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

[Mayor of ogba]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

[EarnOnVictor]

Furthermore Spain's dominance as in the previous era clearly shows its weaknesses, even though they managed to beat Saudi Arabia with a promising score. But looking at the draw against Cape Verde and the narrow victory against Uruguay, their game seems to have lost its way. Spain may have secured first place in Group H, but if their performance is anything like their previous two matches, it will be difficult to compete for a place in the next round after getting through the group stage.

I agree with you, but don't you think that we are expecting too much from Spain and that's why we feel they ain't meeting up to expectations. Honestly, I'm not proud of them and it's true that if they continue this way, they will be eliminated earlier than expected. The French guys are giving us what we expected from them

Judging by Spain's standing in the world of football, it's naturally normal for people to expect more from them. Their first match was so disappointing, as it even ruined many tickets. That alone is enough for people to be angry with them, if need be. But the second one showed their strength a little, thought South Africa was weak. Finally, the match against Uruguay was supposed to deliver at least 2 goals, and if at all, another one in the second half, but it's not so. This is hinting that they might still climb higher, but securing the trophy this way is slimmer than people thought.

[Rruchi man]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

The Spanish team will have to do a better job at convincing us that they are contenders for the World Cup because in these group stages they've not been their best, and if they are not the team that has played very well in a convincing manner, as to say, they are title contenders, currently I feel the teams that have done really well in these group stages are the United States team, the Argentine team, the German team, and the French team; even the Brazilian and the Portuguese teams have done better than the Spanish team, in my own opinion. The Spanish team needs to step up their performance in the second round because it is a knockout stage and there will not be any room for any poor performance.

[WatChe]

Judging by Spain's standing in the world of football, it's naturally normal for people to expect more from them. Their first match was so disappointing, as it even ruined many tickets. That alone is enough for people to be angry with them, if need be. But the second one showed their strength a little, thought South Africa was weak. Finally, the match against Uruguay was supposed to deliver at least 2 goals, and if at all, another one in the second half, but it's not so. This is hinting that they might still climb higher, but securing the trophy this way is slimmer than people thought.

In group H, Cabo Verde performance was more impressive as they are playing there first ever FIFA world cup. Cabo Verde remained unbeaten at group stage and were able to qualify for next round because of their all three draws. Uruguay in group H was strong contender to qualify for next round but they are eliminated. Spain first game against Cabo Verde was not disappointing because we have seen that Cabo Verde emerged as a strong team as they didn't allowed any team to win a match played against them. 

[pawel7777]

The final 32 is yet to be decided but 9 pairs of the round of 32 are already confirmed. Out of them, I think the most intertesting are:
- France Vs Sweden. France will be a huge favourite, especially after destroying another Scandinavian team, Norway, 4-1 in their last game. Sweden have been a bit disappointing and barely made it throught to the next round, but there's always a chance they will fully unblock their potential in a game they have nothing to lose.
- Norway Vs Ivory Coast. Despite their loss to France, I believe Norway can still turn out to be the dark horse of the tournament. Both teams ended up 2nd in their respective groups with 6 points each. So far, Ivory Coast has achieved the best result out of all African teams (Ghana can still potentially do better than them if they win their last group game).
- Brazil Vs Japan. In their last game Brazil proved they still remember how to play football as they comfortably defeated Scotland 3-0. But Japan will probably be a tougher challenge, as they were undefeated in the group stage, with one win and two draws.

[Loyang]

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.

Everyone was interested in this match to see the performance of Haaland and Mbappe. But the Norway manager did not want to take any risks. He did not try much to win the match. Norway played against giant teams like France with their B team. If they had won this match, Norway would have faced Sweden in the knockout round. Now they will play against Ivory coast in the round of  32. Norway has got a relatively easy opponent. This is definitely profitable for them. Norway will probably also be able to  qualify for the round of 16.

I was especially interested in watching this match to see Haaland and Mbappe's performance and I told my friends that they should also watch this match. Their coach had a reason to take such a decision and they did. However, I saw some of the match but not the whole match. At first, when I saw that Norway was not able to do much and that they were not able to hold their defense strong, I thought that maybe Norway would concede 7 goals today and I didn't watch the match with that in mind.

[HelliumZ]

- Brazil Vs Japan. In their last game Brazil proved they still remember how to play football as they comfortably defeated Scotland 3-0. But Japan will probably be a tougher challenge, as they were undefeated in the group stage, with one win and two draws.

Brazil's opponent in the round of 32 is a strong Japan, where Brazil will have to compete very hard to achieve victory against Japan. Japan will face Brazil in the round of 32 from the second position after drawing against the Netherlands and Sweden in the group stage. However, Brazil supporters may easily take Japan, but if they want to defeat Japan, Brazil will have to perform much better.

[Smartprofit]

The final 32 is yet to be decided but 9 pairs of the round of 32 are already confirmed. Out of them, I think the most intertesting are:
- France Vs Sweden. France will be a huge favourite, especially after destroying another Scandinavian team, Norway, 4-1 in their last game. Sweden have been a bit disappointing and barely made it throught to the next round, but there's always a chance they will fully unblock their potential in a game they have nothing to lose.
- Norway Vs Ivory Coast. Despite their loss to France, I believe Norway can still turn out to be the dark horse of the tournament. Both teams ended up 2nd in their respective groups with 6 points each. So far, Ivory Coast has achieved the best result out of all African teams (Ghana can still potentially do better than them if they win their last group game).
- Brazil Vs Japan. In their last game Brazil proved they still remember how to play football as they comfortably defeated Scotland 3-0. But Japan will probably be a tougher challenge, as they were undefeated in the group stage, with one win and two draws.

In my opinion, yesterday's victory of the French football team over the Norwegian team led to a strong cognitive bias in many fans. 🙋

Yes, of course, the 4-1 scoreline in France's favor is impressive... However, how can one be so confident that the French will be able to defeat the Swedes  so easily? Is it simply because both teams are Scandinavian? Or because of all the information received, only the last one is remembered? I, for one, am not so confident of an easy victory...

I just looked at the bookmakers' odds, and it seems to me that France's potential is currently greatly overestimated. I certainly wouldn't claim that the Swedes will win (although that is also theoretically possible), but a draw, for example, is very likely.

I might bet on a solid handicap for the Swedes (say, +1.5)💁

[sergiorus]

Judging by Spain's standing in the world of football, it's naturally normal for people to expect more from them. Their first match was so disappointing, as it even ruined many tickets. That alone is enough for people to be angry with them, if need be. But the second one showed their strength a little, thought South Africa was weak. Finally, the match against Uruguay was supposed to deliver at least 2 goals, and if at all, another one in the second half, but it's not so. This is hinting that they might still climb higher, but securing the trophy this way is slimmer than people thought.

In group H, Cabo Verde performance was more impressive as they are playing there first ever FIFA world cup. Cabo Verde remained unbeaten at group stage and were able to qualify for next round because of their all three draws. Uruguay in group H was strong contender to qualify for next round but they are eliminated. Spain first game against Cabo Verde was not disappointing because we have seen that Cabo Verde emerged as a strong team as they didn't allowed any team to win a match played against them. 

Crazy to see a team that just a few years was led by absolute football celebrities like Suarez or Cavani not even securing 2nd place in the group. And moreover, getting taken out by CABO VERDE! Truly historical outcome we're witnessing here.

[GIF-JOBS]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

But I don't think Spain played very well, rather Spain was worse than Uruguay in attack, they won this match by only 1-0, they were not able to score any more goals after scoring the first goal in the 42nd minute, they did not perform in this match in a way that I would say they deserve the title, if they go with this performance, I am not sure how far they can go, but their chances of winning the title are not enough. France and Argentina are the first possible candidates for the title this time too.

[BlackBoss_]

Brazil's opponent in the round of 32 is a strong Japan, where Brazil will have to compete very hard to achieve victory against Japan. Japan will face Brazil in the round of 32 from the second position after drawing against the Netherlands and Sweden in the group stage. However, Brazil supporters may easily take Japan, but if they want to defeat Japan, Brazil will have to perform much better.

Japan is a strongest national team from Asia and they have shown their quality from World Cup 2022 as well as many matches after that. Japan nowadays can compete equally with many biggest, strongest and most successful national teams so they will play against Brazil without fear. Japan seems to be in their best form even they don't have Kaoru Mitoma for this World Cup by an injury, whereas Brazil are still figuring out their best squad and tactics for this World Cup.

Brazil can see an extra attacking solution with Neymar return but in general their operation still depends too much on Vinicius Junior while we witnessed that Vinicius Junior is a star player who can have some underperformed matches. To beat Japan, Brazil will need a best version of Vinicius Junior if his teammates can not improve their performance quality.

[B-BossMan]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

Yes it's true and I was much more impressed with the Spain’s performance, their performance and sonsistent are uncomparable,despite the Uruguay goalkeepers performance for some unexpected save he did during the match, Sain truly played as expected to some extent. Their first match was quite poor and so annoying but that aside, I must say a well do e job to them on this great achievement against Uruguay.

Also, yesterday's match if France against Norway was so interesting and I can attest that the France will do more than this in the up coming matches ahead. Dembele is very tallented player for that his credible hat trick.

[PremiumcryptoHub]

In yesterday's match between France and Norway, France was already very likely to win, and they won the match with a big margin of 1-4 goals, but even after that we wanted to see a crazy match between Erling Haaland vs Kylian Mbappé in the end, but that didn't happen, Erling Haaland didn't even take the field, and France easily defeated Norway without any problems, Norway had already confirmed the knockout stage, so they had no expectations of winning this match, but even after that we expected a great strong performance match, but that didn't happen.

France were strong on paper in yesterday's match between France and Norway in the FIFA World Cup but we were waiting to see the fierce competition between Mbappe and Erling Haaland in this match. However, you should note that PSG's most reliable player, Ousmane Dembele, played better than Mbappe in this game, as he became the second player to complete a hat-trick in this World Cup. We can already see that the victory over Norway will see last year's runners-up France face Sweden in the Round of 32 match, so we can easily guess that France will be able to secure a victory against Sweden in that knockout stage match of the FIFA World Cup.

[bitLeap]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

I admit that Spain has a pretty good squad, but to be a strong contender, I think they'll need to prove it first by beating France or Germany. In my opinion, based on their performance so far in the group stage, Spain performance is still below that of Germany and France. It could be said that Spain squad is nothing more than a mirror image of Barcelona squad.

[Baki202]

Furthermore Spain's dominance as in the previous era clearly shows its weaknesses, even though they managed to beat Saudi Arabia with a promising score. But looking at the draw against Cape Verde and the narrow victory against Uruguay, their game seems to have lost its way. Spain may have secured first place in Group H, but if their performance is anything like their previous two matches, it will be difficult to compete for a place in the next round after getting through the group stage.

I agree with you, but don't you think that we are expecting too much from Spain and that's why we feel they ain't meeting up to expectations. Honestly, I'm not proud of them and it's true that if they continue this way, they will be eliminated earlier than expected. The French guys are giving us what we expected from them

And that is why whe it comes to football prediction and expectation are not always right because there was high hipes for spain and there is nothing wrong with the fans having high expect and even them as footballers there is always pressure on them and spain have the highest number of points in there group so there fans should losing there selfs spain will do there best in the world cup.

And they won there game against uruguay because there is no way that uruguay would have won and they were playing to aggressive because look at the number of yellow cards that they have and they also got a red card and that would have been another perfect opportunity for them to score another goal but it seems to be another impossible mission but at the end of the day they won.

[Fakhrulenclix]

In yesterday's match between France and Norway, France was already very likely to win, and they won the match with a big margin of 1-4 goals, but even after that we wanted to see a crazy match between Erling Haaland vs Kylian Mbappé in the end, but that didn't happen, Erling Haaland didn't even take the field, and France easily defeated Norway without any problems, Norway had already confirmed the knockout stage, so they had no expectations of winning this match, but even after that we expected a great strong performance match, but that didn't happen.

France were strong on paper in yesterday's match between France and Norway in the FIFA World Cup but we were waiting to see the fierce competition between Mbappe and Erling Haaland in this match. However, you should note that PSG's most reliable player, Ousmane Dembele, played better than Mbappe in this game, as he became the second player to complete a hat-trick in this World Cup. We can already see that the victory over Norway will see last year's runners-up France face Sweden in the Round of 32 match, so we can easily guess that France will be able to secure a victory against Sweden in that knockout stage match of the FIFA World Cup.

I didn't see much in the match even though it was supposed to be a competition between the two best strikers right now, Erling Haaland and Mbappe. I think it was very unfair because the two teams have an overall quality gap, and of course France was heavily favored, and they proved it. 

And what surprised me is that the French players didn't seem to ease off even when they were sure to win. It's like these players are really ambitious to keep showing their best performance. That's definitely a positive thing, but hopefully throughout this World Cup match there won't be any issues with the French players, especially their key players.

[IjawMan]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

Spain are sure to go beyond the next round of this world cup and no way any viewers that has been watching this event will say that a team as Spain is not a contender. By individual players quality Spain is better than Uruguay, not to mention as a team

And if the Uruguay defenders could not stop the Spanish attackers how can a single goalkeeper be singled out for been the reason for Spain victory.

[Hewlet]

Judging by Spain's standing in the world of football, it's naturally normal for people to expect more from them. Their first match was so disappointing, as it even ruined many tickets. That alone is enough for people to be angry with them, if need be. But the second one showed their strength a little, thought South Africa was weak. Finally, the match against Uruguay was supposed to deliver at least 2 goals, and if at all, another one in the second half, but it's not so. This is hinting that they might still climb higher, but securing the trophy this way is slimmer than people thought.

In group H, Cabo Verde performance was more impressive as they are playing there first ever FIFA world cup. Cabo Verde remained unbeaten at group stage and were able to qualify for next round because of their all three draws. .

One beauty in the FIFA world cup is when teams that have dreamed of qualifying for the world cup eventually qualifies and somehow progresses further than most persons actually thinks. This is the story of Cabo Verde and you could tell that qualifying into the round of 32 means the world to them. For them, it's not about winning the world cup. Rather, it's about playing in your debut and seeing that you're actually proving skeptical wrong.

In the knock out stage, not converting a goal will not be enough to keep some of these new teams but they sure will appreciate every moment they were able to stay in the world cup.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

I agree with you, anybody who is current in national football knows that Spain is a football playing nation, they have some really good players and some of us know this from their past performances in previous World Cups, they are several other countries with better football team of course but when talking about Spain and Uruguay, evidently and even past records doesn't compare both teams to be equal in any way, Spain is always way ahead of Uruguay.

And yeah, about the goalkeeper, you are absolutely right as well, if Uruguay had a better goalkeeper, it still wouldn't have helped much because players and goalkeepers work together, in a team where the goalkeeper is good and the players are weak, such a team will still face losts of defeat because the more constant ball passes the defenders reach the goalkeeper, the higher the chance the goalkeeper will miss and goal will be scored by the opposing team.

[Halifat]

Well Spain won their match but got lucky because the goalkeeper of Uruguay is Muslera who is out of form since forever!
Are there no better goalkeeper options in Uruguay's squad!?...not that it matters now since they are now out of the World Cup.
Spain currently doesn't look like contenders to me!

Spain played better than Uruguay, even if Uruguay first choice goalkeeper was fit to play for Uruguay against Spain, Spain would have still be the victor and he wouldn't have stopped Spain from winning Uruguay. Spain are contenders, you will see it in the next round of the World Cup.

I admit that Spain has a pretty good squad, but to be a strong contender, I think they'll need to prove it first by beating France or Germany. In my opinion, based on their performance so far in the group stage, Spain performance is still below that of Germany and France. It could be said that Spain squad is nothing more than a mirror image of Barcelona squad.

Definitely spain performance has dropped because I don't see any team in that group stage that can be able to give them headache but unfortunately they encountered it, especially in their first match of the competition which they draw with the smallest nation. With the regard to what you have said about Spain not up to the standard of France and Germany is absolutely true, they have enough squad who are fit to take them to the promised land but I don't know what is with them. Before this competition I was so confidence for them when I check their group but I was shocked after everything. Let's see how they will play the next round, but I'm sure they will fix their mistakes.