The World Cup draw takes place Friday, December 5th at 12PM ET. But I won’t get into Croatia’s easiest/toughest roads quite yet. I will leave that for next week as we get closer to the draw. However, two things to address:
- FIFA is going to put all the March playoff sides into Pot 4 regardless of world ranking. That is absolutely the right move.
- This is going to be an awful group stage tournament wide. Mark my words. Half the stadiums will be empty with the tournament expanding to 48 teams. Absolute joke if you ask me to make some extra television revenue. 32 teams was absolute perfection if you ask me. Now, take a look at two possible groups. I’m not kidding you. The following two groups can actually materialize at the 2026 World Cup. And it’s rough if you are an average fan.
Canada, Senegal, Qatar, New Zealand
Belgium, Iran, Panama, Cape Verde
November 27, 2025
Yup ..lot of fakery in world politics.The dissidents of Venice and the other kingdoms..fled to Argentina..before 1869..fake.reunification..venitia..Had 1200 .years wiped out..Where as Croatia ..we held on..Many of our relatives our Croatian blood was shed to rid the fake commy nation Yugo..shoved down our throats..from some fake ww 1 deal.Also..all the other nationalities of former yugo .are pure cowards..yebiga
As we see with sports more isn’t better, it makes a worse product. I believe will have 6 days between games boring. Ante is right, the groups will be the most divided its ever been you will have still a group of death and a group that will make your head scratch.
1- NFL, increasing games schedule, Thursday night football, international. All done for money product worse.
2- Hockey 82 game schedule so many snooze fest, i can go on on and on.
Even the playoffs which is great in beginning, by the end unless your team makes finals are over it way too long.
Only reason march madness works with 64 teams is because its one and done fast and furious. If they had group stage with 64 teams it would be a snooze fest.
World cup already invites the whole world to it, its called qualifying. The world cup started already, having some great matches last round. Teams not invited but earned a place in the tournament. By increasing it more and more it will make it boring and less interesting and diluted, killing the great process of qualifying which in itself makes the tournament more special.
By most peoples arguments then why even have 48, lets just have 100, 150.
Couple of replies.
Yes Ante, average jo may not be interested in Iran vs Senegal it’s true. But Senegal vs Iran is much more interesting game than Austria vs Slovenia so that’s on average joe and his ignorance.
From the pots posted above it appears Iran and Senegal are both in pot 2 anyway so they can’t face each other in the group stage?
Also Senegal are a TOP team. They have a full squad of players in top 5 leagues and in sadio mans they have a guy who is still one of the best players in the world. They beat England the other day 3-1 And quite recently beat Brazil 4-2 with sadio mane scoring a hatrick. They will be a serious proposition for any team at the World Cup and have no business being listed in any weak list of teams. Madness
Maminjo, Cape Verde qualified from Africa that means they are good. I’ve watched a few qualifying games (not cape Verde) in the african groups and the standard and confidence, technical and tactical sophistication are at a very high level. You talking about 8-0 results. If Croatia get paired with Cape Verde you predicting an 8-0? Lmao. I’ll take 1-0 any day
Cape Verde last three results: 1-1 vs Egypt, 0-0 vs Iran and a 3-0 win to seal World Cup qualification. Nigeria out, Cameroon out, other decent teams with good players out. Nobody beating Cape Verde 8-0.
Anyone remember Faroe Islands? You think the teams qualified for the World Cup are worse than Faroe Islands?
I haven’t watched every team play. But I’m working on the assumption that in order to qualify for the world cup you need to beat some decent teams. No team was given a spot. And, like I said before with respect to Faroe Islands, football matches arent decided by voting or popularity or wages or GDP. They are decided on the pitch by players who are ALL very very very good at football. Believe me. I find it strange that as Croats we could miss that. Doesn’t our success prove that very point?
Orsic 2 assists for Pafos 2-2 draw with Monaco.
https://www.reddit.com/r/seriea/comments/1p7nwh2/lautaro_and_modric_situation/
Inter vs Milan. Martinez tries to bully Modric
Anonymouse has noticed we have bonanza of kopanje nosa on this site and they need some extracurricular training.
Anonymouse History Lesson
Since 1930, many countries have gained recognition, particularly during the decolonization period after World War II, which saw the emergence of nearly two hundred independent nations.
This includes countries that gained independence from colonial powers and those formed from the dissolution of larger states, such as the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia.
History of FIFA expansion:
Historical Expansions
Initial Format (1930-1970)
1930: The inaugural tournament featured 13 teams.
1934: Expanded to 16 teams.
1938: Maintained 15 teams due to withdrawals.
1950: Returned to 13 teams after World War II.
1954: Increased to 16 teams.
1966: Continued with 16 teams.
1970: The format remained at 16 teams.
Expansion to 24 Teams (1982)
1982: The tournament expanded to 24 teams, allowing more nations to participate and increasing the number of matches.
Expansion to 32 Teams (1998)
1998: The World Cup grew to 32 teams, a format that remained until
2022. This change allowed for a more diverse representation of countries.
Future Expansion Plans
2026 and Beyond
2026: The tournament will expand to 48 teams, allowing for a larger pool of participants and more matches. This change aims to enhance global representation in the tournament.
Considerations for 2030
2030: There are discussions about a potential one-off expansion to 64 teams to celebrate the centennial anniversary of the World Cup.
Anonymouse: Math and History Class is over, your welcome.
Can you explain to me Uruguay world cup success during that time frame? They played big boys too? I’ll wait for your farcical answer
Invitational mini tournament at the time.
Italy won their first World Cup by not even inviting the title holders to the tournament.
Yup ..lot of fakery in world politics.The dissidents of Venice and the other kingdoms..fled to Argentina..before 1869..fake.reunification..venitia..Had 1200 .years wiped out..Where as Croatia ..we held on..Many of our relatives our Croatian blood was shed to rid the fake commy nation Yugo..shoved down our throats..from some fake ww 1 deal.Also..all the other nationalities of former yugo .are pure cowards..yebiga
Looks like Perisic was hurt in today’s game v Liverpool. Anyone see what happened or have an update?
He was holding his left leg hamstring when he got up after receiving medical attention and was immediately subbed in the 70th minute.
Kotarski
5.4 Fotmob
lowest rated of all 32 players in the game
Math don’t lie
Kotarski two massive mistakes
First one he let a 17 y/o kid steal it from him
3 SOT – 2 goals
By Kairat kids !!!
Bahahahahahahahahhaahbaabb
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
For all you nose pickers who want to know what the worlds greatest Croatian Football pundit Anonymouse thoughts are on this issue?
Anonymouse approves exapansion 😉
@Crnkovic
I agree with Crnkovic, wholeheartedly.
Shame on Ante and anyone else who are crying about expansion.
Remember when they had 13 countries in 1930? Absolutely pathetic.
Look at ice hockey, the World Cup and JR’s are an absolute joke, 8 countries if you’re lucky and due to Slavic racism, Russia isn’t allowed to participate anymore.
(Don’t be fooled by the west being broke and wanting to use Slavs to kill each other either but I digress.)
There’s currently 195 countries recognized in the world and only 32 could make the beautiful tournament every 4 years?
How do countries get better? By participating in such tournaments.
Will they be blown out? Of course but maybe some will shock the world as our Mighty Hrvati do every tournament.
Lastly, I rather spend less money on a feeder team getting destroyed, then blowing a years salary on a game that will be fixed to suit certain countries outcomes anyway.
How do you decide a group or a team is easy before you’ve seen them play? Cape Verde are good. Just because you’ve never heard of them doesn’t make them bad. It’s the World Cup, let’s see what these teams can do. I’m looking forward to it. Is there something in the Croat genes that makes us whine all the time about small/non existent problems?
I’ve said it many times and I’ll say it again. Respect EVERYONE, fear NO ONE. Just enjoy it
Cape Verde will lose all three games with a goal differential of -9 (or worse).
We’re going to see at least 5-6 games this World Cup with 8-0 scorelines.
How many of Cape Verde players were born there (as opposed to Portugal) ?
We can expect that Portuguese (Cape Verde) and Dutch (Curacao) players not good enough for their first choice – to further flood these two countries b/w now and the World Cup – to bolster their ranks and make them even more competitive
I’m not saying anyone isn’t good. I’m saying there will be too many matchups in the early group stage that the average fan will not care about.
Bob Jones down the street in Omaha, Nebraska is going to turn on Senegal vs. Iran. Come on.
There should be some great Cinderella stories through the Round of 32. I’m hoping there’s a ton. I’m just saying (on paper) there will be too many weak group stage games average fans will not watch. Let’s count them after the draw next Friday.
An even more pitiful group would be the U.S. Senegal NZ & QATAR
✅
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🚨 Totenham Hotspr are looking to extend Luka Vušković’s contract, as his performances on loan at Hamburg have attracted interest from Bundesliga clubs including Borussia Dortmund.
Sporting directors Fabio Paratici and Johan Lange want to tie him down to an even longer deal.
(Source: @TEAMtalk)
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He already has a contract with Spurs until June 2030.
This contract is long enough and there is no need to extend this existing contract as a favor to Spurs.
Spurs are a selfish organization (like Chelsea and all these other EPL teams that try to hoard youth players, yet have no plan for them).
Croatians tend to be bad when it comes to dictating contract terms.
Dario Saric, Ivica Zubac, Stipe Miocic…even Modric.
These guys made peanuts in their careers when compared to players half as talented as them.
We tend to be too nice and too loyal to teams that don’t deserve it.
Hopefully Luka chooses not to extend and can dictate which team to move on to (as his contract comes closer to an end).
Spurs have no plan for him, and are just squatting on a valuable asset and kicking the can down the road.
Quality teams like Borussia Dortmund want him in their ranks, and likely want him there because they believe he can help them (now and in the future).
He should continue to honor the contract he currently has with Spurs, but should absolutely NOT extend anything.
It expires when turns 23 years old. He will be in an amazing position to dictate contract terms (at age 22) the year before his contract expires.
He will be the top defensive prospect in the World, at an extremely young age. He owes Spurs nothing for this development, and he can max out on his annual earnings if the transfer fee is reduced due to his impending free agency.
Sigh.
My awesome post went into moderation.
Note “typos” in T H above (that gets past moderation).😉
Sorry Ante but it’s true !
I pulled it out. Why did it go in there? None of yours should.
This is why I avoided buy early tickets. Just a big money grab by FIFA.
I’ve been to enough football matches in my lifetime.
It’s fun, but I actually prefer to watch on TV.
I’ll go if the game is 100 Euro or less, but I’m not a fool to go around spending thousands just to be crammed behind the goal and see nothing.
The draw will begin with all the teams from Pot 1 being drawn to groups A to L. It will then continue with Pots 2, 3 and 4 in that order.
It is good that teams from Pot 2 will be drawn next to groups after Pot 1 teams.
This means that when we are drawn there won’t be any restrictions and we can essentially get any team from Pot1.
This increases our chances of avoiding Argentina and Brazil i.e. there won’t be any restrictions of us joining a group of two European teams which would have been likely had they left Pot 2 to be drawn last.
Good. Avoiding Norway is most important.
Finishing third in our group is unlikely to happen, unless we draw Brazil/Arg then get Norway in our group as well.
Finishing third immediately puts us up against a France/England/Spain caliber team in the Round of 32…which is too early.
…and before anyone makes that dumb “you gotta beat the best to be the best” nonsense…
Keep in mind that FIFA went well out of their way to separate the best Pot 1 teams, for them to avoid playing each other until the semifinals.
FIFA will do whatever it takes to eliminate whichever team (be in Croatia or whoever) meets England, France, Argentina or Spain earlier than the semis.
VAR is watching.
Amazing the impact of one single tie affecting our path forward. Would sleep better without that Cravatom around our necks.
It wasn’t the one single tie in Prague that did this.
We ruined our ranking by being eliminated early at the Euros (losing 0-3 to Spain and failing to beat Albania). We finished with 2 points and a -3 goal differential. It was our worst-ever result in a tournament.
On top of this, we were pretty bad at the 2024/25 Nations League too.
We very narrowly beat Scotland (thanks to VAR saving us)…but then lost the second game to Scotland anyway.
We had only one win against good teams since the 2022 World Cup, and had a bunch of draws and losses to teams ranked outside the top-50.
We were lucky to be drawn into a historically weak qualifying group, and still played it safe against the Czech in Prague.
Dalic chose to secure qualification as a likely Pot 2 team, than to top the group and become a Pot 1 team.
It may be the ‘smart’ play (according to some). But others could see it as a lack of confidence in yourself and team.
We’ll see what happens with us in the Summer.
We could end up with another deep run…but at the same time, we all thought we could be dark horse tournament favorites at Euro2024.
Could go either way, simply because we haven’t been tested at all in these qualifiers.
The 32-ground set up makes it that a dark horse is even less likely to win. Our fate is determined at this point. I know we are spoiled the last 12 years.
Need to go with our best players by summer, (Adriano, Luka, Peter???), and if we do that, let the cards fall where they may.
It is a dangerous sport on the lower limbs.
Argentina Croatia Algeria Italy. Group of death folks
Yes, if only because Argentina and Italy will necessarily be helped by the ref to compensate for the fact that neither of those teams is actually that great.
I think FIFA is fed up with Italy.
They can only do so much to help Italy, but Italy keeps playing poorly and putting themselvs in a losing effort.
At Euro2024, they were easily beaten by Switzerland and Norway really made them look bad in these qualifiers. I don’t think Italy will be getting any special treatment, and we could end up seeing another Macedonia-caliber elimination if Italy doesn’t get their issues in order before they play these one-legged elimination matches (on the road).