The Football Reporters: Are you ready for the Club World Cup?

ESPN FC

ESPN

Sports, Soccer

4.2 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 74 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Join ESPN’s network of reporters for a bumper Club World Cup preview, covering everything from the teams and players to watch, to how the U.S. itself is gearing up for the new-look tournament. Joining James Olley, Rob Dawson and Mark Ogden are joined by Lizzy Becherano to discuss the hopes of the MLS trio involved in the competition and how the U.S. is gearing up for the World Cup in 2026. Tim Vickery reveals the players and teams to watch from South America, and Alex Kirkland discusses how Real Madrid will look under Xabi Alonso for the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Football Reporters.
0:10.6	The 32 Team Club World Cup is here.
0:14.7	We take a deep dive into the expanded tournament in the United States.
0:19.3	Everything from whether the favourites will take it seriously to underdog stories,
0:22.9	the lack of ticket sales to the grass on the pitches.
0:27.6	Welcome along. I'm James Olley and I've got Mark Ogden and Rob Dawson here with me in the studio.
0:32.7	I'm reminded of a clip from Blackadder, which is a cult BBC comedy from the 90s for anyone unaware of where he has, he talks to his servant and he says, well, you've done a really great job there. You've deserved a short holiday. Did you enjoy it? And that's it. That's how I feel about where we are on this season. But you have actually had a break, haven't you, Rob? I have a little bit of a break, but I'm about ready to go and flying out to the States
0:56.8	to cover City.
0:58.7	You're going as well with Chelsea.
1:00.4	The only one that's having a little bit of a break is Mark.
1:02.5	Oh, he's just swanning in for the final, isn't it?
1:04.1	You're having the advanced party, yeah, and I'm just going to watch from afar. see how it takes off in Europe, see what the vibe is like, you know, watching from pubs,
1:11.4	from box park. I think it's important to assess how it's taken up. But listen, all joking aside,
1:16.0	I do think that I think a lot of us have been quite negative about the Club World Cup because of
1:19.8	how it's been arranged and which teams have qualified. But certainly from a European perspective,
1:23.6	a lot of these games will be played at kind of prime time, eight o'clock, nine o'clock slots. And I think they will actually catch on people want to watch football at the end of the day.
1:30.3	And I think even though a lot of teams aren't in it, I think in terms of the football public,
1:35.3	I want to watch it. So it might be a surprise hit.
1:38.3	Well, on Saturday evening, it all starts in Miami with one Lienel Messi and his inter-Miamyside taking on
1:46.1	Egypt's Al-Ali. What are we expecting then, guys, going into the tournament? Mark, you mentioned
1:53.0	the sort of lukewarm reception it's got in Europe. Do you think once it's underway, you know,
1:59.4	it will gather momentum and it will start picking up traction?
	...

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