The Road to Russia 2018

[Alan]

Do you stop watching the Champions League at the quarter final stage too? :icon_lol: I'm not watching Atletico Madrid vs Juventus, not now Qarabag and APOEL have fallen by the wayside. That's a crazy argument mate.

That's club football. Different beast, IMO.

 

[Alan]

Think that says more about how poor NZ are as opposed to how decent Palau New Guinea are. Remember Tahiti efforts at the Fed Cup in 2013? It was embarrassing.

And yet they were the most interesting thing about the competition.

 

[Alan]

Bottom line, to use Dan's dichotomy from earlier:

I'm definitely more in favor global representation in the finals. Though the current qualification system is far from perfect, I think the number of spots given to each region right now are basically accurate.

 

[AndyWolves]

The world cup should be the absolute pinnacle of football, a way or proving which nation is the best.

I couldn't care less about representation from each region. If I had my way and distance wasn't a thing the qualifying groups wouldn't be based on where you are but rather how good you are.

I want to see quality at the world cup

 

[PuntsWolf]

Scrap one of the places from CONCACAF, give it Europe. Make the playoff between NZ and CONCACAF meaning one joke nation still gets in (NZ will lose playoff to South American team 90/100).

That way we get less shithouses in the competition, but the shit houses from CONCACAF and Oceania, still get a pretty good chance of getting in.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

This discussion is fairly moot when FIFA want 48 teams from 2026 :icon_lol: There's going to be some utter filth playing early on in that tournament. The proposed structure is also a mess.

 

[Kenny]

I love watching the shit nations in the World Cup. We need more of them in it IMO

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Excepting Mexico and the USA, who have huge populations and I would accept have at various points been worthy of a place, CONCACAF nations have performed as follows since 1986:

1986: Canada P3 W0 D0 L3 F0 A5
1990: Costa Rica P3 W2 D0 L1 F3 A2, then lost 4-1 to Czechoslovakia in second round
1994: No teams other than Mexico/USA
1998: Jamaica P3 W1 D0 L2 F3 A9
2002: Costa Rica P3 W1 D1 L1 F5 A6
2006: Costa Rica P3 W0 D0 L3 F3 A9, Trinidad and Tobago P3 W0 D1 L2 F0 A4
2010: Honduras P3 W0 D1 L2 F0 A3
2014: Costa Rica P3 W2 D1 L0 F4 A1, beat Greece on penalties, lost to Netherlands on penalties, Honduras P3 W0 D0 L3 F1 A8

The problem is that whoever makes up the numbers from that region is habitually awful and adds zero value. And as that is the case, and matters have scarcely improved in 30 years (only two teams out of nine qualifying, not a single knockout victory other than on penalties, three out of the nine have failed to score a single goal, five of the nine failed to win a single game)...you should examine their worth. Not keep them hanging around as a bit of tokenism.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

The real joke is thinking that for some reason you shouldn't have to go through qualifying to make it.

It's the World Cup. If you have an issue with representing the world, stick to the Euros and be happy with that.

I couldn't give less of a $#@! if European qualifying is "unfair". You want to qualify? You've got to play well. End of. "Oh, boo hoo, Italy and Spain are in the same group!" Tough $#@!ing $#@!. They would have to get past other nations of such quality at some point regardless. May as well do it now.

The real bore would be the same $#@!ing European countries every four years because they're "better on paper". Get the $#@! out of here with that drivel.

If you think the other regions are so weak, then you can go out and $#@!ing beat them in the proper Finals without a worry, eh? So go prove it.

$#@!.

Absolute horseshit Alan. Go and put 100 quid on any of the African group winners to win the world cup. I will match you. If the bet wins I will donate every penny to the charity of your choice.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

This discussion is fairly moot when FIFA want 48 teams from 2026 :icon_lol: There's going to be some utter filth playing early on in that tournament. The proposed structure is also a mess.

Absolute Shiite. Like watching Cambridge v Accrington every group game but paying 70 quid for the privilege

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Absolute Shiite. Like watching Cambridge v Accrington every group game but paying 70 quid for the privilege

The way it's set up is that the 16 weakest teams, most of whom have no real business being at a World Cup, will end up being placed into a three team group against two opponents they have very little hope of beating. Then they'll go home. Maybe one or two might fluke their way through, fairly unlikely though. And we all get to waste some time watching it.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Depends what you want. Do you want the World Cup to be contested by the best 32 teams on the planet (as far as that is possible to determine) or do you want there to be some kind of (enforced) diversity based on regions? I would tend towards the former, I have little interest in watching $#@!houses like Honduras because as I say, they won't even try to play. Then sometimes you get someone comically out of their depth like Saudi Arabia in 2002 or North Korea in 2010.

You shouldn't be given a 50:50 shot at qualifying when you've produced form over the course of 12 months that were it replicated in any kind of major club league, would have you battling relegation.



You're basically giving New Zealand a bye every four years in doing that, and New Zealand are awful.

Exactly this. Bores me shitless

 

[Deleted Cyber]

The way it's set up is that the 16 weakest teams, most of whom have no real business being at a World Cup, will end up being placed into a three team group against two opponents they have very little hope of beating. Then they'll go home. Maybe one or two might fluke their way through, fairly unlikely though. And we all get to waste some time watching it.

Agreed. Wtf? Why? I want the best international teams trying to beat each other.this attempt at levelling the playing field is so bad you may as well go for mixed sex soccer. I think there are women's sides like France england or the USA or Germany who would beat men's teams like Gibraltar Andorra and some of the African or oceanic also ran s. Joke

 

[Tony Towner]

That's not what Alan is saying though Cyber. Personally I'd like the World Cup to go back to 24 teams which would go some way to overcoming some of the quality issues being discussed here and the borefest that has become qualifying for England.
9 Europe, 4 Africa, 4 South America, 3 Asia, 2 North / Central America, 1 Oceania, 1 host. Oceania based on Australia going back there.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Separate argument that but seriously, if the England women's team faced Stourbridge then I would expect them to lose at least 5-0. They're as good as different sports given basic physiology. I don't care for women's football as a spectacle at all (just me personally, like I don't watch Game of Thrones) but there's very little equivalence. There's a ball, the goals are the same size, it lasts 90 minutes and there are 11 players, that's about it as a comparison.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

That's not what Alan is saying though Cyber. Personally I'd like the World Cup to go back to 24 teams which would go some way to overcoming some of the quality issues being discussed here and the borefest that has become qualifying for England.
9 Europe, 4 Africa, 4 South America, 3 Asia, 2 North / Central America, 1 Oceania, 1 host. Oceania based on Australia going back there.

Couple of things for me:

1) 24 team tournaments don't really work. Three team groups are a bad idea (so no surprise FIFA are going down that road from 2026...), two group stages as seen in 1974/1978/1982 is an unholy mess and sending through third placed teams in a 6x4 format rewards failure and promotes negative football, see the last Euros which was by far the worst of them in recent memory

2) Australia won't move back to the OFC, it's more important for them now to have their club teams playing in the AFC Champions League aside from anything else

 

[Jinky]

I love watching the shit nations in the World Cup. We need more of them in it IMO

Well your lucks in as England have qualified.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Just to return to tonight's game:

If Southgate can't produce a better performance than that, or at least one with a proper tempo and a bit of intent, when we're playing an awful team in a dead rubber...then what hope is there with him. He "experimented" in as much as we played with an extra defender, in a formation we've already played under him. Everything else was exactly the same. This is genuinely the best he can do and even allowing for the weaknesses in the squad and the lack of any kind of suitable midfield, it's simply nothing like good enough.

Not that we should expect much else from a man who has a 12th placed finish over a decade ago with Middlesbrough as his career highlight. A man who took charge of the U21 team and had them finish bottom of the group when he took them to the finals. Fucking hell, even McClaren had more to recommend him being as he was a big part of the coaching team when United won the Champions League and he'd (slightly fortunately) taken Boro to a European final.

 

[Alan]

Absolute horse$#@! Alan. Go and put 100 quid on any of the African group winners to win the world cup. I will match you. If the bet wins I will donate every penny to the charity of your choice.

I should apologize for the tone of that post. It was uncalled for and simply not on.

 

[The Bear]

I've not thought this through long term, but could FIFA award qualifying places for tournaments based on the average FIFA ranking of all the teams in the various regional qualifying? So if the average was below a certain threshold they'd get less teams going through to the tournaments in places like Australasia or Central/North America than say Europe or South America.

You'd still have the main teams like New Zealand and the US getting in, but less minnows that don't deserve it like Honduras.