FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[Sithara007]

Group C in the Asian World Cup qualifiers turned out to be the most complicated. Only Japan has secured a spot to move to the next round. Australia has seven points, one point higher than the other four teams. All the remaining five teams have almost equal chances to qualify. Based on past performances and ranking it would have been simple to predict that Australia would have gotten the next qualification ticket. But this is not the case now because they have not lived up to expectations. They have not lost any game but their point is suffering because of four draws and a single win.

The question here is whether Indonesia, or for that matter any of the other teams in Group C are performing better than Australia (apart from the Group toppers Japan). Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have lost matches they should have won, while Bahrain and China suffered heavy defeats recently (including China's 1-3 loss to Japan at home). In March, we have two rounds of matches. Australia will take on Indonesia and China. Qualification scenario will be somewhat clear after these matches.   

[Zigabel]

The last round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers will restart very soon so all the National Teams that has not been doing well now is changing their coaches to new to qualify in the world cup. Eric Chelle from Mali was also recommended to be the head coach of the Nigerian Super Eagles after George Finidi losses about 2 or 3 games last year. So because not that, another coach was appointed as the head coach in the team to play in the Inter-continetal games (African Nations Cup) and the team performed incredible but they decided to bring in a new coach for the world cup so let see how it will go.

I feel this frequent changing coach for the super eagles may affect them in the nearest future because it means trying to get the players together and understudy them again,  and this process is going to be a difficult one in that most of the international stars will not me readily available all the time for the new coach to have a first hand experience about them and be able to get to know how well to work with the, it would have been better they work with the coach who has already been giving them results already.

[Zlantann]

Group C in the Asian World Cup qualifiers turned out to be the most complicated. Only Japan has secured a spot to move to the next round. Australia has seven points, one point higher than the other four teams. All the remaining five teams have almost equal chances to qualify. Based on past performances and ranking it would have been simple to predict that Australia would have gotten the next qualification ticket. But this is not the case now because they have not lived up to expectations. They have not lost any game but their point is suffering because of four draws and a single win.

The question here is whether Indonesia, or for that matter any of the other teams in Group C are performing better than Australia (apart from the Group toppers Japan). Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have lost matches they should have won, while Bahrain and China suffered heavy defeats recently (including China's 1-3 loss to Japan at home). In March, we have two rounds of matches. Australia will take on Indonesia and China. Qualification scenario will be somewhat clear after these matches.   

If you closely look at the Group, maybe Australia has a higher tendency to qualify if they can at least win the remaining games. They will be meeting Japan which I guess they might not win but they can grab wins against Indonesia, China, and Saudi Arabia.

Japan is the dominating force in this, Group therefore let me predict that any team that can beat Japan in the next games has a greater chance of qualifying. And since China will not be meeting Japan again, they also have a higher chance of making it to the next round since other teams are in thesame level.

However, the results each of them gets in their next games will depend solely on how hard they have worked. Indonesia just had a new coach, which means they need to put their house in order before the next game on 20th March when they will meet Australia.

[Pandu Geddon]

Group C in the Asian World Cup qualifiers turned out to be the most complicated. Only Japan has secured a spot to move to the next round. Australia has seven points, one point higher than the other four teams. All the remaining five teams have almost equal chances to qualify. Based on past performances and ranking it would have been simple to predict that Australia would have gotten the next qualification ticket. But this is not the case now because they have not lived up to expectations. They have not lost any game but their point is suffering because of four draws and a single win.

The question here is whether Indonesia, or for that matter any of the other teams in Group C are performing better than Australia (apart from the Group toppers Japan). Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have lost matches they should have won, while Bahrain and China suffered heavy defeats recently (including China's 1-3 loss to Japan at home). In March, we have two rounds of matches. Australia will take on Indonesia and China. Qualification scenario will be somewhat clear after these matches.   

I personally favor Australia to qualify directly alongside Japan. If we look at the opportunities, of course, we can see that all teams have opportunities, but looking at the performance, maybe we can see a team that has a better game. Although we might see a surprise in the remaining matches of this preliminary round. Indonesia is indeed the team that gave the most surprises, I think, holding Australia to a draw and beating Saudi Arabia. A result that might be quite difficult to predict.

[Leviathan.007]

In Group C the main reason to see a team like Indonesia have good sistion is not because of them having good performance but mostly they have a good position in the table because Indonesia is lucky. In this group, China is much weaker than were expecting to see from this team and they are not in good form at all while I was expecting to see China in the 2026 World Cup considering the investment they had and the last games we saw from this team.
Also, Saudi Arabia is not in good form and they even got their coach fired from this team because of the bad performance they had while Saudi Arabia had good investment for their team so far. These two teams helped Indonesia to get this place in the table otherwise they would not have any chance.

This time Indonesia is doing whatever they can to qualify for the tournament. Their national team is full of players of foreign origin (including Liberian origin Ronaldo Kwateh and players such as Rafael Struick, Maarten Paes, Sandy Walsh, Jay Idzes, Kevin Diks and Mees Hilgers, who were born in the Netherlands). And it is interesting that they got a Dutch coach as well. In cricket I have seen similar tactics, but this is the first time I am witnessing the same in international football.

Now we have nearly 10 weeks for having next qualification matches for the World Cup with Indonesia is having four games to play first will be against Australia away then we have against Bahrain at home third game is against China at home and last game against Japan in Japan.

At third spot currently with 6 points, and 6 points each for all four teams on 3rd to 6th mean things could be interesting but if they are able to win their two games then most chances we will have them in Fourth stage of which could be good for them but still not guaranteed for place in FIFA World Cup because we will have more teams which will give their best and things could be challenging their quality is good but still not as we needed for World Cup so they have to wait more and improve their game if they want to be spotted in this mega event.

We are sure that Japan and Australia are the two first teams in this group and Japan is safe in the first place and they have nearly got themselves already into the 2026 World Cup because there is a huge gap between Japan and the other teams. Currently, they have 16 points in 6 games and Australia got only 7 points which means there is no chance for Australia to take their place.
The other teams like Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain are all racing for the third place but I see more chances for Saudi Arabia because of the money they spent and the potential they have in this country, they can definitely have more chances than Indonesia.
 

[Volgastallion]

For me any conclusion and thinking about this world cup is gonna be a non sense because we change the format and we need to first see how the nationals teams take it, i can feel some big teams taking some games without so much effort, and i expect to see some surprise teams.

[Docnaster]

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be kicking off in 1 year and six months from now and though we are yet to confirm the actual national teams that'll be participating in the tournament, i would like to throw a question on which of the country you think will be winning the biggest trophy in football. Do you think reigning world champions Argentina can retain the World Cup? How about Brazil which happens to be another great football nation from South American continent? Or are we going to have the World Cup return to Europe? Let me read your thoughts please

[Hanadawa]

I personally favor Australia to qualify directly alongside Japan. If we look at the opportunities, of course, we can see that all teams have opportunities, but looking at the performance, maybe we can see a team that has a better game. Although we might see a surprise in the remaining matches of this preliminary round. Indonesia is indeed the team that gave the most surprises, I think, holding Australia to a draw and beating Saudi Arabia. A result that might be quite difficult to predict.

I am from Indonesia but I think the most realistic result that can be achieved is Japan and Australia who have the chance to be ranked first and second and qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Other teams will try to get third and fourth positions to qualify for the next round. The previous Indonesian coach Shin Tae Yong also said that the most realistic target is to get fourth place and try to qualify for the World Cup in the next round. Yes, Indonesia is a very surprising team in this qualification. They are the lowest based on the FIFA ranking but they managed to get third place in the current standings. I hope to see Indonesia play in the World Cup at least once in their lifetime. This is Indonesia's best achievement in the World Cup qualification. And the best achievement among other Southeast Asian countries so far.

[Sithara007]

The question here is whether Indonesia, or for that matter any of the other teams in Group C are performing better than Australia (apart from the Group toppers Japan). Indonesia and Saudi Arabia have lost matches they should have won, while Bahrain and China suffered heavy defeats recently (including China's 1-3 loss to Japan at home). In March, we have two rounds of matches. Australia will take on Indonesia and China. Qualification scenario will be somewhat clear after these matches.  

I personally favor Australia to qualify directly alongside Japan. If we look at the opportunities, of course, we can see that all teams have opportunities, but looking at the performance, maybe we can see a team that has a better game. Although we might see a surprise in the remaining matches of this preliminary round. Indonesia is indeed the team that gave the most surprises, I think, holding Australia to a draw and beating Saudi Arabia. A result that might be quite difficult to predict.

I would also love to see Australia in the next world cup. But they seems to be in poor form ever since Tim Cahill retired from the national squad. They are in the rebuilding phase ever since Cahill retired in 2018, and even after all these years they still can't replace him. That said, having a country such as Australia (in terms of area, it is the 6th largest country in the world) is very essential to maintaining the diversity within football. But the same can be said about two of the other teams in that group as well - Indonesia and China.

[Rampagoe004]

For me any conclusion and thinking about this world cup is gonna be a non sense because we change the format and we need to first see how the nationals teams take it, i can feel some big teams taking some games without so much effort, and i expect to see some surprise teams.

The conclusions of several people also cannot determine anything about the tournament and the qualifying rounds for the World Cup later. Whichever team passes must have done its best without us having to change the format according to our thinking. The big teams have won several matches.
We also have to look at the background of the big teams. They must have had experience in the world's biggest competitions, yes of course after the rules change they will There are surprises from small teams and big teams. Let's just wait and see what will make it interesting in this year's World Cup play-off round.

[Hirose UK]

It's now official that Netherlands and Barcelona football legend Patrick Kluivert has been appointed as the new national team coach of Indonesia. The 48-year-old former striker's main task is to ensure that Indonesia qualifies for the World Cup. His managerial career has not been successful like his days as a player when he scored 123 goals in six seasons for Barcelona and netted 40 goals in 79 appearances for the Netherlands. He had a brief managerial stint with Turkish club Adana Demirspor and also served as a caretaker manager for Curacao in 2021. But he has worked under some good coaches like Louis van Gaal. Do you think the PSSI made the right choice after the surprise sacking of Shin Tae-Yong?   

From the news circulating Patrick Kluivert has also arrived in Indonesia, it is actually quite unfortunate that all these decisions exist as I have said before and for now the hope of all Indonesians is to be able to see Patrick Kluivert work very well and even fulfill the wishes of all Indonesians to be able to bring their proud national team to qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Whether this is the right and correct decision of PSSI or not is not important now and we can conclude it ourselves later when we see how Patrick Kluivert performs in leading Indonesia, the most important thing for now is that the players can understand how the tactical strategy will be determined by Patrick Kluivert and there are still few months to prepare everything before Indonesia returns to play in the 3rd round of qualification.

[bering]

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be kicking off in 1 year and six months from now and though we are yet to confirm the actual national teams that'll be participating in the tournament, i would like to throw a question on which of the country you think will be winning the biggest trophy in football. Do you think reigning world champions Argentina can retain the World Cup? How about Brazil which happens to be another great football nation from South American continent? Or are we going to have the World Cup return to Europe? Let me read your thoughts please

It's hard to predict who will be the winner of this tournament later especially FIFA has decide to added more countries from 32 to 48 countries which makes the duration of this tournament longer than the previous one but as usual the countries from South America continent and Europa will always being an the favourite of this tournament

Argentina is the current champion their performance on qualification stages is quite consistent because currently Argentina can occupy first place on the standings of Conmebol zone and their chances to qualified will be wide open and as the champion probably Argentina will be the first favourite of World cup 2026

For Brazil their performance for the qualification round was not so impressive because Brazil is currently only in 5th place with 18 points but i am sure they will be qualified to World cup later and we have been discuss about Brazil before that in the last several years this team never able to playing consistent but i still putting them as champion favourite

[Pandu Geddon]

I personally favor Australia to qualify directly alongside Japan. If we look at the opportunities, of course, we can see that all teams have opportunities, but looking at the performance, maybe we can see a team that has a better game. Although we might see a surprise in the remaining matches of this preliminary round. Indonesia is indeed the team that gave the most surprises, I think, holding Australia to a draw and beating Saudi Arabia. A result that might be quite difficult to predict.

I am from Indonesia but I think the most realistic result that can be achieved is Japan and Australia who have the chance to be ranked first and second and qualify for the 2026 World Cup. Other teams will try to get third and fourth positions to qualify for the next round. The previous Indonesian coach Shin Tae Yong also said that the most realistic target is to get fourth place and try to qualify for the World Cup in the next round. Yes, Indonesia is a very surprising team in this qualification. They are the lowest based on the FIFA ranking but they managed to get third place in the current standings. I hope to see Indonesia play in the World Cup at least once in their lifetime. This is Indonesia's best achievement in the World Cup qualification. And the best achievement among other Southeast Asian countries so far.

Just like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia changed its coach while the qualification was underway. Whether it was a good choice or not, even though the team has been formed with a new coach maybe all the preparations will change.
I just hope the competition will continue to be interesting. The chances of other countries remain the same in the group. Apart from Japan which will qualify, the other teams must do their best for all the possibilities that can make them qualify.

[Fiatless]

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2025/1/9/brazils-neymar-says-fifa-world-cup-2026-will-be-his-last

Neymar has hinted that the next World Cup will be his last. He has confidence that the Brazilian National team will qualify for the competition. The 32-year-old attacker will be 34 in the next World Cup and he believes that he can make an impact in the competition. Neymar's main problem will be his constant injuries. The Brazilian came back from a long-time injury and returned to action for Al Hilal with two brief appearances in October and November. But he became injured again after picking a hamstring challenge and has not played since.

[Rockstarguy]

The last round of the 2026 World Cup Qualifiers will restart very soon so all the National Teams that has not been doing well now is changing their coaches to new to qualify in the world cup. Eric Chelle from Mali was also recommended to be the head coach of the Nigerian Super Eagles after George Finidi losses about 2 or 3 games last year. So because not that, another coach was appointed as the head coach in the team to play in the Inter-continetal games (African Nations Cup) and the team performed incredible but they decided to bring in a new coach for the world cup so let see how it will go.

I feel this frequent changing coach for the super eagles may affect them in the nearest future because it means trying to get the players together and understudy them again,  and this process is going to be a difficult one in that most of the international stars will not me readily available all the time for the new coach to have a first hand experience about them and be able to get to know how well to work with the, it would have been better they work with the coach who has already been giving them results already.

Their is nothing wrong changing a coach but when it changing coach only for a short time it can really affect the team, that is why when appointing a coach to manage a team it is very important to bring appoint someone that is good for the job and not just anyhow person. When the the wrong coach is being appointed to manage a team, the team will keep on struggling until someone who is good for the job is assigned to manage the team. Any team whereby they normally bring in new coach always do have challenge of performing better.

[PremiumcryptoHub]

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2025/1/9/brazils-neymar-says-fifa-world-cup-2026-will-be-his-last

Neymar has hinted that the next World Cup will be his last. He has confidence that the Brazilian National team will qualify for the competition. The 32-year-old attacker will be 34 in the next World Cup and he believes that he can make an impact in the competition. Neymar's main problem will be his constant injuries. The Brazilian came back from a long-time injury and returned to action for Al Hilal with two brief appearances in October and November. But he became injured again after picking a hamstring challenge and has not played since.

Neymar seems a lot more confident at the moment, but his team is not playing well in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers so maybe he should think about that too. At the moment, their team has managed to win only five matches in the FIFA World Cup warm-up matches, so it can be said that they have to improve a lot from this situation i.e. they need a lot of improvement for the FIFA World Cup. Brazil team has many best players but they cannot perform well after coming to the national team which is their main problem. If Neymar recovers quickly and returns to the team, he may be able to help his team perform well, But he may not have recovered from his injury yet.

[fullhdpixel]

Just like Saudi Arabia, Indonesia changed its coach while the qualification was underway. Whether it was a good choice or not, even though the team has been formed with a new coach maybe all the preparations will change.
I just hope the competition will continue to be interesting. The chances of other countries remain the same in the group. Apart from Japan which will qualify, the other teams must do their best for all the possibilities that can make them qualify.

As mentioned most chances Japan and Australia will be gone through directly from this group while other teams are having interesting situation because 4 matches remaining and all teams are on level with anyone can stay at third and fourth spot most chances we will have Saudi Arab and Indonesia, but China can give surprise.

Two months remaining in next round matches which are giving good time to these new coaches for having their preparation for the qualifiers Bahrain and China are also improving which making things more interested in these qualifiers but still as we have improvement in Indonesia and Saudi Arab most chances these will be in next stage.

If Indonesia keeps former coach until end of this round this could be much better for them because realistically, they are having no chance for this world cup but 2030 could be much better for them as they have better chance of qualification.

[LUCKMCFLY]

If Neymar recovers quickly and returns to the team, he may be able to help his team perform well, But he may not have recovered from his injury yet.

Even though Brazil is a direct rival of my country, I would like him to win, not only for Brazil but for the good of football. In Brazil he is the only player left who plays very well for me. There are many famous players, but none of them have the jogo bonito like him. From that golden generation, the only one left is him. Unfortunately he gets injured a lot. I hope he can improve to 100% so he can show everything he has. He is a player worth watching, and to qualify you have to face the best, that is the best way to qualify.

[Docnaster]

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2025/1/9/brazils-neymar-says-fifa-world-cup-2026-will-be-his-last

Neymar has hinted that the next World Cup will be his last. He has confidence that the Brazilian National team will qualify for the competition. The 32-year-old attacker will be 34 in the next World Cup and he believes that he can make an impact in the competition. Neymar's main problem will be his constant injuries. The Brazilian came back from a long-time injury and returned to action for Al Hilal with two brief appearances in October and November. But he became injured again after picking a hamstring challenge and has not played since.

Though the 2026 FIFA World Cup is still over a year from now, I strongly doubt that Neymar Jr will be fit to play in that tournament and if for any reason gets included in the Brazil squad to play at the World Cup finals, then I'll say he got the opportunity by preference and not by merit. Neymar Jr is without doubt one of the best players of the Selecao but he's been getting frequent injuries in recent years and considering his current age I don't think he'll be physically equipped enough to face defenders. I'm a fan of the Brazilian star but I don't think he'll make any big impact of he gets the opportunity he wants.

[Odusko]

https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2025/1/9/brazils-neymar-says-fifa-world-cup-2026-will-be-his-last

Neymar has hinted that the next World Cup will be his last. He has confidence that the Brazilian National team will qualify for the competition. The 32-year-old attacker will be 34 in the next World Cup and he believes that he can make an impact in the competition. Neymar's main problem will be his constant injuries. The Brazilian came back from a long-time injury and returned to action for Al Hilal with two brief appearances in October and November. But he became injured again after picking a hamstring challenge and has not played since.

Though the 2026 FIFA World Cup is still over a year from now, I strongly doubt that Neymar Jr will be fit to play in that tournament and if for any reason gets included in the Brazil squad to play at the World Cup finals, then I'll say he got the opportunity by preference and not by merit. Neymar Jr is without doubt one of the best players of the Selecao but he's been getting frequent injuries in recent years and considering his current age I don't think he'll be physically equipped enough to face defenders. I'm a fan of the Brazilian star but I don't think he'll make any big impact of he gets the opportunity he wants.

We wish him all the best as he recovers to get back to the bitch and make his final appearance and performance Brazilians are proud of Neymar and how he has helped the national team to achieve a lot in the past season of the world cups, so for sure he needs to make the most mark for the long term memory and the love for football let see 🙈 he takes the Brazilian team to the world cup and eventually winning the cup which is not a new thing for Brazil there have won a lot of world cups before those one.