WC 2026 shows why football, with joy and sorrow, remains a global pulse 

Football is life. No other global game captures the heartbreaks, the joys, the tears, the desperation, the drama, the sorrow, and the pure exhilaration like the beautiful game. Take Iran. People are already calling them the unluckiest team in football. Just before the World Cup, the country was pummelled by US and Israel. There was little clarity whether the Iranian football team itself would be allowed to travel to US for the tournament. Then their training base was shifted from Arizona to Tijuana in Mexico. There were restrictions on their transit to US cities – the team forced to come into US just a day before their first two group matches, and leave immediately after the games. 

Plus, Iranian fans in US stadiums were the most divided lot. Many turned up for the matches not to simply encourage their team, but also to denounce the Iranian regime. And yet, the Iranian team was a whisker away from qualifying for the knockout stages. Not once, but twice, there was heartbreak. First, a winning goal was denied against Egypt with scorer Khalilzadeh being ruled offside by millimetres, by VAR.

Iran could have still gone through. And Algeria’s late goal against Austria – which many hailed as Algeria’s 44-year-old payback for the Disgrace of Gijon – had the Iranians qualifying. But in the dying seconds, Austria equalised to dump the Iranians out. Absolutely gutting. But then there’s the fairytale story of Cape Verde – the tiny African island nation that few had heard of before the World Cup. It is now the smallest country to make it to the knockout stages of the tournament, among the nine out of 10 African sides to go through. Goalkeeper Vozinha became an overnight sensation. His mother, who couldn’t afford a visa to US but was later helped by a Chinese businessman, is part of a story that has entered World Cup lore. This too is the beautiful game. It makes us cry – both happy and sad tears.

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