00:00Well, Norman, thank you for joining us. You just left Dallas in Texas. First of all, what was it like
00:06for you?
00:09Absolutely fantastic time in Dallas. The stadium is just totally out of this world.
00:18It was absolutely rammed, 70,000 people, tremendous atmosphere the whole time.
00:23Total singing, national anthem and all the traditional songs as well.
00:27And obviously the game was superb. England winning by four goals to two. Could have been more in the end.
00:34People were complaining a bit of frailties in the England defence because we managed to concede two.
00:39But you scored four. It's almost like the Aussie ideal style of football, if you like.
00:44Attack. Your best form of defence is attack. And I'm really quite surprised.
00:49Just couldn't expect Thomas Tuchel to do that. But the fact that he has done that is a great testament
00:55to the fact that
00:56he knows how to adapt and change his teams and his formations to suit the opposition.
01:02It's got a roof as well. So the roof was closed.
01:05So it's the first time I've been in a stadium, I think, with a closed roof on it.
01:09And of course, that meant it's got air conditioning.
01:11And as the temperatures have been up in 90s Fahrenheit,
01:14that the roof there with the air conditioning associated with it was perfect.
01:19Exactly what we needed.
01:20It still didn't stop FIFA, though, of course, having one of these appalling hydration breaks,
01:25as they call it, where the game obviously stops halfway through each half.
01:29So in effect now, football in the World Cup is four 22 and a half minute sessions,
01:35which is destroying football a little bit because it disrupts the flow of the game.
01:42We've heard stories that it's very expensive out there.
01:45How are you finding costs?
01:49Yeah, it can be expensive.
01:51If you want to buy a drink in the ground, it is expensive.
01:55But so don't buy a drink in the ground.
01:57You don't have to use their inflated public transport prices.
02:02If you've got your own car, which we have, that costs all the costs down.
02:06Food and drink, it's reasonable.
02:08Food's good.
02:09But, you know, American standards, there's lots of food, etc. there anyway.
02:13So overall, we're not finding that too bad.
02:16The accommodation that we found hasn't been too badly priced either.
02:19But you can get stuff that's sort of 30 quid a night and sort of the cheapest stuff.
02:24And obviously, you can pay a lot more expensive if you so wish.
02:27You know, all the big franchised hotels.
02:30But they're the same prices as we understand it that we would normally charge anyway.
02:36Great stuff.
02:37So where are you off to next?
02:40As if we don't know.
02:41Right indeed.
02:42So we're going off to Boston.
02:43We've got Ghana coming up and then we've got Panama coming up.
02:46And we've got tickets for both of those games.
02:48So we haven't got anything after that.
02:50Well, Norman, thank you again so much for your time.
02:53I really enjoyed speaking to you.
02:55And from hope, we've got lots of hope for what's going to be ahead.
02:59We've got lots of hope for what's going to be ahead.
02:59We've got lots of hope for what's going to be ahead.
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