The whole table
All 48 teams, ranked by one number: the round trip from base camp to their three group-stage matches. First three games only, same method for everyone, so it is finally comparable.
Mexico traveled 1,005 km to get here. 
Ecuador traveled 4,836. They met at the Azteca in the round of 32: the team with the easiest road against one that traveled almost five times farther.
After the toughest five and the easiest five, here is everyone: and now that the Final has been played, every team carries how far it actually went.
- Mexico · The host that barely moved: the shortest schedule of all 48 at 1,005 km, a perfect group stage at home, and a run that ended in the round of 16.
Spain · Champion from the middle of the table, 27th of 48: and the reigning champion now co-hosts the next World Cup, 2030, with Portugal and Morocco.
Colombia · The only team to play in all three host countries: Mexico City, Guadalajara and Miami in the group, then Kansas City and Vancouver in the knockouts. This table counts the group stage only, so the feat hides in plain sight.
📏 Methodology: the bars measure group-stage travel only: great-circle km, round trip from base camp to each team's first three matches. Knockout travel is not counted; teams that went further obviously flew more, but only the group stage is apples to apples across all 48. The colors show how far each team then went in the tournament.
The shortest schedules sit at the top, and most of them made it out of the group. The longest sit at the bottom, and it showed: Curaçao, the farthest traveler of all at 10,134 km, went home in the group stage, and so did Jordan. But the crown went to the middle of the table: Spain, 27th of 48, took the title over Argentina. Across 48 teams, distance is not destiny. It is not nothing either.
