Joe Keeper Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 After all these long, bitter, bloody years, this day comes... Depending upon how we perform, this day could represent a major turning point in Canadian mens soccer history. Lets not take anyone for granted, and lets get it right this time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto7 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Nigel Reed said that round 2 is round-robin and NOT home and away. Does that mean we play the other 3 teams in one location? I was hoping for a couple of qualifiers in Canada. Anyone understand how it will work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CUJO Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 there is simply no excuse to not get to the hex. If they dont, then we know that we are not "unlucky" but just plain bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Nigel Reed said that round 2 is round-robin and NOT home and away. Does that mean we play the other 3 teams in one location? I was hoping for a couple of qualifiers in Canada. Anyone understand how it will work? Its the same as its always been. Round robin. Not in one location Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrennanFan Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Ok. We got what we wanted. Lets just not get over confident and start looking past opponents. Anyway... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Keeper Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Nigel Reed said that round 2 is round-robin and NOT home and away. Does that mean we play the other 3 teams in one location? I was hoping for a couple of qualifiers in Canada. Anyone understand how it will work? Free Kick has it right. The CBC and Nigel Reed also said that CONCACAF will get the Oceania winner as our play off partner. Im pretty sure that it is the Asian 5th place that CONCACAF number 4 gets... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 To compare Potential Semi final group for canada now versus past three cycles. 2002- Mex, Pan TnT 2006-CRC, Hon, Gua 2010- Mex, Hon, Jam 2014- Hon, Cub, likely Pan You just cant compare. Although 2002 in retrospect should have been easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoshieScores Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Wow this is ****ing orgasmic. First, we find out CONCACAF doesn't face the 5th placed COMMOBOL team for the half spot for the WCQ (instead we get 1st placed OFC) and now Canada gets a favourable draw?? Damn... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Footscray Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Holy crap I can't believe how well the draw went. I think Puerto Rico will be the biggest hurdle to the hex. There's a margin for error with panama, cuba and Honduras, you only need to beat 2 of the 3 and can lose a couple games. Puerto Rico are competitive and if they lose even one of those two games against them could be knocked out pretty easily on goal differential. Still amazing draw and they should make the hex for once, I think it will be fun to watch too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villus Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Getting out of our 2nd group is not going to be easy. Playing away to all 3 teams is going to be tough, and Panama looked very good in GC. Its still the best draw we've had since I can remember and although the 2nd round is'nt a cake walk if we cant get through that group then we have no poor draw to blame. Going to have to run up the score vs the minnows to ensure that we have some room for error vs Puerto Rico. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
grigorio Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I'm just grateful to see some different teams for a change. The steady stream of Jamaica and Honduras was getting weary... Although we still have f'in Honduras should we advance. Looking forward to a grudge match in Montreal this time around. This whole confusion around what the continental playoff matchups are is pretty ridiculous... The latest from the FIFA website, is that CONCACAF plays winner of OCEANIA. So, New Zealand. I would have preferred Asia, but can't complain! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I dont know why people think PR is any kind of a challenge. Puert Rico is minnow, we are not playing them in Baseball or Basketball. We are playing them in soccer, they are a minow in soccer. Are you guys thinking that there should be concern because of the PR Islanders? Well the tesm is made up of mostly foreigners/ americans. Their best player Pueto rican was Marco Velez who was a complete stiff with TFC. I cant name any other pueto rican player of any note. PR has never accomplished anything in international soccer. Edit: http://www.prislandersfc.com/index.php?id=158 There are only two puerto ricans playing for the Islanders. The rest are foriegners At least St kitts has Atiba Harris who is much better than anything Puerto Rico has. But again, Harris is the only player of any note on that squad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Keeper Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Oops... my bad. CONCACAF DOES get the OFC in the play offs. The Brit announcer at the draw himself made the same mistake I did when he announced it and threw me off. I didnt even look at the graphic Fifa put up after the inter-continental play offs were announced. I could'nt be happier to be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villus Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 We can't drop points at home this time around, that has been our issue for the most part. Hopefully we can organize and get great support to do our part when we have home Qualifiers. Hopefully we get some big performances from the boys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 Its the same as its always been. Round robin. Not in one locationI think Nigel's point in making the comment referred to by Alberto7 was that it is not the same as it has always been, or at least not the same as it was for the last three World Cups, in the sense that Canada will enter at a stage that is a group, whereas in the last three World Cups we entered with a home-and-away series against one other team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 We got about as lucky as we could get, unbelievable! I am now looking forward to qualifying instead of cringing in doubt. Honduras is a team we should be able to compete with, i don't think they're as strong as they were last cycle and we should be able to get results from them. Panama will be tricky, but no reason we can't steal a draw down in Panama City. Cuba was the best we could have hoped for by avoiding CR and Jamaica. I would put our chances of making the Hex at somewhere around 60%. BTW, i don't know why so many people are concerned with Puerto Rico? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 According to the latest rankings, assuming favourites advance, we are the lowest ranked team in our semi-final group. 4 - Honduras, 6- Panama and 9-Cuba. While this is a favourable draw generally, lets not forget who we are. I would say right now, both Honduras and Panama are better than us although not by all that much relative to US and Mexico, so we are going to have step up our game to advance to the Hex. But still a much better draw than the past 3. Getting out of our 2nd group is not going to be easy. Playing away to all 3 teams is going to be tough, and Panama looked very good in GC. Its still the best draw we've had since I can remember and although the 2nd round is'nt a cake walk if we cant get through that group then we have no poor draw to blame.Yes, I agree with you guys. The draw is good, better (though I'm not convinced about how much) than before, but there are some really over-the-top comments about it being the easiest possible draw, about it being a clear path to the hex, etc. Perhaps those comments are just natural reactions to the relief of not drawing Guatemala in the Second Round, not drawing Mexico or the USA in the Third Round and not drawing CONMEBOL in the Interconfederation Playoffs, which makes what we did get look so awesome in comparison? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 Oops... my bad. CONCACAF DOES get the OFC in the play offs. The Brit announcer at the draw himself made the same mistake I did when he announced it and threw me off.Yes, it was one thing when he was translating bits of the speeches, but then he should have kept his mouth shut during the draw because they were already speaking English! They probably explained that the first two confederations drawn wouldn't actually be facing each other, but the guy was talking so we couldn't hear it, and, to make things worse, what he was saying was wrong! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 BTW, i don't know why so many people are concerned with Puerto Rico? That one is total mystery to me as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 Yes, I agree with you guys. The draw is good, better (though I'm not convinced about how much) than before, but there are some really over-the-top comments about it being the easiest possible draw, about it being a clear path to the hex, etc. Perhaps those comments are just natural reactions to the relief of not drawing Guatemala in the Second Round, not drawing Mexico or the USA in the Third Round and not drawing CONMEBOL in the Interconfederation Playoffs, which makes what we did get look so awesome in comparison? I think it's based on the fact that we avoid US or Mexico as the top seed, or Costa Rica or Jamaica as a 2nd seed. Our group could have looked like this: Mexico Costa Rica Canada Panama ...and then we'd be crapping our pants. Even USA and Jamaica in our group would have sucked giant balls... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 For those wondering what the schedule might look like, based on the algorithm used for the last few qualifying cycles it should look like this (if they use the same one): 1 Honduras 2 Cuba 3 Canada 4 Panama June 2012 Canada-Panama/Honduras-Cuba Canada-Cuba/Panama-Honduras September 2012 Honduras-Canada/Cuba-Panama Cuba-Canada/Honduras-Panama October 2012 Canada-Honduras/Panama-Cuba Panama-Canada/Cuba-Honduras * Isn't it funny how we always end up in slot 3 for our groups? This is the fourth time in a row... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 We were worried about Guatemala, but there was only a 1 in 6 chance of drawing them. Looking at things from their perspective, Guatemala had a 4 in 6 chance of drawing a team that could realistically eliminate them without it being considered an upset. Lucky for them, not only did they get one of the other two teams, in Grenada they got the easiest of them all. Moreover, while they did get the USA in the Third Round, they also got Jamaica and Haiti (at the worst), two teams they can realistically finish ahead of to get into the hex. So considering how the odds were stacked against them, Guatemala probably ended up with the best draw of all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJT Posted July 30, 2011 Author Share Posted July 30, 2011 I think it's based on the fact that we avoid US or Mexico as the top seed, or Costa Rica or Jamaica as a 2nd seed.So in other words, you are answering "yes" to my (intended-to-be rhetorical) question. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Free kick Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 I think it's based on the fact that we avoid US or Mexico as the top seed, or Costa Rica or Jamaica as a 2nd seed. Our group could have looked like this: Mexico Costa Rica Canada Panama ...and then we'd be crapping our pants. Even USA and Jamaica in our group would have sucked giant balls... Yes, and based on our current form, you would pretty kiss our chances good bye if thats how it would have turned out. For me its all about 2018 and 2022. The draw gives us a chancee that we will get to play in hex. And as a result play ten more games than otherwise which is invaluable in preparation for 2018. Yes, i might have gone over board, to suggest we could book tickets for Rio. But this is the best chance because even in the hex, if you can strike lightning, its essentially four vying for two spots because we can concede the other two to Mex and the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpg75 Posted July 30, 2011 Share Posted July 30, 2011 So in other words, you are answering "yes" to my (intended-to-be rhetorical) question. You mentioned missing Guatemala, not Costa Rica or Jamaica, which i view as possibly the most critical part of our draw. Getting Cuba as the 2nd seed, regardless of the top seed greatly improves our chances of advancing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.