{"id":2686,"date":"2026-07-10T11:35:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:35:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/?p=2686"},"modified":"2026-07-10T11:35:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T11:35:58","slug":"world-cup-now-is-when-legends-are-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/2026\/07\/10\/world-cup-now-is-when-legends-are-born\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup: Now is when legends are born"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Six of the top eight squads in FIFA\u2019s worldwide rankings are still alive in this year\u2019s tournament, meaning we\u2019re in for something special when the semifinals begin on Tuesday. There\u2019s a time for Cinderella stories, and then there\u2019s a time for the kaiju of the field to just start whomping on each other. That time is now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"422\" src=\"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8d3b7650-d201-11f0-b4fd-743bf6397bd3.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2687\" srcset=\"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8d3b7650-d201-11f0-b4fd-743bf6397bd3.webp 640w, https:\/\/skychatz.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8d3b7650-d201-11f0-b4fd-743bf6397bd3-300x198.webp 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Spectacular highlights, all of them and more. The scoring leaders are well on their way to double digits in goal totals; Messi has 8, Mbappe and Haaland are one behind him, and Kane has 6. The squads are in position \u2014 every single nation is just one win from the semifinals, two wins from the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Between now and that final, we\u2019ll have two sets of two rest days, time to let the tension and drama build, time for the players involved to reckon with the enormity of what they\u2019re about to face. It\u2019s not too much to say that what these squads do over the next few days will shape the rest of their lives. If they succeed, if they fail, they\u2019ll have millions watching \u2014 and remembering \u2014 their every move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Six of the top eight squads in FIFA\u2019s worldwide rankings are still alive in this year\u2019s tournament, meaning we\u2019re in for something special when the semifinals begin on Tuesday. There\u2019s a time for Cinderella stories, and then there\u2019s a time for the kaiju of the field to just start whomping on each other. That time [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,118],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2688,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2686\/revisions\/2688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skychatz.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}