We have a tradition here on SWDB of commenting the World Cup Football (or soccer as the American prefer to call it).
Most of you will be aware of the fact that the 2026 World Cup started yesterday with the opening match, held in the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, between Mexico and South-Africa. The home team won, 2-0. Later the same day (in Mexico, in the heat of the night for us Europeans) South-Korea beat Czech Republic 2-1. A surprise to some maybe, but not really an upset: those Asian Tigers, Japan and South Korea have made some real progress (Japan beat England in a friendly recently) and Czech Republic is really a European top team.
So football fans unite. If you have something to say about the game, this is the place to be.
Should we do a world cup winner prediction game? No editing posts. Submissions close Tuesday. Winner earns a 10eur gift certificate from the admin are a store of choice
I wouldnāt put my money on England. This is a tournament with an extra round (the round of 32), so matches will often go to penalties and Like us, the Orange Dutch, the English are hopelessly bad at taking penalties, somehow we always manage to lose those penalty shootouts. And in case in England - Holland game will lead to a penalty shootout, the shootout will last two days because neither of the two teams manages to score and both teams will be disqualified.
Ah, I thought it might be down to good olā @scherpschutter Scherps to start a thread on this, as is tradition. Iād love for England to go far, but other than that Iām looking at you Dutch to do well, honestly. You guys and the Portuguese would be nice to see win their first, for such top footballing nations who havenāt won. I fear, though, that France may be too strong for us all, but Iād like to be wrong on that.
Donāt you also support Belgium? If I remember right.
Iād love to see Holland to go far, but Iām afraid that 2026 wonāt be our year. We have a couple of decent players, but our current team lacks players like a Gullit, Van Basten, Sneyder, Van der Vaart or Robben, let alone a player in a class of his own like Johan Cruijff. Whenever I speak people from all different countries and the conversation turns to football, itās always the name of Johan Cruijff that is mentioned.
I guess Holland will survive its group, but that might well be all: in the second round they will probably meet either Brazil or Morocco. Maybe they should hope that Brazil will be the opponent. The great days of Brazilian football are over, so it seems.
And yes, I also support Belgium. I live in Belgium, my wife is Belgian and one of my grandmothers was Belgian as well (my mother was Dutch, but she grew up in Belgium as well). Iāll be 71 next week and I have lived for 36 years in Belgium now, so you could say that my āhistoryā is half Dutch, half Belgian.
In my view Belgium have a stronger team than Holland at this moment, and they had the easier draw, so I expect them to reach the quarter finals at least.
England had their boots stolen during transportation between Florida and Kansas City before theyād even had time to start practice. Two arrests have been madeā¦
In the meantime we had a few surprising results: USA beating Paraguay 4-1 and Australia beating Turkey 2-0.
I expected USA to get a result against Paraguay because I know they have a handfull of good players (I know them well because they have played or are still playing in the Dutch League): Dest, Tillman, Pepi (Dest is by the way half Dutch, he grew up in Holland and his Dutch is far better than his English). And most football fans will know Pulisic is a top class player. As said I expected them to get a result against Paraguay, but the 4-1 really is a stunner.
Australia really took the Turcs by surprise. Turkey dominated the game but couldnāt score, and Australia scored two on the break.
Later today we get two interesting games:
Germany - CuraƧao
Holland - Japan
This means that Holland is represented by TWO COUNTRIES in this World Cup.
How is that possible?
Well, CuraƧao is a constituent island country, but itās still part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. All players that are playing tonight for CuraƧao were born in the Netherlands and could have played for Oranje (the knickname of the Dutch national team) as well. most of them also play for Dutch teams, basically minor teams, often not playing in the major Dutch league. Expectations are therefore not very high, most people will be happy if they manage to get one single point out of their three games. Germany didnāt do well during the last two World Cups, but will no doubt much to strong. Iāll be happy if it will not be more than 4 or 5-0.
Well, of course England are long overdue. Itās now been 60 years and only people of my age or older remember watching those games when they happened. But those 60 years have given me a deeply pessimistic outlook on our chances of ever getting over the line in another major tournament. We should reach the later stages but beyond that our lack of guile will be our undoing as usual I suspect.
I have also become more and more repulsed by FIFA over the years so my appetite for international football and the corrupt money hungry organisation that arranges these tournaments is almost non-existant now. I wonāt be tuning into any games unless I have nothing else to do. Until of course England get closer to winning at which point all my rancour will evaporate and I will tune in just in time to be disappointed again and feel dirty for having been so weak.
This may all sound like sour grapes and it probably is to a certain extent but FIFA really have brought nothing but shame to the beautiful game. I am much happier watching my local lower league team live than the premier league, champions league or any international tournament. Seems more real to me.
Plus, so much of international football is so negative and boring now. I can barely sit through it and Iām a football fan of over 60 years. And donāt get me started on refereeing and VAR.
Man, I am becoming such an old grouch on this topic. Apologies to all. Hope everyone enjoys it and I am proved wrong on every front.
Itās okay. Youāve inspired me to never take up an interest in soccerball. Besides, it would infringe on my Shoot the Living Pray for the Dead marathons.
I live in the town where one of the greatest World Cup upsets ever occurred! No wonder the Italians went to the cinema to watch westerns after this upset!
In that case I guess you live in Middlesbrough and are referring to the match Italy - North Korea in 1966, won by the outsiders from North korea by 1 goal to 0.
FIFA have been corrupt since the days of JoĆ£o Havelange. Bribery, racketeering, embezzlement, you name it. The late great football writer Brian Glanville (who covered every World Cup from 1958 - 2006) referred to it as a āden of thievesā, and that was in the 1980s. Glanville (who wrote for the Italian dailies Corriere dello Sport & La Stampa in the 1960s) famously summarized the Italy v North Korea upset as āthe ultimate Italian traumaā¦ for many months the mocking cry of āKo-re-a!ā would echo over Italian stadiums when Fabbri [Italian coach] or any of his World Cup men appeared.ā Inexplicably, Italy have failed to qualify yet again.
Weāve now seen all the teams, and perhaps the most convincing display came from hosts USA. The best match was England v Croatia - played with the intensity of a knockout tie. France stepped up several gears in the second-half against Senegal. The two āAsian Tigersā - South Korea and Japan, are technically accomplished, but lack the physicality to be contenders. Morocco are the best of the African teams. Theyāve improved from the last World Cup, where they had a very turgid, if effective style of play. However, it remains to be seen whether 2022 was just a flash in the pan. While thereās been some decent matches, thereās no real jeopardy in this new expanded format. Which is a shame as the group stage used to be the most interesting part of previous tournaments.
Brazil, although underwhelming to say the least, surely canāt keep exiting at the quarter-final stage. If they hit form when it matters, and have a bit of luck, who knows. And theyāve won twice before in the heat and humidity of North America. As for the inventors of football - England: it goes without saying theyāre always contenders and (with one exception) never get it done; but theyāve now got a tactically astute coach and may surprise a few naysayers back home.
Sepp Blatter was called by some āthe most corrupt person in the worldā and Infantino easily beats him. You know you are a winner when you get criticized by the former āmost corrupt manā ā¦
So, like Phil said, there are enough reasons to boycott the WC, and still Iām watching or at least checking the results ā¦
Montero, thatās a good summary of what happened so far.
With 48 teams I donāt expect any of the usual suspects to come in real trouble in the group phase, but some might at least not win their group.
If thereās one thing clear, then itās that this new format with 48 teams is a mistake. We get an avalanche of games during the first round, just to eliminate 16 teams out of 48, pure madness. Four years ago Germany and Belgium were knocked out in the first round, and in the past the same happened to teams like France, England, Uruguay or Italy. In this new format the first round seems no more than a formality. Some may say it can be fun to see smaller teams like CuraƧao, HaĆÆti or South-Africa, but I wonder if the Fifa is doing these countries a favour. In Willemstad, the capital of CuraƧao, the festivities lasted three days after their qualification, so Iāve been told, but I guess thereās not must joy left after their first game. And what can you expect from a team consisting of players playing for minor Dutch teams plus ā in some occasions ā veterans who came back from retirement just to play three games at the World Cup?
Yes, England ā Croatia was the best game, not in the least there were TWO teams trying to play football. A side effect of the decision to give all kinds of āsmallerā teams access to the tournament, is that in most games thereās only one team trying to play football, while the other team is defending with eleven men, trying to win time and to ruin the game. Can England go all the way this time? Well, they made a good impression, have what could be the worldās best goal scorer, and are dangerous on so-called standard situations, notably Declan Riceās corner kicks. France looked very strong during that second half and have no doubt the best attacking force of all teams, but the looked vulnerable to quick breaks from the opponent. Spain and Portugal were major disappointments and we canāt say anything conclusive about Germany or Argentina, due to the fact that they had no serious opposition. CuraƧao was laughable and Algeria had so much respect for the world champion that they even forgot to cover Lionel Messi. USA looked fresh and hungry against Paraguay, but I saw them playing Belgium in a preparation game and they have no defence: a stronger opponent will tear their defensive line apart.
There one aspect of this new format that might play a key role: we have one extra round, the round of 32, and more games than ever will go the extra-time and penalties. This will benefit teams like Germany and Argentina, who nearly always win penalty shootouts, and is bad news for good old England or the Orange Clockwork for the Netherlands, because they are truly hopeless when it comes down to taking penalties. And England left their best penalty taker, Cole Palmer, home. Sounds like a recipe for a new penalty shootout drama.
Some very interesting contributions and perspectives. Well, I too think this World Cup is too big in terms of the number of participants, and yet, sadly, the Italians didnāt make it through. Some very interesting contributions and perspectives. Well, I, too, think this World Cup has too many teams taking part, and yet, sadly, the Italians didnāt make it. With eight of the twelve third-placed teams qualifying for the knockout stages, the group stage feels more like a warm-up than a tough tournament. Of course, there are the usual top favourites for the title (France, Spain, Argentina) and strong teams (Germany, England, Brazil), but I also reckon one or two outsiders (Egypt, Morocco, Croatia, USA) have a chance of reaching the semi-finals. The decisive factor here will not necessarily be how the tournament starts, but rather how the teams develop as it progresses. Teams that manage to show the necessary strength from the knockout stages onwards are capable of anything. Here, the underdogs have a psychological advantage, as they have nothing to lose. However, I believe the decisive factor is how deep and flexible the squads are. After all, the last four teams have one more match to play. Those who can better replace injured or suspended players, or adapt more effectively to their opponents with minor tactical adjustments, stand a better chance of staying in the tournament for longer. I see France as the most likely contenders here ā their manager also knows how to win the World Cup. But above all, I hope for an exciting and fair football tournament.
With Turkey (a turkey surprise) and Haiti (as expected) the first teams are definitely out after only 2 games, with no chance left to reach the groupās 3rd place.
