DR Congo vs. Uzbekistan match highlights.. pic.twitter.com/CLBiucXFcZ

— Memes vs. Football (@memesvsfootball) June 28, 2026

I hate when it's just a toe. That's wasn't the spirit of the rule although it did say any part but with the naked eye that's never called.

The EPL has actually addressed this in the last year and said because of the frame rate determining exactly when a ball was played was nearly impossible and so things like a toenail were no longer going to be used to determine offsides. Partly that's achieved by using thicker lines 5cm wide to compensate for the margin. And they have semi automated it but it's still verified by a VAR Official. But it brought var reviews down from 2-4 minutes to under 30 seconds in most cases.

WC has not yet adopted it. And no other major leagues either. But hopefully it's coming.

oragator said:

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I hate FIFA with the fire of a thousand suns, and of course it was a total money grab.
But hard to argue the new 48 team format hasn't been spectacularly successful. The additional teams give it a March madness feel with the upsets, the extra teams making the nock out round mean history and something to play for for more teams, and more games means more revenue, eyeballs, and general interest.
They will, of course screw it up and go to 64, but maybe that works out too.

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I don't love the confusion regarding the third place teams. I think I would prefer 64 with a more clear cut system where the top 2 teams in each group move on. But maybe the third place situation adds enjoyable drama.

Seven Costanza said:

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oragator said:

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I hate FIFA with the fire of a thousand suns, and of course it was a total money grab.
But hard to argue the new 48 team format hasn't been spectacularly successful. The additional teams give it a March madness feel with the upsets, the extra teams making the nock out round mean history and something to play for for more teams, and more games means more revenue, eyeballs, and general interest.
They will, of course screw it up and go to 64, but maybe that works out too.

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I don't love the confusion regarding the third place teams. I think I would prefer 64 with a more clear cut system where the top 2 teams in each group move on. But maybe the third place situation adds enjoyable drama.

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It would be enjoyable if I understand it without the need of ChatGPT …

Yeah, they could do better with how those 3rd place teams teams are placed. Hard though, if you do it off of seeding you don't know until everything is done. If you do it based off of pretournament seeding (number 1 team's group gets the lowest seed etc.) it doesn't reward tournament play necessarily. I am sure there are other ways to consider doing it though.

Meantime, looks like it will be 8 of ten African teams getting through to knockouts. Great tournament for them.

Yeah, I'm in the camp that 3rd place is kind of a confusing mess, and GD/GF is kind of arbitrary when no one played the same teams.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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I hate when it's just a toe. That's wasn't the spirit of the rule although it did say any part but with the naked eye that's never called.

The EPL has actually addressed this in the last year and said because of the frame rate determining exactly when a ball was played was nearly impossible and so things like a toenail were no longer going to be used to determine offsides. Partly that's achieved by using thicker lines 5cm wide to compensate for the margin. And they have semi automated it but it's still verified by a VAR Official. But it brought var reviews down from 2-4 minutes to under 30 seconds in most cases.

WC has not yet adopted it. And no other major leagues either. But hopefully it's coming.

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Yeah the VAR checks are noticeably much much longer in the WC compared to EPL.

Enrico Pallazzo said:

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Yeah, I'm in the camp that 3rd place is kind of a confusing mess, and GD/GF is kind of arbitrary when no one played the same teams.

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Ok but it would still be used even if only taking the top 2 from a group. It would just be between teams in the same group.

Let's say it goes to 64 teams (I hope not) and you have 16 groups of 4.

So top 2 advance.

Now you might have several groups where 2/3 are tied and its decided by GD/GF. Currently for those cases it is true that every team in that scenario would be in as a 3rd place team.

Group B: Canada and Bosnia tied at 4 points and they tied their game 1-1. Bosnia would be left out if it was only top 2. But they are in as a 3rd place team.

Group D: Australia and Paraguay tied at 4 points and they tied their game 0-0. Paraguay would be left out if it was only top 2. But they are in as a 3rd place team.

Now compare those teams to teams being left out as 3rd place teams. Each of those only has 3 points and they got that because they had one really bad team in their group everyone beat. I mean Senegal is in that way but they are the only one and they had a tough group. It does separate with mostly only teams on 4 points getting in.


I like it. It takes out some of the randomness of who you happen to get drawn into a group with. 3 points with a realy bad GD cuz you got your butt kicked innthe other 2 games is not geting you in.

I expect it to go to 64 and top 2 advance again. Only question is when

I'd be willing to say by 2034

WHOA!!!!!!


Algeria look like they shut it down passing around for 7-8 minutes and then got one little threaded pass in and scored.

Austria going home.

93' of +4 minutes

NEVERMIND

Austria responds in less than a minute.

Run down the left ... long cross to the far side. Header back to the middle and header in.

3-3

insane ending.

IRAN going home on that ending. WOW!!!!!!!!!

Just amazing. Wow

Enrico Pallazzo said:

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I expect it to go to 64 and top 2 advance again. Only question is when

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How many countries have the infrastructure and amount of stadiums to host 64 teams and fans?

Im new to soccer at this level can someone explain how 4 extra mins became 6?

MROD92 said:

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Enrico Pallazzo said:

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I expect it to go to 64 and top 2 advance again. Only question is when

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How many countries have the infrastructure and amount of stadiums to host 64 teams and fans?

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Well 2030 is Morocco, Spain and Portugal.

2034 is in Saudi. That's the real test.

Completely and total meltdown on Iran's end right now.

Orlando Ayala Cant Read said:

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Im new to soccer at this level can someone explain how 4 extra mins became 6?

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4 was the "minimum." It got longer because the goals created more stoppages.

MROD92 said:

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Enrico Pallazzo said:

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I expect it to go to 64 and top 2 advance again. Only question is when

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How many countries have the infrastructure and amount of stadiums to host 64 teams and fans?

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You're going to see more and more multi-host countries like this year. 2030 is the same with Portugal/Spain/Morocco hosting.

Orlando Ayala Cant Read said:

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Im new to soccer at this level can someone explain how 4 extra mins became 6?

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It's a minimum of 4 minutes of PT. Once the goal was scored by ALG that dead time between goal and kick off was added back.

wangus12 said:

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MROD92 said:

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Enrico Pallazzo said:

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I expect it to go to 64 and top 2 advance again. Only question is when

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How many countries have the infrastructure and amount of stadiums to host 64 teams and fans?

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You're going to see more and more multi-host countries like this year. 2030 is the same with Portugal/Spain/Morocco hosting.

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Yeah. And some tossed around the idea of 64 teams in 2030 but it got rejected. Hopefully this 48 team tournament has had enough drama to keep Gianni and his minions happy for awhile.

Final Group Standings




Final 3rd Place Standings. (Kinda Crazy that Cabo Verde goes in 2nd place with 3 draws and Iran gets knocked out)

No third place team with 3 points and 0 GD is kind of amazing. You couldn't make it on 3 ties.

Iran is out...

I like this version of Zlatan, trying to make peace with Alexi

NM, you edited

Orlando Ayala Cant Read said:

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Im new to soccer at this level can someone explain how 4 extra mins became 6?

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So Algeria scored at about 93'

The next minute and a half the clock ran but the ball was not in play because of celebration etc. So basically they were going to get that last minute of time whenever play restarted. Wouldn't be fair if the last minute ran off while they are celebrating.

Mathguy64 said:

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No third place team with 3 points and 0 GD is kind of amazing. You couldn't make it on 3 ties.

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No third place, but Cape Verde did advance with 3 ties. The reason is they were 2nd place with 3 ties and 0 GD.

Iran is in third place in their group.

Cuz Saudi Arabia and Uruguay tied each other and also tied Cape Verde but both lost to Spain.

Spain 7
Cape Verde 3
Uruguay 2
Saudi Arabia 2

wangus12 said:

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MROD92 said:

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Enrico Pallazzo said:

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I expect it to go to 64 and top 2 advance again. Only question is when

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How many countries have the infrastructure and amount of stadiums to host 64 teams and fans?

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You're going to see more and more multi-host countries like this year. 2030 is the same with Portugal/Spain/Morocco hosting.

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Don't forget that there are "special" matches being held in Paraguay, Argentina, and Uruguay to commemorate the 1930 World Cup (and ensure that no CONMEBOL nation could bid for 2034, clearing the field for the Saudis).

U.S. BECOMES FIRST NATION TO HOST A FIFA WORLD CUP TEAM AND STRIKE THAT TEAM’S COUNTRY ON THE SAME DAY

— First Squawk (@FirstSquawk) June 28, 2026

I mean, if it had to be someone it should be us.

As an lol-old I remember the old days like the 1994 World Cup where there were only 24 teams in 6 groups and to get to the Round of 16 they had to do include the top 4 ranked 3rd place teams from the group stage, so the concept isn't new to me but I can understand why some people don't like it.

Perhaps instead of taking the top 8 ranked 3rd place teams, they should have taken the top 4 ranked 3rd place teams and draw the other 8 3rd place teams into a play-in game to determine the final 4 teams in the knockout round. This obviously is different from how tournaments have operated in the past and would be a bit tricky from a travel/logistics perspective, but at least the final teams in would be determined on the field rather than by GD/GF.

Using this year as an example, DR Congo, Sweden, Ghana, and Ecuador would auto qualify for the Knockout round. For the final four Knockout round spots, we would get:

Bosnia and Herzegovina vs Uruguay
Algeria vs Scotland
Paraguay vs South Korea
Senegal vs Iran

howdy wangus12, is it pronounced "wang" or wong" when we read your handle? Asking for myself and a few other abductees....

I think you give this format a few WCs to work itself out and see what baseline assumptions can be made. For this one, the dividing line being all 4s in and only the tip-top of the 3s making it would work. If that's how it holds, that works.

Enrico Pallazzo said:

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I think you give this format a few WCs to work itself out and see what baseline assumptions can be made. For this one, the dividing line being all 4s in and only the tip-top of the 3s making it would work. If that's how it holds, that works.

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Agreed. Separation between those is a fine line - and only one team on 3 points made it.

I like that because it means if you had one really bad team you beat and the other teams kicked your butt you are not getting in because of such a bad GD.

Senegal is the team getting in with 3 points because they did not lose badly and kicked their bad teams butt and have a + GD.

Teams with 3 ties or one win and a bad GD did not get in (except Cape Verde where 3 ties was good enough for 2nd in their group).