The 2026 World Cup continues to deliver surprises.

Morocco has once again shown impressive strength in the group stage, Senegal has delivered solid results, Ecuador has taken unexpected points against bigger nations, and Paraguay showed real resilience despite losing to Norway.

It makes you wonder: have the traditional powerhouses, packed with secure, highly-paid superstars who already have it all, lost some of that fire? Meanwhile, many players from so-called smaller nations are still playing like their entire future depends on it.

The only clear exception so far was Tunisia, who were a big disappointment against Sweden.

Or maybe… Sweden was just that good.

As a Swede, I’m obviously biased enough to believe the latter.

---

This is a new post on the new dewlar.me blog.
You can find the old blog here: https://mrsdewlar.blogspot.com

---