What you need to know about FIFA World Cup 2022, including a Peter Vermes story about Messi

The FIFA World Cup begins Sunday with host nation Qatar meeting Ecuador. The United States opens pool play the next day, Nov. 21, against Wales.

As the world’s biggest sporting event approaches — and we think about how the experience will play out in Kansas City in less than four years — we take a look some of the World Cup stories, personalities, facts and figures, starting with the only time Sporting KC’s Peter Vermes, as a national team assistant coach, competed against who he believes is the greatest to play the game in Lionel Messi.

And won.

The year was 2005 and the occasion the FIFA World Youth Championship in the Netherlands. Vermes had played for the Kansas City Wizards but was four years away from becoming the manager of a team later known as Sporting KC.

Here, he was one of two assistants for the U.S. team.

Messi, playing for his Argentina national team, was a 17-year prodigy who had made his professional debut with Barcelona a year earlier. He turned 18 during the competition that didn’t start well for him or his homeland.

Argentina and the U.S. met in a group stage opener, and Vermes produced the scouting report. He knew all about Messi and implored coach Ziggy Schmidt to deploy an unconventional defensive tactic.

Vermes had recently attended a South American under-20 competition and found himself sitting next to the radio broadcasters. During Argentina’s game, Vermes was seeing and hearing about this remarkable young player.

“All he’s saying is Messi, Messi, Messi, when he dribbled past a guy,” Vermes said.

He called Schmidt after the game and told him he had never seen a better younger player. “I didn’t know how we were going to stop him,” he said.

Vermes’ idea: Slow Messi by man-marking him, assigning a player to not leave him unchecked in an attempt to curtail his influence. This was an old-school practice and Schmidt wasn’t keen on the idea. Turned out, the strategy wasn’t necessary early on.

For some reason, the young Messi didn’t play in the first half, as the U.S. took a 1-0 lead. But Vermes peeled away early from the team at halftime and watched Argentina warm up. It became apparent Messi would enter the game.

“We’ve got to man-mark him with a guy,” Vermes pleaded with Schmidt.

But Schmidt liked the way the team was playing and didn’t want to change. Just in case, Vermes approached the player who would be assigned to stick with Messi if it came to that: Benny Feilhaber, who later played for Vermes in Kansas City.

Argentina controlled the ball to start the second half.

“This is no lie,” Vermes said. “Messi gets the ball, dribbles from midfield all the way to 25 yards out. He takes a shot and it hits off the crossbar for a goal kick.

“Ziggy leans over and says, ‘We got to get someone on Messi.’”

Feilhaber did the job and the U.S. completed the one-goal triumph.

It was a triumph to savor because the tournament became Messi’s.

Argentina didn’t lose again. Messi opened the scoring in a 2-1 victory over Brazil in the semifinals and scored two penalty kick goals in the 2-1 triumph over Nigeria for the championship. Six goals earned Messi the Golden Shoe as the event’s top scorer and the Golden Ball as the top performer.

The U.S. got out of pool play but fell in the Round of 16.

A postscript:

“I know this to be true,” Vermes said. “The president of the Argentinian Federation called the coach after our game and said, ‘Here’s how it’s going to be: Messi is to play every single minute of every single game going forward. If he’s out of the game for anything other than an injury or a (red) card, I’m firing you on the spot and sending in a new coach.’”

That was the beginning of Vermes’ long-standing admiration of Messi — and why his choice of Argentina to win the World Cup is based at least partially on sentiment.

“I’d like to see Messi win because I felt like he’s been the best player in the world for a long time,” Vermes said. “And I think unfortunately he will be looked at differently if he doesn’t win a World Cup. If he does, I think he will cement his spot, at least I would say, as being the best to ever play the game.”

U.S. SCHEDULE, TV

The U.S. is part of Group B with Wales, England and Iran. Here are game and TV times:

Nov. 21 U.S. vs. Wales, 1 p.m. (Central) FOX

Nov. 25 U.S. vs. England, 1 p.m. FOX

Nov. 29 U.S. vs. Iran, 1 p.m. FOX

ODDS TO WIN FIFA WORLD CUP TROPHY

The trophy is made with about $161,000 worth of gold. These were the odds from vegasinsider.com one week before the opening match:

Brazil +400 (bet $100 to win $400)

Argentina +550

France +600

England +800

Spain +850

Germany +100

Netherlands +1200

Portugal +1400

Belgium +1600

Croatia +5000

Uruguay +5000

Senegal +8000

Serbia +8000

Switzerland +10000

Mexico +15000

USA +15000

Poland +15000

Ecuador +20000

Canada +20000

Wales +20000

Morocco +20000

Cameroon +25000

Japan +25000

South Korea +25000

Ghana +25000

Qatar +25000

Australia +35000

Tunisia +50000

Iran +50000

Saudia Arabia +75000

Costa Rica +75000

2022 WORLD CUP TOP GOALSCORER ODDS

Harry Kane, England +700

Kylian Mbappe, France +900

Junior Neymar, Brazil +1200

Karim Benzema, France +1200

Lionel Messi, Argentina +1200

Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal +1600

WORLD CUP RUNNETH OVER

Most championships by country

5 Brazil

4 Germany (including West Germany)

4 Italy

Most championships by continent

12 Europe

9 South America

0 North America, Asia, Africa, Australia

Most final appearances without a championship

3 Netherlands

SOCCER IS THE MOST POPULAR SPORT IN...

In 10 of the 13 nations surveyed by Nielsen, soccer ranks among the top three sports in popularity:

Australia: Australian rules football, tennis, cricket

Brazil: soccer, volleyball, extreme sports

Canada: ice hockey, figure skating, snowboarding

China: basketball, badminton, soccer

France: soccer, tennis, rugby

Germany: soccer, ski jumping, biathlon

India: cricket, soccer, badminton

Italy: soccer, motor sports, track and field

Japan: figure skating, baseball, soccer

South Korea: short track speed skating, soccer, figure skating

Spain: soccer, tennis, basketball

United Kingdom: soccer, boxing, motor sports

United States: football, basketball, baseball

MOST COMMON PLAYER NAMES

According to research by kelbet.es, a sports-betting resource, Carlos is the most common name of a World Cup player since the event debuted in 1930. Here’s the list of top 10 common names for more than 7,000 players:

72 Carlos

59 Jose

56 Luis

48 Mario

44 John

42 David

42 Peter

38 Roberto

36 Antonio

36 Jan

36 Jorge

WORLD CUP BIRTHPLACES

According to bettingexpert.com, these cities have produced the most World Cup players since 1930

95 Montevideo, Uruguay

72 Mexico City, Mexico

66 Buenos Aires, Argentina

63 Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

63 Santiago, Costa Rica

54 Vienna, Austria

KANSAS CITY WATCH PARTY

Nobody does watch parties like Kansas City. Sporting KC and The Power & Light District have partnered to host the parties at Kansas City Live! and No Other Pub. Admission is free to group stage games involving the U.S. and Mexico, but will be ticketed events.

For more information: https://www.sportingkc.com/wc2022/

COMING ATTRACTION: 2026 WORLD CUP CITIES

A look ahead at the next World Cup and where games will be played

U.S.

New York

Dallas

Kansas City

Atlanta

Philadelphia

San Francisco (Bay Area)

Boston

Los Angeles

Houston

Philadelphia

Miami

Seattle

CANADA

Toronto

Vancouver

MEXICO

Mexico City

Monterrey

Guadalajara