2026 FIFA World Cup Draw Show

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0:44So the draw for World Cup 2026 has been made and we are here to react to it. Thank you so much for being with us. Kay Marie, Casey Keller. I'm laughing because it can't have finished that long ago. It did not finish that long ago. I was actually worried. I was looking. I was going, we're on ESPN at 4pm. Is this thing going to be drawn or not? It was quite long drawn out, wasn't it? I had a sports centre hit at 2 o 'clock to cover the draw. And I'm thinking, they're not going to finish in time. There was a lot to cover. You know what was even longer ago? When you guys were actually playing with your national teams.

1:19We thought we'd give you a reminder. Oh, no. Here's you, Craig, for Scotland. That's another visit to HR. 98, Craig. 98, World Cup. Actually, that's and we got two of the same teams from that tournament. Brazil, Scotland has got Brazil and Norway who that's we're playing against. No, we didn't. We got Brazil and Morocco. That's us playing against Norway there in Bordeaux. And that's the one team that that we couldn't get because they were in the same pot as Scotland, even though they were a much better side. But but great memories. And and obviously I've filled that little hole in. Yeah, absolutely.

1:59I mean, I'll be honest, moments like this, it's been 28 years since Scotland got to a World Cup from that World Cup. But somebody may experience what I experienced there, which is scoring. Now, I didn't get to win a World Cup because Frank did, but I got to score and Casey got to stop Del Piero from scoring. Oh, that's a good picture. Talk to us, Casey. When? Memories? Everything? Yeah, well, I think the cool part about this was, you know, we had a tough match opening against Czech Republic. And then you're playing against what become the winners of this World Cup. And we knew we needed a point.

2:40We had two players sent off. They had a player sent off. And then being able to get a point was key. Frank. No, no, no. No! Oh, I got it. And the ego grows. I don't know. I just noticed that you had the same number. Mr. Killer. Well, we had the same number and the same barber. I know. I know sometimes we sort of rib you about this, but winning, not only winning the World Cup, but winning it in your own country. Yeah, that's crazy. Doesn't get any better than that, does it? No, it doesn't. We can compare with the 2018 when they won and they had to come back. I mean, the reception of that was a little bit smaller than that.

3:32So the Champs -Élysées, because that was the one. Mayhem. Mayhem. That was insane. We didn't live in the same era where we didn't have any problem with the terrorism and everything. So everybody was in the Champs -Élysées. And after two hours, we had to give up. We didn't go until the top of the Champs -Élysées because that was crazy. But I mentioned that you got a red card against Norway. No, no, Morocco. Oh, Morocco. The last game, that was the last game? Yes. And therefore, he cannot play in the next game. He's still suspended. No, it's OK. There's a new rule now. Oh, OK. Yeah, I got a Ronaldo rule.

4:10I got the Ronaldo rule. I mean, if that rule had been about then, I might have been able to come back on the field. You'll be fine. You'll be fine. But just briefly, it's all about memories. Yeah, it absolutely is. And that's what it's going to be for all these players that are going to go and play in this hopefully great World Cup. Yeah, 48 teams. And let's take a look at the World Cup draw that was made, that finally finished not so long ago as it would stand. This is how things are looking at. Obviously, we'll be talking about the home nations, and that's where we will go first. But just a few that do really stand out.

4:40Group of death for many is Group I, with France, Senegal, Norway in there as well, and one of the playoff teams. So we're actually going to put together a potential quarter final draw. This is how things could turn out if all the favorites do advance. You'd be looking at Spain against Belgium, France against Netherlands, Argentina taking on Portugal and England against Brazil. I mean, that would be quite something in the quarter finals, wouldn't it? If it's really that, yes. But I mean, it's too early to say, I mean, what about Norway in that matter? What about all the teams? and we don't know.

5:17Brazil, I mean, I'm not sure. According to what we have seen lately, I'm not sure they're going to reach the quarterfinal if they carry on like that. Messi against Ronaldo, if that were to be the case. Argentina taking on... How many probations we'll have gotten through by that? Yeah, there's a whole lot to happen for this to happen. I mean, most quarterfinals by that stage is, you know, most of the best teams anyway. Sure, sure. So, you know, that's the... But there's always a surprise or two And that clearly was no surprises in that permeation. And by that point, it's usually everybody behind that surprise team as well because they've won everybody's hearts along the way.

5:54Maybe it could be the USA. Maybe. Maybe, Casey. Let's take a look at their group in Group D with Australia, Paraguay, and then one of the playoff teams from UEFA. It could be Turkey. It could be Romania. It could be Slovakia. It could be Kosovo. Yeah, there's no question that it's not the worst draw you could possibly come into. I mean, now the part that makes it a little bit interesting is, let's say Turkey goes through in the playoff. That means in the last calendar year, the U.S. has played all these three teams in friendlies before the World Cup. So is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing?

6:33Have you learned something or have they learned something from you? They might not have learned anything from the USA because there's been so many changes. And those teams had done the same thing as well. They were still kind of going through, you know, their squads, taking advantage of these last friendlies to figure out kind of what they were going to look like. The thing is, Casey, the thing which strikes me the most is that the fact is Romania or Turkey, they get qualified, either of them. They become almost the favorite of the group. One of them, yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Turkey, for sure. Romania, I don't know.

7:05But the United States won't be the favorite if Turkey gets qualified. I'm not sure. I honestly think this is a great... That's a great draw. It is a great draw. I'm going to be the voice of positiveness. Never. What's wrong? Is that a word? Press record. Yeah, it is now. Positivity. I think this is a great draw for the United States, the US men's national team. I really, really do. And I think we saw a little clip of Pochettino sitting with a kind, I'm going to say a smug look on his face, because I think he knows it couldn't have got much better than that. Now, that's on paper. That's true. That's true.

7:44That's on paper. But with that, the teams that they are probably going to get from the playoff and who we already know the U.S. have is going to pile a pressure on to make sure the U.S. there's no slip-ups because there's nobody in that group at the moment that the U.S. could say, well, the expectations are too high. Right. And, you know, we shouldn't be expected to beat these teams. That's not the case. So for the U.S., it is paramount that they have a successful group stage because the draw has been very kind to them at this moment inside. And I would be very happy if I was a U.S. player. When people ask me about, you know, how will the U.S.

8:29do in a World Cup, I always say let's look at the draw first. Is it a situation where you could go through or is it a situation where you should go through? This draw to Craig's point is you should go through. So there's no longer a case where you can say, you know what, we're playing some great teams and maybe. No, this is a situation that puts definite pressure on the U.S. team that they should go through. And not only go through, but go through in a better position so the next round is easier. That's the thing. They say, yeah, you should go through, but you should go through first at least second.

9:09Second, because you have to think about what's going to follow. And who are you going to play against in the last 16? So that's very important. They have to finish first. If they are the favorite, they have to finish first. Remember, Frank, it's not the last 16. It's the last 32. So even more so why you have to go back to that. You can play the third of the group, and that's crucial. Well, we were talking on yesterday's FC show about, as a player, you want the marquee games. You know, I was lucky enough it was Scotland-Brazil at the World Cup. It was the opening ceremony. I had Germany. I had Italy.

9:44I had, you know, I had something. I mean, we couldn't warm up on the field before the game because the opening ceremony was taking place. It was all the razzmatazz. It was all the expectation. It was the world champions. It was marquee. Okay, that adds a pressure. but you want to play in the big games. We talked about this yesterday from a player's perspective. You want the marquee games. But Shaq, his lot was saying, well, you know, sometimes, particularly as a coach, you want an easier pathway. And I think it's safe to say here, the U.S., there's no real marquee games in that group. Obviously, the U.S., you know, being home country, there'll be big crowds.

10:20But there's no marquee game in that group. But there is definitely a pathway unless the U.S. team screw this up to get to the next stage and more importantly, to get to the next stage in a good position. And I'm not mistaken, but I think if Turkey goes through and gets qualified, they're going to play United States at the end, the third game. Yes, yes. So the easiest one. So it's better because you can get six points and you don't really care about the last game. The order would be Paraguay, Australia. Australia, and then the winner of the playoff. That's even perfect. Yeah. I mean, yes, to Craig's point, I kind of fell in the middle of Craig and Chaka.

10:57Yes, it's nice to have a big game to kind of give you a gauge, but then points. I took it back from the last Qatar. So you had the big game against England. You scrap out a nil-nil draw, and then you go, okay, Wales, yeah, we should win something there. Iran, we should win something there. And that's exactly what they did to go through. So they had the big match, and then they had the games that they then were able to have to go through into the knockout stage. Lots to look forward to. We'll continue to talk about the draw. Thank you so much for being with us, Casey. Thank you. We know you've got a lot of duties today, including Football Americas.

11:32Tonight, there's a whole crew there looking back on the draw, particularly for the host nation. Stick around with us, though. We will be focusing on one of the most interesting groups when we do return. We're going to see Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland playing in the same group. More on that when we come back.

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13:18against Senegal, Norway and the winner of the FIFA playoff two, which could be Bolivia, Iraq or Surinam. Your reaction to what we've seen here, Frankie? Well, it's nothing but an easy task for the French team, even if they are the favourites. But because of the tie we have with the Senegalese population and we consider the Senegalese players as brothers, and even if we lost in 2002 against them, you know, it's a good memory for them. and we are happy that they enjoy that and really really there is no no problem with with with us seeing them you know being happy so it's going to be another task and i hope they're going to they're going to get our french team's going to get a revenge and win against senegal but it's going to be hard and uh of course you have no way nobody wanted norway that was the team that everyone was saying hope we avoid them yeah yeah because they are they've been unbelievable from Part three.

14:14Part three. And they were unbelievable during the qualification. And we saw Italy and Gattuso complaining about that. But because they've been perfect and nobody wants that. We're not there yet. We have to wait. What's going to be Norway within six months? That we don't know. That can change as well. And it's another competition. You have the qualification, but you have the competition. And the competition, it's another task. Of course, they have him. And that's the difference. That guy is super confident and he's been helped by his teammates. So you have to respect that team, that nation. It's going to be for sure very difficult to beat them.

14:55How are Norway 29 in FIFA? Senegal were 19. Frank said that they've been struggling a little bit. They're not as good as they were. We see the goals here of Erling Haaland. You've got Alexander Sorloff who partnered them in a lot of the Euro qualifiers. He's also a monster. not as prolific, not anywhere near, but the physicality of those two, I mean, scared the life out of Italy in the San Siro when they beat them 4-1 in the final match. But they're 29th in the FIFA rankings. That's wrong. They won all eight of the qualifiers. Yes. They scored a mountain of goals. They got a good midfield. They got Martin Odegaard, who missed a load of games.

15:33He's the conductor for them when he's fit. He barely played in a lot of the qualifiers. They got a strong back four with players playing, not just in Norway, but all around Europe in some of the top leagues. Got a lot of players playing in the Premier League. And then, as Frank said, they got Erling Haaland as well. They potentially could beat any team in this group. I mean, it wouldn't be a surprise to me if... Well, it would be a surprise in a sense if France didn't win the group. But I would not be shocked if Norway actually won this group and upset the apple cart. I mean, that's how good they have been.

16:09Yeah, they can draw against France. They can beat the French, what's wrong with you? It's a difficult group. So you've got a difficult group as a Frenchman, but so too have the Scots. We're looking at how Scotland would fare. They've been drawn in Group B with Brazil, with Morocco and with Haiti. This draw could have came out any way, shape or form. And you would have still said, Scotland have got a difficult group. But even before we saw Haiti and Scotland in all fairness, we did say. Oh, my God. That is talk with Brazil and Morocco. But, of course, Scotland know what it's like to face Brazil in a welcome, Craig.

16:46But that was a Brazil... You'll be short on the header. Rivaldo still talks about this. Not me, not me. We're doubled up on Ronaldo. Well done. Leonardo, you see you play against Leonardo? No, that's Dunga. No, behind there with his... Oh, Leonardo, you played against him. He must have come off the bench. Maybe. But that's... I think Scotland has a chance to finish second. I mean, yes. Because it isn't the Brazil of yesteryear, is it? No, that Brazil team was the world champions. They got to the final and lost to France. They were a little off colour as the tournament went on. But this current Brazil team, let's be honest, new manager Ancelotti, they're not a patch on that team.

17:34They've got some good players, of course they have, but they don't have the real superstars that that Brazil team had. That being said, they're clearly still going to be favourites to win the group. I think then it's how strong Morocco are going to be and what kind of performance Scotland are they going to put up. Now, obviously, you're looking at Hiati, it's the first ever World Cup, I think, I believe. And we had one of the former players on the show a couple of weeks ago. they're obviously going to be looked at as the whipping boys in this group but again that that goes back to being a little bit like the US and their group if you're Scotland for example and you lose to Hyattie and I don't know how the games are evolving who they're playing first and who they're playing second but if they were to lose to Hyattie it would just go down as another disastrous night in Scottish football so there's a pressure there but I'm glad for the Scottish boys that they're going to experience going to a World Cup and playing the Samba, playing the Brazil, playing that colourful yellow jersey and then obviously Morocco, they're probably going to be favourites.

18:40But yeah, it's a tough group, but at least Scotland are there. It depends on the order. It depends on the order they're going to play the teams as well. Yeah. I don't have the order. It depends where they're going to play because as you know, and we need to go to break, but as you know, as Scotsmen, we don't like the sun. Yeah, no, not too much, not too much at all. You need to get that old Factor 80 on, it would be for the summer in the USA. Both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi expected to be playing for their teams next year. We'll talk about them next.

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20:02ESPN FC is presented by Coca-Cola. We're looking now at the defending champions at the FIFA World Cup because obviously in some recent years there has been that curse where the winner has then gone out in the group stages. We know that that happened with Germany and Spain and Italy. For France, it wasn't so bad in 2022. they were runner-up but for Argentina what is it going to be we'll get to Argentina's group as Luis Garcia now joins us don't worry we will be talking Spain a little bit later but let's start with Argentina if we can Luis in group J right now it shouldn't be that difficult for them on paper it's Austria Algeria and Jordan they will be happy with that draw won't they yeah I think they must be very happy and university must be even more because it allows you to start with the Argelia first game, Austria, and then the last one will be Jordan.

20:55I think that it should be an easy way. But Leo was mentioning, I was talking about, you never know because the keeper was fantastic at some point and his multi-takes are the tricky one, the important parts in these kind of games. But the way that groups has evolved, I think that you have no problem at all to go through as as a top of the table. But again, we have to wait and see. We all love a fairytale and we would love to see other competitors that haven't been involved in the World Cup show and give surprise. But Argentina right now, the way that it looks and once again lead by Lionel Messi, they should have no problem to get out of the group stages and why not to arrive further on the competition.

21:44Because you guys know all about team unity, team chemistry. You've been talking about it a lot, Frank, and obviously with a star like Lionel Messi, who we expect to see there too. That Argentina team does have that team unity and the chemistry by all accounts and from everything we see. Oh, definitely. And it's why they can do it again. And they showed that chemistry existed a lot in the previous World Cup and why it would change. And on top of it, with the team they're going to face, they will give some rest to Messi. They're going to be allowed to. For the last game against Jordan, I guess they will be already qualified.

22:21So Messi can easily have a rest and make sure also that it works also for the group, that some players can play. In France 98, I was a substitute and I played the last game because we were already qualified. And some others, like myself, we were allowed to play the third game. And therefore, the others, they can rest and be fresh for the last 32. But that can be helpful, especially for Lionel Messi and for the all-group, to feel the commitment of everybody. That's what you try to get in order to go far in that competition. Definitely, Argentina is one of the favourites. But they've already won it.

23:00They've already won the World Cup, so they don't have that motivation that they had before. He has taken himself to the place that Maradona took that generation of Argentina. and it was the one criticism, whether you agree with it or not, with the stellar career that he's had. Back in Argentina, that was the stick that they were beating him with. He has achieved that with that group of players. Pretty much the same. Do they have that same desire to go and do that again and repeat it? That is doubly difficult. And also, you've got Austria in that group who have improved, definitely improved under Ralph Raniuk.

23:35But let's not forget, this is an Argentina team that won the World Cup after a disaster on match day one. They lost to Saudi Arabia and Scaloni had to make some changes. So they are capable of throwing in a result that is a surprise and a negative situation, not just a positive situation. So I think it will be really, really difficult for this Argentina team to go and repeat that. Messi's four years older. Yes, he's playing in Major League Soccer here. He's scoring a bunch of goals and he still looks fit and sharp. But that level of where he's playing, it just isn't the same and for all those reasons I think they'll have a decent World Cup and I think they'll qualify out of this group don't get me wrong but I really don't think they're going to have a repeat and go and win it Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo obviously we talked about Lionel Messi we need to talk about someone who'll be north of 40 when the World Cup comes around and be available to play from the start as well Craig You know the right people So Group K for Portugal with Colombia and Uzbekistan for sure.

24:39Yeah, I mean, this is a really talented group of players. Ronaldo gets most of the headlines, if not all the headlines, still scoring goals in the qualifiers. It is a big, big, and I mean big debate whether he should still be leading the line for Portugal because the last two major tournaments, the Euros and the World Cup in Qatar, personally, he struggled. And I think there is a discussion to be had whether they should change that position to a more youthful, younger player. We know that that's not going to happen because Roberto Martinez is basically... I'm not going to say Ronaldo picks the team, but I don't think it's far off it.

25:24So I think he will play. The question is, as you said, north of 40. Can he put behind him the last two major tournaments that he has struggled? and all of a sudden flourish again and be the man to lead Portugal in this tournament. If he can do that, they have a chance to go a long way because the rest of the team, they've got a lot of talent. But that is the big question, whether he can produce the performances that are over 40 up front to take Roberto Martinez to the promised land. And I think there's a big question there. I'm going to make it short, but remember that Messi wasn't at the top of the top, club-wise before the World Cup in 2022.

26:06I think it was in Paris Saint-Germain, somewhere like that, if I'm not mistaken. That was in the Messi that we... But it wasn't 40-something. No, it wasn't 40-something, but it was depending a lot on the others. It's why the others, they really committed to him and to make sure that it worked for him, that it worked. And with the player that Ronaldo has around him, that's doable for me. With the Mendes, Diaz, Vitinha, Neves, Fernandes and all others, that's that's that's that's possible for me but it wasn't doable in Qatar it wasn't doable at the where was the last Euros around Europe it wasn't doable at that Europe that Euros yeah but Ronaldo is better now than he was like a year ago for me I saw better Ronaldo and more involved and more capable of doing it how about Saudi Arabian football you watched I mean you said Ronaldo scored but anyway you know he'll play it'll be a big story and they are a very talented side.

27:03It can be dedicated to him. It was dedicated to Messi four years ago. The worker can be dedicated to him. That would be nice. Number one in the FIFA rankings and number one favourite is Spain, Luis. So let's go there. Spain have been drawn in Group H with Cape Verde, Saudi Arabia and Uruguay. Your thoughts on your group?