WCQ: Third Round - Window 1 (September 2-8, 2021)

[Obinna]

5 minutes ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

It not just Antonio for Jamaica. Pinnock who they capped in March (Brentford), Bailly (Villa), Andre Grey (Watford) and maybe 10 Championship or lower league guys if I recall.  Some are not vital and some are new but those are people they have given caps to with the last year or so.  Interesting situation. 

Jamaica may go from serious contender to bottom of the ocho if they can't get their English-based players.

Things change quickly....

There already seems to be dissatisfaction (if not panic) from some of their fans over the state of the team heading into the final round, in no small part to how the JFA have been handling things as of late. Will this development be adding fuel to the fire?

As someone who sees Jamaica as a threat to us, I am not unhappy at all by this stuff.

Edit: Does this extend to Scotland? Roofe is at Rangers, but so is Arfield. Wotherspoon would be affected too, no? He's entrenched enough in our core group that he should be mentioned too.

Edited August 18, 2021 by Obinna

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

6 minutes ago, Obinna said:

As someone who sees Jamaica as a threat to us, I am not unhappy at all by this stuff.

It is an impressively talented group if they can get even half of them playing together as any sort of team. 

Antonio is scary himself when healthy.  Watch his goal from the weekend.  Complete centre forward play.

Edited August 18, 2021 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[Floortom]

1 minute ago, WestHamCanadianinOxford said:

It is an impressively talented group if they can get even half of them playing together as any sort of team. 

Antonio is scary himself when healthy.  Watch his goal from the weekend.  Complete centre forward play.

Antonio has a very strong argument as the best striker in concacaf. His goal contribution stats are very impressive in a top league. Unfortunately he’s constantly injured 

[red card]

US striker/forward depth may be tested for the first window.

Dike, Hoppe & Gioacchini haven't played since the Gold Cup. Dike may still be injured. Hoppe is in transfer limbo.

Zardes & Pefok both came off in today's matches with injuries.

And Pulisic missed training today.

[narduch]

2 weeks from today.

[Alex]

9 hours ago, red card said:

US striker/forward depth may be tested for the first window.

Dike, Hoppe & Gioacchini haven't played since the Gold Cup. Dike may still be injured. Hoppe is in transfer limbo.

Zardes & Pefok both came off in today's matches with injuries.

And Pulisic missed training today.

From what I read online the American fan base expects 9 points… two games down in Central America will be tough. 
 

On a side note, I like how the schedule plays out where two groups of 4 teams all play each other this window.  

[Floortom]

Pulisic has tested positive for COVID 19. I think he might still be at WCQs in Sept, but fitness will be an issue if so. 

Im guessing if he is eligible to travel for WCQs they just bring him directly to the US and he doesnt even travel to El Salvador

Edited August 20, 2021 by Floortom

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

18 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Pulisic has tested positive for COVID 19. I think he might still be at WCQs in Sept, but fitness will be an issue if so. 

Im guessing if he is eligible to travel for WCQs they just bring him directly to the US and he doesnt even travel to El Salvador

El Salvador is an amber-listed country, so it would not be a quarantine issue, just a fitness one, as you say,  and whether Chelsea want him for their 11 Sept game.  He would start playing at 3:05 am UK time on 9 Sept if he plays against Honduras (also amber).

Panama, Mexico, and Costa Rica are the red-listed countries for the UK at the moment.  

Edited August 20, 2021 by WestHamCanadianinOxford

[David Pinto]

26 minutes ago, Floortom said:

Pulisic has tested positive for COVID 19. I think he might still be at WCQs in Sept, but fitness will be an issue if so. 

Im guessing if he is eligible to travel for WCQs they just bring him directly to the US and he doesnt even travel to El Salvador

Does he need a 14 day quarentine right now? If so he couldn't fly until sept 4th

[Floortom]

1 minute ago, David Pinto said:

Does he need a 14 day quarentine right now? If so he couldn't fly until sept 4th

He is fully vaccinated with no symptoms. I think the quarantine is 10 days max but might be less 

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

4 minutes ago, Floortom said:

He is fully vaccinated with no symptoms. I think the quarantine is 10 days max but might be less 

Its 10 days from your positive test, no matter what any tests say in that 10 days. 

[David Pinto]

Takes him to the 29/30 before he can get on a plane. 

[Obinna]

1 hour ago, Floortom said:

Pulisic has tested positive for COVID 19. I think he might still be at WCQs in Sept, but fitness will be an issue if so. 

Will it? 

40 minutes ago, Floortom said:

He is fully vaccinated with no symptoms. I think the quarantine is 10 days max but might be less 

 

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

We have a better record against the USA with Pulisic playing than without him.

[frattinator]

On 8/18/2021 at 5:47 PM, Obinna said:

I can see governments keeping those measures in place so long as variants keep emerging (from the evolutionary pressures put on the virus by mass vaccination).

Minor correction, variants will not emerge BECAUSE of vaccinations, but rather they are natural and random evolutionary mutations in unvaccinated individuals. The reason why the Delta variant seemed to be more infectious despite vaccines is actually a sign that vaccines do a great job suppressing variants because it means it was able to suppress most other types of variants so that only this one variant is left. The more people are vaccinated the less likely new variants pop up, so mass vaccinations will reduce the likelihood of variants emerging. 
 

Source: my wife who spent her PhD developing risk models of vaccine preventable diseases (mostly childhood diseases like measles and rubella, but has branched out to other diseases too). 
 

Edit: I don’t want to turn this into another COVID thread but also didn’t want to leave wrong information about vaccines lying around since there is already enough misinformed people as is. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by frattinator

[Obinna]

8 minutes ago, frattinator said:

Minor correction, variants will not emerge BECAUSE of vaccinations, but rather they are natural and random evolutionary mutations in unvaccinated individuals. The reason why the Delta variant seemed to be more infectious despite vaccines is actually a sign that vaccines do a great job suppressing variants because it means it was able to suppress most other types of variants so that only this one variant is left. The more people are vaccinated the less likely new variants pop up, so mass vaccinations will reduce the likelihood of variants emerging. 
 

Source: my wife who spent her PhD developing risk models of vaccine preventable diseases (mostly childhood diseases like measles and rubella, but has branched out to other diseases too). 
 

Edit: I don’t want to turn this into another COVID thread but also didn’t want to leave wrong information about vaccines lying around since there is already enough misinformed people as is. 

Thanks for sharing that. I never considered how the Delta variant may just be the last one standing, since the vaccines are suppressing all other variants. An interesting way to look at it for sure. I guess if Delta ends up being the last major variant your wife's theory will hold true. 

Cheers

[frattinator]

3 hours ago, Obinna said:

Thanks for sharing that. I never considered how the Delta variant may just be the last one standing, since the vaccines are suppressing all other variants. An interesting way to look at it for sure. I guess if Delta ends up being the last major variant your wife's theory will hold true. 

Cheers

You are welcome! Glad to share something useful! One thing to remember is that until most people are vaccinated, there will always be new mutations in the unvaccinated population, and while most of them will be suppressed by our existing vaccines (and some might even have traits that are beneficial to us such as reduced symptoms), there will be others that might be more apt at getting around our vaccine defenses. This is why it’s a race to get as many people vaccinated as possible since that will reduce the number of people available for virus to infect and mutate in. 
 

Of course even if new variants are detected  that can evade our immunity it doesn’t mean we are all screwed. We can revise our vaccine so it can respond better to those variants (think seasonal flu shot since we actually revise the composition of the vaccine each flu season, but MUCH better). 

[Kent]

On 8/18/2021 at 3:14 PM, red card said:

Already at higher levels than Nashville SC attendance. Expecting 40k.

US has cracked 30k mark only 3x previously for WCQ.

I'm not sure where you are getting that from. I am seeing the following games with 30k plus.

2018 semi final round vs St. Vincent and the Grenadines in St. Louis
2014 final round vs Panama in Seattle
2014 final round vs Honduras in Chicago
2010 final round vs Costa Rica in Washington
2006 final round vs Guatemala in Birmingham
2006 final round vs Costa Rica in Salt Lake City
2002 semi final round vs Guatemala in Washington
2002 final round vs Costa Rica in Kansas City
2002 final round vs Trinidad and Tobago in Foxboro
2002 final round vs Honduras in Washington
2002 final round vs Jamaica in Foxboro

I'm not going to keep looking back further.

[David Pinto]

When do we expect the roster to be announced? Camp has to start in about a week. 

[king1010]

3 hours ago, David Pinto said:

When do we expect the roster to be announced? Camp has to start in about a week. 

International Window opens Monday August 30th. I'd assume roster is released this Thursday or Friday. 

[Free kick]

On 8/20/2021 at 11:18 AM, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

We have a better record against the USA with Pulisic playing than without him.

I saw only one WCQ match from the hex the last time.  It was the CRC-US match in New jersey.  I was not not impressed with Pulisic.  I did not notice anything more significant from him in the Can-USA at BMO field.   For a while i had forgetten that he was on the pitch.  

There are players who can be much more impactful at the club game than at the international game.  And vice versa applies equally,  Ali Gerba was always effective or productive for Canada,  but couldnt stick with a club to save his life. 
 
Of course, that could all change this time around for Pulisic. 

Edited August 22, 2021 by Free kick

[Shway]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

Stupid idea, could we play Buchanan in the Cavallini spot?

What happened to Larin? 

[narduch]

24 minutes ago, Shway said:

What happened to Larin? 

Play him on the wing?

[theaub]

May as well just play Buchanan on the wing then no?

I'm more curious to see if we end up seeing the return of striker Alphonso Davies at some point.

 

Edited August 23, 2021 by theaub

[WestHamCanadianinOxford]

 

54 minutes ago, Shway said:

What happened to Larin? 

With the amount he's bulked up, Davies up top is not worst idea for me.  And I  imagine the thought of us going route 1 would strike fear into most defenders. 

But I think we can continue doing what we were doing with Larin and David slightly behind, Buchanan and Davies as wing backs. 

Edited August 23, 2021 by WestHamCanadianinOxford