Will Germany disappoint again? Can the Dutch win it all? Are Ecuador and Japan built to surprise?: Cup of Cups Preview 06/07/26

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2:12Roger Bennett:The Dutch FA, the KNVB, requested a street to allow them to march. I told them we are bringing the bus. We are doing the march. You should probably give us a street because it makes it easier for everybody if you just let us do this. And make it a five-lane highway. And it is one of those moments where you realise that the world has descended on this thing. Those are the sights and the sounds that will get it into the American psyche more broadly.

2:38It's Rog, it's Rory. It's the Cup of Cup previews presented by Camarena. We're in Groups E and F in this episode. who will ask whether Germany will march to glory behind their sweet saxophonist who honks like a Teutonic, Kenny G. And if the Dutch and their bus and thousands of orange-clad fans will march their way into America's hearts. And here to break it all down, we're the man who is to World Cups, what Wemby is to the San Antonio Spurs. It's Mr. Rory Smith, Bill Common.

3:04Roger Bennett:Bill Common, I can't wait for that Lynx Rex song to hit Kansas City. We'll all be speaking German in 39 days' time. Today's episode is presented by our great friends at Camarena Tequila. Wherever you're enjoying the beautiful game, be sure to kick off with a Camarena. Let's start with Group E for equality. Because who's against equality? It's fascinating. It's poised. Salt with the headliners. Germany, imperious. Often inevitable. I mean, Teutonic. The venerable former England striker Gary Lineker famously once said, football is a simple game. 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes. And in the end, the Germans win.

3:42That was a way it was. They made 19 straight World Cups. They've won four, three European championships. Ruthlessly efficient is how we think of them. They bolted on the bullion, joyful, youthful creativity in 2014. They won that World Cup. We thought they would dominate world football forever. And then they didn't. They were grouped, says my friend Hurt Gomez so cruelly says, in both 2018 for the first time ever, then again in 2022. What do they say in German if you don't know history? And for the first time in my lifetime, Roar, Germany looked vulnerable, frightened. Yes, qualifying went smoothly, but they lost three in a row last summer, two in the Nations League.

4:21And national discourse became a little crackly and nervy. Former Real Madrid and German metronomic midfielder Tony Groose. Roar, tell us what's really going on. Germans have got one of their most talented rosters. They've got real pedigree, but...

4:33Roger Bennett:But they feel nervous, Roger. And I think the main explanation has to be the psychology of it. because as you say, there's no shortage of talent in the team. It's a little bit unbalanced. They've got real quality in defence and midfield and maybe a little bit less up front. But I think the real problem is the ghosts of the last two tournaments. The Germans aren't used to being knocked out in the group stage. And those teams in 2018 and 2022, they were also quite talented. There was no shortage of players. They maybe weren't as good as the 2014 edition that won it, but nobody at the start of either of those tournaments thought, oh yeah, the Germans will get knocked out in the group stage.

5:07Roger Bennett:I'm not prepared to use the phrase get grouped. When anyone uses that word, it's so violating. I'm on board with a lot of the Americanisation of football, but I draw the line there. Grouped! No one's getting grouped, come on. But the Germans, I think, are genuinely nervous because they know what humiliation feels like. And for a country that built itself on being the ultimate turnier man shaft, the team that turned up and got better through the tournament, the idea that now you get knocked out at the start of it is absolutely terrifying. You know what they say, like, You're either the groupie or the grouper.

5:38I don't know how that works.

5:39Roger Bennett:That feels weird. I know, it is weird. It's so bloody violating. By the way, what you've just described, as ever, the Germans do have a word for it. Kopfkino, literally head cinema. They're inside their own minds. Yeah, Kopfkino translates to social media, Roger, as living rent-free in your own head. And it's typical of the Germans where rent control is a big thing, that they are living rent-free in their own heads. The Germans, like the English, have a word for it. Bottlers. So many good things about this German side, though. Manager, hoverboarding Wunderkind, Julian Nagelsmann, arguably the best manager in the tournament, dragged Hoffenheim into the Champions League, won the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, still just 38.

6:19And he's the one who's going to have to fathom out the problems at both ends of the field. The big shock, Manuel Neuer is back amongst the goalkeepers for his fifth World Cup. He's found some form this year, but at 40, He's almost starting to look human-wrote. It is an odd one because Germany have had Oliver Baumann in goal, 35-year-old, late bloomer at Hoffenheim, and a German outlet built found that 59 % of football fans would rather stick with mighty Baumann. But it seems Germany are going to go into a tournament with a goalkeeper that's older than their manager. Can you explain it for us, Rob?

6:50Roger Bennett:I think it has to do with aura. Baumann's like a perfectly serviceable, perfectly good Bundesliga goalkeeper. But Manuel Neuer has a presence. He has a presence that he's built up over 20 years mainly at Bayern Munich, in all those World Cups with Germany. There is a benefit to that, but I think the big issue for Nagelsmann is that Oras can't make saves. And we saw that in that game against PSG in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final where Neuer didn't make a single save as PSG scored five goals. Yeah, but it looked Oras. He's definitely not what he was. There's just a little bit of desperation about calling him back up, I think.

7:25Roger Bennett:It doesn't speak volumes for Nagelsmann's confidence in his current squad. World Cup, O 'Ora, Neymar, Ronaldo, Neuer. But at the other end, Raw, it's questions we're going to start at striker. They've got 6 '6". Nick Valtomarda, a.k.a. German Yao Ming, made the squad even after a deeply depressing season at Newcastle. Kai Havertz brings his unconventional set of skills to the role. Much of the creative onus is going to fall on. Bayern Munich's Jamal Masiola and a gent who missed the last World Cup with an ACL injury. Florian Wurtz came off a bruising first season at Liverpool. ball, seven goals, eight assists, 48 appearances, but he looked mostly like a lost child whose mother still cuts his hair with nail clippers.

8:07Roel, what do you see? A German redemption arc or history repeating itself for the third time?

8:11Roger Bennett:I can't see that just because it's unimaginable to me that Germany won't make it through the group yet again. I just can't. Muscle memory. Yeah, there's a point where you think, well, you have to at least make it, you have to get out of the group. You can't continually get grouped, Rog. They've got the talent in midfield. They've got Wurz and Musiala, who have both in different ways had difficult seasons, will want to kind of prove a point at this World Cup. And they will be two of the most individually talented players in the tournament. The question, I guess, for Nadelsman is, can you somehow make the most of that without any cutting edge whatsoever?

8:43Roger Bennett:Because Havertz, as much as he loves storing in a Champions League final, he's brilliant at storing in Champions League finals. He's not an out-and-out nine. He's almost more similar to Wurz and Musiala than he is to an actual centre-forward. That could be a real strength, to be honest. It could be that that gives them a fluid, dynamic front line that opponents can't read. Or, as in previous tournaments, it could make them blunt when it matters. I guess the answer to that question, which way it goes, will determine whether this is a tournament where Germany do break that streak and they do remind us that they are one of the game's superpowers, or whether we all get to indulge in watching Germany fail at the first hurdle again.

9:21World Cup of Cop, Kino. The stiffest opposition for the Germans in the group stage may well come from Ecuador, that mountainous South American nation, altitude topping over 20 ,000 feet. Fittingly, they've been on a steep rise in football of late from 71st in the FIFA rankings in 2017, below Haiti, below Cape Verde. They've ascended to the heady heights of 23rd to finish second in South American qualifying. Find that despite a three-point deduction, you're fielding an ineligible player, you pay the price. But they also had a historic 1-0 win over reigning champions Argentina in the final round of qualifying.

9:57They've not lost a game of football since September 6, 2024. It's nearly two years ago. But at the same time, they've never made it past the fourth game in a World Cup. And the man tasked with changing that is an Argentine, coach Sebastián Bacassese, openly dreaming of, quote, the greatest World Cup in the history of the national team. Beka Sesse, a disciple of the great high-octane fever dream Argentine coach Jorge Sampioli, has built his team's success on one of the stingiest defensive in world football, conceded just five goals in 18 World Cup qualifying games, four clean sheets in the last four matches.

10:31That backline low block built around Paris Saint-Germain's one-man cheat code, Willian Paccio, an Arsenal backside model, Pirro in Capier, shielded by Chelsea's midfield,$150 million monster, Boises Caicedo. They're going to be so bloody hard to break down. Are Ecuador essentially just the Arsenal World Football rule?

10:50Roger Bennett:Ecuador are a genuinely serious team now. There were signs of it in 2022 that Ecuador was starting to, I hesitate to use the phrase, Rog, develop a golden generation. But they have got so many players. Don't do them like that. That's worse than the word grouped. It probably is. It feels like cursing somebody. They've just got so much quality throughout. They've got not just that back line of Hincapié and Pacho, as you say. Caicedo's one of the best midfielders in the world. We know that. When he wants to. They've got players like Kendri Paiz, who's also owned by Chelsea, but is on loan at Strasbourg.

11:22Roger Bennett:Aren't we all in a way owned by Chelsea? I mean, I'm on loan from Chelsea at all times, Rog. They've got incredible depth and incredible quality. Ecuador are nightmare opponents, particularly for Germany in that group, because they are the sort of team that the Germans will expect to beat. And then they'll run into them and realise that Ecuador are not here as like minnows, as a team that's just sneaked through South America and qualifying. They're a really serious unit. And Bekasese is a really talented coach. They are very much a team to watch, Ecuador. They are a clenched fist. They have that back line.

11:53It's not clear they have enough in attack to make a deep, deep run and deliver that trademark greatest World Cup in their Ecuadorian history. They have become a legitimate South American threat, though. Rourke, can they do it on ground level?

12:07Roger Bennett:I think they can. Obviously, the altitude is an advantage in their home games in qualifying, but I think they can. There's no reason to believe that just because they're having to play at sea level-ish, that they're going to suddenly struggle. I spoke to Jefferson Monteiro a little while ago, who used to play for Swansea City when they were in the Premier League. And he said he thinks that Ecuador will get to the semi-finals of the World Cup and that if they didn't, it would be a failure, which I've got to admit I think is pushing it. But they should be thinking certainly about the quarterfinals, Ecuador.

12:33Roger Bennett:You're right that there isn't a top-class striker and that might cut them short eventually, but they have basically everything else. Let them play all their games at Denver's Mile High Stadium, you cowards. Ecuador's opponents in the opening game, actually in Philadelphia. Ivory Coast back after a 12-year hiatus from World Cup football. Immers Fahey, an assistant on the team that won the 2023 AFCON, has been promoted to the manager of Les Elephants. Oh, a name I love. They're defensively solid, didn't concede in 10 games to qualify. 25 goals, zero against. Is that good? It featured Dazzle Pace and Manchester United's speed demon Ahmad Diallo, but has largely been built around 99 cap.

13:1529-year-old former Barcelona midfielder Frank Casier, now in your Saudi league at Al-Akhali. An agony? Ivory Coast fans are one of the nation's put on a partial travel ban. They have to put down$15 ,000 bonds to enter the United States. And we'll also be sweating Casier's fitness. 29-year-old had a mystery injury about a month ago in Saudi Arabia. We do not know what it is, but nature abhors a vacuum. Enter RB Leipzig phenomenon, Jan Diamande. Roar's smiling because he's persistently linked to Liverpool. Two years ago, though, I love this story. He was playing high school football in Jacksonville, Florida.

13:50Go Uli Hornets! Now has a$150 million price tag slapped on him after a breakout season. We posted 12 goals, 8 assists in the Bundesliga. Roar, just how good are the Ivory Coast? And will their opening games be sold out, not with their own fans, but just with Liverpool scouts

14:06Roger Bennett:evaluating Diamande. Liverpool scouts and people from Jacksonville. That is who's going to be in the crowd cheering for the Ivory Coast. Uli Hornets. They're maybe not as strong as the kind of great Ivory Coast teams of 2006, 2010 when they had Didier Drogba and various Torre brothers. But they do have, I think, maybe three of the brightest prospects in this tournament. Jan Diamande is one of them. This winner who's had this incredible sort of rapid ascent to the very top of European football, playing, as you say, high school football. Then for Luganes in Spain where he was signed as a player for the B team, got promoted to the first team and then transferred to Leipzig.

14:39Roger Bennett:They've got a Hoffenheim winner called Buasama Torre, another Torre, no relation, who is similar in terms of pace, direct, incredibly talented. I love a Torre. And then to make things more complicated, Rog, they've got another Diamande, but he's a defender, Ousmane, who plays for Sporting in Portugal. The decoy Diamande. Again, we're getting into this issue of who are you marking? Yeah, who's picking up Diamande? We've got him. Everyone's Diamande, everyone's Torre. It's very confusing. it gives you an advantage. And I think that those players, having those young players who more established opponents probably won't be that familiar with, that can be a massive advantage in a World Cup.

15:14Roger Bennett:So as much as they look a little bit underpowered compared to how we think of the Ivory Coast, I think they could take people by surprise. Rounding out the group, a hot healing story. Curacao. I love this. The smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup, both by population and landmass. Curacao only became a nation in 2010 with the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles Not to go all Alice Cooper and Wayne's world on your asses, but Curacao. It's an island 37 miles off the Venezuelan coast. 150 ,000 inhabitants, about the same size, if you're wondering, as Waco, Texas, or Gainesville, Florida.

15:47171 square miles. It's smaller than San Jose, Mourinho, no, California. It's roughly two Martha's Vineyards. The longer a colony, but within the kingdom of the Netherlands still. The blue wave have risen from 150th in the bowels of the FIFA rankings to 82nd largely. with wise recruitment of Dutch players with family roots to the former colony to add to the collection of what their manager calls, quote, paid amateurs. And their manager, that's Dick Advocat. We'll talk about him in a minute. The most famous player may be the actual only one born in Curacao, former Manchester United prodigy Tahit Chong, now of Sheffield United.

16:24Raw baseball still soaring above football in the Curacao sporting appetite. but this tournament really has the opportunity to shift the sporting landscape on that island. Again, the World Cup is a magnificent tale-bearer.

16:36Roger Bennett:Yeah, it's a wonderful story, Curacao. As you say, it's been built on this really intelligent recruitment from the diaspora community, especially in the Netherlands. They've gone out, they've looked for players who are eligible, and they've given them this prospect of playing international football. And you tend to see like a snowball effect that once a few join, others think, OK, this is now feasible. They've actually been rising through the kind of ranks in CONCACAF. getting closer to World Cup qualification for a little while. So it wasn't, as much as it was a shock for such a small nation to make it, it wasn't entirely unforeseeable that Curacao did make it through.

17:10Roger Bennett:And the thing is that they'll go into the tournament as minnows, obviously, because it is such a tiny country. But most of their players either are playing or have played in the Eredivisie. They're playing high-level football. They're not an amateur team. They're there. They'll be well organised. And obviously in Dick Advokar, they've got a manager who was there at the dawn of time. So he knows what he's doing. This man remembers the Paleolithic age. He's the Dutch journeyman advocate known as the little general, leading Curacao for the first game against Germany in Houston on June the 4th. He will become the oldest manager in tournament history, 78 years young.

17:46He's got that traditional Dutch bluntness. He was asked about his age. He goes, I don't care because I don't feel age, which is a marvellous superpower if you can grab it. It's his 10th spell in charge of a national team, Netherlands, thrice, the UAE, South Korea, Belgium, Serbia, Iraq, Russia. It's been to a major tournament each of the past four decades, which makes all of us feel like underachievers. Look, Caruso realised they needed a big name coach to take them next level a couple of years ago for the express reason of, quote, attracting sponsors to fund the programme in the first place. They reach out to Advocat.

18:18And he was like, yeah, sure, why not? He's kind of coached everybody else, Roar led them unbeaten through qualifying, sealed their place in the first ever tournament. An advocate texted the group, congrats, incredible, fantastic, so good. And I think he doesn't think it's going to end there, Roar, because three points may be enough to qualify for the knockout rounds in this new format. With eight third place teams advancing, could be time for one more Curacao adventure this summer, Rob.

18:44Roger Bennett:Yeah, it's not impossible, Rog, but it's a big ask just because of that group. Germany are obviously the main seeds. as much as we know that they might occasionally get knocked out in the group stage. But then you've got Ecuador and the Ivory Coast. They're both kind of overmatched compared to Curacao. It's not impossible if they catch one of them on a bad day or if their opponents are complacent, take them for granted. Curacao probably have got the quality to punish them. But just being here is amazing for a nation that size. And even though a lot of the players are drawn from diaspora communities, it will be such a source of pride on the island, in Curacao, to see their country represented at the biggest sporting event in the world.

19:21Roger Bennett:That is what the early stages of the World Cup are about. Putting a spotlight on the nation of Curacao in a way it would not otherwise be. But it's time to spoiler alert, Group A. What's the game to watch? It has to be Germany against Ecuador, Rog. Not least because they're probably the best two teams in the group, but because it could well dictate whether Germany make it through. That game, the group's last match day, June 25th. I'm actually excited for 11 days earlier. June 14th to watch Curacao walk out for the first time on the world stage against Germany in Houston. Ecstasy. Player to look out for.