World Cup 2026 Thread

[mostonmike]

We got 8 pages on the 2022 Thread so who knows what we will get from the second World Cup on North American soil following the 1994 effort.

The World Cup has been expanded from 32 to 48 teams. As a result, the total number of games goes up from 64 to 104. In the past, most European fans would watch the majority of the games, but this bigger competition makes it a bit of a grind.

Cape Verde, Curaçao, Jordan, and Uzbekistan make their debuts and we are expecting the quality to diminish a bit as a result. You might have heard that Iran have qualified, which will make security an even bigger concern and priority.

Tournament starts on June 11th with co-hosts Mexico vs. South Africa, which might be a decent one to start.

USA gets underway on day 2:
June 12, 2026 vs. Paraguay SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA 6:00 PM PDT
June 19, 2026 vs. Australia Lumen Field, Seattle 12:00 PM PDT
June 25, 2026 vs. Türkiye SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, CA 7:00 PM PDT

With 4 teams in each group, the top 2 go through to the knockout stages, plus 8 of the 12 third-place teams also move on—so you'd have to be a total dumpster fire not to advance.

England, one of the favorites—as usual—will put on a classic Mariner-style performance of making an absolute mess of it somewhere along the line. Runners-up at the last 2 European Championships, plus a quarter-final and semi-final exit at the last 2 World Cups is our current form. We have to play Croatia, Ghana, and Panama, which we will inevitably find way tougher than it needs to be.

And Lumen Field—or "the Seattle Stadium" as it is officially called due to FIFA's strict ban on corporate stadium sponsorship (unless it's corporate sponsorship they pocket themselves)—will be hosting 5 games, including that USA v Australia clash.

My tips - don't pay the slightest bit of attention until June 29 when there will be just 31 matches left and all of them are win-or-go-home.

Fancy taking in a game? Obviously the second game against Australia is right there in Seattle. But if the US can win the Group and survive the first knockout game, the Round of 16 match—possibly against Belgium—would also be at Lumen. I'd probably look at buying tickets for that early; even if you don't end up going, the secondary market demand for a Seattle knockout game is going to be insane.

Betting: When the fun stops, stop—but it's 5/1 Spain, 6/1 France, 7/1 England, 9/1 Brazil & Argentina. USA is sitting at 80/1, which I think is a bit harsh. I genuinely think you might sneak into the Quarter Finals because Belgium is another one of those teams—much like our Mariners—that shows potential with world beating stars, but just never seems able to get over the line.

For the non-soccer fans or anyone wondering why Seattle is making such a massive fuss over this: prepare yourselves. The city will be invaded by fans from Belgium, Bosnia, South Korea maybe even Burkina Faso. Australia will probably have fewer fans as football isn't their main sport - but they are all set to play at Lumen and if they turn out as they normally do you will see a festival atmosphere in Seattle at Super Bowl proportion.

As for my lot? Come on England. We still hold the 1966 World Cup win on home soil as our solitary success. There's an anthem that was released in 1996 that "Football's Coming Home" - now often misunderstood, where the lyrics talk about "30 years of hurt, never stopped us dreaming....."

Well its now 60 years and time Football did come home. Every single tournament follows the exact same script: a summer of blinding, unearned optimism, shouting "It's Coming Home" to each other for weeks in crowded pubs, only to inevitably get knocked out on penalties in the quarter-finals by a country with a population smaller than King County.

We have the squad to win the whole bloody thing this time, which of course just means the inevitable, catastrophic collapse will hurt ten times worse.

When you took that Super Bowl, imagine the feeling that your best friend across the pond would have if we could finally celebrate a World Cup win in his lifetime?

I'm ready to believe again.