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- [00:00]
Karl Anka
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- [00:33]
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- [00:39]
James Horncastle
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- [00:52]
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- [01:54]
Cerys Jones
the Athletic FC.
- [01:59]
Adam Leventhal
Hi there and welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Adam Leventhal. So Brazil put three past Scotland to leave the Tart NAMI's qualification hopes hanging by a thread. But does that win in Miami make Carlo Ancelotti's side serious contenders for this World Cup? Well with me is Karl Anka. How are you?
- [02:20]
Cerys Jones
I'm doing well, thanks. How are you?
- [02:22]
Adam Leventhal
I'm good. What time zone are you on?
- [02:24]
Cerys Jones
I have no idea.
- [02:27]
Adam Leventhal
Carl, if you don't know already was in Chicago. He is now back and he doesn't know where he is, which is good. But he is here with us. Cerys Jones, how are you?
- [02:37]
Karl Anka
I'm good. I'm tired. Not as tired as Karl, but stayed up through Scotland and through Morocco, Haiti, and don't know how much I feel that decision was worth it.
- [02:50]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah.
- [02:50]
Cerys Jones
But Morocco, Haiti was great. If you watch it on the big
- [02:53]
Karl Anka
screen or if you watched the first half, which I didn't. I saw how good the game looked and then put it on my second screen for the second half, and then it sort of wasn't quite as exciting the second half, so I got that one wrong. Must do better next time.
- [03:09]
Adam Leventhal
I was sat with my son and we were watching the Brazil Scotland game, and he was just basically going, why are we watching this? Why are we watching this? Why don't we watch the other game? It was good and it featured a banger from Wilson Isidor as well for Haiti. We'll come to that in a minute. So the final group games, obviously in full swing. A, B, C are now done. Brazil threw as group C winners after that 30 win over Scotland. Scotland. Scotland. Jeepers creepers.
- [03:37]
Karl Anka
What are you doing?
- [03:38]
Adam Leventhal
I was. It was. It was all there. They'd started off quite well for the first five minutes. And then. What did you make of their defending?
- [03:47]
Cerys Jones
Naive.
- [03:48]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah.
- [03:49]
Cerys Jones
Childish.
- [03:49]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah.
- [03:50]
Cerys Jones
Perhaps. This is my jaded sports journalist, having watched so many games of football now. But I get especially angry at teams that concede in first half stoppage time.
- [04:00]
Adam Leventhal
Oh, yeah. Just see it out, boys.
- [04:01]
Cerys Jones
That one really gets my goat now. And it's a Scotland team that again, I said yesterday, I think their game plan for the tournament's been heavily wrenched, however you want to describe it, by the fact that Billy Gilmore got injured. They have real problems progressing the ball between the boxes. But to concede your first goal, being caught playing out from the back, to concede a second goal, playing out for the back, and then have that chalked off by var.
- [04:24]
Karl Anka
You've been warned.
- [04:25]
Cerys Jones
Yes. At that point, you've been told, you've been told, behave, and then to concede again, just a really naive goal for halftime in what? Particularly in a World cup where goal difference. Okay, goal difference doesn't necessarily matter as much as it used to, but making sure you do not hemorrhage goals is very, very important. And it was just really very, very disappointing. And there's so many times now where Scotland fans who travel in great voice in great number, and wherever they go, the city they move to temporarily, the. The hotel owners, the bar owners, the locals fall in love with them. I was speaking to JJ Bull about this, how he was saying when he was in Boston and he went back home, the Boston locals saying, please don't Leave. We want you to stay. Like, people want to fall in love with Scottish football, and then you watch Scottish football and it's so disappointing. Scotland fans deserve better, and that was just a real childish performance.
- [05:30]
Adam Leventhal
Let's deal with the tiny weeny thread that their hopes still hang by. They have a chance of still qualifying, but it is. It's a very distant hope, isn't it, via going through as a best third placer.
- [05:45]
Cerys Jones
It's under 40%.
- [05:46]
Karl Anka
It's 38% at the moment, I think, according to our projections model. But, yeah, looking at the third place sort of league table in front of me, eight best third place teams go through. They're in seventh. Cape Verde, Belgium, Dr. Congo, Ecuador, Senegal, all behind them and could mathematically catch them and still have to play. So it's not great. They need a lot of things to go their way. And I think, like Carl said, what's so disappointing is that I think losing to Brazil, anything but losing to Brazil would have been a great upset. And we knew that actually, if they managed to kind of limit that goal difference to, like, a narrow loss, then that would have stood them in pretty good. Steady. It was the fact that they lost in the manner they did and Brazil didn't have to work that hard for it. I think that's what will be really disappointing.
- [06:31]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah. And their famous tagline after that game feels more like, no Scotland, no party anyway, which is a real shame for those fans who are fantastic and you're absolutely right, but let's deal with the Brazilian side of things, okay? Because they're, by the looks of it, going relatively far in this tournament. And James Horn Castle was in Miami to watch the game as Carlo Ancelotti's side went through the gears.
- [06:57]
James Horncastle
So I've just come out of Carlo Ancelotti's press conference here at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, and he afforded himself a wry smile because he was criticized very heavily after the draw against Morocco for that performance. He's been criticized for not having a style either. You know, what's Brazil's identity under Carlo Ancelotti? And he told everyone, hey, guys, be very, very calm. Don't get carried away back in Brazil now that we've beaten Haiti 30 and Scotland 3 nil. The other thing that he said which really stood out was, you know, what's your goal? And he said, the goal is not to play well. The goal is to win the World Cup. In other words, by any means possible. So this idea we've got in our heads of Jogo Benito or How Brazil played at the Azteca in 1970 and that goal that Carlos Alberto scored park that we have to win by any means possible. Having said that, I've just written an article about how there is an identity to this Brazil team. So many of their goals come from stealing the ball high up the pitch, being very direct and scoring from them. And it's been effective against Haiti, effective against Scotland. We'll have to see if it's also effective. The further they go in this competition, the harder the opponents they play.
- [08:22]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah, thanks to James Horncastle. It's a cool stadium, that one in Miami as well, with the palm trees and everything. It is very cool. In terms of what we think now on Brazil, it is quite difficult to get a read on whether they are actually any good. And that's what Carlo Ancelotti was alluded to in, in his press conference. So where do you think they're, how far they're going?
- [08:43]
Cerys Jones
I think they can make a very good run to the quarterfinals. I'm. I'm not sure they're not fun, but they are functional. Far more functional than I expected. When the squad was first announced, my big questions were over the midfield, which to me seemed a bit underpowered with the older Casimira and Bruno Kimarish, and then not many other options that could step in immediately. Fabinho, several shades removed from his best self when he was at Liverpool or had a serious knee injury. Edison is okay and I feel contractorily obligated to big him up now. He signed for Manchester United, but I'm not quite sure he is a World cup winning central midfielder. And then also their fullback options are limited and older than I expected. But that could be me having been born in 1991 and been spoiled by a litany of fantastic Brazilian fullbacks in my lifetime. So just because you're not Marcelo doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad fullback. You're just different. And I think that that's going to be the interesting thing with this Brazil team in that if they are going to win it, they'll probably win it in a similar fashion to USA 94, where the majority of the team was largely solid functional. And then you had one, maybe two, just absolutely remarkable attacking players.
- [10:02]
James Horncastle
It's really.
- [10:02]
Cerys Jones
It's been a really good group stage for Vinicius Junior and that's been really pleasing to watch because Vinicius junior hasn't had the best record in the Brazil shirt. So to be one of the fifth man to score in every group stage game for Brazil, lovely for him, he needed that. And you can tell he's really enjoying his football at this World Cup.
- [10:20]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah. And under Carlo Ancelotti, obviously, they have that real Madrid connection. It's interesting going back to what James was saying, it just feels like, yeah, he's going to be pragmatic and if they win, the Brazilians will not care how they win.
- [10:33]
Karl Anka
Yeah, that's the ultimate thing, isn't it? Like, it doesn't have to be too fun as long as you're winning. As soon as you stop winning, then flips very quickly. I think that they are still quite fun to watch in a way. Like, I enjoy sort of watching that press. James's piece is really good on this. Like, watching their press, watching them kind of hunt down the ball. Like, we can talk about kind of how naive Scotland were, but it comes from really good kind of anticipation from Brazil's attackers as well. So I think it's worth giving them credit for that. The. The question is sort of how well does that work against maybe higher quality opposition who are a bit more composed on the ball at the back, and then if it runs into stumbling blocks there, then are you going to see more calls for sort of more aggression, Looking to dominate a bit more. I was quite surprised by how happy they were to let Scotland have the ball and how they were quite keen to sort of seemingly not open up tons of gaps in the midfield and leave themselves too vulnerable.
- [11:31]
Cerys Jones
That's a good way to protect Casemiro.
- [11:34]
Karl Anka
Yeah.
- [11:34]
Cerys Jones
If Casemiro is your defensive midfielder, you do not want to leave him on either, which means you cannot press too much. The big thing with Brazil is so 2022, they lose on penalties to Croatia. 2018, they lose in the quarterfinals to Belgium. 2014, that happened. 2010, they lose in the. I want to say they lose to the Netherlands. And this has been this big question over Brazil, whether they start well or. However, there's this idea that when they play a quote, unquote, top European side, it then all unravels. They don't look. I mean, going by most bracket predictions, they don't necessarily look scheduled to face one of those bogey European sides in the immediacy, so that we could have a hopefully good Brazilian run up until a quarterfinal stage and then things start getting murky. Look, World Cups are better when Brazil are having fun and they seem to be having fun now. So I'm happy.
- [12:31]
Adam Leventhal
And you know, what is fun is what's going on with. Obviously we saw Neymar play, you know, back. Back in the. In the World cup back for Brazil after missing the first two games. Endrick playing as well. And there's been this whole thing going on with Endrick and memes and Carlo Ancelotti. For people who don't know who are watching this, I'm sure they will. People listening as well. Can you encapsulate what it is? First of all?
- [12:58]
Cerys Jones
Okay, so before the World Cup, Carlo Ancelotti was asked by journalists as to what he felt of Endrick and why he doesn't give Endrick more playing time in the Brazil national team. And Carlo largely rebuffed it and gave what Jack Lang referred to as a death glare when he was questioned about this. So now this has become this sort of miniature cottage industry of football memes where people go, endrick says he likes something, and then Carla Ancelotti's response is to do the complete opposite.
- [13:28]
Commercial Announcer
Yeah.
- [13:28]
Cerys Jones
So if Endrick goes, oh, wow, I like. I like hamburgers without pickles, then the meme will then be carlancholi, just like throwing pickles into a hamburger. And because now we can get auto translate on various tweets and other things, you can, you can just fill your entire feed full of Portuguese language tweets. And yes, I have. I have two different football group chats in my life, and a lot of them have just been like, have you seen this Endrick meme? And you're going, despite the language barrier, football Twitter is largely just getting annoyed at a player who's not playing in the first team. And you think he should be playing in the first team, isn't it?
- [14:00]
Karl Anka
And also despite the fact that the format of these is completely repetitive, but the videos and like, the things that people are using, my personal favorite is like, someone says, oh, richarlison stuck at the top of Mount Everest. We need to play Endrick. And then it's a video of the uphill ski. This is Ancelotti, and it's like the uphill sprint ski in the Oly. The format's so repetitive, but people are just plucking, like the most obscure videos out of midair.
- [14:26]
Adam Leventhal
It's.
- [14:26]
Karl Anka
Yeah, it's great fun.
- [14:27]
Adam Leventhal
But then I guess on a serious point, it does show, and we saw, albeit it was against Scotland, that they do have that strength in depth in probably their. You can argue about their defensive setup, but in their strongest department, they do have these options. They do have these moment players, which sometimes might get you slightly further in a tournament than you were expecting.
- [14:50]
Cerys Jones
It was. It was really interesting. So before, before the World cup started, I spoke to two or Three other journalists. And as journalists often do in the pub, you go, you end up talking about football again. One of the questions that came up was what do you think Brazil's starting front three would be? And this was when we thought Raphinha would play a lot more.
- [15:05]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah.
- [15:05]
Cerys Jones
Perhaps the injury to Raphinha has brought some clarity to this front three. So Vinicius on the left, Kunha up front and then another on the right hand side seems to be working. Cunha is the number nine dropping deep linking play and Vinicius drifting inside. The initial plan seems to be a 4, 2, 4, but it seems to be more of a 4, 4, 2 in certain phases and Vinnie's getting really central and this is probably what Ancelotti planned in that from the Real Madrid connection. So that's been good. Ryan had a very good game, I thought against Scotland. The two or three really neat touches there.
- [15:38]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah.
- [15:38]
Cerys Jones
Endrick can come on off the bench for 10, 15 minutes, not too much because Carlit doesn't like him. And while there are certain bits to Endrick's play where you'll. Where you can see why Carlo Ancelotti or indeed Real Madrid are skeptical about making him a starter as a number nine, he's relatively undersized for a center forward in the modern age. His link up play isn't necessarily the best, but they're also moments where you look at him and you're going, wow, that boy can hit a ball properly. So his offside goal against Haiti was, was excellent. And he does have a real nous for, for attacking the six yard box. So he could be a very fun plan B for Brazil towards the end of the tournament.
- [16:19]
Adam Leventhal
So Brazil will play the runners up from group F in Houston. We're expecting the Netherlands to beat Tunisia and finish top, so it's likely that that's going to be Japan or Sweden. Morocco are through as well. Word for Wilson Isidore's banger in that 42 defeat for Haiti, but the first goals for that nation in a World cup since 1974. Let's deal now with the contrasting fortunes of the two co hosts. Canada suffered that 21 defeat to Switzerland, but they did hold on to second place thanks to goal difference and albeit for a long period of time, that game did look like it belonged in the middle of the night. There was a great goal in that game for Canada and it did look for a moment that they were going to come back. Promised David Nathan Saliba assist. If you haven't seen it, go and check it out. They are now going to be playing in Los Angeles rather than playing at home. What do you make of that, Carl? How's it going to affect them?
- [17:23]
Cerys Jones
This would have been considered a bottling had the Group A results not occurred.
- [17:28]
Adam Leventhal
Yes.
- [17:28]
Karl Anka
Yes.
- [17:29]
Cerys Jones
So it's now looking likely that Canada will be facing South Africa. Africa, yeah. Where initially everyone thought it was like to be South Korea.
- [17:38]
Adam Leventhal
Yep.
- [17:39]
Cerys Jones
Now there's a. There's a higher Korean population in Los Angeles. So it would have gone from being, not only have you lost home advantage, but also there'd been a larger contingent of, quote, unquote, I suppose, away fans. I'm getting really confused. Whereas I think fewer South African fans will be able to travel to Los Angeles for that match. So that sort of balance in the stadium, in the ground, in noise, it'll be less intimidating there, really. I was disappointed by this Canadian performance. I expected more. There were two or three attacking chances in this game where you're. They're. You're wincing. Promised David. Good. Jonathan David not as good, to put it glibly there. And Kyle Larin as well was wasteful in two or three chances. They do need to get their shooting boots on because they. They don't attack in great volume, so they have to make the most of every single chance they get.
- [18:32]
Karl Anka
Well, we're apparently now going to have Alphonso Davis for the round of 32, but can we believe a word Jesse Marsh says? Because apparently it was all a ruse and, you know, we were going to distract Switzerland and they were going to be so bamboozled by the. Alphonso Davis was apparently available, but he wasn't actually available. It's like that didn't really work.
- [18:52]
Cerys Jones
Oh, the Christian Pulisic tactic.
- [18:54]
Karl Anka
Yeah. I just. I don't.
- [18:55]
Adam Leventhal
He was sat very close to the pitch, wasn't he?
- [18:58]
Karl Anka
Yeah, but apparently he was right there. I think Jesse Marsh said afterwards that he wasn't going to be available and he wasn't going to come on. And this was sort of a tactic and a ruse. But then he was like, but he will be available for the round of 32. And it was like, okay, boy. Who cried? Alphonso Davies. Like, we'll see.
- [19:14]
Adam Leventhal
That's fine.
- [19:15]
Cerys Jones
I like a bit of manager in my games gone. Yeah, go on.
- [19:19]
Adam Leventhal
And Carl, must say, called it right yesterday with the star of soccer, Kerim Eyal Begovic, who got the scoring started in Bosnia and Herzegovina's 31 win over Qatar. So they are now going to be heading through to the knockout rounds for the first time in their history. And just to round things off in group A, Mexico through as group winners after beating Czechia 3 nil and South Africa are through as runners up after they beat South Korea one nil. And you have to see this. It was fantastic. Post match in the mixed zone, if you don't know what they are, that's where players come to do their post match interviews with journalists. After the game, South Africa come through singing whilst the South Korea players are still doing their post match interviews. It led to a little bit of tension between the two, but it is just the sort of moment that a World cup can serve up.
- [20:27]
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- [20:58]
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- [21:53]
Adam Leventhal
Well welcome to our Discussion of the Day feature sponsored by Threads Now. Last night we asked our Threads followers what were they wrong about at the start of the tournament, and the responses have been great. We'll get to them in a moment. But first to Karl and to Cerys. What were you wrong about at the start of the tournament?
- [22:14]
Karl Anka
I thought that there would be a lot more dull games. I've been really pleasantly surprised by the amount of goals we've seen and the lack of sort of either batterings or really dull Nil. Nil draws.
- [22:25]
Adam Leventhal
Okay, that's good. Positive vibes. I like it.
- [22:27]
Cerys Jones
Karl I thought Harry Kane would be leading golden boot race by now. Oh, I really thought England were going to run up the score against my beloved Ghana and then have another attempt to do it again against Panama. So I genuinely thought Harry Kane could leave the group stage with five plus goals.
- [22:44]
Adam Leventhal
It's been interesting going through the responses. BTMINSTER on threads said that I thought the US would need to get a result against Turkey to go through, but that one is a, is a dead rubber essentially. Osman Dembele golden boot, he scored for the first time, which is, which is great for him. But yeah, that does seem like a long way away. Scotland getting out of their group. We still don't know that one has come in from Michael Robinson and a lot of people saying that Turkiyeh or Turkey were going to be the dark horses of the tournament. However, Turkey dark horse for 2026. I know.
- [23:24]
Cerys Jones
No, no, no, no, no.
- [23:25]
Karl Anka
We all got burned.
- [23:26]
Cerys Jones
You were allowed to get burned in Euro 2020. You cannot get burned by Turkey dark horse again.
- [23:31]
Adam Leventhal
Behave people.
- [23:32]
Cerys Jones
Have they bought the dip?
- [23:33]
Adam Leventhal
And that has been our discussion of the day, which is fantastic. And if you want to be featured on our next discussion of the day, head over to Threads, follow the Athletic FC and join the conversation there. Well, Adam Crafton joins us now to get into the World cup perceptions. So far. We've just been talking, Adam, about our pre tournament predictions that haven't quite played out as you thought. Has anything surprised you?
- [24:01]
Adam Crafton
To be honest, the tournament's been exactly as I thought it would be, which is that, you know, many of the issues that we thought would be issues before the tournament have been issues in the tournament, whether that's the visa restrictions for fans or for referees. That was one that we maybe didn't expect to emerge the travel ban issue as being exactly as we thought it would be. The ticket prices are expensive, but I don't think the expectation was ever that stadiums wouldn't be full. Because the reality, and this is something that we'd said on several podcasts leading up to the tournament, is that the world is in many ways already in America. And I think that's something that maybe some people outside the country didn't fully appreciate the strength of these diasporas, which would mean that even if it was difficult for people to travel to America, there was always going to be enough people here already, you know, from, from different countries that that would allow for a level of representation within the stadium. And that's exactly what we've seen. It's really hard to, to make a World cup not look fantastic once it starts because you have all the best players in the world for five weeks with, you know, patriotic pride on the line and high stakes jeopardy and a bunch of superstar names and characters. So it's, you know, that was always going to be fantastic. And then you've got these added storylines of Cape Verde and Haiti and Kursao and these countries that have provided kind of unexpected storylines. And that bit has also added, you know, excitement and intrigue and the sense of discovery that we associate with, I guess, World Cups from our childhood.
- [25:51]
Adam Leventhal
Well, it is now two weeks since the World cup started. Let's get into some of the big talking points across the tournament. None more so than the hydration breaks. Everyone's favourite. What have you made about how poorly they've been received in general?
- [26:06]
Adam Crafton
I think it depends who you speak to on the hydration break. Some of the coaches like it. I think Ralph Rangnick from Austria was of Austria. He was pretty complimentary. It's not gone down well in stadiums, particularly in stadiums where it's not hot, where it is temperature controlled and air conditioned and it frankly looks like a cash grab. FIFA have said it's nothing to do with money. They don't get any commercial benefit out of it. But clearly their broadcasting partners do and clearly their leading sponsors do because they are, you know, we keep seeing Coca Cola Adidas adverts around it, particularly on the Fox coverage. I think it's going to be an interesting one, whether it comes back for the next World cup in the same way. I suspect it will because if you look at the countries involved, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, it's going to be hot. It's going to be really hot in the summer at those games. I'm not sure how many of those stadiums would be temperature controlled and where it is really hot. You know, I was at a couple of games in New Jersey which were really warm and where I don't think anyone would begrudge players, you know, on health and safety grounds having a couple of minutes to get some water down them. So I think it's the issue is only really in the temperature controlled stadiums where it just feels entirely unnecessary and it feels like, I don't know if it's like a placebo effect, but it feels like it disrupts the flow of a game. So in the England game against Ghana, I think there was, was there a head collision maybe just before the hydration break. So you're thinking, well, that could be the hydration break, just go and get your waters while the players are down. But no, it had to be this two minute stoppage or whatever it was for the head collision, as it should be. But then, then all of a sudden that two minute break becomes like a five or six minute break. And that, that does disrupt the flow of a football game and that's, you know, not really what an audience or spectators want.
- [28:00]
Karl Anka
And the MetLife Stadium pitch, Adam, we know is going to host the final on July 19th is coming for a lot of criticism already. Can FIFA do anything about it at this stage? Is there a threat that this kind of overshadows the final?
- [28:14]
Adam Crafton
The field at MetLife Stadium has come in for criticism, well, for a long time from NFL fans. Now it's obviously a grass pitch. It was an issue in 2024 Copa America. It was an issue at the club World cup last year. There's been a hell of a lot of money spent by New Jersey on behalf of FIFA attempting to get it right. And it's not for a lack of money. There is clearly an issue whether it is under the field or whether it's climate related, being an open, one of those open stadiums where there is a real challenge with the field. And that has been said by the players. I think Vinicius Jr. Had some things to say, the France players and coach had things to say. Basically complaining that it's too hard, that it's not flowing and running exactly as you would like as a top level football pitch, which isn't ideal for the World cup final. It was interesting. There was a, there was really heavy rain. There was a storm for the Norway Senegal game there the other night. And after the game some of the Senegal players said something that it felt better than it did against France and that was clearly because there'd been a downpour. So maybe the organisers will want some rain ahead of the final. But the other complication on the day of the final is you're also going to have this halftime show with Madonna, Shakira, BTS and possibly others. And that's going to pose a challenge because that is going to be on the field. So not only are you going to have, you know, probably at least a 20, 25 minute, possibly 30 minute half time. FIFA still haven't told us how long half time will be in the World cup final, which seems crazy, but that will obviously be on physically on the field. So if that pitch is already encountering issues, I'm not sure that feels like the best idea. Even FIFA's own pitch manager, Alan Ferguson, said to us in an interview a few weeks ago that it wouldn't have been his choice for for that to be happening. So it's not just kind of, you know, fans and media citing that as an issue, but FIFA's own pitch manager. But clearly FIFA want the halftime show, and we're going to get the halftime show.
- [30:20]
Cerys Jones
One more question, Adam, before you leave us. You mentioned the MetLife there, and you've also mentioned that you were there for Norway, Senegal, which means you were there for the brilliant moment where Senegal fans joined in with the Norway Viking row. So amazing scenes there. How else you think North America as a whole has embraced fans coming from all over the world?
- [30:44]
Adam Crafton
Yeah, I mean, you've also had. I mean, outside of America, in Mexico, you've had South Korea fans who have this kind of slightly unusual love affair with Mexico based on one of the results at the 2018 World Cup. So that was great fun. And then you've also had the Japanese fans who have been going viral for the way that they tidy up the stadiums after being there as well. Look, I think the virality of those moments, it feels like a rare moment where the algorithm is suddenly giving Americans a reminder that people actually like each other, that not everything has to be, you know, divisive and different. And, you know, from an American perspective, America loves mega events. America adores mega events. If you add in merch, which there is merch everywhere with this World cup, then you. And winning, then you've got something that's pretty great cocktail. And I think that's where America is on this at the moment. Whether that continues beyond the tournament or if it's just an isolated mega event, we'll see in the months and years to come. But for now, there is. There is huge excitement. We're seeing it in the demand, the. The kind of demand on resale sites for tickets because, you know, America is now tuning in and seeing that, you know, this is a pretty cool event, and I want to go there. And does that justify what FIFA's asking price was for tickets in the first place? There is a. There is an economic case that can be made for that. But then I was also with, you know, one of the board members from the German Football association yesterday, who was basically saying, you know, we can't let this be normalized and we can't let this become, you know, what it is for future tournaments, because it is going to exclude a lot of people from being able to ever attend World Cups. And this is still, you know, the World cup is currently in America, but this is still the world's game and has to be accessible to the world.
- [32:43]
Adam Leventhal
Thanks very much Adam, much more from Adam later on in the tournament. And it is interesting he mentioned the merch there you were out in the States very recently. Is it popping off?
- [32:52]
Cerys Jones
Absolutely. Brazil shirts for many a watch party I've been to. I did go to a watch party for Germany, Ivory Coast. I spoke to one person who said they really get into the World Cup. They said USA playing well was great. They said they loved the merch and that was really appealing to them. So in the same way, I suppose that UK sports fans think that NBA jerseys are cool, North American fans probably think that football kits are cool as well. And it's also been put to me is that, well, Americans love commerce, so if you can give them something they can buy then it becomes a truer ideal. So yeah, if you are Nike, Adidas, Puma, who else is making kits? All of them are making kits. I suppose now is the time to release even more editions of everything really.
- [33:42]
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- [35:44]
Adam Crafton
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Adam Leventhal
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- [36:20]
Adam Leventhal
Guys, are you ready for a quick quiz?
- [36:22]
Cerys Jones
Sure thing.
- [36:23]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah. Okay. Make sure you say your name before your answer, please.
- [36:26]
Cerys Jones
Okay.
- [36:27]
Adam Leventhal
Do you know which player has scored exactly 15 goals at the World Cup?
- [36:35]
Cerys Jones
Yes. This is Carl.
- [36:37]
Adam Leventhal
Hello, Carl.
- [36:38]
Cerys Jones
Is it Mirror Soft?
- [36:39]
James Horncastle
Koza?
- [36:40]
Adam Leventhal
Incorrect.
- [36:42]
Cerys Jones
Is it Ronaldo? Phenomeno Ronaldo.
- [36:45]
Adam Leventhal
Correct.
- [36:45]
Cerys Jones
There we go. Well done.
- [36:47]
Adam Leventhal
I would have expected you both to know that answer because obviously we've been talking about the World cup record. They came across three tournaments. Four in 98, eight in 2002 winning the Golden Boot and three in 2006. Obviously that total has been surpassed now by Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe as well.
- [37:11]
Cerys Jones
Rusaf Klose broke the record in Brazil, didn't he?
- [37:14]
Adam Leventhal
Yes. He was helped by Brazil as well.
- [37:17]
Cerys Jones
He did it in the 7:1.
- [37:19]
Adam Crafton
Correct.
- [37:20]
Cerys Jones
Oh, my goodness.
- [37:21]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah. So there you go. We will have another do youo Know quiz tomorrow. Let's concentrate on today, though. Busy day of action. Six more games. Let's run through them quickly. Curacao against Ivory Coast. Ecuador against Germany in Group E to start Group F. That sees Tunisia play against Netherlands. Sweden against Japan. I have more on that shortly. And then the US are looking to make it three wins out of three in Group D against Turkey, while Paraguay face Australia. A lot more riding on that one. That's a shootout for second place. And I did mention Japan there. Let's finish up with our star of soccer, which is Japan's Ayase Ueda, who was top scorer in the Eredivisie last season for final with 252 goals for Japan so far in the tournament. And he's just a very lovable player, isn't he? And it was a great performance against Tunisia. How much did you enjoy that?
- [38:22]
Cerys Jones
A good performance of Japan. Eyebrows flying off my head looking at Tunisia.
- [38:28]
Adam Leventhal
Herve Renard, let's ignore the opposition.
- [38:30]
Cerys Jones
Yeah. Herve Renard was furious on the touchline there, but Japan were my pick for the dark horses of the tournament. So if they are going to hopefully make sure I don't have egg on my face, Ueda's going to have a good tournament, so please have a good tournament.
- [38:45]
Adam Leventhal
Yeah, no. And it was two contrasting goals in that game against Tunisia as well. You know, a banger and then quite an unexpected header looping back over into the. Into the side netting, on the inside of the side netting. But he's been learning from Robin Van Persie as well. Maybe. Maybe on headers too.
- [39:04]
Karl Anka
Yeah, not a bad person to learn off, obviously, but that's what I kind of have really enjoyed about watching him. He hits those nice sort of low, hard, long range strikes from just outside the box. But looking at his goals for Feyenoord like, he does a good bit of poaching as well. And he's very good. Like his positional awareness. A lot of his goals seem to come from timing his runs really well, sort of slipping away from the defenders even though they're obviously aware of his threat. He's really good at finding the spaces in between the centre backs, finding space at the back post as well. He just sort of. Defenders get distracted and he sneaks off and then he pops up at the back post. His goal against Tunisia, the long range strike was. Was fantastic. Yeah, I've really enjoyed him so far and looking forward to seeing how he gets on later.
- [39:45]
Adam Leventhal
And I was reading about him that he doesn't necessarily like to be too sort of effusive in his celebrations because he's a humble guy and he thinks about his family, he thinks about the people that have put him in his place and all that sort of stuff. So he's obviously a very likable guy and he's one to watch. It is nice. It is nice. And on the note of celebrations, let's just finish on this. What has been your favorite celebration that you've seen so far in this World Cup?
- [40:11]
Karl Anka
I think I touched on it on a podcast before, after we were discussing Cape Verde against Uruguay because I just loved Kevin Pina's reaction to the free kick that he scored to equalize because it was. It was so unchoreographed, it was so unexpected. He sort of he takes it and he just stands still for a second and sort of looks up at the sky and turns away a bit. And then he goes like, oh, I should. I should do something else. And he runs off to the corner flag. I just. Yeah, it was really spontaneous. I love the sort of the trademark celebrations and the. The choreographed stuff. Like, it can be good fun, but it's nice when you get an actual organic moment.
- [40:46]
Cerys Jones
Like that second goal was also a great celebration. I forget his name, so please forgive Varela. Varela does the. He does like an NBA dribble. So he gets everyone to go off him and he has an NBA dribble and instead of doing a shot afterwards, he just flexes his arm. Great, cool combination. My suggestion is Johan Whisse's goal for Dr. Congo against Portugal, because that was the team coordinated. The coordinate goal celebration at the World cup is the good one. That's the one where you're like, that'll be on the World cup dvd. That'll make the montages. So Congo did the whip together. Fimbu.
- [41:19]
Adam Leventhal
Fimbu, yeah.
- [41:20]
Cerys Jones
Which if you want to know more about that, you can check it out on the athletics language of football.
- [41:26]
Adam Leventhal
You can come again.
- [41:27]
Cerys Jones
It was not me.
- [41:28]
Adam Leventhal
It was me.
- [41:29]
Karl Anka
Aha.
- [41:30]
Cerys Jones
There you go.
- [41:31]
Adam Leventhal
Well done. Well linked.
- [41:33]
James Horncastle
Yeah.
- [41:33]
Adam Leventhal
No, that is a great celebration. A great celebration. Let's celebrate ending the show now. Thank you very much, Carl. Thank you very much, Keris, as well as James and Adam, who we heard from earlier on. Remember to watch or listen to us. Wherever you get your podcasts, you can subscribe to our YouTube channel. That would be great. Then we can get up to 300,000 WoW subscribers. That would be nice. Drop in your comments as well. We will always look at them, ladies and gentlemen. And we will be back tomorrow with Cerys and Tim Spears.
- [42:04]
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