From June 14 to July 15, Russia's 11 World Cup cities will host a combined 64 games. Moscow leads the pack as the site of 12 games in Luzhniki Stadium and Spartak Stadium. The capital is also the largest of the World Cup cities, with Saransk's population of 300,000 40 times smaller than Moscow's 12.5 million.
Connor: A combination of being hosts and Saudi Arabia being terrible is enough for a Russia victory
Earlier this week, pop star Ariana Grande announced she was engaged. Immediately everyone on the internet who cares more about the lives of celebrities than their own lives began scouring the internet, searching Google for "Who is Pete Davidson." Or, more accurately, "who is pete davidson," because who has time for proper capitalization?
The Spain vs Portugal World Cup matchup on Friday, June 15, is going to be the battle of who will come first in the group. Both sides have quality in areas where the other does not, in addition to each manager having their own playing styles and drilling that into their players.
De Gea; Odriozola, Pique, Ramos, Alba; Busquets, Thiago, Isco; Silva, Costa, Iniesta
Meet Leon the Chameleon. Throughout the World Cup he will be predicting matches doing the thing he does best: eating crickets. Here he is picking the Group F matchup between Mexico and Germany.
LEON LIKES: Mexico
If you want our esteemed writers' opinions, click here.
Mexico
GK: Memo Ochoa
The pride experienced by the team and the masses of a country for making it to the greatest sporting event in the world is never more on display than during the World Cup national anthems before a match.
The playing of the national anthem is incredibly potent. Hearing the hymn has been a surefire trigger for waterworks on the pitch. It turns strangers into friends as fans croon in unison.
“Let there be light: and there was light.” That’s what God said when he sat down to start crunching out the Bible after a long period of crippling writer’s block, but it easily could’ve been what you said after finally getting your hands on The18’s World Cup predictions. Here you have all your favorite soccer niños trying their damnedest to captivate, stimulate and prognosticate for your reading pleasure.
Who are you cheering for?
In the end, we did it. The joint bid of the United States, Mexico and Canada has been voted co-hosts of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, edging out a Morocco bid that caused everyone to nervously throw up in their mouths for a little while there. Apologies for the unpleasantness, but good grief. After losing out to Qatar in 2022, the worst was certainly feared here.
With less than 24 hours until the start of the World Cup and just two days before Spain takes on Portugal in one of the marquee group stage matches of the tournament, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has announced its decision to fire manager Julen Lopetegui.