Soccer’s World Cup is one of the world’s greatest sporting spectacles, the rare coalescence of worldwide culture, nationalism and intense competition encapsulated within a cocoon of the most popular sport on the globe.

For sure, Russia 2018 has featured many seminal moments. From a team perspective, one of the better moments was surely the host country’s incredible resolve in ousting a football blueblood, Spain, from the tournament. For individual players, no true soccer fan could deny appreciating the sheer joy radiating from Radamel Falcao’s face after finally scoring a World Cup goal after a long battle with injury. And, looking at the proceedings from the perspective of an individual country, the pride in “just being there” exhibited by smaller nations like Panama, Tunisia and Iran was heartwarming to see. So many wonderful images seen thus far, with others sure to come.