Mighty interesting developments in CONMEBOL. Argentina falls out of the top 4 and will still likely be without Messi for their next matches against Brazil and Uruguay (currently 1 and 2 in qualies and their biggest rivals). Colombia (my second team) likely to end the night 2nd or 3rd. Chile making a strong push after faltering. Currently destroying Venezuela.
Chile missing out on the World Cup after consecutive Copa America titles would be a real shame. I'm pulling for them. I hope that whiny, tax-evading ******** Messi retires again because things didn't go his way.
Chile has beaten Venezuela. This means Venezuela are officially eliminated from the 2018 World Cup, and Argentina has fallen to 5th, the playoff spot in CONMEBOL
Venezuela threw in the towel before these last two games anyway. They went with a bunch of new guys for this one. The commentator said they were a U20, but that's not exact: they're more a U24.
New Zealand gets first Mexico from CONCACAF, now possibly Argentina from CONMEBOL. Can't catch a break.
Not to mention all this only came about because of Chile (who stands to gain from this) conveniently tattling on him to FIFA. The refs themselves hadn't complained at all. Horrible precedent to set.
That is not correct. Argentina's last four: @Uruguay, Venezuela, Peru, @Ecuador. EDIT: forgot to post this: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/southamerica/index.html
The first two goals in the Peru-Urugay match coincided with the goals in the Panama-USA, exact to the second: the visitors scored together (USA & Uruguay), then the locals tied right away, also simultaneously (Panama & Peru). I had never witnessed such a coincidence. Then Peru scored another though, and el Rayo Urreta got a second yellow & Uruguay finished with 10. CONMEBOL quals are tighter than a gnat's chuff. Six points separate Colombia, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Peru & Paraguay. Survival of the fittest, baby!
That group could be won by Tahiti, Solomon Islands, or Papua New Guinea. Each team plays each opponent twice in a row and has consecutive matchdays off. Tahiti finished with 6 points. Solomon Island and Papua New Guinea have 3 points each and play each other twice in June. Tahiti is +3, Papua New Guinea is -1, and Solomon Islands is -2, so if Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands each win 1 game, Tahiti will probably win the three-way goal differential tiebreaker. Tahiti will win the group if Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea play 2 draws. Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea win the group if they get at least 4 points against the other one.
The saddest WC qualifying thread on the Internet: https://www.yellowfever.co.nz/categ...topics/all-whites-road-to-russia-2018/page/64 New Zealand fans basically gave up when it was announced their rival would be C-BOL's #5.
France, Germany and Brazil are the best teams in the world right now. Just watched France's demolition of Paraguay. Remarkable.
Mbappe pulled out before the game even started. But seriously France could have won that game double digits if they were more ruthless in front of goal.
I guess their fans give up just as easily as their U-20 did against us the other day. Maybe if their team does the Haka before matches they'd have a chance. [/sarcasm]
I would have given up also. CONMEBOL's top six teams are better in the FIFA Rankings than they used to be. New Zealand could have to face Argentina. The sixth best team in CONMEBOL would do better in the World Cup than the fifth best team in CAF. I agree with the random draw for the interconfederational playoff. It's only two games for each team, so travel isn't a big deal. If AFC and OFC always played each other, CONCACAF would have to play CONMEBOL. Trinidad and Tobago might never have qualified if they had to play Uruguay instead of Bahrain in qualifying for World Cup 2006. The Costa Rican team that lost their aggregate to Uruguay by 1 might have gotten points in World Cup 2010 if they qualified. Mexico got 7 Group Stage points including a draw with Brazil and lost in the Round of 16 to the Netherlands, who finished third, but Mexico might not have qualified if they had to play Uruguay.