Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 101. (Read 67364 times)

I agree that in the Argentine national team, Lionel Messi gets support from quality players, or in other words, the Argentine national team is filled with star players who play in the world's top leagues. So if Lionel Messi is absent it won't have much of an impact on the team because his position can be immediately replaced with another player. Likewise, if a team loses, the public does not immediately blame Lionel Messi alone. In contrast to Cristiano Ronaldo, as we know in the Portuguese national team he is not supported by quality players in every position. Ronaldo is an icon of Portuguese football, at the age of 39 years no one can replace his influence. So it is natural that when his team loses, Ronaldo is the first person to blame because the Portuguese national team is already a burden on his shoulders.

Now we have 2 years left in next world cup with 11 June 2026 is official date of world cup starting so if we have no injury for Cristiano Ronaldo then surely he could be part of Portugal team with we have history of many players done good job for their teams even after touch age of 40 with this even his contribution could be not like we have in past but still he could be key player with his skills and quality which is he maintaining for the decades.

But, here we have to admit one thing which is clearly giving no edge to Portugal as they have no depth into their squad which give them good success which is also important for the legendary Cristiano Ronaldo as he alone can't do anything for his team but still he can do something for his personal records and this could be last world cup for the few legendary players as they will be out of the game after this big mega event.

So this is the difference, Ronaldo is clearly older than Messi but they have different performances, Ronaldo still looks like young player with competitive performance and is still quite agile in controlling the ball.
We can see this difference in the last few years and of course Ronaldo is still an important part for Portugal in prestigious competitions but Messi is like player who will be thrown away because his performance is also being questioned by the coach.

But indeed each team will have its own mainstay players with different skills, they will play as well as possible with teammates who can clearly understand the game and complement each other.

For the upcoming World Cup, when it comes to players, Ronaldo is the only star player most people hope for.
But I also doubt whether Portugal can play well and reach the title fight in the final or not, I slightly think that it is possible that we will see new team as champions, for Argentina themselves they will not easily defend the title.

An alternative in the future if Cristiano Ronaldo wants to continue in football is for him to change his positioning on the field, perhaps becoming a center forward, where more positioning and shooting precision is required than being a winger, as he is currently playing, which requires much more physical conditioning...

The current performance of Ronaldo clearly shows he can still be a good player even if he gets older than this. Don't forget that Ronalod scored even more goals after he reached 30 years old and this can show these players used the experience of playing in the other teams.
I expect to see even Portuguese let him play in the 2026 World Cup because we know Portuguese will couldn't find any alternative player to take his place in the team. Regarding leadership, he can be a good leader and guide the younger players even if he doesn't have too much chance to play in the 2026 World Cup.

Yeah in fact this remind me a lot of what we just see right now in the Champions League where like the past year the two top contenders were the same as the past year and im talking about Manchester City and Real Madrid.

Right now i see the same, only Argentina and France seems strong and trusted, other ones are building good things maybe but lets see in this eurocup and america cup what teams are in good shape.

I have to be agreed with you partially because things are now completely changing with new generation is going to be had no skills like we have in these legendary stars, and now we will be also had no long careers like we have from these players because now all is changing, and many records are going to stay for the decades instead of years for me most chances both will be represented their countries in next world cup even their contribution could be not like we have in past but still their presence could be also enough for their teams and players.

Even currently we are having few more years for the world cup but still we can say Argentina and France again could be better teams due to their quality and consistency with Brazil is still on development and things are going to take time for having better results from them, we will never end this debate that who is better and who is going to be had better for his team with these players are going to be remembered for the decades for their quality game and amazing skills.

A lot of players could have been better than Messi and Ronaldo but they were not. I don’t think this should be a debate. we should talk about statistics and not about probability. There is a very good probability that Neymar could be better than both Messi and Ronaldo but he was not. It will take a long time, at least in my opinion for someone to actually surpass the achievement that Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi have achieved in their career. I think Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are the best players ever in football without a doubt.

People might think that I am actually disrespecting R9 but that is not the case. And if the career of Christian Ronaldo was not destroyed by Manchester United, I think he could have achieved more in his career.

For me, if there is a debate between Cristiano Ronaldo and  R9, Cristiano Ronaldo wins.

Just like Lionel Messi is a legendary footballer, Ronaldo is a legendary footballer. Lionel Messi has won the World Cup with the support of his team and with his best but Ronaldo doesn't get much team support in such big tournaments including the World Cup due to which his dream of World Cup has not been fulfilled yet.  

Ronaldo has won only one international trophy for his country where he was forced off the field with an injury in the final match after performing well throughout the season. That was Portugal's only achievement against France. Ronaldo then participated in several international tournaments but did not do very well. In the last World Cup we saw Ronaldo cry, his behavior shows how eager he is to achieve something for the team. Portugal will certainly have the opportunity to build a team with good players in the upcoming World Cup tournament, in which case Ronaldo will have a chance to do well.

If CR7 competes in the 2026 World Cup he will be 41 years old and Messi will be 38 years old. It will be the most historic generation of stars in world football.

I was rooting for Brazil in the previous cup, but to be honest, with the football they were playing and the tactical failures, I was aware that they could lose, but deep down I was rooting for Portugal and Argentina because of these stars and the whole contribution that these two players represent to world football. In the end, I was very happy with Messi lifting the cup, on the other hand, I was sad for Ronaldo, besides, Portugal hasn't won a World Cup yet.

Each one with their own different way of dribbling, CR7 has a more freestyle dribble while Messi has a simpler dribble, without displays, but effective. I've never seen Messi do a "carretilha" like Neymar does (A dribble where the player lifts the ball with his feet with the heel to bounce the opponent), that's why Neymar is always chased on the field, because Neymar provokes players with his beautiful, but unnecessary dribbles that only serve to irritate the opponents.

In the Portuguese national team currently, if it is an important match such as Euro Qualification or other important competitions, Ronaldo is still relied on by Roberto Martinez because Ronaldo performance is still very competitive and really helps in achieving victory.
In the 2026 World Cup, many people still believe and really hope that Ronaldo can appear for Portugal because it is big, very important competition, and it can also be seen that Ronaldo is the only best player for Portugal.
If he doesn't experience anything bad like an injury then it very likely that we will all be able to see Ronaldo playing in every Portugal match in the 2026 World Cup, hopefully he doesn't experience anything bad in the future.
Moreover, Roberto Martinez really believes in Ronaldo ability as very sharp striker even at his current age.

For Messi himself, to be honest, I doubt he will play with Argentina in the 2026 World Cup, but many people also believe that Messi will be present and can play for the Argentine national team.
Seeing how Messi is now, it cannot be hidden that he has experienced significant decline in terms of playing quality as striker, this is very different from Ronaldo who is still consistent.

Yesterday I was watching an interview with Ronaldo R9 and he was trying to understand why he got injured so much in his career... He speculates that it was the way of training that was done in the 90s... He did the same training as Cafu and Roberto Carlos, long run training etc.... He blamed this methodology as the culprit for his injuries in his career.... Nowadays training is totally aimed at the player's physical style, totally different from what it was in the past

A player like Messi is about to be born, Messi is a genius, 16 years at his peak and with each passing year he only gets better, the same goes for CR7. But Messi is a genius. I've never seen someone like him dribble and sprint.

In my opinion, the only player who had the potential to surpass Messi is the Ronaldo Phenomenon R9, if it weren't for his knee injuries and his excess weight acquired in his career and if he had the same commitment to training as Messi and CR7, Ronaldo would have been better than Messi. Ronaldo was great with his explosions in his counterattacks.

Ronaldo and Zidane are comparable, the best players I've ever seen play, then we have Ronaldinho with his magic that made it seem like football on the field turned into football on the court, he has dribbling skills that no player can copy Ronaldinho.

I suppose these key players are going to be used strategically by their national teams in important moments of the matches they are going to play. Due to advanced age, they are likely to lose stamina faster than their teamates, so they aren't going to last in field for 45 minutes or a whole 90 minutes match. The era of Ronaldo and Messi is ending. Now the soccer industry will need new stars to replace them and take the next generation to next level.

What we see right now is a moment of reconfiguration, where national teams are going to be revaluated in new tiers. Before, we were used to consider Brazil, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Argentina and France as the titans of World Cups: the most feared teams to be faced and the favorite ones to become winners.

Now it's different. We don't know who are the favorites anymore. There are lots of expectations and predictions regards one or another team, but the truth is that it can be the exactly opposite once the games begin.

There can never be an equal or level grounds for the comparison of these two players because they have both at some point in time achieve one thing that they other hasn't and it still doesn't mean that both players are not good enough, they have both done so well in their various erra and even now when they are almost in their retiring days they aren't doing any worse either so i don't usually see it fair enough making comparison amongst both players.

Ronald's performance in his national team isn't that bad the way you are making it seem because i think you are not considering the fact that as at the time Ronaldo was playing for.rhe national team of which the world cup was the most immediate last experiences, he happened to be the biggest names they had and he had so much pressure on him and he alone cannot do that which the whole team would have been able to do at once or achieve in the world cup and national football isn't such that allows you go pick players randomly regardless of their nationality to make a better team.

For France and Argentina they both had other good players away from Messi and mbappe which were Also part of the success story even in club side you can testify to the fact that if the team isn't solid enough with good players to assist the key star player their performance will be bad aswell just like mbappe have to struggle PSG but then it's not same with others in their current team so the team dept and strength is Also an influencing factor.

But I guess we can see both players playing in the 2026 World Cup since both of these two superstar players are still playing for this team and their national teams as a first squad which means their teams still respect both players and they still think these two players are unreplaceable and they can't find young players to fill the place of these two players, otherwise Argentina could try playing some games without Messi and they could use younger players.
But regardless of whether they play in this tournament or not, I don't think if we can ever expect to see perfect performances from these players as we saw from them before because will be even older in 2026.

It's tough for Brazil, but I think for any country and team to have a superstar like Messi and then when they quit playing, everyone understands that it probably can only get worse. What's the chance that another Messi is in the making and is able to perfectly substitute him. We as the fans also will miss him. Even now at his age he still has this insane quality to create surprise moments for him team. Passes that nobody would expect or shots that hardly anyone else could do the same way.

Brazil is in trouble. They have had a lot of close games, but still. It shouldn't be the case and usually I think a team with so many top players should be able to get along even without a great coach against underdogs, but I agree with you that they lack leadership both on and off the field.

I read a documentary yesterday in which it was reported that Cristiano Ronaldo will be retiring from football when he clocks 40 years but doubted if it was a true statement from the Portuguese superstar because if it happens to truly come from him, then he'll not be participating in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Cristiano Ronaldo is currently 39 years of age and will be 40 in February 2025 so should be truly decide to end football when he's 40, then he will be hanging his boots in 2025 summer.
Lionel Messi won the FIFA World Cup when he wasn't in his prime again and I think Cristiano Ronaldo can still achieve that feat considering his current fitness level and form so I expect him to feature in the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Unless the Portuguese superstar sustains a long term injury before the next edition of the World Cup, he'll be fit enough to participate

For Ronaldo I also think he will be participating as he seem very fit still for his age while he is still playing at a very high level no matter that he plays in a league of the not best quality like the Saudi League.I think we can better judge a player like Ronaldo by his performance in the Euro 2024 which will be held in less than 2 months.If he performs really well then I doubt another 2 years will see him deteriorate that much as to not be playing in the FIFA 2026.For Messi though I see no real reason while he should quit and not participate in the World Cup,he is still playing at high levels in MLS in US and if he is playing with Inter Miami up to that time then most surely he will be participating to play in the FIFA World Cup 2026.

Well, we have to take things into consideration as they are, I know that Brazil has had many problems as a team, so far they have done a bad job in the qualifiers for the next World Cup, in fact they have drawn and lost with teams that should not have done so, but Of course this has happened due to lack of a coach, and that must be corrected as quickly as possible, because we have already started the playoffs, they are also coming to the Copa América. I think that will be the best event for the coaches to show themselves to others. and it is where the greats will be measured , for me Argentina will always be one of the best in the world, but because Messi is there, without Messi the team does not fit well, that is what it seems to me, now Brazil has many stars and that It is a point in its Favor.