Soccer/Football Association Topic 2025-2026: Road To World Cup

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Board 8 » Soccer/Football Association Topic 2025-2026: Road To World Cup
Dark_Silvergun
09/04/2025
07:34 PM
#151
Germany losing, I see that.

Also, in CONCACAF, Panama draws 0-0 with Suriname to start Round 3.
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ctesjbuvf
09/05/2025
05:30 AM
#152
Multiple places reports he has been fired.

He might have been finansially good for Spurs overall, but I don't think this is a bad thing for them.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Dark_Silvergun
09/06/2025
07:39 AM
#153
The updated list, as CAF now has the first qualification slot filled, and 3 more qualification slots for CONMEBOL too.

2026 World Cup Qualified Nations [17]

AFC [6]
Round 3 Group A 1st: Iran
Round 3 Group A 2nd: Uzbekistan
Round 3 Group B 1st: South Korea
Round 3 Group B 2nd: Jordan
Round 3 Group C 1st: Japan
Round 3 Group C 2nd: Australia

CAF [1]
Round 1 Group E: Morocco

CONCACAF [3]
Co-Host: Canada
Co-Host: Mexico
Co-Host: United States

CONMEBOL [6]
1st: Argentina
Top 2nd - 6th: Brazil
Top 2nd - 6th: Uruguay
Top 2nd - 6th: Ecuador
Top 2nd - 6th: Colombia
Top 2nd - 6th: Paraguay

OFC [1]
Round 3 Final: New Zealand

UEFA [0]
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paulg235
09/06/2025
07:58 AM
#154
Also worth adding that the final CONMEBOL match fixture on Tuesday (Wednesday for those not living in the Americas) will decide who gets the playoff spot between Venezuela and Bolivia. They play Colombia and Brazil respectively (both at home).
PaulG235 | Finished in the Top 2 of GotD2010's Second Chance Bracket
Sadly, there are no second chances in the Guru, azuarc doesn't need one.
ctesjbuvf
09/08/2025
04:35 PM
#155
Excellent match by the Danish team after a disappointing opening three days ago. This was on par with the biggest teams.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
paulg235
09/08/2025
05:15 PM
#156
Meanwhile, Israel/Italy was certainly something.

Also, Nottingham Forest are reportedly parting ways with manager Nuno Espirito Santo (likely due to the comments expressed about his relationship with the owner a couple of weeks back).
PaulG235 | Finished in the Top 2 of GotD2010's Second Chance Bracket
Sadly, there are no second chances in the Guru, azuarc doesn't need one.
ctesjbuvf
09/08/2025
05:32 PM
#157
Also I really dislike the structure of these international breaks. You just get interested in the season, then a break and then I just start to get into the qualifying as well only for it to end.

I would much rather two breaks of three matches. I'm sure there is a good reasoning, but yeah.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
paulg235
09/08/2025
05:42 PM
#158
Agreed. I love international breaks, but they need to condense the three fall breaks and (honestly) the March break into 2 bigger breaks of 4 in October and February respectively. It would solve the issue of having a few weeks of league fixtures and Europe then back to international duty during the fall by just having one big one in October. Then you could have the second one in February just before the European knockout stage begins. Even better if it's timed with the AFCON break, too.

Only downside might be how tournament qualification fixtures such as the world cup would be rearranged.
PaulG235 | Finished in the Top 2 of GotD2010's Second Chance Bracket
Sadly, there are no second chances in the Guru, azuarc doesn't need one.
shane15
09/08/2025
06:04 PM
#159
Funny you guys mention that because from next year they're having 4 matchdays in the international calendar in a 2 week break at the end of September until the first week of October. I only noticed this the other day when i was looking at the nations league stuff and i don't think anyone else has picked up on it yet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_International_Match_Calendar#Upcoming_match_windows
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/330/958/a5b.gif
ctesjbuvf
09/08/2025
06:15 PM
#160
Oh, my prayers have been heard! That is already a huge improvement.

February might be a bit of a hard sell because a bunch of leagues have winter breaks that are starting there. The weather would also be brutal in some countries, but maybe it's doable. I support support it anyway.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Dark_Silvergun
09/09/2025
12:45 AM
#161
Tunisia has qualified as the second nation from the CAF.

That will bring the nation tally to 18.
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Dark_Silvergun
09/09/2025
04:47 PM
#162
I guess England didn't have any problem with Serbia, as the score was 5-0.

Which is strange, because they struggled with Andorra in both matches.

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ctesjbuvf
09/10/2025
04:43 AM
#163
England has the quality, sometimes they get too arrogant against lesser competition. France has a similar problem.

Disappointed Watkins didn't even get to play for the national team on his home stadium because Kane needs to statpad against Andorra.

Norway demolished Moldova last night. Beating them in itself isn't impressive, but at this point it is looking like Italy can beat Norway by quite a lot and still finish second to them since goalscore is the first tiebreaker.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
XIII_Rocks
09/10/2025
06:46 AM
#164
ctesjbuvf posted...
England has the quality, sometimes they get too arrogant against lesser competition. France has a similar problem.

That may be a problem with England fans (we somehow simultaneously have both a crippling superiority complex and a crippling inferiority complex) but the only time this ultimately mattered recently is Iceland 2016, wasn't it? Maybe not qualifying for 08 but that's far enough back to be a different generation. Every other time has been losing to like, Germany, Italy, Argentina, France, Spain, etc. England's bigger problem, by far, is a general inability to win the big one.
Not to be confused with XIII_Minerals.
Shattered
09/10/2025
07:06 AM
#165
Losing to Croatia in the semi finals in 2018 was pretty bad too. Like I know Croatia aren't bad but if you're offered a semi final against Croatia, you take that 10 times out of 10. That's a game a big name team like England should be winning
ctesjbuvf
09/10/2025
07:07 AM
#166
Depends on how you rate Nations League. Italy and Germany were in the group but they also lost both matches against Hungary to get releagted. Otherwise yeah, they always qualify regardless, though it does put more pressure on coach and players.

Anyway, I didn't mean to say this in itseslf was a big problem, just why they occasionally scrape wins against a side like Andorra then destroy an opponent like Serbia that usually qualifies for the World Cup. Though in this case Serbia also imploded a bit.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
ctesjbuvf
09/10/2025
07:08 AM
#167
Hey now, if Croatia gets out of the group stage, they get medals!
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
XIII_Rocks
09/10/2025
08:21 AM
#168
Shattered posted...
Losing to Croatia in the semi finals in 2018 was pretty bad too. Like I know Croatia aren't bad but if you're offered a semi final against Croatia, you take that 10 times out of 10. That's a game a big name team like England should be winning

England's squad in 2018 wasn't good in general and it was a good Croatia team. Southgate brought a sort of belief/likeability factor back to them after decades of toxic personalities like Gerrard making them unlikeable and harder to support, but the squad itself was still developing and lost easily to Belgium, twice, drew with Colombia, and needed a last minute goal to beat Tunisia. Like England 2018 were not long removed from a poor squad that didn't get out of the group in 2014 and lost to Iceland in 2016. I didn't see that loss to Croatia as an unforgivable disaster ala Iceland, and certainly not the result of some sort of arrogance or taking them lightly.
Not to be confused with XIII_Minerals.
XIII_Rocks
09/10/2025
08:25 AM
#169
Like there shouldn't be revisionism about 2018. There was little optimism going in, the it's coming home stuff started as ironic (the first time I saw it was after that poor, scraped win vs. Tunisia), nobody had much faith in Southgate, 2014 and 16 were disasters, and their record if you remove penalties was W3 D1 L3. It was a great ride and the start of a period of improvement which led to deeper runs and stronger overall performances, as well as the removal of the penalty hoodoo (the Colombia win was like a healing moment), and it was a general PR makeover for them. But it was not a great squad and I said this at the time. I didn't think we had a chance in the final if we'd got there.
Not to be confused with XIII_Minerals.
shane15
09/10/2025
08:49 AM
#170
XIII is spot on. I don't think i've seen England support as low as that 2018 world cup. We'd come off the back of two awful tournaments and it basically felt like a 'just get out of the group and we'll have done well' situation. Then we basically had a knockout draw that almost felt hand picked for England and that's when the hype started. Since then we've basically had kind draws in 21,22 and 24. The only hard fixture being France in 22 and if we win that we get an easier semi final than we had in 2018. In my opinion the only thing stopping England from winning a trophy is beating one of the favourites in a knockout game. That is literally the only thing stopping them from winning silverware.
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/330/958/a5b.gif
Shattered
09/10/2025
09:02 AM
#171
You're not wrong but we are also saying it was a bad loss to the team ranked 22nd in the world but an acceptable loss to a team ranked 20th in the world.

Englands ranking at the time of the Iceland loss was 13th. At the time of the Croatia loss it was 7th (but had just recently jumped up from 12th). So similar caliber of team
Sheep007
09/10/2025
09:09 AM
#172
World rankings are a joke. Belgium have been ranked the best team in the world on and off for the last decade, mostly because of qualifiers, and they were always "dark horses", but only in 2018 could they really have been considered in the conversation as potential winners. I think they were even top going into the 2021 Euros and 2022 World Cup, but very few people had them down as likely champions for either.
Perhaps the golden rock was inside us all along.
paulg235
09/10/2025
09:54 AM
#173
The difference between Iceland and Croatia is that Croatia have reached the Semi-Final on three of the last seven world cups (1998 (their first world cup since separating from Yugoslavia), 2018 and 2022), with one final in 2018. You don't get to that many world cup semi-finals + one final in 30 years without being a good team, and Croatia had some excellent players during the 2010s and early 2020s.

England had also gone from consistently reaching quarter finals and being seen as potential winners in the early-mid 2000s to awful showings between 2007 and 2016 that shattered the confidence of both supporters and pundits alike. The fact we finally made a deep run in one of these tournaments for the first time in decades was a pleasant surprise, and when we did lose to Croatia there was at least optimisim with Southgate and the squad going forward.

... As opposed to the Iceland loss where everyone was happy we didn't have to face Portgual and the nation thought they had a free pass to the quarter finals. Then the loss actually happened and everyone was justifiably furious with Roy Hodgson and the national team for making the country a laughingstock. People were hyped about the potential of the players that were coming in and were badly let down. Then Big Sam happened and that killed any pre-tournament expectations.
PaulG235 | Finished in the Top 2 of GotD2010's Second Chance Bracket
Sadly, there are no second chances in the Guru, azuarc doesn't need one.
ctesjbuvf
09/10/2025
10:22 AM
#174
Iceland winning that match was peak football, sorry English friends. That Icelandic team had so much personality and like 10% of the already incredibly small population being in France to watch was such a great story.

Also this happening at the same time as brexit made for all timer memes.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Dark_Silvergun
09/10/2025
01:12 PM
#175
The updated list:

2026 World Cup Qualified Nations [18]

AFC [6]
Round 3 Group A 1st: Iran
Round 3 Group A 2nd: Uzbekistan
Round 3 Group B 1st: South Korea
Round 3 Group B 2nd: Jordan
Round 3 Group C 1st: Japan
Round 3 Group C 2nd: Australia

CAF [2]
Round 1 Group E: Morocco
Round 1 Group H: Tunisia

CONCACAF [3]
Co-Host: Canada
Co-Host: Mexico
Co-Host: United States

CONMEBOL [6]
Main Round 1st: Argentina
Main Round 2nd: Ecuador
Main Round 3rd: Colombia
Main Round 4th: Uruguay
Main Round 5th: Brazil
Main Round 6th: Paraguay

OFC [1]
Round 3 Final: New Zealand

UEFA [0]
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ctesjbuvf
09/15/2025
05:33 AM
#176
Hjlund with a great opening in Napoli, Onana was a solid performance as well.

Losing at Etihad is not something yo panic about though. City might have their struggles, Haaland is still the best striker in the world imo.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Shattered
09/15/2025
12:06 PM
#177
This is diabolical

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/3f6d1f6c.jpg
paulg235
09/15/2025
12:47 PM
#178
https://i.redd.it/wesxyu2pj6pf1.jpeg

Not great company to be in.
PaulG235 | Finished in the Top 2 of GotD2010's Second Chance Bracket
Sadly, there are no second chances in the Guru, azuarc doesn't need one.
Kotetsu534
09/15/2025
02:52 PM
#179
Genuinely incredible how bad he's been. Worst results over just under a year than some managers who were sacked at mid table teams and with no real signs of improvement. Squad still has major holes in it despite spending a ton of money, especially for the formation he is determined to play.
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ctesjbuvf
09/15/2025
03:36 PM
#180
They hired him knowing what this formation required in time and money and though.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
ctesjbuvf
09/16/2025
07:00 AM
#181
Now that the decision of merging international breaks in September and October has been made more public, the average person is too dumb to realize it actually means less break overall and complains that a break is now longer.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Shattered
09/16/2025
08:51 AM
#182
I remember growing up I used to love international games and any England game was a big deal. Now international breaks just feel like an inconvenience and I only care about the tournaments

I guess part of that is being from a country that usually always qualifies and is rarely in jeopardy so it doesn't feel like there's much at stake for England games. Qualifiers sometimes feel like glorified friendlies even though that absolutely isn't the case
ctesjbuvf
09/16/2025
09:13 AM
#183
That much I get, but this frees a week meaning things will get spread out more and you can watch more games.

For me it depends a bit. Qualification is interesting, even if we're in recent years usually most likely to qualify. Nations League is not uninteresting because it's new, it's just spread out too much. Euros and World Cup are great because it's one great month. There's some irreplaceable magic in that.

Friendlies can be fun if I go see them live or somewhere with many people.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Kotetsu534
09/16/2025
12:09 PM
#184
I think the gap in quality between the club and national game has grown quite a lot over the past 25 years or so, which doesn't help it's appeal. I watched Scotland (my country) v Belarus a week ago and I guarantee there are much higher level matches played in England's League 1 every week. Growing up I remember debating with friends if Brazil or France could beat Man United.

Even the quality of the tournaments has been greatly diluted by bringing in so many more teams. I understand this is great for fan engagement and revenue but as someone who's mostly neutral and wants to see high level football it doesn't help when half the teams are playing for 1-0 wins at best.
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ctesjbuvf
09/16/2025
01:14 PM
#185
Kotetsu534 posted...
Growing up I remember debating with friends if Brazil or France could beat Man United.

Yeah no debate, Brazil or France takes it easily.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Sheep007
09/17/2025
05:09 PM
#186
While everyone was (presumably) watching the CL, I was in the crowd watching Swansea come back from 2-0 down to score twice in added time for a 3-2 win against Ange's Forest. Cracking game.
Perhaps the golden rock was inside us all along.
ctesjbuvf
09/22/2025
07:44 PM
#187
Dembele won it!
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Kotetsu534
09/22/2025
08:24 PM
#188
Very well deserved and great to see a player realise his potential after looking for a while like he might not.
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ctesjbuvf
09/23/2025
06:18 AM
#189
Dembele winning it before Mbappe is hillarious. I think the award in recent years has been more debated because there any any players that were clearly above the rest of the field in the way we have gotten used to. Dembele is an unusual winner in the sense that, watching France, he's not the one you watch out for, that's Mbappe, but it also wouldn't be right to give it to him in a year where he only won trophies that were due to the recent of his new club winning CL the year before. I think it's fair as well.

My own one issue with the award is the favoring of offensive players but it's always been like that. As an example, Pedri being 11th is ridiculous, as someone who watches a lot of Spanish football, his absense weakens Barca far more than Yamal and Raphinha who were second and fifth but they take the headlines. Rodri was a nice exception though.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
paulg235
09/27/2025
09:34 AM
#190
Manchester United are dross. In other news, Graham Potter got sacked in the morning and Nuno has replaced him at West Ham.
PaulG235 | Finished in the Top 2 of GotD2010's Second Chance Bracket
Sadly, there are no second chances in the Guru, azuarc doesn't need one.
FFDragon
09/27/2025
10:29 AM
#191
Ice cold to make him do that pre-match interview yesterday just to sack him.

He did need to go though
If you wake up at a different time, in a different place, could you wake up as a different person?
#theresafreakingghostafterus
ctesjbuvf
09/27/2025
06:37 PM
#192
Apparently United, Chelsea and Liverpool had not all lost in one day for 31 years.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
ctesjbuvf
10/02/2025
05:05 PM
#193
It's oke thing at home, but Midtjylland getting all three points away against a PL club is still a historical Danish result regardless of the current shape of that club.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
shane15
10/03/2025
08:07 AM
#194
Looks like they're planning to hold a lot of the games late night Europe time for the world cup because of the heat. Be a bit gutting because the group stage is probably the best part. Don't see why they can't just hold a game at like 10am on the east and west coast. You get the 3 hour gap between, it's a lot cooler and it's still an ok time for Europe to watch.
http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/330/958/a5b.gif
ctesjbuvf
10/03/2025
08:35 AM
#195
That's annoying.
Guinness Book of World Records is the name of the diary that belongs to azuarc , the winner of the Game of the Decade II guru contest.
Board 8 » Soccer/Football Association Topic 2025-2026: Road To World Cup
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