World Cup’s Final Pod | The Beautiful Pod

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Adam Friedland Show

Episode: World Cup’s Final Pod | The Beautiful Pod

Date: July 18, 2026

Guests: Chris Ryan, Sam

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Episode Overview

In this "World Cup’s Final Pod," Adam Friedland, Chris Ryan, and Sam gather—live in Los Angeles—to reflect on the 2026 World Cup, break down the semifinals, and preview the final between Argentina and Spain. They analyze tournament narratives, deliver irreverent banter, hand out tongue-in-cheek awards, and debate the legacy of Lionel Messi. The mood is celebratory and nostalgic as the crew contemplates both footballing history and the show’s potential future.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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The Semifinals Breakdown

Spain vs. France

• Spain “snaked” France, dominating with possession-based play and youth academy DNA.
  • Adam: “It was the serpent kind of coiling around the French, I don’t know, mouse.” (04:09)
• France looked lost despite the predictability of Spain’s style.
  • Chris: “They just looked like it was their first day on Earth.” (05:27)

Argentina vs. England

• England repeated their historical mistakes: scoring early, then going defensive and capitulating under pressure.
• Messi delivered a masterclass, making decisive contributions with 8 goals and 4 assists in 7 matches.
• The pod highlights the online narrative wars over which nation is “less racist,” mocking Twitter takes.
  • Adam: “The funniest thing in the world is people are like, ‘We have to get behind England for moral reasons…like, what do they think England is?’” (09:34)

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Messi’s Tournament & Historical Context

• Messi’s statistics and sheer impact are dissected, with Chris recapping every match and Messi’s role in each goal (16:11).
• Adam and Chris agree: This run, in terms of performance, legacy, and narrative, is unparalleled.
  • “This is history,” says Adam. (09:35)
• The conversation pivots to Messi's longevity and liberation after years of disappointment with Argentina.
  • Chris: “You usually don’t get to choose when to walk away…and he’s still the best player in the world.” (64:16)
• The pod likens Messi’s late-career dominance to LeBron dominating the NBA at 41, arguing the “door gets locked behind him” in GOAT conversations if Argentina win. (57:13)

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Spain’s Collective & Argentina’s Spirit

• Spain lauded for their “club-like” national setup, producing seamless, collective football.
  • Chris: “They played like a club. They played like guys who’d been playing together since they were kids.” (30:45)
• The final is framed as “heart versus brains, religion versus science” (53:12), with Argentina’s emotional engine—Messi—contrasting Spain’s system.

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Tournament Awards & Notable Categories

Club Winner & Club Loser (25:43)

• Winner: Barcelona for providing key Spanish players and dominating the semifinals and likely the final.
  • “Five players. They’ve got Jamal Kabarci, Olmo, Pedri and Torres…” (27:25)
• Loser: Arsenal for suffering major injuries and lackluster showings.
  • Sam: “We are the losers of this tournament.” (28:17)

Best Game (32:25)

• Cabo Verde vs. Argentina: Celebrated for drama, spectacle, and emotional resonance.
  • Chris: “For the spectacle, for the buildup…that was like as—like—when Dan Byrne came on, I don’t think I took a breath for the next 20 minutes.” (32:38)

Goal of the Tournament (36:33)

• Nominations:
  • Cabral’s extra time equalizer
  • Kane versus DR Congo
  • Messi’s volley against Egypt (messy, deflected volley through traffic)
  • Multiple thunderbolts from Mbappé

Concrete Boot (Most Disappointing Player) (38:00)

• Victor Gyökeres, Marcus Rashford, and Harry Kane (“not delivering in big knockout games again”) receive dubious honors.
  • Adam: “We haven’t seen a Harry Kane game. … The team has to be Jude’s team now.” (39:16)

Breakout Player of the Tournament (46:38)

• Consensus breakout: Buadi (Morocco), with shoutouts to Kibarci (Barcelona/Spain), Manzambi (Ivory Coast), and Christ Enow Oli (Ivory Coast).

Asimo Guillon All-Stars (Players Never Want to See Again) (50:31)

• Ayew (Ghana/Jordan), Romelu Lukaku (if he moves to MLS)
  • Adam: “Romelu Lukaku if he goes to MLS…we will be remembering about this tournament…”

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Illuminati/Fix is In Moment (19:00)

• VAR controversy from Argentina-Egypt called out; jokes about hairline offsides, “seismograph charts,” and “Penaldo”/”Pessi” bot farm propaganda.
  • Adam: “The most incredible thing I’ve seen is the Penaldo bots finally worked.” (21:10)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

| Speaker | Timestamp | Quote | | -------------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Adam Friedland | 04:09 | “It was the serpent kind of coiling around the French…I’ve been predicting every match.” | | Chris Ryan | 05:27 | “They just looked like it was their first day on Earth.” | | Adam Friedland | 09:33 | “Who do they think was selling all the slaves in the slave trade? …It’s really stupid…” | | Adam Friedland | 09:35 | “This is history. And every time I go on Twitter, people have decided that it’s psyop…” | | Chris Ryan | 32:38 | “For the spectacle, for the buildup…Dan Byrne came on, I don’t think I took a breath.” | | Adam Friedland | 57:13 | “If Messi does it…the door gets locked behind him…I don’t think we’ll ever see this again."| | Chris Ryan | 64:16 | “You usually don’t get to choose [when to walk away]. And he’s still the best in the world."| | Adam Friedland | 53:12 | “You have a collective philosophy in Spain and a collective soul in Argentina…it’s heart versus brains in this final.” |

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:05] Was this the best World Cup ever?
• [04:06] Discussion of Spain-France semi, Spanish style praised
• [07:42] Recap of England-Argentina, England’s failures, Messi’s brilliance
• [16:11] Messi’s tournament stats and match-by-match breakdown
• [25:43] Tournament Awards start (“Club Winner/Loser”)
• [32:25] “Best Game” discussion (Cabo Verde vs. Argentina, etc.)
• [36:33] Goal of the Tournament
• [38:00] Most disappointing player/fraud alert
• [46:38] Breakout player/young player award
• [50:31] Asimo Guillon All-Stars (“who are you excited never to see again”)
• [53:01] Manager discussion: Scaloni’s style and contrast with Spain’s De la Fuente
• [57:13] Messi’s legacy and the “GOAT door” — does it slam shut?
• [62:06] Greatest athlete ever? Comparing Messi’s global legacy

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Final Reflections

• Hosts agree this tournament was unique due to location, drama, and narrative weight—especially Messi’s swansong.
• The “soul vs. brains” Spain-Argentina final is called the perfect showdown.
• Speculation on England’s managerial future includes both tongue-in-cheek (Nigel Farage) and serious (Pep Guardiola, Eddie Howe) options.
• Adam and Chris close with affection for each other and the podcast’s run: “We’re maybe going to be doing a little something, something, something...”

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Tone & Style

Irreverent, self-deprecating, intelligent but playful; the show is full of soccer fandom in-jokes, Twitter/online culture references, and metafictional bits about their own podcasting dynamic. Insightful analysis is consistently interspersed with pop culture riffs and pointed humor about football’s absurdities.

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This summary captures all crucial points, awards, and the emotional arc of the episode—with direct quotes and timestamps for easy reference, ensuring listeners (and non-listeners) can appreciate the nuance, comedy, and analysis that made this "Beautiful Pod" a fitting World Cup sendoff.

Transcript

[Adam Friedland]

Foreign. Welcome to the Beautiful Pod.

[Chris Ryan]

Chris in studio Excited for you to be here. Welcome to Los Angeles.

[Adam Friedland]

Thank you. It's been great being here. I'm already being fake as af. We're talking finals. We're talking. We're going to briefly mention the semifinals. What we learned Britannia in the mud once again the Falklands our southern border is gone Maggie Thatcher's corpse turns. How do you say it?

[Chris Ryan]

Maggie Thatcher turning in her grave.

[Adam Friedland]

Maggie Thatcher is breakdancing in her grave. Folks, we're also going to do a couple awards.

[Chris Ryan]

Best Player of the Tournament, Young Player of the Tournament Club Winner of the Tournament, Club Loser. All sorts of fun stuff.

[Adam Friedland]

But real quick, a word from our sponsors. The Beautiful Pod is brought to you by fanduel. When the stakes get higher, the the matches go longer. And on FanDuel your bets can too. Because when extra time changes everything, your bet shouldn't stop at 90 minutes. Now you can back your favorite players all the way through extra time with markets like Anytime Goal Scorer, two plus Goals, Hat Trick Score, Anytime Assists to Score or assist. So whether the winner comes in regulation or deep in extra time, your action stays alive the entire match. Bet the knockout rounds with 120 minute markets only on FanDuel. Let there be goals. Visit FanDuel.com Tafs to get in on the action. Disclaimer 21 Select States 18 DC Kentucky, Wyoming Gambling Problem Call 1-800-Gambler Call 1-888-789-7777 Visit ccpg.org chat this episode is brought to you by Vuori. I gotta give Vuori some credit. They don't make you choose between comfort and looking sharp. Their core shorts work for basically everything, whether you're working out or just creating the impression that you work out. And the stratotech tee is so soft that you'll want to take it off only to wash it. Really good stuff. Get 20% off your first purchase at vuori.com tafs and discover the versatility of your clothing. Exclusions apply. Visit the website for full terms and conditions. Connecticut. Chris we met. We. We're. We're here.

[Chris Ryan]

We're here in person.

[Adam Friedland]

We're here in person. Los Angeles, California.

[Chris Ryan]

You say it's the final episode but do you think we'll go into a 365 day a year podcast about transfer market?

[Adam Friedland]

I think we are changing our.

[Sam]

I think.

[Adam Friedland]

I think everything is different now. I'm here in Los Angeles. I had an activated smoothie from Erewhon today. It's I'm ready To talk about ball. Guys, I don't know why I sound like Oprah, but folks, we're nearing the end. We have to return to our lives.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. But changed.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, changed. Was this first off, was this thus far the best World cup we've ever seen?

[Chris Ryan]

I think it was for us and for me because it was here and because I got to see every game in like the sort of prime conditions.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

So to have football be a 13 hour a day going concern was the best feeling I've ever had.

[Adam Friedland]

Every day was Sunday.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Every day was NFL Sunday. We didn't get. We didn't get Carrie, what's her name doing the Sunday night song for us.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, Carrie Underwood.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

She could still do it for the final.

[Adam Friedland]

She's got. We got to get one for the final. Gianni Infantino. I know that you've been listening to every episode. I have been receiving the signs everywhere the DMs. Please answer. Please answer. Why do the good guys always get left on red? I don't know why you're talking about that. Just because you're a good guy. I'm not gonna respond. It's been great. We had two scintillating semifinals.

[Chris Ryan]

I haven't really heard you sound off about these yet.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Okay, let's go with the first one. Let's go. Spain. It was a slog, kind of like what we expected until you realized that it was the serpent kind of coiling around the French, I don't know, mouse.

[Chris Ryan]

Like the fat French toad.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was ratatouille. Yeah, it was right. It was the ratatouille character just getting absolutely asphyxiated. This is kind of what I had been predicting every match about the French national team until it finally happened. And the reason was because the level of the opponent was good enough to do that against a possession based team. It wasn't even like a three man midfielder versus a two man midfield. There were five on threes. There were overloads everywhere. I think that what we saw was pretty much the DNA from their youth academy system. They all know how to play the same game. And like. Yeah. What did you make of it?

[Chris Ryan]

I thought that I picked Spain to win the tournament. Bracketology wise. I didn't think they would be playing France in the semi. So this was a little bit of a surprise to see France get just worked because if there's one team that broadcasts how they're going to play to everybody, it's Spain. Like you know what's going to happen. And watching France just chase them around, chase the ball around everywhere. I was just like, is first time, like, what's going on, man? Like, you guys play these dudes in club football. Like, you guys know what their style is. And they just looked like they was like their first day on Earth.

[Adam Friedland]

It was Madrid versus Barcelona. Kind of in the recent era, kind of.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And really, quite literally, it was Madrid versus Barcelona. I mean, there was like a tremendous amount of overlap between the. Between the clubs. Okay. If you take out. Have you seen it? If you say Lionel Andres Messi.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. Right.

[Adam Friedland]

What are the first letters of each?

[Sam]

Name?

[Chris Ryan]

L, A, M. Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

What is the second letter of each?

[Chris Ryan]

Is this a lamina thing?

[Adam Friedland]

Yes, lamine.

[Chris Ryan]

So do you believe in, like, cosmic circumstances?

[Adam Friedland]

Here I am reading the Secret. I am watching. I am watching kind of. I have a shaman now. I'm doing Reiki kind of style stuff. I'm doing a sound bath. Later, I'm in Los Angeles, California. I don't know. People have been saying that I'm glowing.

[Chris Ryan]

You are.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know what that means. Yeah, I don't know what that means. Sam, what do you think?

[Sam]

You look great, dude.

[Chris Ryan]

Thanks, dude. Does he usually not look this good back in New York? Does he look more pale, maybe a little more weathered?

[Sam]

I think handsome guy. Either way, though. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, kind of. In New York, it's a little bit like more of like a, you know, I'm on the streets, I'm pounding the pain.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Midnight Cowboy. I'm going to, you know, 42nd street, going to a couple movie theaters, reading a couple.

[Chris Ryan]

See the Odyssey.

[Adam Friedland]

Seeing the Odyssey. Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, a lot has changed in Times Square since I was there last in the late 70s. I thought it was the Odyssey was a dirty movie that I was going to see, and I thought I was cruising, but actually, no. Have you seen it?

[Chris Ryan]

I have. Pretty good. Yeah. Did you see it?

[Adam Friedland]

No, not yet. Okay, cool.

[Sam]

Not yet.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

All right, let's go. Sunday at 1pm okay.

[Sam]

All right.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, Sounds good. Do you have anything going on?

[Chris Ryan]

Do you want to talk about Argentina? England?

[Adam Friedland]

I just Real quick. I just. Going back to Spain real quick. This is the better team in the final. I mean, I think that Spain is

[Chris Ryan]

a better team than France to be.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, Spain is a better team than Argentina. I mean, I think that this is the best team in the tournament and the best team certainly remaining in the tournament. England. Argentina. How many times have we seen this?

[Chris Ryan]

This is another one. Same way where I was like, have you guys not watched any Football. I was like, I can't believe England got finally to this place. And we're just like, ah, we forget. We forgot how to play.

[Adam Friedland]

How many times have you seen England in a crucial match where they had knocked out, go up 1 nil and then try to park the bus? I mean, obviously they tried to try. They thought it was the Azteca. I suppose they thought that we're going to go like, the game state was so different and the quality of the opponent was so different. Him. It's. It's another vintage performance. I mean, I think. Does this qualify as his best run in a World cup ever? At least in terms of goals and assists?

[Chris Ryan]

It's. What is it? Eight goals in seven matches with four assists?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. It's 12 goal contributions. The. Sam and I were saying the second assist is basically. That's a goal.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

There's a freeze frame. Sam, have you seen it? There's a freeze frame of him striking the ball to send in that second assist. And you see. You see, like, just a wall of bodies and peeking behind it. You have a target like.

[Chris Ryan]

Like sneaking around it.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes. And it's with his fucking weak face.

[Sam]

Foot.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, with his weak foot.

[Chris Ryan]

Does your joy for him over, like, supersede your disappointment in England?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it has to be. It has to be about the history of the game, and it has to be about what we're seeing him produce in the context of the history of the game. This is history. And every time I go on Twitter, people have decided that it's psyop and it's that the funniest thing in the world to me is that they're like, this is the most racist nation in the world, Argentina. And that's why we have to get behind England. Like, what do they think England is?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Who do they think was selling all the slaves in the slave trade? I mean, it's. It's really stupid. Like, a lot of people need to just not watch sports. I think it's like, if you're going to do it beyond that, if you're going to be, like, doing a thing. I'm sorry for. This is obviously amplified on Twitter. This is obviously not a real thing,

[Chris Ryan]

I would hope, except in, like, the Irish Parliament, where they're just, congratulations to Argentina today.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, like, you're supposed to root against.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, it's banter. Come on.

[Adam Friedland]

You're supposed. If you're woke, you're supposed to root against England. Okay. You're not. Yeah. I think that what we are seeing him put together right now at this age, and kind of just like the joy that is that he is displaying.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, there was a really funny sequence after the final whistle where he was wandering around doing the messy thing and he was, like, going to, like, celebrate with people. And then Jude was getting in a

[Chris Ryan]

fight with a little redhead kid, walked

[Adam Friedland]

away and then he waddled away.

[Chris Ryan]

My favorite clip after the match was him find Pickford's water bottle.

[Sam]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And seeing it, like, just be like, okay, all right. What did you think of the Jude beef at the beginning of the match? And the. The. The fucking video that will live on forever of him being like, okay.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, it's going to get memed into oblivion. I think that's one thing that. Here's the thing is England got it right. Right. Like, they looked great until that first goal.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And then they completely capitulated. I think the first substitution was at 78.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

He brought off Gordon, he took off Gordon. And that means that we have to stop Lionel Andres Messi for fucking 30 minutes for a third of a football match. Tuchel, they brought him into the team

[Chris Ryan]

to be brave and to make the right decision in these big knockout matches because he's a tournament football killer also.

[Adam Friedland]

But just recency bias. Like, look at the game before you look at how Spain literally did not take their foot off their neck. Like, I mean, like, quite literally.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Like, it doesn't always have to be goals. It just means you have the ball.

[Adam Friedland]

You have the fucking ball and you don't let them have it. Right. And I genuinely speaking when they're attacking players started being replaced, I was like, the script has been written. We've seen this happen with England so many times. And, like, Tommy Tuchel literally just like, became an England. He became like, literally Sven Gord Eriks.

[Chris Ryan]

Well, and also, you know, you could make the argument that him not being like an English manager who necessarily has all of the. Not prejudices, but, like, complicated relationships with some of the players would mean that in that moment, the thing he might do is be like, I'm gonna take Kane off. Because Kane's legs have gone and Kane dropping deep doesn't help as much. We should have, like, a target down the field.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And he's still fucking. He's like, no, Prince Harry. He stays on. You know what I mean? Like, he didn't take off. Like the guy who had been basically playing every minute, getting kicked in the back for three weeks. So I just thought, like, he kind of quaked under it. I guess hindsight's Tough, because I've seen people be like, why didn't he attack the center backs once they both got yellows? And I'm like, well, it's hard to be like, the plan is to get the center back kicked out of the game.

[Adam Friedland]

And let's be fair, it's a 4:1. I mean, they hit the post twice. I mean, like, this was not, like,

[Chris Ryan]

McAllister shot should have gone in.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. No, we have the, like, juju of this tournament. We have.

[Chris Ryan]

Where we.

[Adam Friedland]

Where we see Basically them after 88 minutes, score every winner. But, like, no, the ball was going into the net regardless. It doesn't matter what time it was. Argentina, like, this is one of the most tremendous tournament runs I've ever seen.

[Chris Ryan]

That's why it's like, I. I think Spain will win. But, like, what am I supposed to do with the last five Argentina matches?

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know.

[Chris Ryan]

They're all miracle on ice. Like, they're all like just these insane games that all, like.

[Adam Friedland]

And then he's like, listen, I'm not going to play centrally on this. I'm going to go out wide. I'm going to be the best winger in the world. I'll just show everyone, you know, I'm playing center forward. I'm going to be the best winger in the world.

[Chris Ryan]

It's. I've watched that second goal so many times now. And it's the. It's so improvisatory because he can tell Spence has gotten hurt when they come together. Yeah. And so he has, like, one second to get around before Nico O'Reilly gets to him. And he does it the way that

[Adam Friedland]

he can kind of manipulate two men that are standing behind him and they're freaking out.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And the way that he knows the space, he knows. He literally has the map with the dots of every player, like, in his brain. It's. It's unlike we have ever seen and we never will see it again was

[Chris Ryan]

they won't let guys play like that.

[Adam Friedland]

And if. If people on Twitter want to make it into, like, a psyop, they can go ahead and do it, but the fucking game that we're watching is. I mean, it's. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

[Chris Ryan]

Podcast is brought to you by FIFA this.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, well, the second act of my script that I read to you, the second act was gonna be that Gianni Infantino was the hero, the one that

[Chris Ryan]

took place in Dallas.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Gianni Infantino was trying to stop Mark Gahey.

[Sam]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

And he Was like, no, this is about the promotion of football around the world. He's like, why would you. Come on, man. Why would you try to cheat? Yeah, I mean, I. I'm taking. You know what. So Argentina win. I'm taking Spain in the final.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, exactly.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, I'm taking Spain in the final.

[Chris Ryan]

Because you'll look smart if it happens.

[Adam Friedland]

Messi. No goals. Do you see this run? I mean, like, look at this run.

[Chris Ryan]

Seven matches, eight goals, four assists.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay, walk me through each match. What. What do you got? This is a guy that plays at the Inter Miami.

[Chris Ryan]

First game, Algeria.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Hat trick.

[Adam Friedland]

Hat trick.

[Chris Ryan]

And final score, three nothing, Argentina.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Second game against Austria. Argentina wins to nothing. He scores both goals. Okay, that's five goals there against Jordan, only one goal. They win three one again.

[Adam Friedland]

And he came on at, what, in like the 80th minute?

[Chris Ryan]

He came on late for that one.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, okay.

[Sam]

Yeah, okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Cabo Verde rested him. Game of the tournament candidate, which we'll be talking about soon. 3, 2, 1. Goal. Argentina. Egypt. Controversial. One goal, one assist.

[Adam Friedland]

So controversial.

[Chris Ryan]

Argentina. Switzerland. Argentina win three one. Amolo out. He gets one assist.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

England, Argentina. Argentina win two one. Messi. Two assists.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay, so basically, he's had an involvement. Sam, you want to calculate it really quick. And out of all of their goals he's had, he said 14 golden goal involvements, how many goals have they scored?

[Sam]

19.

[Chris Ryan]

19.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay, 19. You were doing math with your, like, lip syncing math.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, he was. Ray, man.

[Adam Friedland]

That's what they say, like, when you're. Like when you read lip syncing. They say it's the sign of. Not of, like, a low intelligence.

[Chris Ryan]

I. Speaking of lip syncing, lip reading, I can't believe that they haven't lip read the Jude Messy argument yet.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Has that not come out yet, what it was about?

[Adam Friedland]

Well, it was in Catalan, so. Yeah, it was in Catalan.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, Messi actually speaks 15 languages.

[Chris Ryan]

Not English, though.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, no, no, no, he does actually. He has a. He has a. He went to Oxbridge.

[Chris Ryan]

Wait, do you think he's like Ohtani, where he could actually speak it, but he pretends not to?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, he has. He has a bag, man. He has. He has some gambling to do.

[Chris Ryan]

That'd be amazing if you just bumped into him at, like, a Denny's in Miami and he's like, oh, I haven't the f. Moon over Miami.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, my God. Miami.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, so you. You were ultimately like the story. And my love for Messi supersedes whatever affection I have.

[Adam Friedland]

My love for the game, my love for. Yeah. These last 22 years, I mean, I. I think there have been a couple times where I've had a thought, is he about to go away? And it felt like the Egypt match. I was like, is this gonna be it?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And then I was like, no, Ronaldo went out yesterday. I was like, it can't be one day.

[Chris Ryan]

It can't be the same round.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I think it would have been the next round.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, okay.

[Adam Friedland]

I think. Is that right? Is that right or wrong? Maybe I might even be misremembering. I'm like. But it was the proximity of Ronaldo going out. It was like, it doesn't jive.

[Chris Ryan]

You know, that would be the game that people pointed to if they were going to do the. And we. We have an award coming up where we were going to talk about the fixes in the Illuminati moment of the tournament.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, okay, sure.

[Chris Ryan]

And the Egypt var call of the foul happening two minutes before the goal and 90 yards away from the goal. And I'm trying to do everything they can to keep messy in the tournament.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay. Yes. Yeah, that was, I guess, friendly. I mean, fixes in for me is the hair against Croatia.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, that, to me, is, like, the most, like, egregious moment we've had. And then they show some. Some bullshit, like, some, like, seismograph chart where I'm like, okay, yeah, they sense they had someone's hair. They got like a. Oh, that was a. They showed us the Richter scale of hair. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

The San Andreas fault when this guy was offside.

[Adam Friedland]

To me, that was like, yeah, they made a sui for Ronaldo. Like, yeah, they're like, we need, like, the. We.

[Chris Ryan]

We.

[Adam Friedland]

We made a couple too many of them. We need to, like, that. We made his own SUI kit. Yeah. To me, that was the most egregious thing that happened. It didn't have to do with Argentina. I. I, like, have been. Here's the worst part of the World cup in a person on a personal scale.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

I have been engaging with X.com again.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. I think your usage went way up. Right?

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Normally I pay a baby to, like, say, hey, these are my tour dates. Oh, there's a new episode of the Adam Friedland Show I've found out an incredible amount about. You know, Anne Frank used ballpoint pen on the diary, and they wouldn't. How is that possible? You found that out from X. Oh, my God. And, yeah. And then, like, it was from an account that said SUI suey. Man from Germany. No.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I think that going on X. Obviously your algorithm gets amplified. The most incredible thing, the best of

[Chris Ryan]

times, the worst of times on there, because that's how we found Freddy.

[Adam Friedland]

The most incredible thing I've seen is the Penaldo bots, right, for the first time have actually worked.

[Chris Ryan]

There are.

[Adam Friedland]

Listen, guys, if you are not aware of this in reality, okay, And I'm speaking at you members of the Democratic Socialists of America, whoever else needs to hear this, okay, There are. There are eight six year olds, okay, who, who have accounts that have an avatar of Cristiano Ronaldo. And then there is a Russian bot farm that stole the election in 2016 for Mr. Donald Trump.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, okay. Just making sure I got that.

[Adam Friedland]

That are dedicated to spewing out this propaganda that have never. It has been unsuccessful. It has been unsuccessful until the single handed worst tournament of Cristiano Ronaldo's life. Right? Somehow it's caught on that the man who had dinner at the White House, a black tie event with Gianni Infantino, Donald Trump and of course Mohammed bin Salman, they had the Jamal Khashoggi Memorial dinner, which they have every year. I got to stop with the Khashoggi jokes.

[Chris Ryan]

You've only made two this entire tournament.

[Adam Friedland]

Well, I said that the head of the. Bernard's predecessor or the Khashoggi, that he is somehow. That. Yeah, that somehow Ronaldo is Palestine and Messi is Israel. Listen, it is. It's shout out to Ronaldo.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, now you're going. You're zapping.

[Adam Friedland]

He had a great tournament. It finally worked, Sam. It finally worked. We've been watching these. We've been watching these idiots. Like, listen, it's the same guys behind the Labom accounts, right? The Pesi slash Labom guys finally fucking did it.

[Sam]

Right?

[Adam Friedland]

And the Le Bomb guys have been cooking for about 20 years now, right?

[Chris Ryan]

They have a point.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, they. They have. They raised a couple of good points. But the, the Pesi guys are having a field day in a tournament where I think we're seeing perhaps his best tournament ever. There. There is a moment right before the Elliot Anderson just. Do you see that open field tackle. Because there's two. There's two there. You got to get the one where

[Chris Ryan]

Elliot Anderson and Kane both jump Messi and he just like stays up there.

[Adam Friedland]

It's where he collides with, I think first Anderson. The ball ricochets. He claims he goes underneath. Like Sequan Barkley goes underneath Kane. Fuck off me. Right?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Then Elliot Anderson flies in. He megs him there's about, it's like, it's like lethal shooter. Yeah, it's like, it's like, it's like, you know where he's like, I'm on a windmill right now and I'm throwing the ball and I have this much clearance like around the hoop. Yes. Right. He makes Anthony. Anthony Gordon. Literally like with, with at least like a 2 millimeter clearance on either side. Megs him. And Gordon flies right. He's just like, Just like flies off him. Then you see Elliot Anderson say like something has to be done. And then free safety Troy Palomalu shoulder through him, open field tackle. I mean, it's like someone in our league in, in the NFL needs to sign the boy up. It was like Eric Weddle, prime Ravens. Yeah. I mean, slow down. I want to, I want you guys to watch it. I mean, it is, it is poetry in motion right now. This guy is like, you forget, right? Because the walkie. Walkie, walkie. You forget. Actually, he is still so quick.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And like he just saves it for five times a game.

[Adam Friedland]

He does. Yeah. Yeah. We, yeah, we're finding out a lot of guys have been exposed. I mean, like, who do you think? Like, like fraud alert.

[Sam]

Who.

[Chris Ryan]

Let's, we can do fraud alert because. Let's do that.

[Adam Friedland]

Let's go through, let's go through your categories. I want to, I want to like, let's start with. Let's just go through the awards ballot. Everyone's watching. Infantino's watching. The Ballon d' or is watching.

[Chris Ryan]

Henry Winter is watching like all of the British press, of course.

[Adam Friedland]

The Fonz. The Fonz. Henry.

[Chris Ryan]

We have. We're going to do best game. Best goal. Concrete boot for worst player. Yeah. Yeah. Club winner. Like the club that benefited the most from this tournament. Club loser.

[Adam Friedland]

Who do you think? The club. You want to start there?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Let's start with club winner and club loser.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, there were a lot.

[Chris Ryan]

Club winner. I have Barca.

[Adam Friedland]

Sam, what do you. Who do you have?

[Sam]

I think it has to be Newcastle because they have managed to sell Gordon for 75 million pounds. Bruno Gimmereich will go for 80 to 85. Tonali for 100. Those are like good players, not great players.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, but finally didn't play in the World cup though.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Over the period. I say this without bias. Sam, stop trying to impress him. Okay?

[Sam]

I'm just talking, man. This is just me.

[Adam Friedland]

I, I. Sam, by yourself.

[Chris Ryan]

You're, you're right in the sense that Newcastle's run over this last couple of Weeks.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And they also lost off on Zor. The lost out on Zoro and Momdani, who's going to Aston Villa.

[Sam]

I. I think when you can get close to £300 million for what, 125 million worth of players, you've done, like incredible business.

[Adam Friedland]

I heard that Johan Manzambi, the. In Birmingham, the Jewish community is really confused. I heard that he's made some real anti Semitic copy. No, no, no. You know, I thought it was Zoron. I heard that he wants to do Sharia law probably.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay, I have the club winner is Barcelona, because they've got five players. They've got Jamal Kabarci, Olmo Pedri and Torres in that. In the heavy rotation in Spain team.

[Adam Friedland]

I think if you factor in the semifinals and what's going to be the final, it has to be Barcelona. But I. I have to say what I'm looking for, what I'm watching for, obviously this is. I have to be objective here. And Arsenal just. Are just walking away the winners of this tournament. First of all.

[Chris Ryan]

That's why you should say that.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. First of all, you got Mikel Marino, right? Mikel Marie, Sam. What was the face? I want Sam's face on this episode because this is the face that I have to look at every episode.

[Sam]

I don't know, man. Our three best players are Spence. Saliba's out five months. Saka can't.

[Adam Friedland]

First of all, Spence doesn't play for Arsenal. Thank God.

[Chris Ryan]

They're spent.

[Adam Friedland]

No, he said Jed.

[Chris Ryan]

Spence.

[Sam]

We are. We are the losers of this tournament.

[Chris Ryan]

I have Arsenal. The losers of the tournament.

[Adam Friedland]

We are the absolute losers of the tournament.

[Chris Ryan]

Gabby Baptized by Holland Mr. Pen Celebra broke his back. Saka is dead, Rice is dead and Noni was never alive.

[Adam Friedland]

We're Arsenal.

[Chris Ryan]

David Riot carries Unai Simon's bags. Yoker is scored a week.

[Adam Friedland]

That's insane. Now, I have stopped you there.

[Chris Ryan]

Havertz is dead and Arteta Ball is in the mud.

[Adam Friedland]

Skip, Skip, okay, Not in the muddle.

[Chris Ryan]

Ball is in the mud. That's what tried to play.

[Adam Friedland]

First of all, okay, Arteta Ball isn't in the mud because if you have the best keeper in the world and you have the best back four in the world, then Arteta Ball is. I mean, if England had the best back four in the world, they would have been fine. Okay, our guys are dead. But guess what? We just had so many guys. We had so many guys in those semifinals, I got to say. But England were the Persona. They were. So Arsenal. When I saw that first, like, literally against the run of play, when I saw that first Norway goal, I just started, like, I called Sam and we're like, this is just. How many times have we seen this? How many times? Against the run of play, some bum, like, named Fresh.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Like, hits a. Like it hits a cross that everyone says is the goal of his life. Freestyle, right?

[Chris Ryan]

Or what's his name?

[Adam Friedland]

Shut. Shut her. Shut her up.

[Chris Ryan]

I think that's like. That's the guy's. Vaguely the guy.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. You want to go to his personal life section in Wikipedia.

[Chris Ryan]

He made some mistakes on Snapchat.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Who bought him?

[Adam Friedland]

Who bought him? Probably Marseille. They have all the other ones.

[Chris Ryan]

Birds are buying them.

[Adam Friedland]

Seriously, Marseille have all the other ones. Don't they have. They have a Greenwood, Adam Johnson. Okay, now we're back.

[Sam]

What is Fenerbache now?

[Adam Friedland]

What? Fenerbahce. Oh, Greenwood's Fenerbahce?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

We're buying kids. Okay, let's go.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

No, no, seriously, you're. You're absolutely right. Barcelona. This is. Okay, I think here's a good question. There has been this tension, right? We. We've been talking about, like, tactical football versus kind of like knockout pragmatism.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

Right. What we saw was in the Spain match, it was the best zag of the tournament, especially of the knockouts. Right. Everything that we had been previously saying was kind of holding up until Spain actually applied tactics and then kind of squeeze it.

[Chris Ryan]

They played like a club. They played like guys who'd been playing together since they were kids.

[Adam Friedland]

Massive loser in the tournament, I think have to be Madrid, because he's going back there and I think that he's cursed.

[Chris Ryan]

The dictator.

[Adam Friedland]

The dictator.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. You see Jude thriving, you know, just living his own life. Going to Jamaica, getting his groove back. Get like meeting a. Meeting a young Taye Diggs, a younger man, right?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, he makes him feel young again. Right. You know, again you saw Vinnie cooking as well. And now they have to go back and they have this massive presence in their team that is kind of like sometimes can be overwhelming for the rest of the chemistry of the team.

[Chris Ryan]

And now Jose is making them come to work at 10am I think that

[Adam Friedland]

that is the best news possible.

[Chris Ryan]

Just on the side note, if you want to revive this podcast to do the three part Jose Netflix documentary that's coming next month, I would love to. It's all I care about.

[Adam Friedland]

Let's do. Let's do like a mini miniseries. Talking, talk, Talking.

[Sam]

Moo.

[Adam Friedland]

Talking. Oh, no, I would love To. I mean, granted. Just off. Off. Offhand, like, I. I think if we could sort out just a weekly, like,

[Chris Ryan]

check in Monday morning also. Just, like, a person, some personal time for each other.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Just. Yeah. I mean, like, we could also have. You know, it's our talks that I like more than just on the phone, where you're like, I have to go, Adam. I'm like, one more thing, One more thing. Cr. One more thing. One more thing. I have a funny joke. I have a funny joke about me wearing a tux and you wearing a wedding dress. Like the Mike Ditka, Ricky Williams. That would have been funny.

[Chris Ryan]

So. Club winner, we got Barca. Club loser, we've got Arsenal. Best game.

[Adam Friedland]

Best game. You have to go Capo Verde. For you. You're gonna say. I'm gonna say Azteca. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

For the spectacle, for the buildup, for the. For the, like, the manner in which they won.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

And also just because, like, that was like, as. Like, when Dan Byrne came on, I was like, I don't think I took a breath for the next 20 minutes.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it was like. Because it is a cathedral of the game. Because it was a host nation. Because it was like just. It was a thousand miles an hour from the jump, and it was. Yeah, it was like a. It was a war. Cabo Verde was a movie, right? Cabo Verde was. Was. You know. You know. Remember the Titans?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. It was almost the biggest upset in sports history.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And it. And the writing was the right. It was. It was the right ending.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Right. Capo Verde. It. It would have been the wrong ending if it was like a Disney Channel original for tv. Capo Verde wins. But because it's like. Yeah, because it's Moneyball, right? Sure, because it's Moneyball. He's in the fucking gym. He's just lifting weights. He's like, I can't even watch this shit. He's spitting out his dip, and then they tell him he loses. Then he has to sit in that crap stadium in Oakland. Just remembering the season with that. The fat math guy. Why don't you, Sam. Why don't you try to be one of those Joan Hills?

[Sam]

I'm not that fat.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, campaigns slow down, insights get buried, and opportunities get missed. That's why Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result, Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most. To learn more, check out Accenture.com Spotify

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[Adam Friedland]

by Duluth Trading Company. Whether it's the 19th inning, the 12th quarter, or the 5th and a half shift, overtime isn't going anywhere. Which is why Duluth builds hard working gear for folks who win. Work their butts off. Their work shirts are built for function and comfort, giving a big foam middle finger to all that's feudal. And the new ultra tough no quit utility shirt is equipped with cooling and wicking tech to keep you comfortable. Give no quits. Shop at a Duluth store near you [e-mail] for the audience listening. I know a lot of people have been spec speculating on r beautiful pod. Sam is five foot one and he's 375 pounds.

[Sam]

I'm literally taller than you. We have gone back to back, what, four or five times? I win every time.

[Adam Friedland]

No, you're. No, you're shorter than me. You're shorter than me. And Chris is 6 4. You know that? I didn't know it until I met him. Okay, Cabo Verde, I think we could. I think next category is goal of the tournament.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Okay, so that. Because it had that equalizer.

[Chris Ryan]

Cabral.

[Adam Friedland]

The Cabral equalizer. Extra time.

[Chris Ryan]

I had Cabral extra time against Argentina. I had Kane's second goal against Dr. Congo where he gets what a beaut underneath of it again. Lifts it up.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. He's like his body's going away and

[Chris Ryan]

Henri did a great reaction to that. Yeah. Messi equalizer against Egypt, which is just more like. I love a volley.

[Adam Friedland]

The Messi equalizer against Egypt is like, I can't. No other player in the world, like, keeps that under the bar. And also, that was, like, deflected off of the keeper, too. Would have hit the back of the net. It only roofed because, like, the keeper got an arm in there. What's insane about that goal is he has just human flesh. Like, he has bodies in front of him and he knows that he has to swing out and, like, get. Get his leg around, like on a volley and then get the ball around them and then.

[Chris Ryan]

Insane. Yeah, it's insane.

[Adam Friedland]

It had. You know what it had? It had the most satisfying, like, back, like, hitting the net.

[Chris Ryan]

There was a lot of good thunderbolts in this. In this World Cup. Mbappe had a couple of really nice outside the box.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Shots.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But that messed up.

[Adam Friedland]

Rockets, if you will.

[Chris Ryan]

Brexit Rockets. Concrete boot for most disappointing player.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, cr. Victor Gilkers. I mean, he was my. He was my.

[Chris Ryan]

He was your everything.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, honestly, that's an interesting question because, like, Cristiano Ronaldo, we were expecting to be terrible. Who did we actually expect something out of? I mean, like.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, like, who's. Who's the biggest disappointment given expectations?

[Sam]

Yeah, I would. I would give a little shout out to Marcus Rashford. I mean, he started the tournament as the left winger and then he got his chain snatched by Anthony Gordon for England and Barcelona. That's a tough torment for Marcus.

[Chris Ryan]

I. I feel bad for him because I don't think he. I thought he played well against Croatia. I mean, Verts was not very good. Maybe emblematic who expected him to be.

[Sam]

This is an average. This is a slightly above average player. Like he did. I thought he performed to his level.

[Adam Friedland]

No slurs this time.

[Sam]

Sam souped up Fabio Vieira. That's Florian.

[Adam Friedland]

Close, I thought. Oh, that was close.

[Sam]

How about Harry Kane not delivering in big knockout games again?

[Adam Friedland]

That is he. We were saying we haven't seen a Harry Kane game. I think that the team. And let's go back to the. The semifinal. The team has to be Jude's team now.

[Chris Ryan]

I agree.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, I think. I think you have to move on. He's 32 now.

[Chris Ryan]

That's going to drive the English media insane.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, well, guess what? I'm sorry, dude. Like, they've been. He is the personification of Tottenham, right? He is like Kane. Kane. Yeah, he is. He has been elevated. He has been elevated by that press by that, by their press. Just to literally to be annoying, right. Like Tottenham are this irrelevant team, right? Who. Because everyone has the. I'm not going to go on my. Okay. When I first started watching, right, I didn't get why the Arsenal fans hated them so much. And then they'd look at you and they'd be like, tremaine Defoe is a better striker than Tyrion Reynolds. And they look at you like you.

[Chris Ryan]

This is in real Life or on X dot com.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, no, there was no X dot com. This was like 2005.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

They'd be like, you poor thing. They like literally like the entitlement that's there and there. The way the referees in England allowed him literally just to like 2 foot people in the chest and then not even give him a yellow card. Like, it's about time, right?

[Chris Ryan]

We thought you're talking about Spurs.

[Adam Friedland]

No, no, I'm talking about Harry Kane. It's about time. That like this assumption that he is England's savior. Like, no, you have a. You have someone that literally was on pace to put together like a 98 Zizu run. Right. And then it ended, obviously.

[Chris Ryan]

It basically culminates with Dr. Congo and then he's been zapped since then. There's an extra match in this World Cup. I think people have talked about like, there's like the extra match theory, that this is just really taxing on guys who played deep, long European seasons.

[Adam Friedland]

The problem is, okay, I. What I would say, what team, what clubs are fucked? The Prem. The. Every Prem club. Yeah, right. When Harry Kane plays in a league where it's wrapped up by January. Sure. And when PSG players like literally get 25 games. Yeah, they have 20. Like literally. I think Marquinhos didn't play in the league.

[Chris Ryan]

Right.

[Adam Friedland]

It's like when Barcelona had Ter Stegan in the league and then Claudio Bravo,

[Chris Ryan]

like in the cups.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. When you could carry a squad and play half the amount of minutes like we. That was our question at the beginning of the tournament. We said, is England at an advantage because their players play in the Premier League and because they have. It's the best league and because they're battle tested. I think, yes, we saw that be an advantage, but only for so long.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. And then they came up against a bunch of like 35 year old Argentinians who play Wolverines and they, they, they kind of wilted a little bit. I don't know if Declan rice plays like 10 less games for Arsenal, if he looks better. I don't know if Like Rhys James's hamstrings are going to be Reese James hamstrings no matter what. The thing that I thought about with Kane after that Argentina match, which is getting brought up a little bit more, is that when he didn't bring. When Tuchel didn't bring Foden Palmer, Morgan, Gibbs, White, like a bunch of relatively creative, like attacking players, I had always kind of assumed that there was like either a chemistry reason or a personality reason why he didn't do it. And then when I was watching how deep Kane was playing and how he would come back and the wingers would run on and like he'd have Jude running on, I was like, they seem to like, they basically made this giant concession for Kane's playmaking and to put a big kind of spotlight on him as like, I'm the quarterback here. And I was like, you guys screwed this up. You guys. Kane either should have played less and had been fresher down the stretch, or they should have brought one of those guys who can unlock a defense.

[Adam Friedland]

And maybe Jude Bellingham is a forward.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, maybe. Maybe like what we saw like before Mbappe came, right. He had that season where Real Madrid ran through him. Right.

[Chris Ryan]

And the Ancelotti season.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, the Carlos season. Then Mbappe comes, he moves back to be a midfielder. Do we like him as a center forward better? Do we like him as a striker better? I do. Personally, I think he's the striker that a team like yours needs.

[Chris Ryan]

I think he's really good at finding goal, but I think he's better as like a late arriving guy than he is.

[Adam Friedland]

I think he's a second striker.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Like there was like that one Liverpool year where Gerard played off of Torres, which I think would be like the ideal situation. The ideal situation for dude is to have a guy who is the center of attack, but you can always be making runs.

[Adam Friedland]

Speaking of Liverpool is. So the FAA has expressed.

[Chris Ryan]

The FAA like the, The Federal American.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. The FAA has expressed confidence from what I've heard in Tuchel.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

If it's up to me, like who are. If you're like hiring another England manager after this. You brought up Liverpool. I mean, one of my names, second tier. I would say Rafa Benita. No, but actually, like, who do we. Who, like who would you give this team to?

[Chris Ryan]

I would probably, I would probably just ask Pep to fill out the rest of the chat. I would say Pep, what's. What's the number? Yeah, and you can come for like next year. You can take a year off Then come for the year leading up to the Euros and then into the World Cup.

[Adam Friedland]

Have a New York year like you. Like after.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. Have your sabbatical year after Bayern. Because otherwise, I don't think that the English fans or the press are going to accept another foreign manager. Like, I don't think that you can go and get Kante or whatever. Like, you would have to do.

[Adam Friedland]

I don't know if that's the manager

[Chris Ryan]

you would have to do. Like Eddie Howe or something like that. D D. Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

D D or. Okay, my top two right now. Daish, Nigel Farage, John Bin Face. No, no, but genuinely, pep is the answer. You need someone that is bigger than that job. What?

[Sam]

Sam, I. I don't think pep is the answer for England. I think England, when you compare them to countries like Spain, Italy, Germany, France have never had, like, a distinct style of play that feels English. Besides, we're going to, you know, fight hard and be physically, you know, better athletes than you. So I think the only answer is to lean into that, and that is Eddie Howe. I think Eddie Howe is a cogent philosophy for English football and the team that they have.

[Chris Ryan]

I just think that Eddie Howe plays against Scaloney like, he just. He shits his pants.

[Adam Friedland]

Who's. Who's his assistant? That, like.

[Chris Ryan]

Oh, the guy with Jason.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, yeah, you got to bring that guy. Tinder, Tindle, Tindal, Tinder, Tinder, Jason Grinder. Bring him to the carpet. Okay.

[Chris Ryan]

Breakout player of the tournament, which I had, is like our substitute for young players. So this could either be like a. A kind of diaper dandy, dick, vital, out of nowhere kid, or it could be someone. You can't wait to see him get bought for 100 mil.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

IU Bodi for. For Morocco would be a good one here.

[Sam]

I think Bodi. Bodi will go for 100 million po whether he stays another year at Lille or not, I don't know. But he'll be at Arsenal, Man City, Barcelona, Real Madrid. Whichever club he wants, he'll get to go to psg.

[Adam Friedland]

He feels PSG to me.

[Chris Ryan]

John Diamonde, who was supposed to be between Liverpool and psg, sounds like it's PSG for Ivory Coast. Yeah, you laugh, pal. Kibarci, who obviously is already starting for Barcelona, is not really like a breakout player, but looks incredible.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, I remember him specifically. I remember I was like, they have more guys. That's the thing about Lamasi is like, every season there's another one that's like, oh, that's a creative player. He's got the same name as Pau Gasol. And.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. H. It's crazy.

[Adam Friedland]

And. Yeah. I mean, Zombie, I think.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Zoron, Mom's mom. Zora Momdani.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Who you got, Sam?

[Sam]

I. I love Manzambi and Buadi. I think those are great shots. One, I'll give an extra one is for this. This, like five foot six midfielder on the Ivory coast named Christ Enow Oli, I think is. How you say his name. I think he's. I think he's fantastic.

[Chris Ryan]

Where's he playing now?

[Adam Friedland]

He's fantastic to get things off the top of the shelf for you.

[Sam]

Yeah, because I'm so small. That's right. He plays for Trap Zonespore in. In Turkey. But he'll be. He'll get move this summer.

[Adam Friedland]

Manzami it also. They started to suck the second he wasn't available too. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

All right. For breakout. Let's go. Bodi. For breakout, player of the tournament. For player of the tournament is this. Oh, have we already done this part because we talked about Messi for 20 minutes?

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Su.

[Chris Ryan]

Is there a runner up here?

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, good question. I guess. Mbappe, would you say I go Bellingham? Bellium.

[Sam]

What about Rodri?

[Chris Ryan]

Fuck.

[Adam Friedland]

Fuck, he's so good.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you think you jinxed us when you put him in the ground and you read a prayer over him and you threw flowers on his coffin and you were like, rodri's fucking dead guy.

[Adam Friedland]

He's the. He's the Remontada expert. I mean, what have we seen? Every time he's been out or, you know, like, tied together with string for Manchester City, they've sucked. I mean, it's been for about two, three years now. He's so crucial. It's insane.

[Chris Ryan]

Recirculating a Pep press conference from. I can't remember what point in the Manchester City season, and they were like, what do you think? Is Rodrigo good this season? And he was just like, no, no, but in the World Cup, Rodri would be. You know. And I was like, damn, you called it. Rodri really did just, like, save it for six games in the World Cup.

[Adam Friedland]

It was a Spanish accent. Did you hear that? Geez, that was close. Did you hang out with Sam? Too much Asian sounded. It sounded. It sounded like. Yeah, it sounded like it was Pep

[Chris Ryan]

Guardiola's Catalonian Manchester accent that.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, it sounded like, you know, you got John McClane and he's in an office building. He's not wearing shoes. Pep Guardiola sounds like that to you? Jeez Louise. Do you know Shane Gills lost snl okay, guys, sorry, I forgot I'm in la. Can't make jokes like this. Like we can in New York with the people. Yeah, I guess. One other category. The Asimo Guillon All Stars. Who are you excited to never see again for four years?

[Chris Ryan]

Iu.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Jordan.

[Sam]

IO.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Great. Great shout. Romelu Lukaku if he goes to the mls. Granted, like, we. We have to kind of say, like, what is the narrative that we will be remembering about this tournament? Like. And I think there's only one real answer there.

[Chris Ryan]

Messi.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Much too much to Spain chagrin, because I think that there have been tournaments in some ways. Spain's run here over the last couple of years has been astonishing and dynastic and, like, the way Scaloni. Not Scaloni del Fuente is put together, it's hard.

[Adam Friedland]

I've made that mistake.

[Chris Ryan]

He put together this. What is it, like, three tournaments in a row now? And I mean, is he, like, lost once? It's. It's nuts.

[Adam Friedland]

De la Fuente also has never lost in three tournaments. Is it.

[Chris Ryan]

No, this is. This is Delafuente I'm talking about. Yeah. And then Scaloni is like the same thing where it's like, these are the.

[Adam Friedland]

Scaloni is. Scaloni is one of the last three

[Chris Ryan]

and two Copa Americas and. And the World Cup.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. And then. Yeah. And then what I guess has been like, what's the stat on Del Fuente?

[Chris Ryan]

He's got nations and Euros, and I think. What's. Has he got another tournament that he won? No, it's just the nations in the Euros.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, they're good, is the point.

[Adam Friedland]

They're both really good. Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

But I can't figure out what make. I mean, like, what do you think is good about them? That's. That Nagelsman and Poach and Tuchel couldn't get.

[Adam Friedland]

They kind of have what we were saying. Scaloni especially, he has the kind of. The Carlo thing. He has the just have fun out there thing. He's. He's proven actually to be really good at substitutions.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

I would say. But. But beyond that, like, it's kind of. He's gotten out of the way of. Of like, their. Their kind of talisman, which is messy. And Messi, I. I'm pretty sure he wasn't like, messi, I want you to play out wide in this game.

[Chris Ryan]

No, Messi was like, this is where I'm going.

[Adam Friedland]

Messi just put himself there. Right. And what we were saying before the last game is like, they were Trying to feed him centrally. Too much. The players were looking for him too much centrally, like, at the kind of the top of the box, like, just on the outside of the box. And it became far too predictable. Messi kind of, like, used his brain to figure that out, and he just put himself out by the touchline and he, like, then started toying with fullbacks.

[Chris Ryan]

His subs are sick, though. Like, the Simeone starting and then bringing on Nico and then bringing on, like, the guys. Like, it just felt like he knew exactly how that game was going to unfold, and Tuchel was surprised by it.

[Adam Friedland]

I think that what we're seeing right now is a collective philosophy. This is kind of the contrast between the two teams. You have a collective philosophy of football in Spain, and then you have a collective, like, soul in Argentina. In Argentina, Right. It's. It's heart versus brains in this final. And that is so cool.

[Chris Ryan]

Yes.

[Adam Friedland]

So that I pull that out of my ass.

[Chris Ryan]

That was. You're like a real sportscaster.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah. Genuinely speaking, like, there is. It's. It's religion versus science. And, you know, I know I'm in LA and you guys all take the vaccine and stuff, but I. I'm a man of the. I'm a man of God. Okay. I know you guys all do social distance and chill or whatever, like, from 40 miles away, where you're, like, on walkie talkies, hang out with your friend over Griffith Park Observatory. But, like, listen, I believe in God and, like, genuinely, like, this is really cool to see the baby from that picture playing against Messi. This is really. This is like. It's. It's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. And I think sports is, like, something obviously, like, we. We project narrative onto sports. Right? That's why it means something. Right. If we're just watching guys that are really good at a sport play against each other, and then we want it. The sports to be good. No, we. We have our favorite teams. Yeah. You want players.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Right. We have guys that we think are bums, even though we can. Like, we are sitting on a couch. Right? Like, and we're like, that guy stinks. Right. And we feel completely confident saying it. This is everything that is great about it. And to be frank, like, I think the World cup is great because the ball is worse, Right?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, right. That's exactly right.

[Adam Friedland]

The prem is the highest level of talent right now, and actually, the ball has suffered as a result because every defense has just become, like, just. It's become so tight at the Back, right? And right now, because this is like, yeah, people are like, Argentina is playing for this guy, right? For Messi. Like they. For what was it, four tournaments, you know, let him down. Felt like they let him down and they saw him suffer the kind of the country's criticisms and it wasn't fair. He was like, hey, Dude, I had 82 gold this year for Parcel. And they were like, that's for Barcelona. Yeah. And.

[Chris Ryan]

And you're so right about the Premier League, though, because I think that my favorite.

[Adam Friedland]

It's gotten too good.

[Chris Ryan]

Almost my favorite era is where there were still three absolute bums on every team who were out there 100%. So you would have like, you know, like, everybody's incredible except for our keeper and Mikhail Sylvester. You know what I mean? Like, you were like, how the fuck.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes.

[Chris Ryan]

Is Manuel Amunya playing?

[Adam Friedland]

Well, there were guys like Charlie Adam that were on us that were in the top team, right? There were guys like Steve in Ireland, right? They were like, they're like real like, who are like guys. It's like in the way where you see a big fatso like get like called up to the mountain.

[Chris Ryan]

It's like when you're watching NCAA and you're just like, oh my God, like this guy's got glasses and he's playing

[Adam Friedland]

against Michigan and he's on the Lakers. Yeah, yeah. But that as a contrast is. Is really cool because like I'm going to be. I'm going to be really happy either way because it feels like we're making them play in a forest fire and they're going to get fucking emphysema for the final. I've evacuated to Los Angeles because as a, as a beautiful singer, I can't be in New York right now. It's. It is if Messi does it, right? Like, enough has been said about him being the greatest player of all time. We know he's the greatest player of all time. What about his legacy changes for you?

[Chris Ryan]

I just think the door gets locked behind him. I don't know. I don't think we'll ever see somebody do this again. And to combine like his. The totality of his club achievements with going back to back World Cups and back to back Copa Americas, which aren't. It's not like a easy thing to do. But back to back World Cups now against the way that like so many countries are so good at football and he does this, that would just be. There would be like, it's. Everybody else is playing for number two.

[Adam Friedland]

If you go back to the story of his career. And you see, and I, I don't know if I mentioned it on the show, but Sam and I kind of. Sam, I think Sam realized this. But in 2020, Maradona dies and then 2021, he wins his first Copa. Right? There is something that like has liberated him and this is what we're seeing. Like what we've learned is that Lionel Messi was winning so, so many, like La Liga's and Champions Leagues. He was like free to express himself in club football. He was under such tremendous pressure for his national side. This is the first World cup where he's been free of all of that.

[Chris Ryan]

They couldn't get the coach right there. They couldn't get the right combination of players. And he's played with better players in Argentina. Like he's played on Argentina teams with Aguero and Raquel May and you know, like guys before. Before this particular group.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, he's. Well, it's weird because I got that 2010 kit and you know, I just think of like, yeah, there are other players that I forgot. Like, yeah, he was with Mascarano. He was like, yeah, he was with, he was with Hoopers. And this is. That entire team is constructed for his to push him over the line and for like to just to like see him through to glory.

[Chris Ryan]

And I could see them losing to

[Adam Friedland]

nothing and I could see them getting waxed and chasing the ball.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And if you. Again, like, if you go back to the narrative of Mbappe and we saw this guy that won the league with Monaco and then won the World cup by 19, it was a. We all thought that like this was going to be a career. It is so hard to sustain individual success for this long. I mean, I'm a Saka fan, I'm a Jack Wilshire fan. Like there are guys that are played so much earlier, early in their careers, they. They get driven into the ground, right. And. And then we lose them to shout out Bojan Kirkc. Yeah, exactly. But we lose them way too early.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah, right.

[Adam Friedland]

And there it is to, to go from star boy. Like Ronaldinho knew. He said they, you know, he would, if we remember him, he was the best player in the world. He was the player you wanted to use in FIFA. And they said to him like, you know, like, they said to him like, you know, obviously, like, you know, you being the best player in the world, he's like, you know, Bart, we have the best player in the world. And it's this, it's the 17 year old and, and it is like I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in sports. I mean, I don't think I have,

[Chris Ryan]

which is really nice, because that's like. I think when you're a kid and you start liking sports, like, these are the kinds of stories your dad tells you.

[Adam Friedland]

Think about it this way, and let's. Legacy.

[Chris Ryan]

They're like, oh, like, you have no idea. When I used to watch this guy.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Spark. Sparky. Sparky Henderson. And I'm like, okay, yeah, it sounds great.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Sounds like that guy, like, just, you know, you was drunk, you know, but, like, no, like, it. It is as if Braun is so good right now at 41.

[Chris Ryan]

Sure.

[Adam Friedland]

Right. Braun is still doing, like. Like Miami Heat, Thunder Jams, and we're seeing it at this age. It is like, if Braun at this stage is twice as good as anyone else in the NBA.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

Which when you put it in that context, is insane. I said just.

[Chris Ryan]

I admire the planning. I mean, like, he went to mls. I think everything about what he does with his club career is to. Was to make sure that he was going to be healthy for this tournament. The. The team, the Argentine national team is built around him to, like, do the running, do the tackling, do all this stuff. Yeah, it's been a really. Like, a really impressive. And then they got, obviously, the benefit of a very friendly draw on the part of FIFA where they didn't have to travel that much, and they didn't go to a lot of hostile environments, and Argentina took over Atlanta for the semifinal.

[Adam Friedland]

And to be fair, England aren't that good. I think that's what we found out. So they've had their path. Their path has been fine. Have we seen. Is it the greatest athlete ever? That's the.

[Chris Ryan]

There's something about football that lets athletes express themselves in a way that I like. I don't think American football. So, like, if you were gonna say, like, look what Brady did late into his 40s, where he goes to another team, wins the super bowl, you don't care. Look what Braun did when he wins the bubble title. It's like there's all these asterisks around that. And. Yeah, like, I'm trying to think of. Like, there are moments that I can think of that are as incredible as what I saw him do against England. Like, they're.

[Adam Friedland]

You know, like, Phelps has a zillion gold medals, but, like, the entire world isn't trying to be a swimmer. Right. The entire world isn't. Like, every kid in every favela is like, I want to be Phelps.

[Chris Ryan]

Yep.

[Adam Friedland]

No one cares,

[Chris Ryan]

you know?

[Sam]

What about Usain Bolt?

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah. But, like, he doesn't have to race 90 times a year. Right. Like, he races for us.

[Sam]

But it goes to. Yeah, I think it goes to the point, though, of, like, people do want to be the fastest guy in the world, you know, like, it's the world's sport. It's a cool thing to be.

[Adam Friedland]

Track and field is not the world sport. This is the world sport, the entire world. He is competing against the world, and he has been beating the world for 20 years now. There's no comparison that I've. That I can identify in sports. And what we're seeing right now is just. It's a shock to me. And he's a guy that has shocked me so many times that I don't. I shouldn't be still getting shocked.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

And, yeah, it's also.

[Chris Ryan]

It's, you know, like, he's had, like a wandering last third of his club career. The PSG thing didn't work. The MLS thing is lucrative, but, like, I don't think that dazzling.

[Adam Friedland]

Like, well, he wanted to go back to Barcelona.

[Chris Ryan]

Right. And. And in some ways, like, I think that him not going back to Barcelona was the best possible thing that could have happened to Barcelona.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

Because I think it would have screwed up, like, their financials even more.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

But this is just one of the most fairytale endings to a professional sporting career that I can remember.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

This would be like if Tiger was like, I retire in 19 after the Masters. Like, you can't. You can't end a career better than this.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah.

[Sam]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

There are also guys that, like, who walks out on top? I mean, like, Jim Brown maybe did. Right? Like, yeah.

[Chris Ryan]

I mean, you usually don't get to choose.

[Adam Friedland]

You usually don't get to. And he's still the best player in the world. And I did. How the fuck is that possible? And it's. Well, do you think we see him at the next World Cup?

[Chris Ryan]

No, no, no. I think if he wins back to back World Cups, he walks away. I saw a very funny tweet that was like, this British guy was like, they asked Kane after the match, Leo Messi's playing at 39. Could you see yourself playing? And he's like, well, if Leonesi. When I see him playing at 39, I think about, I'm gonna keep playing. And some British guy was like, mate, respectfully, I watched you at 32. If you're playing for us at 39,

[Adam Friedland]

I'm gonna kill myself. And what Gets me emotional. Having been born April 10, 1987, this

[Chris Ryan]

is you or Messi?

[Adam Friedland]

Me.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

Is that a 39 year old? This is Wakanda for the 39 year olds.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay. Are you going to watch the third place game?

[Adam Friedland]

The third place game is the most important game in the tournament.

[Chris Ryan]

I have not been more excited for a third place match in my life.

[Adam Friedland]

Who's going to play it?

[Chris Ryan]

Is he going to ask Kobe Mainoo

[Adam Friedland]

to play hat trick?

[Chris Ryan]

Every player. Kanate is like, I can't believe we have to do this shit. But they're making us like, nobody wants to play in Miami in late July for third place.

[Adam Friedland]

Oh, my God. Let's watch it tomorrow.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

All right. Before the wedding, I'll wear my tux.

[Chris Ryan]

So your head says Spain, your heart says Argentina.

[Adam Friedland]

Argentina is going to win.

[Chris Ryan]

Okay.

[Adam Friedland]

You know that.

[Chris Ryan]

Do you want to say anything? Say goodbye for beautiful pied and plug taps.

[Adam Friedland]

We're going to be back tomorrow. Okay. Yeah. It's been really fun.

[Chris Ryan]

Yeah.

[Adam Friedland]

I mean, I really enjoyed it. Chris and I are maybe going to be doing a little something, something, something.

[Chris Ryan]

We're just going to be reading Fabrizio Romano tweets to each other.

[Adam Friedland]

Yeah. Yeah. Breaking news right?

[Chris Ryan]

Here we go with Fabrizio Romano, Adam Freeland and Chris Ryan.

[Adam Friedland]

Yes. Stay tuned, guys. The Adam Freeland show is coming back in a couple of weeks. It's been really fun to do.

[Chris Ryan]

Very fun.

[Adam Friedland]

All right, take care. 21+ and President in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and present in DC, Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1-800- GAMBLER or 1-800-MY RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 1-800-327-5050. For 24. 7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE New York or text Hopeny in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867. This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods. It's hot out there, folks. Whether you're planning a family road trip, backyard barbecues or a watch party, you'll find everything you need to beat the heat with the quality you expect from Whole foods marketing. Find sales on best of summer fruit, stock up on cooler friendly drinks, and discover no antibiotics ever meets for the grill. You know, something like a New York strip steak plus made in house kebabs. Skewers and sausages, shop Whole Foods Market, in store or online. Get your first delivery free with prime terms apply.

[Chris Ryan]

Close your eyes, exhale.

[Adam Friedland]

Feel your body relax, and let go

[Chris Ryan]

of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw the discount they gave me on my first order. Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contacts.