# WORLD CUP DAY 26: Ronaldo out and Balogun can't save USA Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-game-1066443/world-cup-day-26-ronaldo-out-and-balogun-can-t-save-usa Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-game-1066443/world-cup-day-26-ronaldo-out-and-balogun-can-t-save-usa.md Podcast: [The Game](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-game-1066443) Published: 2026-07-07T07:38:20+00:00 Episode link: https://shows.acast.com/timesthegame/episodes/world-cup-day-26-ronaldo-out-and-balogun-cant-save-usa Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/acast/s/timesthegame/e/6a4caced5bc2f8d54a863955/media.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-game-1066443/episodes/world-cup-day-26-ronaldo-out-and-balogun-can-t-save-usa Duration seconds: 2547 ## Resource So, it turns out Folarin Balogun didn't make a difference anyway. USA produced a dismal - and maybe distracted - display against a brilliant Belgium side, losing 4-1 to crash out of the tournament and mean that we have no co-hosts left.  Peter Rutzler and James Gheerbrant join Tom Clarke to discuss that match and also Spain's win against Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo bowing out of the World Cup but does the blame for Portugal's failings actually lay at the feet of manager Roberto Martinez? Has he wasted another golden generation?  In part two Tom catches up with Paul Hirst in the Argentina camp to hear about their preparation for Egypt and asks if there is a scenario where Messi might be rested?  All the guests also reveal where they were to watch England's remarkable win against Mexico.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-game-1066443/episodes/world-cup-day-26-ronaldo-out-and-balogun-can-t-save-usa/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-game-1066443/world-cup-day-26-ronaldo-out-and-balogun-can-t-save-usa.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.