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2026 FIFA World Cup megathread (12 Viewers)

Winner?

  • USA USA USA

    Votes: 7 21.9%
  • Brazil

    Votes: 3 9.4%
  • Argentina

    Votes: 1 3.1%
  • England

    Votes: 3 9.4%
  • Germany

    Votes: 2 6.3%
  • Spain

    Votes: 11 34.4%
  • France

    Votes: 3 9.4%
  • Uzbekistan/Show Results

    Votes: 2 6.3%

  • Total voters
    32
  • This poll will close: .
Tuesday's games, all kick offs are 1945 UTC (2:45pm eastern) except the Iraq game which is 1600 (11am eastern):

Europe group B - Kosovo 1-1 Switzerland, Sweden 1-1 Slovenia - Second game is a battle for third with Switzerland and Kosovo having booked the two top spots. Who goes straight through and who goes into the playoffs isn't mathematically certain, but the Swiss lead by three points and 11 goals so are lukewarm favourites to qualify at least.
Europe group D - Belarus 0-0 Greece, Scotland 4-2 Denmark - Denmark surprisingly dropping points at home to Belarus left the door wide open for Scotland to get a big advantage, but they couldn't win in Greece, so rather than needing a draw to qualify, they must win. Whoever doesn't win the group has the playoff spot, Greece and Belarus are just playing for pride.
Europe group E - Bulgaria 2-1 Georgia, Spain 2-2 Turkey - Pretty similar to the first group. Bulgaria and Georgia basically have nothing to play for, Spain and Turkey will qualify and get the playoff spot respectively unless Turkey can win in Spain by at least seven goals.
Europe group H - Austria 1-1 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania 7-1 San Marino - Both the teams in the first game did their job yesterday and they play for all the marbles, Austria having home advantage and a two point lead so win or playoffs for Bosnia. Romania are guaranteed third and will at least get some shooting practice in.
Europe group J - Belgium 7-0 Liechtenstein, Wales 7-1 North Macedonia - Belgium should have been on the beach already, but surprisingly dropped points in glorious nation Kazakhstan so they still have work to do. That said, if you've seen Liechtenstein on a map, first good job finding it, and second this is the equivalent of a one inch putt. The other game is huge. both teams level on points two behind the Belgians so this'll decide the playoff contender. Wales have home field advantage but North Macedonia only nwws ro draw.
Asian playoff - Iraq 2-1 UAE - Second leg of their two leg playoff, the first finishing all square, so everything to play for, and by everything I mean a place in interconfederation roulette.
 
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Scenarios today:
Group D. France clinched 1st. Iceland vs Ukraine. Iceland gets 2nd with W/T. Ukraine gets 2nd with W.
Group I. Italy has to beat Norway by 9+ goals to finsh first. Otherwise Norway is 1st and Italy 2nd.

-QG
 
Scenarios today:
Group D. France clinched 1st. Iceland vs Ukraine. Iceland gets 2nd with W/T. Ukraine gets 2nd with W.
Group I. Italy has to beat Norway by 9+ goals to finsh first. Otherwise Norway is 1st and Italy 2nd.

-QG
Have a like, but already got you covered a few posts up
 
Scenarios today:
Group D. France clinched 1st. Iceland vs Ukraine. Iceland gets 2nd with W/T. Ukraine gets 2nd with W.
Group I. Italy has to beat Norway by 9+ goals to finsh first. Otherwise Norway is 1st and Italy 2nd.

-QG
Have a like, but already got you covered a few posts up

All good - been posting up scenarios in Cup threads for a long long time and hadn't seen the last page when I posted as I whipped it up quick.
Group J is the fun one.

If Slovakia beats Germany the odds of a US group of death go way up since we might only have 7 teams to choose from at the draw if the 3 regular Concacaf qualifiers all end up in pot 4 and if the Concacaf teams are split in the two playoff groups. That would take 5 of the 12 pot 4 teams out of play for us. If Germany and Italy are in that 7 - woo boy.

-QG
 
1-1 in the CAF Playoff final.

Nigeria scored in the third minute but DR Congo equalized after Alex Iwobi turned it over
 
What a win for Congo DR - into the confed playoffs they go! No Super Eagles and no Indomitable Lions in this expanded World Cup
:eek:

-QG
 
COD is #60 in the current rankings but it looks like FIFA will update the rankings ahead of the draw on the 20th.

Bolivia is #76.
New Calendonia is #150


For the teams not yet confirmed:
Iraq is #57 and UAE IS #67

CONCACAF possibles in no particular order:
Panama #31
Costa Rica #45
Honduras #64
Jamaica #68
Curacao #82
Haiti #88
Suriname #126

-QG
 
Africa is a little bit deeper than AFC and CONCACAF it seems so a little less surprising that a couple bigger names get squeezed out but still crazy. CAF definitely has the most unforgiving qualifying process imo.

-QG
 
Panama getting in directly would be good for the USA as they presumably would make it to Pot 3 upping the non-CONCACAF total in pot 4 to 8 from 7.

The two CONCACAF teams in the Interconfed will be separated - so both of those balls can't land in the USA group btw
-QG
 
That quirk with CONCACAF being split could be interesting if Panama is in there (and is seeded) and the other CONCACAF team is not seeded (which is probably true if that second team is not Costa Rica). Say the seeds are Panama and Iraq. Concacaf 2 automatically draws in with Iraq and there is a 2/3 chance that New Calendonia ends up in the Panama half.

-QG
 
Watching France play Ukraine the other day and have to say two + years in the Saudi league has done N'Golo Kanté's play no harm whatsoever. He would walk into just about any midfield in Europe.
Just the most underrated player of his generation. I think I saw some poll have him listed like the 85th best player of the 21st century. He's so much better than that.
 
Interesting article about Curacao on BBC.

1 point away from qualifying as the smallest ever country- need that point away to Jamaica tomorrow night.

didn't realize Advocaat was their coach- that's a coup and a half for any country, let alone somebody small as Curacao. a step up from Rongren at US Samoa.

I think the entire squad was born in The Netherlands via CONCACAF grandparents.

Curacao isn't new to high profile Dutch managers: Guus Hiddink and Patrick Kluivert have coached them in recent years.
 
It looks like Iraq needs neither Panama or Costa Rica to be in the Interconfed playoffs in order to get a bye.

It looks Panama and Costa Rica have the edge on DR Congo as well based on a site with live rankings. DR Congo need one of them not to be involved to get a bye.

-QG
 
How do they do the draw in December with some of the teams being TBD?

WELCOME TO POT 4
:excited:

All the playoff teams will be in Pot #4.

They will do the draw in such a fashion that a team won't break the rules for confederation allotments in a group. In the Interconfed the two CONCACAF teams will be separated.

So for example
If Interconfed 1 is CONCACAF OFC CAF then that ball won't be placed in a group with any of those teams

If Interconfed 2 is CONCACAF CONMEBOL AFC then that ball won't go with any of the groups with a team from that confed.

With the 4 UEFA they will make it so no group has more than 2 UEFA.

-QG
 
So for those of us who are very interested in which teams go where, specifically the UEFA teams - it’ll be narrowed down to two, right?
 
So for those of us who are very interested in which teams go where, specifically the UEFA teams - it’ll be narrowed down to two, right?
No understanding the question.

Basically the long story short is all 4 teams that come out of the UEFA playoff will be pot 4. They cannot end up in a group with more than one other UEFA team.

-QG
 
Pot situation. Unofficial.

Going to assume Spain doesn't lose by 100 to Turkey and that Belgium does manage to overcome mighty Liechtenstein. For purposes below I will slot in the highest ranked team for the spots determined today - despite Costa Rica being a decided underdog in that scenario. By doing this you can see how teams would move up if worse ranked team wins. But results today might shift rankings so take with a grain of salt

* For teams not officially clinched.
For pot 2 to 4 will put rank in parentheses followed by the tank of teams that can replace them. Then I will list the alternate teams that can take those places after the pot. All playoff winners will be in Pot 4

pot 1: ESP* ARG FRA ENG BRA POR NED GER BEL* USA CAN MEX

pot 2: CRO (10) MAR (11) COL (13) URU (15) SUI*(17 or 81) JPN (18) SEN (19) DEN* (20 or 41) IRN (21) KOR (22) AUT* (23 or 72) ECU (24)

pot 3: AUS (25) NOR (29) PAN* (30 or 121) EGY (34) ALG (35) PAR (39) TUN (40) CIV (45) CRC (48 or 66 or 85) UZB (51) QAT (53) KSA (59)

pot 4: RSA (61) JOR (67) CPV (68) JAM (70 or 82) GHA (73) NZL (86) INTER1 INTER2 UEFA1 UEFA2 UEFA3 UEFA4

alternates to above:
81 KOS
41 SCO
72 BIH
121 SUR
66 HON
85 HAI
82 CUC

and for the disaster scenarios for ESP and BEL just to cover that base

26 TUR (if they pummel ESP)
33 WAL (if BEL chokes amazingly and they win)
64 MKD (if BEL choked amazingly and they win)

:grad:

-QG
 
Euro playoff pots:
Pot 1: ITA (12) TUR(26) UKR (27) POL (31)

Pot 2: WAL (33 if over MKD - dunno if they bump into pot 1 with a win). SCO 41 CZE 43 SVK 46

Pot 3: IRE (58 bump up if MKD is over WAL) ALB 63 BIH 73 KOS 81

Pot 4: NIR (69) SWE (42) ROM (50). and the standings loser out of MKD (64) WAL (33)

If MKD finishes 2nd they get Pot 3.

-QG
 
Spoiler teams trying to make the playoff bucket harder. My listing above shifts if SUI (17) DEN (20) and/Or AUT (23) end up in the playoffs. All 3 would end up in Pot 1 for the playoffs and bump other teams down - though I am not sure if TUR (26) can over take AUT if they win and AUT lose.

-QG
 
Belgium having a training session vs Liecenstein. I turned away for about 7 mins and it went from 3-0 to 7-0...
Lammens making his Bel debut and the first shot he faces was in the 78'
 

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