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

Rabiot is one of those guys I love to rag on, but at least once or twice per game he does something where I'm like "well, gotta hand it to him".

But he was a bad fit for this game. Weird choice by France.

 

Kante must be the absolute best locker room guy on planet Earth, no other reason to waste a spot on a guy who is clearly past it...

 

I know Brazil was hard on you, as im sure the U.S. was on all of us, but as Zlatan said. The game is winning overall.

 

I mean I’d trade 22 of our guys for him, but on that France squad… against Spain…?

 

I think it’s he’s more of a roll out the ball and let Mbappe make plays type of coach. Which works when you’re France but not so much for us.

 

Gonna be able to handle 64?

 

If the U.S. had played better and gotten past Belgium, they totally would have beaten either one of those teams. /s

 

McKennie was a more important player for Juve when they were both there. I’ll take Big Mac, with ranch dressing. I think I’d take our whole midfield from this World cup.

 

Bring it on. I look forward to Vietnam giving France all they can handle

 

“Belgium is old and now is the time to get them, US are the favorites.”

Brought to you by the people who think France is the greatest team of all time and Spain is boring.

 

there's no way england can win at azteca. they've never dealt with anything like this before.

 

I can't believe my eyes.

Spain just made France look like the US vs Belgium. Clueless and rattled.

 

there were a few stinkers and colombia featured in them; the usa had one howler but the other games were all exciting. been reading a lot of analysis and it is wrong to be so bleak about our team; we really are just one or two special players from going further, and for a time, reyna really looked like he might be one of those players, but he isn't. one writer argued luck has as much to do with it as anything, and that many of the proposals bandied about really won't do much, as all federations everywhere have problems with development. take a couple of players away from the four remaining teams, well, they probably wouldn't be there, this one writer surmised. he noted that you have to look at 2018 and its collapse and compare this team to that one; in no way can you say this team isn't much better. and as one analyst noted, the usa crapped the bed against belgium, but had the horses to give them a better game. psychology plays a role as well. do we ever get those two or three special players? don't know. maybe not. but there's nothing wrong with being a solid team just outside the elite bunch.

 

and you know that france is better than that. in a win or go home situation, brain farts send you home, and that pk was a brain fart. that changed the game imo. i can't imagine either england or an ageing messi can hold spain back.

 

i like the philosopher at princeton who says let em take any drugs they want, why should your gene pool limit your success...its their bodies after all. if we really wanted to make it fair, everyone should show up day one with no training or preparation, and hop on a bike.

 

i never believed that and i saw an analyst mention somebody, carmelo anthony i think, but i've never been one to assume just because you are good at one sport you could be good at another. its absurd, really. one criticism you will hear from the joe sixpack crowd is look how skinny some of those soccer players are....they'd be eaten alive in the nfl, they wouldn't be able to hit a ball past center field, they'd get lost on the court etc. and that's largely true; different sports require different attributes. now, i do think there may be a lot of kids wasting their time trying to break into some of those sports when they clearly don't have the physique, but they could maybe play soccer, if anyone pointed them in that direction....i saw this a lot working with teens, where parents were looking more at college scholarships than playing pro. colleges can recruit foreign players to soccer teams, rutgers had the egyptians back in the day; and its clear the college game isn't the way to go in this sport anyway, as far as i can tell. anyway, i'm betting england loses to argentina in extra time and the final is argentina getting spanked by spain.

 

Rodri was also excellent today. Back to his form when he won the Ballon D’Or before his injury. And Yamal looked more lively as well.

 

Haven’t won a tournament since Kante was a key player. 0 and 4 since 2021 Euros (where my recollection is Kante did play a role).

 

Cavan is in the ad I've seen.

 

Years of experience watching the ncaa tournament have taught me to never take a favorite over the field, no matter how good they might be. Even in the semifinals, France was always less likely to win it all than to beat both Spain and England/France.

France has incredible attacking talent, and it’s not like they’re weak elsewhere, but it’s not difficult to argue that their midfield was 4th best in the semifinals.

what impressed me so much about Spain was their defensive work rate, and how well they functioned as a unit. Sure, they’re all good on the ball and whatnot, but they really play hard and well as a team. France wasn’t bad or lazy or anything, but they don’t seem nearly as cohesive as a unit. Their style is more, “stay disciplined defensively and let the attackers break down other teams through individual brilliance”. Looking forward to the next semifinal, and the final regardless of who is in it.

 

I've been saying this for a while, but he's had 12 years and for 8 of them, people have said he's had the most talent. And while he won one World Cup, he's won zero other trophies.

Nearly a decade of this team, and they've got very little to show for it.

 

Give them a loose ref and Argentina might have a chance to make it a bit muddy. But Spain looked amazing today.

 

Deschamps is another Martinez!

 

Just worried that their legs will give out like Croatia’s did against France in 2018. They looked gassed and still have to beat England.

 

Personally think France was a bigger mismatch for Argentina than Spain. Pace is a lot more deadly to them than a midfield they might be able to match and a slower, more deliberate build up.