The Athletic has started ranking every match in the 2026 World Cup from worst to best, turning the tournament’s 104 games into a running scoreboard of quality. Stephen Eustaquio already sits in the middle of that project after scoring Canada’s 92nd-minute winner against South Africa, a late strike that gave one match the kind of finish that changes how it is judged.
That matters because the list is not built on reputation or name value. It is being shaped by the details that usually decide whether a game lingers in memory or gets forgotten: shots, expected goals, fouls, possession and the moment the score turned. One match had 44 fouls and only four shots on target from 24 attempts, while South Africa’s loss to the Czech Republic came with just three shots worth 0.07 expected goals after an error opened the door.
The range is wide. Scotland won its first World Cup game in 36 years, England hit the post and Harry Kane blazed a good chance over, and the Mexico City atmosphere in one match was described as incredible. Raul Jimenez scored in one of the games in the ranking, Ghana opened one first half with no shots on target, and Australia showed a burst at the start and the end of a draw that was enough to keep it in view. Spain’s winner also arrived after Fernando Muslera’s error, while Uruguay was eliminated after a game described as a hard watch.
Canada’s place in the project is not built on one clean night alone. Sead Kolasinac had an assist, made a goal-line clearance and was partly responsible for Cyle Larin’s 78th-minute equaliser, the sort of sequence that rescued a point after Canada had been wasteful enough to be pulled back in another match. That contrast matters because the rankings reward control and punch, but they also punish sides that let games drift before a late intervention saves them.
Elsewhere, the numbers are doing most of the arguing. Ghana recorded zero shots in the first half against Panama, then later Caleb Yirenkyi scored a late goal and Orlando Mosquera even created a late Panama chance from goal. Panama held 64 per cent possession in one match but managed only three shots in the first half, a reminder that territory alone is not enough to climb a list built on actual danger.
The roughest match may be the one that was hardest to keep on the page. Qatar finished with 11 men but committed multiple ridiculous tackles, and two of them brought red cards, one of which seriously injured Ismael Kone. That kind of chaos gives the ranking a floor as well as a ceiling. At the top end, Germany’s 4.2 xG was the fourth-most by a team in the last three World Cups and the second-most of this edition behind Canada’s 4.5 against Qatar, a benchmark that explains why one match can leap above another even before the final whistle.
Belgium’s 35 efforts to six against New Zealand, with Max Crocombe in goal, shows how one-sided a game can be without automatically becoming the best of the bunch. The point of the project is that every match in the 2026 World Cup has to earn its place, and the next entries will keep moving as the tournament does. The unanswered question is not whether there will be more drama. It is which game will eventually hold up as the one that mattered most when all 104 are in.
