Transcript
Speaker: Amit, you know how much I love my old adages. One of the oldest adages, all good things must come to an end. And unfortunately, today was the day that the good thing came to an end for Morocco. Yeah. Uh, we said in our semi -final preview podcast, could these teams keep doing this? The answer was resoundingly no, they could not.
Speaker: And while both of the semifinal losers were as good and as impressive as we thought, the margins at this point of the tournament came to roost. And that's what happens. And we're bummed. We were joyous yesterday. We're bummed today. And it's not necessarily that we dislike France. I think we both do a little bit. But that's fine. We're just really rooting for Morocco. And this was sad.
Speaker: This is the World Cup After Dark podcast. He is a mint mallet. I'm Austin Miller. I think one thing that was really interesting about this Morocco France game we saw today, I thought Morocco were way better than I think a lot of people expected them to be. They conceded very early, which ended the whole great defensive record. And then from that point on, until France put the game away in the 80th minute,
Speaker: Morocco maybe didn't have the better chances. I can think of one or two big Olivier Giroud misses, but they did just about everything right at one goal down. They forced situations. They put France under pressure. There was a stretch in the second half where Morocco had France under pressure for 20 to 25 minutes sustained, where France just couldn't get out of their own half.
Speaker: But at the end of the day, they didn't get the goal that they needed, and that proved to be the difference. And like so many World Cup games, it came down to the fact that they didn't have somebody to finish off a series of half chances they created. Yeah, I think that's accurate in many ways, starting with Morocco were impressive once they went down, because we said France are maybe one of the best teams in the world to play from 1 -0 up. That is their ideal score line
Speaker: because they're so dangerous in transition. And Morocco, to the full credit of their players and Walid Magragui, did not back down and say, oh, we're down one, but we need to be careful of the counter. They were like, look, we need to get this goal. At some point, we need to get it. We need all match to get it. So they worked their way back into the game. They changed their formation. They overloaded guys. They really went at it. And they knew France would be dangerous on the counter.
Speaker: They gave up a few chances, but they defended them fine. And they also, for stretches of the game, didn't give France anything. They locked them in. So it was really impressive from Morocco. We had said, we haven't seen them chase a game 1 -0. That's actually one thing they haven't done all tournament. What happens when you have to do that against the juggernaut of France? And they acquitted themselves very well.
Speaker: But as you concluded, they just didn't have the quality to get a goal against a France defense that we've given them a lot of flack, but was ultimately solid enough today and was there for the taking, but there was not just that extra ounce of quality for Morocco.
Speaker: Yeah, that's kind of what this team is. They're good enough to take it to one of the best teams in the world, if not the best team in the world, but not good enough to finish it. And that's where we're at right now.
Speaker: We said in the preview podcast, the health of Morocco is going to be a big thing here. And it was pretty clear of those three defenders that we had question marks about one. I went, was in the starting 11 and then pulled out before the match even started. Roman size. The captain made it 20 minutes and that's rally made it a little bit into the second half. I think it was pulled at halftime.
Speaker: That's a huge loss for Morocco, but those three players combined were not able to play at full fitness. And so because of that, an early change, perhaps a decision, a misguided decision to play five at the back in order to try and force Sice into the lineup, knowing that he's probably not going to be able to play for very long. And I think that kind of cost Morocco on the first goal.
Speaker: I think so. I thought El Yameek was caught out on the first goal. The balls played into Griezmann in that channel, where El Yameek's kind of the left center back, and he steps on Griezmann. And El Yameek was fine today, but this is the difference between him and a Sais or an Aguirre. He steps and Griezmann's sharp and fast and turns him. And then from there, it turns into a goal -mouthed scramble.
Speaker: And then, of course, you know, it's a crazy sequence in the box. It's a great finish from Theo Hernandez. It's a great finish. As far as goal mouth, ugly scramble goals are concerned, he gets his leg up to get around the ball to keep it down. It's a top tier world class finish on a goal mouth scramble from a player that you wouldn't really expect it from. Agreed. He's their left back. And, you know, that's France's quality, that they're left back.
Speaker: is turning in what is a relatively high XG chance that was not that simple and he made it look smartly taken. But yeah, this was a mistake from Morocco in two parts, right? Eliami gets beaten on the step and then they're ball watching in the box because you have to guard the guy at the back post. And that ended up hurting them on their second goal all the way in the 83rd minute.
Speaker: And yeah, I think that starting five in the back was a rare, rare misstep from Rogogri, because you saw when they took Sice off, they switched to more of a four, five, one ish. I mean, however you want to split up that five is up to you. And they had more numbers in the midfield and they totally controlled the game against France, right? They could press them. They could pass around them. It was better in both phases.
Speaker: And I don't think Morocco did five to respect France's attack. They did five because they wanted to protect Sais. And it's a really hard decision because there is a clear drop off in quality between the two good center backs and the two next center backs. And we saw that.
Speaker: But just the first 10 minutes of the game is what it took for France. Five minutes. And from there, that was it. They never really got back. And that's Morocco's strength. This whole tournament is playing 0 -0 games.
Speaker: and being very tough to break down in that game state. And then you saw it, right? Even though they were 1 -0 down, they kept the high line against France. How many teams can do that for 80 minutes and survive? It showed you the quality of their structure, their midfield, but it just...
Speaker: I don't want to blame McGroggry too much because it's a really tough contextual situation but I do think it was a fatal mistake at the end so it can it can be both and that's a bummer to me.
Speaker: I see it both way. I could totally see both sides of this. I think it was pretty clear that Roman Sais was not long for this game. And I also completely understand putting your captain, your talisman out there to lead your team into the biggest moment that any of them have ever witnessed. I think even knowing that, hey, he maybe only gives me 20, 30 minutes, I'm preparing for that.
Speaker: For those 20 -30 minutes to be the first ones, there's value in that. There's benefit in that. Maybe it would have been better. Obviously, hindsight's 20 -20. You save them on the bench, and if you get a lead, then you can bring them on for the 20 minutes that you think he can give you. But as you said, it proved costly because it kind of whacked out their shape, and then Elia makes the mistake. That leads to the goal, and you don't get much from Syace after that. Again, I see both sides of it. It costs them. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker: Yeah, if Morocco don't concede in the first 15, 20 minutes, and he has to come off, then you survive, then you're in a much better spot. It's unfortunate that it didn't work, but they kind of set themselves up to fail. It could have worked. The decision could have worked, and it's unfortunate that it didn't. But probably, probably the wrong decision. What's a bummer is, as you said, from there on out, Morocco did everything right, we think.
Speaker: to get back in
Speaker: probably should have scored. Yeah, too. He had the one that he put off the post. That's a scoreable chance. Maybe not a you have to score chance, but that's a scoreable chance. And then the empty net that he had to shoot at, that's got to go in. Yeah, he's trying to do the Julian Alvarez one touch finish to speed the game up to give them time to recover. But he perhaps would have suited well from aiming.
Speaker: Yeah. Take an extra second, because he kind of hits it blind almost, right? Like he's hurting and shooting, and I get it smart. That's what a smart striker does. That's why Drew is so good. But maybe he had enough time to aim. Yeah, he had more time to control it and aim it. And so what allowed Morocco to get into this match was they were tactically astute.
Speaker: And in the second half in particular, they looked at this French team and they said, our best players play on the right. They are probably weakest defensively on their left. And so they just put every good player that they had on the right side.
Speaker: Akimi Buffal was shifting over to the right and they just tried to overload France and they basically dared Kealan Mbappe to track back and put in defensive work rate and he basically said I think I'm good I'm just gonna camp out here and look at the 70 yards of space you've left behind and I'm just gonna run into that when we win the ball but France didn't win the ball enough for that to be effective and
Speaker: And so Morocco had these opportunities. They overloaded space. They worked these really intricate passing moves. They got into the box. They didn't have the last moment that they needed. Yes, you hit it on on the head there because they they also moved into that space. So it was really three, four on two or three. Like it was always a numbers advantage. And that's on Mbappe. And I think
Speaker: It was a chess match between both teams, players, managers, that was working for Morocco. But it was tenable for France because of Mbappe's threat. And then what you saw is once or twice when that ball did get to him, it was Sofian Amrabbat.
Speaker: Not Sofion, sorry. Different first name. But it was Amrabbat one -on -one with Killian Mbappe. And Amrabbat tracked 70 yards back for a game -saving tackle and did a few other times, you know, squeezed him on the end line. It was just really excellent one -on -one defending from Amrabbat. And we'll talk about him later, but what a game from him again.
Speaker: It is so fat. I'm about, you got your, I'm about to make stuff. You're, you're scared. You're scared. Oh, that tackle was insane. The 70 yard run against literally a bop, a just sprinting at full speed to get back with the tackle cleanly.
Speaker: And then I think Didier Deschamps did something really smart. You can't really take off Mbappe because he's Mbappe and is so good and is lethal on the counter. But also it wasn't super tenable to just sacrifice that space. And so what does he do? He takes off Olivier Giroud, he brings on Marcos Theron and he moves Mbappe central where Mbappe's whole bit of just standing around and waiting to go into full gear is a lot more effective because it doesn't really matter.
Speaker: And so Taram gives them defensive work rate on that side. And I think that was a really intelligent change. And that threw Morocco off balance and it took them a while to get back going again. And I think those 10, 15 minutes they lost while that happened were super important. Agreed completely. The change from Deschamps totally saved France because you're right, it wasn't tenable. France were living with it, but they were getting battered.
Speaker: You can't state, if you get battered for 45 minutes, a goal is going to bounce into your net. That's probably what's going to happen. It was a really, really smart change from, we have to say, Deschamps has been a very good manager for the second straight run for France. He's very experienced. He knows what he's doing. He read the game well. He was like, even though we're France, we can't just let them batter us. So Trom, on top of the defensive work rate, the other reason why it worked is because he had
Speaker: the speed and the dribbling to do what Mbappe was doing was be an outlet on the counter. Yeah, he gives you like 80 percent of what Mbappe does in the attack and a hundred percent more of what he does defensively. Right. And it was he he Duchamp couldn't protect his team's midfield in this one. They were just going to lose the battle because Rabio was out and
Speaker: Who was he going to sub on? I think Kama Vinga is their next best central midfielder. We know he's a great player, but he is maybe not the defensive work rate that they needed. And Fafana was fine in this game. He didn't do anything necessarily bad that stood out, but you saw the difference here. And this is where France were finally missing in Golokante, the best defensive work rate midfielder in the world.
Speaker: It was nice for them to have him in 2018, and they didn't. And then Morocco kind of boss them around in the midfield. But Deschamps did enough, right? And then you leave Mbappe on, and he does what he does in the 80th minute, right? He gets the ball, he plays it to Taram, he gets it back, and just
Speaker: This is the difference between France and Morocco. Morocco outplayed them, had the right ideas, and the moments of quality, the finish from Hernandez. And right here, Mbappe, that technique in the box to snake around two defenders, yeah, the shot bounces off Bruno, and there's nothing he can do. And it's a fine finish from Kolo Mwani. I had to see that one.
Speaker: Quickly on that, how's that for a first World Cup touch? Oh, I'm just scoring the goal that literally steal our spot at a World Cup final. Sure, great, cool. Love it. It was good from France, and that's what they do, right? It's just two moments of brilliance, and they were hammered all game. The final XG, 2 to 0 .7. I think that's harsh to Morocco, but not really. It tells the story of the game. And if you watched, you understand the game state.
Speaker: good chance early from Hernandez. You know, Morocco probably should have got one in the next 80 minutes for all their pressure, but didn't have a golden golden chance. Right. And then there's a rebound off a keeper at point blank. Of course, that's a very, very high exchange.
Speaker: So yeah. And again, that's another situation where the Moroccan left back, Ariana Lee in this situation gets caught ball watching. Killing him up is currently shredding your other four defenders. You can't leave your guy unmarked at the post and that ended up costing them. So like you said,
Speaker: It's so hard to have the defensive work rate that Morocco showed in the games where they kept clean sheets. And that kind of was on display here today. They had a really good defensive performance. They weren't bad by any means. But they had individuals switch off twice, and it cost them on both goals. And against a team that is as high quality, as good as France are, those are the differences. Yeah. And that's just to wrap some of this up, getting into that stage of it.
Speaker: This is the difference, again, between Morocco and France. Morocco missed three of their defenders at points in this game, and they saw mistakes from backups on both of the goals. France lost Dio Upimicano before the game, and they subbed in Kanate, and Kanate was excellent. He was the left side center back for France,
Speaker: And he was single handedly defusing a lot of Morocco attacks with a perfectly placed touch or challenge or reading. He was really good. And again, like no Benzema, Giroud didn't score in this game, but he was a threat and.
Speaker: you know i'm not gonna sit here and say colo mwani save france i think anyone in that position could score the game but it the changes worked for to shop thoram is a really good example and morocco right in having to get rid of size lost a sub in the second half and they had to sub off buffal who
Speaker: was one of their best attackers, but just, it's probably because of legs. And then they, they kind of lost a little steam there. They lose the Mrazawi sub. It's hard, right? I bigged up our dude, Amdallah, on the podcast said he could have a role. Does not have a left foot. Should have noted that. He had a great chance in the box. Did not have a left foot. It's a much more difficult chance if you do not have a left foot and he didn't and that cost him. And
Speaker: You know, we've talked about this for 15 plus minutes. Morocco had a bike that was saved by Hugo Larisse at the end of the first half. It was obviously a low XG chance from the sub center back that had slipped up on the goal, but... He wanted to make it right. He was ready. I was going in. Hugo Larisse, you know, didn't have a ton to do, but that was a big save.
Speaker: This is what France do well. They don't need to control a game to win the game. They don't need to be dangerous for 90 minutes to win a game. Is it frustrating the way they play? Yes, but it's probably we have evidence from two World Cup runs the right way to play for their squad. Deschamps knows that they're not the best team in the world despite having
Speaker: the talent of the best team in the world, but he plays them much more conservatively in an attempt to control the game. And it's working. And it's because Mbappe is a game breaking talent. And when you have that kind of guy on your team, you can rely on him to save you. And it's hard to say it's not smart.
Speaker: I don't really like to do this podcast, the, you know, go over every single officiating decision in a game. Should it have been a penalty or not? But that Bufaul, Peo Hernandez play, the more you see it, that could absolutely have been a penalty, right? Yeah. It was kind of glossed over in all of this, but - It's a weird play, but it's Hernandez who creates the contact on Bufaul in that situation. Yeah.
Speaker: Yeah, it could have been. You know, a side note, almost every team that has lost has complained about the referees. Yes. Even Luca Madridge yesterday was like, I hate this ref. As soon as I saw this ref, I knew we were bad. Harry Maguire complained about the France England ref. It's like getting out of hand, like.
Speaker: Give credit to Harry McGuire, because in order to do that, he had to string together competent words. So proud of you, Harry. That was a low blow. Sorry, not though. I don't want to get into a whole Argentina, France preview here, because we're going to do that podcast. But a couple of things that I want to put on the record now, mainly so I don't forget them as we go into the podcast. What we mentioned about the French midfield kind of getting played out of this game, I think that's a positive point for Argentina, because their midfield has been able to control matches.
Speaker: And the fact that we established pretty clearly here, Killian Mbappe is not going to contribute to France defensively. In the sense that he's not going to be the player doing things defensively. He makes them better defensively because he can just camp and run. And that's what he was able to do against Baraco today. But
Speaker: If Mbappe starts on that left side, that puts a ton of pressure on Hernandez in behind him and then whoever plays that left center back role for France. And that's where Argentina likes to cook because that's where Messi is going to be on Argentina's right. So I think that's another super interesting matchup to watch in the final. And, Amit, this is the final, right?
Speaker: This is the game that you expected, that you thought of. Obviously Brazil were candidates as well. But when the draw came out for this World Cup, the expectation was Brazil or Argentina against France in the final. And that is what we have. And man, it's a World Cup final. It's a massive occasion, but wow.
Speaker: Wow. Yeah, I was talking with one of my friends about this. This is probably the biggest, at least one of the top three biggest World Cup games of the century, of all time, perhaps. It's that level because of the legacies involved here for Messi's personal legacy, for Argentina. France can repeat Mbappe as we already outlined.
Speaker: in the failed Brady Mahomes comparison, is that Mbappe Messi is the two best players of their generations getting to play each other, and Messi is enough at the peak of his powers that it's a fair fight.
Speaker: These teams played each other in 2018 and it was explosive, but France were the better team and got through and look now what Argentina have done in these four years. That's all you need to know about how awesome this game is going to be. They are so much more of a contender than they were then. That squad was old and bad and couldn't protect himself. And was poorly managed.
Speaker: and poorly managed. Scolone we know is doing a great job. We've come on every podcast and said, wow, he's got it right. They have the best team around Messi. We're going to do this more, but like, this is, this is everything you want in a world cup final. It is all the stakes. It's all the drama legacies on the field. It's gonna be awesome.
Speaker: Yeah, it is a great casual game as well. Messi and Bape. Then now, two huge countries obviously that are well known to those who don't necessarily follow soccer that closely. I use the word soccer there because I'm referring mainly to the American audience here.
Speaker: And it is just a fantastic match. And I think also we're both probably pretty confident. It's probably not going to be terribly cagey. I mean, it's a World Cup final. It's probably going to be cagey. But I think that these are two teams that can open this game up a little bit and it'll be pretty good for a neutral. Agreed. We knew France and England was going to be like this because despite both managers tilt toward conservatism,
Speaker: there was too much talent on the field for it to be KG. It's the same way here. We know these teams are going to respect each other and respect the game -breaking talents on each side. But those talents are so good that even in control, the moments of attack, the players will do something. And if for some reason we get a KG 0 -0 game, it's the World Cup final. So there will be content and drama and things that make it fun.
Speaker: It's guaranteed for an awesome game, and more likely than not, probably multiple goals. That almost never happens in World Cup Finals. The last one, it was, but we saw one zeros. The two before that, a 1 -1 in 06, that was a draw.
Speaker: It's gonna be great. Yeah, we will preview that later this week, either Friday or Saturday. So be on the lookout for that. We'll go deep dive into everything. We'll talk about the matchups. We will go into all of that and we're really looking forward to it. As we close this podcast out, I think we would be remiss if we didn't kind of try to put into context or at least just talk good about what Morocco did at this World Cup.
Speaker: They became the first African team to make a World Cup semi -final. They were the Arab representative at an Arab World Cup, the first Arab World Cup. What their fans brought to this tournament was fantastic. The atmosphere today was incredible. The Moroccan anthem was, I think, probably one of the best anthems we've seen at this World Cup. It was awesome to watch them take down Spain and Portugal. It's a shame that they fell short against France, but they absolutely are leaving Qatar with their heads held high.
Speaker: Totally. This was a lot of good things about what world football is right now. Yeah. And we've talked about it on this podcast before, right? It reflects the growing globalization of the game. You get rewarded when you manage a team well and you build a team cohesively, and then all your players are good. Like Morocco, perhaps underrated by many coming into this tournament, were right there on talent in that
Speaker: tier of teams. And the gap, as you've said, is closer than it was. And you saw that on the field today. They're not as good as France, Argentina, but they are good enough to compete and to win. And they beat Spain and Portugal. And to start with, before I'll turn it back to you, is watch what's going to happen to all of these players that had good tournaments. I know Ziech is at Chelsea and Hakeem is at PSG, but
Speaker: Amrabbat is at Fiorentina, guaranteed he's going to get picked up by a big club. Sofion Buffal is fine, he's probably going to get picked up at a bigger club. Unahi is going to get picked up at a bigger club. Sice and Aguirre are in the Premier League, so they're probably fine, but if a big team wants them, they're great.
Speaker: This is such a talented team. And it's just showing you that the World Cup shows like these talents were underappreciated beforehand. We were all missing out on them. What's the big money move for Wally Janira? Can he get from Siri Bay to Siri Ah?
Speaker: I mean, I think he's just going to try and take his team from Saribei to Saria. That's probably his best pass in top flight in Italy. If he can be the Italian version of Mitrovich, that'd be a great career path for him. I do not think he's going to be the Italian league. Mitrovich is really good. Yeah, I think what was so great about Morocco in this tournament for me is they didn't have to do it in a way that it felt like they were getting lucky.
Speaker: Like when Costa Rica made a World Cup quarterfinal and almost got to the World Cup semi -finals on penalties, there was an aspect that yes, they're doing this really well, but it also felt like they're kind of riding their luck. I didn't think Morocco rode their luck at this tournament. I thought they were good value for what they provided here. Yeah, they defended a lot. Good teams have to defend a lot.
Speaker: That's what happens at world football. But the way that they defended was so cohesive, was so impressive that it didn't feel like, wow, Morocco got so lucky to make a World Cup semifinal. They were better than Spain. They executed their game plan. They limited Spanish chances and they won on penalties. They flat out beat Spain in the penalty shootout, deservedly so. Against Portugal, they were even better. They scored a goal against Portugal. They took their opportunity
Speaker: and they limited a Portugal team that had just absolutely shredded Switzerland in the round before. And today, I think was maybe even the most impressive thing that they did all tournament, and it came in a loss. They waxed Belgium in the group stage, a really good Belgium team, all of everything aside. They beat up 2 -0, they smashed them. And then today against France, they took the undisputed best team at the World Cup, and they largely matched them.
Speaker: They didn't score the goal. We talked about that. They needed that. That would have made a massive difference for them. But other than that, they took the game to France. They were not afraid of France. They created opportunities, and they very merely pulled something off today. And that is absolute credit to them. The high -level players that they have, Hakimi, ZH, the mid -level players who are about to become high -level players. And I think we have to close. Raguawi, incredible tournament.
Speaker: Fabulous managerial job at this tournament. Yeah, that's where I wanted to go because Morocco have laid the blueprint along with perhaps Japan on how to be a proper underdog
Speaker: now in modern football in the post -analytic era. You can't do what Costa Rica did unless you get really lucky. You can't just bunker for 90, 120 minutes and get lucky counter, not lucky, but like you can't go one on four, two on four and expect that to be feasible. Other teams have to respect your attack. And that's what worked for Morocco because those teams could not commit to them.
Speaker: And then you also can't just play a deep line, right? Morocco's defensive approach worked because there was some courage behind it.
Speaker: And they also were, they changed it, right? They changed it depending on the opposition. They played a deep line against Spain because they knew Spain couldn't run in behind them. That's not what Spain did against Portugal. They brought their line of confrontation far forward because of that. I think that is something that's super interesting is they adjusted their approach based on the opposition and did it so, so well. And that's such a credit to their manager. Exactly. This was,
Speaker: a textbook lesson from McGroggry on what to do at a World Cup. And it's maximizing every little margin. Their in -game subs are good. Another point today, I know they didn't get the goal, but look how early those second half subs came. I was sitting there going, maybe they need to wait 15 minutes so that France don't steal one in the first half of the second half and the game.
Speaker: Nope, he was like, we need all the time we have in this game to attack. They did it in the first half, too. They just got everything right. It was really impressive from McGroggry. And I think he's done enough, I know it's a small sample size, for him to get a job somewhere that he can show more of this. And I don't think it was a flash in the pan. You obviously never know. Yeah, also, I don't know if it
Speaker: do that. I completely agree. If he wants that, it's on the table. It could absolutely happen. There's a lot to like about this Morocco team going forward as well. Like Kibbe is 24, Mizrahi is 25, Awed is 26, ZH is
Speaker: Whereas that keeps the edge. There he is. He's 29. Amrbaat, 26. There's the core here for this team to contend for an African title, contend for an African Cup of Nations. And in 2026, B18, that can be a threat at a World Cup. Absolutely. Whether or why we would like to try his hand at top tier European club football, that decision is completely up to him. But this is a team that if they keep their foundation together, they can absolutely be players in the international stage going forward.
Speaker: agreed completely. And this is a very tangential point, but I want to bring up that one time I got upset with Pablo Maurer for saying the US's expectations should be to get out of the round of 16 in 2020 or just in general. And yes, in 2026, their expectations should be to make a quarterfinal, but there are more teams than ever outside of the top, you know,
Speaker: accepted hierarchy in world football that are dangerous. Morocco are going to have expectations to do this again with the core that age. Croatia will probably see fade because of their core. Japan will be there. Canada, United States. These are all these growing teams. Ecuador. Ecuador were a really good team. And then imagine just there were a few European powers missing. What if Germany are in a knockout round? What if Italy make it back?
Speaker: I'm not going to suppose that there are other South American teams. I don't know the cycle there, but there are other countries in South America that could be good on top of just Brazil, Argentina, and Ecuador. Yeah. Yeah. The growing level of world football, I think, is a big takeaway from this World Cup that we've seen, the point that we've made repetitively here. The gap between the
Speaker: top tiers is closing and the gap, I think even more particularly between the teams that are not global super duper powers, which at this tournament were basically France and Brazil.
Speaker: the gap between the teams that are not that, the Germany's, the Spain's, the Portugal's and everybody else as small as it's ever been. And I think we saw witness to that at this tournament. Final question here. Are you excited for the third place match? Can I convince you about a Croatia Morocco third place match? Yeah, I am. I think third place matches have to be your cup of tea. If you're someone that doesn't want to watch two losers play or like a not
Speaker: fully competitive match, you're not going to be convinced. But as someone that just enjoys this stage and these teams and these players, of course, I'm up for it. The crowd will be good. It's a big opportunity for Morocco to get a medal at a World Cup, which is a big hallmark for them for Africa team to do it. Yeah, so that matters. And I think Croatia
Speaker: they'll play. Like I'm not saying they're going to care as much as Morocco, but I don't think they want to get embarrassed. And I just think that's not in their DNA. They are a team that plays hard all the time because that's the only gear they have. So yeah, I'll watch. I think it'll be exciting. I think, you know, we've seen oftentimes great third place games because the attacks just flow and that's beautiful.
Speaker: Yeah, there's no, there's not gonna be any legs in this third place game. I think that much is, is certain. Both of these teams have been spent. The choices for the managers are basically, okay, do we play the same guys knowing they don't have legs or do we rotate and become worse through that way? I'm excited because while each year is going to be back in our lives after missing this one out with a red card, the third place match is where he goes to cook.
Speaker: We finally get to answer the question, how many chances will it take for Jadira to score? There you go. That's going to be odds around four or five before he puts one in the back of the net.
Speaker: And also, for the second straight World Cup, the third place game is a group stage rematch, which I think is a super interesting factoid. We saw Belgium, England played two meaningless matches at the last World Cup. Croatia, Morocco opened at the group stage, and what a sign that 0 -0 draw turned out to be. And now they're running it back. I think it's interesting. Wow. That group really was the most popular group. Foodie darn good. Quite good.
Speaker: A lot of talent in that group. Maybe not such a shame that Belgium went home there. Or Canada. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. All right. Like we said, we'll be back to preview the final in a couple of days time. Man, we talked about it a little bit. Wow. What a final we have. It is going to be. Wow. It's a World Cup final. They always are incredible, but this even more so than any other is going to be incredible.
Speaker: As always, thanks for listening. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, do whatever, I don't know, do whatever fits your boat. It's not gonna make a difference for our day anyway. But we do like when we get positive reviews, so yeah, you know, everybody likes that. Little juice. We like the juice, right, Amit? Of course. Yeah, who doesn't? Who doesn't? All right, that's all from us. We'll be back to preview the final.
