Jul 23, 2026 · 1 hr 12 min · 13 segments
For the past month and a half, the entire world was tuned into the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with the exciting tournament action soundtracked by some of our most massive global pop stars — particularly at…
Andrew UnterbergerHost
Thomas SmithGuestYou know, obviously we'll talk a lot more about the final, not necessarily the game itself, but we'll talk about the halftime show and then some other stuff associated with.
Before we do that, I wanna offer some quick thoughts about the third place game, if that's all right.
Just, just the sort of concept of the third place game 'cause, you know, as y- you can probably guess just from the conversations we've had, I am by no means, like, a soccer expert or a purist, and you can tell by the fact that I call it soccer and not, you know, football or football or what- whatever the people who actually watch it 12 months out of the year call it.
But I'm usually much more into American sports, in baseball and in basketball particular.
And there's a lot of things that when I do watch soccer, which mostly comes around every four years, occasionally I'll dip into the Euros as well, the things that I find the most interesting are, about it are the things that are, like, the most antithetical to the way Americans follow sport and, like, the just things that are totally foreign to my experience as an American sports fan and the adjustment that I have to make to watch it in soccer.
And there's some of those things that I can't stomach as an American sports fan.
It's like the preponderance of ties and the fact that, like, a tie is a reasonable outcome.
We, we don't really have those except in football, where it happens, like, once or twice a season, and it makes everybody angry.
But I will say, Thomas, I love, I fucking adore the concept of a third place game, which is also extremely un-American.
You know, obviously we'll talk a lot more about the final, not necessarily the game itself, but we'll talk about the halftime show and then some other stuff associated with.
Before we do that, I wanna offer some quick thoughts about the third place game, if that's all right.
Just, just the sort of concept of the third place game 'cause, you know, as y- you can probably guess just from the conversations we've had, I am by no means, like, a soccer expert or a purist, and you can tell by the fact that I call it soccer and not, you know, football or football or what- whatever the people who actually watch it 12 months out of the year call it.
But I'm usually much more into American sports, in baseball and in basketball particular.
And there's a lot of things that when I do watch soccer, which mostly comes around every four years, occasionally I'll dip into the Euros as well, the things that I find the most interesting are, about it are the things that are, like, the most antithetical to the way Americans follow sport and, like, the just things that are totally foreign to my experience as an American sports fan and the adjustment that I have to make to watch it in soccer.
And there's some of those things that I can't stomach as an American sports fan.
It's like the preponderance of ties and the fact that, like, a tie is a reasonable outcome.
We, we don't really have those except in football, where it happens, like, once or twice a season, and it makes everybody angry.
But I will say, Thomas, I love, I fucking adore the concept of a third place game, which is also extremely un-American.
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