America 2026: A World Cup podcast

Heartbreak and glory: Ireland's history of World Cup playoffs

America 2026: A World Cup podcast

Show Notes

Relive the glory and the heartbreak of Ireland's previous attempts to reach a major tournament with someone who was there to experience the joy, fight some losing battles and witness that handball. Kevin Kilbane and Paul Howard look back at playoff games past:

Belgium, World Cup 1998 Turkey, Euro 2000 Iran, World Cup 2002 France, World Cup 2010 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More from America 2026: A World Cup podcast

Jul 19, 2026

Former footballer, manager and full-time raconteur, Roddy Collins has been many things to Irish football.

Jul 18, 2026

Lionel Messi’s international football career wasn’t always a litany of heroic victories and dressing room anthems. For most of his time in sky blue and white he looked more likely to go down as a busted flush. An iconic club player who left his home too young and therefore severed the connection he could have had to his national team.

Jul 16, 2026

England led midway through the second half of last night's World Cup semi-final in Atlanta. Thomas Tuchel, seemingly satisfied with his evening's work, made the fatal error of hauling off his attacking options to cram the box with central defenders. In doing so, they handed Argentina the lion's share of possession with Leo Messi still prowling the pitch. You tend to get exactly what you deserve in these situations and England were picked off, beaten 2-1 inside 90 minutes.

Jul 15, 2026

Spain haven't lost a competitive game since Scotland beat them in March 2023. Tonight's win leaves them just a single match from breaking Italy's record unbeaten run of 38 games. Oh, and from lifting a World Cup trophy too, of course.

See all episodes →