If you took the trouble to watch the 2026 World Cup — and, given the time-zone arithmetic between Dublin and MetLife, plenty of Irish fans caught more of it than they expected — the final shape of the numbers is worth one last long read before the tournament recedes into the rear-view. The headline figures […]

It is the sort of goal that feels smaller than the moment it ends — a half-volley from six yards, a header won by a substitute, a delivery whipped to the back post by another substitute, and then a stadium of 80,663 at MetLife holding its breath for the fraction of a second it took […]

The image that will travel furthest from this World Cup is not the one of Ferran Torres wheeling away at the back post, or of Rodri lifting the Golden Ball, or of Mbappé snatching the all-time goal record from under everyone’s nose. It is Lionel Messi standing on the MetLife podium in his blue and […]

The story of Mbappé at the 2026 World Cup is going to be told two ways. One version is the box-score: ten goals, a second consecutive Golden Boot, and the all-time World Cup scoring record in a tournament France ultimately finished fourth. The other version is the photograph that will sit in the Louvre — […]

There are upsets that shift the way a tournament is remembered. Then there are the ones that quietly drain outright books across the industry. The 2026 World Cup Golden Ball is one of the latter — a result so out of step with the pre-final prices that it may end up as the most expensive […]

There is a particular kind of Sunday that only a World Cup can produce. You wake on Monday morning in Ireland, reach for the phone before the kettle has even boiled, and discover that while you slept the tournament rearranged itself entirely. The 21st of June was one of those nights. Spain were ruthless, Mohamed […]

Monday is a marathon, not a sprint. Four Group I and Group J fixtures stretch from teatime in Ireland deep into the small hours, and if you are planning to follow all of them you should plan your evening — and your staking — accordingly. The first ball is kicked at 6:00pm Irish time; the […]

In the second week of June, a column of men in kilts marched through Boston to the gates of Fenway Park, bagpipes wailing, and were applauded by the president of the Red Sox for bringing "pure joy" to the city. That is the Tartan Army for you — they turn an away trip into a […]

Some records feel like they were left ajar on purpose, waiting for the right man to walk through. Miroslav Klose scored sixteen World Cup goals across four tournaments — a German monument of consistency that has stood since 2014. On Sunday, with a hat-trick against Algeria, Lionel Messi drew level with it. At thirty-eight, in […]

There is no neutrality quite like the Irish neutrality reserved for England at a World Cup. We tell ourselves we do not care, and then we find ourselves on the sofa at nine o’clock on a Tuesday night, watching every kick, narrating every wobble. After the 4–2 win over Croatia — a result built on […]