2026 World Cup Thread

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bonin21 said:
Pulisic out
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given how qualifying works and that we have a great GD, I would sit him for each of the next 2 and try get him as healthy as you can for the knockouts given Paraguay will finish last and we can settle in defensively enough against Australia to try at least draw. Joy of the schedule now is if he sits he's going to get like 3 weeks off to heal up.

Draw today and it's basically locked you're moving on (like 99.8% likely which is closer to 100 given the GD)
 

I may have to watch the US games on mute going forward.

Will be very curious to see Pochs style in the knockouts. Really good win today provided they avoid a complete meltdown
 



I saw the AU USA score! US wins! Congrats to the boys of the red white and blue for winning the World Cup!!!!
 



Excuse me, but I never played soccer. At the end of 90 minutes when a side ref holds up the electronic board to indicate the amount of stoppage time, is it conventional to light a red or green number? I know that it makes no differece, just curious.
 









Just read this thread. For all the "no one's going to come to the games" posters, this World Cup will have nearly twice the number of fans as the last one, and over three times the amount of ticket revenue. Way more fans, who are paying higher ticket prices.
 

In today's games, we want the Qatar vs Bosnia game to not end in a tie. Whichever team wins is the team we'll most likely end up playing in the next round (which I'm hoping is Qatar) with a nice path for future games. If it's a tie, then everything shifts. Also, any of the following players who pick up a yellow (or red) card will not be able to play the game vs the U.S. So, to make our round of 32 as easy as possible, we want either team to win and for some of the listed players to pick up a card.

Bosnia
  • Amar Dedić
  • Nikola Katić
  • Jovo Lukić
  • Ermedin Demirović
Qatar
  • Jassem Gaber
  • Mahmoud Abunada
  • Ahmed Fathy
 
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And for those who don't really follow the details, our Thursday game has zero bearing on anything. We've already won our group and Turkey is already eliminated from moving on, so winning or losing doesn't impact the standings at all. We will most likely sit all four of our players who already have a yellow card: Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun, Chris Richards, and Antonee Robinson, and play this game with a very different set of starters. For sure I'd also sit Ream (the oldest guy on our team), so that means at least five new starters.
 


Full Speed Ahead said:
And for those who don't really follow the details, our Thursday game has zero bearing on anything. We've already won our group and Turkey is already eliminated from moving on, so winning or losing doesn't impact the standings at all. We will most likely sit all four of our players who already have a yellow card: Tyler Adams, Folarin Balogun, Chris Richards, and Antonee Robinson, and play this game with a very different set of starters. For sure I'd also sit Ream (the oldest guy on our team), so that means at least five new starters.
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It also gives Pulisic extended recovery time on his calf injury although I'm still concerned because that type of issue takes time to heal and can easily be reaggravated.
 


Slim Tubby said:
It also gives Pulisic extended recovery time on his calf injury although I'm still concerned because that type of issue takes time to heal and can easily be reaggravated.
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I expect Pulisic to play about 20 minutes just to get some touches in a game, but that totally depends on how much he's healed. If he plays, it would be towards the end of the game. Again, for those of you who don't follow soccer, in WC games each team has a total of five subs (six in certain situations), and when you sub out, you cannot go back into the game.
 

Full Speed Ahead said:
I expect Pulisic to play about 20 minutes just to get some touches in a game, but that totally depends on how much he's healed. If he plays, it would be towards the end of the game. Again, for those of you who don't follow soccer, in WC games each team has a total of five subs (six in certain situations), and when you sub out, you cannot go back into the game.
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You could be right but I still think it would be careless to have him play against hard tackling team with nothing to play for.

It should be a great opportunity for Poch to use all of our subs to get some of the younger guys CAPS and experience but he does like to win at all cost as a Manager. I do like that about him, though.

How do rate Norway's chances to reach the Final 8? Haaland is on a mission and their backline play has been stellar.
 


Slim Tubby said:
You could be right but I still think it would be careless to have him play against hard tackling team with nothing to play for.

It should be a great opportunity for Poch to use all of our subs to get some of the younger guys CAPS and experience but he does like to win at all cost as a Manager. I do like that about him, though.

How do rate Norway's chances to reach the Final 8? Haaland is on a mission and their backline play has been stellar.
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Guess I've bet on Norway winning it all. Specifically, I have a bet with a friend where he took English/Spain/France to win and I have the rest of the field. Outside of that, I think France does end up winning it all, their second string of subs could beat pretty much any team in the field.

And for Norway, it's nice that they've bought into our Row-the-Boat.

 

Full Speed Ahead said:
Just read this thread. For all the "no one's going to come to the games" posters, this World Cup will have nearly twice the number of fans as the last one, and over three times the amount of ticket revenue. Way more fans, who are paying higher ticket prices.
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How much of that is due to increasing the field from 32 to 48 as well as doubling the knockout round from 16 to 32?

2022 World Cup = 64 matches
2026 World Cup = 104 matches
 
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