World Cup Daily - Injury Mars Big Canada Win, Swiss Statement, Big Friday Games

0:25What is a week of doing daily podcasts with me due to a man? we'll wait till you see what Michael Timms looks like now this is the Arsenal Vision World Cup Daily my name is Eli Spithick Blackman yeah Timsy I gotta say man you've aged a lot since we kicked off World Cup Daily this is what daily podcasting will do to a man hello everybody love you for being here we've got uh later today on Patreon a fixture episode with me and Tim where we will talk about uh the fixtures that have come out and the fact that and I don't want to upset anybody i know they're out to get us we play every team twice we're going to discuss that at length and in detail and i hope you'll join us for it uh in addition we look forward to seeing many of you in chicago where i will be joined by pause who is here with me now hello paul woohoo hello elliot how are you doing i'm doing well i'm doing well i i hope you don't mind me uh having a little fun at your expense but timsey is a handsome young man and you know we're men of a certain age it is what it is yeah great thanks no no no no use me as you will use me as your foil to generate comedy lots of compliments on on how handsome and erudite and sophisticated you are so don't don't worry about it too much we'll just stop having good looking uh i don't know i want to say late 20 somethings early 30 somethings on the pod uh you i assume you took phil out is why he's not even here i assume life comes at you fast i just want to say that to all the young men out there who are feeling pretty smug about how young they are don't blink guys it's that round in your knee and on that note paul i'll let you take the first whack at the headlines from what was probably not the most um anticipated day of matches uh i don't think this is the one people circled as the time to uh call in sick to work but it threw up some interesting games and some uh fertile ground for conversation so what's your first headline uh fatal ground um right my headline no no no i got i got two to choose from uh i think my one for the tournament because i haven't been on one of these before would be that fifa has has really cracked the code on entertaining football it's having dodgy keepers and uh yeah we we saw some of that today but i think i'll go with just when I'm out they pull me back in because my like this was not the most fight fightile um set of games on paper and yet you watch any of these games and you just get pulled in because the the jeopardy is so high for each of these I had this plan right and it hasn't gone to plan at all that I'd kind of let the first round or two slip by and then I kind of start getting in really pulled into it It has the kind of the later rounds and like it's been right from the get go.

3:12It's like maybe the first half's a bit kind of cagey and a bit tactically, but like they only just met each other. Only just like it all makes sense. And then the second half, it's gangbusters. And like, you know, England come out the second half and apparently Thomas Tuchel told them to kind of relax and like enjoy the game and stuff. And they're like lit it up. And then Mexico booed its team on the way in to the halftime dressing room. that's another way to go they come out and they kind of i wouldn't say they light it up but they got a goal and they certainly started to go for it and got more aggressive so it's like get the first half behind you and then since that the first round games i've really enjoyed it and i hadn't meant to and i got the tv on over my screen over my screen here so i can watch it while work is going on did i ever tell you the story my previous during the previous world cup i was doing And I was doing a Zoom call with my team in the office.

4:08I mean, you're no longer with this employer, so you feel free to share. I'm no longer. I'm two employers away. So here we go. We're on this conference call with my manager, who happens to be the president of the North American company. And one of the guys says, Paul, are you watching the World Cup? And I'm like, no, why? I said defensively, I was watching the World Cup. He says, I can see the match on your glasses. now i mean to be fair to be fair uh i think it was bold of you to assume that he was asking that without knowing the answer to it well they all know i'm into like soccer football and stuff so i'm like oh they must be making like chit chat i'm like no no no no and it's like i look in the zoom call and there it is i can watch the bloody match up my own glasses anyway so it's told me I think that's my headline.

5:01Well, that's what the World Cup does to you. I'm going to go with my first headline and say, today was a reminder that the World Cup is small sample size theater. You cannot have strong opinions off of one game, but tournaments cause you to draw conclusions off of one game. And today was sort of a reminder not to do that. I thought South Africa looked the worst team in the tournament on day one of the tournament. They managed a draw against Czechia, who, I mean, they're not very good either. that's fine um you know the Swiss I don't know that they impressed anybody drawing Qatar Switzerland looked fantastic today uh Qatar looked like the worst team in the tournament you know it is the case that you just get pulled from pillar to post drawing conclusions about teams in the World Cup it is a small sample size Jonathan David a poor opening uh game you know in Canada's debut fix or you know first fixture of the World Cup and now he's got a hat trick to his record granted against nine men and not much opposition but so we'll probably be talking about that Canada-Qatar game a bit more as this pod progresses but basically World Cup and tournaments in general reminding you today uh strong opinions loosely held as a way to go in a tournament because things are going to change dramatically from game to game maybe something to think about with Spain obviously uh drawing Capo Verde in their first game so we'll see what happens uh let's each hit another headline though Paul so I'll give you a second round what do you got um uh when i when i watched the this world cup so far i end up watching it through an arsenal lens which i'm slowly beginning to let go but no never let go yeah yeah well don't don't be like uh what's her name to leonardo dicaprio in the titanic where she's like i have this nice comfy door i'm floating on that has room for two but i'll never let go oh whoops i let go and now i I have the heart of the ocean gem and Leo's dead.

6:55Thanks, Rose. Anyway, go ahead. She let him hold on the edge. So he's got that going for him. For a bit. For a bit. Till his fingers went blue. And yeah, where were we? Oh, yeah. Arsenal Lens. Arsenal Lens. But it's one of those things, I'm starting to let it go involuntarily. And maybe we all saw it this way, but pretty much the first round, I'm like, I can't help think, but, oh, if that was David Raya, oh if that was gabrielle and saliba at the spacing between center backs i think they i think i'm spoiled and i don't know what's going to happen when someday i have to do football without arsenal's defense and when you see this it's like it is the magic formula to entertainment just give everybody a bad goalkeeper and two center backs who really haven't played together and put them on a pitch and the game is now i see what the premier league we're on about you know how we sucked the joy out of football by being good at it yeah competence on us competence ruins football and like incompetent defenses as the tournament goes on they'll learn they'll evolve and you see each team on a trajectory france will get better england will get better germany will get better some teams won't get better and they're going to go away or some teams won't have the time to get better but my eye is adjusted now and i don't keep saying in every moment if that were raya and gabrielle and and uh saliba i'm starting to let it go i i will say the south korean goalkeeper um unfortunately to blame for south korea losing that game and it it gave me just the tiniest bit of uh raya and gabby against wolves flashbacks and it was you know the the ball that should easily be grabbed and handled and is dropped.

8:46You're a terrible man. You are a terrible human. I'm despicable. My headline is going to be, if you believe that the hosts progressing in tournaments is a positive, then today was a positive for the tournament. Canada wins huge in front of a raucous Vancouver crowd. Mexico wins in front of a raucous Guadalajara crowd. Mexico will now play at the Azteca in knockout football. They have topped their group and their Their World Cup journey carries on, and they will be very hard to beat at the Azteca by whoever has to meet them there. Canada, who had a mountain to climb to top the group to get past Switzerland's plus-three goal difference, said, hold my, yeah, I guess they have beer up there, hold my Molson Golden, I don't know.

9:27And they got the six-goal win, just the six, and they topped the group now. So Canada will certainly be progressing. they will wind up playing Switzerland in the last game a game where whoever wins if there's a winner in that game will top the group but I think it's fair to say based on goal difference Canada are through and tomorrow the USA plays Australia and I don't know if Pulisic will be available it's going to be a game I'm looking forward to I think it could be a very difficult game but a chance for the US to go through to the next round as well so if you believe that having the host go through is good for the tournament Today's a good day, and I have to say I enjoyed seeing what it meant to Mexico, seeing what it meant to Canada, and we'll talk a little bit more about what happened in that Canada game when we get to our stock falling section, I have no doubt.

10:16So, Paul, with that, we can shift gears to stocks rising, and I think there are a couple of really good stocks rising that we can choose from. I'm curious who you'll grab first, or what you'll grab first. Look. Careful there. Yeah. Look, I'm on my best behavior, Elliot. And I appreciate it. Let me tell you. We're recording this at 1030 at night. I'm ready to go to bed when we're done. You're doing the dance of the seven bales trying to tempt me into saying things that I'm not going to say, Elliot. You're a better man than I am. All right. Who's your stock rising?

10:54Maybe Jonathan David. That's reasonable when you have a hat trick for your nation in front of your own fence. Yeah, but I grade up the curve. Very high standard. And it's also because I've got another name in my brain that I'm holding myself back from saying. So let's start with where I should start. Yeah, he's got quick dancing. So Canada in particular impressed me. Okay, you've got to take into account the competitor and yada, yada, yada. But like very quick, very nimble. Given how unimpressive I found them in the first game, this was a big step up. And this is the stock rising business. And, you know, dancing feet in three, four, five of their players once they got near the box.

11:38Very lively, very quick. And, you know, he was an eye catcher on the day. So he was one of maybe two, three eye catchers across various games. I don't know if you find this, but I don't know how you do this every day. It starts to turn into a blur because it's like three, four games. And it's like you think you have the game and then you watch three games. and then you have to talk about it all three and a go. And you've seen all the teams play each other across the different matchups. It gets a bit confusing, I got to tell you. But he did stand out to me, Mr. David, and his dancing feet. So yeah, definitely a big step up for him, for Canada.

12:19And I don't know how he wouldn't be in and around the top of the stock risings. Yeah, and I mean, look, Qatar were terrible, but I think he could probably throw Jesse Marsh in there because Canada, look, they had, I think, a reasonably poor 1-1 draw with Bosnia, now seeing what Bosnia looks like, having just had a draw with South Africa. But he tinkered with the lineup, and he brought Kyle Lahren in to play alongside Jonathan David. Ali Ahmed, who was really good as a sub against Bosnia, started and was influential. I just thought, you know, kudos to Jesse Marsh for getting it right. But I'm going to go a different direction with My Stock Rising, and I'm going to go with Johan Manzambi.

13:07Yes. And not just because Phil Costa told me about him before this and is now in the Discord celebrating his own intellect and sagacity, his own wisdom, which, of course, is great. But, yeah, he really, really stood out for Switzerland. He was really fun to watch. I am reliably informed that he's sort of a Ramsey type number eight, a box to box number eight. But in this game, he was causing all kinds of devastation. Switzerland just too much for Bosnia. And especially after Bosnia went down to 10 men. Shaka, of course, scored a penalty late on. But I, yeah, I really enjoyed Manzambi's performance when he came on.

13:47And he wound up having a brace. Scored in the 74th. Scored again in the 90th. Caused all kinds of trouble. Just 20 years old. way to announce yourself on the world stage and now someone can go and way overpay for you but uh before we get into the transfers of it all yeah i thought he was he was really fun to watch really exciting and just a really good swiss performance and a performance that makes you think maybe maybe they start to put it together get the right alchemy of the players that they have they're a team that could surprise some people cause some people trouble so we'll have to see a really fun final group game to top the group uh between canada and switzerland so looking forward to that yeah i think you could like in my mind three of my most natural stock risings would have been out of the swiss team vargas came on had a huge impact it was great yep and i can't get away from watching how granite shaka yes i know it's me and him again but like the slower he gets the more he simplifies football and it's like can i go back to yeah every now and then i bring up willian right and like he was terrible and we never should have bought him and we never should have bought him as a winger but he played a couple of games for us where i'm like where he wasn't almost didn't move but like he just started to bat the ball around slowly like modric can do it jacket can do it you're really selling me on it i know i'll never still and batted the ball around slowly where do I sign can we get it back but but I was saying this while he was still at Arsenal I wasn't trying to persuade anybody that I was glad he hit like it was a terrible signing we never should have done it we got it it was it was great that he left the club but then he goes to Fulham and he was quite good doing that simplifying slowing and you see it with certain players Xhaka is one of them.

15:42I saw it with Willian like twice for five minutes at Arsenal, and then I saw it again at Fulham. And like you just see it with certain players. Modric as well, obviously he's lost that – he's probably lost the ability to bat it around at this place at this point. But there's like certain players that like I just am fascinated to watch them because they've lost the physicality, but they've still got the simple pass to the guy at an angle, timing cadence switch it to one side choose to switch to the other side and like i really enjoyed watching the shack in this game yeah okay i can live with that um do you have another stock rising or should we should we move on to the stocks falling because we also need to look ahead to a really interesting slate tomorrow as well i think we can just shift gears yeah i gave you three swiss stock risings along with including your man zambie yep your man zambie your man man zambie yeah that's it um so who's your first stock fall and the stock falling category for me honestly is probably a little more robust on a day like this potentially but who do you have as a stock falling okay i stick with my team and go with goalkeepers yeah uh and it's all blurring but my God, South Korea.

17:01Yeah. So, like, just a disaster moment because they'd been pretty good at the end of the first half. And although Mexico came out fired up and much more proactive, they hadn't, they didn't really, I would say, earn that goal. It was a nothing moment. It's a huge error from Kim. But can I just say, South Korea seemed very content, to your point, to slowly bat the ball around and make no really progressive effort to hurt Mexico. They played, in my mind, like a draw would be satisfactory for them. And when you saw them try to do something late in the game and just put some crosses in the box, try to get it on the head of the big man, Rangel had to make some big saves.

17:42So, like, I agree that the keepers are a stock falling in this tournament generally, and happily, because they've allowed some really nice-looking goals to go in. But this was a howler. But I also thought South Korea played with fire by not looking like they had the urgency to try to win the game. True, but there aren't those, I hear you, and karma would say those things are connected, but they should be actually completely disconnected because South Korea should have been controlled, tempo, like that's the opposite of what should have happened. But anyway, it is what it is. So I'm going to go with, my first stock following has to be Qatar, their discipline.

18:24And in particular, I've seen Madibo's challenge. And my heart breaks for Kone. Ismail Kone, if you did not see it, had his leg broken. I don't know how bad the challenge is, unfortunately, because they didn't show us another replay. And I have not sought it out because when I looked at his leg, it appeared that the bone was protruding slightly and pushing up the interior of his sock. That was enough for me. I didn't need to see any more of it. Players were crying. There was some pushing and shoving. That was a really, really ugly moment. And you think about it, you're Ishmael Kone and your dream as a young man is to play for your country in a World Cup, let alone play for your country in a World Cup in your home nation, let alone to do that for a country that looked on target to go to a knockout round and continue to have this tournament experience.

19:14And now instead, he will play no further part and he will be battling to keep a career in football. It is a nightmare scenario, something we just we don't see in football that much anymore. But it's a reminder also that there are players at this level in the World Cup who are playing who really are not at the highest professional level and not, you know, necessarily used to this. and it did seem like the Red Miss descended. It did seem like they lost their composure a little bit. Canada could have, by the way, scored 7, 8, 9, 10 even before they were down to nine men in this game. But just the composure of Qatar, they were absolutely dreadful from start to finish and a horror challenge, at least as far as it's been recounted to me, having not seen the replay, Paul.

19:59So just a bad moment that marred the game. Obviously, Kone's shirt was held up when Saliba, of all people, scored a free kick goal late in the game. But instead of celebrating, I think, their first ever World Cup win, actually, for Canada, they are obviously quite emotional and not the way you'd expect. So terrible, terrible. Yeah, and look, I left. That was like the stock falling of the day, if not the tournament. I left it to you because, like, you know you leave it to the newscaster because he's got the gravitas, the Walter Cronkite to bring it home. Did I manage it? Because I'm awfully tired.

20:40You did, and I wouldn't have done the job that deserved because it was like, I was literally already turning away from the game because it was like, the unfortunate term in my head was this turned into a bloodbath, and then quite literally this. It's like, again, it's almost, it's not karma, but it's almost like there's almost a gravity of pulling it just deeper. And it was just like a terrible, terrible game that, you know, in cricket they would have called it and just gone home. So sometimes games should not play on because they go to a dark place. Yeah, yeah. Well, it was definitely a stock-falling moment from what should have been nothing but a stock-rising night for Canada's team.

21:26What about you? Give me a stock-falling. another one

21:34I can keep going on them if you want can we can I do the Patrick Schick yeah two sitters missed two glorious headed chances missed I mean they haven't been great Czechia this was important they should have been good enough to beat South Africa and I do want to say you could stop falling the penalty it is a it is a handball penalty that to me even by the sort of champions league handball rule is really really really borderline and granted i think i only saw one angle of it so if there's another angle that makes me wrong then i apologize happy for south africa that they get the point i think czechia like it's funny as much as i think the penalty is the wrong award i feel like Czechia got bit the way they deserved to get bit for not doing the job that they should have done much earlier in that game.

22:30You like to see jobs completed, don't you? I do. What I especially hate to see when I'm working is someone I'm trying to talk to in a meeting watching a sporting event while they're having a Zoom meeting with me as I see the video in their glasses. That's a good heads up, by the way, for telling me that because I do quite frequently have football matches on while I'm in a meeting. Don't wear your glasses. Your sunglasses, so you can... I only wear them at night, Paul. So I can, so I can. You know what, anyway. Sneak into people's rooms, yeah. There's a lot more we could do on this day, but like I said, probably not the banner day that people are looking most forward to, but tomorrow does give us USA-Australia, Scotland-Morocco, and Brazil-Haiti.

23:13So, I mean, let's just talk USA-Australia for a minute. There are reports that Pulisic is day-to-day with a calf injury. I don't think you want given his history I don't think you risk Christian Pulisic now that's not to say that I think Australia or pushover the U.S. are just so great they can afford not to have their probably best attacking player but I think the U.S. has options in wide areas and I I don't think risking Pulisic with three points already on the board in this group um you know I would say that you probably don't want to risk it. Like, here's the way I think of it, right? Three points may be enough in this World Cup to progress, period, right?

23:58And then, so, that's one thing I would say. The second thing I would say is you may be good enough to get points off Australia, and the third thing I would say is that if you risk Pulisic with injury, odds are he's just going to come out with a further injury. So, I don't know. What do you think about the Pulisic situation and the U.S. against Australia? Yeah, I think that's right. And Pochettino wants an energetic game, an energetic display. So don't put the load on Pulisic until he's ready for it. You're in a good spot. You got three points. You can get there a number of ways. So you need a result.

24:36You need a point. And you're still in the frame for three points. And just use the energy of the crowd. Use the momentum the team has. and the excitement and keep Pulisic on the bench or further away. And the good thing about Pochettino is he comes in with the kind of aura and background that gives him the standing to not do dumb things, a bit like Tuchel has with England. You don't have to do dumb things, and I think you're spot on. Don't do something you don't have to do. Yeah, well, here's what I will say. Australia obviously beat Turkey in their first game 2-0, and the way they did it was with 28 % possession and a lot of counterattacking, but their counterattacks were incredibly effective.

25:30Not a game where possession tells you the whole story because they were incredibly efficient with their counters. And given the way we saw the U.S. play against Paraguay where they were very high up the pitch, aggressively pressing and counterpressing, you could argue that this may be a similar kind of situation where the u.s hems australia in where the u.s has more much more of the ball but where that counter press if you don't get it right all of a sudden ira kunda and and you know the the aussies are are racing away counter-attacking and if there's a weakness in this u.s team and it's the u.s of course there's in this team uh the center of that defense tim ream can't really run anymore richards not the quickest so there's vulnerability there and if they're having to defend in space against young players running at them i think it could be a challenge so i'll be very very interested to see how this one plays out it'll be in seattle so i wouldn't expect the the elements to be an issue at least from a heat standpoint scotland who have been making a lot of uh a lot of headlines by mostly just being awesome their fans being awesome everywhere they go um the tartan army has absolutely taken over the Northeast.

26:39They already have their first win in a group where, you know, I think that was the game where they were going to get a win if they were going to get one. But I'm going to say this, Paul, and please, please don't yell at me. I'm just saying what I think. I don't think Scotland were good in their game. I don't think they were very good. And I think they kind of rode their luck in a bit to get a win, which by the way, it's the World Cup and they're Scotland, so they'll take it any way they can get it. I realize that. But we are talking about Haiti that they played, and Haiti had more of the ball and matched them for XG and outshot them 15-9.

27:18So what I would say, Paul, is Scotland are having a lot of fun. They have a win. They could be through the knockouts just with that win alone, but I think Morocco could be a big, big problem for them. Well, Morocco should be a big problem for them. They've got plenty of talent from what they have. Outplayed Brazil in a game they drew 1-1. Yep. They know they need some results now. They could top this group. I mean, we'll get to see Ayub Bouadi, who Arsenal are linked with and was really impressive against Brazil. I think Scotland could find themselves in a whole heap of trouble in this game. Yeah, if Morocco start to put it together, we'll see potentially quite a regressive Scotland sitting in and hanging on.

28:04And so they better hope that Morocco don't kind of click because there's enough talent in the Moroccan side. So it's going to be interesting to watch, but it could be a lot more interesting for Morocco supporters than Scotland. I'd definitely tip Morocco on that one. Yeah, I mean, obviously, I hope the Scotland fans have a great day out, and I wish them the best. I don't know that I think it will be the same kind of result they got against Haiti. speaking of Haiti, who looked reasonable against Scotland, they have to play Brazil. And normally you'd say, well, that's a massacre. It probably will be, but not if Casemiro has anything to say about it because he's real bad right now.

28:44He looked a step slow, doesn't go far enough. Paquita was not good. I think Ancelotti has to change it. He has to make some different choices. I would imagine he's going to start Cunha. That would be a start. I would think he might try something else in midfield so any thoughts about this game my feeling is essentially if brazil win by anything less than three goals i think people are just going to be writing them off you know yeah probably or look we sometimes have these conversations or it's a really worthy like in the end people remember the scoreline so you're right but just like start to play the football so that it's it's the most important thing is the team itself starts to feel it and they were they've been nowhere close they got to look across at france and england and say oh okay those guys are starting to click they're starting to play it's time for brazil to start to play so key game for them uh the right opponent for it but if they come out of this and you know even if they've got three goals if they haven't if they're not feeling it if they're not starting to move the ball around and control games and express themselves.

29:57You know, qualifying won't be enough for them for the knockout rounds. They've got to start building confidence and flow and get themselves in the right head spot. But, I mean, plenty of talent in the team. You've got Ancelotti on the sidelines, so there's no reason to panic unless they have a bad game against Haiti, in which case it's time to panic. and it goes back to my headline of small sample size theater because maybe and not just maybe but probably morocco are really fucking good and maybe a brazil midfield that was a step slow and and maybe lacked the right qualities and ancelotti didn't get it quite right just got massively outplayed especially in the first half and maybe what we're going to see is that of course brazil are still fine they massacre haiti morocco maybe and close your ears scotland fans beat up on Scotland and we say actually Morocco and Brazil might be two of the better teams in the tournament so your opinions on teams are gonna are gonna flip back and forth like this that's the nature of these tournaments I am really looking forward to this day though I think it's a fun day and um for those wondering by the way where the heck is Timsey Timsey had to fly from New York to San Diego if you probably heard that if you listened to his Rob Holding interview on the World Cup Daily that he did after the England game um but his flight got delayed and we would have been recording at like 1 a.m.

31:13So we opted not to do that. He will be back tomorrow. Of course, while I say tomorrow, he will be back to do the podcast covering the games. We just mentioned, you get the idea, just follow along. It'll all make sense. Join us for the patron pod on the fixtures and find out who we play and how many times we play them. Paul Yeoman's work, brilliant job filling in all that stuff. I said earlier, you are by far the more, more handsome and youthful and vigorous man. And I appreciate you. Yes, I am. you're gonna give us a woohoo yeah there we go thank you my name is Alex Smith we love you and we will talk to you after World Cup 10 FIFA 0