- 6 weeks ago
From quarter-final drama to the last four, the Star Sportcast's T. Rahul speaks to T. Avineshwaran and S. Saktesh about Spain's victory, VAR controversies and the race to football's biggest prize.
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00:04welcome to the stars podcast i'm your host rahul and we're almost at the end of it the quarter
00:10finals are done the semis are done and now we just have the finals left and to unpack everything
00:15that's happened we have our two insightful guests as always avi and saktish hi guys
00:20how's it going we're back we're home stretch we're almost done yeah have you guys slept well
00:25nope it was a bit better this week because there was not as many games there's a bit of gap
00:30yeah
00:30sleep yeah yeah sleep is calling me but i'm not answering it at the moment i mean there's just
00:37two more games if if you're gonna found the third place game well yeah okay so today we're gonna
00:42look back at the quarters and the semis so let's just start with the quarters first what do you
00:47guys think about the games that went through you know france the sorry the quarters we had
00:54um who do we have in the quarters belgium morocco went out right france won so your thoughts on
01:01these games my most heartbreaking thing in the quarters would be norway heading home yeah that's
01:08my my saddest part i mean it was fun to watch them all the while but uh i feel norway
01:14is one of the
01:14teams where they lost but somehow they still won because they got like such a good welcome going
01:18home like a proper viking welcome home they're the champion in you know most norwegian ties so
01:23yeah i'm talking about one team only but that specific to me that was the big highlight except
01:29for alexander saw a lot because he didn't give the pass to halan among the amount of criticism he got
01:34i feel sad for him but in football moments do will be or will always be questioned but i know
01:41sorlott is not a selfish day maybe at that point of time he didn't see halan but yeah monoclonism
01:46he got i felt like it was a bit unwarranted in playing in a position that he is not accustomed
01:51to
01:52so that's that's one of the talking ones to be fair halan was kind of blocked he didn't have it
01:56as
01:57open as people are making out yeah it's one of those like hindsight it always seems like there's
02:01always a play but uh and there are also questions that england were lucky to go to the
02:05two semis i mean but then again i'd be people always talk about this luck factor but sometimes
02:11you need those players who can deliver during moments right like jude bellingham what a tournament
02:15he has had yeah yeah amazing player really encapsulates what he went through throughout
02:22the season like because he had a lot of injuries with madrid then towards the end he started playing
02:25and then when he came for england he was like i'm going to deliver because there are lots of talks
02:30that morgan rogers was going to play in his position but he came up with lots of goals six
02:35i believe yeah he's tied with kane this one time four in the last two games exactly so yeah players
02:42like him deserve all the priorities he's getting at the moment and i'm happy that yeah i just want
02:48quarterfinals coming back talking about quarterfinals like uh sad to see morocco out but
02:55france in the quarterfinals were the france that we know they were just strong it was two
03:01morocco tried their best i think it was the match where i'm like yeah it's you know who's the stronger
03:05guinea but in belgium's case i felt belgium just didn't maybe have that that special thing to get
03:13them to expect yeah they were just lacking a bit there and to me throughout the whole world cup i
03:18feel
03:18belgium's one team that given how even though they're so big nothing stood out for me and no
03:25highlights nothing hasn't that been the case for like so many years already like actually no if you
03:29ask me with belgium in this particular tournament people didn't fancy them at all to go all the way
03:35because the golden generation is kind of done right kind of done and they were playing minimal role
03:39actually yeah kaku came in in the second half even their brainer didn't start every game but yeah i was
03:44happy to see young players coming i mean not to see young players players who who are supposed to
03:49be their peak showing the performance that is demanded from them out of the i mean the coaches
03:55have demanded a lot from them in the past so charles de katar larry played very well and in spain's
04:01case also it's all about tactics the way they won games is like we have players who can turn around
04:06a game that kind of stuff so against belgium like marino's gold yeah good and then yeah two to
04:13considering knockout matches he scored so in that sense i think for me belgium i think they overdid
04:19it in terms of their performances i never expected them to go all the way i knew they had the
04:26talent
04:26but but it was a surprise surprise to make it there but um maybe just expected a bit a bit
04:32more from
04:33that but then again it was against spain so you know where they are now yeah okay but let's go
04:40to the
04:40other quarterfinals you talked about controversy so controversy in argentina seem to go hand in hand
04:46nowadays so thoughts in that game i think right now it's a bit amplified like everybody's scrutinizing
04:52them even the quarterfinal game so i felt it was okay i had no issues with the referee at all
04:57but then
04:58everybody started saying why do you give this why do you give that it's over amplified and i i feel
05:03like
05:04people these days are being too sorry if i'm using this word normally anal about everything
05:09you know in the sense that oh he challenged this fellow no card this fellow challenged no card okay
05:14people are talking about inconsistencies and all that but in matches different referees have different
05:19takes to how they want to give their cards or faults and all that because your referees who come from
05:24south america asia europe every continent has different style of football so when people are saying it's
05:31rigged and rigged and rigged how long are they going to go with the narrative why what's the
05:35point i feel is people always will want something to rally behind but it's to me it's always my stance
05:43is you will have an issue with it until it favors your side then it's all like oh this is
05:49actually fine
05:49correct so yes uh just from a point of view you look at it there seems to be some unfairness
05:56towards
05:57argentina given also look at the amount attention it's being given right if you take maybe an any
06:03other game one or two challenges that were not fair and you give it the same attention amplify you put
06:08the same names around it messy and all this it will be a controversial thing but in switzerland's
06:14case embolo tithed it was clear okay yeah but i think the issue was that because the yellow was given
06:22because it's mistaken identity you give yellow to a player who did not even challenge that yeah
06:27that's why when the referee checked it was like this fella simulated to get this fella a cut so i
06:32have
06:32to send him off you're trying to amp another process uh chances a chance in a game right so that's
06:38one
06:39and then if everybody's arguing about uh ajajira being rough and so on in that game nico gonzalez was
06:45challenged by a swiss player hmm freaky was given but no card was given he was stomped twice
06:52right because people are arguing that masi wasn't given a yellow cup because it was unintentional
06:55so the same thing also that happened but no card was given why that time there was why that time
07:00there was so much noise why they saw no noise at all it's most be fair across the board i
07:04think it's
07:04most circumstantial is because they won the last world cup and like they are the giants now right so
07:09everyone wants the underdog to go through right so i guess that is why the quite to be fair also
07:14i mean
07:14switzerland played very well i for me i would tell you this if embolo wasn't sent off i think it
07:20was their game
07:21yeah and i feel like that it's it's again it's everybody just wants something to rally behind
07:27and now you have a common quote-unquote enemy against you know the the one that people were
07:32like oh there's unfairness and if there's a hint of unfairness everybody will rally behind against them
07:37for me it's like cloud chasing sure but it was this it would be the same if that sort of
07:43unfairness
07:43was given to mbappe and mbappe's in the final it's bound to happen and it's just added with
07:50every world cup there's going to be more eyes on it and now there's more eyes who
07:55maybe haven't don't watch football for a long time yeah so they are like oh that's unfair
08:00enemy public enemy number one these days i hate going on social media i'm like i have to encounter
08:05so many videos that i do not know what to say and i have friends asking me hey this game
08:10is going
08:10to be replayed because of this one particular team like day day why
08:16yeah i mean the u.s went pink so that's not going to happen yeah so yeah the more presidential
08:21quarter yeah the more president being in coming into inference and all that that's
08:27okay so let's just just wrap up on the quarterfinals your standout player during the quarter quarters
08:33jude bellingham jude bellingham simple yeah straight up jude bellingham but i like one player
08:39gregor corbel switzerland's goalkeeper he did well also he was a good keeper
08:44but yeah pellingham to be fair keepers have been doing quite well this year woke up like i feel
08:48like they are taking the hit a lot of standouts i think mistake there were only one or two
08:53not many not many good saves good composure even the so-called lower team keepers yeah they've been
09:00doing very well so let's move on to the semis first up we had um spain france bill that's the
09:08game of
09:08the tournament how did guys find it because if there's a difference france compared to the
09:13quarters yeah because it was a i think at the start we've been saying that france looked like one of
09:18the most stacked teams which they were but not in that semi-final game it seemed like they were
09:25struggling to me they looked like it was struggling but uh spain definitely was the better team it was
09:31very obvious that match it wasn't uh any question there they could have caught in three with you know
09:35lamina mal's disallowed goal at the end but yeah at no point was i like okay france can mount a
09:42comeback it wasn't confidence building for me so it was frankly very disappointing i think it was
09:47like the first games for in the world cup that france hasn't scored in like since 2020 there were a
09:53few considerate games that i've scored i think in this particular game i felt like didier deschamps
09:59relied on the players as individual quality whereas spain's coach is relying on
10:04tactical solidity to frustrate the french players big for example mbappé olise dembele
10:15parcola two-way whenever they had the ball they were frustrated this particular game the amount of
10:21through process that spain were able to cut were immensely crazy amount of interceptions that shows how
10:29they have done their study on these french players and they deserve the victory because
10:34they got their game plan right the goals were good and yeah i'm not surprised they're in the final i
10:41think a lot of us even i myself i felt like we underestimated spain's might we felt like they wouldn't
10:48go all
10:49the way because the place that they have but we have to remember that spain's development over the
10:54years have been impressive in terms of how they play the game the place that come out of the academies
11:00where they play the imports and those are playing in la liga they have a very good system so
11:05the fact that they're in the final right now the fact that they played such football
11:09in the semi-final is not a surprise at all yeah the thing is not not just that spain
11:14was underestimated but it was um everyone estimated well for france but they showed up and they
11:23you know performed under under the expectation they were underwhelming because of spain's tactics
11:28yeah that's what i'm yeah i think spain as a whole unit functioned much better than much much better
11:34yeah they really performed as a unit yeah so yeah so let's talk about the individuals from the team
11:41then we had yamal against mbape was that a clean sweep by yamal or was mbape just having an off
11:49day
11:50it's not him having an off day it's more him being frustrated by spain's defense i tell you
11:55kukurea was amazing yeah definitely stand out go back was super the amount of times they came in to
12:01stop the balls the interception and all that and the clearances i was like really impressive
12:05the center backs laporte and kubarcy also played very well i think spain's success is also because of
12:10their solid defense their defense is probably the best in the tournament they only considered one
12:15goal one goal so far yeah so i would say that mbape tried but he was nullified in yamal in
12:24lamin yamal's
12:25case he had the ball but whenever he had it i went wow wow wow yeah so he was impressive
12:34but
12:35one would have expected a bigger impact out of him to have more of the ball and all that but
12:41i think
12:42he realized that we have to be as one it's not about what this what this individual can do what
12:46this
12:47individual can do to help this team perform better but there were lots of good moments from him like
12:51even the disallowed goal also showed his class i think even before that also he a lot build up he
12:57was
12:57his name was constantly you hear his name constantly which if that goal if he did score
13:03that goal i think our conversation would be like yeah look at the impact but do you know who deserves
13:07flowers danny olmo he was the link and the way he played his one touch football the layups the
13:17tummies i was like wow this guy is something else he doesn't screen goals and assists but he's more like
13:23i will add value to this attack by allowing others to shine so i thought olmo was superb in that
13:28game
13:28rodri controlled the midfield on his own i believe so yeah i mean spain deserves that victory yeah it
13:37could have been bigger if you ask me could have yeah should have been bigger actually yeah so like
13:43yamal did contribute with one goal though he got the penalty right call or ah okay intention is
13:51secondary when contact is primary simple he made contact he kicked him does not matter what your
13:57intention was but there's also question marks of uh handball being involved because he went this way
14:03right in the back of his hand okay there were two replays so one replay showed it was the back
14:07then
14:08the other replay feels like his shoulder so it's kind of disputable even that or so i will question why
14:14the uh vr assistants did not call the referee to see that incident again it wasn't an unnatural
14:20position but it's more it wasn't natural yeah it's more natural but but for me it's there's no point
14:26because the contact was already made contact was made yeah and you get some arguments that oh he
14:30couldn't see where the attacker was that doesn't stand up you're a defender and you're going to say
14:34i don't know where the attacker was he should have just skied the ball like should have decision making
14:38comes into play yeah that one moment is going to haunt him because throughout the game he actually kept
14:43yeah yeah that means it's silent it was an unfortunate unfortunate incident that's that
14:48particular moment his decision making was a bit suspect because i told one of my friend was like
14:52it's unavoidable then i actually told him actually he could have just plonked the ball out instead of
14:57you know trying to be a bit more trying to be given it one more bound yeah maybe just because
15:00you're
15:01inside the box that's another thing you but again it's in then again in that we do not know what
15:06what observation when yeah situation what the play is thinking in hindsight everything yeah could have
15:10we can say but we do not know what the play is feeling yeah so i think digney will feel
15:14bad
15:14about it but in terms of how he marked i i mean he was good he impressed me he was
15:20fine throughout
15:21everything he was first yeah so let's go on to the other semi-final now england argentino
15:29did you guys watch the game it's going home oh i mean sorry i mean they are going home yeah
15:36i know
15:36they have one more game to play still going home yeah it's a waste but i mean that game
15:43i think tackle has to take a lot of responsibility for what happened i mean uh yeah i understand
15:51knockout games you want to kill off matches by being defensive but you have the talent to get
15:56more goals right they i feel pity for players like bellingham and keen they were told to sort of
16:01they look like they told it down i told it down and after the first goal i don't think they
16:06had
16:06a chance after the goal was on it they weren't trying for me yeah you know they were trying they
16:10should be trying they weren't trying because you need to know that you have talents like bellingham
16:14keen and then you have the gordon was doing well he was doing very well so when you have this
16:21kind
16:21of talents in your setup make use of them get another goal then you go defensive because it's not a
16:27good
16:27enough cushion yeah yeah it's not a good cushion and second thing is if he did his study argentina
16:33always comes back towards the end which is what happened the past week yeah and it happened against
16:37england but but you can also say because of that you would be like okay quickly defend because they're
16:44going to come back but but the one goal is not enough in a world cup semi-final your one
16:48goal is
16:49not it it's not the time to pass not enough all it takes is one mistake one deflection they should
16:57keep playing but i don't know why he took her did that yeah yeah yeah because i think as soon
17:03as
17:03the goal went in he brought on like five defenders five yeah it was a five forward i'm like what's
17:07happening at the back there he brought in kwanzaa and dan when i was like why why but that again
17:13yeah
17:14to him it's probably what makes sense because you know he's like ajita can come back at least keep
17:18it tight maybe one one you drag it to extra time but it's only after the two one they were
17:24start
17:25beginning to like say hey we need to get another goal i was like no you should have gotten the
17:28goal
17:29way earlier even after one one it seemed like they were playing for a draw they weren't trying
17:33at all exactly you have the thing is the thing is they hired tackle because of his sorry big game
17:39experience being able to uh nullify big opponents right so you have the talent you have players like
17:47bellingham hurricane play two players were informed just provide them the service and they'll do
17:52something and you decided to go passive you decided to be conservative that's on you you can't blame
17:58the players players follow what coach wants right i mean tackle actually defended his reason to play
18:04defensively but what has happened i feel every time with england fans are going to find something to be
18:09mad about but this one is like you've handed them on a yeah exactly this is what the mistake was
18:14right
18:14that everyone saw it was like what are you all doing okay because i feel like even before they scored
18:20england were playing well exactly they were good good yeah they were good going up to the first
18:24half i was like okay there is hope really yeah like england can you know pull off something and when
18:28gordon scored i was like okay that's what we need and score another one hey you're england supporter
18:33that's what i was supporting for england yes i was because i want someone else to go to find the
18:37same
18:37team where i mean yeah argentina a lot of people are like saying a lot of stuff and all that
18:42and we
18:42won a new team in the final any neutral fan would won that but that being said the way the
18:50way they
18:51came back and leon messi being part of it deserve to win deserve it everybody is complaining about
18:57you know this team is being uh powered by messi and all that but if you watch all their games
19:02those
19:02have watched all of argentina's games the manner of their comebacks have been because of their unity
19:07their their their passion and no the fact that the coach is winning the place to make tactical
19:13decisions on the field like for example leandro paradise in the last game and he was talking to
19:17the coach saying i need this i need that it showed that there was proactiveness it's not reactive
19:22they're being proactive and that's why they're winning games yeah like your final goal it was you
19:27didn't see like messi constantly trying to shoot the ball on his own he crossed it in and what a
19:31you
19:31know what a way to what a way to win the match so yeah they deserve to be in the
19:35final because of
19:36their resilience as for england the coach will have to take the plane take whatever stick that
19:42comes his way and i hope they can be even better in the europe's he can use this as a
19:47lesson
19:48to win the europe's in two years time yeah because they have a very strong squad i feel
19:53pity for hurricane because they're at the right time with the best right now also if hurricane was
19:57sensational throughout the season and if he had gone to the final thing you know he could
20:01have been a ballon to your contender already yeah yeah you cannot contender winner if yeah if that's
20:06thing if
20:10so other than that like is there anything else from the game that caught your eye
20:15any argentina specific tactics which you think they might carry on to the final or
20:19do you feel like they're gonna just wait until the last 10-15 minutes again
20:24no i wouldn't say no i don't think any team is going to be doing that kind of tactic but
20:30against you know if they're going to be facing team like like spain in the final
20:35yeah you better start early you better launch it i think one thing about as they can score early
20:40goals they have done it before the only thing is can they hold on to it and that's that has
20:44been
20:44the issue because they they lose focus right for now back from me they they tend to lose focus after
20:51after scoring the first taking the lead sorry so that has to be improved and i think skaloni will
20:56have a chat with these boys and so on and uh what i like about this argentina team is
21:01they're playing for messi every player is like they want to do this for messi again like let's win
21:06this tournament for him again did you see how they all rallied to him exactly that shows how
21:12how the bond is within the team like the players don't have egos at all they're like i want to
21:16help
21:16this guy to win a second tournament and you know what let's end this debate this guy is the greatest
21:21of all time they have their kind of minds they know so they can't say anything that's go against him
21:25because yeah they can't so because of his stature and so on yeah yeah so i guess that's a wrap
21:34for
21:34today we are on our next episode we will be discussing the finals and you can talk more about this
21:38there
21:39so well thanks again saktish for breaking things down today always a pleasure having you guys on
21:45and we'll be back with our final preview uh this has been the sas podcast i'm rahul thanks for watching
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