Lionel Messi was substituted out injured for Inter Miami in their penalty shootout win against Club Necaxa in the Leagues Cup.
Messi started Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup match against Club Necaxa but was shortly substituted out. Messi was running towards the Necaxa back line and was tackled.
He was substituted out shortly after going back down. Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano spoke about Messi’s injury at a press conference after the match. Here is what he had to say:
“Messi felt discomfort in the hamstring muscle, and we won’t know the extent of the injury until tomorrow… But it might not be too serious because he didn’t feel severe pain, just discomfort.”
Those are most likely centre backs for Argentina in world Cup, the greatest defender of Argentine in my life time cuti Romero who i hope he stays fit because Argentina chance to regain world cup depends on him , rest are otamendi who I hope not as starter , Marseille due leo balerdi and medina and Lisandro Martinez depends on his fitness
Unlike 2022, Messi won’t arrive fresh and fully fit in 2026! 1st season at PSG he barely played 50% of the matches , and world cup started around 25% into the second season! He arrived hungry and fresh! Hopefully I am wrong but Scaloni is counting on old players based on past performances even though he had a first row seat in 2018 disaster!
Our main opponents France, Spain and Portugal are all young and with very balanced squad! Portugal might go with Cr7 in the beginning of the tournament but he will be benched eventually! Scaloni is still relying on Otamendi, Paredes, Pezzella, Montiel, Locelso as backups. Depaul & Molina had a very inconsistent season which is why Simeone released RDP and Molina is a backup to make shift RB! Unless Mastantuono does a Mbappe of 2018, we will depending on Almada and Paz to fillin for Messi!
1. MLS season starts only in March bro+ if Messi wants he will start in every second game in Miami.
2. He is 100% adopted to american circumstances, weather and pitches.
3. Argentina and every american team will play in front of 90% home supporters unlike europeans.
4. Portugal as a World Cup favourite dont make me laugh, no room for such small football nations in WC, this is not Euro or Nations League.
5. France have zero creative or ball playing midfielder after Griezmann.
6. Spain seems good but no proper CF and another minnow and overrated WC team historically.
7. Europeans except Germany 2014 never did good in american WCs. 7/8 were won by south americans.
Unfortunately France have Rayan Cherki now and he seems pretty creative…
Cherki is not a midfielder+zero defending, cannot play in 3 men midfield because of balance, France have Mbappe, Dembele, Doue, Olise, Cherki Barcola and Coman, except Coman all inverted wingers/forwards for 2 or 3 positions plus Thuram and Kolo Muani, from this group only 3 can play at the same time and their best midfielders are old Kante? Rabiot? Guendouzi? Manu Kone? Tchouameni? Camavinga? Cmon they can run and destroy but not pass, controll or build. This team is like Brazil in 4:1, lot of individual wingers and no class midfielders. France wo space and midfield dominance could die, this is not PSG with Vitinha, Neves and Ruiz or Argentina with at least 8 great controll midfielders.
I think Cherki can also play AM in a 4-2-3-1. Overall France is full of runners and athletes, I agree…
Argentine NT is weird historically, now Scaloni has to build a balanced team without an absolute attacking superstar for WC26 but ironically that never worked before in modern football without a Goat level luxury superstar (performance) around who was built the whole system (Maradona 2 WC finals, Messi 2 WC finals, Kempes 78 maybe wasnt a Goat-level player but his performance on that WC was goatish). Our most balanced teams with great players on neirly every position all failed to reach a single WC semi-final with mainly team play, maybe our 5 best WC squads in modern football WC82, WC94, WC2002, WC2006 and WC2010 (just on paper with right player selection and with a real coach instead of Diego) all failed badly, maybe this is our faith. Very interesting what to do, try with old/injury prone Messi, do or die with him or build a balanced, hardworking team what never worked before historically.
@Csabalala I agree that our current strength lies at the Mdfielders+Alvarez that contains creative dependable,worksholic players and with a faire chemistry that has been bonded since Quatar22. The only challenge is Depaul’s sign of slowing dawn at NT quite lately. In a postive development Almada and Simone have shown a glimpsie of hope and Scaloni needs to come up with a different game plan to sustain these 02 and perhaps more like Soule, for instance.
I agree on your point that it is too earily to integrate most of the talent pools but the roster is very encouraging for the long term.
Messi in Miami is like Dybala “discomfort man”, 38 years old, still a cheat code but unable to play a whole tournament without injury, still one of Messi/Dybala should be there in WC, after Messi/Di Maria/Dybala we have no creative superstar with great end product. Echeverri/Mastantuono/Montoro are all talented but unexperienced kids. Almada is good but a second option maximum imo. Soule is better and better but still very poor end product, maybe Gasperini unlocks him. Nico Paz/Carboni/Buonanotte are still small team warriors. Paz can be a good midfielder (8) in a big team but not an attacking superstar materia with 20 goals 15 assists minimum in a club season imo. Garnacho and Simeone our only two young wingers with pace and high top speed but still lack finishing skills, decision making and below average dribbling skills, they are just athletic off the ball players. I dont see a single one youngster who can replace Messi/Di Maria role in WC yet (too early for most of them) so maybe Scaloni will play without high ceiling attacking player, if Messi will be unable to start, and 4 midfielders or even 5 with Almada like vs Brazil. Our midfielders with Alvarez are our biggest weapons now.
It’s such a shame scaloni won’t starting lautaro due to Alvarez workrate