3 Red Cards & Chaos on Day 1! (Mexico vs. South Africa) 🟥 | World Cup Daily #11

[00:00:00] The World Cup started last night. Game 1, 2 goals, 3 red cards. The opening match of the biggest tournament in history produced more cards than it did goals. And one of those red cards may not have been even a red card. Ladies and gentlemen, the World Cup has officially began. Welcome back to FUT IN REVIEW, World Cup Daily, Episode 11, Day 1. I'm joined today by my very good friend, John. How are you doing, John?

[00:00:33] Good morning, good afternoon. I don't know. I feel like I have a jet lag. Yeah, the games are weird times for you. It's perfect times for us, but it's been a fun day. It's been a fun day. Just a quick reminder, Patreon supporters, this show would be in your feed very quickly as soon as the show is recorded. The Prediction League and Sweeps are live. Catch your picks in the show notes. The links are in the show notes.

[00:00:59] Today's format, results first. We'll just talk about the games, just our thoughts on what we think it is. And then we have some really cool things about three different segments where we will talk about the baller or ballers. And we'll try and break down because John and I have two completely different opinions of what baller actually constitutes. But John's used the traditional sense. Now we'll break it down. And then we'll talk about the bottlers of today and the drama. Stick around, Fall 3. Let's go. Right. Game 1. First game of the tournament. Did you watch the pre-game show, John?

[00:01:30] A slight bit. A little bit. It was enjoyable, wasn't it? I went away when the flags came back. The weird thing is that they put all 26 players on the mid-circle. Yeah. So instead of getting the people walking next to each other and giving hands to each other, it's like they go down in circles and they were like, should we go that way or should we go the other way? And the backups were like, I'm actually on the pitch. What's going on here? It looked so awkward.

[00:02:02] Overall, I think what I love about the opening ceremony, I think every big game these days, Champions League, blah, blah, blah, have the opening ceremony. It doesn't really mean much, but I think there's something special about the World Cup when it starts. It's almost like this official starting where it feels like this melting pot of all these countries getting together. It feels special, at least to me, because that's the first time I've had lots of good memories and it really means something. And it was really nicely done today. I really thought it was beautifully detailed and Mexico was brilliant.

[00:02:30] I think the stadium, the Aztec Stadium, Mexico, the fact it was packed, of course. It was one of the better opening ceremonies, not too much stuff, not too much filler maybe. Yeah, true. I agree. Right. Let's get into the football. Let's get into the football. So the game, as everyone who's listening knows, Mexico 2, South Africa 0.

[00:02:56] A lot of things happened in the game, as we said in the start, three red cards. I think there was a lot of attacking football on display from one side. And one of the key things through my research I just recently found out, which kind of explains what South Africa was doing, they went from a 4-3-3 to a 3-5-2 in this game. Well, they were playing 4-3-3 before and 3-5-2 suddenly. And if you could just look at some of the things they did with the ball, they tried to play from the back. It's almost like I just thought of myself as a game of FIFA, when sometimes you go to a three of the back formation,

[00:03:26] you start to think, maybe I need to have possession of the ball and see if I can do things better. That's literally the trap that South Africa fell into. What are your thoughts? Oh, so I'm pretty sure Mexico started 3-4-3 and I think maybe South Africa started 3-5-2 on paper, but that was definitely a 5-3-2. Oh, yeah. There was no attacking going on in the fullbacks at all. It was just basically five at the back. Hold on as long as you can do. But the thing I didn't get, and that's why I was sort of frustrated,

[00:03:55] I said the manager should actually be sacked after this Mexico. So poor is like you've got the Mexican players are pretty small, most of them, right? Like in height. All the African players were large. Like these guys were massive. And then you say like we can't really play that technical football at South Africa. Mexico is probably a better team. But you know what we'll try to do? We'll try to build up from the back.

[00:04:23] We have a goalie that is actually at South Africa. I think the goalie is really cool on the line. But I don't even know if he actually passed the ball before in his life. Let's give him the ball and let's try to build up from the back. Also, take a right-footed left-centered defender. Give him the ball most of the time. So when he turns around, he can't turn left. If you're South Africa, right? Sorry, Shaq. It's my... Yeah, go for it.

[00:04:53] So I would just... I was watching this and I'm like, what am I looking at here? If you're South Africa, you know Mexico is in their own stadium. They are three at the back. They will go forward. You switch your systems to playing very defensively. That's totally fine. But then play defensively. Take the goalkeeper. Go for a long ball. Let the big guys duke it out at the back. Like at your front and then the Mexican back. There was one long ball in the whole match.

[00:05:20] And they try to play tactically, but you're outmanned basically, right? So what are you doing there? And you don't have the tactical knowledge. And the first... Like in the first half, two minutes in, they gave away one ball, which ended up being saved by the goalkeeper. Yeah. On the line was good. The first goal came from passing back from the goalkeeper. Again, trying to find your number six, which was outmanned. Losing the ball. Free shot. Goal. Afterwards, it happened again. Hit the post. Second half.

[00:05:51] Right when the second half started, they tried it again. And that's like... I think that's just silly. I'm not even contesting that Mexico was even a better team. But they were made it... They were made it very easy yesterday. It was... Yeah. Managerial. I think it's like tactical. This was poor South African play as well. I completely agree. And I think no one better than...

[00:06:19] They saw a clip of the South African TV station straight after the game, I think at halftime. I think it was Benny McCarthy. There was Quentin Fortune. And I can't remember who else. It was three footballers. And when they cut at the end of the game to these three people to ask them for their opinion, they were like... The host was like, what happened? What do you think happened? And all three of them, literally all three of them, they panned the cameras onto them. They just sat quiet. They just sat quiet. They just didn't know what to say.

[00:06:45] And it's interesting because you don't... Like, I don't think anyone expected South Africa to have this massive, you know, World Cup. I think there's a lot of... Everyone thinks of Shabalala's goal in the World Cup that happened in South Africa. And you just assume that, yeah, they'll come to the party. They'll do something. It was abject. The performance was abject today. There was nothing that they did right. They kept doing the same mistakes over and over again. And they unnecessarily lost a couple of people. And yeah, they probably...

[00:07:14] I think the one thing that they got lucky was South Africa didn't... Sorry. Mexico didn't take advantage of the situation and score a lot more goals. That's one of the reasons. Technically, Mexico wasn't that good either, honestly. Like, in the second half, they were so focused on the fact that they will probably lose the ball building up at South Africa's side that they forgot to use their wings. So, like, the first time they gave a ball to the wing in the second half, they came across and Jimenez scored the second goal.

[00:07:44] That was the... Like, but they were actually... They were with 10 versus 11. Mexico was poor for, like, at least 10 minutes. Trying everything to the middle, which, of course, was packed with those big guys. It was... I was looking at it and it looked like two teams having a lot of, like, nerves. Being nervous for the game. And which, for Mexican side, I can sort of understand as well, right? I mean, on crowd, you have to perform your 2-0. Yeah. Sort of makes sense.

[00:08:12] But I do think when you go to a world championship or you're playing any football match, it's... You can be outperformed by your opponents. But there should always be, like, a plan in place for... Like, a start... They started with a 5-3-2, but they didn't play like a 5-3-2. They played like they were 4-3-3, right? Like, they were playing Tiki Taka. I said yesterday of last night to you. It's like they want to play Tiki Taka, but they've got 11 kids that don't know how to play football. Yeah, that's right. That's a nice idea, right? But what are we doing here?

[00:08:42] Yeah, that's exactly right. It was spectacle. It was a great opening. But it wasn't... Like, of course, I look at it from an analysis perspective. It wasn't great football at all, to be fair. Yeah. I think one of the funny things as well is Mexico has not really had the greatest time as well. So they, as you said, tactically, they were not extremely good. They're not the Mexico that you remember. So they probably were extremely nervous because of that, because they were playing at home.

[00:09:12] They didn't want to get smashed on the first day of the tournament and really have. But I think once they started getting the momentum going, I thought they would just continue because, yep, okay, they scored two, nine people on the pitch. They can start getting... That just didn't materialize into anything at all after that point, which was a bit disappointing. But at the end of the day, I mean, they still won the game. They got three points in the back. They get the confidence. But then the last red card, John, the last red card that happened right at the end, I think it was Montez that got the red card. What do you think of that?

[00:09:42] Do you think that's a red card? Yes, 100%. Oh, come on. The last one. No way. The Mexican guy shouldn't have been off. That was not an obvious goal for an opportunity. Sorry. I knew you were coming here and I knew a lot of people were disagreeing by it. So you can give a red card there. And I also explain actually why that happens. And I actually wrote down some notes why it happens.

[00:10:09] So when you give a red card on a decision like this, when you look at is the player true to go after? It doesn't happen, right? It's very likely if you look at where the pitch is going on, if he can take one touch and take a shot. Right? If the fall isn't made, it's one touch and he could make a shot. Is this guy probably telling enough to do it? Well, I mean, probably not. But he was away.

[00:10:36] And if you look from the side cam, if you were playing FIFA, let's play it like this, you would probably go in the 16, take one touch and take a shot as well. Yeah. And then the rules say if you're fouled and it is a correct fall, it is a fall, it's a red card. So do we give those falls in the Premier League? Well, no. Well, no. But last year, I think there was a match. I should have prepared this, but it was a match where everyone says like, are these correct?

[00:11:05] And everyone's like, I don't know if this is correct. And I will actually find the article while we're talking about this. But it happened last year as well. At the Premier League where like people were saying, I think it was Crystal Palace 3-3. And I was like, this wasn't a red card. They asked the VAR, said maybe you should check if this isn't a red card. They gave yellow. The referee said this is not a red card.

[00:11:32] And everyone afterwards like, okay, looking at hindsight, this should be a red card. This is the exact same situation. Do I like it being a red card? Maybe even not. Is it a red card according to the rules? 100%. I would understand the obvious goal scoring opportunity if it was inside the box or if the player was angling towards the box. In that moment, it felt like he was going away from goal in that second as well. So there's a lot of things that you could actually argue against giving the decision.

[00:12:01] And I also have a feeling giving two red cards to South Africa weighed a bit heavy on the referee at that point in time. Because even the commentator, if you listen to the actual FIFA commentary, the commentary from the game, as soon as that happened, the commentator straight away was like, yep, that's a yellow card. He's just removing a yellow card. And out comes the red card. It's just, it was one of those things where it was heavier than it needed to be. So I check the facts now. So the incident I was talking about was Premier League last season. Crystal Palace 3-3 draw versus Bournemouth.

[00:12:31] In October. So they brought down Saar. Basically the same. If you look at the image, it's basically the same. The referee, that's Gillette, produced the yellow card. The VAR sent it back to upgrade it to a red. Gillette says it's not a red card. He rejected the review. But the Premier League's key match incidents panel voted that he was wrong. It should have been a red card. Fair enough. And if you take that into consideration, it's the exact same moment. It is a red card. And I think the second one, they were like, he didn't hit him.

[00:13:01] I think it was, you could say he just struck his hand into his face. So the first one was obvious red card. We see people debate that one. I think that's like a red card. That's a red card. The first one's a red card. He just, he got the legs tangled in between. That's a red card. And the second one is also a red card. It's a pretty obvious one. Third one is the one that I think, I understand.

[00:13:23] The laws of the game say one thing, but actually the practical application of those things sometimes can be, not misinterpreted, it can be interpreted different ways. Let me say it like this. I think on world championships, world cups like this, and we saw it with Qatar as well, the referees are instructed far more clearly to be on one, like objectively one line.

[00:13:48] And I think this referee, it's not the best referee in Brazil, to be fair, but I think the referee did a really good job taking the guidelines from the game. He counted down the new rules. I think the way they used to far on the red card, I mean, his English isn't very good, so I did not understand anything until he said decision, direct free kick in the red card. Maybe that should be a guideline for referees, but that's beside the point. The way they implemented it was very good.

[00:14:15] But the guard didn't interrupt anything at all, only for their red card, which was fair. I think generally speaking, this referee was good. If we take on, I wouldn't panic about referees just yet, if they take on this for 103 more matches and take that same line, that's good. I think the biggest issue is if you look at some of the big leagues, they are so inconsistent with decisions, and that's what people see the most of things. But if you look at the rule book, I think all of three of these are correct. Yeah.

[00:14:42] I think the only one thing I want to point out is the fact that this World Cup, this particular game, there were three red cards. In Qatar, there was all tournament, I think there was four red cards. So that's the past start that we just need to be a little bit careful. Yeah. We've got to see what happens. Well, moving along swiftly, just to make sure we cover the other game that we have as well, which I think was an objectively much better game to watch. I really enjoyed watching that game from start to finish. Both the teams came out defensively solid.

[00:15:10] They were pretty, I think, so I thought Korea had about 70% of possession for a long period of the game. It was by far a better team. Yeah. Czechia, I think it was very clear. Czechia felt like a team that would be perfect for the Premier League, maybe 14th, 15th in the Premier League each season, just making sure they get the set pieces in. It was brilliant. Their set pieces were, the first goal, for example, was such a masterpiece.

[00:15:36] Straight from the throw-in, ball comes in, brilliant header, what a moment. So I think it was a great game to watch overall. There was different kinds of fights going on on both sides. Your thoughts on the game? I think Korea did what we expected them to be. Like, lots of movement, lots of, well, tactical was both teams were good. But I think Czech just knew this, like, we're not going to win this one on, like, fitness and movement.

[00:16:06] So let's just keep compact and go for that. And it worked out pretty well for them, to be fair. I think Korea went all out. I think one really stood out for me. I mean, I used to see him every week at Feyenoord and he has been injured all season. And now he's fit and then he's like, oh, let's do a goal and an assist and toss around passes like it's nothing. Like, not one pass misplaced in a whole match. So that really stood out.

[00:16:36] But yeah, you see these, maybe, I'm wondering though a lot, if we look in the season, I think every player was just beat at the end of the match. It could be the height, it could be the heat. Yeah. Could all be because we don't have much moments anymore to slow the game down, that it might actually be a little bit much for the players. But that's something to be mindful of. Concerning the match, I think technically much better. I think passion on both teams does help.

[00:17:05] It's not just one team trying to score. That does, like, it worked well. But I think South Korea definitely deserved this win, right? Completely agree. Completely agree. They were the team that was threatening and they kept doing the right things over and over again. I think at one point, the camera cut to Son, I think in the 35th minute or whatever, he was exhausted. Exhausted. He was just dead. It was sad to see. The goalkeeper from Czechia? Yeah, brilliant. What a performance. He played his very, but that had some goalkeeper though.

[00:17:34] What a performance. What a performance. Me and my mates, there was a mate of mine who got confused with, because we have a Czechian goalkeeper who plays for Man United. We just thought, for a second, someone thought, oh, that must be him. Sadly, it wasn't. It was from PSV. It's really good. It's very good. Good game. I think that was a really, from a pure footballing sense, it was a brilliant game to watch from start to finish. I think the first game was a bit stodgy in bits and there was a lot of bad football on display from both sides at different times.

[00:18:04] But the second game was just brilliant. Brilliant. End to end some certain times. Brilliant defensively. Amazing attacking-wise set pieces. He had everything. A blockbuster as such. Hopefully, it just stays at that level. Moving on, listeners. One of the things that we want to do this World Cup is to have a segment that talk about the ballers, the bottlers, as well as the drama. So, I think from the ballers, I'll just quickly break it down.

[00:18:30] So, John has taken the interpretation of a baller as someone that has performed really well on the pitch. And I've taken the interpretation as someone that's actually had a great moment for whatever reason. So, I think mine is a bit more from the heart, essentially. It's just mine is Raul Jimenez. Let's just talk about six years ago, 2020 in November, he got hit playing against Arsenal at Wolves. He had a header from David Luiz that fractured his skull unconscious on the pitch. He was gone. People didn't know if he was going to be alive.

[00:19:00] Off the pitch for almost nine months. Came back. Did his bit. Kept doing it. Went through recovery. Did all that. And sometimes when those kind of things happen to you, I mean, as a footballer, we've seen Harlem. We've seen all these players that go away for a long period of time. You never know if they can make it back to that same level. And for him to go and score a goal at the World Cup in his home country. And it's almost like everything just flashed. As soon as he scored the goal, it didn't flash. But a few seconds later, it just hit him. What exactly happened?

[00:19:30] And that was a beautiful moment. These are the moments that mean a lot to bring the World Cup. It's not just like a game. It's not a Champions League game. But winning is all essential. There's a whole lot of other things as well. Other factors. And that's why for me, he's my baller of the day. John, your thoughts? Well, I mean, I can definitely see that. And I applaud him for scoring. Not to mention that he got a lot of hate in Mexico over the last couple of years. Because he was saying that he could only score penalties. And that's it.

[00:20:01] So, and it was a good goal. I mean, they didn't have much players left. So, there's that still. And they finally used a wing. But he did score that as well. And I'm happy for him. So, I applaud the story, right? I mean, it's a life-threatening situation. You come out of it. And you score in a World Championship. Must be a dream. In your own stadium, basically. For 90,000 fans. I mean, totally get why you say he's a baller. And he's a baller for me as well.

[00:20:27] I just don't think football-wise he was the best player on that pitch. Nor the best player from yesterday at all. Fair enough. Yeah, completely agree. So, what about your thoughts on your baller? Well, I think Wang Inwo. Or like we said, Feyenoord, Wang was the player of the face. He's also got the highest rating on the BBC and Goal.com from yesterday. I mean, no passes missed. A goal, a assist in your total year.

[00:20:57] Could be his benefit, maybe, that he comes back from being injured and, well, being fit. Then again, can't be much in form because he didn't play much. So, it's pretty impressive he does that. Didn't score many goals for Korea or North of England. And that goal was some tactical masterpiece as well. I think showed off really well. And I need to give a shout-out to Quinones. Or Mexico.

[00:21:24] Like, he scored the first goal for Mexico, which always is good. He took a great chance afterwards. Took four shots on goal. Hit the post as well. The other one was a great save by that goalkeeper. So, he could have just scored like two or three goals as well. I think Quinones was a standout player for me. I mean, Jimenez gets the reward for his story, right? But I think Quinones was the player to watch for Mexico yesterday. But I think best player for him yesterday at all was Wang Limbom.

[00:21:54] And I think they're not midfielder. Don't want to lose with Feyenoord. But I can't imagine we're losing him. Although he's like 29 years old. So, I mean, he has his age, his experiences. But I was like very much surprised he could have pulled that off. Yeah. Yeah. And also, I think he's gone down in the record books for Korea where I think he's one of only three players that's ever scored and assisted in a World Cup for Korea.

[00:22:22] So, that's a big, that's a huge thing for him. Yeah. That's brilliant. I would love that record. That's my name. They don't change things around. Might get some more goals. That's right. And they look like an attacking threat. I think overall, fingers crossed, Korea delivered today. And I hope they continue at that same level. Right. So, we've done the baller. The next step is the bottler. And I think this is, we've already discussed the bottler of today. And that is unfortunately, listener, in South Africa. They just didn't show up today.

[00:22:51] And I think, I think, I think, the one thing we need to confirm is, do you think they can progress, John? No, no, no. That's not a chance in the slightest. I'm not giving them a chance before. But this was not even, this wasn't World Cup level. This was abysmal performances from everyone. And I was going to say that the goalkeeper, I forgot his name, which I'm so sorry about it. I think the goalkeeper, when he saved the first shot with one hand from the bottom.

[00:23:21] I was like, oh, actually, that could be a talent. That could be a talented player. Oh, but if you give him a ball at his feet, he can't do anything. I think he was just tactically poor, inspirationally poor. Like there was no, it didn't even look like there was much motivation going on. It was falls, a lot of falls made, which were needed.

[00:23:49] I mean, yeah, they got two red cards and those weren't even the nastiest falls, to be fair. There were a lot more falls, which are like, oh, that didn't look good. But just everything about it. Yeah. Yeah. That's fair enough. And the last thing, listener, is the drama. And I think this is, we've already covered most of these things. It's about the red cards, the three red cards and the controversial call, which we've covered in full detail.

[00:24:13] But I think one of the things, I wanted to put this past you, is the fact that we've discussed numerous times before the World Cup, starting even now, is that there's a lot of heat involved, the players get tired. When you get tired, you tend to make some rash decisions as well. And potentially, what if we end up having a World Cup where there's a lot of red cards? Because firstly, the referees are being tough. There's a lot of new rules that you've already discussed in the previous shows.

[00:24:42] I don't want people to just be thrown out with a red card and miss a lot of action. I'm really hoping this is a one-off and not a consistent theme. No, maybe I'm a little bit stricter in that way. I think we enforce way too lenient, usually. Or way too inconsistent. Maybe I should say it like this. Maybe we've been way too inconsistent with goals. And if we start acting like the rulebook said, maybe we'll just correct it itself.

[00:25:11] And I think three red cards is an outlier though. We'll check that match was fine. True. And that was actually a much tougher match for both of the teams. So I think it's an outlier and I don't think we have to read too much. I wouldn't worry about that too much yet. I think about the heat though. We don't play two times 45 minutes. We started playing four times 25 minutes now, right? Which I absolutely hate.

[00:25:39] I don't dislike the hydration breaks. But when they have prepared commercials in those three minutes off, you know it's just, oh, it's also convenient for everyone else. It felt really off for me. If that makes sense. Yeah. Yeah. I think that as someone that consumes a lot of other sport with rugby and Australian Aussie rules and stuff like that, where everything is on my kid's netball, everything's a quarter.

[00:26:06] I was literally thinking, oh my God, soccer has become like every other sport. So I'm so used to it that I didn't even feel like, I just felt like, yep, a natural progression. It's going to happen at some point. And I didn't, not a huge fan, but it is what it is. And the ads that show up in between those, that really gets me. The ads in between a half. I was wondering when the referee would blow the hydration whistle or the board for hydration. Yeah. If that will be a sponsor, Jen.

[00:26:36] That will be soon. That will be soon. 22 minutes and 30 seconds approximately. That will be soon. Well, in the interest of time, we'll just quickly go through. So we've done a baller, a bottler and a drama. And we'll try to have a topic each day. In the interest of time, we'll just go through quickly, John. Anything that stands out in tomorrow's games, we have Canada versus Bosnia-Herzegovina. And then we also have the hosts, USA, playing Baragoy. So let's talk about Canada and Bosnia. Any standouts for you?

[00:27:05] No, I think Canada actually has, I've seen them play. I think technically, it's actually a pretty decent team. So not like high-tech footballers, but not bad at all. So I think Bosnia could be like a fighter team as well. So I think that match will not be underestimated. It could be a really cool match to play. I think that would be one of the matches where we can see if those red cards were actually an outlier or not. Yeah, exactly. That one? Yeah.

[00:27:35] A couple of things about the Canadian team. I think Davies is maybe out with a hamstring injury. So it's going to be a little bit frustrating for Canada. And I think there's some injury doubts for Edin Dzeko as well, who is probably Bosnia's favorite, I mean, best player that's on, but he's 40 years old. So it's going to be a funny game. I don't necessarily know what to expect, but yeah, let's watch it. The other game that we have, USA, Baragoy. Anything at all? It's going to be, is it going to be America's time with Pochettino at home?

[00:28:05] Yeah, if I'm going to be honest, I think the US losing all the listeners, you know, but I don't rate them at all this year. My predictions show that I think they don't even have home pressure, I feel like. That's right. Like if you see the female team play, right? It's like, you know, they're good. Everyone's behind them. But I don't think like many people that you don't even realize they're playing, I reckon.

[00:28:34] And I don't think, I think Paraguay is like a team you're not eager to play at your first match either. So maybe not technically the best team, but definitely a team that knows the heat and knows how to fight. And technically, I think they might be much stronger than a US team. I think it might be a very hard wake up call for the US. Absolutely. And it's a very tight group as well. There's Paraguay, there's Sturkia, there's Australia and there's America.

[00:29:02] So I think this is going to be a blockbuster of a game. I'm really looking forward to this game because it's just, it lets us know what's going to happen with the other game, which is Sturkia versus Australia the following day. So yeah, let's, let's, let's see. I'm really keen to see what happens in this game. Right, let's know. Day one is done. The World Cup is officially alive. Before you go, follow us on Instagram at FootenReview and TikTok, FootenReviewPodcast. Five-star review on your podcast app will make a huge deal for us. Just go ahead and just click that five-star button.

[00:29:33] If you have any feedback, please do share it with us. Share this episode with someone that's just watched the World Cup and is just wondering, oh, I just want to talk to someone about the World Cup. Just share this with them. It would be great. Patreon supporters, this should be in your feed shortly. So yeah, we'll have day two recap tomorrow. Canada, USA and everything that happened. We'll have bollows, buss, we'll have dramas. We'll have everything tomorrow. See you guys tomorrow. Bye-bye.