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The Road to Qatar.


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7 hours ago, T.I.O.R. said:

Okay. So why not provide us with a better format?

Or, are you satisfied with the present one that Victor drafted up?

I agree with KTH, your format would never fly. We could draw USA first round then If we win, Mexico 2nd round. Meanwhile Curaçao or somebody could draw minnows all the way through and get in without doing anything.

My favoured system would be to copy Asia. Have bottom 6 teams play to get to 32 teams. 8 groups of 4. Top team in each group plus best 4 2nd place teams gives you 12 teams for 2 groups of 6. Winners of these groups go to World Cup. Runners up play each other, winner goes to World Cup, loser goes to intercontinental playoff.

I should clarify, this is what I’d like to have happened but it’s likely too late for that now. Not sure there would be enough windows to potentially do this still.
 

Maybe making 3 groups of 4 instead of 2 groups of 6 would streamline it (since each team would play 6 games instead of 10 assuming home and away with each team in your group). Winners of groups go to World Cup, top 2 runners up play each other for right to play intercontinental playoff. 14 match days, same as our current system has to go through the low seed route.

Edited by archer21
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48 minutes ago, T.I.O.R. said:

Here's where you and most others on this board differ from myself. Personally, I would consider the scenario of having to take on the USA in the first round and Mexico in the 2nd round as a "Dream Draw."

A 4-1 victory over a country like Barbados does absolutely nothing for me. Did it mean much to Canadian players after the game? Were they anywhere near as joyous as the Haitian players were after knocking us out of the Gold Cup?

Like how many Canadians really paid attention to our victories over Barbados? Maybe ask the people at OneSoccer how many pay to watch games against opponents like that? Are they money-makers? On the other hand, what was the level of interest in the CMNT when they defeated the USA in Toronto. Or, better yet, what was the interest like the last time Mexico played at BC Place? 54,798 you say.? And that was without David and Davies in the line-up!

No, unlike most I've never been afraid of a challenge. I say bring on the Yanks and the Mexicans! Remember how joyous Davies was after scoring against the USA?

Or we could just try to qualify for the World Cup, since it’s World Cup Qualifying. I don’t give a damn how I “feel” after beating Barbados as long as it’s another step to playing in Qatar.

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3 hours ago, T.I.O.R. said:

Somewhat like "Curaçao or somebody could draw minnows all the way through and get in without doing anything" right?

I fail to see understand your argument. Your original argument seems to be that you’d rather play the best teams every round. Mine is that I want to make the World Cup. Sure, we could get an easy route in your scenario if we get a lucky draw but we could also get totally screwed. That’s not what I’m looking for.


I just want a fair shot to earn our way to the World Cup by showing we’re among the top 3-4 teams in CONCACAF. Your scenario doesn’t provide that. It makes some teams get through based on lucky draws and some get screwed by difficult draws. Let’s have the top teams decided based on merit, not numbers picked from a lottery.

Edited by archer21
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They wont change the final qualifying process because it hasn't been disrupted yet. 

I suggested which I think started this whole discussion is there is only 1 thing that has been disrupted by the this halt in play. Who will be the 6th seed in the HEX? That one important spot is the the question. Everything else has already been solidified. 

What will they now do to decide that last HEX spot and who will join the other 5 teams?

Edited by SpursFlu
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There’s no reason to change anything because nothing has been affected.... yet. We will see if there are June friendlies or not. I suspect maybe a possibility (and this is just me thinking out loud) is that fifa could make up the missed March dates in July. 

 

*im just making this up out of nowhere*

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28 minutes ago, Alex said:

There’s no reason to change anything because nothing has been affected.... yet. We will see if there are June friendlies or not. I suspect maybe a possibility (and this is just me thinking out loud) is that fifa could make up the missed March dates in July. 

 

*im just making this up out of nowhere*

The qualifying process to determine the 6th team in the HEX HAS been disrupted. There is no way to dispute that. It's a fact

You may not care, think we should just say whatever and move on. Fine. But you can't lie about reality. 

The process to determine the 6th position has been disrupted. Period, bottom line, undisputable 

Edited by SpursFlu
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33 minutes ago, T.I.O.R. said:

Considering that one window has already been disrupted, and the fact that there does not appear to be no immediate end in sight for the virus causing that disruption, it seems quite reasonable to discuss contingency plans for possible further disruptions come June and September.

Worst case scenario, like the Tokyo Olympics there comes a date when you have to cancel events. In this particular case it will be determining who gets to play in the HEX.

Yes but until the September window is cancelled. They are still 2 completely different things. Just sticking with facts

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8 hours ago, T.I.O.R. said:

In light of the Covid 19 pandemic, the Japanese Government continues to insist that the Tokyo Olympics will go ahead as planned, This, despite despite the fact that the Canadian Olympic Committeee and other national committees have issued statements that they are refusing to send over teams this July.

Instead of hanging on to the slim hope of hosting the Olympics this summer, would it not have been advisable for Japanese officials to have made an announcement two weeks ago that the games would not be held this summer and presented alternative time frames for hosting a postponed Olympics? Maybe there's a lesson in this for CONCACAF. Like taking proactive steps with regard to alternative formats for the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers!

This is no time to take a wait and see approach. There are only so many international windows between now and the day FIFA is going to hold the World Cup Final draw. And, already there are 6,000 fans who aren't going to a game at Westhills this Friday!

Based on recent CONCACAF history, you can't spring a last-minute format on 35 nations. The time has come for CONCACAF to demonstrate sound and transparent leadership! What will the format look like if soccer resumes on X date, or Y date, or Z date?

Sigh. I feel like we've done this before.

You post an essay, which essentially boils down to a question that usually has already been answered on this board or is easily googleable. Next, someone obliges and answers your question.

In this case, Japan is going to postpone the games and are currently playing chicken with the IOC to see who will have to pay for the expenses. As to your other point, you want CONCACAF to announce a new format when all of its members are currently quarantined from each other with no timeline on when that will be lifted, but is best case scenario months away, sure makes sense.

Then, you respond to everyone that responds to you, thus making it so that every other post in this thread is you.

Finally, 2 weeks later, @admin bans you for your past verbal abuses.

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It should be very clear by now that there won't be enough space in the calendar for the 7-35 tournament (or Hex) to run as scheduled. It's also very likely that FIFA windows will be reduced to play postponed league matches. This isn't business as usual guys. Expect some massive scheduling compression - which may help us or further hurt us - but it's pointless to even try to change things up now until the health situation becomes clearer.

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I wouldn’t be stunned if CONCACAF forces a home and away match between us and El Salvador to be the last team in the Hex.  The change made was very unfair to Canada especially.

Depending on when this gets under control there may still be time for the current process to play through but it’s going to be tight I think.

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39 minutes ago, Floortom said:

I don’t really see how a compressed format would help us in any way. If anything, i would assume it will squeeze out the 2nd / 3rd tier squads even more. 

Best case scenario would be they run out of dates for the hex and are forced to do two groups of 4. 

I could also foresee them delaying the Gold Cup to 2022 and using June 2021 to play 4 or even 6 games.  They'd probably ask for a special exception from FIFA to get player release outside the normal window.

 

 

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32 minutes ago, baulderdash77 said:

I wouldn’t be stunned if CONCACAF forces a home and away match between us and El Salvador to be the last team in the Hex.  The change made was very unfair to Canada especially.

Depending on when this gets under control there may still be time for the current process to play through but it’s going to be tight I think.

CONCACAF certainly never does us any favours, we are the nice Canadians who besides a few of us on this forum will never complain, ES probably has way more influence than us and certainly would be against the home and away tie!

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If the Covid19 problem becomes longer than expected and FIFA does not want to change the dates for Qatar 2022, the  Concacaf qualifiers would have to be done in a tournament " a la Gold Gold"  or as  the Concacaf Women's World Cup qualification.

Or implement home-away direct elimination matches  to complete 6 countries in the final round and play the Hex in one venue, as happened with the Concacaf qualifiers of 1974 (Haiti), 1978 (Mexico) and 1982 (Honduras).

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1 hour ago, xabuep2 said:

If the Covid19 problem becomes longer than expected and FIFA does not want to change the dates for Qatar 2022, the  Concacaf qualifiers would have to be done in a tournament " a la Gold Gold"  or as  the Concacaf Women's World Cup qualification.

Or implement home-away direct elimination matches  to complete 6 countries in the final round and play the Hex in one venue, as happened with the Concacaf qualifiers of 1974 (Haiti), 1978 (Mexico) and 1982 (Honduras).

Looking at FIFA's regulations for 2022 World Cup Qualifying, qualifying can only occur in single matches at a neutral site with FIFA's permission.  See the highlighted sections at the bottom of the screenshot below.

https://resources.fifa.com/image/upload/regulations-fifa-world-cup-2022tm-preliminary-competition.pdf?cloudid=r6gcejmanhw27gzaa9xb

 

image.thumb.png.9daedb4acf00743f0818a2ace34638fd.png

 

 

Also important to note this sentence in the middle of the first paragraph that CONCACAF never read until it was brought to their attention:    "Any seeding based on team performance for each confederation's preliminary competition shall be based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking"

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2 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

 

Also important to note this sentence in the middle of the first paragraph that CONCACAF never read until it was brought to their attention:    "Any seeding based on team performance for each confederation's preliminary competition shall be based on the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking"

Yah. Thanks Vic.  That was a massive F up.  Probably thought he was doing us s favour but didn’t know his own organizations rules.

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11 minutes ago, Kent said:

I wonder if FIFA might consider making windows a couple days longer and allowing 3 matches rather than just 2. Everything is up in the air at this point. We don’t know when things will be up and running again, so it is hard to predict what might be done.

The easiest thing for FIFA to do is move the World Cup draw back to allow the June and September 2022 dates to be used.  There are 4 matchdays scheduled for June 2022 that would otherwise just be friendlies

 

image.thumb.png.b94f335e6f76884e675fbcf3d4d2ba5d.png

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John Herdman prepares for the future, looks for silver lining in COVID-19 cloud

..that has included strategic planning, statistical analysis and tactical reviews as well as starting scouting possible World Cup qualifying opponents. 

Herdman expects a congested schedule when soccer returns, so being prepared is key given time may be short. 

A Canada Soccer committee is looking at short-, medium- and long-term scenarios, as well as “best and worse scenarios” on when the sport returns. It’s not easy in an ever-changing landscape.

Players on the national team’s leadership group met remotely last Friday. One-on-one “connects” with the players are coming up. Work continues at the younger age levels.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/soccer/article-john-herdman-prepares-for-the-future-looks-for-silver-lining-in-covid/

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