Last night I watched Argentina beat Cape Verde 3-2 with three devices open in front of me. A phone, a laptop, an iPad. Another post will get into what running it across three screens taught me. Latency behaved itself. Keeping the three in sync is the problem weI still have not cracked.
While the game played I was working on the same page I have been building for the past couple of weeks: an interactive Road to the Final for the World Cup 2026 knockout stage. Argentina scored, a story card drifted in with the goal, the minute, a short description of how it went. Messi’s name climbed the top-scorer card to seven. I sat there grinning like I had just shipped something for millions of people.
https://carlodemarchis-stack.github.io/world-cup-bracket/
I have not. This bracket will make me no money. In fourteen days the tournament ends, the page goes quiet, and I take it down. By every sensible measure it was a waste of time. I would do it again tomorrow.
Building it put me back in a state I had almost forgotten. Add a feature. Try an idea. Refine the UX. Check the data against the real results. Add another feature. Hours went by in that loop and I never looked at the clock. Anyone who has worked on a live product for a major event knows the feeling. The tournament sets the deadline, the fans set the bar, and you build in a constant flow because there is no other way to keep up with the football.
Years ago I did this with a full product team for tournaments exactly this size. We shipped experiences that millions of fans opened during matches, refreshing between goals, checking their bracket at half time.
A small aside to the people who worked with me back then. I feel a little less guilty these days, now that I can chase these obsessions on my own time and spare all of you. I know I was not always easy to be around.
This one I built alone, on evenings and early mornings, and a few hundred people might tap around it. There was a time that gap would have stung. It doesn’t anymore. Fewer people see what I make now. I still build for the same reason I always did. I love making things for sports fans.
So here is what it does, from the basics to the small things I could not resist adding.
The full road to the final. All 48 teams, every knockout tie, one glance.
Who is in and who is out at a glance. Green for advancing, red for eliminated.
Every match with its score, date, kickoff time, round, and penalty shootouts.
Works on your laptop and your phone.
Make it yours: light or dark, pick your accent color.
Kickoff times shown in your own timezone.
Tap a team for its squad, results, and path through the tournament.
Tap a match for the full story: lineups, scorers, assists, cards, key VAR moments.
Tap the ball at the center for tournament-wide stats and leaderboards.
Players grouped by how far they got: still playing, out in the Round of 32, out in the groups.
Scores and details update themselves.
Matches kicking off soon light up so you do not miss them.
The page refreshes on its own. No reload needed.
Story cards drift in during quiet moments. Goals, assists, top scorers, fun stats, with player photos.
Each goal comes with a vivid match-day description of how it happened.
Step through the cards yourself, or pause and resume them whenever you like.
A full totals dashboard: goals and scorers, goal timing, discipline, match facts, crowds.
The tournament’s texture: fastest and latest goals, braces and hat-tricks, clean sheets, biggest wins, comebacks to extra time, attendances, and more.
None of this needed to exist. That was the point. The tournament will end, the page will go dark, and I will have spent two weeks building a thing for the pleasure of building it and for the handful of fans who tap around it during a match. I would trade a lot of tidier, more sensible projects for that feeling.
There is a harder truth underneath the fun. The new tools let me build almost any idea I have, and fast. That speed is a trap. Being able to make something is a weak reason to make it. The real question is why, and it deserves discipline. Where is my time going, where is my attention going, and is any of it generating value for someone other than me.
I am still bad at answering that. I have built a few things lately and pulled little real value out of them. This bracket belongs on that list too. I keep building anyway, and I think the reason holds up. To understand a shift in technology you have to get inside it. For me that means building real things and staying with them long enough to learn something real. The weekly parade of shiny releases, tried once and forgotten, leaves nothing behind.
For now the bracket is live while the football lasts. Go find your timezone before the next kickoff.
https://carlodemarchis-stack.github.io/world-cup-bracket/
Final provocation: why are not official websites that cool? :)
Built on the original bracket design by Emilio Sansolini.
A Guy with a Scarf is collaborating with Dolby OptiView - Enabling live sports experiences that engage and captivate fans. #ad
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