England beat France 6-4 to finish 3rd! Who will take home the World Cup?

**James Richardson** (0:21)
Saturday at the World Cup, it's the third fourth playoff, the game no one wanted. Oh hey, actually you like it now? After England and France combined in a 10 goal tear up for the ages, we look back on the whammy in Miami, 4-0 to 4-3 to 6-4, wave goodbye to Didier Deschamps, have another moan at Thomas Tuchel, and ask, is not using Saka in soccer a Saka-able offense? Then, Sunday, the actual final, Tidy Spain, the Messi Argentina, Manic, Titanic, Hispanic, we preview the big game.
Saturday afternoon in Los Angeles, and our ball man summer continues with Tom Williams and Tim Spears. But we brought hair in us today because we've got Daniel Storey joining us on the line from New York. Hello, Daniel.

**Daniel Storey** (1:06)
Yeah, men in her suits, I'm here.

**James Richardson** (1:09)
We've also got the suit, Martin Mazur from Buenos Aires. Later on when we look ahead to Sunday's big game, as you know, it's Spain against Argentina in the World Cup final. Daniel, you're in New York right now for the game. How is it there?

**Daniel Storey** (1:23)
Yeah, I went to Manhattan this morning. I'm staying in Long Island City this evening, moving to Williamsburg tomorrow morning.
There were loads and loads of Spanish and Argentinian fans, predictably more Argentinian fans, and also predictably more just people from the USA wearing Lionel Messi shirts. That was slightly curtailed that atmosphere by a biblical storm that led to flash flood warnings and told people to go home and go indoors because Manhattan is going to be underwater this afternoon. It was pretty spectacular and I myself hot-footed it up to the hotel for the England game. It's clear that I've seen enough people just in Manhattan to more than fill the stadium tomorrow. So there's going to be a huge watch party in Manhattan. There's going to be watch parties all around here. There's an Argentinian bar near my hotel in Long Island that are already gearing up with a kind of pre-drinks tonight. So yeah, it's good stuff. Good.

**James Richardson** (2:23)
The stadium will be sold out as you suggest. In fact, I hear that tickets are going for upwards of $12,000.
You do get a half-time concert thrown in for that along with the football. So there's that.

**Tom Williams** (2:35)
So then football almost.

**James Richardson** (2:36)
Perhaps so. Well, especially given the two teams that will be contesting the game. There's also, though, as you mentioned, chance of biblical downfall, a flood advisory and a code red alert for smoke and unhealthy air quality and a forecast that predicts a strong chance of Trump.

**Daniel Storey** (2:56)
It should be said that all of the excitement has kind of happened on Friday and Saturday. So we had the Canadian wildfire smoke on Friday all day and all night.

**James Richardson** (3:05)
How bad is it?

**Daniel Storey** (3:07)
It was terrible on Friday. It really was. It was more the smell, really, than an inability to hold your, catch your breath, although I wasn't running that far. But this morning I went for a run in Central Park and it was fine. It cleared overnight. Then we got the rain, which sort of double cleared. It sounds like we're going to have full sun, 80 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow, kind of perfect playing conditions, which is sort of fortunate given that they're playing in one of the outdoor stadiums.
I think they could do without weather delay tomorrow, but I think it'll be fine on the day.

**James Richardson** (3:36)
All right. Well, we'll talk more about the final a little bit later on. Let's get a moment of today though, Saturday, which saw this absolutely biblical tussle between France and England in the third, fourth playoff. Tom, why don't you kick us off?

**Tom Williams** (3:51)
Incredible. Still getting our breath back, aren't we? I'm going to go for Kylian Mbappe's second goal of the game, which I think, checks notes, made it 4-3 to France, who were 4-0 down at half time. Just a beautifully constructed goal. Ousmane Dembele charges down the right, plays a pass in. Michael Alise dummies the ball. Kylian Mbappe plays it into his path. Alise plays it back to Mbappe with the outside of his left foot.
Mbappe sticks it home, thereby becoming the outright top goal scorer in World Cup history. It's Alise's seventh assist of the tournament, which has not been done before either.
And there were still plenty of goals to come.

**James Richardson** (4:32)
But not enough for France. What was your moment of the day, Tim?

**Tim Spiers** (4:36)
Yeah, for the first time since arriving here, you know, picking a goal was my best moment of the day. Normally picking, like drinking smoothies or seeing Taylor Swift's house. But yeah, it's Jude Bellingham's, the 10th goal of the match, which is the one that we got most excited about. I couldn't believe that there had been 10 goals, England had scored six. But the way that Bellingham scored it, I've never seen him score a goal quite in that manner. Maybe he has in La Liga and I haven't seen it, I don't know. But sort of charging from just inside his own half and sort of leaving La Croix for dead. And then Uppamakano, as he's finally going to be known on the last day of the World Cup for him.