Very unofficial World Cup awards, and wild tales of Brendan’s and Rebecca’s adventures at the World Cup final

**Brendan Hunt** (0:16)
I'm Brendan Hunt.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:17)
And I'm Rebecca Lowe. And this is After the Whistle from Apple News.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:21)
It's our season finale, Rebecca.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:23)
Oh my goodness, 18 out of 18

**Brendan Hunt** (0:26)
We've both just come from New York, New Jersey Stadium, where we witnessed Spain's victory at the World Cup final, and we're here to talk about it all.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:32)
Excuse me, including the fact that Brendan was in the half-time show.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:37)
I don't know, was I? It was all a blur.

**Rebecca Lowe** (0:39)
And Dad never told me.

**Brendan Hunt** (0:40)
I heard you took a helicopter to the game, so tip for tat, we must debrief. Reminder, there will be adult language.

**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)
Hi, Rebecca.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:04)
Brendan.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:05)
Thank you for dressing up.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:06)
No one's worn a better suit on a podcast. Has anyone ever worn a better suit on a podcast?

**Brendan Hunt** (1:11)
No, no, except for that one time that Mariah Carey went straight from winning a Grammy into inventing podcasts later that day. What a gift she is.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:20)
Brendan, before we start, two things. Number one, I've got a bone to pick with you. And I know we're going to discuss it later in the podcast. But you keep in secrets from me and from the podcast, you, halftime show secrets.
Unbelievable.

**Brendan Hunt** (1:34)
It was never relevant. Well, I think you'll find it's quite relevant.

**Rebecca Lowe** (1:38)
Okay, we will discuss that later on. Secondly, do you think we owe the third game, the third place game an apology?

**Brendan Hunt** (1:46)
No, I don't. I'm glad you bring that up. For those who missed our last episode, we spent a lot of time, I think this is the industry term, taking a shit on the third place game.
But not because it's not in of itself and never entertaining game to watch, but it's just that it's cruel. It's cruel to make these players play this game after they've been eliminated from a tournament, like, no, not really, one more. And like, it's not the Olympics where, you know, Olympic basketball, we're like, oh, you get to play tomorrow. That's one thing. Making them hang around for four more days is asinine.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:17)
And also, I don't think we should do the bronze medal situation. Then it becomes more like the Olympics. And then people who don't know as much about the World Cup as we would like them to know, go, oh, it is like the Olympics. And then it's gold, silver, bronze. No, it's not. So when they were lining up to get their bronze medals, it just felt wrong. Good game, good game.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:34)
Yeah, but the other thing is like, having said that, and I think we both stand by all that, would have been a shame to miss yesterday's third place game, which I did. Ha, I saw Death of a Salesman instead. And I think I made the right choice, but ooh, them highlights were delightful.

**Rebecca Lowe** (2:49)
Yeah, that's a long highlight reel.

**Brendan Hunt** (2:51)
Way to go, Bukai Osaka, golly.
But that's yesterday, dust in the wind. Today, we had the actual 2026 World Cup final between Spain and Argentina. Can I say, and we'll get through the game a little bit, but I got two things here. One is, I didn't get to watch the game with as much attention and focus as I usually would like to, because I'm in a green room, and the makeup lady for BTS, she's doing makeup on BTS, and she doesn't know that she's blocking half the screen, and everyone watching is far too polite and respectful to the work of BTS to interrupt her. And then that lady goes away, but then Madonna's wardrobe rack comes through across the TV, and let me tell you, that thing was dense. She only wore one costume. Dense wardrobe rack. So I'll be writing your coattails for much of this podcast, not for the first nor last time. But may I say that Spain, when Spain win the World Cup, it's always because they are truly unbeatable and have earned it. But also when they win the World Cup, the game kind of sucks.
Kind of a stinker.

**Rebecca Lowe** (3:56)
I know. That was my one disappointment today. I did have a moment on about 85, and I thought, gosh, all the people who go, there's no goals in football, and they're watching the World Cup final, the one game of every four years they're ever going to watch, and it's nil, nil, then it's an extra time. Now, of course, the goal came an extra time. Thank goodness. Because that would have been awful if it had gone to penalties, actually, especially because I think Argentina might have found a way on penalties, and it's not that I'm anti-Argentina, everybody, it's just that they were not very good.