X

World Cup memes: Oprah announces she's rooting for Mexico

And YOU get a goal! And YOU get a goal! The talk-show queen made a video supporting El Tri. Plus: Lots and lots of penalty kicks.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
Expertise Breaking news, entertainment, lifestyle, travel, food, shopping and deals, product reviews, money and finance, video games, pets, history, books, technology history, generational studies. Credentials
  • Co-author of two Gen X pop-culture encyclopedia for Penguin Books. Won "Headline Writer of the Year"​ award for 2017, 2014 and 2013 from the American Copy Editors Society. Won first place in headline writing from the 2013 Society for Features Journalism.
See full bio
Gael Cooper
2 min read

World Cup watchers, are you on the Mexico bandwagon yet? Make room for talk show legend Oprah Winfrey, who announced in an Instagram video on Sunday that she's rooting for El Tri.

World Cup fever at our house!

A post shared by Oprah (@oprah) on

The Mexican team was quick to welcome her to the fold, tweeting, "Please welcome our newest member to the Incondicionales family!!!" 

And it didn't take long for her fellow Mexico fans to welcome her with plenty of memes and GIFs. Many referenced famed Oprah moments of the past, including her 2004 episode where she gave a new car to every member of her studio audience. "You get a World Cup!" joked one Twitter user.

Mexico takes on Brazil Monday morning, so we'll soon see if the power of Oprah affects World Cup matches.

Oprah aside, Sunday was a lively day in the World Cup. Host country Russia tied powerhouse Spain, then knocked out the Spaniards when the game went to penalty kicks.

Naturally, as with anything involving Russia these days, fans had thoughts. Wrote one Twitter user, "Russia stealing the US election and stealing a match vs Spain. #Worldcup".

And another said, "I'm on season three of The Americans so I basically have come to believe that Russians are capable of anything but not even that show could prepare me for the shock of Russia beating Spain and making the quarterfinals of the World Cup."

In the game itself, Spain's Gerard Piqué came under Twitter fire for hitting the ball with his arm, earning Russia a penalty kick. 

Since the player has two children with Colombian singer Shakira, some teased that he picked up his dance moves from her.

Also on Sunday, Croatia eliminated Denmark on penalty kicks after a 1-1 tie, and will face host country Russia. 

Both goalkeepers, Denmark's Kasper Schmeichel and Croatia's Danijel Subašić, turned in stunning performances, and fans noticed. "I'm so happy for Croatia but (the) Danish goalie almost gave me (a) heart attack, wtf man he's amazing, he lost the match but he won so many hearts for sure," wrote one watcher.

Also over the weekend, fans were praising the England national team, as well as other players, including France's Kylian Mbappé, for donating their World Cup earnings to charity.

And while we didn't do a tweet roundup for Saturday's games, which saw powerhouses Argentina (and star Lionel Messi!) and Portugal (Cristiano Ronaldo!) knocked out, we really should have just for this one alone. A non-official account in the name of the Falkland Islands tweeted out, "Don't cry 4-3 Argentina."

More drama is coming Monday, when Brazil and Mexico meet, and Japan plays Belgium.

Fight the Power: Take a look at who's transforming the way we think about energy.

'Hello, humans': Google's Duplex could make Assistant the most lifelike AI yet.