#wbc 2026

I know I'm biased so this could all be me reading too much into this tournament, but something about the cohesiveness of every team except team usa really stood out to me in the wbc. it felt like every other nation had brothers or cousins or childhood friends that were being reunited to play together and win for their country and meanwhile team usa was focused on discipline and competition, which made the overall themes and vibes of their team identity sort of bizarre. even just having all the player replacements coming in and the way the guys all spoke about each other made it seem like they barely knew one another and weren't trying particularly hard to change that. if the usa had won tonight I don't think we would have seen a reaction like we did with venezuela. they're too focused on their image and acting like they've been there before. I don't know how you go about building a better culture when your talent pool is so large and your national identity is so deeply rooted in military customs and values but I am really interested to see if and how things change for the olympics.