The Second Captains Podcast

Friend of the show David Sneyd sent US Soccer into a tailspin over the weekend with his exclusive report that Brentford interviewed Mauricio Pochettino for the job they ended up giving to Keith Andrews. But doesn’t Poch already have a job? In Ireland we can empathise with the American soul-searching.

Meanwhile, certain senior German grandees been engaging in the favourite activity of their kind: lighting up the feuilleton space ...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes the voice of Saipan (trailer), the Joe Duffy era coming to a close and a new door opening, Tim Vickery on Brazilian footballers' ability to sin and win, Messi's secret to longevity, and Ken on the USA V Italy cuisine wars.

Plus there's Lions o'clock, climate change, ASMR, and the GAA football and hurling championships are red hot for the next few weeks.

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14-man Dublin's win over Limerick on Saturday has been described as the greatest upset in championship history - is that hyperbolic or on the money? Is this the end of an era or can we expect to see a less dominant but still title-contending Limerick going forward? And what are Dublin capable of against Cork in two weeks' time? 

Jamie Wall and former Dublin hurler Liam Rushe are with us to answer those questions and more af...

Ken is back from holidays and so is Branno. Did they... go on vacation together?

Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened... is what Branno's Shels-supporting friends are claiming they are thinking the day after Damien Duff walked out of the club. 

Today's show is mainly about perhaps the last-ever Duff-LOI Bomba - although it was a different competition that dominated much of our weekend bandwidth. Eoin br...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes Dion Fanning and Rory Smith on Trent, the Spurs killjoys, sacking Ange and hiring Thomas Frank.

Plus there's Gavin Cooney on the rights and wrongs of Ireland welcoming the Trump aligned NFL to Dublin, the wildly popular new slot "Lions Watch", all the best GAA and rugby coverage and a brilliant interview with former world champ and now one of the best box...

Another insane weekend of Gaelic football, and finally we have some teams departing the scene - including, most chaotically of all, Mayo. They conceded a last-second score to a team who needed it not even a small little bit, and they, Derry, Roscommon and Clare are gone. 

Former Galway player Barry Cullinane is on the line to chart his old team's progress through the Group of Death, and he's joined by Wicklow manager O...

Today's football show contains all the meats of the football stew, from local LOI beefs to the state of the world game.

First we chat to David Sneyd about where exactly things stand in the League of Ireland season, a season in which Damien Duff and Stephen Bradley are at each other's throats. Why? Because of Italian trance classic, Komodo by Mauro Picotto, of course. 

Then we speak to The Guardian's Barney Ronay, who's b...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes Tim Vickery on South America's keen interest in Infantino's Club World Cup, Dion Fanning and David Sneyd on RTE's panel, Ire V Lux and Tuchel's tricky start to life as England coach.

We also discuss football midfielders' brain power requirements, transcendent tennis, we preview the URC final and next week we cover all the football, golf and GAA action.

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Cork won a Munster final that "began at tea-time and didn't finish until bed-time", as Denis Walsh put it on Saturday night - a win on penalties over Limerick after a raucous, controversial, enthralling match that was perfect in its imperfection, as Jamie Wall explains to us.  

Kilkenny won a sixth Leinster title in a row, but the real headlines from Croke Park yesterday came from Kildare, who won the Joe McDonagh Cup ...

The Nations League final four turned out to be pretty good but it's clear that what international football needs right now is to reverse the FIFA diktat to make every emotional stadium moment sound the exact same.

We talk about Ireland's draw with Senegal and look ahead to tomorrow's season-closing friendly in Luxembourg, before the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author Joseph O'Neill joins us in studio to speak about his 2024 novel...

PSG are the champions of Europe after crushing Inter 5-0 in the most one-sided final in European Cup history. 

The night was a complicated mix of emotions; awe at the sheer brilliance of PSG's performance, respect and affection for their charismatic coach Luis Enrique, sympathy for the hopelessly outclassed Inter, unease and foreboding at a second Champions League win in three seasons for a state-owned club, and, if you are...

Bernie Sanders has been one of the most electrifying figures in American life for half a century, and is one of the most high-profile global political figures of the current moment. He joined us in our studio in Dublin this week for an exclusive interview, and we have a taster of the chat on today's best of show.

In what was a massive week for Second Captains, we also had former Ireland and Sheffield Utd captain John Egan at our...

We're into the time of celebrations, drifting clouds of flare smoke, players grabbing mics and managers maybe dropping them. Palace, Liverpool and Tottenham all celebrated their big trophy wins in the last few days while Katie McCabe has been leading Arsenal's celebrations after winning the Women's Champions League. 

Spurs fans: we see you, we believe you. We address the concerns of some Tottenham fans who felt Thursda...

We have our provincial hurling final pairings, but Cork didn't exactly roar into the Munster final, enduring a nervy second half before finally putting Waterford away in Páirc Úi Chaoimh.  They'll face Limerick in two weeks' time, and Jamie Wall and Liam Rushe say farewell to All-Ireland champions Clare, while looking ahead to Galway/Kilkenny in the Leinster final.  

Murph was in Parnell Park to see Dublin struggl...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes an in-depth look at a Europa League final result that's produced so many talking points for both Spurs and Man Utd, US Murph on the New York sports fan and Pope University, Paul Flynn on Dublin's (surprise?) win over Galway, and Timothee Chalamet being a good sport.

We also had an exclusive interview with former Celtic, Sunderland and Cork City player and m...

The FA Cup: good when the underdogs actually win. 

We look at some key moments of Palace's epic and emotional victory. Why didn't the VAR send Dean Henderson off? Why did Erling Haaland let Marmoush take the penalty? And did Oliver Glasner get in Pep Guardiola's head when he warned him, you play that system against us again and we will solve it? 

And in Europa League final week, we wonder: how did Oliver Glasner man...

Limerick and Cork has been the marquee hurling rivalry of the recent past - but yesterday in the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick sent out a fairly thundering message that they are the team to beat in this year's All-Ireland championship.  

Liam Rushe and Jamie Wall are in studio again to talk to us about Kyle Hayes' dominance, Cork's naive puck-out defence, why Waterford may worry Cork next weekend with a place in t...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes the mighty Kate O'Connor live in Belfast on her incredible year of success, Ken on his US civil war ancestor, a brilliant GAA show with Paul Flynn and Oisin McConville, and fan favourite Tim Vickery on why Brazil and Argentina have such different football philosophies.

For access to all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join - its 5 euro a month with no si...