Personally I enjoyed watching Donny T accept the world piece trophy he invented by congratulating himself for saving millions of lives, then praising Infantino for selling millions of tickets, and then scolding himself for bringing up the ticket sales because it wasn't appropriate for the moment. Absolutely nailed it.
He just doesn’t have any past. Last season was his first good year, and even then he only started 17 games. Prior to that he was putting up worse-than-Sargent numbers at Bremen. He might be good, he might not be, but it’s way too early in his career to say that he’s obviously better than Sesko and, especially, Gyokeres.
I mentioned a while back that the Syracuse Orangeman was likely inadvertently killing attendance for the World Cup in '26 and the Olympics in '28 with the stormtroopers in the troops looking for rebels thing. Its a bad look. You'd have to be extremely motivated to risk being stopped in the streets as a tourist to the games if you had a certain look. I am curious what ticket sales have been since February or March.
France in group I and England's group L look to be the toughest groups on paper. There doesn't seem to be a group of death given 8 of the 12 3rd place teams will advance to the knockout round.
For those not aware https://www.thetimes.com/sport/foot...mbling-nigel-farage-george-cottrell-x568ssgm2
I hate international football and its bloated, embarrassing carcass. Still gonna watch the WC. They've got me by the balls and I'm powerless to it. Not gonna go to any matches . . . but I'll be locked in for those 6 weeks like everyone else.
Mbappe v. Haaland; might be an interesting match to gawk at. Yeah, it's going to suck when you see Brazil beating the heck out of Haiti 6-0 or something like that. Speaking of which: Brazil, Morocco and Scotland will play the same group as they did in 1998?! Haiti meanwhile, won't come close to emulating Norway but will be thoroughly put to the sword instead.
I think Bayern can beat Real Madrid personally. Also there is always a sleeper side. Chelsea for me have a shout for that sleeper side for a semi or with a bit of luck, final. Liverpool beat said Real Madrid at home 1-0, they're another shout at a possible semi if they come back in the new year. https://www.facebook.com/reel/729126316321309
L isn't that hard and the US team is pretty even. Who got the toughest World Cup group?!As a whole, the groups ended up solidly balanced because the potentially strong European playoff teams were drawn into the weaker group toppers of Canada, Mexico and the United StatesHere is each group by Average Elo rating Toughest:… pic.twitter.com/Hwq54KmGgm— Anthony Dabbundo (@AnthonyDabbundo) December 5, 2025
Croatia, England and Ghana….that seems like a good group to me (in this expanded format). And the US already has beaten Australia and Paraguay recently, so I feel like it’s a good group for the team. It certainly could have been worse.
Agreed. I also noted that AUS & PAR were 2 out of our last 3 matches (wins)... funny/random how that worked out. Lots can happen between now and June/July so we'll just have to see!