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ON THE BRINK

Anyone brave enough to predict the Geopolitics World Cup knockout bracket before the tournament would have clocked that Argentina could meet Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay in the last 32 and thought: “Cor, that’ll be fun”. But nothing seems to be very fun for the two-time winners at the moment. After narrowly avoiding defeat by Saudi Arabia in their opener in Miami, Uruguay were held again by Cape Verde at Hard [Luck] Stadium, meaning Bielsa-ball might not go beyond the group stage after all. “I think that the problem or greatest issue is that we started the second half with the ball and with the victory,” Bielsa sniffed after climbing down from his upturned water bucket. “We lacked a finishing touch,” he added.

Good thing the GWC TV directors kept cutting to Luis Suárez lurking somewhere in a posh suite – tantalisingly close to Gianni, no doubt – and we could all be reminded of said finishing touch. Suárez graciously made himself available for a call-up just weeks before GWC having patriotically ruled himself out of selection after falling out with Bielsa a couple of years ago. One bone of contention Suárez had was that midfielder Agustín Canobbio was allegedly forced to train as a ball boy at the 2024 Copa América and, well, that’s just not on. Canobbio did get a recall this summer after being subjected to a Bielsa freezing-out and put all that practice chasing a ball to good use against Cape Verde by latching on to Maxi Araújo’s knockdown to put Uruguay 2-1 up before half-time.

That goal came minutes after Araújo had scored Uruguay’s equaliser, with Federico Viñas ditching his duties helping Cape Verde’s cramp-stricken Telmo Arcanjo to get himself into the box for the cross that led to the goal. “I was upset by that,” cried Cape Verde boss Bubista. “Bielsa taught us to have fair play. That’s in his press conferences, that’s in the matches that his teams play.” Perhaps he expected the Uruguay manager to allow Cape Verde to run through his team from kick-off, with only an angry Pontus Jansson to beat.

In a city that is the fictional setting for the upcoming sixth edition of Grand Theft Auto, Uruguay shot themselves in the foot in the second half. Mathías Olivera’s skewed pass landed at the feet of Hélio Varela, who danced around Fernando Muslera before finishing with the sort of blissful poise that can only be attributed to a player who isn’t thinking about what they’re doing. “We’ve got to face up to the bullets,” said Canobbio, who missed a late chance to win it. It was unclear which direction those bullets were coming from but the dressing room post-game can’t have been much fun. Bielsa did not even face up to the cameras in the buildup to the tournament. If his side lose to Spain in their final group game on Friday night, he will have to face the music.

LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE

Loads more hot GWC action, anyone? Dominic Booth kicks us off with Argentina 3-2 Austria at 6pm BST (1pm EDT), before Tim de Lisle covers France 4-1 Iraq (10pm BST/5pm EDT). Jeff Rueter will guide you through Norway 2-2 Senegal at 1am BST (8pm EST), and then another for the purists at 4am BST (11pm EST): join Martin Pegan for Jordan 0-1 Algeria.

RECOMMENDED FOLLOWING

How do you do fellow kids? Yes, there’s now a TikBook account with all things of a Big Website sporting focus. So, if you’re there, you know what to do. 

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I think we should think that we need to take ⁠one more point to be absolutely sure of progressing. I think the Norwegian Computing Centre ​is calculating the wrong way, it could ‌be a huge blow [if ‌the calculation is wrong]” – Norway head coach Ståle Solbakken takes a skeptical view of the mathematical model, which has carried out 100,000 simulations and has ⁠put his team’s GWC knockout round chances at 99%, following their emphatic 4-1 opening win over Iraq.

FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS

Greetings from the Houston area! We’ve watched most of the GWC matches on Telemundo (Football Daily letters passim). My Spanish-speaking sister translates for us, and she agrees that the commentators are ‘unabashedly’ biased toward the Spanish-speaking teams. We switch to Fox between matches to hear what Henry, Zlatan, and Rebecca Lowe have to say, but we all agree: Alexi Lalas is just a blowhard. He gets muted frequently. And in case y’all missed it” – Jennifer Jones.

Interesting debate about watching football in English or Spanish. I choose to watch most matches in the same way that I read Football Daily – with the sound completely off. And, from time to time, in a very dark room” – Mike Wilner.

I was playing on Football Manager earlier when I was offered the job of coaching Tunisia. I politely declined, hung up the phone, and resumed playing my game” – James Vortkamp-Tong.

Has anyone else noticed that there are two former managers of Swansea City at the GWC [and a minority stakeholder – Football Daily Ed]? This must mean something: not sure what, though” – Peter Phillips (and no others).

Re: yesterday’s Memory Lane (full email edition). I was at England v Brazil in 2002 when David Seaman watched Ronaldinho’s free-kick sail over him. At the time I was mightily miffed. Three months later I got a cheque from Fifa for about £3,000, refunding me for the four tickets per match I had bought in advance all the way through to the final. Cue a belated and traitorous wild goal celebration. Of course that was when Fifa had a different ticketing system. Never thought I’d consider the Havelange/Blatter era as the good old days” – Bryan Matthews.

If you have any, please send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … James Vortkamp-Tong. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here. 

RECOMMENDED LISTENING

Listen to the latest World Cup Daily podcast.

RECOMMENDED WATCHING

Watch the latest World Cup Daily podcast.

ON THE BALL

Big Website’s app now features a special edition of On the Ball for the GWC. On the Ball: World Stage invites you to guess the World Cup player in five attempts – and it’s pretty tricky. You can have a go right now – and there are loads of other good puzzles to take up your time, too. 

THE STORY CONTINUES

It’s played two, drawn two for Cape Verde against previous World Cup winners – and if they’re not dark horses yet, at least they’ve shown they’re not a one-trick pony. The tournament newbies followed up their staunch defensive effort against Spain with a screw-it-we-can-beat-these-lot assault on Uruguay. Kevin Pina came from almost out of camera shot to welly them into the lead with a free-kick. The celebrations that followed Hélio Varela’s second-half equaliser were just as triumphant – Big Newsletter is all for unknown substitute goalscorers being hoisted into the air. “We’re here to try to achieve a new dream, which is to qualify for the second round. I think it’s legitimate for us to think that way,” smiled Cape Verde coach Bubista. Beat Saudi Arabia in Houston on Friday and that’ll do it – but leave some history-making for the rest of us.

NEWS, BITS AND BOBS

Fresh off their beating by Norway, Iraq manager Graham Arnold isn’t planning on taking a more conservative approach against France on Monday. “I asked if we could play three goalkeepers, but they said no,” he honked. “We can’t control France’s performance, but we can control our own.”

Iran left a message in their SoFi Stadium dressing room on ⁠Sunday thanking Los Angeles for being so welcoming during the GWC after ⁠a ​0-0 draw with Belgium kept alive their hopes of reaching the knockout stages. “Thank you ​Los Angeles for your hospitality,” it read. “We came to Los Angeles with pride, competed with honor, and leave with dignity.”

L’Équipe have apologised to Jérémy Doku after a female presenter criticised the Belgium winger for wanting to leave GWC to attend the birth of his first child – his wife, Shireen, is due in early July. France Pierron said childbirth is “a disgusting moment, excuse me, where the dad is useless”, adding that “hundreds of footballers would kill to be in your place”.

Declan Rice reveals he has played through hamstring nerve knack for six months.

Lamine Yamal was in the mood as Spain swiped aside Saudi Arabia 4-0 in Group H.

For Gordon Banks, 1970, read Alireza Beiranvand, 2026. The Iran goalkeeper pulled off a stunning save to deny Belgium and keep Group G oh-so-delicately poised.

Kylian Mbappé says he is relishing a Golden Boot duel with Lionel Messi. “He is ahead of me but I will keep scoring to help our squad go as far as possible,” he roared.

Paraguay head coach Gustavo Alfaro, fresh from masterminding a victory that sent Turkey tumbling out of the tournament, took ⁠aim at football’s suits ⁠on Sunday. “People I know are having ​a very hard time, because travelling these days ‌is very difficult, very expensive, ‌the World Cups are blown out of proportion, the costs, everything else, and that’s why sometimes you ‌understand the sacrifice people make to pay for a ticket,” he truth-bombed. “The essence of football is lost. And football can’t be a business, it has to be football ... a very select group get to enjoy it. Football, we all own it, primarily the poorest, because the cheapest toy to play with was a ball, which was sometimes hard to afford, but 22 people could ‌play with just one toy. So the power of football is immense. And that’s what we must defend.”

And finally, all the big names scored for Egypt in their win against New Zealand: Ziko, Salah, Trezeguet … That is Mostafa Ziko, whose GWC call-up was so unexpected that he had booked to go on holiday instead. “I was far away from the national team and ⁠honestly wasn’t expecting ⁠it,” he said on Sunday. “Coach Hossam Hassan brought me from the north coast. I was about to go on vacation and ⁠suddenly I found myself at the World Cup.” He’ll have to wait a little longer for some time on the beach.

RECOMMENDED BUYING

We have some Football Weekly Live events coming, folks. If you want to see Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning and other top, top pod squad members in the flesh you can do so in Dublin on 1 September or in that there London on 9 September. And on 16 July Football Weekly: Live in New York City is sold out, but livestream tickets are still available. So get clicking.

STILL WANT MORE?

Who are ya? Behind the scenes of the official Geopolitics World Cup portrait photographs.

Barney Ronay argues, in his own way, that the GWC might just be bringing the best out of the USA USA USA.

From Times Square to England squad: Trevoh Chalobah is realising his World Cup dream, he tells David Hytner.

Lionel Messi and Argentina return to the stage on Monday and Nick Ames is in Dallas to gauge the mood.

Cristiano Ronaldo risks ruining his legacy by continuing to cramp Portugal’s style up front, argues Miguel Dantas.

Alireza Beiranvand is giving Iran hope with his performances in goal, says Alexander Abnos from Los Angeles.

And what is it like to be in a World Cup host city? If you live in one of the 16 cities in Mexico, Canada and the US hosting games, we would be delighted to hear from you right here.

MEMORY LANE

Forty years ago today, Diego Maradona scored twice against England in their World Cup quarter-final in Mexico City. The finer details are well established, but did you know that Argentina’s blue jerseys were bought from a local market? The players were unhappy with the thick cotton away shirts they had to wear against Uruguay in the last 16, so a staff member headed into town and found thinner, unofficial ones, which then had the Argentina crest and numbers added overnight. Maradona’s No 10 shirt, picked up from a barrio market, was sold for £7.1m in 2022.

BEYOND THE GWC

Grimsby have paid tribute to Alex Hughes after his death at the age of 38. Hughes, the son of the former Manchester United and Wales striker Mark Hughes, was player recruitment lead at the League Two club.

And Women’s Super League and WSL2 clubs can permit supporters to drink alcohol in view of the pitch from next season after a change to the leagues’ regulations on the back of a successful trial over the past 18 months.

‘IT’S LIKE A HEATWAVE’