“By now, you’ve probably seen images of the 2026 World Cup — the slide shows and reels and supercuts of great moments. (This is how a culture metabolizes a mega-spectacle after it’s over, like forest microbes turning a dead deer back into dirt.) There’s Lionel Messi breaking the all-time goal-scoring record. Erling Haaland leading Norway fans in the Viking row. Messi being tossed into the air by his teammates like a tiny doll. A tsunami of joyful humans flooding the streets of Mexico City. Cape Verde’s goalkeeper Vozinha heroically saving shots by Messi — until inevitably, messianically, Messi scored on him. But I have my own private highlight reel — and it is very different. That’s because this summer, for the first time in my life, I went to see the World Cup in person. Soccer is a perfect sport for screens. It is flat, green, beautiful, geometric, legible. It feels healthy, like eating fresh lettuce with your eyes. It works equally well on a laptop screen or an airplane screen, a screen the size of a building or a tiny screen you hold in your palm. You can watch it closely or just leave it on in the background, like an aquarium. This year, however, I went beyond the screens. …”
NY Times