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

[Ahli38]

(Source)
Tonight the Scottish national team will face the Moroccan national team in the second round of the World Cup. Scotland has been performing quite well by having defeated Haiti in their last match. Although they were only able to score one goal in that game set up by McGinn, where his goal was the result of a team effort that successfully penetrated the heart of Haiti’s defense. As for Morocco they also looked strong by managing to hold Brazil to a draw with the same score. And this makes me confident that Morocco is a team that cannot be underestimated in the slightest given their draw against a Brazil squad packed with talented players. The available odds indicate that Morocco is the clear favorite over Scotland. But I personally will try my luck by betting double chance bet on Scotland or Draw at odds of around 2. What are your thoughts about this match?

[SilverCryptoBullet]

(Source)
Tonight the Scottish national team will face the Moroccan national team in the second round of the World Cup. Scotland has been performing quite well by having defeated Haiti in their last match. Although they were only able to score one goal in that game set up by McGinn, where his goal was the result of a team effort that successfully penetrated the heart of Haiti’s defense. As for Morocco they also looked strong by managing to hold Brazil to a draw with the same score. And this makes me confident that Morocco is a team that cannot be underestimated in the slightest given their draw against a Brazil squad packed with talented players. The available odds indicate that Morocco is the clear favorite over Scotland. But I personally will try my luck by betting double chance bet on Scotland or Draw at odds of around 2. What are your thoughts about this match?

Moroccan national team can play very well in World Cup 2026 because through their performance against Brazil, I saw Moroccan team are very well organized and they operated very disciplined. It will be very hard to beat Moroccan this summer but they no longer have En-Nesyri and Ziyech for this World Cup. I understand that four years can change many things but so far Morocco only shown their solid defense while their attacking power is still not too well. Without En-Nesyri, they will become less dangerous in free kicks or corner kicks.

Scotland won against Haiti in a first match but they have to compete with Morocco and Brazil in this group for first two positions, and it's not easy because all two competitors are very experienced and strong. Morocco as said are very hard to be beaten while Brazil is a title candidate in this World Cup.

[sergiorus]

Switzerland as successful and achieved three points today and that as show that they really need to point since they draw the first game and know they achieved full three points and leading there group table. Am sure Switzerland will surely qualify for the next round because they really do well and am really impressed with their performance. In the World Cup when a player receives a red card that will be advantage for the other opponent to press well and score more goals in the pitch. Let see in there last game if they can win the game or draw but I can says draw can be possible.

the Swiss have worked incredibly well in this last period, and these are the results, on the matches they have played it must be said that they can certainly improve a lot, i see that there is certainly the possibility of doing great things, by winning they have shown that they can do it and that they can continue in this World Cup, to think that once the Swiss were truly a team that was little stuff.

Bro Switzerland has been a top tier team for quite a while.
They are in top-20 of FIFA ranking and only slightly below Uruguay.

[yudi09]

Football fans should learn not to underrate countries in Africa, Asia and America. The belief that European countries should win countries in Africa and others is flawed. Maybe there wouldn't have been any criticism if Portugal had drawn with countries like the Czech Republic.

I agree. The key to success in the World Cup lies in the fact that all nations from continents other than Europe or the Americas are equally difficult to defeat. In soccer, nothing is easy to predict, and in this World Cup, we’ve already seen how the favored teams have only managed to draw against the underdogs. That’s just one match. There are still two more matches in the group stage to make up for it, regardless of how hot the weather gets during the games.

Portugal and Spain have already experienced this, even though they didn’t consider themselves the stronger teams with a better chance of winning.
Who knows—maybe this time it won’t be a European team that takes home the trophy.

[Volgastallion]

What a crazy game it was Switzerland against Bosnia, the last minutes was not expected by anyone i mean they are two teams who always ahve a super strong defense in all of there games, and in just 15 minutes both of them scores and in the case of the helvetic team they score a lot of goals.

Is not good for Bosnia since the goal diference can be super relevant in the batle for third spot.

[martinom]

Being champions is not their turn in this situation, because there are more other teams that are better than Brazil now, I think their fangs have been broken in recent years.
Next round after the group stage you mean? Of course it's easy for Brazil to qualify, so there's no need to worry about this round, despite being third in group C.

In my opinion the old fox Ancelotti will be able to sort things out on the fly, it's not his problem to qualify but to fine tune the team so that they don't get ahead unbalanced.
In fact, in my opinion, these matches help him to calibrate the team and change things on the fly.

[yixichloro2xx]

Switzerland as successful and achieved three points today and that as show that they really need to point since they draw the first game and know they achieved full three points and leading there group table. Am sure Switzerland will surely qualify for the next round because they really do well and am really impressed with their performance. In the World Cup when a player receives a red card that will be advantage for the other opponent to press well and score more goals in the pitch. Let see in there last game if they can win the game or draw but I can says draw can be possible.

the Swiss have worked incredibly well in this last period, and these are the results, on the matches they have played it must be said that they can certainly improve a lot, i see that there is certainly the possibility of doing great things, by winning they have shown that they can do it and that they can continue in this World Cup, to think that once the Swiss were truly a team that was little stuff.

Bro Switzerland has been a top tier team for quite a while.
They are in top-20 of FIFA ranking and only slightly below Uruguay.

You are right, they are a solid team. I was just shocked during the first round when they drew Qatar 1-1 due to their wasteful chances that they couldn't convert. Normally  everyone expected to statpad that group and come out first. The quality of the teams that are in the same group with them are low compared to what Switzerland team has. Its a good thing that they have finally found their winning ways back. Now they are sitting at the same point with Canada who they wll face at the next round, I expect them to win  that game and qualify to the round of 32 where they will lose, to whatever team they will meet there. Reason is because the squad isn't as good as before.

[liasbaa]

You were right. All eyes were on Cristiano Ronaldo to score a goal against DR Congo after Messi successfully scored three goals against Algeria. We continue to compare these two greatest players together, but we also need to understand that their age is not the same. Ronaldo is currently 41 years old and Messi is 38 years old, we cannot expect him to do the same thing again like he can do at his 38 years, it will be difficult for him to do right now.

Portugal draw their first World Cup game against DR Congo, it was unbelievable result to everyone. We didn’t saw that coming because Congo is a weak team who survived to reach the World Cup. However, Portugal team needs to improve their performance, i think we’ve watched two big teams that disappointed us against weak sides. Spain and Portugal, i hope they can do better in the next game.

At age 41 Ronaldo cannot be judged by the same physical standards as Messi at 38 or 48 even tho the age bracket is not that big the truth still remains that he is still dominating well at the highest level and still representing Portugal only that alone is a great record. Portugal draw against Dr Congo was actually suprising cause Portugal has the man power to win that game and i was especting them to win comfortably without too much stress. I also agree that Portugal need to improve quickly if they want to go far in this World Cup tournament.

In fact before the World Cup started, I thought Ronaldo would win the World Cup this season or come very close because even at 41 years old, his individual performance is great and Portugal team has young and promising players who are capable of winning the World Cup. Messi is now 38 years old, is still playing well and his performance suggests that he will be physically fit to play in the next World Cup.

You are right, I found Portugal draw with Congo very surprising. This is a very difficult time for Ronaldo because he is not playing well for his country. It is also not possible to predict whether he will be able to perform at his best in the next matches.

[danadc]

There are still some big teams that failed in the first match but because Cristiano's aura is too big it seems that we only focus on Portugal when Spain and Belgium, who are actually one of the candidates for the championship, also draw in the first match.

There's a lot of criticism about the Portuguese team and not about Ronaldo. If you look at social media, all the anger falls on Bruno and Vitinha. They didn't give Ronaldo any space; they'd get into the box and prefer to pass back rather than make a good pass to him. In an interview, Joao said something that Ronaldo's fans didn't like, and he's received over 50,000 negative comments on his account for criticizing him. I think the Portuguese team itself is envious of Ronaldo.

[eaLiTy]

~
In fact before the World Cup started, I thought Ronaldo would win the World Cup this season or come very close because even at 41 years old, his individual performance is great and Portugal team has young and promising players who are capable of winning the World Cup. Messi is now 38 years old, is still playing well and his performance suggests that he will be physically fit to play in the next World Cup.

You are right, I found Portugal draw with Congo very surprising. This is a very difficult time for Ronaldo because he is not playing well for his country. It is also not possible to predict whether he will be able to perform at his best in the next matches.

Like I mentioned in my earlier post in this thread, you cannot blame everything on Ronaldo. Ronaldo suffered a severe hamstring tear three months ago, the midfield needs to be held accountable for not handling the ball and pass to Ronaldo.

You can only play as good as the team surrounding you. If you are not getting enough passes from the midfield, you are not going to score goals, and that is exactly what happened against Congo. In the next match Portugal needs to improve their overall game including their defense, if not millions of fans outside Portugal will be disappointed.  

[ruykeri]

What a crazy game it was Switzerland against Bosnia, the last minutes was not expected by anyone i mean they are two teams who always ahve a super strong defense in all of there games, and in just 15 minutes both of them scores and in the case of the helvetic team they score a lot of goals.

Is not good for Bosnia since the goal diference can be super relevant in the batle for third spot.

The last minute back to back goals were really exciting but after scoring the first goal their confidence increased a lot and when Bosnia got a red card they got downgraded even more but I didn't think the goal difference would be so big in the last minute only the goals were scored in a short period of time and I am just amazed by one thing that every team is very unpredictable in this World Cup. The whole concept of the match can change at any moment. Switzerland's attacks were really good I have to admit. But both teams played well enough.

[Abbatty]

(Source)
Tonight the Scottish national team will face the Moroccan national team in the second round of the World Cup. Scotland has been performing quite well by having defeated Haiti in their last match. Although they were only able to score one goal in that game set up by McGinn, where his goal was the result of a team effort that successfully penetrated the heart of Haiti’s defense. As for Morocco they also looked strong by managing to hold Brazil to a draw with the same score. And this makes me confident that Morocco is a team that cannot be underestimated in the slightest given their draw against a Brazil squad packed with talented players. The available odds indicate that Morocco is the clear favorite over Scotland. But I personally will try my luck by betting double chance bet on Scotland or Draw at odds of around 2. What are your thoughts about this match?

After watching both teams in the first wound I would say Morocco is a more stronger team than Scotland. Well I get the reason why Morocco is more favorable by the odds, they look more structured and more of a good team than Scotland. Well in football nothing is certain and we might see Morocco losing match or even dropping points in this game.

As a gambler I think in this game I will prefer to gamble on cards or corner than goals or wins. It a very tricky game and as a gambler you need to be sensitive in games like this. I have gambled already and I decided to place it on cards.

[Sammye3]

Although South Africa later got a penalty around 80 something minutes, which made them equalise, I know if not because of that opportunity, they would still not be able to draw this game. It would have also ended on a draw.

I don't like how South Africa played and honestly in my opinion they won't be able to get through.
is a shame, because it could also have had potential, not to win the world championship, but to go further in my opinion.
Never mind, i can see Mexico very well.

One similar traits for most African countries is the tough defence with a weak attack and that was displayed in the South Africa's game against Czechia Republic. Throughout the game, they were more on the defensive than the offensive and that exposed their weak mentality for bigger games.

With a team like France or England, it would have being more goals and that is because of their attacking prowess. The only African teams that play good football are Morocco, Senegal and DR Congo, maybe this could be variable but these are the teams whose performance has picked my interest despite their stats.

[Ale88]

There are still some big teams that failed in the first match but because Cristiano's aura is too big it seems that we only focus on Portugal when Spain and Belgium, who are actually one of the candidates for the championship, also draw in the first match.

There's a lot of criticism about the Portuguese team and not about Ronaldo. If you look at social media, all the anger falls on Bruno and Vitinha. They didn't give Ronaldo any space; they'd get into the box and prefer to pass back rather than make a good pass to him. In an interview, Joao said something that Ronaldo's fans didn't like, and he's received over 50,000 negative comments on his account for criticizing him. I think the Portuguese team itself is envious of Ronaldo.

Ronaldo is starting to become a problem for the national team. Probably even his teammates realized. Why? Because now he is obsessed with his own records, he plays to score, that's it. Take a look at Messi: he is the opposite, he plays for the team, he doesn't care whether he scores or not, he is there to help the team. Ronaldo can be useful of course but I wouldn't start the next match with him.

[Shishir99]

Fifa should have kept at least one high voltage match each day. Yesterday, there were no high voltage match, so my excitement was lost, and I felt bored. They should have kept at least one big team match everyday, to keep the fans engaging. I am not waiting for the 2nd match of Brazil, which will start in about nine and half hour from now. I had two boring days without watching any complete match. I just checked the scores sometimes.

Anyway, where are you guys watching the matches while you are away from home? Most streaming apps in my country goes down or buffer during the big matches. If I am home, I can watch on TV. But if I am not home, then it become an issue for me.

[Pandu Geddon]

One similar traits for most African countries is the tough defence with a weak attack and that was displayed in the South Africa's game against Czechia Republic. Throughout the game, they were more on the defensive than the offensive and that exposed their weak mentality for bigger games.

With a team like France or England, it would have being more goals and that is because of their attacking prowess. The only African teams that play good football are Morocco, Senegal and DR Congo, maybe this could be variable but these are the teams whose performance has picked my interest despite their stats.

I think their team cooperation is still lacking, but I see the players have more physical strength. That’s what I noticed in the Czech vs South Africa match. The Czech players actually had a few chances, but for some reason I saw their stamina drop drastically when the game went past 70 minutes. Maybe it’s also due to fatigue or the weather.

[Xackie]

There are still some big teams that failed in the first match but because Cristiano's aura is too big it seems that we only focus on Portugal when Spain and Belgium, who are actually one of the candidates for the championship, also draw in the first match.

There's a lot of criticism about the Portuguese team and not about Ronaldo. If you look at social media, all the anger falls on Bruno and Vitinha. They didn't give Ronaldo any space; they'd get into the box and prefer to pass back rather than make a good pass to him. In an interview, Joao said something that Ronaldo's fans didn't like, and he's received over 50,000 negative comments on his account for criticizing him. I think the Portuguese team itself is envious of Ronaldo.

Ronaldo is starting to become a problem for the national team. Probably even his teammates realized. Why? Because now he is obsessed with his own records, he plays to score, that's it. Take a look at Messi: he is the opposite, he plays for the team, he doesn't care whether he scores or not, he is there to help the team. Ronaldo can be useful of course but I wouldn't start the next match with him.

If this issue isn't resolved asap, this might cause them being knocked out from the world cup. Not only Ronaldo that is the problem, his Fans has been causing havoc all around the Internet blaming Bruno Fernandez, Joao Neves and Vitinha for not providing good chances for him. I remembered when Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia, Messi fans didn't throw tantrum like this or start threatening the players, that shows maturity from Messi fans. Watching that Portugal game was surprising, because Ronaldo can't mark nor make good pass or drop deep to build up a chance unlike what Messi usually does in the Argentina team. The best option for Ronaldo is to be coming from.the bench or he can start the game and maybe by the 65th-70th minutes he can be subbed out.

[HajiBagi]

The hate towards Bruno Fernandes after the Portuguese national team draw with Congolese revolting asf. They blame him specially more than ever because Portugal didn't win that game. I'm Manchester United fan, Ronaldo Fan and I also love Bruno Fernandes, but the hate towards Manchester United captain is not necessary.
They could still go on to win the following fixtures in the group stage.
And also for the manager Roberto Martinez, never being a fan and will never be now, he shouldn't be the guy managing them in the FIFA World Cup Competition.

It is not only Bruno Fernandes that people blame, many people blame Ronaldo after the game and some people and bantering him that he said he is a the goat and he can not score for his team and that makes some Ronaldo fans also said that why those people who blame Ronaldo to also blame Portugal players and also Bruno Fernandes who break the record of most assists in the premier league, Bruno performance in that game against Dr Congo is very poor, he did not create chances and still killing the attack when he has the ball to attack.

None of those players should be blame because they have a coach who is the head of the squad and he is the one that will help them to analyse the game and win it but he is doing as if he is not capable of coaching the team, Roberto Martinez did not suppose to coach Portugal for the World Cup because we have seen what he has done with many countries even when he has good players, many coaches can coach this Portugal squad and win the trophy because they have 50% of the current best players in the world in their squad.

[mv1986]

If this issue isn't resolved asap, this might cause them being knocked out from the world cup. Not only Ronaldo that is the problem, his Fans has been causing havoc all around the Internet blaming Bruno Fernandez, Joao Neves and Vitinha for not providing good chances for him. I remembered when Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia, Messi fans didn't throw tantrum like this or start threatening the players, that shows maturity from Messi fans. Watching that Portugal game was surprising, because Ronaldo can't mark nor make good pass or drop deep to build up a chance unlike what Messi usually does in the Argentina team. The best option for Ronaldo is to be coming from.the bench or he can start the game and maybe by the 65th-70th minutes he can be subbed out.

Ronaldo himself his loading that burden onto his shoulders and the problem about it is that he implicitly raises the pressure for his teammates to serve him the ball as there is this public opinion he himself creates and fosters that he should be the saviour as he calls himself the best nonstop. What happens is that players may not take a shot they should have taken themselves and if they mess up like they did against Congo, this can create very undesirable tensions within the Portugal team altogether. I am looking forward to their next game as that will be make ur break. Sure they would still be fine if it is another draw, but it would certainly raise the pressure even more. Too bad they didn't lose against Congo, I love to watch these small nations fight and push those supposedly bigger nations towards the brink of total failure.

[Fiatless]

After watching both teams in the first wound I would say Morocco is a more stronger team than Scotland. Well I get the reason why Morocco is more favorable by the odds, they look more structured and more of a good team than Scotland. Well in football nothing is certain and we might see Morocco losing match or even dropping points in this game.

As a gambler I think in this game I will prefer to gamble on cards or corner than goals or wins. It a very tricky game and as a gambler you need to be sensitive in games like this. I have gambled already and I decided to place it on cards.

Morocco is rated higher than Scotland in the FIFA ranking. The African side is ranked 6th, while the European country sits at 34th. Considering how Morocco held Brazil to a draw, I also think that they are stronger than their opponent, even when the European side got three points from their last game against Haiti.

I must say that the game between Haiti and Scotland had one of the worst officiating. Haiti had some clear penalties that they should have been awarded.