’26 Mundial Wrap, Sunday Offseason Etc. Etc.

The 2026 Mundial lasted too long, had too many games, and I still would’ve wanted moAr. All the hosts reached the Round of 16. African teams blasted to the knockouts by playing to win, going toe-to-toe with top competition. This, plus the Scottish fans, Haaland, and a deserving 2026 World Cup Champion are wonderful memories.

Nobody said anything positive about hydration breaks, but the corpos were ecstatic. Those breaks had nothing to do with sport and competition. Although four quarters of futbol may have made for more even games. Meh. Unless the heat + humidity demands it, no commercial breaks.

This is some other notable Mundial stuff that may have passed without much notice.

-Austria’s qualification meant there were a lot of Franz Ferdinand memes. But the main topic in my timeline, at the start of the Mundial, was Carlo Ancelotti (Brazil’s coach) refusing to play young star Endrick. It was natural to mix both themes:

endrick: me cae muy bien el archiduque franz ferdinand

ancelotti: pic.twitter.com/RhF3PE1MV6

— nico (@forerolas) June 19, 2026

And from there on, it got aggro and silly:

pic.twitter.com/Wne1omqXDL

— Bofrot1cedi (@bofrot1cedi) June 22, 2026

-Germany lost to Ecuador 2-1 AND Paraguay eliminated the Germans in the knockouts. It was the first time Germany lost on PKs at the World Cup. That made Paraguay the toast of the Mundial, for a coupla days. Those days were the last time CONMEBOL ultra violence was lauded as a game strategy because, from there onwards, Argentina became its clearest practitioner.

-England threw away its best chance at a Mundial final by parking the bus for most of the second half in a semifinal against a blood enemy. That a running on fumes ARG won fair and square was, to me, the biggest indignity in this Mundial. But a legendary FRA 4 – 6 ENG third-place game dispelled a lot of bad English vibes.

-Argentina,

, yeah. It was well-documented.

-The 1-0 Final was not a pretty game, unless hatewatching ARG is your bag. Argentina had zero, repeat, CERO shots on target until 7 minutes into the first extra period. Spain outclassed Argentina thoroughly, both in the game and in the sore loser fest aftermath. After the final, more than 23 million folks signed a petition to keep Argentina out of World Cups. That will never happen, but it gives ARG plenty of motivation to be even bigger pricks on the pitch for their international futbol games.

-Argentina proved its worth as a futbol superpower by a cakewalk to the semis and spawning a global hatestorm. You know a team is great for how much it is hated (notable exception: the Dallas Cowboys).  In that vein, the USMNT received champion-level hate from the Balogun suspension of a suspension. Prior to Belgium’s 4-1 #Karma elimination, the USMNT looked like a world-beater. This experience is an actual us-against-them event that can galvanize the USMNT. Mauricio Pocchetino will serve them very well, if he stays.

-México’s Gilberto Mora, 17 year-old starter:

Via @lvskynn08

 -My kind of cultural appropriation, ahead of the MEX – ENG game:

There’s a growing Mexican community in Scotland.

Ahead of the game against England, we paid some of them a visit…

18+ GambleAware pic.twitter.com/HLJcWJ3Crm

— Paddy Power (@paddypower) July 5, 2026

-And with Canada and México Lindo playing a great Mundial–and AND Canada getting Ismaël Koné back sometime next year after the horrible foul in the Qatar game… Hmm. Add to that Curaҫao scoring a goal against GER and getting a point from Ecuador… CONCACAF, you got a stew going! All this makes me keep a closer look on my futbol conference fo sho. Hopefully, with the further Mundial expansion, Puerto Rico makes the Mundial before fellow CONCACAFer Epstein Island.

-Ghana brought to the World Cup a witch doctor, who put a carefully-calibrated hex on Harry Kane for ENG 0 – 0 GHA. (Peruvians, out of their own initiative, removed any remaining witchcraft from Kane.) The witch doctor was not successful for COL 1 – 0 GHA. Nevertheless, Colombian fans showed respeK

Luego de la victoria de Colombia 🇨🇴, sus hinchas llevaron en andas al brujo de Ghana 🇬🇭pic.twitter.com/PVe2IqSgS0

— En Una Baldosa (@enunabaldosa) July 4, 2026

FINALLY,

Well, wadda ya know.

NFL NEWS

The Cardinals and QB Jacoby Brissett agreed on a $15.5 million contract for 2026, plus incentives.

Next Sunday we reach August. We’re nearly there, peeps. Woo woo.