World Cup 2026

Protein Junkie said:
www.bbc.co.uk

World Cup 2026: Pick your second team

The World Cup is almost here and you will no doubt have mapped out your team's potential route to the final, but if they exit early who should be your second team to follow at the tournament?
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

I will support England as my second team. Wife is English, mother half English and City are an English team.
Other that I suppose Spain because of Rodders and Pep.
Can’t do Portugal if Fake Ronaldo is still stinking the squad out.
Be interesting to see how Norway and the Uzbeks get on.
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I did that quiz and got Bosnia, which I would have picked anyway. Come on Dzeko!

Will keep an eye on the City players, but like you say can't help but dislike a number of teams for their rag association. Portugal being the worst despite having Bernie, Dias and Nunes.

France and Spain can fuck off.

Belgium and Norway I'd like to see do well, although Doku and Haaland getting some rest is more in my interests.

Whilst it looks like a real dull drag of a tournament with so many teams, maybe the clash of styles could light up the latter stages where some big hitters are out and there's opportunity for the underdogs to do well. We might see a CL scenario where one side is weak and the other is strong but you end up with some good stories.
 
Manchester City will have 19 players who last played a club match for them featuring at this summer's 2026 World Cup across North America.

Of the 19 City players that feature in World Cup squads, four are in England's camp.

Goalkeeper James Trafford is in Thomas Tuchel's 26-man list, as are defenders Marc Guehi, Nico O'Reilly and John Stones.

Like Stones, City captain Bernardo Silva is leaving the club this summer. Silva is one of three current City players in Portugal's World Cup line-up alongside defender Ruben Dias and midfielder Matheus Nunes.

The Netherlands and Croatia both have two City players in each of their squads. Tijjani Reijnders and Nathan Ake are in the Dutch side, while Mateo Kovacic and Josko Gvardiol are in Croatia's team.

Erling Haaland (Norway), Omar Marmoush (Egypt), Rayan Cherki (France), Jeremy Doku (Belgium), Rodri (Spain), Rayan Ait-Nouri (Algeria), Antoine Semenyo (Ghana) and Abdukodir Khusanov (Uzbekistan) complete the list.

Not only is that the highest number from any club in English football, but it is also makes them the most represented club across world football.

Teams with 10+ players

Manchester City 19
Bayern Munich 18
Arsenal16
Paris St-Germain16
Barcelona15
Al-Hilal12
Atletico Madrid12
Crystal Palace12
Manchester United12
Borussia Dortmund11
Galatasaray11
Liverpool11
Fenerbahce 10
Milan10
PSV 10
Eindhoven 10
Real Madrid 10
Slavia Prague 10
 
Think the weather conditions mean we might get some strange results, particularly in the group stage. The last time we had a city with similar levels of heat and humidity hosting matches was probably Manaus in 2014 and almost every team that played there lost their next match.
 
I see Tuchel has put out his starting line-up..

Pickford

James
Stones
Guehi
O'Reilly

Rice
Anderson
Bellingham

Saka
Kane
Rashford
 
BlueNomad said:
Likewise.

I’m sure I’ll watch the occasional “big teams” game, but I really couldn’t give a shit.

I used to try to organize things around the schedule, but I don’t even know when it starts, let alone when England play!

Infantino’s expansion of the tournament has watered it down, created unnecessary games, and all for the Almighty Dollar…of which they are charging WAAAAAAAY too many for EVERY game!

Sad.
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Same here. It somehow doesn't have the magic anymore for me. The days of planning my life by a wallchart for 3 weeks or so have long gone.
 
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