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

[KTChampions]

Big news from Lionel Messi:

https://www.goal.com/en-in/news/lionel-messi-wont-play-2026-world-cup-argentina-inter-miami-transfer/blt82e147900bcd6a3d
https://www.espn.in/football/story/_/id/37846445/argentina-lionel-messi-doubts-play-2026-world-cup

Messi won't be a part of the Argentine squad for the 2026 World Cup. It is quite logical decision from him. By the time of the next world cup, he will be 38-39 years old and he has seen what happened to Cristiano Ronaldo during Qatar 2022. It would have been a very hard decision, to not to defend the title in 2026. But then, he has achieved all that he aimed for. And it is not like Argentina will be devoid of star players. They still have exceptional players such as Rodrigo De Paul, Ángel Di María, Paulo Dybala and Lautaro Martínez. Even without Messi, they will be among the favorites for FIFA 2026.

Di Maria is already 35 years old. I did not hear that he announced his retirement from the national team, but in my opinion it would be quite logical since he is already at a serious age and will be even older by the World Cup. Maybe he will take part in the 2024 Copa América and no matter how Argentina performs there, he will announce his retirement from the national team (at least). At club level, he will continue to play 100% thanks to the Saudis 

[Negotiation]

Messi's decision to join Inter Miami has been a bit of a debate about his future or his chance to play with the national team in the 2026 world cup. As we know, the quality of MLS is not very competitive and of course it is a consideration for Lionel Scaloni to prioritize Messi in the 2026 world cup squad. Indeed on 2026 Messi have been over 38 years old if has consistent performance actually still priority in Argentina national team squad, but left three years later for FIFA World Cup 2026 begin and he has chance keep compete in MLS League or back to European teams  and still on the top level.

But last announced from Lionel Messi he want retired from national team, but last last day his name still in the list squad for match against China, Australia and Indonesia.

Many thought, maybe he will say goodbye to the national team. However, the 35 year old forward told Argentine media TYC Sports after the final that he will continue to play in the country's jersey. In his words, I am not retiring from the national team. I want to play in Argentina's jersey as a World Cup champion. Messi will be almost 39 years old when the next World Cup comes around. The next Copa America will be in the middle of 2024. It wouldn't be surprising to see Messi there.

[LUCKMCFLY]

In a soccer world cup, many things will always be taken into consideration, the first is that, as they have already said, you cannot drink alcoholic Beverages, at least not during games, another thing is how the 3 World Cup will be implemented countries in coordination , it is something new that is being implemented , what I would like is for Technology to become more relevant to avoid acts of corruption , for this reason I think so many things are changing in the world or in the next World Cups , I Appreciate that it is not Bad at all.

Messi's decision to join Inter Miami has been a bit of a debate about his future or his chance to play with the national team in the 2026 world cup. As we know, the quality of MLS is not very competitive and of course it is a consideration for Lionel Scaloni to prioritize Messi in the 2026 world cup squad. Indeed on 2026 Messi have been over 38 years old if has consistent performance actually still priority in Argentina national team squad, but left three years later for FIFA World Cup 2026 begin and he has chance keep compete in MLS League or back to European teams  and still on the top level.

But last announced from Lionel Messi he want retired from national team, but last last day his name still in the list squad for match against China, Australia and Indonesia.

Many thought, maybe he will say goodbye to the national team. However, the 35 year old forward told Argentine media TYC Sports after the final that he will continue to play in the country's jersey. In his words, I am not retiring from the national team. I want to play in Argentina's jersey as a World Cup champion. Messi will be almost 39 years old when the next World Cup comes around. The next Copa America will be in the middle of 2024. It wouldn't be surprising to see Messi there.

I hope it is like that, it could be that as time goes by Messi feels that he should contribute much more to the national team, I would like to see him in the Copa América, obviously it will be the strongest team next to Brazil, the other countries are strong, but I must emphasize that these two teams are what stand out the most, however at 39 Messi could retire, it's not bad, one thing is what others think of football and of each player, for many a player must play until the age of 29 and retire, not for me, I have played with people on soccer fields up to 43 years old and they run and have a very pronounced ability, now Messi with all his preparation can make a difference, the Argentine team still does not have another star like him and if he leaves , he would leave them very unprotected, I think that for this reason he does not want to leave.

[Leviathan.007]

~~~

Checking the performance of Brazil in previous world cups, they obviously don't have the same performance we saw from them before the 2022 world cup in which they won the world cup, which until years later in 2014, Brazil once again had a good performance and they won fourth place in the table.
But recently they didn't show good performance anymore. Even with players like Neymar on their team.

https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Brazil_at_the_FIFA_World_Cup

[tusandii]

I think Messi is superior to Ronaldo, but they are very close.

And the thing is that both should actually retire since they are way past their prime already, and they should give the opportunity to the next generation.

I mean, they both can simply appear on ads and they will make more money than actually playing

Ronaldo and Messi have both been very influential players for their national teams.
Ronaldo, who is a Portuguese national player, is one of the mainstay players for the attack line and vice versa, Messi for Argentina is also a core player in the attack line.
But both of them had their heyday at almost the same time to become players who were really very competitive.
It's just that it happened in the past when both of them still had the stamina and performance to play well.

Now, due to the age factor, maybe the way of playing has changed drastically, only luck distinguishes it, where Ronaldo was trusted to be brought in by the Saudi team with a very large contract, while Messi is still the subject of discussion.

Their performance in the last world cup football was amazing. One of them was finally successful while the other was criticized for drooping to the bench. People's passion for Ronaldo increased when Portugal lost the match. Portugal did not win the last World Cup but his fan followers did not decrease. When you get older, you don't have the same energy as before. But I think these two legends will try to give their best at the last stage of their football career.

The Qatar World Cup was the last time they played in this prestigious event and even then their performances had dropped drastically.
It seems that for the upcoming World Cup these two players will only be able to watch the game because they may have retired or are no longer able to play or compete with some of the other great young players.
Yes, both of them have become legends in the world of football.

It looks like there will be two players who can become rivals like Ronaldo and Messi, that is Haaland and Mbappe.

[Die_empty]

Messi's decision to join Inter Miami has been a bit of a debate about his future or his chance to play with the national team in the 2026 world cup. As we know, the quality of MLS is not very competitive and of course it is a consideration for Lionel Scaloni to prioritize Messi in the 2026 world cup squad. Indeed on 2026 Messi have been over 38 years old if has consistent performance actually still priority in Argentina national team squad, but left three years later for FIFA World Cup 2026 begin and he has chance keep compete in MLS League or back to European teams  and still on the top level.

But last announced from Lionel Messi he want retired from national team, but last last day his name still in the list squad for match against China, Australia, and Indonesia.

Messi's decision to move to the Major League Soccer (MLS) came as a surprise because nobody expected it. Some felt he was going to Saudi Arabia or back to his boyhood club Barcelona. If Messi wants to play in the next world cup coach Lionel Scaloni will give him the opportunity. Messi still has the quality and strength to play in any competition. He is a hard-working player that trains and develops himself individually.

He is not only coming as a player but he will also serve as a mentor, counselor, and coach. Messi's experience is priceless, player that has played in five World Cups (2022, 2018, 2014, 2010, 2006) has so much experience that could be helpful to the Argentine national team. And Messi is a player that can make a difference, he also has a reputation and leadership skills. Don't forget that he is the captain of the team so they need his leadership skill.

[lizarder]

I'm aware of the talents of the Brazilian players but still the Brazil we see right now is not in a good performance like were years ago and there are not any superstar players like Kaka, Ronaldo, etc... in this team anymore. Even players like Neymar can't have the same performance we saw from then in the last years,  

Neymar is also one of the players included in a row of legends such as Pele, Cafu, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Kaka. But the problem is that until now Neymar has not been able to offer a title to his country at the World Cup. Neymar's appearance in the two previous World Cups can also be said to be pretty good, even though he had injured during the Qatar World Cup. To compare Neymar with other legends might not be the same because each player must have differences and and every generation must be different.

It is precisely what I see football today is different from traditional football, where each individual can provide changes on the field. But now it's more to collectivity and individual abilities don't stand out so much if you don't play solidly between one player and another.

I would say that Brazil never had any problems with talents and even strong players who belong to the top elite soccer players in the world. In the recent past or during the last few tournaments they had more trouble to build a cohesive team. One that fits together perfectly and that can play as we have been knowing Brazil for a long time. They have a lot of exceptional individual players, but they couldn't build the ties between all these exceptional players and develop a team that feels united and fights as a unit for their success. As soon as they can solve that problem, the times will come back when Brazil is the team that must be beaten in order to win the World Cup.

This is where Brazil's weaknesses today and although they have quite quality star players, but still very difficult for this team to win the World Cup. Even though every year there are always Brazilian players who are able to penetrate Europe even though they are sometimes not up to 20 years and almost on average their players play in large clubs. Difficulties in building a team collectively may be the part that affects them unable to perform optimally at every World Cup performance but other facts may also not be deals.

Even when Brazil hosted the 2014 World Cup before, Germany managed to slaughter Brazil with a landslide score of 7-1 and at that time the Brazilian players were also extraordinary, even the squad they had was far better than the squad that appeared in Qatar.

[Slow death]

Even when Brazil hosted the 2014 World Cup before, Germany managed to slaughter Brazil with a landslide score of 7-1 and at that time the Brazilian players were also extraordinary, even the squad they had was far better than the squad that appeared in Qatar.

without a doubt that brazil has good players and they don't have problems with that, but the very big problem is in the question of coaches, and something that until today i can't understand, let's see the following: the brazilian players that play in the team national of brazil are players who play in the great teams of europe, so these players do not have difficulties when playing against teams of europe, on the contrary they are superior to their opponents, but brazil has the big problem of choosing the national coach a brazilian , and the problem is not simply because they choose a Brazilian

the problem is that the national coaches of brazil are not people who have already been successful with a great team in europe, so what happens is that the brazilian coach does not understand his players well and the style of games of the europeans and in the games he cannot do it good strategy that can easily beat the european national teams, but brazil does not seem to want to hire a european coach who has been very successful with european teams to command the national team, so we will see brazil making the same mistakes in the cups of the world in the coming years

[RaltcoinsB]

I was always curious, if football is so much popular in Brazil, Brazil "produce" probably worlds best players, when asking random people who are the best football players - people say that these are Brazilians, then why dont they (Brazilians) receive Golden ball award so rarely? Yes this is a European award mostly, but we see Brazilians in European teams, but only 3 Brazilians got that ball in last 23 years. In last 23 years, Brazil only once won Fifa World Cup.

Of course, Brazil has an important place in world football, but now football is a complete team game. Also, not only Brazil but also other countries have excellent players professionally. France is one of the countries that has achieved this best. Their success is not a coincidence, in my opinion, the product of a completely systematic study. Bringing young players into the team is what they do best.

[swogerino]

Brazil is a country where people's main dream is to become a professional footballer. They grew up with football since birth. Most of the young people in Brazil are passionate about football. And most of the footballers that Brazil has produced so far have grown up from very poor families. Brazilian talented young footballers choose football as their profession mainly to change their financial situation and do everything it takes to become a professional footballer. It would not be wrong if we call Brazil the factory of footballers because every year many talented players play in different clubs from this country. Football plays a very important role in the country's economy.

In the past, the players used to give equal importance to both the national team and the club. That has changed. Salaries have gone up by 10x or 20x, and therefore the clubs nowadays demand 100% loyalty from the players. Even for major tournaments such as FIFA World Cup, the players are released quite late by the clubs and therefore they don't get much time to get used with the team members. And this is quite evident in the style of play. But then, football is a profession and clubs are the ones who sustain these players. So they have limited options.

The world class players have no difficulties at all to adapt to any circumstances that they have during their career,now in this specific context they have no problems of adapting with the national team and they usually produce good results.This last World Cup unfortunately Brazil took it easy and they never thought to not pass Croatia especially at penalties where Brazil if compared single player by single player has a much better quality.This shows that it is when you keep your head down not underestimating any opponents that brings you far in such competitions.It was not because of limited time that players had with each other but because their feeling of superiority which led to an early elimination of Brazil last November.

[freedomgo]

Brazil is a country where people's main dream is to become a professional footballer. They grew up with football since birth. Most of the young people in Brazil are passionate about football. And most of the footballers that Brazil has produced so far have grown up from very poor families. Brazilian talented young footballers choose football as their profession mainly to change their financial situation and do everything it takes to become a professional footballer. It would not be wrong if we call Brazil the factory of footballers because every year many talented players play in different clubs from this country. Football plays a very important role in the country's economy.

In the past, the players used to give equal importance to both the national team and the club. That has changed. Salaries have gone up by 10x or 20x, and therefore the clubs nowadays demand 100% loyalty from the players. Even for major tournaments such as FIFA World Cup, the players are released quite late by the clubs and therefore they don't get much time to get used with the team members. And this is quite evident in the style of play. But then, football is a profession and clubs are the ones who sustain these players. So they have limited options.

Yes, they may be the best players in the world but let's not forget that football is played by a team consisted by various players and not only played by one single player which means that you need to be with them to make yourself accustomed and comfortable to their nature especially in friendly games so that chemistry will be built as well as trust.

Being the best is literally a waste if there is no chemistry between you and the whole team but we cannot blame them because just like what is mentioned above, it's the club's fault for releasing them late with almost few time to practice with the whole team.

[Leviathan.007]

Neymar is also one of the players included in a row of legends such as Pele, Cafu, Rivaldo, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo and Kaka. But the problem is that until now Neymar has not been able to offer a title to his country at the World Cup. Neymar's appearance in the two previous World Cups can also be said to be pretty good, even though he had injured during the Qatar World Cup. To compare Neymar with other legends might not be the same because each player must have differences and and every generation must be different.

It is precisely what I see football today is different from traditional football, where each individual can provide changes on the field. But now it's more to collectivity and individual abilities don't stand out so much if you don't play solidly between one player and another

We can't compare Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, or other similar players with Neymar, they played for their national teams for a long time and they earn many achievements also compared to Neymar these players had much better performance and they had more stability while a player like Neymar can't have weeks of good performance and then just like this year, he can disappoint while the team.

I think the generation of golden players in Brazil is over and that's why they couldn't earn many achievements recently in the world cup.

[Sithara007]

We can't compare Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, or other similar players with Neymar, they played for their national teams for a long time and they earn many achievements also compared to Neymar these players had much better performance and they had more stability while a player like Neymar can't have weeks of good performance and then just like this year, he can disappoint while the team.

I think the generation of golden players in Brazil is over and that's why they couldn't earn many achievements recently in the world cup.

A few decades back, teams like Brazil and Argentina were ahead of the other teams in terms of quality of play. But this gap has disappeared now. Also, the local leagues in these countries are not of high quality and therefore the players opt to play for European leagues. This is having an impact on team bonding, as nowadays the players remain with their club for almost the entire year. International matches are given a low priority when compared to club matches and even while participating in national matches the players are very cautious to avoid any injuries.

[bitgolden]

I was always curious, if football is so much popular in Brazil, Brazil "produce" probably worlds best players, when asking random people who are the best football players - people say that these are Brazilians, then why dont they (Brazilians) receive Golden ball award so rarely? Yes this is a European award mostly, but we see Brazilians in European teams, but only 3 Brazilians got that ball in last 23 years. In last 23 years, Brazil only once won Fifa World Cup.

I think it's more about them being in outside of their nation, that could be a thing. Sure Europeans move nations as well but within continent, whereas Brazillians move continents for it and that makes it harder. The people who vote who should win that award are usually Europeans, so there could be some continental bias towards their own players to win as well. Ballon d'or hasn't been won by a Brazilian in a long time as well if I am not wrong.

Plus, we say they are the best, but in the last 20 years, since Ronaldo era, how many stars have been born? Aside from Neymar I am not sure if they had any superstar, sure they had good players, and now Vini looks like the new one, but they do not have a team filled with superstars, they have a team with 1-2 superstar, and rest are "great players" but not superstar level.

[Litzki1990]

We can't compare Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, or other similar players with Neymar, they played for their national teams for a long time and they earn many achievements also compared to Neymar these players had much better performance and they had more stability while a player like Neymar can't have weeks of good performance and then just like this year, he can disappoint while the team.

I think the generation of golden players in Brazil is over and that's why they couldn't earn many achievements recently in the world cup.

A few decades back, teams like Brazil and Argentina were ahead of the other teams in terms of quality of play. But this gap has disappeared now. Also, the local leagues in these countries are not of high quality and therefore the players opt to play for European leagues. This is having an impact on team bonding, as nowadays the players remain with their club for almost the entire year. International matches are given a low priority when compared to club matches and even while participating in national matches the players are very cautious to avoid any injuries.

In the last World Cup we saw that the players who sat on the bench in Brazil were the most expensive players. That is, compared to the value of those who performed on the field of other teams, the value of those who sat on the bench in Brazil was much higher. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was a tournament full of potential for Brazil but they did not do well in the tournament despite having so many expensive players. By far the most Brazilian stars are performing for various European clubs. But even with such good players, they are not able to contribute much for the team. Maybe because of playing very few matches for the national team, these stars are not able to contribute much to the team's victory. If more friendlies are organized then Brazil will do much better in major tournaments.

[jakdanyel]

In the last World Cup we saw that the players who sat on the bench in Brazil were the most expensive players. That is, compared to the value of those who performed on the field of other teams, the value of those who sat on the bench in Brazil was much higher. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was a tournament full of potential for Brazil but they did not do well in the tournament despite having so many expensive players. By far the most Brazilian stars are performing for various European clubs. But even with such good players, they are not able to contribute much for the team. Maybe because of playing very few matches for the national team, these stars are not able to contribute much to the team's victory. If more friendlies are organized then Brazil will do much better in major tournaments.

Brazil were really a big disappointment in last World Cup by not even being able to go beyond the quarter finals. They had technically much stronger players than Croatia but they still couldn't. In my opinion that's because of not having a good management. Tite couldn't bring any significant success to the team despite being the coach for 6 years.

His only achievement is a Copa America trophy in the 2018/2019 season. I don't even have any idea why Brazil board didn't even sack him much before. Maybe the World Cup title would have been achieved with a great squad like this. Ramon Menezes must be the temporary manager now because he was managing the U20 team.

I hope they can find the right coach for themselves to get prepared really strongly for next World Cup.

[lizarder]

the problem is that the national coaches of brazil are not people who have already been successful with a great team in europe, so what happens is that the brazilian coach does not understand his players well and the style of games of the europeans and in the games he cannot do it good strategy that can easily beat the european national teams, but brazil does not seem to want to hire a european coach who has been very successful with european teams to command the national team, so we will see brazil making the same mistakes in the cups of the world in the coming years

That is also one of the weaknesses because they don't have an experienced coach, but if we look at the Moroccan coach he is even more inexperienced but he has successfully led Morocco to finish in fourth place at the Qatar World Cup. In addition to the ability of coaches, teamwork is also very much needed in modern football and maybe Brazilian players are less integrated in this regard. On the other hand, we often hear that the era of football will move about the heyday, for example from Europe to Latin America as a champion candidate.

We can't compare Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, or other similar players with Neymar, they played for their national teams for a long time and they earn many achievements also compared to Neymar these players had much better performance and they had more stability while a player like Neymar can't have weeks of good performance and then just like this year, he can disappoint while the team.

I think the generation of golden players in Brazil is over and that's why they couldn't earn many achievements recently in the world cup

That is what was conveyed in the reply to the previous post, each player must have their own advantages and it is impossible to be compared to legendary players or other players. Pele, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo have their own character and even though the Brazilian style of football is known as Jogo bonito (samba) and has similarities between one player and another Brazilian player. Even though they have similarities, the characteristics of the players are definitely different and has its own advantages.

For the generation of players I think it's not over for Brazil, but the dominance has diminished because many other countries also have players who are quite talented and they were born during the heyday of football in their country. For now, Brazil is no longer the only country that is able to produce a generation of extraordinary footballers because there are many other countries that also have talents in football for each generation.

[Jody.Drummer]

We can't compare Pele, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, or other similar players with Neymar, they played for their national teams for a long time and they earn many achievements also compared to Neymar these players had much better performance and they had more stability while a player like Neymar can't have weeks of good performance and then just like this year, he can disappoint while the team.

I think the generation of golden players in Brazil is over and that's why they couldn't earn many achievements recently in the world cup.

A few decades back, teams like Brazil and Argentina were ahead of the other teams in terms of quality of play. But this gap has disappeared now. Also, the local leagues in these countries are not of high quality and therefore the players opt to play for European leagues. This is having an impact on team bonding, as nowadays the players remain with their club for almost the entire year. International matches are given a low priority when compared to club matches and even while participating in national matches the players are very cautious to avoid any injuries.

Europe's top leagues are a measure where players are said to have a very good game, especially if they penetrate the main squad at the club.
Brazil has always produced star players who have excellent abilities, and that continues from season to season and I don't think that the golden generation of Brazil will just disappear, I'm sure that in the near future there will be many young players with potential from Brazil.
Personally saying European countries dominate I don't think so, even now from Asian countries their football is developing further and I'm sure they will do that in the next season.

[Zlantann]

A few decades back, teams like Brazil and Argentina were ahead of the other teams in terms of quality of play. But this gap has disappeared now. Also, the local leagues in these countries are not of high quality and therefore the players opt to play for European leagues. This is having an impact on team bonding, as nowadays the players remain with their club for almost the entire year. International matches are given a low priority when compared to club matches and even while participating in national matches the players are very cautious to avoid any injuries.

Corruption and economic problems is affecting the Brazilian and Argentine leagues. Some of the clubs that were able to afford competitive salaries like the European leagues are not that buoyant to continue with such payments. Recently there was a big corruption allegation against teams in the Brazilian Serie B. Investigation revealed that this corrupt practice have been going on for a long time and the football regulatory body did nothing to curb it. The financial issues and corruption has led to the decrease of sponsorship and endorsement deals. Brazilian national team is now made up of mostly foreign based player and it is affecting the team negatively. Due to the difference in football leagues it will also take more time for the players to blend and understand each other. Even in my country's national team, the players are more serous when playing for their clubs than the national team. This is because the clubs treat the players better than the national team. Sometime players are even abandoned when they are injured. So the drop in the performance of the national teams of Brazil and Argentina might be because of poor administration.        

[Vaculin]

In the last World Cup we saw that the players who sat on the bench in Brazil were the most expensive players. That is, compared to the value of those who performed on the field of other teams, the value of those who sat on the bench in Brazil was much higher. The 2022 World Cup in Qatar was a tournament full of potential for Brazil but they did not do well in the tournament despite having so many expensive players. By far the most Brazilian stars are performing for various European clubs. But even with such good players, they are not able to contribute much for the team. Maybe because of playing very few matches for the national team, these stars are not able to contribute much to the team's victory. If more friendlies are organized then Brazil will do much better in major tournaments.

Brazil were really a big disappointment in last World Cup by not even being able to go beyond the quarter finals. They had technically much stronger players than Croatia but they still couldn't. In my opinion that's because of not having a good management. Tite couldn't bring any significant success to the team despite being the coach for 6 years.

His only achievement is a Copa America trophy in the 2018/2019 season. I don't even have any idea why Brazil board didn't even sack him much before. Maybe the World Cup title would have been achieved with a great squad like this. Ramon Menezes must be the temporary manager now because he was managing the U20 team.

I hope they can find the right coach for themselves to get prepared really strongly for next World Cup.

Indeed, they were. A lot of people had a high hopes for them, including me, but an unexpected event happened where they did not finished with a bang and were even eliminated with Croatia which seemingly cannot believe themselves that their roster managed to defeat the national team of Brazil but it is what it is. Hopefully they can make more adjustment in the next world cup and learn a thing or two about what happened, and hopefully, they will hire another coach because I do believe that someone with a fresh mind and a fresh set of eyes can make a difference instead of having the same coach.