Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 276. (Read 62646 times)

Well.. why we aren't mentioning about any of the other Argentine players? I agree that Messi lead from the front, and without him it would have been very difficult for Argentina to lift the trophy at Qatar 2022. But then, Argentina had displayed good team balance and cohesion throughout the tournament. Apart from Messi, players such as Emiliano Martínez and Enzo Fernández also played a crucial role. And we can never forget the contribution from Ángel Di María and Alexis Mac Allister. It was a team effort from Argentina.

And regarding the 2026 world cup, Messi's participation is doubtful. He will be 39 years old when the next world cup kickstarts and I don't think that he will be participating in top-level football leagues by then. And age do play a crucial role in the selection, as we saw in the case of Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo was dropped from the playing XI solely because of his age.

This is correct and cannot be denied given Argentina's squad that competed in the 2022 World Cup. Many of them would have retired or reached the age where they will no longer be physically fit to represent their country in the next World Cup. I'm hoping they'll start developing young players now who will be ready to take on the challenge by then. I hope Argentina does not fade out of the top teams in the world if these players are not replaced with young and talented players like them.

Even though Argentina will not be able to carry the world cup this time just like France, they will still be grateful to Messi that had taken the shame from them making Argentina to carry the world cup. They are going to qualify for the world cup which I am very sure even though Messi would not be available for the team again since he would be retiring soon. I hope to see Argentina play again with there team giving them another opportunity for another greater height. Messi had layer a legacy to the Argentina football federal and he had opened a path which everyone of the team would follow again.

You're forgetting Uruguay, they have won the world cup two times.

If you look at the world cup winners, you'll have a pretty competitive list, with only South America and Europe.

- Brazil (5)
- Germany (4)
- Italy(4)
- Argentina (3)
- France(2)
- Uruguay(2)
- England(1)
- Spain(1)

Also, South America has less countries (and funding) than Europe. So, if you compare the number of times the continent has won the world cup, you have South America with 10, and Europe with 12. Very close.

I think it is quite important to also notice that Brazil is the best in their own continent, along with Argentina obviously, I do not see any other Latin American team to be as dominant as these two nations. On the other hand Europe has so many good teams, so that means Brazil, as one of the best in their continent, will have to face multiple European teams, which causes imbalance and unfair calculation.

You are talking about one nation, vs a whole football oriented continent, of course Brazil would lose to one of them. If you look at how many times European teams won against Latin American teams, that difference will be huge, and Brazil does better than average Latin American team.

I think they will still be an early favorites including Portugal and Brazil. Although their stars may not with the team anymore especially for Messi and CR7 as that might be their last world cup but I guess their team can still give a hard time to the other national teams. But every team that will participate in the upcoming World Cup still have a lot of time to prepare and maybe there will be an improvement this time especially for the teams who failed recently, an experienced team will still make a difference, especially for the France.

I understand exactly what you mean, especially when Brazil was in the era of the best players. almost all lines are filled by star players. every time Brazil will play, the atmosphere of the stadium is like a roar. the team he was against, felt the terror from the Brazilian players. especially since the era of Pele, Romario and Ronaldo. whoever the opponent, will be very careful when fighting them.

It's just, we forgot something. that today's football has evolved far compared to a decade ago. football today, does not really prioritize individual techniques per individual. I mean, modern football now emphasizes the game of teamwork. tiki-taka, one, two touches, the current system is more modern and that's why it's difficult for the Brazil squad to only rely on the individual actions of each player.  We can see how Tite implemented his system when his team played matches at the 2022 World Cup. Most of the time, they dribbled the ball too long and it was not uncommon for the players to take individual actions. Vini Jr, is a great player, he has undoubted skill. The problem is, he takes too long to dribble. the pattern of the Brazilian game system still carries the old system. that's why, one of the things that causes them difficulties when they meet teams that tend to defend. because the system they run, already has a counter to anticipate it.

Nevertheless, I agree with you. different when his era, Ronaldo, Romario, Bebeto, even Pele. Football at that time was more popular with the actions of its players, and that made Brazil highly respected by its opponents. but that's the difference this era, the system adopted in modern football is quite complicated. next, in the 2026 cup later. at least Brazil will still be respected by its opponents, because after all their players are all stars in their clubs. the problem is, can their new coach bring Brazil to win a trophy in the championship later.

I'm you are right and I'm wrong but that's all because in 1930 or years before 1990 we had no country named Serbia or the other five countries but in fact, Serbia and these other countries should share the achievements because Yugoslav used players from these countries so I leave actually Serbian should be there, that's my opinion about this. Also regarding Serbian national teams I'm not saying they are very weak, all I say is Serbia is not as strong as other European great teams and not that famous so I see not much luck for me in the upcoming world cup.

In fact, you are not right, because until 1990, only the national team of Yugoslavia participated in the world cups, with players from Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Slovenia and Macedonia, and the successes of that national team were the joint successes of all Yugoslav nations, not only Serbia.
Since Serbia, Croatia and other former Yugoslav republics have been participating in the world football cups, only Croatia managed to pass the group stage of the competition at the world cups and win three medals, one silver and two bronze.
From that side, it is completely clear which national team is currently the best and the level is higher compared to national teams from other former Yugoslav republics.
The Serbian national team was good in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup and even won first place in the group ahead of Portugal and directly qualified for the World Cup, but their old problems reappeared in Qatar, namely the unity of the team and the relationship between the coach and the players.

I wonder what Argentina can achieve in next world cup in 2026. Their main players were already old at world cup in Qatar. In past Argentina squad was far better mix of young talents with experienced star players. I don't deny they will still be competitive but their squad quality may drop drastically. Brazil will always be candidate to title on the other hand. South America continent may be dominated by Brazil in coming years.

That is somehow expected considering that the countries stated above will be hosting the upcoming World Cup '26 but indeed, this is the first time that 3 countries has qualified automatically as this is the first time too that a 3 country has joined the bid together. In the past, there are only 2 countries had the same thing, namely Japan and South Korea way back 2002.

As for the qualifying team, they really need to have a consecutive warm up to keep themselves ready and hot because of that fact that they are already qualified because if they won't, I'm afraid that their advantage will just be in vain.

Regarding Serbia's national football team, I'm not sure how strong this country but from what I can see they have been in 13 world cups total since 1930 and the last time was in the 2022 world cup where Ljubiša Tumbaković replaced Dragan Stojković so here Dragan Stojković can have the chance to show better performance with their national teams considering this and even if Stojković start doing magic I even don't expect to see Serbia better the teams fighting for the world cup first place in 2026

Some news:


Source: https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/sports/fifa-confirms-us-mexico-canada-automatically-26-world-cup-2023-02-15/

Only yesterday, February 14th, Fifa made an announcement that the 3 host countries for the 2026 World Cup will automatically qualify for the event.
It may seem obvious, but it is the first time that the World Cup will take place in 3 different countries, so the official announcement was still missing.
It would be very problematic to have a World Cup in a country that is not participating in it itself.

Canada will participate in their second consecutive cup, and it will be very good for the team to gain more experience, they played well in the Qatar cup, even without qualifying. I hope they can at least make it to the round of 32 in 2026.
Mexico and USA are already more used to participating in the cups, but anyway they are already qualified.

In my opinion the fact of not participating in the qualifiers can leave the team without playing important matches during all this time until it gets to the World Cup.
The 3 teams will have to play friendly matches with other teams to keep up the rhythm of the game and train with the team thinking about the World Cup.

I'm not saying that Serbia is not a good team. But they are definitely not one of the strongest teams in Europe. Maybe if you count 15 European nations as the strongest teams in Europe, then Serbia can be considered as one of the best 15 teams in Europe.

But OK... Everyone has the right to an opinion and to express their opinion.

I stated that Serbia is one of the strongest teams in Europe and I stand by that statement. As I posted previously, Serbia finished ahead of Portugal in their world cup qualifier. Do you need a better proof? I agree that their performance in the main tournament (Qatar 2022) was quite disappointing. They lost against Switzerland and Brazil, then got a draw against Cameroon. Anyway, I don't want to divert the topic here. I was just saying that Brazil did everything right till that shock defeat against Cameroon. Then they destroyed South Korea by a massive margin before losing to Croatia in the quarter-finals.

It's not that European teams are the worst nightmare of Brazil, it's just that for Brazil there's no one else to lose against at that stage.

Brazil just happened to lose at the quarter finals, the other side is most probably going to be from Europe, because Argentina is probably the only team from South America at that stage, so Brazil has more chances of playing against an European team there.

Who else would be in the quarter finals?, Morocco made history being the first African nation in the semi finals. It's usually only Europe and South America.

Yes, I understand you.
Well, I have no doubt that the Brazil team is excellent, I won't deny it, but I cited the example of Neymar to clarify what I meant.

Unfortunately, Brazil only has Neymar as an elite player, that is, one of the best in the world.
There are currently no players Brazilians who are at his level, Casemiro? G. Jesus? Paquetá? Militantao? they are excellent players, but they are below Neymar's level.

If we search the squad of the Brazilian World Cup team in 1994, 1998, 2002 and even 2006.
Literally, in every position Brazil had a player who was one of the best in the world at that time, Rivaldo, Kaka, Cafu, R. Carlos, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Romario and others.

I have engraved in my mind the comments and videos of different people and players from around the world saying they were afraid to play against the Brazilian team, literally Brazil spread terror around the world!
One of the teams that I have remembered clearly are the 2002 and 2006, literally, the person who watched the Brazilian team watched a show/concert, a spectacle of team, chemistry and quality between the players.

Brazil will hardly have a team as good as the ones I mentioned earlier.

LOL, you don't to blame him bud, maybe Serbia is his home country, and as I understand, some times, or maybe for most people, it is difficult to to the acceptance their home country team is not good enough when it come to football.
Take me for example, As a Nigerian, I've always wished that super eagles were a team I can proudly talk about in the global football discussion forum as this, but then, I cant just see my self saying their are the best, or even close to it, when deep inside of me, I know they aren't.

You are being selective here. Brazil had a disadvantage to start with, as Neymar was not 100% fit. And these defeats that you have mentioned here, they were unexpected. If Brazil plays against Netherlands, they would win 4 out of 5 times. But then they can't win 5 out of 5, because that is the beauty of football. But even if they lose, that doesn't mean that they are less skilled. During the last world cup, Croatia and Cameroon defeated Brazil. Now can anyone claim that these two teams are better than Brazil?

In fact, there is an explanation for why Brazil lost to Croatia....

That defeat represented the continuation of a fast that has lasted since the 2002 World Cup in which Brazil is unable to overcome European opponents in the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

Take a good look: They lost to France in 2006, then lost to the Netherlands in 2010, then lost to Belgium in 2018.
The only exception to this rule was in 2014, when he advanced to the quarterfinals, but was also eliminated by another European team.
If Europe has bigger teams, then I don't know, what I do know is that they are the worst nightmare for Brazilians in the world cup.