2026 FIFA World Cup

[RedTeamGo!]

21 hours ago, Hongbit said:

I am very concerned about the goalie situation.  Neither of these guys are very good.  I have my doubts if the backs in front of them can avoid hanging them out to dry by making massive mistakes.   

What are you basing this one? The fact they play in MLS? 

 

The defense is the weak part, not much a goalie can do if his D is sub standard. If MIles Robinson plays a significant amount of minutes we are in trouble, he stinks. 

[Hongbit]

1 hour ago, RedTeamGo! said:

What are you basing this one? The fact they play in MLS? 

 

The defense is the weak part, not much a goalie can do if his D is sub standard. If MIles Robinson plays a significant amount of minutes we are in trouble, he stinks. 

A good portion of the new HBO documentary on the team revolves around Turner’s struggles and Freese’s inability to completely separate himself.    I agree the defense isn’t exceptional which makes it even more important to have a keeper that’s not meh.

Edited 7 hours ago by Hongbit

[buddha]

2 hours ago, RedTeamGo! said:

What are you basing this one? The fact they play in MLS? 

 

The defense is the weak part, not much a goalie can do if his D is sub standard. If MIles Robinson plays a significant amount of minutes we are in trouble, he stinks. 

There are lots of weak parts to the US team.  i would put central defense at the top of the list if Richard can't play.  i would also say this doesnt seem to be a vintage US keeper class.  there are no Friedels or Howards, or even Kellers here anymore.  

I was encouraged by the Germany performance even though they lost and the Senegal performance.  Pulicic played well in both games and he's the key to their offense.  we'll see if paraguay does the usual south american thing and beats the living **** out of him all game.

US is playing at home and should advance.  after that its a crap shoot depending on matchups.  they have a decent squad, but ultimately not the type of talent that would trouble the better sides in the world.

[lordstanley]

Let's go!!

 

 

[DTroppens]

12 hours ago, Shelton said:

I think the knockout round is going to be weird. I think people are underestimating the added variance of adding a round of 32 and how that will even the playing field a bit. The World Cup champion is going to have to win five knockout games. And there are going to be some “matchups of death” in the rounds of 32 and 16.

I think if you make it to the round of 8, you may find that the field is weaker than  years past. 
 

You never know. You might get Loyola in the final four.

There will inevitably be some very strong teams (at least one) that somehow falls to third (in the past that would've been a shocking team out of the tourney) but gets one of those third-place spots and a first-place team won't be happy. 🙂 That's got to happen you figure.  But in some ways it actually assures stronger teams do advance because they have the third-place option to still make it to the elimination rounds. So I'm guessing this format will actually help more good teams (again even if it is just one or two teams that need it) make it to the round of 32 and still have a chance to win this thing. 

Single elimination always opens up the chances for "not the best" teams as we advance, but I don't care about that. If a team makes it to the quarterfinal, they are going to have to beat a good squad in one of those two games and will still have to win one of those contests. 

Will the quarterfinals be weaker? I don't know about that. Again, any squad that gets there will have to beat two teams, and  if they are a weaker team at the very least one of those teams will be favored against that squad, if not both.  And if they win those two games, who is to say they are actually "weaker? 

[DTroppens]

41 minutes ago, lordstanley said:

Let's go!!

 

 

I've done a few marches through the streets for US World Cup Qualifying games. Gosh, it would be cool to do that for a World Cup Game.

If I was smarter way back in the day, I would've realized when the US opened at the Silverdome there probably was a march. That was my opportunity that I blew. But I was a rookie just learning then. Had no clue marches to the stadium existed. If I lived on the west coast, It would be fun just to do the march even if you don't have a ticket for the game. Just walk to the point of the ticket gates.

[lordstanley]

19 minutes ago, DTroppens said:

I've done a few marches through the streets for US World Cup Qualifying games. Gosh, it would be cool to do that for a World Cup Game.

 

I did one in Gelsenkirchen, Germany in 2006 before Poland vs Ecuador as we made our way into the stadium (I saw your post on the previous page about being Polish-American; four of my greatgrandparents were born in Poland and I made around 15 trips to Poland in the 2000s). For a country that has seen its share of defeats on and off the soccer field over the centuries, our fans sure were (over-)confident about making easy work of the South American side. Instead got smoked 2-0, oof. 

[lordstanley]

Alanis Morissette, who has lived in California the past 30 years, chosen to sing O Canada at World Cup opener in Toronto. Isn’t it ironic.

[lordstanley]

It should be 1-0 Canada, Jonathan David had to have done better. 
 

Edit: and now it’s 1-0 Bosnia, blech.

Edited 2 hours ago by lordstanley

[Shelton]

2 hours ago, DTroppens said:

There will inevitably be some very strong teams (at least one) that somehow falls to third (in the past that would've been a shocking team out of the tourney) but gets one of those third-place spots and a first-place team won't be happy. 🙂 That's got to happen you figure.  But in some ways it actually assures stronger teams do advance because they have the third-place option to still make it to the elimination rounds. So I'm guessing this format will actually help more good teams (again even if it is just one or two teams that need it) make it to the round of 32 and still have a chance to win this thing. 

Single elimination always opens up the chances for "not the best" teams as we advance, but I don't care about that. If a team makes it to the quarterfinal, they are going to have to beat a good squad in one of those two games and will still have to win one of those contests. 

Will the quarterfinals be weaker? I don't know about that. Again, any squad that gets there will have to beat two teams, and  if they are a weaker team at the very least one of those teams will be favored against that squad, if not both.  And if they win those two games, who is to say they are actually "weaker? 

lol, I’ll say it!

Thisnis the classic college football argument about talent vs resume. Yes, whoever makes it there will have the visit beat some good teams. But as you said, it’s the single elimination randomness that gets cracked up by adding an extra round. 
 

I’m also not sure that the third place teams that get through will necessarily be good. By your argument the fact they could t finish top two must mean they suck 😉 

But what I mean is that third place teams are going to be those teams in groups that have a terrible fourth team that goes 0-0-3. You’ve got to some get points ts but not finish in the top two, so it feels like you are going to have the classic third place team that went 1-1-1 and would have been out on GD that gets through. 
 

We’ll see, but the fact we are basically taking the prior World Cup field of 32 and effectively putting them straight into the knockout is bound to cause more early exits for the blue bloods. 

[lordstanley]

lol, “we want the point” chant broke out in final 5 minutes on Vancouver’s Granville St. 1-1 final, Canada’s first ever point at the World Cup.