Yep on this I agree with you. I never agreed with the stupid observations that were made regarding our group that we only needed to worry with Uruguay and South Korea and Ghana was the weakest team on the group based on the FIFA Rankings. If I would go only based on that evaluation I would be crazy to think a team with experienced players like Andre Ayew, top player like Partey or a player with great potential like Kudus it would be a weaker team for us than let's say the Czech Republic on the UEFA Nations League. Obviously football doesn't work that way. Still think Uruguay can pull something different on Friday, but won't be surprised if Ghana wins or even Korea because I think Portugal stupidly will rest the majority of his players.
And probably the only one Asia team to advance. Japan throw their best chance away vs Costarica. Korea's chance is very slim too. Still i find it hard to say Australia are Asia.
SK can go through. Portugal will rest players so they could win. But it depends on what happens with the Uruguay Ghana game.
They are in a much better position that Uruguay. Ghana essentially does have the upper hand as a draw is enough. Korea needs to count on a Uruguay win or Korea needs to win by 2 goals.
Also Portugal will want to at least draw vs Korea. This isn't France who were safe at nr 1. If Ghana wins, they can easily overtake Portugal and Portugal will end up playing Brasil. They are way more motivated to win the group.
That is true but it's gonna be hard for Ghana to break that Uruguay defense. That's my worry for them. Plus they could open up at the back too much as well.
Looks like there will be 8 UEFA teams, 3 (!) AFC teams, 2 CONMEBOL teams, 2 CAF teams, and 1 CONCACAF team in the Round of 16. A sign of changes to come in the world football hierarchy?
Started from qualifying itself tbh with Australia beating out Peru to make the final tournament. Will have to see if CONMEBOL will react with a strong performance in '26.
So Australia vs Argentina, Japan vs Croatia and Korea likely vs Brazil. Japan have highest chance to reach quarter final but we never know.
I am not for excuses but I will say that COVID made things really weird in CONMEBOL this cycle. Not to say AFC was not affected by COVID but they have more money and better organization. Expect a bounce back year in 2026. Teams like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Peru will all be home teams in the stands and will play much better in the Western-Hemisphere time zones .
This has been an incredible World Cup. Painful for me, but amazing. Except for Australia's win over Tunisia, all the teams from the AFC lost all their matches to the CAF and Concacaf teams in their groups. Yet, despite those losses, which would have been seen as must wins if any of them had a realistic chance to advance, 3 of the AFC teams managed to advance to the R16 mainly due to wins against teams from UEFA!
AFC also beat CONMEBOL in the playoff. Maybe those of us who said Asia is in an up period of the cycle and South America in a down period were correct.