WORLD CUP DAY 12: Greatest Golden Boot race ever?

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1:07Hello and welcome to the Game Football Podcast from the Times and Sunday Times. This is day 12 of our daily World Cup shows, your essential morning briefing on the 2026 tournament. I'm Tom Clarke and later on we'll hear from Paul Hurst, who saw Lionel Messi become the all-time leading World Cup goalscorer, and James Geerbrandt, who was at France's rain-delayed win against Iraq. but today is England Preview Day and ahead of the clash with Ghana I'm joined by our Chief Football Correspondent and Football Journalist of the Year Johnny Northcroft. Johnny been reading this week about you know misted tents and country music and things like that the mood in the camp is good isn't it?

1:45Yeah it's been a really positive week you can feel the the confidence and the vibes always helps when you win your opening game as you mentioned you know they were training in the heat on Saturday using the misted tents with their special nozzles and droplets that are supposed to cool the ambient body temperature and then they come to Boston and it's kind of a bit like Glasgow it's raining and grey and you need a coat so all that preparation Listen, a bunch of English players and a journalistic team headed by a Scotsman, I'm sure you'll be right at home delighted to hear that, I was having the same conversation with Michael Grant our Scottish football correspondent the other day I mean the mood is good but the pressure is still on isn't it I mean Thomas Tuchel has said as such in the pieces on the Times website now don't be complacent, it is message Martin Samuel our colleague and chief correspondent writing about potential second game syndrome it was a great start England have got to follow it up haven't they Yeah they do and you know following up is the difference between a really good team and a flash in the pan and Martin, it was an interesting piece and he's right, England have so often had poor second games in these tournaments in fact last time they beat Croatia in a tournament in the year of 2020 they had a disappointing draw against Scotland I don't know what it is there's no real reason for it historically I suppose other than I suppose that kind of England confidence rollercoaster that we see so often where they're heroes after one great result and it's all a disaster if they don't win.

3:28I don't know, you do wonder if sometimes that infects the players. There's been a very different vibe about Tuchel's England and I don't get the sense that the focus is going to drop any. It's a great incentive to play well tomorrow and win because do that and you've won the group and you can rest players in the third game. path ahead is then set out and the analysts can get prepping on Mexico and Argentina and Brazil and everything becomes simple. So there's a big incentive for a good performance. Yeah, in terms of big performances, big players being a big part of that as well, I'm going to talk about Harry Kane in just a second, but Jude Bellingham just behind him had a brilliant first game.

4:15He's the subject of a piece of yours on the Times website. What do you think is so striking about his opening performance and his mood around the camp? We discussed it at such great lengths, didn't we, leading into this tournament and throughout the regular season, Jude Bellingham or not, his relationship with Thomas Tuchel. Was this all a kind of ruse? Was this always going to happen? I can't quite work it out, but it's been mapped out perfectly for England, hasn't it? They've got a fit and firing Bellingham and all the mood around him seems good. yeah look I mean maybe ruse is one word for it I just think it's been good management but it's also been good a good response by the player I think I said back in the pod when back in September or October when Tuchel left Jude out that there wasn't a sort of anti-Jude agenda it was he was just embedding the principles of this is a team pattern and the team behaviors that I want that we want but I always felt that it was just simply a challenge to Jude Bellingham that these are you know you can come back and buy into this and then you'll be back in the team because you are that good and I think what we've seen since arriving in America and I'd include the pre-camp in Florida he's looked incredibly honed he's looked incredibly focused but he's also looked incredibly happy you You watch him in training and there's a lightness about him, there's a relish about him.

5:40He doesn't look like a slightly burdened character that he did at Euro 2024. And much as I admire Morgan Rodgers and much as I admire Iberiezi, I think you could see why Jude is that slightly different class, that special player in the Croatia game. I was writing in my piece about that visceral thrill that he produces in being able to just pick up a ball and run with it, get his chest out, run with it, and a mixture of skill and power just taking him through players. And to me that evokes childhood football, doesn't it, where the best kid just is too good, picks a ball up, runs away from people.

6:21That's what you get watching Jude. And on top of that, you get this champions mentality where in the biggest moments, he's a guy, who else, You know, he's a guy that wants to deliver. And we saw all of that. That was a thrilling goal he scored to change the game against Croatia. And it came within this all-action performance full of tackling, full of pressing, you know, some passes, another big run he had in the first half. And it looked like the Jude Bellingham of the 2022 World Cup only with that added maturity. He looked like the player that at that point you hoped he was going to become. And, you know, this should only be the start for him.

7:06He's the 50th cap, but he's 22, just nearly 23, and he's just embedded in this team now. And great things should lie ahead. Yeah, it's remarkable stuff when you think about it and put it in those numbers. What is it that Thomas Tuchel has done specifically, do you think, in terms of the team? Thinking back to that last year, Rose, and Phil Foden was there, Cole Palmer was there, everyone was talking about Harry Kane drops into the same space as Bellingham. Is it the fact that we've now got wide players for England that hug the touchlines a bit more? Do him and Kane understand each other better?

7:39What is it that Tuchel's done? Yeah, it's a mix of all the things you mentioned, Tom. What you get with Tuchel is a real clarity about players, all of them. He's got a real clean sense of who they are and what they do. and he sort of mentioned a few times that he sees Jude as actually having the characteristics of a number nine you know the mentality to be the hero and score the ability to finish and some of that those kind of characteristics and it's what he's done is he's got this number 10 role for him where he drops into midfield and he does the kind of you know the Steven Gerrard bits the tackling the all action thing and then he almost bypasses the number 10 area and ends up in a number 9 position and I mentioned in my article the FIFA technical report which picked up on this partnership between Kane and Jude that's been sort of worked out where they don't really pass to each other but what they do do is they're moving in real synchronisation so that love that Kane has of being able to drop deep he can only do that if someone's going to run beyond him into the number 9 position and that's what him and Bellingham were doing so well against Croatia.

8:51Off the ball, in terms of the pressing shape, again you notice that Jude was always there in that sort of position on the number six. And these are the details that Tuchel's been able to get into him and the team around him. You mentioned the wide players, that's important as well because it gives space for the two central top players that England have got. and all of this is the contrast to the year of 2024 when we were looking at that crowded area in and around the number 10 position where everyone seemed to want to play at the same time and he's just cleared that out and what you've now got is quite a clean spine of the team where the best players are Anderson, Rice, Bellingham, Kane and you saw some of the results against Croatia Yeah, mentioning Harry Kane there we're just off the back of a night when more stars have delivered again two more for Lionel Messi as I mentioned in my intro, two more for Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland has got two more as well, I think we were chatting this time last week or before the first game saying over to you Harry Kane and he delivered against Croatia that's so important isn't it that he can potentially deliver again, people talking about resting and things you said this is the fittest and the best shape he's ever been in some more goals from Harry Kane would be a very welcome addition to the Ghana game as well, wouldn't it?

10:13Well, I mean, look, what a brilliant tournament it's proving for the strikers. It's like they're all egging each other on, isn't it? And, you know, just when Mbappé does something, Haaland does something, you know, just when Messi does something, Kane does something. If you think back to the 2022 World Cup, I think the top scorer was three goals or four goals or something, and it's going to be blown out of the water here. so Kane is obviously England's version it's been interesting watching him around the camp I've mentioned this before that this is very much Harry Kane's team on the pitch, it's Harry Kane's team off the pitch he's leading the party going to country music gigs arranging games of golf with Brooks Koepka getting Tom Brady to come in it just feels like this is Harry's time and this is Harry's England and of course on the pitch he is so productive at the moment that when you think in the context of the Croatia game although bigged up Jude for that goal that did sort of change the dynamics without Kane burying the penalty without Kane scoring from the corner with this header at a time when England weren't playing that well to get two goals and to get into 2-2 that's Harry Kane's value isn't it so of course it goes without saying that in every game they're going to need him.

11:35They're going to need him to keep pace with the Haarlands and the Mbappes if they're going to go deep but he just looks like he's going to score all the time Harry. And hope he does as well but I mean doing the classic English journalist thing of getting carried away potentially after the first game. Ghana won't be easy opponents will they Johnny? I mean a lot's been said and quite rightly so about England starting with the most difficult game but Ghana are no pushovers here. This is a proper test for England. Not at all. I mean, they've got a very experienced manager in Carlos Queiroz, who probably hasn't had quite enough time to make it one of his teams, which are traditionally very noggity and low-block and counter-attacking.

12:16But yeah, there's quality players, isn't there, especially Semenyu. I think they're playing the counter-attack. I think they'll be quick. I think they'll have some real quality on those counter-attacks as well. and one of the areas Tuchel has talked about clearly to improve is defending because they got away with it a little bit in that first half against Croatia and Ghana certainly have the quality to expose them if they're not a little bit better. Yeah, just finally, Johnny, I mean, you and I have discussed potential changes for England going forward. I've discussed them with Matt Lawton as well, your colleague who's with you in the England camp.

12:56Matt stressing, of course, that even Thomas Tuchel doesn't tell the players until a couple of hours before kick-off, so there's no way we can know for certain. But what could listeners expect for this? Do you think it'll be exactly the same starting line-up? Do you think we might see some changes? I don't think much will change. I could see Gehi coming in, possibly at Stone's expense, but that's maybe my hunch as much as anything else. There's a choice between Saka, clearly, and Madu Eki. Again, my hunch would be that he'll keep Saka back just to let him get right up to proper fitness. And then, of course, it's Gordon versus Rashford, where although Rashford, I think, is in the better form, there's a case again for Gordon with his sort of diligence and out of possession to start the game and then have Rashford as the finisher.

13:45So I think maybe just the one change at the back. You go back to the Serbia game a lot with Tuchel, and if he did bring Gehi in and kept going and Maduecki, he'd have a line-up that was very, very, very close to that and that's his favourite game. He keeps going back to that, so that's what I'm working off. Yeah, minimal changes on the pitch and hopefully minimal changes in the result for England as well. Johnny Northcroft, thank you very much for joining me. You can keep up to date with updates from Johnny, Hamza and Matt Lawton at the game with our live file and you can read Johnny's report on the website shortly after as well.

14:24That's it for part one. We're just going to take a quick break, but we'll be back and hear from Paul Hurst, who saw Lionel Messi after this.

14:43We'll see you next time.

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16:25Welcome back to The Game, a football podcaster from The Times and Sunday Times. These are our daily World Cup shows. Let's catch you up on the latest from the 2026 tournament and as England prepare for Game 2. Scotland are already thinking about Game 3. Michael Grant reporting on The Times website now that Steve Clarke has insisted he will not set Scotland out to defend and settle for a narrow defeat against Brazil, even though that would probably be enough to take them into the World Cup knockouts. Bournemouth winger Ben Ganondoke is set to start against the five-time world champions in Miami, but right-back Aaron Hickey will miss the game.

16:58But Clarke will stick with a back four rather than switching to a five, even if it means having to stifle Vinicius Junior, Mateus Cunha and potentially Neymar. No pressure, lads. Some big names mentioned there, and last night there was another one for the biggest stars. Lionel Messi becoming the all-time leading World Cup goalscorer with both goals in Argentina's 2-0 win against Austria. Paul Hurst was there for us and he sent me these thoughts. Another day, another Lionel Messi masterclass at this World Cup. I'm speaking to you here from the Dallas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys. And it's everyone is still probably, you know, a few hundred people knocking around.

17:40A lot of media as well. I've just been earwigging one TV reporter here, do a live broadcast in which he was talking about how he was sat next to a guy from Argentina who was FaceTiming his grandkids from the stadium, from his seat, just because he didn't want them to miss out during the match. He wanted them to share the experience that he was having, and he was having an amazing time just because of Lionel Messi. Again, he scored three in his opening match against Algeria. and those goals were all down to real skill. They were about him finding the spaces and coming up with some top-class finishes.

18:24But today, his performance was more about grit. It was more about persistence and determination. It was summed up, really, his performance by what happened in the last minute or last 70 seconds of injury time. Argentina were 1-0 up they just had a bit of a battering by Austria to be fair, Austria had thrown everything at Argentina and Messi had the ball on the halfway line and if that was me watching my team back home Shelfia Wednesday, I would have been shouting for my player to run it into the corner or buy a foul or kick it against a player's shins and win a throw-in but obviously Messi's built of different stuff So he went straight towards goal, pinged the ball out to Alvarez, ran into the box, managed to pick up a loose shot, loose ball after Alvarez's shot had been blocked.

19:21And after Messi had seen his first shot blocked, he went straight in back again and somehow managed to ping it between about four or five Austrian players who just all fell on the floor at the same time, looking incredibly dejected. and that just summed it up for me. He always finds a way, he always is so dogged in his determination to find a way through, to get a positive outcome, to get a win for his team and he's dragged Argentina into the last 32 with a game to spare. Now, it will be interesting to see if Lionel Scaloni keeps him in the team for the next match, which is pretty much a dead rubber, basically, against Jordan.

20:10Argentina are pretty much certain to be top of the group. So does he play Messi? Does he rest him for the match? He's got plenty of other choices off the bench. Julian Alvarez came on as a second-half substitute here. He's not started a game yet. Or does he carry on playing Messi? If it was me, I'd carry on playing him. He had a few kicks today, so he was feeling it a little bit after and he obviously missed the penalty as well so that was something that wasn't in the script but he's had a fairly eventful World Cup so far and that's not including the awful news that his dad's not very well back home either so some might say that he needs a bit of a breather to take him out of the firing line but I just think when he's playing as well as this, you've just got to keep him in the team, keep his rhythm going, maybe play him for the first half or 55 minutes, something like that, against Jordan, allow him to maybe rack up a couple more goals because he is now the World Cup's greatest ever goalscorer.

21:18He'll be going for another golden boot, so that will help him. He's not massive on individual records, he always said that. He always wants to focus on the collective, he wants to lead Argentina to a successive World Cup. So that's his main aim. So, yeah, keeping him fit, keeping him in good form is the way that Argentina are going to do it. So, yeah, we'll see what happens next on Saturday when Scaloni picks the team. But in terms of the vibes around the Argentina squad at the moment, it is absolutely off the scale. They're all very happy, very chatty. They're all laughing as they were coming through the big zone and just couldn't stop speaking about how much they love Messi and how much he's in great form at the moment.

22:07So yeah, two games in, five goals for Messi and there's plenty more to come. Later on in the night and well, there were lots of suggestions before the tournament about the effect weather might have and the rain and storms duly arrived during France's game with Iraq. A long delay but a 3-0 win for France in the end. Two more goals for Kylian Mbappe. James Gearbrandt was there for us and he had this to say. It was an extraordinary game at the Philadelphia Stadium obviously notably for the two-hour weather stoppage but I guess it will also be remembered for Kylian Mbappé's two goals, which took him level with Miroslav Kloza in the all-time standing, second in the all-time World Cup scoring charts.

22:57And I've been lucky enough to watch Kylian Mbappé play at the previous World Cup in several matches as well. and I feel like every single time I've seen France play with Mbappé at the World Cup I feel like Mbappé is going to score and I feel like he's probably going to score more than one and of course he did score two here and you know how sometimes on match of the day when the pundits say oh he could have scored four and it's a bit of an exaggeration but here he really could quite easily have scored four goals which would actually have taken him level with Lionel Messi I mean he had two very presentable chances that he missed and yet for all that Mbappe is you know obviously the protagonist of you know pretty much every World Cup game he plays and for all that he's the guy that most people have come to the stadium to see for me I find I found my eye drawn by another player michael elise um kind of incredible i think what he's doing when you consider that two years ago less than two years ago he had never played for france and he had never played in the champions league um and he's now here at his first major international tournament and he's playing with the reigning Ballon d 'Or and Kylian Mbappé, probably one of the top 10 players in the history of international football.

24:37And he looks so at ease, so confident, so in balance with all the other players. And at times it feels like he's obviously playing in the 10 and at times it feels like even though Mbappé and Dembele are, you know, there. And at times it feels like Alisse is the one who's pulling the strings, which is just kind of incredible, really. And, you know, it's a dynamic that seems to be working for France at the moment. And, you know, Alisse with three assists already, Mbappe with four goals, you know, they are very much in the mix for, you know, to be at the top of those charts at the end of the tournament.

25:22Well, if Mbappe and Messi are in the mix, so too is Erling Haaland's two goals for him in Norway's 3-2 win against Senegal. A great game this and Martin Samuel has written a piece on Haaland's brilliance on the Times website now. He says, had Messi scored these two goals he would have been lauded for his wit and delicate touch. We simply have come to expect it from Haaland yet no striker of his size and frame does it even half as well. Big expectation on these stars and they are really delivering. Can Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham follow up for England? We will see. Oh, and there's some bloke called Cristiano Ronaldo who could do with a goal too, I think.

25:59We'll be back to discuss all of that tomorrow. We'll see you then.

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