Paddy Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 I think it would do us well as we no longer deserve direct qualification. It does not make sense that previous winners get direct qualification. Eventually it would mean that only 12 teams would ever get to compete or the spaces to qualify for it will be greatly diminished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPjr Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 The GC is a pretty low ranking tournament to begin with. Could you imagine the difficulty the CSA would have in assembling a half way decent squad if they needed to qualify. They have a hard enough time getting players to play in the actual tournament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VPjr Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 The GC is a pretty low ranking tournament to begin with. Could you imagine the difficulty the CSA would have in assembling a half way decent squad if they needed to qualify. They have a hard enough time getting players to play in the actual tournament. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Our direct qualification is a usefeul contrivance. There is no way CONCACAF wants either Mexico or the US to have to qualify as teh long shot loss of either of them would be a disaster for revenues from the tourney. Also, most of the qualifying that does go on is regional...so that small poor nations do not have to bear a lot of travel costs. So if Canada has to qualify, which region do we qualify with? In a better world, the tournament would rotate amongst nations and everyone would have to qualify. But this is CONCACAF... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrennanFan Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Dont think we should have to qualify, but it bothers me that the Caribbean gets a championship, and the central americans have a tourney to crown their champion, why shouldnt the 3 northern nations get a little 3 way tourney too. I know there is little chance of this happening as Mex and the US would have no interest, but it would be a nice excuse to play a few games with the US and Mexico every 2 years- good prep anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 Canada had to qualify up until 2000 (we played a playoff tournament in 1999). After the win, CONCACAF thought it would be easier to just declare "former winners" automatical qualifiers (US and Mexico were qualifying anyways) to not have to worry about Canada. Qualifying would give us better prep for WCQ than the actual GC, with away games in hostile environments and maybe (gasp!) home games. The trouble is that UNCAF and the Caribbean region already have regional tournaments in place. Canada would either have to integrate one of these (which would be surprising) or again play an inter-regional playoff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 I know that we used to. I just think it would be valuable to do it again. It would be one way to force some more games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 What if we can't get any of our top players together? We go in with a "D" team and end up not qualifying and there go the GC games we so valuably need...keep it as is, we won the 2000 GC and deserve to reap the benefits of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy Posted June 6, 2007 Author Share Posted June 6, 2007 quote:Originally posted by jpg75 What if we can't get any of our top players together? We go in with a "D" team and end up not qualifying and there go the GC games we so valuably need...keep it as is, we won the 2000 GC and deserve to reap the benefits of it. Well, we did qualify before and we do seem to have a deeper player pool. If we keep getting knocked out in the first round I think we should have to qualify. I don't think we deserve that kind of priveledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesW Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 I agree with you Paddy. I think all teams should have to Qualify. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CanadasBest Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 All teams should have to qualify, and the tournament should have 16 teams rather than 12. (And no guest teams) There are 40 teams in CONCACAF and although some of them are fairly weak, the extra exposure and games would be helpful to these smaller associations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Jeffery S. Posted June 7, 2007 Share Posted June 7, 2007 Yes, definitely. And it would benefit us a lot, apart from meaning more official national teams games at home. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devioustrevor Posted June 16, 2007 Share Posted June 16, 2007 I think the problem with qualifying for the Gold Cup is how drawn out our World Cup Qualifying is. It is already possible for a team to have to play two qualifying rounds before playing two group stages. That means upwards of 20 qualifying games for a team finishing 4th in the final qualifying round would have to play a further 2 games in a cross qualifier, so 22 games. Realisitically that number could only be reasonably dropped to 14 games total. So unless you move the Gold Cup from a 2 year cycle to a 4 year cycle and have the Gold Cup in the even numbered year between World Cups and use Gold Cup qualifying as an early round of World Cup qualifying I don't see how it could work. The way I could see that working with a 4-year Gold Cup cycle would be play the 2009 Gold Cup as Normal but then move the next one to 2012. The 2012 Gold Cup would be a 16 team tournament where all 16 teams would be forced to qualify. The 40 CONCACAF nations would be drawn into 8 seperate 5-team groups with there being 8 "Home Seed Nations" that would host their Qualifying group (based on the FIFA seedings at the conclusion of the previous World Cup Qualifying cycles) over an approximately 2-week period the summer before the Gold Cup (in this case 2011) with the Top 2 finishers in each group qualifying for the Gold Cup. Since only 35 of the 40 CONCACAF members are eligible to qualify for the World Cup, it would be possible to fail to qualify for Gold Cup and still move on to the next round of World Cup qualifying. Assuming all 16 Gold Cup qualifiers were FIFA members (in the event a non-FIFA member finished 1st or 2nd in their qualifying group the 3rd placed team, also assuming they are a FIFA member, would move to the next round of World Cup Qualifying) after the Gold Cup they would be randomly drawn into 8 head-to-head home-and-away qualifying ties. Standard rules would apply for advancement (-ie- Best Aggregate > Away Goals > Shoot-out) down to 8 teams, repeated to 4 teams (-ie- Semi-Finals) repeated to Finals (which actually would be inconsequential and therefore rather unnecessary to play) with the losers of the Semi-Final round to play home-and-away to determine 3rd and 4th place for qualifying purposes. Under such a scheme, the absolute maximum number games required to qualify for the World Cup would be 14 (4 Gold Cup Qualifiers, 8 knock-out games, 2 Inter-Confederation Cross Qualifers) and as little as 10 or 12 games (depending on whether or not the final round would have to be played since they would both already be qualified for the World Cup as teams 1 and 2, although the round could still be played for bragging rights). One definite problem with such a set-up would be making it very difficult to also undertake a Caribbean and Central American championship. Unless of course the only reason for such a tournament to be currently undertake is for purposes of Gold Cup qualifying. Also, it leaves open the possibility of a random draw draw pitting the US and Mexico against each other in the round of 16 or round of 8 assuring that one of the regions superpowers fails to qualify for the World Cup, although it would also make games more important as teams couldn't afford a 'off' day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrpopulistfutebol Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 quote:Originally posted by BrennanFan Dont think we should have to qualify, but it bothers me that the Caribbean gets a championship, and the central americans have a tourney to crown their champion, why shouldnt the 3 northern nations get a little 3 way tourney too. I know there is little chance of this happening as Mex and the US would have no interest, but it would be a nice excuse to play a few games with the US and Mexico every 2 years- good prep anyway. I agree. Why does the Caribbean nations get a championship? I know the northern zone only has three nations (Canada, USA and Mexico), but it seriously would be nice idea to have a championshp for this zone. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAS Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 quote:Originally posted by mrpopulistfutebol I agree. Why does the Caribbean nations get a championship? I know the northern zone only has three nations (Canada, USA and Mexico), but it seriously would be nice idea to have a championshp for this zone. Don't forget the all-powerful Bermuda! That allows for a proper four team tournament - and a guarantee that Canada gets atleast one victory. Convincing the USA and Mexico to go for it, and finding a spot in the calendar to assemble the A squad, would be extremely difficult. Also, there is no way that they would in any way risk the possibility of the USA or Mexico missing the GC as that is where all the money is made. Holding the GC in America, and likely Canada in 2009, means that automatic entry stays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrpopulistfutebol Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 That is true, I guess. Mexico and the USA bring home the bacon for CONCACAF. It is sad, but true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hectorj Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 Bahamas too ! They are not in the Caribbean, nor are the Turks and Caicos islands. What about Greenland ? Technically, they are part of this continent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vancanman Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 The thing that bothers me most about the Gold Cup and qualifying, etc. is that one particular country has been allowed to host it since time immemorial. Because one country has been the host, it is in my opinion, an invitational tournament rather than a zone championship. To be fair, if Canada has to qualify, then so should Mexico and the USA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glenn Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I think the officials should have to qualify for the Gold Cup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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