FOX Sports’ Maurice Edu Previews the England vs Argentina World Cup Semifinal

Maurice Edu called the England versus Argentina semifinal a tricky one, and he was honest about why. Argentina keep making their games more competitive than anyone expected. Every match in the knockout rounds has required three goals to win, and this deep into a tournament a team would prefer more control, no extra time, fewer stressful situations. As Edu put it to Rich, the game is not won on paper. You have to go out and execute.

Where Edu leans Argentina is experience. So many of these players were part of the team that won the World Cup in 2022, and then there is Messi. Edu did not bother with the debate. "This man on the screen, Messi, Lionel Messi, is the greatest footballer that we have ever witnessed," he said, a difference-maker on TV and in person. What helped in the last game, ironically, was a quieter performance from Messi that forced others to step up. Julian Alvarez scored a screamer. Lautaro Martinez scored. The stars around the star answered.

Alvarez drew Edu's admiration for reasons beyond the highlight. He came into the tournament as Argentina's clear number two, the 1A to Messi with no real 1B, off an incredible club season at Atletico Madrid and carrying heavy expectation. That goal, over the outstretched arms of a towering goalkeeper against Switzerland, was his first of the tournament. Edu described the timeliness of it, extra time ticking away, Switzerland growing more confident and eyeing penalty kicks, and Alvarez instead burying what may go down as one of the goals of the competition.

England's road, Edu stressed, has been its own kind of gauntlet. He was in the stadium in Mexico for the match he thought would end their run, playing at altitude, and it became one of the best atmospheres he has experienced. A rain delay came and the fans did not leave. They stayed, singing and chanting, and the national anthem in that building was ridiculous. Rich agreed the whole setting was built for England to fall short, and called their survival as gutty as it gets.

Edu saw character in it. Sometimes, he said, you end up playing the environment more than the actual game, and England did both that night, then backed it up against Norway. That performance was not their best, but Edu keeps returning to a knockout-round truth. It is about the result over the performance. Survive, live another day, and go on. That is the mindset both of these teams will carry into a semifinal that, on experience alone, tilts slightly toward Argentina and Messi.