In just a few days, the World Cup will be kicking off in North America as Mexico and South Africa play in the opener in Mexico City. When the last World Cup (I'll be referring to it as WC from now on) came around, I made a whole post predicting the whole group stage and writing about every team's chances to win the whole thing. This time, well, there are WAY more teams playing this time around, and the group stage has become a mess. By that, I mean that no longer do only the top two teams qualify to the next round, but also 8 third-place teams as well, making it pretty hard to predict exactly who's going to make it and who's going to go home. So instead of doing that, I'll just be putting some of my predictions of things I think will happen at this WC. I'm no expert in this, so obviously this is just for fun, and even though I believe in all these predictions, that doesn't mean I think every single one of them is going to be true or that they are even smart predictions.
1. The USA will not win their group
This is a tough one because the USA will be playing a group with three other teams that they can and maybe even should beat. Australia, Paraguay, and Turkiye are all teams that are very beatable, but it's not going to be easy with any of those teams. Australia has a good record in these tournaments; they never make it too far, but they do often make it past the group stage. Paraguay is a tough team as well, though they didn't dominate exactly in South America, but they still can give the USA a tough game. I see Turkiye as the real favorite to win this group, as they had to go through European qualifiers to get here, and not only is that tougher, but the USA has a lot of problems playing European teams. In fact, they haven't beaten one in quite a while now, including Germany, whom they played recently and lost to. So yeah, I think Turkiye will win the group, but the USA will still move on to the next round.
2. England will disappoint... again
Going into this WC, England are currently the third favorite to win this whole thing in a lot of odd makers' eyes. I guess that's fair, as they have a very solid squad, even to the point where they left out a few great players this year. Harry Kane has been having an amazing year at Bayern, scoring 36 goals this season. You also got Saka, who just helped Arsenal win the Premier League for the first time in over 10 years. Marcus Rashford comes in from Barcelona, having a nice career revival there after some struggles in Manchester. Really, the entire squad is pretty great, with maybe the exception of their defence not being AS great as the rest of their squad. I think there's a good chance that this team finally makes it to at least the final, but my prediction is that they once again fail to make it that final game and lose out to one of the other big teams like France, Spain, maybe even Portugal, or even a dark horse like Colombia. Speaking of...
3. Colombia will be the Morocco of 2026
Morocco famously made it all the way to the semi-final of the WC in 2022, a feat that no African team had done before them. Most people didn't pick Morocco to go that far, but they took out some great teams along the way and played some great football. I think the team this year that will surprise people and make it to the semi-final will be Colombia. There's something about this team right now that excites me, and it's not just James Rodriguez... but yeah, he's a part of it too. Really, it's the awesome talent like Luis Diaz, Jefferson Lerma, Luis Suarez (no, not that one), and a solid goalkeeper in Camilo Vargas. They also made it all the way to the final at the last Copa America, even though they just barely lost to Argentina; it was a great momentum shift for Colombia. I expect them to carry that momentum from the last big tournament and have a really good WC.
4. Christiano Ronaldo will not score a goal
This is a bit of a weird one, but obviously this is going to be the last WC this legend plays... although that's what a lot of people thought at the last one, but anyway. Plain and simple, Ronaldo will not score a goal at this tournament, and I don't even think that means Portugal will be bad, because they often play pretty great when he's not even on the field. They actually share a group with Colombia, so it kind of ties in with my last prediction a little. One, I don't know if he'll even be playing entire games this time around, and two, I don't think the offense will work as well with him in there. Nothing against him, but again, he's not the same guy that he was even 4 years ago. At the last WC he only scored one goal, and it was a penalty... I would be annoyed if my prediction is wrong because he scores a penalty goal.
5. Japan will once again win its group
Japan has been on a stretch of awesome WC moments recently. At the last WC, they actually beat both Spain and Germany to win their group, which was an awesome moment for them. The problem has always been the knockout stage for this Japan team, as they can never seem to make it very far after making it to the knockouts. This time around, they share a group with the Netherlands, Tunisia, and Sweden. Yet again, stuck with two European teams here and a decent African team in Tunisia. Despite that, I think Japan will top the group with their awesome, quick, and disciplined football. I want to say that Japan has what it takes to maybe even win this whole thing, but that might be a step too far. I hope I'm wrong on that part, because it would be amazing. Still, I think this team will be really good this year.
6. Ivory Coast will be the best African team
I really love the Ivory Coast and their football team, super excited to see them back in the WC this time. When it comes to African teams, it's hard to really know who is actually great and who will make it far in the tournament. Last time around, Morocco had its great run into the semi-finals, where they just fell short to a much better team. Now, I don't think it will happen again, but I really can see this Ivory Coast team being the one that has the best showing in the WC. I will say, they are in a tough group with two very good teams in Germany and Ecuador. Germany hasn't been that dominant force in football since it won the whole thing back in 2014. As for Ecuador, they are a very solid team who don't allow very many goals in games, but they also don't score a ton of goals themselves. I could see them draw with the Ivory Coast, and maybe the pressure of not failing again will get to Germany, and the Ivory Coast can maybe make something happen there. But I hope and predict that the Ivory Coast will show up and be really fun and good.
7. The new format this year will be considered a failure
So this WC is going to be the biggest WC of all time, with 48 teams joining in the tournament. The last few WC tournaments have had a nice 32-team group stage that made it so only two teams in each group could move on to the next round. This time around, we have an extra 8 teams in third place that can also move on. It makes things incredibly complicated for what teams will move on in that third-place spot, and also just takes away a lot of the stakes of the group stage when a bunch of teams won't be eliminated despite not even playing that great. That, on top of the fact that a lot of potentially very weak and inexperienced teams will be playing football giants. This could end up leading to games where teams are winning by 8-10 goals, and it's not even close to competitive. Sorry to pick on this team, but Haiti is in a group with Morocco, Scotland, and Brazil. Those are three very solid teams there, taking on a very inexperienced Haiti, which hasn't been to the WC since the 70s. It's cool to see these teams in the WC for sure, but if it leads to many non-competitive games and some not-so-exciting teams getting through as third-place teams, I think a lot of people will be turned off to this new 48-team format. Now, will FIFA change it after they see that disappointment? No.
8. France will make their third final in a row
It's tough to not see this amazing French team getting in the final again. The team is still as stacked as ever, with so much top-tier talent on top of a coach who's proven to be able to guide this team to a trophy. It's almost like the only ones who can stop France are themselves, by not living up to their standards. Obviously, you got Mbappe as the big star of the team and probably going to be the main scorer too. But honestly, every part of the field will be covered with top-tier talent when France is playing. You got Malo Gusto, William Saliba, and Ibrahima Konate, just to name a few other players. Even the bench is going to have some very solid players. Like I said, this team has the talent to win this WC, but at the very least, I think they will make the final again for the third WC in a row.
9. Croatia will win a penalty shoot-out
I mean, it's just one of those things that happens. Croatia will no doubt make the knockout stage of the competition, take the game to penalties, and win. At least once.
10. Spain and Argentina will not make the Semi-Finals
Yeah, this is probably a terrible prediction, as both of these teams are great and favored to do really well in this tournament. Hell, I think Spain is the favorite to win it in a lot of people's eyes. But with all that pressure and the fact that there are a lot of good teams playing here and the added length of the tournament, I can see something crazy happening. With the right matchups, I can see an upset happening that takes out both of these teams. If they end up playing teams like Portugal, Switzerland, Japan, the Netherlands, Brazil, England, Croatia, Colombia, or Belgium before the semis, both these teams could be out. I do see it happening.
11. Portugal wins the tournament
The power of Ronaldo will carry the team all the way to the final to take on France. Despite Ronaldo not scoring any goals, Portugal will play fantastic football throughout the WC. Despite not scoring any goals, Ronaldo will hold up the trophy and be the main one that is centered around the celebrations. Messi and Ronaldo both winning WC trophies back to back to end their careers is too good a story for it not to happen. Their fans will forever argue about who is better, with both winning tons of trophies for their clubs and countries.
12. FIFA will not learn any lessons from this disaster of a World Cup buildup
Yeah, FIFA doesn't care about anything other than making as much money as they can from these events now. With the awful rollout of tickets and how expensive said tickets were, it was all a mess. They have done everything they can to take away all excitement from what used to be the most exciting tournament in all of sports. That, mixed in with the awful administration currently in charge of the USA, just made this entire thing a massive headache for tons of fans. Can't forget them giving a totally useless FIFA Peace Prize to the President of the USA for no reason at all... except to kiss his ass. Yeah, it's been rough as a fan of the World Cup to get excited. Being just a few days away now, I can actually feel the excitement slowly building up. To see the amazing fans of these countries come together for their boys playing on the field. For the players, getting the chance to represent their home countries in the biggest tournament. And to see the emotion that comes from playing these games and seeing how far they can take their teams. It's going to be fun, but it's all despite the people in charge at FIFA. Will they learn any lessons from this year's mess? Of course not, but maybe if fans speak out loud enough they will have no choice but to make changes... One can hope anyway.
13. I'll try to watch all the games, but give up after two or three days
My excitement will have me believe I'll be watching every single game of this tournament. But no, it's not possible. Especially with the expanded schedule, it makes it almost impossible. After a few days, I'll be sticking with the most interesting matchups and only watching bad matchups if they involve a team I support.
But yeah, those are some of my predictions. Most of them I wouldn't call bold, but there are a few there that I think would be crazy if they happened. I like to pick a country from every continent to root for, and those have always been: the USA, Colombia, Germany, and Japan. I guess New Zealand, if we count Oceania. But of course, the USA will be the team I root for over everyone, at least until Puerto Rico finally has a team good enough to make it... which probably won't be in my lifetime.
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