Hey friends,

Hope your week is going well. Here’s what we’ve got kicking around today…

• 🌎️ World Cup Updates

• 🇺🇸 USMNT vs Australia Preview

• 🇨🇻 Cape Verde Makes History

• ⚽️ Goal of the Week

• 😂 Tweet of the Week

World Cup Updates

All 48 teams have played their first group stage game. The stars were out this week. We got a hat-trick from Messi and braces from Mbappe, Kane, and Haaland.

• England and Croatia played a phenomenal game with the Brits winning 4-2 behind a brace from Harry Kane (full highlights). FC Dallas star Petar Musa scored, but Croatia doesn’t look quite like the engine they’ve been in past tournaments. Their Golden Generation is finally past their primes. My goodness, England is deep.

• DR Congo surprised us by scoring its first-ever World Cup goal and drawing Portugal 1-1. Portugal created 0.00 expected goals after the 6th minute. Not good! Ronaldo had a tough afternoon and was held goalless, making it 10 straight games without a goal in major international tournaments.

• Jordan scored its first-ever World Cup goal in their 3-1 loss to Austria, who looked like the better side for most of the game. Jordan fans watched the game back home from a 1,900-year-old Roman theater.

• Tunisia was beaten 5-1 against Sweden and subsequently fired their head coach, Sabri Lamouchi, the following day. It’s the 4th time in history that a coach was fired during the tournament. The other 3 all happened during the 1998 World Cup. Hervé Renard has been given the reins as coach after having previously managed Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

• Iran and New Zealand played to a very fun 2-2 draw (full highlights). Given that all four teams in this group drew, it will be difficult for either Iran or New Zealand to advance, given that they still have to play Egypt and Belgium.

• Erling Haaland has arrived at his first World Cup in Erling Haaland fashion, scoring a brace. He looked like his usual menacing self, giving fits to Iraq’s backline all day in their 4-1 win.

• France beat Senegal 3-1. Kylian Mbappe scored a brace to become France’s all-time leading scorer at the age of 27. His first goal was off a wonderful assist from Michael Olise, and his second was a banger from deep. He’s also now tied for 3rd all-time in World Cup goals with 14 in just his third tournament. He’s going to smash Miroslav Klose’s record of 16. France didn’t look perfect, but this team can probably sleepwalk into the quarterfinals.

• The greatest of all time gave us yet another spectacle in the heartland of America. Messi scored a hat trick in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria. The funny part of this is that Algeria’s keeper is Zinedine Zidane’s son. Messi is now tied with Miroslav Klose for the most goals in World Cup history (16). The Magic Man always delivers. I don’t know what else to say at this point. I’m just grateful I’m here to witness.

USA vs Australia Preview

The US faces off against Australia tomorrow at 12 pm PST in Seattle.

Both these sides were super impressive in their first game. Australia took on a very strong Turkish side and beat them 2-0. It was a heroic performance by goalkeeper Patrick Beach, who made 8 saves to give Australia the clean sheet.

These two teams met in October in a feisty friendly that featured 26 fouls and two yellow cards. The US came back from down one goal to win 2-1 with a brace from Haji Wright.

We know how the Socceroos want to play on Friday. Similar to how they had success against Turkey, they’ll sit deep and absorb pressure, then try to take advantage on the counterattack. They’ll try to impose themselves physically to frustrate our attackers. We’ll be ready for it.

Christian Pulisic seems to be fine after picking up a knock in his calf last week. He was working off to the side at training most of the week, but I would be surprised if he isn’t starting. Expect Pochettino to roll out the same starting lineup as last week. If we win this, we’ll have the group nearly locked up.

If you’d like further reading on how Pochettino has changed the culture of our team, this is one of the best articles I’ve read on the USMNT this World Cup. Highly recommend it.

Cape Verde Makes History

Cape Verde pulled off the improbable. They tied the World Cup favorites, Spain 0-0 in a tremendous game. The nation composed of 10 little volcanic islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with a population of just over 500k, captivated millions around the World.

65 places separate Spain (2) and Cape Verde (67) in the FIFA world rankings. It’s the biggest ever gap in a World Cup game where the higher-ranking team didn’t win.

Despite Spain having 74% of possession, Cape Verde committed just one foul the entire game. It’s the least amount of fouls committed by a team in World Cup history. The hero on the day was the goalkeeper, Vozinha. His 7 saves are the most by a goalkeeper aged 40 or older in a World Cup match since 1966. He’s also the oldest keeper to ever keep a clean sheet at the World Cup.

In the span of just two hours, he went from 45k Instagram followers to over 3M. He’s now over 13M followers as of writing this.

Cape Verde now has a 50% chance of making it to the knockout rounds. What a fantastic story. For all of those who complained about the World Cup expanding to 48 teams, it’s moments like this that make it special.

For Spain fans, don’t panic. You’ll remember that they lost to Switzerland 1-0 in the first game of the 2010 World Cup and then went on to win the tournament. Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in their first game in Qatar, and did the same. However, this does increase their chances greatly of playing Argentina in the round of 32. If they get second in their group and Argentina gets first in theirs, they’ll face off much earlier than anyone anticipated. They need to use this as a wake-up call.

Goal of the Week

😲 

Tweet of the Week

More incredible stuff coming out of this tournament 🤣 

Freddy strikes again!

Freaking awesome 😂 

Quick Hits

• An interesting look at how hydration breaks are swinging momentum in games (Link)

• Norway fans doing the Viking Row up an escalator (Link)

• A fascinating look at how Morocco defended against Brazil (Link)

GO USA!!!

Max & Mason