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Qualification for the 2026 World Cup in South America kicked off with six rounds last year, less than nine months after Lionel Messi and Argentina won the 2022 final in Qatar.
Since September, another six have been played, leaving the campaign two thirds complete. From now on, things are a little more spaced out with double-headers in late March, early June and mid-September.
So, after the latest frantic burst of matches, what are the big questions hanging over the teams as they prepare for their final push to reach the finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada.
Contents
Argentina
1st place: 25 points (goal difference, +14)
Is a glorious era coming to a close?
Tuesday’s 1-0 win over Peru took Argentina to 25 points. In all of the previous 10-team campaigns, that has been enough to guarantee sixth place. Since the top six teams qualify automatically for 2026, we can safely conclude that with a third of the matches still to go, the World Cup holders have already done enough to ensure they will be there in North America to defend their crown.
And yet. There is a vague sense of unease around, perhaps best expressed by Juan Pablo Varsky, one of the country’s leading football writers. After last week’s 2-1 defeat to Paraguay, he wrote that the Peru game would “represent something very important — the end of the nucleus that we have come to know as the best Argentina side ever.”
He is referring to a feeling that the current team may have passed its peak — that Ángel Di María is impossible to replace, that Messi’s international future remains uncertain, perhaps to a view that the side needs a rethink. Can Messi operate together with both Lautaro Martínez and Julián Álvarez? Probably not against the best sides. “The moment has come,” Varsky concluded, “to renew, change, look for alternatives.” We will soon find out if coach Lionel Scaloni agrees with him.
Uruguay
2nd: 20 (+8)
Has the storm…
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