Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 101. (Read 62853 times)

Well that should be a consideration for the coach, indeed when both players can still be called up to strengthen the national team, but they must first consider providing opportunities for younger players. Because when these two players are still playing, I'm not sure whether they will make a big contribution or not, I don't doubt them, but considering their age, of course it will be a consideration for us.
I think they also as players must provide opportunities for their juniors to be able to feel the atmosphere of the World Cup, because it cannot be denied that there they will gain a lot of valuable experience which later might motivate them to do even better.

Most of the time we have nothing about any player and his future because they understand things so they never announces this all with media create hype about them for their own sack right now they are doing work for the Copa América, and we have no officially about his next World Cup participation but most chances if his body allows, and he will be fully fit he will be in this world cup for his team.

His participation could be important for Argentina because he still can lead from the front and have good impact on his team's performance in this big event but if he feels not well then surely he can be announcement about his retirement before this event as well which is always on cards.

I am not agreed about this all as now he needs more money because in last two decades he already achieves enough with after winning last world cup they also have good bonuses and other rewards so now he is only playing for his own sack and country instead of playing for the money because recently he rejected big salary and bonuses which was achievable for him if he joined Saudi Pro League be he prefer MLS and now playing for the Inter Miami.
About his future and staying until next world cup this is not predictable because as things going most chances he will stay and play because his body is good, and he is also super fit to give his best in first world cup with new format.

Actually there were many news such as Lionel Messi retired from international football and wouldn't be a part of 2026 World Cup. However now he is still playing in next World Cup qualifiers. But I think this would probably be his last international competition to play. It even depends on if he changes his mind before the main tournament starts and retires even earlier. 

Honestly it would be great to watch Messi in the World Cup one last time. But as he finally achieved a World Cup title with Argentina too it is really hard to be sure of him. It was the last piece of the puzzle in his career for him you know. 

I think Messi would be smarter if he retires just before the world cup.

He can make a lot of money doing ads and things like that while also just enjoying his life in rich retirement.

There are many new talented players and they should have their opportunity.

Do you doubt Lionel Messi's current quality? there are not significant level performance for Lionel Messi after leaving Barcelona and joining with PSG success bring Argentina become the winner in FFIA World Cup 2022 Qatar. Lionel Messi still in the top level performance whenever he plays right now he can keep his physical on the top level. But in FIFA World Cup 2026 he will be 38 years old and get little increasing down performance but its not impact with club he plays right now as Inter Miami.

I think has potential with Lionel Messi keep give the positive side for Argentina on next world cup edition if not get injury, Lionel Scaloni as Argentina manager still need him and Lionel Messi plays well for Argentina in World Cup qualifier CONMEBOL zone. Seems not difficult for Lionel Messi become main player for Argentina because not only show his best quality but also he can manage well motivate his team and FIFA World Cup 2026 seems the latest his appearance for national team.

The match yesterday was quite an interesting one but Al Nassr had an epic victory over inter Miami at the end of the day, watching that game I could see how much inter Miami was actually dependent on Messi while Al Nassr isn't on Ronaldo. The first half of the game ended in favour of Al Nassr winning by three goals meanwhile inter Miami was unable to get even good attempts all through the fish half but just playing around, I saw a whole lot of weakness with inter Miami and aswell saw how Al Nassr shows they were a better side, I think the Saudi league is improving going by the kind of performance I saw with Al Nassr yesterday.

Messi I obviously been affected by age gradually and this is seen in his performance yesterday as he wasn't like he used to be earlier so it could be assumed he's getting pass his prime already and he has actually achieved a lot so it's not a big deal if he's pass his prime already at this point.

There will always be young players who replace old players in the history of football. Although we all admit that we have seen one of the best rivalries in football. But we cannot continue to live in memories of the past. Their era is over. Currently there are many young stars who have great talent and will shine in the 2026 world cup. Of course we can't compare with the two GOATs, but at least we can still enjoy football without Messi and Ronaldo in the future.

Using new players and getting the old players retired is a part of football and we can't deny it. In fact, when players get old they should think about finding a replacement for that player instead of just trying to use that old player, maybe we are talking about a player like Messi and maybe Ronaldo but one reason for people to have an interest in watching next World Cups is they want to see the new and younger players playing for their teams and Argentina should do the same and try using other talents instead of Messi in 2026.

I not sure whether Messi can really be part of the Argentina national team for the 2026 World Cup because at this event Messi may have much more significant decline in playing quality.
Just look at the time Messi left Barcelona and the last time he played in the 2022 World Cup, he experienced some decline in his playing quality.
Such as his stamina starting to decline and he was no longer as impressive or as fast in every match he participated in.
This can also be proven that Messi is not core player because he cannot always be used in every match, perhaps also because the coach wants to see Messi doing well or avoiding injury or other bad things.
For the Copa America, it is still possible that Messi will be able to defend Argentina, but for the World Cup there is still no guarantee that Messi will remain core player.
Moreover, Scaloni who is Argentina coach, also stated that he does not guarantee that Messi will be part of the main squad, unless Messi can bring or help Argentina win the Copa America title.
Scaloni will consider him to be included in the main squad for the 2026 World Cup.

But one mistake by the referee breaks the pace of the game much more because the players argue and even if the game has resumed, then in the case of an obvious mistake the players think about it all the time and the game of the team against which the injustice was committed often turns out to be broken. And if the mistake affected the outcome of the game, then the entire tournament is broken (it’s unlikely that anyone will agree that they actually lost the game if the referee’s mistake affected its outcome). VAR is the lesser of two evils.
By the way, I follow chess, and the problem of cheating is very acute there, and you know, no one is happy that “human nature is such” that he can play not according to the rules (use computer tips). On the contrary, many believe that chess is already dead (all dead in general, there is no even talk about online).

Ronaldo is not playing in this match because of injured and Messi is not a starter either.
HT now and the result is 3-0 for Al Nassar.

I dont think that we will see Ronaldo in the 2026 World Cup but Messi definitely will play because of this:

It is hoped that these two mega stars can enliven the upcoming 2026 edition of the World Cup. The age factor is one of the biggest challenges, because it is no longer easy for both of them to compete at the highest level of football, especially Ronaldo, who is slightly older than Messi. It is true that in the next two years many things can happen, because we cannot predict the future with certainty, and it is possible that both of them will fulfill the call to strengthen their respective national teams. Ronaldo and Messi have extraordinary appeal, because both have quite large fan bases, we can see followers on the two superstars social media.

If you look at age, both Ronaldo and Messi seem to choose to give opportunities to younger players, to maintain regeneration in the team. Because we can imagine if both of them were called up to take part in the 2026 World Cup, but the coaches of the two teams put them on the bench, the fans would of course criticize the managers out loud. When the coach gave the two more playing time, they were no longer up to it. In conclusion, managers will go awry in taking action, I think that is very reasonable.

I believe that we are going to end up with much better tech in a few years, I can't really consider that as the biggest problem and that should be considered as normal and that would not be considered all that easy to keep improving so they just look for other stuff to put on top of it. I get that it is not going to be easy, but it is just the way it goes. I understand how life can be a little harder than usual, but that will be just the way it could go.

I have to say it is not going to be all that complicated to figure out what to do, just a tech referee without any human stuff, that could be quite good. I know it is not anytime soon, but AI referee should be the next logical step if we could get there eventually.

Previously we speculated about the possibility that Messi would play his last World Cup, and now we start talking about whether he will be in the squad that Argentia will take to the next World Cup or not. It's obviously difficult to say he will be there, but it's not impossible that it will happen. So far there are no signs whether he will retire in the near future or not, but 2 years is quite a long time and he could suddenly decide to retire.
It's the same with Ronaldo, he is still active now and in terms of goal productivity he is still good, so we are also starting to talk about whether he will return to the World Cup or not, because in terms of his game he is still quite good even though he is no longer in Europe.

Soon we are going to see a match between the two teams Inter Miami and Al Nassr and I think in this match we are going to see Messi playing against Ronaldo once again if Ronaldo gets in good form. But talking about these two plays for the next World Cup in 2026 doesn't make any sense and I think it's time for both Portugal and Argantinato to find younger players and stop thinking about these two players because can't be sure even if they won't get retired and will still play until 2026.

It is often said that no one is born with talent, but talent comes from a lot of practice. So Messi is a good player because he's been playing since he was very young, but he's playing in a much lower league like the US league and to make matters worse he's playing for one of the worst teams in the US league, so I don't see that being something he'll do with May Messi's talent be the same. and see that even if messi were 25 years old, and he played in that US team and league, he wouldn't have much talent, he wouldn't be a good football player. Now let's add Messi's age, I see that Messi should retire from football, because I don't see any reason why he is still being called up for the Argentine national team when he is currently on the worst team in the USA and he has already achieved everything there is. high in football.

You have to leave room for other players to shine. Honestly, calling Messi for the next World Cup is something very exaggerated in my opinion. It would seem that in Argentina there are no good players capable of winning without Messi, which is not true. Looking at Argentina's squad in comparison to the squad of many other national teams, it is clear that Argentina has a good squad capable of competing with other teams without needing Messi. If a national team doesn't make room for other players, then how can younger players dream of one day playing for the national team?

I believe that the Argentine coach should start thinking about making room for other good players. Even when Dybala is called up to the Argentine national team, he never plays for at least 5 minutes. I don't understand why Argentina's coach doesn't let him play. So it's very strange that they call Messi who plays for a much inferior US team and play 90 minutes, but leave Dybala on the bench who plays for a good Italian team. I know Messi is a prodigy, but they could at least allow the other players to play in friendlies and in serious games they could at least play 10 minutes

Things like this change the nature of the game as it changes the tempo and other things.

In tennis like you mention for example, the players have a limited amount of challenges. So, you could even have a situation in which the player experiences many tricky situations and runs out of challenges. That's another issue.

The thing is that in a game you have a lot of mental stuff, so when you stop the whole game all the time you change the rhythm of it. It's not the same sport.

What I meant with the robots is that robots simply follow the rules, unlike humans who disregard the rules all the time. It's much more interesting to watch humans than having everything so "correct". In the end what matters is the entertainment, not being right.

For the life of me, I just can't understand when that starts and doesn't start. I see some questionable offside situations and sometimes they do show it, which is great, it removes all the questions on the minds, but usually five minutes after the situation, like what if that was the wrong call?

Maybe it is not like that in every nation but in UCL that was like that, I watched maybe 20 games this year, and I mean full 90 minutes ones, and in all of them, the semi automated came in like at least 5 minutes later, which means if the ref was wrong, then it would have been too late. And not only that, but it doesn't even come into play each time, sometimes they just don't show it at all, which makes absolutely no sense to me at all.

Messi is not Ronaldo. At this point, Ronaldo is playing high quality football for Al Nassr. On the other hand, Messi has moved to Major League Soccer, which is not considered as one of the top-tier football leagues in the world. And from what I have seen recently, ageing is very evident in his performance. He maybe two years younger than Ronaldo, but I have a feeling that he is no longer in his prime. Anyway, we have these two players in action today, as Al Nassr is taking on Inter Miami at Kingdom Arena in Riyadh. This match will give us an opportunity to compare the performance of both of them.