Football 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifying Thread

[Jos the Boss]

I wikipedia'd it and it is Andorra, only 3 international wins, 1 competitive

 

[Bus Stop Chicane]

I wikipedia'd it and it is Andorra, only 3 international wins, 1 competitive

Oh I thought you meant England were playing Andorra in their group, that's why I said Moldova.

 

[teabagyokel]

Bus Stop Chicane - If we last 9 seconds without conceding we'll be doing well.

 

[Bus Stop Chicane]

Bus Stop Chicane - If we last 9 seconds without conceding we'll be doing well.

Oh aye I remember that! You still thrashed them though, Ireland needed a last minute goal a few years back!

 

[Slyboogy]

I find the groups odd, they usually seem to be tougher than this.

Although Scotland and Wales, might have no super-power in their group, they've got 3 very decent teams in Serbia, Belgium and Croatia. Belgium are starting to have a solid squad, Croatia are always there or thereabouts, Serbia was the reason why Serbia & Montegro where good.

At least they didn't get put into a Spain & France, or Italy and Spain group. I don't have much hope anyway as I don't really like Leveins tactics.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Belgium have Hazard, Felliani and Kompany in their team expect them to be strong against everyone in their group.

 

[Slyboogy]

Belgium have Hazard, Felliani and Kompany in their team expect them to be strong against everyone in their group.

The key man out of those three is

Fellaini

 

[teabagyokel]

The Belgian players have started really well in the Premier League; Kompany not so much but Hazard has been hazardous, Man United have been chasing the shadows of Dembele and Fellaini, Lukaku has been a great impact sub for the Baggies and Mirallas is supposedly going to be excellent for Everton too.

 

[landogeorgelewis1]

Mirallas looked class yesterday - tucked away his two goals well .

 

[soccerman17]

I think USA can make it through! But here is for Olivier

Group A I think USA should be through but you never know. That leaves Jamaica and Guatemala fighting for the final spot and I'm just going to rule out Antigua and Barbuda.

Group B Mexico is crusing through already with a 5 point gap over third 2 games in. Costa Rica and El Salvador tied and I'm assuming El Salvador will beat Guyana and Costa Rica will lose to Mexico to put them even halfway through. And once again I'm going to rule out Guyana.

Group C is a lot more wide open without either of the 2 powers. Ruling out Cuba, and Honduras are third but have not played Cuba yet. I think It is a pretty fair 3 way fight between Honduras, Panama, and Canada in that group.

Then from there we get the dreaded hexagonal- basically a 6 team international mini league. Top three advance and fourth plays Oceania winner AKA New Zealand although they were beaten by New Caledonia in the OFC Nations Cup.

 

[Olivier]

soccerman17 thanks, we still have a lot to go through. One step a time I guess. This Friday I'm going to the Canada vs Panama game. It's going to be a lot of fun. Soccer isn't mainstream just yet in Canada as it is in the USA, will see what happens

 

[teabagyokel]

The fixtures in UEFA qualifying for Friday are a tad uninspiring - the best of the bunch is probably Netherlands vs Turkey at Amsterdam ArenA, which will really show if the Dutch have recovered from their Euro nightmare. Germany have got the Faroe Islands, by the way, so thats the likely thrashing of the day.

 

[soccerman17]

Olivier i definitely would not say that soccer is mainstream in the US. Sure almost all kids play it when they're young and a lot do up until college too, but as opposed to the other major American sports those who don't play it don't watch and don't care about it. The MLS definitely isn't mainstream, it has a pretty decent sized niche market, but to say its mainstream is absurd. It also seems that your Canadians are much more overachieving at soccer than the Americans based on population and resources- not saying Canada doesn't have them but its nowhere close to what the US can turn out for other sports. Canada vs. Panama should be a great game Panama is starting to get very scary internationally!

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Liechtenstein have started there World Cup campaign in typical style by losing 8-1 at home to Bosnia.

 

[Galahad]

Wouldn't it be better for everyone if the bottom ranked 16 countries in Europe had to pre-qualify for, say, four places in qualifying proper? They learn nothing from being thrashed every time, and for the major nations the games are a sheer waste of time, as well as devaluing international football generally - evidenced by the number of convenient injuries to key players.

 

[Olivier]

The MLS definitely isn't mainstream, it has a pretty decent sized niche market, but to say its mainstream is absurd.

yes, I should have said is more mainstream than in Canada where there's no local tournament to speak of. In order to select a team to represent the country, Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver play a mini-tournament in the span of 2 weeks. Even at soccer bars you get frowned upon by asking to tune in a game where Canada is playing.

 

[mjo]

Galahad It must be quite demoralising for smaller teams to go into every game knowing that they are going to lose, so maybe you should contact UEFA!!!

 

[soccerman17]

Galahad Portugal only managed a 2-1 win against Luxembourg today. Also while some of those teams are bad because they are tiny others just don't have the interest in soccer and haven't allocated the resources towards it. How is it going to grow so they can be good if they're stuck playing against just the other 15 worst teams? The games against the giants are truly a learning experience for them.

 

[Galahad]

The games against the giants are truly a learning experience for them.

Are they really, though? 20% possession, chasing the ball around for 90 minutes, always on the defensive?

Moving away from individual match results, none of these teams is ever going to qualify for a major championship. Having a pre-qualification tournament would give them a realistic target to aim for, potentially a trophy to win, and I'm sure that would be a much bigger spur to local engagement and interest.

They could also try out a few other formations than 6-4-0.

 

[soccerman17]

Not against the big boys like Spain, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, England they're not but against the not quite so dominant teams such as Norway (who lost 2-0 to Iceland yesterday), Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Bosnia, Greece, Turkey they are. The games against teams who are borderline in terms of qualifying for tournaments are great learning experiences because, while often a loss, they do enjoy some possession and actually have a chance at being successful at defending. OK so I said the giants and ya that statement was wrong but I still do believe it would hamper those teams. I used to play soccer (youth soccer but same idea) and my team always got the most out of playing better teams and would often lose by 2 or 3 goals but kept it reasonably close. Sometimes we would win but usually not but it was worth a lot more than playing out a draw against an equal team.