Scotland/Ukraine today at 1:45 CDT on ESPN2. Winner faces Wales on Sunday for the right to play the US game 1 at the WC.
The two UEFA matches are the most intriguing ones IMO. Expecting Australia to beat UAE, then Peru to beat Australia, then Costa Rica to beat New Zealand. Sure, always potential for an upset, but not holding my breath on it.
Bigger thing will be finding out who joins our group and how much more difficult it gets.
The game(s) involving Ukraine are interesting. I expect there will be a huge outpouring of support for Ukraine. How could any fans, even Glaswegians, boo them?
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Ukraine 3-1 Scotland. The Scots should qualify for the 2026 World Cup, though - right?
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Slots Remaining - 3
UEFA - 1
Wales vs Ukraine (June 5 in Cardiff)
CONMEBOL / AFC Playoff - 1
UAE vs Australia (June 7 in Doha)
Peru vs UAE/Australia winner (June 13 in Doha)
CONCACAF / OFC Playoff - 1
Costa Rica vs New Zealand (June 14 in Doha)
You forgot to include the Brazil/Argentina match on September 22 that’s their replay of the called-off CONMEBOL qualifying match that could determine … nothing. Nothing at all, except perhaps bragging rights.
Group B: England, United States, Iran, Wales
United States schedule
November 21 - vs. Wales, 2200 ATC
November 25 - vs. England, 2200 ATC
November 29 - vs. Iran, 2200 ATC
They play at 1AM local time??
4PM my time. That’s perfect.
Wait, those times should be AST [Arabia Standard Time], which is UTC+3.
Do your own conversions accordingly.
Group B would have been the most interesting and most talked about Group if Ukraine instead of Wales had made it in! Notwithstanding my sympathies for Ukraine, I am happy to see the Welsh get in.
Canada Soccer making their US counterparts look brilliant in comparison. Frustrating that the players are squandering their practice time. Just hope they show up for this afternoon’s game against Panama as this may be my only chance to ever see them play in person.
7PM is nice as well.
Will half their WC winnings go to the Women’s side?
My TiVo recorded ESPN2 some who-knows-what this morning , and not this match.
Was changed to ESPN at some point.
Not clear what the women will get. As in the US, the women have historically had the better team internationally.
You don’t have the uppity (/s) women we have in the USA. Still, I hope their winnings ($) from the Men’s team surpass their winnings from their own achievements, which, of course they agreed to split with the Men’s team.
Just to compare: USWNT split $4M for winning the 2019 WWC. The USMNT, if they reach the Round of 16, will earn $13M, half of which goes to the USWNT in some fashion.
Does this read as if I think something is unfair about the agreement? I hope not. FIFA is the one with the disparate winnings, which are based mainly on the disparity of the revenues, which are based mainly on the difference in the TV draw (worldwide) between the sport by gender. And I think the agreement is the fairest way to disburse the disparity. I don’t think any other Federation is or would do this.
Today’s Canada-Panama friendly just cancelled because of the labour dispute: that is so annoying. It appears Fox is showing the US-Uruguay game on Canadian tv as well as US so that will be my soccer fix today.
https://www.tsn.ca/canada-panama-world-cup-warmup-strike-player-compensation-1.1808987
That’s some tiny print, so can’t read, cuz old.
But, Seems Canada Soccer is following (leading?) the USSF on sharing all revenues from the top teams. So, the real question is, What are the Revenues?
I hope Team Canada doesn’t think they deserve more than the revenues they generate.
OK, blew up (enlarged) the Dear Canada letter. Seems there is a company called “Canadian Soccer Business” which might be siphoning off more revenues than it deserves.
And, Canada Soccer currently does NOT share revenues among the top (M and W). Looks like Men’s team wants to.
Also, seems as if the Canadian friends/families are not getting free trips to Qatar, and they want that as well.
All reasonable requests (Canadians don’t demand – too polite).
My interpretation of the letter is that there might be something fishy going on and/or the managements of Canada Soccer and Canadian Soccer Business are incompetent. The quality of the product on the field has improved faster than the companies’ ability to manage it.
It is a very frustrating situation for both the players and their fans.
Seems similar to USSF’s arrangement with that marketing group.
Probably not incompetent. They are doing exactly what they want, and the players and teams are getting screwed.
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