Welcome to the Total Soccer Show and our review of the 2022 World Cup Final.

Yes, after 64 games we can finally proclaim the World Cup champions are the team who lost to the Saudis in their first game.

Argentina looked sharp and tied the French defence in knots and were

helped by a French side who decided not to take any shots. But then, all of a sudden, Leblou

came alive. Well, I say all of a sudden, it was minute 75. After Mbapapie brought it level

with something truly fantastic, a foregone conclusion became a modern classic.

And an extra time when Messi looked to have won the lot, along comes in Bappy again,

this time from the spot.

And after six penalties were dramatically hit, upstep Montiel to say,

this is how we do it.

Yes, it's a third trophy for the Albi Celeste, who have plenty of

reason to gloat. After all, the internet tells us they have the goateiest of all the goats.

It's been a weird World Cup with no shortage of controversies in the mix, and now it's in the

rearview mirror. Let's look ahead to 2026, but not just yet. My name's Ryan Bailey. Joining me a man who didn't have to write his intro three times for this podcast. Taylor Rockwell, hello. Hello, I was wondering about that. I assumed at 2-0 you had one written. I assumed at 2-2, you started writing a very different one. And then at full-time, did you have to scramble back to the original one? Yeah, there's very little has survived of the first draft. I'll say that much, Taylor Rockwell. I feel I'm pouring a lot out for the journalists in that stadium. I'll pour it back in because they got to witness probably the greatest workup on in history, but also they've had to do a lot of editing today. Yeah, I can't imagine any stories are getting filed very soon aside from like, the goat does it. Maybe that will just be the easy way to get out of this one. But man, what a final. If Lino Messi had scored that one, I can't remember if it's at the end of extra time or the end of regulation, that one that Eurice just tips over the bar. If he had scored that, I don't know what we would have done. We would have had to take a day off or something like that because that would have been the ultimate greatest moment in a World Cup final ever. We may still have gotten a few of those in this one, but that one would have put it over the top. At that point, Taylor, could have just stopped soccer like it would have been done. Yeah. Is it? But we've seen everything at that point. We're not getting past this. We're good. But now we've got to keep going.

Yeah, hello. It really was, Ryan. I thought this match was done, as did everybody. We've already talked about that. Messia had done his thing. We could tie a nice little bow on it. The World Cup is done. Let's

move on. And then Killing Mbapé storms back, which is exactly what all of the script writers

pulling the strings from above and below wanted in this match. That goal that he hits first time,

still, I can't even fathom how he managed to get enough power and to place it in the bottom right corner of the goal. It's massive from Killing Mbapé. And then I think, okay, Argentina are pretty well and clearly shaken in this. So much happened, Ryan Bailey. Narrative one, I don't need to do the full recap now. We'll get to that later. I am still shaken to my core that this was a soccer game that we all got to watch in the World Cup final that we weren't sure

was even going to be a good game. Oh my, was it a good game? I hope we get to all the points in this game, Joe, because there were so gosh darn many, as you say there. Joining us to help us do that, a man who knew all along this tournament would belong to Aston Villa's goalkeeper. Graham Ruffin. Hello. Yeah, I mean, that's the real story here. It's not the Messy World Cup. It's the, I mean, Martinez World Cup. I have to say, I did very much enjoy his antics in the penalty shootout. There was one save in particular where he kind of does his interpretation of a Connor McGregor sort of swagger, that was the highlight for me in that whole shootout and possibly in that whole match, but there were a lot of highlights. I mean, Killian and Bappi scored a hat trick in a World Cup final and didn't win that World Cup final. What a mad match that was. Yeah. He got his golden boot though, Graham, that's almost... No, it's not. It's not as good. It's nowhere near as good. That's all I cared about. Yeah.

All right, we're going to talk mad match that was. Yeah. He got his golden boot though, Graham. That's almost... No, it's not.

It's not as good.

It's nowhere near as good.

...