Olle is back and the happiness of round one has somewhat dissipated as round two gets underway in the World Cup. A horrible start to Round 2 for all current and former Swansea-affiliated players and managers. To an extent.

⚽️ The Swedes: After the 5-1 win over Tunisia I had unwillingly started to get my hopes up. I knew deep down that we didn’t look good and had beaten a very poor team, but I still felt we had a chance against the Dutch. Never before have my hopes been demolished with such ruthlessness and brutality. Sweden were outmatched, outclassed and utterly crushed. I actually think we played a little better than the scoreline suggested, but our defensive structure is simply unbelievably poor. The Netherlands are starting to look really good, though — Gakpo, Summerville, Brobbey and De Jong all looked very impressive. Less so for Gyökeres, Potter and especially Nordfeldt. You will remember him.

But that’s enough of my sorrows; let’s instead look at Cameron Burgess’. Four own goals (you could say five with one against Man City which somehow wasn’t given against him) in a season is a lot. I’d argue it’s a mix of bad luck and poor body coordination, in this case I think it was mostly the former. It didn’t end there, though, as I thought Cameron didn’t play that well throughout the game either. I still think the USA were comfortably the better side either way, and their start to the tournament has been superb — they look like the real deal. Hopefully Burgess can bounce back quickly and not lose too much confidence. With Stephen Welsh’s arrival in Swansea one could imagine Burgess is keen to impress as much as possible.

Eom’s South Korea also failed to get a point against a host, but unlike Burgess, Eom looked good. He was given 25 minutes on the pitch, looked really energetic and delivered a superb cross that was extremely close to resulting in a goal. A costly mistake by Korea’s keeper Seung-Gyu Kim ultimately cost them the game, though it should be said that Kim had some really good saves earlier in the match as well.

The only former Swan to have won a game so far in this round is, surprisingly, Paul Clement.Yes, Paul Clement is at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. I missed this in my earlier report covering former Swansea-affiliated players and coaches at the World Cup, but I’m rectifying that now. Clement’s partnership with Carlos Ancelotti began in 2009 when he became his assistant at Chelsea. He has since followed him at PSG, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and now Brazil; quite the career. Clement is remembered in SA1 for his stint as Swansea City manager between January and December 2017. He first helped the club avoid relegation in 2016-17, accumulating 26 points from 18 games and earning a nomination for manager of the season. The following season we sold our best players without replacing them and Clement was sacked in December with Swansea bottom of the league. We all know how that ended. Either way, he qualifies as a former Jack, and his Brazil beat Haiti 3-0 to temporarily go top of the group on goal difference. Their win confirmed the elimination of Haiti and another former Swansea player: Hannes Delcroix. I’m not sure how Delcroix escaped my earlier research, perhaps because of his rather forgettable loan spell at the club two seasons ago. Delcroix made 12 Championship appearances for Swansea in 2024-25 on loan from Burnley, and now plays for Lugano in Switzerland.

Haiti have been eliminated, but they were genuinely impressive and should leave the tournament with their heads held high. The Haitians failed to pull off an upset, but those surprises have not dried up in Round 2. Paraguay started things off with a bang, somehow surviving a Turkish onslaught and coming away with a 1-0 win. In a remarkable moment, Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón received a first-ever red card for covering his mouth whilst appearing to say something to Mert Müldür. Türkiye have genuinely produced one of the most disappointing tournament showings in recent memory — and that is saying something given their recent history. Every major tournament they are hailed as dark horse candidates and every time they fall short. Across two games against Australia and Paraguay they had 62 shots and scored none. It’s almost impressive, and perhaps a bit unlucky.

The real shock so far, however, is Curaçao managing to scrape a draw against Ecuador. This was another disappointment on Ecuador’s part — a team I had very high expectations for heading into this tournament. They have a very strong squad on paper and came 2nd in the South American qualifiers, and now need to win against Germany to qualify for the next round. But let’s not take anything away from Curaçao, and from the man of the match: Eloy Room. I would wager that nobody reading this knew where Eloy Room was playing club football before this tournament.
Eloy Room plays for Miami FC — no, not Inter Miami with Messi and Suárez, but Miami FC. Miami FC compete in the USL Championship. The USL Championship is the second tier of American soccer. So to be clear: an American second-division goalkeeper produced a historic performance on the biggest stage in the world, breaking records along the way. With 15 saves, Room recorded the most saves in a non-extra-time World Cup game since 1966. The stuff dreams are made of.

Reuters : Six days after being humbled 7-1 by Germany on ‌their World Cup debut, Curacao -- the smallest nation ever to reach the finals with a population of about 156,000 -- produced a resilient display to frustrate the South Americans and keep alive their hopes of reaching the knockout stage

Curaçao, the smallest nation ever to qualify for a World Cup with a 156,000 population have now also claimed a point. This is the beauty of this tournament. This also means Curaçao still have the chance to progress from the group; they “just” need to win against the Ivory Coast. Can Eloy Room do it again?

Iran also drew 0-0 against Belgium after a monstrous performance by Iranian keeper Alireza Beiranvand. Beiranvand plays for Iranian club FC Tractor, a very interesting side whose fan base is mainly the large Azerbaijani minority living in Iran, a club that routinely draws over 35,000 fans and has once reached an attendance of up to 120,000. A club to remember. This result sets up the finale in Group G to be very, very interesting.

But the upsets just never stopped coming. Cape Verde has become a fan favorite at this World Cup, and their game vs Uruguay is my game of the tournament. Fast paced, went back and forth and was full of chaos. And of course, it ended in an upset. Uruguay have now a 1-1 draw vs Saudi Arabia and a 2-2 draw vs Cape Verde. They probably need to win vs Spain in order to advance. Cape Verde on the other hand now has a golden opportunity to qualify for the next round, and even finish 2nd in the group. They just need to beat Saudi Arabia. Can fan favourite goalkeeper Vozinha produce another masterclass?

Truly a World Cup of upsets and incredible performances by relatively unknown goalkeepers. There has been even more incredible stuff happening in this round, record breakers and incredible games, but I’ll cover all of that in the report. Until then, enjoy the games! Some may even watch England this evening against Ghana ?

Photograph : Hannah McKay | Credit: REUTERS