Internationals November (World Cup Qualifiers)

Is it just me who thinks it’s a bloody disgrace that Austria get an automatic spot in the playoffs despite finishing fourth in their group, whilst Israel finished above them and don’t get a chance. Completely unfair and it gives the better teams a guaranteed advantage. Even ranking the third teams (which was implemented at the EUROS, something I denigrated substantially) and then picking the best two is better than this. At least there’s some determination there based on performance. Austria could’ve finished bottom with 0 points and still would have qualified if the results elsewhere were identical.

Unfortunately, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this in FIFA and UEFA competition, the new Champions League format is testament to this.
 
MongeySpangle said:
Is it just me who thinks it’s a bloody disgrace that Austria get an automatic spot in the playoffs despite finishing fourth in their group, whilst Israel finished above them and don’t get a chance. Completely unfair and it gives the better teams a guaranteed advantage. Even ranking the third teams (which was implemented at the EUROS, something I denigrated substantially) and then picking the best two is better than this. At least there’s some determination there based on performance. Austria could’ve finished bottom with 0 points and still would have qualified if the results elsewhere were identical.

Unfortunately, we’re going to be seeing a lot more of this in FIFA and UEFA competition, the new Champions League format is testament to this.
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It felt like they gave up after realizing they could not finish first and had qualified through the nations league.

The spots from the nations league are given out based on winning the different levels of groups. So in theory someone winning division B could get a spot over the second place in division A. It basically gives incentive to lose your games to go back down, so you can qualify that way instead. Austria would have never gotten the spot, if they were already in division A. I think all teams staying in division A qualified, but in theory e.g. Poland could have missed out on the play offs if they had been marginally worse in the main qualifiers, despite playing at a higher level in the nations league than Austria. In an extremely (unlikely) scenario Gibraltar would have gotten Austria spot, if the other 12 group winners had qualified directly from the main qualifiers.
 
Is Atiba Hutchinson still playing for Canada?

Pretty underrated player in europe as was good for PSV and still at Beskitas. Would be fantastic to see him play in world cup at nearly 40 years old.
 
GuybrushThreepwood said:
Regarding Mexico, this is the worst Mexican team that I’ve seen for a while, and I never thought that Tata Martino was a good choice as manager; I thought that there were better candidates within Liga MX. The media and public really appear to turning on the manager and team, with these back to back defeats following the defeats in the Gold Cup and Nations League finals over the summer.

I always thought that the insular nature of Mexican football held the national team back, though always making it out of their groups at World Cups is still good going. They have an inefficient talent pipeline. Ideally more Mexican players around their mid 20s would play in Europe, freeing up space for younger Mexican players to gain invaluable minutes in Liga MX. But of course with Liga MX paying good salaries, it provides a nice comfort zone for many Mexican players throughout the best years of their career, and means that they can Mexican clubs can afford to charge a premium for them putting off potential European suitors.
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An even bigger problem is that the limit for how many foreigners could play for a team was removed so clubs got lazy. Why develop hundreds of youngsters when you can buy a fully developed player from Brazil or Uruguay for relatively modest amounts. Very few Mexican clubs have proper youth setups and it shows.

The worst thing is that the powers that be will blame Martino for this and not take a hard long look at themselves.
 
TheGame said:
Chile not qualified either, Vidal sent off and they lost 2-0 to Ecuador. So no Chile and no Uruguay.
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Chile and Uruguay still have chances, but if they lose 1 more game it's literally over for both.

One of them is gonna miss next WC for sure.

Uruguay has definitely a better fixture, Chile still has to play 1 game against Argentina.
And they play each other in the last match of the qualifiers, it will be a deciding game.

I can see Uruguay qualifying over Chile, Suarez and Cavani will do the job.
 
Wolf1992 said:
Chile and Uruguay still have chances, but if they lose 1 more game it's literally over for both.

One of them is gonna miss next WC for sure.

Uruguay has definitely a better fixture, Chile still has to play 1 game against Argentina.
And they play each other in the last match of the qualifiers, it will be a deciding game.

I can see Uruguay qualifying over Chile, Suarez and Cavani will do the job.
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Must have misread the table then as thought fixtures were over.
 
Play-offs are being drawn.

Scotland and Wales in the same bracket.

Italy and Portugal too. Just had to happen.
 
Portugal and Italy in one path, only one of these giants will feature in the World Cup :nervous:
 
Path A:
Scotland Vs Ukraine
Wales Vs Austria

Path B:
Russia Vs Poland
Sweden Vs Czech Republic

Path C:
Italy Vs N-Macedonia
Portugal Vs Turkey
 
That last minute goal by Serbia against Portugal is proving to be very costly..
 
It's kind of shit to be losing Italy or Portugal before the tournament. Either no European champions, or no GOAT.
 
Pity no Ronaldo or maybe no Italy in the finals, don’t know which ones worst.
 
Fernando Santos has turned from the luckiest coach ever to the unluckiest. He made a deal with the devil for 2016, fire him while there's still time
 
Home advantage for Portugal in the final if they beat Turkey first.
 
Karembeu's dexterity is amazing.

Italy has no luck, if they win their side of the draw they have to be World Champions. :lol:
 
Path A:
Scotland Vs Ukraine
Wales Vs Austria

Path B:
Russia Vs Poland
Sweden Vs Czech Republic

Path C:
Italy Vs N-Macedonia
Portugal Vs Turkey

Ukraine, Sweden and Portugal to qualify.
 
Ramos said:
Path A:
Scotland Vs Ukraine
Wales Vs Austria

Path B:
Russia Vs Poland
Sweden Vs Czech Republic

Path C:
Italy Vs N-Macedonia
Portugal Vs Turkey
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Home advantage to the bolded teams for the finals.
 
I think Portugal will qualify.

We're close to having 4 World Cups with Italy being irrelevant there which would've been unthinkable in 2006.
 
They're drawing the inter confederation play-offs too.

Two places. Both decided in 1 game on neutral grounds.

The CONMEBOL team in this one might be a pretty big one like Uruguay or Colombia.

It will be:

AFC vs CONMEBOL
CONCACAF vs Oceania (basically N-Zealand)
 
We're done for. No way we're getting through Italy (Portugal). Shame as this would be Ronnie's last world cup.

Edit: All because of a game we should've won but there was no goal line technology.
 
I don't see why Italy is unlucky, the most likely scenario will have them play Turkey.

BTW I was able to get access to Santos' tactics for the playoffs

 
Would love Wales to knockout Scotland just so the England fans open the “let’s laugh at Scotland thread” they made the England one very popular on here in the summer if I remember..
 
Pool A for Europe is dire. From Pool B, only the Czechs look good. It's a crime Portugal and Italy are together.

Ronaldo should kick out their manager himself.
 
Good chance for us Sweden to qualify. Cech at home we should win.

Then if it is Russia away that can be hard.
 
Even if we beat Turkey (and with Santos is a big if) we're not going to beat Italy. The only good thing of failing Qatar will be sending this reactionary to retirement.
 
SCP said:
Even if we beat Turkey (and with Santos is a big if) we're not going to beat Italy. The only good thing of failing Qatar will be sending this reactionary to retirement.
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That's okay, just have your players pull on these t-shirts after the final whistle against Italy.

210325095359-norway-team-human-rights-0324-super-tease.jpg
 
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