There are 20 days until the World Cup. Just tuning in? Here are 20 things to know to get caught up.

With 20 days to go before the World Cup begins, here are 20 things to keep an eye on — with a focus on the teams coming to Boston next month.

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A streamlined fan fest, extortionate train tickets, fights over street closures; hosting isn’t looking great for Boston.

Boston’s World Cup preparations have been among the most fraught of any host city. With just 20 days to go, time is running out for it all to come together here in Massachusetts.

The two greatest players of their generation — and of all time — will likely make their final World Cup appearances.

Lionel Messi will turn 39 during the tournament and Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his 41st birthday in February. It seems highly unlikely that either will still be playing come 2030, but it also didn’t seem likely four years ago that both would be suiting up in 2026.

It seemed like Ronaldo could miss the opening games of this World Cup after receiving a red card for elbowing an opponent in Portugal’s penultimate qualifying game.

That typically comes with a three-game ban, but FIFA deferred two of those games for a one-year probation period, a rare decision that definitely had nothing to do with making sure one of the game’s biggest superstars was available to play in the organization’s showpiece event.

One fading star most didn’t expect to appear at this World Cup is Neymar, who received a surprise call-up for Brazil.

The nation’s all-time leading goalscorer has struggled for fitness and form since moving to Saudi Arabia in 2023 (he now plays for his boyhood club, Santos, in Brazil).

New coach Carlo Ancelotti called him up anyway, and Neymar injured his calf just two days later.

The Messi-Ronaldo era consumed global soccer for more than a decade, and as they move into the later stages of their careers, a vacuum has been left behind.

Nothing elevates a player’s status quite like a World Cup showcase, like France star Kylian Mbappé’s stunning performance in the 2022 World Cup Final.

Can Mbappé solidify himself as the best player in the world this summer? Could he be usurped by international teammate Ousmane Dembélé, winner of the 2025 Ballon d’Or? Will 18-year-old Spaniard Lamine Yamal break out as the world’s best even sooner than expected?

Mbappé has already scored 12 World Cup goals, putting the 27-year-old within striking distance of German Miroslav Klose’s tournament record of 16.

Mbappe could break that record this summer — perhaps even at Gillette Stadium. Hopefully the campus dining at Bentley University is enough to fuel his record chase.

Morocco was one of the stories of the 2022 World Cup, becoming the first African team to reach the semifinals. Four years after their underdog run, the Atlas Lions enter 2026 on something more like a villain arc.

Morocco lost the Africa Cup of Nations final on home soil to Senegal in January in a match marred by all sorts of controversy — most notably when Senegal players left the pitch after Morocco was awarded a highly controversial penalty in the final minutes (not long after Senegal had a seemingly fair goal ruled out by video review). When the players returned, Morocco’s Brahim Diaz’s penalty was saved, and Senegal went on to win in extra time and lift the trophy.

Two months later, the Confederation of African Football’s Appeal Board ruled that Senegal had effectively forfeited the game by leaving the pitch, retroactively awarding the trophy to Morocco. Every great sporting event is won in the courtroom, right?

The decision was widely criticized and is being appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

An expanded tournament means newcomers to the World Cup, and four nations will make their debuts on soccer’s biggest stage: Curaçao, Cape Verde, Jordan, and Uzbekistan.

It’s relatively rare to have so many debutants — there were four new nations at the last three World Cups combined — underscoring the unique nature of the 48-team event.

It’s not too much more complicated than the 32-team version. The 48 teams are split into 12 groups of four, with each group playing a round-robin format. The top two teams from each group will advance to the knockout round, as will the top eight third-place teams, to form a 32-team single-elimination knockout bracket.

You can find a more detailed explanation here.

Two teams set to play in Gillette — France and England — will be tipped for deep runs at this summer’s World Cup.

The French will be seeking a third title and a second in three tournaments, having won in Russia in 2018 before falling in the final in a penalty shootout to Argentina in 2022.

The English, meanwhile, are trying to finally get over the hump in seeking their first World Cup since 1966. England reached the semifinals in 2018 and the quarterfinals in 2022 and lost in the final of the Euros in both 2021 and 2024.

The United States has long been a dominant force in the sporting world, but it’s still struggling to figure out how to compete with the best in the world on the men’s soccer pitch.

Outside of a third-place finish in the inaugural World Cup in 1930, the Americans have only advanced as far as the quarterfinals once, in 2002. They’ve been ousted in the Round of 16 in three of the last four World Cups and missed the tournament altogether in 2018.

Since the 2022 World Cup, the US struck out twice at the Gold Cup, falling in the semis to Panama in 2023 and in the final to Mexico in 2025, failing to even cement continental supremacy.

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The US has plenty of resources, players from some of the top leagues in the world, and a highly-rated coach (Mauricio Pochettino) who made his name in Europe. With the World Cup on home soil, can the Americans finally challenge the world’s best? It’s not looking great.

Which of the United States, Mexico, and Canada is poised to make the deepest run?

Mexico is the best-ranked of the three but hasn’t been past Round of 16 since 1986, the last World Cup on Mexican soil. Canada has never made it out of the group stage. The Americans should at least get out of a group with Paraguay, Australia, and Turkey.

North American bragging rights are on the line for whoever is left standing the longest this summer.

The war in Iran has complicated the nation’s involvement in this World Cup, with Iran set to play all three of its group games in the United States.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said in April that Iran would participate “for sure,” despite previous comments from President Trump that it wouldn’t be “appropriate” for the Iranian team to attend the tournament.

Iranian players arrived in Turkey Thursday to apply for visas at the US embassy in Ankara.

For Boston’s Haitian community, the national team’s first World Cup since 1974 — and an opening game in Foxborough against Scotland on June 13 — is a big deal.

Because of the ongoing political crisis in Haiti, the national team had to play all of its qualifying games at neutral sites. Still, “Les Grenadiers” topped their group in qualifying to reach their first World Cup since 1974.

Melrose High School graduate Frantzdy Pierrot was named to Haiti’s World Cup squad on May 15. Haiti will play Brazil in Philadelphia on June 19 and Morocco in Atlanta on June 24.

Eight countries have won the World Cup: Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, France, Uruguay, England, and Spain. The Spanish were the last to lift the trophy for the first time back in 2010.

Could we get a new winner this year? Portugal and the Netherlands seem most likely, but keep an eye on Morocco and Croatia, semifinalists in 2022 who will hope to go another step or two further in 2026.

The prices to see a World Cup match this summer are eye-watering: The cheapest available ticket on Ticketmaster for a group-stage game at Gillette Stadium, as of Thursday, is the $794 you’d have to fork over to see Scotland against Morocco on June 19.

That’s before even thinking about airfare, hotels, transportation to and from the stadium — if you want to see the World Cup in person, it’s going to be an expensive summer.

Norway is back at the World Cup for the first time since 1998, with a little more star power.

The Norwegians aren’t exactly a powerhouse, but they might have the best goalscorer on the planet in Manchester City’s Erling Haaland.

With a couple star attackers behind him — most notably attacking midfielder Martin Odegaard and winger Antonio Nusa — Haaland could be this World Cup’s top scorer, which might be what Norway needs to reach the knockout stages.

Boston Stadium? Huh?

FIFA rules have forces stadiums to scrub any evidence of their branding for the World Cup. Gillette Stadium will become “Boston Stadium” for the summer, MetLife Stadium will become “New York New Jersey Stadium” — which really rolls off the tongue — and so on.

The only arena getting any leeway is Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz stadium, which could not feasibly remove its Mercedes-branded roof without risking damage.

FIFA is taking a page out of the NFL’s book, staging a halftime show at the World Cup Final on July 19.

The show will be headlined by Shakira, Madonna, and Korean boy band BTS, which all seems reasonable. The show will be “curated” by Coldplay’s Chris Martin, the meaning of which isn’t clear. It will also feature appearances from characters from the Muppets and Sesame Street, apparently.

Few fan bases have fun quite like the Scots, who will play two of their three games in Foxborough.

Scotland last appeared at a World Cup in 1998, so the June 13 match against Haiti at Gillette Stadium is nearly 30 years in the making.

Keep an eye on the Scottish fans around Boston and Foxborough — they’ll be hard to miss.

When the World Cup last came to this part of the world in 1994, the legacy was obvious: It set massive attendance records, renewed interest in soccer in the United States, and led to the launch of MLS, which is still ticking along 32 years later.

So what will the legacy of this World Cup be? Will there be a breakout star like Mbappé in 2018, Diego Maradona in 1986, or Pele in 1958? Will American soccer thrive in its aftermath? Can the tournament overcome uncertain preparations, or will the price tag be all people remember?

There are 104 games to play — and a lot of questions to answer — when the World Cup kicks off on June 11.

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