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

[armanda90]

In the last World Cup, Saudi Arabia surprised the world when they won Argentina. However, the improvement in the local league has not really impacted the national team. The Arabian Falcons have not had an impressive international game recently. In the last three games, they drew giant Indonesia, lost against Jordan and had a convincing win over Pakistan. The local league have not started raising quality Indigenous players. They are still investing in experienced players that will help the SPL to develop. Maybe in the next ten years, we will start having Saudi players nominated for Ballon d'Or. Their next game will be against China which is an important game.     

Saudi Arabia's manager Roberto Mancini confirmed with their players recently loss regular position in their club after many top European players signing by Saudi Pro League teams. The first round qualifying match against Indonesia, have poor performance with Saudi Arabia national team and Indonesia team success secure one important points for the first appearance on third round qualifying.
Upcoming match, Saudi Arabia will China have defeated many goals on the first match by Japan and its important match to secure three points and get opportunity directly qualify to next round.

The qualifying third round match for Asian zone have begin and left many matches, still early for predicting which one national teams have large opportunity get the top second standings position will qualify automatically to next round after some top teams have poor performance and failure reach three points.

[Miles2006]

https://dailypost.ng/2024/09/06/ive-won-two-trophies-with-portugal-dont-need-world-cup-cristiano-ronaldo/

After scoring his 900th career goal in the UEFA Nations League yesterday, Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo insisted that he is not desperate to win the World Cup. The 39-year-old legend claimed that he is playing to enjoy the game of football. Furthermore, he believes that winning the Euros is equivalent to winning the world and has already won two trophies. The Portuguese side beat Croatia by two goals to one and Ronaldo scored the second goal.

Maybe he has given up hope of winning the World Cup and is no longer interested in competing with his arch-rival Lionel Messi. It is also possible that he might be retiring before the next World Cup.

Ronaldo is right, I mean with this kind of mentality any footballer can accomplish anything without much pressure although Cr7 is very emotional and that’s one thing I love about him. He always have this unique determination when playing also knowing fully well he didn’t get the 2024 Ballon d'Or nomination including Messi shows it’s time for a new era. No hard competition between both Messi and Ronaldo since they’re both successful and they’ve a great name in the history of football, Cr7 is just enjoying his moment and achievement now and I love it.

[LUCKMCFLY]

Really unexpected defeat of Venezuela and also with such a big score, and before this victory over Venezuela Bolivia had lost 5 of its previous games and had only 3 points in the group, against 9 for Venezuela, but after the defeat of Chile, Bolivia moved up to 7th place, ahead of Chile and Paraguay.
Argentina beat Chile in a tough match. Argentina was able to score the first goal only in the first half, and then at the end Chile went on the attack to get back, but conceded 2 more goals, so despite the score 3-0 victory was not easy for Argentina.

That's right, for me personally Venezuela's qualification could get very complicated now, because the next match is against Uruguay and basically Uruguay is playing at a very high level of football, and I hardly think Venezuela can beat them. I could say that this match could end in the best case scenario with a draw or at least that Uruguay could win. I base this on what I saw against Bolivia, where all the players really looked like logs.

[Volgastallion]

Bolivia making his tricks again? Playing a super high altitude to win some points and destroy the hopes of every single team only for the fact that nobody who doesnt live there can even run in such high altitudes.

I think FIFA needs to do something with that, also for me is not good for Bolivia because they are not gonna improve in anything doing this like all this years, all the tournaments are not gonna be played at that altitude so when they go down to the normal meters are gonna be a disaster again.

[Forsyth Jones]

Two years after the World Cup, Argentina is still looking like the best national team in the world. If they continue with this form for the next two years, they might win the World Cup again because, compared to the other big teams, there have been no big improvements since the World Cup except for Spain.
Even without Messi this team still plays incredible football and they dominate teams as well. there is so much confidence among the squad and the unity that has been created is very strong. They might go ahead to win a back to back world cup at this rate.

Is South American football coming back in full force? Despite the poor form of its rival Brazil? We will see in the 2026 World Cup and I would not be surprised if Argentina won the title again.

-snip-

I agree to put Messi in the first position. He has the number one talent in the history of football. His body balance is absolutely insane. He almost never dives and that is helped by his physical balance and his incredible dribbling ability. Don't forget also his vision and IQ of the game which is very genius. Messi is like someone who plays his character on Playstation because he can see and predict the movement in almost the entire field.

And in the second position I think CR7 is very worthy. He is a human being with many fantastic records. Currently CR7 is the first footballer to get 900 goals officially. Ronaldo is an icon of hard work to achieve success. His discipline and healthy life principles have made him an inspiration to many people. I think Messi is an alien with natural talent and CR7 is a machine with hard work and dedication.

Yeah, have you seen how he plays? He looks at every angle, as if he were planning his next moves. He doesn't act like a normal player. He's always focused. Always ahead of his opponent.

Some players like Messi and Neymar have the natural ability to dribble and do their tricks without even looking at the ball. It's brilliant. It's like they were made for it!

[uneng]

Brazil won yesterday against Ecuador, but didn't inspire much confidence on the public, because the were higher expectations over Brazilian squad. During the first half, Brazil totally dominated the field, while Ecuador adopted a defensive stance. However, from the second half till the end of the match, Ecuador balanced the gameplay and put some pressure over Brazil, especially on the final moments of the game.

The problem was that Ecuador had a hard time shooting in the direction of the rival's goal. Defensively speaking the team is quite decent, with the exception of the goalkeeper, but Ecuador's attack is terrible.

Anyway, if Brazil had a strong team, they would have managed to score at least one more goal. I don't know if the problem are the players lacking skills, or if it's just that there isn't chemistry between them.

[bitgolden]

Fourfourtwo is an idiot if they think Maradona is better than Ronaldo. I can see Messi being better, I also think that Messi is better than Ronaldo as well, but that's my personal opinion and I understand why someone would say Ronaldo is better too, I don't care and I respect that.

However, if you think Ronaldo is not at the very worst case second best player ever, then you have never watched Ronaldo or Maradona. I have watched Maradona, hell you can watch his highlights right now on youtube if you want, and even that alone would tell you how Ronaldo is wildly better.

In fact, I would pick Zidane over Maradona and I am not even joking. Only one I can't comment on is Pele, because I have never seen him play, only his highlights and I can say that times were different and he looks much worse player but at the time others were even worse, so he looked much better than everyone, he was beyond his era. Messi and Ronaldo, no matter how you rank them, will always be one and two, rest you can move, but those are the best top two.

[indah rezqi]

Brazil won yesterday against Ecuador, but didn't inspire much confidence on the public, because the were higher expectations over Brazilian squad. During the first half, Brazil totally dominated the field, while Ecuador adopted a defensive stance. However, from the second half till the end of the match, Ecuador balanced the gameplay and put some pressure over Brazil, especially on the final moments of the game.

The problem was that Ecuador had a hard time shooting in the direction of the rival's goal. Defensively speaking the team is quite decent, with the exception of the goalkeeper, but Ecuador's attack is terrible.

Anyway, if Brazil had a strong team, they would have managed to score at least one more goal. I don't know if the problem are the players lacking skills, or if it's just that there isn't chemistry between them.

I tend to see Brazil's recent problems lie in their manager inexperience in handling star players, we can see that almost every line of Brazil has talented players. A narrow win over Ecuador was enough to secure 3 points, although fans hope they can score more goals and show their dominance. The most important thing is that Brazil can qualify and play in the 2026 World Cup, after previously playing badly and losing many points. Dorival Junior seems to be fielding his best squad, but his managerial strategy has not been fully proven to be able to encourage players to develop better.

Next Brazil will face Paraguay, on paper Brazil is still the favorite team, although the match has the potential to be troublesome for both teams. If Brazil manages to secure 3 more points, and Colombia loses against Argentina, then Brazil will move up to third place in the standings. Overall Brazil is not on the right track, they need to find a better manager to be able to become a dominant force in the next World Cup, I see Dorival Junior is not so respected in the dressing room.

[mv1986]

Yeah, have you seen how he plays? He looks at every angle, as if he were planning his next moves. He doesn't act like a normal player. He's always focused. Always ahead of his opponent.

Some players like Messi and Neymar have the natural ability to dribble and do their tricks without even looking at the ball. It's brilliant. It's like they were made for it!

Although it should be said that Neymar is nowhere near Messi ever. Neymar is a diver, he is overdoing a lot of things. He is focused too much on doing the trick to make a show instead of making the game for the opponents ore dangerous. Of course Neymar has some great talents and no doubt his technique is amazing, but in terms of efficiency on the pitch and what he can deliver for his team, Messi and Neymar are playing in different galaxies. That's the simple reason why Neymar never had a chance to become the best player in the world. He is the kind of guy who wants to entertain himself. Messi is the kind of guy who does the things to win the game and he does whatever it takes. And this whatever in his case means that it is still spectacular.

[mv1986]

Saudi Arabia needs some major work. Sure, they beat Argentina in the last World Cup. That was an absolute hell of a moment. But a dynasty cannot be built on one win. They're drawing against Indonesia, losing to Jordan. That isn't going to be enough. I'll give them that the Saudi league is improving. They are investing heavily in famous players, but it is just part of the picture

You cannot simply purchase a team and hope they will gel over night. It takes time, it takes chemistry. Saudi Arabia's got talent, but they need to figure out how to play as a unit. 2026 World Cup? They still have a great distance to go. Against China offers an opportunity to demonstrate their seriousness. No more excuses, no more relying on individual stars

There you go, they are investing in famous players. But they don't need famous players who mostly have their careers behind them. The best way for them would be to offer players an environment where they feel comfortable and easily accustomed to, such that younger players with great talent would decide to go there. And this is not going to happen. They can sign 10 Ronaldo's and it wouldn't change much about their league. Yes there will be a little buzz and some improvements, but to really level the playing field with Western or South American top football nations, a lot more than signing famous players in their mid 30s has to happen. The issue really is that a player who signs a contract with tens of millions of dollars per year is probably not performing as well anymore. It is not as if they go up one level per every 10 million paid. Ronaldo is still trying his best, but is he improving the league? As in, all the players are getting better? I am not too sure about their approach, let alone the sustainability of a concept that is purely based on money.

[Docnaster]

Brazil won yesterday against Ecuador, but didn't inspire much confidence on the public, because the were higher expectations over Brazilian squad. During the first half, Brazil totally dominated the field, while Ecuador adopted a defensive stance. However, from the second half till the end of the match, Ecuador balanced the gameplay and put some pressure over Brazil, especially on the final moments of the game.

The problem was that Ecuador had a hard time shooting in the direction of the rival's goal. Defensively speaking the team is quite decent, with the exception of the goalkeeper, but Ecuador's attack is terrible.

Anyway, if Brazil had a strong team, they would have managed to score at least one more goal. I don't know if the problem are the players lacking skills, or if it's just that there isn't chemistry between them.

I don't think there was much to be excited about the Brazil's result against Ecuador because winning with a 1:0 scoreline with such intimidating quality players in the Brazil squad is definitely below expectations e of many football fans. I didn't watch the game but was able to see highlights from the game and if I must be honest, it wasn't as entertaining as I had predicted. I've said it here on this thread severally that Brazil have a big squad but their problem is they lack an experienced manager who can bring out the best from the players with his tactical experience. If they can get that problem solved, winning matches with their current squad wouldn't as difficult as it's been in recent games