Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 71. (Read 62776 times)

The best team from Asia based on the 2023 FIFA rankings is Japan in 18th place in the world, followed by Iran and South Korea. The best team from Africa, Morocco is ranked 13th in the world according to the FIFA rankings. I agree with you but I think football in Asia will become more developed in the coming years. For now it is difficult to imagine they can go further in the world cup. I think there will be many Asian teams who will successfully qualify from the group phase at the 2026 World Cup.

We all know that Cristiano Ronaldo has set unbelievable targets for himself and he has also said that he is going to play in the next 2026 World Cup. But that is heavily going to depend on how he performs in the 2024 euro. If he is able to perform well in this competition with Portugal, there is a chance that he will get himself ready to play in the 2026 World Cup.

By the way, he has actually played pretty well while Portugal qualified for the Euro 2024. So there is always a chance that he is actually going to play in the World Cup 2026. But the thing we have to remember is that he will be 41 years old at that time . So he will definitely not be able to perform as he is doing even now. 41 year old Cristiano Ronaldo can never be compared with the prime Cristiano Ronaldo. But Cristiano Ronaldo definitely still dreams about winning the World Cup with Portugal.

I believe there will always be young blood that will come up in this sports. Mbappe is one rising star. There will be more of them. Ronaldo and Messi will soon be the legends of this sports. But for sure, there will be new upcoming legends, not only in this sports but in other sports as well.

As to why Asian teams are having hard time to fight EU teams is maybe it is how they are being trained inside the field. Maybe the EU training is more rigorous than Asian training. For sure, there is a difference in their training technique. The strategies as well may be different. 

There is much more and better potential in the Asian countries to develop their teams and get better results in the great tournaments like the World Cup. But the truth about these teams is they don't have the good coaches and good facilities they need to have. Maybe that's because of the lack of investments in these countries but they are still far from the European teams and that's there are fewer slots for the Asian teams in the World Cup compared to the European teams.
I think the best they can do is to think more about the future of their teams and try to have better coaches from Europe to develop their teams. Just like what they do in teams like South Korea and Japan.

Some time ago his wife said that he would play for a maximum of two more years.... Today I was reading abrout the greatest scorers in the history of football (official FIFA count) and Cristiano Ronaldo would have to score another 150 goals to reach the 1,000 mark goals in official games... will he try to reach this mark? he's already 39 years old... it's a little difficult, but not impossible.

Coaching any local team differ in many aspects from coaching a national team . With a local team, the coach has the opportunity to work with players he knows well, has good communication with and understands each player's abilities as well. While when training a national team, the coach needs to deal with players from different clubs (So from different cultures as well), and must work to encourage the national spirit by integrate players to achieve the best possible performance. A national team coach has additional pressure from the fans and the media, while the coaching pressure in local teams is relatively less.

Ultimately, and either for Ancelotti or any other coach, coaching a national team requires strong motivational and leadership skills as well as a deep knowledge of the game and playing strategies. It's not an easy task by all means.

Now we are having almost 2 years left in next world cup which is going to play in Canada, USA and Mexico with starting date is 11 June 2026 and right now we are having Cristiano Ronaldo 39 years old and Lionel Messi 36 years old at the time of world cup Cristiano Ronaldo will be 41 years old, and Lionel Messi could be 38 years old mean both can stay if they have no injury and their body allow them for having playing time, or they can also go with their teams as mentors with player role which is also normal because both can do good for their teams and their presence will give good boost to their teams.
Now we are already having few stars for the future which can do good role and also having good name in soccer world with things are already set for the Kylian Mbappé and Eric Haaland as Haaland is having no entry into World Cup, but Kylian Mbappé already make his mark in this world's mega event.

The winner of AFC Asian Cup difficult reach higher level phase on FIFA World Cup and every season of world cup the highest achievement reaching until knock out round or quarter final round only. After South Korea achievement qualified to semifinal phase on World Cup 2002 when becoming host there are several edition later never sees success of Asian teams participants in World Cup edition. Japan and South Korea have good facilities with training center and right now the most reach country Saudi Arabia and Qatar get most expensive facilities but always difficult when facing the teams from European, African and American.

I think most of Asian players can't adapt well for playing with top European club, need huge amount of Asian players get more minutes with top European teams if want make Asian national teams get higher round when participating in world cup.

I believe Ronaldo and Messi both are unpredictable as for how much longer they would play at their national teams. I won't be surprised to see both of them in the next World Cup.

But would they continue longer than that? There is a big question mark there.    The end of an era is going to come sooner or later. I have grown up with watching these 2 legends in their primes. I guess my generation is the luckiest.    Of course there are always legends in different timelines. In the future people will probably call players like Mbappe, Haaland as new legends. They both are on this path for now also.

Ronaldo has confirmed that he wants to retire in 2027 with Al Nassr, its a sign that he still wants to play in the 2026 World Cup, because that is the only trophy he has never won.

Portugal still needs Ronaldo as a role model and a leader for its juniors in this Euro, also with his good stamina Im sure he can still play for 90 minutes.
Or he will play the role as Portugal super sub, even though he is no longer young - Ronaldo speed and instincts cannot be underestimated.

Maybe he is doing this because he still wants to play as the main striker of Portugal in the next World Cup. But that is still a long way away and who knows, Portugal might find a replacement for him who will be able to provide better results!

Portugal have Rafael Leao, Diego Jota, Joao Felix. So there is a very good chance that Cristiano Ronaldo is going to be definitely replaceable in the next World Cup.

How do you draw the conclusion that it is much easier to coach a team like Real Madrid than a national team? Easier in what terms? I couldn't disagree more as I am sure the mental pressure for a coach is much higher in club football than it is with a national team.

I think most of Asian players can't adapt well for playing with top European club, need huge amount of Asian players get more minutes with top European teams if want make Asian national teams get higher round when participating in world cup.

I think most of Asian players can't adapt well for playing with top European club, need huge amount of Asian players get more minutes with top European teams if want make Asian national teams get higher round when participating in world cup.

I agree with you that coaching a local team, even the size of Real Madrid, is much easier than managing a national team like Brazil, despite the many options available. Our current analyzes are consistent with today's reality, where options are limited to know who is best suited to coach a powerful Brazilian team. The Real Madrid coach can be considered one of the best profiles that can be trusted, given all the achievements he has succeeded in achieving throughout his career, and his skill in managing teams that include senior players.

All current estimates indicate the advantage of both Brazil and Argentina to win the World Cup in its American version. Since Concello has extended his contract with Real Madrid until 2026, this reduces Brazil's chances of managing the national team under a wise leadership capable of achieving results.

I'm curious how good other Asian countries' football training facilities are, I'm pretty sure those who regularly play at the Asian Cup should be decent. It is hard to imagine that they don't have decent training facilities or coaches considering Japan or South Korea failed to win it every time they participated in it. On the other hand, if we're talking about developing or poor countries then that's understandable, considering winning football matches or qualifying for the world cup is probably not one of their priority. They should send their young players abroad if that is the case. I'm pretty sure this idea is not new and has been discussed many times in the media, the question is always whether there are academy/clubs that are interested in their talent or not. CMIIW.

I highly doubt that if the coach of real madrid had accepted the position of coach of the brazilian national team he would have been successful in the brazilian national team, this is because being a coach of a team like real madrid or any other big team requires a lot of money available to sign players, the person can sign players from many different countries, so they have many options to improve the squad. see a good example of what I'm talking about, at real madrid they have Vincius and Rodrygo in the attack, both are Brazilians, but even so the real madrid coach went to sign mbappe because he feels that real madrid's attack is not complete since the departure of benzene

So when you look at Brazil's attack with Rodrygo and Vinicius, you see that it wouldn't be complete either, so the Real Madrid coach would have to deal with other options like the Palmeiras player, the Arsenal player, the Barcelona player who are Brazilian attackers, but they would also be a headache for the Brazilian coach, so he would not be successful and would destroy his reputation. Being a coach of a national team is a very difficult and complicated task, mainly because you have to deal with the country's federation, which has made agreements with the players' agents to be called up, and it is a difficult deal for a coach to break, which makes the coach be limited to always calling the same players in the national team