The Athletic has launched a daily soccer puzzle game for the 2026 World Cup — and if Puzzle No. 1 caught you off guard, you're not alone. It's rated 3 out of 5 for difficulty, and a couple of those categories have some genuine misdirection baked in.
What is Connections: Soccer Edition?
The format will be familiar to anyone who's played the original NYT Connections. Sixteen words on a board, four hidden groups of four, one connection linking each group. You get three mistakes before the game ends and hands you the answers anyway. Each category is colour-coded from easiest (yellow) to hardest (purple).
The twist here is that every category is football-themed — leagues, players, tournaments, and the culture around the game. Created by Will Jeanes, senior editor at The Athletic, a new puzzle drops at midnight in your local time zone for the duration of the World Cup.
Today's board had a neat trap: REAL, DOLLAR, EURO, and WON are all currencies — not football clubs or competitions. That's the kind of lateral thinking that separates Puzzle 1 veterans from first-timers. The Cristiano Ronaldo cities category (RIYADH, TURIN, MANCHESTER, MADRID) is more straightforward if you know his career, but RIYADH will trip up anyone who stopped following him after the Juventus years.
Full answers for June 11, 2026
Yellow — Names for the sport in different countries:
- FOOTBALL
- SOCCER
- CALCIO
- FÚTBOL
Green — First word in the name of a top European league:
- SERIE
- PREMIER
- LA
- LIGUE
Blue — Cities where Cristiano Ronaldo has played club football:
- RIYADH
- TURIN
- MANCHESTER
- MADRID
Purple — Currencies of 2026 World Cup host countries:
- DOLLAR
- EURO
- REAL
- WON
The purple category is the one that will have caught most people out. Canada, the United States, and Mexico use the Dollar and Peso respectively, Spain brings in the Euro, South Korea the Won, and Brazil the Real. Once you see it, it's obvious. Getting there without a hint? That's another story.
