Two eye-catching last-32 ties offer hope of a winner from outside the traditional powers – Brazil and the Netherlands could be goneThe World Cup exists in a state of perpetual flux. It goes to new territories. It gets bigger. It experiments with second group phases and replaces playoffs for sides level on points with goal difference then head-to-head. And still one of the same eight countries from western Europe or South America wins it.Since Argentina in 1978, there have been two new winners, and those were France and Spain, from the heart of Uefa, their success based on maximising the advantages of being European and wealthy; no countries have been so successful at industrialising youth production, so much so that they now provide the models for every country seeking to invest in academy programmes. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!The Geopolitics World Cup has its North Korea 1966, its Cameroon 1990, rank outsiders to revive hearts hardened by relentless cynicism. For Pak Doo-ik and Roger Milla, read Vozinha, and all his Cape Verde teammates, including Pico Lopes, a defender recruited while playing for Shamrock Rovers from the diaspora via LinkedChat. An archipelago nation with a population smaller than Bradford has negotiated a tough group including two former winners in Spain and Uruguay. They will next meet Argentina in Miami, the adopted city of Lionel Messi, where the fairytale likely ends. Though if not, then they would become the greatest World Cup story of all. “We are small but we have big hearts,” sobbed Vozinha following a 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia and a quick check on the other Group H result from Guadalajara.Having sat through the first group games and fumed at the obvious lack of jeopardy, I decided my GWC experience would be significantly enhanced if I ignored some games and played walking football for the 60-plus generation instead. To my amazement, there is an entire new football language waiting to be discovered by anybody prepared to play the beautiful game at a sedate pace. For example, the walking football term used when a player scores three goals is ‘a gerihat-trick’. Come to think of it, this all isn’t far removed from descriptions of England’s performance against Ghana. Does anybody else have any walking football terms?” – Mike Towers.Re: tournament wording in different languages (Football Daily letters passim). I’d love to be the first of 1,057 Scots to tell you what ‘knockout stage’, ‘quarter-final’, ‘semi-final’, ‘final’ and the like are in our national tongue, but I don’t think any of us knows” – Peter Storch (and no other Scots).Leaving aside the £116m for Elliot Anderson (yesterday’s Beyond The GWC, full email edition), I’m concerned about a midfielder called Odysseas Vlachodimos being mentioned in passing. Is he the kind of player who gets lost in the middle of games, or does he tease the opposition till they lose control?” – Kev The Poet.This is an extract from our daily football email … Football Daily. To get the full version, just visit this page and follow the instructions. Continue reading...

Watch all of Lionel Messi's World Cup goals as he breaks Miroslav Klose's individual scoring record with a 17th goal in Argentina's group stage match against Austria.

Lionel Messi makes history as the all-time leading World Cup scorer, netting his 17th tournament goal during Argentina's game against Austria.

⚽️ Kick-off: 12pm local/1pm ET/6pm BST/3am Mon AEST⚽️ Player guide | Bracketology | Golden Boot | Mail DominicHello and welcome to Monday’s first hit of World Cup action. The holders are in Texas to take on Ralf Rangnick’s Austria in a game that will probably decide who tops Group J. All the focus will be on Argentina and Lionel Messi after his brilliant hat-trick in their opener against Algeria last week. Just one goal today will mean he is out on his own as the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer.It has been a complicated couple of weeks for Messi, whose family confirmed last Thursday that his father Jorge is undergoing medical treatment for an undisclosed illness. An Argentinian TV host resigned after falsely reporting that Jorge, 68, had died. Messi was tearful at times in the opener in Kansas City but he has the chance to make more history in Dallas today. Continue reading...

Sign up now! Sign up now! Sign up now? Sign up now!Anyone brave enough to predict the Geopolitics World Cup knockout bracket before the tournament would have clocked that Argentina could meet Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay in the last 32 and thought: “Cor, that’ll be fun”. But nothing seems to be very fun for the two-time winners at the moment. After narrowly avoiding defeat by Saudi Arabia in their opener in Miami, Uruguay were held again by Cape Verde at Hard [Luck] Stadium, meaning Bielsa-ball might not go beyond the group stage after all. “I think that the problem or greatest issue is that we started the second half with the ball and with the victory,” Bielsa sniffed after climbing down from his upturned water bucket. “We lacked a finishing touch,” he added.Greetings from the Houston area! We’ve watched most of the GWC matches on Telemundo (Football Daily letters passim). My Spanish-speaking sister translates for us, and she agrees that the commentators are ‘unabashedly’ biased toward the Spanish-speaking teams. We switch to Fox between matches to hear what Henry, Zlatan, and Rebecca Lowe have to say, but we all agree: Alexi Lalas is just a blowhard. He gets muted frequently. And in case y’all missed it” – Jennifer Jones.Interesting debate about watching football in English or Spanish. I choose to watch most matches in the same way that I read Football Daily – with the sound completely off. And, from time to time, in a very dark room” – Mike Wilner.I was playing on Football Manager earlier when I was offered the job of coaching Tunisia. I politely declined, hung up the phone, and resumed playing my game” – James Vortkamp-Tong.Has anyone else noticed that there are two former managers of Swansea City at the GWC [and a minority stakeholder – Football Daily Ed]? This must mean something: not sure what, though” – Peter Phillips (and no others). Continue reading...

Poses and backstage snaps showcase the players’ personalities and the mechanics of Fifa’s obligatory shootLionel Messi of Argentina stands rigidly in front of the camera. Marc Cucurella of Spain whips his hair and appears to boogie. Diego Moreira of Belgium covers his eyes with his forearm and reveals an eerie tattoo. Harry Kane leans awkwardly on to one knee.There are 1,248 football players and 48 managers at the World Cup, and none could escape the obligatory media duty that is the official portrait – whether or not they had a fun pose in mind.(Above) Diego Moreira of Belgium obscures his eyes for an eerie portrait. (Below) Marc Cucurella of Spain, Ronald Araújo of Uruguay and various other familiar faces. Continue reading...

Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane look to be on lethal form in this World Cup. So how can you stop them in their tracks?

It is the 40th anniversary of Diego Maradona’s exploits against England. The scene is set for Lionel Messi to imbue the date with fresh significanceHow do you build on perfection? It is the poser Argentina face before a match that, for all its prosaic appearance in the middle of a bloated group stage, may prove critical to their World Cup defence. Lionel Messi’s storybook entrance to the tournament set a near-impossibly high bar for football romantics; Austria may provide a sterner test than Algeria and perhaps progress, in this case, will simply be defined by getting the job done.Messi will seek the goal that makes him this competition’s leading scorer of all time, a milestone he should reach in comfort over the coming days or weeks. The collective aim is clear enough, too. Argentina would rather not entertain finishing second in Group J, which would probably mean gritting their teeth for a last-32 meeting with Spain. Overcoming a ferocious, flawed Austria is the best way to postpone that level of test; Dallas, famed for its heady barbecue scene, is the perfect venue for an asado-loving nation to turn up the heat. Continue reading...

Mehdi Taremi scores a goal similar to Wout Weghorst's effort against Argentina in the 2022 World Cup but it's disallowed by by VAR for offside.

‘What we think is exceptional, they consider normal’Coach says Lamine Yamal fit to start against Saudi ArabiaLuis de la Fuente urged people not to compare Lamine Yamal to Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona or “anyone”, but did compare him to Salvador Dalí and Michelangelo – “geniuses” for whom the exceptional comes naturally.On the eve of their second World Cup game, against Saudi Arabia in Atlanta, it was put to the Spain coach that Lamine Yamal is confronted by a process similar to those faced by Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona but at the age of 18. His image is everywhere in the United States, a global figure already, and the buildup to the selección’s participation at the tournament has been dominated by his availability after an injury he suffered in April – a teenager cast as their hope and salvation. Continue reading...

While rivals Argentina and France have impressed in the United States, Brazil have struggled to hit top form - despite a 3-0 win over minnows Haiti.

Uzbeks to beat DR Congo? Argentina to run riot? Favours from England? BBC Scotland weighs up the permutations needed for Scotland to progress.

An Argentine TV presenter steps down after wrongly saying on air that Lionel Messi's father had died.