DJHazey

You know McLaren will, which will be such a cheesy way to win the title.

Max will need to win with Lando finishing 4th or worse or really hope for DNF. Qualifying will be insane.

Tuesday 2nd December AFC Bournemouth 1-1 Everton (19:30) Fulham 1-2 Manchester City (19:30) Newcastle United 3-4 Tottenham Hotspur (20:15) Wednesday 3rd December Arsenal 2-0 Brentford (19:30) Brighton & Hove Albion 0-0 Aston Villa (19:30) Burnley 2-3 Crystal Palace (19:30) Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-1 Nottingham Forest (19:30) Leeds United 1-4 Chelsea (20:15) Liverpool 2-1 Sunderland (20:15) Thursday 4th December Manchester United 1-0 West Ham United (20:00) Saturday 6th December Aston Villa 1-3 Arsenal (12:30) AFC Bournemouth 1-0 Chelsea Everton 2-1 Nottingham Forest Manchester City 2-0 Sunderland Newcastle United 1-1 Burnley Tottenham Hotspur 2-2 Brentford Leeds United 0-1 Liverpool (17:30) Sunday 7th December Brighton & Hove Albion 2-0 West Ham United (14:00) Fulham 1-2 Crystal Palace (16:30) Monday 8th December Wolverhampton Wanderers 0-4 Manchester United (20:00)

I can't tell how much I will rooting for Portugal to be this Cup's darling who flame out in the group stage.

Also, FIFA decided Ronaldo gets to play in the first World Cup match for Portugal, reducing the two-game ban to one already served vs. Armenia. Big surprise...

I prefer that so we get more interesting groups with a good European nation in Pot 4.

Saturday 29th November Brentford 1-0 Burnley Manchester City 2-1 Leeds United Sunderland 4-2 AFC Bournemouth Everton 1-0 Newcastle United (17:30) Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Fulham (20:00) Sunday 30th November Crystal Palace 2-1 Manchester United (12:00) Aston Villa 2-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers (14:05) Nottingham Forest 1-0 Brighton & Hove Albion (14:05) West Ham United 2-2 Liverpool (14:05) Chelsea 3-4 Arsenal (16:30)

Ha, the only one who had Everton in a sea of United stans and the right scoreline to boot!

I'm the only one who picked Everton, so if they pull it off that will be helpful to my standing this week.

He will need Lando to be essentially DNF in one race and that's not likely to occur, but you never know. We all know if you battle with Max on the track anything can happen.

Both Bolivia and Ecuador (as well as Mexico City for Mexico) having the highest altitude at their home stadiums, so yes this will help in Guadalajara.

If we believe in home-field advantage, Jamaica and Bolivia have a chance to have more fans in attendance. This could be a factor. Hoping for Jamaica and Bolivia to qualify here.

Fair but you are mentioning 'record losses' like there's going to be 10-0 final scorelines. Iraq, Haiti, Congo DR, New Zealand might lose to Spain or another topflight team 4-0 or something, but we're not talking about anything historical here. I didn't want tournament expansion as much as anybody else, but I don't think we're going to have anything embarrassing happen in the group stage. I mention the expansion to 48 teams, because I feel that's the commentary at play here, Every tournament has and will have multiple groups with teams that finish at 0 points and no goals. What's new there?

We have our draw! Path A Mar 26 | Italy TBD | Italy vs. Northern Ireland Mar 26 | Cardiff | Wales vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina Mar 31 | Final venue either Wales or Bosnia. Path B Mar 26 | TBD | Ukraine vs. Sweden Mar 26 | Poland TBD | Poland vs. Albania Mar 31 | Final venue TBD if Ukraine or Sweden. Path C Mar 26 | Turkey TBD | Turkey vs. Romania Mar 26 | Bratislava | Slovakia vs. Kosovo Mar 31 | Final venue either Slovakia or Kosovo. Path D Mar 26 | Copenhagen | Denmark vs. North Macedonia Mar 26 | Czech TBD | Czech Republic vs. Republic of Ireland Mar 31 | Final venue either Czech Republic or Ireland

You can't have three European countries in one group anyway, so Spain/Italy/Norway/Uzbekistan isn't possible. You only need three powerful countries for it to be a 'Group of Death' anyway, it's never four. 2022 didn't really have one unless we count Spain-Germany-Japan 2018 didn't have one in the traditional sense either. 2014 had Spain-Netherlands-Chile and the Uruguay-England-Italy one plus the softer version which was Germany-Portugal-Ghana-USA 2010 had Uruguay-Mexico-France Uzbekistan doesn't have known players in European leagues, they only have one player on Manchester City, but a lot of times appearances in tournaments like these open the eyes of larger clubs. I'm sure a few Moroccan players were signed to bigger clubs after the last one. I wouldn't write off Uzbekistan just because the national team doesn't have a footprint in European clubs. Our U.S. squad is half on European top leagues and we suck, doesn't mean everything. Also, a team like Ghana, that's a battle-tested one I'm sure nobody wants as the 4th team in their group. That would be a group of death to me, depending on who else is in it. Austria in any group as a third would be trouble as well.

There are 12 groups. The three host will be already drawn into Group A (Mexico), Group B (Canada), and Group D (United States), then they will draw another country from Pot 1 into each Group (C, E, F, G H I, J, K L) and repeat the process for Pot 2, Pot 3, and finally Pot 4. Each group will then have four countries, one each from each Pot which is how the 'balance the strength' of each group the best they can.

This doesn't make any sense though, half those nations have been in multiple World Cups already and weren't being beaten by record margins... It's not like San Marino is in this thing. Yeah there might be a 7-0 match or two, but there always was.

Oof, whoever gets Uzbekistan as a 4th team, that won't be an easy group.

One thing to notice is having 86th ranked New Zealand potentially be the lowest ranked nation isn't that bad with the fears about a 48-team tournament. Also, the three hosts would all be in Pot 2, something that couldn't be said about a lot of the recent World Cups. Norway sadly just missing Pot 2, but I think they're under-ranked. Morocco almost in Pot 1, which would've probably been a first for a non-host, non-European, non-South American country.

The draw for the 2026 World Cup will be held at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. on December 5th at Noon EST. Same rule as always applies. Other than Europe, no two countries from the same confederation can be drawn into the same group. Europe can have up to two countries in one group. Here are the pots, which are now set after the November 19th FIFA Rankings were updated: Pot 1 Mexico (15) Host-Group A Canada (27) Host-Group B United States (14) Host-Group D Spain (1) Argentina (2) Champ France (3) England (4) Brazil (5) Portugal (6) Netherlands (7) Belgium (8) Germany (9) Pot 2 Croatia (10) Morocco (11) Colombia (13) Uruguay (16) Switzerland (17) Japan (18) Senegal (19) Iran (20) South Korea (22) Ecuador (23) Austria (24) Australia (26) Pot 3 Norway (29) Panama (30) Egypt (34) Algeria (35) Scotland (36) Paraguay (39) Tunisia (41) Ivory Coast (42) Uzbekistan (50) Debut Qatar (54) Saudi Arabia (60) South Africa (61) Pot 4 Jordan (66) Debut Cape Verde (68) Debut Ghana (72) Curaçao (82) Debut Haiti (84) New Zealand (86) UEFA Path A UEFA Path B UEFA Path C UEFA Path D IC Playoff 1 IC Playoff 2

If you're Ireland supporters, I think all matchups are potentially winnable, but Poland has playing even better lately so I'd avoid them.

Jamaica will have the most fans able to make the trip, so that will give a leg up on the rest of the competition, though the Bolivian fans will also travel. That being said, this won't be a walk-over at all for Iraq/DRC. Personally, I'd pull for Congo DR and Jamaica to qualify, Jamaica at the very least. It would be nice to see the 'Reggae Boyz' back in the World Cup.

The draw for playoffs takes place on Thursday in Switzerland. After drawing the four Paths each one will have a random team drawn as host of the final. So someone could be at home if they reach the final, or it could end up being a neutral site depending on the results. The semifinals will be hosted by the higher seed.

Feel like I watched a million fan celebrations of the late Scottish goals, the Scottish broadcast of the highlights, post game reactions etc. I know one thing, Freed from Desire streams are going to peak this week.

Okay your late night correspondence, here in the U.S. So Panama took care of El Salvador at home 3-0, no surprise there. They qualify because Suriname lost 3-1 at Guatemala. However, the Suriname goal came late and was huge because that gave them the one goal difference they needed to even up with Honduras at +3 and since they've scored more goals they advance over Honduras to the Intercontinental Playoff. Insane! Meanwhile Honduras and Costa Rica played to a 0-0 draw for what seems like the millionth time when they meet. Since Haiti took care of Nicaragua they advance to their first World Cup since 1974. With everything that country has been through in recent years with natural disasters, this is a nice story. In the final match, it was Jamaica hosting Curacao. Even 0-0 in stoppage time after Jamaica had gone down to 10 men earlier. A penalty was initially called in favor of Jamaica, which caused a chaotic scene as you can imagine. Referee was asked to check VAR and reversed the decision. Curacao held the 0-0 draw after and advance to their first ever World Cup!! Jamaica joins Suriname in the Intercontinental Playoff! To summarize: Qualified - Panama, Curacao, Haiti Playoff - Suriname and Jamaica join New Caledonia, Bolivia, Congo DR, and Iraq.