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Chapter 1: What are the key highlights of the FIFA World Cup 2026?
After all the anticipation, FIFA World Cup 2026 gets underway. Today, for the first time ever, the tournament will be staged across three countries, the USA, Canada and Mexico, and it'll feature a record 48 teams, 16 host cities and 104 matches in total. The opening game kicks off at 8 o'clock Irish time tonight as Mexico take on South Africa to discuss everything World Cup.
Joining me now is former Republic of Ireland goalkeeper and RTE football analyst, Shea Given. Shea, good morning. you Good morning David are you okay? I'm well thank you are you excited?
I'd be more excited if the boys in green were there but we've got to swallow that pill and I suppose move on and hopefully we can learn something from this World Cup that will push the lads on for the next one of course but yeah I think It's the biggest show on earth, isn't it? The World Cup, and you mentioned there on the intro, it's over three countries this time for the first time.
So there's a lot of excitement. There's a lot of, I don't know, trying to work out who's favoured, who's not favoured. And some of the teams, if I'm being brutally honest, I need to do some serious homework on because I wouldn't know a lot about some of their players. But yeah, it's really exciting.
Of course, we've all got great memories growing up watching the Irish teams at World Cups and stuff. And we'll have them forever, I suppose.
Yeah, well, lots of us will have memories of watching you and the 2002 World Cup. I mean, it's, I mean, the scale of the thing, it's, I mean, obviously in 2002, you were still on the world stage. It was still the greatest show on earth, but it is so much bigger now.
Yeah, well, there's a lot more teams, you know, this is the first time as well, there's a lot more teams and some people are saying it's nearly more difficult not to get out of the group than the top three automatically go and then it's the best place thirds as well.
So it's nearly more difficult not to qualify out of this first stage, but obviously when it gets into the knockout stages, that's when you'll see the real sort of excitement and the games, you know. the more difficult the games will become and the more jeopardy, of course, as well. So, yeah, it's a different format. It's a different, as I say, three different countries.
There's a lot of change in this World Cup as well and we'll all be watching and seeing, you know, is it better for the more teams or is it diluted a bit too much or whatever. It'll be interesting to see how it all pans out.
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Chapter 2: How does Shay Given feel about Ireland's absence in the World Cup?
You don't want it to, you know, turn into some sort of a concert mid game, like, you know, because we were all watching it for the football, not for who's performing at halftime, but I'm sure there'll be lots of razzmatazz tonight when it comes to the opening ceremony. There's, there's no doubt about that.
Well, those lengthy halftimes gives the pundits plenty of time to have a chat. So that's good.
Plenty of time to talk nonsense.
Never, never. Now, the opening game tonight, as I say, Mexico against South Africa. I mean, who do you think are really the top contenders for this?
Well, the obvious ones would be, I would imagine from a European point of view, would be Spain, France and Portugal. I think they're the kind of standout teams. I mean, looking at Portugal's midfield, they're so strong with Vitinha and Neves and
um bernardo silva and the likes but you know ronaldo's still in the conversation there but i don't know if he's at a stage now where he might be hindering them more than helping because you know of his age i've seen some of his games you know out in saudi and he he's not the ronaldo of all there's no there's no getting away from that and maybe for me personally more an impact substitution rather than a starter but he's such a big personality can roberto martinez like you know 40 put him on the bench and we all talk about harmony the england squad of course they're
They're going on the harmony side of things. And, you know, the squad's picked for a long campaign. And, of course, you know, you look at the likes of France with Alisi, Dembele, Dewey and Bappe. That's their front line. That would scare any team, wouldn't it, you know? And Spain, of course, are the reigning European champions as well. So they'll win me a big shout as well.
But I'm going to go with an outside shout here. And I'm going to go with Brazil. And maybe it's not that big of an outside shout just purely because of Some of the players that they have, you know, the manager Ancelotti as well. They're not ready to be mentioned in a lot of people's minds as well. And maybe that's a big shout for me, an outside shout.
But again, I think of the weather conditions, the humidity, the heat. You know, a lot of the European teams, well, especially England, I suppose, wouldn't be used to that that much. But the Brazilians and maybe even Argentina deserve a mention as well. They're reigning World Cup holders, you know.
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Chapter 3: What changes can we expect in the tournament format this year?
I do like the front line in Dewey and Alissi. I mean, Mbappe, he's not young, I'm saying, but I do like that attacking force that France do. Dewey's only, I think, 19 or 20, but I know he's been around now for a season or two, but You know, we talk about the next kind of superstar coming out on the ranking. We talk about Ronaldo and Messi and you talk about the likes of Mbappe.
But this Dewey and Alissi, these two players alone, they're such special talents. They really are. And again, you know, that forward line from a France point of view, they'll be looking at that thinking, we can light up this World Cup. They really can. Players like that, it'll be interesting to see how they go. I still do like Brazil for whatever reason.
It might be just because of maybe the manager as much as anything in Ancelotti. You've seen what he's done at Real Madrid with a lot of superstars there. This Brazil squad is full of superstars as well. Rafinha, Vinicius Junior, Cunha and Paqueta, Thiago. The players they have. They can't all start, of course, but Ancelotti seems to be the master of getting the best out of some superstar names.
Shay, you know all about goalkeeping, obviously. Who's the best goalkeeper in the world at the moment, would you say?
Well, I do like David Raya. I think the season he's had at Arsenal and people probably listening will go, well, he's probably not even going to start for Spain because Simon starts for Spain, you know.
So it'll be interesting to see if that is the case come the first game, if Spain stick with Simon or David Raya gets a nod because, you know, Premier League winner now just playing the Champions League final a couple of weeks back as well. I mean, who is the best goalkeeper? Who's the best in anything in the world? You know, it's always up for debate. I mean, Alisson will play for Brazil.
I do like Alisson. I know he's missed a lot of games recently through injury. But I still very much like Alisson for Brazil. Mike Mannion for France is a brilliant goalkeeper as well. I mean, you always look at the teams at the very top, the favourites, they won it. And by all accounts, they've got some of the best goalkeepers. So there's a couple there thrown in, David, I'd say.
I'm looking at a list of the oldest players at the World Cup. The Scottish goalkeeper is 43 years and five months. The Mexican keeper is 40 years and 10 months. The German keeper, 40 years and two months. You wouldn't be tempted to come out of retirement.
The comeback's on. The comeback's on. You mentioned the Scottish goalkeeper. I imagine you mentioned Craig Gordon. The career that he's had. There's a good chance when you look at the other two goalkeepers in Scotland, having a squad that Craig Gordon could actually start.
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