Germany + Sweden enter the chat. But is it all too serene for Spain?

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2:25Because when it comes to hotels, it's simple. Hotels.com. It's all in the name. Day four at the World Cup and Germany have entered the chat. Ivory Coast have too. It's everything we need to know about the last 24 hours and the greatest football show on earth.

2:47Germany, Kourouz past Curaçao 7-1. Ivory Coast did not coast past Ecuador. They needed a 90th minute goal from Amadjalo. It was nip on top between Japan and Netherlands. 2-2 and possibly the game of the tournament so far. And Sweden, Tunisia. We'll tell you about that later. Hello and welcome to another edition of the Totally Football Show, Totally at the World Cup. Joined today by Tom Williams. Lovely to see you, Tom. Lovely to see you again, James. Duncan Alexander is back with us. Hello, James. Hello to you, Duncan. You're right. You're looking very sporty there. Rocking an all-timer of a replica kit.

3:22All right. The 1990 West Germany kit. Should make that clear. But thanks to our friends at eBay. Oh, yeah. Do you want to explain a little bit about the design? Well, I think you should, because you were explaining it to me. Well, the story is... We didn't understand. I got very confused and hurt my neck looking down. I'm a little bit confused, too, but you may know this tale. Supposedly, the design illustrates the fortunes, moving from Duncan's right shoulder to his left, of the West German side at World Cups. And you can see it ended particularly well in 1990. We'll have Megan Ferenga on later on.

3:56She's going to be telling us about tonight's exciting Sweden-Tunisia game. Many thanks to everyone who's joining us on YouTube and has sent in messages and, indeed, skunk name suggestions. This one is going to run and run. razor miller offers up paul pongba no tom yeah all right yeah creative okay never gonna never gonna see no never gonna somebody else says nobody said christopher and skunkoo yeah that's good yeah that is good and knock dark mark spray mar again yeah yeah well clarence spraydorf was the clubhouse leader so you well for me so Spraymar you know similar what about Donny van der Rieke what about it I have to say this guy did not make an appearance yesterday and so far hasn't today and I wasn't here what was I up to what indeed have they been seen in the same room not yet we'll move on for now but many many thanks for all those suggestions also all the people who wrote in Phil Hay yesterday were saying anyone who's going to stay up through the night because I think the games in the uk on saturday went from was it nine o 'clock to seven o 'clock the next morning anyone who did the full marathon do let us know b kessel 14 mando calrissian or amongst those who apparently completed it yeah no very much so ang ot says slept on australia so typical of the poms this in reference to the fact that we didn't stick around for the final game on account the fact that we needed to get the show out.

5:33However, Duncan, you were very much working on it. I was working on it. While you were doing your skunk business. Yeah, yeah. I definitely was working on this game and not something else. No, I was working on this game and thoroughly enjoyed it. I enjoyed, I had to watch the ITV coverage actually. Right. And enjoyed the half-time welcome to everyone who's waking up. And it made me nostalgic for 2002, a little bit. But no, I was just overwhelmed with love and respect for Pat Beach, the greatest goalkeeper I've ever seen. Okay. That's not him? That's not him. Nor is that him. There he is. There he is.

6:10Eight saves on his World Cup debut is the most since 2002. And he was just, I mean, it was only his third cap, his first competitive game. It was a big gamble by Tenny Popovich and it paid off. And a name that sounds like it comes straight out of Australian central casting. Paddy Beach over there with Freddie Dingo those guys are inseparable Shane Newt will catch in this Australian accent I didn't do the accent we were here and we were watching on Telemundo they loved Patrick Beach and one of the curiosities of watching on Telemundo is as a non-Spanish speaker you can't really understand what's happening all that much and then you hear a name that's familiar and there was a point right at the end of the game where Patrick Beach pulled off this fantastic save and the commentator just goes Patrick Beach and I am not going to be able to see his name written down without hearing it in my head like that for the rest of the time Fantastic Good goals as well from Australia eh Duncan?

7:06Yeah very much so Yeah both really really good Iren Kunda the Watford man The Championship's having a fantastic So the stat that's going around and this has been added to today no league anywhere in the world has produced as many goal scorers in this tournament as the Championship we've had the Wolves duo Raul Jiménez and Ladislav Krejci Southampton's Kyle Lahren obviously Iracunda Crescensio Somerville a little bit of a technicality this because he's with West Ham we've gone down will he stay there I don't know but for now championship player anyway yeah and Tom for Tom I didn't a Ligue 2 player scored as well so that's good yeah Keito Nakamura of Ahas scoring for Japan so the French second tier is doing its best to keep pace on a broader level Australia, I think everyone was feeling that was one of the performances of this World Cup so far along with, well you'd say USA for example and funnily enough those two teams face each other next Friday in Seattle What do you think Duncan?

8:08Yes, a big game because this World Cup groups are decided on head-to-head, not goal difference so, you know, if a team can win that, they're sort of guaranteed top spot-ish which obviously, you know, affects your pathway a lot But I think America are a much better team. But I was super impressed with Australia. And I think they'll just fancy themselves again, to be honest. And, you know, yeah, the USMNT have got some attacking talent. But can they deal with Patti Beach? I don't think so. We'll find out on Friday. Today, though, next up, let's get on to the action from Sunday. Sunday's action at the World Cup.

8:51four matches, one of which is still going on, which we'll get to very shortly with Megan, but the early game saw Germany take on Curaçao 7-1 they beat them Imagine losing 7-1 to Germany at World Cup, how did that feel? Netherlands-Japan, that was tighter brilliant second half, 2-2 it finished, and then Ivory Coast, this was a tight game as well very late goal there from Adam Amadjalo, giving the African side the three points you got some moments of the day Do I? Got to be Livano Cominencia scoring Curaçao's first ever World Cup goal to equalise against Germany. Obviously, the expectation was that Germany would make mincemeat of Curaçao as they went on and did.

9:36But at this point in the game, Curaçao had fallen behind early on to a very nicely taken Felix Nomeka goal. Then a ball gets into the Germany box, pops out, Cominencia strides onto it, drills in a left foot shot, slight deflection flies past Manuel Neuer and Curaçao look potentially like they're about to humble the mighty Germany obviously that's not how it worked out but an incredible like an incredible moment just the six more goals just the six more goals although they were pressing hard they were creating chances and then the water break the hydration break happened and a lot of people saying today were it not for that momentum breaking interruption what a difference as it could have been.

10:175-1, perhaps. Heavy water, the scientists call it. All right. What about your moment of the day? I think it was Virgil van Dijk's goal for the Netherlands against Japan because it was a good goal. A cross comes in, and, you know, classic van Dijk header. But he kind of heads it, and he kind of sinks to his knee and just stares because he's not sure whether it's going in, and eventually hits the post and goes in. But he looked precisely like someone at the Tempin bowling alley when they've let it go. What they think's quite a good bowl, but they're not sure and then you know Virgil van Strijd if you like so good extraordinary shame he wasn't playing Turkey one for the it's a bowling term yeah it is yeah yeah yeah there was no spare man yeah yeah all right a lot of people called this the game of the tournament so far Tom would you agree yeah I think so I really enjoyed Ivory Coast Ecuador right which I know we're going to talk about later but yeah I mean this was a game that I think we had high expectations for Netherlands, perennial contenders, lots of quality.

11:18But this sense around Japan that they might finally be about to do something really impressive at the World Cup. Fairly even first half. And then suddenly the game explodes to life in the second. Flurry of goals. Netherlands go ahead, get pegged back, go ahead again. Looks like they're going to see out the victory. And then Japan pop up in the 90th minute, I think it was, to equalise. so yeah I'd say that was the game of the tournament so far. We had Dutch journalist Willem Wissers on yesterday who was talking about some of the doubts that the Dutch fans have about Ronald Koeman and a lot of people pointing to his substitutions the way that he shifted to a more defensive set-up in the last 20 minutes and allowed Japan to regain momentum in this game.

12:04Yeah he went to a back five and they really sat back at 2-1 which you know anyone who supports any team has seen that happen. And it's very hard not to want to hold on to what you've got, but it was very noticeable that as soon as it went to 2-2, for the last couple of minutes, the Dutch were back on the front foot. And you do sort of think, yeah, they probably should have stayed doing that. But as an England fan, I can remember the Euro 2020 final, so I shouldn't really throw stones at that Dutch house. Where did this leave you feeling about the two teams' prospects in general, this tournament?

12:38I'm not sure it's massively shifted what I think about either team Which is? I mean, the Netherlands, as they so frequently are, very dangerous on paper but have clearly got a few defensive issues, I think and Ronald Koeman's conservatism is something that has been identified as a potential shortcoming that could cost them and I think it taught us that Japan are a dangerous team and a team who now measure themselves against the best team in the sport. It's not just the case that they're going into these tournaments and hoping for success. We know that the Japanese Football Association has got this project to win the World Cup by 2050.

13:23Their coach has talked up the possibility of them winning it this year and I think we saw in the onslaught that they subjected the Netherlands to at the end of the game, what that belief has done for this group of players. They're too short, though, apparently, according to the commentator that we were enjoying. Yeah, that was an unfortunately timed piece of commentary. So they were putting in a lot of crosses. Pieces of commentary. Piled the pressure on the Dutch, and the commentator was convinced they could never win a header. He said, do they think they're bigger than they are? Just moments before.

13:55And he didn't mean metaphorically, but actually meant physically. But then moments later. And these were corners that they were trying to put in, so either go short or put in a cross and one duly resulted in the equaliser. Less good for Japan was the fact that Kubo went off although he did come on for that equaliser at the end clutching a bag of ice on his knee. For the celebration I think. But I mean we've spoken about Japan's ice kuba. There you go. Yeah Japan's injury problems no Koura Mitoma no Minamino no Watoro Endo So if they lose Kubo as well, that would be another blow Certainly will Do you want to hear a remarkable stat about the Netherlands?

14:40Please Why not? Okay The Netherlands started a World Cup match today without a player from the Eredivisie For the first time ever Japan, on the other hand, too from the Dutch top division What a global game Eredivisie Do you want to hear another curiosity from that game? Yes the Gravenberch to Van Dijk Liverpool to Liverpool assist goal combo first time that's happened at a World Cup since Ian Callaghan to Roger Hunt first Liverpool to Liverpool goal scoring 1966 good luck we know what happened that year still banging on about that good start to this tournament for Asian sides checks notes South Korea won Australia won Qatar came from behind to draw Japan did as well today so Asia on the up on the bowl on the down on the down we'll hear more about that it's their worst start to a World Cup since 1974 I'm sorry one Commenball teams having our friends from South America their worst start to a World Cup since 1974 well let's get straight into that then because the other game in the Japan Netherlands group is the Sweden Tunisia match which we'll hear about very shortly but also in action on Sunday was Group E which saw that Germany Kurosawa game and also Tom the match you were all up about which was Ivory Coast and Ecuador Only the one goal in it, but so much to unpack, as they say.

16:03Yeah, fantastic game. We talked a lot pre-game about Ecuador as a defensive unit. And, you know, they were generally quite impressive from a defensive perspective. 4-4-2 out of possession, but really on the front foot, trying to, you know, win the ball high up the pitch. And there were quite a few moments in the first half where they were winning these high turnovers. getting into dangerous positions. But something I noticed was that when they had the ball, Piero Hincapié, the Arsenal defender, was moving from his starting position of left-back into the middle of midfield. And unfortunately for him and for Ecuador, the player he was kind of nominally supposed to be marking was Yandy Amande, who had an absolute blinder.

16:49This 19-year-old RB Leipzig winger, hugely rated. Hugely coveted as well. Hugely coveted as well. and even without a head start, he would have no trouble getting away from a defender like Hincapier. So the fact that Hincapier kept being caught out when the ball was turned over made life easier for Diamande, but he was exceptional. And even in the second half, when Diamande had switched over to the side of the pitch, that area remained a problem and it was from that side of the pitch that Ivory Coast scored the winner. Which seems silly because Hincapier had a brilliant Champions League final. He basically locked down PSG by playing like a proper defender.

17:28So it seemed like a bit of a silly decision to make him do that a little bit, I thought. Yandir Mande, though, for anyone who hasn't seen him in action, what kind of player are we talking about? Are you got a Doku, Cherki style? Yeah, no, he's quite an old school kind of winger. I think particularly today in the sense that he was playing on the right wing and favours his right foot. And ordinarily young wingers these days, If you're right-footed, you play on the left, so you're constantly cutting in field onto your stronger foot. But he was playing on the right, going outside the defender, and was going past Hincapier, I mean, just at will.

18:04Was Toast involved? I mean, at one point, I did exclaim that he had him on Toast, and he was just very... Was that illegal? Well, I mean, I don't know. He was doing it. Possibly in the hydration break. Ah, yeah. Yeah. We're on the doorstep of the hydration break, was the phrase I heard today. Oh, indeed so. So, Dear Monday, anyway, as special as the hype was leading us to believe. Yeah, I think probably man of the match overall. Or the crossbar. Or the crossbar, which featured quite a lot. But the more the game went on. We don't know exactly what's happened in the Sweden game in the second half, but up until the half-time in that game, nine woodwork hits in the tournament so far.

18:40Really? Four of them in that game. Okay, four, was it? So, two for Ecuador in the first half, and then the same crossbar was struck by the elephants in the second, and then the other one? It was a post at some point. Was it? Okay. Not toast. Post on toast early in the second half. Yeah, Diamonde, absolutely brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Amad Diallo, who was the super sub, came on and got the goal in the 90th minute. An extraordinary finish. So the ball comes in and he kind of opens his leg. I mean, I think mere mortals would see their knee ligaments shred in real time and kind of spins it into the corner of the goal.

19:22And my theory is that this Trionda ball for this World Cup, which seems to be doing very well for itself, is probably the best ball I've ever seen in terms of how it looks in slow motion when you see a shot. The colours just look beautiful, the red and the green and the blue as it spins. It's a very nice shout, but I see where you're coming from with that. I'm going to suggest that replay technology is improving in quantum steps every four years and were you to say bust out a white r flashing anymore well that's certainly true so i miss it anyway i wanted to ask whether having seen ivory coast pick up the first victory by an african side at this world cup we should add them elephants though they are to the growing herd of dark horses dark yeah dark elephants yes What do you think?

20:17I think so I mean I I sort of this is going to sound outlandish given Germany won 7-1 but I do think in an old fashioned World Cup where only two teams got out of the group that Germany could be in trouble in this group because I do think Ecuador played well particularly in the first half today they're clearly a good team I think these may be the two best teams in the group so we'll see I just thought the amount of space We talked a lot about landmass with Germany-Curusel, right? Right. 7-8-7 ratio. Biggest discrepancy in the 21st century. That's what they were seeing. There were chants going all around the ground.

20:55But the amount of space that Germany left behind their bat line in the first 20 minutes was about the size of Curusel. So I think both Ecuador and Ivory Coast could profit heavily in that position. OK, let's talk then about Germany's performance against the smallest nation ever to take the field at the World Cup. This was breakfast time here in Los Angeles. Tom, you've got a similar viewpoint, I think. 7-1 a mighty scoreline, but you've got as many questions as they had goals. Yeah, I mean, it's a bit of a fool's errand, a game like that, for a country like Germany, who are expected to be contenders for overall victory.

21:32Unless you win very comfortably, people are going to say that you've fluffed your opening game. and they've basically done what you would expect them to do. It was a good game for some players, principally the attacking players, the ones who are helping themselves to all the goals. They did look a little bit vulnerable in behind and it was slightly concerning the ease with which Kurosawa were able to find space, particularly in the early stages of the game. But yeah, I think we knew pre-tournament what a strong team Germany are. In an attacking sense, I saw plenty of evidence of that. We saw how strong they are at set pieces.

22:15Nico Schlotterbeck, I think, did get the second goal and was a threat at almost every set piece. Denis Undov had a big impact when he came off the bench, a goal and two assists. They scored some lovely goals as well. Kai Havertz's little dink was lovely. Yeah, very nice, very nice. so yeah but again a game that it's impossible to really draw firm conclusions from because Germany you would expect will get better as the tournament goes on and they will not be playing opposition of this level for now on earth it's a very German thing to do isn't it it is well 1990 although to be fair they were good the whole way through but I think we haven't recalibrated ourselves to the fact that Germany are a team with a brilliant attack and slightly dodgy defence doesn't seem right our muscle memory hasn't yeah And a keeper who didn't have that much to do, but what he did have to do, he didn't necessarily do the best, Tom.

23:07They also had a manager who... He hasn't kept a clean sheet at the World Cup since the Xbox One came out, which is quite a long time. And that's a damning statistic. What about the manager, Tom, and his habit, his punch hunt for changing clothes at half-time? Well, Nalegersman has fascinated us for all sorts of reasons throughout his career, but when he first came on the scene, his very nutty dress sense was something that stood out quite a lot. a lot of checked suits, things like that. He's kind of toned things down a little bit, but now his thing is the mid-match costume change. So he came out today and he was wearing a fairly smart, reasonably stylish short-sleeved shirt, vertical stripes.

23:48And then at halftime, he swapped it for a T-shirt. So one to keep an eye on for fans of costume. He's the Beyonce of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. He also once came to training on a skateboard, which not that many managers have done. Okay. Anyway, Germany topping the group right now, but perhaps tougher tests lie ahead. Very, very shortly, as mentioned, Megan Ferringer is going to be telling us about what happened in Group F between Sweden and Tunisia. But before that, we'll get on to the action that awaits us on Monday. This episode of the Totally Football Show is brought to you by Hotels.com. When you book in a hotel, here's a simple question.

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24:58Because when it comes to hotels, it's simple. Hotels.com. It's all in the name.

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26:26Day five at the World Cup. We've got four games to enjoy early on. Spain take on Cape Verde. That's in Atlanta. In Seattle, Belgium are up against Egypt at midday. These are local times. Saudi Arabia up against Uruguay from Miami at 3 in the afternoon. Local for us, the Times, I should say. And then here in Los Angeles at 6 p.m., Iran get their troubled preparations finished, concluded as they take the field against New Zealand. All right, we're going to pick out Spain from all of that. Everyone's got such high expectations. What's the mood, though, among the Spanish camp and among those following them in Atlanta?

27:11We've got Paul Belous there, and he spoke to us earlier today. Paul, how's Atlanta? Atlanta is hot, really hot, but nice. There's a big fan fest, good atmosphere in the city. You can tell that the people are really waiting for the games to start in the city, and there's this build-up atmosphere that is feeling nice so far. Excellent. Spain, one of the teams everybody's eager to see at this competition, beginning with a match in which they're heavy favourites against Cape Verde. How are things looking for Luis de la Fuente's side, Paul? Things are looking great. I mean, the build-up has been really, really good.

27:52Spain are based in a small town, well, not a small town, but a town which is two hours away driving from Atlanta. They are quiet there, chilling, relaxed, in high spirit, in a really good mood and all the problems that they could have, they have disappeared in the build-up to this opening game, which was Lamin Jamal being in doubt to play this first game, Nico Williams as well being in that same department. Both players basically are going to be available. They are going to be in contention to play the game. Luis de la Fuente, the national manager, has confirmed that they won't start. They won't play from the very first minute, but they are expected to have managed in the second half because the plan that they have is just to keep building fitness to potentially have the La Minha Mals and the Nico Williams starting for the third game of the group stage against Uruguay, which is expected, of course, to be the biggest talking point for Spain in this group stage.

28:48With everything going right, what are the Spanish press corps finding to talk about then, Paul? I mean, you're going to be possibly amazed by that, But one of the biggest talking points in the Spain camp is a talk about getting De La Fuente's face tattooed in the body of the players if they win the World Cup. So basically, that's been a challenge that Marco Curella has thrown to himself, saying that if Spain go all the way and win the World Cup, he's willing to get the face of his national manager tattooed on his body. Where? Where in his body, Paul? yeah he did not disclose a part of his body i'm gonna give it to your imagination um but yeah um there were a lot of of like suggestions to do it in the biceps because luis de la fuente is a man who loved the gym um but basically cucurella said that he would think about that whenever the time comes but that's a question that has been repeated to a lot of players i can remember that like Borja Iglesias said that he would do that too.

29:53And there's other players who said that they are not up for the challenge. Good Lord. Is that the only big story involving Marco Cucurello at the moment? It's not. And that's a good pass that you have just sent me here. Because, yeah, it's been possibly the biggest news line of the build-up of the game because Marco Cucurello is set to join Real Madrid. news that has been disclosed, broken on the same day before Spain's debut, the day before Spain made their debut. And yeah, it's basically Cucurella. I think that all parts finding a solution that suits everyone, because Cucurella, in a way, felt a bit tough Chelsea after openly complaining about the lack of truth to Enzo Maresca and the project that Enzo Maresca was building he was really close to enzo enzo maresca um and he was frustrated by his departure um and yet he has a return to spain to his country although this move is not going to be well well well received for all the barca fans taking into account that marco corella was a lamazia form guy indeed so all right then paul so there's that there's the tattoo business but deep down is there anything else that's troubling you ahead of this debut for one of the tournament favorites a side that looked on another level to everybody else in their last competition, the Euros, against the third smallest side ever to take the field at the World Cup.

31:18Yeah, not really. No? Nothing else? Not really. I think that, no, it's all happy days. Like, the only debate that might be around the team is, it's like the goalkeeping debate around here. Because if you look at it, like, Spain has the best goalkeeper in the Premier League last season, the best goalkeeper in La Liga last season, and none of them is going to start. because Unai Simon is going to be the starting goalkeeper, not David Raya, not Joan Garcia. And that's created a bit of, well, we have those great goalkeepers and we're not going to use them. But in the end of the day, Unai Simon has been Luis de la Fuente's guy.

31:54He's been the go-to goalkeeper. Luis de la Fuente gives a lot of importance to that sort of hierarchy and experience in the national team. And unless there's a disaster against Caip Verde, which is not what Spain has in the plans. I think that tonight, Simon will stay as the starting goalkeeper. But yeah, let's see. Let's see what happens. You never know in football. Well, red hot drama there in Atlanta for Paul Belus. But some big stories. First of all, producer Charlie points out that famously Real Madrid didn't have any players in this Spanish team for the first time ever. Well, they do now if they sign Mark Cucurea.

32:33To know how strong Real Madrid are as a club, how much influence they wield, they could not stand for this slight of not having a Real Madrid player in the Spain squad. And so, Laurentino Perez has been on the phone. And there you go, problem solved. Is Cucurella going to be getting a tattoo of that man come the end of this tournament? It's very possible. I think Spain probably are the best team on paper, I would say. But it feels like everything's going a little bit smoothly for them. 31 games unbeaten in competitive games. Everything's just flowing into place. Doesn't carry on, does it? Something's going to happen.

33:09Right. Tom, you made this point in our previews. So many times the side has come in looking like they're just going to cruise their way through to the trophy and it rarely works out that way. Well, there's a similar noise around France at the moment. Everyone sees them as one of the favourites, and rightly so. Are they getting tattoos of Deschamps? I would be surprised if they did. But, you know, watch this. But Deschamps has been saying, I don't like this. players are being rebuked publicly and privately for doing anything that talks up their chances because he knows what happens when teams arrive at big tournaments and everyone thinks they're going to blow everyone out of the water so you know careful Paul let's get on to a team then who don't have that kind of buzz around them at all and that's Uruguay who are taking on Saudi Arabia this is in the same group as Spain I believe is that right?

33:57have I got my groups muddled up? same group as Spain yeah Uruguay Spain in third game could be massive it could be a slight dead rubber we simply don't know but it should be good well a lot depends on how things work out for Uruguay because many people have mentioned the tensions involved in being in a training camp for the extended period that this World Cup requires Uruguay if any nation was to implode with simmering training camp tensions they're probably the number one candidate would you not say? we were discussing this beforehand and we feel like the expected beef is quite high for Uruguay and not only because of the country's reputation as an exporter.

34:37And they've already had, I mean, the Suarez exit with Marcelo Bielsa who's arriving at his third World Cup and that, but Luis Suarez, when he retired from the national team at the end of last autumn, I think, basically drawing the curtain back on a really dysfunctional setup. I'm not in a bucket, you could say. You could indeed. But, you know, Bielsa, a brilliant manager, but A, Argentinian, B, demands certain things from players that a lot of players, particularly in international football, don't particularly like. I think it works possibly better in club football where everyone has Bayern for a season.

35:12And there have been tensions. Right. According to Suarez, the players had to get together to make a collective demand that he say good morning to them at the start of each day. That request fell unanswered. I mean, I could be else in detail. It's rude, yes. But if your performance as a footballer depends on a manager saying good morning to you, again, I'm not sure. All right. But we heard today that their flight to Florida was delayed quite significantly, which can only add to the ex-beef. Right. And on top of that, Fede Valverde has already been scrapping with teammates at Real Madrid. posed for his Uruguay team photo with a visible, well, if not a scar, then a...

35:58A scar? Yeah, a scar, I guess. Not necessarily a permanent scar. Right. So we know that he's a scrapper. And Darwin Nunes, you know, agent of chaos. Darwin Nunes. I mean, they're always, you know, the 2014 group that had England, Italy and Uruguay was a classic of the genre. Not for England, they were terrible, but it was, you know, memorable. And I do feel like this, this group has got X memory X memorableness coming off the charts we'll work on that and come back if you're looking for an upset on Monday this could well be the game because we've been talking about the problems for Conway Bowl teams so far none of them have won yet Paraguay, Brazil, Ecuador also factoring that Saudi Arabia were the team who began the last World Cup by taking on another Conway Bowl giant a certain Argentina and beating them Absolutely, yeah.

36:51So then, you know, they know the drill. They know the drill. All right, then. That's coming up on Monday. So is Belgium-Egypt, which is exciting for fans of watching De Bruyne and Salah potentially go up against each other. Stop me if you've heard this one before, but this is perhaps the last occasion for Belgium's golden generation to finally make good on their talent. Yeah. Is it this time? Well, it almost literally is, because they are running out of golden generation members. It's only Courtois, De Bruyne and Lukaku who are pretty much the only players still knocking around. And the next generation are coming through.

37:29You're Yuri Tillmans, you're Jeremy Dokus who's been in exceptional form for both club and country. So it isn't just the old guard and no one else. But yeah, if any of those players from that lauded generation are going to do anything at a major tournament, this probably is the last chance. And, you know, a lot of those players are going into this tournament in less than optimal circumstances. Romelu Lukaku was barely played this season through injury. De Bruyne has had spells on the sidelines as well. Well, if we look at those two in particular, I think they were players who a lot was expected of last season at their clubs.

38:02It didn't work, but I think that was down to the manager. Obviously, De Bruyne publicly criticised contact at the end of the season. And Salah sort of did the same with Slott. So you could argue that a little bit of freedom at the World Cup could do them for good. All right. Lukaku certainly fell out with Conte, his Belgian teammate. Salah, I read, only needs two more goals to equal the all-time Egyptian scoring record. The only problem is that record was set by his manager. And according to Egyptian journalists, there's a real chance that said manager, Hassan Hassan may drag Salah off if he gets anywhere closer.

38:43I mean, I think that might be slightly exaggerated, but it would be, you know... I mean, if you could see your own glorious record disappear, but then he probably would like Salah to score goals and Egypt to go far. So we'll wait and see on that one. Not least because Egypt still have never won a game at a World Cup, which is remarkable. They are the greatest African national team in terms of Africa Cup of Nations successes, but they've never even won a game at the World Cup. So probably about time, Lance, you'd have to say. Sorry, Tom. I was just going to say, they turned up to this World Cup with a jersey featuring seven stars to represent the number of times they've won the African title.

39:18But FIFA, who, as we know, are very strong on shirt designs, have told them to go away and come back again when they've taken them off because stars on jerseys at World Cups refer to World Cup. So let that be a lesson for everybody. Also taking place, I think this might be the late game on Monday, is Iran against New Zealand. we talked about Iran's build-up I think everyone's seen the details it's got to be the most difficult set of preparation instead of obstacles really for a team at a World Cup that anyone's ever faced 13 of their traveling party were barred from entry to the United States they've had to relocate from their original base I think was going to be in Arizona to Mexico from whence they will be traveling to games in America but they will have to fly to the match and then fly back again they're here tonight in LA so they're training they have been allowed to come the day before okay things have eased a bit well that is good news they also have to do all their post-game interviews using helium I believe yeah yeah yeah anyway is that going to bring them together will the wagons be in a circle will that inspire them here in the home of the nation they're at war against yeah I think so I mean they're a good team um and I guess they've kind of been fortunate in some senses that they get to play New Zealand first up who you know yes everyone knows New Zealand were the only unbeaten team at the 2010 World Cup great great fact but um they're not that great I mean they've got Tommy Smith who plays for Braintree Town who just went down from the National League to National League South this is World Cup history so this is the first time ever that Braintree Town in the National League South, the sixth tier of English football, have a player at the World Cup.

41:01It's probably the first time an executive at Real Madrid has ever thought of Braintree Town because they would have looked at that list and gone, Braintree are a bit too close, closer than we expected. We need to go and buy Marco Corella. I think that was the kind of process. Right. They're also managed, they're one of two nations at this World Cup managed by an Englishman. Neither of those nations are England, of course. Tell us more than... Because dunk. Seriously, is he there? Yeah, but he's going the other way. What were you doing? The rumours that I killed him with a shovel, wrong. Ryan, okay.

41:31Do tell us. Darren Baisley, yes. And a man who spent. Darren Spraisley. Yeah. Look at that. Very good. He likes himself. Yeah. He spent the whole of the 1990s at Watford. Right. As many people did. There he is. I remember watching him play against Wickham in a 0-0 draw. You looked at the team sheet. Yeah. Some of the plays turned out for Watford. Kevin Phillips, future Sunderland striker. And England striker. Former Wales manager Rob Page. And Gary Penrice. And in goal for Wickham, someone called John Cheesewright, who sounds more like an occupation than a name, but he probably should have worked with Cheese because he wasn't a great goalkeeper.

42:13Okay. It was the 1990s, it was different. Will Iran have their tails up against New Zealand, although rather their tails up than this one exactly yeah anyway that's enough Monday preview next up let's finally catch up on the other game from Sunday Sweden-Tunisia well the late game this episode of the Totally Football Show is brought to you by the FIFA World Cup meal at McDonald's right now at McDonald's you can get one of nine legendary cups when you order the FIFA World Cup meal these cups feature some of the biggest legends in football like David Beckham, Hon Alginho and Thierry Henry and current stars such as Laminia Marle, Christian Pulisic and Alphonso Davies.

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44:47on sunday brought with it a late entry for performance of the day courtesy of graham potter sweden who defeated tunisia 5-1 we left this game at half time to come and do this show megan ferringer stayed watching and joins us now hi megan hi hi so how much fun was the second half it was really fun it was really good i mean if you were swedish it was very fun if you were tunisian it wasn't as much fun we're just seeing a picture here of yassin ayari what a story behind this fellow yeah two goals tonight and and his dad is from Tunisia um but he and he actually aspired to be a professional footballer wanted to play as a winger moved to Sweden to do so didn't end up doing it but then coached his son at a youth level and then when his son was able to choose which team he wanted to do he went to his dad and his dad said choose your choose your lane son and his son chose Sweden okay he didn't celebrate his first goal against the nation of his father.

45:43But he did celebrate the second one in the 96th minute. Yeah, it was that good. I think at that point, you just sort of put your roots aside and everyone's like, yeah, fair play. It was genuinely just another phenomenally hit. It was just, yeah, very good. I'm kind of lost for words on it. Okay, five goals from Sweden against a side who didn't concede a single goal in their World Cup qualifying, Tunisia. This is a side apart from Hayari. You've got Izak, who scored the second goal. Jokeres was also on the score sheet. Svamberg too. Have we all forgotten a bit that there's a team turning up at the World Cup with a front two of Jokeres and Isak?

46:15Yeah I thought this game was probably the best evidence that these two can combine. I mean this was only their second start for Sweden together and I think there were questions of whether or not that dynamic was going to work. I thought the dynamic worked really well. Even for the opening goal for Ayari it was Isak running onto it then Jokeres or Jokeres running onto it and then Ayari ends up picking it up. But for the next three goals they either assisted or helped each other out. Isak was phenomenal for the fourth goal sort of having a first touch so he brings somberg back on side for the it's sort of a complicated thing but um yeah i thought the two of them were were really worked really well together um there was talk about isak sort of leading the line and yorker as being behind him but i thought they they sort of switched roles really really well and they moved and pivoted together um both of them run they are willing to run and willing to make those runs in behind so it must be so nice if you know i'm gonna hold the ball up i know this guy is running in behind me and we saw that i mean at length throughout this game.

47:07All right certainly it was part of the build-up to the opening goal. They did concede through a set piece which is a bit of a Graham Potter thing. Were there any other doubts in your mind about the Swedish performance? Not really but I think that came down to Tunisia really. I mean I just didn't feel like they threatened that much in the final third. I had said to Max who I was watching it with it's kind of like when you're home alone you get to knock the door and you find out it's the mailman and you're like okay it's fine. They just didn't really offer much of a threat. Constantly the offside flag was up so even if there was a threat you were sort of saved by the flag I do think better teams will be able to challenge Sweden especially in those set pieces I mean they look so vulnerable in that moment but other than that attacking wise I think they've got something really special that's brewing well they do have two supposedly better teams in the group in the shape of Netherlands and Japan but for now it is Sweden who are top of group F on three points Japan and Netherlands who drew earlier on 2-2 and Tunisia down the bottom Duncan an unusual position for Sweden to be in because Let's not forget, they didn't win a single game in qualification.

48:07Well, I didn't forget because I mentioned that just now. But just seeing them with one by the games won. It's a very good point and bears repeating as often as possible. But what a turnaround since Potter has come in. A man who himself has seen quite a U-turn in his own coaching fortunes. Tom? Yeah, I was just going to say how pleasing it is to have a team playing with two big-name centre-forwards. You don't get that many conventional strike partnerships in football these days, and particularly in international football. So to have two players worth in excess of, what, kind of 70, 80 million being associated together is, yeah, a nice little throwback move.

48:51Excellent. I'm also excited by the number of Chelsea managers that there are in this World Cup. I mean, if you go back to Ancelosi, if you include him in there, why not? You've got him, Pochettino, of course, Thomas Tuchel, and Graham Potter. Remarkable. Megan, anything else we should know about the game this evening? There was an interesting moment with VAR where the semi-automated offside ruled Thornburg off, and then they realized that Isak had had a first touch, and Thornburg came back on in that moment and then scored. And both Max and I were thinking this should probably be something that people should use more often, like start in an offside position and then come back on.

49:28It was very clever. Oh, that is good, actually. All right. The other thing I wanted to ask you about was skunks, because Clarence Spreidorf has made another appearance this evening. You're an Angelina, Los Angeles native, but also spent a considerable amount of time in the backwoods of Louisiana, where you became the bane of squirrels with your bow and arrow and no doubt other critters, too. How should we be dealing with skunks? I can't believe this is when my lore comes out. Everyone's going to find out. I've hidden this so well. um yeah we didn't we didn't ever hunt skunks that was not something that we ever wanted to get involved with so we usually just called someone or let them scurry back okay where we yeah we didn't really deal with them okay so you just stand off we yeah we didn't want to they were never something that we would go home to mom and say can we have it as a pet like that was never one of our okay good to know yeah yeah could you like neuter a skunk like kind of somehow remove its gland remove the remove the problematic gland but then are you removing its essence are you saying in a very real sense you are you'd be left with a very chastened skunk would you want that I don't know I mean yeah I don't know a debate for another day perhaps okay well there you go lovely to have you with us Megan thank you and you'll be joining us again soon on the Totally Football Show at the World Cup yeah and tomorrow alright well there you go tomorrow which is going to be a big day a whole bunch of games that we told you about earlier on so do join us for that for now many many thanks to well all three of you to Paul Beluso joined us earlier on everybody here who's helped put the show together and you viewer stroke listener same time same place tomorrow we'll be back with the totally football show 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 book in a hotel here's a simple question why wouldn't you use hotels.com It really is all in the name.

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