by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/10/2026 Last night we saw France beat Norway and become the first team to make the 2026 World Cup Sem-Finals. With one more game today and two more on Saturday, we are getting very close to seeing how the final act of this play plays out. Photo Credits to Florencia Tan Jun via Getty Images Spain v Belgium Today's game is between Spain and Belgium at SoFi stadium in Los Angeles. The winner will be moving on to face France on Tuesday, July 14th

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/3/2026 Photo Credits to Vincent Carchietta via Reuters Kylian Mbappe France ST Mbappe came into this World Cup with sky high expectations for him and his country and is already surpassing them. In 4 games, Mbappe has scored 3 braces (2 goals in 1 game), and tallied 2 assists in the other. As the Captain of the French squad who has pulled away as tournament favorites, Mbappe has not only led his team in scoring but has led his whole team to pla

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 7/2/2026 Photo Credits to Martin Meissner via Associated Press The United States had another brush with the 2026 World Cup last night and ended up victorious again against Bosnia and Herzegovina. By a score of 2-0, the United States won the game with very little space besides the score line separating the teams. The USA definitely had more chances and more time spent in their opponents' box but were actually outshot by Bosnia who had 2 more tota

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/24/2026 Photo Credits to Troy Taormina via Reuters Colombia vs Portugal June 27th, 7:30 pm EST Miami, FL Not only is this match for 1st place of Group K but it should be one of the closest battles of the entire Group Stage. Portugal's 5-0 victory over Uzbekistan was a great turn out after their first game drew with the Congo. Meanwhile Colombia has defeated both of the weaker sides of the group but hasn't shown anything close to a 5-0 dominati

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/19/2026 Graphic Credits to clutchpoints.com USA is set to take on the Australia National team in the 2nd game of Group D in the World Cup today at 3 pm EST from Seattle's Safeco Field. The BIG NEWS ahead of this fight is the United States star Forward Christian Pulisic's injured left calf which has made him DOUBTFUL but a game time decision for today's big game. The United States is a -176 favorite to win this match according to Caesar's Sport

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/18/2026 Photo Credits to Chris Brunskill/ Fantasia via Getty images Group A Mexico 3 South Korea 3 Czechia 0 South Africa 0 Game Recaps After the first round of games, Group A played out how we expected it to with Mexico and South Korea the victors. Mexico is not only the strongest side of the group but has homefield advantage as well and that was clear in the Cup's opening match against South Africa. South Korea would have a closer, 2-1 vic

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/16/2026 Photo Credits to Robert Gauthier via Getty Images Nation GP Pts GF GA United States 1 3 4 1 Australia 1 3 2 0 Turkiye 1 0 0 2 Paraguay 1 0 1 4 United States Looking Good The United States stormed into the 2026 World Cup on Friday with a dominant 4-1 victory against Paraguay. The match took place in California in front of a raucous United States crowd and the Americans took full advantage of their home field with goal after goal incl

by Zak Drapeau 1. Favorites Part 1 Spain France Portugal England Photo Credits to Irina R. Hipolito/Europa Press via Getty Images I decided to split the "Favorites" group into two parts to show the teams I full expect to be competing for a spot in the Finals in Part 1, and the teams that are among the best squads in the world but I see having a hiccup somewhere along the way. All of the teams in "Part 1" are the top teams in terms of odds to win the World Cup. Spain is the co

by Zak Drapeau, Matt Hylen, Joel Piton and Will Gilhooly Sportz Nation - 6/10/2026 Photo Credits to ESPN Illustrations Zak Drapeau - So if you've seen my World Cup Group Stage Predictions article, you know I am extremely high on a few teams. Those teams include France, England, Spain, Portugal, and Japan. I believe they'll all walk out of the Group Stages as their group's winner and move on to the knockout stage, where the real fun begins. The 2026 edition of the World Cup kn

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/10/2026 Strongest Groups 1. Group K Portugal, Columbia, Uzbekistan, DR Congo Photo Credits to Octavio Passos via Getty Images No other group in the World Cup has 2 stronger sides than Group K and Portugal and Colombia. Both teams could be considered Top-15 in the entire tournament with high hopes of going far including Portugal having the 4th best odds to win it all. Uzbekistan and DR Congo are clearly the weaker sides of the group but neither

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/10/2026 Photo by Nam Y. Huh via Associated Press The United States soccer team has never been one of the World's powers and the 2026 edition of the World Cup tournament is no different. Being one of the home countries will give them a lot of coverage and hopefully some game time heroism but overall, the Americans are not expected to be one of the last teams standing. That doesn't mean we can't hope the boys have a good showing. Group Stage The

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/4/2026 Photo Credits to Til Buergy/ Keystone via Associated Press World Cup 2026's New Format The new format to the World Cup will be the knockout stages moving to 32 teams instead of 16 in years' past, and now 48 nations being part of the World Cup's group stage. The Group stage will see 12 Groups of 4 nations all compete against each other so each nation has 3 matches. In Group Play, a win is worth 3 points, a draw is 1 point and a loss is 0

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 6/3/2026 Photo Credits to Adam Hunger via Getty Images Manager Mauricio Pochettino Goalies Matt Freese (Starting GK) Matt Turner -GK Chris Brady - GK Defense Chris Richards (Starting CB) Sergino Dest (Starting RB) Mark McKenzie (Starting CB) Tim Ream - CB Antonee Robinson (Starting LB) Alex Freeman - RB Miles Robinson - CB Auston Trusty - CB Joe Scally - RB Midfield Christian Pulisic (Starting LW) Weston McKennie (Starting CDM) Tyler Adams (Star

by Zak Drapeau Sportz Nation - 5/27/2026 Photo Credits to Robert Alam/ISI Photos via Getty images 10. Christian Pulisic - United States The host countries for the 2026 World Cup are the United States, Mexico and Canada and of the 78 players on those rosters, none have the star power of AC Milan's and United States' Forward Christian Pulisic. Pulisic will be competing in his 2nd World Cup as a member of the United States team that was bounced out in the Round of 16 in 2022. Pu