Bellingham Rescues England & Switzerland's Red Card Collapse! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇦🇷 | World Cup Daily #41

[00:00:00] Welcome back to Food Team Review World Cup Daily episode 41. Yes, we nearly have so many episodes like the teams in this World Cup, just another 80 or so to go and we'll reach that magic 150 teams. The World Cup semi-final line-up is officially set after another incredible day of quarter-final action. England escaped for dramatic extra-time win over Norway, while Argentina eventually breaks Switzerland's resistance.

[00:00:26] In a game packed with controversy, VR debates and moments of brilliance. They were heroes, they were villains and there was plenty to get stuck into. But I'm not going to do this alone. I've got Argentina's number one fan here on the show with me. No need to guess who it is, it's my very good friend John. How are you my friend?

[00:00:49] Yeah, I am Argentina's best fan since this week. Because they have, like I said, they have good fans. For some reason my inbox gets spammed by Argentina women sending me pictures lately. Do you still hate us now? I would forward some but those aren't safe for work, so to speak. So I don't know what's going on there. But no, I'm not Argentina's biggest fan going on. I've got to applaud them for what they did.

[00:01:17] Good mate. So let's get into it. So it has been a dramatic day of football, hasn't it? So we'll start with the very first game. England 2, Norway 1 after extra time. You know, England survived another scare. You know, they were far from convincing. But the tournament is all about finding a way. They've dug deep, they've showed resilience and are now just one game away from another World Cup final, John. Were you impressed by England's battling spirit?

[00:01:45] I think so, yeah. You see, I said yesterday, I think it's going to be a close match. I think England has the quality to top this match over Norway. You see Norway got some injuries going on halfway through the match. They were just, they were just done. It was a little bit too much. And the moment Haaland had to be sopped out because, I said this this week as well, he's been having issues.

[00:02:11] He's been tired, he said. Haaland was the one getting the most massages whenever they've got a break. But yeah, when he's got sopped off, he knows this is going to be a hard one. Just a shame how it went out, but they would have netted it anyway, I think. I mean, we can't not talk about Jude Belliam. You know, he runs the show. When England needed someone to drag them through, Belliam stepped up again. He dictated the tempo. He drove the team forward and looked every bit like England's leader.

[00:02:41] Is he the midfielder of the tournament so far, do you think? Yeah, I reckon so. I mean, I do quite like Ozilbjol, to be fair. And I said it before, I think Olyse might be the midfielder for me, to be quite honest. But of course, all these guys have been performing tremendous and he can't underestimate the impact Jude has on this team.

[00:03:09] He has on his fans and has the impact he has on the matches. Because not only does he perform well, but he's everywhere. I mean, from your point of view though, John, as we start to talk about the tournament itself and the schedule, are you starting to, from a coach's point of view, we all know you analyse the games with a microscopic view.

[00:03:37] Are you noticing players now starting to struggle with the heat, the tiredness, the length of the tournament? Well, I think you can definitely see the players who've had a long season, right? And the players that have been injured, either they get in shape and like get in form and they're fit. Yeah. Or they just can't find their form because they have not played enough. And you see the other side of the coin is, like Bellingham has of course been injured for a long time, right? Yes.

[00:04:06] And that makes, like he, you see the quality oozes of him and he has stayed fit. And then you see Haaland on the other side and other guy having long seasons. And halfway through the matches, like they're toast, they're done. We've seen that Switzerland as well. We see Vargas just completely falling apart. He can't even walk anymore. And that doesn't help, right? If you have one round extra in this World Cup as well. The World Cup was extended by four and a half, like it's four and a half weeks, five weeks almost.

[00:04:36] I think five weeks. Yep. We're 41 episodes in by the way. So yeah. In the end, like you start to notice it, they didn't get any breaks. Some players had a little mini break before they went to the World Cup, but you can't fully relax. And you know what that's going on, I think. So yeah, you can see some people struggling really hard with it now. But I guess that's also part of the game, right? Yeah, no, definitely.

[00:05:04] I think, you know, certainly we watched it on the UK here. The feeling was that the Norwegian team were tired from the start. But actually, as the game went on, you could actually see the England team starting to wilt. And if you looked at the hydration breaks, which I know we hate here in Europe. But if you look at it, you know, you've got Bellingham leaning over the icebox almost trying to get some cold air in there and get into his legs, you know, from that point of view.

[00:05:32] I think it would be remiss though, not to talk about Norway. I mean, the fans have brought an amazing colour. The role has been amazing. Let's be completely honest. But, you know, they've defended Bronte for long spells. They had England rattled. They were from touching distance of penalties before one costly error and did nearly two hours of hard work. But the Sorloff chance when he could put Haaland through.

[00:06:00] What is, from a coach's point of view, John, what do you think is going through his mind at that point? Well, yes. So what happened here is there's a breakaway. Sorloff has the ball. He could pass the ball to Haaland, but he doesn't. He dribbles up. But you have to put a little bit in perspective. Sorloff isn't a right winger. He's a striker, right, basically. Do you know many strikes that can actually dribble? No. 9. Yeah, there's no many.

[00:06:30] I mean, even Messi's not an outlier striker. He's not a No. 9, right? He's more a No. 10. And then, do you know many strikers that would pass the ball to the side if they have a single chance of taking a shot? No problem. Yeah, you're right. That's why they're strikers, isn't it? So Sorloff's playing on the right wing against his nature. He doesn't even know Haaland's coming up. He should, yes. But it's not in him. It's not like how he trained. It's not how he built his career.

[00:07:01] Yes, he should have passed this. Yes, then Haaland could have scored this. There's just no natural way of him to do so, I think. That's a little bit of perspective. They don't... Sorloff's been playing right winger, so they can sub off halftime to bring in two new wingers. That's been the tactical tournament, right? The explosive on the wings. Sub him out early for two fresh wings so he can give all out. Sorloff is a mateshift winger. And I... Yes, you can blame him, but actually I don't think we should blame him because it's just so unnatural for him.

[00:07:30] It's like if you put Bellingham at center defender and then ask him why he's not watching the ball but watching the man, for example. Or the other way around. It's like, yeah, he knows it. If he watches back, he'll slap himself on the head. But I think it's a little bit too harsh to blame the rule, the loss on him. I just want to highlight the first goal though first. Yep. Because that was intentional unless everyone said that not.

[00:07:54] But the speed of that first shot, that's not the speed you give to a crossmate. Who's going to walk into that and not get knocked out? So that was a wonderful goal for him as well. So, but yeah, you see with Norway and being tired, Ryerson dropped off, right? Was the best man for them. Just dead in the water. Just kaput. Haaland, just kaput. Sorloff couldn't finish. Early guard, half walking.

[00:08:23] Even goalkeeper messed up. Could be the heat, could be the focus. It's just... This team went above and beyond for what they were, but this tournament was half an hour too much for them. Yeah. No, definitely. You know, we're going to get onto it as well when we move onto Argentina, Switzerland and the boat. It's not something about having teams on the ropes and then letting them off. You know, Sorloff was, for me, was caught between two steals. He didn't know whether to shoot or to pass and end up... Didn't do either. Didn't do either. It's what most players do in that situation.

[00:08:53] You do absolutely nothing. Just before we move on and talk about the Argentina-Switzerland game. Is there anything else in that game, John, that you want to bring up? I mean, it's strange, I suppose, if you think about it. You know, a nation that is famous for its seafaring was undone by some rigging, wasn't it? Really? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Anything else I want to highlight of the match? I think referee was good, to be fair. Mm-hmm.

[00:09:23] Like, the goal Norway scored, I think, rightfully, like, Haaland pushed him with two hands. Yes, often it's not called, but it is, of course, a foul. So, I think that was a fair call. I... What I... The only thing that was a little bit sketched this match, you know, when the goal of... The first goal of England happened, they hit the ball and it hit the drone camera. Yes. The cable of the camera.

[00:09:52] And FIFA didn't see it. And I can actually understand why you don't see it, because it's really high. It's really hard to notice, but you can see there's a change, sudden change of direction. It just drops down, right? Mm-hmm. And then this morning, we got an explanation for FIFA saying the ball didn't start, like, they give a weird camera angle with a ball sensor that the ball didn't hit anything. I mean, if anyone looks at that ball direction, you can see it, something happens there. Yeah.

[00:10:22] No, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. This feels faked just to show that there wasn't anything going on. You could just say, you know what? This is so extraordinary that something like this happens. We didn't even... We didn't even check. Mm-hmm. Right? You don't have to... This feels like faking evidence, if I'm gonna be quite honest, right? Yeah. And there must be better angles because I'm pretty sure there will be common social media videos next in the coming days where people in the crowd actually show that.

[00:10:53] Or show proper angle that this happened. I think the FIFA looks way poorer than they currently are doing. And it's just a shame because I think this is such an extraordinary event. Nobody could actually blame them for Michigan. Even the players themselves, they didn't see it. They heard afterwards that this could happen, you know? Yes, should be called off. So normally when something happens that the ball changes direction, hit a referee or whatever, hit a bird, right? Mm-hmm. It just stopped the play, resume play from that spot, right?

[00:11:23] Yeah. That's what happened here. The ball went up, hit the camera or camera cable probably, and it just dropped off. Changed direction and accidentally hit well for England. Normally this would be a free kick or like a resume play in the middle. But I didn't even see it until after the match. Nobody did. I don't, like, I didn't see anything online or people commenting about it. Afterwards it fells a little bit.

[00:11:50] So I don't like FIFA doing this after the fact, if that makes sense. Yeah. No, I understand. And John, to be fair, you know, we listened to the English, being Scottish, we had to listen to the ITV commentary. And even they said, Lee Dixon, who's very biased, let's be honest, he's an English player. The Kane tackle, his argument was England still have the opportunity to defend it.

[00:12:16] It's not like the ball dropped on the penalty spot and, you know, and scored straight away. And likewise, from my point of view as well, Norway's got almost their own half to defend that attack. You know, the fact that it didn't is really down to them. Yeah. You know, from that point of view, it's not, if the ball had hit the stand, hit the rigging and bounced on the penalty spot and Kane had stuck at home from straight away, then yeah, you've got a point. But from that point of view, Norway fell asleep a little bit, didn't they? Or even, let's be honest, it's great play for Billiam. Great midfielder play.

[00:12:47] But it takes the ball passes three and a half men and shoots in. I mean, even if something built up there, it was still just an excellent show of skill slash poor defending. But then again, we saw this with Argentina. If something happens in build-off of the attack, it still counts as a fall and goals should be suspended. So I get why people say afterwards that this was an off goal. Yeah, of course. I think this is one of those things where I'm like, there's no fall intent here.

[00:13:16] I just don't like FIFA for my feeling manufacturing evidence that it wasn't real. No, you're right. Best sometimes just to say nothing than anything at all. So let's move on to the second game, John, which I believe you stayed up for. I watched the highlights this morning. It's Argentina 3, Switzerland 1 after extra time again. So, you know, the big thing for me is Argentina's winning mentality. You know, Switzerland made life difficult, but Argentina never panicked.

[00:13:46] Once extra time arrived, their quality and experience took over. You know, are you impressed with Argentina's ability just to keep going? I am impressed with that. That's a factor of Argentina, yes. These are probably the most hated footballers in international football. These are probably fighters that have to fight for everything the whole career. And it shows.

[00:14:15] And I gotta applaud them for their fighting spirits. Do I always agree with how they do it? Well, no. But this match, honestly, they fall back really well. They were definitely on the ropes, Chris. And if I'm honest, this was a Swiss match to lose. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, John, let's go to your favourite, your nice favourite subject. The one that we have the most debate about is VAR. So, again, VAR steals the headlings.

[00:14:44] The fish-eight decisions, particularly the red card, sparks huge debate. We'll just dominate discussions long after the match is finished. But whether you agree with the calls or not, they've had a massive impact on this game. So, from your point of view, has VAR got this one right? This one hurts to say, but yes. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, when I saw this happen, like, I was like, the Argentinians are on the back foot. The Swiss is actually bettering. They got some chances in. Great save by Martins, by the way, again.

[00:15:14] And I thought, they get a goal and then it's over. This is over. They can get this, right? Mm-hmm. I see a fall being made. And I see a referee blow it. Immediately draw a yellow card to send all the Argentinian players away. I was like, oh, well, they don't even have the ref with them this time around. Then the refs get called to the VAR. And I'm like, oh, was it actually that bad of a fall that it's a red card maybe? Right? Mm-hmm. And then I saw the mistaken identity thing.

[00:15:43] Like, oh, that has to be like what we call the swalbo or dive. And it was. It was very much a dive. And it's a good thing the ref called. Okay. It sucks that this match is basically decided by that because I think Swiss was better. Swiss could have won this. But honestly, what a stupid, stupid move.

[00:16:05] And if we see the goalkeeper from Norway in tears because he made a mistake at the dying moments of that tournament match. I think this guy should be ashamed for much longer because he just costed them a semifinal spot here. And, John, it's a weird one because the ball is at the side of the pitch. He's going literally nowhere. So, I first thought Mbola had got his studs caught in the turf.

[00:16:35] But when I watched it several times, it doesn't even appear that. I mean, in this day and age, I know it's hard to be in his mind. Can you think of any reason why he did that? Yeah, I actually can. Because you've seen Argentina get away with a lot of things previous to this match, right? And you know when they're on the back foot, they will start to become a little bit more aggressive. Or far more aggressive and sometimes even over the limit. We saw the hand in the face last match, for example.

[00:17:04] We saw some awful tackles that didn't get punished. So, the first thing you've got to do when you play on your T9 and you're on the good, you are looking good. You've got to make sure they tilt as well. So, the moment you feel a touch, you just dive and you scream out the top of your lungs. Just make sure the referee thinks it's a very hard fall. And hopefully, they will interfere. If they don't interfere, you know what you're up against. If they interfere, you know you're very good suddenly. You're in a very good spot.

[00:17:33] And that's basically what he tried here. Go to the sideline. Make sure the other one gets the yellow card. And if that happens, suddenly you're in such a sweet spot to take this match home. Unfortunately, he did it so poorly that if you look at the replay which Javard showed mistaken identity. I love the way they say like, you're just cheating mate. Or we call it mistaken identity. You see him not even looking back.

[00:17:59] He pushes his arms forward first and then falling over just to make sure. So, he was already intended to do that. I think. Get a free kick there. Get a yellow card to the opponent. Make sure you can save a little bit of time. Such poor execution. And you're already on the yellow card and it just cost you the match. I think this is... Definitely. But again, big players, Jon, produce it in big moments. So, Julian Alvarez delivers again. You know, his goal. Brilliant. Yeah.

[00:18:28] It broke Switzerland's resistance before Argentina finished the job off into... I mean, there has been some stunning goals. But that is just a moment of genuine class, isn't it? Yeah. This one and the goal from the Norwegian player. I forgot his name, which I should check prior. But both goals were stunning. But to do it on a moment like this. Yeah. It shows tenacity, right? And I think... I applaud him for it. I mean, a wonderful goal.

[00:18:58] Yes, it didn't go to penalties. But I think at that point of time, Swiss didn't deserve it anymore. Right after the red card happened, Argentina just went full possession. Switzerland stopped playing at all. They just dropped back, moved everything forward. There was no play left. There was no leave left. And therefore, I don't think it wasn't that hard for Argentina to push through. And Kobo actually saved two good saves before the match ended. The El State would have finished it in 90 minutes as well, I think. So... No, definitely.

[00:19:26] Well, John, that's the review of the two matches. We go on to our baller, bottler and drama of the day. So, baller of the day, I think has to go to Jude Bellingham. You know, another complete midfield masterclass. He carries England through difficult moments. Led by example, and once again, proved why he's one of the best footballers in the world. From your point of view, do you think that's a well-deserved award? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, I won't get any arguments from me there.

[00:19:55] Mm-hmm. This one, though, you may disagree with me, and it may be a little bit harsh, but... I never disagree with you, Chris. It would make for poor shows if you didn't disagree with me. This one, you are a fully paid up member of the goalkeeper union, but the bottle of the day has to go to the Norwegian goalkeeper. You know, an absolute nightmare. Extend for 119 minutes, then chooses the worst possible moment to completely lose his composure. You know, a routine save turns into a gift for England. And just like that, Norway's World Cup dreams is over.

[00:20:26] Years of hard work, heroic team performance, a chance of history. Is it all thrown away by one horrendous mistake? I just wanted to ask you a question, John, from a goalkeeper's point of view. Is it tiredness? We've seen it with Lamins as well in the previous game. What's causing this bounce back? Stress. It's just stress. Nyland has had a terrific tournament. Mm-hmm. Absolutely fantastic.

[00:20:51] And he's one of the reasons next to Nyland and the other guy, I think that they are here where they were. Right? Mm-hmm. So, can't do anything better at that. And this match, it's just, it's probably nerves. It's inexperienced. Don't forget, Nyland isn't, I forgot where he played honestly, but I don't think he plays at a top tier, right? Somewhere in Spain? I should have checked that prior to that. But, like, Lamers plays at United. Should have had more.

[00:21:21] And I think this is goalkeeper fate, right? You mess up once and it's over. You're the team's last resort. Yeah. And if you feel it sucks really hard. I don't think anyone at the team actually blames him too much. Cause I think what, um, it's like this is a, Norway is a team that actually feels like a family, like a team. Right? Mm-hmm.

[00:21:48] So I don't think anyone blames, uh, so a lot more, like for more than one minute after that, what happened. And I don't think anyone blames, uh, Nyland for this, what happened. It is unfortunate to say the least. Um, but like I said, in this case, yes, I do agree. It's the ball, it is, uh, the ball of the day, right? Cause it is a plain mistake. Mm-hmm. And that should be called cause that's where the topic's for. But on the other hand, they would have kept it there anyway, mate. I don't think they lasted.

[00:22:18] The team. Yeah. I'm not meaning. I'm trying not to be too harsh on the guy cause they're a great tournament. You know, you've seen it in the 2002 World Cup. Orva Kahn in the final. Fluff's an easy chance. It lands to, it lands to Ronaldo. Who puts it in the back of net? Two nothing. You know, one nothing. And then, you know, Brazil going to win two nothing. I'm just wondering from a, the goalkeeper mechanics, you know, he's had some outstanding saves.

[00:22:46] Where does it, is it just, as you say, stress or just a moment of concentration for, you know, we can understand for Lamont's just on the park. Maybe that's what happened there. But, you know, from a goalkeeper point of view, is it just one of these things? Just bad luck? Yeah, I think it all, like, it happens to everyone. We see the young sometimes miss a touch. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That usually doesn't have too much effect. Yeah. It tries a hundred times, 99 times it works.

[00:23:14] We see goalkeepers taking balls blindly like this 100 times. Yeah. But it happens in one or a hundred times that it doesn't happen. And then it happens in the last minute of a semi, of a quarterfinal. Yeah. I think that has nothing to do with quality. I don't think it has anything to focus. I think it's a bit of bad luck. It's also a little bit of experience, I think. I mean, the more you deal with the less, it will never happen to Coutois.

[00:23:45] Yeah. It will never happen to Donnarumma. But it will happen to any goalkeeper below there, which is on the main stage. There's 70,000 people watching the stadium. There's, I don't even know, maybe 300 million people watching. Yeah. From home. And you know what? You can make it, there's so much pressure on you. You can make it like, you can make a mistake. I think that only the top ones don't.

[00:24:14] And even they do sometimes, but not at the critical moments, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It just happens. I think there's definitely been a difference between excellent goalkeepers, good goalkeepers and average goalkeepers this tournament. Yeah. No, I... Nyland is just a good goalkeeper, but he's not. Not the end of B-O goalkeeper. Mm-hmm. That was, for example, if you look at Martinez, mate, he won't ever do this. You know? Mm-hmm. Because once he's unsure, he knows I'll just hoof the ball on the side and just stomp it away.

[00:24:44] You see that Le Courtois as well. Like second half in Belgium, they were getting a little bit more nervous. And the first shot they take, he could probably just took it, just saved it, got it cleared. But what he did, he just pushed his fist, bind it, and the ball ends up in a half, a halfway line. Yeah. After a shot. So they just don't take the risks. I think that's just the main difference. If you're on, they know when I'm getting uncertain, this is what I do. It doesn't look fancy, but it doesn't end up poorly either. I've seen it twice now.

[00:25:13] And I think this tournament, I don't even know if there's a power rate ranking for goalkeepers. I haven't checked to be fair. But yeah, I mean, the Magnons, the Courtois, Martinez, probably one of the best, right? Mm-hmm. But you see, you could see with Joe Hart as well, for example. Or Joe Hart, sorry. Joe Beckford. Beckford. I think you could see it there as well. Well, Hart was talking about it, so that's why I started at least. Yeah.

[00:25:41] But you see with Pickford as well, he can be tremendous one match and then fumble a rather simple ball. Yeah. That means because he's just not elite tier goalkeeper, with all due respect. No, no. To be fair, I think he's got away with one as well, because I think he made a mistake for the Norwegian first goal, because he looks like to put his hand up and then he pulls it away, because I think he thinks the ball's going over the bar. He's not taking the opportunity.

[00:26:08] And then in the second half, you've seen him making sure, didn't he, when he pushed the ball over the bar. Then he was unsure and then he takes no risk. Yeah. And I think that's what differentiates him. And that, like, he messed up once, he sort of knows it, maybe not so clearly as Nylon did. And then afterward, he doesn't make mistakes. People complain about him giving away those corners though. Mm-hmm. But if one more just drops in accidentally because your goalkeeper isn't sure you're done. So, yeah, I think this is the better of the two options.

[00:26:38] No, I don't think so. Coming back to your question. Yeah. He's the baller of the day. It happens because of inexperience, but also I think pressure. And sometimes it just happens, unfortunately. Definitely. Oh, definitely. And we don't mean to dig him out. We do apologize. He is 35 and I just had a quick look, John. He was playing for Sevilla and he's left him on a, his contract has expired. I think he'll find a club fairly easily. He's had a really good tournament and it was more the, it was more the psychology of

[00:27:07] the goalkeeper as opposed to digging him out about it. But drama of the day, my favorite subject in the whole wide world, VAR. The referee decisions, the endless debates online. This wasn't just a football match. It became the tournament's biggest talking point. You know, we expect fans to be arguing about this one for years. VAR, John, take it away, please. What do you want me to say about it so we can still do in two minutes, mate?

[00:27:37] I think the implementation in this tournament has been above par. Mm-hmm. Uh, I wouldn't say it's a hole in one, but it's definitely an eagle, right? Yeah. Um, all decisions are accountable for. You can agree with everything, basically what happened. You can say it wouldn't happen before maybe, but I don't think there's been a bad call. And I think VAR is crucial if we want to have referees be truly objectively.

[00:28:07] And I think VAR is crucial. And to be fair, I said this could be trouble. I think a France referee at an Argentina match and an Argentina match referee at a France match, but they're both been excellent. Mm-hmm. Um, I have very bad, um, experience with the referee, with the France referee. I wouldn't, I won't name it because I don't, I don't think that's fair.

[00:28:30] Uh, because he, uh, blew some massive, some, absolutely horrific matches with Feyenoord and Roma before. Uh, absolutely. Or if you, if you just Google the name, you'll probably see those examples pop up how, how absolutely poor he was. But yesterday and with France as well, those guys were excellent. VR implementation were excellent. All decisions like, yes, football is in motion.

[00:28:57] You could say, I normally this wouldn't be a penalty or whatever, but the Haaland goal rule of the, um, uh, name you another one. The penalty. The red card from Switzerland, the penalty. Yeah. All fair. Yes. Uh, it takes a minute to decide, but it didn't take more than one minute either on all those calls. Yeah. I quite, I like it. I know, I know some of the implementation internationally has been poor. Mm-hmm.

[00:29:25] And I made a joke about it this morning, but I think on this tournament, it shows if you have big screens in your stadium, which also that Los Angeles has 100 meters of screens on the deck, but then, and you have the referee call it out like this. And the calls are fast. You have three VR sitting there. Yeah. Perfect implementation. I like it. Yeah. No, look, John, it's hard to argue when you make such good points, mate. So I will not even attempt to do it.

[00:29:54] We're coming to the end of the show. Just very quickly. One final thing. We moved to Atlanta now for this, for England versus Argentina. It is an air conditioned stadium. So do you think we'll see a game, a sort of faster pace game than we have seen in the last few matches? No. I think Norway versus England was a really poor hot match. Mm-hmm. So I can understand why the pace was low. It was really, really, really low though. Mm-hmm. Especially the first half.

[00:30:25] So, yes, it does actually influence the performances and the ability to speed up the game. Atlanta's air conditioning, which, well, should get rid of hydration break, but let it not get there. It should add for more pace. But I have not seen Argentina play a high-paced match unless they are behind and have five minutes left to go. Mm-hmm. And I have not seen England build up much pace either, except when Jude gets the ball on his feet and he can dribble.

[00:30:54] So, I think these teams are inherently not fast-paced teams with the ball on the feet. So, I doubt that will be changing much. Mm-hmm. No, definitely. Well, mate, a great show as always. It's been absolutely wonderful to have you on. You know, you always have made great points and it's always very analytical. I'm sure our listeners really appreciate it. And if they do, please leave us a five-star review. Tell us how much you enjoy it.

[00:31:23] I would say send John messages, but he seems to be getting loads from Argentinian women. Yeah, stop that, because it's getting ridiculous at home now. Yeah, no. So, from that point of view, his inbox is now chock full of Argentinian women sending him loads of pictures. We'll leave it quickly at that point. But the guys will be back, I'm sure, tomorrow. The games, we now are delayed, not delayed, but there's now a break for a couple of days. So, the guys will come back with some interesting points and analysis.

[00:31:51] And I'm sure they're going to review and preview, sorry, the games coming up. But John, thank you so much, mate. And we'll have topics, right? We're not going away since there's no games. Mm-hmm. So, we'll review the tournament. We'll talk about some highlights. We preview some of the games that's coming up. So, even if there's no game, we'll still be here. Because you said this is episode 41 for this World Cup. That's 41 days in a row we're making content. Most podcasts don't make it past seven episodes, just putting it out there. And we did 41 in 41 days so far.

[00:32:21] So, we have eight more days to go, I think. Yeah. Eight more days to go. So, we'll end up with episode 49. We should probably do an episode 50 to round things up, though. Yeah, definitely. I mean, there is what? There is four matches, but three that matter. Let's be honest. You know, the game on Saturday, third and fourth place is a chance for players maybe to come in, play the tournament they've not played. So, you know, we shake our head at it. But to be third place in the world or even fourth place in the world is absolutely amazing, really, isn't it?

[00:32:51] Yeah, I've seen Netherlands play Brazil, of course, for the third or fourth place. And that match was like, I don't actually care. I don't actually care. Two hours prior to the match, like, oh, maybe this could be cool to play this Brazil. And they both went in full on and it was an amazing match to watch. So, in the end, these matches are always still good. It's like a send-off party. On paper, I don't care too much, though. Yeah. But guys, the guys are back. Keep listening.

[00:33:21] We really appreciate all our listeners out there. And again, if you can, leave us a five-star review. But thank you so much, John. Really appreciate you coming on a Sunday morning. Take care, mate. See ya. Bye-bye. Bye, everybody.