Spain’s Superteam, Mo Salah’s Egypt, and Belgium’s Golden Generation Problem: Cup of Cups Preview 06/08/26

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2:12Roger Bennett:It feels like this is Lamine's moment to announce that the Messi-Ronaldo era is definitively over. Now we live in an era defined by Lamin-Yamel. You'd like to think that Salah will go into this tournament with real points to prove. He's going to be inspired by the rocket fuel of Hayton Arnislav for the remainder of his days. Lukaku's selection is baffling to me. He's not really looked himself for a couple of years. I think that just says to the other players who might take that position, this guy isn't fit, but he's still better than you.

2:42Welcome to our Cup of Cups previews presented by Camarena, Well, we'll look at every team and every group in this summer's tournament, which is XXXL size. Today, we're examining groups G and H. I'm joined by the Crown Prince of Harrogate, Mr. Rory Smith. Probably not enough X's there, Rog, to be fair. I missed two off just for brevity. We're going to ask whether Belgium's ageing golden generation or the Rolling Stones will retire from touring first and also dig deep on Spain's Avenger Assemble roster. We'll offer our boldest predictions. Are you ready to dive in?

3:12Roger Bennett:Let's do it. We're going to start with Group H, which doesn't stand for Hala Madrid, Roar. For the first time ever, aghast, Spain has not a single Real Madrid player on its World Cup roster. Yes, there's more Tottenham Hotspur players, I crap you not, than Real Madrid players. What world is this twisted? When you put it like that, that doesn't sound like a good thing. It doesn't sound like Spain's World Cup hopes resting on Tottenham Hotspur's shoulders is the sort of thing that will encourage everyone in Madrid. I think it shows kind of how global football is now. that even Real Madrid, this great Spanish institution, can cherry-pick players from all over the world.

3:46Roger Bennett:And it just so happens, partly because of age and injury, that none of them have made the Spain squad this time around. It does sound like one of those made-up statistics, though, a bit like that Cleopatra lived closer to the era of Love Island than she did to the construction of the Great Pyramid. Spanish manager, it's true. Luis de la Fuente said, he doesn't see team colours. I don't look at one club or another. I don't have the same local bias that a fan might have. All I want for these players is to feel proud representing Spain. So let's dig into the gents who are there, including Barcelona teammates, Dani Olmo, Fran Torres, and Yamin Lamal.

4:23We're going to speak more about him in one second. But Raw, Spain collects attacking players like John Travolta collects berets. 16 of these players are on the side that won the Euros two years ago, when Spain did not lose or draw a single game, didn't allow any of their opponents to score more than one goal, including that 2-1 final win over England too soon. La Roja, they just have so many ways to hurt you. The Euro's 15 goals scored by 10 different human beings. In 11, if you count the own goal from Ricardo Calliari, no other nation can match this Spanish attack. But do they have a weakness that can stop them?

4:56Roger Bennett:I think the thing with Spain is that all of the big European nations kind of produce talent on like an industrial scale now. So the French, the Dutch, even the English, Rog. You see players coming out of the academies just in these huge numbers. What's different about Spain is that they all share the same kind of DNA almost. That they all have kind of the same understanding of what the game is meant to look like. Whether they come from Athletic Bilbao or Real Sociedad or Barcelona, wherever it might be. They all seem to have the same principles. And that means they always seem like a much more coherent team.

5:26Roger Bennett:I guess the weakness is in defence that it's maybe not quite as star-studded as the midfield and the attack. We haven't even mentioned Pedri, Barcelona midfielder. This incredibly technically gifted passing dynamo of a player. who is probably the best midfielder in the world, who no one ever says is the best midfielder in the world. The defence doesn't quite have that star quality, but it's still solid. It's still a Champions League defence. It's still really experienced, really kind of well organised. And also you have to get the ball off them. And that's really hard to do. And it's really hard to do because they have eight, yes, eight forwards, but there's only one that the world is really focusing on.

6:01It's Barcelona's number 10, 18-year-old Lamin Ymal, man who's hamstring, has been in a race against the calendar to ensure he's fit in time to feature. Injured it back in April, and De La Fuente swears Lamin should be ready to face either Cape Verde or Saudi Arabia in Spain's first or second group games. But Rour, Lamin, really a man-child, who's been unafraid of the international spotlight, really reveled in it. 16 years, 57 days, scored his first goal for Spain in his debut, became the youngest goal scorer then in Euro's history, is outside-the-box stunner against France. I mean, Jeff Bezos wishes he could launch rockets like that kid just last week.

6:37He said that he's at his best, his fastest, his most creative. It's quote, like being a superhero. Everything just falls into place. What does a successful tournament look like for Lamin-Yemal? Will he be measured by how the Spanish team performs or by how he does as an individual?

6:53Roger Bennett:Kind of both, I think. It does feel as though this is a tournament where Lamin is meant to go supernova. This is his kind of ascension moment, which is crazy for someone who before his 18th birthday was a European champion already, who's already won back-to-back La Liga titles, who's already been kind of one of the best players in two or maybe even three Champions League seasons now. It feels like this is Lamine's moment to announce that the Messi-Ronaldo era is definitively over, that the little kind of period in between where we weren't quite sure who the best player in the world was, that's finished too.

7:24Roger Bennett:Now we live in an era defined by Lamine-Yemal. You can tell that, it's a really weird way of measuring it, but you can kind of tell that from all the adverts before the tournament. Who's the star? Who's the player that is being built up as the face of the tournament. David Beckham. David Beckham and Lamin Yamal. Same seas. By the way, today's episode presented by our great friends at Camarena Tequila, wherever you're enjoying the beautiful game, be sure to kick it off with the Camarena. I want to talk more about Yamal Roar because he recently told an interviewer he doesn't want to be when he's off compared to Leo Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, either of them.

7:56His goal is, quote, to be mentioned alongside them. Kid who already knows and is thinking about his place in history. Look, Roar, Lionel Messi was 35 years old when he finally lifted a World Cup trophy. Ronaldo is 41 and he still is yet to do it outside of his dreams. Flamal and Spain win and it's not like an out of this world if. He'd be 19 on the day of the final. This is a slightly crazy question. Will it ratchet up the expectations on his shoulders if he lifts this biggest possible trophy before he's old enough to drink a beer at the very MetLife stadium that he'd win at.

8:34Roger Bennett:I think it would increase expectations and pressure on him. But at the same time, he kind of would have done everything. He might retire from international football. I mean, if you've won the Euros and the World Cup and you're not even 20, just call it. Just concentrate on the club game. Yeah, and come to Everton and lift us back. That's the final challenge in world football. I mean, don't be a coward. Next up, Uruguay, a.k.a. Marcelo Bielsa's Uruguay. Yes, that quite singular tactical surrealist known as El Loco. He's quite a controversial figure in that team. I wouldn't say he's so much as burnt bridges, as put his trademark cooler in the middle of the flames and then just sat on it.

9:15After the last Coupe of America where Uruguay first beat Brazil on penalties, but then lost to Colombia in the semifinals, Luis Sires revealed many of his teammates were ready to stop playing for Bielsa's Uruguay. adding, quote, the senior players on the team held a meeting with the manager to at least ask him to say good morning. And Bielsa later admitted that, quote, I have not yet achieved acceptance from the group that I lead. Rui, managers don't have to be mates with their players. Jurgen Klopp famously said, I'm your friend, but I'm not your best friend. But if you're a guy due advance in this tournament, will it be because of Bielsa or almost despite him?

9:53Roger Bennett:I think Bielsa is an almost unique case, Rog. Not just the way that he plays, that kind of all-out attack, all of the time, man-to-man, endless running, endless shifting of positions. You don't get many managers like that. But also his reputation kind of comes before him. There'll be players in that squad who kind of think of themselves as working for someone who is genuinely kind of a legendary figure within football. He's been this incredible, almost mythic figure for nearly 30 years now. And mythically abrasive. And, well, the abrasion is just part of what you get. that everyone knows that Bielsa is not one of the world's great conversationalists.

10:28Roger Bennett:He's not an arm-round-the-shoulder kind of manager. There'll be players who don't mind that. And look, people like Fede Valverde, Darwin Nunez, they are still in the squad. They haven't followed through on their threat not to play for Uruguay. But you do wonder whether, if tension was already that high last year, once you add in the pressure of a World Cup, the pressure of expectation even on a nation of three million people because of Uruguay's history, two-time world champion, semi-finalist in 2010, the country that punches above its weight more than any other. You do wonder whether Marcelo Bielsa might need to just tone it down, maybe tone it up a little bit just to keep the peace because otherwise what you might get is a kind of France 2010, everyone locking themselves on the bus situation.

11:12And throwing away the keys.

11:13Roger Bennett:Yeah. Or maybe they locked him on the bus. Maybe that's the easiest way of doing it. Come on, Marcelo, make a modicum of an effort. But Uruguay announced its official squad last weekend. And despite his perpetual willingness to un-retire from international football, 39-year-old Luis Suarez ultimately wasn't selected. So no biting, no handballs on the line in this World Cup. Game's gone. Also left versatile midfielder Naitan Nandez at home. He opted for younger players. Every possible midfielder he could accumulate, including Spurs' Rodrigo Bentancourt, Flamengo's Nicolas de la Cruz, Manchester United's Manuel Ugarte, Real Madrid's fantastic.

11:50Federico Valverde. And he's sticking with that international god of chaos, Darwin Nunez up top, despite the fact that he's not played for Al-Hilal, his Saudi Pro League team, since February. Is it possible to forge these players into a cohesive team unit? Can they play together? Can they play for this gen? Ultimately, is Uruguay's biggest challenge really Uruguay?

12:12Roger Bennett:It's really hard to call how Uruguay do. Bielsa's team's centered in one of two ways. They either play spectacular, breathtaking invigorating football they maybe don't win things but they they kind of they capture your heart or everything blows up spectacularly the players lock themselves on a bus everyone falls out and he gives a three-hour long press conference at the end to explain exactly why it's his fault and i can't wait for the netflix documentary either way playing mobile games and not getting rewarded for it is a thing of the past Why haven't you switched yet? If you're going to spend the time playing, you should be earning rewards doing it.

12:50Roger Bennett:With Mistplay, you play what you love and earn points for gift cards and more. Plus, you can enter the Mistplay sweepstakes for your chance to win tens of thousands of dollars in cash, bundles, and gift cards every week. So yeah, keep playing games. Just maybe get rewarded for it? Download Mistplay today and enter for your chance to win. Next in the group, Saudi Arabia. Seventh World Cup. Made it to the round of 16 in 1994 on American turf. But they did get everyone's attention in 2022 when they pulled off that smash and grab opening game win against Argentina. Yes, we all remember, where is Messi?

13:30That's called strapping on the wax wings and headed right for the sun. Back then, they were managed by that impossibly handsome, suave Frenchman, Herve Renard. A gent who looks like a bottle of cologne, got its wish to be made into a real boy. He was briefly replaced by former Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, replaced by Hervé Renard, part two, then swapped, I'm exhausted, by Georges Donis back in April. Rory Mancini's gone. But the criticisms he leveled at Saudi football remained, he said the actual league is hindering the nation's development because although there's lots of Saudi talent in the league, they can't get real playing time because they're sidelined by the big European names that every team's paying the big bucks for.

14:11You're Ronaldo's, Benzema's, surprise England call-up, Ivan Toni, that are imported almost like expensive luxury appliances. Rod, does Mancini have a point for Saudi football to really grow up internationally? They can't have the Saudi leagues block their best players from getting minutes domestically.

14:28Roger Bennett:You can see his logic, but I'm not sure it holds up, Rod, to be honest. I think you could have said the same about the Premier League at one point. And if you look at the journey the Premier League's been on, it's really hard to make the argument and it's held back English talent. England now produces, admittedly like 30 years on, produces way more talented footballers in greater numbers than it did before the influx of foreign players. So I think he might have a point in the sense that if you have individuals who are at the big clubs in Saudi Arabia and they are not playing because of the presence of Fabinho or Cristiano Ronaldo or whoever it might be, then maybe in those individual cases, those players are suffering.

15:03But long term, the likelihood is that the talent

15:07Roger Bennett:that Saudi Arabia does produce, we know it produces talent because we saw what happened in 2022 before that influx of players. They should improve by having better facilities, better coaches, better coaching staffs and better players around them. It maybe just hasn't worked yet because this stuff doesn't happen overnight. Better coaches like Brendan Rodgers. Never take Brendan's name in vain, Rog. Top three coach in the world in his imagination and it's not two or three. Final team in this group, I love it. Cape Verde, West African Island Nation. Roughly the same population as Omaha, Nebraska.

15:40Blue Sharks, another delirious World Cup 2022 story. First ever tournament for them. National team roster made up of the massive Cape Verde diaspora, which is why it features such players as Irish-born defender Pico Lopez. First active League of Ireland player to ever appear in this tournament. Philadelphia-born backup goalkeeper CJ Dos Santos. FC Delco represent, along with Rotterdam native Dylon Livramento, Pacey physical striker. Five goals in 19 appearances for Cape Verde, including two against Cameroon. And Eswatini, who's not talking about that game from the tournament qualifiers when the Blue Sharks qualified for the big dance.

16:19And the gent who runs the biggest academy in Ireland, Pedro Bettencourt, jumped onto NPR and said, with our qualification, the dreams of the young are very high. Look, Cape Verde will get$10 million just for making it this far. They're going to use that to strengthen their academy. and to scout more raw? Is that enough for now? Is that enough dream for Cape Verdens? Or are they really just a sign of in a 48-team World Cup? The quality of the field can be a little ragged.

16:46Roger Bennett:I think that might be a worry for the tournament as a whole, Rog, but I'm not sure it's true in Cape Verde's case, to be honest. They've been building to it for a while. Their performances in Africa have been getting better and better. And so as much as it is a great romantic story that they've made it for the first time and that it will have this knock-on effect of a team drawn largely from the diaspora, inspiring people back in the islands, that they can make it, that it is a place where you can build a career as a footballer and go and live your dream. I'm not sure there's any worry about them being kind of not competitive.

17:17Roger Bennett:I think they might surprise a few people. Starting to spoiler alert the group. Let's go with the rest of it. What is the game of games? Oh, Group H. It probably has to be Spain against Uruguay. That'll be the most severe test of Spain early on, depending on whether it's good Bielsa Uruguay or bad Bielsa Uruguay. That's June 26. I'm going 11 days earlier, June 15th, when Cape Verde take the field against Spain and Lamin-Yemalat is the story of dreaming big dreams. Who's your player to watch? Other than Lamin, the other one that I think is worth thinking about is Mikelo Yazabal, who's the Real Sociedad striker and is the ultimate kind of big game player, the guy who scored the winner for Spain in the final of the European Championships in 2024.

18:00Roger Bennett:I saw him a few months ago score an 86-minute penalty for Real Sociedad against Athletic Bilbao in a cup semi-final to take them to a cup final that they went on to win. And I've never seen someone look so unruffled by the pressure. I'm going to go with Uruguay, Real Madrid, Fede Valverde, half attacking force, half close-up magician. Group winner? Spain. You can dream big dreams, but it is going to be Spain and your boldest takes up. I'm going to go for Saudi Arabia repeating the trick and beating another South American nation. They did Argentina last time. I think they beat Uruguay this time.

18:34But I do think Saudi Arabia will properly Saudi Arabia again, which means Cape Verde. It's shocking the Yannick Sinners, and I believe they're going to get out of the group. That is a bold take. It's called a hot take. Welcome to America Raw. We've finally arrived at Group G, which stands for grouped. That horror word that really sends shivers down my spine. But Belgium or Iran, neither have answered the knockout stages in 2018. Both closed earlier than Beaches the Musical. While Egypt and New Zealand are appearing in their first World Cup since 2018 and 2010, respectively. Last time New Zealand played in a World Cup Raw, the minions didn't even exist.

19:09Oh, it was a simpler time. Can we get a quick vibe check? Could second place in this group be the most up for grabs in the tournament?

19:15Roger Bennett:Yeah, but I think probably not for the minions, if I'm honest. I think it'll be one of Egypt, Iran and New Zealand. I think the minions are out of it. Insert minions gibberish right here, which arguably we kind of have for the last four of these episodes. Well, let's start with the stronger side. Belgium's partially reloaded Red Devils, FIFA's ninth ranked team. Line-up kind of reminds me of Phil Collins in that era when he grew the mullet to kind of distract from the vast balding on top. It's a combination of the young, yes, but the very old is still there it's like business in the front Thomas Mounier at the back I think you call it the classic golden generation why do we still use this term it's a curse they reach the quarterfinals 2014 Felta winners France 2018 were grouped in Qatar never came close to fulfilling their potential it's got the young energy yeah the pace of Manchester City's Jeremy Doku five goals three assists in qualifying Atlantis Charles de Catalara AC Milan's Alexis Salmaca as Arsenal spectacle curious Leandro Trossard who can conjure that last-minute magic.

20:15But there's also so many refurbished parts. The death rattle of your golden generation. Alex Witzel, 37, old enough to have retired from international football once already. Napoli's now 34. Kevin De Bruyne, first season in Serie A, interrupted by thigh surgery, keeping off the pitch from October until March. And most of all, 33-year-old Romelu Lukaku. It almost became an enigma. His injuries kept him to just over an hour of football in all competitions this season. Belgium's own manager, Rudy Garcia, acknowledged that Ronaldo was, quote, out of shape, but still our best striker, which is the most backhanded compliment ever, Roar.

20:55How do you find a balance between youth and experience? And when does it just become calling up old dudes as diminishing margin of returns?