Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 156. (Read 62934 times)

That was a bit controversial for a long time, between lucky draws to some very bad ref calls, it was always a bit questionable how they got there, but they did and that is sort of point of how hosts are doing better usually, of course if they are a good team. Not like we should have expected Qatar to be any different, they do not have any decent players, not even a single one, which means that we are going to end up with something that would be a lot more riskier.

I hope that we could end up with a situation that would be a little bit of different, and that could be considered a lot of trouble for a long time. I believe that we are going to end up with something that would make sense one way or another for all three to do well.

When it comes to football, I think Africa is one of the most talented football personnels just that most of them ends up playing for European countries because they feel they'll be more valued in the western countries than when they play for their indigenous country.
Asia on their own also has world class players who ply their trade in big European clubs but when it comes to comparison, Africa is way too better than Asia. African football main issue is poor management from the football federation of African countries.

I am not sure whether Brazilians see football mainly as a career option. A few hundred (or at the most a few thousand) Brazilians play in different leagues around the world. That represents only a minuscule portion of the Brazilian population (which is around 200 million). Compared to this number, even more people maybe employed in any of the large agrobusiness or mining facilities. Brazilians are crazy about football, because it is their passion. I am not sure whether too many people think about the money aspect before playing football.

I don't know who ever came up with this idea that FIFA should host the world cup in three countries, I mean this is really crazy as it has so many demerits than merits, this is a personal opinion tho, because it's really going to cause really much expenses both on the fans and the various teams who will be participating in the world cup, it will be aswell hectic.

Traveling from the united states to Canada is about 3hrs or more on flight, this could possibly put player at risk of fatigue especially if they will have to travel two countries in a week due to fixtures, except the may have good adjustments in their fixtures to reduce too much of travel, although it's obvious most of the games will be in the states but then other games which will require them travel is my concern.

The fans on the other hand may not aswell find it easy as they will be challenged especially with countries that have travel restrictions as can be seen with some African countries and the states, but then let's hope FIFA would put measures in place to curb all this bottlenecks before, during and after the world cup. But the I see an exciting world cup as it's a first time they will be trying out so many new stuffs.

I think the correlation is in using money to buy quality players.

Many football players from Brazil come from underprivileged or poor families, so honing their talents and seeking their fortune in football is one way to eradicate this poverty. A motivation that is directly related to daily needs is earning money, something that Luxembourg citizens have never experienced. So I think it is natural that Brazil has a lot of talent in football, a fact that we have all seen for a long time.

Yes correct, this is what I mean and it is a good development in my opinion. The Africans were a bit neglected because the scouting wasn't as pervasive and mobility wasn't as high 30 years ago. It gradually increased over the last three decades I think and these days everyone is fully aware that Africans can be outstanding players. They have enough examples, just take Liverpool when Mané and Salah formed a team during their peak time. That was amazing. Ivory Coast has a couple of times played very well at big tournaments and Ghana as well. It is good to see that it becomes more and more international and citizens of almost any country have a fair chance to make their way into professional soccer and be seen on big stages.

Brazil is one of the best, if not the best, team in the world, and many of their players grew up in poverty. No shoes, no food, etc.

On the other hand, countries like Luxembourg are one of the richest in the world but they simply don't exist in football.

So, I don't think there is a correlation between money and quality

Seeing how football from African countries performed in the World Cup, it seems to be true because the more their players play in Europe which has leagues with better competition, the more their performance skills will improve.
And now quite a lot of African players have become core players in big European clubs, maybe they are not as famous as other players but their skills are at the same level. There are also Asian players who are key players at quite big clubs such as Takumi Minamino at Monaco and Son Heung-min at Tottenham Hotspur and many more at other clubs.
However, sometimes African players seem to have better skills than Asian players or maybe because their typical game is more interesting so they are preferred by clubs in Europe.

Well, of all those that are most evident to me, the strongest so far is Morocco, it is a team that can make a difference and not go unnoticed by many, on a personal level, I want to see Nigeria with that strength that they have always had I haven't seen Nigeria stand out for a long time, for me Cameroon is quite strong in terms of its players, they always do a good job, the style of play of these teams for me is very good, it is a happy football, it is a pleasure to see the African football, in addition to having some stars that are currently well recognized. The World Cup coming up in 2026 looks very promising, I think more teams can enter, this time I want to see African teams that make the difference even more, basically the level of the African teams is rising, what happens is that at the level World Cup, European and South American football are the ones that mostly set the tone, we have an Argentina that has a very good local football, a Brazil that has so many talented players that sometimes the very direct coach does not know who to count on, they have a lot of football To demonstrate, this change in level means that the African teams have also raised their level, all of this is good considering that there are going to be more teams for this World Cup, which I find exciting.

So in this order of ideas, it could be said that it will be the first World Cup with more teams, that have more opportunity for us to see more football, for longer and the spectacle will expand, I would like to see combinations of soccer groups where in each group this a team from each continent, this way you can see how much they have grown, this is just what I like, in addition to everything I would also like to see Italian football, which is one of the most beautiful footballs, with its style and good defense, that is why now teams from all continents have to be growing rapidly.

I haven't looked into any statistics, but I would assume that the number of successful African players in Europe is much higher these days than they around the year 2000. The scouting has developed a lot and there were also some limitations in the past that only so many players from outside of a country or Europe could play in a team I think. All these things aren't in place anymore and European clubs have long understood that scouting African players early pays off very well. But it could be even more as everybody knows that they have amazing talent available that needs the right promotion.

There is really no argument on "no finances" type of stuff, Argentina is one of the poorest nations in the entire world and they just won the world cup, so that means money isn't everything. It's all about raising talents, all those Argentina stars ended up growing back in Argentina, but they all went to Europe because they have better facilities to make them better. That's what Africans need, networking. If they can get good scouting, and then networking, they could find talented young kids, and then send them to Europe to get better.

Do you really think that a kid that grows up to be 30 years old and play all his life in Ghana or Nigeria or anywhere like that would be a superstar? You raise them at max until 17 there then send them to Europe.

True, technology really helps the referee to decide things more precisely, so it will reduce the controversy when the referee decides, because it is helped by the technology used. I'm very confident that it will progress further in the future. But on the other hand, for me it's a bit of a distraction from the usual tension in football. I mean when it comes to goal celebrations for example, before when the referee decided it was a goal it would be celebrated immediately, even though there were controversies in it. Now you have to wait for the referee to check the VAR and for me that's a bit of a distraction, although I don't deny it's a good thing.

I didn't think if it was right to compare these two, because Asia has a different situation from Africa and Europe is not the same as these two.
We know African countries usually don't have a good amount of investment in their teams and they usually don't get good results because of that, also there you can't find good sport facilities in most of the countries. While there is a better situation in Asian countries.

South Korea made it to the semifinals during the world cup they hosted, so when it comes to the best results African teams and Asians teams have gotten they are even, however those results were the exception and not the rule, the reason European teams and South American teams dominate the world cup is that not only their infrastructure is better, soccer is by far the most popular sport there and in some countries it reaches the fervor that only a religion could generate.

At almost any competition, someone from the crowd of outsiders achieves success, simply due to the mass participation. Taking into account the fact that there will be even more outsiders at the 2026 World Cup, I am sure that again some team that was assessed as weak will go quite far. But it’s far from a fact that it will be Morocco. By the way, first they need to qualify, despite the fact that Africa has increased the number of its representatives, this can be a problem.

That is more wishful thinking than reality if you think that some team from these continents will reach the World Cup final for the 2026 edition.The teams from Europe and South America are much stronger than African or Asian teams and expecting one team from such continents at the final is highly unlikely.For me Argentina is still a heavy favorite,Brazil will have to recover from their failed attempt last November and France together with England are strong European contenders without forgetting Germany.If one team from Asian or African football goes to the final that would be an extreme huge achievement but as I said highly unlikely.

Comparison with Asian, African national teams have quit well and better performance during last several FIFA World Cup edition always have an African national teams success qualifying from quarter final until semifinal stage. Last FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar have Morocco success managed well until semifinal stage and best achievement from Asian national teams is 16th round only. In financial side, Asian have better than African but players composition are balance who play with Europe teams between Asian and African national teams. I think its time for Asian and African national teams dominance in FIFA World Cup exactly on next edition without loss compete from European or South American national teams always success lead until final stage and become the winner.

Brazil has a big chance of winning the 2026 World Cup because usually when the World Cup is held on the American continent the team from that continent will be the champion, only Brazil and Germany have managed to win outside their continent, while Spain and Argentina are because the World Cup is held on a continent whose country has not yet never won the world cup.
If Brazil succeeds in winning then it will be a 24-year wait because they last won the 2002 World Cup Korea Japan and they were the favorites to win when the World Cup was held in their country but football fans certainly remember how that was the worst defeat that Brazil has ever experienced because they lost to Germany in quarterfinals with big scores. However, for some reason, I doubt that Brazil will win the 2026 World Cup and it looks like there will be a new champion because Argentina also seems to be facing very high difficulties in defending its title later.

African countries are very weak economically and very little money is spent on football in African countries. As African countries, several teams including Senegal, Morocco and Nigeria qualified for the World Cup and they performed fairly well in the World Cup tournament, but the 2022 World Cup has been different. Apart from Brazil, Argentina, France, Germany, Spain, Croatia, we never imagined that Morocco could play in the semi-finals. Morocco had prepared well ahead of the World Cup so they expected good things but it was probably beyond the expectations of the players that they would do so well. Morocco, who qualified in the semi-finals of the last World Cup, is now quite strong in football. Morocco will perform well again in the upcoming World Cup if they qualify for the World Cup.

Still Im not sure about the Asian and African teams to say which team is better than the other team but I know many countries in Africa don't have a good financial situation and there you can't find any good investors as you said and this is a reason for many of the African teams to have bad performance in the world cup. Maybe if they start doing more investments we will see better performance from these teams in the next years.