Key events
So how do Iraq – and the rest stop them? Well, I think their defence can be got at, especially in wide areas and especially down the left, because Jules Koundé isn’t the greatest right-back in the world. And in midfield, there are better duos than Aurelien Tchouameni and Adrien Rabiot, the latter a good but not brilliant player. Thing is, Deschamps seems to love him, though Warren Zaïre Emey would give them a bit more mobility and enterprise.
Olise, by the way, has a serious chance of winning the Ballon d’Or. He’ll need an outrageous tournament, but he looks ready for that, and if France lift the trophy it’ll surely be him or Mbappé.
Like lots of people, I’d love to see this squad managed by someone other than Didier Deschamps – it feels almost impossible to get such talented attackers playing more stodgily – but Olise might just have unlocked things. Against Senegal, he moved infield, with Dembélé restored to the wing, and what’s exciting about that is it needn’t be that way in every game – different opponents require different solutions, and the potential for brilliant attackers to interchange at any point offers a fluidity and flexibility few will be able to handle.
Michael Olise was incredible in the second half against Senegal – now that you don’t ask, that game was, for mine, the highest-level we’ve seen so far, though I also really enjoyed Germany v Côte d’Ivoire. And it’s actually hard to know whether France hit a groove, or Olise just made it look that way.
What level do we think Mbappé can reach? In terms of output, he’s already up there with the best, and he’s scored a hat-trick in a final too – it certainly wasn’t his fault France lost on penalties. But to cement himself among the highest echelon of legends, he does need to lift the trophy, and he may never have a better chance than this time around. By the next World Cup, he’ll be 31 – still good, but this is the tournament of his peak.
Mbappé said he had already rewatched the Senegal game twice, once by himself and once with staff. He praised the performance of Dembélé, whose international form has been the subject of much scrutiny by French journalists, to the extent that, when later confronted with the same topic, Deschamps insisted the media were “very much on his back”.
‘In the first half he was the best attacker, he made the play fluid,’ Mbappé said ‘In the second half Michael Olise and I were decisive [in the opening goal] but Ousmane also contributed. If you see Michael’s pass, Ousmane creates the space. It doesn’t count in the stats, but it matters. He is the Ballon d’Or and everyone is on board.’”
However, Iqbal and pals have a problem; well, they have several. Here’s one:
I saw a fair bit of Iqbal when he was playing age-group football at Manchester United. He’s really comfortable in possession and has a good eye for a pass; I’m looking forward to seeing how he does against France … 12 hours and nine minutes from now.
Iqbal bids to make Iraq proud against France
Paul MacInnes
On the pristine training pitches of the University of Pennsylvania, where Iraq are training before of their Group C match with France, the laconic Mancunian drawl stands out. “They have big players, big personalities, big talents,” says Zidane Iqbal of his opponents. “They’re an amazing team, but it’s just another game. We’re preparing for it like we’ve always done.”
Iqbal, product of the Manchester United academy and focus of no little hype as a teenager, now plays his football in the Netherlands for Utrecht. He is also part of the Iraqi diaspora from which the Australian coach, Graham Arnold, has built a side that has reached its first World Cup since Mexico 86.
“It’s been 40 years since Iraq was last at the World Cup and the country has been through so much. It’s an honour to represent them,” says the 22-year-old. “We get messages from the people in Iraq and I’ve seen a lot of stuff on Instagram. We just want to make those people proud.”
Iqbal speaks with the calm confidence of a lost Gallagher brother, and said Iraq have already brushed off their 4-1 defeat to Norway in Boston last week. “We made a few mistakes, but that can happen to anyone,” he said. “We’ve learned from it. It decided the game but, inshallah, tomorrow [Monday] no mistakes. We’ll bounce back and give 100% tomorrow. Always.”
Iqbal made his debut for the Lions of Mesopotamia in 2022 and now has 26 caps. He says the bond inside the squad is strong, despite their diverse backgrounds. “Some of us have been together for two World Cup campaigns,” he said. “We know each other pretty well. We’re also know how to keep ourselves entertained at these long camps; lots of Uno, Fifa and Werewolf.”
Usually starting on the bench, Iqbal played the last 30 minutes against Norway, and said the first 30 seconds of that spell were memorable. “Reaching the World Cup has been a dream and when I first went on the pitch I felt it, but then it went away because you’re just focussed on the game,” he said. “Afterwards I was able to sit down with my family and appreciate it, I had done something I’d been dreaming of since a child. I think that experience has just given us all a taste for more. We need to work hard get ready for [the France] game but we’re all excited.”
I could get lost in this for days.
Anything else going on in the world?
No, thought not.
You gate amazing marine life off the cost of Mauritania, I’m told. I daresay that, after Cape Verde’s exploits at the World Cup, more tourists will be visiting to find out.
It’s about the football but also, it’s not about the football at all. I can’t even begin to detail everything that football has taught me; currently, I’m learning about Cape Verde.
Alexander Abnos has some thoughts on the man of yesterday, Alireza Beiranvand of Iran.
The latest World Cup Daily is poised to caress your cochleas.
So what of Uruguay? I’m afraid even the wizardry of Marcelo Bielsa can’t create talent, and when you’ve lost the likes of Diego Godin, Luis Suárez and Edinson Cavani, it’s not easy to find anything remotely as good.
Email! “Cape Verde is the Cameroon of 2026,” reckons Krishnamoorthy V. “And Vozhina is the new Roger Milla. Keep the fairy tales coming. Isn’t it what the world cup finally is all about. They dilute the toxic Giannis and the Donalds.”
Yup, I’m having a couple of weeks off the World Cup from next Monday for Wimbledon and was just musing, while stroking my chin of course, that what the early stages of those tournaments share in common is being about lesser lights and surprise bangers.
And what a joy Kevin Pina’s goal was – in execution but also in celebration, their first at the World Cup.
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What I love about Cabo Verde is the discipline, structure and composure of their defending. They shut out Spain with difficulty but also with comfort, the confidence in what they were doing palpable. And they also know how to counter, the question now whether they can change gears and force the issue against Saudi.
What a World Cup Cape Verde are having. A draw with Saudi, in their final group match, might be enough to get them into the last 32; a win certainly will.
Beiranvand, by the way, holds the world record for the longest throw in a competitive match – 61.0026m – and for the longest drop-kick, 78.014m. Not bad for someone who was once sleeping rough.
But let’s return to Iran for a moment. Their goalie, Alireza Beiranvand – or “The Wall of Persia” as he’s known – had to run away from home to become a footballer, his old fella less than enchanted by the ruse and cutting up his gloves. I wonder how he feels now his boy has been player of the match at a World Cup.
Egypt, meantime, have taken control of things, coming form behind to beat New Zealand.
Group G is pretty tight. Belgium, who ought to be favourites, are between teams, the old stagers not what they were and younger players not as good – perhaps yet but possibly ever. They’ll hope to beat New Zealand in their final match and really should, but their attack doesn’t look poised to click.
I do wonder if they’ve enough goals in them when it comes down to the biggest matches, but they may only need one to win them. And though it’s true that if you stop Lamine, you’re a long way towards stopping Spain, that’s easier said than done and, if Olmo stays in the team, though he’s not a possession player in the same way that Fabian Ruiz is, he’s a very serious goal-threat.
France, I think, have the most routes to winning games – their battery of attackers might be the most ridiculous we’ve ever seen – but Spain remain the hardest to beat, their control of possession and space meaning opponents need to make a lot out of a little. Their defence is far from impregnable but, though it’s not as hard to get at as when a midfield of xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Andrès Iniesta were in front, Rodri, Pedri and Dani Olmo isn’t bad.
Spain are an entirely different proposition with Lamine Yamal, aren’t they? Apologies if that sounds unacceptably basic, it is, but sometimes, basic is what we need. He gives them width, edge, pace, invention – and his teammates the confidence they have him so anything is possible.
But hatred of the US as a single entity is also a confusing idea, albeit one that fits a certain monotheistic world view, where there can only be devils and angels. It involves demonising as a single failed entity a hugely diverse and varied nation with elements of every kind of people and every kind of culture, the great human experiment, with all its freedoms and flaws; and doing so based on the actions and pronouncements of a few governing Maga Republicans.
If America has become this single thing in so many people’s minds, it is perhaps because this is the way we experience things now. Everything is flattened, foreshortened, turned into sound and noise. Never underestimate the effect of the hive mind, that constant third space we carry around with us. This World Cup is the first global event to take place so deep inside that online space, experienced in peeled-eyeball detail through a screen as a set of images and shouted ideas
This is how our flow of information works now, and indeed how Donald Trump took power, flooding the zone, shouting the simplest message above the noise. The US may feel like an expression of violence simply in its daily existence, an endless amplification of human talent, greed, desire, cruelty, where nobody is ever really in charge, they’re just out there riding it like a runaway bronco. But the US is also not Trump. Seventy‑seven million people voted for him, 272 million did not. A nation of 350 million people with more than 100 significant immigrant cultural groups cannot be one thing.
The US is the world in a very large and varied grain of sand, endlessly rich in all its beauty, energy, flaws and vices. To hate this is a baffling idea. If you don’t like America, what do you like? This is what humans are.
OK, so before we begin stepping our way through yesterday – depending, of course on where we live – let’s begin by throwing things forward with Barnay Ronay’s latest missive.
Preamble
Howdy pardners! So Cape Verde are in with a serious chance of the second phase, likewise Iran – wins over Saudi and New Zealand respectively will seal it, but a draw might be enough … but nor are the latter two out of things.
Meantime, Spain are up and sprinting, Uruguay aren’t what they were, and we’ve another set of fixtures but a few hours away, tantalising us with their imminence. So we’ll look forward to Argentina v Austria, France v Iraq, Norway v Senegal and Jordan v Algeria.
Welcome to World Cup 2026 – day 12!
