2026 World Cup thread

[MileHigh]

Over 100 matches. I'll guess three goals a game on average, so 302.

 

[Gym Beam]

Go watch midseason baseball. It’s fine. But I’ll watch every damn WC match I possibly can.

Relatedly, I’ve gotten the OK to look at a trip to Euro 2028.

Meh, never watch baseball. I am eagerly awaiting the start of the EPL season, the true football that is of interest to me. I am just not a fan of international matches, what can I say.

 

[Spartan Squad]

Over 100 matches. I'll guess three goals a game on average, so 302.

I googled the answer and this is a helluva guess. You’d definitely be playing Plinko after that

 

[DanOregon]

It was 308, an average of 2.96 per game.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

Good read from Tutul Rahman here. Of course, like anything that reflects positively on MLS, people are falling over themselves in the replies to come up with some other metric that shows this doesn't count, only for Tutul to go "it's in the article, and it doesn't change the result".

Nice progress, but MLS has a looooong way to go. That step from No. 6 to the top five is quite a doozy.

 

[Della9250]

 

[MileHigh]

Wow, those are incredible numbers.

 

[Shropshire Slasher]

I hope MLS slowly relaxes its strict cap and DP numbers, which will bring in more overseas quality. Don't do it all at once like the NASL and start signing Pele and Beckenbauer willy-nilly, which doomed that league. Do it slow and maybe in a couple of WC cycles we can reel in the Frenchies.

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Proper soccer nation.

 

[Neutral Corner]

I'm kinda glad it's over though. If I see one more "European tries biscuits and gravy for the first time" Youtube video I'm gonna punch my monitor.

 

[DanOregon]

Question for the more soccer knowledgeable: What is the primary "thing" that has kept US Soccer from getting to the next level? Is it a specific skill like ball control, passing or something? The bottom of the top level rosters just being better than our bottom level? A need to play more aggressively?

 

[Inky_Wretch]

Question for the more soccer knowledgeable: What is the primary "thing" that has kept US Soccer from getting to the next level? Is it a specific skill like ball control, passing or something? The bottom of the top level rosters just being better than our bottom level? A need to play more aggressively?

It's a combination of things. I could write about 10,000 words on it. But - to me - it boils down to two things.

1. Pay to play aka club sports aka travel ball. If you've got a kid who is any good at soccer (or volleyball or baseball or whatever) you'll need to put them into something more than Boys & Girls Club or school teams. You'll have to pay for them to play club sports. This limits the talent pool for elite clubs to children of upper middle class families (for the most part). Somewhere in the USA, there's somebody who could have become the next Messi - but he's stuck playing in the local Liga for a team sponsored by the restaurant where he works, because his family couldn't afford travel ball.

2. Our kids don't play enough pickup games and/or short-sided games like indoor or futsal. Those situations are where you really learn skills and develop a first touch. Most importantly, it's where their creativity begins to develop and improve.

 

[Neutral Corner]

It's a combination of things. I could write about 10,000 words on it. But - to me - it boils down to two things.

1. Pay to play aka club sports aka travel ball. If you've got a kid who is any good at soccer (or volleyball or baseball or whatever) you'll need to put them into something more than Boys & Girls Club or school teams. You'll have to pay for them to play club sports. This limits the talent pool for elite clubs to children of upper middle class families (for the most part). Somewhere in the USA, there's somebody who could have become the next Messi - but he's stuck playing in the local Liga for a team sponsored by the restaurant where he works, because his family couldn't afford travel ball.

2. Our kids don't play enough pickup games and/or short-sided games like indoor or futsal. Those situations are where you really learn skills and develop a first touch. Most importantly, it's where their creativity begins to develop and improve.

3. Our most athletically talented kids tend to be diverted into sports which are more traditionally popular in the United States.

 

[Bubbler]

Question for the more soccer knowledgeable: What is the primary "thing" that has kept US Soccer from getting to the next level? Is it a specific skill like ball control, passing or something? The bottom of the top level rosters just being better than our bottom level? A need to play more aggressively?

4. We’re determining national team performance on a three-to-five match sample size. The USMNT has deficiencies, but in a sample size so small, you’re going to have both good and bad anomalies that skew the view.

I would also say there’s an impatience about what our place in the soccer world ought to be. We started late compared to other countries. There are dyed-in-the-wool soccer nations that don’t get much further than we do. This notion that it’s a steady climb to winning a Cup is just false. Ask the nations who have been chasing it for ages (England) or that have never chased down a Cup at all (Holland).

 

[Batman]

It's a combination of things. I could write about 10,000 words on it. But - to me - it boils down to two things.

1. Pay to play aka club sports aka travel ball. If you've got a kid who is any good at soccer (or volleyball or baseball or whatever) you'll need to put them into something more than Boys & Girls Club or school teams. You'll have to pay for them to play club sports. This limits the talent pool for elite clubs to children of upper middle class families (for the most part). Somewhere in the USA, there's somebody who could have become the next Messi - but he's stuck playing in the local Liga for a team sponsored by the restaurant where he works, because his family couldn't afford travel ball.

2. Our kids don't play enough pickup games and/or short-sided games like indoor or futsal. Those situations are where you really learn skills and develop a first touch. Most importantly, it's where their creativity begins to develop and improve.

Where do other countries find their Messis, Kanes and Ronaldo's, though? I don't know anything about their backgrounds, but I doubt they were suddenly plucked from obscurity. I don't think scouts for Brazil's national and club teams are scouring pick up games in the favelas for talent. All of those guys had to be put in some sort of high end club program at a young age, right?

 

[Bubbler]

Where do other countries find their Messis, Kanes and Ronaldo's, though? I don't know anything about their backgrounds, but I doubt they were suddenly plucked from obscurity. I don't think scouts for Brazil's national and club teams are scouring pick up games in the favelas for talent. All of those guys had to be put in some sort of high end club program at a young age, right?

Yeah they kinda do scout those neighborhoods. Been doing so for ages.

 

[Roscablo]

3. Our most athletically talented kids tend to be diverted into sports which are more traditionally popular in the United States.

We have so many people here that it doesn't make sense that you can't get a top-notch national team even by accident, though. This always seems to be sort of an excuse rather than a reason. There has to be a way to make it so they identify those athletic accidents early and make a good national program.

 

[Webster]

I attended a World Cup finals party with 25+ people and I was 1 of only 2 people who didn’t wear a jersey (Mrs. W had a Spain jersey she bought at the Euros in 2004). My feeling was that if the US wasn’t in it, why should I wear a US jersey and wearing a club jersey, as many did, made even less sense.

 

[dixiehack]

Where do other countries find their Messis, Kanes and Ronaldo's, though? I don't know anything about their backgrounds, but I doubt they were suddenly plucked from obscurity. I don't think scouts for Brazil's national and club teams are scouring pick up games in the favelas for talent. All of those guys had to be put in some sort of high end club program at a young age, right?

There are a lot of young prodigies who do get plucked for the club training system early on. Clubs consider it the cost of doing business to have 8-to-20 year olds being trained on their Euro.

Imagine if the Dallas Cowboys or Los Angeles Lakers were footing the bill to bring a bunch of kids under their umbrella so they can learn the sport their way and hopefully a few pan out as future stars. Instead our pro leagues get to farm out their development costs to the American education system and AAU.

We actually do have the bones of a promising youth structure in place, but middle and high school soccer is considered a joke. If US Soccer wants to truly grow for the future, partner with MLS to fund school soccer and funnel the better coaches there. If MLS won’t go for it, call up Liga MX and see if they’ll do it for the border states.

 

[brn623cl]

I'm kinda glad it's over though. If I see one more "European tries biscuits and gravy for the first time" Youtube video I'm gonna punch my monitor.

Same type issue, but mine is the suggested "based on previous viewing" suggestions on my social watching pages.