OT: The 2026 World Cup Thread

[ahmed]

Egypt giving up a 2 goal lead broke my heart. Salah is my fav current player and was pulling for them.

How could they choke such a lead? Some dumb ass subs too

 

[ahmed]

My opinion about the deficits in US Soccer and where this is head in the future:

(My background: I coached travel league and has children in the US Development Academies [the DA] which wassubsidized and organized by USSF -- the highest levels of US Soccer).

1. Much has been said about Pay-to-Play in the USA and that being the reason why the USA skill level is poor, but I disagree...
2. Europe has a similar fee structure for much of club level ball, and the truly talented kids DO get free rides in Europe, but they also get free rides in the US at the highest levels. For instance, if you're with the Chicago Fire's club, you don't pay.
3. I pulled my kids out of the DA structure not because it was expensive, but because it was too demanding (5 nights a week, 3 hours after school, 1 hour drive each way). But the DA fee was small, all travel was paid for (the club had their own luxury bus), all hotel, all food, and the bus maintained 5 hours of quiet time for school studies. I elected to pay more for a Non-DA club for lesser demands.
4. People also say it's the lack of soccer culture in the US. This is maybe 20% right, but I'll get back to that in a second. Someone needs to explain why Portugal with 10m people has a team filled with superstars and can fill a second team with stars, while Brazil with 200m is struggling to produce top players at the world level. Is it because Brazil lacks a soccer culture? No. is it because kids don't play street soccer in Brazil? No. So...?
5. The European academies are more rigorous than those anywhere ele in the world. You go in at a very young age, 7 or 8, and then you have a couple hours of school in the morning, and for the rest of the day, you train in soccer. Soccer is your career from the age of 7. Sure, you can be given the heave ho from the academy when you're 12 or 13. But this is a highly dedicated and rigorous structure which the USA simply does not have. THIS IS REASON #1 why the US is behind. And that goes for Brazil as well, though they do have rigorous academies, they just don't have the resources the Europeans do.
6. Outside of immigrant communities, there is no buy in from urban communities, where many of our most talented athletes reside. I have tried in 2 different cities to grow the sport by arranging volunteer drivers to pick kids up, helping secure funding to pay outstanding coaches, and my direct experience is that soccer does not win hearts and minds the way that basketball does, and to a lesser extent, American football. We could not get kids interested even when it was free and they had rides. Top basketball players devote themselves to the sport at a very young age, and many kids are willing to do that. Not for soccer though in urban locales. This is the BIGGEST REASON why we lag. So when people say we have poor soccer culture, it's that we don't have hat buy-in from our best athletes. And that's OK!

I also don't want to hear about people talking about a lack of understanding of the sport. We have 7 Premier League players out there, top scorers from Ligue 1 in France and Serie A in Italy. Another several are starters in Spain. 4 in the Bundesliga. These are contributing players who know how to play in the world's top leagues. Our coach once finished 2nd in worldwide voting for best coach. We know how to play. Were the tactics we used wrong? Well, yes. The US Men's team chose an attacking style which maximized their chances of getting out of the group stage. But adopting that style against a more highly skilled team in Belgium was ludicrous, and I think Pochettino reckoned he would keep his reputation by emphasizing group stage play over a more defensive framework which could have more success in latter stages.

Some decent points. I remember being so shocked when I learned soccer is the most popular youth sport here in Canada. But then they give it up after grade school. Made no sense because it was not at all popular anywhere else.

Yes a lot of it is that kids are not interested but you would think with 400M you would grow more talent. Even we are starting to catch up with US with a 10th of the population and a similar place for soccer in our sports pecking order.

As for the Belgium game, it was shocking from both sides. Complete opposite of the group stage. US came out timid and lethargic and Belgium aggressive and fired up. The whole red card ****show must have had something to do with the energy from both teams. US got lucky they did not lose by a lot more.

 

[borg]

2. An Egyptian goal was taken away by rewinding the play all the way back to the other end when both teams committed ticky tack fouls in the normal course of play.

Nothing "ticky tack" about calling a foul when a player's foot gets stepped on.

There was no reckless challenge at all. It was the type of play refs let go,

No, they don't. The foot stamp directly caused a change in possession. It's as clear a foul as there is.

and if VAR wants to rewind every time the ref let's a foul go, the game would be endless.

It is BS
Same crap goes on in hockey with a missed offsides call. A minute of time can be negated if the team holds possession in the offensive zone, and then scores.

3. Before the final Argentinian goal, the same thing happened with Argentina committing a foul, but where was VAR? It didn't review.

That was BS too considering the precedent established earlier in the game.

4. The Colombia game was a total mess. A goal was disallowed because someone's toe was in front of an imaginary line. Absurd.

Offsides is offsides.

5. We saw clear fouls that should've been penalty kicks ignored by VAR. Happened to both teams.

You can't use VAR if it is to be applied inconsistently. Goals should not be waved off because of a much earlier foul unless we have a reckless challenge.

One all-empowered on field official is absurd, especially given the scale of the playing surface
Two assistant refs on the touchlines asked to cover 1000+ ft of boundary is absurd.

VAR should review all contact in the box and not make arbitrary decisions to ignore some.

Weren't you just complaining about the potential for "endless games"?
Imagine sorting out every contact on corners.

I honestly believe the powers in charge love how heated the players and spectators get because of the officiating.
A 90+ minute supercharged rollercoaster ride of emotion, while watching a white ball get passed back and forth 1,000 times.

WCR
World Cup Raw

 

[upstater1]

Some decent points. I remember being so shocked when I learned soccer is the most popular youth sport here in Canada. But then they give it up after grade school. Made no sense because it was not at all popular anywhere else.

Yes a lot of it is that kids are not interested but you would think with 400M you would grow more talent. Even we are starting to catch up with US with a 10th of the population and a similar place for soccer in our sports pecking order.

As for the Belgium game, it was shocking from both sides. Complete opposite of the group stage. US came out timid and lethargic and Belgium aggressive and fired up. The whole red card ****show must have had something to do with the energy from both teams. US got lucky they did not lose by a lot more.

When you look at the top teams like France and England, there are a lot of players who are from immigrant African heritage. In the USA, most of the young people of African heritage are not taking up the sport. It's basketball and football here.

I don't think the US was lucky not to lose by more. They played poorly. But I think 3 of those goals were just gifts. I mean, our goalie flubbed one, then our defender did the same. Those were fluky bad goals to give up. The first goal was just a joke where our guys stopped playing.

 

[bormio]

Spain is going to beat France

 

[Triumph]

Spain is going to beat France

Belgium was able to crack Spains defense, but still Spains offense is attacking like France.

 

[Triumph]

Spain had not given up a WC goal until yesterday.

 

[DoubleDeluxe]

Spain had not given up a WC goal until yesterday.

Belgium was completely overmatched, they very rarely came close to threatening in the offensive zone.
France/Spain and Argentina have looked the best to me through all the games I've watched.
Hard to imagine anyone but one of those 3 winning it all.

 

[OldEngland]

I'm not a big soccer fan. I try to watch it but I get really bored. So maybe I'm not looking at it the right way.
The US has a population of about 320,000,000. Every city and town has a youth soccer program. Most high schools and colleges have soccer teams.
We just lost to Belgium, a country of 12,000,000. I've also heard on sports shows and even news shows how great it was that the US made it to the round of 16.
We just got crushed by Belgium a country with 4% of our population. I find it embarrassing that with all the people we have participating in this sport that we get crushed in the round of 16 by a tiny country.

That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.

If it makes you feel any better, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria didn't even qualify. Only USA and Brazil even qualified out of the 10 most populatsd countries in the world.

 

[Triumph]

Belgium was completely overmatched, they very rarely came close to threatening in the offensive zone.
France/Spain and Argentina have looked the best to me through all the games I've watched.
Hard to imagine anyone but one of those 3 winning it all.

The stats show that.

Total shots - SP 18 - BE 5
Shots on target - SP 8 - BE 2
Possession - SP 68% - BE 32%

 

[Triumph]

England moves on and plays the winner of ARG vs SWS.

Good game ENG vs NOR that had just about everything. England really has done a great job with their conditioning. Mexico City didnt seem to phase them and now Miami in July either.

England's home base is in Overland Park, KS and its been very hot there too.

 

[Tunescribe]

Mexico City didnt seem to phase them

Faze them.

 

[Guts]

brits vs ARGEN-FIFA

 

[ctpatsfan77]

Egypt giving up a 2 goal lead broke my heart. Salah is my fav current player and was pulling for them.

How could they choke such a lead? Some dumb ass subs too

That plus FIFA wanted VARgentina to win.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

BTW. . . .

 

[ctpatsfan77]

If it makes you feel any better, China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Nigeria didn't even qualify. Only USA and Brazil even qualified out of the 10 most populatsd countries in the world.

FWIW, cricket and field hockey are more popular than soccer in those countries.

 

[Guts]