World Cup Daily - Merino Beats Portugal, USA Easily Swept Aside, Messi Up Next

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0:55I've got great news for everyone worried the Balogun scandal was going to stay in the headlines for a while. This is the World Cup Daily. My name is Elliot Smith, the Black Man Twitter, Yankee Gunner. Yeah, that story, well, it probably should stay a story. It doesn't need to stay a story as the United States have been swept cleanly out of the World Cup 4-1. But, and this is important. Yes, that happened. But get your head up. because never forget that the USA team is world champions of Group D. The Group D World Champions are out of the World Cup. But really, if you're Group D World Champions, does it matter what happens from there?

1:30We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about Ronaldo tiers, Bernardo Silva tiers, Bruno Fernandes tiers, Vitinha, Jaunevas. I mean, the list goes on and on of the tiers that we're going to celebrate. I'll admit, you know, I'm a little down the U.S. are out. I was a little conflicted about the game, as I mentioned over the Balogun thing. Some people agreed, some people didn't. It is a complete non-issue now, as I have to say, for the third goal for Belgium, the room went blurry for a minute. Everything got fuzzy. I squinted. I saw Vito Minone. I saw Pablo Marie. It was all spinning and spinning and spinning, and then it all came back.

2:08And I am happy for Leandro Trussard while he is still an Arsenal player anyway. So we're going to talk about it all. We'll have a Friday Night Clive later this week. We're going to try to do a scouting video on Wednesday, I think, because there's no football that day. So we can actually get back to Arsenal, which is what matters. And we'll talk all about the implications of transfers, things like that. If you want to get in touch with us on Patreon, you can do it and use code Saliba50. And you get everything for a couple of quid. And it's great. But also, this is great. And you don't have to do that.

2:34Do whatever you want. Here with me now is Paz. Hello, Paul. Woohoo, sort of. Yeah. I might be more down than you based on how perky you're sounding. So it's funny. This is like the exact thing I was talking about when I talked about how much the Champions League final hurt. Because the Champions League final, I had literally one one hundredth of a second to get ready for the fact that we were crashing out. This game, you kind of had a while to realize it. And the manner in which you crashed out, I think just you could see the golfing class. And it was kind of like, OK, the way I felt about this team prior to this game may have been a bit overdone.

3:12I think even in the Paraguay game, the first game of the tournament that the U.S. played, I think I said when Timsey and I were doing that episode, and Timsey obviously will be back on a future episode tomorrow, I think, at full-time of those games, I think I said I think the U.S. central defense could be an issue. We just didn't see it against Paraguay. It was an issue against Turkey a bit. It was nearly an issue a bit against Australia, and it was certainly an issue tonight. So, Paul, I'm going to kick it over to you for your—here's what we'll do. We'll do headlines, stock rising, stock falling for each game.

3:38We can do them quickly, but it's two games. Shouldn't be hard to get through. Neither game a classic per se, so shouldn't be too hard. What do you got as a headline from the USA 1, Belgium 4? Here's my headline. I guess I always felt that we'd know what we were dealing with in terms of the U.S. team once it actually had to do real defending against a team that could pull around the back line. and it wasn't even close. It was like right early on, they left the door open. They went to sleep, left the door open, left the missus unprotected, left the children wandering around the front lawn and it was always going to be ugly after that.

4:25And I don't, look, they never recovered. You can get it, like we probably don't want to get into the Flo Balogun thing, but maybe in some, it was such a departure, in terms of the performance here that maybe it was just unsettling and unsettling. I think that's possible. I absolutely could think that every, I mean, you're a US footballer. You're not even like a superstar in the game. And suddenly the president of the United States talking about you, you know, Seth Platter is talking about you. Infantino's talking about you. Your global front page news. Like I absolutely think that that can be a distraction from your preparations.

5:04And I think maybe less him because I thought he was all right and he knew what his job was. But other players on that team have spent the part of the week thinking, man, we're really going to have to dig in as a team. We're really going to have to fill in the gap and backs against the wall. And then suddenly you hear, no, no, he's playing. And suddenly you're thinking, oh, this is going to be much. I'm not saying that these are the words, but suddenly it felt easier, right? you're like oh we're gonna have Flo Balogun up front and we'll we plan different we play differently but psychologically it's less of the backs against the wall thing and now we gotta like I just think between all of that like you could persuade me that this was a performance way below what we've seen before I think this was a big fall off even though you know we would have all said yeah wait till the defense is tested this was I mean that was an aberration an abomination a lot of things to start with ab yeah i agree my headline is better overall but this is still about the level um it felt better overall this i'm talking about the tournament yeah better football more entertaining top the group beat bosnia that that's all good and with a football that i enjoyed much more than i have enjoyed yeah u.s football before but when it comes down to it the round to 16 is about the limit of what the U.S.

6:33can expect to do right now. And what made this different, I think Pochettino does deserve credit, though, because I think he got the U.S. to play football that at least excited a nation of not particularly savvy football supporters and some of the savvy football supporters as well and got people to enjoy watching the U.S. But when push comes to shove, in the key moments, there seemed to be a lot of fear and a lot of shrinking from the moment in this game and the goals that were conceded in the end i mean in that first 10 minutes this is where you can tell nerves right they were letting balls drop in the box yeah they were just letting the ball get taken off them in the box um you know the u.s could have been down tillemans had a had a tap in that he just whiffs at within three three minutes or whatever it is the u.s was overwhelmed by the moment and um yeah that was that was not something i was actually expecting but maybe they maybe they respected belgium's quality too much i also think to be fair to rudy garcia he got it right he took kevin de bruyne out he brought onana in onana obviously suffered a serious injury but he didn't bring de bruyne in then either he stayed with a more physical midfield he brought luca bacchio in who i thought played pretty well all in all they um they just handled the moment very comfortably in a way the u.s did not yeah uh i think pochettino know you got to parse it out a little bit you know you know you get some food and like some stuff's happened to it and actually it's all right if you get rid of some of the bits that got in there like i think if you fork out some of the bits that got in there towards the end he's done a really good job in having front-footed energetic young attacking football the problem would be once this team had to defend and he doesn't have the god if we were gutted if if americans across the globe were gutted watching what was going on in that game he must have been sick imagine the work he's put in the preparation and you see this cluster defensively and he's like yeah but like these were the best guys available to me.

8:43These were the best defenders America has available. And I did my best with them. But that's what I got for raw material in the back line. And until the next coach, whether it's him or somebody else, has better material in the back line, you're never getting past the round of whatever. You'll get through the group stage. They're going to expand it to 97 teams for the next competition. So you're going to get past the group stage. You're going to get into the competition. You're going to get past the group stage, probably. You'll get into the round of 87 and the round of 43 or whatever comes after that.

9:20But eventually, you're going to come up against Belgium or whoever it is, and they're going to test your defense. And he does not have the raw material. Nobody does in that back line. Yeah. Yeah, I... And like, the thing that's hard is this was the combination of some talent not being up to what it needed to be, but also some of the players that needed to perform for this to be a good game not showing up. And when we come to my stock falling, you know, we may agree on the stock falling, but I just need to get your thoughts. Did you have the same sort of flashbacks, whether it's a Mustafi flashback, an Almunia, a Menone, a Fabianski, an Ospina?

10:06Was there a particular flashback when, I mean, a way Matt Freeze gets beat there, and then Tim Ream just like being unable suddenly to work out the coordination of his legs. It was just all around ugly. Any flashbacks for you there? No, I think you do, our lads. I think you do Mustafi and my boy Pablo Marie, a massive disservice. You want to hear something upsetting? Yeah. Pablo Marie is playing in Saudi Arabia. How did we not get the money for that, man? Where were we on that one? That could have been our record sale. Don't we get a sell-on after the sell-on after the sell-on? Yeah, we had a buyback clause on Pablo Marie.

10:48Yeah, but Saudi Arabia, the 3 % into Saudi Arabia is probably worth his initial fee. Still beat our record Oxlade-Chamberlain sale. Um, who's your stock rising from this game? Uh, Rudy Garcia. I agree with that one. Yep. I think that's spot on. Uh, I mean, very interesting lineup. Also, he's smart enough to realize that, uh, Leo Trossard may not look like you're all aground, all over the field, attacking, defending. I mean, he's cut to divert a little bit. Let's, let's have a little Leo love. he from where he joined the club and what we saw him as which was you know very good when we had the ball but if we weren't going to have a lot of ball or we needed to defend in the second half get Leo off get Martinelli on because he runs up and down the wings and like nobody outworks Leo Trossard.

11:42Mikel has improved Leo Trossard like we just don't give Mikel any credit for improving players but in that aspect of the game he he definitely has. Yeah and I think when Gabriel was asked who was a beast in the gym uh in one of the interviews whatever you know six months ago or so it might have been he said uh uh he said Kai and one or two others and then they went on and Leo came up and he says oh actually hang on back to the conversation about who's a beast Leo's a beast in the gym and like the if you went to Singapore you'd know that because he had the biggest biceps of anybody I've ever seen in Singapore I don't know what was going on I mean yeah midlife crisis stuff but yeah man the the biceps were there so yeah i i agree with you on rudy i agree with you on leo between you and me i wouldn't be selling leo but we could talk about that on a future that's where i'm at yep um so all right i i owe a stock rising and i'm gonna be a homer a bit i'm not gonna pick a belgium player because we already talked about leo and rudy garcia and i don't think any individual belgium player i mean you could go with to cattle air i guess but i am gonna go with tillman um yeah i just think in in a game where no one really showed up for the u.s tillman really showed up uh he obviously scored the goal he got a little lucky with the way he scored the goal but it wasn't just that he scored the goal i thought he played with bravery and progressiveness and intention i mean he was 29 and 36 passing he you know had the the goal that he scored he also you know created a chance he he was active um and and progressive and and i think showed bits of quality at that one where he nutmegged the guy on the touchline and dribbled away and created a decent chance every everything just kind of fell apart after it left tillman's feet but in a game where again the big names for the u.s didn't really show up i thought tillman did and and he kept the u.s in it for about as long as he could with his own quality so i think he comes out of this with a lot of credit yeah not too much to add yeah i think he was he was like he held up his end but there were a few there were uh 11 ends on the pitch and only a couple of them were being held up so yep he did what he could he took his moment yeah now let's get to the fun part yeah the stock i get to go first yeah fire away i mean it's shooting fish in a barrel but one of them's a peach and look i this is one of those days where like i actually kind of feel don't pick on a single player but on the other hand some some players you know they they demand the spotlight and so i think freeze froze would be the one like it was such a moment he'll he'll have a nightmares about that why didn't he just fucking clear it just clear it man just clear it you're in the middle of nowhere what were you trying how were you going to improve the situation you're going to put us through on goal were you just fucking leather it man you're in the middle of the pitch you got players behind you you can't see i i gotta tell you you know like fop mob you know like sofa score those kind of sites they give players ratings out of 10 uh deketta layer by the way got a 9.4 so maybe we were unfair to him uh not giving him stock rising and look let's face it these fop mob and sofa score ratings are dumb you should not rely on them for anything but to be fair to them you got to be pretty bad to get below six like if you're below six you've basically kicked it in your own net below six i just want to state this below six is really bad tim ream got a 4.4 and freaks got a 4.7 these guys were were bad and it gives me no pleasure i mean poor tim ream he's 38 years old i have to ask there are 350 million americans there isn't an american under 38 who can play center back at the level of the national team um and and you know i mean i know the matt turner experience isn't great but like i i also don't know why freeze is necessarily our keeper like that that's that's one i'm not super sure about either but what are you gonna do i mean it worked out till this point so he can't change it um can i do my stock following yeah my stock following is for a player who i mean had had an opportunity to kind of show the world why he's regarded the way he is here and that's Christian Pulisic and Christian Pulisic dropped a fat zero out of 10 in my book this was a really bad performance right up until the point where he got maybe hurt and and begged off the pitch like everything he tried was not coming off and it's just he didn't have the burst he couldn't beat his man he was passing out in a touch he wasn't releasing the ball on time and he's the one player that I actually I kind of sort of think about Baligan is is another player but i kind of sort of think of the attacking players for the u.s he he belongs in the conversation with like european class players you know like a leo trussard but he just isn't that guy and tonight the the occasion was way too big for him he was swallowed up by it he played his worst game of the tournament by a mile wound up limping off um i thought baligan was actually kind of okay all things considered obviously shouldn't have been playing but like but pulisic man that these big games we always say this even with arsenal right i'm gonna be more inclined to give a declan rice a stock falling that i'm gonna be inclined to give a christian norgaard a stock falling right because like in the big moments certain players are evaluated differently it was a night that pulisic probably needed to deliver and he did the opposite so yeah it's a stock falling for me i just i just find him he's an empathetic character I just feel so bad for him.

17:24Interesting, because most people, I shouldn't say most, I think that that is not the common perception of him that I come across. Yeah, I get that. Suffered a lot of injuries in his career. He suffered a lot of injuries. I think he's struggled with the pressure. I think it's got in on him. And I don't think he was well served in this game either, but he was the guy who was supposed to do things. It was one of those, I just can't raise my hour to put it on him. While I agree with all your analysis, just my gut reaction is like, I kind of feel for him. I feel for kicking any of these guys too much.

18:06Because what do we think we are? We're the US team. We're not supposed to beat Belgium in the round of 16. He's by far the most talented. I mean, he is actually at an elite level, at his best. but he hasn't been at his best forever. His body is always letting him down. It's just like, it's one of those, it was almost on the cards that he was going to be the fall guy because he was the guy. So anyway, just my personal. Just comes back to this, right? If you look at the talent and you look at the team that you're putting out there and you look at what this team achieved, round of 16 is about the level.

18:40And it's like, it's not that we couldn't have beat Belgium. I don't think Belgium were great. And I think the fourth goal is salt in the wounds. And, you know, at that point, the game was over anyway. And the third goal is a comedy of errors. And if you had kept it at 2-1, maybe you're able to create some pressure and keep the crowd in it. The problem with the third goal, really, is that any changes Pochettino had made, and it looked like the U.S. was going to start to take a little more control of the possession, be able to attack a bit more, maybe put Belgium under pressure, maybe get that Seattle crowd back into the game.

19:09You give that goal away and everything's out the window at that point. Belgium have the exact setup they want. So, you know, that was the death blow, really. Yeah, well, look, the real problem is you can go out in this round 3-2 in a fantastic match in which you've, like, done everything you could and you was robbed or they sucker punched you right at the end. Or you could go out like this and that's the problem. Yeah, yep, well said. Okay, I think we switch gears to the Spain-Portugal game, which could be more fun for us Americans to talk about. But kudos to Belgium. They will go on and play Spain in what I think could be an interesting game.

19:50But the Spain game gives us an opportunity to start with headlines. I am going to take the first headline. Okay? Okay. Yep. And my headline is the Saley goal of the day. The Saley goal of the day is my first, is my headline. And Saley is an eSIM. You put it on your phone. you can just you know use your phone when you travel the world you don't have to take a little like uh screwdriver and pop it in the side of your phone and pop this little thing out of the side of your phone and put a sim card in and then the sim card it turns out is fraudulent and not only can you not use your phone but now all your credit cards are on the dark web and you probably shouldn't have done that and now you're sleeping in garbage cans and your wife won't call you back uh because your phone doesn't work so how could she call you back because you got that fake sim card in there.

20:37Instead, you just get an app. You sign up for whatever you need. You go over the world to use your phone. It's from the people at NordVPN. So it has ad blockers and stuff like that. So you're not using your data plan on ad blockers. And you're not using the data plan that comes with your phone where they're like, hey, great news. Your phone will work in any country for just$72 a day. So use Saley. Use code Arsenal Vision to get 15 % off. Get the app. Use code Arsenal Vision. Get 15 % off. You know how much that is off? 15%. That's right. 15 % we could our submission do now okay my goal today is my headline and my goal today is michael marino's winner over portugal michael marino arsenal's best striker and potentially spain's best player i think we can agree on that just a sensational clutch awesome player so he gets fouled realizes there's an opportunity gets up plays it quickly makes the clever run in the space but that finish it's not smashed it's not lucky it is the coolest passed in finish into the corner side netting from the top of the box there are a lot of players that miss way easier chances than that dragged them across go we saw shots dragged across go Oyasabal was in unmarked.

21:57Oyasabal, I don't know, was in unmarked, dragged his shot wide of the goal. Oh, who was in? Completely in. And decided to go with his left. Oh, it was Endric for Brazil the other day. Completely in, tried to go with his left, had to get it on his better foot. Mikael Marino, functional midfielder, right? No, no, no. Class striker. He's in. He scores. I love the guy. Time slows down. I'm going to tell you right now. His blood flows cold. If Mikel Marino plays in the Champions League final, we win that game. He's a player I'm excited to have back next season. I think he changes a lot of what we can do.

22:32I have always loved him and always rated him. Let's be clear on that. And yeah, it's my goal of the day. It's my headline from the game, Paul. I love that it is an Arsenal player that is Mikel Marino who sends Bruno and Bernardo and Ronaldo out of the World Cup. And to my Portuguese listeners, Portugal is a country that I hold dear because I love it there. I love the country so, so much. So I feel for the people of the country, but not so much the people who wore the shirts of the country on the pitch. So, yeah, Mikel Marino, my headline, my goal of the day. Nice people, nice shirts, great food.

23:08Terrible people who play the football, though. Play the football. Those people, yeah, yeah, yeah. And Bernardo, like the first thing he does, right, he comes on, Bernardo Silva, and just like commits a rough foul right off the bat. Like, he's just a terrible guy. Don't enjoy him. They select the 14 worst people. Now, all Portuguese are, like, world-class as footballers, but they pick the 14 worst people in the country who happen to be really good at football and Ronaldo. So, yeah, look, the shamelessness of this, Elliot. I've got to pull you up on this one. Do you not remember the conversations we had when you said, yes, but is he any good in the attacking area?

23:49Well, actually, my thing is I didn't think he was a midfielder. I didn't get the turning radius, the technical level of play in the center midfield. And as it turns out, I was right. And you remember I used to say, turning radius? What about that celebration around the flag? Sometimes he does actually do that in the middle of the pitch. I do remember that, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, look, it's just, he has a, like, genuinely, you can see it. When he gets into the box, time slows down. His blood goes cold. The goal seems the size of the fucking Empire State building to him. Very tall, very wide, though a lot taller than wider.

24:25And he's just, he's so clinical. So, like, it's almost like he slows down as he hits the ball. He doesn't, the rush of blood to, no, he doesn't need to lash it in the back of the net. If he hits it cleanly, and he will, he's got all of the room he needs on either side of the keeper. he's class it's so funny but my favorite bit of it all is he thinks it's hilarious the spanish team thinks it's hilarious we in our whatsapp think it's hilarious he's gone and done what michael marino does and yes had we had him fully fit in the champions league final who knows man who knows yeah um do you have a headline for me uh let me rephrase that i demand a headline yeah the pissy portuguese go out and i love it yeah they're so talented but the only thing they are more than talented is pissy and like as a nation they need to grow up because wait wait wait wait i'm just gonna stop you there because I love the nation.

25:38Can we just stick to the footballers? But even the nation are going to agree with me on this because they've seen it, right? As a nation, they need to grow up and fucking kick Ronaldo out of their team and stop demanding he be in the team so the coach doesn't have to keep picking Ronaldo. Mikael Marino is not faster than Ronaldo, but he's a million times better as a footballer right now. Yeah, yeah. Can I give you a great stat that I think will enhance your point? Ryan O 'Hanlon posted this. Non-penalty goals at the last two World Cups. Cristiano Ronaldo 2, Gonzalo Ramos 4. Minutes played at the last two World Cups.

26:19Cristiano Ronaldo 732, Gonzalo Ramos 187. We said in our preview of the World Cup pod that the big thing about Portugal goal is could they overcome the demand the need the requirement that they play Ronaldo and the answer is they could not yeah and I think people are making a huge mistake thinking this is his last World Cup I think he will be wheeled out into the penalty box of the opposing team at the start of the next World Cup and he will stand there waiting for them to lump the ball up to him even though he'll be offside the guy won't fucking go home yeah so yeah i do think look i do think there's a fault on people those lovely portuguese people we love and i say this for them here we go i try to try to keep you from yourself but you need growth guys it was obvious you're cutting your own throats by putting demanding that ronaldo has to start he really didn't i know he didn't and And it's a shame.

27:23And like, I say it's a shame. I mean, obviously, like, there are a lot of players on Portugal I just don't care for. So if I have to see someone go through, I'd rather see Spain and Zubimendi and Marino go through. Like, of course. And David Raya. But like, setting that aside for a moment, I just think this is a very, very talented Portugal team that could have done more. And like, they could have gotten the lineup right. that could have played without Ronaldo and they still could lose to a very good Spain team right like I want to be clear about that but it just it it feels like a boat anchor um and you know we'll get to find out what it means in the future because he is now done with World Cups or at least you'd have to think so um do you have a stock rising from this game that you want to pick

28:12I mean you could pick Marino but it's like we did a whole thing I feel we did Marino yeah uh rodry for i mean you're you're right but but you're right yes he was like pretty good and he got stuck into bernardo silva now i'm not sure which one of these guys i hate more than the other but i do like one of them getting stuck into the other and making him very very very upset and that person happened to be rodry on the day it could have been bernardo silva's day for a dark rising if he'd really pissed off rodry but it was the other way around and i loved that yeah i i think that's fair um you know what i'm gonna what which direction am i gonna go here i'm gonna go with um uh so there are a couple of options here that i can't bring myself to pick just like point point blank can't do it won't do it can't can't uh kukareya like no i won't pick you i i refuse sorry you're too annoying yeah i i'm going to say laminia mall um what yeah yeah i'm gonna say laminia mall well so here's the thing right i think we've done this thing with laminia where he's so brilliant he's so spectacular that the expectation is he should do more than this but he comes up against first of all nuno nuno mendes for 56 minutes one of the best fullbacks in the world you know he's got jao felix helping back they played jao felix i think specifically because he would defend and drop in against yamal he still had the joint most box touches in the opposition box he took the joint most shots you know he created chances he took shots he he had you know three successful dribbles like he is 18 years old and the fact that he mostly ran the game and changed Portugal's lineup to deal with him is maybe just deserves a little praise for a player who, like, we expect him to go out and play like Mbappe at 18.

30:28And he's running the show for a team that could go very far in this tournament. And, you know, I think they will get past Belgium is my expectation. So I think a little credit is due to this phenomenally talented 18-year-old who still runs the show for Spain, even in a game where he isn't, like, scoring and assisting every five minutes. Did you not think he was good, though? Or is it just that he wasn't, you know? he's insane he's brilliant he's fantastic he brings the the joy to the game he's like he kept he kept the lights on till Mikel Marino showed up on the other hand he was slightly not quite as good as some of his other performances so he's a stock down for me fair enough yeah and and like again I think there's something to be said about a player that like there's no way in the world roberto martinez wanted to play joe felix but i think he played joe felix specifically because his assignment was yeah drop back and defend against laminya ma um and like you know remember i said there were a couple players i didn't want to pick i think pedro poro was good and i think kukareya were good and there's like just no chance no chance whatsoever i'm picking either of them for stock rising i'm sorry uh hashtag bias forever so let's hit our stocks falling for this one.

31:42There's a couple really, I think, good choices here. I'm curious where you go. I got two choices I mentioned. One of them I mentioned already, so I'll leave him alone. But I'm going to go with the coach. Yeah, Roberto Martinez, yeah. Take it off Vitinha. Yeah, that was weird. Really, really weird. That was weird. And look, when you're not going to take Ronaldo off, you end up doing some very strange things. and I know those things are probably not related, but Vitinha's world-class, I thought they were worse, not better after that. Yeah, I mean, it was at 83 minutes, but still, like, Bernardo Silva and Constance out came on.

32:25They were both terrible. They were, and I thought their ability to keep the lid on the steam cooker blew off once they took Vitinha out. I don't really get why anybody ever takes Vitinha out. PSG did it against us but I don't and I guess it worked out for them but I don't think that's something I just don't see any scenario in which a team's better without Vettinia maybe they were planning to crash the box or something but like Vettinia there's no scenario in which Vettinia doesn't make you better in whatever your tactic is so I thought that was a bad move and I just think at that stage they were they started to they became a lot more functional and a lot less of an enigma for Spain who just went up a gear and then Mikel Moreno comes on starts stringing things together flopping around on the ground like a as I said in our WhatsApp like a marlin on a on a ship deck earning free kicks and then getting them down the pitch and I think Portugal went downhill from the subs onwards.

33:40Yeah, and I had Roberto Martinez as my top stock falling. So, I mean, Zhao Felix is a stock falling for me because I just don't think he's very good. And I think Rafa Liao should have started. But as I said, I know why he did it. And if you're going to pick the stock falling, I almost think it's more a Martinez stock falling than it is a Zhao Felix stock falling. So I'll just stock falling Ronaldo. Like, leave the game before the game leaves you. I think it's one thing for Ronaldo to see. Fear, because he's actually worse than I expect him to be every time at this point. And I expect him to be terrible.

34:13He just, he can't influence the game in any phase really effectively. And here's the thing. I could almost get over him being in the team and them having him for this World Cup. Like, I could almost say, you know what? I get that. He still has a role to play. He scored goals for them here. Like, fine. What I can't get over is, A, that he has to start every game where clearly, there may be better options. But B, where it rises to the level of a massive stock falling and just a complete embarrassment, is that you can't take him off. Because Martinez knows this could be the final game of his career, I have to leave him on.

34:50And that is where it goes from bad to worse. It's one thing picking him to be in the squad. Okay, I can kind of get that. Okay. It's another thing to pick him to start. I don't love that, but like, like, I guess I can get over it. It's an entirely other thing. Once he's proved, he's doing nothing for you. Yeah. Yep. So, all right. That means Belgium and Spain will face off. Let's just quickly, before we get out of here then, look forward to tomorrow quickly. Argentina are up next. They, and by the way, no football on Wednesday, so we're getting to that point. We're going to miss it. Can I just say one thing, by the way?

35:28I've gotten some comments from people that are like, Elliot, it seems like you're not even rooting for the U.S., like you weren't behind the U.S. team. I want to be clear. I was rooting hard for the U.S. in this tournament. I mean, I had some conflicting emotions about the Balogun thing. I thought it was really bad, and it made it a mess for me because in my mind, I'm like, if we get through, that's all anyone will talk about. If we crash out, I'll be upset. I was rooting for this U.S. team. Of course I was. And I wanted to see them win, and I wanted to see them do well, and I enjoyed those first four games before this one.

35:55So for anyone that feels that wasn't clear, it is clear. I'm just telling you what I think of the team when I think of the football. So tomorrow, Argentina, Egypt. It's messy again. Salah maybe getting into that Ronaldo camp of just like, I mean, he's much younger, but doesn't seem like he still has it. I expect Argentina should sweep Egypt aside, Paul, but I mean, Cabo Verde took him right to the wire. So could I be wrong here? No, I think you're right. Unlike, it's harsh on Mo Salah to group him with Ronaldo. I know what you're saying. I actually watched him towards the end of the last game, and he's doing lots of clever little things, kind of that triangles thing.

36:36It's like my Willian pitch, right? He's still clever with the ball and moving it around. If something's going to happen, it's going to come from his side. But it's not because Mo Salah fucking jinked through four or five players and then rips the roof. That whole thing, the reason people watch for Mo Salah, that's all gone. He can still play football. But he can't kill teams on his own anymore. The sauce is gone. It left a year ago. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to watching Messi play again. I mean, the Messi-Ronaldo thing is a great example. He's insane. He's totally insane. He's incredible.

37:15He's incredible. I think I enjoy, look, I love peak Messi and like what he could do on the ball and his speed and the way he'd run through and pass the team and he needs scorched defenders and like full backs and like those nothing, just insane. But like I like this other end of the spectrum where he like he always had a tendency to do a bit of walking, but like he does nothing and does everything. He's incredible right now. He knows and he knows when to switch on and how to hurt someone. But what's great is he like he, They have the water carriers they need in that team to platform him, so it all works.