Dear Stan Kroenke:
Go Fuck Yourself.
Sincerely,
The Rest of the World
Salah scores four for Egypt. I need to look up to see if Africa is still doing the stupidest qualifier process ever…
NO! They’ve changed it, due to their being 9.5 African nations qualifying.
So, drawn from pots in World Ranking Order, make nine groups of six teams, top of the Groups go to WC2026, while the four best 2nd-place teams have a neutral ground playoff for the one inter-continental playoff spot.
Group stage ends in October '25 after 10 matches are played.
This should end with nine out of the top, say, 14 African teams in the WC2026. A Pot 1 will have to shit the bed several times to miss out, as opposed to getting an unlucky draw for the final round and two of the top five ranked teams not making it because of one Home-Home round.
Bump…
MetLife Stadium will change in order to get Final.
I think FIFA will have to think twice about the endorsement of Texas politics should it prefer the bigger (capacity) but smaller (field) ATT Stadium… and ask for more money to help swallow it down.
Mark your calendars, the WC schedule release happens early next month:
Meanwhile, I saw a rumor that Jerry World will be the site of the final rather than NY/MetLife
So they’ll finally get to host a game where both teams are quality teams.
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They will still have to raise the floor a few rows above the first risers in order to fit the FIFA-sized field. Cuz, they didn’t plan on World Cup Soccer when it was built.
I was surprised by this announcement. They should have announced when they were going to tell us the date that they will be announcing the date that they will announce the final venues.
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Although it will be a long time before actually being able to buy tickets I look forward to this early announcement to start travel planning to visit other cities, coordinate with UK family visit, etc.
Vancouver and Seattle games will require little planning but would like to catch matches in Toronto and some Eastern US cities as well. Just too bad that ticket sales are so last minute.
Not that moist of us care (except those in the WCQ contest), bur CONCACAF has announced the groups for 2026 qualification.
Short version:
Round 1: home-and-home of the four lowest ranked teams. two advance
Round 2: 2 + other 28 teams in six 5-team groups. Top two of each advance.
Round 3: 12 teams in three 4-team groups. Three group winners qualify for WC, while the top two second-place teams “advance” to intercontinental play-offs.
Unfair for that one third-place team missing out. Should have a one-match play-in of the two lowest second-place teams. Simple bad luck to be placed in a more difficult group than other teams.
No “hex” this time around.
The schedule is out!
As originally pitched, NY gets the final with the semis going to ATL and Dallas.
I’m happy with ATL’s spot: 5 group stage matches, 1 round of 32, 1 round of 16, and the semis.
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Pretty exciting! 13 matches between Seattle and Vancouver including Round of 32 and Round of 16 matches in both cities. Strangely Toronto got no games after the first round? That would be like SF getting later round matches and NYC none. May not bother going to Toronto after all for any games.
TOR got a round of 32 game. The only city I think that gets only group stage is Guadalajara.
Strangely DAL got 2 R32 and PHL missed out. Every city except PHL and Guadalajara got one…
TOR did get shut out after R32, but so did other venues
Yeah. I noticed that Toronto did have a round of 32 match just after I posted. But Toronto has 8 million people in its greater area and a lot of soccer fans: surprised it didn’t get a Round of 16 when relatively tiny Vancouver did. But not complaining!
City probably won’t be accessible after Leaves Stanley Cup parade
ATL should definitely ask and get more matches, due to the expense of the real grass.
Glad to see NJ get the Final.
Vancouver may have a Stanley Cup before Toronto and we have a worse record of fans trashing the city.
Bonus: the grass will be planted in February so MLS gets to use it temporarily as well.
I have a choice between Boston, Kansas City or Seattle (or Vancouver at a stretch). My guess is that KC should be cheapest on average so maybe I’ll base myself there.
I am hoping that England may get a Round of 32 or 16 match in Vancouver because of the strong English connection here.
With only two Canadian cities hosting I expect to see several Canada National Team matches here. Will be interesting to see how the US National Team matches are allocated by city given the large number of sites. I personally would be ecstatic to see any Round of 16 match regardless of the teams involved.