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We have never had a week of sports this action-packed! From the FIFA Men’s World Cup to the NBA Finals to the Stanley Cup Final, there are a ton of high-stakes games to watch. To cut down on the chaos and include as many of the games as possible, I’ll be taking a minimalist approach to the World Cup entries. Looking for something a little more in-depth? I’ve got you! Brett joined me for not one, but two World Cup preview episodes! First, we put together an All-Star team of all the players you need to watch, PLUS the legends who are playing in the World Cup for the last time.

Then, we did a deep dive on the USMNT, including some concrete proof of exactly how far Brett thinks they’ll advance.

Now, to the sports!

Mexico is one of the tournament’s three host nations. This one is being played in Mexico City. Expect an electric crowd. Keep an eye on F Raul Jimenez. As a team, they are ranked 15th in the world. South Africa is ranked 60th in the world. The player to watch for them is F Lyle Foster.

Game 3 was one of the wackiest sporting events I’ve ever witnessed. It looked like we were headed for a blowout, as Vegas star Mitch Marner scored the fastest hat trick in Stanley Cup Final history. But the Hurricanes stormed back with an insane 3 goals in 39 seconds on their way to forcing overtime. The Golden Knights finally prevailed in the second OT, and my sleep has yet to recover. However, it was worth it. Now, the stakes are even higher as we turn to a pivotal Game 5! More on how we got there in a bit!

Czechia is ranked 41st in the world. Their captain is D Ladislav Krejci, who plays club ball for sometimes-Premier League squad Wolverhampton. South Korea is ranked 25th, and its captain is Son Heung-min, who plays for the MLS’ LAFC.

Another co-host, Canada, in action. They are ranked 30th in the world. You may recognize their all-time leading goal scorer, Jonathan David, from his time with Juventus this past season. Bosnia-Herzegovina is ranked 65th, so watch them while you can! F Edin Dzeko has 148 international appearances for them. He’s scored 73 goals in those games. Their next highest goal scorer has just 4 international goals.

You know what it is! Over 90 minutes of USMNT talk in the video above, so check it out. We touch on this matchup, but you should know that Paraguay is ranked 40th in the world. D Gustavo Gomez has 89 international appearances for them.

Last cycle’s host, Qatar, is back for the 2nd time ever. They are ranked 55th in the world. They take on a Swiss team that is ranked 19th internationally. Swiss M Granit Xhaka has made 146 appearances for the national team.

The other football! The Defenders are looking to, well, defend their United Bowl champion status. The big story here, though, is that 50 Cent is the halftime performer. Time to separate the wankstas from the gangstas!

This is the first top-10 matchup of the tournament. Some pretty solid Brazil talk in the preview above, if I do say so myself. A lot of familiar names on the Moroccan side as well, including D Hakimi, who just helped PSG win the UEFA Champions League title.

Game 5 didn’t look like it’d be necessary for a bit there, but here we are. In what was billed as a David vs. Goliath battle of Jalen Brunson vs. Victor Wembanyama, the story of the series so far has been Karl Anthony-Towns. The Knicks were able to use him effectively on offense in the first two games, which forced the 7’5” Wemby to the perimeter and opened up lanes for other Knicks. It was the Jalen Brunson show in Game 3 for New York, and while his numbers were decent, the break on defense allowed Wembanyama to have his best complete game of the series as the Spurs stole one. Game 4 is currently happening, and that outcome will obviously tell us a lot about the importance of this one.

83rd-ranked Haiti takes on 43rd-ranked Scotland in each country’s best chance to claim a win in this cycle’s tournament. Scottish D Dominic Hyam plays for Wrexham of Welcome to Wrexham fame. Haiti’s Duke Lacroix is named Duke Lacroix. In all seriousness, Haiti’s program has displayed admirable resilience just to get here. They lost approximately 50 people with ties to the program in the 2010 earthquake that rocked the country. Then, political unrest forced them to play all of their qualification matches for this tournament at neutral sites. They managed to win anyway, and this is their first World Cup appearance since 1974.

The classic Hawaii football timeslot. A somewhat even matchup in terms of rankings, with Australia entering at 27 to Turkiye’s 22. We talk about both in the USMNT preview because they are also in Group D. At least one of them should advance to the knockout round, so this is important.

Pretty lopsided matchup here as the 10th-ranked Germans take on the 82nd-ranked Curacao. A couple of old goalkeepers squaring off here as 40-year-old Manuel Neuer will be in net for Germany against 37-year-old Eloy Room of Haiti. Get the ice packs ready!

The Netherlands are a legitimate threat to win it all, coming in ranked 7th in the world. They’ll be looking to erase the memory of a disappointing quarterfinal loss in Qatar. Japan is always fun to watch, and they’ve made it to the Round of 16 four of their last six appearances.

These two are pretty much battling it out to see who will be the second team to advance out of Group E. Stakes like that equal a must-watch match.

The rollercoaster continues for the Texas Rangers. MLB’s streakiest team has been hot as of late and finds itself within striking distance of the AL West-leading Mariners. They look to keep the good times rolling against a Red Sox team that is absolutely abysmal at home.

I had just barely gotten on the couch after putting young Rocket to sleep when the Hurricanes went up 2-0. However, these games are never over, and sure enough, the Golden Knights came roaring back. But this ridiculous Jordan Staal goal in the 3rd gave Carolina the lead for good as they evened up the series. Do yourself a favor and watch.

With no more Zlatan Ibrahimovic for Sweden, we’ll be learning about both of these teams together. The Swedes are ranked 38th, while Tunisia is ranked 44th, so a relatively even matchup. Should be fun and informative!

I’m generally not a fan of expanding tournaments, but I’ll allow it if doing so opens up opportunities for teams we otherwise would not have seen. That is certainly the case with Cape Verde, which is participating in its first World Cup ever. They will almost certainly pose no threat to the world’s 2nd-ranked team, but this is still a huge moment for the country. If you’re the Brendan Sorsby-type, take the over on the goals for Spain.

Napoli teammates Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne lead the waffle enthusiasts against the legendary Mo Salah and Egypt. Lukaku is 5th all-time in international goals scored with 90. All of these guys are old, so enjoy them while you can!

Saudi Arabia shocked everyone by beating eventual champion Argentina to open up the festivities in 2022. A win against 17th-ranked Uruguay wouldn’t be quite as impressive, but it would go a long way towards the Saudis advancing past the Group Stage for the first time since 1994. Coincidentally, that was also the last time the US hosted.

There’s a very real possibility that Iran and the United States could face off in Dallas on July 3rd. This is notable because of all of this. It would be the perfect way to celebrate our goofy country’s 250th birthday, so we must all root for it to happen. My apologies to New Zealand.

I am a Dodgers fan first and foremost, but decided to pick an east coast team to follow so I could enjoy baseball and a reasonable bedtime. The Tampa Bay Rays seemed like a natural fit, being in the AL and having my hometown Charleston Riverdogs as a farm team. Junior Caminero’s charismatic Home Run Derby performance sealed the deal in the Silvers household. As luck would have it, they have been one of the best teams in all of baseball through a third of the season, along with the Dodgers. Tune in to see what my dream World Series matchup looks like!

The end of 2022 was a brutal stretch for me personally. A busted kitchen pipe left us without flooring in 75% of our home, a kitchen sink, or kitchen cabinets. This rose to stroke-levels of inconvenience that you really have to experience for yourself to understand. This was a 4-month ordeal that nearly ended me. The only bright spot I can recall from this entire time was watching the World Cup Final.

Without a rooting interest, the very same Silvers household that fell for Junior Caminero quickly became infatuated with the brilliance of one Kylian Mbappe. The way he moved on the soccer field made me forget the exposed cement floors. It remains one of the most exciting sporting events I’ve ever watched. I didn’t even really care that France lost on PKs. That’s why Mbappe games are always in here whenever they are on TV. Watch.

I couldn’t conceive a matchup between two more different nations. I almost want to make Iraq the favorite based on how the Europeans are dealing with our climate. However, a relatively mild Massachusetts evening probably isn’t enough to overcome the talent disparity.

After barely surviving against the Mystics thanks to a Caitlin Clark 3-pointer with just seconds left, Sophie Cunningham posted a meme on Instagram implying that she and Clark ignored coach Stephanie White’s play call on that final play. Cunningham has already come out to say that the play they ran was exactly how White drew it up (which is pretty obvious to anybody who has ever seen a baseline out-of-bounds play). So why would Sophie do this knowing it would only fuel the already-out-of-control rumors about a disconnect between the players (most notably Clark) and the coaching staff?

Well, it’s quite simple really. Sophie Cunningham has been, is, and always will be an attention-starved idiot. It is unsurprising that she has hitched herself to Clark’s star, aiming to capitalize on a fanbase full of right-wing knuckle draggers. By acting as Clark’s de facto bodyguard, Cunningham has been able to experience something new: relevance. Prior to this, Sophie’s peak was as the star of a Missouri team that would be sent home by the end of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. Among pre-CC WNBA fans, she was largely shunned for her bigoted views. She was meme’d to death after Kahleah Copper stood over her after they battled for a loose ball during Game 2 of the 2021 WNBA Finals, which Cunningham’s Phoenix Mercury lost. Now, for the first time, she feels important, and she clearly enjoys it.

The fact that Clark has embraced her back to this degree, even commenting on Sophie’s IG post, is much more interesting. It shatters whatever was left of this ridiculous illusion of Clark as not only apolitical but also unaware of the type of people that make up a significant portion of her fanbase. You could also speculate that it’s her way of keeping them on the hook during a time when she’s struggling to fulfill their prophecies about her taking over the league. The holes in her game are becoming increasingly difficult for even her most fervent supporters to ignore as they instead pivot to blaming the coaching staff and more melanated teammates for not covering up her deficiencies. At the end of that Mystics game, Clark found herself on the bench during possessions where the Fever were on defense, because she’s not nearly the defender her fans are.

With Clark out with an injury for much of last season, the Fever nearly advanced to the WNBA Finals, losing to the eventual champion Aces in overtime in the 5th and deciding game. Now that Clark is back, the team is hovering around .500. All of the Fever’s issues aren’t necessarily Clark’s fault, but it’s fair to start wondering if Indiana will one day have to choose between the revenue she generates and winning a championship. In the meantime, tune in and give Sophie Cunningham the attention she so desperately needs.

I got a little wordy there. That’s my bad! A country hasn’t won back-to-back World Cups since Brazil won their second straight in 1962. Argentina enters the tournament ranked #3, so they are a threat to pull it off, but it kinda feels like this will mostly be about celebrating Messi’s final World Cup instead. However, that’s more than enough reason to watch.

Oh, we’re digging deep here, ladies and gentlemen. Alright, a lot of Bundesliga talent for Austria, which makes sense geographically speaking. Jordan is another country making its World Cup debut thanks to the expanded field. Most of their players play in domestic leagues. We will learn together! I’ll put on a pot of coffee.

Perhaps the last chance for Cristiano Ronaldo to add a World Cup title to his resume. The all-time leader in men’s international goals scored missed the friendly against the USMNT that I attended in March. Some say he was intimidated by my own international stardom, others say he had a hamstring injury. All reports indicate he is healthy now. Interestingly enough, while Portugal is talented enough to contend for the title, what might get in the way is Ronaldo himself. His current level of play might not be high enough to justify the amount of playing time that he’s almost certain to receive. Is he willing to set aside his own ego to add the ultimate team accomplishment to his legacy? You tell me.

As funny as it would be for England to win its first World Cup in 60 years on American soil during our big 250th birthday bash before everything falls apart, there’s just no way. If the heat doesn’t get them, then our seasonings will. This game will be played in Texas. You think they’re going to go from gruel and mush to Whataburger and survive? Be serious. I don’t know the Croatian food situation, but they are a talented team in their own right. This one is actually a toss-up. We talk about a Croatian legend in the preview above!

When I first started this blog, I wrote 3,000 words on this scene from 90 Day Fiancé:

What does that have to do with this? Whenever I see the word “Panama” now, I hear it in Jasmine’s voice. As you can imagine, this is incredibly entertaining yet distracting. There is a Ghanaian cast member at some point, but I’m way behind on seasons. Soccer analysis!

Alright, our final game of the week. Uzbekistan is yet another first-time participant. They are ranked 50th in the world. They take on a Colombian team that is ranked 13th. Check out The Two Escobars, a fantastic documentary in ESPN’s 30 for 30 series that details the relationship between the violence in Colombia during drug lord Pablo Escobar’s reign and the assassination of Colombian soccer star Andrés Escobar after his costly own goal at the 1994 FIFA World Cup. On a lighter note, that 1994 squad was captained by Carlos Valderrama and his fantastic hair.

As always, thank you for reading! Make sure you’re subscribed so you get this in your inbox first thing Thursday mornings! Also, share with your friends! See you next week!