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From Balogun’s red card to an upset run, some of the World Cup’s biggest stories

▶ Watch Video: Argentina beats England to reach FIFA World Cup final

For the past 39 days, fans around the world have rallied behind their national teams, gathering in bars, at watch parties and inside packed stadiums for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. On Sunday, the tournament reaches its climax as Spain and Argentina battle at MetLife Stadium for soccer’s biggest prize. 

Spain is looking to secure a World Cup victory for the first time in 16 years after dominating in the semifinal in a 2-0 win over France on Tuesday. Argentina enters Sunday’s final hoping to become back-to-back champions after a late comeback over bitter rival England on Wednesday, winning 2-1. 

France will play England in the third-place match on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET in Miami.

The World Cup kicked off with excitement in North America last month as the biggest in history with 48 teams competing across 104 matches, hosted jointly across 16 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

The tournament has been marked by major upsets, political intervention and an unprecedented Golden Boot race. Here’s a look at the tournament’s top moments and what’s in store for the final.

Trump’s call for Folarin Balogun red card review

One moment that captivated and shocked soccer fans was President Trump’s call to FIFA President Gianni Infantino to request a review of a red card that was issued to American star striker Folarin Balogun. 

Balogun was given a red card in the team’s round of 32 match against Bosnia and Herzegovina on July 1. He was penalized for stepping on the right ankle of Tarik Muharemović. In World Cup tournament soccer, a red card comes with an automatic suspension for the following game. 

Mr. Trump told reporters that he watched the World Cup match and asked for a review when he learned that Balogun would miss the U.S.’ Round of 16 match against Belgium. 

FIFA reversed the one-match suspension, a reversal that sparked heavy criticism and a failed appeal from Belgium. Balogun was in the starting lineup against Belgium, who trounced the U.S. 4-1 in Seattle.

USA v Bosnia and Herzegovina: Round Of 32 - FIFA World Cup 2026
Folarin Balogun of the U.S. fouls Tarik Muharemovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was later reviewed by VAR and awarded as a red card foul, during the FIFA World Cup 2026 round of 32 match on July 1.

Michael Steele / Getty Images

Balogun said in an interview Tuesday with “CBS Mornings” that while he was happy to rejoin the team’s match against Belgium, he knew it was “going to cause a lot of controversy.”

“When something is not intentional … it should never be a red card,” Balogun told “CBS Mornings.” “So it was just an unfortunate situation and I think, you know, it put a lot more pressure on us than we needed.”

U.S. is last host country to get knocked out of tournament

Energy was riding high among Americans as the U.S. men’s team looked to make it to the quarterfinals for the first time in 24 years, but they ultimately fell short against Belgium in their 4-1 loss in the round of 16. 

It was the fourth time in the past five World Cups that the U.S. men’s team was knocked out at this stage. The team didn’t qualify in 2018.

The U.S. impressed in the group stage with wins against Australia and Paraguay and in the round of 32 over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Enthusiasm among fans was particularly at an all-time high after Balogun’s suspension was lifted, and fans had hopes for the “golden generation” team to carry America to the quarterfinals. 

USA v Paraguay: Group D - FIFA World Cup 2026
Christian Pulisic and Weston McKennie of the United States celebrate their side’s first goal during the 2026 World Cup Group D match against Paraguay at Los Angeles Stadium on June 12.

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images

But it was the U.S. match against Belgium where things started to fall apart. 

American midfielder Malik Tillman was able to even the score after the half-hour mark, but the tie lasted just about a minute before Belgium came back with another goal. In the second half, U.S. goalkeeper Matt Freese wandered a little too far off his post, and Belgium scored again. The USMNT continued to struggle, and star striker Christian Pulisic was later substituted out due to injury.

“I think we were not good enough. It wasn’t our day. We didn’t perform in the way that we’re supposed to perform or show our quality,” USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said. 

Despite the loss to Belgium, the final U.S. match drew an average of 30 million viewers on Fox, making it the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history.

Cape Verde’s Cinderella run

Cape Verde, the third-smallest country to qualify for the tournament, had an unexpected run in its very first World Cup appearance, captivating audiences around the globe. 

In the group stage, the team shocked soccer fans in its opening match by gutting out a goalless draw against tournament favorite Spain. 

Vozinha, Cape Verde’s 40-year-old goalkeeper, went from virtual anonymity to becoming a global star with more than 29 million Instagram followers thanks to his exploits in goal. 

“This means everything for our country,” Cape Verde coach Pedro Leitão Brito said. “We have always said that we wanted everybody to see our country, our team and we have shown organization and braveness and this is proof of what our country is about — resilience and to try to overcome hardships.”

Sidny Lopes Cabral
Cape Verde’s Sidny Lopes Cabral (13) celebrates their second goal during the World Cup round of 32 match against Argentina in Miami Gardens, Florida, on July 3.

George Walker IV/AP Photo

The team went on to finish with a 2-2 comeback against two-time champion Uruguay and a 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia. 

Cape Verde almost pulled off a massive upset against three-time World Cup champion Argentina in the round of 32 after the team canceled out Argentina’s lead twice, but ultimately fell short in extra time, losing 3-2.

“Nobody has to ask where Cape Verde is now,” defender Pico Lopes said. “They know where we are.”

Cristiano Ronaldo and other soccer stars announce World Cup retirement

The 2026 World Cup is the last for many top soccer stars. Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo played his last World Cup match against Spain, where Portugal was eliminated in a 1-0 loss in the round of 16.

In his last tournament run, Ronaldo scored his first-ever World Cup knockout stage goal in the 68th minute of Portugal’s round of 32 match against Croatia. 

“I’m sad to leave the World Cup this way,” he said after the match. “As I said yesterday, I gave it my all, and I leave with a clear conscience. That’s the life of a footballer. You have to move forward.” 

Portugal v Spain: Round of 16 - FIFA World Cup 2026
Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal reacts at the end of the FIFA World Cup 2026 round of 16 match between Portugal and Spain at Dallas Stadium on July 6 in Arlington, Texas.

Chris Brunskill / Fantasista / Getty Images

While Lionel Messi, 39, hasn’t officially announced that this will be his last World Cup, it’s quietly expected to be his sixth and final appearance, a World Cup record for which he is tied with Ronaldo. And the ageless wonder has continued to amaze. Heading into Sunday’s final, he has eight goals in the tournament, tied with France’s Kylian Mbappé for the lead in the Golden Boot race. Messi also set the all-time record for goals in World Cup history with 21. 

Other soccer stars who have confirmed it’ll be their final World Cup include Croatia’s Luka Modrić, Neymar of Brazil, Germany’s Manuel Neuer and Belgium’s Kevin De Bruyne.

“I tried,” Neymar said. “It started here at MetLife Stadium, and I finished here. It is now over.” 

2026 World Cup final to feature tournament’s first-ever halftime show

For the first time in tournament history, FIFA will stage an 11-minute halftime show during the World Cup final with Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira and BTS as headliners. Burna Boy, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel and the PS22 Chorus, alongside Coldplay, will also perform.

The World Cup featured three separate opening ceremonies across the host nations for the first time this year, with performances from Shakira and Burna Boy, Michael Bublé, Jessie Reyez, Katy Perry, Future, LISA from Blackpink, Anitta, Rema and Tyla. 

Mexico v South Africa - FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group A - Mexico City Stadium
Shakira performs during the 2026 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony at the Mexico City Stadium.

Nick Potts/PA Images via Getty Images

Spain and Argentina both have previous World Cup titles

A World Cup win for Spain this year would be the second in the country’s history after it claimed its first and only men’s title in 2010. The Spanish team defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was the only time Spain had ever reached the World Cup final. 

Argentina’s road to the final has not been smooth sailing after the team needed extra time to beat Cape Verde, then made an unexpected comeback to overcome a two goal deficit to Egypt in the round of 16 and beat Switzerland 3-1 in extra time. On Wednesday, the team made another last-minute comeback, beating England 2-1.

Argentina has won the World Cup three times — 1978, 1986 and 2022. If Argentina becomes back-to-back champions, they’d be the third country to do so. Italy became repeat winners in 1938, and Brazil in 1962.

Why is one corner of China’s internet insisting a golden era never existed?

By CNN
Hong Kong (CNN) — Something weird has been happening on China’s internet. One small and vocal corner has been claiming the country’s most famous historical dynasty never existed.That’s the Tang, which ruled China from 618 AD to 907 AD, a period that saw huge territorial expansion, booming international trade and the flourishing of a high culture envied far beyond its borders. Every child learns about the Tang at school; historical dramas inspired by its palace intrigues are a staple of state TV.Claiming that the 300-year dynasty was actually a myth is akin to saying the American Civil War never happened, or telling a Brit that the Magna Carta is a fiction. But in recent months it’s been spreading among China’s very online population, posing a headache for a ruling Communist Party obsessed with controlling how its citizens talk about their 5,000 years of fractious and contested history.It all appears to have started when a history influencer named Qiao Yu deployed some baffling astrological data in a video in May, to “prove” the Tang had never existed.The outlandish claim has since spread far and wide. Reports later emerged that people were calling up the tourism bureau in Xi’an, the site of the ancient Tang capital, to demand it close down because the dynasty itself had been shown to be a hoax.The hashtag “the Tang dynasty doesn’t exist” now has tens of millions of views on China’s X-like Weibo.What motivated the hoax and its spread is hard to pin down. The Tang dynasty has been criticized in the past by Chinese nationalists as its founding emperor was not from the Han ethnic group that makes up most of China’s people. The basis of Qiao Yu’s claim is that the succeeding Song dynasty actually began far earlier than traditionally accepted, therefore canceling out the Tang. The Song dynasty was of ethnic Han origin.“This is basically insane,” said William Kirby, a professor of China studies at Harvard University, adding that there are facts in history and “the Tang dynasty is definitely one of them.”“It was much more than a Chinese dynasty. It was an inner Asian dynasty as well,” he said.As the fallacy spread on social media, China’s powerful and tightly controlled state media waded into the controversy.Many parents say that, thanks to the hoax, their children now feel confused about historical facts, the Nanjing Daily reported last month.Three days later, The Paper, a media outlet affiliated with the Shanghai government, was more strident. “Only when rational inquiry becomes the foundation of public life will historical nihilism truly lose the conditions that allow it to flourish,” it said in a commentary.“Historical nihilism” is a term coined by the ruling communist party that refers to discussion or research that challenges its version of China’s long history. The party itself is a relative newcomer to that story, coming to power in 1949 following a decades-long civil war that tore the country apart.By mid-August the Tang controversy had attracted the attention of the party’s mouthpiece. In an editorial, the People’s Daily called the claim “absurd,” and issued a warning: “Once young people begin to doubt our national history, our cultural confidence will become like water without a source or a tree without roots, and Chinese-style modernization will lose its profound historical perspective.”In recent years, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has tightened the party’s grip on history and sought harsher penalties for those who dare to challenge the official account.Xi himself has publicly evoked the past glory of the Tang. In 2023 he hosted leaders from several Central Asian countries in Xian, the ancient Tang capital and terminus of the Silk Road along which goods and ideas used to flow between China and Europe.The ceremony featured dancers and performers in Tang-style dress, observers noting the nod to a Tang past when foreign envoys came to pay tribute at the emperor’s court.Using the past to criticize the presentFor a thousand years, Chinese people have used reflections on history to reimagine the past, as a creative way to criticize or approach the present.For example, in the economic boom years of the early 2010s, amid growing criticism of the fixation on consumerism and bourgeois lifestyles, the hardships the Chinese people had undergone during Japan’s brutal occupation during WWII became a favored topic for intellectuals, according to Rana Mitter, a Harvard Kennedy School historian specializing in modern China.But that discussion also allowed some to point out that the current discourse didn’t give enough credit to the Kuomintang troops who fought the Japanese – but who were also the opponents of Mao Zedong’s communists, Mitter said.Even though the Tang era was more than a thousand years ago, any suggestion – however fanciful – that it never existed could be an irritant for the party, said Mitter.“Certainly under Xi, the CCP now honors the longer trajectory of Chinese history. This means that all history needs to point in a direction that suggests unified (rather than split) identity, historical and cultural continuity, and an idea of ‘China’ as a long-standing entity that has been continuous through history,” he said.Callum, a 24-year-old Beijing resident, told CNN that questioning the Tang’s existence could be a way to rebel against established wisdom and a way for China’s young – faced with a slowing economy and greater competition for jobs and resources – to criticize authorities.“It is a way for people to attack the established authorities. It is almost like saying ‘those so-called experts are nothing special. They have all been misleading people. I am the one who understands the truth, and I have exposed them all.’”As of mid-August, Qiao Yu’s accounts have been blocked and all of their videos taken down. Any search of Chinese social media questioning if the Tang dynasty existed now pulls up content condemning such lines of reasoning.In its editorial on the controversy, the People’s Daily attempted to have the final word.“Chinese civilization has endured for five thousand years,” it said, “and the Golden Age of the Tang Dynasty stands as one of its most dazzling chapters.”CNN’s Shuai Zhang contributed to the reporting.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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