The Road to Qatar.

[Free kick]

17 hours ago, canadafan101 said:

What’s funny now is we should have tried to be ranked 13th and play the Minnow route. It’s easier now. You have to win the tournament of 13-35 ranked in concacaf not 7-35 ranked in concacaf to make the playoff.

If Canada were 13th without a doubt we should be playing a playoff vs Panama/ Jamaica to make the intercontinental playoff.  

What you say is very likely true.  But, to me,  there is something to be said for qualifying honnorably.    Beating the sides that you are suppose beat in your region,  gaining respect as national team from opponents and home fans, proving that you are good, going to the  world cup with confidence.....etc.   This is as important as being granted a spot for the WC IMHO.    As much as i hated the previous (Pre pandemic) format because it was unfair mathematically,  i also hated the fact that we would never of gotten to play the good sides in the region and it would have been a tough sell at home when your qualifying sched is almost entirely full of oppoenents that are tiny island nations that for logistical or population  reasons cannot be expected to ever be internationally competetive.  
 

Fortunately,  this new format finally allows us to qualify honnorably.  

Edited June 11, 2020 by Free kick

[Obinna]

39 minutes ago, Free kick said:

Yes.  He played CB for Canada at CB in the U20 WC in 2007.  He was ultimately named to the tournament best eleven.  We have never had that kind of achievement since.    And that 2007 squad arguably achieved the greatest performance by a mens NT team since qualifying for the WC by the senior team in 1986.  CB is our achilles heel on the NT.   There is no real standout at that position so what is there to lose by playing him at CB.   The position doesnt require the greatest mobility and its about smarts,  he would fit the bill.   Its a gamble worth taking IMHO.

I see it this way also.

We have a hole to plug and he is a reliable player with tons of experience. Physically he still has enough juice to make it work, because like you say it is all about smarts when you play that position and Hutchinson has that. It really seems like an obvious solution to me. We have enough midfield depth that we won't miss him, but we can always move him into defensive midfield if the game calls for it.

I don't think we need our CB pairing to be dominant, though it would be nice, I just think we need players you can depend on. I have defended Henry time and again on this forum and I think he has some great qualities, but I cannot depend on him not to do something rash, be it a tackle or a brain fart. He is high risk high reward, but we need low risk in this position while the offense puts in work. Our defense doesn't need to win us games, they just can't lose us games. 

[SthMelbRed]

4 hours ago, Free kick said:

Yes.  He played CB for Canada at CB in the U20 WC in 2007.  He was ultimately named to the tournament best eleven.  We have never had that kind of achievement since.    And that 2007 squad arguably achieved the greatest performance by a mens NT team since qualifying for the WC by the senior team in 1986.  CB is our achilles heel on the NT.   There is no real standout at that position so what is there to lose by playing him at CB.   The position doesnt require the greatest mobility and its about smarts,  he would fit the bill.   Its a gamble worth taking IMHO.

2003, surely?

[Free kick]

4 hours ago, SthMelbRed said:

2003, surely?

Yes.  Thank you.   It was 2003, not 2007.  

2007, was to be forgotten unfortunately.

[MtlMario]

18 hours ago, canadafan101 said:

What’s funny now is we should have tried to be ranked 13th and play the Minnow route. It’s easier now. You have to win the tournament of 13-35 ranked in concacaf not 7-35 ranked in concacaf to make the playoff.

If Canada were 13th without a doubt we should be playing a playoff vs Panama/ Jamaica to make the intercontinental playoff.  

While that maybe true, if we were ranked 13th we wouldn't have the players we have now. You can't have it both ways. At least that's the way it's supposed to be.

[dennis]

10 hours ago, Free kick said:

Yes.  He played CB for Canada at CB in the U20 WC in 2007.  He was ultimately named to the tournament best eleven.  We have never had that kind of achievement since.    And that 2007 squad arguably achieved the greatest performance by a mens NT team since qualifying for the WC by the senior team in 1986.  CB is our achilles heel on the NT.   There is no real standout at that position so what is there to lose by playing him at CB.   The position doesnt require the greatest mobility and its about smarts,  he would fit the bill.   Its a gamble worth taking IMHO.

 

Edit:  it was 2003, not 2007,  the year that Cnd made to the quarterfinals and lost 2-1 to Spain at the U20 WC.

He played CB for the senior squad at least once as well. Seem to recall he played well there. Players in the twilight of their career moving to defense is nothing new. Think Dwight Yorke for T&T at world cup 2006.  

[TGAA_Star]

Was reading online and they might be going along the lines of AFC vs OFC and CONCACAF vs CONMEBOL for inter continental playoff matchups but only just a rumor as far as 2022 qualifying goes

[Alex]

The interesting part of qualifying is how they plan on getting 23 teams down to 1. Im assuming a straight home and home knockout format will happen. (unless the pandemic won’t allow for it because of travel and it turns into a single site or something) If it’s traditional the quickest way that I can see is by doing 5 rounds, 10 games. 23>16>8>4>2. Then the extra date for the playoff, then the intercontinental playoff is March 2022. 

Much will be determined by travel and quarantine restrictions this fall. 

[Obinna]

12 minutes ago, Alex said:

The interesting part of qualifying is how they plan on getting 23 teams down to 1. Im assuming a straight home and home knockout format will happen. (unless the pandemic won’t allow for it because of travel and it turns into a single site or something) If it’s traditional the quickest way that I can see is by doing 5 rounds, 10 games. 23>16>8>4>2. Then the extra date for the playoff, then the intercontinental playoff is March 2022. 

Much will be determined by travel and quarantine restrictions this fall. 

I can see this tournament being at a neutral venue. Cuts down on cost and travel possibly makes it easier to play more games in a shorter time frame.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

55 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

Was reading online and they might be going along the lines of AFC vs OFC and CONCACAF vs CONMEBOL for inter continental playoff matchups but only just a rumor as far as 2022 qualifying goes

Link please

[TGAA_Star]

8 minutes ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Link please

Well they were discussing it on Bigsoccer where I usually am but as far as links I'm trying to find it myself

[archer21]

5 hours ago, Alex said:

The interesting part of qualifying is how they plan on getting 23 teams down to 1. Im assuming a straight home and home knockout format will happen. (unless the pandemic won’t allow for it because of travel and it turns into a single site or something) If it’s traditional the quickest way that I can see is by doing 5 rounds, 10 games. 23>16>8>4>2. Then the extra date for the playoff, then the intercontinental playoff is March 2022. 

Much will be determined by travel and quarantine restrictions this fall. 

Yeah this is the interesting thing to find out. If it’s gonna take 10 match days to find which team will play the playoff, then it makes no sense to only have 6 match days for the top 12 teams.

[johnyb]

6 hours ago, Alex said:

The interesting part of qualifying is how they plan on getting 23 teams down to 1. Im assuming a straight home and home knockout format will happen. (unless the pandemic won’t allow for it because of travel and it turns into a single site or something) If it’s traditional the quickest way that I can see is by doing 5 rounds, 10 games. 23>16>8>4>2. Then the extra date for the playoff, then the intercontinental playoff is March 2022. 

Much will be determined by travel and quarantine restrictions this fall. 

If it's tournament style and played in a neutral site, then it can be 1 game knockout. Would save a lot of time.

[Kyle_The_Hill]

27 minutes ago, Peggy said:

Why can't CONCACAF do the same and start its World Cup qualifying campaign in October also? Then there would be no need to change the current format that is in place?

There would be 4 match dates in 2020, 10 match dates in 2021, and 6 match dates in 2022 if FIFA extended the qualifying process up to and including the May 30th - June 14th window. That's a total of 20 match dates.

The HEX and 7-to-35 route would only require 10 match dates, the 4th place HEX vs Best of the Rest play-off would require 2 match dates, and the Intercontinental play-off would require 2 match dates as well. That's a total of 14 match dates.

Hi Robert,

It's a good suggestion. Unfortunately, moving forward with the current format is unfair for the nations just outside the Hex, such as Canada, who did not have the March and June windows as well as potential out of window matches in April and May to gain points and overtake the current sixth seeded nation.

[SpursFlu]

48 minutes ago, Peggy said:

My heartfelt apologies to Antigua & Barbuda. I have no doubt that if they had had all those opportunities you mentioned they would have made up their 219 point deficit on El Salvador for sure.

There is a really good keeper from the US Virgin Islands named Robert Peggy 

[JamboAl]

21 hours ago, SkuseisLoose said:

He's only played youth games for PSV. There's no chance he's the third best keeper in CONCACAF over someone like Borjan who plays champions league football every year. No doubt he has the potential to be in the top 3 in the future but he definitely isn't there yet.

Don't waste your breath.  To Robert, a youth keeper at PSV (who is possibly Dutch) is better than a Champions League keeper at Red Star Belgrade.

[Blackdude]

42 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

Don't waste your breath.  To Robert, a youth keeper at PSV (who is possibly Dutch) is better than a Champions League keeper at Red Star Belgrade.

I don't even know why he'd put Ochoa in front of Navas. 

[RS]

1 hour ago, JamboAl said:

Don't waste your breath.  To Robert, a youth keeper at PSV (who is possibly Dutch) is better than a Champions League keeper at Red Star Belgrade.

Eloy Room is Curacao's starter, so this youth keeper should probably try to win that job before staking a claim as one of CONCACAF's best.

[Kent]

6 minutes ago, Peggy said:

At the very least people are now engaging in the depth of goalkeeping in CONCACAF, a position which was entirely overlooked in this thread prior to my post. However, since no one has yet responded with a different list of top 5 keepers in CONCACAF, makes me think that I must have nailed it.

It is off topic. I suggest creating a new thread for it.

[Bison44]

Cripes it really is Robert, back from the ashes like a phoenix reborn.

[N1ckbr0wn]

52 minutes ago, Peggy said:

At the very least people are now engaging in the depth of goalkeeping in CONCACAF, a position which was entirely overlooked in this thread prior to my post. However, since no one has yet responded with a different list of top 5 keepers in CONCACAF, makes me think that I must have nailed it.

Based on FIFA 20 ratings:

1. Kaylor Navas

2. Guillermo Ochoa

3. Zack Steffen

4. Jonathan Orozco

5. Milan Borjan

[TGAA_Star]

14 hours ago, Peggy said:

Why can't CONCACAF do the same and start its World Cup qualifying campaign in October also? Then there would be no need to change the current format that is in place?

There would be 4 match dates in 2020, 10 match dates in 2021, and 6 match dates in 2022 if FIFA extended the qualifying process up to and including the May 30th - June 14th window. That's a total of 20 match dates.

The HEX and 7-to-35 route would only require 10 match dates, the 4th place HEX vs Best of the Rest play-off would require 2 match dates, and the Intercontinental play-off would require 2 match dates as well. That's a total of 14 match dates.

I mean it is food for thought and it is the only way to get on schedule for Qatar since it is set for November 2022

[red card]

Good news everybody, looks like we'll qualify for Qatar. Supported by the Donald himself.

 

Edited June 13, 2020 by red card

[TGAA_Star]

7 minutes ago, red card said:

Good news everybody, looks like we'll qualify for Qatar. Supported by the Donald himself.

 

This doesn't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things for 2022. USA will still qualify regardless.

[SkuseisLoose]

29 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

This doesn't really mean anything in the grand scheme of things for 2022. USA will still qualify regardless.