Messi Ronaldo and the 1930 World Cup Riots | The Beautiful Pod

Adam talks South Africa, the three GOATs of football with Musa, England-Brazil-USA with Clive and Elliot, and the riots of the 1930 World Cup. Host: Adam FriedlandGuests: Musa Okwonga, Elliot Smith, and Clive PalmerExecutive Producers: Adam Friedland, Marc Fineman, and Mason KleinWriters: Adam Friedland and Sam SerxnerProducers: Sam Serxner, Julia Cassidy, Chris WohlersEditor: Jon RoemerStudio Tech: Adam Tarin--See Adam on tour https://theadamfriedland.show/pages/tour--JOIN THE FRIEDLAND FAMILY FOUNDATION / PREMIUM SUBSCRIPTION:https://www.youtube.com/@TheAdamFriedlandShow/join--Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheAdamFriedlandShow--Buy our merch: https://theadamfriedland.show/collections/new--X: https://x.com/adam_talkshowInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theadamfriedlandshowTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adamfriedlandshowclipsYouTube: Subscribe to @TheAdamFriedlandShow here:https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAdamFriedlandShowSubscribe to @TAFSClips here: https://www.youtube.com/@tafsclips -- The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit https://fanduel.com/playwithaplan to learn more about the resources and helplines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:05Adam Friedland?

  Hey guys, welcome to the beautiful pod. I'm Adam Friedland. We got a really big episode today, XXL size. First off, I'm going to be joined by Muso Okongwo from Saudi A Podcast, one of the best football podcasts, really smart guy, author, genius. We're going to be talking Messi, Ronaldo, and Mbappe, kind of the three protagonists of football, two of them for the last 20 years, and see, kind of track where they're at right now in this World Cup, and how those storylines relate to one another. And also, I'm going to be joined by Elliot Smith and Clive Palmer from Arsenal Vision Podcast, my two buddies. If you don't like Arsenal, we don't talk about Arsenal, okay? And you people, you think you're better. We won. Just be nice to us for, like, the summer, okay?

• 0:50Adam Friedland?

  Okay, fine. No, I'm joined by Elliot Smith and Clive Palmer. They're two of my friends. We're going to talk about England, Brazil, and the United States, ahead of the knockout stages, kind of a conversation about, is tactical football, are we hipsters? We just thought tactical football was going to be a bigger deal after one and a half games. Coach Pochettino, I'm sorry. The main subject that we discuss is, is tactical football going to be as much of a factor as we convinced ourselves and gaslit ourselves into thinking after one and a half USA matches and basically the third quarter of the opening England match? That's right, quarter. You're in America. But guys, before I start, I want to just say

• 1:34Adam Friedland?

  something, it's a sincere thing. South Africa qualified for the round of 32, and my parents come from there. My parents left in the early 80s. My dad was called up to Angola, blah, blah, blah. I lived there for a bit when I was a kid. It is a country, yes, it's a country that has really great people in it. It also has a lot of problems. And one thing that is, I've noticed, like, in my lifetime, is the one thing that makes people feel better is sports. And they were left for dead after the Mexico match, the opening match. People

• 2:11Adam Friedland?

  are saying it was the worst team in the cup. They eked out a 1-1 against Czechia, and they kind of shocked the world. They beat South Korea. It's like, it is the one thing, sports is awesome. Right? Politics sucks. I read a thread on Twitter, someone said, "Can you be a leftist and root for Team USA?" Shut up. The game is on. Right? And that's one thing that's like, it crosses communities, it crosses socioeconomic groups. Like, sports just makes people feel better and brings people together. And I've seen that in South Africa.

• 2:53Adam Friedland?

  In 95, I don't know if you guys have seen the film Invictus, directed by Clint Eastwood, the John Ford of American cinema. I guess John Ford is the John Ford of American. That's a stupid thing to say. Anyway, yeah. The 95 World Cup, Rugby World Cup, was hosted by South Africa. And there was, the country, right after apartheid ended, Nelson Mandela was elected as president, and the country was very divided, obviously, after apartheid. And rugby was like a symbol of the apartheid regime, of the Alfred Connors, the excellence or whatever. They really, they loved it. They're big boys, some of those boys.

• 3:35Adam Friedland?

  And Mandela encouraged the country to get behind the team, so it's our team. And, but similarly, you might not know this, 96, in the African Cup of Nations, the South African national team, the Bafana, Bafana, the football team, they won the African Cup of Nations in 96 after being banned for the apartheid for decades. And from what a lot of people say, had it not been for those two sports tournaments, the country would have fallen apart. And it was at a very pivotal time, where, you know, where they were getting out of like a, one of their worst periods in history that we've seen.

• 4:19Adam Friedland?

  And I think it's just awesome. And it's just, it makes me so happy. And I just know that, um, yeah, I called my dad and, uh, yeah. Just, just fucking, this was great about the World Cup. So I just wanted to say that. You cut all this. The Beautiful Pod is brought to you by FanDuel. This summer, America's number one sportsbook is making it easier than ever to get in on the action across all your favorite sports. Think you've got today's home run hitter picked? Check out FanDuel's HR props, including moon shots and lasers for a chance at even bigger payouts. Late to start? FanDuel has you covered with all the live betting options all game long. Download the FanDuel Sportsbook app today and play your game.

• 5:03Adam Friedland?

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• 6:31Adam Friedland?

  Ladies and gentlemen, Moussa Kanga from Berlin, Germany, host of Saudi podcast, one of the best podcasts on football that you can listen to. Please check it out with Ryan Hun, who I had a lovely time meeting at the Emirates. The geezer Ryan, he saw me smoking a cigarette. He said, I haven't had one in years, but for some reason I want to have one right now. And I was like, that makes me feel so nice that I can corrupt you. Now he's in rehab for Sigs. Now he's, it's torn his family apart. I'm terribly sorry. If Ryan's family, I'm sorry. It was all his decision. I told him not to. Moose, how are you doing? How are you enjoying the cup so far?

• 7:07Speaker 02

  Very well, thanks. You know what? It's a vibe. It's an absolute vibe.

• 7:11Adam Friedland?

  We go through this process. Every time we say it's gonna be crap. You know, we see the politics around it. We hear about all the problems and then it starts and we see the whistle and then we're like locked in pretty much immediately. Yeah.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  I think like in terms of stories in the first round, it's as good as any I can remember in recent memory. Obviously, Courtois, the big story and Cabo Verde. But in terms of the big guns, like we're here to talk about the big guns today. We're talking about, you know, Ronaldo, Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi and Kylian Mbappe, you know, in the chasing pack in the Peloton of greats. As you were saying before we were getting on the conversation, this is the culmination of one of the great stories, right? Like Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi, Lionel Messi, arguably their fate so intertwined more than any other great Dior major sport. And at this World Cup, it feels like Messi is no longer seeking anything or wants, he's seeking, but he doesn't want for

• 8:05Speaker 02

  anything. And Cristiano both seeks something and wants something.

• 8:09Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, we've been speaking about it. It's, it is, I've watched some of these goals of Messi scoring and I'm like, I have been so lucky for the last two decades of my life. It has been an honor and a privilege to walk the earth with this gentleman. It's like, we shared a planet with him. And so, but, but narratively speaking, these, these two men, at least in the way that we speak about them, have always been intertwined. And then we see the gentleman that's been referred to as an heir apparent as The heir apparent, potentially, I believe.

• 8:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 8:38Adam Friedland?

  That is now twenty seven. So I kind of want to get a status report from you and and kind of discuss where these two stories are and then kind of by extension where the third story is because to me, and we could preview getting to Mbappe later. This is someone that won the the French league as an eighteen year old with Monaco and the World Cup at nineteen, which is like a accomplishment that is just a we didn't know where it could go and now we're seeing he's won a couple of league titles, of course. But we we've kind of seen and of course, the the fight, the last final for Mbappe was just one of the most brilliant individual performances we've seen in probably the best World Cup final we've ever seen.

• 9:22Adam Friedland?

  Trying to figure out where he's at right now is is is kind of confounding. So but I want to start with Lionel Andres Messi. It's a Messi we've never seen before and I think you and I were talking about it and I think it provides a lot of context of what the pressures he was under throughout his entire career.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:39Adam Friedland?

  Four years ago, we saw him win football and now we're seeing the effect of that afterwards. What do you make of where he is in his story right now?

• 9:46Speaker 02

  Right. So here's the thing. The first thing with Messi is interesting because for years, it was said that he didn't have the passion to play for Argentina, right? He didn't care enough for the national team. This guy's played over two hundred times for his country, right? So actually, if you think about how much else Messi had going on at club level, this is someone who like never shirked responsibility. And yet it was always questioned. Everyone was like, can you follow Maradona? Do you even want to follow Maradona? And that is a level of pressure. Like, it's one thing being the guy, but it's even harder in sport to be the guy that follows the guy in in men's sport, right? It's even hard to be the person following the person. So following in the footsteps of that number ten. And he did it, right? He did it. He he did.

• 10:31Speaker 02

  You can look at what LeBron James has had to do chasing Jordan, but Messi did that on a global scale. It has arguably never been hard to do what Messi's done. And we're seeing now the effects of the liberation. We began to see it during the last World Cup when Messi, who'd previously been fairly quiet, started just going at people in the media. Like in a way he hadn't done before, not through proxies, but face to face. The way that he's playing now, there was a moment actually when he scored the second goal um the other day um against Austria.

• 10:59Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 10:59Speaker 02

  And you saw like the smiles and the liberation and the pressure being lifted. And I'm like, oh my God, like, we haven't seen him like this before. So that's kind, that is kind of frightening for his opposition because at this point, he kind of has nothing to lose. If Argentina go home in the next two rounds, yeah, it's a disappointment, but they're still world champions, right? So he's done it and that, that's a frightening proposition, a genius with nothing to lose.

• 11:23Adam Friedland?

  I, I, I think also if you look at the, his story, which is that he left at thirteen, he got a lot of shit back home for, for leaving. And what he effectively needed was medicine, you know, like uh he went to L M S C at thirteen. Uh Newell's blocked him from playing for a year and his, his mother and siblings had to go back to Argentina. He was homesick as a young child and that is kind of a central trauma that I think has driven him. And also having a pituitary gland deficiency um and being the smallest kid um and, you know, being alone and missing, missing your grandparents and your family. And he still owns the home in Rosario that his grandparents.

• 12:01Speaker 02

  No way.

• 12:02Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, um I think Messi wanted to go home and I think um he was, in my opinion, it was one of the most just unfair things we've watched. His, his treatment by Argentina continuously telling him that he uh was a disappointment. He was finally allowed to go back to Rosario, basically, uh metaphorically. Um and I think what we saw, we, obviously, we don't know these people. Messi and Ronaldo are the two most famous people in the world arguably, right?

• 12:29Speaker 02

  And we don't know them, yeah, we don't.

• 12:31Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, we, we don't know that. So we always like painted Messi as this, this weirdo alien. And what we're seeing is this relaxed Messi, we're in a, what I'm seeing is in, in the press. Where he's like, fuck, I just played ninety minutes. I'm exhausted.

• 12:44Speaker 02

  I'm knackered, yeah.

• 12:45Adam Friedland?

  We've never seen him talk that way before. We've always seen him like, uh, just really just give the media trained responses, kind of look, look away into the distance. But the reason he was doing that wasn't because of any type of like pop psychological diagnosis that we wanted to give him. It was because he was under this tremendous pressure of being unable to go home, right?

• 13:05Speaker 02

  So guarded, so guarded, yeah, in all context, yeah, yeah.

• 13:08Adam Friedland?

  Right now, his father is apparently in poor health. And I think what we're seeing him, the first goal in the second match, the one that's like, are we at the Camp Nou? I mean, it was, it was, it was Barcelona, it was vintage Barcelona. But he's free to just do the thing he, uh, the thing he loves, which is playing ball, like.

• 13:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, to the highest level with, with his friends, crucially, like Rodrigo De Paul, there's like a running meme on the internet about how Rodrigo De Paul is always next to like.

• 13:37Adam Friedland?

  Bodyguard, yeah.

• 13:38Speaker 02

  When he walks out, but you know, also like an outstanding footballer. There is something about the supporting cast, I was watching, um, some Michael Jordan stuff just before this. And Michael Jordan's relationship with Luke Longley and how he was really hard on that guy, but he said, if I had to do the title run again, I would always have Luke Longley in my team. And if you look at what Michael Jordan had in that last run, the three people, the Bulls, he had warriors. And this Argentina team, there's something that Messi didn't have at certain points. They're absolute warriors you can count on them from the back to the front, Emmy Martinez, literally up to Lautaro, who misses some chances, but is always there as a support striker if you need him. And the pressure of being Leo Messi or Lionel Messi crushes most players.

• 14:21Speaker 02

  And you can see this because I look at Lionel Messi's career a bit like, it's like somebody like going up to the scene of, you know, like when, uh, like War of the Worlds, one of these movies, the aliens have attacked. And you're going to fight the aliens and on your way to fight the aliens, there's basically like trails of wreckage. And part of the wreckage are people who basically went over that hill ten minutes before you did.

• 14:42Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 14:43Speaker 02

  And I feel like Messi is like that, like trying to fall on the foot of Maradona. The burnt out shirts, carcasses of footballers who tried to be the next Maradona and it couldn't handle the pressure. And Messi grew up with that. Messi grew up with a whole generation of footballers who were meant to be the next great ten and they couldn't do it and they folded under that pressure. It's because, because it is too much. How do you follow the greatest footballer of all time?

• 15:07Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  The only way to do it is you, you either get crushed by it, become even better.

• 15:10Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, and that's the thing is like, what we saw was like, the fact that he was small. He has this close control. It's a matter of the touches that he takes that is an advantage.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  It had to be. It's not because it's a low center. He had no margin for error. He had no physical advantages other than a spectacular technique. And this is the crucial thing.

• 15:30Adam Friedland?

  Concept of space.

• 15:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly. The anticipation, the vision. That's all he had, right? That's all he had. Yeah.

• 15:36Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, when he's looking left to right, left to right, left to right, what he's doing is he's creating a map of the entire pitch in his mind. He's also doing this thing right now. Have you seen where he's tracking the referee? Because he's like, I'm gonna find space there. Just watch him like.

• 15:48Speaker 02

  Have you not seen, have you not seen a game in La Liga where, no, no, it's hilarious. It's a game he plays where the ref is there and he uses the ref as a screen to get past the player. He plays it past the guy and the guy's like running after him and the ref is acting as a blocker. It's incredible. Yeah.

• 16:03Adam Friedland?

  So I guess just connecting it to, these are the two things, like his inability to go home and also just like his physical limitations were the two things that actually, at the end of the day,

• 16:13Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:14Adam Friedland?

  drove him to win a World Cup and are the thing that when you notice he's made his first move, he's on his third move already. Like, it's because of the way his body is constructed and like, and the way that his mind is just.

• 16:27Speaker 02

  You can argue that Messi's gone full circle. You can argue. You can argue that Messi's gone full circle. So he began his career without the physical attributes that would elevate him to his peak. And as his physical sense declines, he's the teenager again. He's not relying on the burst of acceleration so often. He's not relying on the physical power so often, but he's still quite strong. He's basically back in that kind of primal state where it's back to vision again. So if you see the goal that he scores, the pitch is very congested against Austria when he gets it. He spreads the play, he opens it up and all of a sudden, this Austrian defence, who are used to defending narrow, all of a sudden have to defend loads of space. They lose their minds. Where does Messi do? He just drops the edge of the box and he's in like so much space. Everyone could say like, why not mark Messi? But it's it's so much easier to have him done.

• 17:13Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 17:13Speaker 02

  Like, it's like that scene in, you know, The Dark Knight when the Joker robs the bank and it's like, stop the Joker. Well, you can't because he's deployed everyone as a decoy. And that's what Messi does. In that move, Messi just.

• 17:23Adam Friedland?

  They keep shooting each other.

• 17:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 17:26Adam Friedland?

  And the bus crashes through the wall.

• 17:28Speaker 02

  Messi's the bus crash. Yeah, yeah.

• 17:31Adam Friedland?

  Quite frankly, quite literally. Yeah. So in comparison to Ronaldo. We're seeing it is just it is the most fascinating thing I've ever seen because we're seeing these two stories that have always been intertwined in completely different places. And what you made a good point to me when we were speaking earlier is and it this also applies with the Messi Maradona thing. Maradona came from the slums, right? And Messi was relatively middle class. I think Argentina had a financial crisis while he was a kid. And that's related to why he had to go to Catalonia, but like Ronaldo also came from extreme poverty. What drove him was the fact that like he thought that he could bring his family back together.

• 18:16Adam Friedland?

  And he could inspire his father and his brother to stop killing themselves with drugs. And Cristiano Ronaldo was like, if I get good enough at sports, like maybe they'll see me, right? And in the sense of like Messi wanting to go home, Ronaldo never had a home, I think. And I think that that's that Messi's been able to return home. I think we're still seeing Ronaldo somewhat lost.

• 18:40Speaker 02

  I think, well, I think, I mean, I always, in fairness to Cristiano Ronaldo, of whom I've been critical. I think, and also in fairness to Portuguese people, I think he's always had community. I think his, I think the love that Cristiano Ronaldo has had from Portugal is greater than the love that Messi had at periods from Argentina.

• 18:58Adam Friedland?

  Oh, my God. Better one thousand percent. I mean, he was a god in one place and then he was a pariah in the other place.

• 19:05Speaker 02

  Well, you say, yeah, right. So I think, I think there were times when I think that Barcelona was a sanctuary from the pressures of Argentina. I think Cristiano Ronaldo, there was a lot more love there because of where he elevated Portugal to since the nineteen sixties in terms of the football, right? So he took them back to the mountaintop. So I think that any criticism of Ronaldo from Portuguese corners has to be seen in the context of, yeah, ultimately we criticize this guy now, but he's the reason why we're back on the map to this extent. And I think actually that is why his. His fans and why his teammates are more charitable towards him than maybe some of us have been in terms of some of his performances at this tournament.

• 19:43Adam Friedland?

  A hundred percent. Everyone who plays with him says that he's a good guy, right? Like, for the most part, they say he geez me up, like, he supports people when they need to rise to the occasion. It's not a matter of teammates. I think what we're seeing is the tragedy of this situation, one of the central tragedies, is that Messi's framework for viewing the world is Argentina and Maradona. I think Ronaldo's framework for his career is this rivalry with Messi. And I think that is something that is a major incongruity. And Ronaldo, I think, questions, well, clearly, he's obsessed with me, too. Or, you know, like, clearly, he's looking back at me. Does he care about me? Why doesn't he care about me?

• 20:23Speaker 02

  I don't think he cares to the great, you know, it is, I think he doesn't care.

• 20:26Adam Friedland?

  Well, it's motivated him to be so good, right?

• 20:29Speaker 02

  Messi's deeply competitive, and I do think he cares about this, but he doesn't care about it to the same extent. And that, I think, is the problem. That is painful. Like, if you're not chasing,

• 20:41Speaker 02

  Maradona, like Messi is chasing other things, right? That World Cup, desperate to win it, desperate to be, I think, in that conversation and to have, like, this kind of pressure on his back. The tragedy for Cristiano Ronaldo, I think, is that in any other period of time, he'd be the undisputed best player in the world. In any other, and that guy, that guy, like, it's like being a marathon runner and you break the two-hour mark and there's a guy who's running it in 1:40.

• 21:09Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 21:10Speaker 02

  That's what it's like. You're like, oh, my goodness, there's no one that could be quicker than me. And then you hear the crowd going wild, and then you realize there's someone ahead of you, up ahead, like, out of sight, out of sight around the bend, because of this problem. At the moment, I feel like Messi is out of sight in the most intangible way, right? And it's not the medals, whatever, which is what I think Cristiano Ronaldo would rather it was about. It's about the way they talk about Messi. That's the thing. There's one thing about, beyond trophies, the thing that makes you truly great is when you elevate the status of myth slash legend to the point where, put it this way, I mean, I would say this. If aliens were passing by the solar system, they would watch Messi. They would just tune in and be like, oh, like, I'll check that out.

• 21:51Adam Friedland?

  No, they'd be like, where have you? You've been.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  Where have you been?

• 21:55Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 21:56Speaker 02

  Can I say this? The tragedy of Cristiano Ronaldo is this, right? Um Cristiano Ronaldo does everything I've seen before in football to the highest level possible. Every technique, every touch, every skill, everything. Leo Messi, Lionel Messi does things I've never seen before. That's the difference. Like he invents the game. I, everything that Cristiano Ronaldo has done in football, and God knows how many United fans I've seen, but many great moments. It's, it's, it's football performed to the highest level. What Messi has done is things I did not know were possible within football.

• 22:26Adam Friedland?

  It's Kidde. It's like, what kind of, where's the guitar?

• 22:29Speaker 02

  Thank you, Kidde. Well, you know, because I bought Kidde is a good example because when I bought Kidde, I was a huge Wu-Tang fan, as I still am. And I bought it and I took it back because I didn't understand it. And then I bought it again two weeks later and I said, you know what? Maybe it's just something I'm not processing.

• 22:42Adam Friedland?

  You want to hear?

• 22:43Speaker 02

  And it blew my tiny mind.

• 22:45Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I remember.

• 22:46Speaker 02

  It reconfig, it reconfigured my brain.

• 22:48Adam Friedland?

  I had to say, I, I was like, where's the guitar? Where's the drums? What, what's going on right now? I thought this was rock. Yeah, yeah. It really just recontextualizes the way you see football. And that's what Messi's done.

• 22:58Speaker 02

  And it ruined, it ruined music for me for a couple of years because then I was like, oh, why is no one else making stuff?

• 23:02Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. You know, genuinely, like, that's a tragedy is that you, that Cristiano, if he, his, his context for the way he views his career is this other gentleman, Messi was playing contemporarily with him. Uh, and, and Messi's context is this ghost of Maradona. Quite literally, Maradona passes away in 2020. Messi wins his first Copa in 2021. You know, um, like, I don't think people make that connection very often. And I, I, I think that, but I think Ronaldo feels like this guy that he sees at the ball and door. You know, Messi's a shy person. Messi describes himself as weird. He thinks he's weird. Like if you met Messi, he'd be like, I'm weird, I'm kind of quiet, I'm shy and like, I'm short.

• 23:48Adam Friedland?

  I really like, I'm really good at sports. I bang it. I have to go to my job and just bang it in. But like, uh, it's, it's.

• 23:55Speaker 02

  I, I think, I, I think he, I don't think he's weird. And so I don't think Kawhi, Kawhi Leonard is weird.

• 23:59Adam Friedland?

  Well, he describes himself as weird.

• 24:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think these, I think athletes do that to let, get you to leave them alone. Because if you think of the type of people, look at like his, look who he surrounds himself with, right? Those dudes are not weird, like his closest mates. Look at like Rodrigo De Paul in the Argentine team. That dude is like out there like, that's a bro. Like, I think Messi is actually low key quite a bro, but he goes with the kind of, yeah, I'm just, I'm just there with my lab coat. This guy was hanging out with Ronaldinho so much, they had to sell him because they were worried he was gonna get let out by the night.

• 24:29Adam Friedland?

  How did he not get in trouble? He's eighteen years old and like.

• 24:32Speaker 02

  That's what I'm saying. A weird dude doesn't, a weird dude is like.

• 24:35Adam Friedland?

  He definitely went to the club. Why didn't we ever find out about the club?

• 24:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, because it's Barcelona. You don't, you never find out about the club. It's football. It's like.

• 24:42Adam Friedland?

  But it's Ronaldinho. Other people tell us about the club with him. I just want to know about him taking the seventeen year old and be like, listen, I'm about to show you some crazy shit.

• 24:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, they were like none of that. They were like no more.

• 24:52Adam Friedland?

  Welcome to Barcelona. Yeah, you have to sell Ronaldinho. But he was his first friend too on the first team. Anyway, um. Just going back to it, I think in the same way that his challenges, Messi's challenges. One thing that frustrates me is Ronaldo has this need where he's like, needs Piers Morgan to tell him he's the best player ever. You know, like, it's just like, if he just said fuck, he's like, I fucking am, I'm good. You guys all know that, but like, it sucks. I'm playing at the same time as this freaking freak. Yeah. Not even, I mean, in a playful way. He's like, this sucks. I think we would all just be like, you're right, dude. Like, this, like, I, I think we would feel for Ronaldo. I think he has this, this need for affirmation, which is like clearly like

• 25:34Adam Friedland?

  something that he doubts within himself and it's just a waste of his time. What hurts us about Ronaldo is seeing his insecurity because we want him to just be Ronaldo. We want him to just be really good at ball. It's a matter of him making peace. It, it needs to be said though, that this is the first time that he has played in the United States, you know, since twenty fourteen. Is that correct? And then and it's because of the sexual assault accusation that was settled out of court. And you know, last year was the first time that he returned to the States. He went to a black tie function with Donald Trump at the White House and Mohammed bin Salman. And you know, I think that Messi thinks the president is probably Joan Laporte. Like, I think.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  I know, no. I think Messi is like, I think Messi is extremely smart, extremely smart.

• 26:30Adam Friedland?

  Maybe that's why he doesn't let on.

• 26:32Speaker 02

  He didn't have to. Yeah, he didn't have to go to the White House. He didn't have to do that. Like, there's American sports teams that swerved that. Like, he didn't have to be there. And he went like, I think.

• 26:41Adam Friedland?

  I think that he was ensuring that he could play in the next World Cup. And I think that Infantino, you're gonna. I think Infantino, you're gonna turn over that little violent conduct situation I have in the.

• 26:52Speaker 02

  But this way, Messi Messi has Messi has so much sway culturally. He's one of the few cultural figures that can say no to limitation from someone like Donald Trump and it not affect him at all. Like, he's so powerful. Like, that's the dude that gets all this hope. So I think Messi Messi does what he wants. And I think the characterization of the two of them is, I think, a little misaligned in terms of Messi's not. He's not a saint. He's not. He's just the best footballer most of us are ever likely to see. I don't think there'll be another footballer better than Leo Messi in my lifetime. I cannot see it, right? But I don't think that the reason why I refrain from assessing him on a social level is I just don't know the guy. And I think that.

• 27:32Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you're right.

• 27:32Speaker 02

  I think I think he plays into the weird stuff. I think he plays into it. But from Ronaldo's part, I cannot vouch Ronaldo as a human being. And frankly, thank goodness is all I can say to that.

• 27:42Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 27:43Speaker 02

  As a footballer, what he should have done, in my opinion, and this is not my business because I'm not his PR guy, but still, since we started the conversation, the guy should have just quit some type of football, whether it was professional football, whether it was. International football and actually just like built an alliance with Messi should have reached out should have gone to Argentina and like hung out in some of the spots and be like Leo do you want to get dinner?

• 28:07Adam Friedland?

  He literally married an Argentinian.

• 28:09Speaker 02

  He should have gone and done the photo ops because he didn't want he didn't want to do that because that was about conceding power, right? And a lot of these big athletes, their egos, some of them can't let the chase go.

• 28:18Adam Friedland?

  Correct.

• 28:18Speaker 02

  Some of them cannot let it go. I mean, Michael Jordan has long since retired. He can't let the chase go like watching The Last Dance. Michael Jordan still thinks he's playing basketball.

• 28:26Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 28:27Speaker 02

  He still thinks he's playing basketball. He talks about his teammates as if they're about to suit up and he's going to destroy them in the gym. So this inability to let go, I think is the great tragedy, actually.

• 28:37Adam Friedland?

  There was a year Paul Simon won the best uh best uh album at the Grammys and he was like, I just want to thank Stevie Wonder for not making an album this year, right?

• 28:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, totally.

• 28:45Adam Friedland?

  If you just put it that way, it'd be awesome.

• 28:47Speaker 02

  He should have been like Roger Federer is.

• 28:50Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 28:50Speaker 02

  After he's retired, keep going to like Novak Djokovic's matches, turning up, having vibes because ultimately like Djokovic doesn't get that good without Federer. Messi does Messi doesn't get that good without Ronaldo. So actually just embrace it.

• 29:04Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, just be like, just be like, bro, like, it's, I like, yeah, I wouldn't have almost a thousand goals if it was if it wasn't for this guy's it's bugs the shit out of me.

• 29:14Speaker 02

  I think when you've been locked in that long, my God, I do have to run now. I think when you've been locked in that long, it's hard to let go of it, man.

• 29:21Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 29:21Speaker 02

  It's hard to give up the ring of power. It's hard to give it up.

• 29:24Adam Friedland?

  Bringing it back to the

• 29:25Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 29:25Adam Friedland?

  The heir apparent. Um, and I think that's that is a brilliant point because I I and especially I don't know about with Jordan, but like especially you were saying like when you when you start in a when you come from extreme poverty, you kind of you can't fully get out, right? In a lot of ways in your in your mind. And I think that that is another central difference we see is that there is this insecurity about class that we we can read in uh in Cristiano Ronaldo. We're seeing Ronaldo kind of maybe have an adverse effect. He has the best fucking midfield in the world behind him right now. Like I I would say in the World Cup right now.

• 30:01Speaker 02

  I think so, I think so.

• 30:02Adam Friedland?

  I mean, it's it's a joke actually of a midfield when you read those three days. Um, but we're seeing

• 30:07Speaker 02

  Maybe Spain, but yeah, overall, yeah.

• 30:09Adam Friedland?

  Spain's depth, I think, is is they have the deep

• 30:11Speaker 02

  Spain is Spain is the depth, yeah, yeah.

• 30:13Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 30:15Adam Friedland?

  What I would say is that at at times we're seeing that he's having an adverse effect on a very good team around him. Whether or not we're putting too much into that, that is to be seen. I I that's how I view it. I think Messi, everything he touches artistically is elevated. I think. He he makes Pep the best manager of all time. He makes that midfield behind him is the best midfield of all time. He literally fucking goes to how did they know the baby was in Bob was. How did they know? Literally, how did they know? Everything he touches is blessed, right? And at least in a footballing sense, Ronaldo sometimes does does not have that effect a lot of the time around him.

• 30:55Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, and it's because of we can speculate psychologically in a million different ways, but with in a practical sense, that's what we see. I I watched Dembele in this tournament, and I know he scored a really nice goal, and I watch I I watch the French national team and I I see. First of all, I I see a roster with eight fucking snipers, just just eight assassins. And I I saw that I was talking to you before, like the the last World Cup squad was was for France in four years ago was very open, and we saw. A six goal final and Deschamps completely, he's like, we're going Atletico in the Euros, right? When I looked at this roster prior to the World Cup, I'm like, wow, they're gonna have ten goals a game.

• 31:41Adam Friedland?

  They're just like, it's how are they not gonna have ten goals a game? And what I'm seeing is is kind of it not translating on the pitch and. Because you see him the most because he's the most dynamic player, because he's the best player in the world, or probably. You you see Mbappe kind of have. And because you're he leaves a PSG and they win the Champions League two years in a row, which is actually fucking crazy. And because his last real trophy that he's had is is eight years ago in the in the World Cup. When he was nineteen, when he was fucking killing people too. It wasn't nineteen on the, he wasn't Theo Walcott at fifteen in the world, you know, like.

• 32:22Adam Friedland?

  He was a that was him and Pogba and and, you know, like, he he won the World Cup.

• 32:29Speaker 02

  There's something weird going on. There's something weird going on with Kylian Mbappe.

• 32:32Adam Friedland?

  There's something strange, yeah.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  We haven't seen a genius. We haven't seen a world great spend this long in the waiting room before.

• 32:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 32:40Speaker 02

  Right. What I mean by that is where he was, winning that World Cup, on that run with Monaco, all of that, like, he was primed to go. Someone say fast forward from that moment he won in twenty eighteen and say, how many Ballon d'Or has he got? You'd be like, oh, two or three. Like, if you froze football when he scored the fourth goal. Yeah, exactly. Right, exactly. Like, within fifty, you'd be within fifty. Like. If you froze them, if you froze football, the moment when he scored that fourth goal in twenty eighteen, it gets creation in the finals, the four one up. And say, how many Ballon d'Or will he have? Uh, eight years from now, you'd be like, two or three.

• 33:15Adam Friedland?

  He's nineteen.

• 33:17Speaker 02

  And he has it right. Totally. He's nineteen. Like, what he was on pace to achieve. He was on pace to exceed so many things and he hasn't done it quite at club level because for various reasons. I would argue primarily because of the clubs he's chosen, because I think Luis Enrique wanted to keep him. And I think if he had that, I think Luis Enrique had arrived at PSG. Three years earlier and Mbappe was a bit more coachable. I think it's a different story.

• 33:41Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 33:42Speaker 02

  Now, where Mbappe operates now. And this is, you know, again, I'm very critical of Deschamps, but I will say this. This man has won two World Cups, one as a player, one as a manager, and he won them both by building from the back. From a defensive standpoint, defensive crouch. That is what worked in ninety eight. That is what worked in twenty eighteen, right? He got a bit loose in twenty twenty two because he had to, took off Dembele and Giroud at half time, but fundamentally. Deschamps can say, look, being risk averse is what ultimately is most likely to win me things. And he's right. That's his track record. What he has to do.

• 34:14Adam Friedland?

  The roster doesn't match that, would you say?

• 34:16Speaker 02

  He has to set, he has to set his midfield free.

• 34:20Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 34:20Speaker 02

  At some point this tournament, someone like Zaire Emery has to be allowed to cook.

• 34:25Adam Friedland?

  Why? I don't understand why they're not using him. Why is Dembele playing ten?

• 34:29Speaker 02

  Listen, the greatest managers in football are gamblers, right? Deschamps gambled in the last World Cup final, taking on Giroud and Dembele at half time. He gambled and it was an incredible shout and it worked. It worked in the end. It liberated all the right players. He has to gamble again. Because if you look at someone like Luis Enrique, one of football's great gamblers. If he was coaching this France national team, I'm pretty sure Zaire Emery would be starting.

• 34:50Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 34:50Speaker 02

  I'm pretty sure that midfield will have a different composition. I'm not sure exactly what, but he would find a way. I think Luis Enrique has the genius. To defend and attack with equal intensity.

• 35:01Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 35:01Speaker 02

  They shop hasn't, they shop hasn't got that, hasn't got that.

• 35:04Adam Friedland?

  There's a third name there, which is uh the Zizou. I mean, like, I, I, I think if Zizou's coaching this team, could he convince Messi to play nine? I mean, the team would work that way, right?

• 35:17Speaker 02

  Of course he could.

• 35:19Adam Friedland?

  Um, or sorry, Messi, Mbappe, sorry. I mean, could he?

• 35:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, he could.

• 35:23Adam Friedland?

  Well, quite frankly, Pep was like, play fucking nine. You're a winger and just go, just go in the middle, you know? And I is the, you know, I do, I do think that in this team, you see someone that's best friends with the president. And he's the, he's whatever, he's your, he's bigger than the club, he's bigger than the national team right now, kind of.

• 35:43Speaker 02

  Put it this way, Mbappe, it's so funny, he scores his goals from a nine position. He scores them from a nine, like, this is the thing, the actual runs, he looks, look, it's psychological, I think at a certain point.

• 35:53Adam Friedland?

  Can they get on read a column or something? Just say, I did it.

• 35:56Speaker 02

  I don't.

• 35:57Adam Friedland?

  I went for the left to.

• 35:59Speaker 02

  I think, I think Zidane has the gravitas, Ancelotti had it.

• 36:02Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 36:02Speaker 02

  Ancelotti had him playing as a nine, it was fine, actually. Like, I think these things, um.

• 36:09Speaker 02

  This can work.

• 36:10Adam Friedland?

  Uh, yeah.

• 36:10Speaker 02

  It will work for France, look, I, I still, they're moving through the gears, they're terrifying, he's terrifying. And I think that Mbappe has realized that his path to greatness, to be in that top 10 conversation, it might have to come primarily at a, at a country level. So I think for him, a second World Cup becomes exceptionally important, actually.

• 36:29Adam Friedland?

  Correct. If you want to look at Messi winning football in the last World Cup, like, just like, like, closing the, closing the books on, on, you know, all the ghosts. Um, this is, what we see is a, this was a, a youth phenom at Claire Fontaine.

• 36:43Speaker 02

  Um, yeah.

• 36:44Adam Friedland?

  Uh, Mbappe was a, was a grown man by the time he was 12, uh, and he won football at 19. Uh, and then, and connecting it back to Ronaldo, Ronaldo seems like a person that's terrified of doing, he's terrified of what happens after he doesn't, he stops doing the one thing he's done his whole life, which is play ball.

• 37:02Speaker 02

  I don't know, because he's, he's involved in all these, he's like a Kevin Durant figure, where he's involved in all these different businesses, ventures.

• 37:09Adam Friedland?

  Come on.

• 37:10Speaker 02

  Properties.

• 37:10Adam Friedland?

  It's not ball.

• 37:11Speaker 02

  It's not ball, but like.

• 37:12Adam Friedland?

  You think business is as cool as the World Cup?

• 37:15Speaker 02

  Of course not, but at the same time, I feel like Cristiano Ronaldo has a much bigger hint at that than a Michael Jordan, who always felt like someone who wanted to get in the gym and try and drop fifty on the brunt. I feel that is much more a. I feel like the only reason Ronaldo is still playing football is because Messi is still there setting new records.

• 37:34Adam Friedland?

  I think that's.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  And I think, I think if Messi bounced, Ronaldo bounced.

• 37:37Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:38Speaker 02

  Because I think in his heart, I think if he wasn't a footballer, he would have made a lot of money. He's the type of dude that would have made a lot of money somehow. Actually, I think he's just one of those people that would have found something to apply himself to and just made some money somehow. He would have been like, he would have been a merchant or something. I genuinely think he's that kind of. I think he has more strings to his bow than just a pure football obsessive.

• 37:58Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 37:59Speaker 02

  But yeah, I mean, at the same time.

• 38:01Adam Friedland?

  But it's the thing that, like, connected back to his, his family story. Like, it is the thing that he used to be seen.

• 38:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 38:08Adam Friedland?

  It's the thing. Football was the way that he thought that his father would see him. He was like, please come to you, you like, dad, I, uh. I, you wanna come see me at Old Trafford? I, I play for Sir Alex Ferguson. You know the Theatre of Dreams? And he's like, ah. God, I, I, you're, I'd rather hang out with your brother, do drugs, you know, in the house you bought us.

• 38:29Speaker 02

  I wouldn't be surprised.

• 38:30Adam Friedland?

  I don't know if they have the channel of, I don't know if they have the channel of your game, but we'll try and find it, yeah.

• 38:34Speaker 02

  I wouldn't be surprised if he ended up doing something political.

• 38:37Adam Friedland?

  Oh, no. We gotta stop that.

• 38:39Speaker 02

  I'm not saying what that, but I'm, I'm saying that for him, it's about like making money and being seen.

• 38:45Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 38:46Speaker 02

  I don't think that, I don't think that he, I don't think that when he leaves football, this will be the last that we see of him.

• 38:52Adam Friedland?

  Oh, my god.

• 38:53Speaker 02

  If he just cared about football, he wouldn't be going to the White House. He wouldn't be hanging out with those people. He would just be nerdy, geeky, like, oh, numbers.

• 38:59Adam Friedland?

  Well, he's named after Ronald Reagan, you know that.

• 39:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely. He might, he's probably Reaganite as well, but.

• 39:04Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 39:04Speaker 02

  But look, even going to Saudi in this like global states person thing, statesman thing, this guy is like. I don't think that football is the last we're gonna see of this guy.

• 39:15Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 39:15Speaker 02

  I don't think that at all.

• 39:16Adam Friedland?

  I I can't imagine it is.

• 39:18Speaker 02

  For good or ill, for good or ill.

• 39:19Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah, I think that's the end of the world. You really just scared me. I know that's your boy. I know that, but that's terrifying. Also, I mean, like, so, but, yeah, I think if we connect it, like, um, uh, we see the beta tester of the next generation in Mbappe, where he is, uh, it's Project Mbappe at Clairefontaine by the time he's 11 years old. He's, he's next up. The entire, you know, he, in the, in America, I was explaining to you NIL, like, um, you become a professional athlete after you get drafted in the league. That's how it worked forever. And now that, uh, amateur athletes can get paid in the States, uh, kids are sponsored and making a ton of money, uh, by the time they're, you know, in, uh, middle school, a lot of the time, some of the time.

• 40:03Adam Friedland?

  It, it changes your celebrity. Messi had to wait properly to be 18 years old to go to play at the Camp Nou. Uh, Ronaldo had to break through at Lisbon. Uh, this is a, this is a new generation and, and, and quite frankly, in the same ways LeBron is the beta tester of being a superstar in, uh, you know, an era with Twitter and an era with a different relationship with the media, for instance, like, uh, uh, there, you would never, there was no Twitter during, uh, Jordan. Jordan would have, uh, uh, them killed. You'd have everyone, no, I'm just kidding. But like, but like, uh, but no, but really, uh, like, uh, we thought Michael Jordan hung out with Bugs Bunny and, uh, when he wasn't playing basketball and, you know, like, we, we didn't know anything about it.

• 40:45Speaker 02

  He was gambling. He was in Atlantic City. Um, and that's, that's all we found out about. That's what we knew about.

• 40:50Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I, I, I think Mbappe, um, yeah, I think we, we're seeing him, A, in the waiting room, like you're saying, but B, we're seeing him be the first of this next generation. And, you know, he, winning the World Cup at 19, I, I think, to some extent, you could be lost in a lot of ways, you know?

• 41:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's amazing. He wasn't. I mean, look at Mario Götze. Mario Götze, obviously injury issues, so we can't criticize him for that. But the pressure of being. But everyone, Mario Götze, when he was coming through the ranks in Germany, was expected to be the next big thing. He achieved his footballing destiny at like twenty one, twenty two.

• 41:26Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 41:26Speaker 02

  And what that does to you, like, he scored the World Cup winning goal and he's not on the World Cup Germany squad and it's not weird. It's totally normal. He's like out of that level of football. And like Mbappe, maybe we don't give enough credit for the fact that like it hasn't crushed him altogether. Cause it should have. It should have crushed him. Yeah, yeah.

• 41:42Adam Friedland?

  And maybe he's just someone that was robbed of a childhood to some extent, right? Maybe he's like, maybe he's a grown ass man at eleven and he's just like, yeah, I'd pack my briefcase and go to Clairefontaine.

• 41:54Speaker 02

  I will say one of the most, I will say one of the most impressive things I've ever seen is that this man won a lawsuit against an actual nation state.

• 42:00Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  Over his wages and PSG. I mean, that Mbappe has handled at his age, a level of responsibility that no one fractured have to, especially an athlete. I mean, the thing with the World Cup final, when like Macron is like clinging to his coattails because he knows that Mbappe is like, say so.

• 42:18Speaker 02

  It's bleak, but that's where the power, that's where the power lies.

• 42:21Adam Friedland?

  I was saying, can you imagine being on that team and be like, God, dude, the.

• 42:24Speaker 02

  So bleak, so bleak.

• 42:26Adam Friedland?

  He's like, oh my God, why do you hang out with the president, dude?

• 42:29Speaker 02

  Put it this way, put it this way, everyone, everyone with any kind of sway has been at the last couple of World Cup finals because they know that's where the power lies.

• 42:37Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 42:38Speaker 02

  In that room, in that space, getting a ticket to that final, being on that balcony, that's where the power is. And who's orchestrating the power? It's people like Messi and Mbappe. And it sounds ridiculous, but that's kind of what it is.

• 42:48Adam Friedland?

  So that's how you got tickets to the final?

• 42:50Speaker 02

  I wish, oh my God.

• 42:52Adam Friedland?

  I thought you said, I thought you said your boy, uh, Gianni, Johnny, you call him Johnny, Johnny Infantino.

• 42:58Speaker 02

  Maybe Ryan's got tickets to the final.

• 42:59Adam Friedland?

  Does Infantino, does Infantino mean baby? Why doesn't anyone talk about this?

• 43:05Speaker 02

  People talk about it. Johnny Infant. Johnny.

• 43:08Adam Friedland?

  Johnny baby. Oh, Johnny baby. He sounds like a mobster. Musa, have a nice night. I, it's a pleasure talking to you. You're the best.

• 43:17Speaker 02

  That's just mine.

• 43:17Adam Friedland?

  You're a phenomenal guy.

• 43:19Speaker 02

  And I really appreciate that. Before I go, I'm on the board of Reboot FIFA. We're trying to launch the biggest ever class action lawsuit against FIFA to reform FIFA. So yeah, check it out. Reboot FIFA.

• 43:29Adam Friedland?

  Okay, edit point, cut that, cut that right now. Edit, come on, what are you doing?

• 43:35Speaker 02

  Security.

• 43:37Adam Friedland?

  Lord Wenger, I'm sorry. Lord Wenger.

• 43:42Adam Friedland?

  You're the best. Thank you, bro. The Beautiful Bod is brought to you by FanDuel. On the biggest stage in the world, FanDuel is changing the game because sometimes your player gets subbed off and your bet goes with them. Not anymore! With FanDuel SuperSub, if your player is subbed out, your bet stays in. That's right, if your player leaves the match, your bet continues on with the substitute. So you're still in it until the final whistle. Because in matches like these, anything can happen. And now, your bet can go the distance. Let there be goals this summer on FanDuel. Visit FanDuel.com/TAFS to get started now. Disclaimer: 21+ Select States or 18+ DC,

• 44:21Adam Friedland?

  Kentucky, Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut.

• 44:34Speaker 03

  This episode is brought to you by EA Sports FC27. Welcome to the world's game. FC27 is introducing The Grounds, where the streets meet the stadium. Connect with friends, go pro, and express yourself, on or off the pitch. Play FC27 with the ultimate edition September 18. Learn more at EA.com. Rated E for everyone. Includes in-game purchases including random items. The Grounds is only available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and S, PC and Nintendo Switch 2 versions.

• 45:04Speaker 04

  Before this...

• 45:08Speaker 04

  There's this.

• 45:12Speaker 04

  As you celebrate the game, take a deeper look at its roots. The people grow in the grass, paving the lots, welding the goalposts, inspecting every football. The hard-working people that make every Sunday possible. Carhartt is proud to outfit the crews behind the game. Visit Carhartt.com/jointhetrades to learn more.

• 45:34Adam Friedland?

  I'm joined by my buddies Clive Palmer, Elliot Smith. They're from, I think, perhaps the most brilliant podcasts, club-specific podcasts. It's called Arsenal Fan TV.

• 45:45Speaker 05

  Oh, you son of a...

• 45:47Adam Friedland?

  Stop it. Stop it. Now, they're from the Arsenal Vision Podcast. It's my favorite podcast and I've leveraged my internet micro-celebrity to suck up to them, become their friends, allow them to do...

• 45:59Speaker 05

  He's not wrong. That's exactly what's happening. I can vouch for that.

• 46:02Adam Friedland?

  I've been banned from their podcast and now for them, I just want to be seen. I want to be noticed. I've started my own show. This is, you know, this is going out to no one. I just am doing a Zoom call with production people here, just so we can hang out. Welcome, guys. How are you? Enjoy the cup?

• 46:19Speaker 06

  It's good. It's very interesting seeing the world come together and seeing that different ways of different communities all enjoy football differently. So, yeah, it's been cool.

• 46:29Speaker 05

  I'm just glad everybody finally agrees it's called soccer.

• 46:32Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. But you don't do that when you talk to them.

• 46:37Speaker 05

  I think they call this code-switching, Adam.

• 46:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 46:40Speaker 05

  I'm code-switching with you.

• 46:40Adam Friedland?

  You do code-switch. You say, "Rose Ed" and stuff like that. I'm like, "What the hell is he? Who's he trying to... Rose Ed? What the hell is "Zed"? I just shout at Patreon, my Patreon app, "Elliot, what are you doing"?

• 46:53Speaker 06

  If he doesn't talk properly, I'm not talking to him. Similar to that, right?

• 46:56Speaker 05

  See, I'm being bullied. It's a microaggression.

• 46:59Adam Friedland?

  For anyone that doesn't know, you should check out their podcast, even if you're not an Arsenal supporter. And they run, perhaps, I think, the most brilliant podcasts. I've really learned a lot about the game and I've...

• 47:11Speaker 05

  Mostly from Clive, to be fair.

• 47:12Adam Friedland?

  Yes, 100% from Clive. I just copy what he says and say, I miss, I fuck it up all the time. I'm always like, yeah. I'm always like, anyway. So, I wanted to do a rundown of just three areas of focus, which is primarily is going to be England, Brazil, and then the States. Elliot, I know you bought in. Luckily, I didn't buy in. I'm a Rose Ed kind of guy. I never believed in them in the first place. You got arsenaled. I'm sorry. It's the hope that kills you. It's over. Okay, but first, I kind of want to introduce you guys to a segment that we have on the show. It's called The Gaffer. So every week, or every episode, we feature another one.

• 47:53Adam Friedland?

  We did Steve Clark, we did Erv Renard, which, by the way, he's lost his diplomatic immunity. He has to go back to France to have sex and stuff. It was great while it lasted, Erv, or Herv, or whatever. Yeah, I was, he is the kind of guy that, like, you're on vacation, he's in a speedo, and you're like, he's like, just like, sultrally looking at your girlfriend, and you're like, what? Like, can you put your penis away? Like, and then he does an incredible dive, and it was like, oh, God, that guy was unreal.

• 48:22Speaker 05

  The exact opposite of how people react to Calafiore walking the beaches of Rio de Janeiro right now.

• 48:27Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, oh, my God. Well, it's winter there, but I imagine it's still, can you imagine? We were on the phone yesterday, I was like, I just, I think I'm in love with him, Elliot. I think I'm actually, I think he's beautiful.

• 48:39Speaker 05

  Everybody is.

• 48:40Adam Friedland?

  I want to kiss him all, anyway, so this episode of The Gaffer's, let's talk about Jesse Marsh, coach of Canada. What do you guys make of Marsh? I think he's a, I think he's a rising star in the world of coaching and football. Would you, would you agree?

• 48:58Speaker 06

  I think he's a bit more 50/50 than that, my friend.

• 49:01Adam Friedland?

  Oh, come on, that's, that's classic.

• 49:06Speaker 06

  I think he's struggling a little bit, you know, I think a lot of his systems have been rumbled. I think in the game, there's a 50/50 on him. I mean, I'm not sure.

• 49:13Adam Friedland?

  The man is a virtuoso. I mean, I think he was a prodigy. Clive, are you familiar with Benedict Arnold? Do you know who that is?

• 49:22Speaker 06

  I do and I don't.

• 49:24Adam Friedland?

  I think you are. I think you are. I think, I'm pretty sure you know who Benedict Arnold is. Look at him, all coy. Benedict Arnold, of course, was a, was an American Army officer in General George Washington's army, who was entrusted with the post of, I believe it was, what was it, West Point, very important post of General Washington's. I entrust you with this, and he turned coat. He turned coat, and he joined the Redcoats. He stabbed us in the back, and he broke Washington's heart. How does that make you feel? Are you like, yes?

• 49:56Speaker 05

  Got one over on us.

• 49:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, congratulations Clive, you got one. Okay, you and your red coats.

• 50:02Speaker 05

  Is that where Eggs Benedict come from?

• 50:04Adam Friedland?

  I believe so. Yes, it does. It does. Yeah. It's because that was his favorite food and we wanted to honor. Anyway, so think of him as a more successful, I would say Jesse Marsh. I think, for those of you who don't know Jesse Marsh, he is, I guess, an American football coach who's been described as, you know, by everyone as a prodigious talent despite only being 52. He's built quite the resume for himself. Just five years ago, he was coaching the mighty Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga.

• 50:42Speaker 05

  That's a good team.

• 50:44Adam Friedland?

  And July 1st, 2021, he moved to RB Leipzig, where he took the Bundesliga by storm. He amassed a gaudy 38% win percentage before being dismissed December 5th, 2021, in what many are calling a July-December love affair. Romance, if you will, but that wasn't the end of his story, far from it. Next up was the Prem, where he took Leeds United to a very brave and respectable 29% win percentage and 17th place in the table. Obviously, the US men's national team would be the next logical step for this precocious 52-year-old, a rising star, young baby-style talent. That, you know, a Mozart, if you will. But, but of course, what happened, and it was tough to watch,

• 51:28Adam Friedland?

  was that the backwards hillbillies at the American FA instead chose this gentleman Mauricio Pochettino, a grizzled 54-year-old journeyman with an uneven record, who took, he was able to only manage one Champions League final for English football giants Tottenham Hotspur. Also, kind of like, think, if you guys aren't familiar, they're kind of the Bayern Munich of England. And he only could take them once to the Champions League final. And then he toiled away in the lowly French league with Paris Saint-Germain, with, he coached Messi and Mbappe. Anyway, so you can't blame Jesse Marsh for feeling...

• 52:05Adam Friedland?

  Betrayed, disrespected. I mean, it makes absolutely no sense why the American FA would have hired, "Look at this guy. I mean, he's suffering because of whatever. I mean, look at that picture. Would you entrust your team with that?" Oh, vague. Anyway, so we all watched him get stabbed in the back over and over again. We all did nothing. But our friends in the north welcomed him with open arms. And the years since, he's revolutionized Canuck football. He's led them to an otherworldly 42% win percentage in the world's most competitive football conference, of course, CONCACAF, otherwise known as the Conference of Death. And he's earned the right to speak his truth. He's said things like, "I don't care about

• 52:47Adam Friedland?

  the US team. I never want to coach the US national team." And sorry, celebration police. He's made sure after each victory to stay on the pitch for at least one hour, dancing for his adoring fans. Now, Clive, imagine, if you will, an English-generational footballing genius, like Neil Warnock, for instance. And you find that you realize that he's in Scotland. He's turned up in Scotland. And he's started chatting shit to you, hurling insults at King Charles, your hero. And Clive's here, like, imagine then, if Neil Warnock

• 53:32Adam Friedland?

  takes his Loch Ness monsters down to, say, California in the round of 32, where you can't hide anymore behind a tightly-guarded international border, the Scottish-English border to the north.

• 53:46Speaker 06

  Unbelievable history, isn't it?

• 53:48Adam Friedland?

  Exactly. And as it all stands, and listen, where he can't hide anymore, he's no longer protected, and all that stands in his way is the mighty Bafana Bafana of South Africa. Neil Warnock, of course, I'm talking about, right? And they are led by, of course, Belgian 40-year-old veteran manager Hugo Bruus. We all know him. He's an avid cyclist. He has no time for social media. And he told the South African FA that they were free to kill him if he didn't make the World Cup. We all know him.

• 54:23Speaker 06

  That's why I call accountability.

• 54:25Adam Friedland?

  So, Clive and Elliot.

• 54:30Adam Friedland?

  If Neil Warnock had been so disrespectful to you, we'll call him Neil Warnock, Benedict Arnold. And he came to Los Angeles, Los Angeles, England, in this analogy.

• 54:41Adam Friedland?

  It would be incumbent on all of us to get behind the Bafana Bafana. I'm talking about the Crips, the Bloods, the Latin Kings, the Millwall fans.

• 54:51Speaker 05

  This whole thing feels like the Always Sunny in Philadelphia whiteboard meme at this point.

• 54:55Adam Friedland?

  This is, guys, this is a presentation that I give at the beginning of the episode, okay?

• 54:59Speaker 05

  Okay, okay.

• 54:59Adam Friedland?

  All right. Would you let Neil Warnock out of the stadium alive? I'll go to you, Elliot.

• 55:07Speaker 05

  I'm a renowned pacifist, okay? I run faster scared than angry, so I would, I would let someone else handle Neil Warnock. And I would say Neil Warnock is an intimidating figure in general. And of all of the professional football managers that I feel I could take in a confrontation, he would not be high up the list. Granted, it would be a very, very short list, but he would not be on it. So no, I would allow him to do really whatever he needs to do.

• 55:31Adam Friedland?

  I'd say he's top three for me. I'd say probably number two behind Allardyce.

• 55:36Speaker 05

  Is that your actual living room?

• 55:38Adam Friedland?

  No, they built this.

• 55:40Speaker 05

  It's beautiful.

• 55:41Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I have the picture of, who's this? This guy, this cartoon. Yeah, I have this kissing thing here. Clive.

• 55:49Speaker 05

  Is that, is that a Spain scarf?

• 55:52Adam Friedland?

  I don't know. Where'd they get this from? They put it here. I don't know.

• 55:57Adam Friedland?

  Does it look like a living room? I just found out I could do this.

• 55:59Speaker 05

  It looks like you live there, yeah.

• 56:00Adam Friedland?

  Anyway, we'll cut around that. I do live here, when I'm on the, when I'm in the doghouse. So I'm just saying, Clive and Elliot,

• 56:12Adam Friedland?

  South Africa have to win. We have to beat this asshole that's just shouting across the border at us, telling us that we're not that cool and that he deserved the job over a guy that coached Messi and took a dog shit and taught him. Right? And I just, I'm just saying, like, can you just, can you just appeal to her? I know you guys are big South African fans yourselves, my homeland.

• 56:35Speaker 06

  More the rugby, to be honest. More the rugby, I follow that really closely. Yeah, and that's, they've had such a healing effect on the country, right? It's unbelievable what they're doing and... How they live and how they train.

• 56:47Adam Friedland?

  And Rassie, Rassie, Rassie Erasmus, he's a genius.

• 56:51Speaker 06

  That's my favorite.

• 56:52Adam Friedland?

  He's kind of the Mick, he's kind of a Mikel in the way that he's like kind of the system he set up. I don't know.

• 56:59Speaker 06

  I study him, I watch videos on him all the time, he's a genius, honestly, he's a genius.

• 57:04Adam Friedland?

  I love him, and he's a great person. So guys, we're gonna, we have to beat this Jesse Marsh, and here's the point, that went on a little long. I was very excited last night when I was writing it, I thought Clive would laugh, I thought.

• 57:16Speaker 06

  I laugh all the time.

• 57:18Adam Friedland?

  Jesse Marsh is a nob, and South Africa have to beat him, he's coming to America after talking crap to us. Guys, you know what to do, and I'm talking to you, the Millwall, LA supporters, okay. Guys, let's talk about, speed round, let's talk about the three kind of spheres of influence I want to focus on, England, Brazil, and the United States. Specifically, I kind of want the theme for this discussion to be, have we been arsenalled? Have we been hoodwinked by literally one and a half USA matches and maybe, let's call it the third quarter of the first England match, into thinking that positional football is going to take over the World Cup? I think I'm starting to remember that, no, this is an endurance test, it's a blood sport,

• 58:03Adam Friedland?

  it's nil-nils, it's penalty shootouts, it's tight matches, it's nervy. Do you think, especially with the England national team, we saw with them, do you think that Tuchel can emulate kind of what his system is? Or he has to adjust to kind of the environment of the knockouts, like moving forward?

• 58:24Speaker 06

  Yeah, you've always got to adjust, right? This tournament goes on for about three years, right? So he's only just drawn one game, it's not a problem here, and I think he will adjust, but he should adjust on the future, not just on what just happened, and think, oh, this happened, I must make changes for that. Just stick to your plan and he'll be fine, I think England have got a really good side. And then they just played a really physical Ghana and they struggled and that that happens sometimes, right? If you can't win, don't lose.

• 58:51Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Elliot, what do you think? Like, how are they going to look in the knockouts? Because like, you want to, can you play like a pressy Tuchel style system, especially in a thousand degree inferno? Like, is that possible? Is this just a sort of like an endurance test and about survival? Or is this, can you apply kind of some of your higher principles that we're all getting excited about after one match? Like, the first, the first go around?

• 59:15Speaker 05

  I do think that the best managers have traditionally been in club football and we're seeing some of them in the international game now. And I think it's improving the game and it's improving the performances of those teams. And I expect England will benefit from that as the tournament goes on. I think the USA have definitely benefited from that. Even something as silly as Pochettino understanding to rotate his team for a meaningless third group stage game. Don't get roped into the fact that Brad Pitt is at SoFi Stadium and the non-football knowing American public is going to be mad if you lose the game. Rotate, rest, be ready for the knockout rounds. I've enjoyed watching the US. I think that front footed style has led to more entertaining football. Football that maybe people who

• 59:58Speaker 05

  aren't as familiar with, with the sport can get behind and get excited about. So I do think that these, these club managers are making a difference. I think you'll see that as the tournament goes on. And my hope is that we continue to see more of it because I think it's good for international tournaments to have better managers in the game.

• 1:00:12Adam Friedland?

  And also people are kind of ignoring what's happening outside in the camp, right? Which is this hell. Clive, are you familiar with the National Lampoon's Vacation film series?

• 1:00:23Speaker 06

  I am.

• 1:00:24Speaker 05

  I told him you wouldn't know that, Clive.

• 1:00:26Adam Friedland?

  And what I would say, so, so this is what England has had to deal with. We've kept a running list. Of course, there was a gun, gun violence. There was nine people were shot next to the camp, a tornado, a hurricane, their prime minister resigned, they got robbed. Harry Kane was naked for three days because he had no clothes because they were, okay? No, some of them were sunburned.

• 1:00:49Adam Friedland?

  They have a German coach after what they did, I can't believe it. Harry Maguire is stalking them. Harry Maguire is following them around the country, saying, "I'm doing a merchandise signing, but I have my boots if you guys need, I'm here." The Scottish drank all their beer in Boston. Americans brought the Declaration of Independence to training and they got the entire England team to sign it. And of course, most recently, in the Ghana match, they were cursed by an African witch doctor. But, I don't know if you heard this, he was nice enough, he's like, "It's gonna be one match and I'll lift the curse." So, he's a nice guy.

• 1:01:29Adam Friedland?

  But, if we're looking ahead, there is a potential for, if they get to round at 16, them playing with the ghosts of Maradona at altitude in the Azteca against Mexico. Literally, is this just a cursed trip led by Mr. Chevy Chase to Wally World? What are you rating their chances right now? Like, to me, after, I'd say the first match, I said, I'd say, I kind of bought in. And I think, I thought there was a high probability of them winning this tournament.

• 1:02:12Adam Friedland?

  Now, I've convinced myself that it's the hope that kills you. So, like, where are you guys seeing, you know, where do you see this team going?

• 1:02:21Speaker 06

  Yeah, I think they could do alright. I think Elliot said it, he nailed it really. This is the World Cup of the managers. The quality of managers is so much better, you know? And that's led to proper tactics. You know, honestly, I've got an idea what they're trying to do. And so, I think Tootle's really good. He's a top-level guy. And I think top-level managers now looking at the work-life balance they have in national football versus club football and saying, "Let's go." So, I think England could do really well. He understands why he's selecting every player, and I think they're gonna go far.

• 1:02:53Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:55Speaker 05

  Look, Arsenal 22 years of hurt, done. The Knicks 53 years of hurt, done. England 60 years of hurt, done. Things happen in threes. It's coming home.

• 1:03:05Adam Friedland?

  At least 39 years.

• 1:03:07Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:03:10Adam Friedland?

  You think it's coming home? For me personally, because I'm like, uh, cause I'm a Rose Ed kinda guy, like I just want England to win because I want to see my boys happy. The real question I have in my mind is, do I want to see Hurricane happy? I don't know. But when, let's focus on the captain. I haven't, I can't identify a Harry Kane moment that he's had for the national side. I can't identify a moment where it's like, this is him, the Harry Kane game, put the team on his back. And like, I think, a question I have for you is like, I'm seeing Jude free of the dictator finally. And I'm like, oh yeah, like actually, uh, he's kind of living his truth finally. The, the, you know, the, the Charles de Gaulle or whatever, you know what I'm talking about.

• 1:03:52Adam Friedland?

  Mbappe, uh, Mbappe, yeah, Vinny and Jude are just free now of the shackles of this fucking, oh anyway, but, um,

• 1:04:03Adam Friedland?

  one thought I've kinda had is like, maybe we don't wait for Harry Kane to have that moment. Can Jude kind of be the Zizou of, the 98 Zizou of, of, of the, yeah, nice, the graphic.

• 1:04:15Speaker 05

  Is that Mbappe?

• 1:04:17Adam Friedland?

  That's me.

• 1:04:17Speaker 05

  Korean dictator?

• 1:04:18Adam Friedland?

  No, that's, uh, Kim, Kim Jong Il. Kim Jong Un.

• 1:04:22Speaker 05

  Kim Jong Un.

• 1:04:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. So, oh no, that's a, uh, that's, no, I'm not gonna say that.

• 1:04:29Adam Friedland?

  You know what I was gonna say, but I'm not gonna say it, but we, thank God, South Africa avenged us. How many times have we seen Sun bury that chance? Back to the show, um, do you think that Jude should actually be the one who emerges?

• 1:04:43Speaker 06

  I think he's trying to. Um, I don't think our media are too happy with him trying to emerge. They're happy when Harry's the main man, but he won't be stopped, right? He's 22, I think he's the youngest player ever to reach 50 caps, right? He's, he's coming, he's on his way and he, and he won't be stopped and he's a superstar. But the moment he plays the bad pass, the press will be after him. That's just the nature of the beast, right?

• 1:05:06Adam Friedland?

  And why is that, Clive?

• 1:05:11Speaker 06

  You stitched him on there.

• 1:05:13Adam Friedland?

  Because it's an anti Birmingham bias in the media.

• 1:05:17Speaker 06

  I think we have.

• 1:05:19Adam Friedland?

  What were you thinking?

• 1:05:20Speaker 06

  I was just thinking, yeah, we have things, we have, we see certain people as leaders and we don't see others. Simple as that, right? That's nature the beast.

• 1:05:29Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Okay, we'll move on from that. I mean, like, do you, I kind of like, for me, I kind of, Elliot, like, I think Jude kind of, that's the potential for the, because two years ago, he was the face of English football. Like, before the Euros, it was the Hey Jude commercial, like, and it kind of feels like the last two years.

• 1:05:46Speaker 05

  Well, and he got a lot, he got pelters for that in some, in some corners of the media as well.

• 1:05:49Adam Friedland?

  What? Shut, they can shut up. Okay, can they shut?

• 1:05:52Speaker 05

  You like how I said pelters there, by the way? That was for you.

• 1:05:54Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. No, I thought it was bloody brilliant. I thought you were, I thought you were buffing, you're buffing mad for that, or you're, you're a regular Gryffindor, whatever. Anyway, no, but like, yeah, it does feel like that, that kind of, him being the face of England stalled, they can shut up. Oh, sorry, Ethan did the same touchdown dance as fricking Hall. Shut up. Just let, they're such babies. Oh, I'm scandalized. Meghan Markle. Oh, look at, anyway, but it continued. I'm going on.

• 1:06:29Speaker 05

  Well, I do think Jude is an interesting player because I'm not entirely sure what he is positionally. He's one of these players that seems to be there for the big moment. He arrives in the box, he scores the goal, he wants to be everywhere. He has that Roy of the Rovers quality that Declan Rice has too, but, you know, I, I don't totally know if they have the construction in the midfield completely right. I don't know that you need Elliot Anderson and Declan Rice in the same midfield together. Clive's gonna make fun of me. Get rid of the double pivot, go to a single pivot, bring in a 10.

• 1:06:56Adam Friedland?

  170 million pounds.

• 1:06:58Speaker 05

  Yeah, put Azan next to Jude. Let them play off of Kane more because look Kane Kane is not thriving right now because he's a wardrobe, right? He stands still. But if you have someone that stands still, you need Jude who runs beyond. You need someone to combine with him and I don't think Anderson or Rice are the right guy for that. So that's just me. I don't think they're platforming Kane very well. And while I think there's a world where you could play with someone else up front, England aren't going to do that. So you have to set yourself up to platform Kane. But I'm sure, Clive, you would disagree with that.

• 1:07:26Speaker 06

  I do disagree because they are doing, they're doing everything in their power to platform him by allowing him to go everywhere. And then you need someone to hit the box and that happens to be Jude. And so the thing with Kane is he, maybe we're building a system around him too much because when he's marked, then nothing else works. I think Kane is the plus point, but he's also the single point of failure. And then we look at everything else, you know, and we shouldn't look at everything else. We should think to ourselves, okay, in the next game, for example, do we need a penalty box presence? Do we need someone in the box? So we can play to that person in the box. And if Kane wants to go free, then he becomes a number 10. And then you can drop Jude back one. And then you can go that way. And I think

• 1:08:10Speaker 06

  we must have a box presence because Panama are not coming to play. And so I think that's what you'd learn from the last game, you know, Ivan Tony, I know it sounds strange, but that's the play I would play in the next game.

• 1:08:21Speaker 05

  I would assign him personal.

• 1:08:23Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Like, I kind of like do somewhat agree, like the balance probably instead of Anderson would be probably better if we had Adam Wharton, kind of as a line breaking, like point god, kind of Chris Paul. Sorry, you're gonna have to hear my references. Okay?

• 1:08:44Speaker 06

  I know Chris Paul.

• 1:08:45Adam Friedland?

  Kind of as a point god. No, so, but I actually now, I kind of now that I think that we're going to the knockout stages, actually that pairing of Anderson with Rice and Jude actually is better suited to that game state, which is just, so it's like kind of, it's interesting, it's like going into the tournament, I was like, Adam Wharton should be the third. And now 170 million pound man, Elliot Anderson, I think is better suited for just the, these cagey blood. 170. Did you hear Chris Samba got a 290 million transfer?

• 1:09:24Speaker 06

  Are we talking dollars or pounds, right? It's 160 million pounds, right? So, yeah, there you go.

• 1:09:29Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, one of these prices. How the hell did? Who the hell did Barcelona decide 75 million for Gordon? I don't know why I'm talking like an old Jew right now, but 75 million? The prices, I think I'm talking about the prices. The prices are crazy. No, anyway. Yeah, I mean, it's just like, yeah, I think that that actually, that midfield setup, kind of looking forward, is actually suits them well, in fact.

• 1:09:55Speaker 06

  Yeah, it's two tournaments, isn't it? There's a tournament of the rounds and a tournament for knockouts. Come the knockouts, Elliot will be wanting his double pivot back me, I promise you that.

• 1:10:06Adam Friedland?

  Okay.

• 1:10:06Speaker 05

  Me or the footballer? Share a name.

• 1:10:09Adam Friedland?

  So, like, the next case study is like, in our, I mean, Clive just said, this could be the World Cup of managers, but let's not forget that we have fallen for it again. After the first Brazil match, we, how many times have we said this about Carlo? Oh, it's over, they don't have the talent. How many times? And then some guy, some rando from fricking, from Swansea, who's 39 years old, scores two in extra time. How many times has it looked like Pep's been in a lair with buns and burners and beakers going insane? And he's like, I'm gonna have Kyle Walker play nine tomorrow, Carlo won't see that coming. And then Carlo's like, I'm gonna look like I'm doing no work at my job,

• 1:10:52Adam Friedland?

  and smoke a cigarette, and it is, and it's not gonna work. It's the, it is the, is the, the, just the, it's, I mean, I think, who's, it's, what's the word for it? I mean, it's aura, right? Or vibes, right? Like, I just, I aspire to be just a guy that likes, just, I like heavy meals. I like a heavy pasta meal with red wine. And I just stand there and just like, look bored. But no. We're looking at them like after the first match, we're like it's a rap on Brazil. It's not happening. Their midfield looks doo doo. But like, you know, Carlos coming out of the group with seven points, right? Carlos also said that this is not about the team that scores the most goals.

• 1:11:36Adam Friedland?

  It's about the team that prevent like that prevents goals. Is that actually like, are we, are we putting too much into the thought that this is like, that Cruyffian Hugo de Posicion will be a factor in, in a tournament that is effectively just an endurance test? Like, where do you see Brazil going?

• 1:11:59Speaker 05

  I think they're fucked. I do. I think they're fucked for a few things. First of all,

• 1:12:04Adam Friedland?

  But they have him!

• 1:12:05Speaker 05

  Well, they do have the eyebrow. By the way, the best thing Brazil have brought to this tournament, beyond any shadow of a doubt, are the online memes about Endric not playing. And if you have not seen them, go online and check out Brazil Twitter has, I think, won the World Cup with their memes about Endric not getting playing time. They are amazing. There is a cow raising its eyebrow that you should check out. But, uh, look, the Rafinha injury is a major one for them because Ryan is a talented young player, but I don't think that's a player that you can just lose and recover from in terms of goal scoring. I think Neymar being back in the mix could be a problem for them. Is there a deferential quality to the team about wanting Neymar to play? He's not the Neymar of old. I think the midfield is-

• 1:12:47Adam Friedland?

  Where's your soul, sir?

• 1:12:48Speaker 05

  The midfield is dysfunctional. Casemiro can't run. They might face, you know, a really interesting Japan team and then they could face Norway. And how do they handle Erling Haaland? Gabby versus Haaland would be a fun, fun rekindled rivalry. So I, I think the loss of Rafinha, I think the functional midfield, I think the Neymar factor could all be problems for Brazil trying to get further. But their, their defending is good. So Clive, I don't know, maybe that's enough for them to get further. They are Brazil, I feel.

• 1:13:17Speaker 06

  I'm not too sure where they are to be honest, but I'll give you the other side of things. They changed their fullbacks and Ryan is actually a really good player.

• 1:13:26Speaker 05

  He is.

• 1:13:26Speaker 06

  And he's like a breakout player and Rafinha's had injuries all year and he's a much bigger name and we all know about him, but he's not been playing well for a while. Where Ryan is more positionally suited to what they want to try to do. I have a worry about Casemiro, I'm just not sure if he's leggy enough. They got this other guy called Ed Nielsen in the background that Manchester United are about to sign. And Carlo may just put him in there, you know, he's smart, he's not stupid. He may find a moment to put him in there, give him more energy, and if they do that, I think they could go somewhere. I'm not sure where somewhere is, they brought in Cunha. They got rid of Thiago from the first game, brought in Cunha, a lot more flexibility tactically. What I like about Carlo is he sees the problems, and that first game, he looked stressed.

• 1:14:11Speaker 06

  But the second game, he eased up because he realised he was fixing one problem after the other. And if he sorts out Casemiro, then see what they can do, right?

• 1:14:20Speaker 05

  They beat Haiti and Scotland, so let's just pump the brakes a little bit, I'm being too blown away by it.

• 1:14:25Adam Friedland?

  First of all, you guys are freaking hipsters, second of all, listen, how many times do we say this about Carlo? Okay, I do think the biggest thing that we haven't mentioned, and the biggest is that they have Alisson. And in knockout stages, having a world-class goalkeeper, I'm sorry, I don't see Jordan Pickford in the same category as Alisson.

• 1:14:47Speaker 05

  Arm is too short.

• 1:14:49Adam Friedland?

  Emmy Martinez was a massive factor in the last World Cup, right? He was maybe perhaps fifty percent of the equation with Messi. I mean, if we're, you know, and then, of course, that by extension, we have to have a keeper injured against Brighton, and then isn't it crazy how it works?

• 1:15:10Adam Friedland?

  Just Neil Mopé changed the world. Neil Mopé injures, what's his name, the German? Our boy.

• 1:15:19Speaker 05

  Bern Leno.

• 1:15:20Adam Friedland?

  Oh, Bern Leno, run that again. Neil Mopé injures Bern Leno, Emmy gets a chance for the first time ever, he gets a transfer, he wins Messi the World Cup. Neil Mopé should be man of the tournament. Okay, anyway, for the last one. Having a goalkeeper like that is a massive factor in the knockout stages. Second of all, they have attacking depth. I mean, like, if you look at, like, I mean, Rafinha's out, but they have Endric, they have Ran, as you said, they have Cunha.

• 1:15:50Speaker 05

  Gabriel Marnele? Are you not gonna mention Gabriel Marquinhos?

• 1:15:53Adam Friedland?

  Ooh, Martinelli, ooh. Okay, they have, Vinny is, listen, I'm sorry. He's free of the presence of the most, the best player in the world, right? And he can kind of be the top boy on that side. I actually love their attacking depth. Their midfield does seem stodgy, but I think in like tight game state, it doesn't really kind of like look the same as it would be in like a kind of more open match. And I just think that like, yeah, like, listen, Clive, like, Scotland were in there half for 47 seconds. I don't like, this is, this is like, we forget, like, this is what Carlo does, okay?

• 1:16:35Adam Friedland?

  And Elliot, where is your, where is your, where is your heart?

• 1:16:39Speaker 05

  Respect.

• 1:16:41Adam Friedland?

  The return of Neymar. I mean, like, how beautiful would this be? I mean, listen, we're, let's just, everything else is beautiful right now.

• 1:16:50Speaker 05

  He looked a little Neymar in a half when he came on.

• 1:16:52Adam Friedland?

  We're seeing Messi expressing himself. I mean, oh, the boy's still got, I mean, he had nine turnovers and he could maybe sprint, maybe like 10, 12 yards. He has it still. He's playing with, it's just like he's back with Suarez and Messi. Can we turn our attention to the US? I'm glad, you know, I feel, but Elliot, are you okay? You know, you went full, you went, you bought in fully.

• 1:17:18Speaker 05

  Fully, I'm all the way.

• 1:17:19Adam Friedland?

  For me, I was just, I was like, you know, I was watching Faulty Towers. And I was, and, and keeping appearances. And I wasn't paying much attention to the US national team.

• 1:17:33Speaker 05

  I just walked through the house saying, I believe, I believe that we, I believe that we shall win.

• 1:17:36Adam Friedland?

  It's so crap.

• 1:17:37Speaker 05

  The best chant in football.

• 1:17:39Adam Friedland?

  Country Roads was awesome.

• 1:17:40Speaker 05

  That's a United song, mate, I don't sing that one.

• 1:17:42Adam Friedland?

  Country Roads is a John Denver song, in fact.

• 1:17:44Speaker 05

  It's a Manchester United song.

• 1:17:46Adam Friedland?

  It's a John Denver song, I believe he died in a plane crash, anyway, okay. They have a good matchup in the round of 32. There's a path there.

• 1:17:56Adam Friedland?

  Like, Belgium, Egypt likely in the round of 16. There's a, we have a, we need, we need to seek revenge against Belgium. There's a, we have history there. Do they get to the quarters? Is that like, you know, can this grizzled veteran who has handed the juggernaut of England, Tottenham Hotspur, only managed one Champions League final, can he?

• 1:18:22Adam Friedland?

  What do you think?

• 1:18:23Speaker 05

  I, I think the quarters are where the United States should expect to get to and then after that you could be facing someone like a Spain or a Portugal and at that point I think the expectation will be that you don't go through. Um, so for me par, uh, that, that's from the game of golf. Par would be, uh, to get to the quarters, I think, based on how it sets up, but you know, it's an interesting one.

• 1:18:46Speaker 05

  So, and I want to ask you about this because I, I think the interesting thing with the US and we've played at times where you probably have been able to watch a lot. I've loved the, the pressing. I've loved the front footed, uh, approach. I've loved the tempo. The rest defense isn't good and when you beat the press, the United States has been all over the shop defensively. So do you think that that gives teams that face us? Even if they're maybe unfavored, a chance, because if you get out, I think you can create chances against the US.

• 1:19:10Adam Friedland?

  Also it's hot too. It's hard to do it when it's a thousand degrees.

• 1:19:13Speaker 06

  I think it's, um, you have to just think about it, right? They, they won the first two games. The third game, I don't care who you are. Look at Germany. They, they couldn't win their last game because they'd already won their first two. So. It takes a bit of the energy out, takes a bit of the edge out, but what the manager's got, he's got another set of players that are ready to play. So he's made his squad deeper. So he's thinking, okay, I've lost, but I've won. I've now got a bigger group I can use when it really, really matters. So, um, I think, uh, the US have looked really, really good, you know, and but. Let's see what happens when the crunch comes, but they have got a manager that understands what he's doing. Whether you like him or not, he really understands big moments.

• 1:19:51Speaker 06

  He can see the game, make adjustments. So yeah, they've got a chance to get to par, which is the last, you know, I'd say the last 16, I think. Would you agree?

• 1:20:00Speaker 05

  I think that's par. Yep, absolutely.

• 1:20:01Speaker 06

  And I think that would be good for the tournament and then you start to get people on top of buildings if you get to the last eight, right? And that's when things change. So, um, so yeah, I think he's done well so far and I think what he's done. He's made people think that the US understand what they're doing with on a football pitch and they've invested in this guy to make them more tactically aware. And more elite and it looked like an elite team, you know, with elite tactics, had a quality of player. We can discuss that, right? But that will hopefully improve over time because the US is not bad at producing good athletes, right? So we'll see what happens.

• 1:20:35Speaker 05

  Yeah. And we got Flo Baligan, Arsenal legend Flo Baligan, so.

• 1:20:39Adam Friedland?

  Oh my God. Arsenal legend Matt Turner.

• 1:20:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, that, yeah. He doesn't start.

• 1:20:44Adam Friedland?

  Arsenal legend, trustee of the process.

• 1:20:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, he, he scored last night.

• 1:20:47Adam Friedland?

  The Colorado, the Colorado Maldini.

• 1:20:51Adam Friedland?

  Another one we've just let walk out the door, boys. Anyway, but I think, I checked their next fixtures, they're gonna be outdoor games. It's, the world is ending right now, I think, let's just watch sports, okay? I think it was like this in 94 as well. Tim was making the point that the kind of the Brazil kind of narrative right now does mirror a lot of the 94 World Cup in the United States. And they kind of like were not favored, they were worse than Italy, and they pulled it off in the end. When I'm looking at the United States, it's, listen, you know, I prefer the finer things in life.

• 1:21:33Adam Friedland?

  My estate, a good glass of port, having sex through the zipper, full tuxedo.

• 1:21:39Speaker 05

  Is that?

• 1:21:42Adam Friedland?

  I'm an Englishman.

• 1:21:43Speaker 05

  Is that an English tradition? Should we ask Clive about that?

• 1:21:47Adam Friedland?

  Clive, I think that the point is, is that I need to make a new world in motion to inspire my five boys. Yes, I'm talking about Morgan Rogers as well, here we go. Clive, here's your chance, what's going on? What's going on with that?

• 1:22:02Speaker 06

  It's gonna with the Arsenal? It's happening. I think it's gonna happen. It's all about the number, all about the price.

• 1:22:08Speaker 05

  Just say that I was first with the information.

• 1:22:10Adam Friedland?

  I reported, I reported that, here we go. Fabrizio in the mud, once again. Friedland bomb! Okay, I think that, I think that quarters, they have a good path through the quarters. Belgium is not a good team. I think that there are like probably seven good teams, and a huge gap, and then maybe the United States. I think, but, they're top 10. I think they are the best of the pack. And I do think that if they're playing outside, it's sweltering, even like when they're in Seattle, it's sweltering. What we're seeing is, they played a pressy system in indoors, the first match, they did it for the first half against Australia, and then it kind of, like, when you're pressing,

• 1:22:54Adam Friedland?

  it takes more energy than having possession. I think, Clive, is that right?

• 1:23:00Speaker 05

  This sounds like any Arsenal Vision podcast, honestly. Just like being at home.

• 1:23:04Speaker 06

  Potts knows how to keep the ball away from his net. He knows what he's doing.

• 1:23:08Adam Friedland?

  And Matt Turner, you know, he showed in yesterday that he's ready to take the number one shirt again. Guys.

• 1:23:18Speaker 06

  I'm not sure about that.

• 1:23:19Adam Friedland?

  It's over, it's over, it's over. Guys, it's over. They're gonna lose to Bosnia in Operation Deliberate Force Part Two. Questions for you, boys. Clive, you're like someone that I really enjoy listening to in talent analysis going on your YouTube's. I've really, for me, the standout talent that I've gotten familiar with is Ben Monzambi on Switzerland. Zoran Mamdani on Switzerland. He knew Swiss starlet, Zoran Mamdani. What the hell kind of, I thought, he could do it all, guys. Okay. Who else have you, who have you guys been enjoying that like you weren't familiar previously or as familiar with previously?

• 1:24:02Speaker 06

  Well, funny enough, I didn't really like him, but I watched Arda Gula play for Turkey yesterday and I thought he was, I thought he was excellent. And I've heard the fuss about him. I've not watched the game properly and I thought he dominated the game. I thought he was just beautiful to watch. And I wonder what happens to him at Real Madrid, you know, is he gonna get?

• 1:24:20Adam Friedland?

  I think Mourinho wants him, unfortunately.

• 1:24:23Speaker 06

  Let's see what they do with him, how they use him, because he's a talent there, right? And sometimes he can get lost at Real Madrid. So yeah, he's the one for me.

• 1:24:31Speaker 05

  Yeah, yep. I think Gilberto Mora is a really interesting player, the 19-year-old from Mexico. Coming into the tournament, people were talking about him and he got a chance to play in their third group game. He was absolutely brilliant. You know, I wonder if he's ready to make a leap from the Mexican league. I think he plays in Liga MX and I just wonder if he's ready to make a leap from there. He probably won't play a ton for Mexico as, you know, he's not first choice there, but he's someone that can change the game. You've got a couple of players like this, but you know, some of them like Nico Paz, who may not play that much for Argentina. He's known, he's a known commodity owned by Real Madrid. He's gonna stay in Como, but eventually wind up at a big club. Gilberto Mora, a little more of an interesting, under-the-radar player who, he fits that mold of what Clive knows I like.

• 1:25:16Speaker 05

  He's a, he's a skillful, technical, playmaking midfielder, just exactly the kind of player that fits my eye. So I like him.

• 1:25:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Sam, who else did you have on your 15 boys? Well, obviously. Oh yeah, okay, who else was on your list of 15 boys? This guy's list has been incredible. Right, Sam, producer Sam, say hello to the boys, come on. Hello, hello. No, no, no, go, just get in the camera, you gotta, you gotta say hi to the boys. He listens, we, we love you. He gets, we get mad at you guys, we love you again.

• 1:25:49Speaker 05

  Every, every time I try to sell Victor.

• 1:25:51Adam Friedland?

  We love you.

• 1:25:51Speaker 05

  Hey Sam!

• 1:25:52Adam Friedland?

  You guys are the best podcast in the world, oh, yeah, you're my friend. Sam, okay, uh, I guess like, uh, what, what if, I, we'll close on, uh, I'm gonna do another kind of bit I've prepared for you guys after this. But like, what, um, what are the major surprises you guys have had for, like, let's say, looking forward to the knockout stages? Like, I thought it was gonna be a slog, too many games, I thought it was gonna suck, and then I thought maybe, maybe Messi, Ronaldo will play each other in the quarters, the world will explode again. Uh, but I've been pretty engaged with this World Cup throughout, um, uh, how about you guys? Like, what have you, what were you not expecting and, uh, what have you been pleasantly surprised by?

• 1:26:31Speaker 05

  You first, Clive.

• 1:26:32Speaker 06

  I wasn't expecting all the stories, you know, like, of all the old men doing their thing, like Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, and every, every, almost feels that every country has a, has a person that they really look up to. And it maybe tells you, I think, national football's different to club football, where it's more of a collective, but really, there are national heroes developing, and Harry Kane is one, Neymar's another.

• 1:26:55Adam Friedland?

  Come on! Wait, how are you gonna six-shot off it? Why?

• 1:26:58Speaker 06

  But he, but in England, he is, right, and, uh, and Neymar, again, he can barely, he can barely run, but when he came on that pitch, the, the whole crowd was, was desperate to see him, right? So, um, I think that's really maybe should.

• 1:27:11Adam Friedland?

  And Mo had a moment too.

• 1:27:13Speaker 06

  Yeah, he did, so I thought, worth a good shout, Mo Salah as well, players in, coming to the end of their careers and maybe getting a, a lap of honour clap, you know, for doing what they've done for their countries, right? So I'm pleased with that.

• 1:27:24Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:24Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll take sort of a, a, the other side of it, which is, I expected the quality of this tournament to be affected by it expanding to 48 teams. And certainly there have been examples of that. But I think there have been really fun stories of unfavored teams that have gotten results that have been fun to watch, whether it's Eloy Room or Virginia from, I think, is it, was it Cape Verde's goalkeeper, Virginia, right? That Cape Verde have a chance with two draws to get through.

• 1:27:49Adam Friedland?

  Is that how you say, how do you say his name?

• 1:27:51Speaker 05

  Virginia, is that it?

• 1:27:52Adam Friedland?

  Oh, shit. Okay, I've been saying it wrong.

• 1:27:54Speaker 05

  That, that, I mean, do you think, do you think people have been keeping track of that?

• 1:27:58Adam Friedland?

  Can you edit that out? That was, oh, fuck, I said the, the girl thing. Oh.

• 1:28:06Adam Friedland?

  I've been calling him vagina for weeks now. Why didn't anyone say, Sam, why did you let me do that?

• 1:28:11Speaker 05

  Two things that people widely have been very positive about recently, though, so you have that.

• 1:28:15Adam Friedland?

  Vagina has been an absolute brick wall in this tournament.

• 1:28:18Speaker 05

  That's your own problem, it sounds like.

• 1:28:21Adam Friedland?

  Vagina, you can't get through.

• 1:28:22Speaker 05

  You did talk about being inside something for 47 seconds earlier in the episode.

• 1:28:25Adam Friedland?

  Vagina has been blocking everything. Okay, anyway.

• 1:28:29Speaker 05

  But yeah, so, so Cape, Cape Verde, great story, you know, Curacao managed to draw. There have been some unfavorable teams, Ecuador getting through the way they did, South Africa getting through the way they did. I just think there have been fun stories of unfavorable players and nations that have, that have made the 48-team tournament not feel like a slog, and so kudos to them. Well done.

• 1:28:48Adam Friedland?

  Well, yeah, first of all, Ecuador, don't give them kudos.

• 1:28:53Speaker 05

  All right, fine, no kudos for Ecuador.

• 1:28:54Adam Friedland?

  And what the hell is going on with that coach?

• 1:28:56Speaker 05

  How about DR Congo?

• 1:28:59Adam Friedland?

  DR Congo?

• 1:28:59Speaker 05

  You know what, he looks like an extra, the, the coach for Ecuador looks like an extra from Point Break. Do you remember the movie Point Break?

• 1:29:04Adam Friedland?

  He looks Christian Rock to me. That's what he looks like to me.

• 1:29:07Speaker 05

  Could be that, could be a little of that.

• 1:29:08Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, like, he's in a, like a, like a, like a righteous gemstones. He's the electric guitar guy with like a ton of pedals. He also looks, he looks like a young Simon Jordan. He found a, he found a tweet, spitting it, spitting it. So, okay, I, I just want to give you guys, I'm instituting a new thing. I'm going to go through each World Cup history corner. Clive, what are your memories of the 1930?

• 1:29:34Speaker 06

  Well, I just left school at the time, so, uh, yeah.

• 1:29:40Speaker 06

  So, yeah, that's all I remember.

• 1:29:41Adam Friedland?

  And you used to be able to get on the trolley, go downtown for a nickel. Um, anyway, but, uh, I want to tell you guys, what, so what do you know about the 1930 World Cup in Uruguay? Not much.

• 1:29:52Speaker 06

  That was the first one, wasn't it? The first one, and Uruguay won it. Did they win it?

• 1:29:56Adam Friedland?

  You know, you, I have to, I can't believe I have to tell you about your thing. It's like you have to tell me about, uh, freaking hamburgers or hot dog. You have to tell me about the freaking FIFA Peace Prize. Come on, like, I'm an American, I shouldn't be, okay, anyway. Let me tell you, I've been researching the, the, uh, 1930 World Cup, and let me tell you, it was, it's so funny. It's like, okay.

• 1:30:19Speaker 05

  I don't think there was a lot of funny stuff happening at that time, but okay.

• 1:30:22Adam Friedland?

  I'm gonna tell you about, these are my funny things. Funny stuff, Elliot. I don't think there was any funny stuff happening in the, in the early 30s.

• 1:30:31Speaker 05

  Well, the early 30s are okay, I guess.

• 1:30:33Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. You're talking about the talkies. Okay, well, there's something else, okay, anyway, but why does everything have to be about the whole, okay. Why, I'm so, I gotta shut up. Guys, uh, first of all, the Romanian Playboy King, Carol, that's pretty funny. He picked their squad. Um, there was a Romanian player, his name was Alfred Icebinder, uh, who missed the boat back from Uruguay. He was also a figure skater, slide, yes. Um, he, uh, his family assumed that he was dead, and, uh, he showed up at his own funeral upon arrival. Okay? Um, Egypt missed the boat, they didn't get to go. Uh, there was, the United States, uh, doctor, the US was in, uh, the semis.

• 1:31:17Adam Friedland?

  I don't, what the fuck was going on there? How, how the hell was that against Argentina? The doctor came, uh, ran out onto the pitch, he tripped, um, he, uh, and he dropped a bottle of chloroform, and, uh, and he knocked himself out on the pitch.

• 1:31:35Adam Friedland?

  The referee blew the whistle six minutes early with a French attacker through clear on goal versus Argentina. Bolivia wore berets. The refs wore suits. Romania, Peru had an attendance of 300 people. And finally, I want to tell you about the final. The final was between Argentina and Uruguay. There were almost 100,000 people in Montevideo that attended. They refused to use each other's balls. So the first half had to be played with the Argentina ball, which I believe Argentina led 2-0. And the second half had to be played with the Uruguay ball, which they scored 4-1, 4-2. The winning goal was scored by a gentleman named Hector Castro, whose nickname was "The Maimed."

• 1:32:17Adam Friedland?

  He cut off his own arm with an electric saw at the age of 13, and he scored a game-winning goal. He was also kind of a playboy. He would show up to training drunk. He was one of those kind of players, like Duncan Ferguson, if you will. And he used to use his stump as a weapon during set plays. He's like, how cool is that? Okay?

• 1:32:34Speaker 05

  Played for McCallertenna.

• 1:32:35Adam Friedland?

  On the way in, on the way into the final, over 5,000 guns were confiscated.

• 1:32:44Speaker 06

  Wow.

• 1:32:46Adam Friedland?

  Because people had brought them in to kill the referees and/or the opposite team. Finally, when word spread that Argentina had been defeated in Buenos Aires, they basically did a January 6th to the Uruguayan consulate, tried to set it on fire, and they threw stones at a group of Uruguayan people. Guys, this is our history. This is the World Cup. Next year will be the centenary, and hopefully we will do the Uruguayan January 6th all over again. Anyway, guys, it's been great to have you.

• 1:33:19Speaker 05

  I just want to say, I doubt they'll hold the World Cup next year, so we'll probably have to wait four years for the centenary.

• 1:33:24Speaker 06

  These are just minor details, Eddie. Minor details.

• 1:33:26Adam Friedland?

  Next World Cup, dude. What are you doing right now? Actually, it's called Baba O'Reilly. Okay, we all know that. We all know that. Can you play a solo for us right now? Grab it, grab it, grab it, solo, solo. Eddie Van Halen. Guys, you're my boys. It's been great to be joined by you. We're going to cut this, but the second World Cup was the Mussolini World Cup, and the referee kicked the ball away from a Hungarian player who was like on... And just he kicked it, he kicked it to the Italians. His Mussolini was...

• 1:34:01Speaker 05

  Why hasn't Trump thought of that?

• 1:34:04Adam Friedland?

  Also, the British were like, they're like, how dare you make a federation? This is supposed to be a ball in the middle of a field and we're supposed to be punching each other. They're like, why are you trying to give it a federacion? So they didn't go. And no one in England really even knew the World Cup was happening until the final when they heard about the violence.

• 1:34:26Speaker 05

  They're like, we want a piece of that.

• 1:34:29Adam Friedland?

  We're off the show, but Chelsea did a preseason tour in Buenos Aires and they were like, these people are sick in the head about their football. They were actually like, yeah. Anyway, boys, thanks for coming. You had fun?

• 1:34:39Speaker 05

  Good to see you.

• 1:34:39Adam Friedland?

  How was I doing? I mean, guys, how was I doing? You thought I was okay?

• 1:34:43Speaker 06

  Yeah, absolutely brilliant.

• 1:34:45Speaker 05

  Flawless. The vagina part is, I want a recording of that so I can listen to it.

• 1:34:49Adam Friedland?

  It was your idea.

• 1:34:50Speaker 06

  Really, really good.

• 1:34:51Adam Friedland?

  Clyde, did you want to say those words? I didn't think they were very appropriate about the Scottish they were using before.

• 1:34:57Speaker 06

  What did I say?

• 1:34:58Speaker 05

  That wasn't appropriate. You can't call Scottish people that.

• 1:35:00Adam Friedland?

  There's a lot of history behind those words.

• 1:35:02Speaker 06

  Can't call Scottish people what? What'd I say?

• 1:35:03Adam Friedland?

  What did I call them? What if Neil Warnock calls, Neil Warnock takes those Loch Ness monsters?

• 1:35:11Speaker 05

  You said that.

• 1:35:13Adam Friedland?

  I didn't think it's funny. Neil Warnock is the funniest, no, no. Neil Warnock is the funniest reference. I was trying to think of who the funniest.

• 1:35:19Speaker 05

  He's scary.

• 1:35:20Adam Friedland?

  Should I do Allardist? Should I do like Harry? No, like I was like, I need an old. And I was like, Neil, it's Neil.

• 1:35:28Speaker 06

  He's actually a nice guy. I've met him actually.

• 1:35:30Adam Friedland?

  He's a great guy, apparently. Yeah, yeah. He's woke too. He's Labour.

• 1:35:33Speaker 06

  He came down to some preseason training at one on league club and he stood there, spent time with us and like was telling them all about his career. I thought, crack, he was a nice guy.

• 1:35:43Adam Friedland?

  You know the story about the dream, his wife's dream?

• 1:35:46Speaker 06

  No, not that one.

• 1:35:47Adam Friedland?

  His wife had a dream that this fullback who hadn't played in two months scored a hat trick. And so he's like, you're fucking, whatever her name was. What was her name? It makes the story better. He was like, yeah, Bosch just had a dream. Sharon. Yeah, Sharon's had a dream. So he's like, you're starting at nine. And he's like, what? And he scored, he scored left foot, right foot, head in like 10 minutes.

• 1:36:08Speaker 05

  That's amazing.

• 1:36:09Adam Friedland?

  Tim Butterfield, yeah. Danny Butterfield. Never. Why are you making me look like an idiot? 21 plus and president in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. Or 18 and present in DC, Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MYRESSET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat in Connecticut, or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplineMA.org or call 1-800-327-5050 for 24/7 support in Massachusetts.

• 1:36:52Adam Friedland?

  Or call 1-8778-HOPE New York or text HOPE NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867.

• 1:37:12Adam Friedland?

  When everyone's finally together, what makes mornings even brighter? Keeping things deliciously simple. Whether you're pouring up a glass of morning refreshment or topping off festive drinks for a family brunch, Simply Orange brings that 100% fresh squeezed taste to every moment. Deliciously bright and delightfully easy, Simply Orange is made for all your seasonal gatherings. Simply Orange, say yes to simple.

• 1:37:42Adam Friedland?

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