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

[Ale88]

I can't see which group is the toughest and which one is not, because some of the other groups consist of teams with somehow equal levels, which also makes it tough for them to fight against each other in that group. Instead of comparing which one is the toughest, I am more into comparing which one is more unpredictable.

IMO, Group I is also one of the groups that is unpredictable so far, especially after the friendly match between Spain and Iraq. They managed to draw against Spain 1-1. Whatever the reason, it definitely strengthens their confidence and mentality.

Another interesting group is Group F. Personally, I like Group F more. Group F consists of the Netherlands, Japan, Sweden, and Tunisia. If Japan leads the group table, it will be interesting to see.

Well.. I am from Asia and I have seen the Iraqi team in action quite frequently during various AFC tournaments. Ali Al-Hamadi is definitely their most well known player, and he represents Ipswich Town in the EFL Championship. During the 2024–25 season, he participated in the English Premier League. Other major players are Mohanad Ali, Aymen Hussein and Youssef Amyn. But when we compare Iraq with the top teams in AFC such as Saudi Arabia, Australia and Iran, I need to say that they are not at the same level. IMO, they are likely to end the group phase with zero points.

Friendlies and tournaments have different flavor. Spain might have played Iraq lightly to avoid injuries knowing too well there nothing to lose but for a world cup tournament I am not seeing Iraq pass the group stage. They might not leave with zero points but obviously it will difficult to defeat any team in their group. France, Norway and Senegal should have a good time grabbing points on them except Iraq manages to draw one of their games and mostly happens when a team has already qualified for the next round and decides to reserve their energies for the next stage of the competition.

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be playing for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

[Fiatless]

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be play for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

These players need to be careful in these friendly games. A slight injury could affect the player and the team at large. So they will have to play the game in a mild and friendly manner.

Portugal will be taking on Nigeria today in their last friendly match before the World Cup. Nigeria will not compete in the World Cup, so the Portuguese side needs to be careful. African football is physical, hence there are high chances of sustaining injury.

[Sithara007]

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be play for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

Yes.. that's why I said that Iraq's good performance during the friendlies should not be taken as a proof that their performance has improved a lot. They struggled a lot during the AFC qualifiers, and they are playing the main event just because luck favoured them. But honestly, they have near zero chance of getting a single point in Group I. Without any doubt, it is the strongest group in the entire tournament, and their only outside chance of getting any points would be during their match against Senegal. But then we are talking about a team that has players such as Sadio Mané and Ismaïla Sarr.

[Bigjoe33]

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be play for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

Yes.. that's why I said that Iraq's good performance during the friendlies should not be taken as a proof that their performance has improved a lot. They struggled a lot during the AFC qualifiers, and they are playing the main event just because luck favoured them. But honestly, they have near zero chance of getting a single point in Group I. Without any doubt, it is the strongest group in the entire tournament, and their only outside chance of getting any points would be during their match against Senegal. But then we are talking about a team that has players such as Sadio Mané and Ismaïla Sarr.

I agree with you on this, because I believe this is just a pre world cup matches, and it's quite different from the main reality of the main games in the world cup. We may not say that because a team plays somehow well in the friendlies, that they will do very well in the main competition, or or team who played badly now, will end up playing nothing in the world cup. It's football and it's always not easily predicted. Even though there performance is like a shadow of what is to come, but I still feel there are differences when it comes to the real game and fans all over the pitch. It's the world cup, it's not always easy

[Black Mbaye]

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be play for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

Yes.. that's why I said that Iraq's good performance during the friendlies should not be taken as a proof that their performance has improved a lot. They struggled a lot during the AFC qualifiers, and they are playing the main event just because luck favoured them. But honestly, they have near zero chance of getting a single point in Group I. Without any doubt, it is the strongest group in the entire tournament, and their only outside chance of getting any points would be during their match against Senegal. But then we are talking about a team that has players such as Sadio Mané and Ismaïla Sarr.

Iraq's main goal is to have a good tournament and at least get a point. The teams they will play against are already much stronger than Iraq. However, they have a draw against Spain in a friendly match. They know that the only thing they can do is defend as best they can. If they do that, maybe they can get a point.

[Frankolala]

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be play for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

These players need to be careful in these friendly games. A slight injury could affect the player and the team at large. So they will have to play the game in a mild and friendly manner.

Portugal will be taking on Nigeria today in their last friendly match before the World Cup. Nigeria will not compete in the World Cup, so the Portuguese side needs to be careful. African football is physical, hence there are high chances of sustaining injury.

I believe that the Portuguese coach will tell his men not to take the match that serious and advice them to play safe because the real competition will start tomorrow. Nigeria national team will be the ones that will take the match very serious because it's important to them since, they didn't qualify to the world cup. Let's see the outcome of the game.

[Boiboi20]

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be play for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

Yes.. that's why I said that Iraq's good performance during the friendlies should not be taken as a proof that their performance has improved a lot. They struggled a lot during the AFC qualifiers, and they are playing the main event just because luck favoured them. But honestly, they have near zero chance of getting a single point in Group I. Without any doubt, it is the strongest group in the entire tournament, and their only outside chance of getting any points would be during their match against Senegal. But then we are talking about a team that has players such as Sadio Mané and Ismaïla Sarr.

I agree with you on this, because I believe this is just a pre world cup matches, and it's quite different from the main reality of the main games in the world cup. We may not say that because a team plays somehow well in the friendlies, that they will do very well in the main competition, or or team who played badly now, will end up playing nothing in the world cup. It's football and it's always not easily predicted. Even though there performance is like a shadow of what is to come, but I still feel there are differences when it comes to the real game and fans all over the pitch. It's the world cup, it's not always easy

However I agree with you these are just friendly matches and the World Cup is a completely different ball game we have seen teams look amazing before a tournament and then struggle when it actually starts while others surprise everyone after a poor run of results the pressure the fans and the importance of every match make a huge difference that’s why football is so unpredictable you can never really know that will happen until the tournament begins.

[Fiatless]

I believe that the Portuguese coach will tell his men not to take the match that serious and advice them to play safe because the real competition will start tomorrow. Nigeria national team will be the ones that will take the match very serious because it's important to them since, they didn't qualify to the world cup. Let's see the outcome of the game.

I don't know if key players on both sides will play in this friendly game. Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman are not on the list of Nigerian players. Coach Roberto Martínez has named a strong side for this game, which includes players like Ronaldo,  Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva, Rúben Dias, João Neves, João Félix, and Rafael Leão.

Nigeria will want to give its best because friendly games are also used by FIFA for rankings. As high as a coefficient (multiplier) of 5 to 10 points is assigned to wins in these games in the rankings.

[SuperBitMan]

I know a lot of things will happen in this World Cup since the US are the ones hosting the World Cup, I don’t understand how this referee will be denied access to the World Cup and now the US government is saying that his associated or link to terror organization group and again I watched a video the way they were searching some African players that landed in the US as if they are suspected criminals was very bad, I know they will do same to other continent they don’t trust, if they know they will be doing all this and suspecting everyone especially football players they should have not hosted the World Cup.
I know they are trying to protect their country but they should do it respecting other countries, a country like US are not even suppose to host world because of the high level of enemies they have accumulated for themselves.

[m4r1o]

You have a points to some extent I also thought about this some days ago. But it just feels like a double standard to some fnas FIFA at times are funny the way they did thier things, so there's no way they will not play a politics on this issue, because it has let about consistent rules and also more about higher power, so FIFA can't afford or can't  cross some lane. FIFA  and no politics! Rules must breaks when geopolitics hits hard, yes Russia got banned actually, it maybe because of thier global pressures or other purposes, the United States of America and Israel were supposed to be banned so, but they didn't it may be due to either they have more political and financial leverage and authority. Well I just hope we have safe and peace playing from the beginning to the end.

exactly, many times they are not consistent and on FIFA this is clear, they always did as they wanted, always, then when someone needed to be punished they targeted Russia, which was an easy target, and never the other nations, where hatred and other things are in the light of day, but nobody does anything, we should only talk about football.

[giammangiato]

Friendly matches are to be considered as a warm-up for real ranking matches, friendlies are enjoyable to watch and never play 100% wasting a player on a trivial injury could be a bad choice and in some cases even a missed World Cup.
In the case of Nigeria there will be a commitment but it cannot be compared to the real World competition

[Oluwa-btc]

I know a lot of things will happen in this World Cup since the US are the ones hosting the World Cup, I don’t understand how this referee will be denied access to the World Cup and now the US government is saying that his associated or link to terror organization group and again I watched a video the way they were searching some African players that landed in the US as if they are suspected criminals was very bad, I know they will do same to other continent they don’t trust, if they know they will be doing all this and suspecting everyone especially football players they should have not hosted the World Cup.
I know they are trying to protect their country but they should do it respecting other countries, a country like US are not even suppose to host world because of the high level of enemies they have accumulated for themselves.

They have every right to host the FIFA World Cup Competition, but they should know better that if you're to host the FIFA World Cup Competition, you should be ready to accept everybody into your country. The Competition yet to kick off and they're such a bad host already.

We should be calling for the sack of the FIFA president because, he has turned the sports a lot political. Awarding Donald Trump that peace prize award, not banning isreali national team after clear evidence by high medical professionals over the genocide in gaza and Lebanon by the isreali regime and also the deliberate bombing of little children (168 innocent girls ) by the Us government. They should have been banned if we're being serious. There's no way Russia is banned and these nations with same like war crimes are overlooked.

Players like Toni Kross who called out Qater prior to the world cup competition 4 years ago mute all of a sudden. It displays how much of a terrible human being that they're. Finally, I'm still on the fact that, of the FIFA president can not defend FIFA's best officials regardless 9f colour and race, then he should resign. Football should bring all cultures together. It is revolting 😤

[Pjcr7]

An intelligent question has been asked, what's the point hosting the world cup if you don't want the world to be part of it? This question was posed to the United States of America. Clearly this will be the worst world cup will have to seen in recent decades. Even FIFA officials were denied entry, a referee is an official of FIFA but he was denied entry and FIFA has kept mute about this all along. The Somalian referee has all his documents and papers intact, yet no entry was granted him after 11 hours of interrogations according to him. Hike if tickets, travel bans and even unnecessary conditions given to fans, it's just shameful that a great tournament of this magnitude has been reduced to this from a single country. Since FIFA has failed to protect some certain nations that qualified for the tournament from these kinda embarrassments, if I were in their shoes, I will boycott the tournament entirely.

[katanic97]

Friendly matches are to be considered as a warm-up for real ranking matches, friendlies are enjoyable to watch and never play 100% wasting a player on a trivial injury could be a bad choice and in some cases even a missed World Cup.
In the case of Nigeria there will be a commitment but it cannot be compared to the real World competition

Nigeria are a really good team, but more than anything, they have great chemistry within the squad. Friendly matches are mainly there to help teams prepare for tournaments, so the quality and intensity are never quite the same as in competitive games.Speaking of that, let me go a little "off topic" and mention a bet i came across. Turkey to finish first in their group is priced at 2.8, which looks pretty decent to me. If you're interested, don't wait too long,i already placed my bet.

[Mustang Shelby]

Friendly matches are to be considered as a warm-up for real ranking matches, friendlies are enjoyable to watch and never play 100% wasting a player on a trivial injury could be a bad choice and in some cases even a missed World Cup.
In the case of Nigeria there will be a commitment but it cannot be compared to the real World competition

Nigeria are a really good team, but more than anything, they have great chemistry within the squad. Friendly matches are mainly there to help teams prepare for tournaments, so the quality and intensity are never quite the same as in competitive games.Speaking of that, let me go a little "off topic" and mention a bet i came across. Turkey to finish first in their group is priced at 2.8, which looks pretty decent to me. If you're interested, don't wait too long,i already placed my bet.

Many betting sites favor the United States as the group leader, but I think we, as Turkey, can finish this group in first place. The most important thing for us will be Kenan Yıldız's situation. Kenan is currently injured and we are waiting for him to recover. However, we have many good players. We have quality players like Arda Güler, Can Uzun, and Hakan Çalhanoğlu. We can finish this group in first place, and the odds are really good.

[kennycryptoitalia]

I thought Uzbekistan would put up more of a fight, but they looked like total underdogs. They have a tough group ahead of them in the World Cup, but I somehow still believe they can make a statement with their performance.

Friendly matches are usually the most fun, as the teams play only for the pleasure of it, in fact you see the true essence of football, clean football without deception or aggression.
Holland still have a great team, they clearly didn't play challenging, they both kept a low profile, we'll see in the important matches how they perform, i also think they can make their mark.

[giorgione]

Ronaldo is aged, he is 41 years old. And Ronaldo is the oldest forward in this World Cup. In addition, there is a 43-year-old goalkeeper Craig Gordon in the World Cup.

Although Ronaldo is old, his fitness is still amazing. He did not face any major injuries in the saudi league last season. And he scored  28 goals and two assists in  30 matches. This is undoubtedly a good result. We have not seen many  young star players have such a  wonderful season. So there is no chance to underestimate ronaldo because he is aged. Ronaldo's fitness is very good and he is  still able to play well.

of course, his physical form is surprising, for a 41 year old he is definitely in shape, and i think that his contribution will be fundamental, he will continue to do well and raise the name of Portugal, i also believe that it is the last World Cup for him, so he will do everything he can to do well and take home the cup.

[Adbitco]

btw ahead of the tournament Norwegian team dressed up in Viking attire and posed for photos by the river   photos were so good quality that they looked like a colorized historical photograph or something straight out of a movie set

Trump will wake up one morning just before the Norway match and deport all of them on the excuse that they have come to fight Americans, lil. That man can really do silly things at will, just joking though. With the way his government has been handling this FIFA competition, I'm afraid this will be a interesting world cup. People are already losing interest because of how nations and it's fans are being treated especially on the issue of entering the country. How come we are not hearing these kind of news from the other 2 co hosting nations? If the US feels everyone wants to attack them, why did they bid for it? Only them has problems with some African countries that they were denied visa and also with Iran entirely.

[Fiatless]

I know a lot of things will happen in this World Cup since the US are the ones hosting the World Cup, I don’t understand how this referee will be denied access to the World Cup and now the US government is saying that his associated or link to terror organization group and again I watched a video the way they were searching some African players that landed in the US as if they are suspected criminals was very bad, I know they will do same to other continent they don’t trust, if they know they will be doing all this and suspecting everyone especially football players they should have not hosted the World Cup.
I know they are trying to protect their country but they should do it respecting other countries, a country like US are not even suppose to host world because of the high level of enemies they have accumulated for themselves.

The news that he has connections with a terrorist group was from an unofficial source. Andrew Giuliani, the executive director of the White House FIFA Task Force have not given any reason for the action of the US immigration. He just said that the best referee in Africa was denied entry for very good reasons, but he didn't state the reasons.

Meanwhile, Artan received a heroic welcome in Mogadishu. Somalian football fans and government officials gave him a rousing reception.

[9ja Amaka]

I agree with you: the tournament begins in a few days, these friendly matches are just to keep the players in good shape otherwise they wouldn't be play for weeks. But they never give 100%, and there is no reason to do it at this point. The result is totally irrelevant in this kind of matches.

I don't think any teams performance should be judged based on friendly matched. These matches are meant for preparation,  they are to keep the payers match ready and also for managers to try out different tactics. So it will be very wrong to judge a team based on this friendlies. It should also be noted that the players will be very careful so they don't get injured before the world cup proper, so their is no way you will see the best in teams right now. I really don't care about results when it comes to friendlies,  but you have to look at performance and what the team is trying to do, I think that's the most important thing and I also believe that is what the manager is looking to see too.