Vintage

If you didn’t hear about Argentina’s result Thursday, well, they lost. Badly. 3-0 to be precise. Croatia played them off the pitch, with Argentina’s manager Jorge Sampaoli almost sprinting back to the dressing room to escape everything and everyone, realizing his team could become one of the biggest World Cup chokers of all time.

Argentina now needs to defeat Nigeria if it wants any chance of making it out of the group stage. If they don't, they could join some pretty big teams who have flunked out of the World Cup much earlier than they would have liked. 

The World Cup will be held in Russia for the first time ever this coming month. Four World Cup participants in particular will be quite pleased the tournament is scheduled for summer, because all good historians know it’s impossible to conquer Russia in winter (unless you are the Mongols, who didn't qualify). Germany, France, Sweden and Poland have all failed invasions of Russia in their past, so they’ll hope history doesn’t repeat itself when July rolls around.

Who is the greatest soccer player of all time? A question as difficult to answer as who is the greatest president, scientist, inventor, composer, actor, writer, poet, painter, musician or comedian, a near impossibility to narrow it down to just one human being amongst that elite few that we recognize as not just “great,” but “the greatest.”

Everyone knows the World Cup really gets going once the group stage ends and the knockout rounds begin. While plucky underdogs can get to the Round of 16 and maybe even the quarterfinals, the World Cup bracket is where the big boys make names for themselves. 

Everyone loves a bit of trivia. Granted, we might not be very good at it, but it’s a fun thing to do. Given that the World Cup is right around the corner, we’ve come up with 18 interesting bits of trivia about this year’s World Cup that you can use to impress your friends, parents, neighbours and even your dog if you want. So, without further ado, here's 18 interesting facts about this World Cup that you didn't know.

It’s the big one, and it kicks off in just three weeks time. The 2018 FIFA World Cup will implant heroes and villains into the global conscious as 31 nations fall by the wayside and one becomes legend. This summer will mark the 21st edition of the tournament, so there’s an abundance of choice for the top World Cup players of all time.