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- [00:00]
Commercial Announcer
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Chad Millman
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- [00:35]
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- [02:05]
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- [03:03]
Chad Millman
Welcome to Sharper Square presented by Hard Rock Bat. We are part of the Volume Podcast network. This is the show that makes the square sharper, makes the wise guys pay attention. I am Chad Millman. I am joined as always by my co host, my bff, my companion, my compadre professional better Simon Hunter. Hello, Simon.
- [03:24]
Simon Hunter
Chad. How are we doing?
- [03:27]
Chad Millman
I mean on a personal level, I feel great. The weather's beautiful. I'm loving the NBA playoffs. My kids graduated from Drexel later this week. I also feel like we as a society and specifically in the world that we both live in, sports and sports betting, it is awash in cynicism, greed, corrupt behavior, inconsistent behavior at every level. We're a part of it. College football is a part of it. We're going to talk about the World cup today with our good friend Anthony de Bundo. The World cup is and always has been ground zero for corrupt, greed, hypocritical, shove it in the fan's face. We don't care how much we're gonna gouge you for behavior. And we're just in a. We're, we're awashing bad actors.
- [04:37]
Simon Hunter
Yeah, it doesn't, the, the World cup doesn't have the vibe I definitely thought it was gonna have. I thought by the time June came around, America would kind of be more on board and you would kind of see stuff every literally. I live in a host city of Philly and it is not. There is no needle move. Nothing feels changed at all. We've talked a little bit about Chad. Like I'm trying to go to a game at the link. Cheapest seats are 400 per se. That's before all the fees and everything else which is just. That's not attainable to the normal fan. Especially the fan that just wants to watch, you know, France play a third tier level club. It doesn't, it doesn't make sense. What's going on right now. And the funniest thing is hearing Europeans talk about it where it's like American and building a new stadium is a blah, blah, blah. And it's like, brother, we have the infrastructure you think we need to make a new stadium. I can't wait for them to see the stadium in LA or the stadium down in Atlanta. Like those new stadiums. We don't need anything new. I think the coolest thing they did was bring in the, bring in the real grass, which is like, to me, the NFL players who are arguing right now for the, against the 18 game schedule, I, I feel like that's a guarantee that artificial turf will be gone. It would be grass in every stadium if they could do it for the World Cup. There's no excuse. This is a billion dollar league. So, yeah, Chad, it's a, it's a weird feeling where I'm, I'm really excited for it, but I wish more Americans were excited for the World Cup. It's the best. And I know people are skeptical of America. I try to keep telling American fans South Korea hosted it a couple. I don't know if that was 16 years ago. They finishes one of the final four teams. So host nations do get a weird bump and I'm hoping America gets that. We need a run. To me, that's what America desperately needs. If they could get a run and finish somehow in the top four, I do think that would change people's feelings. The World cup, because it's. It's the best. It's the best. Honestly, celebrating with people as a country. I mean, you remember USA Hockey, right? How much fun was that? Yeah, it's the best. Best. So I, I need it. I need us to be good. But I watched us play, play the other night and yeah, it's. It's still feels like we have a ways to go, buddy.
- [06:39]
Chad Millman
Well, look, you bring up a really good point. And I do want to get to the World cup because it officially begins today. Group play is underway. I want to get to DeBundo, but it's so fascinating to me, all the price gouging and the, you know, disgusting, horrible behavior of World cup executives, etc. And then we go to Brendan Sbe, the Texas Tech quarterback, who had admittedly bet on Indiana games. When he was at Indiana, he had bet about, I think, 90 grand. He clearly has a gambling problem. He's admitted to that he was banned from being able to play for Texas Tech in this upcoming year. He was the number one rated recruit in the portal. Texas Tech dropped A bag to get him. Texas Tech has been very aggressive during the NIL era. Cody Campbell, oil billionaire, has been very outspoken about the NCAA and how he wants to completely reimagine what college sports looks like. Sworesby had been banned and yesterday a Texas judge decided to overturn the ban. And really that means Sworesby is going to play because any appeal process the NCAA can make will not be settled until after the college football season. So now there's a lot of conversations about Sourcebee, an admitted gambler who better on his team is going to be leading one of the top programs in college football team that made the College Football Playoff this past year expected to do it again. It's fascinating to me the response that people have because this will have and this is a completely cynical view. This will have zero impact on fans and their love of sports. We see it constantly. Gambling scandals are all over sports right now. Ratings are only getting bigger in every single sport. MLB ratings up, NBA ratings up. NFL ratings up. NBA ratings up in the finals enormously. And no league has had more problem with sports betting than the NBA. So World cup will be a global phenomenon. No matter how disgusting the people are that run does not matter. That's the cynical point of view. Do you have thoughts on and and just to finish this ramp before I get to you, Simon. I love hearing coaches. This goes back to 1980s SMU college football scandals. I love hearing the people at Texas Tech saying this kid deserves to be on the field. He deserves to be given a second chance. We need to take care of our student athletes. We need to take care of our young people. All that is true then take care of them. Being on the football field is still a privilege. You don't get to sidestep all of the other stuff just because you happen to be a good football player. You shouldn't be playing football. That's a non starter. But get him all the help in the world that he needs and continue to support him as you would have if he was going to be your quarterback. Because that's the human thing to do and that's what it really means to support the student athlete. Not he deserves to be on the field because it will help him with his recovery. Which is an argument a lot of people in these circles are making.
- [10:04]
Simon Hunter
Yeah, I mean all I can hope is eventually it goes the other way. Right. It's. We're in a weird tipping point right on society. I, I agree it keeps getting worse, but I do think eventually it could go the other way. But you know, if he wasn't going to play college. He was going to be in a supplemental draft. So to me, college football, we've known for a long time it's a business. This judge, I believe it might have been from Houston. So it was like they try to be a nine bias judge, right? They, they, they, they, they try to make it as fair as possible as what they claimed. But we've known for a long time, right, the NCAA has lost total power. They have no power.
- [10:39]
Chad Millman
No power.
- [10:40]
Simon Hunter
And you know, I, I feel bad for college football fans, but at the same time, I think what you just said is so true. It's like they care. They'll stomp their feet, they'll tweet about it. But the end of the day, nothing will change. It's only going to keep getting worse because money rules all, especially in that league. And yeah, we're, again, we only have so much time here to talk about these different things. But yes, FIFA to me is the most corrupt organization in the world when it comes to sports, no doubt about it. But, you know, they do, they do make right decisions, right moves. And I think the World cup setup between Canada, Mexico and usa, it's cool. Like, I love this whole setup and this whole deal, it just sucks. Like you said, it's been so corrupt, Americans aren't behind it. No American's paying a thousand dollars for just two seats and the nosebleeds to go watch France play some crappy team in Philly. I just don't know how these tickets are going to sell. So like we said, Chad, I think as us is, the people need to fight back. You can fight back with your money, right? If less people watch college football. You know, people turn off this whole college football playoffs being, what is it, two months now? It feels like it starts in early December. Chad doesn't until late January. If people push back against it, that's the only way with their money, I should say that's the only way they're going to make change. So, yeah, it's. Things are changing right now, buddy. Every, every day things are changing. Rap But I never thought a kid would bet on college football and be eligible to play again in college football. It's really, honestly shocking. He's shocking, truly.
- [12:13]
Chad Millman
And I'm not one of those people
- [12:14]
Anthony De Bundo
who
- [12:17]
Chad Millman
thinks that sports are fixed. You know, I actually feel like all the mechanisms are in place to make sure that sports are legit, that every contest is legit. And I also feel like 99% of the athletes are actually not interested in betting on Sports or in. In trying to fix the outcome of a game. It's news because it happens infrequently, although more frequently than it used to happen in the past. And there are a lot of protections in place. I'm not so cynical that I think I'm watching games that are fixed. But I think when you're letting a quarterback who's admittedly bet on games that he was involved in be the face of a franchise that is supposed to get to the playoffs, I think we're treading on very, very thin ice. Dangerous, dangerous precedent. Here's the good news. We get to turn our back on all of our preaching and just talk about betting on the World Cup. Anthony DeBundo, Anthony de Bundo, who we discovered at the Action Network when he was just a senior at Syracuse. We loved him. He left us to go to the ringer. He's covering everything for the World cup for the ringer. Anthony De Bundo, welcome to the show.
- [13:54]
Anthony De Bundo
It's good to be here. I'm very excited to spread the world's game, the love of the world's game. I remember back when we first wanted to get a soccer podcast with our friends BJ Cunningham, Michael Lebov and Chad didn't want to give us a soccer show. He said, nobody likes soccer. And now here we are doing the soccer. Doing the soccer show on Sharper Square.
- [14:14]
Chad Millman
Nobody likes soccer. We're doing one soccer show every four years for the World Cup. That's how much people want to want to talk about soccer.
- [14:23]
Anthony De Bundo
That's fine. We'll take whatever we can get.
- [14:25]
Chad Millman
Listen, you're a young single guy on the make in Philly. Before we get into the soccer talk, tell us about your experience watching game one of the NBA Finals.
- [14:37]
Anthony De Bundo
Yeah, so we were actually in Sweden. Spotify was celebrating 20 years and the game started at 2:30. So immediately when we all got there, obviously a lot of us are sports fans, a lot of Knicks fans. We're looking around like, what are we going to do? There's not bars open past three, so that's not going to work. None of us have TVs in our hotel room where we can get local New York television or national ESPN broadcasts. So what are we going to do? We found a hotel conference room that sat about 11 people. And we fit about 35 people into this conference room, sitting on floors, sitting on the wall, sitting under the table. 35 people packed, mostly Knicks fans, at 2:30 in the morning in Stockholm to watch the finals. And then, you know, I think the weirdest thing about all of it is, okay, it's halftime. The room's kind of steamy, so a bunch of us are like, let's go get some fresh air outside. You walk out of the hotel and the sun is shining at four in the morning in June in Stockholm, it is a majestic feeling. You know, you're out at midnight and you can still see the orange hue from the sunset. And then four hours later, it's bright and sunny. How does anybody ever sleep? I don't know. If I lived there, I would be a deranged lunatic who probably would lose my mind every winter. But in the summers, man, what a special time. And, yeah, go Knicks. I mean, they pulled it out and now we got a series.
- [15:57]
Chad Millman
Hey, listen, you're so good at the soccer stuff, even though you broke my heart when you ditched us at action for the ringer. My older son, who is graduating from Drexel in the coming days, he was like, hey, I want to get into the World Cup. A lot of my friends are into the World Cup. Who should I go read or listen to? I sent him your glossary page from them.
- [16:24]
Anthony De Bundo
Oh, thank you. That's so nice.
- [16:26]
Chad Millman
Now I want you to bring that knowledge, bring that knowledge to us. The Bundo. Okay, we got a huge field, 48 total teams, that's going to be game for basically 40 days. The final is July 19th. Set the table for us. Explain the structure of the tournament.
- [16:43]
Anthony De Bundo
Yeah, this is the first time we've ever had a 48 team World Cup. Traditionally, it was very simple. 32 teams, eight pools. Top two from each pool, make a final 16. Then you have a traditional 16 team bracket to determine the champion. But now FIFA said, hey, what if we expand the game? What if we grow the game and we deepen our pockets? We can make a 48 team World cup with 12 groups. But the problem is, if you just took two from every group, you'd have 24 teams. And it's hard to build a bracket with 24. So they said, here's our solution. We'll have 32 teams qualify, so we're only going from 48 to 32. And what the first group round will do, eliminate 16 teams. But the third place teams will also advance. So eight of the top 12 third place teams will advance the knockouts to form a round of 32. So not only is the tournament bigger, but now the champion team, whoever ends up winning this whole thing, will have to play an eighth game. Traditionally it was seven, now it's eight. So there's another Game added in. There's also more space between the games because there are more teams that used to be every four days you would play in the World Cup. Now it's every six or seven days. So the teams have more time off in between games. The travel is bigger for this World Cup. They kept it mostly regional for the group stage, but still there's more travel with us being such a big country, Mexico and Canada. And as a result, I think there's a lot of confounding factors. There's the heat, the travel, the elevation at a couple places, the time off, the extra matches, the fact that really, like, there's seven teams that are 97% or better to make it out of the group stage. They're kind of just like exhibitioning their way through this. So a lot of new factors to consider with this World Cup.
- [18:25]
Chad Millman
Simon, at some point on this show, we're going to have to do a big balls bet of the week presented by Hard Rock Bet. I know you're paying very close attention to how your home country, your birth country of England will do in the World Cup. Spain is by far the big favorite. I think -450 at Hard Rock Bet right now. But a lot more teams under 10 to 1. France, England, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina. From both of your points of view, Simon, I know you're a huge football fan. Anthony, you as well. Give us a contenders versus pretenders breakdown for those six teams. Simon, you start. Spain, France, England, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina.
- [19:22]
Simon Hunter
So I'll just start from the top again. If you're not into soccer at all, it you get. It's a lot of comparables to the NFL. In the NFL, if you've never won a Super bowl, it's basically impossible to ever win a Super Bowl. It's. It sounds bizarre, but if you look, for some reason, if you've ever won one, it's so much easier to win the next one. Same goes for the World Cup. The World cup is bizarre. It's basically, there's six teams, like we've talked about here that win the World Cup. They've been rotating for about over 100 years now. And England is an outlier. England won in. You gotta look it up. 1966. Okay, Spain won in 2010. So those are two teams that both just won one. And then Uruguay, they won two World Cups, but that was before the 1950s. So we kind of discount Uruguay. They're not even a part of this conversation. So that leaves France, Argentina, Germany, Italy and Brazil. These are the teams that just always win. I Don't think Brazil truly has a chance this year. Italy didn't make the tournament. And Germany, studs, Argentina, studs and France, they're all studs. So, you know, like I said, Spain won in 2010. They're a great culture. That's what I'm trying to beat down here, people. It's all about the culture in the country. That's really what dictates all this. These cultures breed styles and the style. Spain is one is this really tight, formative type of passing, and that's what won them in 2010. They had incredible midfielders. Javi, just if you go back and look, that team was absolutely stacked. This Spain team now is stacked and they're really, really talented. So I get whether the odds on favorite. I honestly probably would. I know France just won. To me, they're. They're such a good team. I could probably. I could probably give it to France, give them the best odds. But if I was going to go very boring. The fans of this show want to take the boring pick. I have no issue taking Spain. To me, Spain is by far the best team. They have the best players, so I would not be shocked if they won at all.
- [21:10]
Chad Millman
Anthony.
- [21:12]
Anthony De Bundo
Spain's my pick too. You know, like, ultimately there. There isn't a huge gap in the odds between Spain, France and. And like, England's kind of there. And like, I know Portugal's gotten a lot of helium lately. I'll. I'll separate the top six. Four contenders, two pretenders. So my contenders are Spain, France, England, and then I'll throw Argentina in there at the back end of that. Argentina are the defending champs, but they essentially have the same team they did four years ago, which can be good or bad. You could say, hey, like, they've done it. They have the know how, they have the experience. Lionel Messi is still good, although I think it's going to be hard for him to replicate what he did four years ago at the World cup at his age. But they also could get old really quick. They could get stale. And I think there's questions like the next generation of Argentina isn't quite ready yet to take that step. They're. They're really young, so I'll put them in the mix, but I think they're a clear fourth. I'll let Simon talk about England. We'll come back to them. But you know, France, if you're just picking attackers, like, it's ridiculous how good they are. Killian, Mbappe, Osmani, Dembele and Michael Elise, it's the best front three that I've had since I started watching the World cup, which was in 2010, was the first one I ever watched. So that group is scary. I think there's questions about their midfield. Spain I think is the most complete team. They are like almost freakishly young. Like Pedri's 22 star midfielder Lamina Mall is 18. He's already a top five player in the world, but he's hurt right now and I think that's the one big X factor for Spain. Their best player isn't going to play probably in the group stage. He might come back for the last game. They don't really need him though until the quarterfinals. Like they could make the quarters without him. They bring him in if he's fit, he's ready to go. Like all of a sudden this is a Spanish team that won the Euros that one. They made the Nations League final that has beaten France the last two times they played them the last two summers. So I think Spain is the rightful favorite. But you know, I think it wouldn't shock me if any of those four won the whole thing. As far as pretenders, that's where we get into Portugal and then like Brazil, I am down on both teams relative to the to the odds.
- [23:12]
Chad Millman
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- [23:51]
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- [24:24]
Commercial Announcer
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- [25:55]
Georgia Hardstark
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- [25:58]
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- [26:04]
Georgia Hardstark
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- [26:07]
Hyundai Advertiser
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- [26:14]
Georgia Hardstark
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Georgia Hardstark
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Georgia Hardstark
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Hyundai Advertiser
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- [26:37]
Georgia Hardstark
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- [26:38]
Hyundai Advertiser
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- [26:40]
Chad Millman
Goodbye Simon. Give us your England take. I want to root for England. I always want to root for England. You know I'm A bit of an Anglophile. You, my brother, are English. Can we root for England? Can we do it together? Can we make England our team for the podcast?
- [26:56]
Anthony De Bundo
Football's coming home. It's coming home.
- [27:00]
Chad Millman
Can we do it?
- [27:01]
Simon Hunter
No, Chad, you don't want this life, buddy. It's a life of heartbreak. Break.
- [27:05]
Chad Millman
One day he'll wake up, pinch himself
- [27:08]
Simon Hunter
and realize that was for real. Every. Every year. It's our year, honestly. Like, we've had some incredible clubs. Even our. That last World cup, we had such a great break, or might have been eight years ago, I think it was Croatia. All we had to be was Croatia to make the finals. Like, it just, it never breaks right for England. Chads, you don't want this life. I am heartbroken here in Debundo, not like Portugal. That's one of my favorite sleeper teams, people. If you don't know, I'm a diehard Man United fan. The best player in the world in my opinion. Bruno Fernandez, who again, we only have so much time to break down here, but basically this man to give you the my football kind of take of it is this guy is the, the Aaron Rodgers of soccer. Just any hole, any pass, it's always perfect. And he can make a low level guy like Jordy Nelson is a good receiver. Aaron Rodgers made him look like a Hall of Famer, right? That's what Bruno Fernandez does to all the town around him. This guy's a midfielder that could put a ball 50 yards downfield right on someone's foot. I'm telling you, it's.
- [28:07]
Anthony De Bundo
He's amazing. For assists this year.
- [28:10]
Simon Hunter
Yeah.
- [28:10]
Anthony De Bundo
Premier League. Yeah.
- [28:11]
Simon Hunter
Premier League record for assists. Like, he's just that good. So I, I will get into my England talk here. I need to bundle. Give me some more Portugal talk because I need to know what I'm missing here. But for England, I love them. I love their matchups. I believe I look at their percentages. They have a really high percentage coming out of group stage. They're kind of, kind of type of team that's 70 to get out of their group. Right? That's what most computer models project. The only other team, their group that's really good is Croatia. I guess Ghana's all right. But that's the thing with England, Chad. It doesn't really matter about the group stages anymore. Like, they can come in third and still get out. It's. It's when they play France, are they gonna be France? It's. Are they gonna be Argentina? So that's why I don't want people to put money on them. I really don't. Like I said, Spain is very boring, but it's safe. England, it's a better value. They're just as good in my opinion as Spain, but it's just heartbreak. It's so much pressure. It's. I can't tell you how much pressure
- [29:04]
Anthony De Bundo
is on these British vibes are never good for England. It's true. I mean, look, England, England are very, very, very, very good defensive team. And I think probably the best defensive team in the field. They don't lose very often unless it's a penalty shootout, right? And I think, you know, England's been so close with what I thought was a bad manager. Like 2018, you mentioned it. Semifinals of the World Cup. 2021, they make it to the Euro final. They lose on a heart or breaking penalty shootout. 2022, they lose in the World cup quarters to France because they missed a penalty. 2024, they lose the Euro final to Spain. So like, they're there. They're not. It's not like they keep underachieving, but they just, They've never passed the eye test. But now they have a better manager, they have a more balanced team. There was a couple holes in the last couple years where it's like, well, they're not playing any left wingers. They're. They're super unbalanced in their structure. And now they have another midfielder play with Declan Rice. They have an actual. They have two good left wingers to play this year. So I think they're more balanced and it wouldn't shock me if they did it. But here's the other part, like the schedule, the way that the draw broke. They're probably going to play a game at Mexico City at elevation against Mexico in the knockouts. They're probably going to have to beat Brazil in Miami, which is like basically Brazil in the knockouts to just get to the semis in the finals. So they got a pretty tough draw in the knockouts potentially. Obviously that could all change, but that's why I'm kind of like, I like England. I think they're good enough to win it. But like, can they actually do it? I. I'm not sure of that. As far as Portugal goes, I love their midfield. Second best midfield at the tournament. Fernandez is amazing. It's a Ronaldo problem for me. He's 41 years old. He can't really run anymore. And they, they don't use what makes Fernandez and their midfield so good because they just center everything around Ronaldo. All they do is cross and cross and cross and cross into Ronaldo. He takes the free kicks. They literally have a player in Bruno Fernandez who just broke the record for assists because he's so good on free kicks and corner and Ronaldo, if they're like within scoring range, Ronaldo's like, nope, it's my time. I'm taking the free kick. And then he just doesn't score. And it's like, like they're, they're placating this guy and he should be a super sub. He would be an amazing super sub. But they start him and he can't run. Like I said, he doesn't defend. So it's like a weird situation where they're really talented, but their front three and then their left winger has been out of form too. Like, you're just like, well, I don't know if this all comes together, guys.
- [31:30]
Chad Millman
This is why they got us. You know what I mean? Like, we're suckers. We're all suckers because the second we start talking about the games. I went through this with one of my close friends before the Knicks game three. He lives in la. We hadn't caught up in a couple weeks and his kid had just graduated college. He's got work stuff going on and he's a die hard New York Knicks fan, grew up in the Tri State area. He knows I don't want the Knicks to win. He's calling me on the way to a Knicks bar in LA. We have 25 minutes to catch up. In that 25 minutes, we broke it down into a TV show. The a block was the Knicks. Of all the things, he's like, how do you want to organize it? I'm like, it, we got to do the Knicks right now. We'll talk about family and work later. That ended up being the whole conversation was just the Knicks sports fans are suckers and we're going to keep getting played and we don't even care because we love it so much. This conversation proves it. England is going to break our hearts. Simon. Portugal is going to do what Portugal does. FIFA is going to charge an arm and a lead for all of it. No one's going to care.
- [32:48]
Anthony De Bundo
And we're all going to be tuned in every, you know, there's games at midnight Eastern chat.
- [32:52]
Chad Millman
As you guys were talking about it. I'll be locked in. I was thinking about like the sounds when the World cup is happening like on television from the stadium. The pay. It's just, it's too good. And like if we, if, if there are people Listening to the show, who are casual soccer fans and soccer betters. Like, we want you to get something from this. It's. It's on our side of the planet. It's in our time zones. We know people want to have fun. So, Anthony, for that crowd, what are you explaining to people are the best ways to approach betting on the World Cup? Invest in early, ride along with one country. How are you sort of giving people the lowdown?
- [33:32]
Anthony De Bundo
Yeah, don't bet long shot outrights. It's a good way to, like, I mean, I guess now with like, you know, the. Some of the market stuff, you can maybe invest and then sell out your positions, like, that kind of thing is possible. But if you're just like, I want to pick a future. What Simon said is true. There's only seven countries in this field that have ever won the World Cup. It is very hard to do because, I mean, think about Morocco four years ago. They were an incredible story, right? They were 14 to 1 to win their group. They won their group over Belgium and Croatia. They beat Belgium in the process. They get to the knockouts, and it's like, all right, great job, Morocco. Incredible story. Like, thanks for coming out. You're playing Spain. You're going to lose. And they're like, nope, nope, we're beating Spain too. Like, okay, great job. Like, you upset Spain, you want to shoot out. Now you got to play Portugal. They're like, well, we'll be, we'll beat them too. Okay, great. This is the greatest run we've ever seen from an African nation. They're in the semi final. Now you just have to beat France and like, oh, even if they had won that, oh, now you got to beat Argentina and Leo Messi in the fight. Like, it's just the odds of a team doing that. It's like zero. Because the teams get tired, they wear down, they have to defend for, for the whole match against these superior nations. And it's like, you know, the World cup, especially now in the current format, where it's almost impossible for the big boys to get knocked out before the knockouts. Like you used to get, you know, 2014, Spain got knocked out in the group stage. 2018, Germany got knocked out in the group stage. And it was like, oh, that's like a, you know, 2022 Belgium. But now, like, I mean, they're probably. There might be one. But it's like some of these fourth place teams are so bad that it's almost unfathomable that a team gets knocked out and then, you know, you're looking at again, seven countries have ever won it. Portugal's not on that list. Portugal is good enough to win it, I think, but it would really shock me. And so you're like, all right, so pick one of those teams, Pick one of those horses to ride with and then look into other markets. I mean, if you want to make Morocco to make a run, like, bet him to make the semis, bet them to make the quarters. Bet Ecuador, who I like, you know, bet one of those teams, Switzerland, as opposed to going like outright. And it's like, oh, great, I have 50 to 1. But then you're never gonna win.
- [35:31]
Chad Millman
I want to talk about the Americans on the other side of this break, but Matt Mitchell is just let me know of two notes from our sponsors at Hard Rock Bet. First off, Hard Rock is offering SGP profit boosts on every single U.S. men's national team match. Be sure to check those out. Also, number two, no goal is no problem because Hard Rock Bet is offering insurance on every 00 draw. If your match ends nil, nil. Hard Rock Bet has you covered. Check out the site for more details. Now, let's hear from our friends at Hard Rock. Today's show is brought to you by our presenting sponsor, Hard Rock bet, Florida's sportsbook. The NBA Finals are here, the lights are brighter, the pressure is higher, and every possession can define a legacy. Despite my feelings about New York fans, I could not be more excited about this matchup. Will New York and its title drought, will San Antonio hang another championship banner? However you see it playing out, head over to Hard Rock BET and turn your picks into a payday. The season is almost over, so shoot your shot while you can and same game parlays let you stack your picks for an even bigger payout. Try your first bet on Hard Rock Bet today and you can score $150 in bonus bets. If you win, just place a $5 bet and if it hits, you get not only your winnings but also an extra $150 in bonus bets. But the welcome offer is just the tip. Hard Rock Bet has new promos daily and sure, Hard Rock. Hard Rock Bet is Florida's only legal sports Facebook, but you don't have to be in Florida to join the party. Hard Rock BET is also live in Arizona, Ohio, New Jersey, Indiana, Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois, Colorado and Michigan. More states on the way. Download the Hard Rock Bet app today and let's get the party started. Payable and bonus bets, not a cash offer offered by the Seminole Tribe of Florida in Florida offered by Seminole hard Rock Digital LLC in all other states. Must be 21 or over and physically present in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee or Virginia. To play terms and conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida? Call 1833 playwise in Indiana. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9 with it in Arizona, Ohio and Virginia, call 1-800-my reset gambling problem, call 1-800- gambler in Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey in Tennessee vibe coding is everywhere right now, but it's not just for apps anymore. Now it's making its way into website creation. WIX has introduced Wix Harmony, a Vibe coder for websites that lets you type what you want and generate a site ready to use right away, complete with forms, payments, security and more built in. And WIX Harmony doesn't require AI for everything. You can still click and edit anything manually or select an element and have Aria, your AI agent, make updates for you. It's a smart solution to the frustration of repeatedly prompting AI just to make small changes. Try it for free@wix.com that's wix.com cash
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- [40:56]
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- [41:43]
Chad Millman
Goodbye. I do want to talk about the U.S. men's National Team again. There might be people listening who only want to root for the US men's team. Always controversy, always drama. It's been, what, 30 something years since the US men's team had that run in 94. Everyone gets excited. It never delivers. It's fine. We're, you know, we're excited to cheer for our guys. But lay out the strategy for the U S men's team and their chances here in the World Cup.
- [42:10]
Anthony De Bundo
I think they got a really fun group and like that doesn't mean that they're gonna like roll over everybody or that they got an easy group. You know, I think when you get into a World cup, like you want a challenging and interesting group. And I go back to, you know, the most fun I've had as a US fan was 2014. When they were in the Group of Death, everybody was like, oh, USA has no chance. They're, they're partnered up with Germany, Portugal and Ghana. Back when Ghana was like one of the best teams in Africa and it's like they got no chance. And then guess what, they beat Ghana late. They had the lead against Portugal. They went toe to toe with like Peak Ronaldo, Portugal and tied them and then advanced out of the Group of Death. And then they played Belgium in that crazy game where you know Tim Howard is standing on his head and, and you're like, well, you know they lost the round of 16, but damn, that was fun. And I think this group, like there's not the sexy names. But in terms of all 12 groups of this World Cup, Group D is the most balanced from top to bottom. Like my rankings of all 48 teams, I've got the US number one in their group at 18. I've got Australia last at 31st. So like all four teams are kind of similar. Australia I think is a little as a notch. Notch too worse. But Paraguay is a really tough defensive team. Turkey is a really, really, really talented offensive team that could play a really fun back and forth game with the United States. Paraguay is a perfect challenge to start because the US has had problems against these very physical defensive teams in terms of breaking them down, creating chances. That's going to be the task on Friday night. Paraguay's best attacking player is now out for this game. He suffered an injury last week, Julio and Ciso. So you're looking at like, okay, the defense should hold up here. That's our main question about the US Is how, how does this defense, this goalkeeper situation, it's kind of dicey. How do they hold up? And then we get to see the attack, which I think is tactically well set up for this tournament. We're going to see how they are able to gel together and break down a really good defensive team. They played Paraguay in November and it was like a very competitive 2:1 win for the US so I think it'll be a great game.
- [44:08]
Chad Millman
Simon, when you bet the World cup, do you bet it differently than you normally do as a professional? Better if you approach it more as a fan?
- [44:22]
Simon Hunter
Yeah. Like I'm always working, trying to get info. So that's, that's part of my life. Like even if I, I'm not betting up a sport professionally, I'm always trying to find an edge and I love watching it. So yeah, for me, like I talked about, I've only, I only watched Premier League So I don't watch Spanish league, I don't watch French league, I don't watch German, I don't watch Italy. I only really watch Premier League. So, you know, I don't know all the players. I'll be upfront about that. But I know the best ones. Like, come on, I play FIFA as well. So like I'm not totally out of it, but like I know these guys names. It's just, you know, to me, when it gets to the World Cup, I'm not here to poo poo Americans. Like I want America. I already talked about that. I want them to make a run because I think it'd be good for the sport and just get American culture being more into the sport, you know. Paraguay, if you want to bet USA to beat them, feels like a sucker bed. I think they're -105 to win the game. Their first game against Paraguay. The value to me is in the tie. And again, Americans don't like betting this stuff. But it's plus 240 at Hard Rock. That's, that's good value in it. What we just talked about. Paraguay is a great defensive team. A man of America's strength has been really tough defensively. So it's like a 1100 game. I know it's not fun to Americans, but to me that'd be a great result for America. America. And that'd be a nice way to start the tournament. So, you know, I got a big balls, but that's not it. Chad. I don't think that takes big balls about a tie. But for, for my view of Americans, if you want to bet on your team, you want to bet on them to win the group. I think Anthony just laid it out for you. There is value there. They're the best team in the group. The margin's so small though and the lines already built into that. You're kind of betting for fun. You're not betting because like there's other values we're going to talk about here to bet. This ain't one of them. America, if you're betting it, you're better. Truly.
- [46:00]
Anthony De Bundo
As a fan, I think the best way to bet America is not the group, but actually so you can bet like to make the round of 16 and there's a, there's a minus 110 out there. I think that's the best way to bet the US like if they win the group, they get a third place team and there is a chance that it's like a sneaky good, you know, like Senegal or Ivory coast, really good African or even European team like in Norway. But most likely they're going to be the clear favorite in that round of 32 game. And if they come in second in the group, their most likely round of 32 opponent is either Iran or Egypt, which, geopolitics aside, they're better than both of those teams as well and much deeper than both. So I think they're favored in their round of 32 game either way. If they come in third, maybe not. But if they come in first or second, which I think they will, they are the favorite, clearly. And, and you can get like -110 on. On them to win that match. So I think that's where this goes. And then they get to the round of 16 and it's like, all right, they're probably going to play either Belgium or Argentina, and they're going to be underdogs, but could they pull off an upset? That's always kind of like the, the place we get to, Right. Four years ago it was like they're playing the Dutch. Could they pull off an upset? No, they're playing the Belgians. Could they pull off an upset? Almost, but no. So it's like, that's kind of what we're at right now. And if they win one, like Simon said, they get the, the home bounce and the crowd goes nuts and they get an early lead and they're in the quarterfinals. And now you're like, well, they kind of, kind of did the thing.
- [47:21]
Chad Millman
Simon, what's our big balls bet of the week?
- [47:26]
Simon Hunter
Anthony already said it. You kind of shoot my hand. I. I love Morocco. I really do. I don't think what happened four years ago was just a blimp. And I think Brazil is totally overrated, like people are. I think I've seen some models have 75% chance of winning their group. So if you want to bet group C, Morocco, I have no issue with that.
- [47:43]
Anthony De Bundo
Yep.
- [47:44]
Simon Hunter
Let's just get right after game one, Morocco plays Brazil right away. They are right now plus 450 on hard rock to win that game against Brazil. I love that. If you're kind of someone that wants to play it super safe, though, soccer does give you half a point. So if you want to just play half a goal, they're mine. They're plus one plus 130. So if you want to take plus point half, you know you're already up half a goal to start the game. So if they tie, you win on Morocco. You can do that. I think Morocco has a chance to. To beat this team out. Right. I love, love everything about this team. And plus 450 to start it off. I think they'd be able to catch this Brazil team sleeping. I love that value for our big balls. Better the week.
- [48:24]
Chad Millman
Chad, you're seconding it.
- [48:26]
Anthony De Bundo
Seconding, yeah.
- [48:28]
Chad Millman
Our big balls bet of the week presented by Hard Rock Bet. We like Morocco plus 450 against Brazil.
- [48:37]
Starbucks Advertiser
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- [48:43]
Chad Millman
We also like Morocco plus a half a goal plus 130, I think you said in the opening game. And we like a little taste on Morocco to win their group. Big balls Bet of the week presented by Hard Rock Bet Anthony, before we get out of here, golden, I have
- [48:59]
Simon Hunter
one question for Anthony too, before we let him go.
- [49:01]
Chad Millman
Oh, go ahead, ask your question.
- [49:03]
Simon Hunter
Okay. Where are you at with Norway? I love Norway. I'm all in them. I'm all about the. The golden boot. Right. If you have the best striker in the game, you know, Norway, young team right there, you. You might look in there spice still four years away, which I would totally agree with. Right. They're very young, but I just love this whole movement of Norway's never been here before. They're in a group with Senegal and France, which is very tough.
- [49:29]
Anthony De Bundo
Tough group.
- [49:29]
Simon Hunter
Yeah. But I think that works their advantage, right. I think France, they could steal a game against France. I could see France tying, potentially losing a Senegal as well. Like France is. No. Doesn't have an easy route either. I love the odds of Norway right now, people sleeping on them. I would love to hear your view on them. And what do you think their odds are making out of that group?
- [49:48]
Anthony De Bundo
Yeah, I, I do think they're going to get out of the group. I think all three will. I think part of that is a commentary on Iraq, who is one of the worst teams in the field. And really, if you just win one game, you get three points. As long as you don't get blown out in the other two games, like, you're going to be fine. So I ultimately think all three teams will. Will prioritize beating Iraq and then say, all right, we'll take our chances with the other team. Now, as far as like, you know, Norway, the problem is, like, how do you bet them? Because, like, I don't think they have enough depth to win it. I think they're alive to pull off an upset or two. So maybe it's like a. To make round of 16, to make quarterfinals. I also wouldn't bet Holland golden boot, though, because again, they're probably not going to go that deep in the tournament. And like, you're playing France and like, the group stage is usually where the golden boot is really decided because you can rack up goals against bad teams. But it's going to be hard for Norway to do that when they're playing France and Senegal. So I think, you know, maybe the best way to bet Norway would be like a round of 16 or quarterfinal. I do think they're a top 15 team, which is crazy given that they weren't even in the field four years ago. They didn't even make the Euros two years ago. But Holland, Odegaard, Sir Loth, like, they're, they've got a really fun attacking group. I think they're very live. And I also like Colombia to win their group over Portugal. They're like 250. And then Ecuador. Ecuador is my dark horse, Chad. I'm excited about the Ecuadorians. They're. They're an ugly but very, very, very gifted and elite defensive team. They are five to one to make the quarter, six to one and like, plus 175 to make the round of 16. Like, I think Ecuador is going to be the classic traditional team. Nobody wants to play in the knockouts. Everybody's gonna be like, how can we avoid Ecuador? Because that's going to be an absolute war. They took Argentina to penalties a couple of years ago at the Copa America. Like, they're a really physical team, so they're gonna be tough out. And they're in a tough group too. They got Germany, they got Ivory Coast. Like, that's a. That's a. That's probably the second toughest group after France, Norway and Senegal.
- [51:37]
Chad Millman
All right, thank you. Anthony De Bundo. Check him out over at the Ringer. He's going to join us next month to preview the World cup semifinals. That's our show. This has been Sharper Square, part of the Volume podcast network. Watch or listen on YouTube at Sharper Square like this video. Subscribe to the channel. Download some Spotify Apple pods wherever you get your pods. Rate Review. Subscribe. Leave us 5 stars. Say whatever you want. Feedback is a gift. Until next time. Love you.
- [52:05]
Anthony De Bundo
Bobby Moore led England up to the
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Royal Box to receive the Jules Rimet
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Simon Hunter
cup and the winners medals.
- [52:11]
Anthony De Bundo
To be here as winners of the FA cup has often been described as. As the summit of a footballer's ambition. How much greater was the triumph they enjoyed?
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Georgia Hardstark
Now
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Anthony De Bundo
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Chad Millman
All?
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Simon Hunter
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