Despite all of the attention surrounding the controversy of a tournament in North America, an updated 48-team tournament, and “hydration breaks”, football fans were in for an absolute treat with one of the most memorable group stages in the history of the FIFA World Cup. There was no shortage of underdog stories, failures, and big moments from the first phase of the big tournament. Let’s dive into the biggest winners and losers of the group stage.
Winners
Cabo Verde
The cinderella story of the tournament without a doubt.
While DR Congo is making a wonder run of their own, Cabo Verde has stolen the hearts of fans across the world with an outstanding defensive effort. Coming out of the gates forcing Spain into a draw was a miraculous result and now this side has the potential to shock the world when they play Argentina in the Round of 32.
Lionel Messi
The argument on who is the greatest player of all time gets simpler each day. While Cristiano Ronaldo’s ability to score in big matches for club is inarguable, Lionel Messi has silenced any haters who claim he is retiring early by playing in the MLS. The Argentian is still world-class without a doubt, and has been simply unstoppable at the World Cup so far.
With quite possibly the easiest path to the World Cup final of any team in the knockouts ahead of Argentina, Messi and his teammates could be well on their way to defending their title with a consecutive World Cup win.
Denis Undav
One of the greatest stories in football this year has been Denis Undav’s performance for VfB Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. That success has finally translated to the national team, where he has been an elite option for Julian Nagelsmann coming off the bench. With the best goal contributions rate of any player at the tournament thus far, Undav has proved his worth at defeating tired legs.
While Undav will likely remain in that role for the rest of the tournament, there are few greater at Undav at the moment for being that super sub player. When you consider he was playing in lower division football just a handful of years ago, his story is that much more impressive.
Canada
The Great White North is known for their talent in hockey, not football. However, hosting a World Cup was an unprecedented opportunity for the country, and they made sure to take advantage of it. Despite a loss on the final matchday of the group, they arguably dominated in each match they played, with 8 goals to show for their efforts.
While they aren’t expected to go far, they have a chance to continue their miracle run in the knockouts, although they have already made history by qualifying for the knockout stage for the first time in their history.
Travelling fans
Perhaps the biggest winners of this World Cup have been the travelling fans. After back-to-back World Cup hosts where fans didn’t exactly all feel welcomed in, the travelling fans have seemingly had a blast this summer so far. While it hasn’t been perfect, viral clips of Scottish, German, and other fanbases have been spreading like wildfire across the internet, and for good reason.
It is great to see fans having a great time together, sharing memories that will last a lifetime. It is time to remember what football is really about. Bringing people together.
Losers
Uruguay
The squad came into the World Cup with well-known boss Marcelo Bielsa leading the squad from the sidelines, and left with shame. In a favorable group that contained Saudi Arabia and Cabo Verde, it seemed like a sure thing to at least qualify, or perhaps even top the group.
What happened was truly miserable with an all-time poor goalkeeping performance and general cluelessness on the pitch. Uruguay failed to win a single match and it seems like the team completely abandoned their manager in the last 30 minutes of their final match.
Türkiye
The young talented squad was expected to do big things this tournament in North America, with one of the easiest groups in the tournament. Despite their draw luck, they completely blew it by dropping points against what should be simple matches for the Turkish side. Worst of all, they lost to Paraguay despite the South American side being down to 10 men for over half of the match. Ouch.
Germany
Germany could easily fit on either side of this discussion. A statement win on MD1 and a hard-fought comeback win against Côte d’Ivoire gave hope to the nation and allowed them to qualify for the knockouts for the first time since they won the tournament in 2014.
However, Julian Nagelsmann opted to field his starters against Ecuador, and even with the best talent on the pitch, failed to beat Ecuador in embarassing fashion. While first place was already secured, it gives the impression that Germany are once again beatable, and a hard bracket for Germany with a potential opponent of France in the Round of 16 could mean an early exit once again.
Kenan Yıldız
The German born superstar who opted to play for Türkiye might be looking back on this World Cup for a number of reasons. The first of which is that his home country is now advancing to the Knockout stage while Türkiye came dead last in their group, a massive underperformance based on the squad’s quality.
The more important of the two is that Yıldız took a whopping 14 attempts on net at the tournament, hitting the target once, without a single goal scored. While Germany would certainly be happy to have the player, he has certainly not impressed this summer.
Luis de la Fuente
The Spanish coach is on the hot seat, which absolutely no one expected. Despite topping the group, Spain has look liked a shell of the team we saw at EURO 2024. Seemingly none of their top players are performing at the expected level and if Spain can’t find their form soon, they might suffer an exit far before many expected. They were the top favorites before the tournament alongside France but it does not seem like that is the case at the current moment.
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