USA go supersonic in Seattle and Morocco squeeze past Scotland: World Cup Daily

21:59Lars Sivertsen:Is that on? Are we having that? I think there should be a panel for celebration justification arbitration or something catchy that should look at this. and maybe if they're found to have been spurious celebrations or excessive celebrations, the player should be made to wear a silly hat or something for the next game. There should be something, because I'm not sure I'm having that. If I can throw my hat in with Superintendent Sivertson

22:26Max Rushden:of the celebration, please, I would also like to protest against the involvement of substitutes running onto the pitch to celebrate, down with this sort of thing. And what time of the tournament is that acceptable, Barry, do you think? Last minute of a knockout game? Yeah. Okay, but only if they're down in one corner. If I could add to Chief Superintendent Sivitson's idea, could the silly hat be the silly hat that the woman from Selling Sunset was wearing when we saw her filming, which meant our swimming pool was closed? Because I'd quite like to see Matthias Kunja in that sort of see-through black hat that she was wearing.

23:10Max Rushden:Was it like I didn't see the hat and she wasn't wearing a hat when I met her in the elevator? Was it like a grieving widow? It was grieving widow, but sort of lattice and sort of undulated like a fairway and it was really quite large. But I went to ask the production team what was happening and they looked at me like I was a piece of muck, those guys. Seb, just that question on Brazil, which I think is interesting, which is trying to gauge how good Brazil are. We have two members of the panel saying not that good.

23:41Seb Hutchinson:No, no. I think I said it the last time I was on the pod. It's just even on paper and then watching. It was one of the worst Brazil sides I've ever seen. But yet this was the oldest Brazil side that they've named a tournament, I think, since 62. And that says to me that it's interesting on a few levels because they also then brought on two very young players in Ryan and Hendrick. there just doesn't seem to be if somebody's trying to name a brazil side they really struggle to do it and i know they've always had this case because they've got such a large pool but it's often the pool is large with a lot of quality whereas we're now in a situation where we're looking at a brazil squad and thinking i'm not scared of them um as an opposition and even in the second half they didn't have an effort on target i know they had another goal disallowed but the stats were so they They don't have an effort on target.

24:31Seb Hutchinson:Can they maintain a high performance against the best teams in this tournament? It did get me thinking if the US, the way they're playing, had played Brazil in this tournament so far, would they have blown them away? I never thought I'd say this, but it feels that way. I feel that they're really not at it. And it would take one very good side to knock them out and a side that really believes they can. I just can't see them going very deep in this tournament. While we're on down with that sort of thing, down on Alison for saving that header that would have given Haiti their first goal of this tournament.

25:05And even though he was offside, Martinelli had a shot that Johnny Placide, my favourite goalkeeper in the whole thing, tipped onto the bar. It was absolutely sensational. OK, then Group D, then USA 2, Australia 0 in Seattle. I caught up with US Soccer Editor Alex Abnos and Guardian Australia's Jack Snape postgame. They were in the same stadium, but if you're watching on YouTube, you'll see they joined separately because of the huge animosity between these two nations. All right, then, Alex, first time US have won the first two games in the World Cup. It's 1930. I mean, that's pretty huge, isn't it?

25:37It's absolutely gigantic, Max. I mean, this is a team that really had hoped to capture the attention and the hearts and minds of the American public. And I think with these two performances so far, they've given them a lot of reasons to cheer. There's a lot of positivity in this team. There's a lot of good momentum about this team. That's not something you can say about our U.S. World Cup team all that often. I can't recall the vibes really ever being higher for the U.S. at a World Cup than they are right now. Yeah. How was Potch afterwards? He was good. You know, it was actually strikingly kind of similar to the way he was after the 4-1 against Paraguay.

26:14You know, he's trying to downplay it, I think, as much as he can. And I don't think he wants the players to get carried away, even though this result definitely means much more than the first one did. It qualifies the United States for the next round. I don't think there's been a time in the modern history of the World Cup where the U.S. has qualified for the World Cup with a game to spare. He's obviously very happy with the team. He shouted out Alex Freeman, who scored the second goal and his development in a short period of time. But overall, you know, he's not getting carried away and nor should he.

26:47there are still hopefully many games to come. Meanwhile, Jack, this was pretty flat from the Socceroos, wasn't it? I mean, I don't know if Popper got the team selection right. That's the big question, I guess, isn't it? What a letdown, hey? We've been so looking forward to this game, and it felt like in that first half, Australia didn't really even show up. But big question was over those two key selections to play two A-League men players, Nishan Valupole and Matt Leckie, in those key inverted winger roles. He took off. He started those guys instead of the two guys who scored against Turkey. So it makes it very hard to defend that selection decision.

27:25And it felt like he himself realized that maybe he'd made an error when at halftime it's 2-0 and he's making a triple substitution. But look, the Socceroos, they improved a little bit in the second half. They're still in with a shot of progressing out of this group. So there's a lot of anticipation towards that game against Paraguay next week. Yeah. And Jake, did Popper say anything afterwards? about getting it wrong? He has not admitted any fault, but he's not particularly talkative, Tony Popovich. You won't get anyone in the Australian squad criticising Popovich and his selections. There was just a degree of frustration, right?

28:01They don't know really why they didn't turn up, particularly physically in that first half. They were just battered by a brilliant US performance. Fortunately, they've got a lot of optimism that, you know, they've got that result in the bank against Turkey and now they can really focus on this Paraguay game and hopefully take it to the round of 32. Yeah, and Alex, we know Seattle is like a great place. It's like a hotbed for football in the US. What was the atmosphere like? It was incredible. And I have to say, it was incredible. Obviously, plenty of support for the US. It was loud. There was a military flyover of these helicopters that really sort of like got everybody amped for a game that ended up not really ever springing fully to life.

28:41It was never really as competitive as I think a lot of people wanted it to be. But the support throughout was incredible. They were loud. They were chanting. They were cheering. I have to also take my cap off to the Australia fans that did make the trip. They were also very loud and very obvious. It's tough to be the away fans in an environment like that. And I think they showed out pretty well. Granted, it was much easier to tell them apart than it was the Paraguay fans because the colors are very different. They were all wearing yellow and it was very obvious who was an Australia fan in the crowd.

29:13But overall, it was a great environment. I almost wish the game were a little bit more competitive for most of it. But overall, you can't complain about the amount of crowd noise and the investment in the game that you could see pretty much everywhere. How have you found that needle, Jack, that sort of weird rivalry that has emerged between the US and Australia? I thought you were talking about the Seattle Space Needle. I believe that's the skyscraper in the middle of Seattle. Yeah, it is. I have not been up the top of the space needle, but the rivalry between Australia and the States, you actually saw it in the game in that second half.

29:51It did start to get a little bit testy, and that's kind of what we want as Australian fans. We want this team to be putting it all out there, really pushing the boundaries when it comes to the challenges, the physicality, making the referee make tough decisions. And really, it took us probably an hour to get to that point today. And that's one of the biggest disappointments, because that's something really we should be getting right from the first minute. Yeah, we go again, the Aussies. But thank you, chaps. That's great stuff. Cheers, Alex. Cheers, Jack. Thank you, Max. Cheers, Max. Alex and Jack there, it's a joke.

30:29They get on very well. It's OK. Look, you mentioned the US there, Seb, when you were talking about, you know, could they see off Brazil? there was so much chat before this game about the needle was the u.s saying this will be easy for us and australia getting annoyed about it and it turned out it was just easy for the u.s

30:46Seb Hutchinson:and they're full of confidence they're brimming with confidence and it's incredible i a lot of people did not see this coming from them but it feels like they've all bought into the pochettino way and when we've seen that work for him in the past it's been so effective and they don't even need it feels like a tournament at the moment where obviously the team feels bigger than the individual and that's going to take them a long way i what i would say of course is their group feels particularly low on quality and compared to some of the other groups i think we're seeing that already i mean as we speak i don't know if we're allowed to even mention the turkey turkey paraguay game but they seem to be struggling in that turkey i mean what is going on there and i would have looked on the surface i thought turkey would be the toughest opponents for the US but that may not come to pass it could be out by the time they play them so there is then a limited and we have seen in previous tournaments before where a side looks fantastic in the group stage and one knockout game kills the dream the Netherlands in 08 Brazil in 82 whatever it might be because they're at home because they've got this this power behind them they're full of running they're playing for each other they even have this this in the attacking areas you feel that they can rotate quite well because they're all in that groove and they've all bought into what Pochettino wants and wherever you look around the pitch and you think is that player good enough and you see these players in European football and you think of someone like Dest and he looked absolutely incredible in this game but it is I suppose the tingle is the opposition and that does tick away at you are they playing a top side who could probably deal with this pressure that they're applying for a period and then pick them off you know get in behind tim rehm or whatever so we'll see what happens but now to ride this wave is great for this for the tournament of courses and i think we want the us to go deep into the tournament maybe from an english point of view not win it but go deep and make it feel like a special competition we are allowed to mention turkey paraguay um it's not a secret uh yeah it's happening uh while while while we record paraguay currently won the last we'll talk about that game tomorrow i mean i suppose the point is lars that and and seb alluded to it there is a there is a big difference in quality between the u.s side and the australia side if you think of mckinney adams dest robinson they've got loads of players that are just better than anyone in the australia side so for me the remarkable thing about these

33:11Lars Sivertsen:two games is how similar they played out because they were both games against an opponent who we expect wanted to sit in maybe not full park bus but actually possibly full park bus i mean I mean, Paraguay have been very defensive and solid in the qualifying phase and have been successful at that. Australia were very bus-parky against Turkey and were very successful at that. But in both of the games, the U.S. got an early goal, an early on-goal, as it happened, and that opened things up a bit because suddenly the opponent had to come out and they had space to play. Now, I am U.S. positive. I completely agree with the assertion that they look like a Pochettino team with the pressing, with the energy, with the quick little interchanges they set up.

33:52Lars Sivertsen:But what happened in both games looked a lot to me like the players were told at halftime to, OK, try to slow the tempo down a bit. We're not going to press like lunatics for 45 more minutes. We're going to try to keep the ball a little. And that they are not very good at. And the games didn't fully get away from them. But the second halves were not as convincing at all. And you see oftentimes like some slightly weird decisions being made on the ball. I think they seem to be a lot more comfortable when they're going full pelt. They don't seem super comfortable when they're defending out of possession, and they don't seem super good at taking down the tempo in possession.

34:27Lars Sivertsen:And is that a big problem against Australia and Paraguay? Maybe no, but against stronger opponents, it could be. Because I don't think you can play at full... I mean, I'm going to sound like a broken record. I don't think you can do full press, here we go, every game for the rest of this tournament, because I think you're going to run out of juice. as I would the caveat would be that the games kind of fell into a pattern that really suited them and they lost a little bit of control in the second half in both games in a way I didn't love but it is still better than I think most people including myself were expecting from the US before the tournament and at their best they've been very very good.

35:01Meanwhile for Australia Barry I mean already sort of every Australian ex-pro I've seen being interviewed going why not pick the two guys that scored and I know football isn't that simple but in everything that Popovic got right against Turkey and played an attacking line-up even though they did defend a lot with Pace and Iren Kunda playing he didn't do that here and it just you know the two guys he brought in the two old A-League you know veterans and they it just didn't work

35:29Max Rushden:Yeah I think he made a mistake and he rectified it or tried to rectify it at half time but it was sort of too late by then I was a bit stunned when I saw they hadn't been selected if nothing else it gives the Australian defence who we know are going to be under pressure gives them out balls their confidence is sky high because they both scored and I think it was a mistake Australia were absolutely diabolically bad in the first half of this game they improved a bit in the second half but not enough and I think on 80 minutes, Parch made a few subs, just shut the game down and that was it. The highlight after that was when the referee, Felix Wehr, went down with cramp and had to be attended to by Australia's Aidan O 'Neill who did the pushy-pushy thing on his outstretched foot and leg.

36:28Max Rushden:So I presume... Wayne really thought that was a disgrace that's where man gets cramp at having run around in, well, I don't know how hot it was. I'm going to guess it was pretty hot for, you know, 96 minutes. Yeah, fair play. He's allowed to get cramp, isn't he? The best thing is the BBC have this feature with graphics from the 80s. Like someone said, it looks like a Dire Straits video and the ref getting cramp is just, he can't deal, the graphics cannot deal with this ref lying on the ground. It's very, very funny. I don't think I've ever seen a ref get cramped before or visibly have to go down and get treatment from one of the players.

37:11Yeah, you sort of think he should be allowed to just sub. Yes, Lars?

37:14Lars Sivertsen:We have confirmation from our intrepid reporters on the ground on what kind of juice the referee was handed as he was lying on the ground struggling with this cramp. I feel like that's the big story today. To alleviate the symptoms of cramp, is it prune?

37:29Max Rushden:Is it prune juice maybe? You want something salty, don't you? Pickle juice, apparently. Oh, pickle juice. That's it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Prune juice is just where you can shit himself. Yeah, it doesn't need that. Felix didn't need to shit himself after having cramp, did he? Anyway, that'll do for part two. Part three, we'll look ahead to tomorrow's games.

37:51Hi, 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 spiralling 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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38:38welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly live shows in September then 1st of September Vicar Street Dublin 9th of September Soho Theatre Walthamstow come along please at guardian.co.uk slash footballweekly live tomorrow we've got the Netherlands Sweden, Germany Ivory Coast, Ecuador Curaçao and Tunisia Japan Lars, Netherlands Sweden is visually beautiful. How do you think the game will be?

39:01Lars Sivertsen:I think it could be fun. I thought the Dutch were not mega fun against Japan. They were a little bit sort of conservative and boring and played safe, but they also didn't look super comfortable when Japan were kind of counterattacking on them. And that is what the Swedes will be looking to do. I mean, they'll be looking to try to keep a reasonably solid sort of organization off the ball and try to hit people on the counter with Jokeres and with Izak. And that fared very well for them. against an admittedly appalling Tunisia team, but I think the Swedes cannot be fully discounted. The Dutch were kind of boring against Japan, kind of underwhelmed by what they brought to the party there, but they do have a fair bit of quality.

39:40Lars Sivertsen:So I think it could be an exciting game. I'm trusting my Scandi brethren. Germany beat Chris have 7-1, so our first chance to see them against a decent opponent. Seb, you're covering the game against the Ivory Coast for ITV. How do you see it?

39:53Seb Hutchinson:Yeah, it's funny. After a team wins 7-1, you think about their vulnerabilities but I watched that and thought you can get this Germany team particularly the centre-halves and I want to think about you know Jonathan Tarr and he's somebody who prides himself in the physical challenges and going toe-to-toe with strikers but for centre-halves to have that attitude you always think to yourself well they just have to make a mistake once and they're in big trouble and in that Curacao game there were a few occasions where Curacao got in between the centre-halves and the full-backs and could stretch Germany.

40:27Now, I think this

40:29Seb Hutchinson:Ivory Coast side, this Cote d 'Ivoire side, is built to take advantage of that. They are a team that actually looked defensively very good against Ecuador, and they were defensively good in qualifying. But it's their attacking players. They've got some exciting players. And I'm sure Diamandis has been spoken about, and we know he's set for a big move. But in this squad, I wonder if they, again, I feel there's a belief thing going on. We mentioned it about Morocco and how long these sides can maintain a high level across a whole game. I hope that Ivory Coast can do it in this one because they could really trouble this Germany side.

41:06Seb Hutchinson:I think in a transitional situation, I think Germany are very vulnerable. Now, on the ball, they can play some pretty stuff. But you just watch them and you think, I'm not entirely sure. and also Neuer as we say he was barely tested against Curacao but he had a couple of moments in that game where you just thought well that's classic Neuer when he's not having a good game I mean I remember picking the ball up and just throwing it bowling out straight to a Curacao player who then had a chance to shoot on goal and I just think Germany I wasn't convinced even though they had such a dominant display so this is what makes this game so intriguing to me because Ivory Coast certainly have the weapons to harm them.

41:49Max Rushden:Whoever comes second in this group will probably face whoever comes second in England's group. So that would be Croatia or Ghana, you'd imagine. So I think coming second in this group wouldn't be the end of the world by any stretch of the imagination, would it? You're probably right. I'd take Croatia or Ghana on the evidence of what I've seen so far. Maybe England should come second. um if we had the choice uh ecuador i mean will germany beat ecuador though that's the other thing i mean they might not even finish second so runner-up in group e is versus runner-up in

42:24Seb Hutchinson:group i oh i thought it was l oh there are so many groups the letters are wrong anyway is it not r it's not group r the i and the l looks very similar it depends whether it depends

42:35Lars Sivertsen:whether it's all caps or not if you think like if it's lower caps it looks the same no i'm i'm very invested in this because there's a pretty high likelihood well it's a likelihood anyway that the runner-up in group i is going to be norway now that uh last 32 last 32 game will be played here in dallas uh at which point there's a there's a chance i might get in so if this happens it'll be my brave viking boys versus probably ivory coast or ecuador so i'm i've got a very keen eye on these games all right then let's get on to any other business danny says uh my wife finding out a main member of the Selling Sunset cast is now back on the show due to Max and Barry doing some Hollywood reporting.

43:13Wasn't on my bingo card at this World Cup, but hey-ho. Apparently we nearly broke that as an accidental exclusive. We were pipped to the post by... Do I say TMZ or can I say TMZ? What do the kids say? Somebody. Somebody. They say Z. TMZ. It's not something I follow. Maybe I'm on it all the time. Who knows, Barry? We did play a game of football earlier today. There's been a thing put out on Instagram. We invited Lloyd Griffith. He came along. And we're standing there playing. And then we're just warming up. And Ben Fisher says, oh, Danny Cipriani's here. And I was like, oh, he says there's somebody who looks like Danny Cipriani.

43:51And as I got closer, I was like, he really looks like Danny Cipriani. To the point where he actually was Danny Cipriani. So it just shows who you get to play with. Good left foot. Very good left foot. Was he any good? Good touch for a big man. Danny, disappointing defeat for the lads today. Yeah, I feel like there was no referees for overtime there. You know, I think the game ran on a bit long. We showed some quality. The cameraman was actually man of the match back there. And I think it was fantastic in the end, but not quite the W. Lloyd? Yeah. How are you? Yeah, I mean, exhausted. I'm 17 and a half stone.

44:27Do you think that counted against you? It's hard to say it counted for me. But yeah, it was the first time I played in a few months. Great to play. I thought we were quite tight actually I thought we played some really good football he's unbelievable it's ridiculous isn't it have you ever played sport before? when I was young like real young I played a bit a bit of cricket but yeah I like linking up with you Lloydie what are you on about? your boots are working for you I know I bought new boots yesterday so I think 14 blisters and counting but I just there was just no service for me up top I felt like Ronaldo no one really wanted to play with me and I was just there for eye candy really but we we did well I thought but you did look good yeah yeah yeah but it was good and you're honestly it was like playing with your school teacher a commentator from the 80s yeah and also your dad yeah because you're just the whole time just kind of instructing people where to go and you know come on Lloyd better than that your mum hates you stuff like that so I enjoyed it do you want to review my performance or not do it I thought your heat map there wasn't much movement

45:34Seb Hutchinson:it was a lie but as a centre back I think you was wise with that you just picked up the right spots you can't pay for experience that's what they would say I felt like early on it felt like Ajax early on you were just pulling strings getting the ball to your feet playing out and yeah as time went on I guess we can just I got older yeah you definitely got about 45 minutes older and it happened for the last half hour you were shouting next goal wins and how long cheers boys thank you Danny there was one point I watched and I just went I saw you didn't move at all. But the rest of the game, you were great.

46:07It was brilliant. It was just minutes 10 to 60. Look, we go again back in training tomorrow morning. It was wicked fun. I thought all the lads were great, man. It was good fun. Thanks very much. Thanks, boys. I'm meant to say Rory, our video editor, has scored a brilliant hat-trick, but come on. It's gone to his head. It's all he's done all day. He's just watched replays of himself pinging one in with his left foot.

46:28Max Rushden:I saw him nearly knock your head off with a kick out. He did also twat the ball into my head from about four yards. I span around. They were like, you know. Yeah, you looked cartoon. Yeah, exactly. I had to have a lie down. Now, some feedback on Barry's friend. Marco says, this could be the greatest performance by an Irishman on American soil since Ray Houghton, 94. Joel says, I'm on the side of the management company on this one. Imagine in the midst of passion, a rogue Coca-Cola bottle was knocked over without the lid being fastened properly. Baz says once Barry breaks out the header story we may as well pencil in a wedding what woman could say no to that feat of athleticism and Megan says is this not the perfect rom-com premise a chaste daytime visit will be planned hijinks will ensue Max will misread the sock on the door handle and an insurance claim will have to be defended the full pod team to do a guard of honour at the wedding Ellis James sends a voice note so there we are but no more news on that front Barry no okay noted and that'll do for today.

47:27Thanks, everybody. Thank you, Seb. Thank you. Enjoy the game tomorrow. Cheers, Lars. Thank you, Max. Thank you so much, Barry. Thank you, Max. Football Weekly is produced by Rory Simon and Matt Bentley-Viney. Our executive producer is Joel Grove. We'll be back tomorrow.

47:46This is The Guardian.

47:55I sold my car in Carvana last night. Well, that's cool. No, you don't understand. It went perfectly. Real offer, down to the penny. They're picking it up tomorrow. Nothing went wrong.

48:04Max Rushden:So, what's the problem? That is the problem. Nothing in my life goes to smoothie. I'm waiting for the catch.

48:09Lars Sivertsen:Maybe there's no catch. That's exactly what a catch would want me to think. Wow, you need to relax. I need to knock on wood. Do we have wood? Is this table wood? I think it's laminate. Okay, yeah, that's good. That's close enough. Car selling without a catch. Sell your car today on Carvana. Pick up fees may apply.