Spain win FIFA World Cup | The Wisdom & Experience of Robert Craddock (20.07.26)

episode
Whateley 3 min 2 speakers 3 chapters transcribed 1 month ago
0

Transcript

jump: chapters · speakers · find in transcript
Transcript

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

How did Spain perform defensively to win the World Cup final?

Gerard Whateley 0:00
World Cup final this morning. If it's the biggest single moment in sport for the year, then it was sullied by the antics and tactics of Argentina. That's my view. We rely on crash to be more considered on mornings like this. What did you think of the final crash?
Robert Craddock 0:16
Oh, I'm so glad Spain won, Gerard. Yes. Because, you know, I mean, well, they conceded one goal in the entire tournament. At one stage, they'd gone 647 minutes before they conceded their sole goal of the tournament against Belgium. Now, that's nearly 11 hours. So, in other words, if the game started now, Gerard, that's… going to 10 o'clock tonight before Spain concede the goal. But Argentina's tactics were so negative. It's the first time since 1966 that there was a team in the final who had no shots at goal in regular time. They were so defensive, Argentina. And I hate the way they play.

Why does Robert Craddock criticize Argentina's tactics in the final?

Robert Craddock 1:01
They're a really sort of quite a dirty team. They're bad losers. They sucked it up. a couple of their players at the end of the game, you know, having a bit of push and shove with the Spanish. And Spain dominated the game. My goodness me. And Gerard, what a sporting nation Spain are. I mean, population 47 million. and like they is there anything they're not good at i mean you know cycling um athletics tennis soccer you name it basketball my goodness me they're outstanding we took talk ourselves up don't we population 27 million australia we punch above our weight and we do But I think Spain is, if you're talking, want to talk up Spain as the greatest sporting country per capita, gosh, it's hard to beat.
Gerard Whateley 1:54
Yeah.
Robert Craddock 1:55
It'd be gone, Argentina.
Gerard Whateley 1:56
It was a great tournament. Did it work in America?
Robert Craddock 2:00
Oh, I think it did. Look, crowds, average crowd, 70,000 people, got terrific traction in and outside America. Had a bit of drama, didn't it, with Donald Trump, you know, basically getting the red card to his American side annulled. And while none of us disagree with it, sometimes tournaments need that spoonful of madness about them. It was safe, the crowds were good. Yeah, sure, tickets were pretty expensive and everything.

What statistics highlight Spain's defensive dominance during the tournament?

Robert Craddock 2:27
i tell you one thing i did think could work you know they talked about this 48 team competition but i'd like to see it if they took it up to about 64 that would make the playoffs a lot more even and the knockouts you know could work everyone was bagging that idea but after seeing how well this expanded competition worked i think you could take it up an extra level because it was just It was just wonderful, wasn't it? There were some times there wasn't a bad game. And you think, oh, hang on. You turn it into a lottery if you've got so many teams. But hang on a minute. Hang on. The top four teams in the world rankings made the semifinals. For all the balls that hit the post, all the shots that just missed, all the upsets, the top four teams were the top four teams standing at the end.
Robert Craddock 3:16
So I think you can have a bigger competition if you want it.

Select any passage to copy it with its citation or turn it into a shareable card.

More from Whateley