***Official 2026 World Cup Thread***

[CloneJD]

Morocco can thank their goaltender for still being in this game - he's the only reason why they are.



I don't mind the stutter-steps - to me that's no different than a deke in a hockey penalty shot. What I don't like is the practical start/stop/start. I thought you weren't allowed to come to a complete stop once you start, and yet it looks like some of them do - including on the take that Mbappe missed.

There is nothing in the FA rules that says you can’t come to a stop during run-up. You can’t feign the kick but you can feign the runup.

 

[NWICY]

For the love of god please stop showing pics of the crowd during the games!

It wasn't bad during the Brazil game

 

[jdoggivjc]

Well, Morocco is going to have to get even more aggressive now - either they tie it up quick or it's going to snowball from here. But the way the first half went, this was inevitable.

 

[NWICY]

Well Morocco is going to have to find some offense to go with their defense now.

 

[jdoggivjc]

like I said - snowball.

 

[NWICY]

I think the dam is crumbling for Morocco.

 

[Letterkenny]

France seems untouchable. Maybe Spain's defense can slow them down? They have 4-5 guys that can attack at any time. Morocco is really good, and there's times they can't even get the ball to mid field.

 

[deadeyededric]

He makes some good points.

The question I’d ask him then, is why is America extremely successful in every other sport with the exact same youth development setup as soccer (including women’s soccer)? All American youth sports operate the same way as soccer.

Because a lot of sports were invented here and werent played in a lot of places until somewhat recently. Meaning the last 50 years or less in that sense. Thats why we are good at them. Soccer is probably the only real world sport.

 

[NorthCyd]

Just going to keep reposting this to combat this narrative. Are American youth sports a mess, yes. Is it the reason we aren’t competitive in soccer, no. Are we still the best country for all-around sports. Yes. By a mile.

Excluding football, the only sports invented in America are basketball and volleyball.

Basketball: men won 17 of the 21 golds in the Olympics including the last 4. Women have won 10 of 13. Neither team has not medaled in an Olympics.

Baseball: Has one gold and two runner-ups in the last 3 World Baseball Classics, second-most medals of any country. Tied for second-most medals of any nation in Olympic baseball, only behind Cuba

Golf: Have the best women’s and men’s golfers in the world. And probably the 5 of the 6 best golfers of all time

Hockey: Just swept men’s and women’s at the Olympics. Men’s and women’s hockey have the second-most medals of any nation in the olympics

Women’s Soccer: most medals and golds of any nation in the World Cup history including the last two

Women’s indoor volleyball: most medals of any nation in Olympic history, including medaling in the last 5 and gold in 2021 Tokyo

Men’s volleyball: tied for most medals and tied for most golds of any nation in Olympic history

Softball: Most medals and golds of any nation in Olympic history.

Track and Field: we have 860 Olympic medals in its history. The next closest nation is England with 219.

We have 2,765 total medals in the summer Olympics well over 2x the next nation (Soviet Union at 1,010). And 3x the amount of golds over them. We have the second-most golds and medals ever in the Winter Olympics,126 and 363, only behind Norway at 166 and 447.

We are one of the top 3 nations in most sports. Of the really popular ones, men’s soccer and tennis is where we aren’t. All of these sports have the same youth development structure as our soccer. So what’s different

May as well throw in that MLB and NBA is over 70% American athletes. The foreign takeover of American sports is being drastically overstated in this thread.

 

[clonechemist]

You do realize the rest of the world is catching up to us in basketball and baseball, and while we own the gold in hockey from these Olympics, we're essentially level with Canada and many other nations aren't far behind?

How many of the last #1 draft picks and draft picks overall have come from Europe? Universities are also recruiting Europe hard for those that aren't ready to go to the NBA. Sure, it might take another generation or two for other countries to come level with the USA in basketball, but the gap has definitely narrowed, especially when you compare it to the Dream Team era. Hell - Kobe Bryant WARNED everyone that the AAU system was going to destroy America's dominance in basketball. It hasn't yet, but that gap has narrowed.

For baseball, the world's best player is Japanese. Sure, that's a freak generational talent, but there hasn't even been a clear cut dominance over Latin American players for decades now.

And if you need the most prevalent example: women's soccer. USA owned that for decades because it was the #1 women's sport in America and few countries ever invested in it. That is not the case anymore, and the USWNT winning the World Cup every cycle is now far from a foregone conclusion.

There are only 2 euro #1 NBA draft picks since 2007. And one if them is Zachary Rissacher, who sucks. The other is Victor Wembanyama, who is a not a sign of any systemic shift, he is simply an alien.

List of first overall NBA draft picks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Someone else mentioned elsewhere: US has won last five Gold medals in the Olympics.

Regarding baseball: I don’t know if you have kids, but baseball popularity for US kids probably peaked in the 60s or 70s and has been on a long slow decline ever since. Very few kids play in our town. Seeing an increasing share of foreign players is no surprise- it’s just not a popular sport

 

[BryceC]

There are only 2 euro #1 NBA draft picks since 2007. And one if them is Zachary Rissacher, who sucks. The other is Victor Wembanyama, who is a not a sign of any systemic shift, he is simply an alien.

List of first overall NBA draft picks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Someone else mentioned elsewhere: US has won last five Gold medals in the Olympics.

Regarding baseball: I don’t know if you have kids, but baseball popularity for US kids probably peaked in the 60s or 70s and has been on a long slow decline ever since. Very few kids play in our town. Seeing an increasing share of foreign players is no surprise- it’s just not a popular sport

If you play club it’s crazy the number of teams/players there are for baseball. It’s still a huge sport especially compared to soccer.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Because a lot of sports were invented here and werent played in a lot of places until somewhat recently. Meaning the last 50 years or less in that sense. Thats why we are good at them. Soccer is probably the only real world sport.

Excluding football, the only sports invented here are basketball and volleyball. Baseball originated in England but was popularized here.

There are many sports that weren’t invented/popularized here that the U.S. is still one of the best 3 countries (if not the best) in: hockey, golf, track and field, women’s soccer, Olympic sports, etc.

 

[clonechemist]

If you play club it’s crazy the number of teams/players there are for baseball. It’s still a huge sport especially compared to soccer.

Maybe it’s regional. Where we are, lacrosse is huge, football and soccer and basketball and hockey probably all fairly similar one rung below, and baseball in last place. The rec baseball system combines kids from three adjacent towns and has two grades lumped together for each league.

 

[BryceC]

Maybe it’s regional. Where we are, lacrosse is huge, football and soccer and basketball and hockey probably all fairly similar one rung below, and baseball in last place. The rec baseball system combines kids from three adjacent towns and has two grades lumped together for each league.

Yeah it must be regional, because in the DSM metro there are literally hundreds of teams playing tournies every weekend. Ankeny little league numbers are way down from pre Covid but there are still about 800 kids every year.

 

[ISUTex]

Maybe it’s regional. Where we are, lacrosse is huge, football and soccer and basketball and hockey probably all fairly similar one rung below, and baseball in last place. The rec baseball system combines kids from three adjacent towns and has two grades lumped together for each league.

Lacrosse? Do live in a D.C. suburb?

 

[jmb]

You said there were two sports for women to go pro in. You were wrong. I corrected you.

White knighting pro volley ball is comical. It has limited viability. But go and die on that hill.

 

[cycloneman003]

Yeah it must be regional, because in the DSM metro there are literally hundreds of teams playing tournies every weekend. Ankeny little league numbers are way down from pre Covid but there are still about 800 kids every year.

Nationally, soccer has pretty similar participation rates to baseball anymore at the youth level. There is definitely regional variance though.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

There are only 2 euro #1 NBA draft picks since 2007. And one if them is Zachary Rissacher, who sucks. The other is Victor Wembanyama, who is a not a sign of any systemic shift, he is simply an alien.

List of first overall NBA draft picks - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Someone else mentioned elsewhere: US has won last five Gold medals in the Olympics.

Regarding baseball: I don’t know if you have kids, but baseball popularity for US kids probably peaked in the 60s or 70s and has been on a long slow decline ever since. Very few kids play in our town. Seeing an increasing share of foreign players is no surprise- it’s just not a popular sport

Going off of drafts picks doesn’t really make sense as you are drafting potential not actual NBA results

If you look at the top 10 players in the league you will have a lot of foreign players, joker, wemby, Luka, SGA, Giannis (depending on health)

You actually have to go back to 2018 for a MVP that wasn’t foreign in Harden and that streak is gonna continue

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Going off of drafts picks doesn’t really make sense as you are drafting potential not actual NBA results

If you look at the top 10 players in the league you will have a lot of foreign players, joker, wemby, Luka, SGA, Giannis (depending on health)

You actually have to go back to 2018 for a MVP that wasn’t foreign in Harden and that streak is gonna continue

None of those players are from the same country though.

 

[cycloneman003]

None of those players are from the same country though.

Bingo. If you look at the top 20-25 players in the world, it’s those 5 and maybe 1-2 more foreign guys? The rest all American