Day 2: What Might Have Been
THE HEAT MAP - World Cup Dispatches that won’t let you down.
Today, the Heat Map lights up Toronto and Los Angeles as co-hosts Canada and the USA make their tournament debuts. But for Irish fans, opening a window to the multi-million-dollar spectacles at BMO Field and SoFi Stadium is a bruising case of what might have been.
It’s impossible to look at this global party without a lingering sting from that penalty shootout heartbreak in Prague back in March. Had a few spot-kicks gone our way against Czechia, the Boys in Green would be the ones facing the music. Instead, we’re left to look wistfully as Tomáš Souček and Vladimír Coufal frolic in the sunshine.
Christian Pulisic leads the US against Paraguay tonight, looking to replicate history - ninety-six years after American Bert Patenaude scored the first-ever World Cup hat-trick against the exact same opposition. Meanwhile, Jesse Marsch has the weight of a nation on his shoulders as Canada unleashes Alphonso Davies against a stubborn Bosnia line-up.
The pressure is boiling, the stakes are unforgiving, and the boys on the pitch will have to stay Cool, Calm, and Clinical to survive.
We might be watching from the sidelines this time, but whatever happens on that pitch, The Heat Map won’t let you down.
