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Plus: World Cup winners with no domestic honours, and why Australia are unofficial world championsMail us with your all of your questions and answers“In 1986, Gary Lineker scored six of England’s seven World Cup goals,” writes Brendon O’Mahony. “Has anyone scored a higher proportion of their country’s goals at a World Cup? Let’s exclude teams who were knocked out in the group stage or who scored three goals or fewer”A number of you mentioned Oleg Salenko, the Russian striker who matched Lineker by scoring six of their seven goals at USA 94. That included five in one game against Cameroon, which turned out to be Salenko’s last in international football at the age of 24. Russia went out at the group stage despite Salenko’s romp, so he doesn’t meet the criteria laid out in Brendon’s question.But there are dozens of net-botherers who do. Enormous thanks to Mirosław Skaczkowski, who has been through every men’s World Cup and confirms that Gary Lineker is indeed top of the list. In winning the Golden Boot at Mexico 86, Lineker scored 85.71% of England’s goals (Peter Beardsley scored the other one, in case you were wondering).Second on the list wasn’t even a centre-forward. Northern Ireland’s Peter McParland was rated by Jimmy Greaves as “one of the most dangerous wingers I have ever seen, cutting through defences at tremendous speed and finishing with cannonball shots”.McParland scored five of Northern Ireland’s six goals at the 1958 World Cup, including both in a 2-2 draw against the defending champions, West Germany, and two more in a 2-1 playoff win over Czechoslovakia. That took Northern Ireland into the quarter-finals, but it was their third match in five days and they were hammered 4-0 by France.Other players with at least 60% of their teams goals at a World Cup include Peru’s Teófilo Cubillas, insouciant destroyer of Scottish dreams in 1978, Chile’s Marcelo Salas in 1998 (remember his mighty leap against Italy?) and the Italian giant Christian Vieri. He looked irresistible in 2002 until a costly miss against the co-hosts South Korea. (Go to 89 minutes of this minute-by-minute report, or fire up YouTube.)Thanks again to Miroslaw for providing us with all the information needed for this list.85.71% Gary Lineker (England, 1986)6 out of 7 goals83.33% Peter McParland (Northern Ireland, 1958)5 out of 680% Marcelo Salas (Chile, 1998); Jon Dahl Tomasson (Denmark, 2002); Christian Vieri (Italy, 2002); Robert Vittek (Slovakia, 2010)All 4 out of 575% Luis Artime (Argentina, 1966)3 out of 471.43% Teófilo Cubillas (Peru, 1978)5 out of 766.67% Anatoliy Byshovets (USSR, 1970); Michel (Spain, 1990) Both 4 out of 662.50% Roberto Baggio (Italy, 1994)5 out of 8, including 5 out of 6 in the knockout rounds. Another Baggio, the unrelated Dino, scored two of Italy’s other three goals.“The German great Thomas Hässler won the World Cup in 1990 and the European Championship in 1996. His club career was considerably less glittering, netting only a solitary Intertoto Cup trophy with Karlsruhe. That means he won one more winner’s medal as a national player than with clubs. Has anyone exceeded his tally by two or more international honours?” wonders Kári Tulinius.A single Intertoto Cup is an unworthy legacy at club level for a player of Hässler’s mischievous brilliance. He came close to more significant honours on several occasions, most notably at the start of his career when Köln lost the Uefa Cup final to Real Madrid in 1986. But as Kalen Kasraie points out, he’s not the only late-1990s German footballer to win more trophies for country than club.“Hässler’s teammate Andreas Köpke won the same international honours he did but his only trophy at club level was the 2. Bundesliga title with Nürnberg in his last professional season,” writes Kalen. “Ramón Ramírez, the Mexican midfielder, won three Gold Cups and the 1999 Confederations Cup with his country, but only won one title at club level, with Chivas.Bettering all these achievements is current Atlético Madrid and Argentina full-back Nahuel Molina, who has won the World Cup and two Copa Américas with his country, not to mention the Finalissima against Italy in 2022. At club level, he has won nothing at all.” Molina came close to domestic glory last season, featuring in Atleti’s Copa del Rey final loss to Real Sociedad.As Dirk Maas points out, Tottenham’s Cristian Romero has won the same international tournaments as Molina with a single club honour to his name, the 2025 Europa League. Another of that triumphant Argentina team, Rodrigo De Paul, has a country:club ratio of 4:2 after winning the MLS Cup and Eastern Conference with Inter Miami. Gerónimo Rulli’s ratio is 3:1 after the keeper won the Europa League with Villarreal in 2021.Dirk also found three more examples from the back end of the 20th century: the Argentina pair of Sergio Vázquez (4:2) and Claudio Garcia (3:1), plus France’s Albert Rust (3:1).For the purposes of this answer, an Intertoto Cup counts the same as a Champions League – and the same applies at international level. “God bless the British Home Championship, which gives us a few very good answers,” writes Daz Pearce. “Sir Tom Finney runs away with it as he participated in 10 Home Championship-winning teams with England. The only trophy he won at club level was the old Division Two title with Preston.”“What’s this I hear about Australia being unofficial world champions?” asks Alf Mangle.This is based on the old winner-stays-on format, going right back to the first men’s international fixtures in the 1870s. A very long list of relevant matches – all 1045 of them – can be found here.Argentina ended Qatar 2022 as both official and unofficial world champions. Since then, the lesser, largely meaningless crown has changed hands as often as Ferris Bueller skipped school.Argentina 0-2 Uruguay (World Cup qualifier, 16 November 2023)Uruguay 1-2 Côte d’Ivoire (Friendly, 26 March 2024)Sierra Leone 1-0 Côte d’Ivoire (Afcon qualifier, 15 October 2024)Sierra Leone 1-2 Liberia (African Nations Championship qualifier, 27 October 2024)Algeria 5-1 Liberia (Afcon qualifier, 17 November 2024)Sweden 4-3 Algeria (Friendly, 10 June 2025)Kosovo 2-0 Sweden (World Cup qualifier, 8 September 2025)Kosovo 0-1 Turkey (World Cup playoff, 31 March 2026)Australia 2-0 Turkey (World Cup Group D, 13 June 2026)Australia’s next game is against the United States on Friday. For the love of sanity, nobody tell the White House that the USMNT could become world champions, unofficial or otherwise.“Mexico, Sweden or Germany could go out of the tournament despite winning two of their group games,” noted Paul Blandon in 2018 [In the end they didn’t because Germany lost to South Korea – 2026 ed.]. “Has this ever happened before? And on the flip side, who are the worst-performing teams to get out of their group?”Only one team has been eliminated after finishing third despite winning two of their group games: Algeria, whose loveable 1982 team were stitched up by West Germany and Austria. But this question is muddied slightly by the fact that, from 1986 to 1994, the four best third-placed teams also qualified for the last 16. Had only the top two teams in each group gone through, both Argentina and Belgium would have been eliminated in 1994 despite winning two of their three matches.As for the worst-performing teams to qualify, let’s start at the top: Italy, who finished second in their 1982 group after drawing all three games – and then went on to win the tournament.In 1986, two teams snuck through as one of the “best” third-placed sides after recording two draws and a defeat: Bulgaria and Uruguay after their infamous 0-0 draw with Scotland.Since the tournament went to 32 teams in 1998, and back to the old system in which only the top two teams qualified, Chile have the worst record of a team to reach the last 16. They failed to win a game at France 98 but got through with three draws.2026 update: at the last two men’s World Cups, no team has qualified for the knockout stage with fewer than four points or been eliminated with more than four. That may change now that some third-placed teams will go through to the last 32.“Sweden’s Yasin Ayari has a Tunisian father and chose not not to celebrate his first goal against Tunisia (he couldn’t resist celebrating when he scored later though). Declan Rice did something similar after scoring against the Republic of Ireland in 2024, but what is the earliest example of a player not celebrating a goal at international level because of a connection to the opposition?” asks Michael Pilcher.“Two questions on Dick Advocaat,” begins Luke Carruthers. “1. He has coached eight different men’s international teams – can anybody beat that? 2. He has managed the Netherlands men’s and women’s teams at senior level. How rare is this?”“The three goalkeepers in Scotland’s World Cup squad played a combined total of four league games in 2025-26. Even if you include cup games, they only managed seven appearances. Has a World Cup squad ever contained a complement of custodians with less collective game time?” asks Al Pollock.“New Zealand’s Chris Wood and Tommy Smith are playing at their second World Cup, 16 years after their first,” writes Alexander Scott. “Has any player had a longer wait between World Cup appearances?”“Morocco’s starting XI against Brazil were all born in another country,” notes Alexey Svirin. “Who were the first international team to field such an XI?”“Before signing Marc Cucurella, Real Madrid had no players in Spain’s squad, but 11 of their players are at the World Cup with other countries,” notes Tom Pinder. “Has any other club provided so many players at a finals, without a representative of the (participating) country where they are based?”We’ll have another World Cup Knowledge special next week. Send your World Cup questions and answers to knowledge@theguardian.com.

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Previously unknown players have gained millions of social media followers thanks to attention of tournamentBreakout talent emerges at every World Cup, but in 2026 these players’ actions are not confined to the pitch. Social media has become football’s parallel tournament, an arena where one viral clip can reshape an entire career. Here are some standout risers from the tournament so far.The Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha has become a global sensation after starring in his country’s stunning goalless draw with Spain on Monday. Before the match, reports suggested the 40-year-old had roughly 20,000 followers on social media – that figure now stands at 7.2 million and rising. It’s fair to say Vozinha could end up being one of the faces of the tournament.Payne arrived at the World Cup with a mere 4,715 followers on Instagram. After being picked out by the Argentinian influencer Valen Scarsini in a challenge to find the “least-known player” at the tournament based on social media metrics, the New Zealand defender saw that figure rise to an enormous 5.8 million. Caught by surprise at his sudden rise in social media popularity, Payne posted videos thanking Scarsini for his support. The pair have also subsequently met in the flesh.A couple of days before the World Cup started, the Australia defender saw his Instagram following jump from 3,000 to over 100,000 as part of an internet campaign instigated by the football content creator RubikayTV intended to make the 25-year-old the “the Cristiano Ronaldo of the World Cup” in response to Scarsini’s support for Payne. Trewin is now one of the most well-known players in the Socceroos squad despite not featuring in their 2-0 victory over Turkey on Sunday.A shoutout from the influencer FiagoBall catapulted Curaçao’s back-up goalkeeper from 1,606 to 45.1k followers on Instagram, which is some level of online support for a player who sat on the bench all season for VVV-Venlo in the second tier in the Netherlands and may not feature at all at this World Cup.The Morocco defender is not a viral star having gained a mere 2,000 followers since the start of the World Cup, but he very much remains one to watch after starring for Genk in the Belgian Pro League this season, registering eight goals and four assists in 34 appearances and subsequently being named the best player of African descent in Belgium’s top flight. What he needs now for his profile to truly soar is to play for his country at these finals – he was an unused substitute in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Brazil – and/or for a influencer to shoot him to social media prominence.

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Forward is one of four players who came to Australia as refugeesMabil has tried to be a ‘big brother’ to Mo Touré and Nestory IrankundaSocceroos forward Awer Mabil offered his trademark focus on Wednesday afternoon in Oakland speaking to the Australian media about this week’s clash against the United States. There was one distraction, however, he could not overcome.The winger lost his concentration when long-time SBS commentator David Basheer – in the US as part of the network’s coverage – asked a question during the press conference. “Sorry, David from SBS, right?” Mabil interjected. “I grew up watching you.”Mabil, the 30-year-old who is at his second World Cup, is one of the faces of this group of Socceroos. A refugee born in a Kenyan camp to South Sudanese parents, he told the story of his background as part of a video message about the team’s diversity that was released before the tournament.Mabil’s experience is similar to many migrant stories in Australia. “I forgot about your question, I just started reflecting,” he continued to Basheer, as the room burst out in laughter.“I grew up watching SBS as a kid, because it was free TV. So you doing the World Game, that’s where I used to see all of my highlights from all over the world of football,” he said. “So, first, thank you, you gave me good memories as a kid.”Basheer repeated his question, about the Socceroos’ younger players. Mabil said he has tried to be a “big brother” to the likes of Mo Touré and Nestory Irankunda – fellow refugees from Africa who grew up in Adelaide – as well as the other young players.“It’s something that’s special for me to see their growth over the last couple of years and their maturity has been amazing,” he said. “I can just only be there, allow them to be themselves, and protect them when they need protection.”The goal by Irankunda against Turkey became a lightning rod across Australia for positivity towards multiculturalism. It also triggered a new wave of those seeing, and then sharing, the video message released by the players the week before the tournament.The two-minute video began with the words of Mabil, and has now been shared widely on social media. “It was a moment to describe what Australia is, and Australia is a very multicultural country, and that’s what makes it the best country in the world, in my opinion,” Mabil said. “You have the whole world in one place and the Socceroos now are a representation of that. You have many different backgrounds representing one jersey.”The video was a simple collation of messages about where the Socceroos grew up and why they have pride in the jersey. “The reason why it went viral is because it was raw. It was not edited. It was just purely what the players wanted to say and all put together,” Mabil said. “It had an effect because individually Australians can feel and relate with it.”Coincidentally this week is celebrated globally as refugee week. Mabil said he wanted to thank Australia and do his best for a country that has taken in so many refugees over the years.“It’s a week that I would like to say to anybody that is misplaced all over the world that we are with you,” he said. “And we are on the world stage right now, a big tournament, and just to tell you everything is possible, so keep going.”

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Austria claimed their first World Cup victory since 1990 with a 3-1 win against debutants Jordan. Two late goals at the home of the San Francisco 49ers helped Ralf Rangnick’s side make the perfect start in Group J after Ali Olwan had equalised with Jordan’s first World Cup goal.Jordan started brightly and Alexander Schlager needed to produce a good early save to deny Odeh al-Fakhouri, but it was Austria, playing at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, who opened the scoring in the 21st minute.Romano Schmid picked up the ball on the edge of the penalty area, cut inside and sent an unstoppable shot into the top corner.Jordan almost equalised immediately but Olwan headed against the bar from a corner, while Schlager then kept out another effort from the lively forward.Olwan, Jordan’s top scorer in qualifying, was not to be denied five minutes after the break, though, taking advantage of the space he was allowed on the left to drive into the box and send a shot beyond Schlager.Austria thought they had scored again in the 67th minute when Jordan keeper Yazeed Abulaila made a mess of a corner and Marko Arnautovic tucked the ball away but Stefan Posch was penalised for a handball following a lengthy VAR check.However, Jordan did not learn their lesson and another corner in the 76th minute was headed into his own net by Yazan Al-Arab before, deep in added time, Mohammad Abu Zrayq was deemed to have handled following a second VAR check and Arnautovic found the bottom corner from the penalty spot.

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A hat-trick against Algeria equalled Miroslav Klose’s World Cup scoring record, but Messi and his teammates insist the mark doesn’t matter to himLong after the dust had settled on Argentina’s 3-0 group-stage victory over Algeria on Tuesday night, Algeria and Bayern Munich midfielder Ibrahim Maza wearily emerged from behind a curtain and stepped up to the microphone.Maza had played well, even assisting on Algeria’s disallowed first goal. He’d also had a front row seat to a Lionel Messi masterclass, just a few yards away from Argentina’s captain when he scored his third goal of the evening and tied Miroslav Klose as the World Cup’s all-time leading goalscorer. In short order, he was asked to expand on what made Messi unplayable on Tuesday evening.“Messi things,” Maza said, a smile creeping across his face. “I don’t think I need to explain to you [what that means]. I think you just have to watch the game and then you’ll know what I mean by Messi things. He can decide the game on his own, as we saw today.”Messi did indeed decide the game on his own on Tuesday, scoring a trio of clinically-taken goals to bury Algeria and push Argentina to the brink of the knockout round.He did so 20 years to the day after scoring his first World Cup goal for Argentina. It feels sometimes like Messi is ageless, but rolling the tape on that strike – which came in Argentina’s 2006 group stage opener against Serbia and Montenegro – reveals a mop-headed teenager with alien-like speed and reflexes. He blurs across the area and smashes a finish across the face of goal, announcing his presence on the world stage.He became Argentina’s youngest-ever World Cup goalscorer that day and on Tuesday he became their oldest, eclipsing former Argentina great Martin Palermo’s record by over two full years. Messi moves slower now and undoubtedly enjoys the space he’s frequently given by defenders who fear humiliation at his hands. Twenty years on, Messi lacks a little pace but his mind is as sharp as ever, as is his ability to find space where there isn’t any to be found. He remains awe-inspiring.Not long after Maza slipped back through the curtain and headed towards the team bus, Messi himself emerged, smiling and clutching a Michelob Ultra “Superior Player of the Match” trophy, probably the least important silverware he’s ever touched.Messi, of course, is famously competitive and frequently minimizes these types of individual accomplishments, something he did on Tuesday.“Honestly [the record doesn’t matter],” he told a gaggle of reporters. “It’s an honor to be there, for what it means to be next to Klose, [Brazilian] Ronaldo is also there. [Kylian] Mbappé too, he scored twice today. At the end of the day it’s just a statistic and nothing more. ”It’s easy to question the veracity of Messi’s feelings, of course. He is relentlessly competitive, sometimes to the point of pettiness. The mere mention of Mbappé’s goals, scored hours earlier, and of the other participants on the list, demonstrates his interest.Messi’s Argentina and Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, who assisted on Messi’s first goal on Tuesday, laughed when he was asked about Messi’s record.“I swear he doesn’t care. Sometimes we’ll be in a room drinking mate and we’ll tell him ‘hey man, you’re just one away or two away’ or whatever. And I swear he has no idea. I don’t know how that works.”Messi left Tuesday’s match after 80 minutes to a thunderous ovation. The nearly 70,000 in attendance chanted his name, while Messi raised his arms in acknowledgement. His head coach, Lionel Scaloni, met him at the touchline. He was visibly emotional, holding back tears as he eventually sat down on the bench next to Messi. It was not the only time that emotion got the best of him. He welled up after Messi’s third goal, and again on the field as Argentine supporters serenaded their team after the match.“There are no words; anything I say would be superfluous,” Scaloni said after the match. “It’s what he’s been doing for 20 years, it’s what the people of this sport want to see.”“He’s an animal,” added De Paul. “What makes me the happiest is that I feel like he’s enjoying it. That he doesn’t feel the weight of the pressure that he felt for so long. Everyone knows his mentality. He doesn’t let himself enjoy things much because he’s always focused in helping us and the team. But I see him good now, I see him happy. That’s contagious among the group.”Messi’s happiness was easy enough to see on Tuesday night. He beamed after every goal, celebrating much like the 19-year-old who found the back of the net for the first time 20 years ago. He lingered on the pitch after the final whistle, waving at fans and embracing his teammates. He had a warm smile on his face even as he walked towards the team bus, in the wee hours of the morning.

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Carlos Queiroz has plenty to deal with as the Black Stars enter the fray against Panama looking to banish a long record of underachievementThat it took Ghana until 2006 to qualify for the World Cup, despite being African football’s dominant team of the 1960s, 70s and the early 80s, winning the Africa Cup of Nations four times during this period, reflects the topsy-turvy nature of their football odyssey.“The journey of the Black Stars over the last four decades has been marked by long periods of disappointment,” says Gary Al-Smith, one of the country’s most respected football journalists. “We had a surge between 2006 and 2017, when we qualified for eight straight semi-finals at Afcon but never won anything. Yes, we had a quarter-final appearance at the 2010 World Cup, but our record overall has been pockmarked with great highlights but never a trophy. There has been nothing to celebrate.”The lack of managerial stability has certainly not helped Ghana’s quest for Afcon and World Cup glory. In the past five years they have had five coaches – Charles Akonnor, Milovan Rajevac, Chris Hughton and Otto Addo (in two spells) – before Carlos Queiroz, the former Real Madrid manager, was handed the mantle a month before the start of the World Cup.The revolving door of coaches, as Al-Smith says, has done little for team-building and competitiveness. “Teams need rhythm to grow,” he says. “Where there has to be a change in coaches, the philosophies need to match, in order for there to be continuity. In Ghana’s case, the frequent chopping and changing has meant that different coaches have brought different methods, philosophies and ways of playing. It’s not helped in the way that players are selected. The changes have certainly not helped, in terms of giving us the continuity that we have desired and needed.”The decision of Canada’s immigration authorities not to allow Thomas Partey into the country for the opener against Panama in Toronto on Wednesday, has not helped, especially with Tottenham’s Mohammed Kudus, Ghana’s most influential player, ruled out of the tournament because of injury.“For Canada, which is a party to many international treaties, that accepts the presumption of innocence until proven guilty by a competent court, to decide that they have some rules that will not allow you to be admitted into their country is unfair and an overreaction,” said Kofi Adams, Ghana’s sports minister. “We have strongly protested against that.” Ghana’s appeal against the decision was rejected on Tuesday night.“Ever since his [Partey’s] issue started, we knew that once we qualified for the World Cup and we had been drawn against England, there would be trouble and headlines,” Al-Smith says. “The Ghana FA knew that there would be trouble too. They have been doing all sort of work to mitigate the effects, the blowback.“What they did not foresee was the action of the Canadians. They had got some assurances from somewhere that nothing was going to happen because it is a World Cup.”Ensuring fans of the Black Stars could travel to the United States, Mexico and Canada to cheer on the team, despite the severe immigration restrictions placed on travel by the United States and Canada, was the initial priority of the government. But there was a sudden change of strategy from John Dramani Mahama, Ghana’s president, after the financial realities of the plan made it unsustainable for a country battling with severe economic difficulties.“When I interviewed President Mahama last year he told me that the government will not spend money on taking Ghanaians abroad and that they will engage the private sector to do so,” says Al-Smith. “These amounts would have been used to pay for supporters to go from Ghana to the US. That was going to cost $10,000 (£7,450) per head.“But a few weeks ago, in London, he announced the plan had changed as the government didn’t think that was value for money. Instead they would locate the Ghanaian communities in the major cities of the diaspora, like Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and Toronto and, through some mechanisms, tickets will be given to them to support the team instead. With a few days to go to the games, they have not received any tickets from the embassies in Washington and Ottawa.”With tough group games against England and Croatia to come, Ghana will need their vibrant, colourful supporters more than ever.

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⚽️ Kick-off time: 9pm local/2pm AEST/5am BST/12am EDT⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail MartinSupporters on both sides have descended on San Francisco with Jordan making their World Cup debut and Austria returning to the stage for the first time in 28 years.It’s a comfortable 15C in San Francisco which should suit Austria more than Jordan ahead of a 9pm kick-off. The players have finished warming up and should be out with their game faces on shortly. Continue reading...

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Those in attendance at Argentina’s opening match against Algeria could be forgiven, for a moment, for thinking they were at one of the great Argentinian cathedrals of football – La Bombonera, or maybe the national stadium, El Monumental. Kansas City Stadium, awash in the colors of the Albiceleste, roared with the sound of nearly 70,000 Argentine supporters serenading their team, and their hero, in rapturous song on Tuesday night.Argentina rose to the occasion, and so did Lionel Messi, who in his 200th cap took another step towards solidifying his place as the greatest footballer in the history of the sport, scoring three splendid goals and tying Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the all-time goal scoring mark in World Cup play (16), the performance coming just hours after France’s Kylian Mbappé leapfrogged him, with 14.The Inter Miami midfielder also became the first male player to appear at six World Cups, a record that feels certain to be equalled by Cristiano Ronaldo when Portugal begin play. Messi had been recovering from a muscle injury in recent weeks but any doubt surrounding the Argentinian captain’s status was quickly wiped away when he was named to Lionel Scaloni’s starting XI, and those doubts were ancient history once the match began.Messi had very nearly nabbed Argentina’s opener just five minutes in when a through-ball found him at the near side of the box. His shot was perfectly placed, but assistant referee Tomasz Listkiewicz correctly flagged him offside by the smallest margin. Not two minutes later, Algeria winger Farès Chaïbi had an equally clinical finish waved off after finding himself offside by a similarly narrow margin.Messi wasted little time putting Argentina ahead, finding the back of the net in the 17th minute. His Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul found Messi 40 yards out, after which the former Barcelona star turned and took three touches towards goal. With no defenders in sight, his driven shot from the edge of the area was too powerful for Algeria keeper Luca Zidane, glancing off his fingertips and into goal.The one negative mark on an otherwise brilliant performance came in the first half, with Messi fortunate to escape without punishment after a rash challenge in which he raked his cleats across the back of Algerian defender Aïssa Mandi’s calf. The Argentinian likely deserved a yellow, and potentially even a red. He received neither, and the play was not reviewed on the field.Messi’s second goal of the night was even more easily taken than his first. Liverpool midfielder Alexis Mac Allister’s speculative effort from 30 yards was pushed away by Zidane directly into the path of Messi, who coolly slotted it home from close range in the 60th minute. Again, Algeria’s backline was nowhere to be found. Argentina, on the other hand, were excellent defensively throughout the entire match.The Argentinian legend completed his hat-trick in the 76th minute with a vintage finish, threading his strike through a trio of defenders and just out of reach of Zidane. He left the match minutes later.Both fanbases have been well-represented for days in Kansas City and nearby Lawrence, Kansas, where Algeria will be based for the entirety of their tournament. Thousands of Argentinian supporters packed a local park on Monday night for a banderazo, singing, chanting and dancing into the wee hours. The party moved Tuesday evening to the stadium, which was full of noise hours ahead of kickoff.Algeria’s supporters have been the subject of a remarkable story in Lawrence, where residents have welcomed them with open arms. Though understandably outnumbered by opposing fans, loud, vibrant pockets of green emerged from Argentina’s blue-and-white at times, urging the underdogs on.The 28th-ranked Algerians will have hoped for a happier return to the World Cup after a 12-year absence, having been revitalized under head coach Vladimir Petković. Algeria earned a reputation during qualifying for their high-energy approach, glimpses of which were present on Tuesday, particularly in the closing moments of the first half. Despite some promising exchanges, they were undone by poor finishing and never looked particularly competitive.Algeria’s encounter with Jordan now has the makings of a must-win; they feel much more evenly matched with Austria.Scaloni had tempered expectations out of Tuesday’s match in the lead-up, going as far on Monday as to say that a win against the Desert Foxes was far from necessary. Scaloni should know; he was at the helm in 2022 when Argentina narrowly lost in their group stage opener to Saudi Arabia, among the most shocking results in World Cup history.Expectations aside, Scaloni will surely be pleased with three points, which bring Argentina towards the precipice of the last 32. They’ll meet Austria in Arlington, Texas, on Monday. Messi, as is his custom, will be expected to make even more history there.

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His team and opponents laud him, but Wednesday’s game with the DRC is a test of his powers at a sixth World CupInside the home of Houston’s world-famous rodeo, Cristiano Ronaldo enters the last-chance saloon. His sixth World Cup will, with no little thanks to Fifa’s munificence, begin on Wednesday against the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and one of international football’s longest-running soap operas begins winding towards its denouement. Portugal have rarely looked better equipped to grant him the crowning achievement of his career and the question, as ever, concerns who is carrying whom.One assumption seems reasonable: Ronaldo could wield a huge influence over the trophy’s ultimate destination. It remains to be seen whether that is channelled positively. Portugal can field arguably the best first-choice midfield in this summer’s competition, an experienced defence and an admirable array of wide forwards. At the heart of their attack stands, depending on your perspective, either a free-scoring icon primed to fire them all the way or a 41-year-old passenger whose presence sucks an otherwise fluent team into an inescapable void.Ronaldo more closely resembled the latter back at Euro 2024, signing off with a mind-numbingly static performance in the quarter-final against France. At the World Cup in Qatar, Portugal cut loose when he was dropped in the last 16 and scored six against Switzerland. His last consequential interventions at a major tournament were a pair of penalties against France at Euro 2020 and it seems a gigantic stretch to believe he can turn the clock back this time around.Yet there will be something magnetic about the spectacle either way. Fifa ensured that would be true of Wednesday’s game when its disciplinary committee decided to suspend the final two games of a three-match ban he had picked up in the qualifying defeat to the Republic of Ireland. A box-office occasion is guaranteed under the closed roof in south-east Texas, which is on flood watch until Thursday after a number of biblical downpours in the past two days.Will the goals run dry for Ronaldo? “He’s probably one of the best players in football history,” said the DRC’s coach, Sébastien Desabre. “It’s a challenge for our defenders and, when it comes to set pieces, he is one of the best.” Whether intentionally or not he had identified that open play tends, at levels higher than the Saudi Pro League, to be a tougher matter for Ronaldo nowadays. He will need to lean on teammates who, in their public utterances, remain deferential.“I never imagined playing with Cristiano, it’s a huge honour to be here with him,” said Matheus Nunes, the Manchester City utility player. “Everyone knows what a great figure he is. If we can win the title for him, it would be something very big.” Speaking on Wednesday evening, Bruno Fernandes repeated the word “honour” when asked about the prospect of accompanying Ronaldo once again. He pointed out that Euro 2004, in which Ronaldo played, was the first tournament he watched as a boy.To some extent both men were paying lip service to journalists’ questions but Portugal, while satisfying the craving of a nation, would delight in adorning their greatest ever sportsman. The task for Roberto Martínez is to ensure the heavy focus on Ronaldo, who managed five goals during the qualifiers in games against Hungary and Armenia, provides liberation for others rather than a millstone.“It’s his sixth World Cup but I can tell you that, internally, it feels like his first when it comes to intensity, emotions and how important it is to be ready,” said Martínez, who did not address reports that he would stand down after the tournament, save to note his contract expires in July. “He’s essential to the team, he’s the striker, the killer, he can open up space for other players and he’s got excellent numbers.”Martínez is banking on the Ronaldo who, it is worth pointing out, scored six times against tough opposition on Portugal’s victorious Nations League run in 2024-25. Every element will need optimising if that run is to continue and it was a blow when, on Sunday, their training session was cancelled because of storms around their base near Miami.There was a further ripple in their preparations when the team drew criticism back home for spending time at a private beach by their hotel. It is important to have “those relaxed moments that are going to be good for the overall experience”, Fernandes said. Rúben Dias, who trained alone after picking up an unspecified injury, is unlikely to be risked against the DRC.By Wednesday the gaze will be back on Ronaldo, who will play in the US for the first time since August 2014. It has been a long time coming but anyone in Houston unable to afford the cheapest resale tickets for the start of his final fling, which were priced at £929 ($1,247) on Tuesday evening, has alternative options.One of the features of this World Cup is that local sport simply goes on, occupying a largely parallel universe. The Houston Astros will begin their Major League Baseball game against Detroit Tigers at Daikin Park, seven miles away, around the time Portugal and the DRC kick off the second half and prices start at the equivalent of £4.58 ($6.15). It remains to be seen whether Ronaldo, cleared by football’s authorities to provide the day’s shot of celebrity stardust, is capable of justifying the difference in outlay.