Was Norway’s defeat of Brazil the biggest upset of the World Cup?

On Jul 17, 2026

Christian Polanco and Alexis Guerreros of The Cooligans reflect on the 2026 FIFA World Cup including Norway’s win over Brazil in the Round of 16. Check out the full conversation on the “The Cooligans” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

Favorite upset for me, this is my favorite upset, only because it was an upset for all of you and not me, ’cause I called it from the beginning.

Norway over Brazil.

I said it.

I said Brazil were trash.

They were not playing well.

We went, when we went to Foxborough and saw them against France in that, in that sort of warmup game- Mm-hmm I said, “Bro, this midfield does not know what they’re doing.”

Vini was able to get them, gut them through a couple games.

The fact that Neymar couldn’t play, you see him here, how good he was.

But I said it, man, Norway were good, and I thought, I knew, I just knew that the way they were playing they’d be able to overtake a few of the teams that were second-guessing them, thinking, “All we have to do is get, Erling Haaland out of the way.”

That to me proved to everyone that Norway are a, a team to reckon with moving forward in this tournament.

Yeah.

There were about 70,000 Brazilians there that were very upset about- Yeah about that game.

We were there.

My favorite upset, which it wasn’t a loss for a team, but the draw, the Cabo Verde draw against Spain to- The first match to, to, to start the- Yeah you know, the, them in the group stage, I think this, I It, it set like, you know, a precedent of like, man, yo, Cabo Verde’s not gonna be some, quote-unquote, “small nation,” just happy to be here at this World Cup.

Just getting that point, I think changed for Vozinha’s life, we’re looking at him right now, changed his life, changed the life of a lot of these players an- and, and put a, a real respect.

I, I think that point, getting that point against Spain is now why we’re having the conversations of like, maybe there should be 64 teams at this World Cup, and some people are not happy with those conversations.

You said that, me, me.

I don’t, I don’t necessarily love it, but, you gotta give credit where credit’s due.

That, I think that was an in- an incredible result and a b- a huge upset for, for Spain.

Source link