Can Soccer Save the World?
7/12/202652 min
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 transcript of this episode, please email transcripts@crooked.com.
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First 90 secondsTommy Vietor· Host0:00
[upbeat music] Welcome back to Pod Save America. I'm Tommy Vietor. The final game of the 2026 FIFA World Cup is now about a week away, and I am already genuinely sad that this is about to be over. The tournament has taken me from casual fan to full-on World Cup junkie, and I don't know what I'm gonna do going forward to not do work at the office 'cause we just have the games on all day. And what makes this all the more remarkable is that before the World Cup began, there was a global sense of anxiety and concern about holding this tournament in Donald Trump's America. Fans from all around the world were worried about ICE raids, visa restrictions, travel bans, and then also, you know, issues with FIFA itself, like the exorbitant price of tickets. That one was not resolved, by the way. And while there have been some unfortunate incidents, um, mostly the conversation has been about the excitement around the US Men's team, at least at first, uh, the unbelievable quality of the games themselves, the incredible finishes, and the joy of watching fans from around the world come to America, fall in love with our cities, our culture, inhale food from Waffle