5 min read
I wanted something to fill in during matches. Not an app, not a subscription. Just a nice tracker I could print out, stick on the fridge, and cross off results with a pen.
That's not what I ended up with.
I uploaded an inspiration image to Claude and described what I wanted. Landscape layout, all 12 groups at the bottom, a points progression table for tracking wins and draws and losses, a knockout bracket big enough to actually write in. Printer-friendly. Two pages wide, two pages tall.
Claude couldn't actually see the image — it didn't come through — but it had enough from my description to go and research the actual 2026 World Cup data. All 104 matches. All 12 groups. Every group stage fixture. It built the whole thing as an HTML file.
Open in browser, print to PDF. Done.
That's when I had the thought that changed everything.
"I don't know why I didn't think of HTML. This will make it super easy to update as the tournament plays out. Maybe I can even find a way to host it somewhere."
I typed that. And then immediately followed it with: maybe we're free from the constraints of printables now.
We were.
Because the thing about an HTML file is that it's already a web page. And web pages can do things printed paper can't. Scores that calculate standings automatically. A bracket that fills itself in. A layout that looks good instead of just fitting on a page.
Within the same conversation, I'd thrown away the printable entirely.
The live tracker came together fast. Click to enter a score and the group table recalculates instantly — points, goal difference, who's qualifying, who's out. The knockout bracket auto-populates as group results come in. There's even a "best third-place teams" tracker that ranks all 12 third-place finishers to show which 8 would advance, because this tournament has a weird format most people aren't familiar with.
Then I mentioned I was making daily update videos for a social account covering the World Cup for an American audience. Could I have something to overlay on those videos?