Sports

SI:AM | This World Cup Has Been Nothing But Bangers

By Dan Gartland Sports Illustrated

Good morning, I'm Dan Gartland. I don't know what I'm going to do today without any World Cup games to watch.

In today's SI:AM:

Argentina survives

Quarterfinals set

WNBA power rankings

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And then there were eight

Allow me to pose an impossible question: What has been the best game at this World Cup? Argentina-Cabo Verde? Belgium-Senegal? England-Mexico? Brazil-Norway? Algeria-Austria?

They all have a case, but the answer might be the epic comeback that we saw Argentina pull off yesterday afternoon against Egypt. Lionel Messi's side trailed 2–0 with just over 20 minutes left to play but kept their hopes of a World Cup repeat alive with a pair of goals in quick succession to tie it, followed by a stoppage-time winner. (Messi scored the second goal in the 83rd minute with a perfect one-touch finish.)

For the defending champions to struggle so mightily against a team composed primarily of players from the Egyptian domestic league was stunning. But Egypt looked like the better team for much of the game and might have pulled off the upset if not for a couple of controversial officiating decisions. First, Egypt had a goal overturned by VAR in the 58th minute due to a foul committed on the other end of the field. Then, just before Enzo Fernández's winner, Egypt thought there should have been a foul called on Mohamed Salah in the box, but no VAR check was ordered.

Egypt's manager didn't mince words after the match.

"It's all about money," Hossam Hassan said. "They want Messi to stay in the tournament. In football, many things happen off the pitch because of interests. What happened was unfair. Egypt deserved to qualify. We were the better team."

Egypt has every right to be upset, but from a neutral perspective (or the perspective of someone glad to see more Messi), the game was the latest in a series of unbelievable knockout stage matches. Fernández's winner was the 10th elimination game this tournament with a tying or winning goal scored in the 85th minute or later. That list doesn't even include the three games that went to penalty shootouts or Norway's win over Brazil where Erling Haaland's 90th-minute goal proved decisive after a penalty was awarded to Brazil in the 10th minute of stoppage time.

The expanded tournament field and the introduction of the round of 32 meant there were more opportunities for knockout stage drama (16 additional matches, to be exact), but the level of drama we've seen thus far is still outrageous. Only three knockout games had the winning or tying goal scored after the 85th minute in the 2022 World Cup. There were four in 2018. We still have eight more games to go in this year's tournament, which means eight more chances to see something amazing happen.

The expanded tournament field has been an undeniable success. Before the tournament, I was quick to dismiss the 48-team format as just another FIFA cash grab. Make no mistake: FIFA's primary aim was to stuff its pockets by selling more tickets and sponsorships. But the level of play hasn't suffered at all from expanding the number of teams.

Yesterday marked the end of the round of 16, and the eight teams that advanced to the quarterfinals are mostly heavy hitters. The four quarterfinal matchups are all tantalizing in their own right-France vs. Morocco in a rematch of their 2022 semifinal meeting, long-suffering England vs. the unstoppable Erling Haaland and Norway, Spain against a Belgium team at the end of its championship window and the great Lionel Messi against Switzerland-but they'll have a tough act to follow after an amazing start to the knockout round.

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The top five…

… things I saw yesterday:

5. Haissem Hassan's run on Egypt's goal that got overturned by VAR.

4. Royals utilityman Tyler Tolbert's 12th straight plate appearance with a hit, tying an MLB record.

3. The Royals' hilariously dreadful defense that allowed the Mets to score three runs on a dribbler back to the mound. (Kansas City went on to win by the preposterous score of 16–12.)

2. Shohei Ohtani's 300th career homer.

1. Leandro Paredes's tackle to stop a 3-on-2 opportunity for Egypt in the 91st minute.

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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 10:01 AM.

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