CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying Groups

Watching the US vs Cuba, its currently 5:1, its being played in the US, so does anyone want to place bets on how many Cuban players will defect? last time Cuba played in the US they had about 8 players defect,

Jamaica 1-0 Mexico

R.fuller

Di Caniooooo! wrote:Watching the US vs Cuba, its currently 5:1, its being played in the US, so does anyone want to place bets on how many Cuban players will defect? last time Cuba played in the US they had about 8 players defect,

2 of them already defected.

Messiah wrote:Jamaica 1-0 Mexico

R.fuller

Eriksson is f@cked. The Mexican fans and players were already unhappy with him being appointed, and now the pressure on him will get much worse.

The most boring and predictable WC qualifying confederation.

get rid.

Di Caniooooo! wrote:Watching the US vs Cuba, its currently 5:1, its being played in the US, so does anyone want to place bets on how many Cuban players will defect? last time Cuba played in the US they had about 8 players defect,

2 this time?

T&T 2 -1 U.S.A
(Edwards,Yorke(P) and Davies)

Canada 2-2 Mexico
(Gebra,Radzinski, Salcido & Vuoso)

Jamaica 1-0 Honduras
(L.Shelton)

Sven,Sven Sven.

Ricardo Jol wrote:

Di Caniooooo! wrote:Watching the US vs Cuba, its currently 5:1, its being played in the US, so does anyone want to place bets on how many Cuban players will defect? last time Cuba played in the US they had about 8 players defect,

2 this time?

yeah, everytime Cuba plays any sporting event in the US at least a couple of their players seek asylum.

Rosicky wrote:The most boring and predictable WC qualifying confederation.

get rid.

Compared to Oceania?

Sven took up the job for the cheap hookers in Mexico.

Di Caniooooo! wrote:

Rosicky wrote:The most boring and predictable WC qualifying confederation.

get rid.

Compared to Oceania?

Oceania is terrible, especially after Australia left. Now New Zealand will have to join Asian federation to get competitive matches. However, Oceania does not have an automatic place at the World Cup finals. Their champions get a play-off, which they usually lose. CONCACAF gets 3 automatic places plus a play-off. Does it really need that many automatic places? Despite poor result odds are that Mexico will qualify as well. Two should be enough with the third becoming a play-off so they still have the chance to qualify and Oceania should have an automatic place as they really need experience and competition. Without Australia that simply won't happen and it will become a totally pointless federation. It has to be helped out to get experience and competition. If it is meant to be a world game then weak federations like this need help from the stronger ones and FIFA.

Well by FIFA maths 35 fifa members entitle cocacaf to 3.5 members.

Let's compare CONCACAF with AFC (Asia & OZ) based on FIFA World ranking postions:

CONCACAF (3.5 spots, 35 countries, of which in top 100):
22 USA
24 Mexico
50 Honduras
69 Costa Rica
84 Canada
88 T&T
89 Guatamala
91 Panama
98 Cuba

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=23914&rank=174

AFC (4.5 spots, 45 countries, of which in top 100):
32 Japan
34 OZ
48 Iran
51 Saudi Arabia
55 Korea Rep
70 Uzbekistan
72 Bahrain
77 Iraq
78 Qatar
94 Oman
96 China
99 Syria

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=25998&rank=174

Think it's pretty similar 1 spot for every 10 countries. The average FIFA ranking of the countries qualifying from CONCACAF will be higher than those of AFC & it's not like the 3rd (and if so 4th) nation qualifying from CONCACAF will be worse (if at all) than any of the Asian qualifiers.

Compared to CONCACAF & AFC, CAF (Africa) get probably the worst treatment (for economic/commercial reasons?): 53 countries 5 spots, but average ranking of qualifying nations will be higher (CAF have 5 nations in top 30 and 27 in top 100).

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/lastranking/gender=m/fullranking.html#confederation=23913&rank=174

Di Caniooooo! wrote:Well by FIFA maths 35 fifa members entitle cocacaf to 3.5 members.

Then explain how ten members entitles South America to 4.5, Europe's 53(?) to 13 and Africa's 53 to 5? Oceania to half, CONCACAF 3.5, host 1 and Asia the remining ones? The number of members of the confederations has nothing to do with it and nor does FIFA's maths. It is down to the relative strength and power of federations. Oceania has the least and therefore gets the least representation in the finals.

It's mainly about quality. But it's not just that, imo commerce has influence too

If it was about just about quality UEFA & CONMEBOL would get even more spots. So FIFA wants to stimulate football developmentin other continents. Makes sense. No problems with that.

BUT if we compare CONCACAF, AFC & CAF. CAF get shafted. Just half a spot more than Asia is a joke (based on quality they deserve more). AFC & CONCACAF get about the same treatment.

CONCACAF 3
AFC 4
CAF 6

would be fairer.

De Guzman wrote:It's mainly about quality. But it's not just that, imo commerce has influence too

If it was about just about quality UEFA & CONMEBOL would get even more spots. So FIFA wants to stimulate football developmentin other continents. Makes sense. No problems with that.

BUT if we compare CONCACAF, AFC & CAF. CAF get shafted. Just half a spot more than Asia is a joke (based on quality they deserve more). AFC & CONCACAF get about the same treatment.

CONCACAF 3
AFC 4
CAF 6

would be fairer.

Not exactly sure how it should be done, but Oceania needs an automatic slot. They will never develop without it. They don't get competitive football apart from the Confederations Cup and one play off every four years. How can they possibly earn a spot with that? FIFA needs to step in to help them develop, or they are screwed. A fairer system all round is needed.

Beg to differ on Oceania requiring an automic slot, would mean New Zealand (ranked 54th in the world, all other islands are ranked way below 100) would be the only country automatically qualified for each world cup.

Think Oceania should be made part of the AFC zone. We're talking about 11 countries, most of which have little inhabitants & do not care about football either.

De Guzman wrote:Beg to differ on Oceania requiring an automic slot, would mean New Zealand (ranked 54th in the world, all other islands are ranked way below 100) would be the only country automatically qualified for each world cup.

Think Oceania should be made part of the AFC zone. We're talking about 11 countries, most of which have little inhabitants & do not care about football either.

I could live with that, but if Oceania got an automatic slot Australia would return and gradually Oceania would get better and eventually deserve their spot on merit.

But for so many years Australia just kept walking over all the other teams in Oceania, even when there wasn't an automatic spot. I think De Guzman's idea is an interesting one - adding Oceania to Asia.

Asia has a 2 legged qualifying system, with a number of groups initially, and it's then whittled down to 2 groups of 5 each. If the Oceania countries are mixed in with the weaker Asian teams in that initial group phase, that'll be a fantastic way of giving them more exposure without it being too difficult of a step up.

kas wrote:But for so many years Australia just kept walking over all the other teams in Oceania, even when there wasn't an automatic spot. I think De Guzman's idea is an interesting one - adding Oceania to Asia.

Asia has a 2 legged qualifying system, with a number of groups initially, and it's then whittled down to 2 groups of 5 each. If the Oceania countries are mixed in with the weaker Asian teams in that initial group phase, that'll be a fantastic way of giving them more exposure without it being too difficult of a step up.

Like I said I can live with it. New Zealand has given Australia competition occasionally. It all depends on whether Oceania should be developed or not and whether football politics would allow it to merge with Asia. It makes sense, but since has making sense and football politics combined to give the best result.

Sven lose again and will get the sack when he returns to Mexico. but Mexico still advance on GD.

Honduras 12
Mexico 10
Jamaica 10
Canada 2

Anyone who has been watching Mexico's games under Sven? Was he just an awful fit from the start, or are these performances affected by some of the players themselves not being keen on his appointment and thus not giving 100% mentally and physically.

A real disaster that a team for whom qualifiers are just warmup games, is suddenly struggling through on goal difference

I watched two of their games and i must say he just wasn't want mexico needed at this moment in time, added to that the fact that a few of the players didn't want him as coach and you could see that it would never had worked out.

They should have kept HUGO he had the team playing some good football and giving the likes of Brazil a fun for their money