# Spencer Hall on Maradona’s Hand of God, Zidane’s Headbutt & the World Cup’s Wildest Moments | 06.16

An episode of [The Right Time with Bomani Jones](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/982639043), 16 Jun 2026, 52 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/370fc844-36bd-4f61-8b8f-b4bb010de39a/bc01af00-1f3e-43a3-9686-b4bb011108d2/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=919a7cbe-003c-4146-b592-b4bb010de3a5

Bomani Jones is joined by Spencer Hall for a Time Machine Tuesday edition of The Right Time to revisit some of the most chaotic, controversial, and unforgettable WTF moments in World Cup history. Bo and Spencer break down Diego Maradona’s infamous “Hand of God” goal against England in the 1986 World Cup, the geopolitical weight behind Argentina vs. England, and why Maradona followed one of soccer’s most blatant acts of cheating with one of the greatest goals the sport has ever seen. Then, they jump to the 2006 World Cup Final and Zinedine Zidane’s stunning headbutt against Italy, discussing how trash talk, pressure, and Italian defensive dark arts helped create one of the most shocking exits in sports history. Plus, Bo and Spencer look ahead to the 2026 World Cup in North America, from brutal summer heat to public transportation problems, stadium naming chaos, and why international fans may not be ready for how big — and inconvenient — the United States really is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Wave ladies and gentlemen welcome to the right time a
[0:11] Speaker 1: wave original my name is bomani jones thanks for listening
[0:15] Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast thanks for watching us on
[0:18] Speaker 1: youtube subscribe like rate us review us give us five
[0:22] Speaker 1: stars you only give us four stars I'm inclined to
[0:24] Speaker 1: believe you are a hater. It is Time Machine Tuesday,
[0:29] Speaker 1: where today we will talk about great WTF moments in
[0:32] Speaker 1: the history of the World Cup with our good friend.
[0:36] Speaker 1: Check him out at Channel 6 and Shutdown Fullcast and
[0:39] Speaker 1: many other places. The best college football writer in America,
[0:42] Speaker 1: Spencer Hall.
[0:42] Speaker 2: What's going on?
[0:44] Speaker 3: I'm so thrilled to talk about this with you because, one,
[0:47] Speaker 3: we don't have to be great all the time at soccer, right?
[0:51] Speaker 3: We just have to come in once every four years
[0:54] Speaker 3: yes and we get to be we get to just
[0:58] Speaker 3: be butt ignorant in some ways right like you see
[1:00] Speaker 3: a country and it's just go or stop you see
[1:03] Speaker 3: a country and you go hey do you know who
[1:05] Speaker 3: i'm feeling like today cote d'ivoire that's right always loved
[1:07] Speaker 3: cote d'ivoire 100 would die for cote d'ivoire i adore
[1:12] Speaker 3: that kind of endorsed safe mostly safe Watch a piece
[1:16] Speaker 3: of cues parachuting into a fandom. Love it.
[1:19] Speaker 2: So I jump in very simply.
[1:21] Speaker 1: One, I typically root against colonial powers, especially when they're
[1:24] Speaker 1: playing against their former subjects.
[1:26] Speaker 2: Ooh, I like this.
[1:27] Speaker 3: Rules, rules. I like this. Yeah.
[1:29] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
[1:29] Speaker 1: No, geopolitics really come into play here when I am
[1:33] Speaker 1: watching the World Cup. Then it goes down to the
[1:35] Speaker 1: other level. Like, remember what I told you about? I
[1:37] Speaker 1: was in Barcelona. And I went to go watch France
[1:40] Speaker 1: and Spain. And I was trying to figure out where
[1:41] Speaker 1: to watch. And I decided to go watch a French
[1:43] Speaker 1: watch party because I was afraid of Spanish watch party.
[1:46] Speaker 1: I knew just enough Spanish to hear the racism. And
[1:48] Speaker 1: so I didn't want that. So I went and I
[1:50] Speaker 1: followed these guys that I saw on the train like
[1:52] Speaker 1: I was in Jason Bourne movie. Like I literally hung
[1:56] Speaker 1: behind them and followed them to the destination and went
[1:59] Speaker 1: in there. And it was kind of cracking. So, yeah,
[2:01] Speaker 1: like once that happens, I got to make my decisions.
[2:03] Speaker 1: I had a friend who made a point. I hadn't
[2:05] Speaker 1: really thought about this. But like with Victor Wimbanyama, she
[2:08] Speaker 1: got a bit of a dilemma because she's from Haiti
[2:11] Speaker 1: and he's from France. And I hadn't really thought about
[2:13] Speaker 1: that extended over to the blacks also.
[2:15] Speaker 2: But it's still a thing. He's a Frenchman.
[2:17] Speaker 3: It can get confusing because France has an extremely diverse team.
[2:23] Speaker 3: And while France is pretty diverse, sometimes the fandom French soccer,
[2:29] Speaker 3: depending on which side of the aisle you're on, can
[2:32] Speaker 3: favor one or the other. And that's a problematic thing, right?
[2:37] Speaker 3: Because you go, oh man, if I were, if I
[2:39] Speaker 3: were black and you see the French team, you go.
[2:42] Speaker 1: I don't know.
[2:42] Speaker 3: It's pretty viable, right? And then you consider France and
[2:46] Speaker 3: you go at all, at all steps, by the way,
[2:51] Speaker 3: this is now complicated in 2026 by you being American
[2:55] Speaker 3: and you're going practice this with me, everybody. Okay. If
[2:59] Speaker 3: the United States does something good in your American, okay.
[3:01] Speaker 3: Which is, Right. Like we win. Yeah.
[3:08] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[3:09] Speaker 3: Sure. Yeah. It's confusing. It's also part of a long
[3:13] Speaker 3: going contradiction, which is when the United States women's team
[3:17] Speaker 3: does anything. It's awesome. All right. And they've been the
[3:21] Speaker 3: better team, period. Like by not by a little. I mean,
[3:25] Speaker 3: they've been one of the world's best teams and they
[3:27] Speaker 3: have been the best American like national team in soccer forever.
[3:33] Speaker 3: But it's very funny because even when they do anything bad,
[3:35] Speaker 3: it's like, oh, I don't know. They tried hard. They've
[3:39] Speaker 3: earned so much credit. They're so far ahead in the
[3:42] Speaker 3: books that you go, you know what? Love you all anyway.
[3:44] Speaker 3: When the United States men's team only beats Trinidad and
[3:48] Speaker 3: Tobago by a goal, you're like, trash. Yeah. Trash.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Yeah.
[3:53] Speaker 3: Can't believe I waste my time with this.
[3:55] Speaker 2: Yeah, we don't believe.
[3:56] Speaker 1: We don't believe at all. Now, a country that does
[4:00] Speaker 1: believe is Argentina. three-time World Cup champions, Argentina. And we're
[4:05] Speaker 1: here to start, talk about a moment that honestly, I
[4:09] Speaker 1: wouldn't watch the video again of this this morning. The
[4:13] Speaker 1: most ridiculous, one of the most ridiculous things I've ever seen,
[4:15] Speaker 1: which is the Maradona hand of God goal from the
[4:19] Speaker 1: 1986 World Cup, which I believe was played in Mexico City.
[4:23] Speaker 1: I believe they really need to be glad they weren't
[4:25] Speaker 1: playing against Mexico in that game because Mexico would have
[4:28] Speaker 1: burnt it down. And for those of you who have
[4:30] Speaker 1: not seen this play, Look it up on YouTube. It
[4:33] Speaker 1: does not take long. It's Diego Maradona, who... doesn't look real, right?
[4:39] Speaker 1: It's like watching specifically when Kyler Murray runs down the field,
[4:43] Speaker 1: but imagine Kyler Murray doing that in high school while
[4:46] Speaker 1: also kicking a soccer ball.
[4:48] Speaker 2: That's what Maradona looks like.
[4:49] Speaker 1: And he gets down, and his kick goes up, and
[4:52] Speaker 1: he and the goalkeeper are on the same line trying
[4:55] Speaker 1: to get it. The goalkeeper got his hand up, but
[4:58] Speaker 1: he doesn't get it because Maradona hits it with his hand,
[5:00] Speaker 1: and then Maradona gets a goal. Now, I'm not sure
[5:02] Speaker 1: how familiar you are with soccer, but The goalkeeper is
[5:06] Speaker 1: allowed to touch it with his hand.
[5:07] Speaker 2: Maradona is not.
[5:09] Speaker 1: He makes the goal and after the game refers to
[5:13] Speaker 1: it as the hand of God, which on one hand.
[5:18] Speaker 2: On one hand is an incredible excuse.
[5:20] Speaker 1: On the other hand, you stop and realize that since
[5:22] Speaker 1: it was actually his hand, is he saying that he
[5:26] Speaker 1: was God?
[5:27] Speaker 2: I'm not sure.
[5:28] Speaker 1: It is an all-time moment of cheating that he got
[5:31] Speaker 1: away with because the official basically was like, dude, that
[5:34] Speaker 1: shit was crazy, man.
[5:35] Speaker 2: I was just watching. I didn't even know. It was
[5:37] Speaker 2: just so wild.
[5:38] Speaker 1: Then Maradona has the nerve to follow it up later
[5:41] Speaker 1: with what was voted the goal of the century in
[5:44] Speaker 1: the World Cup. And an unreal I am better than
[5:49] Speaker 1: all of you. But let's get back to we can
[5:52] Speaker 1: start with Maradona. You and I did a podcast many
[5:54] Speaker 1: years ago where we talked about that Maradona documentary. Maradona
[5:57] Speaker 1: at this point, widely considered at worst the second best
[6:00] Speaker 1: player ever.
[6:02] Speaker 2: In the history of soccer, right?
[6:04] Speaker 1: Also, in Argentina, considered to be black, which tells you
[6:07] Speaker 1: a lot about Argentina because someone has to tell you
[6:10] Speaker 1: that he's black. I will also tell you I went
[6:13] Speaker 1: to Argentina a couple of months ago. I have a
[6:15] Speaker 1: Maradona refrigerator magnet, and the first picture I see anybody
[6:18] Speaker 1: from Argentina was a picture of a painting of Maradona
[6:21] Speaker 1: from the restaurant in my hotel that I immediately sent
[6:26] Speaker 1: to Spencer because Maradona is that guy.
[6:29] Speaker 3: He is that dude. And you need to know too
[6:31] Speaker 3: that this Argentina, the team referred to as the Alba
[6:36] Speaker 3: Celestis as their nickname, that this had been a very
[6:42] Speaker 3: fraught run up to this World Cup. You need to
[6:45] Speaker 3: know that this is a pressure cooker and the hand
[6:47] Speaker 3: of God goal is finally the vent. This is when
[6:49] Speaker 3: we let it off. And on multiple levels because the
[6:52] Speaker 3: hand of God goal involves this. It involves a change
[6:55] Speaker 3: in tactics. Remember, prior to this, The idea behind Argentine
[6:59] Speaker 3: football was not too dissimilar than the basic appeal of
[7:03] Speaker 3: Brazilian football, which is this, that when you played soccer,
[7:07] Speaker 3: you were to seduce the viewer. It was to be beautiful, right?
[7:11] Speaker 3: You were going to do elaborate, gorgeous things. You were
[7:13] Speaker 3: going to be very Maradona-ish, right? Very much like a
[7:16] Speaker 3: Brazilian midfielder even. And that was a complaint levied at
[7:20] Speaker 3: this team because they had bombed out in 1982. they
[7:25] Speaker 3: had changed managers.
[7:26] Speaker 2: And they were as the defending champions.
[7:28] Speaker 3: Right. And they were, they bombed out and they changed
[7:32] Speaker 3: management and, um, Bilardo was the manager and he installed
[7:36] Speaker 3: what was considered to be a very mechanistic style of soccer. Okay. Um,
[7:42] Speaker 3: if this sounds familiar, um, it should be familiar to
[7:45] Speaker 3: anybody who has watched a team go from a high
[7:48] Speaker 3: flying offensive machine to a low scoring, efficient defensive machine. Right.
[7:54] Speaker 3: I am this guy. I am this fan, right? I
[7:56] Speaker 3: understand this. When you go, you go, well, but it's winning.
[7:59] Speaker 3: And you're like, yeah, but it's ugly. I hate it. Right?
[8:02] Speaker 3: The aesthetics. Have you considered the aesthetics?
[8:04] Speaker 2: Are you referring to Will Muschamp football?
[8:06] Speaker 3: I could be referring to like 8,000 different coaches. Will
[8:09] Speaker 3: Muschamp is up there, except he didn't win. So like
[8:13] Speaker 3: there were headlines. There's a Buenos Aires Herald article from
[8:16] Speaker 3: a couple of days ago that covers the buildup to
[8:18] Speaker 3: this game. And there's a headline that cracked me up,
[8:21] Speaker 3: which was, Argentina beat Venezuela in a qualifier, right? They
[8:25] Speaker 3: beat Venezuela. And then it goes, dot, dot, dot, but
[8:27] Speaker 3: play a poor game. You go, what? Okay, I see
[8:31] Speaker 3: what's happening here, right? This is an approach that was
[8:34] Speaker 3: working and that Bilardo was constructing on the way to
[8:38] Speaker 3: this World Cup that everyone kind of hated and no
[8:41] Speaker 3: one really liked it. But he did something else really
[8:43] Speaker 3: clever that this article details. And this shows you like
[8:47] Speaker 3: how powerful psychology is, right? And I think this is
[8:50] Speaker 3: something Maradona understood because Maradona used to do that thing
[8:53] Speaker 3: where he would come out and he would warm up
[8:55] Speaker 3: the middle of the field. Right. And he would bounce
[8:57] Speaker 3: the ball off his foot and he would kick it
[8:59] Speaker 3: higher and higher and higher and nobody else in soccer,
[9:02] Speaker 3: in soccer, professional soccer could do it more than four
[9:04] Speaker 3: or five times. And Maradona could keep the ball up
[9:07] Speaker 3: for like, you know, forever. How long do you want
[9:10] Speaker 3: me to do this? This is easy for me. I
[9:11] Speaker 3: breathe and I do this. It's, it's simple for me.
[9:15] Speaker 3: One thing Bilardo did is he had that Argentine team
[9:17] Speaker 3: in their training, go to Northern Argentina to a, higher
[9:21] Speaker 3: elevation to train because Mexico City is at elevation. It
[9:25] Speaker 3: is a factor. But the trick is that by the
[9:29] Speaker 3: time Argentina got back from that training, they would have
[9:31] Speaker 3: lost all their acclimatization. They would have lost their ability
[9:34] Speaker 3: to adapt to altitude. When the team doctor informed Bilardo
[9:38] Speaker 3: of this, he goes, I know, but they don't. Right? Meaning, hey,
[9:44] Speaker 3: I'm going to, you're going to be great. You're ready, boys.
[9:47] Speaker 3: You've already been at altitude. And the guys would hear
[9:50] Speaker 3: that and go, oh, yeah, okay, yeah, you're right. Yeah,
[9:52] Speaker 3: we're good. We're good. And it worked. It 100% worked.
[9:56] Speaker 3: The last layer of this in my monologue, and you
[9:59] Speaker 3: talk about geopolitics. geopolitics in the world cup it's a
[10:02] Speaker 3: dangerous thing to play with but it's also kind of
[10:04] Speaker 3: fun um if you do it right in this article
[10:08] Speaker 3: the islands are referred to as the malvinas you know
[10:10] Speaker 3: them as the falkland islands there was this conflict in
[10:12] Speaker 3: the early 80s between great britain and argentina over the
[10:17] Speaker 3: falkland islands And the Fulton Islands were a flashpoint between
[10:21] Speaker 3: the two countries. Ultimately, Great Britain kind of ends up
[10:25] Speaker 3: winning that thing, although winning is a strong word there.
[10:31] Speaker 3: They end up on the high side of that conflict.
[10:33] Speaker 3: But not the way Argentina sees it. Going into this
[10:36] Speaker 3: game against Great Britain, a couple of veterans groups talked
[10:42] Speaker 3: to or they sent letters to the team saying that
[10:45] Speaker 3: they wanted them to play like Exocet Missiles. like the
[10:48] Speaker 3: ones that sank British ships during the Falkland Islands conflict.
[10:52] Speaker 3: Just to give you an idea of the beef between
[10:54] Speaker 3: these two countries.
[10:55] Speaker 1: I had completely forgotten that there was the Falklands element
[10:58] Speaker 1: going on with this, and it was fresh.
[11:01] Speaker 3: Very fresh. Fresh enough that veterans groups could say things like, yeah,
[11:08] Speaker 3: you guys need to hit them like exocet missiles, baby.
[11:11] Speaker 3: You need to sink them, like we did just a
[11:14] Speaker 3: couple of years ago.
[11:15] Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
[11:16] Speaker 3: This is... A loaded Argentina team in terms of pressure
[11:20] Speaker 3: that going into it also has this geopolitical element that really,
[11:25] Speaker 3: in terms of a payoff, could not be more substantial.
[11:28] Speaker 3: It's a big part of the hand of God goal.
[11:30] Speaker 1: I also want to throw in there that as I
[11:31] Speaker 1: hear what you're talking about, and we made the comparison directly,
[11:34] Speaker 1: but college football is a very helpful thing to inform
[11:38] Speaker 1: this where people don't just want to win typically.
[11:43] Speaker 2: They have ways in which they want to do this.
[11:46] Speaker 1: They have a type of ball that they enjoy watching, right?
[11:51] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[11:52] Speaker 1: And what you are saying is they went from playing
[11:55] Speaker 1: that South America soccer that makes you really love the
[11:59] Speaker 1: idea of watching soccer. It's like you're watching somebody in
[12:01] Speaker 1: college basketball that used to run the press, right?
[12:04] Speaker 2: It's like, oh, yeah, they're going up and down. And
[12:06] Speaker 2: now they're like, no, you're.
[12:07] Speaker 1: Under the Princeton offense. How about the four corners? Would
[12:09] Speaker 1: you like to run the four corners? They'll never take
[12:11] Speaker 1: the ball from us if we run the four corners.
[12:13] Speaker 3: Yeah, you'll hate it, but we'll win. We'll get out
[12:16] Speaker 3: of group play. You might despise it. There are teams,
[12:19] Speaker 3: by the way, that don't necessarily want to do fancy stuff.
[12:22] Speaker 3: Like Italy, historically, has, and this is one of the
[12:25] Speaker 3: reasons that I can't stand watching Italian national soccer for
[12:28] Speaker 3: the most part. Like, last couple of years actually have
[12:30] Speaker 3: been okay.
[12:31] Speaker 2: Well, except they haven't been okay.
[12:33] Speaker 3: Okay to watch. This should say something, right? I'm like, oh,
[12:37] Speaker 3: they're much better to watch. Did they make it?
[12:38] Speaker 1: Nah.
[12:40] Speaker 3: Nah, they're terrible. Yeah. I'm kind of okay with that
[12:44] Speaker 3: two ways, actually. But they like lockdown soccer. Right. Go ahead.
[12:49] Speaker 3: Score a goal early. And then their idea of fun
[12:52] Speaker 3: is watching you beat your head against the door for
[12:55] Speaker 3: 70 minutes. Right. And tough defense. Italy is one of
[12:58] Speaker 3: the few national sides that will sing the glories of
[13:02] Speaker 3: not just their goalie, but their defenseman.
[13:04] Speaker 2: Right.
[13:04] Speaker 3: Like like they'll their defenders. They're like, oh, yeah, our defenders, man.
[13:07] Speaker 3: That's those are our guys. Like it's very odd. Italy,
[13:11] Speaker 3: you would assume you're like, oh, the flash. Right. The
[13:15] Speaker 3: sort of bravura that they have. Nope, nope. They like goons, dude.
[13:20] Speaker 3: They absolutely love goons.
[13:22] Speaker 1: So, I believe what they call that, what you describe
[13:25] Speaker 1: from the Italians as parking the bus.
[13:27] Speaker 2: Is that what they call it?
[13:28] Speaker 3: Yep, yep. We hit you with the bus, then we
[13:30] Speaker 3: park it.
[13:33] Speaker 1: But with the head to God, I'm just trying to
[13:36] Speaker 1: imagine what would happen in this day and age and
[13:39] Speaker 1: everything going around. And for people who don't really do
[13:43] Speaker 1: soccer like this, you understand that you're not allowed to
[13:46] Speaker 1: touch the ball with your hand. But the consequences for
[13:49] Speaker 1: this are incredibly dire, right? Like there is a red card,
[13:52] Speaker 1: which means the guy can't play no more. There is
[13:56] Speaker 1: a penalty kick, which means you basically like do everything
[13:59] Speaker 1: but give you a goal for this. And it would
[14:02] Speaker 1: be against who was then the best player in the world.
[14:06] Speaker 1: And it's not like he went up and like, damn,
[14:10] Speaker 1: the ball accidentally hit your hand. There's no reason in
[14:15] Speaker 1: a soccer match for you to have your hand where
[14:18] Speaker 1: he had it unless the goal was to come out
[14:22] Speaker 1: there and cheat. And what I think is so amazing
[14:24] Speaker 1: is the idea that he thought he could ever get
[14:26] Speaker 1: away with it. Yeah.
[14:29] Speaker 3: And if you watch to a real physical genius considers
[14:33] Speaker 3: the angles of every goal of every spot of every
[14:38] Speaker 3: eye on the field. If you watch it, the way
[14:40] Speaker 3: that he spikes it is so coordinated. it's so obviously
[14:44] Speaker 3: trying to hide the fact that he's, he's like smacking
[14:47] Speaker 3: it in with his hand. Like it's just behind his head.
[14:50] Speaker 3: It's very hard to tell. Remember this is 86. We
[14:52] Speaker 3: do not get VAR. We do not get replay from
[14:55] Speaker 3: a thousand angles. It happens. It sucks for England and
[15:00] Speaker 3: you got to deal with it. Like it is, and
[15:03] Speaker 3: pardon the phrasing, but it's, it's deeply appropriate. It's one
[15:06] Speaker 3: of the most eat shit moments you've ever seen in
[15:08] Speaker 3: your life. Just, just, God, I gotta, that's what's happening.
[15:13] Speaker 1: Shit.
[15:14] Speaker 3: Like, I can't do anything about it. There's no recourse. None.
[15:18] Speaker 3: And do you know when you get it back? Four
[15:21] Speaker 3: years from now.
[15:22] Speaker 2: Maybe.
[15:23] Speaker 3: Yes. Yes.
[15:25] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[15:27] Speaker 1: And to, I guess, to make it worse, like, we
[15:31] Speaker 1: gotta kind of jump in time to after the game
[15:33] Speaker 1: before we get back into the game. But to really
[15:36] Speaker 1: have the nerve to call it the hand of God
[15:37] Speaker 1: after this has happened.
[15:39] Speaker 2: Can you imagine how, if you would be if you
[15:43] Speaker 2: were one of these British.
[15:44] Speaker 1: People after this has happened. And that's the story that
[15:48] Speaker 1: he's given.
[15:50] Speaker 3: Yeah. That's that to say naively, right. With a smirk
[15:54] Speaker 3: on his face. Huh? I'm just blessed. That's all that's,
[15:57] Speaker 3: that would be the modern equivalent. Let me translate it
[15:59] Speaker 3: to American. If you did this and, and, and you're
[16:02] Speaker 3: in the press conference afterwards, they'd go, I don't know, man,
[16:05] Speaker 3: I guess I'm just blessed. Hmm.
[16:09] Speaker 2: I guess God was on our side.
[16:12] Speaker 3: And I guess you're just going to have to deal
[16:15] Speaker 3: with that. Because that's not up to me, Diego Maradona,
[16:18] Speaker 3: vehicle of God himself. That's up to the big man.
[16:24] Speaker 3: Send your letters that way, not to me.
[16:26] Speaker 2: Vehicle of God himself.
[16:28] Speaker 1: And the thing is, it was what, nil-nil at that point?
[16:34] Speaker 3: I would have to look up the score at that point.
[16:36] Speaker 2: Like, I think that is the, yeah, there we go.
[16:38] Speaker 2: It finishes 2-1, I believe. Yeah, yeah. That was the
[16:41] Speaker 2: first goal. And then the second one.
[16:45] Speaker 1: Like I said, I gave the comparison before of what
[16:47] Speaker 1: the second would look like.
[16:48] Speaker 2: I just can't think of anything else.
[16:49] Speaker 1: Like, that's the one of just like, hey, man, so
[16:51] Speaker 1: what's this Maradona guy I've heard so much about? You
[16:54] Speaker 1: don't have to know anything about soccer to understand what's
[16:56] Speaker 1: going on here, that this is a guy that's better
[16:58] Speaker 1: than everybody.
[17:00] Speaker 2: Like, it's, You would have thought he had the Mario
[17:03] Speaker 2: star on, right?
[17:03] Speaker 1: Because dudes are like falling down everywhere he goes and
[17:06] Speaker 1: he just gets to where he needs to be.
[17:09] Speaker 3: That goal is considered that one. The first that happened
[17:14] Speaker 3: is an accident of fate, right? And then the second
[17:18] Speaker 3: thing that happens is a decision by fate. An accident
[17:22] Speaker 3: of fate is I hit the ball with my hand, right?
[17:27] Speaker 3: And we're okay. We got to deal with that. The
[17:30] Speaker 3: second is, I'm Diego Maradona and you're done. That's, you know,
[17:37] Speaker 3: like of all the things that you had to face
[17:38] Speaker 3: right now, it'd be cool if you had to face
[17:41] Speaker 3: some second team French striker. It'd be cool if you
[17:44] Speaker 3: had to face some American player from MLS, right? At
[17:48] Speaker 3: this point, at any point in history. Right now, you
[17:51] Speaker 3: got to deal with the man. And that's, I think,
[17:54] Speaker 3: the thing that makes the hand of God goal doubly
[17:57] Speaker 3: frustrating is you could say, well, he's a crap player, right?
[18:01] Speaker 3: He's a crap player. He didn't do anything in that
[18:03] Speaker 3: game except cheat. Well, except for that second goal, buddy.
[18:09] Speaker 3: It's a lot like this. Okay, so we were watching
[18:12] Speaker 3: SGA in the finals or in the Western Conference finals, right?
[18:15] Speaker 3: And in watching SGA in the Western Conference finals, I
[18:18] Speaker 3: know everyone came in and said, hey, that guy's a
[18:20] Speaker 3: foul merchant, right? This guy's basically mid-range James Harden. He's
[18:24] Speaker 3: constantly working the refs. And then he comes out in
[18:26] Speaker 3: game seven and he does the thing where He actually
[18:30] Speaker 3: just creates space and takes jumpers. And everybody likes watching
[18:33] Speaker 3: people get buckets, right? That is 100% why you should
[18:36] Speaker 3: love Maradona, right? Because that dude gets buckets. People love
[18:40] Speaker 3: watching somebody do that. And that's all that SGA did
[18:43] Speaker 3: in Game 7. That's all he did was just score.
[18:47] Speaker 3: And it was awesome. It was incredible. I know they lost, okay?
[18:51] Speaker 3: But that kind of performance is what you get out
[18:53] Speaker 3: of Maradona. And by the way, you get that multiple
[18:55] Speaker 3: times in the 86 World Cup. It is incredible. It
[18:59] Speaker 3: is his masterpiece.
[19:01] Speaker 2: Also, I did not realize two things.
[19:04] Speaker 1: One, he said the goal was, quote, symbolic revenge, unquote,
[19:08] Speaker 1: for that war, which is, all.
[19:10] Speaker 2: Right, now we're stretching, baby. However, that's giving the people
[19:12] Speaker 2: what they want, right?
[19:14] Speaker 3: You know, you look out at the crowd and you go,
[19:17] Speaker 3: do I want a cheap pop? And I'm going to
[19:19] Speaker 3: give you the answer to whether you want a cheap pop. Yeah,
[19:21] Speaker 3: you do. You'll take it. Cheap eat all day.
[19:25] Speaker 1: Then here's this quote from his autobiography that I will
[19:29] Speaker 1: not read to you in Spanish.
[19:30] Speaker 2: Yes, I'm just getting this off the wiki, but it's
[19:32] Speaker 2: still amazing.
[19:33] Speaker 1: He said, now that I can say what I couldn't
[19:35] Speaker 1: at that moment, what I defined at that time is
[19:37] Speaker 1: the hand of God.
[19:38] Speaker 2: What hand of God? It was the hand of Diego.
[19:45] Speaker 3: Again, the man shows cheap heat at every turn. Okay.
[19:48] Speaker 3: And whether that's your thing or not he was very
[19:51] Speaker 3: good at it.
[19:52] Speaker 1: Yes yes like look if you get the chance to
[19:55] Speaker 1: watch that maradona doc please check it out we did
[19:57] Speaker 1: an episode about this many years ago um That country
[20:03] Speaker 1: loves him in a way that is impossible to explain
[20:06] Speaker 1: through all the trials, through the tribulations, through everything, to
[20:09] Speaker 1: him going to play for the mob soccer team in Italy, basically,
[20:13] Speaker 1: and everything else, to him coming back and becoming the
[20:15] Speaker 1: coach of the team, and nothing about him implies that
[20:17] Speaker 1: he should have ever been coaching anything, to him getting fat,
[20:21] Speaker 1: to getting back skinny, everything else, and he did this
[20:24] Speaker 1: cheating thing.
[20:25] Speaker 2: And they all down there are like, hey, man, got
[20:26] Speaker 2: to do what you got to do sometimes.
[20:28] Speaker 3: Yeah, if you want... If you're a Maradona hater, there's
[20:31] Speaker 3: a lot in his biography that will satisfy you. There is.
[20:35] Speaker 3: And most of it is self-inflicted. Most of it. He
[20:40] Speaker 3: gets popped for drugs. He gets popped for drugs legally
[20:44] Speaker 3: and competitively. And there is a farce in the 1990
[20:49] Speaker 3: World Cup where Maradona tries to run it back. And
[20:53] Speaker 3: it doesn't go as well. Because, I'm going to let
[20:55] Speaker 3: you in on a little secret. If you hang out
[20:57] Speaker 3: with mobsters and do cocaine all night while playing professional soccer,
[21:02] Speaker 3: even if you are the greatest player in the world,
[21:04] Speaker 3: it doesn't go well for you. That's a sport where
[21:08] Speaker 3: you run seven to eight miles a game and you
[21:12] Speaker 3: have to do it all the time. And I know
[21:15] Speaker 3: cocaine is great for keeping you awake. It's not so
[21:18] Speaker 3: great for keeping you in peak physical condition. It could
[21:21] Speaker 3: work for a while though. Diego proved that. It could
[21:24] Speaker 3: work for a while. You just got to know when
[21:26] Speaker 3: to fall off.
[21:27] Speaker 1: Lawrence Taylor, you know, but it never affected my brain.
[21:33] Speaker 3: This is the thing. Okay. So they just had the
[21:35] Speaker 3: enhanced games, right? The enhanced games where people on PEDs
[21:38] Speaker 3: try to set world records and for the most part
[21:40] Speaker 3: they failed. And that was because I think in large
[21:43] Speaker 3: part they did the wrong steroids. That's not even a joke.
[21:46] Speaker 3: There were controls on what they could take and how
[21:48] Speaker 3: they could take it and and whether it was going
[21:51] Speaker 3: to be approved. If you wanted people to set world records,
[21:53] Speaker 3: you should just open up the pharmacy doors, buddy. Like,
[21:57] Speaker 3: that's how you do it. The thing is, the thing
[22:00] Speaker 3: that most of them are not are top elite athletes.
[22:03] Speaker 3: They're not. And Diego Maradona, on cocaine or off cocaine
[22:07] Speaker 3: or hungover, is still a better athlete than 99.999% of
[22:12] Speaker 3: the people ever born. So people will say, well, the
[22:14] Speaker 3: Coke did this to him and the Coke did that. True.
[22:18] Speaker 3: But what an experiment and what's possible with elite athletic
[22:21] Speaker 3: genes and the commitment to excellence that he had. Yes. Like,
[22:27] Speaker 3: it's amazing. He was basically an astronaut. He was basically
[22:30] Speaker 3: an astronaut, right? We were like, hey, we need one
[22:33] Speaker 3: person on this planet to try to be the best
[22:35] Speaker 3: soccer player ever and to see how much cocaine you
[22:37] Speaker 3: can do at the same time. And Maradona said, that's me.
[22:40] Speaker 3: I got this. I got this. For science. Yeah, bet. Bet.
[22:44] Speaker 2: It's the Cam Newton. Ciao.
[22:46] Speaker 1: Mm-hmm.
[22:47] Speaker 3: Yeah, I got that. Yeah. You want to see if
[22:51] Speaker 3: Mafia Cocaine Living can put this boy down? Let's go.
[22:54] Speaker 3: Let's go.
[22:55] Speaker 1: I also want to note that that happened in the quarterfinals.
[22:58] Speaker 1: Like the pressure to win has to be through the
[23:00] Speaker 1: roof after this, right?
[23:01] Speaker 2: Yeah.
[23:02] Speaker 3: You know, they end up like to show you how
[23:04] Speaker 3: long ago 86 was. First, look at the graphics. Mexico
[23:07] Speaker 3: 86 has some of the coolest like look of any
[23:10] Speaker 3: of the World Cup. Like if you can get a
[23:12] Speaker 3: Mexico 86 shirt or a hat, do it because they
[23:15] Speaker 3: look sick. Mexico killed it. Second, they play West Germany
[23:20] Speaker 3: in the final. Okay. That's back when we still had a, a,
[23:24] Speaker 3: a diversified Germany. Yes. West Germany was trying this and
[23:29] Speaker 3: East Germany, they were doing something different. They play West
[23:33] Speaker 3: Germany and they Maradona again, goes off in that game.
[23:37] Speaker 3: Like he's, he's phenomenal in that game as well. This
[23:39] Speaker 3: was like, this was Mr. Big time. I, he's the
[23:42] Speaker 3: guy who, if I had to explain to people, who
[23:44] Speaker 3: he is in soccer, you would say, well, think of
[23:48] Speaker 3: your guys who by the numbers, like think of Larry
[23:51] Speaker 3: bird or think of DiMaggio or mantle. Think of somebody that,
[23:55] Speaker 3: you know, think of, I think for the kids now
[23:57] Speaker 3: is Jordan, right? When you go, well, you don't understand.
[24:01] Speaker 3: You could look at the numbers, right? And the numbers
[24:03] Speaker 3: are awesome, but that doesn't cover it. Or it's not,
[24:07] Speaker 3: it's not in the moment for what he was. You'll
[24:10] Speaker 3: never understand it because you weren't there. And that's very much,
[24:14] Speaker 3: what Maradona was. I was a baby and watching on
[24:17] Speaker 3: a tiny little TV. And even then it was like, Nope, Nope,
[24:20] Speaker 3: that guy that's trouble every time. Just, it looked like a,
[24:23] Speaker 3: it looked like a horde of bees wherever he was. Right.
[24:27] Speaker 3: And otherwise talented athletes, right. Physical. Like you have to
[24:30] Speaker 3: understand going through England and going through West Germany. These
[24:34] Speaker 3: are teams that beat people up and all Maradona did,
[24:38] Speaker 3: despite being the prime target, by the way, despite being
[24:41] Speaker 3: the guy that they wanted to harm, and kick down
[24:45] Speaker 3: and keep out of the game physically, it just didn't work.
[24:48] Speaker 3: It did not work.
[24:50] Speaker 1: I tell you this, the only thing I know, I mean,
[24:52] Speaker 1: I know West Germany, they was good at a bunch
[24:54] Speaker 1: of stuff, and we got all kinds of stereotypes about
[24:56] Speaker 1: East Germany.
[24:57] Speaker 2: I only remember one athlete from East Germany. Bet you
[25:00] Speaker 2: know who I'm talking about.
[25:02] Speaker 3: It depends. I have ulterior motives. She.
[25:08] Speaker 2: was the greatest thing to East Germany sent us.
[25:11] Speaker 3: Was it Katarina Witt? Yes, sir. Thank you. Full disclosure.
[25:19] Speaker 3: I know there were other East German athletes. I know.
[25:23] Speaker 3: I know. I know.
[25:25] Speaker 2: I know about what.
[25:27] Speaker 1: Brother, we had her on Highly Questionable once when I
[25:32] Speaker 1: first got on there.
[25:33] Speaker 2: And she broke us down.
[25:36] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[25:37] Speaker 2: She had dead. A sweaty, stuttering mess.
[25:42] Speaker 1: And I did my best to hold it together, but
[25:44] Speaker 1: it was only because I was focused on.
[25:46] Speaker 2: That was it.
[25:48] Speaker 3: Were you looking slightly to the side?
[25:50] Speaker 1: Man, I was just, just had to turn it all off.
[25:53] Speaker 1: Just like you can't, I can't break, but, but I
[25:56] Speaker 1: wanted to.
[25:58] Speaker 3: Understand that woman's got a smile too. She's got like
[26:01] Speaker 3: a little, she's got game like that. Yeah. That's the
[26:04] Speaker 3: thing is that Katerina Vin had charm. And I mean wit.
[26:07] Speaker 3: And she was quick.
[26:08] Speaker 1: Yes.
[26:09] Speaker 3: And she was, yeah.
[26:11] Speaker 1: It was very aware, very aware that she was the coach.
[26:16] Speaker 2: She understood what happened when she pulled up. She'd been
[26:19] Speaker 2: doing this a long time.
[26:21] Speaker 3: Trouble. Trouble. That's just trouble right there. Keep in mind,
[26:27] Speaker 3: you are hearing two grown men who came of age
[26:30] Speaker 3: when Katarina Witt was coming up. Yes. particularly vulnerable. I'd
[26:35] Speaker 3: rather do full disclosure and be like, you know, I'd
[26:37] Speaker 3: like to say something else, but I can't.
[26:39] Speaker 1: Yeah, Katarina Vitt was one of those where, like, you
[26:44] Speaker 1: could come over to our house and even tell the
[26:45] Speaker 1: truth about that one.
[26:47] Speaker 2: Be like, you know, I ain't really into white girls
[26:49] Speaker 2: like that, but!
[26:51] Speaker 3: That Katarina Vitt! Woo! Woo!
[26:54] Speaker 2: Different game, boy. Different game.
[26:57] Speaker 1: But coming up next, we have another great WTF moment
[27:01] Speaker 1: in the history of the World Cup for you.
[27:02] Speaker 2: Involving a very angry Frenchman.
[27:06] Speaker 1: The biggest stage in world soccer is here and every
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[28:09] Speaker 1: Today's show is sponsored by Strawberry.me. Let me ask you something.
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[29:41] Speaker 1: All right, we are back with Spencer Hall. The WTF
[29:47] Speaker 1: of Maradona throwing his hand up to hit the ball,
[29:51] Speaker 1: which is, hey, I guess anything to win, but also
[29:53] Speaker 1: has to be a bit of just a short circuit.
[29:55] Speaker 1: Like you're never going to be able to convince me
[29:57] Speaker 1: that in that moment, You could turn off everything you've
[29:59] Speaker 1: ever been taught and everything that you ever had to do.
[30:02] Speaker 2: And just right then.
[30:03] Speaker 1: In a nil-nil match, you're just like, all right, let
[30:06] Speaker 1: me just go ahead and risk it all right here,
[30:09] Speaker 1: right now.
[30:10] Speaker 2: That has to be a glitch, right?
[30:12] Speaker 3: It is. It's also this. It's strategy. It's strategy. Because Italy,
[30:21] Speaker 3: that 06 Italy team, when I talk about classic Italy,
[30:24] Speaker 3: we get new Italy and classic Italy. Classic Italy in soccer.
[30:28] Speaker 3: is the team that I hate watching the most, right?
[30:32] Speaker 3: It is the team that I despise watching how they play.
[30:36] Speaker 3: And I also have to begrudgingly admit it is exactly
[30:39] Speaker 3: how I would play if I were a soccer manager.
[30:42] Speaker 3: Cause you know, you could try to do all of
[30:44] Speaker 3: these constructive, beautiful things. I could try to build a hole, right?
[30:48] Speaker 3: I could fill Jackson. It, I could sit there with
[30:50] Speaker 3: the drum, right. And beat it and go, listen, just
[30:53] Speaker 3: listen to the rhythm triangle boys triangle. Like I could
[30:56] Speaker 3: do that. Or, I could do what every Italian team
[31:00] Speaker 3: manager has done since time immemorial, which is this. I
[31:03] Speaker 3: need you to kick the shit out of them. And
[31:05] Speaker 3: I need you to score one goal, maybe two, maybe two,
[31:10] Speaker 3: or it's a lot. Okay. And then after that, what
[31:13] Speaker 3: I need you to do is beat the shit out
[31:14] Speaker 3: of it. That's it. I need you to knock heads.
[31:17] Speaker 3: And that's what Italy did. Italy was clinical. And what
[31:20] Speaker 3: they did to opponents was piss them off. And most teams,
[31:25] Speaker 3: most soccer teams, don't play better when they're pissed off.
[31:29] Speaker 3: They're distracted, right? They're not, they're not thinking clearly. They're
[31:34] Speaker 3: not playing clearly. They just wanted to bust up your flow.
[31:38] Speaker 3: And that is what they did beautifully. So I know
[31:40] Speaker 3: people will say Zindine Zidane did that as a glitch.
[31:43] Speaker 3: I know he say that, you know, he, he, you know,
[31:46] Speaker 3: is a hotheaded player, which is true. He's very, very
[31:48] Speaker 3: like Zidane occupies a very specific spot in French soccer. Okay.
[31:54] Speaker 3: Of Algerian descent. playing in a place where he is
[31:59] Speaker 3: um sometimes the victim of you know racism on the
[32:03] Speaker 3: part of french soccer fans much less everyone else um
[32:07] Speaker 3: and yet beloved by the majority i think of french
[32:11] Speaker 3: soccer fans um and and beloved i think generally internationally
[32:15] Speaker 3: like i think everyone he's a well-respected player but that's
[32:20] Speaker 3: not i i don't think that's entirely what happened i
[32:22] Speaker 3: think what happened is that Italy just kept poking and
[32:25] Speaker 3: poking and poking. They said Chiellini's big ass after you
[32:28] Speaker 3: where he's just in your face. He's just taunting you.
[32:32] Speaker 3: He's saying some of the worst. You know, the things
[32:35] Speaker 3: that Chiellini is accused of saying about Zidane and trash
[32:39] Speaker 3: talking are insane. Absolutely insane. Right. Talking about. Their mother,
[32:45] Speaker 3: like allegedly talking about Zidane's mother, who, by the way,
[32:48] Speaker 3: Zidane's mother was ill at the time. Like she was
[32:50] Speaker 3: not well.
[32:51] Speaker 2: Well, let's do this. Let's set this up just a
[32:53] Speaker 2: little bit for people, right?
[32:54] Speaker 1: This is the final of the 06 World Cup.
[32:59] Speaker 2: Okay. And the game was still in doubt, right?
[33:02] Speaker 3: Yes. Yes. And the game is in doubt. We go
[33:07] Speaker 3: into the official score of the game is 1-1. at
[33:10] Speaker 3: the end because it comes down to pks because they
[33:12] Speaker 3: went to pks yeah and italy wins 5-3 right because
[33:15] Speaker 3: this is again what is a perfect italy match if
[33:17] Speaker 3: we can't go up 1-0 in the first four minutes
[33:20] Speaker 3: okay we'll just play 90 nothing will happen and we'll
[33:24] Speaker 3: go to pks and we'll win there right because we
[33:26] Speaker 3: pissed you off to the point where you're not even
[33:28] Speaker 3: going to be able to concentrate during penalty kicks again
[33:30] Speaker 3: i hate watching it it is exactly what i would
[33:32] Speaker 3: want to do to an opponent right it is the
[33:34] Speaker 3: most like i will wall you up and taunt you
[33:37] Speaker 3: while i am bricking you in kind of like cask
[33:41] Speaker 3: of Amontillado soccer. And it's really, really fun to play.
[33:45] Speaker 3: And if you were a fan, you would love it.
[33:48] Speaker 3: As a viewer, it's terrible. But Marco Matarazzi is the
[33:51] Speaker 3: defender there, right? And Matarazzi allegedly, okay, said something. Yes.
[33:56] Speaker 3: And what you need to know, okay, is that this
[33:59] Speaker 3: set Zidane off so hard, so hard that he doesn't
[34:04] Speaker 3: punch him. That's the thing for like, he doesn't punch
[34:07] Speaker 3: him and he doesn't kick him. He headbutts him.
[34:11] Speaker 2: In the chest.
[34:13] Speaker 3: Not in the face. Like, okay. You've been in a
[34:16] Speaker 3: couple of fights. The headbutt for somebody like me, who's
[34:19] Speaker 3: got a 10 gallon head. Great move. It's an awesome move. Okay.
[34:24] Speaker 3: But you got to know one is going to hurt
[34:26] Speaker 3: you more than you think it's going to hurt. And two,
[34:29] Speaker 3: you want to aim it somewhere where it's going to
[34:30] Speaker 3: disorient that. That is not even the point. Zidane's just
[34:33] Speaker 3: so mad. He headbutts him in the chest. Now, Matarazi,
[34:38] Speaker 3: who is again, Grudging respect and love to Italy because
[34:43] Speaker 3: Matarazzi is such a heel that when Zidane hits him
[34:46] Speaker 3: in the sternum with his noggin, Matarazzi does a Ric
[34:50] Speaker 3: Flair flop. Yes, he does. Like, it's much respect. I mean,
[34:55] Speaker 3: arms back, full, like, ass over tea kettle to the floor.
[35:01] Speaker 3: And this changes the course of the game. This is, like, respect.
[35:08] Speaker 3: Zidane is booted. for his actions and says he doesn't
[35:12] Speaker 3: regret it that's a wild thing to say it is
[35:19] Speaker 3: you know what that is the most french thing when
[35:21] Speaker 3: you go man how french is he deans it on
[35:24] Speaker 3: as you go he's so french that when he got
[35:27] Speaker 3: booted from the world cup final for headbutting someone he's
[35:31] Speaker 3: like nope it was a truly gallant act on my
[35:33] Speaker 3: part i have no regrets yeah it's amazing.
[35:37] Speaker 1: Part of what's interesting, and I hadn't really thought about
[35:39] Speaker 1: it in these terms until we started talking about this,
[35:41] Speaker 1: was Zidane being Algerian and everything that comes with it is,
[35:44] Speaker 1: in the United States, at least we pay lip service
[35:47] Speaker 1: to the idea that this diversity thing is a feature,
[35:51] Speaker 1: not a bug, right? Like this is what makes us
[35:54] Speaker 1: dope because this is a country that kind of had to,
[35:57] Speaker 1: I mean, all of our recruiting was done out of state, right?
[35:59] Speaker 1: Like you had to get the players from elsewhere. We're
[36:01] Speaker 1: the University of Oklahoma, right? basically of the world right
[36:05] Speaker 1: we've got we got to go get guys yeah from
[36:07] Speaker 1: everywhere we're tennessee or kansas state we got to put
[36:09] Speaker 1: them on planes right we can't just go go get
[36:11] Speaker 1: players from right around um the rest of the world
[36:14] Speaker 1: doesn't necessarily feel like that they're like yeah people show
[36:16] Speaker 1: up sometimes and every now and then we let a
[36:18] Speaker 1: couple of them in right and there you have france
[36:21] Speaker 1: where all the people they went and conquered eventually want
[36:24] Speaker 1: to come there and they're like yeah.
[36:28] Speaker 3: They're although it does help they go well i don't
[36:31] Speaker 3: know about this but you know as long as you
[36:33] Speaker 3: speak french right that's the thing as long as you
[36:35] Speaker 3: speak french do you like that.
[36:36] Speaker 2: Is the key and when you say speak french they
[36:38] Speaker 2: mean speak french.
[36:39] Speaker 3: They mean speak french but they also mean do you
[36:42] Speaker 3: download french.exe and hit run right do you implement the
[36:47] Speaker 3: new app called france right where we you you go
[36:50] Speaker 3: like butter is awesome right and the greatest poet and
[36:54] Speaker 3: prose uh author of the 19th century is victor hugo right?
[36:57] Speaker 3: Like you have to, you got to do all the
[36:59] Speaker 3: French stuff. You got to do water, flour, yeast, salt.
[37:02] Speaker 2: That's bread.
[37:03] Speaker 3: Academy Frances, right? Like we got it. You got to
[37:06] Speaker 3: do all the things, right? Like it is very, people go, well,
[37:09] Speaker 3: that's very strange. No, it's not. We do that too. Like,
[37:12] Speaker 3: like we 100% do that, right? Like, Hey, what do
[37:15] Speaker 3: you drive? Oh, it's just a Ford F-150. Yeah, buddy.
[37:17] Speaker 3: You downloaded America. Good job. You got it. Like France is,
[37:21] Speaker 3: France is very much about that, but it's very codified
[37:24] Speaker 3: because they've been around a lot longer. So, um they
[37:26] Speaker 3: you know they're going to have a list of things
[37:29] Speaker 3: um we might be kind of as if we're french
[37:32] Speaker 3: we might be slightly ambivalent uh at best about the
[37:35] Speaker 3: idea of diversity and immigration we get a little more
[37:38] Speaker 3: friendly to the notion if we start winning world cups
[37:41] Speaker 3: again yes that.
[37:42] Speaker 2: Does help a little bit and when we started getting
[37:44] Speaker 2: into basketball.
[37:46] Speaker 3: When you when we when you have a victor wimbinyama Yeah.
[37:50] Speaker 3: Oh man.
[37:50] Speaker 1: We started with a Tony Parker. Like they started with
[37:53] Speaker 1: Tony Parker.
[37:53] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[37:54] Speaker 1: Like they, they, they, their hatred of Joel Embiid is hilarious.
[37:57] Speaker 1: Cause he fooled them. They thought that he was going
[37:59] Speaker 1: to go play for them.
[38:00] Speaker 2: And then he was like, nap. I'm sticking around in America.
[38:04] Speaker 3: Get you a couple of rugby players too, buddy. Come on.
[38:07] Speaker 3: If people don't know this, like, I love the notion that,
[38:10] Speaker 3: you know, France, like the caricature of France historically in
[38:13] Speaker 3: the United States has been that of like, Oh, Yes,
[38:16] Speaker 3: those little surrender guys, right? No, but they play rugby.
[38:19] Speaker 3: Have you ever seen the French rugby team? They beat doors, dude.
[38:25] Speaker 3: They knock people to hell. They had a guy named
[38:27] Speaker 3: Sebastian Chaval who was referred to as the caveman. Go
[38:30] Speaker 3: look him up. He's like six a billion and weighs
[38:34] Speaker 3: 400 pounds and looks like the mountain. Yeah, he's and
[38:39] Speaker 3: has like long hair and a beard and you don't
[38:41] Speaker 3: want to get hit by him. They play mean rugby.
[38:43] Speaker 3: You know what it means to play mean rugby? That's
[38:45] Speaker 3: like saying you play physical football, right? That's like saying, yeah,
[38:49] Speaker 3: the Baltimore Ravens in their prime, the defense, the whole defense.
[38:53] Speaker 3: That's what they play like.
[38:54] Speaker 1: And this is the country that Zinedine Zidane represented when
[38:56] Speaker 1: he put his head in that dude's chest. Like, even
[38:59] Speaker 1: being somebody who doesn't really do this game like that
[39:01] Speaker 1: was like, yo, you can't do that. That is the
[39:04] Speaker 1: craziest thing I have ever seen. I, you know.
[39:07] Speaker 3: You say you can't do that, okay? You say you
[39:11] Speaker 3: can't do that, but I did watch in a World
[39:14] Speaker 3: Cup final, right? In a World Cup final, somebody do
[39:18] Speaker 3: something almost as crazy. Not quite as crazy, but close.
[39:26] Speaker 3: And that was when in the, um that was when
[39:30] Speaker 3: Nigel de Jong for for the Netherlands okay against Spain
[39:34] Speaker 3: in 2010 Nigel de Jong kicked a dude in the
[39:36] Speaker 3: chest I mean Bruce Bowen style like flying absolutely annihilated
[39:44] Speaker 3: a guy in the chest nothing it's fine play on
[39:51] Speaker 3: Like we're watching it and I'm watching it in a
[39:53] Speaker 3: bar and I see this dude turn around and go, yo,
[39:56] Speaker 3: did he just kick that dude in the chest? I'm like, yeah,
[40:00] Speaker 3: he just like, I don't think you can do that. Yeah,
[40:03] Speaker 3: he absolutely annihilated Xabi Alonso in a World Cup final
[40:10] Speaker 3: and and and, you know, got a red card. But
[40:16] Speaker 3: people still do it. That's how much pressure there is, right?
[40:19] Speaker 3: I say nothing happened. He got a red card. But
[40:22] Speaker 3: people still do it. That's how deep, that's how intense
[40:25] Speaker 3: the pressure is, is that I think players revert to
[40:28] Speaker 3: what they are, you know, under pressure. And Nigel DeJong
[40:31] Speaker 3: is a guy who likes to kick people in the chest.
[40:34] Speaker 3: And Zidane is an extremely, extremely emotional player. By the way, Matarazzi,
[40:39] Speaker 3: when he was talking about his mother, like that's, you know,
[40:41] Speaker 3: saying like, Matarazzi, two things happened that were really interesting
[40:46] Speaker 3: coming out of that. A couple of Murdoch papers, including
[40:49] Speaker 3: The Sun, got lip readers to find. Because everybody was wondering, okay, well,
[40:54] Speaker 3: what did Matarazzi say? And these lip readers said that
[40:58] Speaker 3: he called Zidane's mother a terrorist, something like that. Or
[41:05] Speaker 3: that he was the son of a terrorist or something
[41:07] Speaker 3: like that. And Matarazzi ended up winning a settlement. out
[41:11] Speaker 3: of those papers because Matarazzi denied saying that. Matarazzi's mother
[41:15] Speaker 3: died when he was 15. And that was something he
[41:17] Speaker 3: said afterwards. He goes, am I really going to talk
[41:20] Speaker 3: serious shit about his mom?
[41:21] Speaker 2: Possibly though, to be honest, man, it's all on the board.
[41:24] Speaker 3: I mean, it's all in the game. You're playing Italy.
[41:28] Speaker 3: They're going to get you. And hard to argue that
[41:30] Speaker 3: it didn't work. Hard to argue because you know what
[41:36] Speaker 3: you took off the board? You took their best piece.
[41:38] Speaker 3: You took their, their midfielder. You took their, their central
[41:41] Speaker 3: processing unit off the board. You took Zidane out of
[41:44] Speaker 3: the game.
[41:45] Speaker 1: Also imagine it hurt like hell, like somebody putting their
[41:49] Speaker 1: giant head dead in your chest and you didn't see
[41:52] Speaker 1: it coming. Yeah.
[41:54] Speaker 3: I don't think it was much of a sell job.
[41:55] Speaker 3: I think he did embellish it a little bit, but
[41:59] Speaker 3: you know, an Italian soccer player embellishes a stiff wind.
[42:01] Speaker 3: This was light work for them.
[42:04] Speaker 1: Like I would try to think there is a Kim
[42:06] Speaker 1: Olajuwon punching Mitch Kupchak. right before the end of game
[42:09] Speaker 1: five of the 86 Western Conference Finals before Ralph Sampson
[42:12] Speaker 1: hit that shot.
[42:13] Speaker 2: Worked out for the Rockets. They won. They were way
[42:15] Speaker 2: up in the series.
[42:16] Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of what would happen in this
[42:19] Speaker 1: country if like this is kind of the.
[42:22] Speaker 2: Equivalent of LeBron James.
[42:25] Speaker 1: Just all of a sudden in a tie game with
[42:28] Speaker 1: five minutes left, just choke somebody out like Latrell Sprewell.
[42:33] Speaker 3: Yeah, not it has to be flagrant, right? It can't be, oh, well,
[42:37] Speaker 3: I kind of elbowed him when I was going for
[42:38] Speaker 3: a rebound. It can't be that. This has to be
[42:41] Speaker 3: Robert Parrish hammer fisting, right? Like hammer fisting Bill Lambert.
[42:45] Speaker 3: That's what this has to be. It has to be
[42:48] Speaker 3: that obvious, that flagrant. Like it'll never happen in football
[42:51] Speaker 3: because honestly, violence is indistinguishable from what football is about anyway.
[42:55] Speaker 1: Yes.
[42:56] Speaker 3: It's not indistinguishable from a thousand things that happened two
[42:58] Speaker 3: seconds after the play. But yeah, it would be like
[43:01] Speaker 3: if you're in the middle of a tennis match, you
[43:03] Speaker 3: jump the net and just started wailing on somebody. Like
[43:05] Speaker 3: it would be, that's the closest thing I can come to.
[43:09] Speaker 1: And you're like up there in the discussion for best
[43:11] Speaker 1: player in the world.
[43:12] Speaker 3: And it's Wimbledon. And it's like Wimbledon center court and
[43:15] Speaker 3: the queen is there, right?
[43:16] Speaker 2: And playing a border country.
[43:18] Speaker 3: Yeah, and you're playing somebody that it matters, right? You
[43:23] Speaker 3: run into them on holiday, right?
[43:26] Speaker 2: Y'all done done some wars?
[43:27] Speaker 3: You've done some wars. You argue intensely about what constitutes
[43:31] Speaker 3: a sauce or what doesn't constitute a sauce, right? Could
[43:35] Speaker 3: run a fork through it. No, no, no, no, no.
[43:37] Speaker 3: That is not a sauce. Like, important things like that, Bo.
[43:40] Speaker 3: That's what we're talking about here.
[43:43] Speaker 2: And then he, like, in the biggest thing.
[43:46] Speaker 1: In the world.
[43:47] Speaker 3: Yeah.
[43:48] Speaker 1: I know, I feel like I keep saying the same
[43:49] Speaker 1: things over, but it was really that crazy in the moment. Like, again,
[43:52] Speaker 1: that's another one. If this happens now, that's right before
[43:55] Speaker 1: the social media ecosystem has really gotten cracking, right? There's
[43:59] Speaker 1: no instantaneous responses yet at that point.
[44:02] Speaker 3: You do get, like, listen, there's some really good early
[44:05] Speaker 3: memes on that, including Zidane headbutting Matarazzi into the pit
[44:11] Speaker 3: in 300, right? Like King Leonidas kicking. Yeah, there's a
[44:14] Speaker 3: couple of those. So it's like the birth of that ecosystem.
[44:18] Speaker 1: With all this in mind, I have to ask, are
[44:22] Speaker 1: you ready for our country to like, or just hoping
[44:24] Speaker 1: we don't embarrass ourselves in front of the world when
[44:26] Speaker 1: we get this whole thing going?
[44:28] Speaker 3: You know, it's, you just want to make it out
[44:30] Speaker 3: of group play. That's it. Let's just make it.
[44:32] Speaker 2: Out of group play. Oh no, I meant the whole country, right?
[44:34] Speaker 3: Oh, oh, The team. Oh, listen, the team is a
[44:37] Speaker 3: limited variable I can control. I know. I'm going to
[44:40] Speaker 3: give you a preview. Would you like my World Cup
[44:43] Speaker 3: preview of how we're going to be evaluated? It's too hot.
[44:46] Speaker 3: Step one, it is too hot. Every European is going
[44:49] Speaker 3: to complain about how it is too hot. Sirs and madams,
[44:54] Speaker 3: I agree. It's too hot. Yes. Nothing I can do
[44:58] Speaker 3: about that. You were the ones who scheduled games in Atlanta, Houston, Miami.
[45:04] Speaker 3: Miami's got one.
[45:06] Speaker 1: Yeah that's dumb what were you doing hey man they're
[45:10] Speaker 1: like we can sell tickets down here.
[45:12] Speaker 3: We can sell tickets down here okay cool y'all enjoy
[45:15] Speaker 3: that enjoy like we're gonna take a water break okay
[45:19] Speaker 3: sure that makes the game longer you should just get
[45:22] Speaker 3: it over with yes you should all take IVs at halftime.
[45:25] Speaker 2: Well they go they gonna love Toronto and Vancouver.
[45:28] Speaker 3: They're gonna like the places where summer means summer I
[45:30] Speaker 3: think we have this great national confusion by the way
[45:33] Speaker 3: but yeah, summer, summer's awesome. Summer's awesome for Buffalo. Summer's
[45:37] Speaker 3: awesome for Wisconsin. Summer's awesome for Seattle. Summer's awesome for
[45:43] Speaker 3: New York. Do you know where summer's not awesome? The South.
[45:46] Speaker 3: It's a punishment from God. That's what, that's what it is.
[45:50] Speaker 3: I don't even believe in God, but summer is a
[45:52] Speaker 3: punishment from God. And it's all like the idea of
[45:56] Speaker 3: playing the world, Kansas city, you know, Kansas city, the
[46:01] Speaker 3: mid continental climate, It's going to be miserable.
[46:06] Speaker 1: They in Houston and Dallas.
[46:09] Speaker 3: Why? You didn't have to do that. L.A.
[46:13] Speaker 2: Ain't even a reprieve no more.
[46:16] Speaker 3: No.
[46:16] Speaker 1: San Francisco, like I think I'll be playing a set. Oh, no,
[46:19] Speaker 1: that's going to be a Santa Clara. That sounds like
[46:21] Speaker 1: it's going to be really hot.
[46:22] Speaker 3: Oh, the Santa Clara gets us to the second thing,
[46:25] Speaker 3: which is. Your public transportation sucks. No, it doesn't. We
[46:28] Speaker 3: don't even have it. That's the joke. Joke's on you.
[46:31] Speaker 3: I wanted to take the train to the game. That's
[46:32] Speaker 3: your fault. Did you look one thing up? No, we
[46:36] Speaker 3: don't have that.
[46:37] Speaker 2: So, you know, that's the giant problem in New York.
[46:39] Speaker 1: Obviously, there's been the thing about New Jersey Transit trying
[46:41] Speaker 1: to charge people a zillion dollars. But that stadium, generally speaking,
[46:45] Speaker 1: does not have, like, it's not a public, it's not
[46:48] Speaker 1: made for public transportation. It's made for people to drive cars.
[46:51] Speaker 1: And FIFA does not want people driving cars. I think
[46:54] Speaker 1: they're afraid somebody blowing that bitch up. So they don't
[46:56] Speaker 1: want cars. But this place, this country is a car country.
[47:00] Speaker 1: Unlike the rest of the world, we developed in the
[47:02] Speaker 1: era of cars. It is a car country.
[47:06] Speaker 3: And if you don't have one of those, you're going
[47:09] Speaker 3: to have to rely on some of the most convoluted,
[47:12] Speaker 3: last minute patchwork solutions to public transit you have ever seen. Also,
[47:19] Speaker 3: you're going to have to enjoy some of the compromises
[47:22] Speaker 3: that you have to make when you deal with FIFA.
[47:25] Speaker 3: There was an entire kerfuffle here in Atlanta about branding.
[47:29] Speaker 3: What is on the side of our stadium?
[47:31] Speaker 2: A big old Mercedes-Benz logo.
[47:33] Speaker 3: It's just part.
[47:34] Speaker 2: Of the stadium.
[47:37] Speaker 3: And FIFA, in their wisdom, said, you know, it'd be
[47:41] Speaker 3: cool if you could get that off. It's the stadium.
[47:44] Speaker 3: It's the stadium. It's part of it.
[47:46] Speaker 2: But I love this.
[47:47] Speaker 1: FIFA's like, we don't give the milk away for free.
[47:50] Speaker 1: So all these stadiums that have corporate names are now, like,
[47:54] Speaker 1: for example, Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, it is Atlanta Stadium.
[47:58] Speaker 3: Atlanta Stadium.
[47:59] Speaker 1: It is Boston Stadium, where Gillette and Foxborough, they're going
[48:02] Speaker 1: to have to change the name on that. I'm assuming
[48:04] Speaker 1: they finally got their money for security that Trump did
[48:06] Speaker 1: not want to give them.
[48:07] Speaker 2: That's a whole other story. But all these places.
[48:09] Speaker 1: That are sponsored, FIFA is not allowing that, right? I
[48:16] Speaker 1: will say this, though, about public transportation. It'll be funny
[48:18] Speaker 1: because as much as Atlanta has a substandard public transportation system,
[48:23] Speaker 1: it will work for this because most of these people
[48:26] Speaker 1: coming in from out of town will be staying between
[48:28] Speaker 1: downtown and midtown, and the train does well to get
[48:31] Speaker 1: you to that stadium. Problem is nobody ever really actually
[48:35] Speaker 1: takes this train. They're going to be so unaccustomed to
[48:37] Speaker 1: people actually using it. And in a lot of ways,
[48:41] Speaker 1: it will take on the true name of MARTA. And
[48:43] Speaker 1: those of you who are not from Atlanta are like, MARTA,
[48:46] Speaker 1: what is that? It's a public transportation system. You're like, oh,
[48:48] Speaker 1: what does that stand for? And you could probably stop
[48:50] Speaker 1: and take a moment and you would say to yourself, oh,
[48:52] Speaker 1: Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority. And that is what they
[48:56] Speaker 1: thought it would be an abbreviation for when they opened it,
[49:01] Speaker 1: but in reality, MARTA stands in truth for moving Africans
[49:06] Speaker 1: rapidly through Atlanta. And I guess there will be some Africans.
[49:10] Speaker 1: There will be, but it will be the murder in
[49:13] Speaker 1: large part.
[49:13] Speaker 3: I was going to say, for once, can be mostly,
[49:17] Speaker 3: that could be somewhat accurate, right? Like you're like... there's
[49:20] Speaker 3: literally african soccer fans on the train yes yeah for
[49:23] Speaker 3: once i'm glad you said it and not me yeah.
[49:26] Speaker 1: That was one of those where i wondered if white
[49:27] Speaker 1: people told the same joke but with a different tenor.
[49:29] Speaker 3: You know what i mean nope nope that's that's uh
[49:32] Speaker 3: that's what the worst people here will tell you hey
[49:34] Speaker 3: you know what it stands for yeah dude i.
[49:37] Speaker 2: It's funny to us. I hadn't thought about it being
[49:39] Speaker 2: in the other way for them.
[49:40] Speaker 3: Yeah. It is one of a thousand little challenges that
[49:44] Speaker 3: the World Cup will throw up in terms of moving people.
[49:48] Speaker 3: There are people, by the way, and this happens to Americans, too,
[49:52] Speaker 3: when they plan trips. There are people, I have no doubt, who,
[49:56] Speaker 3: being blessed with ample cash and time, will say, hey,
[50:00] Speaker 3: I want to go to a game in Miami, and
[50:02] Speaker 3: then I thought I would just jet over to Houston
[50:04] Speaker 3: for a game. you can do that. And they're like, Oh,
[50:07] Speaker 3: but we could drive. Don't do that. You have no
[50:10] Speaker 3: idea how far things are. Yeah. Like there's probably one
[50:13] Speaker 3: or two people from the continent listening to this right
[50:16] Speaker 3: now who might be going to the world cup and
[50:18] Speaker 3: they might have notions like this. And let me tell you, don't, don't.
[50:22] Speaker 3: Are you thinking of going to a game in Philadelphia
[50:24] Speaker 3: and New York? Logical. Great. Do that. Are you thinking, Oh,
[50:29] Speaker 3: I should go to a game in California and then
[50:31] Speaker 3: I should go to a game and you know, Kansas city.
[50:33] Speaker 3: Don't do that. No, no, no.
[50:35] Speaker 2: Check that map out.
[50:36] Speaker 3: Yeah, stretch that, okay? Because the spaces are ridiculous.
[50:40] Speaker 1: Also, Kansas City, not equipped with the kind of airport
[50:43] Speaker 1: that you really need to make these things happen.
[50:46] Speaker 3: Evidently, it's a little better than it used to be,
[50:48] Speaker 3: but yeah, Kansas City is going to be... Kansas City, apparently,
[50:51] Speaker 3: in terms of hotel demand, they're always... By the way,
[50:55] Speaker 3: this happens every single World Cup.
[50:56] Speaker 1: I know.
[50:57] Speaker 3: It's probably a real issue. I'm not saying it's not
[50:59] Speaker 3: a real issue, but... there's always, oh, well, people overestimated
[51:03] Speaker 3: the amount of hotels people would need. Kansas City is
[51:05] Speaker 3: one of the places where that number is huge in
[51:08] Speaker 3: terms of hotel vacancies. So maybe I just talked myself into, hey,
[51:13] Speaker 3: that's the bargain. Go see a game in KC.
[51:16] Speaker 1: This is Spencer Hall. Check him out on Channel 6. Also,
[51:19] Speaker 1: check him out, Shutdown Fullcast, available where all five podcasts
[51:22] Speaker 1: are given away for free.
[51:24] Speaker 2: My brother, I appreciate you.
[51:25] Speaker 3: Thank you.
[51:26] Speaker 1: All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks so much for joining
[51:28] Speaker 1: us here on The Right Time. We do this four
[51:30] Speaker 1: days a week. Ryan Brumley handles everything behind the scenes.
[51:33] Speaker 2: Thank you, sir.
[51:33] Speaker 1: Hit the voicemail line, 323-596-7767. Remember, follow the right time. Subscribe, like,
[51:40] Speaker 1: rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only
[51:42] Speaker 1: give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are
[51:45] Speaker 1: a hater, and we'll talk to you guys in a
[51:46] Speaker 1: couple of days.
[51:47] Speaker 2: Take it easy.

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