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

[Plutomanian]

Dembele scored a fantastic hat-trick, he took Mbappe's place today. Dembele performed exceptionally in this match because Mbappe was absent, enabling his team to win.
Norway put pressure on the team at every moment, France spread its dominance at every moment. However, France will be more aggressive this year, as we will see in the next match when the 32 teams perform.

What do you mean by Kylian Mbappe was absent in today's game against Norway? If your memory serves you right, you will see clearly that Kylian Mbappe provided two assists for Ousmane Dembele and he also tried scoring but couldn't just find the ball at the back of his opposition net on the pitch. Nevertheless, Ousmane Dembele is crowned MOTM because he's been an exceptional player, scoring an Hattrick in less than 40 minutes is consider to be a phenomenal performance and this is rare for the team.

This is another milestone for Ousmane Dembele to boost his confidence in the France national team and Kylian Mbappe and Michael Olise are there to provide him with good passes that will lead to goals, Dembele is really enjoying this time of his football career.

[Ummeettaa]

Osman Dembele with 9.4 rating against Norway, it was a very interested match and Good performance from the France side.

Congratulations to Osman Dembele on his first ever world cup hat trick, Man of the Match (MOTM) award and for qualifying for the round of 32 of the world cup tournament.

As expected, Osman Dembele has once again shows to the world he is one of the best players in the world right now and showed he is ready to win the best players for the second time in a roll.

Although am a Barcelona fan, but I must admit that we lost a rare gem to PSG and also as I football fan, I will always appreciate talent when I sees one.

[Nheer]

Norway dropped 10 players from the initial squad that played against Senegal, they basically used their second team to play against France, it's very funny but I can understand why though. They have qualified after winning the first 2 matches and doesn't need to risk their players anymore for the third match, the knew they are no match for France so no need, they rested their players for the next round. Basically from this next stage no teams going to start resting their best legs for any reason because it's win and continue to the next stage.

I wouldn't blame them though, they've qualified already and so it's only right to play it safe and rest their key players so they can be active for the next games. I think it's a good idea to not risk any injuries because the next rounds will be elimination round where you either win or get eliminated. They can't go and and rest players after this round if not they will risk disqualification early. It only gets tougher from the next round.
What pains the most is that they didn't announce this first before proceeding with it. A lot of gamblers will be disappointed that Haaland wasn't featured. I personally gambled on Haaland to score and got dissapointed that he wasn't featured in the game and so I lost my bet.

[Alpha Marine]

I really do not want to see Lionel Messi winning the golden boot lol.

Why though? 
I think the game against Jordan is what would determine if Messi would get the Golden Boot or not. If he scores a hattrick against Jordan, then it would be difficult for Mbappe ot anyone else to catch up with him.
Players score less in the knockout stages because it's more difficult, but if messi and Argentina don't get eliminated early, he may score 3 more goals in the knockout stage to win the golden boat.

Anyone who placed a bet before the match started would have burned their bet after seeing the Norway lineup. Who would have thought they would change the entire lineup for this match and France went with a full strength team and it was an easy win for France.

What else would anyone play if not an over 2.5 or a both teams to score? Were people expecting Norway to win even with their full squad? I am not saying it's impossible for them to win, but their chances are small. Anyone who bet on Norway just wanted to take a risk, and that kind of person won't be bothered about the lineup because he knew what he signed up for.
I did not know Norway to bench its starters that much, but I predicted France to win 3-1.

[SUPERSAIAN]

Dembele is truly the GOAT. He scored three goals in the first half against Norway. He scored all three goals within 30 minutes.

We also need to consider Mbappe's assist contribution he assisted the first two goals. Norway was stunned. Although they responded after the two goals, France was superior. Norway missed a penalty if that penalty had been a goal, maybe something could have happened. France is currently one of the best-looking teams in the tournament.

[mv1986]

Dembele is truly the GOAT. He scored three goals in the first half against Norway. He scored all three goals within 30 minutes.

We also need to consider Mbappe's assist contribution he assisted the first two goals. Norway was stunned. Although they responded after the two goals, France was superior. Norway missed a penalty if that penalty had been a goal, maybe something could have happened. France is currently one of the best-looking teams in the tournament.

Well let's be honest here, that is a one in a lifetime event I think he won't be able to do that anytime soon again. Though the most important fact about this game is that Norway was overrated in my opinion. Haaland can carry them against mediocre teams, but against well set up teams like France it is just not enough to have Haaland. There is hardly any other player who is on a really high level. They can function as a team as long as the opponent is not very strong, but France brought some reality to their World Cup dreams I guess

[GbitG]

Dembele scored a fantastic hat-trick, he took Mbappe's place today. Dembele performed exceptionally in this match because Mbappe was absent, enabling his team to win.
Norway put pressure on the team at every moment, France spread its dominance at every moment. However, France will be more aggressive this year, as we will see in the next match when the 32 teams perform.

Exactly, Osman Dembele was absolutely phenomenal like he was the pure dominator of the match. In only in 30 minutes he just banged up the opposition and secure the beautiful hat trick. Killyan Mbappe was not too bad like he was also too good. He provided two assist and even in earlier minutes hit the frame of the goal. So he Osman Dembele was outstanding but Killyan Mbappe was also too good.

Match was simply brilliant like France was the only dominator wehther it's in ball possession or it's in goal. They fully demolished the Norway team I mean they got 4 goal which is quite good. Now France promoted into next round like they move to round 32 which will be the real trail for them.

[KingsDen]

Strange team selection by Norway to rest so many players against France who themselves, go very strong. I will be watching this game shortly, just a bit disappointing Norway have gone weak. I wanted to see Haaland vs Mbappe.

Big game for Belgium against NZ, they have to win to be sure of a play in the knockout stages. Uruguay vs Spain could be a good game too.

The Norway coach I think went with a weaker team because he wants to rest his key players in preparation for the the knockout stages of the tournament. I thought Norway will line up their strong squad as to go all out against a strong opponent like France. Norway have already qualified to play in the next round so tonight's result will have little effect on them
With the starting XI we've seen, it's safe to say that France are definitely going to win this particular one.

[Byebyebtc]

Dembele is truly the GOAT. He scored three goals in the first half against Norway. He scored all three goals within 30 minutes.

We also need to consider Mbappe's assist contribution he assisted the first two goals. Norway was stunned. Although they responded after the two goals, France was superior. Norway missed a penalty if that penalty had been a goal, maybe something could have happened. France is currently one of the best-looking teams in the tournament.

This is the best hat trick i have witnessed since I started watching world cup, all the goals was of high quality from significant distance, you don't see such every day. But the goals where from similar positions I expect Norway defenders to hold that wing very well at least after the first 2 goals, but they kept on opening and giving Dembele the chance he used to score.
As for Norway I didn't expect Much from them since their striker wasn't present in the match, if not there would have been more goal's coming from their end.

[JoyMarsha]

Osman Dembele with 9.4 rating against Norway, it was a very interested match and Good performance from the France side.

Congratulations to Osman Dembele on his first ever world cup hat trick, Man of the Match (MOTM) award and for qualifying for the round of 32 of the world cup tournament.

As expected, Osman Dembele has once again shows to the world he is one of the best players in the world right now and showed he is ready to win the best players for the second time in a roll.

Although am a Barcelona fan, but I must admit that we lost a rare gem to PSG and also as I football fan, I will always appreciate talent when I sees one.

Just imagine if France reaches the finals of the World Cup; that would signal Dembele winning the World's Best Player of the Year again, without anyone dragging it down with him.

At times, it is good for players to be signed by other clubs to groom them for other playing positions. Who could have thought Dembele would be a phenomenal player under PSG to win the Champions League twice, and he is physically fit to do that again

[MK-74]

France secured a comfortable 4–1 victory over Norway to finish at the top of Group I.
Ousmane Dembélé starred for France with a hat-trick, scoring three excellent goals and earning the Man of the Match award.

Senegal also claimed a convincing win, beating Iraq 5–0.
Iraq were forced to play with 10 men after receiving an early red card, making the match much easier for Senegal.
The 5–0 victory was a huge result for Senegal, as it secured their place in the next round as one of the best third-placed teams.

The Group H matches will kick off in one hour and every game in the group is crucial.
The standings are still completely open. All four teams still have a chance of reaching the Round of 32 and tonight's matches will determine who advances.

[Silikiem]

An exciting match, four goals in the first half & one goal in injury time of the second half. France scored four goals, while Norway, considered capable of putting France under pressure managed only a single goal, scored by Aasgaard. This result leaves France unbeaten in Group I, I really can't wait to see which teams will face them & I hope for strong opponents capable of putting up a real fight.

I don’t seem to understand why the Norwegian coach decides not to start Erling Haaland and Martin Odegaard in this match. Could it be that he doesn’t want to win the game because I see no reason why he will keep two of his best players out from the game even though they might have secured qualification to the next round at least if Haaland and Odegaard were to be present in the game they wouldn’t have conceded that much and Haaland would have converted their missed Penalty which was missed by Asgard. Well I get to learnt that Norway might be facing Ivory Coast in the next round as things stands, could it be the reason why Norway didn’t push for a win in this game.

[salad daging]

Dembele is truly the GOAT. He scored three goals in the first half against Norway. He scored all three goals within 30 minutes.

We also need to consider Mbappe's assist contribution he assisted the first two goals. Norway was stunned. Although they responded after the two goals, France was superior. Norway missed a penalty if that penalty had been a goal, maybe something could have happened. France is currently one of the best-looking teams in the tournament.

France were completely out of control, Dembele scored in record time and the French were never short of goalscorers, if not Mbappe then Dembele.
While Norway reserved Haaland because they knew this would lose resting players for the next round to keep from injury, but it doesn't matter sometimes many teams play too seriously and that's what Norway did, at least I want this round to end soon.

[juttsab@]

Did anyone here watch yesterday's Ecuador vs Germany and Turkey vs USA matches? Were you just as disappointed and felt those games were absolutely ridiculous?

Those narrow defeats made no sense at all. Germany and the USA should've won those matches. But for some reason, it was like both teams completely lost their creativity in the final third and couldn't score more goals. Those two games ended up ruining my parlay bet.

Ecuador kept their WC dream alive after beating Germany in their last groupstage match. As the match started Leroy Sane scored an early goal in the 2nd minute But Ecuador didn't let it go and equalized early in the 9th minute by Angulo. First Half ended on 1-1. Germany dominated with 62% possession 1 big chance created and total of 7 shots. In the second half Germany keep their possession 60% , 1 big chance created and total of 4 shots. Gonzalo Plata scored the 2nd goal for Ecuador in the 77th minute and kept their dreams alive. Angulo was named as player of the match .Ecuador finished 3rd with 4 points .

[Pandorak]

The moment I saw that Norway was not starting their key players I knew they are not taking the match serious especially since they knew they have already qualified for the next round in the World Cup competition, I was expecting France to win and lucky I won a bet too, congratulations to me and congratulations to France even though they will still qualify if they didn’t win the match, today was a lucky day for Dembele he scored a hat trick.

Why did they have to leave him out really? Such an important game against one of the very best the tournament have got to offer and somehow, they left Haaland out. I didn’t expect a match that France wouldn’t have won but, at least it would have being heavily contested. Norway didn’t have much to do tonight, it was a France dominated game from the kick off fo the final whistle. Surprisingly, they didn’t get to score more goals in the first half, they only scored 1 goal after over 4 goals in the first half.

Basically, even though I understand that this might have been the coach’s strategy to keep his players in shape or avoid the risk of injury, especially after Norway’s two previous wins, this match was still quite disappointing. I feel they didn’t play to their full potential against France, the absence of Haaland and several key players significantly affected the team’s performance. Even if they were ultimately going to lose, i had hoped for a fierce fight throughout the match, but that wasn’t the case, France won easily.

[Rruchi man]

it's safe to say that France are definitely going to win this particular one.

The French team are looking very dangerous with how they attack.

 They look like a hybrid of Bayern Munich and PSG attacks with how precise they are; they have a very quality team, so in games where one player finds it difficult to score, there is usually another player that can step up to the situation and make things happen for them.

France and Norway have given us a bit of joy. If they are able to continue with this momentum, it will be good for their ambitions in this world cup.

[Smartvirus]

Dembele is truly the GOAT. He scored three goals in the first half against Norway. He scored all three goals within 30 minutes.

We also need to consider Mbappe's assist contribution he assisted the first two goals. Norway was stunned. Although they responded after the two goals, France was superior. Norway missed a penalty if that penalty had been a goal, maybe something could have happened. France is currently one of the best-looking teams in the tournament.

There was a lot of goals in this match but, it wasn’t any less boring or entertaining. The only exciting aspect of the match was Dembele taking those shots on goal. What’s a little surprising is how Mbappe didn’t manage to get a goal today, he however was able to get 2 assists and that’s good enough for the stats. Norway’s compensation goal wasn’t enough to get them anywhere sadly.

Senegal had one of the biggest scoreline yet, 5 goals following a VAR red card. Senegal were out asking for it in the second half and they got 4 goals.

[snipie]

There was a lot of goals in this match but, it wasn’t any less boring or entertaining. The only exciting aspect of the match was Dembele taking those shots on goal. What’s a little surprising is how Mbappe didn’t manage to get a goal today, he however was able to get 2 assists and that’s good enough for the stats. Norway’s compensation goal wasn’t enough to get them anywhere sadly.

France dominated the match against Norway and the whole group by the way. Dembele did well this time. Kylian Mbappe opportunities to score will be there in the upcoming games anyway.

Senegal had one of the biggest scoreline yet, 5 goals following a VAR red card. Senegal were out asking for it in the second half and they got 4 goals.

Senegal humiliated Iraq and forced them to be named the worst team in the World Cup with - 11 goals difference. That title was for Tunisia with - 10 and Curaçao with - 8. Of course all these teams won no points at all.

[Gaza13]

Group H is proving to be incredibly tough and tightly contested, with the standings remaining undecided right up to the final match. Every nation still has a chance to advance to the next round, a situation that naturally leaves fans anxious about their team's fate. Can Cabo Verde pull off a surprise in their final match? Their opponent is Saudi Arabia, a team whose current footballing strength should not be underestimated. In their last match, Cabo Verde played with considerable boldness and confidence using a 4-1-2-3 formation hopefully, they do not let their guard down defensively. If Cabo Verde advances to the next stage, it will certainly make history for the nation.

[Hispo]

People underestimate the impact the lastest victory of Ecuador has had here in Latinamerica, there has been a lot of memes and people who were sure they were going to lose against Germany...
It was quite unexpected win for Ecuador which reminds us the Favorite and previous champions of the world cup can still commit mistakes which can cost them an entire match.

So far Turkey has become the stone in the shoes of The United States, and I am sure there have been millions lose because of that unexpected loss of USA as well...