Second Captains

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...

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 an...

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 o...

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...

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 Gua...

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 Kildar...

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 stud...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu! For access to all our shows go to secondcaptains.com/join – its 5 euro a month with no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no sneaky contract, and no ads. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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 s...

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 Sheffi...

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...

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 Pa...

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, Sunde...

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 wonde...

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 Cor...

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...

The All-Ireland champions Clare are on the precipice after their defeat at home to Tipperary in a packed Cusack Park in Ennis on Saturday - but our analysts Liam Rushe and Jamie Wall reckon there's still a chance they survive.  We also discuss the skorts issue that continues to rumble on inexplicably, John McGrath's late-career renaissance, Shane O'Donnell's return, and there's Limerick/...

The spectrum of football emotion runs wide. At one end, Trent Alexander-Arnold, once beloved and now accursed by his own people. At the other the Moose, surfing to his first LOI goal on a tidal wave of inexplicable love. Football can be a confusing place for footballers. We talk about another epic Clasico as Real Madrid fall apart in a comical first half in Montjuic. Have they grown desperate enou...

Join us live from the Guinness Open Gate Brewery in Dublin City, with Gary Breen and Damien Delaney for a very special Second Captains football podcast, as we reflect on the Premier League season that was. Have Salah’s legs gone, what next for our boy Caoimhín and just why is Chelsea’s Enzo Maresca the anti-McIlroy?  Plus Ken puts some working relationships on the line as Gary and D...

From the moment we saw the team-sheets, right through to the final moments when they chose not to kick at goal, this was a baffling display by the coaching staff and players, and it all ended with a defeat that will have repercussions far beyond the province of Leinster. We chat to Shane Horgan and Ruaidhrí O'Connor about the mental state of the players for this Northampton game, the starting team...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week includes Ken on Arteta's psycho babble and Lamine Yamal's greatness, Diego Torres on Arsenal's decay, Meath beating the Dubs, and Abubaker Abed came to our studio for a sit-down with Ken. Abubaker arrived in Dublin late last month having left the Gaza Strip for the first time in his life. He had hoped to study and become a sports jour...

Liverpool are the 24-25 Premier League champions. We talk about their victorious campaign, why this should be regarded as one of the great coaching achievements in English football history, and why other Liverpool managers who came close in the past might feel a little envious of the circumstances in which Arne Slot won the Premier League at his first attempt.  We also discuss an incredible C...

15 years of hurt are over - the Royals have stormed the capital and are back in power, and back in a Leinster final. Some saw this coming, most didn't. We talk to the soothsayer Paul Flynn about where this shock lies on the GAA Richter Scale, how Meath did it, and where this leaves Dublin now. We also chat to Conor McManus about the Leinster final match up, Louth's evolution, and Armagh's win over...

Welcome to our weekly World Service taster menu which this week included Ken on Canham, making football great again. Bohs beating Rovers, Paul Flynn on fabulous football, Liam Rushe and Jamie Wall on hurling's hectic draws, and we have "fun and games" coming on Friday too. Get daily shows for just a fiver a month – no contracts, no sign-up fee, no minimum stay, no hidden charges, and no ads. Head...

ope Francis, who died today aged 88, once told the players of Celtic FC that the essence of sport lay in 'gratuitousness', to give of yourself without expecting something in return.  The idealism of his message doesn't resound widely in top-level football, where the contrasting experiences of two current stars expose the calculating self-interest that fuels the professional game. Beñat Gutier...