Scotland Win After 36 Years & Australia Shock Turkey! 🏴‍󠁧‍󠁢‍󠁳‍󠁣‍󠁴‍󠁿🇦🇺 | World Cup Daily #13

[00:00:00] Scotland won last night, 1-0, John McGinn, 28th minute. Boston was rocking, but Scotland won in 1974, gone. Won in 1982, gone. Won in 1990, gone. Is one win going to be enough? Morocco is next.

[00:00:24] Welcome back to Foot in Review, World Cup Daily episode 13. And not unlucky for a lot of us actually, Day 3 is done. I'm joined by my very good friend Shaq, who is beaming at the moment. Four matches yesterday, Scotland won, Brazil drew, Australia shocked everyone, and Switzerland managed to dominate again for 94 minutes and still only got one point. Day 3 had everything. And for our Patreon support, thank you so much for all your support.

[00:00:54] But this show will be in your feed almost immediately. Prediction League is live, link in the show notes. Let's get into it. But my good friend Shaq, how are you this morning or evening? I am having a great day. It's been a great day. I think it was fun watching Scotland get over the line. I was excited for all my Scottish buddies. I was really excited for you guys. And it was fun to see you guys go through the pain that I go through every single time. Most of you were awake at 2 o'clock when I didn't watch your game. That's me every World Cup.

[00:01:22] Yeah, I was glad to see you guys awake and it was wonderful. We will dissect the game in times, but essentially you guys won. My team won. What a day. What a day. This is all... This is brilliant. Exactly. It's a Smellian Podcast and I have the Foot and Review Scottish Teddy here. He was celebrating with me early in the morning as well. But as you say, I think the World Cup has truly started today. That was my feeling. You know, feast of football, wasn't it? But let's get into the results then.

[00:01:51] So first of all, we had Switzerland versus Qatar. Game one for us, group B. And they ended 1-1. And Shaq, what are your thoughts on this game? Oh, this one was a basket case of a game where Switzerland just couldn't get through the second goal. They tried their best. They tried as much as they could. Just couldn't do it. And I think the last minute, almost pretty much the last minute equaliser from Qatar was completely against a runoff play. It just happened. And yeah, it's a shame that they just couldn't make it happen in the end.

[00:02:20] But yeah, this is football. Stuff like this happens all the time in football. No, definitely. I mean, I have to say, and I know John, our good Dutch friend, hates a cross. But that headed goal, that was spectacular, wasn't it? No one could save it. I think it was a Colbert in goal. So it's not like he was a bad keeper. But the shot was an unsavable header. It was brilliant. No, absolutely. I mean, Hukie's goal was tremendous. We had a penalty from Bolo.

[00:02:48] And I may have read this wrong and forgive me, but I believe VAR didn't work for the penalty. Is that correct? Oh, I didn't pick up on this. I didn't pick up on this at all. Yeah, because it looks like that the defender is Fruillier was brought down. Yeah, Fruillier was brought down. And it looks like he is offside. And I've had a quick scan through X to see what it was about. And I think they're saying that the VAR was down at that point.

[00:03:14] Because when we get to Scotland game, VAR showed Shea Adams being onside. So, yeah, I think Qatar may feel a little hard done by. But yeah, the celebrations at the end is what football is about. And, you know, for Qatar, it's an amazing result, isn't it? Absolutely. Absolutely. I think it's good for them. It's really good for them. And keeps everything really interesting and engaged if storylines like that develop every game. It's fun for us. Yeah. And then the second game, Group C.

[00:03:42] So, Scotland's group started with, I think, possibly the second box office game of the tournament before tonight's game when the Netherlands versus Japan is Brazil-Morocco. Two top 10 teams, you know, playing really good football. And again, a 1-1 result, Shaq. What's your thoughts on that game? It was a brilliant game. I think the first half especially. I think the first half where Morocco just came out of the speed at which the game had and the fluidity of passing. I was very, very, very impressed with the Moroccan team.

[00:04:11] And it needed a lot from Brazil, like a wonder goal from Vinicius to actually come back. But it was Morocco all the way. There was an 18-year-old midfielder today. I forget his name, but he was a huge guy running across the pitch. 18-year-old guy with long hair. He dominated play today. Completely dominated play. It was fun to watch. Did you like the game? Yeah, I thought it was a really good game. I must admit, you can always tell when it's tense when you look at Angelou.

[00:04:38] He must have a jaw. He could bite through a coconut. His jaw goes that many times. It's unbelievable. You know, yeah. I mean, the Vinny goal is what you expect from one of the world's great players, isn't it? Oh, brilliant goal. It was, I think there was a defensive mistake from Hakimi and that led Vinny to be slightly against someone that shouldn't be in that position. But what a brilliant goal. You can't take that away from him. I think the midfield really surprised me.

[00:05:07] Casemiro and Bruno Guillares were terrible in midfield. It was really bad. And it was so bad that an 18-year-old was dominating them. And Casemiro had a yellow card and got taken away at halftime. I mean, looking at those two, I mean, they are one of the favorites, probably the big favorites that have actually played so far. There's still big teams to come. Do you see any of those two going as far as possible?

[00:05:34] Brazil, I think there's still a lot of things missing in this Brazilian team. They don't really have, I think, Iga Thiago had a really bad day. The midfield is really bad. So I don't really see, this is not the vintage Brazilian team. There's, I think, Rafinha and Vinny are the only two people, but it's really hard to make them play on either side of the pitch. So it's really hard for them to click together. Morocco is a team that I have a feeling, again, it could be one of those surprise teams that can pull themselves into maybe semis, quarterfinals at least. That'd be fun. And they were just terrific to watch. Really good to watch.

[00:06:04] Ah, good. And then, then we go to the big game, the big game for everybody. Well, actually, maybe it's the hors d'oeuvre for the big game just coming up. So what we've got is Scotland versus Haiti. No, this is not Italia 90. We are not listening to Pavarotti singing. Scotland have finally won after 36 years, a game in the World Cup final. And typical Scottish fashion, it was a scrappy goal, you know. So just how did you, did you watch the game as well, Shaq? I did. I did. I was watching every minute of the game.

[00:06:34] And I think it was, I was egging on for Scotland to actually score and it was a scrappy goal, but it just went in. It just, it just needed that special bit of magic for the ball to go in. And it did. And since I think I was expecting Scotland to do more after that, but I think they got slightly confused as to what to do from there on in. And Haiti was, they had a goal in them. They really felt like they had a goal in them. Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, for me, it's, you know, the Boston stadium was rocking.

[00:07:01] It felt like a true football match that many Scots been there as well. And I think it's a bit of Haiti heartbreak actually, because they played exceptionally well. They, I think they dominated the game, if you have to be honest about it. And truthfully sitting watching the game last night, I was thinking to myself, we draw this. We are not taking any points off Morocco and Brazil. You know, well, we started to show, we said, will one win be enough? A one nil win as well. I'm a little bit nervous. I'm being honest with you, Shaq.

[00:07:31] I think the good thing is because there's 48 teams and the way the qualifying happens, I think you guys will sneak through. And that's okay. That's good. That's really good. But, but there needs to be something that clicks into gear after this. We can't have the same performance again as the first game. It was pretty. Look, you got a win. You got the win. McDominay tried to do as much as he could. You actually got the win. And so we should be happy for that. But we just need to expect this team to do better in the next round. Even if it's against Morocco, try to find it more than just getting a result.

[00:08:00] Play better. You've got to, if you really want to progress, if you really care about progressing. No, you know, I'll be honest with you. If he parks the bus for 94 minutes or 96 minutes in these games now, and we get a no, no, we will be absolutely celebrating and delighted. And then we have a free hit against, I think, Brazil at that point. But I'm hosting today. But what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about, but I'm not going to talk about Australia versus Turkey. I'm going to just sit back and let my good friend, Shaq, wax lyrical about his team.

[00:08:29] Absolutely. I would love that. So with the game, I'm sure it was a blockbuster for us, because there was a huge expectation from this particular Australian team. And one of the things that came up just before, which I will talk about later on as well, we've had a complete change. Our captain and vice captain were removed. And there's no explanation as to why they were not playing today. There's no injury. And they put two players on the pitch. One was a goalkeeper who Matt Ryan, who plays in La Liga.

[00:08:57] We put a random goalkeeper in beach, had a brilliant game, brilliant game, had a great amount of saves. And the Australian team is, it can play a 0-0 game any day of the week. They're really good at defensively, the shape that they maintain. They know their roles really well. Any defensive aficionado, Italian football person would love the way the Australian team's currently playing.

[00:09:21] And then they have some bright sparks with Iran Kunda as well as, yeah, it was just, it was a brilliant performance. We had a great time watching this team. The first goal from a 20 year old, he's a sensation. He's just, he's just made us super happy. And along with that, we have, we had another belter from outside the box for the second goal. And Turkey tried their best to open the door, but they just kept, kept being stuck at the gates.

[00:09:44] Mm-hmm. I mean, I don't think it's, it might come a shock to some of our listeners, but Australia is not really a football nation, is it? No. Will this spark something in the nation, do you think? Hopefully. Look, at this point in time, I must say that there's a number of people that are supporting Australia in Vancouver at the World Cup that are spending huge amounts of money

[00:10:03] to actually get the tickets and go all the way there and support the team. The support is there. But for the amount of success, qualifying is something that Australians have taken for granted, but it's not something that used to happen in the past. It's really hard to qualify. Like, look at yourselves. When was the last time Scotland actually qualified for the World Cup? 1998. So it's a big thing to qualify. So I think a lot of Australians have taken that sort of as a rite of passage, but I'm hoping some good performances like today will spark.

[00:10:29] Like my kids just bouncing up and down after the game. They're just buzzing because it's just such a great feeling to actually be involved in the World Cup and have some connection with it. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it. No. And as you say, hopefully that goal with Akunda will spark something in the young Australians who want to, you know, and then we have the next batch of young Australian players coming through, isn't it?

[00:10:52] Exactly. There will be a brand new batch. So this particular batch is the young batch as well. So all the people on the pitch, the guys from Feyenoord, there's actually our left back boss plays for Feyenoord. And he was brilliant. Young fella. Akunda, 20 year old. We've got lots of young talent that actually plays really well. And that's all coming together. The old guard, which we had for the Tim Cahills of the time, they were brilliant. But this team has some dynamism.

[00:11:18] No, absolutely brilliant. So that's a real recap of the shows of some blockbuster games coming up tonight as well. You know, John's team, Nellans versus Japan. I think that is a blockbuster game and it's going to be one well worth watching. But as always, we're going to do our ballers. We're going to do our bottlers and we're going to do the drama as well. So first bottler of the day is John McGinn. 85 caps for Scotland.

[00:11:42] He's been through every qualifying campaign, every near miss, every heartbreak of the last decade. He was there when Scotland went to Euro 2020. He was there when he went to 24. Last night in Forksborough at the age of 30, he scored Scotland's first goal in the World Cup for 26 years. A deflected finish from inside the box. Not the prettiest goal you'll ever see, but the noise that followed it. But Boston literally shaken, told you everything about what the moment meant.

[00:12:10] You know, Liam McLeod said it perfectly, it's a country that's been on the outside looking for it in far too long. Denied access to the mother of all parties. And let's be honest, us Scots can party. So McGinn opened the door. Scotland are top of Group C. I'll say that again. Scotland are top of Group C. And the question though, the only question is whether one winner is going to be enough because Morocco is next. Shaq, do you think one win is going to be enough?

[00:12:54] I personally think, Chris, one goal should be enough, should be sufficient for Scotland to go through to the next round. And that's better than what you've done for the past 28 years. And that's better than you've done in a long time. So have you qualified from the Group stages ever in the World Cup? We have qualified as many times as the New Orleans have won the World Cup. An absolute zero. That was awesome. That was so good. That was so good. I have to get my good friend John back. Let me just explain that.

[00:13:23] I have to get my good friend John back because there is a bell that every time you get a five star review on the podcast, it goes off in my house and it has been ringing constantly keeping me up all night. So yeah. Yeah. So I'll let you continue my friend. That was so good. So I think this is, if you guys get through the group and qualify to the next round, that is progress. And I think that's probably what you should be expecting. And that's good. Good enough. I think that's good enough. Yeah. No, look, fingers crossed.

[00:13:49] I think it may take, I've had a look, I think three points and potentially a zero goal difference, but that would be impossible for us now because if we get beat at least once, then we're going to have a problem with a goal difference. So we need at least a draw, I think somewhere. But fingers crossed, you know what I mean? So fingers crossed. Here we go. But let's go to baller number two. And I think it's Nesteroy Erinkunda. You know, 19 years old, only plays for Watford in the championship. And last night he started a World Cup match against Turkey.

[00:14:18] One of the perennial dark horses, perennial dark horses on most tournaments. Yep. Yep. And a role specifically designed by Tony Popovich to exploit space behind Turkey's aggressive fullbacks. He ran at them. He was direct. He was fearless. And he scored in the 27th minute. Australia's plan was built around him. It worked perfectly. The context matters here though. Popovich dropped his captain, his vice-captain to start this kid in a World Cup opener. That's an enormous call.

[00:14:46] The easy thing would have been to go for experience, to trust the players who have been there before. Instead, he went with a 19 year old playing in English championship and the 19 year old scored. How good is Erinkunda? He is incredible. I think the thing is when he burst out of the scene, when he debuted for the Socceroos, he scored a couple of goals on his debut as well. So this kid's got some special sauce in him. He's actually gone to Bayern. Things didn't work out and he's moved across to Watford.

[00:15:16] He's got a lot of talent in him. And I think from an Australian point of view, watching this kid has something special that I've been noticing for the past couple of years. And it's finally great to see him do it on a world stage. And that's it. This is his biggest accomplishment in life on the footballing pitch. So be it. You scored a goal of the World Cup. That's pretty special. I mean, as I said earlier, is this the start of something big for Australian football? I genuinely hope so. I really hope so.

[00:15:44] Because if this brand of football takes on, because we, if you looked at, FIFA has made this beautiful little graph that shows the momentum during the games. I'm not sure if you actually have seen it and whether you like it, Chris. I really think it's very interesting because if you look at some of the games, the way they're panning out, it's just spikes for the team that's actually in possession. But then today, Turkey had most of the spikes all the way through the game. But Australia had a couple of spikes and we won the game 2-0. And that's just, it was exactly how the game went through.

[00:16:14] There was a game plan. We leave the ball with Turkey. We're not going to sit back. We just hold our shape, kept holding our shape. Turkey just couldn't break them through and they had the counter ready to go. Yeah. It's a great result. An absolutely amazing result because I think people feel that this is maybe Turkey's time. Yeah. After the year, Arda Guller has had in Madrid, they've got Charlo Noglu. They've got really good talent. They've got Yildiz who actually came on as a sub. He didn't start the game because of a small nickel.

[00:16:43] But this is a really talented squad. This is not a squad that you just take lightly. So this particular team was held back and the Aussies scored two against them. It's not an easy feat. So, and also the other thing is in this group, you have USA and Paraguay as well. So USA had a massive game against Paraguay. So it was imperative for the teams to win today. So yeah, good luck. Great, great work on the soccer rules. Yeah, no, definitely. I think you're through, mate. I'm being honest with you. I think you guys are through. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. And then we move to the bottle then.

[00:17:13] So we go to Switzerland. Switzerland, you know, touted as dark horses, made their 13th World Cup appearance, arrived in California having topped the UEFA qualifying group, conceding just two goals in six matches. And then they played guitar, a team that went with zero points as hosts in 2022. And they drew. The numbers are genuinely remarkable. 26 shots and expected goals value of 3.24. Yeah, that means on average, if you played the game 10 times with the same chances, Switzerland scores three goals.

[00:17:43] They scored one from the penalty spot. Dian Doyle all loan squandered three big chances. And because they couldn't kill off, Qatar get a corner knife and hang it to the back post. And Buzlam, Pukke powers a header in to make it 1-1. A draw that was three seconds away from being Switzerland win. For a country that is notable for their timepieces, nobody will see the game out as surprising. You know, is this Switzerland's most embarrassing result recently?

[00:18:10] Sky Sports confirmed it was the third latest equaliser in World Cup stage history. Oh, and they wore light and green kits inspired by the inside pages of their passports, apparently instead of the white, which confused every single fan and commentator who turned in expecting the traditional Swiss white. A bad result and an unusual colour, not the statement day Switzerland was hoping for. So, for you Shaq, is Switzerland's dark horses credentials gone? Can they recover from this?

[00:18:39] Switzerland are one of those teams that always pop up and do something strange in a tournament, kick off a big massive giant and just go their merry way and get out. I think this was a gimme, almost like a gimme can be in a World Cup game. And Switzerland cocked it up and it's a strange situation now that they find themselves where in this particular World Cup where it's easy enough to qualify. I think, hope they bounce back and have a good performance in the next couple of games.

[00:19:06] I mean, are we being a bit remiss to not talk about the joy of Qatar score in that last minute equaliser? Yeah, yeah, I think that was brilliant. The goal, everything about it was brilliant. Yeah, and I mean, I have to say they were well backed. There was a lot of Qatari fans in the stadium as well. Yeah, that's correct. That was a bit shocking. I was a bit shocked at the number of Qatari fans in the stadium and brilliant. That's nice to see. Yeah, absolutely brilliant. No, definitely.

[00:19:36] And now we're going to move to the drama and I can see Shaq smelling here. We're going to talk about... Sorry, Chris, but I know we've got a running sheet. I was going to talk about the Popovich drama, but I've already referenced that information there. But I think I just want to get your take on another drama that I think is probably more universally applicable is the thing that happened in Brazil. There was a lot of expectation for Carlo Ancelotti with this particular team. I really want to get your take. And I think that is a drama for today in the sense that Brazil, like any other big team,

[00:20:04] when things go well, it's okay. It's brilliant. When things go badly, things just capitulate. And that's happened even at home when they had the World Cup. This time around today should have been a statement performance, you know, with a brand new era. We're going to go in. This is going to be our World Cup. People are taking us seriously. And the performance was abject. And I think it's Ancelotti, some of his decision making of including Igor Thiago, for example, didn't really work out. The midfield was in shambles.

[00:20:30] It just didn't work out that he had to make a change of a right back and remove Castamiro at halftime. This is going to actually sting them. So from a drama angle is, do you think Brazil will recover from this? Or do you think this is going to be a painful couple of days for Brazil? I think it would be painful. You know, you've got a nation where, you know, football is up there with the religion. You know what I mean? It is up there. You know, this is a... But I think part of it is if you speak to football fans who are not super in-depth

[00:21:00] and you go Brazil versus Morocco, you go, well, that's an easy win for Brazil, you know, African team. And that actually you don't realise is, hold on a minute, you know, you have the potential. Is Morocco the African champions or not? Nobody's quite sure at this point in time. You know, a bit of tug of war going on with the cup. But I think that as a football fan's lack of knowledge sometimes, you know, not guys on this show or people who maybe listen to it. But, you know, I said to my wife Lara last night, I says, Morocco versus Brazil.

[00:21:29] What do you think? She went, oh, Brazil will smash them. I says, when Scotland play Morocco, she's like, we'll beat them, no problem. And then no realising that Morocco is a top 10 team. And that, I think, is the difference. I think what we're seeing is like a new world order coming in. I think as well, you know, is football now becoming the global game that it is? But we've seen teams where if you think about it, even Haiti last night have players playing in the Premiership as well.

[00:21:55] And I was surprised how good they were. So I saw a long, winded answer to what you'd asked me was, yeah, I think Brazil will bounce back. But is this a vintage Brazilian team? I don't think so. I don't think they're up there with the big favourites, the England, the France, the Spain's, this world, the Argentinians. Yeah, I think it's just a lot of people just assume, even including myself, as soon as Ancelotti was there, he knows how to get the best out of people taking the likes of Neymar, for example, really meant a lot to the country.

[00:22:23] And I think I got absorbed in that emotion. And then looking at them actually play on the pitch, I realised, just quickly realised, this is not going to work. This is painful. It's like, they just don't have the tools in the box to actually make this work. And yeah, the expectations are just going to bury them alive. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, from that point of view, we do have to talk about your young goalkeeper coming in as well, though, you know, and if his nickname's no Bondi, then we've got about a problem.

[00:22:55] Patrick Beach, 22 year old from Melbourne City. His previous two appearances for Australia came against Venezuela and a warm up against Switzerland. He's never played a competitive match for his country before last night, not one, before tonight, today. And Popovic put him in goal and for the World Cup opener against Turkey with Guler, Chal Haganoglu. I keep getting that name right, Hakan, and a squad of great people.

[00:23:21] And he just kept on going and saving goal after goal after goal and clean sheet, massive clean sheet for Australia. So what a way to make a debut on the big stage. Brilliant. Yeah. No. And another clean sheet and that you're almost, you know, two clean sheets. I think you qualify second at least, you know, maybe even top. That's the thing. Exactly. Yeah. I think we should be, we should be fine. I think defensively we're solid. And if this game plan works, we're fine.

[00:23:49] Yeah. Look, it's been a great day, I think for you and I, you know, it's not normal that two of us could be smiling at the same time. It's been an absolutely wonderful feast of football, as I say. And I think we've got some jackpot games coming up as well today. And Curacao, you never know, can they spring the surprise on Germany? We just have to wait and see. But one thing for sure, we will be back next week. So day three is done. Scotland topped the group for the first time in World Cup history.

[00:24:17] Brazil, you know, dropped points and underperformed. Australia smashing it as well. Switzerland threw away a dominant performance. Day four is already set up to be massive. But before we go, please follow us on Instagram at Foot and Review and at TikTok at Foot and Review Podcast. Those five star reviews, we absolutely love them. Please keep them coming in. Yes, the bell does go off in my office every time you do one. So it's absolutely amazing. It takes literally seconds. So once you're finished listening to this podcast, you think those guys have been amazing.

[00:24:44] I'm up for it. Give us a five star review. Please share this episode. So if someone wants to hear about Beach or hear about McGinn or hear about the wonderful Qatari Equalites, let's pass it on to them. And for our Patreon supporters, again, thank you so much. This will already be in your feed. The Prediction League is live. The links are in the show notes. So day four tomorrow, Germany, Netherlands, Ivory Coast, Ecuador, Sweden, Tunisia. Six games. We have it all. I'll see you all then. Thank you.