THWC 415: Yellow Cards, Red Cards and Hyped Cards!

What is up, Everybody? Monday morning, July 6, Hobby with Cage, episode 415. 415 of these little solo. The. The funniest message I've gotten recently is, when we get to 420, am I gonna blaze one up? I had to look up what that meant. The answer, though, is sadly, no. I will not be blazing anything. But that's five more episodes away. Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves. Episode 415 this Morning, brought to you by Arena Club by card ladder use code, Cage. Save yourself a couple bucks. It's actually more than a couple bucks. It's like a good chunk off. I. You know, I probably should have looked that up and told you it's a nice little. Nice little savings. I got two people signed up this weekend. I get emails about it, you know, so thank you, guys. That's new people finding me because I have people from across the pond, people from all over the world hating my takes on soccer. So, new followers, new subscribers. If you're new to this and you tuned in because someone sent this to you and said, look, get a load of this idiot and his opinions on soccer, please hit the like button. Subscribe. I don't even know what buttons are on there, but there's a lot of buttons. Hit them. And, you know, my apologies to you for coming here and, you know, hearing the reality about the sport that America will never love and the reason why we will never love it, you know, and maybe you'll listen to a couple episodes, disappear, and come back in four years when I'm right again in 2030 about this nonsense. So today I put on my FIFA hat to tell you about how realistic I think FIFA, the World cup, and soccer is. This is a Savannah Bananas hat. I think they'll be joining the World cup next time around because they play the same style of sport with the same kind of rules as what they play in the World cup in FIFA. So, you know, I think next time around, the World cup will institute a rule that if a ball goes into the stands, it's kicked in the stands, and someone catches will be considered the end of the game, and whoever kicked it into the stands loses. It's one of those Savannah Banana rules that I think FIFA should. Should incorporate into this fugazi sport that you guys are all watching anyway, so let's do a little bit of rewinding. Croatia was screwed in favor of Ronaldo, not Portugal. Ronaldo, you know, he's come out and cried a couple times and said this is gonna be his Last World Cup. So, you know, you can't have him go out like that. There was a phantom call about somebody touching it, and, you know, then they're being off sides. Croatia tied that game up. That was some nonsense. The Argentina game, more nonsense. But, I mean, you have Messi lose. That would be sad for me. So I, you know, I will actually say thank you to FIFA for that one, because I have a messy card that, you know, is better off with him winning than losing. But that was also nonsense. And just the nonsense continues. Whatever side of the equation you're on, they, FIFA and the World cup has managed to bungle both sides of the American red card. They got everybody in the world who was trying to like soccer, those of us in the United States included when the red card was given, and we were told that the guy who has scored a. A goal in every game he's played is going to get suspended and taken out of the game against Belgium. But the rest of the world was happy because, you know, boo America and the hell with you guys. And this is soccer. But now, you know, Donald Trump makes a phone call, allegedly, and, you know, FIFA gets a bag of money or however that works, and now there's no more suspension and he's back. So the US fans are happy and everybody else is angry. My DMs were hilarious about was either the red card was terrible, this should not have been done, or the other side is, this is crazy. How much money did FIFA get to let the guy play? Here's the fun part. It's not going to matter anyway. Belgium's going to kill the U.S. so I just pissed off all of you, all right? Because, you know, there's two levels of soccer players, two levels of soccer fans here. The people who hate America and like soccer, and that's most of people who like soccer and the Americans who want to like soccer and, you know, just don't really understand when someone's off sides. So the fun part about that is if I tell you that US Is going to lose, I just pissed off all the US Fans. I mean, I'm sure all of you are no longer tuning in, four minutes in, and I've pissed you all off. But you got to hear it, guys. You got to hear it. There's a lot of nonsense that goes on in this sport, and 90 of the people who are watching it don't understand it. You don't believe me? Ask someone who you watch the game with that's trying to learn it, say, can you explain offsides to me? And. And just you can sit there and laugh at the uproarious nonsense that comes out as their answer. Because. Because nobody actually understands it. I. I've been playing soccer for 40 years, watching soccer. I mean, football. And, I mean, I can still almost barely understand it. They made it more fun with the little graphics and the computer screens and showing you little lines through men. But even then, you know, it's like. It's kind of, like, optional, you know, if Messi was offsides, he's not really off sides. Yeah, I mean, you know, Messi kicks somebody in the leg. Not a red card, yellow card, no card, not even a warning. I mean, you know, it is what it is. It's a lot of fun. I enjoy it. Hell, the US Enjoys it. There's a lot of sports betting going on. There's a lot of money being made, and, you know, I can't complain about that. It's exciting. I spent my whole day yesterday watching soccer. I'll spend my whole day today watching soccer. Said, I have stuff to talk to you about. But it brings us to the cards now that I've spent five minutes trashing the nonsense. Holland, a lot of fun, man. Just a lot of fun watching that guy play. And it is the conversation that I've had the most of in the last, you know, couple of days. Norway wasn't even in the World cup last time around. Right. So this is a cool thing for him. You know, the. The World cup prism cards actually mean something this time around, because he, you know, he wasn't even in the World cup last time. And they were a clear underdog against Brazil. I mean, you watch that game, you switch the jerseys around, you would have thought that the way the Norwegian team played, that Norway should have been favored in that game. They played like a team. Brazil played like a couple of guys who have funny names. A couple of the guys who had funnier names didn't even play for them. And I don't know, that team was better when everybody had only one name on their jersey. That was kind of the way that it was Brazil. It just. I don't know. They looked like the team that was gonna get upset. They look like, you know, Virginia who? Or Arizona in the NCAA tournament. You know, they're a one or a two seed, but they're ripe to get knocked out early on. That's what Brazil looked like. They never really were a true favorite in the tournament. And they went up against a team that had, I mean, a dominant Viking in Holland. You know, England, Spain, France, They've always been the favorites. Argentina now with their play, has kind of moved in, but it's always been kind of those four guys. Obviously Argentina with the, you know, the returning champs. Brazil was never really going to be, you know, a noise maker in this tournament. They just weren't playing well and you could see it. And they got exposed by Norway. That said, Norway is still after that win, 16 to 1 to win this tournament, guys, they are not going to win, just like the US Is not going to win. And it's fun to hope and dream and row your boat. Row, row, row your boat. You know, you can do your thing. And that has been a great. The addition to the World cup and a lot of fun there for, you know, for, for soccer fans the world over to watch. But let me tell you, that's gonna end soon. England looked really good, looked really good in Mexico at Azteca, a stadium where an international play. The Mexican team has played 89 games, 170 of them, and only lost two until yesterday. And that game, wow, you want to talk about just nothing for 40 minutes, 38 minutes, then just boom, boom, boom, three goals, you know, excitement like crazy, you know, in two one, you know, just England going up by two, Mexico answering. Then the second half coming, a red card, and you think, wow, England's gonna be down, playing down a man 11 to 10. And you know Mexico is going to come back. And then, boom, a penalty. And it's three one. Then quickly three two. And Mexico has to play one man. England has to play one man down and defend the whole game. Exciting game. One thing I will give the World cup is if you are a fan of soccer and the stars at this stage and going forward, there is no room for mistakes. You can't play the way Brazil played or else you go home. Your stars have to come out, your stars have to play. And just look at the two teams that won yesterday. Holland, the clear cut star for Norway, came out and put the team on his shoulders and scored two goals. He put the game away. He's the star, the unquestioned star. He scored both of the goals and no one showed up for Brazil. Not Vinnie, not Endrick, not the guys who were on the bench, not crying, flopping Neymar, who came in at the end and cried his way into retirement. None of them. And the same thing for England. Jude Bellingham showed up, scored two penalty kick, Harry Kane. When the light is shining bright, the stars have to be the one who take the team through these rounds. And you saw it yesterday. That's what happened. And that's kind of why you see, you know, the favorites being who they are, France being the favorites. You. You see Mbappe with his seven goals. You see Holland with his seven goals. You see Messi with his seven goals today. I mean, by the time you listen to this, it may already over. It's Portugal and it's Spain, and Yamal has not had his marquee moment yet. Will today be that moment? Will he be the one who sends Portugal and Ronaldo off? Is that going to be what he does? I mean, Spain is the better team. We'll see what happens with Spain today. But the stars are going to have to show up. Maybe, you know, maybe Ronaldo has one left in him. I doubt it. And then you got the US Losing tonight to Belgium. I mean, we all love a Cinderella story. We all love miracles. It makes for great commercials. They dig up Mike Ruzzioni, they take him out of his Coffin from the 1980 hockey team, and they throw him in some commercials. That's another sport. It's Perfect. Throw the U.S. hockey team from 1980 in a soccer commercial. Two sports no one gives a shit about. Let's put them together and sell some beer. I love it. You gotta love it. Soccer and hockey. To the three of you out there who listen to this and are actually fans of those sports, my apologies. So what else do we have on tap? The cards. Holland. Let's continue with this, because it's not just Holland. It's. It's everybody in this World Cup. I have soccer cards. You guys know this. You look at my page, see the soccer cards. But I have kind of, you know, stuck with the soccer greats to go to see the messy stuff, right? And even him, I've sold into the World cup like I've told you guys I would do. What is the next. What's the next catalyst for soccer World Cup 2030, right? I mean, is it the Olympics? I mean, the stars are going to be old and retiring by then. And I don't know if Mbappe is carrying the sport the way that Ronaldo and Messi did. And even those guys, you've had 20, 25 years of them playing and have soccer cards exploded. I mean, they've had a little run here and run up to the World cup, just like they did in the run up to the last World Cup. But you'd like to think when you have those two guys, right, when you had your Kobe and LeBron, you had your Jordan and LeBron, you had your magic and your bird, you had your, your, your, your, your guys. These are the two goats here. You got Ronaldo and Messi, and nobody cares. They're, you know, they're, they're fading off into the sunset like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. They're just, you know, they're, they're leaving here. You see anybody who's carrying this going forward, this massive global sport, this huge stuff? No. So here's my advice, right? I said it yesterday on Instagram and took some heat for it. Holland had a great game yesterday. He showed up on the world stage and people now know his name. People who don't even care about soccer will read about him this morning. They'll see Haaland, the Norwegian guy, beating the drum, leading the rowing and, and, and coming and taking Brazil out. And people will be looking for Holland cards today. But I am the one who's going to tell you, you are a day late and a dollar short, my friend. The time to buy Haaland was last week, last month or last year, when no one was looking for him. Not the morning after or the night of this humongous onstage moment where, guess what? Everyone is going to be looking for his stuff. But you know what's going to happen tomorrow and the next day, tomorrow, the people who are down bad on Holland. And do me a favor, open up your card ladder. Use the free one, right? Pull up a chart, use code cage, get yourself a subscription, and pull up a chart of Holland's cards for the last two years. They are a big down arrow. Why? Because Norway didn't make the World cup the first time around. And as great as he is, he's just kind of hidden. He's not messy, he's not on the level of those guys, you know, he scores goals like crazy, but he just doesn't have the name. So his cards, which were huge prospects. We're talking about, you know, 2019. We're talking about Jaw and Zion and, you know, Trey Young and Lamelo Ball and Anthony. We're talking about hype when those cards came out. 2019 finest. He's in his Salzburg kit, right? You're talking about the Bundesliga Chrome card where he's in his Bayern jersey. Great card. Doesn't have the rc and neither does the finest Tops, Chrome Tops Chrome Sapphire, where they finally put the RC logo on the bottom right corner, which people love, right? Those cards were huge. I remember opening a case of the Bundesliga Chrome for 165A box before anybody knew what it was. Those cards were amazing, right? And people were chasing them. They were chasing Gio Reyna, but we'll forgive you for that. People were chasing Holland and paying big, big money for those golds and for his autos and his refractors. We're talking about four figures for a refractor. It was like Silver Mania. And you know what? You know what happened? Nothing. He did nothing. He scored a lot of goals. One whole bunch of nothing, right? Oh yeah, there's a treble, great jersey, blah, blah, blah. No one cared. And his cards have all gone down. And you know what? Now he has this great game on the world stage. And everyone who has taken a beating on his cards, they're gonna list them. You're gonna see a billion Holland cards come out because it's a. It's finally an exit, a liquidity event for these people who are down and down bad. They could finally dump their Holland cards on you because you watched them score two goals yesterday against Brazil. And he finally had his moment. Well, guess what? He's most likely going to lose in his next game. That might be the time to buy. Or guess what? Even a month from now or two months from now when people are buying baseball cards because the baseball playoffs are what people are talking about and Ohtani is the big news instead of Holland and his drum and his rowing Norwegians. Or maybe even a month after that when football starts and people are talking about the NFL quarterbacks again. Not right now. Not the day that Holland has this big moment and he's on top of the world. The flip side, if you have his cards, today might be the day to sell them. You want to know why? Because the layperson looks at a Holland card today and you know what they say? They say, oh, that's awesome. Don't sell that one. That's exactly the time to sell. Because that's when people want the card. You got the demand now. That's the time you can actually get your price for the card. Next week people will move on to the next thing that happens. Next week they'll move on to Drew Bellingham or Harry Kane or Lamina Mal or Mbappe. Because next week there'll be another moment. And it'll probably come at the expense of Holland. And there's my fun for today. Monday Morning Energy. Brought to you by Coke zero. The episode 415 yellow cards, red cards and Hype cards. Oh my. Brought to you by Arena Club Card Ladder. Use code cage. Save yourself a couple bucks and the Philly Show. Guys, we are days away from fanatics fest. If you are going, send me a message. I'd love to meet up with you. I'll even take you for a slice of pizza a couple blocks away at a place I know about that has some pretty good pepperoni slices. So we can take a walk over and get some lunch. I'll talk to you guys soon. I'll see you tomorrow. Take care, everybody.