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

[Altryist]

Italy was simply shameful, its an unworthy thing for these players, i was reading a price comparison of squads, Italy's average market value is 29.8 million per player called up, while that of Bosnia and Herzegovina is 5.3 million, its something i would never have expected from them, i think its truly the end of the line for Italian football.

They seemed to have the best luck with their opponent in the final stage of this playoff, but no one expected the red card to change everything for them in this match. And I don't agree with the referee that this foul should have been a red card, because there was another Italian defender nearby. Moise Kean also had a good counterattack in the second half, and I think Gattuso made a mistake substituting him in the 70th minute, and the selection of players for the penalty was also poor.

[yenerbatmaz]

We beat Kosovo 0-1 and qualified for the World Cup after many years.
Because the 2002 World Cup was in the east of Türkiye, we had to watch the matches early in the morning. In the USA, which is in the west of Türkiye, and because the world is round, the matches will again be in the morning.
I hope we can repeat the success we achieved in 2002.
Our team has the strength and ability to do it.

[pewboy]

I liked the list.
These intercontinental games also attract a lot of attention because sometimes surprises happen. Jamaica and Bolivia won't have easy games, but they can still achieve something.

Regarding Italy, there's always a doubt after the recent results.

But could there be a surprise today, or should all the favorites win?

Italy didn't win, this is a total defeat for everyone, for the entire Italian football system, which was unable to survive 90 minutes against a team that is worth 10 times less and that doesn't have all the talent available, it seems absurd to me, but these are football matches and it had to go like this, it will be the next one.

[Agbamoni]

I wanted them to be more like the dark horse of the FIFA World Cup Competition but damn, my predictions for them to beat Bosnia and get to the world cup and become the winners has gone opposite. Three successful absence from the world, I don't think the game is gone,  I do think they're not doing enough from within. Gattuso,  Bonucci and and Buffon has just recently came in, they did their best truthfully.

Graham Potter rewriting the records,  clearing his name from his past with Sweden. I'm so happy he could qualify alongside Viktor Gyökeres. Congratulations to them.

Wake up, homie. You are busted, no more World Cup for Italy. Which country will you be supporting now? 
in as much as I love to see Italy qualify, the giants are not ready yet. 3 consecutive qualifiers in a row. See, when we mention the World Cup, Italy has won the World Cup, not qualifying for the World Cup three times in a row is a surprise.

No Isak, you got Glockeres. Sweden made Graham Potter look good yesterday. I watched him rain down tears after the final whistle.

[$crypto$]

Our match against Kosovo was tough, but I'm very happy we won. We'll be in the World Cup again after 24 years. Kosovo put up a very good fight. I think goalkeeper Uğurcan deserved to be man of the match. He made two crucial saves. The score was 0-1, but there were plenty of goalscoring opportunities. Kosovo's goalkeeper Muriq also put in an effective performance.

Congratulations Turkey finally qualified for the World Cup after a long wait, victory is always thin but this is sure they continue to defend it until the end --- I did not watch this match but watched another match but Turkey's struggle was not in vain now they have many great players who are ready to perform later.

[Agbe]

Turkey defeated Kosovo 1-0, securing a spot in the World Cup for the first time in exactly 24 years. It was truly significant for this team—which we consider a golden generation—to qualify for this year’s World Cup, and they achieved it. We have to admit we struggled against Kosovo, but they were certainly no easy opponent either. We managed to win the match thanks to the goal scored by Kerem Aktürkoğlu’s final touch. We’ve landed in a good group. We believe we’ll advance from this group.

I am sensing that what happened in 2022 World Cup might repeat itself again. In 2022, big and strong teams were beating by small and weak teams. Before Kosovo vs Turkey Match started, from made a prediction that Kosovo would win the game because of previous matches between them but I was surprised to see that Turkey beat them this time. Congratulations to Turkey of the win

[atookz]

The team I am really regret did not make it to the World Cup is Italy. Italy, a team that has won the World Cup four times is definitely going to miss the World Cup for the third time in a row. They had a lot of the ball, They could not get close to the opponents goal. This is a problem for Italy because losing three World Cup in a row is not good. They had time to make their team better. The penalty shootout loss was not bad luck it was because the team was tired and had a mental breakdown. I am also sad that Denmark, Nigeria and Poland did not qualify for the World Cup. With 48 teams, in the competition I think they could have made it. That is football because the ball is round anything can happen.

[cande86]

Italian footballers were overjoyed when Bosnia and Herzegovina were drawn as their opponents for the final. Yesterday, Bosnia and Herzegovina eliminated them on penalties, leaving the Italians heartbroken. At this time, scoring one goal and holding onto it until the end of the match is unacceptable. Italy learned this the hard way.

Turkey, after a difficult 0-1 victory against Kosovo, qualified for the World Cup finals for the first time in 24 years. This victory brought great joy and significant financial gain to the Turkish national team.

in fact, this was a life lesson, you never rejoice before, you must certainly be aware of your superiority but you must not flaunt it, because then the problem is that they start playing with the mud where they are not used to, they stooped to a level that was not within their limits and they made a mistake and lost.

[changaa]

Frankly speaking I am not that surprised to see Italy failed to qualify to the 2026 WC. I do not see something special in this team even since the group round when they lost 2x against Norway. I think the main problem with Italy is that the players regeneration is not that good. They have no special players like few decades back, I can even say that the current Italian team is just like a group of mediocre players. Failed to qualify 3 times in a row is absolutely a nightmare for a team like Italy, 2 times in a row was already bad for them but now it is 3x.

I expected it, perhaps the only real consolation is not having made it on penalties.
The question is, why did we get to penalties? We don't have people who are good at just playing.
The decline in the quality of football in Italy is evident. You can see it from the fact that we haven't played the World Cup for 12 years.

[bastisisca]

The main reason Italy isnt in the World Cup, they simply play terrible soccer. They arent a strong team, and the players dont have any worldclass players. In the penalty shootout, they took two shots so badly that it was embarrassing. They didnt deserve to be there again, and it is a disaster for the country. Four more years without a good national team. 12 years without a team that has already won this tournament four times, it is unbelievable. I hope that over the next four years, there will be players who completely transform the team.

I just can't say you're wrong. In fact, the fact that he plays terrible football is reflected in the World Cup and it is not so much what is played in Serie A, but it is the Italian players who do not grow and who play truly terrible football. In fact, Italy has not qualified for three World Cups, not just the last one. So it is a very serious problem that has existed for more than 10 years now.

[Adiljutt156]

Sweden vs Poland: Sweden @ 2.04, Poland @3.75

I am most interested in this match. The bookies consider Sweden as the favorite. But these two teams are almost equally strong. I can not  see any reason to think that the Swedish team is too strong. Sweden lost 4-1 against switzerland in the group  stage match. So this match will be  competitive. Both teams have the ability to win. Poland has experienced players like lewandowski in the attack. I hope to see a good performance from lewandowski today.

Sweden men's national football team performance was great against Poland national football team as they did 3 Goals in this match and that was a team which was dominant in this match and they did back to back goals in this match. Elanga was a person who did first goal of the match and he did this goal at 19 minutes and he gave good start to his team. Opponent team was angry after that goal and they took revenge after that and Zalewski did second goal of the match and he did this goal at 33 minutes of the match and after that  Goal match was tough for both teams. Lagerbielke did third goal of the match and he did this goal at 44 minutes of the match. Match was not one sided because both teams played very well in this match.

[execijutiere]

Sweden managed to eliminate Poland. It was a tough match for both teams, but Sweden put in a stronger performance and secured their spot in the World Cup with a 3-2 aggregate victory. Despite ceding possession to Poland for much of the game, the Swedish national team managed to crush Poland’s hopes with a last-minute goal.

[Swordsoffreedom]

We beat Kosovo 0-1 and qualified for the World Cup after many years.
Because the 2002 World Cup was in the east of Türkiye, we had to watch the matches early in the morning. In the USA, which is in the west of Türkiye, and because the world is round, the matches will again be in the morning.
I hope we can repeat the success we achieved in 2002.
Our team has the strength and ability to do it.

Turkiye won the match and it was an expected result. But Kosovo performed quite well in the match. The road to victory for Turkiye was not easy. In the end, Turkiye got a narrow 1-0 win.

I am sure Italy's performance surprised everyone. Italy failed to qualify for the World Cup. Italy was one of the strongest teams in Europe. But their overall condition has been getting worse day by day in the last few years. It is a great shame for Liverpool not to qualify for the World Cup.

This was Bosnia's home match. The match ended 1-1 after 90 minutes. Neither team could score in extra time. Bosnia won 4-1 in the penalty shootout

[verdinio]

Italy scored first but the moment of inexperienced tackle from Bastoni and a direct red card changed the match. Italy possibly get a conceded goal in that situation but even so they will have 11 players and can continue well in remaining time. This red card affected a whole team in about 80 more minutes and to make it worse, Moise Kean wasted a very good opportunity to make it 2 - 0 for Italy. If Kean scores the second goal, it would be the end for Bosnia already.

At penalty shootouts, I don't know why they let Esposito shot first and this mistake reminds me about Saka and his penalty shot for England in  Euro 2020 final match with Italy. Both Saka and Esposito are very young when taking such responsibility for their national teams.

Uff Italy was very unlucky but let's remember that they were playing for Bosnia, a glorious team like Italy should have at least scored 5 goals, but that wasn't the case, they weren't able to take the lead, but everyone knows that the playoffs are tough and you don't always manage to get the upper hand.

[Gaza13]

It came as a total shock to me that Italy failed to qualify for the 2026 World Cup. It’s simply unbelievable that the four-time world champions have failed to reach the World Cup finals for the third consecutive time. I think Italian football is in for a major overhaul in the coming years. Bosnia and Herzegovina, of course, pulled off a surprise when they beat the Italians, but their victory was completely well-deserved. Italy scored early but couldn't do anything else after that, and the Bosnians took full advantage.

Of course, many of us did not expect Italy to fail in the match, and certainly with this series of failures, their football association will overhaul or evaluate thoroughly for the future to be much better. I think the mistakes made by A. Bastoni were the main cause of Italy defeat in the match, Italy was much more careful in terms of attack and tended to maintain their defense. Look at the final statistics of the match, Bosnia dominated Possession up to 59%. If Bastoni hadn't done that in this crucial match, the result would have been very different.

[X-ray]

If Gattuso doesn't fulfill his promise, he must be ashamed by himself. Even if Gravina prevented him, he should resign from being italy's head coach. He said that like a men, and it's embarrassing if he doesn't do that.

In my believe, if a big football nation unable to qualify for WC, it should be a criminal. that's why the coach deserves the sack along with its football federation president. Do you guys agree?

[hyudien]

Italy was simply shameful, its an unworthy thing for these players, i was reading a price comparison of squads, Italy's average market value is 29.8 million per player called up, while that of Bosnia and Herzegovina is 5.3 million, its something i would never have expected from them, i think its truly the end of the line for Italian football.

Is this the result of underestimating their opponents? Previously, the Italian players were happy because they'd faced an easy opponent, if I remember correctly, there was a post from an Italian player after Bosnia beat Wales, which essentially showed his joy, but what happened and what are we seeing now? Honestly, I think Italy underestimated their opponents because, given the comparison between their squad and Bosnia, they would have won easily if they played like real football, I also wonder if this is a curse, because their elimination marks their third World Cup elimination in the playoff stage.

[HustleZ]

Italy along with Poland wasn't able to qualify for the 2026 world cup. It was hard to see Lewandowski sad and i really wanted to see Poland in the worldcup but was sad to see them not qualify. Lewandowski is a great player and deserved a a final shot at the worldcup as he would've got the perfect ending to his career if he would've won but it was really hard they could've won even if they qualified.

[Mame89]

The team I am really regret did not make it to the World Cup is Italy. Italy, a team that has won the World Cup four times is definitely going to miss the World Cup for the third time in a row. They had a lot of the ball, They could not get close to the opponents goal. This is a problem for Italy because losing three World Cup in a row is not good. They had time to make their team better. The penalty shootout loss was not bad luck it was because the team was tired and had a mental breakdown. I am also sad that Denmark, Nigeria and Poland did not qualify for the World Cup. With 48 teams, in the competition I think they could have made it. That is football because the ball is round anything can happen.

What happened to Italy is truly ironic. Italy, the country with the second most World Cup trophies along with Germany, has failed to qualify for the World Cup three times in a row: 2018, 2022 and now 2026.

If we look at what happened to Italy, there's some truth to Fabregas statement. He once said that Italy places too much trust in older players and rarely gives younger ones a chance. He made this statement when he first took over as Como coach emphasizing the importance of young players, which led to much criticism.

Now, his statement has been proven the Italian team isn't regenerating players because Serie A teams don't give young players a chance to show their skills. Many Serie A teams rely too much on older players. This ultimately impacts the national team. Serie A should make it mandatory for young players to be in the starting lineup in every match.

[execijutiere]

Although the Czech Republic took the lead in the 3rd minute, the match ended in a draw. In extra time, both teams scored again, bringing the score to 2-2, and the match went to a penalty shootout. In the shootout, the Czech Republic defeated their opponent and earned a spot in the World Cup. Looking at the match as a whole, Denmark was the better team, but they just couldn’t find the winning goal. Despite Denmark’s dominant performance, their failure to qualify for the World Cup must be disappointing for them. Frankly, Denmark was the more determined team here, but sometimes you just need a little luck on your side.