World Cup 2026: Why are there no games today? What other sports are on?

For the archetypal clip successful 27 days, determination are nary men’s World Cup matches to ticker connected Wednesday.

There are 5 remainder days successful this last agelong earlier the tournament’s victor is crowned astatine the MetLife Stadium connected July 19, with the archetypal connected Wednesday marking a speedy breather earlier the quarter-final signifier gets nether mode connected Thursday, erstwhile France play Morocco.

There are present lone 2 knockout rounds earlier the last — and the jeopardy, excitement and anticipation are ramping up.

The astir caller matches astatine the last-16 signifier had nary shortage of drama, with Golden Boot-leader Lionel Messi scoring his eighth extremity of the tourney to implicit Argentina’s 3-2 comeback triumph implicit Egypt aft going 2-0 down. Later connected Tuesday, Colombia were eliminated connected penalties by Switzerland.

So with an evening abruptly missing the joyousness and symptom of World Cup shot — what bash we bash now?

Why has the World Cup paused?

Players to rest.

Of the 104 scheduled matches of the tournament, 96 person been played — 92 per cent of the tournament.

France and Morocco — who look each different successful the archetypal quarter-final connected Thursday — astir precocious competed connected Saturday, successful their wins implicit Canada and Paraguay respectively, leaving conscionable 4 days to recover.

With the tourney being expanded to 48 teams this year, remainder is much important than ever arsenic an other circular was inserted into the docket and teams that person made it to these second stages person played 5 games already.

Mental fatigue, carnal strain, miles of question and vigor issues volition each commencement to instrumentality their toll.

“You get truly tired, but not astir the 7 oregon 8 games,” Ivan Rakitić told The Athletic. “You get bushed due to the fact that of thinking, preparation, analysis, taking attraction astir yourself, your team-mates, and taking attraction astir different things.”

Luckily for anxious fans, astir markers for freshness instrumentality to baseline wrong astir 5 days.

Germany’s caput of show Nicklas Dietrich identified “a batch of travel, determination are clip shifts, determination are antithetic climates astatine antithetic stadiums” arsenic challenges they volition person to overcome.

The players person ever had these days betwixt games to recover, however, it is conscionable lone present that fans volition consciousness them excessively with less matches scheduled arsenic countries are whittled down by fractional each round.

How does this comparison to erstwhile World Cups?

In erstwhile editions of the tournament, determination person been akin numbers of remainder days contempt the less teams and matches.

In Qatar 2022, determination was an earlier remainder day, betwixt the radical signifier and round-of-16, earlier groups of 2 days disconnected pursuing each circular thereafter.  In the 2018 World Cup successful Russia determination was an further remainder time earlier the knockouts, bringing the full to six.

With each of these erstwhile World Cups, the days disconnected were felt earlier successful the progression of games, arsenic determination was nary last-32 signifier aft the radical phase.

What tin I ticker instead?

The World Cup has paused, momentarily, but the remainder of the sporting satellite keeps spinning.

Even with soccer, the preliminary stages of the Champions League and Conference League for the 2026-27 play person already commenced, portion the European under-19 championships are ongoing and the Canadian Championship has resumed.

There are nary shortage of different sports, too.

The Athletic has regular sum here of the Tour de France arsenic it enters its 5th stage. This summer, Jonas Vingegaard and satellite champion Tadej Pogacar are going head-to-head again, having passed cycling’s top rubric betwixt them for six years.

Dreaming of becoming the archetypal rider extracurricular of Pogacar and Vingegaard to triumph the Tour since 2019 (Egan Bernal) are the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Juan Ayuso and France’s teenage prodigy Paul Seixas.

Tennis is successful afloat travel too, arsenic Wimbledon connected Wednesday volition spot the quarter-final signifier continued crossed men’s and women’s singles and doubles.

Read much connected The Athletic here and travel unrecorded sum here.

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Who plays next?

France volition footwear disconnected the adjacent circular of the World Cup by taking connected Morocco connected Thursday astatine 4pm section clip (9pm BST) successful Foxborough.

Spain volition past look Belgium connected Friday astatine the SoFi Stadium successful Inglewood astatine midday section clip (8pm BST).

Finally, Saturday volition big a treble header of England vs. Norway successful Miami astatine 5pm/10pm earlier Argentina vs. Switzerland volition gully the circular to a adjacent astatine 9pm/2am.

After that, the semi-finals volition beryllium played betwixt 2 sets of 2 remainder days — connected Tuesday July 14 and Wednesday July 15 — earlier the consecutive days of the third-place play-off (July 18) and the World Cup last (July 19).