GENERAL World Cup Thread

Sorry, i should have been clearer, he does the punditry for LOI for RTE when they bother their b****x to show a game

It’s head to head not goal difference.

https://www.fifa.com/en/tournaments/mens/worldcup/canadamexicousa2026/articles/groups-how-teams-qualify-tie-breakers

Screenshot below is from the official World Cup app.

US stadiums look amazing

From either team ?

There was a great building spree in the 90s and 00s, where multipurpose "cookie cutter" stadiums were replaced with more individualistic unique ones.

Many of the MLB ones were designed like ones from a century earlier and are fantastic.

The problem now though is that there is a bit of regression going on.

Football (American) teams are building new climate control controlled ones with translucent roofs, because they can be used all year round and become candidates to host a Superbowl or college football (American) National Championship game.

But as a result football (American) games being played in them are losing the element of weather, the number of games being played in wet or snowy or windy conditions on a winter Sunday afternoon are diminishing.

The Buffalo Bills have bucked the trend however, opening a new stadium without a roof, in a cold weather city later this year.

God how quick was that goal?

I’m on them not to qualify so probably nick a draw here and then go through after Brazil batter them

look on here whenever a 50/50 penalty call is turned down in the premier league season. “Stonewall” is thrown around with wild abandonment

there was a guy on here saying that the ref was corrupt. Scotland gave it a go in the second half and might have snatched a draw but overall they were second best team in the game. They didn’t have one shot on target in the whole game. Too little and a little bit too late in attack from Scotland. Morocco settled for the 1 nil lead, should have scored one or two more

So because of the Head to head rule, 4 teams in groups a-d have nothing at all to play for in their last game, but if it was goal difference they'd all still have something to play for.

From the clips I'm seeing go viral it appears to be Henry and Ibrahimovic just absolutely tormenting Alexey Lalas in the studio at every chance they get.

Turkey are some enigma of a footballing nation. For a huge population (90m) that’s footballing mad, has a decent enough pedigree in European football (i.e. Turkish clubs always reasonably well represented in European competitions) and regularly produce some really good talent (Guler, Calhanoglu, Yildiz, Hakan Sukur, Tugay, Buruk Yilmaz, Rustu Recber, Arda Turan to name a few current and past players) - they don’t half punch well below their weight.

Hard to believe 2002 was the last WC they reached before this latest implosion. Looking through their squad they’ve plenty at decent level European clubs, they should not be getting bet by Australia or Paraguay. I’d say there’ll be an inquisition in Istanbul this week.

There's pros and cons with the head to head. It seems like it will lead to more dead rubber games.

The issue with goal difference, especially in an expanded competition with more weaker teams, is that come the last match a team can rack up a high score against an already eliminated side.
It would seem unfair in that scenario if Team A has beaten Team B, for Team A to go out because Team B beat an already eliminated team 5-0.

Although in some ways it is even more unfair on the cross group 3rd place rankings if you have one awful team in a group then you can boost your goal difference.

Might be of interest to some, the BBC knockouts are populated based on the current rankings of all the groups. Some mammoth games there (although obviously unlikely to happen)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/world-cup/schedule#KnockoutStage