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

[JiiBs]

There's no similarity to me. Congo were not stupid enough to give away a 2-0 win and loss it all in a matter of three minutes. I even respected Congo's loss than that of Senegal. For the better part of 85 minutes, Senegal were the clear favorites and were frustrating Belgium but then it just took one error for Lukaku to capitalize. Who told Senegal that football is easy or something you could joke with? It's crazy how a team who were two goals down came back and won, considering how very poorly they performed. Senegal really disappointed Africans and their fans cause this is a very poor and careless behavior.

Dr. Congo didn’t deserve to win in this game, they deserved being knocked out. What kind of team would get a 3 goal advantage and was able to hold out on that till the 80+ minutes, only for them to concede 2 quick goals in to bring the game to a draw and losses in the extra time. It just doesn’t make sense that they were ready to advance. The penalty situation was a little questionable but, the least they could have done was win.

[laspol65]

There's no similarity to me. Congo were not stupid enough to give away a 2-0 win and loss it all in a matter of three minutes. I even respected Congo's loss than that of Senegal. For the better part of 85 minutes, Senegal were the clear favorites and were frustrating Belgium but then it just took one error for Lukaku to capitalize. Who told Senegal that football is easy or something you could joke with? It's crazy how a team who were two goals down came back and won, considering how very poorly they performed. Senegal really disappointed Africans and their fans cause this is a very poor and careless behavior.

Dr. Congo didn’t deserve to win in this game, they deserved being knocked out. What kind of team would get a 3 goal advantage and was able to hold out on that till the 80+ minutes, only for them to concede 2 quick goals in to bring the game to a draw and losses in the extra time. It just doesn’t make sense that they were ready to advance. The penalty situation was a little questionable but, the least they could have done was win.

In this FIFA World Cup, the normal teams were ready to surprise the respected teams, i.e. the strong teams. In this match, the DR Congo team almost surprised the England team. They scored a goal early and kept the England team under pressure for a long time, although the England team won but at the end.
Those who bet on the England team in this match were basically prepared to lose, but the England team players turned around and they were able to win in the end. This match was just as surprising as the Senegal and Belgium match.

[nikola22]

At this point im so pissed by what I just witnessed, Senegal are the worse African countries in this tournament, Cape Verde are even better than them. I saw Senegal as the best African team in this World Cup than Morocco because of how direct they are but after tonight they are the worst and shouldn't have qualified for the round of 32. How can you be leading 2nil till 86th minutes and you lost concentration, conceded the first goal and instead of hanging on to the ball, trying to delay at least till 90 minutes before doing anything, defend till the last minute, this guys start panicking as soon as Lukaku score till they equalized. This made Belgium tat could not play anything started playing as if they're good, my goodness, Senegal are just wasteful. If I'm suppose to have hope with Senegal and Morocco in this FWC as the only countries to go far I then I have made a mistake, I should replace Senegal with Cape Verde, Morocco and Cape Verde are the two best African countries in this world cup.

I wouldn't say Senegal played worse than all the African teams. it happens that a few minutes of focus loss costs the entire match. for at least 80 minutes Senegal gave Belgium no chance and the game seemed to be going one-sided. I think the Belgian players themselves looked hopeless and even Tielemans and Trossard got into an altercation right on the pitch. at this level of performance Belgium have a good chance of being eliminated in the next round.

[Sandra_hakeem]

Belgium leveled the score at 2-2 in three minutes. In extra time, Belgium won a penalty, achieving a historic comeback against Senegal. Tielemans easily placed the penalty into the corner. Senegal had the win in their hands, but suddenly the match went to extra time, and they lost there – what a disappointment.

It's either this whole WC is fixed, or the Senegalese players are the laziest set of unprofessionals I have seen in a major competition in football. Let's forget about other similar cases (because if we should take them into consideration, it only validates the first suspicion above), something feels very off about this particular game. How weak did they become, that they've held on since the first minute, but couldn't defend through the last 5 minutes? Even if we decide to assume Lukaku's goal was a mistake, why did the players allow it to happen again within 3 minutes? Someone is about to respond to me like--- "you know it's football, anything can happen".

We've seen many similar situations in this World Cup. The sadness of the Senegalese players and fans was profound. They lost a match they should have won It's heartbreaking.

Just as it was about to set out, they betrayed the African race.

[Oluwa-btc]

It was literally what Ivory Coast did yesterday when they played against Norway and finally lost.

It is the same with Senegal. Dominate the first part of the game and lost it all to Belgium. When it is time to show up for themselves,  these African sides always flop badly. I can not believe Congo, Senegal and Ivory Coast are all gone in a space of two days pathetic.

[Sexylizzy2813]

At this point im so pissed by what I just witnessed, Senegal are the worse African countries in this tournament, Cape Verde are even better than them. I saw Senegal as the best African team in this World Cup than Morocco because of how direct they are but after tonight they are the worst and shouldn't have qualified for the round of 32. How can you be leading 2nil till 86th minutes and you lost concentration, conceded the first goal and instead of hanging on to the ball, trying to delay at least till 90 minutes before doing anything, defend till the last minute, this guys start panicking as soon as Lukaku score till they equalized. This made Belgium tat could not play anything started playing as if they're good, my goodness, Senegal are just wasteful. If I'm suppose to have hope with Senegal and Morocco in this FWC as the only countries to go far I then I have made a mistake, I should replace Senegal with Cape Verde, Morocco and Cape Verde are the two best African countries in this world cup.

I wouldn't say Senegal played worse than all the African teams. it happens that a few minutes of focus loss costs the entire match. for at least 80 minutes Senegal gave Belgium no chance and the game seemed to be going one-sided. I think the Belgian players themselves looked hopeless and even Tielemans and Trossard got into an altercation right on the pitch. at this level of performance Belgium have a good chance of being eliminated in the next round.

Senegal was the better side from the beginning of the first 45mins till the 86th minutes when Belgium got their first goal, with the pressure the Africa side game Belgium I wasn't expecting them to score any goal but as soon as they felt comfortable Lukaku got that space to score, Belgium have been terrible in this competition and it pains me that they started waking up against an African team. What you said about Senegal losing concentration is what really happened and they just need to do same thing Morocco did, hold the ball pass it around, commit Belgium players, doing these things till 90mins and while frustrating Belgium they shouldn't attack instead crowd the midfield because Belgium have no idea of what to do next, before you know it the game has ended, it was suppose to be part of their game plan but Senegal choose to mess their chances of getting into the next round.

[Nheer]

Snip

I caught half of the second half of the Belgium vs Senegal game, enough to see Belgium's goal comeback, putting them back in the game, much to Senegal's misfortune.

The England vs DR Congo game was thrilling, for me, the game was already won by Congo, it was a very good game to watch, it captivated me from beginning to end. England should be very grateful to Harry Kane. it was a game full of twists and turns and many tense moments.

European teams are having a lot of difficulty eliminating African teams in these qualifiers, while in the group stage, we saw teams score 7x1 against weaker teams.

Belgium won! They chased the loss in the final minutes of the game, and that penalty came as a godsend, but Senegal played a great game and dominated the first two halves. In the end, for me (from what I saw), they played better.

It was a pity that Senegal had to leave this way after giving their best. The extra time penalty made things worse for them.

England's game was not so bad but they lacked creativity in their team and it made things difficult for them. I got frustrated with how England build up their game, no urgency, no special strategy which made it difficult to penetrate Congo defense even when they are not defending hard. At some point I thought I lost my bet but luckily Harry Kane turned up.

Now it's not just about having big names, even top countries will have to fight their way to eliminate weaker teams now. Teams like Germany, Netherlands and Belgium are not really performing well that's why they are having difficulty winning games with ease. Belgium got lucky today.

[alegotardo]

It was literally what Ivory Coast did yesterday when they played against Norway and finally lost.

It is the same with Senegal. Dominate the first part of the game and lost it all to Belgium. When it is time to show up for themselves,  these African sides always flop badly. I can not believe Congo, Senegal and Ivory Coast are all gone in a space of two days pathetic.

I am hoping that Cape Verde advances and gets to face Brazil... than unfortunately for them, we would then have to eliminate them
But it would be very exciting to see these two Portuguese-speaking national teams play against each other.

Of course... for a country that already gone much further than most of us expected, beating Argentina would be certainly a huge upset. But as Brazilians, we would be forever grateful to Cape Verde if they managed to pull it off!

Other than that, I was also expecting the African national teams to have stronger performances on this edition of the FIFA World Cup. Even so, compared to where African football was a few years ago, these teams have made tremendous progress in terms of technical quality.

[snipie]

Other than that, I was also expecting the African national teams to have stronger performances on this edition of the FIFA World Cup. Even so, compared to where African football was a few years ago, these teams have made tremendous progress in terms of technical quality.

I do agree with you partially. The only problem here is that this version of the World Cup is quite different from the previous ones because the number of nations was expanded so we have weaker teams joining the tournament, thus less risk to face several top teams in the same group and the more chance to advance from the group stage.
United States 1 - 0 Bosnia Herzegovina in the first half. No blame for the European team. This is their first time playing there against the host team. They have to avoid returning home with a lot of goals, that's it.

[Popkon6]

At this point im so pissed by what I just witnessed, Senegal are the worse African countries in this tournament, Cape Verde are even better than them. I saw Senegal as the best African team in this World Cup than Morocco because of how direct they are but after tonight they are the worst and shouldn't have qualified for the round of 32. How can you be leading 2nil till 86th minutes and you lost concentration, conceded the first goal and instead of hanging on to the ball, trying to delay at least till 90 minutes before doing anything, defend till the last minute, this guys start panicking as soon as Lukaku score till they equalized. This made Belgium tat could not play anything started playing as if they're good, my goodness, Senegal are just wasteful. If I'm suppose to have hope with Senegal and Morocco in this FWC as the only countries to go far I then I have made a mistake, I should replace Senegal with Cape Verde, Morocco and Cape Verde are the two best African countries in this world cup.

I wouldn't say Senegal played worse than all the African teams. it happens that a few minutes of focus loss costs the entire match. for at least 80 minutes Senegal gave Belgium no chance and the game seemed to be going one-sided. I think the Belgian players themselves looked hopeless and even Tielemans and Trossard got into an altercation right on the pitch. at this level of performance Belgium have a good chance of being eliminated in the next round.

If I say that Belgium was able to win this match because of good luck. Because the performance of the Belgian team was for a long time, Senegal was guaranteed to win in the end, but the Senegalese players were inattentive for a while. And the Belgian players were waiting for this right moment, but the Belgian team will definitely be eliminated in the next round because their performance is not very good. There is a lot of resentment among their own players,
but in this match I cannot blame my future Deni because I supported the Senegalese team. But the Senegalese team did not get the desired result for a while, and failed to pass the next sixteen.

[Delaforetnoire]

To be honest, I didn’t expect England to secure such a dramatic victory , as I’d initially thought they’d win this match easily, but it turned out that Congo put in such a good performance in this match. Congo really had all the England supporters on the edge of their seats , and, quite unexpectedly, they managed to score just moments after the match had started. England tried to make up the deficit , but Congo put up such a strong fight, and the Congo goalkeeper was in impressive form in this match.

Of course England is playing well but Dr. Congo's players are playing the game fairly well. One thing in particular that I like is that they tried their best to stay with England. Congo was ahead at the beginning but then fell behind.

While watching (England and Congo) match, Definitely surprised by Goal keeper/Y. Wissa's play and this dribbling. It can be said without a doubt that they actually tried their best.

[Solokan]

Source: https://mediaindonesia.com/piala-dunia-2026/906547/hasil-32-besar-piala-dunia-2026-inggris-vs-rd-kongo-dua-gol-harry-kane-pastikan-kemenangan-the-three-lions
harry Kane performed exceptionally well in the match against Congo, scoring two goals against Congo. In my opinion, the match was full of tension because both teams performed well, and Congo also played well, as evidenced by Congo's first goal against England through Cipenga. When Congo was ahead by one goal, I was a bit nervous because I was afraid of losing my bet because I favored England to win. Fortunately, England scored two goals through Harry Kane, which ultimately resulted in England winning 2-1. In retrospect, it was fitting that Congo's match against Portugal ended in a draw because Congo is a strong and difficult team to beat. However, it is very unfortunate that Congo lost that match to England, and finally, his struggle in this season's World Cup is enough Now he must work harder to play again in the next World Cup and perform even better

England has now qualified for the last 16 and of course England must prepare everything for the upcoming match because it could be that the opponent England will face is stronger than Congo, but in my opinion, in the next match England will face Mexico I think there is a big potential for England to win what do you think?

[laijsica]

There's no similarity to me. Congo were not stupid enough to give away a 2-0 win and loss it all in a matter of three minutes. I even respected Congo's loss than that of Senegal. For the better part of 85 minutes, Senegal were the clear favorites and were frustrating Belgium but then it just took one error for Lukaku to capitalize. Who told Senegal that football is easy or something you could joke with? It's crazy how a team who were two goals down came back and won, considering how very poorly they performed. Senegal really disappointed Africans and their fans cause this is a very poor and careless behavior.

Dr. Congo didn’t deserve to win in this game, they deserved being knocked out. What kind of team would get a 3 goal advantage and was able to hold out on that till the 80+ minutes, only for them to concede 2 quick goals in to bring the game to a draw and losses in the extra time. It just doesn’t make sense that they were ready to advance. The penalty situation was a little questionable but, the least they could have done was win.

In this FIFA World Cup, the normal teams were ready to surprise the respected teams, i.e. the strong teams. In this match, the DR Congo team almost surprised the England team. They scored a goal early and kept the England team under pressure for a long time, although the England team won but at the end.
Those who bet on the England team in this match were basically prepared to lose, but the England team players turned around and they were able to win in the end. This match was just as surprising as the Senegal and Belgium match.

DR Congo After scoring the first goal in the 7th minute of the match, England faced many adverse situations and at one point I thought they might lose the match. I was scared that the best teams in this World Cup would be eliminated and I was prepared to lose the bet. The wait ended with Harry Kane first goal in the 75 minute of the match. However, there was a fear that if the match went to penalties, either team would be lucky. England scored another goal in the 86 minute of the match and the fate of the match was decided at that moment.

[Charcol]

To be honest, I didn’t expect England to secure such a dramatic victory , as I’d initially thought they’d win this match easily, but it turned out that Congo put in such a good performance in this match. Congo really had all the England supporters on the edge of their seats , and, quite unexpectedly, they managed to score just moments after the match had started. England tried to make up the deficit , but Congo put up such a strong fight, and the Congo goalkeeper was in impressive form in this match.

Of course England is playing well but Dr. Congo's players are playing the game fairly well. One thing in particular that I like is that they tried their best to stay with England. Congo was ahead at the beginning but then fell behind.

While watching (England and Congo) match, Definitely surprised by Goal keeper/Y. Wissa's play and this dribbling. It can be said without a doubt that they actually tried their best.

At the beginning, we have to praise the DR Congo team. Because even though they lost in the end, they left England in trouble for most of the match. And Lionel Mpasi played well because it took England some time to get back into the match, otherwise England could have gotten back into the match much earlier. Lionel Mpasi made some interesting saves. In the end, if it wasn't for Harry Kane, England would probably have lost and gone home. Most of the bettors who bet on England were in a really uncomfortable situation early in the match.

[BlackBoss_]

I do agree with you partially. The only problem here is that this version of the World Cup is quite different from the previous ones because the number of nations was expanded so we have weaker teams joining the tournament, thus less risk to face several top teams in the same group and the more chance to advance from the group stage.
United States 1 - 0 Bosnia Herzegovina in the first half. No blame for the European team. This is their first time playing there against the host team. They have to avoid returning home with a lot of goals, that's it.

England and Belgium had two hard matches but they eventually made comebacks and won their matches. It's not easy way to win their matches against weaker teams like Senegal and Congo but they already finished their matches well. There will be criticisms against poor performances of Belgium and England but they will have some days to recover and prepare for their next matches.

The USA win 2 - 0 against Bosnia minutes ago and it's unbelievable that all three host nations: USA, Mexico and Canada already won their matches and will all participate in a next round of World Cup 2026.

[Luzin]

There are many good players in Germany, but they failed in this World Cup. I’m quite surprised, because I was really rooting for Germany to win against Paraguay. Funny enough, I read a lot of news that many players refused to take penalties. Joshua Kimmich had a hard time finding players who were willing even Leon Goretzka had to be asked twice by Kimmich, and it wasn’t just Goretzka there were Waldemar Anton, Nathaniel Brown, and even Malick Thiaw who refused. It seems like the German players don’t have strong mental strength under pressure.

[Akbarkoe]

England and Belgium had two hard matches but they eventually made comebacks and won their matches. It's not easy way to win their matches against weaker teams like Senegal and Congo but they already finished their matches well. There will be criticisms against poor performances of Belgium and England but they will have some days to recover and prepare for their next matches.

The USA win 2 - 0 against Bosnia minutes ago and it's unbelievable that all three host nations: USA, Mexico and Canada already won their matches and will all participate in a next round of World Cup 2026.

DR Congo is indeed a tough team in this world cup fortunately harry kane and the team did a very good job this time although sem,pat lost in the first half with 1-0 by Congo until the first half was over but the second half really made us open our eyes that Harry kane is indeed a sharp spear, and agree that Belgium did meet a difficult opponent, teams from African countries are very troublesome for this world cup.

Their entry into the last 16 is very interesting but I doubt that after this they will be able to make it to the quarterfinals smoothly, it was already very difficult before let alone now as they will meet the ones who also made it well into the last 16.

[Razmirraz]

It was literally what Ivory Coast did yesterday when they played against Norway and finally lost.

It is the same with Senegal. Dominate the first part of the game and lost it all to Belgium. When it is time to show up for themselves,  these African sides always flop badly. I can not believe Congo, Senegal and Ivory Coast are all gone in a space of two days pathetic.

I am hoping that Cape Verde advances and gets to face Brazil... than unfortunately for them, we would then have to eliminate them
But it would be very exciting to see these two Portuguese-speaking national teams play against each other.

Of course... for a country that already gone much further than most of us expected, beating Argentina would be certainly a huge upset. But as Brazilians, we would be forever grateful to Cape Verde if they managed to pull it off!

My hope is the opposite. I've been looking forward to a classic World Cup clash between Argentina and Brazil for a long time, and this time the two South American giants are on track to face each other in the semi-finals if they win their last 16 and quarter-finals. If this scenario goes smoothly, then the dream semifinal match will come true. So far, Cape Verde has made a big surprise in the World Cup, but facing Argentina will not be an easy task for them, especially since their status as defending champions, of course the motivation of the Argentine players is very big to defend the title they managed to win in the previous edition.

[meser#]

Senegal let a qualification spot slip away in the final three minutes.
Both goals conceded by the Senegal goalkeeper were very soft; the second goal was entirely his fault.
Just as the match seemed headed for a penalty shootout, they handed the win to Belgium by conceding a penalty in the final minute of the second period of extra time.
As a sports fan, I felt sorry for Senegal, but unfortunately, these things happen in football. They might well have advanced to later stages, but they were eliminated in the Round of 32.

[AprilioMP]

Of course England is playing well but Dr. Congo's players are playing the game fairly well. One thing in particular that I like is that they tried their best to stay with England. Congo was ahead at the beginning but then fell behind.

While watching (England and Congo) match, Definitely surprised by Goal keeper/Y. Wissa's play and this dribbling. It can be said without a doubt that they actually tried their best.

What caught my attention in the England vs. DR Congo match was the DR Congo’s fairly solid defense. Tuchel forced the English players to resort to a long-pass strategy, similar to how Brazil played against Japan. But England’s strategy in the first half didn’t work. Tuanzebe, Mbemba, and Wan-Bissaka were very quick to cut off the long passes from the English players.
Overall, the DR Congo’s performance was excellent. Maybe it’s because they want to catch the eye of European clubs—I’m not sure.

The most exciting match besides England vs. DR Congo was Belgium vs. Senegal. Belgium was already up by two goals, but Senegal was unable to withstand the onslaught from the Belgian players.