A 10-Goal Bronze Madness & The Grand Final Preview! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇫🇷🇪🇸🇦🇷 | World Cup Daily #48

[00:00:00] 6-4 Read that scoreline again. In a chaotic, absolute basketball match of a bronze final, England and France completely ripped up the defensive rulebook to deliver a historical 10th goal trailer in Miami. But the curtain raiser is over and the biggest sporting event on earth is finally here. Lionel Messi's reigning champions vs the flawless machine of Spain. Grab a brew,

[00:00:26] settle in, because today in episode 48 we are reviewing a legendary golf fest and setting the stage for the 2026 World Cup Final. Welcome back to yet another episode of FUT IN REVIEW World Cup Daily. My name is John and I'll be your host in episode 48. And luckily I'm not

[00:00:55] alone sitting on the other side of the pond. It's a man with literally the best hair in the business now, it's not only then James Toland. Welcome back James. Hello John. Good evening, good afternoon, good morning to our listeners. How are you? You are looking absolutely fantastic mate. You got a beard trim, you got your hair trimmed. Gee, you're ready for a new football season aren't you? Oh yeah, definitely. But saying that John, I let my friend watch one of our episodes the

[00:01:25] other day. He said, great episode, really good chat, but what's that on your face? So opinions differ on that. That's good though. James, yesterday we did a show together and you said they're going to put all the substitutions in. They're not going to take it too seriously. Well, France didn't start too seriously to be fair, although their main line-up wasn't that bad. What have we witnessed

[00:01:50] yesterday? A 4-0 halftime score ending in a 6-4 end result, all within 90 minutes. James, what was going on here? Yeah, sensational really. I was right in the goal fest, of course, that makes it now 86 goals and 21 matches, bronze matches that is. But yeah, I was so wrong about the line-ups and how they would take it, take the match in itself really. But we did get it right though, John, saying it was

[00:02:16] the weirdest game ever because it certainly was. 6-4, 10 goals, 4 goals in the first half, 6 in another one, the second half. Just crazy, crazy game. And just like a basketball game, really, I just couldn't believe what I was watching. So it was certainly good for the neutral, definitely. Yes, and well, basically we were neutral. Mbappe scored another two goals. I would say he gave

[00:02:41] another assist. I do have some questions though. I mean, no, none of us expected like a 6-4 explosion of this. But what happened with France's defense at the start of the match? Because Rabiot said in the post-match interview, I'm quoting him now, some of us didn't take this series. Some of us didn't show up today. Some of us weren't totally focused on the level they should be. We tried to

[00:03:08] correct that in the second half and that looked so much better. That's a big dig at your own teammates after a match like this, no? Yeah, it definitely is. You need to wonder who he was talking about. Obviously, you know, one would say that the substitution for the left back might be. Did Theo Hernandez not take it seriously? He was caught out a lot of times in the first half. Yeah, he was playing more as a winger than didn't drop back, didn't track back. He got substituted

[00:03:37] by Digne, I think as well. Yep. Hasn't had a flawless tournament either, but I think Dine choked much better. Midfield stayed the same though, so that wasn't much of an issue. But he took, oh, what's his name now? The striker, Shecky. He took Shecky off. Yep, the attacking mid for Man City. Yeah, and he was near invisible in the first half as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. It was fun to watch, but I saw Deschamps' face at that 4-0. I felt so bad

[00:04:06] for the man. Like England played a lot more. They only had four players in the starting squad that stayed the same. Didn't start Kane, didn't bring Kane. They did bring Bellingham who had an amazing goal as well, of course. Yeah. Ah, James, there's so much to talk about, but is this, I think, did Deschamps 14 years? Rain? No? Yes, yes, John. Yesterday, another thing I got wrong. Well, yesterday I said he's 12. You don't have to say everything you got wrong.

[00:04:34] 12 years. 12 years, but it's actually 14 years he's been in charge and Zidane, I believe, is going to take over. Yeah. Not officially confirmed, but it's the worst keep secret in football. 99.9% sure is going to be the new manager there. Yeah, it was total madness. It was very fun to watch. The level wasn't always there, but hey, if we do keep this bronze final thing going, then at least give us 10 goals, right?

[00:05:02] Yeah, yeah, definitely. It was certainly a goal fest. That was brilliant. It was well worth the wait and also staying up that late to watch it. So yeah, definitely. Last question of the match. Is Olise cursed? I know it was crazy that he just kept missing the chances, didn't he? Seven assists and no goals. And they were quite, the one at least was a sitter. So I think that Ghana, the witch

[00:05:30] doctor, has certainly put a curse on Olise. Yes. We had a question from people sending in. What's James talking about rings? Can you explain once more what's going on with rings now? Championship. Yes, certainly no problem. What actually happened is for the final, it's going to be that the teams will obviously get their medals and they'll get the trophy, but each player will get a ring

[00:05:55] and it'll just be engraved World Cup finalists, World Cup champions. So I believe there'll be 30 of them. So 26 man squad. And then of course, I think four for like defenders, for the managers or the backup goalie, whatever. And then there's going to be under 2,000 available for the general public. And that will be 150,000 per ring. So yes, that would be it.

[00:06:21] Once more and then put it slowly so everyone can ride along. There's 30 for the winning team. Yep. And there's over 2,000 available to just purchase as a fan. Yes. And these rings are worth 150,000. Yes. Yeah. So I was thinking, John, I might get one. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. So I might have to sell some of the cars and then maybe we can get one to show off on this

[00:06:51] stage. But I'll talk about the Americanization of the sports. I quite like the idea of bringing rings, right? I mean, it is custom in a lot of US sports to give them ring. Like if you win the NFL, you win the Super Bowl, you get a ring for it. I think that's really cool actually. So the fact you transferred it to football. Well, actually, why not? It's in the US. It's

[00:07:16] fine. Those 2,000 other ones are just completely bonkers to me. What you could do is, hey, this is a sport for the fans, right? You could say everyone that has a FIFA membership or whatever is going to draw it and 2,000 lucky people in the world will get one. That could be something to do. And then actually it shows it's from the fans. It's just, again, yet another money

[00:07:41] grab in the world's most, well, profitable world tournament or sports event, I'd probably say. It's so much, man. Yeah, definitely. Just once again, John, the fans are just treated like a cash cow once again, unfortunately. Sad to see. But I know it's a cool idea. Some might say it is. But just to change the rules again, because it's in the USA, it's a bit weird for me that you just simply

[00:08:09] change the rule and give everyone rings now. Just a weird... It's extra though. It's extra. They still get the medal. Yeah, it's extra, but they still get the medal, of course, yeah. Yeah. There's two ways to look at it, I suppose. Yeah. Wow. Did you watch the ceremony yesterday for the third place? No, I did not, John. No, no, I did not. Not me neither, to be fair. It's like, okay, this is not a fact. Yeah.

[00:08:37] It is really awkward if you lose the final to be on that spot. It's even more awkward if you win the bronze final. Because are you celebrating that you did not win the World Cup? You know, it's also weird. I'm glad we got this match done, but I'm also glad this match ended up being a spectacle. And you said yesterday, usually high-scoring matches like this, it took two minutes to get one in. And of course, a big compliment for Saka, right?

[00:09:05] Yeah, definitely. And there was one ruled offside, rightly so, as well. So yeah, it was a feast for the eyes, shall we say? Definitely. Do you think the grand final tonight, Spain versus Argentina, which is the absolute peak in New Jersey, of course? It's the control masters against the aggressive street fighter. Luis de la Fuente has refused to change his possession blueprint all tournament.

[00:09:31] Pascal Loni is a master of reactive chaos. Do you expect a similar match tonight? No, not at all. No way. I actually expect maybe 2-0 Spain, to be honest. But the only thing I will say is, in Argentina's favour, they do cross a lot. And Spain do actually, they've only conceded one goal, but it was from a cross. And I know that great with crossing, you know,

[00:09:59] Scotland beat them with the corner and the crossing. So it could be, but it's another story trying to get by Kukarela as well. Did you see his comments, Sean? I have not seen his comment, no. I have been commentating on him that he has an absolutely fantastic tournament. And all I get back from people online is that he's got awful hair, so nobody watches him, apparently. I think he's good regardless of where he looks. Definitely a good player. But he said,

[00:10:26] he said if he wins the World Cup, then that's him win the Euros, the World Cup for Spain. And he doesn't see how it can get any better. He'll retire on Monday and he'll get a tattoo of the coach. I'd love to see that, but wasn't he linked or going to Real Madrid? Yeah, I believe he's going to Real Madrid. I think it's confirmed. I don't know though. But yeah, Mourinho wants him definitely. Yeah, then there's no way he's going to retire. But I like the sentiment. No, internationally. Oh, internationally. Yeah, sorry, sorry. Fair enough.

[00:10:57] Yeah, that's fair enough. I can see that. But he has had a tremendous tournament. He has a statistic so far that there's not been a single player that has dribbled past him this whole tournament. Fantastic. That's pretty amazing. Let's see if he can hold off Messi tonight. Although Messi is coming from the midfield, so probably not even going to be a part of that contest, I think. What do you think? Does pure structure beat Ultimate Grid tonight? You said it's going to

[00:11:25] be too over Spain, so I guess you do agree with that. Yeah, I think Spain will just control them. Definitely. I think Rodri's best in the business. Absolutely fantastic player. The midfield, I really hope they play Ruiz again. I think he's a fantastic midfielder. Yes, Pedri's very, very good. But I just feel he gives a lot more balance to that Spain midfield with Rodri. So yeah, I do see a really controlled performance from Spain.

[00:11:51] Do you think Williams will start? And we get two wingers with a danger in tonight? I don't think Williams need to start from the get-go, John. I think I would stick with Bina. I think he's actually been really, really good. His diagonal runs as well is pretty good if they actually play him through. And Ongo actually makes a lot of runs through the centre, but they don't usually pick him out. He usually makes space for the midfield with that run. But yeah, I feel they would go with the same line-up against France.

[00:12:20] Yeah, fair enough. I expect it as well, to be fair. I do expect the first half to be rather boring, unfortunately. I think it's going to be fine-tuning in a couple of minutes later if there's any match here. It's too much at stake. No team will take much risk straight away. I'm expecting Argentina to be very aggressive from the get-go. It's all up to the ref to see how far that goes. But yeah, it's... Yeah. I'm eager to watch it tonight, James.

[00:12:45] Yeah. Are you eager to watch the Americanization of this match? Because we not only get rings tonight, James, we also get a Super Bowl-style halftime show. And I mean, they are absolutely fantastic in the US to do halftime shows and make sure it doesn't interfere with any of the players, right? And if you look at the Super Bowl, they completely rebuilt the pitch, but

[00:13:14] the players don't even notice it when it's back. It's like, it was really nicely done. So if... Let me say it like this. If there's one country in the world that can probably pull this off without having too much delay, it's the US. But there's so many people coming on. The expectations went from 20 minutes to 40 minutes halftime show. FIFA said it will

[00:13:37] not take more than approximately 17 minutes. What is your bet? One, are you watching it? Are you going to watch it? Are you interested in it? And two, how long will it take in minutes so we can go back to that tomorrow? Well, I believe the halftime show for the Club World Cup last year was 24 minutes or 25 minutes, I believe. To be honest, I'm not really bothered what happens at halftime as a viewer, John. But

[00:14:06] as a player for Player Welfare that we spoke on the pod the other day, for football, it's a reason why it's only 15 minutes. It's a short, short break. You know, players can't be really stiff. They need to keep warm. They need to keep their body going and going. So for Player Welfare, it's a wee bit of a disappointment. And I feel that you're saying that the first half might be boring. Maybe the first 10 minutes of the second half will be a wee bit boring before the players get into their stride again. Like sometimes we see where the water breaks.

[00:14:36] But that's good because then we have 15 minutes and then the water breaks. Yeah, but also as well, I don't even know. I think back home in the UK, I'm sure one of our broadcasters isn't even going to broadcast it. I think they're just going to do their usual halftime analysis. So I don't know if it's the BBC or ITV or the both of them might just show it. So I don't know. No, I'm not even sure if the Dutch broadcaster does it either.

[00:15:01] No. I mean, I like these halftime shows. Like, I don't care about American football. So the day after, I tend to watch the halftime show. But for here, I'm the other way around. Like, OK, I'm going to get a drink. I'm going to rest up a little bit. Make sure you get the notes ready and then go for another. I don't think they'll make 17 minutes. I think if there is a country that can do it, it's US. But there's no way. 17 minutes is extremely fast. I'm afraid it's going to run a little bit longer. And hopefully it doesn't impact the players because

[00:15:30] it's been a long, long tournament. It's been six weeks, James. Six weeks. Yeah, definitely. Or five full weeks, to be fair. But they've been away for six weeks. Yeah, it's been a long tournament. Absolutely fantastic. The only way I see them doing it, John, for the time frame is maybe borrow some of the Formula One pit stoppers and see if they can help. Because they do it usually fast. They do things super fast. Get things off the pitch. Formula One style. Yeah, good work. Good work. Is there anything

[00:16:00] particularly you're looking forward to tonight? Are you going to pay extra attention to Messi, for example? Or Ozil-Bjall is going to shine? What do you reckon? I feel Rosalbao. No, Rosalbao. Easy for me to say. He will shine again once more. But I do fancy Ruiz to score tonight from midfield. I fancy him to score. I fancy he'll really run

[00:16:26] the midfield. Probably concede a lot of fouls. One. Yeah, I would like to see Ruiz. Have a fantastic game. Definitely. Yeah, I can see that. What about you? I think one of the players that's really going to shine could be Martinez, the goalkeeper, of course. Emiliano Martínez. If you haven't checked out his Netflix series, you should actually watch his Netflix series. Or one short documentary, really. It is really well done. And he is as mad

[00:16:55] as a boxer's frocks. But he's also a terrific goalkeeper. So I think that's something to look forward to. Another thing, if you look at goalkeepers, Simon is a goalkeeper that's really high up the pitch. So we can expect a lot of tackles from him where he actually goes Argentine on a counter. He could actually get a lot of counts gone. But the player I'm looking forward to watching are the two center defenders of Spain. Because in the start of the tournament,

[00:17:20] I was a little bit harsh on them. Of course, they only considered one goal. But I said like, I don't think that defense is that good. Because they just don't have much to do yet. But that doesn't show. But the last two matches they had, they were really busy. And Laporta with the youngster next to him is a heck of a duo. Laporta actually surprised me. I thought he was over the hill. But I have to apologize for that. He's been terrific. So yeah, the defenders is definitely some place I'm gonna look. And of course, no matter what you think of the

[00:17:49] Argentina team or the player Messi, it is probably going to be last match Messi plays in international tournament. No, definitely his last World Cup final, I suppose. So even that fact alone is worth just keeping an eye out of Messi. You talked about Formula One. In Formula One, you can say, I want to watch this car, right? You have the, you know, on the feeds, you can just say, I want them on this car on this side of the screen. And I want to

[00:18:16] watch this car on that side of the screen. I wish we have a Messi camp tonight where we could just solely watch Messi throughout the match as well. And that would be very nice. I think this is one of those matches which, well, could like put the crown on the code discussion. Let's say he scores one or two. There's no contest left, right? So he's still not gonna win in Golden Boot, by the way. I think Mbappé made sure that don't happen, but definitely he's gonna win like another ball on door, I think if he wins it tonight.

[00:18:44] And he has an impact. Yeah. I'm eager. I'm just eager to get started. You know? And also hope it's just blue white kids versus red kids tonight. Just keep it all. Yeah. You know, it has a certain feeling to it. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. Something else I'm really looking forward to James is our 49th and 50th episode of this series. Okay. Have you,

[00:19:10] this morning I realized we have done 48 days in a row of podcasting, right? That's 48 days of not only showing up, but also editing, social media, responding to messages, make sure everything's correct. Yeah. I am looking forward to taking a little break after episode 50. So we'll make 50 episodes, two more after this one. And I'm like, I am looking forward to just taking a wee breather from being behind

[00:19:38] my desk and my microphone for a bit. But Hey, I definitely enjoyed it. Hope you did as well, James. James Yeah, certainly. It's been a blast, John. Definitely. James Yeah. And if you have any comments, supportive comment or constructive feedback, just go to like foot and review.com or foot and review on Instagram for review podcast on TikTok. Just drop us a message. What did you like? What didn't you do? What didn't you like? What would you like to see in the future? Because on Tuesday we'll be recording episode 50 and we'll be looking

[00:20:07] back to not only the World Cup, but also our best behind the scenes things in this, uh, this podcast, I think as well. James, there's only one thing left for me to do and it is to wish you a extremely fun World Cup 26 final and goes not only for you, but everyone listening or and slash or watching this and thanking you for all your appearances so far. We will be back tomorrow, but first enjoy the final. See ya. Bye bye.