The Road to Qatar.

[SkuseisLoose]

1 hour ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

They could play the first round outside of the FIFA window for teams 30-35.  They did that a few cycles ago.  I don't think it would cause too much of a stink in Anguila and Turks & Caicos etc.  Not like they have any internationals to get released.

I’d just like to point out that besides from Turks and Caicos all of the bottom 6 called up overseas players with a surprisingly large amount by the USVI.

[longlugan]

23 hours ago, Peggy said:

Shame on you.

Rather hypocritical of you wouldn't you say?

[longlugan]

On 6/14/2020 at 6:34 PM, Peggy said:

So if you are to be believed, I must be doing pretty good since only 7 out of hundreds of intelligent people gave you a little blue heart. That's less than 3% who agree you.

I'll tell you what. If you can get just 100 little blue hearts, then there's no need for @admin to ban, cause I'll never come back to this site under any name! 

What would you say is the percentage of people on here that agree with you? Just asking since I've had a rather lousy day and I'm sure your response will give me a good chuckle.

[afun]

The Road to Qatar is long. And painful. Just like this thread.

[Bison44]

11 minutes ago, afun said:

The Road to Qatar is long. And painful. Just like this thread.

Long and painful...thats what she said.  

[BuzzAndSting]

4 minutes ago, Peggy said:

Finally we're getting it. To think there were some who thought that we could get to Qatar by playing 6 easy matches against Costa Rica, Jamaica and Antigua. Shame on them. Fortunately, most of the world actually like to play games. Lots of games! LOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGG and PPPPPPPPAAAAAIIIIIIIINNFUL GAMES!!

You know what has to have been long and painful? The wait for the Dutch to win a World Cup.

[longlugan]

7 hours ago, BuzzAndSting said:

You know what has to have been long and painful? The wait for the Dutch to win a World Cup.

It still is...one of the things I look most forward to every World Cup.🤣🤣

[Alex]

So on Twitter Duane Rollins suggests it’s one group of 8. I think it’s him speculating, the same way we are that it’s 2 groups of 4. If it’s one group of 8, why not just keep the same format we had with the hex. I like the idea of a preliminary round then 2 groups of 4. Everything can be squeezed in and with one final group of 8 it’s 14 games then the playoff then the intercontinental playoff so I don’t see that happening. 

[MtlMario]

While it would take longer to complete I would love to see a group of 8. Basically a 50% chance of advancing to world cup or playoffs. I'll take those odds.

[Alex]

To summarize here’s what we know:

- the original hex format and repechage is scrapped.

- the speculated 3 groups of 4 format is scrapped.

- 6 games were not enough games for qualifying so a longer route is desired.

- there is a rumour of fifa adding another window for 2021.

- concacaf wants to finish the nations league finals.

- the next gold cup is in 2021 and there’s still qualifying to be done for that.

- there might be some sort of 8 team final wcq format.

- wcq games in Asia have been scheduled for this fall so the windows will probably go ahead as planned.

- the gold cup cannot be used as World Cup qualifying. 

 

 

 

 

[Shway]

2 minutes ago, Alex said:

To summarize here’s what we know:

- 6 games were not enough games for qualifying so a longer route is desired.

- there is a rumour of fifa adding another window for 2021.

- concacaf wants to finish the nations league finals.

- the next gold cup is in 2021 and there’s still qualifying to be done for that.

- there might be some sort of 8 team final wcq format.

- wcq games in Asia have been scheduled for this fall so the windows will probably go ahead as planned.

- the gold cup cannot be used as World Cup qualifying. 

I think the main thing is figuring out what the final WCQ is suppose to look like, and it seems like they have figured it out in regard to how many teams.
So per team in the top 8 of Concacaf, it could look like this:

- 14 games (Home & Away) for WCQ Finals.
- 3-6 potential games for Gold Cup.
- 2 games for (Mexico, Costa Rica, USA, Honduras)

For the teams outside of the top 8:

2021 Gold Cup Qualifiers & Gold Cup
- 2-4 games for 12 teams
- 3-6 potential games for 4 out of the 12 qualified teams

2022 World Cup Qualifying
- 6-12 potential games for all teams (group stage to finals remains unchanged)

With the change from the Hex to the Oct, it allows the lower seed groups to become even (30 to 32). Previously there was 2 groups that had 3 teams. Now the 8 groups have 4 teams, creating an even playing field.

This fall they could (in parallel) finish the Nations League, start the Octagon with the teams outside of the Nations League, and start the Gold Cup Qualifiers. I think with/if the added dates in 2021, there is more than enough time to play the home and away Octagon. Reality is there really won't be any friendlies - which is what they've been clamouring for.
 

[CanadianSoccerFan]

25 minutes ago, Shway said:

I think the main thing is figuring out what the final WCQ is suppose to look like, and it seems like they have figured it out in regard to how many teams.
So per team in the top 8 of Concacaf, it could look like this:

- 14 games (Home & Away) for WCQ Finals.
- 3-6 potential games for Gold Cup.
- 2 games for (Mexico, Costa Rica, USA, Honduras)

For the teams outside of the top 8:

2021 Gold Cup Qualifiers & Gold Cup
- 2-4 games for 12 teams
- 3-6 potential games for 4 out of the 12 qualified teams

2022 World Cup Qualifying
- 6-12 potential games for all teams (group stage to finals remains unchanged)

With the change from the Hex to the Oct, it allows the lower seed groups to become even (30 to 32). Previously there was 2 groups that had 3 teams. Now the 8 groups have 4 teams, creating an even playing field.

This fall they could (in parallel) finish the Nations League, start the Octagon with the teams outside of the Nations League, and start the Gold Cup Qualifiers. I think with/if the added dates in 2021, there is more than enough time to play the home and away Octagon. Reality is there really won't be any friendlies - which is what they've been clamouring for.
 

The report indicates FIFA rejected the dual pathway method.  They want everyone including the top teams involved in a knockout format leading to a final round with 8 teams

[SpursFlu]

I'm sure there will be a few countries that wont field a team. Maybe take some step aside money to get it to a manageable number 

[Trois Reds]

I disagree with you on this.  I'm sure there will be the same number of countries.  CONCACAF already helps pay for things like travel and hotel costs so some of the smaller Caribbean islands can play elsewhere.  I don't see why they would stop now.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Trois Reds

[Shway]

4 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

The report indicates FIFA rejected the dual pathway method.  They want everyone including the top teams involved in a knockout format leading to a final round with 8 teams

You mean the same dual pathway that was announced last year before the pandemic? Im confused at how you can include all teams, and then end with a final 8....wheres the time for this with everything else.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

The guy who broke the story is speaking here in detail about it in the tweet below. In spite of my unbelievable 15 day streak on Duolingo my Spanish proficiency is still about 14 decades away.  Any Spanish speakers here care to translate or at least summarize?  Much appreciated

@xabuep2

 

 

[Bdog]

10 hours ago, MtlMario said:

While it would take longer to complete I would love to see a group of 8. Basically a 50% chance of advancing to world cup or playoffs. I'll take those odds.

I’d love it too, the octagon would basically make the countries who deserve it the most qualify. I don’t like the idea of placing 2nd in a group with Mexico and having to do the potential best of 2nd place teams knockout round. 

It’s a lot of games but getting to play every team sounds fun and it gives us a bigger margin of error than groups would imo. 

[SkuseisLoose]

7 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

I'm sure there will be a few countries that wont field a team. Maybe take some step aside money to get it to a manageable number 

Doubt it, If any country was in such a poor financial situation that they couldn't afford it then they'd likely be bailed out by Concacaf. I'd also hope that if Concacaf refused one of the big nations would step up and help fund it. 

[SpursFlu]

You just need to play a 32 team bracket and stop at the final 8 and create a group. So 2 rounds

[xabuep2]

1 hour ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

The guy who broke the story is speaking here in detail about it in the tweet below. In spite of my unbelievable 15 day streak on Duolingo my Spanish proficiency is still about 14 decades away.  Any Spanish speakers here care to translate or at least summarize?  Much appreciated

@xabuep2

 

No Problem @CanadianSoccerFan

According to this proposal, the format would be as follows:

First Round:  

Home/away matches between 17-35 ranked teams, until completing 10 teams. (total 19 teams)

Second Round: 

Home/Away matches between 10 winners of First round vs 7-16 Concacaf ranked teams (total 20 teams)

Third Round:

10 winners of second round join 1-6 Concacaf ranked teams in Home/Away matches (total 16 teams)

Final Round: Octagonal (total 8 teams)

The 8 winners of Third Round play in a round robin in which the first 3 will qualify for the world cup and the fourth place will play the intercontinental play off.

According to this journalist, it would be an octagonal, since he indicated that Panama would need to play 18 games to qualify for the World Cup. And it would begin from January 2021 until June 2022 approximately .... But  its approval or not will be in the next days.

Edited June 17, 2020 by xabuep2

[An Observer]

10 minutes ago, xabuep2 said:

10 winners of second round join 1-6 Concacaf ranked teams in Home/Away matches (total 16 teams)

This could be dangerous for us unless the top 8 seeds are seeded which I hope they will be and not only the top 6 as that could easily mean we draw a Mexico or US in that round if were unlucky.

[CanadianSoccerFan]

12 minutes ago, An Observer said:

This could be dangerous for us unless the top 8 seeds are seeded which I hope they will be and not only the top 6 as that could easily mean we draw a Mexico or US in that round if were unlucky.

I doubt it.  Seeding only 6 of 16 teams makes no sense for a draw.  It will likely be a seeded bracket with the top 6 getting byes to the last KO round.  

[A Different Perspective]

17 minutes ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

I doubt it.  Seeding only 6 of 16 teams makes no sense for a draw.  It will likely be a seeded bracket with the top 6 getting byes to the last KO round.  

I agree with this... Concacaf also does not want the US, and perhaps rightfully so for monetary reasons, to be upset - and perhaps not Mexico either ... can you imagine if we did get either those teams and we found lightning in a bottle and upset them before the octagon (unlikely but not improbable with our newfound studs),

As aside - not a bad 80's movie, the Octagon with Chuck Norris 

 

[archer21]

2 hours ago, xabuep2 said:

No Problem @CanadianSoccerFan

According to this proposal, the format would be as follows:

First Round:  

Home/away matches between 17-35 ranked teams, until completing 10 teams. (total 19 teams)

Second Round: 

Home/Away matches between 10 winners of First round vs 7-16 Concacaf ranked teams (total 20 teams)

Third Round:

10 winners of second round join 1-6 Concacaf ranked teams in Home/Away matches (total 16 teams)

Final Round: Octagonal (total 8 teams)

The 8 winners of Third Round play in a round robin in which the first 3 will qualify for the world cup and the fourth place will play the intercontinental play off.

According to this journalist, it would be an octagonal, since he indicated that Panama would need to play 18 games to qualify for the World Cup. And it would begin from January 2021 until June 2022 approximately .... But  its approval or not will be in the next days.

That’s an insane amount of matches. Is there really enough time for all that? Must be adding a lot of match windows. Is the octagonal home/away? 

Edit: also, first round doesn’t make sense. 17th ranked team would go straight to round 2 as well. 18 vs 35, 19 vs 34 etc gets you 9 teams plus rank 17 is 10 teams.

Edited June 17, 2020 by archer21

[SthMelbRed]

2 hours ago, A Different Perspective said:

 

 

 

Edited June 17, 2020 by SthMelbRed
double post