Coach Bradley and Egypt

I'm hoping he has success there. It will speak well for American coaches. It seems that he's basically conceded African Cup qualifications to the goal of qualifying for the World Cup. And it seems that the Egyptian FA has chosen to overlook it. It's reasonable. Winning a bunch of African Cups becomes less and less meaningful when you repeatedly fail to qualify for the World Cup.

 

I hope they qualify because the Egyptian team came very close to qualifying last time but lost their final qualifying game to the Algerian team.

If they do advance to the fourth round, they should hope that they're grouped with neither the Ghanaian nor Ivorian teams because then their chances of qualifying would become extremely difficult.

 

I just would like to say, as an American, I hope Egypt the best in beating Ghana and qualifying for the World Cup. I wouldn't mind seeing Bob Bradley get his revenge over Ghana.

 

Ugh,.. kinda torn on this one. They really need to rehash the system bc the way it's set up, some good teams are going to go home and undeserving teams will get thru. More proof that CAF's qualifying system need a complete overhaul.

It seems that they'll be getting rid of the playoffs next time around but the way teams are grouped... I think CAF should consider a CONCACAF-style final group which will ensure that only the best teams get thru.

 

I dont know that the Egyptians can beat Ghana in a crucial game like this, especially when Ghana will have KPB, Essien, Muntari in midfield. It will be a tightly contested game, but I tip the Ghanians to win and qualify.

 

They also have the Ayews back as well. I rate them as the favorites but they definitely have the toughest qualifier. It all depends on away goals though.

 

With five World Cup spots, CAF would need to have at least eight teams in their final group or else too high a percentage of teams would qualify. A group of eight takes 14 games, and there would need to be rounds before that to reduce the field to eight teams. There could be two leg series to reduce the field to 32 and then eight groups of four with only the winners advancing, but then it would take 20 or 22 games to qualify which is too many unless it could be combined with Cup of African Nations (or African Nations Cup or whatever it's called) qualifying. Here's my idea:

Round 1: However many two leg series are necessary to reduce the field to 32 countries. The number of countries that wouldn't have to play this round would be 64 - the number of countries entered.
Round 2: Eight groups of four with the top two in each group advancing
Round 3: Four groups of four with the winners qualifying and the second place teams going to Round 4
Round 4: Two pairings of two leg series to eliminate two countries
Round 5: The two Round 4 winners play for the fifth and final spot if Africa gets 5 spots again

If Africa went down to 4.5 spots, I wouldn't want a team to have to play three consecutive two leg series (Round 4, Round 5, and an interconfederational playoff), so I would take the top two second place teams from Round 3 and have them play a two leg series for the interconfederational playoff spot with the worst two second place teams from Round 3 eliminated.

 

Egypt almost started the game by losing possession deep and giving up a goal 12 seconds in. Not looking great so far.

 

Upset for Bradley, but happy for the Black Stars because they are the best team in Africa at the moment and the best team in Africa needs to be at the World Cup. Blame CAF for this travesty of a matchup even taking place. Egypt deserves to be in the World Cup but won't be bc CAF's qualifying system is ridiculous.

 

If Bradley can't rally the Pharoahs back, hopefully he turns in his resignation then and comes home in one piece. #Hope

 

He's probably about as upset with the game being played in Cairo as anyone else. Football fans are rarely ever reasonable or realistic.

 

I would imagine.