As Linkin Park once said, “watch the time go right out the window”.

We can now say with confidence that they were talking about how quickly the 2026 World Cup was approaching.

As they sat down to write those words sometime between the years 1999 and 2000, we can only imagine they were salivating at the prospect of qualified Curaçao versus the very much unqualified Aruba. 

And, so it proved to be a tasty encounter. But more on that one later. 

A total of 24 qualified sides were in action this weekend, including a couple of the qualified sides actually taking each other on, much to the chagrin of this Reddit user, who rightly asks if that sort of thing should be acceptable.

Reddit user:

Was quite annoyed to see that the USA had played Germany in a pre tournament friendly yesterday, it seemed a bit too high profile this close to the opening games. A host nation against a team who could potentially win it. It also fails at being one of my favourite thing about pre World Cup friendly matches: the opposition standing in for a team that’s “a bit like” someone in their group. Scotland vs Bolivia (a bit like Brazil) is perfect.

In that game, the USA found themselves on the receiving end of a narrow defeat at the hands of Germany, with Kai Havertz and Leroy Sane the difference makers at Soldier Field in front of a crowd of 63,000. 

Antonee Robinson scored a screamer from “the top of the penalty arc”, whatever the hell that is (I've only ever heard that called the 'D'), and went on to celebrate with a backflip, which seems to me to be a bit much for a friendly.

Elsewhere we saw Belgium hammer Tunisia 5-0 which doesn’t bode well for the Eagles of Carthage. Although three of those goals came after Ismaël Gharbi was sent off for a second yellow after two rancid challenges on Doku. Not really what you expect from a performance in a friendly game, and questions will be asked in the Tunisian media about that one and his subsequent selection chances. 

Not the smartest move when you’re carrying a yellow. 

Portugal meanwhile beat non-qualifiers Chile 2-1, with Bruno Fernandes pulling the strings and getting himself on the scoresheet there. 

Panama toiled to a 1-1 draw against fellow qualifiers Bosnia & Herzegovina showing why both sides are expected to be difficult to beat this summer, if not particularly effervescent. 

Perhaps one of the more surprising results this weekend was Switzerland’s 1-1 draw with Australia. After hammering Jordan in their last friendly, it looked like the Swiss were on a roll (no pun intended).

But Australia ground out an excellent result in vindication of their game plan, surrendering 62% of the possession but still hanging in there. Again, a little preview of how Australia might set up, and perhaps a question mark over our prediction that the Swiss would have no problems coming up against stubborn defences. 

Qatar took on non-qualifiers El Salvador in what critics (me) are describing as a “dull encounter”. They couldn’t break each other down and ground out a non-spectacular 0-0. 

South Africa beat Jamaica 1-0, variously also reported 1-1. We have no idea what happened behind closed doors, so I don’t want to draw any conclusions from that game.

Cape Verde continued their prep with a 3-0 win over Bermuda. 

Scotland, meanwhile, hammered Bolivia 4-0, leaving me sweating over my unpopular prediction that they’d finish plum bottom of their group when the tournament kicks off. But it’s one I’m standing by, as I think Haiti might pull off a minor miracle over three games. 

Brazil beat Egypt 2-1. Turkiye carried their momentum onwards with a win over non-qualifiers Venezuela. Argentina beat Honduras, Colombia beat Jordan (albeit by a smaller 2-0 margin than Switzerland managed over Jordan recently), and Croatia beat Slovenia 2-1 as they gear up to a tough group featuring England. 

England were in action, too, beating New Zealand in what was effectively a training game. We reviewed that one, which you can read more about here. 

And a game that surely quickened the pulses was the aforementioned 4-0 win for Curaçao over Aruba. That will have done them no harm as a morale-booster ahead of the first group games. 

And finally, Norway were held by Morocco - perhaps a damper on some of the “dark horse” predictions we’ve seen regarding Norway, which seem to be usually fueled by a combination of “they have Haaland” and “that team photo they did was pretty menacing”. That said, we also think Norway have a decent chance in the group stages - although we have them coming 2nd as opposed to beating France to the top of the tree in Group I.

We’ll touch on these games some more in our weekly podcast, so be sure to give that a listen. Meanwhile we hope you’re having a great few days in the run up to what promises to be, 100%, the World Cup of 2026.