Colm O'Regan: 'The World Cup has given us a break from reality — I'll miss checking for football news each morning'

England's Harry Kane celebrates after the Fifa World Cup Round of 16 match at Mexico City Stadium, Mexico.

How did you spend your day off on Wednesday? Maybe wander around town. Get a light lunch. Buy a few souvenirs? Definitely, there was something missing.

One of the things I didn’t realise I’d miss on the World Cup’s first day off in 28 days was missing things.

There was a peculiar delight in waking up every morning and checking the news to see what had happened in the small hours and that news was good or strange or exciting or as expected.

But just football. For four lovely weeks, the morning news was not dominated by that Orange Trumpet across the water. Even when it was, it was fine thanks to Belgium.

The World Cup has delivered plenty. There’s a specific kind of chaos you only get when several dramas are unfolding at once. A lot of people, including me, didn’t expect the extra teams to make it better. First, they weren’t awful. Also, because you could qualify in third place, most teams weren’t so nervous in the first game and actually played.

That’s why England/Croatia was fun. It meant for weird games, which are always good. Like the Algeria/Switzerland match where both teams needed a draw but forgot and kept scoring.

There’s less diving, too. I know this is hard to credit, but it’s true — referees seemed to be waving on Junior B-level challenges.

And the goals. So many goals. I care about goals per game after the trauma of Italia ‘90 — a tournament where the football was so grim they had to change the rules afterwards, and Ireland did its bit.

The craic was 90, but the games were shitey. We tend to gloss over that because of how iconic the whole thing felt at the time; it’s a bit like the British Museum — we love the results, we don’t dwell on how they got there.

And for once, I don’t actually mind if England win. They’re just one more nearly team I’m exhausted by, forever witnessing their arc of watching their hope and inevitable heartbreak. If they win they win. They’ll still talk about 1966 anyway.

This World Cup has been good in spite of Gianni Infantino and Trump, not because of them. ICE has, at least, stayed away from the stadiums. There was some genuinely ugly stuff early on — African fans and the Somali referee not being given visas, for example — that shouldn’t be forgotten in the glow of it all.

England's Jude Bellingham and Morgan Rogers following the World Cup Group L match at the Dallas Stadium, Arlington. 

And then there’s Cape Verde. Not just plucky — genuinely good. Pico Lopes is home to do a bit of work on the TV analysis panel. Make that bag Pico! No one has more recent World Cup experience than him.

For all the worries about ICE, Trump, corruption — the diaspora is still the thing. The Americas remain the place guaranteed to have half a million fans in residence for every single team at the tournament. A reminder of the America that’s written on the statues.

I missed plenty of matches live, so I caught up on the excellent Up All Night, presented by Dominic McHale and Shane Casey from The Young Offenders, who’ve been working oil-rig hours for a month and are very good at it. Although there will be consequences for them. Having made 30 half-hours of good TV, they’ve no choice but to be on Dancing With the Stars.

Next up: Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The hours will be better, but it will bump up the cost of the Leaving Cert holiday in 2030.

There’s a centenary game in Paraguay, Argentina and Uruguay — expect Paraguay to shut up shop entirely. In 2034, it’ll be Saudi Arabia which will make us look back fondly on Qatar.

With eight games left, we’ll miss this World Cup. Trump will still be in the news every day. But at least Gianni Infantino won’t. We’ll take the draw.