World Cup 2026

[deeane Koontz]

44 minutes ago, Traf said:

I've currently no interest in it at all.

Aye, Dont even know who's in our group.

[Marc505]

4 minutes ago, Campos_Wig said:

Sheehan starts for Wales tonight in their match against Ghana. Will be interesting to see if Ghana pose any potential threat to England in the group stages. 

Slightly off topic but the Football Cliches podcast often make a great point about how teams play against a country thats nearby one of their upcoming tournament opponents, like its meant to give them some sort of prep for how they'll play!

I see we have Costa Rica in a friendly soon. That'll set us up nicely for the Panama game 😃

[FrancisFogarty]

46 minutes ago, Traf said:

I've currently no interest in it at all.

I can't work up any enthusiasm for this. Might change closer to kick offs but I can't see it.

[Marc505]

4 hours ago, bolty58 said:

I am well on the way. Watching the Brazilian squad visiting their trophy room; England at their hotel in Miami and the likes of Messi and Ronaldo in transit has me not far off fever pitch already.

You are correct about 'dire games' although they can often throw up something sensational, memorable or even amusing. I've already been all over the wall chart with green highlighter for the 'must watch' games,  red for the 'hoping to see them lose' watch games and all the others can be caught up with in the highlights shows.

I mean yes tbf there are dire games in any tournament (the way media likes to portray Euro 96 as this great event for example). It's just the scale of it all for me, it doesnt feel like the format lends itself to a proper competition until very late on. Which is what FIFA want I suppose.

I've grown pretty cynical about football the last few years. I'm a long way from the time when I used to spend days scouring any magazine I could for any info about every team, and hanging on to every word Gabriel Clarke tells us from the England camp.

I dont see having the likes of Curacao, Haiti and Uzbekistan there as being a great pull, it just seems diluted.

[jmjhb]

15 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

I see we have Costa Rica in a friendly soon. That'll set us up nicely for the Panama game 😃

Yep, both are shite.

CR had a huge dropoff from their 2014 QF squad all retiring. Finishing 3rd behind Haiti and Honduras in a group is particularly bad.

Edited 47 minutes ago by jmjhb

[Johnnyrotten]

31 minutes ago, Marc505 said:

I mean yes tbf there are dire games in any tournament (the way media likes to portray Euro 96 as this great event for example). It's just the scale of it all for me, it doesnt feel like the format lends itself to a proper competition until very late on. Which is what FIFA want I suppose.

I've grown pretty cynical about football the last few years. I'm a long way from the time when I used to spend days scouring any magazine I could for any info about every team, and hanging on to every word Gabriel Clarke tells us from the England camp.

I dont see having the likes of Curacao, Haiti and Uzbekistan there as being a great pull, it just seems diluted.

Me too, couldn't get enough of it till about 10 years ago, belting out the Vindaloo songs etc in the pub just for group stage games v USA, Paraguay or Trinidad.

As you say, its diluted to the point of disinterest in the early stages, same as the European club competitions which I have absolutely no interest in bar the knockout stages of the champions league.

Those glorious days of buying magazines and newspapers to find out as much as we could about all 24 and then 32 teams!

48 is just too much to be arsed about with other things going on both personally (like everyone) and across other summer sports.