Amid all the (justified) gushing over France’s big names, last night also saw further flowering of one of this World Cup’s potential breakout stars, Mexico’s Gilberto Mora, who looks one hell of a player.

Trinder19 BTL sings some praises:

Every World Cup there’s a small selection of players most of us have seen or heard little about, who are then bought for a lot more than they were worth pre-tournament and who, sadly, fail to live up to the potential they showed. It’s interesting to see who’s turning heads at this World Cup. From what I’ve seen, Gilberto Mora is far more than just a six week wonder though. He looks like an absolute superstar in the making and I can’t imagine what his price tag will be eventually.

It’s not all about the price tags though – wherever he ends up (and it’d be good if he spends at least some more time gracing Liga MX), it’s his footballing worth that promises to thrill us.

A view from Mexico: a delve into the back end of yesterday’s mailbag digs up this missive from Mexico City from Pablo Silva Abarra

There’s one annoying aspect that I haven’t seen mentioned in any of your MBMs or articles concerning life for common citizens in Mexico City. It has to do with the incompetent response of our local authorities to the challenge of organizing WC matches with all that it entails.

For the fourth time in a row since June 11 that we had the opening match, there has been an executive order from the government mandating that every school in Mexico City (which I may remind you is one of the biggest and most chaotic places on plante Earth) must remain closed for match days in the Azteca Stadium. The same standard doesn’t apply to workplaces which remain open, because the orders only suggested that people adopted home office for those days. Even daycare falls under the scope of what the government understands as “schooling system”. In my particular case and I’m sure many people’s, it’s been grueling having to manage working at home with taking care of a 4yo boy and a 5mo daughter, who demand 95% of their parent’s attention.

The absurdity of this all is compounded by the fact that the matches, other than the Mexico - South Africa, take place at 7pm, and schools in the public education system (which my children will have the fortune to avoid, but that’s the subject of a proper discussion on its own) finish classes at 1pm. Also, these executive orders have been issued by the government with only one business day in advance, impeding us from making any reasonable arrangements to cope with it all, and for people (like me) who do not have a supporting family network, makes it an impossible task.

I hope this email finds some echo, I can’t imagine any parent having sympathy for this absurd and improvised decisions of my government. I could go on for hours being the precise day when I have full house, but I’ll try to think ahead on what promises to be an outstanding day of football, as well as the fact that today’s and this Sunday’s matches will be the last ones ever to be played in Mexico. I’ll also try to get some work done before the baby wakes up and screams for food.

Get yer ears round this lot – today’s World Cup Daily podcast.

The view from England now, and Jacob Steinberg’s preview of today’s game:

The part where Tuchel earns his corn starts now. England’s target at the World Cup is to put a second star on the shirt but it would be pushing it to say they sailed through the group stage. The surge against Croatia in Dallas is yet to be repeated. Jude Bellingham and Kane are performing in attack, but there are problems to fix in almost every part of the team and there is a banana skin in football form to deal with when England face the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the last 32 on Wednesday afternoon.

Slip up in Atlanta and it could be curtains for Tuchel. The pressure is on England. They have never lost against an African side at the World Cup and are not going to be feted if they secure a last-16 tie in Mexico City by beating the DRC.

While Andrew Beasley has the tactical lowdown on the DRC:

By keeping opposing teams a long way from their goal, the DRC are able to keep the quality of the chance they face low. Where the average non-penalty shot in the group stage was worth 0.10 expected goals, teams facing the DRC averaged just 0.06. Only Spain’s defence was better by this measure and they dominated possession to a far greater extent.

On this day in World Cup history: 1990 and England faced an African side in the knockouts …

Didier Deschamps’ reign as France manager has sometimes, and sometimes unfairly, been described as over-cautious and unspectacular, despite its successes. If France go all the way this year though, there’s no chance his final squad will be similarly regarded. Didi’s letting his stars run the show, as Leander Schaerlaeckens writes:

Deschamps, who lost his mother last week, will step down after this World Cup, but he seems determined to do things differently this time around. In this last gasp of his time in charge, he has suddenly subscribed to a kind of Great Man Theory, but for football. He has turned over control to Kylian Mbappé and Ousmane Dembélé and, crucially, to Michael Olise, his attacking triumvirate laying waste to everyone they have so far faced.

Those three are working out a system for their entire side on the fly. It turns out Olise is more effective underneath Mbappé, who has finally embraced the lone striker role he long resisted. They have found by trial and error that Jules Koundé is best utilized through underlapping runs from right back. Such has been the French superiority over their opponents at this tournament that the skill and experience gap has more than sufficed to work on some things along the way.

To the Democratic Republic of the Congo then, and Ed Aarons has had a chinwag with their former defender and captain Gabriel Zakuani – who I used to enjoy watching as a classy centre-back for Leyton Orient two decades ago – about the country’s chances against England. And Zakuani, who still works as a consultant for the country’s federation, is upbeat.

“There are holes in England. I think it’s been glaring,” he says. “When you sit back against England, they struggle to open you up. I don’t think they selected players who are capable of doing that on a regular basis. That’s what we’ll exploit. If you stop Jude Bellingham, I think you stop a lot of England. We’re very athletic and we’re very good defensively. And I think we’ve got a bit more than Ghana going forward.

“So I would say if we can hold them for as long as possible, we will get chances. And we just have to be clinical when we do get those chances. That’s the way I see us beating England.”

The Knowledge has dropped, to answer the question of high-scoring non-Golden Boot winners.

And here are the 2026 standings:

Another manager leaving his job is Ecuador’s dashing Sebastian Beccacece, whose contract was up anyway, per Reuters. “I don’t think we ⁠were able to achieve the feat we promised: to make this the best World ​Cup ever. Today it’s my by Mexico.

“That’s why I have to leave. ‌I would have liked to continue because what I received from the players and the management warranted the possibility of continuing. But I understand how this works and it hurts, but I think the decision was clear.

“We were outplayed in the first half. We fought back, but we couldn’t find the goal that would have given us a boost.

“I have no ​complaints, only gratitude to the people and the players,” he said. “I received so much gratitude and affection from the bottom of my heart. The boys gave me two beautiful hours after the match and that’s what we’re left with.”

Koeman quits. The other big news from late-on yesterday was the resignation of Ronald Koeman as the Netherlands manager. Having initially struck a defiant tone in the aftermath of his side’s elimination by Morocco on Monday, the 68-year-old announced his departure late on Tuesday.

“Last night I took the decision to end my stint as head coach of the Dutch national team,” Koeman said in a statement on Instagram. “We all shared the dream of making history at this World Cup, but we fell short. No one is more disappointed by that than I am. As head coach, the responsibility ultimately rests with me”.

Depressingly, the Dutch exit was also followed by racist abuse aimed at the players who missed spot-kicks during the shootout in Monterrey. Justin Kluivert, Quinten ​Timber and Crysencio Summerville were subjected to discriminatory, racist and hateful comments ​on social media. “We find ‌this appalling, and we will file a case with Meld Online ‌Discriminatie [Report Online Discrimination],” read a KNVB statement. “Once a report is filed, their legal staff assess whether the statement constitutes a punishable offence. This can lead to a formal complaint being lodged with the public prosecution service, which may then initiate a ‌criminal investigation.”