Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic’s weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to conveniently receive it in your email in the morning? Subscribe here.)Name-dropped today: Serena Williams, LeBron James, Mauricio Pochettino, Glen Powell, Pope Leo, Jordyn Woods, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce, Claire Williams, Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Bobby Bonilla and more. Let’s go:Driving the ConvresationThe thrill of (moral) victory, agony of (actual) defeatLike many, I just assumed that a true GOAT like Serena would be able to un-retire after a few years away, walk onto the grass at Wimbledon yesterday and, riding sheer aura alone, vanquish some first-round opponent. That’s the narrative, right?In hindsight, Serena won us over the second she accepted her wild-card entry. What made the spectacle enthralling was the audacity of the mere attempt.As yesterday’s first-round match wore on, crisp individual points felt like fist-pumping wins and a 40-something simply competing felt like success, certainly to those of us who can relate to her life stage. That she lost the match? So what? It was a thrilling few hours while it lasted.As my colleague Ava Wallace put it:“Williams has long played with an air of regality she earned while accumulating 23 Grand Slam titles. … Tuesday, she looked more human. A little nervous. A little rusty. Entirely, endearingly, relatable.”There was this moment when the camera showed Serena looking a little tired (reasonable!), then ESPN cut to a commercial and … there was Serena, in a TV ad pitching the telehealth company Ro and GLP-1 treatments, arguably the defining marketing endorsement of her post-playing career.She had become more relatable in retirement — the Ro ads contributed to that, honestly — and it has seemingly carried over into this un-retirement.The loss on the court won’t damage her marketability; if anything, we’re all even more invested in her.As for the World Cup, I don’t know if “moral victory” is an option with the USMNT tonight against Bosnia and Herzegovina in Santa Clara. Just getting to the knockout round, then losing? That would be an epic letdown.The entire superstructure of soccer in the U.S. — hosting the World Cup, blitzing through the group stage, selling out of gear, packing stadiums and bars, delivering boffo TV ratings, earning the begrudging respect of peers internationally — requires more than one night in the round of 32.With dread, I watched Germany lose on PKs to Paraguay and the Netherlands do the same to Morocco. At this stage of the tournament, it can happen to anyone. Both countries’ World Cups were frankly ruined. And ours would deflate instantly, even as the wider carnival continues across the country.