by 
Hello from the World Cup!
For our 10th wedding anniversary, my wife and I went to MetLife New York New Jersey stadium to see France play (or as my Parisian colleagues would say, “Écraser”), Sweden. More on that in a second, for now, this week on The Brief: Instagram tries to put its content onto TV, surging demand for AI data center memory has jacked up hardware prices, and Zuckerberg wants to build a betting app.
The stadium held 82,500 fans, but there was a group of <1,000 behind the goal that were fervent Sweden supporters. It didn’t come through on the broadcast, but this group cheered, clapped, stomped, and sang in unison for every second of the 95 minutes the match lasted. It felt and sounded like 50,000 people, but it was a relatively tiny group. Even after going down a goal (then two, then three), they didn’t stop, waver, or change their song.
My wife and I were seated next to diehard France fans, complete with face paint, wigs, flags and retro jerseys they claimed they’ve owned for 20+ years. In about the 80th minute, I saw one of the fans next to me staring quizzically at the tiny sea of Sweden fans, and he said out loud in a thick Parisian accent, “Look at them. They never stop. They are small, but they are mighty. They have my respect.”
It was both the perfect encapsulation of the spirit of this World Cup, and a great lesson on perspective. Sweden may not have won the match, but they did not lose. Sure, they did not arrive at the destination that they would have hoped for, but you could see they appreciated the journey and where it took them.