The Soccernomics Podcast

After an eventful Brazil-Japan match, Stefan and Ashish talk about the success of African teams at this World Cup so far, and the unfair treatment the Iranian team faced at the hands of FIFA and the tournament's main hosts, the United States.

Note: As a reminder, this episode was recorded before the Germany-Paraguay and Morocco-Netherlands matches.

After Ashish makes Stefan listen to his experience watching Ghana hold England to a draw, they talk about how much managers really matter, with particular focus on England and Brazil at this World Cup.

After Stefan takes us back to the 1974 Poland-West Germany World Cup match, we talk about the fairytale story of Cape Verde so far, and discuss how far they can go in this year's tournament. We also talk more broadly about smaller countries like Portugal, Croatia and Palestine, whose teams have long overachieved based on their populations, GDP and global football experience.

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We discuss the latest games, the geopolitics around the Iraqi and Iranian teams, and the debate over who is gaining most from dual national players.

In our first episode since the World Cup we discuss some of the surprise results so far, and highlight the great start for the Socceroos and their young star, Nestory Irankunda - who like two of his teammates - was born in a refugee camp in Africa before he and his family were granted asylum in Australia. We debate whether the success of multicultural teams like the Socceroos and the US can change attitudes around immigration in their countries.