Mikel Merino With The Late Winner Against Belgium To Send Spain Into The Semis!

Project 90 Soccer: right, Marco, we are live. Welcome to another episode of Project Ninety. Today we had the second quarter final where we saw Spain beat Belgium two to one. My name is Antonio.

Marco: accept. Nah, Marco.

Project 90 Soccer: And Marco, before we dive into this game, I just want to remind all the new listeners or existing listeners coming back to visit Project90Soccer.com, find all of our streaming platforms, all of our social platforms. like, leave a comment, subscribe. We want to hear from you all. We want to engage with the audience. with that being said, though, Marco, today, the second quarterfinal, Spain is into the semis versus France, beating Belgium two to one. What did you think of that game?

Marco: Definitely not the steamrolling that we were thinking. As far as Spain just rolling right through them. mean, the stadium was pretty dope. I think outside of Azteca, I mean, I'm biased. I'm a Mexico fan, but so fine, man. It's been delivering for all these games. It's a nice stadium. It's a huge stadium, man. Man, it just looks pretty dope. As a player, I would have loved to play in that stadium.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. yeah. Jam packed every time, celebrities everywhere. It's it's a real vibe. Makes me wonder just how how fun it must have been to to see that USA game there. You know, that would have been that would have been a great time, but that's besides the point. We know what happened there. today though, before the game, I saw last second, right before it started, that Tielemans for Belgium got a little hamstring injury during the warm up, so they had to pull him out. He's been the captain, you know, he's a big big piece of their team.

Marco: Yeah

Project 90 Soccer: So that was kind of a, you know, raised a question. It was a little bit of concern for Belgium. but a good good news for them was De Bruyne was back, right? He had rested last game. He was not in. So he came into this game fresh. I thought he had a good game. for Spain, though, the big shocker was Pedri getting benched. The coach benched Pedri as the only change from the last game. They put Pedri on the bench and they brought in Fabian Ruiz, who, in my opinion, you know, diff different player, but

Marco: Mmm. CORT!

Project 90 Soccer: You know, we saw what happened there. He did score. It's probably giving them something to think about at this point. But overall, you know, what did you think of the first half, how Spain started, how Belgium came out, the intensity of the game. You know, I it it was pretty exciting, I thought, for a game, to be completely honest. It was a good game.

Marco: Yeah, before we get into that, mean, Tillerman, honestly, let's say he wasn't injured. I don't think it would have changed a lot. Uh, go, seeing how the second half played out, right? I mean, I don't see Tillerman as that guy that just changes games, right? I think he's solid. He's a captain communicator, but like, far as like maybe the game going a building's way, I'm just not sure. But, uh, oh yeah, man, solid first half, uh, pretty exciting. Um,

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Right. Yep. Yeah.

Marco: Spain was building a lot on the right side. mean, Lameen Yamal looked like a demon at times. Like it was just a handful. He is a handful. That's just the type of player he is. You just don't know what's going to happen, where the shot is going to come from. Is he going to go down the line, send a pass, or is he just going to cut on the inside and just shoot the ball? You just don't know it with that guy. And to your point, De La Fuente makes that one adjustment.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah, use that left foot.

Marco: and starts Fabian Ruiz and and better goes to the bench and at the time he scored I mean you're thinking like man this was the right adjustment made but ultimately to me it just one of those things were Courtois you know what I mean it's just the wrong balance and and and Fabian was was there and was able to capitalize on that opportunity but

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah, made the save. There was obviously the the rebound that he just kind of cleaned up. And you know, those things happen, unfortunately. But I thought I thought Lamin Yamal, let's talk about him for a second. He was on the same side over there. He was playing on the right, and for Belgium, there's Jeremy Doku on the left. And for me early on, it was pretty obvious that their game plan for Belgium was to double up on Lamine, right? Doku played a lot of defense today. Like that guy was working hard on the left wing for Belgium, coming back.

Marco: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: Doubling up on Lamine. They really kind of, you know, Lamine obviously had his chances, a good player, but they were able to shut him down pretty well. but Doku had a hell of a game, I thought. He was creative in attack, he was explosive. You know how he is. He's fast, he gets the ball, he dribbles, he crosses the field, he's all over the place. but yeah, you know, moving on, it was in the 30th minute. We got that goal from Fabian Riz. And throughout the first half, you know, it's pretty back and forth. I did think Spain had a little more of the possession. You know, they were they were in the Belgian half a lot more. They were creating chances, kind of giving them a hard time. But then out of nowhere, the 41st minute, De Catalair beat Kubarsi to that header. And for a second there I was thinking, man, is Spain gonna just now kind of go in and put another one in, make it two zero, make it three zero? But Belgium, to be fair to them, I think they responded well. What do you think about that?

Marco: Yep. I mean, just when you think that Spain's going to take control and just get in the driver's seat for the rest of the game. I mean, here comes that goal from Belgium. And who is it? It's one of the guys that's been scoring. So that added an interesting way on how to close the first half. And I know you mentioned a little bit about De Bruyne and not too bad. I actually saw it little bit different. I think he was kind of quiet. Yeah, he has some touches on the ball at times and just

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Marco: trying to get something going, but he couldn't get anything going. And honestly, I thought they subbed him too late. I thought they should have subbed him 60th minute, maybe even earlier, I don't know. It's just what I'm thinking, but I think he was pretty quiet for me.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he didn't he didn't do too much, or maybe the better way to say it is he didn't control and impact the game and control the game in that midfield like we're used to having seen him do with like Manchester City, right? He did have that one touch layoff that that led to the cross, that did lead to the goal. But outside of that, I mean, he wasn't he wasn't dominating the midfield. To me, this was a game like whoever was gonna dominate the midfield was gonna win this game because ultimately they have good attacks on both sides.

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: So whoever can win the midfield and feed the attack is going to lead to me scoring goals and winning the game ultimately. Now, into the second half, we saw early pressure from Spain and Belgium going over there. Doku getting a chance, hitting the side net. And then the subs came in. Bayena went out, Fabian Rees Ferran Torres and Pedri, which Fern Torres, like I always say, I'm not a fan of Ferran Torres, but you know, you can tell that. Maybe he doesn't get the assist or the goal, but his movement up top, his link up play, you know, he's in there, he's creating problems for the defense. So it it worked out for Spain ultimately. And then Belgium made their subs, obviously. Like you were saying yesterday, Lukaku, you like him coming on as a sub better. I I think that is a good move, putting that body up there, right? He's a lot more physical. He's the kind of guy you just lob the ball in there for him and he can make something happen. but yeah, I mean, overall.

Marco: Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: Second half, it was again it's back to back. And then the good thing for Spain, I wrote here, was Nico Williams coming back on, seeing him finally getting back on the team, back on the field. I think when he came on, it probably as a Belgian fan, you probably got a little scared because you know what that meant. Now you're getting it from both sides. but yeah, what'd you think of like the later stage of the game when Spain really kind of started to turn it up and and really pressure the Belgians?

Marco: Mm-hmm. Going back to our mention about the first half, mean, in starting Fabian Rees, I mean, you bring on Nico and then he's just immediately impactful. So again, I'm thinking like, the coach is, he knows what he's doing. He knows what adjustments to make in the game because he's trying to win it. Obviously he's not going, he doesn't want to go into OT. So, but not in that he impacted the game right away. He started connecting with his teammates and what happens?

Project 90 Soccer: Yep.

Marco: Kurt Watt starts blocking more than he was in the first half, right? He was all over the place. He was blocking. was blocking at first. For a little bit, thought he was playing volleyball. How much he was just freaking sending the ball back out there. he was blocking so much he ended up getting injured. Here comes Lamins, May United in an unfortunate, right? He couldn't hold on to the ball. Here comes another bounce, another similar goal and Spain capitalizes and scores.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lemons for your man United, right? Yeah. Nope. Yeah.

Marco: Scored the second one. And for me as a Men United fan, I was like, man, that's a bummer, right? Because he's on the squad. He started off season. He had a solid season. And the one opportunity he gets, this happens.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. She did. Yeah. And from the unlikely kind of kind of guy, right? Kubarsi, the center back, just firing it in. And what we really gotta talk about too for Spain is, you know, we saw against Portugal the same thing that happened today. Mikel Marino coming in, right? The Arsenal guy coming in, scoring like after a couple minutes, second touch today, put the ball in the back of the net. The guy's got an eye for goal. And I think it's pretty clear now what Spain and or how Spain is gonna continue to use him.

Marco: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: Obviously bringing him on late in the game like that, he seems to have something where, you know, everyone else they're getting tired. They're kind of slowing down a bit. He's fresh and he's just got that eye for goal and he's in there and he's ready to clean up any rebound. And unfortunately for Belgium, you know, Laman's the goalie. He he couldn't get a hold of that. He couldn't kind of push it to the side to kind of get it out of the way. But Merino pounced on it and that was it, man. Two to one. After that went in, I think everyone kind of knew. The final result. Belgium did have a final push, but nothing, nothing came of it. There was a scare for Unay Simon. He kind of came out of the box. And there was a little little opportunity there, but Laporte helped clean that up. But yeah, man, two to one. Two to one. So we got these two quarterfinals finished up. We got our first semifinal in place: France versus Spain, which is gonna be I think I think Spain is finally picking it up. We saw today a little more.

Marco: Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

Project 90 Soccer: So I still I still put the French kind of ahead of the s the Spanish, you know, in this game, but I think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be a real competitive game. I don't know. What you what do you think? What do you see happening in that one?

Marco: Fiala to Spain, getting it done first time back since 2010, back in the semis. So here come those guys and it's going to be solid. It's going to be a solid game. To what we talking about a little bit earlier, think the midfield is going to control whoever controls the midfield best. And if it's able to create those opportunities on both sides of the pitch, it's going to come out victorious. So it's going to be a solid game, Spain, France.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yep. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Marco: really hard on, on who to pick, but yeah, to your point, I'm going with, I'm sticking with France. I think they just have too much in their arsenal right now.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think they just have a slight edge over Spain. You know, it's similar attacks when you think of like the wings. They got Lamin and Nico Williams, and then France have like Mbappe and Due and all these guys. So there's a lot of speed in the attack. They're they're fast up top. but again, the midfield is gonna come down really to the midfield. Who can dominate the midfield, who can win those balls. you know, I saw Danny Olmo Olmo today, and you know, he's really good at Really finding that space between the lines, in between the passing lanes, getting the ball at his feet and just turning and just going at the defense, you know. So I think he's gonna have to have a real big game against France.

Marco: Mm hmm. Well, the first shot, the first goal came from off of his shot. Yeah.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he's he's very like he's a problem up there. He's got a lot of movement. There's a lot of movement from Spain. If you take your eye off of it, you kind of miss it, man. They're moving all over the place and pulling defenders with them. But shout out to Belgium. their defense today handled it pretty well, considering it was only two to one. but at the end of the day, yeah, they were just they're just overpowered, unfortunately. So no, you know, it was Belgium's kind of the back end of their golden generation, right? It sucks to see De Bruyne kind of in his last game there. He might retire from the national team. Lukaku, Kurtois, these guys. But yeah, Whitzel is another one. He's been around. And you know, it's it's sad to see, but ultimately the better team, I think the better team won today.

Marco: Yeah. Witzel. Witzel. Yeah. You know, I don't know if you noticed or I maybe I just started thinking about it last minute when Lamenz made that mistake. I was like the lack of world class goalkeepers in this tournament is crazy.

Project 90 Soccer: It is, man. It's it's it's it's odd because it's like all these, I don't want to say no name goalkeepers are like the Vozinias, all these guys having their big games, but then, you know, these some of these bigger keepers, you you saw what happened to the United States. I mean, that was terrible. And Lamons and all these guys kind of making these saves, and there's a lot of rebounds, a lot of goals in that fashion. and in general, you know, there hasn't been really I see in previous World Cups some absolute like amazing goals being scored, right? And there's been some in this World Cup, but it's been very quiet in terms of that, right? They've been very, I don't know, just kinda kinda I don't wanna say b basic goals, you know, but like nothing out like just, my God, like what do we just see there? You know?

Marco: Even France with Manon, right? He has a solid team, but he's not a world-class goalkeeper, right? He's just solid. That's what they need right now, and he's getting the job done. But imagine if they were a tier lower and he had more work to do throughout the tournament. Who knows how France would be hanging on. But same thing for Spain, you know? I don't think he's a world-class goalkeeper. I just think the teams are strong.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm-hmm. Yeah. No. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, they're good goalkeepers overall, but like you said, if if they were to be put under pressure, like some of these smaller teams that that really have to sit back and and control these attacks, you know, what what would we see from these goalkeepers? If they're getting shot at twenty, thirty times a game and taking all these crosses and set pieces, all these different different scenarios, you know, would we talk about these goalkeepers the same? I don't know. You know, it really helps to have a solid defense in front of you, obviously a good midfield. But yeah, man, it's it's been a tournament of goalkeeper mistakes, you know, terrible performances and good ones. What's up?

Marco: Hey, real quick. Real quick, two things. Imagine, and no shade to my Uruguay people, but imagine if Belgium had, Belgium had Moussela out there. Dude. It would have been like 7-8-0.

Project 90 Soccer: Muslea. Yeah. Imagine if any team had Mussolera out there, dude. God, what a way for that guy. Tangent right there, Uruguay, man. That guy was a legend of a goalkeeper, and he just absolutely ruined it. You know, Uruguay sucked this World Cup, to be completely honest. But he, I mean, some of the things you saw him do, it's like sad to see because that was his that was it for Uruguay. That was it for his international career. So to end it that way and to literally ask for the sub yourself because you're playing that bad, that that's what it was. He he asked to be taken off.

Marco: That's what it was. I thought Bielsa, I thought Bielsa was just like, you know, Bielsa, he's like this hardcore guy. can't tell him anything. He does what he does. He when he talks to his players, he's looking down on the ground. I thought he just just shanked him. I didn't really look into it.

Project 90 Soccer: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. No, yeah. I think it was Musler that said, Hey, take me off because I'm absolutely doing a disservice here to Uruguay. but yeah, man, besides the point for them, they're they're long gone. semifinal, obviously Spain, France, tomorrow, two more quarterfinals, the final games. we have Argentina versus Switzerland, correct? And then we have Norway versus England. So two big ones there. Just quick, quick prediction for those. I see Norway giving England a hard time. I have a hard time picking a winner for this one. I I I wanna I wanna be bold and just say that Norway's gonna somehow find a win. That's what I think is gonna happen. Argentina, Switzerland, I'm just gonna flat out. I think Argentina's gonna win. Whatever the scenario will be, VAR, all that bullshit, whatever it is, I think Argentina's gonna come through. what do you think?

Marco: Before I give my prediction, just wanted to also mention, did you see those photos that went viral with Roldry freaking digging in his nose and eating his boogers? Did you see that? Hey, if that's what kids need to do to be at that level and play the way he's playing, then I know. I guess we got to start teaching him how to do things differently.

Project 90 Soccer: I did, man. What a legend. You know? Imagine imagine the level of fucks you have to like you've none given, knowing that you're on you're under a camera the whole time. Like you don't care anymore. You get to the point, you know what, dude, I'm just gonna I'm just gonna pick my nose. I'm gonna eat this shit. I don't even care who sees it.

Marco: Well, just like the German coach, right? He smelling his balls.

Project 90 Soccer: dude, what was that guy's name? Lowe. Yeah, man. That guy, what a weird character that guy was, man. Yeah, it's funny, man. Some of the things you see on social media. I have to be honest, it's comedy. Lamin Yamal's little brother. Have you seen stuff about that guy? Lil legend, man. Little legend, bro. Yeah, good.

Marco: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah. Dude. It's always the little brothers. But obviously Argentina picking them to win. You know what? I'm sticking to one of the comments we had on our previous video where like, Norway has a lot going for them and they're going to give England some problems. So I'm picking Norway.

Project 90 Soccer: Mm. Yeah. Yep, I think so as well. Well, hopefully, you know, I'm already I I said it earlier, I'm gonna bank on it. Holland's getting that hat trick, man. If I see Holland get a hat trick tomorrow, it's gonna be probably more unlikely, you know, l less less likely. Yeah, I wouldn't bet on it, but I'm a dreamer, man. I wanna see Norway make history. They already have, so they really have nothing to lose. But yeah, man, that's it, man. So until tomorrow, we're gonna come back. We'll do another recap, but

Marco: I wouldn't bet on it.

Project 90 Soccer: This has been another episode, Project 90. I want to do a recap on these first two quarterfinals. Today, Spain, two to one through to the semis. Marco, I'll talk to you tomorrow, my man. Stay tuned. Peace.

Marco: Stay tuned.