Second Captains @ The Irish Times

Welcome to our weekly best of the world service show. We discuss Southgate's departure, disharmony in the Bellingham/England camp, the contenders to take over, Rory's blocks, Heimer's arrival and Frawley's future.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kieran McGeeney joined the Armagh senior panel for pre-season training in 1989. Thirty-Five years ago. On Saturday in Croke Park he led his county to their fifth ever All-Ireland Final. There they will face Galway.Neither county were a red-hot favourite when the ball was thrown in on this Championship back in April, McGeeney dealing with internal slings and arrows while Galway's squad consisted mainly of damaged chassis. But there they will be. And football thanks them for adding unfamiliarity to the sporting summer.Plus, amongst the chaos, there was Carlos Alcaraz's back-to-back Wimbledon titles after beating Djokovic in straight sets yesterday. Has the tennis torch been officially passed? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How should we play this game? We turn and ask Spain and once more they show and tell. Tonight they won their fourth European Championship, playing in a manner befitting of champions. To Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Busquets, Alonso and Alba now add Rodri, Laporte, Cucurella, Yamal and Williams.By the time the World Cup comes around England will have been waiting, expecting, hoping to win a men's football tournament for 60 years. Sixty. It's quite incredible.As he has done all summer long Ken dials in from the stadium after full-time joined by Miguel Delaney of The Independent and Jack Pitt-Brooke of The Athletic while we also chat to our Basque correspondent Beñat Gutierrez and ask, given the Basque heavy make-up of this Spanish side are the people of Bilbao dancing in the streets..? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We've had a mad busy week on the World Service between an All Ireland Hurling Championship for the ages, Lamine Yamal marking his spot on the world stage and England making a second consecutive Euros final. All that before you throw in the announcement of Heimir Hallgrímsson as the new Republic of Ireland Head Coach. Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Saturday in Pretoria was supposed to be many things, a battle between two teams who don’t like each other very much, the teams ranked 1 and 2 in the world, a chance for Rassie Erasmus to finally coach a team to victory over Ireland… in the end, it came down to 2 hours of watching to see if James Lowe had stepped out of touch in various weird and wonderful ways.  South Africa 27-Ireland 20 - we speak to Shane Horgan and Ruaidhri O'Connor of the Irish Independent about why this was a deserved Springbok win, how a couple of huge errors cost us, and how a bruised and battered Ireland can salvage something from next Saturday's second test. Plus we join Ken in München to discuss what impact the French election results will have on the striking French footballers, England's buddy system on penalties, and the exquisite joy of seeing the world's biggest laundrette right beside your new hotel. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There'll always be an England, and under Gareth Southgate it’ll always reach the latter stages of major football tournaments. This was his fourth straight ¼ final and now his side are one game away from back-to-back European Championship Final appearances. So what’s the bloody problem then? We chat to Ken from the stadium, accompanied by Jack Pitt-Brooke of The Athletic. While England may be the footballing equivalent of a week away at Centre Parcs, watching Turkey has been whatever the same length of time would feel like at Wayne Lineker’s compound. Fun. But maybe a little too much. Jonathan Wilson joins us from Berlin where - like Recep Erdoğan, he saw the Netherlands advance past the surrogate host country. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's been a great week here at Second Captains as we chased Ken around Germany as he followed the Euros Circus from Frankfurt to Berlin. Murph also developed a sense of wanderlust and packed the car for Cork where he met with Jamie Wall to chat though this coming weekend's All-Ireland Hurling Semi-Finals.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dublin are out at the quarter-final stage of the All-Ireland senior football championship for the first time since the “startled earwigs” of 2009, and it took an incredible second half performance by Galway to take them down.Michael Murphy and Paul Flynn talk to us about the end of an era (?) Galway’s tactical bravery, Kerry’s safety-first approach to handling a misfiring Derry, Donegal’s serene march to an All-Ireland semi-final… and why Armagh are a dangerous animal as we get to our final four. Plus there’s joyous local radio commentaries, the Sawdoctors in Fairview, central casting in Galway, and Branno’s requiem for Dublin’s dream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

England were truly awful for most of tonight’s game against Slovakia, until Jude Bellingham's sweet finish bailed out his country at the death. We get Ken’s post-match analysis from Gelsenkirchen. Southgate lives to fight another day but surely this crew can't beat the Swiss army knife?And Lars Sivertsen gives us his thoughts on the Spain game, Nico Williams' superstar status, and what this tournament has meant to the proud, skilful Georgians. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our best of Euros show. It’s been a great tournament so far with underdog wins, Willy's mighty Georgia, Turkish finesse, lunatic fans, English mediocrity, and loads of 0.0% and 5.1% Pilsner Ken.Join the party for a fiver a month – there’s no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Gaelic football season is the party that no-one was allowed to leave for large spells of this summer... but now the blade is being lowered with ruthless efficiency, and the narrative quickly moves on to those teams left standing. Michael Murphy and Paul Flynn say goodbye to Mayo, Tyrone, Monaghan and Cork in short order, before we look ahead to this weekend's All-Ireland football quarter-finals. We also discuss the possible end of Conor McManus' glittering inter-county career, a Cork-man manages to be both bored and infuriated simultaneously watching his football team, and Paul Flynn's support for Louth wins him some Wee County love.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Scotland have qualified for 12 international football tournaments, and they have failed to get out of their group at each and every one of those 12 tournaments. This time around it was a 98th minute winner for Hungary that finally put paid to their hopes.  Jonathan Wilson joins us from Stuttgart for the latest episode of Scottish tournament heartbreak while Ken was at the other game in that group to see Niclas Füllkrug score a late equaliser and further burnish his own sparkling global reputation, and ensure the hosts qualified for the Round of 16 as winners.  Plus there’s Ken's thought on pitch invaders harassing Ronaldo, a Grunge Week 2024 teaser, and the first rule of qualifying as a third-placed finisher (finish third). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to our best of Euros show. It's been a great tournament so far with wild games, mad fans, power ballads, low-energy England, Mbappe's politics, and a happy Ken on tour. Join the party for a fiver a month - there's no contracts, no hidden fees and no ads. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh Rory. Oh Rory, Rory, Rory. Lawrence Donegan and the lads wrestle with what we saw last night. Is it career-defining? How can it not be? Paul Flynn is with us to discuss two draws in the Gaelic football championship yesterday, with vastly differing outcomes. And there’s the Football Review Committee’s ‘sandbox games’ this weekend, trialling some revolutionary new rules - committee member Michael Murphy talks us through them.And there’s also the inevitable mentions of Bill Buckner, Scott Norwood, Doug Sanders, Jean van de Velde… Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

England expects. England awaits. England bores. England Wins. We chat to Ken and full time England watcher Miguel Delaney.  While riding the rail to Gelsenkirchen Ken encounters an Albanian man who literally risks his life and limbs for our football correspondent. The Euros may not even be out of the first weekend but the littlest hobo is all in.Elsewhere we saw Italy grind it out, Hungary confirm their Aviva form-line, and Spain answer those podcasts (like ours) who insist on sleeping on them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As Ken heads off to the Euros in Germany, now is the time to become a world service member if you want to gain access to our all our coverage throughout the tournament.Plus there's instant access to all our archives (almost 3,000 shows), there's features such as this week's fun chat with Conor Niland and Gavin Cooney about the tennis netherworld, we have Jamie Wall on hurling, we will be covering the Olympics. the URC semis and final, all the GAA football, the summer tour of South Africa, and all the big golf and tennis stories, plus all the breaking news.It’s 5 euro a month; there's no contracts, no hidden fees, no ads, and we're independent and member-led. Go to secondcaptains.com/join for details. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Euro 2024 kicks off on Friday with Germany v Scotland in Munich - and here's our tournament preview pod.James Horncastle and Jonathan Wilson join us to talk through the contenders. What can we expect from the champions, Italy, under Luciano Spalletti? Can England justify their status as tournament favourites? What about the hosts, Germany, who have lately put in their most pathetic tournament performances in memory? Why does Wilson continue to disrespect Kylian Mbappe? And who do they think is going to win? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It was an incredible weekend for Irish athletics. Last Friday, Sonia O'Sullivan was the only Irish person to have ever won gold at a European Championships. Ronnie Delany, Eamon Coghlan, John Treacy - all had tried, none had succeeded. By this afternoon, we had added 5 names to that roll of honour, after the success of Ciara Mageean and our mixed relay team. Cathal Dennehy and Derval O'Rourke join us to talk about the extraordinary achievement of our (geographically, demographically) diverse team which marries youth and experience - and how richly deserved this is for Ciara Mageean, who now has a gold to go with her silver and bronze European medals. Ken predicts gold for Ireland in tonight's 400m women's final, and we raise a toast to Jerry Kiernan, so fondly remembered in the RTE studios last night.   Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on the World Service we had Ken on Man City's latest legal power grab, Caitlin on turbulent times in the tennis world, and Ian Madigan on Irish rugby's inability to fix the 10 succession plan. Plus we have daily Euros shows coming up with Ken in Germany, Murph as Gaeilge, the Olympics, the summer tour in SA, football with Flynn and Murphy, and hurling with Jamie.There’s no contracts, no hidden fees and shows can be listened to on all good podcast apps, on Spotify or through our website. It’s 5 euro a month, it's independent, commercial-free and member-led with feature interviews, breaking news, Ken’s Football Show, The Politics Podcast, The “I’ll Tell You Who Wrote It” Book Club and lots of added extras. You’ll also be supporting the development of our longer-form work, such as our international series ‘Where Is George Gibney?’. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Real Madrid did that Real Madrid thing to win a staggering 15th Champions League title at Wembley - but it takes more than that to impress Don Diego Torres, who joins us from the Spanish capital to evaluate their triumph. Has this Madrid generation surpassed the Di Stefano-Puskas team of the 50s? Do Bellingham, Vinicius Jr and Ancelotti deserve to be considered the world’s best? Who are the players who really make this team tick? And how is Kylian Mbappe going to fit in? And we talk about how Borussia Dortmund’s sponsorship deal with Rheinmetall might be the biggest sportswash of all time. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.