World Cup 2026: Late goals, comebacks and upsets – could this be the best World Cup ever?

There were understandable concerns about what the games would be like. With ticket prices at eye-watering levels and fans having to travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers to watch their next match, many fear the bad atmosphere at matches played in front of thousands of empty seats.

This is not the case.

FIFA, which has been heavily criticized for high ticket prices, says 99.7 percent of available seats have been filled. This means that more than 4.4 million people participated in group games; that figure has now reached 6.2 million after the opening two knockout stages.

This puts the average attendance per match at just over 65,000; It falls short of 1994, which was held in the United States and drew just under 69,000 for each game.

Not only the fans, but also the important players came.

We have a Golden Boot race for the ages, pitted against the four best players in the world. Argentina’s Lionel Messi scored eight goals, France’s Kylian Mbappe and Norway’s Erling Haaland scored seven goals, and England’s Harry Kane scored six goals.

It was the first time in World Cup history that three players scored seven or more goals in the same tournament.

With 48 countries emerging, there were concerns of massive one-sided conflict, although the underdogs provided some of the best stories.

The Caribbean island of Curacao, the smallest country to qualify for the World Cup, responded to Germany’s 7-1 defeat by drawing with Ecuador; In Qatar’s match, in addition to a 6-0 defeat to Canada, they also drew 1-1 with quarter-finalist Switzerland.

Cape Verde, meanwhile, created one of the greatest underdog stories in World Cup history with 40-year-old Vozinha in goal; Spain drew with Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to reach the last 32 and gave Argentina a major scare before losing 3-2 in extra time.