2026 FIFA World Cup Final 8 Matches (Quarterfinals-Semifinals-Consolation-Championship Games)

Opponents use "it's coming home" to motivate them over England's arrogance but the original song was about the 1996 Euros, the first "home" tournament since the World Cup.

I don't think England fans expected to win Euro 96 after the failure to qualify for USA 1994, turnover of managers and new generation of players coming through like Sol Campbell, Michael Owen, and the class of 1992.

These days it's just a desperate, plaintive echo.

 

Again, Cape Verde qualified by winning a 6-team, 10 match CAF WCQ group over Cameroon. They were not a sneak in through the back door team.

Everyone wants to treat them like Cinderella, but they earned their appearance. And it showed.

 

I was seated in the upper deck behind the goal at the opposite end from where PKs were taken when England were eliminated on penalties by Portugal in 2006. I was the staff photographer for a travel agency. I would occasionally get tickets to actually see the matches I was at, but I had no control over where I would be. I happened to be in the middle of the section of England supporters. After the PK loss, they started singing "We're Going Home". I always appreciate gallows humor from soccer supporters.

Actually 2006 seemed cathartic.

Early in the tournament I was on the streets of Frankfort heading back from some shots at the FanFest on the river and I got some great shots of drunken English fans surrounding a street car to the point that it was stopped. For a brief moment it appeared things might go sideways - and the English fans were singing Ten German Bombers - in Germany - while surrounding a bunch of Germans.

But over the five weeks I was there I saw the English fans basically do a 180 degree turn. They came over arrogant, rude, all up in the anti-German WW2 leftovers. The Germans I saw never rised to the challenge - and were unfailingly polite hosts. At some point the English fans started policing themselves. I saw multiple cases of drunken fans trying to start stuff, only be to shut down by their mates. By the end you could tell the English fans there, by and large, really had had their eyes (and some hearts) opened.

 

I had friends who camped out at Italia 90. The incidents there were very much provoked by the police. A nighttime raid on a campsite by baton wielding cops and scenes of England fans charging across terraces while being pursued by police were both held up as examples of bad behavior.

While there have been examples of England fans behaving badly over the years they tend to be at once off matches rather than tournaments and a lot of the encounters were pre-arranged with Dutch, Polish or German neo-facist groups.

The majority that travel to tournaments, in my experience tend to go for the experience rather than to cause trouble. Binge drinking isn't healthy though.

 

I was at an England - Russia game in Marseille for Euro 2016. That was very rowdie in the streets and inside the stadium. I don't know who started what. But it was tense.

 

I think that's fair, but mobs have a way of feeding on themselves. I clearly remember the incident. And as I was not working as a journalist - and I needed to be available to continue doing my job, discretion had me leave the scene as they started pushing on the sides of the vehicle. In the end, I think it did settle down, but the Ten German Bombers.... shot one down, shot one down - definitely added to the sense of unease at this specific scene. Earlier at the FanFest, everyone was great and congenial.

If I recall the only real violence in Germany was between Polish and German supporters. That was also at night - and speaking of my own experience from Korea 2002, I'm guessing more than 0 of the "Polish Ultras" were likely from Chicago or Detroit. The only time at a World Cup game I actually felt unsafe was before the USA/Poland match in Korea - and the angriest fans there all seemed to be from the United States - to support Poland. That was a surreal evening. Three sets of fans in the stadium and city afterwards. All happy. Poland because they won and salvaged some pride, Korea because suddenly they were good, and us Americans because we 1) advanced and 2) weren't getting beaten up by the Poles.

This is right before I decided to leave the scene in Frankfurt on June 10th, 2006:

 

I watched Cape Verde closely, including when they peaked previously in the early 2010s - more so from the 2021 and 23 African Cup of Nations when they topped a group that included Egypt and Ghana, and made the QF before losing on penalties. But predicting what they did against the reigning champs of both Europe and South America was beyond me; I had expectations, and they far surpassed them.

Their coach has no experience managing outside the Cape Verdean domestic league. He has been fantastic. Getting a team so well prepared they commit only one foul against Spain is phenomenal. Makes one wonder about coaching pedigrees and team performance at the highest level.

 

And speaking of Bubista . . . Lionel Scaloni and Luis de la Fuente are similarly skilled, and similarly unheralded (compared to the big name coaches - certainly the Spanish youth system is more well-known than the Cape Verdean domestic league).

 

If I heard right, the last time England played Argentina in the World Cup (before yesterday) was 24 years ago.

It was a group Stage game, England won 1-0 on a 44' PK by David Beckham, after a foul committed by Mauricio Pochettino.

 

So.... What's the forecast for the air quality in the NYC metro on Sunday?

 

Let's move the final to Toronto!

 

Thunderstorms Saturday night will help clear the air.

 

This photo of one of Sunday's right wingers bathing the other is quite something.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/c9w0j104rvgo

 

This is an excellent read (unlocked):

This was my seven-year-old son’s first World Cup. And it warped his reality of what’s possible in the game he loves.

At the behest of editors, I watched the World Cup through his eyes and didn’t want to stop seeing what he did.
Unlocked at @TheAthleticFChttps://t.co/RuZxEj47mb

— Joshua Kloke (@joshuakloke) July 18, 2026

 

I'll see your Yamal and raise you three more Barca youths...



A Brazilian news outlet captioned this collection "Messi knows his Spanish rivals very well."

...and the Frankfurter Allgemeine put that baby Yamal photo on their front page today with the clever-if-noncommittal headline, "Here you see the next world champion"...

bless those photographers!

 

FFS France

 

and now England offside

 

O France

 

But not now.

Might get a rout developing.

 

It's nice that the PxP announcer obviously has a fair knowledge of American team sports (and has obviously called them), but he should be a little careful with his deep dives. Trying to compare this game to as if Broncos and Rams had played earlier this year after losing their conference championships. In fact, the NFL used to play a third place game.

 

Talk about adventures in goalkeeping.

Even Sean Burke wouldn't have spent that much time outside of the crease.

 

Adventures in goalkeeping finally punished.

O France

 

England playing like a team who's coach has said screw it, do what the hell you want.

 

France hoping to win 6-4 or something, the way they just aren't trying to defend except in desperation. When's the last time you saw a defense set up about 30 yards into an opponent's half?