Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the Away and I'm Nielle Alercone.
Speaker 1: I'm John Green. Today, friends, we're making predictions. It's happening.
Speaker 1: It's actually happening.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: How do you feel, John, You're confident in your picks.
Speaker 2: I feel like you're going to have to write another
Speaker 2: novel so that you will have a place to put
Speaker 2: my name.
Speaker 1: Wow, Juan beb here we come all right? Okay. We
Speaker 1: also wanted to lay out the terms of our bet
Speaker 1: and also reiterate our invitation to all the listeners to
Speaker 1: join our bracket because we're gonna ount surprise. This is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've come out kind of strongly against against betting, but
Speaker 1: I think this is kind of a betting thing we
Speaker 1: can all get get behind, right. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So we're gonna give the winner of awayendbracket dot Com
Speaker 2: some signed books, So nothing to get too excited about.
Speaker 2: It is just an obligation to read, which in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty six probably feels more annoying to you than anything.
Speaker 2: But yeah, it's an opportunity to have some signed books.
Speaker 1: You can also use those books if you park on
Speaker 1: a hill and you want to put them under your tire,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, you know, whatever you want. No
Speaker 1: one's saying you have to read them. Yeah, it's up
Speaker 1: to you, Daniel.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you saw the news story, but
Speaker 2: in Cheyenne, Wyoming, someone went into a local library and
Speaker 2: burned a copy of my book Paper Towns on the
Speaker 2: floor of the lobby. What what Yeah, no, I missed that.
Speaker 1: I don't have I don't have a Googler for your name.
Speaker 1: But how Yeah, that's so, why do I forgive you?
Speaker 1: How do you feel complicated?
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm glad, you know, glad to always bring
Speaker 2: about big feelings and readers. But maybe that wasn't necessarily
Speaker 2: the one I was going for.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just give it one star on Amazon, like you know,
Speaker 1: just why do you gotta go burn it?
Speaker 2: Exactly if you don't like it? There's always good reading.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's always good reason. We can just vent to
Speaker 1: your heart's content. I would burn this book in a
Speaker 1: public library. But that's that's illegal. Wow, that's that's crazy.
Speaker 1: I had a friend one time who moved and in
Speaker 1: the course of his move, basically all of his belongings
Speaker 1: were stolen, except like a bag of books that included
Speaker 1: the novel that I've given him. That because the thieves
Speaker 1: were like, no, this is just too heavy to carry
Speaker 1: and there's no TV red pile right now. Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: all right, So we got.
Speaker 2: To make our predictions, but first you wanted to have
Speaker 2: a quick conversation about de b Martinez.
Speaker 1: Yes, because the reason we're going to do this is
Speaker 1: because there we're giving out some predictions for you know,
Speaker 1: for for things like Golden Glove, golden boot, et cetera,
Speaker 1: in addition to our semi finalists. But what was funny
Speaker 1: was that John and I and we were texting, we
Speaker 1: had starkly different interpretations of an iconic moment from the
Speaker 1: last World Cup, which is when Debu Emiliano Martinez, the
Speaker 1: goalkeeper of Argentina, was given his award for the Golden
Speaker 1: Glove and made what can only be called an obscene
Speaker 1: gesture basically to the world.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the most obscene gesture you can imagine. He took
Speaker 2: the trophy and put it on his crotch to imply
Speaker 2: that he had the trophy.
Speaker 1: A five fingered penis. Yes, yes, his penis has five fingers. Yes,
Speaker 1: that was the implication For our listeners who don't know
Speaker 1: much about Emiliano Martinez and his personality. Could you describe him. Granted,
Speaker 1: neither you nor I know him as a human being.
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm sure he's a nice guy, but
Speaker 1: just who is he on the pitch and off the pitch?
Speaker 1: The kind of personality he exudes, well.
Speaker 2: I would say that in third and fourth tier English football,
Speaker 2: there's a saying that sometimes you need someone who's a
Speaker 2: little bit crazy and understands the dark arts of football,
Speaker 2: and Emiliano Martinez understands the dark arts of football. And
Speaker 2: also he is he's an unpredictable character, Daniel. I mean,
Speaker 2: you never know when he's going to take a trophy
Speaker 2: and just just do that, because that wasn't the first
Speaker 2: time he's done that. To be fair, he also did
Speaker 2: it with the Copa America trophy.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah. I would say that there was a question
Speaker 1: that we had in our Mailbag episode about goalkeepers, and
Speaker 1: I would say that Debu exemplifies the like there may
Speaker 1: be a screw loose with this, you know, world class
Speaker 1: athlete that allows him to be who he is and
Speaker 1: be as successful as he is because he's he's a
Speaker 1: he's a wild one. I was a fan of his
Speaker 1: until he left Arsenal, and then he made a point
Speaker 1: of like dabbing a finger in our eye collective by
Speaker 1: every time he played us. And my favorite Deebu Martinez
Speaker 1: moment was when he he scored an own goal because
Speaker 1: a shot ricocheted off the back of the post, hit
Speaker 1: him in the head and went in as like a
Speaker 1: late late, you know, ninetieth minute winter That was just
Speaker 1: a lovely, hilarious moment. So we had different interpretations of this.
Speaker 1: You said that you thought this was like one of
Speaker 1: the greatest moments in World Cup history.
Speaker 2: I was kidding when I said it was one of
Speaker 2: the greatest moments of World Cup history.
Speaker 1: But I did think it was.
Speaker 2: I thought it was very in line with who he is,
Speaker 2: and I wasn't offended by it. You you, with all
Speaker 2: of your taciturn value driven family system, apparently, yeah, your
Speaker 2: finger wagon, you apparently found this deeply offensive.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, now it seems a little bit pearl clutching,
Speaker 1: but you're right. I just it seems and I don't
Speaker 1: think there's much argument here. It just seem pretty undignified,
Speaker 1: and I was undignified, and I just want my winners
Speaker 1: to be dignified. I don't know, maybe that's too much top. Also,
Speaker 1: when we were thinking, we were talking about it. I
Speaker 1: was thinking that for every other person on the on
Speaker 1: that Argentina squad walking pass and receiving their winner's medal
Speaker 1: was the fulfillment of a childhood dream, and for Diebou Martinez,
Speaker 1: it was slightly different. It was not the fulfillment of
Speaker 1: a childhood dream. It was like the could the fulfillment
Speaker 1: of a childhood promise that he'd made, like on like
Speaker 1: some scrabvelly gravelly playground in Argentina somewhere with like his
Speaker 1: two derelic friends who's like are named like a loco
Speaker 1: or something, and he'd promise them at age eleven that
Speaker 1: one day he would win the Golden Glove and then
Speaker 1: he would pretend that it was his dick basically and
Speaker 1: just like attach it to his crotch in front of
Speaker 1: you know, gazillion people watching, and everyone laughed. His two
Speaker 1: friends laughed, and he's like, I'm going to do that.
Speaker 1: This was a solemn promise that he'd made. And I
Speaker 1: just felt to me, I guess if you want to
Speaker 1: put a positive spin on it, and I think you do.
Speaker 1: We have someone who is can only be himself and yeah,
Speaker 1: and there's no you know, you can put a tuxedo
Speaker 1: on him. He's still going to be that kid on
Speaker 1: the playground who's like me against the world. Baby, let
Speaker 1: me you know, I'm going to show them and uh
Speaker 1: and I guess that's admirable. But just a little bit
Speaker 1: of we talked about media training last week, John, I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure no media trainer would have been like, you know, Emiliano,
Speaker 1: make sure you're when you're standing in from the shake
Speaker 1: of you know, Qatar, you do this at the stadium.
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Maybe I'm just he kept his promise, Daniel, and I
Speaker 2: kept on him in favor of people keeping their promises. Good, good, good, Okay,
Speaker 2: all right, all right, fair enough, Daniel, let's move on.
Speaker 2: Who is going to win the World Cup.
Speaker 1: Spain? That's my pick, and that's my pick. Who are
Speaker 1: going to be the four semi finalists. Well, I've been
Speaker 1: changing this up until the very last moment. And there
Speaker 1: may or may not be glitches in our bracket at
Speaker 1: Racket at Away and bracket dot com. Yeah, exactly. Please
Speaker 1: to all our listeners, we are working on the glitches.
Speaker 1: So we'll be we'll be working on this up up
Speaker 1: until you know, the kickoff of the first game. But
Speaker 1: what basically I have France, Spain, Morocco, Argentina and the
Speaker 1: final is Spain Argentina. But in previous iterations I had
Speaker 1: South Korea for some reason going all the way to
Speaker 1: the Semis. I also had Brazil sort of like pulling
Speaker 1: up together and getting into the Semis. I had Belgium
Speaker 1: beating Spain. You know, like, I really could go any
Speaker 1: any which way, and I think I'm gonna change it
Speaker 1: in the course of of uh, you know, of the tournament,
Speaker 1: you know, before we get to the knockouts. But anyway,
Speaker 1: this is my sense right now at this moment, I
Speaker 1: think Spain has like there's not there's there's not a
Speaker 1: dud on that team, you know. And even though you
Speaker 1: could argue that France has a better attacking, better attacking players,
Speaker 1: I feel like, having watched the performance last night against
Speaker 1: Ivory Coast, I was not super impressed with their defense,
Speaker 1: and I feel like Spain now they just controlled the midfield.
Speaker 1: You can't you can't score if you never get the ball, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I think.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I have current I mean, I I'm
Speaker 2: struggling here, so I have in the quarters I have Brazil, England, Argentina, Columbia, Spain, Turkey, France, Morocco.
Speaker 2: After that, I don't feel confident at all going into
Speaker 2: the Semis because I think any of those eight teams
Speaker 2: could win any of those four games. And I'm going
Speaker 2: to say England. Hm, I'm gonna say Brazil. I just
Speaker 2: changed my mind. I'm gonna say Brazil Argentina. I just
Speaker 2: don't think it one can do it in the heat.
Speaker 2: I think the heat is going to be.
Speaker 1: Too much for them.
Speaker 2: Brazil, Argentina, France, and Spain are my quarter finalists and
Speaker 2: my champion. Since you picked Spain, I will pick France.
Speaker 1: Hmmm, France is definitely not gonna win it. You can
Speaker 1: you could, okay, sign Spain. I will pick England. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, great, great, these are these are deeply held convictions.
Speaker 1: I have my final France versus England, and since you're
Speaker 1: convinced that France is not going to win it, I'll
Speaker 1: pick England. Wow, that's all it takes. That's convinced that.
Speaker 1: Then Debu's friend in local you know, let's get Sean here,
Speaker 1: because Sean also has some picks. Yeah, I have some
Speaker 1: picks here.
Speaker 3: Guys, and I I'm aligned with a lot of your picks,
Speaker 3: but I gotta say, like they it just they feel
Speaker 3: a little basic and a little a little boring to
Speaker 3: me because it's like so obvious or something like that.
Speaker 3: Like I have France, Spain, England, and Argentina and my
Speaker 3: semi final bracket and identical to mine Spain and Argentina,
Speaker 3: and the final was Spain winning.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: And again it's like, is that like the equivalent of like,
Speaker 3: and it's like the equivalent of just picking all the
Speaker 3: number one seeds going against each other if there was
Speaker 3: a seeding like that. Yeah, but they usually do end
Speaker 3: up that way.
Speaker 1: True. So I think it's I think you're making reasonable
Speaker 1: picks if you're trying to get your name into one
Speaker 1: of our books, and you are, so I think you're
Speaker 1: making the right call. I think there will be some surprises.
Speaker 1: I think France. I mean, I love France, I love
Speaker 1: the French, I love French literature, French food and Paris
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah. But I kind of would love
Speaker 1: it if France didn't do well this time. I think
Speaker 1: it'd be pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: Well, I think they've got a really tough potential game
Speaker 2: in the round of sixteen if they end up playing
Speaker 2: some one like Ecuador. Yeah, and then they could play
Speaker 2: someone like Morocco and that could be a hard game
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't look great last night. Their finishing was terrible.
Speaker 1: I got to say, the Ivorian goalkeeper for the final
Speaker 1: was played an incredible match. But again it goes back
Speaker 1: to those things like do you how much do you
Speaker 1: read into the into these friendlies. You know, you have
Speaker 1: to assume that when it comes down to it, they'll
Speaker 1: have them Beleles starting and he'll put the ball in
Speaker 1: the back of the net.
Speaker 2: So, guys, I just realized that I said Brazil was
Speaker 2: going to make the semifinals and then England was going
Speaker 2: to win the tournament. After taking England out of the semifinals,
Speaker 2: I just want to state my picks for the record.
Speaker 2: My picks are England, Argentina, France, Spain and the Semis
Speaker 2: England to win the tournament. Sorry, Brazil, love much love
Speaker 2: to Brazil.
Speaker 1: Great. Okay, that's exciting. I was actually talking to a
Speaker 1: friend of mine, Brazilian friend Daigo, and he said that
Speaker 1: he'd be happy with the quarterfinals, that there's just not
Speaker 1: a lot of the enthusiast or confidence right now in
Speaker 1: the Brazilian squad. So we'll see. Okay, so we've got
Speaker 1: our winners, which we'll admit our little basic and the
Speaker 1: caveat being that we can all go in and change
Speaker 1: our picks on away in bracket dot Com up until
Speaker 1: pickoff of the Mexico game tomorrow. Let's do Golden Boot, Sean, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll start. This is actually the only other award that
Speaker 1: I had made a pick for, so but yeah, for
Speaker 1: Golden Boot, I have Arling Holland from Norway. Holland topped
Speaker 1: the Premier League scoring charts for the third time this season.
Speaker 1: He scored twenty seven goals and thirty five appearances in
Speaker 1: the regular season for Manchester City. But the reason I'm
Speaker 1: going with Erling is not so much due to his
Speaker 1: scoring prowess. I'm going with Arling because I don't know
Speaker 1: if you guys have seen the official Norway team photo
Speaker 1: that was just released. It's unbelievable. King Theme. This is like,
Speaker 1: this is the coolest photo.
Speaker 3: I've ever seen in my life. And because of that,
Speaker 3: I'm like a huge Arling fan. Now, I think that's great.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's.
Speaker 1: Great that you call him Earling like like, no, no,
Speaker 1: you're like you're his friend. Yet you were saying I
Speaker 1: was mispronouncing. No, you're doing a great Job's perfectly pronounced you.
Speaker 1: Since you guys are homies in text all the time.
Speaker 1: Obviously then because everyone everyone else who we call him
Speaker 1: Holland because that's his on the back of his jersey.
Speaker 1: But I think it's great that you guys have that
Speaker 1: level of intimacy, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I'll continue that tradition by going
Speaker 2: with Harry Harry Kane. Since England are going to win
Speaker 2: the tournament, it follows logically that Harry Kane is going
Speaker 2: to score a lot of goals, and Harold Kane is
Speaker 2: my pick for the Golden boot hmm.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going with this mondn Bell for France. I
Speaker 1: thought France are going out in the quarters, but he's
Speaker 1: gonna score sixteen goals before that. Okay, I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm not sure there's no logic to this. This is
Speaker 1: I'm just going on on vibes and you know my gut, John,
Speaker 1: Let's just just yeah, BELLI is a great player. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a great pick. Okay, all right, Golden Glove, Golden Glove.
Speaker 2: I am going to go with the one, the only,
Speaker 2: deb Martinez, just in case don't win the World Cup.
Speaker 2: I think Debo Martinez might win the Golden Glove.
Speaker 1: Yes, and he will certainly do the gesture once more
Speaker 1: if he does. I'm gonna go with whoever is Spain's goalkeeper? Uh, No,
Speaker 1: you've got to pick. Is it going to be Unici Mohler.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be David Rayah or Joan Garcia? Right? Yeah?
Speaker 1: They got three great goalkeepers, they got three extraordinary goalkeepers.
Speaker 1: I'm going no, I don't have to pick the name.
Speaker 1: I'm saying, whoever Spain ends up putting in goal will
Speaker 1: win the Golden Glove. That's what I'm saying. Whether it's
Speaker 1: right Garcia or or Simon. Yeah, I'm going to allow it,
Speaker 1: but reluctantly. Reluctantly Okay, and what was our last thing
Speaker 1: we're picking? No, we gotta have Sean pick a Golden
Speaker 1: Glove winner.
Speaker 3: Oh, Sean, I didn't do my I didn't do my
Speaker 3: full research here, so I don't have I don't have
Speaker 3: a Golden Glove pick.
Speaker 1: Just pick an keeper. Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, I'm going to go with the American keeper.
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what, if the American keeper wins the
Speaker 2: Golden Glove, We're going to have a hell of a
Speaker 2: fun tournament.
Speaker 1: I mean that that will be that will be awesome.
Speaker 1: It'll be a bunch of nil nil draws. He'll win
Speaker 1: the Golden Glove without getting out of the group three
Speaker 1: nil nil draws now with fifteen saves apiece. Yeah, exactly
Speaker 1: is it gonna be? What's his name? The god? Who
Speaker 1: is it going to be? Matt Turner? Mattie Turner, Oh god,
Speaker 1: Matt Turner. Remember him. He's a good shot stopper. I
Speaker 1: do remember him? Yeah, No, I do. He's a good
Speaker 1: shot stopper. He's not a great distributor of the ball. No,
Speaker 1: he's not. He's not super nice guy from all appearances. Yeah,
Speaker 1: seems lovely. Seems lovely. Okay, so great. I think we're set.
Speaker 1: Oh we had one more that was like they give
Speaker 1: out a Golden Boy award, right, Yeah, which is an
Speaker 1: odd name, but Golden Boys like best young player. And
Speaker 1: I think I'm going to go with the only candidate
Speaker 1: that is gonna really be in the in contention for this,
Speaker 1: and that's La Mina Mal.
Speaker 2: I'm also going to go with Gloomina Mal and Sean
Speaker 2: even though you didn't do your research, you're going to
Speaker 2: go with Gloomina Mal.
Speaker 3: Actually I have a pick. Okay, I have a pick
Speaker 3: in keeping with the US men's national team for my pick.
Speaker 3: So I'm going with Tim Weya.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 3: And that is because of his again, this is my
Speaker 3: unorthodox picks, but his incredible piano playing skills. I don't
Speaker 3: know if you guys have seen Tim Weya tickle the
Speaker 3: eye is, but he's a He's a fantastic piano player.
Speaker 1: That's incredible. I did not know that.
Speaker 2: I knew that he was the former the son of
Speaker 2: former Liberian President George Way, but I did not know
Speaker 2: that he was also a piano player. That man contains multitudes. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Golden Boy and love it all right? Great, So those
Speaker 2: are picks.
Speaker 1: Of course, we're all going to be wrong about most
Speaker 1: of these, but yep, that's what's fun about it. Okay,
Speaker 1: Away and bracket dot Com. Let's take a quick break
Speaker 1: and we'll be right back. Okay, we're back on the
Speaker 1: away and we are going to talk about it. Some
Speaker 1: of the games, the kind of for interesting games in
Speaker 1: the first few days of the World Cup that you
Speaker 1: will all be enjoying. I we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: Mexico South Africa against Paraguay, Brazil, Morocco, Netherlands, and Japan,
Speaker 1: four games that I picked at random, very interesting games,
Speaker 1: plus the Mexico and US games, John, which you want
Speaker 1: to talk about.
Speaker 2: First, Let's start by talking about the epicenter of global
Speaker 2: culture and well being, the United States of America.
Speaker 1: Huh yes, sure, Okay, what are your thoughts on the
Speaker 1: United States of America these days? Things are going great? Right,
Speaker 1: going great? Yeah, they're good, They're good. Things are great.
Speaker 2: I just read your New Yorker article about the political
Speaker 2: situation in Peru, which.
Speaker 1: Made me feel less alone. At least. A friend of
Speaker 1: mine wrote me and she was like, great, piece, let's
Speaker 1: all go jump off a cliff. Yeah, it's a little
Speaker 1: stark the situation there. Yeah, okay, So US Paraguay. I
Speaker 1: think Paraguay is a very tough opponent for the US.
Speaker 1: I think this is far from a given.
Speaker 2: I don't know, oh where Paraguay's goals are going to
Speaker 2: come from, but I also don't know necessarily where the
Speaker 2: US's goals are going to come from. I agree with
Speaker 2: you that it's far from a given. If the US
Speaker 2: doesn't win this game, I think the rest of the
Speaker 2: tournament starts to look very stark because of the pressure,
Speaker 2: and so I think that they're going to find a
Speaker 2: way to win. They looked pretty dark. Admittedly they weren't,
Speaker 2: you know, playing against Senegal's best eleven, but they looked
Speaker 2: pretty good against Senegal. They were playing pretty entertaining football,
Speaker 2: and they were attacking, and they looked fairly good. I
Speaker 2: think that they're going to beat Paraguay, but I agree
Speaker 2: with you, it is not a given and it is
Speaker 2: not going to be an easy game.
Speaker 1: Anyone who's watched South American qualifying matches or Copamaica matches
Speaker 1: knows that Paraguay what they're known for is their really
Speaker 1: tough defense. Yeah, they're like the Italians of South America.
Speaker 1: And if they had use of this very famous goalkeeper
Speaker 1: Chi la Vet, who was extraordinary, but they're just tough
Speaker 1: to break down. They don't score a ton of goals.
Speaker 1: You're right, but I could easily see this being a
Speaker 1: one to one or a nil nil even because they're
Speaker 1: not gonna and they also they're not gonna wilt in
Speaker 1: the heat. They're not going to be like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: too hot for play here, you know, so I don't know.
Speaker 1: I think I would go for a draw on this one.
Speaker 1: And I think that puts you in a difficult position
Speaker 1: for sure. And I mean it means they have to
Speaker 1: beat Australia because I don't think they're going to beat Turkey.
Speaker 1: A Yeah, for sure. I was happy to see the
Speaker 1: goals coming for Christian Pulicic. I think it. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is not like top shelf analysis here, this is
Speaker 1: pretty basic. But it's like if he's not playing well,
Speaker 1: the US doesn't have a shot. You know, he's he's
Speaker 1: been He's been generally pretty great in a in a
Speaker 1: US Jersey, and I hope he has a good tournament. Yeah,
Speaker 1: me too, me too.
Speaker 2: And I'm it was encouraging to see him get both
Speaker 2: a goal and in this and hopefully I never know though,
Speaker 2: Like people talk about striker confidence and attacking confidence and everything,
Speaker 2: I'd never know if that's really a thing. I assume
Speaker 2: that like once the goals start going in, it's easier
Speaker 2: for the goals to get in the.
Speaker 1: Whole absolutely thing. Absolutely, Okay. I remember a game, if
Speaker 1: you'll indulge me. I used to play in this indoor
Speaker 1: league GA Roosevelt Island in New York back in the nineties,
Speaker 1: and it was like the semi final or something like that,
Speaker 1: and it was like one of these kind of like
Speaker 1: very egalitarian like hippie dippy teams where like, you know,
Speaker 1: everyone plays the nical amount of time and you know,
Speaker 1: but I was just like cooking that day and I
Speaker 1: had come off and we needed a goal to win,
Speaker 1: and I was not the next person in line to
Speaker 1: come in in our kind of like you know, socialist
Speaker 1: like everyone plays an eical amount of time rotation. And
Speaker 1: the guy that was going in, I just grabbed his
Speaker 1: jersey and I was like, let me go in, which
Speaker 1: was like probably one of the most confident things I've
Speaker 1: ever done. And he was like huh and I was.
Speaker 1: I just like literally grabbed his ers, even pulled him back,
Speaker 1: went on and scored the winning goal like with my
Speaker 1: next touch, and I just knew it. It was just
Speaker 1: like one of those you know they said they in
Speaker 1: the NBA they used to call that like feeding the pig,
Speaker 1: you know, like whoever's high, you just give them the ball.
Speaker 1: So anyway, I was the pig that day. I totally
Speaker 1: think that's a thing.
Speaker 2: All right, Well, then Christian Poistic is going to be
Speaker 2: the Daniel Anacon of this World Cup exactly exactly.
Speaker 1: Okay, let's move to Mexico, South Africa, shall we? So
Speaker 1: who do you like in this game? Daniel? I think
Speaker 1: Mexico's going to crush this game, not because Mexico's you know,
Speaker 1: great shakes, but because they're playing at home one hundred
Speaker 1: thousand fans. You know, Mexico loves a three man and
Speaker 1: it's not like they're the crowd will be the twelfth man.
Speaker 1: The crowd will be like the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and
Speaker 1: fifteenth man, you know, Like, I just don't see any
Speaker 1: way the South Africa will stand the pressure of playing
Speaker 1: in the that cauldron. So I have Mexico winning this
Speaker 1: to nothing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I feel like this is the weakest Mexican team
Speaker 2: I've seen in a long time. And I also share
Speaker 2: your belief that it won't matter that much because playing
Speaker 2: in Mexico is such an advantage for them. I mean,
Speaker 2: just the cauldron of noise, the intimidation factor, all that
Speaker 2: stuff is so real, and I think that Mexico will
Speaker 2: win this game. I also think that Mexico are going
Speaker 2: to easily advance out of their group, and then I
Speaker 2: think they're probably going to struggle, but I think that
Speaker 2: they're going to make it out.
Speaker 1: Of the group, no problem. Oh easily, I think so.
Speaker 1: I think so too. I remember also the this and
Speaker 1: that's one of the things I love about the World
Speaker 1: Cup is there's like rematches of games like four years later,
Speaker 1: you know, or eight years later or sixteen years later
Speaker 1: in this case, twenty ten. Opening game in the South
Speaker 1: Africa World Cup, the first World Cup in Africa was
Speaker 1: Mexico versus South Africa, and there was what was his name,
Speaker 1: like shallabala Orda an incredible goal for Southrica. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: beautiful goal. But Mexico stayed in it. Mexico didn't lose
Speaker 1: their heads and they went and they got the tie goal,
Speaker 1: which was a great result for them. I don't know,
Speaker 1: I totally see Mexico winning this one.
Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about Morocco versus Brazil. What an
Speaker 2: opening round matchup that is.
Speaker 1: Wow, I am so excited. This is actually you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of opening round games are are going to
Speaker 1: be kind of filler, but this is this one is
Speaker 1: going to be a highlight to me. It's where we
Speaker 1: really get to see how good Brazil is. We really
Speaker 1: get to see if Angelotti has been able to mold
Speaker 1: into a team because Morocco is although they are not
Speaker 1: Champions of Africa, they are a legit national side. You know,
Speaker 1: they made it. They did not make it to the
Speaker 1: same finals last time by accident. They are a very
Speaker 1: good team with very talented players, and I'm I'm super
Speaker 1: psyched to see this game. If Brazil wins this game,
Speaker 1: I think that they will there will be a huge
Speaker 1: boost of confidence that could propel them to to start,
Speaker 1: you know, to really go far in the tournament. I think,
Speaker 1: I hope.
Speaker 2: So I think the reason that Brazil will win this
Speaker 2: game is the same reason your friend said that the
Speaker 2: quarterfinals would be a good result for Brazil, which is
Speaker 2: that this year it feels like the pressure is off
Speaker 2: a little bit versus most times Brazil goes to the
Speaker 2: World Cup, when there is the expectation that it is
Speaker 2: win or fail, and that's so much pressure, that's so intense.
Speaker 2: And I do think that while this is not the
Speaker 2: most talent to Brazil side we've ever seen, they're plenty good.
Speaker 2: It's not like they have bad players. And if Anchuatti
Speaker 2: can get them to play as a team. He showed
Speaker 2: himself to be a great man manager, a great manager
Speaker 2: of superstars. I don't see why he wouldn't get them
Speaker 2: to play as a team. They're going to be very,
Speaker 2: very good. I agree with you that Morocco do certainly
Speaker 2: play as a team and are really talented and I
Speaker 2: could see them going far in this World Cup and
Speaker 2: I think they're going to be one and two coming
Speaker 2: out of that group. However it works out. Sorry Scotland,
Speaker 2: sorry Haiti, but I do think that Brazil is going
Speaker 2: to edge that game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, Okay, last, but certainly not least. Netherlands versus Japan.
Speaker 1: I find this to be fascinating because Netherlands is stacked
Speaker 1: and I feel like, yeah, you know, this might be
Speaker 1: the most talented crop of Japanese players in a generation,
Speaker 1: and I'm super syd to see how they do so.
Speaker 1: And also physically it's a real interesting matchup because the
Speaker 1: players are like gigantic and the Japanese players are not.
Speaker 1: And I always think back to this moment that I
Speaker 1: think we've mentioned on the pot before, but you know
Speaker 1: this Japan against Belgium, you know, round of sixteen or
Speaker 1: quarterfinal twenty eighteen, they had a corner kick in the
Speaker 1: last minute of extra time and instead of just playing
Speaker 1: it safe, they I mean you could argue recklessly, you know,
Speaker 1: like kicked it straight into the middle into the mixer,
Speaker 1: hoping that one of their tiny Japanese players was going
Speaker 1: to get a header on it over Virgil van Dyke,
Speaker 1: which did not happen. He's Belgian is taken. No, no, yes, no,
Speaker 1: sorry exactly, I'm I'm conflating this matchup against the giant
Speaker 1: European side with that matchup against the giant European side,
Speaker 1: and the Belgians obviously cleared it, went down the field
Speaker 1: and scored within like seven seconds, leading the devastated Japanese
Speaker 1: players on the pitch wondering why they had and so
Speaker 1: optimistic to think they were finally going to win a
Speaker 1: header in the box. I love that about Japan. I
Speaker 1: just love it. I love that sort of like, you know,
Speaker 1: we're not we're not playing around here. We're we're here
Speaker 1: to win even against uh you know odds and uh
Speaker 1: you know the height advantages, and you know all that,
Speaker 1: be damned, We're gonna play. I love that. That reminds
Speaker 1: me of the great Japanese indy car driver to Kumisanto,
Speaker 1: whose motto is no attack, no chance. Right, what is
Speaker 1: it you missed all the shots you don't take right
Speaker 1: exact which I used to know how to say that
Speaker 1: in Japanese but I've forgotten. So all right, this is
Speaker 1: an this is Those are our exciting games. Feel free
Speaker 1: to drop as the line tell us what your most
Speaker 1: anticipated games are going to be in the first week
Speaker 1: or so of the tournament. We should take a quick
Speaker 1: break downe sure, and and come back and read a
Speaker 1: couple of letters. And then I'm gonna let you go
Speaker 1: off to Norway. Yeah great, we'll be back. All right,
Speaker 1: We're back on the way end. Sean, we have some
Speaker 1: letters we do.
Speaker 3: Thank you again to everybody who is sending in their
Speaker 3: letters to Awaynpod at gmail dot com. We love reading them.
Speaker 3: Today's first letter comes from Molly. Molly writes, Dear Daniel,
Speaker 3: John and Sean. I will be in England for much
Speaker 3: of the World Cup, largely to spend time with a
Speaker 3: very beautiful man who sometimes hangs.
Speaker 1: Out with me. He is a football obsessive and has
Speaker 1: been for forty years, but in a bit of a
Speaker 1: strange way, he has truly genuinely no loyalties to any team.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 3: He watches all of the Premier League games, but with
Speaker 3: an equal level of investment. This is incredible, his interest
Speaker 3: only being in the sport as a concept and the
Speaker 3: specific play that is happening in front of him. He
Speaker 3: has a few players that he loves, but almost all
Speaker 3: of them are retired, so that doesn't change who he
Speaker 3: roots for. He roots for no one. It's all varies
Speaker 3: in and enlightened probably, and it will be the same
Speaker 3: way for the World Cup. I am an excitable American
Speaker 3: who would kill and die for the Philadelphia Phillies and
Speaker 3: in fact any team that plays in southeastern Pennsylvania. Being
Speaker 3: that I will be watching about one thousand hours of
Speaker 3: football soon, I have pretty arbitrarily chosen to support Haiti,
Speaker 3: Paraguay and Kurasou regardless of their prospects, which the Beautiful
Speaker 3: Man thinks is insane from his perspective in a sport
Speaker 3: I've only started growing attached to. Why wouldn't I just
Speaker 3: watch neutrally? He doesn't see any benefit to it and
Speaker 3: thinks it's a more detrimental us versus them, a rational
Speaker 3: way of a rational way of looking at the world.
Speaker 1: I love this.
Speaker 3: How am I supposed to watch games sitting next to
Speaker 3: a man so devoid of the beauty of irrational love?
Speaker 3: I am so so into him? Please help? Thanks for
Speaker 3: the pod, Molly.
Speaker 2: So Molly, first off, we can tell that you're so
Speaker 2: so into him. You you didn't need to say that.
Speaker 2: It's uh, it's glaringly obvious. Despite this man's extraordinarily strange
Speaker 2: way of watching sports. I mean, I have never in
Speaker 2: my life heard of such an unusual way of watching sports.
Speaker 1: This is how, this is how the watches the World Cup.
Speaker 2: Mother mother Teresa is out here just rootten for a happy,
Speaker 2: happy outcome. The good news, Molly is that if you're
Speaker 2: supporting Haiti Paraguay and curs out, you will be watching
Speaker 2: neutrally pretty quickly.
Speaker 1: Ouch ouch. Apologies to our Haitian, Parawine and curse Owen listeners.
Speaker 2: Yeah for sure, apologies, But I think that everybody's realistic
Speaker 2: curs I understands it as a population of a hundred
Speaker 2: and fifty five thousand people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, I love this letter. I love how much
Speaker 1: Molly loves this man. I am also like just so
Speaker 1: curious about this man's approach to fandom like it's like,
Speaker 1: I guess it's like I almost Here's what I hear
Speaker 1: him saying. I hear him saying, Look, guys, I don't
Speaker 1: go to the art museum and root for one painting
Speaker 1: against another, Like why would I watch the World's Cup
Speaker 1: and root for one team against another? You know, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: mom if I'm putting words in your beautiful man's mouth
Speaker 1: or ideas in his head. But that's what I'm gathering
Speaker 1: from the way you're describing his truly unique way of
Speaker 1: approaching this sporting spectacle. I don't know if that I
Speaker 1: could watch that much football if I didn't care who won.
Speaker 1: You know, I think caring who one makes it more
Speaker 1: sse So I need to be invested in the outcome,
Speaker 1: not just in the process. Yeah, but he must have
Speaker 1: he must really have a level of enlightenment that you
Speaker 1: and I do not have. So okay, let's answer the question.
Speaker 1: How am I supposed to sit and watching games with
Speaker 1: this man who doesn't understand my irrational love. I think
Speaker 1: that that's the beauty of relationships, Molly. You know, yeah,
Speaker 1: not to be just like your partner. You have to
Speaker 1: get your partner to love you the way you are.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and part of part of like being in a
Speaker 2: mature relationship and getting the love that you deserve to
Speaker 2: have is being met where you are, not where someone
Speaker 2: would like you to be. And you're just not that
Speaker 2: enlightened yet, nor am I, nor is any of us
Speaker 2: except for this beautiful man.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 2: And so you're gonna have to root for underdogs and
Speaker 2: you're gonna have to look for narratives and that's a
Speaker 2: normal sports person thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, just don't spill nachos on his tunic because just imagine.
Speaker 1: So you're watching the games, just make sure I love it.
Speaker 1: I love it, I love love and I'm so happy
Speaker 1: for you, Molly. Enjoy the World Cup and a shout
Speaker 1: out to your beautiful men. Yeah, all right, another letter here,
Speaker 1: Dear John, Daniel and Sean. I'm a Brazilian who has
Speaker 1: been living in Canada for eighteen years. I'm excited to
Speaker 1: have two home teams to support in this World Cup
Speaker 1: and I really appreciate how the pod is teaching me
Speaker 1: to talk about soccer and English. But I think you
Speaker 1: missed an important element in your Brazil deep dive, the
Speaker 1: disconnect between the Selisou and Brazilian supporters. I grew up
Speaker 1: in the nineties and saw Brazil reach three consecutive finals
Speaker 1: and win two of them. The energy was always incredible,
Speaker 1: the streets were beautifully decorated, and the feeling of everyone
Speaker 1: wanting the same thing was unmatched. Then, from two thousand
Speaker 1: and six onward, we've had one disappointing run after another,
Speaker 1: including the humiliation of twenty fourteen. But the worst part
Speaker 1: came in twenty eighteen, when the iconic yellow jersey was
Speaker 1: co opted by the far right movement behind Jair Bolsonaro,
Speaker 1: who ran for and was elected president that year. Since then,
Speaker 1: many people became wary of supporting the team or even
Speaker 1: developed a distaste because they didn't want to be seen
Speaker 1: as supporting Bolsonaro. Some, like my family, have never recovered
Speaker 1: their passion for the national team. I personally feel quite
Speaker 1: a bit of distance from the Selisaw, both the physical
Speaker 1: distance of not living among other Brazilians and the political distance.
Speaker 1: Even though Bolsonaro is no longer president, I only own
Speaker 1: a blue Brazil jersey, not a yellow one. I feel
Speaker 1: that the only way for the team to recover the
Speaker 1: support of Brazilians is to perform well at a World Cup,
Speaker 1: and I'm not convinced this team has what it takes.
Speaker 1: At least I will have the opportunity to watch and
Speaker 1: hopefully celebrate among Canadians that somehow feels both more exciting
Speaker 1: and like a betrayal of my roots libres. Wow, that's
Speaker 1: so interesting, Uh, and John, I have been uh thinking
Speaker 1: about this a lot because here in Colombia there was
Speaker 1: an election, uh first round election for president, and we
Speaker 1: had a very similar dynamic, and I was just thinking
Speaker 1: about about how often this happens. Uh, But the kind
Speaker 1: of right wing Trump endorsed candidate area has been uh
Speaker 1: basically using the the jersey as a political tool, you know,
Speaker 1: in a lot of his photos in uh, in videos,
Speaker 1: his whole family's wearing the Colombian yellow jersey. And Uh,
Speaker 1: we actually had this really weird thing happened where Karlina
Speaker 1: and I went to go, you know, we're sort of
Speaker 1: like looking around, maybe we went to go look for
Speaker 1: an apartment, you know, And I was wearing a jersey
Speaker 1: because Columbia was playing that evening, right, so I was,
Speaker 1: you know, just supporting the team, but I wasn't more
Speaker 1: of yellow one. I was wearing a different one. And
Speaker 1: as soon as we got there, the lady who was
Speaker 1: showing us the department immediately started sort of talking to
Speaker 1: me about Abbadad l Daspreya, assuming that I was a supporter,
Speaker 1: which you know, I don't vote in Colombia obviously, and
Speaker 1: I don't generally support any candidate who would be endorsed
Speaker 1: by Donald Trump. So it was it was just like
Speaker 1: oh ooh, ooh, okay, like this is now shorthand for
Speaker 1: something as opposed to what it should be for I think,
Speaker 1: which is, you know, all of our countries are riven
Speaker 1: by political polarization and political divides, and I do think
Speaker 1: that the national team is sacrosanct, or should be sacrosanct
Speaker 1: and devoid of politics. Why because it's this one place
Speaker 1: where we can set aside one situation, which we can
Speaker 1: set aside those things which divide us, which are many
Speaker 1: and I'm not minimizing them, but that we can sort
Speaker 1: of go back to that inner place where all of
Speaker 1: us when we put on the jersey, we're thinking of
Speaker 1: the version of the country that we're supporting, right, And
Speaker 1: I don't need to ask the person next to me
Speaker 1: how they feel about gay marriage or what their stance
Speaker 1: on gun control is in order to hug them when
Speaker 1: the ball goes in the net for my team, for
Speaker 1: our team, and then we can set aside politics and
Speaker 1: just enjoy sort of that feeling of communion of what
Speaker 1: it means to belong to something. And then tomorrow, when
Speaker 1: the game is over, you know, we can put that
Speaker 1: jersey in the closet and go have our political battles
Speaker 1: that hopefully will you know, lead to to better understanding
Speaker 1: and progress. However is you define that now. It seems
Speaker 1: to me that it makes me sad that that happened
Speaker 1: in Brazil, because the lovely and iconic yellow jersey, you know,
Speaker 1: the one that we associate with Pele and the you know,
Speaker 1: the great you know, the great teams of the seventies,
Speaker 1: the one we associate with you know, these Ronaldinho and
Speaker 1: and and Ronaldo, you know, and all these wonderful players.
Speaker 1: It just seems terrible to me that that would be
Speaker 1: sort of co opted by one political movement or another.
Speaker 1: As I was looking into this, John and Sean. In
Speaker 1: Peru this happened as well in the last selection. Keiko
Speaker 1: also used the Peru in jersey on the left. In
Speaker 1: Colombia also, it must be said, like Jamana Santos used
Speaker 1: it when he was pushing to pass the the Pledicite
Speaker 1: on the Peace Treaty to end the war in Colombia.
Speaker 1: So it's it's a really difficult thing. What's happened here
Speaker 1: has been kind of a disaster because a judge came
Speaker 1: out and banned candidates from wearing the jersey. Was then
Speaker 1: roundly mocked, including by people from on the left. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, you can't ban people from wearing the
Speaker 1: jersey in politics, because that's just you know, people want
Speaker 1: to wear the jersey. And then and then at the
Speaker 1: same time, supporters of Evan Sepela, the kind of left
Speaker 1: wing candidate here, started saying, well, now we're gonna wear
Speaker 1: the jersey anyway. It's kind of a mess, and I
Speaker 1: think it's a shame because I do feel like, more
Speaker 1: than anything, or like now more than ever, I should say,
Speaker 1: we need these moments where we can set politics aside
Speaker 1: and sort of everyone identify with that version of the
Speaker 1: country that they're supporting and put on the jersey and
Speaker 1: sing the anthem and you know, support their team and
Speaker 1: enjoy the game. And then afterwards we'll have those political
Speaker 1: battles that we need to have. But you don't want
Speaker 1: to ever take the national team away from fifty percent
Speaker 1: of the country, because all these countries are divided basically
Speaker 1: fifty percent one way or the other, you know, give
Speaker 1: or take an onage point or two. It just makes
Speaker 1: me sad. It makes me sad for our listener liberties,
Speaker 1: It makes me sad for my Columbian friends, makes me
Speaker 1: sad for football and for politics as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm reminded of a great line by the theologian
Speaker 2: mirslav Volk who said politics touches everything, but politics isn't everything,
Speaker 2: not by a long shot. And that was someone who,
Speaker 2: living in the Balkans, saw more of what politics can
Speaker 2: do than I ever hope too, who understood that still,
Speaker 2: politics isn't everything, but it does touch everything. And one
Speaker 2: of the things it touches is football. And we've talked
Speaker 2: a lot on this podcast about football as a nation
Speaker 2: building exercise, national teams as a nation building exercise. And
Speaker 2: you know, part of that question is what kind of
Speaker 2: nation are you going to build and who are you
Speaker 2: going to include and exclude in your national project? And
Speaker 2: you know that's obviously something that Bolsonnaro weaponized, but that
Speaker 2: you know, we're seeing weaponized now around the world, and
Speaker 2: it is really heartbreaking to me because I do I
Speaker 2: do want football to be a respite and a place,
Speaker 2: a place of unification rather than a place of division.
Speaker 1: But you know it's reflective of the world we live
Speaker 1: in right now. Yeah, yeah, for sure. But I mean
Speaker 1: I think, you know, you want to go to the
Speaker 1: stadium and you see, like the Columbia's sort of send
Speaker 1: off was a game they played here against Costa Rica,
Speaker 1: which they won, and you know, stadium's everyone's wearing the
Speaker 1: yellow jersey, the yellow Colombian jersey, And then part of
Speaker 1: you is like, okay, is this you know, you don't
Speaker 1: want to ever think is this a political rally. You
Speaker 1: want to think this is a nation football game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: a football game, and a nation sending off its best
Speaker 1: twenty two players or however many to go represent them
Speaker 1: in the world's largest sporting event and most beloved sporting specs. Right,
Speaker 1: that's what it's about. Right, But all of that seems
Speaker 1: pretty kixotic, and you know it just that that's who
Speaker 1: we are anyway. The world is what it is. As
Speaker 1: as the writer once said, yeah, but not then on
Speaker 1: a down note, libers, I hope Brazil does very well,
Speaker 1: and I hope you find a way to love your
Speaker 1: team again. I hope Canada does well too, Libris, I
Speaker 1: hope that both of your nations meet in the final.
Speaker 1: How about that. That would be special and that would
Speaker 1: make you win our bracket. Libers if you if that happen,
Speaker 1: win the bracket.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: John, you're off to Norway. I believe you have a
Speaker 1: team meeting with the Earling and company.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna hang out with Erling. I'll check in Sean.
Speaker 2: I know your friends, so I'll check in with him.
Speaker 2: Tell you how he's doing and everything.
Speaker 1: Yeah, tell him, I said, hello, I will sounds good,
Speaker 1: sounds good. All right, guys, we'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the first few games of the Cup. I'll see
Speaker 1: you in New York. John and Sean. Great care Wait
Speaker 1: all right, bye you guys.