*****Official World Cup 2026 Thread*****

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FIDO95
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11:30a, 7/20/26
AG
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carl spacklers hat
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12:01p, 7/20/26
With the win yesterday, Spain establish themselves as THE team of the first quarter of this century. Two WC titles, 3 Euros, 1 Nation's League - only country coming close to that is Argentina with its recent run.
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Zombie Jon Snow
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In reply to carl spacklers hat • 12:58p, 7/20/26
AG
carl spacklers hat said:
With the win yesterday, Spain establish themselves as THE team of the first quarter of this century. Two WC titles, 3 Euros, 1 Nation's League - only country coming close to that is Argentina with its recent run.

Impressive.

Gotta wonder why Spain was not more dominant before?


Only 1 Euro championship before 2008 and that was in 1964. Runner-up once.

No other WC wins and prior to their 2010 title they were often either eliminated in Group stage or knockout round of 16. They made 4 quarterfinals and one semifinal in 1950. But they also failed to qualify 4 times.

Nations League only existed since 2018 so I get that one.

In my mind Spain has always been a dominant force but maybe that's just recency bias. But with Barca and Madrid being dominant for much longer I would just assume Spain had always been a force.
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deadbq03
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In reply to Zombie Jon Snow • 1:50p, 7/20/26
AG
Interesting. I also just kinda assumed they were always a force. But I'm a relatively new fan of the sport, so my recency bias is even worse…. In fact their 2010 World Cup was the first time I ever watched soccer and promptly fell in love with the sport.
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TRM
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In reply to deadbq03 • 2:52p, 7/20/26
AG
They'd qualify for a WC or two then not qualify for a WC for 2 cycles until 1978. They were hosts in 1982 and the field expanded as well so they made more frequent appearances in the WC.
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zgolfz85
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3:04p, 7/20/26
AG
I don't think I could have given any more to that WC than I did. I went to 3 matches, almost went to a 4th....and I watched probably 90 start to finish, another 10 for the most part and the other 4 at least a bit. I didn't miss the entirety of a single match. My only regret is that my workout routine, while maintained, may have been just checking the box rather than full fledged.

What a great tourney.
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Ag Since 83
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In reply to Zombie Jon Snow • 3:12p, 7/20/26
AG
Prior to the 2008 there was always talk about how the Spanish national team didn't really have a unified identity, and the country wasn't really behind them, due to the regional differences and the various rivalries between Castilians/Catalans/Basques/etc. I remember talk of some Catalan players having more pride in playing for the unofficial Catalan national team than for Spain.

The 2008-2012 golden generation finally rose above that. And they had a core from an elite Barcelona team at the time.
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Zombie Jon Snow
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In reply to zgolfz85 • 3:35p, 7/20/26
AG
zgolfz85 said:
I don't think I could have given any more to that WC than I did. I went to 3 matches, almost went to a 4th....and I watched probably 90 start to finish, another 10 for the most part and the other 4 at least a bit. I didn't miss the entirety of a single match. My only regret is that my workout routine, while maintained, may have been just checking the box rather than full fledged.

What a great tourney.

Wow. I watched at least half, and usually most or all of nearly every match but just on TV - working from home and being more or less off for the summer (just teaching online classes) was great. I was "working" with them on a third monitor. Also had the TVs on any time I was playing poker at night and games were on (Mon/Thu and Sats I usually play).

I missed only 5 full matches - like the ones that started very late like 11pm here
Australia vs Turkey
Austria vs Jordan
Tunisia vs Japan

plus these for some reason
Haiti vs Scotland
Iraq vs Norway
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zgolfz85
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In reply to Zombie Jon Snow • 3:42p, 7/20/26
AG
Zombie Jon Snow said:
zgolfz85 said:
I don't think I could have given any more to that WC than I did. I went to 3 matches, almost went to a 4th....and I watched probably 90 start to finish, another 10 for the most part and the other 4 at least a bit. I didn't miss the entirety of a single match. My only regret is that my workout routine, while maintained, may have been just checking the box rather than full fledged.

What a great tourney.

Wow. I watched at least half, and usually most or all of nearly every match but just on TV - working from home and being more or less off for the summer (just teaching online classes) was great. I was "working" with them on a third monitor. Also had the TVs on any time I was playing poker at night and games were on (Mon/Thu and Sats I usually play).

I missed only 5 full matches - like the ones that started very late like 11pm here
Australia vs Turkey
Austria vs Jordan
Tunisia vs Japan

plus these for some reason
Haiti vs Scotland
Iraq vs Norway

yes, the work from home certainly helped. I should probably qualify my post as well -- in a lot of cases for the day games, I was "watching" in the background with my laptop in tow, or on my phone while on my work computer, etc.
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EastSideAg2002
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4:30p, 7/20/26
What I learned from this World Cup is as much as the world mocks the US for racism, the rest of the world has no problem just being overtly racist when it comes to soccer.
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Zombie Jon Snow
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In reply to EastSideAg2002 • 5:23p, 7/20/26
AG
EastSideAg2002 said:
What I learned from this World Cup is as much as the world mocks the US for racism, the rest of the world has no problem just being overtly racist when it comes to soccer.


It's not just soccer.

Most of the world is much more racist/religioust than the US but they live in much more homogeneous societies and just ignore the plight of their minorities. And they openly hate others but justify it because of some past imperialism or war/conquest or just good old fashioned thievery.

Many either don't welcome immigrants or isolate those that they do allow in. Or kill them often enough that they don't dare speak up.

I could name 50 ethnic groups or countries that are blatantly and outwardly racist. And none of them could handle true racial equality or issues.
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AgRyan04
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6:49p, 7/20/26
I thought the tournament was fantastic!

I thought the final was great - a bit boring for the first half or so but fantastic from the second hydration break on ward

Emi Martinez single handedly kept that from getting ugly. Spain just suffocated them. They didn't/weren't able to make the adjustments to play through Messi until they went into panic mode.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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