I want to start by saying something that I know is going to sound dramatic but I mean it completely. This is the most fun I've had watching a World Cup in years. Maybe ever. The new 48-team format that everyone — including me — was complaining about for the last two years? The one that was supposedly going to dilute the quality, drag out the group stage, fill the schedule with pointless mismatches? Yeah. About that. I owe FIFA an apology I never thought I'd give.
Because the group stage of this World Cup has been absolutely glorious. Chaotic, unpredictable, emotionally exhausting, and packed with the kind of moments that remind you why you fell in love with this sport in the first place. Let me try to make sense of it, because there's a LOT to get through.
The upset that broke the internet: Ecuador 2-1 Germany
I was watching this one with my heart in my mouth and I'm not even Ecuadorian. Germany — four-time world champions, the team that topped the group, the favourites — got dumped into second place by an Ecuador side that walked into the final matchday with exactly one point. ONE. They'd lost to Ivory Coast, drawn 0-0 with Curaçao in a game that was genuinely painful to watch, and basically needed a miracle.
And they got one. Germany scored in the second minute — the SECOND minute — and you thought, okay, that's that, Ecuador's tournament is over. But then Nilson Angulo equalized in the 9th, and the whole complexion of the game changed. The second half was Ecuador throwing absolutely everything at Germany while the Germans just... stood there. No urgency. No spark. Like a team that assumed qualification was a formality and forgot to tell their legs.
Then the 77th minute. Gonzalo Plata gets a deflection, the ball loops over Neuer, and the New Jersey stadium — packed with yellow shirts chanting "sí se puede" — completely lost its mind. Germany finished top of the group anyway on goal difference, so it's not like they're out. But getting beaten by a team that had one point going into the game? That's the kind of result that gets a manager's name trending for all the wrong reasons.
This is what the World Cup is supposed to be. The giant stumbling. The underdog believing. Football doing the thing that no script would dare to write.
Canada 6-0 Qatar and the co-hosts making statements
Speaking of statements. Canada — CANADA — put six past Qatar. Six! This is a team that for most of its history was a punchline in world football, and they're now playing like a side that genuinely belongs. The co-host energy is real. There's something about playing a World Cup on home soil (well, home continent) that lifts a team, and Canada are riding it.
Mexico have been quietly excellent too — nine points in the group stage, a perfect record, the first time they've ever done that. They opened with a 2-0 win over South Africa at a roaring Estadio Azteca and just kept rolling. The Azteca at a World Cup is one of the great sights in football and seeing it full and loud again gave me chills.
The USA won their group too, even resting Pulisic, which says a lot about the depth they've built. The three host nations all topping or near the top of their groups is exactly the storyline FIFA dreamed of when they sold this whole thing. For once, the marketing matched reality.
Now let's talk about Portugal, because of course we have to
Right. Deep breath. Portugal.
I went into the DR Congo game feeling cautiously optimistic — we'd looked decent in the warm-ups (if you ignore the Ronaldo finishing, which I wrote about at length before the tournament), and Congo were supposedly the weakest team in the group. And then we drew 1-1. João Neves put us ahead early, we dominated possession, and then Yoane Wissa headed in Congo's first-ever World Cup goal and we just... couldn't find a way through. Same old story. All the ball, none of the cutting edge.
And the Ronaldo questions started immediately. ESPN literally ran a piece titled "Portugal have a Ronaldo problem (again)." The same debate we've had for four years — why is he still starting at centre forward, is Martínez too loyal, is the team built around a 41-year-old at the expense of the collective. The Congo fans even hit him with the "SIUUU" celebration when things went badly, which is the kind of detail that makes you wince.
And then Uzbekistan happened. And oh, what a response it was.
Portugal 5-0. Ronaldo with a brace. And not just any brace — with that first goal, he became the FIRST player in history to score at six different World Cups. Six. Let that sink in. He's 41 years old, he'd gone ten games without a goal in major tournaments stretching back to November 2022, the entire football world was writing his obituary, and he goes and makes history with a trademark near-post finish off a Cancelo cross. Then he raced onto a Bruno Fernandes through ball to make it three before half-time. Leão came off the bench and smashed in the fifth.
What I loved most was what Ronaldo said afterwards. He talked about how it had been "a very tough and difficult week, with public opinion being very harsh," and then he said the line that only he could say: "Whenever things go well, Cristiano is doing great, but when they go badly, Cristiano is retired, he's too old. It will always be like that." Twenty-three years in the profession and the man still plays with a chip on his shoulder the size of a continent. Say what you want about him — and I've said plenty — but you cannot kill his hunger. It's genuinely inhuman.
We've basically qualified now. There's a Group K decider against Colombia coming up that will determine who tops the group. And honestly? For the first time in this tournament, I'm letting myself believe a little.
The other big boys: Spain look scary, Brazil woke up, England are England
A few quick hits because there's too much to cover.
Spain are quietly terrifying. They beat Saudi Arabia 4-0 with Lamine Yamal scoring his first ever World Cup goal in his hometown — which is the kind of fairy-tale moment you can't help but smile at, even if you're not Spanish. Yamal is 18 and already looks like the best player in the tournament. The future of football is genuinely scary if you're a defender.
Brazil started slow but the 3-0 win over Scotland looked like the old Brazil — flair, swagger, goals. Whether they're actually "back" is another question, but the talent is undeniable.
England, meanwhile, are doing the most England thing imaginable. They beat Croatia 4-2 in a thriller, then drew 0-0 with Ghana in a game where they had 79% possession and STILL couldn't score — apparently the highest possession by any team that failed to score in a World Cup match in 60 years. Kane missed a sitter from six yards. Sixty years of data and England found a new way to frustrate everyone. Some things never change.
And of course, the other GOAT: Messi's last dance
I can't write about this World Cup without mentioning Lionel Messi. He turned 39 during the tournament — celebrating with a midnight workout, because of course he did — and he's rolling back the years for Argentina in what everyone is calling his "last dance." The defending champions look strong, Messi's been breaking goal records, and there's a whole 85-foot statue of him being built in Argentina that's apparently taller than the one they tore down in India. The scale of the man's legend defies physics at this point.
Messi and Ronaldo. Both 38-plus. Both at their sixth World Cup — the only two men in history to do that. Both refusing to let go of the thing that's defined their lives. Whatever you think of the rivalry, watching these two icons take one final bow on the biggest stage at the same tournament is something we'll be telling our grandchildren about. We are watching the end of an era in real time, and we should appreciate every second of it.
The format, the heat, and the smart ball
A couple of things worth mentioning that have shaped the tournament.
The 48-team format means eight of the third-placed teams advance, which has created this fascinating dynamic where almost nobody is fully eliminated until the very end. Teams that lose their first two games are still mathematically alive. It keeps the drama bubbling right through the final round of group games in a way the old format never did. I was wrong about it. Happily wrong.
The heat has been brutal in some venues — European teams especially are struggling with the conditions in places like Houston, Dallas, and Kansas City. There've been cooling breaks in basically every afternoon game, and you can see legs going in the final twenty minutes. It's going to be a factor as the tournament wears on, and the teams that manage the conditions best might have a real edge in the knockouts.
And the new "smart ball" technology has been a quiet revolution — it's caught offsides and handballs with millimeter precision. Japan had a goal disallowed by the tiniest of margins against the Netherlands, which immediately brought back memories of THAT goal in 2022. The technology is incredible and also occasionally heartbreaking. Such is football in 2026.
Where my head is at
We're at the business end of the group stage now and the Round of 32 is about to begin. The expanded knockout bracket means more games, more drama, more chances for an underdog to go on a run. And I genuinely have no idea who's going to win this thing. Spain look the most complete. France have firepower. Argentina have Messi and the champions' aura. Brazil might be waking up. Portugal have... well, Portugal have Ronaldo refusing to die, and a supporting cast that's better than the results have shown so far.
But more than any individual team, what's struck me about this tournament is how alive it feels. The crowds have been enormous and passionate — Ecuadorians taking over New Jersey, Dutch fans flooding Kansas City, the Tartan Army drinking entire cities dry. The football has been open and attacking. The upsets have been real. And every single day there's been something to make you gasp, or cheer, or yell at the television at 2am while your family sleeps and you tell yourself "just one more game."
That's the World Cup. That's why we do this. And we're only getting started.
Bring on the knockouts. My nerves are ready. My sleep schedule is not.