Lionel Messi and Nicolás Otamendi are the two leading goal scorers for Argentina in the 2026 South American World Cup qualifiers.
Messi did not score for Argentina in their 1-1 draw vs. Venezuela on Thursday but it was Otamendi who scored the goal for Lionel Scaloni’s team. It was Otamendi’s third goal in the 2026 South American World Cup qualifiers, tying him with Lionel Messi, also on three goals.
For Lionel Messi, he scored in the first match of the qualifiers against Ecuador and he scored two against Peru. For Nicolás Otamendi, he scored against Paraguay at home, Brazil away and Venezuela.
Nicolás González is in third place with two goals. He scored against Bolivia and Colombia.
Both Messi and Otamendi are second in the 2026 South American World Cup qualifiers, only behind Darwin Núñez of Uruguay who has five goals.
I’ll say this, for an away game against a decent side, in dreadful weather conditions with no less than 5 starters/important players (Dibu, Cuti, Licha, bigMAC and Nico G) being out I think a draw was a decent result. Also, seeing Almada start and Balerdi come off the bench were positives.
As I said before to some people here, CONMEBOL WCQs are the toughest of their kind by far and there are no easy games, so don’t expect the next game against Bolivia to be a cake walk especially with a Bolivia team that just beat Colombia and now has won 3 on the swing.
I don’t understand why Scaloni is dragging his feet bringing change of guards. Having likes of Pezella, Otamedi( who will be 35&38 respectively)as cb pair is demoralizing and absurd. With likes of Nehuen Perez, Senesi, Medina out there Scaloni needs to act quickly.
Lastly what’s Scaloni issue with Alan Varela?
Otamendis consecute ariel failure shows scaloni this is the time to leave him and bring another young defender like romero aa early as possible .
This is the biggest concern right now…
Agreed as now should be the time for others as Pezzella and OTA have done respectively more, than enough for ARG and even they can still play, well still they can’t perform as they once used to as this been clear with Pezzella allready from COOA WON AT MARACANA and OTA is unfortunately not, that strong defensively as he used to, which totally understandable and now when there was a chance as CUTI was suspended, well it was not used for some reason…?
Did LICHA play in this game at all btw ?
I managed to miss the who,e game and have not even seen highlights yet, so it is quite difficult to say anything else, than what I have been seeing and saying and specially with Pezzella as, that respectively he should had retired allready some time ago from ARG NT and I think unfortunately OTA needs to do same as there is certainly eager and in my opinion better options available for ARG, though CUTI and LICHA for me are way above in totally in their own league and specially, when playing for ARG!
Which seems to be the case for many players as somehow they allways or most of times have better performances with ARG, than with their Clubs etc…
Kudos to Armani, Zabaleta and all of those who knew, when was the time to retire from ARG NT
Always very happy when the time coming to watch one more game of our team. I can t wait the next one against Bolivia.
VAMOS ARGENTINA !!!
Yes I managed to miss ARG’s game for very long time and it feels weard indeed..?
As I was waiting for game against VEN since Columbia game, but missed it…
So, now even more, than ever really looking for to against Bolivia as I not want to miss any more or single ARG game!
ARG games are simply unccomparable to any other games in football and they allways been since late 70’s and still the same as nothing beat’s ARG NT game regardless the opponent!
VAMOS! And Enjoy life as best as you can my friend
Saludos
Ricky
Nice to read something from you always my friend. Happy to see that you are ok and healthy. the truth is that i have been lost from here for long time. when conditions allow me i come to see what mundo doing. Usually when the team playing i try to enter to read. Especially i am happy to read from you and many other old time friends here. Mostly happy that you all are healthy and secondly about our beloved team. I wish you too for you and your family health and God blessing you. Same for all the old mundo friends. i don t write names because they are many and i will sure forget mention somebody. really i don t want that.
take care Ricky.
Yes my friend! And thank you 🙏🇦🇷🙏once again for your kind and friendly words, which i really do appreciate a lot as allways nice to hear from you too🇦🇷🫶🇦🇷
As u said : ” Nice to read something from you always my friend. Happy to see that you are ok and healthy. Usually when the team playing i try to enter to read. Especially i am happy to read from you and many other old time friends here. Mostly happy that you all are healthy and secondly about our beloved team. I wish you too for you and your family health and God blessing you. Same for all the old mundo friends. i don t write names because they are many and i will sure forget mention somebody. really i don t want that.”
Yes, for me it is offcourse also mostly about the team🇦🇷⚽️🇦🇷 and offcourse this is also as important for me as u said :
: ” Usually when the team 🇦🇷 playing i try to enter to read. Especially i am happy to read from you and many other old time friends here. Mostly happy that you all are healthy🙏🫶🙏
All the best and stay as well u can my friend Cox4
Ricky
I didn’t watch the game but I personally wouldn’t have played Messi on such a heavy pitch with his history of injuries and I’m sure the rough play from the home team.
I would not panic. Post WC and Copa win, we are going through a transition and it has started, it has its struggles and such conditions are not helpful. Should not be an excuse though.
I agree with the assessment in another thread that taking out a midfielder for defender was understandable under such conditions. You punt the ball to the wings or straight from defense to opposition third. Don’t try midfield, you will lose balls in dangerous situations. So a 6-2-2 is a valid strategy. Didn’t work yesterday, its OK.
Concern: Long balls, set pieces in penalty box. Defensive routine required from Walter Samuel. Whether its personnel or drills I don’t know. Our defenders are not winning the headers. More than one game.
Ota is in good goal scoring form. Wish I could write the same for his goal saving form.
Comments are closed.