More Cape Verde heroics as Messi, Mbappe + Haaland take the stage again

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2:28Pol Ballus: From Los Angeles, it's totally at the World Cup. Here's what we're talking about today.

2:37Pol Ballus: Spain, good again, in 4-0 win over Saudis. Not all heroes wear green capes, but some play for them as the blue sharks stun Uruguay. We'll hear about Egypt's first ever World Cup win. Belgium-Iran, plus Monday's action. Look away now, Cristiano, these three are back. Sunday night in LA, Monday morning in the UK. It's totally at the World Cup. Coming to you today with Tom Williams, everybody. Hello, James. Hello to you, Tom. And also Duncan Alexander. Hello. That's not all. We've got a bit of Paul Belouis coming up. And I think Nick Miller, too. So quite the show for you as we round up day 11 of the World Cup, a day which saw yet more upsets from unfancied teams.

3:23Pol Ballus: Tom. Yes. I'm talking about Cape Verde. they've only gone and done it again or be it in different fashion showing the breadth of their drawing capability the full gamut Tony Hart and his pump don't cast shade at Cape Verde the Blue Sharks who are quite the story at this World Cup and indeed they're not the only ones we've seen Curacao doing great things as well lots of people commenting on why it is that sides who after all when the World Cup was expanded sides that were supposed to be the makeweights, the all-fill-and-low-killer, are actually coming up with these quite remarkable results. What do you think, Duncan?

4:05Diaspora's coaching. If you look through most of the teams as players you recognise, I think the standard generally has gone up a lot. I think if you put any minnow from this World Cup back in a World Cup in the 80s or early 90s, they'd probably look like world beaters.

4:19Pol Ballus: Do you think they'd win? I think they would. Also, I've got to clear this out. I've always said diaspora. Tom, where do you stand on this thorny question? Yeah, diaspora. What do other people say? Well, I maybe mispronounced it. Diaspora, says Duncan. Yeah. Like Diodora. No, they meant my trainers. What's wrong with that? Oh, mum's bought me some Diaspora football. I said Diodora. Yeah. Easy mistake to make. It's a peculiar word. It would be. Here's a slight counter-argument to everyone like us who's saying, this is brilliant, this expanded World Cup, loving all these upset victories, all these great human interest stories and smaller islands earning points against more storied nations.

5:02Pol Ballus: Across the entirety of the last two World Cups, do you know how many times, this is across the last two tournaments put together, how many times a team won by four goals or more? Across two tournaments. Four times. Well, you do know, Duncan. Yeah, four times across two tournaments. He's half a computer, of course he knows. Sorry? He's half man, half computer. In this, Duncan, for a bonus point, in this tournament alone, how many times has a team won by four goals or more? Seven. Few. It's six. But, I mean, still. But you know that I can see the future. That is true. That is true. I haven't updated it, actually, with today's.

5:42Pol Ballus: No, I think we're safe. We're safe. We're safe. But that does speak to the fact that there is a, some would say, a chasm of quality in some of these matches. Yes, but there was a very good article by Mark Carey on The Athletic just today pointing out that we're in the most over-performance on XG World Cup ever. And we can kind of see that. There's a lot of headed goals which are quite hard on XG. There's a lot of goals from outside the box. We saw more of those today. So I think whether that's the defence is not closing down as well or certain goalkeepers not covering themselves in glory, although obviously some are as well.

6:18So I just think the standard is not quite at the top, top level that you get in the Champions League. But that doesn't mean it's less entertaining. In fact, it probably means it's slightly more entertaining. It's a more accessible product, the World Cup. Duncan seeking statistical solace after his pre-match prediction that this would be the lowest scoring World Cup of all time. Did I say that, Tom? Kind of did. Is it on camera? Unfortunately, yes.

6:46Pol Ballus: Very much so. But you know what? But hey, still early days. Yes. And this World Cup, with its expanded line-up, perhaps harder to call than ever before. Anyway, we'll have much more of that kind of chat perhaps later on, time permitting, because there's a lot of football games to be talked about. A moment of the day, though, if I could trouble you for one of those, Tom Williams? So we went along to the game of the day today, unquestionably. That's me on the left. with producer Charlie producer Charlie at the SoFi yep SoFly at the SoFi SoFly at the SoFi yes we watched where are you in the picture you're somewhere down there I think we were pretty much directly opposite you were you?

7:30yeah okay and I had the rare treat of having Tom Williams sat to the right of me which really was an extraordinary experience first time that Duncan and I have ever covered a game together is that right? 15 odd years and what a game you chose oh yeah yeah

7:45Pol Ballus: 0-0 between Belgium and Iran but it was actually really exciting to go along to the stadium which is really big and very high it has a huge screen Duncan you were really impressed with that the screen is and I don't say this lightly enormous it's the biggest thing you've probably ever seen it is you know basically the width almost of the pitch and it it threw up information throughout the game replays although arguably slightly late replays a couple of minutes after you actually want to see them but it also and obviously this pleased me it threw up stats during the game and at one point it had a line breaking passes graphic do we have that?

8:22we don't have that but you have to trust me copyright and it had three things it was like line breaking passes by going through the opposition around the opposition and over and the arrows

8:34Pol Ballus: actually mimicked that the arrow went they did but it reminded me of a seminal children's book we're going on a bear hunt and we're going on a goal hunt and sadly we didn't find any goals so okay James But we had loads, I don't remember that one, but we had loads of other things, including possibly in a great tournament for goalkeepers, the save of the tournament. That's something else we saw. Duncan is a big fan of the Trionda. Possibly the biggest fan of the Trionda in the world. And as Duncan and I were leaving the stadium, we stumbled across the biggest Trionda in the world, possibly. Or I'm really small.

9:07And this is a camera track. Honey, I shrunk the pundit. Yeah. But it was just great to touch even an oversized. It's America.

9:15Pol Ballus: Everything's big here, including some ice cream confections. That's a Cornetto. Again, that might be being held by Donald Trump. I think they call it. Yeah, Tom and I went to a shop and bought them and then ordered an Uber that arrived within a minute. So not only did we find ourselves holding the two biggest Cornettos that we'd ever seen in our entire lives, we had to eat them within 60 seconds. Good Lord. Gone in 60 seconds. Real frisson of danger. Wow. All right. We were working hard today, eh? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Excellent. Always. Oh, also, and we don't have a picture of this, but when you got into a lift at the SoFi Stadium, SoFi So Good, what did you find?

9:54So it was a very busy lift. The lifts aren't great in terms of there aren't many. Elevator situation. And so everyone was crammed in. And a worker at the stadium, dressed in all the FIFA apparel, got in. And he was Elvis, right? He had the 70s Elvis. Yeah, late era Elvis. okay the rhinestone sunglasses sideburns yeah someone quietly went Elvis and he went that's right I am Elvis and he was I wish I could remember he said something like I'm the Norwalk Elvis look it up yeah no one looked it up we're doing it five years yeah

10:30Pol Ballus: so he is Elvis for that as you know by state law every town in America has must have a nut and he was and Elvis he was the one but on his on his day off that's what Elvis by day stadium steward by night. Or maybe the other way around. Probably the other way around. Here come some results from Sunday's games. In Group H, Spain got their first win. We're going to hear about it very shortly. 4-0 against Saudi Arabia. The other game in that group saw Cape Verde come from behind to draw against Uruguay. 2-2. We'll hear about that as well. In Group G, meanwhile, Belgium and Iran ended goalless, but the evening game in Vancouver certainly didn't.

11:10Pol Ballus: New Zealand took the lead against Egypt, but it was the Pharaohs who stormed back for their first ever World Cup victory. There was also one game from Saturday's action, which will have been Sunday morning for a lot of people. It was the Japan-Tunisia game, which saw Japan absolutely storm past the Carthage Lions? Carthage something. Yeah, one of those. Yes, past Tunisia, to the tune of four goals to nil. which Duncan you were working I was working on this game and Carthage Eagles yeah they weren't soaring in this game they were clipped their wings were clipped and they were cowering in a cake no they weren't yeah Japan were great I mean in a World Cup of three balls and headers I mean Ode's two goals were brilliant the first one absolutely pinged him from the edge of the box but I preferred the second one the second goal was amazing the nutmeg from miles out but the third goal which he didn't score but his assist that was him doing the assist that flick yeah just lovely stuff and then his the fourth goal his second when he headed it there was a goalkeeper and two defenders on the line and he managed to lob them all with a header which is you know that's good incredible they moved level with Netherlands who on Saturday had beaten Sweden five goals to one so it's going to be a really interesting battle for top spot in that group of course those two teams drew 2-2 on day one on the opening round of games Tunisia meanwhile are out Herve Renard coming in and they're going out.

12:42He did what he knows, you know, how he does. Chris White shirt. White shirt. The shirt was clean, but the sheet wasn't. He looked a bit angry. He was looking at an iPad quite early in the game. And yeah, it wasn't good. A dismal tournament for Tunisia,

12:59Pol Ballus: who conceded, what, nine goals across two games. They've still got one to go, of course. As for Japan, though, as I mentioned, they are level with Netherlands atop that group. and looking good to go through to the round of 32. They could face some sizable opposition there, but nice to see them doing so well. Duncan, you were impressed. Yeah, I think they're maybe in the top three most fun teams to watch, their movement and... I was going to ask, who are the other two? So England? Oh, England, obviously. Cape Verde? Cape Verde? Yeah, Cape Verde, yeah, why not? Why not? All right. Let's have a chat then about some of the things that happened on Sunday, starting with Spain against Saudi Arabia.

13:35Pol Ballus: Sunday morning in Atlanta, Spain took on Saudi Arabia and beat them 4-0, securing their first win of this tournament. Paul Bolus was there and he joined us earlier on. Paul, La Roja on fire. Saudi Arabia are terrified. Exactly. Yeah, that's basically the good summary. I think that Spain got the feeling of being back, finally. yeah the draw against Caipherde left the players with desire to respond and I think that they did that helped by the tactical tweaks that that that Luis de la Fuente made which in my opinion they were quite clear and quite obvious what went wrong against Caipherde but he addressed it and it worked out I think that the Spain were really the better team and possibly something of aversion that we were expecting before the World Cup and that we did not see in the opening game.

14:31Pol Ballus: Was the biggest tactical tweak putting Laminya Mal in the starting line-up again? I think that this is one of them. But the biggest tactical tweak, in my opinion, was one, just to bring a bit more of wide threat. And in that department, Laminya Mal is the best in class. and then I think that putting Pedri in his best position was handy as well because there's been a lot of talks around the Spain camp over who should De La Fuente build his midfield around and basically this game has confirmed that he wants to give the keystone midfield to Pedri and he benched Fabian Ruiz at the expense of that and putting Dani Olmo as the number 10 is the better tactical fit in my opinion and then yeah, Lamin Jamal on the right flank Alex Vaina, which is more of a winger, and Pedro Porro is also more of a wing-back.

15:23And I think that this gave Spain another dimension. But it's out of the question now that there's no most irreplaceable player in that Spain squad than La Minyamal.

15:34Pol Ballus: OK, he got his first World Cup goal ten minutes after making his first start for Spain in the competition. With an assist, a delicious one as well, from Ayazabel, who had been a major talking point from the first game. for spending half an hour out on the pitch without seeing the ball once. He had a very different opening to this game, Oye Isabel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was asked that in the mix zone because he was one of the guys to come in the post-game mix zone. And he said, look, well, and the question was like, you didn't touch a ball in your debut for 30 minutes. And after 30 minutes in your second game, you scored two goals and delivered an assist.

16:15How has that happened? and yeah he had a bit of a bite back to the to the Spanish journalists that have been a bit critics, a lot of criticism over this week and a fun fact that you're going to love about Mikel Oyarzabal is that in like Spanish social media and in the Spanish media actually he is being nicknamed as Mikel Oyarzabal for the amount of goals that that like he has scored for the for the national team. If I'm not wrong in the last 13 games he has played for Spain. He has 21 goal involvements, which is quite the state.

16:51Pol Ballus: Oya Haaland. Very nice. So one more group game to go, Paul, and it's against Uruguay, and that suddenly looks a lot easier. I mean, it looks easier, but it's been seen from the Spain perspective, and I'm sure that from the Uruguay perspective, it's going to be the same, but Spain expect a battle in there. They are going to go to Guadalajara, and they expect the Uruguay team just to put up a fight. It's been seen as the most difficult game in the group stage on paper, like before the group started. But now Uruguay will be fighting for their life after a second consecutive draw. And yeah, of course, Spain have just everything to be on top of the group, but I think that they've already had an upset and they are not up for another one.

17:38So they must take this game seriously and I'm sure that they will.

17:43Pol Ballus: Okay. Paul, you must have had one or two doubts after your bold predictions of Spain being world champions ahead of the tournament. You must have one or two doubts when you saw the result against Cape Verde. Are you now feeling that everything is right again with La Roja? Yeah, yeah. I just still maintain that they have, in my opinion, the best squad in this World Cup and I think that they are still strong contenders to go all the way and that's the mood and the expectations that the players themselves have. So let's see if they can achieve it. All right. Paul, thank you so much. Look forward to speaking to you again soon.

18:15Pol Ballus: Been a pleasure. See you soon. Paul Ballou, it's lovely to hear from him. That's the Madrid-based ass. If you'll excuse the expression on Monday, yes, this is Spain. While Barcelona's sporting press, like sport, went a bit more on the Laminya Mal tip. Whichever way you look at it, impressive stuff, Tom Williams. Very impressive. Lomín Jamal making his mark within 10 minutes of his first ever World Cup start. Mikel Ollazabal playing the long game, having not touched the ball once in the first 30 minutes of Spain's opening game, clearly and very deliberately creating a sense that there's no point in paying any attention to him in the first half of the game, only to then score twice in the first 30 minutes of this one and could have won even more comfortably in the end.

19:06So as we said after the draw against Cape Verde, you know, probably not all that much to worry about. And here we are a few days later and they look like they're firing on all cylinders. Yeah, OK.

19:15Pol Ballus: They're all but sorted in the group. They've got Uruguay coming up next who are in a world of trouble. We did actually predict that Uruguay might be the team most likely to throw in a World Cup meltdown. What we didn't predict was them drawing their first two games against Saudi Arabia and then on Sunday against Cape Verde. Kate Verde, who, to be honest, this performance, from what we saw of it, they looked absolutely magnificent. We were on our way back from the SoFi. However, our friend Nick Miller was watching it, and I think he can join us now. Hey! It's Nick Miller. Hello, everyone. Nick, hi.

19:54How are you? How have you been? Very good, very hot, very tired, but in a good way.

19:59Pol Ballus: Well, excellent. Nick, we wanted to talk to you about Kate Verde. six days on from holding former world champion Spain to a 0-0 draw, they go and draw with another former champion, Uruguay, but in a completely different fashion. How impressed were you with their performance on Sunday? Yeah, they were great. I mean, the Spain performance was brilliant, but it was kind of survival. They didn't really kind of do much other than defend for most of the game, which they were brilliant at. But this one obviously scored twice, took the lead early on with a free kick from way downtown. And they were sort of quite threatening in attack for the rest of the game, for parts of the rest of the game as well, certainly.

20:46So, yeah, they keep sort of adding, sort of replacing their greatest ever game, which, you know, was the game that they qualified against Osuotini. and then it was drawing with Spain 0-0 and now probably drawing with Uruguay 2-2.

21:02Pol Ballus: Were you in Cape Verde when they did qualify for the World Cup? I was, yeah. You were there to profile this remarkable rise. What is their secret? I mean, I'm going to mention the magic word diaspora, which, you know, a klaxon's going to go off somewhere, I think. Duncan's wearing a pair of them right now, is she? Yeah. so they're very kind of carefully and deliberately drawn in players from various places around the world where the players that have Caribbean heritage, there's a lot of players from Netherlands there's a lot of players weirdly from a very specific neighbourhood in Rotterdam a lot of players from Portugal and obviously Pico Lopez from Ireland so they've done that and they've got this coach Bobista who you may have noticed is a fan of patrolling touchline in jeans, which, I mean, that looks very sweaty, but, you know, that's his style.

22:01He's got a kind of cool uncle style kind of guy. He's got a motorbike in the garage and just kind of impresses you with it every now and then, that kind of vibe. So, yeah, he's very much the kind of father figure and he's been there for quite a while. So, yeah, and they do have some pretty good players. I don't think anyone's going to be comparing them individually to Spain and Uruguay, but as a collective, they're very good.

22:31Pol Ballus: Excellent. Is it also true that, and this some people might find troubling, FIFA have done them quite a lot of good with some of their investment. You know how FIFA are always saying we need to make loads of money because we're going to invest it around the world. Well, they actually have in Cape Verde, and I think there's a certain amount of Chinese investment as well that's gone on there, Nick? Yeah, the national stadium in Praia is quite weird because it's not a gleaming palace of football, but it's a perfectly good modern stadium. But all the signs there are in Chinese and English rather than Portuguese or Creole because it was essentially built with Chinese money, which is...

23:09I don't quite know why they invested this money in China, but yeah, as you said before, It is a slightly inconvenient or uncomfortable truth for most of us who are conceptually and kind of philosophically against everything that Gianni Infantino does, that a lot of the funding that Cape Verde have received has helped them to develop a lot of young players. Which, you know, he's not all bad, is he, Gianni? He's fine, actually, yeah. Is it true they haven't brought them any whistles because they've only conceded five fouls in two games? So maybe they've gone to a post-foul landscape. Yeah, they're just lovely, clean boys.

23:49They don't need to resort to the dark arts to get success.

23:53Pol Ballus: It is an extraordinary thing. As we mentioned after the Spain game, when they spent 90-plus minutes defending against one of the most attacking teams in the world and conceded a grand total of one foul, this time only four against Uruguay, who are a feisty bunch. To put that in perspective, the average number of fouls a team would concede in a World Cup game would be 15. So by now they should be around the 30 mark and they're on five. Nick, the goal scoring as well, you could argue that their most important player was the Uruguay goalkeeper Fernando Mousler on this, or at least his defensive wall on the first free kick.

24:27Pol Ballus: But certainly Mousler has decided to have a decision to take a scamper upfield for the second. But by and large, just the way that they were playing was so full of joy. It was a delight to watch. Yeah, it really was. And they made a few changes from the first game as well. The first game looked pretty much their first-choice team from qualifying. Then they made a few changes for this one, and it worked a treat, obviously. They did take advantage of a couple of gaffes from not only Muslera, but there was a ropey back pass for the second goal as well. But take advantage, they did. Excellent. All right.

25:02Pol Ballus: I noticed that when you did write your article about them reaching the World Cup, there were some comments about yes Nick but you didn't talk about how this is part of the evil expansion of the tournament and then one chap a guy called M Harris said yes and this is all for them to get battered in three matches and we'll have to listen, read and watch trite condescending origin stories for days before about these plucky players before being totally forgotten by all concerned incredibly prescient stuff there from M Harris. Anyway Nick it was a lovely article, it's up on The Athletic of course and free as all World Cup content is for the duration of the tournament on the Athletic app.

25:37Pol Ballus: Nick, massively enjoyed seeing you today. Looking forward to catching up with you again soon. Thank you very much. See you, guys. Cheers, Nick. Thanks a lot. Nick Miller. How about this? Cape Verde now have, Duncan, a 67 % chance of reaching the knockout round. Isn't that incredible? Yeah. A two-in-three chance for fraction fans like Tom Williams. Like Tom? Big fraction fan. Or a one in three, just over, chance of Uruguay reaching the knockout stages. We're just looking at the group now. Spain on top, obvs with four points. Uruguay and Cape Verde both had two points. Uruguay ahead, I'm not entirely sure why.

26:16Pol Ballus: Goal scored, perhaps? I guess, yes. Per the athletics projection model, a huge 45 % chance of playing Argentina in the last 32. For Cape Verde? Yeah. Wow. The reason, of course, that their percentage chance is so much better than Uruguay's is that even though they're both level on points, Cape Verde's next game will be against Saudi Arabia, while Uruguay, as mentioned before, will be up against Spain. One of the interesting aspects of the game today was that when Cape Verde pulled off that remarkable goalless draw against Spain, the hero was Voisinha, the incredible, unbeatable goalkeeper who repelled everything that Spain threw at him and saw his Instagram numbers rocket up to 15 million.

27:01Against Uruguay today, he didn't make a single save. Uruguay was so poor, only two shots on target. And as a consequence, his Instagram numbers are plummeting. Are they really? If you follow him, you should unfollow him by the same principle. Yeah.

27:15Pol Ballus: Duncan, I believe you have a stat relevant to this game in Uruguay. Yeah, well, the camera kept cutting to certain Luis Suarez in the crowd. Should I just say that one? That one, the official. Not the one from the 1960s, the Barcelona. another the middle yeah I know the middle one the best one probably anyway Uruguay haven't won a World Cup game without him in the team since 1990 get him back in he's there yeah 1990 yeah they won a game without Luis Welles because he was about five difficult to play a five year old in a World Cup since then only when he's been in the team have they won at the World Cup yeah so it doesn't look good for them I mean they could they could get through with a draw against Spain.

27:58But, you know, it's up for grabs. And you wouldn't really count on them, on the evidence of what we've seen so far?

28:06Pol Ballus: No. Uruguay. It's going to be an interesting game, that. Coming up next week. Coming up, meanwhile, on this Totally at the World Cup next, we'll be looking at Group G, which featured our trip to the SoFi for Belgium against Iran, but perhaps more excitingly, Egypt's first ever World Cup victory against New Zealand. 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 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 and unlike some other places there are no blackout dates so when you want to travel your rewards are ready to go.

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31:21Pol Ballus: Sunday, so Group G Action New Zealand took on Egypt. Would they produce another surprise result? No, they would not. They did take the lead against the Pharaohs, but ended up losing 3-1. Yikes. Egypt's list of scorers, very impressive indeed. Zico, Salah and Trezeguet. One of the most impressive lists of scorers in any World Cup game ever. And then they brought Zizou on as well, right at the end of the game. They did. Tremendous collection of nomenclature. Indeed so. What about Egypt then, claiming their first World Cup win and getting their tournament underway? way yeah it's a huge moment i mean egypt's a massive football country a massive country anyway um you know record african cup of nations champions so for them not to have a world cup win was a huge oddity really um and they've been waiting a long time and to be honest the first half new zealand fully deserved their lead um i think the switch they made at half time was to put zico more centrally and put marmush out out wide which obviously marmush is pretty versatile and Zico, not that one, this one, ran the game in the second half, scored a great goal and yeah, I think they're now set pretty fair to get through this group and yeah, the Egyptian fans will be delighted.

32:43Pol Ballus: Zico got the first one, I think he then set up Salah for the 2-1. Trademark Salah goal and a 1-2 with Zico after cutting in from the right. Sam Matterface on commentary back in England saying Egypt fans will be celebrating Salah's goal from Cairo to Giza as Luke points out on social media. Those two places are actually 11 minutes from each other. So, yeah, the geographical concentration of Egyptian fans is very, is very precise. All right. Excellent. Well, that's good for Egypt. What about the other game in that group? Briefly, first Welsh goal at the tournament, thanks to Finn Sermon of New Zealand.

33:24Great moment in every World Cup, that. Born in Cardiff.

33:27Pol Ballus: Yeah. We'll take it. Okay, plays for the Portland Timbers as a centre-back. He's never scored in MLS, but he scored in the World Cup. Anyway, yeah, briefly, that had put New Zealand top of the group. It is now Egypt who topped the group, because they'd all previously drawn their matches back on the first round of games. and the other game in the group also finished in a draw this time. That was the aforementioned Belgium 0. You can see it. Iran 0. Now, we were all there with Phil Hay and Bruce Charlie and Laurie Whitwell, who must have been tremendously excited because there was a Manchester Boulevard on the way into the stadium.

34:09Pol Ballus: So that made his day. We saw Iran with the oldest starting XI ever named in World Cup history, average age of 32. held, sorry, well, holding the Red Devils to a goalless draw. I think that's the way round you'd have it. Iran held Belgium to a goalless draw. Iran even had a goal disallowed, and what a terrific goal it would have been had it stood. Were it not for Mediterranean's big butt? Yeah, he was offside via his butt, but what a goal. I mean, it had Weghorstian energy. If you remember the Qatar free kick, which saw Vekors slyly spinning in the wall. And he tucked it away really well today.

34:53And, you know, I would say, what, do you reckon 70 % of the stadium were supporting Iran? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there were a lot of Belgian fans there. True. So the Iran fans were noisier.

35:07Pol Ballus: They were. All right. Well, so they didn't get that goal. They did get, quite possibly, the save of the tournament so far. Yeah, Ali Reza Behranvand, Iranian goalkeeper, who was fantastic today. And developing this theme at the tournament of unheralded goalkeepers producing heroics. Belgium were a lot better than they had been in their opening game against Egypt. They created more chances. It took them until the 62nd minute to get a shot on target in that opening game against Egypt. They looked a little bit sharper going forward today. but they couldn't get past Berenvand. And yeah, it was around the hour mark.

35:49Dink ball over the top from Leandro Trossard, who's playing on the left today in Jeremy Dock, who's absent through illness, probably Trossard's preferred position, played a lovely ball over the top. And Kevin De Bruyne did brilliantly to keep the ball in on the byline, puts in a low cross that a defender gets a touch to, full straight for Brighton's Maxim de Kuyper, who looks like he's got the entire goal to aim at, and he hammers it straight down the middle of the goal. Behran Van sticks out of hand and preserves his clean sheet.

36:22Pol Ballus: Yeah, absolutely. Belgium, shots without scoring count. They had 32 shots against Iran. That's their most without scoring in a FIFA World Cup game since 1994 against Saudi Arabia. Quite the match that must have been. If you put an Ecuadorian, a Belgian, and a Tunisian, and a Turkish player, rather, in a room with a football. Against Tunisia? what would happen I don't know if Chris Wood falls over does he make a sound etc but we simply don't know I don't know just to continue the stat that I was mentioning they are now at 69 shots in finals since a Belgian player last got on the score sheet it was Michi Bashiwai as you mentioned yesterday 406 minutes ago in World Cup football wow incredible where does that leave the group let's have a little look Egypt very much on top two points clear of Iran and Belgium with New Zealand trailing in in last place as it stands but everybody's still in with a shout of making the knockout stages I would say fans of permutations should definitely be all over group G when that finishes later in the week yeah because I think it's gonna shift about quite a lot okay one last thing from this game Iran staff and players left a really nice message on a board at the end of the game.

37:40It said, From the ancient Persia of thousands of years ago to the civilised Iran of today, the spirit of Iran remains alive and steadfast. We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honour and lead with dignity. Thank you, Los Angeles, for your hospitality and thank you to every Iranian who gave their heart, voice and soul for Iran throughout these 180 minutes. May peace, respect and friendship prevail among all nations.

38:03Pol Ballus: Those are lovely values. I think so. I don't see how you can disagree with that bit Very good Very shortly we're going to be looking ahead to Monday's action With big sides taking the field again In big matches Next up though we've got a few comments From listeners and viewers 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.

38:44Pol Ballus: The FIFA World Cup meal is available all tournament long, so see if you can collect all nine cups. That's the FIFA World Cup meal only at McDonald's. And participate in McDonald's for a limited time while supplies last. All rights reserved. 2026 McDonald's at FIFA World Cup 2026 is a copyright and trade.

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40:49Pol Ballus: Yesterday on the show, while saluting the innate genius of people like Penenka and Cruyff, we did cast some doubt over their authorship of their signature moves, a.k.a. the Penenka and the Cruyff turn. We had MrRGB242 write in and say, nice bit on the Cruyff turn, because, Tom, you pointed out someone had done it on film at Wolverhampton. Yeah, like 14 years before, was it? MrRJB says Nice bit on the Croy turn Thought you'd mention that he wasn't even the first to do it At the 1974 World Cup though Because Adrian Alston Did it a few days earlier For Australia Did you know that? Did you know that Australia were at the 1974 World Cup?

41:32Pol Ballus: Yeah Australia's superfan He's no Pat Beach Exactly Yesterday meanwhile we also celebrated The comms commentators going quiet after a goal, which I at least said I thought was a great thing. HM1410 says, I hate the commentator going quiet after a goal. It does nothing. I mean, literally. Letting the goal breathe is nonsense. If that's the gold standard, then we'd have missed out on one of the greatest commentaries of all time. They think it's all over. Well, it is now. Now, I'm going to disagree with you a little bit there. Because he says most of that commentary comes before the goal. Right. Yeah.

42:16Pol Ballus: He's just finishing off a sentence. Some of the crowd are on the pitch. They think it's all over. Goal. Well, it is now. So I do take your point that sometimes, sometimes... Maybe someone was in his ear saying, hang on, it looks like there's going to be a goal. You've got to be quiet for 10 seconds. Is it that time? And he said, it is now. Speaking of the famous Kenneth Wollstoneholm commentary from 1966, Have you ever heard the ITV version? Terrible. No, it's better. It doesn't make any sense. How does it go? It goes, and here's Hurst. Is he going to make it three? He has. For him. He has. For Hurtrick.

42:52I know, but he made the score 4-2. But he was talking about Jeff Hurt. I know, but... It's better commentary. It's not... And should be celebrated. Nonsense.

43:01Pol Ballus: So ITV and BBC were both in simultaneous broadcasts in 1966? I'm not sure that that was the case, but there is an ITV version. Oh, but they re-recorded it afterwards. Anyway, I'll move on. Hey, speaking of 1966, here's MrRab1992. Question for BigDunk, Alex. Hearing lots of records, the first X since 1966 when records began, can we find out why these things suddenly started being looked at in such detail that year? Well, it seems like a really kind of tub-thumping football began in 1966, which in some ways it did. But the reason is, when Opta went back and analysed all old World Cups, 1966 is the first one when they televised every game.

43:46Right. So you need the footage.

43:47Pol Ballus: So there simply isn't footage of 1962. So from 1962 backwards, there's certain games where we don't have all the footage. It's a statistical black hole. We know nothing. There's probably people in there doing Penenkas and Croftans all over the place. There genuinely probably was. so yeah speaking of that whole issue of commentators pausing when a girl is called he says this is definitely the norm in America there's a famous story I like famous stories says Captain John's Fish Market there's a famous story from when Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth's career home runs record in the 70s yeah after the ball landed legendary announcer Vin Scully went to another room and drank a cup of water before reciting his speech how about that the original hydration break right there yeah I suppose it was now we know where it came from he just let the moment speak for itself or he had a sore throat or something perhaps Vince Kelly by the way he was a local legend here Dodgers Dodgers legend now oh Duncan you have a stat no more stats not right now maybe later stat later on if you're watching this on the 22nd of June which is quite possible today is the 40-year anniversary of Diego Maradona scoring the hand of God, although an Australian had done it two days before in another match.

45:10Pol Ballus: But this, of course, was against England in the quarterfinal of the 1986 World Cup at the... Do you know the only player to get penalised for a handball in that game? Period. Is that right? Yeah. Also, the 40th anniversary, therefore, of the other goal that he scored in the same game. That's a better thing to mention. Oh, the 40th anniversary of John Barnes' excellent assist with Gary Lineker. Which is how I like to remember that game. It's also Michel Platini's birthday. Is it? 21st of June. Yeah, Midsummer's Day. Right. Okay. If you're still on the 21st of June, happy birthday, Michel Platini.

45:50Pol Ballus: We'll move on. Next up, we're going to have a quick chat about some of the action that's coming up on Monday, the 22nd of June in the World Cup. and we're back to yes the groups J and I they call them that feature Norway and France and Argentina so we got Harlan Batten and Bappy and Messi and whoo whoo how many goals are they going to rack up this time eh eh well we said one of the pleasing things about the group phase has been this I was going to say unintentional staggering of superstars is it maybe it's a race dinner on Sunday isn't it you eat your cabbage first yeah And then you work your way through until you've got just the good...

46:28Three roasties left on the plate. And there they are.

46:31Pol Ballus: There they are. The three roasties. But then Ronaldo comes up after. What is he? The Brussels sprout you didn't want to finish? The sprout that you were hoping you wouldn't have to eat. It's a curious analogy. But your mum spots on the plate. Anyway, these three types can all sew up their knockout places in Monday's action. Those are the games. Argentina and Group J will be up against Austria. who we don't like to talk about and of course Messi following his hat-trick very much on top of the group Algeria up against Jordan in the other game in Group J meanwhile in Group I both France and Norway with victories Norway against Senegal and France against Iraq can sew up the top two spots in that group KP, hello to you Kranter, Pulitzer but he said just call me KP we missed out on talking about Austria last time But boy, it's going to be hard to avoid it this time, given that you're facing Messi and Argentina, the world champions.

47:31What is Ralph Rangnick, famously one of the most creative tactical minds in the business?

47:38Pol Ballus: What's he going to come up with to counter the power of the Messi? What do you think, Duncan? Well, as you say, he's a real thinker. I don't know. I don't think he can. I think Messi feels like he's on a holy trajectory right now. Obviously can break the all-time goal-scoring record at the World Cup in this game and may very well do so. He's leveled with closer than 16 goals. He has taken 45 shots more than Miroslav Closer. So does that mean Closer is better? It's not for me to say. Of all the teams that we've seen in action Is the one that has Risen most in your Estimation from those opening Set of games, is it Argentina?

48:22Probably, yeah I think I had maybe bought into the It's just a Grizzled set of lads on one last You know, holiday, but actually They're still really, really good I'm interested to see Because I think Austria will play a lot more of a sort of Energetic, pressing game compared to the first match so I do think they could I mean they were left to pass little triangles for most of their opening game which I don't think will happen tomorrow but it is um I think it is a fascinating thing I think Messi's kind of in a country that really kind of reveres superstars and reveres sort of like goats the fact that he's operating in this mode is you know it looks visibly fitter and stronger and faster as well so of course Rangnick was able to completely

49:08Pol Ballus: shut down production of his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo, will he be able to do that to Messi as well? Yeah, maybe not as effectively, to be honest. Austria beat Jordan 3-1. Duncan? I mean, I know we got criticised for not talking about Austria last time, but it was because of time zones and, you know. But it does, this week, obviously one of Austria's most famous contributions to work up history is the disgrace of Hikon in 1982 when Austria and West Germany played out a draw to eliminate Algeria. in the three team groups that were all the rage in the early 80s who do austria play in their third game algeria what does this current format of the world cup possibly encourage some some slightly strange particularly some he honesk but a lot of he hon we could be he honing in our way all the way to the weekend but and the fact it's quite a late group to tom's point about the you know where it's place means that they might know you know a draw here I'm not saying Australia it's they're a different team now but they have got that in their history I'll be keeping a close eye on them hope that was good for you KP we'll have more tomorrow after those two teams play the other game in the group very much Algeria against Jordan Riyad Mahrez didn't start against Argentina you remember that Mahe Mazahi saying that that was a change long overdue didn't do them much good Well, there is talk that he will come into the starting XI and that there may be a change of system.

50:34And Luka Zidane has been training without his wraparound Abraham Lincoln tribute jaw brace. So, big change.

50:43Pol Ballus: A lot of people would suggest that Algeria training without Luka Zidane might be... But, you know, we shall see. Everyone can have an off day. Am I right? Everyone's let their dad down while he's watched them. Well, that was the question I had about Vosinha. Isn't that classic? it you produce the performance of your career your mum says i'm coming to watch you and you don't make a single save you're letting two goals anyway they still got everyone stopped following him on instagram they're just all right then so distraught yeah dad didn't look too happy about algeria's performance first time around but best of luck to luca and dad and algerian made the best team win and all that as they faced jordan in the other game in group j in group i meanwhile arguably the game of the day sees Norway take on Senegal.

51:27Pol Ballus: Senegal who, am I right in thinking they were a little bit unlucky to lose three goals to one against France in their opening game? Yeah, I think they were arguably the better team in the first half and then France rejigged things at half-time, moved Michael Alisse into the number 10 role and Senegal couldn't live with them anymore. But we know that Senegal are an exceptional team. Maher was saying on the preview show that he thinks they're possibly the best African team of the last five or even ten years. So we'll be expecting some kind of reaction from them. There's talk that Ibrahim Mbaye, who came off the bench to score against France, might come into the starting XI, along with Habib Diara of Sunderland.

52:11And I think if Senegal do want to achieve something at this tournament, and they're clearly capable of doing so given their qualities, they need to show up in this match.

52:22Pol Ballus: All right. Up against Norway, of course. Who looked impressive in their opening game, that 4-1 win over Iraq? Ooh, Martin Odegaard news? Yeah, he's been sort of talking about his ongoing kind of knee issues a little bit. I think a lot of the Arsenal players have mentioned that. Declan Rice talked about his hamstring. And, you know, I think obviously it was a particularly tough and energetic season for them. But he did assist a goal in that game against Iraq, but just didn't quite look back to his best. But, you know, he's obviously a game changer on his day. So, yeah, like you said, I think this game is probably game of the day.

52:57Pol Ballus: All right. The other match in that group sees France, one of the favourites for this competition, taking on Iraq. France only managed one shot in the first half. You mentioned all this, the tactical switch. They look like they got themselves sorted now under Didier Deschamps. Anything we should know? What's his approach going to be with Iraq? So we are expecting some changes in the France starting XI. Luca Digne in for Theo Hernandez at left back. Manu Kone in for Aurelian Chouamini in midfield. And Bradley Barcola in for Desiree Douai on the left wing. Manu Kone starting will be interesting because if you go back to the World Cup qualifiers in the autumn, it looked like he played his way into the starting XI, then got injured with Roma early in the year.

53:45didn't play in the March friendlies and fell behind Adrian Rabiot in the midfield pecking order. So this is Deschamps' way of giving him a run out, letting him know that he's still in contention.

53:56Pol Ballus: That's a scary smile, isn't it? There's a little bit. He does that kind of face quite a lot. All right, well. Wiley. Looks a bit like John Thor there, but, you know, Inspector Morse. Yeah, quite scary half smile. And hey, if you are listening, why not try our YouTube product and enjoy the full 360 degree package. Yeah. And if you are on YouTube, don't forget to like and subscribe. Right. By smashing the button. Now. Now. Even if you break the screen, you've got to smash it. Well, if you want. Not going to say it wouldn't be nice. But anyway, however you choose to consume Totally at the World Cup, We're delighted to have you with us, and we will have a new one for you tomorrow.

54:45Pol Ballus: Same time, same place. For now, it's many thanks to Duncan and to Tom and to Paul and to Nick and all the production crew here. We'll be back with you in 24 hours. See you then. 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. 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. And unlike some other places, there are no blackout dates, so when you want to travel, your rewards are ready to go.

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