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All 48 teams have played their first matches. From xG to assists to transfer value, here’s some of the more revealing bits of dataThe first round of fixtures at the World Cup is in the bank so we’ve finally seen all 48 teams. But what have we learned? Who was good, bad, lucky or fired after just one game? A dig into the Opta data has revealed some facts that may not have been immediately apparent from the scorelines.Mexico moved the ball upfield slower than any other team in the first round of fixtures. They could afford to take their time as South Africa offered next to no threat. It’s unlikely to end well when a team receive as many red cards as they have touches in the opposition penalty area, which was the case for the losing side.This game was the first to feature one of the trademarks of the 2025-26 Premier League season. The former West Ham defender Vladimir Coufal launched a long throw-in, which the Wolves centre-back Ladislav Krejci headed home to give Czechia the lead. South Korea were worthy winners, with the 25-pass buildup to Hwang In-beom’s equaliser the joint-fifth longest passing sequence leading to a goal in the World Cup since records begin in 1966.Czechia’s set-play prowess looked weak compared with what Bosnia and Herzegovina offered. Seven of their eight shots against Canada were from set pieces. Sergej Barbarez will need his team to generate more than one open play chance per match. Their remaining opponents being as wasteful as the Canadians will help too.Opta Analyst’s pre-match predications rated this as the second-closest match of the opening set of fixtures. The USA looked at the supercomputer and laughed. Paraguay conceded the joint-second fewest goals in the South American qualifying group yet allowed their hosts 53 touches in their penalty area, the second-most after Curaçao against Germany.These matches are grouped together because their favourites failed to win for broadly the same reason. Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and Uruguay are the top five teams for possession and final-third pass accuracy. They had the ball where a team would want it and, Portugal aside, generated at least 25 shots.The problem was the quality of their chances. A reasonable expected goals tally looks far less impressive when divided among numerous low probability efforts from long range. Spain averaged 0.08 xG per shot, with Uruguay (0.06) and Turkey (0.04) among the teams below them. That is worse than Burnley and Wolves averaged in the Premier League this season (0.09), two teams nobody is looking to emulate.The so-called minnows have defensive fortitude that they did not always carry in the past. Giants be warned.This summed up what we can probably expect from Brazil. Their midfield may be porous, as shown by Morocco’s goal, but if they can get the ball to Vinícius Júnior then they’ll probably be fine.We should doff our caps to Carlo Ancelotti, though. His half-time changes helped ensure Morocco did not have a shot between the break and the 98th minute.There have already been nine draws. Even allowing for the World Cup being bigger than ever, the proportion of draws in this phase of the competition has never been higher. Is this a byproduct of a bloated format with little jeopardy for most teams? We’ll see.This is the one match that should have ended all-square. It was a dead heat on expected goals to two decimal places, at 1.05 apiece.Transfermarkt’s data suggests the Germany starting XI was worth €559.4m (£485m) more than the 11 men that lined up for Curaçao. Opta gave the four-time champions a 90.7% chance of winning the match.The Netherlands increased their expected goals tally by 1.38 in Opta’s post-shot model, the most of any team. Japan had 19 touches in the opposition penalty area and had the lowest xG of any team that scored at least twice.These matches ended in similarly glorious or heartbreaking fashion depending on your perspective. Ecuador hit a post three times, while Panama missed two Opta-defined big chances. The data suggested both teams were probably worthy of a draw as the clock hit 89 minutes.Amad Diallo and Caleb Yirenkyi put paid to those hopes with very late winners for the countries.This result may give the impression that Sweden are back on track after their deeply disappointing qualification campaign. The notion is undermined by Graham Potter’s men overachieving against their xG by 3.67 goals, the most of any team.It is fair to assume the Tunisian football federation is not paying attention to expected goal outliers, as it fired Sabri Lamouchi after the game. It will take more than Hervé Renard to save them.This was a lesson in the importance of taking chances. At 1-0 up early in the second half, Mohamed Salah had a header saved, with the goalscorer Emam Ashour blasting the rebound out for a throw-in. Omar Marmoush sliced wide on a counterattack shortly afterwards too.Enter Romelu. Lukaku came on in the 66th minute, immediately forced an equalising own goal and Egypt mustered only three low-value chances between that point and full time.Iran fielded the joint-second oldest starting XI in the history of the World Cup (at 31.8 years old). People who love naming footballers of yesteryear will enjoy trying to recall the Germany side of 1998 that was older. They beat Iran 2-0, funnily enough.Age didn’t prevent this from being one of the most entertaining matches. Iran were unlucky to run into the New Zealand duo of Chris Wood and Elijah Just. The former assisted the latter twice, making them the only combination to have linked up for two goals.France produced a game of two halves. Their efforts in the opening 45 minutes had them careering towards the “big team with lots of the ball fail to win” section of this roundup. Gorgeous defence-splitting passes from Michael Olise and Adrien Rabiot ensured otherwise.Six Premier League teams did not muster more than their two through-ball assists in the entire season; France logged their pair in a 16-minute spell of incision.Iraq were holding their own until a pair of defensive errors handed Norway a second lead. Erling Haaland leads the World Cup for individual expected goals, with the goalkeeper Jalal Hassan’s blunder contributing hugely to his tally.The most surprising statistic of the first wave of fixtures is that Algeria had more touches in the opposition penalty area than Argentina, limiting the defending champions to 12. But they were also the only team to fail to register a shot on target and when Lionel Messi is on song, data is almost irrelevant. Almost.Eleven shots with four on target. As it was for Austria, so it was for Jordan. The difference came in Opta-defined big chances (which are opportunities where you can reasonably expect the attacker to score). The Austrians led that metric 4-0 and they benefited from an own goal too.England had seven big chances, more than any other side. It was hardly surprising that four came from dead-ball situations, as Thomas Tuchel’s side had more shots this way than in open play. Harry Kane’s double carried him on to our rundown of the highest goalscorers in World Cup history and he should join the top 10 before the group stage is out.Last and by most means least, we have a fairly routine win for Colombia. Uzbekistan made the xG figures look respectable thanks to Abbosbek Fayzullayev scoring with a chance valued at 0.98 expected goals. Few people in any walk of life will ever be handed a better opportunity to become a national hero.

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Mike Costello, the legendary boxing commentator, tells a story of when he was fresh in the game, an old pro heard him getting dead excited calling a fight that wasn’t Hagler-Hearns, so issued some advice: always leave yourself somewhere to go.For those of us involved in a similar kind of thing, this is an important lesson, but one easier grasped than lived – especially during the World Cup and even more so during this World Cup. How not to unload the suitcase – and why not unload the suitcase – when Curaçao equalise against Germany, Cape Verde force a draw with Spain and DRC equalise against then draw with Portugal? For them – and so for us, sport being the experience of living your life through others – this is their Hagler-Hearns, so it makes more sense to trust you’ll find somewhere to go than not turn up somewhere you desperately need to be.Which is to say we’ve enjoyed a sensational first week of football – but Czechia and South Africa have not, enduing the respective agonies of a soul-crushing late winner conceded and a total no-show dropped. But the structure of the competition is in their favour, a defeat today terminal for neither – though with final-round matches against Mexico and South Korea upcoming, a win feels essential for both.Kick-off: 12pm local and EDT, 5pm BST, 2am AEST

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Striker will miss match against Germany in TorontoWas arrested over alleged ‘organised fraud’ in Ligue 1The Côte d’Ivoire striker Elye Wahi, who is being investigated for alleged fixing, has not been authorised to travel to Canada for his team’s World Cup match against Germany, the Côte d’Ivoire football federation (FIF) said on Thursday.FIF said Wahi would not be able to travel with the squad for Saturday’s game in Toronto because “the necessary administrative authorisations for his entry into Canadian territory could not be obtained at this stage”.Wahi started for Côte d’Ivoire when they beat Ecuador 1-0 in their opening game in Philadelphia on Monday. He will remain in the United States pending the team’s return, FIF said.The French football league said on Wednesday that an “unusual amount of bets” were placed internationally on Wahi receiving a yellow card during a Ligue 1 game with Nice in May. It was alerted by partners monitoring betting markets about suspicious activity at international level concerning Nice’s home game against Metz on 17 May, which ended 0-0, and in which Wahi was shown a yellow card. The French league said it passed this information to relevant police and gambling authorities, as well as to the French football federation.The Marseille prosecutor’s office said “a 23-year-old professional football player, competing in France’s Ligue 1 championship, was arrested on 29 May 2026 as part of their investigation”.The office added “the investigation concerns alleged offecses of organised fraud, organised sports corruption, receiving stolen goods, and money laundering”. The player was questioned while in police custody and released without being detained. The office added the investigation was ongoing.Wahi’s representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment.FIF said it had not been officially notified “of any judicial or administrative proceedings” concerning Wahi. “During this particularly delicate period, the FIF offers its full support to the player and reaffirms its confidence in him. Elye Wahi remains an important member of the Côte d’Ivoire national team.”Wahi joined Nice on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt in January and scored nine goals in 19 games, helping Nice reach the French Cup final.

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Covering a tournament, my smartwatch showed my heart rate was 10-20 beats above normal. How luxurious to half-watchI fell asleep at some point during the Netherlands v Japan game. It had been a hot and drowsy day by the shores of Lake Annecy, a square and heavy heat, where the sun and the driving and the food and the boxed wine gently squeeze all the life from your body, like air being pressed out of a juice carton.I remember Virgil van Dijk angling a header into the far corner, and when I came to it was 2-1, and everyone was heading to bed, drunk on tiredness, drunk on life, drunk on drink.Not all of my friends care for football in any case, and so the World Cup had become a kind of mood music, something to fill the silences in conversation. Through the long and meandering chat about home renovations and Andy Burnham, an indistinct French voice occasionally cut through from a different universe. Maeda. Gravenberch. The Low Countries tempted to attain the final for the first time since 2010. My French isn’t great. Someone prised open a bottle of Heineken. Bodies draped themselves over the couch, fingers scrolled through phones, the immaculate decadence of boredom.I did manage to stay awake for Belgium v Egypt, albeit remembering very little beyond Romelu Lukaku forcing an own goal and the sight of Mohamed Salah sauntering regally around the place, like a PE teacher desperately willing himself not to get involved. But I do remember getting a couple of beers out of the fridge at the second hydration break and challenging Ed to a game of chess, which I lost. Lukaku, of Naples. The Belgians will take confidence from this and pursue the victory. An overwhelming knight‑and-queen attack down my a-file. Ssssake, Ed’s forgotten to tap his clock again. Not telling him next time.You will read a lot about the World Cup from people who are actually there. This is probably for the best. It is, on balance, preferable to attend something in order to understand it, be it a major football tournament or a sentencing hearing. But I wanted to convey the sensation of the World Cup as most people around the world experience it: as an ambient noise, voices ghosting in from the next dimension, flickering shapes on a distant screen, an odour and a flavour on the breeze, vivid dreams of Steph Houghton talking about “the front-footedness of the press”. The sensation of waking up and feeling like you watched the entirety of Iran v New Zealand, even though you didn’t. The fragile way in which World Cups measure out our lives, some fragrant cocktail of collective and personal memory all swirling into one.Everyone will have a story like this. I watched the 2006 final – Italy v France – at a seafood restaurant in Hvar, in the Croatian islands. It was one of those giant televisions on a stand, the kind they used to wheel into science lessons at school to show you videos about gametes. I missed Zinedine Zidane’s butt because the waiter was standing in front of the screen. And although I have watched the game in full many times since, if you ask me to pick out the overriding memory of that evening I am still more likely to recall the tenderness of the monkfish than anything that happened on the pitch.Then I started covering World Cups for work, an entirely different and more immersive experience. Very quickly you fuse into the tournament, to the point where you are basically an extension of it, a slave to its rhythms and moods. From the moment you wake to the moment you go to bed (far too late), your entire nervous system is built around the game schedule, the reliable drumbeat of regimented kick-off times, ideas and angles, content and deadlines. You spend the rest of the time thinking about transport or food. When I get home my smartwatch will typically show that my resting heart rate has been about 10-20 beats above normal for an entire month. People visibly age during these things. It’s like going to war.During the many breaks in play at this year’s tournament, the camera will inevitably pan across the crowd, and here the difference between World Cup football and regular football is perhaps at its most distinct. Everyone is dancing and putting their thumbs up. Nobody is having a bad time. Nobody is protesting or chanting about sacking the board or even hurling abuse at the referee except in the most performative way. Under most circumstances, to attend a football game – and what elevates this art form above, say, a gig or a blockbuster movie – is to submit willingly to the possibility of misery: your team can lose, the game can be terrible, your weekend can be ruined. But when you have paid £800 for a ticket, and probably many multiples of that on hotels and flights, is it remotely conceivable that you could allow yourself not to be entertained? How would you even admit it to yourself?By contrast, television grants us the freedom to detach. The freedom to allow football to swim in and out of our consciousness, to fill the gaps in life, rather than life the gaps in football. The freedom to be bored, pleasantly bored, decadently bored. To go for a smoke, to get a round in, to go to bed. In Talloires, a little resort in the Haute-Savoie, the bars and restaurants advertise “Coupe de Monde” on wooden chalkboards, the greatest sporting event in the world as an accompaniment to dinner, in between cheese and dessert. The G7 summit is taking place just up the road in Évian and as the sun sets helicopters fly low over the lake, a reminder of football’s basic transigence, its mutability, the extent to which – for all its airs and graces – the world continues to spin around it.How luxurious it is to drink boxed wine and half‑watch football as the world burns and blisters. To rail at refreshment breaks and the decision not to award a penalty to Kylian Mbappé, to see these 104 games spread out across the Americas like a lustrous map and not feel the need to watch all of them, or indeed any of them. To see this World Cup for what it truly is: utterly gripping at times, diverting at others, disposable for the most part. A kind of beautiful human-made slop, the flower arrangement at the gates of hell.

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Unclear if drone was spying on training session or if arrests madeSouth Korea coach said drone would not have spotted tacticsMexican military forces intercepted and brought down a drone that flew near the South Korea team’s training camp ahead of its World Cup match against Mexico, a federal official told the Associated Press.Military forces used specialised equipment to detect an “unregistered drone” near the South Korean camp, prompting them to “neutralise” it, the Mexican federal agent said.The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the incident publicly.Co-hosts Mexico won their opening Group A match at the World Cup last week while South Korea beat the Czechia later that same day. It was not clear if the drone was trying to spy on the South Korean team ahead of Thursday’s match between the teams.The South Korea coach, Hong Myung-bo, called the incident “unfortunate”.“During our training, there was a drone in the sky that we came to know about the fact,” Hong said. “But fortunately, it was right before we practised our tactics, so it did not impact us. But while we were preparing for the match, that was the most important timing, so what happened was unfortunate.”The Mexican operation was part of a security plan involving military and local police forces for the 2026 World Cup, which kicked off on 11 June in Mexico City and is being co-hosted by the United States and Canada until 19 July.The official did not say when the incident occurred or whether any arrests were made. He said only that several drones had been neutralised in recent days after attempting to enter security zones around stadiums in Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey – the tournament’s three host cities in Mexico – as well as team base camps and fan festivals.In March, Mexican authorities announced a World Cup security operation known as “Plan Kukulkán,” involving about 100,000 personnel from federal and local military and police forces. The plan includes early warning systems, security measures at stadiums, airports, roads and hotels, and protection protocols for teams, officials and fans.In Canada, authorities have banned unauthorised drones from flying over World Cup stadiums and several training sites in Vancouver and Toronto as a security measure. The restrictions remain in effect until 7 July – the date of the last game scheduled to be staged in the country.In 2024, the Canadian women’s national team was accused of using a drone to spy on a New Zealand training session in the days leading up to their opening match at the Paris Olympics, triggering a spying scandal that led to sanctions against Canada.The scandal led to the suspension of two coaching staff members and the head coach Bev Priestman, who was subsequently dismissed by Canada Soccer. The Canadian women’s team – the reigning Olympic champions from the Tokyo Games – was deducted six points from its group standings in France.Canada Soccer later determined that the incident was not an isolated error but part of a pattern of insufficient oversight within the national teams.

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The Socceroos and United States both made a fast start to their campaign – here is what the Group D rivals must do to maintain momentum in SeattleBack Nestory Irankunda: the 20-year-old was expected to be an impact player at this World Cup, coming on as a substitute to affect matches against tiring opposition. A player of the match performance when starting against Turkey showed how Irankunda has become one of the Socceroos’ most important players. While still learning his wing-craft, his speed and determination without the ball are vital in a Socceroos outfit seemingly happy to give their opponents’ possession, and his ability to make the most of transition and direct opportunities – as seen for his opening goal against Turkey – can be a superpower.Bring in the reinforcements: Australia used five substitutions against Turkey, including three when it was still 1-0. In a squad with few standout players, Australia will be wise to spread around the physical load of the tournament with one eye on the knockout rounds. This week’s health concerns for midfielder Aiden O’Neill – only able to walk the day after the Turkey game – and Mo Touré, whose calf keeps Socceroos fans up at night, underscore the need for rotation. The striker in particular is a vital player for the Socceroos, given his anticipation and pace make him the primary outlet when the defence is under pressure with the ball.Play for the draw: one point will almost certainly secure a place in the round of 32 for the Socceroos ahead of the third pool match against Paraguay, widely seen as the weakest team in Group D and the least equipped to chase a result. Yet it would also leave Australia in the box seat to go through as group winners, as they would just need to eclipse the result recorded by the United States in their final match against a motivated Turkey. Securing top spot in the group means the Socceroos stay in the San Francisco Bay Area for the round of 32 and play one of the third-placed finishers from the other groups. The Socceroos already have a setup to murder a football spectacle, now they also have the motive.Midfield rotations are key: this is the kind of thing that any USMNT fan would have known before last week’s fantastic opener, but the nature of the US’s play in that game made it especially so. Paraguay head coach Gustavo Alfaro took time in his presser to specifically compliment the starting trio of Weston McKennie, Tyler Adams and Malik Tillman, whom he described as “floating” and a key part of a “pentagon” of play. For as well as Australia played against Turkey, they did not dictate the tempo, conceding more than 70% of possession and getting overrun in the centre of the park. If the US are going to do something with similar levels of possession, they’ll need their midfield to continue rotating effectively to help pull the Socceroos’ back two lines out of shape, manufacturing gaps in what had proven to be an airtight defence.Don’t get carried away: after the US’s emphatic opening statement, fans were over the moon, and journalists (including us) speculated that it may well have been the team’s best game at a men’s World Cup. That is, of course, those people’s jobs. But so far, US players and head coach Mauricio Pochettino haven’t been buying into it publicly. Immediately after the game, Pochettino stressed that the 4-1 win was just the beginning. All week in training, players have spoken about how they see this Friday’s match as a tough test. Given the degree to which the Socceroos stunned Turkey, the US would do well to keep doing privately what they have done publicly: prepare for what could easily be a very different type of game from the one they enjoyed at Los Angeles Stadium last week.Score early (if you can): Australia’s calling card is their organised defence, their intensity and the knowledge that they would always be up for a physical battle. Funny thing is, those exact same traits could also have been said about Paraguay, a team who conceded just 10 goals over the 18-game Conmebol qualifying gauntlet and survived because they scored just enough (14 times) to get results when needed. Last week, that plan was dashed with a seventh-minute own goal from Damián Bobadilla. No longer could Paraguay hope to sit back and absorb pressure – they had to press higher, which opened gaps in the midfield. Getting on the scoreboard early will not only ignite what is sure to be a raucous environment in Seattle, it will force Australia to come out of their defensive shell slightly more than they may be comfortable doing.

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Some very good things have come from Croydon, the often overlooked town in south London. The film director David Lean was born there, as was Roy Hodgon, the actor Peggy Ashcroft and the sexologist Havelock Ellis. Amy Winehouse studied in Croydon. The Bill and Peep Show were filmed there, as was the title sequence of the 1980s sitcom Terry and June. For a long time it was a centre of brewing and leather production. It was on a suburban driveway there that Pickles found the Jules Rimet trophy after it had been stolen in 1966. And on Wednesday Croydon proved the crucible of Colombia’s victory over Uzbekistan.Daniel Muñoz’s brilliant strike, created by Luis Díaz, set Colombia on heir way to a win that should never have been as edgy as it ended up being. But his Crystal Palace teammate Jefferson Lerma was a key figure in the centre of midfield, a controlling figure in Colombia’s domination of the majority of the game. “I’m living out my childhood dream of playing in a World Cup for my national team and for my country,” said a delighted Díaz after being named man of the match. “And what could be more beautiful than contributing with a goal and an assist?”It was, in truth, a game desperately in need of something special. In Lean’s greatest film, Lawrence of Arabia undertook an arduous trek across the Nefud Desert to lead an attack on Aqaba, but even he may have baulked at the journey those travelling to the Azteca had to undertake from central Mexico City. Heavy rain led to huge puddles and numerous crashes. The verges alongside the Anillo Periférico were dotted with battered vehicles. For the final two or three miles the roads were lined with a ragged procession of fans who had abandoned their buses and taxis to walk. A trip that should have lasted just over an hour took more than four. Magnificent the Azteca may be, but it is not a modern football ground. Chaos swirls around it; nothing there really works.For 40 minutes, other than some lusty singing from the stands, there wasn’t much to justify the effort. Reflecting that this was the first game in World Cup finals history to feature a double-landlocked country could only sustain the interest so far, even given the curiosity that they were facing a double-coasted country.But then came the goal. Uzbekistan’s defensive line seemed deep enough that there was no danger behind it but Díaz measured a precise pass into the space where Muñoz swooped onto it from the right. It was an extremely difficult finish but the full-back, somehow, leaping with right leg fully extended, jabbed a toe at the ball and volleyed it past Utkir Yusupov.“We knew the first game wasn’t going to be easy,” said the Colombia manager Néstor Lorenzo. “We could have scored and built a bigger lead, but our opponents played well; they’re a very compact team and it was difficult for us to get through. We need to finish off our moves. We had a lot of possession but didn’t create crosses or shots on goal; we need to improve that.”This was at least as much of a home match for Colombia as the opening game had been for Mexico. The stadium was a bowl of yellow – although the team themselves wore a greenish turquoise – broken only by a white splodge behind one goal of perhaps 100 white-wigged Uzbekistan fans, whose enthusiastic drummer ensured that they could be heard above the Colombian din.The game soon settled into a pattern of attack against defence. Uzbekistan had kept seven clean sheets in 10 games in the third round of AFC qualifying, and it was easy to see how, their notional 3-4-2-1 often resembling a 5-4-1 with two banks sitting deep and the centre-forward Eldor Shomurodov doing a lot of chasing.“We need to improve,” said Uzbekistan manager Fabio Cannavro. “Beating Colombia and Portugal will be difficult. But today we stayed in the game until the end and the team knew when to weather the pressure and when to counter them through possession.”Although Colombia aren’t short of creative talent, this is not the side of 2014. Early on, there was a lot of sideways passing, but they improved after the hydration break to hit the post through Díaz.The second half was rather livelier, as Uzbekistan found an equaliser just after the hour. The young Istanbul Başakşehir forward Abbosbek Fayzullaev nodded in from close range after Shomurodov’s volley had been deflected onto the post by the thighs of the Colombia goalkeeper Camilo Vargas. A mood of anxiety settled over the stadium, but it lasted only five minutes before Colombia retook the lead. Shomurodov was dispossessed, Colombia swept forward and Gustavo Puerta laid in Díaz to score with shot that squirmed through Yusupov’s hands. Colombia then dropped deep, though, inviting Uzbekistan onto them and they were under pressure when Jaminton Campaz made the game absolutely safe in injury-time, heading in after tenacious work by Juan Camilo Hernández.With DR Congo holding Portugal to a draw, victory puts Colombia in charge of the group, although a proper assessment of how good they are will have to wait until they play a side prepared to do more than simply absorb pressure.

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Now that he’s older, the striker say he better understands what his family went through on their refugee journey from war-torn Liberia to AustraliaThe stories of these Socceroos can be traced back through grassy fields around Australia in the 1990s and 2000s, when 20 or so wide-eyed young footballers were just coming to terms with the ball. There were games, goalposts, quartered oranges. Old teammates, new boots. Season-to-season, year-on-year.Their progression to the international arena is a secret recipe countries have spent millions of dollars trying to perfect, with flashy academies and talent identification programs. Consultants within elite football call this the talent pathway.But go back further, to where one Socceroo’s story begins, and there is no path.Amara and Mawa Touré – parents of striker Mo Touré – were children when war broke out in Liberia in 1989. “Everything went helter-skelter, and every Liberian started running for their life,” Amara says.Amara, his little brother and adult sister walked for 18 days to make it to the border with Guinea. They survived on ripening wild fruit and vegetables, with a warning to avoid anyone they came across. “It was a scary time,” he says.“But now when I reflect on it, it would have been even scarier if I knew the ramifications of what we were going through. Because it was life or death.”Amara spent almost 14 years in Guinea. Initially he was supported by UNHCR and given essentials like food, a tent and a mosquito net. He moved from the refugee camp to marginally improved conditions in the broader community, but his life remained constrained.“Football was everything for me,” he says. “When I walked on to the park, I felt that is where I got to demand my respect, and that’s where I felt good. So my sanctuary was only football.”Amara and Mawa met at age 20. Their first son Al Hassan was born, followed by Mohamed – now better known as “Mo” – before they travelled to Australia on humanitarian visas. Both brothers have become Socceroos.“Every parent wants one’s child to go into something that they like and they excel at,” Amara says. “So when I would see them playing football and they’re entertaining people, I can’t afford not to be happy.”Mo is wearing No 9 at this World Cup. “Wearing the Socceroo jersey represents freedom,” he says. “It was the land that gave us opportunity, that lent us a helping hand, so every time I just play, I play with freedom and I always remember how things could have been if we weren’t in Australia.”The four refugees within the Socceroos squad – Touré, Nestory Irankunda, Awer Mabil and Milos Degenek – have found themselves in the spotlight during the internationally celebrated refugee week, culminating in the United Nations’ world refugee day on Sunday.They have contributed to the Socceroos’ video promoting cultural diversity and Touré’s family are working with local charity Australia for UNHCR to support displaced people. That involves the retelling of the family’s trauma.The Socceroos striker says it’s something they do willingly. “It’s just something that happens and for us. It’s, I wouldn’t say normal, but it’s common. We see a lot of our family members or a lot of the African community have similar stories and everybody came and migrated to Australia in a different way. So we’re just happy to share our story and then people find out how we did it.”Mo was seven months old when he first arrived in Australia, in 2004. The family settled in Adelaide’s inner-west suburb of Croydon. “My early life in Australia, I thought it was good because I didn’t know better,” he says. “I can now see that there were times in my childhood where my parents struggled, but I was too young to really understand.”Sometimes others in the neighbourhood would be given possessions or treats while the Touré boys were left wanting. “I just thought it was them [his parents] punishing me or them not wanting to do it,” Mo says. “But now that I’m older, I understand the struggles, and the real reason why we didn’t have all these things was because simply it was hard. Life was hard at that time.”Ferrying around three young footballers – Al Hassan now plays for Sydney FC and younger brother Musa is at Mo’s former club Randers in Denmark – was not easy, either. Some years at least one of the boys would play every day of the week.“It would be raining, and my parents would be there, freezing, waiting for us to finish training,” Mo says. “When we were very young, they would take our boots off before we got in the car as they didn’t want mud in there. Oh man, the next day they [would have to] clean the car [anyway].”Australia is now grateful for their sacrifice. Al Hassan debuted for the Socceroos last year, when he took the field alongside his brother in a friendly against Venezuela. Though only Mo won selection for this World Cup, the family were in Vancouver to see him play a key role against Turkey. “This is our country now,” Amara says. “Wearing that green and gold and going there and fighting for that country, to me, is the greatest thing I can ever see them do.”

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A late goal from Caleb Yirenkyi gave Ghana a 1-0 win over Panama as they joined England at the top of Group L. Yirenki steered in Brandon Thomas-Asante’s cross in stoppage time to settle a match of few clear chances.Cecilio Waterman forced a good save from the Ghana goalkeeper Lawrence Ati-Zigi in the second minute as he latched on to a cross from the right, but it was a rare opening in a cagey first half in the Toronto rain.Panama had the best of the opening period, Cristian Martínez having a penalty appeal waved away as he tried to latch on to a ball over the top and Jiovany Ramos firing high and wide after Ati-Zigi had acrobatically punched into his path.Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo moved more centrally as the half wore on, finally making a major impact just before half-time with a through ball which ended with Ghana’s first effort on goal – Marvin Senaya endangering the corner flag more than the back of the net.Ati-Zigi, who received treatment late in the first half, was replaced at the interval by Benjamin Asare and Ghana finally carved an attempt of note, Jonas Adjetey heading straight at Orlando Mosquera.Martínez was unable to steer the ball inside the post at the other end, but Ghana were much brighter after the break with only a last-ditch touch from Ramos preventing Leicester City’s Jordan Ayew from sliding home.Ramos curled wide from the edge of the box moments later as the game opened up, an offside flag and Mosquera denying Thomas-Asante a late winner before he was released again moments later to deliver the cross for Yirenki.