Jump to content

Match Day 11: England v Panama; Japan v Senegal; Poland v Colombia


Recommended Posts

4 hours ago, Prince Onyinye W. Ndidi said:

Dreading the 48-team WC. We will be seeing a bunch of worse teams than Panama getting in. Hungary's 10-1 WC record win against El Salvador is going to be in danger.

Italy, Netherlands, Chile, USA, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ireland.

That's already 8 teams that could have make their way to Russia but didn't. Considering the average level of those teams is nowhere near mediocre (some of them are even top football nations), how can you assume that the 16 teams who'll benefit the 2026 new format, will all be garbage ?

PS: on other topic, I might have missed the episode when Lingard became a regular starter for England.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

41 minutes ago, Warm-hands said:

Italy, Netherlands, Chile, USA, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ireland.

That's already 8 teams that could have make their way to Russia but didn't. Considering the average level of those teams is nowhere near mediocre (some of them are even top football nations), how can you assume that the 16 teams who'll benefit the 2026 new format, will all be garbage ?

PS: on other topic, I might have missed the episode when Lingard became a regular starter for England.

But a lot of the new spots will be going to Africa and Asia rather than Europe (plus New Zealand now get a guaranteed spot without having to go through a playoff). While I’ll accept that the average African team quality will probably be similar to the current qualifiers (as you say, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana missed out on this year), I’m not sure having teams like Syria or Uzbekistan will make for exciting or close games.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Warm-hands said:

how can you assume that the 16 teams who'll benefit the 2026 new format, will all be garbage ?

Because the current proposal which appears likely to be ratified by FIFA gives the following breakdown: Europe 16 teams (13 currently); Africa 9 (5 currently); Asia 8 + 1 playoff (4+1 playoff currently), South America 6 (4+1 playoff currently), Concacaf 6+1 playoff (3+1 playoff currently), Oceania 1 (1 playoff currently), Host nation 1.

Since the 2026 WC will have 3 host nations there is also a proposal to have all three hosts given automatic qualification + 3 further automatic spots for Concacaf + 2 playoff spots. 

There will also be 16 groups as opposed to 8 which means that the top teams are going to be even more spread out - the top 2 from the group still qualify. This really waters down the group stage and makes it even more predictable.

Quote

Italy, Netherlands, Chile, USA, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ireland.

That's already 8 teams that could have make their way to Russia but didn't. Considering the average level of those teams is nowhere near mediocre (some of them are even top football nations),

Only Italy and Netherlands are top footballing nations. Ireland punched above their weight but are pretty mediocre overall, USA were garbage but might improve in 8 years time, Chile's golden generation will be long gone by 2026 and African sides generally perform poorly at WCs. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’m at my cousin’s house and to say they have been disappointed in Poland’s performance this World Cup is a serious understatement. At least we’re now going to have pizza and beer.

I was astonished at the number of Colombians in the crowd and they just looked at me and said ‘cocaine!’. Oh dear!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Warm-hands said:

Italy, Netherlands, Chile, USA, Algeria, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Ireland.

That's already 8 teams that could have make their way to Russia but didn't. Considering the average level of those teams is nowhere near mediocre (some of them are even top football nations), how can you assume that the 16 teams who'll benefit the 2026 new format, will all be garbage ?

PS: on other topic, I might have missed the episode when Lingard became a regular starter for England.

I am afraid, you would rather get to see more Iran-Morocco like matches, which was objectively dreadful to watch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...