Qatar GP 2025 Recap: McLaren's Blunder, Fulham 4-5 City

It's lights out, away we go!

Gonzalo Montiel, 25 years of age, his first ever World Cup.

Podcasting from Studio 2520 somewhere near Akron, Ohio, bringing you all the latest talk in motorsport and soccer.

This is Tackling the Chicane.

All right, we're gonna have to start thanking the, uh, conductor of this fine band that we have here in the studio. They have a name?

Uh, it's the John Ruhnfeldt Five.

This track is called Almost Baked.

Is that actually what they're called, or did you come up with this? It's right there. Wow. The John Marie Delacroix. I can't imagine they're— I'll have to dip into this little thing I found here with this anonymous weird music.

But, uh, yeah, so the house band. The house band. I kind of dig it.

Just gets better.

It's probably one guy with a machine. I'm sure it's all computerized. It's pretty good though.

All right.

Nice. Okay, so here we are on a Thursday, proper Thursday recording date. Uh, a lot of shit to talk about this week. Okay, don't you think? Well, yeah, I mean, we, we're witnessing what could possibly be one of the most, I wouldn't say the biggest upset in Formula 1, but it's one of the most interesting finishes in Formula 1 for certain.

One race to go, but we should probably talk about the Qatar Grand Prix and what transpired at such.

Um, I don't know. Let's just lay it out on the table here and let's just talk. First point is McLaren made a very, very, very bad call. Uh, I wouldn't say, well, okay, let me take that back. Unlucky is a better word because anything could have happened at that moment.

They chose to stay out and the rest of the field chose to pit under a safety car. But it was, it was at that moment, right? What? I just, I don't think when 18 other cars pit that it comes down to luck. I mean, I think that's just an egregious strategy error.

Well, they were, They had— they dipped in and the other 18 cars stayed out, then it would have been a lot different scenario. Yeah, we were discussing the possibility that maybe that could have happened, but this race was strange for a number of reasons. The looming over it all was the fact that last year the Pirellis were essentially exploding due to tire wear. So they capped it. You could only run the tires for 25 laps at a time.

So that already added a strategy wrinkle to the race. Um, and so let me say this about that.

Whatever the, the reason for that is tarmac, the way it's composed, the— and that's what it is, is the surface is everything. Um, I don't think you should interject as a— as Pirelli and say you can only run these tires this many laps. What's the difference between that and every other GP where you have to consider tire degradation? And if you know that this tire degrades faster than any other circuit, then just put that in your, your strategy cap. Don't tell guys they can only run them for a maximum of X number of laps.

If, if they're— if their strategy doesn't call for, for the correct timing of pit stops, then what makes this any different? I, yeah, I understand what it is. They're trying to protect themselves from a bunch of cars crashing because the tire goes from It's okay, it's not so good, it's not so— it's even not so good again, and then boom. The thing is, when you have— when you know going into a race that the tires aren't going to last, you run into this thing where— and it happened in the NASCAR championship this year with Goodyear— that the tires basically exploding at any given moment begins to artificially affect how the race is played out. It— and obviously we don't know what would have happened if there was no cap here, but I'm just saying, in those instances, I don't want races decided by the fact that the leader blew a tire.

Uh, in, in knowing, I guess with the caveat that you knew going in that that was very likely to happen. I, I think I liked the way NASCAR did it. No, they knew that there was high degradation on, I think it was the right front at that particular track. Yeah. And they left it up to the teams to decide either we're gonna play it safe and we're gonna pit, you know, with within the window, or we're going to push it.

And if we push it and we get effed over it, then that's our— excuse me— our fault and problem. This is just more of F1, the overlords of F1, saying, well, we can't have the people crashing their cars. Yeah. Um, regardless, uh, with these pit windows, it did make this GP challenging, and it was, it was all about timing. Safety car comes out at a specific point on the track.

They didn't have a lot of time to decide, are we going in, are we staying out? They said we're staying out, and as soon as they stayed out, every other race engineer, I guarantee you, I'd love to hear the radio calls, was box, box, box, box. Because they knew that they hung those guys out to dry. And so be it. You got, you have to know that in Formula 1, you have to just, you, there's not really an excuse.

Zach Brown, he admitted post-race that they fucked up, but it happens. It does. Here's the thing.

You— we are witnessing what could, depending on what happens on Sunday, this is seriously the biggest collapse in Formula 1 history that we're watching right now. Max Verstappen, was it Hungary? At Hungary said that he didn't think he was going to win another race. Now obviously that didn't happen, but Max Verstappen at one point was 104 points behind Oscar Piastri. Yep.

He's now ahead of Piastri and only 12 points behind Lando Norris. Mind you, Piastri basically had a perfect weekend. Uh, he did exactly everything he had to do. He won the sprint race, qualified on pole, and there was no actual on-track overtaking at Qatar, so that didn't happen, right? The strategy error by McLaren just completely derailed their race.

So I, I just, I don't know. Listen, that's, that, that is a fuck-up for the ages. Yeah. And it's gonna, it's going to make this, there's good things to come from this. There's, this is going to make the, the alt, the last race of the year just that much more engaging instead of there being a blowout in points and they, The guy gets the, he knows he's going to win the championship with 2 races to go.

Yeah. This, so this is better than that. This is way better than that. We're going to be tuning into this next race because we don't have any idea what's going to happen. We're going to be watching the practices, which we always do, but with keener eyes, we're going to be watching the qualifying.

Yeah. So I mean, for Formula 1, this is, This is probably one of the better ends of a campaign that I've seen in a while. We've only really been following it since we've done the show. Yeah, it's not even close. Yeah.

It's so, you know, I guess I'm happy that, you know, we're sitting here talking about Carlos Sainz who had finished in 3rd place for Williams. That was massive. Yeah. And it's not even the big story, which is, I guess, a testament to Sort of the drama that we still have left in this season. Yeah.

Kimmy Antonelli, he's— this guy's going to end up— this kid is going to end up being— he's going to outshine Russell at some point if he hasn't already.

With just his— he's only been in the series for— this is his first year. He's 19 years old. This could be the next Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes.

Maybe. You know, we'll see. I see tons of potential there. He's not afraid. He drives smart.

He knows when to defend and pass.

So we'll see. Clearly the 2026 car is going to inject a little bit of variable into this whole thing. But anyhow, so that's the big story from Qatar is the blunder, the McLaren blunder.

There in the top 10, there isn't anything, I mean, outstanding really. Fernando Alonso has a nice finish. In 7th, uh, place. Yeah, other than that, you know, I, I don't really think Piastri is in it, uh, and I know anything could happen. We, we just saw that, but it seems like that we're not gonna see him turn around 16 points over Norris.

And, um, frankly, McLaren lost him this title with that strategy error, um, in the sense that any chance he, he would have had to have pulled close to Norris has pretty much evaporated. Well, this is much like a house of cards. We're not privy to the behind the scenes. This is all about who they want to put in front. Norris has obviously been there longer.

I think we know who that is. If you— but this, listen, if there's ever been a motorsport where it's all about posturing, this is it. Because we've seen it. We've seen it happen. Verstappen sets his car up the way he wants it.

Tsunoda gets a car that he can't drive. Scraps. You know, um, and we've seen this time and time again. Uh, the, the, just in McLaren alone. The, the calls of, well, hold him in the pit so he can go by type thing.

You know, this is— they, they've, they've sort of, um, they've sort of played checkers with, with those 2 all season. We've seen strategy calls of let, let Norris pass or let Piastri pass, and they've always weirdly kind of been trying to I would— I'll say this again— kind of artificially impact results. And I don't know what it would be like to run a team where the 2 guys could win a championship, and you know— now, who knows now— but you know most of the season that it's going to be one of those 2 that wins the championship. I just can't believe how much they've sort of tried to manipulate results this year. With their team.

Um, I mean, we've seen it over and over, uh, this year, last year too. But at some point when you've got the constructors locked up, you just have to say, okay, you know what guys, just race, just race, and we'll see what happens. But it's never really been like that this season. There's always been some sort of thing lurking in the background with it. Yeah.

And how they call strategy. This series is, is never, well, I don't know about ever, but at least in the, in the era that I've watched, it's never been about just go out and race. That's the weird thing about having a 2-car team, quote unquote. In IndyCar, yes, you have, you know, 4 or 5, it depends on the race, but you know, there's 3 cars under this team and there might be 2 cars under that team. But they don't give a fuck about any of, you know, there's nobody ever holds off in IndyCar.

And, you know, I'll, I will be a proponent of that series because of that. I want, and I wish people, more people who locked into Formula 1 because of the Netflix thing, and then they started following it. And now I saw a Formula 1 poster at a Sunoco station in fucking Independence, Ohio. Which 3, 4 years ago, you never would have seen that. No, because nobody gave a shit.

So at least enough people give a shit that they're, they're hanging banners. Yeah. My point is, if you're, if you're listening to this podcast and you've become a Formula 1 fan through the Netflix era, and let's face it, to some degree, that's where I jump back in.

Um, you need, you need to watch some IndyCar. You, you really do. I've been campaigning for that for 2 years now. Yeah, well, and rightfully so. Um, getting back into the nuts and bolts of this F1 weekend, uh, I feel like Carlos Sainz has really injected himself as the, the top dog of that Williams team.

He started out pretty slow this year, but 2 podiums in a Williams. Come on. That was unheard of before. So yeah, unbelievable drive from him. And again, overshadowed by McLaren stupidity, but otherwise that probably would have been the big story.

Yeah. They gave him second fiddle during the post-race show, which makes sense, but, and that's fine. Yeah. Um, I will say this, I watched a mixed bag of coverage this weekend. I watched some ESPN and some F1, and I got to hand it to ESPN.

They do a, they do a nice job. Sky Sports. Okay. So Sky Sports does a really nice job. And depending on what feed we get next year through Apple TV Plus, it's, it's going to be Sky Sports.

I'm not, I'm not disappointed. I, I, I've gotten so used to watching the F1 coverage. Um, but they, they did, they do a, it's just, it's a different lens that they look through, which is fine. But the British lens, that could be. I'm just being, I'm not sure it, yeah.

I, I, uh, am a little more upset about leaving behind, uh, David Coulthard and, uh, what's his face, Julian Palmer. I think they have good chemistry and The thing with— and not to go full rabbit hole tangent here, but Sky Sports loves Lewis Hamilton because he's Lewis Hamilton, he's British, and they very much are not, uh, keen on Max Verstappen, and they make it pretty clear. So I, I just don't love the bias. I guess I, yeah, have to look at it, but through that, yeah. Maybe.

I mean, and they are the world feed. If you go on F1 TV and click world feed, it's just Sky Sports. So we don't know. We haven't been told yet which feed we're going to get. That's what I've read online.

Yeah. So we'll see. I don't, I don't know. I, I don't, we'll talk about that in the offseason.

So let's see. Yeah, we talked about, talked about that, the penultimate race and then where the standings are. We all know where, where everybody's at pretty much. Um, I always like to dip into the constructors down at the bottom of the table. Um, Haas ceded to Aston Martin.

A few points. So they were in 7th. Now they dropped to 8th. I'd love to see them finish in 7th above Aston Martin just because I can't stand anybody on that. I mean, I'm not— Alonso had a good week.

I'm not a hater for him, but Stroll's such a cocksucker and he's coming back next year, which we'll talk about. There were— there's a couple of changes. Yeah. We'll talk about that postseason in terms of what changes. A couple driver shifts.

Oh, we could talk about that right now. Well, not now, now, but this episode. Okay. It won't take long. The Red Bull change was not at all.

Yeah. Hadjar went to Tsunoda's seat and then they replaced for the RB team with Arvid Lindblad. Probably not saying that right, but whatever. He's Swedish, uh, I, I think he races under the Swedish flag. He is, uh, born and raised in Britain, um, and of Indian descent, so he's kind of a little Renaissance man here.

But, uh, looked up his F2 stats, I think he had something like 3 or 4 wins in F2 this year. So with the Compost team, which is Red Bull Junior team, and he will race alongside Liam Lawson for next year. So the whole grid is locked in for next year. Um, that was kind of the last puzzle piece, and, um, there you have it. So we've got 3 cars alive for this championship heading into Abu Dhabi.

And, um, whether or not you think Piastri and Verstappen are actually in it, uh, I guess it's up to you. But mathematically, 3 cars alive, Verstappen 12 points back, Piastri 16 back.

Um, throw your hat in the ring. Who's gonna win it?

Well, one thing I've learned is there's obviously we can put our predictions out there, but anything can happen at in lap 1, turn 1. I mean, we've seen contenders taken completely out.

I think it's going to be A Norris, Verstappen, Piastri. Well, I won't say Piastri's head's not in the game right now. Well, they completely fucked over last week. He should have won. He did everything that he needed to.

All right. If you're asking me for a podium prediction or Who's going to win the championship? Norris. Yeah, I agree. And I say that in the back of my head, I'm thinking it could be Verstappen.

Verstappen is just like, you just, he doesn't go away. I'm sure they're going to put all the things up on the screen that say, okay, if it finishes in this order, then it'll be this. If it, they posted something of that nature on the Instagram, and it's kind of a lot to even— it's one of those things where you have to do a bunch of fucking math. But basically, at the very least, Verstappen probably has to win the race, and then I think it's, it's a 12-point swing. So Norris would have to finish lower than 3rd, uh, in Verstappen.

If Verstappen wins and Norris finishes 4th or below, Verstappen would be the champion, um, because I believe that's a 15-point swing. So I'm sure as we watch the GP, it'll be— oh yeah, they'll have it up every 5 laps or every 5 seconds. Probably won't even go away.

So yeah, I mean, here we are sitting in our 4th season of really dialed in on F1. And the last race of the season is going to be a real— it's not a nail-biter for me, but at least, you know, geez, we don't know. We don't know what's going to happen. I might be biting nails. I'm just invested as a fan of the series, and I really don't want McLaren to completely fuck over either of their drivers, whoever it may be.

I, I just cannot believe that the amount of— they have just completely imploded, and they've done it in a way in which they were just acting really dumb. That— could you imagine if they pissed this away? I can't, I think I know how hard these teams work. And I, I mean, just from watching, not personally.

And I know that every millimeter that they change or move something or set the car up. Has different results. Every call from the pit box, every minute, every second of every GP has, you know, different results. They, yes, they've hung their cheese out a little bit. I don't think it's because they got cocky at 100 and whatever the swing, 140 points ahead.

104. I think these teams don't ever get cocky because they know how hard it is to put these cars on the track and produce results. It's just math. They— there were calls that were made that put them in precarious positions. Disqualification, don't forget about that.

That is what really was the, the linchpin that somebody pulled. And I mean, that's really what set this whole thing into motion is, was the disqualification. Yeah. So I would say they probably overbaked their strategy or were just overthinking themselves. And you know that their infraction was a millimeter, right?

Well, yeah, but a millimeter might as well be 6 feet in F1. Well, true, but I'm just saying. That's great. But like I said last week, I don't— you want me to have sympathy for F1 teams because I'm not going to. No, no, no.

I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that should give you some indication of how difficult it is to set these cars up and stay within the rule set. I guarantee you there's no millimeter in NASCAR. Yeah. Yeah.

Apple. I know, but I'm just saying, you know, the thing is only McLaren has acted in such a way with this giant lead that they've put themselves into this situation, be it terrible strategy, be it just poor performance, or in the case of Vegas.

Whether intentional or not, cheating or being outside of the rules. And now you've made this gargantuan strategy error, which is a fuck-up on your account. So, um, how do— how have you let it get to the point where Max Verstappen actually has a chance to win the championship? Why Like, could you imagine if you and I showed up to a podcast 3 months ago and said to you and I, oh, by the way, last round of the season, Max Verstappen is going to be 12 points behind. Yeah.

Well, one of the things we'll do postseason is open our prediction envelope from the beginning. And see if— see, I don't even remember what the questions were. It's in the back room there. So, um, I'll say you were looking like a genius for about 4 months.

Yeah, well, still could happen.

Nonetheless, we have what can— could possibly be one of the greatest races of the season.

We'll see what happens. Uh, practice starts tomorrow, 4 AM. Yeah, you waking up for that? No, I will watch it, um, later. There's 2 practices tomorrow, uh, 04:30, 08:00, and then, uh, a second on— or a third on Saturday at 05:30.

Qualifying is 09:00 on Saturday, but I think we have a lot to do. So I don't know that we'll see that live. And then the race on the 7th is at midnight. No, that's not right. Zero.

Oh, I'm sorry. I thought that was zero zero. It's oh oh eight. Eight AM. Yeah.

Oh eight hundred on the seventh. So there's a possibility that we should watch it live. I'm watching it live. I made that decision last week. Yeah, we should be able to do that.

So there you go. Um, circuit— this is, it's a pretty technical track actually. They've only been racing there since 2009. Um, Kevin Magnussen has the fastest lap time set last year at a 1:25.6. Uh, but there is a very long straight Uh, in, I don't know if that's, they have the colors here, but whatever sector that is, I'm assuming it's the 2nd sector.

Anyhow, I think there's some, there's possibility here for passing in, in that area. But, uh, yeah, this is always, you know, these, one of these things, one of the things that I marvel at at this series is just the spectacle of the places that they go. I mean, it's, it's not like anything else in the world. If I ever, ever— if we ever, ever get a chance— I don't think that the ones in the US are as grand as the ones that I see across the rest of the continent. No.

But maybe that's just because there's no history. Could be. The oldest circuit is 13 years old, right? I, I don't know. That's just my perspective.

But yeah, I get your point. Uh, although I could do without them going to fucking Qatar and the UAE and sucking off the entire Middle East Uh, oil dictatorships and that's countries that kill journalists and it's not ever gonna change, all that good stuff. They are really obsessed actually. Have a, have a look at the calendar and then go through and be like, oh, dictatorship, dictatorship, president that rigs elections, 20 years in power, dictatorship. Like, could we— yeah, I— this— well, listen, the This isn't a series that is— what's the word I'm looking for— that has a conscience as far as any of that stuff goes.

This is a series that was built on how much, how many billions of dollars can we make, basically. At least, at least in the 21st century. Yeah, yeah. And I don't know, I'd have to go back to maybe the '90s to see. It would be interesting to see if— I think it's always been like that.

Maybe not in the early days, it was much more in modern times. Yeah, up until about the start of the 21st century, they really started kicking into the Middle East and what This isn't a bone to pick with the Middle East as a region, but it's just like we know what's kind of going on there in terms of where the money comes from. Well, I think there was a point 25 years ago when Indianapolis was on the calendar that you could still go— you could still go to a race and afford it. Yeah, F1 has exploded in popularity since Netflix, but I mean, that even before slightly before that, I think it was still pretty expensive. Now it's just outrageously expensive.

Yeah, but well, you— they've made a good job of thinking that people may— people think they're a captive audience. Well, this is the only race series worth watching. No, the fuck it's not. Like, uh, obviously we spend a lot of time watching F1 and talk about it, and I think it's a great series, but you can watch better racing for about a tenth of the price, uh, really anywhere in the United States. Well, and I think that's why we started a year or so ago of— we, we talk IndyCar now too during that series for— and we dip in NASCAR.

Um, but yeah, what We're gonna continue to split the F1 and IndyCar series equally on this show because I think it's worth talking about. And we did that this year. We covered just about every race. Yeah, I watched every race. Yeah, so we're gonna continue to do that.

Um, but, uh, yeah, so the last race of the season for F1 coming up this weekend, and it will be A doozy. Let's hope. Uh, I'm excited to see what happens, but, uh, we should move on into the world of soccer, which continues to bring us, uh, twists and turns, some more expected than others. Today— well, yesterday, I think it was yesterday, Wednesday, December 3rd, as we records, Celtic announced their new manager. Martin O'Neill has departed the club, uh, from his interim steed, uh, in which he— I think he won 5 domestic games.

So good for him. Uh, capped it off with a win over Dundee last night, 1-0. But pretty much the worst kept secret in Scottish football was that Wilfred Nancy was coming over to the green side of Glasgow from, of course, the Columbus Crew. So I've been watching this, uh, gentleman coach for about 3 seasons now anyways, and, um, opinion is mixed in Glasgow, mostly because they don't— there's no name recognition from a guy that is French and has only coached in MLS. But, um, and how long was he with the Crew?

3 seasons. Before that, he was with, uh, CF Montreal. Okay, well, there must be a reason why he was on the radar. I mean, unless it's classic Celtic and it was the cheapest person that they could find.

I mean, there's no doubt that he wasn't the most expensive option. However, neither was Ange Postecoglou, who was completely unknown in European football before he showed up. Um, and I remember when he, uh, was appointed, Celtic fans were enraged, actually pissed off by the fact that, um, they had signed Ange Postecoglou. Uh, they were courting Eddie Howe, who you might know from Newcastle now at the time, um, and that didn't go through obviously, uh, and then people were made to look pretty foolish when Ange Postecoglou, uh, did what he did. So many cups, uh, well, he won the league twice, he won the Scottish Cup, he won 2 League Cups.

So how many is that? 5 in 2 seasons. 5 out of a possible 6.

Um, I kind of feel like Wilfried Gnabry could, could be a similar story to Ange. He played— he set the Crew up to play arguably the most exciting soccer in MLS every season he was there. The Crew were always scoring 2, 3, 4 goals, it would seem like, unless they were ravaged by injuries, which did happen this year. But Wilfred Nancy, uh, he knows what the hell he's doing. I really do believe that.

Uh, he won, uh, the 2023 MLS Cup with the Crew and, uh, took the Crew to what is essentially CONCACAF's Champions League final. Um, he has won, um, a league's cup in Columbus as well, and only in 3 seasons, and they were in the playoffs every year. So I think this is a really— this might be a steal in terms of Celtics, uh, managerial post. And he— does he take over immediately? Yeah, so he, uh, first training was today, um, and you know, the whole media rigmarole, but we have a match against Hearts on Sunday, uh, who by the way continue to keep dropping points.

We're now tied on points with Hearts, the top of the league, with the game in hand. So Wilfred's good. He's gonna get the, uh, the baptism of fire, it is safe to say. His first, uh, 3 games with Celtic are Hearts, who obviously are nearest title challengers at the moment. Then Roma in the Europa League.

Roma, uh, currently sit at least in the top 3 of the Italian league right now, which for my money is probably the 2nd or 3rd best league in the world. And then it's the League Cup final against St. Mirren. So I mean, that's a hell of a 3-game stretch to, uh, get bedded in to the club. And, uh, you know, I think if, if he beats Hearts and puts— we put in a good shift against Roma and then we win the League Cup, he's gonna look pretty damn good right out the gate. But obviously we have to play those games.

But yeah, I mean, they're— we're tied obviously in points, but Um, this— so they've got us on differential by 3. Uh, I don't know, that, that's not insurmountable. They've played one more match than we have, so it'll be interesting. And you say that we play them this Sunday? Sunday.

So we'll have to watch that. Uh, on record, probably because we have shit to do, apparently. But yes, yeah, so I'm really excited for this, this new era of Celtic. Uh, safe to say this hasn't been the most enthralling Celtic team you'll ever watch, uh, under Rodgers and O'Neill. Look, I don't really— he did what he had to do.

He won the important And that's, that's fine. Yeah. Quite frankly, he did okay as an interim manager. But as you said, this has not been a dazzling team to watch this year. No.

It's been frustrating.

It's been exhausting to quote some of the folks at, at the pub. To watch. It hasn't been a fun year to watch Celtic for sure. No. So I, I think we might see a shift immediately with that.

The system will be completely different. Rodgers loved the 4-3-3 formation. Wilfred Nancy does not run the 4-3-3. So whether or not he'll shift that immediately, I guess remains to be seen. Usually he will run a back 3, uh, so like 3 center backs and then have 2 wing backs who are kind of flying up the pitch more as a— they're basically just attackers.

They don't really do anything defensively, um, which adds more to the— and I think, you know what, we could run that system and really raise hell in Scotland, especially because we'll have most of the ball anyways. Um, so it's going to be interesting. I, I don't know if he's going to implement that right away, but that'll certainly be coming down the pipeline, I would expect. Uh, so exciting. Yeah, sounds, uh, sounds good.

Looking forward to it. Yes. So it's kind of your, your news in, in Scotland, the big news. We'll have full uh, reaction to that top-of-the-table clash next podcast. Well, I think we've beaten around the bush long enough because we got to talk about this game that occurred Tuesday night in the Premier League.

A little midweek mania here in the Prem, uh, so we don't have anything from the weekend. Uh, games come thick and fast this time of year, so when you record once a week, you kind of have to just do the big headline stuff. And, um, Arsenal are top of the table, 5 points ahead of Man City. They, uh, drew to Chelsea over the weekend but then had a pretty, uh, professional-looking win against Brentford, uh, last night as we record. But I was at work, as of course you were, when this game that we were about to discuss was going on.

And, um, I was, you know, looking at the scores every now and then, whatever, blah blah blah. And 5 o'clock or so rolls by, I, uh, get ready to pack up from the office. I open my phone and I see this score and I'm like, what the hell? Just happened. And I was like, well, that is— that's the game we're talking about this week.

Because my, oh my. Yeah. Fulham. Fulham-Man City. You would not think that matchup would, would offer what, what we witnessed for 90 minutes.

Sort of an unassuming matchup. Fulham sort of— I mean, geez, mid-table.

They're way down there. 15th. Yeah. It's really tight in the mid-table. So yeah.

But I mean, wow. The club that I witnessed watching that game doesn't look like a team that's that far down on the table for sure. And I don't know if that was because Man City was not playing good defense or they definitely weren't doing that. Yeah. Neither team was.

But I mentioned this to you last night. And I know this is just me as an American speaking, but if more games in the Premier League were like that game, everyone would watch fucking European football. Yeah. Well, yeah. But I mean, I'm, I know.

Yeah. That's not how it's played. But my goodness, you like goals. Everyone likes goals. Um, yeah.

Or even just, I mean, this thing was, it wasn't, I mean, it was the fever pitch too. Yeah. Yeah. Not just the, especially the second half. This guy passes that guy back to this guy, then back to this guy and then back to the keeper and then this guy and then, oh, we might go to the midline or we might not, or, oh, it's back to the keeper again.

What I will say to your point is in the Premier League, very few teams set up and play what I would— and the internet would describe as terror ball or terrorism football, which terrorism in the context of this is terrorizing to watch. Um, Scotland, you've got about 9 teams that play to not lose, so they pack 11 men behind the ball. They don't give a shit, and, um, that's just the way it is. It makes for oftentimes kind of dull affairs depending on the match. In the Premier League, there's so many, um, teams that play with very distinct styles of football, distinct attacking styles of football— Fulham being one of them, Man City of course being one of them— and sometimes once in a blue moon, those will come together in a way where basically the 2 teams are scoring for fun.

Uh, I don't— there were a lot of bad defensive moments, but neither of these teams are like horrific on defense. I just think, uh, the attacking was, uh, in most of these goals was just better. I think what's funny about a game like this is no one, no one commentary and otherwise focused on the bad defense. It was all about how much offense there was and the brilliancy of the passing and the headers and the touch. And I mean, well, I guess we'll get into each goal, but You know, you're seeing things that you don't typically see in a match.

Um, like I said, a keeper out of place and a guy just lofts the ball slowly over his head right into the goal. And Erling Haaland, Erling Haaland, this guy is going to go down as probably one of the greats. I don't know his age or his time in the league. Not very old. Um, we have been a podcast for every season he's been in the Premier League.

Yeah. Um, I fucking love Erling Haaland, but some of that is kind of tooting my own horn because I was watching this kid at Red Bull Salzburg in Austria when he was 18 years old. I was a junior in high school. I remember watching a YouTube video about him, one of my favorite soccer YouTubers, and he was like, there's this kid that is 18 years old and scores basically for fun in the Austrian league. So obviously there's no way to watch that here, but I would just see that or whatever.

Then he got a big move to Borussia Dortmund in Germany, and I remember watching his debut. It was a January afternoon in 2020, right before the the big shutdown. I think that's why it lives in my memory so much. But Erling Haaland scored a hat-trick in his debut for Borussia Dortmund, and right off the bat I think I was like, this— there's— this kid has some unbelievable stuff. Oh yeah, I mean, just how the height he can achieve in a set piece I watched a replay and I swear to God, his shoes were 2 feet off the turf.

Yeah. He's huge. And then I don't, yeah, I don't know. 6'4. Yeah.

So he's a, he's a very big presence and has tremendous header skills. Yeah. And we consider, okay, NFL, imagine if you could bean somebody in the helmet and make that a play. Yeah, um, that is a— that's one of the most impressive things in European football is the header. And we saw some good ones in this one.

Yeah, for sure. So, so Haaland got it rolling in the 17th minute, and the reason I jumped to that is because of course Man City take the lead. Uh, first off, He smashes home a really good cross from Jeremy Doku like it was nobody's business. But that marked his 100th goal in the Premier League in something like 112 matches or 111. He beat a record from a guy in the 1800s to get to that point.

The stat was he beat Alan Shearer to the modern Premier League era record. He did it in 124, I think. Alan Shearer is the all-time leading goal scorer in the Premier League, by the way. Well, he won't be. If Haaland sticks around at City, that won't stand probably.

But Haaland is on pace to be the all-time leading goal scorer almost halfway to Shearer's record, um, in what, 3 and a half seasons or something like that. So I would say if he stays at City— and he's also only 25 years old, so imagine if he stays at Man City 10 more years, who knows how many goals he could have. Uh, I hope he stays healthy, and, uh, I don't see any reason why that form is gonna drop off. But yeah, that was a big moment in a match of big moments. Yeah, for sure.

So it wasn't 10 minutes later, Erling to Reinders. Is that right? Reinders? Yeah, to Johnny Reinders. Johnny Reinders.

37th minute. 2-0 Man City. And now you're starting to think, okay, here's, here's Here's this Fulham team that's in 15th place and this is going to be a rout.

12 minutes later, Foden scores. And I'm thinking to myself, is how many people for Man City are going to score tonight? We've already had 3. So let me ask you this question because I knew what the score was going to be before we started. Were you thinking this was just going to be— I thought it was good.

And I, I saved it for this conversation, but I thought to myself as we were watching the match, is this a rout? Is that why we're watching this? Because it'd be a 7-0 routing of this team. Is that why we're watching it? And then, uh, Obviously, obviously it wasn't, but I mean, it just felt like it just in the first half.

It felt like it was going to be a rout. So my favorite goal of the first half actually comes from the one that Fulham scored from Emile Smith Rowe. Um, he gets a, first off, a really good cross from Harry Wilson, and I— you'll struggle to see a better header Uh, this season in the Premier League, and it'll probably be overshadowed by the fact that this game had, uh, well, uh, we'll see how many goals it had, but a lot. And then, um, the fact that, you know, Haaland scored his 100th PL goal. But Smith Rowe has a ball coming from his right side.

He's able to position himself in a way where he makes perfect contact with the ball and then turns his head and guides it to the far left side of the net, um, which I don't think a lot of people understand how hard it is to direct a ball via your head, but that was an insane skill. Well, I think most goals in this league, in all of soccer, are brilliant chances and brilliant seconds. Like, okay, so everything has to be— I'm trying to figure out how to put this. All things need to be perfect off the foot or off the head. Every goal that's scored in this league is that way.

And it's usually, people don't, if you haven't watched this, usually it's pouring down rain. Yeah. Which it wasn't this. And I mean, not, I mean, it's almost, I would say the majority of the matches that I watch on TV, the weather is total shit. And I mean, to have a ball come in off of a set piece like that and have a guy be able to strike it.

Off of his forehead and put it right in the perfect position in the box. It's pretty, it's impressive. It is an impressive sport when the scores are scored or yeah, when they're scored.

But yes, I agree. That was probably the most impressive goal of this game as far as just the technique, you know, how technical it was. But, you know, we go 3-1 Man City half. And so we're thinking, okay, second half is just going to be defense and keeping the lead. A 2-score lead is, you know, sizable in this league, but not to be.

Well, and immediately off the rip, and it kind of felt like with that Smith Rowe goal that maybe some life had been breathed into the stadium. Um, Fulham are the home team and, uh, maybe Fulham are gonna kind of get back into this thing, but Foden said, uh, no, no chance for the Cottagers. 48th minute, he makes it 4-1 Man City. And, you know, again, I did know the score, but I was thinking, well, if I were watching this live, I, I would probably be fixing to turn it off at that point. 4-1, right?

Um, well, and then 6 minutes later— oh, and here's— and then I didn't, I didn't know when the goals were scored, so this started what ended up being 20 minutes of just heavy metal balls-to-the-wall soccer. It was great. I mean, this— I, I would rewatch this. 30 minutes. I would rewatch this if I'm ever bored, like in February.

So the Premier League has a little like channel on Peacock, and every now and then, um, they will post like classic matches, or like they'll— I guess it's a live thing, so they'll just put on Classic matches. This is one of them. Yeah, obviously this will be a replay. Uh, 54th, Daku 5-1 now. And now, like you said, we're turning— most people were turning the TV off.

I, I would have changed to a different game, or yeah, just turned it off. Uh, that ended up being a Sander Berga, uh, own goal.

Um, I didn't— they didn't show the replay. I don't— maybe once I didn't see it. So the way that works, to give more clarity, because I remember you being like, what the hell? But if they— if the Premier League and whoever the hell is in charge of stat keeping deems that the shot was not going on target until it was deflected by the defender that's when they'll say, okay, that's an own goal. Um, so it's not always like literally putting the ball in your own net.

Sometimes the deflection will be caused, uh, scored as an own goal because— and they deemed it here— Doku's shot was never going in according to them until it got deflected in. So that's why Berger got the, uh, unfortunate, uh, own goal credited to him. And, uh, 5-1, sort of a complete, uh, I don't know, belt-to-ass situation here. And then Fulham make a couple of changes.

Um, on comes a lad who has only just begun his Fulham career by the name of Samuel Chukwueze, uh, who I, I've actually known about him for a while. He's a 26-year-old Nigerian. Uh, he played for Villarreal in Spain. That's where I remember him from. Then he was with, uh, Milan in, uh, Italy, which apparently didn't really work out for him.

And now he's at Fulham. Uh, he was sort of a huge spark plug for Fulham because he had a chance pretty much right when he got on the pitch that he didn't convert, but then he He ends up having his name on the score sheet a couple of times in this one. Yeah, for sure.

There was a VAR look at a goal, 72nd minute. That was for Chukwueze's first. Yeah. Iwobi had scored one in the 57th to make it 5-2. Like consolation.

But then Chukwueze comes in, scores one in the 72nd minute, good strike. And then not 6 minutes later, uh, scores yet again for his second of the night. That started a, a, a huge shitstorm in Craven Cottage, um, where it felt like maybe Fulham would actually pull off one of the best Premier League comebacks ever.

Uh, 5-1 against Man City. No one ever in the history of Pep Guardiola's Man City has ever come back from that, and they were one goal away from doing that. They had a chance to do it right at the very end, you'll remember. Yeah, they had 8, 8-plus minutes of stoppage and nearly Nearly made this a draw. Yeah.

Just goal line clearance, like literally a goal line clearance. Yeah. Yep. But I mean, what a great second half. Just, I mean, it was, it was just a, probably my favorite match that I've been, you know, since the last 3 years I've been watching this, this league.

Yeah. Don't get used to it. No, I won't happen again. Won't happen for a long time. It was magical.

I mean, it wasn't just about the goal scoring. It was, you know, this Fulham team had, you know, they could have hung up, hung it out or hung it up. They didn't. They just kept attacking, kept being pesky. I used the word pesky a few times.

The thing is, like, usually when a team goes down a bunch of goals, the manager packs it in. Like, they'll just park the bus and, okay, let's just not get completely obliterated. I didn't see that at all. Fulham did not do that. No, they're like, we're just gonna fucking go for it.

It worked out for them. Usually that's how you end up seeing 7-8-nil affairs, but, um, it worked out for them and they will fall just short, unfortunately. But, uh, it created what will be the best game of the season in the Premier League, uh, just from pure entertainment value. That is not getting topped. Uh, final score, Fulham 4, Man City 5.

Uh, some interesting results across the league in the midweek. Aston Villa beat Brighton 4-3, so they, they, they did their best to recreate that match. Um, Liverpool dropped points again with Sunderland. Actually, it took an 81st-minute own goal from Sunderland for Liverpool to actually get the point. Florian Wirtz still has not registered a goal or an assist for Liverpool in the Premier League.

All of this means Arsenal sit top with 33 points. Man City are 5 points behind in second place. 1 point behind Man City is Aston Villa in 3rd. Wouldn't have thought that at the beginning of the year. 4th place Chelsea on 24 points, and then it's a logjam.

4 points separates 6th from 14th. Um, Crystal Palace are in 5th. Sunderland, Brighton, Man United, Liverpool, Everton make the rest of top 10. Uh, probably your box office match for this upcoming weekend is Aston Villa-Arsenal. That's Saturday early in the AM.

Um, I really still— this is Arsenal's title to lose. I still think, I think Man City are going to drop more points. Liverpool don't seem to even be half of what they were last year. Uh, so Arsenal, the ball is in your court. One final note before we're done here: tomorrow is the World Cup 2026 draw.

Oh, I did see that. Um, my original plan is not gonna work because I'm gonna have to leave during the draw for work, but I'll be able to watch the first Uh, now get this, it starts at noon. Apparently. Can you record it? Yeah.

But you'll know. Yeah. It's, uh, I'll just watch as much as I can. Isn't a certain politician hosting it or gonna be there? Uh, Trump might be there.

He's not hosting. Okay. I think he's gonna be there. I'm sure he will. Cause he, him and, uh, Infantino, the FIFA chief, are pals.

If I put it diplomatically, they're good pals.

This apparently is supposed to— is scheduled for 3.5 hours. Oh, geez. This is as bad as the NFL draft. I mean, I want to check that right now. And that goes on for days.

It's so dumb. I mean, well, I know because we have 17 sports channels that have to be on 24 hours a day and they need content, but how the hell is that going to be on for 3 and a half hours? Oh, you don't even know what the hell you've gotten into with that. Okay, so here, okay, the actual draw is 12 to 2, and that will take the whole time. Watch.

I— if they are drawing balls from the, the bucket in 30 minutes, I will give you a million dollars because I don't think that's gonna happen. Um, and then the final draw for the FIFA World Cup 2026 post-show is another hour where they'll probably talk about— well, there'll be 5 minutes of commercials every 5 minutes, which that you know, that'll, that'll lend to— I remember the 2022 draw happening during class in college, and it did take a long effing time. Um, I do remember that. Well, actually, because I was watching it before a class started, and then I had to go to class, and I was watching it in class. So, um, That will take every bit of 2 hours.

Um, but it only happens once every 4 years. I like the pomp and circumstance. So yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I'm excited. I actually am freaking pumped to see the groups and we will get to find out who the United States are playing in a home World Cup, which is the first time in my life I'll be able to say that.

June something, 8th. Yeah, sometime in June. So 10th, more content, uh, to lend to the podcast here. And I'm gonna let you know, and I'm gonna let the listeners know, pretty much that is gonna be the focus of the show for about a month. Um, nothing wrong with that.

At that point, F1 will only be running every, maybe every other week, and they might take a break. I think that I would— I'll have to look and see actually, because I know IndyCar has a big break purposefully because Fox has the rights to the World Cup, and if you try to run an IndyCar race during the World Cup, nobody's gonna watch. Yeah, so they have a pretty chunky break in June. Um, but yeah, I'm— I mean I mean, this will probably be the only time in this podcast's lifetime that we have a home World Cup to discuss. So if you don't think we're going to talk about it in grueling detail, then you're wrong.

Oh, it should be good. So, uh, that'll be that. We'll, we'll have reaction to the groups next time. Along with a top-of-the-table clash in Scotland, some Premier League talk, and then we'll know after what, almost 10 months, who the 2025 Formula 1 World Drivers' Champion is next time we record. So correct, be another bumper show.

Yep, looking forward to it. All right, we are over time, so. All right, well, that's fine.

So we'll, uh, get going, right? Yeah. Who is this? The John Runefelt. John Runefelt 5 with John Runefelt 5 classic, uh, what's it called?

Almost Baked. Almost Baked. Uh, take it away.

For executive producer Richard Tanaka. This has been Tackling the Chicane, Studio 2520, copyright 2025. We'll see you next time.