World Cup: England, Ronaldo & Humble Pie

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1:06Discover the V-Series lineup at Cadillac.com. The Football Daily at the People World Cup 2026 with Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith live from LA. Hello, you're listening to the Football Daily with me, Rick Edwards. and oh yes and me Lou Griffith yes singular we're going to be joined by Stephen Warnock very shortly to talk about England's 0-0 draw with Ghana and Ailey Barber is going to join us to preview Scotland's huge game against Brazil later today the other scores for you Croatia beat Panama 1-0 that's the other game in England's group Portugal Hamadouzbekistan 5-0 yes he scored a couple and Colombia beat Dr Congo 1-0 all the scores and highlights are available on the BBC sport website and app.

1:52Now, the England game was disappointing. Yes. But there was one massive highlight for me. So we went to an Irish pub again to go and watch it. That's where we'd watched the last one. It was a good atmosphere, plenty of England fans. And we won, so it was a good omen. Exactly. You wore the same shirt? Yes, I did. You wore a different Grimsby shirt. Thank you. And during the first hydration break, Lloyd and myself both needed to go and relieve ourselves. So Lloyd went in first. and I came in afterwards. Now, the setup in the restroom is one urinal and then directly next to the urinal, there's a cubicle.

2:30And I come in, Lloyd is at the urinal and I say, oh, I recognize that bottom anyway, or something like that. Something corny. Something like that, yeah. Which HR should ever talk about. That's actually not the thrust of this story and I wish I hadn't said thrust. So Lloyd then, well, I mean, I guess the thing to do is probably you pick it up. and explain what you think has happened. So I was in the cubicle on the right. No, you're at the urinal. I'm in the urinal on the right, okay? And I hear you do your little joke. And then I was like, well, I finished. And I know you're in the cubicle on the left.

3:06So as a little joke, I'll just basically put my feet underneath the cubicle and put my hands on the top and then go, Rick. And then basically I did that. And then I just looked to my left and I saw that you were behind me. I was not in a cubicle that was another fella and I just looked at you your mouth just dropped and I was like oh no I was in hysterics I ran out I've never seen you move that quickly you were in your red top it was like watching The Flash you looked so terrified and ashamed you didn't even wash your hands I did go to the front of the bar and get the sanitiser to make sure the pans were clean But it was one of those things where I was like, oh, this will be a bit of fun way to hang on with bonding.

3:53There was no one else in the restroom at the time. Spoiler, there was. Turns out there was. And then I basically then came back into the bar and then hid my trainers underneath the stool because I didn't want anyone to recognize my trainers. That's the guy. That's the perv. Not a perv. Just a clown. That's the pervy clown. Anyway, so that, I just, and you just came out laughing. and I was white and then producer Jonathan was like, what's just going on? I was like, I'll tell you tomorrow or listen to the pod, I'm guessing. I'll definitely bring it up. Anyway. Shall we talk about the football then?

4:29I think we should. And I guess we'll start with the England game. England 0, Ghana 0. Disappointing. Let's see if former England defender Stephen Warnock was also disappointed. Yes. I think everyone was optimistic off the back of the Croatia results in thinking this is going to be a completely different England in this tournament. It's going to be one that's free scoring. It's going to be one that's difficult to stop. But I think what we've seen with a lot of the games is even with the top teams and talking about France, Portugal, they've struggled in the game so far to break down stubborn defences at times.

5:07And it's going to take a little bit more patience. It's going to be difficult. I listened to Wayne Rooney talking the other day and he was talking about how differently the lower nations, if you like to call them are now coached, the better, the well organised and I think we're starting to see that Yeah, because although I don't think England were great you've got to give a lot of credit to Ghana they set out, did exactly what they wanted to do which was sit in and then wait for opportunities to break and it kind of worked perfectly It did work perfectly. It was ideal. I mean, you could arguably say they should have had a penalty towards the end of the game, which would have been the perfect game plan with Esri Conza making that foul or committing potential penalty.

5:51I mean, on that, I cannot, I cannot for the life of me work out why that hasn't been given. In real time, you're like, oh, and then when you watch the replays, it's Stonewall. He just sort of launches himself. His feet are in the air. he doesn't get the ball and he takes out the play you just think well what more do you want what more do you need I'd be I'd be splitting feathers if I was if I was gone yeah it's quite worrying isn't it when you've got a referee who I think you can you can give the referee a little bit of a pass on that because of perhaps the position of where he is and probably thinks there's a touch on the ball but when you go to BIR that's inexcusable that's the problem yeah but I think Carlos Kieros in his press conference afterwards said had VAR gone for a coffee are VAR on a vacation had VAR stopped working he was really I think actually like everyone just completely bemused by it.

6:51I suppose the only well initially I thought maybe it was offside but I don't think it was the only other thing I thought was maybe it was a foul on Ezza in the build up to it but. It's really weird because There's a lot of these decisions, there's no explanation for some of them. They go into great detail for some decisions. With a really, really clear ones. Yeah, and then for other ones, they just go, well, let's just crack on. Surely we're going to have a look at that. And they don't, and there's no explanation. And I think that's the thing that's so frustrating. People are just left with all these questions unanswered, including, you know, Carlos Kureš.

7:22Yeah. Why is it so hard? This might be a very basic question. I apologise. Why is it so hard to play against a low block, even when Thomas Tuchel will have anticipated playing against that low block. Yeah, when you set up a back four and then you've got a holding player in front of it who's just screening that, it's very difficult to play in behind because there's very little space to play those balls over the top. We know Harry Kane doesn't have blistering pace, so he doesn't play that way. And it's an exercise that you do a lot of times in training day in, day out, where you try and break down a back four or back five.

7:57Now, you can have an overload of seven, eight players. and in a training session for round about 20-30 minutes, you might not score a goal because you're not getting moved out of position. Now suddenly what we used to do in training was we'd say, right, one of the full-backs has got to release himself, he's got to go downfield and then the opposition team have got an overload of say a 5v3 or a 6v3. Now that's a little bit easier to shift them because it becomes more space. Well Garner very, very rarely shifted out that space. I just thought it was a game where I love Thomas Tuchel. I think he's a brilliant manager.

8:31I think he's proactive in the changes that he made. I thought he probably waited 10 minutes too long today. And I thought he could have taken off another midfielder, one of the holder midfielders, whether it was Anderson or Rice. And I thought he could have put on another attacking midfielder in that position. But listen, the great thing is, and I know it's not a great result, he went for it. Whereas I think in previous years, I think we've sat back and just gone, it's not our day, we'll take the point and we'll get on with it. That wasn't the case and I don't think that'll ever be the case for Thomas Tuchel.

9:02There was that chance for Harry Kane, I mean, Nico O 'Reilly, we've seen him score goals like that for Manchester City this season, unlucky. Then when it rebounds to Kane, you just think, well, that's definitely a goal. Harry's gobbling that up all day long and then when he misses, that is when you thought, it probably isn't our day actually. And that's the other thing as well, when you talk about Nico O 'Reilly, That was the other thing that I was surprised at more than anything, that he didn't start in that left-back position. When you have a right-sided or right-footed left-back, it loses that little bit of balance on the pitch.

9:34And you see the difference he makes when he comes on because you end up getting more bodies in the box and it causes chaos. You get crosses into the box. It's so difficult to play against at times. But then, like you say, when it falls to Harry Kane, the only thing is it fell on his left foot. usually on his left foot he's a lot more composed and he never really hits it with his laces you'll often see Harry Kane side foot it and find that composure but I just think it was at that point in the game where he just felt it was a great opportunity and rushed it but that's very very unlike him that shot by Harry Kane was one of only three touches that he had in the box the whole game which just goes to show Wogana absolutely did their job nullify all of the threats but specifically Harry Kane Yeah, and that's what you have to do You have to do that when you're playing against England You've got to limit the opportunities that he gets And Rick made the point before Dropping deep, sitting on the edge of the box Well, that's so difficult to find space To find the ball into him And the other thing with Harry is He likes to go wandering to try and get on the ball To create for other players Because he gets a little bit frustrated And we know he's a great passer of the ball as well In the way he gets on the ball But yeah, he'll be wanting to play in higher positions It's an interesting one And I think what we're going to see in this World Cup certainly is, we're going to see a lot of teams playing this way.

10:51But once England progress and get further down the line and they play against the better teams, it'll actually suit us. Because they'll come out of shape and they'll open up a little bit more and we'll see the difference in the styles. So on that then, how will Thomas Tuchel approach Panama? We were watching the Panama game earlier on and they didn't sit back as much as Ghana did. but I suspect that they're going to go into a fairly low block. It would make sense. Does Thomas Tuchel think, for example, I don't need two holding midfielders or I can give one of them, probably Declan Rice, just licence to get forward a bit more?

11:33Yeah, I think that would be the thing. I mean, I just saw a social media clip of Declan Rice walking up, getting on the bus and he looks like he's got a heavily strapped calf. He picked up a knock towards the end of the game and it might be a case that he does rest one of those two-centimeter fielders and then goes for more attack-minded players. I wouldn't mind personally myself seeing Harry Kane through the middle and Bellingham and Rodgers either side of him in sort of your 2-8 positions or 2-10 positions, higher up supporting Harry Kane, it'll push the back line even. They'll have to step out, they'll have to engage at some point.

12:06But what you get with Morgan Rodgers, which is different to Jude Bellingham, is he's a player that commits players. so when he dribbles someone will eventually have to step out of position he'll draw players out it wouldn't surprise me as well to see Marcus Rashford start on the left hand side I think the cameos that he's had so far have been hugely impressive and when you want a player to get round the back or to get in 1v1 situations I think he's been the key player at the moment for England he's been the one positive when he stepped on the field I think there's a bit of a question mark over Rashford though isn't there?

12:41Because there was a point where basically Maduweke went on to the left for like another 10 minutes and then you had Saka and Maduweke on either side, which no one predicted apart from me in the first day, but we don't need to talk about that. But I think it just then goes to show that is there a situation where the England team have gone well we can't have Rashford on for 20, 25, 30 minutes. He's only got 10 minutes in the tank and does that mean actually we've got more injuries than we first thought. Yeah, quite possibly. I also think... I wasn't listening. I was listening, sorry. He loves fire engines, bless him, and some fire engines came past.

13:19He just started... He just drifted away for a moment. Say sorry to Stephen. Stephen, I'm so sorry, but they were absolutely beautiful, three of them. He honestly... He's like a child. They're great, aren't they? Yeah, thank you, Stephen. Yes, they are great. That's cool. Do not encourage him. I'm just going to mute. I like them as well. They're brilliant. I guarantee you don't like them as much as he does. Hey, Stephen, I'll send you a few Instagram accounts. follow over. This is getting so weird now. Anyway, that shouldn't have happened and we apologise. What were you saying, Stephen? Yeah, they're just lovely, aren't they?

13:49The fire engines, the machines they make. I can't have it for both of you. Yeah, Stephen, I really love you. Thank you so much for that. I'm taking a pair of toddlers out, honestly. Incredible. No, I was just saying about Maduweke, how well I thought you played in the first half and then And I thought maybe it was just a case of Thomas Tuchel thought he'd done enough in the first half just to warrant staying on a little bit longer. The opportunity to play on that left-hand side. We know he can play on that side. But, yeah, I was quite surprised that he didn't bring Rashford on a little bit earlier.

14:23Like I say, I thought in around the 60-minute mark. Because giving 10 minutes to players in a game like that, it's not enough. I think you need more to have more of an impact. Line-up-wise, there were a couple of surprises in there, weren't there? bringing Jed Spence in and Gaye in for O 'Reilly and Stones. And I don't quite know what the thinking is there. Is it just that with the three centre-backs that he's got, he's happy with picking any two of that three and any combination? I think he's very mindful of John Stones' history over the last sort of six months or so and picking up injuries. And I think he's managing him as much as he can.

15:02and I think he just thinks, yeah, if he needs to, he's quite happy to change it and put Gahey in. I think when listening to him afterwards, he was talking about the transitions. Obviously, they've got Semenyo in the team, Garner, and he knows Jed Spencer's athletic, getting back in great and 1v1 situations. My big thing is just you lose the balance and being a former full-back, when you play with a full-back who's got the wrong foot, if you like. So Jed Spence playing with his right foot constantly. The ball that he plays into Anthony Gordon's very predictable and it's very difficult for Anthony Gordon then to find space and get in a 1v1 situation.

15:43I'll go back to when he picked the squad. I understood why he took Jed Spence, but I thought he was taking him as a right back. But obviously, Liveramento and him were used as left back and right back. So obviously, Liveramento has dropped out the squad. I still can't understand how Lewis Hall hasn't made this squad. I really can't because you've got that ability. He's great in 1v1 situations. He brings you balance. So then you've got O 'Reilly and it's nothing against Jed Spence. I've said it before. I think he's brilliant in defensive situations. He's actually decent going forward as well. But I just don't think left-back suits him.

16:15Interesting feature of this side, actually. You mentioned relationships that players have, pre-existing relationships at clubs. and this side had 10 different clubs represented. So the only double is Rice and, well, starting line-up was Rice and Madweke. Everyone else playing at different clubs. And you can kind of look at that as good from the point of view of, well, you won't get the kind of clique thing that has plagued England in the past. But then you are maybe missing those special little relationships that have been formed over many years, perhaps. Yeah, quite possibly, but I believe Thomas Tuchel's great at integrating players and getting the best out of them.

17:00So we're picking the bones out of a performance that was very difficult to play against the team that was very well organised. And I did Five Live yesterday when we had the rain delay in the France game. I know you did. I was listening. It's a lot of time to film, mate. but Julian Le Ronde was talking about how frustrated he was with watching France trying to break down the team like the opposition and I was like Jules this is international football this is the hardest thing that you can do and you're trying to you think about the French team they're from all different clubs we think of Paris Saint-Germain as being the French champions and European champions they only have a couple of players in that team and that is where you're at with that so the relationships between players uh at the top top teams is yeah it's it's it's one of those situations where you've got to try and blend the players get them used to each other i think thomas tuchel's done a brilliant job of that because i think certainly in this game there was a few moments where we came to life and the interplay was brilliant certainly was against croatia i think we're just picking the bones out of it purely because we just wanted a little bit more but i'm still massively optimistic with this manager uh steven we're gonna let you go now nice chatting.

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20:10Later today, Scotland have the chance to make history when they come up against Brazil. They've never made it out of the group stages before in any international tournament. Ailey Barber, BBC Scotland's camp reporter, joins us now. Ailey, whereabouts are you? I am currently sitting outside a Cuban restaurant in Little Havana in Miami. so you might hear the hum of some Cuban music in the background. Great vibe here in this part of the city. You mentioned hum, but does it smell nice? It does. I've just eaten in a really, really good Cuban restaurant. The food was amazing, so I can still get a little waft of that standing outside the door.

20:48I'm trying to picture this. Are you sort of in an alley around the back? Yeah, it's like a sort of pedestrian street. It's actually at the top of the street. There's that traditional little circle of men playing some sort of board game on little deck chairs around a table, which is lovely. That's usually Rick. Yeah, hang on. What are they playing, Ailey? Do you know? Are they playing chess or backgammon? I don't know. I haven't been that close. There's dice involved. There's been some dice involved. It could be backgammon. Can you? I am going to need you to get a little bit closer and identify the game, Ailey.

21:18Maybe off air and then message me to let me know. I might. I sidled a little closer and they all got up, so now I'm feeling a little bit like I need to move away again. Retreat back into the alley. Retreat, retreat, retreat. But if they are playing back, I'm going to book my flight to Miami right now. You've been in camp since the start of the tournament. What's the feeling like now? Are you excited? Are you nervous? Are you sort of everything? Everything, really. I mean, like you said, we as Scots have never seen our country in a men or women's major tournament compete in a knockout stage. So that is still very much in their hands.

21:55But we are playing Brazil in Miami where the humidity today at the stadium when I was there, which was during a thunderstorm, but it was at 92%. I've never felt moisture in the air like it. It was also very, very hot. So there are a lot of conditions that Scotland are going to have to need to deal with. And that is without even looking at the quality of the opposition. So it is a tough task, but when we look at the format of this tournament, there has never been a better chance to get into a knockout stage when you manage to secure that victory. So three points could be enough. The opportunity is there because the work was done in that game against Haiti, and I know a lot of people have criticised the performance and the amount of the ball and possession that Haiti had, but ultimately Scotland got the victory.

22:42They got the victory. Exactly. Exactly. A win in a major tournament. They don't come often for Scots. In spite of presumably being very, very clammy, Andy Robertson and Steve Clarke seem pretty relaxed in the press conferences. Yeah, it's been a really interesting atmosphere around the squad because third major tournament under Steve Clarke, the first one was during COVID. It was all very different anyway, but it was a first taste of it for the Scotland players and for Steve Clarke. then you get the first experience of being away from home and on the road and everything that comes with that and the players and Steve Clark have spoken about regrets of that tournament in Germany they didn't perform the way they wanted to on the main stage so coming into this one there's been such a relaxed atmosphere to win the qualifying group to do it in the way they did against Denmark there's been such a feel-good Steve Clark has been so relaxed he's been chatting away off camera he's been it's been very different to the Steve Clarke we saw in Germany and they just want to come out here and enjoy it and have fun as much as they can around the football there's been big family days scheduled in amongst amongst the matches so that they can see their family spend full days with their family they've been allowed out and about in Charlotte where their training centre is based they've been out and about in Boston they've been going for coffees But, I mean, they flew from Charlotte, where they trained in 40 degrees, to Miami yesterday and then went straight into a sauna.

24:16So the hard work is happening to try and deal with the conditions. Glunt for punishment. Exactly. Ailey, why do you think they are more relaxed this time round? I think it's a lot of it is looking back to Germany, where they took a lot of pressure on themselves, I think. You know, that opportunity was there to be the first Scotland squad to qualify. out of the group stage. Similar situation to this time, but they just didn't perform that game against Hungary. But also a lot of the players going into Germany, the likes of John McGinn, Scott McTominay, Andy Robertson, had had injury problems leading up.

24:51They weren't perhaps fully fit. The squad right now is in a really good place fitness-wise. They're all healthy. They're all ready to go. Aaron Hickey, we know is not going to be available for the game against Brazil. But other than that, it is a full bill of health. And they've been together now for so long, so many of them. But in amongst that, there's been an injection of some young players who are just snapping at the heels, waiting for an opportunity. So it feels like a time where they've sort of gone, this World Cup has been 28 years in the making. It's up to us to enjoy it and go out and do it.

25:24And I've really enjoyed being around the camp. I've really enjoyed being around the players and the management staff and the backroom staff. So hopefully, hopefully that history can be made here in America. if not Miami tomorrow night over the next couple of days. Can we spare a moment of consideration for the people of Boston? Because they fell in love with the Tartan Army and they felt that they had this incredible bond and there was talks of twinning Boston with Glasgow. And now they're looking at pictures of the Tartan Army in Miami dancing outside the Marlins Stadium, singing along to the Wenger boys and it's like they've forgotten all about Boston.

26:05It's really sad, isn't it? It's heartbreaking, Amy. It's what it is. It's heartbreaking. It's like seeing an ex move on. Yeah. And so quickly. So quickly. Oh, no. That bond with Boston will never be lost. What a magical couple of games that was. The atmosphere there. It's different in Miami. Boston was incredible. It was everything that every Scotland fan, Tartan Army fan, wanting to go to a World Cup, could have dreamed of. And I actually saw today, apparently the New England Patriots are investigating the possibility of having an NFL match in Glasgow. so just to keep that going strong. That will be tasty.

26:38I also saw a fire engine today on social media going down a street in Miami. To be clear, Lloyd is obsessed with fire engines. I love fire engines. Fire engines, cathedrals, they're my thing. There was a fire engine going down a street in Miami today and it was playing Yes Sir, I Can Boogie. And there were just hundreds of Scotland fans just embracing it. And I think it's great that Miami have seen what Boston have done and gone, we'll have a piece of that please. I'm assuming every brewery in Miami have gone, well, let's just buy more and more barrels. We're going to make a profit here. Yeah, and nothing is safe from the traffic cone.