Spotted: The Good Football at the World Cup — Vol I
🆘 The Socceroos have taken over my algorithm
Previously on The Good Football
Bad World Cup, good football?
Human Things
As promised, here's the first official Spotted: everything I found while looking for the good football in the World Cup this week.
🇨🇻 Cabo Verde’s heroic match against Spain, and all things Vozinha — from the performance of his life at 40 years old to his mom getting her visa fees waived, and being there to see her son and witness yet another historic Cabo Verde match.
🇦🇺 Pretty much everything about the Socceroos? My algorithm is delivering me every single piece of content about them, and I don’t hate it. Highlights were Mabil’s words about Refugee Week, this video about Nestori Irankunda’s and his family’s journey getting to Australia — and this moment of him learning he had won the Player of the Match award.
And this series of posts from the official Socceroos account on the grassroots journeys of their players, tagging their first clubs and all, is so good! In Mohamed Toure’s case, that story also intertwines with that of his family’s coming to the country.
Oh, how I wish they’d have won that game last Friday. 🥲
Lastly, their players are sporting Unwanted FC’s reworked boot bags and wash bags. How can you not like a team that wears upcycled gear by an Aussie indie brand?
I’ve chosen my second place; it’s gonna be an all-green-and-yellow podium this year. 💛💚
🇧🇷🇭🇹 Have you ever heard of the love story between Brazil and Haiti’s national teams? (The top comment of this post is almost better than the post itself, by the way). What I remember most about 2004 isn’t even the match itself, but the images shown on Brazilian TV of the insane reception that our players got from the crowd when arriving in Haiti — I don’t really remember seeing anything like that in Brazil.
🇨🇮 Yan Diomande’s heartbreaking but brutally honest letter to his late little sister. I appreciate when footballers dare to show us other sides of their personalities, because that’s usually where the good football hides.
🇧🇪 While Belgium player Jeremy Doku got criticised after saying he’d leave the World Cup to attend the birth of his child (um, hello??), there were also good statements and conversations defending his stance. Ben Foster’s and Ollie Watkins’ were two that I came across. Even though this shouldn't even need defending, given the pace things move in the men's football universe, it's good to see these voices saying the obvious out loud anyway.
If you liked this post, come back next week for more spottings of the good football in the World Cup.
THE GOOD LINKS
This Illustration.
A fascinating visual representation of all World Cup footballers’ birthplaces.
Goal nets becoming work of art.
This artist's take on different World Cup matches.
Finland’s first hybrid football stadium, a hopeful sight for the future of football.
COMPLETELY OFFSIDE
Links that are not football-related but still worth sharing.
***section temporarily suspended because everything is about the World Cup now***