WORLD CUP DIGEST: Cape Verde’s Glamour Tie, USA’s Reality Check & Dutch Dark Horses?

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2:11Hello everybody and welcome back to the Rule the Roost World Cup Digest, where I break down all the big games, talking points, whatever, of the World Cup in 15 minutes. It's a strict, strict 15 minute timer, which may or may not sometimes go over by a few seconds. Appreciate everybody who has been listening so far giving me feedback on them. Only the positive feedback, of course. Don't need any negative... I was going to say negative Nancys, and I was like, is that actually like a weird homophobe? I don't think it is. I don't think it's at its root. But, you know, it's 2026, isn't it? Let's not start off on that footing.

2:55If you want to listen to Roll the Roost proper, or any of the World Cup Digest completely ad-free, why not become a supporter on patreon patreon.com slash rtr pods two different tiers there the inner sanctum where you get extra pods and then the supporter tier where if you just want to support the show keep the lights on you know then then you can it's quid quid 50 a month or so um but anyway enough selling my wares let's get on with today's world cup digest so drama now it's getting to the dramatic point, one of the first dramatic points anyway of the World Cup. Who stays in, who goes home, all that type of thing.

3:39This weird third place thing, I mean, is what it is, isn't it? But it's not, you know, it's not quite the same as finishing second in your group and going through proper, is it really? Let's be honest. Anyway, Cote d 'Ivoire 2, Curacao 0. A couple of absolute belters in this game for Nicolas Pepe. I don't really know why he was so bad at Arsenal he was terrible at Arsenal he came with a you know obviously a huge price tag and a fairly sort of big to growing reputation when they signed him from somewhere in France I can't remember what it is but yeah never really took to the Premier League but it's clearly a lot of talent a lot of talent there you know with all due respect obviously the opposition is Curacao so you've got to have a certain tempering of expectations there but still couple of absolute world easy scores and I'm pretty sure Cote d 'Ivoire go through as a result let me just double check, I mean I will do the full sort of run down at the end but I'm pretty sure they have gone through yep they have, I thought they had so yeah well done, see you in the next round Ecuador 2, Germany 1, Ecuador confirmed their place in the round of 32 well done, an impressive probably one of yeah south africa over republic of korea um a big shocker really and ecuador 2 germany won yeah shocker as well ecuador going into this tournament it's worth noting i don't think it'd been beaten in 19 games or something like that um quite a long time so they're obviously a handy size they're they're a good side germany it remains to be seen how good or not they actually are i i do know like i've been saying it myself don't never write off the germans and everything i think that's always generally true but it's hard to know how good or not they are they're kind of one of those teams aren't they um they're definitely not one of the on paper best teams in the competition but we'll see they do have a handful of obviously very tidy players and they They can hurt you.

5:50I mean, there's some interesting debate here to be heard because I was going to say, and they are a nation that's won the World Cup four times previously. It's always interesting to know how much that actually really matters. Charlotte was talking to me about this this morning. Just in respect to when we are saying the Netherlands have never won the World Cup, well, that's various different iterations of the Netherlands. This is off the back of, we're watching the rest of this football and Pat Vieira was making this point. Generally his points on the rest of football are nobody's as good as France and belittling other teams to varying degrees, which is kind of fair enough, I guess.

6:31France are very good and he is a World Cup winner with France. So whatever, he's a confident guy, isn't he? But his point was kind of like, the Netherlands have always got a great team. They've got the sort of team you fall in love with because they're technically brilliant, but they always lack bite. They always lack that kind of bit of grit to get it over the line. And that's why they've never won a World Cup before. And, you know, Charlotte's sort of point was, that's kind of nonsense because we're basing this on teams that are decades old. You know, to say that there's a particular national psyche that follows a football team around is probably a bit of an outdated way of framing all this type of thing.

7:11So in respect, when I say that, like, Germany have won four World Cups before so they know how to get this tournament over the line have any I don't think anybody in this team Thomas Muller was the last last sort of hanger on that had won a World Cup maybe him maybe Lahm sort of retired around a similar time I'm not sure but yeah you know because they've won it four times in the past does that mean they're any more likely to know how to get it across the line now i don't know it's it's an interesting debate how much a kind of you know national team national psyche towards competitions or whatever factors into this type of stuff isn't it um but there you go tunisia won netherlands three um oh yeah also the ecuador result kind of all but put scotland out that was one of the big one of the key fixtures um for scotland to keep an eye on in terms of maybe getting through the back door um it looks very very unlikely i think they've got like a five percent chance now after that ecuador result um tunisia one netherlands three i spoke about this with phil yesterday on the on rule on the rule the roost or rule the roost proper give it a listen i always love recording with phil um it's just good fun um so yeah we spoke about Van Heek.

8:35Very good performance from him. Record-breaking in many different ways. Scored a goal. Very happy we've got him, to be honest with you. I think he looks like a really, really tidy player. Yeah, I mean, I've seen some Spurs fans pointing out that he got done for Tunisia's goal and all that type of stuff. But I don't know. I think the good outweighs the bad with him. All defenders are going to get done at some point. And I think really, if we're looking at a weak link in Netherlands defence, it's Miki van der Ven a lot of the time I'm being really, really cold about it but look, the Netherlands are through again they scored, I think it's 10 goals they've scored in the group stages now really, really good side, I've sort of gone on about them on here before, but the way they knock the ball about is really, really nice they play with a certain level of fearlessness that you probably need for this competition so they could be a real dark horse to this competition.

9:37I think Shearer on the rest of his football was also saying the same. I think he's got them as a real sort of dark horse to the competition and I think it's fair. I think it's a fair position to have. I think they look really good. Japan won, Sweden won. Both teams confirmed their place in the next round. I don't know if you've seen Anthony Alanga was distraught at the full-time whistle. he thought Sweden had gone out but they're you know whatever it is their results and stuff had seen it that they were one of the teams that were mathematically more likely to be safe than not so they will be through to the next round as are Japan who I was less than complimentary of after the first game against Netherlands but you know they seem to be they seem to be a decent enough side don't they I'm still not still not sure I'm fully buying all the hype they were getting pre tournament but look you know they seem to be pretty good um so we'll see turkey three usa two i think that was turkey showing the world a bit more of what they're about they've been one of the biggest disappointments in this world cup so far um they gave the the hosts or one of the host nations usa a little it'll just bop on the nose on their way out um and i think in in some ways I saw in the post-match presser I don't know if it was mostly the American press or if it was international press but Pochettino was getting a bit of a hard time after the game it seemed to be that they were basically asking him how has this happened how have they lost to Turkey and he sort of said to them it's a real shame that what I'm getting from you is basically talk about why the negative things um as opposed to talking about this being america the first time they've ever topped the group in u.s history and that they've qualified um so let's just remember that and i think in in the way that like we've been saying of like the ghana result for england could be a timely reminder to stay sharp stay focused on the task at hand it could be that for the usa that could be a fantastic result for them just in the roundabout way that you know turkey are it are a good side they haven't shown that thus far um and maybe maybe even just slightly subconsciously the u.s let their levels drop just ever so slightly um and now this is just a reminder that you know at this level teams will punish you if you if you even let it drop ever so slightly so you know maybe it'll be good for them as they advance into into the next round imagine buying your kid a toy only to find the batteries aren't included or buying furniture but missing the tools to build it.

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13:53It's certified fresh and verified hot. Now we party. This is incredible! Wow, I am clear in the rest of the day. Disney and Pixar's hoppers now available on Disney Plus rated PG. Paraguay versus Australia, Aussie, Aussie, Aussie. They go through to the next round. They came second well in Egypt in the round of 32 away. Australia, which is, yeah, promises to be a good game. That's that's I would if I was to be brutally honest, I think Egypt are probably slightly better than Australia, really. I think, you know, this is a team that's won the African Cup of Nations several times. The Aussies are a seasoned international team.

14:39Both of them are. You know, Salah, despite his age, is still obviously a difference maker, a very dangerous player. But it's going to be a good game. I think it's going to be a good game. And, you know, I think Australia can be quietly confident that they could win that one and go, you know, advance to the next round where it would most likely be Argentina waiting for them but you know who knows what Cabo Verde can do but we'll get on to that Norway five minutes ago Norway won France four now I've been getting some pelters on Twitter so my opinion on this one Norway basically with qualification secured decided to rotate pretty much the entirety of the team i think it was 10 changes they made and i think i i disagree with a lot of people on the perspective here um look maybe this is harsh maybe this is you know not what people want to hear but for my money norway are not going to win the world cup um norway don't often really qualify for the world cup at least they haven't to this point you know maybe this is their golden era and they'll rectify that from this point forth but i just sort of feel like if you're in the world cup in your norway and you have a group stage game where you get to test your might test your muscle against the favorites the tournament favorites why wouldn't you do that why why why would you sort of already concede defeat i don't i just i don't really get it you know like people can make this case as they have been that like you don't understand international football they want to go as far as they can but but they're not going to win it surely surely you want to put on a show surely you want to be at the world cup and play against the best teams i'm sure harlem was absolutely livid that he didn't get to play against france yesterday um i don't know if that's the best thing for your team i don't know if it's the best thing for your team to rotate them all out on the you know this might be a once in a lifetime opportunity for some of these players to take them out of the possibility of playing against a team like France something that they can tell their grandkids and I don't think this is patronizing I think I would say this of any team in the world you know like I just I don't I cannot get on board with that um as a neutral I was livid because I was really looking forward to that game I think it was on paper the tastiest fixture of the World Cup thus far and they completely took it out of it.

17:05I mean, they've got Cote d 'Ivoire in the next round, I believe, Norway, which is in itself a tough game and there's no guarantee of going through there. So, as I say, you've kind of thrown the opportunity to just to play an incredible showpiece against a team like France to maybe go out in the next round anyway. That's how the World Cup works. And, you know, some people say, oh, they've got a game in four days. Give it a rest. That's how the World Cup works. That's how it works. it's a it's a quick succession of fixtures i just no you know i just i don't i can't get on board with that mentality i think it's i think it's lame i think it's i think it's a really poor way of approaching the tournament and you know for all their rowing you know banter that they're doing and captivating everyone with them i'm really really disappointed with the Norwegian team for doing that um I'm sure they care but I'm just saying my opinion I just think it's a really lame way to approach the World Cup to be honest um Senegal 5 Iraq 0 now Senegal needed a result like this to get through um I'm pretty sure they're one of the teams that are all but through I think it will take a miracle for them to not qualify now um so you know yeah I mean it's what they needed to do they they looked great against france they were sort of unlucky to to not really get anything from that game um pap gay with a couple of absolute screamers in that match as well um so yeah if you if you want to watch any any highlights or anything that's definitely one to check out um really really good stuff really really nice um yeah um that's just looking at now senegal are they are confirmed it's after the group g fixtures they're confirmed as going through to the next round caba verde their world cup dream continues nil nil they got a draw with saudi arabia um they got glamour tie of argentina up next in the round of 32 and who knows you know maybe they could spring a surprise they've been doing incredibly well in this tournament thus far let's see what they can do it's one of the one of the fairy tale amazing narratives of this world cup so keep it going um let's see what they can do at least give argentina a good game you know uruguay nil spain won spanish they navigate a tricky game um they top the group and they sent bielsa into meltdown i'm sure everybody's seen the sort of the bielsa shouting at the reporter i think it was something roughly translated to just give me a moment, shouting at the reporters who were all sort of flocking him after the game.

19:48A lot of people speculate as to whether or not Bielsa's neurodivergent. I don't think anybody's here to make a diagnosis of a guy based on this, but we can say that he's a socially awkward, at least, gentleman. So just give him a bit of space. He's an older guy. Just leave him alone. He's a football visionary. Just leave him be. uh oh three seconds to go new zealand one belgium five belgium's finally sharp that's time but the belgians show up leandro trossard just absolutely smashing it for belgium i don't know what it is don't really like him um probably because he's arsenal i just yeah he's irritating he's always there he's always so brutally effective isn't he and also if there is a game that you've not watched yet i would definitely say and you're going into this one blind i won't put the score on this one Egypt Iran high drama in this game um Iran kind of needed a result here to go through if you've not watched the highlights and you've not seen the score of this one like I said go in blind watch it high high drama on this one and a good lesson for anybody that doesn't know how it works on the offside rule as well I'm just gonna say that so yeah um thanks everybody again for tuning in i really do appreciate it um like i said at the top everything's ad free on patreon patreon.com slash rtr pods uh yeah england tonight so enjoy

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