2026 FIFA World Cup

[Westheim]

Hot take: If the goalkeeper is punished for moving off the line before the penalty taker shoots, then the penalty taker should be punished for running up and stopping before shooting, too.

[low]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Yeah, but combined they have 2-3B people. USA has a ton of sports more popular than soccer but still qualifies for the World Cup almost every year.

To be fair, the CONCACAF region has never been that great. USA (and Mexico) have dominated forever.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by low

To be fair, the CONCACAF region has never been that great. USA (and Mexico) have dominated forever.

Which is understandable because they have much larger populations to pull from. The 41 nations of CONCACAF total just under 600M. USA owns 350M of that. Mexico is 2nd w/142M+, Canada 3rd w/40M. That leaves the other 38 w/under 70M total. If you just made the NYC metro a country, it would rank 4th.

India & China are part of the AFC in WC qualifying. They make up 2.8B+ of the 4B population of its nations members. The AFC has sent 8 teams to this yrs WC that make up 380M of population altogether. Qatar has 2.7M people, Jordan 11M. You would think countries like India & China, who have more people to pull from than entire conferences, could manage to scare up 20 men a year capable of repping the country in the world's most popular sport.

[Cobra Mgr]

Scotland drank all of Boston's beer

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Scotland drank all of Boston's beer

American beer probably has the effect of tap water on a true Scot

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

Which is understandable because they have much larger populations to pull from. The 41 nations of CONCACAF total just under 600M. USA owns 350M of that. Mexico is 2nd w/142M+, Canada 3rd w/40M. That leaves the other 38 w/under 70M total. If you just made the NYC metro a country, it would rank 4th.

India & China are part of the AFC in WC qualifying. They make up 2.8B+ of the 4B population of its nations members. The AFC has sent 8 teams to this yrs WC that make up 380M of population altogether. Qatar has 2.7M people, Jordan 11M. You would think countries like India & China, who have more people to pull from than entire conferences, could manage to scare up 20 men a year capable of repping the country in the world's most popular sport.

It's been quite some time since I read about this. It talked about the expectations of the child is not sports. The opportunities are also not there, or not made easy to play sports. I'm talking about China, I don't know about India.

It's been a long time since I read the article, but what I came away with was, it wouldn't matter if China had 300 billion people, they still wouldn't field a good team.

[Ragnar]

Going back a few decades and beyond, I don't remember teams still pushing to score after the match was already over. Didn't teams just kick the ball around and waste time? Now it seems teams want to score as much as possible.

[liberty-ca]

That is not something new. Goal differential matters.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

It's been quite some time since I read about this. It talked about the expectations of the child is not sports. The opportunities are also not there, or not made easy to play sports. I'm talking about China, I don't know about India.

It's been a long time since I read the article, but what I came away with was, it wouldn't matter if China had 300 billion people, they still wouldn't field a good team.

That excuse would make sense to me for India. But not for China. China came in 2nd in the last Summer Olympics in medals. 4th @ the last Winter Games. So China does push sports.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Cobra Mgr

That excuse would make sense to me for India. But not for China. China came in 2nd in the last Summer Olympics in medals. 4th @ the last Winter Games. So China does push sports.

That's all individual stuff. No organization.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by liberty-ca

That is not something new. Goal differential matters.

Yes. I wasn't suggesting goal differential was new, just running up the score.

[Ragnar]

They need to stop these hydration breaks. These are not little kids!! It's ridiculous.

[Ragnar]

Perfect example of what I was talking about was the US vs Australia. Once the US went up 2-0 they went into a shell. Just wasted time.

[Cobra Mgr]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

That's all individual stuff. No organization.

China won a number of team medals. Their women's teams have gotten 2nd place @ the WC & Olympics.

Again, the bar that is being set here isn't that high. Be better than Uzbekistan. You'd have to state at this point they aren't even trying. Which is weird to me. That the WC is not on their radar.

[Jordan]

If you've been following "Freddy" and his travels like a lot of people have, I would say we're approaching jump the shark/milkshake duck territory

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by Westheim

American beer probably has the effect of tap water on a true Scot

There are some genuinely good American beers, through the Sam Adams brand. My personal favorite is Cherry Wheat.

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

They need to stop these hydration breaks. These are not little kids!! It's ridiculous.

Even more ridiculous is that the clock keeps running during this break, and then we'll play until 90'+11 again or some crap like that.

[Ragnar]

Originally Posted by Westheim

Even more ridiculous is that the clock keeps running during this break, and then we'll play until 90'+11 again or some crap like that.

It's absurd! Just stop the clock. We all know this is being done for commercials. Does anyone doubt this?

[Westheim]

Originally Posted by Ragnar

It's absurd! Just stop the clock. We all know this is being done for commercials. Does anyone doubt this?

I hadn't even thought of that yet, but of course.

The hydration break is the same BS as NASCAR's stage breaks.....

[CONN CHRIS]

Watched the USA - Australia match yesterday. Never have been a soccer fan but I am hooked.