June 11, 2026 • 42 mins
The wait is over! FIFA World Cup 2026 begins today as the world's top soccer players assemble for the pomp and pageantry of the globe's preeminent sporting event. Spread across North American host sites from coast-to-coast, fans and bettors alike couldn't be more excited. Here to break down all the World Cup action are betting expert Chad Millman and professional gambler Simon Hunter, who welcome soccer expert Anthony Dabbundo of The Ringer. Together they give their top betting picks and predictions for this five-week tournament, including best bets for the Group Stage, Golden Boot, and U.S. Men's National Team. Will Spain or England win it all? Could Argentina or France upset the favorites? And what can we expect from superstars like Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane, Mikel Oyarzabal, and Erling Haaland? Does Lionel Messi have enough left in the tank to make a run to the Final? Or will Cristiano Ronaldo remind us all why he's one of the greatest soccer players who has ever lived? All these questions answered and more as FIFA World Cup 2026 kicks off today! #Volume
0:03:00 - START
0:19:00 - TOP WORLD CUP CONTENDERS
0:40:00 - U.S. MEN'S NATIONAL TEAM PREVIEW
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sharper Square, presented by hard Rock bet. We
are part of the Volume podcast network. This is the
show that makes the square. Sharper makes the wise guys
pay attention. I am Chad Mouman. I am joined as
always by my co host, my bff, my companion, my
Campadre Professional Better, Simon hunt Ella, Simon Jad.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
How are we doing?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I mean, on a personal level, I feel great, the
weather's beautiful, I'm loving the NBA playoffs, my kids graduating
from Drexel later this week. I also feel like we
as a society and specifically in the world that we
both live in sports and sports betting, it is a
(00:47):
wash in cynicism, greed, corrupt behavior, inconsistent behavior at every level.
We're a part part of it. College football is a
part of it. We're going to talk about the World
Cup today with our good friend Anthony Dubundo. The World
(01:07):
Cup is and always has been ground zero for corrupt, greed,
hypocritical shove it in the fans face. We don't care
how much we're gonna gouge you for behavior, and we're
(01:27):
just in Ah, we're a washing bad actors.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, it doesn't. The World Cup doesn't have the vibe.
I definitely thought I was going to have.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I thought by the time June came around, America would
kind of be more on board. And you kind of
see stuff everywhere, especially I live in a host city
of Philly, and it is not There is no needle move.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Nothing feels changed at all.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We've talked a little bit about chat, like I'm trying
to go to a game with the link.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Cheapest seats are four hundred per seed.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That's before all the fees and everything else, which is
just that's not a team able to the normal fan,
especially the fan that just wants to watch, you know,
France play a third tier level club.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It doesn't it doesn't make sense what's going on right now.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And uh, the funnest thing is here in Europeans talk
about it where it's like America and building a new
stadium is blah blah blah, and it's like, brother, we
have the infrastructure. You think we need to make a
new stadium. I can't wait for them to see the
stadium in LA or the stadium down in l At
like those new stadiums.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
We don't need anything new. I think the coolest thing
they did was bringing the bringing the real grass, which
is like to me, the NFL players who are arguing
right now for the against the eighteen game schedule, I
feel like that's a guarantee that artificial.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Turf will be gone. It will be grass in every stadium.
If they could do it for the World Cup. There's
no excuse. This is a billion dollar league, So uh yeah, Jed,
it's a it's a weird feeling where I'm I'm really
excited for it, but I wish more Americans were excited
for the World Cup. It's the best, and I know
people are skeptical of America. I try to keep telling
American South Korea hosted it a couple I don't know
(03:03):
if that was sixteen years ago. They finished as one
of the final four teams. So host nations do get
a weird bump, and I'm hoping America gets that we
need a run. To me, that's when America desperately needs.
If they could get a run and finish them on
the top four, I do think that would change people's
feelings the World Cup because it's it's the best. It's
the best, honestly celebrating with people as a country. I mean,
(03:24):
you remember USA hockey r How much fun was that. Yeah,
it's the best, So I need it. I need us
to be good. But I watched us play play the
other night and yeah, it's it's it still feels like
we have a ways to go.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Buddy.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, look, you bring up a really good point. And
I do want to get to the World Cup because
it officially Vince begins today, group players underway. I want
to get to dbundo. But it's so fascinating to me
all the price gouging and the you know, disgusting, horrible
behavior of World Cup executives, et cetera. And then we
(03:58):
go to Brendan Soresby, the Text Tech quarterback who had
admittedly bet on Indiana games. When he was at Indiana,
he had bet about I think ninety grand. He clearly
has a gambling problem. He's admitted to that. He was
banned from being able to play for Texas Tech in
this upcoming year. He was the number one rated recruit
(04:19):
in the portal. Texas Tech dropped a bag to get him.
Texas Tech has been very aggressive during the NIL era.
Cody Campbell, oil billionaire has been very outspoken about the
NCBLEA and how he wants to completely reimagine what college
sports looks like. Swarsby had been banned, and yesterday a
(04:44):
Texas judge decided to overturn the ban, and really that
means Swarsby is going to play because any appeal process
of the NCAA can make will not be settled till
after the college football season. So now there's a lot
of conversation about Soresby and admitted gambler who better on
his team is going to be leading one of the
(05:05):
top programs in college football, team that made the college
football Playoff this past year expected to do it again.
It's fascinating to me the response that people have because
this will have and this is a completely cynical view,
this will have zero impact on fans and their love
(05:26):
of sports. We see it constantly. Gambling scandals are all
over sports right now. Ratings are only getting bigger in
every single sport. MLB ratings up, NBA ratings up, NFL
ratings up, NBA ratings up in the finals enormously, and
no league has had more problem with sports betting than
(05:47):
the NBA. So World Cup will be a global phenomenon.
No matter how disgusting the people are that run it,
it does not matter. That's the point of view. Do
you have thoughts on and and just to finish this
rant before I get to you, Simon, I love hearing
(06:09):
coaches this goes back to nineteen eighties SMU college football scandals.
I love hearing the people at Texas Tech saying this
kid deserves to be on the field, he deserves to
be given a second chance. We need to take care
of our student athletes. We need to take care of
our young people. All that is true, then take care
of them. Being on the football field is still a privilege.
(06:30):
You don't get to sidestep all of the other stuff
just because you happen to be a good football player.
You shouldn't be playing football. That's a non starter. But
get him all the help in the world that he
needs and continue to support him as you would have
if he was going to be your quarterback, because that's
the human thing to do. And that's what it really
means to support the student athlete. Not he deserves to
(06:52):
be on the field because it will help him with
his recovery, which is an argument a lot of people
in these circles are making.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, I mean, all I can hope is eventually goes
the other way, right, it's we're in a weird tipping
player in our society. I agree, it keeps getting worse.
I do think eventually it could go the other way.
But you know, if he wasn't going to play college,
he was going to be in a supplemental draft. So
to me, college football, we've known for a long.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Time it's a business. This judge.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I believe it might have been from Houston, So it
was like they try to be a nine bias judge. Right,
they try to make it as fair as possible as
what they claimed. But we've known for a long time. Right,
NCAA has lost total power. They have no power, no power,
And you know, I feel bad for college football fans,
(07:44):
But at the same time, I think what you just
said is so true. It's like they care. They'll stomp
their feet, they'll tweet about it. At the end of
the day, nothing will change. It's only going to keep
getting worse because money rules all, especially in that league.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And yeah, we're again, we only have so much time
here to talk about these different things. But yes, FIFA
to me is the.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Most corrupt organization in the world when it comes to sports,
no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But you know they do. They do make right decisions,
right moves.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And I think the World Cup set up between Canada
and Mexico and USA, it's cool, Like I love this
whole setup, in this whole deal, it just sucks, like
you said, it's been so corrupt.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The Americans aren't behind it.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
No Americans paying one thousand dollars for just two seats
and then those bleeds to go watch France play some
crappy team in Philly.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I just don't know how these tickets are going to sale.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So, like we said, Chat, the thing, guys us is
the people need to fight back.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You can fight back with your money.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Right if less people watch college football, you know, people
turn off this whole college football playoffs being what is
it two months now? It feels like it starts in
early December. Chat doesn't end til late January. If people
push back against it, that's the only way with their money,
I should say, that's the only way they're going to
make change. So it's things are changing right now, buddy,
every every day the changing rep But I never thought
(09:01):
I kid would bet on college football and be eligible
play again in college football.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's really honestly shocking. He shocking truly.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And I'm not one of those people who thinks that
sports are fixed, you know, I actually feel like all
the mechanisms are in place to make sure that sports
are legit, that every contest is legit. And I also
feel like ninety nine percent of the athletes are actually
(09:32):
not interested in betting on sports or in trying to
fix the outcome of a game. It's news because it
happens infrequently, although more frequently than it used to happen
in the past, and there are a lot of protections
(09:53):
in place. I'm not so cynical that I think I'm
watching games that are fixed, but I think when you're
letting a quarterback, admittedly bet on games that he was
involved in, be the face of a franchise that is
supposed to get to the playoffs, I think we're treading
on very very thin nice, dangerous, dangerous President. Here's the
(10:15):
good news. We get to turn our back on all
of our preaching and just talk about betting on the
World Cup. Anthony de Bundo Anthony Dbundo, who we discovered
at the Action Network when he was just a senior
at Syracuse. We loved him. He left us to go
(10:40):
to the Ringer he's covering everything for the World Cup
for the ringer. Anthony D. Bundo, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I'm very excited to spread the world's game, the love
of the world's game.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I remember back.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
When we first wanted to get a soccer podcast with
our friends BJ Cunningham and Michael Leebov and Chad didn't
want to give us a soccer show.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
He said, nobody likes soccer.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
And now here we are doing the soccer, doing the
soccer show on Sharper Square, but chat.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Nobody likes soccer. We're doing one soccer show every four
fucking years for the World Cup. That's how much people
want to want to talk about soccer.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
That's fine, We'll take whatever we can get.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Listen, you're a young single guy on the make in Philly.
Before we get into the soccer talk, tell us about
your experience watching Game one of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Yeah, so we were actually in Sweden.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Spotify was celebrating twenty years and the game started at
two thirty. So immediately when we all got there, obviously
a lot of us are sports fans, a lot of
Knicks fans. We're looking around like, what are we going
to do. There's not bars open past three, so that's
not going to work. None of us have you know,
TVs in our hotel room where we can get you know,
local New York television or national ESPN broadcasts.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
So what are we going to do?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
We found a hotel conference room that sat about eleven people,
and we fit about thirty five people into this conference room,
sitting on floors, sitting on the wall, sitting under the table.
Thirty five people packed, mostly Knicks fans, at two thirty
in the morning in Stockholm to watch the finals. And then,
you know, I think the weirdest thing about all of
(12:21):
it is, Okay, it's halftime. The room's kind of steamy,
so a bunch of us are like, let's go get
some fresh air outside. You walk out of the hotel
and the sun is shining. At four in the morning
in June in Stockholm, it is a majestic feeling. You know,
you're out at midnight and you can still see the
orange hue from the sunset, and then four hours later
it's bright and sunny.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
How does anybody ever sleep? I don't know.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
If I live there, I would be a deranged lunatic
who probably would lose my mind every winter. But in
the summers, man, what a special time. And yeah, go next.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I mean, they pull it out and now we got
a series.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Hey, listen, you're so good at the soccer stuff, even
though you broke my heart when you ditched us at
action for the Ringer. My older son, who is graduating
from Drexel in the coming days, he was like, Hey,
I want to get into the World Cup. A lot
of my friends are into the World Cup. Who should
(13:16):
I go read or listen to? I sent him your
glossary page.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
From the Mountain.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
That's so nice.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Now I want you to bring that knowledge. Bring that
knowledge to us to bundo. Okay, we got a huge field,
forty eight total teams that's going to be gained for
basically forty days. The finals July nineteenth, set the table
for us. Explain the structure of the tournament.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yeah, this is the first time we've ever had a
forty eighteen World Cup. Traditionally it was very simple, thirty
two teams, eight pools. Top two from each pool make
a final sixteen. Then you have a traditional sixteen team
bracket to determine the champion. But now FIFA said, hey,
what if we expand the game. What if we grow
the game and we deepen our pockets. We can make
a forty eight team World Cup with twelve groups. But
(14:06):
the problem is if you just took two from every group,
you'd have twenty four teams, and it's hard to build
a bracket with twenty four.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
So they said, here's our solution.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
We'll have thirty two teams qualify, so we're only going
from forty eight to thirty two. And what the first
group round will do eliminate sixteen teams, but the third
place teams will also advance, so eight of the top
twelve third place teams will advance the knockouts to form
a round of thirty two. So not only is the
tournament bigger, but now the champion team, whoever ends up
(14:34):
winning this whole thing, will have to play in eighth game.
Traditionally it was seven, Now it's eight, so there's another
game added in. There's also more space between the games
because there are more teams. They used to be every
four days you would play in the World Cup. Now
it's every six or seven days, so the teams have
more time.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Off in between games.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
The travel is bigger for this World Cup. They kept
it mostly regional for the group stage, but still there's
more travel with us being such a big country in
Mexico Canada, and as a result, I think there's a
lot of confounding factors. There's the heat, the travel, the
elevation at a couple of places, the time off, the
extra matches, the fact that really like there's seven teams
(15:13):
that are ninety seven percent or better to make it
out of the group stage. They're kind of just like
exhibitioning their way through this. So a lot of new
factors to consider with this World Cup.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Simon, at some point on this show, we're going to
have to do a big balls better the Week presented
by hard Rock Bet. I know you're paying very close
attention to how your home country, your birth country of
England will do in the World Cup. Spain is by
(15:47):
far the big favorite, I think minus four point fifty
at hard rock Bet right now, but a lot more
teams under ten to one France, England, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina.
From both of your points of view, Simon, I know
you're a huge football fan, Anthony, you as well give
(16:10):
us a contenders versus pretender's breakdown for those six teams. Simon,
you start Spain, France, England, Portugal, Brazil at Argentina.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So I'll just start from the top again.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
If you're not into soccer at all, it's a lot
of comparables to the NFL. In the NFL, if you've
never won a super Bowl, it's basically impossible to ever
win a super Bowl. It's it sounds bizarre, but if
you look for some reason, if you've ever won one,
it's so much easier when the next one.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Same goes for the World Cup. The World Cup is bizarre.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
It's basically there's six teams, like we've talked about here
that win the World Cup. They've been rotating for about
over one hundred years now, and England is an outlier.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
England won in you gotta look it up nineteen sixty six. Okay,
Spain one in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
So those are two teams that both just won one.
And then your Auguay they won two World Cups. That
was before the nineteen fifty so we kind of discount Uruguay.
They're not even a part of this conversation. So that
leaves France, Argentina, Germany, Italy and Brazil. These are the
teams that just always win. I don't think Brazil truly
has a chance this year. Italy didn't make the tournament,
(17:16):
and Germany studs, Argentina studs, and France they're all studs.
So you know, like I said, Spain one in twenty ten,
they're a great culture. That's what I'm trying to beat
down here, people. It's all about the culture in the country.
That's really what dictates all this. These cultures read styles
and the styles Spain is one is this really tight,
formative type of passing, and that's what one thing. In
(17:36):
twenty ten they had incredible midfielders Javi. Just if you
go back and look, that team was absolutely stacked. This
Spain team now is stacked and they're really really talented.
So I get whether the odds on favorite, I honestly
probably would. I know, France just won. To me, they're
such a good team. I could probably I could probably
give it to France to give them the best odds.
(17:57):
But if I was gonna go very boring to the
fans of this show when I take the Born pick,
I have no issue taking Spain. To me, Spain is
by far the best team. They have the best players,
so I would not be shocked if they won it all.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Anthony, Spain's my pick too, you know they ultimately there
isn't a huge gap in the odds between Spain, France
and like England's kind of there and like I know,
Portugal's gotten a lot.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Of helium lately.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
I'll separate the top six four contenders, two pretenders, So
my contenders are Spain, France, England, and then I'll throw
Argentina in there at the back end of that. Argentina
are the defending champs, but they essentially have the same
team they did four years ago, which can be good
or bad. You could say, hey, like they've done it.
They have to know how they have the experience. Leon
Al Messi is still good, although I think it's going
(18:42):
to be hard for him to replicate what he did
four years ago at the World Cup at his age.
But they also could get old really quick, they could
get stale, and I think there's questions like the next
generation of Argentina isn't quite ready yet to take that step.
They're really young, so I'll put them in the mix,
but I think they're clear fourth. I'll had Simon talk
(19:02):
about England will come back to them, but you know
France if you're just picking attackers, like, it's ridiculous how
good they are Killian Mbappe, Osmani Denble and Michael Alise.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
It's the best front three that I've had.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Since I started watching the World Cup, which was in
twenty ten, was the first one I ever watched, So
that group is scary. I think there's questions about their midfield.
Spain I think is the most complete team. They are
like almost freakishly young, like Peedri's twenty two star midfielder
Lamina mal Is eighteen. He's already a top five player
in the world, but he's hurt right now, and I
think that's the one big X factor for Spain. Their
(19:35):
best player isn't going to play, probably in the group stage.
He might come back for the last game. They don't
really need him though until the quarterfinals, like they could
make the quarters without him. They bring him in if
he's fit, he's ready to go, like all of a sudden.
This is the Spanish team that won the Euros, that
won they made the Nation's League final, that has beaten
France the last two times they played them, the last
two summers. So I think Spain is the rightful favorite.
(19:56):
But you know, I think, shock me if any of
those four won the whole thing. As far as pretenders,
that's where we get into Portugal and then in the Brazil.
I am down on both teams relative to the to
the odds.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Simon, give us your England take. I want to root
for England. I always want to root for England. You know,
I'm a bit of an Anglophile. You my brother are English.
Can we root for England? Can we do it together?
Can we make England our team?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
For the podcast Football's Coming Home, It's coming Home?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Can we do it?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
No?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Chat, you don't want this life, buddy, It's a life
of heartbreak.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
One day hell.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Wake up, picks itself and realize that Walt's for real.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Every year it's our year, honestly. Like we've had some
incredible clubs. You know that last World Cup we had
such a great break. Or it might have been eight
years ago. I think it was Croatia. All we had
to do is Croatia to make the finals. Like it
just it never breaks right for England. Chats, you don't
want this life. I am heartbroken here in Dubundo, not
like Portugal. That's one of my favorite sleeper teams people.
(21:00):
If you don't know, I'm a diehard Man United fan.
The best player in the world in my opinion Bruno Fernandez,
who again, we only have so much time to break
down here, but basically, this man, to give you my
football kind of take of it is, this guy is
the the Aaron Rodgers of soccer. Just any hole, any pass,
it's always perfect and you can make a low level
(21:22):
guy like Jordan Nelson is a good receiver. Aaron Rodgers
made him look like a Hall of Famer, right, That's
what Bruno Fernanda does to all the talent around him.
This guy's in a midfielder that could put a ball
fifty yards downfield right on someone's foot.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
I'm telling you it's this year. Yeah, Premier League, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Premier League art for assist like, he's just that good.
So I will get into my England talk here. I
needed to bundle and give you some more Portugal talk
because I need to know what I'm missing here.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
But for England, I love them. I love their matchups.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I believe I look at their percentages, they have a
really higher percentage coming out of group stage. They're kind
of kind of the type of team that's seventy percent
to get out of their group, right, that's what most
computermoudels project. The only other team they're group that's really
good is Croatia. I guess Ghana is all right. But
that's the thing with England chat it doesn't really matter
about the group stages anymore. Like they can come in
third and still get out. It's it's when they play France,
(22:13):
are they gonna beat France? It's are they gonna be Argentina.
So that's why I don't want people to put money
on them. I really don't. Like I said, Spain is
very boring, but it's safe England, it's a better value.
They're just as good in my opinion as Spain. But
it's just heartbreak. It's so much pressure. It's I can't
tell you how much pressure is on these British.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Are never good for England, It's true. I mean, look England.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
England are a very very, very very good defensive team
and I think probably the best defensive team in the field.
They don't lose very often unless it's a penalty shootout, right,
and I think, you know, England's been so close with
what I thought was a bad manager like twenty eighteen,
you mentioned it, semifinals of the World Cup. Twenty twenty one,
they make it to the Eurofinal, they lose on a
heart breaking penalty shootout. Twenty twenty two, they lose in
(22:57):
the World Cup quarters to France because they the penalty.
Twenty twenty four they lose the Euro Final to Spain.
So like they're there, they're not. It's not like they
keep underachieving, but they just they've never passed the eye test.
But now they have a better manager, they have a
more balanced team. There was a couple holes in the
last couple of years where it's like, well, they're not
playing any left wingers, they're super unbalanced in their structure.
(23:19):
And now they have another midfielder play with Decklan right,
they have an actual they have two good left wingers
to play this year. So I think they're more balanced
and it wouldn't shock me if they did it. But
here's the other part, Like the schedule, the way that
the draw broke, They're probably going to play a game
at Mexico City at elevation against Mexico. In the knockouts,
They're probably gonna have to beat Brazil in Miami, which
(23:40):
is like basically Brazil in the knockouts to just get
to the Semis in the finals, so they got a
pretty tough draw in the knockouts. Potentially, obviously that could
all change. But that's why I'm kind of like, I
like England. I think they're good enough to win it,
but like, can they actually do it? I'm not sure
of that. As far as Portugal goes, I love their midfield,
second best midfield of the tournament. Fernandez is amazing. It's
(24:02):
a Ronaldo problem for me. He's forty one years old.
He can't really run anymore, and they they don't use
what makes Fernandez and their midfield so good because they just.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Center everything around Ronaldo.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
All they do is cross and cross and cross and
cross into Ronaldo.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
He takes the free kicks.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
They literally have a player in Bruno Fernandez who just
broke the record for assists because he's so good on
free kicks in.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Corner and Rinaldo.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
If they're like within scoring range, Rinaldo's like, nope, it's
my time, I'm taking the free kick. And then he
just doesn't score, and it's like they're they're placating this
guy and he should be a super sub. He would
be an amazing super sub. But they start him and
he can't run. Like I said, he doesn't defend. So
it's like a weird situation where they're really talented but
they're front three. And then their left winger has been
(24:50):
out of form too. Like You're just like, well, I
don't know if this all comes together.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Guys, this is why they got us, you know what
I mean? Like we're suckers. We're all suckers because the
second we start talking about the games. I went through
this with one of my close friends before the Knicks
Game three. He lives in LA. We got a call
(25:16):
it up in a couple of weeks and his kid
who just graduated college. He's got work stuff going on,
and he's a diehard New York Knicks fan, grew up
in the Tri state area. He knows I don't want
the Knicks to win. He's calling me on the way
to a Knicks bar in LA. We have twenty five
minutes to catch up. In that twenty five minutes, we
(25:40):
broke it down into a TV show. The a block
was the Knicks of all the things. He's like, how
do you want to organize it? I'm like, fuck it.
We gotta do the Knicks right now. We'll talk about
family and work later. That ended up being the whole
conversation was just the Knicks. Sports fans are suckers and
we're going to keep getting played and we don't even
(26:00):
care because we love it so much. This conversation proves it.
England is going to break our hearts Simon. Portugal is
going to do what Portugal does. FIFA is going to
charge an arm and a lead for all of it.
No one's going to care.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And we're all going to be tuned in every you know,
there's midnight Eastern.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
As you guys were talking about it, I was thinking about,
like the sounds when the World Cup is happening, like
on television from the stadium, the pay It's just it's
too good. And like if if there are people listening
to the show who are casual soccer fans and soccer betters,
like we want you to get something from this. It's
(26:39):
it's on our side of the planet, it's in our
time zones. We know people want to have fun. So Anthony,
for that crowd, what are you explaining to people? Are
the best ways to approach betting on the World Cup?
Invest in early, right along with one country. How are
you sort of giving people the low down?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Yeah, don't bet long shot out rights, that's a good
way to like, I mean, I guess now with like
you know, some of the market stuff, you can maybe
invest and then sell out your positions like that kind
of thing as possible. But if you're just like I
want to pick a future, what Simon said is true.
There's only seven countries in this field that have ever
won the World Cup. It is very hard to do
because I mean, think about Morocco four years ago. They
(27:20):
were an incredible story, right, They were fourteen to one
to win their group. They won their group over Belgium
and Croatia. They beat Belgium in the process. They get
to the knockouts and it's like, all right, great job Morocco,
incredible story, Like thanks for coming out. You're playing Spain,
You're going to lose and they're like nope, nope, we're
beating Spain too, Like okay, great job. Like you upset Spain.
(27:40):
You want to shoot out Now you got to play Portugal.
They're like, well we'll beat them too, Okay, great, this
is the greatest run we've ever seen from an African nation,
they're in the semi final. Now you just have to
beat France then, like oh, even if they had won that, Oh,
now you gotta beat Argentina and Leo Messi in the fire.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Like it's just the odds of a team doing that.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
It's like zero, because the teams get tie, they wear down,
they have to defend for the whole match against these
superior nations, and it's like, you know, the World Cup,
especially now in the current format where it's almost impossible
for the big boys to get knocked out before the
knockouts like you used to get. You know, twenty fourteen,
Spain got knocked out in the group stage, twenty eighteen
Germany got knocked out in the group stage, and it
(28:20):
was like, oh, that's like a you know, twenty twenty
two Belgium.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
But now like, I mean, they're probably there might be one.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
But it's like some of these fourth place teams are
so bad that it's almost unfathomable that a team gets
knocked out. And then you know you're looking at again,
seven countries have ever won it. Portugal is not on
that list. Portugal is good enough to win it, I think,
but it would really shock me, and so you're like,
all right, so pick one of those teams, pick one
of those horses to ride with, and then look into
other markets. I mean, if you want to make Morocco
(28:46):
to make a run, like, bet them to make the
semis bet them to make the quarters.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
That Ecuador, who I like.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
You know that one of those teams Switzerland as opposed
to going like outright and it's like, oh great, I
have fifty to one, but then you're never gonna win.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
I want to talk about the Americans on the other
side of this break, but Matt mitchell is just let
me know of two notes from our sponsors at hard
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eight hundred and nine with it. In Arizona, Ohio and
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one eight hundred gambler in Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey,
and Tennessee. I do want to talk about the US
men's national team again. There might be people listening who
only want to root for the US men's team. Always controversy,
(31:48):
always drama. It's been what thirty something years since the
US men's team had that run in ninety four. Everyone
gets excited. It never delivers. It's fine, we're you know,
we're excited to cheer for our guys, but lay out
the strategy for the US men's team and their chances
here in the World Cup.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I think they got a really fun group, and like
that doesn't mean that they're gonna like roll over everybody
or that they got an easy group. You know, I
think when you get into a World Cup, like you
want a challenging and interesting group. And I go back to,
you know, the most fun I've had as a US
fan was twenty fourteen when they were in the Group
of death.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Everybody was like, oh, Usa has no chance.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
They're partnered up with Germany, Portugal and Ghana back when
Ghana was like one of the best teams in Africa,
and it's like they got no chance. And then guess what,
they beat Ghana late, they had the lead against Portugal,
they went toe to toe with like Pete Rinaldo Portugal
and tied them and then advanced out of the Group
of death.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
And then they played Belgium.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
In that crazy game where you know, Tim Howard is
standing on his head and you're like, well, you know
they lost in their round to sixteen, but damn that
was fun, and I think this group, like there's not
the sexy names. But in terms of all twelve groups
of this World Cup, Group D is the most balanced
from top to bottom. Like my rankings of all forty
eight teams, I've got the US number one in their
(33:03):
group at eighteen. I've got Australia last at thirty first,
So like all four teams are kind of similar. Australia
I think is a little as a notch two worse.
But Paraguay is a really tough defensive team. Turkey is
a really, really really talented offensive team that could play
a really fun back and forth game with the United States.
Paraguay is a perfect challenge to start because the US
(33:25):
has had problems against these very physical defensive teams in
terms of breaking them down creating chances. That's gonna be
the task on Friday night. Paraguay's best attacking player is
now out for this game. He suffered an injury last week.
Julio and Siso. So you're looking at like, Okay, the
defense should hold up here. That's our main question about
the US is how how does this defense this goalkeeper situation,
(33:45):
It's kind of dicey. How do they hold up and
then we get to see the attack, which I think
is tactically well set up for this tournament. We're going
to see how they are able to gel together and
break down a really good defensive team. They played Paraguay
in November and it was like a very compete win
for the US, so I think it'll be a great game.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Uh, Simon, When you bet the World Cup, do you
bet it differently than you normally do as a professional?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Better?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Are you approaching more as a fan?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Like I'm always working trying to get info, so that's
that's part of my life. Like even if I I'm
not betting up a sport professionally, I'm always trying to
find an edge and I love watching it. So yeah,
for me, I, like I talked about it, I've only
only watched Premier League, so I don't watch spanishly. I
don't watch frenchly, I don't watch German, I don't watch it.
I only really watch Premier League. So you know, I
(34:38):
don't know all the players. I'll be upfront about that,
but I know the best ones. Like come on, I
play FIFA as well, so like I'm not totally out
of it, but like I know these guys' names. It's
just you know, to me, when it gets the World Cup,
I'm not here to poop poo.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Americans like I want Americans. I already talked about that.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I want them to make a run, that they would
be good for the sport and just get American culture
being more into the sport. You know, pair if you
want to bet USA to beat them, it feels like
a sucker bet. I think they are minus one oh
five to win the game their first game against Paraguay.
The value to me is in the tie. And now
again Americans don't like betting this stuff, but it's plus
two forty at hard Rock.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
That's that's good value in it.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
What we just talked about, Paraguay is a great defensive team.
One of America's straints has been really tough defensively. So
it's like a one.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
To one zero zero game. I know that's not fun
to Americans.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Bet to me, that'd be a great result for America
and that'd be a nice way to start the tournament.
So I don't know, I got a big balls bet.
That's not it chat. I don't think that takes big
balls better tie.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
But for for my view of Americans. If you want
to bet on your team, you want to bet on
them to win the group. I think Anthony just laid
out for you. There is value there. They're the best
team in the group. The margin's so small, though, and
the lines already built into that. You're kind of betting
for fun. You're not betting because, like there's other values
we're gonna talk about here to bet, this ain't one
of them.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
America. If you're betting it, you're betting truly as a fan.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
I think the best way to bet America is not
the group, but actually so you can bet like to
make the round of sixteen, and there's a minus one
ten out there.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I think that's the best way to bet the US.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
Like, if they win the group, they get a third
place team, and there is a chance that it's like
a sneaky good you know, like Senegal or Ivory Coast,
really good African or even European team like a Norway,
But most likely they're going to be the clear favorite
in that round of thirty two game, and if they
come in second in the group, they're most likely round
of thirty two opponent is either Iran or Egypt, which
(36:26):
geopolitics aside. They're better than both of those teams as well,
and much deeper than both. So I think their favorite
in their round of thirty two game either way. If
they come in third, maybe not, but if they come
in first or second, which I think they will, they
are the favorite clearly, and you can get like minus
one ten on them to win that match.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
So I think that's where this goes.
Speaker 5 (36:45):
And then they get to the round of sixteen and
it's like, all right, they're probably going to play either
Belgium or Argentina and they're going to be underdogs. But
could they pull off an upset? It's always kind of
like the place we get to right four years ago.
It is like they're playing the Dutch, could they pull
off an upset? No, They're playing the Belgians. Could they
pull off an upset? Almost but no.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
So it's like that's kind of what we're at right now.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
And if they win one, like Simon said, they get
the home bounce and the crowd goes nuts and they
get an early lead and they're in the quarterfinals, and
now you're like, well they kind of kind of did.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
The thing, Simon, what's our big balls better the week?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
If they already said it. You kind of shoot my hand.
I love Morocco, I really do. I don't think what
happened four years ago is just a blimp. And I
think Brazil is totally overrated, like people are. I think
I've seen some models time to have seventy five percent
chance of winning their group.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So if you want to beat group, see Morocco. I
have no issue with that.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Yeah, let's just get right after game one Morocco plays
Brazil right away. There are right now plus four point
fifty on hard rock to win that game against Brazil.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
I love that. If you're kind of someone that wants
to play, it's super safe.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Though.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Soccer does give you half a point, so if you
want to just play half a goal, they're they're plus
one plus one thirty. So if you want to take
plus point half, you know you're already up half a
goal to start the game. So if they tie, you'll win.
On Morocco, you can do that. I think Morocco has
a chance to beat this team out right. I love
love everything about this team, and plus four fifty to
(38:14):
start it off, I think they be able to catch
this Brazil team sleep.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
And I love that value for our Big Balls Better
the Week, Chet You're.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
You're second it second thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Our big Balls Bet of the Week presented by a
hard Rock Bet. We like Morocco plus four to fifty
against Brazil.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
You know what it takes, It takes brass balls.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
We also like Morocco plus half a goal plus one
thirty I think you said in the opening game, and
we like a little taste on Morocco to win their group.
Big Balls Better the Week presented by hard Rock Bet.
Anthony before we get out of here, gold.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Question for Anthony too, before we let them go?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Oh, go ahead, ask your question?
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Okay, Uh, where you at with Norway? I love Norway.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
I'm all in them out. I'm all about the golden boot. Right,
if you have the best striker in the game. You know,
Norway young team right there? You might look in their
spice still four years away, which I would totally agree with, right,
they're very young, but I just love this whole movement
of Norway's never been here before. They're in a group
with Senegal and France, which is very tough, tough, but
(39:26):
I think that works their advantage, right. I think France,
they could steal a game against France. I could see
France dying potentially of losing a Senegal as well, like
France is no doesn't have it easier out either. I
love the odds of Norway right now. People sleeping on them.
I would love to hear your view on them. And
what do you think their odds are making have that group?
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Yeah, I do think they're going to get out of
the group. I think all three will. I think part
of that is a commentary on Iraq, who is one
of the worst teams in the field. And really, if
you just win one game you get three points, as
long as you don't get blown out in the other
two games, like you're gonna be fine. So I ultimately
think all three teams will will prior artise beating Iraq
and then say all right, we'll take our chances with
(40:03):
the other team. Now as far as like you know, Norway,
the problem is like how do you bet them? Because
I don't think they have enough depth to win it.
I think they're alive to pull off an upset or two,
so maybe it's like a to make round of sixteen
to make quarterfinals.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
I also wouldn't bet Holland.
Speaker 5 (40:17):
Golden Boot though, because again they're probably not going to
go that deep in the tournament, and like you're playing
France and set Like the group stage is usually where
the Golden Boot is really decided because you can rack
up goals against bad teams. But it's gonna be hard
for Norway to do that when they're playing France and Senegals.
So I think, you know, maybe the best way to
bet Norway would be like a round of sixteen or quarterfinal.
I do think they're a top fifteen team, which is
(40:39):
crazy given that they weren't even in the field four
years ago. They didn't even make the Euros two years ago.
But Holland ode Guard Sir loth like, they're They've got
a really fun attacking group. I think they're very live
and I also like Columbia to win their group over Portugal.
They're like plus two fifty and then Ecuador. Ecuador is
my dark horse, Chad. I'm excited about the Ecuadorians. They're
(40:59):
They're an ugly but very very very gifted and elite
defensive team. They are five to one to make the
quarter six to one and like plus one seventy five
to make the round of sixteen. Like, I think Ecuador
is gonna be the classic traditional team. Nobody wants to
play in the knockouts. Everybody's gonna be like, how can
we avoid Ecuador because that's gonna be an absolute war.
They took Argentina to penalties a couple of years ago
(41:21):
at the Copa America. Like, they're a really physical team,
so they're gonna be tough out and they're in a
tough group too. They got Germany, they got Ivory Coast,
Like that's probably the second toughest group after France, Norway
and Senegal.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
All right, thank you, Anthony de Bundo. Check him out
over at the ring or he's gonna join us next
month to preview the World Cup semi finals. That's our show.
This has been Sharper Square, part of the Volume podcast network.
Watch or listen on YouTube at Sharper Square. Like this video,
subscribe to the channel. Download from Spotify, Apple Pods wherever
you get your pods. Rate reviews, subscribe. He was five stars.
(41:54):
Say whatever you want.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Feedback is a gift.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Until next time, Love you, Hm.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Bobby Moore, Lad England up to the Royal Box to
receive the jewelry, Make Cup and the winners' medals.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
To be here as winners of the f A Cup
has often been described as the summit of a footballer's ambition.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
How much greater was the triumph I enjoyed now
Welcome to Sharper Square, presented by hard Rock bet. We
are part of the Volume podcast network. This is the
show that makes the square. Sharper makes the wise guys
pay attention. I am Chad Mouman. I am joined as
always by my co host, my bff, my companion, my
Campadre Professional Better, Simon hunt Ella, Simon Jad.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
How are we doing?
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I mean, on a personal level, I feel great, the
weather's beautiful, I'm loving the NBA playoffs, my kids graduating
from Drexel later this week. I also feel like we
as a society and specifically in the world that we
both live in sports and sports betting, it is a
(00:47):
wash in cynicism, greed, corrupt behavior, inconsistent behavior at every level.
We're a part part of it. College football is a
part of it. We're going to talk about the World
Cup today with our good friend Anthony Dubundo. The World
(01:07):
Cup is and always has been ground zero for corrupt, greed,
hypocritical shove it in the fans face. We don't care
how much we're gonna gouge you for behavior, and we're
(01:27):
just in Ah, we're a washing bad actors.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Yeah, it doesn't. The World Cup doesn't have the vibe.
I definitely thought I was going to have.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
I thought by the time June came around, America would
kind of be more on board. And you kind of
see stuff everywhere, especially I live in a host city
of Philly, and it is not There is no needle move.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Nothing feels changed at all.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
We've talked a little bit about chat, like I'm trying
to go to a game with the link.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Cheapest seats are four hundred per seed.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
That's before all the fees and everything else, which is
just that's not a team able to the normal fan,
especially the fan that just wants to watch, you know,
France play a third tier level club.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
It doesn't it doesn't make sense what's going on right now.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
And uh, the funnest thing is here in Europeans talk
about it where it's like America and building a new
stadium is blah blah blah, and it's like, brother, we
have the infrastructure. You think we need to make a
new stadium. I can't wait for them to see the
stadium in LA or the stadium down in l At
like those new stadiums.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
We don't need anything new. I think the coolest thing
they did was bringing the bringing the real grass, which
is like to me, the NFL players who are arguing
right now for the against the eighteen game schedule, I
feel like that's a guarantee that artificial.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Turf will be gone. It will be grass in every stadium.
If they could do it for the World Cup. There's
no excuse. This is a billion dollar league, So uh yeah, Jed,
it's a it's a weird feeling where I'm I'm really
excited for it, but I wish more Americans were excited
for the World Cup. It's the best, and I know
people are skeptical of America. I try to keep telling
American South Korea hosted it a couple I don't know
(03:03):
if that was sixteen years ago. They finished as one
of the final four teams. So host nations do get
a weird bump, and I'm hoping America gets that we
need a run. To me, that's when America desperately needs.
If they could get a run and finish them on
the top four, I do think that would change people's
feelings the World Cup because it's it's the best. It's
the best, honestly celebrating with people as a country. I mean,
(03:24):
you remember USA hockey r How much fun was that. Yeah,
it's the best, So I need it. I need us
to be good. But I watched us play play the
other night and yeah, it's it's it still feels like
we have a ways to go.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Buddy.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
Well, look, you bring up a really good point. And
I do want to get to the World Cup because
it officially Vince begins today, group players underway. I want
to get to dbundo. But it's so fascinating to me
all the price gouging and the you know, disgusting, horrible
behavior of World Cup executives, et cetera. And then we
(03:58):
go to Brendan Soresby, the Text Tech quarterback who had
admittedly bet on Indiana games. When he was at Indiana,
he had bet about I think ninety grand. He clearly
has a gambling problem. He's admitted to that. He was
banned from being able to play for Texas Tech in
this upcoming year. He was the number one rated recruit
(04:19):
in the portal. Texas Tech dropped a bag to get him.
Texas Tech has been very aggressive during the NIL era.
Cody Campbell, oil billionaire has been very outspoken about the
NCBLEA and how he wants to completely reimagine what college
sports looks like. Swarsby had been banned, and yesterday a
(04:44):
Texas judge decided to overturn the ban, and really that
means Swarsby is going to play because any appeal process
of the NCAA can make will not be settled till
after the college football season. So now there's a lot
of conversation about Soresby and admitted gambler who better on
his team is going to be leading one of the
(05:05):
top programs in college football, team that made the college
football Playoff this past year expected to do it again.
It's fascinating to me the response that people have because
this will have and this is a completely cynical view,
this will have zero impact on fans and their love
(05:26):
of sports. We see it constantly. Gambling scandals are all
over sports right now. Ratings are only getting bigger in
every single sport. MLB ratings up, NBA ratings up, NFL
ratings up, NBA ratings up in the finals enormously, and
no league has had more problem with sports betting than
(05:47):
the NBA. So World Cup will be a global phenomenon.
No matter how disgusting the people are that run it,
it does not matter. That's the point of view. Do
you have thoughts on and and just to finish this
rant before I get to you, Simon, I love hearing
(06:09):
coaches this goes back to nineteen eighties SMU college football scandals.
I love hearing the people at Texas Tech saying this
kid deserves to be on the field, he deserves to
be given a second chance. We need to take care
of our student athletes. We need to take care of
our young people. All that is true, then take care
of them. Being on the football field is still a privilege.
(06:30):
You don't get to sidestep all of the other stuff
just because you happen to be a good football player.
You shouldn't be playing football. That's a non starter. But
get him all the help in the world that he
needs and continue to support him as you would have
if he was going to be your quarterback, because that's
the human thing to do. And that's what it really
means to support the student athlete. Not he deserves to
(06:52):
be on the field because it will help him with
his recovery, which is an argument a lot of people
in these circles are making.
Speaker 3 (07:01):
Yeah, I mean, all I can hope is eventually goes
the other way, right, it's we're in a weird tipping
player in our society. I agree, it keeps getting worse.
I do think eventually it could go the other way.
But you know, if he wasn't going to play college,
he was going to be in a supplemental draft. So
to me, college football, we've known for a long.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Time it's a business. This judge.
Speaker 3 (07:21):
I believe it might have been from Houston, So it
was like they try to be a nine bias judge. Right,
they try to make it as fair as possible as
what they claimed. But we've known for a long time. Right,
NCAA has lost total power. They have no power, no power,
And you know, I feel bad for college football fans,
(07:44):
But at the same time, I think what you just
said is so true. It's like they care. They'll stomp
their feet, they'll tweet about it. At the end of
the day, nothing will change. It's only going to keep
getting worse because money rules all, especially in that league.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And yeah, we're again, we only have so much time
here to talk about these different things. But yes, FIFA
to me is the.
Speaker 3 (08:05):
Most corrupt organization in the world when it comes to sports,
no doubt about it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
But you know they do. They do make right decisions,
right moves.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
And I think the World Cup set up between Canada
and Mexico and USA, it's cool, Like I love this
whole setup, in this whole deal, it just sucks, like
you said, it's been so corrupt.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
The Americans aren't behind it.
Speaker 3 (08:25):
No Americans paying one thousand dollars for just two seats
and then those bleeds to go watch France play some
crappy team in Philly.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
I just don't know how these tickets are going to sale.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
So, like we said, Chat, the thing, guys us is
the people need to fight back.
Speaker 2 (08:39):
You can fight back with your money.
Speaker 3 (08:40):
Right if less people watch college football, you know, people
turn off this whole college football playoffs being what is
it two months now? It feels like it starts in
early December. Chat doesn't end til late January. If people
push back against it, that's the only way with their money,
I should say, that's the only way they're going to
make change. So it's things are changing right now, buddy,
every every day the changing rep But I never thought
(09:01):
I kid would bet on college football and be eligible
play again in college football.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
It's really honestly shocking. He shocking truly.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And I'm not one of those people who thinks that
sports are fixed, you know, I actually feel like all
the mechanisms are in place to make sure that sports
are legit, that every contest is legit. And I also
feel like ninety nine percent of the athletes are actually
(09:32):
not interested in betting on sports or in trying to
fix the outcome of a game. It's news because it
happens infrequently, although more frequently than it used to happen
in the past, and there are a lot of protections
(09:53):
in place. I'm not so cynical that I think I'm
watching games that are fixed, but I think when you're
letting a quarterback, admittedly bet on games that he was
involved in, be the face of a franchise that is
supposed to get to the playoffs, I think we're treading
on very very thin nice, dangerous, dangerous President. Here's the
(10:15):
good news. We get to turn our back on all
of our preaching and just talk about betting on the
World Cup. Anthony de Bundo Anthony Dbundo, who we discovered
at the Action Network when he was just a senior
at Syracuse. We loved him. He left us to go
(10:40):
to the Ringer he's covering everything for the World Cup
for the ringer. Anthony D. Bundo, Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
It's good to be here.
Speaker 5 (10:52):
I'm very excited to spread the world's game, the love
of the world's game.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
I remember back.
Speaker 5 (10:57):
When we first wanted to get a soccer podcast with
our friends BJ Cunningham and Michael Leebov and Chad didn't
want to give us a soccer show.
Speaker 4 (11:04):
He said, nobody likes soccer.
Speaker 5 (11:06):
And now here we are doing the soccer, doing the
soccer show on Sharper Square, but chat.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Nobody likes soccer. We're doing one soccer show every four
fucking years for the World Cup. That's how much people
want to want to talk about soccer.
Speaker 4 (11:20):
That's fine, We'll take whatever we can get.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
Listen, you're a young single guy on the make in Philly.
Before we get into the soccer talk, tell us about
your experience watching Game one of the NBA Finals.
Speaker 4 (11:34):
Yeah, so we were actually in Sweden.
Speaker 5 (11:36):
Spotify was celebrating twenty years and the game started at
two thirty. So immediately when we all got there, obviously
a lot of us are sports fans, a lot of
Knicks fans. We're looking around like, what are we going
to do. There's not bars open past three, so that's
not going to work. None of us have you know,
TVs in our hotel room where we can get you know,
local New York television or national ESPN broadcasts.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
So what are we going to do?
Speaker 5 (12:00):
We found a hotel conference room that sat about eleven people,
and we fit about thirty five people into this conference room,
sitting on floors, sitting on the wall, sitting under the table.
Thirty five people packed, mostly Knicks fans, at two thirty
in the morning in Stockholm to watch the finals. And then,
you know, I think the weirdest thing about all of
(12:21):
it is, Okay, it's halftime. The room's kind of steamy,
so a bunch of us are like, let's go get
some fresh air outside. You walk out of the hotel
and the sun is shining. At four in the morning
in June in Stockholm, it is a majestic feeling. You know,
you're out at midnight and you can still see the
orange hue from the sunset, and then four hours later
it's bright and sunny.
Speaker 4 (12:40):
How does anybody ever sleep? I don't know.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
If I live there, I would be a deranged lunatic
who probably would lose my mind every winter. But in
the summers, man, what a special time. And yeah, go next.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I mean, they pull it out and now we got
a series.
Speaker 1 (12:54):
Hey, listen, you're so good at the soccer stuff, even
though you broke my heart when you ditched us at
action for the Ringer. My older son, who is graduating
from Drexel in the coming days, he was like, Hey,
I want to get into the World Cup. A lot
of my friends are into the World Cup. Who should
(13:16):
I go read or listen to? I sent him your
glossary page.
Speaker 4 (13:21):
From the Mountain.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
That's so nice.
Speaker 1 (13:23):
Now I want you to bring that knowledge. Bring that
knowledge to us to bundo. Okay, we got a huge field,
forty eight total teams that's going to be gained for
basically forty days. The finals July nineteenth, set the table
for us. Explain the structure of the tournament.
Speaker 5 (13:41):
Yeah, this is the first time we've ever had a
forty eighteen World Cup. Traditionally it was very simple, thirty
two teams, eight pools. Top two from each pool make
a final sixteen. Then you have a traditional sixteen team
bracket to determine the champion. But now FIFA said, hey,
what if we expand the game. What if we grow
the game and we deepen our pockets. We can make
a forty eight team World Cup with twelve groups. But
(14:06):
the problem is if you just took two from every group,
you'd have twenty four teams, and it's hard to build
a bracket with twenty four.
Speaker 4 (14:11):
So they said, here's our solution.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
We'll have thirty two teams qualify, so we're only going
from forty eight to thirty two. And what the first
group round will do eliminate sixteen teams, but the third
place teams will also advance, so eight of the top
twelve third place teams will advance the knockouts to form
a round of thirty two. So not only is the
tournament bigger, but now the champion team, whoever ends up
(14:34):
winning this whole thing, will have to play in eighth game.
Traditionally it was seven, Now it's eight, so there's another
game added in. There's also more space between the games
because there are more teams. They used to be every
four days you would play in the World Cup. Now
it's every six or seven days, so the teams have
more time.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
Off in between games.
Speaker 5 (14:52):
The travel is bigger for this World Cup. They kept
it mostly regional for the group stage, but still there's
more travel with us being such a big country in
Mexico Canada, and as a result, I think there's a
lot of confounding factors. There's the heat, the travel, the
elevation at a couple of places, the time off, the
extra matches, the fact that really like there's seven teams
(15:13):
that are ninety seven percent or better to make it
out of the group stage. They're kind of just like
exhibitioning their way through this. So a lot of new
factors to consider with this World Cup.
Speaker 1 (15:23):
Simon, at some point on this show, we're going to
have to do a big balls better the Week presented
by hard Rock Bet. I know you're paying very close
attention to how your home country, your birth country of
England will do in the World Cup. Spain is by
(15:47):
far the big favorite, I think minus four point fifty
at hard rock Bet right now, but a lot more
teams under ten to one France, England, Portugal, Brazil, Argentina.
From both of your points of view, Simon, I know
you're a huge football fan, Anthony, you as well give
(16:10):
us a contenders versus pretender's breakdown for those six teams. Simon,
you start Spain, France, England, Portugal, Brazil at Argentina.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
So I'll just start from the top again.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
If you're not into soccer at all, it's a lot
of comparables to the NFL. In the NFL, if you've
never won a super Bowl, it's basically impossible to ever
win a super Bowl. It's it sounds bizarre, but if
you look for some reason, if you've ever won one,
it's so much easier when the next one.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
Same goes for the World Cup. The World Cup is bizarre.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
It's basically there's six teams, like we've talked about here
that win the World Cup. They've been rotating for about
over one hundred years now, and England is an outlier.
Speaker 2 (16:46):
England won in you gotta look it up nineteen sixty six. Okay,
Spain one in twenty ten.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
So those are two teams that both just won one.
And then your Auguay they won two World Cups. That
was before the nineteen fifty so we kind of discount Uruguay.
They're not even a part of this conversation. So that
leaves France, Argentina, Germany, Italy and Brazil. These are the
teams that just always win. I don't think Brazil truly
has a chance this year. Italy didn't make the tournament,
(17:16):
and Germany studs, Argentina studs, and France they're all studs.
So you know, like I said, Spain one in twenty ten,
they're a great culture. That's what I'm trying to beat
down here, people. It's all about the culture in the country.
That's really what dictates all this. These cultures read styles
and the styles Spain is one is this really tight,
formative type of passing, and that's what one thing. In
(17:36):
twenty ten they had incredible midfielders Javi. Just if you
go back and look, that team was absolutely stacked. This
Spain team now is stacked and they're really really talented.
So I get whether the odds on favorite, I honestly
probably would. I know, France just won. To me, they're
such a good team. I could probably I could probably
give it to France to give them the best odds.
(17:57):
But if I was gonna go very boring to the
fans of this show when I take the Born pick,
I have no issue taking Spain. To me, Spain is
by far the best team. They have the best players,
so I would not be shocked if they won it all.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
Anthony, Spain's my pick too, you know they ultimately there
isn't a huge gap in the odds between Spain, France
and like England's kind of there and like I know,
Portugal's gotten a lot.
Speaker 4 (18:19):
Of helium lately.
Speaker 5 (18:20):
I'll separate the top six four contenders, two pretenders, So
my contenders are Spain, France, England, and then I'll throw
Argentina in there at the back end of that. Argentina
are the defending champs, but they essentially have the same
team they did four years ago, which can be good
or bad. You could say, hey, like they've done it.
They have to know how they have the experience. Leon
Al Messi is still good, although I think it's going
(18:42):
to be hard for him to replicate what he did
four years ago at the World Cup at his age.
But they also could get old really quick, they could
get stale, and I think there's questions like the next
generation of Argentina isn't quite ready yet to take that step.
They're really young, so I'll put them in the mix,
but I think they're clear fourth. I'll had Simon talk
(19:02):
about England will come back to them, but you know
France if you're just picking attackers, like, it's ridiculous how
good they are Killian Mbappe, Osmani Denble and Michael Alise.
Speaker 4 (19:11):
It's the best front three that I've had.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
Since I started watching the World Cup, which was in
twenty ten, was the first one I ever watched, So
that group is scary. I think there's questions about their midfield.
Spain I think is the most complete team. They are
like almost freakishly young, like Peedri's twenty two star midfielder
Lamina mal Is eighteen. He's already a top five player
in the world, but he's hurt right now, and I
think that's the one big X factor for Spain. Their
(19:35):
best player isn't going to play, probably in the group stage.
He might come back for the last game. They don't
really need him though until the quarterfinals, like they could
make the quarters without him. They bring him in if
he's fit, he's ready to go, like all of a sudden.
This is the Spanish team that won the Euros, that
won they made the Nation's League final, that has beaten
France the last two times they played them, the last
two summers. So I think Spain is the rightful favorite.
(19:56):
But you know, I think, shock me if any of
those four won the whole thing. As far as pretenders,
that's where we get into Portugal and then in the Brazil.
I am down on both teams relative to the to
the odds.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
Simon, give us your England take. I want to root
for England. I always want to root for England. You know,
I'm a bit of an Anglophile. You my brother are English.
Can we root for England? Can we do it together?
Can we make England our team?
Speaker 5 (20:22):
For the podcast Football's Coming Home, It's coming Home?
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Can we do it?
Speaker 2 (20:28):
No?
Speaker 3 (20:28):
Chat, you don't want this life, buddy, It's a life
of heartbreak.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
One day hell.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Wake up, picks itself and realize that Walt's for real.
Speaker 3 (20:38):
Every year it's our year, honestly. Like we've had some
incredible clubs. You know that last World Cup we had
such a great break. Or it might have been eight
years ago. I think it was Croatia. All we had
to do is Croatia to make the finals. Like it
just it never breaks right for England. Chats, you don't
want this life. I am heartbroken here in Dubundo, not
like Portugal. That's one of my favorite sleeper teams people.
(21:00):
If you don't know, I'm a diehard Man United fan.
The best player in the world in my opinion Bruno Fernandez,
who again, we only have so much time to break
down here, but basically, this man, to give you my
football kind of take of it is, this guy is
the the Aaron Rodgers of soccer. Just any hole, any pass,
it's always perfect and you can make a low level
(21:22):
guy like Jordan Nelson is a good receiver. Aaron Rodgers
made him look like a Hall of Famer, right, That's
what Bruno Fernanda does to all the talent around him.
This guy's in a midfielder that could put a ball
fifty yards downfield right on someone's foot.
Speaker 4 (21:33):
I'm telling you it's this year. Yeah, Premier League, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Premier League art for assist like, he's just that good.
So I will get into my England talk here. I
needed to bundle and give you some more Portugal talk
because I need to know what I'm missing here.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
But for England, I love them. I love their matchups.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I believe I look at their percentages, they have a
really higher percentage coming out of group stage. They're kind
of kind of the type of team that's seventy percent
to get out of their group, right, that's what most
computermoudels project. The only other team they're group that's really
good is Croatia. I guess Ghana is all right. But
that's the thing with England chat it doesn't really matter
about the group stages anymore. Like they can come in
third and still get out. It's it's when they play France,
(22:13):
are they gonna beat France? It's are they gonna be Argentina.
So that's why I don't want people to put money
on them. I really don't. Like I said, Spain is
very boring, but it's safe England, it's a better value.
They're just as good in my opinion as Spain. But
it's just heartbreak. It's so much pressure. It's I can't
tell you how much pressure is on these British.
Speaker 4 (22:32):
Are never good for England, It's true. I mean, look England.
Speaker 5 (22:36):
England are a very very, very very good defensive team
and I think probably the best defensive team in the field.
They don't lose very often unless it's a penalty shootout, right,
and I think, you know, England's been so close with
what I thought was a bad manager like twenty eighteen,
you mentioned it, semifinals of the World Cup. Twenty twenty one,
they make it to the Eurofinal, they lose on a
heart breaking penalty shootout. Twenty twenty two, they lose in
(22:57):
the World Cup quarters to France because they the penalty.
Twenty twenty four they lose the Euro Final to Spain.
So like they're there, they're not. It's not like they
keep underachieving, but they just they've never passed the eye test.
But now they have a better manager, they have a
more balanced team. There was a couple holes in the
last couple of years where it's like, well, they're not
playing any left wingers, they're super unbalanced in their structure.
(23:19):
And now they have another midfielder play with Decklan right,
they have an actual they have two good left wingers
to play this year. So I think they're more balanced
and it wouldn't shock me if they did it. But
here's the other part, Like the schedule, the way that
the draw broke, They're probably going to play a game
at Mexico City at elevation against Mexico. In the knockouts,
They're probably gonna have to beat Brazil in Miami, which
(23:40):
is like basically Brazil in the knockouts to just get
to the Semis in the finals, so they got a
pretty tough draw in the knockouts. Potentially, obviously that could
all change. But that's why I'm kind of like, I
like England. I think they're good enough to win it,
but like, can they actually do it? I'm not sure
of that. As far as Portugal goes, I love their midfield,
second best midfield of the tournament. Fernandez is amazing. It's
(24:02):
a Ronaldo problem for me. He's forty one years old.
He can't really run anymore, and they they don't use
what makes Fernandez and their midfield so good because they just.
Speaker 4 (24:14):
Center everything around Ronaldo.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
All they do is cross and cross and cross and
cross into Ronaldo.
Speaker 4 (24:19):
He takes the free kicks.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
They literally have a player in Bruno Fernandez who just
broke the record for assists because he's so good on
free kicks in.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
Corner and Rinaldo.
Speaker 5 (24:28):
If they're like within scoring range, Rinaldo's like, nope, it's
my time, I'm taking the free kick. And then he
just doesn't score, and it's like they're they're placating this
guy and he should be a super sub. He would
be an amazing super sub. But they start him and
he can't run. Like I said, he doesn't defend. So
it's like a weird situation where they're really talented but
they're front three. And then their left winger has been
(24:50):
out of form too. Like You're just like, well, I
don't know if this all comes together.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Guys, this is why they got us, you know what
I mean? Like we're suckers. We're all suckers because the
second we start talking about the games. I went through
this with one of my close friends before the Knicks
Game three. He lives in LA. We got a call
(25:16):
it up in a couple of weeks and his kid
who just graduated college. He's got work stuff going on,
and he's a diehard New York Knicks fan, grew up
in the Tri state area. He knows I don't want
the Knicks to win. He's calling me on the way
to a Knicks bar in LA. We have twenty five
minutes to catch up. In that twenty five minutes, we
(25:40):
broke it down into a TV show. The a block
was the Knicks of all the things. He's like, how
do you want to organize it? I'm like, fuck it.
We gotta do the Knicks right now. We'll talk about
family and work later. That ended up being the whole
conversation was just the Knicks. Sports fans are suckers and
we're going to keep getting played and we don't even
(26:00):
care because we love it so much. This conversation proves it.
England is going to break our hearts Simon. Portugal is
going to do what Portugal does. FIFA is going to
charge an arm and a lead for all of it.
No one's going to care.
Speaker 4 (26:15):
And we're all going to be tuned in every you know,
there's midnight Eastern.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
As you guys were talking about it, I was thinking about,
like the sounds when the World Cup is happening, like
on television from the stadium, the pay It's just it's
too good. And like if if there are people listening
to the show who are casual soccer fans and soccer betters,
like we want you to get something from this. It's
(26:39):
it's on our side of the planet, it's in our
time zones. We know people want to have fun. So Anthony,
for that crowd, what are you explaining to people? Are
the best ways to approach betting on the World Cup?
Invest in early, right along with one country. How are
you sort of giving people the low down?
Speaker 5 (26:59):
Yeah, don't bet long shot out rights, that's a good
way to like, I mean, I guess now with like
you know, some of the market stuff, you can maybe
invest and then sell out your positions like that kind
of thing as possible. But if you're just like I
want to pick a future, what Simon said is true.
There's only seven countries in this field that have ever
won the World Cup. It is very hard to do
because I mean, think about Morocco four years ago. They
(27:20):
were an incredible story, right, They were fourteen to one
to win their group. They won their group over Belgium
and Croatia. They beat Belgium in the process. They get
to the knockouts and it's like, all right, great job Morocco,
incredible story, Like thanks for coming out. You're playing Spain,
You're going to lose and they're like nope, nope, we're
beating Spain too, Like okay, great job. Like you upset Spain.
(27:40):
You want to shoot out Now you got to play Portugal.
They're like, well we'll beat them too, Okay, great, this
is the greatest run we've ever seen from an African nation,
they're in the semi final. Now you just have to
beat France then, like oh, even if they had won that, Oh,
now you gotta beat Argentina and Leo Messi in the fire.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Like it's just the odds of a team doing that.
Speaker 5 (27:58):
It's like zero, because the teams get tie, they wear down,
they have to defend for the whole match against these
superior nations, and it's like, you know, the World Cup,
especially now in the current format where it's almost impossible
for the big boys to get knocked out before the
knockouts like you used to get. You know, twenty fourteen,
Spain got knocked out in the group stage, twenty eighteen
Germany got knocked out in the group stage, and it
(28:20):
was like, oh, that's like a you know, twenty twenty
two Belgium.
Speaker 4 (28:22):
But now like, I mean, they're probably there might be one.
Speaker 5 (28:25):
But it's like some of these fourth place teams are
so bad that it's almost unfathomable that a team gets
knocked out. And then you know you're looking at again,
seven countries have ever won it. Portugal is not on
that list. Portugal is good enough to win it, I think,
but it would really shock me, and so you're like,
all right, so pick one of those teams, pick one
of those horses to ride with, and then look into
other markets. I mean, if you want to make Morocco
(28:46):
to make a run, like, bet them to make the
semis bet them to make the quarters.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
That Ecuador, who I like.
Speaker 5 (28:51):
You know that one of those teams Switzerland as opposed
to going like outright and it's like, oh great, I
have fifty to one, but then you're never gonna win.
Speaker 1 (28:58):
I want to talk about the Americans on the other
side of this break, but Matt mitchell is just let
me know of two notes from our sponsors at hard
Rock be First off, hard Rock is offering SGP profit
boosts on every single US men's national team match. Be
(29:19):
sure to check those out. Also, number two, no goal
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hard Rock Bet has you covered. Check out the site
for more details. Now let's hear from our friends at
(29:40):
hard Rock. Today's show is brought to you by our
presenting sponsor, hard Rock Bet, Florida's sports book. The NBA
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(31:26):
eight hundred and nine with it. In Arizona, Ohio and
Virginia call one eight hundred mile reset gambling problem called
one eight hundred gambler in Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey,
and Tennessee. I do want to talk about the US
men's national team again. There might be people listening who
only want to root for the US men's team. Always controversy,
(31:48):
always drama. It's been what thirty something years since the
US men's team had that run in ninety four. Everyone
gets excited. It never delivers. It's fine, we're you know,
we're excited to cheer for our guys, but lay out
the strategy for the US men's team and their chances
here in the World Cup.
Speaker 5 (32:06):
I think they got a really fun group, and like
that doesn't mean that they're gonna like roll over everybody
or that they got an easy group. You know, I
think when you get into a World Cup, like you
want a challenging and interesting group. And I go back to,
you know, the most fun I've had as a US
fan was twenty fourteen when they were in the Group
of death.
Speaker 4 (32:23):
Everybody was like, oh, Usa has no chance.
Speaker 5 (32:26):
They're partnered up with Germany, Portugal and Ghana back when
Ghana was like one of the best teams in Africa,
and it's like they got no chance. And then guess what,
they beat Ghana late, they had the lead against Portugal,
they went toe to toe with like Pete Rinaldo Portugal
and tied them and then advanced out of the Group
of death.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
And then they played Belgium.
Speaker 5 (32:43):
In that crazy game where you know, Tim Howard is
standing on his head and you're like, well, you know
they lost in their round to sixteen, but damn that
was fun, and I think this group, like there's not
the sexy names. But in terms of all twelve groups
of this World Cup, Group D is the most balanced
from top to bottom. Like my rankings of all forty
eight teams, I've got the US number one in their
(33:03):
group at eighteen. I've got Australia last at thirty first,
So like all four teams are kind of similar. Australia
I think is a little as a notch two worse.
But Paraguay is a really tough defensive team. Turkey is
a really, really really talented offensive team that could play
a really fun back and forth game with the United States.
Paraguay is a perfect challenge to start because the US
(33:25):
has had problems against these very physical defensive teams in
terms of breaking them down creating chances. That's gonna be
the task on Friday night. Paraguay's best attacking player is
now out for this game. He suffered an injury last week.
Julio and Siso. So you're looking at like, Okay, the
defense should hold up here. That's our main question about
the US is how how does this defense this goalkeeper situation,
(33:45):
It's kind of dicey. How do they hold up and
then we get to see the attack, which I think
is tactically well set up for this tournament. We're going
to see how they are able to gel together and
break down a really good defensive team. They played Paraguay
in November and it was like a very compete win
for the US, so I think it'll be a great game.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Uh, Simon, When you bet the World Cup, do you
bet it differently than you normally do as a professional?
Speaker 2 (34:12):
Better?
Speaker 1 (34:14):
Are you approaching more as a fan?
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (34:17):
Like I'm always working trying to get info, so that's
that's part of my life. Like even if I I'm
not betting up a sport professionally, I'm always trying to
find an edge and I love watching it. So yeah,
for me, I, like I talked about it, I've only
only watched Premier League, so I don't watch spanishly. I
don't watch frenchly, I don't watch German, I don't watch it.
I only really watch Premier League. So you know, I
(34:38):
don't know all the players. I'll be upfront about that,
but I know the best ones. Like come on, I
play FIFA as well, so like I'm not totally out
of it, but like I know these guys' names. It's
just you know, to me, when it gets the World Cup,
I'm not here to poop poo.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
Americans like I want Americans. I already talked about that.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
I want them to make a run, that they would
be good for the sport and just get American culture
being more into the sport. You know, pair if you
want to bet USA to beat them, it feels like
a sucker bet. I think they are minus one oh
five to win the game their first game against Paraguay.
The value to me is in the tie. And now
again Americans don't like betting this stuff, but it's plus
two forty at hard Rock.
Speaker 2 (35:13):
That's that's good value in it.
Speaker 3 (35:14):
What we just talked about, Paraguay is a great defensive team.
One of America's straints has been really tough defensively. So
it's like a one.
Speaker 2 (35:22):
To one zero zero game. I know that's not fun
to Americans.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
Bet to me, that'd be a great result for America
and that'd be a nice way to start the tournament.
So I don't know, I got a big balls bet.
That's not it chat. I don't think that takes big
balls better tie.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (35:35):
But for for my view of Americans. If you want
to bet on your team, you want to bet on
them to win the group. I think Anthony just laid
out for you. There is value there. They're the best
team in the group. The margin's so small, though, and
the lines already built into that. You're kind of betting
for fun. You're not betting because, like there's other values
we're gonna talk about here to bet, this ain't one
of them.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
America. If you're betting it, you're betting truly as a fan.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
I think the best way to bet America is not
the group, but actually so you can bet like to
make the round of sixteen, and there's a minus one
ten out there.
Speaker 4 (36:04):
I think that's the best way to bet the US.
Speaker 5 (36:06):
Like, if they win the group, they get a third
place team, and there is a chance that it's like
a sneaky good you know, like Senegal or Ivory Coast,
really good African or even European team like a Norway,
But most likely they're going to be the clear favorite
in that round of thirty two game, and if they
come in second in the group, they're most likely round
of thirty two opponent is either Iran or Egypt, which
(36:26):
geopolitics aside. They're better than both of those teams as well,
and much deeper than both. So I think their favorite
in their round of thirty two game either way. If
they come in third, maybe not, but if they come
in first or second, which I think they will, they
are the favorite clearly, and you can get like minus
one ten on them to win that match.
Speaker 4 (36:43):
So I think that's where this goes.
Speaker 5 (36:45):
And then they get to the round of sixteen and
it's like, all right, they're probably going to play either
Belgium or Argentina and they're going to be underdogs. But
could they pull off an upset? It's always kind of
like the place we get to right four years ago.
It is like they're playing the Dutch, could they pull
off an upset? No, They're playing the Belgians. Could they
pull off an upset? Almost but no.
Speaker 4 (37:03):
So it's like that's kind of what we're at right now.
Speaker 5 (37:05):
And if they win one, like Simon said, they get
the home bounce and the crowd goes nuts and they
get an early lead and they're in the quarterfinals, and
now you're like, well they kind of kind of did.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
The thing, Simon, what's our big balls better the week?
Speaker 3 (37:21):
If they already said it. You kind of shoot my hand.
I love Morocco, I really do. I don't think what
happened four years ago is just a blimp. And I
think Brazil is totally overrated, like people are. I think
I've seen some models time to have seventy five percent
chance of winning their group.
Speaker 2 (37:36):
So if you want to beat group, see Morocco. I
have no issue with that.
Speaker 3 (37:39):
Yeah, let's just get right after game one Morocco plays
Brazil right away. There are right now plus four point
fifty on hard rock to win that game against Brazil.
Speaker 2 (37:49):
I love that. If you're kind of someone that wants
to play, it's super safe.
Speaker 4 (37:51):
Though.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Soccer does give you half a point, so if you
want to just play half a goal, they're they're plus
one plus one thirty. So if you want to take
plus point half, you know you're already up half a
goal to start the game. So if they tie, you'll win.
On Morocco, you can do that. I think Morocco has
a chance to beat this team out right. I love
love everything about this team, and plus four fifty to
(38:14):
start it off, I think they be able to catch
this Brazil team sleep.
Speaker 2 (38:17):
And I love that value for our Big Balls Better
the Week, Chet You're.
Speaker 4 (38:20):
You're second it second thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:24):
Our big Balls Bet of the Week presented by a
hard Rock Bet. We like Morocco plus four to fifty
against Brazil.
Speaker 4 (38:33):
You know what it takes, It takes brass balls.
Speaker 1 (38:38):
We also like Morocco plus half a goal plus one
thirty I think you said in the opening game, and
we like a little taste on Morocco to win their group.
Big Balls Better the Week presented by hard Rock Bet.
Anthony before we get out of here, gold.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Question for Anthony too, before we let them go?
Speaker 1 (38:56):
Oh, go ahead, ask your question?
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Okay, Uh, where you at with Norway? I love Norway.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
I'm all in them out. I'm all about the golden boot. Right,
if you have the best striker in the game. You know,
Norway young team right there? You might look in their
spice still four years away, which I would totally agree with, right,
they're very young, but I just love this whole movement
of Norway's never been here before. They're in a group
with Senegal and France, which is very tough, tough, but
(39:26):
I think that works their advantage, right. I think France,
they could steal a game against France. I could see
France dying potentially of losing a Senegal as well, like
France is no doesn't have it easier out either. I
love the odds of Norway right now. People sleeping on them.
I would love to hear your view on them. And
what do you think their odds are making have that group?
Speaker 5 (39:43):
Yeah, I do think they're going to get out of
the group. I think all three will. I think part
of that is a commentary on Iraq, who is one
of the worst teams in the field. And really, if
you just win one game you get three points, as
long as you don't get blown out in the other
two games, like you're gonna be fine. So I ultimately
think all three teams will will prior artise beating Iraq
and then say all right, we'll take our chances with
(40:03):
the other team. Now as far as like you know, Norway,
the problem is like how do you bet them? Because
I don't think they have enough depth to win it.
I think they're alive to pull off an upset or two,
so maybe it's like a to make round of sixteen
to make quarterfinals.
Speaker 4 (40:15):
I also wouldn't bet Holland.
Speaker 5 (40:17):
Golden Boot though, because again they're probably not going to
go that deep in the tournament, and like you're playing
France and set Like the group stage is usually where
the Golden Boot is really decided because you can rack
up goals against bad teams. But it's gonna be hard
for Norway to do that when they're playing France and Senegals.
So I think, you know, maybe the best way to
bet Norway would be like a round of sixteen or quarterfinal.
I do think they're a top fifteen team, which is
(40:39):
crazy given that they weren't even in the field four
years ago. They didn't even make the Euros two years ago.
But Holland ode Guard Sir loth like, they're They've got
a really fun attacking group. I think they're very live
and I also like Columbia to win their group over Portugal.
They're like plus two fifty and then Ecuador. Ecuador is
my dark horse, Chad. I'm excited about the Ecuadorians. They're
(40:59):
They're an ugly but very very very gifted and elite
defensive team. They are five to one to make the
quarter six to one and like plus one seventy five
to make the round of sixteen. Like, I think Ecuador
is gonna be the classic traditional team. Nobody wants to
play in the knockouts. Everybody's gonna be like, how can
we avoid Ecuador because that's gonna be an absolute war.
They took Argentina to penalties a couple of years ago
(41:21):
at the Copa America. Like, they're a really physical team,
so they're gonna be tough out and they're in a
tough group too. They got Germany, they got Ivory Coast,
Like that's probably the second toughest group after France, Norway
and Senegal.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
All right, thank you, Anthony de Bundo. Check him out
over at the ring or he's gonna join us next
month to preview the World Cup semi finals. That's our show.
This has been Sharper Square, part of the Volume podcast network.
Watch or listen on YouTube at Sharper Square. Like this video,
subscribe to the channel. Download from Spotify, Apple Pods wherever
you get your pods. Rate reviews, subscribe. He was five stars.
(41:54):
Say whatever you want.
Speaker 4 (41:54):
Feedback is a gift.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
Until next time, Love you, Hm.
Speaker 3 (42:01):
Bobby Moore, Lad England up to the Royal Box to
receive the jewelry, Make Cup and the winners' medals.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
To be here as winners of the f A Cup
has often been described as the summit of a footballer's ambition.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
How much greater was the triumph I enjoyed now
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