The hits and misses of 2026 Fifa World Cup

With this year’s Fifa World Cup now done and dusted after Spain beat Argentina 1-0 in the final in New York on Sunday night, we unpack the hits and misses of this year’s global spectacle, co-hosted by the US, Mexico and Canada.

What we liked about this World Cup

• Seeing minnows and debutants Cape Verde holding their own in a new 48-team format was fulfilling. The Blue Sharks held eventual champions Spain to a goalless draw in the group stage, before they forced eventual finalists Argentina into extra time in the round of 32. Cape Verde were unbeaten in the group stage.
• Nine of the 10 African teams in Morocco, Cape Verde, Egypt, Ghana, SA, DRC, Senegal, Ivory Coast and Algeria managed to get past the group stage, with Morocco, Senegal and Ghana the only ones who had achieved this feat before. Tunisia were the only African team that couldn’t get out of their group.
• Law changes, including the usage of VAR to review corner kicks and the introduction of a strict substitution window, where players had 10 seconds to leave the pitch at the nearest boundary. If they took longer, their incoming replacement was held on the touchline for a minute of gameplay, leaving the team temporarily short-handed.

The misses...

• The hydration breaks proved to be a bad idea and they were not well-received by fans in the majority of the matches. Many felt they killed the momentum of the match.
• The halftime show in the final that took more than 20 minutes, where global stars such as Madonna, Shakira, BTS, and Justin Bieber, among others, performed, was a miss because it compromised football’s tradition of a 15-minute halftime hiatus.
• Fifa overturning the one-match suspension for US forward Folarin Balogun after his red card against Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32 was a disgrace. The global football body shamelessly suspended the ban ahead of the US’s match against Belgium after political interventions.

Sowetan