Spain break down Argentina to claim their second World Cup

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0:33Pol Ballus: From Los Angeles, one last time, it's the Totally Show. And it's the end of the World Cup as we know it. After six weeks, over 100 games, around 300 goals, one large red card controversy, one large halftime break and so, so much hydration, we finally have our champions.

0:55Pol Ballus: Congratulations Spain 1-0 winners over Argentina after a couple of arduous hours on Sunday afternoon we look back on what will surely go down as the Tony Soprano final rubbish in New Jersey with the looming threat of a shootout and both teams struggling to gabagool plus we'll play remember when with some of the brilliant and bizarre events of these six weeks of the 2026 World Cup

1:22Pol Ballus: Sunday afternoon in Los Angeles and away we go with the final totally at the World Cup for this tournament at least. Tom Williams is with us. Hello James. Tim Spears also with us. Bringing it all full circle. Duncan Alexander joins us from a long way away. Alright Duncan, how are you? Hello, I'm good thank you. How are you? Yeah, I think we're all well. Really big time, Duncan. Back for the final. I've got to do some cycling oh the final podcast yeah I'll do that where was he when we were in the trenches watching Colombia vs Switzerland there was nothing more arduous than the final that we've all just witnessed we've got Paul Belus who's been right all along as it turned out about Spain he'll be joining us with a few words about that of course very very soon but let's just get a word or two from you guys and Duncan because we have our champions after a game at Mitterly that reminded us why we enjoyed the last World Cup final so much.

2:19Pol Ballus: But Spain, world champs, Tom. Spain, deserving champions, the best team at the tournament. It felt like this game was likely to be a bit of a letdown after yesterday and the third place playoff, which is the most absurd knockabout game of football that I think any of us had seen in a long time. And as it proved, the final was, as finals often are in World Cups, enormously underwhelming. but the best team won, the right team won. And there was something epic about it as well. All the way through, Argentina had been building this bad guy reputation. These never say die, you can't kill villains. But Spain finally slew the dragon.

2:57Yeah, I mean, it was the least funny conclusion, I guess. But, you know, football was the winner ultimately. And, yeah, Spain were the ones who obviously proved undefeatable. but even in the final when you know Argentina they took so long to have a shot remarkably what was it 115 minutes before they finally had a shot and Messi unleashes it and how does it stop Marino just puts his face like fully in it like no you shall not pass

3:22Pol Ballus: 115 minutes it was that's a big number in football of course 115 but 115 minutes Spain finally got a goal they'd had one previously disallowed for a foul probably I mean it occurred to us around that point that Argentina might be 15 minutes away, I guess plus penalties, from winning the World Cup despite having not had a shot, which would have been quite the feat. Well, they already became the first team ever, not just in a World Cup final, but I think in a World Cup, to have no shots on or off target in the course of a match, which is pretty remarkable. Yeah, people who don't like XG would have been delighted because they didn't have any XG in the slightest.

4:05Yeah, it was a remarkable display. and I think in some ways that made it good. I think to sort of lean into the sort of good guys versus bad guys thing, Spain trying to play football and have shots and Argentina seemingly with no interest in doing that. And like you say, it nearly worked out for them. And obviously they did then muster a few shots towards the end when they kind of had to. But yeah, Spain deservedly hung on.

4:33Pol Ballus: Okay. Argentina, the first ever World Cup finalist, I'm reading, to not have a shot in the 90 minutes. another great stat Emiliano Martinez the goalkeeper had more touches and attempted more passes than any of his Argentina teammates that tells you a lot about how the game went of course Argentina weren't helped by the fact that Enzo Fernandes picked up a red card during the game but I'm not sure that would have made any difference to their game plan what say you Duncan? I think it made a slight difference in the sense that you know going down to 10 against a team that can keep the ball like Spain can in extra time was not ideal.

5:09To be fair, he didn't leave the pitch for a good five or six minutes, so they didn't feel the impact straight away. But yeah, it just felt like they just had to double down even more on being the villains. It reminded me a lot of the 1990 World Cup final where similarly a 1-0 win for a European team against an Argentina team who kind of took a certain stance during the match, shall we say. And I think there's a place for that in football. I mean, I'm not against it. I think it's a memorable final, even if it's not the most exciting final compared to four years ago. Another similarity to 1990. So there have been six red cards in World Cup finals and Argentina are now responsible for three of them.

5:56One today. It's curious that that should be the statistician. Yeah. So it's two in 1990 and one today. Right.

6:02Pol Ballus: Okay. Well, we'll discuss the game in depth. Have you got a moment of the day, though, Duncan? Yeah, I think mine was, you know, obviously there was a lot of build-up around Lionel Messi for obvious reasons, you know, throughout the tournament. And other than the shot you mentioned getting to Mikko Mourinho's face, I think probably his other big contribution in the game was trying to get Mark Cucurella sent off for the occasionally bad thing of putting your hand over your mouth, which, you know, obviously one player did get sent off for in this tournament not a big player and we could credit he didn't even do it properly he just kind of did that and said something but then it was very much like running to the teacher to tell him and obviously it came just after the Fernandes red card as well so it was I thought that was not a very nice side of Lionel Messi in a big game maybe his last game in the World Cup Yeah, not the way you wanted to see him have an impact on the game, which he certainly struggled to do.

7:06Pol Ballus: What was your moment of the day, Tom? I'm also going to go for something slightly unsavoury. A lot of beef in this game, as you would expect. And it boiled over after the final whistle with this quiet, I mean, obviously, scenes you don't want to see, etc. but fundamentally quite amusing tussle between Leandro Paredes and Gavi, who didn't even get on the pitch. Paredes was brought on by Lionel Scaloni at half-time, as Argentina reverted to the approach they'd used in previous knockout games. Within minutes, he just gratuitously flattened Rodri for no reason whatsoever. And there must be something uniquely satisfying about winning a game of football against an opponent as annoying as Leandro Paredes.

7:52And so the thought of him having this head loss after the final whistle, I found quite amusing. Tim? So none of us have picked a moment from the actual football, which feels quite appropriate. Yesterday we spoke a lot about Messi and Yamal's famous picture. and in the battle we questioned whether they would reenact it on the pitch at full time with Umar in some kind of berthing pool. But it didn't happen. In fact, they did embrace. They had a nice tender moment. But as you can sort of see here, Umar is actually cupping the back of Messi's head in a role reversal of that famous picture. If you're listening to this, do seek us out on YouTube or a video version.

8:32Yeah, of course. Well worth the effort. It's very much apprentice turns master.

8:36Pol Ballus: there you go the washer becomes the washed well in so many ways i said before we'll get into the game in depth that wasn't meant to be a threat we'll have a quick look at it we'll talk broadly about spain and uh the reasons that they won this tournament we'll also because this has been the culmination of six weeks of extraordinary action often at the world cup we'll also get a little bit of a do you remember when about some of the amazing stuff that we've kind of forgotten all about from the early weeks times that feel almost now like a kind of premier league years so distant have they become but anyway all of that very very shortly because next up let's hear from Paul Belous

9:22Pol Ballus: we're joined now by Paul Belous Paul congratulations thank you thank you very much how are you Yeah, very well, very well. The final has just ended. But, I mean, you knew back since, I think, May that Spain were going to win it. That's what you told us even before the tournament began. I mean, I did say that. My basis behind that was that I believed that Spain were the best team, not the best individualities, the squad, that all the roles were better assembled, that all the players knew the roles that they had to play. And I think that this has been the case. just the fact of Ferran Torres winning the final a guy that has been so criticized so memed back in Spain for his lack of for not being clinical basically in goal and now scoring in the final just encapsulates a lot what the Spain team is the team mentality the full confidence with all the squad members the trust that De La Fuente gives to his players in terms of man management and this is a spark of luck that all the champions teams need.

10:31Because I think that Spain have been lucky as well in some ways. But if you look at all the games that they have played, they have not been at their best, but they've been the better team in every single game that they have played, basically, which in a way makes them, in my opinion, first champions of this competition.

10:47Pol Ballus: Haven't been behind once in the tournament, only conceded one goal in the tournament. What kind of memes were they doing about Ferran Torres, Porchat? Yeah, yeah. So basically, when he played against Caip Verde, he missed a couple of the chances when they got the draw against Caip Verde. Then I remember in the second game against Saudi Arabia, he was not clinical up front either. He's been a player that has been criticized for being capable to do great things, but also really bad things that are allegedly not up to the standards of a pro football player. But he's delivered in a big moment. and from now on he's going to be a part of Spain's history, I would say, as a country and of course of the whole football folklore.

11:29Pol Ballus: As will the manager Luis de la Fuente. What is that now? 38 games unbeaten with the side? Where does he rank in the Pantheon? 39? 39, yeah. Wow. Where does he rank in the Pantheon of the greats for Spain? No, I think that he's up there. I don't think that there's a national manager that can be regarded as higher than him. He might be tied with Del Bosque, if you want to put it that way. I think that for Spain, the start of all this new era, this golden era of footballers, the manager that unleashed that was Luis Aragonés, which was the one that allowed this generation of Xavi and Iesta just to blossom.

12:09But the ones that have given more success to the country have been Del Bosque and De La Fuente. And I think that De La Fuente has done it in a team which is really talented, but I don't think that it's that talented. or as good as the 2010 generation was. And I think that the way that he's managed the squad, he's just made the best out of international football. He knows how to deal with that. He knows how to manage. I think it's less of a tactical football and more of a man-management sort of football. But then he's brought players that they have been playing together since they were 17 in the youth rank of the Spain national team.

12:47And I think that this has given Spain an edge, tactically, without not even needing to train a lot. They know how to play, and they know how to play more as a team than any other national team has done in this World Cup, because they just know each other, they trust each other. And I think it's part of the Spain DNA as well, the way that they play and the way that they approach the game in a whole.

13:11Pol Ballus: And needed a special team to put Argentina away, finally, and Spain will. Do you remember the 2010 World Cup win, which was similar in many ways? Such a good defensive team. The final went to extra time, it was 1-1-0. Yep. How does this victory compare to that one for you? I think, I mean, the one in 2010, I'm going to give more credit to that one because it was the first one. And in a way, it helped this generation just to keep believing and just to believe in Spain that they can be among the great national teams in the world. But this one, as I was saying, this is a less talented team, in my opinion, or a less rounded team than this generation was.

13:53And in the way that De La Fuente has managed them, for me, it's impressive. As I was saying, there's a spark of luck, because if we look at the injuries that they've had from opposition players, I've seen a lot of comments in social media, because they had Courtois injured, they had Nuno Mendes injured, They've had Lissandro Martinez and Kuti Romero and a lot of players injured and Saliba against France. But just let that alone. They've been the better team against any side that they've faced. And yeah, they just look like a step above all the other teams. And that gives you a lot of resembles and a lot of parallels to that 2010 team.

14:29Pol Ballus: Paul, listen, congratulations from all of us here. Football was the real winner and that. And we're looking to see you again soon as the Totally Football Show returns with the new season. But you enjoy your break in the meanwhile. Thank you very much. I just can't wait to be back, guys. Paul Ballus. So, yeah, next up for England will be Spain, a lot of whose players, by which point, presumably will be wearing tattoos, fresh-linked tattoos of Luis de la Fuente, as indeed Paul revealed way back at the start of this tournament in the event of a World Cup win. Where would you put your Luis de la Fuente tattoo?

15:02On my head, my entire head would be a Luis de la... You just have it on the back of your head, so you don't know it's... Oh, it's James Richardson. Wait a minute. That's where the Fante come from.

15:10Pol Ballus: Perfect. Maybe I already have. Anyway, William de la Tool says... Sorry, William O'Toole says, Argentina stank the place out even after that final whistle. Thank goodness they lost. The United fan, 93. I'm so glad they lost that final. What a shameful display at the world's biggest stage. Embarrassing. Danny Tolhurst says, an occasion with plenty of Muppets on show, a reference to the opinion-dividing and match-dividing halftime show, which some of us quite enjoyed. Hey, Duncan, Tim was saying that this has been a tournament of stars and yet the team that won it did it without their biggest talent of all.

15:51Pol Ballus: Is that right, Tim? La Minha Mar? Yeah, well, one goal, one assist for Spain's main man, nowhere near the likes of Mbappe and Messi and Haaland, etc. That just embodies Spain's team ethic. Team ethos. What do you think, Dagan? Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think this was drilled home at full time as well when the awards were handed out because I was fully expecting maybe kind of like a legacy golden ball for Messi and maybe a sort of one for the future, Jamal, you know, young player. But the fact it went to Pogbaarsi and Rodri was A, correct, and B, sort of, you know, gave the impression that the people deciding it actually based it on what happened on the pitch which you know wasn't necessarily what i thought would happen so um yeah they were the best team um they have been for a long time they're reigning european world champions and um yeah i'm sure that england game in in september will uh will be fun yeah six goal england of course these days tim we should say on your mind i mean he didn't actually play badly in fact he He was just a great help to the team on a lot of occasions.

16:58As you were saying yesterday, he was a lot of the time marked by two or three players that freed up Porro or others for more space. I mean, he was sort of an ultimate distraction tactic in a way. But yeah, 19 years old and won a Euro's in a World Cup is pretty good. Yeah, and I think the other thing as well, I think Spain are the first team to play two teenagers in a World Cup final, which is Kabasi and Jamal. and Argentina named the second oldest team average age for a World Cup final. And I think, you know, football is, or it should be, maybe it hasn't been at this tournament, but football is a young person's game.

17:34And again, I think that's another reason why it was good that Spain triumphed. It was a kind of team thing and it was kind of like, you know, a young team on the up rather than sort of veteran FC.

17:47Pol Ballus: I hear you. We're seeing in our video version, And we're seeing Paul Kubasi there with his best young player award. Spain got almost a clean sweep of the awards. The only one they miss out on, this golden boot, which Kylian Mbappe, as a result of Saturday's madness, walks off with. Because alongside Kubasi, his best young player, you also had Unai Simon as the Golden Glove winner. The award that Emilio Martinez had picked up, of course, three and a half years ago in Qatar in such respectful fashion. Martina's actually... So Unai Simon made nine saves in the entire World Cup. I think it was. I mean, his contribution to Spain's football was almost more to do with the way that he policed the space outside his penalty area.

18:32I mean, if you were to... I was going to point out, Martina's made 11 in this final alone. There you go. If you were to rank the goalkeepers in the tournament in terms of saves... Yeah. Vosignas. Yeah. Simon would be near the bottom. And we talked about it. That Australian teller. Thibaut Courtois said it's a goalkeeper's tournament. Paddy Beach, you know, Voisinia, Eloy Ruhm. And yet the guy who ends up being goalkeeper of the tournament is the one who didn't really use his hands all that much. But there was that one moment in the first half of the final today when we all thought Messi was clean through on goal.

19:02But he wasn't because Unai Simon came out to intercept the ball kind of 40 yards from his own goal. And he's done that repeatedly. And that's the first brick in the wall of how Spain construct their football.

19:13Pol Ballus: so very very true the other big award and it's perhaps the biggest individual award of this tournament was player of the tournament and that went to Rodri a fair award for you Tim yeah I think so just um just embodied everything about Spain you know the best possession team the best defense awesome it was him who got Trump off when they were going to do the trophy lift that was Rodri yeah they couldn't quite I think they all wanted to to literally push him off the stage he sort of got to the corner and was still sort of loitering around i mean even infantina was trying to sort of usher him away but you know he's so he's sort of in the photos but he could be airbrushed out i think because he's in the corner there you go anyway they don't know how to handle the big names this spain team they just they don't get they don't get a look in indeed so indeed so but rodrius yes for so long they said will he ever be back he is back back Duncan I mean what normally happens if a player influences a team like he has during this World Cup is that they have a very good chance of winning with Ballon I think we might have lost Duncan there I'm going to finish his sentence for him Ballon d 'Or which of course he did previously amid some Spanish controversy great redemption arc for him because I think he obviously had these horrible voice we're trying to get Duncan back but meantime his thoughts are told yeah I mean you know Rodri had so many injury problems and I think you know there was probably a fairly commonly held view that perhaps we'd seen the best of him you know that he was the the cornerstone of that fabulous Manchester City team that won the treble you know but then you know seemed to kind of you know be drifting into obscurity and he is he's back he did put in some big performances during the season, mostly against Arsenal.

21:07Pol Ballus: Whenever Arsenal turned up, so did Roger. But this time round, his numbers have been off the charts, basically, in terms of the amount of pressure he's been putting on. His passing has been better than, I think, any other player. So, fantastic stuff and a worthy winner. Tim, did you want to comment on that? I was just going to say on his ACL. I mean, we have to remember he's out for almost a year. And they say it kind of takes that same amount of time to get you fully recovered. And that's pretty much what's happened. Speaking of people coming back just when you thought they couldn't do it anymore, Duncan's back with us.

21:35Pol Ballus: Duncan, what were you saying? Yeah, I was echoing those thoughts on Roger, really. I mean, I think people pointed out that Pep Guardiola said at the start of last season that you wouldn't see him back to his best until the World Cup. So, fair play. Pep knows Paul. Yeah, indeed so. Duncan, you get his first pop on Messi's performance. To see him exit like this without really making an impact, I guess, is sad. but as Endo the Goat points out, him even bringing that Argentina team to the final was arguably a bigger achievement than winning it. I mean, I think then winning it would have been pretty big.

22:14Pol Ballus: But yeah, he's given us many amazing moments during this tournament, even if he couldn't do it in the final. Yeah, I think as time goes by, I think people will kind of move past the fact that they didn't win and remember just what he did at the age years. and I remember being sat over there with you guys in the ranch for their opening game. You got the hat-trick and that was a genuine sort of wow, this is the World Cup proper sort of thing. And yeah, the game plan for Architeta today just meant he didn't, I didn't think he had one touch inside the box. And when they went down to 10 men, he was playing as the sort of the lone front man, which I thought Harry Kane was out of sorts at the end of the semi-finally of the day, but Messi was just, that's obviously not the role he's there to play and it was a bit of a sad end.

23:11Although, even though he did still craft a couple of chances in the last couple of minutes as Argentina belatedly had some shots. So he could very well have assisted an equaliser and then, well he probably wouldn't have scored a penalty within the shootout, but he could have at least inspired them to a shootout win. But I think his legacy is obviously a short one. He's probably the greatest player ever. But I'm sure it hurts right now. But I mean there was talk, I don't know about on the US coverage where you are, but on the BBC coverage here there was a bit of debate about whether he might want to play in the next World Cup given that Argentina do have a home game as well, innit?

23:51But that feels a bit unlikely to me.

23:53Pol Ballus: Well, Martin Mazur was telling us that from Buenos Aires in yesterday's show. So it's a thought that's out there and not just on the BBC commentary, Tim. Oh, sorry, Tom. Shades of Diego Maradona as well in 1990. Yeah. You know, dragging the defending champions, the slightly less impressive defending champions, to another final four years on. And then he turned up in 94, didn't he? Yeah. Briefly. Albeit slightly different circumstances. Briefly, yeah. Okay. He didn't get the golden boot. Those scenes at the end were just pure sport in theatre, like him in tears, on his own, facing the whole Argentina ender all chanting his name.

24:30It was an incredibly emotional moment. And again, we have to say, he has become somehow the king of the World Cups. In the last two World Cups, he scored 15-15 in 2022 and 2026. Before then, it was something like 6-19 that he scored in previous tournaments. People thought he might retire after 2018, thinking he's going to be 35 at the next tournament. So what, I mean, yeah, it's just, the last chapter of his career is almost his most impressive, which is just unbelievable.

24:58Pol Ballus: Well, you mentioned him retiring and weirdly it's this exact same stadium where he finishes in tears today, where in 2016, after that missed penalty in the Copa America final, that he effectively hung up his international boots, which are a thing. There you go. Well, we'll see what happens with Leo Messi. We'll see what happens with Argentina and exactly what they'll be able to come up without him because it did seem that that was their entire game plan for this tournament. And then it almost got them there, that cross, that corner at the end. They could have gone in. We could have been looking at penalties, but it's Spain probably rightly who win this World Cup.

25:32Pol Ballus: Anything else you want to say on them before we get into all the do-you-remember-when stuff? Tim? I just want to... Oh, Duncan. I'm pleased for Ferran Torres. There's a man who never gets to celebrate a birthday very often because he was born on February 29th. So, you know, now he can obviously miss out on that, but have scored a winning goal in a World Cup final, which is probably a good consolation. Youngest World Cup final goal scorer. I mean, that's his forever. He's only had six birthdays or something. No one's going to be that. Deary me. Tim? I think with that cross at the end, it wasn't Messi who put it in, but he sort of had set it up.

26:10I think it was Marino. It was definitely him and a teammate who slid in, and Marino, this after having taken one to the face. It was just unbelievable. contributions from him after scoring the two late goals in stoppage time in the last 16 and the last 8 and another point is that a great quiz question to come in the years to come will be who scored against, and we're both there of course who's the only player to score against Spain in the 2026 World Cup

26:35Pol Ballus: Who was the only player to score against Spain in the 2026 World Cup Duncan? I can't remember who was it? It was one of the group game. Oh I know Yeah yeah, Ticadolari to Ketelare woo finally that's the real world cup in a sense Belgium Belgium win again indeed so alright well lots of you have been writing in on our live stream with comments lots of people saying nice things about the show that they appreciated the coverage says J France Bob Stocking new listener looking forward to the show every day Rodrigo Rivero invites us all down to Mexico it's lovely isn't it fancy that Woodlass81 says, don't get the Argentine hate store, it's all football.

27:18Pol Ballus: And Spain were boring to watch. Endo the Goat again says, I'm trusting one of you has seen the Odyssey and IMAX 70mm. A little bit off topic, but I'll field that one. I did see it in neither of those formats, which I know is wrong, but tickets were hard to come by. Tim, you're planning to go and do this, what Endo the Goat's suggesting, in London? I think there are 41 cinemas in the world that show it the way that Nolan has intended, which isn't pretentious at all. but we are I'm certainly going to go to one there's two in London one is the Science Museum the other TBC I want to come along let's do it I've seen it once already and the fact that I would like to see it again in Christopher Nolan's preferred format suggests that I enjoyed the experience just imagine what Matt Damon's abs are going to look like his abs in the IMAX by the way by the way yeah Matt Damon the Craigie 1977 says after five weeks of football what do we do now?

28:14Pol Ballus: Tim what have you got lined up? Oh yeah I'm going to I've got quite a calm down I'm going to Maidenhead v Wolves on Wednesday Pre-season friendly Killman Classico I arrived back in London on Tuesday and I'm going straight to Maidenhead on Wednesday Chances are it will be a more entertaining game than the literal World Cup final A team that lost their head to Maidenhead Brilliant World Cup final might not have been the most entertaining but certainly for us here in America, the World Cup as a tournament was pretty brilliant stuff. We're going to, I think, have a very quick pause and then we'll have a little look back.

28:54Pol Ballus: I'm getting emotional here. At some of the glorious moments of this 2026 World Cup.

29:07Yeah, six weeks ago, we were all sat here in our shorts, Duncan.

29:12Pol Ballus: Do you remember? on the eve of the tournament there there we are what what was the thinking there 95 of the comments were about our knees yeah and rightly so little did we know back then what lay in store as i recall at the time in fact duncan was confidently predicting a very low scoring world cup and tom assured us that we were going to have a brand new world cup champion i got a lot closer we've just had a final where one of the teams didn't have a shot till the 117th minute so yeah in a sense anyway neither of those predictions actually came to pass but so many other things did and things which frankly no one could have been predicting we'll look at some of the stuff but just broadly like i say from here it's been fantastic with the benefit of being back in in uk for what the last couple of weeks duncan how's it felt over there yeah it's been interesting i mean obviously when I got back and it was the start of the knockouts, there was still a lot of games happening overnight and it was, you know, obviously stayed up for your Mexico England's but it was a quite disconcerting thing to wake up the next morning and be like, oh, I wonder how, you know, that's how I found out America had lost to Belgium was, you know, I didn't stay up for that game.

30:23And that I think made people a little bit more disconnected than they would be with a normal tournament. So I think I would, you know, talking to friends, I'd mention a few things in the group stage and people had not really seen it. So I think the sort of completest in me was, you know, I think obviously the next World Cup will be on a much friendlier time zone. So, yeah, I think people have obviously got very into England's performance and how far they got. But I think overall, probably slightly less connected than they would have been with a normal tournament.

30:55Pol Ballus: All right. Well, we enjoyed it here, and hopefully you've enjoyed our coverage. And I think on the field, off the field, a bunch of controllers, on the field, the final notwithstanding. It's been an absolutely brilliant tournament. One of the best, I think, in quality. I would go so far as to say it's been the best World Cup of my lifetime. And I was very sceptical about the expanded format because 32 teams just worked so nicely. 48 teams, you did worry that it was going to be too bloated. But the group phase was decent. The round of 32 threw up surprises right from the start. Some incredible storylines.

31:29basically all the superstars turned up and there was a nice mix of some surprises but ultimately the strongest team is going deep into the tournament worthy winners on the pitch a great success off the pitch we shouldn't forget things like omar artan somali referee who was denied access to the country treatment of the iranian squad which was disgraceful ticket prices the hydration breaks which are an abomination which we must resist with all our might and the following Balogun scandal which is one of the worst World Cup scandals that there has ever been and will be and deserves to be a black mark against this tournament for as long as it is spoken about

32:12Pol Ballus: Wasabi off you haven't mentioned that in your World Cup scandal I knew you were getting to that dark days we had a Wasabi off we had$21 smoothies what's that about which Tim turned us on to and We actually really enjoy it, to be fair. But I'm assured that they're worth it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And everybody has agreed who's had one. Yeah. Clarence Spredorf, the skunk. Yeah, not seen him for a while. I think it's a night-time thing. And, of course, with the matches coming into the daytime format, then, yeah, he's been a bit shyer than usual. But let's have some moments, your moments, of the World Cup.

32:50Pol Ballus: Duncan, why don't you start us off? I mean, there's plenty. I mean, obviously, I feel like I was the first person to both create and get going. The Pat Beach fan club after his magnificent display against Turkey in a group stage, a game that very, very few people even in America watched, I think. But it was actually one of the best group games. And yeah, he, an instant icon. I very much enjoyed Mexico forgetting how to take a kickoff when they played England. I can't remember which player it was but he basically just tried to dribble from the centre spot and then when England got the free kick they almost thought it was they were taking a kick off so it was very, you know, things like that and then who can forget showing Tom in the pool, I think that remains not just the highlight of the World Cup but maybe highlight of the year for me Right, well that's one you can repeat whether it's a World Cup or not of course, so there's that Tim, what about your moments of the World Cup?

33:49so I'll take you all the way back to day one from one of mine, it's quite a personal one but also quite personal for most people who saw it, Raul Jimenez in his fourth World Cup playing his first start scored his first goal and yeah, his father passed away in March and you can see the emotion on his I mean he was in tears after he scored and obviously again you can see visually the headband that he wears and you know his comeback from his near death experience six years earlier, so yeah I don't mind I'm going to admit, I shed a little tear at that. It was a very emotional moment, quite a start to tournament.

34:23Another one would be from a game I was lucky enough to attend, USMNT v Belgium. I was back in the US. What a game. Yeah, I really felt like they'd embraced the tournament. I liked the way they played football. But everything that happened with Balogun, I was fully Team Spain, Team Belgium that day, I have to say. And when Lukaku sticks the fourth in and then does the whole chat-chat to the crowd and then does the Trump dance with his celebration. I thought that was just... And they all did it in the dress room at full time. That was beautiful. And then, yeah, unexpectedly from nowhere, the third place playoff was just an astonishing football match.

35:00It was just fun football without consequence. It was the best game in the park you've ever seen. We couldn't believe what we were watching. I absolutely loved it. Yeah, there you go. Tom? I've been waxing lyrical about Michael Alise a lot at this tournament, so I'm going to pick out his through ball for Kylian Mbappe in France's opener against Senegal Michael Alisse is my favourite footballer in the world at the moment I think already one of my favourite footballers ever and going into the tournament I was really excited by the thought of watching him and whether or not he'd get the opportunity to play as the number 10 and he started that game against Senegal on the right wing and France's football's all a little bit stodgy as soon as Deschamps moved him into the middle it was like someone had turned a light on he creates the first goal and was just everywhere.

35:46And as it turned out, his influence diminished as the tournament went on, and he was very disappointing against Spain in the semifinals. But that was a fantastic moment. Sidney Lopez Cabral of Cape Verde.

36:01Pol Ballus: Was that goal of the tournament? I think that has to be goal of the tournament. So this is the round of 32 game in Miami between Argentina and Cape Verde, defending champions and one of the darlings of the tournament. Cape Verde have taken it to extra time. Argentina go ahead and you kind of think, well, that's probably that. And then Lopez Cabral picks the ball up on the left-hand side and just bends an absolute worldie into the top right corner. And as fantastic as this World Cup has been, I feel like there haven't been that many truly great World Cup goals. But I suspect this will be remembered as one.

36:34Maybe the Jude Bellingham one. Yeah, I'd say the Jude Bellingham.

36:37Pol Ballus: Although with the asterisk game for Senegal. That was amazing. Oh, yes. Yeah, when they had a, like, through a follow-up. The Erling Haaland second against Brazil, when he just pings it through Gabriel's legs from the edge of the box, was another, you know, not a traditional sort of goal of the tournament contender, but a brilliant finish, nonetheless. A lot of, like, meaty hits. Like, very satisfying kind of... That's what you're under for it. Yeah, Wilson Isidore, Fahiti against... Wilson Isidore, yeah. That was a thumper. Yassin Ayari, that was another bolt from the blue. Yeah. It's been some stunning goals.

37:13And then my final moment is going to be stoppage time in the Algeria-Austria group game. And a phase of play lasting about five or six minutes, if not a little bit longer, that is one of the most peculiar and engrossing things I've ever seen in a football match. Algeria know that if the game finishes in a draw, both sides go through. But if they win, or whichever team wins will knock out their opponents, this would be an intriguing enough scenario anyway were it not for the precedent of 1982 the non-aggression pact of he hon and it's 2-2 late in the game algeria have just been knocking the ball around between themselves for how long it felt like it'd been going on for about 20 minutes i think it i'm not sure if you recall

38:00Pol Ballus: dunca but i think it's about five and a half minutes that they have had possession it was like over a hundred pass build-up to goal which is and austria have just been standing off and letting them. It's like obviously they're not going to score because why would they do that to us? And then the next thing, Husam Aouar realises there's a pocket of space, plays it through and Riyad Mahrez realises he can get a shot away and Algeria have taken the lead and you're like is this revenge 44 years on? Right. Fortunately for Austria they might actually go down the other end and equalise but an incredible moment.

38:30Of Mahrez's teammates being a bit miffed really because they knew that they were going to be playing Spain at that point if they won whereas they would have had Switzerland otherwise with a draw. It was much more favourable.

38:41Pol Ballus: Remember when Tunisia became the first World Cup side to sack their manager, Sabri Lamouchi, after just one game. That worked out well for them. We've got Real Talk, who were mentioning Cape Verde as a team in the tournament. Ryan Cobain says Scotland being Scotland, both on the pitch and better off the pitch. Remember when they lost to... They were in this World Cup. They were in this World Cup. And they were in this World Cup for a lot longer than they... Well, they played against Brazil, lost, And then we had that weird half-life where we weren't sure, and they weren't sure, although their manager was.

39:12Steve Clarke was very sure, wasn't he? He was very sure. And that also led to, obviously, the situation with Austria and Algeria. But that was the worst part of the format, clearly, was, yes, the kind of third place, who's going to finish where, and the ones who played their matches later had an advantage because they knew what they had to do. I mean, that's not right. And also the fact that there was a lack of jeopardy in so many of those third-round of group stage matches, teams playing for third

39:36Pol Ballus: Would you not have that anyway? And at least with this the third place team still carried a chance if they could have a good enough record It was outweighed by the fact that we got a bonus round of 32 round and that's where we got a lot of really good drama Some amazing penalties used as Yeah I think 18 knockout matches were decided or had a winning goal from the 85th minute or later and obviously extra time of penalties so it was pretty high ratio of drama Other things to recall when all the journalists were running around the Azteca to test the impact of altitude on physical performance. Of course, that England game, subsequently, which broke everybody's expectations about how that was going to go and what an extraordinary whatever else England take from this tournament.

40:18Pol Ballus: They'll have that. Was it the game of the tournament? England 3, Mexico 2? Would you go for England 6, France 4? Would you go for Argentina 3, Cape Verde 2, which you referenced before with that extraordinary Silvio Lopez call. I think that would be my pick. closely followed by the Argentina-Egypt game I mean Argentina had some proper I think their kind of inability slash you know forgetting to kill games off just meant that they were constantly opening themselves to the possibility of games that should have been more straightforward becoming quite complicated come back as dramatic as the one that you actually were witness to in person Belgium-Senegal when they were two goals down with four minutes to go Belgium and gone Belgium were dreadful and then came back from nowhere Senegal were absolutely furious with how they let themselves go.

41:04They could have been a slight dark horse for the tournament. They had a really good team, scored a lot of good goals. But yeah, from the 86th minute onwards, and then the Telemans won it in the 120th minute of extra time. In the 25th? In the 25th, yeah. Latest ever World Cup goal, wasn't it? Was it? Something like that. Hmm. Not sure. Shout out to everyone that watched South Africa, Czech Republic. Not a classic, but it all counts. They all count. Paraguay, Australia, I'd throw that in as well. that was bad was it very bad okay if the real world cup is winning hearts

41:39Pol Ballus: duncan who do you think walks away with that most prized possession the affection of a newfound audience erling holland i think found a home in a lot of people's hearts where he didn't previously have one who else kate verdi he feels like the crossover sort of star the one that you know everyone um will continue to follow now whatever he does i mean obviously there were the Scotland fans in Boston who outdid the July the 4th weekend takings at bars, which seemed to be an impressive statistic for some people. I think the way the tournament operated in terms of different fan bases being all over America and interacting with people that lived there, I think that was a real success.

42:26I think more than in 1994, maybe this is obviously, you know, helped by the fact we have social media now and, you know, the clips of, you know, Norway fans doing the rowing thing on an escalation, blah, blah, blah. But, but it did feel like there was a real sort of a willingness to sort of learn about other cultures. and particularly in the group stage, it did feel like the world, and this is going to sound incredibly trite, but it did feel like the world was a little bit less divided and a little bit more tolerated each other's differences a little bit for a few weeks, which was a thing I didn't really expect from this World Cup, so that was good.

43:07Pol Ballus: Right, unless you were a supporter from one of the nations who had a travel ban, in which case you didn't have the chance to turn up at all. There's huge caveats to that. But do you know what I mean? I do. And like I say, from where we were sat here in Los Angeles, it's been tremendously positive as an experience. I mean, duh. But I appreciate that for a lot of other people. It must have been very frustrating. Tim, you had the kind of moments that Duncan was talking about there. You saw a lot of that in Seattle. Yeah. Well, I mean, I did the opposite journey to Duncan, having watched it at the group stage at home and then come out here.

43:42and yeah having been to the Euros a couple of years ago and it was kind of like the ultimate sort of fan festival of football, colour, noise, fandom everywhere and I just thought it would never come close to that but it did in Seattle obviously that's a massive you know soccer city so to speak but I loved it up there and I think the sort of Americanisation of the tournament it looked a bit naff back in the UK I have to say like the countdowns and the music and the pre-match ceremonies but I quite liked it to me I thought the pre-match ceremonies were brilliant, and I thought tailoring the music, each country had a playlist.

44:16I thought that worked really well. Generally good hosts, I think, as a consequence of Spain's success.

44:23Pol Ballus: Okay, so Erling Holland was the crossover star, and we've mentioned Cape Verde, and I guess Curacao as well, won a lot of hearts and minds. Michael Cox, I think, is planning to visit a lot of those countries now in his time off. But conversely, who leaves more unpopular than they started? Is it managers like Thomas Tuchel and Carlo Ancelotti? Julian Nagelsmann as well, who is now no longer a Germany manager, of course. Anyone else you'd add to that list? I think Brazil were quite interesting. I think one of the things that was a success of this tournament was the fact that I think it was the first tournament where social media auto-translates posts from other countries.

45:06So I think for the first time we saw what loads of Brazil fans or Argentina fans were saying. And the Brazil fans seemed to be the most disillusioned, really with no connection with their players. And obviously the Ancelotti experiment didn't really work. And that was quite enlightening. I think previous tournaments people tended to be quite insular and just see it within the prism of their own country and the team they support. And I felt like, personally, I don't know what others think, but I felt like I had a better kind of appreciation of how every fan base felt about their team. Also, it was supposed to be the tournament of the big-name managers, but it didn't work out that way at all.

45:48Pochettino would be another. You mentioned Nagelsmann, Ancelotti, Tuchel, and it's the two company men in taking the teams to the final again. There you go.

45:57Pol Ballus: On the subject of the hydration break, Arsene Wenger says FIFA will review the impact does care FIFA will review the impact of hydration breaks on World Cup games after the tournament ends sorry on World Cup games very serious study I'm sure can't wait to see the outcome of it Carlos says it was surprising how bad Turkey were no it wasn't Carlos no it wasn't I mean it kind of was but it wasn't fundamentally wasn't It wasn't. Anyway. In the future of time, we'll be calling them dark horses. Come on. We know it goes. Indeed so. Well, there you go. Anything else you want to add to that roll call of reminiscences from the last six weeks?

46:40Pol Ballus: Again, many, many thanks to the United States, but to Mexico, because that period when Mexico were flying and the Azteca and Guadalajara and everything, there was so much buzz down there, bringing so much passion to this World Cup. That was great. and Canada, by all accounts, you were up there, Tim. That was brilliant too. Yeah, they really got into it. They're more new to football than almost any country that's here, let's be honest. But of the three hosts, I mean, they outperformed expectations where, of course, US and Mexico very much did not. USA would like the tournament back as soon as possible and we don't need the other nations to do it anymore, said Trump.

47:17Pol Ballus: We shall see what happens about that. Supposedly, they're all booked up to 2038, but when you got that hotline who can say Duncan anything you want to add before we sign off? No it's just been you know obviously out there for the first half and enjoyed every moment of it and you know have consumed it as a fan back here and it's just been a delight so yeah just from yeah just well done everyone I think Excellent and Tom? Yeah I've loved it I mean it's been a wonderful tournament I think football has been the winner and being out here has been an absolute treat and I will miss it Indeed, of course you will as will I We'll miss all the many comments we've received from you Thank you so much for being with us all the way through Thanks of course to the production team here in LA for putting all of this together and producer Charlie and producer Lucy and producer Jesse they're all from a family of course producer Xavi as well and producer Ben and yeah thank you football totally football show will return ahead of the new premier league season which is not that far away mid-august i think we'll be ramping things up again so do look out for us then we'll be continuing this new video format alongside the usual podcast iterations but for now much as i don't want to end this sentence that really is it for totally at the war cup to To sign off, producer Lucy has made us a little goodbye montage.

48:54Pol Ballus: Goodbye.

49:01Pol Ballus: From Los Angeles, it's totally at the World Cup. America, bo-bo-bo. Ah, Tuesday's papers. Singer wears lampshade with a show as busy as Janny's hotline after a 4-1 called the wrong way.

49:20Not to alarm you, but there is a skunk in the garden. Seriously. Seriously, an actual skunk? There's a skunk in the garden.

49:27Pol Ballus: How alarming is that? Well, I don't know how... Just keep talking. Just keep talking. What's that little friend? It's been a f***ing great day at the World Cup.

49:40Pol Ballus: It's World Cup take-outs. In many ways, the real competition takes place here in the United States. It sounds fizzy. It says shake well before you. It says shake gently before opening. Zoom dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung dung. Is that a note of gene? No I might rage against the note of gene. That was really good, I liked that one. Well here we are walking along as you do Tom, holding tiny little microphones, sipping on ginger juice. laid back with my mind on my mafie and my mafie on my mind. I've got a Twinkie everyone and it's in my hand.

50:30That is a leek guacamole, that is guac of the day.

50:40Pol Ballus: Sports everyone.

50:46get out!

50:46Pol Ballus: Ah, Sue Ellen, you're just a drunk! Get out of here 경o! J.O..

50:54Pol Ballus: Patric Bench!

51:11Thank you.