Men's Football FIFA World Cup 2026

[copravolley 640]

16 minutes ago, LDOG said:

Two awfully weak teams (  & ) let into the world cup because of this weird uneven format. And  who are okayish but shouldn't be going either.

 

And oddly enough they have a shot to make the knockouts cuz they will be in some of the weakest groups.

 

 

A side note: in 2017 Italy had two more world cup participations than Argentina. now they're one down.

Strong teams advance from the groups, especially since there are now 48 teams playing at the World Cup, not 32. It's Italy's fault that they lost 0-3 and 1-4 to Norway.

[phelps 8,708]

if tonight's humiliation means 20+ gold and 50+ total medals in 2 years time in LA, I'll take it 1 billion times 

 

and I'd never change the emotions of the 2 Olympic weeks in Milan (and the other sites) with just another average soccer world cup 

[copravolley 640]

4 minutes ago, phelps said:

if tonight's humiliation means 20+ gold and 50+ total medals in 2 years time in LA, I'll take it 1 billion times 

 

and I'd never change the emotions of the 2 Olympic weeks in Milan (and the other sites) with just another average soccer world cup 

I prefer our current strong sport at all and weak football than a lucky promotion and defeat at the World Cup, as in 2010 or 2014. Sinner, Brignone, or Antonelli are worth 100 times more than losers like Bastoni.

Edited 1 hour ago by copravolley

[Faramir 515]

Problem is, that the current funding system of Italian sports - since 2018- relies on football paying the lion's share through taxes (around 70% of the sum that is redistributed). So the rest is strong until it can draw money from football, which in turn makes football weaker and less able to generate money and then who knows. 

[copravolley 640]

Okay, but defeats to Macedonia and Bosnia are unacceptable. Above all, let Italians start playing in Italian clubs... Look at Milan or Como...  Another think is the old and ugly stadiums - Türkiye or Poland currently have much better infrastructure than we do.

[Monzanator 5,120]

Italians can only blame themselves. Serie A has been run by foreigners more than any other Top 5 domestic league. There are zero global stars not named Donnarumma. This is the weakest Italian crop of players I can remember and it's not even close.

 

As for Poland, our defense did a terrible job. Unlike the much-maligned Michniewicz & Probierz who often parked the bus, Urban completely run out of BS luck since errors proved too numerous & too costly.

[Andre Han 183]

Failing to qualify for the World Cup once can be put down to bad luck or other reasons, but missing out three times in a row must be due to an all-round gap. I feel sorry for Italy.

[hoversaBR 869]

Italy didn't qualify again. 

 

Well, now all that's left is for Germany to be eliminated again in the group stage and we'll guarantee another 4 years of "Brazil, the only five-time champion in history, nobody is bigger than Brazil, respect our history and blah blah" that we use on the internet.

[Andre Han 183]

Personally, I'm really looking forward to Japan's performance in the World Cup. From the current situation, Japan has a very distinctive playing style. They have strong tactical ideas whether facing European teams or South American teams. However, Japan has never won a knockout match in the World Cup. As someone who has been following Asian football for a long time, I really admire Japanese football.