Scotland win at the World Cup…here come Germany + Netherlands

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2:03Singer wears lampshade. Saturday's press still high on the USA's So Fly performance at the So Fly. But there's been plenty of football played since then. And here's what we're going to be talking about tonight.

2:18Now that's what I call Haiti. Scotland topped their group with John McGinn's goal against the Caribbean side. Qatar Heroes as they take their first ever World Cup point against the Swiss. And Cyber Attack almost shuts down Brazil. But they get an equaliser through Vinny Jr. It's all coming up. Hello and welcome once again to Totally at the World Cup on YouTube and across all the podcast providers. And today featuring the delightful talents of Phil Hay. Phil, lovely to see you. You too. Excellent. Love your get-up. Thank you very much. Also back with us, Tom Williams. Tom, who was at the big USA Paraguay game.

2:57Well, look, that's a picture you took in the press box on Friday night. Yeah, first game of the tournament. First trip to the SoFi Stadium. Yep. Very impressive facility. Yes. Very large. Yeah. Very modern. If you're into your LCD screens, you're in for a treat. Very impressive performance by the USMNT. This is the press box. Slight drawback in the press box in that the glass windows that you can see preventing you from being able to hear anything in the stadium. Right. So I did feel slightly removed from the experience, but nevertheless, an enjoyable outing. OK, less risk of a beer shower, but a little bit like watching football in an aquarium, I think you called it.

3:34That was the vibe. All right. That was still an amazing game. An amazing game, yeah. All right, we talked loads about that yesterday. Lots of people writing in. By the way, thank you so much if you got in touch. Thomas Callan says, hey, there's so many dark horses in this World Cup. It's like a Lloyd's advert. If you're not from the UK, you're not going to understand that. That is a very good observation. The Morph says, in tomorrow's episode, what will be more likely to happen, another bald guest on the sofa, or the reappearance of the skunk? What are we talking about? Yeah. Indeed so. No, the skunk, this is the funny thing.

4:09I mean, it's not funny. Straight after Friday's show, we step out of our bijou studio, and who did we see strolling along the side of... There he is! There he... Or she, in fact. We've not got close enough to ascertain. I know nothing about skunks, although I know more about them now than I did two or three days ago. But I assumed that if they were that close to you, they would attack you just out of instinct. But it seemed quite friendly. It was almost tempted to pet you. A little too friendly, I'm going to say, Phil. What's the name of our tame skunk? It's certainly not that fellow. We've had loads of it.

4:40We asked, actually. We invited suggestions on our Instagram feed. We've had some great ones. How about this one? Donald Skunk. Donald Skunk says Johnny Mack. A lot of people writing in with Skunk and Alexander, which, yeah, that works. I can see what they've done with that. That works. Daniel Hayden says, Dejan Skunkovic. Yeah. All right. Pretty good. Your favourite, Tom, was Clarence Spradorf. Clarence Spradorf, come on. That's Hayden Smith. Come on. And Johnny Connolly and Daniel Richards both nominate Janny. So I think we'll move on at this point. Very good. Anyway, we've not seen... Yes? Domino Skunk.

5:16Oh, yeah. Swaggering into a major tournament and stinking the place out. Surely that's England's job. That's exactly my segue next. You've done it far better than I ever could. Very good. Next time I'll liaise about any jokes that I've got up my sleeve. I thought that was going to be about Scotland-Haiti tonight. Well, your first World Cup game in 28 years. How was it, Phil? Indeed. It was a win. It was a win. So I will take that all day long. There's this odd thing about Scotland under Steve Clarke that they have the habit from time to time of looking like they all got together in a lay-by about three hours earlier and are just kind of making the best of it.

5:55And it was a little bit like that tonight. But the thing was the result because the way the tournament's set up, you win your first game and you're not quite there to the knockouts, but you're pretty much there. So we do this calculation all the time in the Athletic. 88 % chance now or 89 % chance now that Scotland go through to the knockouts, which they've never done before. So on that basis, happy days, as long as we don't talk about the performance. Happy days. because Scotland are the only European team to actually win their match so far at this World Cup. We'll get into Scotland-Haiti very, very shortly.

6:24I want to check if you've got a moment of the day, a special memory you'll take away from this Saturday, Phil. Well, we were saying that I think Flower of Scotland, the anthem beforehand, is probably the best sung anthem at the tournament so far. Just to recap about the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, when we gave England and Edward II an absolute shoo-in up north. If you still care about those things, then a big deal. But it was nicely done and a decent result to follow. Okay, there you go. John McGinn there in his special Ironbrew-flavoured shirt. Ah, you see, it's not quite Ironbrew-flavoured.

6:58Is it not? No. Yeah, somebody on our blog was saying, love the shirt. And I gave it a thumbs down and said, if you're going to go orange, go full on Ironbrew orange. Oh, all right then. And yeah, it felt like every single Scotland fan in the stadium was wearing that shirt. An impressive level of coordination between fan base and team in terms of the colours for the night's game. OK, have you got a moment of the day, Tom? Yes, I'm going to go for Ismail Saibari, running through to put Morocco 1-0 up against Brazil. Beautiful pass from Brahim Diaz that split the Brazil centre-backs. And fantastic composure from Saibari to run through.

7:41Scooped the ball over the advancing Alisson. And he's been linked to Bayern Munich, a big season at PSV, last season 19 goals in all competitions and gave us a little demonstration of his class. Saibari afterwards celebrated with the furnisher of that pass, Brahim Diaz. And I fancy that he said to him, that's how you dink, a goalkeeper under pressure. And I bet Brahim Diaz will never tire of that kind of observation between now and the end of his career. Excellent. Very good. All right, we've got loads to talk about today because there's been, well, there have so far been three games, a slightly controversial point.

8:16The one that's still remaining on this Saturday in the US is, of course, Turkey against Australia. That one is kicking off so late that were we to wait for the end of that to then do a podcast and then get it out to you, we wouldn't be up at a decent time. So what we're going to do is talk about that one in our next show and concentrate on the three games today because between Scotland and the Brazil-Morocca game and, indeed, Switzerland-Qatar earlier on, We've got bags to talk about. We're going to begin, though, with events in Foxborough, Massachusetts. Phil, you were shaping to say something.

8:46I was just going to say, if you're in the UK and you've done the marathon of four games and have made it not only through the 2am kick-off of Haiti in Scotland, but also the 5am kick-off that is to come, let us know, because that is a good effort. Even though it's a Saturday and it's a little bit easier. Well played. Well, it's Sunday by now. True, yeah. All right, Haiti against Scotland. 28 years on you were concerned about Costa Rica and there were one or two scares in that game but all in all a job well done as you were saying Phil Yeah a result well done it was kind of classic Steve Clarke I thought the way that they played I was pleased I think I don't think he'd have been forgiven really if he hadn't gone with two up front and started Shankland as well he didn't have a good game but has been scoring scoring for Hearts for the end of the season scoring for Scotland it was the right way to go about it and this was the game for them because a draw tonight, and you would have said it was probably World Cup over for both, lose tonight, it was World Cup over for whoever took that defeat, which is Haiti, they're not realistically going to go through now.

9:47So the main thing was to win the game. But I think Duncan's spoken a few times about the fact that the goal difference might well play a part when it comes down to working out the league table of the teams who finished third. And given that they're unlikely to take much from Morocco and Brazil, we'll see how big a win this is, but it might just sneak them through. There were some scares for Scotland. We'll get onto those actually in a second. First of all, the goal. John McGinn and a lovely build-up from possibly the star of tonight's performance by Scotland, Ganon Doak. Yeah. Tom, do you want to talk us through the goal?

10:20Yeah, I mean, a scruffy conclusion, but some beautiful moments in the build-up. Fantastic piece of control from Che Adams to bring down a high ball. Lays it off to Ganon Doak. And I think it's Adams who gets in front of his man at the near post. And the magnificently named Haiti goalkeeper, Johnny Placide, manages to say, but it comes out to Johnny McGinn, who so frequently pops up in those goal-scoring positions. Bit of a scruffy contact. And I think it was Jean-Ricne Bellegarde, the Haiti midfielder, who tried to clear it, ends up shanking it into his own net. But put Scotland one up. I was hoping it was, I think it's Martin Experience.

10:58That's a great name. Some incredible names. Yeah, some incredible names. If they had given it as an own goal, they would have had to put it down to experience. They literally would have done. And I was sad that they didn't. This is the thing about Scotland, though. They have big moment players. So they've got McTominay and they've got Gannendoke and they've got McGinn. And that is what kind of compensates from time to time for the, you know, on occasions, the sort of abject collective output that you get, like, tonight. Scott McTominay, fated in song by JJ Bull, of course, had a header early on, cracked one off the post in the first half.

11:35All in all, though, Scotland didn't live up to the sum of their parts or didn't match up to perhaps your expectations. What does Steve Clarke have to do ahead of the next game against Morocco? Well, I think what he will do before that game and also in the Brazil game is probably revert to type slightly, which is to be more defensive and more cautious. I don't think he'll look at either of those games as big opportunities to win. And he might well know deep down that Scotland don't actually need a result from either to go through, although they won't play in that manner. But I don't expect him to be...

12:07I mean, the thing about Haiti tonight was any time the ball came to them, any time the opportunity opened up to attack, it was just like all the King's men and all the King's horses, straight forward. So in that respect, it was quite difficult to defend against, but they did seem to cut through the lines really easily. So it wasn't as if it was an easy fixture in that sense, but these two are going to be different gravy, Morocco and Brazil. So I'd be a little surprised if he goes too up front against either of them, might do nonetheless, but I think it will be very deep and very tight and hope for the best.

12:37Okay. Did you feel a little bit sorry for Haiti, Tom? They had the most shots, I think, of anybody in this group. Yeah, but they showed a real willingness to move the ball forward quickly. There were quite a few counterattacks that really got the stadium on board as well, and I find myself wondering whether they were a very effective counterattacking team or whether it was just the fact that every time they attacked, the crowd made so much noise it made you think that perhaps there was more going on than there actually was but the fact that they went into it playing with two centre forwards Franz Di Piero and Wilson Isidor of Sunderland, both of whom put themselves about quite a lot both of whom seemed to spend more time on the deck than they necessarily needed to but clearly a team with attacking intent unfortunately for them if they were going to get out of the group this was the game that they needed to do something in but they at least competed Well, we should see because the other two teams in the group didn't look irresistible in their fixture.

13:33Played earlier on Saturday, Brazil and Morocco sharing the points in a 1-1 draw, which means, of course, that Scotland are currently topping the group. We'll get on to Brazil and Morocco next. Saturday afternoon, our time over in New Jersey at the Meadowlands. Brazil took on Morocco. What was the most eagerly anticipated fixture we've had so far? Finished 1-1. How much did it live up to the hype? I thought it was a really enjoyable game. Yeah, I mean, the first half was brilliant. And I think most of the credit for that has to go to Morocco. They really surprised Brazil. I got the sense that Brazil weren't expecting what Morocco threw at them.

14:12They pressed Brazil in a very aggressive way in Brazil's half of the pitch, generated a huge amount of turnovers, created quite a lot of opportunities. And you found yourself thinking, Morocco are going to regret not taking any of these. And then Saibari runs through and puts them ahead. The piece of good fortune for Brazil was that Vinicius Junior almost immediately equalised with a classic Vinicius Junior goal, cutting inside onto his right foot and curling one in inside the far post. Carlo Ancelotti made a couple of changes at half-time, notably taking off Casemiro, who'd been very poor and had also been booked, brought on Fabinho, and I think Brazil, from that point on, stopped taking the risks with the ball that they'd been taking in the danger areas in the first half.

14:57and unfortunately the game kind of petered out a little bit. I think that was probably a reflection as well that both sides realised, given the context and the stakes, a 1-1 draw wasn't that bad a result for either of them. Balogun's second goal yesterday in the USA-Paraguay game, on Friday, I should say, was pretty excellent. The opening goal from Morocco was great. Was Vinny Juniors the goal of the tournament so far? Yeah, it probably was, although I had the Moroccan goal down, I'd said that on the blog. great pass, great finish, goal of the tournament likewise with Morocco they're a really good team really good form and to watch them play they look like they've played a lot together they look like they've played well a lot together as well and you've got them up to I think 5th in the FIFA rankings you've got Brazil starting to slide down not quite out of the top 10 but going in that direction I think Morocco are the more complete team I'd said on yesterday's podcast that I didn't think a whole lot of Brazil and aside from any other problems they've got, they just don't seem to have legs in midfield.

15:56Karl Ancelotti also didn't think a lot of Brazil in that performance. He apologised to supporters afterwards. Well, certainly somebody who was at the press conference said in the Slack channel that it was being discussed. He was asked about the crowd at the game and was delayed with the number of people who were there, but said that the performance wasn't what he was after. He was saying from his players there were a lot of nerves in the first half, they didn't look settled. He thinks they'll play better, but they just don't look like... They've got individuals like Vinicius. I think that's exactly what they'll be relying on, but they don't look like a side who are going to win this tournament.

16:30Our very own Jack Lang described their performance as genuinely appalling. The Jack firmly off the fence with that. I mean, high expectations because they are Brazil. Tom, you've got a theory about what Carlo's up to with the Celosal. He's trying to repeat the formula from Real Madrid, and in that respect, the first half was perfect. Start too slowly, get outclassed by superior opposition, concede the first goal, and then Vinicius Junior bails you out. It doesn't seem all that sustainable, but we said that quite a lot with Israel Madrid team, and look at all the Champions Leagues they won. So watch this space.

17:03You made a good point as well, Jack, which is that when the changes came at half-time, taking off Casemiro as an example, it was Fabinho and Danilo that came on. So two 30-year-olds, mid-30-year-olds. and Jack was saying the cupboards are kind of bare when it comes to the centre of midfield and the full-back positions as well there isn't a lot coming through for Brazil and it is a problem he hasn't got a great hand to work with Ancelotti it's not bad it's not terrible but it isn't enough for a tournament like this he hasn't got a prospect like Ayo Buabi coming through oh he was fantastic I was writing tonight about Ganondoke with Scotland and saying the little bits of flair and talent from him is what the World Cup One of the real joys of the World Cup is seeing people that you don't know much about or you know absolutely nothing about.

17:49And to a US audience, for example, probably don't know who Gannandoke is or a huge amount. A little bit of exposure with Bournemouth, but not much. And it was similar with the Morocco game. He was absolutely terrific. Don't know much about or can't pronounce properly. In my case, it's Bouadi. And broadly speaking, on Morocco, they weren't the most entertaining at the last World Cup, where they got all the way to the semi-finals. And I don't think many people thought that they had a decent chance of doing that again this time. The prospect wasn't. Supposedly the reason why they did change the manager ahead of this tournament was they wanted to play more expansive football.

18:22It looks like there has been a shift in mentality. I was just going to say, they actually remind me of a club team. They seem to have really good telepathy. Yeah, like a club side as opposed to an international side. They seem to understand each other really well. but I don't think we can rank them as a dark horse really can we because they're so highly ranked by FIFA and they're AFCON champions and I know there was all the politics around that and I know how it happened but they were a dink of a penalty kick away from winning the semi-finalists at the last World Cup. They're a genuinely strong team.

18:54I think they've got a chance. Their fans started to ole in the 12th minute which suggests that the ones in the stadium at least were pleased with what they were seeing but there was real quality to the way they moved the ball around and very quick interchanges in the final third. What I thought was interesting was we saw Ashraf Hakimi popping up in the kind of areas you see him pop up so frequently with PSG. This is the right-back. It takes an awful lot of tactical coordination for a full-back to be given that amount of freedom. So that does suggest that there is more attacking freedom in this Morocco team.

19:28One last thing perhaps on Brazil, which was Igor Chiorga's performance up front. How well did that work out? Listen to Andrew Turner, writes in, says, remind me while Jean-Pedro was left out of the squad again. Yeah, missed the header. That was it, really. Yeah, it was an interesting choice. And he can play better than that, but he was not great and he didn't help. One thing I did that I spotted as we were watching was how poor the pitch looked in comparison to the other surfaces, which have all been really good, actually, despite all the talk beforehand about how they were going to cope at NFL stadiums that pitchers need been relayed.

20:05But it is a fact that this is the venue for the final. Pitch didn't look amazing. The runoff space at the corner flags is absolutely absurd. I mean, it's really... No, it's tiny. As it was, the issues with that at the Copa America as well, which was a problem. I will die on the hill of the Azteca should have the final, not the MetLife. Fair enough, Phil. Is everything all right with you all? Yeah, well, we were a bit worried about bugs after what happened on last night's pod, and we've taken precautions to try and ward off the threat of a bug invasion. I'll tell you what works really well, having a bit of beer sitting there, because I've caught one already.

20:43OK. Excellent. A bit of extra protein. Very, very good. Not sure we can show the... Oh, look at that. Look at that. Wow. Can we pipe in the Scotland anthem at this point? Would that be too much? It reminds me of the day when, the Tuesday night or the Wednesday night, when, according to the live table, Hartman Lothian were champions of Scotland for about 10, 15 minutes. Enjoy it while it's there. Yeah, indeed. It's all you can do in life, isn't it? Yeah, of course. Very good. There's another game that's taken place already today, Saturday, in the US. We'll get on to that. Qatar, Switzerland next.

21:17Group B. Canada's group had Qatar and Switzerland facing off earlier today. Qatar taking their first ever point right at the death of this game. It was, what, four minutes into stoppage time? Banging header. Yeah, it was a beast. It was Duncan Ferguson. So this is Bulem Kuki. Yes. He did not crumble. Been a big fan since I saw that goal fly in, yeah. Yep, OK. He's the captain, centre-half, I believe. And he restored justice, a lot of people felt, to a fixture which had seen Switzerland go ahead in controversial fashion. Now, this has been a big talking point over here on the Saturday. the Swiss opener, which came about when the Qatari keeper, let's get his name right, Mahmoud Abunada, clattered into Rumofreuler.

22:06However, after the penalty kick had been assigned, we all saw the replay and went, yeah, this is going to be rescinded. He's clearly offside. This is what FIFA came up with many, many, many hours later because they never did the thing of drawing the line. Fair enough, they said the machine wasn't powered up or something, that the check had gone through, but they didn't have the machine with the lines on it. Cue Matt Letizia thinking face meme. Jimmy Hill, right. And there, to be fair, it looks like Froehler is onside. That's not the moment of play that we saw on the replay which made us think it was offside.

22:42But you know what? It happened and there are those of us who don't even like VAR who would have said, yeah, fair enough, that's just part of football. So beyond the fact that maybe the penalty should have been called back for an offside, Did Switzerland deserve more than a point in this game? Well, they did in the sense that they had an awful lot of chances. I think their XG was 3.6 something, which ordinarily would be enough for a comfortable victory. But they're not a prolific team. They're dependent on strikers like Briel Mbolo, who converted the penalty really well, but who's never been massively prolific.

23:18And they should have won. It looked as if a 1-0 win was going to be enough, and I'm sure they would have taken that at kick-off. you know, get off the board and you're halfway to the knockout rounds. But they didn't take the chances and they got punished at the death. Part of the reason for that was the performance of Mahmoud Abunada, who, after clattering his head against Freuler in the build-up to that penalty, then pulled off a string of saves and was named Man of the Match. What does this all mean for co-host Canada? Well, it means that the entire group are level on one point. So everything to play for is indeed the prospect of an actually meaningful third set of matches in Group B, which is terrific news.

23:56Anyway, that's the state of play there. Next up, let's get on to what awaits on Sunday. The flags bravely fluttering in the evening breeze here in Los Angeles ahead of Sunday's clashes. Let's just name them. So over here we've got the early game, 10 a.m. Pacific Central time. That's Germany against Curaçao, that flag there. Curaçao. That is in Asia. I love that. You like that? All right, also in that group are Ivory Coast and Ecuador. Where are they? That's there. And then you've got Group F, Netherlands, Japan. Hello. And also taking place from Group F, Sweden against Tunisia. You can see it in a rather more prosaic graphic form.

24:38We're going to get on to the Group E stuff soon enough because Tom is really excited about Germany. Sorry, Germany. I'm excited about them all, James. Ivory Coast, Ecuador. That was the one, wasn't it? Before that, though, one team, one big European side who we haven't really spoken much about despite their recent success in tournaments are, of course, the Netherlands. Is it a mistake not to be highlighting their chances more? Well, earlier on, I asked Dutch journalist William Vissers of de Volksgraaf, and this is what he said. William, how many times have you followed the Netherlands at tournaments?

25:12This is my ninth World Cup. How would you rate this Orange side, then, against some of the ones you've seen in the past. How strong are they coming into this? Yeah, it's a little bit strange because in Holland, we were used to great attackers. And we had Johan Cruyff, we had Van Basten, Van Isterhooy, Kluivert. Attackers, all the world, Bergkamp, all the world looked at the attackers from Holland. And now we have very nice defenders, good midfield players, but we don't have, although Depay is the top scorer of all time, but the one thing Dubai misses is a glorious tournament. So a tournament, he played very well in 2014, but then he was a substitute.

25:58He came in and then he scored. But now he needs a tournament where he makes, let's say, four goals or five goals or three goals. But all the time in the tournament, and that's why the real name is made in the tournament. I like from Boston. He played only one good tournament, but it was the Euro 88, and he scored five goals, and they were the champions. It's the only prize Holland ever won. Willem, getting out of the group shouldn't be too difficult in this new format. Topping the group might be, given the other teams that you're paired with. How important is this game against Japan? How worried are you about Japan?

26:38I think that they are worried because they know Japan has a lot of... When you look at statistics, Holland never lost since 1974, the first match in the World Cup. So that's a good statistic. Holland lost in 90 minutes. They didn't lose since 2006 in the World Cup against Portugal. After that, they only lost with penalties. So that are good statistics. But there was also a statistic that says that Koeman, in the second period as a head coach, didn't win against a top country. So he won on the Euro against Turkey, against Romania, but he didn't win against Spain, against France, against all the top countries.

27:24He didn't win against Germany. And he knows on the World Cup you need to win top games. Otherwise, you'll never become the world champion. William Vissers and happy birthday to him because he was joining us on his birthday. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Tom? Yeah, I mean, the Netherlands, for a major football nation, albeit one with a very small honours list, haven't really been talked about at all as a potential winner of this tournament. You look at their recent tournament record, they took Argentina, the eventual winners, to penalties in the quarterfinals at the last World Cup. It took that late, late Olly Watkins strike.

28:05Extra time? Was it an extra time strike? No, it was stoppage time, wasn't it? But anyway. To knock them out of the Euros. There's quality in almost every position, except for, as we've just heard, in attacking areas. So maybe that will be what... At some point, the Nothans are going to win a big tournament. So maybe we should... He's going to come in over the top of you there and say, although Memphis Depay, only one player scored more goals than him in World Cup qualifying. And that player is, of course, big early. Big early England. It's like quality to level, though, isn't it? They smell of last 16 quarterfinals.

28:39they've got themselves stuck in that little rut I think and I think that's what it will be for them Also they're going to be facing a team that really look dazzling These fellows here, Samurai Blue they're quick, they press they're transition Six wins on the bounce for Japan, some good results in there The numbers with Japan are really exciting, as we mentioned in our preview show, they were the first team to qualify for this year's tournament, they went through that extended Asian qualifying process in the course of which they scored 54 goals and how many did they concede? Three. Woof! Now they're on this long unbeaten run, the last six of which have all been victories and that's included wins against Brazil and England, so hello.

29:26They've had a few injury problems with Mitoma going out and Endo as well, who sadly had to retire, but they are a proper team and this group looks tough. They've got Tunisia, Sweden, Netherlands who they face and themselves but they were in a group last time in Qatar with Spain and Germany and they topped that group so Those injuries do set them back a little bit I think though and particularly because it is a difficult group they would want to rotate as much as they could so they haven't been helpful for them but the form is great yeah Alright we'll see what happens with them on Sunday the other game in the group is Sweden against Tunisia which producer Charlie points out features a former Swansea manager against a former Cardiff manager.

30:09That's the former Swansea man wearing his special... ...in a World Cup. Yes. Incredible. John Williams should be there for it. Yeah. How excited are you? That's Graham Potter, of course. I was excited already, but now I know that it's a Swansea-Cardiff proxy battle. And you know who the former Cardiff manager is? Sabri Lamucci. Yeah, you go. So he's in charge of Tunisia. Former Northampton Forest manager as well. Yeah. Tunisia didn't concede a single goal in qualifying for... They didn't score many either, but very, very tight at the bat. This gentleman and his now nation, Sweden, have had an incredible turnaround in recent months.

30:45Sweden, let's just remind ourselves, did not win a single qualifying match, managed to get into the playoffs because of their nation's league record, and then, with Potter newly installed after his difficult time at West Ham, and with Viktor Jokeres suddenly on form, blew past who did they beat Ukraine in the semi-finals Jokka is with a hat trick and then Poland in the final and here we are anyway the cowboy hat suits because they did kind of bluff their way through the qualifying campaign but that was before yeah it was before him yeah I totally take that and also the first thing that Alexander Izak did after Slott got sacked at Liverpool was score a beauty against Norway so maybe it's all turning around for him and to be honest if it does for players like that then they could be quite handy Sweden but I suspect you'll see more about them that you'll recognise from the poor parts of the qualifying campaign than you do from the better bits on the bottom OK, we'll see tomorrow I think that's the late game on Sunday before any of that and indeed starting the day off we've got Group E action from Houston as Germany take on Curaçao now this is interesting Germany's no doubt aware are four-time winners Curaçao equally you're probably across the fact that they are the smallest nation by both population and area to ever feature in the World Cup.

32:05Only, well, less than 160 ,000 inhabitants. In fact, if Curacao was a city in California, do you know where they would rank among the most populous cities in California? I don't, James. 26th. They would be the 26th biggest town or city in California, and they're at a World Cup. I think a little bit like Spain against Cape Verde, This might be the point at which it gets very real for Curacao. But I think if one of those games is to get particularly messy, it'll be the Spain game rather than the Germany one. Right. Hugo Bruce the other day with South Africa became the oldest manager ever at the World Cup.

32:41That's going to be over tomorrow when Dick Avogat steps onto the field because he's 78. I think Hugo Bruce is 73. Yeah, 78 now is Avogat. I've been around the block as well. I remember him doing good things at Rangers. Last time there was a World Cup in America in 94. he was there with Netherlands. Yeah. Crazy. He's one of those guys who on Wikipedia as you start scanning through his managerial CV it just goes on and on and on and on and on and he's clearly just going to crack on until the bitter end, isn't he? Or not so bitter end of this World Cup because not only is this the dream cocktail trolley combination, Abacart and Curaçao, but also he is another one who's mined the diaspora, if you will, and there's a strong Dutch flavour, a strong kind of, as you might expect, a lot of Curaçao descendants in the Dutch systems.

33:34And yeah, we'll see what happens tomorrow when they take on Germany, who are equally in a fine vein of form. I think it's nine straight wins for Julian Nagelsmann's side. Julian Nagelsmann, who is the youngest manager in the World Cup and facing the Olders tomorrow. They seem quite down on him in Germany, though, don't they? Or they don't seem blown away by him. A little bit like a South Korean coach who gets a lot of hammer, even though they kind of play from time to time like they did against the Czech Republic. They don't seem totally sold on Nagelsmann, but I think they'll be good. Let's see tomorrow.

34:05The other game in the group is the one that Tom is waiting for. Why, Tom? Why? Let's see, it's Ecuador and it's Ivory Coast. What's so special about that? I think it's a very intriguing clash of styles. um ecuador who've been talked up a lot for their defensive solidity ivory coast who are quite a spectacular attacking unit um and i think you know we've seen already and particularly in the days to come there are quite a lot of mismatches uh in this this first round of matches i think these are two teams who could prove to be on a on a similar level ecuador first and foremost remarkably solid defensive unit.

34:46Five goals conceded in 18 matches in South American qualifying. It's all the South American big guns. And you look at the players that they can call upon, William Patro of PSG, Piero Incappier of Arsenal, Joel Ordonez, a very highly weighted club, Brugger, centre-back, Maitis Caicedo of Chelsea, who we thought was going to be suspended. You did. But thanks to the Cristiano Ronaldo jurisprudence, FIFA rule, he's going to be able to start. Big boost for them. And going up against them, a pretty spectacular Ivory Coast team who top scored in African qualifying, albeit 16 of the 25 goals they scored came in two matches against the Seychelles or Mauritius or something.

35:30I should have checked that before I said it. One of the two. So this stat, which I was all excited about. Shall I actually look at it? Have a look. So I sort of wonder, just on the Ronaldo thing, whether Roberto Martinez is privately a bit disappointed that that ban was rescinded, because I was watching Ronaldo's finishing friendly last week, and it was a bit like dropping a garden hose. And Martinez seems like he cannot bring himself to drop Ronaldo or not build things around Ronaldo when to look at that sort of PSG-flavoured midfield, it might help if he did. You're not the first person to think it or say it, Phil.

36:07we'll find out when Portugal get to get their tournament underway what have you got Tom? as I was saying up against an Ivory Coast team the top scorers in African qualifying 25 goals albeit 16 of those were scored over two games against the Seychelles what were the two scores against the Seychelles? 9-0 and 7-0 9-0 and 7-0 they filled their proverbial boots ok so that's why they look like top scorers but there's no question that Ecuador are genuinely defensively incredibly talented have a lot of quality. This is their first World Cup appearance since 2014. 2014, there was still that fantastic generation that they'd had knocking around for years and they struggled with the transition from that generation to the next one.

36:48But you look at some of the young players they can call upon. Ahmad Diallo of Majesty United, Jan Diamonde, very highly rated young winger. They beat France in a friendly recently. So they're looking good. OK. Yeah, and watch Diamonde because somebody's about to pay big money for him, aren't they? Possibly Liverpool, but somebody will. Four o 'clock Pacific Central time, that game takes place in Philadelphia. Mentioning those scorelines, it just made me think about the fact that some people are already touting Germany-Curusau as potentially the kind of game that could give us a record scoreline.

37:22The highest scoring World Cup match ever is currently Hungary against El Salvador back in 1982. The old 10-1. The old 10-1. I think Curaçao people who think that's going to happen I think they're going to have a bit of a surprise on Sunday morning you don't think he's going to go all Auckland at the Club World Cup when they got a pasting from Bayern Munich they might go New Zealand at the 2010 Club World Cup when they didn't lose a single game I mean to be fair they're different sized nations but let's find out tomorrow let's find out together Phil because it'll be the opening game we'll be enjoying it over breakfast a rather more reasonable time for people around the world and that's followed by that line-up an absolutely cracking line-up of action.

38:04A few good days in prospect. All good days. Well, I hope you've enjoyed this edition of the Totally Football Show. We're going to be back same time tomorrow to discuss groups E and F and look ahead to Monday for now. It's many, many thanks to everybody here, to Phil, to Tom, to Willem Wissers earlier on and to you for tuning in. See you tomorrow. For now, from all of us here, it's goodbye.

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