The Road to Qatar.

[Mikmacdo]

1 hour ago, RJB said:

That we are going to miss out on the Hex should come as no surprise. The surprise to me is that anyone thinks we deserve to be there. I think the format is really lame, but our results mean we don’t deserve a spot. Even with all the match days we were needing to schedule a batch of friendlies to try to pip El Salvador. 
 

I know I’m in the minority here, but with the exception of the USA game at home in the Nations League, I have seen Absolutely nothing from this team to suggest we deserve to be in the Hex.  Remember Haiti?  Or USA away?  If we truly belong as a top team, then we’ll run the table against non-Hex teams, then we’ll beat the fourth place team.
 

But it’s likely, we’ll struggle against teams like Panama, Guatemala, T&T.  Maybe it’s just old feelings, but I still lack confidence in us against those teams. 
 

The format doesn’t really matter. If we’re in the Hex, we’re likely fighting for fourth anyway.  If we aren’t in the Hex then the way many of you on this board talk it should be a bloody cake-walk to get into the playoff. 

I don't think we will struggle vs Guatemala, Panama or t and t but Curacao will be a struggle. 

I think Canada should be the favorite to win and beat whoever is in 4th likely Jamaica. 

[archer21]

2 hours ago, RJB said:

That we are going to miss out on the Hex should come as no surprise. The surprise to me is that anyone thinks we deserve to be there. I think the format is really lame, but our results mean we don’t deserve a spot. Even with all the match days we were needing to schedule a batch of friendlies to try to pip El Salvador. 
 

I know I’m in the minority here, but with the exception of the USA game at home in the Nations League, I have seen Absolutely nothing from this team to suggest we deserve to be in the Hex.  Remember Haiti?  Or USA away?  If we truly belong as a top team, then we’ll run the table against non-Hex teams, then we’ll beat the fourth place team.
 

But it’s likely, we’ll struggle against teams like Panama, Guatemala, T&T.  Maybe it’s just old feelings, but I still lack confidence in us against those teams. 
 

The format doesn’t really matter. If we’re in the Hex, we’re likely fighting for fourth anyway.  If we aren’t in the Hex then the way many of you on this board talk it should be a bloody cake-walk to get into the playoff. 

You can’t just say the format doesn’t matter though. We certainly could finish 3rd. Then no playoff and no intercontinental playoff. That’s really the difference

[Kent]

Yeah, I’d take a small chance at 3rd over no chance.

It is impossible to see when things get back to normal though, so we have no idea if this will be the format anyways. If there are any covid cases that means going back to normal means we are weeks away from having hospitals overwhelmed. It is possible we have to wait until either there is a vaccine or the economic and societal impacts of lockdown outweigh the benefits. By societal impacts I mean people going crazy, getting desperate (and resorting to crime, riots, etc), tensions rising in households to dangerous proportions, etc.

Hopefully it doesn’t come to any of that, but it is impossible to plan ahead at this point. We just have to take it a day at a time and remember we are all in this together.

[Admin]

On 4/3/2020 at 9:33 PM, Lofty said:

I'm not sure how many new users we get per day but it doesn't seem like very many. I thought you could configure the site so that new account requests must be manually approved, possibly after communicating with the applicant.

Unwanted extra work, I know. But you have to weigh that against the harm caused by allowing people to undermine the site administration.

Ok, I'll try that.

[Fresh Prince of MTL]

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.si.com/.amp/soccer/2020/04/13/concacaf-2022-world-cup-qualifying-coronavirus-victor-montagliani

Edited April 13, 2020 by Fresh Prince of MTL

[SpursFlu]

What's that I see? a silver lining

[CanadianSoccerFan]

2 hours ago, Fresh Prince of MTL said:

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.si.com/.amp/soccer/2020/04/13/concacaf-2022-world-cup-qualifying-coronavirus-victor-montagliani

Wow.  That's encouraging.  I was not expecting that.

Hoping for two groups of 4 with a crossover.

[Alex]

So they suggest September would be a friendly window to get teams time to adjust to being off for so long. They are also adamant the nations league final still takes place. That leaves 12 games (6 dates) if the intercontinental playoff takes place in March 2022. 

[CanadianSoccerFan]

 

[Shway]

1 hour ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Wow.  That's encouraging.  I was not expecting that.

Hoping for two groups of 4 with a crossover.

Like the virus, no one was. 

I underestimated the severity of it, and even more Concacafs ability to state that there is an integrity issue - even though there always was one with the rankings format. 

Hopefully this is good news that will be beneficial for us! 

[Watchmen]

3 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Wow.  That's encouraging.  I was not expecting that.

Hoping for two groups of 4 with a crossover.

There's not a lot of time left to do it, but I look forward to seeing how Canada finishes in 9th.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

5 hours ago, Lofty said:

That would be much more similar to the UEFA method. But CONCACAF won't like it because there would be no USA vs. MEX money spinning double header.

Unlike UEFA, who sells qualifying rights centrally, It's not CONCACAF that makes the money from World Cup qualifiers, it's the individual federations who sell the TV and commercial rights individually.  Montagliani had a rant about this on the Footy Prime Podcast a while back.  This is the reason why CONCACAF can't legally combine Nations League with WCQ.  The WCQ rights were already sold off individually before he even took office.

You are partially right because it is due to political pressure from the US and Mexican federations who promised their rights buyers the USA/MEX games.  

 

[An Observer]

I am kinda coming around to the view that we won’t see any football (or any other sport) until the summer or autumn of 2021 when we have a vaccine in place. I can’t see any large scale public events being held anywhere until then and that means no sporting events. The risk is too great and legal liability and also the reputation damage (even if governments allowed it) will prevent it from happening.   You could think of playing all this behind closed doors for a season for tv only but I suspect the logistics of that are impossible as it would require not only all the players but everyone involved in the game (coaches, masseurs, tv crews, cleaning ladies, etc) to effectively be quarantined from family and friends for the whole period. Just ain’t going to be possible. That means that qualifying can’t start until second half of 2021 and first your going to want to start the leagues up and play a few friendlies or nations league matches for the national sides. Therefore, if 2022 will stick as a date, I suspect you will have some preliminary matches in early 2022 to narrow the field and likely some regional tournaments in June/July 2022 (ie. a delayed Gold Cup) to finalise qualification with intercontinental playoffs to follow immediately thereafter perhaps at a neutral venue. More likely, I think we will see Qatar 2022 moved to the same date in 2023

Edited April 14, 2020 by An Observer
Grammar

[SpursFlu]

Guys we're not all living in Toronto and New York. There will be football 

[Bison44]

4 hours ago, An Observer said:

I am kinda coming around to the view that we won’t see any football (or any other sport) until the summer or autumn of 2021 when we have a vaccine in place. I can’t see any large scale public events being held anywhere until then and that means no sporting events. The risk is too great and legal liability and also the reputation damage (even if governments allowed it) will prevent it from happening.   You could think of playing all this behind closed doors for a season for tv only but I suspect the logistics of that are impossible as it would require not only all the players but everyone involved in the game (coaches, masseurs, tv crews, cleaning ladies, etc) to effectively be quarantined from family and friends for the whole period. Just ain’t going to be possible. That means that qualifying can’t start until second half of 2021 and first your going to want to start the leagues up and play a few friendlies or nations league matches for the national sides. Therefore, if 2022 will stick as a date, I suspect you will have some preliminary matches in early 2022 to narrow the field and likely some regional tournaments in June/July 2022 (ie. a delayed Gold Cup) to finalise qualification with intercontinental playoffs to follow immediately thereafter perhaps at a neutral venue. More likely, I think we will see Qatar 2022 moved to the same date in 2023

I was watching wrestling (desperate i know) and they are still having lethal 6 man tag team ladder matches etc (said in a gravelly deep voice) in front of empty houses just to get product on TV.  If things calm down some more might we not see the CPL do that to safeguard their tv money??  Valour games look like they are played in an empty stadium anyways (if u turn the sound down), and mr parrot has shown me many pictures of other empty stadiums.   Charter flights, minimal staff etc.  Get some product on onesoccer and sell some subscriptions etc.  

[Daryn27]

On 4/4/2020 at 3:58 PM, RJB said:

That we are going to miss out on the Hex should come as no surprise. The surprise to me is that anyone thinks we deserve to be there. I think the format is really lame, but our results mean we don’t deserve a spot. Even with all the match days we were needing to schedule a batch of friendlies to try to pip El Salvador. 
 

I know I’m in the minority here, but with the exception of the USA game at home in the Nations League, I have seen Absolutely nothing from this team to suggest we deserve to be in the Hex.  Remember Haiti?  Or USA away?  If we truly belong as a top team, then we’ll run the table against non-Hex teams, then we’ll beat the fourth place team.
 

But it’s likely, we’ll struggle against teams like Panama, Guatemala, T&T.  Maybe it’s just old feelings, but I still lack confidence in us against those teams. 
 

The format doesn’t really matter. If we’re in the Hex, we’re likely fighting for fourth anyway.  If we aren’t in the Hex then the way many of you on this board talk it should be a bloody cake-walk to get into the playoff. 

True but El Salvador lost to the Dominican Republic, Struggled against Monserrat, and didn’t really dominate any of the minor teams. Canada is way more deserving of being in the hex if that still happens, than El Salvador.

We have shown that we are a difficult team to beat at home. The last 2 World Cup Hexagonal rounds needed 13 points to Qualify in 2018 and 12 points to Qualify in 2014 so if you say 13 is what you need then we need 4 wins and a draw, your telling me out of 10 games we can’t win 4 at home and draw 1 on the road to get 3rd place. 
 

Don’t think we can beat Mexico obviously but we can beat the US at home atleast I also believe we can beat Costa Rica at home and get a draw on the road we beat Jamaica at home and we beat Honduras as home. And that was before we had Davies, David, Cavallini, Eustaqiuo, and all our younger up and coming players.

Costa Rica is no where to being the team they were 4 years ago, and Honduras is about the same, Jamaica has improved with the addition of Leon Bailey, but other than that we are by far the most improved Nation in CONCACAF.

[SpursFlu]

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4085568/us-could-still-host-2022-world-cup-ex-fifa-president-blatter

And there's that. I think he meant to say Canada, US & Mexico

[Watchmen]

3 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

https://www.espn.com/soccer/united-states-usa/story/4085568/us-could-still-host-2022-world-cup-ex-fifa-president-blatter

And there's that. I think he meant to say Canada, US & Mexico

I don't.  I think if 2022 is moved from Qatar, it would just be to one country.

[SpursFlu]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

I don't.  I think if 2022 is moved from Qatar, it would just be to one country.

No way man.. 3 countries!

I'm kidding.. I have no idea but the potential of it moving is interesting 

Edited April 16, 2020 by SpursFlu

[SkuseisLoose]

2 hours ago, Watchmen said:

I don't.  I think if 2022 is moved from Qatar, it would just be to one country.

I think they should give it to England/UK. They're long overdue hosting a World Cup especially considering they've been trying to host it for years and not been picked partly due to corruption within FIFA.

[Watchmen]

41 minutes ago, SkuseisLoose said:

I think they should give it to England/UK. They're long overdue hosting a World Cup especially considering they've been trying to host it for years and not been picked partly due to corruption within FIFA.

On a completely even playing field, England would make the most sense.  The infrastructure is in place (stadiums, hotels, etc), and they haven't hosted in a while, and they're generally a good (though no where near as good as they think) team.  That would still leave the plan for Canada/Mexico/US intact for 2026, and would clear the way for the joint South American bid in 2030.  Of course, this is FIFA.  So the logical bid won't happen.  Hell, it's most likely not even moving from Qatar.

[SpursFlu]

People need to consider 1 crucial fact that seems to not come up much

Air travel since the Sars outbreak has increased by 3 BILLION flights annually. That is absolutely staggering and 100%.true. more than doubled in the past 15 years. Any location that is chosen for big events needs to consider potential travel restrictions that may be in place and where can generate the most revenue dealing with those restrictions 

[Bison44]

1 hour ago, SpursFlu said:

People need to consider 1 crucial fact that seems to not come up much

Air travel since the Sars outbreak has increased by 3 BILLION flights annually. That is absolutely staggering and 100%.true. more than doubled in the past 15 years. Any location that is chosen for big events needs to consider potential travel restrictions that may be in place and where can generate the most revenue dealing with those restrictions 

??  Where did you find the flight numbers? Commerical flights have increased by 3 billion annually??  I have seen where they say its doubled and will double again in the next 10 years, didnt realize it was in the billions.  

[SpursFlu]

7 minutes ago, Bison44 said:

??  Where did you find the flight numbers? Commerical flights have increased by 3 billion annually??  I have seen where they say its doubled and will double again in the next 10 years, didnt realize it was in the billions.  

Working so cant waist too much time but here is one thing I quickly found. Up to 2014 so follow the trend. I wish the media would start talking about things like this. They wanna also talk up climate change but no mention of these shocking numbers. Pamdemics spreading like wildfire l. Geezer I wonder how? Anyways I'm sure people can find more complete reports

http://www.bitsofscience.org/graph-global-air-travel-increase-6848/

Edited April 16, 2020 by SpursFlu

[Bison44]

Passengers, you are talking about passengers, not flights.  I was seeing flights had increased from 20mil a year to 40+mil a year in the last 15 years.  Billions extra flights with 100 people per flight would be trillions of extra passengers.    

https://www.statista.com/statistics/564769/airline-industry-number-of-flights/

 

Edited April 16, 2020 by Bison44