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So it turns out that Carlo Ancelotti is no miracle worker. After watching his side fall behind to Ismael Saibari’s brilliant opening goal, the Brazil manager needed a big favour from Vinícius Júnior to ensure the five-time World Cup winners’ first match of the 2026 edition did not end in an embarrassing defeat.For large portions of an absorbing first half that hopefully set the tone for the rest of the tournament, Brazil found themselves chasing shadows as Casemiro and Bruno Guimarães struggled to contain a Morocco midfield anchored by the outstanding teenager Ayyoub Bouaddi. But after Times Square was transformed into a tapestry of yellow and red shirts on Friday night as both sets of fans warmed up for one of the most anticipated matches of the group stages, it was the Real Madrid forward who has been heavily criticised for failing to produce his club form on the international stage who gave the Brazil supporters something to celebrate.It was only the 25-year-old’s 10th goal for the Seleção on his 50th appearance and with Neymar still sidelined with a calf injury after his surprise recall, Ancelotti will know that any chance of winning a sixth title will rely on him. While they still possess undoubted quality, Brazil are badly lacking in some positions. Morocco – who became the first African side to reach the semi-finals in 2022 and look capable of going deep into the tournament again – were ruthless in exploiting those weaknesses and they almost won it at the death after a mistake from Alisson. Brazil at least improved in the second half after a few tactical tweaks from Ancelotti, although the Italian clearly has plenty of work to do if his team are to be real contenders.Mohamed Ouahbi was appointed to replace Walid Regragui as Morocco head coach in March after winning the Under-20 World Cup last year and he promised more of the same from his side after their success in Qatar. Bouaddi was handed only his fourth senior cap in midfield only a few weeks after opting to play for the Atlas Lions over France and looks set to be a star of the future after an assured display way beyond his 18 years.Astonishingly, more than 90 players have been called up by Brazil since they were knocked out of the last World Cup in Qatar, even if Ancelotti has been much more consistent in his selection since taking over last year. But his decision to deploy Roger Ibañez at right-back raised a few eyebrows given the 27-year-old usually plays in central defence and there was no doubt that Morocco targeted the Al Ahly player from the start.Noussair Mazraoui carved his way through from left-back and Neil El Aynaoui’s shot was blocked as they wasted no time going on the attack. Brazil struggled to find their rhythm until Vinícius Júnior created some space down the left and picked out Igor Thiago, only for the Brentford striker to hopelessly mistime his header.Ancelotti was on his feet in the searing New Jersey heat for most of the first half and his worst fears were realised in a flash of inspiration from Brahim Díaz. There appeared to be no danger when the Real Madrid forward picked up the ball inside his own half but a sensational pass fell perfectly into Saibari’s stride and he casually lobbed over the stranded Alisson. It was no less than Morocco deserved.Had Achraf Hakimi decided to pass to Díaz instead of shoot in the next attack then it could have been even worse for Brazil. But just when they were on the ropes, Vinícius Júnior came to his side’s rescue when he picked up a pass from Guimarães on the byline and slammed past Yassine Bounou from a tight angle after leaving El Aynaoui on his backside. You could hear the collective sigh of relief in the stands.Bounou had to be at full stretch to tip Lucas Paqueta’s volley wide on the stroke of half-time after the struggling Casemiro and Ibañez both picked up yellow cards. Both were replaced for the second half in an acknowledgement that Ancelotti had got his selection wrong, with Fabinho and Danilo summoned from the bench. The result was a far more structured system that pushed Morocco back into their own half. A quickly-taken throw-in almost caught them out as Bounou denied Thiago from a tight angle.Ancelotti threw on Manchester United’s Matheus Cunha for the last half an hour as Morocco continued to frustrate. A triple substitution that brought an end to Díaz’s evening was an indication that Ouahbi may be prepared to settle for a point and it was Brazil who showed more intent in the closing stages. Their best chance to snatch the victory fell to another substitute, Luis Henrique, during 10 minutes of stoppage time when – to the usually calm and collected Ancelotti’s frustration – Bounou was equal to his effort. Maybe this international management lark isn’t so easy?

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Houston is a host city but those gathered there for a GOP convention are far more concerned with contentious politics – and an elephantGreg Abbott, the governor of Texas, has just finished a 25-minute address and most of the hits have been played. The radical Democrats must be destroyed in November’s midterms; an Austin-style woke agenda should be avoided at all costs; it is essential the Lone Star State remains the most conservative in the US. He has provided ample fodder for about 5,000 delegates but, as the applause subsides, they have a more weighty subject matter to absorb.There is an elephant in the room. A real live elephant in the form of Paige, who is wearing a white cloak bearing the slogan “Unity drives victory”. It has long been an in-joke at the Texas Republican party convention that, one day, a pachydermal visitor might drop in; the animal has been a symbol of the GOP for 150 years. Now, at the George R. Brown Convention Center on Friday afternoon, the fantasy has been made flesh. To intakes of breath, Paige is led up the vast conference hall’s central aisle, taking a break halfway up. The exit is 100 metres away but will have to wait; unfortunately for those who have rushed to marvel at her, it turns out Paige needs to urinate.Houston is making its debut as a World Cup host city but, in this bubble of largely hard-line activists drawn from some of the state’s furthest corners, football’s proximity is largely viewed as an irrelevance. “You won’t find soccer fans here, we’re here for business,” says Jo, who has travelled from Dallas and wears a sequin-heavy stars and stripes dress. “I don’t mind it, but I’m not remotely into it.”The next morning they are back at George R Brown Convention Centre to do it all again. They walk through the doors past children, no older than nine or 10, who wear T-shirts emblazoned with “Make abolishing abortion our number one legislative priority.” The youngsters hand out fliers and then, inside the hall, comes the daylong process of refining the party’s proposed platform for the next election cycle. Texas has been in a vice-like Republican grip for more than three decades but the past year has been fraught with infighting; the congress is peppered with pleas for unity and Abbott’s rare presence among these grassroots representatives is viewed as an endorsement of its shift further right.Michael, from the town of Abilene, six hours’ drive away, steps out of the room during a particularly heated discussion about the wording of the party’s abortion policy. Someone has just suggested men recuse themselves from any vote regarding amendments. “It’s getting a little contentious in there,” he says, understatedly. The World Cup has barely reached his radar, although he is aware of the USA’s 4-1 win against Paraguay the previous night. It is unclear whether Houston or Dallas will make a profit from host city-status and he is concerned about any impact on public finances.“I think there’s a whole lot of money in soccer and they should pay their own way,” he says. “We, the taxpayer, shouldn’t be shouldering the burden.” Michael is wearing a ‘MAGA 2024’ cap. Does he feel comfortable with Donald Trump’s appropriation of a tournament that will touch few in the Texas GOP? “It’s just what he does, he’s a bit of a showman,” he laughs. A man wearing a Stetson and leather waistcoat, a large knife sheathed by his left hip, walks past as he speaks.As the session breaks for lunch, Steve, who is sporting a “Defend Texas, Defeat Sharia” badge, admits he feels the future is precarious. “I’m scared about the midterms,” he says. “If we lose the House and Senate, our president’s not going to be effective any more.” He embarks upon an analysis of the United Kingdom’s immigration challenges that would not pass a fact check. Maybe he will find a new interest this summer. “Because of the World Cup we watched it last night,” he says. “It was fun. It’s a long time since I last watched soccer.”Perhaps a current of enthusiasm can be mustered here, after all. “I think it’s awesome, I really wanted to go,” says Ray, from Corpus Christi. He looked into attending a game but balked at the $1,100 quoted for a ticket. “How often do you get an event that brings people together from all over the world?” he asks. Does such an admirable sentiment square with the actions of a government that has, to many eyes, made this edition of the tournament less open and accessible than any other in the modern era?“We can’t shut down the whole world because of a few things going on,” he says. “But after 9/11 we had to pay a lot more attention to our surroundings. Soccer helps us keep a good relationship with other countries”. Ray is relaxed about the prospect of Iran playing games in the US but has few regrets about Trump’s decision to engage in military conflict. “It’s something we needed to do to get global security under control,” he claims. Like others willing to discuss the topic, though, he is concerned about the effect of a lengthy war on fuel prices.It feels, at least, as if the quest to find a genuine football supporter is warming up. Finally it bears something fruit-adjacent in the form of Jacovia, one of the few Black delegates present. “Me and my friends go and watch some Houston Dynamo games, it’s fun,” he says. “I’m a fan of the sport but I don’t really understand it.”Jacovia rejects the idea his country has put up the drawbridge to outsiders. “I think that perception is unfair,” he says. “I know there’s going to be pockets of terrible people that aren’t welcoming, but they don’t account for the majority of us.”None of those who spoke to the Guardian had engaged with the plight of the Somali referee Omar Artan, who was barred from entry to the US. “It’s an older crowd here, if they’ll watch anything it’s American football” says 72-year-old Patti, who takes pains to explain the intricacies of Saturday’s proceedings. They are peppered with speeches from the floor, ranging from the considered to the incendiary. A woman is jeered loudly for saying men should not be allowed parenting responsibility after a divorce; two people towards the back come to blows when a proposed amendment to protect against antisemitism is struck out. There are more boos at the mention of Tucker Carlson, the conservative podcaster; everyone rallies round again when the hawkish Texas senator Ted Cruz, whose public feud with Carlson over Iran continues to rumble, takes the stage.In the adjacent exhibition hall, visitors can sign up to the Patriot Mobile network, hear the claims of Texans For Vaccine Choice or download Abbott’s own app. All of conservative southern American life is here: disarmingly filter-free, deeply ideological, confounding and in parts deeply disturbing. Football and the World Cup, though, remain beyond the periphery.“It’s growing, it’s definitely growing,” says Steve. At the Texas GOP convention, that is happening at an elephant’s pace.

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Qatar’s Boualem Khoukhi stunned Switzerland with a late equaliser as the sides played out a 1-1 draw in their opening match at the World Cup on Saturday.A Breel Embolo penalty had broken the deadlock for Switzerland early in the first half in the San Francisco Bay Area, before the wasteful favourites were made to pay as Qatar earned their first ever point at a World Cup.Qatar, appearing in just their second finals after hosting the 2022 World Cup, looked rusty after the war in the Middle East caused the cancellation of two of their warm-up friendlies, meaning their meeting with Switzerland was just their third match since December last year.For most of the match they were outclassed as Switzerland racked up 26 shots, before the 35-year-old Khoukhi’s header four minutes into injury time sparked wild celebrations on the Qatar bench.For Julen Lopetegui, it was also a landmark moment as he coached his first World Cup match. The 59-year-old had been set to guide his native Spain at the 2018 edition in Russia, but was sacked days before the start of the tournament after it was announced he had agreed to take over Real Madrid after the World Cup.The Swiss are seeking to progress to the knockout stages for the fourth consecutive World Cup but their inability to kill off a match they dominated will worry their coach Murat Yakin.Manuel Akanji offered Qatar the first big chance of the match in just the second minute as his defensive lapse sent Edmilson Junior through, but he could only shoot tamely at Gregor Kobel.That let-off woke up the Swiss, who were awarded a penalty on 13 minutes as goalkeeper Mahmoud Abunada clattered into Remo Freuler, despite a suspicion of offside, and after a four-minute stoppage Embolo sent the goalkeeper the wrong way from the spot.The rest of the opening period was one-way traffic towards the Qatar box but Edmilson Junior nearly caught the Swiss cold just before half-time, drawing a right-footed save from Kobel at the end of a rare foray forward.Under a blazing California sun the chances dried up in the second period with the most notable moments a Granit Xhaka drive from distance that whizzed narrowly over the bar and an Embolo poke that nestled in the side-netting.But ultimately Switzerland were made to pay for their profligacy as Khoukhi powered in at the back post to bullet home a 94th-minute equaliser.Switzerland next play Bosnia on Thursday in Los Angeles, while Qatar meet the co-hosts Canada in Vancouver on the same day.

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While it was always a reach to project this tournament would feel like 104 Super Bowls, some matchups inevitably fit the blockbuster billing. Brazil and Morocco’s opener in Group C is this tournament’s first glamour fixture, pitting the five-time champions against the dark horse darlings of 2022, who arrive in great form.Few know exactly what to expect from Carlo Ancelotti’s first World Cup on the touchline. A gilded figure on the club side, Ancelotti picked a squad teeming with stout center-backs and dynamic dribblers, but with some uncertainty in midfield, at full-back, and up top. Endrick finally taking a long-awaited leap would do wonders to assuage those latter concerns, and will most likely be necessary if Brazil are to snap their 24-year drought.The history books say Morocco won Afcon 2026 on a technicality, for now anyway, but the fraught final overshadowed what was otherwise a credible tournament run. Brahim Diaz has a point to prove after flubbing his shot to win that tournament outright, and may be grateful that a chance for redemption is here already. After their run to the semi-final in 2022, Morocco will no longer catch opponents by surprise, and Neil El Aynaoui is a vital bridge between Diaz and Achraf Hakimi for right-sided, outside-inside-outside build-up at breakneck pace.In the spirit of that 104 Super Bowl salespitch, today also serves as the 2026 World Cup debut for the site of the final in New Jersey. The venue hosted Super Bowl XLVIII and the 2025 Club World Cup final. It can’t match the architectural charms of Los Angeles Stadium, but was awarded the final anyway given its proximity to New York City. The stars will indeed be out for this dinner-hour kickoff. Up for grabs is the chance the seize control of the group and chart a more favorable path through the knockouts.

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Despite missing key players, Hajime Moriyasu’s side have built strength in depth to challenge the traditional orderIn 2002 there was a sense that Japan had slightly missed an opportunity. South Korea may have enjoyed the benefit of some favourable refereeing, but they also impressed. They were quick, technically good and tactically extremely flexible and they progressed to the semi-final of their home World Cup.Japan did not do much wrong, topping their group before going down 1-0 to Turkey in the last 16, but the contrast with their co-hosts was inevitably underwhelming.Although Park Ji-sung and Lee Young-pyo earned moves to PSV off the back of South Korea’s performances, and subsequently joined Manchester United and Tottenham respectively, Japan already had four players with European clubs, although one of them, Junichi Inamoto, had briefly returned to Gamba Osaka from his loan at Arsenal before leaving for Fulham. He never played a league game for Arsène Wenger, his next permanent move taking him to West Brom, where he struggled to make an impact.The poor Japanese journalist whose job it was to cover him became a great figure of sympathy. The final question of each of Bryan Robson’s pre-match press conferences would always be him asking politely about Inamoto’s progress in training – at least until the moment, after almost two years, when he finally snapped and demanded, with despairing incredulity: “Mr Robson, why do you pick Darren Carter?”The unspoken question for Japan was always: why? Why could South Korea have outstripped them like that? South Korea’s first attempt at a professional league, staged in 1983, had comprised largely sides representing corporations and banks, and was won by Hallelujah, a club run by evangelical Christians. It had only had a truly professional national league from 1996, by which time the glitzy JLeague, with foreign stars such as Gary Lineker, Ramón Díaz and Zico, had been running for three years.In the past two decades Japanese and South Korean players have become increasingly familiar in European leagues, but Japan are still to make it beyond the last 16 of a World Cup, something their manager, Hajime Moriyasu, has admitted has become a mental block. In 2010, after outplaying Cameroon and Denmark in the group, they allowed themselves to be dragged into a stalemate of ferocious tedium by Paraguay, losing on penalties. They tossed away a two-goal lead against Belgium at that stage in 2018 and then, in 2022, having beaten Spain and Germany in the group, ran into Croatia with predictable consequences.But this year, perhaps, is different. As Japan start their World Cup campaign against the Netherlands in Arlington on Sunday, it feels genuinely possible that they are not merely the best Japan side in history, but the best Asian side to play at a World Cup. Moriyasu has been in the job since 2018 and, as such, is the longest-serving Japan national manager ever. He has been bullish about Japan’s chances, talking openly of winning the competition.Japan won six out of six in the first round of qualifying and then seven out of 10 in the second, losing just once, a remarkable achievement given the distances involved and the huge variety of opponents and conditions. But being the best in Asia is no longer enough, and a run of six successive friendly wins since, including over England and Brazil, is arguably even more important than qualifying with three games to spare, for reasons of self-belief if nothing else.Injuries have hit them hard. The captain Wataru Endo withdrew from the squad this week, while the loss of Kaoru Mitoma to a hamstring injury sustained playing for Brighton against Wolves in May is a major blow, particularly with Takumi Minamino rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament. It says much about the development of Japanese football, though, that their absences are not seen as terminal. That Minamino has travelled with the squad to offer moral support suggests their togetherness.Mitoma is a loss not only because of his quality but also his versatility. He could play either as one of two creators in Moriyasu’s 3-4-2-1, or at left wing-back. Keito Nakamura looks all but certain to operate wide on the left, but there are various options to play off the Feyenoord centre-forward Ayase Ueda. Takefusa Kubo was regarded as the rising star of Japanese football when he joined Barcelona’s la Masia academy at the age of 10 and signed for Real Madrid at 18. Now 25, he has settled at Real Sociedad and will probably be the right-sided creator. The role on the left, though, could go to Celtic’s Daizen Maeda or Genk’s Junya Ito, or potentially a more defensive figure such as Daichi Kamada of Crystal Palace. The depth of options is itself an indication of Japan’s development.The group is not easy to read. The Netherlands, given a midfield that should be able to hold possession and a hugely varied forward line (they have heft in Wout Weghorst and Brian Brobbey, but also pace and subtlety in Memphis Depay, Donyell Malen, Crysencio Summerville and Noa Lang) but they have been ravaged by injuries and fatigue.Sweden were awful in qualifying but have been re-energised by an improbable messiah in Graham Potter. Tunisia exist in a state of constant paranoia and overcaution, but the appointment of Sabri Lamouchi and a much-changed squad might at least remove some gloomy memories from a miserable Cup of Nations campaign six months ago.The group winners and runners-up face the runners-up and winners from the Brazil, Morocco, Haiti and Scotland group, which is far from straightforward. The draw could have been a lot kinder, but hope remains, with Endo this week talking of a quarter-final as a first goal.In 1992, just before the launch of the J League, Japan announced a plan to win the World Cup by 2092. In 2005, after two appearances, they brought that target forward to 2050. For a side that has never got beyond the last 16 to speak of victory may feel premature, but there is little doubt that, at this moment, Japan have surpassed South Korea. And while Senegal and Morocco are clear contenders, if there is to be a winner from outside Europe and South America, Japan look as well placed as anybody.

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⚽️ Kick-off 12pm local, 3pm EST, 8pm BST, 4am Sun AEST⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail JohnBeing unable to play during the final part of Real Madrid’s season and not taking part at the World Cup with the Seleção is a feeling impossible to explain. Watching Real Madrid’s crucial matches on TV without being able to step on to the pitch and give my all for the club left a bitter taste. And watching the World Cup squad announcement without the expectation of hearing my name called by Carlo Ancelotti was tough.Some of the news stories from the first Saturday of the tournament. Continue reading...

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Lima police dress as mascots in raid on suspectZayu the Jaguar left out of police operationWhile tensions between Canada and the United States have risen in the last few years as Donald Trump has made threats to turn his northern neighbor into a 51st state of America, there has been some mutual cooperation in crime fighting.Earlier this week, Clutch the Bald Eagle and Maple the Moose – the mascots for the United States and Canada respectively at this year’s World Cup – helped Peruvian police in a drugs raid.Officers in Lima dressed as the mascots broke through a gate before arresting a suspect.“Thanks to the intelligence work carried out by the team, we were able to establish that the person we were about to arrest was a die-hard football fan, living and breathing the World Cup fever,” colonel Carlos Fredy Alcántara Obregón, head of the police’s Green Squad, told the Associated Press.“So we proceeded to disguise my Green Squad personnel as World Cup mascots in order to approach him without arousing suspicion and make the arrest.”Clutch and Maple would appear to be the perfect candidates for the drugs raid, even though they are fictional characters and do not have visas to work in Peru. According to Fifa, Clutch “leads by action – rallying teammates, lifting spirits and turning every challenge into an opportunity to rise higher” making him an ideal leader in high-pressure situations such as drug raids. Maple, meanwhile, is “a street style-loving artist” meaning the moose can blend effortlessly into Lima’s demi-monde.The other World Cup mascot, Zayu the Jaguar, doesn’t work Wednesdays, so was unavailable for the raid.

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The US version of the tournament’s opening ceremony helpfully focused on one of its main themes: aspirational consumerismThe 2026 World Cup: a festival of football; a moment to revel in upsets, spectacular goals, stars made, and reputations ruined; a test of Didier Deschamps’s unshakable addiction to Adrien Rabiot. But also: a celebration of America; a chance for Fox Sports to prove the haters wrong; a social experiment to see how long Thierry Henry can last on set with Alexi Lalas before resorting to physical violence. “This is going to be filled with American fans,” Lalas shrieked as Los Angeles Stadium began to swell with spectators before the US’s opening match against Paraguay. “This is going to be bursting at the seams with America!”But where was the pomp, the bombast, the Americana? The US opening ceremony – the third and final installment in the trio of launch parties for this supertanker of a World Cup – didn’t quite live up to the Lalasian hype. This was a ceremony with all the charm of Rob Stone in his pocket square fake-smiling as he says the immortal words, “Brazil v Morocco, live tomorrow from New York New Jersey, brought to you by Verizon”: a ceremony that felt oddly flat, but was trying all the same. It was almost as if Fifa had absorbed all the pre-tournament criticism and decided: “You know what? We just can’t be bothered.” But Friday’s launch did still offer a sense for how this tournament will play out as a cultural spectacle. The early verdict: this is a World Cup built above all to accommodate the insatiable needs of American TV. Fox Sports is not simply the host broadcaster for this World Cup; it is the tournament’s very soul. If that’s the type of sentence that gives you hives, the next five weeks will best be watched on mute (or Telemundo).Between the bloated 48-team format, the number of co-hosts, and the vast distances separating the host cities, sprawl is the theme of this World Cup, and Fox is doing its bit for the cause. There was not, truth be told, a lot of ceremony in this opening ceremony. Three songs spread out over the course of an hour didn’t give viewers a lot to get excited about, but Fox took those paltry raw materials and padded the opening day out into a bullying statement of intent about its plans for the tournament. Fox has brought in Rebecca Lowe, better known to US soccer fans as the host of NBC’s Premier League coverage, to add class and an(other) English accent to this summer’s on-screen proceedings. Part of what makes the NBC coverage work is that it is quick and succinct. But quick and succinct is not the Fox way. As the marathon lead-in to the opening ceremony began it rapidly became clear that even for Lowe, keeping Fox from its own worst instincts is going to be tough.Despite being hours long, the whole production felt scattered, rushed, and unfocused – as if it was put together by a social media addict with both a five-second attention span and an endless appetite for “content” (which it probably was). This was World Cup coverage as an interminable series of TikTok zaps. “The American Outlaws are outside the stadium!” Lowe enthused over footage of a few jersey-clad dads in wraparound sunglasses weakly hooting on an LA side street. “We have two whole hours to go until kickoff,” she added, and it felt like a threat. There was a profile of USMNT super fan Eagleman (“When I put the eagle mask on, I feel I can let loose and be Eagleman”), a doctor who spent 21 years on active duty with the US air force. “The US military, always so supportive of US soccer,” Stone, sharing anchor duties with Lowe, gravely noted.Brandishing an American football, Patrick Mahomes appeared on screen for a leaden segment about “this strange sport that the rest of the world calls football, but we call soccer”, a “joke” about the tedious soccer v football debate that Fox appears determined to re-inflict on its blameless viewers at least once a day over the course of the summer. A story looking back at the 1994 tournament began: “Gas was only a dollar a gallon, and there was only one type of milk” – another blow struck for the Murdoch media empire against the oat milk wokes. Lowe directed viewers’ attention to YouTube, where Nick DiGiovanni, Fox’s resident World Cup chef, had just hailed the chipa cheeseburger he put together for the US-Paraguay match as “one of his best inventions ever” – and who are any of us, not being familiar until this week with the existence of Chef Nick or his body of work, to disagree? Unfortunately, persistent outdoor audio problems meant viewers were deprived of the totality of Elmo and Cookie Monster’s answers when asked by red carpet reporter Charissa Thompson what the World Cup means to them. Down on the Los Angeles Stadium pitch, Landon Donovan hard launched his violent new head of hair.One of the major challenges for Fox this summer is figuring out how to get the best out of its crowded roster of on-air “talent”. The network’s solution, it seems, is to have multiple sets in multiple locations, with each panel taking turns to discuss the same stuff. In the lead-up to Friday’s ceremony we heard reminiscences from Lowe, Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and Lalas, holding court from a perch in Los Angeles Stadium, about the 1994 World Cup, the last to be held on American soil; then we heard from Stu Holden, Carli Lloyd, and Tom Rinaldi, speaking from a parking lot outside the stadium, on the same subject; finally Stone, Donovan, and Clint Dempsey, on the stadium field, got to trot out their own set of lifeless anecdotes about the summer of ’94.The promotion of James Corden’s “fun” late night show was a persistent theme of the day’s programming. I counted at least three separate occasions in the buildup to last night’s USMNT opener on which Lowe threw to Zlatan for his thoughts on Corden and Sweden’s greatest ever goalscorer responded with words like, “I like him, I love him, he’s funny,” an evaluation that became less and less convincing with each repetition. James Corden: so funny Fox needs to remind its viewers every 10 minutes that he is funny. (Lalas, for his part, has declared the carpool karaoke king a “full-kit wanker”: begrudgingly one must offer respect to a man who is prepared to go on air and trash his employer’s star comedy recruit.)Fox obliged long-time fans pining for the old hits by offering up some signature mispronunciations: there were several renderings of Paraguay as “Parag-way”, Pochettino came out as “Paunchettino” at one point, and no one seemed to know what to do with “Herzegovina”. But this is all part of the Fox World Cup charm: we all come together, from across the globe, and agree to pronounce “Paraguay” however the hell we want.The early social media hype this World Cup has been all about the raw spectacle of foreigners encountering America for the first time (Lamine Yamal in a Walmart! Englishmen at the deli! Germans eating Chipotle! DUDE LMAO THIS IS A GAS STATION), and it seems depressingly inevitable that brands, as much as players and fans, will be at the center of the action throughout the tournament. Commercials are everywhere this World Cup, including during the hydration breaks. Friday’s “innovation” was to make it virtually impossible for the casual viewer to tell where the ads stopped and events on the field – the pre-match ceremony, the match itself – began. Eventually they all bled into one another, creating a ghastly mashup in which the Rinaldi “color” segments (“This summer we’re citizens of an interior geography – the United States of Being”), the airless paeans to the glory of America and global unity, and the weird little segments about people refurbishing old fussball tables and playing Cristiano Ronaldo up front for some reason (perhaps a sly comment on the aging Portuguese great’s wooden finishing?) melted into cable TV’s standard carousel of ads for semaglutides, SUVs, game shows, and medication for moderate to severe ulcerative colitis. Everything in this World Cup is designed to be an ad, or at least to feel like one: is it a Matthew McConaughey voiceover about the world soccer family, or a subtle promo for Michelob Ultra, sponsor of the Michelob Ultra Pitchside Club in Santa Monica? Maybe it’s both.The ceremony proper got under way. “Welcome to the USA,” announced a raspy male voice in the stadium over a stylized map of the lower 48 states – a line that was presumably designed to convey hospitality, but ended up sounding more like the kind of thing you might hear in an ICE video playing in the passport line at the airport. Welcome to the USA: please leave your drugs, lies, tweets, opinions, and unlawful immigrant intent at the door. Future and Tyla, two singers I 100% had heard of before Googling them on Friday morning, performed their track Game Time. “Twenty seconds to game time,” they sang with more than an hour to go until kick-off. At some point there appeared a series of signs for “Route 66”, “Las Vegas”, “Holly”, and “Wood” on the pitch that looked like they’d been dragged in from a local elementary school production – a pleasingly half-assed artistic effort that summoned the spirit of Left Shark, thereby reconnecting this World Cup to the last big curtain raiser Katy Perry performed at a sporting event. Heritage matters.In a ceremony of little substance, the only real highlight was the performance from Lisa, Anitta, and Rema of Goals, a song with a gurgling bassline and a refrain (“My fatty, my fit, my friends, my whip”) that helpfully centers what the American World Cup is really all about: aspirational consumerism. Fox cut back to the main studio as the song’s final bars drifted into the Inglewood air. “My nether regions are still vibrating from the bass, wow!” Lalas exclaimed, to Henry’s visible disgust – one of several vaguely porny verbal shots that the man Ibrahimovic calls “Alexis” has already managed to get off over the tournament’s opening 48 hours. The chemistry between Kate Abdo and her all-male panel is part of what makes CBS’s Champions League coverage so successful. Whatever hopes Fox may harbor of replicating that kind of wink-wink on-set flirtation over the course of this World Cup have suffered a seemingly fatal blow on first contact with Lalas’s genitals. Above all the World Cup is about delivering, and the early evidence suggests that what the Big L will be delivering this summer is regular updates about the state of his junk.Flags held aloft in a circle, small children, hand holding: these are the key themes that any World Cup opening ceremony must hit, but we didn’t get a glimpse of them until the headline act took the stage in this oddly muted, phoned-in show’s final minutes. Perry gripped the hand of a small child and began to belt out the lines from Wonder, which the r/katyheads subreddit assures me is the best song off her 2024 album 143. At least, it seemed like she was belting the lines out. On TV the sound was distant and muffled, as if Perry was singing inside a bottle. “What a moment!” Lowe purred at the song’s conclusion. And she was right: if this World Cup opening ceremony was anything, it was above all a series of moments.

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‘High-handed and extremely unfair,’ government saysOfficial note of protest sent calling for a reviewGhana’s government has described Canada’s decision to deny Thomas Partey a visa for his country’s World Cup game against Panama on Wednesday as “high-handed and extremely unfair”.Ghana’s foreign ministry said it understood the decision to be based on pending criminal proceedings in Britain. The 32-year-old Partey, a former Arsenal midfielder who plays for Villarreal, faces allegations of rape and sexual assault in Britain. He has denied the charges.Partey is with the rest of the Ghana squad in Boston and will be eligible to play in their subsequent Group L matches against England in that city and against Croatia in Philadelphia.Ghana’s foreign ministry said it had dispatched an official note of protest requesting that Canada review its decision. “The government of the Republic of Ghana expresses strong reservations following the high-handed and extremely unfair decision by Canada,” it said. “While respecting Canada’s sovereign right to enforce its immigration laws, Ghana considers that reliance on unproven charges in the absence of a judicial determination raises fundamental questions of fairness and proportionality.”A spokesperson for Canada’s immigration, refugees and citizenship said on Friday that the country had been consistent that hosting major events does not change immigration laws. “Every person seeking to come to Canada is assessed individually, based on the facts available and the law that applies,” the spokesperson said.Partey’s case is the latest immigration-related controversy to flare at the World Cup, which is being co-hosted by Canada, the United States and Mexico. The US refused entry this week to the Somali referee Omar Artan, who had been due to officiate at the tournament.Upon returning to Somalia, Artan described the visa decision as a matter of “fate” and urged fellow Somalis not to lose heart over it.