The Road to Qatar.

[Kent]

13 minutes ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

On the right

Haha, and here I was reading a PDF on the formula looking for that info. Thanks!

[wulei]

On 1/3/2020 at 5:07 PM, Bdog said:

Wait we got two games against Barbados? Well done CSA!

Iceland’s B team is still going to be a pretty tough game, I’d honestly be happy with a tie. 

Anyone have a link to the stream for this? Will there even be streams?

[king1010]

7 hours ago, wulei said:

Anyone have a link to the stream for this? Will there even be streams?

Csa website streaming games 2 and 3. 

[Kyle_The_Hill]

Any confirmation from FIFA that the El Sal Iceland game will indeed just be a "training match"?

[apbsmith]

I wonder what people thought of the following:

1) Caribbean Teams in March? during the actual window? I know away in Concacaf is not ideal but we could make them neutral.... 4 games against any one of:

Cayman Island, Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Bermuda, Grenada, DR, St. Kitts & Nevis.

Maybe you don't even do a "tour", you have the camp in a developed Island like Cayman Islands, play CI and offer/bring in 3-4 teams to the Caymans to play us.

That would get us another ~6 points right? if we got 4 wins?

2) The other option maybe, let's  take a real shot for it in March to close the gap.  Have a Euro based camp where our Euro based players (who will be in form) and play 2 maybe 3 games vs UEFA.

Scotland, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia our all ahead of us and we can be competitive.

Belarus, Georgia, Cyprus, Estonia, Faroe Islands are below us but not that far behind in rankings and we could be competitive in those.

 

I realize I am getting ahead of myself a bit with the Barbados 2.0 match and Iceland but wondering what people thought of either option?

[TFC2017]

1 minute ago, apbsmith said:

I wonder what people thought of the following:

1) Caribbean Teams in March? during the actual window? I know away in Concacaf is not ideal but we could make them neutral.... 4 games against any one of:

Cayman Island, Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Bermuda, Grenada, DR, St. Kitts & Nevis.

Maybe you don't even do a "tour", you have the camp in a developed Island like Cayman Islands, play CI and offer/bring in 3-4 teams to the Caymans to play us.

That would get us another ~6 points right? if we got 4 wins?

2) The other option maybe, let's  take a real shot for it in March to close the gap.  Have a Euro based camp where our Euro based players (who will be in form) and play 2 maybe 3 games vs UEFA.

Scotland, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia our all ahead of us and we can be competitive.

Belarus, Georgia, Cyprus, Estonia, Faroe Islands are below us but not that far behind in rankings and we could be competitive in those.

 

I realize I am getting ahead of myself a bit with the Barbados 2.0 match and Iceland but wondering what people thought of either option?

If El Salvador wants to play dead bring in the 4 carribean teams. If they wake up and copy us which I can see happening then I think we should take the gamble with the Euro or even African teams who are around our ranking. 

[Kyle_The_Hill]

23 minutes ago, apbsmith said:

I wonder what people thought of the following:

1) Caribbean Teams in March? during the actual window? I know away in Concacaf is not ideal but we could make them neutral.... 4 games against any one of:

Cayman Island, Bahamas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, Bermuda, Grenada, DR, St. Kitts & Nevis.

Maybe you don't even do a "tour", you have the camp in a developed Island like Cayman Islands, play CI and offer/bring in 3-4 teams to the Caymans to play us.

That would get us another ~6 points right? if we got 4 wins?

2) The other option maybe, let's  take a real shot for it in March to close the gap.  Have a Euro based camp where our Euro based players (who will be in form) and play 2 maybe 3 games vs UEFA.

Scotland, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia our all ahead of us and we can be competitive.

Belarus, Georgia, Cyprus, Estonia, Faroe Islands are below us but not that far behind in rankings and we could be competitive in those.

 

I realize I am getting ahead of myself a bit with the Barbados 2.0 match and Iceland but wondering what people thought of either option?

You can only play 2 matches during official FIFA windows.

I think we should be looking at friendlies of nations around our ranking or slightly below.

 

[aloyol]

Can we play the Faroe Islands twice in a neutral site in Europe in March (with a Euro base squad) while playing Antigua and Barbuda twice  in Canada (with a NA base squad) at the same time?

[TFC2017]

Playing the Faroe Islands twice with our best 11 would be a huge opportunity. 

[Kyle_The_Hill]

34 minutes ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

You can only play 2 matches during official FIFA windows.

Just talking to myself I guess

[dyslexic nam]

26 minutes ago, aloyol said:

Can we play the Faroe Islands twice in a neutral site in Europe in March (with a Euro base squad) while playing Antigua and Barbuda twice  in Canada (with a NA base squad) at the same time?

The fact that the CSA secured the three games this window (2 small point minnow games and a more challenging game for extra points) gives me confidence that they are going through the same mental gymnastics we all are in terms of trying to navigate a path to the hex.  Subject to financial constraints, I suspect/hope they are putting feelers out and exploring a lot of these sorts of possibilities.  

[SpursFlu]

I think 1 easy 1 medium in the next window. See what El Salvadore does. Then plan accordingly. Save rolling the dice a bit on a top 40 or 30 team for the last window. See how the numbers breakdown. I think we should be publicly calling out ElSalvador. Let's play them there in June. Settle it the old fashion way, on the pitch

Edited January 8, 2020 by SpursFlu

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Depending on how Iceland goes, we could actual face very beatable teams in March and be within touching distance.  (2 teams slightly higher ranked than Bermuda would yield 6 points then.)

For the official word on match dates:

https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/1653-men-s-international-match-calendar-2018-2024.pdf?cloudid=vypxfhb9frfxwu25v23z

Edited January 8, 2020 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[apbsmith]

31 minutes ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

Just talking to myself I guess

curious....

1) Could you play more then 2 but only 2 would count for the max multiplier in the official window?

2) Could we not play a match a few days outside the window (like we are doing with Barbados) just count for less points?, followed by 2 matches in the official window?

[TFC2017]

If we beat Iceland and Iceland beats El Salvador coupled with us beating Barbados in the 2nd game I think we'll be 8 points behind 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

2 minutes ago, apbsmith said:

curious....

1) Could you play more then 2 but only 2 would count for the max multiplier in the official window?

2) Could we not play a match a few days outside the window (like we are doing with Barbados) just count for less points?, followed by 2 matches in the official window?

4.
An international window is defined as a period of nine days starting on a
Monday morning and ending on Tuesday night the following week, which
is reserved for representative teams’ activities. During any international
window a maximum of two matches may be played by each representative
team, irrespective of whether these matches are qualifying matches for
an international tournament or friendlies. The pertinent matches can be
scheduled any day as from Wednesday during the international window,
provided that a minimum of two full calendar days are left between two
matches (e.g. Thursday/Sunday or Saturday/Tuesday).

 

https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/regulations-on-the-status-and-transfer-of-players-2018-2925437.pdf?cloudid=c83ynehmkp62h5vgwg9g

 

[dyslexic nam]

4 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

4.
An international window is defined as a period of nine days starting on a
Monday morning and ending on Tuesday night the following week, which
is reserved for representative teams’ activities. During any international
window a maximum of two matches may be played by each representative
team, irrespective of whether these matches are qualifying matches for
an international tournament or friendlies. The pertinent matches can be
scheduled any day as from Wednesday during the international window,
provided that a minimum of two full calendar days are left between two
matches (e.g. Thursday/Sunday or Saturday/Tuesday).

 

https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/regulations-on-the-status-and-transfer-of-players-2018-2925437.pdf?cloudid=c83ynehmkp62h5vgwg9g

 

So the way I read that, there would be nothing preventing us from playing additional friendlies (possibly with a B squad - or just those mostly NA-based players) that fall outside the 9 days of the window itself.  Those games wouldn’t benefit from any multiplier but would still gain us points.  

[apbsmith]

20 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

I think we should be publicly calling out ElSalvador. Let's play them there in June. Settle it the old fashion way, on the pitch

100% agree with this. If we beat El Salvador , we get +5 points, they lose -5 points. That's a 10 point swing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Association_of_International_Sports_Federations

GAISF - Global Association of International Sports Federation, in theory overseas FIFA.

"GAISF is the umbrella organisation for both Olympic and non-Olympic international sports federations, as well as organisers of international sporting events. In this role it provides expertise in, for example, anti-doping, integrity and social responsibility".

Where can I file an injunction to GAISF based on integrity that the only integrity resolution for FIFA to do forces ES to play us? I'll do it for free as a Canadian who believes in fairness :).

Honestly, I'm sure CSA has thought about it but our goal should be to close to gap to under 10 points before June, especially if ES stays in hiding.

 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

Just now, dyslexic nam said:

So the way I read that, there would be nothing preventing us from playing additional friendlies (possibly with a B squad - or just those mostly NA-based players) that fall outside the 9 days of the window itself.  Those games wouldn’t benefit from any multiplier but would still gain us points.  

But no teams have to release their players. And most won't because they are playing games around that time (in NA and Europe at least).  

[dyslexic nam]

I think if we keep going on our present path - and we get the necessary results - we will put ES under a lot of pressure.  Keep scheduling and winning friendlies.  Close the points gap each window. If we get within touching distance, they will be forced to play in the June window and then all bets are off.  They would likely go for cheap points as well, but insofar as we are the better team we should be able to play and beat higher ranked teams. 

[dyslexic nam]

3 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

But no teams have to release their players. And most won't because they are playing games around that time (in NA and Europe at least).  

A CPL-based team would likely be able to still get results against Caribbean minnows and they wouldn’t be in season. Plus it would be good pre-season for those selected and increase the exposure/profile (a bit) for those players. 

[apbsmith]

6 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

But no teams have to release their players. And most won't because they are playing games around that time (in NA and Europe at least).  

Agreed, this was why my original suggesting theory was 2-3 in Europe and/or 4-5 in Caribbean in March. I think it would be a higher probability for Caribbean Nations to still play a friendly outside the window.

edit *Still always a risk to slip on a banana peel, especially when you play 4-5 games.*

Aside, man Barbados 2.0 & Iceland this coming week are HUGE... well every game going forward is, awesome stuff.

Edited January 8, 2020 by apbsmith
risk

[TFC2017]

I think if we could close the gap to about 3-5 points by the June window we'll have done anything to scare the shit out of El Salvador to come out of hiding or we can make a serious case with Fifa/Concacaf about forcing them to play us. 

[trc2014]

I’ll have a good laugh if El Salvador beats Iceland and gets no points for their “training session”, especially if we also beat Iceland.

[TOCanada115]

2 hours ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

You can only play 2 matches during official FIFA windows.

I think we should be looking at friendlies of nations around our ranking or slightly below.

 

Panama has a match against Curaçao in March. I’d get them up here in March for 6 points. They have not looked good since beginning of the Gold Cup. If we can’t beat them up here, we don’t deserve to be in the Hex anyways. I’d try to get Trinidad and Tobago here as well for 4 points. They have been horrible for a while now. There’s 10 points, at home, against 2 teams we gotta beat in CONCACAF, who have inflated FIFA rankings. Add the 3.5 points we get if we beat Barbados and tie Iceland, and all of a sudden we’re 2 points back of El Salvador going into June. Btw, I think they play in March against some minnows too. And if they do, it will make it harder for us to catch them.