2026 World Cup Predictor: Finals Weekend
After a bit of a marathon of a World Cup, we've reached finals weekend.
With just two games to go, there are still a lot of Superbru leaderboards to be decided, as well as the World Cup itself of course this Sunday in New Jersey.
Before I head off for a long lie-down, here's one final piece looking back at the second semi-final, as well as this weekend's games. Previews for both are already available on the picks pages for Superbru Premium users.
I won't spend too long on this because there's obviously been a lotttt of reaction already across the media and I don't have many fresh points to add. It's a very familiar story for us England fans. After doing well to get in front initially, the team retreated.
The big disappointment is that Thomas Tuchel was appointed to change that mindset and to get England over the line, but instead we probably saw the very worst case of what we've already had. I honestly believe we'd have been better off going 0-1 down and our only hope of a major tournament win at this point is by coming from behind and scoring an injury time goal so that there isn't time to sit back.
The result completes an interesting trend we've seen from this tournament. Lionel Scaloni joins Luis de la Fuente in the World Cup final; two international football specialists that have managed about 10 games of professional club football between them. Many of us thought talented club managers would have a big impact in this World Cup, but Julian Nagelsmann and Carlo Ancelotti each had terrible campaigns with Germany and Brazil respectively, Mauricio Pochettino couldn't build on a great start with the USA, and now Tuchel has also failed.
Argentina obviously deserve credit for turning things around on Wednesday, and they created plenty of huge opportunities before even scoring their first, but England didn't half make it easy for the greatest player we've ever seen. This Sunday's final will likely be the first knockout match in this tournament where Argentina aren't allowed to just have the ball for the final 20 minutes.
Weekend schedule:
I'm backing France based on their superior attacking depth, the fact they've had slightly longer to get over their semi-final defeat, and because they'll want to give Deschamps a good send-off.
For the final, I hope to see Spain win and I think they will if at their best. They were magnificent on Tuesday and as I mentioned earlier, Argentina are unlikely to have as much possession in this game so it's a very different test for them than what we've seen so far.
Don't get me wrong, just as in 2022, there's still a feeling that Argentina could win it with Scaloni so good at getting the very best out of Messi. It's remarkable how much of an impact he's had on this World Cup four years after carrying Argentina to the 2022 win at a time when we all thought he was already old.
Elsewhere on the pitch, Spain are superior though, and those of us that follow Spanish football closely know that Mikel Oyarzabal simply always scores in finals. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to see Argentina come out on top, but I'm picking the team I believe to be the stronger of the two.
However, I'll go early in saying thank you very much for playing the World Cup Predictor and particular thanks to those of you that have been following these articles throughout.
We like to think that Superbru adds a bit of extra interest and excitement to tournaments that are already very enjoyable, and I've loved hearing from so many new players from literally all around the world over the past few weeks.
Once we've all had a much-needed rest, I hope to see plenty of you back on the Superbru Football app for the 2026-27 season to play one of the many leagues we'll be covering. Enjoy the final!
With just two games to go, there are still a lot of Superbru leaderboards to be decided, as well as the World Cup itself of course this Sunday in New Jersey.
Before I head off for a long lie-down, here's one final piece looking back at the second semi-final, as well as this weekend's games. Previews for both are already available on the picks pages for Superbru Premium users.
🏴 England 1-2 Argentina 🇦🇷
Outcome predicted by 42% of users | Scoreline predicted by 26.9% of usersI won't spend too long on this because there's obviously been a lotttt of reaction already across the media and I don't have many fresh points to add. It's a very familiar story for us England fans. After doing well to get in front initially, the team retreated.
The big disappointment is that Thomas Tuchel was appointed to change that mindset and to get England over the line, but instead we probably saw the very worst case of what we've already had. I honestly believe we'd have been better off going 0-1 down and our only hope of a major tournament win at this point is by coming from behind and scoring an injury time goal so that there isn't time to sit back.
The result completes an interesting trend we've seen from this tournament. Lionel Scaloni joins Luis de la Fuente in the World Cup final; two international football specialists that have managed about 10 games of professional club football between them. Many of us thought talented club managers would have a big impact in this World Cup, but Julian Nagelsmann and Carlo Ancelotti each had terrible campaigns with Germany and Brazil respectively, Mauricio Pochettino couldn't build on a great start with the USA, and now Tuchel has also failed.
Argentina obviously deserve credit for turning things around on Wednesday, and they created plenty of huge opportunities before even scoring their first, but England didn't half make it easy for the greatest player we've ever seen. This Sunday's final will likely be the first knockout match in this tournament where Argentina aren't allowed to just have the ball for the final 20 minutes.
Finals weekend
A 'bronze final' that as usual, neither team wants to play, before the big show in New Jersey.Weekend schedule:
- Sat: 🇫🇷 France vs. England 🏴 | Kick-off 17:00 local, 22:00 UK, 23:00 CET/CAT
- Sun: 🇪🇸 Spain vs. Argentina 🇦🇷 | Kick-off 15:00 local, 20:00 UK, 21:00 CET/CAT
I'm backing France based on their superior attacking depth, the fact they've had slightly longer to get over their semi-final defeat, and because they'll want to give Deschamps a good send-off.
For the final, I hope to see Spain win and I think they will if at their best. They were magnificent on Tuesday and as I mentioned earlier, Argentina are unlikely to have as much possession in this game so it's a very different test for them than what we've seen so far.
Don't get me wrong, just as in 2022, there's still a feeling that Argentina could win it with Scaloni so good at getting the very best out of Messi. It's remarkable how much of an impact he's had on this World Cup four years after carrying Argentina to the 2022 win at a time when we all thought he was already old.
Elsewhere on the pitch, Spain are superior though, and those of us that follow Spanish football closely know that Mikel Oyarzabal simply always scores in finals. It wouldn't surprise me one bit to see Argentina come out on top, but I'm picking the team I believe to be the stronger of the two.
Thank you for playing
After Sunday's final, reprocessing of leaderboards will take place on Monday and we'll then update messaging both on our platforms and via email to inform you once standings are officially confirmed.However, I'll go early in saying thank you very much for playing the World Cup Predictor and particular thanks to those of you that have been following these articles throughout.
We like to think that Superbru adds a bit of extra interest and excitement to tournaments that are already very enjoyable, and I've loved hearing from so many new players from literally all around the world over the past few weeks.
Once we've all had a much-needed rest, I hope to see plenty of you back on the Superbru Football app for the 2026-27 season to play one of the many leagues we'll be covering. Enjoy the final!
Superbru on X
I kinda think the 'club football coaches' thing is a bit overplayed in international football. Ancelotti has never really been a tactical genius coach - he's relied on having better players than most. Pochettino coaches a relatively middle of the road football nation (though they could have beat Belgium, I think the Balogun thing affected them), Nagelsmann as always been an erratic coach, and while I called out Tuchel, that was heat of the moment; he's a good coach but his reputation seems to be built in that CL with Chelsea, which I think Pep handed them more than anything with one of his rare mistakes (playing no number 6).
Overall, I feel guys like Scalon and de la
Been good chatting with you all during this tournament. I hope plenty of us will keep playing against each other in friendly competition next season.
As for it being a formatting nightmare we could have 16 Groups of 4 with only the group winners going through to the last 16 thus making the competition even more intense. Just iamgine had there been only group winners going through who would not have made the last 16 .... Morocco, Japan, Norway, Croatia & Even Portugal.
Argentina had an extremely lucky bracket to go to the final. The only decent team they faced was England. Spain's matches were much more difficult. Spain deserves to win