Preface: This piece continues discussion on FIFA World Cup 2026
The sixteen 2026 World Cup teams eliminated in group play were (in order): Haiti, Türkiye, Tunisia, Jordan, Panama, Czechia, Qatar, Curaçao, Iraq, Uruguay, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand, Scotland, Uzbekistan, South Korea, Iran. The mild surprise in that group is Uruguay, who could manage only draws against Saudi Arabia & Cape Verde. I’m not going to miss any of these teams, and neither will most football fans. I still insist that most (if not all) of these teams shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
Cape Verde advancing to the round-of-32 has been hailed as a feel-good story which validates expanding the World Cup field to 48 teams. I’ve discussed the mercenary, free-agent character of these smaller national teams in my earlier World Cup piece, so I’ll rest on that. I’ll only add that Cape Vere plays Argentina next, and that’s when reality sets in for these smaller World Cup teams.
Of the 32 remaining teams, there still remains much mediocrity in: South Africa, Canada, Paraguay, Sweden, Ecuador, Congo DR, Senegal, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Austria, Switzerland, Algeria, Australia, Egypt, Cape Verde, Ghana. That’s 16 teams listed, and a few play each other in the round-of-32, so some will survive into the round-of-16 simply due to bracketing advantage.
Meanwhile, two very good teams– Netherlands & Morocco– face off in the round-of-32, which illustrates the clearing-out of other brackets to appease the host nations, while opposite brackets such as this one are stacked with good teams. It smells of FIFA corruption. Football fans know that Switzerland v Algeria, Australia v Egypt, Canada v South Africa, shouldn’t be knockout-round games, but there they are. I’ll pass on those games for sure.
The manager of Ghana even said the game has been diluted as the expanded field isn’t good for the World Cup. This was after his Ghana team benefited from the new format by making the round-of-32 as a 3rd-place team. Even enabled beneficiaries of this expanded field don’t support it. It would have been nice if the current field of 32 teams could have been selected through a fair system of qualifiers, instead of diluted group play. Much of group play was painful to watch, and I skipped a lot of it.
The issue is that FIFA wanted to expand because it meant more money, power & influence. FIFA boss Gianni Infantino has a bloc of African nations, CONCACAF, and Middle East oil sheikdoms under his control. FIFA helps them with their national team aspirations in exchange for supporting his ideas like expanding the World Cup field & mandatory hydration (3-minute commercial) breaks. As a result, impoverished Caribbean islands, African semi-colonies and Middle East monarchies get more of their teams into the World Cup, in exchange for fans having to watch an inferior version of World Cup football with more commercial interruptions, and Fox analysts not telling fans why this is.
The synthetic turf at US NFL stadiums have all been converted to natural grass per FIFA. This has been done at great cost & time expense, especially for the domed stadiums in Dallas & Atlanta. This has led to renewed discussion among NFL players as to why they can’t play on natural grass. The bottom line is these NFL stadiums also host rock concerts, tractor pulls, rodeos, motocross races, etc, so it best serves the stadium owners to use synthetic turf which holds up better than grass.
As a sports fan, I don’t feel much sympathy for NFL players anymore. Their behavior towards others is generally atrocious, and their impulses towards violence are far too frequent. The NFL does everything it can to keep all this ugliness quiet, so I view the NFL players as spoiled, as many others do. Until American football players learn to behave more humanely towards women and the educated public in general, I’m not so interested in their labor grievances. These overblown gladiators thoughtlessly serve corporate America & US imperialism with their brand of unrestrained mayhem. Placated & enabled from the youth level with sports corruption & privilege, these professional athletes turn around and expect the oppressed working class to care about turf v grass. In terms of their politics, they couldn’t be more lost.
The grass will be ripped out after the World Cup. and all these stadiums will go back to their pre-existing playing surface. This is a touchy subject among NFL owners, players & fans. FIFA is a game that insists on being played on natural grass because it protects the players and allows for a better game. American football insists on synthetic turf because it’s about the stadium owners being able to profit from a multi-use facility. That defines a major difference between FIFA & American football.
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We have learned in 2026 that FIFA has the power to dictate stadium naming rights, which is an eye-opener. For instance, AT&T stadium in Dallas is where the Cowboys play. But in the World Cup it’s renamed Dallas stadium because FIFA dictates. This demonstrates powerful international authority. All this also explains why tickets are so costly for this World Cup. The above discussed turf-to grass conversions took ~10 weeks of non-use for these stadiums, to allow for 5 weeks of World Cup play.
That’s a lot of cost & lost revenue, but it’s more than made up for by FIFA in ticket sales & event buzz. There is nothing like the World Cup. It’s bigger than the Super Bowl because it’s global and only happens once every four years. I like it better than the Olympics because there is only one competition– football– which is the world game. The World Cup gives every nation (except Russia) a chance to qualify, and earn the right to compete in the most-prestigious athletic competition in modern sports culture.
There is nothing like hosting the World Cup. It allows the host nation(s) to automatically qualify, which in 2018 was an issue for the USMNT, who didn’t qualify for the World Cup held in Russia. World Cup 2026 is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the USMNT to capture the hearts & minds of Americans who mostly call this game soccer. They kinda did it in 1994, but not really. All we got out of that was MLS.
The USMNT needs to beat Belgium in the round-of-16, and at least give a good showing in the quarterfinals against a world-class team to call this tournament a success. The lesson in their last-second 3-2 loss to Türkiye in group play is this team can only go so far. Temper your expectations because they aren’t that good. Rabid USMNT supporters say they believe in miracles. The reality is the USMNT would need four miracles to win the World Cup– starting in the round-of-16. A perfect game is a sports miracle, and it means you play your best as a team, while your opponent who normally over matches you, plays poorly.
It can happen once, like when a pudgy Italian-American kid named Mike Eruzione scores the winning goal for the US hockey team against the USSR machine in 1980. In 2026, sports miracles are manufactured by the mechanisms outlined above. The problem is when the hype fails, and fans are left with resentment due to unmet expectations. Promotion is double-edged. If performance & results don’t match the hype, the USMNT is finished as far as ever competing for a World Cup. That’s what’s on the line as the USMNT enters the knockout rounds. Bosnia-Herzegovina are their first opponent, and they should be dispatched easily by the USMNT playing at home.
Belgium will be more problematic. I’m presuming they will beat Senegal, but nothing is guaranteed at this point. Belgium looked sluggish for much of group play, yet still won their group. Senegal is a murky African team. They were stripped of their Africa Cup title, after the team left the pitch to protest a penalty kick given to Morocco, in a game Senegal eventually won 1-0. This FIFA matter is now being decided in court, and it’s a huge mess. Senegal is talented, but there are team issues and they were fortunate to advance. Senegal is one of those teams that can be dangerous if they put it all together, but more than likely won’t.
This why I’ve always seen a US v Belgium match-up in the round-of-16. Belgium is going to create all kinds of problems for the US, to which I don’t believe they have an answer. It’s this match that is probably going to decide the ultimate fate of men’s football/soccer in the US. Hosting gives your national team a huge home-field advantage that only comes around now. The USWNT has already left their legacy, four World Cup titles. The men have only reached the World Cup quarterfinals once– in 2002. This is their chance to do that again, and if they do so, they will have earned a substantial amount of respect in international football. Those are the lofty, yet still doable expectations for the USMNT.
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I’ve previously discussed ‘football v soccer’ as far as sports terminology goes in the US. Soccer became popular in the US in the 1980’s. It was coached largely by adults who never played the game, and often didn’t even watch the World Cup or European league football. They barely knew the rules, much less how to play. As a consequence, the US developed its own distinctive style of football known as soccer, which is a punt & run style of football. Soccer coaches love the kid who can boom the ball the furthest down the field. That’s their center midfielder. Accuracy, pace & timing don’t matter so much in the soccer school. Punting, physicality, and dribbling through multiple defenders is how the ball is typically advanced in soccer. Trying to get 11 players to work together and methodically control the ball was unheard of in US soccer early days. This losing football style has always ended is hard failure at the World Cup for the USMNT.
If you watch a team like Brazil pass the ball around in every World Cup, you realize why they are always competitive and a 5-time champion. You must control the ball as a team, while producing magical playmakers to win at football. US soccer has failed to produce a USMNT that is competitive at the World Cup because its team consistently lacks quality at every position, save goalkeeper. It values the wrong kind of players, while teaching poor strategies & bad tactics.
You must control the ball, one touch pass under pressure, and maintain a connection with all your teammates to compete with the best at the World Cup. The USMNT is at least two levels short of top tier, as the long-taught soccer style continues to stunt football from flowering in the US. The talent is there, but the correct skills, style & philosophy aren’t being taught early enough to produce the great players needed to compete with France, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, etc. Youth coaching needs to improve by several levels for the US to seriously compete at the World Cup.
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Specifically– being able to clear, trap, pass, serve into the box, and shoot with your left foot (assuming a right-footed player) is required in football. Too many US soccer players have no left foot, and that shows under pressure. Good teams will press your weaknesses until you crack, and that’s typically how the USMNT gets beat in the World Cup. With no left foot you’re half a football player.
As far as team play goes, you can’t be connected if some players don’t have the skills to control the ball under pressure. In football, every player needs to have these ambidextrous foot skills. On US teams that have competed in past World Cups, typically 3-4 players (at most) have international quality. I’m being generous on that, but the point is you can’t connect as a team when two-thirds (or more) of your players just aren’t good enough.
This leads us to USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino, who in my judgment has done a fantastic job with this team. Mauricio Pochettino had to rebuild a USMNT that was crushed when the Jürgen Klinsmann/Bruce Arena led team failed to beat Trinidad & Tobago to qualify for the 2018 World Cup. That was the nadir for football in the US.
Christian Pulisic was on that team. Mauricio Pochettino has stuck by his best player, and now their hopes rest on Christian Pulisic creating some real magic for the USMNT. He’s been hurt, so we haven’t seen much of him. Their group was among the weakest (with Canada’s), so it’s really hard to know how he’ll fare against some real competition. Remember the USMNT didn’t need to qualify this time, so most American sports fans haven’t heard much about the USMNT before this World Cup. This USMNT is still basically untested & unproven.
All-time leading U.S. scorer Landon Donovan was left off the final roster for the 2014 World Cup by Jürgen Klinsmann, which was considered to be one of many of his managerial mistakes. Today, Landon Donovan is probably the best US analyst of World Cup football. He works well with Ian Darke on Fox. He has an understated, compact color analyst style, a quality I always felt was mostly lacking among my youth soccer teammates. I had criticized Landon Donovan earlier, but I take it back– he’s much better than Cobi Jones, Clint Dempsey, or Alexi Lalas.
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Alexi Lalas has stuck his foot in his mouth repeatedly as a Fox 2026 World Cup analyst, and he personifies so many problems the US has in international football. Alexi Lalas always insisted he was better than he actually was. He was good at cutting a figure and politicking in a way that elevated himself while diminishing his teammates. He would publicly project a team spirit, while backstabbing & bad mouthing those whom he thought would expose his phony act.
The best players on the 1994 USMNT, which put US soccer on the map, were Kasey Keller, Eric Wynalda & Cobi Jones. Alexi Lalas was a hanger-on who politicked & promoted himself very well. With “teammates” like this, US soccer has always underachieved on the international stage. Selfish, conceited mediocre players like Alexi Lalas stealing the spotlight for themselves is a major reason why so many American kids quit the game early. You just can’t win playing with people like that.
Eric Wynalda recently summed up the Alexi Lalas schtick quite well in saying, “I think it’s been unwatchable at times. Yeah, I think, I mean, I think a lot of people feel that way. I mean, Alexi is, kind of true to the Fox brand, has been told: this is what we need you to do, start a fight, say some things, insult some people, say something outlandish that no one will believe, and we’ll see how many people will click into that. I think the American public has grown up now. I think our community, our soccer community is way too knowledgeable to fall for that anymore.”
It is from the perspective of a youth player who didn’t make it, that reveals some major deficiencies in US football/soccer. There were thousands if not tens-of-thousands of other kids like me, who had football ability, but were frustrated with the lack of coaching & skills among teammates. Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t go into professional sports, because it’s just too physical for my liking, so I’m not bitter about any of it. But I do know there were many others who could have helped a USMNT achieve better World Cup results, if only they had been recognized & properly coached. That is the difference Eric Wynalda is referring to concerning football IQ & level of play in the US today, versus the riff-raff of Alexi Lalas in 1994 & before.
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The point of all this is to illustrate & illuminate what’s been going on with the USMNT since it took flight in 1994. None of its former players & coaches, especially those who have become analysts for the World Cup on Fox, will honestly describe to the public what I’ve discussed. Even though all the best players know that what I’ve described to be absolutely true. It’s too shameful, as the consistently poor USMNT results speak to a bad process & poor leadership. Every player who participated is complicit by association, and I feel for those who really, really tried to make it work. The USMNT just didn’t have enough of them.
Facts are stubborn, and it’s an inflection point when amateurs can outshine overpaid professionals. It’s more about being honest about basic issues than access to top talent & media glitz. The point is there really isn’t any top US-born football talent to speak of. The best we’ve produced (outside of goalkeeping) are good, but not great by international standards. This is a shortcoming that isn’t honestly discussed, therefore it doesn’t ever get addressed, much less remedied.
The ball has energy which is directed by foot, leg, chest or head as it travels across the pitch. Each of the eleven players need to touch this energized ball at the right time, in the right place, with skill, continuity & connection. It takes a lot of serious practice to get to that. But there’s still too much politicking at the top levels of US soccer, which negatively affects youth football development. All the other top football nations have had their youth infrastructure in place for a long time, while the US is still trying to figure it out.
All this should be understood before jumping on the USMNT 2026 World Cup bandwagon, lest you look like a fool when they only do what they’re expected to do and no more. That’s the standard they’ve set. It’s up to this team to break through. Last chance. I’m neutral on all this. I don’t root for the USMNT, I watch them and take notes during the World Cup. I expect the USMNT to prove themselves worthy before I support US soccer again. I’m an international football fan first.
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