I’ve been in New York City this week. Call me a tourist, but it really is a special place, with an anything-could-happen-today energy that has only been reinforced by the World Cup. I’ve been amazed by how much the city of the Knicks, Rangers, Yankees and Giants is here for it. (Shout out to the doorman who wanted to talk about something called “soccer” on my first night here!)
It’s been an intense five weeks. Some of it has been polarizing: President Trump leaning on FIFA to reinstate an American player who got a red card, for instance, or Egypt’s disallowed goal against Argentina (and, ahem, Germany’s disallowed goal against Paraguay). Some of it has been classic beautiful game: My personal favorite match was Cape Verde’s incredible performance against Argentina.
But every World Cup also generates stories of lightness and levity, too. And so before we all settle down to watch the final on Sunday, we wanted to revisit some of those today.
Celebrities, love stories and a baby Jesus statue
The love stories between teams and their host cities
The Tartan Army, also known as Scotland’s fans, took over Boston and filled the air with the sound of bagpipes. Front porches across Greensboro, North Carolina, suddenly began flying Norwegian flags.
But maybe the love story that most captured the world’s heart this tournament was the one between Team Algeria and the city of Lawrence, Kansas. Please enjoy this very charming video of one resident being interviewed ahead of Algeria’s first game against Argentina. (“Messi’s had his titles. He’s had his time. I’m ready for this team to come up and show them what Lawrence, Kansas, can bring to the World Cup.”)
That match didn’t quite go as she hoped — Algeria lost, 3-0 — but the love story lives on.
The fascination with Americana
I didn’t know what a Buc-ee’s was (it’s a gas station chain in the southern United States). I think I have possibly never tasted ranch dressing. My own lack of familiarity with these pieces of Americana hasn’t stopped me from enjoying the stories about other non-Americans discovering them for the first time.
I like this quote from Shaun Alexander, a Scotsman who spent part of his time touring some Bass Pro Shops, which my editor informs me are enormous stores for fishing equipment and guns.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Alexander, 38, said. “It’s like a theme park and a museum all wrapped into, you know, a big retail store.”
America’s immigrant communities
One amazing thing about the World Cup being hosted in the U.S.: Every country in the world has its own diaspora in America. Which meant every team found it already had a fan base that shares its passion and pride for the country they or their ancestors once called home. Bosnians in St. Louis. Moroccans in Queens. Haitians in Miami. The French in Chicago. Argentines in Utah. The list goes on. This visual story showcasing all of this is a delight.
As my colleague Jesus Jiménez put it, “in the United States, every World Cup team is a home team.”
The newly minted celebrities
One reason the tiny nation of Cape Verde had such a historic run was its incredible keeper, Vozinha.
Cape Verde (population 530,000) drew with both World Cup finalists — Spain and Argentina — in regular time, though it went on to lose to Argentina. Before the unforgettable draw against Spain, Vozinha had about 50,000 Instagram followers. By the next morning, that number was closer to 10 million. As of today, he has 29.3 million.
“I have worked my whole life for this moment,” he said in his post-match interview. “I’m 40 years old. I started playing football professionally when I was 25, in 2012. I thought about leaving, but I continued because of this dream.”
He’s not the only new social media celebrity. China, whose team didn’t qualify for the tournament, ended up cheering for the only person representing the country at the World Cup — a referee. The referee, Ma Ning, amassed new followers on Weibo and Rednote, an Instagram-like platform in China, and now has sponsorship deals.
The pure elation of Mexico
Mexico, one of the tournament’s co-hosts, had its most successful World Cup in generations. The mood in the country? As one of The Athletic correspondents described it:
“Green shirts are beyond ubiquitous and not just on humans: There have been ducks in Mexico kits, dogs in Mexico kits, religious icons in Mexico kits. Somewhere out there, no doubt, is a Mexico kit with its own Mexico kit.”
But my favorite story about a Mexico jersey this year is about the one placed on a statue of baby Jesus at Mexico City’s 450-year-old Metropolitan Cathedral. Before every Mexico game, baby Jesus was put into his Size 0 jersey and placed on an ornate gold altar at the church, where people went to pray for, among other things, the team’s success.
Messi meets Yamal — again
Not an entirely new story, but one that has taken on new significance: We’ve got to end on the remarkable encounter in 2007 between a young Lionel Messi and a five-month-old Lamine Yamal. Almost nineteen years later, they have led their respective teams to the World Cup finals.
Want to know how this came to be? Read the back story here.
-
Who will win it all on Sunday? Here are our predictions.
TOP OF THE WORLD
The most clicked link in your newsletter yesterday was about Latin American fans rooting against Argentina.
MORE TOP NEWS
Ukraine’s defense shake-up
A day after he was dismissed as Ukraine’s defense minister, Mykhailo Fedorov attacked the country’s top general, accusing him of blocking efforts to modernize the military. Thousands took to the streets to protest his dismissal.
Fedorov, 35, had clashed repeatedly with Oleksandr Syrskyi, the commander in chief, and other generals who saw aspects of his high-tech war vision as fanciful. Fedorov, whom we covered in this newsletter in May, also angered defense contractors by allowing soldiers to buy their own armaments on a website nicknamed the “Amazon of Weapons.”
OTHER NEWS
-
Air quality readings reached dangerous levels in Toronto, New York, Chicago and other cities as dense smoke from Canadian wildfires moved south.
-
The U.S. and Iran escalated their attacks, even as they signaled that they were open to diplomacy.
-
An Italian court sentenced a former highway executive to 12 years in prison over a 2018 bridge collapse in Genoa that killed 43 people.
-
People in many countries now view China more positively than the U.S., a new survey found.
-
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced plans to screen all U.S. troops over 30, including women, for low testosterone.
-
The Trump administration subpoenaed Times reporters who wrote about security concerns involving the new Air Force One. Joe Kahn, our executive editor, responded in the video below.
NEW MONKEY OF THE DAY
Likweli
Found in a small area in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, it is only the fifth new African monkey species in the past 75 years. The animal has orange lips and tiny thumbs, which indicate that it’s part of a group of leaf eaters called colobines.
MORNING READ
Tensions are rising between India and Bangladesh, traditionally friendly neighbors that share one of the world’s longest borders — which has increasingly become a zone of contention.
India has been rounding up undocumented migrants suspected of being from Bangladesh and deporting them across the border. Bangladesh, in response, has stepped up patrols and pushed people back into India, leaving them stranded. Here’s what our reporters saw in the area.
RECIPE
Strawberry fool is basically just fresh strawberries and whipped cream. But it can be made with almost any fruit — even stone fruits like mangoes or peaches.
WHERE IS THIS?
What small town is this?
BEFORE YOU GO …
Thank you for sharing your favorite World Cup moments with us. We’ve heard from so many of you.
John McDermott in Italy described a moving moment after Egypt lost to Argentina. “After the final whistle two players sought each other out to exchange a sincere embrace and shirts: Egypt’s star player Mohamed Salah and Argentina’s Alexis Mac Allister were friends and teammates at FC Liverpool,” John wrote. “This is what the World Cup — and indeed sport in general — is really all about.”
Beverley Ann Abrahams in Zimbabwe said she had been worried about politics and racism getting in the way of this World Cup. “But then Erling Haaland and the ‘Vikings’ made their debut and the cloud lifted!” she said. “As their ‘roos’ echoed across the world, like almost every other supporter globally, I felt joy! Thank you Erling, what a blessing you are in a world filled with so much despair!”
Many of you admitted to feeling some schadenfreude when the U.S. was knocked out after Trump requested a review of an American player’s suspension (and got his way). Vincent Champion from Sydney spoke for many when he said: “The U.S. crashing was a classic example of karma at work.”
Finally, my colleague Alex Marshall, our European culture correspondent, wrote in to share his own favorite memory: “Spending a night in a London pub with several hundred Bosnians watching their team draw with Canada, during which time they repeatedly sang a repurposed ska track by the great Dubioza Kolektiv. I very much enjoyed shouting ‘I am from Bosnia / Take me to America’ and ‘Take me to Golden Gate / I will assimilate’ despite not being remotely Bosnian.”
Alex gets the rare privilege of picking the send-off song.
Have a great weekend! — Katrin
TIME TO PLAY
Here are today’s Spelling Bee, Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.
We welcome your feedback. Send us your suggestions at [email protected].
The post Delightful World Cup Stories appeared first on New York Times.
