"The Kingdom of Keepers!" 🧤🔥 + Belgium's Tactical Sinking | World Cup Daily #21

[00:00:00] Spain just put an absolute masterclass with a 4-0 demolition. Uruguay and Cape Verde fought a 2-2 breathless thriller. But the real story of the World Cup right now, our goalkeeper is completely taking over. From Eloy Rooms' heroics to Elie Raza Baron Vans' locking down Belgium. Let's get into it.

[00:00:23] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Food in Review, World Cup Daily. Believe it or not, it's episode 21 and we're coming to you live this Monday morning for some and Monday evening for others. I have with me my usual partner in crime, John. How's it going, John? Good morning, good evening. I don't even know. I don't want to complain to you, Shaq, but it's quite a grind, honestly.

[00:00:46] Hey, but we're doing it for a good cause because we're doing it for some fun watching the football. It gives us something to talk to and there's people that are actually giving us some great feedback on what we're doing. So we'll just keep going, I guess. I never said it wasn't worth it, but I'm definitely feeling it. It's just four and a half weeks left, mate. Yeah, that's true. Four and a half weeks will fly by. I was just telling my kids the other day that games are coming in thick and fast because they're getting so used to watching four games in each day.

[00:01:10] Eventually, it's going to be one game a day and then one game every other day and then one game every three, four days and then it'll be gone. We will miss this. Anyway, before we get any further and break down the tactical stuff of today, just a quick shout out to anyone that is hearing us and wants to support us just by buying us a coffee. All you have to do is just jump into buymeacoffee.com slash foot and review and that should be simple. Right. John, there was a lot going on yesterday. We had the Spain game. We were wondering whether Spain would come back.

[00:01:40] And have another day like they had against Cape Verde. Then we had Saudi could do something against Spain. And then we had a couple of other games. So let's start with the Spain versus Saudi Arabia. 4-0 Spain. Complete smashing. What do you think happened in the game? It should have been a complete smashing at the start of the tournament. We knew that could happen, should happen, would happen. I think that Saudi Arabia started pretty naive though. They had a lot of space to Jamal, for example, who stood out there again and...

[00:02:10] Wow, 4-0. I think this is... It's a good... It's a result as expected. They tuned down the gas whenever it was 3-0 up. They scored a pretty silly 4-0, which was an on-go, I think even. It's up to some players. But I think Jamal is bringing back probably some spark. Yeah. I mean, it's crazy as it sounds because he's only 18. But it did boggle my mind that this is his first World Cup start.

[00:02:41] And that really, really was... It caught me off guard because I completely forgot that the last time the World Cup was played, he was probably 14. Oh, he was 14. I mean, yeah. Yeah, like the talent shows, right? Probably one of the world's great. I wouldn't say he's right there yet, but he's still 18. He gets at 23, 24. And he stays fit because it's always a conservative Barcelona players these days when they bring in.

[00:03:08] I think we're looking at one of the world's best players ever, probably. I completely agree. He's got a lot. He's got everything in the tank. In fact, within the first few minutes of playing, he was trying to dribble two defenders. I think three defenders. And he did a lot of moving left and right and up and down. And then actually put one of them down just by muscling them out. He's 18. And the one good thing about all that, the way he was moving, was the fact that any injury concerns, they're not there. Because you won't be able to move like that if you had any sort of injuries or anything in there.

[00:03:37] So this is really good news for Spain. True. True. I mean, I also think the first match was also unlucky, right? It happens. We saw it with Netherlands. We saw it with Spain. We saw it with Belgium. Well, Belgium may be a different story. But we saw it a lot with the first matches being a little bit uncanny maybe. And then afterwards, the pressure's on them. Yeah. That's true. That's true. It was still a decent game. And I'm glad that they went through with it.

[00:04:06] And I'm glad Spain pulled through and they're able to shine. I know I was really happy for Ojo Zabal because if you looked at him in the first game, we just thought, ah, you could just pretend that he was a problem. But he was magnificent today. He did really well. Well, lack of creativity was probably the biggest issue in the first game, right? Yeah. I said, like, the first game when Jamal came in for 20 minutes, he saw a massive difference already. And I think this time around, they also played a lot more direct.

[00:04:35] So a lot more forward passes, a lot more true balls just going for it. And a couple of shots from the second line from out of the box. Probably the best way to apply pressure on him. And you score early and basically done. So, yeah. Technically not the most interesting match to watch. No, no. I think that one of the players that usually confuses the hell out of me is Ferran Torres. I can never tell whether he's good or not good. But he's been... I can never... He does some brilliant things during the game.

[00:05:03] And then sometimes you just think, what are you? Are you a striker? Are you a winger? He's not clinical enough for a striker. He's not fast enough for a winger. He's not... Yeah. Any thoughts on Ferran Torres? Yeah. He's very much comparable to Mahlen from the Netherlands. Oh, yeah. Like he starts as a striker. You add his teams, get a lot of space. Then he can actually get in behind and score goals. Often also put to the side because he's just as fast. But not really like a winger.

[00:05:30] Not the official winger cut inside and shoot sort of player. Not really at number 10 either. He is one of those players that if your team is in a flow. And he gets freedom to move around. Yeah. He's probably very lucky to have him. But he's also the player that I'm afraid that... Like you can't build your team around him either. That's key. That's key. That's the problem with players like him where you can't really build around them. But overall, good result for Spain.

[00:06:00] We'll quickly move on to another game that was really... I found it a very hard watch. Apart from one particular goalkeeper. It was Belgium versus Iran. 0-0. Another golden generation coming to an end. Well, is it the same golden generation? Or is it moved on to another golden generation with Belgium? Well, I think they're past the golden generation now. If you look at the golden generation, there's three left. Lukaku, De Bruyne and Courtois, of course. Yeah.

[00:06:29] Courtois had a terrific match, by the way. So good saves as well. And he's just good, right? He's just probably best goalkeeper at the tournament. Although he has not got the team that concedes that many chances that he really stands out. But if you see some of the saves, technically it's just perfect. So just putting it out there. Not underestimate Courtois. De Bruyne got bullied yesterday. He did try quite a few times to get a shot in. And he did get shots in.

[00:06:58] But there were a lot of people, not only the Iranian team, but his own teammates kept blocking his shots at different times. Yeah. But also like the Iranians, they kept bullying him physically. So every time he had the ball or someone in the back of him or in front of him or jumping against him or two manning him in like a sense. But it was, I think he got off with some bruises yesterday. He didn't have much fun to play. But the last of the golden generation is Lukaku, right?

[00:07:26] And I said, it's hard to build your team around one player. And the Belgium definitely did that yesterday. It was super still. So their tactic was, let's Lukaku's fit again, put him in. Well, he's fit, but he doesn't have any match fitness, like match rhythm going on. You can see he hasn't played a lot of matches lately. They put him at number nine. They pass the ball to him and do the same as they thought the Dutch would do with Broby. But there's no backup plan at all.

[00:07:54] Every single ball goes into Lukaku, then tries to go back, pass the ball back. And they had Lukaku in their pockets. Meaning they didn't, like the first half, like Lukaku ran into the goalkeeper from Iran. But besides that, it was so still too much. Hardly any good chances created. Second half, they finally went into, let's use the wings a little bit more and see if we can go in. And actually they stopped at Lukaku. And they started playing better after he was gone.

[00:08:22] And not his fault, but then they played more creative. And then the Belgium with Pussard, for example, they have some players that can be very creative. Lukaku Baku. But yeah, I think the team is, they got Cristiano Ronaldo problem there. They put him in at number nine. And they have to pass to him. And all the players say, okay, we'll do that. But there's no connection. I thought it was very still, very easy to defend in the first half while he was in. And when he was out, we had the goalkeeper who had some terrific saves. So, yeah.

[00:08:51] Ali Raza, Baron Vand. Amazing game. I think it's becoming a tournament of the keepers. And we'll talk in more detail about Ali Raza in a minute. But I just want to point out as well, Iran had a disallowed goal through VAR, which is a fraction offside. It was overturned by VAR. Correct goal. Correct goal. Yeah. I think it's one of those things where it's really hard to, it can go either way with plain sight.

[00:09:18] But it is, we've got to trust VAR and move on with it, I guess. Well, the picture was good. And it was offside. I mean, rules and rules. This was offside. It was a really cool studied free kick though. Yes. I was very surprised Belgium got surprised by that one. Without it, like, it reminded me of a goal, the Dutch scored two years ago in a European championship. Yeah. But it did the same on the 16-yard box and got mine the score.

[00:09:43] It works if you don't do it too often, but it's also like a focus on thinkers. It was clear they were up to something there. Just going back to Belgium, I just thought one interesting stat about Belgium. They are unbeaten in their 15, last 15 competitive games, but have not scored with 53 consecutive shots at a World Cup, dating back to one goal they scored in Qatar four years ago. 53 shots and one goal so far. Yeah.

[00:10:13] Well, the resilience shows in the team though, but it's like you got a scoring issue there. And it will end up costing them if they don't change things around. And I think Lukaku, like building a team around Lukaku is what's causing them issues. This week, they need to have a backup plan. I think technically this was poor. I was watching like 25 minutes in and I'm like, this is all they do and people are sitting around me.

[00:10:39] And the next five balls were Lukaku and back, Lukaku and back, Lukaku and back. Like, yeah, well, this is not really interesting to or hard to defend either if you know what's going up. Right. So, yeah. It is a bit frustrating. If you look at the group, they have Belgium's got Egypt, Iran, themselves and New Zealand. And if they finish anything above like a third in here, it's bizarre. How is Belgium? Yeah, they should have smashed. Yeah, they should have smashed this group.

[00:11:07] But again, I think that it's also a part where I think we'll talk about the next game, which is Uruguay versus Cabo Verde. We'll just move along to the other game, which is you can draw some parallels with Uruguay as well. I think being in groups where, for example, Belgium, you would expect Belgium coming in as soon as they would just literally walk over and just get through. And it's really hard to switch that mentality back to trying to fight for your places.

[00:11:29] And it probably has caused them a bit of stress as opposed to Cabo Verde, for example, who've just come into the tournament thinking that, yeah, every game is going to be hard. We have Spain, we have Uruguay and maybe Saudi Arabia will be the last game that we play. And they've done really well against Spain and Uruguay, whereas, yeah, it's Uruguay, on the other hand. They had two easy games on paper. They had a game against Saudi Arabia, which they drew. They had a game against Cabo Verde, which they drew as well, 2-2 in the end.

[00:11:57] And this game was electric from end to end. Cabo Verde not only defended well, but also tried to attack as much as they could. And that free kick. They deserved a win, I'd say. They deserved a win. Yeah, that free kick. What are your thoughts on having a wall with not really being there? Yeah, it's like we put people in a wall and they're afraid to look at the ball, right?

[00:12:20] So, honestly, if you look at statistics, if you have a wall and you put someone behind that that lays flat, I think it looks silly. But that means there's almost no chance you can score a free kick if you look at the statistics. Yeah. Yeah. It's 1 in 12. You get the ball on goal if you go over the wall. Or you shoot where the goalkeeper stands and the goalkeeper stays in.

[00:12:44] So, scoring a free kick these days if the wall is just solid, it's marginal, right? It's a lower chance of getting a goal from a throw in these days, from a long throw in. So, but if you have a wall, that's what I sometimes am like, how can this happen? You're standing there and, of course, they shoot hard, right? And as Koeman and Krajv used to say, just make sure you hit the first free kick you get as hard as you can into the wall. Make sure they fear the ball coming in.

[00:13:13] They fear the ball coming in without even having a free kick conceded before that. Because everyone just closes their eyes, turns their heads away and just move sideways. Just open up the wall. And I just don't, if you're that afraid of getting the ball shoot against you, not standing in the wall, this is something you can practice, right? Yeah. Definitely. Definitely. It's just literally just parted ways. And the ball was, it wasn't a free kick from like 20 yards or whatever. It was a long distance free kick.

[00:13:42] And both the wall just opened wide and the ball went straight into the net. That's got to be down to Uruguay. That's got to be down to Uruguay. And at the end of the first half, when Uruguay came back to be in the lead, I just thought, yeah, game on. I think Uruguay has finally got everything in the bag. They know what they're doing. And it looked like they were in control. And cue the second half. And I'll just pick up a point. I did see Mateus Fernandes. I think, I can't remember his name.

[00:14:07] There was an Uruguayan defender who pulled the Cabo Verde player and got a yellow card. Val Verde went and spoke to him and said, hey, you need to just get switched on. And this is the same defender that did the throw-in that caused them to concede maybe five minutes later. Yeah. Also, the goalkeeper wasn't saved there though because what the hell was he doing there? Yes. This is lack in communication. That was a complete abstract. I think two of the people came to take the ball.

[00:14:35] The goalkeeper had no business being there. And that resulted in an epic point for Cabo Verde, which is well-deserved. Very well-deserved. Musiala as goalkeeper? Musiala. Musiala. Yeah. So the, the Musiala. So the throw-in was, yeah. It doesn't mean much. But the goalkeeper from Cabo Verde is my age, which maybe says more. But the, the, the, the throw-in was so poorly defended. Like what are you doing there? You're just falling asleep. And it wasn't the first time either. And that's what I saw with Uruguay.

[00:15:05] This is the second match in a row where they just, but they got a pretty strong teammate. If you look at the individual players and you look at the standing, look at the manager and like, no. They got everything to be that fighting squad that can get like quarterfinal or semifinal, even if they fight a lot. Like they can make every team difficult, but they're just not switched on. And this, like they, they scored two goals. And the, the second one was really cool as well.

[00:15:30] Just by sheer strength of will slash class difference. Yeah. But Cabo Verde, Cabo Verde, I should say, when they had so many encounters, if they were a little bit technically better, they would have won this match and they would deserve winning this match.

[00:15:47] And I, I just don't get that because also like it was a counter where there were four and two on Cabo Verde, where the defender was just falling over in midfield and the ball, just getting fumbled off the ball and just laying on the floor. Like, and maybe that works, but this tournament we've seen, they're not blowing the whistle that easily on like, if you have physical contact, it's just, I just don't get it.

[00:16:12] I think Cabo Verde, they like, okay, they're very happy with the draw and it's two points out of two matches, which is terrific for them. And they scored the first goals in a world cup. It's like a beautiful story, but they actually should have won this match and they should have already been through. Yeah. Yeah, I completely agree. And I just feel really bad for Uruguay because they have, as you said, they have everything in there to be a good team and they've got a really good manager, got amazing players.

[00:16:37] But I think they're missing that, that, that, that striker, that one person that can actually score the goals. And I think Davi Nunes being on the bench and Davi Nunes not being the Davi Nunes that everyone, even Liverpool fans thought he was, it's just not helping them. And he came out from the bench, didn't do much. In fact, I think the goal scorer that they had is Araujo, who's technically a defender. Maxi Araujo, just putting it on. Yeah, Maxi Araujo, who's technically a right back, a full back for Sporting. He's been scoring the goals as a winger. He's doing well, but that's not really what... Really well.

[00:17:07] He's doing really well, but I don't know. Do you reckon they can get through? I honestly don't. Yeah, well, the thing is, three teams will probably go through. So, and, but there's this team, this group, I'm just thinking out loud now, but aren't they like all tied up now? Yes. So we've got Spain with four points. We've got Uruguay and Cabo Verde with two points and Saudi Arabia with one point. The final game is between Cabo Verde and Saudi Arabia and Uruguay versus Spain.

[00:17:36] So this is going to be a really interesting event. Cabo Verde could win that match and Spain is probably going to play half strength, right? This could go down to the wire. Yeah, this could be a calculation match where they're constantly watching what the other teams are doing. The thing is, if you look at which teams have been entertaining, which you will want to get through, want to see through, of course, Spain will go through, right? No problem there. Yeah.

[00:18:01] But I think I wouldn't mind Cabo Verde going through in this group. Yeah. I think based on today's performance, absolutely. Yeah. I think they've performed well. I love the spirit of the team. It looks like a part. The emotions run high. Like when they scored a second goal to play from the bench for crying, which, I mean, that's football, right? And they should just go through. Yeah, that's interesting. But yeah, some close groups, much closer than I expected almost.

[00:18:31] Do FIFA deserve some flowers for this tournament? We'll discuss that later. Just know. Discuss that later. Hey, we'll discuss that later. But so far, I'm yet to find all those people, including myself, who assume that there'll be a lot of dead rubber games. Every game has been fantastic. Moving on to the next game, which is New Zealand versus Egypt. And our local All Whites, they're called. Things happening where they went in the lead. What is happening with this World Cup, John?

[00:18:58] Not only are we getting a lot of amazing goalkeepers, but we're getting a lot of crosses and amazing headers that are going into the goal. And New Zealand, what a header. What a header. Yeah. I don't know. Like, I need to run some statistics, right? I've not been there yet. But also, when you watch four matches a day and do a podcast, there's little time to actually do anything else.

[00:19:22] So, but normally, I'm like, if you cross the ball, it's a lower chance you get even a header in than if you just pass the ball into and take a shot. Yeah. Right? If you shoot a ball at goal, there's a higher chance it goes in. Yeah. Than if you had a ball on goal. Yeah. So, in European matches, when we see high-level plays, we don't see many crosses. We don't see many headers because those are lower percentage and the margins are very good. Maybe it's because, hey, we're smaller teams.

[00:19:52] We'll play bigger teams. We'll just try to head a ball in, to cross the ball in and head. But we've seen Japan doing it and scoring it. We've seen so many crosses. We've seen so many headers. Just hitting the goal. That I, like, I am pretty much confused because this might be the tournament where there's been more headers scored than passes from, like, shots from within the box so far. Maybe it will settle.

[00:20:21] Like, if I see Spain versus France, I expect no crosses. Right? Yeah. But, so maybe this will turn out in the end. And we're just looking at some optimistic football. But some of these headers are amazing. If you saw Weida's goal, I'm coming back to Weida again from Japan. And his heading goal was absolutely terrific. This goal from New Zealand, absolutely terrific. The Iraq goal, I think. And Saudi Arabia goal. We saw the South Africa header.

[00:20:50] And I don't know what's going on. But, yeah, it's something connecting there. And I love it. Just going back to this game, even New Zealand after they scored the header, Egypt's first goal, Equalizer, was an amazing header as well. So it was a brilliant header. And then comes Mo Salah to score. The technical winner, it was 2-1. And then we had Trezeguet in the end, scoring and making a 3-1. So I think, look, on the day, Egypt were deserved winners.

[00:21:16] And funny enough, Egypt are on top of the group, looking to be comfortably going forward to the next stage, which is good for them. First time they're progressing. This is Salah's year, especially. This is probably his last World Cup. So good on him for doing the best he can. So I think it's a good, decent team. I was a bit shocked at how they started the game because New Zealand was pretty much in control. But they came back. They showed resilience. They showed some fight back. And, yeah, they got the win. First World Cup win from Egypt as well, I think. Oh, brilliant. Yeah.

[00:21:49] A couple of highlights for me in this group. New Zealand. I absolutely saw their last friendly matches. I'm like, this team's getting destroyed. I even switched armor predictions. They're not getting even a shoot. Like, they're not even getting a goal win. Them being on one point and actually fighting really hard here and fighting some play like yesterday. Hats off. They really outdone themselves here. Right? And they still have a chance to go to them. Belgium. Big disappointment.

[00:22:18] One tactical style. Well, like, I like the team. They should have been six points. Period. There should not be a doubt there. But let's go. And I know it might be controversial or something. But let's go to Iran. They play in Mexico. They come from Mexico now. They're based in Mexico. They play in Los Angeles. Right? They have to travel every single match. They have to go out every single match on the same day as well. Right? Right away, they got to put in the bus.

[00:22:46] They've been through, well, hell and back in Canada. Whenever they're in the stadium, there's a lot of Los Angeles fans there. But all the other people are booing them. There's a lot of political pressure on them. From every side. From the American side and from their own country. Right? Yep. Yep. Yeah. To have these results in, that shows absolutely. And also being supremely kind to every single one.

[00:23:13] Like if you look at, there was a corner at the start where the guy, that backwards accidentally hit a steward while moving backwards. And she was like, oh, sorry, I'm in, I shouldn't be up to this. No, no, mate. You're sorry. I'm sorry that I hit you. Are you okay? And then when he walked back, he still gave him a high five. It looks super friendly. And if you put that pressure on these players and they still get two points out of two games,

[00:23:38] I'm just going to say it's an absolutely amazing performance from a sports performance perspective. Completely agree. Completely agree. And that dovetails in really nicely to our baller of the day, which is Elie Reza Barron-Ban, who is a goalkeeper who was, I think, this World Cup, as we said, the goalkeeping performance that we talk about every day. Yesterday was Eloy Arun. Today is Elie Reza Barron-Ban. Amazing performance that he just, he just showed what he was, he just kept Iran and happy for Iran to continue this way.

[00:24:07] Because if you have players like Elie Reza doing their thing, they deserve all the flowers that they're getting. So yeah, our baller of the day is Elie Reza Barron-Ban from Iran. The bottler of the day, we'll move on quickly to the segment, has to be Belgium's attack. Belgium's attack was non-existent. And we've talked about them in nauseam. They just sit and they just keep going around sideways, no urgency, no dynamic runs from the deep and lack of tactical edge. It's very concerning. It is really concerning and I really hope that they can come back.

[00:24:35] And the drama of today is the live math. As we discussed before, the last match day, there's going to be a lot of things riding on these games and the results. Every goal will mean a lot to not only what's going to happen to that, the team that scored the goal or conceded the goal, it'll be to the other teams in the group and also the other teams that go on to the next stages of the tournament as well. So the drama, this World Cup is really peaking very nicely. Hey, John. Yeah, there's some groups which are very interesting to check out.

[00:25:03] Like if you have the group with Brazil, Morocco and Scotland, they're at full four and three points. Of course, I eat these out. But that last match is counting for everyone. Like I said, they will all go through, but it also can go either way. They can all end up first or third. First week. So that is interesting to see. Also, same in the Netherlands, of course, with Japan. I think that can go either way. But it's probably Japan or Netherlands who end up first. But you don't know who you can play.

[00:25:33] The only weird thing is, like if you look at the group from the Netherlands, Group F, the number one plays number three out of that group from Brazil, right? Yeah. From Group C. So, but all the matches in Group C will be played before the Netherlands will play their next match. So when going into the next match, the Netherlands could actually look like, hey, if we do lose, we play Scotland, for example. Or hey, if we win with more than two goals.

[00:26:02] Or let's say Scotland finishes third. And they can actually say, if we win with two goal difference, know exactly what you need to do to play a certain team. Which feels a little bit off for me. But that does happen, literally, that does happen most years as well. Because this sort of... Yes, so normally you have two teams going in. And the third match sort of even means nothing anymore. Yeah. And now it can go either way. So, there's something there.

[00:26:30] But also, if you look at the group, Germany is of course true. But Cote d'Ivoire, Ecuador, but even Curaçao, they can all still progress. True, true. There's only been Turkey and Haiti, I think, are done now. That's all the thing. The rest can still go to... Tunisia. Turkey, Haiti, Tunisia. They're the three teams that are completely gone. That's it. I expected way more at the start of this tournament, to be fair. Right. That's a wrap on a massive Monday edition, John. I think we'll just take it there.

[00:27:00] We'll come back tomorrow to discuss Argentina, Austria, France, Iraq, Norway, Senegal, and Jordan versus Algeria. Amazing clashes coming up. And listeners, all you have to do is just follow us on socials at Foot and Review on Instagram and Foot and Review Podcast on TikTok. A five-star review on Spotify. Apple Podcasts will be a huge help for us. And share this part with anyone that listens to any podcast about football or is interested in the World Cup. If you're a fair weather fan and your country's doing well, yeah, just share this one on to someone else.

[00:27:29] And obviously, you can support the pod at buymeacoffee.com slash foot and review. We will be back tomorrow. Have a lovely one. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.