The Two Robbies & Friends: Golden Boot contenders & Adam Clery's tactical masterclass
The Two Robbies and Kyle Martino preview a blockbuster day of Round of 16 action, debating the Golden Boot race, Brazil's showdown with Norway and England's huge test against Mexico at the Azteca. Adam Clery joins the show with his tactical insight, while Jim White reflects on football's growing impact in the United States.
Video Transcript
Welcome to the show.
A massive day today.
Brazil take on Norway, and England travel to Azteca to take on the Mexicans.
And we've got English football YouTuber, Adam Cleary, on the show on a day when France and Morocco both made it to the quarterfinals.
Okay.
Host nation, Canada, is out of the tournament.
Morocco took care of business.
3-0 the result.
But it wasn't that easy, was it?
Yeah, took care of business makes it seem like it was, just a- another day in the office.
The scoreline makes it look like it was another day in the office.
Yeah.
It was anything but.
Fair enough.
I mean, this was a very difficult challenge for Morocco.
Two high energy combative teams.
I think it was a great spectacle, but you know, the quality in the final third obviously being the big difference.
I'll say for Jesse Marsch, he's one for a quote, right?
"I'll never take the US job."
you know, "I prefer my team over Morocco's."
I, I don't care about the quotes.
I care about the quality, and Canada had quality this tournament, and Jesse Marsch deserves a lot of credit.
He doesn't make it easy on himself with the things he says, but- But the one- I, I think he did a wonderful job with this team Yeah, yeah and whether he stays in Ca- in the Canadian national team or not, he is a manager that people should be after.
For 45 minutes they were better than the Moroccan team- Yeah who many feel could go all the way in this, in this competition.
He deserves a lot more credit.
I thought their football was good, Rob.
I think they have a understanding about how they play now and identity.
It's a very- It's very Jesse Marsch the way they play very Jesse Marsch.
It's, it's the best Canada team I've seen.
Yeah.
And that chance they had first half to get 1-0 up- Oh, it was a huge chance was, was a big moment.
Could change it Does this mean that we're a little bit disappointed with Morocco?
Do we expect more, Kyle, from them?
No, I, I think that would be underestimating Canada.
You know- Yeah the only disappointing part for me, and you know, it's not, it's not any fault of the organizers whatnot, if th- if this game was in Toronto, I, I, I think that's the only thing that's a little bit difficult- Yeah is Mexico's gonna enjoy the home crowd.
Yeah.
US is gonna enjoy the home crowd.
Yeah.
Might have been a little bit different- Yeah, yeah if they got to put that performance together in front of, you know, their fans.
And Morocco lost their main striker, didn't they?
Sabiri got injured- That's a huge loss at 20 minutes out.
Yeah.
Which is a big loss.
It's a big loss.
And they w- already got a couple of goals, but big loss at the top end of the pitch.
A guy who's been brilliant in all the, all the games so far.
Yeah.
And I gotta pick things up, France versus Paraguay, Musty.
I thought I was looking back at my Wimbledon days, uh- Paraguay versus- the way they were.
I mean, it was physical, but France found a way.
They did.
I mean, they're so deep.
Desire Doue comes on and dribbles his way to a penalty.
Mbappe scores it, game over.
But maybe, and I'm not saying Paraguay, it, it wasn't great to watch, but that probably is the way they're gonna maybe get by France- Get the stop there is by being super deep, really compact defense and midfield lines, and just fight and scrap and poke to try and put them off their rhythm.
Didn't work, but- Yeah.
Well, kind of not great to- It's com- Not great to watch not great to watch.
Yeah.
We, I'll say it, it wasn't great to watch.
A- and, the dark arts are part of the game and this went a little bit overboard.
But, it's less about Paraguay elbows that were caught on camera all that, it's, it's more about the referees.
Yeah.
Yeah, no, no yellow cards.
The way, the way you manage that.
I was like, no yellow cards?
It's a terrible- Especially in the first half.
So I think to myself, I, I, I don't wanna be critical of the referees.
I've loved the tournament.
I think they've let play go more often than not, which makes a much better contest.
It's, it's less disruptive.
But here we are having, you know, a chip that's measuring sound waves in a hair follicle- Sneak on the s- and, and, and ending a, a, a goal that no one- Yeah.
with their naked eye could see, that was an incredible moment.
Meanwhile, elbows to people's faces- Yeah, yeah that you see on camera aren't called.
No.
So this one was a kind of a j- jump in the shark, wasn't it?
What I would say in closing for me for, for France is that Mbappe is in a, is in a good place, 'cause he could've got wound up by the challenges- Yeah and they were on him from minute one.
It was close.
Yeah.
And he held his nerve.
At least he lost his nerve a little later.
Yeah, a little bit.
And the other thing is that France have shown, and Adam Cleary said about it, that they can win it more than one way.
And if they have to dig it out and they have to grit it out, they can do that.
We know if it's a football day what they can do, but I thought actually they stood up to it quite well.
I thought Didier Deschamps at the end of the game- when Paraguay obviously wanted a fight- Yeah.
They didn't give up.
Yeah he got amongst it.
He got amongst it- Yeah and he got 'em away.
Yeah, he did a great job.
And he got to the French fans.
Absolutely.
And it took the whole thing away from Paraguay's antics of- of making it ugly and trying to make a headline when they, when they didn't deserve one.
So well done, France.
Yeah.
Earlier this week, Adam Cleary, the journalist and English YouTuber, joined us in the studio to discuss England and their match up with Mexico.
I've watched a lot of your videos, and there's a lot of people out there that, make content, and particularly tactical content, which I very much enjoy.
I thought yours are excellent and very accurate in my opinion.
There's not many of those out there, so kudos, well done.
So it, it follows on, I gotta ask you about England versus Mexico, and wow, so much I could ask you about.
it's Let me set it up this way.
It seems like Thomas Tuchel is going for a very set approach- Mm-hmm of wingers.
He's got his two holding players.
His Jude Bellingham's his preferred number 10, and he's got two players for each side.
I would say that hasn't been particularly, successful so far.
So one, first quest- part of the question is could he pivot and do something different?
I'd love to see Morgan Rogers come from the left and roll inside and allow, Nico Williams to go up on the outside.
Or, and second part of the question, the Mexico game, could that actually suit- His style with the counter-attacking pace of those wingers Yeah, I think as the tournament's gone on, the England performances have been a bit, I think, concerning for most people because we, we're having a lot of the ball, which is quite new for England at tournaments.
Yeah.
We never look like an elite team- Right in terms of how we dominate possession.
So it's sort of, I think it's a new experience for the viewing public because we are really dominating these games, and yet we're still finding ourselves getting into the second half, the final sort of phases of games with the result either in the balance, or as was the case with the Congo game, like, we're losing.
Yeah.
and it's, it's tough.
And every single game sort of comes along, we think, "Oh, this one might suit them a little bit more.
This one might be a little bit more what we're expecting and expecting."
Yeah.
He's been really clear with how he wants his team to play.
Like, he wants these two rotational triangles with sort of like the, the A, the winger- Yeah and the fullback.
Yeah.
And they sort of, they rotate around.
And the only changes he's really making in games is which personnel are playing that role.
He's not throwing an extra center forward on.
He's not going to two 10s.
He just sort of changes the profile of the players, isn't it?
I mean, you saw with the, the DR Congo game, he moved Declan Rice up the right-hand side, Eze was there, Saka was there.
And it's exactly the same as what, Madueke, Spence, and, had been doing, and Bellingham on that side had been doing before.
But it's just when you change the players, you change how it works, and eventually it sort of, it unlocked that defense.
I don't think you're gonna see anything majorly changing for him.
I think the point you make about Nico O'Reilly, he would have brought Lewis Hall if he wanted his fullback to be flying around the outside constantly.
He wants somebody who can go, every which way.
I do think the Mexico game, in a weird way, it's the next one that feels like it suits us a little bit more, but Mexico are very pragmatic.
They've almost got this, as good as it's, as the tournament's been for them, they've sort of got a bit of an identity crisis because their manager is, you know, he's very sort of conservative.
He wants to make sure they're solid and defensive, and you've got this entire crowd that is more- Demand the city throwing them forward throwing them forward.
Yeah, yeah.
And in a weird way, this is what makes them such an interesting team and has made them so effective so far, is because they have got that pragmatism and they have got that sort of security first.
But every time they get the ball, they've got- They attack in front everybody, everybody throws themselves forward.
Yeah.
but weirdly, it's, you know, it's not a star-studded Mexico side.
No, it's not.
Probably the, in- individually, in terms of talent, the weakest they've come to a tournament with.
You know, now, now that Raul Jimenez has gone back to Wolves, there's not a single Premier League player in there.
You know, their great hope of Mexican football plays for Tijuana.
Yeah.
It's not someone, it's not a team that individually you think, "Oh, they could really go anywhere."
Are, are we underestimating the, the Mexican League a little bit?
A lot of the players play for Chivas, Club Tijuana.
Oh, it's not, it's not a case of a- It's a good league.
Yeah.
It's, it, they, it's well-paid.
They're not gonna maybe travel as much as others.
We don't see them in the top leagues, but maybe they're, they're, they're- Yeah.
I feel like- really, really good, isn't it?
I think this is exactly the point.
People looked at that side and thought, "Oh, they could struggle," you know, especially once, you know, good teams start playing them.
But you're seeing there the sort, the combination of, again, how you say how underrated a lot of these players are.
I'm sure a lot of them will be, the interest of a lot of moves in the summer.
Yeah.
But also the way the manager sort of pulled them together, they've been one of the most effective teams at the tournament so far.
I mean, in fact, I'm conceded a goal is extraordinary.
How do you factor in the, the altitude and the Azteca- Yeah and, and the record, 89 compe- competitive games, I think two defeats in that time.
Yep.
so I looked this up.
I think it's about 600 meters you start to feel the effects of altitude, and the stadium is 2,500.
So it's, I mean, Southgate's already said it's impossible to acclimatize to that in, in the time they've got.
I think England have actually had a really brutal travel schedule, compared to a lot of other teams.
So it, it's just a case of sort of, of managing your energy, of managing when you go, when you sit on the ball.
I mean, England are gonna, similar to a lot of the other games, they're gonna have a lot of the ball.
Yeah.
So they should be able to then dictate how much energy they're expending.
But the reality is, until you play at that level- Yeah you're not gonna be able to do it.
I mean, if they, if they want someone who's good at altitude, we have got Dan Burn there, who has played with thinner air- than anyone else in the squad for his entire career.
But it's just, I think you, you saw them looking a little bit leggy towards the end of the DR Congo game.
I think it's just about how he manages his substitutions, how well they pick the side going into it.
They've, they've gotta pick the freshest players.
They've gotta pick the players who can last the 90.
The real problem is if the game goes beyond that.
Because the longer that game goes on- Yeah the harder it's gonna be to maintain any sort of levels.
Just another one on England.
Defensively, should we expect them to be a little bit more stronger, a little bit more secure?
We know that we're a front foot team now under Southgate, and it's about attacking.
How concerned are you that we seem to be giving up opportunities to opponents?
Actually, I don't think they've actually given up as many opportunities as they feel.
I mean, certainly the, the, the Ghana game, there was that huge, huge challenge in the box- Yeah and we looked panicked and we looked disorganized.
And the goal that DR Congo score is sort of a result of the matchups, not the You know, they sprung a real tactical surprise at the start.
Nobody was really sure who to pick up.
But after that, for the rest of the game, again, as we've done in all the games, we've looked very dominant on the ball.
I don't think we've had large periods of possession, say, where we can't get out of our own half.
And- Yeah you defend better with the ball at these tournaments than you do without it.
I actually, I've actually been quite sort of impressed with the way they've limited opportunities.
I think on an individual level, you see little mistakes cropping up here and there because, you know, we're changing the back four every single game.
We haven't had two consecutive matches where they're playing together.
But I think, I think by and large, they've maybe been a little bit more secure than I think they're getting credit for.
We can't let you leave without a prediction for the Mexico-England game.
What's gonna happen?
I mean, my prediction is you need to make your peace very early with the idea it might be somehow an even more uncomfortable watch than the previous couple of games.
The longer that goes on, the harder that gets for England.
It's, I mean, I said this about the DR Congo game.
An early goal is massive for them.
Yeah.
It changes the, the complexion of the tie.
If England can score early, I don't know why you're just looking for a scoreline here, sorry.
Yeah.
If England can score early, they're in a really great place because they'll dominate the ball, and all of a sudden the atmosphere doesn't become that much of a problem.
You start getting halftime at nil-nil, the stadium builds, the, the thin air starts taking you.
Starts affecting, yeah.
I, I, I think England should have enough.
I don't know where this is going.
I think Eng- I don't know where this is going I think England should have enough.
I think England is, they're serious tournament contenders.
They should, as they have done in all the previous games- Yeah, find a way find a way to get that result.
Okay, another great game today, and this is where it gets fun, exciting, the business end.
Norway take on Brazil, an amazing match-up.
Two teams that are favored to go a long way, have had good results so far- I think, I think I look at Norway, Rob, and they've won every game apart from the game against France- Yeah where they rested 10 players with change there.
They'll fancy their chances against Brazil.
They will.
I think it's two teams, Rob, who've come into the competition who I'd almost say have got better as the, as the competition's gone on, which is what you wanna do- when you go from group stage to knockout.
Brazil in particular, the second half against Japan was probably as best 45 minutes I, I've seen them in the, in the tournament.
and we go to really the headlines of Vini Jr, four goals, two assists for Brazil.
Erling Haaland, five goals for Norway.
Incredible return of goals, every time he, he puts on a Norway shirt.
It's two strikers, it's two big t- in, in-form teams.
Cal, where you going with, with Brazil?
Can they kind of put their football together enough to overcome a, a Norway team?
Absolutely.
I mean, I'll tell you, I was at Norway's game against Ivory Coast.
Ivory Coast outplayed them through most of that match.
I mean, Norway, they're gonna get hurt in transition.
They, they, they'll be able to get on the ball.
I mean, they're, they're, they're a high-quality enough team with degaard and getting the ball forward.
They'll get into attacking postures, and I think they're really gonna struggle i- in transition.
I, I saw Ivory Coast just burning Norway every time they got imbalanced, every time they got confident and got the ball forward.
So I feel like Brazil will want Norway to feel a little bit of confidence and grow into the game because there's just, they're devastating on the counter.
Ancelotti says that they haven't got a plan for Erling Haaland, in terms of stopping the big Norwegian striker.
They do.
Should they have a- No should they have a plan?
You think they still, you think they have got a plan?
They've- Go on, then they have plans.
I mean, it's called Gabriel.
Come on, ever since Haaland threw that ball in the back of his head, it's just been a powder keg- that's been building.
This is, this is Vieira-Keane level.
It's going to be a complete- You know, I, I, I sort of- Well, let's double down on that a little bit, right?
Let's, let's get into that.
If they're both playing at their best, right, those two- Yeah who, who gets the better of each other?
I, I think Haaland can, can- Haaland yeah, if they're both at their best.
At, at their very best, his physicality as well as his- His running, his running speed of mind running speed, it will, will open up.
So here's where I go on, on, on the, the Haaland and, and that whole talk, and, and, and Ancelotti saying that he doesn't have a plan.
I don't believe him.
There's a couple of ways you do it with, with Erling Haaland.
You've got, Marquinhos and, and Gabriel.
You've got two center-backs, two quality center-backs.
The other big thing, Rob, when you've got a center forward like Erling Haaland, the way you stop him is stop his supply.
Stop his supply line.
So if you have to sit in midfield, playing in front of him, if you make sure that balls aren't coming in from them wide areas- How exactly are Brazil gonna do that, Rob?
Well, I'm not say- What if they've got a- I'm not saying they, they will do it, but I'm saying it's a way to stop.
Erling Haaland is never gonna do Vini Jr.
He's not gonna dribble past four or five people and bend one in from 30 yards.
He's a supply- Yeah, he needs supply supply guy.
Yeah.
If he's not got the supply, if you can cut some of that supply down, you cut a lot of the big risks that the Erling Haaland has.
Well, to do that then, that'll be the full-backs.
Of course, yeah.
And I think, I think we can- Gonna get to that, yeah can we, can we say that the full-backs of Brazil are not part of their strongest strong- Center half from Danilo, probably, yeah yeah, they're 32 and 34.
Danilo's 34 years of age.
Can they stop the supply?
Yeah.
And also how Haaland scores, I think, we talked about the two center-backs for, for Brazil.
They're a top tier.
Pull away.
He's gonna pull away to the mid-far- Right, ball goes onto those- Yeah onto those full-backs- Center back to get those balls.
So I, I think you make a good point there.
If the balls come in, he'll pull away from those guys- Yeah with his aerial power.
That's how they're gonna score.
And going back to, of course, everything goes to Arsenal.
That's all I can think about.
But O- degaard, I was watching that game, and a lot of times this stuff happens off-camera.
He was just dropping so deep aga- against Ivory Coast.
They- Dropping the ball all the time could pull towards the end of the game.
He's gotta have the discipline to stay between the lines, to get up a little bit tighter, a little bit closer to, to Haaland.
Yes, the game won't come to him.
Yes, he wants to get touches- Well, Sander Berge should be the guy.
Absolutely.
So Sander Berge should be- He's got to show- And also to do it in the game.
Trust him to get on the ball and then feed it to him, then feed it through for the big man.
Can I just talk a little bit about Carlo Ancelotti, Rob?
'Cause I, I'm looking at this team and I'm looking at this game, and there was something that struck me.
the late winner for Martinelli, for Brazil against Japan.
Yeah.
And Brazil go wild.
The subs all run off the bench.
The crowd go crazy.
There was one cool guy in, in, in that place- Carlo Ancelotti.
Do you know what he did, Rob?
He shouted somebody down the line.
He, he sho- he put somebody on, and he shut the game down.
Now, that's what Carlo Ancelotti brings to this Brazil team.
No, no.
For all that craziness and great football, they've got, I think they've got a, a, a very good football brain that will help them through i- in this game.
And you'll have to remember, I mean, this guy has won, I mean, as a player, but as a manager on almost- Yeah in, in every league, on every continent, won, won big tournaments.
Brazil will start to have that muscle memory of we've been here before.
But so, so will Carlo Ancelotti.
You say don't have a plan.
Italians always have a plan.
I mean, they, they, he'll do it with style, but there is a defensive sort of inertia about Italian strategy, and I think I'm, I'm fine with that with Brazil.
If teams try to break them down, if they can be a little more resolute, if they can be a little more obstinate, I, I do think on the counter, this is how Netherlands knocked the US out la- last tournament.
Brazil's saying, "Bring it to us."
Yeah.
That, that's how I think they, they easily get by- And then, and then Vini Jr. will be the guy.
Yep.
Yeah.
With that pace in behind.
The counter-attack of, yeah.
Have we been a little bit, including myself, down on Brazil?
Do The expectations were lower.
Yeah.
The fans weren't sure about what they A- and have, are we seeing, which I think they We're seeing them improve and being better than what- We expect him to be.
Bruno Guimares, by the way, has had a sneaky good tournament.
Yeah, four, four assists, yeah.
He's got four assists.
Like, really good.
Casemiro can score from set pieces or from- Vini, Vini, Vini from anywhere real- Vini, Vini, Vini We were big higher on Japan.
I mean, I, I, I think- Yeah we were right.
J- I mean, it took till the last kick of that game- Yeah for them to get by Japan.
It, it is an aging Brazil team though, isn't it?
But it's still a pretty good team.
I mean, aging, it's the oldest, one of the oldest we've ever seen.
Yeah.
They too, Brazil, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But seem to be getting better and maybe there's no sort of plateauing.
Like red wine somehow.
Yeah, yeah.
Just gets finer with age.
You two seem to be getting warm to Brazil for this.
I'm wa- I'm warming more than- What, what, are we gonna Like, what do you reckon then?
Well, I mean, Norway- Are we gonna go France here?
I'll say I think Japan was a better side than Norway.
I, I, I think, I think Brazil got over the hiccup- Yeah that was gonna catch them.
Brazil.
Yeah.
Do you think Brazil go through?
Brazil.
You think Brazil go through?
Brazil.
Absolutely.
I'm gonna go with Norway.
So chaps, talking goal scorers- And there's plenty of them in this tournament.
Yeah.
let's go back to that conversation of the Golden Boot.
We have Lionel Messi right now and Kylian Mbapp on seven.
A bunch of brilliant players, Kane, Haaland, Vini Jr., on just fewer than that, five and four, et cetera.
is it just about who goes furthest or do you have any personal favorites that you think is gonna go on there and dominate this, this competition?
I mean, I, I think it is a combination of who goes furthest, but I'll say I think France is gonna go furthest.
But I'll say there's a different reason that Mbapp is going to win the Golden Boot.
Th- the two players next to him.
I mean, it's like fighting a, a three-armed boxer, and he, he's the right hook.
I mean, it's just- to, to have the other wingers- be so devastating, th- think about Haaland, think about Messi, the amount of attention they get because there aren't other players as devastating.
I mean, you, you, you give him, Mbapp, too much attention, you're just gonna get- No, you're really- crushed by, by either player that player.
That player.
Yeah and I think that helps him- Yeah find space more.
I think also what helps him is that in certain strikers, like, and we've talked Erling Haaland, kind of feel like he needs a supply line.
He needs to be played through.
I think that with Mbapp, he can make goals himself out of nothing, and so there's, the goals that his team are gonna make, whether you've got Olise and Dembele and the Cherkis and all the rest of them, but there's also, they give him the ball, he does a fast feet and he does it himself.
So there's almost two ways that he's gonna get to his total, whereas I feel Haaland's a lot more reliant on the service maybe from, from others in his team.
I, I agree with what you two are thinking.
I'll just go tilt to Messi a little bit here, and I've said this on our show now for, for quite a few days.
I just feel like he's gonna get squeezed more as this tournament gets further and the competition gets tighter.
And to Kyle's point, the people, you know, players are definitely wary of Lionel Messi.
I just don't think he can be as effective as getting away and, and scoring the goals that Mbapp can.
So that would be another reason, apart from your two really good points, of why Kylian Mbapp's gonna finish top scorer.
C- Can Harry Kane be more i- in this conversation?
Yeah.
Th- this whole team is basically- That'd be, that'd be losing us the game.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Shut up.
No, I'm sorry.
No, but no, in, in all seriousness, and that's a re- Obviously, that's a, that's a really good point.
There's a, it's a tough way for England if they do get to the finals.
It's gonna be Mexico- Yeah, to score a goal.
Yeah Brazil, possibly.
If these all get through, of course, Argentina, and then France.
If England do, huge if- Yeah Kane's gonna be right there.
And K- Kane's gonna be the man.
And, and there is conversations, Rob, and, and maybe this is for another day, that, you know, make, will make him the best English player ever- Absolutely, Rob by going that far- Absolutely, Rob and maybe winning the Golden Boot again- What's that?
or winning, dare I say- Yeah winning the tournament.
Can you imagine?
Well, that, well, that's, you know, well, what is at stake?
Doesn't mean I, I think it's going- L- Lionel Messi or Conor McGregor.
Just, just silencing that real quick.
Come on, England.
This tournament has been all about the stars, and what we know is over the years when stars move, Transfer Deadline Day is pretty famous.
Oh, yeah.
No one more iconic during that day than Jim White.
I got to go over to talkSPORT, the incredible broadcast channel, to speak to the legend.
Jim, I mean, before we even talk this tournament, you, you've lived a life in football.
I mean, just what, what has it been like from your vantage point?
I began a broadcasting life at Scottish television.
So when I get into football, I fancied myself as a entertainment reporter at Scottish TV for years, Kyle.
and I would get myself in front of people like Mick Jagger and David Bowie when they came to Glasgow.
Thereafter, I got into f- the football side of things when I went to Mexico '86.
Were you already a football fan at that point?
I, I, I was a football fan.
My dad was a Rangers fan, but he would take me one week to Rangers, next week to Celtic.
My sister used to come with us.
we'd, we'd head off to Partick Thistle, to St Mirren, other Glasgow clubs.
And then when the football side of things came along, I went out as a news reporter for Scottish TV to Mexico.
And then, of course, so much happened.
After France '98, I went to that World Cup working for Scottish television.
I came back working for Sky TV, headed not back to Scotland, but back to London, and was there ever since then.
had a long career at Sky, and I now do this crazy radio show on talkSPORT.
I remember watching Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp- Yeah and thinking to myself, "This has gotta be the most beautiful game on, on the planet."
And from that time, it, it, it almost felt it wasn't ours yet.
You know, we, we didn't have a professional league yet at that point.
Sure.
You know, '94- Yeah hadn't come.
To, to just try to put myself back in that little kid's body- and tell that little kid what is going on right now- Yeah is going to happen- Yeah there's no chance I, I would've believed it.
So I've been to finals in Mexico.
I w- I was in France.
Simon and I were in Qatar.
and now we're here.
But I've loved it From the very moment we touched down, and I love the way the Americans are embracing it.
I love the fact that the Americans, fingers crossed, are still winning, unlike my Scotland, which is brilliant for you.
And Mauricio Pochettino is someone I've known for a while.
I went to Barcelona years ago.
Nicola Cortese was the man who took him to Southampton.
He, he was at Tottenham.
He's, he was at PSG, and now the US.
And I hope after these finals here in the US, that football, soccer, becomes part of the sporting staple diet, and that it has a profound impact on the MLS.
Who's, who's winning this thing?
Mbappe's speed is just ridiculous.
That top three, it's just irresistible, those- Irresistible is the word.
if not France, Spain.
As, as a Glasgow born and bred Scot, don't ask me to say England- because I can't bring myself to say England, Kyle.
Maybe you can.
I don't think, I don't think you're gonna have to.
I don't think I'm gonna have to, but with Harry Kane in that starting 11- Well you just never know.
But we'll be watching, mate, and we will not miss a trick.
Jim White and Simon Jordan, live in talkSPORT.
Well, there's no debate on our GOAT of food.
Dennis hits the streets again, and he goes for pizza this time, and he finds his way to my buddy Massimo's spot.
Who's more basic, the guy taking a, a photo of his pizza, or the guy- Videoing filming the guy taking a photo of his pizza?
As you travel through New York, there's about two things you're guaranteed to find on every street block.
One is a deli, the other is a slice shop.
We are at Lindy's Pizza today, widely considered the best slice in the city, some would say the best slice in the country, and that means it's one of the best slices on planet Earth.
Oh my God.
Hey, how you doing?
Good.
What can I get for you?
Good.
Can we do a burrata and a pepperoni, please?
Sure, and a smoking water.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.
So I know Kyle has already done pizza.
You can't have enough pizza.
Obviously, we are in the city of the slice.
So we have two different options here.
We've got the burrata slice, we have the pepperoni slice.
Hard to get more classic than this.
So pepperoni, it's simple, it's delicious.
You know it, I know it.
There's very few ingredients.
Obviously, the crust is king.
To me, if it, if there's great toppings on a slice but the crust isn't delicious, I really don't care.
Nice, beautiful undercarriage under here.
Looks great.
Holds up well.
Not flopping over.
Let's give it I'm having Pepsi with this, and it really enhances those tangy, spicy flavors.
The spice in the pepperoni and the gentle sweetness of the Pepsi just complement each other really, really well.
Again, it's a classic combination.
For the second slice, we're going with burrata.
It's a staple here.
They're known for this slice.
Obviously, burrata had its viral moment over the last few years, and with good reason.
It's delicious.
It's incredible on something like a slice, on pasta.
And this is a very refreshing looking slice.
Again, great crust.
And let's give it a bite.
This is definitely gonna be a messy bite.
Again, great crust, great sauce, high-quality burrata, basil, and parm.
It's a simple, simple slice.
It's not complicated.
And that Pepsi really brings out the creaminess in the burrata, the crispness of the crust.
Perfect combination.
A lot of things get hyped online.
This is literally one of the best pizza slices in the world.
If you find yourself lucky enough to be in Manhattan, please come get a slice here.
I guarantee you're gonna enjoy it.
That being said, this is my slice.
This can be your slice.
It's time to get out of here and move on to the next thing.
So that's today's show.
Tomorrow, that's gonna be fun.
We're gonna be recording the show right after England play Mexico.
We're gonna be a house on haul.
It's gonna be raw and emotional.
And we've got it on good authority that England are gonna win.
Well, then, what did they say about the US?
