SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
The men's World Cup final is set. Argentina, the defending champions, will take on Spain on Sunday. Hundreds of millions of fans will be watching worldwide. Among them, Roger Bennett. He is the founder and CEO of the Men in Blazers Media Network. He is also the man who prophesized many years ago that soccer would one day consume this country. Rog, welcome back to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
ROGER BENNETT: Scott Detrow. It's my favorite show. I'm delighted to be here.
DETROW: Has your prophecy come true? Have Americans after this summer of soccer throughout the U.S. - has soccer come to consume this country?
BENNETT: It's felt like it. We've just completed a coast-to-coast tour in a large, orange, John Madden-style bus doing huge college game-day-style pregame shows in city after city after city, and it's felt utterly ecstatic. And it remains to be seen. The tournament's been - the storylines on and off the field - utterly beautiful. I think America's fallen in love, with global football fans falling in love with it. But it is a circus, and circuses leave town, so it remains to be seen, the lasting legacy of this into the long term.
DETROW: My favorite moment of just how much everyone's gotten into this is yesterday's match was during ALL THINGS CONSIDERED's live broadcast, and there are, like, these 2-foot thick walls between the studio and the rest of the newsroom.
BENNETT: (Laughter).
DETROW: And I could hear everybody screaming when the second Argentina goal happened through all of those walls in that studio. I've never heard sound in there before, but then I did. It was wild.
BENNETT: Soundproofing and destroying it is just one of Lionel Messi's everyday miracles.
DETROW: I want to talk about Spain and Argentina, but first, one more question about kind of what comes next. There are so many people - and I will say, I have fallen into this trap after previous World Cups. You get so excited. You're a casual soccer fan. You want to keep going. You're Googling Champions League schedules. You're subscribing to all the things that stream the games. And then it just kind of falls off. What is your advice for the casual fan who wants to keep this going in this moment?
BENNETT: Look, the 1994 men's World Cup was meant to turn America, which was like space to Captain Kirk - the final frontier - immune to the global game, into a football-loving nation, a soccer-loving nation. And it was, you know, a rapture for a month, and then it did largely fade. But the world's changed, Scott. You know, the internet now connects young Americans to the giant clubs of Arsenal, Liverpool. And there are so many forms of football. Find the one you like. Women's football - there's an incredible National Women's Soccer League, which is surging. You know, men's football - the best is played in Europe. The Premier League is like a telenovela played out live by 22 men at a time, wearing polyester jerseys and cleats. It is absolutely magnificent. The world is in thrall. And the Champions League is where - it's like a "Star Wars" cantina where the whole European continent does battle against each other.
If you're new, you become hooked. Those aware, Erling Haaland - your favorite Norwegian Viking, Shaquille O'Neal in cleats, who charmed the entire nation and then arrived back in Norway with a Texan stuffed raccoon under his arm, signaling back to us that he loves us and is changed by this experience - he plays in England. You will watch him week after week destroy all comers. So find your thing. I can't tell you what to find. It will sing your name when you tune in, and you will fall in love.
DETROW: Yeah. To the World Cup, are Spain and Argentina the two teams you expected to see on Sunday?
BENNETT: They both are - you know, these journeys have been utterly biblical. Look, I'd be lying if I predicted this. France played utter Champagne football. They had a late-show-style high-octane offense that appeared unstoppable until they met Spain. You know, Argentina make no sense, Scott. This is a cardiac team, a chaos team, a team that play with complete and utter emotion in a sporting world where you're meant to drain emotion, be focused, be tactical. They do none of that. They look vulnerable. They look out of games. And then suddenly, because they have this 39-year-old mystical, quasi-religious figure at this point - Lionel Messi - in their midst, they will rise up late and perform everyday miracles as they did in coming from behind yet again to stun England.
For them to face Spain, this is organization. This is tactics. This is systems. Spain against the complete opposite in Argentina. We're blessed to see this battle, and it is, as Steve Kornacki would say, it's too close to call.
DETROW: (Laughter) It's almost like it's like when the lava flows into the ocean - these two totally opposite teams hitting each other.
BENNETT: (Laughter).
DETROW: I mean...
BENNETT: That's exactly what it is.
DETROW: The Argentina squad, it almost feels like they're testing themselves. Like, what if we didn't really lock in till the 80th minute?
BENNETT: (Laughter).
DETROW: The 85th minute. Let's press it even more. Like, each game, it's more and more shocking.
BENNETT: It is. None of it makes sense. It is almost a divine magic. The incredible thing about this final is that the star of both teams, 39-year-old Lionel Messi, 19-year-old Spaniard Lamine Yamal, incredibly - it looks like AI. Many of your listeners will have seen it. By complete chance, when Messi was 20, he was in a photo shoot with a 6-month-old baby. That 6-month-old baby turned out to be Lamine Yamal. And now, when you look at it, these two are going to face each other, leading their teams, at very different ages, into the greatest game, 5 billion people watching around the world.
DETROW: I could not believe that photograph was real when I first saw it. It's amazing.
BENNETT: (Laughter) It makes no sense. I just did an interview with John Oliver where he said it makes no sense unless we find out that Lionel Messi, aged 20, just realized that the only way that he could break the pressure of being a professional footballer was just by calmly bathing thousands of random babies.
DETROW: (Laughter).
BENNETT: Just, you know, just kept him pure. So this - either way, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.
DETROW: Do you want to venture a prediction for Sunday?
BENNETT: That would be a brave, brave man. Watching what he did to England, I have never seen anything like it in sports. The Athletic worked out that Lionel Messi walks for 63% of the time. He stands still for another 25% of the time on the field. But it's what he does in that quite alchemic remaining 12% which makes him almost like watching Mozart in our day, like watching Michelangelo sculpt. People will be talking about this man for centuries to come. I would never bet against Lionel Messi. And if at the final whistle Argentina win, we will see a man, before our eyes, turn into a demigod.
DETROW: There you go. That was none other than Roger Bennett, the founder and CEO of the Men in Blazers Media Network. Roger, thank you for coming on. Enjoy these last few days. And I hope you can get some sleep starting Sunday night.
BENNETT: (Laughter) We'll sleep after the final. And big love to all of you at NPR. Thanks for having me on.
(SOUNDBITE OF SHAKIRA AND BURNA BOY SONG, "DAI DAI") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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