Martin Tyler will be calling this summer’s World Cup for ESPN, serving as the network’s lead commentator in South Africa. Earlier this week Martin joined me to talk about last week’s FA Cup final, Saturday’s Champions League final in Madrid, the 2018 World Cup bid, but mostly, the England national team. Amongst other topics, Martin and I talk about the team’s questions in central defense and goal, the importance of Frank Lampard and the central midfielder’s strong end to the Premier League season, and the high expectations Fabio Capello has for his squad.

A reminder that tomorrow we will have one of the authors of Soccernomics, Simon Kuper, on the show. Simon is also the author of Ajax, The Dutch, The War and will be joining me to profile the Netherlands’ World Cup squad.