NPR's Scott Simon and sportswriter Howard Bryant have a World Cup knockout stage preview and discuss Serena Williams' return to Wimbledon.

SIMON: The World Cup moves into the knockout stage, and Queen Serena returns to Wimbledon. What a week. Howard Bryant joins us. Good morning, Howard.

SIMON: But in addition to that, the Men's World Cup wraps up group play today. Cape Verde - they became the smallest country ever to win and advance to the knockout stage, a scoreless tie with Saudi Arabia. Boy, they're easy to love, aren't they?

BRYANT: Yeah. The whole thing has been so much fun, and it's been a little bit of nostalgia as well. It reminds me of 1994, the last time the World Cup was in North America. And I was living in San Francisco, and all of the different teams were all over the place. And I lived in Haight-Ashbury, and the Brazilians were everywhere. And it was just a party for, like, two weeks.

BRYANT: And you see all of the shots, whether it was, you know, the - Scotland invading Boston. And obviously, the Cape Verdians know anybody down in the South Shore of Massachusetts. It's a home away from home. It's an adopted country. And you see the - you know, the Senegalese everywhere and the French and the Norwegians. And it's just been - it's been...

BRYANT: ...Great. And I think that one of the things that's been really fun about this is that we spent so much time of the - during the run-up to the World Cup talking about what was happening in the politics and...

BRYANT: ...What was happening in Washington and what happens in the White House. And yet you do realize that the sport does belong to the people. Despite the prices and despite all of the different machinations that go with the business side of it, when it's go time and when the fans come out, the game does belong to the fans. And that has really - the energy of World Cup has really superseded anything that's been going on in Washington, and that's really a good thing.

SIMON: And the U.S. has been playing well.

BRYANT: And the U.S. is doing something we haven't seen before. They had a shot to do something they'd never done before, which was to win all three of the group-stage games. They lost in the last kick of the match to Turkey, but that was a fun match. And they've moved on, and they are now going to play Bosnia-Herzegovina in the knockout stage. And so this is something interesting we are used to. We are used to World Cup domination on the women's side. We are not used to it on the men's side. This has actually been fun for them, too.

SIMON: I got to tell you, I'm rooting for Bosnia. I covered the terrible war conflict there. It just has warmed my heart to see how well they're playing.

BRYANT: Well, once again - and that is the thing - the individual stories. It's not just a nationalistic thing. It's knowing what this means to a lot of countries. And people do think about it from the United States standpoint. Sports dominates everything here, but for some of these other countries, this is their everything. This is the one...

BRYANT: ...Sport that they care the most about. And so it's - the vibe is different with every team, every nation.

SIMON: Serena Williams, maybe the best women's tennis player ever, making a comeback to Wimbledon at the age of 44. Her first opponent, Maya Joint, is 20.

BRYANT: Well, she says she is. She says she has nothing to prove, and I'm sure she wants her daughters to have seen her in action. And - you know, but you don't do this if you're not here to win. I don't think Serena's coming out here to get a double bagel put on her. I don't think that - that's in her DNA, to get on the court, especially on the grass, a tournament, she's won seven times. And so I don't think that she's here just for funzies. I think when you get out there and you start playing, even though her opponent was born when she was in - you know, almost mid-career.

BRYANT: She'll be 45 in September. But at the same time, it's also a great inspiration. You never count out a champion. I don't have a great deal of expectation. I mean, what do you - it's a young person's game. Do you really think a 44-year-old can win? But - you know, but it'll be fun to see her, and it'll be fun to see her back. She hasn't played since 2022. It's been...

BRYANT: ...Four years since we've seen Serena Williams. And so I'm really excited about seeing what she does and how she competes, and then, of course, for the rest of the tournament as well. Let's face it. There's - I'm interested in seeing what Coco Gauff does. I'm interested in seeing what Sabalenka does on the women's side. I'm very, very interested in seeing what Iga Swiatek can do. And - but the end of the day, this tournament - because she's back, it's going to be remembered as Serena Williams' return.

SIMON: Yeah. Howard Bryant, thanks so much, my friend. Talk to you soon.

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