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The Road to Qatar.


Binky

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Until today, I still can't understand who the hell proposed the previous format and how the hell it's been reviewed and approved. It's the most ridiculous and shamful WCQ I've ever seen in my 40 years of soccer experience.  Even my elementary school leage won't let that sxxt format pass.

Without the interruption of COVID, that format is deem to be a laughing stock of the soccer world. Mr Vic Montagliani should be called "president of 6 nations" for the rest of his life. I would say so even if Canada was within top six nations who get a bye for final round only decided by FIFA ranking. 

When we can't see a fair format to start with, how  could we expect fair play in CONCACAF?  

Edited by lamptern
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2 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

 Yes, @xabuep2  but that graph doesn't show up anywhere else except Mr. Chips video. It's not on CONCACAF's website!

 https://content.invisioncic.com/l286123/monthly_2020_07/image.png.778ed570807b37e15576f5aa96b1b850.png

Let's assume it is correct, because it is a good way of fitting 10 matches for 5 teams into 2 FIFA windows; nobody faces the prospect of playing 3 matches in one month and only one match in the other.

For Canada that means:
Thursday, October 8th: Pot #4 team vs Canada
Sunday, October 11th: Canada vs Pot #3 team

Saturday, November 14th: Pot #5 team vs Canada
Tuesday, November 17th: Canada vs Pot #2 team

In regular times this would work well. With restricted travel and quarantines...I'm not so sure.

The Mr Chip video is just him talking over the official reveal video from CONCACAF is it not?

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59 minutes ago, narduch said:

I can't wait for the draw on August 14. This way I can follow the Covid news in the 4 countries we will face, with the same level of interest people were following the Fifa rankings earlier in the year

And we can get commentary about COVID from PHDs in virology directly in this forum without even going anywhere else!

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1 hour ago, narduch said:

I can't wait for the draw on August 14. This way I can follow the Covid news in the 4 countries we will face, with the same level of interest people were following the Fifa rankings earlier in the year

If we have to play behind closed doors, it will be interesting to see how everyone on this board will go about the "my city deserves home games because" arguments without slinging mud over crowd support.  

 

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2 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

If we have to play behind closed doors, it will be interesting to see how everyone on this board will go about the "my city deserves home games because" arguments without slinging mud over crowd support.  

 

It will devolve into mudslinging about the pitch, camera angles, hotels in the area etc.  Its just the CDN way, HEHEHE.  

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My thoughts.

  • The new system is better than the previous system.
  • Man I hope Canada makes it, and full crowds are allowed in all stadiums by the time the Octagonal rolls around
  • I totally get why El Salvador is upset. Just like fans here were upset at the loss of friendlies to try to get into the hex, of course El Salvador will also be upset about the bar moving on them.
  • I really don't see how this can actually work. I hope we don't have teams having to drop out or forfeit games, or miss players due to travel restrictions. I hope I am wrong about this but I'm not going to hold my breath until there is news about the Canadian government allowing these games to happen. 
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16 hours ago, Strait Red said:

 

WTF?! awesome and insane at the same time. No way Concacaf deserves 8 places. 

edit: Just read the last 2 places are a playoff. Better, but still seems like alot for CONCACAF. 

Edited by johnyb
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20 hours ago, Free kick said:

The question is how much can the economy take of this.   And are the measures taken worth the economic costs.   As Andrew cuomo put it, how much is a life worth?   The ecomony was shut for one reason only. And thats to protect the health care system.   thats a fact!   How much more should we take of this?  For what? 0.2 or 0.4 or 0.3 whatever number it is.  The numbers  are all relative.  Question is:  Is the relative number worth the cost?   And how long should the shutdown last?  There is no right or wrong answer to that but one can and should have an opinion.   Its not just our hobbies like soccer that are disrupted,  it many other things in life.   Should we not have that discussion?   Or should it be that XyZ media outlet says this, therefore we must accpt and comply.  Anything other is terrorism.

I will stay out of commenting on the rest of this post, but there are studies that already show Covid causes permanent heart damage, brain damage to some people, and potential permanent lung issues.  That includes people without symptoms. The economy is tied to our health, and if you're sick, you're not contributing to the economy. If you're dead, you definitely aren't. Someone else in an earlier post here wrote how a few people died a few years early, big deal But 97% of people survive. Now you have thousands of people under 40 who will be burdening our health system, because they caught Covid in 2020, for the next 30 to 50 years. And, because they have health issues, they won't be working as much, putting a strain on our economy. Never mind the people over 40 who would have been fine for decades suddenly developing decades-long health problems.

Sweden, for one, stayed open and their economy still tanked. I'd rather a bad economy for a year because Canada tried to keep it's people safe than reopening now and deal with decades of health costs which impact our economy.

Edited by Trois Reds
Attributed a wrong quote, had to fix
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4 hours ago, Trois Reds said:

I will stay out of commenting on the rest of this post, but there are studies that already show Covid causes permanent heart damage, brain damage to some people, and potential permanent lung issues.  That includes people without symptoms. The economy is tied to our health, and if you're sick, you're not contributing to the economy. If you're dead, you definitely aren't. Sure, as you wrote in an earlier post here, a few people died a few years early, big deal (a little callous IMO, but I digress). But 97% of people survive. Now you have thousands of people under 40 who will be burdening our health system, because they caught Covid in 2020, for the next 30 to 50 years. And, because they have health issues, they won't be working as much, putting a strain on our economy. Never mind the people over 40 who would have been fine for decades suddenly developing decades-long health problems.

Sweden, for one, stayed open and their economy still tanked. I'd rather a bad economy for a year because Canada tried to keep it's people safe than reopening now and deal with decades of health costs which impact our economy.

A couple of points, first of all you indicated:

 Sure, as you wrote in an earlier post here, a few people died a few years early, big deal (a little callous IMO, ) 

But i never said such a thing.  You must be thinking of someone else’s post.   Also, i dont recall anyone exactly saying that.  I only commented once on this topic in this whole thread and that the post you cited
 

For the rest,   I can respect your opinion.  For what its worth mine is little bit different.  Will expand later..

I am back,  continuing:  regarding the studies pointing to heart, brain and lung damage.   Problem with this argument is that that is not the reason why the economy was shut down and confinement was imposed nor is it likely to be reason (for now) for a prolonged or future confinement.   The reason for the confinement (worth repeating) was to protect the health care system. In other words not overwhelm the health care workers.  It seems to have worked.   In ontario,  in the early days of the pandemic,  if you would go to the website, they would just tell you to stay home.  If it was an issue about permanent damage to lung, heart and brain, they wouldnt be telling people to say home.  In other words they (ie.; medical authorities) are likely to put all these studies into context and look at the bigger picture.  Also, we dont have context for these studies that you cited.

Point is, we dont know what the long term impact will be (if any) in 20-50 year for those under 40.   Much like we dont know about LT impact of other similar or differnt diseases. There are always going be new studies.   i will stop here because i am just not an authority on medicine.

but one thing i do know about is Economics.   If we accept that the costs of the pandemic to the economy far far exceeded the costs to the health care system.  Thats pretty easy to do,  there are 2-3 million people who lost their jobs (and incomes) and whose incomes needed to be supllemented by public deficit and/or debt financing.   And countless more in the future due to the ecomonic downturn.  Now your economic argument weakens when when you compare the fatality rates to those who lost income.  Money doesnt grow trees, it has to be repaid eventually.  Not to mention, the adverse impact to ecomomic growth and the health impacts (mental and physical) consequence of confinement.  

Everyone’s risk tolerance is different.  Some people drive racing cars for a living.  Climb mountains or go hiking in the rockies when there is possibility of avalance.  If you were quantify the risk, its level of acceptability would be different for all of us.  At the other end, there are people who go to the hospital when they get a headache.  Similar with the pandemic some people think that there has ot be zero active cases or they wont leave the house (thats not me) or  someone else might think its 10 thousand that they are comfortable with. 

my view,  i accepted the shut down and was expecting 3-4 months of it.  But we are now at the point when the number active cases approximates the fan turnout at a Toronto Lynx game in the days of the USL.  This is a number i am more comfortable with.  So i dont get why the majority of the economically devastating measures (such as travel and border restrictions) have to still exist.  Listening to your doctor is important, but its not THE ONLY person you should listen to.  how about your banker?  Economic devastation can be pretty bad and one year of this?  You will have worst problems to worry about and far more deaths resulting from it than CoVid 19.
 

 

Edited by Free kick
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Just now, Free kick said:

A couple of points, first of all you indicated:

 Sure, as you wrote in an earlier post here, a few people died a few years early, big deal (a little callous IMO, ) 

But i never said such a thing.  You must be thinking of someone else’s post.   Also, i dont recall anyone exactly saying that.  I only commented once on this topic in this whole thread and that the post you cited
 

For the rest,   I can respect your opinion.  For what its worth mine is little bit different.  Will expand later..
 

 

You're right, I was quoting someone else. I apologize for that, and will edit my post

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I've been looking around today to see the reaction from each country and El Salvador is  the only one that's angry.  Even the salvadoran news site El Grafico gathered reaction from all the other central american countries plus Curacao and they were all very happy with the changes.  Even the Americans and Mexicans are happy with it.  Everyone's happy but one.  

To conclude, lots of teams hated the old format and only one team hates the new format.  Progress!

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2 hours ago, Trois Reds said:

I will stay out of commenting on the rest of this post, but there are studies that already show Covid causes permanent heart damage, brain damage to some people, and potential permanent lung issues.  That includes people without symptoms. The economy is tied to our health, and if you're sick, you're not contributing to the economy. If you're dead, you definitely aren't. Sure, as you wrote in an earlier post here, a few people died a few years early, big deal (a little callous IMO, but I digress). But 97% of people survive. Now you have thousands of people under 40 who will be burdening our health system, because they caught Covid in 2020, for the next 30 to 50 years. And, because they have health issues, they won't be working as much, putting a strain on our economy. Never mind the people over 40 who would have been fine for decades suddenly developing decades-long health problems.

Sweden, for one, stayed open and their economy still tanked. I'd rather a bad economy for a year because Canada tried to keep it's people safe than reopening now and deal with decades of health costs which impact our economy.

What I am about to say is off topic, but I am going to say it and get back to the soccer talk:

The global economy was already at the end of it's cycle before Covid-19. We now have an "everything" bubble and it is popping. Covid-19 was just the pin. Something else would have been the pin if it were not for the virus. 

I am not an economist nor do I have a crystal ball, so take this with a grain of salt, but there will be no "bad for a year" scenario. We are experiencing/about to experience a once-in-a-lifetime economic crisis. This is primarily the consequence of bad economic and monetary policy.

The response to Covid-19 from Canada (and other countries) was compassionate and the right thing to do in one sense, but the economic damage will be far reaching for many years, if not decades.

It was akin to a car rolling down a hill, headed off of cliff and the driver slams the gas instead of the brake. 

Ever wonder where all this money is coming from for these relief programs? It is being created/borrowed into existence. This is disastrous for anyone with a basic understanding of economics.

Why is this disastrous? Because it destroys the purchasing power. This hurts the people. Without people there is no economy. 

I realize there is no economy with sick people or dead people, but I would argue the destruction of purchasing power (a destruction of the currency) is far worse. It makes everything harder to manage for every industry, including the health industry that prevents us from getting sick or dying.   

The loss of purchasing power is the biggest threat we are facing right now. 

You see, we provide value to one another by working and providing each other goods and services. The value is accounted for using currency.

But when you flood the system with non-productive cheap currency, the value of each unit in circulation decreases. You can't buy the same things with your hard earned dollars. Your purchasing power collapses. You see this all over the developing world.

This is coming to the industrialized nations, including Canada, and eventually the world reserve currency (US dollar) will be the last man standing and that too will fail. That is the path we are on, the only question is how many currencies will be destroyed along the way and whether the USD will be destroyed before it loses it's world reserve status. Whether the USD loses it's reserve status is not an "if" but a "when".

Anyways, that is my long, long, long rambling way of saying that worrying about the economic strain from the virus itself is missing the forest from the trees.

It's like worrying about a drug addict's caffeine addiction, or worrying about your knee pain while being kidnapped.

Those things are problems and will make the situation worse, but they are relatively insignificant. 

Final thing, I should clarify that it's not all doom and gloom. I don't think we are headed for the end of the world here, but we are headed for some wild and turbulent times! There will be great opportunity in the next several years for those who play their cards right!

Cheers

Edited by Obinna
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