Hello and welcome to the TIFO football podcast. I'm Joe Devine and I'm delighted to be joined by Seb Halford's floor. Hi, Seb. Hello, Joe Devine. How you doing? I'm doing. I do great. Good. You're sat right next to John Mackenzie. Hi, John. John McGenzy, I believe. Yes, John McGenzy. That's right. And of course, for listeners to the podcast, we're referring to the pun-related jokes that the live chat were making last night. Of course, if you're listening to us, you can also join us live on YouTube in the immediate aftermath of the final game of every game day of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Very exciting, isn't it? But you know what else is exciting? We're joined by a special guest today. The reason we've squashed Seb and John together in one close camera shot, as though they weren't special enough to have their own close-up shot, because we have a very special person here. All the way from the Ranks FC podcast, it's Sam Thai. Hi, Sam. Hello. How you doing? All right? I'm great. It's good to be here. Well, thanks for coming. You've joined us today to chat and to do a little bit of tactic stuff on the board. So we'll look forward to hearing more from you shortly. And probably by the end of the podcast, being a bit sick of you. But if you want something to get sick of, but it'll take a really long time to get sick of it,

that's The Athletic.com forward slash Tifo, the athletic.com forward slash Tifo, the quality

so high that I'm not even sick of it and I work here.

Some days, but it's unrelated to the quality of the product, I have to say. I have to say. Yeah, okay. And there's a special offer on at the moment, Joe. You can get The Athletic for £1 per month for six months. What an incredible deal. Visit Theathletic.com forward slash Tifo. Theathletic.com forward slash Tifo. Yeah. But for now I will leave you in the warm hands and the cool embrace of Sam Ty.

Yes. All right. Ready? When Sam is sad, he's Sam cries.

Okay, that's pretty good start. Let's see if we can improve that throughout the course of the podcast. Don't make that your personal mission for the evening. Once you're sick of him, he'll be Sam's sigh. Oh. That's pretty good. I feel like it's too easy to pun on his name because it's based on the... Sounds like so many other things. Yeah. Okay, let's begin.

Right, let's begin.

Right, let's start with Brazil to Nils Serbia. It feels like, I mean, it was quite an interesting game to watch, though, quite a fun one. Will you start, though, with helping the un-initiated here? Why are Brazil favorites for the tournament, would you say? I mean, because there's plenty of good teams here. Lots and lots and lots and lots of really good players.

Also lots of really good players.

Also, lots of fun players who capture the imagination.

Brazil are stacked with attacking talent.

Obviously, Nemar is the one that everybody knows.

And the player around a lot of this tournament, around him a lot of this tournament is centred because it's kind of his last chance really to collect the award

that he's been expected to win,

probably since he was about 16.

He's been, ever since he was a teenager,

Namo has been the next force in Brazilian football.

And I suppose there's different ways of interpreting his career,

but it would feel a little

bit under fulfilled, unfulfilled if you weren't to win the World Cup or the Ballandor, or probably

both things, because they generally go together. But around him, there's an extraordinary

collection of talent, which makes him a clear favourite, especially after Argentina's debacle against Saudi Arabia.

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