FiveThirtyEight’s Benjamin Morris runs the numbers: “By now I’ve studied nearly every aspect of Messi’s game, down to a touch-by-touch level … I arrived at a conclusion that I wasn’t really expecting or prepared for: Lionel Messi is impossible.”

+ At the time I am writing this, it’s unclear whether or not America has a shot at winning the World Cup. One award they will not win: Best chant. Historians may someday tie this wildly uncreative chant to the demise of the American empire: “I believe that we will win!” AP takes a look at five memorable World Cup chants.

+ “Soccer takes away our hands. This makes the game incredibly skillful and exhausting, but also robs fans of much of the beauty of sport. Hands and opposable thumbs separate us from creatures of the wild.” That’s just one of the many arguments made by columnists and commentators who insist there is something wrong with the most popular sport in the world. The New Yorker’s Ian Crouch on a century of American soccer anxiety.

+ Luis Suarez finally (sort of) admits to the biting incident and apologizes … and one assumes, spits out the chunk.

+ NPR: USA vs. Belgium: If The World Cup were played In beer.