Can Soccer Save the World?
Pod Save America
Pod Save America
4.5 • 87.3K Ratings
🗓️ 12 July 2026
⏱️ 54 minutes
🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How is the world reacting to America's World Cup? Did Trump's red card interference ruin all the fun? And will the U.S. men's national team ever be good? Gary Lineker, host of The Rest Is Football and English soccer legend, joins Tommy to talk about the excitement, anxiety, and geopolitics surrounding the 2026 World Cup. Gary offers some advice to America on how to become a true soccer nation, discusses the successes and failures of this World Cup, and reminisces about his time playing in the 1986 World Cup — where he won the Golden Boot and played in the historic "Hand of God" match.
For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com and include the name of the podcast, episode title, and episode date.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to Pod Save of America. I'm Tommy Vitor. |
| 0:22.8 | The final game of the 26 FIFA World Cup is now about a week away, and I am already genuinely |
| 0:29.9 | sad that this is about to be over. The tournament has taken me from casual fan to full-on |
| 0:36.2 | World Cup junkie, and I don't know what I'm going to do going |
| 0:39.4 | for to not do work at the office because we just have the games on all day. And what makes |
| 0:44.3 | this all the more remarkable is that before the World Cup began, there was a global sense |
| 0:50.5 | of anxiety and concern about holding this tournament in Donald Trump's America. |
| 0:55.9 | Fans from all around the world were worried about ice raids, visa restrictions, |
| 1:00.9 | travel bans, and then also, you know, issues with FIFA itself, like the exorbitant price |
| 1:06.0 | of tickets. That one was not resolved, by the way. And while there have been some unfortunate |
| 1:09.7 | incidents, mostly the conversation has been about the excitement by the way. And while there have been some unfortunate incidents, |
| 1:15.7 | mostly the conversation has been about the excitement around the U.S. men's team, |
| 1:19.8 | at least at first, the unbelievable quality of the games themselves, |
| 1:24.7 | the incredible finishes, and the joy of watching fans from around the world come to America, fall in love with our cities, our culture, |
| 1:28.9 | inhale food from Waffle House and serenade stadiums with songs and even Viking chants. |
| 1:34.2 | And it is served as a reminder to a lot of us, I think, that we live in a great country |
| 1:38.1 | and one that is defined by its people and not by its politics. |
| 1:42.8 | So today, to dig into All Things World Cup, I'm thrilled to be joined by soccer royalty. |
| 1:48.0 | Gary Lineker, he's a former England striker, broadcaster, and co-founder of Goalhanger. |
| 1:53.0 | He was one of the greatest soccer players of his generation. |
| 1:56.0 | The guy had a hat trick in the 86 World Cup. |
| 1:59.0 | Incredible. |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 13 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Pod Save America, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Pod Save America and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.