Club World Cup Quarterfinals Preview with Rory Smith: Men in Blazers 07/03/25

27:07Is this a massive moment for the league? Will it say to elite players like you've hinted, you can come here, you can make the piles of cash, you can fly over in a crazy, insane private plane, you can make dream money, but you can also play deeply competitive football? or was it a one-off blip? Like, let me ask you this, did Plymouth Argyle beat Liverpool in the FA Cup and suddenly have all the elite players in the football world lining up to play for the Pilgrims? No, but I'm not sure they could offer quite the same wages. I think that might be the difference there. It's maybe a little bit of both.

27:40If you're a player who is considering a Saudi offer, I am now sure that the Saudis will say, well, look, there's a good chance that you're going to A, play in the Club World Cup at some point and B, when you do, you'll be playing for a team that is of a comparable level to some of the better teams in Europe. Al-Halal are not in the quarterfinals by mistake of this tournament. They drew with Real Madrid and they looked good drawing with Real Madrid. And as much as Ruben Neves and Koulibaly and Milinkovic Savic, these players who've played in Europe who are kind of established stars, as much as they carried some of the threat, Marcus Leonardo, a Brazilian striker who's been relatively low profile through much of his career, he scored against Manchester City.

28:17Salam Aldoussari, who looked brilliant in the World Cup for Saudi Arabia, three years ago, looked great against Madrid and against City. There are good players there. I think the thing we shouldn't forget is that that's one game, potentially in four or two games, potentially in four years. The vast majority of Al-Hilal's games are not at the Club World Cup against Man City. They are in the Saudi Pro League, often against teams who don't have the backing of the Saudi Sovereign Wealth Fund and therefore don't have the economic power of those sides. or they're in the Asian Champions League, which is a tournament.

28:51There can't be many more interesting tournaments in world football than the Asian Champions League. But that is, you know, you're playing Persepolis in Iran. You're playing Mumbai City in India. You know, it's not the Champions League. It doesn't have the prestige. And a lot of the travel to a footballer is maybe not as interesting as it would be to me or you, Rog. Shani Infantino certainly thought it was a moment. All caps, the new era of club football has definitely started, He tweeted after Al-Halal's win. The Guardian's Barney Rene, slightly more sombre assessment. He tweeted, great result for plucky outsiders, Al-Halal, who also happened to own the tournament broadcasters, paid for the whole show and are staging the World Cup in a few years.

29:34The power of dreams. Where are you between those two polar opposite analyses? They're not an easy underdog, are they, Al-Halal, given that they are backed by a sovereign wealth fund and the tournament is happening because of them, because of that Sovereign Wealth Fund, because they invested in DAZN, because they want to help establish those closer ties with FIFA. It feels a lot like a Saudi project to an extent. But at the same time, as a footballing achievement, it's really difficult not to admire what they did. It's a huge moment for those players, for Simone and Zagy, the coach, for the players who went to Saudi Arabia.

30:10Ruben Neves famously kind of admitted that the money was part of his thinking, but they can now point at that decision they made, at what they've done and said, look, this is legitimate, this is a real thing. We haven't gone to retire, we haven't gone to waste our talents and just earn money. Those two things, increasingly in football, we have to hold those two thoughts in our heads at the same time, which isn't always easy, but is, I think, just about possible. I don't know how devastated City are going to be. They've made some nice coin. Is it like 50 million at the stage they exited? Two weeks work.

30:47They're going to take a couple more weeks now to rest up, spend some time mentally on the beach. Dragas said in our Discord, now Pep can focus on all the important stuff, playing all the golf and eating all the good barbecue. Another fascinating game yesterday. Real Madrid faced up to Juventus, clipped them 1-0 in Miami. Kylian Mbappe finally made his debut in this tournament. He'd been hospitalized with a stomach virus. He actually lost a ton of weight, entered as a substitute. But it was the gent he replaced who's become the real revelation of this entire tournament. 21-year-old Madrid Youth Academy prospect Gonzalo Garcia.

31:31Stryker who'd never started a game before arriving in the United States, but headed home, the only goal with an incredible aplomb. third goal of the tournament off a Trent Alexander-Arnold delivery it should be said his first assist for the club a lot of people are loving the fact that it earned Real Madrid the very same 10 million dollars that offsets the money that Real Madrid had to pay Liverpool just to get him to play but Raw Gonzalo Garcia double G fascinating story I know he comes from like some kind of crazy heritage the Spanish family that he emerges from it sounds a little bit like the Iberian Royal Tenenbaums There's like famous bullfighters, there's rugby players, there's actors.

32:13I think their cousin somehow is like Rita Hayworth. I mean, there's that. But God bless Real Madrid. It's exactly what they need. Another scoring threat to have to try and jam into the team. Yeah, but it's the type of scoring threat that you have to jam into the team who might be happy not to, no, not happy, but accept the idea that he doesn't play all the time. And I think that's what's been really encouraging for them. That, you know, Garcia's not young, young by football standards. He's not like a 17-year-old phenom. He's 21. They signed him for Mallorca. He's been making his name in Castillo, which is the kind of Real Madrid B team, effectively, the youth team, for a little while now.

32:51And then Xabi Alonso has come in and given him a chance. And often you need a new manager to arrive for that to happen. If you're a young player who doesn't have any real reputation and your competition for a place is Kylian Mbappe, you need someone to come along and say, look, we'll give you a go. We'll have a look at you to see something in you that maybe the previous incumbent didn't. And for Real to have a player who's homegrown-ish, who is willing to kind of fight for a place, probably not in a position to develop a massive ego, that's a really good thing because too often I think Real are falling into that trap of trying to cram superstars in.

33:27Sometimes you need a guy who can be a substitute. And crucially, you know, the one player that Real Madrid missed last season, if you speak to players around the squad, they were really conscious they didn't have a Hossolu. Now as much as weird as that is to say about like a former Stoke City non-goal scorer he gave them like a little bit of an extra threat off the bench, he changed the way they could play and Garcia's got a little bit of that about him and I wonder whether he might prove to be more useful to Real Madrid than maybe he was expecting, Xabi Alonso was expecting and Kylian Mbappe was expecting.

34:03Dream big dreams kids It's dream to be your team's host, Alou. Real Madrid face Dortmund in the core finals, but a second yellow card to Joe Bellingham means he'll be suspended. We'll miss the clash against his big brother. Should have been like the footballing equivalent of Suite Life of Zach and Cody. Raw Dortmund clipped a quite spiky, resilient Monterey 2-1 last night. Held them off at last. So let's all feel sorry for, I think, is it 87-year-old Sergio Ramos? who was denied a chance to **** house for old time's sake against his former club, Real Madrid. Actually missed a header with the goal gaping in the 91st minute.

34:44I did wonder whether that's like the ultimate proof that karma does exist or should we summon a certain, from deep inside ourselves, compassion for Sergio Ramos as he lay on the turf in agony? Because I'm no longer allowed to schadenfreude a roar. We have Brene Brown on this show, and she said it's a terrible human look and we should just spread love. But I think Sergio Ramos may be my schadenfreude hall pass. See, I really like Sergio Ramos. I think he is football's greatest troll. And I think that's something that we need. We should welcome him. He adds to the rich tapestry of human existence.

35:24Did he throw out the first pitch at a Dodgers game a few days ago? And he's sort of strolling around the stadium. It was genuinely amazing to me. He didn't just throw it like a bullet at a fan's head. That's the kind of behavior I do expect from old Ramos. But what I thought was best about it was that, so he sort of strolled in with his sunglasses on, neck tattoos, one of those big AT shirts that are popular at the moment, clearly massively styled. He's Sergio Ramos. And I was watching it thinking, well, there'll be a lot of people here who don't know who you are, Sergio. Like, I know who you are.

35:57I'd be impressed to meet Sergio Ramos. But a lot of people in that stadium probably not that bothered about Sergio Ramos, but he's still wandering around like he owes the place. I know, it's amazing. He's always on brand. Even people who don't know who he is would look at him in LA and be like, oh my God, that guy's a dick. Stay on brand, buddy. But then he threw the pitch, Rog. Yeah. And I'm not being funny, but Sergio Ramos cannot throw. I have seen a video of Sergio Ramos, who's now very hench. Like he's really built is Sergio Ramos. Hench? I love that. Do you not know that is the word hench not transatlantic?

36:28It probably is. I've just been in a cave just watching football for the past 20 years. The stacked is the other option. I'm hench. He's hench. Hench. And I saw a video of him doing weight exercises, and he's doing the bicep trails and all that stuff. But he also does special head muscle exercises to strengthen his flicking muscles in his neck for those headers that he missed. And it's really weird to me that they're obviously just show muscles because he can't throw a ball. Show muscles. And he humanised him enormously. Show muscles. This is amazing. We all have our weaknesses. I'm not going to laugh at that.

37:00But God bless. Hench, I think we'll transatlantic that word out of you when you get over here. I think meninblazers at gmail.com, Americans weigh in. Is Hench a thing? It may well be in certain states rule, but we'll get a definitive reading on that. We'll catch up on it. By the way, there's a new documentary on Netflix about the Spanish women's predicament after winning the World Cup. Se Acarbo, which translates, I think, to It's Over. The Kiss That Changed Spanish Football is the show. to the Rubiales case. There's an amazing detail in it. The women are begging the Spanish Federation for flight times that could allow a night's sleep before a big game, you know, just like basic respect, just basic rudimentary footballing necessities, really.

37:46And at the same time, Rubiales was getting mad texts from Sergio Ramos demanding Hublot watches en masse, I think for the team, which is just kind of sums it all up. God bless equality. Let's move on to Chelsea who smashed 10 men Benfica in extra time. I mean, really extra time. Game went on forever. It was suspended if you didn't see this one near the death for two long hours for a weather delay. America, Enzo Mureska left fuming. It's not football. I'll tell you what doesn't feel like football rule. The way Chelsea are just continuing to siphon up every single human being, how Pedro, the 23 or Brighton creative fist will now be added to an attack that's already been reinforced by Liam De Lapp arriving from Ipswich Town and Borussia Dortmund winger Jamie Gittins.

38:38There's the storyline of how Chelsea are just buying anyone who's kicked a ball for Brighton apart from Neil Morpé, the one that got away. Also, any talent from the Manchester City Academy, they will snap them up. It's almost like they've learned nothing from the past couple of years, just like massive squads, massive depth chart. let's just keep the bodies flowing in. Is this just a cunning plan, Roar, at this point, to build an unstoppable dynasty by just creating a monopoly, essentially, buying every single player in the game? Yeah, if they possess all of the footballers, they will win football matches.

39:09I find it a bit strange that Joao Pedro, who had options, not least Newcastle, who were in for him as well and are in the Champions League, but you would expect that had, you know, depending on how the Joterez deals go, the Chesco deals, Liverpool might still need a striker. You'd have thought there would be more than one team in for Joao Pedro and he's gone for Chelsea. And I think that is, to be honest, it's indicative of not great agenting that his agents have kind of ushered that deal through quite quickly when I'm not sure Chelsea have shown anybody recently that they're a great place for players to develop.

39:44And then the other thing is Chelsea's thinking. Obviously, they have been worried all last season that Nicholas Jackson, as much as his movement is great, as much as his energy is great, as much as there are games when he looks like an elite striker, there are legitimate questions over his reliability as a finisher. So then you go and sign Liam De Lapp. And at that point you think, you know what, that's smart. De Lapp is an alternative to Jackson. He's a different type of striker to Jackson. He's without question hugely promising. I can see how that works. And then they go and Chelsea it all by signing another one.

40:16Let's just have another as well just in case. and I find that yeah, it's really hard not to believe that Chelsea later this summer will be in exactly the same position as they were last summer where they had too many players and they had to kind of have this fire sale and that Enzo Morester will spend a decent amount of time next season trying to figure out his best team they will have runs of form and then they'll sort of disintegrate a little bit it's hard to see that there doesn't seem to be any real attempt to break the cycle at Chelsea and I think we talked about this before that it's great signing all these players if at some point you're going to stop signing players.

40:52If you keep signing them, you're just in the grip of permanent revolution. Yeah, I mean, it is fascinating. I've got so many responses to that. It's almost like an adrenaline hit you get as an owner when you announce an incoming player. Chelsea almost seem addicted to it when you talk to people in football circles. But also, you're coming to New York City. There's certain businesses that just do not make sense in New York City. And people just nod and be like, Yeah, money laundering. I don't think it's that with Chelsea. I'm a bit surprised about their PSR approach because it strikes me they're taking quite a lot of risks.

41:25They did make the Champions League, and that will massively help. I don't see the sporting logic of it. I think that there is a point at which Chelsea, as much as they've become addicted to signing players, have also become addicted on some executive level to thinking they're smarter than everybody else, to disrupting things for the sake of disrupting. I think that's the answer, the ultimate. By the way, I'm not insinuating that Chelsea Football Club or Money London is just a hilarious thing in New York City when you see a place that makes no rhyme or reason that sounds like rice pudding and is permanently empty, but somehow is open.

41:58You have it in London too. There's all those American candy stores that are just everywhere and no one understands exactly why they're there. Yeah, we don't. I don't know how to stress. I can't stress this enough, Rog. We don't like American candy. I know. So it's very weird that there's like 27 American candy. You know what? this is a long conversation for another time.

42:20Arsenal are beginning to dabble in the transfer market. Also, they signed the stealth terrific Kepa, arrived on loan at Bournemouth and had a fantastic season last season, came in from Chelsea now for$7 million, good price for a terrific backup. But it's very hilarious. Chelsea seem obsessed with signing Seagulls. Arsenal continue almost a curious quest to pick up old Chelsea players. First, Jorginho, then Kai Havertz, then poor, doomed Raz Sterling, now Kepa, Chelsea, and now the new Brighton. Arsenal are the new Chelsea. Raw, hard-hitting question, is elite football just becoming the ultimate key party?

42:57I think what that is testament to is the amount of kind of waste in the Chelsea model, isn't it? That you're signing all these players but never upgrading them. And then a team that is better than you are looking at the bits that you don't need and saying, well, we'll have that. If it's going cheap, we'll have it. I think, Rog, that Chepa will be Arsenal's first choice goalkeeper by Christmas. Wow, that is a hot take from Rory Smith on this show. Up there with, what about half-dog, half-dog? But Chelsea facing Palmeiras in the quarterfinals. Another Brazilian team. Fluminense clipped a tail spinning Inter Milan 2-0.

43:36Quick word on Inter Milan. They've had a terrible couple of months. I'm saying that as an Everton fan. They lost the Serie A title, Coppa Italia, the Champions League, all of that silverware was in touching distance. All turned out to be a march of folly. And now the latest, this humiliation, the coach Inzaghi now, Al-Hilal, he's gone. His replacement, former club cult hero Christian Chivo took over following that self-destruction of a 5-0 humiliation. And the Champions League is now already seen to be stumbling. I think there were 20 ,000 fans only at this game, so it was a bit like a tree falling in an empty forest.

44:11But, Roar, it is looking very quickly like a turbulent season loading for Inter. Yeah, and they're in the midst of a bit of a culture shift as well. Kivu is actually, by Italian standards, a really, really brave appointment. You know, relatively inexperienced coach, very young for an Italian coach or a coach in Serie A. And they're talking at Inter about trying to make the squad a little bit younger. You know, if you watch the Champions League final, at least one of the defining factors there was age. Inter looked old. They looked like a bunch of... It looked a bit like when I play football occasionally against like 15-year-olds.

44:42And you're kind of standing there as a middle-aged man just thinking, can you just stop running? We don't need to run around like this. And then you have this slight sense of kind of things falling apart in quite an acrimonious way. There's a war of words going on between Lautaro Martinez and Hakan Chalanoglu. I think the club's hierarchy have got involved. It looks like Inter have got a few scars to work through from what happened at the end of last season. And that'll take time. In the other clash, an epic European rumble into Miami Slayers, which is how they're now now in Paris Saint-Germain, face Bayern Munich in Atlanta.

45:17PSG have looked quite swaggeringly delicious. They obliterated Lionel Messi and his strangely imbalanced side. But Bayern's record versus PSG in their last seven games were all, I think they've had six wins and just one loss, five clean sheets, one Champions League final won. Are you saying there's a chance? Yeah, two relatively recent Champions League finals in the quarterfinals of the Club World Cup. Obviously, Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund a couple of years ago and PSG Bayern was the 2020 final, regarded as non-canon by quite a lot of people because it was at the end of that little mini tournament behind closed doors.

45:56I think there is a chance. I think Bayern are a club who will be taking this tournament seriously just as PSG are. they've got a point to prove against the European champions it does have a little bit of an air of like a decaffeinated Champions League tie I think that feels like the best way of describing it but at the same time I guess it's a good test of kind of continental European soccer's cut through in the States because PSG and Bayern are two of the what five biggest names in European club football it'll be interesting to see how many people go and watch it God I love me a bit of ersatz Champions League Roar I'm going to ask you quickly to go Roaristamus whatever it is I don't know what the equivalent is Opta currently has Chelsea favourites to win the entire thing 26.79 % chance I think because they're in the slightly lighter weight side of the draw PSG second with 24.9 % Real Madrid 16.94 Bayern rounding it out at 14.83 Everton, strangely not in the list at all, but how do you handicap?

47:02Who's going to emerge from these quarterfinals? Who will we be watching together in New York City at the Michelob Ultra Club? Which four teams? Well, I think when I sit in Lincoln Financial Field, having eaten like three cheese dates, the entire contents of the Reading Terminal Market, several gelatos, and quite a lot of, there's an Italian pork thing going on in Philly as well. Yes, there is, sir. And apparently there's lots of brilliant Cambodian food, which I'm looking forward to as well. So when I'm sort of sitting there drooling and totally full and vaguely worried about my kind of lifespan, I'm expecting to see Palmeiras beat Chelsea.

47:43I've got to admit, I think we'll get one all-Brazilian semifinal, Palmeiras and Fluminense, which I think would be great for the tournament. And I think the other semi, the second one, I think, will be the kind of glamour tie that FIFA really want, which is PSG Real Madrid. And that would be fitting to me because to have a South American team, a Brazilian team and a European team in the final feels right. God bless you, Romantic. I think it's going to be Al Halal. Not saying money's changing hands, dot, dot, dot. I think it's going to be Chelsea and PSG Real Madrid. It's going to be like the Champions League West baby.

48:21I like Rory's vision more. let's wrap this baby up with a question from a gfop edward lover in bronxville shout out to that great town he is a cunning linguist um steaming in with some deep cut insight take it away raw uh roger and rory ed writes uh for months even years i've been waiting certain that you would finish the most inviting tapping imaginable in the context of discussing and stewarding fifa's recent follies rory even speaks some italian that is not fair i speak a lot of italian well I can wait no longer I just want to point that out at some point failing to finish a tap in is equivalent to an own goal that's a good line I'll steal that Gianni Infantino translates to Johnny Little Baby please let that be the only name by which you call him in perhaps the greatest example ever of nominative determinism it captures perfectly his solipsism, medallomania and bald baby head love the pod, courage Ro, I can barely speak English, so this one's all on you, baby.

49:19Does infantino means small baby? Yeah, infant. I guess it's a... Yeah, little baby sounds more like a surname than infant, so he'd be John Little Baby. That is how his name translates. But do you know what? In Italy and Spain, there are lots and lots of football figures who've got really good names, Rog. So, Liverpool cult icon Federico Chiesa, Freddie Church. Now, I reckon Freddie Church plays more football than Federico Chiesa does. Freddie Church gets you about eight goals off, gets his head on corners. He's got a lot of tattoos. He's a big brick shithouse. I think he's a central defender who's been moved out to play at left-back as a backer of Fred Church.

50:03And his dad, Enrico Chiesa, who would also have played a lot more for Liverpool. Henry Church, which I've always liked, but my favourite one. Henry Church is a scholar of some arcane British war in the 1880s. Henry Church is actually, I suspect, the civil servant who starts the war in an attempt to corner, who starts his own private army in an attempt to corner the lucrative nutmeg trade. That's who Henry Church is. In the 1880s. And then when he dies, he leaves his last words. I did it all for you, Queen. Go on. And then there's a statue to him in a sort of provincial British city that's later pulled down.

50:44But the other one, my favourite, is the former Real Madrid and Spain manager, Vicente del Bosque, whose name translates as Vincent of the Forest, which I really love. Like that is a, like you would follow Vincent of the Forest into war. Do you know what I mean? You can see why he won stuff. I thought Vincent of the Forest sounds like some Victorian porn stop. don't know it's different surely the Victorian porn star would like the wooden bit of his surname would translate as like trunk there's two different images on that I much prefer yours I've got to say your letter did make me go down a little bit of a wormhole of names and meanings and all that kind of thing I'm not a great linguist it's one of many weaknesses I have so I did always it made me go to the reverse like when our English names in foreign languages just mean something completely different.

51:35I found this out, Roar, which you probably know. But Frank Lampard, yeah, only Chelsea's all-time leading goal scorer who became better known as a legendary Everton manager. His surname, Lampard, wait a minute, means testicles in Hokkien, a language that originates from the Minan region, a Fujian province in Southeast China. Frankie Genitalia, Roar, did you know that? I didn't. My Fujian dialect isn't quite what it might be, Rog, I've got to admit. But that's pretty, that's quite good. I quite like that. Get your lampards out for the lads. Very quickly, while we're on linguistic issues from GFOP, at Lenny Goodnight, who wrote, just now listening to the Club World Cup group stage pod with Rory, please pass along to Rory that a man whose country contains a county called Worcestershire has no business complaining about the pronunciation of Connecticut.

52:27He should be quite at home with silent C mid words. Care to comment, Ro? I'm not complaining about the pronunciation of Connecticut. I'm just saying you can't do it properly in an English accent. As for Worcestershire, like Gloucestershire, you just say them as they're spelled. You know, Clint Dempsey and I do this show, The Juice, and when he talks about Norwich, he calls it Norwich. He says it's Norwich, and I'm never sure whether to step in and correct him or because he's Clint Dempsey and he's, you know, he's played them. He's actually scored on them. I should just let him be and whatever he wants to call them, just Dempsey it up.

53:04Yeah, I think you just let Clint Dempsey call stuff what he wants, to be honest. I think so. I think so. I think so. I think so. Okay, I'd love it. Thank you for such a magical letter. That's it for today. We're off. I've got a Gold Cup semi-final to watch. I'll be back tonight with Clint Dempsey for a live taping of The Deuce in which we'll mispronounce Norwich constantly. Keep writing to us. Send us your photos of your dogs and cats and a footballing connection. Send whatever you want to menandblazers at gmail.com. Your letters give us joy and energy, as we'll see you in New York City in person and really chatting up around these games together.

53:39We are 353 days away from World Cup 2026. Let's savour each and every one of them. We're all huge thank you to you. Big, big love. Can't wait to be with you. I know I'm speaking for thousands of our listeners when I say this live and in person in New York City. I'm really looking forward to it. And Lenny Dwood Knight in Italian would be Leonardo Buonanotte, who is a really hard-bitten central defender. Oh, Mike, you think so? I think he's the creative midfield Everton crowd for, Lenny Buonanotte. Come and be with us, Lenny. This is Rog sending you big love. Let's not take a second of watching football together for granted.

54:13And courage.

54:18The one question I get most after all that football memory-making we experienced across America this summer is, how do I keep the magic going? I'd start by saying, articulate what you love the most and then build on it. First step, find the team that will most probably break your heart and then add all the supporting necessities to build your weekend tradition. The key to so many of mine, it's Walmart, the place that has it all. The snacks, the coffee, the pies. You can also get the TV at Walmart, the hoodie to wear on your couch. Get the couch if you need it and wait. It gets better because their express delivery can get it right to your door.

54:57So you're all set for kickoff. Whatever your matchday needs are, you can find them at walmart.com slash soccer. Delivery timing varies by order size, traffic, weather and demand. Subject to availability. Fees and terms apply.