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

They are not.

 

Watch them. Better players, better coached.

 

I have and they don’t have better players. They also had a fairly easy qualifying group in which they finished second.

Which of our starters is Esmir displacing?

 

None of them.

Could he be competing against the likes of Diego Luna and Alex Zendejas for a spot? Sure.
That's not the path he chose to take, though.

When you read Esmir's story, you get why he's playing for Bosnia and not the USMNT.
We can be happy for him and his national team.

The boy from Srebrenica who carried Bosnia’s legacy to World Cup - Türkiye Today

 

Dedic is a good RB and will likely be moving on from Benfica in the near future, Muharemovic is pretty good right now and is going to be a great CB. Many bigger clubs already asking Sassuolo about him. Demirovic is a really good striker. Dzeko for the majority of his career is better than anything we have ever had but at 40, Balogun and Pepi are better right now.

Pound for pound we are better, but so was Italy.

 

Not sure what's wrong with Italy but not having to qualify and good friendlies being hard to get there's a reason our team doesn't look dialed in.

 

I think it was interesting how massive the bye was for the teams in the play-in games in Mexico. In March, in Mexico, players were cramping by the 60th minute mark despite water breaks. Both Bolivia and Jamaica ran out of steam early in the 2nd half of their 2nd game. I personally watched how the Florida heat sapped the player’s energy (especially the Irish and Dutch) in the last World Cup here. I don’t know who plays their early games where, but some of these teams might be worn down, having to play games in tougher locations in difficult conditions.

 

Could also lead to some weird results depending on where players actually play their club ball...mid/lower end CONMEBOL teams, many of whose players still play in South America, along with Mexico could benefit. Jamaica in theory shouldn't be bothered by heat, except most of their players play in England or the US (and many didn't even grow up in Jamaica).

On the other hand, WC teams will have several weeks before the tournament starts to train here and get acclimated, which wasn't the case for the playoff (or for the CWC last year).

 

Be fun to compare where teams are training and where their matches are. You'd think they'd be smart enough to train in weather close to what they'll play in. Kind of complicated by a lot of the hottest US venues have a roof that closes and will be closed in June in Dallas, Houston and Atlanta.

 

I think many base camps have already been announced, I read some article, probably in theathletic, detailing a bunch of them.

When it comes to evaluating teams chances I keep forgetting to see which teams are going to be playing in regions they won't be able to physically handle, humidity/heat wise in open aired stadiums. I really need to check on that. We all know the teams, quality eventually showed through in WC '02 and WC '14, I'm not sure if whether was an issue in South Africa, I can't remember. I always forget which stadiums have domes and which don't (like Atlanta and Dallas will be fine, but I think the Florida one, the Kansas City one, a couple in the midwest/northeast and Mexico will all be miserable and while they did make more of an effort to have fewer games at horrible times of day, there are still a ton of afternoon starts.

 

Okay, just dug in, and its a lot:
Toronto
NY
Philly
Boston
Miami
KC
Mexico's 3 sites.

That's a lot of miserable weather.

 

2026 World Cup base camps: Where will each team be based during the tournament? - NBC Sports

 

Indeed. I was reading a column about how Monterrey, Mexico may actually be the worst host site for this WC in terms of heat/humidity/etc.

That'll likely be worse that a place like Boston. We had snow this week in Boston, so we're not thinking of summer yet.

Sweden is playing games in Arlington, TX. That's indoors, of course.
HOWEVER, they're training at FCD's complex in Frisco. That has the potentially to be brutally hot. Those Swedes are going to melt!!

The games in Dallas at the Cotton Bowl in 1994 were legendarily hot. People still talk about it.

I think we're going to hear ENDLESS complaining from European fans paying 4k for tickets while baking like lobsters. At some venues anyway.

 

For the second time in the past six weeks, we will go from 70-80 degrees, to a snow storm in 1 week (I'm about 10 miles west of Reno), climate change is NUTS.

 

Curacao chose to base near FAU in Boca Raton, Florida. Good choice. Nice and quiet, decent facilities. Heat & humidity will have them fit and ready for the matches in (slightly) 'milder' regions...

 

Scotland, IMO, made a wise choice in Charlotte, NC. By the time they have to face Brasil in Miami, they should be well-acclimated to southern heat & humidity. But yes -- it will be "miserable" for all 22 on the pitch! Even if we avoid a late-afternoon thunderstorm...

 

I was at the Cotton Bowl in '94...will never forget that second half of the GER v KOR match!
The German side were set on cruise control at the 2nd half kick-off, leading 3-0; but the smaller Koreans came out of the dressing room swarming like angry hornets! The Germans began to melt and didn't know what him them...barely came away with three points.

 

Julian Araujo injured at Celtic.
Julián Araujo adds to Mexico's World Cup injury concerns - ESPN

"I've only found that out today ... I don't think we will see him for the rest of the season. I don't know what sort of time element it is for his World Cup aspirations, don't know that. But certainly for us, I don't think we will see him again [this season] if it's the same injury that he has redone."

 

South Africa and Brazil hosted in their winter (although probably wasn't much help for some of the Brazilian host cities)

 

Not the one I went to

Got super lucky when somehow a cool front in July flew through right before the game and the temperatures dropped from mid 90's to mid 70's. Then Brazil and Holland had a heck of a game.

 

I agree with your first paragraph. I'm not sold that teams can acclimate to conditions in Mexico in just two weeks. The two weeks will help some (better than nothing) but not enough to turn the tide. The depth of some of these rosters will be tested in some of these locations.

 

Notably for England their round of 16 game could be against Mexico in the Azteca in a game where they’d have very little time to acclimatize because it’d be their first game that’d be played in Mexico.

 

There are things that can be done. In 2022 we really prepared at altitude.
I remember reading that the USMNT players also slept in high altitude simulation tents to prepare their bodies for the rigors of games In Mexico City.

I remember the US trying all sorts of experiments in the past. We tried everying. Nothing really worked as preparation anyway. So in 2010 they just decide on a quick fly in and fly out. It was just as well.

No altitude training for soccer team this time – San Diego Union-Tribune

One time, the U.S. men’s national soccer team prepared for its quadrennial World Cup qualifying match in Mexico City by staying at a hotel at Big Bear Lake (elevation 6,743 feet). It practiced in the morning at altitude, then drove down the mountain for an afternoon workout in the heat and choking smog of San Bernardino.

Didn’t work.

Four years ago, the players spent the 16 days before the game at the Air Force Academy (elevation 7,258 feet) with a training program designed by U.S. Olympic Committee sports scientists. They ate high-carb diets, ingested iron supplements, had their heart rates closely monitored and logged, took scheduled naps, were encouraged to drink more water.

Didn’t work, either.

This time, the U.S. men trained for a couple of days at sea level in Miami, then jetted off to Mexico City less than 24 hours before today’s 1 p.m. PDT kickoff. They’ll fly in, eat dinner, sleep, wake up, bus to Estadio Azteca and wing it. And then fly home.

And why not?

Nothing else has worked.

In the long run, do you know what worked? Having more talented players. I was reading somewhere that games at altitude don't give Mexico the advantage that it used to. Their Europe based players suffer the same as the opponent.

 

From watching Argentina play in Bolivia over the years, it's definitely more down to the team than anything. Bad Argentina sides lost, sometimes even got embarrassed, good ones found a way. Is it harder to win there regardless? Absolutely, but talent and team play could overcome it. The one other constant I noticed is the Bolivians have more of a knack for nailing shots from distance at altitude, some wild golazos by them at times.

 

I doubt most of the Curacao players will have any issue "acclimating" to the heat and humidity of anywhere in the US.