U.S. soccer legend Landon Donovan joins! Plus, predictions for an epic Spain-Argentina final.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:00)
So, which do you prefer, Lando Golrician or Lando Cantmissian?

**Landon Donovan** (0:07)
Golrician.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:08)
Yes!

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:09)
I love the way you answered that so straight.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:12)
It's been 17 years!

**Landon Donovan** (0:15)
I'm glad I created that moment for you.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:23)
I'm Brendan Hunt.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:23)
And I'm Rebecca Lowe, and this is After the Whistle from Apple News.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:27)
We've got a special guest today, honored to have Landon Donovan join us here in New York City to tell us all about his very eventful World Cup.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:33)
Plus, we'll give you the story behind the absolute chaos of our last episode of After the Whistle. And of course, we will talk about the epic final between France and England, just kidding, between Spain and Argentina.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:44)
Reminder, there will be adult language. Some of it from Landon Donovan.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:53)
This podcast is brought to you by Verizon, an official sponsor of the FIFA World Cup 2026 No one gets you closer to the FIFA World Cup than Verizon.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:03)
Rebecca. We're here. We're here.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:06)
The day before it all ends.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:08)
Yeah. Then we know that it's the day before it ends because it's the day of the third place game.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:13)
I don't know about you, but I've been looking forward to the third place game.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:15)
I actually almost didn't make it here today because I woke up with a pretty severe case of bronze final fever.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:24)
Did you think, I got to get to Miami for this? I got to be there in person for this clash.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:28)
I was so close. I'm like, oh gosh, I can get one ticket, but then I'd have to leave the wife behind and she'd never forgive me if I didn't bring her to the bronze final.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:37)
Especially as if it actually could go to extra time. We could get 30 more minutes of that third place playoff and penalties.
The only penalty shootout that if you miss, no one cares.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:50)
We'll also talk about the World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. But America continues to be the most baffled country by this one particular aspect of the World Cup, which is that we still have a third place game. England's coach Tatu came out this week openly saying, bless him.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:04)
Is he still coaching?

**Brendan Hunt** (2:05)
He is still coaching. Yeah, you can't change coaches before the third place game.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:08)
I think you'll find. Who changed coaches after about one game of this tournament?

**Brendan Hunt** (2:12)
The Tunisia. Right. Yeah.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:15)
We could take a leaf out of that book.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:17)
But what good would it be at this point? You would throw people off before their third place playoff.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:22)
So no one wants to play. They didn't have a manager at all? That would be kind of fun.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:26)
That would be fun, actually.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:27)
Right?

**Brendan Hunt** (2:28)
He openly came out and said, and like, no one wants to play this game. No one wants to play this game, can we stop doing this? And this has been a call that people have sounded for some time, but in particular, now when it is a 104 game, eight round tournament, we don't fucking want nor need the third place game. Like it wins points to me only for like being such like a quirk, such a little curiosity, but now it's just, it's exhausting. Stop it.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:54)
104 games, 104 degrees is what it's going to be in Miami for this third. No, I made that up just to make the link, but I wouldn't be surprised. Would you? No. Now the third place playoff for me is just do one, get out. We don't want it. The only time it ever, ever has a smidgen of okay, is if it were to be like a tiny country that had a Cinderella run.

**Brendan Hunt** (3:18)
Or if it's a home team. If it's a home team and or like it, like because when Croatia is in the third place game, they love it. They can't get enough.

**Rebecca Lowe** (3:25)
But imagine, just yeah.
But I think they should judge it. So I know they will never do this, you called it. But we should just wait. And then whoever makes it, we then decide if we have it. Right?

**Brendan Hunt** (3:35)
We're not just having it. Oh, England, France. Oh, they're not going to be very excited about it. We can't really do it. Croatia, Mexico. Okay.