World Cup 2026 – Day 3

The day your expert shows his true skills by talking with confidence despite having not watched 75% of the games. Which games did he not watch, that is for you to guess….

The Maroons (Qatar) 1 v Red Devils (Swiss) 1
Qatar should have scored in 2nd minute. Swiss goal off pk in 16th. Qatar should have scored in 42. Qatar score in 90+4. But the real story of this match is the stats.

Its not often you see such a lopsided game. I dont know i have seen theses types of stats in any professional game, much less a world cup game. Pretty embarrassing for the Swiss not to get a win out of this. Woof.**

The Joga Bonitos (Brazil) 1 v The Atlas Lions (Morocco) 1
Morocco started off hot. Brazil woke up around 13th minute. Brazil back line is very suspect and it was exposed with Lions’ goal. Morocco took back the game after the goal. Then Viny scored and Brazil took hold of the game again. Vinicus Jr. is a very good player. Dont forget that. Almost a second goal for Brazil before the half. The second half was Brazil’s until Morocco almost scored in the 90+9. Allison (Brazil goal keeper) looks like he is from the 70s or Jesus. These two teams will matter in the cup. Now they both need to win their next two games to make sure the go through.

The Grenadiers (Haiti) v The People’s Champs (Scotland)
Johnny McGinn with the a goal in the 28th. Scary chance from Haiti in 33, keeper has to hold on to the ball. Haiti has been looking like the better attacking team in the first half. Big time back and forth game in the 2nd half of the 2nd half.*** Big time win by the Scots. They held on to the win which is huge. With Morocco and Brazil tieing, Scotland takes hold of the group. They are in no way guaranteed a spot in the knockouts, but this was a huge first step to that goal. PLAY THE BAGPIPES BABY!

Hearts of Pine (Portland) 1 v Red Wolves (Chattanooga) 2
After a magical season last year, the Hearts have yet to get their shit together this season. Fort Fitzy (home) used to be a place we won, but now we can’t even do that. Started off the game poorly (The Chatters scored in the 2nd min). Ended the game poorly (the Chats scored from a set pice in the 90th). In between Ollie Wrong hit the post in the 34th, we got a lucky goal in the 56th, and Mr. Wrong missed two more one-on-ones. We dominated the second half but our terrible set piece defense bit us yet again to end the game. We clearly have the ability to dominate a game (see eg the 2nd half), but when can’t put it all together.

Tomorrow’s Games – Buckle up people World Cup is getting into 6th gear.
12am – Australia v Turkey – you will want to watch this because these are the other two teams in the USA group
1 pm – Germany v Curaçao
4 pm – Netherlands v Japan – two top tier teams that could make runs in this tournament
7 pm – Ivory Coast v Ecuador – I would bet that this game will be open and wild
10 pm – Sweden v Tunisia

*thank you to my live watching correspondents Pablo and Tomas for commentary
** There is a chance we will see this sort of thing (hoepfully not this bad) more times in this world cup. With more teams in the World Cup there is greater disparity in the quality of play.
*** BOYCOTT FOX part C – I had to watch Fox for part of one of the games (don’t ask me why), the freaking announcer said “this is a now a 4 quarter game” because of the water breaks. NO, NO, NO, NO NO, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31g0YE61PLQ. I hate FOX. I hate that announcer. They should all be banned from the sport, permanently. I would trade never having the world cup in the USA ever again to stop these water breaks and to stop FOX/that announcer from showing these games. STOP WATCHING FOX – USE TELEMUNDO!!!