Alexi Lalas’ – Alexi Lalas says the 2026 FIFA World Cup group stage is done and the bracket is set, then lays out his full knockout-path predictions—capped by a France title, with the U.S. reaching the round of 16 and a standout run he pins on Colombia.
When the group stage ended, Alexi Lalas didn’t treat it like a pause. He treated it like a door closing.
“The end of the chapter,” he said, “not the end of the book.” The bracket, in his view, is where things get real serious: 32 teams can finally start dreaming out loud about the route to the final.
His response was to fill in the entire bracket himself—then push on the questions fans keep asking the loudest. Will the U.S. make it out of the round of 16?. Could there be a final rematch between France and Argentina?. And where does Colombia fit into a tournament that has only grown more unpredictable as it moves into knockout football?.
Lalas ends up planting his flag in the upper half of the bracket. picking France and Colombia as the key teams that get him to the end. He argues Colombia has earned that confidence. saying he’s been talking them up since before the tournament started and that their result against Portugal has him feeling better about what comes next.
Still, he doesn’t pretend it’s easy. He stops short of claiming Colombia can confidently beat France in a final scenario. In his telling. France’s group-stage case is built on too much firepower to ignore: Kylian Mbappé as the star. Ousmane Dembélé as another star. and a squad where “everyone’s scoring. ” with talent that keeps evolving game to game.
That’s the tension he leans into. You can believe in Colombia’s momentum. You can recognize France’s depth. But in knockout rounds, those two realities meet in the same place—when the ball is in the air and there’s no room left for “almost.”
How far does he take the U.S.?
Lalas maps the Americans forward with a logic that starts simple and gets harder as the games stack up. First, he says the U.S. should win the round of 32. Win the group, he argues, and you enter the round of 32 against a team you’re expected to beat.
From there, he expects a step up in difficulty. In the round of 16, he says the U.S. will face a team on its level—or a team some people think is better. The exact opponent changes how the game feels, and he makes the contrast sharply:
If it becomes Belgium, he says it’s one kind of challenge—different from walking into a quarterfinal against Spain.
He also runs through other possibilities. If Portugal is the opponent. he says he’ll take that “all day. ” and that it would leave him more confident about the U.S. reaching the semifinals. But if Spain is the opponent in the later stages. he calls it “a hard one. ” describing it as the moment that would carry extra weight in American soccer history if the U.S. found a way to beat Spain in the quarterfinals.
Then he commits—because commitment is the point of a bracket.
His bracket runs from the round of 32 all the way to a final champion.
Round of 32 picks:
Germany over Paraguay. France over Sweden. Canada over South Africa. Netherlands over Morocco. Portugal over Croatia. Spain over Austria. USA over Bosnia & Herzegovina. Senegal over Belgium. Brazil over Japan. Norway over Ivory Coast. Mexico over Ecuador. England over DR Congo. Argentina over Cape Verde. Egypt over Australia. Switzerland over Algeria. Colombia over Ghana.
Round of 16 picks:
France over Germany.
Netherlands over Canada.
Spain over Portugal.
USA over Senegal.
Brazil over Norway.
Mexico over England.
Argentina over Egypt.
Colombia over Switzerland.
Quarterfinals picks:
France over Netherlands.
Spain over USA.
Brazil over Mexico.
Colombia over Argentina.
Semifinals picks:
France over Spain.
Colombia over Brazil.
Final:
Champion: France.
In Lalas’s version of the tournament, the bracket isn’t just a set of matchups. It’s a statement about which teams he thinks can survive the steepest moments—France built on star power and depth. Colombia carrying momentum into later rounds. and the U.S. reaching the point where history-making becomes a real possibility. even if it’s also where the toughest opponents start to feel unavoidable.
The group stage may be over, but for Lalas, the stakes have only tightened.
2026 FIFA World Cup bracket Alexi Lalas predictions France vs Argentina final Colombia World Cup USA round of 16 World Cup knockout stage