Badmovies.org Forum

Anyone watching? I know my Mom is.  :smile:

(https://i.chzbgr.com/full/8325893120/h92B24E55/)

No, but in 2022 the Soccer World Cup comes to Qatar. Maybe. It's not the heat. They knew that going in, so the matches are suppose to be played in air conditioned stadiums. The problem is that the facilities needed to play the Soccer World Cup 2022 are behind schedule and over budget. That will not be a problem in 2026.

As the  80 Soccer World Cup matches will be played in North America. Canada gets (and this is its 1st hosting of the Soccer World Cup) 10 matches, Mexico gets 10 matches, and the U.S. gets the rest. With the final being played in New York City. And for one of the 1st times the number of teams participating will be increased from 32 to 48.

The only competition for the bid to host the World Cup in 2026 was from Morocco. There was the question whether the facilities needed to play there would be ready, but also, while Morocco guaranteed $5.5 billion, if they were the host country for the World Cup, the North American consortium guaranteed twice as much or $11 billion if the World Cup was played there.

And when the voting was over, as to who would host, the vote was overwhelming for North America. Not only did it pick up most of the North American votes, but also the Asian, European, Oceania, and South American votes. Only the African nations voted heavily for Morocco.

As South Africa is an African country, who did they vote for Trevor? Morocco or North America?

The world cup was shifted from summer to winter to avoid the most extreme heat. It will be from November 21 to Dezember 19. It's going to be the shortest tournament ever (but with more teams). It's going to be weird...

I'm not sure, but I would imagine they voted for Morocco.

I'm watching it as often as I can. While The US isn't in this I'm working with "American Pride" when deciding which team to root for.  So, any team from North or South America has my support and the rest of the world can suck it.

(https://3mew.files.wordpress.com/2006/08/o_ani-usa-world-cup-soccer-skills.gif)

Thanks for the update, frank. If there are to be more teams, than the tournament in 2018, then it looks to be the 1st time that the tournament will be expanded from 32 teams in 2018 to 48 in 2022 with 48 teams again playing in 2026 in North America.

And still no, but 8 years is not long in the scheme of things, thus, if 8 venues are required for 32 teams, then it seems likely that 12 venues will be required for 48 teams. Excluding, Canada and Mexico, which we'll get to next time, here are my choices of U.S. venues for 2026.

The only sure bet
New York City

Then . . .
Atlanta -- Boston -- Chicago -- Los Angeles -- Philadelphia -- Seattle -- Washington, D.C.

Only 1 per state, except for California
Dallas or Houston
a complete toss up
Miami or Orlando
Miami is nearer the Caribbean, but Orlando has pro soccer and Walt Disney World.
San Francisco or San Jose
San Francisco has San Francisco, but San Jose has pro soccer.

and, finally, New Orleans.
New Orleans has New Orleans, but one of the few without pro soccer.

2nd choice
Smaller venues, but with pro soccer.
Columbus -- Denver -- Kansas City -- Minneapolis -- Portland -- Salt Lake City

And we'll see how right or wrong I am in 8 years.

Pretty sure that my office sweepstake pick of Panama has turned out to be a dud. Oh, well I also have Nigeria.

I placed a bet that England wouldn't face Germany this time: the latter team seems to be struggling.

I wish them well in the tournament, although I am hoping they don't win the cup as previous experience has shown that they won't shut up about it for the next 50 years.

A bit early, but it would be against my expectations that they win, becasue they do too well. In the past championships the final winner had underperformed in at least one game:

2014: Germany had only a draw against Ghana and had a very hard time against Algeria.
2010: Spain lost the first game against Switzerland and was lucky against Portugal and Paraguay.
2006: Italy had only a draw against USA and was extremely lucky against Australia.
2002: A bit of an exception. Brazil was pretty good throughout.
1998: France needed overtime against Paraguay and had to go into penalty shootout against Italy.

2018
I can't say that I am an expert on soccer, but the 1st round results have gone much as I expected, with certain upsets. The stronger teams beating the teams lucky to be there. With the 2nd round and after being more difficult to predict. I have 1 thing wrong already. I said there were 8 venues or 32 teams divided 4 teams in a group = 8, but there are actually 12 venues for 2018. The final match is supposedly on July 15.

2026
Which means if 32 teams need 12 venues, then 48 teams should need 18 venues or more. As the winning bid has a list of 23 possible venues. Whether they are all going to be used or not, I do not know. Besides my guesses for the U.S., here are my guesses for Mexico and Canada.

Mexico=Mexico City

Canada=Vancouver (British Columbia,) Toronto (Ontario,) and Montreal (Quebec,) as they all have pro soccer teams already. With secondary choices being Calgary, Regina, and Winnipeg.

And with almost half of the possible venues in 2026, being on navigable bodies of water, I can see cruise ships being docked and used to house people for the 2026 World Cup.

And we'll see what we'll see.