WORLD CUP DIGEST: Is It Finally England's Year? Plus: Qatar Chaos & Ronaldo Off The Pace

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2:11Hello and welcome back to the Rule the Roost World Cup Digest. The World Cup show where I, in 15 minutes, try to break down all of the biggest talking points and matches of the World Cup. So, yeah, been a couple of days. Obviously spoke about the England stuff at the top quite a lot. and you have one but i'm gonna do it again i'm gonna do it again you know it's world cup fever so 15 minutes on the clock starting now so um since we last spoke portugal versus democratic republic of congo which quite amusingly has been called dr congo on twitter by i think it was by somebody really ignorant um as in like i don't think somebody was intentionally having a laugh but it caused much mirth.

3:04Obviously, the big, big, big talking point of this one is a draw, obviously, for the Democratic Republic of Congo. Well done. And also Cristiano Ronaldo being, well, quite Cristiano Ronaldo. Awful, awful performance from him. Complete juxtaposition with Messi. It has obviously led to lots of unfavourable comparisons between the two of them being made now. lots of that you know if you were ever the type of person that thought Cristiano Ronaldo was on Messi's level then you're a moron type stuff which look I'm not saying Cristiano Ronaldo despite being well a despicable individual by all accounts

3:50and just as a bit of a weirdo as a footballer was obviously an incredibly talented and very driven footballer but you know sometimes you know when there's lots of young guns in the game nobody needs to see a man in his 40s trying to mix it right trying to mix it with the young lads you're only embarrassing yourself mate all right bow out gracefully be be be the super sub you know be the super sub none of this stuff that the portuguese football federation wants to keep him clinging on and look you do you know i mean like you're it's counterproductive it's counterproductive if you disappear right and you come in for the last 15 minutes or so and score a worldie because you're a bit fresher then it will be look look look at the impact he has look he's still really good isn't he but now now everyone's taking the piss out of you because you just you You know, you're a silly old man.

4:53Me sat here. Sat here recording a podcast on my own, telling Cristiano Ronaldo what he should or should not be doing in order to not look silly. Funny old world, isn't it? Really good goal for Whistler as well. Newcastle haven't seen much of that this year, have they? Nobody goes on about that, do they? everyone has to focus on Tottenham making a bad signing here and there but you know I'm just saying just saying England versus Croatia Conor and I spoke about this a lot the other day um it was great look I'm not you know I think of I think many people right who are in a similar position to me you know you have sort of like uh I don't have dual nationality or anything like that but I have a mixed heritage, you know.

5:47My father is a first-generation immigrant. He actually does, you know, he's lived in England since he was nine, ten years old.

6:02He's not according to Rupert Lowe, but he's English, you know, really. Like, now, it just is what it is. You wouldn't know if you spoke to him. But he's obviously, you know, it's where he's from and he's got a lot of love for Argentina still, but he likes England and he supports England as well, as do I, you know. I get to cheat a bit, you know, supporting Spurs. I saw Argentina win the World Cup. That was quite nice. It was a moment. You know, I'm not going to compare it and say like, oh, you know, it feels better or worse than England winning the World Cup or anything like that. It's just, it's different.

6:35It's a different feeling. But England is my country. It's my, you know, the place of my country. So it feels like I need to be slamming a finger down on it. This is my country. Do you know what I mean?

6:55It's my country. It's where I'm born. You know, I love it. The English countryside. It's a country that gets a lot of stick, right? A lot of stick from a lot of other people who have done lots of terrible things in their histories as well, right? All right, yeah, I know. Maybe we did more bad things. But still, I'm not going to go down that early way. I love England. I love their national team. You know, I'm not a bleeding heart nationalist or anything like that. Don't get me wrong. But would I be happy if England won the World Cup? Yes, I would. Do I think England are capable of winning the World Cup?

7:31Yeah, I actually do. I think there's a different feeling about the team this time.

7:41I totally got Tuchel's team selection going into this one me and intellectual but I did, I got it, I understood it I understood where he was coming from I think we just have some phenomenal Jude Bellingham, Harry Kane are just astonishingly good players I'm not saying England are going to win the World Cup but it feels like it's the most realistic opportunity for them they've maybe ever had at least since the Sven-Goran Eriksen era when they did also have an incredible incredible team the golden generation if you like they were an amazing side and should have achieved so much more but they've all spoken about why they didn't because they couldn't get along with each other Silly, silly boys.

8:30England were great. I do think they were great. There's a lot of kind of jumping back on it now. Well, you conceded a couple of goals to Croatia. Or, you know, a lot of people were saying before that game that you shouldn't underestimate Croatia because they're a very good side. So it's funny how it quickly turns, doesn't it? I think the other thing, the other sort of strange sort of parallel with England is that as much as other clubs try to claim them, they are international spurs. They are 100 % international Spurs. Lily White hit success in the 60s, all that type of thing. But this isn't a new observation, but the emotional side of it all, the sense that nobody else gets it, that everybody likes to sort of tear them down.

9:13You know, they are Spurs. They are Spurs. And obviously I'd like to see Harry Kane win it. I'd like to see Harry Kane immortalised. um you know we still see the photo of bobby moore all over the shop lifting the trophy that will that will be harry kane if he does it and i think he deserves it because he's you know just a special special player so look we'll see um i don't really know why i went down that meandering part about this being my country when you start talking about national teams and stuff right it's weird i don't know it's funny it gets people like some of these pods i've done i feel like most of my takes on all of this have been quite milquetoast but out of all the pods i've done down the years just these few little like world cup roundup things have rattled a few people and i i really don't think i've gone in that hard on anyone like people don't like donald trump that's fine do you know i mean you're not everyone has to love him i'm saying like americans enjoy enjoy your success enjoy winning games like you know it's gonna be good today to see you play australia um no one's taken away from that uh god i've been going on for too long about this but England, really good.

10:20Ghana, Panama, they made that look so much more difficult, really, than they probably should have done Ghana, who are a really good side, really, really good international side. Sort of scrappy goal to win it in the end. It felt quite unfair. Panama looked handy enough, so it should serve as a decent warning sign to England and to the rest of the group, really. Uzbekistan versus Colombia. History for Uzbekistan. obviously World Cup debut and scored their first goal in the World Cup which was kind of a kind of a weird one but you know a nice kind of goal um an absolutely incredible goal for Colombia's first I can't remember who the actual goal scorer was but beautiful kind of lifted cross through ball from Luis Diaz who kind of ran the show scored a really good goal for their second goal as well was just a menace throughout.

11:21And it makes you wonder what on earth Liverpool were thinking, really, getting rid of him. I think maybe they needed to recoup some money because they spent so much last year. But still, I mean, Luis Diaz is a special player, really, really talented footballer. Yeah, they must be pretty gutted. But yeah, good game, good game, good goals. If you haven't watched the highlights of that one, there's definitely one to watch. Chechi versus South Africa, however, was not one for the highlights reel. If your business runs on five different apps, 12 browser tabs, and one spreadsheet that everyone's afraid to touch, it's probably time for Odoo.

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12:47Learn more at odoo.com. That's O-D-O-O dot com. Largely sort of uneventful game yesterday, wasn't it really? It was quite open in places, you know, a few sort of decent sort of moves, nice bit of attacking football. Nobody really had much of a killer instinct. You know, nice to South Africa to actually get a goal, get a point. nobody wants to be sort of the team that doesn't do any of that in a world cup so yeah well done nicely done um switzerland versus bosnia-herzcovina again a game that was really uneventful until it wasn't and exploded into life in the in the sort of closing what 15 minutes or so of the game um decent one to probably to watch on the highlights i guess um some great finishes on there though uh but neither of those sides is really that with all due respect gonna do much at this world cup i don't think um djeko i had no idea he was still playing 40 years old now well done to the lads um yeah you know i still remember him scoring four goals against tottenham at white hart lane in front of my very eyes so yeah yeah it's really i when i first heard his name being called out i was wondering if genuinely if it was his son or something playing for the team but no it was him um so yeah nice one fair play uh canada versus catar big big big result for the hosts um really i'm really good for the tournament six nil you know it's really good for the tournament that uh you love to see i know people sort of you know europeans and stuff get very funny about North Americans doing quite well at football it's our spot it's ours but it's not theirs but I don't really care it's the World Cup it's nice I like the I like the host nations go far you know Japan and Korea I think both I think did Korea make it to the semis I think they did I think Korea made it to the semi-finals of Italy in the quarters um and I think Japan made it to the quarters i want to say but it might have been round of 16 either way it's good for the tournament for the host nations to you know to be to be doing all right for there to be a bit of jeopardy there for there to be a bit of home buy-in um so yeah it's nice it's nice to see it's nice to see them um doing a good few bangers from the canadians really really feisty game though really dirty game Qatar were dirty dirty dirty um there's a broken leg in there or I don't I think it was a broken leg at some point for one of the Canadian players straight red card I mean to you know to be fair to the to the Qatari player he was very upset um distraught you could say didn't really object to the to the red card or anything like that as is often the case in those in those situations you know everybody likes to tackle hard until they break somebody's leg don't they and then I guess the consequences of their heat of the moment actions catch up with them.

16:01But that's life, that's what happens, isn't it? And that's the sport and that's the risk that these players take and it's one of those things, isn't it? It's one of those reminders that when we are complaining about how much they get paid or complain about them wanting to leave or move on to another club or whatever, it's a short career. it's a short career and they have you know such a tiny window in which to make their mark in their profession um so you know i get it i know they earn a lot of money and everything like that but it's not always you know just about that for for all players i don't again i don't really know why i'm going down this avenue but um there's interest no six nil um well done mexico versus south career i mean only saw the highlights of this but i'd imagine it was so so fun that the home support the mexicans booed them off the pitch at at halftime um mexico did get the result in the end they're the first team to qualify for the next round good for them again host nation to be going further into the competition is lovely jubbly um sonny again in the early stages had an opportunity which he kind of squandered i'm not sure when he got taken off but i'm pretty sure he got taken off you know fairly early into the game um you know it is what it is isn't it for sonny he's had a wonderful lovely career but again sort of like cristiano might be getting to that point where it's time to uh time to i don't know step aside from it all or something who knows but you know he can do whatever he wants really lovely lovely kit as well the career away kit um one of the nicer ones of the world cup that um bm scotland tonight 11 p.m i'll be looking forward to that the tartan army mon the mon the tartan army um usa versus australia as well which is a massive one massive one for the uh for the colonial empire and all that you know um yeah be interesting it'd be interesting to see two sporty nations that don't really take football that seriously come head to head uh great i'll be looking forward to it um i feel like they're fairly evenly matched i guess probably america edgik because they got the home support um but we'll see oh and there is our 15 minutes so yeah america probably edgik because they got the home support and they've got Mauricio Pochettino he's magic if you weren't aware that's it um thanks I mean it's yeah it's an interesting sort of run of fixtures this one but you know hopefully it'll be a bit a bit more interesting going forwards um thanks very much for all your feedback on this pod please do let me know if you are enjoying it please validate my ego share it like it all that type of thing remember all podcasts well cup digest rule the roost are all available ad free on patreon patreon.com slash rtr pod um really would appreciate it look i've got two tiers there i've got a tier where you get extra podcasts and all that type of thing that will cost you a bit more but if you just want to support the show if you do enjoy the show um and want to support it there are certain running costs and all that type of thing that come with running the show um then i'd really appreciate it i think it's a quid 150 or something a month um and you'll get all pods ad free and probably the odd kind of behind the paywall one for free as well when i've clicked the wrong setting but anyway for now um enjoy the world cup enjoy your weekends much love

20:15Thank you.