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

[eaLiTy]

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But I would have been happiest until the last minute if Ronaldo had scored a hat-trick today. I hope he can score another in the remaining 10 to 15 minutes.

I also wished to see Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick in that match. In the final few minutes, Rafael Leão who came on as a substitute could have passed the ball to Cristiano Ronaldo, but he went for the goal himself. There were other opportunities as well to complete the hat-trick but most of the time, the ball was passed too wide to make a good connection. Overall, it was a good performance by Portugal, and if they perform like this, CR7 fans will be happy as well. 

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I am not surprised anyway because south Korea isn't known to be a great football playing nation though I was expecting them to at least score a goal against South Africa, but maybe the reason they didn't score was because too many goals didn't come to the match and the only one that came had already been taken by South Africa.

South Korea is a footballing powerhouse in Asia. They are ranked 25th in the world while South Africa is ranked 60th, so thinking that South Korea is not a great football playing nation is just strange. Players like Son Heung-min who played for Tottenham and Kim Min-jae who plays for Bayern Munich, are in this team.

There were tactical blunders by South Korea, as they benched Son Heung-min, who was not even in the playing eleven. South Africa scored the goal through a counter-attack, which was expected since South Korea dominated the possession and left their defense open whenever they attack.

So this win for South Africa simply means they have qualified for round of 32 while south Korea lost that qualification. So south Africa will be playing against Canada next, can they beat Canada? Well, definitely possible but I don't think it will happen.

South Korea is not technically out of the tournament. The 8 best third-place teams out of 12 will advance for the next round, so they must wait for the remaining group matches to finish to see if they qualify.

[Varnquister]

South Africa emerged victorious in the match against South Korea. Although South Korea had more possession, they weren’t very effective in front of goal. I would have expected South Korea to at least secure a draw in this match, but they couldn’t even manage that. Before the match began, they were the favorites, and we could have predicted they would finish second in their group, but since they couldn’t respond to the goal they conceded, they left the match with a loss and finished third in the group.

[X-ray]

Morocco are playing with fire because this is not a game to joke with no matter the position they have occupied, playing a 2-2 draw is not sending a good message to their next opponent, it only shows how weak they can be if they are being pressured for too long. Imagine Haiti giving them a hard time and a draw is like winning the World Cup for the Haiti players so Morocco should have to fight more better to win because the time they had starting from the first half is no longer on their side, it is now or never, get a win and avoid playing one of those stubborn countries.

In the end, the gap is the thing tha matter here. Morocco was showing if they were clearly superior compared to the Haiti. However, i never expected Haiti would be giving such very competitive game to the Morocco.

Theorically, they game should have ended easily for Morocco because Haiti was losing to Scotland. Nevertheless, unexpected result Haiti pushed the game until the end.

So they can go home from this world cup knowing they already played competitive ball. They deserve appreciation over their incredible performance, though the record 0 pts in the end.

[Agbam]

South Africa scored a goal just now, and that puts Republic of Korea in a position of bother. If the lead stays till the end of the match, then South Africa will end up with 4 points, while Korea will trail them with 3 points. And since they only have 3 points, it will be difficult for them to qualify for the knockout stage as one the best 3rd placed teams (many of the 3rd placed teams have 4 points each). Overall, the CAF teams (especially Morocco and Egypt) have performed better than AFC teams so far in this tournament. And this justifies the FIFA decision of granting more qualifying sports to CAF in comparison to AFC.

Oh my ! What a crazy turn of events in the group A. Everyone expected the South Koreans to win and go through but the Africans said no and now are going to the next round while Korea might be on their way home.

Mexico have given a very strong performance winning all three group matches, first team with 9 points and clean sheets, what an incredible performance.
The CAF teams are always going to be better than AFC just a lot of them underperformed this World Cup year.

[satscraper]

South Africa scored a goal just now, and that puts Republic of Korea in a position of bother. If the lead stays till the end of the match, then South Africa will end up with 4 points, while Korea will trail them with 3 points. And since they only have 3 points, it will be difficult for them to qualify for the knockout stage as one the best 3rd placed teams (many of the 3rd placed teams have 4 points each). Overall, the CAF teams (especially Morocco and Egypt) have performed better than AFC teams so far in this tournament. And this justifies the FIFA decision of granting more qualifying sports to CAF in comparison to AFC.

Yeah, they scored, but I'm not pleased with this, as I lost money after the end of the match because I had $5-ticket on  Korean Repablic team to win. The latter is a level above South Africa, but something unexpected happened with them during this match, and instead of them, South Africa will proceed to the next round of the World Cup.

[Varnquister]

The Czech Republic suffered a defeat against Mexico without scoring a goal. I was certain they would advance from the group stage, but they finished in fourth place with just one point. A win against Mexico might have been enough for them, but they failed to pull it off. The match ended scoreless in the first half, but in the second half, Mexico managed to score three goals against their opponent and secured the victory. Mexico thus won all three of its group stage matches.

[Nahl]

I think South africa journey in this competition is quite interesting because while in the first game they have to lost from Mexico i was a bit pesimistic South africa can went to the next round but today, South africa have proven their mentality and they didn't give up even in the last game of group A South africa have won over South Korea so, this result make them automatically finish at runner up place under Mexico

For South Korea honestly they are my favorite in group A especially after in the first game they won over Czech i feel like South korea will being an the next team who qualified with Mexico but unfortunately this is the only win result they can gets during group stage. But South korea still have a chances went to 32th stage from the best 3rd and South korea position on standing is quite good because currently South korea at 4th place as the best 3rd team

[Varnquister]

Brazil managed to secure a 3-goal victory over Scotland. Scotland didn’t play badly, but the difference in quality was evident. Brazil took the lead with two goals by Vinicius Junior in the first half and sealed the win with a goal by Matheus Cunha in the 60th minute. Neymar entered the game in the 76th minute. With this victory, Brazil finished at the top of the group. Scotland could have scored in this match, but luck wasn’t on their side. Both teams put on a good performance.

[meser#]

South Korea started the match—which they entered with an advantage—well. They dominated the game early in the first half, but their finishing was very poor.
South Africa managed to level the playing field towards the end of the first half. Maseko created numerous scoring opportunities but squandered them; however, in the 63rd minute, he struck the ball beautifully to put South Africa 1-0 ahead.
South Korea would have advanced even with a draw, but their defeat meant that South Africa and Mexico were the ones to progress to the next round.
I am not sure if South Korea can qualify as one of the best third-placed teams now that the group matches have concluded.

[Die_empty]

Oh my ! What a crazy turn of events in the group A. Everyone expected the South Koreans to win and go through but the Africans said no and now are going to the next round while Korea might be on their way home.

Mexico have given a very strong performance winning all three group matches, first team with 9 points and clean sheets, what an incredible performance.
The CAF teams are always going to be better than AFC just a lot of them underperformed this World Cup year.

Congratulations to the South African side. The outcome of their first game made many people think that they would not make it to the next round. But it was a good performance from the Bafana Bafana against Korea. They kept attacking even as South Korea controlled the ball possession.

I thought Mexico would not give their best in their last game since they have already qualified for the next round. But the cohost came out blazing, beating the Czech Republic with a high goal margin. The World Cup is becoming more interesting with unexpected results coming up every day in the competition.

[$crypto$]

South Korea started the match—which they entered with an advantage—well. They dominated the game early in the first half, but their finishing was very poor.
South Africa managed to level the playing field towards the end of the first half. Maseko created numerous scoring opportunities but squandered them; however, in the 63rd minute, he struck the ball beautifully to put South Africa 1-0 ahead.
South Korea would have advanced even with a draw, but their defeat meant that South Africa and Mexico were the ones to progress to the next round.
I am not sure if South Korea can qualify as one of the best third-placed teams now that the group matches have concluded.

That means South Korea will have to wait for the other groups to see how the results are, if for example it is more than South Korea's points then it will not be ranked 3rd best, this is an unfavorable situation for Korea, which should win against South Africa.
For me surprisingly lost, which we thought the favorite team would win was wrong, how is this match the results are sometimes always different.

[OsaiEmma]

The table above is the standing of the 3rd positions in the competition right now. Meanwhile:

1) Bosnia & Herzegovina
2) Sweden,
3) Croatia
4) South Korea
5) Algeria
6) Paraguay
7) Scotland, and
8 ) Cape Verde

Are qualifying, but more games are still yet to be played by some of the 3rds which will certainly change the shape of the table and those who will be qualifying. Games remaining for the 3rds include:

Sweden (Group F) vs. Japan — Playing today, June 25
Paraguay (Group D) vs. Australia — Playing today, June 25
Ecuador (Group E) vs. Germany — Playing  today, June 25
Senegal (Group I) vs. Iraq — Playing Friday, June 26
Cabo Verde (Group H) vs. Saudi Arabia — Playing Friday, June 26
Belgium (Group G) vs. New Zealand — Playing Friday, June 26
Croatia (Group L) vs. Ghana — Playing Saturday, June 27
Algeria (Group J) vs. Austria — Playing Saturday, June 27

The outcome of these games will tell who will be qualifying from the 3rds and who will not.

[rillex.games]

Yeah, the World Cup mood is really picking up now. Every match is creating new talking points, and you can feel the football hype everywhere, even outside the usual football communities.

[Unsoldier]

South Africa scored a goal just now, and that puts Republic of Korea in a position of bother. If the lead stays till the end of the match, then South Africa will end up with 4 points, while Korea will trail them with 3 points. And since they only have 3 points, it will be difficult for them to qualify for the knockout stage as one the best 3rd placed teams (many of the 3rd placed teams have 4 points each). Overall, the CAF teams (especially Morocco and Egypt) have performed better than AFC teams so far in this tournament. And this justifies the FIFA decision of granting more qualifying sports to CAF in comparison to AFC.

Yeah, they scored, but I'm not pleased with this, as I lost money after the end of the match because I had $5-ticket on  Korean Repablic team to win. The latter is a level above South Africa, but something unexpected happened with them during this match, and instead of them, South Africa will proceed to the next round of the World Cup.

The South African national team had never made it out of the group stage at a World Cup before. On top of that, their odds of winning were very low, which prompted fans to bet against them. However, South Africa pulled off a minor miracle by beating South Korea to advance to the knockout stage. It’s strange that South Africa used to perform so poorly at the World Cup, especially since they hosted the tournament back in 2010. It seems that only now the money pumped into the country for that World Cup is finally having a positive impact on the national team.

[eisen33]

South Africa emerged victorious in the match against South Korea. Although South Korea had more possession, they weren’t very effective in front of goal. I would have expected South Korea to at least secure a draw in this match, but they couldn’t even manage that. Before the match began, they were the favorites, and we could have predicted they would finish second in their group, but since they couldn’t respond to the goal they conceded, they left the match with a loss and finished third in the group.

South Africa surprised everyone, after their first match against Mexico, it seemed like they would be the underdogs of the group. However, they then managed to draw with the Czech Republic and, in the final round, even defeated South Korea, which I don't think anyone expected.

By the way, I was also expecting a better performance from the Czech Republic in their last match against Mexico. Mexico only needed a draw, while the Czech Republic needed nothing less than a win. Instead, the Czechs lost and ended up finishing last in the group with just one point. It turns out that the real underdogs of the group were actually the Czech Republic.

[Barikui1]

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I am not sure if South Korea can qualify as one of the best third-placed teams now that the group matches have concluded.

That means South Korea will have to wait for the other groups to see how the results are, if for example it is more than South Korea's points then it will not be ranked 3rd best, this is an unfavorable situation for Korea, which should win against South Africa.
For me surprisingly lost, which we thought the favorite team would win was wrong, how is this match the results are sometimes always different.

Football can really be very unpredictable sometimes, because who will ever believe that south Korea that started the tournament on a winning note will now be hoping for a chance as a best loser, when everyone expected them to go through easily by winning or drawing either Mexico or South Africa.

 Right now their hopes is qualifying through the best loser positions, but I don't actually know how many teams can go through as best loser, but if it's up to eight team, they might stand a chance, but if it's only four teams, then they should kiss goodbye to this world cup event because before the end of the other group games, they will drop even further down the pecking order.

[giammangiato]

Brazil managed to secure a 3-goal victory over Scotland. Scotland didn’t play badly, but the difference in quality was evident. Brazil took the lead with two goals by Vinicius Junior in the first half and sealed the win with a goal by Matheus Cunha in the 60th minute. Neymar entered the game in the 76th minute. With this victory, Brazil finished at the top of the group. Scotland could have scored in this match, but luck wasn’t on their side. Both teams put on a good performance.

Brazil qualitatively speaking is superior, it was obvious the result, Scotland played well but the difference in performance was tangible.
Bookmakers were also giving low odds in Brazil's win, so considered an almost certain match, I honestly expected at least Scotland's goal of honour (precisely because they played well).
Brazil finished their group well, in the discussions before the World Cup many said that Brazil would be sorry and also Neymar's plays, yet they are proving the opposite, we will see with the more challenging matches how they will behave.

[m4r1o]

England must also give it their all. Even though  Panama no longer have a chance, this could actually prove to be the turning point , as teams who are no longer under pressure often perform better. Moreover, Panama isn't actually that bad; they may have lost both matches , but in each of those matches, they only lost by a single goal.

England's draw with Ghana is perhaps one of the worst things I've seen, taking nothing away from Ghana, but the favourites were England and they didn't live up to their fans' expectations.
Panama will practically give 3 easy points, the real war is the one between Croatia vs Ghana, which could prove to be a big surprise. Your analysis is perfect, Croatia must come on and win, they must do nothing else.

[emrecemsan]

South Africa surprised everyone, after their first match against Mexico, it seemed like they would be the underdogs of the group. However, they then managed to draw with the Czech Republic and, in the final round, even defeated South Korea, which I don't think anyone expected.

South Africa were really surprising... How can they get those points from 2 much stronger opponents really? They bounced back really strongly after the opening match against Mexico.

Now they are in next round by finishing in 2nd place!    The World Cup is always full of surprises man...

By the way, I was also expecting a better performance from the Czech Republic in their last match against Mexico. Mexico only needed a draw, while the Czech Republic needed nothing less than a win. Instead, the Czechs lost and ended up finishing last in the group with just one point. It turns out that the real underdogs of the group were actually the Czech Republic.

Czechia were really disappointing indeed. Only 1 point in this group is too below the expectations. They couldn't even maintain their chance for best third-placed teams.

[kennycryptoitalia]

Sometimes, logically speaking, given the chance Kane had in the final minutes of the match, it seemed impossible that he wouldn't score, but the replay clearly showed that Kane kicked the ball over the crossbar. If this kind of mystical phenomenon occurs in every Ghana match, then Croatia might not be able to defeat Ghana.

Come on guys but are you serious? i don't believe in this nonsense, if hypothetically this sorcerer with his magic can change the fate of a match, theoretically he could change the fate of the World Cup, right?
It seems like a science fiction thing to me, then everyone is free to believe what they want, according to my opinion it's too absurd, i would call it a simple coincidence.