World Cup 2026: Page 22 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One more in the Tolly

World Cup 2026

Gunner89

i like old man rodri racking up 90's while zubi chills on the bench

Xcdude24

Truely some end-to-end stuff with game on right now. One of my many complaints about this WC was the dilution of quality but A) the lower quality teams have shown way more grit and determination despite lacking that high technical level and B) you get more excitement with less organization sometimes. Sometimes I think given how high of a level the PL is at now, you miss the pure entertainment. Been pleasantly surprised with a lot of these matches

GooneriC

Iran team full of the same old men from last time , they won't last the 90. NZ just have to hang in there and wear them down. Pity about Azmoun , he would add some quality

MistaT

Despite some small/new team results, I’m not feeling the 48 team tourney.

A week between group games is far too long. It’s also way harder to speculate and track potential knockout round stages. Everything right now feels very abstract and individual games are harder to care about.

Burnwinter

If we were waiting on a round of 16 and not 32 I'd be a factor of two more invested in the group stage 🥱

awooga83

Burnwinter round 16 is when the real tournament begins anyone who progresses from that point fair play and it's more credible this is just overly inflated and I too am not that interested in this group stage right now.

TambourineMan

There are definitely way too many teams but much like the Conference League, for teams/countries that would normally not get to participate it's a dream and for that reason I'm willing to see past the downsides.

Asterix

I'm still loving it. I'd never otherwise watch some of these teams and it's been great fun so far.

Claudius

Asterix the volume and scheduling of games means that I’m watching a much lower percentage of matches than usual. But other than SA-Nexico, games I’ve watched have been good, particularly US-Paraguay, Ivory Coast-Ecuador, Cape Cerde-Spain, and Egypt-Belgium. Cape Verde’s defensive structure and goalkeeping were excellent.

The idea that we are 5 days in and Sunil haven’t seen Senegal, England, Portugal, France and Argentina is a bit mad though. That along with the kicking. Times changing daily. A tournament in a normal country would give us a steady diet of 2-3 games a day at predictable times.

Sicario2

Asterix you are luckily that the timings work out perfectly in Australia

Bryant

I just got home from Kroenke's palace and watched Iran vs. NZ. FIFA had a good price for the tickets so I was able to get close to the pitch.

Very entertaining game, end to end. Despite how there's a ton of those Trumpian Persians in LA who kept waving the old Iranian monarchy flag, they were very loud for the team. I think 2-2 was a fair result in the end. I was impressed by the Iranian RB and the Just Wood combo for NZ.

And yes, I was close to Infantino, who loved to take a million selfies with fans. Next to him was George Weah.

Overall, it was a great experience and I'm still buzzing!

invisibleman18

Sicario2 yes and no. Pretty good in NZ with the games being in the day time for a change. Ideal in the weekend but a bit of a pain on workdays. NZ game at 1pm on a work day today wasn't ideal. But really entertaining game and good for the game here if the team can do well and not get embarrassed.

Asterix

Sicario2 well, almost. There are still a fair few games kicking off at 2am and 3am and 5am.

But my mornings at work are spent quite pleasantly thank you very much. Close the door and say I'm on a Teams meeting.

Sicario2

I have to say I haven’t minded the World Cup despite the shit hours for UK folk.

The football has been more entertaining than the Premiership that’s for sure. And even the ‘shit’ teams are competitive.

Qwiss

Sicario2 And even the ‘shit’ teams are competitive.

Like Tunisia, Curacao and Paraguay?

TBH I don't think the level of football has been very impressive so far. Hopefully it'll pick up for the knockouts.

banduan

All Asian teams unbeaten

USArsenal

Qwiss Like Tunisia, Curacao and Paraguay?

Ehhhhh thats not really fair.. I mean, yeah, Curacao got hammered by Germany, but at least it was competitive for the majority of the first half. Lol. Paraguay ran into a US team that was playing at home, in the opening game, and who looked way more impressive than I imagined they would. Tunisia, well, yeah, no. Lol. But teams like Cape Verde, Haiti and Qatar have at least put a good accounting of themselves out there so far. I know its the first round of games still, and im sure normal service will resume.

Not a huge fan of the expended teams though. Too many games, too long in between, we're already through 5 days and 4 groups havent played a game yet. Its good that it gives teams time to recover, but you can also lose momentum waiting that long. And there have only been a handful of games that showcased decent quality..

Mirth

To me it's not so much the expanded group stages - I end up supporting the underdog anyway - but the fact that the third place times can qualify. Read somewhere that you basically just need positive GD and 3 points and you're virtually guaranteed to get through somehow in this format

As a result, you get situations where Spain had an incentive to rest their best attackers on the opening game of the world cup which is unthinkable to me. And it's hilarious that it backfired but even then Spain are still in a very comfortable position so it didn't really cost them anything.

Tl;dr: it's fun seeing underdogs in the group stages but only because they can cause an upset. Otherwise this is just an extended qualification round.

Sicario2

Mirth true I think you need to separate the group stages with the knock out rounds. View the group stages as glorified friendlies and the last 32 will be really entertaining.

Qwiss

Mirth And it's hilarious that it backfired but even then Spain are still in a very comfortable position so it didn't really cost them anything.

Yeah this is a big issue. Spain drew with Cape Verde and essentially it doesn't really matter. Look at the 2002 World Cup, the drama of France losing to Senegal in their opening match. Them, Portugal and Argentina all getting knocked out in the groups. We'd be lucky to have one half as dramatic exit in the groups this year.

And what does it do to teams now that have a win. Will they just sit back for the rest of the group games and try to hold what they have?

Mirth

Sicario2 fine but then there needs to be a reduction in meaningless international games during the club season!

Qwiss

Sicario2 View the group stages as glorified friendlies

Fucking hell that really is damning about a World Cup. Fuck FIFA, fuck Infantino, fuck the US. They're ruining international football.

Sicario2

Qwiss the 2002 World Cup knock outs were shit as a result. At least this way the big teams will be in the knockout so after the group stages it will be a very strong World Cup.

The fact that there has been many draws is a good thing as games will still have a lot riding on them in the third game. But it’s all about the last 32 onwards.

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