Another Day Of Chaos And Wild Ass Finishes Is A Good Reminder That FIFA Needs To Stop Ruining The 2026 World Cup
Ever since Monday the World Cup has been AWESOME. That might be an understatement. Two matches going on at the same time to figure out who wins groups, who advances, who gets eliminated. It's really the perfect setup. You start doing the math game. We knew the US needed to win and get in. We had a point where Mexico could get eliminated on yellow cards. We had teams who just needed a tie. Whatever it might be, I love the setup. This morning was no different.
Uruguay needed a win plus a Korea loss or tie to advance. This is where we were going into stoppage time:
Uruguay 2-0 on Ghana
Korea 1-1 with Portugal.
Then it happened:
A stoppage time goal. We've seen chaos all week. We had the Japan/Germany fiasco:
It's been awesome all week. But let's not forget that FIFA could ruin the World Cup in 2026. Right now they are planning on having groups of 3. Why? Because they are expanding to 48 teams. I hate everything about it. We don't need 48 teams in the World Cup. Right now it's a pretty good line to get out of group stage and advance to the Round of 16. Getting out of group stage with 3 teams in it? Congrats, you showed up basically.
That's why FIFA needs to use its brain here:
[Source] - World Cup organisers are increasingly open to discarding the new three-team group format for the 2026 tournament in the US, Mexico and Canada. It comes after concerns that too many dead rubbers in the last round of matches could dilute the expanded, 48-team event.
Although Fifa’s official position remains unaltered, multiple sources say there have been “informal talks” and “corridor chats” in Doha about the benefits of going with 12 groups of four teams rather than 16 groups of three.
That could lead to a 104-game World Cup if the top two in each group, plus the best eight third-placed sides, go through to a 32-team knockout stage – which is 40 more than will be played at Qatar 2022.
The ultimate no-brainer. Again just look at the last 10 minutes here. You had Uruguay finding out that Korea scored:
Look at Korea following along with Uruguay's stoppage time:
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I still can't believe Uruguay didn't get a PK on VAR on this call:
Or even a VAR look at this:
Probably why Uruguay chased a ref into the tunnel after the match
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It's been a wild World Cup. Not just the finishes but Germany is eliminated. Mexico is eliminated. Denmark is eliminated. Uruguay is eliminated. So far we have 2 African teams in the Round of 16. Technically 3 Asian teams (Australia is in the Asian Confederation) in the Round of 16 and only 2 South American teams. Don't change it.