WORLD CUP DIGEST: USA March On, Brazil Bounce Back & The End of the Road for Turkey

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2:11Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Rule of Roost World Cup Digest, where every couple of days I give you a 15-minute lowdown, lowdown, on all the biggest talking points and events happening at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. These have been going down quite well so far, I think. I've got to say, so thank you for the feedback I've got to set my 15 minute timer now, it's a strict 15, if you've not listened to one of these before, it's a strict 15 minutes it's an exercise in just keeping this a bit more succinct reining myself in, being less verbose, as you can see I've already spent 40 seconds doing the preamble, let's get the timer on the go, let's go through the games that we've been treated to the past couple of days, so USA vs Australia first up battle of the jocks um usa came out on top 2-0 australia i think won the contest in terms of the uh the chance coming from the stands none of which i will repeat here but you can check them out online um parental guidance and all that um so on and so forth but yeah great result for usa i would say i mean is it stretched to say they're fairly evenly match teams usa and australia i think probably if i was to be fair the usa have taken football a bit more soccer a bit more seriously the past few years um versus australia who i still think are quite hesitant to do so um so yeah you know obviously home support obviously having mauricio pochettino the magician in the dugout is gonna see you uh gonna see you do well and that is the USA into the next round they join Mexico in the next round they have qualified um so yeah I think there's been some discussion about the way the format is the head so from my understanding it's head to head that decides league positioning come like in the event of a stalemate um between teams as opposed to goal difference goal difference would be the second factor that decides positioning or something like that so i don't know i've seen some people complaining about the way in which fifa have scheduled this tournament the way in which it's structured is fundamentally kind of silly when you're getting through to these deciding games of the group stages but i think like with any i'm not going to shill for fifa i'm sure they probably have um made some mistakes but i think always is the way with these type of tournaments right there's always loopholes there's always a way in which it's imperfect i think that's just something that and that's just life isn't it i don't know maybe the maybe there are better ways to do it and i need to do more thorough research but right now the usa are through mexico are through two of the host nations through which is great for the tournament great for the vibe great for the buzz um you want to see that i am enjoying seeing a lot of look a lot of the americans i interact with are spurs fans who are big football fans do you know what I mean like there's and there's plenty I understand that and I know I've kind of been a bit patronizing but when I'm talking about like American football fans I think even like my listeners from the USA know what I'm talking about I'm talking about the casuals we still have them in the UK as well there's plenty of them there's plenty of them when the World Cup's on you know who will be asking questions in the office so if England are so good why don't they try and buy Mbappe that do you know what I mean that type of question I think they're saying something either of no or just truly wanting to learn.

5:57I don't know. But if people want to learn the thing I know all about, what's that about? I'm just supposed to deride them on. I not actually hold their hand through it as they tentatively ask a question. But yeah, USA, on to the next round. Good for the tournament, like I say. Good to see so many Americans actually, and this is what I mean, this is the point I was trying to drive to previously. something like i guess more casual american viewers who are enjoying the carnival atmosphere of the world cup i know this is shared the tournament is shared across canada usa mexico but i believe i'm correct in saying that the majority of the tournament takes place in america in the usa um so you know that's why i kind of keep referring back to americans in the american tournament pretty much as as most people tend to right look at look at the way in which itv's coverage is all skewed it's it's basically you'd think it's an American World Cup right um Scotland versus Morocco a real it's a tricky one isn't it it's a real difficult one for the Scots to swallow is that I would imagine because Morocco are as previously discussed a great side now they are they're they're a really good really talented side um some really really good players and so to lose 1-0 against Morocco is no real shame you know especially I'm sorry I'm sorry to speak in patronizing terms but especially for a team like Scotland really I mean Scotland do have a great side at the moment so you know maybe I should revise my own sort of feelings towards them at least in terms of where I position them I don't have any ill feeling towards Scotland.

7:46But it is going to be disappointing because they obviously do have a good side to Scots. They actually did play pretty well. I think Morocco were comfortable for the most part, but there were a couple of instances of Scotland maybe getting a penalty. I think the later one against McTominay was not, but the one prior to that, I think McGinn was clipped in the box. I do think he was clipped in the box, and we've seen those given. Scotland are by no means down and out. Brazil have looked all right, but they've not been spectacular. If Scotland can find a heroic performance, a heroic result from somewhere against them, then, you know, great.

8:36um they i don't fully know how it all works out but from my understanding is that even if they lose to brazil and they manage to keep it respectful they could still go through as one of the third place teams um but i'm sure you know there's there's there's we've all seen the videos we've all heard the stories of the scots drinking boston dry and everything like that right you know They're out there. They're having fun. I'm sure they would love to see another goal against Brazil. I think it's Archie Gemmell is the famous goal against Brazil, isn't it, for Scotland? They mention it in train spotting and all that type of stuff as well.

9:20So, yeah, for Scotland to get a goal against Brazil and maybe get a draw, maybe get a win, you know, dare to dream and all that. Who knows? Who knows? But I'd love to see Scotland go through. I think it would be the first time they've ever gotten through the group stages, the first time they've ever gotten through to the knockout stages of a World Cup, were they to do that. So, you know, Godspeed to them. As I've said, I think it's the best Scottish team I've seen probably in my lifetime. But, you know, they've got to dig deep and they've got to find something from somewhere. But one thing I will say, Andy Robertson, again, was really good.

10:00and I feel more and more comfortable the more I see him kind of playing now of a vested interest that he will be of great value to Tottenham and that free signing is a really smart really good bit of business from Spurs as long as we continue to bolster the ranks elsewhere as well um Brazil versus Haiti I mean it's a you know it's a it's a great three nil it's a great result for Brazil to show that they can at least you know put some of the should we say so-called lesser nations I mean it's got to be a better term for it than that I just mean in a sporting sense obviously lesser nations to the swords do they have enough for the real monsters of the tournament do they have enough if they come up against Argentina if they come up against a France even in England dare I say I mean they've got players in most positions that can really hurt the opposition teams I just wonder Vinicius Junior yeah is a I think Vinicius Junior walks into most teams in the world to be fair but barring that you know barring that I think they are they're one of those teams that are really really good across the park i just don't know if they're brilliant um but we'll see yeah again we'll have to see imagine buying your kid a toy only to find the batteries aren't included or buying furniture but missing the tools to build it frustrating right now imagine the exact same feeling but you're paying way more that is what buying business software usually feels like.

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13:07Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required, compatibility and availability varies 18 plus. Turkey versus Paraguay. Just a quick one on here. I've got to realise I'm already running out of time. Six minutes left. Turquia versus Paraguay. Almiron sent off. I mean, this is a noteworthy bit from this. Paraguay did win. They scored a lovely goal sort of in the opening couple of minutes of the game that that ended the game that saw turkey go out of the competition but the real talking point was almiron who was sent off i believe the first player to have been sent off for saying something with his mouth covered um i'm assuming this is part of fifa's new raft of no nonsense rules um no ifs no buts this is the way it is if you know you're taking too long on a corner or a goal kick or whatever refs going to count down and then they're going to no nonsense give it to the opposition um this look i think we all know i'm not i'm not suggesting this is what almiron has done but all i'm going to say is the reason why clearly this has been brought in is to eliminate abuse is to eliminate racist abuse homophobic abuse or any other type of abuse but you would say mostly the those first two right racist homophobic type abuse um i can get behind that you know let's let's stop the conversations around this we talk about zero tolerance for racism um discrimination in sport this is a good step towards that this is a good step towards that um look if it's because the the thing is you know we're always going to come back to these conversations especially if you're approaching these from you know in a more sort of you know within a legal framework right unless you have an actual lip reader saying this is what the player has said you can never prove decisively in court in a legal setting what somebody has said or done right if there isn't the actual hard evidence there to do it by doing this by saying if you say something with your mouth covered that is punishable with a red card so is there any anything else you want to say to somebody if you want to tell them to piss off or something if you think they've been moaning too much about a foul or a tackle you can do that I'm pretty sure you can do that and the referee will tell you to calm down or whatever but if you want to take it that step further if you do want to say something that you feel warrants you covering your mouth to do so you're going to be sent off for it and rightly so and rightly so um so good good change netherlands versus sweden um wow i mean i thought that was going to be way closer um i was i was looking at sweden as being maybe a bit of a dark horse of this tournament but netherlands they they sprang into action they sprang into action like their fans do with the lynx wreck stuff amazing scene seeing the seeing the Dutch doing that all throughout every single tournament they go to but five goals some beautiful beautiful football some of those moves some of the passing moves knocking the ball about really really nicely quickly incisively there's that bit in the back of my head that's kind of thinking kind of certain this is sort of deservey ball isn't it this is the type of football that he wants us to play um I don't know if that's Koeman's style or if Koeman is you know getting on trend if you like but the way in which they knocked the ball about it looked like Sweden had no answers for it it was beautiful beautiful couple of like um like Gakpo involved Broby involved Dumfries involved just knocking the ball about seamlessly effortlessly ping ping ping um de jong in the center of the park like obviously he was kind of like the golden child the heralded sort of second coming it sounds weird to say disappeared for a little bit after his you know early heroic performances at ajax but i think he took a bit of time to adjust going to barcelona but now again looks every single bit the type of player everybody thought he was going to be wonderful wonderful footballer really lovely i love this dutch team um they're just they're just such a highlight of the world cup i think um and it would be lovely you know england's obviously haven't won it for 60 years now netherlands have never won it you know become very very close on several occasions there's a part of me that thinks it would be it would be lovely to see the netherlands win a world cup it really would be um just for the energy they bring to every tournament both from a fan and player perspective um really really like them let's hope they can carry this forwards because that is a that's a serious serious result i think people will be sitting up and taking notice of them um also a shout to van hecker who i thought was great i've seen a few sort of dissenting voices saying oh i don't know about him as a signing but i thought he was great for the most part wonderful composed knocking the ball about really nicely yet you know alanga got away from him for uh for sweden's goal but you know i think alanga would get away from a lot of defenders um so you know we'll see we'll see uh Germany Cote d 'Ivoire oh minute and a half left Germany Cote d 'Ivoire heartbreak for Cote d 'Ivoire um genuinely genuinely brilliant side I think a lot of talk about Diamande um Liverpool I believe him with big big money for him Spurs have been linked with big big money for him as well in the past um I mean he looks great value for it he looks like a a really really wonderful player was always positive always going forwards trying to make stuff happen um really liked him undav though hero for germany came on with sub two goals lovely lovely composure for his second goal for the winner wonderful um that's germany three to the next round as well three points heartbreak for cot de voire though they played really well um they deserved at least the draw but i kind of feel like they were the better team for the most part um ecuador curacao eloy not much here board draw nil nil um eloy room um continuing the theme of like standout goalkeeping performances watch the highlights and you will see it as mostly just a highlight reel of him saving making save after save after save what i would say though is ecuador quite wasteful pretty profligate um had some great opportunities i think you know i know it sounds cruel but i think they made the keeper look a bit better than he was um very wasteful you would have expected better from them um but there we go that is that's the 15 minutes um one more game which is japan tunisia japan showing way more signs of being the team that a lot of people said that they were ahead of the tournament great attacking performances some lovely lovely goals um you got a feel for tunisia that's them on their way home as well now eliminated from the tournament um but now suddenly you know suddenly that when you look at kind of you look at what netherlands have done against Sweden and you look at what Japan have done in this game against Tunisia you start to kind of think that 1-1 between those two maybe you know maybe that was a better game than I gave it credit for at that point but you know as I say you can't draw big conclusions from the first stage you know first group games of a World Cup but it's going to be interesting to see how both Netherlands and Japan do as they progress through this tournament it should they progress through this tournament we should say at this point so just as a quick round up there the qualified teams at this stage thus far that we have confirmed Mexico USA and Germany and the eliminated teams thus far confirmed 100 % Haiti Tunisia and Turkey or Turkia as I think we should say now that's it thanks very much everybody for tuning in again um as I say you can get every single episode of the world cup digest as well as rule the roost proper ad free on patreon patreon.com slash rtr pod you can go for the supporter tier there for ad free pods or you can join the inner sanctum and get extra pods extra material as and when it drops please share please like all that type of stuff much love appreciate it continue enjoying the world cup it's great i'm you know I like it.

21:33I like the World Cup. That's why I'm doing these.

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