Every four years, World Cup it reminds us why we love sports in the first place.
The 2026 tournament was the first. For the first time, three countries – Canada, Mexico, and the United States – shared the hosting duties. For the first time, the field has increased from 32 to 48 teams, giving more nations the chance to compete on the biggest stage of the game and more confederations the chance to show their depth.
The expansion brought historic first matches for Cape Verde, Jordan, Curacao, and Uzbekistan. Their first matches produced some of the most unforgettable moments in the tournament.
It also felt like a farewell trip. Cristiano Ronaldo. Lionel Messi. Luka Modric. Neymar. Son Heung-min. Guillermo Ochoa. The generation that shaped the game for two decades bowed out for the last time on the biggest stage, with what is likely to be their final World Cup matches.
Together, those stories made this World Cup feel bigger than any other match. Over the course of several weeks, the tournament gave us unforgettable goals, shocking upsets, viral celebrations, heartbreaking exits, and events that transcended football altogether. Here are the events that defined the 2026 World Cup.
Vozinha and Blue Shark
The best story of the World Cup has to be the historic run of Cape Verde and their goalkeeper, Vozinha (née Josimar José Évora Dias). The 40-year-old goalkeeper and Cape Verde legend shot to international fame after his heroics against eventual champions Spain, scoring a goalless draw against the European giants to earn the nation of 500,000 its first ever World Cup points.
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Vozinha, who was on the verge of retiring from club football, went viral on social mediaamassing 29 million Instagram followers and becoming one of the most followed footballers on the platform.
The magic kept coming for the Blue Sharks. A 2-2 draw with Uruguay and a goalless draw against Saudi Arabia saw them finish second in their group behind Spain, and qualify for the knockout stage. There, the smallest nation ever to reach the knockout stages of the World Cup took defending champions Argentina to the brink, including. balance in overtime from Sidney Lopes Cabral. It wasn’t enough – an own goal in the 111th minute gave Argentina the lead and victory.
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Even in defeat, Cape Verde and Vozinha became favorites for the 2026 World Cup, get a hero’s welcome when they returned home to Praia, the nation’s capital.
America’s World Cup ends in disappointment and controversy
The USA’s lowest season in the tournament was shrouded in controversy. Folarin Balogun was sent off in the 32nd against Bosnia-Herzegovina for a foul on Tarik Muharemovic – a red card overturned on review, then reinstated by VAR, which would have ruled him out of the quarter-final against Belgium.
Instead, on the eve of the match, news broke that President Trump had personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino about his suspension, and FIFA’s disciplinary committee – making the same call. a principle not easily understood once made Cristiano Ronaldo eligible for his last World Cup – removed Balogun to play.
FIFA denied anything to do with the call, but the eyes were brutal regardless: the first suspension change FIFA has made since 1962. Balogun’s real impact on the game was minimal – one good chance in the 82nd minute that Thibaut Courtois saved – and the US lost 4-1, more wiped out than anything that happened off the pitch. But time made it impossible to separate the two.
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The team that seemed relaxed and confident through the group stage and in the elimination round seemed difficult and deteriorated.
A Mad Third Place Game ends the Golden Boot race
The World Cup is known for its great scorers: Pele, Maradona, Klose. It’s rare to see one player score so many goals in one tournament, but 2026 brought a true title fight. Heading into the final weekend, Messi and Mbappé sat at the top with eight goals each, having already passed Miroslav Klose on the all-time World Cup goalscoring list. Behind them, England’s Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane remained at six each, two goals behind but not out.
Then a third-place play took place, blowing the race wide open. England beat France 6-4 in a match that had no business being entertainment for a game “nobody wanted to play.”
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Instead, it turned out to be a meeting of the old song. Mbappé found the back of the net twice to push his goals tally to 10, breaking Messi’s goalless tie and matching the mark he set back in 2022. Bellingham, meanwhile, continued to tick the box as he has done throughout the tournament to take his seventh place, closing the gap on Mbappé to third with one goal remaining. With the crazy game over, and Spain’s 1-0 win over Argentina, Mbappé ended the tournament as the winner of the Golden Boot.
The last time this sport featured multiple Golden Boot winners was in 1990, and even that wasn’t quite a shootout. Between Mbappé and Messi, they both represent the first 8+ goalscorers since Gerd Müller scored 10 goals in 1970.
We are truly blessed.
International fans get to experience American baseball
One of the best things about the World Cup is when international fans and players come to town and immerse themselves in the local culture. The best bits from this year’s World Cup of course it was happening on the football field.
With days off between games, traveling World Cup fans started showing up in force at MLB games, and stadiums across the country turned into unexpected satellite fan sites. It began on June 14 at Fenway, when Scotland fans celebrated a victory over Haiti by marching from downtown Boston directly to a Red Sox game — coincidentally, coincidentally, with Scotland’s Heritage Night.
Two days later, the Tartan Army (the nickname of the Scottish supporters) filled the upper deck section at Yankee Stadium, and by June 22, about 8,000 of them showed up in Miami for the Marlins-Rangers game, making up about half of the announced crowd.
Norway fans staged their own version of the takeover at Citi Stadium on June 24, filling the outfield seats in Viking helmets and getting the stadium’s mascots to join their rowing celebration. Even England manager Thomas Tuchel, a generally handsome man, threw out a celebratory first pitch at Kauffman Stadium when the team stayed in Kansas City. He certainly would outfielder Timothée Chalamet in three pitches.
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A nightmare to enter the US visa
For all the good will that came from the tournament, the road to it revealed something far more sinister. In preparation for the World Cup, visa denials and delays were a constant pain for the team, and in some casesit completely prevented people from participating in the competition.
Swiss striker Breel Embolo he was prevented from boarding the plane at his team’s training camp on a year-old conviction that had already been settled at home. Mission of South Africa almost missed his trip to Mexico when more than 20 players and staff were stuck waiting for visas, and the Iranian team. he ended up sleeping in Mexico every night of the championship after the American officials prevented the players and its staff from staying overnight, while more than ten employees of the federation, including the president of the federation, were not allowed to travel at all.
None of this happened by accident. It was The immigration architecture of the Trump administration doing what it was designed to do, and the competition revealed long before the opening whistle.
The policy was not limited to a few unfortunate cases: 39 countries entered the tournament under some form of US travel restrictions, and for 19 of them the State Department completely stopped issuing visas, a list that happened to include four World Cup nations (Iran, Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal).
Somali referee Omar Artanwho was recently named the top official of his continent and became the first Somali to play in a World Cup match, was detained for eleven hours at Miami International Airport and returned to Istanbul for allegedly “collaborating with suspected terrorist organizations”. CBP officials declined to comment.
To be fair, Canada has been just as strong, with Ghana fans achieving an 11 percent visa approval rate to the country. Most notably, Ghanaian player Thomas Partey was granted a visa and subsequent appeal was denied and missed Ghana’s World Cup opener due to ongoing criminal proceedings in England. Partey, however, was allowed to play in the team’s other group stage matches in the United States.
Through it all, FIFA, the one body with a pushback stance, chose to call it the right of the host country.
The world loves Erling Haaland
The world’s most feared attacker appears to be a very ordinary person. It’s something that only Erling Haaland seems capable of doing, with the dangerous Norwegian striker entering the Golden Boot conversation alongside Messi and Mbappé.
However, off the field, the man nicknamed him “The Terminator” it’s a dirty Snapchat sticker.
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On his personal Snapchat, you can find selfies with Shrek, face filters, and a bit where he walks around Manhattan wearing a hat pretending no one recognizes him. Despite being two years younger than fellow Gen Z superstar Mbappé, the Manchester City striker doesn’t seem to have the same weight as the expectations of his fellow world footballers. This guy is posing in cowboy hats and wearing shirts that say “y’all can kiss my Dallas.”
Maybe that’s why the world can’t get enough of him.
Aztec Stadium
Estadio Azteca, the home of Mexican football, presented one of the most exciting events in this World Cup.
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The stadium is a historical place not only in Mexico but also in the history of the World Cup. It also made for some great memes. Mexico hosted the World Cup for the third time and, for the first time ever, won all three group stage games. The vibes coming from El Tri and its fans were very high – perhaps the only thing higher than the height of the Estadio Azteca, which was a long-standing joke throughout the tournament.
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