Matchday Live: England's struggles, Argentina's success, Taste of the Tournament

And welcome to match day live. This is Fox's 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. Um, initial thoughts, just kind of. Hmm. There are a few things in life. Kelly that I would never do. Uh, if I'm walking past a beehive, I would not cope myself and honey. Uh, 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 mil 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 in, 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 abysmal. I, 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. Uh, 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, uh, 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 39 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, I mean, we, uh, for the folks at home, let's go, uh, England up one nail, then Argentina scored at the 55th minute between the 57th minute and the 92nd, England had 12% 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, okay, 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, 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 mode. 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 a, 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, um, Argentina, Messi and, you know, his, uh, his teammates there, they have this ability to say, okay, this isn't working. Let's just get this done. Even in the final minutes, the, the pressure of those final minutes that 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, 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? Cause there's just no reason why you ever should. But yes, it was very much impressive. What we saw Enzo Fernandez, uh, 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 prime time, 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 clay 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, I spoke to, um, 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, um, kind of going against Argentina because they always win or they always get these calls. Do you think it kind of confuses me? Well, you know, where, where are we at with this? I mean, I guess it depends on who you're asking, but going into this, this 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 the, 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, 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, you just, some people don't like winners. That's, that's really what it boils down to. That's the only reason that 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, I don't even want to know where some of those conversations go between, um, 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, um, you know, Harry Kane is going to be what, 36 for the next World Cup, some of these guys, they'll 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. That 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 their B team players and they would start pretty much in most of the positions on the US men'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 and deciding whether or not Thomas Tuchel is the man for your future, because getting you to a semifinal, here's the thing that hurts so bad for the English about losing in the way they did. And I said the same thing about the US 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? That there's a lot of talks that have to be have to figure out whether or not that's the case. Oh, I got to show you something. Um, my producer here, Sandra, just, oh, if you can see it says I hate messy. So she also hates winners. So I, I just, there's just some of that around here for some reason. And I don't, I I'm, 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, I, 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. Okay. 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. Um, 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. All right, folks, you are watching Match Day Live coming up after the break. Local businesses just booming with this World Cup here in Metro Detroit, as they become hotspots for fans to watch for wash parties. So we'll talk to a local, uh, sports bar coming up after the break. You won't want to miss it. We'll see you then. Well, come back. This is Match Day Live, Fox 2's very own World Cup show. We are getting to the end of things with the final all set Spain Argentina coming up on Sunday. It's going to be huge, but it's been huge for other people, including Metro Detroit businesses that have hosted watch parties and seen people come in at all hours of the day to come cheer on their team. So let's bring in Jordan from Jay's penalty box. Now, full disclosure, I go to Jay's all the time. I was there for a lot of matches hanging out. Oh, it was just fun and hanging out with Jay and all that. But so tell us a little bit. I never asked why, why did Jay's decide to show every match? Cause I believe you're closed some days typically. Yeah. So typically we are closed Mondays and Tuesdays. That's pretty much been a thing after the pandemic, but the World Cup gave us the opportunity with the additional business to open up Mondays and Tuesdays again, and we just knew that it was going to be such a fun time from our regulars, just the chit chat in the room. And then we are already a soccer family. My brother and I grew up playing, so we knew we'd have fun, which hopefully the crowd would have fun with us. And then it would just be a great time. And we didn't want to miss any of the games. So it gave us a reason to watch them, which was really fun. And also work at the same time. Um, exactly. Kind of two birds, one stone. Right. Were you surprised by how many people showed up? I was able to go to a lot of them at different times. There were always people there. I was surprised by some of the games where we wouldn't have expected such large crowds. Um, sometimes during the Germany gray games, the entire room became one giant watch party where they were speaking in German to each other for the Columbia games, we'd throw it on Telemundo. So everybody was just enjoying it all together as one large family rather than two teams against each other. So I'm going to show folks, um, can we take a look at this? This is video. I took, they said it was okay, but it was at Jay's. Uh, yeah, right there. I have an Argentina group. I ended up having some of them on the show, but was it amazing to just see these fans just, I mean, having a good time, you found these are people from Argentina that was amazing. It is wonderful because I mean, now we have this new light where even if USA isn't in the tournament, I'm so excited with the fans of the other countries in the room with us celebrating, having amazing time. They've made it quite literally the world cup. It's been so many different teams of cultures of watch parties, all in one room together, all cheering, all becoming this great time. And as a business, did you notice, and I mean, yes, you were open more days, but you, did you notice a business increase compared to maybe a normal June or July when sports is kind of slow right now? Absolutely. I mean, typically we close down for the 4th of July. We'll do a big, like staff summer vacation, but we stayed open. We were open, busy for every game. We had water balloon tosses in the back during halftime just to keep everybody cool and having fun. But it was definitely a wonderful increase to business and definitely just downtown Ferndale as a total, the foot traffic, it was wonderful. And as a business, is there anything that, that you learned from this? Maybe, okay, next year, women's world cup, let's run it back. Did you learn anything from all this? Oh, there's absolutely always learning moments from every opportunity with this business. But specifically with the soccer fans, the more you get into it, the more fun they're going to have. So if you decide to do a themed jello shot or just a menu, throw up a flag and all that stuff, get into it with them, they're going to love and appreciate it so much. Absolutely. And for someone who's never been to Jays before, what would you tell them, why should they stop by? Jays is that place where no matter what sport you want to watch, if you just want out and hit, just have a good time, we want to make sure we're there for you, we have 17 TVs, not including patio TVs, we pride ourselves in being just all inclusive, if you're an Ohio state fan during a big game, don't be afraid to come out and watch it with us, we'll make sure you have your TV, no one's going to bother you. It's a safe place for everyone to come watch sports and just have a good time. I love that. That's absolutely so much fun right there. And final question for you, do you think there are benefits to watching sports together as a community? I really do think so, especially right now with like local elections coming up and stuff like that, it gives us an opportunity to just kind of be there for one another, have a moment where we just forget what's going on, focus on a sport and just have fun together. I absolutely love it. Jordan, thank you so much for joining the show. This has been so much fun. I had so much fun at Jays. I'll see you next time I'm there, which is all the time. Thank you so much. I'll see you soon. See ya. Well, you folks are watching Match Day Live, seeing that business impact and all the other places we go, Thomas McGee's Dog and Pony Brewery, it's been nice to see just how many people show up to watch everything together. But coming up after the break, remember on Match Day Live, I love to try foods based on countries in the World Cup. So Argentina was last on my list. Find out where I went coming up after the break. And welcome back. This is Match Day Live, Fox News' very own World Cup show. As our final taste of the tournament, I went and tried Argentinian food from owners who are actually from Argentina. Take a look at this. This is La Patagonia. I had so many viewers recommend going here for the empanadas. And once you immediately saw a giant Argentina flag on the wall, that's always a good sign along with a map. So these owners, Diego, part co-owner, originally from the Patagonia region of Argentina. So he brought this amazing food back here to Metro Detroit. Now this menu was large, but I just decided to get one of everything. These are six different types of empanadas and they come in beef, ham and cheese with mozzarella and Polish ham. There is chicken. There's everything you can name up along with some really nice different dipping sauces, Fiesta Ranch, chimichurri as well. And they can actually put some labels on there so you know which one that you're trying. All of these were just so amazing. The crust is so fluffy, so full of unique taste. So I cannot recommend this enough. We also tried their apple pie version, which don't make fun of me on pronunciations, that's the rule here. We've got apples, cream cheese and dulce de leche, right? Leche, leche, was that bad? Was it okay? All right, that's fair. I practiced it with a Martha Stewart video, but it was so good. I figured she wouldn't say it wrong, but I cannot recommend this place. Multiple people from Argentina told me you have got to go try it out. So in honor of Argentina, the big match is coming up on Sunday. I bet you they got some specials going. You can also air fry them at home and heat them up in the oven. And it's overall a really good place to check out. And I was so excited to just be able to try all these different foods throughout this entire tournament. Argentina being the last, it kind of worked out with who's left up in this tournament. So again, Spain, Argentina coming up on Sunday, a huge match. So tune in, we will have some coverage. Tune in to Good Day Detroit tomorrow around 1145. We'll break down some of the, who are we watching? La Mena Mall, Messi. Can the GOAT continue this and make it back to back for Argentina? We will find out. But again, La Patagonia, let me get you directions. Nine Mile and Wilmot. This is an East Point family owned recipes that they've passed down for generations, bringing some of that Argentinian flavor right here to Metro Detroit. And that has been one of the best parts of experiencing the World Cup. All these different local restaurants with foods from countries competing. And with that, this has been Match Day Live. Tune in for our last episode tomorrow as we break down the final and go over some of our favorite moments and favorite foods. We'll see you then. Take care.