Sport Review: 2026 FIFA World Cup


This year, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) international association football (which I will refer to as "soccer" in the rest of this piece for the sake of consistency), beach soccer, and futsal federation held their quadrennial international men's soccer event, the FIFA World Cup, which I will refer to as the "World Cup" in the rest of this piece for the sake of convenience. Hosted in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, this World Cup was particularly divisive, with controversy after controversy coming out of it. I will state my own thoughts of this sporting event.

I thought the choice to host across three countries was dumb. I generally think World Cups should be hosted in one country at a time, as multiple countries co-hosting a World Cup raises more expenses and effort for hosts, travelling fans, and the playing teams. Additionally, I felt it was really only the United States that this World Cup was meant for, as the Canadian and Mexican stadiums hosted a small amount of matches compared to the American ones, and American president Donald Trump got more "special attention" compared to Canadian prime minister Mark Carney and Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum.

Speaking of Trump and the American government in general, I heavily oppose how they kept trying to meddle with the World Cup. The United States, one of the hosts, is waging an actual war against Iran, one of the playing teams, and the former mistreated the latter's national team and restricted their movement despite Iran qualifying for the event the United States agreed to host. In general, many soccer fans were barred from entering the United States due to the country's increasing anti-foreigner sentiments, including a Somali referee for the event.

People opposed the alleged "Americanisation" and commercialisation of the tournament, seen in newly introduced hydration breaks that essentially served as ad breaks and a halftime show ceremony in the final match made up of various entertainers. I did not mind the hydration breaks and in fact loved the halftime show, although at times I disliked cameras constantly panning to random American celebrities attending matches.

Alleged corruption made the World Cup not very enjoyable. For example, Donald Trump may have pressured FIFA president Giovanni "Gianni" Infantino into making referees revoke a red card decision regarding American striker Folarin Balogun, and there were credible accusations of pro-Argentine bias among referees in matches such as Argentina's match against Egypt.

It was sad seeing many soccer legends play this World Cup, as it would be their last. On the other hand, it was great to see newer talents like Cabo Verdean goalkeeper Vozinha, Moroccan striker Ismael Saibari, Norwegian striker Erling Haaland, and Spainish right winger Lamine Yamal shine in their World Cup debuts. However, many players that were highly expected to perform well, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, gave very underwhelming performances, souring the experience for me.

Many matches felt boring, which heavily impacted my mostly negative view of this World Cup. This additionally made the conclusions to many retiring legends' careers unsatisfying. Certain matches such as the final match between Spain and Argentina had a problem where only one half or even only a few minutes felt entertaining.

Throughout the World Cup, I was rooting for Morocco to win the tournament. When they were eliminated in the quarterfinals, I switched to supporting Spain, so I was happy the Spanish national team ended up winning the World Cup.

Overall Conclusion

This World Cup was not very enjoyable to watch on television, which I am glad I did, as many tickets were too expensive according to many fans. I feel nostalgia will be the main thing keeping me from rating this World Cup too low. However, I enjoyed the final match, a few other matches, and the journeys of some unexpectedly good nations such as Cabo Verde.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Sources

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The "Islamic Dilemma" Is a Joke

Image
Relatively recently, I have seen Christian apologists claim the Holy Quran, the Word of God, "affirms" the Bible and claims it is preserved, which is a situation they call the "Islamic dilemma." I am writing this blog since my philosophy teacher for my current high school semester, who is a Catholic Christian, attempted to tell a classmate inquiring about the "Abrahamic faiths" about this so-called dilemma, with me having to correct her after class hours on this. The Claim The claim relies on a misunderstanding of Verse 48 of the fifth chapter of the Quran, Surat al-Ma'idah. The verse is the following: وَأَنزَلْنَآ إِلَيْكَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبَ بِٱلْحَقِّ مُصَدِّقًۭا لِّمَا بَيْنَ يَدَيْهِ مِنَ ٱلْكِتَـٰبِ وَمُهَيْمِنًا عَلَيْهِ ۖ فَٱحْكُم بَيْنَهُم بِمَآ أَنزَلَ ٱللَّهُ ۖ وَلَا تَتَّبِعْ أَهْوَآءَهُمْ عَمَّا جَآءَكَ مِنَ ٱلْحَقِّ ۚ لِكُلٍّۢ جَعَلْنَا مِنكُمْ شِرْعَةًۭ وَمِنْهَاجًۭا ۚ وَلَوْ شَآءَ ٱللَّهُ لَجَعَلَكُمْ أُمَّةًۭ وَٰحِدَةًۭ وَلَـٰكِن لِّيَبْل...
Read more

Deconstructing the Giga

Image
Quite a while ago, the "Gigachad" meme has resurfaced on the mainstream internet. This meme from a few years ago was a celebration of hypermasculinity used for "liking things [the poster] like[d] and disliking things [the poster] dislike[d]" according to the Soyjak Wiki (which I do NOT fully endorse). Although it is being used for this again, it is being done so in even absurder ways. I shall attempt to deconstruct this meme; its relatively recent companion, a housefly known as "Gigafly" that Gigachad often rides as his personal mount; and how they reflect modern society. Gender Norms Gigachad originated from Ernest Khalimov, a Russian bodybuilder. What started as a somewhat digitally altered photo of the man appreciating his physique took off, in part due to how much it embedded stereotypical masculinity: Ernest has very toned muscles, is presumably quite tall, and has a moderately sized beard, a common symbol of manhood. Due to the assumption that men mu...
Read more

Islam's Astonishing Prophecy of the Siege of Baghdad

Image
Many centuries ago, the Muslim world was making sweeping advancements across many fields of science, architecture, technology, and art under the rule of the Abbasid Caliphate. This era of progress is commonly known today as the "Islamic Golden Age." The caliphate's capital city switched a few times, but under the Abbasids' peak, it was Baghdad, also the capital city of modern-day Iraq. The Islamic Golden Age would see a brutal end in the Mongol conquests of Persia and Mesopotamia. The Mongol Empire under Hulegu Khan would besiege Baghdad before raiding it, committing many atrocities, and killing the Abbasid caliph, Al-Musta'sim. The siege took place in early 1258. But, the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ, who died in the year 632, unambiguously prophecised it in great detail. Although this may sound unthinkable, the rest of what I will write will explain the opposite, with the prophecy serving as strong evidence for the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ being a messenger of the All-Knowing G...
Read more