Hey all, I want to introduce you to Bradley Locker, who’s going to be helping out with writing the On Deck section of the newsletter. He’s off to a good start — 80-ish two-sentence previews of World Cup games to go!
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Today’s Lineup
A 40-year-old star is born
More Messi magic
A full World Cupdate!
🇨🇻 Cape Verde wins, 0-0 🇨🇻
🇨🇻 Cape Verde: 0
🇪🇸 Spain: Also 0
Monday proved once and for all to any soccer non-believers that a 0-0 draw can be one of the greatest sporting events you’ve ever seen. In Cape Verde’s World Cup debut, they faced a massive uphill battle against the World Cup favorites, Spain. One team had aspirations of winning the whole thing; the other seemed just happy to be there — the country’s president said that simply qualifying for the tournament was Cape Verde’s greatest accomplishment since achieving independence in 1972.
And yet, after 90 minutes, they were equal. Cape Verde held Spain at bay with two halves of courageous, hair-on-fire, backs-against-the-wall defense. They were anchored by seven saves by 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha, who played like he would die if the ball hit the back of the net.
I don’t know if it counts as an upset if nobody wins. But it’s one of the most miraculous results in World Cup history.
Quick summary: Spain entered the World Cup as favorites after winning the 2024 Euros. Cape Verde was playing in their very first World Cup game. The Athletic ranked them first and 44th out of the 48 teams in the World Cup. Cape Verde’s population of 490,000 would make it the seventh-largest city in Spain.
Vozinha has spent his whole life playing anywhere they’d take him: Moldova, Cyprus, Slovakia, and Angola. He wasn’t able to become a full-time pro until he was 25 years old. He spent this season with Chaves, a mid-table team in the Portuguese second division. They ranked as the 58th-best league in the world. They averaged about 1,400 fans this year. He just played the game of his life in front of, oh, let’s say a billion. (A few hundred million, at least.)
Vozinha had about 50,000 Instagram followers before the game; he now has over twelve million. (Apparently they put his account on TV during the game in Brazil.) Remember, fewer than 500,000 people live in Cape Verde! He’s literally followed by 24 times his own country’s population! It’s the beauty of the World Cup: You can become the most famous person in your country’s history in a few hours.
It wasn’t just Vozinha, by the way. The Cape Verde defense played a commendable, immensely well-disciplined game. Despite being in defense for virtually the entire game, they only committed one foul, which had never been done before in a World Cup game. Spain, which had possession for most of the game, committed ten fouls. For comparison: There wasn’t a single game in any Big 5 European league this year where any team committed one or zero fouls. The most disciplined team at the 2022 World Cup committed an average of 8 fouls per game. It’s truly remarkable that the Cape Verdean defense was able to be so clean and composed while committed to such desperate defending.
Absolute scenes in … Boston! There are over 100,000 Cape Verdean-Americans in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, part of a major diaspora whose population is nearly as large as the population on the islands.
Stunningly, Cape Verde now has hope to actually make it out of the group stages. The Athletic gives them a 52 percent chance to make it out, heavily dependent on their final match against Saudi Arabia.
In the early going, the 48-team World Cup seems … good! I’ll put up with some 7-1 clunkers like the Curaçao-Germany game if it brings us moments like this.
Vozinha means “granny” in Cape Verdean Creole, a nickname he got because kids used to make fun of him for going home to his grandparents when he got upset. His birth name is Josimar José Évora Dias, the first name coming from Josimar, a player who broke out and scored two goals at the 1986 World Cup, during which Vozinha was born.
His dad apparently initially tried to name him after Jorge Valdano, who scored two goals for Argentina on June 2, 1986 — and Vozinha was born on June 3, 1986. But Cape Verdeans weren’t allowed to use non-Portuguese names, so it got rejected, and he replaced the name with a Brazilian who also shone at the 1986 World Cup.
And perhaps that’s the biggest way of explaining what Vozinha has just done. 40 years ago, a guy scored a goal in the World Cup, and it seemed so spectacular and important that the next day, a new father on a tiny island thousands of miles away proudly named his baby boy after the man from the TV. In 2026, Vozinha was that man doing something spectacular in the World Cup. Perhaps today, in maternity wards across the globe, there are little Vozinhas and Josimars being born as well.
🇦🇷🎉 Messi Gets Klose 🎉🇦🇷
🇦🇷 Argentina: 3 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷
🇩🇿 Algeria: 0
On June 16, 2006, in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, an 18-year-old Lionel Messi with no tattoos or facial hair scored his first World Cup goal. The country he scored against, Serbia and Montenegro, is now two countries.
On June 16, 2026, in Kansas City, Missouri, a 38-year-old Lionel Messi scored a hat trick to tie Miroslav Klose’s all-time men’s World Cup goalscoring record. Two of them were legit
10 years after his first World Cup goal, Messi “retired” from international soccer, frustrated by a string of losses in major finals. 10 years after that, Messi is in the midst of one of the greatest international runs of any player ever. How much more magic is left?
Messi is not only tied for the all-time goalscoring lead in World Cup history, but also tied for the all-time lead in assists with eight. (At least FIFA started tracking the stat in 1966.) With his next goal, he’ll pass Germany’s Miroslav Klose; with his next assist, he’ll pass Diego Maradona. He entered the match tied for most goal contributions (goals plus assists) with Pelé, who had 15 goals and six assists; now he’s three clear of the legendary Brazilian.
This is probably all pretty tough to read about for Brazilians (Messi … passing Pelé … Maradona … thinking about when Klose scored his 16th World Cup goal) so I’ll just mention that Marta remains the all-time leading goalscorer in the women’s World Cup with 17.
It’s the first hat trick Messi has scored in the World Cup, and the 55th hat trick in World Cup history. Messi has zero hat tricks in 14 matches for Inter Miami this year, which confirms what we all knew: Major League Soccer is more difficult than the World Cup.
The three goals came against Algerian goalkeeper Luca Zidane, the son of French great Zinedine Zidane, who was still playing for Real Madrid when Messi started his career at Barcelona. It’s the second son Messi has met this World Cup; he seemed delighted to learn one of his opponents in a friendly against Iceland was the son of a former Barcelona teammate.
Also putting on an iconic performance late in his career: Argentine-American commentator Andrés Cantor, who put together a combined 76 seconds of GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL calls on Messi’s three goals. It feels like he’s lagging a bit — he had several 40-second GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL calls in 2022 — but still a phenomenal performance at 63 years old.
Messi also set a record just by taking the field Tuesday: He has officially played in his sixth World Cup, the most of any player ever. Now, Ronaldo is going to tie that record today, but, whatever: Ronaldo only has eight career World Cup goals and Messi scored seven in 2022 alone.
Messi is 38, so it’s fair to assume this is his last World Cup. But he still seems like the best player in the world, a one-man attack capable of ripping through any defense with his playmaking and his goalscoring.
Is it possible Messi sticks around for another four years? Maybe! Remember: The 2030 World Cup is set to kick off with a series of matches in South America to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the World Cup, including a home match for Argentina in front of 100,000 fans at Stadio Monumental in Buenos Aires. I could see Messi going for another few years of MLS ball and a grand send-off at home.
Which makes the matter of the all-time record interesting. Kylian Mbappe also scored two goals yesterday in France’s 3-1 win over Senegal. (They were also bangers.) Mbappe now has 14 goals, just two behind Messi and Klose, and is only 27, 11 years younger than Messi. Logic says he’ll be around for years to come — but who knows, Messi might be too.
🇳🇴 Norway: 4 🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴🇳🇴
🇮🇶 Iraq: 1 🇮🇶
Erling Haaland made his World Cup debut and scored two goals before halftime. (Looked like he got a third at the end too, was eventually ruled an Iraqi own goal.) He’s got an uphill climb to catch Messi and Mbappe, but remember, he scored nine goals in a U20 World Cup game, so he’s got a shot. Iraq’s Aymen Hussein, who lost his father and brother to a terrorist attack and a kidnapping, got a goal that drove the Iraqi fans in attendance wild.
🇫🇷 France: 3 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷
🇸🇳 Senegal: 1 🇸🇳
We already talked about Mbappe’s goals, so let’s talk about the other important thing to come out of this game: Zlatan’s disrespect for Alexi Lalas growing with each game on the FOX desk.
🇮🇷 Iran: 2 🇮🇷🇮🇷
🇳🇿 New Zealand: 2 🇳🇿🇳🇿
What a joy that this match was played in Los Angeles, the city with the largest Iranian population outside of the country itself. The crowd went NUTS for each of Iran’s goals — pretty much every time they touched the ball, tbh — but the Kiwis got two goals, both scored by Elijah Just and assisted by Chris Wood. New Zealand … Elijah-Wood … there’s a Lord of the Rings joke there that I haven’t figured out.
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia: 1 🇸🇦
🇺🇾Uruguay: 1 🇺🇾
The Saudis were close to their second straight win over a South American team with a blue-and-white flag with a sun-with-a-face on it, but Uruguay finally scored in the 80th minute.
🇧🇪 Belgium: 1 🇧🇪
🇪🇬 Egypt: 1 🇪🇬
The Belgians subbed on massive striker Romelu Lukaku trailing 1-0. 33 seconds later they scored on a cross intended for Lukaku. (It counts as an own goal, but I’m giving the big guy credit.)
🇦🇹 Austria: 3 🇦🇹🇦🇹🇦🇹
🇯🇴 Jordan: 1 🇯🇴
🇺🇸⚽️ American World Cup Moment of the Day ⚽️🇺🇸
OK, starting to get the sense that a lot of these are going to be about Scotland fans, who have essentially taken over the city of Boston. (It was a nice 250-year span there, between the English controlling Boston and the Scots.)
⚾️🎰 Another Jackpot 🎰⚾️
On Friday Aidan Weiss wrote about how the A’s six-game homestand at Las Vegas’ minor league stadium had revealed another troubling aspect of the team’s upcoming move from Oakland to Vegas via Sacramento: Baseballs hit in the high desert air of Las Vegas go really, really far. Turns out, we were underselling it: In the final game of the 6-game stint in Vegas, the Colorado Rockies came in and scored 23 runs, a franchise record.
THE COLORADO ROCKIES.
SET A FRANCHISE RECORD FOR RUNS
AND THE ROCKIES PLAY EVERY GAME EVERY YEAR AT 5,000 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL
Long story short, Aidan knows (base)ball. Here’s his podcast where he sums up the previous day of baseball in 15 minutes.
🥇🥈 Can’t win ‘em Moll 🥇🥈
At last year’s NCAA championships, Washington’s Hana Moll set the all-time NCAA pole vault championship and won over her teammate and identical twin sister, Amanda; this year Amanda broke Hana’s all-time record to win the NCAA championship, with Hana taking second place. (Arkansas and Georgia won the men’s and women’s team track and field championships, respectively. SEC speed!)
👋 Time to Split 👋
A few months ago, we wrote about Blazers and Hurricanes owner Tom Dundon’s record of being a cheapskate. Dundon’s Hurricanes won the Stanley Cup on Sunday; Monday, Portland head coach Tiago Splitter took a job as the Chicago Bulls’ next head coach after reports that the Blazers had lowballed him. Working theory: Carolina winning the Cup is an absolutely devastating development for the Blazers, as Dundon now has evidence that his cost-cutting measures can win championships.
On Deck is written by Bradley Locker. Let’s start with the not-World Cup!
🇺🇸⛳ U.S. Open ⛳🇺🇸
Thursday-Sunday, on Long Island. (Final round: NBC)
The U.S. Open tees off on Thursday from New York’s Shinnecock Hills. Five different golfers have won the last five, thanks to the USGA’s dedication to extremely difficult set-ups. We loved J.J. Spaun’s win last year.
⚾ Men’s College World Series ⚾
Semifinals Wednesday and Thursday, in Omaha. (ESPN)
No. 16 West Virginia has enjoyed more than just Jello Shots so far in Omaha. (Although they’ve enjoyed at least 20,000 of those.) In their first-ever tournament, the Mountaineers are through to the semis and will face No. 5 North Carolina with a trip to the finals on the line. On the other side of the bracket, Oklahoma and No. 3 Georgia will tussle to earn a spot. We’ll see brothers Kolby and Kyle Branch face off in that semifinal. None of the remaining teams have won since 1994.
🤒😴 Fever-Dream 🤒😴
Thursday, 7:30 p.m., in Indianapolis. (Prime Video)
People like watching Angel Reese play Caitlin Clark! Reese (14.6 PPG, 12.3 RPG) has enjoyed another strong season in powering the Dream to a 9-4 start, while Clark’s Fever are in pursuit of their fifth straight victory. One of those came via a quintessential Clark buzzer-beater from long range.
⚽🌍 World Cup 🌍⚽
🇵🇹 Portugal 🇵🇹 vs. 🇨🇩 Democratic Republic of the Congo 🇨🇩
Wednesday, 1 p.m. ET in Houston (FOX/Telemundo/Peacock)
Congo DR plays in the tournament for the first time since 1974 and is looking for their first World Cup win … or at least their first World Cup goal. Meanwhile Cristiano Ronaldo is playing in his sixth.
🏴 England 🏴 vs. 🇭🇷 Croatia 🇭🇷
Wednesday, 4 p.m. ET in Arlington (FOX/Telemundo/Peacock)
The action stays in the heart of Texas with the 2018 semifinals, which Croatia won. The English have the name brand and a slew of the world’s most famous players. Croatia has 40-year-old Luka Modric … and back-to-back top-3 finishes, something England hasn’t done since 1966.
🇬🇭Ghana 🇬🇭 vs. 🇵🇦 Panama 🇵🇦
Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET in Toronto (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)
Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo is the player to watch here for Ghana, a team which has tortured the USMNT in past World Cups and is thankfully in a completely different group this time.
🇺🇿 Uzbekistan 🇺🇿 vs. 🇨🇴 Colombia 🇨🇴
Wednesday, 10 p.m. ET in Mexico City (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)
Cheers to Uzbekistan on making its World Cup debut, becoming the first Central Asian nation to qualify! The prize? A fairly tough draw with the 2024 Copa America runner-up. The other debuting teams have either scored goals or tied Spain.
🇨🇿 Czechia 🇨🇿 vs. 🇿🇦 South Africa 🇿🇦
Thursday, 12 p.m. ET in Atlanta (FOX/Telemundo/Peacock)
The second leg of group stage play gets underway with this matchup. South Africa is still looking to get on the board after being shut out by Mexico, while we’ve got our eyes on Vladimír Coufal’s massive throw-ins for the Czechs.
🇨🇭 Switzerland 🇨🇭 vs. 🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦
Thursday, 3 p.m. ET in Los Angeles (FOX/Telemundo/Peacock)
In their first matches, Switzerland probably deserved a win against Qatar; Bosnia probably deserved to lose against Canada — but both got draws. Who will take advantage of a wiiiiiiide open group?
🇨🇦 Canada 🇨🇦 vs. 🇶🇦 Qatar 🇶🇦
Thursday, 6 p.m. ET in Vancouver (FS1/Telemundo/Peacock)
Both sides are still seeking their first-ever World Cup victory. If Canada can’t get three points from this one, their home World Cup will be on the verge of disaster.
🇲🇽 Mexico 🇲🇽 vs. 🇰🇷 South Korea 🇰🇷
Thursday, 9 p.m. ET in Guadalajara (FOX/Telemundo/Peacock)
Two winners from the World Cup’s opening day will go head-to-head, and both hope for far less nail-biting in the final minutes. Both are in good shape to advance out of the group … but winning the group is really important!
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