Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 64. (Read 45128 times)

@Slow death at his age it made sense because he wanted to play in a league where he could get regular match fitness and keep himself ready for international games but I didn’t think that he would actually be keen to play in the 2026 World Cup. Furthermore the era of Messi and Ronaldo is over in context of European football and now it’s time for Halland and Mbappe because these two will be dominating football for a very long time now.

Considering many aspects, Lionel Messi is likely to play in the 2026 World Cup, while considering some aspects, it seems that he will stay with the team only until the team qualifies for the 2026 World Cup. It will not be surprising if he is seen playing for Argentina in the 2026 World Cup and it will not be surprising if he does not play. What Lionel Messi didn't get in his long career, he got at the end of his career.  Lionel Messi has only one Copa America win against Brazil in Brazil and that is his first Copa America trophy win. On the other hand, he never achieved a World Cup win in his long career which he achieved at the end of his career 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Argentina will be lucky if they get Lionel Messi in the 2026 World Cup. If Lionel Messi is in the 2026 World Cup, the team will be stronger.

I think Indonesian teams must focus on second round qualifying actually first two matches in qualifier round have away against Iraq and Philippines national teams. Actually on difficult situation when first two matches have away exactly Iraq is stronger opponent teams in Indonesia group stage. Realistic target Indonesia teams have finished on second position for qualifying to third round and get lucky drawing without have difficult opponent teams.
Current Indonesia squad teams have dominance by naturalization player, I hope with their experienced aboard with European teams can help Indonesia lead to third qualifying round and waiting will have chance qualifying to World Cup 2026 for the first time?

It is a long shot. Indonesia, as per the rankings is currently the 28th strongest team in AFC. And there are 8.5 slots available from this confederation for 2026 FIFA World Cup. As of now, Japan, South Korea, Iran and Australia are the top teams in AFC, followed by other GCC nations such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Oman. Iraq is also in the top-10 list. Indonesia got past the first round by defeating Brunei. In the second round, they need to compete against Iraq, Vietnam and Philippines, and all of them are ranked higher than them.

I will say that Brunei Darussalam is not a strong opponent for Indonesia. And for Indonesia, it was supposed to be easy to beat the team which is ranked 191 in the FIFA ranking.  But still, it was a good performance from Indonesia. Now it will be interesting to see how Indonesia will perform going forward.  And I also have to say that the performance from Brunei Darussalam was pretty bad, to be honest. The defense was absolutely horrible. But at the same time, we cannot expect too much from a team, that is ranked 191.

Choosing to go and play in the USA and in that team that occupied the last position in the league table in the USA, in my opinion it was the worst choice that Messi made, if his intention was not to retire due to football, then yes it was a serious mistake to have been on that team. This is because without playing against good players, next year he will start to drop in performance, as a result he will not be able to have much shine in the Argentine main team. and looking at the argentina team, they have a lot of good players, but they don't have any replacement for messi, probably on the day that messi stops playing, and the day that ronaldo stops playing, then the world of football will miss them so much

It's unbelievable that the years have passed and no players are appearing with the same brilliance and talent that Messi and Ronaldo have. It seems that perhaps only in the coming decades will we be able to see other players with the same talent, before these players came Maradona and Pele. Of course, there are many other players with talent, but they don't reach the same level of talent and popularity that Messi and Ronaldo managed to achieve. unfortunately they are in the last years of their career. In another 2 to 4 years they will stop playing football, this means that in the next World Cup, I'm talking about the one in 2026 due to their age, it will be the last for both of them, that is if they also manage to have the physique to be in the 2026 World Cup.

Undoubtedly, Lionel Messi is one the greatest footballers to have ever graced the beautiful round leather game of football and still very active and effective when he's playing but I doubt if he'll be part of Argentina squad in the 2026 world cup that'll be hosted in three north American countries.
I initially thought he was gonna retire from international football after the 2022 World Cup tournament but which he decided not to but I think the football superstar is gonna quit international football before the 20126 World Cup finals

Lately people here in Venezuela have felt quite enthusiastic with our team, after we managed to get a tie against Brazil and after getting a 3-0, defeating Chile this week.
Because of the more room this next World Cup will likely have for more teams, some friends of mine are already talking about the possibility of us getting to the next World Cup. How knows, we may have a chance to step a foot in the competition, but I would not get enthusiastic yet.

Our team is quite infamous among so many team in this region, for being specially underperforming.

What do you guys think, there will be a chance for us or this as just a strike of luck before getting back to the normal state of underperfomance?

Are you mainly referring to teams that are not as highly ranked in the FIFA rankings or do you think that teams like Argentina and France have no good chemistry either? I think you have got a point here for some teams, but there are still national teams who can play great football. England is playing well at the moment, but there have also been the good times for Spain when they played as if they have never done anything else but to play together every single day for years. I think this really shows great qualify of players when they don't need a lot of practice together but can still show a high level of chemistry among them. I don't think that all teams suck in regards to their chemistry.

I don't pick interest in country games because there's absence of good chemistry occurrence between players. Brunei Darussalam is absolutely not up to the standards of Indonesia when it comes to football. Humiliating Brunei Darussalam 6 nil is definitely not a big deal because the country have no resourceful player that stand in position to elevates the team's performance. Perhaps they played a defensive football throughout the game, but not able to withstand the fierce pressure of Indonesia, invading the territory with simple counter attack and full dominance.

Indonesia wining getting a win against Brunei Darussalam isn't a surprise for me as I expected such from them against a team who has had almost no appearance in the world cup, if I'm not mistaking. Wining wasn't so much of a big deal, their opponent was weaker than they are , although Indonesia isn't a big name enough in football and I'm waiting to see how they will perform against other big team who equals their team dept I'm the nearest future.

I'm still trying to probably get a internationally recognize start in Indonesia but at the moment I can't remember any so I don't know who will be doing the magic for them subsequently but then they did utilized their opportunity very well as such may take a very long time again before it comes and even if it does they will probably not get a win with such difference in score line.

I must congratulate them on this epic win regardless and wish for them to stay consistent so they can go far because sincerely I don't see them going pass the group stage in the actual world cup games but if they could get an improved tactics to fave bigger teams with some level of consistency they could pull through.

AFC zone have  8.5 slot for qualifying to FIFA World Cup 2026 after additional teams participants until 48 teams, under South Korean tactician Shin Tae-yong who has experienced participants in World Cup optimist with Indonesia chance for the first time participants in World Cup. I know not really over confidence after fantastic aggregate winning score over Brunei Darussalam because most weakness opponent teams on FIFA ranking position.

In second round group, Indonesia is team have most weakness FIFA ranked depend with Iraq, Vietnam and Philippines but optimist with Indonesia have better performance and not difficult to finish on two top slot position for qualifying to the third round.

Messi's performance has never been bad, from the beginning of his career till now he has been doing great but some years his national team performance has been bad but he has been doing great at the club level. A player doesn't retire only when he performs poorly, there are many other reasons behind his retirement. Messi has achieved the highest in his football career, there is nothing left to achieve now so he will probably stay with his highest achievement. 2022 world cup is going on we thought after this world cup we might lose some important players including messi neymar ronaldo karim benzema but they are still performing and ronaldo and neymar have a chance to play 2026 world cup but we don't see that chance for messi yet though compared to ronaldo and neymar Messi is in good form. Messi fans will definitely want Messi to participate in one more World Cup tournament and become the world champion once again.

I know we are still far away and any can happen, but i see yesterday game of Messi and man, he still play better than the young ones, so i can see him if nothing strange happen, being one of the best in the 2026 world cup. Only he needs to preserve himself from injuries.

While these players clearly have improved the performance of the team the teams where they play are weak to average teams in the leagues where they take part and as you say it will be very difficult for Indonesia to qualify.I think the real thing to improve is to improve the local players,to make them play overseas and this so far looks like a gigantic task to achieve as I have seen a couple of games in the Indonesian league which for me needs a huge amount of improvement,without this happening you should not have those high hopes for qualifying.

But apart from playing in team that is able to provide big payouts at the end of retirement many star players also play for teams that in their youth have made name for themselves and also added better playing skills so that they are able to have great careers.
But in this current era most star players prefer to go to foreign teams who can provide large sums of money for retirement and can have luxurious or guaranteed life when they are no longer players but actually if they only talk about their money become football coach because all great coaches were also born from former football players.
It just that when they decide to become coaches they have to work again until they are really tired of being in the world of football.

Unfortunately star players who are nearing the end of their retirement cannot be called up for their country national team because they have been replaced by young players.
If they can play for the national team at the end of their retirement then that is the last award for football player.

Indonesia has shown a lot of improvement during the last few years. And one of the reasons is that the management got a few overseas players into the national squad. Players such as Shayne Pattynama (FK Viking), Sandy Walsh (KV Mechelen) and Rafael Struick (ADO Den Haag) have been inducted into the team this year, and they have boosted up performance of the team. But even then, qualifying to the world cup, in a confederation with 50+ members is going to be really hard. Anyway, the picture will be clear soon.

The result didn't come as a surprise because Brunei Darussalam is not a recognised football nation. The Brunei Darussalam men's national team is ranked191th in the FIFA ranking and has lost against Hong Kong, Cambodia, Philippines and Taiwan. And they conceived five goals and above in these losses. Indonesia is ranked 147th and has shown some improvement in its performance. It was a good game for Dimas Drajad who scored a hat trick in the game against Brunei.  Indonesia will play against Iraq in the World Cup qualifier's second round and they will meet the Philippines on November 21st.

Winning against Brunei Darussalam is not a big deal, as they are one of the weakest teams from the AFC confederation. But Indonesia should try their best to qualify, as this time there are more slots available from AFC. 8.5 slots are available this time, compared to 4.5 for Qatar 2022. So it is not going to be too hard for Indonesia to qualify. They are currently ranked as the 28th strongest team within AFC. However they are placed with some of the stronger teams in their group. Iraq is currently among the top-10 in AFC, while Vietnam is also ranked higher. Indonesia need to finish at top-2 in the group to qualify for the next round.

It is definitely not surprising results from Indonesia. After all, they are actually better compared to the opponent that they easily beat. But from now on the competition is going to get tougher. Indonesia will have to find ways to perform consistently to advance. They have been able to win really big against this opponent. So I believe they will actually be very confident right now. But let's hope that the confidence does not turn into overconfidence, lol. They have to be realistic about what they can achieve at the same time, passionate.