Though I’m not as big a football fan as Ricky Dakay, Rodney Orale, Chad Songalia or Monico Puentevella, I’ve been watching the World Cup games every time it’s played. More than 32 years ago, when Jasmin was still my girlfriend, we stayed up the entire night talking on the phone while watching Brazil beat Italy in the 1994 penalty shootout classic.
For these 2026 World Cup games, I’m reliant on the YouTube highlights early each morning. What have we all witnessed?
Goals galore! This World Cup is the 23rd edition of the planet’s grandest sporting event. And, guess what: an average of three goals is scored every game. That’s a 25% increase compared to four years ago. For me, this is very good. But why is this happening?
First, the expansion. There are 48 teams joining instead of 32. This means plenty of mismatches. The latest team entries are discovering that qualifying is one thing; but stopping Lionel Messi (who scored his sixth goal yesterday) or Kylain Mbappe is far more difficult. The soccer greats are facing goalkeepers and defenders who are not that used to dealing with world-class finishers.
Second: the ball. The official FIFA ball was designed with deep seams for stability. But how do the players feel about it? They say it’s flying like a missile. Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said this: “This ball is as fast as a cannonball. If you kick it in the right position, it’s extremely difficult to save.” Plus, when we add the humid conditions, these make for a good number of long-range shots from outside the penalty area.
Third, the Golden Boot rivalry. The Golden Boot is a prestigious honor given to the top goalscorer of the tournament. And, in this case, there’s no grander event than the World Cup. As of this writing, Messi has 6 goals; Mbappe, Erling Haaland, Vinícius Júnior and Ousmane Dembélé have four apiece.
With the most goals scored in WC history, it’s Messi who holds this distinction with 19 total goals spanning six World Cups. But not far behind is Mbappe with 16 goals. We expect Argentina and France — the finalists four years ago — not only to advance in the later rounds but also for Messi and Mbappe to score more goals.
Fourth, longer matches. This year’s World Cup has a new feature: mandatory hydration breaks. What this has done is to increase the stoppage time. More time on the pitch mean more late-game drama. The coach of Colombia (Néstor Lorenzo) had an interesting observation. He said that today’s referees protect attackers far more than they did 30 years ago. Rough play is penalized right away, giving forwards more room to strut their games inside the box without fear of getting hurt.
Five, defensive mistakes and “supersubs.” There has been a big increase in player errors leading directly to goals. And when we combine those defensive meltdowns with the brilliance of utilizing five substitutes — world-class “finishers” who are fresh coming off the bench to attack tired defenders — and you have a recipe for plenty of gooooals.
