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

They'd meet in the quarters if things go as expected.

 

Goals Xtra on X: " MERCHAS DOSKI STUNS THE FAVORITES WITH AN UNEXPECTED EQUALIZER TO BRING IRAQ RIGHT BACK INTO THE MATCH! SPAIN 1-1 IRAQ https://t.co/dj06Py6jm2" / X

Ummmmm, WOW!

Iraq has Spain tied up in the send off friendly for Spain....I still expect Spain to win this, but damn, that's got to give Iraq some confidence before they head into a difficult group stage.

 

Heck of a goal!

Kind of a B team lineup by Spain. Right? Didn't start the stars. No Yamal, no Rodri, no Pedri, etc. etc. No Zubimendi. No Nico Williams. No David Raya. No Fabian Ruiz. Not even on the bench.

Not that it matters. You'd still expect Spain to win.

 

And now Ivory Coast has equalized against France 15 minutes ago....

| GOAL: GUELA DOUE HAS EQUALIZED FOR IVORY COAST! France 1-1 Ivory Coast

 

That’s what I meant, my bad.

 

France 1-2 Ivory Coast

Man Utd's Amad Diallo has scored.

 

UtdTruthful on X: " GOAL! AMAD DIALLO GIVES IVORY COAST THE LEAD AGAINST FRANCE IN THE 84TH MINUTE. WHAT A PLAYER ❤️ https://t.co/eXlfTlSCfw" / X

 

As always it's just friendlies. Same with the game you guys have against Germany it's a friendly.

I've been looking at France's route to the final though, and I do wonder if the route is just a bit too much for any team to take on:

Senegal, Norway, Iraq, Netherlands, Germany, Japan, Spain, Argentina/England.

Ignoring each of the sides individually, we all have our takes on that, they have to beat probably 7 very good to top class sides out of 8 to win the world cup.

I'm not sure if any team in world cup history could handle that. 2 or 3 super hard games, yes. 7 out of 8... eh, stretching it a bit now.

 

I will say it's good for a sense of self-belief. Iraq probably was struggling with all this. They had to take some crazy ---- bus journey just to be able to make it over for the win or go home duel with Bolivia out of an active war zone, they struggle w/Bolivia probably because of the brutal stress of all that, but DRC despite all the ebola stuff coming out and drawing Denmark in Europe, Iraq drawing Spain, now Ivory Coast after the heartbreaks of '06, '10 and '14, get yet another tough group, but fly over to France and beat them on the road? The mental boost that has to give to those guys going into some real stiff competition, Ivory Coast has got to figure out how to survive a duel with Germany and Ecuador, and now they know, maybe they shouldn't be afraid, be smart, but not be afraid? Iraq, looking up at France, Senegal and Norway? Well yeah, they're probably hosed, but still, they just tied Spain, who says they can't tie one or two of those games? They got a great defense, at least for the AFC anyway.....

So yeah, it's not measurably huge or important, but it does matter some, I can definitely tell you that as USMNT fans, I've seen us stink it up badly in friendlies before a WC and it be a sneak preview of just the sheer scale of suck we'll see ('06), and play fantastic and then have our best ever tourney ('02), then again, in '22 we were absolutely dire in September friendlies two months before the WC kicked off because of the weird window it would be played in, and then we were largely fine at the WC and much better than the friendlies. Can never be sure, but generally stinking it up aint great (otoh, we did tie/nearly beat France in their send off game in '18, and then they went out and won it all). For these particular teams, its hard not to think this is anything other than good for their sense of belief going in. They all got the job done, they've all got weather/climate advantages that favor them (Iraqi's and Ivory Coast are perfectly comfortable in hot, and hot and humid weather so to speak, Norway, France, Germany? Not so much).

Exciting for them, bad for my betting parlays today lol (at least I hedged with some unders lol).

 

While I agree with you that the European Field is likely to win instead of Argengina (4-5 teams vs 1, duh), I think it's disingenuous to say they only played one good game. They played very well vs Netherlands and Croatia.

 

Also they could have easily beat Poland by 5

 

Are we all ruling out Brazil in reality?

I still think Morocco and Senegal are very good sides.

 

Plus they had the greatest player of all time, who while not at his peak was still very good.

 

Lol no he didn't. And while we're talking about flukes, 2014 was flukier. Lucked into a Brazil team in meltdown, barely escaped Algeria in round of 16. Didn't have to worry about Di Maria in the final, who proved what a big loss that was when he was healthy for the 22 final.. and let's not get started about kicking the shit out of opponents, Germany did plenty of that over the years along with shameful diving. You don't win 3 major international tournaments in a row on flukes.

 

I would argue that they just had an easier path than France, or England, while Spain & Brazil have only themselves to blame for stepping on those rakes, but yeah, even before the group stage was over, it was always obvious the bottom section, or the France/England/Spain section was always going to be the much more difficult pathway. When you have a clear big 5 in a tournament like this, one side of the bracket is always going to be tougher than the other, now add the Brazil upset, and the Argentina path got infinitely easier. They didn't really have the toughest path, they essentially avoided all the toughest teams in the tournament until the Final, but that's the way these paths work, especially with upsets, in the prior tournament France also had the toughest path, while England and Croatia had a reasonable one. Still trying to figure out this one, but it does sound like it's slightly tilted depending upon how you rate Portugal and Colombia, because one of those teams is gonna be lumped in w/all but one of the big UEFA powers. This tournament will have a 4 and 3 bracket split in terms of the top tier teams. That's part of the reason why technically, the path is easier if we're runner up, unfortunately we'd still have to survive Argentina just to get to the Quarters alone if memory serves in that most likely runner up finish scenario.

 

Yes the tournament was not the way you describe at all. And Messi had a lot of great moments and not just in the final. He absolutely did not look embarrassed to win the player of the tournament.

 

Calling a World Cup winner lucky is very similar to the near constant asterisks put on NBA Champions.

Pretty much any tournament winner in the World Cup gets a lucky draw in some way, wins some close games or in pens and has to win at least some games with it grinded out.

Just like it's incredibly rare that an NBA Champion doesn't have one or more opponents fall victim to significant injuries or have an easy road.

It's a knockout tournament; there's going to be some elements of "luck" and variation of play.

 

It's kind of like in dynasty fantasy (and probably in redraft too), at seasons end if you check who finished top of the standings you'll usually find the bulk of the high scoring teams but you'll also always notice that the teams at the bottom also always have the most points against and the teams at the top typically the fewest, part of the ingredients in winning, typically, its a bit of randomness that goes your way.

 

Czechia vs. Guatemala is like watching paint dry. 3-1 now after the Guatemalan GK gifts the Czechs a goal. Boy, unless they grind out 1-0 wins, I can't see the Czechs doing much offensively. They couldn't do much against Guatemala's low block and could've conceded a second goal on the counter, which won't bode well for the kind of teams they'll face in the WC.

Their group, like ours, seems very balanced, so I can't tell who wins it. I think it'll have several ties, and someone will come out on top via GD.

 

I would agree, but I wouldn't bet my house on it. I think it'll be with at least one tie. And maybe on GD. Is this team playing Serbia the Mexico B Team or A Team? I know Edson Alvarez is out right now, but IDK who else.

 

It's also an easy ass group.

Mexico is going to cruise, but I do wonder what will happen against a real team if they roll out a 17 year old and Brian Gutierrez in the midfield defensively.