Canada's 92nd-Minute Late Volley 🇨🇦🇿🇦 | World Cup Daily #28

[00:00:00] The Round of 32 has started and it started with just one match South Africa versus Canada. And this was so, so, so amazing that we're going to spend the whole podcast and not really talking about this. This is FUT IN REVIEW. Welcome back everyone to FUT IN REVIEW episode 28.

[00:00:28] We have started the Round of 32, which took me a couple of hours to realize that it's an extra round, but that's up to me. My name is Julian Albi, host today, and I'm joined by none other than Mr. Nathan Downs, making his debut with me on this World Cup Series. Welcome back, Nate. Hey, Julian. Thanks for having us back. It's been a while since we kicked off the early shows with Shaq.

[00:00:54] So, I was going to say it's exciting to get into, but for anybody that watched the South Africa-Canada game last night, I'm not sure. Exciting is the word that comes to mind. Yeah, we'll discuss that, but it's good to have you back, my friend. So, in the next 25 minutes or so, we'll be discussing the South African match versus Canada. Of course, not played in Canada. We'll take a look into the matches that are up tonight. That's Brazil versus Japan, Germany versus Paraguay and Netherlands versus Morocco.

[00:01:24] And I want to know what your highlights are for this World Cup so far. And, of course, what's your biggest disappointment? But let's start with the match that played yesterday. Nathan, this was, for me, a very big difference watching six matches in a night to, hey, there's just one tonight. Yeah, I kind of got withdrawals from all the games. It was quite nice to be able to go to sleep at a normal time, though. So, I very rarely made the two, three o'clock in the morning games UK time.

[00:01:52] But it was all right to be able to focus on the game. The game itself kind of made me want in another game of football to kind of wipe that memory from me. So, yeah, interesting. Yeah, I know normally we would summarize this match. But if I summarize like this, let me know if I'm close. And there's no script here, so I might be totally wrong. But we had two teams that actually didn't want to lose. We had South Africa who had the ball most of the game.

[00:02:18] And we had Canada that showed that they had a little bit better players and were waiting for counters. If you remember the match Austria versus, was it again? I forgot. It's that bad, actually. The match that just had 20 minutes of people playing the ball around. This felt sort of similar. And so much so that this whole stadium were whistling and booing the goalkeeper from South Africa for just having the ball at this stage.

[00:02:47] It ended up on for Canada. But, Nate, what can we say about this match? Am I that far off? No, I mean, I kind of had similar in my head. I was going to sum up by two teams that didn't want to lose. But Canada wanted to lose a little bit less and wanted to try and score. I mean, the game was pretty dire. I mean, I watched the game. I went on and watched the highlights this morning. And it's quite telling where most of the highlights are. South Africa kind of going into the Canada half, turning back, trying to recycle, but not really with any purpose.

[00:03:16] Canada, I think Canada had more intent throughout. Canada looks like, you know, when they got into the final third, they actually at least took a shot or tried to get into the box. Whereas I think South Africa kind of just looked like they were very well organized, to be fair. They were almost too rigid. They were too safe. They were a bit scared. It would have been interesting to see how Canada would have played if they'd actually done this in Canada, like they were kind of expecting to until the last game.

[00:03:43] But yeah, I just thought overall, two fairly poor teams. Canada changed a little bit when Davies came on. I thought there was a little bit more oomph about them. Yeah, a little bit more attack and impotent. But I just think that South Africa showed that they were very limited and they were playing for penalties, I think. I think they were trying to take their chances rather than Canada had a little bit more of the pressure, I think, because they do have the better players. Although it wasn't in Canada, they still obviously had quite a large following and the neutrals clearly sided with Canada.

[00:04:12] Yeah, they had no intent to actually press the goalkeeper. So they clearly had, South Africa was, I think, aiming for penalties or at least be stable and build up. Because there's room in behind from Canada defence. So what they did, they gave the goalkeeper the ball and just waited for them to come out. Except they never came out. So the goalkeeper just had the ball and just kept left, right, left, right. Like that song you love, I know. Yeah, yeah. I mean, to be fair, I can see why Canada would do that. Because South Africa have a habit of trying to play out from the back.

[00:04:42] And we saw in their opening game where they tried to play out and their players aren't good enough to play out. So they played it to Siddholy, who I always mistake his name for a swear word, which I'll not say on here. But they always try and play out. And then that's when you press. But South Africa mixed it up. And instead of trying to play out from the back, you'd see the keeper go along quite a lot. And to be fair, Canada dealt with that fairly comfortably. It was like the two game plans just cancelled each other out. There was very little excitement.

[00:05:09] There was a few moments in there, which I'm sure will come on when we go to the disappointments and the moments. But, yeah, I just thought it was one of these games that if it never happened, I wouldn't have been really upset about. It wasn't a great opener for the round of 32. Sometimes you think, oh, now we're into knockouts. We're going to get gung-ho. Teams are going to go for it. And this was very much safety first. And to be honest, it was on 8 o'clock. I was nearly asleep by quarter past 8.

[00:05:38] Anyway, I thought it was pretty terrible. But, yeah, let's hope it's a sign that there's better things to come. It must be. And I get both teams in this situation. I mean, sometimes it just is what it is, right? I think if Canada would have played in Canada, they would have been more attacking. We've got a more open match. I don't blame South Africa or anything. And they had some chances as well, actually. In the end, I think this was a fair representation of this match.

[00:06:04] But you have to be a real football lover or a fan of one of those two teams to find this one. A very interesting match. Because it's also, nothing changed tactically during the match. So they kept playing the same style all the way. And I was talking to a friend who were looking at this. I was like, if this game goes into extra time and penalties, I won't be able to make that. I would fall asleep.

[00:06:30] But we celebrated the goal, not because we're a fan of Canada or a fan of South Africa, but just because we didn't get an extra 45 minutes added to it. Yeah, exactly. I mean, to be fair, the winning goal came very late. But it was one of the very few moments of quality. I thought it was a really good strike from, what, 20 yards out? I thought the guy took it well. You can see how much it meant to them.

[00:06:54] So it's quite telling when you could probably count on one hand the amount of quality demonstrated by players in that game. And one of them came in a 90-second minute with, like I say, a lovely dip in sort of volley. I mean, one of the things that I did notice through the game, I don't know, I mean, you're a goalkeeper, John, so you'll possibly pick this up. But the goalkeepers are having real struggles holding on to the ball. I know on the UK coverage, Joe Hart's done a lot about how this ball moves.

[00:07:22] But every time there was a shot, the keepers looked like they were kind of almost scared of the ball. They were stiffening up. The ball was kind of, even ones that you thought were fairly straightforward saves, they were getting pushed straight back out. I thought that was quite, that was one of the more interesting bits of the game is just watching how the goalkeepers react. But I don't know whether that's just me being a bit tunnel vision because I've obviously got the goalkeeping side of things. Well, it really stood out that the Canadian goalkeeper, which name I forgot to remind almost, often let go of the ball when they did.

[00:07:52] I don't necessarily think it's the ball. I mean, we have one here, we've been training with the balls as well, right? I think if you hit this ball hard, it goes really fast. I think that's the difference. But not holding the ball, I think, we've not seen Courtois make a mistake. And we've seen other goalkeepers holding on to the balls as well. So I'm not sure if it's really a ball thing, or is it just like none of the goalkeepers want to take any risks, so they just go in with their fists clenched? Could that be it? Possibly.

[00:08:23] Possibly. There was a few of them that I just thought, if you're a goalkeeper at the World Cup, knees get held. Do you know what I mean? So yeah, you're right. When it gets hit, we've seen plenty of goals go past goalkeepers in this World Cup that you're thinking normally they would be there. It's almost like they either react too late at the balls on top of them. So that was quite a good analysis from Joe Hart, I have to say. I know the Rangers fans in our contingent will probably be hating this because he's an ex-Celtic goalkeeper, but I mean, that shows what this game's like when we're talking about the actual football

[00:08:53] rather than the quality on the pitch. No, I agree. I think it did stand out, but that goal they scored, I think, was unsavable. Well, it's cool to have Canada go through, but I mean, same for me, South Africa, to be quite honest. Just, you know, I'm a big fan of jerseys. I love the South African, the bright yellow with green, it's just brilliant. But what Canada wore yesterday, those black outfits with a little bit of white in it,

[00:09:23] really cool as well. Just saying, it's not a bad World Cup for jerseys. No, that was looking really good. And again, it's another thing that we're like, what can we talk about the game? We'll go into the jerseys. The jerseys. Well, we could say the stadium was full again. I said prior to the World Cup that I didn't think those tickets weren't going up for much, right? We're going up for way too much, and I was like, there's not going to be sold out. But I think they've got like 99.8% of the tickets sold.

[00:09:53] So yeah, apparently I was wrong. You can overprice these tickets and still get sold. Yeah. Although on our coverage, it did say there was plenty of empty seats around as well. Yeah, but it was sold out. So I don't know how that works. No, I don't know. Unless they just gave them all to the sponsors, which there seems to be many of in this tournament. That is definitely, definitely true. Peyton, let's dive into, because we're only at one match, who was your baller of the day?

[00:10:23] Who was your standard player? So my baller of the day is going to be controversial. I said baller, baller, baller. Let's go baller. Oh, baller. I thought you said baller of the day. Let's start with good news first. I mean, it's also very hard to pick out anybody from this game as a bit of a standout. I've got a soft spot for a player that was actually substituted. Buchanan. I do like Buchanan, but I think you've kind of got to give it to the goal scorer himself, Istakio. He takes a set of pieces,

[00:10:51] but the volley, they saw a clutch moment, 92nd minute. We're all crying for somebody to score. Comes onto it, makes himself a bit of a hero. If they go out again, if they go out in the next round against either Holland or Morocco, like that moment, I think that moment would be one of those that the Canadians, and to be fair, world football, like remember, because it was such a big moment for Canada, who up until this World Cup, I believe, have never got a point in the World Cup.

[00:11:21] Is that right? So, yeah, I think that's probably got to be go down as your baller, just for that one moment of quality. Yeah, so I agree. What we could also say is, so I think Istakio, Istakio, do I say it? Istakio, he gets the baller of the day, but it could also go to Alphonso Davies, because when he came in, Canada suddenly had a lot more energy, crowd with nuts, and you see what a difference one left back can make, actually. Yeah, no, you're right,

[00:11:50] even though he does play more advanced for Canada, I think, I think he came on left mid, didn't he? Sort of drive him forward, but you're right. They play a standard 4-4-2, by the way, which is also, as an analyst, weird to see. Lovely to see. Love a bit of 4-4-2, get it to the wide men, punt it in the box, let's get ahead on it. Come on, that's how football should be played. Well, let's not go there, but it's, it's, it's different to see a flat 4-4-2 in a World Cup, let's put it like this. Yeah, no, that was a good show. But I think you're right, he played left midfield, yes.

[00:12:20] Yeah, and you're right, somebody of that quality, he's obviously got a good pedigree being at Bayern for so long, and he's been struggling with injuries for the last season or so, hasn't he? So, you can see, it's one of these though, it's quite frustrating, because you can see why they were trying to protect him, but also you're in the round of 32, if you're fit enough, you should be playing. So, it'll be interesting to see how fit he actually is, because I wouldn't be wanting to be the Canadian manager and go out with even a 75% fit Fuzzy Davies

[00:12:48] not playing type thing. So, there's big decisions to be made going forward now. Definitely. All right, the bottler of the day, your favourite topic. Definitely the bottler, yeah. So, so this one's going to be controversial, but I'm going to give it to the referee. There was a moment at the end of the first half where, in my opinion, there was a penalty that should have been given to Canada. He didn't give it. We've seen the referee in the Scotland-Brazil game

[00:13:17] give a foul for something similar. It's just, yeah, I don't know. For those of you that didn't see it, the Canadian boy was through, got closed down by two players, the tackle kind of, tackle came in as he was shooting. So, the player was swinging foot connected with the back of the defender. They said on the commentary anyway, it was because they got a touch on the ball. But when you watch the touch of the ball, it literally diverted at millimetres. It wasn't like he cleared the ball and then the guy kicked him. It was nudged it a little bit. I think it was a bottle

[00:13:47] because if I'm a striker and my sort of, my momentum is taking me that I'm swinging my foot for the shot. You can't just stick yourself in the way of that shot after I already commenced the action. That's a foul in my eyes. So, it'd be interesting to hear you. Well, apparently you can. I mean, but then I'm sort of, I'm sort of contradicting myself because I'm actually really enjoying the fact that the referees are giving so much more go. I love the physical aspect of it. But, I don't understand how that can't be a penalty when you're, like, he wasn't there.

[00:14:16] You start your kick in action. You try and kick through. He then just sort of injects himself into the situation. You kick the back of him. Like, that's a foul. That's obstruction. I don't know what you're... The Brazil match when Vinny Jr. did it, his second goal against Scotland, right? Yeah. Sorry to bring that up. But I'm, I am, just to make sure everyone's aligned with me, I am drinking my coffee out of a Scotland mug tonight, today. So, just a little bit of sympathy there, right? But, at Brazil versus Scotland,

[00:14:47] Vinny, when Henry missed it, Henry, Henry, he messed up and he gave the ball to Vinny. When he shot, apparently, this is the same situation and Vinny's goal got disallowed for it. So, it's the lack of, how do you say it? It's not, the lack of the same consequences. I think that's what bothers me in this one. One match, it's a penalty or free kick. Vinny's goals get disallowed. This time,

[00:15:16] it's exactly the same and there's nothing. Yeah, absolutely. So, which one is his goal? I mean, I would say that Vinny was, I've obviously lived in Scotland, count myself as Scottish even though I'm technically not but, I thought that was harsh on Vinny. I generally thought that should have been a goal. I think that Scotland's, I mean, it's been touched on before but Scotland's amateurish defending in that game would have cost them. I just, I don't understand how it's not a foul. Like, if you, if you do that, it's a foul.

[00:15:46] You can't just interject yourself in front of the player and their action. So, it's impeding them, it's obstructing them. So, yeah, I think the referee kind of bottled that but maybe it's a directive they've been given, who knows? But I just, before this World Cup, squinted it then, right? Yeah, yeah. That's the, that's the main issue. Before this World Cup, that was, that would be 100 out of 100 would be a penalty. So, it's just strange that it's changed. Definitely. And what about the drama? Well, the drama,

[00:16:15] we can't really get away from that last minute goal. I think the fact that it meant so much, it was a match winning goal, it was a little bit of quality from a game lacking severely in it. And obviously, any goal in entry time to send your team to the next round of the World Cup is massive drama. So, we've got to go with that, I think. 100% agree. This time, it's more than half it through the show, so it's time for a little hydration break. I'll be drinking coffee from this cottage mug and in the meanwhile, here's a little commercial break. I mean, hydration break for you. Because,

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[00:17:14] foot in review. And that includes our socials at foot in review on Instagram and at foot in review podcast on TikTok. And if you're saying, hey, it was a little bit way over the past two days, that is absolutely true because I forgot to do my duties there. But I will be better, I promise. Back to our predictions for tonight's matches, Nate, because yesterday we had one match, tonight we have three matches. And I want to know, not in too much detail, but I want to know who wins

[00:17:44] and I want to know why you think that. So two out of the three games I think are actually really hard to call. Brazil, Japan is the first one, six o'clock UK time. This could go either way. I think Brazil will do it, but at the same time, I had Japan to be dark horses. So this is one I'm going to get splinters on my backside and sit on the fence because I literally have no idea how this could go because they're two very good teams. both of them have

[00:18:14] capabilities of upsetting the other. So I generally cannot call Brazil, Japan. If you had to say, like gun to my head, I'd say Brazil just because it's World Cup Brazil and the Angelotti factor. But John, I don't know what you think about that one. Honestly, I'm going to sit with that on the fence with you. It's going to be a 50-50 match. I'm going to say Japan because I'm very confident in the team and I have been critical at the Brazil performances so far. Wouldn't it be fair for me to go the

[00:18:44] other way up now? So I'll say Japan will go through, but I'm also saying this is going to be a firework of a match. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The next game, Germany against Paraguay at 9.30 UK time. This one has German win all over and I'd be expecting a fairly convincing German win. Paraguay got through on four points from one of the easier games, easier rounds, but they got absolutely battered by USA, although that was USA's first game in USA,

[00:19:14] so there could have been a lot to it. Second one, they snuck past Turkey 1-0 and the third game they drew 0-0 with Australia who, Shaq, close your ears just now, but they're not a great side. So I think I can't see anything other than a fairly convincing Germany win. Yeah, I don't think it's going to be fairly convincing. I think the match against USA was an outlier. Normally, this Paraguay team hardly concedes any goals, which they've shown the next two matches as well. I do think Germany will get it, but it's going to be like a 1-0 match,

[00:19:44] I think. Well, this will be interesting to realize because I think it will sort of be 3-0 or so. Yeah, I don't, like, yeah, Germany will go through, but I don't think it's going to be like a walk-over. It's going to be a football fight. We've seen Germany not perform that well over the last two matches either, right? Yeah. 2-1 last minute win and a draw, I think as well. With a reserve squad, so there's nothing to be said. Well, Germany goes through. Well, they lost to Ecuador in the last one, 2-1. They beat Ivory Coast,

[00:20:14] 2-1, and they beat Curacao. Yeah, so, I mean, Curacao, you can win 7-1 and they did, but then the second match they were really lucky to come back through with Unders scoring twice. The third match put in a reserve squad had nothing to tell there, so. You don't know how it works with the reserve squad in the last match. We'll be talking about Norway this week as well. who did exactly the same when they played tomorrow. I don't know if you can say, well, we're all rested, but you did get bad at the last match. I don't know how that goes mentally. It's going to be hard. Yeah.

[00:20:43] It's the fascinating sort of parts of this. The final game is one I'm sure is close to your heart, boss man. It's Netherlands versus Morocco, so it's 2 o'clock our time, so 3 o'clock your time. So, yeah, you're going to have to figure out whether you're going to power through having that first. Again, I know you'll be saying, Holland, I think this is another one that's incredibly difficult to predict. I probably would go on form of the Netherlands. I think Morocco

[00:21:12] were outstanding against Brazil in the first game. The Scotland-Morocco game was pretty dire in all honesty. Morocco scored in the first 30 seconds or whatever it was. Had a few chances, but at the same time I wasn't blown away by them. But Morocco are a very good team. They're quite organized, hard to beat. They've got some very good individuals. Again, I can't really predict this. I personally would love to see Morocco go through and that is for one reason only, John, and that is because

[00:21:41] your flipping dance song is stuck in my head 24-7. I'm constantly going left and going right, dancing around corridors and everything else. So, the sooner they're out of the tournament for me, the better. You're having too much fun for the Netherlands to progress. This is nice. Yeah, absolutely. So, either result, this is one of those games that I actually wouldn't be upset either way. I would love, I'd also prefer Morocco because they don't have Van Dijk. I'm not a big Van Dijk fan. So, if he goes home, then I'm quite happy.

[00:22:10] I mean, I would ask you what your predictions are, but I think you'd probably say 13-0 to Netherlands. Nah, this is about 50 matches to come. I think this could be even closer than Brazil to Japan. We're talking about the number six in the world versus number seven in the world currently. And they'll probably switch places with whoever wins this one. Morocco are, you can say what you want about them, but they won the African Cup. Do I agree with that? Not besides the points, but they did get it, be it four months later. But they still were in the final. I think they got a little bit lucky there,

[00:22:40] but that team is really good. But the thing is, I'm going to, this is going to be one spectacular match because we've seen Netherlands conceding every single match since November, at least once. usually from set pieces. But we also see Netherlands score always at least two. And I think Morocco is sort of a similar team. So, I'm expecting, my prediction is saying three versus two to the Netherlands, but it could easily be two, three as well, right?

[00:23:10] This is one of those matches could go anyway. I think there's going to be fireworks. There's going to be a tactical battle from either one of those teams because Hakimi is going to just jump forward on the right side while the Netherlands has Dumfries going jumping forward on the right side. We'll probably have Van de Ven stuck on them or Hakimi just walking around with him. And it's going to be a tactical seat if Hapko, which we have to condolence of course as well, if Hapko is actually going to be able to run with Hakimi

[00:23:39] or just staying forward to get the ball in. I think it's going to be a lot for counter plays and I think we're going to see lots of chances. Morocco is going to go all in. Nenem is going to play the counter game, I think. Wouldn't surprise me if they start five at the back to see what comes up. Plenty of options, plenty of tech. I think Nenem has a better midfield. Morocco midfield is good, but Nenem is way better. On paper, I think Nenem is defense a little bit better on attack. We've seen how much damage Morocco can do. I think Sabari is one of those

[00:24:10] untapped talents which we'll see performing by next year as well. Yeah, this could mean everything. My approach though is going to be I'm going to watch the Japan versus Brazil match and I'm going to go to bed. Then I'm setting an alarm for like 2.55. Then start that match. Then watch the Germany match. Then take a nap. Then record a podcast. Something like that. That sounds good. That sounds good. I mean the one thing, I'm going to jinx this now, but I think we're going to see all

[00:24:40] three games here won't be as poor a quality as the South Africa-Canada game last night. I think we've got too many teams with very good players and very good sort of attacking intent in their line-up. So I think these three tonight should hopefully be a lot more entertaining, a lot more action-packed and fun-filled. Yeah, I agree. Nathan, thank you very much, my friend. We'll see tonight what happens. And well, don't forget to buy me that coffee because we're definitely going to be needing that. See you tomorrow.

[00:25:09] Bye-bye. ...