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Football Ramble

Dick Advocaat's banter bus | 2026 FIFA World Cup

12 Jun 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the opening games of the World Cup?

0.368 - 11.297 Marcus Speller

We're underway, everybody. Welcome to the Football Ramble. Goals, red cards, and Shakira, Shakira. It's Friday, 12th of June. I'm Marcus Speller. I'm Pete Donaldson. And I'm Vidusha Nantaraja.

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11.498 - 13.483

Whenever, whenever.

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24.331 - 32.468 Marcus Speller

And we're off! Hooray! Strap every body part in. The World Cup has begun.

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32.488 - 33.891 Pete Donaldson

Take it to your legs if need be.

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34.292 - 37.238 Marcus Speller

Oh my goodness. And sell a limb if you want a ticket. Exactly.

37.339 - 40.365

And Mexico will host it.

40.345 - 54.483 Pete Donaldson

And ten seconds before we started the show, Marcus Speller was wondering how many buttons to do up or undo on his shirt that was appropriate and professional. I said do another one down, Marcus. Come on. I wanted to go full Simon Cowell. Absolutely just go for it.

54.523 - 61.932 Marcus Speller

Look at that hairless muck for the World Cup. I was looking at some of the ITV pundits and I thought I want to be like that.

Chapter 2: How did the bizarre collaboration between Andrea Bocelli and a K-Pop singer unfold?

61.912 - 66.961 Marcus Speller

Could you hear them through the wind tunnel? I tell you what, other than the wind, magnificent studio.

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66.981 - 73.432 Pete Donaldson

Yeah, what great set up. It's terrible choice. You know me, I'm a sound man through and through. Awful choice. Awful, awful, awful.

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74.133 - 77.018 Marcus Speller

But beautiful. But Peter, we're visual guys.

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76.998 - 78.42 Pete Donaldson

With visual guys.

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78.52 - 89.016 Marcus Speller

What I loved is that Mark Pugash, lovely man, was at pains to say, this is not AI. That is an actual view. Because as soon as you saw it, you thought, that's very realistic. Is it a big screen?

89.737 - 103.077 Pete Donaldson

Because the obviously augmented reality that they've got when they turn the camera around looks like AI. So, yeah, I mean, that must have cost them an absolute ton. And they really need a deal on the wind situation.

103.097 - 110.066 Marcus Speller

The real cost would surely be the man versus food guy's dinner order. That's a good point, actually. What's his name, Adam? Adam Richman.

110.146 - 110.947 Pete Donaldson

I mean, that is him.

111.087 - 112.609 Marcus Speller

I thought, he looks like that guy.

Chapter 3: What was the significance of the first red cards and goals in the tournament?

135.599 - 136.14

It's lovely.

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136.16 - 140.388 Marcus Speller

I'd have it on my dad's wiener. Is it a Hulk Hogan themed thing?

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141.189 - 147.501 Pete Donaldson

No, no, no. Just the way you were talking there. Well, he used to have a pasta restaurant in the Mall of America.

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147.521 - 148.603

Hulk Hogan had a pasta restaurant?

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148.623 - 152.31 Pete Donaldson

He had a pasta restaurant, yeah. It didn't last for very long.

152.33 - 162.072 Marcus Speller

Well, I would have gone. Well, there we are, everybody. The World Cup is officially underway. It's wild. We have officially broken the bottle.

162.353 - 170.472

People thought it was the opening ceremony before the first game. It wasn't. No, now we've started our run. It was three Englishmen around the table being like, fine, continue. Yeah.

170.452 - 190.756 Marcus Speller

Sound the alarm. The World Cup is underway. Entertain me. Entertain me. Do it. Of course, Peter, time is running out. If you want to come to our World Cup watch parties for all of England's World Cup group games, tickets for England's opening game have already sold out and games two and three are selling fast. So hit the link in the show notes and grab your ticket now before it's too late.

191.416 - 196.422 Marcus Speller

Very briefly, Vish, we're not here to talk about England that much, but the England players were playing cricket the other day.

Chapter 4: How did the players' performances impact the early matches?

214.33 - 221.236

Because that was sexy cricket. And that's another reason why I don't like cricket. I don't like you saying cricket words. It makes me feel uncomfortable.

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221.256 - 223.458 Marcus Speller

How's that, Marcus? Pete's currently having a full toss, though.

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223.478 - 228.663

Do you remember the first time your mum said the word, like, lesbian? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mum, I don't think you know what that word means.

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228.703 - 235.609 Pete Donaldson

I remember my mum telling me off for saying the word wanker by using the word wanker, and I was like, oh. Even as a young person, I don't need to hear that from her.

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235.629 - 243.538 Marcus Speller

What were you doing at the time? There you go. Was it your father? Was it your father? The idea of your mum... The man who called you that word.

243.798 - 246.744 Pete Donaldson

No, no, no. No, we were just discussing the word, the term, all right?

247.525 - 252.975 Marcus Speller

Your kind of opening ceremony is this. I've never seen you go a bit shy there, Peter.

253.195 - 257.884

Your mum catching you wanking and you looking at her saying, you can't say that. That is out of order.

257.864 - 259.946 Pete Donaldson

We need to talk about Kevin. He's meant to turn eye contact.

Chapter 5: What were the reactions to Raul Jimenez's comeback and goal?

327.541 - 337.416 Pete Donaldson

That was the one! Gutierrez sort of bought it a little bit. It was a bit of a tangle of legs. And at the end of the day, it wasn't the legs that did it for him. It was a shunting from behind, so to speak.

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337.396 - 362.742 Marcus Speller

you can't shunt from behind you can't in a car or out of a car in a built up area yeah well look it's a game of opinions isn't it it is a game of opinions not that one it's definitely a red card shut up cricket I'll tell you what, though. All jokes aside, seeing the Azteca Stadium in full Technicolor like that, it's so good.

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363.283 - 374.927 Marcus Speller

Obviously, it kicked off tournaments in 1786 when they hosted them outright. But, you know, I thought to myself, that is... It's iconic. It's iconic as FCUK.

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375.007 - 383.358 Pete Donaldson

And the way that kind of like, it's a massive stadium, very vertical. And then you've got those two kind of squished kind of like bits in the middle.

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383.438 - 405.913 Marcus Speller

So I've sat in one of the squished bits in the middle before and then made my way out of there and sat with the proletariat after that. And it was... Flanked by guards, obviously. Yes, flanked. Yeah. And it was, yeah, it is something, but to see it like that, it's a beautiful sight. And there was a beautiful noise as well. I loved it straight from the kickoff.

406.214 - 407.977 Marcus Speller

The Mexican fans were cheering the passes.

408.177 - 408.638

Yeah.

408.658 - 410.622 Marcus Speller

And I thought they knew. They knew what was coming.

411.043 - 423.428

Yeah. They did. Just to stick on the stadium for a little bit, I like the fact that when, from some of the camera angles, you're like... does this actually stop? Because at the back, you can't see the sky. It's like the Tower of Babel. It just goes on and on.

Chapter 6: How did South Korea and the Czech Republic match play out?

544.857 - 559.817 Marcus Speller

Okay, so just everybody can't do it. Oh, we watched New Gaza all season. What they should do, UEFA should try and help FIFA out because I know that they get on very well. They should have the Champions League final first, then Europa League, then the Europa Conference League, and then we go into the World Cup. There we are, just a suggestion for four years' time.

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560.298 - 577.79

I think the... I really admired the ambitiousness of South Africa. And I totally agree with you. When they played out the back, they did the hardest bit. Yeah. And then they just seemed to panic. Pete's right, because sometimes when they were spraying out wide, they couldn't keep hold of it.

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578.391 - 587.233

Jade and Adams had quite a good game, but after they did the hardest bit, it was almost like, oh, fucking hell, we've not got to this bit before. I didn't expect to get this far.

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587.213 - 607.973

um and because there were quite a few opportunities well you wouldn't even really describe them as like you know formed counter-attacks but they were in the process of having you know like an overload on some you know on one side or getting the ball to la foster and rainers up top like there was they definitely had their moments or certainly openings and they just couldn't use them um

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608.037 - 612.027 Marcus Speller

They were distinctly second best. There's no doubt about that.

612.087 - 631.408 Pete Donaldson

It's hard to know where Mexico are really seeing the way that South Africa performed in this one. Because we talked a lot about elevation. Obviously, I don't know where all of the South Africa necessarily players are playing. But South Africa, there's a lot of places that are quite high up, and they look like they were blowing from the fifth minute, really. Very, very slow start to the World Cup.

631.428 - 637.056

Have a kick about up Table Mountain. What are they doing? If you've got the facilities, use them.

637.096 - 652.978 Marcus Speller

Exactly, exactly. Scotland will be playing. They would have built a tower that would have been on top of Ben Nevis, but the same height as Ben Nevis. Because Ben Nevis is used as a reference point a lot so far in this World Cup, for some reason. And then they would have played up there.

652.958 - 658.726

That's what they should have done. What have they been doing? Oh, we've been playing in a lock shape.

Chapter 7: What are the implications of the World Cup's opening ceremonies?

797.122 - 813.493 Marcus Speller

beautiful feet, you know, like all the rest of it, dah, dah, dah, dah. But some of that direct stuff that you're talking about, as we saw in this game, was there. And at the age of 35, I mean, he's been released from football. I think he's, I don't know if it's been confirmed or not, but it looks like he's going to go back to Wolves, which I'm very pleased about.

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813.473 - 829.857 Marcus Speller

But for him to get that goal, the emotions, you might say when the World Cup is finished and after all the montage of England celebrations and all that, we'll see this again because I think already this is probably going to be one of the moments of the World Cup.

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830.198 - 855.647

Scoring your first World Cup goal in front of your own fans in that stadium. Yeah. the outpouring of emotion as well also like the the goose yeah the goose in the mexico shirt in jeans maybe but these do not require keys yeah you know sometimes when players celebrate like that it actually takes them a while to actually for the emotions it's the shock and awe of scoring a goal yeah in that setting

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855.627 - 859.454

He was crying immediately. Yeah, he knew it. Yeah, but he's of an age.

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859.474 - 863.341 Marcus Speller

You know, again, being in his mid-thirties, he's keenly aware of the whole thing.

863.361 - 868.992

Was he hungover as well? Because that generally does it for me. Switch on a rom-com at 1pm and I'm like, oh God.

869.012 - 870.114 Pete Donaldson

Watching Marines come on.

870.134 - 873.4 Marcus Speller

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It has been confirmed he's going to Wolves.

873.38 - 873.761 Pete Donaldson

Right.

Chapter 8: How are teams and fans engaging with the tournament in unique ways?

982.959 - 990.29 Marcus Speller

Unkle doesn't give a shit. And that was the best thing about, was it the Euros or the last World Cup we saw? We didn't just talk about the last World Cup. I want to see her every week.

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990.31 - 993.315 Pete Donaldson

We said this when we last saw her. Why can't we see her every week?

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993.375 - 1004.593 Marcus Speller

Well, she was brilliant because you get some of the pundits arguing and she just, as you say, comes in and goes, well, actually, chaps, this is the law. This is how it's applied. Whether you like it or not is a different matter. But the referee applied the law exactly as it's written.

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1004.613 - 1007.778

And they go, I don't want it.

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1007.798 - 1015.432 Marcus Speller

I don't want it. But I don't like it. She's like, that's not what I'm here for. You can have a chat about that. The law wasn't correct. But she was straight on it and said it was a red card.

1015.913 - 1024.308

Yeah, yeah. It's almost like she gets paid just for being on rather than like by the minute. She's like, I don't give a shit. Give it red, it's fine.

1024.429 - 1033.085 Marcus Speller

Yeah. But she said straight away and the referee concurred. I thought... Yeah, and here I am going to do that thing which I was accused of, but I just wondered if there was enough in it.

1033.726 - 1039.117

I know the angle does sort of say, but it... We didn't have the right amount of zoom on it.

1039.197 - 1048.515 Marcus Speller

Maybe because the cameras were on top of the stadium. It was like Hubble telescope shit. That's true. We did see the ref cam on it though, which again, as Pete said, was a lovely addition. Love the ref cam. Absolutely adore it.

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