One 90-minute performance is still too small a sample to crown or bury anyone, but Sports Illustrated used the first week of World Cup matches to sketch a projected 2026 World Cup bracket anyway. That mattered because the tournament is already being played in its expanded 48-team format, a setup that is changing how early form is read and how far a team may have to travel through the draw.
That is why searches for How Long Is A Soccer Game In The World Cup have landed in the middle of bracket talk: the answer on the clock is still 90 minutes, but the structure around those minutes is new. With 48 teams in the field, the bracket is no longer the old compact ladder. More teams mean more moving parts, more possible routes, and more room for a side to look ordinary one day and still remain alive. Fabio Cannavaro warned at the start that the bigger event could bring boring matches or one-sided games with too many goals, and the first week gave that warning some early support.
Switzerland was held to a frustrating draw by Qatar. Spain was held by Cabo Verde. Portugal was checked by DR Congo. Curaçao kept Germany level at 1–1 for 17 minutes, a small span that still felt like a statement in a tournament where every loose first impression gets magnified. Brazil, meanwhile, turned in a desperately underwhelming display against Morocco, and Carlo Ancelotti summed up the mood bluntly: “The team was anxious and there were nerves all over the place.”
That is the part that makes the bracket projection interesting and a little shaky at the same time. It may be premature to write off the traditional giants after one scratchy showing, but several of them already looked vulnerable enough to invite second thoughts. Türkiye sat in that uneasy middle ground too. Vincenzo Montella’s side had been billed as one of the dark horses, yet Hakan Çalhanoğlu had gone out publicly and insisted Türkiye was “more talented” than Australia, only for Australia to make a mockery of the claim. In a tournament this short, one bad result can quickly become a label.
So Sports Illustrated’s bracket forecast after the opening week is less a verdict than a snapshot of shifting confidence. The first week of the World Cup has at least given a sense of how the tournament could shake out, even if those early readings may not survive the next round of matches. The United States path in that projection remains the biggest unanswered piece for readers who want the bracket, not just the mood around it.
