Spain enter the tournament | Day 5 Preview | Morning Cupdate, Presented by The Home Depot

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1:16Yes, yes, yes. A massive shout out to our sponsor Visa, who's made this guide possible. Visa gives local business owners the tools and support to be ready for moments exactly like this one, welcoming you to enjoy the games this summer. Start planning your journey at meninblazers.com backslash cityguides. A word from our friends at 1440. The 2022 World Cup final drew 1.5 billion viewers. It's 11 times this year's Super Bowl. To understand how football became the world's game and what drove it, listen to 1440 Explores with Financial Times journalist Simon Kuiper, who will give you the inside scoop into the depths of the tournament.

1:57Listen to 1440 Explores wherever you get your podcasts. Twelve games down, plenty more to go. Hello and welcome to Santa Monica, I'm Betty Glover and this is your morning cup day. Yesterday we had a cracker of a game between the Netherlands and Japan. Also a little slice of history is made for the smallest nation competing in this tournament. Today though, favourite Spain, they're in action. Mohamed Salah is gracing the world stage as well. And finally, Tim Payne, you know, that social media sensation. His 5 million followers can see what he is made of when he steps out for New Zealand. This is your ultimate guide to day five of the World Cup.

2:39Hello, yes, welcome back to the Morning Cup update built by the Home Depot, recorded right here on their beautiful bus that is travelling around seven different US cities throughout the summer. Not long until we're in Seattle, actually. Hit us up with recommendations. Put them in the comments. The Home Depot is your winning assist to host the ultimate watch party with fast free delivery to get your backyard match day ready, subject to availability. 19 goals on day four, but we'll begin with the game of the day as the Netherlands took on Japan in Dallas, which was a sea of orange and blue, enjoyed particularly by this one Japan fan.

3:14I cannot speak English, but I'm excited! I love it! Right, it's got to go on the buzzer, hasn't it? Put it on the buzzer! I'm excited! The atmosphere was immaculate. We're going to get into that more at the end of the show. But fortunately, the match was just as good. Well, the second half of it. Anyway, after a goalless 45, this one sparked into life. The Dutch took the lead twice through Virgil van Dijk in Christensio Somerville. But Japan, they didn't give up. Superb mentality, superb press. With two minutes to go, they got their reward. Daishi Kamada with a header. Did he mean it, though? Did he mean it?

3:55Yeah, he did. Yeah, he did. Do you know what? He'll take it. Credit to Japan and you can't help but think this will feel like a defeat for the Netherlands. In the early game in Houston, Curaçao were in their first ever World Cup match against Germany and before the game, the full squad gathered to say a prayer. I pray, Heavenly Father, that we will enjoy this moment. Jesus, Lord God, your Lord has shown that anything is possible. Jesus, Lord. I pray, Lord, that you will fill us up with that moment. Jesus, Lord. In my name of Jesus, we pray. Amen. Giants Germany took an early lead as expected, but Curaçao stunned them and us with their first ever goal at a World Cup history as Lovano Cominencia thundered one in past the legendary Manuel Neuer, leading to wild celebrations back home in the Caribbean.

4:40I'm excited! For 17 minutes, Curaçao and a lot of the neutrals dared to dream tears from manager Dick Advocat as well. The Germans looked genuinely rattled after that equaliser, but cue a hydration break and a reset and normality was restored. Schlotterbeck scored from a corner shortly before halftime. In the second half, the floodgates then opened and eventually Germany, well, they were in seventh heaven. A 7-1 win in the bag. In the final game of the day, it was another boatload of goals. This time, Sweden beat Tunisia 5-1 in Monterey. Yesterday, we told you that Tunisia's defence was rock solid.

5:19Well, maybe don't listen to us because it wasn't as rock solid as we first thought. In fairness, this wasn't quite the one-sided affair that it sounds, but Sweden's finishing was ruthless. The fourth goal was scored by Matthias Van Berg, who scored just 18 seconds after coming on the fastest goal in a World Cup off the bench in 24 years. Finally, we told you yesterday that Ivory Coast against Ecuador would be a feisty battle and that is exactly how it turned out, so maybe do listen to us. After an entertaining but low-scoring battle, the game was won in the 90th minute by Ahmad Diallo of Manchester United and the players in the dressing room afterwards certainly weren't holding back on the celebrations.

6:10So that result means that Ivory Coast and Germany top Group E, although Germany have a pretty healthy goal difference, keeping them up top. Are you ready for more football? Stupid question, isn't it? Of course you are. I'm excited! I'm just going to use this all the time. Four more games on the way. In Atlanta, Spain take on Cape Verde at midday Eastern in a Group H clash. It is safe to say that the Spanish are hotly tipped to go all the way. I see Spain as tournament favourites outright. Outrate. I think Spain will win the World Cup. I think Spain are going to win the World Cup. He's going to win the World Cup.

6:48Hopefully England, but probably Spain. Spain are bookies' favourites to win the entire tournament, and you can absolutely see why. The depth of talent that coach Luis de la Fuente has at his disposal is absolutely ridiculous. That midfield, it's something else, isn't it? Pedri, Javi, Zubimendi, Rodri, Fabian Ruiz. Then when you add Laminia Mal and Nico Williams on the wings, Everyone else just may as well give up. Laminya Mal has been keeping himself busy in Georgia, getting the old food shop done as well. He has also been nursing a hamstring injury that he picked up at the end of the season. Di La Fuente has said he's fit to play, but also hinted that he might not.

7:29So we're just going to have to wait and see. While we're on the subject of their stacked team sheet, Marco Correa is expected to play as well, fresh off the back of agreeing a deal to join Real Madrid from Chelsea in a$70 million transfer. Can I get a whoosh from one of you? Yeah, there we go. So Spain are big favourites with World Cup heritage. Coming up against them, though, is a team making their debut on the world stage. Here come Cape Verde.

8:01So we've had players dancing on buses. Now we've got them dancing on the plane. Absolutely love it. They finished top of their African qualifying group ahead of tournament regulars Cameroon. They only have a population of 500 ,000, but have used smart recruitment to build a squad capable of qualifying for major finals. Their squad has players born in 14 different countries. And in fact, this stat is actually quite mad. Six of their players were born in the Dutch city of Rotterdam. That's more than in Cape Verde's own capital of Pryor. At 3... I know, right? At 3pm Eastern, up in Seattle, Group G gets underway as Belgium play.

8:38Egypt, first of all, we've got to say happy birthday to the Egyptian king. Mo Salah is 34 today and surely all he wants for his birthday is to help break the curse and deliver them a first World Cup win. Their first World Cup was 90 years ago and they're still waiting to win a match. It is going to be a tough ask today. They play Belgium, who Kevin De Bruyne famously called too old before the Qatar World Cup. Some of the old guard still remain, much to his disappointment, but the side is also now centred around the likes of Jeremy Doku and Amadou Anana. By the way, if you do see Amadou out and about in Seattle, make sure you don't call him Andre.

9:19Efficacity. He's missing today. I'll listen to you. Andre is not even my name, mate. Do you know what I mean? That has got to be one of the funniest clips from the 2024 Euros, hasn't it? For sure. Back to the game, though. And there's one particular tactical battle to watch out for in today's drill down.

9:42On the drill down brought to you by Makita, we're looking at the transitional battle that is likely to be taking place in Seattle. Egypt have two star names in particular, Mo Salah of Liverpool and Manchester City striker Omar Mahmoud. Their strategy under coach Hossam Hassan has been pretty simple. soak up pressure, concede possession, and then a break to their star attackers as soon as they get the ball. Belgium, meanwhile, are much more possession-focused, and their coach, Rudy Garcia, loves to attack. In fact, he's said in the past, I'd rather win 4-3 than draw 0-0. I'm excited! No, but seriously, obviously, you'd rather win.

10:20Duh! Anyway, their full-backs bombing forward are key to their attacking patterns, but that does make them pretty vulnerable. In particular, keep an eye on Brighton right-back Maxime de Kuyper, who will be tasked with marking Salah, but also expected to join Deremi Doku going forward. Next at 6pm Eastern, the World Cup rolls into Miami for the first time. Saudi Arabia against Uruguay is the match. You'd back a Uruguay victory here, but remember, the Saudis do have a track record for causing major upsets in their openers.

10:58This was one of the moments at Qatar 2022 as Saudi Arabia came from behind to beat Argentina 2-1, leading to one of the best memes in the whole tournament. Where is Messi? Where is Messi? Where is Messi? Well, he very much turned up in the end, didn't he? However, being deadly serious, Saudi Arabia are expected to struggle. Their recent results have been pretty abysmal, losing to Serbia, Ecuador and a 4-0 battering by Egypt. Uruguay are coached by Marcelo Bielsa and as Leeds fans will know, whenever Marcelo is in charge, there is always a chance for chaos. I'm excited! Calvin Nunez will lead the line, but he might not be particularly Matt Sharp after being frozen out of the Al-Hilal side since January.

11:41Much of their hopes will be pinned on Real Madrid's Fede Valverde, who after a season of carrying Real Madrid will probably have to carry his nation too. Uruguay fans are still in good spirits though.

12:01Finally, here in LA at 9pm Eastern, Iran take on New Zealand. These are not two nations that are expected to go far in the tournament. Iran, of course, have had an extremely disruptive preparation, Despite all three of their group games being here in the US, their training base is in Mexico and they're having to fly in and out each time. They arrived in LA yesterday and had a big security presence around their team bus and hotel, with several protesters visible and many more expected at the match today. New Zealand are the lowest ranked team in the tournament, but arguably have the most famous player.

12:34Look at all of those Instagram followers. Shall we let the kids of New Zealand say it? yep New Zealand's Tim Payne has maybe been one of the funniest stories of the tournament so far as an Argentinian influencer made him famous by identifying him as the least famous player at the tournament and telling all of his audience to follow him Tim went from 5 ,000 to over 5 million followers in a matter of days but how will he be as a prolific left back today that is the question they also have Nottingham Forest striker Chris Wood up front who was on fire in the Premier League a couple of years ago, but also keep an eye on Eli, just on that right wing, who starred for Motherwell in the Scottish Premiership last year and even made it into the Premiership Team of the Year.

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13:55Leyes, 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 and let's celebrate this summer the way it's meant to be celebrated.

14:31Head to the events tab on menandblazers.com for all the details. To the football, to more together, courage.

14:42It is now time for our prediction challenge, where I go head-to-head with the Night Cup team. By the way, don't forget to tune in to them after the full-time whistle of Iran's game against New Zealand. They're back and joined by acclaimed author and acclaimed football fan, John Green, and also James Horncastle. Yesterday, I took on Larry Nance Jr. and neither of us were able to get a perfect score. We both correctly guessed that Germany would beat Curacao, but neither of us figured out that the Germans would score seven. Meanwhile, we both went for Japan wins and of course that game ended 2-2.

15:13Wasn't a good day for us, which means the series between night cup and morning cup day is still level at 1-0. Today, Rory Smith stepped up to the plate and once again, he took it very seriously. Prediction time, Rory. Let's start with Belgium against Egypt. Up and coming Belgium. 37-year-old Axel Witzel. What more do you want? It's a tricky one, this, because I think Belgium aren't what we think they are. I think they might be due a bad World Cup. They've called up too many of the older players. A lot of them aren't fully fit, haven't been playing for a long time. But Egypt is so predictable because all they want to do is get the ball to either Omar Mahmouche or, ideally, Mohamed Salah.

15:51So I'm going to go 1-0 Egypt. Oh, OK. Well, I think Belgium, they're just letdowns quite often, aren't they? And I think Egypt, they could be all right if Mo Salah's fit. Well, Salah's never really had a good World Cup. He went to 2018 injured. And I wonder if he feels that this is kind of obviously his last chance. It's a big kind of stage for him. He's on a free. He hasn't signed for a club yet. There's a lot for Mo Salah to play for. So, yeah, maybe this is the time that Mo Salah gets his big global kind of chance to shine. I'm going to go 2-2. OK, nice. Yours is more exciting than mine. Thriller, everybody.

16:28OK, what about Iran against New Zealand? The most fraught game of this World Cup. Iran are in Los Angeles. They've landed. There's protests planned. It's going to be interesting off the pitch. It'll be interesting outside the stadium. On it, I think what we've seen so far this tournament is that the teams that aren't really fancied are maybe putting a bit more of a fight than we expect. Get your words out. I know, just about get there. No, they are like, I mean, even, I'm curious how I got smashed by Germany eventually, But that first half, they were pretty good. And Haiti were amazing against Scotland.

16:58And the Kiwis have got Tim Payne, the most famous man in football. So I think the Kiwis will take a point. I think the Iranian players are in a really difficult situation. It's impossible for them, all the stuff around Iran's presence here. They'll try and focus as much as they can. But we know what New Zealand are like. We've seen it at World Cups before. They're really well organised, probably quite defensive. They've got Chris Woods. They've got a weapon they can use. I'm going to go one all. Oh, I'd love that for New Zealand. OK, I am going to say Iran, I'm going to say 3-0 to Iran. And I think because they've got so much going on that they are going to be so dialled in on having a good performance on the pitch.

17:39The players will just want to think about football. There'll be an element of release. I think that's definitely right. They'll be really glad to be on the pitch. They'll be glad to be taking part in that game. There have been quite a lot of points in the run-up to the tournament where it looked like they might not be here. so the chance to just go out there and do what they want to do may be alright but I think the Kiwis fight, the Kiwis always scrap Well we'll see, Rory, thank you Pleasure

18:03In today's finishing touch brought to you by Bear Paint we need to talk about arguably the most likeable set of supporters in the tournament Yes, of course, we're talking about Japan

18:20Where to begin with the Samurai Blue? Well, first of all, 10 out of 10 when it comes to match day effort. Face paint, multi-coloured outfits, bandanas, party horns, just basically all of the accessories. They're also admired for the respect they show to the cities they visit. They bring their own bright blue trash bags to games, which are actually multifunctional as well. They're blown up during the match to cheer with and then used after the final whistle to collect trash within the stadiums afterwards. Love it. Now, you may assume that Japan to the US is a pretty big cultural leap, but the Samurai Blues seem to have got the memo about Texas at least.

18:55How do you think of America, Texas? Texas is good. Everything is big. That said, one Japanese supporter clearly didn't get a heads up about portion sizes. They've been blogging their travels across the US and was blindsided by the free chips in a Mexican restaurant. He wrote about how unfinished gifts in Japan are an insult, but after three baskets of chips, he was a ruined man. Great team, great fans, Japan, oh, they really have it all, don't they? That is it for Morning Cup Date today, brought to you by The Home Depot. The Home Depot is your winning assist to host the ultimate watch party with fast free delivery to get your backyard matchday ready, subject to availability.

19:37For those of you, possibly all of you, who have put work on the back burner during the course of this World Cup and would prefer to spend your days at the pub instead, check out the Bar Finder on the Men in Blazers website. You'll probably find all of my producers there all the time. It's an interactive map of the best soccer bars across America, curated by thousands of your recommendations. The listings give you all of the vital information that you need, even telling you which bars are playing which games. very handy. The link is in the notes below. We'll be back tomorrow but until then enjoy day five of the World Cup.