Road to Qatar ex Concacaf

[red card]

At this point, other than for TLN, Canadian tv or streaming don't seem too interested in WCQ for this September window. TSN could be showing them to promote their World Cup rights but they could be waiting for the last window. Fubo tv has Conmebol qualifier rights in the US but haven't bothered to get it for Canada. DAZN is showing Euro & certain AFC qualifiers in other countries but also haven't bothered to buy them for Canada.

OneSoccer also don't appear to be showing other Concacaf matches. As complementary programming, they could at least be showing CRvMexico or ESvHonduras when Canada plays the US.

UEFA, CAF & AFC matches largely start between 9:00 and 15:00 EDT. Add in Conembol & Concacaf, you have about 15 hours of matches almost everyday from Sept 1-8 (Conmebol is going till the 9th). Given this, it would be ideal for a whip around or Goal Rush type show. 

 

TLN is showing PORvIRE on Sept 1, BULvITA on Sept 2, ENGvAND & SUIvITA on Sept 5, IREvSER on Sept 7 & ITAvsLIT on Sept 8 (all non-English).

Fortunately, uefa.tv is showing 18 matches for free.

https://www.uefa.tv/

And FIFATV Youtube channel is showing the African qualifiers. So far, 12 matches are listed.

https://www.youtube.com/fifa

The notable matches I see subjectively as a neutral for this window are for Europe: PortugalvIreland, SwedenvSpain, SwitzerlandvItaly, NetherlandsvTurkey, PolandvEngland & BelgiumvCzech.

For Conmebol, it is EcuadorvParaguay, ChilevBrasil, BrasilvArgentina, EcuadorvChile & UruguayvEcuador.

For CAF, it is mostly the 1v2 group matchups: EgyptvGabon, SouthAfricavGhana, GuineavMorocco, CoteD'IvoirevCameroon, ZambiavTunisia, CongovSenegal, CaboVerdevNigeria & BurkinaFasovAlgeria.

For AFC, it is KoreavIraq, IranvSyria, AustraliavChina, ChinavJapan & IraqvIran.

 

Edited August 29, 2021 by red card

[gigi riva]

3 hours ago, red card said:

At this point, other than for TLN, Canadian tv or streaming don't seem too interested in WCQ for this September window. TSN could be showing them to promote their World Cup rights but they could be waiting for the last window. Fubo tv has Conmebol qualifier rights in the US but haven't bothered to get it for Canada. DAZN is showing Euro & certain AFC qualifiers in other countries but also haven't bothered to buy them for Canada.

OneSoccer also don't appear to be showing other Concacaf matches. As complementary programming, they could at least be showing CRvMexico or ESvHonduras when Canada plays the US.

UEFA, CAF & AFC matches largely start between 9:00 and 15:00 EDT. Add in Conembol & Concacaf, you have about 15 hours of matches almost everyday from Sept 1-8 (Conmebol is going till the 9th). Given this, it would be ideal for a whip around or Goal Rush type show. 

 

TLN is showing PORvIRE on Sept 1, BULvITA on Sept 2, ENGvAND & SUIvITA on Sept 5, IREvSER on Sept 7 & ITAvsLIT on Sept 8 (all non-English).

Fortunately, uefa.tv is showing 18 matches for free.

https://www.uefa.tv/

And FIFATV Youtube channel is showing the African qualifiers. So far, 12 matches are listed.

https://www.youtube.com/fifa

The notable matches I see subjectively as a neutral for this window are for Europe: PortugalvIreland, SwedenvSpain, SwitzerlandvItaly, NetherlandsvTurkey, PolandvEngland & BelgiumvCzech.

For Conmebol, it is EcuadorvParaguay, ChilevBrasil, BrasilvArgentina, EcuadorvChile & UruguayvEcuador.

For CAF, it is mostly the 1v2 group matchups: EgyptvGabon, SouthAfricavGhana, GuineavMorocco, CoteD'IvoirevCameroon, ZambiavTunisia, CongovSenegal, CaboVerdevNigeria & BurkinaFasovAlgeria.

For AFC, it is KoreavIraq, IranvSyria, AustraliavChina, ChinavJapan & IraqvIran.

 

TSN would rather talk about the Leafs

[Ingham]

We play Uruguay, Venezuela and Brazil next.

Uruguay without Cavani and Suarez will feel like a false sense of security. Hope we can win or we'll never hear the end of it.

[red card]

Here are my matches to watch for the October window.

As with the September window, all African qualifiers are on Youtube FIFATV. Many of the African qualifiers are home and away affairs. Certain UEFA qualifiers are on uefa.tv. Asian & South American qualifiers will require crawling the interwebs.

These are 6 days of 12-14 hour match days with matches starting at 9, then 12, then 1445 or 1500 and evening matches starting between 1700-2200. A bit less taxing than the September window since only Concacaf is going with a 3 match window. But prepare accordingly to enjoy your football.

 

Wednesday Oct 6: MoroccovGuinea-Bissau; ItalyvSpain in a UEFA Nations League semi is on TLN.

Thursday Oct 7: TanzaniavBenin; SaudiArabiavJapan; AustraliavOman; MalivKenya; BelgiumvFrance UEFA Nations League semi on uefa.tv; UruguayvColombia

Friday Oct 8: WalesvCZE; TurkeyvNorway; EgyptvLibya

Saturday Oct 9: EthiopiavSouthAfrica; SenegalvNambia; ScotlandvIsrael; Guinea-BissauvMorocco

Sunday Oct 10: BeninvTanzania; ColombiavBrasil; ArgentinavUruguay

Monday Oct 11: CoteDIvoirevMalawi; LibyavEgypt

Tuesday Oct 12: JapanvAustralia (this one starts at 6am ET); NambiavSenegal; IranvSouthKorea; NigervAlgeria; SouthAfricavEthiopia; GreecevSweden

Wednesday Oct 13: nil ex Concacaf

Thursday Oct 14: ColombiavEcuador; BrasilvUruguay

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by red card

[red card]

Thought they would have done this in Oceania but probably was 10 matches too many.

 

[SthMelbRed]

I didn't watch the game, but I still don't think this current Socceroos team is very good. They've just had a very favourable run of opponents (Kuwait, Jordan, Nepal, and Taiwan in the last round and Oman, China, and Vietnam, so far, in the final round) to get to 11 wins on the bounce. Japan and Saudi Arabia in their next 2 matches will be a whole different animal.

[narduch]

TLN has Scotland and England games today 

[red card]

After Qatar, Germany became the first country to qualify for the 2022 World Cup. 

Then Denmark qualified. 8 matches. 8 wins. 27 goals scored. 0 goals conceded. 

Qualifying started with 211 countries. We're down to less than 100 countries still in the running. Previous World Cup countries eliminated so far include North Korea, Indonesia, Angola, Cuba, Haiti, T&T, Ireland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Northern Ireland & Bulgaria.

 

Asia: 4 auto qualifiers currently are Saudi Arabia, Australia, Iran & South Korea. In playoff contention for intercontinental spot are Lebanon, Oman & Japan.

Africa: Out of the 10 groups, only 2 are basically settled. Senegal (CAF's top ranked nation) & Morocco are set for the final round. Tunisia & Egypt look good to advance. Due to the brutality of CAF qualifying, either South Africa or Ghana will be eliminated in this round. And either Cote d'Ivoire or Cameroon will be eliminated.

Europe: Besides Germany & Denmark, only Belgium has more than a 3 point lead.

Conmebol still has one more matchday left in this window.

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by red card

[red card]

Conmebol wrapped up their October window yesterday. 

Brasil continues to roll but will need to wait for next window to have a chance to qualify. Argentina is 4 points behind but looks set to qualify. 

Then we have Ecuador, Colombia & Uruguay in poll position for the next 2 auto qualification positions and intercontinental spot. But everybody else ex Venezuela are still in the hunt.

 

Oceania still haven't started yet. New Zealand just played their first matches in 2 years including defeating Curacao. 

 

 

The match of the window was Israel vs Scotland. Denmark has qualified out of the group but Scotland & Israel were fighting for the playoff spot. Now going into the last window for group stage matches in November, Scotland has a 4 point lead over Israel.

This is Big. This is Huge. This is Massive. This is Scotland 3 Israel 2. And This is the Scotland Way. You Just Have to Go With It.

 

Edited October 15, 2021 by red card

[red card]

It's time for the last WCQ window of 2021. 

The spotlight will be on UEFA as we’ll know 10/13 qualifiers by the end of the window. Germany & Denmark are already in. Belgium looks set to qualify but rest is up in the air. Plus, second places up for grabs to determine who advances to the last chance round for the last 3 Euro spots. 

This will also be the last window for this round in CAF. Just the 10 group winners advance into a home/away playoff round next March.

As usual, uefa.tv will have many of the key matches while TLN has 4. FIFA TV on youtube has previously shown all African qualifiers but this window matches haven't been posted yet. For Conmebol & AFC, you'll need to scrape the interwebs.

Most Notable Matches to Watch

Thursday Nov 11 ET

4:10 2v1 AustraliavSaudiArabia (AUS loss could drop them out of qualification spot and into a log jam for playoff round)

8:00 1v3 TanzaniavDRC (DRC needs to win and Benin to slip up. Tanzania needs to win to keep pace with any Benin wins)

12:00 4v3 ArmeniavNorthMacedonia (winner will be fighting Romania for spot in next round as Germany has qualified)

19:30 1v4 BrasilvColombia (COL needs win to be more comfortably placed in top 5)

 

Friday Nov 12 ET

14:45 1v2 ItalyvSwitzerland (winner likely to qualify)

18:00 5v1 UruguayvArgentina (URU needs win to be more comfortably placed in top 5)

 

Saturday Nov 13 ET

11:00 1v2 EquatorialGuineavTunisia (must win for EG as they lost 3-0 away to Tunisia)

 

Sunday Nov 14 ET

9:00 2v1 CroatiavRussia (winner likely to qualify)

11:00 1v2 MalivUganda (must win for Uganda)

14:00 2v1 GhanavSouthAfrica (must win for Ghana)

14:45 1v2 PortugalvSerbia (winner likely to qualify); 2v1 SpainvSweden (winner likely to qualify)

 

Monday Nov 15 ET

No notable matchups but ENG/POL & ITA/SUI groups will be finalized. Second place between Scotland/Israel/Austria will be decided as Denmark has qualified.

 

Tuesday Nov 16 ET

11:00 1v2 AlgeriavBurkinaFaso (Drew at BFA and ALG ranked 1st only by goal diff); 1v2 NigeriavCapeVerde (must win for Cape Verde)

14:00 1v2 CameroonvCoteDIvoire (Cameroon needs a win. Agony of defeat will be seen as one of CAF's traditional powers will miss Qatar.)

14:45 4v2 BosniaHerzegovinavUkraine (in battle with Finland for next round spot as France likely qualifies in top spot); 1v2 NetherlandsvNorway (in battle with Turkey for qualification or next round spot)

18:30 ArgentinavBrasil (Both are set to qualify. But it is ARGvBRA back in front of one of the most raucous crowds in sports.)

[red card]

After match day Nov 11, we have the 4th nation to qualify:

 

Mali joins Senegal & Morocco for the final CAF playoff round. 7 more left to be decided.

With Tanzania losing to DRC today, a new notable match to watch is DRCvBenin on Sunday at 8 ET. Winner advances to next round. 

 

Iceland become the first 2018 World Cup participant to be eliminated from the 2022 World Cup. Other countries eliminated today were Tanzania, Uganda, Madagascar & Greece. 

We're left with just over 90 countries remaining.

 

[narduch]

TLN is showing Italy v Switzerland at 245pm ET

Big game. Will decide which team qualifies directly to the World Cup and which one will go to the playoffs

[red card]

After matchday Nov 12, no new teams qualified. 

But Scotland advanced to the next round for a chance at the last 3 UEFA spots. Play of the day was the worst Italian penalty miss since 94?

Egypt became 4/10 in CAF to advance to the home/away playoff round.

We're under 90 countries left as Israel, Albania, Hungary, Gabon & Libya were all eliminated.

[red card]

After match day Nov 13, 2 more countries qualified to make it 6.

 

3 more countries with the longest names were eliminated: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Central African Republic & Montengero.

Super Sunday coming up with 3 UEFA matches deciding who qualifies and who goes into last chance round for the final 3 spots: 

9:00 Croatia v Russia uefa.tv

14:45 Portugal v Serbia uefa.tv; Spain v Sweden TLN

 

And 2 CAF matches will decide who gets eliminated

8:00 DRC v Benin FIFA TV youtube

14:00 Ghana v South Africa FIFA TV youtube

 

 

Edited November 14, 2021 by red card

[narduch]

12 hours ago, red card said:

After match day Nov 13, 2 more countries qualified to make it 6.

 

3 more countries with the longest names were eliminated: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Central African Republic & Montengero.

Super Sunday coming up with 3 UEFA matches deciding who qualifies and who goes into last chance round for the final 3 spots: 

9:00 Croatia v Russia uefa.tv

14:45 Portugal v Serbia uefa.tv; Spain v Sweden TLN

 

And 2 CAF matches will decide who gets eliminated

8:00 DRC v Benin FIFA TV youtube

14:00 Ghana v South Africa FIFA TV youtube

 

 

Spain v Sweden is also on ABC if you want to watch it in English 

[red card]

We have now 9 countries qualified for Qatar with 3 added today.

2 dramatic goals put Croatia & Serbia in.

https://streamwo.com/file/61916f8233de8

 

 

Russia, Portugal & Sweden now have to wait for the Nov 26th draw to see who'll they face for a chance at one of the last 3 spots. Good day for former Yugoslav states as North Macedonia also advanced into the last chance round.

Wales, Czech Republic & Austria will also be in the last round despite not finishing second as they qualified by via Nations League placements.

Ghana & DRC advance to CAF's playoff round. However, DRC used 4 subs at 4 different stoppages. So, Benin have filed a protest that could disqualify DRC.

Eliminated countries today were Benin (possibly), South Africa, Armenia & Romania. 

No juicy head-to-head match ups on Monday. But expect England to qualify and more shockwaves if Switzerland qualifies instead of Italy.

Edited November 14, 2021 by red card

[red card]

2 more to Qatar. We're at 11 in total.

Italy & Poland have now to scramble for last 3 spots.

 

Head-to-Head matchups for Tuesday to watch:

CAF (advance to final round or get eliminated) FIFA TV Youtube

11: 00 Nigeria v Cape Verde; Algeria V Burkina Faso

14:00 Cameroon v Ivory Coast

 

UEFA uefa.tv (Qualify or move to last chance round or be eliminated)

14:00 Netherlands v Norway

 

 

Edited November 15, 2021 by red card

[narduch]

Wow Italy to the playoff

[narduch]

OFC still hasn't even started yet.

Can't find a link, but yesterday I read they want to have a tournament in Qatar in June to decided their winner.

[red card]

World Cup tickets booked on Nov 16 match day

13 in total.
Host: Qatar

UEFA (10/13): Germany. Denmark. France. Belgium. Croatia. Serbia. Spain. England. Switzerland. Netherlands.

CONMEBOL (2/4.5): Brasil. Argentina. 

Eliminated countries Nov 16 match day: Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Zambia, Equatorial Guinea, Cote d'Ivoire, Finland & Norway.

We're down to less than 75 countries remaining - boosted by 11 OFC countries still not even started qualifying yet. Somehow, Venezuela remains alive. Norway keeps their word and is boycotting the World Cup. Though, it means no Haaland. 

Africa is down to 10 nations in a home/away round vying for 5 spots. Seeded nations are Algeria, Senegal, Morocco, Nigeria & Tunisia. These 5 will be drawn against Egypt, Mali, Ghana, DRC & Cameroon. Draw is expected after Arab Cup. All should be compelling match ups as DRC & Mali are up and comers who have shown promise in youth WCs. Mali has never qualified while DRC qualified as Zaire. The other 8 have all strong pedigrees.

UEFA is down to 12 nations vying for 3 spots. Home nations are Portugal, Scotland, Italy, Russia, Sweden & Wales. Away nations are Turkey, Poland, North Macedonia, Ukraine, Austria, Czech Republic. Draw is expected Nov 26. Russia & Ukraine can't be drawn together. At least a couple of strong nations will be left behind. 
 

Edited November 17, 2021 by red card

[red card]

Sofascore's UEFA World Cup qualifiers best 11

 

[smeghead]

if Italy and Portugal dont qualify, Toronto is gonna feel like bizarro world come the world cup.

[narduch]

11 minutes ago, smeghead said:

if Italy and Portugal dont qualify, Toronto is gonna feel like bizarro world come the world cup.

Everybody going to jump on the Canada bandwagon 

[red card]

One of Italy or Portugal won't be at the World Cup as they got drawn on the same pathway. Both have also tough first round matches.

Path A favours the home countries of Scotland & Wales. Austria only made it due to their Nation's League performance. Ukraine will need to finally win as they drew 6/8 of their qualifying matches.

Path B likely favours the most organized side of Sweden. Poland would have been easily favoured over Russia if they played at home.

Intercontinental playoffs today would be Panama v likely New Zealand and likely Australia/Japan v a slew of Conmebol countries as spots 4-9 in the table are only separated by 4 points.

 

Edited November 26, 2021 by red card

[red card]

FIFA Arab Cup semis are on tomorrow on TSN1. Final is on Saturday at 9:48 on TSN5.

Tunisia v Egypt at 9:48 ET

Qatar v Algeria at 13:48 ET

 

Euro clubs weren't required to release any players, so this isn't a match up of A teams ex Qatar. 

Why watch?

All 4 nations are likely to be in the World Cup. 3 of the 4 have rabid fan bases. Qataris have been more restrained but they do various sets of rhythmic clapping that can be entrancing. 

You'll also get a preview of some of the stadiums, see the semi-autonomous offside and certain new broadcast tech being tried out.