Jude Bellingham, left, and Harry Kane celebrate after England qualified for the World Cup semi-final with a 2-1 win over Norway on Saturday.Paul Childs/Reuters
Jamie Ross is the Sports editor at the Globe and Mail; Cathal Kelly is the national sports columnist
Jamie: Cathal, I’m not sure I want to watch a World Cup without Erling Haaland in it. Convince me it’s still worth tuning in for the semis.
Cathal: Jamie, he’s not the first tourist to go wild in America and hit a wall in Miami. Saturday morning, you’d have said no one was having a better World Cup - maybe a better year - than Haaland. Then he was a bust against England.
His most notable moment in the game was getting nailed for an off-the-ball foul during a corner kick that cost Norway a goal. He spent the last half of his tour looking like he had heatstroke and was subbed off with 15 minutes left. Haaland’s been a lot of fun, but now it’s time to put down Snapchat and go on vacation. Take the lesson Taylor Swift won’t take - allow people to miss you a little.
England's forward Harry Kane, top, in Miami on Sunday; and Argentina's forward Lionel Messi in Miami on July 3. The two nations will meet in the World Cup semi-final in Atlanta on Wednesday. Both players are in the running for the Golden Boot.ROBERTO SCHMIDT,CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP/Getty Images
Only one person can embody a given World Cup, and we are now down to five aspirants - Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, Mikel Merino and Donald Trump.
Who you got in that fight?
J.R.: Who will give us the Viral Moments we demand/deserve? The Trump-Infantino bromance never ends, so I think it will all come to a head when the trophy is about to be awarded. The prediction markets will have a field day. Dropped trophy, Trump calls Messi ‘Little Guy,’ JD Vance photobombs the winner’s picture … the possibilities are endless.
As far as the football goes, it’s been great. But this tournament has me cranky about two things: VAR ruining everything, and out of control diving. On the former, it’s doing that in every sport. On the latter, am I simply a neophyte who doesn’t get its place in the game?
C.K.: I’m with you on both things. VAR is a scourge. I believe it’s encouraging referees to skew outcomes. Where once they reacted instinctively, now they have time to think about preferred outcomes.
Nobody who isn’t Egyptian or Norwegian wanted an Egypt-Norway semi. So, thanks in small part to VAR, we get an England-Argentina semi.
FIFA is giving the audience what it demands, however much they also enjoy moaning about a fix. People want it both ways.
The irony of diving is that it is so much better than it once was, but thanks to online video platforms, is also much more apparent. Also, the players have gotten better at it.
For example, Breel Embolo’s dive against Argentina on Saturday night – it was too good. Had the Swiss sold it a little less convincingly, it would have been a garden variety foul (not reviewable by VAR). But Embolo made it look like a knife attack, resulting in a yellow for the Argentinean (which is reviewable) and, eventually, a red card for himself. What’s Swiss for ‘hoisted’ and ‘petard’?
After a week off, you’re clearly full of grievances, but I’m here to help with your transition back to working life. What else you got?
Swiss players react as referee Joao Pinheiro gives a red card to Breel Embolo, left, on Saturday.Ed Zurga/The Associated Press
J.R.: I did want to get your take on all things MLSE. It was a busy week over at Sports Acme HQ.
It started with the face of the operation, Larry Tanenbaum, riding off into the sunset after Rogers took sole control over Toronto’s big-league teams. He’s still the controlling owner of the WNBA’s Tempo, so it’s not like he’s retiring from Toronto sports, but how do you think this changes what people should expect from the Leafs and Raptors (and Argos and TFC)?
C.K.: Changes? Why would anybody in charge want anything to change?
I thought our colleague Andy Willis’s excellent column on this move captured the essence of how things are going at MLSE in dollar amounts better than any snapshot of individual team performance.
When Rogers bought out Bell in September, 2024, that purchase valued MLSE at $12.5-billion.
As Rogers buys out Tanenbaum now, it is valued at $17.4-billion.
And now that they’re out looking for somebody to help them carry the debt, Rogers values their suite of mostly mediocre sports clubs at $25-billion.
Are the Leafs doing okay? As a team, not really. As a business, they are paying off an endless series of lottery wins.
Which do you think matters to Rogers’s shareholders? Were I them, I’d never want any of these teams to win. It might shift the market dynamic in unpredictable ways, endangering my magical money tree.
J.R.: I was less curious about your opinion on the business and more interested in what you thought about Tanenbaum and what he represented. I’ll do better next time.
To me, he always seemed to be the face of it, especially when he, Bell and Rogers each owned equal parts.
Elsewhere at MLSE, on Thursday the Raptors and Leafs sent out what I considered out-of-ordinary communiques about 30 minutes apart.
The Leafs’ dispatch was signed by John Chayka and read like a cipher, saying they’d fired some backroom staff, without naming anyone. I didn’t understand the point of that.
A half hour earlier the Raptors had dropped one saying the deal for Kawhi Leonard was on hold because of the league’s investigation into his dealings with the Clippers.
Were the Leafs just feeling left out and worried the news cycle would turn without them for a day? What do you make of the latest on the Leonard saga?
Kawhi Leonard, left, speaks with Kyle Lowry after a press conference in which Lowry signed a one-day contract to retire as a Toronto Raptor, on July 7.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
C.K.: The face of it? Tanenbaum is an investor who saw the possibilities in the internet’s disruption of the old media model, and rode that insight up the valuation ladder. Good for him, but it doesn’t make him Conn Smythe.
If there’s a face of the Leafs, it’s Carlton the Bear, with his glassy stare into the void. That must be where the championships are.
As regards press releases, the Leafs’ one was pristinely corporate.
‘We’re sorry to see those drones – too numerous to name in this limitless space – go. Join us, their professional executors, in mourning them.’
That said, it’s hard to be indignant about turning over anyone who was on board for the last decade of steady failure.
The Raptors’ one was notable for its cheekiness. In it, Kawhi Leonard was referred to by his familiar mononymic - “Kawhi.” Like an old drinking buddy.
I think that tells you where this is headed. The trade is off until the NBA can be seen slapping Leonard’s hands. Then it will be back on and this unpleasantness will be forgotten. To do otherwise would be to delve too deeply into the shadow finances of the league’s owners.
Punishing players is one thing. Punishing owners – the popular ones, at least – is not on.
I’ve had my say on Kawhi - I think it’s a brilliant move.
As the person who sets the tone in the Sports department, are you prepared to rain on one of my exceedingly rare instances of positivity?
J.R.: I’m not sure why you keep answering my perfectly normal and reasoned questions and statements and with your own incredulous and, what read to be, accusatory questions. It tells me you are in a grumpy mood and that we should probably leave it there for the week so you can get your nap. Any final words?
C.K.: As a long list of lawyers has discovered, I cannot be deposed. Now that you’re on the record conceding all my points, I think you’re right that we recess for the week. When we do this next, it’ll be the day of the World Cup final. I’m already a little misty thinking about it.