England Forum - FIFA World Cup 2026: Other Teams Thread

Unfair on Cherki who is not out of form.
Semenyo not helped by Ghana nit being the strongest either.

 

They never get much praise and beat a decent Colombian team who topped a group involving Portugal.

 

South American football seems to be in quite a bad place quality-wise.

Looking at some of the squads of World Cups in the 2010s and some of the names you see are so far beyond what they're turning up with now.

Even take Brazil and Argentina out of the equation and you had Suarez, Cavani, Forlan, Alexis Sanchez, Vidal, Falcao, James Rodriguez (prime).

I know a few of these are strikers and nobody is really producing strikers of that level atm, but they haven't replaced them with top quality wide forwards like other nations have either.

Hopefully this resolves because it's not good for the World Cup or world football. A strong South American cohort is important for the standard of the international game but all the teams really lacked quality when it mattered this year.

One South American team in the QFs is a poor showing and that's happened with Germany, Portugal and the Netherlands going out early and Italy not qualifying.

I firmly expect Italy to be competitive again in the coming years based on their youth level success while I think Germany will come good again in time too. I think Portugal will likely be better post-Ronaldo as well. In all likelihood it's only going to get harder for a lot of these South American teams next time.

 

Portugal Uruguay could have faced Argentina at the last 32 and last 8 if they did not fail in the group stages. The group stages matter it is part of the 8 games that you have to compete in to win the tournament. If you go out early to a top team you would have gone out at the last 8.

Also if you use ELO rankings which are more accurate the Swiss are 11th and just knocked out the 5th top team.

 

meanwhile the AFC had 8 spots in the world cup and outside their top 3 teams were battered.

 

That's a bit circular. The live Elo ratings factor in results at this World Cup, so anyone who's still in the tournament will inevitably have a higher ranking by now. You're really just saying "Argentina are going to be facing a team that hasn't been knocked out yet".

If you want a more like-for-like comparison with the tweet, here are the Elo rankings at the start of the tournament, with Switzerland in 17th.

 

So people are finally hailing Switzerland as being one the best tournament sides in recent times. I remember in 2024 England beat them on penalties in the quarter finals at the Euros and were mocked for it. Switzerland were held up as an example of Southgate getting easy draws.

 

I think the non Brazil/Argentina teams are going to get overtaken by African teams as the tier 2 World Cup teams in the next few years. It might have already happened. Just look at their birth rates, they are terrible. A smaller player pool means fewer people playing football and fewer potential world class talents. They don’t have immigration or elite academy infrastructure to make up for this like the European nations do.

Senegal and Morocco have already overtaken them, I expect Ivory Coast and Nigeria can as well if they get their act together.

 

People said this last time after Switzerland had completely dominated Italy and were a minute from beating Germany in their group game. Before all our game all the talk was how Switzerland were much better than England, how they were going to knock england out, and then when it didn't happen people 180d on it being an easy draw.

France, and possibly Spain are the only countries on the planet who wouldn't be considered an "easy" draw for England if we beat them. Even then people would invent reasons that they were lucky games for England to have, none of it is based on reality or logic.

The worst part is England "fans" are also some of the worst for it to put down Southgate.

 

The truth of the matter is South America has usually been mediocre outside of Brazil and Argentina. Between 1978 and 2010 there wasn't a single non Brazil or Argentina team making it to the last 8. We are just seeing a return to the norm.

The 2010-2018 was a relative golden age, for the rest of south america: Paraguay and Colombia making their first quarter finals in history. Probably the best Chile team ever who won two copa Americas, though they never went past RO16 meeting Brazil both times. Uruguay getting to their first semi final (and by extension, quarter final) since 1970.

The last two world cups have just been a return to the normal trend of the last 50 years for south American sides. Usually competitive sides who often make It out the first stage, lacking quality to go deeper. Though it is interesting so many south american teams peaked together around that 2010s period, all in the shadow of brazils decline in star player production also.

 

Another reason is because these South American teams often don't have huge numbers of European produced footballers coming off a production line and carrying dual nationality for the likes of Colombia and Uruguay

 

Surely Argentina as well even with their two knockout performances so far,

 

England have the third most world cup quarter finals behind Germany Brazil I read somewhere

 

Seventeen players are entering the quarter-finals this week on one yellow card, meaning if they are booked again this round they will pick up a one-game suspension.

🇲🇦 Issa Diop
🇲🇦 Achraf Hakimi
🇲🇦 Redouane Halhal
🇲🇦 Bilal El Khannouss
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jude Bellingham
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Nico O’Reilly
🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿… pic.twitter.com/empZDI9nfx

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) July 8, 2026

 

I think only six of their squad are Moroccan born.

 

They've come a long way in the past 30 years or so. Similar to how Norway kicked on in the 90s and Denmark before them, in the 80s.

 

Only one Argentinian…

 

very clear pattern with England every 8 years they have a contender that has everything but falls short by failing to beat the first tippy top team they face whether its last 8 or last 4. This team for me has something those other 3 cycles did not and that is Jude and Kane which is maybe why we see it extended and breaking the pattern already. No reason why they shouldn't make the final. If Kane and Jude did not exist and it was say Foden Palmers team they probably would be on the down swing by 2026 like they were in 2010. Those two really separate England from other merely good teams.

 

the scouting on the Swiss was correct they really pushed England and then Saka came out of nowhere with a wonder strike which then lead to penalties meaning they got the draw from a finalist after 120m.