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Bellingham blunts Norway as England make the semis - World Cup Daily
00:41:21
Max Rushden is joined by Barry Glendenning, John Brewin, Lars Sivertsen and Leander Schaerlaeckens as England beat Norway 2-1 in extra time to set up a semi-final against Argentina
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- [00:00]
A
This is the Guardian. This episode is supported by Boss formal wear provider for the US Men's national soccer team. For soccer's biggest event this summer, the US is playing on home soil and BOSS will be dressing the US Players and coach Mauricio Pochettino in Boss Performance business wear for their off pitch appearances. BOSS and the USMNT share the same values discipline, precision and and the confidence to perform under pressure. US fans can look sharp too in the Boss Performance collection and wear their passion with special fanware, capsule and embroidered badges in national colors. Own the moment with confidence. Discover the Boss Performance collection as worn by the US Men's national soccer team and the fan capsule of jerseys, polos and jackets in national colors. Wear your passion your way. Available now@boss.com or at your nearest Boss store beyourownboss Foreign. Max here Football Weekly is supported by Contentful Marketers. No matter what pitch you play on, a big win feels the same electric it's that moment when you read the play before the trend even starts. Beat the clock on a campaign with a little help from AI and connect with customers in real time like you've trained for it your whole career. That's contentful. World class digital experiences built fast, built beautifully create and launch personalized content in an instant across every channel your customers are watching. No chaos, no limits, just open field. Take your shot@contentful.com. Hello and welcome to the Guardian Football Weekly. What's the phrase? Just enough. England make it through to the semi finals of the Men's World cup for the fourth time in their history in it was agonizing, it was exhausting. It was painful. Once again Jude Bellingham is the hero, an excellent equalizer after great work from Anthony Gordon, Elliot, Anderson and a cable in the sky. And then the winner in extra time, Niland failing to hold Roger's shot. Bellingham following up. There were some great performances. Stones, Anderson and the subs when they came on Rhys James, a Roadrunner esque cameo from Jed Spence and one massive Dan Byrne header. But Thomas Tugel said they were lucky. Norway had a great chance at 1 nil when Sauloff didn't play in Haaland they had one disallowed as well for a push at a corner and and I hit the bar. But it didn't really happen for Erling Haaland who was substituted. And so it's Argentina then. Oh man, Julian Alvarez with an absolute beauty in extra time to win it before Lautaro finished it off. The big moment when Brielle Mbolo on a Yellow card dived and was sent off. The slightly odd mistaken identity law being used once again. The Swiss had equalized and were on top. It's a hammer blow for them. We'll look ahead to the semi finals. Answer your questions. And that's today's Guardian Football Week. CLE on the panel today, Barry Glendenning. Hello.
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B
Hi, Max.
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A
Welcome. John Bruin.
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C
Hello.
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A
Representing Norway, Lars Sivitson. Hey, Lars.
- [02:56]
C
Hello, Max. Congratulations.
- [02:58]
A
Thank you very much and commiserations to you. And on neutral ground, Leander Shayans. Hey, Leander. Nice to have you on again.
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D
Hey, guys. Glad to be back.
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A
Let's start then with England beating Norway 2 1. Jude Bellingham's two goals winning in extra time. I'll start with the other England fan on here, John Blimey. Wasn't pretty, was it?
- [03:19]
E
Oh, God, no. Not at all. But there's nothing wrong with winning ugly. We're gonna have to get used to it. And do you know what? It felt a bit Southgatey, but with a. With an angry German guy on the sidelines, a guy who remained angry after the game as well, which I think's good. And in the midst of a lot of doubt that I went through. And certainly you did too, Max. Thomas Tuchel got his calls. Right. Well, eventually there was a few that didn't work out, but England rode out a few things that went against him. Clearly, Declan Rice was not fit to play. He's been ill, we're told. And there was a few reshuffles, one of which was. I mean, Bellingham obviously is the match winner, but there was a point where Bellingham was pushed back into midfield that he didn't look particularly satisfied with, and it was not satisfactory for England. In came Morgan Rogers, who did a fine job. And then, of course, we had, as you mentioned before, the performance of the greatest living Englishman, Jed Spence.
- [04:25]
A
I. I thought you were going to say Jeff Cable. Jeff Camera Cable.
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B
But we.
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A
We'll get to that.
- [04:29]
E
Well, we. We'll get to that, I'm sure. But yeah, I mean, Jet. Jed Spence's. I suppose there's always got to be a cult hero and. And. And that's Jed Spence this time around, isn't it? And absolutely fantastic. Let's not even call it a cameo performance, a leading role in. In getting the job done. And, yeah, England roll on. We're not sure how, but we got it done. Having said that. And Lars will speak to this. Norway will feel they'd left it out there for them. Don't you think, Lars?
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A
Yeah, I was going to say, hard luck to you, Lars. And I don't know if you were robbed or if you were, if either side massively really deserved to win that. But before we get onto all the bits and pieces, just emotionally, how are you feeling?
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C
I'm extremely proud of the team and what they've done this summer. That's the overwhelming sensation I have. We came into this tournament having never won a knockout game in an international tournament, ever. We came into this tournament being grouped with France, who've got the best squad in the tournament? Senegal, who are the best team in Africa? One of the two. So there were so many different versions of this where it could have gone very wrong. We got out of the group, we beat the Ivory coast, we beat Brazil, and we've gone out against England in a game. We were pretty even with you, all things considered. I think that's an incredible performance from the team and it's been extremely moving to see the way the countries come together. I loved seeing footage from Oslo of tens of thousands of people getting together outside the Royal Palace. Not to celebrate really, but just kind of to pay tribute to everything in the summer we've all had. I think that's a wonderful thing to see for the game itself at this stage of the tournament. I think it's a game of moments in the way that the game against Brazil was also a game of moments as much as that was a great victory for us. We did need a world class performance from our goalkeeper to come through in the game against Brazil when he saves a penalty. Early on, you know, we have these things that go for us and in this game I felt some of those things went against us. There was that two on one from solos where he should have tried to play in Holland. I do think I understand what he was trying to do. Charlotte is a pretty left footed player. He's not super comfortable on his right. I think he couldn't quite see the angle of the pass and just figured he was instead going to use Holland as a decoy to try to get up space for a shot with the left and it went wrong. But Also in the second half at 1 1, Saul Buckin makes the subs. We get our back, we get our other wingers in New San Bob and. And both of those have chances. They get into the edge, into the area. Noosa have a couple of shots, Bob have a couple of raids inside the penalty box and at this level have to be clinical. And we just didn't take care of those chances when they came around and instead we have A mistake down the other end and I'm not going to have a bad word spoken of Ojan Elam because without his heroics against Brazil we wouldn't have been in this game. But it's a fact of the matter that that is a mistake. So you need margins to go your way. And instead of margins going our way, that wasn't the game that we had.
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A
Baz has the ferometer.
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B
It's high. We are. Well, you, me and John are in the city of New York. Max and the Yankees pitcher Vernon Lefty Gomez back in the 30s, 40s, I think he played. He has this famous quote attributed to I'd rather be lucky than good. And I think that's a quote you could that kind of describes England's progress through this World Cup. They're in the semi final now. They've played six games. I think they've played well for half of two of them. A half against Croatia and a half against Mexico and the rest of the time they've been bang average at best. And I think they were quite lucky tonight for various reasons, some involved in the officials, but they're through to the semifinals so it doesn't matter if you're being lucky. Ride, ride your luck and off you go. But I, yeah, I think they were pretty fortunate. I mean Thomas Tuchel wholeheartedly agrees with me. He, he kept stressing in his post match interview that they were really lucky and their performance was terrible. I'll be honest, I didn't think the performance was as terrible as he seemed to think it was, but it was pretty grim.
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A
But they got away again.
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E
Yeah.
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A
He said, yeah, that's a nice feeling, isn't it? He said there's no mentality problem. This is pure mentality. You can bottle it up and sell it. It's the quality overall we got today. We need to play better. And I guess Leander, look, we talked about Clutch yesterday and Mikel Marino and this is about Jude Bellingham today, isn't it? For England?
- [09:03]
D
It is. I mean he, he was incredible. Again, the English have been talking about hero moments and, and who needs to deliver them and at what time. As the only total neutral here in the room in this match, I think I really enjoyed this very much. There was something epic about this game. It felt like sort of a fight from mythology, like a clash between these incredible athletes that you could almost feel on the Richter scale. Our congratulations should go to Harry Kane for overcoming the Trump curse, which had previously cursed the Knicks and the US Team and the American Ryder cup. Team. And I believe there's more historical examples available there. I'm almost fascinated with games like this about sort of the narrative tipping points. Right. I mean, a game on a knife edge, that really could have gone either way. If England loses that, does that suddenly vindicate Gareth Southgate's approach to these matches that we might have seen? Does that make Thomas Tuchel a failure here? Does he instantly lose his popular mandate? Maybe we insert a Keir Radnage joke here somewhere or, sorry, Keir Starmer. Jesus.
- [10:06]
C
We could have a Keir Radnus joke as well, but that would be very niche.
- [10:09]
D
Yes. You know, does Norway then suddenly become the model national team the way we thought of Croatia for a while and Iceland and Uruguay and Belgium? I'm just always really interested in how these things turn out because we just have this habit, right, as the commentariat in football, to attach all of this meaning to these outcomes that are really, really very, very close.
- [10:33]
A
Yeah, I think you're right. I mean, it is mad, given the tournament that Bellingham is having, John, that there were people who were saying Morgan Rodgers should start. And I was definitely, when Rodgers was playing brilliantly, I think in that game way in Serbia, I was like, well, he obviously has the shirt. He has the shirt and Tuchel is brave enough not to. I was definitely saying these things. I can't pre. I wasn't. And Bellingham has just is, you know, it's. It's dragging the side through is what he's doing.
- [10:57]
E
Yeah, I don't. I think this. I mean, we could re litigate the Bellingham debate from a few months ago, which for certain writers keeps coming back to haunt them, doesn't it? Yeah.
- [11:10]
A
Yeah. I never wrote a piece saying he shouldn't be at the World cup, he
- [11:12]
E
should be left at home. No, the thing is, Tuchel is a guy with a plan, isn't he? And. And he is a guy that knows that Bellingham is a very, very useful footballer. And of course he took Jordan Henderson along to this tournament and we are told the reason for him taking Jordan Henderson is one of the people that Jude Bellingham really respects and listens to is Jordan Henderson. So that really suggested to me that despite all the debate that Bellingham had to be in the team and Bellingham's come through for him. That does appear, judging by post match comments and okay, we're only watching clips and things can be misconstrued. There is a certain creative tension, let's call it between Bellingham and his coach. But I would say both coach and player are people that thrive on that type of creative tension. And you look at great teams through the eras, the Dutch team in particular, creative tension is at the very heart of how these teams operate. And so there's nothing wrong with that because they keep producing to do the job that they're supposed to do. And actually, because of injuries, we might even see Morgan Rogers and Jude Bellingham play together in the next game. And Morgan Rogers did a fine job because it is a swad game. But you also need, as Leander said, you need your heroes. And Jude Bellingham is that hero now. Him and Jed Spence, I should say,
- [12:39]
A
of course, Jed and. And, you know, just one Dan Vern header every game. That's what we need. I mean, I suppose just on that, Tuchel praised the mentality and criticized the, you know, the quality of the performance. And then when Bellingham was interviewed, they didn't really mention any of the praise that Tuchel had doled out. So, you know, I suspect in the dressing room they'll be like, you know, they'll all be fine tomorrow. Baz, do you want to take on camera cable gate? I don't know how many times you've watched this ball rise and then drop slightly differently to Elliot Anderson.
- [13:08]
B
Yeah, some people are claiming the ball, this kick out didn't hit the cable. Overhead cable. And it's quite Orwellian that there. We're being asked to disbelieve the evidence of our own eyes. Now. The BBC have this feature on their website, a 3D thing of a 3D showing of games. It's proved useful for two things so far. Once for showing what a monster Dan Byrne is when it comes to heading footballs. And two, it shows emphatically that the ball struck the overhead cable, despite what the flat earthers would have us believe. So that means the goal should have been disallowed. England's opener. But it wasn't. And to be fair, Norway had time to adjust and regroup. I don't think any of the players reacted on the pitch. Some of the staff on the Norway bench did. What I find more egregious is when the score was still 1:1 and Christopher Ayer hit the crossbar with a header. When the ball rebounded off the bar, Esriconsa blatantly shoved Sande Burges in the back, preventing him from heading in on the rebound. That foul seems to have gone completely noticed by everyone. And I think at best, or at the very least, it's a penalty and it quite possibly should have been a Red card for Consa. And it's another red he has avoided in this tournament. He's leading a very, very charmed life.
- [14:43]
A
Lars, to agree or just. Because at the time I thought, my. My thought when I watched that, and I haven't watched it a million times, is Concert does amazingly well to use his strength to get there.
- [14:53]
C
There was a pretty high elbow there and I have a feeling maybe that could have been looked at. But listen, I want to say two things. First of all, no, we didn't lose this game because a ball maybe have touched a wire like this is just nonsense. But what I want to say, and I feel this quite strongly now, this is the hole that FIFA have dug for themselves because they made this completely unprecedented decision to unban Cristiano Ronaldo so that they could have one of the most commercially attractive participants in the tournament and he could score a couple of goals against Uzbekistan and everyone could be very happy for him because they made this completely unprecedented decision, with no clear process whatsoever, to unban Florian Balogun after very well documented political pressure from the host nations president. Because these things have happened, FIFA no longer have any credibility as a neutral actor here. No one with an IQ above room temperature believe that FIFA at this point are a neutral arbiter. And that means, like, I personally do not think there is any kind of plot to help Argentina going on here. I think all the decisions the referee made in the Argentina Egypt game were completely fine. I absolutely do not believe this business with the wire made an impact on anything. But here's the thing. I don't blame the people who do believe this, because you can't trust the people running the game right now. They have had a total and utter loss of legitimacy due to their own actions. And I don't see how they get it back. So you're going to have this speculation, you're going to have these conspiracy theories forever, and it is entirely FIFA's own fault that this is where we're at.
- [16:21]
A
The only thing I disagree with you on that Lars is room temperature when the aircon's off is actually quite high. So, you know, that's quite high iq.
- [16:28]
E
But.
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A
But that aside, if we're in Fahrenheit,
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C
in fairness, I mean, currently, yeah, I just turn it off. I mean, we're creeping up towards the 80s at least where I. Yeah, I.
- [16:37]
B
Now, he may. He's welcome to disagree with me, but I think Lars is being a bit kind here and he's bending over backwards enough to come across as a sore loser. So I'M going to be a sore loser on his behalf.
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A
But, yeah, it's.
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B
It's not. It's not a conspiracy theory to say, you know, the ball hits the cable. It is. You know, the play has to stop. And Ezra Concert did shove. I'm pretty sure it was Sandra Burge in the back. You know, I, I'm. I didn't dream those scenarios up. They happened.
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C
No, you're right. You're right. Those were bad. The refereeing decisions, they happen. You have to overcome them as part of football, don't you?
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E
Don't you think, Barry, that. That what you're saying also follows into what Lars is talking about, which is that because of FIFA's lack of control that they've caused by making these decisions, everyone is questioning everything in the game and looking for. I mean, I'm not going to say you've got an agenda, Barry, but. Well, you do have a bit of an agenda, but everyone is looking for these decisions to say, oh, well, this can't. The reason that Norway are no longer in the World cup is because of this. Because these decisions were made. Call me old school, call me a Pollyanna, whatever. I always think that if you are relying on a refereeing decision to win a game, you probably didn't play well enough to win it. And certain decisions can cause these type of things. But Jude Bellingham was always likely to do something big in this game and, you know, stuff like that. And it. Yeah, but it's because we're in this world of social media as well. That doesn't help as well. Everything is just picked apart and those that don't want England to win can pick on that thing or don't want Argentina to go there, come or, you know, it's a Portuguese referee that's. That's harming Argentina, whatever it is. And just everyone is living in their own conspiracy theory movie, aren't they, at this point?
- [18:42]
A
Yeah, yeah. No, I, I don't disagree. Can I bring it back to some of the performances, Leander? Because I did think within that England performance, which wasn't great and Tuchel said wasn't great, Stones and Gay did keep Harlan quiet. Even if he did get a dead leg at some point in the game and he wasn't quite on it, I thought Elliot Anderson, even though he benefited, of course, from the cable, most of the time the ball arrived to him and it hadn't struck a cable, I thought he was very good as well. In those. In the, in the England players that started that played well, I picked out those Three.
- [19:09]
D
Yeah. No, I agree. I mean, Holland was. Was largely absent. I start to wonder at this point what the toll that's being exacted by the long, long season is. You know, having a game in Miami where at kickoff it was 90 and I believe 64% humidity, that on the field felt like 102 degrees. And that guy has been putting on shift after shift after shift in this tournament, doing a lot of hard running. Even if he picks his moments, as is well established, to do that running, he does a lot of really, really physical work. Right. Against Brazil, he's fighting off Gabriel again, and, you know, he puts in hard miles for that team, and he really was. Was hard to spot. You know, speaking of Anderson, I thought that call for the disallowed goal for Norway, where Haaland supposedly shoved Andersen. Well, he did shove him, but I thought that was really harsh. You know, when we talk about Norway not getting a penalty there on the Konza play as well, I feel like if you're gonna adjudicate that evenly, then either you let that goal stand or you don't. And then you also have to give the penalty. Right? So I felt like, again, there was a little bit of an unevenness there. And to get back to the point about re. Refereeing everything just for a moment, I think that this, too, is all downstream from the fact that we've kind of tried to introduce all of this technology in the sport that's supposed to be definitive, but really isn't. Right. We have sensors and everything. We have cameras and everything. We have 3D animation to recreate everything, but it still comes down to human error. So we've really just moved the mistakes from the field into these booths and into these other spaces, but we haven't really solved any of these problems.
- [20:48]
A
Yeah, no, I. I agree with that. I just wanted to. If there were any other England performances that. That stood out for you, Barry. I mean, we've talked a bit about Spence, but I thought he was. He was the most fun of the England. You know, this is meant to be fun. And he was the most fun of the England performances.
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B
I thought it was watching you watch that game, Max. It didn't look like you were having fun.
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A
Well, it was very hot in there. It was very hot. No, it wasn't. I didn't enjoy it. That's true. I didn't enjoy. I know. You know, it's scientifically proven that it's not good.
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C
It sounds like you're very unhappy with your team. You know, you guys, you're in the semi finals of Cup. It's all very sad, if you like. I'm open to that. Like that's some sort of. Some sort of arrangement. Like I dream of one day getting to the point where I can watch my team qualify for the semi final of the World Cup. And I'm mostly unhappy with the fact that they haven't played quite as well as I would like them to.
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A
Hang on, hang on, Lars. My question was, he was the most fun. I think it was an upbeat question, is what I think. I mean, I can't. I can't lie. I wasn't in agony watching it.
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B
Yeah, Barry, to answer your question, I think Harry Kane played very well, but not in a scoring goals way, obviously. I thought he did a great. Put in a great shift tracking back winning balls, helping out his teammates. And in the debit side of the ledger, I thought Jordan Pickford had a very strange game. Seemed pretty out of sorts. I am a huge Jordan Pickford fan, but there were times there where he just seemed to completely lose his bearings that didn't know where the goal was behind him, wherever. And he was needlessly saving balls that were going wide or over the bar, putting them out for corners when there was no real need to do that. And I think he had, by his own very high standards, a bad game, but he got away with it.
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D
Am I the only one who thought that Pickford pulled his hand back on that Skeldrup shot cross that wound up going in? Because if you looked carefully, it seemed like he had his hand up there and he sort of pulled it back at the last moment as if he thought it was going to flash wide of goal or high of goal. I don't exactly know, but it looked weird to me.
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B
Yeah.
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A
I couldn't tell, Lars, if the shot was intended as a shot. I sort of thought it had to be, given how hard he kicked it.
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C
Yeah, to be honest. So what he said after the game, that it was a bit of both, I think he said was like, okay, well, he. What he did. Which makes me think he didn't mean it, because if you meant it, you just. Yeah, of course he was like. But he did say, I think it was my late grandmother who guided that into the goal. So that was. There was a bit of help from up high there for the Norwegian team.
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A
Yeah. But I don't know. A couple of people in my football team, WhatsApp group thought the same about Pickford and I thought, ah, maybe it's just gone really fast. I don't. I. I don't know, but I think Barry makes a point.
- [23:33]
B
The.
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A
The difference in how he played against Mexico and this one is, Is.
- [23:37]
B
Was.
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A
Was pretty stark. Can you finish the England bit on a huge positive, John? Because I understand Lars's point. It is hard to watch that game
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C
and not be like, I can be positive about England. Like, you guys seem to really not like your team, but I have positives to things say about it. I think the last two games were a massive vindication so far for a lot of the decisions that Thomas Tuchel has made. Thomas Tuchel, I think, realizes that the job of an England manager is not really qualifying because you're always going to qualify unless you really screw up. It's not even getting out of the group because you're always going to do that as well unless you really screw up. The job of the English manager is to prepare them for these knockout games that happens once every two years. How can you do the best in these absolutely pivotal matches? And Thomas Tuchel has had a very clear line of prioritizing team players are prioritizing team structure or prioritizing people who think are the right sort, so to speak. That's the one thing he's done. The other thing he's done, he's looked at the five different number tens you guys have, who I think a lot of people in the press would all like to see in the squad and the team at the same time and realize, actually we don't need that. What we need is to give the keys to the team to Jude Bellingham, because he's the best one. Those are the two big decisions he's made, and they were both completely borne out to in two different ways. The Mexico game, you showed a lot of grit and determination to hold on with the defense there. Even bringing Dan Byrne has been vindicated. Dan Byrne headed the ball so far at the Azteca, and he did the same here when we were knackered. And the only thing we could try to do is send it long. There was no point because Dan Byrne was there to win every header. Like, you might not like the decisions Tuchel has made. Maybe you feel like you should be playing like Pep Scardiola, Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, because you have so many good players. But the reality is the job he's been hired to do is to get through these games. And while we got really tired in this game, Norway is actually not a bad team. And you were able to stop us from doing most of the things that we wanted to do. And I do think your Manager might deserve a little bit of credit for that.
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A
Yeah, I know. I totally agree with all of that. And that Dan Burn header, the last one, I got a bigger cheer apparently in the stadium than. Than either of the goals.
- [25:35]
D
Yeah.
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A
John, finally.
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E
Well, Lars, as ever, puts it, puts it very well. And I suppose we. We should praise Tuchel. The big complaint made about Gareth Southgate was in game management. And that's the. If we're going to say that the strongest suit of Thomas Tuchel, it's in game management, isn't it? Obviously prepares games huge with a huge amount of depth, but. And he's also a guy that backs himself to make the big decisions as well. He won't shy away from making big decisions. He clearly enjoys making those decisions and getting them right. And he's also prepared to rip them up if they don't work. And that's ideal, you'd say, for a tournament team. Yeah, yeah.
- [26:17]
A
Because he made a change at halftime, didn't quite work and he changed it again. Clement Turpin. No, Ivan Bart there with the. After reviews, Izzy. And at the height of the tension in Extra Time, producer Joel heard Wilson and Bruin having a conversation about a tricky train route home. Couldn't make it out. Exactly. But Wilson said you could always go through Reading. So I thought we were really feeling the pain of every kick of that second half of injury of Extra Time. We are. We are.
- [26:45]
E
Oh, God, no. I'm sorry, Joel.
- [26:49]
A
We needed something to take our mind off, didn't we? Look, we've got live shows. 1st of September, Vicar street in Dublin. 9th of September, Soho Theater in Walthamstow. Negotiations have been taking place in a bar in New York. So far, Bruin and Wilson secured guardian.co.uk football weekly. And Barry, I should add guardian.co.uk footballweeklylive. You can buy tickets to the live stream of the Soldat gig in New York and the London gig as well. And that'll do for part one. England are going to play Argentina in the semi final because they beat Switzerland. We'll talk about that in part two. Hi, Podfans. Max here. Barry's here too.
- [27:23]
B
Hello.
- [27:23]
A
Global Weekly is supported by Gradient fc. Now, Barry, with the World cup underway, we know player performance will be under a microscope, from superstars cementing legacies to upstarts vying for big summer transfers. But with 48 teams and up to six matches a day, it's hard to catch every moment. And that is where the Gradient FC app shines. Their player rankings update daily during the World cup so you know whose performances are trending up, up or down on the world stage.
- [27:48]
B
How does it work?
- [27:48]
A
Well, gradients rankings use the same grades trusted by clubs across Europe's top leagues for player recruitment. Each match is graded by a team of experts who evaluate over 2000 actions per match, not just by outcome but by execution. So for example, a completed pass that leads the receiver into danger is graded negatively, while one that puts the receiver in on goal is graded positively. Now, I know you hate making match predictions, Barry, but maybe all that could change at the World Cup. With Gradient fc with head to head player comparison tools that show who's best across more than 100 grades and metrics, it's easy to build and defend any prediction. And here's something else that will appeal to you, Barry. It's free.
- [28:24]
B
Fantastic.
- [28:25]
A
Explore it for yourself@radientfc.com or download the Gradient FC app from the Apple Store or Google Play.
- [28:37]
C
He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes and costs cuts past him. Carrier contracts tries to block him.
- [28:44]
E
Oh, he leaves him in the dust.
- [28:45]
C
He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the non stop group chat trash talk. He clears on goal. He shoots unlimited data for $25 a month forever.
- [28:56]
A
Visit your local Boost Mobile store today to get unlimited data with a price that never changes. Boost mobile after 30gb, customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as
- [29:06]
D
long as they remain active on the
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A
Boost Mobile $25 Unlimited plan. Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. So Argentina beat Switzerland 31 in extra time. Liana, we should start with that. The Alvarez goal is just stunning.
- [29:27]
D
Isn't it extraordinary? I mean, you know, that first half I probably would have already forgotten if I hadn't been booked onto a podcast to talk about that game. Second half much livelier. And then it drags in the extra time and you know the game, you know, once Brilonbolo gets sent off, it really was one way traffic and it seemed like there was no urgency to Argentina at all to put that game away and to finally score the winner and to avoid the lottery of penalty kicks. And then Alvarez comes out with that shot from sort of just the corner of the box on the left and just whacks it. Just beautifully placed top corner. It was an incredible goal. Nevertheless, Argentina have not been impressive in this knockout stage. They cruised through the group stage. You know, they've now twice given up the lead against Cape Verde, they went behind two goals to Egypt. They needed extra time ultimately to beat a 10 man Switzerland. And there's just something about the feel around this team that I find confounding. It feels less like a team than kind of a traveling folk music festival that just goes around the world playing the hits, you know, all the same songs, all the same dances. It's like they've been a half decade into kind of a last dance type of situation and it just won't end. It's. It's all very odd to me.
- [30:51]
C
Max, would you say that you're in touch with that emotion?
- [30:54]
A
No, I think we are. We're just coming to our peak class. How very dare you? I. I mean we do Barry, have to talk about the Ebola red card because the law is weird because if Paredes isn't booked, then he doesn't get booked.
- [31:07]
D
But what is he doing?
- [31:08]
A
Because Switzerland have scored, they've got the momentum. We're watching this going. They could tear Argentina apart in this last 10 minutes.
- [31:13]
B
Yeah, they were on top in that second half. They scored. I think the first problem with this new law is that it's called mistaken identity. It's not mistaken identity, it's just a mistake. The wrong person, it's booked or sorry, you know, someone gets booked when they shouldn't have and then I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong, if you take away their yellow card, you have to book the other guy in this case in Polo. Now I think in Bolo dived, it was stupid. But I also think if the referee wasn't obliged to give the yellow, he'd just taken off paradise to Imbolo. He wouldn't have because he's not, he's not in the penalty here. He's not looking for a penalty or anything. So I think Mbolo was stupid, but I also think he was hard done by. But ultimately I don't think he can have any real complaint. Even though he was slightly non plussed by the decision.
- [32:15]
A
It would be devastated, poor guy. In the cold light of day, you know, has potentially cost Switzerland a semi final place. And that is for Switzerland is. Is enormous. And I think that John, the annoying thing is that Var is so annoying because. Because it is inconsistent. Because if the ref, the ref isn't necessarily going to book Paredes and we were all like, wow, an Argentinian player's finally been booked for the first time since 1900 and it's insane given how many fouls they've committed. And then you go, is he going to Book him.
- [32:43]
E
No, he's.
- [32:44]
A
And if he doesn't book him, then Ebolo just walks away like that. That seems mad that the same incident is judged differently because they. Because they don't want Var to get involved in everything. It suddenly becomes imbalanced.
- [32:58]
E
Well, it's. As Leander said, it's that the. The tech is not making the game better, is it? And. And it's a. The. The Argentinians will be, if not correct, but would have been their right to say, okay, this guy should go. But it completely changed the game, didn't it? That's the thing. And that's one of the things that we hope that having the ability to check over decisions that it wouldn't do that. And of course, Switzerland were completely in the ascendancy and were the more likely winners at this point. They were playing really, really well. And Argentina were all over the place. And then this happens. And on Bolo, I mean, is it a kanji that had to hug him, comfort him in his moment of despair? Oh, it was so bad. It was awful, you know, but maybe his tears could make him as big a star as a Gaza became in 1990 or something like that, and he could start releasing singles and maybe wear some plastic breasts on the way home or something like that. And, you know, let's look on the bright side of this. But possible. If I could say, Switzerland have actually had a very, very good World cup, haven't they? But a bit like Norway will feel that one maybe got away from them or that one got away from him. But I don't think. I hope not anyway, that Umbola is going to be scapegoated by the nation for that. It's just one of those things that happened.
- [34:25]
B
Can I just say that Brielle and Bolo is one of those players who inches his way across my radar once every two years either at the Euros of the World cup. And then you kind of forget he exists until the next tournament. But I will not forget his performance in this tournament. He played well and ultimately it ended badly from. Can I just say as well, I hate that we generally, and I specifically are spending so much of this podcast talking about referees var. Agree decisions. I before this tournament, I was not a tinfoil hat merchant. But that Florin Baligan thing has just completely. I don't know what to think anymore, you know, And I hate that I'm turning into a fucking idiot, basically.
- [35:13]
A
Are you looking at. Are you looking at the chemtrails, Barry? Look at the chemtrails. Start looking at them? No, but coming next, that's always.
- [35:21]
C
That's always been my thing. Listeners will know I've been dismissive, even contemptuous of people who suggest these biases and these sort of things. But the problem is, after the Baligan thing, you can't adopt that attitude anymore, because it's very clear that.
- [35:34]
B
That the.
- [35:34]
C
The authorities are not necessarily neutral here. You're right. Has really ruined everything, and I don't think there's a way of fixing that while the current leadership of FIFA are in place.
- [35:42]
A
Well, I did put a bin on my head and said I was Johnny Bin Fantino thinking I'd get lots of hits, but it hasn't done the numbers.
- [35:49]
C
I was hoping to be the key to electoral success at the moment.
- [35:54]
A
I thought it would do really well. I thought I could wake up to millions of followers. I thought it was a good bit. Did you have your hand raised, Leander? I pray it's not about bar and refereeing, but if it is, it is. There's nothing I could do. Now.
- [36:06]
D
We all keep being handed new angles of the Zapruder film and we're all trying to solve the JFK assassination just again and again and again. And on the subject of brilliant Bolo, you may recall that he was one of the first players that we heard of not being allowed into the United States because he'd had a criminal conviction. And so, of course, now this is how his World cup ends. So he's had a very. He's had a World cup with a lot to it.
- [36:33]
C
Maybe him and Miguel Almiron could start some sort of support group, because Almiron was the first guy to get done for the mistaken identity thing, and then he was the first guy to get done for the holding the fence and the thing. So, like the guy who is particularly aggrieved by the idiosyncrasies of this World cup, they should have a Facebook group, or at the very least.
- [36:50]
E
Yeah.
- [36:50]
A
Or they could. Like Milli Vanilli. They could be a bad. A band called Mistaken Identity. And it could be Mbolo and Almiron just playing the hits. The. The only question I wanted to ask.
- [36:59]
B
Well, sorry. The Swiss will say that Mbolo arrived with a criminal conviction and left on a criminal conviction.
- [37:08]
A
Well done. Now we should just mention Antonio Ratin, one of Argentina's greatest midfielders and the man who brought about the introduction of red and yellow cards has passed away at the age of 89. He was sent off one nil in the quarterfinal loss to England in 66. He refused to leave the pitch after being dismissed, saying he didn't understand German referee Rudolph Kraitlin, who didn't speak Spanish. It's a great thing to say. On his way off, he crumpled an England corner flag, sat on a red carpet reserved for Queen Elizabeth II in protest against the decision. Anyway, FIFA introduced red and yellow cards at the next World cup in 1970 to avoid communication problems between referees and players. And there have been no controversies with incidents ever since. So that's good. And condolences as well to the family friends of Ken Bates. He died at the age of 94. Described as one of the most colorful, controversial, high significant figures in the modern football era. Best known for his ownership of Chelsea for over more than two decades. And I think the thing that hit us most was the news about Jaden Adams. There was a minute silence in both semi finals today. 25 year old South Africa midfielder, he played in all three games of this World cup. The South African football players union wrote in a statement. We're devastated. We extend our deepest condolences to the Adams family. Mamelodi Sundown Stellenbosch FC Bafana. Bafana and all those lives he touched. And we do too. It's incredibly tragic news and we'll be back in a second.
- [38:34]
C
He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes. It cuts past him, carrier contracts, tries to block.
- [38:40]
E
Oh he leaves him in the dust.
- [38:41]
C
He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the non stop group chat, trash talk. He clears on goal.
- [38:46]
E
He shoots.
- [38:47]
C
No unlimited data for $25 a month forever.
- [38:52]
A
Visit your local Boost Mobile store today to get unlimited data with a price that never changes. Boost mobile after 30gb customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as
- [39:02]
D
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- [39:03]
A
Boost $25 Unlimited plan.
- [39:06]
C
Foreign.
- [39:14]
A
Part three of the Guardian Football Weekly so the semi finals of the World cup then France v Spain, England v Argentina. The thing is Barry, on your theoremiter I think France and Spain are looking at that going if we win this we've basically done it. That's something that if I were you I'd be going we are better than our slot are better than them lot.
- [39:31]
B
Well my advice to the players and all concerned with France and Spain would be to your necks in have a look at how England have got where they are and yeah, I have a very bad feeling about this one. Look, I would say on, on the evidence of My own eyes, France are the best team left in the tournament, without a doubt. Spain next England, then Argentina for me, Clive. So that's my 1, 2, 3, 4. Whoever wins the France Spain semi final should win the tournament. Whether they do or not is an entirely different matter. And that's all I have to say about that for the moment.
- [40:19]
A
That's okay. Leander as a neutral.
- [40:22]
D
I think what's interesting, especially about that France Spain game, is that France, newly under Didier Deschamps, who's just completely changed his philosophy, is sort of free form and flowing, and they're just kind of letting their attacking talent figure out where the gaps are and where the spaces are and how to get through opposing teams. And this Spanish team is very mechanical, mechanical, very meticulous. So that's going to be an interesting one. I, I would pick France for that one as well. And then Argentina, I mean, just, just look at how they got here. They keep finding ways to win, they keep escaping. They're one of those teams again, talking, as Barry did, about being lucky versus being good. They've absolutely had luck on their side. So I think that's going to be very, very close. And I think I'm going to go with Argentina for that one.
- [41:08]
A
Okay. Any strong thoughts, Lars?
- [41:10]
E
Just.
- [41:11]
C
I agree with the Right Honorable Mr. Glendenning with the Barry rankings. I think the Barry rankings are correct. I concur. I am also left again from the Switzerland Argentina game, thinking, I really don't think Argentina are very good. I don't think they are like the Cape Verde game. You think, okay, accidents at the office happen. You know, we can have a night like that. But then again, they're so close to getting knocked out by Egypt and we're just not good for a lot of that. And then they were quite, not very good here. And just as Switzerland was starting to take over, they had that very fortunate incident with Mbolo. I don't think they're great. I think England should beat them. I think that the Barry Ferrometer has got to be pretty feisty at this point.
- [41:56]
A
The worst case for us, John, here, is that we get to the final and then we get pumped by France sitting either side of Barry. We know this is. We can just. I can just see it, you know, we get all this job, boy. And then at the end, he dances again.
- [42:10]
E
John, that'd be the third time, wouldn't it, that we've had to suffer this. Yeah. And look, I could see him smiling there already.
- [42:17]
A
Yeah, I know he's relishing the prospect
- [42:19]
E
smile on his face. Look at him.
- [42:22]
B
I've been doing this for 20 years. It will not be.
- [42:24]
E
Yes, I know.
- [42:29]
C
The 10th
- [42:33]
A
pin his face on the dressing room. Barry's face on the dressing room. Oh my God. Anyway, anyway, I have a video of
- [42:44]
C
him doing the chef's kiss over and over and over again on the big monitor instead of the pre match plans on the PowerPoint. You just got the chef's kiss from the Euros.
- [42:51]
E
John I was gonna say Argentina is that we always had this idea that it was Messi and some guys and I don't think they've dispelled that myth could just yet. I mean obviously we could see talk about the Alvarez gold, but it really is Messi and some guys. But unfortunately Messi is that guy and I think that's England's big problem.
- [43:11]
A
Yeah A couple of emails to finish Scott says, Dear Max and Co, some with more extra time than I can bear, I'd like to relay you some of the more enjoyable questions from your survey. Question these genuine Would you listen to this program more or less if Barry divulged more tales of conversations from new friends on his big American holiday? Answer yes. On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being most likely, how likely are you to tune in for extra programming on vegetable intake of the Guardian football weekly correspondence? Answer 10 question does Barry's resting, grumpy face contribute more or less to your desire to listen to more programming? Answer More likely. You'll be sorry to know. Sadly, no mention of raises for the show host on the survey. Keep up the effort and best of luck with your side gig. Scott in Seattle so Yeah, the survey theguardian.com FW survey takes a couple of minutes. If you're watching on YouTube, there's a QR code for you, so that's not nice. And we'll finish with this from Jarla who says hi guys, long time listener, first time making contact. On an earlier episode, someone said they didn't want the World cup to end as they listened to your podcast to go to sleep. I've been doing this for many years, so long now that I struggle to sleep without it. I used to listen it to it on speaker and be asleep by the time my partner went to bed. She would then turn it off, but since having children she's decided to go to bed earlier, same time as me, which has meant I've had to get headphones. Sadly, I refer to them as my bed phone tip for your listeners. Just listen to old episodes. If there was a way of finding out, I reckon I'd be in the top 100 listeners, even though I'm asleep for 98% of the episodes. I'm looking into getting a vasectomy. Child number two is on the way, so no doubt I'll be in touch around that time. Coming to see you in Walthamstow. There's a great pub around the corner which does a cracking Guinness called Ye Olde Rose and Crown. Hopefully have one with you. Jarla, thank you so much, Jonathan, Appreciate that. That will do for today. Thank you, John, Cheers. Thanks, Lars.
- [44:54]
C
Thank you, Max.
- [44:55]
A
Cheers, Leander.
- [44:55]
D
Thank you.
- [44:56]
A
Thank you, Barry.
- [44:58]
B
Thank you.
- [44:59]
A
Two days off for us. We'll be back on Tuesday for the first semi final between Spain and France. Football Weekly is produced by Rory Simon and Matt Bentley Viney. Our executive producer is Joel Grove. See you Tuesday.
- [45:11]
E
This is the Guardian.
- [45:20]
C
He's dribbling the ball with everything on the line. He's driving down the pitch. He's facing price hikes and cuts past him. Carrier contracts, tries to block him.
- [45:27]
E
Oh, he leaves him in the dust.
- [45:28]
C
He's at the edge of the box. He cuts past the nonstop group chat, trash talk. He clears on goal.
- [45:32]
E
He shoots.
- [45:33]
C
No unlimited data for $25 a month. Forever.
- [45:39]
A
Visit your local Boost Mobile store today to get unlimited data with a price that never changes. Boost mobile after 30gb, customers may experience lower speeds. Customers will pay $25 a month as
- [45:49]
D
long as they remain active on the boost.
- [45:50]
A
$25 unlimited.