2026 FIFA World Cup Finals

  • Thread starter Thread starter Famine
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Couldn't be bothered looking it up before, have now looked it up:
Famine
There are 495 possible combinations of third-place teams and their opponents.
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I can't even.
 
Apropos of nothing, the only team in the tournament to field a Sheffield Wednesday player have also been one of the first teams eliminated (after two matches) and is the first team to ship both eight and nine goals in the group stage.

Admittedly, defender Yan Valery was still among the top-rated Tunisian players in both games and spent half of last season out on loan in Switzerland, but still.

(we've also just signed a player from Cabo Verde, but he's not in the squad, and Argentina's WC-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez played 11 times for us on loan from Arsenal)
 
Famine
Apropos of nothing, the only team in the tournament to field a Sheffield Wednesday player have also been one of the first teams eliminated (after two matches) and is the first team to ship both eight and nine goals in the group stage.

Admittedly, defender Yan Valery was still among the top-rated Tunisian players in both games and spent half of last season out on loan in Switzerland, but still.

(we've also just signed a player from Cabo Verde, but he's not in the squad, and Argentina's WC-winning goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez played 11 times for us on loan from Arsenal)
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New Zealand's Elijah Just is the first Motherwell player to score at a World Cup.
 
daan
New Zealand's Elijah Just is the first Motherwell player to score at a World Cup.
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I'm pretty sure we've never had a player under contract when they've scored in a World Cup. We've had several World Cup players, but a lot of goalies 😂

The only player I can think of to score in a World Cup and turn out for us the same summer was Dan Petrescu, but we signed him after. Yan Valery could make himself a bit of history, but... Netherlands.
 
Famine
I'm pretty sure we've never had a player under contract when they've scored in a World Cup. We've had several World Cup players, but a lot of goalies 😂

The only player I can think of to score in a World Cup and turn out for us the same summer was Dan Petrescu, but we signed him after. Yan Valery could make himself a bit of history, but... Netherlands.
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Even an own goal?
 
Saudi Arabia's performance was so bad they moved Uruguay up a place in the group and Bosnia & Herzegovina back into contention for a second-round berth without either playing a game...
 
Spain turned up a week late, a pretty devastating first half performance thanks to Yamal and Oyarzabal.

Belgium and Iran played out a 0-0 draw and it means that there is still no goals from group G with three 0-0's.
 
MUSC4EVER
Belgium and Iran played out a 0-0 draw and it means that there is still no goals from group G with three 0-0's.
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Other than the 1-1 between Belgium and Egypt, and the 2-2 between New Zealand and Iran...
 
Really keen to watch that Egypt vs NZ game this evening. As long as they don't tie, one team will make history for their nation 😅
 
Cabo Verde ties again. A huge result for them as now they have to be considered a chance to advance to the knockout round.
 
Belgium fans right now:
Seth Meyers Sleep GIF by Late Night with Seth Meyers


The criticism on the players and the coach is (justifiably) huge...
You got 3 players for the forward position.
One is not a real, deep forward and not 100%. (CDK)
One played 64min for his club this year and has no match rhythm to speak of. (Lukaku)
And one is a player in great form, fast & eager to prove himself for the team. (Pardo)
Guess who was in the starting 11???

Then he got the ***** to put his favourite (Onana) on the bench (not good enough in fast circulation of the ball) and he puts not one of the best players in Belgium, who plays Champions League every year with his club and does a great job (Vanaken). But he let's his OTHER favourite (Raskin) play. Who, I agree, is better than Onana, but still not like Vanaken. He just doesn't see it as fast...

I could go on but you get the point. Belgian fans are not amused...
 
Lionel Messi is insane. For a player who even in January nobody was sure if he would be playing at this World Cup, he is easily the top scorer at this tournament so far.

2 matches
5 goals
39th Birthday in 2 days

All-time World Cup top scorer, now clear of Klose's 16 on 18. Mbappe is 4 behind, Kane is 8 behind and Cristiano Ronaldo is 10 behind. They all have work to get even close (at least at this world cup).
 
As a non-"football"-watcher (you can ask @Famine, who I've peppered with various "football" related questions over the years IRL), what is the level of play in the World Cup compared to the higher-end professional leagues?

I'm assuming it's a step down from whatever leagues the big-name teams (the ones I've heard of) play in. But, I'm also assuming most of those professional players are in the World Cup, just playing for their own home teams, so they must be pretty good, right?
 
Jordan
As a non-"football"-watcher (you can ask @Famine, who I've peppered with various "football" related questions over the years IRL), what is the level of play in the World Cup compared to the higher-end professional leagues?

I'm assuming it's a step down from whatever leagues the big-name teams (the ones I've heard of) play in. But, I'm also assuming most of those professional players are in the World Cup, just playing for their own home teams, so they must be pretty good, right?
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At this stage it's a mixed bag. When you consider that there's only ~200 nations and you've got three that qualified from (just) outside the top 80, some matches are like watching Manchester City play... well... us. In the knockout stages the quality is a lot higher, more so the further you get and the outliers end up getting knocked out (sometimes in the semi-finals).

Generally I'd say that the standard from a top nation is at least the equal of that of a top club: Germany vs Paris St. Germain would be quite some game.

Of course the problem with that is that the top clubs will have players from the top nations, so playing each other is a bit awkward as some players will be on both teams :lol: Still, a lot of national teams have a core of players who play for the same one or few clubs in the same nation: most of Germany's squad plays for German teams Bayern Munich/Borussia Dortmund/RB Leipzig/VfB Stuttgart; most of Spain's squad plays for Spanish teams Barcelona/Atletico Madrid/Athletic Bilbao (first squad in a while with no Real Madrid players).

There's a few that have slightly more widely spread players - France has players from 15+ different teams in seven countries, England has players from 15 different teams in four countries, Brazil's are spread over ten countries, and so on.
 
Weather delay in the France-Iraq game at half time, there was monsoon like rain towards the end of the first half and there are thunderstorms in the area so fans have been told to seek shelter, France lead 1-0 thanks to Mbappe.
 
MUSC4EVER
Weather delay in the France-Iraq game at half time, there was monsoon like rain towards the end of the first half and there are thunderstorms in the area so fans have been told to seek shelter, France lead 1-0 thanks to Mbappe.
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Might see the same interruption in Norway v Senegal as that same weather system is going to hit NYC.
 
Still no second half in the France-Iraq game, no updates either.
 
I've put a comedy table into the first post to show the current state of R2 just to make it easier to visualise than the words alone.
Famine
Second Round
R2 (Left)​
R3 (Left)​
R3 (Right)​
R2 (Right)​
🇩🇪 Germany1C
3ABCDF2F
1I2E
3CDFGH2I
2AMexico 🇲🇽
2B3CEFHI
1F1L
2C3EHIJK
2KArgentina 🇦🇷
2L2H
1H2D
2J2G
🇺🇸 United States1B
3BEFIJ3EFGIJ
1G1K
3AEHIJ3DEIJL
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The reason for the gaps will become clear once R2 gets underway, but they'll show who advances to R3 and what the games will be.
 
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Ghana have beaten England 0-0...

-

Apart from the trio of chances near the end (Saka's saved effort, O'Reilly's header onto the post, and Kane's blaze over the bar), there was precious little to cheer about for England tonight. And passing back to Pickford in the dying seconds was horrible - they've been watching too many Scotland games I think.

There's just too many 'meh' players in the England team - and when Kane isn't taking penalties firing on all cylinders, there's not a lot going on up front. Doubtless England will qualify, but I can't see this team making it beyond the QFs.
 
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Famine
At this stage it's a mixed bag. When you consider that there's only ~200 nations and you've got three that qualified from (just) outside the top 80, some matches are like watching Manchester City play... well... us. In the knockout stages the quality is a lot higher, more so the further you get and the outliers end up getting knocked out (sometimes in the semi-finals).

Generally I'd say that the standard from a top nation is at least the equal of that of a top club: Germany vs Paris St. Germain would be quite some game.

Of course the problem with that is that the top clubs will have players from the top nations, so playing each other is a bit awkward as some players will be on both teams :lol: Still, a lot of national teams have a core of players who play for the same one or few clubs in the same nation: most of Germany's squad plays for German teams Bayern Munich/Borussia Dortmund/RB Leipzig/VfB Stuttgart; most of Spain's squad plays for Spanish teams Barcelona/Atletico Madrid/Athletic Bilbao (first squad in a while with no Real Madrid players).

There's a few that have slightly more widely spread players - France has players from 15+ different teams in seven countries, England has players from 15 different teams in four countries, Brazil's are spread over ten countries, and so on.
Click to expand...
Interesting interactive map for this topic: https://maptheworldcup.com/
 
England looked bad. So many missed chances, and they had nearly 80% of the possession.
 
Joey D
England looked bad. So many missed chances, and they had nearly 80% of the possession.
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It wasn't great by any stretch of the imagination, only watched bits and pieces of it and it was one of those were the cutting edge seemingly didn't exist until the last 5 minutes (Kane rarely should've blasted that one rebound in instead of sending to to row Z from 5 yards).

Then again it happens to everyone when the other team park the bus, just ask Spain...
 

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