2026 WC USA (et al): Worldwide Opponents Watch [all R's]

Not for half the fans on here who get mad every time we play out of the back!

 

This Paredes idiot should be banned from this beautiful game. He kicked the ball to the Netherlands bench last WC and now does this ??????! pic.twitter.com/I1WG7BBiTc

— insight Hub (@genjochrisLuis) July 19, 2026

I hope Paredes doesn’t come back.

 

Yes, Argentina got 2 red...One during game and one after ...What a classy team!

 

So Rodri deserves MVP more than Messi? I think Messi carries his team all the way to final

 

He's old and playing back in Argentina again so he shouldn't be back

 

Good.

 

FIFA just took 2 awards away from Argentina...Golden Glove for Martinez and Golden Ball for Messi...Not just because Spain won the final game

 

Honestly besides this game the only other big save I can recall from Dibu was near the end against Cape Verde. If we advanced on penalties and he stopped a couple again I could've seen a stronger case but that didn't happen like last time, so we conceded too much in the end for consideration.

Messi not getting Golden Ball was a little odd but maybe they didn't want to get criticized. Rodri was great enough I guess.

 

Messi deserves Golden Ball...Everybody talks about him all tournament...Suddenly, Rodri got it in the final game...I know he's great...helps Spain control midfield through all the games, but Messi is more than that...

 

Happy to see Spain win as I just don’t like Argentines’ sense of how to compete in big moments. I wish more referees would ref the game the way today’s ref did. They just get away with too much cynical nonsense year after year.

That said, I thought their team defense was mighty impressive tournament long. They seem to really cover for one another really well, and Martinez really showed up big today.

I know that Messi scored a lot of goals, but he didn’t strike me as terribly dominant these last two matches. It is amazing how often defenders lose him on these pass and go situations. But I didn’t really think he played brilliantly, despite the goals.

Kudos to Spain for playing solidly even though their young star had a crap game. They are a good team and they found their groove in the second half of the tournament.

 

He was lining him up the whole way and got shots into BOTH of Cubarsi's feet at full speed. Then had the douchebaggery to finger wag and stay on the field for an egregious amount of time. Enzo is a disgrace.

 

Stay classy Argentina

 

Another reason I was rooting for Spain today.

 

The World Cup is better if beforehand you decide not to care about the Final.

 

Remember in 2022 when he kicked the ball directly at the players on the Netherlands' bench, sparking a brawl?

He alone was reason enough to cheer for Spain.

 

Interested in what this means for Ballon D’or. Messi basically needed to win this. Rodri didn’t have the best club season. Nobody from PSG put up any great stats. Yamal had a poor tournament and was meh in the final.

If voters do away with the “best player on team that won [insert trophy]” gimmick they’ll realize it should be Kane

 

Mbappe won the Pichichi, UCL Golden boot and World Cup Golden boot. He had the same stats as Messi even before the 3rd place match, against stronger competition. He drew a penalty, had a goal and assist against Morocco, which is arguably the best single game performance of the KO stage.

 

Kane scored 64 goals in 56 games

 

Mbappe is definitely not winning the Ballon D’Or given 1) his teams did not win anything all year, and 2) related to the first point there was not a player in the top 5 leagues this past season that did less work defensively.

Though I don’t think it will be Kane either.

 

If the World Cup is any guide, it will lazily be Rodri ... or someone on PSG.

I actually think Kane has a good shot. There's no clear answer here and he has the numbers.

 

There isn't a clear front runner from tor the Ballon d"Or. It'll be interesting.

............what this World Cup taught me is how SIGNIFICANT the gap has become between Europe and South America.

Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay basically tried to play defensively, bully people, and win with passion & effort. If it wasn't for moments of Messi magic, Argentina may not have gotten thru Cape Verde and Egypt.

Even when this group of teams won games, you walked away thinking that the best team probably didn't win. Paraguay didn't beat Germany because they had more talent.

Ecuador finished third in its group and drew with Curacao (beat an already advanced Germany in the 3rd game to win the right to play awfully against Mexico in the Round of 16.]

Even Brazil was playing in a defensive, counter-attacking posture. It was depressing to watch. They were sooooooooooo anemic offensively at times. BRAZIL!

Columbia was the team trying to play with a little South American style. It just didn't happen for them in the knockout round game aganst Switzerland.

Anyway...................my thinking is that the gap betwen South America and Europe has never been larger. The gap between Argentina and Spain may not have been large on the scoreboard, but on the field there was no comparison. Argentina's only hope was to make it a street fight, and aim for penalties.

 

I'm not sure that was the best team Argentina could've fielded out there and they were worn out physically. Lot of what ifs as far as Scaloni's performance went. While Spain dominated the ball, a lot of criticism is deserved towards their finishing ability and a younger fresher Argentine side might have made them pay dearly for it.

 

European teams started the World Cup with weak performances but they ended it dominant. Agree that the gap is huge right now.

 

Spain did that same thing to France and everybody.

France was blowing good teams off the field with Mbappe, Olise, Barcola, Doue, Cherki and could do nothing with Spain..........................because they didn't have the ball.

If folks are unsure of why Rodri is amazing, rewatch that Spain/France semifinal.

Spain conceded 1 goal at the World Cup. ONE GOAL in 8 games.
That goal was against whom? Survey says? Belgium. [If it makes any USMNT fans feel better. Probably not.]

Its true that in some of these games, Spain didn't have their finishing boots on. Lamine Yamal was surprisingly quiet at this event.
And there's that risk of what happened against Cape Verde. They had 74% possession and 23 shots in that game. T

................but you don't need to beat teams 4-0 when you deny the opponent anything.