Spain Won the World Cup From Uruguay’s Group

Spain won the 2026 World Cup from Group H, the same pool that opened with Uruguay’s 80th-minute equalizer against Saudi Arabia. That 1-1 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens on June 15 sat beside the first All-Star ballot dump in the opening-day stack of sports briefs.

By July 19 Spain had the trophy at MetLife Stadium. Uruguay and Saudi Arabia were already out. Shohei Ohtani, voted in as the National League’s designated hitter, never took the field in Philadelphia.

A 1-1 Draw That Led Nowhere

Abdulelah Al-Amri put Saudi Arabia ahead in the 41st minute on a rebound. Maxi Araujo tied it in the 80th, also from a rebound, in front of 62,764. Uruguay took 29 shots to Saudi Arabia’s seven and still needed that late tap-in to leave with a point.

Marcelo Bielsa did not dress it up. La Celeste had the ball and could not turn it into a win against a side they were supposed to break down.

When a team that is supposed to make a difference cannot do it, in terms of being dangerous or dominating the ball, then the weaker team actually dares to do something.

Marcelo Bielsa, Uruguay coach, after the 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia

Group H’s other opener, Spain against Cape Verde in Atlanta, finished 0-0. The “new chapter” copy treated Araujo as a national hero and moved on. The table that closed the group on June 26 did not.

Cape Verde Took the Slot Uruguay Needed

Spain beat Saudi Arabia 4-0 on June 21. The same day Uruguay only drew 2-2 with Cape Verde, and Araujo scored again. On June 26 in Zapopan, Álex Baena scored in the 42nd minute after a Fernando Muslera error, Spain won 1-0, and Muslera was withdrawn at half-time. Agustín Canobbio was sent off in stoppage time. In Houston, Cape Verde held Saudi Arabia 0-0 and went through.

GROUP H FINAL STANDINGS

Cape Verde, a World Cup debutant from an island nation of about 500,000, took the second place Uruguay needed and never won a group match. They drew Spain, drew Uruguay, drew Saudi Arabia, then pushed Argentina to 3-2 on July 3 in Miami. Fabrizio Romano called them a team with “500k population, a big heart” when that run ended. The Group H romance sat with the side that would not lose in 90 minutes, not with the Miami equalizer that left Uruguay on two points.

3,341,257 Votes and an Empty Chair

MLB’s first All-Star update, issued the same week as that Miami draw, put Ohtani on 1,165,133 votes. Yordan Alvarez of the Houston Astros led the American League on 1,015,768, a gap of 149,365. The leading the majors with 3,341,257 votes figure arrived on June 25, when Phase 1 closed and Ohtani locked the NL designated-hitter start. It was the first time he had been the top overall vote-getter, and his sixth straight All-Star selection.

Alvarez did not keep the AL job. Toronto’s Ernie Clement, on 3,232,932, took the automatic AL start at second base, 108,325 behind Ohtani and ahead of every other American League name on the ballot.

OHTANI’S BALLOT, THEN THE BREAK

• First dump: 1,165,133 votes on the June 15 update, most in the majors.
• Phase 1 lock: 3,341,257 votes and an automatic start at DH for July 14 in Philadelphia.
• AL contrast: Clement, not Alvarez, became the other automatic starter.
• The game: Ohtani stayed in Los Angeles with left-knee irritation.

The Dodgers scratched him from a July 10 start against Arizona and said he would miss the 96th All-Star Game at Citizens Bank Park. He still hit that weekend. The knee, he said through interpreter Will Ireton, bothered him when he pitched, not when he swung. He has not pitched since July 3.

Shohei Ohtani will not make his scheduled start on the mound this evening against the D-backs due to continued irritation in his left knee. He will serve as the designated hitter the rest of the weekend, but following the series against the D-backs he will have some interventions on his knee to put him in the best position for the second half of the season. Unfortunately, due to these events, he will not be able to travel to Philadelphia and participate in the 2026 All-Star Game.

Los Angeles Dodgers, club statement, July 10, 2026

Dave Roberts said the goal was October, not a showcase in Philadelphia. The ballot had already done its job. It could not put him on the field.

Canada’s Soccer Boom Outlasted the Bracket

The same June 16 pile noted soccer’s rise in a hockey country, with nearly a million registered players. That line aged better than Araujo’s hero edit. Canada Soccer’s own account of the first men’s World Cup match on Canadian soil put more than 43,000 in Toronto Stadium for a 1-1 with Bosnia and Herzegovina. Cyle Larin equalized 119 seconds after he came on. It was Canada’s first point at a men’s World Cup.

Defender Joel Waterman had said the week of the opener that more kids were playing soccer than ever, and that the sport’s whole kit was a ball. An Abacus study of nearly 2,500 people, cited by Canada Soccer, still had hockey as the favorite sport at 35 percent, baseball at 12, soccer at 10. Among Canadians not born in Canada, soccer jumped to 24 percent and led the list. Youth play and fandom were not the same number.

CANADA’S 2026 WORLD CUP PATH

1. June 12, 2026: Draws Bosnia and Herzegovina 1-1 in Toronto, Larin off the bench.
2. Group B close: Beats Qatar 6-0, loses 2-1 to Switzerland, finishes second.
3. June 28, 2026: Stephen Eustáquio scores in the 90+2nd minute, 1-0 over South Africa at SoFi Stadium (attendance 69,237).
4. July 4, 2026: Loses 0-3 to Morocco at NRG Stadium (attendance 68,777), Ounahi 50th and 82nd, Rahimi 90+8.

Two wins, one draw, two losses. Nine goals scored, six conceded. The Round of 16 was as far as a Canadian men’s side had ever been, and Morocco ended it. After the South Africa win, Eustáquio said, “When I shot it, I felt everybody shot it with me.” Jesse Marsch told the squad they were Canadian heroes and that the sport had a future because of them.

Research Co surveyed 1,001 adults from June 29 to July 1, margin of error 3.1 points. After that run, 21 percent describe themselves as soccer fans who truly enjoy the game, up six points from December 2022. Fifty-one percent said they followed the 2026 tournament very or moderately closely. Thirty-five percent said they were more interested in the men’s national team than before. Watch shares rose from 36 percent for Bosnia to 43 percent for South Africa. Mario Canseco, the firm’s president, said the share who did not even watch highlights fell from 49 percent in Qatar to 40 percent. Sixty-seven percent wanted Canada in a 2038 hosting bid.

How MLB All-Star Fan Voting Works

The Ohtani number was a product as much as a popularity contest. Since 2022, each league’s Phase 1 leader has been written into the starting lineup. Everyone else still has to survive a second round, and those totals reset to zero. Pitchers are not on the fan ballot.

HOW PHASE 1 LOCKS A STARTER

• The cap: Fans may vote up to five times in each 24-hour window.
• The doors: Ballots run on MLB.com, all 30 club sites, and the MLB app.
• The cut: Top two at each spot, and six outfielders per league, move to Phase 2.
• The prize: Only the single leading vote-getter in each league skips that second round.

Five taps a day is how a two-way Dodger ends up with 3,341,257 votes and still spends All-Star week getting a knee drained. Match nights during the tournament ran through the same kind of phone habit, including the World Cup features inside Meta’s apps. The vote did what it is built to do. It manufactured a starter. It could not manufacture a healthy left knee, and it could not keep Alvarez in the AL lead once Clement’s totals moved.

A Match and a Protest in Los Angeles

Iran against New Zealand on June 15 at SoFi Stadium was the other opener that would not sit still as sport. The listing said Iran v New Zealand. The stands split into two Irans. A near-sellout of 70,108 watched a 2-2 draw in which Iran came from behind twice.

FIFA bars political symbols and had moved to keep the pre-1979 lion-and-sun flag out of stadiums. A Los Angeles court rejected a free-speech challenge the morning of the match. Lion-and-sun flags still came through the gates, some of them raised when the official Islamic Republic flag was unfurled on the pitch. Outside, groups chanted “Mullahs’ team is not my team.” Inside, thousands in Iran shirts treated Team Melli as the point of the night.

The squad had been based in Tijuana and flown in for game day. Mehdi Jafari, 57, walking in with an Iran shirt, said he was there to support Iran and that people should let go of the politics. Other fans said the players were being used. The scoreline did not settle that argument. It only proved both crowds could occupy the same building for 90 minutes without the match being abandoned.

Spain Finished What That Group Started

The 2026 tournament was the first 48-team World Cup, 104 matches across 16 cities, 78 of them in the United States and 13 each in Canada and Mexico. It ran June 11 to July 19. Spain, group winners on seven points with five scored and none conceded in the group, won the final 1-0 after extra time against Argentina and took a second title, their first since 2010. They conceded one goal in the whole tournament. Attendance was 6,810,966.

Canada’s historic run closed on a 3-nil loss to Morocco in Houston. Uruguay’s Miami point was their high-water mark. Ohtani’s landslide bought a lineup card he never used. Spain lifted the trophy on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, out of the group that had opened with a 1-1 and a hero edit for a winger whose team did not survive June.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

Spain beat Argentina 1-0 after extra time on July 19 at MetLife Stadium for a second world title. Kylian Mbappé won the Golden Boot with 10 goals and became the tournament’s all-time leading scorer. Spain captain Rodri won the Golden Ball, Unai Simón the Golden Glove, and Pau Cubarsí the Young Player award. England finished third and France fourth.

How many votes did Shohei Ohtani receive for the 2026 All-Star Game?

Phase 1 closed with Ohtani on 3,341,257, and those remaining position races then reset to zero for a short Phase 2. He had never before led the majors in All-Star voting. The rest of the starters, pitchers, and reserves were due to be named on July 4.

Did Uruguay advance from Group H at the 2026 World Cup?

No. After the 1-1 with Saudi Arabia they drew 2-2 with Cape Verde and lost 1-0 to Spain, finishing on two points and a minus-1 goal difference. Saudi Arabia also had two points and went out on a minus-4 goal difference. Cape Verde advanced in second place without winning a match.

How far did Canada go at the 2026 World Cup?

Canada reached the Round of 16 for the first time, then lost 0-3 to Morocco on July 4. Alphonso Davies became the 1,000th player to appear at the 2026 tournament when he came off the bench against South Africa. The side scored nine goals in five matches, the most by a Concacaf men’s team in a single World Cup.

Why did Shohei Ohtani miss the 2026 All-Star Game?

The Dodgers cited continued irritation in his left knee, the same joint that forced him out early against Pittsburgh on June 11. He still served as designated hitter against Arizona that weekend, then had the knee drained and received an injection over the break. He later said the goal was to throw on his regular schedule in the second half; he has not pitched since July 3.