The Soccernomics Podcast

We're taking a little breather this week, catching our breath from the World Cup. But we'll be back with new episodes very soon. Until then, we thought we'd republish an episode we did before the tournament began. It's one that seems very relevant again after Spain won the World Cup - Why Western Europe dominates global soccer.

This episode first aired on June 9th. None of the time references from that time have been changed.

We had to talk about that England collapse, and the fallout that's followed. Thomas Tuchel has received most of the blame. But is that fair? Was it more on the players, or was it a combination of various factors?

After a 1-0 win over Argentina, Spain added to their Women's World Cup title in 2023, and now hold the Men's title as well. What is it about Spanish football that's bringing it so much success? We also discuss how Argentina became this World Cup's villains...

Our first live show at the House of GOAL Festival in Industry City, New York. We previewed the England-Argentina match, which took place right after we got off stage, and also talked about the World Cup so far through the lens of Soccernomics.

Simon Kuper rejoins the pod amid his World Cup travels to share his takeaways from the tournament so far. The gang discuss the impact of Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane on the tournament, and whether they've ever seen anything like it from English superstars.

We discuss the most controversial match of the tournament so far - Egypt v Argentina. Is there a bias towards Argentina? We also discuss the fallout from the US Men's National Team crashing out of the tournament. Where does US Men's Soccer go from here?

Does it get much better than that England-Mexico match? Somehow the most hyped match of the tournament exceeded expectations. Stefan and Ashish break it down, discuss whether Western Europe is slowly taking over the tournament, and get into Donald Trump's controversial call to Gianni Infantino to allow Flo Balogun to paly against Belgium.

Moments after the final whistle, we break down the classic England-Democratic Republic of Congo R32 match, and look ahead to England's blockbuster meeting with Mexico at the Estadio Azteca. We also reassess whether this has been a tournament of upsets, and discuss the concept of 'inevitability' in sports.

After an eventful Brazil-Japan match, Stefan and Ashish talk about the success of African teams at this World Cup so far, and the unfair treatment the Iranian team faced at the hands of FIFA and the tournament's main hosts, the United States.

Note: As a reminder, this episode was recorded before the Germany-Paraguay and Morocco-Netherlands matches.

After Ashish makes Stefan listen to his experience watching Ghana hold England to a draw, they talk about how much managers really matter, with particular focus on England and Brazil at this World Cup.