World Cup: Scotland's Biggest Test Yet

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1:06Discover the V-Series lineup at Cadillac.com. The Football Daily Podcast at the People World Cup 2026 with Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Hello, you're listening to the Football Daily with me, Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Yes, absolutely right. We're into the second round of the group games. Just feels like there's been so many games. Coming up, we're going to be speaking to Charlie Adam, ahead of Scotland's massive game tonight against Morocco. Rafa Honigstein is going to join us to do a bit of an overview of the first round of the group games, what we've learned. Also, a quick look at today's games as well.

1:45Those scores from overnight are Mexico, the first country through to the next round after beating South Korea 1-0. Canada thrashed Qatar 6-0. Switzerland beat Bosnia-Herzegovina 4-1. And Chechier drew one all with South Africa. If you want to catch up, all of the scores and highlights are available on the BBC Sport website and app. Now, between games today, we had our most, I would say, Hollywood day. So we went into Beverly Hills because, and I don't want to talk about it, we had a meeting with an American agent. No big deal. And when we were in Beverly Hills, I wanted to go to a shop. And so we went to a shop.

2:23And it's quite a, well, put it this way. it's a shop where you have to queue outside behind a rope and then when two people get it's like going into a club it's like going to a club yeah yeah so we we eventually two out two into out exactly um that's not actually the phrase but whatever uh so we went in and um we were just having a browse the stuff's too expensive basically and uh it's not really for fat fellas like me what was fantastic i was cutting a bit fine to get to my um meeting with did i mention i was to a US agent. And so I had to get to this. Lloyd tried on a very nice but very expensive jacket that I would say there was no danger whatsoever of you buying.

3:01Is that fair? Well, I mean, I would... No, you weren't going to buy it. $1 ,800. That's right. So he pops it on and looks great. It's a nice jacket. As I said, well, I've got to go now. Lloyd realised that he somehow had got stuck in the jacket because he couldn't get the zip undone. And so as I left the shop, I was thinking maybe Lloyd is literally going to have to buy that jacket. It was glorious. We won't mention the jacket brand, but there's a badge on the, you know, get the badge. And they have some quite eclectic stuff. There was a couple of tips at the bottom, which I'll never enjoy. I mean, why do you need two sips?

3:39Just one for me, please. Green, kind of like nice metallic shell. Stop describing this jacket. It doesn't matter. The inside was like tinfoil. It was like tinfoil, yeah. And then I couldn't get out of it. Like you just finished the marathon. Unlikely. Unbelievable. Well, basically, it looked like you just ordered me from Spud Bros. And then couldn't get the tinfoil off. Can I get a Grimsby special, please? And I was there, and this jacket, because it was like tinfoil inside. I then start sweating. I love it when you start sweating. This shop is so hot, and they're quite judgmental in there. They're really judgmental, yeah.

4:12Already there's a little fat man getting into a jacket that he shouldn't be getting into anyway. The tinfoil's making me sweat. You're literally going, I've got to go. I've got to go and meet this American agent. I'm not sure if I mentioned it. And I'm there going, Rick, you can't leave me. No, I did have to leave. And at one point he went, I'm going to have to go. At which point I kind of looked at the shop assistant. He kind of looked at me and looked at me like, oh, mate, don't let me. Don't make me come over there and get you out of this jacket. And then managed to like with my little sweaty mitts, get out of this jacket.

4:39There was a point where I thought the shop assistant was going to cut you out. And then I just had to pay$1 ,800 for a jacket that I don't really want. I don't look. Where would I wear it as well? What's a choir? I don't know. Anyway, it was, yeah. I mean, and I think that's just why Beverly Hills is not for me. Not for you. I'm at home at Freshly Place in Grimsby. Do you know what I mean? Another one, in fact, was when we got on a hog, one of the electric bikes, and it was one of the two-person ones. Yeah. And I was riding, unusually. Normally, I'm hugging you. And I was at the front, but I also had my rucksack on.

5:11And then you were sitting. So I was like, well, maybe I should go to the front. And you're like, no, no, no. So you're sort of hugging. That's not what I sound like. A little bit. You're sort of hugging me from behind, but also hugging around a rucksack. So it's a bit precarious. And actually, as we came out, I didn't have massive control over the hull. It was wobbling all over the shelf. It was really wobbly. It was a jelly. And sort of weaving and wobbling as we went across, well, four lanes of a highway. And you, and I'm sorry to say this, there was a car coming. There was. We were going to be fine.

5:42We were going to be fine. But you were squealing like a little piggy. I was squealing. You were. I'd have said like a hog if I were you. Oink! I was like, Rick, there's a big truck coming our way. But you didn't even, you know what you actually said? You named the truck, the type of truck. There's a Tacoma coming. It felt like an optician's appointment where the letters were getting bigger and bigger. I was like, read the number. I can definitely read that. Oh, honestly. Charlie Adam joins us now. Charlie, last time we spoke to you, it was 4am after the Scotland game and you were very tired. Bless you.

6:15You're joining us now again. is 4am becoming a bit of a habit did you fall asleep during this commentary? No well after first half performance yeah we were nearly there but we regrouped at half time we had a word with ourselves and thought right let's get the energy in the second half and to be fair to the Mexicans they come out and they got the goal it was a poor goal to lose for South Korea oh yeah and you know the goalkeeper makes an error but yeah it was a good finish from the midfielder and yeah it was a good win for Mexico to get them to qualify for the last 32 now it was a good opportunity for you to use your catchphrase as well, Lloyd.

6:48Oh, you've got to keep hold of it. And actually, in that case, he really did have to. In that case. He's a good goalkeeper, but he had a bit of a stinker today. And then that double save at the end. Double save at the end for the Mexico keeper. That's lovely. I think he's got to do better, the striker. I don't think he gets a strong enough header on it. I think he might actually go back to a goal, but it's a lovely ball in and the goalkeeper does a brilliant save and it's a double save to keep them in the game to win it. And, yeah, he didn't really have much to do with the Mexican goalkeeper. And, yeah, it was a big save for them.

7:17What I will say is when he went down, he did the double save and then he went down. And it looked like he was quite injured. And I was like, oh, no. But then him in the back of May going, oh, we're going to get to see Memo Achara. Achara, yeah. Oh, for his 154th count or something. At the age of 48. He's only 40. Is he? Okay, fair enough. But he doesn't have 14 million followers. Mexico now through to the last 32. and looking at the path, it feels like England might be on a collision course with Mexico in the last 16 and that would be in Mexico City at altitude in front of 90 ,000 Mexican fans in the Azteca.

7:56And that's going to be a big ask, I think, Charlie. Yeah, there is a big ask, but if I'm watching that tonight, England will blow Mexico away. No problems. With a team that England have got and the performance I thought the other night was excellent. I didn't see anything in Mexico that would scare England. I think England would blow them away even then. Yeah, the attitude would be tough, but if you look at the teams, England have got a far better team, but it was just a good atmosphere for, you know, as a home nation to be able to call it. We want the sort of home nations to get as deep as we can to keep the energy within the games.

8:31And yeah, it was a good win for Mexico and it'll be interesting to see how the coach does it in the next game. Does he rest a couple or does he try and go for to win every game and look to try and get that sort of draw in the last 32? Let's move on to Scotland then. They play Morocco later today. It's a massive, massive game. But it was interesting what Steve Clarke was saying in his press conference, which is basically with the Scottish psyche. Sometimes it helps. They're more comfortable being the underdogs. Does that ring true? Yeah, no, absolutely And that's where I said The Haiti game was more of a A difficult game for us Because we had a little bit We thought we were going to have More of the ball But we didn't actually You know, Haiti had more possession We need to be better with the ball And if we do that Then we'll give ourselves A better chance I didn't think I thought we were poor with the ball The other night against Haiti But Morocco are a different side You know, they're seventh in the world FIFA ranking So we've got good players That can hurt you And, you know, this game will suit Scotland They'll be able to counter-attack quickly and not has much possession, but hopefully be able to hurt them in different areas.

9:36Charlie, we've been asking a number of people, players, pundits, fans, which team has surprised them the most. And the one answer that comes back is Morocco. It's going to take a lot to try and beat them. What do you think Scotland will have to do in order to just get any result out of them? Well, I think we'll have to defend really well. It was a clean sheet in the first game and they've got good players. Hakeemidia and Diaz, just to name a few, a couple of players that can hurt you on their day you know, Hakimi's coming off the back of winning back-to-back Champions Leagues for PSG so they've got quality players around their squad and we have to be in our top level game, we have to be defend well, we have to attack well, we'll need eight or nine players playing well to really impact this game and if we do that it'll give us a chance, we feel like we only need the point but I don't think you can always think about going into a game with a point Steve will have a game plan, might be a little bit of a tweak in terms of formation and maybe go with one up front.

10:31There's that nice delivery of food coming. Yeah, yeah. Did you see it? Did you see the little gesture as well? Just like, hold on. Yeah, he's just all wearing it. I'm talking to a former Scotland international here, actually. Calm down, Josh. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You've got Charlie Adam here at 10 quarter past, four in the morning. He doesn't want to see our Caesar salads. Yeah, also, did you notice that there were two salads there? Like, we're athletes, basically. Yeah, no, absolutely. You've got to look after yourself. Thank you. Yes, yes, yes. Anyway, going back to Scotland. Yeah, I think we've got to play.

10:59we've got to defend well, we need to attack well and we need eight or nine top performances to get anything out of this game. It'll be a difficult match but we feel like we're in a good place there's good atmosphere around the stadiums, the Scotland fans are enjoying it and the boys seem to be buoyant with that result and again that's sort of that monkey off the back, first win at a World Cup for a long time. On that thing of sitting back absorbing pressure and then being quick on transition. Ben Gannendoke will be absolutely vital in that, won't he? Yeah, he had a tough hamstring injury, long-term injury in terms of for three or four months after Denmark game, got back near the end of the season for Bournemouth and he's played a couple of friendlies now.

11:44His performance the other night was good, but yeah, we're going to need him on that counter-attack. We're going to need his pace, his power. So again, I think we might look to try and play maybe an extra midfielder in there and only play one up front. Maybe he goes with Shea Adams because he gives you that sort of legs to run in behind as well. Maybe a little bit different to Shanklin and maybe he goes with Adams. I thought Adams did well with the other night. He did really well for the goal. Runs in behind. Lovely touch. Set back for Gannon Doak and then he gets Jean McGinn to the edge of the box and it was a scruffy goal but it was a goal that we'll take.

12:22And Scotland, I mean, obviously this sort of applies to every team but they need their big senior players to step up. So I'm thinking about, obviously, John McGinn, Andy Robertson, Scott McTominay. They have to be absolutely on it, don't they? They have to set the standard. Yeah, absolutely. And again, you're spying your team's key. The goalkeeper needs to play well. Two centre-backs. Robertson's obviously got massive experience at club level and at national level now as well. also McTominay, McGinn's, they need to play well for us to really have an impact on the game. The Moroccan coach was saying he felt his biggest problem was probably going to be the physical presence of Scotland, so winning those second balls and headers, and you do think that's somewhere that Scotland might be able to dominate?

13:13Oh, absolutely, that's something that we have to use, set plays, you know, we have to use that again, and being physical to make a difference to the opponent. But Morocco are coming in here in good form. Let's say before they won the African Nations Cup, drew 1-1 with Brazil and played really well against Brazil for that sort of first period till the hydration break. And then Carlo Ancelotti changed it a little bit and then Brazil got a little bit of momentum. But, you know, there's just a lot of array of talent within this Morocco team. and Scotland will know it's going to be a tough game. But also, again, like I say, the coach has made that point that it's going to be physical and Scotland have to try and use that because he's saying that because that's something that they're worried about.

14:00When, as a player, you go into a game and you know exactly what you're saying, so you play a team and they're technically much, much worse than you, they're lower down in the rankings, or you know that they're much better than you, much higher up in the rankings, does that make an imperceptible change to the way that you approach the game, even if you obviously try not to? Yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm just using my own experience of, you know, playing for Stoke against Man City, that you know that you're playing against a better team and you've got better players. What you're hoping is that you can make an impact on their performance.

14:37And you're hoping that they don't have eight or nine players playing at the peak and the top level, because if they do that, you know they're going to win the game. so you have to try and find ways what's the weaknesses, how can we affect the game so that might be making sure that we don't go and press at the wrong times and we just get picked off, we're in good shape we're organised and we go together and we can, making the distances small because then it becomes difficult for them to find the spaces so it's just different things, you've got to find a way of affecting your opponent and Scotland will be the same they'll look at that Morocco squad and think, yeah there's very good players but the Scotland players are good as well.

15:17There's good players in our Scotland squad that can hurt you on their day and we're just hoping that we can turn up and we can get eight or nine top performances that will give us a chance of getting a result in the game. I think every team as well will have watched the way that Cape Verde played against Spain and thought, oh, well, it's possible. Absolutely possible. No, absolutely. By the way, we're not playing against Spain. We're not playing against a Portugal or an England Who have got the top five nations in the world We're playing against Morocco Who are very good side with good players But on the day anything can happen And we're going into this game with a lot more confidence Than we did in the first game in the Euros against Germany And that win and that buoyant atmosphere around the stadium And in the stadium will be electric It will be electric to see Scotland fans again there and the players need to feed from that.

16:11When the tank's empty, we need to go again. We need to be able to drive ourselves as a group of players. Substitution will be key. Steve's got to make the right substitution at the right times. Sometimes supporters are disappointed when he makes a substitution, but he needs to make the right substitution at the right times and hopefully that makes an impact as well. The Scotland fans are going to be in terrific voice. We know that. They're having the time of their lives out in Boston. I'm sure you've seen all of the stuff. They've effectively taken over the city with the city's blessing. The Bostonians are absolutely loving it.

16:42Every statue's got a traffic cone on it. They took over Fenway Park. I hope you've seen the governor signing a declaration making haggis legal in Massachusetts, which is fantastic. They had a big gathering where it was like the most number of Americans drinking iron brew a single time, organised by this YouTube. It was unofficial, apparently. Unofficial, but you suspect it probably is. if we're making haggis legal anything's possible we could do anything anything possible in America they love the Scots listen the Scotland fans will travel all over the world to support the team but what they won't do well is have a good time and the locals will have enjoyed Scotland fans being there and you want to make a lasting impression on people and the most important thing for us now is we make a lasting impression on the pitch and we qualify for that last 32 does it feel like you're working nights at the moment do you know what I mean like my mates who go work at Grimsby Docks, in Birmingham Docks.

17:37I mean, they're working nights at the moment, especially, so they can watch the games when they get home. Does it feel like you've got a proper job when you work in nights? Yeah, absolutely, Lloyd. This is not in my way of working. I'm not a morning person. I do not see the middle of the night. The only time I ever see the middle of the night is getting up for a wee. Well, you're right, Charlie. That's going to happen more and more, I'm afraid. Yeah, exactly that. But no, this is not what I planned. but it's just nice to be involved in the World Cup. Absolutely. It's a brilliant opportunity and, yeah, thankful for that.

18:10But, yeah, my sleep is struggling. And I should speak to these lads. Cheers, Charlie. Nice one. We've got to get our salads down us now. So, yeah, excuse us. Get to sleep, Charlie.

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19:32Five Live Sports. So here's the first ball of this series. All the cricket you'd love. Check for LBW. Ouch. Lives on BBC Sounds. Smash straight back down the ground, this girl. Hear ball-by-ball coverage of the biggest competitions on the domestic and international circuits. It's a fourth week and it's the huge one. Jeez, wash. Settle down, tough. Sorry, mate. Cricket on Five Live Sport. Oh, I've lived every ball of this. Listen on BBC Sounds.

20:03The football day at the People World Cup 2026. Listen on BBC Sounds.

20:12We're joined now by German football journalist Rafa Honigstein and we've just been having an argument about whether cricket is any good. There is no argument, is there? Yeah, there is. It's fantastic. You're talking to cricket fans. I don't get it. You haven't watched enough. 33 years in England and nothing. Short form. What about short form? Were they just talking in the whole time? No. Have you been to a nice little test game? I have not been to a cricket game. Well, come on. We'll take you. We'll take you. Friends of mine who've told me how brilliant it is, they usually talk about all the things that have nothing to do with the sport.

20:44They say, oh, you can take a sandwich. You can listen to the radio. I can do all these things in my garden. Why do I need to go to a cricket game? It's such a lovely social day. My dad's favorite thing to do is just go on his own to a county cricket match. And he just sits there. He reads the paper. He has a lovely time. I don't know. If the game was so interesting. It is interesting. Why would you say, go there and read a paper? the great thing that you don't need to be focusing intently on the game I just don't it's so good and also you can just have a little nap as well if you need to without going into too much detail I just want to say it doesn't get my juices flowing the way football does why does football get your juices flowing because but it gets mine flowing as well I'm not like because I think there's something happening there with two teams battling to put a round thing into a goal and it's it just it resonates more I think than somebody whacking a ball it just there is no real connection to any meaningful thing I think the deeper message in football is quite sexy I do love that and yeah that's yeah that's it do you know what thanks very much for joining us that's the kind of insight we needed you wait till we take you to Chester the street for a nice little day test and you'll be like do you know what lads my juices are flowing now yeah I've got as I said the raging horn I mean we might as well talk about the football while you're here yeah let's go if we must so this is a quick pit stop for you in Santa Monica have you been all around no I've been to San Francisco so far and LA and I'm flying off to Dallas to see Argentina Austria and then Kansas and then who knows it's all up in the air so have you been with Ralf Rang yet is that what you've been doing yes I work with the Austrian national team apart from doing a bit of journalism on the side these days and I follow them and I go to their games and of course also keep an eye on Germany and all these other big sides.

22:39And it's been really good. How's Ralph feeling about things? He's very happy. I bet he is. The first game against Jordan was very pressurized because with Algeria and Argentina to come, it was the sort of game where if you win, you're in a fantastic position. If you draw, you're in a really terrible position. Yeah, yeah. So it almost felt a little bit like a final. And you could feel the tension. and also for a team that haven't had any World Cup experience for 28 years, that is a long time to just turn up and play as if it wasn't a very kind of special game. You could feel it a little bit in the first half, but yeah, it's looking good at the moment.

23:19So we've seen the first round of the group games. So 24 matches. A lot of matches. It is a lot. I mean, we knew this going in, but my God, it's quite hard to know. That is literally what we're here to do. And we're watching them all. But it is hard to keep up. I don't have such a problem with keeping up with the matches because I don't think there are more matches than we used to at this stage of the tournament. I think it's usually four games or has been four games a day for quite a while now. The problem is the amount of teams. I cannot remember what team played who and what is the story. And it's a bit like following three different TV series at the same time.

23:58It kind of blurs into each other and you're thinking, hold on, this episode, was that in this series? There's a lot of pausing. There's a lot of pausing going, who's that? Why is there an annoying teenage girl in it? Oh, no, every TV series has an annoying teenage girl. It's a kind of trope. But anyway, and I say that as a father of three teenage girls, so I pick up on these things. But it's really hard, I think, to engage deeply with sort of the narratives around teams unless you're already familiar with them. Because, you know, I mean, tonight you're thinking, OK, I really want to know a bit more about this Mexico team, but now I know there's another game coming up and I need to think about these other four or six or seven or 18 teams.

24:39And it's hard. It's hard to dive into it the way that you usually can, I think, when there's just slightly less frenzied amount of teams involved. I felt like it was quite good in LA, this Mexico-South Korea game, because there's a big Mexican contingent in LA and you've got Korea Towns as a big Korean contingent. So it felt like there was a kind of fizz about the place. And I think that's something that perhaps we all underestimated a little bit, just how local this World Cup is. I don't think a lot of people in Europe felt very excited because it's hard to get to, it's very expensive, there's all the immigration issues, the political situation is very divisive.

25:17But people who are here, like even at that Jordan-Austria game, there were thousands and thousands of Jordan-Americans who traveled from all over the US to be there with their team. And it felt very, very special. So the world already is here to a certain extent, even if the fans from their home country stay away, maybe. And it's nice because you're kind of being educated as to where the pockets of the world are in America, which is something that I absolutely didn't know. I didn't know that outside of Iran, Los Angeles has got the largest... Teorangeles. Yeah, I mean, Lloyd is quite an ignorant man, but, you know, it is good for him.