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Ahead of the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Adam Clery is joined by The Independent's Miguel Delaney to discuss why, in spite of the many, many problems surrounding it, a World Cup is still too important not to enjoy.
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00:00Hello everybody, welcome to the ACFC World Cup podcast or footy footy chat chat as I keep getting
00:07told I'm not allowed to call it. We are live and absolutely sweltering from this picturesque
00:12rooftop terrace in the New York-ish area. Is that what that is? Well we'll do some sightseeing. As
00:19you can see I'm joined by a colleague, chum, teammate, confidant, sensei and just all-around
00:25top guy Miguel Delaney. The safest imaginable guest for the first episode of this. I think
00:29you'll note. Miguel how are you? Not too bad, quite hot. Quite hot. It's been busy I have
00:35to say. Which I suppose explains some reasons I'm on my condition right now. Yes I should
00:39clarify I absolutely stitched Miguel up here because he was like well I can fit this in
00:43but I might have to run there. So I hope you don't mind if I'm like wearing shorts and really
00:47sweating. I'll say don't worry about it man. I'll go for a run right before you turn up
00:50and we'll look exactly the same but I didn't do that. I went to Home Depot instead for reasons
00:55that will become obvious in the regular videos. Now right the World Cup starts tomorrow. That's
01:02exciting isn't it? Yeah. Isn't it? It is. So I ran here. You ran here. I made my journey
01:09in 29 degree heat. Yeah. Having just finished my big preview for the World Cup. We bring
01:15in all the themes, all the big issues and also even within that after writing about like all
01:19the kind of many controversies, what's happened with Iran, the kind of the visa stories. There's
01:24still the kind of the core of it which is actually like I use this line in my piece. Maradona
01:30said the ball never stains and it's a bit like that with the World Cup. Oh that's quite nice. It
01:34retains despite everything going on around it, it retains a purity and for anyone that's
01:38cynical about that the one response I would have is but like over the next five weeks though
01:44it's not just football we're going to see. Countries are going to enjoy like the greatest
01:48days in their recent national history. It's a celebration and that is that is still something
01:54to be cherished and they're also going for what I would say is very objectively actually
01:59the pinnacle of sport. Arguably the pinnacle of human historical culture in the sense that
02:10I mean that. Well I mean don't get off the fence for a second. Well genuinely if you think about
02:13it has anyone in history or sorry have as many people ever cared about something as much as
02:18as many people care about the World Cup? I would say the last season the game of throw
02:22was maybe. Maybe and look how that turned out. You've actually you've moved me here a bit
02:27because the next thing I was going to say was I'm a little bit worried because with every
02:31passing week when just when you think they've hit the floor in terms of like some atrocious
02:36story about the build of this one they managed to plumb new depths. And my worry was you know
02:41you being very much the one of the people people go to for this or for some insight on the
02:47actual
02:48mechanics behind organizations like FIFA. You know how the sausage is made as terrible as it might be.
02:53I was sort of worried I was going to have to be like can we not do that here and
02:57instead can we
02:57find reasons to actually be excited about as you say one of the greatest human events that ever
03:03happens every four years. And here you are you are you if I'm not going to check your temperature but
03:08it does seem to me like you've got World Cup fever. Yeah yeah and I have to say like I
03:12was um
03:13obviously now the club season is so intense. It's a lot. Yeah it's a lot. And like I mean it
03:20ended
03:20last week and here we are again for the most exhaustive World Cup. I know, I know. But it did
03:23mean that my kind of build up to term was slightly tempered and obviously when I was covering the
03:27build up it was about political issues. Yeah. And then I was on the flight, got into New York, went
03:31for a bit of a
03:32walk around New York last night and like you can see you can see there's so many shirts around already.
03:38You can see even as kind of commercial as it all is the uh all the kind of the billboards
03:42and
03:43that and you think like yeah it's it's it's it's getting underway and it's it's the one thing I
03:47would say about World Cup and why whatever about the states as a whole New York is a good venue
03:53for
03:53it because obviously it's like it's an international capital it's arguably the global capital always has
03:57struck me ever since I've been covering a World Cup um so there was like there was actually as just
04:01as a
04:01tangent there's a brilliant piece by Paul Howard in the Irish Times who used to work with about how
04:05you never enjoy a World Cup as much as when you're 11 and your whole life is trying to almost
04:09try to
04:09recreate that joy. Oh wait hang on what was it? Which World Cup were you 11? So I was 11
04:14for
04:14so my comparable World Cup would have been USA 24. I think I would say what am I? I don't
04:20really
04:20remember France that yet. I remember South Korea in Japan 2002 that feels like my but I was a bit
04:25maybe about 13 then. Yeah yeah. For that one. But you absorbed it yeah. Oh it was great it was
04:29the best. But like
04:30that's obviously one side of World Cup as someone the joy of I think that I've found since covering
04:35it and this is actually my fifth is um it's when you go to some center of it so in
04:40in 2010 it was
04:42like yeah it was Soweto or Cape Cape Town as well in 2014 it was a Copacabana 2018 for all
04:48like issues
04:49for all Russia's become since and the fact we probably won't be going back there anytime soon
04:52it was Nikolskaya Street in Moscow. Yeah. And like it was just that sense you're walking around
04:56and I remember counting I think in Moscow it was like 80 different kits I saw and it is it's
05:02a
05:02celebration of humanity in that sense and New York is the sort of venue that brings that out because
05:06it is a hub and like and I think the World Cup it does that in a way nothing else
05:11can.
05:13You see what a privilege it is to be working with such an experienced professional broadcaster who
05:16didn't even flinch when I dropped my phone there that would have been that would have really thrown me
05:20off um what are you a professional broadcaster who was dressed as I am dressed yeah yeah professional
05:24ish professional ish um what are you looking forward to the most if actually I should before
05:29we get on to that I should say like what do you the you were in Times Square last night
05:34and you're
05:35getting the vibe that like America's really buying into it it's really different like the country's
05:39really invested we were just in a store that uh I will there's more like a like a like a
05:45coyote
05:46chasing a roadrunner brand name uh I don't know if we'll mention them on camera and our our uh our
05:50customer service executive Robert uh saw us packing up we were buying all the World Cup tat we could
05:55possibly get to dress the set right we've got different bits and pieces and he just sort of
05:58looks at us with total disdain and he goes when does this even start anyway and we were like oh
06:04it's
06:04tomorrow and he looks at it doesn't say anything else just goes yeah I don't care for it we were
06:09like
06:09give it time brother give it time you know well for you well for you thanks for telling us that
06:13yeah do I have to do anything yeah we we care we care a lot of people care so do
06:18you think the
06:18like do you think the country has World Cup for you um I think it probably depends where you go
06:24who you speak to uh funnily um a colleague of mine had a colleague I used to work with in
06:31Ireland
06:31had a had an idea of going to different kind of cultural hotspots in the in the US such as
06:36gun stores gun ranges all right I thought you meant like Dollyland uh cultural hotspots maybe
06:42like that's a straight it's a stretch of the term there but uh speaking to people about how they
06:46feel about but I think it's interesting because I probably look there's been obviously a lot of
06:49stats about you know um soccer is uh now the fourth most popular sport in the US that's probably a
06:57little bit amplified I read this it was you know it's overtaken baseball that's crazy yeah yeah but
07:02I think what how many like uh say like Mexican migrants are there or Latin American migrants
07:06no yeah yeah I get the demographic actually it was interesting when I flew in I've flown into America
07:12quite a lot and I don't know whether it's just because this is the first time I've ever been
07:14coming here specifically for a football thing I couldn't believe how many actual football pictures
07:20you could see as you were flying into New York I just don't know whether I've never noticed that
07:24before or whether they've like exploded in the last couple of years but I remember the first time I
07:28came to New York was 2005 and sadly I was like I was away with friends we tried to find
07:34uh a pub to
07:35watch Ireland's world cup qualifier against Cyprus but and these are these are the days where to watch
07:40any football in a bar in America especially New York you have to pay in because they have to have
07:45a license to show it it was Satanta sports Satanta yeah and obviously now that is just not an issue
07:51um I went into I think some place called legends last night just have a look in around Times Square
07:57and
07:57the Tartan army were already there watching football on TV oh that's nice but on that like obviously
08:02you kind of ask me what I'm most looking forward to yeah that was the question I was trying to
08:05ask
08:05originally but like and obviously yes I come into this I'm constantly thinking I've got all the bigger
08:10issues and all this and even if you're covering all that even on the day you're covering all that
08:15there's nothing like the feeling it doesn't happen so much in club football anymore it's still there a bit
08:19but it's especially true for a world cup you suddenly you walk up towards your seat in the media
08:24tribune as the official terminology is and you just feel the kind of like that this matters the
08:30electricity of it the electricity of a big occasion and that kind of takes over and even from I must
08:34say
08:34from a purely journalistic perspective there also is that sense that you're because this is quite rare
08:41really I suppose you're at the center of something that is the global news story yeah it's the only
08:46thing most of the planet's going to talk about for the next like four to six weeks exactly even when
08:50their interest in it has been officially ended yeah yeah it's the biggest thing in the world
08:55yeah that is nuts yeah completely do you find it overwhelming um no well do you find it puts added
09:02pressure because Miguel you're uh celebrated worldwide for your work but does it like thank you does it put
09:08extra pressure on you do you know when you write stuff about a world cup you're like god I really
09:11hope
09:11this is good so there is a sense again some of the lads talk about this as well there is
09:15a sense especially
09:15when you're covering something big I remember actually a much more experienced journalist a colleague on the
09:20flight back for the final in 2014 they were discussing um Germany 7-1 win over Brazil and they were
09:27saying well you have to when you're covering a game like that the challenge then becomes to capture what
09:32it means properly to say what you want to say about it and yeah that probably is true and I
09:35like I was
09:36even thinking about it right in my preview today like you're not just you know you're not just doing
09:40a normal preview you want to kind of capture the emotion of it everything around it and the gravitas
09:46I suppose as well as well as the kind of significance if you were let's let's pretend
09:51there's some Americans watching this if this is a first world cup if if Rob from uh the store who
09:57was
09:57not bothered about this tall is watching and we're trying to sort of sell this to them and say look
10:01this is one of the biggest things in the world the emotional weight of it is way bigger than just
10:05sport it's the one thing really aside from the Olympics where you know we all sort of force ourselves to
10:11enjoy the Olympics it's the one thing aside from that everybody really cares worldwide what's gonna what are the
10:16moments in this tournament that we know are going to happen that you think that gravity like what
10:21is what is the heaviest part of it is it the first USA game is it going to be like
10:26when we start getting
10:27into the knockout stages is it going to be the first game in Canada is it going to be the
10:30first time we're
10:30in the Azteca like what's it going to be so funny just as you're saying that I actually uh example
10:35immediately came to mind because I remember being with uh someone who didn't care football for in a pub
10:40we were watching a game name them shame them um I'll leave them for the moment but I because
10:45they're vaguely related um vaguely related but Rob Delaney no but um we were watching a game with
10:55Messi and Messi just I'm just kind of idly looking at the screen you were watching a game no Messi
10:59was
11:00in the game no you were watching he was involved right yeah I'm gonna imagine if that's EMN I was
11:04watching a game Messi doesn't care actually he's not yeah yeah no he's not too bothered by it um but
11:08Messi did something like you're a fairly standard Messi thing and like like the guy with me is
11:12gonna that's amazing and even and I suppose there's a follow-on from that just as a kind of a
11:17moment
11:17that maybe you're trying to capture one of my favorite work memories was in Bella Horizont the
11:22stadium actually that 7-1 happened in but much earlier in the tournament I was there for Argentina
11:27against Iran walked into that stadium exactly I'm describing and the entire stadium is it's full
11:33of Argentina fans there's no one else they're singing that song this Brazil
11:37the sea bad day uh sorry once more bad moon rising all right yeah it's see my case
11:43and then actually I think the the next few lines are actually quite offensive you gave us way more
11:50of that than you really needed yeah so thank you for that but I remember I've got a video on
11:53it of it
11:54I think I put it up on YouTube and it's just like it goes on for so long they're just
11:58constantly singing
11:58the sound was incredible then the game becomes a bit of a dog of a game there's obviously frustration
12:04there's still support Maradona even leaves in the 90th minute he was there watching and obviously
12:09this is so much about kind of Messi and his ascendancy and all this 93rd minute what does
12:12Messi do it's a shot from outside the box scores we remember well remember well and that is like
12:19and that's like look how can you not be like you can't be captured by that and obviously like
12:25that was in a group stage imagine that but when it gets to the moments of terms where history is
12:30really
12:30created where and I suppose this is what it's showing them the kind of what happens in the
12:35pitch the spectrum the pitch and showing them the reaction and what it means to people um and how
12:41much people care about it you're not uh you're not based here for the entire tournament you're doing
12:46quite a lot of traveling around aren't you so yeah so my we are hq if you like is uh
12:51a 20 minute run
12:5220 20 minutes yeah that's where some of the uh other uh indie sports guys are so that's our base
13:03that's basically where I've left my big suitcase we will absolutely be uh strong-arming every single
13:08one of them to come on here at some point because right now right now the pitch of this was
13:12it's acfc
13:12and friends yeah and I've been here day and a half and I've made three friends two of which you
13:18might
13:19come on I've got a lot of work to do still so when any colleagues that can be emotionally black
13:23yeah yeah but that's like that's also the value of going to the stadium media center
13:27on any given day because there's always just loads of journalists around oh will you do some
13:31will you do some master i can be i can do that if anybody's like really got an afternoon to
13:34fill
13:34yeah yeah i've got just the part for you buddy exactly exactly but um so yeah i've left my suitcase
13:39there my main i suppose priority after that is obviously england because i'm doing all of
13:44england's games given the independent is based in london um so this week it's not well yeah uh
13:51exactly yeah we are here in the in the center of football um but so i'll be going in and
13:57out of
13:58the england camp in kansas to kind of take the flavor and all that sort of thing and then from
14:02that as
14:02well bouncing around kind of big stories and big games but this is one thing about so in qatar which
14:09obviously look you have to acknowledge all the massive issues that tournament that i wrote we wrote about a
14:14lot and discussed a lot for the independence but one of the things with qatar was because it was so
14:18centralized in doha i think i ended up doing like a third of the matches similar in euro 2024 actually
14:23because obviously german trains despite some more modern flaws it's it's a very easy system to
14:29navigate for this just the scale of it and the size of the distance yeah yeah so like there's quite
14:34annoying one like i use annoying relatively here where i think the first game in new york is brazil morocco
14:42which to me that's a classic world cup game it's got like what that was 98 that was when ronaldo
14:46scored his first goal in the world cup that's it's such a fascinating game i mean we're going to
14:50the minutia of stuff at some point but like morocco are really good yeah yeah brazil are brazil
14:54exactly yeah that's yeah that's one of the games i would encourage like us fans especially who've not
15:00really seen much watch that yeah exactly exactly something really awesome will happen in yeah and
15:05like brazil in the world cup you have to go like it is one of the things you have to
15:08do
15:08but because i have to be the england base and because it's so the scale of the of the country
15:13is so big i have to go that i'm going to miss that guy and go that morning to kansas
15:17as i think the
15:18england the england players arrive in kansas will be doing media um around just before that game kicks
15:23off and then annoyingly today the day before england play croatian their opening game um
15:30so england are based in kansas i have to go to dallas just in the morning is that close i
15:36don't know
15:36it's not i think it's a 12 hour drive my american geography is as bad as americans general
15:41geography i don't like a dallas in kansas it's not that far away you can drive it but it's quite
15:46a long drive they drive everywhere yeah yeah but but so i'm leaving kansas that morning to go to
15:51dallas and that evening and again missing argentina playing algeria and that's it that's another
15:56classic real smallest fight oh no i'm getting flown all over america to go these games are going to miss
16:00the reason i asked this question by the way was not so that you could flex about what a great
16:04travel ice anywhere you've got i should stress that it was because i wanted to follow up that
16:07thing about what should we be encouraging non yeah soccer fans to watch what are you personally
16:12looking forward to the most that you're doing while you're out here what's the bit that like
16:16you're really excited about so do i mean obviously it's above anything in the purely football sense
16:23there's the way it's going to be played and the hope that it's actually that it ends up more like
16:27usa 94 than south africa 2010 where it's actually an open tournament but i'm a little bit skeptical
16:32about that because of the conditions and also because like the club game is completely different
16:36but yeah there's that the development of the football how the football feeds into the story
16:40lines which think is because that's the thing with a workup i always think yes we want a
16:46tournament with entertaining football but italian 90 wasn't entertaining and it's the one people
16:50remember more above anything else and that's because everyone was 11. well yeah yeah everyone was 11.
16:55but i had great moments and great moments infused by or created by great storylines yeah you don't you
17:01remember the 90 minutes of great games football you remember the two or three moments that gave
17:04you something you'd never previously seen before exactly so and it's all it's all of that and like
17:08i suppose look messi's still here the equivalent they'll say of um a messy moment in 2014 i think
17:14maybe comes from yamal i'm really excited to see and hopefully he is fully fit i think he will
17:19yamal can actually have a bit of an iniesta tournament i think where he starts slowly he because
17:24it is in yesterday went into 2010 but like that i think it was a calf injury he was he
17:28was really
17:28struggling for fitness and then by the quarter finals he is flying weren't exactly struggling
17:31for players you could play sort of a central space in midfield either were they so i mean it was
17:35a
17:35lot of course to get him out yeah yeah but uh yeah it's that and then um from from the
17:42uh as we're
17:43saying it comes down to like from a journalistic perspective not just a purely football one it's
17:48also when you're covering the story that everyone cares about it's a big moment and you've got to
17:52respond to it that's a very enjoyable aspect of a world so the thing you're looking forward to the most
17:57is the as yet unknown nebulous but guaranteeable enormous world news story that you're gonna
18:03have yeah yeah yeah see i know that's not true because the thing you're looking forward to the
18:07most is that enormous piss up in manhattan on the on the tiny two-day break you're gonna get in
18:11the
18:11middle of it all but well done for giving a part of what give us a can you give us
18:15like something a
18:16bit insidey because this is your we just do very non-serious tactical stuff and just try and have a
18:21laugh but you were very serious and professional you actually speak to people and know what's going on
18:26what's sort of like what's a bit of a story going on at the minute it's probably not getting the
18:30coverage it deserves ideally fun and not gonna make you feel miserable it does feel like it'd be
18:35just such demand for conness there's so much out there that uh um that's a lot of it one thing
18:42actually i'm starting to work on which i think is very interesting as to how the tournament is going
18:47to go so i think england have a very strong chance i don't think they're quality wise are as good
18:52as
18:52spain and france now hang on i have to jump in there because you are obviously uh not an england
18:57fan you will be mourning the loss of ireland in this tournament and as i've been very open about
19:02i am scotland until we're out i don't support england until scotland have been eliminated and
19:06i really do support england that's that's the uh that's the college i've got dual nationality i mean
19:10i i suppose i should or say the article talks about your mouth and spain i am half spanish oh
19:16so do you
19:16you go do you if ireland aren't around you think you've got a oh i would i would always consider
19:21myself as irish as i am spanish so i'm both okay okay because they've played twice a few tournaments
19:26and it's led to and i've been covering one of them you kind of have to emotionally it's weird
19:31i found it quite it creates quite an emotionally flat affair because you don't know what you want
19:36and you know you almost make this sort of calculation with yourself like well i think i want
19:41the team that would serve better to win so in in 2012 ireland were out basically whereas spain
19:46could go on and win the competition so well they played each other in 2002 didn't they yeah yeah
19:51how did you how did that make you feel so it was very actually that was all the more strange
19:53it's obviously it wasn't adjourned at that point i was a student um but and keen had obviously gone
20:00and at that point i actually watched uh saipan the night before i flew out oh really okay i'm not
20:04sure
20:04he's actually watching a one about world cup preparation on the eve of going
20:07it was a bad idea it was a bad idea for me to watch it personally because we did not
20:12know
20:12precisely what this apartment was going to be like and what the facilities were going to be like
20:16and i was sitting watching my flatmate and she was like if you get over there and the apartment is
20:20bad or the internet doesn't work or there's something just generally wrong with it that's
20:23what you're going to be like you're going to be that unbearable yeah come on nick but thankfully
20:28ideally everything's brilliant yeah we're here to work aren't we yeah um yeah but 2002 i and at that
20:34point i was very pro keen a position i'd actually become very ambivalent on where are you now so i
20:39was indifferent about and i'm going to get to the video because i actually interviewed nick mccarthy
20:43for a charity event recently and nick is great he's a lovely man a decent man and i can see
20:48his
20:48perspective in all this and then and i have to say in 2002 i was very stridently pro keen and
20:55that
20:55would but that was on reflection that was influenced by the qualifiers and i went to a lot of those
20:59home
20:59games and the highlights of one of those was doing the rounds this weekend actually and i watched it
21:05it was ireland against portugal where portugal should have beaten ireland 5-0 but keen ensured it
21:09was a one-all draw he even scored and that reminded me sorry oh yeah this is why i was
21:13so pro keen
21:14because basically they wouldn't have been there without him so give him anything he wants he was
21:17so i know we're literally here to preview the day before the 2026 world cup starts but one thing i
21:22don't
21:22i don't think i was old enough to appreciate the time and have not done the legwork to understand since
21:26what happens to ireland in 2002 if roy keen stays in that camp so the popular view in ireland is
21:33that
21:33they would have won the world cup no not people don't say one i think they say they would have
21:37got to the semis because really open bracket wasn't it yeah korea got there um but is that is that
21:43not
21:43inherently one of the beauties of team blend that roy keen being in that side despite being a much
21:46better player may ironically have made them worse no because they played i mean they were like
21:52they're probably in the short term i think there was something where they're a bit released because he's
21:55such an intense character and at that point in his career he was extremely intense but he was just
22:00he was so good in the qualifying campaign like he was genuinely the difference but as to the point
22:04you mentioned chemistry there so one of the things i am interested in as regards england is i i don't
22:09think they're quite as good as they haven't got france's array of attacking talent correct they're not
22:14as good a team of spain i don't have an idea like spain they do have harry kane who i
22:18think can be a real
22:19differential but also too good and this is something i've been kind of covering a bit and
22:23kind of like you start talking to people who like are around the england sea you know what's going on
22:28tuchel has been so obsessed maybe more maybe more than anything else with well he's very he's very
22:33obsessed with a heatproof gay model but i think more interesting is the idea of team chemistry
22:38he's a vibes guy we've been saying it for months on the channel he's a vibes guy but it's really
22:44interesting because i was actually i did an interview two weeks ago that's coming out this
22:48week with from the ireland's former director of football mark annum and he's he's actually picked
22:53a few international coaches and he was talking about like why you what countries are looking for
22:58what what the because there is an argument that actually successful club coaches are just not
23:01suited to this like oh it's a different game yeah it's a totally different game luis enrique now the
23:05greatest coach in the world when it went out in 2022 the last 16 but he was talking about how
23:10he actually ended up talking about hamer halgrimson who was of course he's taken
23:14austral iceland to a world cup got a draw against argentina he's so he has overperformed be england
23:18new york 2016 and he's talking about like halgrimson has such an instinct and it's not learned he's
23:24obviously it's something innate of what characters you needed and like it's almost like a jigsaw you
23:29need someone who you need some players who are pushy you need some who are kind of more relaxed
23:32people and people who are there like tuchel's got criticized for jordan henderson being picked
23:37like from all the stories i've heard he's actually essential vital isn't he yeah yeah yeah i mean
23:43what what minute he gets it's irrelevant probably probably i mean we might if it's a dead rubber in
23:47the group you expect he might start that yeah the minute he starts uh almost completely like irrelevant
23:52and even that people go on well if that's the case bring him as a coach but it doesn't work
23:55like that
23:56because if you bring him as a coach his role is different he's not he's not he's not a peer
24:00with the
24:00players um so i think that aspect of of is really fascinating and i'll be doing kind of two so
24:07i've
24:07got two big ideas that are ahead of um england's opening game against croatia and obviously one
24:11of the other kind of chances and all this sort of thing uh so but but one is is is
24:15that uh about
24:16chemistry and also i think one of the really fascinating things with england especially
24:18because i've been doing a lot about kind of the meaning of 1966 recently and all is uh how this
24:24this
24:24job that had been known as the impossible job is actually a dream job for tuchel for a german he
24:29absolutely loves it oh well i don't know if you've seen dear england now that it's moved on to i
24:33play i saw i saw it on the stage i thought it was very good on it's great on the
24:36stage it's great on
24:37the stage because you are so far enough away you don't need to bear a passing resemblance to the
24:41players they're playing and it's absolutely fine in 4k massive face on the screen you get a jump
24:48scare when you see jack grealish the wayne rooney bit is high high art in terms of comedy it's a
24:53bit pro
24:53evo isn't it it's a bit pro evo but the bit at the end which again i've only seen the
24:57clip of
24:58is tuchel saying that garris southgate and apparently this is based on a real meeting
25:02tuchel said to us he never met him that he didn't mean that's so cold man that's so cold
25:07this scene it basically writes lee carsley out of history like we can't we can't be doing lee
25:13carsley erasure can we um but yeah yeah also i i it's obviously done the rounds now that the
25:19the figure they picked for tuchel or the actor and look and this isn't any sort of question of
25:24his acting abilities but he was in inglorious bastards that's it that's where i knew him from
25:29i know this guy and why is he conjuring certain feelings of like well he's kind of certain because
25:35in inglorious bastards he had his head stove yeah he did have his head stove in yeah yeah um so
25:41yeah
25:41yeah it's i found very but i found a very strange program from the clips i've watched i watched the
25:46play
25:46didn't really like it i have to say maybe that's because i'm too close to it all and covered all
25:50of
25:50that uh but equally i think depictions of football on stage i'm sorry on in fiction it's never good
25:58is it they work if i think they're purely on human interactions i think that's why like the dan
26:04united work and i'm sure people that were around it then because i know trevor east he used to work
26:09at derby he was kind of a bit skeptical of it i really enjoyed it and because it stayed away
26:14from
26:14the pitch where i think when they try and address pure football things or pitching it always looks
26:18like this doesn't feel authentic oh the only time it's ever been done well is uh goal living the
26:22dream as everybody's aware just as like a really short bit right england the vibes you know they're
26:28not necessarily got the star power france have got they're not necessarily got the team blend spain
26:31out but he's building this heat proof model so they should be able to endure the conditions
26:35he's a vibes guys picking a squad that's actually going to play well together that might get you
26:38level how far how far do you think is a successful tournament for england to go in this what
26:45represents yeah that was good i mean for the quality of the team really i would actually say quarter
26:50final semi-final is sort of acceptable but of course it's not about that it's about like how you tell
26:54you play isn't it it's about the moment no no it's it's not at the moment actually would england
26:58say it's more acute because obviously tucco was hired to win the world cup and it like it is a
27:03bit
27:03absurd england are a the world cup winner to have gone the longest without victory actually sorry
27:10that's not true no let me let me rephrase that they're the world cup winner to go the longest
27:14without winning any other trophy because you're going to be one of the 1950s very good copper yeah
27:18but also uh they're the only world cup winner who've only won the world cup that's like that's
27:24the one thing in the history that is mad it's 60 years that is mad that's that has to end
27:29at some
27:29point and i do i think that i do think that does create an extra pressure even though for the
27:33quality of team i think quarter final is quite acceptable but it's funny with all that with all
27:37the change with everything gareth did with how kind of the perceptions he was transformed but
27:41everything tucco is it is a bit strange that we're kind of background to fundamentals of england
27:47a in pure play can they sufficiently keep the ball especially in these conditions and that's where i
27:52think spain have a massive massive advantage i think i think even in the short amount of time
27:55tucco's been there they have showed that they are way better at keeping the ball now
27:59i have to say i did think that i thought the serbian performance was transformative
28:03and i was in belgrade and then i just japan less so but yeah but then i just saw the
28:07other night
28:07that mexico hammered serbia 5-1 ah yeah that's because they morally were on the floor after
28:12yeah yeah after the england game but but then but then the other side of that is it's this eternal
28:17question with england what happens in the first game against not even elite opposition but actually
28:23kind of you know you're not clear favorites yeah yeah yeah that's that's that's that's the litmus test
28:27for them because england have famously always been more or less as good as the team they're playing
28:31yeah they'll go up against the best teams in europe and they'll look about at their level but not better
28:35but then they'll play you know the the smaller teams in their groups and they won't exactly blow
28:39them away i think that that's the real test for it i think england as a country has too much
28:45collective trauma over the term quarter-final yeah there's been too many disappointing quarter-final
28:51eliminations again not even when they've been clearly beaten yeah you get to any game in a tournament
28:55you lose on penalties you know that was your level you know i mean it wasn't that you got beaten
28:59bad spain used to have that it was funny for spain it's why you're 2008 beating specifically italy
29:05in the quarterfinals was so key because like that they were two kind of psychological barriers england
29:10have got over i suppose war like with southgate i suppose there was constant progression yeah but
29:15they never quite got over the line the the last the last question to ask you this is i know
29:20it's
29:20worth to north america we're in canada and mexico as well but the the microscope in terms of the
29:25performance is way more on the us than it is canada or mexico purely because of the way the
29:29game has transformed in that country this country over the last however many years what what do you
29:35think their ceiling is in terms of how far they can go and what are sort of like what are
29:41the
29:41implications for a bad tournament like what happens to football in this country if they get grouped
29:45and what happens to football in this country if they like go if they want to run to the quarters
29:49of
29:49the semis see that does pose does it make a difference possibly but it does pose quite a
29:55serious point actually about football in america now and the place of the world cup because obviously
29:59there is a theory that a lot of americans while they're really into football like a lot of the
30:04world they're not losing well they care about the premier league yeah premier league is the big
30:07fascination and maybe that's where but look at u.s soccer the federation has actually been completely
30:11excluded because they're democrat leaning that have been excluded from like in this uh build up to this
30:16tournament yeah i do think it's a little bit like us 74 if at a different level where
30:22they need a good performance to push soccer in america onto that next level as regards the
30:27minimum requirement i would actually say it's um that pochettino isn't at the subject of a donald trump
30:33social media posts that that's that's what they absolutely have to avoid
30:37some guys at the classic football shirts event last night and some american guys were like
30:41what do you think what what's a good tournament for america i was just like just not embarrassing
30:45yourselves yeah and not just not embarrassing yourselves that's it not having donald trump
30:48call them losers basically um like if they get if they get a group there will be such an immediate
30:53apathy about this tournament from the top yeah yeah yeah well a lot of people might people might
30:58still be interested in the star i suppose the club that they don't get to see i guess yeah i
31:02guess
31:02actually you mentioned something i'm most looking forward to this isn't something i can't say
31:05i'm looking but related to the hosts i can't say i'm looking forward to it yet but i'm hopeful of
31:09it
31:09which is getting to go to the azteca so at the moment why is the final not at the azteca
31:14so i wrote this why is the final not at the azteca it's incredible this is like this is the
31:18state
31:19like this is probably the most historic stadium in football pele and maradona you'd be the third
31:23player to lift a world cup after pele and maradona right and it's also and it's in new j
31:28like yeah nothing wrong with new jersey but what what is its history and it's 40 years after the
31:34hand of god and the goal of the century but i saw wrestlemania in that stadium i do not want
31:39to
31:39see a world cup final in it i mean i won't see a world cup final in it i'm very
31:43aware of my lane here
31:44but i still don't want to watch that happen yeah yeah um i know but yeah the tournament is it
31:49is
31:49very much a one country tournament after the last 16 after the uh the 250th uh anniversary
31:55celebrations of american independence where americans become i should use this line with peace american
31:59the us becomes independent of canada and mexico there you go at least you got here where it really
32:05really matters i just whoever wins this world cup this country will not think that's as cool a site
32:12as kofi kingston winning the wwe championship there yeah well and that's then why put it put
32:16it in the azteca yeah put it put it where it would actually matter i mean is it too late
32:19for this
32:20yeah it is is there an email we can send don't think so don't think so that's a shame uh
32:24right
32:24well uh we need to get out with this son because i've got zero cream on but thank you very
32:28much
32:29everyone for joining us on the first ever acfc young friend we will pluralize it by this oh sorry how
32:34rude of me by the before i go me and tom made some biscuits like a biscuit while we're doing
32:37the
32:37outro they're freedom biscuits oh tom what did you put in these freedom freedom freedom great
32:42they look absolutely delicious um yes you should uh you can get me across all the social medias at
32:47adam cleary c l e r y all the ac fc dedicated stuff at adam cleary fc and miguel if
32:52you're not chewing
32:52where can they get you yeah the independent miguel delaney's um inside football youtube channel
32:57miguel delaney's inside football newsletter and also connected to our youtube channel the copa
33:03independent podcast where obviously our sports team discuss everything to do with the world cup
33:07and there's a lot of um back back episodes there about kind of the history the major issues
33:12the nostalgia and if you could pick one back episode the people who are watching this might
33:17really enjoy which one would it be so are you on one are you yeah yeah are you on one
33:21yeah great yeah
33:22that's an hour of my life never getting back uh right uh before we go very quickly he was winning
33:26the world cup in one word spain spain right i'm going to make sure we're going to get everybody's
33:30takes for that as the tournament goes on um yeah great you can get this on all the podcast networks
33:34as well as youtube which is why you're probably watching it we're doing podcasting now it's another
33:39white guy who's got one you should be so thrilled uh until tomorrow the day after whenever we find
33:44another pal to talk to uh what's american for bye see see no howdy how it's not chow later laters
33:52guys dudes dudes i did juolingo on the plane
33:55yeah very good
33:55you
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