World Cup Daily - Spain Stun Listless France, England and Argentina Battle to Face Them

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

0:34Michael Timbs:Hey, it's Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile. Now, I was looking for fun ways to tell you that Mint's offer of unlimited premium wireless for$15 a month is back. So I thought it would be fun if we made$15 bills. But it turns out that's very illegal. So there goes my big idea for the commercial. Give it a try at mintmobile.com slash switch.

1:30Look, nobody likes it when you brag, but I'm going to brag about myself for a minute. I only got the France-Spain score wrong by nine goals. This is the World Cup Daily. My name is Elliot Smith, I'm the black man's winner at Yank Gunner. Look, I said 7-0 to France. It was 2-0 to Spain. How many times have you gotten within nine goals of the result? I don't know. Timsy, what about you? How many times have you gotten within nine goals of the result? I think only a few, a handful. I could count on one hand. I mean, like I said, not trying to brag. I'm just saying I did it and I'm proud. I will tell you that we just did an episode with Clive today, Tuesday night, Clive, because we're not going to have Friday night, Clive.

2:08So if you go to Patreon, you want to get in there. We talked about Leo going. We talked about our thoughts on Nani. We had a little back and forth, a tet-a-tet on Nani Medueke. We talked a bit about Alvarez. if he's the right guy could Jokras go the other way Barcola Rodgers Bruno we went through the whole thing so if you want to hear that that is available if you don't want to hear that here's the cool thing just don't listen to it but I and this is just me I think you should listen I mean not because it's any good but just because we took the time to record I'm kidding of course it's good Clive was on it enough of this nonsense Timsey Spain into the final um is it coming home Is England going to get past Argentina and then avenge the Euro final loss?

2:47Is this destiny? Is this your density?

2:51Michael Timbs:I would say yes. I'm going to say yes. It's so easy for me to be realistic and have my normal realistic head on and say, oh, Spain, they look so solid. Whoever wins in France, England, Argentina, probably going to lose to them in the fight. No. No, Elliot. we're going to go all the way because i've never said that before and this time i'm saying we're going all the way because why no way i thought france were gonna win and they were abysmal so what do i know and i think argentina are better than england but then maybe not maybe i need to go against everything i've ever thought during this world cup and just say england are gonna bloody win it all okay i've said it that's that's what that's what this pod needed it needed that confidence and can i just say if england don't win at all are you prepared to try to gin up conflict between jude bellingham and thomas tuchel like to to really drive home the issues between them are you prepared to do that i know this is a joke but i i hate all of this stuff i hate what has become the english media is so predictable and negative and boring and and other than that do you have any concerns with them or no no no of course not they're two adults i mean jude's barely an adult but come on use your imagination listen to where what's happened to context in this world what has happened to everyone saw the tuchel interview you saw him give the post match chat saying look these lot are mentality amazing like i can't fault but but we weren't good enough and we got lucky who would disagree with that we me and my friends were watching the game together in the pub and with all the bias and all the hysteria at times during that two hours we were going oh my god we're crap we're so bad and then for uh who's it gabriel clark is it gabriel clark the guy yeah he did the yeah for him to then mention that totally isolated comment of we weren't good enough we got lucky without the bit of obviously i'm buzzing we're through this is the teamwork and the mentality is what's got us through but we need to do better basically with the ball nothing's wrong with that and gabriel went i'm gonna stir some shit all he had to do was walk up to Jude and say, the manager has praised the mentality of your team but said that there are things in the performance that need to be better.

5:30Do you think that's a fair reflection? And Jude would say,

5:32Michael Timbs:that's what normal people do. Yeah. Anyway, let's move on. Let's talk about the teams that played today. Anyway, vamos. We'll preview this game. Okay, vamos. Spain are through, France are out. I have, as you could imagine, thoughts on this, but my thoughts are obviously secondary to your thoughts. And so I will say to you, dear friend, Timsy, what is your headline from Spain to France nil, just nine goals off my prediction. My headline will be Spain are the best footballing side in the world. And through this World Cup, they have always been the best footballing side in the world. Hear me out.

6:10Michael Timbs:One. Is hear me out part of the headline or are you now onto your analysis? No, no, no, no. Hear me out. I did say this. I don't know. I think I've said it through the tournament, but mostly in maybe the last week or 10 days, that I think, I'm not saying I'm right, but Spain struck me as they are the best team. And then, but France had like, they're the scariest side and they've got the best players. But Spain have always, they've had the best team. They've conceded now one goal on their way to the final, which is remarkable. and also they've just like been the the most solid not the most spectacular not the most frightening but just the most solid side that whoever plays whoever they play against in typical spanish fashion they know how they want to play there's an identity there they just they have a method to and there's no madness it's just there's there's method to the sanity whereas france was sort of i don't really know what their tactics are apart from just give it to their big front guys and let them just cause chaos because they're so good and on another day i'm sure france could have easily won and scored three but today they were totally outclassed and uh as some people say out-tacticked and I can't remember who came up with that term first um but they just were completely second best to Spain Spain nullified them from top to bottom even Unai Simon looked all right and he still had a chance to screw things up at the end and and it do I could have punished them but um yeah it was just no I mean France had absolutely nothing going for everyone played it had a stinker Sliva were injured so now I'm annoyed and I saw Leo in a bit yeah I was gonna save that for later and i was just i was gonna save it for a segment but you brought it up so let's just talk about it the best side yeah and it's easier to to look at that retrospectively and go they've always been the best side but they they quite clearly are now and yeah see this might change depending on what happens tomorrow between england and argentina but for now it's easier looking back at every single game and go you know what they have just kept getting better and even like a boring game like the spain portugal game they're they're just they're solid man they're solid well and i'll come to my headline but you brought up the saliva thing dude so i i think we should just yeah touch on it um his back goes he sits down and uh julian laurent said you could see him say my back is gone my back is gone and i tried to make the joke well if his back is gone that's great because it can't bother him anymore but nobody thought it was funny so i tried to make it again here you didn't think it was funny either um don't make a joke whilst we're grieving okay this i mean i don't want to be hyperbolic but like this could be a long time uh out recovering from what is inevitably probably going to be some kind of procedure which was rumored to be needed before this anyway um and i i love gabby but i sort of think the whole defensive unit starts with saliva and it all radiates out from there and if you look at the wreck Arsenal's record without Saliba it hasn't been good and so I just here's a question do you think it's irresponsible knowing that Saliba had a back issue and they were trying to get him through it that a procedure was probably going to be needed do you think it's irresponsible to be using a player like this or is it just the reality that a player's going to want to play exactly the national team manager wants to win the world cup and this is just how it works unfortunately and we got on i think i think it is the the latter as you say it is sure it might be irresponsible of them but also it's who cares for them if if it's irresponsible for the club team is that they're playing for their nation and of course i guarantee if you ask william saliba should you have played he would have been i've been managing it i felt fine and he'll give every everything for his country and i'm pretty sure you would say this bakaya would say the same thing Declan will say the same thing uh it's not at all a surprise and you kind of you wouldn't expect it any other way as well really like if you plonked yourself in those because we have to come to the the solemn realization that we care more about Arsenal selfishly than the players do because the players of course care about the club care about them representing the club but also they effectively have two clubs they have their nation and they have their domestic club we obviously have our nation but because club football takes up 90 percent 95 percent of our lives and of our kind of daily watching of football of course our priorities are going to lie there uh when it's all said and done so uh for us it's easy to think ah you should just you've got to prioritize you know start the season strong you don't want to be injured you can still you know contribute for no they're gonna give their absolute all and if it means getting injured in the in the final and do it doing his backing if it wasn't there and it might have been in the final and then what he's gonna do a last ditch save to win them the world cup he's doing that in a heartbeat he's doing that and if it was us we'd do exactly the same so I think it's one of those scenarios but it doesn't make it any any less sad disappointing frustrating and it gets your mind racing a little bit which is which is bad because we should still be enjoying the World Cup but now I'm literally thinking about in four weeks time what we're gonna do are we gonna have to sign someone is the surgery gonna take him out for two months all of this stuff it's not doing good things for my anxiety and I'm going to need to invest in some CBD gummies I think.

12:10Yeah, well first of all I think you should do that regardless. We don't have a CBD gummy sponsor though so I don't have any to recommend. Not yet. Not yet. There is inevitably going to be discourse of this is Mikel Arteta's fault he overplayed the player. I categorically deny that. Categorically. I think there are scenarios where there are players he probably overplayed and had options to rotate them. I do think that's the case. I think Zubamendi is an example of that. Absolutely. Let me hit you with some stats on Virgil van Dyke, for example. Virgil van Dyke this season at 34 years old, 3890s played.

12:46Last season, 3790s played. The season before that, 3690s played. A few seasons before that, 3890s played. A few seasons before that, 3890s played. Like center backs play this. It is not uncommon for center backs to just keep getting rolled out there. And you could say, well, the game has changed and the football calendar has gotten worse. It was a World Cup year, but we didn't exactly skate to the title. We got there in the end, but it got a little bit hairy. And I don't know that anybody would have been saying this if we wheeled out Mascara at West Ham in May. I just don't know what people want to do.

13:29Maybe I'm making the mistake of giving bad faith arguments airtime, but I do think there are people that believe this. So, you know, I mean, look, Saliba played 79 minutes in the FA Cup. In the Champions League, he played a decent amount, but certainly had games off in the Champions League. He was given days off in the Champions League where he wasn't even in the squad, I believe. like there were probably opportunities for Mikel to rest in me. He also, by the way, only 29 90s in the league this season. So there were games that he missed. I like, I get it. It's frustrating and people want someone to blame and they're either going to blame France or they're going to blame Mikel.

14:14And I think the reality is blame the people that have made football so attritional that the top players either have to choose to not play in competitions they care about or they just eventually pick up an injury and have to be on the sidelines for a while.

14:29Michael Timbs:I think it's a mix of things. Blame the schedule. There is just too much football. As much as I love watching football, there is too much football. And also then it takes so much of your bandwidth that you end up caring less about perp. Your amount cared, I'm putting this in a stat so you can understand it as well. Your amount cared per game and per 90, the more games there are, the slightly less you're going to care per 90 just because there's more you only have so much energy so um i would also say that week by week if you ask Mikel and if you are Saliba they he was rested as much as both Mikel and himself felt he could be rested week by week in order to give us the best chance of playing the most games but also winning the most games I'm convinced of it.

15:20Michael Timbs:Mikel, you could ask the same question to Mikel and I don't think he would say, I could have rested him this game because we won 5-0. Well, yeah, we won 5-0. He was playing. It might have been a squeaky bum time 2-1 and it was horrible. The knock-on effect, it's not even worth thinking about, to be honest. It is what it is. We know he's been managing that problem. We won the Premier League with a Saliba, with a back problem. so what I don't know what else to to say like it was it's a shame and it's annoying as hell that it's obviously got to this point but we just have to face the reality now and hope for the best but also just bear in mind that yeah it might be a little while and we could be looking at that maybe the first month to six weeks of the Premier League season without a Durian without Willow without one or both of deck and and buccayo and luckily we have a really really strong squad so we're going to need to add to that to make sure that we can cover for um for those six weeks that's that's what i've told myself anyway that's what i've told myself have a horrible first six weeks michael yeah that's yeah yeah i i guess look we'll just have to see but like i i don't know what to tell you man I mean like Saliba didn't start against Southampton in the FA Cup he played 19 minutes of that game he played an hour against Wigan you could say maybe he shouldn't have played then he wasn't in the squad against Kaira Dalmati he wasn't in the squad in Brugge he didn't play at all against Athletic uh Athletic Club in Spain to start the to start the Champions League campaign I think that's fair enough he missed some league games like you know this is just one of those things and he has had a back injury for a while and so So the thing that frustrates me is France have been playing him through a back injury that we knew would need a procedure at the end of this tournament.

17:16They've been trying to get him through it. You hear that and it makes you very angry. But by the same token, like the player almost certainly said, I want to play. And when a player wants to play for their national team in a World Cup, I think it's very hard to tell them you can't. And by the way that side of the defense looked for the second goal, where Spain scored through a saliva-sized hole in the central defense because Lacroix, whatever, just decided. Lacroix didn't drop out. Kona didn't. Yeah, he just had a great view of the whole thing. It was like he was watching the game from the best seat in the house.

17:51I mean, like, you could see why France would feel they needed to play.

17:53Michael Timbs:The hospital bed seat. Yes. Yeah. Okay, well, we can move on from that segment. Can I hit you with my headline? Please. all of us, but maybe me more than most, need to appreciate the importance of midfield chemistry and quality more than we do. And there's an Arsenal point to this, but there is a major footballing point because PSG and Spain might be the two best club and national team sides in world football right now. And the thing they have in common is their midfields dominate games. They're hard to get the ball off. They're organized. their midfields help protect their defenders and help platform their attackers.

18:35No one has better attackers in the world than France. But that midfield of Choumini and Rabiot and, you know, I mean, I guess it was Kone and Choumini after that, like, that's not the best platform for what's in front of them. And on a day when Olisei was really, really poor, the attackers just couldn't get the ball in dangerous areas and wound up being neutralized. And fundamentally, you know, if I look at Arsenal and I say, why am I so excited for the Bruno links? I still think Arsenal's midfield can platform its attack better, can bring the ball back to front better, can help us control games better.

19:08We saw it firsthand against PSG. And we don't have to play like PSG. But they got the best midfield in the world. Spain have the best midfield chemistry and quality in the world on the ball. And those things win you games more than maybe we appreciate. And while we all get fixated on this striker and this winger, Oyessa Ball, I don't think he's great. by ina i don't think he's great the players that come in for them uh um uh farron torres again i don't think he's great nico williams coming off an injury is all right they have laminia mall fine but it's that midfield that dominates games for them timsey and as long as they can do that the rest seems seems to work out for them you know yeah well i think but then i again i going

19:49Michael Timbs:back to i guess my original point i think this is what this is the benefit they get from having a system ingrained in them from when all of them were kids and because there is a there is a maybe it's a bit of a simplistic view to take but i'll take it anyway that this this spanish side has an identity of how it wants to play and the fact that no matter where you go in spain and no matter what age group there will be they would they everyone will use that template of how to play football and it's a lot of like just possession-based football and it's domination of the midfield it's controlling the tempo and it's picking these passes right that that means that even the midfield three so fabio ruiz daniel mo rodri at the moment you feel like if they are the three best midfielders in the world like absolutely not however they are more than good enough and when they work in a system like the spanish system then they are allowed to dominate especially against yeah Rabiot and Chouameni and though that kind of as France has been playing with that deep lying two deep lying midfielders as which I know you hate um they've got away with it so far because their job has solely been right try to control the ball give it to the front four as quick as possible boom great out of possession try and just win the ball back make it difficult for people cool that that's it so they've been able to almost cover up their deficiencies because no one's been able to really expose them and they've just bullied teams with their their power and talent up front whereas now coming up against their first i guess proper proper side in the there's a team that matches them or bests them in midfield and has the tactical mouse to like know how to nullify their front four they didn't have anything like their xg i know you you hate stats so yeah football's played on a pitch not a spreadsheet me grow up the xg for the whole game was 0.3 and in the first half it was 0.04 what the what is that like this is the france i think it's 0.04 it is 0.04 like this is france and we've seen them score i don't know how many where they've played it was eight games they scored 16 goals or something right they conceded fine two or three uh i think three like that's obviously not many conceded spain have conceded one and didn't they look like they could have played three hours of football against this front side they would and their goalkeeper stinks and their goalkeeper stinks like he wanted france to score i think he had money on france score yeah it's just it is wild so like that's what i think the the spanish side has that advantage over even for example a france side or an england side as we can see at the moment like the the way i see it is that the two argentina have the advantage of we know how to play it's whatever messi does like we just give messi the ball we work around messi that that's an advantage because at least they know that that's just the way they play england we don't know how we're going to play we don't know if we want to dominate the ball we don't know if we want to counter press or just counter or sit back uh we have no idea but then it's like oh we don't know what to do anymore we've tried to attack can't do it whip a ball in there's a random scrap in the box and jude bellingham's there and we score that's the way we play right and then spain just go we've always known how we want to play we're going to sub in or out any players that we want we're going to keep playing the same way for the last five ten minutes of the game today they were doing olays as they were like flicking balls over the non-existent midfield in france what there's a there's a thing that happens too when when you go up against a team like spain and you're two goals down and you think we got to get a goal we got to get a goal like you could kind of see france give up because they just couldn't get the ball off them they just couldn't get the ball off them every chance was like a pop shot or kind of it was what I kind of found the only France chances came from Unai Simon going for a wander and even then that was just for jokes Duhay fucked that up by the way because if Duhay slides the ball across the top of the box it's a goal and that has to be passed that was the kind of best shot they really had not literal shot but that's the best chance they had and all the other times it was like Spain did a really good job obviously of nullifying the the front four the front four didn't play well obviously but also it was like they've been able to figure out and poke and prod up to this point because they are so good and so frightening and had played well but also there was no there was no game plan from any of the sides that they faced to to a man it was more like well we'll we'll sit back and just make it difficult for them whereas it seemed like in with the spanish side and obviously credit to de la fuente as well that he had a plan of we're gonna dominate the ball make sure they don't have any uh space in midfield so when they do have the ball they have fewer chances to actually get it out to these wide men or get it up to mbappe and then when they do it's just there was no space they just like they did they totally out outclassed them and obviously we know like didier dichon isn't like a tactical genius but he's he's been able to he's also not a tactical like idiot like he he obviously knows roughly like what he's doing but he's had the luxury of just having these incredibly talented and dangerous players that it will just it just works and until it doesn't and this this spain side just actually had a plan and and it just worked i also just think international football can also often feel quite individualistic because these aren't teams that get to train a lot together they aren't they don't get to work on advanced tactical concepts so it can boil down to well up to this point and then they come up against this a nation that has club level tactics and chemistry and coherence you've got no chance yep which kind of puts paid to the idea that it's always like well with the best man united side be the best england side or with the better there is no doubt in my mind that any of the best club sides ever would wipe the floor with any of the best international sides ever yes and there's no for me there is never a debate there no i totally agree and like it does again to pull it back to arsenal when i think about the second half of the season where we sort of had questions about the way we played when zubamendi's performances were dipping and rice maybe was going through some challenges physically where he really had to lift himself and we were not totally sure how to fit as a in it was sometimes odegaard sometimes has it like and the midfield wasn't at the level we'd become accustomed to that also made our attack feel very easily nullified and like spain in my mind again do not have the best attacking talent not even probably the top five but they have a midfield that runs the game and that that does it so let's let's get to the the stock section here though um and i i am going to give you this this this you really prestigious option but i am going to introduce it because it is the nord mvp of the day the nord mvp is our first stock rising and it is brought to you by nord vpn nord vpn is an app you put on your phone you put on your tablet you put on your computer you could put it on all of them now you can't put it like on your jacket or your shirt you can't put it on a cup.

27:51You can't put it on a plate. You have to put it on an electronics device that accesses the internet. So don't come back to me like, Elliot, I bought NordVPN and tried to put it on my coffee mug and it didn't work because that's not what it's for. It is an app. It is a security app. You click a button and it lets you browse where you want to browse. It gives you safety and security when you're on certain sites that may not be safe and secure, which as a football supporter, you're almost certainly doing sometimes. And it lets you watch the subscription services that you pay for when you travel and when you are not in those locations.

28:21So get it. It is very highly rated on customer sites like Trustpilot and stuff like that and the speed is very highly regarded as well. Use code ArsenalVision so NordVPN.com slash ArsenalVision to get a four bonus months, a discount and a 30 day money back guarantee. Four bonus months, a discount and a 30 day money back guarantee. It's NordVPN.com slash ArsenalVision Do it now. Timzy who you got as your first stock rising? I've got my VPN on here.

28:45Michael Timbs:Oh good. Very good to hear. Okay. my stock rising will be De La Fuente. I was going to go with Iosabal, but I've gone with De La Fuente. Wait, I've got to stop you. You were going to go with Iosabal? Yes. I don't get it, man. Why? You scored the penalty, but why? One, the penalty was great. It's a good penalty. No stutter run-up. Today, we hate stutter run-ups. yeah yeah the penalty was great he's also if you look at his record like i'm again i'm i'm with you i look at him i watch him play and outside of like scoring and like big moments he don't do much but in those big moments he is so calm and if you look at his record it's actually quite it's a joke he's already how many goals he scored four for spain so far might be more I'm not sure.

29:47Michael Timbs:It's around four or five. Come on. He also scored. He's got five goals. He's got five goals, right? Good return. Good return. One being a penalty, whatever. He's also scored against England in a Euro final when they won the Euros. He scored in his last two Copa del Rey finals. Like he just has that thing. and again it's not my favorite thing for for a player to just have i'd prefer to just watch them play football and it's really pretty and nice and fun and exciting like any of the top four for france but then spain go give me your yas about and he just he'll deal with it um and it's like it's like our beloved leo as well he's he's obviously a aesthetically pleasing footballer as well but the main reason why we love him is that he has been so clutch for us over the last few years you could you could be the ugliest footballer in the world but give me Leo's goals when it mattered and that's what Spain has uh in a Yassaba which is why I didn't go with a Yassaba I went with Dele Fuente yeah so after all of that I've actually chosen the wrong one But De La Fuente, because he, I think in his, he gave a bonkers post-match interview What?

31:14Michael Timbs:I missed this? De La Fuente I knew I shouldn't have been spending time with my kids Tonight, okay, here we go He said, tonight we faced one of the best national teams in the world However, they faced the best national team in the world The stones on the man to say that On the dressing room wall when England get past Argentina. Of course, he probably prepared two different speeches there. It was either, today, we were one of the best national teams in the world, but unfortunately, we faced the best one. And he managed to, he was allowed to say the version that he wanted to. And after tonight, you can't really blame him either.

31:59Michael Timbs:because okay Spain I would genuinely say Spain to the extent like how good their performance was they humiliated this France side they made them look embarrassingly bad right yeah for a team that good the last five ten minutes of the game they were flicking it over their players heads going ole right not the players but the fans it's crazy I'm trying to think back as an England fan who's like oh such a historical incredible world beating side sort of i don't i don't think we've even done that in friendlies before let alone semi-finals of a world cup like we've never we've never we scraped past dr congo and we what this is a proper proper side so fair fair dues to de la fuente he He is obviously an incredible manager.

32:53Michael Timbs:And I really rated that post-match interview as well. I really do. I do think also Spain is, of all the teams in the tournament, might be the one you least want to go behind to. Because you want... They'll constrict you and just bore the hell out of you and you've got no chance. Yes, what you want is to be able to get a bit compact, have them do that sterile domination thing, and then just go at them with lightning transition attacks and let Unai Simon go racing out into nowhere. But so, yeah, well, we didn't talk about it, so I should at least ask you, do you have any issue with the penalty? No.

33:32Michael Timbs:Yes, because I'm like... Is it a handball? Yeah, so I personally thought it was a little bit too, but then he does boot him. He boots him. Oh, it's a penalty if it's not a handball. If it's not a handball, it's a penalty. You can't boot somebody like that. And so I think it's, again, as we said, was it yes two days ago? Sometimes you give a penalty for the person committing the foul for being so damn stupid. And we highlighted Luka Deenius throughout this tournament going, that something's not right there. We said it in the preview to this game. We said that could be the reason. And it's taken up to the semifinal, but finally we proved right.

34:15Michael Timbs:it was the fact that he was so just focused on the ball that he didn't for one one split second millisecond look tiny bit right or left just to see is anyone about and he just boots uh lamin it was it was it was it was a penalty because he was an idiot and he kicked a fellow human being but I also think it was sort of a a handball and also just like get on with it but yeah anyway can I give you my shitty yank take on this which is yeah do it do it yank it up I'm going to be careful your visa to come here just got approved look um i just hate what penalties are like it's dumb me too it's a foul he gets caught but like lamine yamal is not committing any kind of act of trying to attack the box he knows if i race really fast dina's not looking i have a chance for him to kick me and if he kicks me i have a chance to win a penalty and it's like there was another kick later in the game that wound up with a france free kick very very late in the game maybe like the 85th minute or something where or Yamal fouled Dewey maybe, and it's like six centimeters from the edge of the box, and it's a free kick.

35:39Six centimeters closer, and it's a penalty. And look, I get that's how this works. But for me, there's almost a thing where I would say, if a foul occurs in the box in the act of trying to pass to a teammate or attack the goal or shoot on goal, it should be a penalty. If a foul occurs at the periphery of the box where you are not under control of the football and are not making an attacking movement, maybe it shouldn't be because it's an 80 % goal for absolutely nothing. Like, there's no threat here. Dean is just an idiot.

36:13Michael Timbs:I get what you mean, and I think I agree, but also I can't stress just you should be punished for being stupid. Yeah, I just feel the punishment is too strong. I do agree. I do agree. Remember, there used to be a thing called the Darwin Awards. people get punished for being stupid a lot but this this felt like hefty punishment having said that it did feel a bit too much yeah we'll probably come to this more but on the balance of play Dean you deserve to concede at least one goal okay um I'm gonna give you my stock rising we already touched on the Spain midfield because I was tempted to go with like Rodri who kind of ominously looks like Rodri again and I don't love that but with the minutes he's racking up maybe it won't be an issue for the club season you got to pick two you didn't mean to but you did so I'm gonna pick two i'm gonna say spain's fullbacks um i don't like kukurea i don't like him but he was brilliant i don't like and i don't like poro but he was brilliant poro takes his goal he he sees the space he makes an intelligent run he's in there the french wingers had no joy i mean dembele's a ballon door winner he got nothing off kukurea kukurea had that phenomenal tackle off mbappe in the center of the box late in the game poro shut barkala down and then shut due down for the most part they were excellent they assisted the attack in in getting forward when they needed to they ran up and down the touchline they got a goal between them they're just they're really good players i'm glad one has gone out of the premier league and the other one you know maybe this performance will see him get bids from real clubs and he'll leave too but they were excellent or he'll just get actually get relegated this time could be uh unlikely given their transfer business which sadly is quite good but that's another story um so let's switch to stocks falling uh i have so many that i have no idea where to begin so you go first because you always give me the honor of going first can you please go first can i give you the pool or i really see two very strong maybe three very strong choices i'm gonna say two though that that have to come up at least okay one is luca dean who was like at one point i thought stop passing him the ball stop past he was he was crap he's not good enough and like i actually thought when theo hernandez came on he looked all right and it kind of made me wonder what are we doing not at least seeing if he could play instead of dinia i do think international managers he's a physical man international managers make that mistake sometimes when it like if it ain't broke don't fix it so like we've been winning and dinia's been playing so i'll just keep playing dinia but it's like you're gonna get bit eventually and they got bit he was awful but i almost feel like i'd rather focus on a more startling poor performance which was michael olise who was dreadful and like in order for france to work rabio and chumani aren't gonna do much for you man they're they're water carriers olise's got to get the ball between the lines and make things happen he had one really good opportunity to free Mbappe that he played right into the defender's feet he lost the ball shit ton he didn't execute any of his crosses well he just looked like he was playing at half pace um this was this was a performance I didn't even think Olise had in him because he's such a talented and elegant player and by the way he'll go back to Bayern and be one of the best players in the world and kudos to him but like Dina was crap but I expected it Olise was crap and I never would have guessed because I had him as one of my players of the tournament so did you see did you see olis's performance the way i did uh yeah no i thought it was it was uh terrible but again as you say so i i i didn't see it coming of course because yeah as you say like it's almost he's too good to have a bad game um so it was a bit of a surprise to see him come up that short like he didn't even just his dribbles and stuff but but then i feel like but this is the first time they've come up against a properly organized side that shut down space really well limit them to half chances or even limit the the space and the time the number of times they even get the ball because if you're uh you're pressing high up or you're kind of keeping the spaces so well that your defenders struggle to get the ball either to the two deep line midfielders or out wide then he would have had the ball 10 times less than he would have against all of the other teams so naturally you're working within a smaller kind of uh i guess group of like chances that you're gonna get and then maybe as soon as that kind of first goal goes in you can see that goal which is maybe a little bit unlucky maybe it was on the cards you're one nil down it just every time they get all of the French attackers get the ball far less than they would normally and then because of the goal and because of just how well structured and serious this Spain side is the pressure is just ramped up ever so slightly on every single time they do get the ball and then suddenly it's like maybe they're overthinking it a little bit but like well now I kind of need to push the agenda a little bit I need to you know force things and then suddenly they're playing outside they're not free-flowing they're not just playing and having fun and doing their thing they're suddenly doing things they they probably shouldn't be doing or like trying to force the issue a little bit so um i didn't expect him to to play that badly but then i think as you said if it's not broke don't fix it i think it's easy to say after the game right you definitely should have changed stuff but if you can get that far with playing the basically the same back four Mignon in goal who's like again not a world beater Lucas Dina who's not even a mid-table Premier League beater and then you've got two deep-lying two just like normally really solid deep-lying midfielders and then there's no real way of playing apart from we're pretty good give it to the front guys let them do their thing if the front guys don't do their thing there's not much else you can do and like that's why real madrid for example with vinnie and mbappe and jude like also don't win everything because it's it's modric's gone cruce is gone they've just struggled yeah um okay do you have another stock following you want to pick or should we just shift gears and look at england argentina real quick i think we've been negative enough oh i can i can always go more yeah let's do it yeah but okay uh let's shift gears we'll move on we'll move on okay so spain are going to be in the final i think it's funny because going into the tournament you would have said of course spain are going to be in the final and then the tournament kicked off you're like of course france are going to be in the final but honestly either way would have been fine it's reflective of what we've seen in the tournament so far and a reminder by the way how did spain start this tournament failing to beat cabo verde how quickly we forget things like that they go on to look just like we expected them to look and now they're in the final um england argentina uh obviously england i think comfortably win this game i'm not even sure it'll be a stressful day for you yeah yeah um seven nil a feeling feeling seven nil um but honestly i don't know what to make of this because i i think the england norway game is hard to evaluate because the heat and humidity and rice being sick and all that made it hard to evaluate that the mexico game is hard because the england were really good in stretches but played half of the game down to 10 men at altitude against the home home nation that's really hard to evaluate so i actually feel like i haven't gotten and the dr congo game was a bit of a mess but i i don't think i've gotten a sense of what england are yet and so you could tell me that england comfortably cruise past argentina tomorrow or they get battered and and both would make sense to me i can't i don't know so so for me this this comes down to i don't know how good spain are now i don't know how good france are i don't know how good england are apart from the fact that we haven't played well yet and I don't really know how good Argentina are and Argentina have at least played well once or twice and they've looked comfortable I would say that the best thing that we've got going for us is that Mexico we we played well in patches had really good moments and kind of i guess imposed our way of playing on the mexicans at their home ground in that atmosphere he's back and so in in for the mexico game i felt like we for the mexico game i felt like we we did play well in stretches we also pushed our luck a little bit in stretches but we won against norway we did not play well for any more than maybe three minutes and we won we didn't play well against the arcana we won so the biggest compliment i can pay us and and the the good thing that stands us maybe in the best stead going against argentina is that we have not played well this world cup but we have found a way to win despite not playing well so even if we don't play well against argentina we still have a chance versus i think argentina have played well they have of course still found ways of winning when they haven't quite played as well but they've shown some real frailties and were really close to going out against egypt and And so I'm tempted to talk myself into a corner and say that I think we have the edge for some reason.

46:28Michael Timbs:And I can't really explain why. I think, I don't know. I don't know. The good thing is, as an aside point, right? This is going to be an amazing game. It might be a terrible game of football. but for for me as an England fan and in my lifetime this feels like the most world cup the true world cup game experience we could have we could have for maybe for the last like I mean like 30 years maybe maybe okay Brazil 2002 right when we lost to Brazil in the world cup fine but since then we haven't come anywhere close to this France quarterfinals Qatar 2022 sure but we always play France like European sides I feel like don't count to have a true world cup experience to feel like you are in it for like a big world cup footballing nation you need to play a team from South America and they need to be one of the big ones and it needs to be later in the tournament and so the fact that we are playing against Lionel Messi's Argentina in the semi-final of a World Cup in the kind of US-Mexico-Canada World Cup and we're potentially like really bad at football but we're not because we have so many amazing players I don't know I did yeah it's going to be such an interesting game I for some reason I'll leave it at this I do think we're favourites and I don't know why but I think we are I yeah I don't know actually at all I mean here's what I do think I think the idea that you can just keep saying well yada yada the football and Jude will turn up and do some magic like it keeps happening I don't think you yeah sorry yeah I don't think you can keep yada yada in the football and just expect Jude magic and like have that be your game plan so definitely not yeah I mean obviously I think if Rice is fit and if Saka is feeling okay Saka you are looking at a very different England Saka when he came on you know against Norway you saw the difference Rice I mean he he just can't play if he's going to play like he did against Norway that's that that won't work I do think the obviously the weather the the conditions won't be a factor so that'll be a help um I don't know I mean there's a part of me that says that's been waiting for the cutie Romero Lissandro Martinez experience to implode into what we know that experience can be yes it's coming and it wouldn't shock me if it if this is the game where it happens um yeah yeah i can see a clumsy challenge from romero the gormless what what really me or lissandro like either or lissandro and it's a clumsy challenge ken goes down boom penalty that means a goal um yes i think that could be coming i would also say that this side that they're sorry the argentina side i i again i don't know how good they are but i feel like we can we can sort of bully them a bit because we are physically like we are we are greater we are a more physical side and at least when things aren't going well you can make your presence felt yeah I don't know I don't know how much we will be able to do that because they might play us off the park but I haven't been wowed by them this World Cup no do you think it'll be Rice Anderson and Jude in midfield Gordon off the left Sack off the right Kane through the middle and then it should Conce out right back like who's going to play right back it's going to be I think it'll be Stones it stones get here in the middle no i would go nick o'reilly left gay left center back stones right center back jed on the right i think anything else than that because i i just don't i don't want konzer in the side i can't do it again i just well look arsenal are going to sign him to play while salib is out are we actually because honestly that would make me so sad i think he's probably a lovely guy i think he's probably an amazingly well that's not really what matters in this game exactly we're winners now we are champions um but yes i i uh it's a it's an odd one i'm not sure uh what what to expect but i i would also state i would um put it out there that i think our journey to get there has not been easy and of course egypt ran ran argentina close but with the conditions that we played the emotional toil that we've had to expend and also the the the heat and just how difficult our journey's been not in terms of rankings of teams or anything like that but just every game has felt like an absolute brute of a battle for one reason or another and argentina saved maybe the last game that they had i don't think they've cruised past a little bit easier and so they're probably not as tired as we are we did by the end of that especially in regulation time against norway we look spent like i was convinced we were going to concede like we they were peppering us and we looked like we had nothing uh luckily once obviously we scored we dominated them then and i think our our sub did really well but that has to play a factor as well so i'm i'm i'm torn i think it's really it's going to be a really really close game but one that genuinely i would be so sad if we lose however yeah regardless of whether we win or lose what a just world cup experience to just get into the real meat and bones of like this is a i can't describe it because i haven't felt that before look man argentina played six times in this tournament they've scored three goals in five of the six but let me hit you with this for a second algeria austria jordan cabo verde egypt switzerland and with no disrespect to any of those teams but there was a chance that none of those teams got out of their group let alone made it as far as they did switzerland are probably the most solid side out of all they are so yes but I think Argentina have looked very vulnerable on the counter.

53:25And I don't think England have looked particularly effective at controlling games. We've looked useless at that. Yeah, so you know what? Get Gordon in there. Useless. There's this weird part of me that's like, if England had a pacey striker that they wanted to play instead of Kane, this would be the game to do it. You know what I mean? and go batter and buff it. Martinez and QD Romero make them make challenges in open space. But maybe that's Jude running past Kane. Exactly, I think that is it. Look, I think it's England. I really do. I'm sorry, England fans. But I think it's England. I don't think Argentina has been particularly tested.

54:06I think England, away from the crushing heat. And the only other thing I want to say about this, the the build-up has been uh quite quite and uh argumentative quite uh bellicose there's been there's a lot of antipathy here between the fan bases i don't know if there are between the players but it feels a bit tasty and i do think that it it's gonna be it this is what i'm saying it's a

54:34Michael Timbs:proper world cup time this is there there are certainly nasty bits to this which which no normal human being should really pay any mind to like it's just two football teams it doesn't matter right but because that side does exist it does just culminate into like a this is world cup again as a you could when i say this i have to do it through like gritted teeth and almost like just bring out this like angry world cup person inside of me because this is like some deep rooted world cup tribalism you know this is i haven't had this before in my life is if england panama again woo let me get excited for this or england columbia let's oh we've won the penalties and in the moment it was amazing but this for me has like true world cup meaning like this is a game that if we win it or do it kind of anything whatever happens but especially if we win it this will be the game that when i'm old and senile and have 10 grandchildren i can say ah in the same way that the hand of god in 86 and maradona scored this amazing goal and then gaza in 96 and i this is my one of them i could go like oh england when when jude bundled that ball after with a goal line scramble and we won two one in in 40 years when you're my age you'll be sitting there telling people about telling people about this okay uh look we've been going a while so let's knock it on the head i'm very excited for you you're actually going to do the world cup daily with lewis ambrose on thursday so i will not be joining for that but we will do a finals preview and we will do a pod that i will be on i'm sorry everybody for the final itself we are not going to do a pod for france argentina consolation game i apologize we're not doing it what's the point in that no okay uh so we'll leave it there you're up way past your bedtime get some sleep uh i'm very excited to hear what you have to say to lewis at full time i wish you luck for the england supporters out there i wish you luck for the argentina supporters look i'm sorry i gotta go with my my all my my friends in england who who are pulling for this one so that's that's where my my heart is and i wish you well so thank you timsey thank you sir i appreciate you thanks everyone who went on this journey with us it's been weird at times it's been fun hopefully for you.

57:00It's been a hell of a lot of fun for me. Timsey's fucking killed it. It's just been a blast. We miss you, Phil, but I've had an absolute blast doing this, and we've got just a couple more to go, so we're nearly there. You're nearly back to your full-time Arsenal nonsense. We love you, and we'll talk to you after World Cup 10. Fee-Fee-N-Hell!

57:29Bye.