World Cup: Ecuador Through & Rick's Playing Backgammon

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1:06Discover the V-Series lineup at Cadillac.com. The Football Day at the FIFA World Cup 2026. Listen on BBC Sounds. Hello and welcome to the Football Daily with me, Lloyd Griffith, but no Rick Edwards today. He's got the day off. And you're thinking, what's he doing on his day off? Has he gone to Las Vegas with Steve Jones? Or maybe he's in the Hollywood Hills with all the T4 people he's ever interviewed in the past. And the answer is none of those. He's gone to a backgammon competition in downtown LA. Who with? He's gone on his own. Corsi has. What an absolute legend. We do have someone in his Birkenstocks, though.

1:46Arguably better and definitely less mean. I'll intro them in a second. But first, a recap on the scores. Ecuador beat Germany 2-1 to finish third in Group E and secure a place in the knockout rounds for the first time in 20 years. Ivory Coast also reached the knockout stages for the first time in World Cup history thanks to a Nicolas Pepe double as they beat Curacao 2-0 finishing second in that group. Netherlands topped the group after beating Tunisia 3-1. Japan drew 1-1 with Sweden to finish second in that group and Sweden have also made it through to the knockouts. Paraguay and Australia ended goalless and finally already eliminated.

2:25Turkey has scored a goal with the last kick of the game to beat the USA 3-2. And you might be thinking that is all well and good Lloyd but what does that mean for Scotland? Well we've been checking the third place ranking table all day and all night and as I'm sure most of Scotland have as well and at the time of record Scotland have a 6.04 % chance of still qualifying which feels oddly specific. It's really quite simple. Honestly, it feels like I'm doing the late night shift on a general election coverage, just waiting for the other results to come in. A reminder that if you want to catch up on any of the scores or goals, highlights are available on the BBC Sport website and app.

3:03Now join me today in Rick's absence. It is the fantastic Betty Glover. Betty, thank you for stepping in. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. And I I must add that I am not wearing Rick's Birkenstocks. I haven't borrowed them for the show because I'm not sure my feet would fit in them. He's got quite large feet. Very large feet. He's a large man, though. And, you know, if you're tall, you've got big feet usually, don't you? And he's got a lot of large socks, as producer Lizzie and I have found out. They're absolutely all over the house. It's disgusting. That's not ideal. How have you been keeping?

3:34I've been great, thank you. Very much enjoying the USA. Very much enjoying LA. The weather's great. It's incredible, isn't it? Have you been in LA for the whole time? I haven't. So I have been in L.A. for a week. Then I went to Seattle for a few days to cover the USA against Australia. And now I'm back in L.A. How was Seattle? Seattle. I'm not joking, Lloyd. It was next level. It was insane. The atmosphere was ridiculous. The people of Seattle love sports. Which game did you go to? So I went to USA against Australia and the people of Seattle just love it. They did a march ahead of the game. So they were just marching down the street and it was just packed.

4:15I've never experienced sort of an atmosphere like that before. The loudest game you've ever been to? Probably up there. I don't sort of go to games with one of those, you know, things that measure sound levels. Oh, good God. Which I should do. You've got to get involved. I know. A decibelometer, I think you're referring to. That is the one. Is that right? I'm looking at audio engineers. You did a musical degree, you say. so you should actually know you should know what measures audio levels actually yeah I live on my own and what are you doing out here in America for the World Cup so I'm working for Men in Blazers media network which is the biggest soccer network in the USA they say so it's really cool so they followed the US team for years and years followed the sort of highs and the lows the lows before Mauricio Pochettino the lows when Mauricio Pochettino took over And now it's getting to this high of US fans saying that they're going to win the World Cup.

5:15Do you genuinely think they believe that? I think a lot of them do think that they can win the World Cup. I genuinely do think they believe that. What will happen, I also got to say that both of our audio engineers are just nodding. Like the little Churchill dogs. Yes, we can. It does feel like soccer slash football fever is taking over at USA. You were all over LA yesterday going to various different games. What was the story behind that? So I set myself a challenge, Lloyd. Go on. Okay. So I gave myself 24 hours and I was like, how many different games of football can I watch with different fans from all over the world?

5:51So I watched the Canada game. Yeah. Canada against Switzerland with some Canadian fans. I had some Canadian pancakes and waffles for breakfast. Lovely. Can we do this? It was really good. I then watched Brazil-Scotland. I ate some Brazilian food. Lovely. And it was insane. What was it? The best food I've ever had. I had some pineapple. Pineapple? Yeah. Sorry, Betty, have you never had pineapple before? No, no, no. So they had kebabs, right? Loads of different kebabs. Kebabs? Have you never been to Sheffield? They had loads of kebabs. One of them was a pineapple kebab. No. And they had cinnamon on it.

6:26So I had some pineapple. No. Why are you saying no? Because that's not a thing. No, it was great. Pineapple kebab. Yeah, it was really good, right? So I had some pineapple, and then I had some plantain. and I had just various other stuff. Yucca? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, these are all vegetables. Yeah, I know, but I was trying to be healthy. I was doing a lot yesterday. I then went to watch South Korea against South Africa at a Korean fan park and it was amazing. Can I just say the South Korean fans are the best fans I've ever come across? In what way? They're just so lovely. It's so nice. It was like a family vibe.

7:02They all sat on the floor and ate a picnic whilst watching the game. I know they lost, but... I have felt that being over in LA, everyone is very friendly. And you can see in the games as well, there's no segregation. People seem to be embracing each other. There was that lovely little moment yesterday where the Dr. Congo fan was just encompassed by the fans of Colombia. And after he sang the national anthem on his own, I think, oh, this is quite nice. I mean, obviously, as an England fan, it's a very different vibe. It is a bit different. It is a bit different. I think this nice vibe between all the fans is going to start shifting as we get through the tournament, because it always does a little bit.

7:41But it has been really great. And actually, I know there's been a lot made about fans are coming over to the USA, and the USA are getting to experience all of these fans from across the world, and loads of different fans are getting to experience the USA. It is really nice to see. The other day I was in a taxi, and the lad, late 20s, lovely lad, massively into his football, And he said that the reason he got into football is because at school, all the lads at school basically supported a team. And there was loads of lads from the Ivory Coast that had come over to America. And because of D.J. Drogba, they supported Chelsea.

8:19There was loads of kids that were from South Korea that supported Spurs because of Sonny. And he was like, I want to get involved in this. I want to support a team. And I was like, well, who do you support? He's like, well, I'm actually from Bangladesh. And at the time, Hamza Chowdhury was playing for Leicester. So I chose Leicester. He's like, oh, really? He goes, well, it was great. We won the Premier League. He's like, but next season, we're playing Bromley away in League One. But it is so nice. It's not ideal. It is like a melding pot. And there's all these fans from around the world in the USA, which I think a lot of people didn't really realise.

8:49You can go all over the world in LA without a pass ball. Absolutely. And one final thing as well. I was chanted to fans in Ye Olde Kingshead, where we're doing the podcast from today. And they are Americans who support Premier League team. and they're so happy that the World Cup is here. And it's not just because the stars that they love are on their home soil. It's because they get to watch football at a normal time. Yeah, true. Because they just have to get up at the Cracker Sparrows to watch Tottenham versus Bournemouth at 4am. I've found that a lot of US citizens have started to come on board quite quickly with football.

9:29I was talking to a guy the other day who was basically saying, like, I wasn't really that bothered. I thought I'd watch a couple of matches, whatever. Now he's so into it. He's like, okay, Mauricio Pochettino must rest Pulisic because we need him for the knockout stage. It's so involved and it's great. It's so great. Well, should we talk about football? We probably should, shouldn't we? I'm really happy to welcome back former Netherlands defender and massive fan of the podcast, the Guardian Football Weekly podcast, it turns out, Mario Melchior who turned up last week when we recorded and we looked at his phone and he had the Guardian Football Weekly podcast on his phone he'd been listening on the way here at least I'm sticking to your culture yeah you are I'm sticking to your culture Mario that's bad form though that's bad form I totally agree I assume that you listened to ours before and then listened to theirs exactly that's how life should be anyway and I told Max and he was absolutely over the moon Mario we were talking about fans happy that the football is a normal time over here.

10:32I'm assuming you're getting up to watch the Premier League games. I mean, you're probably running to the beach at 5 a.m., aren't you? No, no, no, not that early. I mean, look, I enjoy my life. I will never complain about my life. But one thing I do, yeah, I do get up. I set my alarm. I watch the game, 7 o 'clock. The one that is at 4 o 'clock or 5 o 'clock, I have to tell you, I'll be honest, that one I pass. Extended highlights. Yeah, extended highlights. Extremely long. But the other ones, yeah, I'm on it. Do you know what? We forgive you for that. That's okay. That's okay. We have to start with the Ecuador-Germany game today.

11:03I mean, what a result for them coming back from 1-0 down to beat Germany 2-1. Did you see this result coming, Mario? Yeah, you know what the key thing is, I think, when you watch the game like that, for Ecuador, they had a lot of passion in it, you know? And I think that was kind of the passion that surprised Germany too. The speed, the way they were playing, and they were pressing them in a way that they didn't expect. And that's why I think they got themselves under pressure in difficult situations. and you know one of the key things normally when you score a goal you track back ecuador no they stepped on going the second half like the first half was a little bit less but the second half they kept on going even if they were leading they kept on pressing this is what i thought was just so impressive about them because obviously sort of pre-tournament everyone's been saying you know ecuador they're the dark horses they're so good defensively you just need to look at their their defenders and you're like wow okay brilliant but we hadn't really seen that like attacking side to them until this game.

11:57Do you think that gives you a bit more confidence in sort of how far they could go in this tournament? Yeah, but also the wider defence, why we highlighted because there's a lot of the guys you understand that are important for the defending side is playing in the Premier League, so connected to the Premier League, right? So that's was one of the key things why, you know, for the English side is more focused on me too, you know, Pacha is probably the one that plays at PSG and the rest, you know, Casado, the one from Arsenal. In Capier. So I expected also a lot more from them. I didn't expect them to be in the situation where they are.

12:28They were celebrating when they were third and I get it. You understand? And their coach was a different level. Like I watched that coach. I love passion guys because that's why I live on this side of the world and I see the Latins. One of the key things what Latin have is different than Europeans. I will not call you guys you know the English are a little bit outside but you have passion too but what the letters have it becomes emotional sometimes and if you see that coach when they got when they scored one up he ran to his missus to give her a he was just trying to launch himself into the stands wasn't he yeah what are you doing but do you know what though he's been under so much pressure because you know when you're the manager of ecuador you are taking all of that flack rather than the players it's you and he's finally sort of given them a ridiculous result and also credit to him because he made some great changes that made the difference as well didn't he?

13:21But also he's Argentinian and you know your country won the world prior to it and now you bring another country to it so they're gonna watch you too and one of the good things he had you know like prior to having the first team he was in the younger teams so he knew a little bit about the young development so that helped him a little bit getting into the first team but being in the first team look Ecuador have made a lot of development in the years going through now And now they've got really star players. We cannot say that they don't have star players, but now you've got to make it a team. That's so difficult to do, though, isn't it?

13:51Particularly when most of your star players are your defenders. So that ability to go forward and score goals, they've been finding really, really difficult, haven't they? But why could they do it against Germany? The Germans, I felt that the speed of the game for them dropped a little bit. And I think also they got surprised. You understand? The goal that they conceded with Tarr and Neuer, It was almost like they were hesitating and waiting. But he reacted quicker than them. The way he tapped the ball and they were almost like frozen. And when they wanted to react, it was already in. So I think that was one of the feelings that I say like, as a German side, I feel like Germany has always been a country.

14:27It's always there, especially for us as the Dutch people. We are connected to them. So we watch them. You know, even if they have rivalry going on that's been for years, we still will watch them and say like, hey, guys, they are a real country and always turn up. But one of the things that happened in this game, maybe they were a little bit too confident. Maybe they were a little bit too slow and I got surprised. I think it was a mix of knowing that they've already qualified. Yeah, and it's an age-old cliche, but they just didn't seem to want it as much as Ecuador. And you talked about Neuer, there were just moments, you know, just in second balls where they just didn't seem at the races.

15:02Yeah, but you know what? One of the things when you're in this situation, rhythm is very important. and the rhythm of winning is more important than getting a draw because even if it's your last game, when you lose it, the feeling that you possess is just not good. It's the same for any country. I'm not talking about only the Germans. I'm talking for everybody at the World Cup now. If you already go through, right, and you have one more game left to play, sometimes you say, like, the guys that didn't play that much, you want to put them because you selected them for a reason. So you want to put them, but you're also thinking about, shall I put them in or should I not put them in because I want to keep the rhythm of the 11 that are starting normally.

15:37So that is where the coaches are finding themselves. And I always say, like, you can make a couple of tweaks, but don't tweak too much because if you tweak too much, you get a whole different rhythm in your squad. They're really struggling to keep a clean sheet in the tournament so far. And again, this was their first kind of like test today. But again, there's going to be weightier teams looking at Germany, knowing they're going to face them, going, they can't keep a clean sheet. They'll be licking their lips, surely. Yeah, but they had some changes to it because they had, what, Schultz, I think he didn't start today, but then you have Ta and Rudiger.

16:08You understand? Rudiger wasn't playing the game prior to it. So he came on. So I always say this. There's a couple of players in the team you don't want to change. There's defensively and some in the middle. Because when you change that, that is the heart of your team. Right through the middle is where the heart is. You can sometimes change the forward, but when you start changing in the back, especially in the middle back, you understand the center half, it becomes a difference. You unsettle the rhythm, the core of the team. In any country, you mostly see them. Two positions are rarely changed.

16:40I feel like they're really missing Nico Schlotterbeck as well because without him, it feels like they just can't get that ball up the pitch. Yeah, but they play with, you know, Kimmich. He slides in, right? From the right, he comes in. He tucks right in front of the centre-half. They play a certain system in the sense of, like, they start with four and he comes in as a right-back and then he plays almost like the centre mid and then he picks up the ball at all the positions. But one of the key things is if you break there, he's not there. So he has to do a lot of work. He knows how to play the game.

17:10But sometimes some people are also going to catch you out. I'm gauging quite a lot of positivity, I think, from you when it comes to Germany. You're not that down and out about them. No, because I always feel like they turn up. But I also prep that I don't think they are where they want to be and where they're supposed to be. Yes, I totally agree with you. But you're watching a country now that normally is the top, eh? We're talking about top. Like, if you go to a World Cup or a Euro, whatever we go into, Germany is always there. And when you turn up and they're not there, you're almost like, hey, what happened there?

17:44That's what Germany is for me. The last two World Cups. Exactly. And they haven't managed to get to the knockouts, have they? You mentioned about not changing certain areas, and defensively, it's one of them. We've got to look at Manuel Neuer. I love the man as a goalkeeping fan. I've been a fan of him for well over a decade now. But he didn't look sharp at all today. Arguably, at error for the second goal, having just made a bit of a flap, which was almost like a carbon copy, about five minutes before. He hasn't looked as reliable as he's done in previous tournaments. And if you're the German coach, if you're Nagelsmann, what are you thinking?

18:17Do you change him? Obviously, Testegen's out. He's been injured all season. do you change that at all and bring in one of the others or do you again keep with a goalkeeper that's played so many tournaments and you'd think we'd have got all those errors out of his system now it's difficult and you know why i say it's difficult you got to look at the person itself it's not only the performance you also got to look at the human right what is behind like how does he feel personally because sometimes we say that oh you don't have to think about it this is football but guys we are still human so you have to also talk to him in a person in the sense of like where are you and if you feel that he's not at the level mentally where he's supposed to be then you have to have the question but that's the same thing what we're talking about now it's what we talked about cristiano cristiano came up but he answered everybody and am i happy that he answered yes i'm happy he answered because we are watching football and we want to see the grades doing well so in a moment i i feel like the coach needs to go nagelsman needs to go to him talk to him and say to him like look this and this happens how do you feel and if he says like no coach I'm there then okay you will play in the second game if he doesn't turn up at that game then you make your choice he doesn't have the choice anymore you have to make your choice as a coach that's the only thing you can say but now take him out straight away I will not be the guy that will take him out straight away I want to do that

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20:33I'm Steve Bratnell, host of Games Gone, the Steve Bratnell podcast. What's my favorite World Cup moment as a fan? I have to say, Michael Owen skinning the whole of the Argentina defence and cracking it in top corner for a very short space of time, I believed. It's an absolutely fantastic goal by Michael Owen! My favourite World Cup player in history. It won't be popular, but I'm going to say Diego Maradona. All right, he handballed it. But the guy was a complete genius. The People World Cup 2026. Listen on BBC Sounds.

21:19It does sort of feel like the World Cup for the older players. Do you know what I mean? Like the late 30s, early 40s. They're coming into their own. You call them older. That's why I don't say it. I say they're seasoned. They're seasoned. Don't call them old. They're seasoned. Seasoned. They know more than a regular person. Seasoned. And you're saying, oh, then I'm going, they're all younger than me. How old are you, Lloyd? I'm 42. But I've had a hair transplant. Oh, my God, it doesn't matter. I've paid to look young. Looks great. I paid to look young, too. I actually, it was a weird experience for me today.

21:53I watched the game in a bar in Venice Beach with a load of Ecuador fans, who are unbelievable, by the way, incredible fans. But I was secretly cheering on the Germans in the hope that Scotland might then have a chance of getting in. I felt like it was like a double dose of treason as an Englishman. Yeah. I felt really, I felt really, well, a bit dirty, really. Well, you should, really, shouldn't you? Because you are. He already jumped on his head, now you jump on him. Hey, bro, you're good, man. I said his hair transplant looked good. I haven't been that mean, have I? Well, anyway, at the time of recording, there is a 76 % chance of Ecuador playing Mexico in Mexico City in the Aztec in the last 32.

22:35I mean, what a story and game that would be. Guys, listen, in my life, you play at stadiums, right? Yes. Some stadiums treat you different, right? I was a 16-year-old kid, and I went to the Azteca Stadium. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I was at Ajax. I come on the field, and I'm looking at the stadium. I said, here is where the greats play. Hugo Saizis, Diego Maradona, Pele. I'm like, I'm a 16-year-old, even younger maybe. I was 15 maybe. I'm like, kid, you made it. Even if you don't go anywhere in life, you made it to the Azteca Stadium. It was unbelievable when I was there. It is a ridiculous stadium.

23:11What does it feel like when you walk out? What does it look like when you're on the pitch? Look, look. I've never felt like I could fly. But I felt I could fly. The only worst thing from the stadium, I can tell you, it's high up and you've got to walk really down, down, down. And at that time at the U teams, you've got to carry the kit back yourself. So you have your own bag and the kit stuff. You've got to help. You know, it ain't like you. Now we have the luxury. Someone is helping you out. No, this is the team's got to bring the bags the balls that is the dead so we carrying it all the way down and it's Halfway you have to stop read a little bit and carry on again because it's dead And also your altitude there as well Man breeding difficult see all the guys that we played against New Caxa They were running around they were like okay when I came back in Amsterdam.

23:56I was the Fittest guy the fastest guy. I have one of the best times of my life I'm saying like anyone that's prepped ever for a World Cup, go and prep in the Estega Stadium. It's unbelievable. Did you win the game? Yeah. Yeah. Good memory. We didn't mention it on the pod yesterday, but unbelievable scene yesterday at the Mexico game where Memo Ochoa came on. Talking about older players, like legend. Season. Season, sorry, season. When he came on, he was crying. All the players were crying. I was crying. I was like, this is a legend. This is probably the last time he's going to pop on a Mexico shirt.

24:34What a lovely moment for him. How old is he? I think he's 40. I'm 50. I cannot say that. Come on now. On the subject of passion, I just want to talk to you about Curacao as well. What does this mean for them to be at this tournament? It means a lot because you have a lot of the players of Curacao playing in the Netherlands. It's also connected to London because it's been a colony for years now. But the things back to it, like me, myself, I've been to the country a number of times, go on a holiday there. And it's amazing. You know, the people are nice and the country is nice. But it's very small.

25:06It's like, you know, like it's a small part. But one of the good things about it is that it's never been there. And when you make it as a country to get to that level, it's beautiful in the sense of like you're at the World Cup now. You understand? And you want to do more. And I told you, you said they want to do more. But this is their first step. And I think they should not be too hard on themselves in the sense of how difficult it is for us. It's not difficult for you guys. You already done that. You already are over the line of people not expecting you to be there. You are there now. Now you've got to do the next step.

25:39The next step is making your name. A lot of countries did that, like the Moroccans did. Making sure that now it's a normality. As mentioned earlier, Japan drew 1-1 with Sweden, which means that they will go on to play Brazil. which means Netherlands will play Morocco in the next round. I mean, Mario, talk us through that, please. Guys, look, look, if you come from the Netherlands, you know a lot of Moroccans. It's guaranteed. If you don't know Moroccans, you're probably living in your house. You're not coming out of your house. So you're going to come out of your house. So me, I come out of my house.