World Cup 2026 came and went in a fury, but not before drawing in billions of soccer fans from around the world all rooting for their teams in one of the most sprawling tournaments in all of sports! Among them, a teenaged-boy named Emi, living in Southern Spain, was drawn like no other World Cup he has experienced in his 13 years. It didn’t hurt that he had four teams to cheer on: his dad’s Ecuador, his mom’s Türkiye, his birthplace of the U.S., and his now home country of Spain. Though too young to bet, Emi made a deal with his dad, they both might regret – or cherish – for the rest of their lives.
Emi’s game-binging started June 14. In the dead of night, promptly at 1:00 AM due to the at least six-hour time difference with Canada, Mexico, and the U.S., where the tournament took place. This was right after Emi and his family watched Bad Bunny perform in the heart of Madrid. It was Ecuador’s group stage debut against Ivory in Philadelphia. Emi’s Ecuadorian grandfather Mario went with his son, Emi’s uncle, Santiago, to the stadium – a memorable experience regardless of outcome, as it was Mario’s first World Cup game in his 80 years of life. Unfortunately, even though Ecuador played great, Ivory Coast ended up scoring the winning goal in the final minutes of the game to end it 1-0.
The next day Emi and his family drove to Málaga to pick up his Turkish grandparents, who were visiting Spain for the first time. A few hours before, Spain’s national team had its debut against Cape Verde, as Emi snacked on Takis. After a full time, the match ended with a surprising 0-0 thanks to Cape Verde’s amazing goalkeeper known only by his nickname Vozinha. Maybe the tiny island of Cape Verde, in its first World Cup, could become the dark horse everyone roots for?
Though Emi was on the road visiting different cities with his Turkish family, he caught the England-Croatia group stage match at his Airbnb in wondrous Granada. The game was a spectacle with a final score of 4-2 in favor of England and a superb performance by England’s #10 soccer star Jude Bellingham, who is also a starter in Emi’s beloved Real Madrid.
Three days later, the family arrived back home to Sanlúcar de Barrameda. All decked out in red Turkish soccer jersey’s with Turkish wunderkind Arda Güler’s name and number emblazoned on the back, the family was ready to cheer on Türkiye’s second game against Paraguay, even at 5 a.m. the next morning! But two minutes into kickoff, disaster struck for Emi, his dad, his Turkish grandfather, and even his mom, sister, and grandmother, who were also rooting on the red. Paraguayan player Matías Galarza scored the opening, closing, and only goal of the game. Despite Türkiye having 39 attempts at goal, 78% ball possession, 638 passes, and 12 corners kicks, compared to Paraguay’s only 155 passes and 0 corners, they could not put the ball in the net. Paraguay’s dirty antics, including dangerous tackles, wasting time, and overall poor sportsmanship, resulted in a red card in the second half, but even with one man down, Türkiye was unable to equalize. Having lost its first game to Australia 2-0, Türkiye was essentially eliminated.
From that day on, the family that once wore Güler’s jersey with pride and confidence that Türkiye would advance, felt a deep sadness, especially Emi. He went out to draw portraits that afternoon, dedicating his patience and time toward the Turkish national team. Later that night, disaster struck twice and Emi’s unlucky streak continued when Ecuador could not score a goal, despite a strong game, and tied 0-0 with Curaçao. With one game left in their group stage against soccer titans Germany, it seemed Ecuador’s World Cup ambitions had also evaporated.
The next day, Spain played against Saudi Arabia in their group stage. Spain finally brought out young superstar Lamine Yamal, who scored the opener in the 10th minute. Emi and his sister were thrilled, as their love for this Spanish-Moroccan 18-year-old player with a heart of gold was strong. The young star’s first-ever World Cup goal gave Spain the confidence to finish the game 4-0 and secure advancing to the next round. Uruguay played Cape Verde the next day. Emi and his dad were definitely rooting for the crazy underdog Cape Verdians, who also pulled off another upset, also tying Uruguay 2-2. They were now Emi’s dark horse team. Emi took the tie as a “dub” or win and cashed in his first of several late-night “jump-in-the-pool” adventures with his dad. A deal is a deal and they went in at the glorious time of 2 a.m.
On June 25, Emi’s dad’s birthday, Ecuador faced the beast that was Germany in their final group stage, which determined if Emi’s country would advance into the Round of 32. The match kicked off at 10 p.m. as the family was wrapping up dinner at Kammala Restaurant in Rota – about 25 minutes from the house. Despite being in a public place, Emi stood up without hesitation for the Ecuadorian national anthem, as he watched the game on his mobile phone. The game started with a bittersweet moment when Tori Penso, who made history becoming the second woman to ever referee a men’s World Cup match, made a bad call two minutes into the game, allowing a German goal after a clear cleats-to-the-face foul by Deutschman. But the injustice didn’t hold because seven minutes later, Nilson Angulo scored an equalizer for Ecuador. Emi and his dad celebrated wildly at the restaurant, knowing Ecuador might have a chance to pull it off.
They raced at halftime to watch the second half at home, where Gonzalo Plata ended up scoring the winning goal in the 77th minute with the tip of his toe and somehow Ecuador held off a brutal-but-clean German assault for a punishing, nail-biting nearly 20 minutes. Emi and his dad went nuts celebrating – yelling and jumping like crazy. When the final whistle blew, Ecuador successfully entered the Round of 32. Emi and his dad jumped in the pool to celebrate, repeating some combination of “Unbelievable” or “Que Locura” well into 3 a.m. this time.
A day later, Türkiye played against the U.S. in their last World Cup 2026 game. U.S. already had secured their spot among the 32, so the game was largely inconsequential. Even so, when American player Trusty scored in the third minute, as Brad Pitt celebrated from his box seat in the stadium, Emi worried this game could be a repeated of the one against Paraguay or even a blowout by the U.S. squad. But seven minutes later, another young superstar, diamond boy, Arda Güler, scored his first ever World Cup goal and Türkiye’s first goal in this cup. Emi, his mom, and the family again celebrated like crazy despite another 5 a.m. When the final whistle blew, Türkiye officially left this World Cup with a bang after they beat the U.S. 3-2 with a last-minute winning goal, led by Güler after an epic “nut-megging” of the U.S. Team’s star player “Captain America” himself, Christian Pulisic.
Onto the Round of 32, Emi tried to watch every single game through the remainder of the tournament. Brazil knocked out Japan 2-1, and Paraguay shocked Germany and knocked them out in penalties. For Emi and his family, Paraguay's win was an unsuccessful “hate-watch” match, so they’d have to hold off and hope for Paraguay's elimination in the next round.
The night before Ecuador’s match against Mexico, the Ecuadorian team filed a complaint against the tens, if not, hundreds of thousands of Mexican fans gathered around the hotel, where the Ecuadorian squad was staying and kept the team awake all night with cars honking, chants, loud drum playing, vuvuzuelas, and fireworks. It showed on the pitch when Ecuador played the Mexican national team and looked nowhere near as energetic as they did against Germany. Emi and his dad’s team suffered a frustrating 2-0 defeat in the Azteca. Apart from the poor sportsmanship outside the hotel, the Mexican fans were also criticized throughout the cup for crass behavior like booing other countries’ national anthems and screaming “Olé” any time Mexico had possession even at the start of the game, when this chant is usually reserved for the end of the game, once a team has secured a victory and is essentially playing keep aware from the losing team.
A day later Spain beat Austria 3-0, while the U.S. knocked Bosnia 2-0, despite another American star player Folarin Balogun getting a red card. A legend and Emi’s dark horse were knocked out, when Luka Modric played his last game in Croatia’s loss to Portugal, and Argentina barely pulled off their last-minute, 3-2 win against Cape Verde. On the 4th of July, as the saying goes, “Revenge is a dish best served cold,” when Paraguay was finally eliminated by France in the Round of 16, despite their continued “jogo sujo” or dirty game, brutally fouling the French squad and wasting time nonstop. France’s elegant playing proved too much for the South Americans.
Two days later, Emi and his dad again hate-watched Mexico’s 3-2 elimination at 3 a.m. against England. To be fair, Mexico held its own and demonstrated good, clean soccer – unlike Paraguay, for example. But it’s Mexico’s fans that made it difficult to wish them well. Maybe the Paraguayan squad with the Mexican fans would have made a good marriage. Later on, Neymar Jr and Brazil played their last game in a stunning 2-1 loss to Norway with a healthy and punishing Erling Haaland back in the mix. Although Emi and his family celebrated Spain’s 1-0 victory against Portugal, they saluted and bid farewell to the great Cristiano Ronaldo. With Trump tainting U.S.’s participation by calling in a favor with FIFA President Gianni Infantino to allow Balogun to play against Belgium despite his red card the previous game, it seemed justice was served when Belgium demolished the U.S. team 4-1 even with Balogun in the starting lineup. On the other hand, Argentina’s squeaker 3-2 win against a surprisingly superb Egyptian team, felt unjust, after a very controversial decision to call back a beautiful goal by Egypt at a critical moment in the game. It reinforced ongoing conspiracies about FIFA favoring Argentina. First, Maradonna’s infamous “Hand of God” helped Argentina advance and win the Cup 40 years earlier in Mexico 1986. Now, it seemed the “Hand of FIFA” might be at play. Emi and his family booed the refs that clearly seemed to favor Argentina.
In the quarterfinals, France unfortunately beat the underdogs, Morocco, 2-0 to advance to the semis. Spain beat Belgium 2-1. Inspired by Lamine Yamal’s hilarious and viral video-inducing baby brother Keyne and his funny celebration caught on the stadium’s jumbotron, Emi and his dad did their own version of crazy and once again ended up in the pool. England also knocked out Norway 2-1 and Argentina ended Switzerland’s surprising run, 3-1. In the semifinals, Argentina knocked out England 2-1, which was disappointing since it would have been 60 years since England made it to the final. Spain upset France, who looked unstoppable and favored to take the cup, 2-0. Another late-night pool celebration. The stage was now set for the España-ArgenFIFA final. The third-place match between France and England, however, deserves an honorable mention for being one of the most fun and best games of the tournament with an historic 6-4 tally, favoring England. It’s the most goals scored for a third-place match, though Austria-Switzerland in 1954 remains the game with the most goals scored in World Cup history.
On July 19, the day of the final, Emi insisted on NOT watching the match at home and going into the heart of Sanlúcar, his town, instead, among Spanish fans. He found a group of nice Spanish chicas his age, who were kind enough to integrate him into their group. The whole town went crazy when Enzo Fernández was shown a red card front-flipping Spanish player Pau Cubarsí during a dangerous tackle. In the 106th minute of extra time, Nico Williams masterfully headed a cross back into play, as a charging Ferran Torres took the clean shot and drilled it through Argentina’s defense. The ball hit the back of the net and just as quickly the entire town, including Emi and his new friends, erupted in celebration as the goal in extra time sealed the win and crowned Spain World Cup 2026 champions. With Williams and Torres earning Spain their second star on their jersey, the celebrations filled every square inch of the town for the next several hours, including the streets packed with honking cars and Spanish flags of all sizes waving as far as the eye can see. Amidst all the celebration, Emi ended the night having his first kiss. A world cup for him to remember forever.
