World Cup Daily - Monga Rage, Portugal Wins Classic, Spain Flex Muscle, Swiss Impress

0:01Music

0:25It was nearly a chance to see Ronaldo cry tears of joy yesterday. Unfortunately, his tear ducts don't work anymore. This is the World Cup Daily. My name's Elliot Smith, Blackman, Terry, Hank Gunner. That's right. Between the Botox and the plastic surgery, the tear ducts don't work anymore. But he seemed happy. First, he was sad. But then the goal got disallowed, and then he was happy. So we're going to dive into what was an instant classic between Portugal and Croatia. Great game. Spain flexing their muscle and telling us all maybe, like, maybe just maybe we're going to be okay. We're still one of the favorites.

0:55And Switzerland looking good. We'll look ahead to today. And I do want to tell you, we got a little thing at the end of the pod. I hope you'll listen to Devin Parkinson, gotten in touch and said, hey, Elliot, if you think the Cabo Verde story is a good one, I lived there for several years. And, you know, I'm an American. I lived in Cabo Verde. They were wonderful and welcoming. And I'd love to just tell people about the country, what it's like to be there, what it's like to visit, what it's like to spend some time there. And I thought, you know what? Their journey is so interesting. It's a country that people are taken with and their journey may be ending today.

1:21Not their journey as a country, but their journey in the World Cup. So Devin's going to come on and give you 12, 15 minutes of background on Cabo Verde because I think it's very cool when people in the community have something to add to our understanding of something like that. So I hope you will enjoy that and stick around for it. But the real reason you're here is because you are a headline stock rising and stock falling addict and your dealer is back.

1:41Michael Timbs:Hello, Timsy. Hello. What an intro. We've already just gone straight into Ronaldo's slander. Ronaldo's slander. Which I'm all here for Because it's fun to Poke fun at the big man Despite his greatness and His willingness to just stick around I feel like we're on opposite ends Of that divide Timsey but I want to say That I appreciate that you are Willing to contest that With me because it makes for A more interesting banterous episode No no I think he is hilarious I think Ronaldo is Blockbuster comedy As much a caricature as he is an elite footballer now like he is just he's a caricature onto himself so um yeah i've been 41 and i can tell you your face is supposed to be able to make more expressions than that at 41 years old your face is supposed to be able to show like that that life that you've lived life that life has been good to you and and uh his does not which i'm fascinated by but that's okay because we're here to talk about the football so let me just ask you point blank before we hit any headlines how incandescent with rage how apoplectic how completely uh mental have you gone that arsenal football club have been gazumped over a 16 year old footballer that none of us have ever watched are you are you ready to tear up your season ticket on camera i'm torn i'm torn because like your ticket outrage uh yes yes you think i still have physical tickets you silly man um you could tear up your iphone yeah uh i i'm i'm a bit torn because obviously i think like every arsenal fan we saw the news this morning everyone jumping in on on twitter about the news that city are about to gazumpus and steal the march on um on monga and he wanted to come to us for the price of an extra few million it seems like city have come in and stole him and it's possibly the loss of a generational talent that, is it going to be, we're going to look back at the, in the same way that we look back at, oh, we could have signed Ronaldo and it didn't happen.

3:54Michael Timbs:I don't think so. But he does look very good. He's obviously very, very young, but he's an exciting player on the left-hand side where, I think that's what it is. He's on a side where I feel like we need to improve. and so that's maybe where a lot of the annoyance has come from because it's like ah we could have strengthened our left-hand side but to expect him to come in and immediately compete with Martinelli and Trossard and you know he might be able to contribute but realistically he wasn't going to be our starting left winger and I think it is a lot to ask of a 16 year old as we know with Dalman to just immediately go into a Premier League winning side and help us defend our title.

4:39Michael Timbs:I think it's a big ask. So is it a missed opportunity? Of course. But as you say, as we were saying off camera, it's maybe a little bit blown out of proportion where it's an annoying one and it's maybe one we've done one too many times. But equally, it's not our main priority going into this window. So I think everyone just needs to take stock and be like that's a shame but that realistically wasn't our priority in two three years time sure we might ruin it but for now it's it's it's there's bigger fish to fry there is this sort of thing where loving the club and loving that we won the title for some people means that they're just not in the mood to hear any critical analysis of the club and like i i get that critique it's fine but that's that's the thing right like fundamentally let's not have an emperor's new closed situation where if Arsenal do it, it must have been right.

5:34Arsenal, like every club, will get a lot of things right because you don't get to where we are in football without that. And we will get some things wrong. And it is my opinion that we've probably gotten this wrong. Seemed we wanted the player. It seemed the player wanted us. It seemed we thought we could be cute over a couple of million. And by the way, I think the way we talk about a couple of million as non-football people is probably a little silly because I would be happy to take a couple of million. But like, fundamentally, it looks like we got this wrong. City came in and got the guy. Now, how angry should you be about it?

6:08I think you can intellectually acknowledge that we probably misplayed our hand on this and missed out on a player that we wanted and wanted to come to us, while also acknowledging that it is a 16-year-old footballer whose value to us and value to our project wouldn't have been clear for a while. I was probably going to go on loan. And so for our short-term goals, this is a non-issue. Where I think people are starting to get a little concern is as the musical chairs continue on and players like Fernandez go to Spurs and Tenali goes to Spurs. And the players that we were linked with, their fees start to go up.

6:45Elliot Anderson's 116. And suddenly by not acting quicker, you may actually be downstream, downwind of an inflationary transfer market. the question becomes, are we operating not only efficiently, but smartly in the market? And are we identifying targets swiftly and going for them? I think I, and I am just speaking for me right now, I am prepared to tell you that I still have questions about last summer's window, that I'm not 100 % sold on it. And you, dear listener, can say to me, you idiot, you moron, you craven uh ignoramus all things accurate we won the league yeah and like i i have to admit i myself am conflicted because obviously what we did was part of us winning the league and yet i think there were other approaches we could have taken where we still win the league and maybe have a better squad but the whole point of this is to win things and we're right at the precipice of winning things so i can't connect to any rage timsey i can't connect to that at all but i can connect to some question about whether we're really firing on all cylinders in how we're thinking about the

7:53Michael Timbs:squad in the market well yeah that's also that should be as much a cause for concern as it should be uh exciting because it's we've got to where we are and we're at the level we are whilst making mistakes and still being able to improve in so many areas now as you said like it's kind of maybe we it's not it's a little bit more glaringly obvious for for for fans to go ah it's a few million like we don't know the ins and outs of what our plans are uh behind the scenes of of wage structures and who we really want to sign it because don't get it wrong like mongo would be great but we have big priorities in this window and they're not him like we it would be silly to presume that he was like one of our big big targets and I think most people can agree it's like what is the the priority over the next five years is to to win the title a few times and then to be able to win a Champions League now Mongo might eventually help with that but it's not going to help us realistically defend the title next year I think the strength in depth and improving the first 11 is is the priority and he might contribute a tiny bit um but as i said before it's a big ask for someone who's 16 years old whereas realistically we're going in for maybe someone on the left wing hopefully someone in the middle hopefully someone at right back that can improve our first 11 first and foremost because that still needs improving our first 11 when everyone's fully fit is good enough to win the league as we've shown but to make to take that next step in the Champions League we need to improve our first 11 and then naturally your your squad improves because the previous starting 11 would then drop to the bench so um yeah it's a shame to miss out on but I feel like uh yeah as I said we're going to be going after to bigger players that will immediately fill more of a gap uh for us which I'm excited about as well like look the club isn't perfect we know the leadership isn't perfect but we're going in the right direction I personally have always been in the camp of just I believe in what they're doing I trust them to know what they're doing and let them do it and so I try to avoid all the Twitter outrage and rumor mill well a lot of it's performative a lot of the rage is performative it gets clicks, it gets attention and it doesn't help me get through my day so I just choose to ignore it and until something is communicado officiel I leave it I think that's I agree with basically all that I will say like we could very easily come August 1st be looking at Rogers signed Barkal assigned Kruppi signed and we're going holy cow we spent 370 million pounds and we're the best team in the league and it's not even close and so like when you're trying to sign at the top of the market and you're trying to improve the best team in the league the signings that you have to make are more expensive they're harder to find they have to be more carefully thought about and here's the hard thing about having a podcast and i wish people would think more about the podcasters i do it's such if we were just in a pub with a bunch of buddies and we're talking about would it have been better to give ethan the minutes or nani or is sesco versus yokaraz or like could miles have played and instead of zubamendi we go for different profile like those would all be really fun conversations they're fun pub conversations i have to admit as someone who takes things personally who gets my feelings hurt who wants to please everybody I struggle to have those conversations on the pod because I do acknowledge that like if you even try to broach those types of topics, there are going to be people who will say, why do you hate this player?

11:29And like I am guilty at times of not being willing to have those fun conversations for fear of people saying things that make me sad and hurt my feelings. So I have to just be a little thicker skinned and admit that I think those are fun conversations. I think you could have a conversation about could we have done different stuff last summer and still had as successful a season while not meaning it in any way to hate the players we have who helped us just win the league. Those are fun discussions. And this summer, we're going to have equally fun discussions. You know why? Because we're probably going to make a big splash in the market.

12:03I do think we will. And then there'll be a big debate on whether those were the right targets. But for now, at least we can have the rage over a 16-year-old who we've been gazumped for.

12:12Michael Timbs:Yes, exactly. I'm so glad I came on to the Jeremy Monger podcast today instead of the World Cup one. This is great. I'm all in for it. Timsy, Timsy, sometimes, sometimes you have to talk about Arsenal. I know your first love is, which kid are you got today? Your first love is Jamaica. Yes. But we can talk Arsenal. Okay. And we said this was going to be a short World Cup daily. So it is going to be because we're going to quickly do headline stock rising and stock falling from a day that had one classic and two probably less interesting games. What's your headline from yesterday? The headline is I think Spain Portugal is going to be an amazing game.

12:47Michael Timbs:And I'm glad those two teams went through, even though I was all aboard the Croatia upset. These guys never age. They are like vampires. it was nice that both those teams went through because of the next game is going to be I think such a good tie because Spain are coming into form at the right time they seem to have found their groove and Portugal are kind of just getting it done even though they haven't been super impressive so yeah but that's the headline but subtext uh portugal winner thriller and uh yeah plenty to talk about there yeah um yeah so my headline is spain reassert their credentials a bit i mean they they just blew austria off the park yeah yeah look austria probably aren't great but spain made them look like a mosquito they were just swatting i mean they toyed with them they dominated them they never had a chance this game could have been honestly it could have been any score they needed it to be olythabo who i i admit i have not rated in the past does the job for spain he does the job for spain and like they they kind of just gently stepped on the accelerator and glided away from austria now i do think the expanded tournament means we're going to have some knockout games that deceive us a bit like for example the u.s looked great but is bosnia a team that should be in the knockouts of the world cup that remains to be seen and i think the same could be seen instead of austria but look we all thought spain might be a favorite coming into this after the group stage i thought they had problems this was a game for them to reassert that they are very very good yeah they are really good as a team as well i think they're at their best as we saw at the euros like they are the best footballing side in europe and therefore probably the world when they're all singing from their same hymn sheet when Lamine's fit and I don't even think he's fit still because I mean he had he he had moments where it was like his old self and he looked I say old self his his teenage self um but he's still not operating at 100 but it's like the the sacca effect for for Arsenal really obviously you have to bring it back to Arsenal as always as always as you should even a semi-fit sacker, there is a certain gravity that he has on the pitch where we feel more comfortable with him on the pitch because of just his quality, but also the opposition is drawn to him more than it would be Maduakek, for example.

15:27Michael Timbs:And so I think it's similar for Spain where when Jamal doesn't play, they're obviously less of an attacking threat and easier to defend, but then when he is there, even if he's not doing too much he naturally takes so much attention uh from the the opposition defense and i think austria obviously looked at him a lot and therefore were a bit more out of balance than if lamine wasn't playing so uh yeah they look good man spain look very good like they look comfortable now they're they're it just has a lot of the best sides and especially like sides that go on to win the world cup like they're not perfect the the group stage is a time to if you're gonna play badly play in the group stage so the fact that they drew to to cape verde was obviously a bit of a shock but equally i mean that this looks at almost a different side now like they as you say they breezed past austria austria didn't pose anything any sort of a threat and they scored some good goals as well like proper proper spanish goals that we would expect like they it looked nothing like that in the first two two or three games uh in the world cup where even even uh kukurela who who who i don't like but he he he got in those positions in in the group stage and just nothing really came of them whereas now he's getting in the same positions but things are clicking obviously some great assists for for both really the pullback and then the one that's bent around the corner for yasabal um and yeah they're actually just finished off yasabal is just a big big time player man like he just he just scores um obviously i keep saying his name like the i keep saying his name like the golfer oh yeah thable yeah yeah yeah oh yes famously has the cigar in his his mouth i yeah and i apologize that has a comically large uh hair do so both caricatures but um yeah they're just very very impressive um oh yes about finishing off so so well like both goals two different feet one opening out the other one just a nice easy finish basically the two finishes that we said like that we get from mico marina when he plays that kind of number nine role where it's a different he's a different nine to say uh uh guillacres he's more of in that the havertz mold of like it's not as as americans say they're not loud traits it's not crash bang and wallop it's very subtle football and um it kind of finesse and that's what you can kind of get from him so they look good they look scarily good now uh yeah i i wouldn't like to come up against spain yeah i completely agree that can i just ask you super quick like yeah this once upon a time yeah not so long ago rodri was talking about handing the keys to zubomendi now zubomendi does not get off the bench even in a comfortable win and like yeah I do think that he was played into the ground a bit this season and he finished the season not great and might have just been worn out maybe De La Fuente is just aware that he's a little bit shagged out from the season in which case great we get a nice rested Zubimendi back so I'm not complaining but do you have any concern about the trajectory with a Zubimendi who was a star for us first half of last season Rodri's talking about handing the keys of the Spain team to him and now like we know he had a bit of a down finish to the season and he's in a comfortable when he's not even getting on the pitch at this point.

18:55Michael Timbs:I wouldn't be worried. It's obviously not great, but equally, yeah, maybe we do forget the first half of the season, just how good he was. And also, I feel like with Zubimendi, it might be a case of recency bias where maybe for a lot of people, they're like, I can't even remember the last time he played well, but we saw him in the first seven months of the season. just put in eight out of ten performance after eight out of ten performance with a few mishaps here and there that that became increasingly common as he maybe got more tired but it didn't our first uh half of the season uh performances were incredible our form was a joke he was in the middle of for all of it with Declan Rice and obviously Declan is the star man in that midfield but I don't think we can forget how crucial Zuby was to our control of these games.

19:52Michael Timbs:He even played right back when he had to. It's easy to forget these things when MLS comes through and has a few great performances in the final few months of the season and the season comes to a close. Obviously, there's going to be even more emphasis and more eyeballs on it. So I think you probably remember those a bit more than just the everyday, that every week wins that we were getting up to Christmas, that you're almost, because it's in the first half of the season, you're just ticking them off rather than like every win matters the same. But it's because it's the first half of the season, you just think, right, that's our team.

20:30Michael Timbs:He's like Zubimendi solid in the middle. Sweet. Another win. Cool. And it's easy to forget that. So I wouldn't be worried, but it will be interesting to see how he fits in next year, whether MLS stays in that midfield setup, whether we get another left back, maybe. Actually, we won't because we've got two great left backs. But if we get another centimetre, as you say, like a Rodgers and how that affects Zuby or not. Yeah, I don't know. But he's still great. He's still a really good player. And as much as I don't like Rodri, he's also very good. And if he says he's the next guy, then I tend to believe him.

21:07It's a good endorsement. Look, I will confess, I still don't totally know what we have in Zubimendi. and I think sometimes when you get a player that first season doesn't always reveal itself but I think you can at least point to the fact that we ended the season playing Miles in a role he'd never played in the biggest games we trusted him over Zubimendi and if you believe he was training there for months I know but like if you believe that Miles can play that role and if you believe that we were genuinely, we are genuinely interested in Bruno Guimaraes it at least acknowledges that Zubimendi is a talented part of the group but maybe not regarded as the solution for the position because you're not going for Bruno Guimaraes at 80 million at 28 years old, going on 29 years old to be backup for Zubomendi and Miles.

21:54You know what I mean?

21:55Michael Timbs:But then maybe there's the thing because of his younger, like maybe we are just eyeing him up as our reliable man in the middle for the next five years. You know, if we sign Bruno in four or five years time, he's not going to be the same player. That's fair. Yep. Good point. zuby could be so you know well i think it's such a delicate it's a delicate act for when you are champions it's a great uh problem to have but you obviously need to reinvent as pep has shown since he arrived every single time they won the league he made some decisions that maybe didn't really make sense at the time but he has always i think emphasized in all of his interviews like the the need to reinvent especially when you've won when really you think well just stay consistent use that same thing and and you know evolve but every single time he would just get more players in sell some players that you maybe see seem to think are a key and i think it's a it's a difficult uh act to follow and i think arteta obviously this is his first time being a manager as a defending champion and you know he's got to learn as well like he needs to know what works for him and it might be he wants to evolve very slowly and he wants to keep more players and figure that out or maybe he rips up the rule book and signs loads of players and chucks loads of players out as well.

23:23Michael Timbs:So I'm not sure. But for Zuby, I think he'll be safe, at least for another season and then we'll see. I think he's a very good player. What internally at Arsenal he's regarded as in terms of where he is in the level needed and what his role will be is an interesting one to follow. Based on the first half of last season, he's the quote-unquote solution. I mean, another thing we should bear in mind, though, the England team are going to be sending Declan Rice back FedEx a piece at a time because he's basically playing himself into a situation where he might not be able to play until December. So we're going to need all the midfielders we've got.

24:03Okay, I'm going to give you one more quick headline, and that is simply we got a knockout classic and and portugal croatia had it all it had stunning offside goals to credit to ronaldo he he had a sensational finish um in a goal that was just marginally offside we had we had winners uh in the 94th minute we had or pardon me we had equalizer 94th minute we had um winners sorry sorry we had a winner and then we had a disallowed equalizer that's the minute yeah the hundred and yeah exactly i it's funny because it came in the hundred and third minute i thought it was an extra time i forgot that was part of regular time because we had such a long stoppage for well for all kinds of uh uh vars and things like that we also had this new chip in the ball contact technology showing if contact was made with the head to make the goal offside so just wait you wait till stocks uh falling you okay okay well here's what i'm gonna say it was an absolute classic it was a brilliant game i have to say i enjoyed rafa liao who's a player i have immense time for i think he's got that that kind of talent that mercurial winger talent that sometimes they'll drive you crazy sometimes they'll pull something out yeah in the premier league yeah he i i i agree um and and it was just yeah it was it was just a sensational back and forth game and and now we and now we get spain portugal which is what we want so what what are your what are your takeaways from that game oh it was it was

25:36Michael Timbs:exactly what you would want when there is like this story um narrative like leading into a game like this of the two old legends still doing it Ronaldo leading his team Modric leading his team how is it gonna you know you've got the world cup specialists in Croatia versus the the the failures that are portugal and uh it was an incredible game so so good uh yeah i thought it was it was a very like i guess second half heavy game but um i mean was it three disallowed goals for two no three disallowed goals for croatia three maybe great um and then well there was the one for two for portugal as well yeah so yeah all of those things like like the var for those officers like apart from the the actual equalizer right at the end i think it was obviously all fine but the the the decision with the snickometer at the end is is the most ridiculous thing i've i've i've seen um it was it was a shame it was a shame that a game of that quality that was that fun to watch was was in my opinion ruined by a var intervention of that magnitude when like the 102 minute equalizer against Ronaldo's Portugal is what the World Cup should all be about.

26:57Michael Timbs:But it's offside. It's miles offside. No, but it's not. It's miles offside. He doesn't touch the ball. He clearly, to me, so this is a funny thing. To me, I was like, what are they worrying? Why are they even reviewing this? He heads the ball and you have to clear off. Okay. One sec, one sec. I need to just revisit what you just said. He doesn't clearly touch the ball. hence the snickometer coming in, right? As the Geiger counter showed, he clearly touched the ball. Okay, so this is what I'll say. I'm going on to my stock falling already just because - All right, we're going to jump to a stock falling.

27:29Michael Timbs:Hit it. Right. I take back what I said about hydration breaks. The snickometer is the worst thing to happen to football in decades, right? How dare you, in this game of football, bring in a piece of technology that measures microscopic levels of contact, which could, bearing in mind, yeah, be his hair follicle. I think it actually might have been his hair that flicked the ball, did not change the trajectory or the pace or anything of the ball whatsoever. He fully heads it. He fully redirects it. It's an incredible header. But then, like, and then... You've been baited here. to rule to rule that goal off i think it's such a tragedy for the game of football especially like for for my friends that i have like in the us i have a few friends who are like just getting into football and i found football this world cup and i actually like they're big sports fans but i've always been telling them like trust me football's the best sport in the world you just can't you can't get anything close to it like just just watch and they've found the love and they're like oh my god this is insane it's like yes this is what we get every week in the premier league and all over the world in every domestic league so the fact that those sorts of moments that we would get when we were younger when there was no var and again this isn't against var this is against the snecometer element of it like we would get those moments unfiltered and just not ruined in any way and just enjoy it and um one of these moments has been taken away from these people where they've equalized in the 103rd minute and they were they had so many chances as well and it was like the last chance they scored in front of the Croatia block in that that stand and celebrated like crazy and then you have this weird like sorry I'm ranting but you have this weird dystopian thing of like they make the decision the graph comes up of like that you see in cricket of the tiny audio level of oh there was a bit of contact even though there just wasn't enough in my opinion and then the game is over there's still time to go but everyone knows the game is over you have croatian players crying as they hear that this this uh decision has come through of the number 10 or whatever has touched the ball they're crying the game's still going on they've still got 20 seconds left but they know the game is over what a terrible like scene to see like i felt so but I think Portugal deserve to go through I think because they had all the impetus Croatia like they just did their thing of like they're just hard to beat they're never going to give up they find a way they make it difficult for you but Portugal deserve to go through but even then it's just it's such a shame that the game ended like that I thought it it didn't ruin the spectacle it was an amazing game but it was it was a bittersweet moment at the end for it to end like that sorry rant over timsey out i apologize no i i i hear you i mean so and and i guess just to sort of weave back to my headline anyway it was just it was just no no no it it was a brilliant game though it was it was brilliant it was there were chances there were offside goals there were drama yeah it's what knockout football wants and like the the round of 32 has sort of thrown up a mixed bag of what we've had so all right we'll hit the stocks rising super quick I'll give one from the game we haven't touched on yet since we haven't touched on it I'm going to co-stock Rising can I do that?

30:59is that okay? just to kind of hit that game so yeah I'm going to do it so first I'll I mean I think I'm going to go with Brielle Embolo who just keeps doing it for Spain Switzerland despite nobody knowing where he plays and Manzambi like Manzambi's been absolutely fantastic 20 years old plays for Freiburg, probably going to get a big move. What's interesting is he plays, as I understand it, more as like a central mid, like a deep-lying midfielder for them. But he's been dynamic going forward. The assist for Embolo's goal is all him, but Embolo gets there, so I'm giving him credit. But really, it's a Monsambi stock rising, a player I've enjoyed watching for Switzerland.

31:38He makes them more fun. They are, they look good. Like, they didn't just beat Algeria. They comfortably eased past them and could have had more and it was a very controlled dominant performance. So stock rising for them

31:53Michael Timbs:and Manzambi and Bolo. I agree with those stock risings. Like Manzambi was great. I think the assist itself as well is so good. I just wish Brilham Bolo immediately went over and celebrated with him because that's what. It's like the Walcott against, was it AC Milan? When he does his thing and, oh no, sorry, Theo Walcott, he's had two of those, But Theo Walcott against Liverpool, when he does that big run, passes it over to Adebayor, and then he decides to celebrate by himself in front of our fans. When really, your obligation as a person who merely finished off an incredible solo assist is to immediately run over to the person who assisted you and give him all the praise.

32:36Michael Timbs:That was my only thing I didn't like about it. But obviously, an incredible goal. And yeah, Switzerland. Yeah, it was a little weird not to celebrate Manzami Great side I would also say Stock rising before we move on to Foolings Roberto Martinez Yeah Just because I just like the fact that he Made some brave subs First of all, starting Liao over The trash he's played off the left Made sense Subbed off Ronaldo So this is the thing it was obviously a good decision to start Liao it kind of made it worse thinking about why was he never starting anyway like what a ridiculous decision but he made some big calls like taking off Bruno I think take what was it four subs in one substitute block is is obviously a bold call they had to do it because they were one nil down um but taking off Ronaldo fine good just I'm glad he's finally done it properly um but also taking off like Bruno and bringing on Bernardo Silva obviously they have great subs they have really good depth so it's maybe easier for him to do than other managers to take off their like big stars um but at least I think we we for their performances in the groups I think we're very critical of Martinez and I think we probably have to give him his dues uh this time around because it paid off um and Croatia are no mugs as well like they could have easily I say easily held on to their one-0 lead but we've seen it before where they couldn't score and it was a great goal by Perisic but they can just find a goal from somewhere and just make it really difficult for you so um the fact that he made those difficult calls and it paid off was yeah fair fair play to Roberto and he's as we've said before he's a lovely man yep and if you're a United fan first of all while you're listening to this go away if you're a United fan um like I think you probably have cause to just be a little concerned about a Bruno Fernandes who's going to be turning 32 this season and yeah you know is playing a lot in the World Cup and maybe not sparkling completely and just we saw it with Salah you can go from being the best player in the league to being done quite quickly at that age and I just wonder how much longer they can depend on him so be interesting to see what they do he you know it's a weird one I still feel like not because I don't like Man United um because I Bruno I've always felt he's so good and his level has been so above United that he's deserved a move for the longest time and I feel like after last season especially he's not going to move he's going to stay there for at least another year or two but it's almost his final chance to go to somewhere where he deserves a bit more not even respect he's very well respected but to actually win some stuff because he's really good.

35:37Michael Timbs:And as long as he's not in the same league as us, I'll be happy. But yeah, it is an interesting one where maybe he's not playing as well for the national side. But then you've got plenty of examples of that across the board. Kevin De Bruyne for the longest time, where no matter how much he lit up the Premier League, the belgium never seemed to be able to get the best out of him or even then like his best wasn't good enough because their side just didn't have what it took so um there are plenty of examples of of that but uh fair enough um i'm gonna hit one quick stock following and then we're just gonna gently mention the games today so my quick stock following is football because football will be without yeah no no no i i love that i i want more i want more measurements i want i want micrometers can we get micrometers in football can we get can we get an ai that tells you if it would have been a goal i know you're trolling but it's still pissing i am i am i am doing that uh no football because it no longer has santi cazorla in the game he has retired oh yeah um one of the great players that I've had the chance to watch play for Arsenal um an all too short career for us because of injury and God only knows what he could have accomplished if he had more time still feel a huge affection for him uh as technically gifted as any player I can remember playing for the club um which was his stronger foot the world will never know but stock falling football as uh the game no longer has santi cazorla yeah he is i i totally agree i love him he's a an amazing guy i've been lucky enough to interview him a few times he is as he is as wonderful and bright and positive as human as you would expect looking at him and he is the og who's what what is your favorite foot uh usman dembele could never because santi cazorla did it first so uh yeah it's it's obviously a sad day equally he's so old now so I think it's been like it's been coming uh and especially I don't think he's like had the easiest time in La Liga as well I think um Oviedo I think they finished I mean they were a bit I actually saw them last season in La Liga I went to an Atleti match uh Atletico match sorry not Atleti Bilbao but uh Atletico match before we took them on in the Champions League.

38:11Michael Timbs:Obviously, I did a bit of scouting behind enemy lines, not spying, importantly, but did my own little scouting report and they played Oviedo. And you know what was amazing? And that I didn't realise how highly he was regarded in Spain by just Spanish football fans. So when he came off, I want to say he started and came off at the Metropolitano and the whole stadium stood up and applauded him off the pitch. All the Atletico fans, because I think they knew this was probably his last year. And you could tell he's still technically so, so good, but just half a yard off the pace. And that's La Liga as well.

38:54Michael Timbs:So yeah, that was an amazing moment. And yeah, the football world, as I agree, will be lesser off with Santi out of the game. Yep. You never know. I agree. Backroom stuff. Backroom stuff. Yep, agree. Looking forward to today. Not sure that there's anything much to say. Obviously, Messi, we're looking to see what he can do against Cabo Verde. Or could Cabo Verde shock the world? Colombia gone is an interesting one because Colombia is a team that I think sneakily could be a dark horse to get all the way. I mean, they're very good defensively. They've got a couple excellent players in attack, obviously.

39:30Luis Diaz being one of them. they would face Argentina if they could get past Switzerland, which would be a sensational quarterfinal, and then potentially Brazil after England crash out to Mexico and Mexico crash out to Brazil. Brazil, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, either would be a sensational semifinal. True football heritage. So we'll be looking forward to that. We'll be back with the World Cup Daily tomorrow. And Timsey, I just want to tell you, I'm actually attending a conference of technology in football this weekend to see what other measuring devices we can put in the ball. Can we put a thermostat in the ball that tells you the heat signature of the body temperature of the last defender?

40:10We're bringing it all, all the sensors.

40:11Michael Timbs:I know you're joking, but I have to ask, are you joking? No, it's in Cincinnati. Some people call Cincinnati the birthplace of football. That's why it's being held there. Cincinnati, Ohio, the birthplace of football. I know we've spoken about this before, but less technology, the better. We've already got enough now. we don't need this football is is is the best game in the world because it's free-flowing because it's dynamic the whole time like this the more get put more technology in see you know very convenient thing to say for the man who's wearing wireless earbuds as he speaks into the camera of his computer broadcasting video over the internet but he wants no technology in football these luddites happy i'm perfectly happy dissolving my brain and getting brainwashed at the same time right i'm i'm taking that upon myself right that's my responsibility leave the beautiful game alone fair enough fair enough yeah i guess you will not be joining me in the birthplace of football cincinnati ohio okay i've been to cincinnati before it was skyline chile it was skyline chile no i went to skyline chile is great if you if you're like i forget what diarrhea feels like um then skyline chile is always there to okay to set you straight yeah i i i'll make a quick prediction by the way i think that australia are going to be egypt i think salah is going to cry and then he will announce his retirement and then uh columbia are going to be gone okay the first thing you said are you able to to put that into a syringe that i can inject into myself the the tears yeah the tears yeah cool um yeah yep uh okay forever so sorry we could we could do the banter forever but i i'm willing to bet that people are are not interested in that but you may be interested and Devin Parkinson's background on Cabo Verde.

41:53The way he says it is brilliant. It's like listening to Tim only about Cabo Verde because he's got that Portuguese lilt that he adds to it. It's wonderful. So we're going to say goodbye to Timsy. We're going to say hello to Devin Parkinson. That's coming up next. Another World Cup Daily tomorrow, Friday night, Clive later. We love you. And here is my interview with Devin Parkinson. And now, as promised, we're joined by Devin to tell us a little bit about his experience living in Cabo Verde. First of all, Devin, congratulations on winning the title. oh absolutely thank you um with k fair you know going as far as they have and winning the title this past month has been incredible yeah yeah i think um i don't feel as close to the capo verde story as as you do of course uh but i am enthralled by it and i think the fact that you reached out and mentioned that you'd lived there and you're willing to share some things about the country well obviously i thought it was interesting which is why you're here and i really appreciate you in it because these stories from the World Cup that we get connected to are so interesting.

42:50But to me, I love to travel. I love to experience other nations to try to learn what I can through that travel. But you only get a little glimpse. You know, you can read articles, you can go somewhere for a week, but you got to live there and you got to experience a place that, you know, I think probably very few people listening have been. And certainly, I don't know anyone from there. Otherwise, they could come on and tell us about it. But so I'm thrilled to hear it. So first things first you want to just kind of give us the mise en place where is Cabo Verde like what's the experience of getting there what's it like when you first arrive what what what is the sort of disposition of the nation as you're arriving for the first time all right absolutely yeah um so yeah love uh the fact that Cape Verde made the world cup obviously it's just an absolutely massive thing for such a small nation and kind of yeah to give you an idea I didn't know where it was when I initially heard of it either, but figured it was worth a go.

43:41You get there by plane. So you fly out of Boston. That's the only place to get there from the United States. And they are 10 small islands off the coast of Africa. The closest is Senegal, would be the country, Dakar, yeah, the city. About 300 miles off there. But you get there and just get immediately hit in the face with nice, hot, warm air and the lovely Sahara winds basically with the desert flying over in the air. So really cool experience getting there. And it's sort of summer year-round then? It's like a temperate climate all year? Yeah, it's just above the equator. Okay, makes sense. It's basically just warm all the time.