The USA should do well at home. The history of the tournament is of hosts doing better than they otherwise would. Qatar was an aberration on that score but an unsurprising one given the small population and the lack of time for them naturalise a team of immigrants. Americans should be quietly confident of progressing well. Anything can happen but the odds are in their favour. I would like to see them do well because it will be good for the tournament.
It is just the way it is. They can't keep everyone happy with kick off times. There are so many matches this time that it will be a case of watching what you can when you can. For a really big match I will stay up later or get up early. Take some time off work if necessary.
Just a culture clash I reckon. Americans big themselves up whilst many others underplay their chances. An American expressing doubt about their nation or their sports teams doesn't feel authentically American.
In my head England v Croatia is marked down as a boring 1-1 rather than 0-0. Especially as it is the first match.
Did you dream that? They had 3 players that immigrated as adults. They made their Qatar debuts in 2013, 2014 and 2016 and have 228 caps between them.
Those playoffs where played in November 2025, so "Australia" was not a placeholder anymore when the draw happened.
I was simply suggesting that Qatar were always going to struggle as they're a very small country. If they had more time and a strategy to naturalise players that was their only hope to be significantly better. Although that strategy would have had limits too and they may not have wished to go further.
best I could do was to stay up for games starting at 2 and then sleep 3 hours after the end of the game. and for games starting at 4am I tried to sleep early and wake up right before KO
Thing is.....Modric is 40 now....not 36 (2022) or 32 (2018).....and that's going to make a huge difference in how good the team is. With eight out of the twelve 3rd place teams advancing, Croatia is almost certain to make it out of the group, but who knows if their luck in PK shootouts will continue. Very similar situation to Argentina and Messi (who also won two PK shootouts in 2022). Teams with aging stars are some of the biggest candidates to underperform expectations.
I think the bigger problem for Croatia is that three years have passed from the last world cup and they still have no elite attackers.
And I'll argue that the bigger (KO-stage) kick off times for 2026 are still tailored to suit Europe for the most part. 6/8 R16 matches are watchable w/o turning one's sleep schedule upside-down (especially in UK, Portugal), 3/4 QFs, both semis and the final.
The other difference with 2022 is that the 2026 WC is after a long club season, not in the first half of it. Logically this would impact older players more. Although, less of a concern in Messi's case since he's in MLS which has a reverse (and lighter) calendar. And as I'm writing this, I'm recalling that AC Milan are not in Europe this season, so their schedule is not so heavy either.
Lets not forget to factor in the heat which may play a serious factor, especially with aging teams. For some reason the Croatia v Ghana matchup is reminding me of Ghana v Czech Rep. in 2006. There are quite a few parallels and similarities. Not betting on it, but it wouldn't surprise me if the result is similar.
Scottish government discussing plans to allow pubs to open at 2 am for the game against Haiti. Swinney: Government will work with councils on extended World Cup pub hours | Bury Times https://share.google/z0NS9aYLJ2Qgedvka English pubs may have opening times extended to 1 am.
For a society with such rich pub and football cultures, it's surprising that they wouldn't be open for all WC games, whether involving England/Scotland or not.
2026 World Cup to feature three-minute hydration breaks in every half throughout tournament - The Athletic Hydration breaks for everyone!! I'm not opposed, as it's a summer tournament on a continent where summer temperatures can be a bit extreme. If they want to do it in the name of uniformity, I'm fine with it. But let's not pretend it's not an excuse to let more advertising creep into it as well. Here's my issue, one that I've never really gotten an answer for: Why aren't they stopping the clock? Why, if you know in advance that you're going to have multiple three-minute stoppages, what's the benefit to adding three minutes of stoppage time instead of just letting the clock represent reality? With the increase in substitutions, more stringent attention being paid to how much time is lost, and the ever-present dark arts, we've gotten to a point where stoppage time in the second half alone represents about 10% of the regular game. What's so goddamned tough about keeping it real? The clock is almost meaningless if everyone knows it's not really real. Stoppage time winners/equalizers aren't as dramatic because stoppage time is such a big part of the game. I don't get it.
Yes, many of the knockout matches take place at times when people in Europe can watch them without having to stay up in the middle of the night or get up early. And that’s probably because they want to include the European market. There are so many major TV networks in Europe, and in general you could call it the home of football. The biggest nations and leagues are here, and in almost every country football is the biggest sport. It may sound cynical, but I’m sure they would rather have the European audience than the Southeast Asian or Oceania audiences.
I'm 100% with you on that. Its ridiculous because part of a team's/manager's tactics and substitution strategy is based on how much time there remains in a match. It would be nice to know, therefore, that most basic piece of information. Its also one of those embarrassing things I have to explain every 4 years to my non-football-loving friends and relatives who only watch football at WC time. And I say "embarrassing" because that's what this is. Us regular fans get numb to it, but its a frickin' embarrassment for the sport.
Pub licencing laws are strict and allowed opening hours can vary between pubs. There wouldn't be many pubs that would usually be open until the 4am needed for Scotland v Haiti. It's really just nightclubs at that time. Special permission will be needed and I they will give it on a national basis rather than ask each pub to request it.
I know just how you feel. I've been explaining how the game works to American friends for 50 years. Thankfully it's gotten a lot better. They've developed a loose understanding of offside and no longer have a heart attack when a half doesn't end exactly at 45 minutes.
I read elsewhere that the cooling breaks could be an excuse to enable broadcasters to run commercials. I also heard that the marketing for and promotion of the tournament in the USA is somewhat lacking. There is a parallel to the 2027 WWC for which no branding or match schedule has yet been released. Meanwhile, the branding of and match schedule for EURO 2028 were announced at several events in the UK and Ireland last month, while the qualifying draw is set for Belfast on 6 December next year.