World Cup Daily - Argentina and Egypt Deliver A Classic, Switzerland Progress, And A Quarterfinal Preview

0:00Michael Timbs:Hey, World Cup fans. If you want proper analysis, honest opinions, and plenty of laughs along the way, give The Rest is Football a listen. Gary Lineker is joined by Alan Shearer and Micah Richards throughout the tournament as they break down all the big games, the biggest moments, and everything happening on and off the pitch. They'll also be chatting with some brilliant guests along the way. Whether you've watched soccer your whole life or you're just getting into it, they'll help make sense of the drama, the tactics, the joy, and the heartbreak of the World Cup. Listen to The Rest is Football wherever you get your podcasts.

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2:01Another game of the tournament delivers the drama, and this time, not a single bit of controversy. This is the World Cup Daily. My name is Alex Fittig, Blackman, Detroit, Ink Gunner. Yeah, Argentina are through. No controversy. Totally clear. No suggestion that FIFA wanted them through, that the call was put in. all we needed was um all we needed was uh infantino putting his finger to his ear as the decision was made to rule out the goal we just timsey we just we needed that we needed that that uh finger to the ear that arsenal fans are so familiar with the call's been put in he's he's put in the call did you did you were you getting flashbacks to that moment a little bit i guess i did whenever

2:43Michael Timbs:he appears on camera i just immediately i'm filled with not anger but just like this deep resentment um and especially because all of those rumors of like is it contractual and just how many times do we have to see him on tv and stuff stop showing it show the football show the it's good football it was i mean look whatever you want to say about the controversy and we will be discussing it the football is good i i should mention by the way later today as most of you are probably listening to this. Clive and I will have a patron pod if you want to check it out. You can go to Patreon and use code Saliba50 and get it for a couple quid and see what you think.

3:20We're going to be doing a patron pod on Wednesday and a Friday night, Clive, on Friday. Both of those available patrons and a main pod on Thursday with Tim. Not Timsy, Tim, but Timsy's welcome to join, should he want to. We will carry on with the World Cup Daily. There will be none on Wednesday, though, because there are no World Cup games, which is crazy. By the way, I should mention, the arsenal vision podcast app will soon be available for ios and then subsequently available for android so very excited about that more on that coming but timsey i haven't had a chance to ask you yet because we we missed you yesterday paul came on the pod and um sometimes it's easy to confuse the two of you but uh you know i i recognize that you are timsey and so i should ask you uh how was it staying up late to survive the england game because that was a hell of a performance a hell of a game and i haven't had a chance to ask you about it yeah it was um firstly

4:04Michael Timbs:apologies for not appearing on yesterday's show um apologies not accepted but carry on okay perfect and yeah so we stayed up on on monday like i think a lot of people did i got to bed at like 5 a.m i was like pumped so full of adrenaline and this is coming from someone who's like decently patriotic not not by any means like the most patriotic person in the world where i kind of would always prefer arsenal to win stuff than england but because it was such a big game like it was it was it was really cool it was the first time in a really long time genuinely where that was like a massive game and a massive performance and it felt it just felt big like even the performances that we saw the sort of the sort of game plan that we saw and how we saw Tuchel like changing tactics throughout the game how we managed a chaotic intense game against like a good side they're obviously not amazing Mexico but like they're they had all the ingredients to obviously cause anyone trouble just because it's the Azteca and they're at home and they're on they've got loads of momentum they hadn't conceded a goal and then we put a performance in that that i genuinely haven't seen from an england side in maybe my lifetime that i can remember genuinely like it was it was so impressive where of course there were mistakes and maybe some players should have played some players shouldn't have played regardless it was just like everyone who did play though put in the sort of shift that you can look back on at the end of the game and go like that was a proper world cup performance that you'll you'll remember in like 10 years 20 years yeah you look back and go like we truly did step up and deliver like an incredible performance like jude i think jude individually yeah even whilst you're watching it was one of those performances where you're watching it and every time he got the ball he did something and you were like oh my god he's done it again like he just kept it every single time and so by the end of the game you're like this guy has delivered the biggest man of the match performance of his life um and it was just like of the highest quality like he was and again this is what we've been saying even like throughout the tournament and because he he divides opinion for some reason with a lot of england fans being like he's not that useful or you know he can be very good but as we said before in the in in the show previous times like he he never ever shies away from the occasion regardless of like it might not come off sometimes it would this was the game where it all came off and he ran everything and it was like he was a man and everyone else were boys um and that is like that is a i personally think that is once in a generation performance that we saw from from jude specifically my comment on that is very simple just put the obe in the bag mate that's yeah if you end up winning yes yeah uh if it comes home okay uh we we have covered that game so we're not gonna carry on sorry for wasting the first time no no no no i mean it what a performance and like obviously it's better than you asking me to relive the usa's performance but i will simply say there are some people uh big mad feeling that i i did not demonstrate sufficient patriotism i will tell you that i was rooting hard for the u.s i'm disappointed they went out but like you know they they went out in sort of feeble manner so easy enough to move on from that let's talk about today's games though and we have to start with argentina 3 egypt 2 before we get to headlines stock rising stock falling yeah i think it's important that we take the big decision into account and so i have to ask you your opinion of the decision to rule out yeah egypt's excellent counter-attacking goal due to a foul that caused the change of possession so before coming to a decision i i do have to say the goal was incredible like the solo run ridiculous the finish just everything it was just like so it reminded me of argentina's like uh breakaway goal against france in the world cup final from 2022 In a game you were at, we should emphasize that In fact, there should be a contractual obligation to mention that Yeah, a game I was at And also now I've just found out There is a very high percentage chance I'm going to make it three World Cup finals in a row Which will be Timsey, you'll be there to see it come home Incredible, we'll need Live instant reaction from you Anyway, I'll tune in Carry on To cut a long story short I think it was a foul It was a foul i think so too it's it's a weird one where it happens so far before the goal that you're kind of like everyone ended up playing on and it's kind of the ref should give it but the ref having not given it like do you pull it back yeah and also that far back to like what all the refs and like these ref referee specialists and stuff say it's like well it's for clear and obvious error it literally wasn't a clear and obvious error because it was like almost kind of debatable whether it was a foul some people are saying there was a foul in the build-up to argentina's uh subsequent goal where salah had the ball taken off he has it cleanly taken off him in the box but then there's a coming together yeah i guess the harder thing there is if you give that as a foul you're really giving a penalty so it's yeah difficult there's a there's a few occasions where like even you know salah breaking away um and miss uh well incorrectly being called for a foul when like he would have been running through one-on-one with the current cellar form is he going to take the chance maybe not i don't know but that's still a huge moment in the match and i feel like there's it this has happened maybe one too many times in like some big games throughout this tournament where like the referee just hasn't been good enough like some really big moments and big decisions have just like blatantly just not been correct they're so tough to get right i feel like the reps No, but you want my read on it?

10:18Because I assume they've been letting them play, and then they've been deferring to VAR a lot. And I wonder if that was the directive to the refs, which is like, we've got a billion camera angles. We're going to keep you good with the VAR. You let them play, give fewer pens, give fewer red cards. We will come back. But the problem is, if that is the directive, it's certainly making it feel like the refs don't have control of the game and don't have a read on what's happening in real time at some level and i feel like when that let

10:50Michael Timbs:the game kind of play i feel like when that crosses over into like bigger decisions that's when it's kind of not good because then suddenly you're you're pausing the game a lot and that sort of thing when it comes to let the game play those moments where a player kind of dies or tries to shield the ball and as soon as there's a bit of contact boom they go down a lot of the refs now which I love and I hope we continue it's like they just go get up boom and it's never it's not serious enough to like go back to VAR so great but then I feel like that has now bled over into like every big decision and so then you kind of lose that aspect of like not every big decision has to be slow-mo down and like zoomed in to pixels of like has this been has the contact been there like has his foot brushed the leg of this person it's like well now it's just getting a little bit silly where yeah it's actually doing the opposite where it's like stopping the game from flowing um so that's my only thing with those but i think it was uh it was a foul um so i guess it was a correct decision but then in the in the the the makeup of the whole game i can see why egypt like i can't remember what one of the players after the game said like this is a total and justice it's a rigged game and stuff it's like he said it very very directly but i understand with from their point of view are like having played the full game you you probably would feel quite hard done by so um i do feel sorry for them because i thought you know a two nil like they were they were worth their their lead um but as soon as they did concede me and my friends were just like oh no here we go and it was yeah kind of inevitable yeah and and the thing that's hard for me right like i don't think i want goals ruled out for fouls that far up the pitch and it's a very it's a very very minor foul i and you know what's funny timsey i from doing this for a long time when i can tell you is when you see it differently from how other people see it people get really mad about it they want you to see it and like that what people specifically want to see is that it is rigged for Argentina.

13:03They rigged it for Argentina to get through. And so I want to take two sides of that, right? One is I would feel very hard done by if a goal like that was ruled out for Arsenal, for example. I would be very upset. I kind of do get that the counterattack is only able to start because of a foul, but it's a very soft foul. So look, I'd be upset. But here's the other thing I'm going to say. 10 minutes later, they get to 2-0 anyway. And so I guess what I would have to say is even if you think that's unjust and i get why you might think that's unjust when you have a two goal lead with 12 minutes to play yeah don't concede three goals man like like i found myself really pulling for egypt in the last bit there what they were doing was exciting and like i don't want to overstate the quality of their performance either because this was 2.84 xg to 0.89 they had five shots they had eight touches in the box you know versus 19 and 34 argentina the irony is i actually think in some ways it was one of argentina's best performances of the tournament like they were better in this game i thought than they were against cabo verde and they were more front-footed and more urgent in what they tried to do but yes i see the injustice i see how you could feel bad about it but you know how you avoid that corruption if you want to call it that and i i don't think it is but i know some people feel that way whatever everyone's titled their opinion The way you neutralize it is with 12 minutes left to go and a two goal lead, you don't lose the game.

14:31And they did. And from there, it's kind of like, there's only so much you can say at that point.

14:39Michael Timbs:And especially when they were like kind of legit goals as well. Like, I mean, they were, message goal was obviously a great finish. Like the header from Enzo, was it Enzo who scored the third, the winner? It was Enzo who scored the headed goal. And like there are some players I genuinely just do not like on Argentina. Like I said it on social media and I think it sums up my feelings. And it's hard because like, again, I want to be clear. I have a really hard time with a lot of Argentina's team. But like what I posted, I'll just read it out. Aside from Messi, I really can't stand this Argentina team.

15:17So I'd be happy to see them crash out. but the messy part is genuinely incredible and knowing he's done after this it's hard not to want to see more like i am enjoying him in this and i'm excited to see more because it's almost done we're almost done with the messy thing but gosh i hate this argentina team in some ways i

15:36Michael Timbs:feel the same like they're not the most likable and that's a nice way of putting it but yeah that is a nice way of putting it i i also even like i know this is kind of by the by but like they kept time go panning to simeone in like the box he had a argentina shirt with sime with his yeah what do you make of simeone wearing his own argentina shirt i'm back is it his son it's his son right it's and and like yeah but oh okay that's because at first i was like that's like when the band wears our own band shirt yeah that would be like i can't see zidane watching france With a Zidane 10 on it I agree but is it his son's shirt That was what I was thinking Maybe that should be allowed But even then You don't want to even Introduce the possibility That you're wearing your own shirt It's Simeone so you never know Do we know if it was a 17 Because his son wears 17 for Argentina I can't remember If it's not a 17 then I agree with you.

16:42Michael Timbs:It's absolutely out of bounds. It was maybe, I was a bit hasty to get riled up, but I saw it and I was like, oh, of course he is. I said it to my wife at the time. I'm like, the guy's wearing his own Argentina shirt. It's very, very weird. But he's not. And now we're the mugs. But yeah, it was pretty much standard. I agree. Like I did want Egypt to get the job done just because selfishly from an English point of view as well, the fact that we would have potentially Norway and then Egypt on the way to the final is bonkers. Like that is... Until Holland scores seven against those center backs of yours.

17:12Michael Timbs:But that's another story. Sure, sure. But as in, like, if those are the only two that are keeping us from getting to the final, like, we'd take that all the time. We've gone DR Congo, Mexico, potentially it would have been, Norway, and then Egypt. Yeah, potentially. Well, or Switzerland. Yeah. But then you take that every tournament. Of course you would. And as we found out in the Champions League, Timsy, the draw is a big part of how you get there you don't get there by beating brazil then france then spain that you know what i mean like that's just not how this works yeah so so selfish selfishly i was a little bit disappointed but then as you said as well like the the messy story and and and the storyline and narrative is almost like hard to it's hard to brush past it's hard to like that that for me anyway takes up a lot of the the emotion that i have when i like watch well you go oh but it is so good that he's there and then and then final whistle goes and he starts crying you go like oh it still means so much to him he's won everything and he's the best player ever so yeah it was a weird one for me because afterwards i was like that is cool and i'd like to see him do it again but also no thanks yeah i i also like you look at it i enjoyed the messy goal so much and and we'll get to something else about that in a moment but like the other two goals came from cutie romero and enzo fernandez two players that i absolutely despise all my hearts so it's like any worse for us and i don't like emmy martinez either by the way like let's let's emphasize that um i thought yeah can i can i say something we are we are now i think it's right in saying we are now the the club with the most goal involvements of the world cup right with 10 i'll take your word for it yeah i mean goals hang on hang on i mean i'm pretty sure most goal most goal involvements by a premier league club by premier league club and the world cup with 20 not 10 20 yeah yep makes sense and and again as i was i was watching the spain game and I called it I think like probably a lot of Arsenal fans did call as soon as it was this KG nil nil no one really looked like scoring apart from the odd like was it the deflection off the crossbar as soon as he started to warm up I told my friend it's actually as he came on he is Mikel Moreno of course he being the capital H he Mikel Moreno um I told I literally told my friends as we're watching it's like this has a merino winner just all over it because he is just so so he's so big time like he is so bobbed as we would say by the occasion it doesn't matter he will just get a chance and he will take it as soon as he got through as well like there was zero doubt in my mind maybe more than maybe like the least out of anyone in our entire club that he was going to score yeah there was no there was no doubt in my mind he was going to finish it yeah no I agree well okay a couple things in this game let's let's go back to the first half do you first of all do you have the penalty as a penalty the the one that Messi misses oh the one that Messi misses I didn't see how it was won so I apologize okay uh I think there's mixed sentiment on that but ball don't lie Messi winds up missing I think it's the first player in World Cup history to miss yes two penalties not from a penalty shootout from I think maybe from actual play um and and the thing with messi is like he just needs to use the stutter run-up we've all been saying it the stutter run-up is the key just didn't know now now this is the the topic of the moment is well should people start doing it's if if you do a start run-up properly it's unbelievable because you have a basically a free half of the goal you know where the goal is going to go and you just place it in there like what i just saw with obviously the columbia switzerland game i i believe messi's technique on penalties used to be wait for the keeper to go and then he switched to pick a side but what's crazy didn't you didn't even pick a side it was a terrible penalty yeah no it was it was a it was a bad penalty but then he has done that before obviously he was doing it in the world cup final uh 2022 but also like the some of the best penalty takers i can remember anyway are stutter run-up penalty takers like neymar is is a joke at them like he and he is it's not even a stutter it just it never even gets going the thing i don't get with messy though is just put it in the postage stamp mate you can do it from 30 yards out with a free kick but you can't do it from the penalty spot just postage stamp the damn thing and be done with it it's true pretend you should tell leonel it's like pretend it's a free kick pretend you're you're warming your keeper up before the game because we've all seen the videos and you never make them save it because they're all in the top corner do that mate you You know, maybe he's missing a trick there.

22:12Who are we to tell him what to do? He does wind up getting a goal, and the contact is sensational. He just de-weens. It's breathtaking. We are very lucky, by the way, because a lot of times the World Cup is the stars don't show up, but the leaders for goals in this World Cup are Messi, Mbappe, Kane, Holland. I mean, it's just one after the other, after the other, after the other. It's quite cool. It's blockbuster. It's really cool.

22:38Michael Timbs:Yeah, like as we said, I think I said maybe a few days ago, a week ago, like so far with the Cape Verde story and all this stuff, but equally Ronaldo keeps getting through and all the big dogs are basically still in it. Like it is, it has gone like a dream, this World Cup for Infantino, for Trump, for everyone who wants it to go well. Well, I'd argue everything that they've been involved in has been a mess, but the football just keeps fucking delivering. yeah yeah yeah exactly that's what it is yeah the world cup is doing its thing yeah the football is footballing basically they're doing the best and this is this is maybe like a a larger more serious point of like this is how good the world cup is and can be that's why football always things that i i have really despite i tweeted it earlier today like all the things i hate about this world cup are the things that they've they've messed with and that that has been like directly by their hand the rest of it is like the storylines are unbelievable the fan scenes all over the world and going to america and experiencing these weird cultures and stuff and the all these top goal scorers and history like record being broken and a game of the tournament every every other day every single time full of drama incredible and then it's just like yeah but then trump phoned giamini and fantino and it's all a bit of a mess now you go why you keep you keep ruining it you keep ruining it but even the foot the football the ball don't lie there because the football showed up and was like you know what we're gonna sort that out and it did and it's gone so yeah the world cup is a ball knower the world cup is a ball knower exactly so there were a couple things in this game um the messi misses the penalty obviously they get the two nil lead and i do have to say the way argentina put them under pressure in the last 12-13 minutes i was really worried for egypt you could see there were some problems and i hate to say it but is it show beer Shobar, Mustafa Shobar, the goalkeeper, the keeper had had a blinder in the first half.

24:37I think he's going to feel a little disappointed with both Romero's and maybe a little bit of Messi's as well. Messi's, I think, goes through bodies. Romero's he should do better with for sure.

24:48Michael Timbs:For sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I agree. I agree. And I think, yeah, the last, annoyingly, Egypt, even though they didn't have like the lion's share of the the the chances especially in the second half they still had occasions to like break and it was like there was one that happened i think maybe it was at 2-2 and there was a break on because they were obviously massively under the cosh sitting back and then they broke and it was basically two on one and the i can't remember who it was it might have been salah maybe salah would have been on the receiving end of the pass but like the pass was abysmal and it's like just put that in your throat again like yeah there were there were just chances for them to to rectify their kind of horrible last 10 minutes and they just didn't do it but it was it did seem a little bit inevitable where argentina just piled on so much pressure and and some really good balls into the box as well like the the quality of the crosses there have been some great uh crossing goals today by the way yeah yeah and and just to like demonstrate the the influence by the way because messi missed a penalty obviously he still wound up with um this is kind of crazy so four five shots okay six chances created he had the most touches in the opposition box created the most chances he created 0.97 expected assist and had 1.01 expected goals he scored a goal obviously he had an assist as well like this isn't just goal hanging and score you know kicking it in the back of the net his influence was everywhere and i thought as as that last stage of the game wore on he was he was tremendous but there was a moment we have to talk about egypt should make it safe and there's a counter-attack and omar marmush just completely completely fucks it man like he he tries to slide the ball to the left he gets it all wrong it's is it i don't know might be lisandro martinez who comes back to to recover it but it's a horrible horrible blown opportunity yeah that's what i was talking i think that's what the one i was i was talking about that must have been it i thought it was um i thought it was someone else but yeah okay maybe marmouche yeah i'm pretty sure it's marmouche yeah okay yeah yeah yeah exactly but i did i i kind of got i forgot the the name of whoever it was but yeah exactly like it was the chances were there like argentina they think like you just think 10 12 minutes to go like they surely can't and and paredes made the challenge by the way as paredes who makes the challenge 90 plus one and then 90 plus two it's goal i didn't think they actually looked like scoring until they did score and obviously Romero scored like I didn't think they were gonna break the deadlock and I just thought like Egypt are gonna win this they might get one right at the last minute but they're gonna they're gonna go through and then as soon as like it just flicked a switch as soon as Romero scored it was like it was game it's easy to say this in retrospect with the the result but like it did seem it was like this is game over now like you could just tell like it's it it flipped straight away yeah they were starting to fall apart so I mean I guess what I would say is if you're egypt i totally get feeling hard done by like totally get it i also think you own some responsibility to close a game out when it's 2-0 with 12 to go i think i think argentina created the volume of chances to get this done and and ultimately having watched argentina obviously throughout the tournament yeah i do think that they were quite impressive going forward in a way i almost feel like falling behind forced them to play with an urgency that they never showed against Cape Verde, for example, where they were sort of just willing to pass it around in the midfield.

28:34This was a more urgent and direct Argentina. I don't know, maybe starting Julien Alvarez made a difference. You know, that was a change. They went kind of this four diamond two with Messi and Alvarez up top. It was interesting. I mean, we'll talk a little bit about what's to come still, but yeah, go ahead.

28:49Michael Timbs:Yeah, I was going to say, on another note, it might be the kind of sadist in me, but I do love a staff member on the sidelines in the dugout head loss moment with with egypt obviously looking at defeat in the face uh with with 30 seconds or a minute to go bearing in mind every second counts and they still have a chance for their for the backroom staff to then suddenly start beefing and get yellow cards yeah part of me is like oh that's so frustrating like get on with it you can you can still get a goal but also a part of me is going just do something someone punch someone i I want to see something hard going on.

29:28Yeah, it looked like it could have spilled over. I think also, you know, we haven't really talked about him at all. And it tells a story now. He did have the assist for the goal that was ruled out. But Mohamed Salah just not really able to produce those moments of magic anymore. And it's kind of crazy, Timsy. Like, if his fall off came one season earlier, maybe we find a way to the title two seasons ago. But he just felt. I mean, it reminds me of Robin Van Persie when he went to United, won the title, and then became unusable.

30:01Michael Timbs:Yeah. It feels like Salah is heading that direction. Well, it kind of makes it all the more remarkable that Messi's still been able to keep this level up, where he's obviously physically not the same player. No, he doesn't burst away, really. He doesn't burst. He still has enough of, obviously, the feet are still so quick, and he has enough of a burst to still be able to get past the player, play it off. He played one in for Litaro Martinez near post after he beat a couple of guys in the box. It was like that. So obviously he still has that. But the fact that he's been able to almost reinvent himself or evolve the sort of player he is with his like duaning physical prowess.

30:40Michael Timbs:whereas we know like Mo Salah at his best is is like an output machine who is electrically quick fast feet and presses and just like it's so intense uh and then without it now he just looks he's he doesn't look slow but he doesn't look quick anymore and like the the intensity is just not quite right and even when it comes to like his control of his dribbling whenever he dribbled over the past few years say not this year or last year but before then and all the time he was at Liverpool like he would dribble with with such directness it was so scary because it was also like he would dribble in a way that the ball seemed to be close enough to the defender where they could come in and nick it but his feet would be so quick it would be under control the whole time whereas now it's just like it's just nowhere near as effective it's just there to be won and like he maybe he doesn't really know what his body can do right now so like he hasn't been able to adapt like i think a lot of these slightly older players uh have shown as well and the fact that messi can still just do it and he's just like reinvented himself as this ultimate playmaker that doesn't need to run that much is ridiculous but of course he was going to be able to do that can i ask you just a logistical question sure um if england get past norway and argentina get past Switzerland should the England Argentina game be moved from Atlanta to Mexico in honor of the what is that the 40 year I guess 40 year anniversary of the Handicott yeah no is the short answer you've had your Aztec a moment thank you very much yeah yeah yeah we'll take that and go like oh that was what an amazing experience that's as good as a World Cup experience and I never want one again because it was so intense I was actually like a few of my friends went to it and i did think like that is that is a once in a lifetime experience going to the azteca but that's and also my friends had nothing but positive things to say about going there like my so far one and only experience of going to world cup game has kind of been a bit horrid from a fan's perspective like i didn't enjoy it um not to sound ungrateful but just as as a viewing experience of like i'm a fan of this team watching them compete there was a lot that i didn't like about like the day and just like the stadium and getting there whereas all of my friends have said like the whole experience from arriving to the stadium to being surrounded by mexican fans but there was zero bad blood they all said like mexicans are the nicest people in the whole world like they thought as soon as we won they were like by the way we need to take off our england tops we need to get out of it and they said like everywhere they went they were getting stopped they're getting congratulated they wanted to just like feed them tequila to celebrate with them it's like i wouldn't do that like england fans definitely are not doing that i think a lot of country's fans aren't doing that and so to see the mexicans do that in their home stadium is so cool so yeah and probably not what was expected either yeah exactly well look it wasn't riveting so let's let's do a quick summary of switzerland columbia columbia knocked out by switzerland in penalty on penalties yeah and really the moment of this game it boils down to what happened in i guess extra this is the second period of extra time yeah um after we can skip we don't need to mention a single word about the first 100 minutes of this game like no joke like i watched the whole thing yeah and i was i hate to say it i was a little bit bored and i know that's bad but they didn't it was like they were both scared to really commit players forward and so you just had this cage match in the middle that was a little bit scrappy and they're kind of like hoping to fashion something without really committing to you know doing anything yeah and for people who didn't say no i well and like i think both teams went at it like the funny thing is the arsenal person in me wants to say can we credit the defenders like lukumi and davidson sanchez were good akonji and alveti were good um i thought it was a really poor day for luis diaz who just didn't bring that that level of quality cantero came on and made a difference but But Suarez didn't have the quality, so the attacking players didn't get it done.

35:15But it was, and I want to get it right, I think it was, was it, yeah, Campas, Jeminta Campas. Xhaka loses the ball under his foot. He's in, he's completely in, 1v1 with the goalkeeper, 110 minutes or so, and he blazes it over. And from there, that was it. It was going to penalties. The penalties, not the best.

35:39Michael Timbs:I think some of the worst. is maybe another way of saying it. Yeah, that's another way to put it. Diaz's penalty was good, to be fair. Diaz's penalty, very good. I can't remember who scored the second goal for Colombia, but that was also a very good goal. But also two of the worst penalties I've seen, one being from Akanji, which was really... It was a little triggering from the Gabby one in the Champions League final blazed over from a center back. So bad to the point of like, I genuinely feel sorry for this man. Well, let me say this. I think these teams were both really solid good teams in the World Cup to this point.

36:23I don't think they like the world on fire and get you super excited. But I think they're both really organized, really worthy World Cup teams that, you know, whichever one went through, I think you feel good about them. I think Switzerland, to say they're worthy winners maybe doesn't sum it up. I think Campas's winner would have hurt, but would have been fair. Diaz, you know, again, like I said, was off. But what I'll be curious to see, because I haven't been keeping up with the injury, is that Manzambi wasn't available for Switzerland. And he's really lit the touch paper for them in this tournament.

36:53He's been super exciting. Their most dynamic player by a mile. If Manzambi can get back, then you got something really interesting there. And I have to say, I think Switzerland-Argentina is an interesting contrasting style kind of game. a fun game granted Shaq obviously still carries on if Monsambi's in that game I'm really looking forward to seeing that one Colombia versus Argentina you know look that would have been a really exciting game too between two teams that know each other really well played each other twice obviously in common ball qualifying this will be sort of an unknown new little combination of teams so that that can be fun too let's just let's just quickly look forward to the quarterfinals though um and i mean before we do that yeah can i have it can i

37:39Michael Timbs:ask you a question about i mean you can that that is a question so now you have to ask me another question okay can i ask you two questions yes uh so what would you rate the us's world cup campaign out of 10 seven like here's what i'd say about it right i i i i was predicting a seven yeah from you here's what i'd say so if we had lost to belgium like let's say freeze doesn't make that terrible mistake and the game ends 2-1 i would have said better in the group phase than i've seen u.s teams be in terms of our style of play good against bosnia a more exciting dynamic interesting fun u.s team and a u.s team that again talent wise is probably a round of 16 level team that's i think we are now a nation well who knows if there's around a 48 and around a 62 and around you know whatever 64 but i think we're a nation that can say we probably belong in the round of 16 depending on a draw based on what we have to us some years maybe not some years yes you know who knows four years a long time at football uh just like 90 minutes is a long time at the but um but but i would say like i really enjoyed it until i didn't and the manner of the exit and the meekness of the exit and the holistic performance and the way we just didn't show up in the moment got behind early shit the bed at 2-1 instead of giving it a chance to go like that does drain some of the enthusiasm but to me timsy we went out roughly what i think we both said or i think i said round of 16 would be par yeah and and we got there and so i can't go lower than seven but unfortunately due to the manner of the exit i can't go higher either i don't think okay nice i i would okay fine i i agree actually obviously before i said i think you should be buzzing by just getting through round of 32 and to get to round of 16 that is like wow we've exceeded expectations so beforehand i would have said like well you're having an eight out of ten tournament but yeah this result does change it weirdly where it maybe shouldn't but then the way in which you lost and it was like your first big test against the traditional big team but that's not even that good as side and then it just it leaves maybe more questions on i was i think Rudy Garcia got his lineup spot on.

39:51I think he made some hard choices that he had to make. He dropped De Bruyne, which I think helped them in midfield against our pressing system. And I want to be clear because there are some people that say, I heard you do the preview pod and you said we could even get grouped. And like, first of all, I thought Turkey would be good. And Turkey did beat us. But obviously, the biggest reason I thought we could get grouped is I really did not trust the defensive group. Tim Ream at 38. I didn't think Richards was that good, although he did play well to his credit i didn't think matt freeze was a reliable keeper i didn't have the same trust in the fullbacks well anthony robinson's good but on the other side you know i was worried and like that turned out to be okay but fundamentally actually i do think it is that defensive frailty that was the problem in the end so like i enjoyed the ride until i didn't you know is what it boils

40:41Michael Timbs:down to so and also yeah i think going into the sorry moving on to the quarterfinals and just seeing like if uh these are some good games if there's some good big teams you look at the last you look at the last eight and you do go like it kind of makes sense i would maybe if you saw them before the tournament started you go it's missing a it's missing a brazil it's maybe missing uh netherlands and but even then yeah a portugal if they had picked different or germany but realistically like france spain argentina england fine you kind of expect that morocco you you you wouldn't bet against it and then norway were kind of always had that in them maybe it's easier because obviously all of this stuff is done now so you can kind of read the read the the doc backwards but you do look at it and go like fine switzerland really are the ones there that you're like oh wow they're they're there but then they're kind of tournament specialists as well for their for how good they are as a team.

41:44I had my semi-finalists, England, Argentina, France, and Spain,

41:47Michael Timbs:and they're all still alive. What a great prediction, by the way. Well, I mean, it's like, hey, I can pick favorites. You would have guessed those four teams. I can pick favorites. Congratulations to me. But I'm simply saying the four favorites are still alive, right? Spain, France, England, and Argentina. I look at it and I say France-Morocco is a compelling matchup, a really exciting one. Morocco should come to play, which should mean that we can see more from France like the the combination of the combination of the weather and the way paraguay approached that game really ruined the france's round of 16 game i'm excited for the morocco game spain belgium i think those teams will punch and counter punch really fun i i think that the tie of this round is either france morocco or norway england there is just england's england are better than norway yes and they will score goals against norway is my opinion yeah but erling holland going up against consa and gay i granted reyson and elliot anderson are gonna be a big part of trying to control that too but if he gets the run on those guys look out so it's gonna be fascinating i i i because also yeah i think it will be a really good game it's not gonna be as easy that i think maybe some england fans would think because we are crazy if they think it'll be easy you got the best striker in the world up against i think beatable center backs period oh no yeah hardening against konza is nightmare fuel for england fans but we are a better side and i think even with the way norway have played like they've demonstrated that they are like a possession-based football team and they can keep the ball well i wouldn't be surprised to see us not have the majority of possession i think obviously a lot of the games we've had we've basically just dominated the ball just through obviously our quality but also like physical presence and you know we are just better sides than a lot of the teams that we've played and even though we are a better side than norway i think we'll almost like see possession to them um much like we kind of did first half against uh against Mexico even though obviously we scored two goals but like we we we kind of just let them have it and do it and just made sure we're solid it's like we're bigger than you we're stronger than you we're faster than you we're better than you at football but with what you've all got going on you're probably going to have the momentum and a lot of the ball we're just going to kind of let you have it and then just make sure when we do have it we use it properly I wouldn't be surprised that we do that again um because you just have to be aware of the whole harland thing and and also odegaard who is playing well yeah look it's it's holland kane bellingham messy it's jamal and uh mbappe de belle i mean yeah i mean always like they got them all they got everybody in there it's it's a staggering uh quarterfinal lineup i can't wait to watch it it starts on thursday with france morocco what a way to kick it off then spain belgium two games on the saturday with norway england and argentina switzerland we'll be there for all of it we'll hope you join us for it a lot of stuff people don't agree with uh hopefully some stuff you are enjoying we'll have clive on for a patron pod tomorrow main pod thursday friday night clive friday and world cup daily all along to keep you keep you up to date timsy i missed you it's good to talk to you you get some sleep great job by you we'll talk to you uh after france morocco huh yes yes i'm looking forward to it um viva no actually you know what i don't viva love football yeah viva viva the football viva the ball knowers that's what i'll leave you with yes here's to the ball knowers may they continue knowing ball we love you so so much so much and we will talk to you at the world cup 10 viva no

45:52Bye.