America 2026: A World Cup podcast

With World Cup 2026 one week away, Paul Howard, Kevin Kilbane and Malachy Clerkin kick off our podcast coverage of the tournament.

The Irish Times will publish episodes of America 2026 several times per week between now and the final on July 19th. Listen for analysis of all the football, digressions into World Cup history and coverage of the big stories happening inside and outside the stadiums.

On today’s episode Paul, Kevin and Mal preview the tournament. Who are favourites to win? Who are the players to watch? Is there any merit to the expanded number of teams competing? And are we allowed to enjoy this World Cup with all the political and ethical baggage attached to it?

Plus, Paul shamelessly name-drops while recounting his last World Cup final experience and Mal recalls his dressing-down by US president Donald Trump.
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Malachy Clerkin, Kevin Kilbane and Gavin Cummiskey are here to talk about the final round of games World Cup qualification matches.

In part one we look at last night in the Aviva and Ireland's campaign as a whole. are we in a better place now? And what is Seamus Coleman's future in the Ireland setup?

In part two we look at the playoff deciders, where there were plenty of surprising results including Bosnia and Herzegovina beating Italy on penalties.

Finally we look ahead to some of the tantalising and not-so-tantalising matchups in the World Cup.

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Ireland’s World Cup dream ended in heartbreaking fashion, giving up a 2-0 lead against the Czech Republic to ultimately lose on penalties. Paul Howard and Kevin Kilbane talk about the disappointment of failing to progress after a dominant first half performance, the penalty that gave the Czech Republic belief and how the rest of the match unfolded. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Relive the glory and the heartbreak of Ireland's previous attempts to reach a major tournament with someone who was there to experience the joy, fight some losing battles and witness that handball. Kevin Kilbane and Paul Howard look back at playoff games past:

Belgium, World Cup 1998
Turkey, Euro 2000
Iran, World Cup 2002
France, World Cup 2010
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Paul Howard and Kevin Kilbane preview Ireland v Czech Republic:

Ireland’s squad
Handling the pressure of a playoff
How Ireland won back to back games against Portugal and Hungary
Match fitness and the impact of players not getting regular football
The Troy Parrott factor
The Czech team
Should we practice penalties?
Kelleher’s penalty-saving prowess

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