So here it is. You've heard all about the ticket prices, the parking fees, the heat, the water bottles, the doubts over Iran's participation and FIFA president Gianni Infantino's open-door access to the Oval Office, but finally -- finally!! -- the 2026 Men's World Cup is about to start, and football is ready to make the headlines.

It has been a long slog to get to the point where the World Cup is now just days away, but it was the same story before the big kickoff in South Africa, Brazil, Russia and Qatar. And guess what? Every time, it has been the teams and the players that you see in the rear-view mirror at when looking back on each of those World Cups.

Lionel Messi and Argentina will always dominate reflections of Qatar four years ago, the teenage heroics of Kylian Mbappé ultimately stole the show at Russia in 2018, Germany's 7-1 rout of Brazil -- now known as Brazil's 'Mineirazo' (Agony of Belo Horizonte) in 2014 -- and Spain's 2010 triumph are the visual images of those tournaments.

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Pre-tournament concerns about unfinished stadiums, inadequate transport systems and the rights of workers and minority groups tend to melt away, rightly or wrongly, once the football starts, so previous World Cups point to the same happening in Canada, Mexico and the United States this time around. But for that to happen, the players, teams and supporters must now reclaim the World Cup from the administrators, politicians and even the sponsors and commercial partners who pay huge sums to make the tournament mainly about themselves.

None of the above can set a World Cup alight like Spain's Lamine Yamal, England's Harry Kane, Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi or even USMNT star Christian Pulisic. Away from the global superstars, just imagine the scenes in Bosnia-Herzegovina if 40-year-old forward Edin Dzeko scores a winning goal, or what it will be like in Port-au-Prince if a Wilson Isidor goal earns a win against Scotland in Haiti's Group C opener in Boston on Sunday.

These are the moments that create World Cup magic and underscore the tournament's status as the greatest sporting event on earth. It allows nations to project themselves onto the global stage like nothing else.

Everyone knew where Cameroon was after they stunned defending champions Argentina in the opening game of Italia '90, and Senegal did the same for themselves and African football by defeating France in the opener of the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Can Curaçao, Cape Verde, Jordan and Uzbekistan enjoy a similar nation-defining moment on their first appearance at a World Cup this summer?

An unfancied team always emerges from the pack, such as Morocco reaching the semifinals in Qatar. With 32 teams making the knockout stages in the expanded 48-nation tournament this summer, the opportunity is there for an outsider to claim the spotlight like never before.

It will happen, just as the race for the Golden Boot will result in one of the world's most famous strikers, such as Kane, Mbappé or Ronaldo, facing a challenge from a forward that emerges from nowhere -- Russia's Denis Cheryshev finished joint-second behind Kane in 2018 -- to emerge as the tournament's top scorer.

And while the group stage may feel like a long-winded process to whittle down the teams from 48 to 32, the daily routine of waiting for and then watching three or four games a day becomes so compelling that the first day without a fixture -- Wednesday, July 8 is a good day to make plans -- comes with a feeling of emptiness and yearning for the games to start again.

When the World Cup reaches the knockout phase, that's when the fireworks really start and indelible memories are created. Extra time, penalty shootouts, agony and ecstasy, plotting a path to the final, dreading a match-up with a heavyweight only to see them knocked out by a team that your nation really should beat -- and then "We can win this....!"

Only a handful of nations go into this World Cup with a genuine chance of glory. The European Championship and Copa America can throw up surprise winners from time to time, but the World Cup has always been reserved for football's most powerful nations.

Portugal are perhaps the one contender that could win their first World Cup this summer, but it would be a shock for the ages if a team from outside of Argentina, Brazil, England, France, Germany and Spain -- all previous winners -- leaves New Jersey after the final on July 19 with the World Cup trophy on their flight home.

By then, everybody will be talking about the football. New stars will emerge, old ones (Ronaldo, Messi, Luka Modric) will vacate the biggest stage for the final time and children across the globe will have heroes they may never have heard of prior to the tournament.

The pre-tournament noise? That will have been drowned out long ago by what happens on the pitch, just like it always has.

Source: https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/48998867/the-2026-fifa-world-cup-almost-here-soccer-do-talking