Saudi Arabia

• 1
  Saudi Arabia's World Cup ended exactly how most people expected: bottom of Group H, out after three games, with just two points from draws against Cape Verde and Uruguay sandwiched around a 4-0 battering by Spain. There was no late drama — they were already out before their final group game, a 1-1 draw with Uruguay that changed nothing.
• 2
  The closest thing to a bright spot was damage limitation — they held Cape Verde to a goalless draw and Uruguay to 1-1, results that would look fine on another day. Cape Verde, meanwhile, turned three draws of their own into a historic run to the knockout stage as first-time debutants. Saudi were just the opponent in somebody else's fairytale this time round.
• 3
  It got messy before a ball was even kicked. Saudi Arabia sacked long-serving coach Hervé Renard back in April and handed the job to Greek coach Georgios Donis with barely six weeks to prepare. Then Spain took them apart 4-0, with 18-year-old Lamine Yamal and Mikel Oyarzabal doing the damage inside the first half hour — the kind of pre-tournament upheaval that rarely ends well, and didn't.
• 4
  The name to know is captain Salem Al-Dawsari, at his third World Cup and still the player the rest of the dressing room defers to. He scored the goal that beat Argentina 2-1 at the 2022 World Cup, still the most celebrated moment in modern Saudi football — there was no repeat heroics this time, but at 34 and with over 100 caps, he remains the team's one genuine star.
• 5
  The bigger picture here is patience — Saudi Arabia already has a World Cup guaranteed in 2034 as hosts, and this squad, drawn almost entirely from their own domestic league, looks like a project being built for the tournament after next rather than this one. Bottom of the group twice running isn't a good look, but nobody back home is panicking about eight years' notice.