General FIFA World Cup 2026 Discussion

I think we can win the first game without Cuti and survive the group stage without Paz . The KO stage game for group J teams would be on 2nd or 3rd July. Approximately still 1 month away.

Also, I'd rather sacrifice Almada or Lopez.

 

Hot take, Buendia could be more of a contributor than Paz. Don't get me wrong, Nico's ceiling is as high as they come, but he is very young and Buendia I think is ready for this - I rather have Nico there for the obvious reasons, but not the end of the world

 

75 out of the 1,248 players who will play in the upcoming World Cup were born in France, but will represent other national teams.

Together with France’s own squad, that’s almost 100 players in the tournament who were born in France. That’s about 8% of all World Cup players.…

— Uri Levy (@Levyninho) June 2, 2026

 

⚠️🇦🇷 El cuerpo técnico de Lionel Scaloni LLAMÓ a Maxi Perrone para ALERTARLO por si hay una BAJA de un volante.

[@leoparadizo] pic.twitter.com/h4xS4yy8wn

— Ataque Futbolero (@AtaqueFutbolero) June 3, 2026

You're on your own here, Mr. Hot Take.

 

I often wonder how many of these reports are just posturing to throw the competition off. I agree that if he is genuinely nursing an injury, you want to let it heal as optimally as possible and have him as a surprise element in the knock outs.

 

Posturing for who? Algeria??? No these injuries ALWAYS turn out to be very real no is playing 5d chess

 

From soccer completely or from the national team. I would vote Ochoa. The loss of cardio over the years affects goalies the least and I suspect the other three have much larger bank accounts.

 

I've just seen it far too often over the last 30 years to make me question it, that's all.

 

I'm trying to be optimistic here. For a muscle strain and with 14 days left until the debut and a month until the round of 16, I think he has to stay. That's why I'm suggesting this might be more for headlines than anything, or to throw others who are scouting us off, and yes I'm hoping this is it. Just like I hope Inter is able to swoop in and grab him. Yeah I know, I know, mission impossible but I can dream like Zanetti.

 

In case you forgot, the KO stage starts with round 32. I think we'd need to wait and see the opening game result. If we do win the first 2 matches, its better for Paz to just skip the entire group stage, or maybe play 15 mins of the 3rd game. The KO stage would 5 games this time so Scaloni needs to manage the player fitness even better than in 2022.

 

Its interesting that he would replace an attacking minded midfielder with a defensive midfield

 

I don’t think the call-up was for Paz. Buendia is for Paz. Maybe there is an injury that we are not aware of. Maybe a cold breeze hit Lo Celso and he’s out 4-5 weeks, I simply don’t know.

 

Agreed.

 

It's hard to know as there is very little being leaked out of camp at this point. Overall this is a good thing but frustrating not to know. We have to put trust in Scaloni at this point.

 

Another day another PRP now for Julian. Damn

 

One article says Julian is injured, another article says this...


“Players Cristian Romero and Julian Alvarez trained normally alongside the rest of the squad during Monday’s session and are now fully at the disposal of the coaching staff moving forward,” the Argentine Football Association (AFA) announced in an official medical update.


Maybe tomorrow we'll hear Emi twisting his ankle after stepping on his shoelace & Messi getting a bandage after hitting a door frame...

 

A couple of things... One, why is all of this stuff leaking? I remember Scaloni and the players were pissed that journalists were releasing info, sometimes false info of the players during Qatar. I am sure other teams are also dealing with stuff but it's not being leaked left and right. Either it's just smoke or we have a bunch of sellouts.

France and Spain losing and drawing on purpose... Scaloni's fault for not playing earlier...

🤯🇦🇷 ARGENTINA superó a España y Francia y es el NUEVO LÍDER DEL RANKING FIFA.

🇦🇷🥇 Argentina.
🇪🇸🥈 España.
🇫🇷🥉 Francia.

Recordemos que NUNCA GANÓ EL MUNDIAL una Selección que llegó como Nº1. ❌

Vía @mavegol. https://t.co/fwhV1m81ax pic.twitter.com/nsjUe7Dmjw

— Sudanalytics (@sudanalytics_) June 4, 2026

And yeah, I don't get why our friendlies are so close to the tournament. We have a game on the 9th and the tournament kicks-off on the 11th. Granted, we play 5 days later but so strange.

 

I've mentioned this weeks ago and nobody seems to bother. This means if we're going all the way, we're about to play 10 games within the next 6 weeks. As for the leak stuff, people would do absolutely everything for "clicks".

 

Those friendlies make zero sense tbh. Half the squad is either injured or can get injured any second.

 

Even without all the injuries, it should have been just 1 game with at least 7-10 days gap before the WC. The Honduras game serves no purpose other than to fatten Tapia's neck. Long before this friendlies was announced, we all suspected it would be Honduras, and off course it is.

 

Cristina will be wheeling itself out on the pitch aged 70 trying to score the most goals ever in the Panama league or something. A real narcissistic desperado.

 

The main thing in friendlies is to build some team cohesion. No one is going to go flat out so they injure themselves and miss out although ironically not doing so can lead to injuries. I don't think any of our players need to build up match fitness barring the likes of Romero and a couple of the others given they have been out for a few weeks.

I'd rest most of them let them relax and work on setpieces defensively and attacking wise and just normal but light training sessions. Unlike 22 they have had a long season. They don't really need another 100-120 minutes in the legs. I would really push the doubtful ones though. You cannot afford to take passengers into a tournament. Of course concerns about Lo Celso and even Licha. They seem injury prone. Not taking Perrone atm or Buendia is a big mistake.

 

Best news would be Lo Celso out with a sore hamstring and replaced by Perrone. Time for a celebratory glass of champagne. Paz will be fine. The kneecap and femur patello-femoral region was bruised causing discomfort but the bursa and ligaments were unaffected.

Julian. Just rest him. Simeone actually did a good job of managing his minutes at the season end. But the others like Molina Montiel Romero Gonsalez they need real pushing.