On Sunday night, the New York-New Jersey Coliseum shook with the voices of 82,500 people. Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute and Spain won the world championship again after 16 years. On the other side of the pitch, Lionel Messi, playing what may well be his last World Cup game and ending a career that has changed the way the world watches football, was momentarily stunned and looked away, unable to watch Spain’s celebrations. It was heartbreaking for him, glorious for Spain and the final act of a tournament filled with drama. But zoom out and the real story of this World Cup goes beyond the final whistle. The 39-day story gave the football world everything it could ask for, with records being broken, giants heartbroken and a 40-year-old goalkeeper from an island nation of half a million people nearly breaking the internet. And it’s all happening under the shadow of a visa ban, ICE agents stationed near stadium gates and human rights groups warning fans they could be at risk simply by showing up. By the time the final whistle blows, football has had all its important conversations. By all accounts, this is the biggest World Cup ever.
record setting tournament
Numbers alone can’t capture the feel of this World Cup, but they’re a good starting point. A total of 48 teams took part in the opening ceremony, instead of the usual 32, spread across 16 stadiums in three countries, and played a record 104 games instead of 64.
Countless goals scored
By the time the trophy was lifted, 308 goals had been scored, an average of 2.96 goals per game, the most by any team in World Cup history, with England and France leading the way with 20 goals each, followed by Argentina with 19 goals. Only Panama went the entire match without a goal, a lonely footnote in a goal-rich game. Kylian Mbappe became the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history with 22 goals, surpassing Messi’s record in the bronze medal game. In the final, Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez crossed the goal line ten times, the most saves by a goalkeeper in a World Cup final since records began in 1966. Spain, who never lost a game from start to finish, held off a gritty draw with World Cup debutants and Cinderella story holders Cape Verde to lift the trophy four weeks later.
Mbappe
Best of the Game: Estadio Azteca creates timeless classics
Forget the final for a moment, it was a one-sided affair with Spain leading Argentina by a mile, and the best game of the entire World Cup was played a few weeks ago amid the thin air and deafening noise of Mexico City. England travel to the famous Estadio Azteca for a last-16 tie against hosts Mexico, a venue that has haunted English football ever since Diego Maradona’s hand of God ended the 1986 season on the ground.Under the lights, with 80,000 Mexican fans cheering his every touch, Jude Bellingham scored twice in just 98 seconds to give England a 2-0 lead, but Julian Quinones pulled one back to give the home fans hope. Then the game took a turn when Jarrell Quasa was shown a straight red card just past the hour mark and England were suddenly down to one man with half an hour to go. Somehow, they found calm among the ten. Harry Kane took a penalty kick to make the score 3-1. Raul Jimenez Mexico soon cut the deficit in half, and in the final half-hour the Aztecs became a cauldron, with every Mexican attack met by a wall of desperate redshirt defense. England ended the trio’s magical journey in their own backyard with a 3-2 victory, finally silencing the ghosts of 1986.
England conquers the Aztecs
Among any highlights from this tournament, there are two more games that deserve special mention. Argentina’s last-16 tie against Egypt looked all but over when the Pharaohs led 2-0 with less than 10 minutes remaining until a breathless burst from Cristian Romero, Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernandez inside 11 minutes turned a certain elimination into one of the greatest comebacks in World Cup history. England’s third-place match against France was a dramatic game in itself, with Kylian Mbappe bringing France back into contention and a 4-0 lead all but evaporated before Bukayo Saka’s hat-trick and a stoppage-time Bellingham goal capped off a 6-4 win that no football fan will soon forget.
New stars are born under the light
Every World Cup brings new faces to the football world and makes people fall in love with it. This World Cup has also produced several new faces. The arrival of young Norwegian winger Antonio Nousa has been a footnote and his departure the headlines, after his impressive performance against Ivory Coast saw the Scandinavian side emerge as the most likely dark horses of this World Cup. France’s Michael Aulis quietly did his best work, finishing with five assists, each created in the game, a feat no player has accomplished at the World Cup since Pele in 1970.But outside the world of football, two names that have captured hearts are Wozinha and Sidney Lopez Cabral, two unknown names from Africa’s smallest footballing nation who, within two weeks, had the entire planet learning how to pronounce their names. Two other notable names are Morocco’s Ayoub Bouadadi and Paraguay’s giant goalkeeper Orlando Gill, who are sure to fetch huge transfer fees in the summer window.Norway’s own developments deserve a chapter of its own. Playing in their first World Cup since 1998, Solbakken’s side beat five-time World Cup champions Brazil 2-1 in the last 16 to reach the quarter-finals for the first time in history, but England’s dream ended. Erling Haaland was the man behind it all, scoring seven goals from just 18 shots, with a conversion rate of 39% and an average of just 14 touches per goal, the leanest return in six years for a player to score three or more goals at the World Cup.
Haaland
In the games against Iraq and Senegal, he only touched the ball 42 times in total in the two games, but still scored important goals. Cold, calm and deadly in front of the goal, all Vikings around the world united in celebration.
Cape Verde: The little country that steals every heart
If this World Cup has a soul, it belongs to Cape Verde. The country of just 550,000 people, an archipelago that would have been off the map for most football fans a month ago, sat out its first World Cup match and suffered a goalless draw against mighty Spain on opening night. They kept pushing, kept fighting, kept believing, and somehow became the smallest nation ever to reach the knockout stages of a World Cup. Their fairy tale ended with a 3-2 extra-time victory over defending champions Argentina in the round of 32, but not before they gave Messi and his teammates the terror of their football lives in a game that will be replayed and remembered long after the great powers’ campaign has been forgotten. The consensus was that this was one of the greatest underdogs in the history of the tournament.
Woznia
Most disappointing: Germany’s fall from grace
Not all strong teams can hold their heads high in this World Cup, and few have fallen as hard as Germany. The four-time champions were eliminated in the last 32, being eliminated on penalties by Paraguay following a VAR review, with what appeared to be a shocking extra-time winner prompting furious protests from the German players on the touchline. It posed a severe test for a footballing nation accustomed to going far in major tournaments, with coach Julian Nagelsmann losing his job within days of returning home.Brazil also crashed out earlier than their history dictated, while South Korea’s group-stage defeat sparked domestic anger and soul-searching that had nothing to do with football itself.
Best Goal: Cabral’s goal brought the whole stadium into silence
The best goal of the tournament happened to come from the smallest team among them. When Cape Verde trailed Argentina in a thrilling overtime of the round of 32, defender Sidney López Cabral received the ball, opened his body and fired a shot past the bewildered Argentinian defender and into the top corner, silencing the stadium that was expecting the official match. The goal was good enough to rank high on almost every “best goal of the World Cup” list made since and before Messi’s opening hat-trick and Noosa’s curling game against Ivory Coast.
Best save: Vozinha’s miracle against Messi
The saving grace of this game belongs to that game. Cape Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper Josimar “Vozinha” Dias has become a World Cup folk hero after making seven saves to shut out the opening game against Spain, and his tears at the final whistle filled the world.He went one better against Argentina and gloved Messi’s free-kick in the 73rd minute, a stoppage so sharp but improbable that the defending champions briefly threatened to go home in disgrace. Woznia finished the World Cup with 18 saves on 23 shots, a save rate that most professional goalkeepers can only dream of. Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez came close to closing in on him, producing the best goalkeeping moment of the tournament and making a save on Nico Williams’ screamer in final stoppage time that kept Spain in the game long enough to send the game into overtime.
Refuse to be broken spirit
None of this came easily, and none of it happened in a bubble. In the months leading up to kick-off, the World Cup has been shrouded in real and serious controversies: ICE agents stationed near stadium gates, ticket holders from multiple countries being denied visas without warning, referees and team staff being turned away at airports, and human rights groups publicly warning that fans and players face “chilling threats.” Hotel bookings in host cities are lower than expected, stadium staff are threatening strikes and, for a while, politics may indeed end up overshadowing football itself.It didn’t happen. Fans still wave the flags of countries large and small, and there are enough to fill 16 stadiums in three countries for 104 games. Spain and Argentina battled for the sport’s biggest prize until the final kick of extra time, watched by a global audience that dwarfed anything politics could hope to control. Ultimately, football does what it has always done best, bringing people together across borders, languages and passports, no matter what happens outside the stadium doors. That’s more important than any score, and that’s why this World Cup will be remembered as one of the biggest and perhaps the best ever played on lush green grass with a white line.
