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

[Catenaccio]

This was indeed a great day for South African football, and why wouldn't it be, as they qualified for the knockout rounds for the very first time in the World Cup. Regarding of whether they can beat Canada or not in the group of 32 stage, but they would be happy that they managed to reach to this point.

South Africa played a better game and they had plenty of chances to score but they could only score a single goal when Thapelo Maseko put the ball into the goal and that was the goal that took them in the next round.

With 48 teams and 32 teams go to a next phase, there are more opportunities than previous World Cup have but generally I am not too impressed by performances of national teams from Africa. They can improve their performances in knock out phases if some of them can be qualified there, but surely challenge for them will be very big.

Canada went to a knock out phase with a terrible injury from a broken leg of Kone who had to finish this World Cup with an injury nightmare. He will need very long time to comeback and like all other players with severe broken legs, he will struggle a lot to get his best body and performance quality back.

[Minor Miner]

this is a very interesting thing, in reality a team can completely dominate in statistical terms but in the end not do everything that people expect. Congo has shown enormous defensive solidity despite the difference in quality, and this is already a positive result for an African team at the World Cup.

Congo team is not strong. They know this very well. Still they did well in both matches due to descent match strategy. They have shared points especially with giant teams like portugal. This is big achievement for conog. Congo's defense was also very strong against colombia.

Against Colombia, Congo's target was to  share the  points. They tried their best to draw the match. But in the  76th minute of the match, Daniel Munoz's goal gave colombia the lead and they  managed to end the match 1-0 .

[Altryist]

Ecuador will be looking for a win against Germany. Frankly, I don’t think Ecuador can beat Germany. It seems absurd to me that Ecuador, which couldn’t even score against Curaçao, would score against Germany. Ecuador will most likely finish third in the group. Germany will comfortably defeat its opponent and finish the group in first place. The fact that Germany has conceded goals in both of its matches so far might suggest they could potentially concede again, but they’ll be facing Ecuador, which hasn’t scored in its last two matches.

Ecuador needs a win in this match, a draw would be enough for Germany, but a win probably won't be enough for Ecuador, because Ivory Coast will almost certainly beat Curacao and advance to the knockout stage. So I think Ecuador understands that their World Cup run is likely over. And the fact that they haven't scored a single goal speaks volumes about their attacking play. I think they could very well finish their group stage without scoring a single goal.

[Ahli38]

Morocco managed to secure a high-scoring victory over Haiti. Haiti scored the first goal, and the first half was truly exciting. The first half ended 2-2 with both teams scoring. In the second half, Morocco stepped up the pressure and scored two more goals to win the match 4-2. Haiti didn’t play poorly; it’s just that their squad wasn’t strong enough, but I think they put up a good fight against Morocco. While Haiti finished the group stage without any points, Morocco finished in second place thanks to this victory.

Morocco completely dominated the match against Haiti. They managed to control possession in the first half and even in the second half. Haiti briefly took the lead in the first half with two goals. But Morocco managed to come back thanks to their hard work. And Achraf Hakimi as their captain led Morocco’s comeback. In the second half Haiti seemed to have run out of stamina to put on a good performance or even create scoring opportunities. So I personally think that Morocco made good use of the second half. Soufiane Rahimi was the hero for Morocco in the second half by securing the victory against Haiti. Hakimi was named Man of the Match with a rating of 9.2. This was an exciting match given the number of goals scored and the intensity of the battle. However Morocco’s performance was outstanding showcasing the tremendous effort they put in. And they’ve now tied Brazil in points in Group C.

[Arenga pinnata]

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.

I think South Korea was too confident at the start. They thought their defense was effective enough to hold off South Africa’s attacks. But in reality, we could see a gap in South Korea’s defense, which is usually quite solid. However, in that match, they seemed unable to fix their own defense. And they also couldn’t break through South Africa’s defense. South Africa played very aggressively. And because of this, it seems South Korea ultimately had to admit they weren’t better than South Africa in terms of strategy. The South African players played with more courage. They also weren’t afraid to attempt a few long-range shots.

[EarnOnVictor]

This was indeed a great day for South African football, and why wouldn't it be, as they qualified for the knockout rounds for the very first time in the World Cup. Regarding of whether they can beat Canada or not in the group of 32 stage, but they would be happy that they managed to reach to this point.

I just did the research after reading your post, as I never believed that South Africa had never proceeded beyond the group stage in world cups, ever. That is revealing indeed! A lot is happening in the world of if football that we do not know or expect. Well,  the round of 32 might still be their end, judging by how good the opponents to face are. Canada, that is the next opponent, has improved tremendously, and will not take it easy with them.

[abhiseshakana]

This was indeed a great day for South African football, and why wouldn't it be, as they qualified for the knockout rounds for the very first time in the World Cup. Regarding of whether they can beat Canada or not in the group of 32 stage, but they would be happy that they managed to reach to this point.

I just did the research after reading your post, as I never believed that South Africa had never proceeded beyond the group stage in world cups, ever. That is revealing indeed! A lot is happening in the world of if football that we do not know or expect. Well,  the round of 32 might still be their end, judging by how good the opponents to face are. Canada, that is the next opponent, has improved tremendously, and will not take it easy with them.

To be honest, I didn’t expect South Africa  would win against South Korea and that wasn’t the only surprise they spring , as with this victory they have broken through the group stage for the first time. South Africa will face Canada in the round of 32, and it is sure to be a tough match , given that Canada is not only a strong side but also have the advantage of playing on home soil.

As for South Korea, although they lost , they still have a chance of qualifying because, with the three points they have , they stand a chance of being one of the best eight third-placed teams.

[blue Snow]

Yes, Ronaldo responded to all the criticism directed at him by delivering an outstanding performance against Uzbekistan. He even nearly scored a hat trick. Thanks to his goals last night, Ronaldo set a record as the first player in history to score in six different World Cups. Many people aren’t very patient with Ronaldo, so they’re quick to criticize him based on a single game. But Ronaldo is still Ronaldo, and he silenced all the critics by proving himself in an extraordinary way, a performance that turned many of his critics into admirers.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the men, the player who has never given up his dream, and he does not only aim at big dreams but he actually puts decent efforts for working so hard and achieve what he wants. Criticisms are like nothing with him, and only make him stronger as motivation for him to be more focused. Of course as all players and human, there are things he can not achieve because life is not perfect with anyone but his great dedication for his career and his national team are really deserved to be recognized.

Ronaldo is the kind of player who has put in extraordinary effort to build a great career and has made history along the way. One of Ronaldo’s most remarkable qualities is his drive to achieve greatness, and because of that, he isn’t content with simply being the greatest of all time. He is arguably one of the best players in soccer history. He leads a disciplined lifestyle and is always willing to make sacrifices to ensure he maintains his legendary status. Ronaldo deserves a lasting legacy at the highest level of the game, and he should be honored in his home country.

[knowngunman]

Surprising loss for South Korea in the hands of South Africa. Korea started off with a weaker team expecting a fairly easy win but that didn't happen at all and instead had to bring in a few starters as soon as half time ended but it didn't help. South Africa were fairly comfortable and capitalised on their building momentum, scoring in the 2nd half and then playing Haram ball, tucked in defending for their dear lives. This has completely flipped the script for group A. People expected Mexico and South Korea to be top 2 and then Czech coming in 3rd.

strange because they say that South Korea is one of the strongest Asian national teams together with Japan, but in the end there are always some huge surprises in this World Cup, in any case everyone expected Mexico and South Korea but that's not the case, this always changes things as always.

Korea's case is just another strong start with a poor finish. They made too many mistakes and bad choices throughout their games that landed them in this mess. At some point, I was wondering if their game plan was to settle for draw because they didn't show the kind of hunger they displayed especially against Czech. They played like amateur team with no strategy and aggression. They are supposed to be strong but they appear to be the weaker team and even if they go through to the next round, they won't stand a chance against the big names if they don't wake up. They have potential actually but I don't understand why they played a boring game.

[SilverCryptoBullet]

Ronaldo is the kind of player who has put in extraordinary effort to build a great career and has made history along the way. One of Ronaldo’s most remarkable qualities is his drive to achieve greatness, and because of that, he isn’t content with simply being the greatest of all time. He is arguably one of the best players in soccer history. He leads a disciplined lifestyle and is always willing to make sacrifices to ensure he maintains his legendary status. Ronaldo deserves a lasting legacy at the highest level of the game, and he should be honored in his home country.

Ronaldo is famous with his professionalism, ambition and ego which are all very strong and have been maintained very well by him in about 20 years. Like Wayne Rooney said recently that scoring two goals in World Cup at 41-year old is simply amazing, and it shows the value of Cristiano Ronaldo. Many people criticized Cristiano Ronaldo a lot but they don't know or ignore a fact that players like Cristiano barely appear. It's like several decades we will have opportunities to see such players so why don't simply enjoy very last seasons, matches of Cristiano Ronaldo for his national team and club team.

Cristiano might win World Cup 2026 trophy with Portugal or won't win it, might end his career without a World Cup title, but even so he will still be recorded as one of greatest players of all times.

[Volgastallion]

What a complete failure by South Korea and Czecquia Republic, damn i was not expecting this bad for both of them, i mean how they can lose against South Africa and Mexico, MExico ok... they were locals but South Africa? for real, for sure South Korea kill a ton of bets across all the world.

Congratualtions to Sout Africa.

[Pumared]

What a complete failure by South Korea and Czecquia Republic, damn i was not expecting this bad for both of them, i mean how they can lose against South Africa and Mexico, MExico ok... they were locals but South Africa? for real, for sure South Korea kill a ton of bets across all the world.

Congratualtions to Sout Africa.

These are the kinds of surprises that the World Cup holds for us. Yesterday, for example, Scotland gave Brazil a lot of trouble at various points in the game. And that's normal in the World Cup; everyone wants to win. And that's very important for a team to keep winning. Africa tried hard until they succeeded; that's to their credit, not to Korea's detriment.

[pewboy]

Actually, the top three places in the group are already decided; only the teams' positions will change in the final matches. We all know England will comfortably win against Panama, right? Kane could score a lot of goals in that match. The match between Croatia and Ghana will determine the second-placed team in the group. Frankly, it looks like another draw is likely.

Panama's win is really unlikely, it's true that nothing is impossible in football, but the odds are really very low.
The only thing that could happen is Croatia winning, not least because if it wants to change the situation it is the only viable solution.
I don't know if England will win comfortably against Panama, but there are excellent chances, on paper that's how it is on the pitch we don't know.

[Roseline492]

I think South Korea was too confident at the start. They thought their defense was effective enough to hold off South Africa’s attacks. But in reality, we could see a gap in South Korea’s defense, which is usually quite solid. However, in that match, they seemed unable to fix their own defense. And they also couldn’t break through South Africa’s defense. South Africa played very aggressively. And because of this, it seems South Korea ultimately had to admit they weren’t better than South Africa in terms of strategy. The South African players played with more courage. They also weren’t afraid to attempt a few long-range shots.

There confident was the 3 point from Czechia and South Africa was on one point from a draw so actually South Korea just thought that it was certain for them already to qualify because they had never think that South Africa could win them after all those advantage but fortunately the lost hope of South Africa attracted unexpected favour for them. South Korea and South Africa was just always misusing all the opportunities they were having to score, South Korea defence are not weak but confident of wining affected them. Mexico was the first to qualified and they took all the countries one after another and won all of them and qualified with 9 points.

[Razmirraz]

What a complete failure by South Korea and Czecquia Republic, damn i was not expecting this bad for both of them, i mean how they can lose against South Africa and Mexico, MExico ok... they were locals but South Africa? for real, for sure South Korea kill a ton of bets across all the world.

Congratualtions to Sout Africa.

South Korea and the Czech Republic failure in Group A of the 2026 World Cup was a bitter reality for both countries, especially South Korea, which lost 0-1 to South Africa and failed to secure an automatic qualification. The back-to-back defeats left them in third place in the group, while Mexico and South Africa advanced to the knockout stage.

I didn't highlight the Czech Republic because they were eliminated as the bottom of the group with a collection of 1 point. South Korea actually only needed a draw to qualify alongside Mexico. However, they struggled to penetrate the South African defense and conceded in the 63rd minute. Son Heung-min's introduction at the start of the second half failed to change the situation as South Korea attacking line performed less than optimally in the match. The success saw South Africa make history by qualifying for the knockout stage for the first time after a surprising 1-0 win over South Korea.

[MArsland]

To be honest, I didn’t expect South Africa  would win against South Korea and that wasn’t the only surprise they spring , as with this victory they have broken through the group stage for the first time. South Africa will face Canada in the round of 32, and it is sure to be a tough match , given that Canada is not only a strong side but also have the advantage of playing on home soil.

As for South Korea, although they lost , they still have a chance of qualifying because, with the three points they have , they stand a chance of being one of the best eight third-placed teams.

At least a positive point for South Africa to qualify from the group stage is already a good achievement in their history in the world cup. The South Africans fought till the end to maintain a single score, whereas if you look at the South Korean players, they don't seem to have any preparation. So when given an unexpected surprise they did not have any preparation to overcome it.

[rdbase]

Morocco managed to secure a high-scoring victory over Haiti. Haiti scored the first goal, and the first half was truly exciting. The first half ended 2-2 with both teams scoring. In the second half, Morocco stepped up the pressure and scored two more goals to win the match 4-2. Haiti didn’t play poorly; it’s just that their squad wasn’t strong enough, but I think they put up a good fight against Morocco. While Haiti finished the group stage without any points, Morocco finished in second place thanks to this victory.

Morocco completely dominated the match against Haiti. They managed to control possession in the first half and even in the second half. Haiti briefly took the lead in the first half with two goals. But Morocco managed to come back thanks to their hard work. And Achraf Hakimi as their captain led Morocco’s comeback. In the second half Haiti seemed to have run out of stamina to put on a good performance or even create scoring opportunities. So I personally think that Morocco made good use of the second half. Soufiane Rahimi was the hero for Morocco in the second half by securing the victory against Haiti. Hakimi was named Man of the Match with a rating of 9.2. This was an exciting match given the number of goals scored and the intensity of the battle. However Morocco’s performance was outstanding showcasing the tremendous effort they put in. And they’ve now tied Brazil in points in Group C.

This was one of the more exciting matches to watch of the day because right from the start it was a shoot-out with both teams scoring two goals a piece after the first half was done.
Haiti's second goal to briefly take the lead was one of the goals of the tournament from Isidor. It was so far away from the box and it was a bullet into the corner where the goal keeper couldn't get a touch to it.
Saibari has scored in all of Morocco's three games now and have certainly helped them to propel besides Brazil in the standings.

[Nheer]

Ecuador needs a win in this match, a draw would be enough for Germany, but a win probably won't be enough for Ecuador, because Ivory Coast will almost certainly beat Curacao and advance to the knockout stage. So I think Ecuador understands that their World Cup run is likely over. And the fact that they haven't scored a single goal speaks volumes about their attacking play. I think they could very well finish their group stage without scoring a single goal.

They've failed to have good results in their last games so they must do everything possible to redeem themselves but the sad thing is that  it won't be easy and everything depends on other teams outcome. Germany is a tough opponent and Ivory coast still looks stronger than Curacao so even if Ecuador wins Germany they will have to pray Ivory coast doesn't win their game then there's still no way to qualify. Germany still looks to win except if they rest some of their key players.
They are just unlucky because they played well in all their matches but couldn't win their matches. Both Curacao and Ivory coast were lucky. To me I don't think Ecuador will make it to the knock out.

[Lida93]

this is a very interesting thing, in reality a team can completely dominate in statistical terms but in the end not do everything that people expect. Congo has shown enormous defensive solidity despite the difference in quality, and this is already a positive result for an African team at the World Cup.

Congo team is not strong. They know this very well. Still they did well in both matches due to descent match strategy. They have shared points especially with giant teams like portugal. This is big achievement for conog. Congo's defense was also very strong against colombia.

Against Colombia, Congo's target was to  share the  points. They tried their best to draw the match. But in the  76th minute of the match, Daniel Munoz's goal gave colombia the lead and they  managed to end the match 1-0 .

Unfortunately the World Cup group stages isn't a place to display defensive prowess because you need enough points to make it through to the next round, right now the DR Congo side are at disadvantage due to the poor run in this tournament and can't continue to perform this way else they would be kicked out of the World Cup with just a point to their name, they need to attack more and score goals and not always rely on their defense if they want to make it to the knockout stage.

[bastisisca]

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.

It's a shame, i liked and liked the guys from South Korea.
So many new nations at this world championship, in some ways it's very nice to see young and inexperienced nations, it makes the game more beautiful in my opinion.
Obviously we Italians are not included in this list, but rivers of words have been spent.