📰 | The Saudi Arabian Football Federation has selected Austin as its base camp during the FIFA World Cup 2026.🔗: https://t.co/xXhmmFZ8Rb pic.twitter.com/dKqD95LEpp— Austin FC (@AustinFC) February 5, 2026
Well obviously Europeans did!! If you think a World Cup is a success without THE hotbed of world football attending then you're sadly mistaken! Qatar was a bloody awful World Cup! It had all the atmosphere of a night at the opera.
No, no atmosphere, it was more 'Wimbledon' than World Cup. Ultimately though take away either the Europeans and or the South Americans and you lose the atmosphere. If you think a game between Scotland and Italy being watched by Americans will be anything like a game between Scotland and Italy being watched by the fans that go to Celtic and Napoli home games then you're sadly mistaken.
Watching some prediction videos has made me realise how the composition of the group stage is so significantly different from previous WCs with most of the groups only featuring one UEFA team. Hopefully this doesn't affect the standard of play and competitiveness of the games.
Dilution of quality and competitiveness by including many more lower-ranked teams, for example currently 25 of the 48 highest-Elo ranked teams are from Europe, which is very similar to the alternative world rankings maintained here.
The format is terrible because two thirds of the 3rd placed teams will go through. That means teams progressing with three points. The quality will be diminished enough that there will be blow out results. Some teams will be 3 or 4-0 up at half time, in group stage matches. Germany - Curacao, Spain - Cape Verde and Uruguay - Cape Verde are obvious possible thrashings. Argentina might put 5 past Jordan in the last group match with a second string side. This tournament really begins in the knock outs. The group stage is effectively a final qualification round.
With the way Uruguay is playing lately I doubt they thrash Cape Verde. Even with thousands of fans wearing Uruguayan blue in Miami.
I completely agree. I assume UEFA backed expansion to 48 teams after FIFA mentioned how much cannon fodder will exist in Group phase. 2026 will be the first time 100% of UEFA participants advance to the next phase: enough UEFA members spread out among teams who should not be at a WC tournament.
100% of Euro teams will advance to the round of 32 ? Hmmm. Interesting premise. Even with expansion and third place teams advancing you would have to believe that somebody is going to underachieve and fall flat on their face. Especially since it has always pretty much happened in this hemisphere. It is a good topic to speculate about. If I had to say the team most likely not to make it is probably Scotland followed by the Mystery team in USA’s Group and Mystery team in Mexico”s Group. Maybe Mystery Team in Netherland's/Japan’s Group.
Scotland would have to lose or draw with Haiti. Possible I guess, but pretty unlikely to me. I think the Group F Euro playoff team losing to Tunisia is not much of a leap though.
That is the key. I am not confident in anything Scotland does in this tournament. Can they beat Haiti? Sure. They can slaughter them for all I know right now But Scotland really has not played a team outside of Europe in many years. It is difficult to try to figure out how they will do against a team with a different style of play, and different approach to the game than they are used to in Europe.
Maybe, but I would expect Haiti will play like most Euro minnows. Play 8 or 9 men behind the ball and look for a counter. Scotland sees that all the time.
Haiti does not play like that. They usually give teams like USA and Mexico good matches. They are more than pesky. And with the foreign nationalization of European players they can be more dangerous.
I don't agree that the quality will be that much worse with 48 teams. Less chance of good teams missing out on qualifying as sometimes happens. 2018 Russia, Saudi, Egypt, Uruguay. Another group England, Panama, Belgium, Tunisia. What is so different now?
How do they play? Do they ever control possession against a top 50 team? Haiti hasn’t beaten the US or Mexico in years. They did beat Canada at home six years ago. I can’t remember if Canada was any good back then.
No one said anything about beating those teams. Just that they do not bunker. They do try to attack and keep possession. Watch their matches against Costa Rica and Honduras. They are not as bad as people think.
Haiti may do that against Costa Rica and Honduras, but not against Mexico, the US or Canada, who are the CONCACAF teams in the current top 50, and thus Scotland’s peers in the region. Against those three Haiti has rarely reached 40% possession in matches, and sometimes below 30%. They do seem to play counter-attacking football against the better teams, and I suspect that will be the case against all their opponents at the World Cup, including Scotland.
Haiti is not a defense and counter type of team. They have guys who can keep the ball. It is not like Scotland plays tiki-take. They do not try and keep possession. It may be an entertaining back and forth match between two teams that have not played at this level in a long time. As I said, maybe Scotland wins but there are too many variables and unknowns. They do not play teams outside of Europe much so that may be more of a disadvantage than an advantage.
I think way too much is being made about the "drop in quality". I dont really see it to be honest. Not anything more than a marginal amount. We may see more blowouts, but that would probably be more to do with there being more matches/higher possibility per match, than anything else. The 3rd place possibilities may also open up the final group stage games (also leading to more blowouts possibly) Basically every team can theoretically still be alive on game day 3, meaning they could play for the win. Despite the increase in teams from weaker confederations, I dont see any African team worse than Angola/Togo 2006. None of those teams were blown out. I also dont see any Asian teams worse than Qatar 2022. Concacaf, Curacao is probably slightly weaker than teams like Panama and Honduras of rhe past, but not leagues apart.