World Cup 2026 - Mexico - Canada - USA

The Saloon Western board
41

Continental comparison after the group phase:

Of the 16 nations which are out a staggering amount of 8 comes from the 10 Asia/Ozeania teams. Only Japan and Australia have survived.

As contrast with Tuniricasia only 1 of 10 African teams has to leave early. With Kap Verde being the big positive surprise.

Half of the 6 North American teams did not make it (actually no surprise considering their quality9, only the 3 hosts made it into the next round.

The other 4 then came from Europe (3) and South America (1), I think that’s within the prospects.

Africa, Asia and North America were of course the Continents which benefited the most from the step-up to 48 teams.
Well, some of the outsiders enjoyed it just to be there for the first time and don’t really feel as losers despite being out as expected. For Uruguay or Scotland it is a big disappointment, but I’m sure Curacao are satisfied for winning one point, and their goal against Germany is for them much more important than the 7 they got. They belong to the ones that return home with a positive feeling.

42

I expected all favourites to win their group, and only Portugal did not live up to that expectation, but their 2nd place was never in danger. Still they are so far less good than expected.

Checking the 2 pathways to reach the final the 2nd path seems to be the easier one. Argentina will have no trouble to reach the quarterfinals, actually it will be comparatively easy for them to reach the final, unless they are far less good than it seems.
Hmm, I don’t want Argentina to win again 


43

Checking the 16th final 2 of the 3 most interesting games with 2 strong teams meeting are tonight with Brasil - Japan and Netherlands - Morocco.
The 3rd will be Portugal - Croatia.

The other favourites should all make it, I don’t expect the usual surprises in the 16th final (except that Germany may lose tonight :wink: ).

44

I don’t think that will happen. I saw the USA - Paraguay game and the Paraguayans were all over the place. They recovered, more or less, and had a few better results, but I don’t see them as a real threat to this German team. I know, there have been better German Nationalmanschaften in the past - and now I automatically think of the days of Overath, Grabowski, Beckenbauer 
 but let’s not dream away.

Of the serious contenders for the title, Portugal and Spain have been the major disappointments. Thanks to this new modus with 48 teams they were never in danger of being eliminated (it’s virtually impossible for teams of that stature). To bookmakers, Spain is still fourth favorite (after France, Argentina and England) but it could be that they are back in the days before that golden generation (Xavi, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, etc.) that finally won titles. In those days they always had great players, and always had a lot of ball posession, but they always failed to convert it into a winning formula.

I admit that Holland did a lot better than expected. I had low expectations, because there have been far more talented Oranjes in the past, but they seem to play as a team and show a positive attitude towards the game: no cynical defensive play, but attractive, attacking football. I like that. I don’t know if they’re good enough to beat Morocco, in my opinion the strongest non-European, non-South-American team. We’ll see. I hope it will be an open game, two teams playing football, not a sort of Berlin Wall kind of game.

And Brazil? I guess they will be capable of beating Japan, even if Japan can be a dangerous opponent to anybody, but I don’t see them as a favorite for the title. It’s virtually the same team as four years ago, when they were kicked out of the tournament by Kroatia. Ever since 2002, when they won the title for the last time, the seleçao sucks. In 2002 they had Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Rivaldo, Ronaldo R9
 names we all remember vividly. Ever since then they have produced only two world class players, Kaka and Neymar Jr. I won’t say they can’t play football anymore, but it’s no longer the Brazil we knew when we were kids and were told that they were the real master of the game.

The weather might influence the tournament. It will be very hot in Monterrey, where Holland - Morocco is played (and according to some the stadium is a sort of pressure cooker) and in the days to come it will be tropical on the East Coast. Today temperatures are still normal (Germany is lucky in that aspect) but in the days to come temtures will rise to 36°C and more.

45

With all due respect to Japan, if Brazil get dumped out of the World Cup by a nation that’s only taken the game seriously since the '90s, then it’ll be seen in Brazil as the most embarrassing of exits. Although upsets are irredeemably part of tournament football, Brazil (and Ancelotti) will be too ‘streetwise’ for Japan. Also it’s better for the competition that Brazil (or England for that matter) don’t get eliminated early on, or another Argentina v France final is on the cards.

46

Well, I also don’t really expect Germany to lose today, but if they want to beat France their creative players should be as good as they are supposed to be. but at the moment it seems their quality is descending 


Morocco is indeed the best African team, but the Netherlands are on a good way. An open game, but I hope for Oranje.

Scherp, I think we are both more pessimistic than necessary about our teams 


Brazil in 2001 had a great team, but only on paper. They did not function as a team, but they had the greatest individual class, and they only won cause in that year nearly all other favourites foundered early with a tired performance. Brazil’s stars were able to decide the games with that one great moment that was in them at any moment.
The main reason that Germany reached the final in 2002 was also that they had comparatively weak opponents.
Well, Brazil have again some individual class, enough to beat everyone on a good day. But actually I don’t expect them in the half finals.

But you wrote

But they won 2 ECs and the WC from 2008 to 2012.
Yes they underperformed in the following 3 WCs, but they won another EC (which is imo on the same level as the WC) and the European League (basically a 2nd EC). And reached another 2 finals and one half final in these 2 tournaments, which makes them together with France to the 2 most successful teams in the last years. Followed by Argentina, Portugal and England.

Compared to those Germany, Brazil and Italy often disappointed in the last 10 years. The 3 nations which won together more than half of the 22 WCs so far. In fact 59 % .

47

To me, all those statistics from past tournaments are just a way of coming to terms with the past. Yesterday’s successes don’t get you anything today. One of my favorite quotes in soccer comes from Klaus Augenthaler, who, as a coach, was asked about a statistic by a journalist at a press conference. His response was that, statistically speaking, one in every six people in the world is Chinese, and he then asked the journalist the rhetorical question: “Do you see a Chinese person in this room?”

For a tournament like this World Cup, I’d like to draw a comparison to a good show jumping horse: A good show jumping horse jumps only as high as it needs to. In the knockout stage, anything is possible for every team. The group stage is history, and I welcome surprises. That’s what makes a tournament like this truly interesting from a sporting perspective.

48

I know, but that was their ‘golden generation’ (Xavi, Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, etc.) and I was referring to the period BEFORE them, let’s ay the second half of the 20th Century: Real Madrid won more European Cups than any other team, Barcelona and Atletico were also very strong, there were lots of good Spanish players, but their national team was always on the losing side. Take the World Cups of (‘66, ‘78, ‘82 (in Spain!), ‘86, ‘90, ‘94, ‘98, 2002, 2006 
 they always took part, they nearly always had good teams or at least good players, but they never reached the semi-finals. Until 2008, when all of a sudden it all klicked and they won three tournaments in a row.

49

Maybe. After tonight’s game we know what the Dutch team is really capable of. Germany will have to prove itself in the next round in a game against the great favorite

50

Of course Spain barely lived up to the expectations for a long time. The conflict between main Spain and Catalonia was too often a problem.

(and yes, I misread what you wrote)

51

I feel sorry for Japan, but it’s a good thing that Brazil qualified for the next round.

52

Spain were decidedly unfortunate in at least two of those World Cup quarter-finals: namely 1986 (lost a penalty shoot out to Belgium) and a controversial (and bloody) encounter with Italy in 1994. Historically, Spain have always done better in the European Nations’ Cup/UEFA Euro.

53

Oh, those penalties


54

I thought Morocco just edged it over the 90 mins. Koeman was too negative and switched to a back five, yet the plan was 4 mins away from working. Aside from another great save by Verbruggen, extra-time was uneventful. When Morocco’s second penalty somehow trickled over the line, you just knew it wasn’t going to be Holland’s night. Morocco will beat Canada in the next round, but very likely hit a roadblock in the quarter-final.
Lady luck seems to have deserted Germany - a perfectly good goal disallowed in extra-time, and then they LOSE a penalty shootout.

1 Like
55

I haven’t seen the highlights of the Paraguay - Germany game yet. I saw only some 25-30 minutes of the first half, then went to bed because I wanted to see the Holland - Morocco game. Germany had total domination during these first half hour, and on teletext I read they continued to dominate the game for the full 120 minutes, but failed to convert their domination into goals (one was disallowed for questionable reasons, according to Dutch teletext). And then they missed three times from the penalty spot. Like Holland.

Talking about the Orange Once Were Warriors: this was the Dutch team I was talking about before the tournament. A team that was afraid to lose and did just that: lose. I know Koeman didn’t have a Cruijff or Van Basten or Arjen Robben, only a moderately talented group of players, but I didn’t understand his tactics: playing with 5 defenders and only 2 midfielders. Those midfielders, De Jong and Gravenberch were of course permanently overrun (and became two more defenders, which means there was no build-up from behind). Like @Montero said it ALMOST worked, but almost doesn’t count, most certainly not when the tournament has reached the knockout phase.

And missing three times from the penalty spot is something we Dutch and Germans have to think about.

56

Well, Scherps, really, we blew it 


Germany at least lost deserved.
Yes, with that not given goal they probably would have made it, but fact is they barely brought Paraguy in real danger, Paraguay defended very well, and had some chances to make a goal too. The years since 2017 are the weakest since the Bundesliga was founded in 1963, Germany has become a loser team 


57

Well, we deserved to lose as well. Morocco was clearly the better team.

I have the idea that Dutch & German football isn’t Dutch & German football anymore. We’re old men, and we shouldn’t think and talk about Cruijff & Beckenbauer all the time, but I saw a Dutch team that was afraid to take the initiative, our whole identity is lost. And when Germany starts losing penalty shootouts, there’s definitely something rotten in the state of German football. Last night was a Shakespearean drama.

1 Like
58

The problem is that they were not able to win in regular time against a minor team like Paraguay, the problems with a shaky defensive and not enough creativity and speed to bring the opponent in permanent trouble (Brazil at least were better for that) were already apparent in the 2 games before.

Germany has a lack of world class players for some time, and that was again not enough. In 3 WCs in a row they were not able to reach the 8-final, and they did not lose because of stronger opponents.

The Germans of the 70s that was the kind of world class team you don’t get often, but I do not dwell on that long gone past, but the sudden and unexpected downfall since 2017 is what is puzzling. They played well in the last EC, they were the only team that brought Spain in real trouble. But still it ended before the half final.
Apart from EC and WC the European League is another important factor, and the first 3 times they also did not achieve much. Last year they reached at least the half final for the first time, but at that point too much key players were missing due to injuries, and they did not have enough substance to replace them, so they did not have much of a chance there.

And in this year’s WC the key players just did not deliver enough.

Still, I would have been interested how they had fared against a team like France, one which wants to attack instead of only defending. Ha ha, maybe another disaster 


59

Against France, players like Musiala or Wirtz would have had more space to develop their game.

It’s not easy to dismantle a team that plays like Paraguay did, but you should at least have created something. I’ve seen the highlights in the mean time, and Germany created very little. I’m afraid we’ll see more games like this Germany - Paraguay game: a minor team that tries to frustrate a stronger opponent with ultra-defense tactics, and succeeding in doing so. Let’s see what France can do against these tactics, beginning with the game against Sweden. I guess Sweden will opt for a similar tactic and gamble on an occasional counter attack via Isak or Gyökeres. It could work, but then again, this French attack is a machine.

60

I wouldn’t have expected the team that finished top of their group in Germany to be so weak. Germany, the Ivory Coast and Ecuador – who were tipped as the dark horses before the tournament – have all been knocked out in the first knockout round.