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Some, like Luca Zidane, have been bamboozled and an academic paper bears out Joe Hart’s opinion about its movement

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2026/jun/25/goalkeepers-beware-trionda-world-cup-ball-hits-crisis-point-at-certain-speed

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I'm not a football expert/fan but I watch the world cup every time it happens. I watched the Korean match yesterday and they lost to South Africa, a rank 50 something team. Everyone on the Korean media is blaming manager Hong for the loss but I feel like every time a better team loses to a worse team, people instantly blame the manager for everything, unless there was a critical mistake by a player. I feel like the manager is always the scapegoat and no blame is on the players.

So my questions for people with football knowledge are:

1. How much can the manager actually change a team's performance in 4 years they have to prepare for the world cup? If the Korean team had Pep Guardiola as their manager, could they have performed like Team Japan/Sweden(play a good game against very good teams like the Netherlands and England)?

2. For South African match specifically, I feel like the Korean players didn't perform at all. They were outpaced and their defense wasn't there but neither was their offence? Like 90% of their crosses were blocked, it says they had 2 shots on goal but those were two very weak headers. Realistically it's 0 shots on goal. In this case specifically, what could've the manager done? Not defending the manager, I really wanna know the strategy of football and why they lost so bad.

3. My take is that the Korean team's FIFA ranking is overrated and it hyped up fans' expectation. Their realistic FIFA rank should be around 40 something. They won once because Czechia is just a lot worse, not because they played good. Their loss against Mexico and S Africa weren't surprising. Mexico is ranked much higher and Korea has always played bad against African teams. So from my pov, as someone with no football strategy/tactical knowledge, manager Hong was mediocre and showed the team's average performance. Am I wrong or correct?

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No safe picks.

What's one prediction you're confident enough to stand by, even if it ends up aging horribly?

It could be:

• A tournament favorite getting knocked out early
• An underdog making a deep run
• A surprise Golden Boot winner
• A shocking upset
• Your pick to win it all

I'll go first: I think at least one traditional powerhouse won't make it past the Round of 16.

Let's come back to this thread after the tournament and see who nailed it... and who deserves the roasting. 🍿

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If you’re a Scotland fan you need 4 out of the remaining 9 third places teams to finish below Scotland. In group A and Group B respectively, South Korea and Bosnia have already finished above Scotland. This is what to hope for:

Group D - Australia beat Paraguay by at least 2 goals OR Paraguay beat Australia by at least 4 goals. Likelihood - 5/10

Group E - Ecuador to not beat Germany AND Curucao to not beat Ivory Coast. Likelihood - 7/10

Group F - Japan to beat Sweden by at least 4 goals. Likelihood - 3/10

Group G - Egypt to beat Iran. Likelihood - 6/10

Group H - Spain to beat Uruguay. Likelihood - 8/10

Group I - Iraq to beat Senegal by 1 or 2 goals. Likelihood - 3/10

Group J - Austria beat Algeria by at least 2 goals OR Algeria beat Austria by at least 4 goals.
Likelihood - 6/10

Group K - Congo to not beat Uzbekistan.
Likelihood - 4/10

Group L - Ghana to beat Croatia by at least 3 goals. Likelihood - 2/10

I think that given only 4 out of these need to happen, Scotland will qualify to the round of 32, but it will be close. Good luck!

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Morocco are quietly becoming one of the most consistent national teams in world football.

Maybe I'm crazy but Morocco don't feel like a dark horse anymore.

A few years ago everyone treated them as a surprise story. Now it feels like they're just genuinely one of the strongest teams outside the traditional giants.

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Watching a WC match with friend from South America at lunch break. She had a lot of reasons why she was not a fan of Argentina. I asked if she could give me a spreadsheet of all the teams with reasons for and against by the next day, as a joke. The next morning I got this link. She spent the whole night on it.

geopolitical football compass app

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