| July 17, 2026 | By Katrin Bennhold |
Good morning, world. 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. And so before we all settle down to watch the final on Sunday, we wanted to revisit some of those today.
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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 U.S.). 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.”
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| The New York Times |
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 island 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, which 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 5-month-old Lamine Yamal. Almost 19 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.
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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.”
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| 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. 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.
