Transcript of The Argentina vs. Egypt World Cup Match Was RIGGED? | Local Hour

Greg Cody is coming here a bit enraged today on two different subjects. One, he is calling Egypt's coach a crybaby.

Yeah.

Put it on the poll, please, Juju. Is crybaby redundant at Le Batard Show? But more relevantly, he's enraged because he's saying, how in 2026 can no one find out whether Tom Powers is alive or dead? Minneapolis Star Tribune columnist.

Because I'm supposed to be fined $50 if he's not dead, but no Nobody can find out.

And here's the thing, I tried to find out yesterday by calling a former colleague, Jim Capel, and then found out he was dead.

I'm not laughing at his death.

Damn, I missed a good one yesterday.

And so the person that I would have called to get this information is no longer alive.

But me and Cody were talking about whether Pablo Torre should dedicate an episode to finding out whether Tom Powers is alive or dead.

It seems like something we can answer by simply calling the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Yes.

Who's on that?

Don't bring Pablo into anything because then you're gonna look, oh, he did this in his life, he was this at 14. It's like, please don't do anything.

You don't want facts, information, and biography?

No, I want to let the man rest.

Never will.

Want him to rest in peace.

Uh, crybaby. Uh, is crybaby redundant?

Yes or no?

Uh, I don't think so. No.

I almost associate babies with nothing more than crying.

Like, what if we were playing Family Feud right now? Top 5 answers are on the board.

What do you associate babies with? Shitting and crying are 2 of my answers.

Like, I don't know what—

I don't know I don't know what else you guys would choose. Love, I suppose. That's third. That's the third answer on the board. It's got like 15. It's crying is number one.

Love, I suppose is the formal answer. Love, I suppose. Show me love, I suppose.

Crying is definitely up there. Shitting is definitely up there.

Emphatically, those.

How about cooing? No.

Out of the 100 people surveyed, sorry, they never—

not even 2—

they never called someone 1,000 years old.

Babies coo.

They do. They do coo. That's true.

But show me cooing.

Yeah, it's cooing.

Oh, no.

What coos besides a baby? A dove. Doves coo.

You surprised yourself.

I know.

Doves cry.

It's just a good— doves cry as well.

What about young wei?

That's right, whatever you just said.

Uh, the, the kicker, former kicker.

Yes, and by my dad, that was a good job.

That was a good job. Ironically enough, his body position is good. It's the microphone that's too low this time.

I'm literally leaning into it.

Yeah, but you can pick up the—

go ahead and move it. Go ahead and adjust it.

Move the microphone. Lower my seat.

Oh Jesus, we're not on visually. That would be funny if we were on visually during that. Isn't it amazing? He is so much better visually during the shadow show when nothing is being watched than he is during the rest of the show.

Here we go.

Why are you so mad? I mean, I can see why it is that Egypt's coach, Hassoum Hassan, is mad.

I can cry like an Egyptian. The problem with that guy is that he thinks one overturned goal prevented Lionel Messi from doing magic and winning that game.

Well, they're pretty valuable, the goals in these things.

I know, but he That's how you win.

He's acting like he's the only team that had a goal disallowed by VAR. It's happened throughout the World Cup.

But it's the only one I can remember being disallowed for a foul that happened near their own goal. And then the ball goes down the field in 7 seconds and they score.

It's the—

and they review it. And the penalty, the infraction was close, much closer to your own goalie than it was to the other goal. I haven't seen a lot of that in this World Cup.

Yeah. There's been a lot of debatable calls. I thought Germany, who— which didn't make— didn't advance nearly as far as it should have. I thought Germany had a goal disallowed for the worst call, the worst reversal I've ever seen. But so it happens. But in this case, the problem is the conspiracy theories. There's ripe ground for conspiracy theories. Why? Because, yes, FIFA and Fox and much of the world would love it if Lionel Messi made the championship again. It would be best for ratings. Nobody can deny that. And so that's fuel to the fire when it comes like— when it comes to somebody like the Egypt coach just being unable to just accept defeat and have to look for excuses.

You are listening to the Dan Levitan Show in partnership with the DraftKings Sports App, now live in all 50 states.

Put it on the poll, please, Juju. Did you feel bad for Egypt yesterday? Because, uh, my rooting interests in the last 10 minutes of that game flip-flopped in a way that really surprised me while I was watching the game. Obviously, upsets are one of the greatest things you will find in sports ever, but one of the things I like better than upsets is when an all-time immortal champion is desperate at the end of games and I get to watch the stakes of greatness being greater than it usually even is, even though the standard is very high. And there are very few times in my life that I've watched a sports team and at the end of games what I have is an appreciation for the immortality and the history that I'm watching. Like in that game where Messi's down 2 goals, they end up scoring 3 goals and winning in regulation in 13 minutes. And an insanity— Mike was at the game and we'll get his thoughts from the game.

He wanted Cape instead of Argentina.

That's true.

That's something that he did want. And Messi's team isn't any good. Messi's team should be eliminated from the tournament. Messi's team is still in this tournament only because it has Messi. Like, they've been big favorites in both of their last two games and barely escaped.

And it's because they've got an immortal.

But in my lifetime, the times that I have appreciated what it is I'm talking about the most, a desperate champion at the end of game.

Tom Brady, obviously down against the Falcons in the Super Bowl. Those Warriors late in games when they were down to anybody, the 72-win team, obviously they lost up 3-1.

But when those teams were down to anybody late, it was a real pleasure to watch them play basketball.

That Game 6 at Oklahoma City is the one, right?

Well, that's, that's one. But all they were, they were down so infrequently late that I rarely got the pleasure of actually watching it. But when it happened, it was a great pleasure.

Michael Jordan's Bulls.

Were the same kind of things. The University of Miami has had a few football teams like this, but it crept up on me yesterday. I wasn't expecting it to see it. I was not expecting at any point, uh, Argentina to be down 2 goals. Cody predicted before that game he thought Argentina would win that game going away, and they, they just barely eked it out. And it's because Messi's better at this than anyone else, and he's old.

Yeah, and I, I don't agree that Argentina is not a very good team. I think they are, but obviously they're carried by a man who just turned 39 years old. And I think one of the things that, that is special about that game and what Messi did is that he was probably 13 minutes away from his last World Cup game. Cristiano Ronaldo just had his last, and this is sure to be Messi's last. We don't see him in a World Cup at 43. So he was this close to his World Cup stage farewell as he led that comeback. Very dramatic, just emotional stuff. And you saw it on his face. That very close-up shot of Messi all but crying after that game, it was special to see. That's a still from it. Very special to watch.

The 2013 Miami Heat during that 27-game win streak, there were games like that where, alright, like especially the game at Cleveland during that stretch was 20-something, and it's like, alright, they're down double figures, but they're definitely still gonna come back and win.

Speaking of 2013, Jon Jones vs. Alexander Gustafsson won. That was an incredible fight where Jon Jones, who was doing coke all night and didn't fight was getting beat up in the first round, drinking Coke, everything.

Chael versus Spider.

Yeah, versus Spider. Like, so many great ones where a champion where you're looking at a legend and being like, oh, I think he's gonna lose, and they come back.

And in soccer, Liverpool's— I believe they won the Champions League that year having to come back from— I think they had to score 4 goals against Barcelona, and it was an iconic comeback, led to them winning the Champions League. And U.S. men's soccer if you can believe it or not, in '09, went up against a world record-holding Spanish team that won 35 matches unbeaten right in the teeth of their Golden Generation, their incredible run. The US beat them straight up in a semifinal in the Confederations Cup.

They—

I think Spain had been riding a 15-match win streak. Forget unbeaten, win streak. And the US found a way to beat them. And if you remember that match, Tim Howard was getting pelted at the end. Spain played so desperate. It was really impressive.

So was that the first time, or the first time since when, that you were watching a game and you changed your rooting interest?

It, uh, it happens at times like this when you're watching an assortment of things you're not normally watching, and I rarely go into games without any kind of rooting interest. I also have to nominate, and congratulations to Messi for being the second-place finisher when I'm talking about desperate champions coming back late and about being immortal. That was second place yesterday to the Marlins last night against—

that's right—

against the Seattle Mariners. Uh, they finally— they were up 4-2 and then they were down 5-4 and they win 6-5. And, uh, there is something special going on there.

I encourage you all to get the value of Marlins TV for the rest of the season for $27.99. That's 50 cents a baseball game. $27.99 you can have for the rest of the season. You can watch the lowest payroll in baseball be legitimately good, because the Marlins are legitimately good. If their pitchers at the top of their rotation can somehow stay healthy, and if Sandy can somehow be what he's been—

closer to what he's been over the last month than he was the first month—

they've got 3 strong starters at the top of their rotation, and they mash. Like, they, they hit the baseball. I just can't believe that they, with that kind of payroll, they have turned into something, Greg, that is special.

I don't know if South Florida is paying attention yet because it's been super busy, but this team has the best record in baseball since the beginning of June, and it's not a mirage.

Like, right, this is, this is not a hot streak. This is, this is not a Kansas City Royal getting 12 hits in 12 at-bats because Tyler Tolbert gets a bunch of infield singles and is a pinch runner. This is a, this is real. The Marlins are good.

I don't like the noises Jeremy's making here as you talk about this. He's making like sexual noises.

They're good. The Marlins are good. Hard stop.

Yeah, I, I think they're They're no fluke. They're the story. You could argue they're one of the stories in baseball right now. They've been totally overwhelmed and overshadowed in their own market, though, by the World Cup, by Miami having 7 World Cup matches, by the Giannis thing, now by the LeBron thing. So it's tough to pay attention to the Marlins unless you're a super fan. But they are— they're legit. I want to see one thing now, and I'm challenging Bruce Sherman, who has the lowest payroll because he doesn't want to spend. Be a buyer at the trade deadline now. Before this June, before they dominated June, we were talking about, oh, Sandy's going to be traded by the deadline. Be a buyer now. Show that you're in the playoff race. Show that you think you have a chance to not only make the playoffs but make some noise in the playoffs. I dare you, Bruce Sherman.

Wow, you dare him.

He's been dared, Sherman.

Bruce Sherman has been dared.

But not double dared.

Yeah, I was going to say.

No, not a double dare. No, I would never do that.

I mean, they're not going to be sellers at this point. Like, Sandy Alcantara is the only guy who's been in trade rumors nearly as much in Miami as Tyler Herro was, where every year he's going to get traded. And Bruce Sherman just recently on Marlins Radio was talking about he's a franchise legend. They want him to be here.

That's what you say just before you trade.

He wouldn't lie, right?

Can I call Jeremy out though? Last night specifically, he was doing the postgame interview with Marci and—

on Marlins.tv, less than 50 cents a game.

You got to stay in there for that Gatorade bath. He backed out. He barely caught his ankle. We can show the video here of it. It's just, you know, it— ah, see, we only got to shoot. You gotta lean in there.

Can I be honest?

Stay in the moment.

Can I be honest? If, if I wasn't being approached where I could watch the Gatorade be thrown at me, because that's what's happening here, I'm facing Jacob Marcy, Otto Lopez approaches from behind Marcy. I'm telling you to be a pro and throws it that way, but you just want it to hit me in the face. Like, if, if they were like the normal Gatorade bath, when you're watching this, it's like, oh, they sneak up from from behind, they try to, you know, catch everybody. This was an opportunity where I'm seeing it happen right in front of me. I would have stayed in there. I'm not diving out of the way otherwise, but this one—

you can learn from this. Just watch the tape.

It really messed up my shoes.

You can improve from this.

Yeah, I think it would have been better footage if Jeremy had been soaked by the Gatorade and then fallen backward over the dugout rail. That would have been really fun to watch.

Yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah, very professional.

Yeah, thank you.

I think in that particular instance, uh, you want to go for performance and overprofessional performance would have been— it would have been better television if you had, you know, lurched out of the screen wet and embarrassed than what happened, which is just one of your shoes got a little, a little wet.

I'm a fair critic. I will give him credit for the post-interview dap with Marci.

I've never seen that before.

That was impressive. That kind of made up for dodging the Gatorade bath with the dap.

Have you ever seen that before, Dan, where the interviewer postgame He daps up the player.

Jeremy led it, as you see here. Jeremy leads the dap. Marci was like, okay, I'll dap you.

Marci's my guy.

Little chummy. Little chummy.

A little chummy.

Yeah, a little chummy.

It's Marlins.tv.

What do you expect? Can I get a ruling from the judge, from Judge Zaslow, our resident journalist here at the table?

I need a ruling on whether, whether Jeremy was unprofessional and too chummy with the postgame interview.

All rise. The Honorable Jonathan Justin Zaslow now presiding with prejudice.

Key ruling here.

I do have a question for the defense here before I make my ruling.

Yes.

What was your, what was your, your goodbye? How did you end? Like, did you say something like, thanks bro? What did you say at the end?

I said, go have fun with your team, because he talked about wanting to have fun, so I said, you know what, But go have fun.

Jake DeMarzi, congratulations. You didn't address him like as if you're friends.

No, because I am a professional.

Well, I'm the one— I'm the judge here.

I mean, you're my judge.

Stand down.

I'm the one with the Emmys.

Oh, you're close to being in contempt. You're the one with the Emmys. You're very close to being in contempt in this courtroom.

Stand down. Between the two of us, there are two championship rings and they don't belong to you.

All right. Good job.

Did Jeremy Tashay— behave unprofessionally when dapping up Jacob Marcy? The answer is yes, he did. Not journalism. I've never seen a reporter dap up. Handshake, fine. Never seen a reporter dap up the player afterward as if they are friends. That's my ruling. Always prejudiced. Not journalism.

It sounds to me, though, that our judge is slightly prejudiced. In that you asked him for an answer to a question, you got that information, it was information that was not excessive.

Didn't matter. It was information that you got that wasn't unprofessional, it was not extra chummy, and you took that information—

It was just for show.

You did nothing with it.

Valid ruling.

I'm sorry to do that to you, Jeremy, but Zazz's rulings are always final.

You can watch me be too chummy for the next 5 nights on Marlins.TV. Less than 50 cents a game. So my schedule gets a little chaotic this time of year. Most days I'm here at the Metal Ark Studios and then I'm heading straight to another broadcasting or hosting gig. And especially in this Miami heat, it's insane. And not the Miami heat, but the Miami summer heat. I've been trying to keep at least one healthy habit consistent, and that's why I've been bringing Kachava's new travel packs with me. It's one less thing I have to worry about, which is great because I'm already spending enough mental energy figuring out what shirt is acceptable to wear on camera or hosting or on the show. That I'm not going to get made fun of for. So I just throw one in my backpack and I've got an all-in-one nutrition shake ready whenever I need it. It's packed with plant-based protein, fiber, vitamins and minerals, greens, probiotics, electrolytes, and more. So even when my schedule is all over the place, I know I'm getting something good in. It tastes great. It's easy to take anywhere. And there are no fillers.

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Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks?

I know it well. It's usually when I show up. Everybody goes crazy.

Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, It's because Tony usually walks in with Cuervo. I walk in like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night.

It has that effect on people.

It does. You usually take the credit for it, but again, it's the Cuervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering.

Keep it Cuervo.

Keep it Cuervo, baby.

Down, Levitar.

Jessica thinks you're pathetic. I saw the look on her face.

It can never be the lane to victory, Matt.

I know.

I think Jeremy's pathetic.

Jeremy just You should hear him back here. He's so sad.

He delivered the most absurd theater kid basketball analysis line that I've ever heard from him.

Jeremy Tatché.

My dad was talking about the adjustments that Spo made and criticizing him last night. And Jeremy, just back here, his adjustments were spectacular.

It's just like they lost.

They're down 0-2.

This is the Dan Levitan Show.

Getting back to, getting back to Lionel Messi. Okay.

It's—

they, they end up scoring 3 goals.

In 13 minutes.

And I want to go to some of the calls here.

This stuff is always better in Spanish.

Telemundo, Andres Cantor, obviously the most famous voice in the history of soccer, nails it.

¡Gol!

¡Gol!

¡Gol! ¡Gol! ¡Argentino! Que este equipo no tuva dejar tirado, dijo un día Messi, que está viejo, que tiene 39 cosos, los trapos, que está fundido, fundido.

¿Quién?

El relator. Messi, Messi rescató el partido por ahora de Argentina. Argentina 2, Egipto 2.

Vean nada más cómo la empalma Messi, emocionante.

Le metió vértigo a Argentina y personal, I don't have enough appreciation for opera to be palpably moved by music, but that's about as close as I'm ever going to come.

That guy, that voice, framing the accent on that moment when Cantor's the one who wept when Argentina won the World Cup. He's crying in the box because he's not faking any of that. Like, he goes and gets that from the nether region. His voice is cracking because he's been doing it for too many years, and it's shot from too many goals in this tournament.

And he's Argentinian as well, but the opera comparison makes sense. His last name is Cantor.

That is correct.

Awesome.

Let's go to another, though, Argentinian call because there is blatant homerism involved with these calls. This is Pablo Girald.

¡Vamos Argentina! ¡Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, carajo! Nunca hay que dejar de creer, nunca hay que dejar de creer.

Vamos Argentina, carajo. Vamos Argentina, carajo. Dios sabás, aquí está el campeón del mundo. Aquí está el campeón del mundo. Vamos Argentina de mi vida. Nunca quedarse por vencido. Dios sabás.

Vamos Liga de Mi Vida.

Vamos Leyenda. Liga de Mi Vida y Corazón.

Vamos Leyenda.

Vamos Leo Viejo nomás. Vamos Leo Viejo nomás. Nos amamos, Pablo. Esto no ha terminado. No termina hasta que suene la campana, compañero.

Nos amamos.

So some of you might want a translation, and I'm pretty sure I heard in there, "Your mother's a slut." I think I heard MF-er there.

Amongst others.

But did he actually say "puta madre"?

Did I hear that?

I thought I heard that, which I can't believe.

We might need a replay on it just to get ears on it again.

Well, Tony, you're going to have to—

I'm going to need your help here.

You translate as much as you can. Let's get all the Spanish we got in the room because it happens very fast here.

But I heard your mother's a slut in the middle of that, and that seems like not what Al Michaels would have done during a historic 1980s call for the U.S. Olympic team.

Do you believe in miracles, motherfucker?

Do you believe in miracles? Puta madre. Let me see if I got this right. Let's write as much of this down as we can.

Otro centro más de Messi va a pasar. A ver quién le pega Messi al arco... ¡Gol!

¡Gol! ¡Argentino! Argentino, argentino, argentino, argentino, argentino, argentino, carajo. Nunca se deja de creer, nunca se deja de creer.

Vamos Argentina, carajo.

Vamos Argentina, carajo.

Dios sabrá el que esté campeón del mundo, el que está en Campeonato Mundial. Vamos, Argentina de mi vida, nunca quedarse por vencido. Dos a dos, vamos, Leo de mi vida, vamos, leyenda, Leo de mi vida y mi corazón. Vamos, leyenda, vamos, Leo viejo nomás, vamos, Leo viejo nomás. Dos a dos con Pablo, esto no ha terminado, no termina hasta que suena la campana, compañero.

Dos a dos.

Jeremy, that's a professional broadcaster.

No, you're right. I feel felt it.

So, never in my life, my heart, uh, he said, uh, let's bleeping go, 2-2. And I'm pretty sure he said carajo 3 times.

There was, there was 3 carajos.

What's that mean?

3 carajos?

Carajo's like, uh, hmm, this one's tough to translate. How do I explain it to you?

Carajo is a difficult word. It's like holy shit. Yeah, but it's got multiple meanings.

Yeah, because it could mean super far.

I wish we could say things like that on Like something awesome happens, like when Ray Allen hit the shot, Mike Ingle should have said, "Holy shit!" That'd be great. You could say something like that.

I don't think you can say what he did.

Rebound to Bosh, back out to Allen.

Bang!

Motherfucker!

Oh, la puta madre!

That sounds like puta madre.

No, no, it is.

That's exactly what he said.

Oh, la puta madre!

You can't say that.

I mean, come on.

If there's ever a time That's his Miracle on Ice.

Let's try and define though carajo for a second because casa carajo is— you need the casa to say it's far away.

How do you spell it?

C-A-R-A-J-O.

So carajo, the original meaning for carajo was on an old Spanish galleon boat, right? You'd have the crow's nest on top where you'd look to see where land is. That's called el carajo. So people would be like, vete pal carajo, which is go far away. Up to the crow's nest to go see if there's land.

So in context, what's he saying?

Carajo is a highly versatile and vulgar Spanish interjection. Its exact meaning spans from damn or hell to fuck, depending heavily on the Spanish-speaking region and the context in which it's used.

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Dan Levitar.

I don't think strange for me, but like Mike Ryan.

Oh boy, this is the Dan Levitar Show.

Those are two excellent calls, and I want to get into the other side for a second with you guys, because if you're Egypt and you've just had your neck stepped on when you're that close to advancing against the defending champion, the best player in the world, and afterward your coach is basically making an accusation that you will never hear made during an NFL game, a basketball game.

I can't even imagine what the scandal would be in this country if a coach put his name on what this coach did, which is, "This game was simply rigged. FIFA wanted Messi to advance." You've got the most corrupt sports organization there's ever been. This conspiracy theory is something that people have been saying for a long time. There's no disputing that the incentive is for Messi to advance and Egypt to not advance. And then to have that particular call replay used that way to disallow such a beautiful goal that went the length of the field in 7 seconds, to go review a foul that was over in your own goal box, uh, that is crazy. And now they're saying that the tournament has been fixed. This is something you do not see in American sports, not like this, Greg. You do not see a coach come out and just say, yeah, that game was It's rigged.

Yeah, and the fact that the Mulligan's red card had been rescinded by FIFA lends credence to that kind of an attitude that this whole thing is rigged, there's favoritism.

I feel like the closest we ever came to that here in American sports was when Jeff Van Gundy commented about Yao and the way he's officiated, and David Stern like almost had him killed. He fined him like $100,000, and that was— like a coach who is going to say that a game is not on the up and up, I feel like that's the closest we ever heard something like that.

And after the Dallas—

Yeah, Mark Cuban.

Yeah, Mark Cuban got fined. How much? It was a record amount.

I think it was $1 million.

I think that's an owner doing it.

It is. I guess it's slightly different.

Maybe it's not, but a coach doing it—

He was right, by the way.

Yeah. Do a coach doing it, though, after this particular game, what, what you have there. Did you guys feel bad for Egypt at all? Did it, Mike?

Of course.

You were at the game, Mike.

Of course. I actually had a lot of interactions with the Egyptians that were there. They were vastly outnumbered, but I got their feelings on the matter. And it surprised you, the people that I had interactions with were pretty level-headed, which is like, you know, we got got by the greatest of all time. They weren't really lamenting the transgression that happened to them. But I also think in part us in the stadium, we have a different relationship with it because they don't show us the replay. They don't show us a full—

Did you have any idea what they were going to VAR for?

No, I had no idea. I had to rely on the group chat and I didn't— in the moment I was like, I guess I have to trust it because I can't see it with my eyes. After the fact, I can, I can agree that that goal shouldn't have come off the board. I haven't really seen a foul in the buildup called that early in the process. To me, kind of felt like they went into it fishing for a reason to bring that goal off the board. But guys, they scored 12 minutes later. If they have that goal, dynamics of the game change. Change that. We've already seen how Argentina chases a 2-goal lead. So, uh, miss me with that cost from the game.

Oh, you think because they scored 12 minutes later that if they were up 2-0 there, they may not have scored another because it'd be different?

Correct. Because their approach to the game changes. They set back a little bit more defensively.

You think they got it?

Argentina is more desperate. And hell, say you give them 3 goals, still wouldn't have been good enough. They wouldn't have won that game if it goes to extra time.

Egypt was great defensively, also exhausted late because of how they played defensively.

Definitely. And that goal, Mike, that goal and then the next goal came with the parking in front of the bus and then a breakaway where you're going the length of the field with just 3 guys because you've got everyone in front of the goal playing defense.

Those—

the last 2 goals that Egypt scored, the one that was disallowed, were so beautiful, like in terms of the precision of making your way down the field with just a couple of dribbles and a couple of passes to score goals against Argentina. I would be crushed if I were an Egypt fan, and I would never forget or forgive the fact that that goal was taken off of the board.

Yeah, I, I see where they're coming from, and now the, uh, the, the discourse has gotten a little out of control. But like I said, in the moment, I, I guess maybe the Egyptian fans that I spoke to— I spoke to about a dozen— weren't fully aware of what had happened. But you scored 12 minutes later. That buildup, by the way, was a testament to the selections that the manager made, because Mahmoud is a player of high quality. It plays over and Europe and they put in Hassan, who was making his first start, I believe. And that whole buildup started with the managerial decision there. But you scored 12 minutes later. That's even more momentum.

I—

what happened at the end was Argentina scored that first one and everyone in the building knew except for me because I was like, they're deader than disco. They're still dead. They're still dead. They cannot be. They've never been more dead. And then Messi, who at 39 years old— player who's completely mastered it, who by the way missed a penalty earlier on. It's the one place in his attacking game where he appears to be mortal because he misses about half the penalties.

4 of 8.

Really?

4 of 8 World Cup penalties.

It's—

people are saying it's like watching the world's greatest chef not be able to make a grilled sandwich.

Like a grilled cheese sandwich.

Yeah, he's, he's pretty mediocre from the, from the spot. There's a lot of pressure there, and I, I've heard some theories that he has to think, whereas the game comes so instinctively to him that it's easier when it's not that spot. It's the one part of his game where he's a human.

I actually had the thought of if they get into penalty kicks—

you can't do it, obviously, but he's bad enough at them that I would consider the idea of not having him take it.

No, he's taking it.

No, I know, I know, but you, you understand that there are not a lot of times in sports where you're going to end end up doing something where out of honoring someone's greatness, you're going to choose them to do something in a critical moment that they seem to be bad at. Not, not average at, bad at. He misses half of them in the World Cup.

Yeah, but the entire, the entire team is made up of parts just to feed Messi and him to carry them to victory. It's why people have a problem with Vinicius not taking the penalty. Best player takes a penalty, even if they're not good at it. They rip the ball away, my team rides with me.

And parenthetically, this has been a weird World Cup for penalty kicks. 40% of them have been missed. That's a high percentage. So it's not, it's not just Messi, it's not just anyone. I mean, they've been missing them. Goalies have been making great saves. It's been weird to watch, fun to watch.

And then things got nutty on the Egypt sideline during all of this, and the sideline kept getting yellows, and then eventually it was 2 yellows, and I guess maybe it was the manager the assistant coach, I'm not sure, ended up getting 2 yellows and a red. And then one of the assistant managers—

yeah, don't make them— don't make the gesture.

Yes, you can't do an X.

Well, they're the X. The X comes from its derivative. There's different connotations.

Like, I was wondering what that means.

The manager is apparently like a, like a Mourinho stan, and Mourinho did the handcuff gesture when Inter was trying to win a treble. Mourinho's always one to accuse officiating and governing bodies of a conspiracy against his team. And he was emulating that when he put the X over his head. That's what that was like. Handcuff me. Like, oh, I can't. My hands are being cuffed here. I don't have an opportunity.

Oh, I think you should also look up, though, there was some writing, there was some reporting done that there were some anti-Semitic gestures.

There was, there's a lot going on with the Egyptian manager. There was a Palestinian flag inside that stadium. Argentinians were seen holding up an Israeli flag. There was a lot of geopolitical stuff that was swirling around this. But what happened on that, on that touchline was you saw a team lose its composure because they knew what was happening. And Argentina, I was kind of— you mentioned desperate champion. Usually you see that. And what was so impressive about it was I was like, I think they're dead because they're not really acting desperate. You don't see like they're all pretty reserved. And I think they keep all that in because the emotion makes you do some crazy things. And that's why we saw an outpouring of emotion from Leo Messi that we have straight up never seen. Him being thrown in the air, him weeping. He said that he was weeping because he felt like he let his team down by missing the pen, but they were all crying because of all the emotion I think they held in to keep their nerve, and then it all came out after the match. Goosebump type of moment.

When the Egyptian coach is claiming a conspiracy, claiming a rigged game, de facto claiming that the referee is on the take. What responsibility, if any, is he putting on his team, his defense, for allowing 3 goals in 13 minutes?

Well, no, he's saying it's an injustice. Like, he's—

Again, they scored after. So it just— you miss me with all that. What happened was the greatest player of all time just didn't allow his team to lose to a lesser team. We see big underdogs in that sport. We've seen that several times this tournament, a lot with the African nations, big leads go away late. What happened there? You don't want them to admit that, you know, we just weren't good enough. I blew it. Our team just lost gas. It's easier to point to a conspiracy. But let's take this back to the conversation that we had about Balogun. This is why optics matter in a sport that has been rife with fixing scandals and whatnot. Yeah, FIFA, which already there's a narrative about they, they make favors for Messi. How did Inter Miami make the Club World Cup? They just made up the rules as we ago. And this is when the, the American politics injecting itself into it, and Infantino's close relationship with our government. You just point to an article, Article 27, where it's like, wait a second, we knew about that article, that's not the interpretation of the rule. So when— that's why the Balogun thing was so damning, because it seemed as though you were just straight up rigging the game, for one.

And you've opened up the can of anacondas to now where everyone can openly they speak to conspiracies.

I would like you though to, uh, stop with, uh, and I understand what you're doing there, it does change the way the game is played, but when you keep saying they scored again 12 minutes later, I think it was actually a little bit faster than that, when you keep saying that, what you're ignoring is that there is no fan base in the history of Earth that wouldn't have made the same kind of complaint based on what that call was if your rooting allegiance was Egypt.

Like, you can say what you think would have what happened next or what did happen next and how it would have altered the game. But if that was your team, Mike, that had that goal disallowed when goals are that valuable, any fan base that's ever existed would concoct complaints, crybaby stuff. There's not— there is not a human being alive who has cared about sports that would have a rooting interest in that game that was Egypt's and say that was just, because it didn't feel like it was just.

Well, I think in the buildup to the third goal, Argentina had a foul similar in buildup that, that people were pointing to and say, how is that allowed? I, I hear you, but I do think context matters. I do think Egypt scoring the second goal, which was later in the game, that effectively felt like they put this thing away, is an important thing.

But you wouldn't be saying that if you were caught in the emotion of, I just got robbed. We play this game once every 4 years. We've— Egypt has never had a game that's this important. We had the defending champions beat and we just got it taken from us. We got a beautiful goal taken from us from an irrelevant call that was literally 100 yards away.

Yeah, I looked at that game, I'm like, make it 3-0, and Messi finds a way to come back. I mean, he did. They, they did score 3 goals in the final, like, 13 minutes or so. So I—

what I don't like— I can't do that. If you're saying that they, they wouldn't have gotten a 3rd goal if they were up 2-0, the game changes. You can't then also say if it were 3-0, they still would have gotten 3 more goals, Argentina. Like, the game would have been different.

I mean, they're defending just as hard with 2, uh, up 2. That's they would have been up 3. And clearly they didn't have an answer for Argentina chasing that game late. What I don't like about it, and it takes— it goes back to the Balogun thing, is what we saw was an all-time display by— and people are so hesitant to just crown all-time greatness when it's happening because we're always comparing the ghosts, because there's like a weird tribal thing that happens with Messi v Ronaldo and Messi v Maradona and Messi v Pele. This is an all-time great player. He's the greatest player of all time. He just capped off one of the more improbable comebacks of all time inside of regulation. I hate that it's marred by that. We can all admit, down 2 goals in a World Cup against a defensive-minded team, that's damn near impossible to win that game inside of regulation. He did it. It was his crossing, it was his finishing. He also did it missing a penalty in that match. For one, for one brief moment, let's step back and say that at 39 years old, he is somehow better than ever.

He put his team on his shoulders, a team that, as Dan touched on, has not played well this entire tournament. He's the only guy doing anything. It was only until they were down 2-0 that guys like Enzo woke up, McAllister woke up. They've had very few individual players step up and play well. Most of them have just flatly played poorly. He is carrying, wheeling this team to victory. It was probably the signature performance of his illustrious career. I know that's hyperbolic. This Argentina team has played 3 of the top 5 World Cup matches on the men's side I've ever seen, and they've done so in the last 4 years. He's incredible.

Earlier in the, in the tournament, Belgium beats Senegal in a very similar fashion, but it didn't get nearly as much attention, not only because it was earlier in the tournament.

It wasn't in regulation either. They needed overtime.

Like, it wasn't 3 goals in the last 13 minutes.

But if I may, a controversial call decided that one. We're here, we're tracking back to a goal that was taken off the board, and eventually Egypt did secure that second goal. The big controversy in the Belgium match was they got a pen that made it 3-2, right?

And the big controversy here is the complaint of the Egyptian coach, but that's off-putting to me because, as you say, credit Messi, the greatest of all time. We overuse the word GOAT. He's the GOAT, and there's no question about that. And he showed why. And it was such an illustrious performance by him, the scoring the first goal, assisting on another. He rose as high as he's ever risen, uh, on the mountaintop. And, and credit that. Quit complaining because your defense gave up 3 goals. Well, Messi is the reason they gave up 3 goals.

Similar to the Jaylen Brown trade where like we couldn't find anyone, you know, within the 24-48 hours afterward who was on the Celtics side. Has anyone said, yeah, like I think VAR was used properly and that goal, it should have been disallowed, like they got it right?

That happens. Again, the people that I— I had a wonderful interaction at the TSA line in Atlanta with this wonderful family of Egyptians and the little kid, the little boy had his face painted in Egyptian colors. Many of them were happy that they were there, happy that they had the lead, understood that eventually the greatest player of all time got them. The Egyptian kid that I was talking to underneath his Egyptian national team jersey, he was wearing a Messi shirt. So he was really confused. I ended up giving him my matchday scarf because the dad offered to buy it from me. I'm like, no, you have it. To many applause from the— a lovely, lovely, lovely, lovely gesture. I was like, here you go. And everyone was like, yeah. And then the little— his little sister came up to me.

Yes.

His little sister came up to me. She's like, you know, we have 3 of them already. I'm like, I'm an ally.

Not the only interaction you had at the Atlanta airport, right?

Yeah. I was at the standby line. Very fluid trip for me. Off the train, into a plane. Lovely, lovely public transit system that they have there. And I was waiting for my standby. Assignment, and I was met by this producer. He's like, "Hey, are you Mike Ryan from the Le Batard show?" I'm like, "Yeah, yeah. What can I do you for?" And he's like, "Do you do podcast interviews?" I'm like, "I pretty much say yes to everything. Just send me what we're talking about." He's like, "Cool. I'll book you down. You familiar with Adam22?"