And the winner of Canada v South Africa will be a very welcome opponent for the team they play in the last 16. That team will be Morocco or the Group F winners, probably the Netherlands
The Czech Republic playing like they had Holes in their defence
https://www.worldtradingcards.com/cdn/shop/files/05_FWC_CZE_007.webp?v=1777743056&width=700
It’s a nonsense, and it’s a nonsense because on these results we should be out. 270 minutes of football, 1 goal, 7 shots on target, a string of shocking defensive errors - we simply aren’t good enough for this level and scraping through will only give excuses to a home system that can’t produce a quality team.
FIFA genuinely seems to be doing the right thing in response to Iran and Egypt complaining about pride celebrations at their upcoming match in Seattle. This leaves me puzzled, because I must be missing some pecuniary angle on this, but I’m glad they’re doing it.
It’s very strange that the pride game ends up being between two muslim countries when the FIFA Peace Prize winner isn’t particularly well known for his love of the LGBT or Muslim communities. 
Today’s games, with commentary from Yahoo:
Group E:
Curaçao (0-1-1) vs Ivory Coast (1-0-1)
Ecuador (0-1-1) vs German (2-0-0)
Germany has already clinched first place.
Ivory Coast can secure second place with a win over Curaçao and would also advance with a draw unless Ecuador beats Germany by at least two goals.
Ecuador still has a chance to finish second but needs a big win over Germany and help from Curaçao. Curaçao remains alive as well, though it needs a win and a major goal-difference swing.
Group F:
Japan (1-1-0) vs Sweden (1-0-1)
Tunisia (0-0-2) vs Netherlands (1-1-0)
The Netherlands enters the final matchday atop Group F on goal differential, though first place and both automatic berths remain up for grabs for all three contenders.
Japan can clinch a spot in the Round of 32 with a win or draw against Sweden. Sweden needs a victory to secure a top-two finish, while the Netherlands can guarantee advancement with a win over Tunisia and remains in strong position regardless.
Japan needs only a draw, Sweden needs a win and the Netherlands remains well positioned to advance and finish first.
Group D:
Paraguay (1-0-1) vs Australia (1-0-1)
Türkiye (0-0-2) vs USA (2-0-0)
The United States has already wrapped up first place.
Australia can secure the group’s second automatic berth with a win or draw against Paraguay. Paraguay needs a victory to guarantee a top-two finish, though the South Americans are also in a decent position to advance as a third-place team.
The FIFA peace prize winner and Infantino had to decide which group they dislike a little less.
It has sort of dawned on me how much I dislike this expanded format, that I just learned about. It pretty much makes the group stage just a bit of fun for the teams from islands in the middle of no where. There is no “Group of Death” because they’ll all just go through now, except for when Trinidad and Tobago are in the group or something.
There were absolutely no meetings of big teams in the group stage and every favorite team, and a bunch of underdogs, are going through to a round of … what … 32? Might as well just pick 32 teams and start at the knockout if you ask me.
I sort of agree. On the one hand, I like having more games to watch. But a lot of the early games are like watching a powerhouse beat up on a rec team for 90 minutes. It seems like the group stage is stacked toward the big teams automatically going through the group stage. That could make for an exciting round of 16 - we shall see.
Isn’t the whole idea of the group stage to avoid having the big teams avoid playing each other? As is, there is a match between two big teams (France and Norway - a surprise favorite thanks to Haaland), it just hasn’t happened yet. There’s probably only two other definite big teams (Argentina and Germany) and a few others that are slightly smaller “big boys” (Spain, Mexico, maybe Portugal and England (I’m still not convinced about the USA)). That means that even with the old format, and barring the mistake of underestimating Norway, there still wouldn’t be a meeting of the “big boys” during the group stage.
Even as a German fan, I’d rank Spain and Brazil higher than us, also France and England.
It is.
Also, FWIW, I was against 48 before the tournament, but watching some of the marginal teams fight their asses off and secure draws has been a lot of fun.
Well, sure, that was the idea of the group stage, but the beauty of it was that sometimes that didn’t always pan out. Hence the Groups of Death.
In 2022 Germany was in a group with Spain and didn’t make it to the round of 16. Likewise for Mexico being grouped with Argentina. I think that made for better Group Stage matches, and there were some unexpected teams in the knockout stage. Croatia finished 3rd overall. The round of 16 included Japan, So. Korea, a rising Morocco, Poland, and Australia - and even the USA. I’m not saying that was better, just different than this time around.
I don’t really follow why you’re saying the old format wouldn’t have big teams meeting in the group stage. Empirically we have:
- 2022 - Spain vs Germany
- 2018 - Spain vs Portugal, Croatia vs Argentina, Belgium vs England
- 2014 - Netherlands vs Spain, Italy vs England, Germany vs Portugal
- 2010 - Brazil vs Portugal
- 2006 - Argentina vs Netherlands
- 2002 - England vs Argentina
And a bunch of middleweight bouts where big teams are playing Mexico or whatever.
I saw those as failures of that system, though. Group of Death is entertaining when your team’s not in it, but less so when it is.
I wasn’t claiming it as a good or bad thing, just pointing out that if you have 8 groups you’re going to have a lot more big teams facing each other in that stage than you will with 12.
Sometimes a big name would fall outside the top 8 and end up in pot 2 under the old system. Now they have to fall outside the top 12 which isn’t as likely.
The problem with this format is that one of the “top” teams can under-perform in their group by finishing 3rd, and still advancing. With the extra KO round of 32, you could conceivably have 2 of the more talented teams facing each other in that round.
While the 3rd place “top” team has nothing to complain about, the 1st place team that dominated their group now has to play a tough team in the RO32 by no fault of their own.
I still have flashbacks of Korea-Japan 2002, having to get up at 3 AM to see us get grouped.