World Cup Day 17: The Mind Boggles

One of the things that has hit me hardest about this World Cup is just how much of it there is. I know that sounds like an obvious thing to say 66 games into the tournament (there are six group stage games left to be played as of this writing), but damn...it's been a deluge.

And the thing about the World Cup, unlike say, the NCAA basketball tournament, is that the human stories that contextualize and color the games possess a resonance the vibrates with politics, culture, and history that is at the same time both engrossing and overwhelming.

I keep saying the same thing to the cast of radio partners I've had during the latter stages of the group phase: So much has happened, so many amazing on- and off-field stories, that I'm starting to forget what the tournament delivered in its first days. Maybe it's just me, but there only seems to be so much room in my head to hold all that information. The older stuff is getting pushed out to make room for the new stuff.

Except, it's not exactly that, either. Information overload doesn't just make you forget even fairly recent events at the expense of even more recent ones; its scrambles everything together into one big soup that makes on-demand recall of moments you know you experienced a tricky operation. There's also that weird business of more recent events changing your perception of earlier ones, up to and including turning the joyful and thrilling to the maudlin and bittersweet.

It only just occurred to me while writing that last sentence that this exactly what happens in the film Inside Out. Pixar only scores bangers.

The last round of group stage games, for very good reasons that go back to the Disgrace of Gijón at the World Cup in 1982, requires simultaneous kickoffs for both games in a single group. The size of the modern World Cup as dictated by both the justifiable desire to give more countries access to the tournament and FIFA's unceasing quest to gobble up more currency requires three game windows per day.

Not only is watching two games at once while attempting to actually appreciate them a fool's errand, six games a day for multiple days makes it impossible to process, understand, and enjoy the a game before it turns to so much brain fog.

It's with all of this in mind that I look forward to the end of the group stage and start of knockout soccer tomorrow with Canada v. South Africa. Not because I don't love the cornucopia of games that comes with the first weeks of the World Cup, but because that experience can only resolve into something lasting and meaningful when in relief against the slower pace of the knockout stage.

Let's a quick list of the best stories from the group phase (non-USMNT division) in no particular order:

1. Cabo Verde. Not only did they hold Spain and score twice to draw Uruguay, the Blue Sharks squeezed past Uruguay into second place in the group and will play in the Round of 32. That just incredible and I encourage you to read the numerous excellent stories on the team, the islands, and the diaspora reveling in their success here in the United States. Chuck Culpepper wrote on the diaspora before the final group stage match and Bill Connolly wrote about the unlikely achievement of reaching the knockout stages.
2. Haiti. The nation that qualified for the World Cup despite being unable to play a single qualifier at home did themselves proud in this tournament. Les Grenadiers didn't earn a point, but the final group stage match against Morocco in Atlanta delivered the nation's first World Cup goals since 1974 and brought joy to Haitians at home and abroad. It's absolutely crushing that since that game, the Supreme Court has handed down a decision that will allow the Trump regime to remove thousands of Haitian refugees in the United States.
3. Iran. Although eliminated on Friday via a draw with Egypt on Friday (in controversial fashion), Team Melli fought against a set of unfair restrictions and unreasonable demands amidst a political backdrop that no World Cup participant should have to play.

4. Salvation. I'm throwing a couple of teams/stories under this general heading in the interest of column inches, but each one is very much worthy of individual recognition.
   1. South Africa. Big ups to Bafana Bafana, who stunned South Korea on the last matchday to reach the knockout phase for the first time.
   2. Ecuador. I'm a little biased about La Tri because I picked the South Americans to make a mark on the World Cup before the tournament began, but the win over Germany to reach the Round of 32 was incredible. And how can you not love head coach Sebastián Beccacece, a man who looks like a youth paster/surfboard rental attendant/roadie for Phish/weed dealer?

What does Ecuador manager Sebastián Beccacece look like his job should be?

[image or embed]

— Jason Davis (@davisjason.bsky.social) June 20, 2026 at 8:07 PM

5. Scotland fans. The team wasn't much to write home about, but there's no denying that the Tartan Army made more of an impression on Americans (soccer fans and otherwise) during their visit than almost any other element of the tournament.
6. Curaçao. The first time participants from Concacaf exposed the world to their soccer and their island and scored a first-ever point by drawing Ecuador on match day two.
7. Goalscorers scoring goals. The stars showing up at this World Cup, particularly those with "brand awareness" in the United States, will help the tournament's impact on the sport in this country. There's no reason to think we can't expect more from Messi, Haaland, Mbappe, et al.
8. San Memo. I was so struck by this one that I dedicated an entire edition of the newsletter to it. Guillermo Ocha's "farewell" moment in Mexico's final group stage match at Estadio Azteca felt like a one-of-a-kind.
9. Viking Row. Obviously.
10. South Korea + Japan. COREANO! HERMANO! YA ERES MEXICANO!
11. The Ball. It moves, baby.

PROGRAMMING NOTES

No radio this weekend for me, ahead of a very busy week with late evening shifts from Monday to Saturday.

See you tomorrow (maybe).