Every four years, the World Cup reminds us why we first fell in love with sports.
The 2026 tournament was one of the first. For the first time, three countries – Canada, Mexico, and the United States – shared hosting duties. For the first time, the field expanded from 32 to 48 teams, giving more countries the chance to compete at the sport’s biggest stage and more confederations the chance to show their depth.
That expansion brought the emergence of history in Cape Verde, Jordan, Curaçao, and Uzbekistan. Their first appearance brought some memorable moments of the tournament.
It also felt like a farewell tour. Cristiano Ronaldo. Lionel Messi. Luka Modric. Neymar. Son Heung-min. Guillermo Ochoa. A generation that has practiced the sport for two decades has taken its final bow at the biggest stage, possibly the last time many have played at the World Cup.
Combined, those stories made this World Cup feel bigger than any single game. Over the course of a few weeks, this tournament has given us unforgettable goals, shocking upsets, widespread celebrations, heartbreaking exits, and moments that transcend soccer altogether. Here are the defining moments of the 2026 World Cup.
Vozinha and the Blue Sharks
The best story of the World Cup has to be the epic run of Cape Verde and its goalkeeper, Vozinha (Josimar José Évora Dias). The 40-year-old goalkeeper and Cape Verde hero gained international fame after playing for defending champions Spain, beating the European giants to earn the nation of 500,000 its first ever World Cup points.
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Vozinha, who was about to retire from club football, became a social media sensation, amassing 29 million Instagram followers to become one of the most followed footballers on the platform.
The magic has been coming from the Blue Sharks. A 2-2 draw with Uruguay and a draw with Saudi Arabia saw them finish second in their group behind Spain, and a place in the tournament. There, the youngest country to ever reach the knockout stages of a World Cup knocked defending champions Argentina off the edge, including a stunning extra-time equalizer from Sidney Lopes Cabral. It wasn’t enough – his goal in the 111th minute gave Argentina the lead, and the win.
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Even though Cape Verde and Vozinha lost, they became the stars of the 2026 World Cup, and received a hero’s welcome when they returned home to Praia, the nation’s capital.
America’s World Cup ends in disappointment and controversy
The lowest time ever in the US in this tournament is even wrapped up in contention. Folarin Balogun was sent off in the round of 32 against Bosnia-Herzegovina for a tackle on Tarik Muharemovic – a red card overturned on review, then reinstated by VAR, which should have kept him out of the quarter-finals against Belgium.
Instead, on the night of that game, news broke that President Trump had personally called FIFA president Gianni Infantino about the suspension, and FIFA’s disciplinary committee — using the same vague rule it used to keep Cristiano Ronaldo eligible for his last World Cup — cleared Balogun to play.
FIFA denied any connection to the phone, but the optics were brutal regardless: the first change in the standings of the tournament that FIFA made since 1962. Balogun’s real impact on the game was negligible – one good chance in the 82nd minute was saved by Thibaut Courtois – and the US lost 4-1, largely undone by the defending on the pitch. But time made it difficult to separate the two.
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A team that looked relaxed and confident in the group stage and in the knockout round showed a lot of swagger and swagger.
A third-place game ends the race for the Golden Boot
The World Cup is known for its great goalscorers: Pelé, Maradona, Klose. It’s rare to see one player score goals in one tournament, but 2026 brought a real battle for the crown. It’s the last weekend, Messi and Bappé are tied at the top of the table with eight goals each, both of them have already surpassed Miroslav Klose in the list of World Cup goalscorers. Behind them, Jude Bellingham from England and Harry Kane were delayed to six each, two goals behind but not out of it.
Then the third playoff happened, and the race blew up. England beat France 6-4 in a game so meaningless that the fun of the game “no one wants to play.”
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Instead, it turned into a classic song convention. Mbappé found the net twice to push his tally to 10, breaking the tie with Messi outright and matching the mark he set back in 2022. Bellingham, on the other hand, continued to attack the box as he had all competition and took the seventh, reducing the gap to Mbappé to just three on the left. With that crazy game over, and Spain’s 1-0 win over Argentina, Mbappé finished the tournament as the Golden Boot winner.
The last time the sport had multiple Golden Boot winners combine their total was 1990, and even then it wasn’t quite a shootout. Between Mbappé and Messi, they both represent the first 8+ goals since Gerd Müller scored 10 in 1970.
We are truly blessed.
International fans enjoy American baseball
One of the best things about the World Cup is when international fans and players come to the city to immerse themselves in the local culture. The best clip of this year’s world cup was undoubtedly happening in football.
With days off between games, traveling World Cup fans began showing up in force at MLB games, and stadiums across the country turned into unexpected satellite fan spots. It started on June 14 at Fenway, when Scotland fans fresh off a win over Haiti from downtown Boston headed straight to the Red Sox game — timed, coincidentally, with the ballpark’s Scottish Heritage Night.
Two days later, the Tartan Army (the nickname for Scottish fans) filled half of the upper deck at Yankee Stadium, and on June 22, about 8,000 of them came to Miami for the Marlins-Rangers game, making up about half of the announced crowd.
Norway fans did their own version of a takeover at Citi Field on June 24, filling the outfield seats with Viking helmets and getting stadium mascots to join their rowing celebration. Even England manager Thomas Tuchel, who is a handsome man, took the first pitch at Kauffman Stadium when the team was in Kansas City. He can definitely beat Timothée Chalamet in three arenas.
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A US visa entry nightmare
For all the good the tournament has done, the road to it has revealed something far worse. Before the World Cup, visa denials and delays were a recurring headache for teams, and in some cases, banned people from the tournament altogether.
Swiss striker Breel Embolo was barred from boarding a flight to his team’s training camp because of a conviction and a full year of rehabilitation at home. The South African team almost missed its trip to Mexico when more than 20 players and staff were stuck waiting for visas, and the Iran team ended up sleeping in Mexico every night of the tournament after American officials prevented its players and staff from sleeping overnight, and more than a dozen of the federation’s employees, including the federation’s president, were never allowed to travel at all.
None of this happened by accident. It was the Trump administration’s immigration structure doing exactly what it was built for, and the competition revealed it long before the whistle blew.
The policy was not limited to a few unfortunate cases: 39 countries participated in the tournament under some form of US travel restrictions, and in 19 of them the State Department had completely stopped issuing visas, a list that included four World Cup countries (Iran, Haiti, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal).
Somali referee Omar Artan, who was recently appointed as the top official of his continent and will be the first Somali to play in the World Cup, was detained for eleven hours at Miami International Airport and returned to Istanbul on suspicion of “associating with suspected members of terrorist organizations” which CBP officials refused to say.
To be fair, Canada was just as strong, with Ghanaian fans receiving an average of 11 percent of visa approvals in the country. Most notably, Ghanaian player Thomas Partey was denied a visa and missed Ghana’s World Cup opener due to ongoing criminal charges in the UK. Partey, however, is allowed to play in some of the club’s team games in the US.
In all of this, FIFA, which is the one organization that stands back, chose to call it the right of the host country.
The world loves Erling Haaland
The most feared striker in the world appears to be a completely normal person. It’s the only thing Erling Haaland seems to be able to do, with the relentless Norwegian striker entering the Golden Boot debate alongside Messi and Mbappé.
Off the field, however, the man nicknamed “The Terminator” is a glorified Snapchat shitposter.
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On his personal Snapchat, you can find selfies with Shrek, face filters, and when he’s walking around Manhattan in a cape pretending no one knows him. Although he is two years younger than Gen Z star Mbappé, the Manchester City striker does not seem to carry the same weight as his teammates in world football. This man is doing photo shoots in cowboy hats and wearing shirts that say “y’all can kiss my Dallas.”
That’s probably why the world can’t get enough of him.
Estadio Azteca
The Estadio Azteca, the home of Mexican soccer, delivered one of the most spectacular scenes in this world cup.
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The stadium is a historical center not only in Mexico but also in the history of the World Cup. Makes for some great memes. Mexico hosted the World Cup for the third time and, for the first time, won all three group games. The vibes from El Tri and its fans were at an all-time high – almost the only thing higher than the height of the Estadio Azteca, which was a running joke throughout the tournament.
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