2026 World Cup

Probably the least surprising news of the cycle.
This means Yerson basically has a foot on the plane to 2026.

 

Not good, he’s a big game player

 

if we have to write off Mina...the depth chart becomes Davinson, Lucumi, Yerson, Cuesta and Ditta which i think is solid and reliable to handle the rigors of 8 games in a month...

With Mina, i love what he did for us in 2018, but similar to SInisterra - the guy just can't catch a break at this point of his career

 

Bad news in a sense that he is good in the locker room, a veteran that is not phased in big moments and brings a little bit of toughness/ mental games that are needed against teams that play those types of games.

Good news is Mina was not going to start. He would have obviously been a good understudy and a good weapon in the area on set pieces and corners but Yerson is pretty good at those things too and is younger, and faster at recovery and tracking back at this point in his career.

 

You described Mina’s impact well

overall, I hope he makes it for those X factors but yeah, not a back breaker if he doesn’t

 

I mean can't we bring Mina as an assistant coach? The whole Falcao/Mina/Ospina for the locker room... cool... can't they just be extra coaches for the WC? We did this with Cambiasso during the 2018 WC. He joined Pekermans coaching staff just for the WC

 

Seriously speaking, I can only think of two guys as irreplaceable in our lineup; all the other 9 positions we can adjust one way or another, even if the team loses something.

 

James, Diaz? That is it?

I think Munoz, Arias and Rios are pretty important to our starting 11. Even Mojica as we don't have better options and everyone else is significantly worst at LB.

all our CBs are pretty bad especially with their current form wish we had gotten Cristian Mosquera but unless he is a surprise call up for March we can forget about that.

 

Good article about the ticket sales process...FIFA won't admit to anything and is claiming demand is driving the success/unsuccess ticket applications...

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7034956/2026/02/10/2026-fifa-world-cup-tickets-lottery-options/

For those attending a gamge, don't know if you plan to park at the stadium but the pricing for games just gets worse and worse. A couple of months ago, parking for the Colombia-Portugal game in Miami was $75... then it shot up to $100 and now it's $250...

Website for World Cup parking passes - it's absurd...
https://www.justpark.com/us/event-parking/fifa-world-cup-2026/

 

haha I paid 75 for Boston in September and 100 for the two ny games.

Fact taht parking prices are increasing is FKING Wild !!!

 

I would agree with you that Munoz is important. I like Santi as his backup and spot starting but if we have to start with him in multiple matches I think it would be a bad thing.

JArias can be replaced. I feel very comfortable with Yaser or whoever else emerges the next few months.
Rios is good and I rather he start but the backups are good. I have faith someone will step up like Puerta.

If Machado is healthy he can step in but yes Mojica is the guy. I do not like Angulo but Lorenzo seems to like him.

 

Attaching a PDF of the article - i think it's behind a paywall

 

Not saying that the team won't lose something, but there are options, and even if they're low quality, the impact will not be as noticeable as with our two main guys, that generate like 70% of our offense.

Vargas is slightly better but you have decent backups in Montero and Ospina
CBs, yeah, we don't have an outstanding leader, but after Mina and Davinson, Lucumi, Ditta, Mosquera, Cuesta, will do.
Arias can fill in for Muñoz, and there are a couple of options behind Mojica.
The midfield looks solid, between Lerma, Puerta, Portilla, Castaño, Rios, Yaser, Arias, Carrascal and Quintero.
We could have something on the right wing with Carbonero, Gomez and Serna.
None of our 9s is solid, but behind Suarez, we have Cordoba, Borre and maybe a Duran.

 

To me JArias is a must (75+ minutes)....i feel like a handful of our goals during the WCQ were a function of JArias doing a fair amount of dirty work that led up to the Assist/Goal. For whatever reason, Nestor subbed him out too early in many games - i'm curious if it's because the wearable technology shows that he is spent (high heart rate, VO2 max metrics are low, etc.)...

i always liked Cristian Borja who plays all the time in Mexico, but Nestor seems to prefer giving Angulo the opportunity...

 

There was a Chase Sapphire sale today and the site crashed immediately..its a joke

 

There have been matches we have played well in with JArias coming off the bench. The last match against Argentina in particular.
So yes, JArias is good and has arguably been our most consistent player in the midfield but I personally would be okay with Yaser.

 

Damn!!! The're trying to milk every cent out of these WC.

 

I feel people are being unfair with Suarez. He never got a shot and when he did he scored 4 goals when we needed to win and were losing.

Next round of friendlies coach preferred to put in fking Borre and then gave Suarez minutes with a team with all subs. He is the #9. Unless Duran goes out of his fking mind in Russia scoring.

Borre is scoring and if he was called while shit in club/country he def going.

 

Suarez should be our starter. He is playing very well in Portugal and pretty good in the Champions League too.

I don't think there's anyone saying he should be benched based on current form and lack of form from the other guys.

Santos Borre is playing well in Brasil with Carbonero. If he get's called and Carbonero gets called it will be less of a sting for me. If Carbonero is left off but Santos Borre makes the WC roster then I will be scratching my head, confused and kind of salty.

 

the weird thing with our strikers is that if we have antifubol tactics where players don't make runs into open space....noone is going be scoring for us.

We never got the best out of Bacca , Jackson (noone really rates his two goals against Japan in 2014), Duvan and Muriel who all had brilliant club seasons but had a tendency to be absent when given the opportunity to play up front... Falcao/Teo had the best thing going when we had players in stride like James/Aldo/Macnelly/Cuadrado/Valencia/Sanchez/Abel behind them... even this cycle has been tough to discern who our true striker(s) are.

** Borre = time and time again, when he gets on the field we appear to play defensive since he is a "box to box striker" - maybe that will be a standard in 20 years lol - but to his credit and due to nice assists from Carbonero, has been able to find the back of the net at the club level in recent months...

** Duran = yellow card machine with flashes of brilliance and explosiveness and has the potential to be world class... one day i would like to see Duran/Suarez at the same time... maybe 26-30 cycle?

** Cordoba = got hot at the right time before the 24 Copa America, but was extremely underwhelming up until the final two WCQ games

** Suarez = as stated above, 4 goals in a WCQ is brilliant and his club form 25/26 reminds me of Falcao for Porto / Athletico Madrid.

** Cucho = although injured at the moment, seems to have found a stride at Betis, but is likely the odd man out for the World Cup....doesn't seem to be a priority for Nestor...

 

Against Portugal and other high quality teams I could see Lorenzo pulling out the D-Mid three type of formation. Focusing on Diaz being the main attacker and no true #9 like in that aforementioned Argentina Match.