Georgia shocks Sweden 2-0, which means the Swedes go from “don’t lose to Spain and we qualify directly” to “we have to beat Spain to qualify directly.”
Pepi gets a red card for a vaguely questionable (IMO, though I get why it was shown) 2nd yellow, so he’s out for the group finale vs. Serbia.
Hilarious how Russia landed in the playoff while Croatia gains automatic qualification. That field was a muddy mess, though. Almost like playing in Pittsburgh at Heinz Field in the rain.
Not sure if I preferred Serbia to get the automatic qualifier over Portugal. The last-minute goal was a killer, though. Would have liked to see Sweden get the automatic bid over Spain, but after the loss to Georgia it fully earned going the playoff route.
Struck me as weird that CAF doesn’t require all the final matches in a group to be played at the same time, but maybe they deal with that on the fly and if there’s a dead rubber they say eh, doesn’t matter for who gets out of the group, so play whenever.
I think the WC is better with Portugal and Ronaldo in it, so I’ll likely be cheering for them in the playoff.
I don’t know that I expect Portugal to miss the WC. Italy, on the other hand, is playing just enough like shit right now to do it.
Netherlands beats Finland, so they’re off to Qatar. Ukraine beats B&H, so they’re off to the playoff and the Fins go home. Poland falls into the unseeded pot, so someone’s got a potential difficult matchup looming right off the bat.
Have never understood Italy. After winning Euro 2020 I just assumed they would easily qualify for World Cup. Hope they still get in: World Cup just not the same without them.
Special moment in Canadian soccer history;
Portugal missing would be something. Outside of Ronaldo, they have a solid group with Bernardo, Bruno and Jota providing firepower. Felix, Cancelo, Pepe and Dias are all strong. They should be better than the 2016 squad that won Euros.
Not overly impressed with Italy. They deserve to be a playoff team to get in.
World cup starts 1 year from today! (considering time zones)
Now, changing playoffs to one leg neutral site. Seems sensible.
The prevalence of Omicron may wreak havoc with upcoming World Cup qualifying matches. Canada has cancelled its training camp in Florida for its MLS players this week as a precautionary measure.
CONCACAF decides to add VAR mid-qualifying. Good move IMO.
I’m pretty confused about qualifying: CONCACAF says that FIFA is in charge of the qualifying, yet they’re the ones who decide whether VAR will be employed (which has A LOT to do with whether the venues can provide)?
Federations pick sites of home qualifiers. Nicholas Noble, spokesman for the regional governing body of North and Central America and Caribbean Association Football, when asked about World Cup qualifying in September responded: "CONCACAF does not manage or run these matches, FIFA does, along with the individual federations.’’
I think venues not having equipment was part of the problem. The other was that the only referees in CONCACAF with any VAR training are from a couple countries
Alternative Idea: FIFA should instead convince the Confederations to hold their Championships every four years (Summer Olympic years), then have those winners and runners-up play a tournament in the following summer. That makes 12 teams. Two groups of 6, top two of each advance to knockout rounds.
The Confederations’ Championships could play in two separate months: Have CONCACAF, UEFA and Asia one month, then CONMEBOL, Africa, and Australia/Pacific play in the other month. There would be soccer around-the-clock.
That makes for one odd-year off-year for Nations Cups which can serve as top-qualifiers for the Confederation Championships.
So, it’s:
Year 1: Nations Cups
Year 2: Confederations’ Championships
Year 3: FIFA Confederations Championship
Year 4: FIFA World Cup.
Iran becomes the 14th country to qualify for Qatar. Saudi Arabia clinches at least moving on, South Korea does the same and outright clinches a spot with a win, a UAE loss, or a draw and a UAE draw.
AFC, Group B is about to get interesting with Saudi Arabia, Japan and Australia the top-3 and they play each other in the final 3 games. Someone’s going to have to go the really long way to try and snag one of the final 2 spots in the WC field.
Alphonso Davies can’t play for Canada right now as he is resting due to his myocarditis……playing soccer may be more restful than his reaction to Canada’s first goal tonight:
Am I reading this right - the Canada-US game is at the same time as the AFC Championship game? Probably not the best way to promote the game.
Only USMNT fans are going to find the game on Paramount+ anyway. And those that know how and are able to watch the game are more likely to do so than watch two NFL teams they likely aren’t invested in. I think it’d be a bigger deal if the game were on cable tv
It’s on some Spanish station, which will be better than the non-stop gibberish the color guy was talking last night.
It is poor timing. The US audience will be small.
However I wouldn’t be surprised if the soccer game gets better viewership in Canada than the AFC Final. Might have been different if Bills had been playing.
TV ratings for Team Canada’s soccer games have been running at the same level in Canada as NHL viewership. There is a great deal of soccer excitement on this side of the border.