Well, in your opinion, what makes him so successful on the track?

I mean, he's, one, he's really quick.

That kind of goes without saying, that you kind of need...

See, 800 meters is a, is a hard race because you need speed, um, you need endurance, and it's kind of finding that right balance between both, 'cause you've got kind of pure power, um, but you can't hold on, then you couldn't lead in a race because you're gonna fall away.

Um, and if you, you know, got kind of the, the reverse and you don't quite have enough speed, then people are just going to run away from you.

Um, and you know, Cooper's, he's quite tall.

He's quite, you know, stocky.

Do you think it's a pretty good bet that we'll see him in Los Angeles in 2028?

[laughs]

Um, it's not inherently kind of flawed.

Um, and they were really good against Australia at basically manipulating the wing backs who, um...

And I've done a tactics piece on this if people want to go on site and kind of see it visualized, but the simple part was the wing backs were jumping out really early to, um, the, effectively the, the US wing backs, and it made space in behind for those kind of channel runs.

We see it from Balogun for the goal where he spins the center back, isolates the center back out wide, gets into the box, and Weston McKennie was doing the same down the right, um, as a midfielder, basically making those same darts diagonally, working really well with Sergino Dest.

Um, I think that's been really, really effective.

We've seen, as Liam mentioned earlier, about kind of the cutback down the left and the, the good moves against Paraguay when Pulisic was there, and you kind of could get him on the ball and into those spaces.

Yeah

What, what was the big difference for you? Because England, it felt like they were energized in that second half and had a real intensity.

Yeah, I think we saw bits of that intensity in the first half.

Kind of the counter-press was quite good.

They were actually really good I think when they lost the ball kind of in making those quick regains.

The problem was too many of those turnovers, and I think when they then got into pressing situations they got a bit stuck.

Kane was quite deep a lot of the time.

We had both Gordon and Madueke quite high marking the center backs, but no one really putting pressure on, on the goalkeeper.

Is this now, Thom, Tuchel's template for England moving forward? Jack posing the question there saying, "Can they replicate it? Can they do it again?"

So if there's any teams where people say, "Ah, they're good, but they're lacking a number nine," I say, "Well, that is actually probably okay." [upbeat music]

I've been getting really excited about all the fanfare surrounding the FIFA World Cup 2026.

And luckily for me, the Active Cash Visa credit card from Wells Fargo scores unlimited 2% cash rewards on all types of fanfare purchases.

Tickets to a game, thundersticks to make some noise, commemorative scarves to wave around, 2% cash rewards on all of that is a big win in my book.

Terms apply.

Visit wellsfargo.com/activecash.

Visa, worldwide partner of the FIFA World Cup 2026.

[laughs]

And I don't know whether it's the siege mentalities created through his comments, but tactically, especially against Arsenal, they went blow for blow.

Yeah.

I mean, they're really phenomenal at playing up in games, right? When big teams come, especially to Villa Park, their capacity to kind of raise the level individually and collectively is, is always there to see.

And I've spoken to Jake about this before.

In fact, we were at the PSG game together back in April and we're kind of talking about various things.

And th- there's a real standout thing of plan A always being the same with Villa.

Emery always wants them, you know, ideally in games, bait the press.

He knows how to understand the ebb and flows of games and actually make those substitutions at the right time.