And just as in the past two decades, FIFA again has a perfect record of keeping out the cheaters.

What a wonderful streak of a clean sport soccer has had in this, its biggest tournament, where nearly 1,000 players compete for hours and hours every four years in hot, humid conditions for three weeks or more. This year, some are even playing in the Amazon rain forest. Nearly all the players were tested before the World Cup began, and two players from each team are tested each game. Yet there has not been a single failed doping test at the World Cup in a generation.

The last time a player tested positive at this event was 20 years ago, when Diego Maradona was kicked out of the 1994 tournament for using the stimulant ephedrine.

The absence of failed drug tests is a clear indication that World Cup stars do not need to rely on pharmaceuticals to get by, right?

No one at this World Cup, or any World Cup, has been caught using a blood booster like erythropoietin, more commonly known as EPO, which would be perfect for soccer players to increase their endurance for their 90-plus-minute games. No one punished for steroids, which would be very useful to build strength for sprinting or recover between matches.

FIFA is doing all it can to keep it that way.

In the lead-up to this World Cup, it announced that it was implementing a biological passport, an antidoping method that does not look for drugs in an athlete’s blood or urine. Instead, it tracks certain parameters in urine and blood over time to set baselines. Any variation in those numbers could show the body’s reaction to drugs or blood doping.