Tiggle's Coming Home

FivetoNine Podcast: Welcome into the five to nine podcast. We're able to make your nine to five hopefully feel a little bit more like five to nine. If you're already in the five to nine, then thanks for listening anyways. ⁓ obviously you don't see Jackson and Todd like normal. Todd is is MIA for this episode. Jackson, he said about ten minutes, he's stuck in traffic, but ⁓ who knows how long that's gonna be. ⁓ I do have Dom here, my my pledge class vice president, throwback. The World Cup connoisseur, as obviously that's easily the biggest sporting thing. going on in the world. Dom, ⁓ how how you doing, man, up in where are you in Ohio, Pennsylvania? Pennsylvania, man. Okay. Yeah, Confuse me. Yeah, I know. Yeah, coming off a nice speeding ticket this past weekend, but ⁓ happy to be here now. Happy to be here. So ⁓ obviously we were just talking about are you like running that that fantasy league that you have? Yeah or I am, yeah. On the FIFA app. It's a ⁓ we got forty seven people in it. So the payout is twelve hundred bucks. Fantasy s fantasy World Cup. It's been a doozy getting everyone's money, but ⁓ it's going well so far. Are you the like with the the Jonathan David thing we were talking about and you can captain him and double your points and whatnot, is that one of like the greatest performances 'cause I don't do fantasy soccer. You were kind of talking about its equivalent of like Seventy points in fantasy football is that like he basically like he he literally just I mean could for those who don't aren't don't know he's Canada just won six nil against Qatar here and he had th ⁓ hat trick and an assist, so that's already a million points. Plus you get ⁓ two you get minutes or ⁓ points for playing, sixty minutes, and then If you have a player who's under five percent owned by the whole ⁓ app, then you get more bonus points on top of that. Which is so forty eight with the captaincy, twenty-four normally, that's unbelievable performance. That could win you that could win you a league right there, man. That's ridiculous. And I feel like it's so funny that well, I mean, I was gonna say ⁓ the other two games were low scoring, but it just felt like the Switzerland one was. But it was four one. When when was the first goal? It was Yeah, the seventy-odding seventy-odd minute. Seventy-fourth. Seventy-fourth, the eighty-fourth, the ninetieth, and then the ninetiet, ninety-third, and then the ninety-seventh. I don't even see that granted Zaka was the one that scored the fourth goal, actually, now that I'm looking. Yeah, it was a penalty and like it was like the last kick of the game. It was r like ridiculous. But I mean, the games so far, barring the noon game, I know ⁓ some of the lads had ⁓ Some nice money on Shick to score this morning. I heard that was a that was a bad game. I couldn't watch it at work. Just Chechia in general, man. It was so bad. They scored in the sixth minute. ⁓ well Sh Shick had a third minute header that was just horrid. He like wide open, I feel like on the near post, just left it about multiple feet wide. But then like you score in the sixth minute, and I feel like the rest of it was just South Africa for the other eighty four and change for stoppage time. Like it it was so weird how it switched as soon as Chechia scored, and then obviously the Penny the last minute penalty, yeah. That's that's a brutal beat, I feel like. But th the the other two games today, I thought today was slate was gonna be like pretty under entertaining and it's been good so far. And I'm I think this this net this last game could be really good with Korea. Yeah. Korea, they've they really impressed me in that late game, especially that Kenyan Lee, man. They they are they're a fun team to watch. Well they're missing what or is it Japan that has a couple injuries? Japan. Japan Japan lost their best midfielder, yeah. ⁓ okay. I I wasn't sure. Maybe that's a little bit racist, I apologize, but it was one or the other. But anyways, the I feel like this is kind of like the most important game. And I mean, obviously you can't like switch around like kickoff times, but whichever whichever ⁓ team wins wins their group. Is that interesting? Basically. Yeah, because the other two teams have to come up against Chechia and South Korea. Like I think Mexico plays Chechia and South Korea. Sec south South Korea plays ⁓ South Africa, so both of those teams should be expected to win this. And e a draw here means like they'll both just go all out of score mil as bun as many goals as they can in the last game. Okay. Because basically whoever scores if this game were to tie, whoever scores more in the third game would have the would like win the group essentially. Yeah, and go ⁓ well, whoever's ⁓ goal difference is best. Right. So Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm. Gotcha. So with like Is there if this one ties what they both have four and South Africa and Chechia both have one? Is that right? Yes. Yeah. So technically, I mean, there would be a if this game ties, like that's what Chechia and South Africa wants because that gives them a shot at one hundred percent. Top like no no team is out of it after so with the new expanded World Cup, no team is out of it until the last week. You could go through with one win. You can go through with th there there might be we might see a team go through with two points, depend if everything goes correctly. But with two of those teams getting a point now, they need they win their second game, like the so for the viewers who don't know, there's forty eight teams in the new expanded World Cup. Used to be thirty two. Out of these forty eight, thirty two go through. So it's the top two from each each bracket, and then eight out of the top twelve third place teams. Whoever has the best like record out of those eight out of the tw Top twelve go through. So like if you get four points as a third place team, you are through one hundred percent. Like there's no doubt in my mind that you're going you're not going through with four with four points. I was gonna ask your your opinion on like where the line might be drawn, like the cut line, so to speak, in in green readings terms before he's on here. Like I is it gonna be three? Like you just said you could get in with two, but I think it'll be three with not a million goals against you. So like you so like Qatar today. You know, they have they have no points. But even if they win, man. They got or so they actually they got one point, they got a point against Switzerland, so they're not out of it yet. But like ⁓ if a team has zero points, like say Curaçao, they're they've they lost seven one, then they l ⁓ against Germany. They lost their say they lose their next game against Ecuador here. They could be in trouble 'cause they're they would be on minus six, maybe minus eight goal difference going into that third game, and that won't do it with like you need a you need a You need to have three points, I think, and then close to even maybe minus one, minus two goal difference, and you could go through. So technically you don't even need a win. You could draw three times. Exactly. You could have like even goal differential. That would I think that would get you through. If you draw three times. What's your opinion on that? Like I feel like teams that ⁓ maybe that doesn't happen. Like there's a world of course where you can tie three times, but maybe like a team gets three points with ⁓ a win, a loss, and a draw, whatever. But like teams that that tie three times They now have a shot to go through. Like, does that feel like they did enough? You know, 'cause there's not like there's not a group where, it's Ivory Coast and they tied Germany, England, and Japan, like three really quality teams. Yeah. It's kinda like a really nice team, a real like above average, and then kind of two that are like trying to prove themselves. So for a a team that has three points to tie, say they're one of the teams trying to prove themselves, you tie really good, a little bit above average, and then another team proving it like They're gonna get smacked in the next round, essentially. Yeah. I feel like. So like that's the the conversation I've been having with couple people, is that with this new expanded format, there's no group of death anymore. Like I don't know if you remember 2014 when USA, Ghana, Ghana in their prime, ⁓ Portugal, and then ⁓ I forget who the last one was, but this group was ridiculous. And like we had to go through it, like and we went we went through it. It was r it was but now like you're seeing The the groups are very top heavy and bottom heavy. So it kind of removes the jeopardy of the group stage with ⁓ like a big team getting bounced out of it. Like Germany won the World Cup the next the next year they didn't make it out of the group stage. Like Germany won in twenty fourteen, the next year they got bounced. Same thing with same thing with Spain in twenty four is twenty ten and then twenty fourteen they got bounced. Like they're a big team like a France or ⁓ Argentina or whoever. They have no chance of getting bounced because a one win gets you get you're through. Like one win did not used to get you through now. But now it's you know. ⁓ so I think that it's nice to have more teams in it. You know, it brings more stories, but ⁓ I think that some of the games haven't been great, even though the I don't know, like Spain Cap Verde was like that's zero no no, that's huge. But you look at today with Qatar and and a couple days ago with Germany and Curosoc. Yeah. I don't know. There's a there's a tr there's pros and cons, but I'd probably lean that 32 is the right amount. Germany was the the fourth team in our our group. It was Germany, United States, Portugal, and Ghana. Yeah. We we beat Ghana in the opening game. Yeah. And then we drew the same amount of points as Portugal. Yeah. I believe we drew Portugal, had the same amount of points, but we we edged them out on ⁓ goal differential. Yeah. Jermaine Jones goal, I remember in the Ridiculous. But yeah, and then because I know we all I know it for a fact we lost to Germany, but but yeah, like there's no so I think I think Portugal got bounced. They they they didn't make it, right? So like imagine imagine that would never happen in in the new format. The group of deaths now, like I gotta pull up the World Cup groups here, but the w the ⁓ the group of deaths now are ones that have like four middle of the road teams. Right. Not like three really good teams in one middle of the road team. Like I'm trying to think of who that like what group that could be the the the Mexico group has decent decent teams. ⁓ Chechi is underperforming though. Isn't that that he's not they are, they are. Yeah, they are. ⁓ But yeah, even you like even you thinking about it that's like Sweden, Japan, Netherlands and Tunisia. Like that could probably be one of the group of deaths. ⁓ I mean you could maybe call the USA group like I nah, not really, 'cause Paraguay's shit. But like yeah, it it's really tough. I I I don't really know because there is no group of there is no group of death anymore because every team on the bottom is really bad. Like I'll go through it right here. South Africa in one, Qatar, Haiti, Paraguay, Curacao, Tunisia. ⁓ New Zealand, Iraq, like I'm naming like Jordan. So you know what I Right. It's but it's nice to see some these teams in it that you've never seen ever. And they 'cause each to each one of these teams that I just named have a good quality player on it. So that'll that that gets a chance, you know. Yeah. I mean like Cape Verde I know obviously they're Drew, so they had the point with Spain and that was like probably one of the most shocking, if not the most shocking Like result with Spain being obviously the favorites, but the their goalkeeper is like forty years old and has like more followers now than like Joe Burrow and and all these other stars. Like it counts. So stories like that, like they wouldn't have been in with thirty two. No, no, no, no. Hell no. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like there there's some teams that are like like an Ivory Coast, like would would you think they w that's a team that would have made it with thirty two? Like I think I feel like they're talented enough. Like I think so, dude. They got They got some good players, man. I'm a Diallo from my team. Maybe I but Yan Diumande, who's probably s he's a winger who's set for probably a hundred million move from Leipzig Liverpool, PSG teams looking at him, but he's excellent. Only nineteen. He's actually played high school soccer in US. ⁓ but ⁓ they got some good s they got some good players, man. Yeah. Yeah. So they're not one of the teams that are like on the border and I mean it would a Yeah, a team that's on the border game, but a team that's on the border would be like a team like even like Scotland, like from the from the from UA but ⁓ or a team like ⁓ like Saudi Arabia is another another good example Algeria teams like that they're good examples of teams that are on the border. There he is. There he is. What's up? What's going on man? What's good? How we doing boys? Good, good. We're talking about ⁓ like the the new format. So I already got obviously Dom's opinion. ⁓ we're talking about FIFA World Cup format? Yeah, yeah, yeah. ⁓ obviously we have the the World Cup connoisseur on here. But ⁓ with the new I know you're kinda like maybe diving in more than you ever have in a World Cup before digs, but yeah, have you heard anything about like the new format, the added teams? Like are you a fan as a guy that hasn't been following the World Cup for a long time or so I'm not I'm not gonna lie, it took me about a full week not not not a full week of watching, but a full week of research before I even realized there was a new format. I just assumed based on my prior knowledge that's what it was, and I was like, ⁓ this is cool. ⁓ and then I got more to thinking about it. I was like the eight out of eight of the twelve third or eight of the whatever third place teams. seems like that's new. Like I feel like I haven't heard of that before. Yeah. ⁓ that's basically then what happens with the new qualifying, like the amount of teams. Yeah. Usually I mean, Dom, it's the top two of every group before that is. Yeah, you can't because you you can't just take forty two, turn it like forty two to twenty four, like this doesn't work out mathematically, so And it's like we've talked about expansion before on here. We've talked about college football expansion. We've talked about March Madness expansion. I mean, I think on a world stage, getting more countries, more teams involved is never a bad thing. And I think at least through the games I've seen so far, we'll see how it trickles down with the whole third place effect. But in terms of simply having and and I've I've heard even a few comments about how ⁓ I think I saw a post saying If you win one game, you get to three points, you have a sixty eight percent chance to qualify. Yeah. Not sure about the long term effects of that, but just getting to watch more teams and more matchups is never a bad thing. So yeah, and and then it obviously adds the extra knockout game, where I think there could be t there could be two situations in the so it it goes from forty eight to thirty two. Used to go thirty two to sixteen. So it's gonna be round of sixteen knockouts, right? This round of thirty two, I think, could bring some It'll bring two scenarios. It'll bring one where a top team could lose in an upset in the round of thirty two to a pretty crap team, or the top team could just pummel them. It could be four, five, nothing. You can see one of those. I think that the round of thirty two matchups, if a team like if a team like whoever, like Saudi Arabia, go through and they play a France or who ⁓ whoever like whatever maybe, for example, you could eat I mean you could see the upset, but I think it's more more of a chance of like Well this this could be a knockout game four or five nothing. Well dude, and to your point you mentioned France. That was the group I think it may impact or impact someone in the future, because you have France, Senegal and Norway. Senegal didn't look incredible against France, but I think they're a better team than that. I think that's just France. Yeah. ⁓ and they could have scored ⁓ I think once or twice in the first half. But anyways, like if if Senegal finishes third in ⁓ in that group, I think they're a pretty good third place team, and so a team in the future that's getting them could be a bad draw. No, a hundred percent. Like I think and it it'll be a it'll be a group winner. Like the group winners get the third pla get get the third place teams and then the seconds go against each other. So like as long as Senegal beats Iraq and then doesn't lose by a million goals to Norway. But even if they take a point off of Norway and then beat Iraq, they're through. Like that's it. So yeah That's what we were saying, ⁓ Domini Jackson was like one, going back to you saying you could win one game and get three points. You could go winless in the opening round in in group play. You could try three times, three draws. Your goal differential is obviously zero because you've tied all three games. That's a team that can go through. A three point three draw team. And it's like, to your point, it's cool to see all these countries. Dom and I were talking about like the K Verde goalkeeper, ⁓ Kirosao scoring their first goal ever. Like, that was cool. ⁓ Ivory Coast is a team that ⁓ probably would have made it in 32, ⁓ Dom and I both agree, but also in other fun stories. But there's like you get these stories, but you also get a ⁓ a seven one thrashing of curious out from what top five favorites Germany a a six zero Canada Qatar and Canada's not even really what are they even top ten maybe? They're not even favorites. No, no, no. But also again, there's two red cards in this game that just have that just finished up. So like that's part of the reason why they what was that final? Six six zero. ⁓ geez. Okay. Yeah. I thought Canada would win big. I did not think six no I had Canada minus one and a half. I did not have the minus five and a half Yeah, no. I again two red cards. You're playing if you're playing two men down, that's that's impossible. Yeah. And who did Guitar steal a point against? Switzerland, who who won or who also won a the they won the three PM kickoff against Bosnia for one. Were those was today the first red cards we've seen since the very first day when we had three in the opening game with South Africa and Mexico? Yeah, so yes. ⁓ so there there's there was f five total. Yes, there's three today and then the two against the Mexico game. I gotta So I got a good stat here. There's been five total red cards in the group stage so far. Just so far. This is the one where one day to this the f through game week two. There's four red cards in all the last World Cup. The entire thing. And in the Abraham came out playing like super physical ⁓ against Mexico, which I feel like you kinda have to do against the Mexico team that that plays the style that they do, like the speed and the I feel like they're a pretty a pretty talented team, maybe not as as talented as they once were. But they still have it, but like two red cards and then obviously Mexico. I'm pretty sure Mexico got one. I think it was three. They got one in like the ⁓ in extra time. Or ⁓ there's three in that game. Sword six. Swords. There was three today? Okay. So then yeah, that's like two in the two in the Qatar game and one in the Bosnia game. That's like an NBA ass stat. Like they're setting agendas, bro. Like that's what the NBA does. Like we don't call this foul enough this year. Make sure you call it more this year. Like it seems like they weren't calling enough fouls. Something that was that was interesting that that like you just reminded me of ⁓ was today, ⁓ what game was ⁓ what game was I watching? I think it was a Switzerland game. ⁓ yeah, 'cause or no Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 'Cause it was the Bosnia red it was the Bosnia red card. ⁓ if 'cause it was right on the edge of the eighteen yard line in the box. And it was like if he was in the box, it would have been a PK and a yellow. But since it was right outside the box, it was a red. Is that like like that's just how it goes? That's is that just an understood rule or is that a rule? There's a thing with that. So there's there's it's called for sure it's called dog so D O G S O Denial of Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity. Yeah. So it's like an open path foul. Yeah, basically. But some refs give the red and and the PK, and then some don't. Like it some are like, okay, it's only yellow. But If you're if you're the last man, it's like it's technically called yeah, a professional foul. Like if you're the last if you're the last man back and you're denying denying the obvious goal scoring opportunity, it should be a red. Like, I find it like crazy how different the refs are. Like I feel like in most sports, like no matter what the game is, every ref is gonna have their like little quirks or tendencies, but for the most part, it's like at a group aligned on a single message. It's weird whenever I hear like a broadcast of Like the World Cup or something, they talk about like this guy does this, or this ref is really calling it this way. Like it's crazy how like there's not like a defined scale. Like they it seems like they kind of can just do willy-nilly. Yeah, and like on ⁓ it's not like willy nilly, obviously. Refs tend to like ref the game. Like there's there's guys who who like it's tight it's a tight game. There's tight there's guys who let him play. Like on the these soccer apps, Sofa Score Foot Mob, you can look at who's ref in the game. There are average yellow cards they give out of game. They're average red cards they give out of game. They're average like the average like fouls they like it. Yeah. That you can but ⁓ which I think i is a good thing because it adds a little bit of it as another element to the game. But sometimes it's like we don't want to see a game ref this way. Like it's like two of best teams. Yeah, which is why I don't want like complete robot ⁓ Like I like, you know, s ⁓ you're always gonna get mad at an ump or have a moment where you're happy with the call that he made. That's why I like the pitch challenge system. But like I don't want it completely robotic. I want some element of variety based on, you know, how they call it. It seems like I I feel like soccer raffing would be the closest comparison to that or umping to that. Yeah, 'cause well with with there's a lot been a lot of drama about VAR over the past when since it was introduced. Yeah, I was gonna say since it started. And n even now, like, they added a couple of things that kind of slowed the game down a little bit, but also help. So it there there's always gonna be drama around it. But ⁓ it's it's what it is. I mean I don't think I think the roughing's been totally fine this n this entire World Cup so far. Yeah, I haven't seen anything I I don't know if there's been any I mean, maybe the penalty the penalty decision on the foul on Mbappe ⁓ could have been one in the Senegal game. ⁓ yeah, yeah. Other than that, I mean, because in club soccer, like in the Premier League, it was abysmal this entire year. The Premier League refing is notorious. Absolutely. It's notorious for being horrible. So I think in the ref the World Cup so far. Because they were kind of just SGA ing their way into set pieces and stuff and scoring. Yeah. Like they like they would they would play for corners, their their team would freaking celebrate them like it was a goal. And then and then they would Like the amount of grappling, that the amount of sure tugging, grappling, kicks and everything that would go on during the during these set pieces, and they would tell them turn a blind eye to it and then they would turn the blind eye it all year. Arsenal, the main culprits, best team at doing it. Listen, the if they're the best team at doing it, refs aren't calling it good, like do it. But to turn around and on the game that has the most jeopardy of winning the title, they their goalie goes up for a goes up for a catch, gets tugged a little bit, and It they they V A R it, call it a foul af ev after the West Ham scored. They call it a foul, no goal. Even though this guy who is pulling the goalie a little bit is getting tackled by another Arsenal player. Like it was it's a ridicule like you can just literally look up West Ham versus Arsenal corner and just watch the whole thing watch the whole thing. I remember seeing that and it is ridiculous. But They probably deserve to win the league anyway, so Yeah, it's like one moment they they earned it enough elsewhere. I'll say that one thing, like specifically talking about like the the refing at the World Cup, ⁓ I don't know the exact rule, but it's like obviously flopping they've kind of like come down on a little bit and what is it where they're they're making the players stand on the side for like a minute or something like that? I think I think that so the new rules there's two new rules. One, if you're wasting time on substitutions. Like if you take longer to exit the field on your sub, if you take longer than ten seconds, the player entering has to wait a full minute to come in. We have not seen that yet. We haven't seen anything happen. I feel like I heard some one of the guys explaining that in one of the games. I can't remember which one, but like I I feel like it was one of the Dallas games. ⁓ but I feel like that can't possibly be a bad rule. Like it's all about keeping basically. Yeah, like it it just makes Yeah, makes players exit the field a little longer ⁓ way shorter and they don't take thirty seconds to clap the fans and just walk off, you know. Right. But ⁓ the other one is that I think if if you get medical treatment from a physio on the fan. That's what it is. Yeah. ⁓ you have to come off for a minimum thirty seconds, I think. You can't just like come off and then come straight back on. Like and we saw I remember us seeing I forget what game it was, but I remember seeing a player maybe he was in the Uruguay game, the player was freaking out that he couldn't come on. And he's he obviously didn't know, but he was freaking out. Yeah. I like that though. Like I I like that because it's like these people that ⁓ if they flop and they're they're sticking to it so much so that the physio comes out like it's kind of a penalty in the way. And at the same time it's it's just like I mean, if you're injured, like stay off and and get a little extra treatment or whatever. It's a good way to to balance it out, I guess. Because obviously flopping's a part of the game in soccer, but you know, you can be mad at it and this is kind of between yeah giving cards and w there was a card at the the World Cup already, I feel like, that was given because somebody flopped. I can't remember what game it was, but I'm pretty sure I yeah, there is there was a couple dives, I think I remember seeing one. But like that's good. Like that's a way to again it's a part of the game. It's a strategy. But like you're gonna have to get somewhat fouled for you to kind of play it off, you know? So and I feel like it's It's clearly been a problem 'cause there's been a couple times I've actually it depends on who the announcers are. We've ranged from complete utter dog shit to top tier when it's Derek Ray. ⁓ but I've heard some of the commentators talk about specifically when they'll talk about a rule like that or ⁓ you know, them trying to ref the game and allow a little bit more play. ⁓ they've always specifically referenced back to what they've seen in the Premier League. So I think what you're saying is completely valid and like by the commentators that have watched it all year, like it's been lighthearted kind of a joke ⁓ in terms of refing and fouling, ⁓ and it's been kind of a little bit different from what they've seen here, which is nice because it's created a much better product for me, a casual fan, who may not know as much about the teams and the players, so just am rooting for good matches and and just you know good viewing. Yeah. I I I I agree. But I think we I think moving on, s you mentioned commentators. I mean, I gotta tell you, man, some of this the commentation that I've heard, I think that Fox has done a horrible, horrible job of about hand about handling commentation of this World Cup. I think that's Are you talking between games? Like the ⁓ in the I think that's the whole the whole thing. I think the whole thing's I think they got that is awful. I mean that's it's Yeah. It's really bad between games. I mean, notably Alexei Lala in Clint Dempsey number one too. Specifically her name slandered. Alexi Lala is a guy. That's a dude. ⁓ okay. Never mind. Well, I've heard the name Alexi Lala. There is a woman commentator who's not great. I mean, she I don't I actually don't even think she's the worst one. I think that's the New Zealand game. I remember okay. I think that ⁓ John Strong, who does the he does the he does the US game he does almost every US game. Okay. is the worst commentator actually in existence, man. It's it's really bad. Like it's He sounds like the shittier Joe Davis. There's there's some bad ones. I would say good there's also some really good ones too. Like Ian Dark, but he's doing he Ian Dark is who's like a quality commentator, but he's doing his games with Landon Donovan, so that's horrible. Darren Fletcher and Owen Hargraves are the best. Like they're the I think they're they're my favorite. Obviously you got Derek Ray and Rob Green. Like you got there's some good ones on here, but I'm s I'm laughing 'cause I'm thinking about if if they put the Oakland A's chick on the soccer game. ⁓ god. ⁓ god. Green trees. USA scores. Yeah. Spin it's been awful though. Awful. And or like the the Phillies commentator or Philly. Whichever. Play by play or the color guy. I they had the I they get the Charlotte Hornets guy on bro. No Hornets. Sean Collins would be electric. Eric Cal Eric Collins. Eric Collins. ⁓ but dude, like that's what ⁓ that was my next point about the games. Like since Fox is doing it, like obviously Joe Davis is ⁓ calling World Series games on Fox, he's called other big sports, but like what if you just took like did they seriously not know that much about soccer where it's like they can't call it? Like a Eric Collins on that show would be electric. I feel like Yeah, they're they probably just took people who have experience in But the issue is that they took people from Fox who have experience. That's the issue. There's people in doing it on BBC, ITV, TNT, like in in England. You got Peter Drury, Martin Tyler, Ali McCoy. Like these people are amazing. They do they do all the biggest games in the in the in the world every time. E but ev they have a couple here. But I mean, on like ac the fact that they couldn't get some of these guys is just like It's ridiculous. I assume the World Cup rotates like I feel like it wasn't on Fox in twenty two, or was it? I think they had. I ⁓ actually don't know. Huh. I really don't know. Okay. Wait, I'm gonna look it up. I'm looking it up. Okay, Tommy, you got it. ⁓ 'Cause like if the Super Bowl rotates because of all the ad revenue. It was. It was on the Fox family and networks. ⁓ Damn, do they have like a monopoly over the World Cup? I don't know. I feel like Broadcast exclusively in English on Fox. That's the last two right there. So maybe Messi and Argentina kinda tainted it, but I feel like I don't remember hearing any conversation around the The SPN had the rights before twenty eighteen. Foxes frustrated by lack of World Cup coverage by ESPN. ESPN previously had the rights to broadcast the World Cup. Fox took over in twenty eighteen. They're paying only four hundred and eighty-five million dollars. I mean, I realistically they should give it to NBC. Like NBC does the Olympics, like they know how to handle this type of thing. I would agree, but I think that I think that America just needs to get well I maybe they don't have access to these other ones across the across the But bring the European ones. Like literally, man. There's freelance contracts. Like maybe there's a rule against that, but like surely there's a freelance contract. Like a visa. I think they like to just be able to walk like have them stream it the same one on like the same one that's on TNT or BBC or ITV in England should be the same one that we see, man. ⁓ heard him or recognize his voice in other sports, so I imagine he calls MLS games. I actually don't know what he has. So this is the World Cup. Even though we're hosting it, I get it, that probably has something to do with it. You want to bring in the top commentators from around the world to call it not MLS. That's not the top league in the world. Bring in yeah the people that are actually calling the top class and level leagues day in and day out to call this he's got ⁓ I think he's got the worst trademark in sports. Uhhuh. Whenever it's half time, he yells out forty-five down, forty-five to go. It's the worst that's all thing that's been. I I f I I almost like muted at right before he can say it. I I it it pisses me off. But aside from that, I don't know how much y'all already ⁓ touched on it ⁓ since I joined late, but just I've really enjoyed watching the World Cup this year. You know, like you can You can pick on some things, but I feel like the games have been awesome. Not a lot of like zero zero draws. We've had some pretty good drama. Some some good, you know, and when they are draws, it's been a a pretty good one. Like Brazil Morocco or ⁓ Cape Verde. I go a step further too. ⁓ about like draws and stuff like that. Like even the seven one Germany Curacao game, like that was Curacao's first goal. Like they were tied at one one at one point. It wasn't like a five one. Five zero make it five one type of thing like ⁓ yeah ⁓ with the Swiss and Bosnia today when it was already what three zero. So it's like there was there was a storyline there of like, ⁓ my god, it's tied for however long. Obviously they scored six unanswered. But just to your point about like this World Cup being good, ⁓ I was actually gonna bring it up to Dom before you were here. One of my coworkers ⁓ yesterday, two days ago, was like and he and he prefaced with in my opinion, so he wasn't putting this on the people, but he was like, This is the best World Cup that I've ever witnessed. And he's a great start. He's twenty five. Yeah, he was like to this point, like it's one of the it it's but it literally loops around to what Jackson was saying. Like that Ivory Coast game was awesome. That was one of my favorites. And it wasn't even, I feel like, like crazy. It just very yeah. It was one of the things end to end. Did you play the game? Yeah, that was that was game of the tournament at that point. I might be up there. I really think that This England game yesterday was really, really entertaining as well. Yeah, that was I want to touch on England a little bit because like they're they're the the team that I think I feel like England is the team that Americans they watch the they watch the Premier League the most, so I think that that's the team that they pay attention the most for especially me and my friends. Yeah. And I thought they looked really good this ⁓ yesterday. I mean the f the first half, you know, they're ⁓ down two two. Yeah. ⁓ sorry, it was two two and ⁓ Kane on the score sheet twice already. But I think The way that second half played out, man, they they I Thomas Tugel having a German manager is like really foreign for for England. This is the first turn for that. No ⁓ no manager or no team is one with a foreign manager, is that correct? No. Never we have a foreign manager? Yes. Russell Crowe. Yeah, Russell. He's Argentinian. But dude, the to England to England, ⁓ that's what I was saying. Obviously, if you haven't noticed by now, we're Thirty-four minutes in and we're missing ⁓ one of our cohort tonight. Todd is Todd is down. ⁓ but he is a you know, he'll say USA is probably his number one team, but the dude's an England fan. No, he's an England. And I don't even know if he would say USA is his number one team. But regardless, I was texting with Todd a bunch before. He kind of convinced me on the it's coming home train, and I really like just the narrative, like England's coming back to USA on the two hundred fiftieth birthday. birth year, ⁓ you know, like they can't deal with the heat. They were getting earthquakes and tornadoes hitting their shit. And it's like, what if they just come out and like go on a run? ⁓ and Yes, they had their camp has been ridiculous. There's like a shooting nearby and Yeah. Well dude, and they're all and and I did a lot of different simulations or like brackets and on almost all of the brackets I made, England was coming out on the side that did not have France and Spain. So they wouldn't have to see them until they were on the side that would usually have Argentina or ⁓ Portugal. ⁓ but Portugal, I mean we'll see if they get there. At least they need to figure it out. I thought with this game that they just played, yeah. So th I don't know there's been a whole lot of drama about the squad selection, leaving out lice of maybe Harry Maguire, Harrington Maguire, Palmer, Foden. There's a ton of players. So I think that what myself included kind of got proved wrong a little bit is Tugel's Tuchel selected this squad to play a certain way, and that is it's like heavy metal athleticism, press the shit out of you type of soccer. And that's what we saw literally with Croatia. Like they didn't like that that they did not stop running. And especially that second half. That second half, like I don't like Harry Kane literally said it, like in ⁓ in his postmatch interview, he said Tuchel said in the in the halftime team talk, I would rather lose the way we want to play than win some shit way. Mm-hmm. Like it's like if he's like if we're gonna lose, we lose our way. And like our way like, especially with the players the the two wingers they started, who probably aren't their better aren't their best players, the wingers, Anthony Gordon on the left and Matoweke on the right. They started these guys, but they are so athletic and it's the way they want to play and instead of just having the best soccer players out there, they have the they they literally have the best athletes out there. Yeah. I think those run all over Ghana too. I think it was set in the Portugal game. ⁓ and I don't know if they were comparing the Congo and Portugal or Portugal and And something else, but ⁓ you talking about Tugel kinda pick players that how he wants to play. And this might be a reason why Portugal's kinda struggling. Their manager just picked their best players. Like that all that could play for them. And there's no this is how we're gonna play. We don't need to play athletically. Th we have our best players here. This is the eleven. Try and beat it, like type of thing. And like obviously that didn't work out for them, at least in the opening match. And it's just the opening match, Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in twenty twenty two and they won the whole thing. So like I think the the last four winners have not gone three and ⁓ in the group stage. Yeah. So ⁓ they could figure it out. But in a a team that and I mean they said that obviously before the England game, or ⁓ I wasn't thinking of England at least, but that kind of further proves it of obviously you're not gonna go, I want this division two English player because he plays with a lot of pace. Like you're not gonna stoop that low. But if there's a guy that these are all still permanently level exactly in Like Anthony Gordon just signed for Barcelona. Like he's still a big footballer. But like So like if there's if there's people that can fit your scheme and there may be someone that's a little bit better, but you're taking a little bit less that fits the scheme more. ⁓ Like games like that versus Croatia prove that that's probably the better way to go. Well, and with and with Croatia too, like I know they're getting up there a little bit in age, but you know, Croatia's been over the past at least my lifetime of watching World Cups has always been a nation that's been in there and has competed well. And they just look like they did not have the defense to keep up when England was on attack. Like their attack looked extre they got like what, like twenty two shots on them? ⁓ get that many shots up is wild. It should have been five or six. Like it was like they should they it w like I think that England, like, with starting these at really athletic players, they wear you down and then they bring on the likes of Rashford and Morgan Rogers, these like And then they switch that line out. Then they bring then they bring on the technical players. It's like it's like, ⁓ shit, I just ran my ass off for seventy minutes. Now I have to go up against Rashford, Rogers, and whoever. Like it's so They put all three of those guys in in what? The second half? Like a you're running with Matawake for fifty minutes, and then it's like, hey, now here's three of the youngest stars in the Premier League. Yeah, which you're tired. Like you look over and you see that them come on, you're like Yeah, it's this is yeah it literally how it is. And I mean I don't think they're top to bottom a top talented team, but I mean you have to talk about ⁓ about the way that they played that game. Yeah. That was that was really, really well done. Really enter t entertaining too. Mm-hmm. Because with the former manager Gareth Southgate, so like they were they were winning these games, they win one nothing and you should be like, ⁓ that was not a fun watch. That was why we tied that's why we tied with the US. That's why they tied with the US in twenty twenty two and we acted like the whole country won the Super Bowl together. Yeah. But it's like that's how Southgate played. Yeah. That's just that's just how it was with the old manager. And yeah, so I know you especially Dom were saying like Tuchel's a a double agent 'cause he's like German, but ⁓ after that deep selection debut game, like i it's it's starting to make sense. Yeah. There is I see the method to the madness a little bit. Yeah, I do. I'm I d but I'm a little nervous for England because if everything goes the way it's supposed to Their round of thirty two or th sorry, their round of sixteen match would be Mexico in Mexico City. Mm-hmm. That's a tough game. Their quarter final match. Their quarterfinal match could be Brazil and Miami. And it's been a while since Mexico's gone that far. They usually have trouble in what in the knockout stage. Yeah, like they usually bow around a they usually bow around a sixteen, like either like the so the first knockout stage game. So but Even if they get past that that Mexico game will be tough in the heat and everything like that, but then th then they'd ha they they might have Brazil and Miami, which would be a tough, tough one. I'm excited, obviously. And that was and and that was a that was a fun ⁓ fun game. I feel like Morocco were kind of easy underdog picks in that game. They're a good side, man. They're really good. And it's tough. Yeah, well and it and it's like the They kind of have continued this generation that led them on the crazy run in twenty twenty two. And, you know, from my information, ⁓ that's very brief about AFCON and ⁓ and them playing, it seems like they were potentially robbed in the finals. Sort of. Yeah, sort of. So I don't know anything about all that, but it seemed like they were a really good team and everything I heard about Brazil leading up was that they have some talented players, but they don't really play together. It's kind of clunky. It's another team that needed to put it together. Yeah. Yeah. And they had Vinicius score, but other than that, it was very clunky, ⁓ aside from a really good goal from him. Yeah. Like which was an excellent finish, but I think that Enceladti made a c their coach made a couple decisions for starting Igor Tiago, who is a traditional striker, like big body, you know, everything like that. But when you're playing for like a mid tier team and then all of a sudden you want to start for Brazil. Like he's not for pl he's not playing for a great team. He had a great season. He scored twenty goals, like twenty two goals, something like that, which is ridiculous. But making that jump from Brentford where he plays to starting for Brazil in the World Cup. Mm-hmm. I don't know if that's good enough. I think that you you gotta start Mateus Cunha, who was the was their guy all of qualifying. I think you gotta start him up front and and They play Haiti next, like that they need to need to come out and better. That's a tune up they to win they need to win by four or five goals in that game. Show show that they're not win four or five goals. Yeah, I like I like that I like that tune up for them. Yeah. I mean it has to be a tune up. You need three points out of that. And you can't there are teams that can go through, like we said, obviously with like three ties or like t Brazil cannot be one of them. No, no, no. You can't be one of ⁓ You can't I mean, I again we doubt this will happen, but I mean, imagine this the scenes that they have to They tie Haiti in in but then they have to go play Scotland. Yeah. 'Cause Bronco's quality. Like they probably should have won. I wouldn't want to play Scotland the way. Scotland in Boston, dude, like I would not want to play Scotland. Absolutely not. Like that's their second home at this point. Yeah, exactly. Scotland Scotland may never s they may just envelop the country. They may just become a joint country, put a bridge between ⁓ Yeah, that'd be that'd be awesome. But it's been cool to see but it has been cool to see how How the fans have come over come across and they really liked it. I mean we got we got viral mates are hilarious. Yeah. He's getting free shit. He's going to El Ella Langley tonight, that guy. Yeah. She's gonna take my girl, dude. My girl's going to Ella Langley in OK C. I'm done for. No, you're done. But ⁓ Yeah. That's like that's OKC's Super Bowl, dude. Now that the Thunder lost, there's nothing else to do in OKC. But LL the zoo amphitheater. Isn't that sick? There may be dude, that is sick. There be a million people at that concert, bro. All of OKC's going. They ⁓ but it is it has been cool. Like obviously the ⁓ Scott's taking over ⁓ Boston. NY ⁓ Fenway and the the ⁓ I know the English went to a rodeo in Dallas. They said they're sold out of beer. There there's been some cool shit, you know. That's like my So it's been it's been cool, but I think ⁓ it's been cool to see like the the European shit on America and all of a sudden they're they're in love with it. They're in love with it a little bit. ⁓ I think it's to ask you. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ Do you do you have any golden boot bets d that you took pre-turnal? Piggyback off that. Has your opinion changed in the first set of games? So I took there I had basically the the social sports book, Novig. You have three three tokens. I'm getting one a week. My first one was sponsored by the way. Not sponsored by the way. That we always we're sleeper here for Green Ray. We don't support Novig. ⁓ but I got the first one I put out Mbap A before any games. ⁓ I just put the second one this morning on Leon O'Messi. Okay. ⁓ the only thing and I had discourse about this. What was he this morning? ⁓ I I don't know what the odds were. It's more so just like ⁓ it was five to win. I think it was like plus three forty six, three eighty six. That's right, I'm at Mbappe for the five for the best odds. Okay. I mean he did have a hat trick. But it's basically like I get a share of five hundred K if he wins the golden boot, depending on how many people bet him or whatever. So it's a n it's I I literally only put five dollars on it. I was more so just hoping for the minimum the minimum bet. But we were talking about it h with Holland. Norway's not good enough to make that. But they're not gonna go far enough. But I'd like to score enough 'cause what the golden boot winners have been what six? Like five like around there. With the extra game, I mean Mbappe won't in last yeah last time with eight. But again he had a hat trick in a World Cup final. Like let's be honest. But ⁓ Kane won it in twenty eighteen, I think, and but he farmed all of his goals against Panama. He a hat trick against Panama on the group stage. But there's been a million pl people are scoring goals goal after goal. I mean, you got all the top dogs on two. You got Jonathan David now on three. John Calligan on two. You like there's there's Messi on three, obviously. Like there's been Ton of goals. You just ⁓ and obviously it's so influenced by who goes the farthest, otherwise the odds would be so different. ⁓ and someone like Holland. But is it really like you can farm the group stage? Like if the better teams go on you can form better teams that go on and they tie, or say it's like ⁓ you know, like Holland ⁓ he's not like a one man rodeo, they Sorlot, yeah. But he's obviously the best. But it like versus ⁓ a team where obviously Kane has two. But England plays more like as a team. So if they were to go farther, you could still see Holland beat Kane because he's more of a one man show and racks up goals in the first three matches that they have. I would say, I mean, look, and again, I'm not as well versed on this as y'all are, but to me, especially after you know, considering their pre tournament odds and how good they looked in their first game, I would just have to assume that France is going to at least make the semi finals. And so it's gonna be hard when Mbappe scores two goals in the first game and they're a team that looks like it would be a disappointment to not make the semi semi finals, he's just gonna get so many opportunities. I I mean I think Kane as vow would be value because I also think England could go on that run. And then if you want to look at someone, you know, Spain looked not great obviously in their first game. It was an incredible goalkeeping performance. But, you know, if you want to speak purely in terms of value, like again, I don't know how much they're gonna play, you mean ⁓ Lamal Like, but if you you know, you could find someone on Spain where their odds have probably ballooned after their first game. But, you know, it's just hard to not take or trust Mbappe. It's hard to win the golden boot after a zero zero tie though as well. Especially when like Dom put the list, all the top dogs are already at two. Messi's at three. They were backing a Yortha ball, their str the striker for ⁓ Spain to to to farm goals against Caiverda and to put up a stinker like that. They were supposed to win that by multiple. Yeah, zero. They were supposed to do what Germany did. Yeah. Because Habert's Haber's is on two. I did that stupid token on that game where it's like you get a bonus bet per goal scored, and then that was a zero zero. It's just zero zero. The only zero zero. Cause Todd had just caused Todd had let me know. I was like, Where'd you get a sixty five dollar bonus bet? He's like, ⁓ from this goal promo, whatever. I was ⁓ shoot, dude, Spain's gonna score like five, six times. And it was a zero zero. I think the promo's I think the promo's over already. Yeah, I think the promo they ended that shit. That's brutal. But only zero zero. The one thing I will say about these gold golden boot winners, especially as like a team like Argentina or a team like France or be maybe even England, you win your first two games. You could see heavy squad rotation in that third that third game. If you if you already qualify for the knockouts, if you already qualified like you if like say, you know, like say England have six points and then Ghana has three and then ⁓ Panama and Croatia both have like w one or something like that. Or like the one of ⁓ has like they could easily just like play their second eleven and ⁓ or or the or play cane for twenty minutes. They can easily do those things. Same thing with like France. France will kill France will kill Iraq. And then And then they'll they might rotate versus Norway. Well, and I think that's something i interesting to look at for the USA's matchup now tomorrow, because you know, Australia was pretty from at least what I saw coming in, was pretty universally viewed as the fourth best team ⁓ in in America's group. And so the fact that they've now secured three points ⁓ off of one game is essentially a sixty seven, sixty six percent chance to advance even if they lost their next ⁓ their next couple of games. it'll be interesting to see what happens because USA and Australia both have three full points. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. I think that if that game obviously USA are gonna be heavily favored and yeah if Aust if if we go up one, I could see Australia doing be saying like let's not fuck our our let's not screw over our damage let's not screw over our goal differential. Let's not let's not lose by four. Let's lose by one. Like you know what mean? Let's let's keep it close. Like one of those things where let's not screw over our goal difference, so to make sure that we have this win, we have goal difference, and then maybe we could just like eke out a tie against Paraguay or something and then we're through. And it's huge for the USA too, especially with the ⁓ Pulisic injury stuff, because if they can get a win against Australia now, they're through and you don't even have to play Polisic ⁓ for the final game against Turkey. Well, they played the whole second half without ⁓ as well. In the opening game. So it's like I I feel like nobody in this group is threatening enough where and obviously Polisic is a guy that's that like if he's healthy. Right, yeah, right. ⁓ but it like Polisic is a guy that's like, I'm gonna play if he's healthy and and maybe you just say whatever, you can go play a half. But you don't really need him in the group stages. Like knock on wood, of course, but like yeah, with your matchups you have obviously Baloguns with two, ⁓ Giorana had a nice goal, even though I know some people are are not as big as fans. Like there are players that can step up in the group stages so that Polisich is healthy by the time the round of thirty two, round of sixteen yeah come around. Where the US is yeah, really supposed to kind of bow out is like around the round of sixteen, is what I've seen. So yeah, you're gonna need your best player to try and beat that. And I think that it's not a it's not a bad situation to have if it's gonna be somebody, it's gonna be an attacker. Like obviously. Like obviously ⁓ Pool Sitch is our best player. Like, we need him. Like he like if he if we want to do anything, we need this guy. But the drop off from him to Aronson or Weia or whoever or Reyna, whoever comes in for him. The drop off to those guys compared to drop off of cr like Chris Richards, who's always ⁓ who was coming into this tournament not so healthy. He didn't play in either of the friendlies leading up to it. ⁓ I don't even know if he played in the conference league final for Crystal Palace, like in club. The last game of season, like the drop off for him to our next center back who comes in is so it's so far compared to Pulisic to Aronson or whoever. So like it's I think that having it be attacker is better than a defender for sure. 'Cause now it feels like we do have an opportunity to maybe not bow out. Like just again, it's it's easy to overreact after, you know, one game, but you know, I I And that's why I'm so excited to watch tomorrow, because even though again it's Australia, which is a team that we should be heavily favored against, like it would be nice because what we've seen off of the past is okay, one good game, one fleeting moment, then okay, now it's back to reality. We somehow end up drawing one one with Australia tomorrow. But like if we keep it up, I think that's a really good sign that maybe we could, you know, not I mean it's winning in tomorrow. Yeah. ⁓ yeah, that's And it's like I'm not gonna sit here and say we're gonna win the World Cup, like the like sports books are pushing, like, bet on the US. If they win, you get a share of whatever like, dude, the USA's not gonna win. Like we're not gonna be unrealistic, but you know, if we could get to the round of sixteen, maybe w win a round of sixteen game, shock the world, get it to penalties and or something like that. Like I think that would be absolutely incredible. And it seems like if we can stay healthy and continue to play as a unit and kinda carry this momentum we created from the first game, maybe we could do something Especially when it looks like our our first matchup based on the simulations after the group stages could be an easier opponent. ⁓ in in USB. US needs to win their group, I think, to to really be able to like I would rather I'd rather come up to I'd rather come up against a third place team such as a mean, literally it could be like a Saudi Arabia, it could be a it could be Algeria, it could be like a Congo compared to like a second place team of Morocco or Ivory Coast or Ecuador or a lot of teams we have bad relations with political wise. Yeah. Like there I think there's a chance we can actually play Iran. Like that'd be amazing. Yeah, but that game in Texas and see what happens, Iran. See what type of chance we're getting in the stance. That'd be awesome, man. No, I'm I mean, yeah, like the I think the winning a group is important and but at the same time Like win and move on. I think it's w like win tomorrow and you win your group. Like I especially 'cause what Australia has they have the other win, right? So three points. We both have three points. ⁓ yeah, win tomorrow and we win the group by six. So I guess we have six points, no other team can reach six. No. Or well, I guess technically Australia could if they won their third match. But And they'd have to they'd have to they'd have to score a lot more they'd have to score a lot of goals and we get to lose by a good match because that game's in Seattle, right? That's ⁓ Yeah, it's in Seattle. Okay. Yeah. Get the twelves out there. I know. I guess I guess notoriously, like as far as MLS fan bases go, that's one of probably the most Definitely the Seattle Sounders fan for sure. So ⁓ they obviously have the Also the Portland Timbers, is that a real team? Yeah. ⁓ my god, goal line clearance for Mexico just happened. But ⁓ three I'm I think that was Sun almost just scored clear off the line. That's my boy. We love Sewing. I need to get a Sewn jersey and hang it up. That's gonna like in the background of the podcast. But I have my I have my Tottenham flag. I need to get mine. They do have the Seattle does have the best chant in in footy history. It's ⁓ if you look it up, it's come on, Seattle, fight and win. It's the worst it's the worst it ever, bro. That's that's what we have to offer when like they're Chanting at a hundred and fifty decibels on the crowd. I do that's the one thing about obviously the Americans is like I I I do listen to a c a couple podcasts for of English people and they ⁓ who went to this game yesterday and they're saying like it's it's crazy how many American fans there were also for number one in in England tops, which kinda c which is like listen, I I own a jersey I own freaking Italy jersey, but like at the same time, like They're like they're there supporting England. And then number two, like the the chanting the chanting and culture is just like so different from Europeans to ⁓ to American articles. Respect. Is that a Ellie de la Cruz jersey, bro? No, it's bro, it's turkey. It's Turkey, bro. It's a better bro. He's gonna he's gonna have that on next week. Dude, if you squ if you squinted, it looks like the Reds logo. You mean 'cause it's literally just a jersey. Yeah. He got he got that jersey because he's about he's about to get a transplant there as soon as ⁓ yeah, hundred percent. That the the hair's leaving me for sure. What was the video of who what was the team that was shooting off flares outside of Arrowhead? You all see that? I think that was probably Algier or Algeria. Wasn't it the team that Jordan was in Algeria? I think it was Jordan. No, Jordan didn't play in Jordan and play didn't play in Kansas. I know Algeria played in Kansas City. Or was that two days ago? I think it was two days ago. Two days. It was Algeria or Argentina. Yep. Yeah, yeah. Because Messi's two and ⁓ and Arrowhead and Derek Carr's one and nine. Yeah, that's that's how I know lost to Messi was the one that was shooting flares off outside of the stadium. Which sums up fans that are coming in. Like they lost the game, got hat tricked on, and were shooting flares. Like I gotta respect that. Like I I haven't even seen Philly do that, dude. Or well, New York has done it, but they actually won. New York's done a whole lot worse. Yeah, they have done a whole lot worse. But I was I was gonna say I haven't even been ⁓ really watching the games today. This is the first day that I haven't most days I've had every single game on, no matter what I'm doing. It's a decent card. I just couple goalfests. But only because the US opens on. So I gotta s I So yeah, let's just shift into that, bro. How'd it go today? It was it was Weird because ⁓ again, this is a course that has there's been six hundred and fifty-four players that have ever teated up in ⁓ major condition. Only three of them have ever finished under par. ⁓ so this is this is ⁓ like Brooks Kepka in twenty eighteen won at one over par. He won the whole tournament. So it's it's a really tough course, but a lot of changes were made becau to make it play a little bit easier. And as things stand now, there's nine players at two under ⁓ a few more at one under. And then Wyndham Clark, former US Open winner and ⁓ my former arch nemesis, ⁓ it leads at six under. He leads by four shots. ⁓ did he win at did he win at Quail Hollow? Is that where he won? He won in twenty twenty three at LA Country Club, which is a very controversial US Open just 'cause the course is played like easier, more like a PGA championship. It wasn't a very good course, but yeah, so he he's There's currently a stoppage right now, ⁓ 'cause they couldn't get the round done. There was a f a fog delay of like two and a half hours. So they'll have to come back out, play like four or five holes tomorrow. ⁓ but he's he's played his ass off. But it's been a weird but there's plenty of other big what just happened, Dom. ⁓ that that Keones ⁓ guy from Mexico. Yeah, ⁓ they're only black player, just had a header header from the penalty spot. Good save. Kind of right at but could say it's shut out. What is what's the truth, Jackson, to what Liam said about ⁓ they might make the pin placements a lot harder tomorrow because they made them easy because of the wind today, but the wind died down, didn't pick up. Is there is there truth to that statement? Yeah, I mean the USGA's been working their ass off because basically the last two times it's been held here, they've gotten kind of torn to shreds about like losing the golf course. Basically just making it like everyone wants to see hard, but like when you make it impossible. So they've really tried to slow the greens down. Like they were dumping but ⁓ like mid round we're dumping water on the greens to try and slow them to about a ten because the wind is up to thirty miles per hour. but tomorrow they're expected to do the same things water it down, keep these greens really slow. and but the wind is supposed to be down tomorrow. So like They don't want players to be climbing, you know, shooting f like we have Wyndham shooting a 600, but it's one player having a really, really good round and kind of got lucky with the conditions late in the afternoon. But the whole field can do that if they don't put some harder pin locations. If they're gonna be making these greens so slow and the conditions will be down, it should be the easiest day for them. I would expect tomorrow to have the hardest pin locations and then rely more on the greens firming up. And the conditions picking up on the weekend. What's the final round score for the winner, do you think? I mean it's only been one day, but do you have any any sort of even estimate? My pre tournament prediction, a lot of people, a lot some of my followers ⁓ from the green reading side of things were not buying it. 'cause I I I I I said specifically I think we see a playoff at two under. I think we see two guys get to two and they're like, what? You're crazy, no one's going under par. I I think now Obviously th things are gonna come back, conditions will toughen up. I would still say we see a winning score. In two thousand four the winning score was four under. That would be my prediction right now. Four under, maybe three under, like five guys under par. ⁓ I think they just kinda over. What'd you say? You do think Wind you think Windham falls off in this there's no way he can he can build on it. Not even like you don't think you think he comes out tomorrow and shoots like even, huh? I I mean, I do not think he wins, but I don't think he completely collapses. His form has been Really good. He got a a win for the Green Reading Channel a few weeks ago. ⁓ so I I like him more than I used to. But the thing is the guys right behind him, I mean, you have Matt Fitzpatrick, you have Rory, ⁓ John Rom is up there, Bryson has had a good first round. Like there's just too many gu Scotty's not too far back, too many guys are gonna stay even when Wyndham's a little bit too up and down. So I I would be really surprised if he was a two time major Yeah. What ⁓ jumping from the top to the to the bottom, so to speak, what do you think the cut line will be then? So the cut line in twenty eighteen was nine over, which is obviously high as shit. ⁓ right now I think the cut line if it stopped right now would be five. ⁓ or or it's either four or five. So I would a ma ⁓ like pre projected, you're saying? Yeah, like if if the if if it was just a one, yeah. It would it would be at four over right now, so you naturally kinda double it. ⁓ I would say I say I would say that we see eight over as a as a cut line. ⁓ and it's like 'cause there's only there's a hundred and fifty six guys in the field, only sixty make the cut. ⁓ so there's gonna be some some shit scores up there. So two thirds, about two thirds of the guys are gonna be eight over or worse, or nine over or worse. Yeah. Seriously? It's crit like that's frustrating. That'd be so I'd so frustrated. Let's see who had the worst round today. ⁓ it's like dude, you could be five over and you're like, ⁓ I'm safe. Like I'm making the cut. I'm making half. Yeah, whoever Robbie Robbie Higgins is, congrats, dude. I'm trying to find okay, fur Vandy's first round leader pick is in a hundred and forty third, Brandon Woo. ⁓ okay. J ⁓ J J Spawn is at seven over. He won the US open last year and he just shot a seven over. It's crazy, yeah. ⁓ So is this probably I mean obviously the conditions made it fucked, but are is this one of the toughest courses that that that are out there or the US? This is this is one of the it's it's kind of the closest thing the US has to like a Lynx style course, like a very European style, very difficult, like they'd play for the Bredish Open. ⁓ I'm seeing videos and I've seen that really tall grass, and you know I get it. Yeah. I mean it it you know, you could say it's it at minimum just as hard as oak. In Oakmont, JJ Spum was the only player under par last year. We'll see what the conditions allow for, but it's it's gonna be tough. It should be good viewership. Either way, we've got, you know, we had a hell of a weekend last weekend with sports. We've got another really good weekend ⁓ this weekend, you know, sit back. You can watch the World Cup on one side, watch baseball, watch the US Open. Big day tomorrow. So I gotta I got a question for both of you then. Now that I mean, obviously I haven't really I didn't really watch any of the US Open. Tommy, I don't know about you, but So now that we've seen a day of the US open and we've seen every team play one game of the World Cup, give me your give me your winner in each. Okay. Tommy, you wanna go first or you want me? ⁓ yeah, yeah, yeah. I'll go United No I'm kidding. ⁓ I it's like I we talk so so good about England or so fond of England, but I I just can't see them get past it. I I wanna say Spain and be public, but that zero zero scares me. I I would say I would think France somehow puts it together. I I I would say France would be my pick and then Gosh, US Open. You can give me I'll take Rory. Okay. That's a fun one, I feel like. Well, I mean, obviously people don't like him, that's why it's fun. But I was either gonna rip double English or double double Spanish, ⁓ as in England and Rory. ⁓ well, he's Irish, but ⁓ it's all the same. So I'm gonna doesn't matter. I'm ripping the double sta double Spaniard. I'm going Spain look like dog shit, zero zero. They start playing ⁓ Lamin a little bit more They get into a good rhythm. That was my pre tournament pick. I'm sticking with it. Spain wins and then John Rom had a is looking great. He didn't get to finish his round, but he's at two under where's he at? Yeah, he's at two under. So he's well tied with a group of the guys closest to Windham. ⁓ and he looked great. So I I'm gonna go double Spain. What ⁓ what hole was he on? He was on he's he's through thirteen here, so I'm looking five holes. Yeah. Five holes to maybe make a c a jump or Yeah. The same same thing can bite you in the ass five holes to ⁓ so hold on, I got I got a question for you. 'Cause I know I know what I forgot what tournament it was where they had like some of those guys had to play like thirty holes of golf the one day. Yeah. On the on the but Do they they don't change the pin placement until those guys are done though, right? ⁓ yeah. Like you you mean the pin pin placement from today will stay the same tomorrow when they come back out. Yeah. They will keep the pins exactly the same. Then they'll have like a a thirty minute reset. They have, you know, a million people out there working. They'll recut the holes and they'll put ⁓ in the ⁓ in the new pin location. Gotcha. But ⁓ so J so Jackson went double Spain, Roman Spain. What do you think? Tommy went France in France and Rory. France and Rory. I think I'm also not gonna back Windham Clark to win this. I think I'm gonna go I think I'm gonna go Oberg to get one. He's gonna I think he's gonna ball out. Okay. I'm looking at this ⁓ he's he's one under here. I think I'll have a day maybe have a day tomorrow. I like or by or by me in the ass and he shoots four under four four over. It's literally one or the other. He's either gonna be leading by the end of tomorrow or he's gonna be on the cut line. Yeah, like I think I'm gonna go with him. I think I think he's due, man. I think he's due. ⁓ and then I saw yesterday, man. I th it might be coming home. It might be coming home. I don't know. It might be coming home. I mean all right, we're going off of records today. Records are meant to be broken, and I think the record of obviously that the haunting of nineteen sixty six, along with along with ⁓ not having a manager from your country and Tugel is a just a tournament manager. Like he he got to the f he got to the final with PSG, he got the Champions League final with them, won the Champions League final with the Chelsea squad, who's probably a Just above average. They they weren't amazing. So I he's a tournament style manager, and I think their run could they and their run could they could win it with their run. We have an official England prediction on the five to nine podcast. It is coming home. I mean, this is the year anything can happen. The Knicks won the fucking finals. We got Sam Darnold winning Super Bowls. Like, why not, dude? Why not? It ⁓ it comes home in America. Would they the best day in England history? They win the World Cup on US soil? No. What 100%. I think that there's not a single other event in their history. Like literally, I think you could like anything. Like out of anything. Like you the this this beats like this beats like anything that Churchill did. This like nothing back in his brain. You're looking at you're looking at Sir Deck like all like this entire starting eleven will be knighted if they freaking win. Honestly yeah. Well and and the memes after too, them winning at MetLife Stadium before the Jets or Giants did anything. Well the Jets. They'd be ⁓ they'd be a little I don't know if I wanted to see it happen because they'd be unbearable. Uh-huh. But how old is Harry Kane? Is this his last hurrah? He's in his thirties. I he's in I think that's I think he's no more in him after this. He could. ⁓ let me see how old he is. It seems like I want to say he's thirty two. Yeah, he's th thirty two. He was a part of the best trio across all major leagues. With Elise A Diaz. With Elise A Diaz since Messi, Suarez and Neymar. By goal count alone, and probably just in general. Did Namar get in for Brazil? I can't even remember. Hmm? What's that? Did Namar get in for Brazil? I can't even remember. He's injured. No, so he he was he's injured. Okay. He was out for the first game. And they actually confirm he'll be out for this next game. Yeah, he's not even traveling with the team for this one. ⁓ but I think that here with him with you're talking about this could be his last World Cup. I I don't think so. I think I think he's playing 36. The way he plays, the way he plays. He plays so slow, methodical, likes to drop deep, literally get the ball from the defend. He likes he's a striker. He likes to drop deep, literally get the ball from the defenders and facilitate it himself, which is r like he's the only striker in world football who can literally do that. Yeah. So I think that. Like with him being thirty-two, I think he's got at least he will definitely play in in the next Euros, which is in the Great Britain. ⁓ he'll be thirty-four for that. So I think he actually turns thirty three in J in July. So thirty five, thirty almost thirty five. But I think there's an outside chance he could be in the squad. Maybe not the start. Maybe not maybe not the starter by the next World Cup. Maybe come off the bench or something like though. Okay. Predictions, ⁓ to to wrap up here on our World Cup special predictions for the USA Australia game tomorrow. No Pulisic? Are we assuming no Polisic? I'm gonna assume No, I think he'll play. I think he'll play. I think he'll play I think I think it was I think it was all precautionary with I think it'll be a big part of tomorrow. Like it that like I said, it's win and in and I think the that they know that if they have an eighty percent Pulisic, they play through him, say his his health bar so to speak goes down to sixty, he can sit out that third game we're already in. win, lose, or draw, whatever, and he and he's ready to go for for thirty two for for sixteen. There's a world where we play Algeria and he plays a half of round of thirty two. So he's a hundred percent maximum ready to go for for round of sixteen, because again that's where a lot of people are saying we're we're gonna get cut. So who knows? I think that I think we'll see him start a hundred like ⁓ and probably play. If we're not up by two goals, he'll he'll play a little bit in into the second half. I but my prediction I'm gonna go two nil US. Okay. I was gonna say two nil or three one. I think it's a two goal win. I think we I think everyone's gonna get pissed. We're gonna go down one ⁓ and then we're gonna win two one. Yeah it's not a bad shout at all. I know it's not a bad shot. Now that you say like Australia getting an early goal and like ⁓ I'd like to see I mean, even do we have the balls for it? Like Australia getting an early goal. Can we come back against a a side we're definitely better than less us little bit. Yeah. All right. Well, you gotta tune in. That that's the big game of the the day. I'm getting all my work done before ⁓ two PM around here central time. Yeah with wholesome. I will be doing nothing from the hours of two to four. And then probably four to five because are you you expect me to do an hour of work after watching two hours of the World Cup? Absolutely not on a Friday. What's the drink of choice for two office game? Yeah in the office? Yeah, at my cubicle with no windows in the office watching the USA game. Yeah. I'll be working. Yeah, you can whole thing. Yeah, don't have I don't have Juneteenth off. I don't have Juneteenth off. My boss is racist. Wow. I'm gonna tell my boss that tomorrow. I mean, dude, you gotta get Ball former NHL first round pick with CTE. Yeah, I'm telling him he's racist. Yeah. Hey, happy everyone. Yeah. From five to nine to you. Yeah. ⁓ I think it's a good spot, Jackson, with a political statement to wrap it up there. Peace. Dom, thanks for coming on, man. Obviously the expertise is unmatched. Great first first guest on five denied. Yeah, that's an honor. It should have been Choup, but but Chuop denied it to go drink whiskey outside out a couple weeks ago. So should have should have many more many more guests to guests to come, but Dom Dom is honored as the first one. Hang it in the rafters. As we get as we get to the later stages of World Cup, I definitely For sure. I'd love to come back come back on and talk about it. Absolutely. Everything going on. So all right. Till next time, fellas. Till next time.