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World Cup 2026 Thread

Hahaha, I literally made that post a minute before Spain scored. Portugal, this is what happens, it just sucks for people who love the sport cause this team could be truly special with a real manager and no 41 year olds on the worlds longest ego trip.
 
Well, Spain once again poured Nyquil all over a field and called it pretty football. I’m sorry, but I’m sick of watching them try to hypnotize opponents, who have mostly figured out how to absorb the passing game, which in turn renders their games SO dull. So, in order to actually attack, you need two best in class wingers. One won’t do. When you just have the one, nobody ever bothers to get in the box to finish crossing passes, preferring to stand at the top of the box waiting for somebody else to take a chance. Yeah, Martinez sucks and CR7 is the most self absorbed player ever … since Maradona tried to play as an old man with no working brain cells thanks to snorting enough cocaine to kill 20 men at least … but I’m just salty that Spain keeps getting away with this crap.
 
Damn, based on watching these two teams this tournament, the US were the far better team. They gave Belgium far too much respect in the first half, but they made some tactical changes and were absolutely dominating the second half until Freese gave up a shocker and Pulisic went off injured and the air just completely deflated. I'm sad, because the US team was super fun and there aren't a lot of fun teams left. But I'm really sad because now I have to worry that Amadou "Mr Glass" Onana is completely broken yet again.
 
As for us: at no point during the match did I think the US has a chance save the first moments of the match and 61 blissful seconds after Tillman scored on another audacious free kick. Then goal #2 happened due to a horrific defensive breakdown, and we were second best for most of the rest of the match. Even the hopefulness of the start of the second half produced no gilt-edged chances, and then a comedy of errors made it 3-1. Pulisic coming out (even though he was dreadful tonight) just cinched it.

Btw, good thing I actually love football so I didn't have to be harangued by the USers on the broadcast team to "please keep watching". That was freaking embarrassing. 🤦
 
VinatieriDefinesClutch said:
I'm sad, because the US team was super fun and there aren't a lot of fun teams left. But I'm really sad because now I have to worry that Amadou "Mr Glass" Onana is completely broken yet again.
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France and Norway are kinda fun, and England is in a chaotic kind of way.

As for Onana, as soon as I saw who it was I told my wife "dude just can't avoid getting hurt." I was thinking of the Villans in here when he went down and it was clear he wasn't coming back. ☹️
 
England sure are insufferable, aren't they?

I honestly wasn't concerned at first when he went down, cause he always looks like he's completely broken every time he hits the ground. He looks like he's made of marble, but it's actually just chalk.

If anything, I hope this has taught the US the importance of having a real manager for the world cup. The US absolutely felt like one of the best coached units in the tournament and he made the necessary adjustments today to give the US a real shot at winning. Like, obviously there was a substitution and tactical changes at half, but there was also a clear attitude change to start the half. The team that started the first half didn't think they could beat Belgium, the team that came out in the second half knew that they could.
 
Ed H in Pasadena said:
As for Onana, as soon as I saw who it was I told my wife "dude just can't avoid getting hurt." I was thinking of the Villans in here when he went down and it was clear he wasn't coming back. ☹️
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I appreciate that. Now help me convince Emery to stop relying on a 3 man midfield where two out of the three are constantly hurt. Unlike VDC, I pretty much expected Onana to be out nine months the second I saw him limping off.

VinatieriDefinesClutch said:
England sure are insufferable, aren't they?
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Umm. Yeah. Full time. It’s their defining national trait. Americans assume that Scots and Irish are either exaggerating or joking when they talk about how much they hate the English. Nope. They’re just that hate-able, even if you leave aside all the subjugation and colonization stuff.
 
OK, so … that game sucked.

Belgium showed a focus and togetherness that had been lacking from them this tournament and they’re a very professional, capable side when they show up like that. Which is all well and good because the US showed up looking like a home schooled kid on his first day of public high school. They were petrified. The moment wasn’t just too big for them, it was WAY too big. To get in that game, they badly needed their playmakers to make some positive stuff happen early but Pulisc and Dest were probably the two worst players on the pitch. Pulisic is obviously still hurt but I have no idea what Dest’s deal was. He made Max De Cuyper look like the best defensive left back in the world when I can assure you that he is nothing of the sort. And the back four. Ugh. All of them, really. Deer in headlights.

People are going to bag on Poch, but nobody could have gotten a better result with that much clutching up going on. In truth, he did a great job with a deeply flawed roster that suffered from a lack of maturity and leadership from its experienced players. To get to the Round of 16 with your best attacking player basically missing in action would have made for a memorable tournament if it hadn’t been on home soil and if it hadn’t ended with that display of limp noodlery.
 
Argentina with a wild comeback to beat Egypt 3-2 in Atlanta. Egypt led 2-0 and held Argentina off until nearly the 80 minute mark before yielding 3 goals in 12 minutes. To say that nobody in the Egyptian sisdeline was happy is to put it mildly. Not sure they had any real grounds to be quite that angry with the lead official though. Mostly they just got beat.
 
They were ranting about VAR because everybody is ranting about VAR now. They had a goal overturned because of a foul in the buildup, and then they were angry when VAR refused to intervene on a couple of calls later (one of which was almost certainly a Mo Salah dive).

But hey, it’s been open season on VAR all tournament, so why not keep up the fun?
 
Leoghann said:
They were ranting about VAR because everybody is ranting about VAR now. They had a goal overturned because of a foul in the buildup, and then they were angry when VAR refused to intervene on a couple of calls later (one of which was almost certainly a Mo Salah dive).

But hey, it’s been open season on VAR all tournament, so why not keep up the fun?
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Their coach also tried to get the ref to talk to him by making the racist abuse signal, which not a single soul on the field believed. I thought the disallowed goal call was fair, and there was absolutely nothing in any of their late complaints. The thing of it is, you’d love to see teams learn to lose with dignity but it’s that kind of willingness to try to intimidate an official into given you an advantage that gives this tournament a different level of energy. Plus, intimidating the on field officials actually works at the African Cup of Nations, so Egypt is just learning lessons for their own history.
 
Missed the match so interesting to read your comments. Most in my Pasadena Reds group chat are convinced the calls seemed quite tilted towards Argentina, especially the foul in the build up to the disallowed goal. (on replay, I can see it being given). Thus, it feeds into two ongoing conspiracy theories: 1) FIFA wants Messi in another final, and 2) FIFA is wildly biased vs African teams. Appointing an all Argentine officiating crew for Morocco v France has the chorus even louder.

Was glad at the end that Mo pulled away his enraged teammates from the match officials, then made a point of thanking each of them himself.
 
The thing about conspiracy stuff and the World Cup is that once you open that door, it’s impossible to see anything else. Frankly, incompetence explains events WAY more neatly than grand conspiracies. And we’ve GOT plenty of incompetence in the referee pool.

And while I’m a fan of African football, their federations seem to find conspiracies hiding behind every single call. It’s turned the African Cup of Nations into an unwatchable mess, frankly. Clean up your own house before you come gunning for somebody else.
 
jeffbear said:
And while I’m a fan of African football, their federations seem to find conspiracies hiding behind every single call. It’s turned the African Cup of Nations into an unwatchable mess, frankly. Clean up your own house before you come gunning for somebody else.
Soccer
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Oh, you mean like who won AFCON 2025? Was it Senegal, who at last report still has the trophy they "won"? Or was it Morocco, who was awarded the title by forfeit after Senegal left the pitch in protest over the last of several controversial calls by the match official, and failed to return for over 15 minutes? That AFCON mess?
That conclusion was one of the most surreal moments I've ever seen watching football: Zidane and the last two Suarez incidents up there with it.
 
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Exactly. And that’s FAR from the first AFCON to end in shambolic fashion … or to be a shambles while being conducted. Glass houses, rocks, all that.
 
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