The Road to Qatar.

[Greatest Cockney Rip Off]

15 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

This should be interesting....

 

I don’t see it happening in October unless it takes place in Europe. Tim Vickery did say there has been an offer to hold these in England.   

[Corazon]

12 hours ago, Mikmacdo said:

Left back

The conversation was about potential Canadian Right Backs playing in Europe and I mentioned Bassong given that he played there in January for Canada in the couple friendlies in January.  Not because it was his natural position.  There was previous context to an ongoing conversation.

[An Observer]

On 9/16/2020 at 12:49 AM, CanadianSoccerFan said:

This should be interesting....

 

From the Guardian today. It will be interesting if Conmebol does go ahead in October...Europe is starting to become a shitshow again as well so not sure playing there is an alternative.

4h ago23:48

WHO warns Latin America opening up too early

Latin America has started to resume normal social and public life at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic still requires major control interventions, World Health Organization regional director Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday.

Coronavirus cases in Colombia’s border area with Venezuela have increased ten-fold in the last two weeks, Etienne said in a virtual briefing from Washington with other Pan American Health Organization directors.

Death rates are climbing in parts of Mexico, and similar trends are seen in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Bolivia, with similar patterns also emerging in areas of Argentina, she warned.

Although the entire world is racing to develop new tools to prevent and cure Covid-19, a safe and effective vaccine that can be manufactured and delivered at scale is not around the corner.

We must be clear that opening up too early gives this virus more room to spread and puts our populations at greater risk. Look no further than Europe.

Etienne said governments must monitor travel very carefully because reopening to tourism can lead to setbacks. That has happened in the Caribbean, where several countries that had virtually no cases have experienced spikes as tourism resumed.

According to a Reuters tally, Latin America has recorded around 8.4 million coronavirus cases, and over 314,000 deaths, both figures being the highest of any region.

[SpursFlu]

Hopefully the dont read the Guardian 

[nolando]

Hiddink now in charge at Curacao: https://getconcacafed.substack.com/p/-former-curacao-manager-bicentini

[Shway]

They did the coach dirty, especially with their recent fortunes with him a the helm. On the other hand,  you have to understand it, and it's probably going to massively improve their recruitment of getting certain players. 

They might be a problem.
 

Edited September 17, 2020 by Shway

[SkuseisLoose]

On 9/15/2020 at 3:06 PM, Kent said:

Do any of the South American countries have quarantine rules for people entering the country? As long as we have that quarantine rule I don’t see how it would be possible for us to host any games. We might be forced to play all our matches on the road unless things change.

Special exemptions I guess. The nhl got special exemptions so the players didn’t have to quarantine in their hotel room. Obviously a lot less money from the Cayman Islands coming to town but maybe possible still.

[beachesl]

1 hour ago, SkuseisLoose said:

Special exemptions I guess. The nhl got special exemptions so the players didn’t have to quarantine in their hotel room. Obviously a lot less money from the Cayman Islands coming to town but maybe possible still.

Yes, special exemptions for the Libertadores teams like Boca, River and Racing. I live in Argentina, and I cannot travel out of the province of Mendoza without special exemption, almost impossible to get without political connections. Even if I made it to Buenos Aires, I could only get a special patriation flight as a Canadian citizen, leaving my Argentine wife behind. That is the uneveness of world competition. Canada will not exempt entering teams for the WCQ from the rules, so the matches will have to be held in other countries. They did not do it for the Blue Jays's matches , they will not do it for the home WCQ's.

I think that they may cancel the whole caboodle, and just do a quick tournament or series of tournaments in early 2022 to determine the WC teams for Qatar. Or, they may use the Gold Cup as the qualifiers.

Definite TS Eliot stuff.

 

 

[SpursFlu]

since we're all trying to untangle this mess and figure out a way for qualifiers to proceed.

Can someone explain to me how PSG played in a Champions league final in Portugal on August 22nd. Then 21 days later in France played Marseille on September 13th. On September 3rd it was said Neymar tested positive for Coronavirus. Yet he played in both games and I can't find anyone anywhere pointing out how peculiar this is

[El Hombre]

41 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

since we're all trying to untangle this mess and figure out a way for qualifiers to proceed.

Can someone explain to me how PSG played in a Champions league final in Portugal on August 22nd. Then 21 days later in France played Marseille on September 13th. On September 3rd it was said Neymar tested positive for Coronavirus. Yet he played in both games and I can't find anyone anywhere pointing out how peculiar this is

I assumed that someone just lightly brushed Neymar and he just fell over and claimed it was coronavirus.

[SpursFlu]

3 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

I assumed that someone just lightly brushed Neymar and he just fell over and claimed it was coronavirus.

You knowingly made a funny joke. You might have unknowingly made a second very funny joke

[El Hombre]

1 minute ago, SpursFlu said:

You knowingly made a funny joke. You might have unknowingly made a second very funny joke

Lame.

[SpursFlu]

Just now, El Hombre said:

Lame.

What? Brushing off a very shocking allegation with a Neymar is a diver joke. That's what your saying is lame right

[El Hombre]

Just now, SpursFlu said:

What? Brushing off a very shocking allegation with a Neymar is a diver joke. That's what your saying is lame right

Double lame.

[SpursFlu]

18 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

Double lame.

Ok El Ostrich, nothing to see here i guess. Worlds most famous athlete boards airplane and plays in match knowing along with team and league officials that he has coronavirus. I guess its no big deal anymore. Fine with me

[narduch]

1 hour ago, SpursFlu said:

since we're all trying to untangle this mess and figure out a way for qualifiers to proceed.

Can someone explain to me how PSG played in a Champions league final in Portugal on August 22nd. Then 21 days later in France played Marseille on September 13th. On September 3rd it was said Neymar tested positive for Coronavirus. Yet he played in both games and I can't find anyone anywhere pointing out how peculiar this is

Because by Sep. 11 he recovered.

One thing I noticed in the Marseille v Lille match is its behind closed doors today. Previous matches in Ligue 1 had fans.

Looks like France and other Euro countries are increasing restrictions again.

Edited September 20, 2020 by narduch

[red card]

Fans in stands vary by region. Watched a bit of Nantes vs St Etienne this morning with fans in stands not really socially spaced out in the middle stands.

Germany also has similar differences. No crowds at Munich match on Friday but the most crowded Euro stadium I have seen so far at Union Berlin match yesterday. See shots of crowd when Union scores at 1:45-2:10.

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by red card

[SpursFlu]

4 hours ago, narduch said:

Because by Sep. 11 he recovered.

One thing I noticed in the Marseille v Lille match is its behind closed doors today. Previous matches in Ligue 1 had fans.

Looks like France and other Euro countries are increasing restrictions again.

Cool.. I guess we're not testing before matches or before people get on planes. Sounds positive for Concacaf's ability to put on wc qualifiers. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by SpursFlu

[Obinna]

I don’t think anyone knows what is going on anymore, but the Neymar thing is peculiar indeed. Things don’t add up with all this stuff. Why do I have the feeling we are not getting all the information?

Global pandemic serious enough to shut down World Cup qualifiers, but not serious enough to keep players out for more than a few days when they get it 🤔

[Ruffian]

Enough with this conspiracy bullsh!t. Maybe Canada is being too conservative with handling of the pandemic but if you want to change that go and talk to local politicians or some group interested in having that conversation. Rich people get around rules, that is real life. All of the world's governments are not conspiring to make you wear a face mask.

[SpursFlu]

Its not about rich people, it's about wealthy people. And I'm just saying that we're at the point that people are playing in games with officials knowing they have coronavirus or at the very least having the virus keeps you on the IR for a shorter period than a lower body injury. Then thats really good news for world cup qualifiers. Just 4 months ago people were shocked when people celebrated a goal by touching each other. Now we have people playing in games with coronavirus and the attitude is cest la vie. This is a good thing

Edited September 21, 2020 by SpursFlu

[JuicyHam]

Why was Mbappe out for over a month after contracting the virus when he could have just been playing with it the entire time as you suggest? Neymar was probably tested multiple times after testing positive which came up negative meaning it had already come and gone or he had a false positive. Some people are in the hospital for months some people are fine within a week. It's not some wild conspiracy 

[PiedPilko]

1 hour ago, SpursFlu said:

Its not about rich people, it's about wealthy people. And I'm just saying that we're at the point that people are playing in games with officials knowing they have coronavirus or at the very least having the virus keeps you on the IR for a shorter period than a lower body injury. Then thats really good news for world cup qualifiers. Just 4 months ago people were shocked when people celebrated a goal by touching each other. Now we have people playing in games with coronavirus and the attitude is cest la vie. This is a good thing

Boooo. This is not the attitude. That's the reason we're talking about it in the first place; because we're surprised. Unless you don't believe what is being reported, a quarantine period that certainly lasts longer than a minor lower body injury is necessary, because we still don't want to spread what you should know by now, is a pretty dangerous virus.

 

Can we stop the thing where we pretend we don't want to talk about politics, and then proceed to talk about politics? 

[SpursFlu]

19 minutes ago, PiedPilko said:

Boooo. This is not the attitude. That's the reason we're talking about it in the first place; because we're surprised. Unless you don't believe what is being reported, a quarantine period that certainly lasts longer than a minor lower body injury is necessary, because we still don't want to spread what you should know by now, is a pretty dangerous virus.

 

Can we stop the thing where we pretend we don't want to talk about politics, and then proceed to talk about politics? 

Its not politics. How players get to and from games and countries, what they have to do to before playing a game, what they have to do if they get coronavirus, when they can play again. That's exactly what we're talking about here.

Here is a player(actually a group of players. 4 in total) travelled to at least 2 countries by plane in a group, played in 2 games, fully trained as well as far as we know, in the middle tested positive for Coronavirus, recovered and went back to playing.This all happened over a 3 week period and nobody said boo.

These are just facts. Politics have nothing to do with it. If i said NHL players are tested weekly in the bubble and there hasn't been a positive test in forever long, is that a political statement? If I said Seattle Seahawks played in an empty stadium is it political? No im just stating a fact

Edited September 21, 2020 by SpursFlu

[Obinna]

SpursFlu never brought up anything about politics or conspiracy theories for that matter. He is looking at the things and surmising that things are headed in the right direction as far as WCQ goes.

Are his observations wrong that things are becoming more lax?

Whether you agree or disagree with the lackadaisical approach is another matter, but as far as playing world cup qualifiers seeing things loosen up is a positive development and a step in the right direction.

Edited September 21, 2020 by Obinna