OFFSIDE |: Day 11 of World Cup 2026. Lamine Yamal restores Spain’s soul, Cape Verde’s fairytale run continues and Ronaldo’s fanboys are absolutely toxic | Football News:
There is a term in sports called the commentator’s curse. No, that doesn’t mean football fans should listen to Bollywood actors or cricket experts talking about football, but the idea that once a commentator praises a player, he starts playing badly. Now, don’t know what the opposite of that is, but yesterday Offside was criticized Spain for 2,500 passes without a goal in the World Cup, they were likened to the directionless Christopher Columbus, who may have been Italian but turned Spain around when he started looking for the New World and instead of India went to the Caribbean and is still praised for discovering America.An angry La Roja broke the script as their 18-year-old talisman Lamine Yamal showed why he is considered the greatest player of this generation and many more. Pundit Guillem Balague called it a mixture of “arrogance and confidence” and revealed that Yamal plays international football the same way he plays “five-a-side” on the streets.Wayne Rooney, who knows a thing or two about being a wunderkind, pointed out that when Messi came to Barcelona,Yamal became the seventh player to score in a World Cup before the age of 19, evoking memories of a young Brazilian player called Pele at the 1958 World Cup, but that was not what made the world smile. Forty-one seconds into the game, he got Johan Cruyff’s heavenly agree by pulling a Cruyff turn, and his 10th-minute finish laid the foundation for Spain’s dominance.Meanwhile, Cape Verde continues its volcanic form, although their first goal is for the wall in Uruguay. divided like the Red Sea to let Kevin Pina’s ball enter. Maybe this is a crazy tactic by Marcelo Bielsa that the fans don’t understand. Uruguay pulled two goals back, but we again saw some collective El Loco character when a poor pass saw the Uruguayan keeper run into no man’s land, allowing substitute Helio Varela to sprint in, take a first touch ahead of the keeper and shot from outside the boxcausing pandemonium among Cape Verdean players and supporters.
Bielsa’s fans often argue that he has more passion than results, but as things stand, this Uruguayan team does not and will need a miracle to reach the next round. Not the Cape Verdeans, however, who, along with Curacao, have become the most beloved minnow team in this World Cup.Punjabis like to say Singh is the King, and there was a Singh playing for New Zealand, but it was the return of the King as Mohamed Salah and Co finally broke through. Egypt’s World Cup duck to give the Pharaohs their first World Cup victory, breaking a 92-year drought. Before the match, only Honduras had played more World Cup games without a win, but Egypt will not be happy with just one victory and want to go deeper into the tournament.And finally, we saw the decline of Belgium’s Golden Generation in real time as they served a goalless draw with the “most oppressed team” in the World Cup. Iran played under terrible conditions that required them to fly back to Mexico on the same day as their match.Iran’s opposition to American hegemony has already garnered praise from around the world, including those highly critical of the regime, but the group has shown a resilience that characterizes an ancient civilization, illustrated in another instance of goalkeeping magic. When Kevin De Bruyne controlled the ball with a wonderful first touch before setting up Maxim De Cuyper, a goal seemed inevitable then. Alireza Beiranvand ran to the left hand to stop the ball from crossing the line. Like the slogan of Remember the Titans. Left side, strong side.
View Day 12
The matches of the 12th day will see the performance of Lionel Messi back on the road as they face the country that exports the most famous Germans in the world. Austria. Messi’s hat-trick against Algeria, much to the dismay of Ronaldo’s fans, has become the main talking point of the World Cup, and he will become the top scorer of the World Cup if he scores against Austria in Dallas. Ralf Rangnick’s Austria are no pushovers.
Artist Jose May, aka Joe Skilz, works on a mural of Argentina star Lionel Messi in Dallas on Friday, June 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Thomas Peipert)
France, the other favourites, took on Iraq and looked like a threat against Senegal after ‘dictator’ Mbappe went into World Cup mode. After being hammered by the weapon of mass destruction and Targaryen descendant Erling Haaland, Iraq has the awkward task of facing the most dangerous attack in the World Cup in Mbappe-Dembele-Olise.Jordan faces Algeria, with both hoping to keep their hopes of the World Cup alive, but the match of the day is Norway against Senegal, where the Nordic side will look to prove that they have finally arrived as a footballing nation. While Haaland is already sui generis, he is not the only talent of the generation, along with Odegaard, Sorloth, Nusa and others.Norway coach Stale Solbakken poured cold water on any complacency, including a mathematical model that predicted the country had a 99% chance of qualifying for the knockout round. One hundred thousand simulations by the Norwegian Computing Center, an independent non-profit, said that Norway’s qualification was inevitable, but Solbakken left nothing to chance, including making sure that their players did not have to suffer through American fast food by sending 500kg of seafood, 116kg of brown cheese and 6,000 oranges, which experts estimated what Haaland’s diet was.
Goalkeeping Masterclasses:
There was some talk about the new ball being difficult for goalkeepers to handle, but we also saw a World Cup where the saddest numbers in football were encouraging. Cape Verde’s Eloy Room single-handedly kept Ecuador at bay with 15 saves. Curacao’s Vozinha kept the Spanish matadors at bay, and even a late double save by Raul Rangel preserved Mexico’s lead against Japan to help the co-hosts qualify. While the goalscoring in this tournament is exceptional, so is the goalkeeping.
Iran’s goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand (1) makes a save during the World Cup Group G soccer match between Belgium and Iran in Inglewood, Calif., near Los Angeles, Sunday, June 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Jayne Kamin-Oncea)
OUT OF PLACE: Social Media Dystopia:
The internet age is supposed to be about enlightenment, but instead it seems to show why Scott Adams said we are a civilization of six billion ninnies designed by a few thousand savants. Because the same species that designed the internet and almost everything we take for granted is also one where a player and his partner are targeted just for expressing a basic thought.
Who is João Neves’ girlfriend? All about Madalena Aragão as the Portuguese star shines at the World Cup 2026. (Image via Getty Images)
For those lucky enough to have a life where they touch grass instead of hash(tags), here’s what happened. After the match against DR Congo, Joao Neves was asked about Ronaldo and he said: “We know what Cristiano Ronaldo has done for our national team and for the world of football.“However, the quote was linked on social media to say that Ronaldo is an “ordinary” player, which is respectful based on what we saw of him in the opening game in Portugal, as Ronaldo is more below average and more like a sheep than the GOAT his fans claim.Neves’ Instagram account was soon flooded with hate from Ronaldo’s fanboys, who also attacked Neves’ teammate Madelena Aragao. Some miscreants even cooked up a fake quote in Aragao that said, “tell your GOAT to retire”. Even Ronaldo’s partner, Georgina Rodriguez, fell for the quote and wrote: “Wow! Look how the future generations are raised!” However, Rodriguez later realized it was a fake quote and quickly removed it.The incident reminds of the toxic side of fandom, which, thanks to social media, fueled by easy AI tools, continues to destroy the beautiful game.PS: While toxic fandom is one of the worst things about social media, one of the best things is memes. Richard Dawkins’s coinage of the cultural parallel to genes as the unit of cultural transmission is really the best way of human communication. So, by popular demand, here are some of the best memes of the day.
Viewing Meme:
And finally, the best of all. The VAR referee during Iran vs Belgium.
PS: Thanks to Twitter users @vish0890, @vinit_shenoy, and @n_aficionado for their submissions. If you have memes to submit, tag @nonsensicalnemo and use the hashtag #TOIOFFSIDE.
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