One man talking his way through various aspects of the World Cup from tournament retrospectives, to individual stories of teams and players from the great to the not so great, taking in the qualifying competitions as well as the finals themselves. The Greatest Show on Earth is a treasure trove of stories with something always waiting to be mined.
Presented by Matthew Okot
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@WorldCupRamble
No Show: The World Cup Teams That Never Were (with James Bennett)
I'm joined by James Bennett as we discuss his new book 'No Show: The World Cup Teams That Never Were'. James's excellent book features some great stories of teams that missed out on the World Cup from big names (Argentina 1970, England 1978, France 1993, Netherlands 2002, Italy 2018) to minnows (Trinidad and Tobago 1990, Burkina Faso 2014) and many in between and also addresses the legacies of some leading players (Alfredo di Stefano, George Best, Eric Cantona, George Weah) who failed to make it to the Greatest Show on Earth.
Follow James's social media accounts here https://linktr.ee/jbennettwriter
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4 Jul 2026
One Man Can Make a Difference - Part 3: Argentina at the 1986 World Cup
We have the final part of our look back at Argentina’s triumphant campaign at Mexico 86. The England match is a saga on its own – Britain’s history in the introduction and development of football in Argentina, the legacy of the ‘Animals’ match from 1966 and the shadow of the Falklands War. The Argentinian players are keen to downplay the war although Maradona would later admit that privately, they were keen to avenge the Falklands defeat. On the field, Maradona scores two goals that reflect his devilment and his genius – ‘The Hand of God’ and ‘the Goal of the Century’. Maradona dominates the semi-final against Belgium from start to finish; arguably the greatest individual performance in World Cup history. In the final against West Germany, Maradona, despite being tightly marked, creates the winning goal and it’s the day that shows Argentina are more than ‘Maradona plus ten’, as his often-overlooked colleagues make telling contributions to clinch the trophy for Carlos Bilardo’s side.
The Argentinian National Anthem is from https://nationalanthems.info/ (https://nationalanthems.info/)
‘Por Una Cabeza’ is from https://www.classicals.de/gardel-por-una-cabeza (https://www.classicals.de/gardel-por-una-cabeza)
All other music is from the YouTube Audio Library
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@MatthewOkot
@WorldCupRamble
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6 Jun 2026
One Man Can Make a Difference - Part 2: Argentina at the 1986 World Cup
We’ve got part 2* of the look back at Argentina’s victorious campaign at Mexico 86. Here we’ve got the early stages ofArgentina’s journey. Maradona shows his class by assisting all three goals against the rough-housing South Koreans, then scoring a deft equaliser against Italy. It’s the result against Italy that slowly starts to win over the sceptics who felt that Argentina were heading for disaster. Further wins follow over Bulgaria and Uruguay. Bilardo settles on a core of players who will carry Argentina through the competition – a contrast with the hectic chopping and changing of the previous three years.
*The original plan was to cover Argentina’s Mexico 86 campaign in a single episode but there was so much material – especially for the England game – that I’ve split the campaign into two episodes.
‘Por Una Cabeza’ is from https://www.classicals.de/gardel-por-una-cabeza (https://www.classicals.de/gardel-por-una-cabeza)
All other music is from the YouTube Audio Library
X
@MatthewOkot
@WorldCupRamble
Subscribe to World Cup Rambling on your podcast platform.
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