00:03Joe Ranieri has been waiting all of his life or maybe since 1994 for the United States to host
00:08and have some fun in some World Cup action. The wait is almost over, Joe. I know in your
00:15household then in South Florida, you guys can't think of anything else but the World Cup, which
00:19is a week away. Yeah, it's huge. In fact, you want to laugh. There was just a I got alerted
00:27yesterday where England is actually practicing on soccer fields, not too far from where the studio
00:35where from the studio is I'm in. So yeah, they they're scattered all throughout right now getting
00:41some practice in before the World Cup. The three lines is Beckham over there is Wayne Rooney over
00:47there. Come on now. Those are the guys that we look back for. But maybe it's meant to be coming
00:52home to England. Could it be in the World Cup? What we're going to find out. The one thing we're
00:56going to find out in the World Cup is is anybody actually going to be in the stands? Because
00:59either you can't figure out how to buy tickets or when you buy tickets, FIFA is telling you you
01:04didn't buy tickets and you don't get a refund for tickets and switching the game plans all the way
01:08around. Hey, man, got awesome seats. Only for FIFA to tell you. Yeah, good luck. You're in the upper
01:12deck now. Oh, man. FIFA struggling out here. No, it's good. It's Donnie. This is just going to go
01:19from bad to worse. I mean, you got Motel Six is charging 500 bucks a night thinking that they're just
01:25going to be overrun with what soccer fans. That is just so not the case. And they badly
01:33overestimated what they were going to be able to do. We kept hearing about demand being through
01:38the roof for these tickets, Donnie. And yet apparently the demand is not there because
01:42anybody who has them is selling them for half the price of the value on the face of the ticket.
01:48So
01:48not good. FIFA, not good. When people figure you can go to your local bar, local pub or stay in
01:54your
01:54living room with a nice TV, air conditioning, and have a nice six pack that's very affordable,
01:59or you can go get robbed by FIFA to go to the games itself. And how about this? FIFA making
02:05FIFA makes last grasp change to World Cup stadium rules. Why Joe banning fans from bringing refillable
02:12plastic bottles. So they must buy water in the stadium as of May empty bottles permitted. So fans
02:17could refill amid heat concerns. Not now. So come in and, you know, honestly, Joe, I'd look at this
02:23like, that makes some sense. So if you don't have enough water fountains, hey, dollar or two bottles
02:27of water that the people can buy because it's hot. That's fair. You know the drill, Joe. Oh, you want
02:32to come in here and buy a bottle of Aquafina? $10. You know it's coming. Oh, it is. They're going
02:39to be
02:39$20 bottles of water, Donnie, and mostly out of the hose in the back there. So congrats,
02:47any which way to squeeze every last dollar. And you want people to overpay for tickets to come in
02:53there just to get ripped off once they get into the stadium. Hilarious. MetLife Stadium, Joe. Sea of
03:00parking lots all the way around. FIFA's like, yeah, we don't want anybody to use the parking lots.
03:04That's going to go over swimmingly well here in the great state of New Jersey. But Joe,
03:08if we're looking for contributions, we're not getting a lot from FIFA that are people happy
03:12about. You know where they might be happy? Messi versus Ronaldo on the Calci marketplace.
03:16And we talk about contributions. It's not, hey, I'm going to sign autographs on the field. It's
03:21what have you done for me lately, Joe? Goals and assists here with Messi, the heavy favorite,
03:26at 57% as a chance. Ronaldo here, 34%. People expect Messi to be a bigger contributor in the World
03:34Cup coming up here. Well, I mean, he's certainly in better form, right?
03:38Now, isn't he? And it would not shock me, Donnie, here at 58 cents, though. I think
03:45that's the only way I would look here. I don't know that I trust Cristiano Ronaldo right now
03:51to be able to get a few more than what Messi is, especially given the fact that there's a lot
03:58of
03:59buzz around Messi and his team here, maybe making a run again.
04:03By the way, you want to cement yourself and your legacy in your own country? Go and win a World
04:07Cup as a team. But you know what? Be the best player on the pitch, Joe. The golden boot winner,
04:12Mbappe, 16% chance on Calci. Harry Kane, 16, or excuse me, 12%. And then Eric Erling Holland.
04:20Love that name. And then we get down there and see Ronaldo and Messi. Joe Mbappe, the favorite right
04:24now. But could it be the tree lions, Harry Kane, getting it done? Yeah, it could very well be. I
04:31mean, Mbappe's got to be the best player that nobody likes that we have seen in any sport in
04:36a very long time. I mean, they just do not like him at all, but would not shock me if
04:42he ends up
04:42taking it home. But Harry Kane's always a good and solid play, Donnie, especially if you've got
04:47England in any sort of future situations. Here are the markets that we like, Joe. Who's actually going to
04:53perform for the FIFA World Cup final halftime show? Some artists haven't been announced just
04:58yet and could be there. You know who we'd like to see? Justin Bieber go on stage with his YouTube
05:04channel, press play, and just sing karaoke. Do we want to see that, Joe? Because by the way,
05:0983% chance for him to perform, which lately has been up 62%. As we like to say, somebody, Joe,
05:17they know something. Yeah, they already know, Donnie. And these are exactly one of those markets
05:24where just follow the market. Bieber is going to make an appearance here in some way, shape, or form.
05:30I don't know that anybody wants to see Coldplay, but apparently at 50 cents, almost 50 cents, Donnie,
05:35there's probably a pretty good chance they show up somewhere as well.
05:39Who said this, Joe? Move it up, down, left, right, O. Switch it up like Nintendo. Do you know that
05:45artist who's now trading at 10% to go and perform? Do you know that artist, Joe?
05:50Is that Lil Wayne? Who is that? No? Is he not playing? No?
05:54That's Sabrina Carpenter out here. Could she make an appearance? Well, you can wage on that here at
05:59Calci as well. Oh, sorry. Wrong song.
06:02Different decades. Sorry.
06:03Third place finisher, which I guess means a lot for your country, but boy, if it's Spain,
06:09France, or England, they ain't going to be happy about that, but they are the favorites, Joe.
06:1316%, 16%, and 13% with Brazil at 11% as well. Nobody wants to be the third wheel, Joe,
06:20do they?
06:21No, but you know what? I don't mind Brazil or even Germany, Donnie, having a bigger showing than
06:27people are anticipating. I mean, we forget Brazil. They're pretty good, too.
06:32Brazil. And that's a pretty good price to have that. Basically, I would ladder this as top three,
06:38right? Who finishes runner-up? Who finishes third? I think there's a couple of ways to approach it
06:43with teams like Brazil and Germany. How about lucky number seven down there, Joe? Currently trading at
06:487% here and a 7% chance. That's Team USA to finish in third place with home field advantage.
06:55But as we
06:56know, Joe, there can only be one winner of the World Cup, and that winner could be France. You know,
07:01they're trading at 17 cents right now, or 17%. You know who's right behind them? Spain, Joe,
07:0716.6. France, Spain, leaderboard up here. PSG just wins it. Can France win it? Boy,
07:14you want to see riots, Joe? Get France to win this World Cup and bring it back. We'll have thousands
07:18of arrests over there in Paris.
07:21Well, I mean, listen, I mean, during the qualifying, I think France rattled off,
07:25what, three clean sheets here. Yeah. And they did lose, what, 5-4 to Spain in the 2025 National
07:34League semifinals. So we'll see here. It's not going to be an easy run for France or Spain
07:40or England, for that matter.
07:42You know, it's got close to a 10% chance. That's Portugal. That's Ronaldo here for PME on TEL.
07:49I'll be back.
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