2026 WC USA (et al): Worldwide Opponents Watch [all R's]

UAE got the ridiculous home field, though, right?

Screw 'em.

 

Thrilled for Iraq!

Im torn as a Polish Immigrant. I want to cheer for Bosnia and Scotland but I also dont want Poland knocked out of Pot 1

 

With Bolivia playing at the neutral site, just how much of a threat would they actually be to the Concacrap possible matchup in the semifinal and DRC or Iraq in the final (unless Costa Rica or Panama end up being the top or second seeded side)

 

Yea cuz the original taker was the guy who squandered both of those clear chances earlier for Iraq lol.

Justice tho

 

Today's match was in Basra, Iraq.

 

Poor guy. Hopefully it's out of mind after this though. I do like their chances, especially if Panama/Costa Rica/Honduras don't end up in the playoff. At that point, they should be 1 of the 2 sides that wouldn't have to play 2 games to go to the WC. In that scenario, who would really scare Iraq other than Bolivia? The teams that can beat them to me are Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, and DRC, and probably that's it. I don't think there's anything to fear from the rest of Concacrap, or New Caledonia. Not sure about Bolivia.

One thing I didn't know about DRC, was that they were missing their star striker for the CAF playoff. Dude had 40 goal contributions for Brentford the past two seasons in EPL and 8 in World Cup qualification this year in CAF. Sounds like he had a PCL injury, but should be coming back soon.

 

Jamaica, Suriname or Curaçao I think are more than capable of beating Iraq. These games aren't played in the middle east which I think handicaps Iraq. Also they just didn't look great today, although they were the better side today.

 

I think Jamaica can, I have my doubts about the rest. I think Jamaica is taking their group though and if they don't, man, they should cancel their program. They literally have a ticket to the WC in their hand for the first time in 28 years, if they can just beat Curacao at home. So just go out and do it, or fold the program (granted that was us in Couva 8 years ago).

Fingers crossed for Haiti first, then Suriname and Curacao tonight. I would love to see some more Cinderella slippers passed out. Jamaica, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama only have themselves to blame for anything at all still being in contention in their groups.

 

Yea DRC was missing Wissa, fortunately they're not dire without him. Banza was one of the leading scorers in Portugal last season for Braga, while Mayele was the leading scorer for Egyptian side Pyramids last season, who are contenders in the Egyptian league. Then there's Essende whose a stalwart for bundesliga side Augsburg, and everyone should know who Bakambu is.

 

I think Curaçao might spring the "upset" tonight. The Bacuna bros are on absolute form for club and country and tbh the entire team seems to be hitting a rich vein of form at the moment for club and country. No Advocaat on the sidelines for Curaçao in Kingston though, so we'll see how much that will effect the game for Curaçao tonight.

Jamaica seems to have this toxic energy about them right now. They also don't have a left back so, we'll see how bad they want it tonight. McClaren has left a lot to be desired as head gaffer of the Reggae Bwoys.

 

It's hard to say because mostly Bolivia plays much better teams and away. They've predictably lost to Russia, S. Korea and Japan. They had one game against a smaller team in a neutral site, Jordan in Turkey, and they won that one but the game was pretty even and was good matchup for us. FWIW, Jordan finished above Iraq and are qualified to the WC.

I think that teams with a physical advantage can punish us. We can punish you with long distance shooting and quick breaks but we just aren't fast enough to be effective against all teams. For instance the away victory against Chile happened because they have a slow back line. Defensively, this team is very solid. I think any team in this group will struggle to score against us. The next batch of friendlies will tell us more because it's against teams at the playoff level.

 

I would change that to "always have", and you are right, drawing/losing would be SO JAMAICA, so in a way, the $$$ should be on them -----ing this up, as they always have for nearly 30 years running at this point.

But they should win, they really should win, and typically they're tough at home, but much tougher is their total inability to perform in the clutch and when things of actual value are available. So yeah, them losing or drawing Curacao would be the most Jamaica thing imaginable tonight.

 

Scotland vs Denmark about to start. Big game.

 

Imagine if Sweden don't win tonight, but managed to penalty their way to the World Cup in two World Cup qualifiers. Could they become the first team to ever qualify for a World Cup without winning a single game?

 

Well that was quick, McTominay puts Scotland up in the 3rd minute! A bicycle after a poor clearance by Denmark.

 

What a, what an incredible goal.

 

I'm getting total a Trainspotting's 100 Greatest Goals vibe right now. "What a penetrating goal that was!"

 

I'd just go off their competitive fixtures on the road:
Copa America:
0-2 vs USA
0-5 vs Uruguay
1-3 vs Panama (admittedly it was 1-0 until the last 10 minutes)

Conmebol WC Qualifying:
0-5 vs Argentina
0-4 vs Ecuador
0-3 vs Colombia
0-3 vs Uruguay
1-5 vs Brazil
0-1 vs Paraguay
0-2 vs Venezuela
1-3 vs Peru
2-1 win over Chile

This isn't an aberration either, they typically collect 1-4 points per cycle in conmebol qualifying. The evidence is they are absolutely horrific. In Conmebol competitions this cycle they are....5 goals for, and 37 against in 12 matches for a GD of -32 and an average scoreline of .4 to 3.

Maybe they surprise, but without their altitude, they seem like hot garbage period. In comparison Iraq went a full 9 points in their group stage of the Asian Cup in 2023, including a win over Japan before falling 3-2 to WC Qualifier Jordan. On the road in WC Qualifying they tied Kuwait, beat Palestine, fell 2-3 at South Korea and 0-1 at Jordan and Oman. Not great but respectable. They tied Saudi Arabia 0-0 in regulation in Saudi Arabia, and beat Indonesia to advance to this knockout match they just won on aggregate 3-2 (including a road draw against a UAE that is half Argentina/Brazilian Mercenaries, or really more half non-domestic club team/half national team).

For me, I don't know how good Iraq is, but I know for their region, they've been pretty good on the road, never getting clobbered, always competitive and periodically getting results (this cycle, they beat Palestine, and tied Saudi and Kuwait in their qualifiers) in terms of draws and wins. For me, that's not bad. How good is it compared to their potential opponents in this inter-confed playoff, not sure, but they've got a chance at being one of the 1 seeds that gets to avoid the opening match, so it's potentially a win and your in. I'd give them no chance against DRC, and probably Panama and Costa Rica, but beyond that, 50% or better probably. The only teams likely to be ranked ahead of them by elo going into the knockout playoff next March are DRC, Panama, Costa Rica and Bolivia, and we don't know yet if Panama or Costa Rica will be in it, and I imagine Bolivia's rating is entirely the product of their ridiculous altitude advantage at home. I imagine they would be a sub 100 ranked team if they played at a normal altitude.

 

Denmark is still putting up a fight and getting chances. Hope for more of the same in the second half. Not a bad match so far.

 

Been entertaining hasn’t it?

Bosnia beating Austria in a top of the table clash as it stands to qualify first too.

Not too hot and what the euro playoff pools are right now. I know it’s done on world rankings and then the nations league results, but who’s in what pool right now not sure.

 

We'll see. The team was totally revamped since Copa America and they are now the world's youngest team at 23.7 average age. South American consensus is that they are a much improved team over the last year. Watching them over the last year they are constantly believing in themselves. What that means in a competition that is a lot, lot worse than CONMEBOL is yet to be seen.

 

VAR penalty check. Didn't look like one to me but Denmark potentially getting a PK. Looks outside of the box even if a foul.

Ref to the monitor

Man that's a really harsh call to my eyes

 

Tie ball game now

 

Kristensen with a 2nd yellow, Denmark down to 10!

 

We'll see, I know nothing about them, you know a lot more (though like me with the US, being a fan of the side can lend a rosy color to what's happening). In my experience, Bolivia has always been utter ----, other than that '94 Etcheverry group.

You've mentioned some, I guess friendly results. So there's that. But man, 5 goals for 37 against in road matches the past couple of years is horrific, and if you look at previous cycles, its more of the same, going back 30 years. I have a hard time believing they're turning over a new leaf. At least with Venezuela's run to nearly the playoff, i could look at youth performance and see signs that Venezuela was improving, then they finally do it at Copa America '24 AND perform better in WCQ too before collapsing during a tough wrap up to qualifying with just 1 too many matches against top half of the region sides.

Bolivia has done nothing at the youth level whatsoever. I just combed through 40 years of U17 results and there are 0 top 4 finishes in U17 Championships.. They do have a pair of 4th place finishes at the U20 level in 1981 and 1983, but that's it and that, of course, was more than 40 years ago. I don't know. I mean Conmebol means something, but if you are horrific in Conmebol unless at altitude, what does it really mean? We'll find out in March.