Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 37. (Read 62674 times)

Ronaldo's performance is indeed not as good as when he was young. but he still has the ability to play if trusted by the coach for the World Cup. not many players can still be productive in scoring goals at Ronaldo's age. even if he is not played and is only on the bench or is part of the national team coaching team, I think he can still be a source of encouragement for the Portuguese national team.
we have not seen an extraordinary talent like Ronal born in the Portuguese National Team. he is an extraordinary player, and maybe Portugal still can't afford to lose him in the team. a world cup without Messi and Ronaldo, damn, we haven't seen a competition like that again at this time. they make football very interesting to continue watching.

I agree to put Messi in the first position. He has the number one talent in the history of football. His body balance is absolutely insane. He almost never dives and that is helped by his physical balance and his incredible dribbling ability. Don't forget also his vision and IQ of the game which is very genius. Messi is like someone who plays his character on Playstation because he can see and predict the movement in almost the entire field.

And in the second position I think CR7 is very worthy. He is a human being with many fantastic records. Currently CR7 is the first footballer to get 900 goals officially. Ronaldo is an icon of hard work to achieve success. His discipline and healthy life principles have made him an inspiration to many people. I think Messi is an alien with natural talent and CR7 is a machine with hard work and dedication.

For me I believe Christiano Ronaldo has really done best for himself  whether he wins the world cup or not. Christiano Ronaldo is such a great player and I see him as a player that has so much passion for football.  Some people believe the reason why he still plays football is because of to win the world cup but I don't think that is the reason. Ronaldo is player that will never be forgotten because of how he made football so entertaining. With what he had achieved it is enough for him to be called an hero.
There so many good players like Ronaldo that are great they never won the world cup. Being a great players is not about winning the world cup but to be consistent over a longtime.

Historically, Saudi Arabia is a better football nation than Indonesia but one thing you can't take away from football is surprising and shocking results and that's why I don't think it was abnormal to see Indonesia get a draw in their FIFA World Cup qualifying game against Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia will definitely feel disappointed with that draw but if you ask them, they're very much aware that they're the better team but couldn't just find a win against Indonesia. People don't just root for teams because of favoritism but most times, it's usually because of their footballing strength and that's why you saw many people including bookmakers back Saudi Arabia to defeat Indonesia

Cristiano over Pele is very strange to see on that list....

Anyways yesterday i see some stages of the game between Argentina and Chile and Argentina do quite a good job without Messi and Di Maria who make the decision of no longer play for the national team, and if you ask me as far as i can see they play super football Dybala and Garnacho taking part in the second half was also a super improvement,so..... is Argentina again the favorite to win the next world cup after what we see today from France?

Saudi is improving in their games now, before now they were very poor in their performance, I think their league improvement is now helping them play football better than they had done before now. Indonesia isn't know for the game of football, they do more of Olympics competition than they do with football. Teams victory is always independent of big names even if big names are advantages but not the reason for which a team myst win.

A funny fact about this game is that the Argentina coach finally put Paulo Dybala to play. The Argentina coach has been calling up Paulo Dybala for a long time but doesn't put him to play, even though he is in good health and is shining at AS Roma. I never understood why the Argentina coach does this with Paulo Dybala. To give you an idea of ​​what I'm talking about. Paulo Dybala only played 4 games in the 2019 Copa America. In this recent Copa America he didn't play any games. He also only played 2 games in the last World Cup, and now in the World Cup qualifiers he only played 1 game but has already scored 1 goal. But I highly doubt that this 1 goal will be of any use. The Argentina coach will continue not to put Paulo Dybala

In my opinion the game was very easy for Argentina, even some news channels considered this game as being very easy for Argentina:


source: https://sportstar.thehindu.com/football/argentina-vs-chile-score-highlights-goals-lionel-messi-mac-allister-alvarez-dybala-arg-v-chi-fifa-world-cup-2026-qualifier-news/article68612383.ece

In the field, we really can't tell their actual performance or the final scores. Just look at Saudi vs Indonesia. I guess, a lot were rooting for Saudi to really win their match and not get a draw. So they understand now that even with big names in the team, it doesn't guarantee the winning chance of the team.
Also, do take note of the performance of the team before Ronaldo got in. And you will understand that one big name won't do it all inside the field. It is still the team's effort to perform in the game. But maybe, we can say, they are already improving.

Hm yes he did deserve it, but he had his chances more than many others. He played five World Cups already and has another one to go I guess. I would be surprised if he doesn't push it and go for the next one as well. I like how you quantified his chances. Some people have no clue what it means to win that trophy, but I think 5% nails it pretty much. You could argue 7% maybe But it is pretty slim and we have all seen how close it was for Messi two times actually. 2014 Argentina could and should habe beaten Germany when Germany made a huge mistake in the defense and Higuain messed it up I think. In 2022 it was again unbelievably close and of course luck has to be on your side on that day. Otherwise you are not gonna win the World Cup.

I wonder if Messi calls it a day or if he goes for it in 2026. I have this feeling that he quits before as he may feel he can only lose if he performs not very well. Though he rarely is bad during a game, it is just that he is measured by his own standards.

As for the ranking you posted, Messi on no.1 is certain for me. The rest could be debatable. But in my opinion the way Messi is using the pitch, his eyes to interpret the game, his precision in passing and finishing both during the game and from free kick positions, his dribblings and the fact that he never dives, never dives! Actually, there are probably 1000 situations in his career where he should have fallen, but he doesn't. It is something I like a lot about him and Ronaldo is a little diver. Always showing off his big fat leg muscles and then dives like a pussy. That's not very superstar like.

I'd love to see my Portuguese brothers win a World Cup, a hard-working player like CR7 would certainly deserve it, although it is a very big challenge for him at the moment, but not impossible, as long as he plays in the 2026 World Cup, I'd say that his chances of winning are around 5%.

A list of the TOP10 best players in history was released according to FourFourTwo magazine. Despite being considered the King of Football, especially in Brazil, Pelé came in 4th place. Do you agree with this list or do you have different personal preferences?

With what he has already accomplished I don't think there is any need for him to be worried about the world cup, I mean the man has proven that even his old age can't stop him from playing and that's why he still plays very actively like a young player who has gotten so much strength and power. I don't know what his future will hold in the next three years but if he continues to play then he might break 1000th career goal mark and it would definitely be a feat to withhold.

Well, well... I guess he has let the world known all too often that he is in it to win it. He is not the kind of guy who plays football for recreational purposes and only wants to enjoy and doesn't care whether he wins the title. Of course he wants to win the title as that is the one thing that is missing for him. I bet if he were to win the World Cup 2026 in Mexico + USA, we would see him crying for half an hour straight on the pitch. Which is ok, I have no issues with that, but playing it down like that now is atypical for him. It doesn't fit into the picture he has been drawing for so many years and for good reasons. Surely he wants to win the title, but I guess there is a sense of realism and he knows that it takes an awful lot to really hold that trophy in his hands. Winning the World Cup is brutally hard and nothing that can ever be planned even if your team is the huge favorite.

These FIFA dates have been very tough and could have turned out favourable for those who prepared better, that doesn't mean they're doing badly , this is for anyone, we all know the impact of Saudi football now that its league is taking a very competitive turn, what happened is that in the 90 minutes Anything can happen, we remember what Saudi Arabia did to Argentina in Qatar , it showed what they are capable of , there is Still a long way to go and I think this will help them open their Eyes and realise that things can go wrong at any moment and move Forward.

You are right to some extent but Saudi Arabia national football team also has good player of Saudi Arabia and these players are performing well for their team .   Saudi Arabia  football team  played excellent in in the match against Indonesia  football team. Saudi Arabia players were dominant in this match and their shots were very perfect and we saw perfection in the players and the shots of that team were many more than Indonesia team and their shots were also on target and the possession percentage was good and all players had football in the feet  for most of the time but unluckily they could not win the match in the end . They gave a lot of passes and pass accuracy was also brilliant.

It was a great day for the Portuguese captain scoring his 900th career goal. His closest rival is Lionel Messi, who has netted 838 goals in 1,069 games. While Ronaldo achieved 900 goals in 1,236 games.

But there has been a disagreement on the number of goals Pele scored. His time was when video cameras, the internet and television were not common so it was very difficult to record all games. Meanwhile, all of Ronaldo's goals have been recorded since 2001. But Pele had always said that he played 1,366 matches and scored 1,283 goals.

Ronaldo didn't really say he is retiring from international football. Which means if he sees the opportunity he would still come to the world. He recently said he has no intention to retire. And he has been very lucky to stay away from injuries. He wants to take this goal to 1000, so probably he might still come to next year's World Cup co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the United States.

We have seen Argentina go through bad times like Brazil is going through now. For Argentina, it was the case that they had not won an international trophy in the last 28 years, with Brazil now slightly ahead of them. But if we talk about the World Cup, Brazil seems to have failed in the last three to four tournaments. Before every World Cup tournament, the Brazil team is announced and their team is discussed in the global sports media because the Brazilian team is considered to be stronger in all aspects, but they have always failed in the performance on the field. In this case, most Brazil fans complain that their team does not have a good quality manager, it is certainly true. To manage quality players well requires a quality and skillful manager which CBF has consistently failed to employ. They must do well before the 2026 World Cup, otherwise the popularity of this team worldwide will decrease a lot.

We saw the game between Argentina and Chile while Messi was not playing for his team and this is the most interesting thing we know about Argentina and this game because they played without their superstar player but still Argentina won the game with a 3-0 result and it seems Argentina know they should try to have good performance even if they don't have Messi in this team.
Dybala had a perfect performance and even Scaloni said he could wear the shirt of Messi.

Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player in football history to reach the milestone of 900 goals. His total number of goals at club level and national level is 900. He completed this unique record in the UEFA Nations League match against Croatia. After scoring against Croatia, he set a new record as well as scoring 131st goal for his national team. On Ronaldo's record day his team Portugal played brilliantly even managed to win that match against Croatia.
The football world has seen many fights between Messi and Ronaldo.Once upon a time Messi and Ronaldo reigned supreme in football but with the passage of time and the evolution of time, both have grown old. As a result, we don't see heat like before with them in the field.

I think the biggest motivation he has today to continue playing football is to be the first player to reach the mark of 1000 goals in official matches, even though Pelé, Romário, Tulio say they have scored more than 1000, they count festive matches and against amateur teams or in lower divisions of dubious championships, like the second division of the local championship... Cristiano Ronaldo reaching the astonishing mark of a thousand goals would be an unprecedented feat and practically unattainable within the sport, because to reach that level, you need a very consistent career throughout the athlete's professional life, practically unlikely that anyone else will be able to achieve it.

I don't understand why people mention Indonesia, that's Netherlands!

9 from 11 players are from Holland, they're not a great player, so they can't play for Netherlands. Instead they're playing for Indonesia since their parents or grandparents were from Indonesia.

If Indonesia play without Dutch people, Saudi Arabia should have scored 3-5 goals.