Thoughts on the 2026 World Cup

[vanderark14]

 

whats the thoughts on the world cup overall? Putting aside the feeling of Scotland being there and the initial euphoria, it wasn't a great world cup. Hydration breaks, political interference, the pre final show and the half time shows were utter garbage. It feels like the football was 2nd to the off field shite

There were some memorable footballing moments, Argentina's come backs which have been soured due to their players on field behaviour. Spain and France played great football. Cape Verde getting to the last 32 but other than that I don't think it was memorable for positive reasons

[Ally Bongo]

It was all a bit meh 

A complete rip off from start to finish and how the fuck FIFA wont be investigated is mind blowing - even telling stadia vendors that they couldn't charge their own prices and had to up them massively in line with FIFA guidelines 

The kick off times for those in Europe were also pish 

I would not be unhappy if we just had the Euros every two years where we know how to organise tournaments for fans

[mccaughey85]

I enjoyed it. The England games were quite exciting and there was some good matches in general.

Saying that there was some serious negatives and for that reason I don't want America to get it again.

The balogun red card, the 30mins half time in the final, the hydration breaks, some of the dodgy var decisions, having to play in serious heat while other nations played in air con stadiums.

Just a few of my gripes.

Edited July 20 by mccaughey85

[vanderark14]

21 minutes ago, Ally Bongo said:

It was all a bit meh 

A complete rip off from start to finish and how the fuck FIFA wont be investigated is mind blowing - even telling stadia vendors that they couldn't charge their own prices and had to up them massively in line with FIFA guidelines 

The kick off times for those in Europe were also pish 

I would not be unhappy if we just had the Euros every two years where we know how to organise tournaments for fans

The kick off times didn't bother me, its standard for tournaments held in other nations but I do agree re FIFA. 

[er yir macaroon]

At least our solitary goal had unrivalled aesthetic beauty.

[vanderark14]

12 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

At least our solitary goal had unrivalled aesthetic beauty.

🤣

[Johnnyshaker]

I enjoyed it overall, despite having way more cons than pros! Off the top of my head:

Pros

Most of the big name players turned up and looked like they enjoyed themselves, Haaland in particular looked like he had the time of his life.

The stadiums were very impressive. Not the locations and logistics though.

Fans travelled.

Cons

Ticket prices

Final Halftime show

Hydration Breaks

The Balogun incident

The "Make some noise" nonsense in the stadiums, just let people sing Titanium FFS

Location of some of the stadiums is ludicrous; Foxboro and Miami Gardens in particular.

The extra games made it far too long.

[ThistleWhistle]

I usually enter a period of almost mourning when World Cups finish but thought this was a bit shit.  Felt like a rugby World Cup full of pointless games.  Usually watch every game but there was probably 10-20 I didn’t even watch highlights of.  
 

France Spain in the semi felt like a nations league game.  
 

One good thing was we seem to be realising decent number 9s are essential.  Teams as good as Turkey and Colombia had a shit load of chances but barely scored.  

[gkm_vancouver]

Agree with others it was a bit mixed - always likely with extra games. Enjoyed some of the early games involving African countries having a go. Inconsistent refereeing an issue again - even with VAR there's still a lot of diving and the early reluctance to book maybe led to more of the dirty tactics coming in. Noticeable that 6 out of last 8 were European, even with Germany and Netherlands having an early exit. With next two world cups in Morocco & Saudi the controversies are probably going to continue.

Of course all the issues would be less of a problem if Scotland had just.............☹️

[Toepoke]

A lot about it I liked, a lot about it I hated.

Still hope we make the next one though.

 

[kumnio]

Didn't see that many games due to the kick off times, from what I did see, its nowhere near the best World Cup and probably ranks amongst the lowest that Ive seen TBH.

Spain are a very good side, but are a bit boring to watch at times. Argentina finally had their luck run out. France should be better than they are, they look disjointed to me. Brazil look a shadow of their former selves. Portugal should have been a contender if they didn't have to play a coffin dodger. Dont think I saw a single Germany game. Japan, South Korea not up to usual standards, African teams not that impressive. I think overall it was a bit blah.

I think the story of the World Cup was the wee teams doing well, or rather better than expected.

It's the most commercialised rip off World Cup that Ive seen. Yet the games that I seen were all pretty much full, so they will think that its worked, which I suppose it has.

From a Scotland POV, the fans looked to have had a great time in the States, but as usual it's been a very, very poor tournament from us. We shat the bed, we looked like a team of utter strangers, certainly no club feel about us, there was no game plan, we scored the second lowest amount of goals, only Panama did worse. In one way, it might be good, I hope that the SFA, the players, the supporters and even the Clarke fans might think what could have been, we should never be that inept again.

[er yir macaroon]

I can guarantee if we had a teenage world class centre half there is zero chance he would have played at the world cup. That he now has a winners medal is something that I hope some of our coaches have a wee think about. 

Edited July 20 by er yir macaroon

[exile]

First and foremost, the usual frustration that we failed again, in that we never gave as good an account of ourselves as we might have. A solitary goal and win was thin fare, fine while it lasted, but Haiti seemed to give more of a fight against Morocco, and saw them at least get in among the 'goals of the competition' compilation. The mystery of how we can beat the likes of Spain and Denmark (albeit at home) but freeze on the big stage when it matters, while smaller less experienced countries thrived on it continues. 

It was good to see the fans got something out of it and we at least contributed to the party on that side of things.

As a competition, it seemed like too many groups, with talent unevenly spread. The 'head to head' criterion meant some fated were sealed before the last game and the last games gave advantage to those playing later. That's the luck of the draw but it's something to consider if repeating a 'best of third place' tournament.

It was good seeing some of the less fancied sides doing well against the big boys - like Cape Verde and DR Congo - even it if meant that once again we're being overtaken by emerging nations.

The idea that Argentina might be favoured (e.g. against Egypt, Switzerland) was an unwelcome distraction, I am not sure how seriously to take that, or what could be done about it. That said, I appreciated that they had to work hard for their victories, often coming from behind to stay in the competition, though they eventually ran out of steam. (I tended to watch only bits of matches where there was something at stake, so I saw disproportionately more of Argentinian comebacks)

Regarding the showbiz and politics, it was not that intrusive in the end, it was easy to ignore it (except on here!). Hydration breaks a nonsense, best not that one country dictates rules to suit itself. Regarding Balogun, it was good that Belgium did the business on the park, I don't think it's necessarily good for the game to aspire that USA should become a major power.

[daviebee]

2 hours ago, er yir macaroon said:

I can guarantee if we had a teenage world class centre half there is zero chance he would have played at the world cup. That he now has a winners medal is something that I hope some of our coaches have a wee think about. 

There's zero chance he'd even be in his club side who'd be playing some fkin clogger from League Z in England in front of him.

[fringo]

1 hour ago, exile said:

First and foremost, the usual frustration that we failed again, in that we never gave as good an account of ourselves as we might have. A solitary goal and win was thin fare, fine while it lasted, but Haiti seemed to give more of a fight against Morocco, and saw them at least get in among the 'goals of the competition' compilation. The mystery of how we can beat the likes of Spain and Denmark (albeit at home) but freeze on the big stage when it matters, while smaller less experienced countries thrived on it continues. 

It was good to see the fans got something out of it and we at least contributed to the party on that side of things.

As a competition, it seemed like too many groups, with talent unevenly spread. The 'head to head' criterion meant some fated were sealed before the last game and the last games gave advantage to those playing later. That's the luck of the draw but it's something to consider if repeating a 'best of third place' tournament.

It was good seeing some of the less fancied sides doing well against the big boys - like Cape Verde and DR Congo - even it if meant that once again we're being overtaken by emerging nations.

The idea that Argentina might be favoured (e.g. against Egypt, Switzerland) was an unwelcome distraction, I am not sure how seriously to take that, or what could be done about it. That said, I appreciated that they had to work hard for their victories, often coming from behind to stay in the competition, though they eventually ran out of steam. (I tended to watch only bits of matches where there was something at stake, so I saw disproportionately more of Argentinian comebacks)

Regarding the showbiz and politics, it was not that intrusive in the end, it was easy to ignore it (except on here!). Hydration breaks a nonsense, best not that one country dictates rules to suit itself. Regarding Balogun, it was good that Belgium did the business on the park, I don't think it's necessarily good for the game to aspire that USA should become a major power.

Pretty much sums up my overall thoughts. 👍

[mccaughey85]

4 hours ago, er yir macaroon said:

I can guarantee if we had a teenage world class centre half there is zero chance he would have played at the world cup. That he now has a winners medal is something that I hope some of our coaches have a wee think about. 

You saying that if we had a highly rated teenage centre back playing every week for Barcelona that he wouldn't have played any part in our world cup?

Edited July 20 by mccaughey85

[Caledonian Craig]

Like most there was the good and bad:-

Good:-

Top notch stadiums

The pre-tournament worries of ICE agents involved was nonsense

Teams people say shouldn't have been there (Cape Verde) performing far better than established sides (Turkey).

The welcoming nature of the US to us Scots

The party atmosphere

The sense of actually just being there

Bad:-

Scotland's stubborn refusal to join the party and play football 

The heat

The distance stadiums were from the city centre

The public transport costs (FIFA'S fault) 

The ludicrous half-time shitshow for the final

Rehydration breaks

I miss the old days of programmes (great keepsakes) being on sale.

[er yir macaroon]

50 minutes ago, mccaughey85 said:

You saying that if we had a highly rated teenage centre back playing every week for Barcelona that he wouldn't have played any part in our world cup?

Unless he was born in Spain, no. Scottish clubs don't play teenage centre halves so they'd never be found by Barcelona. 

[mccaughey85]

26 minutes ago, er yir macaroon said:

Unless he was born in Spain, no. Scottish clubs don't play teenage centre halves so they'd never be found by Barcelona. 

We would have to have a teenage centre back that is good enough to get a game first. Quite a few have been given a chance over the last 10 years but have not been good enough. Leon king, Dane Murray, Stephen Welsh, Scott McKenna, Ross mccrorie are a few that I can think off the top of my head that were given a chance in the spl. Most weren't good enough. McKenna is the only one thats looked half decent.

If we had a cubarsi then I think he would be getting games in the spl. If he can start regularly for Barcelona then I think he would be able to handle the spl.

Edited July 20 by mccaughey85

[Ally Bongo]

 

[daviebee]

I'd say it wasn't a great tournament. It just went on far too long for one thing and it seems like forever since we were playing. The fact that we were so embarrassingly honking didn't help of course. After being assured that lessons had been learned, to then get that turgid swill served up to us was hard to take. Disappointing tournament all round for me.

[Diamond Scot]

Felt like the final nail in the coffin for the way football has been heading for years for all the reasons listed above.

A few things I liked were the 5 second rule on throw ins, limited interference by VAR and injured players having to leave the field for a minute although I noticed this starting to not be implemented later in the tournament.

Biggest positive for me was refs not blowing for the slightest touches. Made it much harder for players in difficult situation just to wait for any contact then throw themselves to ground. Id love that to continue into club football.

[vanderark14]

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18wpNqmwvP/

Thank fuck this mob don't have football as their national sport. Their media would be ten times worse than england 

[bahookie]

Best part (unsurprisingly): Watching the TA videos especially in Boston. Heartwarming stuff.

Low: Exploitation of the masses by the rich & powerful to satisfy the greed of the rich & powerful. Cranking up public transport prices through the roof is no way to treat guests. Dynamic pricing (generally in life, not just for World Cup match tickets) gives me the boak. At a longer established level not just specific to World Cup 26; making fans, teams & anyone else travel long distances between games for the profit of FIFA sponsors in the travel industry. IIRC correctly it was Platini who first brought that in for France 98. He then took that a step further by organising Euro 2020 to be played right across Europe instead of in one area. How much was your palm greased for that Michel?

Bring back the likes of Italia 90 where all teams in Scotland's group played in the nearby cities of Genoa & Turin.

[del_boy1]

Despite all my reservations I quite enjoyed the first two weeks, probably as a result of us being in it. Although by the last week, it didn't feel like we are actually at this tournament. 

I thought the football was ok, no more exciting or poor games than normal. 

I think overall by the end though, just a sour taste in my mouth for lots of reasons. One being the obvious bias refereeing towards Argentina throughout the whole tournament, and the ticket prices. Thanks to everyone pulling their pants down for FIFA, these prices are here to stay.