The Road to Qatar.

[Kyle_The_Hill]

1 hour ago, dyslexic nam said:

That is the sort of thing that makes a mockery of the system that was put in place.  I get that people will try to game the system, but this seems pretty blatant.

Not really. They can't gain FIFA points with a win.

[Obinna]

Training game eh? Not sure when they scheduled those games, but it suggests they did so without ranking points in mind. 

[Alex]

We really need 2 friendlies vs top 100 opponents in March. I can accept not making the hex if we schedule friendlies and lose them versus not scheduling them at all. 

On a side note: we’ve played 14 official games versus what I call minnows since 2014 wcq. Then add on the last 3 Cuba games and the Martinique blowout. I’m not a fan of going through more again next fall. I especially don’t want to hear the complaints from people that “only 10,000 showed up at bmo to see the Cayman Islands”, etc. 

[TOCanada115]

Herdman was on writers block on the fan 590 today. Said they are looking to play in January, and potentially in May, with obviously games in March and June. May is interesting. Camp after euro leagues are done, with a match against someone before the window opens?

[Obinna]

10 minutes ago, TOCanada115 said:

Herdman was on writers block on the fan 590 today. Said they are looking to play in January, and potentially in May, with obviously games in March and June. May is interesting. Camp after euro leagues are done, with a match against someone before the window opens?

Would make for an exciting first half of 2020 if all of that comes to fruition.

Games in January and May would fall outside of fifa windows if I am not mistaken, limiting the availability of foreign-based players. Could be a good opportunity to utilize the Canadian Premier League talent. 

If that's the way it plays out, I would like to see some cooperation between the CPL and CSA, including rescheduling games if necessary. Central American leagues do it when they want to give domestic selections proper training time together. No reason why we couldn't do the same.

[Shway]

Speculation, speculation, speculation...And Herdman says sh¡t if it sounds good to say. I'll wait for the official announcements, because right now the road to Qatar is down minnow lane. 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

With the MLS schedule out we can confirm that...

For the late March FIFA window:

-Vancouver is available (no Whitecaps games, no concerts or tradeshows, too early for CFL)

 

For the early June FIFA window:

-Vancouver Whitecaps are hosting the Impact and there is a BC Lions game the night before but the turnaround time at BC Place is quite fast.

-No TFC or Argos games at BMO Field

-No Impact games at Stade Saputo (they will be @ Vancouver!)

This window overlaps with the Women's one; 99% chance there will be a home friendly in either Toronto or Montréal during this window. The question is, will it be the #CanMNT or the #CanWNT ? (Or both!? One at each stadium).

A May #CanMNT friendly could even be played on the terrible Ottawa turf because the CPL guys can handle it

(The #CanWNT might play in Ottawa in June but not the #CanMNT)

Edited December 20, 2019 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[TOCanada115]

5 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

With the MLS schedule out we can confirm that...

For the late March FIFA window:

-Vancouver is available (no Whitecaps games, no concerts or tradeshows, too early for CFL

 

For the early June FIFA window:

-Vancouver Whitecaps are hosting the Impact and there is a BC Lions game the night before but the turnaround time at BC Place is quite fast.

-No TFC or Argos games at BMO Field

-No Impact games at Stade Saputo (they will be @ Vancouver!)

This window overlaps with the Women's one; 99% chance there will be a home friendly in either Toronto or Montréal during this window. The question is, will it be the #CanMNT or the #CanWNT ? (Or both!? One at each stadium).

A May #CanMNT friendly could even be played on the terrible Ottawa turf because the CPL guys can handle it

(The #CanWNT might play in Ottawa in June but not the #CanMNT)

My guess is that the May friendly will be all euro based players, and played in Europe. 

[johnyb]

22 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Now El Salvador wants to make their friendly vs Iceland a "training match" so they don't lose points.

http://www.elsalvador.com/deportes/selecciones/la-selecta-cierra-en-privilegiado-puesto-el-2019-dentro-del-ranking-fifa/669816/2019/

This kills the notion that they were trying to sabotage their qualifying to intentionally miss the HEX.

[SpursFlu]

8 hours ago, johnyb said:

This kills the notion that they were trying to sabotage their qualifying to intentionally miss the HEX.

Just turns out they were idiots but their coach apparently isn't and talked some sense in to them

Edited December 21, 2019 by SpursFlu

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

So the rumour is that the Czech Republic and Greece will be coming to the USA in March to play Mexico.

Mexico had already announced in early December that they were hosting friendlies in Charlotte NC and in the Dallas TX area.

http://www.elgrafico.com/selecciones/Una-seleccion-ex-campeona-de-Europa-un-posible-rival-de-la-Selecta-en-marzo-20191225-0012.html

https://us.as.com/us/2019/12/26/futbol/1577383881_082894.html

http://www.diez.hn/laseleccion/1344208-498/amistoso-seleccion-honduras-fecha-fifa-marzo-grecia-fabian-coito

So obviously other CONCACAF sides want a piece of the action; Honduras and El Salvador are looking to play Greece.

[Moldy9]

I hate to cry over spilled milk however this new CONCACAF top 6 ranked make the hex while the rest of the confederation fight for a .5 crumb is total rubbish. 

How can they be so dumb to come up with a plan like that? If not dumb it comes off shady as F that the Yanks and Mexs want to face the least adversity. Why would the other mbr countries agree to that?

Look at Conmebol. 10 nations dukeing it out for 5.5. You tell me they couldn’t do the same and make it 10 instead of 6? Wouldn’t 10 countries be more beneficial for soccer in this region?

Also, I know the story behind how Latin America don’t consider Guyana, French Guyana and Suriname part of South America but really that’s lame. They should be in Conmebol. Those countries are physically attached to South America. And if it is all about language then why don’t they have Panama, Costa Rica and ESV, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Hon in their federation?

Ok rant over.  

Edited December 28, 2019 by Moldy9

[SF]

How can we be so dumb as to not plan for contingencies? 

Honestly, we've been out-witted by the rest of the confederation.  Canada has only Canada to blame and that we can't outrank countries with a fraction of our GDP per capita and population is utterly embarrassing.   

Sure, the CONCACAF qualification format is a joke, but what is the bigger joke...the format or our very long standing inability to field better teams in, at a minimum, the top six teams in our confederation? 

If we suffer from this format, we only suffer from our own ineptitude.  To blame anyone or anything else would only perpetuate the approach and mentality we've consistently adopted and demonstrated over many decades.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

So it looks like El Salvador game against the USA may count for FIFA points but the Iceland game will not!

http://www.elgrafico.com/futbol/El-Clausura-2020-se-pospondra-una-semana-asegura-la-Primera-Division-20191227-0002.html

 

[Club Linesman]

Quote from the article vie Google translate...

We seek not to risk the advantage we have against Canada for the points obtained, as a result we already had commitments against Iceland and the United States and we made negotiations with FIFA and Concacaf so that the first game is developed without the dispute of the points in the ranking.  El Salvador does not risk but against the United States we await the response of FIFA and CONCACAF to have the same procedure.  In June we have to play although we do not yet have confirmed rivals, it is already said that they could be from Europe or Central America.  CONMEBOL is not possible because in March they start their World Cup qualifier. "

Looks like we are going to be in the Hunger Games to qualify.  If Herdman and the CSA somehow get us in the Hex ..,

[SerTwenty]

3 hours ago, Club Linesman said:

Quote from the article vie Google translate...

We seek not to risk the advantage we have against Canada for the points obtained, as a result we already had commitments against Iceland and the United States and we made negotiations with FIFA and Concacaf so that the first game is developed without the dispute of the points in the ranking.  El Salvador does not risk but against the United States we await the response of FIFA and CONCACAF to have the same procedure.  In June we have to play although we do not yet have confirmed rivals, it is already said that they could be from Europe or Central America.  CONMEBOL is not possible because in March they start their World Cup qualifier. "

Looks like we are going to be in the Hunger Games to qualify.  If Herdman and the CSA somehow get us in the Hex ..,

Negotiating with FIFA in order to manipulate their rankings system.  What a joke Concacaf is.

[JDub]

So they want to play games but don't want them to actually count as games. Don't blame them but sounds kind of sketchy. Should be, play for points or don't schedule games. Also sounds like they don't plan to play in March as they only mention June.  CSA has their work cut out for them, especially with only one game in January. 

[Obinna]

8 minutes ago, JDub said:

So they want to play games but don't want them to actually count as games. Don't blame them but sounds kind of sketchy. Should be, play for points or don't schedule games. Also sounds like they don't plan to play in March as they only mention June.  CSA has their work cut out for them, especially with only one game in January. 

If we beat Iceland and they lose to the USA we will make up a little ground, but yes there would be a big ways to go still.

Anyone know how far away we'd be if the results play out like that?

[Zem]

4 minutes ago, Obinna said:

If we beat Iceland and they lose to the USA we will make up a little ground, but yes there would be a big ways to go still.

Anyone know how far away we'd be if the results play out like that?

We could make up about 7 points at most; we'd get about 3 for winning against Iceland and El Salvador would lose about 4 if they lost to both the US and Iceland. So in the best-case scenario we'd fall just short of cutting the 15-point gap in half.

[Kyle_The_Hill]

45 minutes ago, Zem said:

We could make up about 7 points at most; we'd get about 3 for winning against Iceland and El Salvador would lose about 4 if they lost to both the US and Iceland. So in the best-case scenario we'd fall just short of cutting the 15-point gap in half.

The El Salvador game against Iceland wont count towards FIFA points if the article above is true. So best case scenario: we beat Iceland and gain 3 and El Sal lose to USA and lose 2. 5 point swing potential in Jan-Feb.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Kyle_The_Hill

[Obinna]

5 minutes ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

The El Salvador game against Iceland wont count towards FIFA points if article above is true. So best case scenario: we beat Iceland and gain 3 and El Sal lose to USA and lose 2. 5 point swing potential in Jan-Feb.

So we can perhaps cut the gap by a third before the March window. 

That's still pretty decent. 

Should we play again in March and win, we could be within striking distance by June.

There is no margin for error though. 

[Kyle_The_Hill]

23 minutes ago, Obinna said:

So we can perhaps cut the gap by a third before the March window. 

That's still pretty decent. 

Should we play again in March and win, we could be within striking distance by June.

There is no margin for error though. 

We could surpass them in March. If we both schedule two friendlies with nations around our ranking there will be a 20 point swing potential. Again, obviously its going to be difficult, but as I said in a previous thread, I'm not sure why everyone gave up when we lost to the US.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

49 minutes ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

The El Salvador game against Iceland wont count towards FIFA points if the article above is true. So best case scenario: we beat Iceland and gain 3 and El Sal lose to USA and lose 2. 5 point swing potential in Jan-Feb.

The USA are playing Costa Rica on February 1st instead.

Looks like the USA didn't want to deal with El Salvador's "we don't want to play a real friendly" bull shit.

Edited December 30, 2019 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[SpursFlu]

I'm telling you.. El Salvadors best strategy is to go hide under the bed, come out in June and hope everything worked out for them

[Kyle_The_Hill]

21 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

The USA are playing Costa Rica on February 1st instead.

Looks like the USA didn't want to deal with El Salvador's "we don't want to play a real friendly" bull ****.

Damn. Hopefully they still play 2 March friendlies then.