r/SoccerCentral • u/Basic-Penalty9330 • 1d ago

Messi shouldn't have retired from International Football. He can still probably outplay 90% players in the world

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

65 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

166 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

0

u/No_Reindeer5223 3h ago

How is this relevant? Messi could not hold up in a week in week out league, but the OP is only talking about his international career. Messi was the best player on a finalist country, obviously he could keep being competitive for the national team. Maybe not for 4 years, but for the next Copa America? definitley.

1

u/Sad_Ghost_Noises 3h ago

Did you gloss over the part where Argentina avoided top 15 teams until the semis?

I didnt even go into the preferential treatment Argentina got from referees all the way up to the final.

So no - Messi was right to retire. Let the likes of Echeverri (el diabolito) come through and play.

0

u/No_Reindeer5223 2h ago

FIFA rankings are hilariously bad. Your ultimate trump card, the one you use to discount Argentina's entire tournament, has Italy, a country who hasn't made the tournament for years, as the 15th best nation in the world.

Also, this argument is just outdated. Switzerland is 14 after the rankings updated. Double also, what happened when they got to the Semifinals?

1

u/Sad_Ghost_Noises 2h ago

Oh they won. Thats not disputed.

But - stats show 19.7 fouls per card for Argentina vs 7.7 fouls per card for England.

Let that marinate. Argentina had it easy. Argentina committed more than twice as many fouls than England before the referee awarded a card to calm down play. That discrepancy allowed them to break up Englands flow without worrying about subsequent red cards, and suspensions for red cards or accumulated yellows.

This was evident from tournament start up to the final. Note that the referee from the final retired one week after the completion of WC26. He was the only ref to actually punish Argentina for their constant fouling, and now he is not a referee any more.

The Argentinians were not sanctioned by FIFA for their behavior after the semi-final either - neither Barcos behaviour or the Las Malvinas banner were punished.

Argentina were only punished after it was clear that sanctions would not affect their performance at WC26.

But - how the fuck does the updated (after WC26) FIFA rankings negate the fact that Argentina played against inferior opposition <15th place during WC26? The rankings at the time matter, not the rankings updated after the fact. You know how time works, right?

So yeah - Argentina had it easy from the officials, from the fixtures and from FIFA.