ATLANTA — The World Cup final will be played Sunday. France is a slight favorite over Argentina. Argentina is the massive — though not the universal — sentimental favorite. In the eyes of many, Sunday will be the day of Lionel Messi’s coronation as the greatest player ever, which is weird since the past decade has been devoted to hailing Little Leo as the GOAT of GOATs.
The next World Cup game after this will be staged in North America. The 2026 edition will be held over most of a continent, as opposed to this one, which has been confined to Qatar. (Area: 4,483 square miles.) The next time around, the hosts — note the plural — will be Canada, Mexico and these United States. (Area: 8.5 million square miles.)
Sixteen North American cities, Atlanta among them, will hold 104 World Cup matches. That’s 40 more than Qatar. That’s because the World Cup — like everything from the MLB postseason to the College Football Playoff — is expanding. It will grow from 32 teams to 48, which is great news for Italy, the reigning European champ that somehow failed to qualify for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. If the Italians can’t make it here, they should take up ice-fishing.
