World Cup 2026

Changelog

2026-07-20

  • Relive the tournament: after the final, a "⏪ Relive the tournament" bar appears at the bottom of the page. Open it to scrub back through the World Cup by time and see the dashboard rebuild itself as it looked then — live cards, upcoming games, standings, the bracket, the 3rd-place race, and the Golden Boot all move with the clock. Use the slider or pick an exact date and time, then tap "Now" to return to the completed tournament.

2026-07-18

  • The final, front and centre: the championship game now carries a gold "🏆 Final" badge everywhere it appears, and its match preview opens by default.
  • A proper send-off: when the tournament ends, the final stays pinned up top with the champions called out, the Golden Boot winner is crowned in gold, and the schedule signs off until 2030.

2026-07-11

  • Bracket, focused on the now: deep into the knockouts, the bracket opens on the rounds still in play — earlier rounds that are fully decided (the Round of 32 and Round of 16, so far) fold away behind a slim column on the bracket's left edge. Each tap of "◀ Show previous round" walks one completed round back into view, most recent first; once everything's showing, the button flips to tuck them away again and snaps you back to the top of the bracket. The semifinals and final always stay visible.
  • The penalty mini-game headlines the final: once the finalists are decided, the shootout game always features the two teams playing for the trophy — through the 3rd-place break and even after the tournament ends (the invite no longer disappears with the last game).
  • Bracket popups, never clipped: hovering a finished bracket game used to grow a scrollbar inside the bracket when the match-details popup was too tall. The popup now floats above the page instead — and flips to sit above the game when it would run off the bottom of the screen.

2026-07-07

  • Kickoff weather: upcoming games now show the forecast for their kickoff hour right after the venue — a condition icon and temperature (°F in US timezones, °C elsewhere) — in the Upcoming list and on "Starting soon" cards. Forecasts come from Open-Meteo and refresh hourly.

2026-07-05

  • Woodwork in the penalty mini-game: shots aimed at the sides can now clip the post and shots aimed high can rattle the crossbar (the top corners risk both) — for you and the computer alike. The ball clangs off the frame with a metallic ping and bounces back into play: "OFF THE POST!"

2026-07-04

  • Match previews: every upcoming game with known teams now has a written preview — each side's road here, who's scoring, who's suspended, what to expect from the game, and the market's view, written fresh for each round from the tournament's actual data. Tap the ⓘ (or anywhere on the row) to open and close it.

2026-07-03

  • Golden Boot assists: goal ties are now broken by assists, matching FIFA's real Golden Boot rules — so a 4-goal, 2-assist striker ranks above a 4-goal, 1-assist one. Each row shows the assists in parentheses after the goals — e.g. "6 (2)" — and the hover/tap detail includes them.
  • Eliminated scorers flagged: the Golden Boot now marks players whose team is out of the tournament — the name dims and a small ❌ appears next to their tally (hover/tap it to see which team and why). Works in both stages: mathematically eliminated during the groups, knocked out or never qualified once the bracket starts.

2026-07-02

  • Match stats: tap or click a game in "Happening Now" to expand it and see the team stats — possession (with a split bar), shots, shots on goal, corners, fouls and pass accuracy. The same stats now also fill the hover tooltips on Recent Results and on completed games in the knockout bracket. Live games update as you watch, and finished games keep their stats offline for later.

2026-06-29

  • 8-bit makeover for the penalty shootout: the mini-game now has a retro NES look — a pixel font, a flat scanline pitch, a blocky keeper and ball, chunky shadowed buttons, and a dark "console screen" so it reads well in every theme.
  • Kalshi odds in the knockouts: knockout win-probability bars now also use Kalshi's "to advance" markets when available, alongside the existing market and model sources.
  • Goals by minute: a new chart below the Golden Boot shows when goals are scored across every game — one bar per match minute, with added time (45+, 90+) and extra time broken out and highlighted. It makes the late-game and stoppage-time pile-up easy to see (so far, ~15% of goals come after the 45th or 90th minute).
  • Knockout win odds, no draw: in the knockout rounds the win-probability bars and tooltips now read as a straight win/lose split — a level game goes to extra time, so that "draw" chance is folded into the two win chances (weighted slightly toward the favourite). The tooltip surfaces it as e.g. "JPN 32% · BRA 68% (extra time: 28%)", switching to "(penalties: …)" once a game is actually in extra time. The tournament simulator is unchanged.
  • Penalty shootout mini-game: between knockout games, the "Happening Now" section now invites you to play a quick penalty shootout. Pick one of the two teams in the next match and take turns with the computer — you shoot first (tap where to aim), then keep goal (tap where to dive); the keeper only commits on the strike, like the real thing. Best of five with sudden death, then the winner's announced. The keeper wears the in-goal team's colours and flag so you can tell at a glance whether you're shooting or saving, and there are sound effects (with a mute toggle on the pitch).
  • Knockout-stage marker: once the tournament reaches the knockout stage, the header's bottom border takes on a subtle, theme-matched colour and a small "Knockout stage" label sits centred on it — a quiet signal that the group phase is over.

2026-06-28

  • Simulated knockout, set apart: after you run a simulation the whole knockout panel — bracket and Title odds — is wrapped in a subtle tinted band, so as you scroll it's clearly distinct from the sections below it (Golden Boot and the rest).
  • Leaner Title odds in the knockouts: once the tournament reaches the knockout stage, the Title odds table drops teams that are already out, and hides any round column that's settled for everyone still in — so when every survivor has reached the Round of 32, that column disappears, and later rounds fall away the same way as they're decided.

2026-06-27

  • Penalty shootouts in live cards: a Happening Now card for a game that's gone to penalties now shows an explicit "Penalties" badge, and the shootout score in parentheses — e.g. 1 (4) — can be hovered/tapped to see the full kick-by-kick sequence: each taker, their team, and whether they scored.
  • Live 3rd-Place Race: the best-thirds table now updates from in-progress games, not just finished ones — as live scores (and cards) change, teams re-rank on the full FIFA criteria (points, goal difference, goals, fair-play), and a team that's currently playing shows a pulsing live dot.
  • Golden Boot: the Top Scorers section is renamed "Golden Boot".
  • Knockout-stage view: once the group stage ends, the page leads with the bracket — it moves above the group tables with the Golden Boot just beneath it, Recent Results trims to the last 6, and the bracket switches from the "As it stands" projection to the official bracket ("fills in as teams advance"), hiding that toggle since it no longer applies.
  • The final, highlighted: the final match now carries a "🏆 Final" label and an emphasised card so the championship game stands out, with the Final and 3rd-place games grouped together.

2026-06-26

  • Faster catch-up on stale tabs: when you return to a tab that's been in the background, the dashboard now refreshes live scores immediately instead of waiting out the next poll, so it no longer feels stuck on an old score. While a live game's data is catching up it shows an "Updating live scores…" indicator (visible on mobile too) so you know fresh data is on the way.

2026-06-25

  • Form-aware simulator: the tournament simulator's team strengths now factor in results so far, not just FIFA ranking. Each team's rating is nudged by its group-stage goal difference adjusted for the strength of the opponents it played — beating strong teams convincingly helps, weak showings hurt — and shrunk for the small sample so ranking still anchors it.
  • Bracket alternatives: hovering or tapping a projected team in the simulated bracket now shows the next most likely teams to fill that slot, with their probabilities.
  • Eliminated teams in Upcoming: teams that have been mathematically eliminated now appear greyed out in the Upcoming games list.

2026-06-23

  • Group eliminations: group standings now mark teams that have been mathematically eliminated with a ❌, with a short hover/tap explanation.
  • Must-win games: upcoming and in-progress group games now flag the result a team still needs to advance — a red "Must win" or amber "Win or draw" badge next to the team name in the Upcoming list and the Happening Now cards (shortened to WIN / W/D on mobile), with the full reasoning on hover/tap.
  • Roman theme: a new colour theme styled after ancient Rome — travertine and marble tones with imperial-purple, Pompeian-red, and laurel accents and a classical serif — and every number on the page is rendered as a Roman numeral (0 shows as "N"). Pick it from the theme menu in the header.
  • Active section in the nav: the header tabs now highlight the section you're currently viewing as you scroll; clicking a tab smooth-scrolls between neighbouring sections and jumps straight to far-apart ones.
  • Card details on hover: hovering a yellow/red card marker on any match — Happening Now, Recent Results, or the bracket — now shows the list of bookings (player and minute).
  • Honest win probabilities: live win-probability bars and the simulator's odds and projected bracket no longer show 100% unless the outcome is actually settled (e.g. a team has clinched its group) — an unconfirmed near-certainty shows 99.9% instead.

2026-06-21

  • Match notifications: you can now turn on browser notifications from the bell in the header and get alerts for goals, red cards, kickoffs, and full time while the page is open. The bell explains what you'll be notified about before asking for permission, shows clearly when alerts are on or off, and is hidden on iPhone/iPad unless the site is opened from the Home Screen web app.
  • "As it stands" bracket: the Knockout Bracket now opens on a live view of the Round of 32 built straight from the current standings and 3rd-place race — each group's top two plus the current best-8 third-placed teams, slotted into the official FIFA bracket. Teams that have already clinched a knockout spot are highlighted with a 🔒. It's a toggle next to the bracket header, so you can switch it off to see the empty bracket, and the Monte Carlo simulation still runs separately.

2026-06-18

  • 3rd-Place Race: a new section below Group Standings that ranks the current third-placed team from each group by FIFA's official advancement criteria — points, goal difference, goals scored, fair-play conduct, then world ranking — and marks the top 8 that would reach the Round of 32. Each row shows a Cards column you can hover to see the team's bookings.
  • Projected bracket: the simulator's filled-in knockout bracket now follows the official FIFA 2026 bracket and shows a single, self-consistent path — so a team only ever appears in the branch it actually advanced through.
  • Smoother updates: live refreshes now redraw only the parts of the page that actually changed, so the bracket keeps its scroll position, countdowns don't flicker, and it's lighter on phone battery.

2026-06-17

  • Sortable Title odds: click any column header in the simulator's Title odds table to re-sort it — for example by Advance, to spot the long shots that still reach the knockouts despite slim title odds.
  • Matchup stars explained: hovering the ★ next to an upcoming game now tells you what it means — a marquee matchup (both teams in the FIFA top 16) or a quality one (both in the top 32) — along with the two teams' world rankings.

2026-06-16

  • Tournament simulator: a new "Simulate tournament" button on the Bracket section runs 10,000 Monte Carlo simulations and fills the knockout bracket with each slot's most likely team, the projected champion and third-place winner, and a Title odds table of every team's chances to advance, reach each round, and win the cup (top 16 by default, with a toggle to show all teams). It can be run from any point in the tournament — completed games, group or knockout, are kept as-is and only the remaining ones are played out. Remaining group games are sampled from market prices (Polymarket/DraftKings) where available, otherwise a FIFA-ranking model; the 8 best third-placed teams are slotted using FIFA's official allocation table.
  • Simulator notice: a dismissable note at the top of the page points to the new tournament simulator, and stays hidden once dismissed.

2026-06-15

  • Top Scorers: a new leaderboard of the tournament's leading goal scorers, below Group Standings — top 10 with a toggle to show 20. Updates live and works offline.
  • Group rankings: each team in the group tables now shows its FIFA world ranking, and each group header shows the average ranking of its teams.
  • Draw upsets: a draw between teams more than 40 places apart in the FIFA ranking is now flagged as an upset.
  • Offline results and standings: the offline fallback now also shows the last-known results and group standings, not just the schedule, with a "cached as of" date.
  • Party theme: an animated neon gradient backdrop, spinning and twinkling confetti, and a spinning soccer-ball logo — plus a fix for the logo disappearing on iPhone after leaving the party theme.

2026-06-14

  • Goal celebrations: when a live game scores, soccer-ball confetti rains across the screen, the match card's border pulses, and the scoring team's score flashes.
  • Offline schedule: if live data can't be reached, the app shows the upcoming match schedule from a bundled copy instead of failing to load, with a banner noting live data is paused.
  • Tap odds for details on mobile: tapping a match's win-probability bar opens its source and a link to the Polymarket market.
  • Matchup-star tooltips: the "top-16 matchup" / "top-32 matchup" star markers now explain what they mean on hover or tap.
  • Mobile Upcoming list refinements: win probability and venue repositioned, countdowns shown only for today's and tomorrow's games, and several alignment and spacing fixes.

2026-06-13

  • Group color-coding: group labels in the Upcoming list now have a subtle per-group color.
  • App icons: added a browser favicon and an iOS/Android home-screen icon.
  • Mobile venue: upcoming games now show their venue on mobile; TV listings are hidden on narrow screens to save space.