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Spain complete their masterpiece as the Star Sportcast's T. Rahulesh, T. Avineshwaran and S. Saktesh reflect on the final, the heroes, and the moments that made World Cup 2026 unforgettable.
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NewsTranscript
00:09welcome to the stars podcast i'm your host rahul and we're at the end 104 matches all done and
00:15spain are the champions with me to discuss as usual we have our boys avi and saktish
00:21how's it going guys good good how are you doing good good it's finally over we're running on
00:29adrenaline at the moment yeah a lot of coffee did you manage to sleep a couple hours after the
00:36couple of hours yeah same about two three hours digest what we saw yeah or lack of what we saw
00:42did you manage to stay awake during the game sorry did you manage to stay awake during the game
00:48right so uh i guess we'll just start with the game before that first because we had one more game
00:56which we all dismissed initially as uh who wants to play the third place third place fine like
01:01playoffs right but to be fair that game was way more entertaining you mean you mean the real final
01:06yeah the real final that's the real final yeah six four scoreline that's that's a final like 10 goals
01:11god what a game that was okay i think one of the one of the things we talked about before
01:16was how
01:17you don't usually remember who finishes third this one is going to be remembered for a while it was
01:23yeah i i loved it i loved every minute of it yeah for the neutrals i think it was good
01:29entertainment
01:30value with a number of goals and so on but uh if you look at a footballing perspective i think
01:35the
01:35gaffers would be disappointed defensively both sides weren't doing very well especially
01:40fans i was quite disappointed with konate cherk a few of the players like they were not committed
01:46during the game and uh england capitalized on those uh spaces those loose movements and so on and
01:54uh yeah usually third and fourth placing games are entertaining you'll have lots of goals this
02:00particular one is more of you know what let's just keep the fans happy and all that but the coaches
02:04would be really angry that we allowed so many goals to go in um but yeah it was a good
02:12game and
02:12then uh i feel sad for all he's saying because he had a number of chances to actually equalize to
02:18wicked 4-4 and i think the the game would have been different he took it quite hardly as well
02:23he didn't
02:23score any in the world cup right yeah he didn't score anybody he had 20 shots he had 20 shots
02:30and
02:30not one squad but he had seven assists so in that sense i think he was really disappointed and if
02:34they
02:34gave me a two really good chances and i'm like it was if it was the only say in bayern
02:39that would have
02:39been in right so yeah but yeah what a what a third i think also added with it's england and
02:46france like
02:46you know long long not just in football but the countries themselves as well it's a love-hate
02:51relationship i guess but this one just made both sides go yeah that was a good game even for a
02:57lot
02:57of france fans were like that was a good game it was it was fun to watch and you could
03:01see mbappe
03:01smiling and then when sakas caught the penalty so mbappe's reaction was quite telling like you know
03:06i'm finally this guy banished his demons in front of i mean when it comes to penalty during knockout
03:11games and all that so yeah all in all it was a entertaining game and yeah i saw lots of
03:16smiles
03:17also so that's what football is all about as an arsenal fan i'm sure you were smiling as well
03:21like rice scored sakas got my concern right now is can that be replicated when the season starts my
03:29concern is fitness right now yeah the sakas got a hat-trick and then rice's goal was a perfect
03:35perfectly placed goal i mean it was really good but he was able to do so because of the amount
03:40of
03:40space given by the french defenders but yeah as an arsenal fan yes i'm happy but the concern is
03:47right now when the season starts how are these players going to go my real concern is alibar
03:51how long he's going to be out do you think there is something between sakas and the coach though
03:55because he didn't start any of the games before that right i don't was it purely like fitness i think
04:00it's purely fitness and tactical because sakas had an achilles injury before coming in yeah but when
04:06sakas said that he could have played but he wasn't selected i guess the coach was trying to
04:09preserve him thinking that the game could go into an extra extra time yeah so that could be
04:16like like we mentioned like we spoke alluded a week almost a week ago that uh to cheryl should
04:24have done his uh tactics much better instead of going defensive but yeah uh yeah they played third
04:31fourth they won they got the bronze and highest ever finish since 1966 yeah yeah in in foreign
04:38soil yeah yeah outside of yeah outside of england yeah so but let's touch on the boys in blue then
04:44even though they lost kilian mbappe still managed to get his record right he's got two goals he's now
04:49the top scorer golden booth total how many goals is 22 yeah he got 10 in this tournament this tournament
04:5610 uh overall 22 yeah yeah so talk a bit about him and another maybe two more world cups you
05:02can go
05:03for two maybe i mean i mean that record is going to be his for some time for a while
05:07for a long time
05:08given how he he is and and given how they keep adding more games like he's going to have more
05:13chances
05:13two you're already anticipating yeah i mean partly of you know records being broken this world cup is
05:19the addition of games but we obviously wouldn't see a reduction in numbers of world cup i'm guessing we
05:27are somewhat hoping we don't see an addition as well but if it's the same number again we're yeah
05:34it's definitely going to go more but uh like you said it's going to be mbappe's for a while i
05:38feel
05:38speaking about kilian i'm going to put this on record he is a world cup great yeah he is a
05:45world
05:45cup great i mean people are going to say messi this i don't know it's kilian the number of goals
05:50he scored the tournament he won in 2018 and he has another chance to win another tournament
05:54kilian dictator starts playing in the background and zidane is going to be the coach and i believe
05:59the team is going to be better in terms of the way they attack as a team right now they're
06:06devastating i think under zidane will be even more um deadly deadly so yeah i want to watch and i
06:13think kilian we are living in kilian's world now right now yeah that's the dictator that's what i
06:20think that's one of my favorite things from the world cup also the music how the music and how he
06:26that character has become part of you know the the law of kilian mbappe yeah the memes are fully
06:32flowing throughout this whole tournament yeah it was funny but some were also toxic yeah there's
06:40obviously a limit to it you joke about it and all it's fun and games but actually one i hope
06:44somebody
06:45asks will ask mbappe whether he knows about these memes or not and how does it feel to be called
06:51a
06:54meditator and all that i mean like i just hope he focuses on the on the pitch yeah i think
07:01you
07:01need to bother about all these now you'll focus on what needs to be done in real especially the new
07:06coach and there's one title that he still wants to win which is the championship so yeah all right if
07:14he's able to do that yeah i mean he is a great like there is no denying no denying so
07:21let's move
07:21on to the final now but as the controversy was before the final about the halftime show and how
07:27long that was going to be let's just start there what did you guys think of it you have fun
07:31watching
07:31it no not really biebers bieber fans beliebers no i totally fun part for me i mean okay it was
07:39fine
07:40but sorry to check you know what made me happy not even the halftime show beyonce
07:47yeah and jay-z yeah and no beyonce but after that i like after that they were just having jay
07:53-z
07:53playing in the background i'm like it's kind of cool to have but overall it's like shakira part
07:58was fine because it was a world cup thing and it was the vibe it was kind of linked to
08:02it the
08:03and then the message of left that i thought was okay sure but i felt i was no when the
08:08love thing
08:08came out i looked at it and went kind of hypocritical from fifa but sure um you know
08:14and given the whole thing about everything in the world cup i'm like maybe how iran was treated
08:19how are some things a lot of things and certainly i would always say love unity and all that i'm
08:22like
08:23yeah but for the kids i appreciate it just felt but everything else in all honesty if this was a
08:29half-time show where it usually is in the super bowl or anything like that fine no issue for football
08:36it felt a bit out of place that's all it's fine as a show on its own but putting it
08:40into world cup
08:40felt a bit out of place but at the same time you can also just kind of brush it off
08:46being like
08:47this is the host culture how sports in the us is it's all about fanfare commercials and you know all
08:53these these kind of things if you're gonna have vuvuzelas in south africa and every every country's thing
08:59in their thing this is them having their own flair in it do i want to see it again probably
09:06not no i
09:06mean it's commercialized yeah super commercialized that we have to agree maybe just like if if like
09:12you know if shakira makes the official world cup song perform that at the start of the game and then
09:20half time just makes it very and it was almost half an hour like they said they said it was
09:25about
09:25it was longer because they needed to bring the thing on the field and then take it off like
09:29it took some time everything is being done because the ticket prices they want to add more entertainment
09:33which i which i feel like it's stupid no to be to be to be i mean brutally honest about
09:41it and food
09:42for footballing reasons or so i pity the players because it's a long break yeah it's a long break
09:4715 minutes is perfect or added hydration breaks already already yeah always stop starts correct
09:52like usually coaches will take about five to ten minutes to talk and then the five minutes place
09:56will you know settle down talk about themselves but it's more like is it going to be done what's
10:03happening what is happening yeah is it going to be over you know the players are going to have those
10:07kind of questions and it will affect their performance actually because one has to know that football is
10:12not also it's not only physical technique but it's also mental yeah so when you're impacting that it's
10:18going to i hope the players will have to say after this saying that i don't want this anymore i
10:23feel
10:23it's fine if you again put it in its usual environment which is like the super bowl american
10:29football is a game that start stop start stops there are intervals so the pace of the game is very
10:34different to have a half-time show it's it flows well yeah granted the final wasn't super exciting in
10:41the first half but imagine if this was like but england france playing in the final it will not
10:46that half-time show would have annoyed a lot of people because you're like we just watched four
10:51nil from england and then you're making us watch this yeah but if you have to do half-time shows
10:55just keep it ten minutes enough yeah sure enough i guess have two people yeah yeah you're not against
10:59the show to have a yeah you can have a show but change the rules it's definitely done for commercial
11:04reasons yeah it's for neutral fans who don't want to watch the football it another incentive and you had
11:08an opening show and a closing show so there's three shows in between also the game started five
11:13minutes late because of the hyping i do not know why this why it was there i mean tom cruise
11:18needed
11:19to be there man american sports it's yeah they're the host nation so they can do whatever they want
11:24now we can't complain i guess okay so let's move on to the actual game now like how did you
11:31find it
11:31because personally i found it very underwhelming i thought argentina was were too passive they they
11:39barely attacked they barely did anything they were not they look clueless basically everyone
11:44would let out a collective sigh when you ask them how was the final it's like yeah that was sure
11:50yeah
11:50it was a final i guess nothing to the only things to highlight and note back is the lack of
11:57effort
11:57from argentina you know for me it was it it's like hard white laser into my brain of seeing the
12:02stats
12:03you know spain with 12 shots on target and you know 11 shots or whatever it went up to 20
12:0820 yeah at
12:09that point and then argentina had zero yeah 21 i think 21 i mean even if it was like four
12:14shots on target
12:15three or whatever like i mean two zero like at least something right that's terrible okay for me personally
12:23argentina the path was there towards greatness you're already in a final right you have one of
12:30the best not one of the best the greatest player of all time there you already said you're going to
12:35deliver it for him we're going to do this for you we're going to do this for you what do
12:39you do
12:41he was he was left stranded he was left stranded it was passive and i also have to blame
12:46scaloni for the choices for the choices he made especially with the substitutions
12:51okay and the game changer for me was lissandro martinez the moment he left the moment he got
12:58out injured i think it was a quadriceps injury i'm not too sure what it was the game change everybody
13:05talks about he's just a center back no he's more than that he plays from the back he gets the
13:09thing
13:09moving and he's very determined like he always goes in hundred percent he does not manage his
13:15like some top players they know that if i want if i want to play longer i have to maintain
13:19at this
13:19level at that level but lissandro is not that player at all that's why you could see he was crying
13:24because
13:25he literally wanted to do something so his for his country and losing him was a blow right and he
13:31was
13:31the game changer and and i don't understand why you brought in otam andy when you have senesi a younger
13:36younger center back otam andy is going to get in your face going to rile you up you don't want
13:41that kind
13:41of play you need some form of calming presence and then he brought in a left back as a center
13:45back
13:46in the second half i was wondering why why aren't you playing senesi lautaro yeah the game changer
13:52i thought he was going to be subbed on but i don't think they showed yeah they showed him warming
13:56up
13:56and then yeah then they did not disappear they decided to say hey let's go defensive but why
14:02then you have to play and then leandro paradis what unheard was he doing he had a really good
14:08tournament that particular game i was wondering what went into he's gonna be he's gonna be remembered
14:13just for this exactly unfortunately yeah why why did he choose violence it but i feel like in contrast
14:20to that and when spain had their goal disallowed it i think a lot of people felt that that should
14:30have
14:30been a goal granted yes it there was a challenge no i mean there was a stomp on his feet
14:34there was yeah
14:35another thing is how spain reacted i really expected them to be like we're not going to
14:41continue playing until you look at the var or make a big protest but they just
14:45immediately got back into attacking that was like i was like well that's really strong mentality
14:50because no player stood and argued they just said no goal okay we go arguments were there the bench
14:57were arguing and so on but i think in this case i have to credit luis de la fuente i
15:00think he told
15:01his i believe he would have told this to his players be patient our time will come be patient
15:05our time will come they had maturity on the page we are going to do something don't worry if they're
15:11going to be aggressive let them be you just play your football and they did just that they did just
15:17that and i was so happy for ferran torres yeah which we'll talk later i guess but i mean even
15:22before
15:22the goal everyone could feel the goal was coming yeah for spain exactly like there was what so many
15:28chances that martinez was just credit to emmy martinez also he made super saves in 11 or 12 i think
15:33yeah i saw a stat that he made more saves in this game than the spain goalkeeper did the whole
15:37tournament
15:38probably yeah probably yeah unay simon was quite chilling i guess i mean unay simon he was quite
15:44dominant in his own in his own way he was coming out of his box trying to you know cut
15:49in
15:49interceptions emmy martinez made made it less worse for argentina actually yeah yeah i agree
15:55one nil is a it's merciful for argentina given how they play yeah i but i feel like if a
16:01goal had
16:01gone in earlier in the game argentina would have played a lot differently because once the goal
16:05actually went away they started yeah they started yeah exactly a switch went off in messi's head and
16:10he just suddenly wanted to play yeah you know i pretty messy so because in the first half he was
16:14coming
16:14down trying to get the ball i remembered him looking at the midfields asking them why are you being so
16:19passive play forward why do you need to turn back we are here to play a final right so we
16:24could see
16:25that he was really angry and then but his reaction towards the end when he sat down yeah it felt
16:31like
16:32i've completed everything i've done my best i'm just gonna enjoy yeah he wasn't like he was emotional
16:40but he was like wow i've done all this in my life yeah that kind of feeling but i thought
16:45the one where
16:45he tried to get kukurella sent off was a bit a bit much it was like kukurella like
16:52invariant he just put his hand up yeah he's like you know i think kukurella was like oh okay i'm
16:57not
16:57supposed to do that he didn't even cover like so much he just like had very but it was just
17:01one of
17:01those like it felt like you know kids in school would be like teacher he's look look exactly that's
17:07but messi was trying to take his opportunity and i get referee was good yeah referee was good didn't
17:15leave any room for anyone to be like oh that's not the one thing i felt like it was just
17:20that that
17:20disallowed goal i think there was a vr review but there was contact though so there was but i think
17:27they
17:27should have put it up for people to see it because a lot of viewers we didn't get to see
17:31the vr review
17:32of them looking it back he could have announced to the crowd which was i felt like such a crucial
17:37moment you kind of brush it out under but again credit to spain because they also just like forget
17:41it let's keep going spain's football spain's football was good they knew they knew what they were doing
17:46the ball was in there yeah and also the fact that they brought in nico and all that you
17:50shout out nico william he's a good like very very very smart in that kind of position like to do
17:57that
17:57like yeah so let's talk about faran torres then oh what a player i mean even before his goal he
18:03had
18:03a few chances where he came close and he was trying he had one disallowed for offside after that as
18:08well
18:08like he seemed on it and he seemed to be he seemed to have what argentina were lacking basically i've
18:15been following him since his days in metro city and then after they moved to barcelona when he went to
18:19barcelona he had depression because he could not score goals regularly but he's a very good player his
18:25movement his awareness his sharpness up front is superb but the goals weren't coming and for any
18:32striker it's going to hit you like what else am i supposed to do to get the goals sometimes people
18:39say it's composure it's clarity and so on when he came on i actually told one of my friends is
18:45he
18:45going to score is he the player that's going to bring spain the title when he scored i was emotional
18:54because of what he went through as a player and i felt that that was his moment to say that
18:59hey
18:59after this i'm going to keep squaring goals regularly he was good he was trying really hard his combination
19:05nico williams with lamin was brilliant so shout out to him he deserves that moment and i hope he gets
19:14even better when he rejoins barcelona during pre-season and also during the season because
19:20now they don't have robert lawandowski so they need a striker to turn up and i think ferran should
19:24take that opportunity to say that hey i will be your number nine i was happy that it was nico
19:31williams
19:31who gave the assist so i mean granted it was sort of a block from emmy martinez but before that
19:37it was
19:37nico williams shot after he was trying really hard the goal that this was this one was his right
19:43yeah yeah and yeah spain's last few attacks was just you could see the desperation in them even
19:50ferran also when he scored that second goal which was i mean his second goal just disallowed
19:56at that moment i was like finesse the ball show that you can be
20:00uh butcher and he did that very well and it was closer yeah it was offside by very very close
20:06it's
20:06like he had all the weight just yeah yeah he was he was like playing normal sunday football
20:11sunday football or some taman football yeah yeah i was happy for him la brilliant brilliant
20:19so rodri got the um best player of the tournament right so do you think he deserves it or is
20:25it just
20:25because spain no one deserves it yeah i think he deserves it you know why because i just had this
20:30thought leo had him had an impact but in terms of consistency in terms of diving the team forward
20:38in terms of maintaining a tempo rodri has been doing that throughout the tournament so he deserves it
20:44yeah and it's a recognition for midfielders la you know we're beginning to value their role in a
20:51football game yeah yeah i think messi also would agree that he deserves that award la despite not having
20:58any goals and assists he showed like he can still control the game exactly yeah so like okay some
21:04quickfire questions okay like you are deciding okay best young player of the tournament kubarsi
21:10hands down alongside laminia alongside for me it's kubarsi but yeah kubarsi you know why because i'm
21:18a defender and i don't care i want him to win but he did well he did well okay best
21:23goalkeeper
21:25yeah
21:25volenia and simon volenia yeah volenia safe in that first game it's still in my yeah
21:32right volenia and simon as well yeah you know volenia i would say volenia la volenia okay
21:38while being on the top of your goalkeeper's best safe
21:41diego costa double safe against spain yeah volenia safe against spain in the nil nil draw
21:51where he's airborne yeah best goal oh sydney sydney cabral yeah for sure this that yeah but
22:01another goal that i really like was he haiti's uh wilson isidaw against morocco what a goal what a
22:07whack i think sydney's one just because of what it meant to come yeah that was what it meant to
22:11come over and what it meant to him him yeah and let's take the trophy out of the equation best
22:17team
22:18spain spain spain after the final yeah spain if it wasn't included in the final i'll still go
22:26france honorable minus the semi-final game honorable mention is caba wedi yeah they did well i think
22:35they're the people's champion people yes definitely yeah so guys how would you sum up the world cup
22:43can be one word or one sentence which is i think one thing we've always still repeated is all the
22:49underdog stories like you just mentioned like cabo verde or volenia and all that but it's uh i think
22:56i like how every team's journey was very different some even though don't you don't make it out of the
23:01group stage you're happy because you you take cabo verde you take um all the smaller ones carbon
23:07they made it out but look at norway going back full smiles but then you have teams who go out
23:13the next stage are full tears so everyone's there for different reasons and i guess the bar for every
23:21team is different but i like seeing how a loss going out doesn't mean it's over it's it's a celebration
23:27of something like not like norway is a good example cabo verde is another good example just because they're
23:32out it's it's it's a start of something and buying all the other chaotic stuff in the world cup that's
23:38that's the takeaway i would like to remember yeah i would like to say that players and coaches how vocal
23:44they are how unified they are in their voice against cruelty against unfairness and especially the
23:55treatment of certain teams in the tournament officiating that shows that these people are willing to go out
24:01there willing to risk a fine to ensure that the sanctity of the game is preserved and i think
24:06more needs to be done everywhere around the world including malaysia i personally feel that at the end
24:15of the day the football assets are the players coaches and the fans yes the elites will say we have
24:20the
24:20money we have this we have that we have the infrastructure and so on we provide this and that
24:24but why are you providing that who is your asset you have to focus on them and i think that
24:31world cup this world cup has shown that you see when trump went to the dais he was booed
24:38they just went about with their business sorry what did you say no i think like the moment of the
24:42tournament was when trump tried to stay on while he while roddy left i was expecting that to happen
24:47and roddy just like remember what happened with chelsea right i mean i was low-key expecting it to
24:51happen and it did but yeah but credit to rodry though he he told trump to move off but because
24:56it was their
24:57moment and yeah i think this elites especially even in i think infantino now would realize that
25:02voices are getting louder i think to see trump standing there and then in front you don't try to
25:07constantly move him away and then he's laughing in awkwardness yeah put hanging up in the museum man
25:12so in that sense i think yeah i think the assets are beginning to make their noise and it should
25:20be
25:20louder it should be intensified and it should happen everywhere around the world yeah and yeah i mean
25:27when spain won everybody said that they are yeah they are they have with palestine they want to free
25:32palestine and all that those narratives are to me is is nice to watch and i hope it continues not
25:39just
25:39in the world cup but in every tournament in every football tournament yes okay so on that note i think
25:46we
25:46can wrap this up and thank you as always for joining me here and uh chayin our other hosts and
25:54thank
25:54you for having us yes yeah they were putting up with us for a long list of guests and like
25:59we always
25:59chose you guys because you guys thank you everyone for being on yeah thank you for yeah thanks everyone
26:04for the support as well um we hope you had a good month full of football and uh continue enjoying
26:11the
26:11game and we will join you at the next big tournament this has been rahul and this is sportscast
26:16thank you
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