Transcript of How the U.S. pulled off its greatest World Cup win ever New

The glasses are on, the man is happy.

Ask me again what group, uh, we're in.

What group are you in?

D as in damn, that was a fine performance.

From Apple News, I'm Rebecca Lowe.

And I'm Brendan Hunt.

And this, I tell you, is After the Whistle.

We both just witnessed that incredible USA-Paraguay game at the previously referred to as SoFi Stadium here in Los Angeles, and we came straight to the studio to relive it together.

I actually feel that was This is one of the best days of my life.

Reminder, there will be adult language directly proportional to how excited I am right now!

This podcast is brought to you by Verizon, an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

No one gets you closer to the FIFA World Cup than Verizon. Welcome to After the Whistle. Um, we are talking to you after the United States has been victorious over Paraguay 4-1 in their first, um, World Cup 2026 group stage match. I was watching in the stands with friends of mine. Rebecca, you were, of course—

I was doing the show on Fox, and we were both there. So we were both there.

And right now we're going to take you behind the curtain of how podcasts are made. This is actually our second take of bringing you how this thing started, because when we did it the first time, we got in here and we were a little bit too excited. And so we might now take you back to that moment when we were so excited, in which case This is an important piece of framing, and we've now framed it for you. And we take you back to take 1, when we were a little over the top. Tonight was the greatest United States performance I have ever seen, Rebecca! It was the fucking best! And I am ready, now that we have started, I'm ready to discuss it.

Oh my God. Oh my gosh. You're not wrong, mate. You are not wrong.

I know. I know I'm not. I know it was a big deal. It was a big deal up there.

It's hard to put into words what happened today.

You and I have been telling people, and like other fans have been telling people, like, shut the fuck up. It's about peaking at the right time. And here we go. The fucking tournament gets underway and we have the only game in US history where they've scored 4 goals. The only game in US history where they've won by 3 goals. And, you know, with all due respect to our South American neighbors, it's only Paraguay. It's only Paraguay. It's only the first game. It only means so much. It's just 3 points. But it's not. You literally could not possibly have asked for a better start than this.

It's not just 3 points. You just used the word relief. Yes, it's relief. It's more than that. It's more than relief. It's something that we haven't seen. An entire generation, more than, has never seen that from this team. This, I said in one of the pods before, this needed to be a win. I didn't even think that kind of win was possible. I just said they need to win because I remember I was telling you about the groundswell of this country. The scenes outside the stadium at the end, Rob Stone, Landon Donovan, Carly Lloyd, and it was Clint Dempsey. If you haven't seen them, go look back. Landon said he has waited his whole life. That actually gave me a chill to see a scene like that. So not only is it a win, it's the way they won, Brendan. The way they won that is going to— oh man, it is going to propel football forward. And I know this sounds, you know, it's— what time is it? 20 past 10 at night after the show, after the game. When people are listening to this in the cold light of day tomorrow, um, Saturday, they might think, oh, it's a bit of hyperbole, we're going over the top.

We are not going over the top. I've never seen anything like that. Neither of you and people like Landon don't come out with things like that. In fact, I have to just read you very quickly. I know we're going all out of order, but let me just read you something that he put.

It's very organic.

On Twitter today, tonight on X, he wrote, from start to finish, that was the most enjoyable day of soccer I've ever experienced. Thank you to the team for inspiring a nation and creating memories that will last a lifetime. That is what we're dealing with here.

Yeah, but the reason why I always say like it's only Paraguay is like, hey, it's the first game of a 3-game group stage and then we got a long way to go. But it could not be a better start. Let's go through it. Step by step, best we can, on a truly magical fucking night. An own goal in the 7th minute. And as you may recall, I've said previously, well, I watched in '94 when I didn't know shit about soccer and we had our own goal against Colombia that everyone was celebrating about. Like, why are they celebrating? We didn't do that. And today we got our own goal and I went fucking crazy, like it was the best goal I'd ever fucking seen. Did not care whose foot it came off of. And 7th minute, US is up 1-0.

But also, yes, it was own goal, whatever. But it was Weston McKennie and it was Christian Pulisic's goal. They were all over that goal. It was a sign of things to come. As a friend of mine who's a big Brazil fan said, it was like watching Brazil before Brazil got rubbish. Watching the US in that first half. Well, laddie, duh! Right?

Thank you, sir. Obrigado.

Direct quote from my friend. That goal, even though it was finished with an own goal, was. And then at 1-0, Stewart Holden on the commentary said, "They've got to keep going. They're playing so well. They've gotta get another." They didn't just get another, they got two from Flo Balogun, born in Brooklyn, went to England, switched back to America.

The first one, a beautiful setup by Pulisic, just sends him right in. But the one he scores in the 50th minute, of the first half, 45 plus 5, which brings me back from Tillman, like the way he just jukes the ball from the right to the left and then sends it in the top corner with the goalie right in front of him was mwah! And it ended up not even being the best goal we saw the whole game. And by the way, I think I like to do when I go to games live is I will have my YouTube TV going on my phone. So like if something controversial or confusing happens, I can go back and like, there it is, because there's usually a delay. And so I I didn't have my AirPods in, but I had the closed captioning on watching some of the halftime. Earlier in the half, I can't remember when, about the 20th minute or so, Mr. Balogun had the ball coming across the center toward the right and he could have shot and scored. He didn't. He passed off to Serginho Dest, who was fantastic this game. We'll get to Dest.

And I was like, no, don't pass to him. And then Dest did not score and Balogun couldn't have scored anyway. Watching at halftime and I saw that Zlatan said, Yeah, it's good to get— Balogun had 2, but he could have had a hat trick. And I was like, you're fucking right, he could have. He could have had a first half goddamn hat trick. Nonetheless, no complaints about Balogun. What a find and what a wonderful, like, provision of a missing piece that we are getting from him.

I just have to tell you, so our positioning, Zlatan, Thierry, Alexi, and I was behind the goal that you were shooting— America was shooting in the second half, right? So for the first half, we were looking at the other end. To our right or left, there were the likes of Mo Adu, there was Peter Crouch, um, Bob Bradley was sitting there working for Fox as well. And as enjoyable as I felt just watching this sort of adopted team that I have kind of, I have to say, adopted over the last couple of years, was seeing the faces of those guys, knowing what you were going through, seeing the faces of those guys. And at 3-0, I mean, the third goal, for me, I'm just about to do the halftime show, so I'm trying to concentrate a little bit. But certainly at 2-0, it was witnessing Again, there are not many things left in life, right, that you haven't seen ever, are there? I've never seen a stadium in America like that. Yeah. I've never seen Bob Bradley sitting there, Alexi Lalas almost in tears. I've never seen Mo Oduh jumping in. I've never seen that because there's never been a situation for that to happen.

It's kind of nice when you get to see things in life. For the very first time.

And in the broader sense, when was the last time, if ever, that a home country has been up 3-0 at the half of their first game of a World Cup? That is just phenomenal. And for this country in particular, where like we have to draw people in with momentum here, by the way, you saying before, yes, you had said in a previous pod like they needed a big win. And I was like, I don't know, the most important thing in a World Cup is like, just don't fuck up the first game, just don't lose, blah, blah, blah. And I stand by that to a degree. But also you were 100% 100% right. The momentum provided by a win is, is, is particularly for this country at this time is indescribably valuable. And to get it the way they did, like, oof. Oh, chalk one up for Rebecca Lowe. Like, good Lord.

Unbelievable. Remember the other day when you were happy? I mean, you were happy the other day when I said they were a dark horse. You were like delighted the other day when I said that, let alone imagine if I told you they were going to win like that. There have been a lot of people this week, and I'm sure you've consumed, I'm sure many of our viewers and listeners listeners have consumed a huge amount of social media this week based around this World Cup. There has been a lot of content of big names, big people in our industry, big sort of known faces in football talking down about the US, saying they haven't got a chance really.

Gary Lineker, go on.

No, no, no. Lots of different people.

But especially Gary Lineker.

Has he? What did he say?

He was like, oh, I'm going to do a very bad Gary Lineker impression, but it was like, you know, I'm in New York and Americans come up to me and they ask, how can we do in the World Cup? And they said, can we win it? No, of course you can't. Like, Gary Lineker was very— not inappropriately and not unintelligently, like, very dismissive.

No, because I think most people would say they can't win it. But, but, but, but, but that's why we play the games. And as Flo Balogun said after the game tonight, as Poch says, why not us? But my point is, I do think, and I said it in the last pod, people have made fun of down the years. Not anymore. Not after that. There will be no fun made of. They will just be fun. Are you at Gio yet? Can we get to Gio?

How far back do we have to go on Gio to really like set the table for people on this? What does Gio goal mean?

I think you should give some context because I have to say, let me just quickly tell you, take you into the mind of a presenter. Okay. Well, your brain has to work very, very quickly. He scored, Gio Reyna scored, we know, with the outside of his boot right at the end of the game to make it 4-1. What an absolute beauty. I think the first thing I said was, that is why he's in the squad. That is why. Because not many players can score with the outside of their boot. At the World Cup. But for a quick flash of a second, I thought to myself, because you don't get a lot of time on TV, I get almost, I get 10 or 15 seconds before I have to go to somebody or go to a graphic or go to something. And I was thinking, how am I going to explain the Gio Reyna story in 15 seconds? How am I going to do it? I thought, nope, not going to do it. Not going to do it. Going to hint at it. People can use Google. Because the Gio Reyna story started at the World Cup of 2022.

I don't think it started in 1994. Well, possibly. Gioreina's father, the man named Claudio Reina, who is, uh, one of the few— if no, not, not only, but one of the few people who was on the '94 team, um, who of course were the host team, and then in here in this country, uh, who made it, uh, to the second round or knockout round, which is a big deal, but also on the 2002 team who got further than any team in our history. Um, he had a son named Gioreina, named after the Dutch footballer Giovanni van Bronckhorst, uh, from when they were playing together at, uh, Rangers. And then in 2022, he was on the team that went to Qatar. Um, Giorena, an up-and-coming prodigy who did not start and, um, had, uh, we found out after the fact, had a bit of a hissy fit about it, and it caused a lot of tension inside the team. And, uh, he eventually did play in later games and played well, but it was kind of, it was kind of too late. Then afterwards, um, his father Claudio Reina and his, uh, his mother, um, they caused a bit of a stink.

We're not going to the details of it because it's kind of ugly, but they caused a real, like, pardon me for saying this as a Midwesterner who's not from there, but a real, like, New Jersey-style stink where they were trying to stick up for their kid and ended up making their kid look really, really bad. And so Reina has been in this real, like, controversial position for a long time, but he's also very, very young. And again, you can Google all this. He's— him and his family have been through a lot. So even though things were kind of shitty from the Reyna family, I for one have certainly never stopped rooting for Gio Reyna. And him coming off the bench, I mean, he's kind of lucky to be in the squad. He's not had a good season in his club football.

He's hardly played. For 4 years he's hardly played.

Let's call it what it is. He had an assist like a month before the World Cup started, and that was enough to get him in. And some people were like, what? How could he? But like, I personally felt like, no, that's great. That's great. And Pochettino knows what's up. Also, I don't know if you guys saw this in the studio, But literally about 30 seconds before he scored that goal, he was getting into a bit of a tiff with one of the Paraguayan players.

And Tyler Adams had to pull him away from him.

Yes, Tyler literally had to push him away.

That's amazing.

And push him down the field.

Yeah, like, get on with it, mate. We're winning 3-1. Just get on with it.

10 seconds later, he gets that pass from Freeman, and suddenly it's off the outside of his boot, and it's 4-1. And also credit to the US for scoring deep into added time in both halves. The most kind of like stabby in the neck kind of goals another team can suffer. Oh, this is beautiful. It was cutthroat. It was great. So many things that, you know, didn't necessarily have to happen, but helped the team so much that they did happen. And Reyna scoring in that fashion is high up there as one of them.

Today is one of those days in your life that I'm— I'm never going to forget today for the rest of my life. And I'm not even technically a United States Men's National Team fan.

You have a passport.

But this is when I like to talk about that. I feel a lot of affinity for this country. I followed this team. I love Maurizio Pochettino. I love a lot of the players. But it's because I have a lot of affinity for the people of this country and this country that made today one of the most special days of my life. Of course, doing the job that I do is an absolute honor and a privilege to be there and to witness it in that way and be able to bring it on television to Tens. It's going to be tens of millions, and that's— it's going to be tens. It's going to be, it's going to be a lot of millions, guys. And that's only going to get more against Australia, against Türkiye. And let's just say again, in the round of 32, because it's happening now, because you have to win your first game with this new expanded World Cup and you get into the round of 32.

There's no way there's not in the round 32. Whether or not they win the group remains to be seen, but yeah, for sure.

It's a slight out-of-body experience the whole day, and that is what this game does. And for those people And I know they're actually— you know what, I had a message today from my real estate agent who said, I've just listened to 2 episodes of After the Whistle. I've never watched a football match in my life, but now I want to watch the World Cup because of After the Whistle, right? Which we're so grateful for. But people like my friend Lisa, I'm less sort of, what have you been doing? And I'm more like, thank God you're here now.

Because 100%, yeah, the bandwagon— there's room in the bandwagon whenever you want to get on.

Get on the bandwagon.

Yeah, I feel this incredible feeling of vindication is almost too strong a word, but like, there are those of us who have been, to put it gently, poo-pooing this whole organization for the last 4 years and like, just claiming to be fans but taking a shit on US Soccer wherever the hell they can. And there are those of us who have felt like, no, no, no, no, stay the course. And particularly when Pochettino got involved, like, they're trying to just peak at the right time. And again, I repeat what I said before, and I stand by this: respectfully, it's only Paraguay. Nonetheless, today felt like such an incredible vindication for those who like to trust the process, because the process— it doesn't mean we're going to land where we want to land, but the process is 100% getting where it needs to be now at this time. And that is an incredible feeling.

Two things for you. The first one, Christian Pulisic went off at halftime. I just want calm everyone down, please, as we were trying to get information. He got a kick to his leg. He was struggling to walk a little bit. He said it was very tight, and so as a precaution, he came off. Sebastian Berhalter came on for the second half.

Surely if they weren't 3-0 up, he wouldn't have come off.

I would suspect you're right on that. And they have a week now. They have a week until they play Australia in the second game.

Good Lord, that's so rare.

I know. Imagine how this feel-good— you don't get a week in football ever really to enjoy any kind of good result, do you? 100%. Yeah. Now I have Chris Richards line for you. Have you seen this?

I have not.

This is going to blow your mind. I know I'm giving it the big one, but this is going to officially blow your mind. I'm going with it. Chris Richards completed all 83 passes. Did you see it?

I heard this.

Yeah, go on. He attempted for the US men's national team against Paraguay the most passes with a 100% accuracy rate by any player in a FIFA World Cup match since 1966. Flipping 6. America, Crystal Palace says you're welcome.

It's done. I guess we've won. The World Cup is over. We've got our, we've got our pass completion presented. That is a fucking problem.

He has no ankle ligaments. He has none. He hasn't trained in 2 months.

I'm exaggerating. They were left on the grass. Selhurst Park. Correct.

No ligaments. No training. No training. And he comes in today and he plays like that. You serious?

Come on. Come on. Was that both of your two or was that the first of two? You said you had two.

I think I did two.

Okay, that's what I'm asking. I can't quite tell. It's all a blur because I am, if it's not clear, intoxicated.

I'm definitely not. Chocolate milk and tea.

I'm sure we have to move on at some point. Is this the time where we move on? Good Lord. Oh my gosh. What a fucking day. High fives. Mate. High fives all around.

Do you know what? I thought about you. I am so happy for you. I am. I really, really am. Because you have stuck the course and it's not easy, right? Because most of us in football have to stick the course at some point unless we support Man City and we win everything or Brazil back in the day and we win everything. Football's about the hope and it's about the hope that it usually kills you, right? Today it didn't kill us. No, no. Today was a beautiful day.

We were rewarded for belief. That rare time of being rewarded for belief. It was fucking awesome.

Sawadikrap.

This is After the Whistle. We'll be back.

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No one gets you closer to the FIFA World Cup than Verizon. Welcome back to After the Whistle. We are 2 days into the 2026 World Cup. We're going to talk you through real quick, just touch on some games that have already happened and some games to think about between now and our next pod, which we will We'll record Monday morning. Rebecca, we of course, the United States is not the only host of this tournament. There are two other hosts. They both had their first game. The first game in the first game of the whole dang tournament yesterday was Mexico against South Africa.

Yeah. The themes of this game, as Latif said on the show, more red cards than goals.

No problem, it seems.

Amazing atmosphere at the Azteca, which we're also not allowed to call Azteca. We have to call Mexico City Stadium.

What do you mean you say we have to? Well, I mean, you have to when you're at work. Yeah, true. Yeah. But I can't be switching.

I can't be coming to After the Whistle. I've been a little bit, you know, like I come to After the Whistle where I like go a bit crazy and call it the Azteca, and then on like actual television I call it the Mexico City.

And I don't want to fuck you up or anything, but like I do not work for Fox, and historically it's called the Azteca, so we might do a bit of code switching here. Don't be confused.

Okay.

Um, because like Mexico City Stadium just doesn't have the same like gravitas and history that saying Azteca does. But yes, that stadium in Mexico City, uh, was quite the atmosphere.

And at that stadium, South Africa came with with clearly a bizarre game plan. Why, why are you playing out from the back, brother? What, why are you doing that 10 minutes in? What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Just get it out, just get it up the field. Stop, please stop. But overall, my big point from this game was, was Araujo. And we followed him for years in my other job when we do the Premier League. And the fractured skull from a few years ago where he nearly died and he somehow came back from that—

watch that game. Like, I am not predisposed to have any sympathy for any particular players of Mexico's national team as a US fan, but Raul Jiménez is a guy who I have always really respected, and particularly because I watched that game where he fucking cracked his goddamn skull, and for him to come back from that, it was so terrifying to watch.

Yeah, it was.

And for him to not only come back from that, but then finally go on, like, it's his first World Cup match as a starter, etc.

Yeah, no, first World Cup, like you say, Brendan, but also his father. He lost his dad, who was just 62, in March. And obviously, we saw that in March when he was playing for Fulham, and he struggled with those emotions visibly. And the first thing he did when he scored yesterday is he pointed up to the heavens to his dad, and he said afterwards, "That one was for you, Dad." And you know when the emotion overcomes the face? The face does things that you can't control when you're about to cry, and that's what his face did after he scored that goal yesterday. He's such a lovely person. People love him. He's so, so popular. So, for me, It set the scene beautifully that, one, the World Cup is, is about emotions, full stop. And two, these players, they got stories. And over the course of the next 6 weeks, we're gonna find them out. You and I know a lot of them, but we're going to teach people about them. It's a beautiful thing. And I just thought it was a perfect way to start the World Cup.

I have a question for you. One of the red cards you can get in this game, um, is, uh, what I Thought used to be called just a professional foul, but now it's called denial of a goal-scoring opportunity, and, uh, AKA dogso. Slight difference. When did we start calling it dogso? I feel like I'm watching the game for a while and dogso has only come up in the last few years. And I, whatever the answer is to that, I do want to know. That last dogso call on the red card, uh, for Mexico was less dogso, more dog shit. It was a bad call, ref. And again, I'm not here to stick up for Mexico. I'm a US fan and we're rivals and everything, but that was a fucking horrible call.

The dog's eye thing is weird. I remember going to a referee's convention. I won't bore you because that does sound very boring.

What a fun gig.

It was so fun to learn about VAR. And it was about 5 years ago and we were listening to audio, okay? And when the referee was wearing a microphone and he— referees commentate as they go, by the way. That is the weirdest thing ever because we wouldn't know that until you hear it. And when you hear, you can go online, you can listen to it. They commentate on the game as they go. They're talking to their linesmen, they're now talking to VAR, and this ref was saying, 'It's DOGSO, it's DOGSO.' And I was like, 'What the hell's DOGSO?' Oh, denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. So I agree with you, it's come in quite recently. Yeah. And that one was— that was shocking. Yeah, it was no good.

Yeah, it was shocking. Uh, it wouldn't have changed the result, uh, too much, and in fact it didn't. It remained 2-0, and Mexico got the, uh, the start they needed. And then today Canada had their first game. Uh, before we get to the actual game itself, shout out Alanis Morissette coming in with the national anthem.

I almost said on air, for all those 45-year-old girls out there who've got Jagged Little like me in 1995, which I listened to wall to wall. I'm here for you. I'm thinking about you. But I thought, no, that was a little bit too narrow for the, for the Fox broadcast. But oh, she is a wonder.

Oh man, that was, that was pretty cool to see. Um, so Canada having their first game at home against not only Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, um, Bosnia goes up 1-0 in the first half. But as a Jesse Marsh team should, um, Canada would not be denied. Relentlessly, relentlessly attacking, had so many chances in the second half, and then finally equalized.

Are we okay with Jesse Marsh?

What do you mean? Well, I've talked about a little bit.

We have. He's, he's a very— like, in England we would say Jesse Marsh is like Marmite. And for anyone who doesn't know what Marmite is, it's a very weird, meaty, dark brown yeast extract which sounds absolutely— I love it though. I love myself a bit of Marmite on toast, right? But there are people who hate it. You don't kind of like it, you love it or you hate it. Jesse Marsh, you love him or you hate him, right? And a lot of people don't like him because he's but also he's rent-a-quote, and he says a lot of things that rub people up the wrong way. And then, I thought it was interesting the way he was, these antics on the touchline. There's a lot of criticism about, is he doing it for show, too much for the cameras? What do you think?

I think his passion is real, and, um, but I'm also a fan of Mikel Arteta, who are people quick to say, like, you know, he's being performative. But I think there are just some guys who, like, they're just really comfortable out there and being as crazy as they actually are. But, you know, I mean, sidebar, we've got a little bit of a USA-Canada controversy. Controversy? Jesse Marsh controversy? I'm a Dutch person. Because Jesse said the other day that back when he was an assistant for the US in 2010, 2011 under Bob Bradley, and this is, I believe, a direct quote, they used to have to beg players to sing the national anthem.

And then Clint Dempsey—

was this on your watch?

Yeah, he said it today.

Clint Dempsey coming out. Oh man. Clinton Dempsey comes out, and then, you know, I'll abbreviate his quote, basically saying, "Stay in your lane, especially if you're driving a moped." Which—

It's because he now lives in Italy, and we've just seen a feature about Jesse Marsh on Fox Today. We did a really lovely feature about Jesse Marsh, who lives in Italy, and he was on a moped, and he was like, "La dolce vita." Is that what it means?

That is a film, a famous Italian film.

The phrase about living the great life in Italy, right?

And so we were coming off the back of that, and And Dempsey was just not having this. I thought it was a metaphorical, uh, Vespa.

No, it was a real one. Real one. It does actually drive. Uh, Alexi Lalas said that U.S. soccer is living rent-free in Jesse Marsh's head. It does feel that way because, of course, those who don't know, Jesse Marsh felt that he was— well, he was overlooked for the U.S. men's national team job. It went to Mauricio Pochettino. And on a regular basis, almost on a weekly basis, he talks about it. He talks about, I don't want it, I don't want the job, I wouldn't, I don't, now I don't want it now, don't want it, I will never want Yeah, I think you want to—

it feels like someone making a life choice after a breakup.

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Yeah, like, uh, hey man, you— I know, I know, I know it was hard for that when that girl dumped you, but, um, did, did you have to go, go get hair plugs? Like, it's kind of that vibe, frankly. And with— I mean, I'm sure he's gonna do a great job with Canada, and Canada's very lucky to have him, and he's gonna do great. But also, like, should that be how you're making your choices?

I know what you mean. I, I like him a lot. I've met him a good few times. I really like him. And also, when you work in television You love these people, the people who give you the great quotes.

You love a quote.

You love a quote. You just gotta absolutely have those television gold people. So I'm all for that. They got a point, decent point, by the way.

First point in their history. Yeah, in their 7th game of World Cup.

In their history, first point.

Yeah, huge. Um, so, um, and also, as, as we've said here in the past, and I will say again, the most important thing in your first game, just don't lose. And it's obviously better to win, and we're especially, you know, USA and Mexico will, uh, we prove that. But like, Canada just getting a point today, especially coming from behind is huge and it puts them in good stead. Yeah. Looking ahead to the weekend, we got 4 games on Saturday. This, this pod will hopefully come out Saturday morning and then 4 games on Sunday. But I think unequivocally, Rebecca, the game of the weekend is on Saturday and it's Brazil-Morocco.

Oh my goodness. I mean, this is the most obvious thing to say, but the greatest thing about the World Cup is how quickly they come thick and fast. Yeah. How quickly these games— you go from like the time of your life watching the United States to going to bed, to waking up and going on. I know, I'll just watch Brazil-Morocco today. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Yeah. It's the most successful World Cup team country of all time against the current, you know, up-and-coming team because they, you know, were the first African team to ever make the final four in the previous World Cup. Are they still the business? Are Brazil, who have not won since 2002, are they back in business? It's a, it's a huge and fascinating matchup. But then there's a little bit of a game on Sunday that people might want to know about too. That might not be as big as Brazil-Morocco. It was a pretty big deal. Rebecca, what is that game you're talking about?

Is it, um, you're on the team?

Oh my goodness. That's right. Because as some people may or may not remember, I'm a huge fan of the Netherlands because I didn't give a shit about soccer until I moved there in 1999. And that's when I learned to love football the Dutch way. So not only is Netherlands-Japan on Sunday a pretty decent game, frankly, but also a good game. I'm going to go there. Me and the wife, we're flying to Dallas tomorrow. And for the first time ever, I will see Holland play in a tournament. I've only seen them in like qualifiers and friendlies, but now I'll see them in a tournament. And also, Rebecca, and people don't know what this is, check your algorithms. I'm going to follow the bus. I know I'm going to get behind the Oranjebus, the big Dutch double-decker bus that brings an entire huge orange-clad Dutch party to every game they play in every tournament. And I cannot fucking wait.

Is Shannon following the bus?

Oh, she is.

I love it. I love it. All right, we can't wait for that. So that's on Sunday. Brazil, Morocco, we got Scotland playing Haiti. We got so much. Also, we forgot to mention that South Korea also picked up their first 3 points. They beat Czechia by 2 goals to 1. I saw the first half and then I fell asleep.

Comeback win as well.

We're 4 in, we're 4 in already. We've got 100 to go.

Also, Australia-Turkey, uh, happened this weekend, which is the other game in the US's group. So, so pretty big deal. Keep an eye on that. Um, and, uh, and this has been, um, segment 2 of After the Whistle.

You think I'll present it all day, I could just carry on presenting. But clearly I can't.

I'm really counting on you to do these kind of transitions. You kind of hung me out to dry there, Rebecca! But I don't care because of US 1401. It's the best day of my life.

This is After the Whistle from Raffle News. We'll be back to wrap up some bits and bobs. It's too late.

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This FIFA World Cup 2026, no one gets you closer than Verizon. Well, welcome back to a very eventful night at After the Whistle. We now close out with our traditional not only bits but also bobs. It's bits and bobs. Rebecca, would you like to throw either a bit or a bob toward our, our fine listeners?

Cooling breaks, hydration breaks, water breaks.

For fuck's sake, what are we going to do about this? It's a problem.

Everyone— what upset me the most, the most, is that everyone gets up and goes and leaves and goes and gets a drink and goes to the loo and goes and gets popcorn. And that upsets me so, so at a deep visceral under the skin level.

Even worse, in my section there were some people who waited till the end of the drinks break to go get their drinks, and it's like, sit the fuck— what?

Do you think it's a drinks break for them?

Great question.

Do they think it's like—

No, I wish they did because then they would have gotten up when it started.

Yeah, I'm worried about it. My big hope is that, like the Golden Goal, remember that years ago, forever ago? Was that UEFA, FIFA? I can't remember. They did it for a while and then they were like, nah, it's not working, and they took it away. So let's hope— I don't mind a drinks break if it's 104 degrees in Miami. I'm okay with that.

If it's legit, yeah, sure.

Today is silly.

But also, like, there are, I mean, I don't want to mention any names, but there are apparently some networks in other countries who aren't cutting away during the—

That's not the relevant thing we're talking about.

It's part of it though.

It's part of the people at home. I'm just saying. The drinks break.

Just saying, we can agree to drinks break.

What's your bit?

My bit is we're in line for concessions, me and my wife, and a lovely couple in front of us who are like, who are huge soccer fans. They both play college soccer. They're like, I've got friends right now who keep coming to me asking like, how's it going with the FIFA? Because apparently Americans think it's just called the FIFA because the FIFA World Cup is being so well branded. And I would like to think that was merely anecdotal. However, 2 days earlier I saw a hilarious Instagram reel and I'm so I cannot find what this reel was or who this woman was, but a Scottish woman in New York, and I'll do a bad impression of her now, talking about like, here's what it's like to try to watch the World Cup in America. I'm walking around New York, and when people find out that I'm Scottish, they go, are you enjoying? Are you excited about the FIFA? It's not the fucking FIFA, it's the fucking World Cup. It's not that. The FIFA! And so now it's coming at me from two directions in two different coasts. And I want to be very clear, everyone out there, it's not the FIFA, it's the World Cup.

Do you think it's because of the big sign?

Yeah!

I think it is.

Goddamn shitty World Cup FIFA sign!

All right, okay.

With its folds in the skin. It's somehow working.

It doesn't matter.

Don't let it hypnotize you.

It doesn't matter.

USA.

I've got the leading goalscorer at the World Cup. They got more goals than anybody else. The top of group, whatever group we're in. I can't remember at this late stage. And we are going to be back on Monday. Do you want to lead us out?

I do. We'll be back Monday rounding up all the weekend's action, which includes the Netherlands facing their toughest opponent in Japan with a game that I will be at.

And also, and also, we're on socials everywhere, all the socials, Instagram, TikTok. It's @AfterTheWhistle. Apple, please follow us. It really helps people find the show as well if you follow us and you like like send it around.

And remember, now you can also watch us on Apple Podcasts and on YouTube.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And if you want news, scores, standings— like, are USA top of group?

They are.

What group? I keep forgetting. Yeah, well then you just have to go to the Apple News app because that's where you can get the World Cup Hub and everything that is going on. The glasses are on, the man is happy.

Ask me again what group, uh, we're in.

What group are you in?

D as in damn, that was a fine performance.

This is After the Whistle from Apple News. Thanks for listening.

What a fucking day. It's only Paraguay. It's only Paraguay.

It's only Paraguay.

But oh, what a fucking day. The door's open.