Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
WCAD 3-50: 899 matches, 2,527 goals, 48 teams
110 Plays3 days ago
Austin and Amit recap the final day drama as the last six spots in the 2026 World Cup were claimed.
Recommended
Transcript
World Cup Qualifiers Recap
00:00:01
Speaker
Two and a half years, 899 matches, 2,527 goals, 16 of which came from Erling Haaland. They weren't all in the same game, although sometimes it felt like it.
00:00:15
Speaker
What started with a nil-nil draw between Paraguay and Peru so long ago ended well after midnight Eastern time last night in a way that only a World Cup after dark could, with Ayman Hussain striking Iraq past Bolivia in Monterey to claim the 48th And final spot in the 2026 World Cup.
00:00:34
Speaker
Cabo Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan are in all for the first time. Haiti, DR Congo, and Iraq are in for the first time in 40 plus years. Italy, 12th in the FIFA rankings. Denmark, 20th or not.
00:00:49
Speaker
Neither are no Nigeria. nor Costa Rica, Poland, Serbia, and Wales, who all made it in 2022. The biggest World Cup ever gave us heaps of qualifying drama.
00:01:00
Speaker
i mean, it's hard to believe that this very long journey that we've been on for all this time has wrapped, and we still have a full major tournament to come. It's the beauty of international soccer. ah The journey has given us so much and it feels like a closing point.
00:01:16
Speaker
And somehow the whole thing that we do this for hasn't even started, like you said. So that's crazy to just wrap your head around. But also, you know, I think it's very, you know, it goes without saying, or maybe it should be said at the top is that the qualification process was interesting.
Impact of 48-Team Expansion
00:01:30
Speaker
big Big team still didn't make it. Some more minnows made it that we hoped would happen at 48, but it did not make a mockery of the process. wait We were there for Bolivia Rock and Monterey, and it was a great ending point, and we had to get there with so many rounds and so many confederations. So...
00:01:46
Speaker
You know, there'll be plenty of litigation, but I think for the two of us and ah for the the international soccer sickos, the qualification did what it was supposed to do. It was a really long, interesting, fun road.
00:01:59
Speaker
It was, and and we walked all of it together with you, the listener here on the World Cup After Dark podcast. He is Amit Malik. My name is Austin Miller. We are here to break down those final six spots that got claimed in the World Cup. Before we do, Amit, I think it's a really interesting point that you you bring up.
00:02:15
Speaker
There was a lot of talk, a lot of discourse about the 48-team World Cup, the dilution of the field. Oh, look at the teams they're going to get in, e etc. And some of those teams did get in, right? We're talking about Curacao in the World Cup. We're talking about Haiti.
00:02:28
Speaker
We're talking about Uzbekistan and Cabo Verde. ah Let's be honest. You and I are not going to attempt to paint a picture that's prettier than is. There are some teams that are in the World Cup that are probably going to be on the bad side of some pretty big results.
00:02:41
Speaker
There are also some really big teams that despite the World Cup getting to 48 teams still couldn't make it. And it feels like a myth they deserve to not make it. Right. Everybody who's there, I think, earned their spot there.
00:02:53
Speaker
And everybody who's not there, for lack of better term, earned their spot not there. So expanding to 48 teams didn't sap us of that drama in the qualification cycle, because, as you said, we were here
Italy's Struggles and Bosnia's Triumph
00:03:04
Speaker
the whole time. We saw it. It was still plenty dramatic.
00:03:06
Speaker
It's something to the European qualification format that kind of did them did them in, I think, specifically with Italy and Denmark. But all the formats were kind of were kind of different, and so it's a case-by-case thing. I think also in terms of the teams that are going to get so some bad scorelines in the World Cup, maybe not. like The group stage is going to be a little difficult. like I kind of have hope for Cape Verde, Haiti, and yeah Uzbekistan, I think, could play. it's We're going to have to see.
00:03:36
Speaker
Yeah, and look, expanding the World Cup to 48 teams, the 32-team World Cup had big scorelines. The 24-team World Cup had big scorelines. You're always going to have big scorelines. That's part of the whole hashtag grow the game thing that we get. I think you and I in particular are happy with the teams that are making the World Cup for the first time or that are returning for the World Cup.
00:03:54
Speaker
It is good in the scenes that we saw across the globe in all of these cases when these teams made the World Cup. makes it worth having to sit through the odd 5-1, 7-1 scoreline when we get to this summer. So let's break down how those final six spots were claimed over the past couple of days. All of them yesterday, actually, as they set the World Cup field.
00:04:14
Speaker
Let's start in UEFA. And there's only one place to start. We have to start with the most dramatic storyline. Because for a third straight World Cup, Four-time champions Italy are not going to be there. A third straight time that the UEFA playoff round does them in.
00:04:30
Speaker
Italy won, Bosnia won, Bosnia 4-1 winners on penalties. Let's start with the semifinal action that we saw on Thursday, and then we'll get to the Italy-Bosnia game. Italy were pretty comfortable, I thought, against Northern Ireland. They huffed a bit until halftime.
00:04:44
Speaker
A really nice strike from Tenale to put them in front. Moise Keane finished it off on the counter. The vibes were okay from this first game against Northern Ireland. They did what they had to do, and they avoided what we thought was kind of a nightmare scenario.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, Tenali kind of propelled them in this game. He was the best player in the field, um and he he scored. Sometimes he doesn't have to score to be the best player, but he's you know at Newcastle, a good team. Italy are very good at controlling this game. They had Northern Ireland where they wanted them.
00:05:15
Speaker
The thing for Italy is, can they get the goal from their so-so front line? And when it comes from your star midfielder, great. And then once they were up one, it was pretty in control. he Plays a great ball for the second. Yeah, I think this is how it looks when it's good for Italy. And the way this game went is also informative for for what's to come in terms of that they need Tenali to save them with the ball that bounces outside of the box and just falls to him at the right moment against these deep kinds of blocks. But...
00:05:43
Speaker
Being fair, like Northern Ireland did not offer a lot here. We knew what the plan was for them. We knew what they were going to do. It wasn't like Italy never felt in danger in this one.
00:05:55
Speaker
We'll get to what happened on Tuesday when the when the alarm bell started ringing quite early in that one. Bosnia, meanwhile, they took a punch from Wales early on in the second half. A wonder strike from Dan James. But they did a really nice set piece bit with Edin Dzeko, a first post flick off a corner late They took it to extra time. They fell behind on penalties, but still won. Wales did not take great penalties at the end. Brennan Johnson did not hit the target. Necco Williams with a bad penalty that was saved.
00:06:22
Speaker
Bosnia scratched and clawed to get through this. We thought Wales were favored in this match. They played like they were favored. They didn't put it away. And this Bosnia team just had enough to move on the next day, right?
00:06:34
Speaker
It's the best way to put it. It's like we saw we saw this on Thursday and we' were gonna see it again in Bosnia, Italy. And then we even said this before Bosnia, Italy, is that Bosnia has got this weird way of hanging around. And I think you said scratching and clawing. Like they're hard to kill.
00:06:50
Speaker
yeah And you you hear that a lot in different sports. And in soccer, it's... It's easy to be hard to kill in theory. like you You know a team like that when you see it. In practice, what that really means is you need to get lucky a few times in a row. It's kind of what it was and if we're going to distill what happened here for Bosnia.
00:07:11
Speaker
But the beautiful thing about international soccer, about knockout soccer, is it's not this long 38-game season where the luck can come to bite you. You just need to put up this baseline level of competence and be in the right spots, make the right plays, have a little bit of guile.
00:07:28
Speaker
That's what Bosnia did in this game very well, right? Just textbook like, yeah, Wales was more athletic than them. Yes, Wales played better than them but not a team that can punish you. And they just hung around until the 80th minute.
00:07:42
Speaker
one moment from their striker who had, we joked like five yards of burst in his legs and he saved the ball for one set piece to get free. And then you see like every other set piece, a guy's draped on him. Like he's he's not even open. He was open once and he scored. um And then, you know, even that to get the penalty kicks, the the one time, yeah, they, you know,
00:08:04
Speaker
Penalty kicks we think is skill, but it is kind of luck. like They just couldn't die. And I think in this one specifically, Bosnia really survived here. Wales really should have had them.
00:08:16
Speaker
yeah The physical advantage we thought on the front line worked for Wales. They created a lot in the box, but they were missing literally their best striker, Kiefer Moore. And it was very apparent that they couldn't get that last moment.
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, and that then sets us up with this Bosnia-Italy game. And the buildup, I think, was part of the fun here, right? We got some of that World Cup playoff spice that you only really get when it's a one-game type deal to make the World Cup.
00:08:44
Speaker
ah There were videos circulating of the Italian team supposedly celebrating Bosnia beating Wales. You could put stock into that or not, whether Italy wanted to play Bosnia and not play Wales.
00:08:55
Speaker
ah An Italian soldier was apparently ejected from Bosnia training. the The stadium in Zanika, the the the ground, Bilnopold Stadium, which seats under 10,000, it was prepared for the occasion. am And by prepared, I mean not at all. They didn't mow the grass. They didn't do anything. And that was how the Bosnia player went. It was a game for a spot in the World Cup, and it had everything that that you could want with it.
00:09:20
Speaker
And I think what makes the storyline so interesting is Italy, Amit, got the exact start that they would have wanted from this game. In the first 15 minutes, a bad, but bad, bad, bad Bosnian giveaway. One pass, Moiskeen, absolutely perfect stripe, top quarter. It's 1-0 Italy.
00:09:39
Speaker
And Bosnia, Amit, who had just played 120 minutes, an extra 30 minutes on what Italy played, and are just generally a much less athletic, less deep team than Italy.
00:09:51
Speaker
From that point on, that Bosnia team with those legs absolutely bossed this game. And yes, they were helped out by the fact that Italy were down to 10 men after 40 minutes with Bastoni's send-off. That condition would happen to this game.
00:10:05
Speaker
But this game quickly fell into a pattern, and it was not a good pattern for Italy. And I think it really showed... the lack of quality or at least the lack of difference-making quality that Italy has because this game was pretty much even from the point that Italy were 1-0 up. And that was just not a recipe that was going to be successful for the Italians.
00:10:25
Speaker
Yeah, it's hard to to overstate how important the sending off was. And you you mentioned it, right? It conditioned everything that went. But really, Italy had this thing it as close to cruise control as you can have up one in a knockout round, right? And...
00:10:43
Speaker
you know, the, it was a bad giveaway, but it was also the one moment where the Italy striker got a half chance. It's not an easy finish, right? He's 25 yards from goal. Moises keen. And he, he has a really great moment. And like when you're Italy and you, your striker pool, that's really difficult, does something you have to capitalize.
00:11:03
Speaker
And, it's It's not so much that like the red card was dumb. like Yes, any red card in the first half is a dumb expected value play, right? But the fact that there was that much space for for Bosnia to get in behind in the first half up one is very un-Italy-like. And on top of that, Bastoni is the best center back there. He's the one that's going to Barca in the summer. and It was, it really, really sunk them because from there on, as you said, Bosnia were all over them. It didn't quite make sense. And I think Italy actually played with 10 fairly well.
00:11:43
Speaker
They ran really hard. You knew Bosnia was going to put them in their back. They defended Donnarumma racked up a career high international saves. They got on the break, right? Moises Keane had some moments. Yeah. DeMarco gets some moments. They put on this right back palestra.
00:11:58
Speaker
He gets some moments and, know, It was all working, but at the end, it was like the two most dangerous players on the field for Italy were their wingbacks with 10 men.
00:12:09
Speaker
And they just it just wasn't enough to get that second. I think right up to about 70, 80 minutes, Italy had had a chance right to get the second. i had a few chances. And from there, there was this this dread.
00:12:24
Speaker
I think that seeped into the whole Italian side where then, then I'm going to get to what you talk about. We're like, yeah, Bosnia were really all over them. it It wasn't always like that, but credit to Bosnia, like against the Italy team that is faster with more legs and, and, you know, more quality.
00:12:41
Speaker
They earned the equalizer. Yeah, they just kept coming and it felt, I don't know that it felt inevitable, but as you said, especially when Keene has that kind of semi-breakaway play and doesn't score, look, what's the number one rule of international football? If you're one goal up,
00:12:57
Speaker
get to two goals up because weird things can happen, right? And that's not exactly what happened here. But if you let them hang around, they're going to make you pay for it. And that's exactly what this Bosnia team did. It was predictably sloppy, right? Donnarumma makes a really, really good save.
00:13:12
Speaker
But the Gladbach man, Harris Tabakovic, comes in and just forces it home. And it's just that type of scramble play that... When you're relying on your goalkeeper to make that many saves, one of them is eventually going to bounce into a dangerous spot.
00:13:25
Speaker
And there were so many blue shirts able to pounce and eventually put it in the back of the net. Yeah, this was very textbook playing down a goal stuff from Bosnia. And this happens all the time international soccer. We see this all the time.
00:13:38
Speaker
The team needs a goal. How do you get it? You need some tools. And credit to Bosnia. Again, not an elite European team. But they can bring on 566 guy off the bench and lump balls into the box. We have seen this as a very effective plan B at the international level.
00:13:58
Speaker
It enables teams like Australia. It enables teams like even the Netherlands. And good tacticians, good, like we're I'm going to use Louis van Gaal as an example here, can build their team around, okay, there's an art to so to spamming the box.
00:14:16
Speaker
And as you said, the key point, Bosnia got four on threes at the back post, too many guys to mark for Italy. Yeah. And at a certain point, Italy were so tired, you lose focus when there's too many blue shirts in the box. That's what happened. So it wasn't inevitable. I think both of us kind of agree. like Bosnia were very good money, played like good come-from-behind stuff here. Again, it was not sexy at all. Bosnia were not great. But they it in knockout soccer, like they did everything right.
00:14:50
Speaker
Yes, they did. And so it it gets to extra time. Italy probably have the best chance of extra time, right? Esposito has this this far post header back across goal. And the Bosnia keeper, Vasilis, just kind of throws his hands up and just volleyball sets it to make the save. That was obviously a very key moment. And as we got to penalties, it almost felt like...
00:15:11
Speaker
The vibes kind of shift towards Italy for a shootout, right? Donnarumma is this great shot stopper. Maybe don't ask him to distribute from the back, but but if you if you're asking him to stop penalties, he will. And it gets there. And Ingeco, who is a guy that was only really on the pitch probably to still take a penalty, right? Even in the Wells game, he got taken off before penalties. Hurts his shoulder. he doesn't feel comfortable to take a penalty.
00:15:33
Speaker
Kind of feels like maybe it's shifting Italy, and it just did not. Bosnia took three great penalties and a fourth one that squeaked through Damanuruma, and Italy took bad penalties really from the start of this shootout.
00:15:46
Speaker
And Bosnia going to the World Cup, and Italy miss. Yeah, great description. the The two penalties that missed were just kind of brute force ones right over and then right on the bar. I mean, generally when you're brute forcing, it's it's a it's a lower, it's it's not a good penalty to take. You could score a brute force one, but it's a bad try.
00:16:06
Speaker
And they literally said that on the broadcast. Stu Holden goes, yeah, I think if this gets to penalties, it favors Italy. And I think you and I might have both thought that too, the way the game went, or at least the soccer karma punishes Bosnia for not getting that one in extra time.
00:16:22
Speaker
But it doesn't work like that. Bosnia took markedly better penalties, and you could feel it from the first one. The whole thing was in Italy's head. and Somehow, after two games of the survival job from Bosnia, like it ended up being their like their vibes moment. like it's hard to explain, but it it happened. I don't know.
00:16:46
Speaker
Yeah. and And looking back on it, it's like, Italy, we're never winning that shootout, right? Like, you're Italy. You're four-time world champion Italy, and your dreams of literally even going to the World Cup are resting on a shootout. Like, no. Like, you know like yeah but that just doesn't get rewarded. And and mean it's really hard to even contextualize this for Italy. I can't even think of...
00:17:10
Speaker
any sort of comparison, right? This isn't like they've had a bad run of World Cup performances, although they've had that too. Since they've won since they won the World Cup in 2006, Italy have won one World Cup game and they've missed three in a row.
00:17:25
Speaker
This is one of the poster boys of international football. This team won the Euro in 2020. It's not like Italy's level has just fallen off so much. I mean, it it has kind of. They won a major tournament during this stretch.
00:17:38
Speaker
How have Italy not made the World Cup again? And can they fix it? This is where it's really the European format is allows its giants giants you know a small sample to to crash out. Because their group stage, in a sense, it protects all the big teams so much by saying, you're only going have to play so many games. You just need to win a few against a bad team.
00:18:06
Speaker
against some bad teams, but Italy got Norway, i got decidedly not bad team. Right. that the The original draw was not kind to them. Norway was by far like yeah in the wrong pot, if you will.
00:18:19
Speaker
And then they got, you know, still this, this backup chance of the playoff. And this is where as good as you are and you can be a better team in two games, you,
00:18:32
Speaker
Knockout soccer at the end of the day is is a dice roll. As much as what we do here is try to talk about how everything matters in those dice rolls and you've got to load your chances. You can't, oh even Italy cannot overcome a red card a one against ah against a middling team at home. Like it just, this this to me is ah is a long line of bad luck from all those things we mentioned.
00:18:56
Speaker
But also with all the bad luck, there's clearly something with the Italy player pool is unbalanced. And we have, we've said this about them for years is that the striker thing was a problem. um Again, they got a good striker contribution in this game, but it it It just didn't quite work. The team wasn't built to to do it. And i think in other federations, yeah, they would be here. But Europe isn't that.
00:19:19
Speaker
And Europe, yeah Italy in Europe isn't a big gun. Like, they they're good enough to win a Euro as as the eighth best team. But if you're the eighth to tenth best team and you have a little bad luck, this is what you get. i Like...
00:19:35
Speaker
that's That's how I see it. Yeah, and also, like, some of this oddly comes down to their Nations League performance, right? Like, the fact that they got drawn into the group that they got drawn into comes down to what happened in the Nations League. And all of those little, like I think you but you put it really well, all of those little bad luck, bad performance things all added up to leave them in a situation where their World Cup hopes came down to beating Northern Ireland and Bosnia over a five-day stretch.
00:20:02
Speaker
They beat one and they didn't beat the other. And that's kind of it. And there's a lot that built up to all those moments. But like you said, if international football, you're putting things down to knockout round matches where you are better, but maybe not decidedly better, things happen.
00:20:20
Speaker
It goes wrong. You get a bad red card. Even your early goal isn't enough. That's how Italy are are missing the World Cup. That's why they're here. I would like to say that this is all going to normalize out.
00:20:32
Speaker
But at this point, three straight World Cup cycles where they're crashing into the playoff and then crashing out of the playoff, I think that's cause for concern. And that's going to be in your head, right? And come the qualification for 2030, whatever it looks like in Europe,
00:20:45
Speaker
Italy are going to have that hanging over them and we'll see how they deal with that when they get there. As for Bosnia, ah i I don't think you or I are either expecting a ton from Bosnia at the World Cup. We know the drill. We know what they have.
00:20:58
Speaker
But the fact that they've gotten back to the World Cup after 2014 in Brazil with some of the 2014 Brazil players still involved, look, it's a massive achievement for them. And the scenes that we saw in Zeneca were fantastic.
00:21:11
Speaker
Someone, some teams were going to take advantage of the teams that made mistakes. And I think Bosnia is exactly that type of team. And we're going to talk about Poland, Sweden and spiritually.
00:21:24
Speaker
and I mean this in the soccer sense, we still have a Poland like team in Bosnia. You can't, you can kill the team, but you can't kill the idea. Like they're just not offering a lot, but they just hung around for long enough that it was like, wait,
00:21:39
Speaker
We're in. They went to extra time twice and wanted two shootouts. like i I can't think of a less ringing endorsement, but like that's the beauty of of the format. So really, truly, it's it's a great achievement.
00:21:54
Speaker
Yeah, and hilariously, a bit they weren't the only team to do that in Europe. We'll get to the Czech Republic in a little bit. We'll talk about Czechia. Let's move on to to that Sweden-Poland game that you talked about.
00:22:04
Speaker
Sweden got a second chance. We talked a lot about the second chance that we got. We talked a lot about the group stage that it was a second chance that they could get. And to their credit, they got a second chance that maybe they didn't deserve, but the format gave them and they took it with both hands and they're going to the World Cup because of
Sweden's Dynamic Playoff Victory
00:22:20
Speaker
it. A 3-2 win over Poland. No, really.
00:22:22
Speaker
Sweden pull and Poland played and it was 3-2 and it was really good. We'll get to that in a second. How they got here. It was really predictable, unfortunately. Sweden outclassed Ukraine. Straightforward three-run win. They showed what they could be.
00:22:34
Speaker
We felt like there was a chance that this could be what happened, and it was what happened. Yeah, Ukraine was very much missing their best striker in Dobvik.
00:22:46
Speaker
And they just were the the worst team on the day. And Sweden's attack was was lively and ruthless. That's what's good for them. And their weaknesses, you need great attacking the other way to expose them. Ukraine didn't have that. Yeah, they got one. Yeah.
00:23:04
Speaker
it was I think you put it well, and I think it also showed in the first game that you know regardless of what had happened to Sweden, they kind of had this this new leash, like a second chance. and that And that energy was very evident that they were that that they were taking that.
00:23:23
Speaker
Yeah. Poland, meanwhile, nearly got it wrong against Albania, but they rallied for a 2-1 win. Albania took the lead, had a golden chance to go up 2-0, didn't take it. Poland immediately scored to make it 1-1.
00:23:36
Speaker
And then at 1-1, Albania had another golden chance, didn't take it. Poland pretty much immediately scored. That was the difference in level between these two teams, and that was what Poland could bring and Albania couldn't.
00:23:47
Speaker
I think it was a harsh result for Albania, but... We say it all the time in international football. You got to take your chances. One of these teams did. One of these teams didn't. Yeah, I think on the whole of it, Poland just a bit better, right? More control of the game. Albania was going to play the we need a lucky game and they got the start of it and they needed the to finish it. And that was just just that little bridge too far.
00:24:12
Speaker
That set up the Poland-Sweden game, and these two teams, Amit, played a really, really good match. A lot of this probably has to do with Sweden and in kind of their inability to defend, but Poland were up for it. They were game. and The fact that I think Sweden was a team that had the lead for most of this match also probably helped it become a good match.
00:24:30
Speaker
ah This game had a lot of great moments. Alanga with an absolute ripper after a backheel assist for 1-0. Oh, yeah, Sweden has that in their bag. They Lost to Kosovo and Switzerland and everybody else you put in front of in the group stage. But they have that in their bag. And that was such a big moment. And what a way for them to start this game.
00:24:49
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the Ilonga goal was was an awesome moment. um And I think you you spoke to it well in that Sweden going up helped them so much. I think Poland in stretches really controlled the field in this game, but Lewandowski isn't dynamic, so it was about...
00:25:09
Speaker
It wasn't that Poland didn't have high-level attacking talent. They do. But it was about, can they turn their field dominance into useful spots? And Sweden was like, that's fine. We're not going to give you anything the box. We're dangerous on the counter. And that was thanks to just great ball striking from Ilanga. It worked out well. Sweden got the game they needed.
00:25:28
Speaker
Yeah, and they gave up goals, right? Zalewski got the Swedish keeper screen for for for the 1-1, but then Poland turned around and... you do Look, guys, I'm making this it announcement with just in general here. It's 2026. We can't fall asleep on set pieces anymore. That time has got passed. the The game has become so set-piece-ified that you just cannot fall asleep on set pieces, is it and that's what happened to Poland here. Gustav Lagermielke, easy header 2-1, and then... Sweden turned to sleep on a set piece. And it's her old friend, Swinorski, the Charlotte FC legend of it, who comes in with with the 2-2 for Poland.
00:26:03
Speaker
And then the midfield just kind of disappeared from this game. And it just got the fun quotient went up. And Sweden were the team that pounced on it. They got not one, not two, but three chances. And it was a guy who has been in the crosshairs, I think it's fair to say, in the the club football world.
00:26:22
Speaker
Jokras, who roops it after a save and the post for the 3-2 for Sweden in the dying minutes of this game. Yeah, it kind of went into the tactics-free zone there at 2-2. Like you said, the midfields were dead midfield was dead, and i think that hurt Poland. Poland did great work to come back, and I agree with your point at set on set pieces that is permeating everything we're seeing in international football. And just to counter your point, not saying that teams need to don't need to defend better, they do. The routines are are getting tough, and the deliveries are very good. So like they're they're they're finding ways to exploit space. It's very hard to to get that focus. but we
00:26:59
Speaker
you Both of us cannot implore you enough. Stay focused on set pieces. Yeah. Big said, once it's 2-2, I think Sweden had this idea. Both teams have the idea, but like there are no midfields. So just get eight guys in the box. yeah It's literally like ah ah like a training ground drill. like Don't let the ball leave the box. and It's like you're getting an ah offensive rebound. And they just locked Poland in. And from the second the Poland left back gets rinsed and the ball enters the box, there's like seven or eight Sweden guys there.
00:27:29
Speaker
And at some point, even though he didn't have the ball, Jokeres was too big to stop. Like yeah the rebound comes off the bar and he just throws the guy behind him and he, he, he earns himself a tap in.
00:27:44
Speaker
That's really good striking from a player. And it shows you also like, there's a reason why he's, you know, a little bit maligned because he's an old brute force guy, but like, When Poland was tired in the 90th minute, the best athlete on the field won won the game for a team that just put everyone in the box.
00:28:00
Speaker
That could have been Poland on the other end yeah a few minutes before, but it wasn't. So like... Chaos game. Yeah, you give credit where it's due. And that was exactly like you said. that Sweden got the game that they needed to play to to go through this situation.
00:28:15
Speaker
I think we could we could do the whole, do Sweden deserve to be here? The answer is probably not based on what we saw in actual qualifying, but also this format was designed for this type of team, right? When UEFA built their format for qualifying, they had those four Nations League bailout spots for a specific reason, to protect...
00:28:35
Speaker
Big teams that underperformed, right? Sweden, maybe not the biggest of teams that underperformed, but they got their spot and they took it full advantage of it. Regardless of how they got to the World Cup, admit they're a team that can make noise at the World Cup.
00:28:50
Speaker
Correct. I agree with your assessment. I agree with your assessment on the Nations League spots. Sweden is exactly the type of team that should have been in the in a four-team playoff. And every team in the four-team playoff had to win two games.
00:29:03
Speaker
And yeah, I mean, you feel bad for Ukraine, but like also... Sweden, Poland is the exact kind of game that determines a spot.
00:29:13
Speaker
And not only was it the exact kind of game, the game itself was the exact kind of game between two teams right on the bubble for a spot. It was mad. It was chaotic. Both teams made defensive mistakes and it turned into a scramble and one team was slightly better. So like,
00:29:30
Speaker
On another day, this is Poland. If Ukraine was healthy, Ukraine could have played Sweden better. like to To answer your point, like i like Sweden did we're were not out of place here. like Yeah, they deserve to be here, but like they're the same level of all the teams here, like truly. like yeah like Italy...
00:29:51
Speaker
were here and missed it on their own accord. Like and anyone could have won two games. It's a credit to them that they won the two. They didn't get some like great advantage. It was hard to win them. They barely did.
00:30:03
Speaker
And even then to the point of Europe. Yeah. I'm excited to see these guys at the world cup. I think they're going to have to play some, some very open soccer and that's going to be fun. And also, you and I made this point during the match, like take all of the does Sweden deserve to be here conversation in or out.
00:30:19
Speaker
What would you rather watch? Sweden, Tunisia or Poland, Tunisia? Yeah, and that that one's very clear. yeah We saw Poland-Netherlands, right? We got that twice in the group. I don't need another Poland-Netherlands game. i think Sweden are going to make the World Cup more fun that just by style that they play. That doesn't necessarily mean that they deserve or not deserve to be there, but from an entertainment perspective, they are the the better case here. And that'll be fun. That group is shaping up really nicely. Sweden-Japan, that's going to be really open. I'm looking forward to that. Great game, yeah.
00:30:48
Speaker
ah I mentioned it earlier, Amit. Bosnia, not the only team to go to penalties and win twice in this UEFA playoff window. Czechia did it as well. 2-2 against Denmark in the final. They won on penalties.
00:31:01
Speaker
All was not well in Denmark, although in the semi-final, all was actually well for a half and a bit. They were nearly little at halftime with North Macedonia, and they just kept stepping on North Macedonia's throat and eventually scored four for a 4-0 win.
00:31:14
Speaker
Wasn't the best you ever see, but they kept at it. They wore North Macedonia down. That was the game that I think we expected from Denmark and that we probably expected from Denmark in other situations as well. All right, thumbs up. You got to the final, right?
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, that's it.
Czechia's Resilience in Playoffs
00:31:30
Speaker
On the other hand, in Prague, we got one of the best games of this window where the Czechs crushed the Irish dreams of our friend and guest, Jack Collins, who was on the show in the preview.
00:31:40
Speaker
I mean, Ireland led this game 2-0 after about 20 minutes. You could not have scripted a better start for them. Troy Parrott was on the scoreline. They got a penalty. And then it just kind of all gets undone by one silly lapse of concentration, right? Ryan Manning in the box.
00:31:56
Speaker
makes a tug on a Czechia attacker that he just does not need to make, pulls him down, it's a clear penalty. Czechia convert for 2-1, and the game is just completely different at 2-1 than it would have been at 2-0.
00:32:08
Speaker
You cannot give away goals in moments like that, and that's kind of what Ireland did. After having had the start, exactly the start that they would have wanted, against a Czechia team that was basically down and beaten, right?
00:32:20
Speaker
Yeah, the this was one for the narratives, right? Like, the checkie jacks did a really good job on our preview show kind of outlining this, and it felt like everything we had said was going to happen, happened. Like, Island had them on the ropes, they had the league the lead, and then this this giveaway, this dumb grab in the box, and it just...
00:32:45
Speaker
it it It took more than that, right? That was one goal. But it it just was the kind of thing that gets you in international soccer. I think like and it it that alone also didn't reset the vibes, but it allowed a team like Czechia to just go through the motions. I don't mean that in a mean way or a plus way, but like of being down a goal. And when you're down a goal and you two teams are kind of close, like the team that's down is going to get its look. And it did. And it,
00:33:18
Speaker
This was so frustrating. like I'm saying frustrating not that like I'm deriding either team, but Checkia really did not deserve to be this. You you you put this game, you put Ireland up 2-0, and you play it 100 times.
00:33:33
Speaker
Again, that's a win probability chart. Checkia, do not come out here like with anything most of the time. Yeah, and... like It's just like, ah it couldn't it was never going to be that easy for Ireland. And I think some of that settles it. It's still Ireland, right? And there's still just levels and all that. I know. And the thing is, Czechia was like ready to fold. yeah They don't at home. And that sets up them also being at home for this game against Denmark, where somehow the the vibes go all the way back. Yeah, and so you mentioned it.
00:34:13
Speaker
Being down a goal was so much of a better situation for Czechia because you said there's a pattern to being down a goal when two teams are relatively equal. And that's what happened here. Ireland just got pinned further further back. They created fewer and fewer chances. They were absorbing more and more pressure and they just couldn't hold it. And so Czechia get ah a free kick that is basically a corner. It's a near post scramble and lot of Slav Krejci heads in 2-2.
00:34:36
Speaker
And then, much like Wales, Ireland led in penalties after a miss from Hedl. But Finnazaz, Alan Brown both have their penalties saved. Jean-Clement side-nets it to win it for Czechia.
00:34:47
Speaker
Oh, Ireland were so close. This was an incredible action because these two shootouts were happening like yes almost at the same time of each other. And both teams led in the shootout and lost in terms of Wales and Ireland, which is just crazy. Two British Isle teams to two like Central European teams. Yeah.
00:35:10
Speaker
That's regardless of the point. Both of those teams went on to win. like that is to To win the whole thing. That is insane. Insane. Then you start to have to saying things say things like, I guess they're just mentality warriors. like Like, what? this this This was ridiculous. And just while we're here, this is a podcast, like what's the difference between...
00:35:36
Speaker
Czechia and Bosnia, like in terms of team level, like who, like who's better, who's worse? Like, I'm not so sure. I have an idea, but you tell me your thought. Yeah. I mean, I can tell you that their teams 15 and 16 to qualify from Europe to make the world cup, right? they're both at the bottom yeah Right. Right. Right. That's for sure. i Um,
00:35:54
Speaker
So Czechia get to this game against Denmark, and it's very clear of it. They had a game plan, and they executed it perfectively, effectivelyively right? Third minute, quarter for Czechia, cleared, and Pavel Soozc is just like, yeah, I'm here. The ball's there. going to hit it. And he hits it, and it goes in the back of the net. And that just... Early goals condition games, and that just...
00:36:14
Speaker
The entirety of this game from that moment on, right? Denmark played three minutes where it felt like they were equal in this game. From that point on, it felt like even when Denmark equalized, which they did twice, the Czechs were in a positive position for the other 117 minutes of this game.
00:36:33
Speaker
And that just proved to be a bit too much for Denmark to climb. Yes, the Czechs absorbed pressure and the Danish equalizer felt inevitable. And it was, but it took a while. And so by the time that they run their perfect set piece routine and Anderson gets a header for 1-1, there's not that much time that the Czechs have to hold out to make it to extra time.
00:36:50
Speaker
And then admit they get to extra time. And guess what? It's just a rinse and repeat of what we saw. The Czechs go up. the Denmark doesn't deal with the dangerous ball. Krejci puts in the back of the It's 2-1.
00:37:01
Speaker
Guess what? Denmark's got another perfect set-piece routine that they're going run. And by the time they do that, Kasper Haug scores. It's a perfect header. It's 2-2. But by then, there's only 10 minutes for Czechia to hold up. Denmark didn't have enough time in this game.
00:37:14
Speaker
where it felt like they were level with Czechia and pushing to win this match and go to the World Cup. I don't think they had enough time where that game was played at that state to really make it count. Yes, very well said. And the similarity between Bosnia and Czechia's comebacks, or not comebacks, but advancing, they didn't come back, was that they just kind of are good enough to take advantage of the lifelines they got. And specifically for Czechia, like...
00:37:47
Speaker
the the The penalty that Ireland gives them, yes, they get back in the game. This one, if you again, you play Czechia, Denmark a bunch of times. Denmark is the better team.
00:37:57
Speaker
But they just got two of the most like well-timed goals to control the whole thing. They were never in the disadvantaged state. And that just shouldn't have it it just shouldn't have happened.
00:38:09
Speaker
Yeah, it was a ah great hit for the first one. The second one, I think... There's something to um Thomas Susack at West Ham being just a good like back post option. There's like just enough of like things they can hang their hat on. And the other thing to them is they ran really hard. They made it hard enough to Denmark. If they were, if they were 10% worse,
00:38:33
Speaker
Denmark equalizes in the first half and then it and then then it's on for the second. But they really, as you I think what you you put so well is they made Denmark work to get it so that by the time Denmark got it, they they had basically bought themselves that 30 minutes of extra time. Then they got another like kind of crazy goal in that box as we talked about the Sussek and then it's turned in from Krejci.
00:38:59
Speaker
Denmark still recovered. So like
00:39:03
Speaker
By the time Denmark recovered, it's like, oh, we're basically at penalties. And then it's just a survival job. And the checks were able have play back card too. So they used everything they had twice to get to penalties twice. Like, it's...
00:39:17
Speaker
It's both of us will sit here and like it's luck and it's doing enough. it's It's impossible to parse. This is an international soccer podcast. We we cannot parse it. It's simply just worked for Czechia in a way that i'm I'm kind of in doubt. Like I know the Bosnia one, like I said, you can't really kill them. And I mean that in terms of vibes.
00:39:35
Speaker
Czechia, like I cannot in my mind believe that they did this twice. Yeah, and so then we get to penalties and Hoyland steps up, puts his first penalty off the bar, and it did not get any better for Denmark after that. And again, if you're going to get to penalties, that's what can happen. Check you take good penalties. Denmark very much don't. And one of the teams is going to the way. It's basically exactly what I said about Bosnia, Italy, right? The worst team, in air quotes on paper, took the better penalties. And when that happens, more often than not, you're going to win the shootout.
00:40:06
Speaker
So Denmark a bit are probably just asking how the hell they got here because they are not going to World Cup. from a The situation was this for Denmark. They needed to beat Belarus, Scotland, or Czechia. They didn't need to beat all of them.
00:40:20
Speaker
They needed to win one of those three games, and they did not. They drew Belarus. They drew Czechia. They lost to Scotland. They are not going to the World Cup. And now the Czechs, who are probably the worst team to to from Europe to to make the World Cup, are going The group is friendly.
00:40:36
Speaker
I don't know how much they're going to really contribute to the World Cup, but they're there. And I think they deserve is a weird word to be thrown around, but they earned it. They did. They they they did.
00:40:51
Speaker
the thing so the thing with Italy is I think both of us can say like they were unlucky to get the red card, which, again, was their fault. But the the Norway thing specifically right was tough, and the shootout was tough.
00:41:04
Speaker
Denmark, the Belarus one is really the head scratcher. Even when we did that. Yeah. We did make the world cup. We did that podcast back when, and both of us kind of were just like, I think you especially was like, it was a head scratcher. Yeah. It just was what? Like, this doesn't, this makes no sense. And then it was kind of like, well, you should be fine. And then Scotland vibes them like, okay.
00:41:33
Speaker
And then they got vibes again by Czechia. So like, That is a bit random, but like in it's again, it is unlucky. You can't say Italy's was unlucky, Denmark's wasn't unlucky. You got vibes twice by Scotland and Czechia, two teams worse than you.
00:41:48
Speaker
You open yourself up to that happening twice when you don't get the result against Belarus. But the vibes zi of of Scotland and Czechia were like painful, painful vibes of teams that are like really just a cut below you. like At least like Norway is better than Italy at this point. right like And Bosnia is worse than them, but we know why Italy law went lost in penalties because they made themselves worse with the red card. Denmark were full strength here. There's no easy explanation. They just...
00:42:21
Speaker
Both games, you kind of look at the games and it's like the goals just bounced against them in the games. like Not a red card bounce, but Czechia going up twice and being able to control the game from from ahead in both scenarios was just so super unlucky for Denmark in that sense.
00:42:39
Speaker
But I don't know. like ah The team is better than Italy's in terms of being well-balanced. How can you point to what they did wrong? They just...
00:42:50
Speaker
take better penalties, I guess. Yeah. That that that was going to my, it's like, you take all of that you put all of that and still at the end of the day, take better penalties. And this isn't an issue. And they took really bad penalty. Like they took yeah penalties like a team that was just not feeling it. And to their credit, they weren't. And like, you know, this is a podcast, but like we're saying it like the penalties, vibes and execution were very, very bad from Denmark. And that thing, those things matter at this point.
00:43:16
Speaker
Yeah. The last European team to make the World Cup was Turkey. They will bring their class chaos mix combination to a very interesting group. The U.S. men's national team. We'll talk about that in a bit.
00:43:28
Speaker
They were 1-0 winners over
Turkey's Strategic Qualification
00:43:30
Speaker
Kosovo. First, Turkey were 1-0 winners over Romania. It wasn't pretty. It wasn't stunning. They got it done. That counts for something on a podcast where we're talking about teams that did not get it done.
00:43:41
Speaker
I don't think there's anything else to add about Turkey won Romania nil.
00:43:46
Speaker
No, and I'll hold off my note on Turkey until the second game. Okay. Kosovo, Amit, meanwhile, had a truly delightful 4-3 win over Slovakia. They went behind twice in this game and just did not care. They came to play their style. They brought their magic.
00:44:03
Speaker
um This was probably the most fun game we got this window in Kosovo. ah were just a true delight from start to finish. But this game in particular against Slovakia was just really enjoyable and a way game in which you really didn't back them. And they just said, yeah, we don't care that you don't back us. We're gonna play it because that's how we know how to do it. And it worked.
00:44:25
Speaker
Kosovo showed in this game, which they had showed earlier against Sweden, and we kind of not wrote them off, but we're like, oh, that's... I wrote them off. I did too. good I was going to say, like we we were wrong about Kosovo's level, yeah and you look at the the players and the names and the pedigree, and I'm not sure that...
00:44:43
Speaker
you could You could have made a better conclusion, but once you watch, they're just fearless. they they are They have an incredible attack in terms of the way they flood the box fearlessly with runners and get numbers in, and all of their players are very unexpected decision makers going forward.
00:45:04
Speaker
And so they, they like can punish you. It's insane, not insane, but it was really refreshing to see them do it. And this game was crazy. And Kosovo found an identity that works.
00:45:15
Speaker
And they also just took every single chance they got. Like they just, right. A massive XG overperformance, which again, that can happen in international football. And when you do it, you should take advantage of it. But also defensively, like they let Slovakia hang around in this game. It was obvious. it so obvious that Slovakia were going to score for four, three.
00:45:33
Speaker
This was just delightfully fun. I really fell in love with this Kosovo team. Mariki is super cool. Aslani, a great attacking player. And like you said, Amit, This goes a team that makes unexpected decisions. and And that's a really weird point to make. But you and I watch so much football. We watch so much international football in particular.
00:45:53
Speaker
Games take patterns. And attacking play develops into a pattern, right? And so a player gets a ball in a specific spot and you think he is probably going to do this, right? He's going to press A and the ball is going to go here.
00:46:07
Speaker
And Kosovo so many times don't do A. And they go to like D or E and you're like, I wasn't expecting that, but that kind of worked. And that just what I think is what made them so much fun is you didn't really know what was going to happen. And they kind of broke the rules of attacking play and it worked their advantage against Slovakia and it almost did against Turkey.
00:46:30
Speaker
Yeah, let's talk about the the Turkey game. This was a fascinating game because we know how Turkey play, right? They're going to try to get numbers forward and they're going to try to use their dribbling and break you down.
00:46:43
Speaker
And the issue is they can be had the other way. And surprise, Kosovo was kind of a very tricky, tricky matchup for them and forced Turkey to kind of back off their game plan. This was a really interesting high-level tactical match.
00:46:59
Speaker
And Turkey didn't have the ability, ah the strike or the physicality, to get over Kosovo. So it turned into a bit of a muck fest here. And Kosovo had their chances running at Turkey, didn't they? And they had a you know ah ah ah shot off the bar. like They really made Turkey sweat.
00:47:18
Speaker
Yeah. They did. And they were also too open on the goal for Turkey. And there's just too much talent for Turkey. Like these teams both played, I think, really similar styles. And at the end of the day, I think there was just that one level higher of attacking talent in the Turkish squad. And that is is what made the difference in this game. Akhturkulu scoring it for Turkey, but it was great buildup play. And we saw...
00:47:41
Speaker
Galer, Yomas, like those are the players for Turkey and those are the players we're going to talk about a lot over the next three months. Kosovo had chances. They create, they're fun. They were just one level below Turkey. Give them a different matchup in this final and maybe things go a little bit differently.
00:47:56
Speaker
I'd really like to see them make the Euro in 2028. I think that is a very achievable goal for Kosovo if they keep this group together and play like they can play. Turkey admit, you put your ear to the ground, you the the dark horses are running, right? Like, like They are just moving their way into that dark horse candidacy for seemingly everybody already.
00:48:15
Speaker
Right. And more on later podcasts, but they're in that group with the United States and, you know, two other teams that they should feel pretty good about getting out of that group, even if it's in third. And yeah, I think the names on paper, you have to give them that buzz and the way they play. You have to give them the buzz. And the only thing I was going to say about,
00:48:35
Speaker
the 1-0 win against Romania, and the win against Kosovo, right they know their weakness, but they were a little more pragmatic than they that than they've showed before. that you know its Sometimes you're like, why why are they backing up defensively and letting Kosovo come at them up one? They should be trying to get their second. and They should have gotten a second up until around the 75th-80th minute, but I thought in these two games, yeah, that's not their game, but you have to defend at some point. You have to put yourself behind the ball. You have to defend your box physically. um And, you know, we know you can do defensive possession because your wingers are good, but you have to defend with physicality at some point in international soccer. And so they did a good enough job of that. And to me, that was a very, very healthy sign in knockout soccer.
00:49:27
Speaker
Yeah, I think Turkey wants to win games with 2-3-4-0 or 4-3 or 4-2, whatever. But two 1-0s against teams just below that in terms of talent shows kind of a bit of ah ah griminess that I really like from them that we didn't see at the Euro, we didn't see in qualifying, right? This is a team that shipped six to Spain. yeah Like, that is that was a sign of growth. And the defensive talent isn't...
00:49:55
Speaker
great, but like they're good players. Like it's not like they're nobodies. They just, you know, they're perhaps a step slow, but if they could, if they could just balance that enough, yeah, it's a tough out. It's a very tough out.
00:50:07
Speaker
And I think it will be very interesting to see what happens when that level of opposition goes up one more level, right? Okay. Yeah. They can play that style and it can work. You know, you can, they can get a little grimy and they don't have to be so afraid of what Romania and Kosovo are asking of them.
00:50:23
Speaker
All right, what happens when it's Paraguay? Asking the questions. What happens when it's Australia? Asking the questions. What happens when it's the U.S.? That, I think, is going to be the biggest question to determine what Turkey can or can't do at the World Cup. We know the attacking talent is there. It's going to have to be on their day. They're going to have to fire in.
00:50:38
Speaker
you know Where does that level of defense match up against the other teams? That's the big question for them. Let's go across the ocean to go ahead. Sorry. Finish off on, on Turkey. no You just nailed it. Like, yeah yeah, it's all fun and good to have like a three pronged attack full of electric guys and like be, be hype. But like, if you, if you can't back it up, you're, you're not really a horse at all. You know, you're just a fun, of fun, you get one moment of vibes.
00:51:02
Speaker
If they're solid in those games and they show they can be solid, but then we will, we will have our flags up. Our alerts will be up. We'll be very intrigued. Yeah. the ah The Turkish team will be madly hoping that it is not you planting that flag in in Turkey. i mean Stay away. Stay away. Don't be a mid-star course. That's all you're looking for, heading into the World Cup. All right. As I said, let's let's go across the ocean to Mexico for the Inter-Confederation playoff.
Jamaica and DR Congo's Contrasting Performances
00:51:25
Speaker
DR Congo 1-0 winners over Jamaica in the final.
00:51:28
Speaker
I mean, I said Kosovo 4, Salakia 3 might have been my favorite game from this window. I think my second favorite game from this window was Jamaica's. unconvincing one nil semifinal win over New Caledonia.
00:51:41
Speaker
I don't think you could have imagined a more unconvincing win against a team largely made up of French fourth, third, and fifth-tier players. ah New Caledonia admit they were here for bits, and they almost pulled it off because Jamaica was not really here at all.
00:51:59
Speaker
Yeah, I'm with you. i had this game circled. I wanted to talk about it. I knew we were going to talk about it as I think the most fun i had ah in in the whole thing. And we we've been salivating over the ICP for four months, really. Yes. And I learned so much about international soccer in this game and like the way that like.
00:52:21
Speaker
it's just so pure, at like at a certain level, you cannot strip the talent away, right? Soccer, soccer, but at a certain level, like you could kind of like throw everything out the window on the day and just put like 11 guys in front of the goal and see what happens. And like,
00:52:39
Speaker
were new Caledonia close to scoring? No, but like, were they in the game for 90 minutes despite being new Caledonia? Yes. And like, that's like every high school soccer coaches dream of a game. Like I just cannot emphasize enough how fun that was to watch. And 100%, you have to blame, we're going to put blame on Jamaica, yes a truly, truly dull, lifeless, idealist performance, which was a real, real alarm for where they... They were where they were at as a team, unfortunately. And I'm not like I i don't even to give credit to New Caledonia. Like that's what they had in their bag. They played it. Their best chances were two 50 yard chips. They had a breakaway and the guy who got the breakaway or our man realized he was not getting a step and was like, well, guess I'm pulling up from 40.
00:53:36
Speaker
And he missed. you And I was after. George Joe Fennepeche is like, he gets me behind the Jamaican defense. he's like, I have a step and a half. And a step and a half, the space that I have won is gone. So I'm simply going to shoot now. And it didn't work. But you kind of almost got the idea. It was like a pull-up Steph Curry 40-footer. Except it was George Joe Fennepeche, who's 36. I'm playing the French fourth year.
00:53:59
Speaker
Everything about it was delightful. Is the worst thing that could have happened for New Caledonia in this game the fact that they almost succeeded with their first long-distance chip attempt of Andre Blake? It was like, they got a little taste like, oh, that might work. That's our best chance. Keep doing it.
00:54:14
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. So there were like there'd be minutes where like New Caledonia would do something like pretty good. They'd do like five good things in a row, and then the sixth thing they did was so unconscionably bad, you're like, oh no. And and again, like that's to be expected. right But like...
00:54:35
Speaker
You squinted hard enough at this game and it was like, New Caledonia are not far off. And that was really, really damning of Jamaica. Yeah, so the goal that Jamaica did get, they got it early in this game. It was it was Bailey Kadematary, who the off... I don't know if it was an offside track.
00:54:54
Speaker
New Caledonia's lines were just not where a professional team's line should be on a play like that. And like you said, again, that's kind of what you're expecting here. Kadematary, to his credit, took advantage of it.
00:55:05
Speaker
But then from there, Jamaica were just like, ah, we got a goal. We don't really have to do anything else. And to a point, you almost kind of get that because, again... I watched New Caledonia play in this game.
00:55:16
Speaker
So much was going to have to come off for them to make it work and score. But also, I've watched CAF qualifying. If you let bad teams hang around long enough for 1-0, at some point, you might get burnt. And that was what Jamaica risked in this game.
00:55:31
Speaker
They could have just like put their foot to the gas and said, all right, we're going to go score. And they probably could have just went and scored. But for whatever reason, they didn't. They didn't have their best attacking players in the lineup for most of this game and again like you said new caledonia wasn't actually that close to doing anything but you couldn't turn this game off and that's like that's probably credit to new caledonia in this game this was just oodles of fun and you know in like a world cup after dark way Correct. And yeah, i I think you said fair to Jamaica, like trying to win with as little effort as possible from a two-legged, two-match game theory point of view that's perfectly within their rights. But you also could have scored a second at any point, and then we we wouldn't have had to...
00:56:18
Speaker
To do it. Yeah. Also, are we really giving Jamaica enough credit that they game theory this and that's what this was? And this wasn't just Jamaica being flat out bad. This was. Well, again, we said the alarms were up. We said everything was a bad sign.
00:56:33
Speaker
And now we get to DR Congo 1-0 Jamaica and the the result is what it is. we' We'll talk about the game. Jamaica had nothing to hang their hat on. yeah They did very well in this game to frustrate dear Congo. They rolled out their guys. They made life difficult.
00:56:50
Speaker
Yeah. Dear Congo was more physical than them, better than across the field, but Jamaica just hung around. Just hung around. And that's kind of all you can ask from Jamaica, but they couldn't do anything else other than hang around, which is also all you could get from Jamaica. And that to me was just very, very like ah upsetting. you know Don't have a dog in the fight, but like upsetting and revealing that...
00:57:14
Speaker
Especially it also adds color again to what happened with the manager yeah um when McLaren leaves and they just, they kind of had nothing going for them. They just were like, well, maybe we'll be Czechia or Bosnia. Like maybe the clock will strike 12 and we'll be the ones at the end holding it. But they didn't really think about how, and that they had no way to, to do it.
00:57:36
Speaker
Yeah, and I think this is very damning on Rudolph Speed that the interm... like, just brought nothing to the table here for Jamaica. Questionable lineup decisions in the first game. Kind of fixed it in the second game. But like you said, Jamaica didn't offer anything here. DR Congo had two goals chopped off for offside in a regular time.
00:57:54
Speaker
Jamaica probably were... Like it was ah beyond what we would have expected for them to get this to extra time, but then they get to extra time. And again, we said this point earlier in the podcast is 2026. You can't fall asleep on corners.
00:58:09
Speaker
And this wasn't any sort of tremendously designed routine from Dierre Congo. This was simply, Oh, Axel Twins, maybe he's going to be the late runner and look, there's space and he scores for one. No Andre Blake played really good for Jamaica. And it's, it's tough from that perspective. Yeah. But pretty much everything else in this lineup was demonstrably worse than DR Congo.
00:58:30
Speaker
And if there's one thing that DR Congo can do, they can just keep leaning on you and keep leaning on you and keep leaning on you. And eventually you're probably going to fall. And that's what happened.
00:58:43
Speaker
Yeah. And the, the extra time kind of just made it, it was, it was impressive. but But my point about the extra time is that eventually like you're going to lose someone in a box. We know how hard it is to defend. And so,
00:58:56
Speaker
That was that. I got to give a shout out here to our our friend of the podcast, John Arnold, and getting CONCACAFed, who did some really good coverage of Jamaica. you know we've We've all followed them.
00:59:07
Speaker
I think the thing is, like it's just been a lack of cohesion, a lack of identity, a team like Jamaica without, you know, the the talent has, has been up and down could have had something in this game. If it had something to hang its hat on and a way to play and the players on the field, just, they, they,
00:59:32
Speaker
It didn't have anything to hurt D.R. Conger with. It was like literally hope for pens. And the best the best thing was Andre Blake. And we know Andre Blake. But like there was nothing there. It was just run and mark as hard as you can and hope.
00:59:46
Speaker
Get lucky with the few goals called off. it was It was very important. But even then, the overall commitment, it felt like it didn't hit the... Like, all right, if that's the game plan, that all right, we're buying into that. We have... The one advantage we have in this game is our goalkeeper. We are going to defend. We're going to make life hard. We're going to fight for every inch and scrap. And we're going to hope that that goalkeeper bails us out more often than not.
01:00:09
Speaker
that didn't even feel like it was the plan for Jamaica because the level of effort didn't quite match that to pull that off. And so if you are going to concede possession and concede space and all that, you have to work harder than their team. It didn't feel like they worked harder than DR Coggle. Like he said, it just, brought nothing to the table in this. And that's just a, I think, bad spot for Jamaica to be in, obviously. And there's a whole different conversation that we've had plenty of times in this podcast about that. And DR Congo, to their credit, took advantage of that. And they're the ones going to the World Cup.
01:00:42
Speaker
In another world, Jamaica could have gone to rock. And I think maybe they're... do not so much, would have had a better chance. Dear Congo is just not a team you can outwork. like That's part of the reason it looked like that, is Dear Congo, we're all over them.
01:00:57
Speaker
And I think that it goes back to Jamaica really shouldn't have let it get to the ICP in the first place. like like yeah and And we did the same thing with the European teams, and Jamaica were quite poor at getting that goal they needed in CONCACAF, which again... has difficulties with the field and the venue, and and it's a very difficult qualifying, more difficult than the very manicured European qualifying.
01:01:21
Speaker
But a team like Jamaica shouldn't have shouldn't have been here. There should have been someone else from CONCACAF. Yeah, I think that's a good way of putting at it. Dear Congo at the World Cup, admit, they're going work hard. They're going make life hard. The biggest issue for them is going to be, can they get enough goals to make all of that work matter? And they're in a group where those questions are going to get asked of them because it's Portugal, it's Colombia, it's Uzbekistan.
01:01:45
Speaker
Let's see. I'm excited to see it. Yeah, it's a tough group. And I think specifically Colombia and Uzbekistan are tough teams to play against where DR Congo is not going to have some easy, you know, physicality advantage. Like, it'll be interesting. I think they could get a result in both of those games.
01:02:05
Speaker
Portugal right now is playing really well. It's hard to imagine, but you have to play the game. it's It's tricky, but ah they're they're very tough out, and the level it takes to put them away is very high. So that's a fine baseline for a fourth team in a group. I think that's going to be a great group.
01:02:21
Speaker
And then, Amit, we get to the last spot in the World Cup, which Iraq claimed with a 2-1 win over
Suriname vs. Bolivia: Missed Opportunities
01:02:27
Speaker
Bolivia. Let's start with the semifinal, which saw Bolivia face Suriname. The Bolivians rallied for a 2-1 win over Suriname, and the Surinamese, Amit, were the latest in a long...
01:02:37
Speaker
Okay, it's not really that long, but two is something line of CONCACAF teams with interim manager that disappointed this window. Hank Tenkate, much like Rudolph Speed, was not up for this because when Suriname wanted to, they outplayed Bolivia.
01:02:52
Speaker
The issue, Amit, is that they did not want to nearly enough. And at 1-0 up in this game, they decided to invite pressure from Bolivia when they could have simply kept playing and potentially killed this game off.
01:03:06
Speaker
I thought Suriname were the better team in this game, but they did not play like it for nearly often enough in this game. They played scared against a Bolivia team that you frankly do not need to play scared against.
01:03:20
Speaker
I think you you nailed it. And Suriname... played better. Like you said, they, they are better on talent and particularly this Bolivia team. Like you can keep the ball against them. You just have to, you can outwork them.
01:03:34
Speaker
um It's tough. Bolivia runs very hard, but they're just at the Bolivia is just enough at the bottom tier of a team. You can't let hang around. Yeah. And they did. And I think it it's so funny, you know, the the way we talk about this. But you said you said playing scared. And I agree.
01:03:53
Speaker
Like, Suriname, have this... The whole way through qualifying just never had the killer instinct. Backed into this in in the ICP in the first place because they couldn't get it done in the match before. And then in the last match, only kind of got through in some some things that they didn't even control. And here they are up one against a team worse than them. And they just handed it to the other team and said...
01:04:21
Speaker
the fates in your hands. If you want to come back and beat us in a must win game, you could do it. And like, not like we can put you away with a second goal. And it's a very like, uh, there, there are a lot of other sports where where that can go, but in soccer itself, like just didn't play with the ball enough and got a very conservative, hard to, hard to explain like, yeah, I think you're right. The manager and you know, who knows where the energy levels were. i don't think Suriname is like a particularly like super fit team, but like tough day. It's it's really brutal to go out like this.
01:04:57
Speaker
Yeah, and Oscar Villegas, the Bolivia manager, I think got it right, at least as this game went on, right? Moises Paniagua came in and and was probably the key player here for Bolivia. He rolls in off a rebound for 1-1.
01:05:11
Speaker
they They continued to pressure. They continued to pressure. They got a penalty, and miel Miguel Toceros, who's probably their best player but wasn't great in this game, scored that penalty for two one And then Suriname didn't do a whole lot beyond that. So then that set up Iraq, Bolivia in the final.
01:05:26
Speaker
And whereas Suriname maybe didn't have the right plan in it, I thought Iraq had exactly the right plan to face Bolivia. You want to take pot shots? Guess what? We're not at
Iraq's Path to Qualification
01:05:37
Speaker
13,000 feet. Take all the pot shots you want to take.
01:05:39
Speaker
You want to have corners? Have all the corners that you want because you can't hurt us on a corner. We are bigger and more physical than you are. This was super clinical from Iraq. Ali Alhamadi with a a conversion on a corner kick early for 1-0.
01:05:52
Speaker
Bolivia actually got back in this game again through Paniagua who stopped a a shot from distance and fired in for 1-1. But then the man that we had circled for Iraq going into this match and into this intercontinental playoff, Amit,
01:06:06
Speaker
was Ayman Hussain, who was probably their most talented player. and He was really clinical, a clinical attacking play for 2-1. From there, Bolivian hopped and popped and created a bunch of changes. They had 16 corners in this game and really didn't do anything with any of them. Iraq had like three or four and scored on one of them.
01:06:24
Speaker
That's the set piece physicality difference in this game. And that's where I think Iraq made their difference. And that's where they had the advantage. And to their credit, they used that advantage well.
01:06:35
Speaker
Perfectly put. And Iraq is a team that that knew what the job was. They are physical-based team. They use that advantage on set pieces. It's a team that's more built for international soccer. And again, the reminder on Bolivia, they got here over ah you know the 18-game slog of CONBABOL with a home-field advantage.
01:06:55
Speaker
Bolivia just are not a team built to play that... like set-piecey, grimy, knockout football. They don't really do knockout football. And I think in Copa Americas, you would see the performances are also poor. It's just they're not that kind of team. Again, we know why they got here.
01:07:14
Speaker
they They squeezed everything they could. like I thought Bolivia accounted themselves really well in this game. like Really tried to to attack Iraq and really tried to get their players in positions. Terceros was very lively, really tried to do everything he could.
01:07:29
Speaker
And Iraq was like, that's great. You can have a corner kick. And, yeah you know, credit to Iraq, like really great defending to be like – Yeah, you can you can have the ball. You can get your dribbling. We're going to show help. We're just going to make sure nothing is easy.
01:07:45
Speaker
And then if you can beat us on a header, a physical jump ball, you can have a goal. Even the goal itself from Ponteigua was kind of a shot that was such a bad shot, it fell to him in the box. it was It was a Bolivian shot from distance that like, oh, it hit me in the foot. I'll score it. like ah Yeah. Yeah. And it's not to pile it on, Surnam, but it's almost like...
01:08:08
Speaker
or maybe not even to pile it on. let Let's compliment Iraq. like Iraq is a physical in way that Suriname couldn't. They couldn't play this game against Bolivia. And Iraq was just a level above, and they they played the game that...
01:08:23
Speaker
the in the way they were better than Bolivia and got got it out of it. And as you said, Hussein's goal was very clinical. And sometimes also, like in international soccer and these one-off games, you can pick out all these little things that matter, right? A goalie can stand on his head. Oh, your mentality on penalty kicks can be good. Oh, your set pieces your routine can be good.
01:08:43
Speaker
For a lot of these teams, your striker needs to finish his half chance. And if you have a guy who's even not like... If I could put Ahmed Hussein in the Premier League, he's not he's not doing you anything. He's not touching the ball. He's not enough to play at that level.
01:08:58
Speaker
You put him in a top five league in Europe, he's not doing level. But good strikers, they have the sense about them of scoring goals that matters at the level. And exactly at the level in a game where Bolivia, where the speed is there that he can make the smart run in the box and find himself a yard of space,
01:09:18
Speaker
It's all about the relativity. And he did a expert number nine thing. And like, Lesson in international soccer. Your goal scoring number nine can win you the whole thing sometimes. And that was it. And that's any game. But like, especially in this kind of game, you know, I think from one one, Bolivia had this thing right where they wanted it. And he was the difference maker. And look yeah like you said, he's a player. Iraqi domestic league player has not really ever played outside the Middle East, but just has that striker instinct and has shown it time in and time out for Iraq.
01:09:52
Speaker
And like you said, in that moment, A blimmin defender. Oh, he's behind me. He's back. Oh no, he's in front of me and he scored, right? That's the difference in a game like this. And that sort of movement is what those half chances turning into full chances takes. And like you said, we're going to talk, look, the entire world cup, we're gonna talk about that exact thing. Can the players you are counting on to score goals, come up with those type of moments and turn two and a half chances into two goals or three and a half chances into two goals. And that's what Iraq had in this game. They had another chance. i was a great save from Vizcarra off the crossbar. They were clinical in a way that Bolivia was not.
01:10:28
Speaker
Iraq is a good international soccer team and good is relative, right? They're not at the level of, of the top teams in Asia. I don't think they're going to be a particularly like threatening team at the world's cup, but they just, they just played, played this really well. And yeah, it was one game. Bolivia had to play too.
01:10:48
Speaker
But that you know I think this is a very nice achievement for them in a way that like you don't need to compliment the Bosnias and Czechias as much. And they're all there at the World Cup. I'm not trying to take away, but like really just trying to be nice that and this was this Iraq team was super veteran built to get like the last kind of spot in a 48-team World Cup, and they did the job. And they also admit played more games than anybody else in world cup qualification. They played 21 world cup qualifiers, right through Asian second round, Asian third round. There were five rounds of Asian qualification and they played in four of them, right? They played in the second, third, fourth and fifth round of Asian qualifier.
01:11:27
Speaker
They got here. They played one more game than Bolivia did in qualifying. They earned their spot here. And it's, it's, it's really fitting that they were the 48th team to qualify for the world cup because that's, just about where they are, maybe, on the ranking. They were the team that worked very hard for this.
01:11:43
Speaker
First time since since Mexico in 86 that Iraq have made the World Cup. They have this thing about them, Amit, that they make you work to beat them. And it takes a certain level to beat Iraq.
01:11:55
Speaker
And Bolivia weren't at that level to kind of break down the whole gummed up machine work midfield thing that Iraq has going on. And when they get to the World Cup and it's France and it's Norway and it's Senegal asking those questions, the answers are probably going to be a lot easier to find.
01:12:13
Speaker
But Iraq had the level that they needed on this particular night against that particular opposition. And and they deserve some credit for that.
Anticipation for Expanded World Cup
01:12:22
Speaker
So we got 48 teams at the World Cup a bit and we are about 70 days away from kickoff. Can you contain the excitement?
01:12:31
Speaker
I mean, it's so real now. It's so good to have all these groups filled out and you know also just enjoying the scenes from the teams that did it on Tuesday. But yeah, it's all on. it's Man, these there's going to be some really great group stage games. Of course, you know the biggest stakes games are going to be incredible, but like you're just starting to to get your eyes on some of this stuff that can happen and really getting excited about it. And you're also like, there are group stage games. And and like this happens at every World Cup, and this is a point that I'm sure we're going to make in the preview shows. There are group stage games that you have circled and like, oh, that one's going to be good, and it probably will be good.
01:13:07
Speaker
And then there are also just going to be those random games that just pop up out of nowhere, and I don't know what it's going to be, right? And you just turn it on, and it's like, oh.
01:13:18
Speaker
You know, Czechia and South Africa decided that they were just going to go chaos level tonight. And it's 3-2. And you're just like, yes, that is what the World Cup is. And that's what these teams are for. And look, you don't have to win the World Cup to leave your mark on the World Cup. And that's what all of these teams are going to be hoping for.
01:13:34
Speaker
and That's why we do it. That's why this in 48 teams, we got some more in, we had more qualification and those games mattered. Like we were living for rock Bolivia. Like if you're listening to this podcast and you, you know, enjoyed all of that.
01:13:51
Speaker
yeah, the you know there's going to be some more games of the World Cup. And there's a lot of reasons why that might not be for everyone. But for a fans of soccer and for fans of international soccer, like there's just more chances for for something cool, something crazy to happen. and that's That's what we're hoping for.
01:14:08
Speaker
Yeah, and that's what we're going to be here for.
Podcast Outro and Listener Engagement
01:14:10
Speaker
Abit and I are going back later this week. There were also a lot of friendlies for the other 42 teams that had already made the World Cup. We'll look at some of the storylines from that. We've got some managerial changes at some inopportune times, which again, it's also the World Cup. That's the type of thing that happens. We'll talk about some of that.
01:14:26
Speaker
So we will be back later this week to look at that. If you like what we do here on the World Cup After Hour podcast and would like to support us monetarily, you can do so. Patreon.com slash WCAD. $3 a month gets you access to subscriber-only perks, like subscriber-exclusive shows, and more. And you can also support what we do. You can also support us by liking, subscribing, rating, reviewing, and simply just listening to the show, which you are already doing and which we are greatly appreciative for. A big thank you again to Jack Collins, who came on the show to preview the UEFA playoff.
01:14:56
Speaker
Sorry, Jack, that didn't quite work out in Ireland, but we'd still love to have you back on the show on some time if we haven't, ah you know, cursed everything for you in the future. So we'll see about that. But again, Amit and I will be back later this week. We hope you enjoyed this one. We've got a World Cup field set and we've got a World Cup to look forward to. Thanks, as always, for listening and we will chat soon.