FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread

[rahmad2nd]

Your comment reminded me of Rene Higuita, the goal keeper from Colombia, who was famous for doing acrobatic saves, the most common one called The Scorpion:



I don't think we see much of these crazy things these days.

Wow, we really know this one person with all his uniqueness. the Colombian goalkeeper nicknamed "El Loco" or "The Crazy" goalkeeper, not only has a sweeper style when blocking opponent attacks and starting team attacks, Higuita also often performs crazy actions by dribbling past opposing players to the middle of the field. uniquely, he does this style not only when appearing at the club. when strengthening the Colombian team, Higuita often showed his courage.

If I'm not mistaken, one of the most phenomenal actions occurred in England vs Colombia. if I'm not mistaken, this fight is a friendly match. and apparently, the action is a snippet in the image you shared. Until now, he has become a phenomenal football goalkeeper legend and crazy actions. I really like this goalkeeper, it's a shame that unique things like this are such a rare phenomenon. I always expect, at every World Cup event there is always something unique that happens or is shown.

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[tiCeR]

If you are trying to imply that it is the sole responsibility of the athletes to protest against the human rights abuses happening in Saudi Arabia and other countries? Messi's own country (Argentina) maintain business and political ties with Saudi Arabia, so do countries such as the United States and France. As far as I know, there are no sanctions or embargoes from the United Nations that are directed towards KSA.

And if your argument is that rich people have the luxury of the laws bending down to them in Saudi Arabia, then I need to remind you that it happens everywhere including the United States (where Inter Miami is based). Look at Sam Bankman Fraud. Despite stealing $8 billion, he is chilling out at his home without facing any time in prison. If some ordinary guy had stolen $8 from a local Walmart in the US, he would have been behind the bars by now. 

Going the tit for tat route when comparing the US and Saudi Arabia is certainly possible, but I am not sure whether it makes too much sense. There are lots of indices and it is good to see that even the US gets criticized or scored lower than lots of countries when they actually deserve a lower score, but there are not even close to the disastrous overall freedom indices scores where Saudi Arabia is to be found. the comparison lacks substance in all respects and this is not because I want to say that the US is a holy country with no issues and errors. Indeed there is lots of stupid stuff going on, but again, it is not Saudi Arabia like.

I have also never said that I know why Messi chose not to go there. I said that it could possibly be a statement and apart from all that I am quite sure that he feels a little bit more free in Miami than in the cities of Saudi Arabia.That counts for his family as a whole. For the whole ecosystem I think it is good that not everyone ends up playing in the desert state.

[Silberman]

Wow, we really know this one person with all his uniqueness. the Colombian goalkeeper nicknamed "El Loco" or "The Crazy" goalkeeper, not only has a sweeper style when blocking opponent attacks and starting team attacks, Higuita also often performs crazy actions by dribbling past opposing players to the middle of the field. uniquely, he does this style not only when appearing at the club. when strengthening the Colombian team, Higuita often showed his courage.

If I'm not mistaken, one of the most phenomenal actions occurred in England vs Colombia. if I'm not mistaken, this fight is a friendly match. and apparently, the action is a snippet in the image you shared. Until now, he has become a phenomenal football goalkeeper legend and crazy actions. I really like this goalkeeper, it's a shame that unique things like this are such a rare phenomenon. I always expect, at every World Cup event there is always something unique that happens or is shown.

Higuita was one of the few players that understood that this is not only a sport but also a spectacle that people watch, and if the players do not make it exciting then people will find other things to do with their time, some may argue that his antics risked scores against his team, but the fans loved him precisely because he was willing to take some crazy risks just for them to be entertained, unfortunately there are not many players like him anymore on the world of soccer these days.

[Sithara007]

✂
For the whole ecosystem I think it is good that not everyone ends up playing in the desert state.

Well.. my opinion differ from yours. For the greater good of football, it is necessary to make sure that not all the good players end up playing in the European leagues. Some of the UEFA clubs have grown bigger than the game itself and are acting like cabals. We all saw their behavior during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. They were threatening not to release the players, since the tournament was overlapping with the leagues. I am actually glad that leagues such as SPL are offering some competition to the UEFA clubs. It will help to demonopolize football.

[nullama]

~snip~
Higuita was one of the few players that understood that this is not only a sport but also a spectacle that people watch, and if the players do not make it exciting then people will find other things to do with their time, some may argue that his antics risked scores against his team, but the fans loved him precisely because he was willing to take some crazy risks just for them to be entertained, unfortunately there are not many players like him anymore on the world of soccer these days.

Yeah, it is an spectacle basically.

The players that are most entertaining are usually the ones that are most respected and loved by the people, even if their skills are not that great.

The same is true in reverse. It doesn't matter if a player skill is incredible if there's not charisma from the player. People won't like that player as much.

[shogun47]

~snip~
Higuita was one of the few players that understood that this is not only a sport but also a spectacle that people watch, and if the players do not make it exciting then people will find other things to do with their time, some may argue that his antics risked scores against his team, but the fans loved him precisely because he was willing to take some crazy risks just for them to be entertained, unfortunately there are not many players like him anymore on the world of soccer these days.

Yeah, it is an spectacle basically.

The players that are most entertaining are usually the ones that are most respected and loved by the people, even if their skills are not that great.

The same is true in reverse. It doesn't matter if a player skill is incredible if there's not charisma from the player. People won't like that player as much.

What do you understand as charisma?

Ronaldo hasn't been charismatic. Zidane has been charismatic (except for his head kick against Italy). They can also be polarizing and still contribute to the spectacle.

But in reverse a player that is burdened with high expectations can also create a lot of disappointment. What would people have said if Messi didn't win the World Cup? He would be called a loser, incomplete star. There are very fine lines when it comes to how people treat the players.

[nullama]

~snip~
What do you understand as charisma?

Ronaldo hasn't been charismatic. Zidane has been charismatic (except for his head kick against Italy). They can also be polarizing and still contribute to the spectacle.

But in reverse a player that is burdened with high expectations can also create a lot of disappointment. What would people have said if Messi didn't win the World Cup? He would be called a loser, incomplete star. There are very fine lines when it comes to how people treat the players.

Yeah, but even if Messi wouldn't have won, there would still be news about him all the time, explaining why he didn't win, etc. Basically at that level it doesn't matter what happens, people will talk about the person no matter what.

The opposite is actually ignoring the player. There are many great players that simply are not discussed in the media, and not because they are not great, simply because they are probably not the absolute best, or maybe they are more private, etc.

[Daniel91]

~snip~
Higuita was one of the few players that understood that this is not only a sport but also a spectacle that people watch, and if the players do not make it exciting then people will find other things to do with their time, some may argue that his antics risked scores against his team, but the fans loved him precisely because he was willing to take some crazy risks just for them to be entertained, unfortunately there are not many players like him anymore on the world of soccer these days.

Yeah, it is an spectacle basically.

The players that are most entertaining are usually the ones that are most respected and loved by the people, even if their skills are not that great.

The same is true in reverse. It doesn't matter if a player skill is incredible if there's not charisma from the player. People won't like that player as much.

What do you understand as charisma?

Ronaldo hasn't been charismatic. Zidane has been charismatic (except for his head kick against Italy). They can also be polarizing and still contribute to the spectacle.

But in reverse a player that is burdened with high expectations can also create a lot of disappointment. What would people have said if Messi didn't win the World Cup? He would be called a loser, incomplete star. There are very fine lines when it comes to how people treat the players.

Argentina is a very special country where everyone is crazy about football and nothing is recognized as success except winning the world cup. Any other result is a disaster and a failure, and so it is in Brazil. It is very difficult to play under such enormous pressure from the public, and this can be seen in the example of Brazil and Argentina. Brazil has not been able to become the world champion for 20 years, and Argentina managed to become the world champion after a long 36-year wait.
Messi was also constantly compared to Maradona and it was said that he could not be the greatest Argentinian footballer in history if he failed to lead the national team to the world title. That was a huge pressure even for a football player like Messi. I think that winning the South American cup title before the world cup in Qatar helped him a lot and that he played in Qatar with less pressure.
Messi is a charismatic footballer and one of the best footballers in the history of football, but for me personally Maradona was still better. He practically single-handedly led Argentina to the title of world champion in 1986 and no one has ever been able to repeat that, such individual dominance in such a team sport.

[KTChampions]

Do friendly games affect the rating of national teams? I highly doubt it, because in this case they would be much more important than now, plus some teams guessed to cheat (on purpose to lose to those who really need it or, on the contrary, choose opponents who are definitely weaker) and this would lead to scandals.

Any match that's played during the FIFA break for international teams to play football will definitely gonna count during the FIFA ranking.
Match fixing is a big sin when it comes to FIFA so if there's any national team that's good at affecting the scoreline of any game with their tactical approach, one day will face the consequences of match fixing.

Yes, I have already clarified this point, but FIFA has secured itself against fraud - friendly games are taken into account with an importance coefficient that ranges from 0.5 to 0.2 relative to other important games. And even if you do not take into account the possible fraud, these coefficients are necessary, since in friendly games teams always have different motivations - for some, an increase in the rating is important, and for some it is not at all. It could distort the real picture if it had the same weight as important games.

[sana54210]

The players that are most entertaining are usually the ones that are most respected and loved by the people, even if their skills are not that great.

The same is true in reverse. It doesn't matter if a player skill is incredible if there's not charisma from the player. People won't like that player as much.

What do you understand as charisma?

Ronaldo hasn't been charismatic. Zidane has been charismatic (except for his head kick against Italy). They can also be polarizing and still contribute to the spectacle.

But in reverse a player that is burdened with high expectations can also create a lot of disappointment. What would people have said if Messi didn't win the World Cup? He would be called a loser, incomplete star. There are very fine lines when it comes to how people treat the players.

Ronaldo not charismatic? I think you should watch the edits people make of him, they think he is the most charismatic player to ever walk on this earth, they would disagree with you. Messi is not "charismatic" to me neither, and yet so many people think he is, that's what fans are all about. To me the greatest charismatic players ever were Cantona and Ibrahimovic, they were the dictionary example of what charisma meant and they played accordingly.

In the end, it is going to be not that easy to pick a player in that regard but as long as you are entertained by a player that means they did their job well enough, I think it will definitely be quite important to make as much changes as possible and should not be a big deal at all, just watch and have fun is enough.

[Leviathan.007]

~snip~
Every time when I read about these comparisons, it is usually about the offensive players and I can understand that as it often is the most impressive position when you see them scoring or dribbling, but Brazil also had some amazing defensive players. Recently, they didn't have a very consistent defense line and also no combining elements between the defense and the offense. They often play as separate parts while they usually were known for controlling the game from the keeper to the striker with all the quality they have. It is still three years until the next World Cup, but it is not enough time to build an entire new team until then. But changes need to be done if their goal is to compete for the World Cup title.

Sometimes we as the fans are maybe too critical with the teams as well because we were used to some nations dominating soccer and now it becomes more even and smaller nations can compete on a higher level. Croatia is one of those teams that with a small population can beat the best teams anyway. losing against Croatia is not a shame and Brazil wasn't worse in the quarter final. But there is a certain absolutism when teams are judged for their performance. If a team like Brazil doesn't win the title, a lot of people tend to say that it is not the old and strong Brazil. But there are so many teams that could potentially win a tournament and many games end with close results or even with penalties. Croatia had to survive the round of 16 and the quarter final with penalties and now again against Spain in a different competition. The difference in quality and strength between the teams has become more narrow.

Your comment reminded me of Rene Higuita, the goal keeper from Colombia, who was famous for doing acrobatic saves, the most common one called The Scorpion:



I don't think we see much of these crazy things these days.

Just like how the Brazilian playing style dead and it's not even useful in the world cup like they were before, I think there are not many coaches in the world who want to have a player like Rene Higuita in their teams take risks like that, we know the fans like these players but a teams needs to win the game having players like Rene Higuita will just make them take some risk they don't need to get.

[hahay]

Do friendly games affect the rating of national teams? I highly doubt it, because in this case they would be much more important than now, plus some teams guessed to cheat (on purpose to lose to those who really need it or, on the contrary, choose opponents who are definitely weaker) and this would lead to scandals.

Any match that's played during the FIFA break for international teams to play football will definitely gonna count during the FIFA ranking.
Match fixing is a big sin when it comes to FIFA so if there's any national team that's good at affecting the scoreline of any game with their tactical approach, one day will face the consequences of match fixing.

Yes, I have already clarified this point, but FIFA has secured itself against fraud - friendly games are taken into account with an importance coefficient that ranges from 0.5 to 0.2 relative to other important games. And even if you do not take into account the possible fraud, these coefficients are necessary, since in friendly games teams always have different motivations - for some, an increase in the rating is important, and for some it is not at all. It could distort the real picture if it had the same weight as important games.

As far as I know friendlies don't affect their ranking and because of that, whenever big teams play in friendlies sometimes they don't play as well as they should. After all, if friendly matches affect their ranking, then of course they will play with the same atmosphere as when they played in the main match of the world cup and also other championships. So in essence, friendly matches are of course only limited to friendly matches which of course, they don't play seriously in full because they also often play more second tier players compared to the main players.

[Leviathan.007]

This world cup is going to be very interesting and unique because for the first time were going to have much more national teams in the world cup and on the other hand we are going to have three countries hosting the world cup at the same time.
However, the main host of the world cup is America, and the other two countries, Canada and Mexico are just helping America to host this tournament.

[Sithara007]

This world cup is going to be very interesting and unique because for the first time were going to have much more national teams in the world cup and on the other hand we are going to have three countries hosting the world cup at the same time.
However, the main host of the world cup is America, and the other two countries, Canada and Mexico are just helping America to host this tournament.

United States will be hosting about 80% of the matches so this argument of three countries hosting the world cup is not entirely true. And regarding the number of teams, it was long due. With the current format, the UEFA teams are over-represented in the FIFA World Cup. During the 1990s, it was justifiable, because back then the Asian and African teams were unable to compete against the UEFA teams. But now the situation has changed completely. AFC and CAF teams are giving good fight to the UEFA and CONMEBOL teams and this was very evident during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

[tusandii]

✂
Earlier the football playing nations were to host the tournament. In that manner Mexico might've got the opportunity to host FIFA. Now everything have changed completely, and money is more powerful. This we can see with USA hosting majority of the matches. Another reason is with the good oil money on the queue for the 2030 FIFA World Cup hosting.

LOL.. you can't even compare the 1986 edition to the recent ones. Back in 1986, there were just 24 participants and 52 matches were played in total. For the 2026 edition, there are a total of 48 participants and more than a hundred matches. However the 1986 edition was played in some of the largest football stadiums that existed back then. For example, the Estadio Azteca alone has a capacity to host 114,600 fans. And this was where the final, and one of the semi-final matches were played. Estadio Jalisco hosted the other semi-final back then.

In the era of 2000 until now, football is growing rapidly in all countries around the world so that when compared to 1986 it will be very different.
Currently, every country has more than 1 large and luxurious stadium with more audience capacity, so the World Cup host can actually be placed in just one country.
For the 2026 World Cup, it will not only be held in one country because FIFA wants to make these three countries have greater potential in terms of football and we must support this so that the development of world football will be even better.

[nullama]

~snip~
United States will be hosting about 80% of the matches so this argument of three countries hosting the world cup is not entirely true. And regarding the number of teams, it was long due. With the current format, the UEFA teams are over-represented in the FIFA World Cup. During the 1990s, it was justifiable, because back then the Asian and African teams were unable to compete against the UEFA teams. But now the situation has changed completely. AFC and CAF teams are giving good fight to the UEFA and CONMEBOL teams and this was very evident during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

They are the teams that have won the most number of competitions, ever. A close second is CONMEBOL, and then it's a long way to the third place and the rest.

These are the best teams, and in my mind they should be more of those countries in the tournament.

Just adding more countries with lower skill level will drop the quality.

We saw that with Qatar. It was the only team way below the quality of the tournament. The games they played were not as entertaining as the others. If we continue to add other countries that have that level of skills the whole tournament will lower it's quality.

[Sithara007]

They are the teams that have won the most number of competitions, ever. A close second is CONMEBOL, and then it's a long way to the third place and the rest.

These are the best teams, and in my mind they should be more of those countries in the tournament.

Just adding more countries with lower skill level will drop the quality.

We saw that with Qatar. It was the only team way below the quality of the tournament. The games they played were not as entertaining as the others. If we continue to add other countries that have that level of skills the whole tournament will lower it's quality.

Again and again, the same argument. I have already countered it a few times. It was the smaller teams who made world cup more exciting in Qatar 2022. Morocco managed to reach the semi-finals and Cameroon, Australia, Senegal and Japan had their fair share of upsets. On the other hand, it was the UEFA teams like Belgium and Danmark who performed pathetically during last year's tournament. I am not denying the fact that historically UEFA and CONMEBOL teams have performed well. But that is the past. Now many of these teams are declining.

[Leviathan.007]

This world cup is going to be very interesting and unique because for the first time were going to have much more national teams in the world cup and on the other hand we are going to have three countries hosting the world cup at the same time.
However, the main host of the world cup is America, and the other two countries, Canada and Mexico are just helping America to host this tournament.

United States will be hosting about 80% of the matches so this argument of three countries hosting the world cup is not entirely true. And regarding the number of teams, it was long due. With the current format, the UEFA teams are over-represented in the FIFA World Cup. During the 1990s, it was justifiable, because back then the Asian and African teams were unable to compete against the UEFA teams. But now the situation has changed completely. AFC and CAF teams are giving good fight to the UEFA and CONMEBOL teams and this was very evident during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

True, and the reason for the United States to host most of the games are mainly that the United States but much more facilities and potential to host the world cup than other countries, United States got enough hotels and stadiums to even host the world cup by itself alone.
Regarding AFC and CAF teams I think they have improved themselves a lot in the other hand in the 2022 world cup many European teams had bad performances and they let these teams have the opportunity to show better performance.

[shogun47]

Argentina is a very special country where everyone is crazy about football and nothing is recognized as success except winning the world cup. Any other result is a disaster and a failure, and so it is in Brazil. It is very difficult to play under such enormous pressure from the public, and this can be seen in the example of Brazil and Argentina. Brazil has not been able to become the world champion for 20 years, and Argentina managed to become the world champion after a long 36-year wait.
Messi was also constantly compared to Maradona and it was said that he could not be the greatest Argentinian footballer in history if he failed to lead the national team to the world title. That was a huge pressure even for a football player like Messi. I think that winning the South American cup title before the world cup in Qatar helped him a lot and that he played in Qatar with less pressure.
Messi is a charismatic footballer and one of the best footballers in the history of football, but for me personally Maradona was still better. He practically single-handedly led Argentina to the title of world champion in 1986 and no one has ever been able to repeat that, such individual dominance in such a team sport.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I am not aware of a statistic where Maradona was better than Messi. In 1986 Maradona scored 5 out of 14 team goals and Messi scored 7 out of 14 team goals. Maradona did not score in the final, but Messi did against France. They had an equal amount of scorer points due to assists. I know what you are saying about Maradona and how he has pushed the team, but the same applies to Messi. Both were/are exceptional players with abilities that are out of this world. For me Messi is the best ever because he was able to do all these genius shenanigans, like the free kick against Atletico Madrid . Everyone who has a clue about soccer knows that a goal like that is too good to be real. This is not the only goal of this category, he did that all the time. The smartness in his game is unprecedented and will probably not be surpassed by anyone ever. There isn't a single quality he is lacking that is not limited by his physical being, like saying is headers are bad doesn't really count for a guy who is 1.70. There is only so much you can expect in terms of headers from a guy of that size.

But to close our exchange of opinions ( ) I would still hope to see Messi be around for some time. Was always a pleasure to watch him play and I also always liked the good old videos about Maradona.

[Kasabus]

This world cup is going to be very interesting and unique because for the first time were going to have much more national teams in the world cup and on the other hand we are going to have three countries hosting the world cup at the same time.
However, the main host of the world cup is America, and the other two countries, Canada and Mexico are just helping America to host this tournament.

I'm expecting that the event will be more prestige and more entertaining compared to the last World Cup events because this time, America is holding it and we know how competitive they are when it comes to big events like this. Moreover, they have a lot of time to prepare for the upcoming event as I know that even before the Qatar was finished hosting the recent World Cup, North American countries already knew that they are up next.