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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine

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Speaker 1: from News Talks EDB.

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Speaker 2: You be the TMO.

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Speaker 1: Have your say on eight hundred and eighty ten eighty

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Speaker 1: Weekend Sport with Jason Pin and GJ. Guvnerholmes, New Zealand's

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Speaker 1: most trusted home builder, News Talks.

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Speaker 3: EDB two twenty six on News TALKSB. The twenty twenty

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Speaker 3: four European Football Championship underway in Germany, twenty four teams

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Speaker 3: chasing glory over the next month or so. Results in

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Speaker 3: the first two days Germany five, Scotland won that was

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Speaker 3: on opening night and then three games overnight Switzerland three,

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Speaker 3: Hungary one, Spain beating Croatia three nil and Italy two

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Speaker 3: Albania one. A great pleasure to welcome back to the

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Speaker 3: New Zealand aer Waves Sebastian Stafford Bluer, German based football

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Speaker 3: writer for The Athletic and Fatifo Football SEM. Great to

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Speaker 3: get the chance to chat to you. What is the

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Speaker 3: mood first of all in Germany at the start of

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Speaker 3: this month long feast of football.

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Speaker 4: It's a great question, Jason, because initially there was a

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Speaker 4: bit of trackidation. I think Germany have had some pretty

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Speaker 4: a patchy form over the last couple of years. They've

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Speaker 4: had some terrible times in tournaments, back to back eliminations

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Speaker 4: at the group stage in twenty eighteen World Cup twenty

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Speaker 4: twenty two World Cup. I think the mood since the

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Speaker 4: five one win over Scotland has been I wouldn't say.

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Speaker 2: You forig but it's been a big uplift.

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Speaker 4: I think that should set the mood coming towards the

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Speaker 4: end of the first day, which has been okay, have

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Speaker 4: to say, though marred by organizational difficulties and trouble getting

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Speaker 4: around the country. So that's a little bit of a kink,

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Speaker 4: which I hope you will sort yourself out. But I

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Speaker 4: think fundamentally that the old idea of a tournament which

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Speaker 4: happens in one country, where everybody engages with the culture

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Speaker 4: and it's not one of those kind of pan European

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Speaker 4: affairs we've got used to, and not one way you

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Speaker 4: share it with another country, which is kind of the

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Speaker 4: future because the tournaments getting so big for.

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Speaker 2: People that are going to.

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Speaker 4: Buy into that as a thing, right like this is

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Speaker 4: one of the last chances to really have fun in

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Speaker 4: a traditional style European championship.

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Speaker 3: What did you make of Germany's first up five to one,

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Speaker 3: to call it what it is, a demolition of Scotland.

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Speaker 4: Deeply impressive, deeply deeply impressive. I think two sides to

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Speaker 4: that coin. Jason Scotland were not good at all. I

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Speaker 4: thought there was some really obvious flaws in their game plan.

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Speaker 4: The unwillingness to close down tiny Cross was I found

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Speaker 4: it really hard to understand, didn't you know, you need

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Speaker 4: a smart tactical mind than me to explain that one.

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Speaker 4: But having said that, I thought some of the cohesion,

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Speaker 4: particularly an attack particularly amongst Jamalmaciello, florin Verts and Kai

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Speaker 4: have Ittz, was so so impressive, and the chemistry was

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Speaker 4: was was really reassuring actually because obviously Hulett Maagusmann has

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Speaker 4: had maybe nine months to put this team together and

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Speaker 4: so they're seen a little bit of an incomplete work

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Speaker 4: and a team in a rebuilding phase.

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Speaker 2: So to see it will work that well was was

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Speaker 2: really encouraging.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, I'm almost going to say it's eighty thousand

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Speaker 4: people in Allen's Arena or Football Stadium Munich as we

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Speaker 4: are to call it during the tournament for you know,

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Speaker 4: to keep keep on the right side of the UK

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Speaker 4: for rules pretty catchy. Yeah, it was a wonderful occasion

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Speaker 4: and the team just seemed better. It seemed to get

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Speaker 4: better and better, and once once they scored their first

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Speaker 4: couple of goals and obviously the red cards chained things.

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Speaker 4: One they've scored the first couple of goals, you saw

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Speaker 4: the players relax a little bit and some of the

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Speaker 4: trepidation drop out of the game. And yeah, he really

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Speaker 4: really strong statement in their first game performance.

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Speaker 3: I know expectations at high for Scotland and they're not

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Speaker 3: a European football and powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination,

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Speaker 3: but did you expect a bit more from them?

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I think I did.

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Speaker 4: I think they have improved dramatically under Steve Clark and

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Speaker 4: I'm a big fan of what he's done with the

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Speaker 4: Scottish national team. I'm not quite sure what it was whether,

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Speaker 4: I mean Clark said in this press conference afterwards, which

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Speaker 4: by the way, Jason, he was pretty terse. I mean

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Speaker 4: it's one of those where I mean he didn't try

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Speaker 4: very hard to hide his disappointment and you know, he

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Speaker 4: had journeys kind of shifting in their seats and a

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Speaker 4: little bit uncomfortable with how I sort of want to

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Speaker 4: slab it the responses were, but it just seemed as

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Speaker 4: if in his mind his players hadn't quite done what

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Speaker 4: he wanted, or he didn't feel like the game plan

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Speaker 4: was executed properly, or you know, he was Saturay that

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Speaker 4: times what like he was demolishing himself. But yeah, I

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Speaker 4: I certainly expected it to be a bit feistier through

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Speaker 4: the first thirty minutes.

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Speaker 2: And actually, if you look back.

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Speaker 4: At the first goal, the flor inverts goal, that's the

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Speaker 4: kind of basic era that if you're if you're a

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Speaker 4: team in Scotland's position, you cannot you cannot do that.

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Speaker 4: You cannot allow a player of that quality that much

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Speaker 4: space because I mean, he's the reigning German player of

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Speaker 4: the year, who is the player in that attack that

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Speaker 4: you would have been told, under no circumstances to leave

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Speaker 4: free in ten yards of space on the edge of

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Speaker 4: the box. So yeah, deeply disappointing it was. It was

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Speaker 4: never really a contest at any point during that game.

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Speaker 3: Spin You're underwire as well an impress of when first

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Speaker 3: up against Croatia and I probably bacent football, so I'd

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Speaker 3: heard he was Spain's chances of going deep into the tournament.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, well, funny one because they're almost a dark horse,

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Speaker 4: which is a really strange thing to say about Spain

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Speaker 4: because obviously they are a power in New European football,

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Speaker 4: but I think because because Spanish football as a whole

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Speaker 4: has had little bit of a decline, like domestically clear,

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Speaker 4: we're talking about from tripping European champions again, so it's

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Speaker 4: not that bad, right, but I think some of their

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Speaker 4: players have gone under the radar. And I was talking

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Speaker 4: some friends during it on what's happened. They were saying, oh,

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Speaker 4: you know Alvarra Moratu is still there, and you know

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Speaker 4: who's La Mignel, and you know, like, I think this

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Speaker 4: is going to be one of those where people kind

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Speaker 4: of learn how good they are as the tournament goes on.

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Speaker 4: But they were awfully impressive against Croatia.

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Speaker 2: I mean that.

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Speaker 4: So we talked about Germany making a statement that's a

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Speaker 4: very good Croatan team and a side where which traditionally

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Speaker 4: Spain have had quite a few problems with it in

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Speaker 4: the past, and they absolutely dispatched them as it was excellent.

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Speaker 4: And again I feel like Spain of one of those

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Speaker 4: teams where historically, if you look back at what's happened

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Speaker 4: to them like early in the tournament, with probably the

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Speaker 4: exception of twenty ten when they lost to Switzerland and

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Speaker 4: went on to win the tournament, it feels like one

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Speaker 4: of those sides where, particularly when you're carrying a lot

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Speaker 4: of young players, you need a good mood to be set.

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Speaker 4: And yeah, I was, I was hugely impressed, hugely impressed England.

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Speaker 3: See but England. Let's talk England. They up in the

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Speaker 3: care and paying against Serbia tomorrow morning breakfast time here

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Speaker 3: in New Zealand. What is your analysis of England's chances

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Speaker 3: at this tournament?

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Speaker 4: They're going to have to defend well, Like I think

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Speaker 4: if you look at kind of if you aggregate England's

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Speaker 4: attacking talent, you could probably make an argument to say

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Speaker 4: they are They're probably among the strongest teams at the tournament.

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Speaker 4: Issues in central defense, In my mind, I don't think

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Speaker 4: England have that kind of solidity. I don't think they

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Speaker 4: have a kind of permanent combination there anymore, and haven't

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Speaker 4: had for quite some time. I also think that psychologically,

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Speaker 4: a lot of the players coming into this tournament, and

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Speaker 4: obviously the coach Kris Southgate, been a situation where they've

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Speaker 4: had the talent to win competitions for quite a few

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Speaker 4: years now. They probably could have gone further what they

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Speaker 4: should have gone further, and they did in the World Cup,

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Speaker 4: could have probably won that Uro twenty to twenty slash

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Speaker 4: twenty one finally against Italy, had enough chances to do it,

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Speaker 4: didn't get over the line. And so I think you're

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Speaker 4: dealing with the kind of psychological issue.

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Speaker 2: Can they win it? Yes? Will they?

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Speaker 4: It's almost like I don't trust them to do it.

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Speaker 4: And there comes a point in tournaments with England where

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Speaker 4: you get the sense sometimes that the players don't really

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Speaker 4: believe that, either not in the way that you see

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Speaker 4: in France or we've just talked about Spain, Like it's

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Speaker 4: not about talent always. You have to have a certain

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Speaker 4: amount of prerequisite yes, but you also have to I'm

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Speaker 4: talking to you to someone from New Zealand, like it's

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Speaker 4: the all about mentality, right, at some point you need

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Speaker 4: to have the conviction to go and win the thing.

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Speaker 4: And I still don't know where. No one can answer

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Speaker 4: this for sure. No one knows whether England have that.

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Speaker 4: No one knows whether the Southcake can navigate the tricky

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Speaker 4: sort of ten to twenty minute periods that occur right

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Speaker 4: at the end of knockout rounds that decide whether you

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Speaker 4: advance or not. And he's still to convince people with that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's such interesting and yell, such an interesting month.

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Speaker 3: They hed just before we leave England. Jude Bellingham is

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Speaker 3: the Knicks big thing. He's only twenty for goodness sake,

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Speaker 3: places for real Madrid, but Eddie dare So built an

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Speaker 3: entire advertising campaign around him with hey Jude in the background.

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Speaker 3: It's quite astonishing. Where is Jude Bellingham in your mind

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Speaker 3: in the pantheon of modern day footballers?

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Speaker 4: An absolute rock star of a footballer. He's one of

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Speaker 4: my favorite players in the world because of you know,

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Speaker 4: his set of abilities. I love the way that jud

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Speaker 4: Belling holds himself on the pitch. Offer he's he's very

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Speaker 4: well raised, he's very well brought up as a person,

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Speaker 4: which is great. But also like he's this really rare

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Speaker 4: combination of humility in the right moments but ego in

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Speaker 4: the right moments, and he's fun. Like I think, listen

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Speaker 4: to sport sports entertainment, plason, isn't it like you know,

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Speaker 4: we all know this and you need people that kind

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Speaker 4: of provide the entertainment. Yes, you need the players that win,

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Speaker 4: and you need you need achievement, and you need players

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Speaker 4: that collect medals. You also have people that, even if

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Speaker 4: you had you know, even if you're watching games of neutral,

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Speaker 4: you think, I want to watch that game because I

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Speaker 4: want to watch this player play. And Bellingham is one

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Speaker 4: of those I had. I had the privilege of watching

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Speaker 4: him when he was growing up at Brittet Dortmund and

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Speaker 4: it's rare that you get to say this, but from

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Speaker 4: the first moment he stepped on a pitch, even as

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Speaker 4: a very young boy who had no experience of senior football,

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Speaker 4: let alone German football in a foreign country, didn't speak

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Speaker 4: the language, and he got there, it just it just

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Speaker 4: takes it all in his stride and it's so so

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Speaker 4: impressive and it's so rare.

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Speaker 2: And I think also because we've grown used.

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Speaker 4: To to celebrating young athletes very early in their career, and

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Speaker 4: you know, you know, we kind of insulate them when

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Speaker 4: we forget kind of how difficult it is to be

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Speaker 4: that person and to to deal with the things that

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Speaker 4: come with playing for brit Dortman, playing for Real Madrid,

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Speaker 4: being an England player in this generation Daniam deals with

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Speaker 4: it so well that you can't help it admire and

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Speaker 4: he's he's great, and I I, you know, I hope that.

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Speaker 4: I hope sort of the from a collective standpoint like

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Speaker 4: this is I think if it's the mold of a

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Speaker 4: group of likeable English players. I'm allowed to say this

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Speaker 4: because I was born in England, but we haven't always

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Speaker 4: been great a likability in the past, some of the

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Speaker 4: national teams who put out I think this is a

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Speaker 4: generally good group of people, good group of human beings,

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Speaker 4: and he's top of the list of those, and you know,

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Speaker 4: be a lovely thing for him to win something with England.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I can't wait to see how how he plays

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Speaker 3: in England. Shoo at the Euros and on France said,

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Speaker 3: let's not forget you know. Last World Cup they were

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Speaker 3: beaten in the final by Argentina in an absolute classic.

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Speaker 3: They play Austria in their opening match on Monday night.

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Speaker 3: How similar is the French side to that which played

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Speaker 3: in the World Cup final?

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Speaker 4: Very similar, very similar, very dangerous, like all the kind

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Speaker 4: of basically they return all of their strongest parts and

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Speaker 4: it's a it's a little bit, you know, it's a

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Speaker 4: little bit contrayer and to look beyond killing and bape.

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Speaker 4: But I think the question with France, Jason is always

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Speaker 4: not is not necessarily personal. It's that we always seem

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Speaker 4: to have the same conversation around France. It's like you

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Speaker 4: you look at the kind of the ability they're able

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Speaker 4: to put on the pitch. If I did have a question,

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Speaker 4: it'd be around central defense and whether William Saliba starts,

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Speaker 4: because I to me he was the best central defender

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Speaker 4: in the Premier League this season. I think he deserves

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Speaker 4: to start. Some suggesting that he won't. So that's a

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Speaker 4: kind of a wait and see. We'll see where we

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Speaker 4: are on Monday with that. But I guess it's always

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Speaker 4: about chemistry and that strange gene that French national football

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Speaker 4: teams have had in the past, which creates sort of

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Speaker 4: inexplicable moments in tournaments like you they I mean, if

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Speaker 4: you think back to it, I don't know, two thousand

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Speaker 4: and two, when when they came into the World Cup

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Speaker 4: as defending champions and then left without scoring a goal.

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Speaker 2: It's like.

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Speaker 4: France just have that capability somehow. There's always an issue,

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Speaker 4: there's always a lot of a stumbling block. So that's

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Speaker 4: something that has to be navigated. But I think if

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Speaker 4: you're going to win this tournament, I think you're going

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Speaker 4: to have to beat France at some point. I think

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Speaker 4: that's that's a pretty good starting point in and an

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Speaker 4: assumption to make, whether you're Germany, whether you're England, whether

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Speaker 4: you're I think Portugal are a little bit of an

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Speaker 4: overlook side. I think they're really talented. Holland are dangerous.

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Speaker 4: There's some interesting things that could happen within that team.

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Speaker 4: But I don't think you can win it without having

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Speaker 4: beaten this France and without having Captain Bapequa for ninety

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Speaker 4: slash one hundred and twenty minutes.

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Speaker 3: All right, Well to circle back to finish, SIB. If

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Speaker 3: we're talking, you know, five or six weeks from now,

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Speaker 3: and the tournament's all over and it's done and dusted,

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Speaker 3: what sort of things will head to have happened on

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Speaker 3: the field end off the field for this tournament to

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Speaker 3: be regarded as a success.

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Speaker 4: What a great question. I suppose a couple of things.

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Speaker 4: I think I think it's important that the host team

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Speaker 4: go far in it. I not because I live in

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Speaker 4: Germany and not because of you know, uncovering the national team.

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Speaker 4: But because I think when a home team is successful,

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Speaker 4: I think that dictates the mood that surrounds the tournament

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Speaker 4: and the nature of the entire actions between people who

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Speaker 4: live in the country and people who are visiting the country,

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Speaker 4: And I think that's a culturally essential and an essential ingredient.

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Speaker 4: I think also that you know, we're going to have

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Speaker 4: to find a nice balance between fans enjoying themselves and

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Speaker 4: the authorities allowing them to enjoy themselves. I think that

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Speaker 4: has to be There has to be a bit of

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Speaker 4: give and take in that relationship. I think also some

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Speaker 4: of the some of the organizational bug bears have to

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Speaker 4: be hind out. So we talked about the trains earlier,

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Speaker 4: and some of the transporting issues being a couple of

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Speaker 4: conversations already about overcrowded fan parks and a few miscommunications

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Speaker 4: about when they're full and what happens when they're full.

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Speaker 4: Then we need to get on top of those, because

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Speaker 4: you've got to make sure you've got to give people

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Speaker 4: the opportunity, especially when they come from abroad and especially

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Speaker 4: when they spend a lot of money to get here

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Speaker 4: and to stay here for a long periods of time.

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Speaker 4: Because it's not cheap to you know, to do a

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Speaker 4: tournament obviously as a fan, and these all these little

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Speaker 4: things like in isolation, perhaps they don't matter, but I

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Speaker 4: think they all have to be got right for everybody

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Speaker 4: to to really buy into the experience.

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Speaker 2: And Johnny's pard this country.

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Speaker 4: And the food is great and I don't think anybody

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Speaker 4: needs telling about the alcore and the bear and all

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Speaker 4: that kind of stuff. But as a country to visit

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Speaker 4: and as a place guy I sound like I work

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Speaker 4: for the tourist board, Jason, But as a place where

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Speaker 4: you can have a lot of different experiences, see a

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Speaker 4: lot of different things within the same country, it offers

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Speaker 4: an awful lot and it's a great place to have

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Speaker 4: a tournament, and so hopefully everybody gets the chance to

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Speaker 4: experience that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, mouthwatering month of football ahead, Seb. It's always great

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Speaker 3: to catch up and get your expertise and you're analysis.

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Speaker 3: Thanks so much for joining us across New Zealand today.

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Speaker 2: Thanks having me on, Jason.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Seb. Seb Stafford Bloorer, German based football writer for

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Speaker 3: The Athletic and Tifo Football with his is always incisive

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Speaker 3: analysis of the European Football Championship Day three tomorrow, including

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Speaker 3: England v. Serbia seven o'clock tomorrow and Morning New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Time for more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen

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Speaker 1: live to News Talk zed B weekends from midday, or

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Speaker 1: follow the podcast on I have READI and