# Colin Cowherd & Landon Donovan react to World Cup Draw: Expectations For Spain Star Lamine Yamal? Group I Is The “Group Of Death”

An episode of [The Colin Cowherd Podcast](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1551365571), 9 Dec 2025, 7:22.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/arttrk.com/p/D5CA5/pscrb.fm/rss/p/prfx.byspotify.com/e/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/4013d28e-5f67-4885-bff1-ae3300346830/c3bee931-4eb9-44e8-8677-b3ae002e7624/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=e829cf60-fc06-4d61-8691-ae330034683e

Colin is joined by U.S. Men's soccer legend Landon Donovan and host of the “Unfiltered Soccer” podcast with Tim Howard to preview the 2026 World Cup. They preview Group F led by the Netherlands and Landon explains that while he doesn’t think the Dutch can win it all… they definitely have the talent to do so (:30). Landon explains why Egypt won’t be able to beat Belgium in Group G despite having international superstar Mo Salah (2:00). They move to Spain’s Group H and Landon explains just how prodigal of a talent Spanish star Lamine Yamal is relative to the greatest players in the world (3:15). Finally, they preview Group I, the “group of death” featuring France, Senegal and Norway and break down how talented the current French team is compared to their World Cup winning teams of the past (4:45). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) Follow Colin and The Volume on Twitter for the latest content and updates! #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: The volume. Today's World Cup draw reaction is presented by Haleion,
[0:06] Speaker 1: the maker of Advil, Centrum, Toms, Censedine, and Voltaian. They've
[0:10] Speaker 1: teamed up with US Soccer for the Assist the campaign,
[0:13] Speaker 1: celebrating all the moments of support that make the big
[0:15] Speaker 1: goals possible, because every goal starts with an assist. In
[0:24] Speaker 1: the history of the United States men's national team, the
[0:28] Speaker 1: man you're looking at has the most goals and most
[0:31] Speaker 1: assists in the history of our country. And we have
[0:35] Speaker 1: ourselves a World Cup group f is Netherlands, who of
[0:39] Speaker 1: course knocked us out, dominating performer Japan, Tunisia and a
[0:43] Speaker 1: European playoff winner which could be Poland, Sweden, Ukraine, Albania.
[0:51] Speaker 1: Give me your thoughts on Netherlands going into this. They
[0:54] Speaker 1: were an old World Cup team, an experienced team last
[0:58] Speaker 1: World Cup, which tells me they're probably in a bit
[1:00] Speaker 1: of a transition stage.
[1:02] Speaker 2: A little bit, but they have some young stars. This
[1:04] Speaker 2: is a team that's sneaky that no one's talking about.
[1:07] Speaker 2: I don't think Colin they can. I don't think they
[1:10] Speaker 2: can win it, but they certainly have the ability to.
[1:13] Speaker 2: They have the quality. They have a still probably the
[1:17] Speaker 2: best center back and best defender in the world and
[1:19] Speaker 2: Virgil Van Dejk. They have Javi Simons, who's a really
[1:22] Speaker 2: talented attacking midfielder, and then they just have good quality
[1:26] Speaker 2: all over the field. But they're a little bit one
[1:28] Speaker 2: of these teams that sort of if things go poorly,
[1:31] Speaker 2: it can go poorly and unraveled really really fast. And
[1:34] Speaker 2: France is a bit like that too, just off the
[1:36] Speaker 2: field and emotionally and with the press and the pressure,
[1:39] Speaker 2: it can go bad pretty fast. But they have a
[1:41] Speaker 2: pretty talented team. They have a relatively easy group I think,
[1:45] Speaker 2: although Japan, Japan are really hard to play against. And
[1:48] Speaker 2: then depending who gets in from maybe if it's Poland,
[1:52] Speaker 2: that's a tricky matchup. But Netherlands are a much better team.
[1:55] Speaker 1: Group G is Belgium, Egypt, of course, Mosla, Belgium, Egypt, Iran,
[2:01] Speaker 1: New Zealand. Belgium does everything right, from their chocolates to
[2:07] Speaker 1: their soccer to their beer everything, you know, it's funny.
[2:13] Speaker 1: I've always seen Brazil as sort of an emotional, sometimes temperamental,
[2:16] Speaker 1: highly skilled country. Argentina falls a little bit into that,
[2:20] Speaker 1: but Brazil feels like their own ecosystem. And then I
[2:24] Speaker 1: when I think about Germany. It's kind of powerful, tactical,
[2:32] Speaker 1: robotic at times at times, yeah, right, almost like the
[2:37] Speaker 1: German personality. No it is.
[2:38] Speaker 2: I was just gonna say, every culture has the same
[2:42] Speaker 2: Brazil with the flair and you know.
[2:43] Speaker 1: Right, and so can Egypt beat Belgium?
[2:48] Speaker 2: No, they won't. They won't beat Belgium. Mosala is a
[2:52] Speaker 2: global superstar, he really is. He's right at the end
[2:55] Speaker 2: of his his career. Last year was really a terrific
[3:01] Speaker 2: year for him for club and country. But he's right
[3:03] Speaker 2: at the end. But they just don't have enough talent
[3:06] Speaker 2: around them. But I expect, I fully expect that Egypt qualify,
[3:12] Speaker 2: but I don't think they win this group.
[3:14] Speaker 1: Okay, so group age is fascinating because you have Spain
[3:18] Speaker 1: favored to win it. They won the euro last summer
[3:21] Speaker 1: and they have an eighteen year old star. I think
[3:24] Speaker 1: sixty Minutes just did a piece on Jamal who at eighteen,
[3:30] Speaker 1: by even our team standards, is I mean, the idea
[3:36] Speaker 1: of going to a World Cup at eighteen. It's just
[3:40] Speaker 1: let me ask you, how talented is he in your life?
[3:46] Speaker 1: Where does he where? In Bope's a young Ronaldo Messi?
[3:50] Speaker 1: Where does he rank?
[3:52] Speaker 2: A little bit different in where he plays, but calling
[3:56] Speaker 2: it eighteen. To play in a World Cup at eighteen
[4:00] Speaker 2: is a remarkable feat. He might be the best player
[4:02] Speaker 2: in the tournament at eighteen. Think about that. He might
[4:05] Speaker 2: be between Mbope Messi's now at the end. So you
[4:09] Speaker 2: and Messi's going to do messy things because he's amazing.
[4:12] Speaker 2: Mbope and Jamal I think he would say would be
[4:16] Speaker 2: the favorites to win the Golden Ball, which would be
[4:18] Speaker 2: the best player and he what he has brought to
[4:21] Speaker 2: Spain is Spain historically over the last two decades, has
[4:24] Speaker 2: been a team that loves to have the ball, loves
[4:26] Speaker 2: to have possession, kind of death by a thousand cuts.
[4:29] Speaker 2: What he's done now is he's made them much more.
[4:31] Speaker 2: Oh my life just went on, much more vertical, much
[4:35] Speaker 2: more dynamic, much more direct. And he can get the
[4:38] Speaker 2: ball and make a play by himself. And it used
[4:40] Speaker 2: to be pass past pass past pass, walking into the goal.
[4:43] Speaker 2: Now they can give it to him, run by people, bang,
[4:46] Speaker 2: score a goal.
[4:47] Speaker 1: Okay, group I frant Senegal Norway here we go. So yeah,
[4:53] Speaker 1: this is all time stuff. So you're talking to Bope,
[5:00] Speaker 1: is it? Halland h A A l Holland. This this,
[5:06] Speaker 1: this could be the most spectacular group in If you're
[5:10] Speaker 1: a not a soccer devote but you love excitement, goals, highlights,
[5:16] Speaker 1: this is your YouTube group. This is a very exciting group.
[5:22] Speaker 1: The France, the French history is very interesting so and
[5:28] Speaker 1: again very willing to embrace the star, high expectations in
[5:34] Speaker 1: a way a little bit of a Yankee feel, where
[5:38] Speaker 1: very harsh, very demanding, embraces the star. How does this
[5:45] Speaker 1: French team compare to others who have won the Cup?
[5:50] Speaker 2: I mean as good talent wise they are, the problem
[5:54] Speaker 2: is that their system, why well, they just they develop high, high,
[6:00] Speaker 2: high quality players and athletes. And you have to remember
[6:03] Speaker 2: many many French have African descent, right, so also athletically
[6:09] Speaker 2: and physically, I mean Embappe is a great example. And
[6:11] Speaker 2: there are some just elite, elite athletes in this French
[6:15] Speaker 2: team and they grow up in the French system and
[6:18] Speaker 2: they produce top, top, top class players. The challenge with
[6:23] Speaker 2: France always is it's a bit of sink or swim
[6:26] Speaker 2: with them. So we saw the swim four years ago
[6:29] Speaker 2: in Katar where they get to the final and have
[6:31] Speaker 2: really an opportunity to win the World Cup. But we've
[6:34] Speaker 2: also seen this team fall apart at times in a
[6:36] Speaker 2: World Cup. Off the field, they'll have issues and if
[6:39] Speaker 2: one result doesn't go their way, or they lose to Senegal,
[6:42] Speaker 2: or they tie Senegal, or maybe Norway sneaks by and
[6:46] Speaker 2: wins a game, you'll see this whole thing unravel and
[6:50] Speaker 2: it's fun to watch, it's entertaining to watch. But if
[6:52] Speaker 2: they get it going right, you know Usman, Dambele and Bape.
[6:57] Speaker 2: The quality of talent they have on this team is
[7:00] Speaker 2: probably second to none. Maybe only Spain is more talented
[7:04] Speaker 2: through and through.
[7:05] Speaker 1: Big thanks to Haleion and for the assist, reminding us
[7:08] Speaker 1: that no one scores alone. To learn more of visit
[7:10] Speaker 1: halianassist dot com and follow at for the assist. Every
[7:14] Speaker 1: goal starts with an assist.
[7:19] Speaker 2: The volume

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