I'm well aware...they are still the favourites to Whales. Any odds site will tell you.
I'm rooting for Italy to make it because I think a Canada - Italy match at the 2026 World Cup would be fantastic regardless of the outcome (a draw would be nice, but could you imagine if Canada pulled off a win?)
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Looks like I'm going to Canada vs Qatar & Egypt vs New Zealand: + whatever the round of 32 & 16 matches end up as.
Wish I got the Toronto tickets too for a potential Italy vs Canada; but can't be greedy.
If any Liverpool fans want Egypt tickets; I'll surcharge you $2000 per seat for your terrible club selection.
Looks like I'm going to Canada vs Qatar & Egypt vs New Zealand: + whatever the round of 32 & 16 matches end up as.
Wish I got the Toronto tickets too for a potential Italy vs Canada; but can't be greedy.
If any Liverpool fans want Egypt tickets; I'll surcharge you $2000 per seat for your terrible club selection.
Not meaning to do a MegaErtz here but a Welsh fan pointed out on another message board that if Wales qualify, then Group B will have the three worst teams from the 2022 World Cup in it.
__________________ "We are no longer living. We are empty of substance, and our head devours us. Our ancestors were more alive. Nothing separated them from themselves."
There is not a speechwriter artful enough to make Gianni Infantino funny, or charming, or the slightest bit plausible, and so it felt that those responsible had – on this day of days – discarded their drafts and instead let him go rogue.
The Fifa president has delivered some high-grade excreta in the name of speech-making in the past, but at the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington DC, this was a different level. The whole ceremony – or at least the part of it that US president Donald Trump would be around for – was about the presentation of “the inaugural Fifa Peace Prize”, and Infantino was determined to milk it for everything he considered it to be worth.
Even if you wished to look away it was hard to tear one’s attention from such a spectacular display of grovelling being broadcast to a global audience. First, Infantino debased himself with a desperately unfunny set of opening remarks. These culminated in his demand that the audience chant the name of one of the three World Cup hosts. This was the point – somehow more excruciating than what had gone before – that you suspected all moderation had failed. Infantino was surely writing his own material.
Infantino had a break while Robbie Williams battled his way through a Fifa song as forgettable as you would expect, the poor man now 51 years old and still being sewn into silk fuchsia suits and pushed onstage for another corporate gig. “I know Robbie well,” murmured Dion Dublin approvingly on the BBC coverage, “that’s why he’s there – he’s the best in the business.” It was, after all, a night for big statements.
They tried to Americanize it with trotting out Kevin Harts and Shaq but their draw is their personality and none of it shone through or impressed a concert hall full of non Americans.
Hart seemed completely phony.
So, even though they loaded it with recognizable American people, it wasn’t an American type production, so Fifa still had its hands all over this.
Bocelli was good but this isn’t Italia 90.
Infantio was as awkward as could be. Fan chants , and obviously pandering to Trump.
What a bad WC song. They are all pretty generic and required for the 10 second clips before the game and going in and out of halftime on the television coverage, but sounded pretty dark. Robbie Williams and partner were just as awkward trying to hype it up.
Lauren Hill. Yikes.
Random alumni, most of them speaking Spanish, provided nothing. Only hardcore soccer fans would recognize them in the first place and then no interpreter until one at the end.
I don’t think Carney knew that his “draw” was rigged given his reaction.
The Village People got Trump off his feet but they looked and sounded real rough. Totally bizarre and would be hard pressed to make the Coke Stage at Stampede.
As far as Canada, the CSA got their desired Italy matchup, probably. But will take some of the pure excitement off the home opening WC game the country has waited its entire history for with a bunch of Italian Canadians in the crowd.
Is 4 points enough to get out of the group? Maybe if the goal differential is there. Opening game is key. Draw win draw would be great. Swiss game will mean it all and will full know what they have to do going into it.
what a joke this announcement was. This was worse than the Vancouver opening ceremonies with Wayne in the rain.
lol it put me to sleep and i ended up missing a meeting
I thought that the Vancouver Olympics thing with Gretzky the torchbearer was kind of fun. It fit and it worked.
Fast forward to present day and Gretzky has largely lost his lustre to me. The MAGA stuff for one, and he just generally seems impaired and/or a bit dim, Probably always was, but it seems more apparent lately.
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What a bad WC song. They are all pretty generic and required for the 10 second clips before the game and going in and out of halftime on the television coverage, but sounded pretty dark. Robbie Williams and partner were just as awkward trying to hype it up.
Lauren Hill. Yikes.
The best WC song wasn't even an official WC song. I didn't realize he was Canadian until now either:
