"A couple people decided a woman was too pregnant to fly, now U.S. soccer is gonna win the World Cup."
@MadelynBurke shares the story of how Folarin Balogun was eligible to play for Team USA ⚽️
💔⚽️ LA HISTORIA QUE CONMUEVE AL MUNDIAL
Donny Strathie, un apasionado hincha escocés de 76 años, cumplió el sueño de su vida: viajar a Estados Unidos para volver a ver a Escocia en una Copa del Mundo después de 28 años de ausencia.
Alcanzó a vivir una alegría inolvidable en Boston, donde presenció la victoria 1-0 de su selección ante Haití. Pero días después, falleció repentinamente por causas naturales en su hotel.
La noticia golpeó a toda Escocia. Incluso el seleccionador Steve Clarke envió sus condolencias a la familia.
Y entonces llegó el homenaje más emotivo. ❤️🏴
En el partido siguiente, cuando el reloj marcó el minuto 76 (La edad de Donny) todo el estadio se puso de pie para dedicarle una ovación que puso la piel de gallina. Entre aplausos, cánticos y el sonido de las gaitas, la Tartan Army se aseguró de que uno de los suyos siguiera presente.
Porque hay historias que recuerdan que el fútbol es mucho más que un juego 🥹💙
The first fucking thing FIFA did right at this World Cup, finally having a live televised game still currently on at 1:30 am EST.
BIG BIG lifelong Austria fan of course, come on assholes do not fuck up this parlay lol
Watching fans from all over the world experience America has been one of the coolest parts of this World Cup.
People are losing their minds over things most of us don’t even think about anymore:
- Free chips and salsa.
- Buc-ee’s.
- Massive grocery stores.
- Six-lane highways.
- Air conditioning everywhere.
- Endless refills.
Meanwhile, the tournament is being played in world-class stadiums that were already built. No rushed construction. No billion-dollar vanity projects.
It’s hard to ignore what visitors keep saying: the infrastructure is incredible, the people are welcoming, and the scale of everything is unlike anything they’ve seen before.
Sometimes it takes seeing your country through someone else’s eyes to appreciate what we have.
We take a lot of it for granted.
Gio Reyna's first-ever FIFA World Cup goal was a trivela to seal it for the @USMNT 🤯
It's the first four-goal outing for the US men's squad in a FIFA World Cup
He broke his wrist and couldn't afford an ambulance. So he opened Uber. He had no idea his driver would change his life.
It was a regular Tuesday when 19-year-old Joey Romano hit the pavement hard.
One bad landing off his skateboard. One broken wrist. And one very fast realization — an ambulance ride could cost him hundreds of dollars he simply didn't have.
So he did what a broke college kid does. He opened Uber.
Beni Lukunu accepted the ride.
When Beni pulled up and saw Joey — pale, cradling his arm, trying to hold it together — he didn't just unlock the door and stare at the GPS. He got out. Helped him in. Asked if he was okay.
The ride to the hospital took maybe 12 minutes.
But Beni didn't leave.
Nobody asked him to stay. The app had already marked the trip complete. He had other rides he could've taken, other money he could've made. Instead, he found a seat in that waiting room — fluorescent lights, stiff chairs, the smell of antiseptic — and he just... stayed.
Joey kept telling him to go. "You don't have to do this."
Beni shrugged. "I know."
There's something about being in a hospital waiting room alone, scared, far from home, that makes you feel like the smallest person in the world. Joey was 19. His wrist was shattered. His parents were hours away.
And a stranger in a gray sedan decided that mattered.
They talked. About college, about family, about how strange life is. By the time Joey's name was finally called, he wasn't alone anymore — not really.
That was seven years ago.
They're still friends today.
Not "Facebook friends." Not the kind where you double-tap a birthday post and move on. Real friends. The kind forged in a fluorescent waiting room on a random Tuesday when one person chose to stay simply because another person needed them to.
Joey never forgot it. How could he?
When the world tells you people are too busy, too distracted, too focused on the next fare — Beni sat down in a plastic chair and proved otherwise.
No camera. No audience. No reason at all.
Just one human being saying, without words: You're not doing this alone.
The wrist healed months ago.
The friendship never broke.