Joy for Jiménez and Mexico as co-hosts make ideal start: World Cup Daily

16:01Jonathan Wilson:Welcome to part two of the Guardian Football Weekly. We've got some live shows, Barry, in September. Over in that there Northern Hemisphere. Okay. Vicar Street on the 1st of September in Dublin. Are you big in Ireland? I'm actually in stone nearly, Max. I'm big everywhere. Okay, good. You were going to start doing a jog up the Incredible Hill near our hotel. You have an ankle issue.

16:21Max Rushden:We have an Incredible Hill up to our hotel, which is like Alpe d 'Huez insofar as it's really steep. and then right near the top it ramps up. And then it ramps up again. And it's so steep at the top, this is actually a handrail to help you drag yourself up. So I was hoping to start running. Project Kate Bush running up that hill. And now I've got some weird Achilles issue. Not 100 % fit. I keep getting shooting pains up my right heel and I'm slightly concerned. I don't want to die to be ruled out of the World Cup with a ruptured Achilles.

17:00Jonathan Wilson:Can we get someone from the long list if Barry, now you've made an appearance in the tournament, maybe you can't. Anyway, Vicar Street on the 1st of September. The Soho Theatre, Walthamstown on the 8th of September. The show in New York is sold out, I'm afraid. So if you want to be as good as the people of New York, if you're in London or Dublin or near enough, don't let us down. Theguardian.com slash footballweeklylive for your tickets. So South Korea 2, Czechia 1 in the other game. 5 ,000 feet above sea level. Jeff, what did you make of this one? Yeah, I mean, I think it was a game where this felt like one of those pivotal clashes that not just was going to be who else is going to be in control of Group A along with Mexico, but who is maybe going to be better positioned where if other results don't go their way, they're one of the more favorable third place teams.

17:42Just one of those groups that seems to have three teams that could feasibly advance through. You know, with Sung Hyun Min, you saw a lot of kind of him pulling back from shooting in a way that maybe you're not used to with him in a major game of this magnitude, where you would see him looking to dish off even when he had advanced into the box or when he did have seemingly a pretty clear shot. There were a couple of times just before he had exited around the 69th minute where he was just looking over his shoulder and just kind of doffing it off rather than just trying to put one on frame and see where it went.

18:11But that's been generally his league form since he came over to MLS. He is not the focal point of the attack. It's a Gavanese winger, Denny Bawanga. and yeah I think that that instinct still was very much a play for him but you know a credible comeback and be able to complete it with him off the field I think actually bodes pretty well for them in this tournament.

18:29Jonathan Wilson:We all ate it together Barney with the Bolognese you described the South Korean equaliser as footballing justice.

18:34Barney Ronay:Well I know why you've mentioned the Bolognese.

18:37Jonathan Wilson:Tell me.

18:38Barney Ronay:Because it was really good and because you made it. Very kind of you. Yeah no you're only as good as your last dinner well in that case you're very tasty with a distinct umaminess oh thanks um this

18:52Jonathan Wilson:is the first time you flirted with me barney perhaps come in the same room well if you feed

18:55Barney Ronay:me i'm okay right okay good to know um i i thought this was it didn't feel like a pivotal game to me i'd say it felt like a slow burn i'm sure it's pivotal in the group second half was was good I really enjoyed the goal direct from the long throw I thought that was real I mean that's football I agree with you it was an incredible long throw because it was very flat and they have been practicing them and it's incredibly hard to defend and there was something exhilarating about that moment I thought and you know it made me think about the Premier League season and how much I enjoyed it I know you all Barry particularly enjoyed that too but I the right team won you know south korea they will improve and they are a really good team they have some real craft in that team and i think that they were could be dangerous team to play because they will just get better um and chucks are a very aggressive physical team and they tried to press when they could although that was difficult despite the hydration breaks um which should presumably help that kind of thing i'm for one i'm a bit worried about the hydration what's uh what's your fear how hydrated do you need to be i mean can you be too hydrated i i saw players not drinking during the hydration breaks how do you explain that i can't explain it you've got me your honor

20:17Jonathan Wilson:what were they like in the stadium actually uh wilson the hydration breaks did they spoil it

20:21Barry Glendenning:it wasn't hot in mexico city it was like 23 degrees it was quite humid but um yeah just suddenly there's a three minute gap in the middle of each half and they don't even stop the clock so the clock's always going to run to 48 minutes which is just annoying so I mean it's when it is really hot I accept the need for them but 23 degrees isn't really hot I don't think there's any need for it and it does just break up the flow of the game

20:48Max Rushden:Well I was just going to say that I think those breaks could be here to stay and that football will possibly end up being a game of four quarters Because of all the adverts we saw in the US coverage? Well, we saw adverts in the US coverage. There were no adverts in the ITV coverage. There were adverts in the Irish RTE coverage, I believe. I presume it's up to individual broadcasters whether they take advertising money or not. I know RTE are skint, so it's no surprise that they showed ads. But I think once they realise how much money there is to be made from these advert breaks, they will be here to stay.

21:27Barney Ronay:that's a real shame isn't it it's a real shame i i hate the hydration break which is not a hydration break it's it's a it's an adverb break uh the the one of the great paradoxes of football is that it's the world's most popular form of entertainment and yet it is long and slow and you know it can drag nothing i i love i love the bathos of the ridiculous wrestling style countdown you know 10 to 1 with some sort of deeply annoying man bellowing over the and then oh we're going to play around at the back for a bit like nothing happens there it's football you

22:01Jonathan Wilson:can't like the intense walkouts you know the intense walkouts ridiculous they started there's

22:05Barney Ronay:the club world cup last year i hate all that stuff yeah i like the fact that actually this game is refuses to bend to you it is difficult and hard and long and it makes you concentrate and people obviously like it it's incredibly successful why do we need to do this other than more revenue but there is already a lot of revenue revenue is not the issue we do not need more revenue. You're saying FIFA aren't making

22:26Jonathan Wilson:enough money? When it all goes back to the grassroots

22:28Barney Ronay:every single penny is accounted for.

22:30Jonathan Wilson:We'll get to that.

22:31Max Rushden:Don't think we've given Hwang in Biong enough credit for his brilliant goal. Oh yeah. Who doesn't like a slow finish? Master of suspense. Yeah. Ball comes in to him, he chops inside, takes out the goalkeeper and the defender with one chop and then scoops it towards the far corner. We were watching. Is it going in? Is it not? Is it going to go wide to the far post? Is it not? And it eventually made its way over the line. And a sensational goal, I thought.

23:00Jonathan Wilson:Yeah. And actually, just from those two games, Wilson, so much has been said of England will play Mexico in the Azteca in the last 16. But I didn't think Mexico looked that good. Or maybe they didn't have to look that good. I thought they looked quite open at times. Just South Africa couldn't do anything. I'd be more fearful of South Korea. I know I'm getting ahead of myself, Barry, but of South Korea than Mexico.

23:19Barry Glendenning:Yes. I mean, I think the odd thing was that at least three of the four teams did not play in the way I expected them to play today, that South Africa, I thought, would be much more proactive. And I was expecting that Czechia against South Korea game to be really a bad watch. And actually, even in the first half, I thought it was sort of quite open and engaging. And then second half, it was a really good game. They were both better going forward than I expected. I thought South Korea, the way they got in behind the fullbacks, were really impressive. As Barry says, Huang, I think, was really good.

23:55Barry Glendenning:Lee was really good. So, yeah, I think they are. I mean, everything I'd heard is that this is a really bad South Korea side. But they didn't look bad there at all.

24:05Max Rushden:Mexico were as good as they needed to be today. And they were vastly superior to South Africa. So we don't know how good they are. But Jeff can correct me if I'm wrong. They don't lose very often at the Azteca, do they? Not at the Azteca, no. something like 4 out of 60 they've lost yeah I was going to say that seems low if anything it truly has been such an advantage for them where you favour them so long as the tournament stays in Mexico so long as they're able to play those games but once they get to something that I suppose you would call more of a neutral site that's where it gets a bit trickier for them and you can get ahead of yourself all you want Max but I have filed away the laughter the gales of laughter that greeted my prediction that England would lose at the Estéca I don't think I laughed at that moment well everyone else did We have the tapes.

24:47Barney Ronay:It doesn't seem a laughable suggestion. That's a really tough game.

24:51Jonathan Wilson:We'll see. Tomorrow, Canada, Bosnia, Herzegovina and USA, Paraguay. Jeff, you've followed USMT very closely. What shape are they in? How do you see this one going? Yeah, I mean, look, they've all really bought into sort of the cult of Pochettino, right? Like there's this quiet confidence kind of coming off of them. They're speaking of this is the moment. We trust our preparation. And that's all well and good. But at the end of the day, it still is the same players, isn't it? And you look and you say this is not arguably the thinnest the American goalkeeper pool has ever been. So that is not going to be the same strength that maybe you would remember when you look at the 90s and the odds.

25:24Jonathan Wilson:Are they the thinnest, the U.S. goalkeepers? They're pretty wiry, honestly. Brad Friedel and Tim Howard both had a bit of bulk about them. That is true. Casey Keller was quite thin. Tony Miola was quite stocky. He was a unit. And now they're little wapes, are they? Yeah, no, it's something that's interesting. Usually the Americans, there's a big boy on the team, right? There's at least one who is going to be either up front or in the back and dependably going to be able to muss off. There isn't really a big boy on this squad, right? But there's also thinness at centre-back in general. Maybe those are correlating.

25:52There's a very thin core of midfielders.

25:55Barney Ronay:I'm really confused. Are we talking about literal thinness? Tim Ream's a big lad, isn't he? Wester McKinney, he's kind of chunky, isn't he? He's slimmed up a little bit. I think maybe he has finally adopted the Italian diet, possibly. But yeah, no, with this group, I think that you're looking and you're saying, how is this thing going to funnel to Flair and Balogun? Ultimately, they're really struggling to find him up the central channel. They're trying to work off and up the left from Tim Reams, sending it over to Anthony Robinson and up to Christian Pulisic. And then, you know, we'll see where his decisions take them.

26:25So I think that they're feeling really good going into the Paraguay game and they want to avoid the start that they had in 2022 when they gave up a late penalty to Wales and then made the group much more difficult for them, both on calculus and on form. So determined to put their best foot forward. But then again, I suppose every team in the tournament is. Your game as well, Barney?

26:43Barney Ronay:Yeah, I'm really looking forward to it. I think because I just really want to be in the stadium and watch some football. I mean, there is a there is a rumor that Donald Trump might be there, but that's come via the Paraguayan side. Right. But I don't think you can, I don't think you can, he's very capricious, you know, who knows? And he got quite a lot going on and he hasn't been to California for about five years and he got booed at a basketball game. So that's probably, he's probably very upset about that. I mean, it'd be interesting if he is there, it will make getting in the stadium incredibly difficult and everything will be delayed and impossible.

27:18Barney Ronay:But, you know, I'm really looking forward to, I went to the stadium today where there was a three hour queue to get your accreditation. The queue was a kilometer long, which, yeah, was not great. But yeah, it's going to be great. The stadium is fantastic. It looks fantastic. It's certainly got a lot of parking. Really impressive amount of concrete.

27:39Jonathan Wilson:Actually, one thing about being in America is I always forget about valet parking, which looks like the most terrifying job in the whole of the world. These cars are all enormous and you're just handing your keys. I just never want to be handed some keys to park someone else's car.

27:51Barney Ronay:Sid has an enormous car.

27:52Jonathan Wilson:Who does? Sid Lowe.

27:53Barney Ronay:Does he? yeah yeah he's driving well he's rented a car and and it's over here yeah it's like a sort of escalate or something one of those things you know kind of like uh he's in baltimore shooting people out of the the the passenger side window or something i mean it's it's a departure for sid

28:08Max Rushden:hugely impressive oh right and you mentioned basketball there bernie can i just i watched a basketball game last night yeah and uh the new york knicks are playing uh san antonio spurs in the

28:20Jonathan Wilson:the grand final

28:21Max Rushden:yeah the playoff finals or whatever and it was unbelievable that the Antonio Spurs are even more Spursy than Tottenham Hotspur you're right but they blew a 30 point lead

28:33Jonathan Wilson:in the final quarter it was an unbelievable game but Jeff the I've been asked you know on the radio like you know is there World Cup fever here and I wonder if because that is going on that is the first when I landed I went to I just went for a quiet pint and I couldn't get into any bar because this game that was the second game I think and this was the third or something But have you sensed, is that impacting on World Cup fever? It is. And I think that generally there will be for the casual sports fan in the United States, there will be sort of a migration moment once that series wraps up. But I think that also there's just so much entertainment going on, whether it is the sport or otherwise, where the attention span does need it to be front and center in order for generally the audience to come toward it.

29:11There isn't going to be that hype and excitement necessarily in early May because the domestic season doesn't end in the middle of May. And so you don't have that natural sort of passage where you're thinking and switching from club to international in the same way. So in time, I would imagine that especially if the United States gets off to a good start, there will be plenty of enthusiasm. And if they don't, maybe there will be a different kind of schadenfreude involved.

29:31Barney Ronay:I think you make a really good point about what football means in this country. People don't often realize when you're not here, the attention economy in America is just constant. There is so much entertainment. There's so much content. like this whole nation is built on just generating entertainment and noise you're not people wonder why they don't walk out of an airport and see kind of bunting and world cup stuff everywhere it's because there's a billion things like seek freedom roy are being eaten by a tiger tomorrow you know everything's going on elvis has been discovered again there's constant sport and and football has to fit into those gaps and that's just how it is it's not it's not a culture in the same way it is where we are it's it's the constant noise yeah and you've certainly cut the content bug while you've been here haven't you i mean you've made a lot of content you're yet to publish it well everything has always been content for me but i i'm just really glad to see that that people are catching up on that and so i think jonathan's falling i think he might have died

30:28Jonathan Wilson:he might have died oh there he is i'll ask you a question and will it will say about england they beat costa rica 3-0 um uh which was sort of as you expect it was fine i don't know what you make of England at the moment and how you sense their tournament may go?

30:43Barry Glendenning:Well, it was impossible to watch a Costa Rica game here. I've tried to follow it as best I could. It seems like they played quite well. My thoughts haven't particularly changed since a week ago when they left. I think the squad is a good squad. I'm glad that Tuchel has been brave enough to leave out some big names. I think it's quite hard to win a World Cup from a late group. I think you're better off having your games more spread out but I think the creep's actually a bit harder than people give it credit for I don't think Panama are anywhere near as bad as they looked last time England played them I think these Ghana sides are very erratic, very hit and miss but on their day they can be very good and Croatia are Croatia

31:30Jonathan Wilson:Yeah but they must be tired, I won't do that Well I know where I am yeah you're channeling your inner look i'd be i'd be terrible in that corrosion material

31:42Barney Ronay:no no i i agree i think it's a good squad i think i don't think the problem is that they do have the shortest sort of time span of everything that gets the final i think of any team here but i think that's the problem i think the problem is two overseas semi-finals ever in world cups and and what are they? Eighth, probably the eighth best team here, something like that?

32:04Jonathan Wilson:Scotland midfielder Scott McTominay was not on the team bus after he missed Thursday's training session because of an upset stomach and he had to travel on his own. Poor Scott's in solitary because he has the runs, but I think he's all right.

32:16Max Rushden:Did he, did they send him in one of those, what is it, Waymo driverless cars that I keep seeing that freak me out completely? The ones that freak me out

32:23Jonathan Wilson:are the little delivery sort of dogs. Robots. The little robot delivery things.

32:28Max Rushden:they can't handle zebra crossings very well as far as I know

32:32Barney Ronay:have you ordered anything with one of those?

32:34Jonathan Wilson:no I'm yet to order from a writer

32:35Barney Ronay:I have to say you two have really changed California's changed you you referred earlier to your hotel and I was expecting something a bit more sitcom-y like all the fun like Morecambe and Wise are in bed together that kind of thing and I've just been there and it's basically like Patrick Bateman's flat in American SciCab it's all stealing glass and like hard surfaces and i you know i'm it's it's sad but but i suppose

33:06Jonathan Wilson:people people change yeah and there could be a merger in it and we'll get to that all right that'll do for part two part three uh we'll do all the stuff off the pitch

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33:58Jonathan Wilson:Welcome to part three of the Guardian Football Weekly. So, look, lots of stories of players, officials and staff being denied entry to the US. The most high profile was the referee Omar Ahton, a Somalian referee denied entry. Somalia is on the US travel ban list. He became a FIFA referee in 2018, was at AFCon in 2023. 2025 was named African Men's Referee of the Year. He said in an interview with the New York Times, I had the right papers and everything. I had the right visa. adding he'd also showed documentation from fifa as well as photographs of his career over a decade as a ref a trump administration source said this individual was seeking admission to the united states upon further inspection by the customer border protection derogatory information including association with suspected members of terror organizations was discovered making the traveler ineligible for admission to the u.s under the immigration and nationality act president trump's administration will not allow any security threat to enter our country full stop around the same time Gianni was on Instagram posting with the streamer iShowSpeed and in his press conference Gianni said it's unfortunate what happened to the referee from Somalia we don't control everything we try we will discuss we will speak we will see sometimes it's good to chill relax we work on everything we try to solve everything sometimes to immediately start screaming and shouting has the opposite effect of finding a solution um Barney you've written about this well yeah I mean

35:15Barney Ronay:you know you know me you know I'm chilled I mean you when you think about the idea of being chilled you probably think about me obviously probably think about me a lot in between thinking about but that's another i mean this is just disgusting i mean it's it's repulsive like it's grandstanding it's performative obviously this referee is not a security threat to the united states obviously and how it's how it's been allowed to get this far i would like to know a bit more about because it's absurd that somebody gets this far and has then turned away. But this is, I mean, it's Trump speaking to his base.

35:56Barney Ronay:There are plenty of people who don't think this is disgusting and think it's great and think this is what should be happening. It's really, really sad that the land of the free and a place that prides itself on having basic freedoms enshrined in its constitution is the only place in the world that is turning people away like this from these football tournaments. While the loathsome, probably I shouldn't say loathsome, but what other word are you supposed to use? Sort of court goblin tells us that football unites the world. The level of doublespeak and trufflespeak and quadruplespeak is laughable.

36:37Barney Ronay:If Gianni Infantino was an incredibly complete and fully realized satirical construct, that would make more sense than the person he actually is. It's actually bizarre that he isn't that and that this is a real person.

36:51Jonathan Wilson:But he has so much power, right? We all look at this and think this looks embarrassing for Infantino. It is embarrassing for Infantino, but I don't know if he thinks that.

37:00Barney Ronay:No, he doesn't care. But you're right. He has far too much power. FIFA has a ridiculous governance problem in that no other organization has that level of executive power. It's ridiculous. When you look at the budget of that institution, that essentially one person in his coterie decides where those resources go over this very, very long period of time. And you can gerrymander your own re-election very easily. You essentially promise people more money. It's a totally dysfunctional organization with no regulation internally. And a random Swiss lawyer who never actually expected to be in this position, who looks startled to be in it, but has found that he really does quite enjoy it.

37:38Barney Ronay:is breaking his own statutes by cozying up to a single quite divisive political movement within that country and there is effectively all we can do is stand and watch now you're a for posting

37:52Jonathan Wilson:referee announced for 2026 super cup pleased to share that somali referee omar artem will officiate the highly anticipated match between psg and aston villa in salzburg uh which is a tremendous appointment you would say i just wonder as we talked to alex adnos when we were over in at South by Southwest in Austin a couple of months ago about being an American football fan and having that dilemma of desperately wanting this to go well and being desperately sad that this shit is happening at the same time. Yeah, and look, it's one with the other, right? You can't really avoid that. But at the same point, I don't think many people's favorite parts of the World Cup and the bells of their hearts are necessarily the ramp-up and the pre-tournament speech from the president and all of the litigation that comes with it.

38:40I think that it's going to be that sort of like fierce communal joy is going to be ultimately the thing that actually is going to be able to get things through. And that's where you do need the games to provide a little bit of sugar with the medicine. But it certainly has been a lot of medicine, hasn't it? And it certainly has been, you know, great to see him get that hero's welcome of sorts when he does return to Somalia, right, and be able to have that sort of community that I think historically, one would expect when they come to work a world cup but um you know at least at least able to get on the other end and hopefully this is something that um i i mean to be fair i don't really know where the tournament's reputation

39:13Barney Ronay:recovers from on this one right it's funny i've a lot of people in america that have been apologizing yeah um to the rest of the world and saying we are we are sorry about this and i i kind of i feel like saying don't you know yeah stuff happens but it's actually quite sweet and does give me a feeling of hope that people communicate like that that there's a kind of sense that the executive tier in this country does not actually despite being a democracy and being elected an elected president does not actually represent the attitudes of the majority of the country and that i find

39:45Jonathan Wilson:quite reassuring the iranian national team experienced long delays having their visas granted in the case of several of their staff denied altogether the team captain has safi said why so late in the last year we experienced two imposed wars in our country a u.s administration official did not directly address the matter of those whose visas were refused saying only we will not allow the iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the united states under false pretenses which is an insane thing to say and there is a chance the usa and iran will meet in the round of 32 alex alex has written a really good piece about um iran in tijuana and you know what the people to want because they only had two weeks to sort of realize that they were hosting a side and i think it's also worth pointing out that there's a lot of iranian fans in the us in los angeles especially who are not fans of the regime in iran right this is quite a multifaceted situation i don't know wilson if you have any sort of thoughts on infantino what he

40:40Barry Glendenning:said at that press conference it's just outrageous i mean this is the first press conference he's given in three years and from the very start he was filibustering um he hadn't hadn't taken a question from a u.s based journalist until the very last question and he he asked that one because a journalist in the room messaged um brand swanson the press officer say you have not asked a journalist representing one of the yeah the uh you know a host media um very obviously the questions were going to people who were not hostile to infantino so this is no accountability and it's i don't i do wonder whether what we've seen in the last few weeks whether it whether the disgust that provokes cuts through it's obviously not as serious as several thousand migrant worker deaths in qatar but in some ways it's sort of more immediate in the same way the party gate cut through more than other boris johnson scandals because it sort of touched something that was very personal to people that they'd they'd had to follow these regulations and there's people who impose them not following them um and so the idea of this referee being turned away uh and you see you see people i mean even even fifa's press people say oh you know are we are we supposed to say that the us are supposed to put their laws on hold for duration of a tournament that's literally what you asked other hosts to do yes you are meant to do that and if the host is not prepared to do that they shouldn't be bidding to host a tournament um but i guess one of the problems is with a 48 team tournament you can't really make any credible threat to move it that even in 2017 when nifantino was having a discussion with putin which led to a match ticket guaranteeing you a visa for russia it was just about plausible in a 32 team tournament that at the last minute say england and germany could have stepped in done half the games each with a 48 team tournament you just can't do that and that gives a host more power and i think the precedent this sets i don't think it's going to be a problem for spain and portugal in four years it might be a problem for morocco in four years but looking ahead to saudi arabia beyond that

42:53Jonathan Wilson:i think it's really worrying just on tickets there were empty seats in that second game quite a lot quite a lot i mean there was empty seats in the first game were there

43:01Barry Glendenning:yeah i mean not huge numbers but i'd say a good two or three thousand i suppose lucky for jianni

43:06Jonathan Wilson:that the seats were red and so if you weren't really concentrating it looked like lots more south korean fans yeah but he sort of talked about ticket prices as well and talked about oh well Mandani's done so well on ticket prizes because he gave some cheap ones and I gave loads of cheap ones no one said thank you to me you know it was just sort of Trumpian in the way it sounded

43:23Max Rushden:yeah well he's a Trumpian guy he calls, he's up to Trump we know that he just seems to be in awe of him I think the problem with Trump and Infantino is neither of them seem to have any sense of shame or embarrassment and so there's not much you can do or say that will have any impact on them because they'll just secretly think you're stupid. Ticket prices are outrageous, and we've seen evidence already, MTC's both games, that's going to be a recurring theme, I would imagine. And even some people who have tickets aren't being allowed into the country. The day I left to come over here, I heard a Scottish fella on TalkSport.

44:11Max Rushden:Yeah, his had been revoked, and he was given no explanation as to why he'd have been revoked. And he was due to travel on Thursday. He said he didn't have a criminal record, but the US Embassy had told him that until he got one of those police certificates that says you don't have a criminal record, he would not be allowed to travel. And because he...

44:34Barney Ronay:Well, those take 28 days, don't they?

44:36Max Rushden:Yeah, I think you probably get them rushed. but three days I'd say we'll be pushing it and he'd spent over 10 grand yeah when I came in the

44:47Barney Ronay:country I was I was questioned um the only thing they they said to me was can tell me about your trip to Turkey oh uh what happened in Turkey well I couldn't even and there oh and I said well well Man City you know that that was the Champions League final in Istanbul was in Istanbul have I

45:05Jonathan Wilson:got that wrong was that the wrong game can't remember no that's right yeah i said it was

45:09Barney Ronay:really tight but you know in in the end that rodry you know the quality really made made the difference um and that was really and he sort of nodded and that seemed to be fine and i was let into the country he said pep just didn't overthink it that night yeah yeah yeah i mean if you overthink it enough times you're eventually gonna you're gonna hit one on the course uh well it will cover

45:32Jonathan Wilson:off the field issues as much as on the field ones as well and we know lots of things are happening you know in the Premier League but we'll worry about that later. Can I just ask actually

45:40Barney Ronay:now that this is an American podcast are we all going to sit here for three hours and at some point

45:46Jonathan Wilson:we'll be smoking cigars

45:48Barney Ronay:and talking about weed gummies and things.

45:51Jonathan Wilson:We'll be saying that butter is poisoning everyone's mind. It just goes on forever

45:56Barney Ronay:and loads of young men are radicalised.

45:58Jonathan Wilson:Or there'll be some light music and I'll say this is WKRZYC and I'll start talking about a crime that happened in Minneapolis 15 years ago. Tombo says, in a preview pod, Barry characterized himself as easygoing, but then followed up with some surprisingly strident views vis-a-vis laundry. How is this panning out and can we get a regular update on the issue? Barry, are you enjoying Living With Me?

46:19Max Rushden:Living with you is fine, but any time I raise any minor issues, you treat it as if I've thrown some sort of tantrum. but I think we're getting on okay hang on that doesn't sound okay at all

46:32Barney Ronay:that sounds really terrible what tantrums have I had

46:35Max Rushden:well you accused me of being far more upset about you waking me up by banging a spoon against a ball than I was okay you ate an apple in my presence I don't ever want that to happen again I'm sorry

46:53Barney Ronay:hang on was he banging a spoon against a ball right next to your head

46:57Jonathan Wilson:I had a radio show at 5am so at 4 I got up and ate some yoghurt

47:01Barney Ronay:So you were in the other room Just eating some yoghurt

47:03Jonathan Wilson:Thin walls Anything else Barry

47:08Max Rushden:No pretty I mean you're pulling your weight You've made a meal I've made a meal, I've made a table You've made a table I've done the rubbish

47:18Jonathan Wilson:You didn't make a table, you took a table out of a box I took yours out of a box and erected it

47:23Max Rushden:Yeah yeah uh what do you know it's been fine i think yeah okay have you done any laundry yet no i've

47:30Barney Ronay:done so loads barry won't barry won't do any laundry so the rio olympics yeah um we we were there for 22 days i think this is a really sweet story okay really it's lovable okay it's not a disgusting laundry story barry brought 22 t-shirts with him one for each day so he didn't have to do any laundry, which I thought was so sweet. It's like when the kid goes and stays at their granny and they've got like three pairs of your gloves are on a string. His gloves were on a string down the back of his t-shirt. I was wearing gloves at the Copacabana in July. I remember you explaining 22 t-shirts, no problem.

48:06Barney Ronay:I thought that was very sweet and I hope you've now got 40 t-shirts or whatever.

48:11Max Rushden:I had not too far off 40 t-shirts, but my luggage was too heavy. He had the long list

48:16Jonathan Wilson:and then he had to cut it down to 26 and there was a mad phone-in about the 26 t-shirt Max and I have been here for three days

48:23Max Rushden:and he's already done two loads of laundry. I'm in the gym a lot.

48:26Jonathan Wilson:How is that possible? I'm in the gym a lot because I haven't been in a gym for a year and a half and now I have so much time. Mrs. Rushton, I don't believe this is Football Weekly so just to check this is a different podcast I'd say I don't have the time. Look, three days in, 40 to go, we're all still alive. You can see all the behind the scenes action on Instagram, TikTok and Tic Tac Reddit Blue Sky and we are posting more than we normally do because everything is content so yeah follow all of us follow the Guardian Football Weekly and that'll do for today thank you Wilson you may go to bed

49:04Barry Glendenning:I've got no idea what you said okay fine

49:07Jonathan Wilson:bye Jeff thank you so much thank you come again cheers Barney cheers cheers Baz thank you Football Weekly is produced by Rory Simon our executive producer is Joel Grove back tomorrow

49:20Barney Ronay:This is The Guardian.

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