The FIFA World Cup is one of those rare events that gets even people who don't normally watch football sitting down for a match. If the gaps between games are becoming too long to fill, Crunchyroll has a catalogue of sports anime that captures the same kind of tension, pressure and comeback energy that makes major tournaments worth watching.

These seven series span football, volleyball, basketball, figure skating, American football and street racing, all available on Crunchyroll now.

Blue Lock

The Japan Football Association launches an extreme training program with a simple premise: 300 high school strikers competing against each other for a single spot on the national team. Blue Lock is deliberately brutal in its competitive logic, obsessed with the ego and individual brilliance that separates elite strikers from everyone else. It is the sports anime most directly aligned with what a World Cup is actually about.

Haikyu!!

The definitive sports anime of its generation. Haikyu!! follows Shoyo Hinata's rivalry with Tobio Kageyama from middle school through the highest levels of high school volleyball, and its ability to make individual rallies feel as significant as entire matches is something very few sports anime have matched. If you haven't watched it, start here.

Shoot! Goal to the Future

A former national champion returns as a coach to a struggling high school team, while one of the team's best players has completely lost his passion for the sport. Shoot! Goal to the Future works as both a comeback story and a study of what keeps athletes motivated when results stop coming.

Kuroko's Basketball

Tetsuya Kuroko is invisible on the court in the most literal sense, and that invisibility makes him one of the most dangerous passers in the game. Kuroko's Basketball goes big on supernatural basketball logic and team dynamics, and it builds into something genuinely exciting once all the key players are established.

Eyeshield 21

A mild-mannered kid who spent his childhood running errands for bullies ends up with the fastest legs in school and gets recruited into the American football team. Eyeshield 21 is a long-runner that covers a full high school football arc with solid character development and some inventive play design for a sport that doesn't get much anime attention.

Yuri!!! on ICE

After a crushing Grand Prix Final loss, Japan's top figure skater Yuri Katsuki is on the verge of quitting entirely. Yuri!!! on ICE is as much about identity and recovery as it is about athletic performance, and its competitive sequences rank among the best in the genre.

MF GHOST

A sequel to the legendary Initial D, MF GHOST is set in a near-future Japan where self-driving electric vehicles have made combustion engines obsolete on public roads, except in the MFG professional street racing circuit. Kanata Rivington returns from Britain to Japan to compete and find his father. Racing fans will get the most out of this one.

All seven series are available now on Crunchyroll.