Transcript of Lionel Messi's Magisterial Performance | Local Hour

Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen— nichts entspannt mich. Echt? Mich entspannt meine Steuer total.

Steuer?

Wie Finanzamt? Die Steuererklärung? Ja, ich hab ganz locker über 1.000 € zurückbekommen.

Hast du geheime Connections oder Excel-Superkräfte?

Nö, nur die WISO Steuer App.

Wow, und das ist einfach?

Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch.

Ich fühl mich plötzlich so entspannt. Hol dir dein Geld zurück. Abgabefrist: 31.

Juli.

Was?

Schaffst du ganz entspannt mit WISO Steuer.

Ach ja. Nick Wright has developed a funny lane in becoming like one of the best ever at the giving of takes. And he's gonna be on with us later today, but he's part wrestling character and just super smart about being a media savant. And so I have made fun of him for, I'm gonna say, 6 or 7 years because he decided that the controversial lane he was gonna take for all time is that LeBron is better than Jordan, and he was just gonna keep doing that, and it's a silly discussion and empty, and you can argue it and not be right forever. I have what I believe to be a quintessential Nick Wright take today, in that I fully believe, and somehow discovered this just yesterday, that in the modern age of we cover the hell out of everything super well, super intensely, and Lionel Messi is the most famous, athlete in the world. He is wildly underappreciated. That's my shocking take. Like, wildly underappreciated. That as Zazz makes the argument, yeah, if our athletes played, they'd be the best. And this 5'6", 160-pound dude is a— he's a— he's a fucking genie. He's like— he does things with his feet that— that I believe the world understood and America did not.

Because it's been behind a paywall on Apple. America does not understand. I've been sitting here saying this guy's been playing against plumbers. He ain't now. And England sending 3 ghosts from centuries beyond to go chase him. He's like, no, I'm just going to put it right there. You know, we have other guys who can score, right?

For me, I look at Messi yesterday, I'm watching this game, I see that last goal, and my first thought to myself was, Man, I should probably go see this guy play for Inter Miami, right? Like, he plays here. I should probably go to one of those games. Yeah. You have Michael Jordan playing a professional sport in your town. Yesterday was the first day I realized it. We've been talking about this man nonstop for years.

The paywall.

He's amazing. I've been watching this. No, but yesterday it clicked.

It's the paywall. It— we are holding— we— it is. We're holding it against him retroactively. The England brought in a 6'7" dude so he wouldn't do that, and he for fun skinned his hair with the ball. Just thought it'd be funny to just give him a little bit of a haircut with his off foot.

Let me do something funny here.

Pinpoint assist with my off foot.

He's got to believe at the end of these games that he knows he's going to win it, right? Like he knows it the way Michael Jordan did against Utah in the famous photo where all of the Utah fans are terrified and there's that one Bulls kid with an arm raised because of course Michael Michael's going to hit the jumper there.

I just love— maybe it's because it's so hard to score in soccer, but like when Jordan would do that kind of stuff, Jordan looked like, yeah, I did that because that's what I do. When Messi or Argentina score in these games, like Messi is still ecstatic.

I think there have been times in this tournament where there has been sincere doubt. And I think that we saw the outpouring of emotion against Egypt because Egypt was still having interest in playing. They were threatening. I think yesterday—

got it yesterday.

I think yesterday he knew. I think he knew.

His reaction postgame, he was, man, on his knees.

Yeah. I mean, it's been an incredible— from just a perseverance standpoint, it's been an incredible tournament. If you're an Argentina fan, how do you have hair still on your head? But I think he knew that was— I know it was another comeback and it was astonishing late. That was the best Argentina's played this entire tournament.

Well, and we also know the moment. That he knew yesterday. We all know—

Bad ball, Jude Bellingham.

You're young.

You can't do that. You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states.

Sports are the greatest, and I'm going to tell you yesterday how it is that I watched this game because you guys are going to think that this is funny. I tried and have been trying to explain to my wife, hey, this is the greatest. You have to come watch this. I needed her attention. I told you guys, for 45 seconds during penalty kicks for Colombia, because we know a ton of Colombians, I needed 45 seconds of her attention and knees high up in the air. She backed into the bush like Homer Simpson out of the room. She did not want to be around. I'm like, no, no. And I'm like, I'm not going to be able to convince her. So yesterday, this is what I got going on. Because I felt like I was going to convince her because I've got below us for now 6 weeks people are singing and drunk in the bar. The people who live below us and run that bar are happier than I've ever seen them because money is falling out of the sky and it's crazy. They are having record days. They would have had a record that was bigger than the previous record if not for what Conor McGregor did on that night to ruin everybody's joy.

Don't point at me.

It's really amazing what the World Cup does to these local businesses. It's like at the Super Bowl. You were hosting the Super Bowl every day for 3 weeks.

It was— it's been crazy in my neighborhood where I've never seen it feel like what it feels like right now. But I'm gonna tell you how I watched this game yesterday because it's uproarious. So I've got the sound down, not for the normal reasons. I've got the sound down because I want to hear what's happening outside, because directly below me for 6 weeks I've had the English polluting themselves and singing singing songs, and that's their bar. Downstairs, they make it go from the street to the beach because they're just all there. But down the street on a giant screen is where the Argentinians are, okay? And so what I'm— they're— and they are not in the same bar. Like, they, they are a block away, but they are not— you cannot put these people together in, in the frenzy of what the end of that game was. So England scores a beautiful goal that— I mean Harry Kane is great and does what he does from midfield, sends Argentina, which dominated the game, hit the post a couple of times going backward, and England's goal was beautiful to take a 1-0 lead. And they spent the rest of the game as a country from a century back on, we're not as good at this sport as the other guys, on their heels because here comes a desperate champion and they're led by the legend of legends.

Like they're led by somebody who is Tom Brady and Michael Jordan but with his feet! He's not faster than anybody out there! He sure as shit isn't bigger than anybody out there, and England's bringing in a 6'7" guy, and he's like, what are you going to do with these feet? How about I just spin it around your hair? How about— your game plan should have been to have longer hair because I'm going to win the game from over here. And also, and this is just the greatest— desperate champion is the greatest. At the end of the game, you're terrified that he's going to do something, and so you send everybody you've got at him, and he's like, you're going to just leave the middle of the field open. I know you— I know Dan Lebatard's analysis has been that that team is no good, it's just all messy.

Stop saying that. That—

well, I know, I, I I call his team—

they're starting to play a little bit better. They are coming online.

Look, they win every game.

Look, this is absurd. What I am about to say is absurd. And I already said today that we don't talk about Messi enough, like he's underrated. The fact that on the world stage at 39, this legend of legends is sitting here telling you, go ahead and get to the 80th minute with the lead. Watch if I get you 2 or 3 goals at the end because you're going to be tired and I'm not. You're going to be scared and I'm not. 4 straight games is absurd. Like, you can't. There cannot have been, not Pelé, not anybody, a run like this, and certainly not at 39, where 80th minute on, I'm gonna give you 10 goals in 4 games.

He's better than he was 4 years ago, and it's not by a little.

Well, that's why to me, is it unlikely that he plays in the next World Cup? I guess, but can we stop saying that this is his last World Cup? Like, we need to stop saying that with definitive tone. We need to stop saying that.

The precision of that last shot, that skated past 5 English guys who are all better athletes than he is.

With 3 defenders converging with his off foot. He was living on the right side. His left foot is famous.

That is a chess piece. Goals are hard to come by. That team can't score them in the first 80 minutes. They never lead until you're done. And it's nuts. They are the slowest team in the tournament. That's been measured. I'm not making that up. That's not my eyes. Like, they're methodical in the tournament. Among all the teams, they ranked last in speed. They controlled that entire game. They could have won. They could have won Quicker and better than that.

Again, it flashed. They were not tired. They looked calm as Hindu cows out there. They were reserving their energy. They were not making the mistake. Thomas Tuchel makes the decision to put 5 along the back line, a decision that I don't think— look, it's been controversial. Thomas Tuchel is getting destroyed.

Was he bad?

A lot of that is because Thomas Tuchel is German and he's not an Englishman. There's a couple different dynamics here, but, he was lauded because he wasn't going to do the Southgate stuff. He deployed the same exact strategy that he deployed in Azteca. Let me get 5 defenders along that back line. He was really good postgame in explaining his logic. You got 2 wingers and 2 up top. I got to outnumber them, uh, 5-4. But the thing is, when you put 11 behind the ball, you can't back them up all the way into your box. They gave Messi all the space in the world that he needed right up until that box. He's going to find the spaces. And when you get tired— and England looked dog tired. You mentioned Harry Kane. I didn't see him as a part of that buildup. Harry Kane was invisible. Harry—

oh no, he started it with the launch 50 yards down the field.

I don't think Harry Kane is ever going to recover from what I saw in Miami Stadium. I saw a dude that literally left it all on the pitch. He should have been off way earlier. Rashford should have been on. The mistake that Tuchel made that was the biggest was I think individually and collectively he trusted players to not be as dog tired as they were. Anderson makes a horrible decision to come out and meet Messi. That's the third defender there. You leave Enzo Fernandez wide open at the top of the box. Enzo hits from range. Bellingham too tired to fight across 3 attacking players and close the gap. Enzo, who already fired a warning shot earlier. Hey, I'm frisky. I already forced Pickford out of his comfort zone. They did nothing. They didn't respond to that at all. When you have a team pressing the way that Argentina was, you have to put on players that can do something with that, that have creativity, that can take— have take-on ability. For Saka and Rashford to not see the pitch until it was too late was probably the biggest error here.

Here's what I'm not gonna do, Zazz, because I know everyone is gonna kill the English and all my phone— look, I called— I got Thierry Henry's name wrong. I called him Jude Bellingham. I am gathering around the television a bandwagoner like the rest of you, but my phone filled up yesterday with the amateur analysis of England choked, England, their coach is terrible, how do you not try anything, and When Mike keeps saying England's dog tired, yeah, they're backpedaling from a defending champion who's got the best player in the world all game. They're scared and they're— yeah, they're dog tired because he's pelting them surgically and it was taken from them. It's not Argentina's in better shape. They're tired because they keep taking a punch from a heavyweight. They had 2 passes they completed in the last 18 minutes. Argentina pecked them to death. They started hitting the post, started hitting the post. The goalkeeper was tired. The goalkeeper, like, they're, they're, they're—

no one loves a water break quite like Jordan Pickford. Yeah, but I do think that they were the more tired team. Look, Argentina has played a lot of football in this tournament. England has too. But we cannot ignore the conditions that England had to encounter, the wild swing of environment from Azteca and that altitude. Mind you, the game that they had before, yeah, it was indoors in Atlanta, but they had to press that entire game against DR Congo. And fight back, to go from that to Azteca, to the insane heat in Miami Stadium, which was basically played inside of a swamp, and then to have to go up against Messi. You're asking a lot. I think they mentally were drained. They did not have the legs to close out. They made bad decisions because their bodies were tired, and Messi just picked them apart. And that was the best Argentinean performance of the tournament.

I'm going to keep doing this to you, though, when you say they're tired, because you did say And you were telling me, and this is not allowed to happen, okay? You were telling everybody, man, English mental fortitude is the reason. And I just saw what they did in Mexico. Nobody does that in Mexico. They're tired because they completed 2 passes in the last 18 minutes because a surgical champion legend is sitting there cutting them open. It was an autopsy for, for 18 minutes on the English soul. It wasn't about the mind and it wasn't about the body. Like, I don't want to keep making this about England when and I'm seeing greatness at the height of greatness, and the goal we're talking about that wins it. It's, Mike, it can't be that the other team's got the medal when this is the team 4 straight times in the 80th minute that just keeps dissecting you, and we wonder what happened. Did they choke? No, it's everyone's afraid at the end.

Right, right. Well, look, a couple things. Argentina's mental fortitude has never been questioned. It's been questioned for England, and yeah, I took a lot of stock in the performances that they had in the ramp-up. And I got to be honest, for 55 minutes they responded. The dark arts were deployed, Dan. They were testing that American official. Argentina was playing South American football. That was a knife fight. And what did England do? They responded in kind and they got a brilliant goal from Anthony Gordon. And after that goal, Dan, they had 12% of the possession, which is going to be a different story when we look ahead to Spain. Because Spain passed the ball around with intention. The fact that Argentina did not have to chase that game because there was only 12% possession from England allowed Argentina to keep their wits, to keep their legs and do their thing. And I think that they were pretty shocked at all the space that they had to operate in that final third.

Can I give you some incredible numbers for Argentina during this knockout round? Argentina has not led a knockout round game after 90 minutes this tournament. They're in the World Cup final. I'm going to repeat it again because maybe you're saying, whoa, Zaslo, I can't even believe the things you just said. They have not led after 90 minutes in a single knockout game. They are in the World Cup final.

And what a storyline that we have next, because La Migny Mall in Spain. They've already taken out Ronaldo, and Lamine Yamal has often been christened as he's up next, he's the future.

That photo's not real, right?

It is real.

Come on.

It is real. It was really funny to discover American fans finding out that that photo exists.

Well, tell the people, hold on, tell, hold on, that photo, wait a minute, wait, you gotta, you can't exclude the audio.

That can't be real.

You can't exclude the audio audience on the details of the photo behind Mike Ryan because in the age of AI, nobody would believe the odds of, what do you mean there's a photo of Lionel Messi.

Messi.

What do you mean that there's a photo of Messi bathing, bathing a baby who's now going to play him at 19 years old? It's a bubble bath.

I mean, yeah, Lamine Yamal's mother won a UNICEF raffle for the opportunity to take part in a photo shoot with Lionel Messi. I could not believe that this photo existed either when Lamine Yamal really burst on the scene 2 years ago when he was Spain's best player in a European Championship run. Now everyone is doing the same thing, rightfully so. It's bonkers that this photo exists. It's bonkers that they're meeting up in a World Cup final, and it's absolutely bonkers that this 19-year-old has the opportunity to take out Ronaldo and Messi. I've got a couple of questions. One, starting way back in the day, 16, 18 years ago, whenever that picture was taken, who said—

it was 19 years ago.

If it is real, if it is real, who was the team around was like, you know what we're going to do instead of a normal picture? We're going to have him in a bubble bath. Let's do that. All right, look, that was my first question. It's a weird photo shoot, but it was also 20 years ago, brother. It was the '90s.

Are you about to show me a photo of LeBron 20 years ago bathing Cooper Flags?

Buddy, I made a joke.

Excited for summer? Hosting a pool party, a barbecue, or just looking forward to some relaxing time at home? At Orkin, they've been building their pest knowledge and expertise for 125 years, and they know that no matter what your summer plans are, most people don't want cockroaches involved. Shocking, right? Well, as supporters of summer plants both big and small, Orkin is here to stay one step ahead of pests so you can stay one step ahead of your schedule. Visit orkin.com today for a free estimate.

This is my favorite week of the summer sports calendar. The tournament is down to its final matches, baseball's on every night, the left turns are turning, and every group chat starts with the same question: "What are we watching?" This is the time of year where my TV barely gets a break and I find myself reaching for that beautiful white can of ice cold Miller Lite. And I'm gonna invite the boys over, no doubt. And everybody knows about the Miller Time MVP. Every group has one. The person that gets there early, saves a table, that's an MVP. The person who brings a cooler, extra ice, and enough Miller Lite for everybody, MVP. The person who makes sure nobody watches the biggest match of the summer alone. That's a Miller Time MVP. Holy cow, folks, just realized this. I'm a Miller Time MVP. Legendary moments start with a Miller Lite, and they're made even better by a Miller Time MVP such as moi. We all have that one friend who makes every game better. Now it's time to give them their moment. Head over to any of Miller Lite's social media pages to learn more about being a Miller Time MVP.

You can pick up some Miller Lite pretty much anywhere they sell beer. It's Miller time. Celebrate responsibly. Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces.

Dan Levitar. Analytics have/are ruining the game we're playing. AI hoops. That's his team.

His team's in the forefront of all this.

Damn, Zazz, don't steal my thunder. I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. Jonathan Sasslow.

I get carried away.

This is the Dan Levitar Show. Second question.

Dan, you're math friends. I need to find out the probability of a kid being bathed by Messi ending up playing him in a World Cup 20 years later. I need to find the probability of that.

You would think that that's unlikely, except I don't know if I ask Messi that back in those times, that perhaps he was just doing this throughout nearby favelas. Like that he was just perpetually washing babies as part of an advertising campaign. This is why the Kawhi Leonard thing's so offensive. Like, the fake job, you got to go do it. Like, I don't doubt that this man has washed a million babies. Do you think— if you had to guess, put on the poll, @LebatardShow, no one likes a hydration break like Jordan Pickford. @LebatardShow, yes or no? And also, has Lionel Messi washed more than a million babies? I believe— I'm guessing that he spent a ton of time, given how religious the area is, given how biblical servitude is, I am guessing that he has done a lot of this in the, in the, in the face of humility. Like, I can't believe— I cannot believe, okay, I just, I can't believe that on what is supposed to be the slowest day in sports, we get the very best sports thing that there is, which is doubted defiant, obvious, desperate champion doing for the 4th straight time.

Is Nick Wright a grandfather at 39?

He is.

This man is old. The world fears him. He should not be able to do this in any way. They're the slowest team. And among the people, if I was doing a lineup and you were watching the sport for the first time and I'm like, go ahead, pick all the guys out there. Here are all of them on both teams, benches included. He's the last pick physically. Last. I don't want the old guy. Why do I want the old small guy?

Do you think they'll recreate the Messi-Lemini-Mol photo before Sunday?

It's been memed plenty. Have you ever seen the Infantino washing the baby Messi? Any time they get a call, that's shown out there. Yeah, the odds are astronomical. It makes you think that he has bathed a million babies because the chances of getting that photo are crazy. But then it's kind of biblical. Baptized him. And for a storyline, I know everybody wanted to see the rematch of France versus Argentina because the last World Cup final arguably the single greatest sporting event ever. That match was crazy. But the guy who's got next coming for your stuff, as you like to say, Dan, it's, it's pretty amazing when you say kind of biblical.

So I'm in the— I'm watching this game and I just, I can't believe what I'm watching. Okay. And the silence of England beneath us after 6 blessed weeks of just song after song of Hey Jude for 6 weeks.

Like when? Around when? Did they start to quiet down? Because around like minute 70, it was pretty clear what was about to happen.

Well, here's— this is the thing that I'm trying to explain to you as I'm trying to explain to my wife what it is that's happening here.

Wait, did you know what was going to happen? It felt inevitable.

Well, what I could hear downstairs— this has never happened to me, obviously, as I'm standing in the center of what I believe to be the greatest thing there is in sports, where a desperate champion on the biggest of stages I could hear the fear downstairs, but it wasn't a block away. Like, what, what, there was a murmur a block away? Like, the reason I turned the sound down is because I knew that, that at whatever the drama was at the end of this, England was going to be really happy and make my next week really difficult, or they were going to leave our country quietly because they'd been beaten by somebody who everyone's known for 20 years is the one who's most capable of beating them.

Oh, they're going to stick around for that third-place game that they love being in. Every player said that. Every English soccer fan cannot wait for this weekend's game against France. They're supercharged up about it.

But when you say kind of biblical, so, so—

Yeah, the Lamine Yamal aspect too. I mean, he's literally like— it's, it's like John the Baptist. What is going on here?

I'm in the middle of this. And when you talk about, like, when you talk about gods, okay. The thing I'm telling you that I was appreciating, like, that's the very top and the best of sports yesterday. Like, it's the very top of it because I'm trying to convince my wife on what this is. Like, the history of the countries. Like, England's been trying this for 100 years. Argentina is so damn racist and their people are so damn arrogant about everything, including their racism. But they know they're the best at soccer and this is what they export and it's their proudest thing. When you say biblical, So the scan on my television and on the screen that's a block away is all just fans. And so you see the crestfallen English people dressed the way they are, and you see the Argentinians. And my wife, who does not have fluency in this, she does not care, she thinks it's stupid. She's like, why? What? Why? And, and I'm explaining to her, there's nowhere else in life that people behave this way about anything. And what she said was Religion. And I'm like, yeah, and Messi's the god, like, of the world's sport, where you guys or anyone who's new to this wonders, why don't the African countries win?

What is Argentina doing? I'm watching the game. It's hard to score goals. What is Argentina doing that they could be the slowest and the best? How, how does that happen when I can measure that? And it's because when Mike says it's a knife fight, There's only one dude out there who's got a scalpel. Like, everyone else out there has got butcher knives and every— and the clumsy tools. England and their scared coach with their scared history put a 6'7" guy out there to make sure that Messi couldn't get it over his head. Soccer players are not 6'7". He was put in the game for the reason to stop that because they were terrified of him. And I could hear it downstairs. It's not that I could feel the fear of the English people a country away.

He is a deity, and Jeremy, you could probably watch him take on the Colorado Rapids for $12.

It's the greatest, Sazh, it really is.

I felt— probably most people don't feel this way— I felt really terrible for England because it felt like the worst possible losing experience you could have. As a fan.

Is it? Is it when it's inevitable? When it's the thing that you feared the most is the thing that happens?

They were still ahead. Like, yeah, I know they were being peppered, but they were still ahead in the 80-plus minutes. And they panned to those fans. They panned to one father-son in the crowd in their England gear after Argentina took the 2-1 lead. And I'm thinking to myself, like, what's that dad supposed to say to his kid? What is he supposed to say?

That's the business.

There's nothing he can say. And it made me feel bad.

And it—

yeah, it— well, if you want to get those $12 tickets to watch the Demigod take on Colorado Rapids, you can also see Rodrigo De Paul, another Inter Miami player who absolutely impacted that game. That handsome devil is on Inter Miami too? Yeah. No secondary market. Let's go. Let's watch him take on Columbus Crew. When does it start? It actually starts this weekend. Inter Miami is not playing this weekend. MLS kind of MLS kind of anticipated Miami going on a run, but on Friday they've— this is a good thing from MLS and its broadcast partners. El Trafico is probably the best rivalry that MLS has. They hit the ground running this weekend. I believe on Friday they've changed the network that that match is going to be on from FS1 to Fox to try to grow the sport. And I think more is going to be done to get some matches away from Apple TV and back on network television.

I saw a commercial. MLS says they could take it from here.

I want to talk about a commercial I saw yesterday that like legitimately got me angry from baseball. But before I do that, give me the stat of the day music, please. Start of the day. Start of the day. It is the start of the day. Start of the day. Start of the day. It is the start of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day. Star of the day, star of the day, it is the star of the day. Don't let me not talk, Zazz, about what you said. Is that the worst way to lose? Because to me, there's the most honor and nobility in losing that way.

Double negative, by the way. Don't let me not— whatever.

Fair enough.

You're right.

Per GetUp, the only team in this World Cup to have less than 12% possession from the 50th, 55th minute on than England yesterday. Qatar lost 6-0 with 9 players. Like, what happened to England yesterday, I believe, was done to them. But you've heard me complain about this for a while, Zaz. You've you've heard me say that too much sports coverage is something amazing happens and I have to assign credit and I have to assign blame, and we skew blame. And I understand why people are mad at England, but if what I'm presenting to you is just the hypothetical— hey, there's this player and he's better than everybody, and he's been better than everybody for 20 years, and the last 3 games they're down late, but their whole thing is, yeah, body blow, body blow, body blow, but wait Wait till what we unleash on you from 80 to 90 minutes. Like, okay, we'll wait for you. Like, we'll wait for you. But it's body blow, body blow. And then you're going to be reeling. He does this for 3 straight games and then he does it to you and he does it in the most precise way possible.

And he does it when you're sending 3 defenders at him and they're slow, empirically slow. They're tougher than everybody at the end because they have this guy that's That's what we're going to see. That needs to be appreciated. I know the tabloids are going to kill the coach, kill the strategy. What are you scared of? Well, what I'm scared of is what I should be scared of. They're opening the Ark of the Covenant. Like, what do you mean? What should I be scared of? Everybody knows. Everybody watching this around the world is united in the one language of we know what to be scared of here. It's that guy.

Dan Levitar.

What is the worst part of the life?

Jonathan Sasslow.

The worst part of the life of what? This is the Dan Levatar Show.

I think it's both. I, I think Argentina were brilliant on the day. The tactics deployed early on to try to get under the skin, I don't know if it worked on England. England responded well to it, but worked on the official. Argentina is really good at working the refs. That's a cultural thing. But the substitutions that they deployed were super impactful, whereas for Thomas Tuchel, that's the easiest thing for Joe soccer fan to understand, right? Who you're bringing on to the match that impacts a game. He got everything wrong. He made choices that didn't end up working out. I'm telling you, the Saka or no Rashford thing, when they're pressing like that, you have to to put on a player that is capable of taking players on so you can keep possession. It's an egregious stat. Qatar had 9 guys on that pitch, as you mentioned, to be in that neighborhood. They just had no interest. They were, they were kicking long balls, holding on for dear life. And that's when Messi knows he has you. And Jude Bellingham, you literally tugged on Superman's cape. You don't do that.

Argentina in the knockout stage has 2 goals before the 79th minute. Argentina in the knockout stage has 9 goals after the 79th.

All right, put on the screen please the tugging on Superman's cape, because Messi did very— look, he doesn't speak much. His interviews have been terrible for 20 years. He's bad in whatever language he's talking in. But he gave Bellingham, as I like to call him, a look that said to everybody, oh, all right, really, really? You think we're going into the 80th minute and you're forgetting who I am? Here's the thing about the criticism of England, Mike, that I think that you and the world have wrong. Okay. What Messi has earned is that he cannot be stopped. And so because you know who you're playing against, that is the reputation that the world champion and the legend brings into every game. And so everyone in his presence is going to be in the shadow of doubt. They're going to be backpedaling. There is no strategy. They've been trying for 20 years. There's not one. And so as the weight of 100 years is on the coach and he's got to make some strategy decision, but it's going to be the wrong one because here he comes in the 80th minute again and the pitch is only so long and I can only kick it down there so many times, he's going to keep pelting my goalie.

And we all know who we're playing against. And yes, Jude Bellingham, you're— you've returned to the form of the pitch from 2 years ago. But this is a god. You're a player for today. This is a player for forever.

Yeah, Jude did some young person stuff in the lead-up to that match. I think he's got to grow from, but he can be stopped. Jeremy, Nashville SC stopped him before. I'm seeing August 29th, CF Montréal. How do we think— do we think Messi plays? When? August 29th. CF Montréal. Maybe he'll lather up. Yeah, he'll get a little lather. Alright, I'm gonna take it. I think he will. Dan, I think they get stopped in the next match.

And maybe Spain doesn't allow any goals, and I think they're an underwhelming team that has disproven me the last 4 games. I'm sitting here thinking they're playing down to their competition. They're playing, they're playing as big favorites against, against countries nobody expects to beat them, and all of them are tight games and The thing I want to talk with you guys about though is as it relates to metal, like mental metal. Mike Ryan is impressed by England until he isn't. They go into Mexico, they had the tougher path to get here, they looked better in every way, they were the favorite slightly in the game against the defending champion with the legend. That doesn't happen very often, okay?

Yeah, don't, don't skip over having to come back against Norway in a swamp.

In a swamp so hot that Norway's best player had to be taken out of the game as the oldest guy on the field. This guy, Messi, doesn't get the same kind of tired because on one of, on one of the goals, on one of the goals, he's playing against such younger defenders as, and they're the ones tripping and falling and getting out of the way the way that your legs get tired because he did that to them. And so I ask you, within the coverage of this, When, if not in this spot, in what spot will you say, you know what, I'm not going to go with blame here?

I'm right there with you. I think it's both things.

No, but when you do both things, I think it disrespects— when you both sides—

I'm disrespecting Lionel Messi? I am not.

I'm— you're disrespecting the question I'm asking you because I'm saying in this particular instance, if— what hypothetical can I offer you if not this one? When the legend beats you at the height of his powers, you put down your sword in the knife fight and say, I don't have a big enough weapon. This is the legend being the legend, and he's a player for all time. I'm not.

Yeah, but it was also Buffalo Bills behavior from, from England. They— it's one thing to put 11 players behind the ball. It's another thing to collapse all the way into the box and still find a way to give Messi a ton of space. It's a math problem. How is that even possible? There's been so much data that's been put out on social media because they track all these players. They wear this little knob on in between their shoulders and it's visible there. There, how extremely tired England was. I do think that it got to a point where they were feeling it in their legs, and they saw a guy who famously conserves all his energy and a team that just keeps their wits about them when they get dragged into these, these rock fights late in games. And I do think experience— the greatest player in the world in particular operating on the right, which is not something he favors, with his right right foot. Those were individual moments of brilliance, and you have to hand it to the GOAT. But England were desperate. They were— those were prayers that they were clearing, and it allowed Argentina to get a head of steam and just dominate them in their final third.

Zash, should I sit near midfield or near the goal? What's the better seat for soccer?

I mean, you're, you're speaking about England's strategy as if Tuchel wants them to play all 11.

The thing that's bothering me about what he's doing, when I am saying that he is disrespecting Messi, he's saying the English got tired as if he's not the reason. Like, yeah, they were exhausted. Yeah, because of who they're playing against.

Not the only reason.

Right.

But the point I'm trying to make is I don't think that Tuchel is telling his guys to play scared. Like, it looked like they were playing scared.

Tuchel in his post-match tried to learn a little bit from the Jude Bellingham thing where he was like, our effort didn't, didn't match that. And that's where he aired and both Bellingham aired. He was trying to learn from that. He's like, look, look, we have the results. He explained thoroughly why he deployed the tactics that he did, and he didn't want to throw his players under the bus. But when you play like that, you have— the effort has to match it. And these guys, they were just trailing. The data— I'm sure the data that they have access to will tell the story. They just got punched out in the end to an all-time great team.

I'm gonna go ahead and guess though that the data will also show that over the last 4 games there have been different tactics used at the end, and Argentina has beaten all of them, and the coach has gone home saying, I should have used other tactics because all of the tactics have been the wrong They have, they have a celestial being.

He's the greatest of all time. Yes, I am not taking anything away from him, but I do think not being able to keep possession and make— Argentina was fresh as hell because they had the ball the entire time. They dictated what was happening. England was dog tired because they had 12% possession. You're chasing the ball. Quantifiably, if I tell you that one team is vastly more tired than the other, it's tough because I can sit in the 100s behind the goal, but it's double the price of what it would be for the 200s in midfield. So I just need to know which is the better angle.

How is Messi so much better in the World Cup in his 30s than in his 20s?

Well, this is the thing that I want to get to the goal calls because Andres Cantor does this just about better than anybody. But I think I might want to replace him with your mother's a slut because I think Andres Cantor, even though a legendary voice, I want to hear his call, emotional as it is, but it's not the call that I want to hear the most. But the question that Zazz is asking is a great one. I don't want to simply skip past this age of mastery we're in when I'm telling you that what I'm watching yesterday, okay, is a religious experience. History, countries, why I got into the business, like why I fell in love with sports and wanted to write about it a million years ago, because people care about this like they care about about nothing else in the world. And when my wife and I are talking about, yeah, it's biblical, yeah, it's religious, it's virtually literal because there's not this kind of fanaticism anywhere about anything emotional. And what I'm telling you is that what I saw yesterday is the very best of it. Desperate champion, uh, the identity of countries in play in games that are played once every 4 years.

And really, if you're England, once every because you don't get this far, and we can do our sports debate talk around, yeah, blame the English, okay, but I don't want to skip past the age of mastery we're in when a legend of legends is still the most legendary at 39, and at 29 we were doing to him what we did to LeBron. Ah, you can't win the big one. Yeah, are you as good as Ronaldo?

No.

Like, we take all that back now, we take it all, but 10 years ago we were questioning this person because we make it really hard in the modern age for legends to overcome our citizens.

4 years ago we were questioning this person.

But, but 10 years ago, it— over the last 10 years of, is he playing against ghosts or is he playing against today?

No, 4 years ago he was an underwhelming World Cup performer.

Somebody who choked, somebody who didn't have the medal.

Someone, someone who didn't have the knockout stage record of goals and contributions. And that's why I say very easily, not a hot take, he is much better today. But —than he was in his signature World Cup performance of 4 years ago.

It's a crazy thing to say, though, right? In a sport where the margins are this small and the goals are hard to come by, I would imagine even though the same countries are there at the end, it is harder. Zlatan said, I played 2 World Cups, never scored a goal. That's pretty good. I'm Zlatan. I have a lot of confidence. This person could have been every bit the player he is. And in the 80th and 90th minute, they lose sometimes because the margins are this small in that sport. For him to do this at the end, you understand this is LeBron winning all the championships at the end with the game winner, right? Like, this is, this is LeBron at his present age winning all of the championships against everybody in the world because he always gets to do the things that are the game winner. It's nuts. Like, it— this is Tom Brady and LeBron James and Michael Jordan of the feet, and it's in the It's in the last 5 years of his career. We wouldn't have given it to him the 15 years before that.

And he might get taken out by a 19-year-old. Probably will be. He gave a bath to 18 and a half years ago. So it's either row 10 in the corner if we want the 6 of us to be able to go together. It could be row 13 in the second level at midfield, or it's row 4 right behind the goal. It's making me think that that's not really the spot we want to be. Is that against San Jose Earthquakes? No, this is CF Montreal as well. Play the Andres Cantor call.

Gol! Gol! Gol! ¡Gol Argentino!

I wish I knew what he said.