Welcome to episode seven of the Sports Tri-Force podcast. I am once again joined by Luis Silva, Mark Armendariz-Gonzales and Efrain Ballon.

In this episode, we talked primarily about the quarterfinals and semifinals of the FIFA World Cup. A lot of upsets happened since our last podcast, such as Croatia beating Brazil and Morocco taking down Portugal. With Cristiano Ronaldo out of the World Cup, the door is wide open for Lionel Messi to win and one-up him in the debate for the greatest of all time.

France also beat England, though the former played sloppily and committed unnecessary fouls to give up two penalty kicks to the British. Luckily for the French, Harry Kane only scored the first one.

Argentina took down the Netherlands in a game that went to a penalty shootout. Argentina led 2-0 before the Netherlands stormed back in the second half, with Argentina recovering to win in penalties.

Morocco defeated Portugal to become the first African nation to ever make the FIFA World Cup semifinals, and look to continue their Cinderella run in the next round against France.

Brazil and Croatia also went to a shootout, which was controversial because Brazil’s coaching staff decided not to let superstar Neymar shoot early in the penalties.

Croatia won that game, but lost 3-0 to Argentina in the semifinals. Croatia could not defend Argentina’s counterattacks, which proved to be their downfall as all three goals came off of them.

Argentina will play the winner of France and Morocco in the finals, while Croatia will play the loser in the third-place game.

Luis and I also talked about the NBA, with a focus on the Lakers starting to play better and the Celtics seeming unstoppable.