FIFA Series: The World Cup Is Over, but There Are Unanswered Questions

In the final episode of our FIFA series, host Kavitha Davidson sits down with Jeff Rueter, soccer correspondent for The Guardian US and formerly a staff writer at The Athletic, to unpack how this World Cup actually ended. Jeff, who spent the tournament embedded with the U.S. men's national team, walks Kavitha through the strangest week of his career: the eve-of-match red card reversal that turned a soccer story into a geopolitical one overnight, and the questions still swirling about how and why it happened.

They also dig into the final itself, breaking down how Argentina built its entire knockout-round game plan around grinding to penalties, a strategy that never got the chance to pay off, and what this tournament likely being Lionel Messi's last World Cup means for how his career gets remembered.

Previously in the Sportly FIFA series:

"Who Gets Rich When the World Cup Comes to Town?"

"What World Cup Fans Are Discovering About the Real America"

Host: Kavitha A. Davison | Producer & Writer: Paroma Chakravarty I Executive Producer: Saadia Khan | Sound Designer & Editor: Paroma Chakravarty I Sportly Theme Music: Simon Hutchinson | Other Music: Epidemic Sound | Cover Art Graphic Designer: Sarah DiMichele

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