Sweden’s Allsvenskan has produced a shock champion before.

In fact, it was only last year that a rank outsider upset the country’s football establishment to win the top flight title as Mjällby won the Allsvenskan for the first time in their history.

The Soccer Dispatch covered it at the time. Not even a full year on, another underdog is targeting Swedish football glory. This time, it’s IK Sirius that are sitting at the top of the table.

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Like Mjällby, Sirius have spent the majority of their existence in the lower leagues. They have never won a major piece of silverware, let alone the Swedish title.

Nine points clear in top spot, Sirius are currently Allsvenskan frontrunners. They have, however, just lost their top scorer and dropped valuable points in their last two outings.

Can the team from Uppsala, a city 70km to the north of Stockholm, keep going?

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Malawi, it seemed, had written the defining story of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

The Scorchers were just one victory away from lifting WAFCON at their first attempt. Cameroon, however, had other ideas and made their own history by convincingly winning Sunday’s final 3-0.

Scroll down for more on Cameroon’s first-ever WAFCON triumph!

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Elsewhere, Mohamed Salah made his debut in the Turkish Super Lig, a goalkeeper in Scotland pulled off a rabona and a new 17-year-old wonderkid has emerged at Ajax.

Let’s take a look at everything 👇

Something historic

Cameroon added their name to the short list of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday!

All the pre-match focus had been on Malawi’s incredible run to the final (see last week’s in-depth newsletter), but it was The Indomitable Lionesses that made history in Rabat.

Goals from Naomi Eto and Marie Ngah put Cameroon three goals up before half time and they cruised the second period from there. There’s a new superpower at the top of African women’s football!

Something Vietnamese 🇻🇳

Vietnam took another step towards defending their ASEAN Championship crown by beating Malaysia 2-0 in the first leg of their semi-final tie.

Rafaelson opened the scoring with this diving header. The Golden Star Warriors will host the second leg on Wednesday with a final against Thailand seemingly destined.

Something in Turkey 🇹🇷

Mohamed Salah made his debut for Trabzonspor, coming off the bench in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Kasimpasa on the opening weekend of the 26/27 Turkish Super Lig season.

The Egyptian played 32 minutes, created two chances and registered two shots, both of them off target. We’ll continue to check in on Salah at Trabzonspor. His home debut on Thursday in Europa League qualifying could be special.

Something audacious

Is there anything more audacious in the sport of football than a rabona?

Yes, there is - a goalkeeper doing a rabona! Aberdeen’s Marius Muller is now my favourite goalkeeper. He did this in the opening 10 minutes with the scoreline against Dundee still goalless.

What an icon!

Something wooly

Dijon supporters were able to try out some new technology at their first home game of the new season.

Their scarves have been embedded with chips that allow them to get through the turnstiles by scanning them. What’s the practical use of this? Not sure, but it’s cool!

Something Belgian in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

Scotland have a new manager - former Monaco and Union Saint-Gilloise head coach Sebastian Pocognoli.

This Scottish newsletter writer can’t really explain what’s gone on here. I can only suggest the Scottish FA heard that fans wanted Postecoglou and got a bit mixed up…

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Pocognoli has a decent record, but has only ever managed 107 games in his entire coaching career. This is a gamble!

Something unexpected

An interesting story from the border of Colombia and Ecuador where Erling Haaland’s face was found adorning 800lbs of cocaine discovered by police.

Did they choose the Norwegian striker’s face to put off cops like he puts off opposition defenders?

Something creative

This group of Sheffield Wednesday supporters couldn’t get tickets for their team’s opening league fixture away to Leyton Orient on Saturday.

Not to be deterred, they rented a nearby apparent for the day and watched the match from the balcony. Check out their celebrations when Wednesday scored from the penalty spot! 😂

Something warm 🥵

It was 33 degree Celsius in Munich over the weekend. You might have seen that Jamal Musiala fainted in the conditions as Bayern Munich played a pre-season game against RB Leipzig.

Nonchalant king Michael Olise, however, doesn’t feel heat. Man’s not hot!

Something 17 years old

Ajax have a strong track record of developing young superstars and they might have another one on their hands!

17-year-old Abdellah Ouazane scored this stunner for the Amsterdam side against Heerenveen in Sunday’s Eredivisie match. The young Moroccan has a bright future ahead of him.

Something else 17 years old

Something must be in the water in northern Europe because here’s another 17-year-old wonderkid making his mark!

Kevin Filling set up this goal for AIK in the Stockholm Derby, putting it on a plate for Johan Hove to find the back of the net against Djurgarden.

Something soggy 💦

To concede one goal thanks to a waterlogged pitch is unfortunate. To concede two is just careless!

AC Oulu and Rasmus Karjalainen were gifted two goals by FC Inter Turki in Sunday’s Finnish Veikkausliga match. FC Inter Turku still managed to win 3-2! AC Oulu needed an even deeper puddle.

Something in Texas 🤠

The Houston Dynamo marked the 20th anniversary of their first MLS Cup triumph with his impressive tifo!

They also invited their title-winning team of 2006 to their 1-0 win over the LA Galaxy. Houston are real contenders in the Western Conference. They have flown under the radar!

Something skewed

There has never been greater focus on set pieces in football than there is now.

By the looks of it, though, Brazilian lower league team Juventus SP need some more set piece training. Is this the WORST corner kick you’ve ever seen?

Something on wheels

Lens beat Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday to win the Trophée des Champions for the first time in their history.

The real highlight, though, was this little remote control car bringing the ball out for kick off at the start of both halves. This is Euro 2024 heritage!

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Only two weeks ago, I wrote about Malawi’s shock win over Nigeria in their first-ever Women’s Africa Cup of Nations match.

That was stunning enough. Nigeria, for context, are 10-times African champions. The winners of four of the last five WAFCON tournaments. The Super Falcons are a superpower.

Malawi, on the other hand, are continental minnows.

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Now they are WAFCON finalists after a sensational run that has defied all pre-tournament predictions. Incredibly, Malawi will be WAFCON champions with a victory over Cameroon in Sunday’s final.

The way they’ve been playing, and the teams they have already beaten, one last win might not be beyond The Scorchers.

This is an underdog story that deserves to be revisited.

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I’m running a $5 season ticket offer because I need your help to keep The Soccer Dispatch going!

The reality is that I still need to grow TSD further to make it viable. Every newsletter takes time to write and put together. Illustrations require commissioning an artist and Substack takes a cut of everything.

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At the time of writing, TSD has just over 700 paid subscribers. Can you help me reach my target of 800 by the end of August? It would mean a lot to me!

This newsletter continues to be something I cherish. I never started it to make money.

It gives me an outlet to write about stories and subjects that otherwise wouldn’t have a place in the mainstream media. Hopefully you believe that’s worth something.

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For $5 (less than $0.10 per week) you will receive TWO newsletters every week.

These newsletters will always seek to explore something off the beaten track. Something you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else.

Each story takes hours of research and production. Monday’s VAR (Valuable Alternative Reading) newsletter takes pretty much the entire weekend to compile!

In the last few weeks alone, I have written about…

The growth of Vietnamese football and the national team’s defence of its ASEAN Championship crown, FC København’s resurgence after a relegation scare last season and Malawi’s shock WAFCON win over Nigeria and what it says about African women’s football.

Over 2026 as a whole, this newsletter has published stories about the game in Indonesia, Morocco, Switzerland, Poland, China, Iran, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Canada, Sweden, Jordan, Japan, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Paraguay, Ireland, Haiti, Bosnia and many more nations.

Why I believe TSD is necessary

Despite the promise of the 2026 World Cup as a catalyst, the football media continues to narrow. The opportunities available to writers like myself are thin on the ground.

Just last week, I lost another freelance contract. It never used to be this way.

I’m proud of what I have created with TSD which has now been running for over three years. I have no plans to stop producing weekly newsletters any time soon, but the nature of this venture means I have to get the begging bowl out every so often. This is one of those times.

Hopefully you don’t see it as begging. I’d rather frame this as offering something that will be of value to you for a low price of just $5 for a full year.

$5 for 52 (FIFTY TWO!) VAR (Valuable Alternative Reading) round-up newsletters of all the football headlines and viral moments you might have missed sent every Monday plus 52 (FIFTY TWO!) in-depth newsletters sent every Thursday.

TSD is currently the fourth rising bestselling newsletter on Substack. You’d be joining a community of subscribers who already shape the content I produce on a weekl basis.

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Even if you don’t fancy taking the plunge right now, I’d love to hear what might convince you to become a paid subscriber in the future. What sort of content would interest? What could I do be doing a better job of?

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Sunday was a day to remember at the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations!

Tournament debutants Malawi beat Ghana to make the semi-finals and qualify for the Women’s World Cup for the first time in their history. What a fortnight it’s been for The Scorchers!

On top of this, 10-times WAFCON winners Nigeria crashed out to Cameroon. The tournament is wide open!

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Elsewhere, there was confusion over Cristiano Ronaldo’s supposed wedding, a Brazilian goalscorer disappeared down a hole and a parachuter had a painful experience in the Eredivisie.

Let’s take a look at everything 👇

Something at WAFCON 🌍

Only two nations not called Nigeria have ever won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, but The Super Falcons won’t get their hands on the trophy for an 11th time this summer.

Cameroon pulled off a shock 1-0 victory over the defending champions to secure a spot in the WAFCON semi-finals - and the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

Something else at WAFCON 🌍

Morocco took another step towards their ultimate ambition by beating South Africa to make the semi-finals of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Sakina Ouzraoui Diki scored this stunner of a goal to send The Atlas Lionesses on their way to the final four. They have lost in the final of the last two WAFCONs.

They have never won the tournament before and want to change that on home soil this summer!

Something on the road 🛣️

Uruguayan football has a certain reputation and I’m not sure this incident will do anything to dispel that reputation.

Not only did this clearance in a lower league game leave the stadium, it bounced on to a road and caused a car crash. Uruguay’s World Cup campaign was a bit of a car crash too…

Something promotional

Sponsors have been on football kits for decades going all the way back to Kettering Town in the 1970s.

Peruvian league team Deportivo Municipal, however, have taken the concept to an entirely new level with a new shirt featuring no fewer than ONE THOUSAND sponsors!

Each little square is enough space for a local business to promote themselves.

Something top bins 🎯

This might be one of the goals of the season and we’re only in August!

Owen Graham-Roache scored this belter for Canada against Mexico in the CONCACAF U20 Championship. That thing stayed hit all the way into the top corner!

Mexico ended up beating Canada and overcoming USA in the final to win the competition.

Something welcoming

Mohamed Salah completed a surprise move to Trabzonspor last week and it’s fair to say the Egyptian winger’s new fans are excited about it. Some of the scenes have been sensational!

Trabzonspor invited Salah over to a traditional Turkish family home for a meal. It now makes more sense why he’s gone there because this looks delicious!

Something mistaken

Word spread that Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina Rodriguez were getting married in Madeira on Saturday.

Thousands of well-wishers turned up expecting to see the former Real Madrid superstar on his big day. Instead, they succeeded only in crashing the wedding of local couple Fabio Ramos and Fatima Nicole Cunha Teixeira.

Something in ASEAN 🌏

The semi-finals of the 2026 ASEAN Championship are set!

This goal by Pavithran Gunalan gave Malaysia a 1-0 win over the Philippines to set up a meeting with defending champions Vietnam in the final four. In the other semi-final, Thailand will face Singapore.

Another Thailand-Vietnam final feels inevitable.

Something in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

New Celtic striker Kasper Høgh is up and running for his new club after scoring a hat trick in the Scottish champions’ 5-1 win over Kilmarnock.

The Hoops broke the bank to sign the former Bodø/Glimt forward who caught the eye in the Champions League last season. Høgh faced criticism for his debut display last week, but made amends in his second appearance.

Something 15 years old

At just 15 years old, Gabriel Rajkovic became the youngest scorer in Norwegian league history!

The teenager found the back of the net for the first time in Valerenga’s defeat to Bodø/Glimt on Saturday. Remember the name! The kid looks to have a big future ahead of him.

Something acrobatic

Whenever there’s an acrobatic throw-in that leads to a goal, you better believe you’ll read about it in this newsletter!

Check out this effort in the Russian second division where Spartak Kostroma found the back of the net in unique fashion. The best bet is when the shirt goes over the head of the throw-in taker.

Mikel Arteta has just bid £100m for him.

Something flooded 💦

There’s never any shortage of chaos in the Brazilian lower leagues!

In this game, a puddle was deservedly given an assist. This clip has everything - torrential rain, a waterlogged pitch, a farcical goal and a commentator who doesn’t seem to know what’s going on!

Something painful

Go Ahead Eagles thought they had a great on how to mark their first home game of the new season.

They hired a parachuter to fly into the stadium with the match ball. Not everything, however, went to plan. Just watch. Ouch!

Something unveiled

Vozinha’s transfer to Colo-Colo was quite a saga, as regular readers of this newsletter will know. It was on, then it was off, then it was on again!

Finally, the Cape Verde hero was presented to his new supporters in Chile ahead of Colo-Colo’s match over the weekend. They’re going to be disappointed when they realise the World Cup was only a flash in the pan…

Something down a hole

All Jacy wanted to do was celebrate his goal for Cortiba. Next thing he knew, he was down a hole. Why is there a hole behind the goal in the first place?!

To make matters worse, Cortiba had the goal disallowed. That’s quite literally adding insult to injury!

Something limbsy

Hibernian scored a breakaway winner in the final few minutes of Sunday’s match away at Rangers and there were some serious limbs in the away end.

This newsletter has stood in that away end at Ibrox before. There are home fans on either side of you and on top of you. A late winner as an away supporter there must be glorious.

Some TSD content you might have missed… 🗞️

The peril of FC København’s situation was made clear during a run of results that started in late January and stretched to the start of March this year.

It was a run that started with a heavy defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League. That The Lions were even on the same pitch as the illustrious Catalans highlighted the status they have enjoyed in recent years as one of Denmark’s premier clubs.

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At the same time, though, FC København were sliding further and further down the Danish Superligaen table. A run of five defeats in six games after the winter break made it feasible that they could be relegated.

FC København scraped the points to stay up and have now started the 26/27 season with back-to-back victories. So are they finally over their crisis or will dark clouds start to gather again?

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Gianni Infantino went too far and it might now cost him his job as FIFA president. Oh no, what a shame… 😈

You already know how Infantino’s plans to privatise the World Cup blew up his face. However, have you seen the group of Swiss fans telling their compatriot to “f*** off”? Because if you haven’t, you need to!

More on the backlash to Infantino and his …

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On their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations debut, Malawi produced the biggest upset in the competition’s entire history.

Most considered it a given that the 10-times WAFCON champions Nigeria would comfortably sweep aside the Scorchers in Tuesday’s group game. Instead, Malawi scored three times in the final 17 minutes to secure a famous 3-2 win.

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In a tournament overshadowed by CAF’s woeful governance, Malawi served an important reminder of why WAFCON matters and why it deserves so much better.

So what’s next for the Scorchers and could the 2026 WAFCON be defined by more surprise results from an underdog class catching up to the continent’s best?

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You thought the international football was over for the summer with the end of the World Cup? You thought wrong!

The 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations kicked off this weekend as Algeria made a big statement in their opener against Senegal.

More on WAFCON below as well as the 2026 ASEAN Championship which similarly got under way over the weekend.

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More Asian nations participated in the 2026 World Cup than any other World Cup in history

All nine nations exited in the group stage or round of 32, but Asian football was represented in a way it had never been before. Nobody could ever doubt the region’s fervour for the sport.

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Vietnam watched from home. They’ve watched every World Cup from home having never qualified in 51 years of trying as a unified nation. It would be easy to write off the country as a footballing backwater.

That, however, would be in ignorance of the thriving football scene in Vietnam.

The country of over 100 million people is one of the sport’s largest sleeping giants and there are signs that it is finally waking up. The 2030 World Cup could be in their sights.

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Argentina might not have won the 2026 World Cup final, but they took over New York for Sunday’s game.

Thousands of Albiceleste supporters filled the streets of The Big Apple for the final, setting up camp in Times Square to barbecue, chant songs about Las Malvinas and wear Messi jerseys. That’s what they do!

More on the scenes below!

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This was THE World Cup. The biggest World Cup by almost every measure.

The most teams, host nations, viewers, sponsors. The highest attendances, revenue, ticket prices.

It was the World Cup of extremes. The good stuff was very good - Cape Verde’s run, Mexico v England at the Azteca, the thrill of Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Erling Haaland all showing up in a big way.

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The bad stuff, however, was very bad in a way that might have serious repercussions for the future of the sport. The 2026 World Cup might have been a watershed. Football may never be the same again.

So was it worth it? FIFA would say so. The rest of us? Hmmmm.

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Norway might be out of the 2026 World Cup, but they - and their supporters - left a lasting impression on the tournament.

Had it not been for Alexander Sorloth’s shoddy decision-making, Erling Haaland and co. might have made it through to the semi-finals. As it was, they’re rowing home.

More on Norway’s impact on the World Cup below!

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Nobody predicted Switzerland would be among the dark horses of the 2026 World Cup.

Colombia, Ecuador, Norway and Turkey were all favoured over Murat Yakin’s team. In Norway’s case, understandably so. But while Erling Haaland and co. are preparing for a World Cup quarter-final this week, so too are the Swiss.

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This is a team that has made the knockout rounds of every major tournament it has played going back to the 2010 World Cup.

Saturday’s clash with Argentina will be Switzerland’s first World Cup quarter-final since 1954, but they made the final eight of Euro 2024 and Euro 2020 before that too. The Nati are a big game side.

And yet Swiss football and the country’s national team, on the brink of a World Cup semi-final, still doesn’t get the respect it deserves.

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Cape Verde might not have won the 2026 World Cup, but they won the respect of everyone who watched their heroic performance against Argentina.

The Blue Sharks returned home on Sunday and were greeted by thousands of supporters eager to show their gratitude. Vozinha surely won’t buy another drink in his homeland ever again!

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Carlos Queiroz had just 59 days to prepare Ghana for the World Cup.

Hired as a ‘break glass in case of emergency’ option, the former Portugal, Colombia, Iran, Egypt, Qatar and Oman manager was brought in to quell the chaos that had engulfed The Black Stars in the build-up to the tournament.

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Not many fancied Queiroz’s chances of achieving this and yet Ghana have been everything the veteran coach wanted them to be at the 2026 World Cup so far.

Far from being the peak of a crisis, this summer could prove to be a catalyst for Ghana. Against all odds, this could be The Black Stars’ best-ever showing at a World Cup.

One of the powerhouses of African football is a force to be reckoned with again.

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The European mind can’t comprehend the stadiums at the 2026 World Cup according to some of the people on social media.

It also can’t comprehend the demolition of a team’s training base while they’re training there, as was the case when Sweden turned up to FC Dallas’ Toyota Stadium while the wrecking ball was being swung.

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Curacao’s draw against Ecuador was so momentous that The Blue Wave were visited by royalty afterwards.

King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and Princess Ariane of the Netherlands celebrated with the team in Houston. Curacao, which has a population of just 158,000, remains part of the Dutch kingdom.

More on Curacao’s triumph at the 2026 World Cup below…

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Sergej Barbarez spent years telling anyone who would listen how he would change Bosnian football, and the Bosnian national team in particular.

The former forward, who featured for several Bundesliga clubs in his playing days before becoming a professional poker player, was a regular on Bosnian TV and earned a reputation for being outspoken in his views.

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So one day the Bosnian FA called his bluff. They appointed Barbarez national team manager and gave him the license to overhaul the set-up.

Two years later, Bosnia and Herzegovina are playing in only their second-ever World Cup and Barbarez has been vindicated. One man’s agenda proved to be the roadmap for the national team’s revival.

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Scotland’s first World Cup in 36 years was one to savour and The Tartan Army made the most of their night in Boston.

Steve Clarke’s side may not have impressed much in their nervy 1-0 win over Haiti, but the travelling Scotland support have already set a high bar for the most passionate fanbase at this tournament.

See more of The Tartan Army’s antics belo…

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