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Chapter 1: What are Scotland's current chances in the World Cup after the Brazil match?
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The Football Daily Podcast. At the People World Cup 2026. With Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Hello and welcome to the Football Daily with me, Rick Edwards, and this gentleman, Lloyd Griffith. The headlines from... Hello. Oh yeah, sorry. Did I do that again or are you happy with that? I'm happy, yeah. Didn't think the hello was a little bit late? No. Okay. The headlines from today.
Scotland beaten 3-0 by Brazil. That means they finished third in their group. Still have got a chance to qualify. Brazil topped that group. Morocco finished second. Switzerland beat Canada 2-1 to top Group B. Bosnia and Herzegovina beat Qatar 3-1 to secure third place in that group. South Africa beat South Korea 1-0 to finish second in that group.
It's not a great result for Scotland, actually, because it means that South Korea finished third with a better goal difference than Scotland. Mexico have topped the group, winning all three of their games. They're the only team to do that so far. They beat Czechia 3-0. Now, we have actually just finished a lovely chat with Kasper Schmeichel. Oh, a lovely man. Really nice man.
Came over to our house. When he arrives, see, handshakes. Truthfully, the firmest handshake I've ever experienced. And everyone has agreed with that.
Have they?
Have they? Absolute crime. Oh, you've had harder, have you? Didn't. Like a vice. It was just a normal handshake. Yeah, you didn't notice. It was just two goalkeepers shaking hands. But I guess for you. Don't think he realised that. Essentially, you know, the hand of a grandpa.
A civilian.
A civilian. Civilian grandpa. Hand of a grandpa. Yeah, it just felt like a normal handshake to me. It did feel like my hand was sort of turning to dust in his grip. Yeah, it was painful. Bless you. Thank you. The other thing was, the only brief I think I gave you before the interview, because I knew you'd be excited because you love goalkeepers. Love them.
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Chapter 2: How do players recover from mistakes in high-stakes tournaments?
And at the end of the interview, what did you do? Well, we were just chatting about gloves and he was, you know, because the conversation... I don't think he brought the gloves up, did he? No, he did. He did, actually. Did he? Yeah, because we'll hear later, but he talked about getting gloves sent over from Germany and he seemed to know quite a lot. So I was like, are you into your gloves?
He went, yeah, I am, actually. Is he into his gloves? Yeah, I think he might be. Well, you never know. I know goalkeepers that don't care. They just, I don't care, as long as they're white. I wear gardening gloves.
we've seen it i mean not for a few hundred years but we've seen it um and then i was like actually i'm a bit of a goalkeeping glove nerd as well and i showed him the photos of a lot of gloves i've got a lot of his dad's old gloves which i've spent far too much of my future children's inheritance on on ebay just trying to get them so uh and oh we were honestly you couldn't stop us we were just like comparing couldn't stop you well we were just he was looking over at lizzie
No, no. He was like, wow, look at this legend. That's what he said. He'd go, wow, look at this guy. Have you seen his gloves? Yeah, and actually, we've got quite a few. I said, I've got quite a few of your dad's gloves. And he went, yes, I have. Yeah, it was good. And I was like, oh, OK. Well, I mean, yeah. What a creepy thing to say to a man, though. I've got quite a few of your dad's gloves.
Yeah, obviously. Just take that in isolation. That is an insane thing to say to someone. If his dad was a surgeon, very weird. I've got some of your dad's gloves. Yeah, but that's fine. I didn't say it like that. You just did a bit. You tapped him on the knee. I didn't tap him. You know what I've got? I've got a load of your dad's gloves. That's what you did.
And then you showed him photos of them. Yeah, I did. And then also I realised that there's a few photos and then there's pictures of his dad, who is Peter Schmeichel, obviously. And I was like, oh, I was just picturing your dad there. I was like, oh, God, that does feel a bit creepy, actually. All right. I actually, I couldn't handle it. I had to leave you to it.
I used to send Peter Schmeichel Christmas cards every year up until about two years ago. Well, let's get Casper back and tell him that. I thought that was, the glove's fine, but I've got loads of Percy and Dad's gloves. I used to send them Christmas cards.
he didn't send any back but I mean he's busy keeping clean sheets and you know winning trophies so you keep going Peter but Casper lovely man really lovely lovely man really nice man immediately after we finished I don't know if it was Casper saw the table tennis table No, it was producer Lizzie that said, do you want to play table tennis? Yeah. With a little fat bloke. You were obliged.
And you went and played table tennis. I was the referee.
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Chapter 3: What unique challenges do goalkeepers face with the World Cup ball?
He was, I'll be honest, he was not, I thought he was going to be brilliant because sports people tend to be brilliant at everything. He wasn't brilliant. You had him on the ropes. Yeah. You were 10-8 up. Yeah. Two match points. Yeah. I did say something about your mental weakness. Yeah. And then you crumbled and you lost. Two words. Bruce Grubbler. I let him win it. What?
You had a brown paper bag from him? I let him win it. I let him win it. You've been saying that. You've been saying that for the last hour. And there was nothing about your game that looked like you were throwing it. Everyone is shaking their head. We've got video evidence. Yes, we have got video evidence. You didn't throw it. We've seen it in every table tennis game you've played.
The same thing happens. You get a bit ahead and then you crumble. And you did it against Kasper Schmeichel. He has a shoulder injury. And I thought, do you know what would really cheer him up? Beating me at table tennis. And I made that lad's dream come true. Lovely man. I don't think he's going to be telling that anecdote.
I don't think he should be telling anyone that he came around here, to be fair. Well, he might say something about the dad's glove spin. What else are we doing later on in the podcast? We're going to answer some of your questions. We're going to do a Q&A.
Not my questions. No. Listener questions.
Listener questions. You've been very kind and sent a load in, so we'll rattle through some of those. But now, let's dive in to Kasper Schmeichel. Not literally. Well, the first person we've invited over to our shared house is Premier League winner, two-time Scottish Premiership winner, Kasper Schmeichel. Thanks for coming over. Thank you. Thanks for the invite. It's a nice place, isn't it?
It's a lovely little place you've got here. We've lucked out. Right in the sun. It's beautiful. Just obviously ignore all the socks drying over there, please. That's just admin. That's life admin that's going on in the house. We actually live it.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Kasper Schmeichel provide about the mindset of goalkeepers?
Producer Lizzie, about 10 minutes before we turned up, she went, are you going to move them socks? And Rick was like, no, I think I'll just keep them in the corner. Well, yeah, you can barely notice them. Had you not mentioned them, we wouldn't have noticed them. That's a good point, actually. Pretend I didn't mention them, please. That's true.
Let's talk about the Scotland-Brazil game that we just watched. Two colossal mistakes in the first half. I mean, one which, yeah, eventually was chalked off. But, I mean, what a horrible, horrible way to start. And poor old McKenna as well. coming in and that in your first 10 minutes. That was tough. It's tough. It was tough to watch. It was always going to be tough against Brazil.
Let's be honest. They are one of the favourites to win the tournament. You've got the added heat and humidity of Miami. There's so many things that I felt were stacked against Scotland for this game that they were going to need like a
a monumental performance to get something from the game but I think any team will always think like just don't give them anything like make them earn it I was always of the opinion like I hated losing but as long as you give everything and you know you're not handing them anything then you could accept it better than if it happened like that You mentioned the conditions.
I mean, we noticed that even the Brazilians were drenched through. Everyone looked absolutely goosed. And I don't know, like, and that's obviously going to affect the way the game goes. Well, it is. I mean, I remember playing both in Qatar and even in Russia, the World Cup in Russia, we played in Samara and Saransk, and I was the keeper. But I was absolutely drenched.
I mean, I do remember times when I've played in, even when I played in south of France, having 38, 40 degree heat there, thinking, how are these outfielders doing it? Because I'm absolutely wet through here just standing here. But there's no question that the conditions, they play a massive part.
And particularly when you play a tournament like this, that is across so many vast areas and you've got places like Mexico, you know, six or seven and a half thousand feet above sea level. You know, the air is thinner there and then you go to Miami and you have the... the humidity and the heat. There's so many things that can affect that.
And then you go and play in, like, for example, you play in Dallas. And, you know, I was in Dallas last for the England game. And inside, it was lovely and cool. We were actually wearing jackets because it was a bit chilly. And you go outside and it's like, there's no way you could play a football game in that heat.
So there are teams that are more suited, players that are used to playing in that kind of heat. I mean, it's not exactly Scottish weather in Miami, is it? So it is definitely more difficult, I think. It's a cliche, isn't it, as well, to say, oh, come the Scots, deal with the heat. It's not exactly Paisley or Fife, but there was a few of the Scottish lads, and their faces were just red.
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Chapter 5: How does the heat and humidity affect player performance in the World Cup?
failure and you'll have been subjected to having to deal with things that are out of your control sometimes and you have to accept them. And those learnings from an early age, as long as you keep having them and you're exposed to the fact that you can fail, and failure isn't the end of the world.
Through your career, you'll learn that you're never going to play a perfect game and mistakes will happen. If you're a goalkeeper and a defender, if you make mistakes, more than likely it's going to lead to a chance or a goal. You've just got to put that to one side, but you can only do that having experienced it before.
So I think someone as experienced as McKenna, don't get me wrong, the first two or three minutes after it will be in your head. Yeah, it will, but you don't want to follow up with another one. You know what I mean? So I always find in any sport or in any elite profession, it's not about making a mistake. It's about how do you react after the mistake.
And I think the ones that react the best, they're the ones who actually have the ability to not care in the moment. Don't get me wrong, after the game, you'll have all those feelings, but in the moment, you've just got to move on. Psychologically, I was just thinking, Scotland 3-0 down, chasing the game, really, although knackered, so not able to chase it that hard. And then Neymar comes on.
You must just think, oh, come on, give it a rest, lads. Well, I mean, this is the thing sometimes with these massive nations that just have huge strength and depth. I remember we played a game in Moscow against France where we needed a draw and they were already through and they'd rested quite a few players and then 15 minutes ago you see Mbappe warming up and you think, come on. Oh, come on.
But that's the thing about these nations. And, you know, you have nations like Scotland, like Denmark of 5 million people coming up against nations of 300 million people. But that's international football. And the challenge with any sport is that can you rise above those things? So you see different ways of approaching the game. We saw England yesterday come up against Ghana, you know.
Was it pretty? No. But what do you expect them to do? Do you want them to come and be expansive and just be open to England's attacks? Of course not. So you've got to find other ways. So the smaller teams or the smaller countries can compete against the bigger countries. We're not always going to be able to do it, but you've got to find different ways.
We were saying, weirdly, for a game that you've lost 3-0, Angus Gunn had a really good game. He did. And sometimes they are the games for keepers. You have good games, even though you lose. And it means nothing at the end of the day to you when you come off the pitch. You know, you'd rather never touch the ball at all and nick the 1-0 win. But sometimes that's the life of a goalie.
I mean, and even having said all that, You know, Alisson makes two really good saves. I like the fact they kept going because that makes a difference in the standing for the best threes. It's not great to lose 3-0 in that sense, but I like the fact that they kept going and you're up against a very good goalkeeper there. It's worth knowing Angus Gunn hadn't played a game all season.
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Chapter 6: What strategies can smaller teams use to compete against larger nations?
So match fitness is not such an issue for goalkeepers? I think with goalkeepers, I wouldn't call it match fitness, I'd call it match sharpness. It's match sharpness.
There's no question that there are elements of games, if you aren't playing regularly, that will need tuning up and fine-tuning, because you can train all day long, and training is great, but it's nowhere near match tempo, it's nowhere near match situation. And the thing about goalkeeping is it's about decisions, and it's mental. It's not physical in the same way. So...
all those little decisions you have to make constantly. You can make them in training because there's no consequence. But once there's a consequence on, do you freeze or are you able to do that? And that's where the experience then kicks in. There's quite a few goalkeepers in this World Cup that are world-class that we're just not going to see.
David Rea, Lemons, who I called Lemons earlier, if I'm not mistaken. Ederson, you know, three incredible goalkeepers all at the top of their game that we're just not going to see. How do they keep themselves sharp? And also, how do you not get annoyed, especially in Rea's situation? If I'm Rea, I'm absolutely fuming. You say Rea? Yeah. I say Rea. You say Lemons and he's called Lemons.
Probably go with me. But he's had an unbelievable season. with what he's done at Arsenal. And then Unai Simon's just had an average season. But again, are you looking for consistency with the Spanish team? I think if I'm the Spanish coach, he's probably thinking he's got a lot of headaches. Does he need the headache of swapping goalkeepers now? If it's not broke, don't fix it.
Don't forget Unai Simon won the Euros with Spain. So it's not like you've got...
complete novice in there, you've got a European champion in your goal and also they have a history, he was his coach from a young age and I think particularly the manager goalkeeper relationship, in my experience managers they don't want to think about the goal, they just want to know he'll do his job, I've got 10 players and plus I've got a lot to think about, I just need you to do your job.
Is that why so many goalkeepers are nuts because you're just left to your own devices? They're just like you over there on your own. Well, no, because that's not how we train. People say goalkeepers are crazy. And I'll agree with that because you are crazy if you accept that level of responsibility. Right. Then you're crazy.
If you thrive on knowing any mistake can cost your entire country, then yes, you're crazy. Then you're crazy. Yeah. But that is why there's only one of us on the pitch. But then surely you flip it, the buzz, when you're the last line of defense. And you just saved it. You thrive on it. That pressure, that is the best pressure I've ever known.
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Chapter 7: How do goalkeepers maintain sharpness when they are not regularly playing?
No. Do you know what? They're actually the hardest ones. You mentioned Angus Gunn there. The ones where you have a lot to do, you're just in it. It's a bit like a training session in the sense that there's constant, constant work. The ones where you have, you'll say, nothing to do, for me, that's the ones where the top keepers, they separate themselves from the elite.
That's kind of what I mean, because he's got nothing to do, and yet somehow he still maintains that level. But that's what he's conditioned and coached to do. And again, I'll go back to what I said before about the mistake for McKenna. Can you get to a point where you don't feel consequence anymore? You don't feel the consequences of mistakes anymore.
You just go and make decisions and do what you do and you're not scared of what's going to happen. The second you become scared as a goalkeeper of the consequences, then you become tentative. And when you become tentative and uptight, then you cause yourself problems. And the other side of it is, can you accept that you don't have anything to do?
Because you'll have goalkeepers that will go looking for work. They need to get involved in the game. They need to feel involved in the game. So you've got to devise strategies in your own head, whatever you need to do, to feel like you're involved in the game.
Now, people probably won't realize how much running some keepers actually do, but they do it to stay involved, to feel like they're in the game. We might have the ball up the other end. Obviously, nobody's watching the keeper there, but he'll be moving... with the team, and he'll be doing that.
One, to potentially be in the right position if they need it, but also he'll be doing it to stay involved in the game. Because if you just stood there, then yeah, then that's when the mind can wander. And again, you're alone with your thoughts.
If you've made a mistake after 10 minutes as a keeper, and you're alone with your thoughts there, that's a dangerous place to be, because what will then happen is you'll want to rectify the mistake. But as a keeper, you can't do that. You can't rectify a mistake. Now, an outfielder, if he's having a bad game, he can run around or he can tackle or he can try and make something happen.
As a keeper, you have to wait for something and you have to accept you might not be able to do anything about what's coming to you. And that's a skill to accept in your own mind. I've had a few goalkeepers that I've interviewed in the past talk about the line where they basically just follow the ball the whole way, wherever it goes, just to keep them in the game.
It's like, I need to be connected to that ball the whole time, so I'll just move. So I just know that wherever that ball goes, I'm going, and I'm just ready for it because, I mean, I'll be thinking about dinner, what I'm having tonight. No, but again, like I say, everyone finds their own way. I mean, if you take the example, for example, my dad. My dad used to shout a lot. If you ask...
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Chapter 8: What listener questions were addressed in the episode?
Love that.
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five lights for hello i'm alistair bruce ball and i'll be commentating on the world cup for the bbc this summer is a commentator favorite world cup moment france for argentina three in russia 2018 amazing goal from benjamin pavard in that game on the half volley What makes the World Cup such a special tournament? It's its exotic nature.
I think particularly as a kid, it just seemed to happen in far off lands that you'd only ever dreamt about or heard about.
The People World Cup 2026. Listen on BBC Sounds. The Football Day at the People World Cup 2026. With Rick Edwards and Lloyd Griffith. Live from LA.
You will have spent time at Celtic, just thinking back to Scotland, with Kieran Tierney and Ralston. Have they told you stuff about the Scotland group, the Scotland team, and how confident they were going into this tournament? No, because they beat us. They refused to tell me anything. They refused to tell me. I was trying to probe and everything, but they weren't letting anything out.
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