--- title: The World Cup — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The World Cup», a lesson of the medicine course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: The men's World Cup comes round every four years, and in 2026 it grew from 32 teams to 48 and was shared by three hosts, the USA, Canada and Mexico, so the --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/) / The World Cup # The World Cup Lesson 61 of the medicine course of Mova's primary school: 16 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/medicine/61-the-world-cup/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/0/) — The men's World Cup comes round every four years, and in 2026 it grew from 32 teams to 48 and was shared by three hosts, the USA, Canada and Mexico, so there were 104 matches instead of 64. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/1/) — Callum from Gateshead stares at the wallchart, «Howay, 48 teams? - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/2/) — That's proper mental, man» (Geordie for come on, that's crazy), and the sums work out: 12 groups of 4, each group playing 6 games, then 32 teams in the knockouts. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/3/) — Watching is exercise for your heart too: a 3–3 final with penalties makes your pulse race and your hands sweat on the sofa, and a 2 am kick-off from Los Angeles eats the sleep a growing body needs. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/4/) — Fans have bodies as well as players: three hours of shouting can leave your voice «banjaxed» (Irish for broken), three hours in July sun can bring on heat exhaustion, and the thin air of Mexico City's Azteca leaves visitors puffing. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/5/) — The 2026 men's World Cup was hosted by the USA, Canada and Mexico, with 48 teams and 104 matches, up from 32 teams and 64 matches. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/6/) — In 2026 the 48 teams were split into 12 groups of 4; each group played 6 games, 72 group games in all, and 32 teams went through to the knockouts. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/7/) — Japan and South Korea shared the 2002 World Cup, so 2026 was not the first shared one. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/8/) — Argentina beat France on penalties after a 3–3 draw in the 2022 final in Qatar. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/9/) — Most 2026 matches were played in North American time zones, so a 6 pm kick-off in Los Angeles was 2 am in the UK. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/11/) — England's men won the World Cup once, in 1966, beating West Germany 4–2 after extra time at Wembley. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/12/) — The 2023 Women's World Cup, hosted by Australia and New Zealand, had 32 teams for the first time; Spain beat England 1–0 in the final, and Australia's Matildas reached the semi-finals. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/13/) — Shouting for a long time strains the vocal cords so they swell and the voice goes hoarse; resting it and sipping water usually bring it back in a few days. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/14/) — Sticker packs are random, so doubles keep coming and filling an album takes far more packs than stickers divided by pack size; swapping doubles with friends fills the gaps far more cheaply. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/15/) — In hot sun the body sweats out water and salt, and fans standing for hours can get heat exhaustion: dizziness, headache and feeling sick; shade, a hat and plenty of water help prevent it. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/61-the-world-cup/16/) — Estadio Azteca in Mexico City is about 2,200 m above sea level, where each breath brings less oxygen; it hosted World Cup matches in 1970, 1986 and 2026. - ← previous: [Ill on match day: play or stay home?](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/60-ill-on-match-day-play-or-stay-home/) - next →: [The Olympics and Paralympics](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/62-the-olympics-and-paralympics/) - ↑ back to [Medicine](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/medicine/)