The FIFA World Cup is considered by many to be the single greatest sports tournament in the world, happening only once every four years and crowning the true world champion of the globe’s most popular sport.
However, you will likely both love and hate some of the changes coming to what has been the most perfectly formatted tournament possible. In a world made up of love and hate, here are five things you’re really going to enjoy about the USA’s next World Cup and five you might honestly wish would be toe-kicked right out of the stadium.
#5 reason to hate it: More blowouts
FIFA has announced that the next edition of the World Cup will expand from 32 teams to 48, which partly lends itself to one of the reasons to love it. However, the World Cup already has multiple early blowouts and this expansion increases the possibility of several more, thus watering down the game for the sake of making more money. Every World Cup already has its share of blowouts, mostly in the early group stage, and that’s when the nightmares will happen in 2026 thanks to many unavoidable mismatches.
#5 reason to love it: Multiple national teams will likely make their World Cup debuts
Even though more teams qualifying for the finals will result in more blowouts, it will also result in something you’ll likely love about it: seeing nations compete in the finals that have either never made it there before or rarely made it before. Although this is not a guarantee, adding 16 teams greatly increases the chances that 2026 will showcase multiple countries making their debuts in the finals. If the 2022 version were expanded to 48 teams, then at least three nations would’ve made their debuts in the finals, including Mali, United Arab Emirates, and North Macedonia. Two more debuting teams likely would have made it as well, including Finland and Albania. Historically significant nations of the sport, like Hungary, could have also returned after a long absence from the tournament.
This also means more truly great players will make it. In 2022, we were robbed yet again of seeing former African Footballer of the Year, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, at the World Cup because Gabon finished ONLY second in their qualifying group. We were also denied seeing the man who many believe is the sport’s next superstar, 22-year-old Norwegian Erling Haaland, who scored a record nine goals in one game at the U-20 World Cup in 2019 when Norway crushed Honduras 12-0. In Norway’s qualifying group for the 2022 World Cup, they finished just one game away from competing in the playoff.
#4 reason to hate it: 8 third-place teams will advance out of group
FIFA has announced that not only will the World Cup expand to 48 teams, but that they will be broken down into 12 different groups of 4 teams each. The knockout stage will feature 32 teams, meaning 8 different teams that finish third place in their respective group will advance. Thus, you will likely see a handful of teams that win one game and lose two games awarded with advancement to the knockout stage.
#4 reason to love it: 3 host nations
For the first time ever, there will be three different nations that will host games in one World Cup. The only other time multiple nations hosted the Cup was in 2002, when both Japan and South Korea hosted and mostly had the same share of games. 2026 will feature the United States with a vast majority of the games while both Canada and Mexico host some of their own.
#3 reason to hate it: Lengthy travel
Three host nations are great, but the United States is already a very big country. Games are scheduled all over North America, creating lengthy travel dates. To counter this, FIFA scheduled groups to play in the same general area, which leads to another reason to hate it, but once the games go to the knockout stage, travel could be an issue.
USA will play in Group D and their last group game will be on June 25 just outside of Los Angeles. If they finish third in the group but still advance to the knockout stage, then they’ll have their Round of 32 game on June 29 in Foxborough, Massachusetts, against the Group E winner, who will already be stationed in the northeast during the group stage.
#3 reason to love it: Back to the summer
Normally, the games occur in June and July, but the 2022 World Cup schedule was changed because it was determined that the heat of the summer in Qatar would be too much to overcome for players. Thus, the games were moved to slightly cooler months. The 2026 World Cup will bring the games back to the summer for the first time in eight years since Russia hosted the tournament in 2018.
#2 reason to hate it: More games decided by penalties
With an extra round in the knockout stage being added — a round that will include 32 teams and 16 total games — it’s almost a guarantee that we’ll see more games decided by penalty kicks. Deciding who the best football team in the world is should not come down to penalties, but an extra round of elimination games means more penalty shootouts are on the way.
#2 reason to love it: It will be a special year for the host nation
When the United States hosts the 2026 World Cup, they will already be in a major celebratory mood for another reason: it will be the USA’s 250th birthday. The tournament will be in full swing by the time America’s Independence Day arrives, with multiple knockout stage games scheduled on July 4. There is a scenario that can see the US team playing on July 4 in Philadelphia in the Round of 16, but it requires them to finish third in Group D, advance, and win their Round of 32 game. In 1994, the U.S. team did in fact play a round of 16 game on July 4, and even though they lost 1-0 to Brazil, they played admirably as huge underdogs in front of a crowd 84,147 in Stanford, California.
#1 reason to hate it: The U.S. national team could be limited to the west coast
The USA may be hosting the World Cup, but the U.S. national team will play two of their three scheduled games in the very same stadium. That venue is SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The other group game the U.S. team is scheduled to play will be in Seattle, which means that the U.S. team will need to advance out of the group stage in order to even have a chance to play anywhere else outside of the west coast. Even so, if they win group D, then they will play in Santa Clara in the Round of 32. If they then win that game, they go back to Seattle. If they win that, back to Inglewood. In fact, if they are group winners, they would need to get to the semi-finals just play in Arlington, Texas. The final will be played in East Rutherford, New Jersey. So the U.S. could win the group, make it to the quarterfinals, and only have played on the west coast.
#1 reason to love it: The biggest crowds in World Cup history
Despite the World Cup in the USA in 1994 being the last time that only 24 teams played, it still holds the record for the largest accumulative attendance at 3.57 million. This will finally be surpassed in 2026 thanks to the additional games added to the tournament. At the 2022 World Cup, when Argentina defeated Mexico 2-0 in Qatar in front of 88,966 people, it was the largest single game attendance since the World Cup Final in the USA in 1994, when Romario and Brazil defeated Italy on penalties at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in front of 94.194 people.
The largest single game attendance in World Cup history is the 1986 final, when Maradona and Argentina defeated West Germany 3-2 in front of 114,000 at Estadio Azteca in Mexico ⏤ the same stadium that will also host games at the 2026 tournament. The crowds will only add to the energy and excitement that is the world’s greatest tournament, but by the time the 2026 World Cup happens, we hope some of these rules actually change so that we can love it and not hate it.
Published: Nov 16, 2024 09:00 am