FIFA World Cup 2026

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The World Cup is here, and it is enormous.

For the first time ever, 48 teams, 104 matches, 39 days, played across the
United States, Canada, and Mexico. That is 40 more games than Qatar. The whole thing runs from June 11 to July 19, with the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

This is the home thread for all of it. Group stage, knockouts, the lot. Post
your reactions, your hot takes, your suffering. Whether your team is flying or already on the plane home, pull up a chair.

How this works

This thread is the running conversation for the tournament. Drop your match
reactions, predictions, and arguments here as games happen. If a particular
match or storyline gets big enough, we will spin off its own thread.

The basics

• Format: 12 groups of 4. Top two from each group advance, plus the 8 best third-placed teams. That feeds a new Round of 32.
• Dates: Group stage through June 27, then knockouts. Final on July 19.
• Hosts: USA (11 cities), Mexico (3), Canada (2).

Tell us

• Who are you backing?
• Who is your dark horse? (there is always one)
• Boldest prediction for the final?

No wrong answers, except backing England to win it. Allegedly.

Kick it off below.

[z0rch]

Hahaha ENGUURRRRLAND!

I'm pretty sure we're destined to crash out in the knock outs on penalties as usual, but it could finally be the year we don't mess it up!

From what I've seen so far the Moroccans will definitely give anyone a run for their money and very unusually for a major tournament no-one seems to be mentioning the Germans who have been the only major footballing nation that have taken the shackles off so far and come out guns blazing.

The French have just taken a while going through the gears but had too much offensive firepower for a good Senegalese that will still probably qualify and I expect the same of Norway and Argentina later on tonight against Iraq and Algeria respectively.

Cape Verde holding the mighty Spain to a 1-1 draw in their debut World Cup game and seeing the Scots take over Boston and turn it in to Bannockburn have been my highlights so far!

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My team this year is Australia, and I'm learning all about the England - Australia rivalry in sports (and in general) from my wife

Really excited about the win against Turkey, and let's see what the US match will bring this Friday, I really hope Australia wins!

[Dink]

I don’t have a specific team or player I’m rooting for, it’s more of tourists are blocking up all of Philly and the whole area (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware , Maryland, DC, New York). I get it that it’s a once in a lifetime event but anybody going to the games please learn the biggest custom. Walk across the street at the intersections and don’t block traffic by slowing down to look at something, you’ll cause a car crash. Also please stop going to every state/national park and ruining it for us. You’re loud, obnoxious, litter everywhere. Believe it or not we are pretty clean and want it that way. just speak Spanish or English we know both. Use Google Translate if you have to, just know we won’t understand because your language is different than ours. Ask for help, we aren’t jerks. Just know that you’re straining everyone to the point of breaking because there’s so many of you. It takes 3 countries for us to host it. Please, just please, stop taking photographs of everything and videos. Americans do not want to be on any photo or video, that is tracking us and we like our freedom.
Thanks for letting me rant, we are very happy to have you but we are not in to football like we are in to American football, many of us don’t care how it ends up, or even that it’s going on. Don’t be surprised when people tell you to shut up and definitely say “soccer” not football.

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Heh, I'm sure most of us will not be at the cup in general, and the countries will survive for sure.

We have hosted the championships in Europe in much smaller places and lived, so I wouldn't be too worried, but appreciate the concerns of course.

Also, it is called football, have to disagree there

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Well, let's see what the England - Croatia match will bring tonight

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Was so dead I slept while the game was on, but got the update from my wife that England in the end won..

Not sure how to feel about this one

[z0rch]

Was so dead I slept while the game was on, but got the update from my wife that England in the end won..

Not sure how to feel about this one

You missed maybe the game of the tournament so far mate!

We rode our luck in the first 45 with the Croatians making it difficult to play through the lines and got a huge bit of luck with the forced retake of the penalty, but came out and in the second half looking stronger and think we deserved it overall.

The Croatians scored two great goals though and think they have more than enough in the locker to still qualify from the group!

Ghana next for us on the 23rd in Boston. They scraped a 1-0 win over Panama last night, scoring 5 minutes in to injury time to ruin Panama's hopes of picking up their first WC point in history. Fingers crossed we can maintain this form and make sure we top the group.

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Thank you for the well written summary!

That was a lot of goals per match as well, and the whole penalty thing sounded really actually interesting, can't say I've seen it as much before.

Croatian team has traditionally been pretty strong, and England has been well - England, so the outcome is not all to surprising in the end

Now, let's see what Australia does against the US - I'm hoping for a win there!