FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 9.

tiCeR

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Quote from: retreat on December 30, 2024, 09:50:15 PM

Quote from: Slow death on December 28, 2024, 05:19:50 PM

the quality of their league is not yet at the level of Europe and their national team is not strong and will not be strong enough to win the World Cup. So they can host the World Cup, they can spend a lot of money signing old players who are leaving Europe because they have not been able to get a place in the top teams in Europe, in the end when Ronaldo retires no one will be talking about this league anymore and when they organize the World Cup, the winner of the tournament will be some team from Europe or Brazil or Argentina. These guys are just benefiting foreigners. Their native players do not earn as much money as foreign players, they do not even have 10% of the attention that foreign players have and their national team will not get far in the World Cup.

I quite agree with what you said that the quality of the Saudi Arabian league is not good enough and they will only be a place for old popular players who do not get a place in Europe. Their advantage lies only in funding where they are willing to pay old popular players to play in their league to get exposure, but I don't think this will last long since people are only focused on these players not on the quality of their league. Still, they have to develop their natural players so that this league is not only filled with old popular players, but also good talents who have European-class football skills. It's not easy, but they should have the money to back it all up.

Slow death said that it is not yet at the level of Europe. It will never be at the level of European top leagues because they are not competing with the European top leagues. This is the same for every other sport where one or a few nations have the upper hand and the best domestic leagues. If another league from far abroad tries to reach that level, they would need the intense competition that these top leagues have domestically. You can't copy that or imitate it by bringing in some old former top players hoping that they would magically raise the level of players in domestic leagues.

This idea won't work out for Saudi Arabia, but for them it was mostly about the attention, not so much that they were hoping that Ronaldo would bring the whole league to a higher level as that was unrealistic anyway.

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Quote from: Slow death on December 28, 2024, 05:19:50 PM

the quality of their league is not yet at the level of Europe and their national team is not strong and will not be strong enough to win the World Cup. So they can host the World Cup, they can spend a lot of money signing old players who are leaving Europe because they have not been able to get a place in the top teams in Europe, in the end when Ronaldo retires no one will be talking about this league anymore and when they organize the World Cup, the winner of the tournament will be some team from Europe or Brazil or Argentina. These guys are just benefiting foreigners. Their native players do not earn as much money as foreign players, they do not even have 10% of the attention that foreign players have and their national team will not get far in the World Cup.

I quite agree with what you said that the quality of the Saudi Arabian league is not good enough and they will only be a place for old popular players who do not get a place in Europe. Their advantage lies only in funding where they are willing to pay old popular players to play in their league to get exposure, but I don't think this will last long since people are only focused on these players not on the quality of their league. Still, they have to develop their natural players so that this league is not only filled with old popular players, but also good talents who have European-class football skills. It's not easy, but they should have the money to back it all up.

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Quote from: temple on December 30, 2024, 06:50:40 PM

As far as I know Ronaldo didn't always play as a starter and when they won against Switzerland 6-1 in the round of 16, he was substituted for another striker later in the game when it was literally over. It wasn't that he got all the chances he might have needed, but it was at a time when some of the Portuguese players expressed their discomfort about Ronaldo being responsible for everything and having all the privileges during the game. I think that is why the coach let him sit on the bench sometimes.

I wonder what it is going to be like at the next World Cup if Ronaldo keeps scoring goals until then. The fans know that this will be his last World Cup then and they might demand that he plays. But this would not be the best for the team as a whole perhaps.

I am not pleased with the way the Portuguese national team has treated Cristiano Ronaldo. He has carried the entire burden on his shoulders for almost two decades and even now they insult him by not picking him in the starting XI. Just imagine Portugal without Ronaldo. They would not have qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup without him. But then, the world is becoming increasingly ungrateful. At least Ronaldo did the right thing by moving to Saudi Arabia, rather than allowing Manchester United to treat him the same way that Portuguese team has treated him.

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Quote from: SuperBitMan on December 30, 2024, 01:36:11 PM

Quote from: Fiatless on December 30, 2024, 04:07:33 AM

Quote from: Pandu Geddon on December 30, 2024, 03:46:42 AM

When he is done with his last world cup duties, I am sure there will be a new figure who can replace his role. Ronaldo despite his current age is the best I think. Not many players are still playing at the national team level or club level at his age and still have good performances.
Young Portuguese players have great speed and spirit. But experienced players like Ronaldo can give everything he has throughout his career for the team.

Ronaldo is the greatest player the Portugal hav ever produced but his corrent performance have reduced drastically. His last world cup performance where was not encouraging and I think a younger player would have performed better. The reason why he is still given the privilege of playing in the national team is because of his reputation. His speed and strength has reduced but his experience is still vital to the Os Navegadores. Roberto Martínez will keep opening the door of the national team to the five times Ballon d'Or winner.

It is true that Ronaldo really didn't perform very well in the last world cup competition however that didn't mean he did nothing he played he his Best, for me the reason he didn't perform like before is because he has aged and he thinks his still like before all he needs to do is to understand that he has aged and start playing a more smart game since his strength to run and do other things has reduced.
Ronaldo is a very smart player and I know this coming world cup competition he will perform very well before he has known about his strength now so he will play more of smart game not strength.

As far as I know Ronaldo didn't always play as a starter and when they won against Switzerland 6-1 in the round of 16, he was substituted for another striker later in the game when it was literally over. It wasn't that he got all the chances he might have needed, but it was at a time when some of the Portuguese players expressed their discomfort about Ronaldo being responsible for everything and having all the privileges during the game. I think that is why the coach let him sit on the bench sometimes.

I wonder what it is going to be like at the next World Cup if Ronaldo keeps scoring goals until then. The fans know that this will be his last World Cup then and they might demand that he plays. But this would not be the best for the team as a whole perhaps.

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Quote from: Fiatless on December 30, 2024, 04:07:33 AM

Quote from: Pandu Geddon on December 30, 2024, 03:46:42 AM

When he is done with his last world cup duties, I am sure there will be a new figure who can replace his role. Ronaldo despite his current age is the best I think. Not many players are still playing at the national team level or club level at his age and still have good performances.
Young Portuguese players have great speed and spirit. But experienced players like Ronaldo can give everything he has throughout his career for the team.

Ronaldo is the greatest player the Portugal hav ever produced but his corrent performance have reduced drastically. His last world cup performance where was not encouraging and I think a younger player would have performed better. The reason why he is still given the privilege of playing in the national team is because of his reputation. His speed and strength has reduced but his experience is still vital to the Os Navegadores. Roberto Martínez will keep opening the door of the national team to the five times Ballon d'Or winner.

It is true that Ronaldo really didn't perform very well in the last world cup competition however that didn't mean he did nothing he played he his Best, for me the reason he didn't perform like before is because he has aged and he thinks his still like before all he needs to do is to understand that he has aged and start playing a more smart game since his strength to run and do other things has reduced.
Ronaldo is a very smart player and I know this coming world cup competition he will perform very well before he has known about his strength now so he will play more of smart game not strength.

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Quote from: bering on December 30, 2024, 02:18:34 AM

African countries has plenty of players who playing at European clubs but for National team unfortunately the quality of the teams from this continent is still below to European and South America teams and we might to see some of countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Segenal, Nigeria or Ivory Coast who can recognized as strong teams in Africa but unfortunately those teams cannot talk more in world cup and indeed on world cup 2022 we have seen Morocco can became an dark horses team who can able to advances to semifinal match but unfortunately Morocco journey have to stopped on that stage but on world cup 2026 i highly doubt Morocco can able to repeat this achievement

Here I agree about your review through African teams; we have same problem with Asian teams as well while they fail to keep consistency and after performing once we have huge drop from them in next events this happening due to flaws into their domestic events and structure because they fail to keep things on good level and also have their youngsters with the best quality. We need strong academies which helps players for developing their skills as we have in European countries while in South America we have mostly natural talented players.

Even though we have soccer doing good in last few years but still we have nothing which helps Asian and African countries for staying on good level here African having some advantage as their players are going European leagues and having good experience and also increasing their skills which are going to help them in long run.

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Quote from: Leviathan.007 on December 28, 2024, 05:59:52 PM

I'm sure that Ronaldo is a good player and he can be a good leader for his team but that's not a good place to say if Ronaldo is going to move to Al Hilal or not.
All we can say is about Ronaldo and his performance in the 2026 World Cup. We already saw Ronaldo in the past when he could have good performances while playing for his country and now he can have another chance in the 2026 World Cup but this time he is even older than before.

It can be difficult to speculate about any player like Ronaldo movement/transfers to the one to Al Hilal. I think any decision by him would be a defining moment of his career. Also it may have the impact on his performance and the upcoming 2026 world cup isn't that far away.The 2026 World Cup could very well be one of his last major international tournaments. His fans are eager to wait if he could lead Portugal to further glory. Whether he moves to Al Hilal or not, his fans wants that he should focus to give best for his country.

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Quote from: Hanadawa on December 30, 2024, 11:27:58 AM

Quote from: Docnaster on December 29, 2024, 04:54:26 PM

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will actually feature 48 countries and not the 36 you said. That'll be the first time the competition will feature more than 32 teams and just like you rightly said, the new format gives room for participation from low ranked football nations. I'm more concerned about the African continent that's not been able produce a World Cup winner. Could this be an opportunity for an African country to conquer the world? I'll definitely love to see that happen and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants that.

Sorry sir but as far as I know until now the countries that have won the world cup are from Europe and South America, correct me if I'm wrong. Countries from the continents of Africa, Australia, Asia and North America have never won the world cup. The best position ever achieved by a country from the African continent is Morocco which managed to break through to the semifinals in the 2022 Qatar world cup. Of course every country has a chance to win the world cup but I have not seen countries from Africa and Asia that have the capacity to be considered as one of the favorites to win the world cup trophy.

You're actually right when you said no country from Africa, Asia, Australia and North American continents had won the FIFA World Cup trophy. If you had actually read to the end of my submission, you'll definitely see where I asked a question that demands a public review and reaction. I said Could this be an opportunity for an African country to conquer the world? which means that the no African country had won the tournament before now but was curious to know if they can break the deadlock now. With the more number of countries from these continents mentioned above that'll participate in the tournament in 2026, I think we might just see a winner from them.

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Quote from: Docnaster on December 29, 2024, 04:54:26 PM

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will actually feature 48 countries and not the 36 you said. That'll be the first time the competition will feature more than 32 teams and just like you rightly said, the new format gives room for participation from low ranked football nations. I'm more concerned about the African continent that's not been able produce a World Cup winner. Could this be an opportunity for an African country to conquer the world? I'll definitely love to see that happen and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants that.

Sorry sir but as far as I know until now the countries that have won the world cup are from Europe and South America, correct me if I'm wrong. Countries from the continents of Africa, Australia, Asia and North America have never won the world cup. The best position ever achieved by a country from the African continent is Morocco which managed to break through to the semifinals in the 2022 Qatar world cup. Of course every country has a chance to win the world cup but I have not seen countries from Africa and Asia that have the capacity to be considered as one of the favorites to win the world cup trophy.

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Quote from: Pandu Geddon on December 30, 2024, 03:46:42 AM

When he is done with his last world cup duties, I am sure there will be a new figure who can replace his role. Ronaldo despite his current age is the best I think. Not many players are still playing at the national team level or club level at his age and still have good performances.
Young Portuguese players have great speed and spirit. But experienced players like Ronaldo can give everything he has throughout his career for the team.

Ronaldo is the greatest player the Portugal hav ever produced but his corrent performance have reduced drastically. His last world cup performance where was not encouraging and I think a younger player would have performed better. The reason why he is still given the privilege of playing in the national team is because of his reputation. His speed and strength has reduced but his experience is still vital to the Os Navegadores. Roberto Martínez will keep opening the door of the national team to the five times Ballon d'Or winner.

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Quote from: hyudien on December 30, 2024, 03:12:32 AM

Quote from: Pandu Geddon on December 28, 2024, 11:37:35 AM

It should be Ronaldo's last World Cup in the Portugal national team. I think his role in the team is very strong, especially when the player experiences a mental decline in critical situations such as being behind or facing a decisive match in a penalty shootout. Ronaldo has great experience for that, and in his last World Cup, he will give his best for the Portugal national team.

Yes, it is possible, after all his role in the Portuguese national team is needed, even though his game is no longer the same as when he was young, but the mentality he has can help other young players.
Mentality is something that is really needed, I see Ronaldo as a player who plays that role in the Portuguese national team, I have not seen any other player who has a mentality as good as him in the current national team.
The young players will also learn a lot from him, how they can compete on the highest stage of world football. He can pass that on to the younger players in the team.

When he is done with his last world cup duties, I am sure there will be a new figure who can replace his role. Ronaldo despite his current age is the best I think. Not many players are still playing at the national team level or club level at his age and still have good performances.
Young Portuguese players have great speed and spirit. But experienced players like Ronaldo can give everything he has throughout his career for the team.

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Quote from: Pandu Geddon on December 28, 2024, 11:37:35 AM

It should be Ronaldo's last World Cup in the Portugal national team. I think his role in the team is very strong, especially when the player experiences a mental decline in critical situations such as being behind or facing a decisive match in a penalty shootout. Ronaldo has great experience for that, and in his last World Cup, he will give his best for the Portugal national team.

Yes, it is possible, after all his role in the Portuguese national team is needed, even though his game is no longer the same as when he was young, but the mentality he has can help other young players.
Mentality is something that is really needed, I see Ronaldo as a player who plays that role in the Portuguese national team, I have not seen any other player who has a mentality as good as him in the current national team.
The young players will also learn a lot from him, how they can compete on the highest stage of world football. He can pass that on to the younger players in the team.

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Quote from: Docnaster on December 29, 2024, 04:54:26 PM

Quote from: Jody.Drummer on December 29, 2024, 02:27:59 AM

This World Cup will be participated by 36 countries from the previous 32 participants in the final round. This opens up opportunities for several countries to be able to taste their first World Cup. One that I follow is Asia. Asia will get more slots than usual, 8 countries + half that must go through the playoffs first. With this new format, of course several countries have very high motivation to be able to be in the 2026 World Cup. Asia itself is undergoing the 3rd qualifying round and still has several more matches left.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will actually feature 48 countries and not the 36 you said. That'll be the first time the competition will feature more than 32 teams and just like you rightly said, the new format gives room for participation from low ranked football nations. I'm more concerned about the African continent that's not been able produce a World Cup winner. Could this be an opportunity for an African country to conquer the world? I'll definitely love to see that happen and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants that.

African countries has plenty of players who playing at European clubs but for National team unfortunately the quality of the teams from this continent is still below to European and South America teams and we might to see some of countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Segenal, Nigeria or Ivory Coast who can recognized as strong teams in Africa but unfortunately those teams cannot talk more in world cup and indeed on world cup 2022 we have seen Morocco can became an dark horses team who can able to advances to semifinal match but unfortunately Morocco journey have to stopped on that stage but on world cup 2026 i highly doubt Morocco can able to repeat this achievement

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Quote from: Sithara007 on December 29, 2024, 11:12:46 PM

Quote from: Slow death on December 28, 2024, 05:19:50 PM

the quality of their league is not yet at the level of Europe and their national team is not strong and will not be strong enough to win the World Cup. So they can host the World Cup, they can spend a lot of money signing old players who are leaving Europe because they have not been able to get a place in the top teams in Europe, in the end when Ronaldo retires no one will be talking about this league anymore and when they organize the World Cup, the winner of the tournament will be some team from Europe or Brazil or Argentina. These guys are just benefiting foreigners. Their native players do not earn as much money as foreign players, they do not even have 10% of the attention that foreign players have and their national team will not get far in the World Cup.

That depends on individual perception. IMO, quality of the Saudi Professional League is comparable to that of some of the European leagues such as Bundesliga or the Eredivisie. They may not be at the same level as the English Premier League, but eventually they will reach there. And I agree that their national players are not at a level where they can be compared to the Argentine or French players. And that is not going to happen anytime soon. But we will see a gradual improvement in their performance for sure.

Saudi Arabia is starting to clean up to be able to host the 2030 world cup later, even when the 2026 world cup has not even started but somehow everyone is starting to highlight the world cup which is still very long in Saudi Arabia, so far hosting the world cup is one way for teams that have difficulty qualifying for the world cup so that they will automatically become participants without having to go through the qualification path, this in my opinion is also done by Arabia Grin

, although they has indeed improved the quality of the league but so far they are still difficult to compete with European teams even they are still not scary at the Asian level, improving the league by bringing in many European stars has indeed improved the mentality of local players in competing, but I see that the skills and abilities of Arab players are still below average even from the Asian zone team.

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Quote from: Slow death on December 28, 2024, 05:19:50 PM

the quality of their league is not yet at the level of Europe and their national team is not strong and will not be strong enough to win the World Cup. So they can host the World Cup, they can spend a lot of money signing old players who are leaving Europe because they have not been able to get a place in the top teams in Europe, in the end when Ronaldo retires no one will be talking about this league anymore and when they organize the World Cup, the winner of the tournament will be some team from Europe or Brazil or Argentina. These guys are just benefiting foreigners. Their native players do not earn as much money as foreign players, they do not even have 10% of the attention that foreign players have and their national team will not get far in the World Cup.

That depends on individual perception. IMO, quality of the Saudi Professional League is comparable to that of some of the European leagues such as Bundesliga or the Eredivisie. They may not be at the same level as the English Premier League, but eventually they will reach there. And I agree that their national players are not at a level where they can be compared to the Argentine or French players. And that is not going to happen anytime soon. But we will see a gradual improvement in their performance for sure.

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Quote from: retreat on December 28, 2024, 11:33:04 AM

Quote from: Forsyth Jones on December 27, 2024, 10:10:33 PM

There is no denying that the Saudi government has been making large and ambitious investments to transform Saudi football into a world power, bringing players like Ronaldo to Al Nassr and Neymar to Al Hilal, which practically changed the history of the club.

A country with a great deal of history and culture that has known how to take advantage of economic opportunities, and we all know that football is a great investment, as it is a sport with a large audience and that attracts a lot of tourism.

Player transfers are a pittance for these guys.

Saudi Arabia seems to be very keen to make themselves one of the countries with international football quality, by bringing big players to their domestic league and building the best infrastructure to support it. They realize that now is the time for them to be more open to the world and take advantage of it to get various benefits such as tourism, investment, and various other things like you said. And hopefully the efforts they make to make them a country with the best football infrastructure can come true and have a positive impact on the progress of their domestic league.

The more tourists come to a country, the better the country's economy will be. Saudi Arabia does not want to depend only on the oil of their country, they want people to come to travel to their country like Europe and America, and they have good tourist spots in their country, maybe they are trying to spread it to people through football. Their country currently has popular football clubs who are spending huge sums of money every season on players just to introduce their league to the world stage. The 2034 World Cup is scheduled to be held in Saudi Arabia and since the confirmation, they have started preparing for the World Cup. Preparing for the World Cup 10 years in advance does not mean that the 2034 World Cup will be great. But if Saudi Arabia continues to try like this, then surely they will be able to attract tourists.

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Quote from: hyudien on December 28, 2024, 01:38:14 AM

Quote from: Hirose UK on December 28, 2024, 12:32:28 AM

~snip~

Ronaldo is one of the best strikers and even this is not his original position when he was young, because when he was young he moved from the wing, but he could find the same ability after he had an injury and changed his playing style. He can be a good leader in the Portuguese national team, yes even though unpleasant issues are often heard from the media that are actually irresponsible. Maybe 2026 will be his last World Cup to help Portugal and maybe he will decide to retire before the World Cup.

As time goes by there will be changes, player will really show his right position when he is more mature and has more experience because the wing position can also be in front by becoming pure attacker even though it is not his original position.
There is no certainty about all of this, but doesn't everyone want it, seeing Ronaldo still playing for Portugal in the 2026 World Cup, we can only hope and all decisions are in the hands of Ronaldo himself and the coach, there have been many rumors circulating about all of this even though it cannot be believed just like that.

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Quote from: Lidger on December 27, 2024, 06:58:18 AM

Quote from: tiCeR on December 25, 2024, 02:40:36 PM

...

Before Cristiano Ronaldo left, we didn't know much about the Saudi League but now we keep regular updates about the Saudi League. Saudi Arabia is successful in their plans.

First, Cristiano Ronaldo was able to bring them into the league with an offer and it was one of the most important steps to introduce their league to the world court. Whenever there is news that cristiano ronaldo will play from now on for a club in saudi league then everyone started searching about this club through various search engines and people started following the games of this club regularly. There is hardly anyone who watches football now who does not know about Cristiano Ronaldo's club in the Saudi League. Saudi Arabia will buy more players from Europe in the future so that people follow their league regularly.

You can repeat this sentence as often as you want, but it doesn't change the fact that the initial buzz, which Ronaldo created for the Saudi Professional League without a doubt, is gone for the most part. Yes there is still more attention drawn to the league than ever before, but my guess is that the Saudi officials were hoping for a sustained effect for the years to come and that hasn't come true. They may have plans in the making for the next couple of years until they are going to be the host for the World Cup, but I think they have realized that spending a billion on transfers a year and then hoping for big shifts in the Saudi Arabian football landscape won't work out.

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Quote from: Jody.Drummer on December 29, 2024, 02:27:59 AM

This World Cup will be participated by 36 countries from the previous 32 participants in the final round. This opens up opportunities for several countries to be able to taste their first World Cup. One that I follow is Asia. Asia will get more slots than usual, 8 countries + half that must go through the playoffs first. With this new format, of course several countries have very high motivation to be able to be in the 2026 World Cup. Asia itself is undergoing the 3rd qualifying round and still has several more matches left.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will actually feature 48 countries and not the 36 you said. That'll be the first time the competition will feature more than 32 teams and just like you rightly said, the new format gives room for participation from low ranked football nations. I'm more concerned about the African continent that's not been able produce a World Cup winner. Could this be an opportunity for an African country to conquer the world? I'll definitely love to see that happen and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants that.

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Quote from: Jody.Drummer on December 29, 2024, 02:27:59 AM

This World Cup will be participated by 36 countries from the previous 32 participants in the final round. This opens up opportunities for several countries to be able to taste their first World Cup. One that I follow is Asia. Asia will get more slots than usual, 8 countries + half that must go through the playoffs first. With this new format, of course several countries have very high motivation to be able to be in the 2026 World Cup. Asia itself is undergoing the 3rd qualifying round and still has several more matches left.

We will have 48 countries not 36 with Asian quota is now 8 countries direct and 1 going to the inter-confederation playoffs in hopes of making the tournament.
Increasing countries are surely going to have good beneficial for FIFA as well because now with this we will be having significant increase in viewers and more money for them and also for all countries those are looking for development in soccer.

Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 9. (Read 68825 times)