Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 271. (Read 66221 times)

Cristiano Ronaldo has been performing well at Al Nasir's club. But his performance will never be compared to Messi-Neymar performance. Because Messi-Neymar are playing in the biggest leagues and Cristiano Ronaldo is playing a small insignificant game.

Intriguing thought! You know, Ronaldo's 2026 World Cup participation hinges on several big-league factors. Firstly, health's the name of the game. As the man ages, he might not be the powerhouse he once was. Plus, life's more than just soccer, right? Family and business endeavors might call his name. Secondly, the coach and team dynamics matter, big time. If Ronaldo doesn't feel like a valued, respected player, he might say, "no way!" Thirdly, we're talking about his Portuguese pride and Saudi Arabian connection – the emotional aspect can't be ignored.

In the end, Ronaldo has the final say, and we must abide with his decision. Supporting our favorite athletes is important whether or not they are in the game. Football is about much more than just kicking a ball; it reflects and contributes to broader cultural and moral discussions. Let's hold a parade to honor equality and human rights on and off the field. Here's hoping that the 2026 World Cup is an amazing display of football and compassion!

Do you really believe that Ronaldo will participate in the 2026 World Cup? Especially after all the humiliation that he suffered in 2022? The coach (Fernando Santos) humiliated him by refusing to include him in the starting XI. It worked against Switzerland (Portugal won by 6-1), but in the next match the coach tried the same strategy and Portugal got kicked out of the world cup after they lost to Morocco. Now he has moved to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia and there are rumors that he may apply for the Saudi citizenship. So there are minimal chances that he may participate in the 2026 World Cup. BTW, in case he participates in the world cup, he will be older than the oldest player in 2022.

The players were at good fitness. By the time of 2026 World Cup Ronaldo will be 40+ and Messi will be close to 40 years of age. Messi have won the World Cup which gives him the satisfaction whereas Ronaldo might try for it once again. We don't know whether this will make them move further into playing than coaching the team. More young players are emerging out of every football country which could let the superstars take retirement and support the young players reach great success.

It would be foolish to predict what the next World Cup will look like now. Because the FIFA authorities themselves may have started to think very little about these issues. But it can be expected that the next World Cup will be more spectacular than this one.

Can't be sure about the situation of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in 2026, we know both players are still superstars in their teams, Messi is still playing for a top European team while Ronaldo decided to continue his career in an Asian team with more money but can't be a reason to say Ronaldo should think about stop playing for his national team soon, also since Messi was one of the best players in 2022 world cup, he still has a high chance to play for Argentina in 2026.

Well, I believe the same happened with Cristiano Ronaldo, I believe that the 2022 World Cup was the last for both Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, I have no doubt that in the 2026 World Cup they will be able to be physically prepared and will be able to both play for their teams, but I have no doubt that the performance of Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will decrease...

With the performance that Argentina presented in the first games of the 2022 world cup, I would never have imagined that they could win that cup, I would believe that Brazil could have reached the finals, but unfortunately Brazil made unacceptable mistakes against Croatia's game and lost that extremely important match

Argentina was one of the favorites, not only for their performance over the field but also because many people thought at the time that this was probably the last opportunity for Messi to win a world cup, which was the only cup he was missing and for which he was heavily criticized especially at Argentina, so many fans around the world were supporting Argentina to win the whole thing, and even if the performance of Argentina during their first game was shaky, at the same time this became a wake-up call which helped them to take every single opponent as seriously as possible and to not underestimate them.

Not many people thought that Argentina would secure the 2022 FIFA World Cup victory. Many saw Brazil as a great prospect but unfortunately Brazil exited in the quarter finals. Argentina played incredibly well, which surprised football fans around the world. But Lionel Messi is still really happy for this achievement.

Not many people thought that Argentina would secure the 2022 FIFA World Cup victory. Many saw Brazil as a great prospect but unfortunately Brazil exited in the quarter finals. Argentina played incredibly well, which surprised football fans around the world. But Lionel Messi is still really happy for this achievement.

I believe ( and statistics don't lie ) that there is almost always a team that nobody believes will make it to the final rounds and they do.
The most recent example was Morocco, but we already had Croatia as a surprise in 2018 in the final, in 2002 we had Turkey and South Korea in the semi final...
Anyway, the more teams, the more likely we are to have different teams competing in the final stages.
I am very hopeful about Africa in 2026, with 9 to 10 spots, we will see all the best African teams playing in the cup.

64 teams I think is too much haha, it would be unfeasible to accommodate all these countries.
With 48 teams I already think there is not much condition for the world cup to be held in only one country if it is a small country.

Another fact that I would like to comment on is the following, you can't calculate the level of soccer only with the results in the world cup, I was able to watch most of the matches of Catar 2022, and it was clear how Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan and Korea improved the level of soccer, they played very well, but by other factors could not get further in the competition.
In the 2026 World Cup, more teams will have the opportunity to evolve the level of soccer, and will have the chance to participate in a knockout round.
This greatly helps a team to become more prepared.

What I have learnt about the world cup is that it is full of surprises. We did not know that Argentina could ever win the world cup when Saudi Arabia won Argentina at the initial stage. The next would cup that is cup is going to be competitive more than the previous years because most of the team would be more prepared than the previous years to make sure that they get qualified and win.
Messi winning the world for his country Argentina was a great achievement that is making most of his fans to think that Messi is far better then Ronaldo. Although Messi and Ronaldo may not be participating in the upcoming world cup competition.

The argument of strong and weak sides isn't basically a useless argument as it is the reality of the world, there are always weak and strong sides in whatever game is played or even if it isn't a game and something else. There is no denying the fact that the weak can sometimes defeat the strong but that doesn't really mean that there is no concept of strong and weak at all, especially in football.

We tend to believe that hard work comes before luck, that's why we say that we won't get food just by sitting at home if we are lucky, but we have to do our part. That is exactly how it happens. A weak team does it's best to win against stronger sides, and since they are working hard, luck favours them at times, so they win. But, if stats and other things are checked, we can clearly see that they are a weaker side.

Again and again the same argument.. LOL.. do you guys never get tired. There are no "strong" and "weak" teams nowadays. Two or three decades ago, there used to be a huge gap between teams from UEFA/CONMEBOL and those from AFC/CAF. But that gap has vanished now. As we have seen, Morocco defeated some of the strongest teams from UEFA to reach the semi-finals during Qatar 2022. The so called "weak"-"strong" argument is just an excuse to allow backdoor entry for the stagnant teams from Europe such as Danmark and Belgium, who don't deserve a place in the tournament.

Regarding the south American teams, we cannot be sure to say if Argentina and brazil are the only good teams that perform well in the world cup because we know according to some news and according to what their coach said Messi is going to play for Argentina in next world cup in 2026 but can't be a reason to say the other teams will not show good performance, from the last world cup and what we saw in Morocco teams I can say each south American teams can have the chance to perform much better than Argentina or brazil in the next world cup.

That's exactly the point, for many top teams in the world there is the same situation. they sometimes think they can win any game against teams like Saudi Arabia whenever they are playing against these teams while in fact if they lose the game just like what happened in Argentina and Saudi Arabia, this can be a good reason for them to wake up and understand their mistakes, for Argentina, fortunately, this happened when they could still win the cup.

I think the defeat to Saudi Arabia actually boosted Argentina. They woke up from their slumber and learnt to focus on the game rather than being complacent. The same can't be said about Brazil though. The loss to Cameroon didn't did them any good (Vincent Aboubakar scored in the 92nd minute to give Cameroon a 1-0 victory over Brazil). Brazil destroyed South Korea in the next match, but then they went down against Croatia in the quarter-finals (to be fair, the match was decided based on penalty though).

in the next world cup there will be 48 teams so things will be very different from any other world cup, with many teams participating it will be very difficult for the usual favorites to reach the final comfortably, maybe not even reach the final. as for messi, for me he will not play in the 2026 world cup, but ronaldo will not be surprised if he participates, it seems to me that he has no intention of retiring and giving way to other players, if he does not retire he will create discomfort in the portugal team, because he does not accept being on the bench and argues with the coach

I think the defeat to Saudi Arabia actually boosted Argentina. They woke up from their slumber and learnt to focus on the game rather than being complacent. The same can't be said about Brazil though. The loss to Cameroon didn't did them any good (Vincent Aboubakar scored in the 92nd minute to give Cameroon a 1-0 victory over Brazil). Brazil destroyed South Korea in the next match, but then they went down against Croatia in the quarter-finals (to be fair, the match was decided based on penalty though).

Saudi Arabia beat Argentina haha. Based on this match, football fans thought Argentina would not do well in the World Cup. But Argentina is the 2022 World Cup Champions. In fact, I underestimated Argentina because they lost that match.