The 200% World Cup Breakfast: Russia’s Opening Party

Good morning, podfans! Well, we’ve had a whole day of World Cup football from Russia, so this morning marks the very first 200% World Cup Breakfast, our daily slice of football hot takes, delivered from our mouths to your mighty robot brains every single morning. Yesterday saw considerably more drama than most of us were really expecting, as the host nation put five goals without reply against a Saudi Arabia team which lived down to all of the worst expectations of which some people would have believed to be capable.

So, how much credit can we give to Russia for having beaten such an abject shower? And what does this sort of performance say about the state of football in the AFC confederation, and can anything be done to give more than half of the population of the world a leg up to be able to compete on the global stage? Elsewhere, there was a most peculiar translation of the opening speech given by Vladimir Putin, and we take a brief look forward to today’s matches. You can download the 200% podcast by right-clicking and saving here, whilst the 200% podcast’s RSS feed is here and you can subscribe through Itunes here.