He then appeared to take a dig at Donovan’s lack of knowledge about the impressive Senegal team, adding: ‘We all knew that was going to happen. If people don’t know how Senegal can play, that’s on them.’
At full-time, after France had enjoyed a much stronger second half to win 3-1, Ibrahimovic got involved in the debate, spurred on by comments from Lalas.
The American reignited the ‘arrogant’ France debate by saying: ‘We had that nice little fun back-and-forth between Landon and Thierry about whether the French were arrogant in the first half. We can have that discussion, but the reality is that if they are arrogant, it’s because they can do things like that…’
Zlatan then jumped in, creating a toe-curling moment of awkwardness live on air, when he stated: ‘It’s not arrogance, it’s confidence. Ignorant people will say it’s arrogance, intelligent people will say it’s confidence.’
As Henry looked straight down the camera with a stunned facial expression, Lowe jumped in to get the broadcast back on track.
‘Okay, good to know,’ she said, before laughing.
It was not the first time the Americans clashed with their European colleagues either.
On the first couple of days of the tournament last week, there were multiple flashpoints that hinted at some tension in the ranks.
One such moment occurred when the panel were discussing Erling Haaland, and Lalas made the bold decision to claim that a good tournament for the Norwegian would see him surpass Ibrahimovic in the record books.
Henry and Ibrahimovic looked delighted to be working without Lalas in Friday’s USA game
Instead of being in the studio, Lalas traveled to Seattle to watch the USMNT play Australia
‘I love you Z, but I will take Haaland over you if he has a big World Cup,’ Lalas told Ibrahimovic. Suffice to say, the Sweden icon disagreed, and immediately hit back to present his own argument.
Then, on Friday, Henry and Ibrahimovic seemingly could not hide their delight as they were given the day off from sharing analyst duties with Lalas, who traveled to Seattle for the USMNT’s second group game against Australia.
Lalas was joined by anchor Rob Stone and fellow US soccer legends Clint Dempsey and Carli Lloyd outside Lumen Field, while thousands of fans gathered around the set before kickoff.
That left Henry and Ibrahimovic in the regular Fox studio in Los Angeles with Lowe. And when Lowe announced that Lalas ‘has left us,’ Zlatan quickly replied: ‘America, you’re welcome.’
That moment set social media ablaze and fans watching on from home claimed the pair looked overjoyed to be without Lalas.
Before the Fox broadcast went live on Friday, Henry and Ibrahimovic also posted a montage of them doing some outrageous skills in the studio. The pair showed they’ve still got remarkable talent as they performed a number of tricks and flicks.
But the very first clip in the video showed Henry teasing Lalas towards the ball before he quickly whipped it away from the helpless American.
Many fans who watched the viral video took it as a not-so-subtle dig at Lalas’ inferior ability.
Henry and Ibrahimovic posted a clip of themselves doing insane tricks, including one on Lalas
On Saturday, Lalas refused to bow to European pressure to use the term ‘football’ during the World Cup over soccer.
A fan took issue with Lalas using the term soccer and they argued on X that Lalas should attempt to ‘bridge the gap’ out of respect for the global game.
They argued that even the USMNT’s players are referring to the sport as football in their interviews with overseas outlets ‘out of respect.’
However, the American analyst wasn’t caving. He fired back at the fan, claiming switching to ‘football’ would make him a ‘weak poser.’
‘Yeah…that’s not gonna happen,’ he wrote, quote-tweeting the fan’s post on X. ‘I call it soccer. I own it proudly. I never apologize for it.
‘If you grew up calling it soccer and changed out of insecurity or some misguided belief it makes you more authentic/credible…it doesn’t. It’s cringe. It makes you look like a weak poser.’
