June, 2026 is approaching! This will be the first global sports event to be co-hosted by Mexico, Canada, and (probably) the US, and the first round of tickets has already gone on sale and hit the official FIFA resale site, including a 15% FIFA surcharge on every ticket resold. Let the money roll in! [apologies for not giving you a free link to read about it, but the Athletic arm of the NYT doesn’t allow gift links. perhaps you will figure out a way]
Speaking of tickets, good luck! There will be a bunch of matches happening about three miles from my house, and I’ll likely be watching them on TV with the rest of you. FIFA has given some limited lucky people access, sure, and they also sold a bunch of RTB (“right to buy”) packages, yeah, and then they sold a bunch of NFTs and other gimmicks that (might?) provide a right to buy, but I’m not part of any of that.
ANYWAY. Germany seems to be stumbling toward qualifying with some fairly lackluster performances, but the talent level isn’t what it used to be, so I’ll take it. How about you? Is your team roaring its way to qualifying?
Israel is in third place in our group, the only way we qualify is if we beat Italy and then win the playoff for the second qualification spot (I think we are mathematically guaranteed not to come in first). The game is today; if we lose we are fully out.
I’m not holding my breath, although it would be super cool if Israel qualified when the games are here in the States.
My team doesn’t have to qualify so no worries there. I wouldn’t say they’re roaring though; results under Pochettino have been mixed. However, they just outplayed #9 ELO Ecuador (to a draw), and a good amount of the probable starting lineup is actually playing well in good leagues.
I still don’t think the talent is there to change my expectations, but the probabilities a bit. Going out in the group stage or round of 32 is unacceptable unless they get a wild draw. Making the round of 16 is acceptable, quarterfinals is a success, anything better is wildly successful.
I still cannot grasp how Germany went from, in 2014 being the mightiest team in the world, to total fall-off of cliff around…..2017. Not sure what happened.
And if Italy was apoplectic after missing two World Cups, I can’t imagine how they’ll feel about a 3rd straight one.
Argentina qualified in the first place in CONMEBOL, but I don’t think we have much chances of winning again, many key players got old and/or are not in the same level as they were in 2022, not just Messi because that was a given but more importantly De Paul who was the “engine” of the team.
This being Argentina anything less than winning it all is a failure but I’ll personally would be more than satisfied with ending up among the top 4.
It was always (bittersweetly) funny to me that Bundesliga reporter Raphael Honigstein wrote a 2015 post hoc ergo propter hoc book (Das Reboot) about how revitalizing the German academy system led to an explosion of talent, and thus the winning of the 2014 WC.
The reality is, however, that not one player now is the equal of anyone on that 2014 team, except for maaaaaybe Kimmich being close to Lahm. Generational talent etc etc etc.
England are doing pretty damn well all things considered. Qualification was never really in doubt. And that alone counts as doing pretty damn well, given the bad old days (including qualifying, or failing to, for the last world cup in the US) of spectacularly talented world class footballers who couldn’t kick a ball in an England shirt.
I was worried about Tuchel taking over from Southgate, especially after the first couple of matches, it looked like the bad old days again. I was pretty much just resigned to the fact that the window of England not being crap was over and it was now back to business as usual
But actually I am cautiously optimistic, that we might have a manager who knows how to get england players to play as a team and not freeze when they put on an England shirt, yet has a little bit of tactical nous. Unlike Southgate who was very good at the former but not the latter. Though I’ll need to see us play teams that are better than Wales, Andorra and Latvia before I get carried away
I am pissed that they had no matches in DC. It’s the capital city FFS! And it’s a big football (rather than handegg ) town. Apparently its the first time since west Germany (who’s official capital was Bonn) where the capital city has not hosted a world cup match.
I am hoping that they will not sell enough and prices will come down, and I’ll be able to get tickets for a match in Philly.
I am less optimistic about England than Griffin, defeats to Greece and Senegal and a lot of unconvincing wins against low ranked teams has left me far from confidentent that we will progress far in the world cup, but the reality is Tuchal hasn’t been tested in a competive game against a top team so we will see how it goes.
Going back to the OPs comment about FIFA’s 15% surcharge (by the way on both the buyer and the seller so if the seller receives $1000 for their ticket the buyer will pay $1384 a 38% surcharge in total. The biggest problem I see however is the moving away from the limiting the reslae of tickets to the listed price, this means that fans will not only be competing with other fans for tickets but the bots of scalpers hoovering up all the tickets to sell at a profit only the wealthiest of fans will be able to afford to go all the surcharge means is instead of the scalpers getting all the mark up they have to share it with FIFA. Of course this is quite normal for American sports tickets, unlike other places like the UK where official channels only sell tickets at the list price and buying from unofficial sources risks being denied entry.
Yeah I’m not getting carried away as I said. One thing that gives me hope (for england but not for an entertaining world cup) is the new format with a whole bunch of teams and an extra round of 32. Being able to dispatch smaller teams without drama and substitute your big players early, while you increase team cohesion from game to game, is actually going more important in this world cup.
I would argue Florian Wirtz is a world class talent and would certainly have measured up to most players on that 2014 team, but overall I agree with your point that the talent level is not what it was.
Spain are rightly the favourites to win it with that incredible midfield of players like Pedri, Gavi, Zubimendi, Rodri, Merino, plus the insanely talented Yamal making things happens. You’d think the stage is set for Yamal to show he is the world’s best player. However they are not the best defensive team so they are certainly not unbeatable. Then you have France, and behind those two I’d say Brazil, Argentina and England are all at about the same level.
Obviously the USA is automatically qualified, being co-host. I don’t know how we would be doing right now if we had to qualify the old fashioned way - perhaps a Doper who follows international soccer more closely could tell me. Once the tournament starts, I expect the USA to do exactly as they have in the past three(?) Cups in which they’ve participated – which is to say, make it out of the Group Stage and lose in the first Knockout game.
Very probably two knockout games (depending on group results), because the first round of knockout game will be against weaker teams this time IIRC, the “round of 32”.
) town. Apparently its the first time since west Germany (who’s official capital was Bonn) where the capital city has not hosted a world cup match.