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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Prismassa on nyt ale. Huipputuotteita muodista elektroniikkaan jopa miinus 70%. Tee löytöjä myymälöissä ja prisma.fi-ssä. The Football Daily at the People World Cup 2026. With Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Live from LA.
Hello and welcome to the Football Daily. We are well into the swing of things now. It's Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith from our comfy little base in Santa Monica. Here's a reminder of the scores for you from match day four. Germany thrashed Curacao 7-1. Japan scored a late header. to make it 2-1 against the Netherlands. Sweden are playing Tunisia as we record this.
Sounds like someone just scored. Ivory Coast beat Ecuador 1-0 with a goal right at the end from Ahmad Diallo. A reminder, you can get all the highlights and scores on the BBC Sport website and app. Now, we got told earlier today that... Quite excitingly, we're going to get some time with an England player. And we didn't have that much notice.
So it was a bit of a scramble to go and get over to where our recording kit was set up. So we drove over to this location. I was driving. Lloyd was in the front seat. Producer Lizzie was in the back, working hard, making sure that we were prepared. And as we arrived outside the building, the place where I was going to park... had all these bins in the way.
And so obviously the bins were going to need to be moved. And so I'm obviously driving, so I can't because I'm parking the car. Lizzie's working hard. So you'd assume, you would assume that you would get out and move the bins. And that isn't what happened. And why is that? I was doing my hair. You were doing your hair.
So you said to Lizzie, you're going to actually have to go and move those bins. I said, can we get the producer to move the bins, please? And she did, because she's a great producer.
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Chapter 2: What insights does Jordan Pickford share about the England camp?
In my defence, I... There is no defence. No, there is a defence, OK? You literally got me out of the shower and was like, we need to go now. I was like... It was a bit of a rush, yeah. It was a bit of a rush. So I was then, you know, I recently had a hair transplant. I spent £5,000 on it. Looks lovely. Thank you.
So I'm going to make sure it looks good for the footballer that we're about to introduce. And so I was using the little vents of the car to kind of like dry it. And you were spraying something on.
Yeah, it's glue. It's glue. It's hairspray.
You'd never heard of hairspray before? I don't know anything about hair transplants. I thought you were just making sure it was all sticking. Just hairspray, Rick. You've never heard of hairspray. Look, you're talking to me like I'm the bad guy here. No, you are. No. Anyway, Lizzie, thank you. Lizzie's rifling around with the bins. Thank you for moving the bins.
But I also do hope you move them back because it is recycling day tomorrow in LA. That's true. Well, once the bins were moved and Lloyd had glued his hair in place, we did eventually get to sit down and chat to England's number one, and I would say acquaintance of yours. Good friend. Good friend of mine. Acquaintance, Jordan Pickford. My friend.
Jordan, half of you all got locked in your hotel because of a tornado. How are you all doing? It was decent to be fair, seeing all the thunder and lightning. I was safe playing darts and chilling in my room. Who was the most scared? I think we're all alright. Got a bit of, lads got treatment, we had dinner. The only problem was we couldn't eat dinner outside like we normally do.
But apart from that, it was sound. Have you been watching the games so far together and who has impressed you so far, Jordan? Yeah, about four games a day at the minute, so it's quite a good win. A bit of downtime, so I've been watching the games, but everyone's here on merit. Everyone had to qualify to get here, so I think Morocco played really well against Brazil.
You'll know quite a lot of the Scotland lads who are out here, I'm sure. Were you like us and cheering them on last night? You get to play against them or play with them, a lot of the lads, and... You know, it's been so long for them. You could see the emotion and how much it meant to them to get that result and getting it to score the goal.
He's a great lad and I'm really pleased for Pato as well from Everton. I think the last few months at Everton, he grafted, he worked hard, even though he didn't really get his chance. But, you know, put the hard work in and he's made his debut in the World Cup last night. So stuff like that does put a smile on your face. I suppose my question really is, when they scored, did you cheer?
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Chapter 3: How does Jordan Pickford feel about the tournament atmosphere?
Cheers, guys. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Cheers, mate. Take care.
Enjoy yourself in canvas. I thought we were in Dallas. Oh, just leave it out. And reply to my messages. Reply to my messages, Jordan. Don't reply to me messages on Instagram. Well, I'm going to ask you something here, and I want an honest answer. Are you pleased with how that went? Absolutely. And I'm going to give you some context.
That is the first interview that the BBC have had with an England player at this World Cup. And I think that's beautiful because I don't think you're ever going to get a footballer from the England squad saying to anyone else, this tournament, isn't that a flaw? So I think, look, we're getting stuff that other... We're definitely getting stuff that other people wouldn't have done.
That's not necessarily a good thing.
This is an exclusive. We're getting insights that, no offence, none of the other team can get. So I am really happy with how that went. Oh, this is fantastic. Okay, producer Lizzie is typing as we record. She said, Jordan Pickford said after the producer...
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Chapter 4: What does Jordan Pickford think about the competition from other teams?
That will need some editing. And laughed. So that's good then, isn't it? That he laughed. Yes, but I think he was probably laughing at us rather than with us. No, no, no, no, no. I'll message him later on Instagram. I'll see that he's seen it and I'll never get a reply.
He's never replied, has he?
He's never replied. It's been eight messages over five years. You're saying good friend, eh? Oh, yeah, fantastic friend. He's busy. Well, let's bring in our guest, former Netherlands defender Mario Melchiart. Mario, we've spoken so many times, never met in the flesh. This is such a treat. I cannot believe by meeting you in person.
Like, I come here, I thought like, look, OK, instead of staying home, now this is the best place to be. Thank you for inviting me.
No, thanks for coming down. I mean, to be fair, you've not come far because you live in L.A. Yes. But still, you've made the drive and you look so bloody healthy. I feel like L.A. agrees with you.
Definitely. You know what the thing is? As a kid, I can say as a kid, I had a dream. And like saying to myself, when I retire, I want to live in Los Angeles. And finally, I retired and I came.
How long have you been here for?
I've been here now, I think about 16 years, I think.
Do you think you'll ever go back home or is this home now?
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Chapter 5: How does Jordan Pickford prepare mentally for matches?
Like prison workout. No, I'm not going.
Yeah, they're my people. Do you know what I mean? You know when you go... Oh, you know when you first moved to LA, you went, this is me. That's what I felt when I walked into gold. So I was like, these are my people. Anyway, the membership's run out. It was just for 24 hours. I don't think it was massively reciprocated by the other people in there, but yeah.
Oh my God. Did you see Schwarzenegger when you went there?
Well, not personally, but there's a big poster on the wall. So I felt like I had. And also, we've only been here, what, less than a week. And already we're, I think... We've gone to a lot of exercise classes. But also as well, we're going, oh, it's quite nice here, isn't it?
It's not bad. I'm telling you, even if you go for a walk. You remember when COVID came, right? I had some of my buddies. We couldn't go anywhere. We just went for a walk on the beach. In the morning, we would meet and go for a walk for like an hour. And then everybody jumps in this car and drives home.
Yeah, I feel like I've heard enough about your fantastic life now. What have you made of the World Cup being here? Like, do you feel the kind of love for football growing in America and in LA specifically?
It's definitely growing. Why I say it's growing? Look, the hardest part, of course, they have their own sport. So, you know, like as much as we want them to respect our sport because football is what we love. And they love their own sport. But in a way that their sport is going, they still have their eye on football because it's growing so fast and it's really taking on.
And you see how many Americans are getting involved in England. So that is what also helps because they're not doing that for no reason. There must be something. They must see that there is growth in the sport that we all love. And that's why they're part of it. And I think in their country it's growing as well.
Let's talk about what was another really good game, Netherlands-Japan. First half was a little bit Cajun, and second half was fantastic.
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Chapter 6: What are the challenges of playing in high temperatures during the World Cup?
We're going to wait, wait, wait, wait. Next thing you know, they're playing in their own box or around their own box. Cross, boom, goal. It's just, no, guys, no.
Well, I had to eat my hat because when Japan kept putting crosses in, I was like, you're not going to beat the Dutch back four, OK? Like, no, they're huge. And then what, it was about 20 seconds later? If that. Ball came in, header, and then Rick just looked at me and was like, yeah, absolutely nothing. Good punditry. I think Japan were good for a draw, though.
Like, it would have been unkind on Japan if they hadn't got anything out of that game.
Yeah, you know, I get that. But if you look at the overall, right, because that's with the respect of a way in the sense of like where the Japanese have gone since now. What is it, the eighth or the ninth World Cup that they achieved and they're growing and they keep on doing well. The last World Cup, they, what, England? Spanish, the team that beat the Brazilian.
So they're doing well as a country. They're growing really fast and they really have the structure in the team. But one of the key things is that's why we're saying like it will be a fair result. But for Holland, they should have been a little bit more ahead, guys, because, you know, not because it's my name. Look, the country is small. I know that.
But we are very talented in developing good talent in our country. So I think Holland should have pushed all the way and get the win out of that game.
The thing with the Netherlands is, for years now, you've thought, well, they should be in with a chance of winning something. I know what you're trying to say. And they just fall short.
He's going to hurt me.
No, but it's true.
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Chapter 7: What does Mario Melchiot think about the current state of Dutch football?
You have like, what is it, five or six Premier League players in your team. And you may be like, okay, on paper, we could be like, well, you could surprise us. But we're going to show you something else. We're going to show you we are men. They battled with them from the start. When the game kicked off, they were kicking and doing everything to them.
Like even when Caicedo realized like, hey, they're eating up my team. I better step up.
The game was almost already done. Amagiolo scored the goal for Ivory Coast. It's a very, very nice finish.
Yeah, so comfortable too. It's a very nice finish. You know, sometimes I'm going to tell you guys a secret. I don't tell people that, but why I never had moments like that for myself? I would have loved to be that guy too. You know, look, I like your kid, you know, your cool kid. But why? I never had that skill. You know, to be calm too. In the corner.
He spent 12 years at Ajax. Yeah, I know.
What were you doing? I don't know why. You see, now I'm in LA. I'm sorry about that.
I saw that and I was like, if that came to me, and obviously I'm not a professional footballer, it came to me as like, I'd have taken a couple of touches and tried to get it in the ball. He just opened up his body. The left foot was already just ready to kind of like just slot into the corner. It was beautiful.
It says something about his talent too, because, you know, like the kid, if you look at the moment as well, it's almost like he's waiting for that ball to come to him. Like he wants it. So it's not like he's standing there and saying, oh, out of luck, I do it. No, he's like, give me the ball because you already know where he wanted to put it.
And that's why I think it was so... He makes us think it's easy, while it's not easy, because I know it.
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Chapter 8: What are the highlights from the Netherlands vs. Japan match?
And obviously, from a football perspective, we have to be well aware of that. These guys are going through a time and it's something that we can all sympathise with. And obviously, we're grateful we're not living through that ourselves. But no, it's awful. And that's what you hope the World Cup does, bring together some sort of normality and togetherness that,
At the end of the day, we're all just human beings and things like that going on are just obviously horrible to see with people at war with each other and people losing their lives. It's just not what we should be doing in humanity. And with regard to the game that you'll be playing tomorrow, have you seen the stadium? We went to it last night or two nights ago.
And we've got media accreditation so we can go to the stadium and we can take equipment in with us. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to go to the game with a trolley. Okay. And I'm going to roll it behind you just to make you feel at home. Just kind of bring you down to where it all started for our relationship. Don't make me laugh in a warm-up, please. Let me just focus.
I don't need to turn around and see that at the end. It's nice to imagine all of the international broadcasters. Go on, describe me. Go on, describe me. Fella. I think it's a shopping trolley. And it looks like... Hold on. Has he put his quid in as well? Well, it'll be a dollar over here, Max. It'll be a dollar over here. Really nice chatting to you, Max. Good luck for the match. Yeah, awesome.
Thank you very much, guys. Enjoyed it. So of the two goalkeepers we've had on, I felt like one of them definitely liked you.
He did.
Don't forget the commentaries we have coming up on 5 Live Sport later. Spain against Cape Verde at 5. Belgium-Egypt at 8pm. Saudi Arabia-Uruguay at 11pm. And then the late one, Iran-New Zealand at 2am on Tuesday. That game being played here in Los Angeles. Lots of talk around that one. So we'll make sure to keep you across it. And the next episode of this podcast...
We'll be waiting for you on BBC Sounds in the morning with all the reaction to those matches.
The 2023 Ballon d'Or France footballer is Lionel Messi.
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