The wait is over, the World Cup begins. More red cards than goals, more cups of coffee needed to watch everything in the small hours. Thankfully, there’s a workaround for that and I feel fresh and ready to make sense of the opening night. Issue 106. Go.

Mexico’s part hosting of the 2026 World Cup could not have gone any better on Thursday night. Yes, the kickoff was a few minutes later and Shakira’s hips are starting to lie but from a footballing perspective, it had all the necessary ingredients required.

An early goal, a terrible individual performance, a referee making confusing decisions on the biggest stage of them all. Mexico delivered before and after the opening whistle, South Africa will have wished it was never blown.

A night to forget for Bafana Bafana after losing 3-0 to their Central American counterparts, Sphephelo Sithole now given a slightly different surname across all corners of the globe.

Dreadful positioning which led to Mexico’s opener, dreadful positioning and then a dreadful tackle which led to his red card early in the second half. The game already looking out of reach at that stage, more so once Raul Jimenez nodded home.

The goal which is arguably the bookend of his career after suffering serious injury a few years ago. Nobody knew if he would ever play again after the injury caused in 2021, everyone knew who he was when he doubled Mexico’s advantage in 2026.

The only blot of Mexico’s copybook will be the sending off of Cesar Montes in injury time, his dismissal coming after South Africa were trying to function with nine players, you could argue that the referee struggled to function at all.

A case in point that was reinforced by sending off Themba Zwane and mumbling his VAR-based decision to an audience of billions. So confusing that not even the player in question could first understand that he had been given his marching orders.

An interpretation of the language needed there, a different interpretation of the laws is what we are likely to see in the first couple of weeks of the tournament. Different officials having a different view on how to lay down the law.

Would you have seen all three of these sending offs been given on the opening day of the Premier League? Probably not, but that in itself is what gives the World Cup such a unique flavour. Who is to say that we’ve been doing it wrong all this time?

This one will go down as the battle of Mexico City when referenced 20 years from now. 20 years from now the game could officially be staged across four quarters and that brings me to my next point.

A scheduled break for drinks is nothing new when it comes to football, a necessity when it comes to games being played at ever-increasing temperatures. What is new, is the advertising that has been crowbarred into it.

Thankfully from a UK-based perspective, last night’s coverage on ITV resisted the temptation to go to advertisers. I must admit that was something of a surprise considering, it is easy money and they have already tried picture-on-picture in the Six Nations.

However, the same cannot be said in many other nations. None more so than in the United States. The drinks break is almost mana from heaven when it comes to being able to squeeze another advert into proceedings - FOX even took too long and missed some of the game. Typical!

The thought of a whole 45 minutes without a commercial break is completely alien to broadcasters on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Two additional advert slots for them to utilise, that is going to recoup some of the money spent on acquiring the rights.

A no brainer really within the 2026 World Cup landscape and with the other UK broadcaster being the BBC, it is not something that British viewers will have to contend with.

However, if Sky get wind of all this for the Premier League and drinks breaks are made official, the new norm could well be sponsored by your favourite tech bro and this would only spoil the coverage even more.

Which brings me neatly to my next point

The problem with a World Cup game kicking off at 3am on a Friday morning UK time is that a lot of us have work in a few hours. An annoyance that you just have to deal with now, they are not going to move timezones because of the inconvenience.

However, a lot of people (me included) want to watch the coverage of those missed games but also still generate an air of mystique around the result. How do you wake up the next morning and find out the result of South Korea vs Czechia spoiler-free?

Here’s how:

An app called Spoiler Free Football does precisely that. Click the link of the relevant game and it loads up a YouTube highlights video from either ITV or BBC.

Do this as the first act when you wake up and like me, you can watch the World Cup in a far more condensed manner when required. I watched the Koreans win 2-1 within the space of nine mysterious minutes. Job done.

A good win for South Korea after wasting so many chances, considering the way the results of Group A have landed, this opening night victory should already mean that progress to the Round of 32 is scheduled for Heung min-Son and company.

This is not an advert, I am just sharing the love for a brilliant bit of work. No money has changed hands and even if offered, I would not accept. We need creations like this at times like this. Well played this creator.

The fact that Kieran McKenna has stepped down as Ipswich manager is not the biggest surprise of the summer so far. The fact that he has stepped down to have a break is perhaps more so.

Not long after securing a second automatic promotion to the Premier League in just three seasons, has the Northern Irishman made the decision to put his feet up for the foreseeable future.

Linked with Fulham and Celtic these past few weeks, even whispers of a Tottenham switch had the North London outfit gone down and Roberto De Zerbi decided to not take the baton from the hapless Igor Tudor.

From a supporter perspective, I imagine the feeling is one of “if he was to leave, at least he hasn’t left to go elsewhere” - a softening of disappointment for now but it would be a surprise if McKenna is not back in employment before the end of the 2026/27 season.

Maybe the war of attrition that is the Championship is enough to truly grind you down. Not only that but this is a man who has achieved three separate promotions at Ipswich in the space of four seasons.

The jump from League One through to the Premier League in two seasons was always going to place him on the radar of suitors higher up the food chain, more so after repaying Ipswich’s loyalty after relegation from the top tier.

Internally, McKenna may feel that now is the best time to move on. Protect the stock that you have before what could be another difficult season in the Premier League. Better to be desirable from the outside rather than desiring to get back into work.

As for who the next Ipswich manager will be, they will certainly have big shoes to fill. Bodo/Glimt boss Kjetil Knutsen is currently the bookmakers favourite, Rob Edwards is not far off either.

Which leads me to

Another surprising managerial decision has also unfolded since the last issue of the newsletter, so surprising that Rob Edwards himself did not know he has been sacked as manager of Wolves.

News to him after reading it across Social Media platforms. His move from Middlesbrough back in November hardly seeming worth it after a spell to forget at Molineux.

All the more galling considering the former Luton boss had only just managed to snare Kieran Trippier after his exit from Newcastle - although a three-year deal would have done a lot of the heavy lifting.

Even more so, now that the Championship outfit have announced the signing of Raul Jimenez after his recent departure from Fulham. Talk about bad timing from Edwards’ perspective.

Then again, there was almost a feeling that he was on a hiding to nothing as soon as he took over from Vitor Pereira, relegation to the Championship was already earmarked for a squad that had been shorn of quality.

Low on quality, even lower on confidence. At least by the end of the most recent Premier League campaign, there was a modicum of momentum being formed within the squad. Something to cling on to for the 2026/27 campaign.

Not enough as far as the Wolves ownership are concerned and once again they have opted for a taste of Portugal or at least they hope to announce the appointment of César Peixoto in the next few days.

Another Vitor Pereira style based appointment when nobody really knows who he is, so you just have to trust that he does a good job. The kind of job that is almost a Nuno Espirito Santo Mark II.

Get them out of the Championship and restore a feeling of pride within the Wolves fanbase. Problem is, with the amount of toxicity that is running through that support, I am not sure that is necessarily a given in next season’s second tier.

Right, that’s the end of issue 106 as the World Cup is now just days away.

This isn’t a newsletter that follows the crowd. It sets the lens through which you see the game and more than 220 subscribers are now viewing it through that lens.

Issue 107 drops Tuesday. I’ll be back with the first real distortions once football starts doing what it always does: changing the story faster than it can be written.

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