Transcript of The wildest game of the World Cup so far had no goals scored

Ladies and gentlemen, before we begin, this is unprecedented in the history of After the Whistle. We are, as you know, at After the Whistle, we like to come to you after the whistle. But for this After the Whistle, we're coming to you after the whistle of After the Whistle. We finished today's pod and sat down. And what was happening there, Rebecca?

It was the last 15 minutes of Spain against Cape Verde, and it was nil-nil. You and I sat down and we thought, well, we might as well watch it here rather than get in the car and go.

Casual tone.

You know, we'll just sit down. You said, This is London Tears. I mean, they're going to score. I said it 100%. Of course they are. I said, Brendan, we've seen this so many times. We were very casual. We've seen this so many times before.

You opened a bag of what you'll call crisps.

Posh crisps. I said, let's have some posh crisps. We shared some crisps and we watched and we watched.

And it kept going. Spain, your reigning European champions versus the second smallest country to ever compete in the World Cup.

Whose most high-profile player I've never heard of.

It's like, and they did, spoiler alert, they held on. They held on.

0-0.

0-0. It doesn't qualify, I think, in the true pantheon of biggest upset results of all time, but it's up there.

I mean, there are people out there who don't like football because there are 0-0s, right? This is one of those 0-0s. This is a great 0-0, guys.

This is the 0-0 that is the exception to the rule and proves how amazing some 0-0s can be. I mean, Good Lord.

And Lamine Yamal came off the bench, this sensation, this teenager, this world beater, this future Messi, this future Ronaldo, this future that kind of level player came off the bench.

Who Spain thought they wouldn't need, apparently.

Apparently, apparently, so he had to come off the bench. And him against Cape Verde's left back, again, I can't tell you his name, guys. I ain't got a clue. But it looked like a regular day in Spain when Lamine Yamal was playing against a top-level left back in La Liga. It did not look like whoever the left back for Cape Verde is was playing against one of the greatest players in the world. This is why, this is why the game is so amazing. And this is why we have to take a moment and say, I just love football.

Yeah.

Love it.

First nil-nil of the whole tournament. A worthy nil-nil. Spain was absolutely shell-shocked afterwards. Even during, really. Like, by the time we got to the last 5 minutes there, it looked like they knew what was gonna happen.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I totally agree.

Some incredible blocks in the, in the last 15 minutes as well.

I mean, they almost scored, by the way. How about when they went down the other end and had a header?

Yeah. Oh my Lord. So congratulations, Cabo Verde, Cape Verde, however we're doing it. Congratu-flippin'-lations. We now take you back to After the Whistle, already in progress.

From Apple News, I'm Rebecca Lowe.

And I'm Brendan Hunt.

And this is After the Whistle.

Today we're debriefing about my trip to see the Netherlands play and follow the Oranjebus. Plus all the action you might have missed from the first weekend of the tournament.

And we're looking ahead to USA against Australia later this week and also wondering, are England actually at this tournament?

Reminder, there will be adult language.

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. Hello everybody. It's Monday, June 15th, and we are live from what we are calling the hedgerows in LA.

There's grass there.

Grass.

Vertical grass.

Grass on the wall. And clearly we got a memo that we had to dress like the wall today.

Second of 4 episodes that we have worn the same color without knowing in advance.

You are back from Dallas.

Yes.

Having gone to see Netherlands against Japan, yes, only yesterday.

Only yesterday. You went quick.

I mean, get into it. Tell us about it. Orange bus, Orange Parade, let's go.

Yeah, so for those who don't know, first of all, the Dutch have a decades-long history of fun supporters and being a crew you wanna hang out with. But now, the last few tournaments, last, gosh, I don't know, 5, 6, 7, 8 tournaments, they have this bus. And apparently it started as a joke. It's a double-decker bus, a big orange double-decker bus, and people follow it as if it was the Love Parade. And there is techno music happening. And in particular, there is this, There is this one song called "Na links, na rechts," which means "to the left and to the right." And when that gets going, it's absolute mayhem. And some of the Instagram Reels you can see on this are intoxicating. And here's the thing, for having been a Holland fan for 27 years, I've never seen them at a tournament, actually. Never once. Oh, first time? Yeah, yeah. I've seen them, you know, in qualifiers and perhaps the odd friendly, but never thusly. So wanted to make sure I saw them at least once. So off I went to Dallas and We stayed right by the stadium, which means I didn't really see Dallas.

I stayed in Arlington. What are you gonna do? But got up nice and early, went over there, and it was just around the corner from where we were. Crowd already gathering. I mean, it's a scene.

Oh yeah.

Like, it's just a bit of a party happening. And the bus starts moving about 11:30. You know, the game's not till 3:00. It's, of course, blazing hot. Blazing hot in the moist, moist Texas hot sun and air. The Oranjebus not only has— Oranje means orange, and the team's nickname in Dutch is the Oranje because they wear orange. And I thought it'd just be a bunch of, like, you know, fun-ass Dutch people, which is all you need. But also on the bus were Wesley Sneijder.

No!

Yes. Klaas-Jan Huntelaar.

Oh, some Netherlands legends.

Tim Krul.

Timmy Kruul, absolute legend. That's interesting.

PK specialist. And I was like, "Oh, well, that's rather validating." And there were probably other people up there who are like current Dutch celebrities who I have no idea what they're all about. But it was a real, real good vibe, gotta say. And our producer Colin demanded almost desperately that I send in some footage, which we have here. We'll show you at some point.

Yeah.

[SPEAKING DUTCH] But also, I did try to record during Gnarlynx Gnarrex, and—

Impossible.

I didn't hit record. I got to video and then like—

Oh!

And I did the thing I hate doing. I did it for you, Colin! I did it for you! But I didn't do it. I didn't do it at all. I didn't do it at all. But it was a blast, and I will not say that we marched the entire way to the stadium. That would've been far too many hours in the hot, hot sun for my cheap Irish skin. But yeah, we got our piece in. And it was fantastic.

And then you got to the stadium and you were treated to maybe the best game we've seen so far in the group stage.

2-2. I do think that. But you know who's not going to think it's the best game? Is the fans of the team who gave up the late equalizer. Like, I don't disagree necessarily that it was the best game so far, but like, eh.

Well, it turned out, right? For Holland fans it was. Except I saw an interview afterwards. We played an interview on the show with Virgil van Dijk, the captain of the Netherlands. I've probably watched Virgil van Dijk be interviewed 10,000 times, okay? He looked, he had his arms folded. I think he was leaning on a wall, which is quite unusual for post-match interview. He seemed a little surprisingly okay.

Yeah.

I was actually a little surprised at how okay he was. Did you see that interview?

Did you get that one? No, but I saw an interview with Ronald Koeman in Dutch, I mean with subtitles. Where he was much the same. He basically was like, "Yeah, yeah, you know, it's, you know, it would've been better to not give up that goal, but like Japan's good and we learned some stuff and we move on." So either they know how good Japan are, so they thought that they were just delighted with a point, or they're not as ambitious as we think they are. Or, and not ruling any of that out, but though I think they probably are ambitious, they're probably—

Yeah, you'd think so.

They probably have a higher sense of their potential than I do. Frankly, for this tournament. But it comes back to the old adage, like, the first games are weird. Just don't lose your first game. Yeah. Maybe. Every time Holland had the ball— and you're not supposed to call them Holland anymore, but some people do. Every time Holland had the ball, you just had the sense that Japan were always coiled like a spring, like, at any moment. Because the times when they did then go off on that counter, the counter, like, Holland was outnumbered over and over again on these counterattacks. And it was— it was really incredible to see live.

I don't think I like the kit.

Whose kit?

Yours.

Oh, it's too fluorescent.

It's like a bunch of highlighter pens running around. It's way too much, isn't it?

And that's 2 World Cups in a row that they've overthought this.

Why are we messing with this? We all know what makes a great kit. Even the guys in the studio were saying the Brazil kit was the wrong yellow.

Yeah, it was muted.

Too kind of— pale and yeah, muted. Yeah, we need vibrant yellow and a solid orange. We don't need a highlighter pen situation. So that's a shame, I think.

I agree.

Okay. Okay.

So— Of course I wouldn't know that because Nike's shipment hasn't gotten in to me yet. Go on.

Wow. Still no?

Still no. Supposed to be coming today.

We'll see. Okay. Should we move on to the other games that we've seen over the last couple of days, or are you done with Holland?

Just to put a bow on it. I don't think it's the end of the world. To have a draw as your first game, no matter what the circumstance, frankly. It's especially not the case in a tournament when third-place teams are advancing 67% of the time. And it's especially not that bad to have a draw when the team you have a draw against is most likely your biggest rival in the group.

Yeah, fair point. Maybe that's why they were okay leaning on a wall.

I think, you know, they're both quite, you know, tournament-practiced.

Savvy.

Yeah, yeah, so. So, and they're emotionally muted people as it is, the Dutch. So, so yeah, that was par for the course, I think, for them. They're both mellow, cool, savvy, leadership-based center-backs, you know, like they're, they're not going to get too frantic one way or the other.

Perfect. Let's move on to Brazil-Morocco.

All right.

If you wouldn't mind.

I would not.

Just to put you in the picture. So I was doing that game on goodness only knows what day. Was it Saturday? It's, we're in that thing though, aren't we? Where we don't know what day it is. So I think it was Saturday and Thierry Henry, who's on the show with me, said, started saying, "I've got to tell you about this player. I've got to tell you about this player, Ayoub Bouhadi." So he starts telling me about this 18-year-old who's in midfield for Morocco, could have chosen France, chose Morocco, plays for Lille, played for Lille at 16, right? He's now 18, he's had 63 appearances.

Yeah.

In the defensive midfielder role, in the number 6. We were together, Thierry, you know, knows more than I've forgotten. I mean, he's absolutely an encyclopedia. He was trying to remember, and so was I, can we think of a teenager that has played the number 6 role for their country, age 18. I mean, that young. You do a striker, you might have a young striker, you might have a young goalkeeper sometimes even, which we saw actually with Australia, but you don't tend to get 6s, do you?

Defensive midfielders. Maybe Tyler Adams is the only one I can think of. Possibly.

Maybe at 19, maybe. But this kid, what a player. And then he went on, of course, to have an amazing game.

Youngest ever player in any UEFA competition or any UEFA club competition, as it turns out, because of that appearance for Lille. Yeah. Oh, there you go. In the Conference League situation. So the most prestigious competition as well.

Yeah, he is one of those players that you know, okay, big move coming, big move. After one game, big move. And if Thierry Henry's saying that, you know, you know, he was fantastic.

Yeah, it's a testament to the fact that, I mean, it was only 1-1, but again, as mentioned with the Brazil-Japan, if you have a draw against your biggest rival in the group, not the end of the world. It was a 1-1, a pretty great game, 2 great goals, I thought. And yet the big story out of the game is the teenage defensive midfielder.

Right.

You know, he's all anyone's talking about.

The Brazil fans are just appalled. They're appalled by the way they play. I mean, the words like abysmal have been thrown around, ashamed. I mean, it's a little strong. It's just the beginning. Let's calm down. Let's touch on Haiti-Scotland, which I have to say, John McGinn is one of my favorite footballers. The reason why I love John McGinn, who scored the goal against Haiti, is I think people look at John McGinn, they feel like they can relate to him. He's a classy player, let me just say that. But he also just like, he's just a normal bloke. You know what I mean? John McGinn's just a normal bloke. And he goes and scores in a World Cup. He's just a normal bloke. And for Scotland, I love Haiti, they played really well, but for Scotland, that was magic, wasn't it?

Also, John McGinn likes to talk about his butt more than most people do, which I think is really—

It's a good butt, it's a good size. It's the size he likes to talk about, isn't it?

And it's a use as a center of gravity axis. But Scotland, don't you feel like you needed more goals there?

Oh, for sure. 100%. They needed to have made, I mean, they were a little lucky actually to get away with the 3 points. Yes. I, yeah, they did. Because it's not all 3, 3rd place go through. You gotta be the best place, 8 best place. So yeah, they could have done, they might miss out. You're right, they might rue that a little bit. But they didn't have millions of chances. It wasn't like they missed tons and tons of chances to have scored loads more goals, so.

Yeah, yeah. And it's also not impossible that they can get a draw —against Morocco or Brazil.

Yeah, because that would be very Scotland as well, to go and beat Brazil. Australia-Turkey.

Suffice to say, big shock of a result. I mean, everyone— a lot of people think Turkey's the favorite in that group, and Australia are an also-ran who might be lucky to finish third. And Australia not only won 2-0, they dominated that game. Turkey had nothing at all.

I agree. And the goalkeeper change, when he decided not to play Matt Ryan, who is an Australian legend, and he put in Patrick Beech, who made more saves, I think, by a debut goalkeeper than anyone else since 2002.

Yeah.

8 saves?

Yeah.

As a kid? I love those moments.

Massive, massive call by Tony Popovich.

Yeah. The coach. Crystal Palace legend. Sorry, I'll be saying that a lot because there's a lot of Crystal Palace legends.

Yeah, there's so many legends. It's a hall of legends, basically, Selhurst Park. Everyone knows that. Massive, massive call. Matt Ryan, Arsenal legend. But yeah, the poor guy who has to suck it up. But at least, you know, when you are on the bad side of a call like that from the ref, it's gotta help a little bit to see that the gaffer was 100% correct.

Yeah, totally. Okay, so that's Australia-Turkey. We'll talk more about them, like you say, 'cause USA are playing them next. Germany-Curaçao.

Nice. Coached by Dick Advocaat, which technically speaking in Dutch translates as thick lawyer.

Thick lawyer.

Thick lawyer. Well, I mean, dick is just dick, but like D-I-K, it means thick. So if you hear dick, that is a thick lawyer.

Wow.

Anywho, Germany won 7-1, and I'd say we learned nothing about them.

Agree. Totally agree.

But man, when it was 1-1—

Who cared? Yeah, we were just like—

Fuck yeah, Curaçao!

Yeah, I know. And Dick crying. Dick crying on the bench. I mean, I just can't. He's 78. He's been through hell. He resigned from the job because his daughter was unwell, and then he took the job back when it looked like she was getting better, and they scored a goal. I mean, they scored a goal. That is like an area of LA that has 200,000 people. I don't know, you tell me, like Brentwood? I don't know, does it have 200,000 people in Brentwood? Maybe not that many.

Yeah, not really an oppressed class, Brentwood, but sure, we'll go—

Okay, I'm thinking of, I don't know.

Boyle Heights.

Right, Boyle Heights scoring a goal against Germany. That's what it's like. Yeah. Because there's only, I think it's 160,000 people in Curaçao. So essentially, was there anyone left in the country? Because the Kurosawans that were in the stadium, I mean, you could fit the whole country into 2 stadiums. And they scored a goal?

Yeah.

And also, I have been a little bit in 2 camps about, do we want this expanded field? Do we not? Is it going to be like 10-1? But I will take 7-1 if it means it's the— 7-0, I'm not interested in. 7-1, I'm kind of here for. You know what I mean? Just for that one moment, we all were in the green room watching it. We all— everyone erupted. That's what we love. All right, Ivory Coast, Ecuador.

Ugh.

That was a little bit of a surprise. Yeah. I mean, Ecuador's a lot of people's big dark horse.

I've got them in my, my final four.

You've got them in your semifinals.

And like, let's applaud my bravery.

You wanna, you wanna? Should we? Yeah. Amad Diallo off the bench right near the end is the most Amad Diallo thing ever. He does that a lot for Manchester United. He's a big game player. I was surprised he didn't start, but then you go, Oh no, no, no. Amad Diallo off the bench. That's what he does. I'm here for it as well.

Just such a battle, that game, you know, and then for it to like—

And they hit the bar like a million times.

Yeah, yeah. Ecuador. Yeah, Ecuador, you can still be in it. And you know, uh, when you, when you can still advance in third place, losing at the beginning is not the disaster it is in a normal tournament, but still not great.

Not great. Sweden-Tunisia, which was, um, last night, which was 5-1 in the end. Was it 5? I keep losing track. So many goals. 5-1. Two things here. You're gonna get on to what happened to poor old the Tunisian coach in a second. But I suddenly had a moment when I was watching this game. Isak had scored, Yokarez scores. Now, for anyone who doesn't know—

They assisted each other.

They did, they did. Victor Yokarez plays for Arsenal and Alexander Isak plays for Liverpool, only just. So I had this moment during it, I thought, wow, I haven't heard a single person, not one, and I've heard a lot of predictions, Brendan, about this World Cup, not one's gone with Sweden being a dark horse. And I thought, you've got the Liverpool striker and you've got the Arsenal striker. And no one has gone with them at all?

Yeah.

Maybe they, maybe they, I mean, you would take those two strikers, right?

Yeah.

So why is, why are we not?

The other wrinkle there is like, so few countries, or even, you know, big club teams anymore, play with a two-man strikers.

I can't believe they both started.

Yeah.

Go on, Graham Potter, with your cheeky little two up front.

Yeah, good.

From 1994.

Great example of, see what the players you got and make them work. And the fact that they assisted each other is, not nothing, even if the Isak assist was the most, the most glancing touch of a ball anyone has ever had to be called a goal contribution. But yeah, like, as opposed to the Germany 7-1 over Curaçao, you can't quite say we learned nothing about Sweden here. I mean, we have only learned that, you know, Tunisia is the just the worst team in the group. Yeah, I thought, I thought them and Sweden would be a little closer together. And now it appears they are not. But also, poor Tunisia. After one game, their coach is expected to be fired.

That is—

Incredible.

That is ridiculous. I mean, that is the most football thing ever. Like, hey, come on, come and take a team to a World Cup, do all the organization, pick the squad, sort the hotel out, get everything sorted. We know we're— one game, you're out.

Wow.

What is the point?

Yeah.

What is the point of that?

Yeah. And what do you think this is going to get out of your players as well for these last 2 games where they have to, you know, batten down the hatches and everything? Like, it's so deflating.

But it seems to happen at World Cups. That's happened before a couple of times. I wonder if there are managers out there who know it's going to happen. They just like, they hover, they come to America, they come to the World Cup, and they just hover around waiting for the big, oh, he's gone. And then they just, you know, I'll do Tunisia. Someone's wait, someone's going to get that job now for at least 2 more games. Surely that'll be it. They'll go home. But Yeah. That's insane.

It's insane. It's insane. What else? What else? A couple players we've alluded to here, and I don't wanna get into this too much, 'cause we'll talk about Australia a little bit, but like, we have a compelling amount, I think, of young X-Factors. And like, young X-Factors are players who, you know, people have not really rated perhaps enough in the coming in, and then suddenly, they had this big impact. And I would say young X-Factor has to be like no older than 22. And of course, the classic example here is 1958, 2008 Sweden. Pelé, Pelé, 17 years old at the time, I believe. So he's like, you know, the, the biggest example. But like, so far you've got Boulati of Morocco, who we've talked about.

Yeah.

Beach for Australia, who is also only 22. My man Ayari from Sweden with 2 unbelievable cannonball goals from outside the box.

Who has given glimmers of that over the last season with Brighton and Hove Albion. Glimmers. But you're right. Nobody, I don't think anyone went into this World Cup and said, Oh, we've seen Glimmers, he'll be a big star. I love that.

No, no, now he's tied, he's tied for the Golden Boot.

With Balogun.

And then also for Australia, Nestor Irenkunda with the first goal, who looked terrifying and unstoppable, like so fast, just outrunning the entire Turkish team. So young X-Factors can really, you know, put their thumb on the scales, can really change the tide, and can really lead to some unexpected, at least results, if not total performances. And there's 4 of them.

Yeah. And also, I think just to finish on that, we came into this World Cup talking about Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, the old boys, and there's something like 7 or so 40-or-over players at this World Cup. There's more 40-or-over players at this World Cup than ever before. So we've talked a lot about the older players, but we actually need this.

Yeah.

We need to say thank you, Lionel. Thank you, Cristiano. Thank you, Neymar. Goodbye.

Yeah.

And we need to welcome in the players that you just talked about and others that are going to make their name for the next generation, because we cannot keep hanging on to those big players. We have to move on.

Yeah. All these steps forward in sports medicine. Thank you, Pilates. Thank you, all these career extenders. Thank you for all of it. Thank you, science. Thank you for all of it. But now a new era begins, and we'll be right back with more After the Whistle.

Brendan, the FIFA World Cup is now underway, and it's already going too fast.

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Nice. No one gets you closer to the FIFA World Cup than Verizon. We are back in After the Whistle. Rebecca, so now we've got this game between USA, Australia coming up on Friday. There's other games before that. We'll touch on those.

Yeah, and one of the storylines, have you seen there's a little bit of conversation, chatter going on because a few of the former US men's national team players over the course of the last few months have said that basically Australia would be a complete walkover and that they would be third, probably fourth in the group.

A layup, I believe.

Is that a layup? Is that— was that— okay, is that a basketball term? It is indeed. Okay, would that be like a kind of a through ball?

No, it's a tap-in.

A tap-in, okay, perfect. So, so they'd be a tap-in, and then Australia went and did what they did against Turkey, and now Australia has some messages. And I've seen a lot of messages for those former US men's national team players, you know who you are, and they're saying, we coming. We are coming. So it's going to be tricky just because that whole narrative, and the players read everything. And it's interesting because, you know, they say like players, they turn off their Instagram, they turn off their X. I've seen interviews with a number of players who've quite openly admitted to checking all these things after games. So all those storylines are out there, and that will be a big prevalent part of the game.

And if there's ever a country in any sport who you don't need to add to whatever their qualities are, a chip on their shoulder? Not Australia. Don't do that to Australia. That's like a superpower. What are you doing? That's like putting Kel-El on a yellow sun planet.

True. That is true.

Carry on.

Christian Pulisic.

Yes. I've heard of him.

The word is that he picked up whatever little niggle he has in training. Did you know this? Not actually in the first half.

Oh.

That's the word that's going round. So he then played the game, and then even though he played out of his skin, it then stiffened up at halftime, and they were like, okay, precautionary. We all know that he came off and he mouthed, "I'm good," to his family. So I'd be amazed if he didn't start. That's the whole reason why they took him off at halftime, to be able to start the Australia game. If he didn't start for whatever reason, who do you think he would play?

Gosh. I mean, would Gio get a shot? Gio or, or Weah. Yeah. I mean, I think here's the— I mean, you could put McKennie there because McKennie plays anywhere and then fill that gap with, you know, move Tillman over and then, and then Reyna in where Tillman was playing. That's the thing in midfield and attack. The US is crazily deep and a lot of guys who can play different positions. So there's, there's many options there. I mean, you could fit Aaronson. Into that, into that setup somehow as well. So I wouldn't, I wouldn't, I'm not, even though he's unequivocally our best player, like if, if he's gone for a game, I'm not as panicked as if we lose Tyler or—

No. And also we might get more hugs now. Maurizio Pochettino.

More hugs?

Well, yeah.

Come on.

So, well, Maurizio is a bit of a hugger. I've known that. We've all seen that down the years. But I watched the post-match scenes again from Friday, which I didn't get to sort of really soak up properly at the time, or or after. He loves a hug, doesn't he? We had hugs. I mean, the way he hugged Gio Reyna was like it was his long-lost son. I mean, it was a beautiful moment. There was quite a few bum squeezes. Well, you know how they love a bum squeeze.

Like baseball-style bum squeezes?

What's that mean?

Well, I mean, you said bum squeeze.

No, but what do you mean baseball style?

Baseball. I mean, American football too has a lot of like, "Yeah, boy!" Oh, like a—

Yeah, no, no. So they do do that a lot. We laugh about that. You know how when you're a substitute waiting to go on in football, You know, if you don't get a bum tap from your manager, a good luck bum cupping almost, then, right? Then, you know, you won't play well. You've got to get the bum tap, right? You've got to. That is part of the game. And afterwards, Mauricio, I think it might have been Balogun, a little bum squeeze with the hug. So I'm loving this. I like the body language. I like the hugs. I like the bum squeezes. I'm here for them all because it shows love and passion. And that's what Mauricio loves.

He should be happy because, and I've said this before, but like, All he's— he's been, like, eating shit for 2 years while everyone's been like, "You didn't do this right, you didn't do that right." And clearly, all he has cared about is the events that started on Friday. He's been trying to peak at the right time and build and build and build and get there. And now he's got to keep that build going for, you know, just 5 more weeks. It should be fine. So, yeah, he can do as many hugs and consensual butt squeezes as he wants.

And also, how about the post-fight interview line, which was my favorite, when he said something like, here in America, you know, soccer is massive. And he said, "Watch out the other sports." I flippin' loved him for that. I've been saying that for years. You know, watch out the other sports because, you know, they need to watch out. NFL probably doesn't need to watch out. The rest of them need to watch out. More on that in my bits and bobs.

NFL does need to watch out a little bit, by the way, because I don't know if you've heard, but the NFL has a bit of a problem with the odd brain injury. Here or there. And that, you know, they've been trying to fight back against that fear for a minute here, but like the fear has taken hold enough that like moms don't want their kids to play football.

No, Teddy's not playing.

It's no longer a done deal. If a kid wants to play American football, he's gonna get to play it, like, because moms are fighting back. And it's not like there's no risk of head injury in soccer, but a heck of a lot less.

Yeah.

All right, I will be at that game on Friday as well, but we'll talk about that as we go along. Let's just quickly talk about what else we got between now and our next pod, which we will record Wednesday evening. Wednesday, yeah, it's almost like very soon. Yeah. Tomorrow we got France-Senegal, which is—

Good.

Again, one of the games I've had my eye on since the draw happened. Cannot wait for that. Again, France was reigning champions in 1998, or excuse me, they became champions in 1998. 2002, their first game was against Senegal, who were appearing in their first ever World Cup, and they're a former French colony, and Senegal won 1-0. France came crashing out. Senegal had an incredible amount of glory, and here they are back again, and it's a better Senegal than it was before. So we will see. On Wednesday—

Sorry, real quick. I do think tomorrow might be one of the best days at the World Cup so far. Tuesday, because you've got France-Senegal, you've got Erling Haaland playing, and you've got Messi playing.

Yep.

So clear your diary.

You have one of, one of the debutants, Jordan, playing on Tuesday against Austria. Austria, who could be pretty good. Wednesday, Congo are not a debutant because they used to be Zaire, but you'll get your Ronaldo out. On Wednesday, debutants Uzbekistan playing Colombia. Look forward to seeing that. And then of course we have famously, and the last big game of the first round of the group stage, England—

I mean—

Croatia. It is a rematch of the semifinal from 2 World Cups ago that ended in tears. And golly, golly, what a mouthwatering match. How do we feel about England right now, Rebecca?

We feel the— I sort of— are England even at this World Cup? You know, it's so late into the World Cup. Are England even playing? It's just like miles for me into the World Cup to play your first game. So have you heard about the curse? And I don't mean the fact that we just haven't won the World Cup for 60 years. Have you heard about the curse?

No, I don't believe I've heard about the curse.

Would you like me to tell you about the curse?

I would love for you to tell me about the curse.

Okay, because we just need to get all the excuses in right now. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure. So someone stole all the training kit.

Right.

And all the equipment from the bus. All of it? Apparently. It's all gone. Right? So we can't train. No, I think they can train. They stole a lot though from the bus.

Okay.

There was a tornado. English people don't know about tornadoes. They only see that in a movie. They ain't got a clue. They get a text about tornado, screenshot immediately to send to all their friends. They're like, I've got a tornado warning text. They actually would be more excited about getting that than anything else. Like getting a tornado text. When I got my first earthquake text, text when I first moved here. I was like, "I'm gonna kill WhatsApp." And it just went out to everyone about my earthquake. They're all sunburnt, apparently.

Yeah.

Struggle bus.

No one more than Declan Rice, by the way.

Bless him.

Yeah.

Do they not know about sunscreen? Anyway, the chef didn't make it because he had knives. I mean, I know, but apparently. And there was a rumor of an earthquake as well, 6.1 on the Richter scale, if you want the detail. But I think, this is what I think. It's a very specific rumor. Well, yeah, but I do think the English press might have got confused between a tornado and an earthquake, 'cause these things, you know, this just doesn't happen in our world, okay? So they were like, was it a tornado? Was it an earthquake? What's the difference? Let's put them both together. Let's say it was both. So all of these are happening and they haven't even kicked a ball. I'm very worried. It's a curse on England.

That's a long walk to curse, by the way. A curse requires an actual shaman or mystic, or at least someone from the Mediterranean to have cast this upon you. Maybe they did. This is just some bad luck.

I don't know. Maybe it was the person who stole from the bus and just saying.

The chef brought knives is not an indicator of a curse.

Well, he could have bought knives in America.

Now, if you had an actual torn quake or earthnado, then that'd be one thing. Also, as a longtime Midwesterner, getting the text about a tornado is not the same as a tornado. You gotta, if the sky changes colors, then talk to me. But yeah, just getting a text doesn't really mean much.

Still fun though.

It's still, I'm sure it's a real thing.

It is.

It's a real—

We don't get texts. We don't get national texts in England about anything.

I will be at the England game as well, and we're going to talk about that in our next segment, which will be both the Bits and the Bobs. We'll come back after this. England are cursed.

I think they are. I think it was the guy from the bus. Seriously. If we lose, that's why. Okay? Yeah, sure.

The curse that just happened. It wasn't a curse that was put on England, it just happened.

I'm just saying. It's a lot of things. All right? Can't expect us to go and win now.

Okay.

Geez.

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This FIFA World Cup 2026, no one gets you closer than Verizon. Welcome back to After the Whistle. And now is the time for both the bits and the bobs. Rebecca, my bit bob is I throw myself at your expertise. All right, so go to a US game. I'm going, you know, I'm wearing whatever the heck I want. I got star-spangled pants. You saw me the other day.

Beautiful. Beautiful.

I go to a Holland game. I live there. For, I mean, total, really, 7 years. So my bona fides are in order. I'm going orange head to toe, and I don't want to hear shit about it from anybody. But I feel like that's enough teams to go all out for. But here I am going to this England game. I'm going to be cheering for England. And I also, I'm a bit of a joiner. I kind of don't want to be, you know, the guy in an Arsenal shirt. Do I wear, is it okay to wear an England shirt? I think so. I have an '82, I was gifted an '82 shirt once.

It's a nice little thing. I think it's absolutely fine. I think you've spent enough time, I mean, you've lived in England if you were to add it all up, right? For a couple of years, maybe across the time, maybe more.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think you can wear an England shirt.

Yeah.

Oh, absolutely. An '82 England shirt? Definitely. Yeah. England shirt, definitely. Are you going with Shannon? Does she want an England shirt?

She has an England shirt. She has an England women's shirt from—

She can wear that.

Euro '21, which was of course played in '22.

Correct. And she can wear that. And then the two of you can just— yeah, I love it. I mean, there is a school of thought that, you know, this is— when does this stop, right? Are you just going to continue? But at the moment, I think everything is valid. Okay? So this could be the last one before you hit back to the beginning again.

Okay, great.

And then we'll see. But that's what I— but my— yeah, 100% wear it.

Okay, great. Done.

Okay, so my bit and bob is about the viewing figures. It's about the viewing figures for the US men's national team.

Okay, it's a bit or a bob. It can't be a bit and a bob.

Or it could be a bit Bob, with a hyphen.

Okay.

16 of your million people in the United States tuned in, which— what?

16 of your million is actually only 16 people.

Which is 106% higher than the first USA game at Qatar 2022. So that's the first thing I want to say. I want to also add in that there are 9 million people to be included on top of the 16, because they watched it on— Telemundo and Peacock. So a total of 25 of your million people watched that game, but apparently it's not big in America. Apparently. So annoyed by people. So annoyed by people keep saying that. So annoyed. Pochettino, he's read the memo. Watch out, other sports. I think you'll find it's in print. It's 25 million people.

And I believe there was no NBA Finals game this year that had those numbers. No single game.

Right. Now, the Australia game kicks off at a funny time in that, you know, last Friday was perfect. It was like Friday primetime. It's lunchtime Pacific. It's, I think, 3 in the afternoon Eastern. But then kids are not at school, and it's a Friday in the summer. Come on, guys. We've got to get over 20— not many, but we've got to get over 20 million.

Yeah.

Just from Fox's English language broadcast. Add in Telemundo, we could be hitting 30s very soon.

Yeah.

Oh my God.

Exciting.

Okay. We just wanted to say at this stage, thank you to everybody on YouTube subscribing to After the Whistle on the YouTube channel. Please leave us a note. We might read it on a show like this one right now.

'Cause we've gotten some lovely notes.

Yeah.

And, you know, especially in the aftermath of that event that we've just discussed. And so we're gonna read a couple. Am I reading this first one?

Yeah.

Okay. From @UTSaxman, which could be either someone who went to University of Texas and plays the saxophone.

Oh.

Or someone who went to University of Texas San Antonio and is a mutant. This was the first US World Cup match I can remember that I wasn't stressed out for the entire match. In the first 30 minutes, you knew we were going to win easily. We usually just barely eke out a result and have to sweat it out no matter who we're playing. We played like we were the favorites in the tournament. Let's go USA! Right on, my mysteriously named UT Saks man friend.

And also, I think that that is the vibe in that people are believing now. We've talked about that bandwagon. There's so many people jumping on it and they have faith. They're believing. Please, Australia, don't— just Just don't ruin it for us.

And people who are like, but it was only Paraguay. Like, yeah, it was only Paraguay, but still, how often have we played, you know, Paraguay-sized opponents and not had a result like this?

Exactly.

This is the result you want to have, you know, the performance you should have, and we finally got it. So it's not nothing.

Okay, @PK7422, I could not agree with Rebecca more. This was not just 3 points at all. This was not just the USA witnessing, but the world witnessing the US men's national team taking that next step in terms of who is and who is not considered to be elite. That was a top 5 team in the world kind of performance. Crikey, that is the kind of performance you see out of France, Argentina, Brazil— I could have said England— and the US has been desperate to get to that level forever. It's a lot of V's in that, for multiple V's. Now, whether or not we can keep that level is a whole lot of those other story, but the US men just proved to everyone they have the ability to play at that elite level. The proverbial new weapon in the arsenal. Nice. Time will tell if they're ready to use it.

Multiple O's indeed. Uh, and fun from, uh, @arsenaltruckingv: Hi Rebecca and Brendan. Hi. As As a first-generation American born in the US to immigrant parents from Central America, this match hit me differently. Growing up, supporting the US Men's National Team was never really part of our culture. Soccer was always about where our family came from. It was our roots, our history, always our parents' stories. The US is where we lived, but not necessarily the team we supported. For nearly 30 years, I've never truly felt connected to the USMNT. If anything, I usually looked at them from a distance. Even during World Cups, I found myself following Arsenal players and the countries they represented more than the United States. But my God, something changed after the win against Paraguay last night. For the first time in my life, I felt genuine excitement "Pride and hope for this team. As someone who grew up balancing 2 to 3 cultures, that's a powerful feeling. I don't think enough people talk about how many first-generation Americans have similar experiences. We love the countries our families came from, but we're also Americans, and sometimes it takes a moment like this to make those identities feel connected instead of separate." And that's the power of a national team, yo.

Well, that— and I think as well that you have to remember in this country, I think we've talked about this before, these moments that you don't get treated to them because a lot of the sports you guys play are not— world sports. So you don't, you can't have, I mean, you do have a USA baseball team, but it's not the same. There's not a USA NFL team. There's not, it just doesn't happen. The Olympics does it to an extent, the ice hockey especially, but this is kind of America finding out what the rest of the world has done for ages and going, "Oh, hang on. We want a little bit of that." I wanna be part of that.

Yeah. It makes you a citizen of the world more than just a citizen of your own parish.

I'm telling you, this is gonna change everything, Brendan.

Yeah, that'd be nice. That'd be cool. A lot of things to change.

Are we done?

I guess we are. Our next two shows will be done out of the hedgerows.

Oh, we're not going to be together? No.

That's better. I'm going to be in Dallas. Wait, easy.

Well, no, only that's what you said. You said it might, you know, we'll be—

Don't take my words back at me. Quite enjoyed this. Who knows what colors I'm going to be wearing? Wednesday, I'll be coming to you live from Dallas after the England game. And then Friday, coming to you Seattle after the US match.

Okay, we're on socials everywhere, guys. Okay, you can, um, get to us at After the Whistle, Apple, Instagram, TikTok.

But, and you can also now watch the podcast on Apple Podcasts and on YouTube.

Yep. And if you want round the tournament news, score standings, you're like, what is the score right now? You go straight to the Apple News app. That's your World Cup hub for you right there.

This is After the Whistle from Apple News. Thank you for listening.

Good luck, England.