Group G's General Discussion Thread

I'm not Belgian.
Tedesco had an ok CV before his appointment, but nothing that would raise him above Garcia. His time with Belgium included an unconvincing Euro 2024, so yeah...Martinez, I agree. He gets a lot of criticism, but he got a bronze so that's quite respectable.

I mean, we can add caveats to explain a manager's successes. However, Garcia's overall career suggests that he's somewhere between "not good at all" and world class.

 

Why do you say Tedesco didn’t do well in Euro 2024? I mean they lost to France one of the best teams in the world. I know they weren’t completely convincing in the group stages, but Slovakia are a decent team too and have some good players. They beat Romania, and frankly they probably settled for a draw vs Ukraine as that group was very tight and teams were playing cautiously in the last phase.

I really believe Garcia is a downgrade from Tedesco.

 

In my opinion, that group was their for the taking. The other three teams were definitely not bad, as we saw, but had Belgium won the group, they would have avoided France in the first place. Even after the loss against Slovakia, they could have bounced back by getting 6 points. However, even right after group stage R1, I had a feeling that all four teams, including Belgium, would get 4 points each. Which ended up happening.

 

Well to be fair, France got second place in their group too.

 

Tedesco started well. The wheels started coming off at the tournament itself, where he started acting weird - in his line-ups and in his pressers.
There it was revealed that he was still a fairly inexperienced manager. Tactically I think what he did in qualifying was fine. Which was translated in our qualifying for that Euros with relative ease.



Six wins and two draws, one draw in a game that was abandoned at half-time due to a terrorist attack on Swedish fans in Brussels.

 

Oh yes and its very likely to be a hellstorm for political reasons during our first game. Whats clear is I think only Chris Wood will have played in as hostile an atmosphere as what Iran-NZ might turn out to be and not just because of Team Melli fans.

Ghalenoei gets a lot of hate for cronyism and his player choices. He has a reputation of being corrupt and the type to give embarassing interviews.

His opponents often prefer Carlos Quieroz's reign where at the pinnacle from 2014-2018 we had two world cups where we almost beat/tied Argentina, tied Portugal, beat Morocco, narrow loss to Spain. Ghalenoei suppporters tend to be more domestic in Iran, more conservative etc.

Queiroz fans were more liberal "progressive football" despite the irony of CQs tactics.

If he gets us out of the group Ghalenoei can claim he is better than Quieroz.

He absolutely will still try to get a result vs Belgium and Egypt.

Whereas, CQ would park the bus, Ghalenoei cannot construct a defense like that and the players in Defense are not as good as before. The offense(with all invited) is better than before so the Belgium and Egypt games might become frantic goalfests

 

Also worth noting that they got an absolute dream of a draw in terms of where they play. How would Belgium have dealt with playing in Northern Mexico, Miami, Kansas City or the humid northeast? Not that well, but the games are all in the dry heat west coast which is generally mild in June (it typically only starts to get hot on the west coast in later July or August). They play in Seattle, Vancouver and LA, temps should largely be perfect, might be a little rain lol, but otherwise, perfect.

So not only did they get a dream of a draw from Pot 2, Pot 3 and Pot 4, they also landed a literally perfect location, crazier still, their entire pathway in the tournament is west coast based, they will never play in heat or humidity if they can win their group, not once. I imagine, England, Croatia, the Czech's, Scotland, Sweden, the Netherlands, France, Norway, Portugal? Some only have 1 rough game, but they all have at least 1 and often 2 or more games in humidity and heat. Belgium? Zilch, and if they win the group, they avoid the unpleasant weather regions entirely.

 

Not a key EGY player, from his stats: latest official EGY match was in Sep 2025 (2 minutes played), after a Nov 2024 appearance (84 minutes).

https://www.transfermarkt.com/nabil-dunga/nationalmannschaft/spieler/479683

 

I am not thrilled with Iran's player selections for the World Cup but don't blame the coach but the war time circumstances. The pressure Iran's team will be under put a premium on having veteran players. That probably prevented several deserving young players (e.g. Mahmoudi, Hashemnejad) from making the final cut.

Looking at the roster, the breakdown in terms of past World Cup experience and age is as follows.

• 13 players have previous FIFA World Cup experience: Ehsan Hajsafi (36) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh (32) have been selected for their fourth FIFA World Cup; Mehdi Taremi (33), Alireza Beiranvand (33), Milad Mohammadi (32), Ramin Rezaeian (36), Rouzbeh Cheshmi (32), Saeid Ezatolahi (29), and Saman Ghoddos (32) have been selected for their third FIFA World Cup; while Hossein Hosseini (33), Payam Niazmand (31), Shoja Khalilzadeh (37), Hossein Kanaani (31), and Mehdi Torabi (31) have been selected for their second FIFA World Cup.
• 13 players will be appearing at their first FIFA World Cup. Listed by age, they are: Amir Mohammad Razzaghinia (19), Danial Eiri (22), Dennis Dargahi (22), Aria Yousefi (23), Mohammad Ghorbani (24), Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh (25), Mehdi Ghayedi (27), Mohammad Mohebi (27), Saleh Hardani (27), Omid Noorafkan (29), Ali Alipour (30), Ali Nemati (30), and Shahriyar Moghanlou (31).

 

This is the first time in my life that I am not excited for seeing TM in world cup. Mainly due to non soccer related issues. But even if we try to put that aside, this team is the weakest world cup TM in history (literally only 3 players play for decent European clubs, usually we had 5-10, also, the best players are too old and the new good players are too inexperienced for the world cup stage), and with the worst TM world cup coach in history. On top of that the political issues will also directly impact performance (lack of preparation/decent friendlies- literally none of the friendly opponents resembled any of the 3 opponents in terms of style, lack of unity, lack of support/expected hostility from fans, having to fly excessively compared to other teams due to USA visa issues). I may still watch the games but I simply have no enthusiasm nor do I expect anything other than weak results. It is like everything that could go wrong happened all together. The only trace of a saving grace is that this is a relatively easy group, but that is not going to be sufficient to serve as any saving grace.

My prediction: there is simply no way that Belgium will not beat Iran. Egypt will most likely beat Iran but a draw is not impossible because while Egypt has better players it does not function that well as a team especially in world cups. New Zealand and Iran will most likely be a draw, but it also could go narrowly in either direction. The worst thing is that Iran's "preparations" included zero teams that are similar to New Zealand, so even if NZ is not really stronger than Iran, they have a different style that Iran has been untested against in a long time. And the fact is that this Iran cannot beat Uzbekistan, who is likely the same level as New Zealand. It is highly likely that Iran will finish with 1-3 points and will finish 3rd or 4rth, it is roughly a 40/60 chance of 3rd:4th split (and also heavily depends on New Zealand match.. I think if New Zealand match ends in a draw, New Zealand will get better results against the other 2 teams and take 3rd), and even if finishing 3rd, Iran will probably not qualify to the next round.

Perhaps the only good possible thing is that for the observer, the matches will not be too boring/dull and will most certainly involve goals. Iran's defense is weak and there is a 98% chance of conceding against Belgium, 80% chance of conceding against Egypt, and 70% chance of conceding against New Zealand. But at the same time, Iran's offense is decent and there is a 40% chance of scoring against Belgium, 60% chance of scoring against Egypt, and 70% chance of scoring against New Zealand.

Which leads me to my predictions: Belgium 3-1 Iran (or it could be 2:0); Egypt 2-1 Iran; New Zealand 1-1 Iran.

 

Belgium: While this team has regressed a lot over the years, they’re still talented with the likes of Courtois, De Bruyne, Lukaku, Trossard, Doku, Carrasco, Tielemans, De Katelaere, Onana, and Saelemaekers. I will say that this team has a huge liability in the back and has ever since Kompany and Alderweireld retired. They have some OK defenders, but I do have huge concerns at the back. I also have some serious reservations about coach Garcia, and do not believe he’s a good coach at all. Garcia tinkers way too much, and is notorious for inconsistency and player confusion.

Egypt: This team has some talent in attack but nobody is at their prime. Salah and Trezeguet used to be amazing but are slowing down. Marmoush is decent, and Abdelkarim is emerging. Hassan is a decent coach but not elite.

Iran: This team has regressed a lot over the passed 8 years, and I’ll be honest, the team has been vastly affected by politics. The politics and what’s going on has even influenced coaching decisions by leaving out Azmoun which is extremely controversial. Taremi is their best player, but he’s never really lived up to hype and can be slow.

New Zealand: Definitely one of the weaker teams in this World Cup, but honestly it’s not a team to be underestimated and people highly underrate them. Wood and Old are their best players. Now their talent is very limited, but the team is well organized, and hard to breakdown. They’ve rarely been tested much, but we cannot forget the 3 draws in 2010 World Cup.

All that to say, I think Belgium and Egypt are clearly the top 2 teams in this group. Belgium has the superior talent all around by a lot, but Egypt has better structure and organization. I usually fancy the latter in these cases; but I fancy Belgium this time to just edge it because the talent gap all around the team is too large. That being said, Belgium will drop points somewhere. Belgium vs Egypt might end in draw, but Belgium will have a better goal difference in the other games.

Iran and New Zealand are underdogs. They’ll make life very difficult, but I expect them to finish 3rd and 4th with New Zealand just edging it. Will be very tough teams to beat though.

Final Predictions:
1. Belgium
2. Egypt
3. New Zealand
4. Iran

 

The problem Belgium has, similar to France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain, is that their side of the bracket is just complete murder if they advance and the tournament plays out reasonably to expectations, even w/the brutal weather conditions.

The Left or top side of the bracket should be expected to feature Germany, France, Netherlands, Portugal or Colombia (who will have tons of fans for the Portugal in Miami match which is why I'm picking an upset and betting, Portugal lands on this side, and makes this side of the bracket even scarier especially if they leave Ronaldo behind when the bus leaves (please))...Just look at that side of the bracket though:

Germany vs France R16
Portugal or Colombia vs Spain R16
USA vs Belgium R16

So expectations will be that your Quartefinals could easily be:

France vs Netherlands

Spain vs Belgium

So Belgium does get a lot of gifts in the tournament if they finish first....basically they will be playing out west and entirely avoiding the brutal weather conditions that virtually all the other strong UEFA sides have to deal with at least once, and they'll get what looks like favorites status until the QF's, but once they hit the QF's they are probably heavy underdogs the rest of the way unless there is an upset in the Spain/Portugal or Colombia R16 match (definitely possible).

For me, Belgium should look kind of like Spain at WC '06, where they were shredding everyone off of an easy group stage, and R16 match up, and then vanished under the sea w/o a trace afterwards.

Belgium should have 4 straight reasonably easy games, and then after that it probably gets difficult, Turkey or the US in the R16 in my view, Turkey could easily beat them, and after that, it's a wrap.


It should be a nice denouement for the guys, a run to at least the R16's almost certainly, but after that they'll fall in one of the two games following all that.....It's basically what England's looking at if they don't get it done at this WC. Belgium had their run from WC '14 to Euro '24, and that was that, ten years, couldn't quite put it all together. England's had a better run with their golden generation '18-'26 and their run likely transitions by Euro '28 or WC '30, so this will be England's best shot the path looks clear until the Semifinals for them. Brazil, Norway or Sengal their toughest competition in terms of teams, but the Azteca in the R16's if Mexico wins their R32 match could be a nightmare (I know it's another group, but I see them and Belgium similarly historically in terms of their current golden generations).....that will be interesting, can England handle that? No idea, I haven't been paying enough attention in my knockout predictions to the sites for the actual knockouts.

7/16 Round of 32 matches will be in heat and humidity.

3/8 Round of 16 matches.

3/4 Quarterfinals.

After that, just the Final, in New York City. July's tend to be hot and humid.

 

Belgium needs to win this group.

 

Think it all comes down to the Egypt game, if we win that, even if it is an ugly and lucky 1-0 or 2-1 win, I can see us cruising through this group. If we drop points, it might add enough stress to the squad that they might make hard work of even the Iran and New-Zealand games. The atmosphere in the group is great, arguably the best it's been since 2018 (Rudi Garcia deserves some credit for that). Having said that, a lot of the feel-good sensation is based on our two most recent friendlies. A 2-0 win against a Croatia that seemed most interested in not getting anyone injured on the eve of a World Cup. And a 5-0 win against Tunisia, same Tunisia that got another five around their ears from Sweden. So not sure how much stock you should put in either result.

 

My predictions:

Belgium 3-2 Egypt

Iran 0-0 New Zealand

 

Wow what a goal.

Beyond the best goalkeeper at the tournament perhaps !

 

Impressive Egyptian goal !!!
Belgium is another overrated team in Europe.

 

Doku should’ve had at least two yellows already for diving.
I was gonna say where is Lukaku? But he’s coming in now. He’s the only Belgian who can score

 

Holy cow! What was I saying?

 

Fair Result

Egypt 1 Belgium 1

 

Great point for Egypt.

This was a record high temp day for Seattle and I think it took a toll on Belgium.