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Steve Clarke highlights squad mentality before Morocco game but Napoli midfielder stands out with his goalsIt is a conversation in Milan that should resonate in Massachusetts. Italy’s failure to qualify for another World Cup has triggered harsh assessment of Serie A, including why there is a shortage of home players making sufficient impact there. The success of imports, whose talent level is marginally above average, supposedly says much about decline within the Italian game.It would be harsh to place Scott McTominay in that category. The sharpness of the 29-year-old’s career trajectory since leaving Manchester United for Napoli depicts a player who was underappreciated at the club of his youth and early professional years. McTominay left Manchester with a point to prove and did so with bells on, courtesy of a title win and the label of Serie A’s most valuable player in 2025. Should McTominay choose to leave Naples, where he is adored, he will not be short of Premier League options.You need only walk in the vicinity of Hampden Park to learn of McTominay’s standing as a Scotland player. Kenny Dalglish and Denis Law have never been depicted on portraits on the gable end of terraced flats close to the national stadium. McTominay, a player born in England, produced such an iconic moment against Denmark last November that it will sit as an artistic reference point for ever more.That game pretty much summed up Scotland’s path to this World Cup. It was a fixture in which Denmark were undeniably the stronger team for long spells. Greece were superior in Glasgow yet lost 3-1. Scotland lost in Athens and stumbled past Belarus. There were high points, of course, in a campaign that ended Scotland’s 28-year World Cup wait, but also elements of oddity. McTominay’s overhead kick was one of three extraordinary goals as the 10-man Danes were beaten 4-2. Searching for clusters of excellent Scotland displays in recent competitive matches is not particularly easy. Whisper it, but the same applies directly to McTominay.History and the lack of emerging talent in Scotland suggests this could be McTominay’s World Cup chance. If not, it is surely his best. Likewise the 31-year-old John McGinn, 32-year-old Andy Robertson and Ché Adams, who is 29. The motivation for this experienced group to make an impact on football’s biggest stage must be huge. It should work in Scotland’s favour.Perhaps McTominay feels he has no more questions to answer. Watching him toil as Scotland squeezed past Haiti actually raised plenty of them. For Scots it brought back ominous memories of 2024 and a European Championship where team failure owed plenty to the underperformance of star turns. When Scotland face Morocco in the Boston Stadium on Friday, hope rests heavily on McTominay’s shoulders.Steve Clarke understandably bristles at the notion of McTominay as different from any other player. The 62-year-old has taken Scotland to three tournaments while building a club ethos. Players look along to teammates in the dressing room rather than up or down. It is, though, impossible to ignore McTominay’s status among a squad which has plenty of decent members and precious few of elite level.“Scott is one of our key players,” said Clarke. “I am lucky, I have got a lot of key players. Andy Robertson, John McGinn. For me Grant Hanley, Kenny McLean, people like that. We have built a really good squad over the years.“Scott gets a lot of headlines but he is also the first to understand that without the help of his teammates it is more difficult for him to be that talisman. If he can be a talisman against Morocco, then that would be great. As a coach I am very reluctant to go on about individuals. Everything we have built has been our squad.”Hope springs from the likelihood that McTominay will be afforded more time and space against Morocco than he did against Haiti, who swarmed around him. In fairness to McTominay, his quiet game did include the striking of a post. His lead-up had also been disrupted by an upset stomach.“I think the Haiti game was a struggle for a lot of the players, not just Scott,” said Clarke. “I thought Haiti controlled our midfield very well so you have to give credit to them. Sometimes you don’t get the chance to bring your attributes to the game because of what the opposition do. I think that might have been the case the other night. Scott is in a good place and ready to go again.”If Clarke, as is expected, reverts to a lone striker there will be heavy reliance on midfielders to provide goal threat. Scottish chances will come at a premium against a side ranked sixth in the world. McTominay, who has found the net a credible 15 times in 71 Scotland appearances, will need to be at his ruthless best.Clarke used pre-match media duties on Thursday to rave about Morocco’s individual and collective abilities. Scotland’s hopes of causing the latest upset in this riveting tournament rely heavily on their difference maker. Now has to be McTominay’s time.

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The way substitutes combined for the fourth goal against Croatia vindicated Thomas Tuchel’s desire to instil a brotherhood ethosIt is Bukayo Saka who ignites the move. Tight to the right, approaching halfway, the England winger turns on a sixpence and surges away from Josko Gvardiol. Saka’s work in tight spaces, his close control, is a consistent delight.He plays a pass up and inside for Morgan Rogers and, at this point, Djed Spence is running on the outside. Rogers looks for him but Nikola Vlasic slides in to challenge and the ball breaks. Saka is alive to it, slicing inside and beating Josip Sutalo. England sense the knockout blow because Saka has options, the best being Marcus Rashford over to the left. Croatia have only Josip Stanisic back. Saka goes to Rashford, who steadies himself, jinks inside Stanisic and sidefoots low into the bottom corner.It is a beautiful goal and it gives England an unassailable 4-2 lead in the 85th minute. Their World Cup is off to a flyer and if they have confirmation – validation, too – of a swashbuckling second-half performance, a shift in the collective mindset, there is a detail that Thomas Tuchel cannot ignore.Ever since he came into the job, the England manager has been obsessed with the creation of a brotherhood in his squad; players who can put their main-men club personas to the side for the greater good, who, if they are asked to play 20 minutes or even only 10, will do so with everything they have. For Tuchel, the clinching goal against Croatia was the purest example of what he has wanted to see because Saka and Rogers, Spence and Rashford had all come on as substitutes.For Rashford, in particular, it must have been a tough one to take when Tuchel said he was starting with Anthony Gordon on the left rather than him. Rashford was lively in the first half of England’s World Cup warm-up game against New Zealand; Gordon not so in the second period. And yet Tuchel was not entirely happy. When he criticised his first-half team for lacking positional discipline, it came to feel as though he had Rashford in mind. Tuchel started Gordon in the second and final warm-up match against Costa Rica, giving him 71 minutes and being rewarded with a driving performance.Although Rashford flickered again when he came on to replace him – as did all the substitutes – Tuchel knew he had to go with Gordon against Croatia.Here in the US there is a glamour in Major League Baseball about the role of closing pitcher; the player who leaves the bullpen towards the end to get the team home. It is not the same in football. No one wants to be a closer. And yet Tuchel knows his version of them will be crucial. Can he sell them as the heroes of his squad?‘We needed this quality [from the substitutes] to bring it over the line,” he said. “I know they are all starters. So it is new for them. But they also know it is a period of time that is so special and they buy into this idea that we do it as a team. This is the only way.“We are so strong from the bench and I was so impressed with everyone against Costa Rica, for example, because they pushed on the buttons and pushed on the gas and kept suffocating the opponent.”Rashford’s finish against Croatia was a champagne moment for him; only his second goal in 13 England appearances under Tuchel. The other was the stoppage-time penalty for 5-0 against Serbia in Belgrade last September. It feels like a 50-50 decision for Tuchel between Rashford and Gordon. And with Gordon not playing well against Croatia, the debate will rage over who ought to start against Ghana on Tuesday.It is not quite the same on the opposite wing between Saka and Noni Madueke, the dynamics skewed by Saka’s lack of full fitness. He continues to manage an achilles problem and, the way that Tuchel talked, it did not sound as though Saka would be a starting option against Ghana.“Bukayo is ready and will get more and more ready,” he said. “I think once we go to the last game of this group [against Panama on Saturday week] he will be ready. He was strong in training on Tuesday in small spaces. It was just a matter of if the game [against Croatia] was open and was up and down.”Like Saka, Madueke likes to cut inside on to his stronger left foot. Unlike Saka, he does not appear to trust his right as much. Remember his horrible moment against Costa Rica when he dribbled around the goalkeeper to the right of goal only to take on the finish with his left foot and hit the post? His body shape was wrong.Madueke did go on the outside a couple of times against Croatia to good effect, most notably when he crossed low for Jude Bellingham on the half-hour; the midfielder just could not convert. Madueke’s pace is such a threat. His performance against Croatia gave Tuchel encouragement and food for thought.“All four of the wingers are competing against each other at the highest level,” Tuchel said. “We had some 10 against 10s in training, some finishing patterns, attacking patterns, defensive patterns. Everyone is on but on in such a respectful way that we had some tough decisions to make.“They know we will need them and the time will come when they start. The time will come when they can finish and be decisive from the bench. It is now four more weeks and in four weeks you can swallow it and digest it and buy into it. We selected the group because we were sure that they could do it and they all can.”

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Manager said second-half performance was ‘rewarding’England’s next group game is against Ghana on 23 JuneThomas Tuchel said he wanted his England team to entertain the nation and that he pictured the scenes in the pubs as his players took the handbrake off to power past ­Croatia 4-2 in their World Cup opener on Wednesday.England were passive in the first half, too deep, the connections lacking. They entered the interval at 2-2, Harry Kane’s goals cancelled out by a pair of soft concessions that were in keeping with the team’s openness.But England exploded into life at the start of the second half, Jude ­Bellingham’s surging run and finish in the 47th minute the spark for an extraordinary period of pressure. Tuchel had told the players to calm down during the interval, not to worry about the result and be true to their way of playing.After Bellingham’s goal, they had seven clear openings leading up the hour, albeit they could not take them. Croatia were rocking and Tuchel knew the pubs in England would be the same. Croatia had a couple of moments when they might have equalised before the England substitute Marcus Rashford sealed the win in the 85th minute after a clinical counterattack.It is unclear whether a gung-ho approach will lead to World Cup glory, but the performance has ignited a sense of possibility and Tuchel is keen to harness the momentum. England’s next game is against Ghana on Tuesday.Tuchel was asked whether fans could expect England to take the handbrake off during the tournament. “It is what the boys did in the second half – exactly that,” he said. “It is good. That is what needs to be done. Nobody can guarantee the outcome, but we can guarantee the effort.“Can we expect more of that? Yes. It is good and it is rewarding. Hopefully everybody enjoyed it. And it brings a connection. I had a thought in the second half: ‘People in the pubs will like this.’“I was sweating, but that is a good watch where we created and ­created and went for it and won another ball and then a second ball. That is why you are in a pub and watching together on a big screen to get emotional and hopefully we can transmit that.”Tuchel’s frustration with England’s first-half performance was rooted in how they dropped too deep out of possession, seeking to protect the 1-0 lead that Kane’s early penalty had given them. It was a classic England move – or failing. Tuchel wants to see only aggressive, front-foot football.“We just dropped way too early into a deep block,” Tuchel said. “From a middle block … way too early into a deep block. Normally if we go to a middle block it’s not a problem. We have clear triggers to go out of it into a high press.“We wanted to have John Stones pushing into midfield [from central defence]. They blocked John with their No 9 so maybe they also knew or it was a coincidence. It took us a while to understand that Elliot [Anderson] can then push [from central midfield].“So we lost a bit of confidence, couldn’t find the right triggers and we had the feeling that we have to protect something. We ended up too deep and too passive. In the second half, it was much better. We were much more active and aggressive.”Tuchel said the conditions inside Dallas Stadium were a challenge, despite it being a domed air-conditioned venue, and that Stones had “cramps in both legs in the end”. The defender has not played many matches since early December. Kane also suffered cramp in the dressing room afterwards but is understood to be OK. Declan Rice intends to soldier on despite hamstring and lower-back discomfort.“We saw the [physical] numbers – the players really put a shift in,” Tuchel said. “They said it was quite humid and difficult to digest it so I think John was just like everyone else … everyone was very tired in the dressing room, which I like because then I know that you did something. And we need this. Overcoming the tough moments, sticking together.”

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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.