England crashes out of the World Cup in the most heartbreaking fashion possible

Yeah, yeah. It was a drag. So then, what? Hi everybody, I'm Rebecca Lowe. And I'm Brendan Hunt and welcome to After the Whistle, where we are really close to After the Whistle

“at the semi-final between England and Argentina. Who knows where we are location-wise?”

Nobody knows. Don't ask questions. Not even us. And also throughout this episode, we'll be in a number of locations with a lot of different noises. But stick with us, it's worth it. It was raw in and around loads to come, right?

Fun time for everyone. This podcast is brought to you by Verizon, an official sponsor of The FIFA World Cup 2021. No one gets you closer to the FIFA World Cup than Verizon. Here we are, after the whistle, who knows where we're filming? We've just happened to be filming, like, very shortly after the match. Rebecca, this was a bigger day

for you than it was for me, despite my shirt, I'm going to just let you decide to hear what we're going to do. And particularly, do you want to talk to the gamer, do you want to talk about your feelings? Oh, gosh, Brendan, I mean, I've come off air 10 minutes ago when I have to tell you that one hour post game show on Fox was a form of therapy because we had to break everything down. We had to talk about every decision. I had to hear from the guys from the experts and learn what went wrong for England today.

Oh, my God, first of all, I just want to hate this score. It's stupid.

It's the worst. Why are we doing this? I feel like we have this same conversation at the end of every day. That's the thing.

“Oh, God, okay. I think the number up we should go through the game.”

My overall writing thought is when we let it slip through our fingers. If we lost three notes today, random, messy score to hat trick or whatever, I don't think I could have been this sad. For sure. But to have led with four minutes to go. And to have gone to a back five on about the 57th minute and decided to flip and sit in. Yeah, no, no. Yep. All right. So Rebecca was working here professionally. I was just in the stands along with the punters as they say.

And they don't mean fourth down kickers. This was the, this is my 13th game of the World Cup. This was the first match I've been to where it turned ugly just at the anthems. I know. I mean, I wasn't surprised at that. I have to say having witnessed and been in the stadium back in 2005 when England played Argentina.

The last one they met, it was a friendly, but it was anything but they did the same thing that night. So when that happened and the Argentina fans. The booing of the anthem, booing in the Zantham by Argentina first.

So always the question is then, I wonder, what would have happened if the anthems have been going around.

Wooding and the booed Argentina because when they did booed in retaliation, I don't know. Argentina hate England more than England, hate Argentina. But they were still a lot of hate. Let's not lower the hate. For sure. So yeah, right from the start, it was nasty. Yeah.

And by the sidebar, American referee and a semi-final of the World Cup. Big deal is my alphabet. We've talked about before just because you had a better view that overall than I did from sitting again amongst the punters. Just quickly, how was El Flatz game?

“I mean, do you not have yellow cards in the Major League Soccer?”

Can we talk about the first half? Sorry. No, he was trying to keep encouraging his pocket for the most part. 19 fouls, Brendan, two yellow cards. 19 fouls on the first half alone, two yellow cards. I am all for letting the game play out. I am all for that.

But it was a little bit too much for a matey boy. What's his name? El Flatz.

I love the way you always know the rest of the names.

I will never think about him ever again, but there should have been a few more yellow cards. The other way, if this was ever a game, ever a game, the Christian Romero was going to be sent off. It was today. Rest of the health is out about not from that. That's already earlier. Anderson had this amazing tackle on Messi long before the yellow card. And Messi was thrown enough that he immediately had an off-site after where Anderson was kind of dealing for a while.

Before we go for that, how was Messi overall in this game? Because it seemed like he was not that impactful for where I was. So the first I would say 60 minutes, but as soon as England went one nail up, did you notice they moved him out to the right? Which is what Lionel Sclooney does a lot.

So obviously, he plays in that 10 roll and does so much damage. But the minute England went to a back five and sat in there was too much traffic for him. So they put him out to the right hand side where he had space. And that's where he could put crosses in, which led to the end of my life. Well, Rebecca, I hate that we're doing this. I hate that we're doing this.

So do I. But we love our viewers and watches. I mean, like Jed Spence was the first half man in the game of his life.

In the course of a tournament? Never.

No, never. No way. That tackle, I celebrated because that came at one nail. So we were already one nail up when Jed Spence's tackle came in. So Anthony Gordon already put us one nail up. I mean, I lost the run on myself as I said I often do.

“We're one and a lot, 55, I think,ish minutes on the clock. Then Jed Spence.”

With the tackle that I've already screened grabbed a picture of it. I mean, talk about going too early. I stumbled across a picture of it on the social media. Screen grabbed that thing and thought, I'll post that later. Oh, goodness. I'm a car, post it later.

We make it half time Neil Nill. And then my god, Everton, former Everton player. Anthony Gordon puts England up one nail. Easily the shining moment for any Everton player. So far, this world cup.

Former Everton, though, because don't get it. He went to Newcastle alum. Now alum, because now he's gone Barcelona. Of course, of course. And he was in Newcastle in the middle.

Right. And that is the most bossal I've ever seen to do. But you know, you and I are like, you message me after Luca Dean had his shocking pedal to give during the French fame game in the spirit of again, like Everton, former Everton player. Yeah, not having a great roll cup. But here's Gordon stepping up for the toffee's well done after that.

Was the big spent tackle that you're talking about? That's right. The biggest spent tackle of all. Sorry. I jumped at it now.

“The best tackles I've ever seen in a world cup.”

I know, wasn't it? It was incredible. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I celebrated as much for that as I did for the goal. And I have to tell you that I thought that was a turning point.

Because I thought that there, the way that Jets spent celebrate to the tackle was so strong. We were so in the moment. What I didn't realize was we were then going to continue to sit in for the rest of the game. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It was a drag. So then. What? Brendan the FIFA World Cup is now underway.

And it's already going too fast. It's too much. It's too much going on. How do we find purchase anywhere?

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Nice. No one gets you closer to the FIFA World Cup than Verizon. Hey, welcome back. Sorry for that. Suddenly, jarring transition in the middle of a half.

But we were politely asked to relocate here at a mystery location in which we are in scumst. This is one of the most surreal episodes. Then I'm the most surreal episode to walk to the whistle. Thank you for the timing. We now return you to after the whistle. Surely there's been stuck a tattoo, as he's widely known, decides to park the bus.

Oh my god. Every bus he's ever been to. He talks. A fleet of buses, which you'd think would stop everything across in the world. And yet in the 66-minute, Argentina hits the post, which is a bit of a bill weather that post hit.

I forget who it was and hit the post.

“No, I don't remember because of that point.”

Imagine a garage of posted it. I was thinking, that is a goal coming. Everyone knows it around here. What are we doing about it, tattoo? Yeah.

By the 78th minute, according to my notes. Like, there were so many Argentina headers at that point. Like, why? What? Why?

You're in England. And that's Argentina. And you parked the bus. How are there so many fucking headers? And then by the 85th minute, Enzo Fernandez, who had had a few long-distance tries.

Finally, he gets his long-distance try. That gets past pickford. And like, oh no. The most, it's been coming goal of maybe all time, by the way. Because he'd gone to that back five, as I mentioned before.

And as Terri on recent also show, you can go to a back five. And you couldn't sit in for maybe the last five to ten minutes. You can't do that for 35 minutes. That was for me, his biggest error out of everything. Yeah.

That was absurdly early. And it proved to be the case. So that was one one. So then soon, we hit the post again. And like, good Lord.

And then it was a goal. And this one was a header. This one Martinez. And again, like, by that point, Dan burn was in the game.

And like, it's incredible of me that Argentina and Scaloney, the side of like,

Oh, hey, England, you know what we're going to do? We're going to do the thing you think that no one can do to you. We're going to do it. And we're going to do it to you hard. And Latarra Martinez was the winner.

Yeah. So three minutes into soccer time. Unfortunately, having done the game for Fox. Every single minute isn't scribed into my brain, which I really wish it wasn't.

Martinez came off the bench on 81 minutes, right? He scored three minutes into soccer. So I'm sorry.

“There's just a few trains going by right now in this beautiful surrounding that we're in.”

So 93 minutes, game is two one by the way. Messi crossed it with his right foot. Dad, it's on. It's an injury. Good Lord.

Oh, yeah, yeah. At this point, no, I should say, right before that, I made a critical mistake.

Before the first goal, I made a critical mistake.

In the 80s and minute, that first goal. So I made a critical mistake. What did you do? Is this really helpful? I started imagining all of us singing Wonderwall together.

Oh, you did it. I fucked it up. I fucked it up for everybody. Okay. So we know what happens from there.

And then Argentina went to one. So a couple of things. Argentina have just come through these incredibly hard fought matches against. And we thought to themselves like, oh, wow. Argentina have really struggled against lesser opponents.

But I wonder now, there's like, we were focusing too much of these. I was focusing too much on the opponents. As opposed to the fact, like Argentina don't give a fuck. I just need to don't give a fuck. And they will keep on going.

And they are relentless. And that proved to be the point today. Yeah, I mean, they don't know when they're dead today. They don't know when they're beaten. And they're zombies.

They're football zombies. They really are. You said about earlier on in season three. They really are football zombies.

“And I think that today, I thought that maybe they go to that well as Alexa Lala says.”

And it would be empty. And at one point. About five minutes after the goal for this.

Basically for just five minutes.

I thought that for five minutes between Anthony Gordon and the 60 minute mark I thought. Argentina have lost their lives. They've had all their lives and they're out. Oh, my god. They look, they looked frantic.

They looked last for a while there. They did. And then Thomas Tuckel, who was brought in to be brave. He was brought in to make proper good substitutions at the right time, and to make tactical in-game management decisions at the right time.

None of those he did. Brendan, I'm a little bit annoyed about this because I felt like this was his moment. This is why he got the job. That little section of time between 55 and 86 was why he got the job. And for me, he failed.

Yeah. And I know the players went over and they got the accolade and of course because we love the players. And they got the applause. And that's really important because they're also semi-final of a World Cup. You're not everyone can win it.

We get it. He blinks. But I think this is on he buckled. Yeah, he blinks. This is on him.

This is on him. It's not on the players. Yeah. And then after that goal. Like then you're bringing on Rashford and Tony.

Like, oh my god. Too little too late. This is... But also, what if we got an equalizer? And suddenly we have belling on Rashford.

I mean, he would have been like, "Now what do we do?" For Harvard, Iowa. Yeah. It was too cold. What are you doing?

It was a real shame. That's a match. Did you mind if I just... Oh, please, Rebecca. You've more than earned this.

I appreciate that. It's a struggle. I've got to be honest with you. Um, two post match thoughts. One and three.

Really? La Sondro Martinez playing the drums for their Argentina fans. What's rather endearing? Was that when was that? That was after the match you were talking.

And La Sondro Martinez, aka the butcher of Amsterdam. Um, there he was, like, leading the drum for a very long time. Um, for Argentina here... We talked about this a little bit of the last pod. You know, Messi didn't score the last game.

Like his teammates rose up around him. And now here we are again with La Tarma Martinez. And also, as a Fernandez. And now, it feels even bigger than that. It's not just...

It messes teammates leading him... Helping him when he's not able to give his best. But also, now it feels like his teammates ready to move forward and the post messy post de-Maria era. Like a handing over of the baton wall.

The person is still playing with the baton. Not even handing it over, but like, "Hey, let me..." Shazzy? Can I grab that for you? Shazzy?

Shazzy? It's a Shazzy moment for Argentina. And it's... it's... it's massive. Um... Okay, so we get now at Argentina Spain.

The first time ever the World Cup has featured the Raining World Champion versus the Raining European Championship. I'm the Raining World Champion. I'm the Raining World Champion? Shocking.

By the way. Wait, first time it's been... You're a... you're a... You're a... you're a champion versus Copa Championship. I'm the Raining World Champion as well.

Wow. That's a... that's a fun double. The fairly certain of that, fairly certain of that. I'm fairly sure we're going to talk about that before it happens, but like the first blush. It feels like immovable force versus unstoppable...

immovable... immovable object, Spain versus unstoppable force, Argentina. I kind of like the look of this game. I mean, I can't... obviously, I'm sitting in the grieving process. I'm just trying to be re-professional right now to actually care too much about the final.

But since you bring it up, I like the look of it because... Spain swept France away. They swept them away, which before that game,

you and I would never have believed was actually possible.

This France team never. So Spain, doing that, Argentina never knowing when they're dead. We could be... we could be in for a classic. I'm delighted that it's not Argentina France.

“Because I think that last one four years ago”

needs to live by itself. Yeah. I'm really pleased it's not a real match. I really like to talk about the last one. This one is a fresh final.

I fancy Spain, but I was partly because right now I'm hating Argentina for that. Sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.

I get it.

“Also, the first matchup between two Latin language speaking teams”

since '94, being the Portuguese of Brazil and the Italian of Italy.

Okay. That's off the dome, y'all, but I'm pretty sure that's accurate. So we would talk about that as we get towards it. Rebecca's going to have to get on the back of a pickup truck soon, apparently, because she's that kind of girl.

Oh, well, that was fantastic. Yeah, you're going to go all the gates. I'm going to go all the gates. I'm going to go all the gates. Rebecca, so how are you?

How are you getting into New York?

“I think they probably took real good care of you, right?”

I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time.

I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time.

I'm going to take you all the time.

I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time.

I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time.

I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time.

I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time. I'm going to take you all the time.

I don't even know what this is. Who knows? But we love you. Thank you for watching. Sorry about the rawness.

But hey, that's the world cup. We're off to the whistle, right? There you go.

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