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

[Warkop]

Alot of Big name are also in Squad but I think nobody can replace Messi position.  Hope Leo can continue has career and play thr next worldcup in the 2030 and hope they win it and this will be the best farewell for Leo Messi.

Actually, if Messi announces his retirement, it is the most anticipated thing, what he has achieved has all been achieved and it is an extraordinary achievement in the eyes of his fans. This is not about rivalry but it is about how this farewell is not interfered with by issues regarding his competition with C. Ronaldo, I think the current World Cup is the most appropriate time to declare farewell to declare retirement.

Messi should retire from international football, he has done very well for himself, and he has achieved a lot and helped his country to achieve a lot also, this is the time for him to retire, I was expecting Messi to declare his retirement after the World Cup, but he has not, but I believe he will do that very soon.
Same thing to Cristiano Ronaldo. He should also retire from international football. He has done very well for himself and for his country right now his already old so he should retire from international football and then after some years, he should also retire from football generally, it is time for him to rest. This is not time for him to continue playing football again.

So you agree with what I said, even though they have retired from the national team, it doesn't mean that they will retire from their clubs. The world of football still needs these two figures, even though they have retired from the world of football, their names are still remembered by everyone and by the history of world football.

Alot of Big name are also in Squad but I think nobody can replace Messi position.  Hope Leo can continue has career and play thr next worldcup in the 2030 and hope they win it and this will be the best farewell for Leo Messi.

Actually, if Messi announces his retirement, it is the most anticipated thing, what he has achieved has all been achieved and it is an extraordinary achievement in the eyes of his fans. This is not about rivalry but it is about how this farewell is not interfered with by issues regarding his competition with C. Ronaldo, I think the current World Cup is the most appropriate time to declare farewell to declare retirement.

Messi should retire from international football, he has done very well for himself, and he has achieved a lot and helped his country to achieve a lot also, this is the time for him to retire, I was expecting Messi to declare his retirement after the World Cup, but he has not, but I believe he will do that very soon.
Same thing to Cristiano Ronaldo. He should also retire from international football. He has done very well for himself and for his country right now his already old so he should retire from international football and then after some years, he should also retire from football generally, it is time for him to rest. This is not time for him to continue playing football again.

Messi is still scoring goals and was one of the contenders for this year's Golden Boot. The legendary player is currently 39. As long as he is physically fit and mentally strong, I think it is logical for him to continue playing. Yes, many may think it is reasonable to give up his place for the new generation, but I think he is capable of scoring more goals.

Cristiano Ronaldo is up to 41 years old and he is still playing great and I would say the same for him because he is still physically fit and scoring goals. It may not be right for him to think of retiring now.

The football world expects a lot from these two senior players, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and the new players have a lot to learn from them. If they personally think that they will be able to continue playing for a few more years, they can continue playing. It is almost certain that both of them have played the last World Cup of their careers.

I know Messi still has a goal-scoring instinct, but isn't that excessive and selfish of you to solely hope for the Golden Boot? No one is forcing him to retire, but a player's physical condition can't be fooled, even if he still has a goal-scoring instinct.

I think regarding C. Ronaldo, it was clear from his statement in a recent interview ahead of Portugal vs. Spain that he seems to be heading towards ending his career with the Portuguese national team.

I completely agree with what you said, that the football world is still waiting for these two megastars. If I were to speculate on this, it seems the football world doesn't want to experience the same thing MotoGP experienced when Valentino Rossi announced his retirement from MotoGP. This is a bit of speculation, and whether it's true or not depends on how people react to it.

[Phoenix Anka]

Although the Argentine team is highly dependent on Messi, there are many young and new players in the team who can perform well when the team needs them.

And who are exactly all these players? Because I didn't see a single one during the last World Cup. Argentina's tactic was very simple: let's pass the ball to Messi and let's all pray he makes some magic. Lo Celso, Thiago Almada, Nico Paz, Lopez... They are decent players, they can get better, but none of them helped the team.

Argentina had become a team completely dependent on Messi. Despite this, they managed to reach the final. In my opinion, it was amazing that they reached the final thanks to the magic of a single player. They were so close to winning the cup, but Spain managed to dominate the match single-handedly. Messi is a very talented player and is achieving great things even at his age.

[Saltysugar99]

FIFA has announced the tournament's best eleven, or as they called Dream XI. 3 players were selected from the champion team. There are 2 players from the other finalist. 3 players were selected from France, which failed to advance past the semi final.

Vozinha was named Best Goalkeeper. He put in a good performance. But it could just as easily have been Simon, who conceded only 1 goal throughout the entire tournament. Or Martinez, who made numerous crucial saves.
In defense, Pedro Porro, Lisandro Martinez, Upamecano and Cucurella were selected. I don't think anyone would argue with these choices.
In midfield, there are Rodri, Olise and Bellingham. In forward, there are Messi, Haaland and Mbappe. There were a few other players who deserved to be here, but only 11 could be chosen. I think this was a fair selection.

I'm really happy for Vozinha because he's a very good player. The fact that he loves his mother so much speaks volumes about him. Besides being an impressive person, he plays very well in goal. He saved many goals from Messi, and he also silenced Spain when we all thought they were going to be thrashed. This is something many didn't expect, so of all of them, I'm happiest for this player. The others are expected, but this makes him even more special.

Vozinha has played really well. A few months ago, he was a nobody to the whole world. Now he has become a hero to the whole world. He has performed quite well behind this. He drew the match with Spain with many saves. And it was only because of his single-handed effort. This confidence will make their entire team stronger. Maybe in the future they will come back to play FIFA and then they will perform even better.

[martinom]

Sorry, no. Look at expert interviews. Even asking an AI will give a a result that from people who really understand football there was no conspiracy. (Oh, the AI could be part of the conspiracy too! Well, ok. )

There were some errors by the referees, but most of the time, they were equally benefitting both teams. In the final, for example, one goal was very likely wrongfully anulled to Spain (the other goal was clearly offside), but the red card against Enzo Fernández was also a very hard decision (it was a foul but the yellow card is at least debatable).

The fact that Argentina always seemed to have more power in the last minutes can be attributed to Messi's habit to save forces for the decisive moments. He mostly wandered around slowly, so Argentina had effectively one player less during some time of each match. But then if the team needed him, because they got into disadvantage or needed a goal to prevent penalties, he accelerated and unleashed his true potential.

Conspiracy or not, Argentina had a few more episodes in its favor, such as a really obvious red card not given to Messi, the same foul committed in another match and with a red card sanction, so there were effectively double standards, this is undeniable. then i don't think there was a conspiracy.

[aipercoin]

Their funny ride didn't just start with Egypt, if Messi had received his rightful red card for his foul during the Algeria game, Argentina could have probably dropped out at the round of 32 before he will finish his 3 march ban. Argentina struggled almost all through the tournament and their game against Spain in the final clearly revealed how unworthy they were to reach the finals. The good thing is that they didn't steal their way into winning the game at the end, justice was served with the record of worst performance by any team at the world cup final since history, having zero shots in the first 90 minutes of the game and zero shots on target in 120 minutes. That was a good justice so fans can have something to hold on to. The plan was for Messi to win everything and France football already started releasing memo that winning the balon Dor is no longer limited to players in the European side all aimed at paving the way to hand it over to Messi but the whole plans still didn't work.

Argentina played simple football, winning twice in the final minutes against teams that aren't even truly top teams, the only match that deserved i feel like saying was played against a subpar England team who got scared and didn't play like England, otherwise in my opinion Argentina didn't show much football at all, they were only pumped up by the presence of Messi at their last World Cup.

[IceLincoln]

The performance of the Argentine team in the final match is their real performance, if the Argentine team had not competed with weak teams, they would have been eliminated earlier. They competed with weak teams through bias, they came to the final match as planned, maybe they will do it here too, but they could not do it with the Spanish team.
As a result, their real mask has been revealed, the team with such a poor performance could not take a shot on target in the main time almost until the end of the game. However, the Spanish team gave a befitting reply to the Argentine team.

There is no doubt that FIFA has some sort of a bias towards Argentina. And there are valid reasons. Argentina has fans all around the world. Even here in India, maximum number of football fans were supporting Argentina, followed by other teams such as Portugal, Brazil and France (in that order). And it seems to me that FIFA wanted to maximize the revenue and therefore made sure that Argentina faced relatively weaker opponents until the final. Even in the semi-final, they faced the weakest team (England). Unfortunately for them, despite all this bias they still failed to retain the trophy this time.

I don’t know how you people come up with such conclusions, Argentina is favoured, World Cup is rigged for Argentina and yet all the injustices against Argentina Y’all are blind to it. It’s fucking pathetic that everyday you guys still come back to this topic to spew such nonsense!.
Argentina faced England and England were the weakest team yet they won France on a 10 goal thriller (even though we might say the game wasn’t a serious one) But France presented a more stronger squad in the starting lineup, England had to rest Kane and Jude Bellingham and still won France 4:0 in the first half and you call them weak. I just give up on y’all.

[pewboy]

 I think this debate about if FIFA favored or tried to favor Argentina will finally rest because Spain are now the winners. Football isn't something we can fully grasp because the moment you feel you've understood it, something will come up and confuse your understanding. Argentina battled like every other team and the fact that people kept saying it was rigged was what baffled me because if you start rigging, you'd continue to when it matters most which is the finals but it was clear that Spain were the better side being that a team like Argentina couldn't register any shot on target.

let's say that in a final it would still be an excessive risk to fix a match, especially in a World Cup final, considering all eyes are on it that is a match that you have to let play, and in fact Spain took it home if i can say without too much difficulty, it was a final not too full of emotions but even then it made the most deserving team win.

[Yurkov]

let's say that in a final it would still be an excessive risk to fix a match, especially in a World Cup final, considering all eyes are on it that is a match that you have to let play, and in fact Spain took it home if i can say without too much difficulty, it was a final not too full of emotions but even then it made the most deserving team win.

I gotta disagree with that, man. Sure, Spain like totally dominated the game with 68% possession and Argentina didn't even got a single shot on target, but it definitely wasn't an easy win for them.
When a game goes into extra time and they score at the 106th minute thanks to Ferran Torres, it shows how crazy hard it actually was. Argentina was playing super aggressive, a bit dirty in my opinion, and Enzo Fernández even got a red card. It wasn't a boring walk at all, it was a massive mental battle. Spain had to be real patient to survive that physical pressure before they could finally celebrate.

[blue Snow]

Lol at the people hyper focusing on the golden ball award when the real prize was claimed by Spain for their outstanding team game dominance throughout the entire tournament. I couldn't care less as to who wins the other awards frankly speaking.

Same logic applies to literally every sports tournament out there. Rodri won the golden ball which is good for him, but the true prize is the FIFA WC trophy which is all that matters at the end of the day to most people.

The reason is that the awarding of the Golden Ball to Rodri sparked debate among legends and many others. It does seem a bit strange, since Rodri didn’t score a single goal or record a single assist at the World Cup. However, Messi, Haaland, and Mbappé scored plenty of goals and provided many assists but didn’t win the Golden Ball. Winning the World Cup trophy is one thing, but individual awards are also important for a player. That’s why, out of the various individual award categories at the World Cup, only the Golden Ball has sparked widespread debate because it’s considered unusual. The others aren’t a topic of discussion because the winners truly deserved them.

[Localhostspeed]

Argentina had become a team completely dependent on Messi. Despite this, they managed to reach the final. In my opinion, it was amazing that they reached the final thanks to the magic of a single player. They were so close to winning the cup, but Spain managed to dominate the match single-handedly. Messi is a very talented player and is achieving great things even at his age.

I was not impressed I'm not going to hide it, what next if Messi decide to retire? What are they going to do? There was this altitude about Argentina players that day, I don't know how to best describe what they did but it was annoying, they were playing nonchalantly, they lack proper passes, there was no relation unlike how they played their round of 16 till they got to the final, the possession about Argentina was totally different, they didn't try a single attempt.

They were celebrated by the country by the way, I watched a couple of videos on their return and I must say they have fan based, they are not toxic like Portugal, although their reaction is expected since they have the best midfielders in the world cup and yet they had the poorest performance in the world cup. I don't think even the Spain celebrated their players the way Argentinian did for their players on their arrivals.

[Agbam]

Spain have been totally dominant in World football and almost at all levels. They are the first country to hold both the male and female World Cup titles simultaneously.
They are currently champions of Europe now champions of the world,  current holders of the Olympics.
At the youth level they hold the U-19 Euro titles from back to back winnings 2024 and 2026 even the women won it in 2023 and 2024.

I think Luis de la Fuente have won every international trophy available to him, won the Nations league in 2023, the World Cup now completes it at senior level.
Even at the Youth level he’s won a lot of the trophies and he’s been managing most of these players, he’s the best thing that happened to Spain.

And one thing I noticed is that all the levels of the Spanish National team almost play the same style of football so it basically becomes easy for them from youth level to Senior level.
Wonderful Spain!!

[RockBell]

I gotta disagree with that, man. Sure, Spain like totally dominated the game with 68% possession and Argentina didn't even got a single shot on target, but it definitely wasn't an easy win for them.
When a game goes into extra time and they score at the 106th minute thanks to Ferran Torres, it shows how crazy hard it actually was. Argentina was playing super aggressive, a bit dirty in my opinion, and Enzo Fernández even got a red card. It wasn't a boring walk at all, it was a massive mental battle. Spain had to be real patient to survive that physical pressure before they could finally celebrate.

Even though Argentina was having trouble making shots, Spain had three shots on goal, and if you look at the game's statistics, you will see that Spain was in control. These are the same players that Messi's supporters were undervaluing, and I just love how the game ended. It was a fair game, and the more extra time added up, the more tension was building. I won't blame Argentina for playing the way they did because, when you look at it, they were doing everything in their power to simply win. And even with everything they were doing, they still could not win, and there was much celebration around here because Argentina could not win.

[Volgastallion]

The problem with Spain and his "dominance" is they dont generate real danger against the goal of the other team its one of his only "weakness" maybe, they have the ball for sure and play in your side of the field but they dont create so much danger, you can see it because most of their game ended up with winnings for small margins, only against the weaker Saudi Arabia they score a good ammount of goals.

[Bitcoin_people]

Their funny ride didn't just start with Egypt, if Messi had received his rightful red card for his foul during the Algeria game, Argentina could have probably dropped out at the round of 32 before he will finish his 3 march ban. Argentina struggled almost all through the tournament and their game against Spain in the final clearly revealed how unworthy they were to reach the finals. The good thing is that they didn't steal their way into winning the game at the end, justice was served with the record of worst performance by any team at the world cup final since history, having zero shots in the first 90 minutes of the game and zero shots on target in 120 minutes. That was a good justice so fans can have something to hold on to. The plan was for Messi to win everything and France football already started releasing memo that winning the balon Dor is no longer limited to players in the European side all aimed at paving the way to hand it over to Messi but the whole plan still didn't work.

Argentina played simple football, winning twice in the final minutes against teams that aren't even truly top teams, the only match that deserved i feel like saying was played against a subpar England team who got scared and didn't play like England, otherwise in my opinion Argentina didn't show much football at all, they were only pumped up by the presence of Messi at their last World Cup.

Even though they are a strong team like Argentina, the performances they have made against some teams were very difficult and challenging. If Argentina fought till the end and played in the final match, it was enough for them. However, the performance of the normal teams was incredible in this World Cup; they made strong performances against the top teams. However, Argentina's match against England was very difficult, but in the end Argentina won and played in the final. However, it must be admitted that Argentina's team entered the final of this World Cup because of the presence of Messi. However, Argentina's performance in the final match was very disappointing, for which they tried hard enough but failed to succeed.

[Fakhrulenclix]

The problem with Spain and his "dominance" is they dont generate real danger against the goal of the other team its one of his only "weakness" maybe, they have the ball for sure and play in your side of the field but they dont create so much danger, you can see it because most of their game ended up with winnings for small margins, only against the weaker Saudi Arabia they score a good ammount of goals.

That's the effective game they showed so I think in the modern era of football like today it's not so important with whatever happens because the most important thing is the end result and they can minimize the risk by controlling the ball a lot so based on what the Spanish team showed was very impressive, they were able to control everything and take full control of the match so they managed to win the title and also that's enough to prove that Spain is the strongest team in the world right now.

[Sarah Azhari]

So two days ago, Lionel Messi broke his silence and posted this on his social media:

The pain is immense, and it will take time for this wound to heal. But I also choose to remember everything that was good. I’ll remember the matches we fought back in, giving everything we had, and that will stay with us forever. I’ll remember the support of an entire country, which, together with the hard work and dedication of this group, helped us return, once again, to being among the best teams in the world. Right now, it’s difficult to appreciate what we achieved, but this group reached two consecutive World Cup finals.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for every message and every word of support. Once again, we managed to come together as a country, united by the immense pride of being Argentine.

To be honest, I was deeply moved by the message Messi posted on his Instagram account. Messi is a true leader. When Argentina loses, he posts a photo of himself, and when Argentina wins, he posts a photo of his teammates. This shows that, as if to say, when the team loses, he’ll bear the burden himself, but when the team wins, it’s the result of the team’s hard work.

From this message, there’s a valuable lesson to be learned from Messi. He never thinks of himself, even though he’s achieved everything in soccer; instead, he prioritizes the team and the Argentine people, whom he loves so dearly.

[reagansimms]

To be honest, I was deeply moved by the message Messi posted on his Instagram account. Messi is a true leader. When Argentina loses, he posts a photo of himself, and when Argentina wins, he posts a photo of his teammates. This shows that, as if to say, when the team loses, he’ll bear the burden himself, but when the team wins, it’s the result of the team’s hard work.

From this message, there’s a valuable lesson to be learned from Messi. He never thinks of himself, even though he’s achieved everything in soccer; instead, he prioritizes the team and the Argentine people, whom he loves so dearly.

What Messi does is not just about football, he is also showing the definition of true leadership. He took full responsibility when Argentina failed, even he was the most highlighted player after the match, but he did not disappear from the field and when receiving the silver medal, he also did not take it off, unlike other Argentine players.

The message behind him uploading his own photo is as if he is saying, this is my fault because I am the team captain. When other players who are considered influential in the team are looking for mistakes when their team loses, Messi stands tall and steps forward because he knows that the failure is his responsibility because his presence in the World Cup is not to chase statistics, but to make all the Argentine people who are watching at home happy.

[cxtreenal]

Although the Argentine team is highly dependent on Messi, there are many young and new players in the team who can perform well when the team needs them.

And who are exactly all these players? Because I didn't see a single one during the last World Cup. Argentina's tactic was very simple: let's pass the ball to Messi and let's all pray he makes some magic. Lo Celso, Thiago Almada, Nico Paz, Lopez... They are decent players, they can get better, but none of them helped the team.

Argentina had become a team completely dependent on Messi. Despite this, they managed to reach the final. In my opinion, it was amazing that they reached the final thanks to the magic of a single player. They were so close to winning the cup, but Spain managed to dominate the match single-handedly. Messi is a very talented player and is achieving great things even at his age.

It wasn't magic bro. In terms of ranking, almost all the opponents were in a weak position compared to Argentina. The surprising thing is that Messi was not able to score any goals in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final matches. He was only able to score in matches against weak opponents. If he had scored several goal against strong opponents, it would have been very helpful for him to get the Golden Boot. The main thing is that Messi's performance is gradually declining and it would be the right decision for him to retire before he gets into a very bad form.

Messi is certainly a talented player and his contribution to Argentina reaching the final was outstanding but his performance against the big teams was not excellent.

[KTChampions]

The problem with Spain and his "dominance" is they dont generate real danger against the goal of the other team its one of his only "weakness" maybe, they have the ball for sure and play in your side of the field but they dont create so much danger, you can see it because most of their game ended up with winnings for small margins, only against the weaker Saudi Arabia they score a good ammount of goals.

Everything is relative - if you compare what this brings them in comparison with their opponents (whose chances are completely zeroed out in such a game), then Spain is the most dangerous team. What's more dangerous: playing against a team that can score a lot but also concedes goals, or against a team that doesn't concede at all? Let me remind you that throughout the entire tournament, Spain conceded 1 goal and allowed their opponents to take a total of 11 shots on target. If you concede one goal, you've effectively lost the game. In this regard, Spain completely dominated.

[Dunamisx]

Although the Argentine team is highly dependent on Messi, there are many young and new players in the team who can perform well when the team needs them.

I think there is still one more lesson we have to learn from this Argentina incident because it is not going to be good enough to leave everything without discussing the big issue that led to what they faced during the just-concluded FIFA World Cup.

Don't let people know your weakness; plan/strategy when it comes to how you could perform. This is why you must be dynamic in your playing strategy, and I think all their concentration is much focused on Lionel Messi, and the opponents have already pictured how they could render a counter-attack from that end, and this is why they couldn't achieve a mass out.