The Road to Qatar.

[SpursFlu 2,572]

At the end of the day if it sticks, it all comes down to loosing to Haiti. That should never have happened with the talent we have

But chin up.. we have an unreal team by Concacaf standards. Easily the 3rd best team talent wise. 

What do we need to do and let's just do it

I'm already dreaming about a sold out BC Place, intercontinental play in game v Argentina and Canada puts the nail in Messi's international career

Edited April 2, 2020 by SpursFlu

[CanadianSoccerFan 1,409]

Just watch.  Even if covid is over by the end of the summer  CONCACAF will push back the hex in order to squeeze in the Nations League final 4 in September that nobody gives a rats a$$ about anyway.  

[CanadianSoccerFan 1,409]

Another complication is the Gold Cup qualifiers. There were supposed to be knockout rounds in both March and June.  There is no room for that now

[Kyle_The_Hill 260]

26 minutes ago, neuker said:

Perhaps the Gold Cup and CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers could be combined, as the following will show that a precedent has already been established:

The 1985 CONCACAF Championship was the ninth edition of the CONCACAF Championship. It also served as the qualification for the 1986 World Cup. A total of 18 CONCACAF teams entered the competition. The North, Central American and Caribbean zone was allocated 2 places (out of 24) in the final tournament. Mexico, the World Cup host, qualified automatically, leaving 1 spot open for competition between 17 teams. Canada earned their first major title and clinched qualification on 14 September 1985 to participate in their first World Cup after beating Honduras 2–1 at King George V Park in St. John's, Newfoundland.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_men's_national_soccer_team ) 

This was actually an interesting post Robert.

But come on @admin, what is the point of a ban if he can just make a new account the next day.

[xabuep2 286]

Yesterday, all the sports sites in the Hispanic area of Concacaf highlighted that it is virtually certain that El Salvador would be in the final hex after the cancellation of the friendly dates in June.

Even the Spanish journalist closely linked to the Concacaf Mister Chip (Alexis Martin-Tamayo) referred to it. In fact, this journalist usually anticipates the official statements of Concacaf, because he works indirectly for this Conferderación, advertising his tournaments.

In Panama there is a saying that says: when the river sounds, stones bring. 

Let's not be surprised that all of this is well cooked. The best thing that could happen is that more FIFA dates  will be suspended and thus a total format change would have to be made.

I attach some links, sorry they are in Spanish but they refer the same

https://www.tvn-2.com/deportes/Panama-oficialmente-Hexagonal-CONCACAF_0_5547195251.html

https://us.marca.com/claro/futbol/seleccion-usa/2020/04/03/5e86bf8f22601da71a8b459f.html

https://us.as.com/us/2020/04/03/futbol/1585865160_195411.html

https://www.lateja.cr/deportes/hexagonal-de-concacaf-rumbo-a-catar-2020-esta/H7Z3HM7CD5D7POEBQKW2V24PH4/story/

[SkuseisLoose 1,248]

Gold cup can't be used because some countries would be eliminated before it ever began. Doesnt  matter that the US Virgin Islands wouldn't have qualified to begin with but they still deserve the chance.

[CanadianSoccerFan 1,409]

CONCACAF has released a statement to say the Nations League Finals "will be rescheduled to a later date" and the Gold Cup qualifiers are "postponed".    That should eat up at least one FIFA window.

https://www.concacaf.com/en/article/concacaf-statement-regarding-the-suspension-of-the-concacaf-nations-league-finals-road-to-gold-cup-qualifiers-and-flow-caribbean-club-championship

 

Could be a moot point because FIFA is starting bilateral discussions about changing the FIFA calendar in response to Covid

 

 

Concerning the men’s international match calendar:

• To postpone all international matches due to be played during the upcoming June 2020 window; and
• To organise bilateral discussions with confederations concerning 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers in order to finalise a revised match schedule pending health and safety developments.

https://www.fifa.com/who-we-are/news/dedicated-covid-19-working-group-proposes-recommendations-after-first-meeting

[admin 717]

5 hours ago, Kyle_The_Hill said:

This was actually an interesting post Robert.

But come on @admin, what is the point of a ban if he can just make a new account the next day.

What can I do? 

IP block doesn't work.  Just make a new email, use a vpn.... if russian bots can do it, so can he.

The platform is dead.

Assholes like him killed it long ago.

 

[SpursFlu 2,572]

Well at least he's a football fan. When they were giving out assignments at the bot farm in Nigeria they were like ok who wants to be a White Supremacist on youtube comment sections? Ok do we have any takers on pretending to be Black Lives Matter on twitter? K good. Oh here's an interesting one, who wants to stir up shit on a Canadian soccer forum? "Robert" was like oh oh oh me sir I'll take that one! Yes! He couldn't believe he could combine both his passions and get paid for it. Tearing at the cultural fabric of western civilization and football. What luck

Edited April 4, 2020 by SpursFlu

[SpursFlu 2,572]

But he's right all options are on the table

Edited April 4, 2020 by SpursFlu

[baulderdash77 2,213]

This is not going to really settle down in all regions of the world until July at the earliest.  Less developed areas will linger in isolation until there is a vaccine; which won’t be until December.

Its quite possible that it’s all settled down in Canada by June but other countries won’t be so fortunate.

[Bison44 5,950]

I cant see how this will settle enough to get back to normal sports.  Say you slow it down and you only get 5% of population sick this spring/early summer, thats nearly 2 million cases ie hospitals swamped.  And if we start to ease up, there is still another 95% of the population for it to run rampant through the rest of the summer. It wouldnt surprise me all this will be shut down until winter at the earliest.    

[SpursFlu 2,572]

10 hours ago, Bison44 said:

I cant see how this will settle enough to get back to normal sports.  Say you slow it down and you only get 5% of population sick this spring/early summer, thats nearly 2 million cases ie hospitals swamped.  And if we start to ease up, there is still another 95% of the population for it to run rampant through the rest of the summer. It wouldnt surprise me all this will be shut down until winter at the earliest.    

Moving in the right direction out here in BC. Dont freak out on me. Just saying. Things wont be back to "normal" for a long time but things are moving in the right direction. Hospital bed occupancies have been cut in half since the peak over 3 weeks ago. Median age of deaths 81. 60% of active cases recovered. Facts folks

Edited April 4, 2020 by SpursFlu

[archer21 398]

55 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

Moving in the right direction out here in BC. Dont freak out on me. Just saying. Things wont be back to "normal" for a long time but things are moving in the right direction. Hospital bed occupancies have been cut in half since the peak over 3 weeks ago. Median age of deaths 81. 60% of active cases recovered. Facts folks

That’s awesome to hear but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world or even the rest of the country is the same. Ontario is struggling, particularly in the GTA. Even Windsor is being hit hard and facing the possibility of running out of beds/ventilators because of all the people coming from Detroit and the health care workers that commute to Detroit and back every day.

[SpursFlu 2,572]

2 minutes ago, archer21 said:

That’s awesome to hear but that doesn’t mean the rest of the world or even the rest of the country is the same. Ontario is struggling, particularly in the GTA. Even Windsor is being hit hard and facing the possibility of running out of beds/ventilators because of all the people coming from Detroit and the health care workers that commute to Detroit and back every day.

Yah that's tough and a unique situation. Stay safe and do the right thing. 2 things to consider in my opinion and we can relate it back to football. 2 things I can't see returning to "normal" for a long time is gatherings of "pick your number" and how you define that and international travel. I dont think there will be any international or cross border travel for non essential reasons for a long time.

[Bison44 5,950]

Peak??  You have got to be kidding....things havnt even started to get bad.  

[RJB 89]

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. 

Edited April 4, 2020 by RJB

[Mikmacdo 1,140]

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 398]

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 5,081]

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 717]

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 10]

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 2,572]

What's that I see? a silver lining

[CanadianSoccerFan 1,409]

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 877]

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.