Football Daily | A cult classic kit, 4-4-2 and refcam: 10 things we’ve noticed in World Cup so far

Published 13 June 2026 · sports

COUNT ON US TO KEEP YOU INFORMED We’re almost a 25th of the way through the Geopolitics World Cup – four games down, 100 to

COUNT ON US TO KEEP YOU INFORMED We’re almost a 25th of the way through the Geopolitics World Cup – four games down, 100 to go – so it’s the perfect time to reflect on what we’ve learned and noticed so far. 1 The emergence of a peculiar cultural phenomenon: football supporters paying top dollar for the privilege of farting around on a concourse. That was Fifa’s explanation for all the empty seats at South Korea v Czechia in Guadalajara. The stadium holds 46,000 and the official attendance was 44,985, but there were a lot more than 1,015 empty seats. “Please note,” pleaded a Fifa suit, “that, during last night’s match in Guadalajara, several ticketed fans could be seen standing in concourses rather than staying in their assigned seats throughout the match.” 2 USA USA USA might be the most exciting host team since Germany in 2006. They walloped Paraguay 4-1 in Los Angeles, with the Arsenal alumnus Folarin Balogun scoring twice. By half-time in his first GWC game, Balogun had scored as many World Cup goals as Marco van Basten, Wayne Rooney, Hugo Sánchez, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Steve Bloomer combined. Let’s just call it the Balogun d’Or and be done with it. 3 Drinks breaks, though essential, are major passion-killers if a team is on top. Don’t be surprised if coaches start to shape their tactics accordingly; let’s make a really fast start to the fourth quarter, eh lads? View image in fullscreen South Korea enjoy a momentum-stealing drinks break. Photograph: Matias Delacroix/AP 4 The Chloe Kelly Parado that being left out can enhance your chances of individual glory – is playing out as expected. Four of the 12 goals have been scored by substitutes, including Oh Hyeon-gyu’s winner for South Korea against Czechia and Cyle Larin’s equaliser for Canada against Bosnia and Herzegovina. That match turned on an earlier triple substitution by Jesse Marsch in the 61st minute. With most games played in punishing heat, the World Cup is likely to be won by the best squad, not the best team. 5 Refcam is the future. So are Claude, populism and eejit trillionaires, so this isn’t necessarily a good thing, but the GWC version is a vast improvement on the Premier League’s attempt last season. It should still come with a hangover warning, mind, and there is a whiff of the refs being directed thus: “Keep looking at the goal to get the money shot – don’t worry about fouls, we’ll let you know if there’s a penalty.” 6 The USA USA USA kit is the best in the tournament, a future cult classic, and we’ll be taking no further questions.

View image in fullscreen Folarin Balogun in that lovely kit. Photograph: Sarah Stier/Fifa/Getty Images 7 Yaya Sithole is one of the finest footballers in a country of 65 million people. Yet whatever he achieves in his career, he is doomed to be remembered for the most untimely of shockers. Another South African, poor Pierre Issa, knows how he feels: Issa scored one-and-a-half own-goals against the hosts in South Africa’s opening match of France 98. 8 Gianni Infantino may have discovered the concept of humility. 9 During Qatar 2022, Adam Hurrey of Football Cliches fame wrote that the TV aesthetic of a World Cup – once unique to each tournament – has been the same at every competition since the turn of the century. His point stands (was that really the Azteca?), but the blood-red backdrop to Canada’s match gave it a unique flavour. 10 4-4-2, often dismissed as the unreconstructed oaf of football formations, might be making a comeback. According to your friends and mine, Fifa, three of the eight teams in action so far have played 4-4-2. Then again, one of them was Paraguay and they had their clock cleaned by USA USA USA so we’re not entirely sure what point we’re trying to make here. Let’s all calm down. We’re only four games into the tournament! LIVE ON BIG WEBSITE Will Unwin will take the GWC news blog through to 6pm BST (1pm EDT). John Brewin is then due to helm minute-by-minute coverage of Qatar 0-3 Switzerland from 8pm BST (3pm EDT). Then Jeff Rueter will be all over Brazil 2-2 Morocco at 11pm BST (6pm EDT), with Tom Bassam on duty for Haiti 0-2 Scotland on Sunday at 2am BST (9pm EDT) and Jonathan Howcroft on for Australia 0-2 Turkey at 5am BST (midnight EDT). QUOTE OF THE DAY double quotation mark I’ve always been a dreamer, but I could never have imagined that an honour like this would come to a working-class English soccer player like me. How fitting then that I am here today as we prepare to celebrate the opening here in the US of the 2026 World Cup. It’s a powerful moment to recognise how the sport I love so much has grown in this country over the past three decades. To stand here in front of my friend Tom Cruise, the greatest movie star of our time, is quite frankly mind-blowing” – David Beckham, there, makes us feel just a little bit queasy as he gets his very own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. View image in fullscreen David Beckham with his big screen GOAT, earlier.