America 2026: A World Cup podcast

España son los campeones del mundo.

Argentina’s white knuckle ride through to the final of this World Cup met its match last night with ruthlessly proficient Spanish display. The individual star power of Messi came up against a solid collective set up and though they left it late, there was only ever going to be one winner on the night.

For the last time in the series, Paul Howard is joined by Kevin Kilbane and Malachy Clerkin to chat about what wasn’t a particularly spectacular final despite the amount of star power Fifa attempted to cram into the event.

And with that, World Cup 2026 is in the books.

Thank you for listening!
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Former footballer, manager and full-time raconteur, Roddy Collins has been many things to Irish football.

He's also the star of The Rodfather, his memoir written with our own Paul Howard.

To celebrate World Cup final day, Paul and Roddy take the chance to revisit the tournaments, players and moments that changed their footballing lives.

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Lionel Messi’s international football career wasn’t always a litany of heroic victories and dressing room anthems. For most of his time in sky blue and white he looked more likely to go down as a busted flush. An iconic club player who left his home too young and therefore severed the connection he could have had to his national team.

The wheel has well and truly turned and he now finds himself just one game away from back to back World Cup titles in what will be his last tournament at international level, if the song is to be believed.

Standing in his way is the ruthless professionalism of Spain and the man he once washed in a bathtub as a baby, Lamine Yamal.

Ken Early is in on the ground in New York and gives us his thoughts going into the game, how likely it is that we get a finale anywhere close to 2022 for drama and why Spain should win but he’s reluctant to go against Argentina.

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England led midway through the second half of last night's World Cup semi-final in Atlanta. Thomas Tuchel, seemingly satisfied with his evening's work, made the fatal error of hauling off his attacking options to cram the box with central defenders. In doing so, they handed Argentina the lion's share of possession with Leo Messi still prowling the pitch. You tend to get exactly what you deserve in these situations and England were picked off, beaten 2-1 inside 90 minutes.

Gavin Cooney took the game in at an establishment just outside Liverpool, and reports back, a little bewildered, from amid a surprisingly fervent pocket of pro-English support.

Kevin Kilbane joins us from Toronto to unpick Tuchel's baffling tactics, how to heal his fractured relationship with Bellingham, and what it takes to see out a slender lead late in the biggest games.
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Spain haven't lost a competitive game since Scotland beat them in March 2023. Tonight's win leaves them just a single match from breaking Italy's record unbeaten run of 38 games. Oh, and from lifting a World Cup trophy too, of course.

In the end, Spain's structure and patience proved far too much for France. They were ruthless in midfield, picking apart the soft spots in the French line-up and doing the unglamorous things well. You'd be forgiven for thinking they wore the look of the rightful favourites. A title they’ve been quietly holding onto all along while our attention was pulled elsewhere.

Malachy Clerkin and Paul Howard took the game in from the studio, while Keith Duggan joins us from the stadium in Dallas, Texas.

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