Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Knicks Are Champions! Top 5 NBA Draft Picks + World Cup Round 1 Reaction
12 Plays6 days ago
Episode 81 of Who's Got The Ball? sees Michael join the show to chat about the New York Knicks winning the NBA Finals and discuss what's next for the newly crowned champions.
The lads break down the significance of the title, discuss whether New York can repeat next season, and look ahead to the upcoming NBA Draft by predicting who they believe will be selected in the Top 5 picks.
Over in the footballing world, James and Shane react to an eventful opening round of World Cup fixtures. They discuss the USA's strong start, Cape Verde's impressive draw with Spain, Lionel Messi's first World Cup hat-trick, RTE's tournament coverage and the ongoing Cristiano Ronaldo debate surrounding Portugal.
Another packed episode full of World Cup reaction, NBA analysis, NBA Draft discussion and plenty of big takes throughout.
🎧 If you’re into:
Premier League, NBA & NFL talk
Weekly predictions & reactions
Underdog picks (Gan Seans 👀)
Power rankings & sports debates
🔁 New episodes every week — follow so you don’t miss one.
🌍 Where football, NBA & NFL collide every week
💬 Connect with us:
📸 Instagram: @whosgottheballpod
🐦 X / 🎵 TikTok: @wgtbpod
📩 wgtbpod@gmail.com
🇮🇪 Irish-based, talking global sports every week
(0:00) Intro
(3:46) The Knicks are NBA Champs
(15:59) NBA Draft Preview
(28:59) World Cup Round One Review
(29:23) Poch’s USA Excel
(31:11) Alexi Lalas: Professional Waffler
(32:03) Hydration Breaks
(34:06) RTE’s World Cup Coverage
(40:01) Superb Cape Verde & Pico Lopes
(43:54) Messi’s Hat-Trick
(46:23) Portugal’s Ronaldo Problem
(50:45) England Start Strong
(56:04) Bits & Bobs
Recommended
Transcript
Shane's Return and Vacation Stories
00:00:09
Speaker
All right, lads, welcome back to another episode of Who's Got the Ball. Shane has recovered from his shingles. Not very nice way to come back from your holidays and have that kind of an issue. But before I throw it told to you, we need to get a debrief of the trip away because neither of us were chatting since then on the podcast and both of us had trips away. So we didn't update the people on how it went.
00:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, i actually it's actually been so long since I'm back that I actually forgot that I'd been away. But yeah, I normally come back from holidays and I have a sinus infection or something. And me and James come on and just talk about how really shit it is that we're both sick again. But I came back to this and I like, oh, I actually feel healthy.
00:00:48
Speaker
And then on the Friday, there was swelling around my eye. went to doctor was like, yeah, that shingles, sicker. And I couldn't show my face in public, so I definitely wasn't putting my face on the internet. But I am i am very back. The holiday day was brilliant, just so relaxing.
00:01:02
Speaker
Lanzarote is a great place. There's nothing too mad. It's probably not great for people in their early 20s, but people like me in their mid 30s, it's it's the the perfect holiday destination. If you're looking for it's done in nice beach some casual bars to watch our solutions and I definitely recommend that the island's audience yeah that's mad I haven't even had you back speaking since then on the podcast the weeks can go by so fast but yeah I well Yeah, I went there last year towards like in October or something. So I think off peak, it's very, it's very good place to go. Obviously, I was in Barcelona, had the t-shirt to prove it, got this in the Barca store. if There's a nice little graphic on the back as well. But
00:01:43
Speaker
I think it was absolutely madness getting there and everything being a nice weather and like just expecting it to be fine the whole time. And then on the first day of the festival, we were going to Primavera, it lashed rain. It was like torrential rain, the wind, it was freezing. And they pulled out like half the axe on that day.
00:02:04
Speaker
that was a bad one. But the next two days were great. Nice weather. And the few days before it were lovely. I would really recommend the city. Some of the... the sites we saw like the basilica there um on like don't know they're gonna finish it but it's it's like unbelievable to see in person and then some of the gaudi buildings like the architecture is so cool so yeah i really really enjoyed it and camp new got the whole way there they give you the tour they say there's a stadium view then you do the tour of the museum and then you go to the viewing point and it's outside the stadium looking at them constructing the outside of the stadium
00:02:42
Speaker
So since it's under construction, there's no inside view. So great marketing there to get you there thinking you're going to get a view inside. But look, you'll have to go back there for a game sometime instead.
NBA and World Cup Preview
00:02:51
Speaker
But yeah, this week episode was focused again on NBA and the World Cup because we did have our champions confirmed in the NBA of the New York Knicks.
00:03:01
Speaker
They wrapped up the last game 94-90 and we got the lads' thoughts on how they saw the season ender and also what they see in the future for the Knicks and the Spurs. So Michael joined us for that, of course. And then we did a little preview on the top five of the and NBA draft, which is coming next week.
00:03:18
Speaker
We moved over then to the World Cup, pretty much a massive roundup of round one. We talked about everything from RTE's coverage to England winning, unfortunately, and Spain and Portugal being disappointing, Messi's hat-trick.
00:03:32
Speaker
All the key points from from week one, or the first round of games, should I say. And we'll be back again for the second round and going into this tournament. It's been great to have it, but we'll let you get into the good stuff. So let's jump right into the episode.
Knicks' Championship Victory
00:03:46
Speaker
Okay, so the New York Knicks are your and NBA champions. They wrapped it up straight away. We previewed Game 5 last week, myself and Michael, and straight away the Knicks came out and they grabbed it. We both did say that they would, maybe not in the fashion that we thought, but...
00:04:03
Speaker
We probably should have predicted it because it's the way that every single game went in this series. 94-90 was the final as result. As usual, the Knicks clawed their way back from from double digits. The Spurs were 16 points up and the Knicks won the fourth quarter, twenty nine eighteen to to seal it by four in the end. Captain Brunson, 45 points, absolutely insane. Clincher gets himself finaled MVP.
00:04:29
Speaker
Shane, since you weren't here last week, what are your final thoughts of this series and how it went? So the main thing I've been thinking about since it happened is, did the Knicks win it or did the Spurs lose it? And i think it's probably somewhere very much in the middle of it because there was every single game, the lead, the Spurs threw away a double-digit lead, barred the one they won, obviously.
00:04:53
Speaker
But throwing away the 29-point lead, I just knew that i was the end of it. There was no way they wanted to come out in Game 5 and... care yeah Yeah, Game 5. There's no way they're coming out in Game 5 and getting anything out of it because their confidence must have been at an all-time low.
00:05:06
Speaker
I think it might be one of the biggest bottle jobs in NBA history. Potentially, it's outrageous how this didn't go to at least a Game 6 from the leads they had in every single game managed to throw away.
Future NBA Prospects and Team Strategies
00:05:18
Speaker
And...
00:05:19
Speaker
It's not all down to D'Aaron Fox, although he is quite a big part of it. But the whole team, the way they close games out, way they the way they started second halves. They were so good in the first half, and nearly all the old games. They come out after half-time and just fall apart.
00:05:34
Speaker
Fair play to the Knicks. I called them at the start. I really didn't think they were were going to win it. I just didn't want to put the thunder down, go back to back and be different. But wow, they probably were worthy champions in the end.
00:05:46
Speaker
Michael, what's your what's your closing and thoughts there on this season? that What you said about the Knicks, about if the Knicks won or the Spurs lost, I think it's so unfair to not give credit to this Knicks team with how good they've been. And you can even, like, looking at the stats, looking back at the stats, even for the regular season, the Knicks were ranked sixth in win percentage in the clutch. The Spurs are third.
00:06:16
Speaker
You go down through it, Wemby, like even how Mike Brown has prepared this team with all the different lineups that he was playing throughout the regular season, he knew exactly who he wanted in the finals when he wanted them on the floor.
00:06:29
Speaker
Meanwhile, Wemby's averaging 30 minutes a game, which is great in the regular season, but then you're asking him to play 40 in the finals and he goes from scoring... Nine points, eight rebounds, five blocks in the first 16 minutes of game five to then drop in 10 points and go on four of 12 for the rest of that game.
00:06:48
Speaker
Like this next team not only has prepared for this all season, but in the, the final game of the, the last game of this season,
00:07:04
Speaker
We're looking at clips of Rick Brunson training Jalen Brunson, telling him you got to build good habits. And all he's done all year is build the best habit of closing out games. And he does it with a 10-0 run, dropping 45 on. It's it's poetic.
00:07:21
Speaker
It's like Shakespeare wrote it. It's beautiful. That's what it is. Yeah, I think that the Brunson point is good one because it was one that I kind of hit on last week. Go ahead, Shane, if you have point.
00:07:34
Speaker
Sorry, I just want to say that like we we spoke about before game one about how they were going to stop Wemby and how big Cat was going to be. And I think he showed up so well throughout all the games. I know game four, he he was pretty much set down straight away because he got two fouls very early. But I think every other game...
00:07:51
Speaker
He was out there, he was putting in blocks, he was putting up points when he needed to. I thought he was absolutely superb. I really thought the MVP could have gone to Cat, could have gone to OG. Obviously, it went to Jen Brunson in the end because of what he did scoring and an in the clutch and stuff. But I think if it had went to Cat as well, i don't think anyone would have been outraged because I thought he was absolutely superb across the five games when he was on the court. And...
00:08:15
Speaker
Wemby was really struggling to get past him and when he did, yeah, he'd score but he wasn't even trying at times. He was afraid of going past Cat and I think that's a massive credit to to cat and to Mike Brown as well.
00:08:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think I like the fact that you made that point because you see a lot you have a lot of Cat haters in the mainstream media as well and because of probably the way he's played defense throughout his career and his over indulgence in fouling players, which he did, as you said, in this series, but he's not getting enough love for what he did. I think you laid that out nicely there. And back to the Rick Brunson point again, i think that's a great point because yes, he'd been allowed to do a lot more in this Mike Brown led system. And and he's allowed to work with the players and they clearly respect him. and
00:09:06
Speaker
On the point of how you look at it, whether the Knicks won it or the Spurs lost it, I think while I think the Knicks were the better team and they deserved all the respect that they get for what they did, i think you'd have to at least acknowledge that the Spurs are still quite an immature team.
00:09:26
Speaker
And in some aspects, they did lose it. because of their mentality. I think Wemby, a few weeks ago I went in pretty hard on on him. He's an unbelievably good player. I never doubted that. But the media coverage is just ridiculous in America on him because He's still far from the finished
World Cup Analysis
00:09:45
Speaker
article. He doesn't have even the ability to finish and create his own shot like like Cat does. He doesn't even have that. And Cat is not exactly the the best shot creator in the league. you know It's something he has to work on. He's only in his third year. He's going to be the best player in the world.
00:10:00
Speaker
There's no doubt in that. But right now, he's still a little immature. He's a little bit aggressive. He's lucky to have not gotten a suspension going into game six if there was one anyway. and It doesn't matter in the end, but with the amount of flagrance he had and the non-calls on some of them, the denial of doing media when everybody else does it, that's not cool. Like people are, oh, you know, that shows he's just locked in on the game. No, that's part of your job.
00:10:25
Speaker
It's like, like something that I have to do as part of my job. And I'm like, nah, I'm not doing it. And everyone, no one's going to turn around and go like, oh, he's, he's the cool guy for not doing his thing. They're going to be like, that's part of your job. You have to do it.
00:10:38
Speaker
But these are little immaturity things on his part. And I think that leaks across the team. Darren Fox supposed to be the veteran. Look, It's just so bad how he played down the last couple of games, especially looking at his stats in the final game. Seven points on three of 15 shooting, one of eight from three. Castle continues to be very bad on on offense and in so in a key moment. Six points on one of 10 shooting.
00:11:06
Speaker
He can be very good or he can be very bad. And that's something that we saw again in this game. We saw the very bad side of it. And as usual, in this series and across this playoffs, the youngest guard is the one to step up in Dylan Harper.
00:11:21
Speaker
He only played 31 minutes. But he got 25 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, over 50% from the floor. He really showed up and he's going to be huge for this team. But I think overall, including with Mitch Johnson, they probably have a bit of an immaturity issue. And the Knicks really took advantage of that and used everything that they've built to just kind of destroy the Spurs mentally in each and every game by clawing back these leads that the Spurs had developed. Where do you see...
00:11:51
Speaker
this next team going next year, Michael, like, do you think this is something that if they keep the same core, they could be a real force to repeat? I, I think, I think we've seen enough evidence just from this playoffs alone that these guys could come into next year, a five seed and you don't want to see them because i don't think they're going to move off from any really big piece here and you can only see like Mikhail Bridges has been saying on his Instagram live.
00:12:22
Speaker
I don't know if anyone's been watching any of those. They're so good. They're amazing. But he's been saying like he still has a lot left to prove that he didn't play well. Yeah. And you don't really expect a huge drop-off from any of these players. If anything, now that they kind of kicked into gear at the end of the season, you'd expect probably Kat to mesh in better next year again.
00:12:46
Speaker
Probably see some of these guys have better years next season. But... I think it's tough looking at it now to not have them in the Eastern Conference Finals alone. We've seen that Celtics is a lot more flawed than we originally thought. Now, they might look vastly different if they decide to move on from Jalen Brown.
00:13:07
Speaker
But I think in terms of like continuity in the East, it's got to be the Knicks in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Knicks against the field.
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, I would agree with that point. And I want to think about it from the Spurs point of view then as well. Shane, what are your thoughts on them heading into next season? Is this something that they can roll on or are they kind of a good bit off the finished article still?
00:13:33
Speaker
I think it's a mixture both. I do think they're probably a bit away from the finished article, especially if they have to stick with De'Aaron Fox, who they probably need an upgrade on so another veteran. As you said, like the immaturity really shone through throughout that series, and De'Aaron Fox wasn't the veteran they thought he was going to be helping out the young Fles, who was actually more of an issue than the likes of Dylan Harper was, who was in his first year. so like I can see them easily going winning 50 or 55 games again next season and coming into the playoffs and everyone's like, oh, they're really good favorites. And then they might get, they could get blown away by the Thunder next year who the Thunder just didn't have their number this year. And I think the Thunder will definitely have that going into next year. They're going to be hurt.
00:14:14
Speaker
So we could very easily see a complete reversal of what happened to the Thunder happening to the Spurs next year. I think they'll still be top two or top three seeds going in, but there's a lot of teams around them who are going to step up.
00:14:27
Speaker
Like the Nuggets are going to be back, the Thunder obviously, the Rockets have another year with all their young core, maybe the last chance for Kevin Durant. So there is a loss of there's a lot of that side. a lot of good teams on that side and like I was guilty of giving the Knicks side of the draw no credit throughout the whole season, but they the Knicks clearly knew what they were doing. They prepared so well as Michael benched already and they came out and they just they walked their way through the playoffs.
00:14:53
Speaker
yeah It might not be that easy for next year. They're probably not going to get this points differential they had again, but I think they will be right up there again coming into next season. Yeah, yeah. well While we're speaking on the future, no better place to touch on the and NBA draft than when looking at the wait the future of the league.
00:15:12
Speaker
Michael, come I have one thing to say before we continue. Here we go. Shane, I gotta ask, okay? so sorry for cutting you off. I gotta ask. De'Aaron Fox for Kevin Durant. Some sort of trade like that. If the Spurs feel like they can keep their culture and they need a mentor for Wemby...
00:15:33
Speaker
I think that's, you got Fred Van Vliet, you got the Iron Fox, you keep your young core. How do we feel about that? Let's just talk about the draft.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's the best answer you could give right now. Michael is that one more point guy and there would be one more point and until we're going for an hour that trade doesn't deserve any type of conversation. NBA draft next week, lads. 24th of June.
00:16:04
Speaker
It's going to be after midnight so it's like on the 23rd, like half past midnight. But It's very soon after the season, unlike the NFL one. there's the The build-up goes on while the playoffs go on because the playoffs are so long.
00:16:18
Speaker
The top five teams, picks one to five, if you don't know already, are the Wizards, Jazz, Grizzlies, Bulls and Clippers, who grabbed the pick from the Pacers by that pick finishing in the top five from their trade.
00:16:33
Speaker
We've got an amazing amount of talent and on deck in this in this draft. And it extends past, I think, that initial first five. But the first five is where it's most exciting.
00:16:45
Speaker
So top two likely to be, well, it's going to be DeBansa and Darren Peterson. DeBansa... incredibly skilled wing can do a lot and for his size he just can he's a scoring machine i think he's probably the most likely to be a star for a long time in the league darren
NBA Draft Insights
00:17:05
Speaker
peterson then not far behind him six foot five guards so pretty big he scores for fun but he had a bit of a weird season pulling himself out of games and there was an issue that he cited some kind of adverse effects
00:17:18
Speaker
from creatine which i'm not sure i buy um don't know really what went on there and that but those two are probably the most talented and then you've got cam boozer who can do absolutely everything six foot eight out of duke only 18 years of age he's probably gonna go three to the grizzlies but michael i'm sure you have plenty of thoughts on these one two and three what way do you think it's gonna go um for my money i i think davansa goes first peterson second and boozer third but i'm not sure if you align on that No, I think I'm right there with you. And honestly, i feel stronger about it after the reports that Peterson does not want to be drafted by Utah.
00:17:58
Speaker
I think it makes more sense for Utah as well to keep keep AJ there. He's already got that fan base from BYU, and I'm sure that will only explode if you think Peterson goes one.
00:18:10
Speaker
I think he could. i don't know. so you're not, you're the opposite to me then. I think Devansa goes one to the Wizards. Sorry. I got confused. i got confused with the Wizards and the Jazz there. I wanted to. i I kind of think Peterson goes one.
00:18:26
Speaker
Because Trey is opting out of his his contract, which I feel like if I'm the Wizards, I did not want. Because I want to see what you look like first before i give you a big ass deal.
00:18:40
Speaker
And it's a really easy way of sidestepping and being like, oh, it's okay. We'll just get at Mr. Peterson here. But even if if you don't want him, no. You got to go AJ or Darren Peterson. I just have a feeling that it just might not be...
00:19:04
Speaker
I don't know. There's a lot of talk about Peterson going one or two. And I think a lot of his issues during the season might, we just might not see it come up again in the NBA. Another example is Paolo who had conditioning issues and stuff in college, which we just do not see coming into the NBA.
00:19:24
Speaker
And I want to go against the grain. I don't know. Darren Peterson, you are the number one I don't know, because I think that the Bansa coming in, I think the Wizards have made it clear that they want some kind of a leader.
00:19:39
Speaker
And Peterson himself has said that he's kind of an introvert. And not people have said his character is not really that of a leader. More of like an Asylum Assassin. So I don't know if that lines up. But look, it's it's a we know with the Jazz, they don't care. if you don't If you say you don't want to go to them like Ace Bailey, they'll still pick you.
00:19:59
Speaker
The only interesting wrinkle is that they have Keontae George who is due to be paid and he is represented by the same agency as Peterson. So that's a little bit of an interesting one, but I don't think the Jazz really care about that. I think they still take Peterson and then what will be what will be with George.
00:20:17
Speaker
Shane, what do you think of Michael's point? Do you think that... The Trae Young situation at the Wizards. He's opting out of his of his deal for this year. He wants a multi-year extension. The Wizards are still favourites to sign him, but he could be testing the waters with other teams around him. Do you think the Wizards splash out multi-year on him? Or do they just go, no, we're going with Peterson and Trae can do what he wants, even though they just they gave up a a little bit to get him in the first place?
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm famously really, really good at following college basketball and college football. football So I did ask my but my new best friend, Perplexity, ah to to rank this top five for me and they gave it to me and thankfully the top three were correct so far.
00:21:03
Speaker
But i I think they'll they'll give Trey what he wants because... They didn't splash all the cash and then sit him for the second half of the even if it was down to injuries, whatever. like I think they really wanted him to be here.
00:21:15
Speaker
And I think it would be mad if they just brought him in, gave up what they gave up, and then set him for six months and then said, okay, off you go, best of luck. I do think they'll they'll pay him. They'll give him his two or three years and kind of build around him. And then they'll bring in... uh who averaged 25.5 points per game last year it's the only stat i have on him so i had to throw it in there um i think they'd be mad if they didn't and then peterson will go too and my my new favorite basketball player can boozer uh 22 and a half points last year i'd be in the boozer right now if we weren't doing this podcast so can't get cameron is a bit of me so that that's that's my top three as well yeah our perpexity perplexity perplexity's top three Yeah, think the Trae Young thing, the fact he didn't play in the back half of last season is great point because the players usually will play, even if it's a kind of a small injury, if they want to get paid. and I think that will affect how much other teams would be interested in him. I think he still would get the most money off the Wizards. I listened to an interview with Michael Winger from the Wizards front office and... He's kind of bigging up Trey a lot and saying that they want him there for years and stuff like that. So I think they will pay him, but that's another interesting and wrinkle.
00:22:28
Speaker
Boozer to the Grizzlies. While he is a great player, he's he's he's not as flashy as some of the other guys because he just does everything right. He's a great passer. He can dominate games. He's exactly what the Grizzlies need in that rebuild phase. I don't think there's any real discussion or or debate around them picking him. But...
00:22:47
Speaker
When you get past that point, or something that's really quite interesting is Caleb Wilson. Fourth overall is probably likely to be him to go to the Bulls. I think he fits nicely next to Gideon Luzales with his athleticism. He's not a great shooter, but
Second Round World Cup Anticipations
00:23:02
Speaker
they've got a bit of shooting.
00:23:03
Speaker
some Somewhat, anyway. But I think he he could be a good addition there. do you have Wilson at four, Michael, or do you see the Bulls pivoting from that? i I'll be honest now.
00:23:16
Speaker
hi I don't know much about any of these players outside the top three. I haven't watched bunch much of Kalen or even like Darius Acuff or anyone else. But from everything I've read so far, the Bulls fans just seem so in on him the whole time. i Darius Acuff, from everything I've watched, I really like his game, but I can't see him jumping up to that four spot. I just think the Bulls go with something surefire. I think he's the best talent up, and I'm sure Thiago Splitter has some plan on how he's going to get the most out of this team. A great hire, by the way.
00:23:56
Speaker
i I was shocked to see Thiago Switter being picked up by the Bulls, but we'll see how it goes. I'm i'm hoping for the best. I'm just hoping they get out of purgatory.
00:24:08
Speaker
I think but what he did with the Blazers, and it's a good bet, at least to try something different for a change. Yeah, and and last thing I wanted to say is I think Cam Boozer to the Grizzlies is so underrated. i actually, out of the top three, I want him on the Grizzlies. I think they have Zach Eadie behind him, and they've got Cedric Carrad and some other younger pieces as well to grow with him. I think that would be the best spot for him to figure out what is his best game in the NBA because he has so many of these complementary pieces.
00:24:43
Speaker
yeah yeah i agree with that i think to round things out for everybody listening then likely five is where the draft begins for most people usually like you have kind of a bit of debate there obviously is that one two debate boozers probably three wilson four five it depends what the clippers do they'll likely either go with keaton wogler out of illinois or michael brown out of louisville because they need a guard both are big guys six five or six four and as your two options there for a guard that's pretty nice size next to darius garland because you need it and then when i look further down the draft
00:25:19
Speaker
If your team, if you're a supporter of a team that's picking, you know, from maybe eight through 20 or 25 and your team picks one of these players, I think you're going to be surprised and happy. So down I've got Darius Acuff.
00:25:34
Speaker
6'2 guard out of Arkansas. Can score for fun, but he cannot defend whatsoever. He doesn't even care about defense. He's the Trey Young. He did basically what Trey Young did in college, just score for fun and then just cannot defend.
00:25:48
Speaker
and But yeah, he's going to score a lot. Bradenbury, 6'4 guard out of Arizona. Obviously, Arizona were a team that everyone thought would go pretty far, but didn't work out in the end for them. Then I've got two guys off the championship winning team in Michigan.
00:26:02
Speaker
Adai Mara. Look, he may might not be the fastest, but he is huge, huge wingspan, like over nine foot, I think. And he's just going to be someone that plays very well in the NBA and someone's going to be, oh, the Wemby stopper. Yeah, no, watch him against Wemby, that's not going to work. But anyway, he's goingnna be he's going to be good for somebody. Yaxl Lendeborg, six foot nine, another big man out of Michigan, can play at the four as well. Very underrated, very hard worker. And then last up, I've got Koa Pete, six foot seven wing out of Arizona. There's...
00:26:34
Speaker
some debate back and forth about him at times but I think he can bring a lot of athleticism rebounding personally i would love to see the Sixers take him in the 20s because if he does make it that far he would be a huge addition next to Embiid since Embiid can't really rebound like he used to mean to have that athleticism at the fore and he brings a lot of energy so those are my guys to look out for any closing thoughts on the draft from either of you two guys before we wrap up I just have, I actually have a quick question. Have you seen that Australian kid, the ladders 7'8", JJ Match?
00:27:10
Speaker
No, I haven't seen anything of him. Oh, I'll send you on. I don't think he's going to draft this year. think he just turned 18. I'll send you on a video of him after. He did an interview with, you one was literally up to his knee. Like that's how tall he is. He's seven foot eight and he's still growing. He's, he'll be in the NBA soon. And I think anyone who, like that seven foot three fellow you're talking about, whoever gets him is almost guaranteed themselves kind of,
00:27:35
Speaker
media coverage if nothing else because it's like oh he's he's the same height as Wemby or he's close to Wemby I actually Wemby is taller than he's listed at the moment but things like that are kind of what teams lower down the ranks might be looking at they're like oh maybe he he can be a Wemby light or junior Wemby or something but other than that I do have Kele Bulton and Keaton Wagler going at four and five so perplexity is better than chat UBT everyone yeah get on that Revolut medal you get for free free plug
00:28:05
Speaker
No, just to round it off, the Clippers should have their first round pick taken away. There's been enough evidence. They're definitely not announcing the results of the investigation before the draft. I'll tell you that because they are so happy that Mr. Ballmer got this pick.
00:28:22
Speaker
Anyways. Yeah, well, look, I'll leave it there. As a fan of multiple sports, we've seen plenty of that with Man City. These charges are never coming, so there's a bit of an overlap there. Look, guys,
00:28:34
Speaker
Pleasure covering the NBA season. And next week, we will obviously have a little bit of recap of the draft, but then we'll take a backseat on the and NBA and for a little while. And then next season, we'll kick off. So one more and NBA heavily focused segment this year, or this season, should I say. It won't be long lu before it comes back. It rolls around pretty quick, but we will catch you again next week, Michael. Thank you.
00:28:59
Speaker
All right, so there goes Michael, and we're going to shift our focus over to the World Cup. I round up of round one. and I think we should go. We've kind of highlighted some key points that we want to talk about. and We're going to throw out maybe other ones that spring to mind during this, but let's go and...
00:29:17
Speaker
chronological order maybe the first thing we look kind of spoke about was Friday US started on absolute fire Balogun superb World Cup debut got two goals Paraguay looked really bad i thought they'd be set up a lot better but yeah they looked very very stodgy and I think the US probably missed some more chances as well so they had the game really won in the first half but yeah what did you make of of their performance I didn't think that would steamroll Paraguay like did it Yeah, I think it's one of those where it's very hard to judge if that is if the USA are actually a good team because of how bad Paraguay were. But some of their finishing was absolutely superb. But Huff Balogun was unbelievable. And it's any wonder they were working so hard to get him to to to say he played for the USA over waiting for England. And it's worked wonders for him.
00:30:06
Speaker
First American to score a brace since 1930 in a World Cup. And it was the most goals they scored in a single World Cup game as well. like I did think they were good, don't get me wrong, but I do want to see them in Game 2 and Game 3 to see if they can they but can they be a threat to anyone in the last eight. Maybe not, but it was definitely a very Maurizio Pochettino team, I thought. They were able to arrest players very early. Pulisic came off at half-time due two a precaution. He's not injured, but as you said, the game was won in the first half. We can give Captain America a break here and
00:30:39
Speaker
go and actually try out other things. I just, I honestly thought there were they were superb. But as I said, I need to see more from them because that was not a very hard game. Yeah, noted that as well. It looked like a potch team, like that fast football and high press and just kind of a bit exciting to watch. I didn't expect to see it from the US, but like you said,
00:31:00
Speaker
Paraguay left a lot to be desired, and it's probably going to be until they play Turkey that we see maybe a bit of a challenge, but even then, Turkey didn't look great, so maybe into the knockout rounds. Speaking of Captain America, have you seen much of the Alexei Lallas coverage over on Fox? It's just absolutely horrendous. Like, Henri and Ibrahimović both look like they want to murder him at multiple different times, and a recent...
00:31:28
Speaker
vote from him i think yesterday it might be that the beautiful game is gonna become a game of four quarters pretty soon like what are you waffling about like you just haven't a bull's notion he never played at an elite level outside of the u.s so never on elite level he played in a few world cups and he was part of that u.s team that did well in 94 so they all put him on some pedestal but he does not have a clue Does he work for a broadcaster during the years? I don't think so like i've never
00:31:59
Speaker
I'd never seen him before. Now he's been rolled out because it's in the US. and I was going to talk about hydration breaks. We might as well get into it now while we're here. I think it's an absolute shambles. When you're playing a match and it's indoors and it's 25 degrees with the aircon and you're having a hydration break so they can get in ad breaks.
00:32:15
Speaker
I think I sent it to you a while ago that one of the broadcasters has made 200 million dollars. from selling ads during hydration breaks during this World Cup. This four quarter thing is never going to catch on. And thank God it doesn't. Another quote from Zlatan was, an ignorant people call friends complacent. That was absolutely brilliant. He just completely shut him down. The faces that he's been pulling that I've seen on Twitter are just hilarious. it's Like how he's still there, how he they managed to hold on to him for the 12 games or whatever it is and not say, okay, we need to find another token American to put on this because he is not working out. Ibrahimovic actually wants to kill him.
00:32:54
Speaker
like he' keep He's actually going to kung fu kick him at some point. But the hydration breaks, they're killing me. They're actually killing me. And they they're killing every single game as well. Takes all the momentum out of them. People are coming back and...
00:33:06
Speaker
All of a sudden it feels like half time rolls around really quickly after the hydration break and nothing has happened because they're trying to get back up to speed. They've had to take on more tactical advice from the coach that was completely unneeded. But what are going to do for three minutes standing on the sideline? On the other Americans that could contribute, I heard a recent interview with Clint Dempsey and he spoke like really well about the World Cup and stuff like that.
00:33:27
Speaker
I feel like, and he has way more knowledge of world football, I feel like he would have been a better addition. But... Hydration breaks, I'll say this, and I don't want us to talk about them again during this competition because honestly, it's yeah i think that it should depend on the temperature of the stadium. Obviously, when you're playing indoors and it's fine,
00:33:50
Speaker
then there's no need for it. But I do get the point that it has to be streamlined across games because some of the games are in scorching hot temperatures and they want every game to be the same. Okay, that's fine. Well, I'll accept that point and I'll take both sides and that's it. But what I can't listen to is every single game on RTE, they just do not stop complaining about it. They have such low footballing intelligence, the commentators, because they have nothing else to talk about during that hydration break. When there's no football on, they can't read some random comments off their notes that most of the time are incorrect.
00:34:28
Speaker
And they can't make observations about what's going to happen next. because they don't know any need of the players and they don't know some of the intricacies of what's going to go on. They're just every single game without fail, they're just complaining about the hydration break. And that has made me actually like the hydration break because I want to be against them because they are so annoying.
00:34:48
Speaker
And... i I just can't get around it. Like the whinging is just unbelievable. And one point of it, Stephen ken Kelly and John Kenny, obviously as the head commentator, he i don't he doesn't want to be commentating on this World Cup. He he doesn't want to be commentating on football. And you can see it with the complaining that he had during the Netherlands-Japan game. Even when the second half was good, he kept going, oh, but the first half was useless.
00:35:15
Speaker
when the game is like 2-1. And in the first half, he goes, oh, thinking back to that 2010 Netherlands team that made it to the final. And then Stephen Kelly goes, oh, yeah, what a team. Like, they had Schneider and, you know, they had the likes of Schneider. And then Kenny goes, oh, yeah, exactly. And van der Sar, yeah, and and Schneider, yeah.
00:35:37
Speaker
So between them, they could only name two. And van der Sar wasn't even in that team. retired from international football in 2008. So I'm just sick to death of watching RT, but I'm not going to go over and listen to Keane on ITV because honestly, I think that could be worse.
00:35:52
Speaker
Yeah, so that's the issue is that I tried the BBC yesterday. I was sitting down with my father before. it was the day before, I wasn't bringing in. I can't remember game was starting. And it was Giroud, Michael Richards and Mark Chapman.
00:36:06
Speaker
And oh my God, it was painful. It was really, really painful. And I've gotten to point now where I'm not watching any studio because... I think the RTE studio has been as bad as the commentary. ah James McLean, I thought was brutal for the two days he was on. Kevin Doyle is brutal. Diddy Hamman drives me insane.
00:36:25
Speaker
Oh my God. I really enjoyed when Stephen Bradley was on it because i to that's a man who actually knows football. The way he's talking about, oh, they're talking about Cape Verde saying how well they've done. They're keeping their distances.
00:36:37
Speaker
That's the best analysis I've heard from anyone else who's been on the sofa for 24 hours previous to him doing his 30 minutes. And they need more people like him to engage because, as I said, McLean I thought was brutal. And think he's the worst that's been so far. But Kevin Doyle is an awful analyst. He always has been.
00:36:55
Speaker
He always will be. He's only there because he's Irish. like It just drives me insane that this the main broadcaster... Okay, fair enough. You're not going to send a studio guest over there. That's understandable.
00:37:06
Speaker
But are they commentators in the stadium? they're Darren Maloney and um how Houghton, I think, went over. And they couldn't get to their first, I think, a lot of games because they were stuck in the Chicago airport because of storms.
00:37:21
Speaker
Yeah, so like that' I think that's scandalous. Not sending commentators over. Whatever about not sending studio over, send over commentators so they're in the stadium, they can get a feel for it. The commentary wouldn't be as bad if they were in the stadium. and They would have something to talk about if they were over and actually in the stadium. I just think it's criminal. We're we're paying them enough money for the TV licenses, allegedly, that they should be able to to send people over there for a month. And it would just make it 10, not 20 times better.
00:37:47
Speaker
Like ITV's coverage haven't watched it yet, but I know they've sent everyone over and people are ranting and raving about it online. I just can't deal with they're going to somehow bring everything back to England winning the World Cup or England doing this. And that's I'm not here for that.
00:38:01
Speaker
But I do think ITV's coverage is probably the best because they've actually sent people over. They've invested in it. Their studio looks absolutely insane. it looks so good. BBC haven't sent people over. They just have a green screen in the background. They've sent their commentators over at least. But I just find football coverage is getting worse and worse as the years go on. As the technology gets better, it's somehow getting worse. I'd much rather have Bill O'Hurley, John Giles and Eamon Dunphy, and I'm not even joking. At least they had a bit of personality about him. None of these lads have personality.
00:38:31
Speaker
Diddy Hammond there at halftime in that South African ki was literally reading off a sheet in front of him. literally reading out things off of sheet. It's like, what is the actual point in you being there if you're not going to bother learning things? I actually think DeeDee is the best of a bad bunch because he hasnt he he actually doesn't have a clue and he just says stuff that's actually like outright wrong at times. And it's just like, it makes me laugh. like That's the enjoyment I get out of it. And the other night, ah Tony was the host and they had DeeDee and Richie Sadler as the two guys.
00:39:02
Speaker
for the York way Saudi game, which was actually quite an enjoyable game. And after the game was over, Tony was like, oh, you know, they're talking about Bielsa. And then they were saying, you know, oh, this could Tony was like, could he brought Suarez, you know, Suarez.
00:39:18
Speaker
And then Didi was like, have you watched Suarez? And then Tony was just like, not recently, no. And then Richie was just like, oh, well, exactly. And then they went to an ad break. And I was just like, that just sums up RT's coverage perfectly, that whole exchange.
00:39:33
Speaker
But yeah, that's the RTE side of things, boxed off. I think no more no more comments on that or the hydration breaks. Yeah, but i'm I'm not going to watch any more of the RTE studio, so I literally will not be able to have another comment to to say in this podcast. When you saw when I saw we were going to talk about it, like, okay, I better add a few few more bits of fuel to my fire before you go in here. But yeah, that's the end of hydration breaks and RTE. So it's Monday is next on the, if we're going chronologically, and that is Spain disappointing. and Obviously, there was games between the US and Spain game, but we're just hitting on the key things here. 25 shots from the Spanish, 74% possession.
00:40:12
Speaker
They were fairly toothless in front of goal, but the story is Cap Verde. um They could nicked it at the end with that corner. The players were nearly running onto to the pitch, and Pico Lopez, the man from Crumblin, was unbelievable up until that last block on Oyarzabal to kind of really...
00:40:30
Speaker
put the icing on his performance and only for Vazinha was so good in goal I think he would have got the man of the match Yeah, 100%. I thought Cape Verde were just unbelievable.
00:40:41
Speaker
they said They still had more possession than Arsenal had the Champions final, had to get Arsenal in there somehow. But it was their discipline that I was completely amazed by. They committed one foul in the whole game.
00:40:52
Speaker
For team with a 26% possession of the ball, one foul is absolutely incredible. They threw their body in front of everything. Their keeper was absolutely immense at 41 years old. To see after him being told he was after getting the one at one and a half million followers on Instagram over this course of match.
00:41:08
Speaker
He's on 13.5 million followers now. Like from 50k. He went from. And if you look yeah like Patrick Mahomes has 6.5. Wemby has 6.2. Like he's doubled both of them.
00:41:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, himself and that i should they sorry know yeah that is and Tim Payne. Both have more followers than Wemby has now, which is absolutely incredible. I thought they were actually well worthy of their point for the defensive effort they put in. I know they didn't do much attacking. They mightn't score a whole goal. Sorry, a whole goal. They mightn't score a single goal at the whole World Cup. But... I think for them to get a point out of that is, it's just monumental. It really is. And I thought, yeah, I won't actually skip too far ahead. I just thought they were absolutely superb and they were well worth it. But Spain, don't know if it was kind resting on their laurels that they didn't bring Nico Williams on to 86. They didn't bring the man on until 65. I know they weren't both fully fit coming into it, but...
00:42:08
Speaker
Surely when you see it half-time or badly, it's going to bring him on, get 2-0 up and take him back off if you need to or something. But I thought it was very kind of nonchalant of Spain to not bring on any of their best attackers until it was... Yeah, I think they probably didn't want to bring on Williams at all given how late he came on there. And...
00:42:27
Speaker
Maybe it's just the format of this World Cup, the fact that you can get away with drawing your first game and not really putting too much into it with the third place teams going through. But you wouldn't think Spain would have that that kind of attitude. But I did listen to, i was listening to Ronan Mullen from the independent and he had watched a good bit of Cape Verde because of the Pico Lopez aspect of it and he said that like generally they have actually done quite well against bigger teams and it's against like lesser teams where they struggle where they actually have to play a bit more and because they're so well drilled and a lot their players are older that they can kind of hold teams out but Spain is a whole other level and to get a draw there like
00:43:14
Speaker
I'm just looking at Pico's stats as well 16 defensive contributions 3 blocks 11 clearances 2 interceptions and he won 100% of aerial duels I think they could go out and lose the two next games 5-0 but the fact of having that performance against Spain in a World Cup it's not something that's ever going to go away so unbelievable from him yeah Imagine how many points he'd have gotten on FPL for that kind of a performance.
00:43:40
Speaker
Clean sheet running on top of it as well. But yeah, I just, as I said, I thought they were well worth their points. Spain deserved very little out of that game and they got very little. Yeah, I agree. Let's move on to Wednesday then, which is where we had Lionel Messi's first hat-trick of the World Cup. Hard to believe he never had one before. and He's equal to Miroslav Klose now with 18 or 16 all-time goals at the World Cup.
00:44:05
Speaker
he will surpass him in this competition. He just needs one more. Funny thing as zimbbape is Zimbabwe is on 14, so he'll be top yeah probably in the next one if he doesn't overtake him in this. I think the first and third goals were good finishes. Possibly the keeper was pretty bad all game. Zidane's son. Zidane was not too happy with him, but he was pretty poor, and especially on that first one. The third one, great, classic, messy finish. um But there is that question of should he have been sent off?
00:44:33
Speaker
I think that tackle, 99% of other players, that gets referred to VAR and they get sent off because he literally was nowhere near the ball, studs on the back of the calf, but doesn't take away from the brilliance of Messi when he does play.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah, it's 100% of right card. And as like I've been praising him, especially a friend of mine, David, still thinks Ronaldo is better than him, bla blah, blah, blah. And I was... He was like, well, what about the red card from Messi? I was like, yeah, it is a red card, but I'm glad he wasn't sent off because it got me three points at Superbrew and he scored his first Premier League and he scored his first World Cup hat-trick.
00:45:08
Speaker
But aside from that moment of madness from him, it's his movement is still insane and he's 39 next week and he still looks just as fast because he was probably never as fast as we thought. It's just his feet move so quickly compared to everyone else that he just looks way faster.
00:45:23
Speaker
His third finish is insane. His movement to be in there for the second one and... give the keeper the eyes from three yards out and roll it the other way. Now, with the ways that Dan was playing, he was probably trying to dive out the way anyway because he seemed afraid of the ball at times. But yeah, the man is just an absolute freak.
00:45:41
Speaker
I do think Mbappe will probably surpass it at the next World Cup. But if Messi can come out of this one as the goal scorer of all time, then I think... It's just another string to his ball of why he is the best. Yeah, and I also think that the Algeria team was probably better value than a 3-0 loss. I thought they created some good chances and they looked pretty lively at times.
00:46:02
Speaker
they might get If they get out of the group, they could be on an iron team for someone to play in the last 32. um But yeah, great to see Messi get that first World Cup hat-trick. And even as the United fan who is obviously always an Aldo fan, there's no doubt and that Messi's just...
00:46:17
Speaker
like talent and level of football and ability is above anyone we've ever seen um moving to Thursday then speaking of Ronaldo Portugal were very disappointing and even more disappointing than Spain they drew one one they had the most possession of any team whose opponent had more shots against them in World Cup history so they had 75 possession Congo had eight shots Portugal had seven that's the most possession ever when your team at your opponent has more shots than you Only creating 0.65xg with 75% possession is just terrible.
00:46:53
Speaker
I think it was different than Spain because they didn't really create many chances. They continued to try to get the ball to Ronaldo. They should have taken him off earlier and they didn't play near enough balls in behind because Ronaldo was the focal point. They weren't really going in behind as much as they could have. Liao came on and they were giving it to him to square up against people and he was woeful. Like if you just played the ball in behind a little bit more, you could have had maybe some more success. And I think it sounds hilarious because I always complain about Dalo, but I feel like he would have been a good addition because he just drives forward. He's a terrible finishing product when he gets in front of the goal, but he drives forward, he makes good runs, he plays good balls in behind. And I think Portugal really could have used him in that game instead of bringing on Samedo.
00:47:38
Speaker
Yeah, you and Dani said it last week that Portugal have a big, massive Ronaldo-shaped problem. And if Roberto Martinez isn't strong enough to solve it, it is going to cost him. And there's no way he should have played as many minutes. And I think he played the whole game. pretty sure he did. He didn't come off for Gonzalo Ramas.
00:47:56
Speaker
Yeah, 25 touches, 11 in the second half. And it's like he doesn't actually offer anything outside of being in the box. So if you can't get the ball into the box, then you are playing with 10 men, basically, because he's not tracking back, obviously. He's 41 years old. wouldn't expect him to.
00:48:13
Speaker
He's always on the last man, he's always trying to get him behind and the two chances he did have where it looked like the same move twice, the same, Conte South pulling it back to him and he was just in front of the front post.
00:48:24
Speaker
like If you're not creating those kind of chances or headers for him, then just get him off and get onto him on mobile. And if they try and play the World Cup where he plays 90 minutes in the quarterfinal, the last 32, the quarterfinal, the semifinal, however far they get,
00:48:38
Speaker
You pick them to win it. If they don't solve this Ronaldo problem, there's no way they're winning it because they need someone up there who's actually capable of moving and he isn't. and like I think he thinks he can beat Dr. Time and there's literally no one who's ever been able to beat Dr. Time and this might be the World Cup that actually proves him that he is done at this level. I have no belief in Martinez as a manager, but I just thought every time I looked at that Portuguese squad, I'm like, how...
00:49:06
Speaker
This is just the best squad in in the competition. like They have so many good players. You have two guys who just won back-to-back Champions Leagues in the midfield for PSG, and they're coming in the midfield here. And then you're replacing Fabian Ruiz with Bruno Fernandes, who's the best creative player in the world. like That midfield should be so good.
00:49:25
Speaker
And then you've got the best left-back in the world. You've got Cristiano Ronaldo, should be an impact player off the bench, bringing him off the bench. 20 minutes left would be unbelievable. And teams would be scared of that. But instead, no, it's consistent, this Ronaldo issue. And I don't know, I think if they have another game like that and Ronaldo comes out still in the third game and plays the whole thing, then they deserve whatever comes to them because they're never going to win anything like that. And they're wasting the careers of other players because some of those guys are in their prime right now. And then you're wasting that chance because of Ronaldo.
00:50:05
Speaker
yeah, I just don't know. I don't know what's going to happen throughout this, but they can't play like that again. That's for certain. Yeah, there was one I saw, think it was their last warm-up game, where Martinez made 10 changes at halftime and left Ronaldo on until 65 and took him off then. That was when I knew that I was like, oh, this actually is going to be a problem because are you making 10 changes and not taking off the 41-year-old? Why are you giving him an extra 20 minutes? He should be the one that he should be...
00:50:33
Speaker
He shouldn't even be coming back out the tunnel at halftime. He's feeling his ice baths or whatever he needs to do to recover. But giving him 65 minutes and changing everyone else, i was like, oh God, he really is going to be a problem for Portugal. Yeah, 100% I agree with that. So straight after that debacle for Portugal, we had England coming out and probably one of the best games of the tournament so far.
00:50:54
Speaker
Really good performance. They battered Croatia 3.2 xG to 0.7, 22 shots to 10. England missed five big chances in that game. They were a great value for the win and they won 4-2. Unfortunately, they were very, very good.
00:51:11
Speaker
Yeah, I think they have a stone-related problem. He can't start the next game. Mark Way has to be in there. Aside from that, though, some of the chances they missed, the Nico O'Reilly header at the back post in the corner was criminal.
00:51:23
Speaker
there was just ah like I think yeah they were, unfortunately, really, really good value for the win. I thought they were absolutely brilliant. Elliot Anderson... he had he had one of his poorer games but he still managed get an assist and Declan Rice's ball in for nest that corner goal was super superb and Bellion scored so if they can get that midfield firing on all cylinders all three of them then that's where a lot of their kind of issues for the teams are going to come because I'm not convinced by their wingers. I don't think Nani Madueke should be there at all.
00:51:56
Speaker
Rashford was good when he came on, but I think he's just playing with so much confidence now that you have to be starting him. And then Anthony Gordon is just fast. So I think if they get their midfield going and firing and Morgan Rodgers can slip in there as well instead of bellying him and stuff, I think they have...
00:52:10
Speaker
They have a really good chance of, unfortunately, going all the way in this. I just really hope they don't. really hope they don't as well. We discussed last night about the subs and Anderson in particular. I didn't think he had a good game. he didn't have a bad game, but he was... Just the that period where they made those subs, that was the most confusing part of the game because I felt like Tuchel tried to do that thing where he tried to be too smart and he left on Anderson. Initially had Bellingham drop deeper and Rodgers come on.
00:52:41
Speaker
And then after that, he did hook off Bellingham. But then he brought on Spence and Anderson looked super, like really lost in the middle, like really confused as to where to go. You had Rhys James kind of telling him,
00:52:56
Speaker
to calm down basically and where to stand and stuff like that because the system completely changed for no reason. And that's not his fault. You know, Tuchel did that for no reason. I don't, I don't get that like trying to be too smart when you're only just ahead and Croatia have caught you cold twice and they nearly caught them cold again to pull it back to three, three. Now England did get that last goal on the counter and they were the way better team, but they nearly threw it away because of silly subs.
00:53:20
Speaker
And I think a much more sensible thing to do is just do a like for like, just pull off Bellingham for Rogers. And if you wanted to take Rice off, I think you could have put Rhys James in midfield. He's done that so many times and put Spence right back. That's a normal thing to do. Bring on Maynou, who is a midfielder.
00:53:37
Speaker
Like, don't be trying to do too many changes in your system during the game at once. And that is something something that Tuchel does try to do sometimes. So I hope that that's where hey they stumble come knockout rounds, that they do try to be too smart in one game and then it comes back to bite them and there's nothing you can do to come back at that point.
00:53:56
Speaker
Yeah, it was very much Pep Guardiola losing the mind kind of thing out of nowhere, which he used to do in Champions League semifinals and the odd final. But yeah, I couldn't understand what he was doing, especially bringing on Jed Spence and moving Rhys James into the middle.
00:54:10
Speaker
Like if you were up against someone, then you're like, OK, I'd like to see Rhys James in midfield here to see if he's another option for me later in the tournament. Not when you're 3-2 up and kind of half hanging on against a really good Croatia team as well. So his subs were weird. If that catches him out, brilliant. i just i think it's one of those where he's like, OK, I tried that.
00:54:31
Speaker
Elliot Anderson was not one bit happy with with how it went. Rhys James wasn't happy having to tell him where to go all the time. The front four made absolutely no sense. All of a sudden, I won't be doing that again. And if he does learn from this mistake all went in good again, hope he doesn't, hope he tries to do it again against a Morocco or something that gets caught absolutely really, really cold.
00:54:51
Speaker
But I think if he keeps going with John Stones for this whole tournament, we'd have nothing to worry about anyway. yeah only He only played nine league games. Yeah, to bring him at all is confusing. And then what confused me even more is when Livermento pulled out, he added in Shalaba. And you still have... Shalaba, yeah.
00:55:07
Speaker
You still had some major options left. Like Maguire, I think the bridge is burnt. But you could have brought another left-back. I think they needed a left-back. They could have brought and Lewis Hall, I felt like. I think somebody who could just play... like They are left back and they're not like, like O'Reilly is great at going forward, but in a big game, you might need someone to defend there. And I think he could have been an option.
00:55:30
Speaker
To expenses for heel. That's where I don't think that that's a great option either. Really. It's not the best. I think Luke Shaw or Hall would have been better there. And so a little bit confused, but let's see. I think they won't be challenged until later because Croatia looked pretty bad.
00:55:46
Speaker
and the rest of the group is abysmal that ghana and panama game they both looked so bad yeah so i think england will grab nine points and just walk the group so they probably won't be challenged till maybe the last 16 and they didn't really get challenged in qualifying either so it'll be interesting to see how they fare there so into round two now is there anything that you're looking forward to see or you wanna you wanna really see something happen to either prove a point to you or kind of be like, oh, right, I was wrong about that. Like if there's something that stands out to you that you want to see proof of concept of in the next round of games.
00:56:24
Speaker
Yeah, well, while I think of that really, I'm going to mention that I'm really glad that the refereeing hasn't followed the same path as game one with the three right cards. I think it's either that proof of concept.
00:56:36
Speaker
I want to see Brazil actually show up and play Brazil football. um I thought Morocco marshalled him really well. I thought Bwadi when he came on was absolutely insanely good. I'm looking forward to seeing what they do against someone like Scotland now who they'll have a lot, lot of the ball and we kind of see what they do then.
00:56:52
Speaker
Outside of that, I'd like matches to go the way think going to go on Superbrew because it it seems like nothing is going the way the predictions. I want to see Cape Verde get another point. That's a big one for me now. b Cape Verde or Congo, the Congo got that point as well. They were absolutely brilliant against, it was against Portugal.
00:57:11
Speaker
yeah I think the group stage is just so long that it's really hard to even kind of pinpoint one of the 48 teams like, oh, they looked really poor, hopefully it'll be better game one. Because a lot of teams seem to be kind of easing their way into it more than getting off their flyer. As you said, like you can afford to draw your first game and get seven points, going walk out of the group anyway, or five points will probably get you out. so yeah I think until we get to the last 32, it's probably going to be hard to see and you won't kind of shoot ahead or make like look light years ahead. Like Germany beating Cursow tells nobody anything.
00:57:45
Speaker
Like, okay, did they scored seven goals, well done. But like their opposition, they were basically playing against a League One team as a Champions League team, and I don't think that's going to do anyone any favours really. So yeah, actually, I'd like to see what they do in game two against whoever they're playing, see if they're actually as good as they looked, because there was times in that Cursau game where they looked dreadful.
00:58:04
Speaker
But every team and every match has looked dreadful at a point as well. so Yeah, Germany Ivory Coast is on Saturday. I think that's going to be a good one. Yeah. I'm looking forward to seeing some teams play again. like New Zealand are really exciting going forward with just i getting those two goals. and They haven't lost a World Cup game since the 1980s because they drew all three of their games last time around and they drew this one. so yeah Let's see them again. i want to see if...
00:58:34
Speaker
if Ecuador can be any better because they got caught cold at the end by Ivory Coast. Sanigal, I think, were very good, even though they lost 3-1. I think they should have been up at halftime against France, having looked at that one back. There's some teams I want to see play again and see, kind of, does their football translate to them actually getting points, like teams that drop some points.
00:58:56
Speaker
You know, i was actually mentioned earlier, Algeria. I can't wait to watch any Norway game because they cannot defend and they're great going forward. They are so bad defensively and Iraq should have scored two or three against them. Imagine against France, that game could be like 6-3. And so that's going to be an interesting one. But those are kind of the things that I'm looking forward to. But yeah, any other thoughts before we wrap it?
00:59:21
Speaker
Yeah, I'm looking forward to continuing my Liverpool scouting mission of Bradley Baricola, Yann Diomande and the now new signing Victor Munoz, who i had I had literally didn't even know he was in the squad until I read it. and I'd never even heard of him.
00:59:35
Speaker
Literally never seen him play, but a great deal of £35 million, hopefully. So I'll have to try. Hopefully he gets at least five minutes at some point so I can actually see him run with a football and see how it is. All about on aboard the and they trained for the whole summer anyway until he goes to PSG. Yeah, was an absolute standout. Unbelievable for every coast. And I just got a notification as we were speaking from the Atlantic that Liverpool are pushing for 100 million or something like that. So...
01:00:02
Speaker
Looking positive for you so far. Let's see how that goes. And also Shane has got his transfers article up on the sub stack. So give that a read one transfer for every team. Very good piece. And I'll give you some ideas for each and every team who they should sign. But that's another episode wrapped up. Shane, I'll throw it to you to finish it up as usual.
01:00:22
Speaker
Yeah, so I missed last week, so we got no new subscribers, we're still on the road to 150,000. Actually, we just got two more yesterday off one of our reels, so we're cooking. Get in. Yeah, the reels are the future, I think. YouTube and Instagram and whatever else. I'm getting too old to know the names of all of them. I just know they all do the same thing. So if you want to watch us on every single platform, The links are in the bio. Subscribe to the YouTube would mean a lot. And we will see you back here next week for more and NBA and World Cup chats.
01:00:53
Speaker
Bing bong!