I would make a joke about him coming on with a zimmerframe but that kind of hubris would undoubtedly fate him to score a hattrick against us 
Plus he’s significantly younger than me 
Why not?
They will be a tough opponent, I hope (Argentinians usually back Uruguay in sports, when they aren’t playing against us, a feeling that is very much not returned by Uruguayans). Saudi Arabia not so much though, as we’ve seen, they can surprise you (and they still have the same coach I believe)
It seems I have heard the Uruguayan side of this rivalry more than the Argentinian side. So you don’t reciprocate their feelings? OK, the maracanazo did not involve Argentina.
No, mostly we think of them as our little brothers from the other side of the river, but we can be a bit overbearing and possessive (Argentinian wags calling Uruguay “The rebel province” somehow doesn’t help).
So they react with hostility to our clumsy love 
You might mock the “Oh The Humanity” FIFA Peace Prize merely because it looks like it is sobbing. But many of us recognize its dignity and importance.
I think you also miss the significance of the Fauxbel Peace prize… in pieces… united by FIFA and shoddy use of Print Shop Deluxe. But I guess you are in for a surprise if or when Trump unexpectedly wins the Guernica FIFA Economics Fauxbel at the end of the World Cup…
The Washington Post (limited gift link followed by normal link to same article) deciding there is no “Group of Death”… but England and France have it hard.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2025/12/06/world-cup-groups-takeaways/
The full schedule is now out:
I will try and get to one of the Philadelphia group matches if the prices drop below silly money (Brazil-Haiti?). Or maybe the NJ England Panama game?
Do you have a high resolution image of that schedule?
There’s a PDF link in the post…
Not sure I can be arsed to watch the England games, bit late for my body clock! And the Scotland ones hahaha no chance.
How is America’s group? Pretty easy relatively?
Yes.
The USMNT had a very poor start under the new coach Mauricio Pochettino but have picked up very well recently. Unbeaten in 5 matches, winning 4 of them. And a 5-1 victory over Uruguay.
Pochettino was the manager of the club I support in England (Tottenham Hotspur) and I am very familiar that his style takes a while to get going but once it does it is very exciting. He is a coach best suited for a young group of players, very fast moving on the ball and attacking but also physically strong. I think the US team lacks creative midfielders but it’s defensively a good base for the forwards who have a lot of pace and directness to play.
Middle-of-the-pack ish, but one spot is still open to playoff, and a team like Turkey could end up being a problem if they qualify in.
I became a fan of Southampton (pity me now, please) when Poch was their manager in the Prem because of the way he had the Saints midfield “attacking like a pack of wild wolves,” as one footie writer put it.
I think it’s really hard to instill that into a national team where the manager has but limited time to work on complex systems with players. But I like his knowledge and leadership and just hope that the team will perform with energy and reasonable cohesion next summer and that they catch someone napping on them.
If Turkey grabs the last spot the US will have the lowest ELO rating in the group (although highest FIFA ranking…). I said I prefer ELO earlier in the thread, but I mostly like the group for the US. I could easily see them winning all 3 games, and even if they finish 3rd I think that’ll likely be on 4 or 5 pts and a good shot to advance on that basis.
That being said there’s not going to be any game where they’re highly favored like had they drawn Jordan or Cape Verde so finishing 4th is certainly possible.
Weirdly, the US played both Paraguay and Australia in friendlies this fall, winning both games 2-1.
I generally support the hell out of our national teams, but I think it would be funny as fuck if they gave Trump the made-up “FIFA Peace Prize” and then we failed to even make the knock-out rounds.
It won’t happen, the refs will be very clearly instructed to make sure it doesn’t.
And also played Turkey last summer, losing by that same dos a uno scoreline. Could be a fascinating group - almost reminds me of 2014 with Portugal, Germany and Ghana when there was a storyline with every match.
So my 2 year old and (just) 4 year old came downstairs to get the Bluetooth speaker they use for bedtime. My four year old was super upset that the 2 year old found the speaker first and was about to have a melt down. I spied a Bluey book on the shelf and passed it to her saying it was very important and needed to be brought upstairs with the speaker. This completely brought her onside cheerfully with no tantrums.
This is what just happened to the most powerful leader on earth during the draw for the most prestigious sporting event on earth FTR
I will not be watching the world cup.
The last two world cups were sportwashing events hosted by Russia and Qatar, (the later in very dubious circumstances, not just due to speculation of bribes but also the bid required games to be played in June and July and a couple of weeks after Qatar won the bid it was declared they would have to change to November and December because it was impossible to play games in Qatar in the Summer)
Now Infantino is getting FIFa Deeply into Politics even though it is against FIFA policies
Foursquare have complained to the FIFA ethics committee about Ifantino’s actions, I don’t expect it to go anywhere but agree with everything they say.
And apparently Iran and Egypt have asked for the Pride celebration scheduled for their match in Seattle to be cancelled. This was an event planned before the competing teams were known. I’m 100% confident they will cite ‘keep politics/propaganda out of football’ as a reason. And I’m also 100% confident FIFA/Trump will agree with them. Thus the obligatory hypocrisy bingo square can be stamped.