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Mexico & Canada Back in Action | Day Eight Preview | Morning Cupdate, Presented by The Home Depot
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- [00:00]
Narrator/Announcer
For nearly two decades, almost as long as Tim Ream has been in the U.S. men's National Team, All State has bat the growth of this game in every corner of this great footballing nation, from grassroots pitches to the biggest stages, they've been here believing in it, protecting its future. Because supporting soccer, it's not just about match days. And that's why All State offers affordable coverage at personalised rates, so you can spend less time worrying and and more time watching. Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. Visit allstate.com or call a local agent today. Allstate. You're in good hands. Potential savings vary subject to terms and availability. Allstate North America Insurance Company and Affiliates, Northbrook, Illinois. We are delighted to bring you the men in Blazers City Guides presented by Visa, A joyously assembled guide to the best places to eat, drink and explore and watch the beautiful game across the country Enjoyed. Aimed at helping fans experience the city as a local. It's built by you, our listeners, recommending some of the best small businesses in your communities, like the finest Fiat Cajun in Houston. Yes. The best burrito in San Francisco. Yes. Where to save a lemon pepper wet in Atlanta. Yes. Yes. Yes. A massive shout out to our sponsor Visa, who's made this guide possible. Visa gives local business owners the tools and support to be ready for moments exactly like this one. Welcoming you to enjoy the games this summer. Start planning your journey@meninblazers.com CityGuides lays an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026 is also the official sponsor of all bandwagon fans during this euphoric summer of footballing wonder. And this summer they're inviting all of us to jump on because come kick off. Hope springs eternal. My cold dark heart grows three sizes every FIFA world up. The ebullient Moroccans, the splimed Spanish. You can't help but fall in love again and again. So ask grandma if perhaps your 1/16 French, Brazilian or Japanese. Adopt a new anthem, borrow a new flag. Embrace that bandwagon. Because when your team goes home, the party doesn't have to grab a bag of lays. Gather some friends and cheer for whoever you damn well like.
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Betty Glover
Hello and welcome to Seattle and welcome to Morning cup day. I'm Betty Glover. All 48 teams have now been in action. We have seen them all. So we go again. Four more games coming up today. We have got the co hosts as well. Mexico and Canada. They're back on the pitch. Mexico, if they win, they're through to the knockouts Canada. They desperately need a win after drawing their first game. This is your guide to day eight of the World Cup. Hello and welcome to Morning cup date built by the Home Depot. We're here every single matchday morning during the tournament, looking ahead to all of the football and telling you the biggest stories. And we're back on the Home Depot bus which has made its way up to Seattle and it's parked right next to the iconic Space Needle in the heart of the city. It doesn't get much better than this. The Home Depot is your winning assist to host the ultimate watch party with fast free delivery to get your backyard match day ready, subject to availability Now. Thank you all so much for your lovely comments on YouTube again. There is so much love for the buzzer. I don't actually know what is on it today. I've left that to my producers. So shall we see what they've gone for?
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Rory Smith
It's coming home. Come on England.
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Betty Glover
It's coming home. Predictable. Very predictable guys. As a Wales fan, I must admit this is painful. I think the next five weeks is going to be very difficult, probably because England are going to win the World Cup. We're going to talk about them in a moment, but let's begin with the first match of the day as the Democratic Republic of Congo snatched a precious point, the first ever cup point by the way, against one of the pre tournament favorites, Portugal. Joao Neves gave the favorites an early lead, but Yan visa equalized for Dr. Congo on the stroke of halftime. I am absolutely obsessed with this clip where a tiny pocket of about 15 Congo fans celebrated at a watch party in Lisbon surrounded by thousands and thousands of very silent Portuguese fans. Excellent. Excellent. This is what the World cup is about. Videos like that. Incredibly brave as well from them. Does anyone know if they made it out alive? Anyway, what a result for the African nation. Much of the post match debate was about Cristiano Ronaldo, as you can probably imagine. We asked you yesterday in a poll whether he should start and nearly 90% of you said no. I'm not gonna lie. What a shout. Because he was really poor, wasn't he? Potentially the worst moment was when he failed to play a dummy which would have given Bruno Fernandes an EAS easy opportunity. Thierry Henry on Fox was pretty cutting as well, saying the team needs to score, not you, that needs to score. A desperate performance from Ronaldo, I think. I think it's fair to say, which will have hurt, particularly after Lionel Messi's hat trick for Argentina the night before. Here's Rory Smith on Nightcup giving his take on his performance.
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Rory Smith
The bits where you really find it difficult to believe that they can go all the way is when he's getting in his teammates way actively. But when you see him, there were two or three that I saw where he's trying to. He's making runs and you think there's a Vitini standing there or Joan Neves is standing there or whoever. Just leave them to it. He's like an overbearing parent.
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Betty Glover
Then afterwards, England took on Croatia in Dallas, one of the first heavyweight clashes of the tournament, arguably the game of the tournament so far. What do you guys think? You're a USA fan. I'm going to call you out right here. Enough of that, please. Thank you very much. Now, England twice took the lead in the first half through Harry Kane, only for Croatia to equalize both times. However, in the second half, England blew their opponents away as Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford each scored wonderful goals to give them a 42 victory. 1 England fan went viral after she heard the news that England had scored a fourth while she was at work. Oh, England just scored.
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Mexican Fan
Yes. Yeah.
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Betty Glover
Not your average England fan. That is pop sensation Olivia Dean. If you haven't heard about her, get to know about her. She is amazing. I mean, to drop the news of the England goal and then go straight into. Man, I need is such a flex. I love it. We watched the match here in Seattle at the Georgian Dragon Pub. It was quite an experience. Lots of English fans, a couple of Croatian fans and a lot of swearing. So naturally we got talking to some of them. Tell you, Tommy T, we're going to bring it home.
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Narrator/Announcer
This is the year.
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Betty Glover
Shall I hit it then? Ah, he was very buzzing afterwards and I can see why. And I do have a feeling, if I'm being honest with you guys. In the mid afternoon kickoff, Ghana took on Panama. The West African nation have one of the best sets of supporters at the tournament and they certainly brought all the vibes to Toronto. Oh, this was a tense match as Panama, who were still searching for their first World cup point, went toe to toe with the black stars of Ghana until the 95th minute when Caleb Urenki scored a dramatic goal for Ghana. It is safe to say the team very much enjoyed the win. Finally, it was Colombia against Uzbekistan in Mexico City. Luis Diaz, Daniel Munoz and Yamington Campaz were on the score sheet to give Colombia a winning return to the World Cup. That 31 win means Colombia top Group K, putting them in a fantastic position to reach the Knockouts. Here we go again then. Every team in the tournament has now played. So it is time for round two of the group stages. We begin in Atlanta at noon eastern with two teams in Group A who lost their opening matches as Czechia take on South Africa. Bafana. Bafana had a bit of a nightmare in Mexico City in the opening match because if losing 20 wasn't bad enough, they also had Yaya Sitole and Tembazuane sent off, so both of them will be suspended for the game. Trevor Noah was on the Night cup with Roger Rory. And here was his take on South Africa's subpar performance.
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Trevor Noah
I didn't, I didn't expect it. I'll tell you, I'll tell you what I was sad about. I don't think Bafana, Bafana played the way they played, right. We, we play some of the most beautiful football in the world and this, this game like we set up as if we didn't want to lose. That's what it felt like. It was like, all right, set up with five at the back and let's just swing that ball forward and let's hope for a counter attacking moment. It didn't feel like us.
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Betty Glover
As for Czechia, they were a little bit unlucky to lose narrowly to South Korea. They'll be heavy favourites for this match and know that anything other than a win puts their hopes of reaching the knockout stage in serious jeopardy. Then at 3pm Eastern, Group B gets back underway as Switzerland face Bosnia and Herzegovina in Los Angeles. When we were on Venice beach on Monday evening, by the way, there were Bosnia fans absolutely everywhere. They're definitely one of the unexpected fan turnouts in this tournament. They love the beach as well. Supposedly they even have released this, which is an absolute banger if you ask me. Bosnia were able to slightly spoil Canada's party in Toronto by securing a one all draw against the co host. This will be another difficult match against Switzerland though, who will be determined to make amends after conceding a late equalizer against Qatar in stoppage time. Don't forget, by the the way, Rory Smith's bold call about Bosnia before the tournament.
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Rory Smith
I think it might be Bosnia. You know, I think Bosnia have got in those two young winners. I think they've got enough creativity to supply Dzeko. So I think Bosnia take the route,
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Betty Glover
win against Qatar and surely it is game on. Speaking of them, they take on co host Canada in Group B at 6pm Eastern with both sides still looking for their first World cup win. For Canada they will have never had a better opportunity. Qatar may have done well to stay in the game and steal a point against Switzerland and But they conceded 26 shots in that game. One thing going in Canada's advantage is the fact that this game is in Vancouver and that is the subject of today's drill down. Yep, today's drill down brought to you by Makita is all about the fact that this being a home tournament for Canada and playing in Vancouver is a real ace up their sleeve. The Canucks recent record in the Vancouver stadium is is formidable. In their last four matches there, they've scored 17 and only conceded two. In fact, they haven't lost there in over 10 years, which is quite ridiculous really, isn't it? Part of the reason is home comforts with seven members of the squad, including Alfonso Davies, all previously featuring for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Also, some Canada reporters believe that the pressure is lower in Vancouver than when they play in Toronto, although midfielder Ismael Kone denied that in a press conference today. The other advantage is the field itself. New turf was laid in Vancouver for the World cup and it received rave reviews from the Australia and Turkey players who played there on Saturday. It's a zippy surface and Jesse Marsh loves to play direct football that utilizes his fast and youthful players. One of those is Alphonso Davies and he is the real key for Canada. Alphonso missed that first game against Bosnia with a hamstring injury, but he is expected to play today against Qatar. Finally, in Guadalajara at 9pm Eastern, it is Mexico against South Korea. And after that opening day win, the vibes of El Tree supporters are 10 out of 10. This was the arrival of the Mexico bus and there must have been tens of thousands on the streets to greet them. How cool is that? Imagine that. That Tuna win over South Africa has sent the country into overdrive. We spoke to a Mexican fan in LA straight after their opening victory against South Africa and asked him to tell us why the neutral should support Mexico in 30 seconds. Three, two, one, go.
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Mexican Fan
Number one, tacos. Number two, you can drink in the stadium a lot of kahwamas. Number three, the colors. Green ecological color. Who doesn't love that? Number four. We're very passionate. You go to a stadium, you will scream, you will dance, you will go all over the place. So who doesn't want to do that? What was number one? Number five, you can swear, you can say, oh, everything you want to do. Fudge this, that, whatever it is.
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Betty Glover
Not just the home supporters having fun, South Korea are here in good numbers. As well. Here's the beautiful moment when one South Korea supporter started waving a Mexico flag during a fan parade. The South Korea fans love everybody. They are, they are definitely the friendliest group of fans that I think we've got in this World Cup. It feels like everyone in Group A is having a great time in Mexico. Now. I don't want to bring down the vibes too much, but captain Caesar Montes will be a big miss for Mexico at center back. He's suspended after his red card in Game 1. Edson Alvarez is expected to step in. He's normally a defensive midfielder, but is very capable of stepping into defense. South Korea haven't beaten Mexico in 20 years and they'll need to show huge spirit to defy the 12th man that Mexico has behind them in the stands. However, after their impressive comeback against Czechia, they'll feel confident of upsetting the locals and sealing their spot in the knockouts tonight, directly after the match between Mexico and South Korea, don't forget to watch the Night cup with Roger Rory. They'll be joined by wearer of men in blazers neckties, legend of the other football, Mr. Andrew Luck throughout the tournament. I'm going head to head with a prediction challenge against one of the Nightcup team. Yesterday I took on Rog and I've had a little bit of a nightmare, guys. I'm going to be totally honest with you. It's not going very well for me at all. We both went for Portugal WINS and obviously Dr. Congo upset the odds to get a draw. Then in the England against Croatia game, Rog backed England and I went for Croatia, which I don't actually think I meant to do. It just came out. So it means that the Night cup take a 31 lead in the series. I really, really, I really, really, really need to start pulling it back, don't I? Otherwise this is going to get very ugly. Today I took on the one and only Rory Smith. It is prediction time with our birthday boy Rory, who's 44 today. Happy birthday, Rory.
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Rory Smith
That's very kind of you.
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Betty Glover
Let's start with Qatar against Canada. What are you saying?
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Rory Smith
I didn't think Qatar would get a point and they, and they got that 96 minute equalizer in Switzerland. So I'm a little bit kind of unsure now. I think they might be better, better than we thought. And Canada were maybe a little bit disappointing in that first game. You know, it's Bosnia. But I think they, I think Canada take this. I think they win 2 nil.
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Betty Glover
I'm gonna say Canada take This one nil. Okay. And then tense next one. We have got Mexico against South Korea. Those fans are loving each other by the way. What do you say?
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Rory Smith
It's the friendship derby. I think no one wants the other side to lose. They're going to keep the ball. It's gonna be like that. That famous Jamie 19 the disgrace of he haul where no one tries to win because they're all just having such a nice time. This will be a good game. I think genuinely in terms of drama and entertainment, this will be really good. South Korea I thought looked pretty strong against the Czechs. They maybe lack a little bit of trotting edge because MLS has broken son but then mezzo have the home nation advantage. I think maybe a draw but high scoring draw. I'm gonna say three all three all thriller.
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Betty Glover
Okay. I'm going to say that I think Mexico are going to take this two one because I want Mexico to go really far in this tournament. So I'm fully backing them.
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Narrator/Announcer
A word from our friends at 1440. The 2022 World cup final drew 1.5 billion viewers. It's 11 times this year's Super Bowl. To understand how football became the world's game and what drove it, listen to 1440 explores with financial Times journalist Simon Kuiper who will give you the inside scoop into the depths of the tournament. Listen to 1440 explores wherever you get your podcasts and as the world arrives in the United States for the biggest spectacle in sports, we're going coast to coast, host city to host city to meet the world with the men in Blazers Matchday Live Tour. These are free college gameday style live events taking place just before kickoff at some of the biggest games of the summer where we'll be taking the stage with celebrity guests in front of thousands of fans. It's going to be amazing. Come and be with us in person or From Afar on YouTube and let's celebrate this some other way. It's meant to be celebrated. Head to the events tab on meninblazers.com for all the details. To the football to more together courage.
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Betty Glover
Today's finishing touch brought to you by Bear Paint is all about the World Cup's biggest breakout star and that is 40 year old Cape Verde goalkeeper Vizinha, who stunningly made seven saves and kept a clean sheet against favourites Spain in Atlanta on Monday. It was an insane performance. Now since that moment, Vizinha's following on social media has risen from 50,000 to a ridiculous 13.1 million and counting. It's probably gone up by the time I've said this now just for a little bit of context. Travis Kelce has 7.7 million followers and Formula One world champion Lando Norris has 11.8 million. How crazy. Now, despite his new fans, Vizinha's most important supporter wasn't able to be present in Atlanta to watch his incredible performance. And that was his mother, as he explained to journalists afterwards. And also because my mom, she didn't manage to be here because the money we have to pay for the visa, we didn't manage on time. His mother, Ana Candida, spoke to Reuters through a translator about how she felt watching the game from home. My heart was almost jumping out of my chest. I was nervous, but very happy for everything he achieved in this tournament. By the way, I think I need to get Anna on predictions. She needs to help me. I think I need to give her a call because whilst the whole world predicted a comfortable Spain victory in that game, she went on state television before the game to confidently predict that no one would manage to score past her son. Now we do have good news. Significant efforts have been made in order to get Vizinha's mother over to the US for the Cape Verde's second game against Uruguay in Miami on Sunday. His congressman, Hakeem Jeffries, speaking to Roger about the strings behind the scenes that have been pulled to fast track her
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Hakeem Jeffries
visa, picked up the phone, laid out the situation for Secretary Rubio and he indicated graciously that he would get to work on it, dealing with FIFA as well as the Cape Verdean government, and was very pleased to make the announcement that his mom will be reunited with her son in Miami so she can watch the match with Uruguay in person.
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Betty Glover
As they say, better late than never. Let's see if the 40 year old brick wall can keep Darwin, Nunez and co at bay as K Verd continue to make history here in the usa. That is it for Morning Update today, built by the Home Depot. Thank you so much for joining us. Now the Home Depot is your winning assist to host the ultimate watch party with fast free delivery to get your backyard match day ready, subject to availability. Now tomorrow morning, right here in Seattle on Pier 58 directly before the US men take on the Socceroos. Join us for the second second stop on our Matchday live tour. Roger Rory will be taking the stage with a who's who of Seattle icons including Ken Griffey Jr. Marshawn Lynch, DeAndre Yedlin and an author, John Green as well to pump up the crowd before the iconic march to the match. Find out more about this free event at the link in the notes below. We will be back tomorrow, but until then, enjoy your football.