2026 Japanese Grand Prix Recap: Antonelli Wins as Italy Miss Again

On the 96th day we sailed again. How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now! When a bloody great Yankee hove in sight, with our cracked four-pounders we made to fight. Goddamn them all! I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold.

We'd fire no guns, shed no tears. Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier, the last of our respite.

How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now. She was broad and fat and loose in stays, but to catch her took the antelope 2 whole days. Goddamn them all! I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold, we'd fire no guns, shed no tears. Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier, the last of Barrett's privateers.

Then at length we stood to How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now. Ah, crap! Four pounders made an awful din, but with one fat ball the Yanks drove us in. God damn them all! I was told we'd cruise the seas for American gold.

We'd fire no guns, shed no tears. Now I'm a broken man on a Halifax pier. Podcasting from Studio 2520, somewhere near Akron, Ohio, bringing you all the latest in motorsport and soccer. This is tackling the chicane.

So as it is my birthday today, yeah, I decided to choose this little sea shanty, Stan Rogers, that I love so much. Good stuff.

Fire no guns and shed no tears.

All right, live performance too. Yeah, I was in the studio. Kind of love that a little bit. Canadian, uh, Scottish lads. Yeah.

And for people viewing this podcast, which is no one, uh, I guess unintentionally, but donning my 2026 away Scotland jersey. So I guess that's a little more Stan here. He just couldn't help himself. Yes. But yeah, I guess that, uh, it's interesting that you picked that song.

Well, you know, sometimes you gotta mix it up a bit here for the old podcast. So yes, well, another year around the sun, as they say.

Any wisdom you want to impart on the Attacking the Chicane fan base? Not really. Uh, feel good.

55 comes fast. So watch out, all of you young listeners who are possibly in their 20s. Uh, fastest decade is 40 to 50. Really? Yeah.

Because you, may have a career and a family and kids doing stuff and, wow. Yeah. Older kids might be off getting married and then, I don't know. Yeah. So it's all good.

Uh, happy to be here on this mortal coil still. Wow. All right. Well, there you have it. And spring has sprung in Ohio.

I think it's fair to say. And with that brings all sorts of excitement for this show. And, uh, we are now 3 rounds into the Formula 1 World Championship of 2026. Uh, a lot of storylines to get into. We're gonna talk the Japanese Grand Prix and all that came with it.

We're going to talk about if, uh, F1 has ruined themselves with these new regulations and get our thoughts. Keep— I feel like it's important to keep sharing our thoughts about the actual regulations, uh, as they develop throughout the year and we get more and more kind of info and more races to kind of see it play out. Um, so we're going to talk that. We will talk IndyCar at Barber and how, you know, we talk about Alex Palou and his dominance, but sometimes I feel like the rest of the series almost wants him to win. Uh, so we'll get into that.

And then we finally have the 48 teams that are going to compete in the FIFA World Cup this summer. Sorted out, including knowing the last group stage opponent for the United States and another heavy hitter that has missed a World Cup again. So we're going to talk about that on the end of the program, but for now, the Japanese Grand Prix has come and gone and we are ushered into Well, an entire month of no Formula 1 due to, um, well, there's really no other way to say this, ongoing conflict in the Middle East. So, um, yeah, kind of, you know, uncharted territory here. Yeah, a bit sad.

I mean, it's really kind of sad to think that world politics play into motorsport the way they do. Um, I, I personally think that, um, I understand why they're gonna take a break from these 2 races. Uh, it does hurt the series though. It hurts the fan base collectively. I mean, we're gonna sit around for the entire month of April and just wait and watch, almost like another pause to the season, which is unfortunate.

Um, and I can't speak to the whys or the hows. I guess it really doesn't matter. Um, at the end of the day, this series has chosen to align themselves politically and cancel races. Um, so What I don't quite know is what is the rule, uh, so how's the rule book gonna work during this hiatus? Is there development that can happen?

Is there anything that can happen behind the scenes? I'm sure that most of the teams are going to be busy, right? Yeah, I mean, I think there will be factory stuff. I don't think there necessarily will be any on-track Uh, testing or anything like that. Um, but yeah, um, I think that this particular last race that we saw shows that, um, it's not as much about the new relegation as it is the drivers adapting to how this car works.

And we saw this many times during this Japanese GP where the drivers are struggling with energy harvesting and when to deploy and how to deploy that harvesting. And I will say this though, it has made it a fantastic, um, more competitive racing, I think.

Uh, F1 doesn't do a really good job about giving the, the viewer a look into how that's all happening with the regen and the boost and the push to pass. Um, but it was clearly something that defined this race, I think. Yeah, and it's been that way the first 3 rounds. The first, the first round I would say was borderline getting into a little bit almost cartoonish with the overtaking, the back and forth, the back and forth, deploying the battery and then clearly losing ungodly amounts of horsepower so the car behind you overtakes easily. I think the drivers are slowly getting there with using it more strategically because there's, there's now basically 2 ways where before it was DRS and that was pretty much it.

Now you have the active aero, which is basically DRS, and then you also have the, the battery that you can deploy at any point, but I still don't love how when you drain said battery, we're talking about, you know, 200-ish horsepower lost in the car, sort of artificially slowing down. I don't know if arti— I don't want to throw around artificial because that's been like kind of a buzzword with these new regulations, but the car, when the battery is drained, has a way of slowing itself down, I guess is the word, regardless of the input you have on the accelerator, right? And regenerative braking is what we're talking about, and that's the— that is what the drivers are struggling with, is how much physical mechanical braking do I do versus having the car actually slow itself down kinetically? And we're seeing that be a factor here. We're seeing that be a factor in how much energy is re— regained and then deployed, and at what point in the track— at the track do you do that?

As I said before, I, I think it's, it's fantastic for the series because everyone has to learn how to kind of re-drive. And above and beyond all that, you have the same, um, challenges with chassis setup and aero, and it just made it distinctly different than the series before. I, I'm not gonna— I know there's some people out there that don't really like the way this is transpiring, but this is where we're at. This is what the car does. Yeah.

So everyone has to figure out how to use it. Yeah, I'm still— I do think it— I think it has made the racing more interesting.

I can see why purists are not particularly enthused by how it's affected racing. Luckily, neither of us are F1 purists, I don't think. So, um, it does— I think the on— if you just take away— if you look past the fact of what the car is actually doing, yeah, I think the racing has been generally more interesting this year. I think there were times last year where I came on the show after every race and was like, yeah, it's cool, we got a title race, but, uh, the race wasn't that great. We were talking a lot about what Piastri was doing, what Norris was doing in their battle, and then that was kind of it.

Like, we would not have a whole lot to say about races where I think right now where we are in these regs, the race itself leaves a lot to be discussed. So I can't complain all that much, um, about it, but I, I can see where people are getting hung up. So that's why I kind of continue to bring it up. Um, but as for the race, you had your, your, your typical what is become typical Mercedes front row lockout in qualifying. But we're seeing a pattern where they don't start off, they don't get off the line very well.

And that has continued to be a thing. Yeah. And I think through round 3, I think Antonelli went down to 6th position off the line. So not a great start, quote unquote. But some strategy pit-wise for some of the other teams didn't really work out as well as they thought it was going to.

I don't want to go all the way to this point, but are we seeing, you know, this is a 13.7 runaway for Antonelli. Are we seeing another Max Verstappen-esque charge from Kimi? I— no, I don't think so, because Russell can— is— I— he's right there performance-wise, um, and he could win any race this calendar year with the Mercedes. Um, we'll get to it on probably why he didn't win this one. Um, but Kimi has, has done well in qualifying to outqualify Russell, but, um, has maybe been on the, the good side of some, uh, events that Russell hasn't.

So no, I do not think we're gonna see a Max Verstappen-esque runaway type deal. Clearly the Mercedes is the car to beat, um, but even in this one I think we saw Okay, given the right circumstances, they're still gonna have to really fight for their results. I thought we were looking more at like a Silver Arrows 2014 situation where Mercedes were 1-2 every race and by 20 seconds. I think this race proved that depending on the track, that is not always going to be the case because Russell could only battle back to 4th and spent a long time fighting Leclerc and was not successful in passing him. Yeah, I have some notes here.

Um, there was quite a few battles in this race. As early as lap 8, uh, Russell and Piastri battling. Um, lap 22, Bearman goes into the wall, but it was a direct result of Colapinto's regen and coming up on a car who was going X speed and then decided to do Y speed. So again, there probably is the, the greatest example of the biggest problem with the regulations. Because when you're in the regen, your car loses a shitload of speed.

And if you're following like Bearman going all out and a car in front of you is going way slower, um, that's an issue. So my question is, is why was there no penalty thrown? Although Colapinto didn't do anything wrong necessarily. And he's at the mercy of the regen. Yeah.

So, but I feel like you answered your question there, I guess. I mean, but my first thought was, how the hell is he allowed to go that slow? But he can't really help it. Yeah. And, and like I said, I think that that is the big glaring issue with the regulations right now.

When you are in the regen regenerative state, um, you are going way slower, which has, has brought about this sort of slingshot back and forth effect with a lot of the passing. But this is the first time we've seen a wreck caused because of it, and I don't think it'll be the last time, uh, this season. Um, there felt like maybe It was only a matter of time for that to happen. Yeah, unfortunate for Bearman to be on the end of that given his start to the season, but that pretty much entirely shifted the course of this race because I had known who won the race before I watched, but I didn't know what happened. So the whole time when Antonelli, you know, has the horrible start from pole and is in 6th, I'm thinking to myself How the hell does he get this win?

Right. And I'll— so let me say this, um, and Apple TV, you're not listening, but when I go to the replay, don't put the winner in the synopsis of the race. I didn't even notice that. So I, I put the race on Tuesday And pulled it up and in the title line, Antonelli win, you know, some, something about Antonelli winning is right in the descriptor of the race. And I'm like, goddamn it.

I didn't even get to push play. Yeah. I mean, it's my fault for not going to be a struggle. Yeah. It's, you know, I, I can't always watch these races live, but Um, yeah, I was like, oh geez, don't, don't throw that out there, just put something else.

I've not noticed that, but I believe you. I wasn't looking for it because I, I knew who won. Um, but yeah, I mean, that changed the entire course of the race, that wreck, because all the other cars, uh, ahead of Antonelli had pitted trying not to get undercut by whoever was behind them. So Antonelli stayed out the longest, which sometimes that happens in racing. You are the benefactor of a caution, puts him in first.

Russell was rightfully so raging. Um, nothing the team can really do about that. No. Um, but I was surprised that Russell could only get to fourth. Um, given how dominant the Mercedes has been so far, I would have thought he kind of would have been a hot knife through butter through the field, and that really wasn't the case.

Well, I think it speaks to the defensive driving of Leclerc at that point. Yeah. Um, and everyone ahead as well. Um, you know, just kind of looking at the grid finish here.

Gasly had a fantastic finish, 7th place.

Um, Liam Lawson, 9th. Esteban Ocon, 10th. And who knows, if Ollie hadn't been taken out, maybe he would have been up in that. You would, you would think be fighting for points. Yeah, they, they look pretty strong.

Uh, I will say this about the GR Toyota team this year. They look look a bit stronger than they have in the past. I think we're gonna see, um, good things from them coming up. A very, uh, an incredibly competitive car, and I think speaks to how, how well they've developed that program. This is what, year like 11 for them?

So it also speaks to perhaps the mountain that Cadillac has to climb. Granted, Cadillac is going to be operating with a lot more money, but you know, if anyone expected Cadillac to come into the series and be competitive right away, um, you know, I don't, I don't think that's gonna happen, I guess is the best way I can say that.

Um, so I, I think it, you know, it— I really appreciate what Haas have been able to do. And I think Ocon and— Ocon and Bearman is a, is a rock-solid lineup, and I think they'll be in the points more often than not this season. Yeah, so let's just, uh, dip into driver standings real quick here as we normally do. And we have a pretty decent points race, only just a few races in here. Kimi Antonelli at 72 points, George Russell quickly behind with 63.

Then we have the 2 Ferraris at 49 and 41, and then the McLarens, uh, at 25 and 21. Oliver Bearman sits 7th with 17 points and Gasly with 15. Funny to see Max where Max is at. But I mean, this is a whole new ballgame here. Arvid Lindblad is another guy that we should probably keep a pretty close eye on.

Yeah, he's been, he's been pretty solid. He has been pretty solid. Up until this point.

Team standings, constructors, just a few races in, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Haas in number 4. Long may that continue. I think they're going to have a real battle with Alpine. It seems to be so far. I think they're going to have to look after Alpine more than Red Bull or more than Red Bull Racing, right?

No, I, I think Verstappen will carry them like he does. Um, but I don't know, I mean, Red Bull haven't looked all that great. Uh, I would say Haas's main rival is Alpine and Racing Bulls. I think Red Bull will eventually kind of sort it out, and having Verstappen helps a lot, but Yeah, they are not particularly competitive by their standards, you know. Um, obviously Mercedes are probably— are— you can probably write the Constructors' Championship to them now unless a team brings, uh, an insane, uh, super effective upgrade.

Um, that That Drivers Championship could go a couple ways perhaps. Uh, I think McLaren showed that, you know, given their difficulties the first 2 rounds, they're still going to be a factor in this season. Piastri with a really good finish, P2. Lando found himself 5th. And Ferrari are— they're competitive, you know, they're competitive.

They're in the mix. They've been on the podium every, every race. So they're, you know, I think they're a really strong candidate for second in that, that battle. Looking down the table. Oh my God, Williams, what are we doing?

You packed in the 2025 car to focus on development. You have a Mercedes power unit and the car is slow as a mule. What the hell? Sainz 15th in this one, Albon 20th, the last place finishing car. Yeah, they have a pretty big mountain to climb, it, it would appear, but so do a lot of the lower grid teams with this new, uh, relegation that we have for new new format, uh, of racing.

Aston Martin are, are just— they are a dumpster fire, I think it's safe to say. You can't even get a— they've not had a race where both their cars have finished out of 3. Stroll has to park it every time because of the vibration, and the engine, you know, causes this vibration and basically makes the car undrivable. Uh, Alonso finishes 18th, a lap down. Say what you will, I mean, Cadillac is slow as all get-out, but their cars finish the race more often than not so far.

Um, so I think you can hang your hat on that if you're Cadillac, truly, because no one expects you to do anything. But if you can finish races, uh, which some teams clearly can't, that I guess says something.

Yeah. Um, I guess, you know, we'll have to kind of shuttle our talk for, for the month of April unless there's any outstanding news. Um, so we're going to probably take a pause on F1 and maybe focus a little bit more on IndyCar. Obviously we're ramping up here.

April 2nd. We're just 60-ish days out from the greatest spectacle in motorsport with the 500. So we're gonna inject some of that into the podcast, I'm sure, as we reach to that series. But if you wanted to speak a bit about what happened in IndyCar this past weekend, we can do that. Yeah, so firstly, you know, we're 4 rounds through the season and I don't think Palou is going to be running away with the championship like he did last year.

Uh, clearly Kyle Kirkwood has come to, to play and he still leads the championship by 2 points, Kyle Kirkwood, because He is kind of showing to be the master of the Scott Dixon strategy, really. The— what is your best worst finish? And through 4 rounds, I think Kyle Kirkwood's worst finish was like 5th place, um, or 6th place, and he has a race win, um, at Arlington. So I don't foresee Alex Palou running away with the championship. Will he win it?

Probably. But for anyone that thinks it's just gonna be last year, 8 or 9 wins and have it wrapped up early, no, not happening. Because some cars have shown that on their day, they're, they're straight up faster than Palou. Here's where Palou keeps the advantage over the field, and it's a team thing. I'll say it again because I had to say it, um, at Arlington with Andretti.

When have you ever seen the 10 team mess up a pit stop for Alex Palou? You can't. Yeah, you can't even name one, right? It doesn't happen. And Christian Lundgaard at Barber, which is a kind of a tough place to, to pass.

It doesn't offer the greatest product in the world, but he was cutting into Alex Palou's lead with 15 or so laps left. He got within 3 seconds or so and it was going down. Pits for the final stint of the race and 17-second pit stop, which completely destroys any chance of him getting the win. So at what point do the teams look inward and go, okay, Palou can be beat, uh, we keep beating ourselves. And Andretti got lucky that Kyle Kirkwood was fastest at Arlington because they fucked up a ton of pit stops.

So McLaren Why can these teams not sort out a pit stop? I don't get it. Uh, pit stops, if I'm not mistaken, um, I believe that most of the issues are still coming with the wheel gun.

So until they sort that out and figure out how to get past that or to be faster, um, with putting this single lug wheel on which has been around for eons. Yeah. I think that's, that's the Achilles heel for, for this particular team and they'll figure it out. But yeah, it's clear that in this series, more than probably F1 because of the fact that you're fueling a car And you're doing other, you know, you're, it's a, it's a slower pit stop than F1 always. Cause there's so many other moving parts that you're trying to accomplish.

Yeah. And so they just have to, we, we saw the ink in ink. What's the word? Intricacy of putting a wheel on this car and making sure that it gets on. Um, here's the thing.

Why is only seemingly one team good at it?

Why can only— why is Palou— you never ever see Palou with a slow stop ever in every team. McLaren, Andretti, Penske, Ford. You name it. Once a race, shit stop. Yeah.

Or more. Yeah. Well, it comes down to training and practice and those guys at Ganassi have gotten to the point where they're just really good. Yeah. It's, that's kind of been the sort of a marker for Maloukas at Penske.

He's— look, I think this kid's going to win possibly multiple races this year. Whoever— if he can get into the position to do so. Strategy. Because he's qualifying well. He's running well.

Strategy. But it just comes down to, you know, every week he is on the inferior strategy on the Penske team. This week, maybe. They start him on this, on the soft tire, which was clearly not the good tire for the race. And he has to pit very early because the tire falls off a cliff.

He loses a spot on track because of the tires. And then he, you know, gets to the primary tire and it's fine. But he, he's just logging laps. He's fast, but he's logging laps. No one's really passing him.

But once your strategy goes to shit, it's hard to also pass people in front of you. Lead Penske in this one. He's also the lead Penske in the championship, um, with the best average finish. So what I will say, obviously I'm a fan of his, but there were a lot of people that weren't super impressed or on board with Penske signing Malukas, um, and, and shifting Will Power. How many cars has Will Power wrecked this year already?

Um, 2 is the answer. Malukas, uh, ahead in the standings and hasn't wrecked anything and is the lead Penske in the standings. So I think we can shut down that Well, I think he's doing it the best that he can. It's going to take a little, a little bit of time for him to get used to the Penske way, but it's not— his positions aren't any fault of him as a driver, I don't think.

No, not so far. No, not so far. But I can't help but speak to the fact that, you know, Rahal Letterman Lanigan had a fantastic finish in this race in P3. Kind of the story of the race. And, you know, that's a strong point for Graham is these road courses.

Um, but if you can get a 3, uh, you know, a podium position out of that car, then, um, all is well. Yeah. And it almost felt like they put all their eggs in Graham. They may have this weekend because clearly the other 2 cars were traffic cones. Yeah.

And I think number one, that has to do a lot with Schumacher still trying to realize this car and understand how this this IndyCar works versus an F1 car. Um, so we'll see. I mean, we've seen other F1 drivers come into this series and not have a whole lot of good luck, or not luck, but not a great showing. I think it's the transition from one car to the other, it is a bit difficult. I will say this, I'm glad he hasn't split one in half yet, which is kind of good.

He hasn't wrecked anything, uh, at least by his own fault. He wrecked in St. Petersburg because of Stingray Rob. Um, but yeah, I mean, he's keeping his nose clean. He had that pretty decent showing in Phoenix, so there's, there's something there. Um, I really like the, the result of this particular race, um, with the exception of the— and how do I say this— I, I'm not a hater.

I don't hate Alex Palou. I don't. I think that he's transcend— transcended a lot of other drivers in this series. Clearly he has phenomenal talent. You know, that Ganassi car is on point.

Like, as you said, pit stops are crucial and they're good.

But I would anticipate a potential Kyle Kirkwood slash David Maloukas charge maybe a bit here as we go through the series. Yeah, I think that certainly Kirkwood is going to be, uh, a huge factor in this championship this year. We see his record on street races, and we have another one coming up, the next race in Long Beach in 2 weeks' time. Um, and you have to say Kirkwood's the favorite to win that, and he— if he can get some breathing room from Palou. Now granted, what do you think Palou will finish at Long Beach?

Probably 2nd or 3rd, like at worst, if he doesn't win. So, uh, I would love to see Kirkwood kind of get more of a lead on Palou, uh, just for the sake of the competitive competitiveness of the series. Uh, Malukas, if he can— if they can find a way to get them get the 12 into victory lane, um, then maybe I would really start to believe in a, in a push for the championship. I think he sits 4th in the championship right now, uh, or 5th. And Weingart has been really solid for McLaren as well, so another, another potential, uh, another potential competitor.

Yeah, I have to say this NTT IndyCar webpage is terrible.

I, I don't, I don't like the layout. I can't go back to see.

It's just, it's a little clunky. Maybe it's just me, I don't know. Regardless, I'm— I was trying to figure out how many ovals versus road courses that we've had here. Like, uh, the schedule? Yes.

Well, there's been 2 street races, an oval, and a road course. Okay, so the oval was Phoenix. Okay.

All right, well, I mean This next race in 2 weeks should be a good challenge for a lot of these guys. I think, I think what it really comes down to is who can figure out how to put the right front on correctly. Yeah, or, you know, just any of the 4 tires. Yeah, that'll probably— it probably will come. It'll be a track position race.

It's a street course. Long Beach is probably the 2nd biggest event on the IndyCar calendar, so, uh, I look forward to it. And I would not expect— I expect Kirkwood to, to be the favorite to win, but yeah, top He's been in the top 5 every single race, which is why he leads the championship by 2 points. Polo has 2 wins and 3 top 5s. He, remember, wrecked out at Phoenix.

Lundgaard has 2 top 5s.

Melukkas has 2 top 5s and 3 top 10s, and then it's Newgarden in 5th. Uh, O'Ward, McLaughlin, Ericsson, Marcus Armstrong, and Scott Dixon round out the top 10. In the bottom, it's Mick Schumacher, uh, unfortunate, and Stingray Rob, and Nolan Siegel, who will not be with McLaren next year because he is terrible. So again, the, the F1 thing with the no races— not a great month to have no F1 races because there's one IndyCar race in April and it's Long Beach. Now there's 500 testing, but you know, that's like a YouTube thing.

You can watch it on YouTube, um, and it's testing. But do we have any, uh soccer news to speak of. Football, yeah, we actually have a lot, uh, because it was the final round of World Cup qualifying. So there were only— there were 6 places that had to be sorted out to fill out the 48-team field. Uh, I'm pretty sure it was 6, and we're gonna go through them here.

Um, I get, you know, let's just start with the big news. Uh, for the third— now third, third, let's everyone let that sink in— for the third consecutive World Cup, Italy will not be in attendance because they have failed to qualify for the 3rd consecutive World Cup. Italy has won the World Cup 4 times. They have 2 European Championships as recently as 2021. They have not made the World Cup since I was 11 years old.

I am 23. The next time that they can possibly qualify, I will be 27. They have not gotten out of the group stage of a World Cup since they won it in 2006. If you would have said in 2006 to Italian fans that that's the best it's gonna be for 24 years, they would have laughed in your face. Yeah.

3 consecutive World Cups, Italy is not going to be there.

That is insane.

Any background as to why that is? Who were their play-in games? So they had a 2-round playoff. The first, they won 2-0 against Northern Ireland, um, and they matched up in the playoff final against Bosnia and Herzegovina, who have been a sovereign nation, um, about as long as, uh, I've been alive. Uh, I'm trying to find it real quick.

Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were a big part of, uh, the whole issue going on in the, uh, Balkan region in the '90s and 2000s. You were obviously alive for that. I wasn't, or was an infant. Um, damn, you'd think it'd be a little easier to find when they— all right, hold on.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Independence Day.

Bosnia and Herzegovina's independence was declared on March 1st, 1992, so they've been a sovereign nation for 36 years— 34 years, sorry. Um, they were the ones that knocked out Italy on penalties. So Italy scored first and was up 1-0. They then got a red card and went down to 10 men, and Bosnia equalized in the 80th minute. I tuned in in the second half when Bosnia equalized.

I knew that Italy was fucked because I remember watching Italy get eliminated. The last qualification round in 2022, that was against North Macedonia, um, which is insane. Um, and you, you know when you can just— you just know that something's gonna happen? I feel like sports, sports have a weird way of doing that, but whatever the sport is where you just know that your team is— or whoever is fucked is going to lose when something happens. Yeah, that is like when that equalizing goal went in.

And remind— reminder, Italy is down to 10 men at this point. You're like, that's probably gonna be it. Yeah, they won't come back from this. And they didn't.

Yeah. So do we need to float into any of the Premier League talk or is there anything going on that we need to speak of there? Well, not really since we've recorded due to the international break. Tottenham have a new manager. They sacked Igor Tudor after, what, a month?

Uh, because they sit 1 point above the relegation zone. They brought in, uh, I believe it was Enzo Maresca— no, Roberto De Zerbi, who did manage Brighton at a time and, um, was at Marseille in France. This isn't gonna work, by the way. I mean, you just know. New, new manager again.

No, this isn't gonna work. Tottenham are fucked. Will they go down? I don't know, but they are gonna. When you are on to the 3rd or 4th manager in a season, you're probably gonna get relegated.

And I just kind of feel like Tottenham by, you know, will defy the odds and we'll find a way to get relegated, which would be the most insane relegation probably in Premier League— not even in Premier League history. Um, so that is probably the— there's 2 main storylines I'd keep an eye on, and they happen to involve 2 rival clubs. Will Arsenal finally win the Premier League for the first time since 2004? And will Tottenham go down? Those are your 2 storylines to pay attention to as, as the Premier League returns for the final chapter of the season.

7 matches remain, um, so it is truly the business end of the season. Yeah, and 9 points ahead, 9 points ahead with a game in hand, I against Man City. But yeah, I, I think Arsenal are gonna do it. I really do. Um, City actually beat Arsenal in the League Cup Final 2-0, but I don't know, I just feel like Arsenal are gonna get it done this time.

Um, this is about the time where they blow up usually, so That still could happen, but I don't really get that sense this year. They've weathered pretty much every storm and have come out better on the other side. So, and I've been beating the drum for months, but I don't think City are consistent enough right now to win the title, and they're in a bit of a transition phase themselves. So I don't, I don't foresee City winning the title. That's my prediction.

Scottish Premiership, Hearts, Rangers, Celtic, 1, 2, 3 points. 3 back are Rangers from Hearts. Celtic sits at 61 points, so 5 points back. And this is going to play out as, um, a different season than we're used to seeing, potentially. I mean, it's already been that way.

Celtic have lost 8 league games, which is terrible. No team has won the title losing more than 5 games in years in Scotland, so I think Celtic might have already sealed their fate. In that respect. It will come down to what will Hearts do? Can Hearts do it?

We are in April now. There's less than 2 months left in the season. You're 7 matches away from seeing probably one of the mo— and I'm not, I'm genuinely not overstating this— you're 7 match days away from seeing one of the most improbable sporting occurrences to ever happen. If Hearts win this title.

41 years Celtic and Rangers have, have switched between winning the title. Hearts themselves haven't won it since the '50s, but you want to talk about dominance, no team in Scotland has ever even really come close to winning the title since the '80s. So this would seriously be one of the truly improbable moments in sports history. So, you know, we could be witnessing a lot of history at the end of this season. As a fan of the league and a Celtic fan, I, I wouldn't be sad to see something like that happen.

Sometimes you have to kick everything on its arse. Yeah. And, and really Celtic, I don't, I think you would agree, don't particularly deserve to win the title this year. Not with the, the way they played and the, and, and really what would change it? Because if they win the title, then I feel like that kind of gives the Celtic board an excuse.

Well, we still won the title, so why are you complaining? Sometimes you have to, to lose. I feel like it, it, I, I do really believe it might actually work out better if Celtic don't win the league because then the board don't have anything to grab onto. No, they'll be, they'll be like, okay, Yeah, this— we really fucked up and we either gotta go or something has to change. Yeah, so that's where I'm at with that.

So not backing Hearts, but, um, they've— they're in a deserved position at this point. Yeah, I would say so. Uh, just rounding out this World Cup talk, uh, like I said, we have the full field of teams. Left. Some other teams that qualified this past week— obviously Italy missing was the, the big storyline.

Bosnia and Herzegovina will go in their place. We also learned, um, that Türkiye, or Turkey, officially known as Türkiye, will be in Group D with the United States. So that group is Australia, Paraguay, Turkey, and the US. That's probably the most unpredictable group in the tournament because they're all, I would say, very even, evenly matched. The US lost 2 friendlies over this past 2 weeks to Belgium and Portugal, which are kind of expected losses, but the US don't really fill me with any sort of confidence heading into this tournament, and I think it could be embarrassing given that we're hosting.

I, I think it could be embarrassing, so we'll see, uh, but don't expect much out of them is my guess. Sweden also qualified, um, out of the European qualifications.

We also learned that the Democratic Republic of the Congo, DR Congo, qualified for their first tournament, um, and Iraq, uh, also qualified to the tournament, their first time in the show in over 40 years. Um, so that is the, you know, the, the final spots that have been given to this expanded 48-team field. So June 11th is the date to circle on your calendar, 3 PM. That's Thursday, June 11th. So what is that, about 2 months from now?

3 PM. Is the opening match of the FIFA World Cup 2026. That is between Mexico and South Africa. And 10 PM that day, to round out the opening day, South Korea takes on Czechia. Czechia were the other team that qualified over the past week.

So, and so, do— are these games going to come pretty fast and furious, or is it So the first week between rounds, or the first 2 days are not— they're pretty light, 2 games a day. But then yeah, starting Saturday there will be 3 games, and then Sunday it really gets going, 5 matches per day. Um, and it alternates between that, so it looks like It's really— it's technically 4, uh, a day. So the earliest kickoffs will be, it looks like, 1 PM, but there will also be midnight kickoffs because, you know, you have the West Coast. And they're also trying to time it like F1 does.

You try to time it so the most people around the world can watch. So there's some odd kickoff times, like Sunday, June 14th, 12 AM, Australia is taking on Turkey, but it's in Vancouver, so it's a 9 PM start time there. Um, but yeah, there it— it'll be pretty fast and furious. This is the most games ever in a World Cup. So when will the USA team kick.

Yeah, so we know their schedule now that Turkey has made it. Um, and it looks like this, uh, 2 friendlies before the tournament. Sunday, May 31st, which we will be in Detroit for, against Senegal. Saturday, June 6th, friendly, their send-off against Germany. Then opening up the World Cup Friday, Friday, June 12th, 9 PM start against Paraguay.

That'll be in LA at SoFi, uh, known as Los Angeles Stadium for the FIFA World Cup because FIFA does not let, um, the stadiums have like naming rights. Or sponsorships. So that's why a lot of these stadiums will have fake names. Uh, so US-Paraguay, 9 PM Saturday, June— Friday, June 12th. Then they will play Friday, June 19th against Australia at 3 PM in Seattle.

And then, uh, their final group stage match is against Turkey Thursday, June 25th. That's a 10 PM start, and that is in LA. So that is their schedule for the World Cup. And network-wise, Fox. Fox.

All Fox? Yes, all on Fox. Fox sucks for soccer. I like what they do for IndyCar. I cannot stand them for soccer, but they keep getting the rights to the tournament.

So, so we'll see potential games on FS1, FS2, and yeah, I don't know. I'm sure some of the games, yes, will be on FS1. I would imagine most of them are going to be on Fox because until the, um, final group stage match where group stage games are played simultaneously, there shouldn't be any overlap between games. So it'll be like one game at a time, which makes it a little easier like for us if we're trying to follow a bunch of games. Uh, trying to fucking pull it up here.

Um, I would imagine most of those games though are gonna be just on Fox, but you know knows. If, uh, you're living under a rock, like, you're probably gonna— and if you don't care about soccer, sorry, but that's gonna be a lot of what you see on the telly for a month in June, in July. Good. Yeah, potentially once in a lifetime thing, or if you're of a certain vintage, twice in a lifetime, because we hosted in '94. Which I've asked you before.

You, you said you don't have really any recollection of that, but no, I, I was not, uh, you weren't tuned in-centric. Yeah, but this one most certainly will be hard to miss. Yeah, so all right, there you have it. Uh, I think that'll do it. Uh, so we will have some club soccer to discuss next show.

So stay tuned. All right, well, producer is in-house. Yeah, I think producer says it's time to shut it down. That's why he came down. So, all right, let's go.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka, this has been Tackling the Chicane. Copyright 2026, Studio 2520.

I guess we'll see you next time.