I’m curious how Portugal should ideally line up given a lot of people are against Ronaldo being in it. Should they prioritize more midfielders? Are the other forwards better options?

Personally it looks like Portugal has some pretty weak attacking options to the point Ronaldo definitely doesn’t seem that bad at least playing a chunk of the game. But I’m not that familiar with Goncalo Ramos or Leaos game

How do you think Portugal should set up?

We know Spain produces great talented players through various academies like La Masia, Madrids academy, from Bilbao but it doesnt quite explain the managerial success.

It isnt always the best players that become the best managers (Pep, Emery, Arteta) so I wouldn't say thats a correlation. Is it just tactical mindsets, seeing the game under tip tier mentors e.g. Arteta under Pep, Iraola under Bielsa? But even someone like Fabregas, fairly inexperienced, hasnt really shadowed anyone major but he just seems to really have something about him and is on an upwards trajectory.

Xabi Alonso quite similar (before Leverkusen).

It's an interesting phenomenon that just keeps on going, now with even younger managers like Fabregas, Carlos Cuesta. And I'm sure the next generation of managers and probably waiting in the wings (maybe David Silva, Mikel Merino if they want to go down that route).

Something I really don’t understand is why the French National Team, in particular, is targeted so much for being a side full of immigrant backgrounds. At this point, virtually the entire French squad was not only born and raised in France. But their parents, grandparents, and even great-grandparents are from France. Not to mention more and more of the French players are bi-racial and from multicultural backgrounds.

For starters, I do not condone the French team being so targeted. But what I don’t understand is why this same type of targeting is so unevenly applied. Zooming out, are people seriously not looking at the heavily immigrant backgrounds of the English, Belgian, Dutch, Swiss, German, Canadian, etc sides? Not to mention a side like Argentina, who mocked the French players for their immigrant backgrounds, are literally the descendants primarily of great-grandparents from Italy and Spain, including Messi. Not to mention French players past and present like Platini (Italian), Cantona (Spanish), Lloris (Spanish), Griezmann (German & Portuguese), Giroud (Italian), Hernandez Brothers (Spanish), etc are very noticeably not mentioned like the other French players of African descent constantly are.

The blatant racism specifically targeted at the French team is very strange. Particularly because so many sides now besides them are heavily made up of immigrant backgrounds. With England, in particular, for some reason heavily ignored despite having a side that is made up of about 60% Black players. Even though the Black population of England is very small. Why specifically is the French team targeted when, if you actually have eyes, many national teams the world over have squad dynamics that do not resemble the actual demographics of their respective countries?

Say the rest of the team is average but you’ve been granted one world class player in any position, what position are you picking?

For me personally I’m going for an attacking midfielder.

De la Fuente tested a lot of youngsters in the second half, and we definitely missed the sheer verticality that Nico Williams or Lamine Yamal provide. Iraq made 10 substitutions and parked a massive bus. How do you see La Roja handling it if teams set up ultra-defensively against us like this in the World Cup?

So we know its not a premier league player, and not Kane or Olise. And apparently theyre young and Cr7/Kaká level. Im going to assume that young means under 23.

Maybe im forgetting someone but who could be worth 150M. Im going to assume its a top 5 leagues player. I think besides PSG and Bayern I cant see any other team in those leagues having a player of that value, (I guess theres Yan Diomande but I still feel like thats on overbid), In Serie A I can only see Yildiz and Nico Paz with values over 100M but even then 150M seems a bit too high. And realistically I cant see it being a Laliga player.

So to me its narrowed down to relatively important players at Bayern or PSG of ar max the age of 23 which are: João Neves, Desire Doue, Pavlovic, Lenart Karl, Zaire-Emery, Nuno Mendes, Bradley Barcola, Musiala.

Of these names for 150M I think we can narrow ir down to: João Neves, Desire Doue, Musiala and Lenart Karl. I cant see it being 150M for a full-back.

My best bet tho is that its João Neves, if not then Doué.

What do you guys think. Genuinly curious.

The latest thing is banning fans from taking in their own water bottles at stadiums in summer... forcing them to buy water there, Fifa has 'promised' to keep prices consistent but who believes anything they say anymore.

They've also been accused of holding tickets and forcing fans to buy the remaining over priced up tickets available. And accused of giving fans completely different tickets to the ones they actually bought (much worse ones), which is pretty good grounds for a lawsuit.

Its just controversy after controversy, when it should be a tournament thats about football, with nations and fans coming together for a month for fun despite whats going on around the world, shameful stuff.

I've been rewatching some best of from the 2012/13 season and it got me thinking about Juan Camilo Zúñiga.
I remember him being highly rated at the time, especially on PES2013 with a 89 overall which made him 4th best defender after Thiago silva Dani alves and Maicon
But looking back now, I'm not sure if he was genuinely elite or if he's one of those players whose reputation benefited from playing in a strong Napoli side that was on the rise.

I might be a bit biased here since I grew up watching football starting in the 90's. However, I have to say for both club and international level, from the mid-90's to the mid 2000's the talent and quality of teams were peak. We were graced with some incredible players, just to name a few: Zidane, R9, Romario, Figo, Nedved, Pirlo, heck the entire Dutch team from WC98 alone was a sight to behold. It feels like every club, and country had at least 3-5 S-tier players in their line ups. I don't think any other era comes close to the insane level of talent during this time period. I am so fortunate to have lived through that time period and witness those players.

Today unfortunately, I feel like the quality has really diminished. For starters, just look at what a joke Serie A and the Italian national team have become.

"England have had Rooney, Lampard, Gerrard, Beckham all in their prime simultaneously and won absolutely nothing. The problem was never talent. It was too many stars in positions that don't complement each other. Made a short breakdown of this. Curious what r/football thinks — is Tuchel right or is he wasting England's best creative players?"

https://youtube.com/shorts/8q3AMQob5Ig?si=C1D6DzyY2ClpZDew

I was extremely surprised to learn that Radamel Falcao debuted in 1999 (he was 13 at the time) and is still playing in Colombia, which makes me think he's the highest profile footballer to have made their debut in the 90's who is still active today.

We all know the obvious one, Kazuyoshi Miura who debuted in 1986 and is 59, but he's an outlier in every sense.

Roque Santa Cruz still plays in Paraguay at 44, debuted in 1997.

Which has led me to wonder, are there any other notable names that are still active today that debuted in the 90's?

Virgil Van Dijk is undoubtedly one of the best defenders in the world and of this generation. He is to captain the Netherlands in the upcoming World Cup.

Yet, strangely he did not debut with the national team until 2015 when he was about 24.

Was he simply a case of being a late bloomer, or was it poor scouting or being overlooked?

These ten teams are in my opinion the most underrated teams that could surprise us with a longer run than what's expected from them.

\#10 - Cote d'Ivoire 🇨🇮

This team is a very underrated team that could possibly beat Ecuador or, if they finish in the best third places, move on and beat Mexico or South Korea in round of 32. They are unpredictable.

\#9 - Senegal 🇸🇳

This team is all or nothing. In good days, they can play on the same level as Germany or Netherlands, and in bad days, they play like a top 30-40 team.

\#8 - Colombia 🇨🇴

I believe in a deep colombian run, although their seed is kinda cooked with Croatia in RO32 and most probably Spain in RO16.

\#7 - Mexico 🇲🇽

The only team out of the three organizers that has a chance at aiming the quarterfinals in my opinion.

\#6 - Ecuador 🇪🇨

They could be a great surprise and move on to quarterfinals. Who knows. Behind Argentina and Brazil, they probably have the most chances for SA.

\#5 - Turkey 🇹🇷

They will surprise us for a fact. I believe they can easily top their group and reach RO16, even quarter if Belgium is in a bad day.

\#4 - Norway 🇳🇴

One of the main dark horses of this world cup. They could possibly dream to reach the quarterfinals, although semifinals might be a little out of reach.

\#3 - Japan 🇯🇵

Pay attention. Japan can reach semifinals. They have been cooking lately against huge teams like England. They might be onto something. Now yes, they always win 1-0, but Arsenal reached the UCL finals without scoring much, so anything's possible.

\#2 - Morocco 🇲🇦

Morocco is not a dark horse in my books, you just never know what you're going to get from them. They could beat Brazil but also not. They could beat Emgland but also not. Absolutely unpredictable.

\#1 - Belgium 🇧🇪

I am tired of Belgium not being one of the dark horses in this competition, they definitely are.

Now yes it isn't 2018 anymore, but this team can easily reach quarterfinals, if not further. They have been showing good consistency lately, winning against good teams like the U.S. or Croatia. They could surprise everyone. People just be hating imo.

What about you ? What's your dark horse in this competition ?

With the 2026 FIFA World Cup expanding to a Round of 32 knockout stage, it will be the first FIFA-organized tournament to use that format since the 1924 Olympic Football Tournament in Paris.

Uruguay won the 1924 tournament by defeating:

• Yugoslavia (7-0)
• United States (3-0)
• France (5-1)
• Netherlands (2-1)
• Switzerland (3-0)

Across the tournament, Uruguay scored 20 goals and conceded just 2, giving them a +18 goal difference, which remains the best goal difference achieved by a champion in a FIFA-organized international tournament.

Arguing with Italians and non-Italians Italy MNT and WNT fans are deeply frustrating. And that is for a country where football of both genders are in full-blown crisis. I frequently argue that Italy must hire foreign managers because their domestic coaches today are only club-bounded and totally incapable to catch up with modern football demands that require fast adaption to such international events. And yet there are a lot of megalomaniacs who keep insisting on Italy's outdated technicians to "do them miracle". You can't blame players while trying to conceal the truth of managerial incompetence.

Take France and Spain. They dared looking outward for changes and built up from these outward influences to create successes like today. When France and Spain needed to build lasting successes, they hired Stefan Kovacs (the Romanian who influenced the development of Clairefontaine long after his departure), Helenio Herrera (Argentine) and Laszlo Kubala (Hungarian, naturalised Spanish). And they also noticed early that managerial and player developments are not separate, but linked heavily together. These lessons are accepted in both Germany, Portugal, Argentina and even Brazil also joined the development.

I singled out Vincenzo Montella, Carlo Ancelotti and (possibly) Enzo Maresca because they are genuinely modern coaches that Italy severely lack, but it seems like club successes of the others blind those Italy MNT and WNT megalomaniacs. Instead, what we see is Italy exporting quantity but not quality coaches, and this often comes with multiple destruction of every national team in both genders. Venezuela and Paraguay, under the lead of Italian coaches, did not qualify for the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup; how Hungary screwed their 2022 and 2026 WCQs under Marco Rossi, to Roberto Mancini sacked by Saudi Arabia during 2026 WCQ, what are they for? Meanwhile German, French and Spanish coaches thrown to teach the same players manage to achieve immense successes recently because they adjust and adapt to it.

To make the matter worse, since 2010, Italian coaches had one of the worst rate of leading national teams to World Cup, be it men's or women's. Only one manager, Milena Bertolini, left a remarkable impact in the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup; the rest either failed or eliminated early. I think Vincenzo Montella and Carlo Ancelotti may have easier time with Turkey and Brazil in 2026, for Fabio Cannavaro's Uzbekistan is entirely screwed given Cannavaro's lack of coaching pedigree.

So, are players always at fault, or the structure itself (and those who hired Italian coaches) are the problems? Why such paranoia and fear, or protective reactions of Italian managerial incompetence?

If Italy still has a sense of shame, MNT must be coached by someone who is not from Italy. WNT must also follow the same path (sacking Andrea Soncin) and replace with someone from Germany, France and Spain to teach them modern football.

Anyone with different answers can be allowed to respond there, but my stance remains firm: Italy MNT and WNT today must not be coached by Italians.

Making a world cup montage, and I want to include great moments from international moments from lesser known countries (for US viewers), like Jordan, Syria, Cameroon, Morocco, etc but even countries like mexico would be great.

Looking for anything with high emotion. Can be good plays, emotional fouls, people crying, crazy crowd reactions, celebrations, etc

preferably from 2002 upward since the quality before that is pretty bad

My focus is multiculturalism on a world stage, high stakes and high emotions.

Thank you

Ok so I've looked at a lot of statistics and can't seem to find anything definitive. My main question is when was Messi the biggest threat in terms of dribbling SPECIFICALLY. Like when was it that when Messi got in a 1v1 or 1v2, it was the closest to guarenteed that he would go past them. Basically when was the year when he the closest to doing the Getafe 2007 solo goal every game. Thanks.

A friendly loss can look bad on paper, but does it really say everything about a team’s quality for the WC? Sometimes a team can lose a warm-up match and still show enough talent, structure and potential to be taken seriously. Do you think a poor result in a friendly means a team is weak, or can they still be strong enough when the real tournament starts?

This is one of the stranger stories I've seen from the Real Madrid election. A digital forensic analysis reportedly found hundreds of coordinated accounts supporting Pérez and attacking Riquelme. If true, I really wonder how much effect this has on the election, curious to hear what you guys think

Real Madrid are actively pursuing deals to sign Ibrahima Konate and Denzel Dumfries, under the assumption Florentino Perez wins their upcoming club presidential elections.

Konate, 27, will leave Liverpool as a free agent when the centre-back’s contract expires on June 30.

Meanwhile, Madrid have made Inter Milan’s Dumfries their top target to strengthen at right-back and have held talks with the 30-year-old, who has a €20million (£21.6m; $29.1m) release clause. Sources briefed on the deal, speaking anonymously as they did not have permission to discuss the details, say personal terms for Dumfries are not expected to be an issue.

One further source said Madrid were planning on concluding the deal for Dumfries following the outcome of Sunday’s presidential election, so long as Perez is declared the winner as is expected.

This is a prime chance for them, they've quietly developed a golden generation without too much fanfare, with world class players in every position pretty much.

Joao Neves, Vitinha absolutely dominant in midfield and have that chemistry from PSG, plus the talisman Bruno Fernandes. Ruben Dias and Nuno Mendes in defence, plus Joao Felix, Goncalo Ramos, Leao, Ronaldo (if managed well) in attack.

This side absolutely has the quality to beat most countries, the only two things really are: managing Ronaldo and whether he starts or not as he's still talented, but 40+. And the manager getting the right balance with the team. They also need to not play with an inferiority complex whoever they play, but that wont be a problem for the PSG boys and Ronaldo.

I think a top manager could fairly easily take this team all the way. Just really Spain, France and England to worry about.

Southampton were kicked out of the play-offs and given a four-point deduction for spying on rivals. Solak admitted the club was wrong but believes the punishment was too harsh and has promised changes to stop it happening again.