America 2026: A World Cup podcast

Canada notched their first ever World Cup victory after stomping Qatar 6-0 in Vancouver last night. Not everyone loved the wild celebrations on the touchline and after the whistle but is it all actually playing right into coach Marsch's plans for global domination?

Kevin Kilbane was at the game in Vancouver on televisual duties, we get his thoughts on what he makes of the co-hosts, the potential fallout of Ismaël Koné’s horror injury and how he reckons the groups are poised going into the second round of games.

America 2026 lands in your podcast feeds at least three times a week throughout the tournament, free to everyone, wherever you get your podcasts.
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Thomas Tuchel complained that he "couldn't see his team" during the anthems in Dallas last night. Little did he know just how much would be read into that remark as the evening wore on.

On paper, a 4-2 win over an old bogey side looks like the perfect way to open a World Cup. Add in the fact that this is an England team who have brushed aside everyone in their path en route to the tournament, and the mood should be euphoric. So why are the pundits, and even their own management, so slow to pat the team on the back?

Ken Early is one such sceptic. We catch up with him in Philadelphia after coming fresh from the action at Jerry World. Gavin Cooney, on the other hand, has a different worry entirely: that we may just have seen the tournament's future champions.
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Life is just better when the World Cup is on.

We know it. For better or worse, sport has a way of melting away the woes of the world, and nothing has captured that quite like the last few days of America 2026.

Mere hours after Iran were ushered out the country at the whistle of their opening group game, our gaze was swung to the twinkling brilliance of Mbappé, Messi and Haaland, who each smacked in a bag of goals to truly bring the tournament to life. Suddenly, all the off-pitch noise felt a world away.

Malachy Clerkin and Paul Howard are in studio and in the mood to revel through last night's action. We also catch up with Keith Duggan, who took in France v Senegal at the Meadowlands, though not before a detour to DC for UFC Freedom 250.
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A highly sleep-deprived Paul Howard and Gavin Cooney are in studio today to pick apart the amorphous blob that was the weekend's group-stage action. A sprawling, shapeless mass of goals, the occasional flash of genuine quality and only modest amounts of drama.

The Scots are making a name for themselves in Boston, Curaçao caught a fleeting glimpse of greatness before being yanked firmly back down to earth, and tired national stereotypes are turned on their head by Japan's late equaliser against the Dutch.

Plus, we look ahead to today's action, which features our very own Pico Lopez lining out for his ancestral home of Cape Verde against tournament favourites Spain. A baptism of fire if ever there was one.
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America 2026 roared into life in the stadium formerly known as the Azteca in Mexico City last night, with a match that was a much better occasion than it was a game. Elsewhere, early risers will have enjoyed much schadenfreude as the Czechs slumped to an opening-round loss to South Korea in Guadalajara.

Malachy Clerkin and the fresh face of Gavin Cooney join Paul Howard in studio to chat about the opening games, their watch strategies, and how much of a role these new-fangled "hydration breaks" might play in who takes home the trophy.

Plus, we explore 2026 Derangement Syndrome, where even in our wildest World Cup fantasies, we still cannot imagine the Republic of Ireland as anything other than a gloriously middling team in this tournament.
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