A Quail’s Reflections After a World Cup Journey
A Reflection on Family, Football, and the People I Met Along the Way
104 games over 39 days and now it’s over.
La Furia Roja of Spain lifted the World Cup in what was a masterful display of controlled soccer. It was not as thrilling as Argentina’s 3-2 extra time win over Cape Verde or England’s 3-2 victory over Mexico’s El Tri in the fabled Azteca or even the 6-4 goal fest between England and France in the 3rd place game that begged the question, would England have possibly fared better with Bukaya Saka in their line-up against Argentina?
Even without a ton of flair, the final had some history of its own. Spain managed to get through the whole tournament conceding just one goal. They were never behind in a game throughout the tournament and their win in the final was their 38th consecutive match without a loss. There are Spanish players who have won the European Cup and the World Cup without ever tasting defeat even once, a truly remarkable run that looks poised to continue for the foreseeable future.
The 2026 World Cup was many things: record-breaking attendance, number of games, and ticket prices. But as a lifelong fan of the beautiful game, the memories I take are much more special to me than any statistics.
I had the good fortune to attend knockout games with both my son (U.S. vs. Bosnia and Herzegovina) and my daughter (Spain vs. Austria). I felt the collective pride of almost 70,000 United States supporters when Malik Tillman slammed in a free kick to secure their win and advance to their unfortunate loss to Belgium in the following round.
Though my children have been to many soccer games throughout their lives, my daughter chose to support the team of her football crush/idol, Lamine Yamal’s Spain. Wearing Spain shirts, I was quickly reminded that my Spanish is mediocre at best, but as I found throughout the World Cup, there was a kindness and acceptance pervasive everywhere we went.
Even during the team warm-ups, seeing Yamal juggle, I wondered if it was anything like a generation before me watching Maradona do his famous warm-up. That is one of the truly beautiful parts of the game, you never know when you are going to see a little magic or see an incredible talent do something few people on this earth have ever been able to do. There is always a thread that connects the current to the past.
Like many, I am conflicted about Argentina. I have loved watching Leo Messi play since he was a teenager in Barcelona and while he and his team have seemed to get the benefit of more than their fair share of calls historically, it seems the blame Messi gets for this is misplaced.
This is no excuse for what took place during the final. If you have watched even a little South American soccer, you know that teams that are down or overmatched often resort to fouling, diving, time wasting, antagonizing opponents and any other form of shit-housery (a real term you may not be familiar with). Books could be written about Argentina’s abandonment of strong play in support of the negative tactic of doing anything and everything to disrupt Spain’s play.
The scenes after the final whistle tarnish what was likely the last time we will see Leo Messi on the World Cup stage. He deserved more from his teammates and we as fans deserved more. Unfortunately, we don’t always get what we want.
Throughout the World Cup, I had several friends and family members text me about games. Most were curious and had reasonable questions about what they were watching, but I did get a few of the stereotypical U.S. sports fan questions about the lack of scoring, players rolling around after fouls, etc.
I had to remind them that unlike the NFL, soccer has a running clock, so you don’t need three replays of every play and five announcers to explain to you what just happened, you just need to pay attention. I hate the embellishment of fouls as much as the next person, but when the reigning NBA MVP has made a career out of flopping, the historical reasons why soccer has not caught on in the U.S. just don’t hold weight with me.
To be totally honest, I don’t care all that much. It seems kind of cool to me that the most popular sport in the world is almost seen as a niche thing here. It reminds me of the music I love the most, typically trending toward indie, left-of-center bands and artists who may have a passionate following but never break into big stadium or arena acts.
Having a friend group of fellow soccer heads helps and as much as I want others to find the beauty I have in the game, it’s okay if they don’t.
Now that it’s all behind us, what do I take away from the 2026 World Cup?
My new friend Ivan, an immigrant from Ukraine whose pedicab got me out of Levi’s Stadium and back to my hotel quickly enough to grab my daughter and get to San Francisco International Airport in time to make our flight to Los Angeles for the Spain game the following day. The flight was the last one leaving San Francisco, so we needed to be on it if we were going to make the noon game the following day. I gave him a $100 tip because it seemed like a small price to keep the dream alive.
Elias from Austria, who was friendly with my daughter while waiting in a beverage line at SoFi Stadium. Knowing a lot of visitors for the World Cup probably have views of the U.S. based on our current leadership, I have tried to adopt the role of being the best host I possibly can be to visitors from other countries. I paid for his beer since we were in line ahead of him, but when I looked back, my daughter was holding the giant can of Stella Artois I bought for him, so I had to have her run it back to him and ruin the surprise.
More than anything, I’ll take my children who separately thanked me for taking them in ways that conveyed what an incredible and memorable experience they had. For 39 days my world got a little bigger and I am better for it.
Now that it’s over, what do I do? I breathe normally for a little while and check the calendar for the next Sacramento Republic home game and for the start of the English Premier League where my Arsenal will start defense of their first league title in 22 years with three newly-crowned World Cup winners.
Like most sports, soccer can be heartbreaking, but since you never know when you will witness a moment of magic, I’ll keep attending games and following my teams.