World Cup 2026: Great stories, little jeopardy – does the new format work?
Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Cristiano Ronaldo and Harry Kane traded blows in the electric race for the Golden Boot, making plenty of headlines.
To have the world’s best-known players come forward and try to outdo each other, that in itself was a gift for Fifa.
But the World Cup is not just about the stars, especially in the group stage.
The color and character of football around the world comes into focus.
We have not had shock defeats in meaningful matches for big teams, like Saudi Arabia beating eventual champions Argentina four years ago.
But there were real stories.
Cape Verde, an archipelago nation in the Atlantic Ocean, may not have arrived at the World Cup expecting to qualify for the knockout rounds. And they were deleted by many people before boarding the plane.
After all, who could have imagined that they would emerge from a group that also included Uruguay and European champion Spain?
It was notable that Cape Verde took a point from Spain and prevented them from scoring either. Not only that, they also drew 2-2 with Uruguay.
A draw with Saudi Arabia in the final group match secured second place in the group and a date with world champions Argentina in Miami on Friday.
Okay, they might have been the only team in the top two with three points, but they did what they had to do.
There could be no more accurate evidence of Infantino’s plan. Cape Verde was the poster child.
Their 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha is now a social media star thanks to his heroics against Spain.
We started the game with 50,000 followers on Instagram and that number has grown to five million full-time. At last count there are 16.7 million of them.
Later, her mother, who was unable to attend the World Cup due to the high cost of obtaining a US visa, was able to fly to the Uruguay match.
For a player like Vozinha, who spent his career in the second league of Moldova, Cyprus, Slovakia and Portugal, this is a story that only the World Cup can create.
