2026 World Cup thread

[Bubbler]

I believe they are also huge supporters and enablers of the Fat ****. That gives me a current reason not to like them.

Trump called Argentina's Javier Milei his "favorite president." That seals the deal for me. Any friend of my enemy is no friend of mine.

Slippery slope, my friend.

I get irritated when foreign acquaintances assume that everyone in America are supporters and enablers of Trump. And let’s be honest, if any nation deserves that stereotype, we do. Our country elected him twice.

Not going down the road to apply stereotypes to them or anyone else. People are people, nations are nations, and they often don’t align cleanly.

 

[poindexter]

If you are going to decide who to root against in the World Cup based on their global history, you're going to end up just having to turn the TV off.

Thank you. I'd be happy to list American atrocities if anyone cares to read them.

 

[dixiehack]

England isn’t exactly toting around a clean sheet from Africa or India either.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

England isn’t exactly toting around a clean sheet from Africa or India either.

Belgium's hands have a lot of African blood on them.

 

[waterytart]

“The Mexicans came from the Indians, the Brazilians came from the jungle, but we Argentines came from the ships ... from Europe,” former Argentine President Alberto Fernández said in 2021."

Is he calling the Brazilians apes or am I overthinking this?

 

[Spartan Squad]

Is he calling the Brazilians apes or am I overthinking this?

Overthinking it. Brazil was created out of the jungle and native tribes thrived in the jungle.

It basically comes down to some very old class separations in the Spanish colonized regions. Higher classes were European/clergy. Then mixed races, natives and African slaves. In the great cast off of Spanish colonization, the wars divided along class and racial lines. It wasn’t until people like Bolivar united factions or Mexicans began to see unity among some of the molato and native classes. I’m simplifying it, but there’s some deep racial divisions that apparently Argentina is lording over the other countries.

 

[poindexter]

I rewatched the game starting after England had scored.

Pickford had four consecutive goal kicks that resulted in zero possession for England. He would just boom the ball to the other side of the field, and it either went out of bounds or right to an Argentina player/or headed out by an Englander.

Four chances to control the ball and they did nothing with it. I’m sure you read that time of possession after the England goal was 88% Argentina to 12% England. It actually seemed like more.

 

[Batman]

In all four of its knockout stage games, Argentina has scored the winning goal in stoppage time or extra time.
Has that ever happened before?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

I rewatched the game starting after England had scored.

Pickford had four consecutive goal kicks that resulted in zero possession for England. He would just boom the ball to the other side of the field, and it either went out of bounds or right to an Argentina player/or headed out by an Englander.

Four chances to control the ball and they did nothing with it. I’m sure you read that time of possession after the England goal was 88% Argentina to 12% England. It actually seemed like more.

If I remember correctly, England only completed three passes in that time.

 

[Spartan Squad]

In all four of its knockout stage games, Argentina has scored the winning goal in stoppage time or extra time.
Has that ever happened before?

I think it’s safe to say no. For one, FIFA has made a point to add more time at the end of games to eliminate time wasting. Second, the water breaks means games are guaranteed to go at least 90+3. That extra time means more chances to score late.

 

[TigerVols]

Belgium's hands have a lot of African blood on them.

A case could be made that King Leopold was a bigger killer than Hitler.

 

[Bubbler]

A case could be made that King Leopold was a bigger killer than Hitler.

All of the colonial powers in Africa were pretty horrible. One of my favorite books is The Scramble For Africa. It highlights a lot of it.

King Leopold does deserve special mention because today's Dr. Congo (I will never not use that name) was not technically Belgian-owned, but the king's own private Idaho of sorts: the Congo Free State.

He was so exploitive and terrible that the land was eventually stripped from him and annexed by Belgium. This was in 1908, a time period that is about as racist as it gets as far as European paternalism towards Africa, so if King Leopold was considered bad in 1908, he was really bad.

Not that it was much better under direct Belgian control and not that it was much better under the other colonial powers. The French exploited their own Congo state and others in Africa for rubber in particular. The British did not stand in the way of proto-Apartheid policies in southern Africa.

The Germans were particularly nasty in their colonies towards natives. Today's Namibia was a sort of proving ground for the Holocaust-like extermination of races. Lothar Von Trotha ... read all about it.

Herero and Nama genocide - Wikipedia

 

[UPChip]

Overthinking it. Brazil was created out of the jungle and native tribes thrived in the jungle.

It basically comes down to some very old class separations in the Spanish colonized regions. Higher classes were European/clergy. Then mixed races, natives and African slaves. In the great cast off of Spanish colonization, the wars divided along class and racial lines. It wasn’t until people like Bolivar united factions or Mexicans began to see unity among some of the molato and native classes. I’m simplifying it, but there’s some deep racial divisions that apparently Argentina is lording over the other countries.

I'm not sure I'd give them all of the benefit of the doubt there. The fact that Brazil has Black players has definitely been used against them in the past.

I don't have any negative feelings about them over the Falklands other than they must have been really ****ty at it to get routed by a force playing 6,000 miles from home. Most of my negativity towards them has to do with their downright toxic fan culture, the ****ty behavior of generations of their players (including, I should note, the goalkeeper for my favorite club team Aston Villa), and their worship of a mentally unstable dead cocaine addict as a demigod. I'd call Maradona a drug cheat after he tested positive for half a pharmacy in 1994 but it's not exactly performance enhancing if you need it to get out of bed.

I have nothing against Messi, who's a genius and smart enough to keep his mouth shut on just about everything. I prefer him to Ronaldo, the narcissist and probably rapist. But other than that and Emi Martinez when he's playing well and not being a ****, I've got no use for that group.

I just wish Spain were a bit more interesting. I've only been able to see bits and pieces of several of their matches due to some scheduling conflicts (they've had more early afternoon games in this tournament than Jefferson Pilot), but it seems like they're either routing people (Saudi Arabia, Austria) or passing the ball around aimlessly.

 

[Spartan Squad]

I'm not sure I'd give them all of the benefit of the doubt there. The fact that Brazil has Black players has definitely been used against them in the past.

You’re right about racism against the players. I just think it was in the context of why countries think Argentina feels they are superior. I think it’s a larger purity vs mix race countries thing rather that they have black players thing. I really think the jungle thought is more to disparage the native and wild peoples. But the fact there are so many blacks in Brazil thanks to slave plantations, there is a little of that.

 

[Webster]

Brian Phillips did a great podcast before the 2022 WC called 22 Goals in which he explained the tournament, teams and players through 22 goals scored in the prior tournaments. His running joke why certain things occurred was “see, Colonialism”.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

A little disappointed that the quick MLS start-up for the short season will mean almost no European friendlies stateside this year.

Got to see a few in the past, although granted not real football because the stars mostly sat or didn't even fly over.

 

[MileHigh]

Slavko Vinčić of Slovenia is your World Cup final referee.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Some of you are way too worried about consistency in your geopolitical soccer views.

Switzerland? Fences for art stolen by the Nazis. **** ‘em. I’m glad they’re out.

Argentina? Racist retirement home for Nazis. **** ‘em. I hope they lose.

Germany? Bummed they went out so early. I like Germany.

 

[Jake from State Farm]

Slavko Vinčić of Slovenia is your World Cup final referee.

No relation to the Slovenian ****, I hope

 

[Webster]

A little disappointed that the quick MLS start-up for the short season will mean almost no European friendlies stateside this year.

Got to see a few in the past, although granted not real football because the stars mostly sat or didn't even fly over.

The money tree is pretty well shaken out for 2026