Tyler Adams for Lauren Baligan they were just rampant the two fullbacks were pressing up high runners were getting forward ahead of Baligan the striker just gave them so many options midfielders were changing positions at will and the Paraguayans just didn't know how to cope I was certainly surprised by this performance this was the best game of the tournament so far and this was by a mile the best performance.

5:21Max Rushden:Yeah. Are we trying to gauge how,

5:23Seb Hutchinson:might they be good, good, Seb? I don't, I was caught in two minds. I thought, how far off it are Paraguay here? I was really worried for a second after seeing South Africa in the opening game and then covering an excellent game between South Korea and Czech Republic. And I just thought, are Paraguay aside that they've just been completely blown away by the US in this game, but is it more about them? But the more the game went on, I truly believe. I just think the US got it right. I definitely think it's the best performance I've ever seen from them at a World Cup. The game against Portugal from well over 20 years ago was mentioned.

6:01Seb Hutchinson:But this felt the complete performance from them. Their press was superb. Paraguay couldn't get out. When they tried to go long, they were losing the duels. There were some moments when they had some technical security in forward areas in the US half. but those chances were smothered. And even when Paraguay scored in the second half, the US responded. They could have scored several goals just minutes after they conceded that goal. So I'd like to think it was the US's performance that is the main thing to take from this because the first 20 minutes, I thought this is one of the worst World Cup performances I've seen from a side, but we have to give the US the credit on this particular occasion.

6:44Yeah. And look, we mentioned Pulisic there, Pavli, but he's kind of he is the face of this team you know he's on the ad he's on a great advert for wells fargo with some referees in a cafe and he brings out a credit card but um but he was like he as bad said in that first time i know he was taken off at halftime we don't at the top at the moment we don't know why but like his footwork for that first goal is so so good i think it's interesting to me i mean having i've been spoken to christian and really in the last six months Obviously, he has extended goal scoring and assist route. And he would almost be irritated to be asked about it.

7:18He'd be irritated to be asked about his confidence, that sort of stuff. He does a bit of an eye roll, that kind of stuff, a little heavy breathing size. And I really genuinely had doubts about him coming into this tournament. He's played well in the two May games, but I was just blown away, man. It almost is like he let his game do the talking, period. But I was surprised, honestly. In the U.S., I mean, they are a good team when their top-level players play well. So then you're not a deep enough team to where they can get away with somebody like Christian Pulisic or Chris Richards or Wesley McKinney and these other guys having off nights.

7:51And when they all have good nights, I mean, they're an exceptionally good team. Obviously, this is a World Cup. You can't really sustain that and get those sorts of performances, you know, five, six, seven games. But tonight was fun. Yeah. And there was a great moment. They had the hydration break, which we're all finding slightly frustrating. And the US are so dominant. And then you said, there's no way this break doesn't benefit Paraguay. And as you said it, Balogans scored that disallowed goal. The timing was perfect. But then he scored like a second later. And actually, Baz, that was a... I mean, there were two brilliant finishes.

8:21I don't know who you prefer out of the Balogans one and the Gio Reyna one.

8:24Max Rushden:I like both. I think Balogans was probably the better... I don't know. Carry on. Yeah, well, you know, they can both be good. Yeah, it's true. I mean, Gio's had more sauce, though. Yeah. It was like a little more flair. Yeah. Well, the battle gangbone, he side-footed home, curled it in inside the post after a good cross from Pulisic, who had run onto that long ball from Anthony Robinson. I found it quite funny in this game. I watched, I think, two hours of Fox TV coverage in the build-up to the game. I'm so sorry. And I was thinking you could be forgiven for thinking there is only one team playing in this match because I don't think they mentioned Paraguay at all until they were giving the Paraguay lineup.

9:18Max Rushden:But then the game started and there was only one team on the pitch, basically. The Fox coverage is quite something I have to say. I really do like our UK audiences won't be seeing this but Alexei Lalas is standing next to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and they are starting some sort of strange I don't know if it's a bromance I don't know if Zlatan is just going what are you talking about I mean you know Alexei Lalas a bit Pablo yeah yeah I think Fox is pretty calculated putting the two of them together two huge personalities the difference for me is and you know I like Alexei as a person I think he's actually pretty decent at his job too but you know Zlatan is Zlatan yeah Alexei is a pretty good defender for the US obviously Zlatan Ibrahimovic is as an all-time great you know so I don't and there's only so much stick that Zlatan is going to take from from Lawless you know possibly uh we did see Arion Reed there although and Alexei did call James Gordon a full kit wanker on live television and Rebecca Lowe the British host was like I think you can you say that here I'm not sure um said we should talk about the Gio Reyna finish because actually it rounds off this performance doesn't it at 3-1 it was a little bit nervy but they rode that out pretty well but for that moment and Gio Reyna's had a pretty checkered time of it in his career it's such a it's an understatement Pablo well yeah I mean it's the first thing he did when he scored the goal was cover his ears of course you know because he's I mean he's another one like like Christian if you know you ask him about what happened in Qatar you know nearly got sent home from the tournament and the whole ensuing thing with the Berhalter stuff, you know, he has just answered it to death to the point where, you know, in May, when I saw him at camp, the only question I had for him is, are you tired of being asked about this?

11:01You know, it's a good way of asking the same question. Yeah, exactly. I was going to write, and that's why they pay me the medium books, I guess. Um, and I mean, I think you saw that in a celebration, obviously. It's just sort of like, can we put this to bed? Yeah. No, we can't. But I know you, you and I bond over beautiful camera angles of beautiful goals and that from behind Gio Reyna's foot just as you and it wasn't quite in the corner for it to be perfect needs to curl from outside the goal in but let's not take too much away from

11:29Seb Hutchinson:him in this moment yeah I mean for me it was the best goal of the night obviously and aesthetically pleasing and the camera angles always help that and the thing about Gio Reyna is that he he had that one season at Nottingham Forest which feels people just forget about I have forgotten about Exactly, yeah. In these many seasons of being at Dortmund, and for a player who's still only 23, it feels like he's been around for so long. And I felt with this US team coming into this tournament, there's been a lot of debate around how good are they? Do they have the actual elite quality to maybe go deep into the competition?

12:04Seb Hutchinson:but they certainly seem like when i see a performance like that today it's the kind of performance that would cause any team in this competition problems and if you can which we're already seeing use your squad and take advantage and i've noticed in games already that managers have been taking off important players even when the game's not won and replacing them with other players in the squad that you think maybe in a normal game in a normal conditions for many of these teams you'd have players that would last the 90 minutes but they're they know it's about the starters and the finishers phrases we've heard in recent years and this was an example of it reina coming off the bench adding a touch of quality when the opposition is tired and paraguay don't have the depth that the u.s have and this could be key and it makes the tournament quite unpredictable actually and i know none of the favorites have played yet but there's things I've seen already in this competition that make me quite excited for it and the possibilities of what we might see going forward.

13:02Now, while we were having a delicious Thai red curry cooked by one of us, one of us announced Paraguay are better than people think they are. And who said that? That was me, Max.

13:17Max Rushden:And you're doing this thing you do where you mislead listeners by pretending something happened that didn't actually quite happen in the way you were suggesting. Do correct me. Yes. You said, I don't know anything about Paraguay. Can anyone give me a steer? And I said, I think they're better than people think they are. Right. And it sounds like that's why. You really did a lot with that question. You even tried to get us to admit publicly that you made dinner. You know, like, are you okay? And while we're at it, I ate it. It was very nice, but I would have sworn it was a Thai green curry. Oh, right.

13:55Well, it was a red... I mean, potato, potato, I think. Well, it was green. It was literally green. There was a lot of green in it. That's not the point. Paraguay... The question really was, they were hopeless in this game, and it's hard to know if they were just bad because the US were so good.

14:12Max Rushden:I think that was certainly a factor because their midfielders were completely overrun. They were gesturing and pointing at each other as various Americans zoomed past them, playing at great speed, zippy little passes, long balls, through balls, overlaps, underlaps, and they just couldn't cope. They were supposed to be. I think people thought they were bad because they stank the place up at the last Copa America. But then Gustavo Alfaro came in, this Argentinian coach. They did really well in South American qualifying. I think they only lost one match away from home. They only conceded 10 goals in 18 games.

14:53Max Rushden:They've conceded four this evening, and they could have conceded a lot more. So I suspect they won't be that bad when they play Australia. Who knows how they'll get on against Turkey, but that's a very damaging defeat because they've now got a goal difference of minus three, and even the goal they scored, that could be very important to them. I mean, it's staying the obvious too. You give up a goal to any team after six, seven minutes in the opener of a home World Cup in front of 78 ,000 people, you're kind of cooked. You know, it's like, you know, it did not rise to the occasion after that happened.

15:28We should talk about the VAR mistaken identity bit because that was quite fun, Pablo, wasn't it? Yeah, I was actually, I mean, it took me a minute to put together what's happening. One of the rule changes to this World Cup is they can use VAR to overturn yellows and reds that are issued to players, you know, that obviously in the case of mistaken identity. But I've always perceived that as like getting of a mass confrontation and somebody gets a straight red because somebody punched somebody who turns out it was somebody else. But this was kind of wild. I mean, you saw Tim Ream kind of force Miguel Almiron down into the corner.

15:59Almiron ran at him. Ream got a little stuck in. Fallon sued. Ream got a yellow. And then the replay, obviously, was pretty clear that Miguel Almiron took a dive. So in that way, it was a mistaken identity on a yellow card because Almiron deserved the yellow for simulation. But I didn't... It's like a loophole, isn't it? It felt very much like a, you know, very sort of like loose interpretation of the rules or something. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made.

16:25Seb Hutchinson:By the way, can I say, Danny McAleer, when he spoke to the crowd, that's the most decisive I've ever heard a referee. He whacked that out and explained it. Bang, bang, bang, bang. I think you saw the ref in the Mexico game yesterday. It really struck me. He probably was like, it couldn't be me. Although I forgot to mention this yesterday. And Robin Coward sent me the same text at the same time I put it in the script. It was very weird yesterday to see a ref come out and say after review and not say after review. I was really hoping that had a broad northern accent like everyone else. Just on Pulisic, Pochettino said after the game he received a kick on his calf, felt tight at the end of the first half.

17:00We didn't want to take any risks. It was difficult for him to walk, but I hope it's not a big issue. You can be ready for the next one. So well done, the US. Well done, Christian Pulisic. And that'll do for part one. Part two, we'll look back at Canada versus Bosnia-Herzegovina. Hi Pod fans, 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 Plus, you earn rewards on every stay, so each trip you take helps pay for your future trips.

17:46Just 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.

18:15Max Rushden:Hi, this is Becca Moore 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.

18:46Max Rushden:Set up your Apple Cash today in the Wallet app. Apple Cash services are provided by Green Dot Bank, member FDIC. Terms apply.

19:03Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. We have live shows in September. 1st of September, Vicar Street in Dublin. 8th of September, Soho Theatre in Walthamstow. As we said yesterday, the good people of New York sold out the show in five minutes. So come on, good people of Dublin and London, don't let us down. Just go onto our social media to find out how to get tickets. Canada won, Bosnia-Herzegovina won. I really enjoyed this game, Barry.

19:27Max Rushden:Yeah, I thought it was a good game. I thought Canada, I suspect we'll feel they left it behind them, but they'll be glad to have finally got a point in a World Cup game, I think at their seventh attempt or something like that. I did enjoy Michael Bublé singing before the game. Michael Bublé is a great pronunciation. Bublé? Bublé? Bublé? Bublé? Bublé? I'm told, I'm told. I don't appreciate his work, but I'm pretty sure it's Michael Bublé. He's Michael Bublé to me. Not a big Christmas music guy. I think of all the Canadian male artists, they could have had they picked Michael Booble yeah I suppose Michael Christmas Booble kind of works doesn't it Alanis Morissette she gave a good stirring rendition of Oh Canada good stuff but yeah good game Canada probably should have won they had far more chances than Bosnia will they be happy with a point they need to win this group to stay in Canada and obviously that's what they want to do so this isn't a great start for them but it could have been worse.

20:32Yeah. I was really impressed actually with that they kept going. I mean, they're clearly the better team in this game but it's hard when you're 1-0 down you're 1-0 down for a long part of the game you sort of think it's ebbing away but they did just keep on keeping on. I mean, I had to be immensely relieved to get the equalizer at home again, at home in front of a home World Cup. I mean, it very quickly could have gone south for them. Enjoyed, I think one of my favourite parts of watching Canada generally is just looking at Jesse Marsh's hyperbolic reactions to everything extremely over the top human being head coach uh but no i mean he's slightly strange i mean i don't know he sort of you know he didn't do brilliantly in the uk and i think there was a lot of that kind of you know here's an american talking about football stuff you know ted lasso comparisons but it was interesting on the coverage here that the the american pundits didn't like him well i mean this comes off what he said yesterday i guess you said that he had to convince american players to sing the national anthem i just think it's look i don't really care about that i'm not the most patriotic dude in the world But what I will say is I think it's like a rich comment for an American who's coaching the Canadian national team to make.

21:35I don't know really how that logic works. But yeah, no, they had to be incredibly relieved.

21:40Max Rushden:If I could just be slightly pedantic. Please do. I don't think there were Tate Lasso comparisons when Jesse Morris was at Leeds because I don't think Tate Lasso was a thing. Oh, I see. So he was just a run-of-the-mill incompetent American coach. Maybe Tate Lasso. He's been sprained for Jesse Morris. It's possible, isn't it? we should Barry talk about Saad Kolasinac who was sort of this one man hero, it was like the whole of Bosnia on his back as he headed it and headed it and headed it away he was sensational, he played a part in the goal, his was the flick on from which Jovo Lukic nodded home bad defending there from Canada, I thought the goalkeeper probably could have done a bit better as well maybe I'm being harsh on him Stiquai ran out of position from his place at the nearer poles that allowed Kolasinic.