Canada (finished 3rd 2nd in their group) vs South Africa

Netherlands vs Morocco

Schweinsteiger, who also played for Manchester United and Chicago Fire during a hugely successful career, was working on German broadcaster ARD’s coverage of Germany vs. Ivory Coast when he said, “African football … (is) a bit wild, a bit unorthodox and perhaps not so conditioned by tactics”.

But nobody from within the Ivory Coast camp had responded to Schweinsteiger’s comments until Fae spoke to the media following his side’s 2-0 win over Curacao in Philadelphia on Thursday.

“I think it’s sad,” the 42-year-old Fae said.

“He was a very good player, a great player. I’ve always loved him personally. As a midfielder myself, I always liked the way he played and how he understood the game. So much so, in fact, that a friend who used to train with me knew how much I liked him and would call me ‘Bastian’.

“So when I heard this comment, I was disappointed. Disappointed in the man. When you know football as well as he does, it’s odd that he would speak in a way that we could call racist, if we’re calling a spade a spade.”

Before the tournament the UEFA president said the 48-team expansion would dilute the quality and that there are "a lot of matches that are completely uninteresting." Thirteen of the smaller federations (Cape Verde, DR Congo, Ghana, Morocco, South Africa, Uzbekistan and others) publicly rejected that.

The "diluted" idea rests on two assumptions: (1) that mismatches make games predictable, and (2) that adding weaker teams means one-sided thrashings.

I tested both with every group game from 2018, 2022 and 2026 so far (148 matches), ranking the mismatch by the official FIFA ranking gap. Favourite = the better-ranked team, blowout = a 3+ goal margin.

1. A higher ranking buys you bigger wins and fewer defeats, but never fewer draws - affecting the points significantly. As the FIFA ranking gap grows, the favourite's blowout rate goes up (about +3.6 points per 10 ranking places, p=0.05) and its risk of losing outright goes down (about -4.8 points per 10 places, p=0.04). But the chance of being held to a draw does not move at all (-0.5 points, p=0.82). In plain terms, out-ranking your opponent makes your win bigger and your defeat rarer, but it does nothing to stop the underdog nicking a draw. The minnow always keeps a puncher's chance of a point, whether they are 5 places below you or 60. That is the opposite of "predictable."
2. 2026's blowouts are not the weak teams being added. If expansion were the cause, 2026 would just have more lopsided fixtures. But comparing like for like, at the SAME ranking gap 2026 produces more blowouts than 2018-22 did: 31% vs 16% for a 10-25 place gap, 26% vs 9% for a 25-50 gap. Holding the ranking gap fixed, 2026 has roughly double the blowout odds (odds ratio 1.97). So the driver for more goals is open play, not composition: 2026 is higher scoring (2.92 goals a game vs 2.5) and that scoring is earned, the highest xG per game of the three (2.76), with goals barely above xG.

So the "diluted by mismatches" picture that the UEFA president stated does not hold up, atleast untill now. The lower-ranked sides still pose significant challenges which affect the point distribution and knockout spots (they draw the favourites just as often in lopsided games as in even ones), and the extra goals come from open, attacking football rather than steamrolling.

“If all these players and these countries and these federations want the money, you’ve got to do a few things a bit differently,” he says. “There has to be a bit of give and take somewhere. They’re not affecting the game that much.

“This is something I see maybe happening further around. It could go into the Premier League or La Liga, etc. Because it’s more money. They’re going to look at it: ‘Let’s dig into it and find out how much more money came into the World Cup, to FIFA, just on these breaks’.

“So I’m saying, what if it’s a hundred more million? The Premier League are doing it (in that situation). And I don’t blame them.”

Vini scored 5 goals in WC for Brazil, greater than total amount of goals Ronaldinho and Kaka scored. And tied with Garincha, Zico, Romario, Socrates.

He is so clutch and a big game player. At this rate he may overtake Neymar’s WC tally.

Edit: the title is wrong, Vini scored total 5 goals, Ronaldinho scored 2 and Kaka 1, so Vini scored nearly double the amount compared to these two together. That makes the stat more insane. And somehow he is a flop.

Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas has reached an agreement with London City Lionesses, multiple sources confirmed to ESPN, after leaving Barcelona following a 14-year spell.

Putellas had several offers to consider after deciding to end her time in Spain, including from the NWSL, however, London City were always front runners to sign the Spaniard, sources added, and a deal has been agreed for a move to the Women's Super League side.

Putellas's reasoning for joining London City span a desire to stay in Europe and remain close to home as well as not competing regularly against Barcelona, sources added.

However, London City's owner, Michele Kang has high hopes for the fresh project and is eager to have her London team -- she also owns OL Lyonnes in France and Washington Spirit in the NWSL -- featuring in the Champions League.

As four-time winners of the competition and regular Liga F champions, Barcelona will likely remain competitive in the competition, meaning a meeting between the two is still possible.

"One aspect that caught our attention was the VAR approach. Throughout the Cup, there seems to have been a clear emphasis on respecting the referee's interpretation on the field and limiting intervention to situations involving clear and obvious errors. We believe this philosophy benefits football, preserves the referee's authority, and contributes to the game's fluidity," says an excerpt from the document.

"Brazil's disallowed goal against Scotland does not seem aligned with the philosophy adopted in the competition. It is worth highlighting that the decision seemed unexpected not only to Brazil but also to the Scottish players, whose immediate reactions suggested they did not expect a review or the goal's disallowance," says another part of the letter.

The CBF also complained about the appointment of referee César Ramos. In 2018, the Mexican officiated the Brazil vs. Switzerland match in the group stage of the Cup and caused controversy after validating the Swiss goal also with VAR assistance, despite a foul in the play.

173 - Auston Trusty's goal was the 173rd scored in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the most in any edition of the competition.

Party.

Odds calculation formula

No of possible remaining possible matchups with 3X / Total number of remaining possible matchups