World Cup Daily - Scotland and Australia Delight, Brazil Not-So-Much

0:01Music

0:25I'm seeing scenes of Bedlam in New York and I have to admit it's more than I expected. reaction to a 1-1 draw between Brazil and Morocco. This is the World Cup Daily. My name is Elliot Smith, the Black Man City. Ain't gonna hell, everybody. Yeah, New York. Absolute scenes of mayhem from a 1-1 draw between Brazil and Morocco, which was played in the, and this is important, New York, New Jersey Stadium. The famous New York, New Jersey Stadium in one of my favorite places in America, New York, New Jersey. Really just a lovely place, New York, New Jersey. Upsetting, by the way, both people from New York and people from New Jersey with that.

1:00So bravo, well done. Actually, it turns out, no, the celebrations weren't just about Brazil and Morocco playing out a 1-1 draw. It was about what happened later that evening in New York. And a man who was there to experience for like the third or fourth time now in a month, scenes of mayhem in a city of glorious celebration is Timsey from NYC. Hello, Timsey. Hello, Elliot. How was it? it was it was amazing it was amazing i saw that a new york new jersey thing as well by the way yeah it was shocking uh but yeah incredible stuff like it was uh i i i thought it's once in a lifetime but i've seen it twice or three times now in the last few weeks so um i'm counting myself very lucky as you can tell by my voice yeah you and me both i actually made it a much later and heavier night than I expected between watching World Cup and the Knicks stuff.

1:56I'm not a Knicks fan, but I have so many friends from New York who are. And so I was invested in that. And then I'm like, well, you know, the Australia game has kicked off. It wouldn't kill me to watch that. And before you know it, it's late. And it's been an excuse for that extra glass of wine and maybe that extra bit of cheese with it. But were the scenes reminiscent of the Arsenal celebration? They were. They were. But I think the best way I can put it as someone who was lucky enough to be there on the Tuesday night following the Bournemouth result that made us win the league and heading to the Emirates.

2:32That was the happiest and purest joy I've ever experienced and probably will ever experience genuinely. and it was I feel the the planned New York version of that where it was I say ever so slightly more chaotic it was totally more chaotic but it was far more widespread and there were lovely pockets of just togetherness and people having a good time and then it kind of descended into mayhem we tried to make our way to MSG where kind of the the their equivalent of the the the emirates is and uh it was part locked off part fireworks going off in the street and then things started to burn and that's when i just thought you know what it's 2 a.m i'm out so um but i enjoyed the the part that i kind of experienced it was great yeah uh i do want to send yeah i do want to send some congratulations to my friends who are nyx fans i'm seeing 53 years of hurt and I have to admit as a Bulls fan, I was around for and celebrating a lot of those years of hurt when Patrick Ewing's Knicks could not get past Michael Jordan's Bulls.

3:48So it all comes back home for the Knicks and I'm very happy for them and I'm glad to get to experience those scenes. But this is not the Knicks Daily. I doubt that that podcast exists. I doubt that it would be well listened to because like a team-specific sports podcasting doesn't seem like it has much of a future. So we are here to talk about World Cup football. And I will turn it over to you, Timzy, for your first headline from our first four-match day of the tournament. Yeah, I mean, I feel like the World Cup is starting to get into full swing. And there is a lot of history being made. I think over the last few weeks, Arsenal included, Knicks included, and now World Cup included, with some other results that I'm sure we'll go through.

4:33but I guess the first headline will be Brazil not winning the first game that possibly a lot of people thought they would win but I truly wasn't surprised I think we spoke in the in maybe in the preview show or yesterday's show where it was a really difficult uh game for them and and I totally wasn't surprised that they didn't didn't win Morocco are obviously a very solid outfit seen in in afcon and um you know i was purely on gabby watch uh selfishly i think as a lot of arsenal fans would have been and it it wasn't not that he didn't play well but it wasn't nice to see him uh not his usual just wall at the back and i think it just proved how how it proves how important a center-back partnership and relationship really is like gabby gabby and willow at the back are just incredible and impenetrable.

5:30And here kind of, it's like, I don't know, Superman without his cape or something. It just doesn't look as right as it does when he plays for us every week. So that wasn't nice. But yeah, a great game for the World Cup and for the neutral, I guess, because it's, you know, it's scenes and it's, oh my God, Brazil haven't won. But it's totally not a surprise for me anyway. So that would be my first headline. Let's stay on this game for a bit because I think there's a couple of interesting things and we might get some stock risings and stock fallings out of it. But if we're going to say Brazil don't win their first game, then I'm going to say Morocco, unlucky not to win.

6:07I thought they looked fantastic. For sure. Really good in transition, really good passing in tight spaces. And obviously, Buari coming in for a lot of praise from Arsenal people who know that we've been linked with him and are interested in him. He looks very, very good. Saibari was excellent. I mean I thought Brahim Diaz looked good the whole right hand side when Saibari drifted over there and Buati drifted over there and Diaz was over there and Hakimi was over there like it was just way too much for Brazil to handle and I I'm not sure I understand what Ancelotti was going for with the midfield I will say that I get that he thinks their identity is being defensive and letting Vinicius Jr.

6:45get them out of jail which which he does but I think that that midfield didn't make a lot of sense to me with Bruno Guimarães Casemiro and then Paqueta. And Paqueta, I thought, was very poor, at least started the game very poor. And it was the worst of both worlds. They couldn't really keep the ball and do much with it with that midfield. But they also just got run right through. I mean, if we want to pick on Gabi for Saibari's goal, I think you have to pick on the midfield, first of all, which just gets bypassed very easily and Brahim Diaz plays in Saibari. So not a great start for Ancelotti, I think, in terms of just getting the alchemy of the Brazil team wrong.

7:20yeah for sure i don't i mean the fact that scotland are top of that group after you know one game i don't know what odds you would have got for that but you look at now you go yeah not actually that surprised to be honest like you could kind of forecast this um yeah standing so far uh but yeah they weren't i i just think it goes back to i think uh so before the before the world cup i was obviously listening to a few podcasts and listen to rory smith who who who i love who's a good friend and just I just love his voice he's amazing and he I think said the how well team progresses is generally going to come down to just how good their defense is I think the better the defense basically I think if Arsenal were playing the World Cup we'd probably win the World Cup and yeah it kind of just proves that all the time it's 1-0 in a game and obviously I know Brazil went down and then equalized, but I just think, you know, having a solid defense is, it just sets you up so well for these games because they're so tight and like it's super cagey and it's hard to, to really dominate a game.

8:31And I think, yeah, Brazil obviously failed to do that, especially with their midfield and like, I know Igor Thiago, I know he had a great season, but again, just like not having that real, I don't know, clinical number nine and like going forward yeah if their their philosophy is kind of just leave it up to the guys up top like i think you you maybe need a little bit more from that i think like couldn't you're coming on he's i think i don't know why he would not start instead of it's very very strange to me yeah really strange to me because like he's like we obviously know full well how good cunier is um and especially when if things aren't quite flowing as much as you want like then you're probably going to get more out of a cunha than you are paquetta uh side note it really annoyed me that the u.s commentator i'm not sure who it was said i think for one of paquetta's like early kind of chances or one of the his only chances the the scissor kick well it was a scissor kick and it got called an overhead kick and that really grinded my gears just as it was it's like come on you have to you have to know the difference man it's like it's an overhead it's not it's a scissor um but yeah so that that That selection confused me a little bit.

9:44But again, I'm not one to question Ancelotti. He's a legend. But that didn't really make sense in my mind. Yeah, yeah. I didn't understand the way he put that together. So definitely a game that I think would grab a lot of attention. I'm going to make my first headline. We're starting to see finishing being one of the themes of the tournament. This is now a pretty recurring theme where we have quite a few results where one team gets away with it because the other team doesn't finish. I mean, I do think that Morocco could have won that game, but if you look at the Canada-Bosnia game, Canada squandered a lot of good opportunities.

10:23Switzerland, they have no one to blame but themselves. Even Turkey, while Australia played well on the counter, Turkey had numerous chances. And let's be fair, some of the poor finishing is good defending. We've seen some amazing goal line clearances and things like that. Over a 38-game club football season, the variance of football evens out right it evens out you you're not gonna hot finishing your way to a title or cold finishing your way to relegation we tried that yeah and doesn't work can't quite get there no you can't quite get there but in a tournament you can you know you can get hot or you can get cold in front of goal and not get the goals you need in a couple of games and you're out um and so i think right now the story of the tournament has been god bless you has been finishing and god bless you the players that are coming in for some praise whether that's Saibari with the goal he scored or um Aaron Kunda's finishing for Australia you know to open the scoring for them finishing is is emerging as an early theme and maybe you're gonna say Elliot like putting the ball in the net is is not an unusual theme that's kind of how it works I get it but we've already had a lot of these types of games where other teams were able to ride their luck ride some cold finishing from the opposition and get through so that for me is one to keep an eye on and i think it was again on display especially in that switzerland cutter game but also in the turkey australia game yeah i was i was amazed with the the number of swiss chances i just thought it was incredible um yeah so the fact that they didn't yeah there was no real like emphatic finishing or just i mean to be honest i'm not i haven't really been convinced by anyone in front of goal yet for any nation in the World Cup so far.

12:05Can I just tell you, to underline that Swiss thing, they had 26 shots and 3.2 expected goals to cutters 6 and.6. They had 42 touches in the box to cutters 8. So I'm not just picking this out of nowhere. 3.2 XG and 26 shots and you get one goal, and it's only a penalty, by the way. You kind of got what you deserve, man. You've got to stuff one of those in the net. you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I thought that was, yeah, I think maybe going forward as teams become maybe a bit more comfortable with this World Cup, so in their kind of second and third games, kind of, I guess their defence is going to shore up a little bit more because they're used to playing with each other a bit more and maybe we're going to see more set pieces at the moment.

12:51Obviously, before the World Cup, in our preview show, I said, why ask the question anyways I think uh it's gonna be yeah it's gonna have sorry the the most set piece goals in any World Cup ever and so far there have been very very few set piece goals you know there's been the odd throw in or penalty that was seen but for the most part I think defenses have sort of been all over the place and so teams have been able to to score from open play and that's with very poor finishing yep so I think if people have actually been able to take their chances we'd have seen a record number of goals so far um but maybe set pieces are gonna have a larger part to play when defense is sure up because I'm sure you know in a few days time and for the next game or two for example Marquinhos and Gabby they're gonna become a lot more comfortable playing with each other because he's gonna Gabby for example is gonna know how Marquinhos else defends in comparison to to willow so yep yeah well i i think we have enough meat on the bone with the four game day to do some quick hitter headlines so you want to give me like a quick hitter i'll bounce back with one of my own we can get to a couple of the other teams before moving on to the stocks yeah uh scotland have arrived and i love it and it's i think the world cup is better for it uh it's been a very very long time i think was it 20 20 years 26 years or something since uh since they were then since they won their first victory since beating sweden in 1990 so 36 years on 36 years and first appearance since 98 so 28 years you know 28 years so i got every single one of my dates wrong perfect is that 28 98 to 26 is 28 years yeah well well done good job um and i i think it's amazing just seeing them and look haiti not the most formidable opponent possibly the least formidable opponent um and they did ride their luck as well but the first game they saw it's like that it was their game that they had to win and they did win it and it had to be John McGinn I as an Arsenal fan I'm sure I'm not alone in this don't like it when we play Villa and he is a horrible player to play against um but when it comes to Scotland at a World Cup it had to be John McGinn and I love it and the fact that their first game is in Boston and it's just it made sense for me like it was great it was a proper World Cup moment and I'm all here for it so I'm very very happy for the Scots my brother-in-law's a Scot he stayed up till 4am or whatever watching the game full kit as Alexi Lalas would say full kit you know full kit wanker yeah full kit wanker and yeah it was just amazing i think i'm very very happy for the scots i'm glad they're off to the start that they needed to get off to because the next two games there's a lot more pressure now because of obviously the the the other result and um hopefully they're they're through now with just just a win yep i my headline then my quick quicker headline would just be groups being more interesting than they might have been we got some results already in the last few days that mean that we're going to be maybe enjoying some of these groups that we thought would be a fait accompli um you know obviously with australia leading the brazil morocco group that sets up for an interesting dynamic as we move through that group with cutter drawing switzerland that group stays very interesting you know turkey uh pardon me the australia australia and turkey that's the u.s group so i just want to be clear it's u.s and paraguas it's right it's scotland topping the brazil group anyway you get the same point holds right we have some interesting group dynamics that are emerging that will keep things interesting moving forward and that's what we want and and to keep the the group stage feeling like it's not a fait accompli it also means that a lot of these brackets we've drawn up where these are the teams are going to face these are the teams like they're already maybe in jeopardy depending on what happens so good for the world cup to see it staying interesting uh at least so far and still a lot of football to go And I think, generally speaking, I prefer a World Cup where there is a proper shock or two to one of the so-called favorites or just one of the big historic national teams.

17:17Not to say I obviously want Brazil to do badly, but I like the fact that, you know, Scotland have got one foot in the door. Australia now have one foot in the door and it's just, it's great. It's great for scenes, great for limbs. There you go. Yeah, very happy. Totally agree. okay um who's your first stock rising or what is stock stock rising for me i don't want to get his name wrong nestory iran kunda yep stock rising watford player correct yes possible call for uh mvp as well just because putting the nation on his back uh at the tender age of 20 i want to say or 22 20 I think 20 20 um and uh yeah like a great goal by the way like a really really well taken goal defense was a little bit all over the place for for Turkey for that one but for him particularly like that his run was great there's been quite a lot of action like in behind again like the defenses haven't been too solid so I think positionally I think a lot of back lines have been a bit all over the place so there's been a lot of space to kind of exploit as we saw in in the US game as well and Mexico.

18:24Yep. I think he's a great shout. Yeah. This, I think, yeah, for sure. He has, I think maybe out of all of a quick think, and I think he is out of all of the players so far, his stock has risen the most because that was amazing. Yeah. Yeah. I'll give a stock rising to, oof, tricky one. How about Saibari? You know, there are big names that play for, Morocco and I was impressed with Diaz and I was pressed with Boadi and I was pressed with Hakimi obviously but Saibari maybe the one that is less well known I think is he a PSV I want to say and great finish yeah a great finish but also apparently at a hundred pressures level with the most by anyone in a single game I think he put in that work that made it hard Brazil just kept giving it away and I think Saibari's work was important to that and you know as Arsenal supporters we should appreciate a hard-working center forward performance where you're not just there to score the goal and finish it and the acceleration he showed to pull away um when he split the defenders pull away from marquinhos so that gabby couldn't chase him down the finish is dinked it's it's really beautiful and um yeah i i think that was a a lovely moment for morocco and a player that given the the high profile nature of some morocco players um or the more well-known nature i would say i'd give him a stock rising for sure uh who else you got off the of the bat who else i'm going to uh nominate a thing and that is referee can oh you're liking it huh yeah i i wasn't sure about it when it got introduced into the premier league i'm going none of this nonsense we're in england show us the football nothing else uh and i've really enjoyed it that they've used it maybe the tiniest bit too much but for the goals and for some sort of like moments whether it's a foul or yellow card or whatever like a pivotal moment uh i've really enjoyed the the different view the the just a change of perspective and actually seeing it from kind of the pitch and especially with goals you you're gonna see a lot from like just behind and watching the finish from behind for example and then you you kind of get that depth of field and that perspective of the crowd in behind and then then wheeling off and celebrating i really enjoy it it's a it's a nice added element to to the the broadcast i think it also led to a very funny internet meme if you haven't seen it it's it's like world cup 2038 or whatever and it's a referee with like two boom cam arms on either side of him and a camera in his chest and he's wearing an apple vision pro and there's two drones hovering over either of his shoulders yeah i mean it's like go go gadget refs yeah yeah yeah we're getting there we're definitely getting there one thing that i think could be cool about that you know so in in the premier league i think the the ref cams are on their shirt maybe or something like that they're like they're yeah i'm not quite sure if it's where a badge would be or kind of yeah like pockets are but but for this it's obviously on a head like headwear that's eye level and the one thing i do like about it is it could be an interesting view if there's a contentious call where you say well why didn't the ref get that right why did he get it right you're seeing his view not kind of chest vantage point but i vantage point anyway yeah interesting choice there uh i can i can get with that no no no nothing wrong um how about can i say stock rising is a song the flower of scotland i mean i know it's it's discussed a lot like what the scots bring to a tournament but there are obviously fan bases that pull together and show up and make the tournament special um and scotland are one of those groups and that moment when flower of scotland is playing and they're singing along to it's just the World Cup throws up moments like that, right?

22:06Just an authentic togetherness and emotion and enthusiasm and excitement for what this all means and that's kind of why we want the World Cup. We want those moments not just where we see Vinicius Jr. put it in the back of the net and look like one of the best players in the world for a flashing moment but also when we see the intensity of the enthusiasm and support. I'll go with the cheesy World Cup I'll jump on that. and i think yeah i'm jumping on the bandwagon i'm actually picking up a scotland kit today i think i'm gonna go with the adidas original uh salmon pink shirt i like that it's a bit of don't put me in salmon pink man as as it is i i already have like an unpleasant skin tone you don't want to put that kind of color next to me man people might just think i'm a salmon try to jump jump yeah drop drop some bait in a fishing lure in front of me see see what happens um okay let's switch gears to stocks falling uh what do you got first off would be uh switzerland similar to maybe canada is this a classic fuck around and find out for switzerland where they were playing like it almost seemed like they were kind of having fun with toying with their prey and yeah i just feel like yeah that maybe there is a i wouldn't call it an overconfidence because they're switzerland and they know they're switzerland it's not like for them anything's owed to them or but in a similar way to i think it's actually probably worse than the the canada result where they are going in as the favorites they feel like they should win they kind of i guess do enough to win but then was it bosnia sorry was that there yeah and uh it was a bosnia obviously a better opponent than qatar but then they feel like look we should really get well in Canada I don't think is as good as Switzerland either so I you know I think no no for sure and exactly and and Qatar aren't the same as Bosnia as well so um it's in similar vein but I actually think much worse um and Switzerland I kind of had down as a as a pre-tournament maybe dark horse where you look at Shaka in the midfield and you just think like they're they're a very solid outfit they're gonna have their you know so-called stuff together and and I just yeah they they just were just too wasteful and Qatar to be fair hung in there did create a few chances but you know the the bullet header own goal I I I love a good own goal as well if you're gonna score an own goal make it a bullet header into your own you know we've we've seen a few so far and yeah make it a proper one make it worth my while so yeah I would I would say stop falling just Switzerland that was their kind of banker and yeah they're going to be massively disappointed they came out hot they played really well for the first half and then that was a classic just over confident second half it was the second half that was one of those I could take a nap on the couch in the middle of the afternoon kind of second half it was terrible and Switzerland kind of got what they had coming to them which was not putting that game to the sword and leaving just enough on it it's a phenomenal header to to get that equalizer by the way a real powerful header but like was it not an own goal i thought was it an own goal oh yeah i then i i must have missed it because it it looked like a power i mean that's what i saw and then and then i saw well on on one of the apps where it's been down as an own goal and then you could only see from like the replay from behind oh interesting okay well then i take back regardless i take back my praise for the cutter player whose bullet header was was clearly not a bullet header great pressure though i will i i will say an interesting fact about switzerland that a lot of people don't know no one actually knows where brie and bolo goes between real and bolo goes between world cups no no one knows no one has they just they see him at the world cups and then uh into the shadow realm no no idea where he goes for four years interesting one okay um my stock falling is I don't know whether to make this about Ancelotti or about individual Brazil players so I talked a little bit about Ancelotti in the headline so I will say Lucas Paquita like I don't know why he was picked and that performance was dreadful and like he can't pass the football he's there to be a destroyer he's there to throw his body around and I get that but Brazil should be about more than that in my mind and you know I realized Casemiro was dreadful dreadful dreadful and looked a lot like Ruben Amirim Casemiro um did not look fit and ready to to play in this game to run around and cover the ground when Morocco started pinging the ball around but Paquita was just there to to do what he does right which is dive into challenges and let the ball bounce off his shins it was a really poor performance and I think Ancelotti is going to have to make a lot of adjustments this is not a phenomenal brazil side across the board their fullbacks are not great i don't know that they have phenomenal midfield options but you can get more creative and interesting than that so i would say pacita was really really poor yeah i i would off the back of that i would say brazil midfield in general i don't think it was a good performance and casemiro is a weird one just because you look at that and you're it's the least surprising thing going it's like where was this i get that he's he's had about eight different remontadas and he's like oh my god he he was gone and now he's back and he's the old casimiro he's still got so much class and then you watch this you go well this has been coming for years and there's been so many different iterations of him just having totally lost it he was really really bad too i mean maybe i'm being harsh on pakita by picking him over casimiro yeah maybe but yeah i just the this was this was maybe coming i think you see this and you're like yeah this is he's he's way off the pace and I think as well like going forward in the in the the next few games I think Brazil should obviously get better and again like you said I don't know whether it's down to Ancelotti and his I guess tactics or way of managing all these different players and stuff but it doesn't look good and I don't know if they're gonna have to like I think maybe going for that They thought Casemiro and Bruno are like the two guys that are just going to play.

28:25And then maybe you can rotate the 10 or kind of the advanced midfielder. But yeah, it doesn't look good for their next few games. I'm sort of not confident. And I think especially if they come up against like a good side, if they do get to the knockouts, I don't know how they're going to survive really. And one of the pre-tournament favourites, I just think that's a bit mad now looking at it. But not to go all negative on Brazil, but it wasn't a good first showing. No, no, it really wasn't. I mean, they can pull it out because they obviously have the talent and experience to do it. And when you have players, you know, like, for example, Vinny Jr., who can turn one singular moment of quality into the goal you need to get something, then that could be good enough.

29:12To be fair to Brazil, Morocco is, I think they were both top 10 in the FIFA rankings, these teams going into this game. And this game is the hardest they will face potentially for a while, depending on how they progress through and out of the group. GE Globo gave Casemiro a 4.5 out of 10. Their readers gave him a 2.1 out of 10. So I may be harsh. And to be fair, let's see if I'm in line with what they thought of Paquita. uh ge global gave him a 5.0 and he got a a phenomenal 3.4 from the readers so you know maybe i picked on the wrong guy one side note i did like uh romario was on i think it was brazilian tv after the game and i think the report i saw this on on twitter so it could be totally fake news and ai but i don't think it is uh the reporter she basically said you know obviously you're massively, you must be massively disappointed.

30:08Like it feels like a loss. And I think he said something along the lines of that's something someone who knows nothing about football would say, which I do. I feel very familiar with those points. And as someone who knows nothing about football, I totally sympathize. But I do get it. It was maybe a bit blunt from him, but the sentiment behind it, I'm totally for where you look at that game and like there was there was no god-given right for Brazil to just win and Morocco to just roll over like they're a really really good side so I don't think a draw is the end of the world but I it I think a draw having played better would have been fine because then you're going well you know there was stuff to to glean from it and you know there are things that you can use moving forward but I actually don't think there was many there were sorry many positives to to take from brazil maybe the positive is we didn't play well and we got a draw against a really really good side um i'm not sure but yeah i i i did like that from romario i will say that one of my hopes for the world cup is always that the arsenal players come through fit and uninjured but another hope i have is that they come through not emotionally scarred because their nation uh is scapegoating them and castigating them and like Like, I don't think Gabi came out of the game, Gabriel Magalhães came out of the game as, like, the villain of the piece by any means.

31:36I think Casemiro did and the midfield more and maybe Ancelotti's lineup and the attackers didn't do much. So there was blame to be shared around. It looks like they are pinning more on Gabi for the goal than I kind of felt. It just seemed like poor communication between Gabi and Marquinhos. And, like, look, the... It wasn't his man either. No, the origin of the issue... He ran off with Marquinhos. Well, the origin of the issue is the way they're played through in midfield, right? and then Brahim Diaz has an easy next pass on to Saibari, but he runs off of Marquinhos' shoulder. I think the issue is just that the gap between them is too wide, probably, or they get the offside trap wrong.

32:12I'm not really sure what Gabi's supposed to do once Saibari's in there, though. Yeah, and also, on that note, I don't think... Gabi must be playing these sorts of games and playing in this system, and the midfield just basically being run through or not putting up any sort of resistance or structure and go like every single week in the Premier League I'm used to just the most, maybe he's spoiled, obviously he is spoiled because he gets that every week where you have Declan Rice just in front of him basically or just running the midfield and then a different version of whatever other DM is next to him if that's Miles or if that's Zuby.

32:50Just like going from the most solid midfield to suddenly there is no midfield. he's going what I'm like what do I have to deal with here yeah yeah and he probably cares so much because like all Brazilians like it is like a religion for them and he has to suffer the consequences of just oh yeah I look I will also say I do think he did some good stuff in this game that maybe they're not giving credit for because the number of times Brazil turned the ball over and gave the ball away cheaply in their own defensive third and Morocco were in and Gabby was doing his usual thing of putting out fires and blocking things last minute I mean he had to do a A lot of defending in space after bad losses of possession.

33:27And I think in general, you know, I don't think mobility is necessarily his best quality. And I thought he did well. Anyway, let's look forward to... Last point I'll just say too. Yeah. I know a lot of people very impressed by Ayubou Adi for Morocco. Wonderful player. A player we've been linked with. We're going to start that phase of the tournament now. I think where players who have been on transfer radars are going to get talked about a lot. And as we've discussed, maybe with Flo Balogun, there needs to be that careful understanding of the difference between club and international football.

34:05Because the one thing I will say is there was so much time to do whatever you wanted in that Brazil midfield. And the club game is about how quickly can you make a decision and do the next thing. You think about up against a PSG, for example, and you compare the time you have against PSG when you have the ball versus what Buadi had. So I loved some of the one-touch passing and some of the ball moving and ball recovery from Buadi, but I think you have to be careful. I should also emphasize, some people did get on me about this. When we talked about Flo Balogun, I kind of made it sound like he hadn't kicked on in his club career.

34:38He's done really well. I just meant more, you can't take his performances in the World Cup to say he'd be an Arsenal-level player. I mean, that was more my conclusion. Anyway, what are you looking forward to today? It's got to be Netherlands, Japan. That is, that's a proper World Cup game, especially like the narratives that come with them. Netherlands is this perennial sleeping giant, historic World Cup team should do so much better than they actually do. And then Japan as like the plucky underdog that always does better than they should. It's going to be a great, great game. And I genuinely think, I don't want to put my, I'm going to put my neck on the line.

35:19I think Japan win because I think generally speaking they are a very solid outfit from the outset and they just they know their roles. I like a team that plays within its limits almost like there's no illusions that we are this incredible team. They've got great players but they're not world beaters and so they kind of play within those limits. And it just makes them a very hard team to beat. And they're always going to just play a solid game of football. And Netherlands are probably kind of hindered by the opposite, where they have so many amazing players. And it's been another golden generation after golden generation.

36:13And we should be playing so much better than we are. we need to try and find a way to just be a sturdy opponent. And they kind of not failed to do that because obviously they had a decent run in 2022. But I back Japan to start the tournament stronger and have their wits about them earlier than the Netherlands will. So I'm actually going to go for an upset on that one. Interesting. Yeah, I do think it is a big miss for Japan not having Mitoma. I think you need that extra little bit of quality. if my headline earlier was about finishing. I think it's also just about a player who can unlock a game and get you a goal.

36:51And Matoma's that guy. He's not going to be there. So that'll be interesting. A very, very good matchup. Germany get underway versus Curacao. Curacao, the smallest nation to ever reach a World Cup. And I think Germany may have some issues in their team, but I think they have enough attacking talent to have fun in games like this where they shouldn't be tested too much the other way. Anything other than a big German victory would be a surprise to me. obviously Kai Havertz gets his World Cup up and running and we'll be pulling for him uh Ivory Coast versus Ecuador but my thing I'm looking forward to is Victor Jokras let's see it I mean the one thing we know about Big Vic is that he can thrive when the the level of the competition drops below a certain level I don't know that he's always able to thrive at the top of the game but against Tunisia who are a good side themselves I think I'm excited to watch what Big Vic can do and and get his World Cup up and running.

37:44Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if he has a pretty good tournament against the lesser sides. Like I said, I think he can be pretty devastating. So I'll be looking forward to that. I think it's also, it comes from, I think it's probably the case for most teams, like most domestic clubs, and then seeing their players play for the international team. But playing at club level, you place I think such a a much more specific role and I think Giocares has that where Arsenal is if you play up top for Arsenal you are not just playing up top and just do the striker thing no you're going to be required to do so many other things and even just down to the runs you make or the the way you play you're going to have to adapt so much to make the system work whereas Whereas for Sweden, I get the impression that he can play a lot more of just a traditional, maybe striker role that he's used to.

38:41So I, again, I back you there. I wouldn't be surprised to see him, yeah, flourish, flourish this World Cup. And also, yes, I'm also on Kai Havertz's watch. I have high hopes for him as well. And I think it will be so nice to see him get some extended playing time up top, get fit for pre-season, get a few goals under his belt. And then next year, I think it can only be good for us to have more than one option up top going forward. Because I think a fit Kai Havertz is an asset to basically any team, especially a team like us trying to win all four trophies in a season. yep uh okay i i think that's all well said and i think that's enough world cup daily for today plenty more to come tomorrow arsenal vision podcast main pod coming up and remember we'll be in chicago myself paul and james mcnicholas gunner blog uh on the 28th of june check out chicago.arsenalvisionpodcast.com for details i think there's still a couple tickets left for that so tickets get your tickets get in come come see i could i'm sorry i can't make it i'm i'm on the west coast so yeah that that's okay i apologize that's okay cool guy like you you don't want to be caught in an event like that but you listener dear listener you've got me so wrong i would love to be there i don't i don't uh okay timsy thanks mate enjoy the city talk to you tomorrow all right uh my name is i smith you can block me in twitter again we love you and we will talk to you after world cup 10 fifa no

40:13Thank you.