Helga Danish

When Egypt fans held Palestinian flags inside the Atlanta stadium during their World Cup match against Argentina last week, and Argentine supporters raised an Israeli flag in response, the football pitch became — as it has increasingly been…

Cape Verde arrived at this World Cup as its smallest nation. They leave it as arguably its defining story. The Blue Sharks fell 3-2 to world champions Argentina after extra time in Miami. Diney Borges deflected Cristian Romero's header into…

Some football crises announce themselves with a single catastrophic night. Others arrive the way this one has — slowly, deniably, across three tournaments and eight years, until the team itself stops arguing the point. "This is the third…

The gods of football, as someone noted afterwards, clearly did not want the record broken from the penalty spot. They had something better in mind. In the ninth minute at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Messi struck a penalty wide of…

In the 45th minute of a World Cup match in San Francisco on Friday, Miguel Almirón covered his mouth with his hand while saying something to Turkish defender Mert Müldür. VAR intervened. A red card was produced. Paraguay played the second…

The numbers sit there, stubbornly implausible. In seven World Cup appearances since independence, Croatia have reached the semi-finals three times — finishing third in 1998, reaching the final in 2018, and claiming third place again in…

On June 16, 2006, an 18-year-old scored his first World Cup goal. On June 16, 2026, the same man scored three. This is what twenty years looks like. https://twitter.com/FIFAWorldCup/status/2067136363078545876?s=20 There are players who…

There is a moment in the 2006 World Cup quarter-final against Germany, in the 71st minute at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin, that tells you everything about Juan Román Riquelme and nothing about football's wisdom. Argentina lead 1-0. The…