England power past Croatia as Ronaldo’s Portugal stumble

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2:44Yes, gauntlet thrown, Tom and much beer too as England staged thrilling 4-2 victory against Croatia. Meanwhile, CR7 or CRAP, we look at Portugal's 1-1 draw with Congo. Plus, a look back on the best bits of the opening week of matches at this World Cup. Hello there, it's totally at the World Cup and here's today's starting line-up. Tom Williams.

3:13Laurie Whitwell. Duncan Alexander.

3:23That was a Marcelo Bielsa reference. Oh, was it? Oh, yeah, yeah, it was. Just shine. There we go. We've got a new face here on our Totally Ranch. Laurie, thank you so much for joining us. You've been out in World Cup land since Saturday. Yes, yes. Done anything special so far? A few things, yes. I've been quite busy. Saturday night you arrived and off the plane you went to a party in the Hollywood Hills with Rio Ferdinand and James Corden. They were both there, yes. We watched the Australia v... Who did they beat 2-0? Turkey. Turkey, there we go. Too many games. Straight away, yeah, straight into it.

4:02Lovely barbecue, actually. Great steak, I have to say. Then it was Iran. I got very Iran-focused very quickly. Right, from Corden, Hollywood Hills to Iran. Listen, this is what the World Cup brings you. You know, a mix, a textured layer of various football activities, including a courtroom visit. You went to the court. I went to the court, yeah, LA courthouse. LA law. And it was an experience. Basically, it was about the flag. You know, are they allowed to bring the Lion and Sun flag in, the fans? All right, this was another Iranian question. And then, was it yesterday you drove down to Tijuana?

4:36Yes, yes, yes, yes. All right, well... Three hours to get there. They don't check your passport on the way through. No? Just wave you through, no problem. That was something that I hadn't anticipated on the way back. Then a three-hour queue to get into the United States. Yes. Yeah. And then it was quite a late time by the time I got home to LA. It took me three hours to go two miles up to the border and then two hours to get from the border to LA, which is 145 miles. Right. But you wouldn't have it any other way, would you? I wouldn't have it any other way. It was an experience. I was going there to watch Iran train, shall we say.

5:07So they've obviously been shifted from Arizona because of their visa issues into Tijuana. Yeah. And they've kind of been, I think, sort of left to their own devices a little bit. Excellent. Well, we've been having a busy time with it here as well. We've had a skunk, watched some football games. Big skunk fact. Many thanks again, people sending in some wonderful names. But here's a bit of science for you. Lola Pazuzu says, skunk fact, skunks can perform handstands. Well, I saw this in the comments and I thought, how incredible. And then I immediately thought, is this a windup? Oh, is it a windup?

5:44Lola Pazuzu, I fell for it. Is it a windup? I mean, I don't know. Okay, so according to Lola, etc., they do this to intimidate their opposition, making themselves appear bigger, more threatening and more powerful. Now I read it, I do begin to wonder. Surely the fact that they can spray a noxious substance out of their own butthole is all the intimidation they need. But adjacent. I apologise. Lola continues. It saves this grandstanding ball of fur, scientific name, from having to unleash their signature eau de parfum, which takes a surprisingly long time to replenish supplies of. That all makes sense to me.

6:19What if you're carrying around a toxic... It's like a sort of elaborate dummy, like that Reft did in the France game with VAR. Yes, indeed so. Maybe he's a skunk. Okay, yeah. It's a voyage of discovery. We've got so much to discuss today. Laurie's with us. Laurie's adventures. I'm just thinking of a skunk doing a handstand. Yeah, you might see it. Possible. You might see it because most nights we do get a visit from Clarence Spraidorf. Clarence Spraidorf. Keep your eyes fixed up. Equally, and his buddy. But we're really here, Laurie, to talk about the football. And we had plenty of it on this day, day seven, Wednesday, as we've been calling it at the World Cup.

6:59Of course, this is Thursday morning for you, quite possibly, in the UK, if that's where you're receiving this. Day seven so far, there's one match that's still taking place. We'll be hearing about that very, very shortly from Megan Feringer. But the day began with Portugal's 1-1 draw with Congo. That was followed by England at lunchtime doing Croatia 4-2. Their first 4-2 win since, well, that one. And then there was the worst game of the tournament so far by popular consent. Redeemed at least by a goal at the end. Right. And that was Ghana. Panama, Ghana, who will be England's next opponent. And anyway, with that and tonight's Colombia-Uzbekistan affair, that completes the first round of matches.

7:45So everyone will have played in about 45 minutes' time for us. So at the end of today's show, we'll have a bit of a chat about who's impressed you most, which goals thrilled you most, your special moments and that. Shall we get a quick one just for today, though? We like a moment of the day before we get into the football. Tom? going to go for DR Congo's equaliser against Portugal their first should have checked this shouldn't I I think it's their first goal ever first goal at World Cup ever yeah when they were here in 74 as a year first appearance at the tournament since 1974 when they played as a going up against Portugal heavily fancied Portugal fell a goal down inside the first six minutes you think oh the writing's probably on the wall but they stayed in the game and then in first half stoppage time Arthur Masuaku picks the ball up on the right swings in across to the back post Johan Wiese leaps totally unmarked to nod a header into the top left corner then the entire squad all celebrated together in front of the dugout it's the first kind of mass coordinated team celebration of the World Cup which I which for me growing up watching World Cups that was always a feature there'd be some team that would do some wacky celebration that everyone gets involved in the whip for example that's what they call this one oh i see yeah yeah you're thinking of something quite different duncan unleashed a tweet didn't you duncan yeah i mean a lot of the chat before this game was whether uh you know an aging striker could still perform at this level and score and it was great to see vissa turn up and do it so yeah as for the other fellow well there's been plenty of fallout about that we'll get the reaction a little bit from portugal and our thoughts on the Portuguese performance a little bit later on.

9:28Laurie, though, what's been your moment of the day? I've got to go with England, haven't I? Marcus Rashford's goal, I think, because it was the cherry on top of the icing of a great performance that grew into the game. They obviously changed up a little bit at half-time. But also the way the goal happened, a counter-attack, it was Croatia pushing, but the substitutions that Tuchel had made, I think, really enhanced what England could do. and yeah it was Jed Spence sort of very quick down the wing as Thomas Tuchel has told us I mean when he came on as a sub I sort of was suggesting that he might be doing that just to prove a point in sort of all the doubters you know why is he in the squad well you know I'll show you I'll start him or I'll take him on straight away he caused a bit of chaos he had Saka coming on Rashford obviously is a substitute great finish Rodgers even was involved so all the three substitutes that he'd brought onto the pitch to replace the three starters contributed to it So I think it was a really strong moment and it christened a good opening day for England.

10:25Yeah, definitely. Duncan, for you? Again, England, but I mean, it was our officials just seeing Anthony Taylor in the Uzbekistan-Colombia game. Yeah, Anthony Taylor at the Azteca. Yeah, I mean, two of the greatest iconic things in football, finally together. We wondered whether could Taylor operate at that altitude. Turns out, yeah, he can. Gave a first half-gally card to Kisanov. Did it with a plum. So, yeah. He's performing at the very top of his level. He's generational. Are you saying he's the greatest English performer today? Well, we've not seen the second half. Megan can tell us later, but I mean, very possibly.

11:04All right. Tom? First Englishman to appear at the Azteca in a World Cup since 1986. So true. Four to finals, which England won. Oh, no. They got cheated. Yeah. If the referee had done a job at the level of Anthony Taylor in that match. Can I have a moment of the day? Yeah. All right. It was the James Bond-esque emergence. Daniel Craig-esque appearance of Tom, who'd just taken one for the team. Yesterday, Tom was wearing a Croatia shirt, which excited some comment, let's say, from viewers and listeners. And with good spirit, he consented to be, well, thrown in the court. Didn't immediately consent in all honesty.

11:50I tried to argue my corner as far as I could but I saw the comedic potential of such a skit. Less Boban, more Bobbin. I was going to say that. Wow. You guys are spending too much time together. It seems so. It reminded me of the courthouse actually. You know when you were trying to negotiate your way out of this in Uber? It was me, James and Duncan arguing like the FIFA lawyers. It was three on one in that courtroom as well and the guy lost there as well. One valiant lawyer losing. That water looks cold though. He didn't get dogged in the pool. It really was. I'd not been in the pool today either so I'd not had time to acclimatise.

12:26Boom. There we go. England 4-2 against Croatia next. All right, so Wednesday lunchtime, England getting their World Cup campaign off to a brilliant start after a very tense first half, I would suggest. But 4-2 the final score. Was it the game, this of the tournament so far? Was it the attacking performance by any team of the 40, how many are there here? 42, 48? 48. 48 teams. Yeah, I think it was the game of the tournament so far. There haven't been too many match-ups between two top sides. One of the inevitable consequences of this being a 48-team tournament is that, generally speaking, the big teams have avoided each other.

13:09This is the only all-European one of the first round. There you go. So England's beaten semi-finals in 2018, Croatia, we've reached the last four at least in the last two tournaments and it delivered on its promise. Okay. England's best performance, Laurie, since? Well, I don't watch that much England, so I can't really. I think you're a mad England fan. I do like England, but I'm much more of a Manchester United club versus country kind of guy. I'm so myopic on that when it comes to international break. because I think if you support a club like Manchester United or Liverpool those fans get into well not Man United don't get into Europe every season but quite often but like if you look at the flags in England game it's all sort of League 1 League 2 non-league clubs and it's the chance of fans of those teams to travel as a Wickham supporter then Duncan England's best performance since wearing the Columbia shirt yeah up the lads maybe since I mean it was sort of reminiscent of the Croatia game in 2004.

14:15Right. You're saying all the way back there. I mean England have been pretty turgid at tournaments for a long time. England actually started the last World Cup, the Qatar tournament, with I think a 6-2 over Iran. The difference being this time that they were playing a nation of the calibre of Croatia. I think that's the difference. I mean Croatia, yeah, they're not as good as they were, but it was still, they showed in the first half with two excellent goals that they've still, you know, they can still do a bit of magic. Well, let's talk about the first half then, because England got on the score sheet first after Luka Modric wildly swung a leg.

14:46It's not been a great tournament for the over-40s players. There's a lot of like, oh, it's two. It's three. Wasn't that the start that Ronaldo had broken the record? Yeah. And now it's Modric and Poder Miller was the first. Oh, OK, fine. One of the ironic things about Modric conceding the penalty in the manner that he did, not realising that he had Nani Maduweke just behind him, and catching him square in the midriff, was that during the ad break that we got on Fox Sports, there was an advert where Modric is walking around with someone attached to his back. So you think if anyone should have been aware of what was happening behind him, it would be him.

15:24How ironic. Fans of Sliding Doors might like to know that Kane and Modric's Spurs career has crossed over for about 70 minutes in one Europa League game. Okay, well it was Kane who stepped up to take the penalty, but saw it saved only for the referee to then decree that the goalkeeper Livatovic should have lived back a bitch. Yay! Because he had both feet off the line. So Kane got a second go and this time he put it away. However, Croatia came back with a brilliant goal from Batarina, the combo midfielder. Yeah, broke down the right-hand side and it was Petro Sučić who rolled it back to Batarina, and found a little bit of space just on the edge of the box and swept a lovely shot into the top left corner.

16:12And yeah, teed up the rest of the game very nicely. It wasn't finished there. Kane then produced a wonderful header from a set piece. Kind of classic England goal. Maybe a classic Arsenal goal, if you like. Yeah, I mean, I suppose the difference is that, and we've seen this as a trend in this World Cup so far, is the teams have taken more outswing corners. I don't know whether that's the reaction to worrying about grappling if it goes in as an inswinger, but it's quite rare to see Declan Rice take out swingers. But it turns out he's good at those as well, and he arced it in. Arsenal-Spurs connection.

16:43Peace at last. Peace in our time. And it's funny that a lot of the country didn't like Declan Rice set pieces this season, and yet now they seem good. A lot of the country were wondering why Croatia felt it wasn't necessary to mark Harry Kane on this. But was that actually the fruit of very good screen construction by Kane's England teammates? The Croatia manager, after the game, basically said that they completely messed up on their set. He said that they knew England were very good and they were almost too good. And they kind of bamboozled them in the first half. All right, that was followed just before halftime by another Croatia equaliser.

17:23Where did you record this one? Pedan Muzza, who plays for Dallas FC. Oh, it was beautiful, wasn't it? tears in his eyes because we were were we a little bit unsure why he was so emotional or did you all know instantly it's the Dallas connection that he plays there I didn't know that would make him emotional but yeah lovely well I thought that he was going to head it back rather than assist it and so yeah beautiful goal chip ball in we've seen a few of these little dinks haven't we into the box we've just been watching one there in the Columbia game no spoilers I suppose although maybe we can because this has already happened now but yeah it's a lovely goal and I think at that point you're sort of wondering okay England showing some fragility and clearly that led to a pretty feisty pretty you know strong dressing room half-time interval from Thomas Tuchel you could argue that goal was actually good for England because if that half-time chat from Thomas Tuchel turns out to be as pivotal as it seems then maybe you know if they went in at 2-1 maybe everyone was like oh we'll just keep going lads but so what happened at half-time then well we know what happened a little bit because Anthony Barry, the assistant, spoke to ITV, our friends back in the UK.

18:30And basically, you know, normally those interviews are pretty sort of dull. But he was laid into the team. So, you know, we were playing short passes when they should be long, long passes when they should be short. And it sounds like Tuchel, not in a ranty way. We're not talking downfall levels. But, you know, he kind of really sort of said to the players, I don't mind if you lose, but let's lose playing on our terms. Right. And I think the first 15-20 minutes of the second half was probably the most intense I've ever seen an England team play, in a tournament at least. Within two minutes, they're taking the lead.

19:03Again, this time it was Jude Bellingham. You mentioned Jed Spence bombing down the win and the end result was Bellingham. It was a lovely pass as well from Elliot Anderson. I'm not sure exactly who he was aiming for, whether it was Madueke or Bellingham, but Bellingham sort of took the initiative. And I think afterwards he said, you know, no chance Madueke was having that one. And actually, but he did, the run that Maduweki made gave them Bellingham the space to kind of go straight into the box. And a brilliant finish, really, because the angle that he's got, it's so tight to get it past the goalkeeper into the far post.

19:32Yeah, and our friend Michael Cox has written a good piece for The Athletic saying, essentially, Bellingham was wearing number 10, but he's almost playing as the nine because he's bombing on and Kane's dropping deep. And it was a great finish. And I think you mentioned Maduweki, you know, a few people were poo-pooing that pre-game. I was. Is that what you're saying? No, I didn't mean that. I was going to own it. Listen, I've already owned the Jed Spence thing. Well, you're owning a lot. I'm owning... I told you I don't watch that much England, so this is a reprisal for me to see. What was the knock on Madowiecki ahead of, say, Saka, who did then provide the assist for the fourth goal?

20:03Saka can't play in 90 minutes or probably even 75 minutes at the moment with his Achilles. And I think it was more when Madowiecki got picked for the squad, people were like, but you haven't taken Foden or Cole Palmer. But Madowiecki's performance, I think, demonstrated why he's picked. Him and Gordon, although Gordon was less involved, They offer those fast runners that allows Kane to essentially play as a quarterback. And he absolutely relished doing that. I mean, at one point he was pinging balls from between the centre-halves. And we talked about this before the game, but I think there's a case we made for Maduweke starting over Saka, even when Saka can be more sure of his fitness.

20:40Because when you're playing against decent opposition, like Croatia, who are going to try and play once they've got the ball and who are going to leave space in behind, Maduweki is arguably of more use to you than Saka. I think when Saka comes into his own, and we saw that so often with Arsenal this season, is when England are trying to unpick deep defences, when you need to get crosses into the box. On a day like today, when there's more space to run into, and particularly with Kane in that quarterback role that he loves, I think it's more useful to have Maduweki. All right. Kane, who said after the game that we came out in the second half full gas and they couldn't live with it.

21:15And that's the level we have to set in every game. One question about that is that this was a performance that came in an air-conditioned stadium in Dallas. They are going to be in much hotter environments going forward. Will that kind of intensity, that kind of energy level be possible in future matches? We'll see. But certainly there was no question who was the better side in the second half. That's why Anthony Taylor's at the Azteca tonight. He's the emissary of the England camp. See how he copes in the sweat box. He'll feedback some Strava stats to the lads for sure. But I mean, again, that's why England did a week in Florida, right?

21:50And everyone was like, why are they doing that? They're not playing in Florida in the group. So it's because they're kind of planning. I think also the fact that he's rotated so extensively as well. Clearly the high press is what he's after, you know, and winning the ball back quickly. And so if you're kind of rotating those guys, then it feels like you can at least keep them fresh for more arduous environments. So a brilliant start. Four goals scored. Bellingham doing great things. Kane looking way more effective than perhaps at the last tournament. England's depth of squad, illustrated by the fact that in the second half, Tuchel took off the three behind Kane and basically put a new set on and they went and got goals as well.

22:29Yeah, we took off Rice and dropped Bellingham deeper briefly. But yeah, and then brought on Spence and put Reith James in the midfield. And they've got a lot of options. And I think we'll come on to this later about the teams that have impressed us most. most but I think they've made one of the most impressive starts to a tournament I can remember for an England team. That obviously doesn't always translate into glory but yeah it's positive. Okay. Tom? I mean the last time they beat Croatia 4-2 at a major tournament, Euro 2004, they went on and won it so you know that's hope for Oh no sorry they didn't, sorry I was getting ahead of myself but yeah I mean very positive and very exciting for England.

23:11indeed alright well that's nice then nice for you to see an England game for a change I probably shouldn't have led with that it's not always this exciting I would say I've never seen Harry Kane before it's absolutely blown him away I know what was he doing so far deep it was fun no it was fun I think that's the thing that England it seemed to me played with quite a bit of freedom even at the start though even in the first half I thought they were actually good mobility good connections between them if there was one negative it was probably the central defence I think Konza was okay but John Stones was a bit rusty but they've got time to you know that was the hardest game probably of the group stage so they've got time to play themselves in Do you think he would put Gaye in?

23:54I mean it sounds like he's going to play Stones or whatever and then rotate Konza and Gaye There'll be clamour though now won't there hashtag clamour for Gaye Well this was the potential reason why he didn't bring Harry Maguire maybe if you're sort of thinking there's maybe be more of a clamour if you've got this kind of guy on the sidelines. As Duncan says, there's plenty of time to consider those things before England's next fixture, which will be against Ghana, who we'll get onto in a second, and that game will be taking place next Tuesday, I believe, in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is fresh out of beer.

24:31Is that right? Scotland have been in town. Scotland have apparently drunk all the beer. No, but literally they have. For one brewery, I think. Oh, okay. But apparently the local bar said that they sold four times as many beer as they would on a July the 4th weekend. Really? God, respect that. So a fair play, but now the standard's been set. You're asking, can England go better? That's what the World Cup is all about, sharing. It's a cultural exchange. But did you see that very sweet video of the park in, I think it was Boston, wasn't it? where the park keeper was cleaning up, but all the Scottish fans had already done the job.

25:14The Scottish fans had already cleaned up. So there's another challenge to England. Yeah. I wonder which one they'll do better at. Anyway, Ghana are the opponents next Tuesday. We'll have a quick chat, and I mean quick, about what they did today next. This episode of the Totally Football Show is brought to you by Hotels.com. When you're booking a hotel, here's a simple question. why wouldn't you use Hotels.com? It really is all in the name. As a member, you save up to 20 % on hundreds of thousands of hotels around the world and earn rewards on every single stay, which means the trips you're taking now help pay for the ones you're already dreaming about.

25:52And unlike some other places, there are no blackout dates, so when you want to travel, your rewards are ready to go. So whether you're following your team across North America this summer or planning a well-earned escape to make up for being glued to the football for weeks on end, make sure you book on the hotels.com and start earning rewards because when it comes to hotels it's simple hotels.com it's all in the name

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27:46sun's out so dads are too this father's day at lowe's shop the gear that'll make his summer get two free select dewalt power tools when you buy a select 5 amp hour battery kit for weekends in the garage plus get a free blackstone six-piece stainless steel griddle kit when you buy a select blackstone griddle our best lineup is here at lowe's valid through 624 while supplies last selection varies by location

28:17Ghana, Panama. For 94 minutes, it had been the worst game of the tournament by a distance. It took a chance from three yards out in front of an open goal in the 95th minute to resolve it. You guys all sat through this. Was it really that bad? Yes, it was. The first off in particular, Ghana didn't have any shots until just before half-time. and the first shot they had of any description was from one of their fullbacks and it almost hit the corner flag and that was as good as it got and panama actually looked pretty tidy they were moving the ball around quite well they dominated possession throughout and something that struck me watching ghana is that they've got a lot of quite samey players they've got a lot of attacking players who are very good with the ball at their feet very direct and like getting on the ball and running with it but there's not a huge amount of variety and what actually changed things for ghana was with about half an hour to play, they brought on a couple of players who play in the Championship.

29:13Brandon Thomas-Asante, who's just been promoted with Coventry City. Abdul Fatawo, who's just been relegated with Leicester. And they seem to give Ghana a bit more verve in the final third. And the last half an hour of the game was basically one-way traffic. And in the end, it was Thomas-Asante who set up the goal, got to the byline, crossed it, and Caleb Jarenki tapped it in. So I think on balance, It was deserved, but as a spectacle, it was pretty terrible. All right. Not too much for Thomas Tuchel to worry about there. Not really. OK. Let's move on then to the opening game of the day, which came from Group K and saw Portugal taking on Democratic Republic of Congo.

29:57The subtext to this was that yesterday or Tuesday at the World Cup, we saw Mbappé doing brilliant things. we saw Erling Haaland doing brilliant things and we saw Ronaldo's great rival Leo Messi scoring his first ever hat-trick at the World Cup. How would Ronaldo respond? Yeah. Before we start the inevitable Ronaldo pile-on, should we have a quick round of well-done Congo? Mm-hmm. You mentioned they scored their first goal, they got their first ever World Cup point. Their manager, Sebastien de Sabre, the florist, rose to the occasion. Eh, Tom? See what you've done now. Yeah. No, but they defended brilliantly.

30:38You know, for all Portugal's woes, they did well. Well, they had 25 % of possession. Yes. DRC. And yet more shots than Portugal, which is a remarkable achievement for DRC, but pretty damning. Has it ever happened in World Cup history? It has literally never happened. As far as records go back, which is 1966. Yeah. It's been a great day for your dad's theories about football because like possession, pointless. stutter penalty run-ups rubbish you know there's lots of elements today they're like you know right all along a day for the boomers there you go i'll let them know a congo went behind in this game early to that uh jean nevis header how can he be scoring a header he's the smallest man on the field tom yeah this is this is something that um i think we heard when he scored against biomeunic in the champions league there was a degree of surprise from the commentators that such a small guy, he should be so good in the air.

31:32But if you watch him regularly, or even not that regularly, he is one of the best headers of the ball in Europe. He might be a little guy, but he has got an incredible spring on him. And we saw that in the sixth minute. Pedro Neto swings the ball in from the left, and Neves gets across his marker, glances it in the far post, and you think, OK, here we go, Portugal up and running. But fate had other ideas. I'm sorry, Duncan. I just said, come on, big man, fill your boots. Instead, it was Jan Witter, who Duncan was touching on, had a frustrating season at Newcastle. But powers ahead are in. I mean, once again, a tournament of headers.

32:13Just wonderful skull action. Okay. How much of Portugal's lack of response is down to their most famous player? Reaction, there he is. And he looked pretty miserable going off. and I think it's... It was quite a haunting moment in the second, the end of the third quarter in the little break. Stop doing the course. What? That's what they are, Tom. I understand your fractions. Anyway, a player went up to Ronaldo and sort of put his head against him and whispered something in his ear and he almost looked like he was going to cry. It's a bit like, yeah, you know, it's all very well. I think he's won 10 tournament games now without a goal which is his longest ever run.

32:55And he stayed on the full 90. The reaction in there, there's a frustrated Cristiano Ronaldo who didn't, it's fair to say, get much service. Let's have a quick, these are some of the headlines this Thursday morning in Portugal. Correio there with Houston, we have various problems. Abola says, can't go on like this or can't go on like this, you might say, if you were working for a less august publication. there's another one as well which has a little pun on Texas Ranger which is basically creaking in Texas but yeah a little bit more niche that one it's not all about Cristiano Ronaldo is it? Well no it can't be I mean we said in our preview show this is probably the most talented collection of players that Portugal have ever taken to a World Cup and they were all on the pitch throughout and Ronaldo isn't the only player who's allowed to score goals he clearly doesn't fit in with this group of players, there is a clear disconnect.

33:54And we had the clearest demonstration of that possible with about half an hour remaining when Portugal carved out one of the very few chances they managed to create. Cut back from the right. Ronaldo goes for it at the near post, puts it wide, and he's got Bruno Fernandes standing right behind him, apparently screaming for the ball and then making his frustration clear afterwards that Ronaldo hadn't left it for him. And that just seemed to sum up the entire issue. I mean, you know, the narrative around Portugal going into the tournament was, might they be better off without Ronaldo? Does he just get in the way of all these super talented players, you know, doing things?

34:31And that seemed to suggest that, yes, he does. Thierry Henry, oh, sorry, Laurie, I was going to mention what Thierry Henry said afterwards on Fox Sports here. It's about the team scoring, not you, in reference to that moment. And you're right, when we watched it back as well, in detail, you can see that he actually sees that it's going to be a cutback and he moves towards the cutback rather than he just happened to be in the way and they both had the same idea. Rather than sort of create space for his teammate, he's going to the ball where it's going to head. And yeah, I think that does speak to somebody that probably is playing with that pressure of, well, Messi's done it, I've got to respond.

35:04And I mean, I interviewed Steve McLaren earlier this year and he was quite revealing on the issues that Ronaldo had with Eric Ten Hag. And this is four years ago, you know, and then obviously during the World Cup, that's when it all kind of happened again and he ended up leaving United when Qatar was kind of going on and so this is four years on to this point and that was probably more about pressing and not doing the running that Eric Tenar wanted him to do this is actually more damaging really because it's actually sort of inhibiting other players doing their stuff so yeah what circumstance would Roberto Martinez take him off do you think?

35:40if he's going to keep him on and take Vitinha off for example what do we think? is he going to ever do it? I mean, he's done it in friendlies, but to not do it today seems mad, really. I mean, we talk about Portugal's midfield. I mean, Bruno Fernandes has spent all season putting through lovely through balls, but Ronaldo can't run onto them anymore. And so he is essentially kind of there as a sort of luxury... Well, I was going to say Chris Wood, but Chris Wood's still really good. He's great against Iran, yeah, really tidy. He just needs crosses, and they're not really coming in. Well, John Avers gets the cross and does the job.

36:16Yeah. So he plays one kind of football and they play, or would play, a quite different kind of football. And he's left kind of wandering around near the action, a bit like a kind of referee in a Portugal kit. It's a worry, isn't it? That's the question. Under what circumstances would Roberto Martinez decide that a change is instilled? But we've been through tournaments before asking that question and thinking, surely. But nothing's happened yet. I do feel sorry for the poor chap. That one goal in the last 11 tournament fixtures, and that was a penalty. The format means a draw against Congo isn't catastrophic for Portugal.

36:54They're still well within chances of going through. We were saying to Laurie before, when they won Euro 2016, they did it after drawing all three of their group games. So it can be done. But at the same time, if they don't beat Uzbekistan in their second fixture, they go into their final group fixture against Colombia, probably needing to win to guarantee a place in the last 32. So we could already have one of the strongest teams on paper at the tournament in real jeopardy of not making it through. And I might be throwing a grain in here, but do you know where that game is against Colombia? Because we're watching that there in Guadalajara, sorry, Mexico City, and it's all Colombian, isn't it?

37:34So it's quite a partisan atmosphere, you sort of think. You kind of suspect wherever it is, Because Colombia fans travel in such numbers, particularly when it's a tournament in the Americas, the chances of them having an advantage in the stadium are probably quite high. I'm just checking, actually. Thank you. Sorry. No, give me two seconds. While I'm looking at this, should Portugal have finished the game with only 10 men? Yes. Tell us why. Well, we saw a couple of quite egregious refereeing decisions yesterday. the penalty that Kylian Mbappe should have had after being basically cut down in full flow by Sadio Mane and then the very controversial decision not to send off Leo Messi against Algeria and then today right at the end of the game it was Johan Wisser trying to break through for what would have been a stoppage time winner and Thomas Araujo basically just clotheslines him the kind of thing that would probably have got you a red card in rugby apologies for mentioning rugby on a football podcast even rugby even wrestling would frown on such a manoeuvre and yet he he got a booking and yeah was able to finish the game he was almost last man as well it was almost a double red but yeah remarkable so just on permutation watch the Athletic's excellent projection model I mean if Columbia win we don't know yet we'll find out but we expect them to.

39:02You probably imagine they'll win the group. So, Portugal are looking at second or third. And that locks them into Group L, which is England's group. So, if they come second, they play the Group L runner-up. And if they come third, they play the Group L winner, which could be England. So, at the moment, the projection model has Croatia as their most likely last 32 opponents, then Ghana, then England. Good Lord. That fixture, Laurie, that you were curious about, Miami. Okay, so, well, you know, that's a decent Colombian contingent there, right? Is it? I think so. All right. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a fair comment to make.

39:36Well, also, I mean, if Portugal do face England, you know, that could be revenge for that 2004 Euros that you're talking about there, Tom, which you so willfully got wrong. 20 years on from the wink, what will we have? The dink, the summer of dink. The mind boggles, Duncan. Anyway, long way to go before we get to that eventuality. We've still got Uzbekistan against Colombia, which we enjoyed the first half of, and an absolutely amazing goal by a certain Crystal Palace player. We'll get on to what happened in the second 45 very, very shortly with Megan. Before that, though, let's have a little look back, with everyone having played, at some of the best bits so far.

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43:10Thursday, the second round of matches gets underway. we get groups A and B returning. That's what they look like. The early game sees Group A's Czech Republic and South Africa both looking for their first points. Then it's Group B as Switzerland take on Bosnia-Herzegovina here in Los Angeles. I think you're going along to that, Laurie. Yes, can't wait. And then in Vancouver in the afternoon, Canada up against Qatar. Group B where all the four teams are on one point because everybody drew. And then Group A, the two teams that won their opening fixtures, Mexico and South Korea, face off in Guadalajara.

43:48All right. Of course, we'll have a totally at the World Cup straight after the Mexico-South Korea game tomorrow to bring you all the news Thursday night in LA, Friday morning in London. But with everybody having now played, let's take the opportunity just to pick out some of our favourite bits so far of this opening seven days. What are we going to go with first? best team I think Tom I'm going to go for Argentina we've seen a lot of really impressive performances in the first round of matches but I think a lot of a lot of teams have come into the tournament did Duncan just cough and say boomer he thinks my picks are boomer picks because they're obvious apparently as discussed it's a day for the it's been a great day for the boomers So, you know, yeah, a lot of teams going into this tournament with a vague idea of the kind of football they want to play, hoping things are going to come together.

44:45And something that struck me watching Argentina against Algeria last night was that they have just slipped straight back into the routine from four years ago. It's the same coach. It's basically the exact same group of players. Messi is still doing messy things and doing things even more impressively than at times. Like our skunk friend. than four years ago. And you just got the sense that they all know what they're doing and they really enjoy playing together. And when Messi can be relied upon to do the things he did against Algeria, they're going to take a lot of stopping. Right. And we all got very excited about what Messi did yesterday and how much fun it was seeing these old dogs back together enjoying another round, another international trip together.

45:27A lot of people responded by saying, yeah, but did you see how much room Algeria gave them? I mean, we did, but, you know, it was still fun. All right, great shout for team, certainly in narrative terms, team of the tournament so far. Laurie, what about you? I'm going England. Are you? My new favourite team. Yeah. Yeah, always love the three Lions. I just think that their performance showed variety, showed a sort of strength in depth, was exciting, was fun. You know, I quite like some of the vulnerabilities sometimes because, you know, I think that makes games more entertaining if you kind of, you know, if there's ebb and flow, if there's a comeback to a degree.

46:03Obviously, I know they would sort of equalise us really, but it felt like they had to sort of go again in this game. So yeah, I was really impressed. Because I've come into this thinking Tuchel's squad selection is slightly funky. You can see what he's doing with it, but that actually was a lot better as a collective than I thought it was going to be. And maybe I'm getting carried away, but I do think Croatia are a good opposition to gauge them against. So yeah, I would say out of all, I think that's probably why I'm saying England over an Argentina or France maybe, because they have the calibre of opposition that they've faced I think is strong calibre Duncan who's been the strongest team the most impressive team for you well I don't think they've been the strongest or the most impressive so in some ways that was kind of a question but well I think that they showed the potential to be both of those things and it is the French oh yeah you went for an obvious one and what's that then Duncan this is what he does always picking the slightly left field choice dark horses so brave as I've said all along France are my dark horses yeah I think they could be a real breakout team.

47:05But no, look, the first half was very poor. But when you've got that squad, and when you realise that Michael Lisset can be played through the middle, and it is the tournament of dinks and through balls, and he played some wonderful through balls in that second half. And they also were facing a team of real calibre in Senegal. Tom? Yeah. I don't know. I thought maybe you were just waving. I don't know no I was just kind of staring vacantly waiting for Duncan to finish talking are you going to change your name to Dinkin in this tournament well it's been changed enough already to be honest Skunkin Skunkin Dinkin Skunkin Alexander my poor mother Slam that was an early contender Slam Duncan oh ok thank you I did actually need that explained Slam and the Welshman that was our sort of buddy Slam and the Welshman cop buddy movie that was going to be a spin off show yeah yeah xenophobic we had dreams like so many people who come to the San Diego.

48:02Bonus content. What did they get us? An envelope. Nowhere. That was your best team. Dare I ask, what's been your best goal? Tom. I'm going to go for Kylian Mbappe's goal against Senegal, but probably not the one that everyone might expect. Oh. The long-range howitzer at the end of the game. I'm going for the first goal because, as Duncan has already mentioned, Michael Alisse moving to the number 10 role changed everything. and the pass that he played to Mbappe was exquisite. So I'm picking this goal almost as much for the pass as for the finish and there was a detail that has been spotted on French football Twitter.

48:46At the moment that Elise is playing this pass through to Mbappe, Ousmane Dembele, who's just in field, is imploring him to just knock the ball back to the full-back, keep it neat and tidy, play it safe, and Elise has got other ideas. half a second later the ball's in the back of the net Wow and France are on their way to a fantastic win Laurie your goal of the tournament so far? Well I'm going for a goal in the game that I attended because I'm biased like that but also it was one that stirred me Mohamed Mehebi who scored a header for Iran the second equaliser for them in the game but it also started from a brilliant ball out from Godos from midfield out to the wing and then a great cross it was just a very flowing move and it kind of really built up and I was watching it from the get go So, yeah, I would say that one.

49:30And you've also become quite invested, I imagine, in Iran. There are so many sides to that story, to the background of the nation, of the war, the unrest, so many elements. But in terms of an atmosphere at the stadium, what was that like? Because what was it like? Yeah, it was great. I mean, it's a bit frustrating. I think you mentioned this on a previous podcast, but being behind the glass, it is a little bit… Oh, you were in the press box? Yeah. So I think I'll go, Iran play there again against Belgium on Sunday. So I think I will go and explore it more. We're all going. We can all go together into the stands.

50:06That's a symbol, isn't it? Of what this World Cup is doing. But yeah, the atmosphere around it, and you are right, it's a very complex story, the Iran one. You'll get people, some of them that I spoke to that were protesting outside the LA Galaxy training ground where Iran were doing their training session, said they would boo their team and cheer when New Zealand scored. And we did see some of that in the stadium but the vast majority were supporting them and the noise was great. There's a big Iranian diaspora in LA and they turned out big time. So yeah, it'll be fun on Sunday. A lot of you are playing diaspora bingo and that's for you.

50:41Also, that's an elite celebration. The sort of like, mmm, face. I think that is in the top five. He did a few celebrations and that was the final one. Duncan, your goal of the tournament so far? Well, we've talked about three balls and dinks a lot. So I'm, yeah, we have here. I'm going to go Ishmael Sabari for Morocco against Brazil. A beautiful three ball from Brahim Diaz and then you're through on goal and you're facing Alisson, one of the great keepers of modern football. Why not just scoop it high into the sky, into the New Jersey sky and then, yeah, just lovely. It was a lovely goal. Do none of you think, by the way, that the goal that we saw in the first half from Colombia's and indeed Crystal Palace's Daniel Munoz might actually be the finest technically or in terms of audacity the finest strike that we've seen so far it's right up there beautifully created goal I think it was Luis Diaz who plays a curl pass over the top of the Uzbekli defence and yeah Munoz runs in as he does so frequently for Crystal Palace and scores with an outside of the foot volley that just flashed a strike past the goalkeeper.

51:55Yeah, lovely goal. The timing on it as well. I thought it was offside and you would watch it back and it's a beautiful connection between the two of them to make it so that you could score. Okay. Very shortly we'll hear about that game. Just one other question I had. Regarding our teams of the tournament so far, we saw Germany coming up against Curaçao and beating them 7-1. And afterwards we said, yeah, fair enough, but it was only Curaçao. And we still got question marks on that. Have we revised that at all after seeing other teams like Spain coming up against unfancied opposition and not being able to rack up one, two, three, four, seven goals?

52:31I mean, I guess what happened with Spain shows how even elite teams can run into difficulty in the group phase. I think fundamentally, it doesn't matter a huge amount how you get out of the group as long as you do. We've seen teams do incredible things in the group phases of major tournaments, but then crash and burn in the knockout round. So I don't think Spain would be unduly worried by the fact that they weren't able to beat Cape Verde. I don't think Germany would be unduly worried by the fact that there were huge gaping gaps in their defence while they were putting Caruso to the sword. In a way, it's almost better to encounter these issues now in game one than it is in game four or five.

53:16Are you thinking about your favourite team so far in their last World Cup campaign, starting with the defeat to Saudi Arabia and going on to win it? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like, and, you know, there are things that you can learn from the group phase and all the teams will be learning things with every game. But like, fundamentally, it, when you get to the end of the tournament, it's very rare that you look back at the group phase and say, ah, that was the game. That was the moment. That was when it all came together. I think playing well is obviously beneficial. Playing badly is not. But as long as you're there in the last 32, then you're still in with the show.

53:56That's all that counts. And relating to that, we've seen a broader range of opposition for World Cup teams than ever before, thanks to the expansion of the World Cup. Expansion of World Cup, yay or nay, Laurie? Yeah, I think it's a yay. Yeah, yeah. It's annoying because that means that Gianni Infantino is right for the wrong reasons. But, you know, I think it's certainly been entertaining, hasn't it? Do you know what I think? Yeah. More textured, more layered. And I think just seeing, you know, all these different fan bases having a great time. And I think the American public have been swept away in certain places, just sort of seeing the influx of people from a certain country having a lovely time in their neighbourhood.

54:39and it's given countries that have never been at World Cups or haven't been at World Cups for 40, 50 years a chance to come back and that is good. There's obviously huge question marks about certain elements of it but it's time to go 64, sure. I think it's the most representative World Cup we've had so far because it's not weighted as strongly in favour of the historic European and South American teams. there is a much more equal allocation of teams and that has helped countries representing African nations and Asian nations to shine, which I think has been good. I'm still a little bit on the fence.

55:19I still think it's a bit too big. I still think there are... We'll get fatigued. I worry about... We are watching an awful lot of football matches here, but I find it very hard to keep tabs on who is in which group and what happened the day before yesterday. This is after one week. Ask us again after six weeks. But I would say one of the questions coming into the tournament, and it was raised by L 'Equipe, was can football save this World Cup essentially from itself, which touches what you're saying. Did FIFA get it right? Maybe it's just that you can mess around with football in so many ways, but the game kind of rescues it.

55:55World Cup is a World Cup. It has felt particularly good, though. I think teams are going for it. I think to the point of Curacao, for example, they tried didn't they against Germany and maybe that's the slight difference to the Spain one and Cape Verde got the result and Congo got the result yeah even the nil-nil that everyone feared was the Spain-Cape Verde and it was like actually that's good I mean just to put it in context of how big it is when Alan Partridge did the spoof preview for the 1994 World Cup he went up to Group M because that was absurd and we got Group K and L so you know and who knows when we might actually have a Group M because there is talk isn't there among the federations among the FAs about the 64-team World Cup?

56:36Because they'll be looking at this, all those nations that got close and missed out will be looking at this and thinking that there's money at stake here for them, for example. That's always at the root of things, I think, on this. But also just an opportunity to actually be at a tournament and have their fans travel. So as I was at Jamaica, for example, they got knocked out by Curacao in Kingston. There was 35 ,000 there. It was an incredible atmosphere. They were desperate to come. They would have travelled in big numbers. you know they've got the large diasporas in the united states there's your second one um and so so i think that that's what these countries are looking at thinking well okay it's gone to 48 i mean 64 would would would surely be unmanageable but i mean i also think the united states hosting with mexico and with canada yeah even the united states can't do it on its own it would be interesting if that will still translate to other parts of the world like obviously it feels like it's not going to be a sole nation hosting again apart from saudi arabia yeah okay good point but i i just say i we shouldn't be completely blinded by the good stuff yes there's lots of stuff that isn't good yes ticket prices are a scandal the visa issues are a scandal the treatment of the iran team is a scandal the water breaks are disgusting it make me want to vomit in my mouth every single time they happen and that is how everyone should feel every time they happen for a water break because you'd think it'd be hydrating well if anything i saw a great post but i think it was michael cayley on blue sky the other day and he was saying every World Cup that comes along FIFA and the powers that be introduce a load of stuff that is objectively stupid and a bad idea and football fans hate it but the football is always so good that we forgive it and because we all love football that's why we're all here that's why everyone is here you kind of turn a blind eye some of the fourth quarters have been exceptional what on earth are you getting so angry about?

58:23I also want to mention the five second rule which might just turn out to be be a good thing today we saw i think the first goal kick flip for a corner at the world cup from dr congo to portugal though being portugal they couldn't do anything with it but yeah anyway we're hearing noises over there from uh uzbekistan colombia so let's take a quick break and then we'll be back with what happened in the final game of this first round of matches final part of today's totally at the world cup sees laurie whitwell disappearing and replaced by Megan Ferringer. Megan, thank you so much for being with us.

59:00Yeah, hi. You've been overwatching the Uzbekistan-Colombia game. I have. Now, that was 1-0 when we left it at halftime, but all sorts of stuff has been going on in the second half. All sorts. Uzbekistan scored their first World Cup goal with their first touch in the opposition box. No. So that was really fun. And it was a really wonderful team move. They were sort of passing it through Colombia and one of the players sort of saves the ball, gets a cross in. It's hit on the volley. The goalkeeper should have done better. Ricochets off. And then Fezuliev ends up heading it in. And the scenes were incredible.

59:35It didn't last very long. Kind of ephemeral. But it was still beautiful. Okay. First goal by a Stan at a World Cup. As in a country that ends in Stan. Not a play called Stan. Right. Okay. All right. Tell us then. So Colombia had taken the lead. Yeah. A deserved lead in the first half. Deserved lead. I mean, they were wonderful in the first half. And comprehensive as well. I think Uzbekistan, I think they only had about one or two touches really, like anywhere, even near the opposition box. So, yeah, Colombia looked good. I think they probably could have had more. And that was sort of the theme throughout the second half as well, is that they were really comprehensive and were really dominant and kind of failed to make the most of it until the end.

1:00:13But even then, it was two. So it was 1-1, Uzbekistan get it back. Yeah, sorry. Then Luis Diaz gets one. Yeah, and then five minutes later. And it comes from Colombia dispossessing Uzbekistan sort of in the midway point. It's a really good finish from Luis Diaz, but arguably maybe the goalkeeper could have done better. And yeah, so then 2-1, and it's all Colombia. But they just could not make any of their chances count. And we get to kind of the final 10 minutes, final 15 minutes, and Uzbekistan were still fighting. And it got to a point where they still looked a few times like they could have gotten a goal.

1:00:47They had lots of set pieces. all of them just kept going out of play i don't think they found a single player of the or a single teammate um and then uh the third goal from colombia was was really wonderful they'd been under pressure from uzbekistan the goal goes um ball goes out um and i think it's hernandez who chases it down and he kind of gets tackled by the uzbekistan player and instead of just going down and awaiting the free kick gets back up sort of wrestles with him a little bit puts in an amazing and cross and the header is just just an absolutely wonderful yeah that's a good header most importantly though how did anthony taylor do second half he he was fine he let the game play he let the game go on yeah he had some stern looks but no it was just good good game good physical game with nothing too dirty that's good news so that was the concluding game of the first round of matches how highly do you rate Colombia based on what you've seen?

1:01:44Honestly, like midpoint, midway, yeah. But as discussed, surely this means Portugal can finish second or third now, which locks them into group L. This is why it's good when big teams drop points early on. You need a bit of edge. Well, indeed. Of course, Portugal will have the chance to wrestle back control of the group when they meet Colombia. And what is the final group game, as we discussed before which is taking place in Miami Megan anything else we should know about tonight's final game of the opening round of matches um it's kind of a shame a little bit that none of the debutantes ended up winning a game at this world cup so we have to wait another four-year cycle for that to happen last time that a debutante won at the world cup was 2002 on their debut match on their sorry on yeah on their debut match that was Senegal yeah well yeah there'll be a fresh set of matches starting tomorrow of course for them to see if they can get a victory.

1:02:40Brilliant stuff Alright, we're looking forward to having you back for a slightly longer period soon on the Tony Football Show in Los Angeles but that brings us to the end of this extended and rather England-centric edition of the show. Many, many thanks Tom to you, Megan for you coming in late and of course Laurie before and Duncan as ever and everybody here in the production. Thanks for being with us we'll be back same time tomorrow for now from all of us here it's goodbye this episode of the totally football show is brought to you by hotels.com when you're booking a hotel here's a simple question why wouldn't you use hotels.com it really is all in the name as a member you save up to 20 on hundreds of thousands of hotels around the world and earn rewards on every single stay which means the trips you're taking now help pay for the ones you're already dreaming about.

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