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2026 World Cup, Day 35: The Bump-Free World Cup?
Whenever there's a World Cup, men's or women's, the prevailing attitude across American soccer tends to be along the lines of "well, people are watching, here's our chance." It's an attitude that's not without precedent. The
2026 World Cup, Day 29: The European-Brazilian-Argentinian Championships
We have reached the quarterfinal stage of the World Cup, which is when it transitions from being a worldwide celebration of soccer to being the European championships, with special guests Brazil and Argentina. This is the ninth men's World Cup since the fall of the Iron Curtain and
2026 World Cup, Day 26: Off Day
"Oh, he's just having an off day." This is one of those things that happens in every single sport, and probably every human endeavor. Anyone who's ever bombed a test in school or snapped in a meeting at work knows the feeling. And for
2026 World Cup, Day 21: Uphill both ways
Maybe it's for the best that the USA's 2-0 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina happened the way it did. It is, after all, the way we like it. The Americans were up 1-0 at halftime and it pretty easily could have been 3-0; Bosnia
2026 World Cup, Day 20: What has worked, and what hasn't?
(Editor's note: we are switching to Ghost instead of Substack because we want to be like Stu. I am hoping you will not see a difference and you will receive this email as normal, but if there are any growing pains, let me know.) We're done
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2026 World Cup, Day 16: Egypt 1, Iran 1
On the cruelty of disappearing joy.
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2026 World Cup, Day 14: Bosnia-Herzegovina 3, Qatar 1
A blue-and-yellow party in Seattle sends the Bosnians through to the next round.
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2026 World Cup, Day 12: So you're telling me there's a chance
With 32 teams in the knockout round, it's hard to get eliminated from contention early.
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2026 World Cup: A Soccer Nation
In which I watch the World Cup at Seattle Center with one billion of my closest friends.
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2026 World Cup, Day 8: The cost of doing soccer
Those ticket prices? They aren't coming down.
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2026 World Cup, Day 6: A day out at Field
Belgium 1:1 Egypt, and what it was like to be in Seattle for the game.