Mbappe and France knockout Morocco, featuring Pablo Torre: Night Cup 07/09/26

19:46Rog:Me. I know you are, but who's the Nevernude? Christy Cross. Yeah, it's the meme which ends with, did it work for those people? No, but it might work for us. Tobias. Tobias. I saw a version of that about Stutter Step penalties, and I really liked it. People keep doing Stutter Step penalties. Does it work for them? No, but it might work for us. That's amazing. That's amazing. Tobias Fuque, I bet you he could do a stutter step penalty. He can't get nude in the shower. But he could do a stutter step. They're terrible. It's a terrible way of taking a penalty. News just in from producer J-Dubbs. Degree is widely considered a great and reliable deodorant brand, highly praised for its long-lasting sweat and odour protection.

20:25Rog:They need a comma there. No, they don't. It could be highly known for its long-lasting sweat. Is J-Dubbs pitching for a deal with Degree? I don't think we could really try and have a deal with. They've got Pulisic. They've got to act to arrange. There's no room for anybody else. Oh, by the way, it's anti-perspirant lines use motion sense technology. This is amazing. This is America. This is where, how do we come up with motion sense technology for our sweaty underarms? And we can't win a bloody round of 16 game. Whoever's doing that for degree, just take a quick sabbatical, come and work on the football, get us through that glass ceiling.

21:02Rog:I'm sick of this crap. Who thinks my deodorant's not good enough? Oh, you know what? In these motion-sense technologies... What does that mean? What does it mean? If anyone is a deodorant-sense scientist, that's my phone here. Thank you, Bob. Oh, I'll tell you what it means. It means it released bursts of fragrance as you move. I'm calling BS on this. Yeah, I don't believe that. I'm calling BS. There's no technology in a deodorant. It's stupid. I don't believe that there is motion-sense technology in a deodorant. Oh, sorry. My arm's feeling a bit like creepy. Oh, it's just my motion-sense technology.

21:32Rog:It's a VAR technology in the deodorant. Fact check, Ryker in the chat says, Humpf doesn't say silly goose, he says silly sausage. I bet sometimes he says silly goose. I think he calls his down below his silly sausage. If missing penalties is good enough for Messi, steal from the greats. That's where we left you off. I'm so sorry. By the way, Yasin Bono is amazing. He's like taken off from actual club football. He moved to the Saudi league after a very successful World Cup 2022. he went to Al-Hilal almost going into cold storage saving himself for marriage aka World Cups he's only been beaten by two out of nine penalties he's faced at the World Cup save four three missed the target that is incredible man that's remarkable if he was actually playing real club football would he not be hailed as one of the current present day giants of the game I think he was a bit of a slow burner Bono that was the problem I associate him most with playing for Sevilla and he was always really good but I think by the time he got to that level, he was in his sort of late 20s, early 30s and the really big clubs tended to look a little bit younger.

22:38He's always been an outstanding goalkeeper and he was outstanding today as well.

22:41Rog:In terms of that Mbappe miss, it was a great question today and the Guardian there clipped and saved for this very moment. Here, are you ready for this? I'm ready. 1-1 in the 90th minute of the World Cup final. The chance falls to your star player. Who would you rather have at the end of it? Erling Haaland Mbappe Kane or Messi and I'll throw obviously Balogun in there just because you know does he would be allowed to play does Article 27 Article 27 I've got to admit this is ridiculous because Messi's on the list but I think my instinctive answer is Haaland because depends if it's a penalty or not doesn't it if it's a penalty you definitely don't want Messi it's a 50-50 shot crap I think mediocre with a kind of with a big chance yeah would you not go Ronaldo because he backs himself Ronaldo would go Ronaldo, definitely.

23:28I think I'd go Haaland. Because he's averaging a goal every 14 touches at this tournament. Well, that's it. I suppose Haaland gives you that impression that he will store regardless of any other consideration. If he has a chance, he tends to store it. So I would say, but then it's Messi. How can I not say Messi? That's ridiculous.

23:47Rog:This is an existential crisis for me. This is a Solomon's choice. Yeah, Solomon's choice rather than Sophie's. Yeah, it's not that serious. Beto? No. Okay. Going into the half, France had taken 13 shots to Morocco's one, which came, I think, five minutes into injury time when Hakimi decided to blow a free kick about 10 foot wide of the post. France, 13 shots for 1.87 xG. The match momentum graph on the screen looked like so one-sided, like someone missing an entire row of teeth. France probably went into the locker room at half saying, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, which is way past Bono.

24:26Rog:Sorry, the worst joke ever. Second half, came a bit of a slog. Morocco held Benz on trying to nick a goal but without an injured, potent striker. You know, Ismael Sabari was so missed his three goals in this tournament. I think they'll leave with a sense of what if, don't we all? But it was also 89 degrees at kickoff. And I felt for France, it was a period, it was a very airless day. I mean, we sacrificed in our match day life. We sacrificed. We're the real heroes. Yeah, I mean, we gave our all. Also, Roger Bennett, referring to himself in the third person, always wearing the wrong clothing for the temperature.

25:02Rog:Have you noticed that? Going out onto Match Day Live wearing a jacket and a shirt. It's because of your extreme never-nude status. I don't know what it is. I just am like genuinely so... My wife is always, why are you wearing that? I just don't think in temperature. Never, I don't think ever. Like, I'm never cold. You're a two-layer man. You're a layered individual, Roger. I've always said that about you. I don't know. I just feel no heat. I feel no nothing. I wear wool pants when I'm in New Orleans and like I feel uncomfortable. I'm like, I don't feel great. My wife's like, what are you wearing?

25:32Rog:It's a very odd thing. I do want to apologize to everyone. I'm just saying it was a really airless day in Boston. It was, yeah, agreed. And France, the Paraguay game that they played, which was so unbearably hot, I would have taken a ton, a ton out of them. We've talked about the cumulative. It's not just the game itself, but like the journey and the cumulative. Teams that are playing indoors. Oh, the US, we had it all, didn't we? No travel, very kind temperatures, a lot of indoor games. France are having a grueling pathway at this moment. It does build, and you felt that the passing was just second high-temperature game, back-to-back.

26:06Rog:It will do you in. It will take a toll in a moment. But in this game, it became almost a stalemate. And we've said, ultimately, in stalemates, a World Cup is a tournament at the moment. And on the hour mark, the man who missed the penalty, we said Mbappe would step up at least once looking for revenge. Casually picked up the ball, left-hand side of the box. Seemed to be no danger. I think for a normal player, there would have been no danger. But Mbappe, not a normal player. Took a touch, used the off as a shield, and then just unleashed an absolute poem of an arcing curve around the stun bono.

26:43Rog:Couldn't even get close to the ball. Flash by him into the net. This man, casual brilliance, 20 goals in 20 World Cup games. Are we the farmers? Again, an ordinary player couldn't do it. He's an extraordinary player. It's astonishing to me that Messi has been on this kind of quest to kind of become the top role star in the history of the World Cup, to extend his lead, to build kind of a total that no one could catch. And this fellow who's 12 years younger than him is one role behind him. It's astonishing. I mean, it's astonishing. But not just in this tournament, in his three tournaments. It is where the World Cup, to me, seems to be where Mbappe really comes alive.

27:21And that's quite a rare thing nowadays, that most players you associate first and foremost with their club, that their big moments arrive for their club team. Mbappe is an international player. Is he the bono of Mbappe? He's the bono of Mbappe.

27:34Rog:Eighth goal of this World Cup. These levels that we're seeing in this golden boot race, I don't know if they're being driven on by each other and the competition. I do think, I really believe this, having spoken to a lot of the players' agents in the run-up to this World Cup, they're also fully aware that there is a glory, I talked about this a little bit over the past couple of weeks, not just the glory of winning the World Cup, which is immense, obviously, to become immortal, pretty bloody good. There's the opportunity to win the commercial battle, to become the face of the game in the United States, which I really do think is, and Haaland thinks about it, Mbappe definitely thinks about it.

28:10Rog:You know, Messi is living it. but there is that there's that extra impetus just bags of gold everyone wants to be to be playing for the ultras that's what it is basically pretty much yeah I think that is right that they my sense is still that there is that they are driving it's driven by the World Cup I wonder if the other factor in there is they all want to be the Ballon d 'Or this generation of players really value the Ballon d 'Or which will sound weird but when we were younger yeah like the British never took it seriously it was a French idea and crucially its name is French and we don't like that.

28:43Rog:Like culottes. Yeah. No one's wearing culottes. No one. And no one's winning the Ballon d 'Or. Yeah. But then, I think it was, it was kind of a trinket even in continental Europe. It was important, but you would very rarely have heard a player saying, I want to win the Ballon d 'Or. Yeah, but then, the thing changed one night when Rio Ferdinand looked into a camera and said, Ballon d 'Or. Ballon d 'Or. Ballon d 'Or. Ballon d 'Or. And he just got us, it was like an earworm that's got in our heads. Yeah. No, it was Messi and Ronaldo winning it all the time. And it became this measure of who's the best player in the world suddenly.

29:10And this generation of players are obsessed with winning it.

29:13Rog:So funny. Yandy Aman, who I spent time with yesterday morning. Did you talk about the Ballon d 'Or? I said to him, you just play the World Cup at, you know, 18-19. Like, that's a dream for millions of us. You've achieved it. What do you dream of now? He's like... Ballon d 'Or. Yeah. Ballon d 'Or. Yeah. Ballon d 'Or. He said, I said, do you know what it is? He said, Rio Ferdinand's coined it. The irony is that after Rio said that about Vinicius, Vinicius didn't win it. I know, it's life. Cursed by Rio. Yeah, but God bless it is. You're right. It's a deeply, deeply... Yeah, it's a big thing for them.

29:45Rog:Yeah, I mean, that's it. So God bless. Tied with Lionel. Actually ahead of Lionel on assist now Mbappe in the Golden Root race. No, that doesn't work. Yes, it does. They can just share it. You don't need a tiebreaker. This is modern nonsense. It can be only one golden boot. No, it's modern nonsense. Boot de oar. Oleg Sollenko didn't need it, did he? In 1994, the random Russian who scored six goals. Yeah. If they scored the same number of goals, you share the award for golden boot. I think that's ridiculous. This is not a participation trophy rule. I'm not saying it's a participation trophy. You're diminishing it.

30:18They've scored the same number of goals. You don't need a tiebreaker.

30:20Rog:I think everyone is agreeing with me, right? You all say, but the assist. Come on. Then make a silver boot for the winner of the assist, which would be Michael Alisa. Oh, what a sweet man. Yeah, he'd like that. He's such a surreal, I believe. He would reject it. I don't agree with materiel possession, he would say. That's what he is. Michael Leal says he's not interested in your prizes. I think that's probably true. I don't think he's motivated by any of that. It's conceptual. I think he's motivated by love and fear of death. I'd imagine those are the two things that drive him onwards as a footballer.

30:52Rog:Again, you tell me in the chat. Later, it will be two. Dembélé, given time to maraud forward. I mean, this is very un-Morocco. given the freedom, no challenges, rolled the ball as if they'd given him an invitation into the corner of the net. And I thought in that second, I think the whole world was screaming, my God, if only that kind of goal had a name.

31:25I thought it would be.

31:27Rog:Do you know what I think? We've got good value for money out of that. Yeah. For$7? And we've used it six times. It's$1.12,$1.13. It's bang for your buck, isn't it? I wonder if we can give it back, if we kept the tags on it. Do you know what Worm Burner is in French? French speakers, tell us in the chat. Do you know what Worm is in French? I googled it, it's Balraçant, but I have no bloody idea. Again, Bono got his hand to it. I think the disguise on the shot beat him, spooked him, really. Five goals on the tournament for Dembele. in other World Cups I've got to be candid five goals would be what?

32:03Rog:Yeah, that would win you the golden boot. It'd be quite, quite tasty. In this one it barely wrote. He's not even in the top five. We're like, Dembele, come harder. But you also said to me. He's not played especially well in this tournament, Dembele. He's scored the Hatchery against Norway which was very impressive or Iraq, somewhere. He's scored a Hatchery against someone it was a long time ago, right? Yeah. It was like three or four years ago. But I would say he's obviously not played as well as Mbappe and he's probably not played as well as Michael Alise either. Definitely not. He is the reigning Ballon d 'Or, Ballon d 'Or, Ballon d 'Or.

32:34Yeah. And he is kind of the standard bearer for PSG, the best club team in the world. He looks ashamed to have scored so few, only five. Only, it's pathetic. I know, come on.

32:43Rog:I mean, step it out, Ousmane. Make some noise. Ousmane Dembele watches a lot of documentaries about dictators. Yeah, but they're always telling me that the French front line are not only quite shockingly potent, they also have fascinating hobbies for footballers. So Michael Alise plays chess. Yeah. or baseball on a board, as I like to call it. Chewing tobacco. Without the chewing tobacco. Without the chewing tobacco. I was trying to invert the joke. Okay, got it. Thank you. I think this is true, but obviously it's really hard to tell in the modern era because everything is disinformation and fake news.

33:12I think Ousmane Dembele has said in a documentary that he spends his spare time watching documentaries about Stalin and Mobutu and other kind of notorious dictators of years gone by. it could be an AI hallucination it could be that he was joking

33:30Rog:how many documentaries of dictators are there can this really be a hobby can it really be a hobby is an inexhaustible number turn on the history channel there's so many documentaries about dictators that's all there is nothing but bangers why are you watching dictator docs when there's so many crime true crime things to watch so many snuff movies yeah my wife likes watching Norwegian terrorists getting murdered I know it's like human darkness live a little oh the Jose Mourinho documentary was thrilling then if he likes ones about dictators at Gustavo Kakaio so snap it was a worm burner raw I love that people now see see us as the official worm burner goal committee Gustavo I don't think there's a lot of competition not a lot of fight for that one is there no but there should be we've claimed it as our own I know it's getting big you don't get that on the rest of football it's getting pretty big at Chris Vosch yeah like Roger's actually wearing pants you're on to me again look it's hot i need ventilation um he says everything he owns is flesh colored yeah that's the problem it's true my underpants also got a huge rip in them at this stage i'm living in tired and battered in this woke up i did i ripped my underpants they're like kind of like it's like a it's like a waistband but like no pants did horncastle reveal in public that when he the first time he got on the bus he ripped his pants yeah yeah good all right yeah yeah no i'm not telling tales that's good no no no god bless no did it all with a sort self-sustaining ventilation system.

34:53Rog:And that was that. Late flurry from Morocco, but too little, too late. What might have been? I think the extraordinary reality of this French team, we've talked a lot about the potency. What was really fascinating, when this game was competitive, they made Morocco, Morocco, who we thought were a pretender to their heavyweight crown, look incredibly ordinary. They don't make those kind of defensive mistakes that give opponents a sniff. For all their firepower, The thing that struck me in this game was just the organisation, the discipline at the bat, which is underrated. Yeah, I think the way they...

35:28We saw in the group stage that they can produce this kind of electric football that cuts teams apart. They are capable of that if you give them space and time to do it, or in the case of Norway, if you play your reserves. But the way that France have played in the knockouts is we are not going to make a single mistake and eventually our front four are so good that no matter how well you're defending, we will find a way through. And ultimately, football is quite a simple game. And if you do those two things, you're going to win a lot of football matches.

36:00Rog:Hard-hitting question. Niamh Bappe limp off a nice ankle. How serious, how worried. Got a Porsche hit, got a Porsche hit. This has suddenly got very kind of like hard talk, hasn't it? Rory Smith, the anthem. Rory Smith, yeah. Let's play this up. How weakened. Was hard talk an American thing? What was the thing with William F. Buckley? I don't know. Hard talk sounds like something. Crossfire. Crossfire. with Robin Bird. Oh, Crossfire. Yeah, yeah. And Baffer's ankle, Roger Bennett. Yeah, yes. How much? How bad? Let's play doctors when we don't know anything. That's important. So as a non-qualified medical professional, I would say...

36:35I am a doctor. Like Dr. Joe. Like Dr. Conrad.

36:40Rog:He's a doctor. Dr. Joe's a doctor of refereeing. He's a doctor of love. He can make love to you in 12 different languages. PhD in whistles. Go on. My sense is always, with no idea what I'm talking about, he walked off. He walked off, that's one. Let's have leg. What we know, leg still attached to body. Good. He looked smiley. Yeah. And he sat on the bench with an ice pack around his ankle, which means he's not been rushed to hospital. Everything else is conjecture. I think the semi-final, you'd have to say he's probably a doubtful. We don't know. But we don't know. We don't know anything. I think it's one of the great rules of NBC's footballing oversight is they will not allow, and I think this is quite brilliant, they won't allow their commentators ever to play doctor.

37:25Rog:They're like, you're not a doctor. Don't hypothesize. We will wait and see for the scam. But we had to talk about it. For Morocco, eulogize and roar. Were they undone by injury? Were they undone by something else completely? I think having no Saibari really hurt them. He has been their outlet, their cutting edge. ultimately they didn't have they didn't have the kind of threat up front to lay a glove on france the first half in particular i thought they really lacked a desire to take risks and that was there was a point where you you thought if you're gonna hurt them and there was there was a point at which if morocco had taken the lead i do think they could have worried france but they never really committed to it and i without sort of tooting my own horn roge i do wonder whether the psychological thing was too much they were so conscious of how much damage france would do on the break it's fair they just weren't prepared to commit to it you know what i love when he's gonna toot my own hole um pedro martinez had a lovely lovely way he said that i'm trying to say stay humble yeah and then he'd say something completely unhumble yeah so to your own hole i'm trying to stay humble i'm trying to say that was completely right yeah completely as i as predicted by me um at the home he wrote says i'm here to see if pablo torre can find out if anyone will beat france We'll ask him that in just a few minutes.

38:39Rog:Make sure you fire up your questions in the chat. At BrianLuft8796. How many Brian Lufths can there be? 8 ,796. I don't know, man. It's a big country, but really how many Brian Lufths? And Rog, Rory, you've been part of my life every day during this beautiful tournament. I feel we're breaking up soon and it's heart-wrenching. Burning my world. I like that. That sounds like an act of... Yeah, we don't want to know. It sounds like a war crime. No, I don't know. It sounds like something that you get in the mags of old, is all I'll say. 8796 could be his pin number. Yes, I don't know. Burning my worm.

39:16Rog:Sounds like my next autobiography, my Max Memoir, if this World Cup keeps going on for much longer. We should use it as a euphemism for staying up late. Burning the worm at Bob Benz. Yeah, burning my worm. What? Anthony Gordon, you're burning me worm. You're doing me editing. Anthony Gordon's deeper than that. Yes. I can't do a deep Scouse accent. No, he's not that deep. He's really deep. No, he's not. He is. He wasn't one. We did a live show with Anthony Gordon at Everton. Just had quite a good season. We just avoided relegation. And the fans in Washington, D.C. started to chant, Oh, Anthony Gordon.

39:50Rog:Oh, and he just leaned into the mic and he's still very shy. He goes, I'm never going to leave you. And then three weeks later, he signed for Newcastle United. High squeaky voice. No, I think Anthony Gordon's on. Has he gone? Since he's gone to... Maybe it's puberty, I don't know. Yeah, God bless. there's everyone's different time yeah that's true we're not judging all of us we're not judging and we're not judging you Anthony Good we've got other things to judge you about quick word before we take guess I'm beating me let's update ourselves on today's USA Toxic Fallout which means Q-sting

40:26Rog:good dudes oh what could have been you do it every time I see it now it does it used to bring me such joy and now when I hear that sting, it's sadder than Tracy Chapman's fast car. I was interviewed by the BBC this morning on the show with a man called Adrian Childs. I'm aware of his work. You're aware of his oover. Yeah. First thing he said to me, he got me on, introduced me. He's like, well, I can't do a Birmingham accent. He's got one. He goes, what is your team's nickname so bad? I said, what nickname? We've been working on having a nickname the whole show. Soccer dudes. I was excited to tell him about soccer dudes, but then I realised it's not going to quite the irony will.

41:05Rog:And I said, what nickname, Adrian? And he just goes, Usment. Usment. He thought that was the nickname when we call ourselves Usment. And I actually thought, in my head, I thought it's quite a good nickname. Usment. Yeah. Yeah, it's fine. It kind of suits us. It's no soccer dudes. Yeah, it's no soccer dudes. Come on. I said, Adrian, I think nicknames are the least of our problems, my friend. I think that's probably, it's a good answer. Yeah, unfortunately it's true. Because right now, we have Landon Donovan tearing into Christian Pulisic. You've probably seen the video. I found it quite emotionally tough to watch, knowing Landon so well, knowing what he's been through.

41:41Rog:But he compares himself to Pulisic. I do think, and the reaction's been pretty strong in many directions, I think Landon's day and Christian's day, and both were probably great to their day in the America. Landon played where he played and where Christian plays, just the levels of pressure. I mean for the club team also the money the social media age the weight that kind of crushes players now that wasn't there I'd also say knowing both men the psychological makeup of both of them is so unbelievably different but it is I mean it is particularly hard because today our friend James Horncastle broke the news that Christian Pulisic who I think is being seen as weak for subbing out when the third goal went in, suffered a, quote, micro fracture in his leg during the World Cup last.

42:37Rog:There's Horny breaking the news and will be sidelined for several weeks. Multiple people briefed on the diagnosis, told the athlete to say, Roar, what do you think? I've not heard of a micro fracture before. You're a doctor. Famously. Like Dr. Joe. What do you think about this? I think Horncastle's promoted himself. Has he really? Well, it used to be James Horncastle Omri. Has he got awarded a medal by the Italian state? OSI, he might have got another one without telling anybody. Did he really? I would say. Italy, stop giving James Horncastle medals. I think they gave out OSIs at the Waffle House.

43:12Rog:It might be that he's got it. He might need to be tested for it, to be fair. This is Legacy of the World Cup. I have heard of micro fractures. It does strike me as being a word that makes something that's bad sound much worse than it is. Does that make sense? He clearly got injured, that's fine. He got injured and he was taken off. And I wonder whether it kind of confirms to us that it wasn't Pochettino thinking, you're letting the team down, so you're coming off. There was obviously a reason for him to come off. The nature of the injury, micro fracture doesn't mean, I'm not entirely sure how that's different from a normal fracture.

43:47He's obviously hurt his leg. That's fine. It's terrible.

43:51Rog:But I also hate this argument. It's like in the early days of the internet, there was this phenomenon on YouTube called bum fights. I'm sure Charlie Kipps watched a couple of those. Yes, he's nodding in the background. It's where they paid truly desperate men to just wail on each other. This argument... Kippo's gone. Kippo's completely gone. This argument reminds me of one of those bumfights. Don't look them up, young viewers. I think we have different interpretations of Landon's comments, and I would always bow to you on this. As you say, you know them both better than I do, and you know the scene better than I do.

44:20I thought Landon's point, acknowledging the vast differences between his era and Pulisic's era. I actually think his point was relatively sound. And the bit where he lost me more was how much importance or how much weight he seems to put on how good Pulisic is with the media, which I think fundamentally just doesn't matter. If he isn't a particularly chatty or charismatic public figure, I'm not sure that's significant. What I think might be significant is that there is a lot of pressure on him to be a standard bearer for, an avatar for American soccer. and I don't know whether that's a role that he is necessarily suited to character-wise, which is attention.

45:00It's not his fault. It's no one's fault, but it does put him in a position of tension.

45:04Rog:He's committing to the acting. It's hard to be in that. He's like Daniel Day-Lewis. He's a double threat. Daniel Day-Lewis did not like doing interviews, nor does Christian. I mean, it's fascinating. We definitely pedestal. I've had American footballers' dads get into my DMs and tell me my job is to support their players, which it's not. I do think our job is to be in conversation with you. But we deft pedestal. I do think one of the things that's fascinating, criticism in the American realm doesn't go down well. We're still such an innocent kind of wide-eyed culture. In another football culture where, say, the director of football bolted from US soccer on the eve of the tournament, that would cause just a step of an enormous issue here.

45:47Rog:Almost nothing. When Pochettino did his AC Milan interview, that would be that would be a massive when Balogun was in England there'd be a voluble backlash to all of these things here we're so wide eyed we're looking for anything to be positive which I guess is very American in and of itself but it means also there's no nuance and with that there can't be any accountability I think the difference is so this is it can't go too far the other way you will remember in 1990 when Bobby Robson the England manager his contract was up and he agreed a deal that after the World Cup he would take charge of PSV Eindhoven, where Sergino Dest plays, knowing that Sergino Dest would one day play there and wanting to get in early.

46:26Just mistimed it for about 40 years. And Robson was called a traitor. Yeah. Despite the fact that his contract was up and he was just taking another job for afterwards. I think the difference is advocacy. And football in America still feels that the people who spent so much time building that sport feel that they have to defend it and criticising it would undercut that.

46:46Rog:America. quicker. Has cruel fate smashed your dreams of football in glory during this FIFA World Cup? Fear not. You're now a sporting free agent with your choice of squads, the opportunity to pick someone new. The teams were the catcher songs, the country you studied abroad in, the goalkeeper with the magnificent hair. When your team's gone, fun doesn't have to be because on the Lays bandwagon, every match is another excuse to grab a snack and pick a new favourite. There are no wrong answers. Only good times and tasty snacks. So jump on and enjoy the rest of the tournament because Lays keeps the party going and the bandwagon has never tasted better.

47:25Rog:Lays, official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. Has cruel fate smashed your dreams of footballing glory during this FIFA World Cup? Fear not. You're now a sporting free agent with your choice of squads, the opportunity to pick someone new, The teams were the catchiest songs. The country you studied abroad in. The goalkeeper with the magnificent hair. When your team's gone, fun doesn't have to be. Because on the Leys bandwagon, every match is another excuse to grab a snack and pick a new favourite. There are no wrong answers. Only good times and tasty snacks. So jump on and enjoy the rest of the tournament because Leys keeps the party going and the bandwagon has never tasted better.

48:06Rog:Leys, official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026. and as the world arrives in the United States for the biggest spectacle in sports we're going coast to coast host city to host city to meet the world with the Men in Blazers Match Day Live Tour these are free college game day style live events taking place just before kickoff at some of the biggest games of the summer where we'll be taking the stage with celebrity guests in front of thousands of fans it's going to be amazing come and be with us in person or from afar on YouTube but let's celebrate this some other way. It's meant to be celebrated.

48:43Rog:Just head to the events tab on meninblazers.com for all the details. To the football, to more together courage. It's time for our guest, Pablo Torre. Our guest is a gent who established himself as one of the most singular voices in American sports journalism. I'll tell you a clue who he is because he's got a show Pablo Torre finds out, which is a cocktail of in-depth reporting and really good deaf sound design. I'm a bit jealous of the sound design of Ravola, I've got to be honest. This year, it won the Journalism Ballon d 'Or. It won a Pulitzer. Pulitzer's a bit better than a Ballon d 'Or. Is it really?

49:19Rog:Well, you should hear Rio Ferdinand be like, Pulitzer, Pulitzer, Pulitzer, Pulitzer, Pulitzer. That's how he's reading. God knows what Rio Ferdinand's reading. He's reading his own Pulitzer, Pulitzer. Yeah, I can't imagine that. I think he reads The Worm Is Burning Mag. Audio reporting, respect. It's our pleasure to welcome him in the show name. So one and only public. You know, I was counting the syllables and like the Pulisic prize is a different but very similar parallel. And now that I've heard you guys talk about it, you'll never win that. I have been accused of being soft, though, pathologically, pathologically, perhaps doomed in my softness.

50:01Rog:That's what makes you different to Christian because he's proper, proper hard. But you are a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker, raised in that city, born there. You're more New York than a bacon, egg, cheese on a roll, salt, pepper, ketchup. We've experienced so many World Cup atmospheres from the sea of American fans in Seattle, Atlanta, just a waffle house of humanity, the great Argentine takeover of the ATL. We're rolling back into your city. We've not been there, my adopted hometown. Tell us, you're there. How have you experienced the world flooding into New York City firsthand? The city is horny.

50:40I don't know if you've caught that from afar. The pheromones are palpable. These gatherings go to Queens and you'll rub an elbow against another bare elbow and realize what it's like to be alive. There are people here who are just realizing, oh, my God, skin to skin contact with like an excuse on a big screen in front of the diaspora to cue the drinking game again. it's beautiful, man. And it's the promise of a city that, of course, is the height of elitist caricature, but also happens to have all the stuff in it. You know, all these places being in here, watching Queen's revolt on behalf of Egypt.

51:22What's better than that? What's better than that, man?

51:25Rog:That is the moment I think historians will decide that football finally broke through when Queen's is up in arms. Either that or when Erling Haaland slipped into Cactus and got himself a giant pastrami sandwich, which was just like football eating itself. But it's not just been New York City, Pablo. This World Cup has been like a real World Cup of love. I think in many ways for me, it's what America needed. It's what the world needed too. But seeing like the Scottish invasion of Boston, which we just broke down quite painfully frame by frame with the mayor, with the great mayor Wu today. This whole city is still slick with all the spilt lager here, the Algerians in Kansas, Bosnia and Canadian fans coming together north of the border.

52:09Rog:How have you seen it, man? I mean, it has been what you experienced with your New York Knicks, but globally. Benet Brown calls it collective effervescence. Yeah, I mean, it's been a monocultural dick measuring contest. Like you thought the Knicks were big. Like, check this out. And look, it's a reminder. It's a reminder. It's a humbling, insecurity-inducing reminder that nothing else can compare to this. And the idea, by the way, that America gets to be a good host, I'll spare you the larger political resonance, but it's there, right? To actually watch people enjoy the food you're serving them and to therefore be reminded that maybe this isn't so bad, like what we got here.

52:51Maybe we should appreciate that too. It is both the nationalistic but also the opposite project being one and the same. And the thing that I love about this is watching people get radicalized by it. Because I love, and you guys, I mean, Raj, your project, welcoming people onto the bandwagon. Sports are better when casuals fill it up. I just believe that. I believe that the more people that show up, and maybe they don't know anything, maybe like a certain president, they don't know what a red card is, but they show up and they're like, you know what, I too am invested in this. In most cases, I find it totally delightful.

53:31It's like going to a movie theater and realizing that I want the crowd to be sold out. It makes the experience better. I get to watch them watch this. I get to watch them learn about this and realize maybe I'm going to come back to another screening. And for a sports guy, it's just the best to realize that maybe there's a reason to think the toy department is onto something beyond just the fun of it. No, I've been really struck by the two-way process of America kind of, the world coming to America and celebrating it, but also America seeing the scale of football culture. And I think, I wonder if that's the thing that persuades people.

54:06There has been a bit of discourse, Pablo, I don't know if you've seen it today and yesterday about kind of certain elements of the American media deciding that soccer was actually boring the whole time, which feels a bit rage-bait-y to me now. But I think, whether you like the sport, whether you understand the sport or not, you see the way it moves people around the world. I don't really understand how you can resist it to an extent. I think it's a farce to then claim after the US has been soundly beaten by Belgium to be like, actually, this sucked the whole time, and we knew it. That's not what the vibe was, just to be clear, on behalf of all of the Americans.

54:40I do think that there is a mirror neurons thing, though. Just neurologically, I think you'd be lying to yourself. It's the reason why... Okay, there's a clip that goes viral on my timeline regularly, and it's the video from, I think it's Avengers Endgame, so excuse me for the digression, but it's when Captain America picks up Thor's hammer. And you're watching this, but really you're watching the people who love it, watch it in that theater. And I cry and it's embarrassing. It's embarrassing objectively for me to have just said that into a public record. But the fact that you can feel people feel this, that's what's undeniable.

55:22I mean, If you just rank the strangleholds emotionally that sports has on the world, your game is by far the most powerful. And so to watch people feel that, you also feel that, unless you're a sociopath, in which case we're weeding out a bunch of people in the process of the World Cup, which is also helpful perhaps from a larger American experiment.

55:44Rog:I mean, it's fascinating. I went to watch Argentina play Egypt the other day, and there was a city where a woman had never been to a football game before, And Argentina, just the euphoria, it's evangelical. It feels like you're in a church as an ecstasy. When they came back, grown men were weeping, old men were thrown into the air, children were flung onto the pitch by their own parents. It was just like biblical sacrifice everywhere. She started crying by me. So I was like, what's going on? She goes, I'm so moved by the overwhelming, just it was like evangelical church. I think it was very, very beautiful, that being moved.

56:17Rog:I do need to ask you about this US men's national team, how you see it. You know, another World Cup, incredible highs, too early, Country Road in Seattle after that win against Australia. Early peak and then just a complete and utter, you know, strapping on the wax wings of Article 27 and the self-destruction. How did you see that? How did you view that purely as a fan? So this is my fan perspective and I'll weave some, I think, pseudoscience in because that is my way as a fan. You don't have to say, you don't have to explain you're going to weave in pseudoscience. We expect it of you, Pablo. That's how we invite you as a guest on our show.

56:53Rog:Do the pseudo, do the phrenology that you are famed for. Let's measure some skulls. I believe, I believe that the president showing up at this thing in the way that he did changed the barometric pressure around this team. And I know you could say that would not make up for how big that gap was on the field. And I think that's probably right. But as a magnitude question, as a measuring question, why did this feel weird? I saw it in game three in this city of the NBA finals when the Knicks went from this somehow David, despite being in this city, to now being this Goliath. And it felt worse. And it felt way more pressurized.

57:37And it felt like the story was different. And they didn't really know how to move. And that's what it looked like when I was watching from home as a fan. was this team loved being David. It loved being beloved. It loves love.

57:53Rog:Who doesn't? If you don't love love, I mean, on this studio, I've spoken to a couple of agents in the past 48 hours and three of them have said that this team felt like they were carried on the wing of good vibes and they didn't know how to cope with suddenly feeling like they were loathed around the world. Like that vibe switch changed so much. Sometimes it's not football. Sometimes it is culture. very very quickly I want to do a couple of quick ones before we leave you are a gent with your finger on the pulse of American sports what I've been fascinated about is seeing so many American fans at England games wearing England jerseys they love the Premier League they're all in one of them tried to fight me when England were 1-0 down at Congo and I cheered they're like how can you be cheering for Congo man and I was like dudes You know, you're not even English, and nor am I.

58:47Rog:I cheer for you. It's quite funny. It's beautiful, though. It's crazy and fascinating. You know, Argentina, I met there were thousands of Americans that were wearing Argentina jerseys, you know, crying, singing, doing the hand thing that the Argentinian fans do that's so beautiful. The rise of football in America, Economist has it as the third biggest sport in America right now, baseball fourth. it doesn't need the american men to do well i mean identity is now so fluid but they are in danger of becoming irrelevant to the story well i think that's real and by the way god bless you know major league soccer for trying to poke its head into the party and be like hey so we're up next right and then people are being like yeah sure um yeah we'll get to that um and but but i think you're right um america is particularly constituted even by way of its own self-conception to have different countries that you care about and that's of course the diaspora story but it's also the ability to like wear the costume of someone else and i will say as someone who was there in brazil raj with you somewhere in different parts of the country in 2014 was there for five weeks and remember that that's a film they showed us in the global security disney video room they They were like, this will happen if you go to an ATM in Rio de Janeiro.

1:00:07And it was a guy getting bumfought. It was a guy. It was just like a snuff film. I was like, okay, I'm not going to an ATM, I guess. Anyway, the point being.

1:00:15Rog:It was Bob Lee. They were like, he's expendable. Let's send him to the ATM. Somebody film it with a camera. Literal panic buttons. I remember that. That's what the prep for Brazil was like. But I digress. The point being, so much of my fun in Brazil was inadvertently embedding with English football. fans and learning. And this is just indelible. The delightful mix of pride and sarcasm that attends how that country cares about its team, knowing that it's never coming home, but also never stopping saying that it will like there's something charming. It is sort of the origin of this place. We draw our genetics in that way from there.

1:00:59We know we're not everything we say we are. Americans are just worse at admitting it. And I think that is probably something we can share.

1:01:08Rog:It's only been 250 years. I'm going to let you go, but I do, before you go, I want you to explain these things in one sentence, each of them. Are you ready for this? Oh, gosh, yeah. Freddie LA7. CIA operative. Do you really mean that? By the way, you solve an argument. Rory and I have very different statements on this. We've been disagreeing, Pablo. I think it's full on psyops. What do you really think for Freddie LA7? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think there's more to come on that. Oh. Oh. But it's you and Pablo against me and JJ Watt. Like, I'm still comfortable. I think JJ Watt's going to be a guest soon on Pablo Torre.

1:01:50Rog:Find out, I'm imagining. I would love it. I think there's more to come out on that. Come on, Pablo, get in there, son. World's obsession with Waffle House. deserved again violence but syrup last one for you will the American men ever win a world cup in our lifetime Raj a wise man dressed as a knight that seemed to be blackout drunk once told me that it's coming home and I will say this I think it's studying abroad someday in the United States. You've just bent my brain. It's studying abroad. It's studying abroad. That could work as a chant. I think it's right. We're working on the chants, man.

1:02:39Rog:We are working on the chants. We need help on the chants. We need all of them. We're getting help on the... Noah Kahn's writing some chants for us. We're working on it. We're going to be there. It is incredible to be with you. For everyone at home, get Pablo Torre Finds Out on your podcast, particularly if you want to find out about Freddie LA7. And the truth, it's incredible. It's intelligent reporting. Sound design as well. The sound design. That's why I listen. By the way, does anyone listen to it for any other reason, Big Pabs? You know what? We are a public radio show wearing the costume of a sports show, and I'm glad the representative knows that.

1:03:15Rog:By the way, I'd bite your arm off for that. It's all I... Sound design is genuinely, for real, black belt. Thank you. We love you. We love you. You look bloody well, by the way. Whatever you're doing, that work you've had done, It's... Yeah, I got the Landon Donovan deal.

1:03:34Rog:Big pamps, big, big love, health, happiness, joy, tumult, courage. Oh, raw. I love Pablo, he's great. That was pound for pound. That was very funny. I felt a bit tired before El Pablo came on. I fundamentally reject the idea that football has to arrive in America. I think it's very obviously arrived. and I was actually talking to someone about this just before. It was J-Dubs. J-Dubs, I'm going to name you as J-Dubs. I think it's because we've never actually seen that happen. We've never seen a country, no one alive has ever seen a country embrace football before, so we don't know what the point is where we can say, well, that's finished now.

1:04:11But that point has come.

1:04:13Rog:I think the moment a country has its own sting, right? Its own soccer dude sting. We've got the nickname. We're getting there with a chance. It's fine. It's arrived. It was on an olive garden in Huntsville. What more do people want? It was. By the way, that's another thing Adrian Childs came up with. He goes, I mean, they may be watching it in New York, in LA, but if we went to this place or that place in Texas, and I said, Adrian, I think that's actually a town, this place or that place, Texas. But it is. I know, I was going to tell him. And I went on. He'd moved on to another complaint. And it was on.

1:04:44But also, this is the secret shame of Britain, and I suspect the rest of Europe. Not everybody likes football there. like 28 million people might watch the World Cup final in the UK which means half the country doesn't my mum won't watch it she's not interested

1:04:59Rog:if you go to this place or that place if you go to yeah it's a falsehood we've reached that part of the night where we figure out what everybody suddenly believes needs its own sting by taking a look at Calci percentages to peek into the brains of football fans everywhere put a finger on their pulse Scambolo to sign up betrayed on Calci. We've chatted at length about the golden boot rule. This isn't the golden boot, is it? But tonight we turn our attention to another end of the tournament, the golden ball. For most outstanding player of the tournament, we don't talk about that enough. The two clear frontrunners are no surprise.

1:05:38Rog:How is it not Baligan? Messi and Obape, but Kane, Harlan, Alise and a handful of others. Baligan still lurking. Two-part question. Who do you like here, rule? And is this award basically the golden boot of a different name? Or is there really more to it in your view? I can see a late run here from Gianni Infantino, if I'm honest. To take it? To take it, yeah. Baron Trump. Yeah, Baron Trump. There you go. Whoever explained to President Trump what a red card is. What does it say? It says Mbappe at the top. Yeah. So I would say it will probably depend on who wins it. At the moment, I'd be inclined to think, if Argentina make the final, I'd be inclined to think Messi.

1:06:16Rog:Yeah. Because of his sort of legacy thing. But lifetime achievement of one. But if Switzerland not Argentina are out in the quarterfinals on Sunday, then it won't be Messi. It will be a player who makes the final. And at the moment, I think the team that is closest to the final and looks most untouchable is France. And therefore, I think it will probably be Mbappe. I think so too. Otherwise, give it to Ronaldo. Ask yourself this. That would be very funny. What other player has made us feel more humanly alive? He's never been more vigorously relatable than he was at this World Cup. watching him, you felt, I'm back, and then not back.

1:06:53Rog:I've gone again. That I'm back is so hubristic. It's so hubristic. It's astonishing. It's a minute after beating up on Uzbekistan. He's talked against Uzbekistan. For that reason, that's what I'm saying. Give the man the golden ball, because I think he's honestly given us the most, should be the most human moment. Tell us who you think. Meninblazers at gmail.com, or in our Discord, or in the chat. I'm quite fascinated by all of this. Shakira. By the way, at times, I do feel like this whole World Cup is just a promo for the real star of it. It is Shakira's music. That long walk on that we have to sit through, seven minutes.

1:07:30Rog:There was a good bit in the... Banging that. She's great tune, but man. There was a good bit in the France game today where the camera cut to a celebrity of some sort. I think it might have been Shakira. And the commentator, I believe it was our favourite, John Strong, said... No, it wasn't Peter Drury. Said, or John Champion. And the commentator said... Same person. said the ball's in play. And I think the commentator was trying to signal to whoever's in charge of that stuff. Take Shakira off the screen, something's happening. Because they're so obsessed with showing Shakira wherever she is. I would imagine she has some kind of...

1:08:00Rog:A lot of these people you see on the screen have some kind of deal that they will get screen time if they can. Well, if you think about it, to have screen time in this moment is like the greatest global advertisement. There are a number of human beings who have that deal. Tim Ring. Yeah. I'm still seeing that leg go up trying to save that third goal and the leg and the brain and the body and gravity and time and all of us are going to die before we get to the preview for tomorrow quick reminder we are running out of World Cup games why are we saying this it means we've got to soak up everyone just seven more left if you're starting your weekend early tomorrow heading out with friends for Saturday's double feature check out our bar finder on the Men in Blazers site I love this because you did it.

1:08:45Rog:You sent in thousands of recommendations. We put them together. It's an interactive map of the best soccer bars in city, across city, state across state in America. Support them. So many of these bars have really been pioneers of the game. They deserve your support. Get in there. Pint in hand. And throw those pints in the air with fellow football lovers. Okay, tomorrow we have another quarterfinal matchup between Spain and the USA, right? Nearly. Okay, Belgium too soon. We American fans get to see if Belgium really are the incredible devastating heavyweight that we persuaded ourselves that they are since Monday night's beatdown.

1:09:26Rog:Or if they're just crap and we went, oh God. I think there's a very real world in which the US is a little bit kind of thankful not to have been playing Spain when they see what Spain did to Belgium. You think? That doesn't work like that though. just to hear Country Roads play one more time, to have, what's it called? Oh, yeah, happiness. Anyway, not for us. Not for us. Belgium's pink and blue away shirt that they wore against the United States is a tribute. I love this. The Belgium surrealist René Magritte. We need to have more of our artists celebrated in our crap, don't you think? A Simpsons-themed one for Matt Groening.

1:10:05Rog:That'd be legit amazing. Like Simpsons Yellow. Yeah, that'd be quite good. I think it's more like a Gary Indiana homage or something. You tell us who you'd like to paint the next US jersey. It's a design based on the floating bells in his Voice of Space painting, which the Guggenheim Museum describes as having, quote, a mysterious resonance. I think they take football shirts too seriously now. You do? Yeah, a little bit. I love them when they bake in stories like that. Be just, oh, be amazing, play you for the ultras. You could use the same words to explain this Belgian team. They are mysterious with an eerie resonance.

1:10:36Rog:They look well past their expiration date in the opening group games. They're now bloody good again, we've decided. Goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois believes Belgium can pull off the upset, he said. Everyone realises it's possible. There are always surprises. I think we can be one of them. Confidence is there. How do you understand this Belgium side? They look so unremarkable against, say, Egypt and Iran and for the first 85 minutes against Senegal before they became the best team in the world, trademark on Monday night. Yeah, it's very much a tournament of two halves. I think what we saw against the US, which I think is the kind of mitigating circumstance for the United States, is that Rudy Garcia changed his team completely and played a side that I'm not sure the US would have been expecting at all.

1:11:20And that looked like a coherent and effective Belgium team. So I think they will pose more of a threat to Spain, assuming they stick with Di Quetelara ahead of Lukaku, De Bruyne on the bench. Make sure you play that. I mean, I thought Nico Rastin, the Rangers player, was really kind of leading the press for Belgium and the United States. They had energy, they had purpose. It was a more traditional, it wasn't a superstar Belgian team. It was a hard-working, industrious Belgian team. And it worked for them. Clinical in moments.

1:11:46Rog:I mean, this team, the Spanish team, have yet to even concede. Five World Cup games, no goals, seven and a half hours without giving up anything. Not even an own goal, for God's sake. About an hour longer than the entire first season of Widows Bay. Who knew? We all know about Spain's goal-scoring abilities, about Mikael Yerthabal. Luminium Al, heard of him. An off-the-bench assassin, double M, Mikel Moreno. How do you see Belgium breaking Spain down? Is there a secret to getting past their battling? I think you probably have to play on the counter-attack. You have to assume that Spain will have the ball for long periods of time and try and pick them off.

1:12:24I'm not sure Spain are defensively as secure as France are. But look, there's no point dressing it up too much. Spain are overwhelming favourites for this game.

1:12:32Rog:They've also beaten France twice. They've beaten them in the Euros. Remember that 5-4 banger? By all accounts, Spain are the team that France are most afraid of. I think. Good job. You never had to face the USA, you coward. Look, Belgium have not beaten Spain in the last 11 meetings. That's a bit annoying. At Roy Hutt says, Appreciate the bar finder, but what about the Horncastle finder? I know where he is. Where is he? Foxborough. When are we going to see him? You're going to New York tonight. I might see him tonight. Oh, I loved myself a bit of horny.

1:13:07Rog:The food! And it's time today, since we're coming to you live from Boston. All the tug of lobster rolls and your chowder. The inherited jewel of this city is the Italian food. Oh, do the honors, Ro. Particularly your cannolis. So we had them in front of our resident Italian dessert expert, Mr. Rory Smith. That made a loud noise. It did. I don't have to. Rory, we got you a cannoli from Bova's Bakery in Boston's famous North End. In one of the Triumvirate of classic Italian bakeries, along with modern and Mike's, your mission is simple, eat in school. Let's get in there. You get in there. Okay, look at this.

1:13:40Rog:Oh my God, it is again, like a Georgia O 'Keeffe painting. Opening the box is giving us all Mesopotamia apparently, says the chat. Let's have a little bite. I don't know about this. It's just a box, come on. This is very, very, this is very erotic. You made it look very rough, it certainly. I know. I'm a very tender lover. Ro, we're eating next to you, the Prince of Gelato. Now you're the king of cannolis. Put on your Red Sox hat. Let the vitro for New York well up inside you. Make you such a healthy person. You're officially a Bostonian. Give us a score. Okay. Yeah. I think this is actually amazing.

1:14:19Rog:It's really nice, but it's very rich. Uh-huh. Oh, 7.4 from Roary. No, I've allowed for my own personal sort of predilections. 8.6. It's delicious. It's a really good cannoli. Did I forget to play the sting? You did forget to play the sting. I'm sorry, I'm so cheap. What was the residual? I paid for this. I mean, I can't get it from a cannoli. It's a European reserve. It looks so handsome there, Paul. It was not me. It's a standard. It's an actor. It doesn't make the rankings. 8.4, it doesn't make the rankings. 8.6. 8.6. Does it make the rankings? I don't think it does. Not quite. No, no, no. We're on nines now for the rankings.

1:14:58Rog:Yeah, we're at air one. As long as that's off, I don't care. Air one's gone. Look, it's got busy B, nine foot one. Busy B, nine foot one. Don't knock busy B off. They deserve every day they're on. The JR Cricket's storming. Hey, I got sad that I'm missing Atlanta. So, four Atlanta there. Good news. We're going back. Kippo, are you ready for another JR Cricket sesh? Oh, yeah. We're going. We're going. And Rory's never wrong. God bless. It's time. This has been quite a shocking performance by the lad Bennett in this show. I've got to be honest, I'm barely standing. But we invite you, dear listeners, with my oral colony,

1:15:37Rog:to send us your letters about your journeys, the meanings, the experiences you're having in the World Cup. Meninblazersgmail.com. Slap them in our Discord. This one comes to us from Pat, right here in the great state of mass. We're all duty on us while I fellate this colony tomorrow. To my dear men in Blazers crew, I've never been a soccer fan because people keep talking about fellating cannoli. This year, however, I've embarked on an unexpected journey and found myself the richer for it. I run a programme for autistic students at a public middle school in Massachusetts. Now, no teacher is supposed to have favourites, but I do.

1:16:13I've worked with the same student for the last 10 years from kindergarten through eighth grade, and this boy loves soccer. As eighth grade came to a close and we finally got ready to say goodbye for good, I issued him my final challenge. Work hard for this next month and we will watch the World Cup in school. You've never seen a kid rise to an occasion like this young man. Match day came and we put up Mexico against South Africa on the projector. Quinones scored and the students jumped out of their seats with joy. In that moment, I became a football fan. Oh, bless. He didn't know it, but what a parting gift he gave to me.

1:16:44Every time I tune into a match, I'll remember his excitement for the game and his exceptional quality. Now I just need to figure out what lead I'll follow when the World Cup of Love finally ends. Starting my days with morning cup date and unwinding with night cup, that's a terrifying thought, have been an incredible way to celebrate and commiserate. Thank you all for contributing to the kindling of this spark. Courage, Pat from Massachusetts.

1:17:07Rog:Oh, Pat. That's a lovely letter. I raised my... Calorific cannoli. Yeah, my calorific cannoli, which I've just, you know, wotted in your honor. You know, it's a beautiful letter. I will say to your favorite school kid, also to your football fan, the make give you incredible joy, connect you to so many moments, experiences, humanities, seeing so many of you fall in love with this game that we love. It's what's making this tournament so unbelievably special. Right. Absolutely. And in terms of choosing another team or a lead to follow, I would say that nothing, nothing compares to watching football live.

1:17:46So there are lots and lots of grassroots teams, of community teams around here in Massachusetts. Portland in Maine has got an amazing team.

1:17:54Rog:Massive, amazing, hard to find. In Wellington, Vermont, Vermont FC. Well, just choose one. Stay away from Everton if you want happiness is my only recommendation. Vermont Green, God bless. At MMLK314. In the chat says, a lot of love for all the love, which ultimately it is. I love that, the World Cup of Love. That's what we're trying to experience together. Quick note before we sign off. We are carrying on tonight. We are blowing down to New York City. We're doing something, I can't remember what tomorrow. Night Cup Live. Oh, yeah, we're doing the Night Cup Live at the New Balance House of Houses, which I can't wait.

1:18:31Rog:We're going to meet so many of you in there. Raise a glass. Then we're going to the Big D, which sounds like a book that would have come out about pornography in the 1980s. Where's the big D? It's actually Dallas, kids, if you're watching. Did you know Dallas is the birthplace of both the corn dog and the frozen margarita? Is that right? Yeah, did you know? And we're doing a night there, July 14th, ahead of the semifinal at soccer celebration at Simpson Plaza. That's it. Soccer celebration at Simpson Plaza. We'll be joined by Horn Dog, James Horncastle, the one and only Humphrey Carr's coming, three-time Super Bowl champion, the Moose, the incredible Dowell Johnson, And Emmitt Smith, who's been going to a lot of World Cup games in Dallas, is going to come back and do a special report about everything he's seen and loved and just how he's a proper football guy now.

1:19:23Rog:It's going to be an amazing day, right? It is. Why is he told the moose? Huh? Why is Daryl Johnson told the moose? You can ask him that. First question. First question. Why are you told the moose? Yes, I think it's a terrible nickname. Not even a real moose. Yeah. You know what? He is. You know how we've just spent the afternoon with a doodle in this recording? She's amazing. Yeah, I think he is like half human, half moose. You know how people breathe crap with doodles? I'm human. Why does no one have a human doodle? I think there was a film about that, wasn't there? Was there? I shouldn't watch that film.

1:19:54Rog:We'll be back tomorrow night live from the New Balance House in New York City, 5 p.m. Eastern time. Come join us there, revel in the magic of the final games of us. And then we're going to Atlanta for the next live show. We're actually going to be live with Ludacris. When I say that, I do actually piss in my pants just a little bit. But we're going to leave you with another clip from our Matchday Live this afternoon, right here in Boston, one of my favourite cities in America. I don't know who's going to win the World Cup. I do think Boston has actually got a claim that it's won the World Cup.

1:20:24Rog:Just the joy that's emanated from this city. But yeah, again, another lucky fan took part in Elmeri at Take Your Shot Challenge, Lauren. I'm not going to ruin it, but she does win World Cup tickets. and then Ru and I ran into her and her partner a bit later. You know, we give them a giant polystyrene ticket when they've won. They were cycling home with it on city bikes. It was the most awkward thing, like this huge thing under their arm. Don't do it at home, kids, but she shocked the world and herself. Stay tuned to see. This is Rod saying huge, huge love. Let's save it every second watching football together and courage.

1:21:17Lauren! Lauren! Lauren! Lauren! Lauren! Lauren! Come on, Lauren! Congratulations!

1:21:26Rog:Lauren! What are you feeling? I'm in shock.

1:21:35Thank you.