When it was confirmed that Russia would be opening the 2018 FIFA World Cup with a match against Saudi Arabia at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, the general response was one of deep cynicism: here was a bit of home cooking on FIFA’s end; certainly this was the worst opening match in the history of the tournament.
Let’s see a show of hands: With the U.S. not participating in the World Cup this summer, how many of you are just interested in seeing who wins? OK, that’s about 15 percent of you. Well you’ll probably be asking yourself: When is the World Cup final?
The World Cup begins on June 14 and lasts more than a full month. The group stages run through June 28, with the knockout rounds beginning on June 30. So when is the World Cup final?
For the first time ever, Mexico could play a World Cup match with a starting 11 of players all based outside of Mexico. Juan Carlos Osorio finalized his 23-man Mexico World Cup squad on Monday and it features more players from outside of Liga MX than ever before.
The friendly folks over at EA Sports decided to get in on all the predicted World Cup winner frenzy. With the World Cup update now available in FIFA 18, they ran a simulation of the whole tournament, so here’s a breakdown of what happens from the group stages all the way through to the final. Some of you will be delighted, others will want to send angry emails to EA Sports telling them how their game is rigged or some other excuse you can think of.
World Cup rosters have 23 players on them. They’re allegedly the best 23 players the country has to offer. So it’s hard to imagine that the United States has over 300 million people but can’t seem to find 23 (or even 11) who are even capable of qualifying for a World Cup (yeah, I know it's not that simple).
No qualified nation’s World Cup cycle has been quite as dramatic as that of Egypt’s. The Pharaohs got off to a flyer in qualifying before an August defeat to Uganda threw everything in jeopardy. Step forward Mohamed Salah.