The draw will be held after the newest rankings for October come out. It could possibly change from what you've posted here. Otherwise, this looks good. Could you imagine an Ireland vs. Northern Ireland playoff?
No actually Slovakia are NOT officially out. There is a way. If Greece fails to beat Gibraltar at home, AND Bosnia wins in Estonia, then Bosnia pips Greece for 2nd spot in their group on GD, but gets eliminated as the weakest runner up on 11 points to Slovakia's 12. It's a very unlikely set of events but Slovakia are alive for at least one more day officially...
Northern Ireland lost their last two games so they end up at 889 points. Thus, the seeds should be as follows (unless my math is wrong, which has certainly happened before): SEEDED: Loser of Switzerland/Portugal Italy (1066 points) Croatia (1013 points) Denmark (1001 points) UNSEEDED: Sweden (between 872-999 points, depending on NED match result) Northern Ireland (889 points) Ireland (866 points) Greece (682 points, assuming win vs Gibraltar)
Any thoughts on making the host team go through the qualifying process...with the understanding that they still would play in the World Cup even if they finish out of an automatic or playoff spot? Playing nothing but friendlies over the course of a couple of years doesn't seem like good preparation for soccer's biggest showcase event. A friendly isn't as intense as playing a match that really means something.
No. Greece has to defeat Gibraltar first. If Bosnia finishes second, then Slovakia would be able to advance ahead of Bosnia.
If the unthinkable happens and Greece lose to Gibraltar, Slovakia would take Greece's spot in the "unseeded" pot, as they'd finish with 885 points.
Wrong ... Denmark and not Northern Ireland are going to be seeded ... in fact ... Northern Ireland are not going to be anywhere near being seeded ... and even if Sweden beat the Dutch away from home, they will not be able pass Denmark either, unless France choke and finish in 2nd place behind Sweden ..
UEFA made France do this in the lead up to Euro 2016. It was in Group I with Portugal, Albania, Denmark, Serbia and Armenia, but the matches with France didn't count for anyone, they were considered friendlies. I don't see why FIFA doesn't do this with the World Cup. France and Brazil are fine either way, but having the Russias and South Africas of the world play a full qualifying schedule even if the matches don't count toward qualifying for anyone is a good idea. They're the types of hosts who do need to play more legitimate matches consistently. That said, it also depends on how a given host's region conducts qualifying; UEFA and CONMEBOL qualification are perfect for this kind of thing. The other regions? Not so much.
The problem is you can never really replicate the benefits of playing in qualifiers when the games don't actually count. You're basically just saving the host from having to find its own friendly opponents.
South Africa did participate in 2010 World Cup qualifying, but failed to finish among the top 20 teams in CAF. Yes, you read that right. That's how we knew before 2010 just how horrible the South African team was. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_–_CAF_Second_Round
Australia vs Syria 2nd leg game is gonna be thriller...Aggregate: 2-2...(after 30' 2nd leg)...Australia enjoys home court advantage...1st leg Syria had to play at Krubong /Hang Jebat Stadium (Malaysia) due to security problems in Syria (civil war)
If a player accumulated two yellow cards during this two leg playoff does this mean that player misses the first match between the concacaf/afc playoff. Because if so then Leckie from Australia would already had a yellow in each.
Now it seems Milligan also, so the Aussies without two starters vs the first leg against the 4th concacaf.
Australia is dominating so far but Syria's counterattacks are very dangerous...Half time now: still 1-1 (2-2 aggregate)
Kind of fun sitting here watching the match here at the Qatar University cafeteria with a bunch of my students who are obviously quite pro-syria. People slam international football for its quality but I still think there's something special about watching countries go up against each other. A Syria v Panama qualifier would be pretty cool... kind of like the Trinidad v Bahrain playoff 12 years ago, a clash of the potential debutantes...