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Episode 410: The football of the international break!
54 Plays1 day ago
Southampton – We might have taken a week off for the international break but the football hasn't stopped. We have had Saints away on international duty so we check in on how they've got on, with plenty of international football based tangents along the way!
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Transcript
International Football Surprises
00:00:13
DailySaintsPod
Hello and welcome back to the Daily Saints pod. My name is Greg and as always today, joined by my good friend, a wonderful co-host, Zach. Mate, how are you doing?
00:00:25
Zak
Hello, mate. Yeah, all right. I've been enjoying... It's it's bad. I haven't paid basically attention to any of like the international stuff that supposedly matters. i got All of the international stuff I paid attention to are the crazy results like Bosnia knocking out Italy...
00:00:42
Zak
and the Congo beating Jamaica to qualify for their first World Cup in forever, and Iraq qualifying for the World Cup. like All of those kind of stories, and you're going to tell me all about what the Saints been up to?
00:00:54
Zak
And i'll like, oh yeah, i forget that we have... like But like have any of them been of... The only only ones that were of note were the teams that got knocked out, right? So I'm kind of like...
00:01:03
DailySaintsPod
Uh, yeah.
00:01:03
Zak
I've just moved swiftly on to like other stuff.
00:01:05
DailySaintsPod
that
00:01:06
Zak
So yeah, I'm all right, I'm good.
00:01:07
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, look, I mean, look, it's a tricky one, isn't it, international football? I think we were talking briefly before recording, and... in in the regular football season and in especially international breaks, right, I'm pretty vocal about it on the show, I think. I really just have little to no interest in international football whatsoever and pay passing, fleeting attention to it. But that said...
00:01:33
DailySaintsPod
you know When regular season football dries up, am I going to be getting up at 2 o'clock in the morning to watch fixtures like Australia versus Turkey and Haiti versus Scotland in the World Cup?
00:01:46
DailySaintsPod
Absolutely, I'm going to be getting up at really...
00:01:48
Zak
is such It's such a jarring switch as well because you're so usually vocally against international football and how little you care about it. And then a tournament hits and you're like, yeah, I really enjoyed like that like Spain game. I'm like, okay, well, that's fair. It's Spain. He's like, what else should we watching? Like, yeah.
00:02:06
Zak
Like, Denmark versus, like, Czech Republic. I'm like, oh yeah, that's okay. Fair enough. Then you're like, there there was some show. There was one at like three in the morning. Can't remember the countries. I'm like, right. Okay.
00:02:17
Zak
Okay, great.
00:02:18
DailySaintsPod
Mate, it's just competitive football, isn't it, right?
00:02:18
Zak
I get it. You just miss it.
00:02:22
DailySaintsPod
Because most of the
Cultural Contrasts in Football Fandom
00:02:23
DailySaintsPod
time, even the qualifiers right are just glorified friendly, so let's be honest.
00:02:28
Zak
I get it. They're glorified friendlies if you support England, right? Because like, that's that's where I'm kind of at.
00:02:33
DailySaintsPod
Yeah,
00:02:35
Zak
Because the vast majority of the other ones, like, look, we're going to talk about a game.
00:02:35
DailySaintsPod
But also, in in a World Cup where you're having, like, what, 148 teams play or something ridiculous across three continents, like, oh, qualifiers really, like, oh, it's there is their eighth chance to qualify.
00:02:51
DailySaintsPod
Like...
00:02:52
Zak
I feel like if you're an Irish fan at this point, mate, yeah, it's quite... Again, we're just...
00:02:57
DailySaintsPod
Well, yeah, you know what?
00:02:58
Zak
We're treated to the fact that, like, you know well, apparently we really struggle without Harry Kane.
00:02:58
DailySaintsPod
Fair enough.
00:03:03
Zak
That's all I've learned about the England games over the last two games. So I kind of forgot it was on. Again, we talked about it the other day. And then the the article that I saw that reminded me that we played them was, well, there was one that was like a tweet about the Japanese Ultras that were, like, just basically...
00:03:20
Zak
but When you got they say ultras, it's not like what you think of as ultras. For me, it's what you'd actually call fans, but like fanatics, like, you know, dress up, drums, all that kind of stuff. But it's like, it's not really like the guys in cages, is it?
00:03:33
Zak
It's more of just a...
00:03:34
DailySaintsPod
It's not like your European Ultra experience.
00:03:37
Zak
No, but yeah but even even that, like those Arsenal Ultras recently got like slated for like going down the road with drums and things like that acted like they're all...
00:03:37
DailySaintsPod
when
00:03:45
Zak
The Americanization of it all a bit, right, is is I think what people are. It's like the whole... is There's a very big antithesis of of it in football and I know that hooligan culture in a lot of places is kind of dying down.
00:03:59
Zak
but But yes, when people like say fanatic, like, you know, fanatic to me is a different... would be a better way to sort of characterize these people than ultras because of the connotations it has.
00:04:12
Zak
But like, I saw that and then I saw them cleaning up and realized it was cleaning
Player Performance Updates
00:04:15
Zak
up Wembley stadium. And i was like, cause that always goes viral, right? After every single world cup that Japan have ever been involved in, it's like, oh yeah, afterwards they tidy up the stadium and the team tidy up the away locker room.
00:04:26
Zak
And so how is this still a story? Like we know this happens every time. It's just what they do.
00:04:31
DailySaintsPod
a
00:04:31
Zak
Like,
00:04:32
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:04:33
Zak
We should all do that, and then we'll proceed to never do that and just wander out drunk out of my stadiums.
00:04:34
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Right.
00:04:38
Zak
Look,
00:04:39
DailySaintsPod
Do you know the, wouldn't it be nice if like you just used the bins provided and then nobody needed to do it? Isn't that a crazy thought?
00:04:50
DailySaintsPod
that I don't know. Just far too logical.
00:04:51
Zak
mate. Come on. Come on. That's some insane logic there.
00:04:55
DailySaintsPod
I'd have to carry my empty box all the way down to the concourse. How could I possibly cope?
00:05:00
Zak
I know you feel like when you're at to school and people go about the cleaners like, oh, well, they're paid to do that.
00:05:00
DailySaintsPod
Uh,
00:05:06
Zak
And it's one of those things where I was, when I worked in like a shop, I was also the employee and the cleaner. And when I had to stay late and clean, hey. And or if you're a cleaner that's paid to it doesn't mean you want more mess created by people.
00:05:19
Zak
You know what I mean? so
00:05:20
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:05:21
Zak
anyway, this is the show she has a bunch of me trying to beat around the bush and smash it with my butt.
00:05:22
DailySaintsPod
Anyway. Well, that is... That has gone off the rails rapidly. but Anyway, so anyway we we had some we had some players that played international football, believe or not.
00:05:30
Zak
Nice, okay, did we?
00:05:36
DailySaintsPod
And...
00:05:37
Zak
Let's go through them, shall we?
00:05:39
DailySaintsPod
let's Let's do it. I've got a whopping 14 lines of notes. So...
00:05:44
Zak
on, Greg.
00:05:44
DailySaintsPod
but
00:05:45
Zak
Jeez, man, you're outplaying me. It's ridiculous. used to be me being like, here's the info pack for today, and now I'm having to deal with Greg being like, well, I sat down for half an hour, and but wife was watching something other than me, so back down
00:05:48
DailySaintsPod
and
00:05:55
DailySaintsPod
but Wait. Compared to my detailed notes on on on loans that I covered you yesterday, 14 lines of notes feels like bare bones. Yeah.
00:06:09
Zak
Did
00:06:10
DailySaintsPod
first off First off, a man who I was surprised to see back at open training, but it's because he only had one game in the international break.
00:06:16
Zak
wasnt
00:06:19
DailySaintsPod
Daniel Peretz played for 46 minutes in a friendly for Israel against Georgia, which ended 2-2.
00:06:28
DailySaintsPod
One of the goals...
00:06:28
Zak
they swap around the whole team?
00:06:32
Zak
Or was it just like the keepers off after 45? Because that's nuts.
00:06:35
DailySaintsPod
They made 11 substitutions.
00:06:38
Zak
Right, so it so they they played side A and side B, I see.
00:06:38
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:06:41
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:06:42
Zak
Okay.
00:06:42
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Yeah. is It was very much like proper friendly style friendly.
00:06:48
Zak
Yeah.
00:06:48
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. yeah Only one of the goals conceded in the two-all draw was on his time on pitch. And I struggled to even find that information really written down anywhere. It wasn't hugely covered.
00:07:02
DailySaintsPod
In England, surprisingly, a friendly between Israel and Georgia. So went under the radar a bit. But, you know, nice that he's involved in the mix, playing international.
00:07:13
Zak
Just nice to have players that do international again, innit? For a watch while, it was like three of them.
00:07:17
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, it's... Yeah, no, it's got to be a confidence boost to go and represent your country, right? Regardless of of a friendly or or, you know, swapping side A and side B at 46 minutes.
00:07:29
DailySaintsPod
You know, there's no, regardless of how patriotic you are or aren't, there's no greater honour than representing your country for the thing you do for a living.
00:07:41
DailySaintsPod
So it's good to think.
00:07:42
Zak
I also think that for some people it's it's a big motivator and driver, right? Like I'm sure we'll get on to Laren, but like we know that it has been a big motivator for him to do well at times to get back into the Canada squad for a home World Cup.
00:07:46
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:07:54
Zak
So i do i never really see it as as a negative.
00:07:55
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:07:58
Zak
I do see weird things like half of Arsenal's team randomly coming back early, slightly worrying.
00:08:04
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:08:06
Zak
Hopefully not to practice for our game.
00:08:09
DailySaintsPod
All in prep for Atletico Madrid because they're looking past us so we can sneak the 1-0 win. Anyway, more on that tomorrow. Next on the list, Karl Lahren.
00:08:16
Zak
Nice.
00:08:20
DailySaintsPod
You're right. We will talk about it. Yeah. He played 64 minutes in a 2-0 draw with Iceland and received a FOTMOP rating of 6, which was pretty average for the Canada team. Yeah.
00:08:20
Zak
okay.
00:08:35
DailySaintsPod
Unfortunately, obviously, i didn't watch the game, but from looking at the report and the stats, immediately after he was substituted, Canada won a penalty and then scored that penalty and another goal.
00:08:47
DailySaintsPod
So i don't necessarily think that that is because he was substituted, but but the timing was maybe amusing. don't know. It was...
00:09:00
Zak
one of those things that we know international football is different. don't have the set-up's happening. and We know when we signed him that a lot of Canada fans were like, oh yeah, he's terrible, it doesn't score.
00:09:05
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:09:11
Zak
And I'm like, he's been doing right for us. So maybe he just needs the right coach in Canada.
00:09:13
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:09:15
Zak
like you know maybe Maybe it isn't Jesse March, mate. how How different of things could have been if he was still Saints manager, right?
00:09:18
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. the
00:09:21
Zak
Or ever became Saints manager.
00:09:23
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. That is a whole alternative universe that maybe we could talk about when we're searching for episodes in the summer. Yeah.
00:09:34
DailySaintsPod
Laram is also an unused substitute in the 0-0 draw with Tunisia. So, you know, if he's back in time for the Arsenal game, well-rested, at least.
Significance of International Football
00:09:47
DailySaintsPod
Moving on, next on the list, what you alluded to earlier are Irish boys Azaz and Manning, of course, narrowly missing out in a penalty shootout against the Czech Republic.
00:10:02
DailySaintsPod
Azaz played 90 minutes in in the draw against Czechia and of course missed a penalty in the shootout Manning was on the pitch for 68 minutes of that game of course means they miss out on their opportunity to go to the World Cup unfortunately which is it's going pretty crushing to be honest
00:10:23
Zak
so has it's with you Hence with you being like, basically everyone in that dog's qualified. I'm like, oh, not everyone.
00:10:30
DailySaintsPod
or flip Yeah, look, that's got to be gutting to come so like horribly close as well.
00:10:37
Zak
Yes.
00:10:38
Zak
on
00:10:39
DailySaintsPod
Genuinely, I feel for them.
00:10:42
DailySaintsPod
And then, of course, they also played against Macedonia, a game where Manning was an unused sub and Zaz played 61 minutes and that game ended nil niil in in what I can only imagine in a friendly against Macedonia after narrowly missing out on qualification for the Cup was not a pretty watch and a rather heads down affair pretty demotivating
00:11:06
Zak
Yeah. Well, I just got hope it's not his confidence too hard. Because we talked about how Zaz is very much a confidence-based fighter, has been playing better recently, and now is going to have to come back and have to mentally deal with that.
00:11:22
Zak
But also, I guess it frees up there to think about Saints specifically and not worry about what's going to happen this summer.
00:11:29
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. maybe Yeah.
00:11:30
Zak
i ask That's a positive spin we can put on it, I guess.
00:11:32
DailySaintsPod
Shift their focus. It's fine, mate. If if we just get Azaz scoring the winner against Arsenal to put the confidence straight back in for the rest of the running, it doesn't matter, does it? It writes the rest off.
00:11:43
Zak
interested. We know what your line-up is going to be tomorrow.
00:11:46
DailySaintsPod
right uh moving on northern ireland uh across the border shea charles uh of course our our boy uh for them and his brother pierce charles in goal uh amusingly uh both played 90 minutes against italy in uh a 2-0 loss but to be honest uh i think a 2-0 loss against italy is quite respectable result right that's a good
00:12:11
Zak
Well, it really depends because like Italy have now failed to qualify for their third successive World Cup. People are calling it like an apocalypse in Italy, a disaster. It's like the end of an era.
00:12:25
Zak
Tons of really, really elaborate headlines in Italy, which really does make our loss to them in the Euros.
00:12:29
DailySaintsPod
Mm-hmm.
00:12:31
Zak
Like, just just a little bit worse because they haven't managed to qualify for one for ages. So, yeah, it's it's frustrating for sure. But, you know, if you if you match them up on paper, you'd kind of always expect it to win.
00:12:45
Zak
But, you know, fair play to Bosnia and Herzog-Grova, who are absolutely living up. don't know if you've seen, there's been videos knocking around, Greg, of, like, the celebrations they've had in their, like, town squares and their capital and stuff like that.
00:12:56
Zak
because obviously for them it's a a big deal, right? There's couple of qualifications that have happened.
00:12:59
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, that's great.
00:13:03
Zak
Democratic Republic of Congo, I think, I don't know if I pointed out earlier in the beginning of the episode and Iraq, another one, like some mad kind of exciting as much as we go, everyone and their dogs qualified.
00:13:13
Zak
For some people, it's going to be like a huge thing and I get that and it kind of,
00:13:17
DailySaintsPod
No, you're right. it's just It's just greed and privilege, really, isn't it? like You think about it, and that's the the important thing. And I guess the the positive you can take when you look at the expansion of the World Cup is that... And, and you know, as as someone who, when the World Cup is on, you know begins to believe in international football again...
00:13:38
DailySaintsPod
They're the stories that you you look out for, right? Like the these nations who didn't even expect qualify, like just qualifying for them is massive.
00:13:41
Zak
yes
00:13:49
DailySaintsPod
and you just know that one of them is going to go on a ridiculous run and get you know into into some form of knockout stages. and you know that's That's what makes it great. That's what makes knockout football so enjoyable. I think that is why the the switch turns, right? there's All of a sudden, there's there's meaning and and stuff behind the football, right? There's there's actual...
00:14:16
DailySaintsPod
depth behind it that that makes it that much more enjoyable. and
00:14:20
Zak
It makes me think of a couple, as I say, a couple of AFCONs ago. Many AFCONs ago. There was one where Burkina Faso did really, really well, like unexpectedly. Got like really far into it. I can't remember if they made it to the final I don't think they won or they did win. remember, to be entirely honest.
00:14:37
Zak
But it was like, one, how I learned about Burkina Faso as the country. And two, like just sort of the edge of the seat, kind of like, oh my God, are they going to do it sort of thing.
00:14:48
Zak
And that was like a big, big, big deal. And it's, yeah, you kind of let, to you forget how kind of big it is for law for specific countries that haven't been involved for so long or haven't been involved at all to kind of qualify for one.
00:14:59
Zak
And that's where like we are, we have a privilege, Greg, to go, I don't care about international football because you're right. will usually automatically qualify one way or another. And, like, the only time that we'll have issues is, like, when we got beaten by Japan yesterday.
00:15:14
Zak
did read the match report, at least, and it just seemed to be like, oh it's because we didn't have Harry Kane. And that kind of seemed to be, like, didn't even really treat it. Obviously, it was a friendly anyway, but we don't even, like, treat a lot our games seriously.
00:15:25
Zak
But, yeah.
00:15:26
DailySaintsPod
think that's part of the problem, though, because because like so many of the games, the international games that we specifically England sort of end up playing in.
00:15:26
Zak
All right.
00:15:37
DailySaintsPod
are so it's almost trivial, right? is It always feels so pointless that actually when we do come up against these good teams in these also like strange friendlies and whatever, it it's harder to get like properly up for it. We've talked before about like the edge of mentality and why it means so much more to these like elite level athletes.
00:16:03
DailySaintsPod
is Is that like part of the problem?
00:16:03
Zak
Yeah. but it Maybe, but it's because it's like, for England, it's not necessarily even about creating a team. It's about who's going to play for England, right? Like, the headlines are all like, who's going to be on the plane? Who's going to start? Who's going to this? It's never it's never like, the team of England is going to do this. It's I do think that just because of the nature of the way that like the Premier League is and the nature of personalities and the nature of, you know, they had all the issues.
00:16:28
Zak
They they spoke about, right, the golden generation spoke about, like, quote-unquote, all of the the struggles with, like, rivalries and stuff.
00:16:31
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:16:34
Zak
And then you've seen Tuchel kind of criticise because he's been picking and choosing players that a lot of people are kind of, like, have question marks over rather than sort of what...
00:16:45
Zak
the media have dubbed the team that should be picked. and And yeah, just think like there's far more discussions about that most of the time than playing the actual games. And then we've we've, under Southgate, we like scraped through everything.
00:16:53
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:16:56
Zak
Everything just felt painful and a slog. And like we we didn't even really get like excited even up to the last game, right? It was just very much like, oh, we're not going win this.
00:17:06
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:17:06
Zak
Didn't. But it's like, yeah, it's just a bit of a, it's difficult.
00:17:11
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, it's an interesting kind of like juxtaposition, isn't it? it's
00:17:14
Zak
Yeah, just I just think it means more to others.
00:17:16
DailySaintsPod
It's odd.
00:17:16
Zak
but But also, it's like there isn't that level of expectation. It would be like if we were City fans and they won every year and then they complain when they don't win and it's a huge big deal. You see with Arsenal fans, right? The reason Arsenal fan TV is so like notorious is because there's an expectation they should be finishing the top four every year and challenging for the title.
00:17:33
Zak
And so like when they lose to like you know when they loose them the teams like Little Old Southampton, it's like, oh oh, it's an absolute meltdown, this the other, as opposed to just accepting it's part of football. Whereas like you know we look at the kind of FA Cup giant killings. And I think, for me, watching England like qualify for all that kind of stuff is just like, how many people are like really excited to go watch Man City play Leighton Orient?
00:17:55
Zak
Leighton Orient fans hugely excited. Man City fans couldn't care less. And I think that's very much the opinion of a lot of England until we get into those major tournaments, right? like Everyone still
00:18:04
DailySaintsPod
Mm-hmm.
Domestic vs International Football
00:18:04
Zak
talks about the shock of being knocked out by Iceland.
00:18:07
Zak
in the group stages like ages ago but more so it was beforehand and then like but There's that video going around with a guy who was like a Charlton fan. I think it was a Charlton fan or a Burnley fan that spent the season watching absolute dross was annoyed because he was like, wanted cheer himself by watching England and we lose to Iceland.
00:18:25
Zak
And it's just like situations like that. I think it's like we we just, yeah, I think we 100% take it for granted. And I think that it is obviously probably sometimes taken for granted, not by the players that are playing for England, but like, oh, well, we're coming up against this country. We should probably just beat them.
00:18:41
Zak
as opposed to a lot of these other teams that are just really excited to be there.
00:18:41
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:45
Zak
I just think international football means different things to different people. right like we We also have a team of people who, a lot of the time, but a vast majority of the squad have played in England and played for Premier League teams.
00:18:56
Zak
i started You've got a lot of other international teams where they have players that don't really play in their domestic leagues at all. So they are, for their for their home team, like superstars. Anyway, it's weird. See, it turns out we do I do pay slightly more attention to international football than you.
00:19:11
Zak
and I do have many more opinions than you on it by the sounds of it.
00:19:11
DailySaintsPod
Oh,
00:19:13
Zak
But I do think it's like a weird way juxtaposition to be in with it and how we compare it in comparison to like domestic football, how different it is.
00:19:24
Zak
But my favourite thing is like people that have so are so uninformed about football and it's not their fault. They're just not interested in it as a hobby. They're like, so do England play like Man United? That's always like my favourite topic of conversation.
00:19:35
DailySaintsPod
it's classic.
00:19:36
Zak
LAUGHTER
00:19:37
DailySaintsPod
absolute plastic Yeah. How does carbon club and and an international football work?
00:19:40
Zak
Anyway, say
00:19:44
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. Brilliant.
00:19:46
Zak
this. So Northern Ireland, thank you for saying, sorry.
00:19:49
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, no, they lost to Italy. And then Shea Charles also played 46 minutes in a friendly against Wales, which was a one-all draw. Yeah.
00:19:59
Zak
and You can tell all of these post-not-mattering games are just...
00:20:04
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:20:05
Zak
We've been knocked out forever.
00:20:07
DailySaintsPod
It's why post-season friendlies will never take off as a thing, right? Because you you build yourself up for the important gains with consequences and then then have to like pick yourself up after the emotional release of that, be it positive or be it negative. And...
00:20:27
DailySaintsPod
playing a friendly like it's it's a strange one isn't it it's the the strange juxtaposition like say of international football of the the different weightings of games and how important some of them are compared to you know absolute games that mean nothing uh in some cases even to the teams taking part right which is the sort of odd thing about it
00:20:31
Zak
Yeah. Yeah. All
00:20:51
DailySaintsPod
And then finally on the list, Joshua Quasi went away with the German under-21 team, played a full 180 minutes of the 180 minutes available to him in the two games they played.
00:20:57
Zak
right.
00:21:07
Zak
That's all
00:21:08
DailySaintsPod
Yeah, they bagged a 3-0 win against the Northern Irish under-21s. and a 2-0 win against the Greece under-21s where he got booked.
00:21:20
DailySaintsPod
But, you know, that's good.
00:21:22
Zak
so right. don't mind a bit rustling.
00:21:24
DailySaintsPod
that's It's a solid part of that line-up.
00:21:24
Zak
What was the stand-up?
00:21:27
DailySaintsPod
It's... good stuff. It being under 21s and the nature of the beast, there is little to no coverage available to delve into any of those 90 minutes apart from like BBC did have live text updates for the Greece under 21s versus Germany under And they were...
00:21:50
Zak
Man, that was good.
00:21:50
DailySaintsPod
they were
00:21:55
DailySaintsPod
They were sparse. Let's put it that way. This player won a free kick. This player showed a yellow card. This player earth made a save. but That's it. it it i
00:22:09
Zak
Oh dear, we can put men on the moon again, but we still can't report on all football as I'm criminally.
00:22:13
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. I mean, it's because there's just so much football the time, right? We talked about this the other day. How could you possibly report on on all of the football all of the time?
00:22:27
DailySaintsPod
Because it's never it.
00:22:28
Zak
Oh, life finds a way.
00:22:30
DailySaintsPod
I like, look, if you think about like how much, even like store videos, about how many like terabytes of video it would take to store just like the entire English pyramid of football for a Saturday to be able to browse back through.
00:22:32
Zak
who
00:22:47
DailySaintsPod
Right? Right.
00:22:47
Zak
Well, yeah, but you say that. But if you could bow on it, you'd end records for it.
00:22:52
DailySaintsPod
I'll not be a funny, mate. i received videos this weekend I received videos this weekend of all of the goals from my nippers game in the under-8s team. So, like it's to do I don't know how much more coverage you want of football.
00:23:09
Zak
That's insane.
00:23:10
DailySaintsPod
It's
00:23:10
Zak
That is... Sure. You've got to think, like, if the next generation federation of scouts for teams are not, like, the best going with the amount of, like, data they have to their hands, I don't know what is. Like, you know, know that you can't necessarily pick out the next best player all the time, but, like, come on, if you if you are able to watch a player develop through the entirety of their life, it's...
00:23:36
Zak
Kind of crazy. Before you know it, mate, they'll be fit with trackers that will be tracking and all of their, like, you know, oxygen levels and everything from birth. It's nuts.
00:23:44
DailySaintsPod
yeah Yeah, we'll get like opt-to-level statistical analysis of our under-8 league game. What more could you ask for?
00:23:50
Zak
God. Oh, there's something so dystopian about that, but you're right. Look, sometimes you just want footwear to be fun, right?
00:24:01
Zak
don't know where I'm going with this, but
00:24:01
DailySaintsPod
get pulled You get pulled over in training. Stop chasing butterflies. Look, your work rate wasn't good enough on Saturday. You only got 13 touches of the ball.
00:24:12
DailySaintsPod
The
00:24:15
Zak
No, we already know that there's like a bunch of backseat managers and dads. Like, my wife told me off going and my mother-in-law's walking football because I started shouting.
00:24:25
DailySaintsPod
whole point is what full so it's all about, mate. It's why we love it.
00:24:28
Zak
No, you're right.
00:24:29
Zak
You're right. And again, like,
International Performance and Season Shift
00:24:30
Zak
as you pointed out, despite it being not the best type of football for you personally, when that World Cup rolls around, you're going to be asking me if I caught the Haiti game at 2am.
00:24:40
Zak
I like
00:24:41
DailySaintsPod
yeah hundred hundred per cent
00:24:43
Zak
And now we know who's going definitely be confirmed for it. And now all of the international football has finished for the run-in towards the end of the season. So now we can concentrate on more important things up until that point. However, it's nice to see that most of our lads went away and did all right.
00:25:00
Zak
Even if, you know, hopefully they they take the losses and on the chin. Both different sets of the Irish guys. So hopefully, you know, go on from that. you know fight for fight for promotion places.
00:25:14
Zak
Still will fight for second. The fight's still on. And then if not, we'll just win we' just win the playoffs, right? That's all right.
00:25:19
DailySaintsPod
Look, if we're being honest, right, especially from from the Republic of Ireland perspective, there's absolutely no shame in losing on penalties to the Czech Republic, who are a team who have consistently qualified for these tournaments and done well and gone deep in these tournaments for decades at this point.
00:25:20
Zak
All
00:25:34
Zak
not only that it's penalties as well it's penalties it's such a like roll of the dice depends on the mentality on the night right like you know unless unless you've got kepper in goal like then you know what's the answer the outcome's gonna be but like anyone else
00:25:37
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:25:41
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. So many factors.
00:25:49
DailySaintsPod
Yeah. But look, hopefully they can, like you say, take take it the right way, take the confidence from that and not be too disheartened. As disappointing as it is, there's absolutely no shame in it whatsoever.
00:26:03
DailySaintsPod
And I'm sure that all of the Republic Wild is proud of how close they came, to be honest, because it's a good run.
00:26:09
Zak
they They are all of the players that are being picked internationally, as you pointed out, are being picked as the best players for their country out of every other players that could play football for that country.
00:26:20
Zak
And I think no matter what, you need to take pride in that. And you should take pride in that. And we will take pride in them. for them if they don't and as I said or what it's valuable playing time and experience none of them have picked up injuries which is the main thing that's the only thing you ever really hugely worry about and now we can just focus on the end of the season and see where we end up right
00:26:34
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:26:42
DailySaintsPod
Yes, that's it. Now, this is it. this is There's no breaks or pauses to talk about internationals or any nonsense like this now. they
FA Cup Semi-Final Preview
00:26:52
DailySaintsPod
It's pedal to the metal or from this point forward.
00:26:55
DailySaintsPod
We've got you know three trips to Wembley to plan and all of the fun that comes with it for the rest of the run-in.
00:27:03
Zak
I can't keep clipping up you saying we're going to Wembley three times. I've already done it twice.
00:27:12
DailySaintsPod
You've just got to put this good energy into the universe, and that's that's how it comes to play.
00:27:17
Zak
I like that idea, mate. It's got to be better than half the energy that goes out nowadays.
00:27:22
DailySaintsPod
we talked at the start of the season that if going up via the playoffs meant like my kid's second trip to Wembley to watch Saints in like three years, it sets a bad expectation.
00:27:35
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:27:35
Zak
You
00:27:36
DailySaintsPod
don't know what three times in a year would say for that.
00:27:40
Zak
three times in a year we'll say, hey, hey, dad, why is it that when we ask you to go here, you say no, because it's too expensive. But when we have to go watch football in London three times in less than a month or two, it's not a problem.
00:27:55
Zak
but And then you can have fun explaining how you're able to afford it.
00:28:00
DailySaintsPod
right
00:28:01
Zak
In actual fact, when you're working late nights, mate, you can turn her around and and this is why daddy works late nights.
00:28:04
DailySaintsPod
yeah
00:28:07
DailySaintsPod
Mate, I've got to tell you that that question would not be leaving my kids' lips. They fully take after me and live and breathe as much football as I do.
00:28:12
Zak
Oh, dear.
00:28:17
DailySaintsPod
It's truly a genetic disorder.
00:28:18
Zak
Perfect. Woo!
00:28:21
DailySaintsPod
LAUGHTER
00:28:22
Zak
oh effect
00:28:25
DailySaintsPod
that's it all alright right that that is all we have got time for today so thank you everyone for joining us and as always ma thank you for joining me we will be back tomorrow for the big one the big match preview for the sold out fa cup semi-final against arsenal uh truly the excitement is starting to build I don't know if that's just like localized to my household or if the the rest of the Saints fans are sort of starting to build the anticipation as much but it's good stuff indeed
00:28:57
Zak
but just everybody keep an eye on all of the people that aren't celebrating or singing all the songs who might be sitting in the home end.
00:29:04
DailySaintsPod
that's it
00:29:06
Zak
That's all I'm saying. yeah It's that kind of game in it.
00:29:08
DailySaintsPod
indeed
00:29:10
Zak
Like, you know,
00:29:11
DailySaintsPod
that' it Absolutely. But yes, our big preview of that coming up tomorrow. but until then, folks, let us know in the comments, in the socials, what you thought of the international break. Did you enjoy the sun and the opportunity to mow your lawn? And maybe did you watch any of the football?
00:29:31
DailySaintsPod
Let us know. We are Daily Saints Pod absolutely everywhere. X, Blue Sky, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. Look, but we we took a week off to specifically not watch the football. i did see, I think I shared with you at one post someone put on Reddit of ranking championship clubs on their distance to the local Nando's.
00:29:55
Zak
Yeah, and then they start then they all started shoving all of it into ChatGPT, and then we got Greg's, and then we got, like, I don't know, ever every other type of, you know...
00:29:55
DailySaintsPod
and the
00:30:00
DailySaintsPod
who
00:30:03
Zak
The one that really matters, let's face it, is a web of spoons. I'm baffled that that wasn't made.
00:30:08
DailySaintsPod
Yeah.
00:30:08
Zak
Maybe we can do that.
00:30:09
DailySaintsPod
Crazy.
00:30:10
Zak
Maybe we can get a viral post out of it.
00:30:18
Zak
Yes.
00:30:19
DailySaintsPod
But until tomorrow, everyone, have a wonderful day.
00:30:19
Zak
For sure.
00:30:22
DailySaintsPod
We'll see then.