The end of a historic World Cup Cinderella story — and the makings of an epic Argentina–France final

I think it's just because I've just finished watching the joy on the French faces on the TV, Brendan. I'm envious. I'm deeply, deeply blooming, envious.

[LAUGHS] I know.

Thanks.

I know, Rebecca. And I think it's really good that you're in touch with your emotions. but we care not for the losers anymore, Rebecca.

From Apple News and Meadowlark Media, I'm Brendan Hunt.

And I'm Rebecca Lowe. And this is "After the Whistle."

Reminder. There will be adult language.

The whistle has blown, Morocco have fallen to France, and Kylian Mbappé will now face Leo Messi in the World Cup final. We're gonna talk about it!

That's it! We're focused. We're excited. We're starting. Let's go!

Hello, Brendan. How are we?

I'm all right though I feel a bit of an absence in my circumference because I believe you are no longer in the sunny climes of California.

Do I seem far away? Do I seem far away?

[LAUGHS] Thank you for simulating that in an audio fashion.

I thought it would help the listener. I'm in London. I took the flight last night with the family over from California to London as we build up to the return of the Premier League. But before that, a family Christmas.

Oh, very nice. We have our finalists. It's still only four, but you know, we know where the two of the four go and where the other two of the four go. And Morocco's exhilarating, embracing journey has, for the most part, come to an end.

And they put up a really good fight. The game against France, although France called so early, goodness me, France, you know, I dunno whether it's the arrogance slash confidence, Brendan, of being the world champions right now. They just don't really look flustered. I mean, they allow Morocco to come at them like they did with England, but they still just soak it all up. It was just tackle after tackle in the box, just outside the box, out for a corner, out for a throw in. They just seem to hardly ever feel to me to get breached by Morocco. But Morocco played really, really well. How did you feel it went?

Yeah, I mean, I think Morocco, their defense has been so good for this entire tournament. And then they wobbled in the first four minutes and you know, once France goes up in the fourth minute, I'm sorry, but it's over at that point. I mean, you know, Morocco has a ton of good enough players. They could nick one, but I just had a great, great fatalistic feeling at that point. You know, apparently, Morocco had to make a lineup change at the last minute right before the match started. That was partially to get Saiss in there and like Saiss has been so instrumental for them. But then 20 minutes later he has to come out, you know, and was him being limited partially why they gave up the goal in the first place. But yeah, once they're down one nothing, then it's kind of over. And weirdly like for the rest of the way, again, if you buy the sort of narrative that had come in that like Morocco's defense is what's gotten them here. All of their defending the rest of the way looked desperate. You know, it looked like last second flailing tackles all over the place, whereas their attack looked dangerous, you know, up until the final ball for the whole rest of the game. So it wasn't-- I feel like it wasn't the Morocco that we were told we were gonna see, but you give up a goal of France in the fourth minute and it's fatal.

And actually the way they gave up the goal as well was pretty un-Morocco from what we've seen so far. It was just terrible defending.

It's Bush League.

Even for that opening goal.

Yeah. Which, you know, speaks to perhaps just the scope of the occasion landing on them all of a sudden, you know. And then like, my heavens, that felt like a 99% Morocco crowd in that stadium. They were so behind them, that must have been so exhilarating and overwhelming. And, I know that they've been getting good support this whole tournament, but it was something else today.

Yeah. There was a chance right near the end where they were pushing to try and get one back, you know, to then make it a super nervy last five minutes. And the crowd were just, like you said, almost overwhelming. And I think that in situations like that, it can go one or two ways, can't it? It can either go all negative or it can go all positive. And I think maybe-- Whilst for them, as you were saying earlier in the season on this podcast about playing with house money. For Morocco today, it was a free hit. No one expected them to beat the world champions. But then to have your 90, I think 90 percent, of the fans behind you in the stadium, that's like a home game. So then you do have an advantage. But then if you can't use it, because maybe those players aren't well, they're just-- They're not, are they, those players are just not used to getting to the semi-final of a World Cup and then playing with 90 percent in a stadium of your own fans, it can then almost have an adverse effect, you know. I thought that, at one nil down, brilliant reaction, I thought they reacted really well to going one nil down. And it kind of forced them actually to come at France being one nil down. I think they should have had a penalty, Brendan. I dunno what you felt with the Boufal and Hernandez coming together in the penalty box. When you saw it first off, it was hard. You know, I don't blame the referee for this particularly in the first instance, but on the replay, I mean, Boufal got a yellow card. He certainly shouldn't have got a yellow card. I actually think he should have got a penalty. But in the BBC studio at halftime, it's really interesting 'cause I'm now watching the English coverage being over here, Alan Shearer, famous striker, thought it wasn't a penalty. Rio Ferdinand, famous center half, actually thought it was a penalty. But there you go. That's football right there, isn't it?

Yeah. I mean, Boufal certainly wasn't putting up much of a stink about it when it happened, you know, he just kind of walked away and took the card, which made it sort of done and dusted for me. But I do love when Shearer and Ferdinand disagree. That's delightful. That's great, great, great fun when the defender and the striker just don't see to eye

[LAUGHS] And it's also so interesting as well because they have so much time. On British television, if you're watching BBC's coverage of the World Cup, because it's split between the BBC and ITV over here. This semi-final was on the BBC. 'Cause there's no commercials on the BBC. So they get 15 minutes at halftime to discuss the game. I mean, the amount of analysis and depth that they can go into. And they had Didier Drogba there and the studio with them. I mean, what a three-- It's just amazing. I mean, wow, to have 15 minutes at halftime of a football match to talk about that football match is pretty special. Anyway, what also almost was pretty special was just before the break El Yamiq with the overhead kick, which I think was a Lloris save, Brendan.

It was, yeah. He got a finger on it that pushed it against the post it, you know, I think it would've hit the post anyway, but could have gone in very easily. That was thrilling. That was a hurrah moment. But, the cruelty of the margins of the World Cup, the fantasy just never ever quite happens. I just wanna spare a moment for Theo Hernandez. You know, starts the tournament on the bench, behind his brother, Lucas. And then in the 12th minute of the opening game, Lucas tears his ACL. Theo is summoned in. And now here he is the semis scoring the winner in the fourth minute. That's… That is also the rollercoaster of football for you. You know, the, the hero's gotta come outta nowhere, but on top of that, it was his brother who went down. That's kooky pants to me.

I know. And the whole-- Just siblings at a World Cup always blows my mind. Just having any family members at World Cups, you know, I think when Thuram came on and looked really good, by the way, son of Lilian Thuram, the great Lilian Thuram from the France World Cup-winning team of 1998. And he looked really decent when he came on. That whole thing. You know, the passing down the genes. I mean, imagine having two kids good enough to play in the France squad at a World Cup. Imagine that. Just, it's amazing. It's just amazing to me. Absolutely incredible. Apparently, Jude Bellingham's younger brother is coming up fast by the way. You heard it here first. Yeah, he plays for Birmingham City, where Jude Bellingham started. I think he's two years younger. But apparently he's coming up fast. Just, just amazing how these--

Just wait till you see Paxten Aaronson.

Oh, I have!

Paxten Aaronson's gonna blow your mind.

He is good. We interviewed him at the fanfest. He came to visit and he's made his move, hasn't he, to Frankfurt. So I've got my eyes on Paxten Aaronson, but, Brenden Aaronson needs to actually play first for us to then talk about Paxten Aaronson. But anyway, that's another conversation. Maybe we'll ask Gregg Berhalter when he guest stars on the pod. Maybe next weekend. Let's talk about Mbappé, shall we, Brendan? How did you feel he get on today?

He had some good moments. He seemed to be playing for a call a little too often. And it backfired on him because, you know, particularly there was one in the 50th minute he had that-- I mean, that was a hall of fame run down the left touchline. We call that a touchline. I wanna make sure I use the term. I don't wanna say sideline and offend you.

It's a touchline. It's a touchline. It's not a sideline.

Incredible run down the touchline being pursued with great focus from Amrabat. And Amrabat gets all the way to the end line and tackles them, gets ball… Byline, byline. But see, that's what a reporter uses to show that they wrote the story. It's confusing. Confusing. But again…

[LAUGHS] Spelt differently.

One word can mean two things and one thing can have two names. But a great-- I thought a great tackle by Amrabat and trailing leg, sure. But then he got the ball. He got the ball. Rebecca!

Brendan, it was one of the best tackles of the World Cup.

Okay, great, great, I thought you were mad.

Oh, God no. But then five minutes later, a horrible tackle on Mbappé where the tackle, he gets studs, raked down his shoelaces, literally has his shoe laces torn by the tackle and gets no call because the referee had sort of grown weary of watching Mbappé go down. But I don't wanna rush us past that first tackle by Amrabat. Please continue.

No, I thought it was great. Especially the later we get in the tournament. You know, as we say on the American football fields around the country, all the way down to little league, you gotta let 'em play. Every now and again, you gotta let him play to a point. And this ref was letting them play and I thought that was good. But again, he did miss a pretty terrible on Mbappé five minutes after this great tackle.

Yeah that is certainly the risk that you run. What about Mbappé's assist for two nil, by the way? A little lucky that the ricochet went where it went in order for it to be two-nil. But, I mean, can I rewind? I can't rewind on a hotel TV. I'm like sitting there saying, "Can I-- I need to see that again." It was just, just beautiful, wasn't it? The way he goes in the box and moves and turns and twists and oh…

[LAUGHS] His close control is really incomparable. I mean, it's almost as good as Giovanni Reyna. It's fantastic stuff. But, also that the goal was scored by the guy who had come on like 15 seconds earlier. You know, stand up Didier Deschamps, well done and more importantly stand up Randal Kolo Muani. But that was a pretty thrilling little moment. And he played it off like, "Yeah, yeah, this to the World Cup semi-finals, 15 seconds after my first appearance in a World Cup. NBD. Come celebrate with me if you like. You know, I'm not gonna celebrate that much."

[LAUGHS] NBD, thanks Didi. Actually just to go to that, those substitutions that he made, not just the goal scorer after 15 seconds that you pronounce a lot better than I would, but the way that he moved Mbappé into the middle when he took Giroud off, for me, that worked beautifully. His subs worked beautifully. And dare I say that is what separates elite managers from good managers. It's the in-game management; it's the substitutions you make in a World Cup quarter or a World Cup semi-final or a World Cup final in the second half that will give you the victory or send you home. And Didier Deschamps, yes, he's had the experience of winning a World Cup before, but his tactical nous in that last 30 minutes is why France now, for me, are in the final.

And I mean, in Regragui's defense he didn't even get a chance to make those kind of strategic substitutions because, you know, his back was against the wall from literally before the game started, as guys were dropping. When you have to make a first half substitution, you know, based on injury as well, like, oh, it impinges your ability to make those choices later that Deschamps still had the ability to make. A word for Morocco because it'll feel horrible today. But they've done something very, very special and rare. There are only eight countries that have won the World Cup, only eight ever. And besides those, there have only been five who made the final and haven't won it. And after that there's only another 12 that have made it to a semi-final. So 25 countries in all the world that have even made it to a semi. And Morocco is the 25th so good on them. It is an achievement even if it won't feel that way right now

Here, here. And I think they've also probably garnered themselves a whole bunch of new fans, not just in their home country, but probably around the world. There's a lot of people's second team heading into the next World Cup in 2026. So yeah, I agree. Well played, Morocco.

So we have, as we say, our finalists and as so often happens in the World Cup, the Cinderella is no longer with us. It is a clash of the titans. It is the mighty Argentina and the mighty holders France. Each trying to get their third World Cup title.

Well, Brendan, I would like Argentina to win this one purely and only because of Messi, as we have discussed over the course of this podcast. And now they're playing against France who knocked England out, I even more want Messi to lift the World Cup. I would be fascinated to know the odds the night before, you know, from the bookies whose favorite, I think that might be quite difficult one to call. I don't think if France play the way they've been playing in the last few games by giving that amount of space to the opposition, whether it be England, whether it be today, Morocco. If they give that amount of space to Argentina, I'm not sure that game plan will work. But we're talking about Didier Deschamps, who knows a game plan. I'm sure he has plenty of plans and ideas to deal with Messi and Argentina. I'm still gonna go with Argentina. I think the overriding feeling I have, and I'm sure this will change over the next few days, I think it's just because I've just finished watching the joy on the French faces on the TV, Brendan. It's one of-- And I'm not ashamed to say this, I'm not ashamed. I'm envious. I'm deeply, deeply blooming, envious. And I was looking at those France fans and I was like, goodness, you've had something like eight semi-finals, you know, you're world champions. Well done, have some credit. Great, but give someone else a chance. I just want it. I just want it so bad what they've got this week. So bad, Brenden. Not ashamed of that.

I know, I know, Rebecca.

Thanks.

And I think it's really good that you're in touch with your emotions, and I think it's really brave that you share them with us in this way. I think you're gonna help a lot of other people be equally honest with their emotions because they'll follow your example. But we care not for the losers anymore, Rebecca. The PSG versus PSG part of it is pretty great. I mean, I don't really love that they're both on the same club team. I don't think it's great when three of the five best players in the world are all on the same team. That's probably not really good for the sport. But now they get to go at each other, adds a level of intrigue that I think will be great.

[LAUGHS] It does it, it does, it does. Especially with Mbappé looking the way he is looking and with a chance to win his second World Cup before Messi's even, you know, won one. That is of course, all that we're gonna see between now and Sunday is gonna be a photo divided in two with Messi on one side and Mbappé on the other. It's gonna be like no other player exists between now and Sunday. But, you know, that's how it sells, right? That's how they sell it. It's fine.

I mean, it's a bit of a reflection of the game plan, you know? I mean, still no one has stopped either player. I mean, Mbappé hasn't scored now for two games, but, he's been influential nonetheless. I mean, it is the best player of the last 20 years with the best player of the next 20 years. And frankly, the mantel may have already passed as to which one is currently better. It's great. You know, you don't see generations line up like this very much. I mean, I can't think of a final that Pele ever had where he was facing the next generation. When Ronaldo, R9, the Brazilian Ronaldo, won in 2002. You know, he played a Germany team that wasn't the Germany team of old, you know, Michael Ballack was the best one there, there was no passing of the torch or keeping of the torch to be done there. So yeah, I can't think of a time when that has come up.

Zinedine Zidane in 2006. I don't remember Zidane having to play against an Italy team which had anybody, you know, in that sort of top five in the world. So you're right, it's pretty rare for this to happen. Another reason to really take joy in it. By the way, France right now, as of now, Brendan, France are slight favorites to beat Argentina. Do you go along with that?

Yeah, I think so. Oh, I think they have the deeper squad and they have the actual trophy for what it matters, which I guess is not much. You bring up Zidane, you know, thinking back to '98, you know, Zidane beat Ronaldo there, but I don't think it's quite the same because Zidane was not yet seen as like, "Oh, here's a guy who could be the best player in the world." You know, people thought he was good but no one was saying, "Oh, this guy's gonna be one of the best players in the world," even though he is now unequivocally one of the best players in history. So yeah, this is a very interesting sort of generational nexus. If I may attempt the word nexus. Don't, don't. Nexus? Down on nexus. All right. Forget it. Forget I said anything.

[LAUGHS] No, I said please do. I said please do.

Oh, please do. Oh, thank you. All right. Well, in this nexus are these two players who, yes, it's about generational greatness, but it's also like they are the two players who you can't game plan for. They are the two players who are just gonna, if I if I may use the playground patois of my youth, they're going to fuck up your shit, no matter what you try to do. And it could be fucking chaos, I can't wait. You know, I love at this point of the tournament-- I mean, I hate that there's no Cinderellas left, but I love at this point of the tournament, it will either be nil nil, as it was two World Cups ago, or it will be a chaotic shootout like it was four years ago. I'm excited, I'm excited.

I know, I'm excited. I wanna see my first graphic with their two heads on. Bring it on, wherever it is, I wanna see it. Give it to me now. Billboards, let's see it.

So, Rebecca, as mentioned, you're in London but the reason that you're there is I think is something worth a chat 'cause it's a reminder that, "Oh yeah, right, this World Cup is weird." You know, we're now three and a half weeks into it, so we've sort of forgotten that it's not supposed to be at this time of year. It's supposed to be in summer. It's supposed to end in the middle of July and then for the first time in four years, one gets to go, "Ah, finally no football for a while. I can reintroduce myself to my children and I can weigh my life goals and other things can matter for a little bit." But this World Cup, no, not at all, because the World Cup ends in four days and the Premier League starts eight days after that. And that's insane. We all need a break and we're not gonna get it.

And you know what, even more insane, there's, in England, it's the EFL Cup, formerly known as the Carling Cup, Milk Cup, Rumbelows Cup. Now the Carabao Cup, the League Cup, and they have a round to play in midweek before Christmas. So World Cup finishes Sunday. Tuesday, Wednesday, there are games involving Premier League teams. The football isn't stopping anytime soon. I, for one, am actually very excited. I've been, you know, sitting on my hands, loving talking to you on the pod, but also, I mean, I just love my job. So bring it on, bring on the day, Boxing Day, where I get to the Emirates Stadium at 10:00 AM and I leave the Emirates Stadium at 11:30 PM having brought you all the football from start to finish, I absolutely can't wait. But what's gonna be so interesting is how this World Cup, Brendan, affects the next six months in the Premier League and other leagues, but Premier League for me.

Yeah. Like what degree of fatigue, like, because here's the universe of that a little bit. So like Messi has underperformed at World Cups and people always get mad at him, but always, always, always Messi has played more games during the course of a season than anyone else in the world. And high-octane games as well, the Spanish league, the Champions League, you know, in very beginning all the way to the end. So by the time he gets to the World Cup, he tends to be out of gas more than other players. And perhaps that becomes such a disadvantage that worse players, you know, or what or what have you, are able to have better performances than him. This World Cup has perhaps then been a gift to him. At the age of 35, he's able to play a World Cup only two months, you know, three months, whatever it was, into a season as opposed to at the end of a long, arduous campaign. And perhaps that's been a bit of an equalizer. And finally he's been able to exert himself. But now here we are in the middle of the league season, European league season, and guys are gonna come back exhausted in the middle of the season, particularly the ones who've gone, the deepest.

And that's what I wanna pick up on, Brendan, because I'm not sure it's only the physical side of this that we need to talk about and how it's gonna affect European leagues, but if I look at just the Premier League, I heard Harry Kane do an interview after the game, and of course he said, "I will take this on my shoulders. I'm the captain, it was my miss, but it's gonna take me some time to get over it." That ain't what Tottenham fans want to hear, by the way. And it's not just negative mentality. So you've got Harry Kane and the whole of the England squad, by the way, certainly the England team, let's say 15 of them who are pretty much the ones who were played throughout the World Cup. They're all devastated, they're all super down. So they've gotta raise themselves for the day job. They've gotta get back on it. I think they've been obviously given a week or so off, and then they've gotta get back on it. Phil Foden example, right? Didn't light up the World Cup despite us all hoping he would, that's gonna play on his mind. Okay? Then you got Jack Grealish didn't play as many minutes as he thought he would and certainly as many as he would've wanted. That's gonna play on his mind. Although he's a pretty confident kid. There's all sorts of-- Whatever happened with Ben White had to go home in the middle of it. There's all sorts of negative mentalities as well they have to get over. But there's also then the flip side of that is the players who exceeded expectations. So anyone who went further than anybody else thought and has had the biggest high that they've ever had. Same with whoever lifts the World Cup. The Premier League players from France or Argentina, if they lift the World Cup, I mean, good luck less than a week after you've lifted the World Cup, coming back to training, freezing temperatures in the middle of wherever their training ground is. Talking about Bournemouth next Saturday away. I mean, it's not gonna be easy for these managers to either lift them or bring them down, I think, mentally.

Yeah, we just don't know what effect this mid-season World Cup is gonna have on the actual season. At the moment we don't care 'cause the World Cup, but all these club executives and managers are sitting on their empty benches right now waiting for people to come back and they have to be very, very concerned.

And I think the final word on that, Brendan, is that if the big clubs struggle, which they may well-- Jesus is out for three months, so he can't play for Arsenal and your five points clear at the top of the table. And that is a massive miss. You've gotta go out in January, you've gotta get yourself another striker, at least one. But if the likes of Arsenal lose the title, don't go on and win it, and some of the other big clubs have some funny results, maybe even lose out on a top four place, those owners are going to do everything their right mind, absolutely everything they can do to ensure that a winter World Cup never ever happens again. Because it will happen again, Brendan, because the football itself has been a success. The fact that it's in the middle of winter is not ideal. But it has, in quote unquote worked away from domestic football, it has worked as a tournament and there'll be other countries who are just as hot as Qatar temperature-wise in the summer that can't hold a World Cup but deserve a World Cup or feel they deserve a World Cup. And yeah, we've seen FIFA do it before, they can do it again. So I just wonder if those owners or those clubs do whatever they have to do to ensure it never happens again. Because the negative toll that this could take on the futures of some of these clubs this season, Chelsea, for example, are sitting, what, eighth I think in the Premier League. They're struggling, they've gotta get top four. But if they come back and Ziyech-- Zi-yetch as they call him, we call him Zi-yeck in America… Doesn't play for Chelsea like he's been playing at the World Cup and he kind of goes missing again. And then similar players just-- Sterling just disappears cause he's tired. Chelsea don't make top four, Graham Potter loses his job. Todd Boehly unhappy. It's not why he bought Chelsea, Brendan. So I actually think the effect of this World Cup could be extensive.

Do you think Todd Boehly knows that the World Cup is happening?

[LAUGHS] Yeah. He's asked if they could change it to just four groups of Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City. Harsh harsh. I actually quite like Todd Boehly. I'm alright with him.

Alright then Rebecca, a couple days off here, but before then some final thoughts.

Yeah. What have you got for some bits and bobs, Brandon.

Two things from me. First, circling back to the death of Grant Wahl. Today, his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, said that an autopsy has been conducted by the New York City Medical Examiner's Office and that Grant died of an aneurysm in his heart. So to the people who were crying foul play in the first blush of all this, we can now lay those concerns to rest. But a second piece of news, there was another migrant death reported in Qatar. A man named John Kibue. He was 24 from Kenya. He was working as a security guard at the World Cup and he reportedly fell from the eighth story of Lusail Stadium on Saturday after the Argentina Netherlands quarter-final match. So both he and Grant died in Qatar on Saturday. Now to be clear, those are totally unrelated incidents but it's depressing. This is a World Cup marked with a lot of death and it's just very, very sad.

You said it all. You said it all, Brendan. The only other thing I saw in the news of the last couple of days, which I found quite interesting, was from Martyn Ziegler in "The Times" today, Brendan. And he said that, this is new from him, Manchester City will get four and a half million pounds from FIFA for having 16 players at the World Cup, the most of any club. Every Premier League club, and I would've therefore think every club in Europe, anyone or wherever around the world, any club that gives a player to the FIFA World Cup gets compensated. Four and a half million pounds for 16 players works out as, I don't know, do the maths, I dunno, but a couple of hundred thousand each. And when I read it, I'm kind of keen to get your take on this because four and a half million quid is literally about 3p in Manchester City's bank account. And I'm just not sure that the money that FIFA have made, and I saw according to reports the other day, that FIFA are gonna make over six billion dollars from this World Cup according to reports. Billion, not million, billion. Part of FIFA's remit is to invest back in the game. And you might say, "Well they are, they're giving money to clubs." Manchester City don't need four and a half million pound, they don't need it. Let's redistribute, let's have a little reset. Shall we press a reset button? Could be a good time after this World Cup, FIFA. A little reset button and work out where best that money might be better used. 'Cause four and a half million quid in Manchester City's coffers ain't gonna go to great use.

I don't mind it so much in that the clubs have been bitching for the last at least 25 years about, you know, they are the ones who for the most part pay these player's wages. The players do get country appearance money, but not anywhere near what they get paid for their clubs. And, you know, every once in a while these players that they pay so much for are coming back broken. So the concept of clubs being compensated, I don't particularly mind 'cause it at least shuts them up for a while. But yeah, I mean, you say it's merely, you know-- 4.6 million pounds is merely, I hope I'm having this term correctly, thruppence for Man City but still pretty good for doing nothing.

Well, yes, the flip side of that though is that you're right, they could come back injured but also they come back often with reputations enhanced. Sofiane Boufal, he's gonna get a move. Alvarez, he's now worth a lot more than he was when Manchester City bought him. So at some point, City will reap reward for what Alvarez has done at this World Cup. And he's only just got them started. He's got a World Cup final to come, that's not gonna lower his value. If anything, it'll take it higher, if not keep it at the same. I just think we need to take a step back from this money. And there are flip sides to this. There's both sides of the argument. I get that they're paying the wages, but this is the World Cup. On the whole, it's good for everyone. So we just need to have a little reflective moment on where that dosh is going.

Okay, Rebecca, it's been a pleasure as always. What are you most looking forward to doing in London?

Oh, goodness me. One thing I'm most looking forward to doing is going to the supermarket. Is that weird? I'm sorry. I do love America and everything that it brings, the supermarkets though I do find tricky at times. When I go into Tesco, not an ad, but it can be for the last two episodes. I love a little Tesco Metro. I mean, the options on the crisp aisle are so extensive. You got Mr. Kipling apple pies and malt loaf. Again, not an ad but would like it to be.

[LAUGHS] When we were there in Richmond at the beginning of season two, my partner and my cousin was visiting, went to, I believe Tesco or Waitrose and got every single different flavor of crisp or as they're called in America, chip, that they had never heard of before. The amount of combinations they got people, you're not gonna believe it, it's like shrimp and tomato, but they call the shrimp prawn. There's like prawn cocktail, there's like saffron and gouda.

[LAUGHS] It's got saffron in it, it's an expensive bag of crisps. You definitely went to Waitrose by the way because you ain't getting no saffron crisps in Tesco. Not my local one anyway. Waitrose though, if you do have a little Waitrose near you, I would highly recommend it. Incredible store.

As always, if you're loving the show, subscribe on Apple Podcasts, 'cause we're only here for a few more days. And be sure to rate us and review us, 'cause it does help other people find the last two episodes.

And for round the clock World Cup news plus scores and standings, follow along on the Apple News app in My Sports where available.

And we're gonna be back with more World Cup coverage right here in your podcast feed Saturday with our preview of the big one and our special, Brendan, mailbag episode.

A reminder, well, you've just been reminded because we want you guys to ask us questions. To submit your questions, simply record your question via voice memo on your phone. If you don't know how to do it, ask a nearby five year old, they have it sorted, they adapt so quickly, and email that question to ATW@meadowlark-media.com. ATW, that's short for "After the Whistle" meadowlark-media.com. We'll select a few and answer them on our penultimate show on December 17th. Please keep them to 30 seconds or less and focus 'em on football or just zag. Go hard the other way. Make it like a 30 minute question. It's not about football at all. Just to keep us on our fucking toes.

Tesco, Waitrose$%What's your favorite supermarket? Send us in your questions about that. I'll go shopping for you.