The World Cup advances to the knockout stage with 32 teams and opening matches in Los Angeles and Houston, including South Africa vs Canada and Brazil vs Japan.Forecasting models from Daniel Memmert and Fabian Wunderlich place France at 21.1 percent title probability, with Argentina rising to 17.5 percent and Portugal falling to 6.6 percent after a difficult bracket.Lionel Messi leads the
Golden Boot with six goals,
Deniz Undav tops
FIFA Power Rankings, and Cape Verde’s draw with Spain underlines the expanded field’s surprises.