World Cup latest: England's managing failure, has Messi secured himself as the GOAT?

And welcome to Match Day Live. This is Fox News very own World Cup show. One of our last episodes we've got today. We've got tomorrow the World Cup final coming up on Sunday. And your teams have been set just an absolutely crazy matchup yesterday between Argentina and England. We have to get right into it. Let's bring on Nate Wengler. Holy moly. Initial thoughts, just kind of. There are a few things in life, Kelly, that I would never do. If I'm walking past a beehive, I would not coat myself in honey. If I'm at a gas station, I would not light a cigar next to the gas pump. And if I'm the manager of the English national soccer team and I take a one nil lead over Argentina in the World Cup semifinal, I am not going to go into a defensive shell and allow one of the greatest teams in the world. Actually, forget that. The greatest team in the world to pepper my box with crosses and shots for the ensuing 40 minutes in the hopes that we may win that match. That was one of the biggest managerial mishaps. And in the way that that was finished out by Thomas Tuchel, I saw a few English fans immediately after that match go fire him before he gets back on the plane because he deserves it. And when he takes over for Garrett Southgate, the expectation is we're not going to play scared. But they did. They absolutely did. And it's the reason why Argentina had the gate open wide open for them. It was it was an abysmal. It is hard to find the words. And even as an American, I was talking to Kent about this before we came live. It's hard for me to find a, you know, empathetic bone in my body when it comes to the English sometimes. But watching that match yesterday, I feel a lot of empathy for those fans and those supporters in that country. They deserve better than what that was. It was I don't know. In some ways, it is beyond words. But, you know, of course, on the other side of it is to Kelly Lionel Messi. Forget just calling him the greatest footballer or soccer player in history. I don't think that does Lionel Messi justice. We got to take that a step further and say he is the greatest athlete of all time at thirty nine years old. What he's done in this World Cup alone should wake people up to the fact that Messi is not human. I don't know what he is, but he's not human. To orchestrate that yesterday was unbelievable. It really was. And I mean, we for the folks at home, let's go. England up one nil. Then Argentina scored at the 55th minute between the 57th minute and the 92nd, England had 12 percent possession. It seems fairly obvious. Let's not give the greatest of all time the ball. Why was that unclear to England? They played scared and Thomas Tuchel managed scared. They had to do it against Mexico. But we can all get together and admit that that was a different circumstance. Number one, you have a two goal lead. Number two, you're also down to 10 men. And so that necessitates, OK, we have to drop back and defend for our lives. But also Mexico is in Argentina. When you take that one nil lead, you don't take your foot off the gas pedal. That is the first thing you continue to do. You don't take Gordon out of that match. You don't take your best defenders out of that match and leave Harry Kane on a glorified island at the top of the formation and stack a bunch of defenders into your box. You want to welcome. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. You want to welcome the greatest team in the world to continue to apply that pressure on you in what universe? Is that a good decision? And so that's where, again, the frustration from England fans, it all revolves around that. And it's because, again, we we we talked about this in length. Curses have physical them. And when you take a one nil lead over Argentina and you go, you know what? We batten down the hatches before. Let's get into let's get into win now. Let's just try to hold on. That's the curse talking. That is the curse talking through Thomas Tuchel because he was scared and because he managed scared. It is it is it's yeah, it was it was it was a catastrophe. Kelly, there's no real other way to put it. And it's hard to go back and forth between England played this way and mismanaged and all that. But Messi also, for the folks at home, scored in his 11th straight World Cup game dating back to 2022. And I was taking a look at all these late goals by Argentina. Messi and, you know, is his teammates there. They have this ability to say, OK, this isn't working. Let's just get this done. Even in the final minutes, the pressure of those final minutes, this clutch gene that Messi has, it's it's unbelievable. He's the most talented player in the history of this game on the ball. There's a highlight out there of him dancing past three different English defenders before eventually drawing a foul. It is it's masterful to watch. And I consider myself spoiled in so many more ways than one that I get to witness this level of greatness in front of me. I said it about a week and a half ago. There are certain, you know, whether it be artists or athletes that I will never get the chance to actually watch do what they do best live. Lionel Messi is here. He's right now and we get to watch it every single day. And I'm sick and tired of betting against Argentina no longer. So long as Messi is on the pitch, will I ever bet against the Argentinians? Because there's just no reason why you ever should. But yes, it was very much impressive. What we saw, Enzo Fernandez, Rodrigo de Paul, was really impressive in orchestrating a lot of those attacks and a lot of those crosses. But they they have a switch when they switch it on. It's it's almost scary to watch happen in front of you. But the reason why, you know, obviously I started with the focus on England is because if you invite that, that's where you that's where you fall shy. If I'm let's put this into perspective, right? If I'm going up against primetime Golden State, like the Warriors, the Splash Brothers, right? And I and I'm up on that team, let's say 10 points in the last three and a half minutes. Am I going to sit back and allow Steph and Klay room to shoot the basketball? No, no, in no world whatsoever. Am I ever allowing that to happen? So that's where it's both sides. It's brilliance for Messi and Argentina. But on the other side, for England, you let it slip away because you manage scare. And I spoke to a man from St. Clair Shores, who's actually originally from Argentina yesterday. And he was he was a little bit older and he's gone. Oh, we love Messi. He is such a good guy. He's got all these foundations. But then again, you have these people kind of going against Argentina because they always win or they always get these calls. Do you think it kind of confuses me? You know, where where are we at with this? I mean, I guess it depends on who you're asking. But going into this the Spain Argentina match, do do we think that people are supporting Argentina? Where where are we lying with this? I it's back and forth to me. You know, Stu Holden said this yesterday, and it was brilliant. He goes, if you're watching this match or any of these matches, he goes, if you are, you know, bipartisan, if you're on if you're a third party and you're watching this or consuming this, it's brilliant. If you're partisan, it's terrible. Right. So all the fans of these countries are going through it. And so I completely understand it. But even from the people who are in the third parties, like we talked about, they're going to have their opinions. And the question of why does Messi get so much hate is always brought up. And to be honest with you, there's never a real answer outside of that's just how humanity is. You can be the least problematic athlete of all time. You can give back. You can succeed. You can do all the things that you normally do. And from what I understand, I don't think Messi's ever. I mean, in terms of getting into drama or trouble, that's not really who Messi is. He's one of the most wholesome human beings on the face of the planet. People just don't like winners sometimes. And if you win too much, they start to get a little sick of that. Tom Brady is the greatest example that I can think of. I really I mean, they just people despised the man. I kind of liked him because he graduated from Michigan. That's just a side story, though. But, you know, there are just some people don't like winners. That's that's really what it boils down to. That's the only reason at least I can think of outside of maybe getting a few calls. And if you're a Ronaldo fan, you really don't like seeing what's going on right now. I oh, man, I don't even want to know where some of those conversations go between who's the go, you know, which one it is. But for England, do you think this is the end of their window? Do you think, you know, Harry Kane is going to be what, 36 for the next World Cup? Some of these guys will still be around. But do you think that window's closing a little bit? Was this the time to strike? I don't think the window will ever truly be closed for England. You have the greatest domestic league in the world. You have some of the greatest player development in the world. You have a baseline of talent that most countries would envy. I mean, we would take some of the B team players and they would start pretty much in most the positions on the U.S. national team. So I don't think the window is ever truly closed. Again, it's the reason why we say this curse is so maddening for England, because it has not been a product of we're not good enough to win the World Cup. It's the product of we get to that point and something happens, right? Someone punches a ball out of the air or we manage scared or something else along those lines happens. I think this is a look in the mirror moment for the English in deciding whether or not Thomas Tuchel is the man for your future, because getting you to a semifinal, here's the thing that that hurts so bad for the English about losing in the way they did. And I said the same thing about the U.S. men's national team is when you lose that way, everybody's ready to just blow it up. Everybody's ready to just start all over again. But do you really want to go there when Thomas Tuchel did get you to a semifinal? He brought on Jude Bellingham when many of the people in that country said he shouldn't be on the team. He did things. He got places. It was just, again, one bad half can put a stain on all of that. So is Thomas Tuchel the man for the future? There's a lot of talks that have to be had to figure out whether or not that's the case. Oh, I got to show you something. My producer here, Sandra, just oh, if you can see it says I hate Messi. So she also hates winners. So I just there's just some of that around here for some reason. And I don't I'm all in. If you if you had to give a prediction, we'll get further into this tomorrow for our last episode. But what do we brief thoughts on Spain, Argentina heading into Sunday? Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, Argentina, I'm sorry, I can't do it anymore. I can't I can't bet against these guys. I can't be like, well, they're a little susceptible that it doesn't it doesn't matter. Give them 10 minutes. Give them 15 minutes. Give them a year. I don't like that. It is in their blood. OK, and I know that that's not like a really statistical breakdown of what's going to happen, but it's in their blood. It's in their DNA. Frankly, I feel the same way about Spain, too. And I love when Terry Henry said, you know, they have a national identity, but it's in their blood. I will never I will never bet against Argentina if Messi's on the pitch ever again. Well, good news is that's also Mauricio Pochettino. Team USA is a coach there. So maybe that might lead into us a little bit more and more as these World Cups go on. All right, Nate, we got to get going. But we'll check in tomorrow for our last episode of Match Day Live. It's been great, but we're not crying yet. We'll save that for tomorrow. You guys are wonderful. It's been some of the most fun I've ever had in my career. So looking forward to putting a bow on that tomorrow. All right. We'll see you then.