Forums

If FIFA insists on a World Cup every 2 years, I’d love it if they’d be open to trying a different format every other World Cup. Every 4 years have the traditional World Cup, but keep it at 32 teams. In between, try a knockout style tournament like Wimbledon / March Madness… I think there are 211 member nations:  Teams ranked 46-211 start in the first round, 1-45 join the 63 winners of Round 1 into a 128 team round 2 and the bracket begins.  Maybe have the first few 3 or 4 rounds “regionally” and then have the final 32 or 16 and after in one location.  Perhaps give the host of this Final 32/16 a bye even into this point of the tournament.   The pros would be no need for qualification, it’s something new, it works for tennis and college basketball.  The cons would be a lot of early round blowouts / low -ranked teams parking the bus.

class guy on and off the pitch,sorry to see him go.i can think of 6 or 7 of his teammates i wish would join him in retirement.

While I am mildly skeptical of performance in Russia, as the USMNT/American players have no real track record there, if Whoscored is anything to go by, Ennin has nearly a 7 rating in 3 games. His last 2 were 7.4 and 7.2, after a 6.4 in his debut.   FTR: That's quite good. A 7ish rating would put him in the top 40. A 7.3 would put him top 10. 

It also looks like they plan to start the World Cup a week earlier and finish by the turn of the month.  The last World Cup didn't finish until July 15th. The 25 day break is a very eurocentric talking point but that is the opposition they have to placate.  In practice, I don't see how it can be enforced for other confederations.        

Why hasn't Giraldo featured with FCE?