The Adam Friedland Show Presents: The Beautiful Pod With Chris Ryan

Welcome to the inaugural episode of The Beautiful Pod. For the next six weeks, host Adam Friedland will be joined by The Ringer's Chris Ryan and famous celebrity guests from the world of entertainment and sports. In this episode, our hosts preview what is certain to be the greatest World Cup of all time. They discuss the incredible cultural exchange happening in America right now as teams marvel at the country’s advanced infrastructure, resilient democracy, and delicious food options (spaghetti, tacos). They also touch on Team USA’s prospects in the tournament, in addition to all the other countries that will be losing to America. At soccer. Host: Adam FriedlandCo-Host: Chris RyanExecutive Producer: Adam Friedland, Marc Fineman, Mason KleinWriter: Adam Friedland, Sam SerxnerProducer: Sam Serxner, Julia CassidyEditor: Jon RoemerDP: Caroline Jannace, Justin Nardecchia --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--#adamfriedland #thebeautifulpod 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.

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• 1:35Adam Friedland?

  Hello and welcome to the beautiful pod. For those of you who are confused about seeing this on your feed, The Adam Friedland Show is currently in pre-production on season three. It's returning in July. And this is a special, limited-run series from now until the end of the World Cup. For any of you who are confused, this podcast will be coming out on Tuesdays and Thursdays along with Taps Unplugged every two weeks on its normal schedule. And the show will return in July. We've got some big guests. We've done a couple of them. Stay put.

• 2:16Adam Friedland?

  I want to introduce my co-host in Los Angeles, Chris Ryan.

• 2:19Speaker 03

  What's up, man?

• 2:21Adam Friedland?

  Hi.

• 2:21Speaker 03

  Hi, how's it going? I'm excited to be doing this, man.

• 2:25Adam Friedland?

  This is the dream, this is my dream. I mean, I am now in your world. I get to power rank everything.

• 2:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:31Adam Friedland?

  I get to, I get to view the world through GOAT debates.

• 2:34Speaker 03

  You can power rank co-host.

• 2:36Adam Friedland?

  The cultural exchange that's happening right now in this country because of, because of what we're seeing on the streets of America, the, the energy for Team USA, just the passion that people have. On the streets of New York, for instance, after every Knicks game.

• 2:51Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 2:51Adam Friedland?

  People are out on the streets for Team USA Soccer. I don't understand why it's coordinated with Knicks games, but it seems like people are really excited about Team USA Soccer. No, Chris, how you feel about the World Cup?

• 3:02Speaker 03

  They're good. They doing, I believe we will win chants in Herald Square, kind of like after, after Knicks games?

• 3:08Adam Friedland?

  Oh, no, I'm just, I just, I assume that after Knicks games, people are remembering that we have Team USA competing in the World Cup this summer. We're hosting, guys. No, it's gonna be a great tournament. There are, I think they added 150,000 teams.

• 3:25Speaker 03

  It's an insane number of matches. They all happen in time zones that we can actually view them in. So this is like three matches a day for weeks on end. We're gonna be deep in Haiti tape. Nobody's gonna know what we're talking about. And then the fun part is, is that you get to watch all these players that you get to see during the club season. You know, some of them are gonna be the only good player on their team. Some of them are on the bench because their team has like 14 All-World players. So it's exciting time to watch, to watch these dudes cook all summer.

• 3:54Adam Friedland?

  And also, we're gonna see guys that we, we only see every four years.

• 3:57Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 3:57Adam Friedland?

  And somehow, I don't even know where they go.

• 3:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, Bosnian Plumbers.

• 4:00Adam Friedland?

  I don't know where Mamochower goes. I don't, he goes, he goes into, yeah, Eder Valencia, I don't know where he is, but I know he played for West Ham 10 years ago. But somehow, every four years, he's a, like, you know his name. It's a, it's the Asimola-Gion All-Stars.

• 4:16Speaker 03

  Basically.

• 4:16Adam Friedland?

  The guys that are like, we just like have massive moments in this one tournament. But, uh... Yeah, I'm excited to get started on this. I mean, I think it's, this is a preview show for the, for the World Cup. I still feel like I'm gonna get arrested by Gianni Infantino for saying the word.

• 4:32Speaker 03

  There is a little bit of a weird legal moat around saying World Cup. That's why our, our title can't be like Adam Friedland Show, The World Cup Podcast. But hopefully people will put it together, you know, logically.

• 4:43Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Yeah. Well, well, I mean, what I would say to him is that your name translates to Johnny Baby, which we found out yesterday. I think he's, he's a, he's one of my favorite Swiss, Italian, Lebanese, heads of a nonprofit organizations. I, in fact, if, if anyone had to ask me who my top Swiss, Italian, Lebanese-

• 5:10Speaker 03

  Power ranking?

• 5:10Adam Friedland?

  Head of a nonprofit, well, I would be a power ranking of one. It would be Gianni Infantino.

• 5:15Speaker 03

  How much bracket, like, like mock brackets have you done or bracket simulations have you done with this?

• 5:23Adam Friedland?

  I did one and, uh, yeah, I did one. It seems like, uh, there are like some, uh, clashes in the, in the knockouts that are, uh, kind of destined.

• 5:34Speaker 03

  Yeah, like, and, and taking out some of our big teams a little bit earlier than maybe we would expect or we would hope.

• 5:40Adam Friedland?

  For instance, Mexico, right? Uh, they have a toxic fan base, right? They act like they're fucking Real Madrid. They have a layup against my team, the Bafana Bafana of South Africa, uh, on Thursday, tomorrow, of course. And, uh, so it's just like, I, you know, I could see them on, on one level, if you look at their roster, they don't have anyone in Europe, uh, except for like one or two guys. And, uh, they have a 17-year-old, uh, star boy apparently, but like, it doesn't seem like they have any, any pedigree right now. And it seems like with one loss, the, the entire nation turns against them and it just becomes a mess. And also they won't stop doing the homophobic chant. They just lost the appeal. They just lost the appeal.

• 6:21Adam Friedland?

  To defend their homophobic chant and so the nation is in mourning right now.

• 6:30Speaker 03

  But unlike the US where I don't, I don't know where the cradle of soccer or football is in this country. Like Mexico will play matches, knockout matches if they get there at Azteca at their national stadium in front of a home crowd.

• 6:43Adam Friedland?

  At altitude.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  At altitude in the heat and it's like I, there's, you're absolutely right. It could either be like an app of a frigging national disaster for them or it will be one of the like craziest runs because this team is basically playing home matches against England gasping for air.

• 7:00Adam Friedland?

  The fun thing about the World Cup is that there are hokey elements that kind of do work, right? Like there is an aspect of like the host nation bump with the, I mean, at the exception of South Africa, maybe and Qatar. But like conventional wisdom is if you're a middle-class team and you're a host nation, you're going to advance at least to the knockout.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:19Adam Friedland?

  But I, I kind of also, you know, I'd see, I'd see the roster and I'm like, this is the worst Mexican side I've ever seen. I used to see like, you know, there were guys that we knew. There was like Hector Herrera. There was like Chicharito.

• 7:30Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:30Adam Friedland?

  There were like guys that played in Europe and, you know, it just seems to be a very anonymous side. When it comes to the United States, I mean, we get into it now.

• 7:39Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 7:41Adam Friedland?

  This is, is there, is there a host nation bump? Like, is there an excitement in the country right now? I don't know. We'll kind of know when the, when the tournament starts. But like, is that advantage like going to come into play? I'm not sure. Also, it is on paper, the strongest roster, I guess, that they've had in some time. But it feels remarkably swagless. How are you feeling right now about that?

• 8:06Speaker 03

  Like my relationship to the national team is kind of weird. Like obviously like I have affection for them. I usually cheer for England because that's where my dad was from and like I just follow those guys all year long. So I have.

• 8:19Adam Friedland?

  For Anglo-Pops.

• 8:19Speaker 03

  Yeah. And I have just like a weird parasocial relationship with like a lot of the players because I watch them play for their clubs. When the US plays, like you're right, it's just not really that attractive football. I thought. I got a little bit, the hair on my arm stood up a little bit with the Andy Robinson goal against Germany the other day and I was like, oh, maybe I'm feeling this. But the thing that I think that they'll have an advantage of is, which probably hasn't been talked about a lot yet, is the weather and they're sort of being acclimatized to humidity, to hot temperatures, to some of these fields that I don't think that like guys who are playing on like carpets in Europe are gonna be quite used to.

• 8:59Adam Friedland?

  Japan left their training ground that they provided them with because they were like, this is atrocious. And I am like, actually, before we get into the weather, because people will die. I think people, that is my, that is one of my hot takes. France is actually playing one of the hottest qualification runs out of any team. I think Algeria is the hottest. It is the most talented side we've had, but so is everyone else. So it's like, doesn't, does that really like, how much does that mean, you know?

• 9:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:31Adam Friedland?

  Also, I told Bill this, like, Tim Ream is doing like bedwetting advocacy. Like, did you see that?

• 9:37Speaker 03

  No.

• 9:38Adam Friedland?

  He's like, I mean, like, it's just like, he said, you know, one in five kids were, yeah, there you go.

• 9:44Speaker 03

  Is this a players tribute piece?

• 9:46Adam Friedland?

  Right before the fucking World Cup. Like, it's just like, this is how swagless this side is. Do it, go to a brothel, like, one of them, one of them, just like, get in trouble for like huffing nitrous at a brothel.

• 10:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:00Adam Friedland?

  Okay, like the French boy. What do you say? I understand it was probably hard. Why are we talking about it right now? Here's the element that we have going for us right now. There's gonna be a lot of politics in this tournament, right?

• 10:10Speaker 03

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:11Adam Friedland?

  We're a team, that we're, a country that we're at war with is playing in the United States, right?

• 10:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:17Adam Friedland?

  CP might be, might do it for MAGA. That's what I'm thinking. Captain America, Christian Pulisic.

• 10:23Speaker 03

  Pulisic, Hershey's own.

• 10:24Adam Friedland?

  Might do it for the boy, might do it for the boy Donald Trump.

• 10:27Speaker 03

  For the midterms?

• 10:27Adam Friedland?

  He's gonna be getting, he's, he's America's Neymar. Listen, okay, and guess what? On a sincere note, he always cooks for the United States of America. Everything is a mess right now, okay? Alexi Lawless is talking about that we're, that for 1776 and that.

• 10:42Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, the bicentennial.

• 10:44Adam Friedland?

  He's talking like, we're, he thinks that we're rivals with England, okay? He thinks that's our rival club because we beat them in 1950. Just like relax guys, okay? We will see, but what I will say is I had an affection for American teams of the past that I kind of don't feel right now.

• 11:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 11:01Adam Friedland?

  I mean, I think the Donovan Dempsey years were fun and I loved the boys. I love the Gucci Agniers, you know, like the Jermaine Jones. There was like, there was just a team that was like, that was scrappy and fun. This, this team feels to me like more generic in terms of like the personalities.

• 11:19Speaker 03

  We should have done a better job nationalizing guys who were, you know, possibly on the fence of their other home country and just getting them involved in USMNT. Like Brazilians who had once visited Atlanta, you know, like.

• 11:33Adam Friedland?

  They were attempting that for a while, but I don't know if that was like a full court press. The problem is, is that the development system in the States, we need to be sending them over earlier. And like, I don't know if that's kind of like, it comes from team, from USA Soccer down. And Jesse Marsh, like when he didn't get the job, he's up, he's up in Canada talking mad shit.

• 11:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, he's mad as hell.

• 11:57Adam Friedland?

  He's getting me a little tight. I'm not rooting for America necessarily, but if you talk about them like that.

• 12:02Speaker 03

  Nobody can take fun of my country but me.

• 12:06Adam Friedland?

  You're American, what, he's up there, what is he Benedict Arnold up there? He's talking mad shit, but they have, he has a chip on his shoulder, but he's a great coach and I think that team could overachieve.

• 12:14Speaker 03

  That team could overachieve, yeah.

• 12:16Adam Friedland?

  I have them on my list. But, but, but for the most part, like he, he said that the, it comes down from the FA, right? He said that the, there is a problem with the structural aspects of the, of USA Soccer. And, you know, and it does, it does really start from youth development.

• 12:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:33Adam Friedland?

  Like, we, we know that we needed to get players over to Europe and into academies earlier, but like, the truth is, is that soccer costs money for kids here in the United States. Athletics is free elsewhere. And, you know, and what it requires getting them into like La Masia and like youth academies or like, you know, Cobham.

• 12:53Speaker 03

  IX, whatever, yeah.

• 12:55Adam Friedland?

  It required just, you know, getting, taking boys.

• 12:59Speaker 03

  Sending them to Europe, I know, it's weird.

• 13:01Adam Friedland?

  It'll require a little bit of trafficking, no, but like in reality, like this was supposed to be the year that we're building to. Also Poch, I like, I don't, I don't know how necessarily he wants to run this.

• 13:13Speaker 03

  He seems a little bit like a short timer now. Like I thought maybe he was like, this is amazing. I'm going to be here for 10 years. I love living in America and now he seems like next big club that calls, I'm gone.

• 13:24Adam Friedland?

  Over under on him taking another job middle of the tournament?

• 13:26Speaker 03

  It's not out of the question. It's not out of the question.

• 13:30Adam Friedland?

  He's like a middle's bro called, I gotta go.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  Lamps is leaving Coventry.

• 13:34Adam Friedland?

  I'm in Kansas fucking city in the heat.

• 13:37Speaker 03

  Hey, so when we're getting into the favorites, right? I wanted to just throw one factoid at you as we, because I bet you and I are both going to have pretty Eurocentric lists, right?

• 13:48Adam Friedland?

  I mean, listen to us, we're, we're, we don't even support our own country. We're, we're, we're hipsters. No, uh, yeah, I think so. And I, I think, uh, yeah, for the most part, uh, that's, that's why we are Anglophiles. I mean, like you could turn it off, but like we are doing this for the Stones, the Beatles.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  That's right. Blur, Oasis.

• 14:08Adam Friedland?

  This is like, we're, we're those kind of guys. No, but yeah, continue though.

• 14:12Speaker 03

  My, my only little factoid here was that only one European team has ever won a World Cup in the Americas. And that was Germany in 14 and otherwise they've all been won.

• 14:19Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, but that's a home game.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 14:25Speaker 03

  Marathon man style? Okay.

• 14:27Adam Friedland?

  What are you talking about? Come on, bro. Alison Becker? Giselle Bundchen? What do you think that is? Come on, bro.

• 14:35Speaker 03

  But otherwise they've all been won by Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay back in the 30s. So that would be an achievement in and of itself if we get one of our top two or three European countries playing for this thing.

• 14:47Adam Friedland?

  Another fun one to remember is that no foreign manager has ever won a World Cup.

• 14:52Speaker 03

  Right.

• 14:53Adam Friedland?

  So I'm having a lot of fun seeing where we're, we're putting all the, all these fucking teams around. Like for instance, like we put Democratic Republic of Congo in Houston. A country where 23% of people are starving in a city where 70% of people are classified as obese.

• 15:14Adam Friedland?

  Can you imagine what it'd be like? You see, you go to a place where everyone has so much food that they're literally dying from it? How offensive is that?

• 15:22Speaker 03

  That's really ridiculous.

• 15:23Adam Friedland?

  No. I love it. Also, Congo has the Patrice Lumumba statue guy that just stands like this, like completely still.

• 15:30Speaker 03

  Right.

• 15:31Adam Friedland?

  The entire match. I love that.

• 15:33Speaker 03

  I have these guys getting out of the group. I love these dudes.

• 15:37Adam Friedland?

  I love these guys. They have to be in Houston. Their country needs it, too. The CIA killed that guy, the statue guy, not the real... Anyway, but, uh, sorry. What? No, I'm not gonna say sorry. The CIA killed that... Anyway, the statue guy. He's not gonna be there. Anyway, uh, you know, okay, but I wanna go through... The main story here is that Argentina landed in Kansas City.

• 16:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:03Adam Friedland?

  And the first day they were there, there was a tornado.

• 16:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:08Adam Friedland?

  And subsequently, there were, uh, there were, there have been crackdowns on both, uh, human trafficking and cocaine in advance of the World Cup.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  Wait, what do you mean that there have been crackdowns by the Argentinean team?

• 16:22Adam Friedland?

  I was looking up the news. I was looking up the news, no, of, uh, in Kansas City.

• 16:26Speaker 03

  Oh, so it's not like Enzo is not going out cleaning up the streets?

• 16:29Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. No, but actually, the good point you bring that up because we have placed... Who did we place? Oh, yeah. We placed Colombia in Hilesco, Mexico.

• 16:43Adam Friedland?

  They placed Colombia in the middle of the cartel war. Okay. Also, Saudi Arabia... Another one was Saudi Arabia's in Austin.

• 16:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:51Adam Friedland?

  Cause they, they're, cause the Riyadh Comedy Festival, they were feeling so much, they were like, I have to go see Kill Tony for real. How fire is that? I'm loving that. Which other ones have you seen? Oh, England, of course.

• 17:02Speaker 03

  England. England's the most amazing one because they get introduced to American culture in such a hardcore way with, with Kansas City.

• 17:08Adam Friedland?

  The gun.

• 17:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, so they've already had a shooting. They've already had, they've already had a fucking earthquake there. It's hot as hell in the Midwest right now. It's like 90% humidity. I don't know how these guys are gonna do it.

• 17:22Adam Friedland?

  They've also separated England, England and Casey Mo.

• 17:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:27Adam Friedland?

  And then they got Argentina and Casey K. And we're gonna get Nick Wright on the phone. And he's gonna explain to us the significance of that. And we're gonna be, we're really, that's gonna be really interesting.

• 17:36Speaker 03

  The other big one is Ivory Coast, I believe is in Chester, PA, which is outside of Philly and is in Delco, which is essentially like where Mayor of Easttown takes place. I don't understand why they couldn't get those guys in a, in a city hotel, but.

• 17:50Adam Friedland?

  Dude, they're gonna be like, they're gonna be watching Shane Gillis clips. Dude, I really hope they don't go to Gino's and try to order a steak in their language, whatever language that is. Imagine they go to Gino's. How many games are in Philly? We have a lot of countries coming to Philly.

• 18:04Speaker 03

  There's like three, there's a fair amount of matches in Philly. And there's a knockout on July 4th.

• 18:08Adam Friedland?

  Your boys better act right. That's all, that's all I'm saying. Your boys better kind of like, you know, especially some of the elements that don't like the.

• 18:16Speaker 03

  You know what? We get a bad rap. We're fine.

• 18:18Adam Friedland?

  All I'm saying is Gino better act right. Okay?

• 18:21Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 18:21Adam Friedland?

  And they, yeah. And they better not lick a piece of poop after Ivory Coast wins.

• 18:30Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 18:32Adam Friedland?

  You big dick Nick? Oh, what else did I get? Uh, oh yeah. My favorite was the Austria team is in Oakland, California. And they were greeted by a fan. I think I wanna play the clip.

• 19:01Speaker 03

  This is why I have Austria in the knockouts. And they're, they're getting through. This is a great greeting.

• 19:06Adam Friedland?

  Like, they're, they're, they're meeting some girls. They're meeting some ladies in Oakland.

• 19:10Speaker 03

  Oakland's a great town.

• 19:11Adam Friedland?

  I'm loving that.

• 19:11Speaker 03

  These guys are getting the, the real white glove treatment. This is awesome.

• 19:15Adam Friedland?

  They're gonna start, they're gonna start, uh, the whistle, the whistle go woo woo. They're gonna, yeah, they're gonna listen to Too Short. They're gonna listen, they're gonna, I love that, that there. The country where, you know who was born in Austria?

• 19:30Speaker 03

  Hitler?

• 19:32Adam Friedland?

  Arnold Schwarzenegger, what are you talking about? Why are you trying to bring that up?

• 19:35Speaker 03

  You mentioned Gobles earlier.

• 19:36Adam Friedland?

  Why would you do this? We're the fucking soccer podcast. Can you, wow, really bringing down the vibe. Colombia's in Hlasco province. What other funny ones did I see? Oh yeah. Just, yeah, the last one, of course, is Portugal is in Palm Beach, Florida.

• 19:54Speaker 03

  This is amazing.

• 19:55Adam Friedland?

  Which, we get CR7 in Mar-a-Lago. It's gotta happen. It's gonna be amazing. Honestly, Donald Trump, there's a lot of similarity.

• 20:03Speaker 03

  Between CR7, well, the alcoholic family members, right?

• 20:06Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, you see, yeah, see a sibling, have substance abuse. And that was a kind of like, yeah, I think there is a kind of like, just an inferiority complex. We're not, we don't have to. Wait, you know who's born in Austria? Yegon Sheila, the artist, did you know him? Well, actually, fun fact, this has nothing to do with soccer. He applied for the Vienna College of Art the same year as Hitler.

• 20:31Speaker 03

  Did he?

• 20:32Adam Friedland?

  He got in.

• 20:33Speaker 03

  And Hitler did not.

• 20:34Adam Friedland?

  And Hitler didn't. Can you believe it?

• 20:36Speaker 03

  Sliding door.

• 20:37Adam Friedland?

  I love the painting. Yeah, he did great with, okay, anyway. The paintings were, they're not that good, honestly. Have you seen them? You've cut all this, but they're not that good. I don't want to, you know, with this cancel culture, I'll go out there and say it, Hitler not that, he was mid as a painter. Okay, why don't you give me your list, I'll give you my list, and then we can just go team by team, real lightning round.

• 20:58Speaker 03

  Okay, my number one's Spain. I think that France is obviously the, probably the deepest talented team, the most talented team, but for me, Spain just looks the best right now. I'm all in on the idea of them turning it over a lot. I think they have the best midfield, maybe in the tournament with competition from Portugal, and they have, they have a bench, which they're gonna need in the heat, and they're, I think depth is gonna be a huge part of this tournament. So Spain is my, my number one right now.

• 21:29Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I have them number one as well. I'm back and forth with them in France. The midfield isn't, for me, I guess Portugal I would take as a better midfield, but the depth is disgusting. I mean, they have like, they have six guys that are incredible. I mean, it is, the thing about Spain is that it's a system. They play like a, like a real team, like a club team, right? And so that is their like real advantage. Like, you know, the golden generation of Belgium, for instance, like those bums, they were all like, you know, like Courtois was having sex with like De Boer's wife or something. And they were like, a lot of teams that have just a collection of different players from different places can play, be lesser than the sum of their parts.

• 22:14Adam Friedland?

  Spain has a philosophy and a system to them. And when we get to France, that's going to be my main question about them.

• 22:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 22:22Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I see that on the, maybe on the left of, of, of the left side of the back line, they're a little unathletic with Laporte.

• 22:29Speaker 03

  If they hold the ball for 80% of the game, I don't know how much that's going to matter.

• 22:34Adam Friedland?

  It doesn't really matter because they're going to be across the halfway line. They have arguably the best player in the world. And he's so young and, you know, we're just, we're witnesses. He's just a kid from Akron. He's unbelievable. I don't like the new hair.

• 22:48Speaker 03

  Lamine's?

• 22:49Adam Friedland?

  He's really, he looks like, he looks like Pedro on the, on the Mets. He's got that, he's got the same hair. I mean, not to criticize a boy.

• 23:58Speaker 03

  All right, number two, who you got?

• 24:00Adam Friedland?

  Franz.

• 24:01Speaker 03

  Me too.

• 24:02Adam Friedland?

  But I'm back and forth. I saw Lysa's hat-trick and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing?

• 24:05Speaker 03

  I know.

• 24:06Adam Friedland?

  I'm like, the question is Deschamps, right? That's the, how, the question is the setup, because like, the final last, the final last year, or last World Cup, was A, the best game we've ever seen, the best final we've ever seen. And also, like, traditionally, these, you know, especially knockouts are like cagey and low-scoring, and like, 1-0s and shoot, 0-0 shootouts. And people play it really tight in these, in the, in tournament play.

• 24:37Adam Friedland?

  Franz, if you look at the roster, there's eight guys. There's eight guys that can bag, right? And the question is, is like, where, the midfield I'm fine with. The, the question is like, is Saliba fit? And then is Upa Maguire gonna do some, some stupid shit?

• 24:57Speaker 03

  Upa Magano, yes.

• 24:58Adam Friedland?

  Upa Maguire might, Upa Maguire might do some, might do some, uh, some, uh, some, do some bum-ass shit, but like, uh...

• 25:06Speaker 03

  But it's the same question with every Franz team, which is like, who's, is somebody gonna fuck this whole thing up by losing their mind over the course of the tournament? It's either Rabiot or Mbappe.

• 25:16Adam Friedland?

  He could still, I, the talent is just too, like, robust to even have Mbappe fuck it up. The attacking talent, at least. But for me, like, Deschamps played an open system, where they were in the final against Argentina and the World Cup before that. And that's how this roster is set up. In the Euros, like, George Graham for Arsenal, like, he became like a boring, boring Arsenal, because they had a loss in the Champions League to Porto, and he's like, "I'm gonna make it impossible to play against us." Right? And Deschamps, like, just, I think a little bit, lost his mind before the Euros. And if you remember, they like, went through to the quarters of the semis without scoring a goal.

• 26:00Adam Friedland?

  Mbappe eventually scored, but they were like, winning with own goals and, and, and shootouts.

• 26:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 26:06Adam Friedland?

  And they, they completely played it like a, just dramatically different system. And it's like, with this roster, it's like...

• 26:15Adam Friedland?

  God forbid for me to have a stupid Yank idea, but like just score eight goals. Just score 10 goals a game. They literally could do it. Like, you're not set up to keep it tight and cagey. And if Deschamps is going to repeat that from the Euros, then why did you pick this roster?

• 26:38Speaker 03

  Right.

• 26:38Adam Friedland?

  That's the question for me. So that's an unknown for me. That's why I think Spain is my top side.

• 26:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, the only thing I'll say about France is they've got a tough path. They will probably get Germany in the round of 16, I think, in Philly on July 4th.

• 26:55Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, and I think they're kind of, it's like leading up to a Spain-France semifinal if they qualify, which is the two best teams, in my opinion.

• 27:07Speaker 03

  So I have Brazil third.

• 27:08Adam Friedland?

  We can get to Germany.

• 27:09Speaker 03

  Yeah, but I have Brazil third because I needed to break up this European Union.

• 27:14Adam Friedland?

  Oh, okay.

• 27:17Speaker 03

  So I put Brazil in because, first of all, they'll have a huge fanbase in the States. I know that they're not, this is not a vintage Brazil team, but it's also a new Brazil team with their new coach. They have Vinny, they have Endric, they have younger talent that's coming along, Ran. But I don't know, I'm not familiar enough with like, this is not Yoga Bonito, but it's also not crazy defensive. So it's like, what Ancelotti finds will be like, the real question that I'm asking is like, what kind of ball does he play?

• 27:51Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. There is hokeyness that it works in football. There is a romance in it. Carlo would face Pep, and Pep would be losing his mind trying to come up with some sort of psycho system where he's like, I'm going to put Kyle Walker as my striker. They'll never see that coming. I'm going to like, you know what, I'm going to put a...

• 28:14Adam Friedland?

  I'm gonna put the goalie as my left winger. And he was like, Don Carlo will never see this coming in. Carlo looks like a guy that's at work, that's not doing his job, right? He looks like he does no work, right? And then, there's a magic of him, right? Where like the tactical genius, Pep Guardiola, the best manager of all time, like just was just frustrated by him, right? And like, there is something to be said that like, and he's coached a lot of these guys as well. That's another advantage they have. I mean, they also just have him. They have him back, and he's gonna be on the bench. I just, that's why, I had it on the lower in the document, but like, in my notes, but like, the return of Neymar.

• 28:57Speaker 03

  Let's talk about it, because this is the last, probably the last cup for three of the most iconic players in football history.

• 29:05Adam Friedland?

  He has only cooked for Brazil. And Vinny's coming off of kind of like a stinker this year.

• 29:12Speaker 03

  Well, he had a tough, majorial process, yeah.

• 29:15Adam Friedland?

  I wanna see the prodigal, the prodigal son return. Can you imagine how amazing it would be? Is Casemiro stodgy and cooked, maybe? Is Bruno gonna commit like a crime, an assault in midfield? Is he gonna kick someone's head off?

• 29:30Speaker 03

  De Jong style, yeah.

• 29:32Adam Friedland?

  Piquet is, I thought he was in jail for gambling.

• 29:34Speaker 03

  No, he went back to flamingo, and he's like, it saved my life, I'm back in Brazil. Like, he's loving life right now.

• 29:41Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, why would you leave? It sucks. Imagine going to Manchester, you're just getting rained on? You should be at Carneval. I mean, I think CR9 used to actually just go home, like after games.

• 29:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:57Adam Friedland?

  He'd just go to Brazil. Be like, it sucks here. I'm like, what am I doing in freaking, in Holland? I'm gonna go back to where it's nice, and everyone's having sex with each other.

• 30:09Speaker 03

  Alright, Spain, France, Brazil.

• 30:10Adam Friedland?

  There is a magic of that guy just coming in there, and... If I could just see something where it's like Carlo has, if he wins the World Cup, he wins football, right? That's the last, that's the last thing. And can you, if any manager in the world could like be the first foreign manager to win the cup, it's, it's that guy who just has a heavy pasta meal.

• 30:31Speaker 03

  It's also so fucking cool that he chose to do this with Brazil, like that he was like, I'm, I'm going to Brazil.

• 30:36Adam Friedland?

  So cool. It's so.

• 30:38Speaker 03

  Cause if you're a real one, you're like, that's the job. That's the job I would want. I would want to be the Brazil national manager and take them to a World Cup. That's just incredible.

• 30:47Adam Friedland?

  Oh my God, it's the country that's like fallen into like a, kind of like a fallow period in their international success. I mean, it, just him just sitting there smoking cigs. I think he quit, but like, you know, he, for a long time, he, he grew up eating like 80 to 90% pork-based diet when he grew up on a farm.

• 31:09Adam Friedland?

  And he, he's just obsessed with food.

• 31:10Speaker 03

  It's a great stat.

• 31:11Adam Friedland?

  Apparently he'd make them all have a, he'd have them have a heavy, he'd make his players the night before every match have a heavy pasta meal and red wine. Cause he said it would make them good the next day.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:22Adam Friedland?

  Genuinely speaking, like, we'll see what happens, but uh, that, they could win the whole thing with him. I, I, to me, they're sixth, I have them as sixth, but uh, if, if and when I see it, I'm like, oh, it's.

• 31:34Speaker 03

  They're your sentimental favorite, it sounds like.

• 31:36Adam Friedland?

  My, uh, third was England. Where'd you have them?

• 31:39Speaker 03

  I got England fifth, uh, because I'm worried about them in the heat. I actually really liked the squad and I don't mind that he, Thomas Tuchel, uh, Tuchel left behind Trent and he left behind Foden and he left behind Cole. So he left behind a lot of creativity and a lot of flair, but I think he got the team he wanted and I think it's among the more solid rosters, but it definitely.

• 32:05Speaker 03

  Watching them in Florida and like at camp, I was like, these guys are baking.

• 32:10Adam Friedland?

  Yeah.

• 32:10Speaker 03

  Like, they looked pink out there.

• 32:12Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, well, they, they always are when they go to Ibiza and stuff.

• 32:15Speaker 03

  Right, but they usually don't have to play like two a days and like then do a scrimmage. So it's like, I think.

• 32:20Adam Friedland?

  I'm pretty sure they're practicing, not doing anything bad when they're in Ibiza.

• 32:24Speaker 03

  For sure.

• 32:25Adam Friedland?

  I think I'm pretty sure. They get marooned, those boys, on vacation.

• 32:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, and this is another team that I think I have a, my eye is on them. They might have Mexico in Mexico City.

• 32:36Adam Friedland?

  You've got to balance Jude and Rice, right? They've always had trouble doing that. The only roster decision I disagreed with was Adam Wharton not, not being on the roster. I mean, he would have been, it would have been fucking dime city.

• 32:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:48Adam Friedland?

  He would have been point god.

• 32:50Speaker 03

  He should have brought one of Wharton or Trent.

• 32:54Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. Yeah. When I look at the front line, Saka might die. He literally might die. I mean, he's just, he's being, I don't, I don't, I'm afraid. He's my favorite player of all time. I'm just terrified for him right now. He might just like literally, I don't know how he's gonna do it.

• 33:12Speaker 03

  And to go off that point, these guys have all played at least, what, like 38 to 40 hard matches? Like, this isn't.

• 33:21Adam Friedland?

  They have not played, they have not had a vacation in about six years. Garrett Southgate would play Saka 120 minutes every three days and then he'd come back to Arsenal. But I, I really think he's been at 70% health, or 30% health for, for about five years now. And he's still somehow been our star boy. But, I mean, this year, we're starting to see a little bit of a toll. He was England's player of the season two or three straight years, three straight years? Two. It's two, but we'll say three. The other thing is this, and I'll, I'll put it in ringer terms. We've never seen a Harry Kane game. We've never seen it.

• 33:58Adam Friedland?

  And like, he is arguably the best player in the world right now in terms of form. He had his best season of all, one of the best seasons of all time. I don't, we haven't seen it for, for England and like, uh, the main flaw in that is the central defense. Uh, that's, that's like what, and Pickford is do a howler. I'm sorry. Pickford is like overachieved as an, as their keeper. He, he, in the prem this year, he was just fucking up left and right. But, uh, I mean, they have three central defenders. They have Konzer, they have, uh, Gaye, and they have, uh, Johnstone.

• 34:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:36Adam Friedland?

  And I, that is, that is terrifying.

• 34:37Speaker 03

  And Byrne, who's pretty much there for vibes, but they, they brought him with.

• 34:41Adam Friedland?

  Dan Byrne is there just like to reach things on the top of the shelf.

• 34:44Speaker 03

  Him and Hendo are kind of like locker room guys.

• 34:47Adam Friedland?

  Oh no, Hendo's gonna get serious, Byrne. I mean, that was the, that you should have put Adam Ward instead of, uh, Jordan Henderson.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think he likes the way that Henderson, like, is like a coach on the field or like an extension of the coaching staff.

• 34:59Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, he should be the coach.

• 35:01Speaker 03

  Um, but yeah, I had it.

• 35:03Adam Friedland?

  Uh, no, but, but that's, that's the argument against them. Uh, but that, sorry.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  No, no, make the argument for them. Make the argument.

• 35:10Adam Friedland?

  Now I want to support them, okay? And I, it dawned on me yesterday, it's four of my boys and Morgan Rogers, five of my boys, okay? I gotta, why am I not hyped? Why am I not hyped? It's got five Arsenal players, Morgan Rogers is coming, uh, actually I'm reporting it, Morgan Rogers, here we go. Uh, and so like, there's that, I gotta go, I gotta go hard for them. But no, they play in the prem.

• 35:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:33Adam Friedland?

  We forget that. They play in by far the best league in the world and they are like just battle tested and they're the, by far, like, anyone that kind of tries to run at them, they are going to be stronger and they're gonna be fa- like, the, the league is, is stronger and faster and think of it like, uh, uh, kind of like, uh, the way Tibbs kind of like, uh, ground them into mush by playing them 47 minutes a game.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:00Adam Friedland?

  But like somehow like, the, the kind of, what they, they have a lot of Tibbs in this team, they just, Mike Brown's like, I'm gonna rotate my fucking, uh, my fucking roster.

• 36:09Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:09Adam Friedland?

  Uh, the, think about it that way, like, these guys are coming out of the best league in the world and, um, we're kind of discounting that, uh, that, that. That is, it's quite frankly, an advantage.

• 36:20Speaker 03

  They've also gone very deep in several of the last few tournaments that they participated in.

• 36:25Adam Friedland?

  Who'd you have at the fourth team?

• 36:27Speaker 03

  Well, my fourth was Portugal, who are kind of this sexy pick.

• 36:29Adam Friedland?

  Portugal.

• 36:30Speaker 03

  And have, I know I said this about Spain, but if there's another best midfield in the world, it's definitely Portugal with

• 36:37Adam Friedland?

  It's the best, yeah.

• 36:38Speaker 03

  Bernardo Silva, Bruno, Bruno Fernandes, João Neves. I mean, like, it's, it is such an overwhelming amount of talent in the middle of the park. The case for, case against, really revolves around Ronaldo and like, how much this team is like, if he's like, coming off the bench as super sub of all time, which I don't think he will do, that would be amazing. And they've already lost Liao, who got into a fistfight in a friendly, and is now, I think, gonna miss the first two matches, right?

• 37:15Adam Friedland?

  Why doesn't Tim Ream do something like that?

• 37:18Speaker 03

  Well, no.

• 37:19Adam Friedland?

  Come on!

• 37:19Speaker 03

  To be fair, Liao got in the fistfight because somebody made fun of bed wetting. And he was just like, hey, that's a serious issue.

• 37:25Adam Friedland?

  Oh, okay.

• 37:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, and he knocked the guy out.

• 37:27Adam Friedland?

  And it is a serious issue. I don't want to diminish it.

• 37:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 37:29Adam Friedland?

  Chris is talking to me about it a little bit.

• 37:31Speaker 03

  I'm doing it right now as we speak, yeah.

• 37:33Adam Friedland?

  You're not in bed, though. You're chair wetting right now. You know that chair wetting happens to one in three podcasters? No, but yeah, it's the baby. You know he wants to play the next World Cup.

• 37:47Speaker 03

  He's gonna be like Brady, yeah.

• 37:50Adam Friedland?

  But he's not like, I mean, this isn't TB Brady. This is after.

• 37:54Speaker 03

  It's way past that, yeah. And he's scoring like 31 goals in a season in Saudi and I just don't think he has it anymore, but he's not gonna let it go.

• 38:04Adam Friedland?

  And he's throwing a tantrum if his teammate scores. And he's, you know, it's just, you know, yeah, that's the main question. It's the group stage merchant. What happens with him, you know? What happens, when, will Penaldo be bench Naldoed, okay? And is he finished Naldoed, okay?

• 38:24Adam Friedland?

  That's my question. He really does take the air out of the room. Here's the reason why I don't think they're gonna be able to manage it because Roberto Martinez is a loser.

• 38:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, that was the other thing.

• 38:34Adam Friedland?

  He's a sycophant and a loser.

• 38:36Speaker 03

  As soon as I get high on them, I remember who their coach is.

• 38:40Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, he's like a Democratic Party consultant. He somehow loses every time but gets a better job. I don't understand, like, right? Like Roberto Martinez is like, you know what he's like? He's like the Nick Kroll referee character. He's like, what are you guys doing after the game? Like Ronaldo, great abs, dude. I mean, like, honestly, he's like, can I get your autograph? I mean, but if you look beyond that, like, just like that midfield, it just is an absolute joke. Based on their last friendly, they're fucked, right?

• 39:11Speaker 03

  Right.

• 39:11Adam Friedland?

  Portugal is like, I think, a sexy pick, but I think it's kind of a... It's discounting for the fact that the elephant in the room.

• 39:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:18Adam Friedland?

  I mean, like, you can't look beyond that. Okay, your next team, Chris?

• 39:23Speaker 03

  My next team is Argentina, even though it's prohibitively impossible to repeat.

• 39:32Speaker 03

  They have still a very Messi-centric team, but they have a lot of depth. They have a lot of grit and they have a lot of experience. They got Emmy in the goal. Or is he actually starting or is he just like a figurehead for the team now?

• 39:44Adam Friedland?

  He's still starting, Chris.

• 39:45Speaker 03

  He is still starting.

• 39:46Adam Friedland?

  Actually, yeah.

• 39:47Speaker 03

  And Scolari is a great coach. He is like the anti Martinez. It's like I...

• 39:51Adam Friedland?

  Never lost.

• 39:52Speaker 03

  Right, exactly. I'm not super worried about them and their group because they've got Julian Alvarez, they've got Lautaro, like, they've got guys who can take up like the brunt of that. But as somebody who watched Alex McAllister barely be able to sprint for a long time this season for Liverpool, there's some questions in their midfield. Enzo, like, I mean, he was great in the last cup, but like, what will he do this time?

• 40:17Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I mean, that's the other thing is like a bunch of these guys are coming off of stinker seasons. Romero wanted to like go watch a game instead of play for Spurs at the end of the season. He wanted to go.

• 40:30Speaker 03

  But is he still on top of them?

• 40:32Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, he's like, can I go to Argentina instead of play for Spurs? And he was their captain, right?

• 40:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, and he was supposed to watch them. Yeah, yeah.

• 40:39Adam Friedland?

  Thank you, Sam. Let's run it again. He was their captain, so.

• 40:47Adam Friedland?

  But yeah, Lisandro had a stinker. Enzo, he's got a crap attitude. But the other thing is this, when you are going back and play for a white supremacist country, you tend to have a really good attitude when you're doing it for the country. Messi's still good. And guess what? Like, I just want to see him play well.

• 41:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:04Adam Friedland?

  The main thing, and we can just kind of adjust the format, because I had this lower on in the document. But the main thing is, is that they are on a collision course in the quarterfinals, the two of them.

• 41:17Speaker 03

  It has to happen.

• 41:19Adam Friedland?

  And the world is going to explode.

• 41:22Speaker 03

  Johnny Baby and Trump, and everybody needs to get together and make sure Messi plays Ronaldo.

• 41:27Adam Friedland?

  Austin Powers, Johnny Baby, Cristiano Jr. Cristiano Jr.

• 41:36Adam Friedland?

  I was looking at highlights. Okay, no, no. Yeah, really, they've never faced each other in a knockout. I don't know if I can handle it. I think about it, and I get nervous. Messi has to win. Like, I'm just, he can't...

• 41:53Adam Friedland?

  Honestly, let me give you a little prop bet. Cristiano Ronaldo, plus, over/under 1.5 cries in that game?

• 42:03Speaker 03

  Over.

• 42:05Adam Friedland?

  Over. I'm thinking two cries, maybe.

• 42:07Speaker 03

  Because you get one for your miss, and he'll get one for his sub. So it'll be...

• 42:12Adam Friedland?

  Of course, he famously cried. He cried because he missed a penalty, it was in the Euros. And then he was crying because his penalty streak was broken. Not because his team was... He was crying because his penalty streak had been broken. There's a really sad thing also in understanding those two guys. And Cristiano Ronaldo, I was saying to you before, but like, he comes from a family where his father and his brother had substance issues. And his, like, the gestation of what became CR7, like, what he became, he thought that if he got good enough, he could maybe get them... To stop killing themselves with substances.

• 42:57Adam Friedland?

  And then they, yeah, that genuinely, it's so sad. He bought them a house, like, and they, they're both dead. And it, there's a tragedy about this man.

• 43:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:05Adam Friedland?

  It's also just like, bro, like, he's open. Like, there's that element to it, too. Messi, on the other hand, it like, didn't speak until he was like, uh, maybe like, I think 25 years old.

• 43:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 43:16Adam Friedland?

  And like, somehow it was just a gift from God to be like this, uh, this savant, this angel. And so it's just like, there, there are these two, there are, they're such opposites, right? And the best thing is like, how much, uh, like Cristiano has to be told he's the best player ever. And like, how much it pisses him off that he's clearly not the best player ever. Like, how much he has to go on Piers Morgan interviews and be told like, thank you, thank you, Piers. Like, thank you for saying I'm the best, you know, like, it's just like, uh, he needs, like, he clearly knows that, like, just on paper, if you take away just every single accomplishment that they both have had. Messi just has another list of accomplishments.

• 43:56Speaker 03

  Yes, including a World Cup.

• 43:58Adam Friedland?

  Including a World Cup now.

• 43:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 44:00Adam Friedland?

  So that, that, that quarterfinal is going to...

• 44:02Speaker 03

  Do you have anybody else that you think is a legitimate favorite after that?

• 44:06Adam Friedland?

  Uh, Germany and Netherlands.

• 44:08Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 44:08Adam Friedland?

  And I can give you our...

• 44:11Adam Friedland?

  Uh, Germany, their second phase of a rebuild, right? They, they got knocked out of the group stages twice in a row.

• 44:19Adam Friedland?

  But it's a real team. There is, like, there's creativity across all three phases of play. Honestly, like, there's like, uh, I can make a case for Germany actually being better than people are acting. And then Netherlands, I think we, they have the best backline in the, in the tournament, even though Timber is out now, but they, yeah, they have Van Dijk, Van Hecke, Van de Ven, and Dumfries.

• 44:40Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's a really good, they have a very good backline. They also have, like, could, might they go insane?

• 44:45Adam Friedland?

  Also be Van Dumfries. Go ahead.

• 44:47Speaker 03

  They might, like, will they go insane? Like, that's always a question, but the Netherlands, like France, it's like, will they have like, an absolute bust up? Like, team falls apart moment?

• 44:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, that's the thing is that I think there's like a, Bill was saying this the other day. I think there's a pressure of like consistent like it not happening, right? Like they had like in the seventies, they had the best team in the world. And then they're in the eighties, nineties, they also just had the best team in the world. They had the best striker in the world. I mean, the way that people talk about Van Basten, which was also a tragedy. He had to retire at 30 because his body is like let his knee fell apart.

• 45:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:25Adam Friedland?

  And he had some shady operation in Switzerland, just like the cause him to play in excruciating pain. But the way like, like players that got or they got to watch him, talk about him is as if it's the best striker of all time. And then like, you know, they had our years that we watched, which is the Robin years.

• 45:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, Robin, Van Persie, Schneider.

• 45:47Adam Friedland?

  And Van Persie.

• 45:48Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:48Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, they had like, they had snipers, right? And it's just like, when it doesn't happen so many times, it's that's, there is a problem of, of kind of pressure that it puts on the shoulders of your country. I love Frankie and Gravenberch together in the midfield.

• 46:05Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 46:05Adam Friedland?

  I love their back line. I love, you know, and then here's the, here's my case for their frontline. Okay, they have like, they have like a Brabi, they have, they have a Daniel Mollin. They have guys that are like, kind of like, oh, that's not like a world-class level.

• 46:21Speaker 03

  They have Grinders, Somerville, yeah.

• 46:23Adam Friedland?

  They have Grinders, yeah, they have like, they have like guys that could body you. I remember I was watching Brabi play against Arsenal this year and I was like, he was just, Saliba and Gabrielle were, he was giving them fits. He's so, he's a brick shithouse. And I could see like one of those kind of guys that's like prem-tested, again, like I was saying with England. Guys that you don't expect to have a tournament, like, like a, like a Daniel, like a Brian, like a Brabi, right? Like a, or a Daniel Mollin, like have like, like bag four.

• 46:56Speaker 03

  I would say one thing going against Netherlands.

• 46:59Adam Friedland?

  Dumbass coach also.

• 47:01Speaker 03

  Worst coach, like absolute prick.

• 47:02Adam Friedland?

  Worst coach.

• 47:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:04Adam Friedland?

  Absolute fucking dickhead.

• 47:06Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:08Adam Friedland?

  I would love it if he gets, if he leaves mid-tournament and we get the god back. You know who I'm talking about.

• 47:16Speaker 03

  Van Gaal.

• 47:19Adam Friedland?

  Run it back one more time, this time he's redder.

• 47:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:22Adam Friedland?

  We get the, we see the reddest Van Gaal of all time, just standing there just redded, just like, he's purple at this point. We see, he looks like Barney at this point.

• 47:31Speaker 03

  They should have an option that when, if, if Kerkau goes out, advocate comes and coaches Netherlands.

• 47:39Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, we could get him, or we could just get half their players who are all from the Netherlands.

• 47:42Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 47:45Adam Friedland?

  Let's get into teams that might cook. We've touched on a couple of these, but I kinda wanna go through our list.

• 47:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 47:50Adam Friedland?

  And I, I, I had fun putting these together.

• 47:53Speaker 03

  I'll go first. Turkey. Canonyal Yildiz and Arda Guler. Really, like, it's a two-man team as far as I'm concerned, but those two are my favorite kinda player, which is just crazy creative attacking mids or wingers who can do anything. And this is the kinda thing that happens pretty much every World Cup where like dudes like this get introduced on a world stage. So even though Guler is already on Real Madrid and Yildiz is already on Juventus, I just think that like a global audience is gonna get to see them for real for the first time.

• 48:29Adam Friedland?

  Actually, I had them in the, I had them in teams that might suck.

• 48:32Speaker 03

  Well, this is the thing is that like, it's-

• 48:34Adam Friedland?

  They're a team that always underachieves. They're Belgium, you know, or Egypt under Salah.

• 48:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, but this is a new generation. Like, these guys were born when Turkey was fucking up like 12 years, like, well, they were obviously born 12 years ago, but like, they're Turkey that we know historically. Like, these dudes don't know anything about it.

• 48:50Adam Friedland?

  I, I think in the last couple of tournaments, we've seen it again, but like, I would, I mean, I like Guler a lot. Both of those players I like a lot. I also like, uh, who's the fullback on Brighton? What's his name? Fede Kadiaglu.

• 49:05Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 49:06Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. My number one team that might cook, Iran. Okay. Most UNESCO World Heritage sites. It's home to, these, uh, Asia's tallest volcano and it's the nose job capital of the world. But, but in reality, I think we could have a real conversation about this. It is, as a narrative, it's, you can't ignore the fact that they're at war- With the country that they're literally going to be playing in. And it, I do think that it's interesting to see how sports kind of intersects with that. Like if that's a motivating factor. I mean, Teremi literally wanted to quit ball to join the IRGC. Like, there is like, kind of like a us against, you know, it is, it's crazy.

• 49:50Adam Friedland?

  Literally, we didn't go to the Olympics in 1980 because of a cold war.

• 49:55Speaker 03

  Right, and a rant here.

• 49:56Adam Friedland?

  We're seeing this right now. Also, we have them scheduled two games in Los Angeles where we're going to see like the Beverly Hills BMW, Black BMW Mafia, just in the car park.

• 50:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 50:08Adam Friedland?

  They literally are going to, they have to evacuate them from the stadium. It is kind of psycho. And then the third game that they're playing is in Seattle and it is against Egypt and it is the gay pride match of the, they're making it the gay pride match. And literally, bro, Trump, that's a Trump. Trump had that, has fingerprints all over that.

• 50:28Speaker 03

  There's some troll in the White House who's like, guess what?

• 50:31Adam Friedland?

  I mean, Infantino is like, make one of the, make one of the games gay. Just go ahead, make them play the gay game. I mean, it's just like two countries where it's illegal to be gay. I mean, it's so odd, this whole thing. There's so much off with a lot of this tournament that I think we could maturely acknowledge.

• 50:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, they've just like banned a Somali referee from coming into the country. Like, teams are getting like strip searched when they're arriving. It's crazy.

• 50:58Adam Friedland?

  Most interestingly, if they finish second in the group, US finishes second in their group, they will be playing in the knockouts in Dallas, Texas. Which is, I mean, that is, that is, I don't, I think there is an aspect of the world kind of maybe pulling for them right now because of the unpopularity of the war right now. It's just that there is a lot of this stuff that you can't ignore about the cup. And, yeah, I mean, thank God our president is the recipient of the FIFA Peace Prize and...

• 51:34Adam Friedland?

  What is that even? They made it up for him?

• 51:36Speaker 03

  They did, I think. I don't remember anybody else receiving that before.

• 51:40Adam Friedland?

  Who are they giving it to next year? Gary Glitter.

• 51:45Adam Friedland?

  Why does that name come to my mind? It's a weird... What is wrong with my brain? Okay, second team for you.

• 51:51Speaker 03

  So I'm gonna go Ivory Coast for my first team that might cook. And this is really the first, I guess, African nation we've really talked about, but...

• 51:58Adam Friedland?

  I have it on my list.

• 52:00Speaker 03

  Ahmad from Manchester United, Diomande, who's on Leipzig, but is probably gonna play for Liverpool. Pepe, old gunner. I don't know if you still rock with him. So, just a lot of talent.

• 52:11Adam Friedland?

  I love him.

• 52:11Speaker 03

  Yeah. Did you have an African nation that you thought might cook?

• 52:16Adam Friedland?

  Senegal and Ivory Coast I love. I love both those sides. And they're both on this list for me. I mean, they are chock full of Fofanas and Mendys and Diomandes. I mean, generally speaking, the Paris suburbs are like the major football factory of the world. South London arguably as well. And like, there are 75 players of French that were born in France, playing in this cup.

• 52:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:40Adam Friedland?

  That aren't playing for France right now. And so, like...

• 52:44Speaker 03

  That's a crazy stat.

• 52:46Adam Friedland?

  It's hoopers, bro. They just have pure hoopers that come from like, from the street ball in the Paris suburbs. And they're just like fun. They're fun teams, you know? And like, Senegal also won two of the last three Afcons. Although, their manager is still doing a contract holdout. I think he's still in Senegal.

• 53:09Speaker 03

  Is he really?

• 53:10Adam Friedland?

  I think he still is there, which is fun. You know, and then also, I wanna just recognize Sadio Mane, the work he's done. And especially, he's got a passion for helping the youth and just...

• 53:30Adam Friedland?

  He's done a lot of good work with it. Anyway, Liverpool, Legions, Saudi Armane, of course you have. Yeah, but just both those, it's just they're like incredibly fun, dynamic, awesome teams. Those are teams I want to see over at Chief. I had Canada on my list. Jesse Marsh has hate in his gut. Over/under 0.5 Trump tweets about Jesse Marsh on Truth Social.

• 53:57Speaker 03

  From Trump about Jesse? I don't know if Jesse is going to rise to Trump's level.

• 54:01Adam Friedland?

  Absolute loser. Yeah, I don't think he's going to get there. What a loser, Jesse Marsh.

• 54:07Adam Friedland?

  He's the reason the Alberta succession failed. I mean, main reason why I think Canada is, listen, they are, he's a good coach. I liked him when he was in England and Germany as well. They have the Iceman bump, right? You know, and that's going to be huge for them. I think Drake dropping an album is going to solidify the nation.

• 54:28Speaker 03

  I do have one left.

• 54:31Adam Friedland?

  Who's yours?

• 54:31Speaker 03

  It's really an unpleasant team to watch, but it's Ecuador. And I'm trying to also just put a little bit of weight on the scale because of what hemisphere we're playing in. Crowds showing up for these teams. Other teams being a little uncomfortable in the weather and Ecuador's back four is nuts. They're just a fucking steel safe. So if they want to get into it where they're winning games 1-0 or winning on shootouts or whatever, like they can do that. And for them to have Hinkapi and Pacho from PSG is just like, they've just got like a real lockbox backdoor.

• 55:09Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, and that's how they're set up and they've been playing in the.

• 55:13Speaker 03

  It's miserable to watch, but it's very effective.

• 55:15Adam Friedland?

  If you're set up like that in the World Cup, you have a puncher's chance. You know, and any team that sets up that way is going to like could go on a run.

• 55:25Speaker 03

  See, like there's been some like, oh, like this team or that team. Like for instance, like Norway is a pretty attractive like dark horse pick right now. People are really loving like Holland and Odegaard and stuff, but I don't, I don't really think that those guys are going to enjoy playing in the States. And I don't think that the weather, that's a team that I think the weather could affect.

• 55:45Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, they're like, three of them went to the hospital because it was like 68 the other day.

• 55:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, I'd rather take a flyer on Ecuador or Uruguay than Norway or Sweden.

• 55:53Adam Friedland?

  They play at Bodo Glimt, which is above the Arctic Circle. They literally play above the Arctic Circle. What the hell are they gonna do in Kansas City in the summer at Arrowhead? They're gonna, we're gonna, this is gonna be a disaster. No. Last team, the cool team, Japan, they are the system team. And it's really impressive because I think that they hadn't made a World Cup until 98. They started their soccer program basically like 40 years ago, like not very long ago. And they set up the J-League like in order to like start soccer in Japan. And it's been like just a complete like, it's been like really impressive like to watch.

• 56:38Adam Friedland?

  The problem is they have a couple of injuries.

• 56:41Speaker 03

  Matoma, yeah.

• 56:42Adam Friedland?

  Matoma, yeah, yeah. If you go through their like starting 11, they're all, they all play real teams in Europe.

• 56:49Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 56:49Adam Friedland?

  And like they're the opposite of Mexico, basically. They all have European pedigree. They're all, you know, they all like compete at the top level and they're so fucking cool. I saw a clip of them playing Iceland in the warm-up and what happened was there's a new rule that if you don't get off the pitch in under 10 seconds, the substitute has to wait 60 seconds to come on.

• 57:14Speaker 03

  Oh, is there?

• 57:15Adam Friedland?

  Right after you walk off.

• 57:16Speaker 03

  So it's like a power play almost?

• 57:19Adam Friedland?

  Kind of like a, which I think soccer needs, right? I think the red card is too like punitive, actually. Like there should be something where like you have a man advantage for an amount of time and that would make it very exciting. The Iceland players move back, they try to park the bus, they had back six eventually for this throw-in. And just without, you know, no one's talking, right? They just noticed a man advantage on the far end and it was a back of the net. Like the Japanese team are like the most well-drilled and well-trained and like collective.

• 57:54Adam Friedland?

  I think a team in the World Cup. Let's talk about the teams that we that might suck.

• 57:59Speaker 03

  Yeah, we could just run through these pretty quickly. We don't even have to like.

• 58:01Adam Friedland?

  Let's run through them easily because I brought up I brought up a lot of it. I'll go first. England. How does the ball move? That's my question about England. How is the ball progressing? How does it progress through midfield? And I can't see it in my mind right now. The midfield seems like a little bit of a bottleneck. And like, we need to know how Tuchel is going to set them up. And I think it's a fair point about the weather. Like, if he's gonna be like, just doing like a fucking, like, uh, like, making them pressy as fuck. If he's gonna make them like, play like a, like a.

• 58:33Speaker 03

  Like a German side, yeah.

• 58:35Adam Friedland?

  Like, the gang and press, you know, heavy metal football. They're going to expire, you know, like, uh, on the field.

• 58:42Speaker 03

  They played in Florida last week and they were, first of all, they were real pissy about the state of the pitch. But then, second of all, they were like, oh, we realize like, we can't really do some of the stuff we've been training to do. Before we got to the States, because it's too hot and we got too tired. So we basically have to like, calibrate how we're playing. So that like, at 65 minutes, we turn it on rather than at, at the first whistle.

• 59:06Adam Friedland?

  You know what? I can criticize America. They can't, okay? We gave you, there's a fucking boat in that fucking stadium, okay? That's where, that's where Tom won his last ring. Shut up.

• 59:17Speaker 03

  Other teams that might suck, we kind of hit on this. Argentina and Portugal, just idol worship, like, past their prime. Argentina defending at World Cup, Portugal going too long with this. And like I said, Norway.

• 59:29Adam Friedland?

  I had a similar pairing, you said Norway, yeah. I had a similar pairing in USA and Mexico, uh, which are related. And I think we brought those up already. Uh, I, I think if Mexico fuck up the opening match. Their, their advantage is that they have, uh, South Africa, the mighty Buffon, Buffon of my homeland, uh, in the opening match. How many times are they gonna do that? Like, uh, whatever. Uh, I mean, it's, it's but an honor, but. What do you mean, the mighty, what? That's the name of our team, the Buffon Buffon?

• 59:59Speaker 03

  I know, it's just the way you say it with such swelling pride. It's really nice.

• 1:00:02Adam Friedland?

  The Buffon Buffon, yeah, the, okay, uh.

• 1:00:06Adam Friedland?

  No, they have a good matchup at home at the Aseca, that'll build some belief for them. If they fuck up that result, it's going to fall apart. They are one fuck up away from like their fanbase imploding and like, yeah, it's, they have a very toxic relationship.

• 1:00:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, if the USMNT has a slow start, I don't think like First Take is gonna be leading with like, what's the matter? They need to step up, you know?

• 1:00:34Adam Friedland?

  No one's gonna care, yeah. We're gonna have like, we're gonna have Chris Broussard be like, they need it, they should have got Pelé, Pelé, Pelé. Did you see that clip? Did you see that clip? Broussard, amazing. What's your favorite World Cup memory? One word, Pelé. Pelé, Pelé, Pelé. Okay, moving on, last thing in my head is Morocco.

• 1:00:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, very good.

• 1:01:00Adam Friedland?

  Yeah. I think Morocco is the Afcon, they arguably, who won the Afcon? I don't know. They, they overachieved in the last World Cup, obviously. I think the problem is this, they had a manager after the Afcon that was fired the next day, right? And he was the, he set them up for like all their success and they, new manager's been hired in March. The way they set up and were successful in tournaments, we were talking before, is they were playing a back three and they were playing it tight. They were hitting you on the break. And this guy wants to play an open, free-flowing, modern brand of football.

• 1:01:42Adam Friedland?

  If you're, the concept of a national side, which has been playing club football for the most, the most part since March, having two weeks to set up a...

• 1:01:55Speaker 03

  A free-flowing attacking operation?

• 1:01:57Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, Hugo de Possession or whatever. I don't, I think that's, first of all, that's stupid. That's not what they should be doing with this roster. And second of all, like, it's, it's just, it seems like a fool's errand.

• 1:02:11Speaker 03

  There, I will say this, there's, sometimes in cups you can get like a little bit of a uniform. And how people play and everybody's just like we're gonna set up defensively. We're just gonna kind of take our time. We're gonna look for counter attack. There's a couple of teams that play with their fucking hair on fire and like Uruguay does that. There's a couple of teams that play incredibly aggressively and really like high press, quick transition stuff. So it'll be fun to watch. It'll just, but if it goes wrong, like if, if they try to play like they're Barcelona, they're gonna get blown out.

• 1:02:42Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, if they, and they've had two weeks to learn how to be Barcelona. Like it's just like, to me, that's like a disaster in the, in the making. We had a little section that we wanted to do called passion project.

• 1:02:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, we can wrap up with this. This is good.

• 1:02:54Adam Friedland?

  We wanted to be like, what are you gonna be enjoying during this tournament? What are you, what are the things you're gonna be looking out for? It doesn't necessarily even have to be on the field. So yeah, you want to give us just what, what your list is.

• 1:03:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, the two kinds of thing, players that I love at World Cups are the dudes who are like at the sort of middle stage of their career who jump up a huge notch. So that's like Frank Ribery or Andre Arshavin in previous tournaments, whether it's Euros or World Cup. I know, Arshavin is a goat, but.

• 1:03:25Adam Friedland?

  Against Netherlands.

• 1:03:27Speaker 03

  The other one that I love, the other group of players I love watching is, is the young dudes, the guys who are under 21, who people maybe haven't gotten a chance to see on a stage like this. Scouting youth, gotten a bad name over the years, but I, I think we can reclaim it. When I play FIFA, what I usually like to do is take charge of a championship club, sell everyone, get Michael Edwards with it and then bring in a bunch of players from the Guardians, like best young footballers list. So with that in mind, like the guys I'm watching out for, I mentioned Jan Diaman de before, who plays for Leipzig, is gonna be a Liverpool player. Sorry. And then also Martin Baderin, who plays for Croatia. He and Nico Paz are both on Como in Italy. They play for Cesc Fabregas.

• 1:04:12Speaker 03

  Nico O'Reilly, people probably saw in Man City, but I'm excited to see what Tuchel does with him. And then Warren Zaire, Emery and Dure on France, who if they get enough playing time, could blow people's minds.

• 1:04:25Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, the center back just from Vuskovic from Croatia. Yeah. He's, well, no, he doesn't want to go back. They bought him, loaned him out, and he's like, I don't want to go. Please don't make me go. Vuskovic, he is just, if you watch his highlights on YouTube. Yeah, he's incredible. He's, he's, he's both huge Rolls Royce, like William Saliba, like you, like on a, if they try to go route one or over their heads, he's like, he's boxing you the fuck out. You're not even getting close to the ball. But he's so technical with his feet. I mean, he's just, he's, it's, yeah. He's, he's kind of the one I'm looking out for.

• 1:05:09Adam Friedland?

  There's a couple more, but I want to give you my, my passion projects. The first is, I just want to keep an eye on the way Thierry Henry and Zlatan just interact with, with, what's his name? Wallace. Wallace. Because clearly they're, they're three of the best players of all time that we've ever watched. They're three juggernauts. Yeah. They're titans. Yeah. There is going to be, I mean, this is a disaster in the making. Zlatan, Zlatan is going to say something. He's like, you better watch your mouth. You know, he's just going to like, that, the, the coverage, the American coverage, like the way that we handle soccer is, is always real fun. And the way Fox, Fox does it is always really fun. They have a lot of guys that are good.

• 1:05:53Adam Friedland?

  I think Leonard Donovan is pretty good as a, as a color commentator. We're going through some weird stuff with the hair, but it's, he's, he's generally like a really, a pretty decent commentator. Yeah, yeah. Well, he went to Turkey. He didn't. He's got a wig on. It's a wig. How the hell is, oh, it's a wig? It's a piece? Yeah. Really? Oh, you're a truther? No, I'm not a truther. He did a whole video about it. I was wondering, how did Eric Adams, the former mayor, do, I know there's nothing to do with soccer, go to, like, have a scandal with Turkey and not just come back with a full.

• 1:06:23Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, and just like those teeth that like British people get. Why do British people get like, it's like you're like, they're blinded.

• 1:06:29Speaker 03

  The veneers, yeah.

• 1:06:30Adam Friedland?

  The veneers, they're like, they're too big for their mouths. I can't wait to get those one day. Okay. My other passion projects, I mentioned before Messi Ronaldo quarterfinal, it's just, it's gonna be, that's history. The German guy that's like, was in Atlanta and went to like, taking pictures at Wendy's and Magic City.

• 1:06:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, he was just like, I love the infrastructure.

• 1:06:51Adam Friedland?

  I'm loving that guy. Yeah, yeah, he's reacting to it as if we're like, it's the year 2075.

• 1:06:58Speaker 03

  He's in like Tomorrowland.

• 1:07:01Adam Friedland?

  He's like, why is everyone telling me to go to this Magic City? Okay, then, this is gonna be a series, I wanna, I'm gonna bring up one guy every bunch, I'm gonna go through their thought mob, transfer, uh, uh, projection, like, uh, whatever their projected transfer amount is. And it's guys that I'm gonna ask Spotify to buy for me and live in my house. The first is Tommy Smith, defender from Australia. He's a 52K, come on.

• 1:07:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:07:28Adam Friedland?

  Why are they looking at you? Come on. That's nothing to you.

• 1:07:31Speaker 03

  What would you do with him?

• 1:07:32Adam Friedland?

  Come on. I make him live with me. He's a, he's, he, he played at Braintree Town, who was relegated from England's fifth to sixth tier.

• 1:07:44Adam Friedland?

  And when I Googled Tommy Smith, uh, uh, Tommy Smith died was a suggested, uh, search.

• 1:07:55Adam Friedland?

  I was typing it, it said Tommy. Oh, nevermind. He's, uh, you know, I, that's, uh, obviously, then there's obviously, um, what's his name?

• 1:08:06Speaker 03

  So wait, just to recap that idea, is that you want Spotify to purchase the transfer, the player rights, for an inexpensive player to come live with you?

• 1:08:16Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, so they come hang out with me, tell me what Braintree, the town is like, I can tell them my joke about how that's funny, it's like a tree that you, try, try to get some brain, uh, you know, like, whatever. And then last is just the stinkers that I wanna watch, uh, put this under passion projects. Here are the five, five, like, hooked in the stinkers that I wanna see happen. CR7, obviously. I need to see Vinny yanked. And see prodigal son return. I need to see Neymar cook. It would be the most romantic, incredible thing if he like returned and... He's had such a difficult career. He's a family man, Chris.

• 1:09:01Adam Friedland?

  Loves his family.

• 1:09:04Adam Friedland?

  Jordan Pickford got a yank. Udi Simone, if he's starting, I'm sorry, David Rais is the best keeper in the world. I don't know why Spain doesn't use him. It's kind of insane to me.

• 1:09:15Speaker 03

  He's a very specific kind of keeper, though, yeah.

• 1:09:18Adam Friedland?

  And then finally, Victor Gilkeres. I want to see him hooked and stinkered. I had to watch 50 games of this guy this year.

• 1:09:28Adam Friedland?

  Literally, I hope he loses his legs. Here's what's gonna happen. And we can both, before we wrap, just say, these are predictions for the tournament, like just how the tournament goes. It's going to be a slog. We're all gonna say that it sucks. And then something is going to happen and the world is going to explode and we're we're gonna be losing our minds. Whether it's Ronaldo and Messi meeting in a knockout stage for the first time in their careers. Whether it's something like that, there's something like that unbelievable that happens. And it's every time. I mean, like, last tournament, obviously, there were like, you know, people had issues with Qatar and their human rights policies, et cetera, et cetera. We weren't that excited about watching the World Cup. And then we got to see Messi get a chip. You know, like, uh, there's...

• 1:10:14Adam Friedland?

  We're gonna just keep watching this crap.

• 1:10:16Speaker 03

  I mean, I can't turn my eyes away.

• 1:10:19Adam Friedland?

  I have to watch this crap.

• 1:10:22Speaker 03

  This is good. We're gonna do this Tuesdays and Fridays, right? I might not be on every one of these. You're gonna have some guests. We're gonna have some other folks like moving in and out. But Tuesdays and Fridays, and it's not gonna be like hardcore recaps of games. We're gonna kind of take the temperature of where the tournament is.

• 1:10:37Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, I'm a, I can't watch like 75 games a day. I'm not allowed to. No, no. Listen, it's great into the year to listen to Yang's talk about our, our opinions. Okay, which we're allowed to have. It's our tournament. Okay, we're only giving Canada two cities. It's our, I love how it's 75% ours. We're being nice to the other guys. What's interesting to me about this is the culture around it and the jokes around it. And seeing the Austrians street harassed in Oakland. There's gonna be a lot of funny stuff. Yeah. There's, and we're gonna see some purple English guys. Literally, they're gonna have to stretch out fans. Think about those Ibiza guys in the crowd. Did you see they were trying to do the Mexican wave?

• 1:11:20Adam Friedland?

  And they were like, they were, they were, I'm not gonna get, did you try to see they were do, did you see they were trying to do the wave in Tampa? And they were like, go fuck yourself. Yeah.

• 1:11:30Speaker 03

  Would they be like this? Yeah.

• 1:11:33Adam Friedland?

  They were like, yeah, to the wave. Yeah. I, the fun thing about the, the World Cup is cultures coming together. It is the supporters groups. It is how embarrassing people act on vacation. It is, uh, and there's, I'm really excited to be doing this podcast with you. Every Tuesdays and Fridays. Uh, and then, uh, yeah, I want to thank Gianni Infantino.

• 1:11:55Speaker 03

  Yeah, thank you.

• 1:11:56Adam Friedland?

  President Trump.

• 1:11:58Speaker 03

  Bill Simmons.

• 1:11:59Adam Friedland?

  Bill Simmons, Daniel Ek, and Phil Jackson, Gary Glitter, uh, Mark Van Bobble.

• 1:12:12Speaker 03

  Mark Van Basten. Yeah.

• 1:12:15Adam Friedland?

  Yeah, uh, who else? Chicharito.

• 1:12:20Speaker 03

  Mikel Arteta.

• 1:12:23Adam Friedland?

  I was gonna say, congratulations.

• 1:12:25Speaker 03

  Congratulations. Let's wrap it up there. Congratulations.