Futbol Talk

[BM1090]

Last four for the US against teams who made the World Cup and they are undefeated with three wins. Feels like progress, but when I watch them they don't feel dangerous.

[panda]

Last four for the US against teams who made the World Cup and they are undefeated with three wins. Feels like progress, but when I watch them they don't feel dangerous.

Fit Reyna = infinite possibilities

[BM1090]

Okay, maybe they have actually found something

[JWags85]

Okay, maybe they have actually found something

Last couple games were with a grain of salt cause even thought Paraguay, Australia, Ecuador are WC qualifying squads, none of them are top 20 in the world kind of squads.  But womping on Uruguay, with 3-4 starters who I want nowhere near a WC roster next year, is pretty decent.  Its not full strength Uruguay (no Valverde, Gimenez not starting), nor is it the Uruguay of Suarez, Cavani, and Godin...but its still a top 4 team in SA and a nice win.

[The Sultan]

Cape Verde qualifies for the World Cup today. I believe they are the second smallest country ever to qualify.

To put this in perspective, they didn't even qualify for this year's version of the Africa Cup of Nations.

And now Curaçao qualifies too. While Costa Rica and Honduras stay home.

[BM1090]

And now Curaçao qualifies too. While Costa Rica and Honduras stay home.

That's cool. They've been close to a breakthrough for a while. Nice to see them get it. Haiti, too.

[BM1090]

Last couple games were with a grain of salt cause even thought Paraguay, Australia, Ecuador are WC qualifying squads, none of them are top 20 in the world kind of squads.  But womping on Uruguay, with 3-4 starters who I want nowhere near a WC roster next year, is pretty decent.  Its not full strength Uruguay (no Valverde, Gimenez not starting), nor is it the Uruguay of Suarez, Cavani, and Godin...but its still a top 4 team in SA and a nice win.

Yeah it's not that any of the wins/draws were particularly impressive, but unbeaten in 5 against 5 world cup teams is the type of run we haven't seen in awhile and the first time Poch seems to have some real traction. It seems like we're back as a good (but not great) soccer team, which is more than we could say for the last couple of years.

[Uncle Rico]

Not sure I want Haiti here. 

[Its DJOver]

What a great International Break. The US played well, you have historical CONCACAF qualifiers, wildly entertaining games resulting in Scotland qualifying and Ireland making it to the playoffs in UEFA.  Italy playing with fire for the 3rd consecutive WC, we'll see if they can actually figure things out this time. Can't wait for next summer.

[JWags85]

And now Curaçao qualifies too. While Costa Rica and Honduras stay home.

Little less interesting considering its just the Netherlands JV team.  Not a single player on the roster last night was born or raised in Curaçao.  I think there is just a single player in their pool who is actually from there nor have any of them played a single minute in the Curaçao domestic league.  I get the relationship between Curaçao and the Netherlands but its just less cool, especially compared to the Cape Verde story which is largely home grown.

Compare it to Guam, who is an island nation of roughly the same size.  They are terrible so they obviously will never qualify, but their coach, captain, and most of their main players are both and raised in Guam.  Not kids from LA, Dallas, and NYC that grew up playing for MLS academies and then switched their allegiance once they didn't make the USMNT player pools.

That being said, congrats to them, always cool to have new clubs in the WC and even moreso, amazing for the ankles and knees of at least 1-2 players who won't be hacked to injury by the dirty tactics and butchery of Honduras.

[panda]

Little less interesting considering its just the Netherlands JV team.  Not a single player on the roster last night was born or raised in Curaçao.  I think there is just a single player in their pool who is actually from there nor have any of them played a single minute in the Curaçao domestic league.  I get the relationship between Curaçao and the Netherlands but its just less cool, especially compared to the Cape Verde story which is largely home grown.

Compare it to Guam, who is an island nation of roughly the same size.  They are terrible so they obviously will never qualify, but their coach, captain, and most of their main players are both and raised in Guam.  Not kids from LA, Dallas, and NYC that grew up playing for MLS academies and then switched their allegiance once they didn't make the USMNT player pools.

That being said, congrats to them, always cool to have new clubs in the WC and even moreso, amazing for the ankles and knees of at least 1-2 players who won't be hacked to injury by the dirty tactics and butchery of Honduras.

Didn't want to sound negative re curacao but there is no magic there. Also not a ringing endorsement for Concacaf competitiveness when the Dutch F team can qualify out of the region.

[The Sultan]

Honestly its pretty embarrassing that Costa Rica and Honduras couldn't manage to qualify in such a watered down group. Not to mention Jamaica, who likely has little chance now.

[JWags85]

Honestly its pretty embarrassing that Costa Rica and Honduras couldn't manage to qualify in such a watered down group. Not to mention Jamaica, who likely has little chance now.

Costa Rica's golden generation aged out and their quality fell off HARD.  They had guys like Ruiz, Campbell, Duarte, and Mora playing in the top 4 leagues in Europe, not to mention Naves being one of the top 5-7 keepers in the world in his prime.  Now Naves is almost 40 and the majority of their team plays in the Costa Rican league which makes MLS look like the EPL

Jamaica makes no sense though.  They have a lot of talent on paper.  They can definitely beat DRC or Iraq, but they could easily lose their next match and not even make one of the two finals too.

[Its DJOver]

So apparently FIFA are considering a rule change that would place teams that come through the intercontinental qualifiers into a pot based on their FIFA rank rather than just automatically put them in pot 4, like the current situation is. I don't see how that would work since the draw is in 2 weeks and the playoffs aren't until March, and you can't really delay the draw because having people have to wait until March to start making travel plans would have a ton of backlash.

As it stands, it would be possible to have a Argentina, Morocco, Italy, Norway group of death.  That's three teams in the top 12, plus the 29th ranked team that has arguable the best player in the world. Seems a bit broken when you consider that it's also possible to have a Canada, Australia, South Africa, Suriname group, but FIFA wanted an expanded tournament and more unbalanced groups was always going to be the result.

[The Sultan]

So apparently FIFA are considering a rule change that would place teams that come through the intercontinental qualifiers into a pot based on their FIFA rank rather than just automatically put them in pot 4, like the current situation is. I don't see how that would work since the draw is in 2 weeks and the playoffs aren't until March, and you can't really delay the draw because having people have to wait until March to start making travel plans would have a ton of backlash.

As it stands, it would be possible to have a Argentina, Morocco, Italy, Norway group of death.  That's three teams in the top 12, plus the 29th ranked team that has arguable the best player in the world. Seems a bit broken when you consider that it's also possible to have a Canada, Australia, South Africa, Suriname group, but FIFA wanted an expanded tournament and more unbalanced groups was always going to be the result.

This happened in 2022 when the US got placed in a group with Wales (play off winner and FIFA ranked 18), along with England and Iran.

I think you just have to let it happen.

[Its DJOver]

This happened in 2022 when the US got placed in a group with Wales (play off winner and FIFA ranked 18), along with England and Iran.

I think you just have to let it happen.

I agree, you can't (shouldn't) change the rule now, but I would certainly hope that they'll learn their lesson and moving forward you make sure that the draw happens after qualification is fully complete.

[The Sultan]

I agree, you can't (shouldn't) change the rule now, but I would certainly hope that they'll learn their lesson and moving forward you make sure that the draw happens after qualification is fully complete.

Yeah, that means they would have to cut out a qualification cycle, but the federations can figure that out.