The Puzzle and Its Rules
Every week The Athletic’s senior editor Will Jeanes crafts a fresh Connections: Soccer Edition puzzle that challenges readers to sort sixteen items into four distinct groups of four. The goal is to spot the hidden link that ties each set together, whether it’s a shared league season, a World Cup venue or a lyrical tribute.
Players are given three chances to mis‑step before the game ends and the correct groupings are revealed. Because each puzzle has a single, unambiguous solution, even a word that seems to belong to multiple categories must be examined carefully.
For the July 13, 2026 edition, the four categories are: teams that appeared in only a single Premier League campaign, World Cup final stadiums located in the Southern Hemisphere, soccer‑related songs, and players who have recorded a World Cup hat‑trick. Jeanes has supplied the answers alongside brief explanations that illuminate the connections.
Jeanes, who spends his spare time digging into soccer history and statistics, says the puzzle is as much about storytelling as it is about trivia. “I love finding the little threads that tie a player’s career to a stadium’s legacy or a chant that still echoes in locker rooms,” he notes.
The next puzzle will appear at midnight in each reader’s local time zone, continuing the weekly rhythm that has become a ritual for many fans.