Messi makes history the Tartan Army invades Miami and Pride takes center stage Reuters Pitchside 2

Messi makes history, the Tartan army takes over Miami, and the round of 32 takes shape, and we're bringing you all of it on Pitch Side. I'm Ethan Plotkin. Well, I'm here as always with Oshin Shine, our Global Sports Editor, and Ursa Prasern, our Global TV Sports Editor. How are you both? Really good, yes. Yeah, good. We're nearly at the end of group stages. You know, it's been very interesting. It's been busy, but we're getting there, and I think we're seeing some good matches. Yeah, a lot of good matches. By the end of this weekend, we'll have had more matches of the entire 2022 World Cup already. Yeah, pretty remarkable. And welcome to everyone to Pitch Side from Reuters. You can find us on Reuters.com, the app, or YouTube, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platforms. It's been a busy week, huh? I mean, you said more matches than the 2022 World Cup, but a ton of matches this week alone. That's right. I mean, this is where we've started having simultaneous kickoff, six matches a day, and that's sort of six or 12 pre-match press conferences. It's just everywhere you look, it's a dizzying world of football right now. It's been quite a group stage. We've had more matches than ever, more drama than ever, more goals than ever. I mean, we may see more goals by the end of the 2026 group stage than we saw in the entire 2022 World Cup, but there's one moment, one goal, two goals maybe, that really stood out. Yeah, I guess you're talking about Messi, right? I mean, he's just keep on giving. You know, he celebrated his 39th birthday recently as well, but just before that, he scored two incredible goals. He missed the penalty as well, so he could have had 19 goals altogether. But it's interesting how the whole Argentina team is working with Messi. You know, the team is built around him, isn't it? Absolutely. They're playing Jordan next. He might be arrested. He might be left on the bench just to recover. He's 39 after all. But, you know, it'll be interesting to see if Scaloni does play him or not against Jordan. You know, is the gold telly really important to them? Does he want to score? Because he seems to be really enjoying it at the moment. Yeah, I don't think he'll want to be arrested. And, you know, he's so smart the way he plays. You see him, he looks to be doing very little, and then he always finds himself in the right place. He's still got that sort of turn of speed. I don't think he'll want to rest. I mean, it doesn't feel like every day is a bonus. Oh, it does feel like every day is a bonus for him. I think he's really just enjoying playing at the moment. And I think the team's working really well. They're happy. So, you know, with that, the goals come. And I think, you know, it would almost be silly not to play him. Yeah, I think there's a danger of changing things up and arresting people. You lose that dynamic, you can lose the momentum. At the moment, they're doing nothing wrong. Everything's working around Messi. He's the fulcrum to that side. Yeah, they're lucky to have him, right? Talk about the role that he plays in the team. Absolutely lucky. Well, they're lucky to have the greatest player that's ever lived. Yes, you could probably say that. I mean, and every time he steps on the pitch here, he just underlines that status, I think. And I think it's the crowd as well. You know, when he enters the stadium, even, you know, even before he's actually playing, you know, the crowd goes crazy. And, you know, I think that gives the team as well that extra level. So it's just been, you know, a wow factor so far. A hundred percent. There's no country in the world that likes the gravitational pull of a superstar like America. And there's no bigger superstar in world football. Well, the crowd loves him. And people like us, people in the media love to watch him. And our correspondent, Ian Axton, has been in Kansas City with the Argentina team and found a media circus there unlike much else. Take a look. This is the Argentina base. And generally, the World Cup teams will allow the media in to film the first 15 minutes of training. This week, I've been at the Netherlands, where there was perhaps 15 journalists, and England, where there was maybe 30. But at times for Argentina, there can be up to 200 people to view these sessions. And while there are 26 players in a World Cup squad, they're all here to see just one man, Lionel Messi. He scored twice against Austria to lead the race for the golden boot at this year's tournament. But more importantly, he went past Miroslava Klose to become the leading goal scorer in World Cup history with 18 goals. He can lay a claim to being the best player on the planet. And at times, it feels like he is the Argentinian team. But the further they go in this tournament, the more the media interest in him will grow. So where does this put Messi in the pantheon of all-time great players? I mean, we just saw him score his 17th and 18th World Cup goal to break the record for most all-time. What does that mean for his legacy? I mean, look, I think he's going to continue to build his legacy this World Cup. I mean, the World Cup is far from finished. I think that goal tally will be even greater at the end of the World Cup. He's got eight Ballon d'Or. He's got 34 trophies. What more could someone want? It depends how long he keeps going as well, how he finishes his career. He said he's going to continue to play until he feels well, he can still run. So I think he's pretty close to kind of be right at the top of that. Have we ever seen a player break through in the US this way, Osh? No, I mean, nobody's ever broken through. There hasn't been a player like Messi. I think how much of it is to do with there is more football nowadays. You know, Pelé was always sort of held up as the greatest player of all time. Some people would say, oh, but Maradona, you know, when he came along, he was extraordinary. Old Romantics would say George Best if he just liked the pure sort of innate ability. But Messi's got what all those have gotten. As Asha says, he's just winning everything. I think it's very hard, really, to put any sort of argument across that there has been a better footballer than Messi. Then again, he is the first player to miss a penalty in three World Cups. An asterisk on his entire career there. Osh, you send these great emails to the team every day, and in one of your recent emails, you had a great story about Maradona, another iconic footballing legend. Can you tell this story? Well, it's a bit of an inside baseball journalism story, but Reuters were the first agency, first journalists to report the famous hand of God story in English. And that's because, you know, this was in Mexico in 86, where he famously scored with his hand against England. And in the postmatch press conference, he was asked about the goal, and he rather coyly said, well, it was a little ahead of Maradona and a little hand of God, perhaps. And the official translator didn't translate that part. So everybody who was relying on translators sort of went away saying it was the head of Maradona. And we had Rex Gow, an Anglo-Argentine correspondent there who witnessed the quote, saw the quote, told us the quote. So we had it out many hours before the opposition. Oh, Argentina seems often to be on the right side of divine intervention, but Messi hasn't always been on the right side of soccer history. In 2014, a young German named Mario Goetze scored a brilliant goal to beat Argentina late in extra time. R. Fernando Callas caught up with Goetze at New York's Rockefeller Center alongside a shiny piece of silverware. Take a look. I think I didn't realize in that moment or even afterwards, because I was so young, I just played, you know, I just played football, enjoyed the moment. I think now in the review, a few years went by and then now I realize, OK, that was a special moment for the country, for myself, for the team. And then you view it a bit differently. Back then it was a goal and I was happy and I couldn't contribute to that to that win in the moment. But yeah, it was special. I remember that right after the game, you posted a picture on the social media with Messi. Looking at him right now, so many years later. Unbelievable. I mean, that he can now deliver these things he's doing. I think he's special. So in the end, probably he's the only one maybe with Ronaldo can achieve these kind of things. They're playing now for 20, even more than 20 years. So it's just crazy. I remember that game. I remember sitting there watching that Messi was chasing around the pitch like it looked like he was chasing shadows, increasingly desperate. And there was a strong feeling then that that was going to be his one chance to seal his leg as we know. I mean, we laugh now. That was that was going to be the icing on the cake for Messi. And I mean, he was inconsolable at the end in tears. Well, it's amazing to see there in that interview with Mario Goerza, the beautiful, gleaming World Cup trophy in all its glory, shielded for the time being behind glass. But in a few weeks time, it will be taken out of the glass and given to the champions. And we learned this week a little bit about the trophy presentation. That's right. Well, you know, President Trump says he's going to be presenting a trophy. FIFA haven't contradicted him. I don't imagine they will. So we're going to have another FIFA, big FIFA event with Trump in the foreground. Yeah, I mean, we saw what happened in Club World Cup last year when he was presenting a trophy to Chelsea. And I think he just stayed on stage when he presented the trophy to Rhys James. He joined the team, didn't he? He joined the team and he was celebrating with them, which was quite unusual. A few confused looks from Chelsea players. A few confused looks, yeah. But I think they kind of took it in their stride and they were still, you know, jumping around and celebrating. But I think usually the trophy is presented by a FIFA president. So, you know, this is not a tradition. I think it's only happened twice in the past. I think in 1982, King Juan Carlos presented a trophy. And in 1966, I think Queen Elizabeth had the honour to present a trophy to an only Bobby Moore. Yeah, at Wembley. That's right. Sports are such an important part of Trump's political brand. Would you have expected to see more of him at the tournament? Yeah, he's been remarkably low key. I mean, he's had a few things on his plate, to be fair. But I had expected him to be front and centre of this event, especially as it sort of was so popular early on. I had expected him to be more visible and attach himself to it. So I think he was definitely missing from the opening match. But then he did say he doesn't want to interfere. He wants to let fans enjoy it. But, you know, we saw traffic came to a standstill in New York when he attended the New York Knicks game. So we see everything that comes around with him attending a match. So I think the final will be a different game for fans and for media and everyone else, actually. He'll be back in New York for that final. That's right, yeah. Well, there's a lot to celebrate between now and that trophy presentation in July. June is Pride Month, the celebration of LGBTQ plus rights. And Reuters caught up with soccer fans in Seattle, where FIFA is hosting its inaugural pride match. Take a look. I think it's great. You know, they're not going to turn off World Cup on state television in Iran or Egypt to block out, you know, a pride flag in the audience. It's just too big of a thing for them to fight. So I truly believe that this is our moment to allow the members of the LGBTQ community that come from those countries the opportunity to celebrate themselves in totality that they might not have otherwise. But it's also nice to get just more visibility for a lot of things, because usually that's where a lot of things start. To become normal is when you just get to see it in your everyday life. So this pride match in Seattle is being played between Iran and Egypt. How did this come together? I think the pride match was in works for years and no one knew who the teams will be that will play this pride match until the draw was made in December in D.C. Yes, Iran will play Egypt. Both teams have asked for a match to be cancelled, to be moved somewhere else or to not be called a pride match. But we're still going ahead with it. I mean, it is absolutely mind-boggling that they should choose two countries with extremely illiberal views on homosexuality to say the least, when you've got 48 nations that you could have selected for the pride match. It almost seems that it's deliberately stepping into the sort of spot with the glare of publicity and being the lightning rod. It could have been... I mean, they could have moved it for Seattle, I guess. It's a very, very strange setup. So what do you make of FIFA's decision to go forward with the match? Well, I mean, it's not a political statement. So there will be flags in the stadium. They're not taking any stance. I think the shame of it is that had it been other teams, you probably would have had players talking about the pride match and giving positive messages. I think here it will almost be not quite swept under the carpet, but there will be the organizers holding the pride match. And then the players not acknowledging it or recognizing it in any way, which seems a little counterproductive. As we wrap up the group stage, we've already had so many great moments on the pitch, but there have been some amazing tournament moments off the pitch too. Social media producer Jenna Zucker has compiled all the best hits from this week. Let's take a look. There were so many viral moments from the World Cup this week. Let's take a look. Hopefully you've all had the pleasure of seeing Norway fans do the Viking Row. It's been showing up in stadiums and around the host cities, and it even made its way into Norway's parliament. Then there's Lawrence, Kansas, which has basically adopted Algeria during the tournament. Team Algeria has been based there during the World Cup, and the city is really leaning into it with flags everywhere, watch parties, and some restaurants have even added halal food options. We were told that some residents even started learning French and Arabic. It's really sweet. We were able to work with the University of Kansas, their international relations department, their African outreach center. We started taking French lessons. We started taking Arabic lessons. Our library did some films and culture training. We just all got together to be the best hosts that we could possibly be. We're also seeing the time-honored tradition of using animals to predict match results. In Toronto, there's a goldfish named Swimbaphe making picks by swimming to one side of a tank. And at a zoo in Guadalajara, different animals have been choosing between teams using food, shirts, and soccer balls. It's not exactly scientific, but you gotta love it. And finally, I thought I should update you on Merlin the duck, who's becoming unofficial mascot of the World Cup. Well, his media tour has gone from the streets to the presidential palace. President Claudia Scheinbaum invited Merlin and his family to her morning briefing. He got in a few quacks. She did a great job combining those socials. Well compiled, very well compiled. And there's so many of them as well, right? So I think it was quite difficult to choose. Yeah, what was your favorite moment? It's hard to tell. I quite like Swimbaphe in Toronto, but then we were working in the office the other day, as we do most days. And we could hear this loud cheer and we looked through the window and we could see this sea of red coming towards Times Square. And the Norwegians were on the way and we went downstairs like everyone else. And they performed the Viking row. But I think what I found really amazing is that on the other side of Times Square, there was a yoga session going on, right? So it was only in New York. Yes, I'm learning something new every day here in New York. Is that why you came back to the office with a Viking hat on? You don't have a Viking hat on? And yoga pants. Or yoga pants. Your favorite moment? Oh, I'm still in love with Swimbaphe. You love the animals. I like the animals. I never used to be a fan of the animals, but you know, with time. I like the sea otters. Are they good predicting scores though? Are they quite good, do you think? Or have they missed the spot? I don't think they're the great predictors that they're painted as, but it's a fun break from all the football. To be fair to the animals, there are plenty of people that try their hand at prognosticating before matches, and it can often go quite badly. So one thing everyone has loved all up and down the East Coast is the Tartan Army of Scotland. They started in Boston and then moved their way down to Miami for their final group stage match against Brazil. And they made friends just about everywhere they went. Our Joyce Xu caught up with some of the fans outside the stadium in Miami. I'm here outside Miami Stadium where Tartan Army has completely taken over. After drinking Boston dry, now it's Miami's turn. They're turning everywhere they go into a big one Scottish party. You can actually hear them before you see them. The bagpipe, the chant, and the loud, no Scotland, no party. These supporters, not just following their team, they bring the party with them. Thousands of them have been pouring in and out, celebrating their team, no matter the results. Well, hopefully this isn't the last we see of the Tartan Army. I think it probably is the last group stage. Probably will be, yeah. Unfortunately, yeah. I mean, they've been absolutely, I mean, they've been great. They've been amazing to watch. You know, I've got a lot of Scottish friends back in London. I mean, we always have a party in like a, you know, a Tartan party in my house. But full page ads being taken out in local newspapers, thanking them for showing up in Boston. We saw that. I think that they're more for Scotland than any government official, really. Yeah. Would you agree? Absolutely, they've been, I mean, the Scots always take great pride in bringing the party with them. They take great pride in being much more fun and much better behaved than the English. That's just, you know, part baked into the Tartan Army's culture. And it's been real fun to see them. I think the football fans, they always come trouble, right? Everyone thinks football fans trouble, but you could see like everyone was enjoying having Scottish fans in their city, right? I mean, they love that. Well, one reason we've seen so much excitement outside the stadiums is because for a lot of fans, it's maybe hard to get inside the stadiums. There's been a lot of talk about the tickets before this World Cup, how expensive they are. I mean, we're seeing full stadiums, but do you think maybe that the fan profile has changed a little bit? I think these are fans who can afford these tickets. I think they're just a little bit different from the previous World Cups. Yeah. And you know, what we're seeing is just capitalism writ large. This is, the tickets are very, very expensive, but there's not an empty seat to be had. So no one is going to be leaving money on the table. So I don't see prices getting lower anytime soon. What we spoke to quite a few fans at this World Cup about the prices, and they're all saying, you know, yes, it was very expensive, but it was totally worth it, you know, at the end of the day. But, you know, it amazed me yesterday. We spoke to a fan from Ecuador, I believe it was, and he said he spent $22,000 for him and his family to come and watch the match. Incredible amount of money. But, you know, he still said, you know, we went all out. It was our one opportunity to see the World Cup and we did it. Yeah, it's become a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for people. A bucket list, isn't it? Which is music in FIFA's ears, I'm sure. You mentioned this a bit, but have we seen the demographics of fans change? I mean, you've been doing some reporting on this. Yeah, like I said before, I think we definitely have seen the demographic change. I mean, you know, we spoke to a lot of people who work in financial sects here. It's shifted, certainly, from blue collar. You need some serious money now to be able to come to these games. The ticket price is only the tip of the iceberg once you've travelled, once you've had accommodation, you've stayed somewhere, once you've fed yourselves. And if you're coming with a family, that's a major financial commitment. How are fans adapting? I think they're just finding different ways of, you know, minimising their costs, really, with accommodation especially. We've seen people camping near Dallas, right? We've seen them hiring camper vans and travelling around in old Volkswagens. But I think everyone's saying, you know, we're here, we made it here, we might as well enjoy it. And I think you can feel that in Times Square, for example. I think you can see it in the stadiums. So I think, you know, they're here, they took second mortgage, they maybe spent their kids' inheritance, like we've heard from Scottish fans. I've spent the kids' inheritance and I'm not happy about it. Well, they spent everything. But I think they are here to just see football and their stars and they want to have fun. That's it, whatever the cost. Fans in one of the host countries are finding that ticket prices are actually keeping them away from their beloved pastime. Cassandra Garrison has more from Mexico City. The World Cup is in Mexico for the first time in 40 years. But so many people have told us they feel excluded from the event this year. That's because ticket prices make it almost impossible for so many people to go see a game in person in the stadium. And even expensive subscription fees to watch the game at home are out of reach for many Mexican households. On the day of the opening match against South Africa, people inside the stadium told us they paid something like $3,000 to $5,000 for those tickets. To put it into perspective, that's 10 months worth of wages for the average Mexican salary. It's also very difficult for businesses that we're hoping to get a lot of fans in to see the games. This sign behind me at this cantina, for example, says come and enjoy the games. There's a lot of strict rules around the use of vocabulary and images by FIFA. They have to be very careful not to use the words World Cup in their publicity. One cantina manager described having to redo his signage over and over again in order to comply with the rules that were coming out that were more and more restrictive around what they could and couldn't have on their publicity. So we don't have all of the matches for the round of 32 quite yet, but looking at what we know so far, which matches are catching your eye? I think Morocco-Netherlands for me. I think that's going to be a really good one to watch. You know, Morocco semi-finalist in 2012, technically African champions. And Netherlands have just been really good this time, I thought, scoring a lot of goals. So for me, that will be the fixture. Two countries ranked in the top 10, right? The Dutch probably, arguably, the best team ever to have won the World Cup. And they're in really good form at the moment. Japan-Brazil is another one. I mean, Brazil, we know the aristocrats of the World Cup. And Japan are a really well-organised side here, really tough to break down and beat. That's going to be a massive challenge for the Brazilians. And it's again, it's something we haven't seen in Qatar. Well, we didn't have run 32 in Qatar. No. Because we didn't have them anything. It was called the group stages. That's right. We're just getting back to where we started. Yeah. Another one, USA-Bosnia, of course, which will take place next Wednesday, which we'll get to recap on next week's show. But there are so many weird kind of computations, the math around this third-place team business is so complicated. Absolutely. I mean, it's mind-boggling. I mean, eight, the best eight third-place teams will qualify. And it's absolutely brain-frying trying to figure it out. We were... I saw you yesterday trying to work that out. Brain was well and truly fried because as a goal goes in anywhere across the country, the table changes because it's determined by goal difference, it's determined by head-to-heads. We won't know for sure until Saturday, which teams are... Because you could be outside of the top eight now, but you could get lifted back into the top eight if one of those top eight suddenly ships half a dozen goals, then the goal difference will push them out of the top eight. There's a brilliant journalist on your team, Tim Hart, who's with us in New York City. And he's kind of the math whiz on the team, it seems. And every now and then, I'll just hear someone yell, Tim, how does this all work? What is going on? Tim's calculator is doing some heavy lifting. He's doing all the heavy lifting in the background, I must say so. With so many matches, it's been an awfully busy tournament for the both of you and for Tim over there. But it's been a busy tournament for our photographers too. As we wrap up the group stage, let's take a look at how they've managed to capture some of our favorite photos so far. Long before Qatar took on Switzerland in Santa Clara, photo journalist Carlos Barilla was climbing his stepladder to attach a camera to the top of a goalpost. That allowed him to take photos at the exact same moment by triggering two pre-positioned remote cameras, one on the top left of the net, and the other on the pitch directly behind the net to capture this crunching tackle during the match. The orange clad Netherlands are a blindingly bright feature of any World Cup, but photographer Kai Phaffenbach wanted to see them from a different point of view and use the zoom burst technique to show this massive fence swirling out like a solar flare. Don't try that one at home. There's nothing our photographers love more than good lighting, and the sunset in Guadalajara was perfect for photographer Daniel Bestoril during the clash between Mexico and South Korea last week. That's one of my favorites. You can really feel the sunshine on your skin there. And Lee Smith captured a moment of emotion during Canada's match with Qatar as Canada's Ismael Kone lay on the ground after sustaining an injury to his leg. Qatar's Asim Madibo delivered the challenge and faced fury from some Canadian players and words of consolation from others. Well, I'm seeing the fourth official over there giving me the signal, which means it must be stoppage time. So question this week, who is one player that maybe your everyday fan hasn't heard of that people should be keeping an eye out for as we head into the knockout round? I think for me must be Kody Geppo of Netherlands. I think he's really shown up in this group stages. A big test against Morocco coming up. A big test against Morocco. Yeah, we'll see if he's got it. And Osh, for you? For me, my guy, Kyle Lahren. He's the center forward for Southampton in his club football. He plays for Canada. He's made the big difference for Canada when they brought him on in the first game, scored with one of his first touches. Proper out and out old-fashioned striker, which I think is what Canada needs. And they'll take on South Africa. South Africa's first ever trip to the knockout round. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, thank you both so much for joining me. Thank you, Ethan. And thanks to everyone else for tuning in. We'll bring you back Pitchside next week.