It's the hope that kills you - Football History Podcast with a Scottish Angle

It has been an epic series, this one. 11 sprawling episodes that took us from tournament build up, to attending Scotland's opener in Boston and ultimately to the final in NYC where Spain outlasted Argentina in a final that will live mere minutes in the memory. Along the way, we saw Cape Verde capture everyone's imagination, Curacao snatch an unlikely equalizer against tournament blue bloods Germany and we saw Paraguay manage to...well, out Uruguay Uruguay. Throughout WC2026, the big stars shone. Messi, Haaland, Kane, Bellingham, Rodri, Mbappe etc all lived up to the hype and we saw less well know figures like Canales (Paraguay), Raskin (Belgium) and Mora (Mexico) surprise with some outstanding performances.

In this final episode for the series, we reflect on it all and we delve into Steven's team of the tournament, which proved to be one final chance for Nick to mock him for bias and poor judgement...it won't be the last.

For the love of all that's holy...why did we have to sit through that monstrosity of a match?! Ah that's right, to prove that Stevie can, in fact, pick a winner...back in your box Nick!

We review our semi final predictions...terrible, we review the final itself...terrible, and we tee up the final episode in this series which will come in a few days where we'll reflect on the tournament as a whole and Stevie provides his, much anticipated, team of the tournament. We cannae wait!

We review our predictions for the quarters and make some predictions for the semis. Now, when I say 'review', what I actually mean is Nick ruthlessly mocks me for my utter ineptitude when it comes to predicting the outcome of football matches. To get my own back, I've predicted Hearts will win the league next season. That's them, well and truly scuppered!

We review our predictions for the round of 16 and make some fresh predictions for the quarter finals. Yes again, we fully expect Stevie will fall flat on his face when it comes to predicting scores and winners...however, he fully redeems himself with a lengthy rant about Galarza...apparently, the worst human being in history!

In the final episode of our series exploring the origins of football across the 3 host nations of the 2026 World Cup, we turn our attention to Mexico. A country with a fantastic footballing heritage and we're delighted to share that the Scots had a fundamental role to play in that origin story.

As WC2026 continues at a frantic pace, we continue our review of the Round of 32. The French look unbeatable, the Spanish are building momentum, the Belgians pull a rabbit from a hat, Messi dives like a U-Boat and Bellingham and Ronaldo need their nappies changed. We also make some predictions for the Round of 16...all of which Steven will get wrong because that's what he's best at.

In this episode we cover the initial tranche of 'the round of 32' matches. Scotland are out and Steve Clarke has resigned, which leads us to a debate about future management options with Stevie's suggestion of David Martindale being met with derision by Nick! Stevie also manages to fall in love, all over again, with World Cup 2026 thanks to the Germany vs Paraguay match which had everything he looks for in a match. A hero, a villain, a Rudi Voller lookalike, a booking that should've seen the culprit either receive a straight red or a medal...depending upon your point of view!

This is our pre and post match episode covering the build up and recovery from the Scotland match versus Brazil. Once more, we see Nick cast a critical eye over proceedings and make some informed decisions about performance and scoreline; whereas, we see Steven romanticise Scotland's chances in a sort of tartan fever dream. Ultimately, Steven has all the accuracy of a badger wearing a built up shoe.

This episode was recorded after most teams had played their 2nd matches, and crucially, before Scotland had played Brazil. It's hard to squeeze these recordings in because the matches come thick and fast and we are often a) forced to rerecord as we spend so much time crying over the Scotland results, b) laughing at how dreadful my (Steven) predictions are and c) sidetracked by pesky things like kids, jobs etc

We continue our exploration of the history of football across the 2026 home nations. The Scots...as always, are heavily involved in the creation of the game and the Canadians took the sport to their heart. In this episode we learn about men with big mustaches, the chaotic 1904 Olympic Games and the 'porridge eating invincibles' from Canada who went on to win the gold medal. We also learnt about how ice hockey went on to dominate and football would be lost on the Canadians for decades.