In partnership with
CS is Free. It does help when subscribers Click on an Advertisement.
Please support CS by clicking on an Ad, no commitment or purchase necessary, takes a second.
THANKS!
FINALS Quick Take 🥇
The fact Tom Cruise didn’t sky dive or rapel into the stadium for the pre-match ceremonies is the second biggest disappointment of the tournament, behind Uruguay’s performance.
Jennifer Hudson’s anthem and outfit - awesome.
Not putting a huge stage on the pitch for the half-time show - excellent decision - and the “floor” they put down was an excellent decision.
Incorporating Haaland and the Norway “Row” - brilliant.
Ted Lasso - subbing in Bieber - with Beard holding the “Believe” on the sub sign - brilliant.
HT just 10 minutes extra. manageable.
The grass looked GREAT - I definitely think the Jets/Giants should tear it out and go back to artificial.
As for the match - see below
FINALS Result 🥇
Spain 1-0 Argentina in Extra Time. The best team won.
The Final felt very different from all the other matches of the tournament. Both sides patient. Not taking too many chances. Any time a side got control of the ball they basically slowed it up and tried to just keep possession, not attack. Messi had no touches in the final third. Spain looked like the more dangerous attacking team and had more chances. Argentina had some chances on the break, but nothing close.
Just felt like Spain was going to score at some point.
0-0 at HT.
More of the same in the 2H. Argentina had some more of the ball, but Spain just felt more in control with more chances.
Biggest stat of the match - no shots for Argentina in 90 minutes. Crazy stat.
Then at 90+3’ Enzo Fernandez took his second yellow card, and he was off the pitch, and Argentina was headed for the 30 minutes of Extra Time with 10 men.
The first fifteen minutes of extra time finished scoreless, but Spain found the net on a nice play in the box right out of the break.
Spain 1-0.
Argentina actually created more chances than they had all game and had some good chances to tie it up, but they didn’t.
And the team that did not have the flash, the big goal scorers, or the hype finished where they started the tournament, #1 in the World.
Rodri wins the gold ball, Mbappe the Gold Boot.
This is not like the back up who wins the Super Bowl MVP by making a great play. The casual fan probably doesn’t know Rodri. He won the award for best player in the world a couple years ago when playing for Man City. Missed a season to injury and now won the Golden Ball as the best player in the World Cup. Not a single goal or assist, just pure dominance in the midfield.
Rodri
Spain WC Champions 🥊🥊
A Look Back 👀
What. A. Tournament. So easy to forget some of the great scenes, results & drama over the last 6 weeks - too many to dive into and to rank, but here’s a list. If the CS had a production budget, we would add music of “One Shining Moment” to the background.
Initial Numbers. HUGE, by all the numbers this WC was an unbelievable success.
Match Attendance - 103 matches, 6.75 Million
Match attendance averaged over 65,000 with 99.7% capacity.
This is BY FAR the most attended WC in history
Fan fests had OVER 8 Million attendees.
120+M Americans watches at least some coverage of the WC (prior to the Finals).
~10M average viewers per match, up over 2X 2022.
50M+ viewers for USA v Belgium, 45+M for England v Mexico (Semi-Final numbers still pending)
FOX USA numbers bigger than any other WC.
Spanish language broadcast numbers in the USA bigger than any other sporting event ever.
Bank of America estimates FIFA WC generated over $20B in economic activity in the USA.
All of these numbers “records” for the event.
SIDE NOTE
Lots of noise around ticket prices, logistics and potential for low attendance. What a bunch of crap that was. Feel it is appropriate for CS to call out all the BS “reporting” of the BBC, TalkSport, USAToday, The Athletic, ESPN and others who were spewing narratives. Felt like a lot of the media were rooting against a successful WC.
AND - 48 teams were not too many, some of the best moments of the WC were from teams that wouldn’t have been in a 32 team tournament.
Moments that come to mind - so many get forgotten because there were new ones every day.
Mexico kicked things off June 11 keeping a clean sheet against South Africa, 2-0.
USA thumps Paraguay in LA, Balogun makes a statement with a brace.
We learn of the new rule - Mistaken Identity - as a yellow card is changed from Tim Ream of the USA and given to Almiron of Paraguay for diving.
Tartan Army fans take over Boston, Miami and everywhere they go, but miss the knockout round.
Watch party videos were a sign of things to come in terms of the excitement this WC has brought.
@FreddyLA7 starts blowing up the internet.
The Organje Army and Orange Bus and Netherlands fan marches.
Samauri Blue do what they do, great energy and clean up the stadium after their match.
4 Quarters, don’t like it for the game. But it did generate enough revenue to cover ALL of FIFA’s expenses to put on the tournament.
Vozinha, Cape Verde’s goalkeeper, keeps Spain off the board and sees his Insta go from 50k to 4M during the match. The Blue Sharks pull off the first major surprise of the tournament holding the favorite to 0-0 result.
The stars show up in the first week with Mbappe, Haaland and Kane scoring 2 goals each.
Messi says “hold my beer” with a hat trick.
Congo DR draws Portugal 1-1, another surprise of the tournament.
All 4 teams new to the WC scored a goal - Uzbekistan, Jordan, and Curacao.
5th red card given - more than the 4 given in 2022 and in 2018.
Canada wins their first ever WC, with American Jessee Marsch at the helm.
USA takes down Australia.
Country Roads takes center stage.
We learn of the “Don’t say racist sh*t rule” as Almiron covers his mouth in a confrontational exchange and is given a red card.
Lumumba Vea, the Congo DR’s “human statue” makes his appearance at the WC.
StubHub starts taking heat, and rightly so, for not delivering tickets to legit buyers.
England struggle in Massachusetts, again, this time with a 0-0 draw with Ghana 250 years later.
Norway debut’s their al-black kits with 1200+ year old numbers.
Norway’s “ROW”.
USA loses late to Turkey with their backups, slight set back, but winners of Group D.
Ecuador shock Germany and earn a spot in the knockout.
Australia get it done and finish second in Group D.
Cape Verde draw all three matches, enough to finish second in the group.
Uruguay is the surprise team not to advance to the knockout.
8 third place teams advance to knockout, every team to advance had earned 4 points but one, Senegal advance with 3 points and a 2-goal differential.
In a match where both sides needed a draw, fireworks in Seattle as Algeria and Austria go for the win and score 2 goals after 90+3’. The match ended in a draw and knocked Iran out of advancing.
Africa exceeded expectations advancing 9 of their 10 teams to the knockout.
Asia flopped advancing 1 of 9.
The pageantry and production of the pregame was brilliant, FOX coverage really good too. Match Announcers, average.
USA 2-0 Bosnia-Herzegovina, gritty win.
Connected Ball Technology - cool in concept, questionable in practice.
Match of the tournament to this point - Cape Verde take Argentina to Extra Time - but fall short just before penalty kicks.
Germany can’t decide who will take penalty kicks and get knocked out by Paraguay.
Netherlands decide not to play their game and don’t look confident losing in penalties to Morocco.
Japan take the lead on Brazil, but lose out at 90+6’.
Balogun takes a red card for the USA, gonna have to sit out the round of 16 match against Belgium.
Not so fast - Article 27 is used to reverse the call - VAR got VAR’d.
USA get thumped against a very motivated Belgium.
Norway take out Brazil.
Match of the Tournament to this point - England take out Mexico at Azteca playing 60 minutes with 10 men.
Wonderwall fires up all the British fans.
Match of the Tournament to this point - VAR controversy as an Egypt goal is taken off the board after VAR reviewed a foul on the other end of the stadium almost 90 second earlier. Argentina scores 3 goals after 80’ to win in regulation 3-2.
Europe show their dominance with 6 of 8 quarterfinalists and 3 of 4 semi-finalists.
England take out Haaland and the great Norway “Row”.
Magic again for Argentina as they score 2 late goals in extra time to take out 10-man Switzerland 3-1.
Spain take out France. Lowest energy feeling of the knockout round.
Panning to celebrities during play on the coverage, D minus.
Best energy of the tournament with the rivalry of England Argentina in Miami.
Argentina and England drown out each other’s anthems.
England completely stop playing at 55’ and bunker in with the 1-0 lead, and it’s ALL ARGENTINA who score 2 to advance. Another instant classic.
The match nobody wanted to play was a great watch, England 6-4 France.
Mbappe gets 2 goals and pretty much secures the Golden Boot.
Spain take it to the reigning WC champions, and win the World Cup.
One Shining Moment Like version for the WC - Watch Here. A nice reminder, but too much yelling and the song just doesn’t hit.
Turn Predictions Into Profit—Get $10 Free
Watching sports just got a lot more interesting...
On Kalshi, you can take a position on real outcomes — who wins, season milestones, major matchups. If you know sports, you already have an edge.
Buy "Yes" or "No" shares on what you think will happen, and earn returns if you're right.
No house. No bookie. Just the market.
You're trading peer-to-peer against other users, with fully transparent pricing. Cash out anytime. You don't have to wait for the final whistle.
Trade responsibly.
