Wire report
Who would the US need to beat to win the World Cup? Probably only Spain, France and England
Mauricio Pochettino’s team won their group after some impressive performances. But they’d probably need to beat some of the world’s best to claim the title Football Unites the World … in wishing it had paid more attention in applied mathematics class. Or so the Fifa slogan could have been expanded to say, given the mind-warping that arose from the formula for slicing the newly expanded 48-team tournament down to 32 sides for the first knockout round . After all, why do a random draw when you can build a matrix with 495 possible scenarios in order to assign the fixtures for the eight best third-placers? Anyway, what matters is that Mauricio Pochettino’s team will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, and no new format is going to stop us from – in time-honored fashion – speculating wildly about what may happen next while we still have the chance, with the potential for American
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Mauricio Pochettino’s team won their group after some impressive performances. But they’d probably need to beat some of the world’s best to claim the title Football Unites the World … in wishing it had paid more attention in applied mathematics class. Or so the Fifa slogan could have been expanded to say, given the mind-warping that arose from the formula for slicing the newly expanded 48-team tournament down to 32 sides for the first knockout round . After all, why do a random draw when you can build a matrix with 495 possible scenarios in order to assign the fixtures for the eight best third-placers? Anyway, what matters is that Mauricio Pochettino’s team will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, and no new format is going to stop us from – in time-honored fashion – speculating wildly about what may happen next while we still have the chance, with the potential for American
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What happened
According to The Guardian’s linked item, Who would the US need to beat to win the World Cup? Probably only Spain, France and England, Mauricio Pochettino’s team won their group after some impressive performances. But they’d probably need to beat some of the world’s best to claim the title Football Unites the World … in wishing it had paid more attention in applied mathematics class. Or so the Fifa slogan could have been expanded to say, given the mind-warping that arose from the formula for slicing the newly expanded 48-team tournament down to 32 sides for the first knockout round . After all, why do a random draw when you can build a matrix with 495 possible scenarios in order to assign the fixtures for the eight best third-placers? Anyway, what matters is that Mauricio Pochettino’s team will face Bosnia and Herzegovina in the round of 32, and no new format is going to stop us from – in time-honored fashion – speculating wildly about what may happen next while we still have the chance, with the potential for American
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Technology coverage for readers following technology, science, product policy, markets, infrastructure, and the public consequences of innovation. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The linked item is dated 2026-06-27T13:41:00+00:00.
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Source
Primary source: Who would the US need to beat to win the World Cup? Probably only Spain, France and England via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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- Who would the US need to beat to win the World Cup? Probably only Spain, France and EnglandThe Guardian - 2026-06-27T13:41:00+00:00
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