World Cup 2026 awards: the Guardian team give their final tournament verdicts

The best games, goals and personal highlights – from a magical Azteca to Erling Haaland breaking America

>Paraguay 1-1 Germany. There were plenty more games with more goals but none could match the drama of the penalty shootout in this last-32 tie. Germany aren’t supposed to lose in them but they did this time in spectacular fashion. Ed Aarons

>Algeria 3-3 Austria was a completely strange fever dream, seeming to exist on a separate plane of reality. I know that sounds grandiose but remember, going into this one the expectation was that it would be a biscotto – a meaningless, pre-arranged kickabout where a draw would see both sides through. For a while in the second half, it looked like that would happen. And finally, in stoppage time, chaos. There were certainly better matches in terms of quality, and maybe a couple that had this beat for drama, but no game was weirder. Alexander Abnos

>From the 14 I attended, it has to be Mexico 2-3 England at the awesome Azteca. The buildup seemed to start as soon as the draw was made – fortunately the stars aligned and a grippingly tense game ensued in a venue like no other. It was a high point for England that should cut through despite later disappointments, too. Nick Ames

>France 4-6 England was borderline hilarious. Egypt 1-1 Iran in Seattle had plenty of late drama, Iran’s disallowed stoppage-time winner bookended by them twice hitting the woodwork in the final minutes. The draw ultimately proved insufficient for unbeaten Iran, faced with endless hurdles, to progress. Ben Fisher

>Argentina 3-2 Egypt. The defending champions looked down and out, thinking about their flights home, before a late Lionel Messi-inspired comeback enabled them to claw back a two-goal deficit and win this last-16 match in normal time. Barry Glendenning

>Mexico 2-3 England. I have decided that all my answers should relate to things that happened while I was at the tournament and this was one. I mean, I wasn’t there ticking off the “bucket list” of a visit to the Azteca (I think I saw at least half a dozen British hacks claim that), but I did watch it on TV. Besides being like drinking cortisol neat, this was so dramatic, the images so evocative, that even if you are an ardent England fan (as I am) this was pure cinema. Paul MacInnes

>I am biased here in the sense I attended it but Cape Verde 2-2 Uruguay in Miami was superb. Cape Verde’s attitude and discipline were a joy. Such fun to watch. Ewan Murray

>Argentina 3-2 Egypt. Incredible drama, despite the questionable behaviour of the referee. Osasu Obayiuwana

>Tough to pick from over 100 options, but Mexico 2-3 England with Thomas Tuchel’s men surviving the vaunted Azteca and the best first half Mexico could have mustered narrowly takes this category. Jeff Rueter

>Bias says Mexico v England, but Argentina 3-2 Cape Verde was incredible, Sidny Lopes Cabral bending it top right. Max Rushden

>For improbable wonder there was Argentina v Cape Verde, for sheer unpredictability there was Mexico v England. Often, though, one is drawn to something more predictable, more familiar: England 1-2 Argentina. Jack Snape

>Argentina 3-2 Cape Verde. It’s not a debate. Jacob Steinberg

>Argentina 3-2 Egypt. The possibility of a shock, a great Messi-inspired turnaround, a couple of great goals, refereeing controversy … what else do you want? Jonathan Wilson

>Rodri was the standout player for the best team in a tournament where the big stars came to the party but all ultimately fell short. EA

>Kylian Mbappé. Yes, his Golden Boot was padded a bit by that insane third-place game, but the France striker was the best player on what looked to be the best team in the tournament ... at least until that loss to Spain in the semi-final. AA

>It’s impossible to look further than Rodri, who looks back to his best and absolutely in his element as the fulcrum of this Spain setup. Otherwise it was good to see a World Cup where the stars largely shone. Jude Bellingham, Erling Haaland, Messi and Mbappé were all one more decisive knockout display away from rising above the rest. NA

>Rodri. Michael Olise was majestic, though should have scored a hat-trick against England. Bellingham was equally instrumental for Tuchel’s side – it is crazy to think there were people questioning his inclusion in the squad. BF

>Vozinha. What a man. I think it’s largely because his story is so relatable in these parts – middle-aged man finally receives the plaudits he has always deserved! – but the saves were also top drawer. Add in the pedigree of the teams he either shut out or frustrated, and this was an actual fairytale that didn’t need to be spun by any marketing department. And did you know that he’s 40? PM

>Vozinha, the Cape Verde goalkeeper. At 40, and without a club, he was brilliant for the World Cup debutants. OO

>While Rodri is an incredibly worthy Golden Ball winner and others made their marks, Erling Haaland leaves this World Cup with the greatest possible souvenirs: a credible if short Golden Boot campaign, a famous first Norwegian foray into the quarter-final stage, and perhaps the biggest boost in star appeal in the lucrative North American market. JR

>Hard not to say Rodri although I thought Dani Olmo was great too, and a shout for Pico Lopes. MR

>Haaland, Mbappé and Messi have lived up to expectations. But in those moments where a contest teeters – evading pressure with the ball, in transition to defence or staring down a 50-50 – no player has shown his quality more consistently than Rodri. JSn

>Rodri. If only England had a player like the Spain captain. JSt

>Rodri. As Spain have reverted to a more possession-driven model, their metronome in midfield has been the outstanding figure, setting the tempo and providing control. JW

>For sheer drama, it has to be Sidny Lopes Cabral’s brilliant equaliser for Cape Verde against Argentina. His reaction was almost as good as the goal itself, clasping his hands to his head before picking out his girlfriend in the crowd to celebrate with. EA

>I mean, it’s Sidny Lopes Cabral v Argentina. But I feel that the goal from Uzbekistan’s Eldor Shomurodov against the Democratic Republic of the Congo deserves mention too: an instinctive, oddly satisfying lob from a tight angle. No other goal in the tournament was quite like it. AA

>Julián Alvarez had a largely quiet World Cup but his vicious, swerving long-range goal in extra time against Switzerland was a jaw-dropping moment and lit up the cauldron-like stadium in Kansas City. NA

>Those seen in the flesh always seem to score more points. A buzz surrounded Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Kerim Alajbegovic coming into the tournament and the 18-year-old eliminating a clutch of defenders and blasting in, off balance, from the outside of the box against Qatar only enhanced his reputation. Johan Manzambi’s run and pass in the buildup to Breel Embolo’s opener against Algeria was also a joy. BF

>While Morocco’s superior quality would ultimately see them through their group-stage win against Haiti, Wilson Isidor’s breathtaking long-range strike to put the Caribbean nation 2-1 up was as good a goal as any scored in the World Cup. Ever. BG

>I had the privilege of reading the paper by the Seoul Women’s University on the aerodynamic effect known as “drag crisis” which is particularly common when people smack an Adidas Trionda, so as such I thought a lot of the big hits were overrated. I do, however, exempt Sidny Lopes Cabral from that critique. Absolute long-range worldie from the Cape Verde full-back-cum-winger. That it pegged Argentina to parity in extra time of a knockout round only made it more memorable. PM

>Harry Kane’s second for England against DRC. EM

>Sidny Lopes Cabral of Cape Verde, against Argentina. Magical goal. OO

>I will never, in all my years, be able to recreate the sound that left my body as Sidny Lopes Cabral’s audacious effort against Argentina completed its curl between a diving Emi Martínez and his far post. Masterful execution in an unprecedented moment. One of many proud moments for Cape Verde at this tournament. JR

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>Beyond Sidny Lopes Cabral – the disallowed Uzbekistan one (was it Uzbekistan?) – someone walloped one into the top left-hand corner and it didn’t count. MR

>Erling Haaland’s second against Brazil, placed into the bottom-right corner from outside the box to seal the upset, was a microcosm of his effectiveness at the tournament: precise and powerful with a hint of whimsy. JSn

>Sidny Lopes Cabral’s equaliser for Cape Verde against Argentina was a proper jaw-dropping moment. One of the great World Cup goals. JSt

>Wilson Isidor v Morocco. There were more consequential goals, but none struck quite as sweetly or quite as accurately. If Haiti have nothing else, they’ll always have that. JW

>It was a joy to watch Eloy Room’s performance in goal for Curaçao against Ecuador as he broke the World Cup record for the most saves made in a 90-minute match. While Cape Verde’s veteran Vozinha stole most of the headlines for his heroics, the 37-year-old Room clearly enjoyed his moment in the spotlight. “I think I need a statue in Curaçao now,” he joked. EA

>Fifa and the stadium authorities typically guard the natural grass pitches heavily, and with good reason. But after the last games in each venue I went to, I loved watching those pitches get taken over by the people whose names you’ll never know but who actually made this tournament run: stadium workers and low-level Fifa staffers, volunteers, security guards, longtime local club representatives and others. Some used the opportunity to have a little kickabout, take selfies, or just run around. An awesome perk for what were almost certainly very hard, stressful jobs over these last several weeks. AA

>My first visit to the Azteca was Mexico’s win over Ecuador and I’ve never heard a noise like it. The place really is as magical and monumental as they say. The celebrations afterwards weren’t conducive to a good night’s sleep but were incredible in scale too. Football-wise I’ll also add Messi’s record-breaking goals against Austria in Dallas, which seem an awfully long time ago now but were such a thrill to witness. Those early Argentina games were essentially mass Messi pilgrimages. One more? The view from Monterrey Stadium. Just go, if you can. NA

>Watching Senegalese journalists pass around a pack of malted milks during their anthem before their collapse against Belgium. And playing eight-a-side with Danny Cipriani, who once spent six weeks training at Tottenham, Harry Kane among his teammates, will stick in the memory. BF

>Watching my Irish compatriot Roberto “Pico” Lopes excel while repeatedly putting his body on the line for Cape Verde, his father’s homeland. It would be nice to think Pico’s performances will earn him a life-changing move to a more lucrative league in the twilight of his career but his age could stand against him and he may well be content with being a Shamrock Rovers and Cape Verde legend. BG

>Explaining to a mariachi in a gigantic sombrero how it could possibly be that a team in third could get through the group and how it might still be Spain turning up at the Azteca. Alas, it wasn’t. Sharing a birthday with Martin Ainstein and Luis de la Fuente and my family. And watching a motorcade with the Spain bus pass from the sixth-floor window where Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK was pretty surreal. SL

>I loved watching both France eviscerate Sweden and the Instagram reels of Americans acting like they thought the Tartan Army had permanently changed their lives. PM

>Players running out to warm-up to the tune of Scotland the Brave, via bagpipes, before the game against Haiti in Foxborough. Scotland’s 28-year World Cup wait was over. The less said about all that happened next, the better. EM

>Seeing Vozinha’s mum, against all expectations, travelling from Cape Verde to the World Cup to see her son play. OO

>Having covered the nation’s third-to-fifth most popular sport for more than a decade and lived through ICE’s heinous occupation of Minnesota this winter, the sheer scale of interest in soccer was overwhelming and so invigorating – a welcome reprieve in the isolationist second Trump era. Impossible to go through a couple of hours in a World Cup host city without some stranger striking up a conversation about the sport. Long may this remain a part of American society. JR

>Shouting Paraguay. Number 10. Cover his mouth. Decision is RED CARD. Jonathan Wilson thinking Robbie Williams was Kevin Pietersen. Mark Langdon’s chow mein bridge. The pancakes at Mile End Deli. Doing a live show in Manhattan and legitimately getting to say “HELLO NEW YORK!” MR

>Covering Australia, the tournament petered out from an extraordinary high. Twenty-six minutes into the Socceroos’ opening victory against Turkey, goalscorer Nestory Irankunda revived Tim Cahill’s goal celebration in a ceremonial handover to mark a new generation. JSn

>Being at the Azteca for Mexico 2-3 England. It did not have the most quality but it was hard to beat as an occasion. An epic night at an iconic stadium. A thunderstorm pushing kick-off back, a brilliant display from Bellingham, everyone exhausted when it was over. Things didn’t end well for England but this was easily their greatest away win. JSt

>Standing knee-deep in raging floods in Monterrey waiting for a bus having only gone to the stadium to collect a mislaid iPad that I then lost in Houston a week later anyway. That or the weirdly beautiful flyovers outside Dallas. JW

>The level of interest from the American public surprised me and it was fascinating to meet so many who were interested in what was happening in the tournament. Many people in the US definitely caught World Cup fever. Logistically it was a real test of endurance with so much travelling required between venues and that wasn’t helped by so many being miles from the city centre. And it would have been much better to have played the final in Mexico City or Atlanta’s impressive downtown stadium. EA

>I felt unfortunate not to make it to any games in Mexico and only one in Canada. But overall I’m happy that the everyday people who populate the US seemed to show visitors their good side throughout the month. This country has plenty of infrastructure issues I’d like to have seen fixed, but the personal impact is arguably more important, and it seems like the US mostly got that right. AA

>If first impressions are everything then I refer you to the often troubling weirdness of the Texas Republican party convention in Houston. But more seriously I was very happy, in the US, to find the hoped-for warmth and openness pretty much everywhere – and in bundles. In their different ways, people really did engage with the World Cup. Less welcome was the US administration’s attempt, duly pandered to by Fifa, to bend the course of the tournament with Folarin Balogun’s reprieve. In Mexico I found a fervent, febrile, fascinating football culture that deserved not to be dwarfed by other co-hosts. NA

>Americans love a big-ticket event but it was clear they were hooked by Mauricio Pochettino’s side as they progressed. It was a privilege to witness Canada’s first World Cup game on home soil in Toronto, where there was a match-day buzz and an afterglow despite being held to a draw by Bosnia and Herzegovina. BF

>While I didn’t meet Donald Trump, the handful of Americans whose acquaintance I did make – hotel staff, a few bartenders and one LA-based reality TV show star – could not have been friendlier. BG

>So many people came up to us to say they really hoped we were enjoying this and that we understood that that wasn’t them. We did and they were so nice. SL

>I spent two days in Toronto, around Canada Day, and I think they were both welcoming and very keen to hear that they qualified as an actual football nation. People in the US were pleasant, although for travelling fans most experiences will have been complicated by the ubiquitous request for a tip. I did think, though, that sometimes there was an expectation that we should all be delighted to be there. Which we were, but perhaps not for the reasons some wanted. PM

>Canada and Mexico? Excellent. US stadiums were first class, as was the extent to which the nation embraced the World Cup. It is just impossible to ignore the stench of the Balogun situation. EM

>On an on-field football level? Far from spectacular. The US needs a new player-development architecture to ensure there is a pipeline of high-quality players. They also need a new head coach, with the right vision for the future. Tournament organisation? The fact that Fifa took direct control of it should be a cautionary tale. A local organising committee is always needed. OO

>All three co-hosts fared about as well as I had projected, but each may have exceeded my expectations in terms of how they went about it. Canada were thrilling at times – I covered their 6-0 win over Qatar at BC Place – and had plenty of pluck with Jesse Marsch as their coach-cum-hype man. The USA played some of the prettiest soccer ever seen by a US national team of any gender, and will for ever rue a missed opportunity to do something greater against Belgium. Mexico were one of the biggest bandwagon teams as they barnstormed Group A, then outclassed an Ecuador team on the rise and pushed England to the brink until they ran out of ideas in the final half-hour. Jobs well done across the board. JR

>I had six weeks in America. All the Americans were lovely. MR

>This tournament put the whirled in the World Cup, its scale ensuring it evaded generalisation. Cities such as Vancouver and Seattle – with downtown stadiums and soccer traditions – were fitting hosts, while metropolises such as Dallas and San Francisco accommodated the month-long novelty without embracing it. JSn

>The people in Mexico could not have been more welcoming, even when England beat their side. It was the same in Kansas City, England’s base and where I spent most of my time. On the other hand it would have been better if getting around some US cities was easier. Public transport infrastructure isn’t really a thing in some places. Florida especially. The Boston traffic was ridiculous, too. JSt

>A wide range depending on venue but broadly friendly, welcoming and enthusiastic. Would benefit from improved public transport and generally lower volume. Wifi hopeless, coffee weak. JW