2026 World Cup thread

[Spartan Squad]

That might have been the best counterattack I’ve seen so far. Refusing to go down. But oh man VAR

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Y'all STFU and watch this match!

Argentina is crashing out.

 

[Bubbler]

What a work of art that goal was. So of course VAR might ruin it.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Oh good lord

 

[dixiehack]

USA: That was a humiliating way to go out.
Argentina: Bet

 

[Inky_Wretch]

VAR to the rescue for Argentina!

 

[Spartan Squad]

That was ridiculous

 

[HanSenSE]

As for the sports talkers, they'll be over this in a day and go back to All-Star Game snubs, NBA free agency and counting down the days until NFL training camps start.

 

[I Should Coco]

Wow, what a lame VAR review. The announcer outrage is absolutely correct. This smells.

 

[Meat Slapping Sound]

How about courts?

You woke up in a particular mood today, didn't you?

(See what I did there?)

 

[dixiehack]

Wow, what a lame VAR review. The announcer outrage is absolutely correct. This smells.

Egypt needed to chip in some of those Suez Canal tolls to FIFA

 

[HanSenSE]

Y'all STFU and watch this match!

Argentina is crashing out.

Sorry, couldn't resist this one.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

No VAR on that one!

 

[MileHigh]

Egypt! 2-0.

 

[Spartan Squad]

USA: That was a humiliating way to go out.
Argentina: Bet

No. This is good defense beating good offense. The Americans **** down their legs

 

[I Should Coco]

Overturn THAT, you corrupt FIFA bastards! Egypt with another great breakaway goal!

 

[HanSenSE]

Wow. Textbook breakaway.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Argentina is going to sell out to get this game. Expect another Egypt counterattack goal before this is done

 

[Bubbler]

This, incidentally, neatly summarizes how the WNBA reacted to the millions of new fans that Caitlin Clark brought in. You had to be here from the beginning or, now that you’re here, pipe down and accept what a proper fan of this league does.

One argument I’d make about why soccer hasn’t truly taken off in America - in terms of developing the kinds of players who can go win the World Cup – is that I’m not sure the folks who run the sport and love the sport stateside really want to grow it. It probably requires accommodating the unwashed masses. Better to be the perpetual little engine that could vs. the machine that is.

It’s presumed that the youth soccer system is tailored toward some sort of evil capitalistic notion. I think it’s possible that it’s designed that way to keep the sport among people who “properly appreciate it.

This is such nonsense.

Soccer can't just reinvent the wheel that's been turning in the US for over a century. It can't flush 100 years of how our system of developing youth players is much different than the rest of the world. It can't just create the kind of ruthless cradle-to-grave club system out of thin air that exists elswhere. Soccer can't change the demographics of who plays the game.

We have problems to be sure. On those demographics, soccer can't be the province only of those who have money. That's a problem, though, for nearly all of our youth sports. The club sport grifters have taken sports development hostage.

In addition, most of the rest of the world that has been competing on the same playing field for decades is also still chasing what we chase.

It's not about soccer fans wanting to still be a cult band. Which is ridiculous on its face, because as a popular sport, soccer "took off" a long time ago. How on Earth did you come up with that take?

 

[Bubbler]

I'm not surprised by Egypt.

Morocco, Senegal and Egypt have been at or near the top of the AFCONs for a while now. So if Morocco can do what it's done in the last two Cups, there's no reason Egypt can't. They just haven't had the chance to prove it yet. They're well-drilled defensively, and aging though he is, Mo Salah can still play at a world class level.

And those counter-attacking goals, including the one taken off the board, were gorgeous.