The Road to Qatar.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

5 hours ago, Blackdude said:

If I was Herdman, I'd try to schedule Honduras and Costa Rica in March. 

Costa Rica, maybe. Costa Rica may go to Europe for the window. Honduras said they were only playing one match in March.They are already playing the Czech Republic at InterMiami's stadium.

[trc2014]

15 hours ago, Obinna said:

Do we have an official word yet on whether the points were counted for their loss?

According to the game long El Salvador used 5 subs and and Iceland 6 subs, under the friendly limit of 6 subs. You think it would have been a smart thing for El Salvador to agree to the use of and use more subs during the game, which would immediately void the game.
 

Edited January 22, 2020 by trc2014

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, trc2014 said:

According to the game long El Salvador used 5 subs and and Iceland 6 subs, under the friendly limit of 6 subs. You think it would have been a smart thing for El Salvador to agree to the use of and use more subs during the game, which would immediately void the game.
 

That would be shady even for them. I don't think many teams would want to play them if they were pulling those shinanagans.

[Kyle_The_Hill]

1 hour ago, trc2014 said:

According to the game long El Salvador used 5 subs and and Iceland 6 subs, under the friendly limit of 6 subs. You think it would have been a smart thing for El Salvador to agree to the use of and use more subs during the game, which would immediately void the game.
 

I'm assuming the match status is agreed on before the start of the game. If it was agreed to be an official match, the 4th official wouldn't let you sub on a 7th player.

[trc2014]

12 minutes ago, Obinna said:

That would be shady even for them. I don't think many teams would want to play them if they were pulling those shinanagans.

Not shady - my point is that training matches usually involve both teams agreeing to more than 6 subs (the friendly limit).  I’m assume they didn’t allow unlimited subs (completely an assumption on my end), which Iceland and El Salvador would have agreed to pre-game as part of the training match prep.

[trc2014]

4 minutes ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

I'm assuming the match status is agreed on before the start of the game. If it was agreed to be an official match, the 4th official wouldn't let you sub on a 7th player.

Exactly - if El Savaldor had any concern that they couldn’t change the match status they would have agreed to allow more than 6 subs with Iceland pre-game, which it’s not clear that they did.  I’m not saying they should just try to sneak a seventh sub on the field.  ES only used 5 subs.

Edited January 22, 2020 by trc2014

[dyslexic nam]

It might also be a huge risk for them to sub an extra man on the field.  imagine a scenario where the game was later deemed to count but ES were attributed with a loss by making  a prohibited number of substitutions.  

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 1/8/2020 at 5:04 PM, Kyle_The_Hill said:

 I think our sweet spot is Czech to St. Kitts.

One of the best opponents for us, right in our "sweet spot", Albania, might play Costa Rica instead in March!

Albania is 1356, so above us and above El Salvador.

In UEFA qualifying, they did beat Iceland at home though.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2020_qualifying_Group_H

 

http://gazetablic.com/kombetarja-e-njohur-e-futbollit-deshiron-te-luaje-miqesore-me-shqiperine/

http://albsport.mk/shqiperia-ne-muajin-mars-miqesore-ne-spanje/

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

To follow up on the good work by @Kyle_The_Hill and others:

Belgium/Portugal/Switzerland/Croatia have nothing booked (all were originally invited to Qatar in March?). All would destroy us.

For the March window here are the teams in Europe who are:
-ranked below 24th but above 1000 FIFA points
-not in the EURO playoffs
-not yet booked two friendlies

Game 1 (March 26th/27th):
-Albania 1356

Game 2 (March 30th/31st):
-Cyprus 1251
-Estonia 1202
-Lithuania 1089
-Andorra 1082
-New Caledonia 1035

These are our options for AFC:

Game 1 (March 26th/27th):
-Iraq 1344
-Syria 1314
-Oman 1303
-Lebanon 1269
-Vietnam 1258
-Kyrgystan 1240
-Jordan 1238

Game 2 (March 30th/31st):
-Bahrain 1225
-Palestine 1199
-India 1187
-Thailand 1178
-North Korea 1170
-Tajikistan 1152
-Philippines 1136

Otherwise it would be New Zealand 1149 or a good ol'CONCACAF team.

Costa Rica 1442 are looking to play in March.
Jamaica 1437:
http://jamaica-star.com/article/sports/20200103/jff-seeks-big-friendly-boyz

Trinidad and Tobago 1201 is looking to play in March:
https://wired868.com/2020/01/24/how-should-tt-teams-play-ttfa-talks-tactics-tobago-players-and-oversized-technical-committee/

Game 1 (March 26th/27th):
Greece 1409 will be in North America before playing Mexico in Dallas

Game 2 (March 30th/31st):
Curaçao 1313
Panama 1304

Other options:
Haiti 1285
Antigua and Barbuda 1127

Edited January 26, 2020 by Olympique_de_Marseille

[Bdog]

Other than maybe Greece and Albania (who are both beatable but  risky) I’d be down to play any of those countries. 

[CanadianSoccerFan]

Jamaica is the team to play.  Their ranking is enormously inflated and they'll likely field a weakened side.  Beating them is worth 6 points

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

19 minutes ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Jamaica is the team to play.  Their ranking is enormously inflated and they'll likely field a weakened side.  Beating them is worth 6 points

Agreed.

ELO Rankings:
48th: Costa Rica
57th: Greece
58th: Canada
62nd: Jamaica
75th: Albania
http://www.eloratings.net/

 

Greece would be a tougher match than Jamaica and worth fewer points. Jamaica is our best bet of the options that remain.

[archer21]

4 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

To follow up on the good work by @Kyle_The_Hill and others:

Belgium/Portugal/Switzerland/Croatia have nothing booked (all were originally invited to Qatar in March?). All would destroy us.

For the March window here are the teams in Europe who are:
-ranked below 24th but above 1000 FIFA points
-not in the EURO playoffs
-not yet booked two friendlies

Game 1 (March 26th/27th):
-Albania 1356

Game 2 (March 30th/31st):
-Cyprus 1251
-Estonia 1202
-Lithuania 1089
-Andorra 1082
-New Caledonia 1035

These are our options for AFC:

Game 1 (March 26th/27th):
-Iraq 1344
-Syria 1314
-Oman 1303
-Lebanon 1269
-Vietnam 1258
-Kyrgystan 1240
-Jordan 1238

Game 2 (March 30th/31st):
-Bahrain 1225
-Palestine 1199
-India 1187
-Thailand 1178
-North Korea 1170
-Tajikistan 1152
-Philippines 1136

Otherwise it would be New Zealand 1149 or a good ol'CONCACAF team.

Costa Rica 1442 are looking to play in March.
Jamaica 1437:
http://jamaica-star.com/article/sports/20200103/jff-seeks-big-friendly-boyz

Trinidad and Tobago 1201 is looking to play in March:
https://wired868.com/2020/01/24/how-should-tt-teams-play-ttfa-talks-tactics-tobago-players-and-oversized-technical-committee/

Game 1 (March 26th/27th):
Greece 1409 will be in North America before playing Mexico in Dallas

Game 2 (March 30th/31st):
Curaçao 1313
Panama 1304

Other options:
Haiti 1285
Antigua and Barbuda 1127

Yeah I’d be willing to play any of these teams. I think Albania is a very good matchup where their ranking is maybe higher than their ability. Jamaica would be very good value as a win would be huge against them. Would be risky though with the pace they have on the counter.

I still think we have an outside chance of getting to the hex but we’ve put ourselves in a tough position. It’s difficult to even strategize and plan what types of teams to play because we have no idea what El Salvador will do. If they’re gonna play minnows we probably have to schedule aggressively, whereas if they’re gonna play teams that can beat them, we can be a bit more cautious and let them hopefully fall back to us if they lose.

[Strait Red]

3 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Greece would be a tougher match than Jamaica and worth fewer points. Jamaica is our best bet of the options that remain.

Greece might end up playing a younger side, they’ve been eliminated from the Euros already, so there will likely be some roster turnover on their national side.

[SirBobsaget]

9 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Jamaica is the team to play.  Their ranking is enormously inflated and they'll likely field a weakened side.  Beating them is worth 6 points

Jamaica is a very good team when they can pull in their full England contingent. But they only show traditionally only show up on big occasions.  For a March friendly they will get at best a B team, even  more likely a C team with NA based players. So if they agreed to a friendly would be a good bet.

Edited January 27, 2020 by SirBobsaget

[TOCanada115]

Give me Trinidad and Panama. Both teams we should be able to beat with our A squad. I think both teams give the best bang for you ranking points.
 

Panama has looked horrible since before the gold cup, and Trinidad is even worse. How many points would these be worth? I think that’s the most points you can almost be guaranteed of all these match. Canada can even cheap out, and play Panama at home, and Trinidad in Florida or something. 

 

add to the fact that El Salvador might lose some points here, and potentially for that Iceland game, and I think we would be within 3 points of them come June. 

[Buchta]

17 hours ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

To follow up on the good work by @Kyle_The_Hill and others:

Belgium/Portugal/Switzerland/Croatia have nothing booked (all were originally invited to Qatar in March?). All would destroy us.

For the March window here are the teams in Europe who are:
-ranked below 24th but above 1000 FIFA points
-not in the EURO playoffs
-not yet booked two friendlies

Game 1 (March 26th/27th):
-Albania 1356

Game 2 (March 30th/31st):
-Cyprus 1251
-Estonia 1202
-Lithuania 1089
-Andorra 1082
-New Caledonia 1035

New Caledonia has a friendly on March 29th  vs Saaremaa (non-FIFA), so they are mostly like out of the March 30/31 window.  

Andorra is playing the Faroe Islands on March 30th.

Edited January 27, 2020 by Buchta

[TFC2017]

I think we should play 2 of Costa Rica, Jamaica and Trinidad/Tobago. 

 

Ideally Costa Rica and Jamaica. If we want to make the hex, we need to see how we'd do against teams who will be there. If we win both it shows that we deserve to be there and it would help us achieve the points to gain on El Salvador. 

[Big_M]

Hello John this is Mauro..Cordova again..hes starting and making assists left foot right foot..J: Goddamn..alright call him in M: Brault and Laryea in mls..at least one of them should get regular time..do we still call Godinho? J: Dont ever ask me that question again

 

[TFC2017]

Cordova deserves to be in the mix based off his play. He plays a key position at right back and actually he plays left back as well. He's still only 24. Thank god we already have him cap tied. 

[Obinna]

Put me in the T&T / Panama camp...

Both challenging teams, but they are teams we can beat, should beat, and must beat in order to achieve our goals. That's what I expect given where our team is at.

We may have to go through them in the lower round, so if we can beat them and gain a psychological advantage that would be good, not to mention the fifa points we need from this.

All things being equal we should play teams in our confederation anyways. I don't even mind if we have to play either away from home in order to gain valuable experience. Lord knows we have room to improve on the road in concacaf.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1 hour ago, Big_M said:

Cordova again...

Well obviously we call him for the March games!

ZBG, Millar, Godinho all go to U23s. 

Cordova can then be the backup behind Laryea or even play one of the two games while Laryea plays the other.

[TFC2017]

18 minutes ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

Well obviously we call him for the March games!

ZBG, Millar, Godinho all go to U23s. 

Cordova can then be the backup behind Laryea or even play one of the two games while Laryea plays the other.

I can see Godinho and maybe Millar heading to the U23's but I'd be surprised if ZBG wasn't included in the squad. I can only see him heading there if Gutierrez files his 1 time switch and joins up with the squad in March. 

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, TFC2017 said:

I can see Godinho and maybe Millar heading to the U23's but I'd be surprised if ZBG wasn't included in the squad. I can only see him heading there if Gutierrez files his 1 time switch and joins up with the squad in March. 

Gutierrez is a left back so it should have no bearing on Brault-Guillard. 

I am not particularly hopeful of Cristian joining us that soon anyhow. I feel confident he will eventually, but I think he'll want to guage things in Vancouver first before he makes any decisions. In the meantime, playing well in MLS nowadays gets you on the radar for a team like Chile. Not an automatic call obviously, but it does get you a bit of attention. I am sure he realizes this.

There are now many young Ecuadorians, Uruguayans, Paraguayans, etc in the league and many of them are already internationals.

He has Colo-Colo on his resume and is still jus 22 years of age, so I do not think Gutierrez to Canada is a done deal just yet.

That said, him playing in this country, on a permanent deal, does tilt things in our favour substantially. I am optimistic, but very much taking a wait and see approach.

Edited January 27, 2020 by Obinna

[Big_M]

Schuster made it clear Gutierrez is there to be the backup of Adnan and be a "challenger" so cant see it with Chile