It looks like the winner of the USA/Netherlands game will play the winner of the Argentina/Poland group or the runner-up in the Australia/Denmark/Tunisia group. All Poland needs is a tie against Argentina to win their group, as far as I can tell.

If the US were able to get past the Dutch, they could have a very winnable game in the quarterfinals.

How do we match up against Netherlands?

Seven Costanza said:

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It looks like the winner of the USA/Netherlands game will play the winner of the Argentina/Poland group or the runner-up in the Australia/Denmark/Tunisia group. All Poland needs is a tie against Argentina to win their group, as far as I can tell.

If the US were able to get past the Dutch, they could have a very winnable game in the quarterfinals.

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A draw for Poland could leave them second to Saudi Arabia if the Saudis can beat El Tri (I would not put that past them, at all, based on form to date). Both Poland and Argentina will be fighting like hell to win the game as the prize for second place is a matchup with France and Mmmbop in the round of 16, with England lurking in the QF.

Poland-Argentina draw and a Saudi win would be a dream result for the US. At the beginning of the tournament, if you could draw Netherlands followed by the winner of Saudi Arabia-Denmark for a WC semifinal appearance, you would take that every day and twice on Sunday.

Artorias said:

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How do we match up against Netherlands?

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I'll leave a detailed breakdown for people who follow the game more closely than I do, but realistically, they're a 2:1 favorite.

A win, however, is far from out of the question. Their qualifying group was not composed of world-beaters (inc. Latvia, Montenegro, and Gibraltar, in addition to 2nd place Turkey and 3rd place Norway). This is not a great Netherlands squad by their standards-they would not have been a projected group winner had they not had the good fortune of drawing Qatar.

I would assume they're a ball control offense similar to lots of European squads?

Control possession and calculated attacks/pick their spots?

My Saturday schedule just got complicated now

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At the beginning of the tournament, if you could draw Netherlands followed by the winner of Saudi Arabia-Denmark for a WC semifinal appearance, you would take that every day and twice on Sunday.

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Even better, maybe a quarterfinal matchup vs the winner of Saudi Arabia-Australia??? Bonkers.

So we have our first, uh, "Asian" side through to the knockout stages.

I know it isn't going to happen, but I wish FIFA would force Australia out of AFC and back to OFC. As things stands, New Zealand is essentially getting a bye to the World Cup. A second OFC team will be getting the pleasure of playing in the inter-confederation playoffs. Watching the Solomon Islands play, say, Bolivia or Nigeria, should be "something".

Or just fold OFC into AFC altogether.

Could you imagine watching the group stage match of Vanuatu v. Germany in 2026? Will fifa have to start a mercy rule? Or limit GD to a maximum of 5 or 10?

ThunderCougarFalconBird said:

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Or just fold OFC into AFC altogether.

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In a perfect world, I would like to see that (not to mention folding CONCACAF into CONMEBOL). It won't happen because the tiny federations of Oceania struggle (at best) to send competitive sides on plane flights within the region. If the Cook Islands had to face getting drawn into a group with Jordan, Nepal, and North Korea, the travel costs alone would probably be impossible.

You could argue that the participation of these sides is irrelevant to the qualifying process (which, of course, it is), but FIFA generally doesn't operate that way.

It would have been a sad day if we didn't advance and watch the Aussies go on to the 16. Product of getting the weakest draw including qualifiers. Good for them, but feels inequitable relative to the caliber of some teams not advancing.

YokelRidesAgain said:

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So we have our first, uh, "Asian" side through to the knockout stages.

I know it isn't going to happen, but I wish FIFA would force Australia out of AFC and back to OFC. As things stands, New Zealand is essentially getting a bye to the World Cup. A second OFC team will be getting the pleasure of playing in the inter-confederation playoffs. Watching the Solomon Islands play, say, Bolivia or Nigeria, should be "something".

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I think the problem is the expansion to 48 teams, which is messing up a perfect format, not that the OFC champion has been getting a spot in the playoffs. (This is, of course, the 3rd straight WC without an OFC team.)

The bracket is set!

No 3-0 teams.

USA, England, Netherlands, Morocco, and Croatia that didn't lose in the group stage

Go Socceroos!

The field looks like crap

Golazo for Messi

Now that US is out, I would kind of like to see Argentina vs Portugal in the final. Unlikely but would be a fun game.

Horrible mistake by the Aussie goalie.

Nice run by Aus. Almost got the equalizer.

Soccer-Roos keeping it interesting. Argentina has looked mostly comfortable but Aussies keep poking 'em. Real damn shame about that mistake by Ryan…

TRM said:

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Horrible mistake by the Aussie goalie.

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Shockingly bad. That will come back to haunt

As a surrogate Aussie "good on ya boys!" You played like you should have been there. Cheers!

Nm

Wow, thought he had that!

So close

Wow what a save

Dang. So close