2026 World Cup thread

[Cosmo]

Now that the field is completely set, probably time to break out a separate thread from the other one, which is mostly club focused.

Thoughts on the groups?

My initial reads:

* Group of death? Group A (Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Czechia) looks pretty tough. Group F (Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, Tunisia) is no cakewalk either. Group L does England no favors, drawn with Croatia, Ghana and Panama.

* Easiest path? Portugal gets a pretty easy ride in Group K with DRC, Uzbekistan and Colombia. Germany won't get much resistance from Curacao, Cote D'Ivoire and Ecuador in Group E. Argentina draws Algeria, Austria and Jordan in Group J and could probably win that group with a B team.

* How will the U.S. do? Paraguay, Australia, Turkiye. The American may struggle to get to even 1-1-1 with that draw and their current ugly form.

* Did Canada catch a break? They should be able to finish at least second grouped with Bosnia, Qatar and Switzerland.

 

[Cosmo]

Also, U.S. schedule:
* June 12 vs. Paraguay in L.A., 9 ET
* June 19 vs. Australia in Seattle, 3 ET
* June 25 vs. Turkiye in L.A., 10 ET

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Who has that link to the World Cup simulation page? I want to see how different it is with the field now set.

 

[da man]

Argentina, Algeria, Austria and Jordan should be Group A, not Group J, as Jordan is clearly outnumbered. If only they could have gotten Australia!

 

[TrooperBari]

Pay up, American piggies. Uncle Gianni has "development funds" to pass out.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Pay up, American piggies. Uncle Gianni has "development funds" to pass out.

I’m so pissed about the ticket prices. I went from planning to hit as many matches in KC and Dallas as possible. Now I’ll just be watching on TV.

 

[TrooperBari]

I'm a product of the 1994 World Cup. I was already playing soccer (a traffic cone of a defender in my city's YMCA league), but the sight of the world coming to the US was catnip to a young geography nerd and I was hooked for life. I've gone to great lengths and made several questionable decisions to see soccer in person, both in the US and abroad. As such, there's a part of me that hurts when I say I'm not sure I'll watch a minute of this year's World Cup.

Yes, the vibes around the USMNT are rancid (again), their form is awful, and I don't believe Pochettino when he says he's not looking for his next club job. That's not what's driving this feeling, though, or at least not entirely. Everything around the US portion of the tournament (I don't want to be a typical American and ignore our Canadian and Mexican friends, but I don't know their domestic situations as well and don't want to project) just feels gross. The state of the country, the FIFA Peace Prize and constant pandering to That Man, turning a blind eye to the US government's determination to kick out black and brown Americans and keep out black and brown foreigners (including some who qualified to play in the World Cup), the refusal to acknowledge basic logistical and economic issues in favor of focusing on 'the power of sport to bring us all together', the use of dynamic pricing and treatment of domestic and visiting fans in the US as ambulatory piggy banks -- it's vile, exhausting, and too much to ignore while cheering for a team I've supported through the days of Steve Sampson's 3-6-1 and having to fight like hell just to get past Barbados and El Salvador in CONCACAF qualifying.

I should be jazzed as hell for this, but I'm just so tired. Maybe it's the increased physical distance of being on the other side of the world, the increased emotional distance of no longer working in sports, or just my increased age and having a day job meaning I can't stay up all night and watch games like I did as an unemployed college dropout in 2002. I know FIFA didn't start sucking in 2018 and that pandering to dictators is just part of Infantino's job description (and that of his predecessors); I guess it all just hits different when what should be a rock-and-roll nation is determined to Pat Boone even harder. Not saying anyone is bad or supports all this if they choose to tune in or go to games, only that I don't think I have it in me right now. I hope that changes.

 

[John]

I feel the same way. I've just decided to not give a **** about the World Cup, despite games being played an hour away.

 

[Huggy]

There's been very little World Cup buzz here in Toronto, aside from pictures of the scary temp bleachers that have been erected at BMO Field. If Italy had got through here to play Canada in the opener it might have been a bigger deal this week, but all you see right now is people wondering when the city is going to announce how it will affect the downtown core with road closures, transit etc.

 

[Key]

I hopped in the queue today, waited fours hours and was greeted with three Group Stage options: Bosnia-Canada in Toronto, a lone $600 seat for Netherlands-Sweden in Houston and several $2700 lower-bowl seats for USA-Paraguay. Looks like I’ll be perusing the secondary market.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I hopped in the queue today, waited fours hours and was greeted with three Group Stage options: Bosnia-Canada in Toronto, a lone $600 seat for Netherlands-Sweden in Houston and several $2700 lower-bowl seats for USA-Paraguay. Looks like I’ll be perusing the secondary market.

The later rounds might be your better bet, especially after a few whales get taken down. Germany?

 

[TrooperBari]

 

[PCLoadLetter]

I'm a product of the 1994 World Cup. I was already playing soccer (a traffic cone of a defender in my city's YMCA league), but the sight of the world coming to the US was catnip to a young geography nerd and I was hooked for life. I've gone to great lengths and made several questionable decisions to see soccer in person, both in the US and abroad. As such, there's a part of me that hurts when I say I'm not sure I'll watch a minute of this year's World Cup.

Yes, the vibes around the USMNT are rancid (again), their form is awful, and I don't believe Pochettino when he says he's not looking for his next club job. That's not what's driving this feeling, though, or at least not entirely. Everything around the US portion of the tournament (I don't want to be a typical American and ignore our Canadian and Mexican friends, but I don't know their domestic situations as well and don't want to project) just feels gross. The state of the country, the FIFA Peace Prize and constant pandering to That Man, turning a blind eye to the US government's determination to kick out black and brown Americans and keep out black and brown foreigners (including some who qualified to play in the World Cup), the refusal to acknowledge basic logistical and economic issues in favor of focusing on 'the power of sport to bring us all together', the use of dynamic pricing and treatment of domestic and visiting fans in the US as ambulatory piggy banks -- it's vile, exhausting, and too much to ignore while cheering for a team I've supported through the days of Steve Sampson's 3-6-1 and having to fight like hell just to get past Barbados and El Salvador in CONCACAF qualifying.

I should be jazzed as hell for this, but I'm just so tired. Maybe it's the increased physical distance of being on the other side of the world, the increased emotional distance of no longer working in sports, or just my increased age and having a day job meaning I can't stay up all night and watch games like I did as an unemployed college dropout in 2002. I know FIFA didn't start sucking in 2018 and that pandering to dictators is just part of Infantino's job description (and that of his predecessors); I guess it all just hits different when what should be a rock-and-roll nation is determined to Pat Boone even harder. Not saying anyone is bad or supports all this if they choose to tune in or go to games, only that I don't think I have it in me right now. I hope that changes.

I am right there with you. I’m sure I will end up watching (and hate-watching the U.S. team), but everything leading up to this tournament has been absolutely repellent.

 

[UPChip]

I am right there with you. I’m sure I will end up watching (and hate-watching the U.S. team), but everything leading up to this tournament has been absolutely repellent.

It's crass and disgusting, but it's not completely out of left field. First of all, this is FIFA striking while the iron is hot. Some of their other ventures are about sportswashing and bribes (Russia, Qatar) or social experiments (Qatar, South Africa) but this is Gianni Infantino jumping into the giant money wind tunnel and stuffing as much cash into his pockets as he can, and the conditions are perfect for it. I believe USA '94 is still their highest-grossing World Cup and that's before such scourges as premium seating and charging $150 to park entered the American sports fan's consciousness. Infantino has claimed that the World Cup is comparable to 50 Super Bowls (or however many games there are), and I suppose that if you average out these games and some of the highest end American sporting events, you'll find that they're not as far apart as you think. Though they've done some remarkable things to the Bernabeu and the Nou Camp, they'll never make as much money off 2030 as they do off this one.

And honestly, soccer has been used effectively to dispossess rich dumb Americans from their money on a smaller scale every summer. How many venues have Chelsea and Manchester United played July preseason friendlies in at this point? I doubt those tickets are cheap.

 

[UPChip]

Now that I've purged myself of the business stuff, I'll speak to @Cosmo's question at the top of the thread:

The U.S.'s group is not the hardest, but it is the most even. There are no easy outs and no automatic losses in that group. My guess is they'll draw with Paraguay, beat Australia and lose to Turkiye, which should get them into the second round in some way or another. Going from 32 to 48 teams is going to cause a fair amount of dilution but I think it's fair to say that there isn't a no-hoper in that group. I'm not sure you can say that about any other group besides maybe F (NED/JPN/SWE/TUN)? Mexico's group is also pretty challenging depending upon what one thinks of Bafana Bafana, which hasn't done a lot in recent years.

I think the hardest group of the 12 across the board is I: You're looking at one of the best teams in the world, one of the most unstoppable forces in world football, the kinda reigning African champions ... and Iraq. Good luck, guys. L could get complicated real fast if England stumble, if Croatia can keep it together one last time (they are old as f but Luka Modric is a ******* wizard) and/or if Ghana get it together.

Bosnia knocking out Italy makes B the worst group in the tournament by a non-trivial margin. Alphonso Davies has been hurt most of the last calendar year and Jonathan David has been bad at Juve this year. Qatar sucks, if you go off the FIFA rankings Bosnia is the worst European team to make the tournament by 27 places, and the Swiss have been the most boring decent team at the last three World Cups in a row (second round loss on pens in 2006, out in group stage in 2010, second round losses in 2014, 2018 and 2022). That's an easy path for Canada but also everyone else in their group.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I've always been in favor of calling a place by its native language name rather than its English-given name (i.e. Nürnberg or München instead of Nuremberg or Munich) or even Roma instead of Rome or Torino instead of Turin (heck, Italia itself).

I'm interested in how Türkiye came into vogue rather than the gobble gobble spelling.

 

[TrooperBari]

I've always been in favor of calling a place by its native language name rather than its English-given name (i.e. Nürnberg or München instead of Nuremberg or Munich) or even Roma instead of Rome or Torino instead of Turin (heck, Italia itself).

I'm interested in how Türkiye came into vogue rather than the gobble gobble spelling.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/03/middleeast/turkey-name-change-mime-intl

On Thursday, the United Nations recognized the country’s rebranding to Turkiye, pronounced tur-key-yay, in a move Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said would “increase our country’s brand value.”
“The main reason why Turkey is changing its name is to eliminate the association with the bird,” said Sinan Ulgen, Chairman of Istanbul-based think-tank EDAM. “But also, the term is used in colloquial language to denote failure.”

 

[UPChip]

I think they saw that the Czechs started complaining that they didn't like "Czech Republic". At least nobody's pulling the intentional ALL CAPS crap.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

"Messi ain't SEC quality, PAWWWWWWWWL!"

 

[Sam Mills 51]

"Messi ain't SEC quality, PAWWWWWWWWL!"

Actually, he is.

But since he's not 6-foot-5, 240 pounds and looks like he swallowed a GNC outlet ...