World Cup 2026

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Hannah1989 said:
doing a bet with a few people at work

which is the following

1) Who will win it
2) top goal scorer
3) best keeper
4) where england will come

and my thoughts are -
what are you lovely lot are thinking
Click to expand...
A few people were talking about Spain having one of the best squads.

England? It depends on how well Tuchel can mold a cohesive team together. Make us solid, with enough flair and threat to score goals, and we will be in the conversation to get as far as the semi-finals.

Netherlands are always interesting to follow to see if they can put all that talent to good use.
 
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Hannah1989 said:
doing a bet with a few people at work

which is the following

1) Who will win it
2) top goal scorer
3) best keeper
4) where england will come

and my thoughts are -
what are you lovely lot are thinking
Click to expand...

1) Who will win it
France

2) top goal scorer
Mbappe

3) best keeper
Martinez

4) where england will come
Win the group, get past the next stage and go out at the quarters
 
Hannah1989 said:
doing a bet with a few people at work

which is the following

1) Who will win it
2) top goal scorer
3) best keeper
4) where england will come

and my thoughts are -
what are you lovely lot are thinking
Click to expand...
Who will win it - Spain

Top goal scorer - Dembele

Best keeper - Martinez

England - out in the quarter finals
 
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Daz said:
New rules confirmed for the World Cup


Agree with the majority of them, especially the time wasting ones and stopping the team from going to the touchline when a keeper fakes an injury as that is occurring way too much.

I think VAR having the power to overrule incorrect second yellow cards will just result in more yellows being thrown in general however.
Click to expand...

yup, some good calls in there, although i would add that for the drinks break, each team stays in their own half with the drinks brought in by non club members, (possibly from the opposing team) to save further 'pep talks'.
 
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Hannah1989 said:
doing a bet with a few people at work

which is the following

1) Who will win it
2) top goal scorer
3) best keeper
4) where england will come

and my thoughts are -
what are you lovely lot are thinking
Click to expand...
Seriously difficult to predict anything for this tournament. The problem is the size of it, 48 teams is too big. Most of the "big boys" should go through whether it's as winners or runners up, or if they really mess up, in third. 12 group winners and runners up with the next 8 best 3rd placed teams going into the knockout stages means there's probably too many variables to predict with accuracy. With some of the 3rd place teams going through there's a realistic chance of some pretty weak teams getting into the knockouts which can skew things, especially if a seeded team slips up and doesn't finish where expected to, so plotting pathways in the tournament is really hard. But I'll give it a go.

Only 8 teams have ever won the world cup and 7 of them are there. Add in a couple of dark horses like the Netherlands and Portugal and the winner is likely to come from that group. Realistically I think the winner comes from a group of maybe 5 or 6 teams.

At the moment I'd say Spain as most possible winners, with France as second choice but I can also see both slipping up so it might not be as straightforward as people think.

Top scorer, probably from Mbappe, Kane or Haaland as most likely and assuming both England and France get to at least the quarter finals. But with the size of the tournament you could get an outsider hit a lot of goals early on and stick there despite being knocked out by the quarter finals (it happened in 1994 with Oleg Salenko of Russia).

Best keeper, very tricky but I'll say Martinez but without huge confidence (we really don't know how the conditions will affect teams and that could have a huge impact on goal keepers).

England? Quarter finals is probably par for expectations. With luck they could go beyond that and they are capable of getting to the final. We are ranked 4th in the world and have 2 Euro finals, a world cup semi and a world cup quarter final in the last 4 tournaments. We also qualified winning every game and didn't conceded a goal doing so, the only team to do it. It's not a recent record to be dismissed easily even though people often do.

I think with England it's a lot to do with mentality and belief particularly when we run up against a France, Brazil, Spain or so on. I read something before the Russia world cup that England had been knocked out of the World Cup by the eventual winners more than any other nation (1958, 1952, 1986, 1990, 2002) as well as by the runners up in 1982 and 2018. I think that has played a part psychologically but it could be the kind of thing that once broken leads to a decent run of success.

I'll add another category in - potential surprise package. I can see a team like Norway or Japan pulling some big surprises out of the hat. I don't think either can win it, but I can see them taking couple of scalps and getting to say the quarter finals. If they do that could throw a huge mess by putting other teams either out or into a different part of the draw.
 
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C Montgomery Burns said:
Seriously difficult to predict anything for this tournament. The problem is the size of it, 48 teams is too big. Most of the "big boys" should go through whether it's as winners or runners up, or if they really mess up, in third. 12 group winners and runners up with the next 8 best 3rd placed teams going into the knockout stages means there's probably too many variables to predict with accuracy. With some of the 3rd place teams going through there's a realistic chance of some pretty weak teams getting into the knockouts which can skew things, especially if a seeded team slips up and doesn't finish where expected to, so plotting pathways in the tournament is really hard. But I'll give it a go.

Only 8 teams have ever won the world cup and 7 of them are there. Add in a couple of dark horses like the Netherlands and Portugal and the winner is likely to come from that group. Realistically I think the winner comes from a group of maybe 5 or 6 teams.

At the moment I'd say Spain as most possible winners, with France as second choice but I can also see both slipping up so it might not be as straightforward as people think.

Top scorer, probably from Mbappe, Kane or Haaland as most likely and assuming both England and France get to at least the quarter finals. But with the size of the tournament you could get an outsider hit a lot of goals early on and stick there despite being knocked out by the quarter finals (it happened in 1994 with Oleg Salenko of Russia).

Best keeper, very tricky but I'll say Martinez but without huge confidence (we really don't know how the conditions will affect teams and that could have a huge impact on goal keepers).

England? Quarter finals is probably par for expectations. With luck they could go beyond that and they are capable of getting to the final. We are ranked 4th in the world and have 2 Euro finals, a world cup semi and a world cup quarter final in the last 4 tournaments. We also qualified winning every game and didn't conceded a goal doing so, the only team to do it. It's not a recent record to be dismissed easily even though people often do.

I think with England it's a lot to do with mentality and belief particularly when we run up against a France, Brazil, Spain or so on. I read something before the Russia world cup that England had been knocked out of the World Cup by the eventual winners more than any other nation (1958, 1952, 1986, 1990, 2002) as well as by the runners up in 1982 and 2018. I think that has played a part psychologically but it could be the kind of thing that once broken leads to a decent run of success.

I'll add another category in - potential surprise package. I can see a team like Norway or Japan pulling some big surprises out of the hat. I don't think either can win it, but I can see them taking couple of scalps and getting to say the quarter finals. If they do that could through a huge mess by putting other teams either out or into a different part of the draw.
Click to expand...
Very impressive and interesting that mate.
 
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Hannah1989 said:
doing a bet with a few people at work

which is the following

1) Who will win it
2) top goal scorer
3) best keeper
4) where england will come

and my thoughts are -
what are you lovely lot are thinking
Click to expand...
1. England. Hear me out. Nobody is exceptional and we are in with the best.

We have Harry Kane. Nobody else does. The top 4-5 nations are so well matched it may come down to ‘not missing’. Harry doesn’t.

2. Kane. He will stat pad v Panama.

3. Unai Simon (Spain) - incredible goalkeeper.

Our Picky will once again do us proud.

4. Already answered.
 
Out of respect to those posters who are 'behind our lads' and believe England can win the WC I'll be mainly keeping out of this thread. I've become jaded by the attitude of various players and managers but also by the belief that England winning anything with foreign managers and coaches is shan.

I'll watch the games but will be mostly interested to see how the Sunderland players get on. I'll be hoping Scotland do well but, conversely, will cheer more if Isidor scores for Haiti than if Kane scores for England. I'd also be out of my seat quicker if Brobbey scores for Ronald Koeman than if Gordon scores for Thomas Tuchel.

My greatest hope is that none of our players is injured and that the name of Sunderland is proudly represented.
 
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