211 To 1: World Cup 2018 Elimination Timeline [R]

Either Guatemala or Bermuda will be the next team eliminated today from CONCACAF. 4 teams will see their Road to 2018 come to a halt on Tuesday.

The 3rd Round for CONCACAF will be drawn in July, with Haiti and Jamaica joining the 10 winners from the 2nd Round of play. Will the 3rd Round be held in September or October, and will it consist of 6 two-legged matches? I tried to find information on the CONCACAF website, but I find it the most difficult and frustrating site of the 6 global confederations to navigate!

My guess is that the 6 winners from this Fall will go into the semi-finals to join the 2013 Hexagonal participants (Panama, T & T, Costa Rica, USA, Mexico, and Honduras) to form 3 groups of 4, just like previous qualifying campaigns, with the top 2 from each group making it to the final Hex in 2017.

 

I've found that the "away goals count for double or 1.5 goals" is a very confusing way to express the concept to someone unfamiliar with the rules. If you score more goals than the other team over 2 legs, you win. Away goals is simply a tiebreaker but some tend to try to overexplain it.

But what an interesting year it's been in WCQ so far. Cuba already out after playing the second half on a totally waterlogged pitch. Ironically Cuba is experiencing a historic drought, both on and off the pitch. Cuba continues the longest drought of a return trip to the WC of any current FIFA nation that has previously played a WC (1938). Cuba is the 5th most populous nation in CONCACAF. The fourth, Guatemala is also in serious jeopardy. El Salvador should have no problem at home. If either Jamaica or T&T gets picked off then you'll have one really really weak group.

 

Even, your Wikipedia link goes to a "missing-article" page.

Concacaf's official release on the format is: http://www.concacaf.com/article/con...ld-cup-qualifying-draw-in-miami-on-january-15

 

189. Bermuda.

 

OK, it works if you actually copy-paste your URL into a browser. I just selected the link from this page, and it lead to the "missing article" page. What is happening is that it is mis-interpreting the "underscore-Mdash-underscore" part of the link (between "qualification" and "CONCACAF".)

 

Thanks for the correction. I seem to remember reading that FIFA had eliminated international dates in early or mid-August, but I didn't know that took effect this year.

 

I didn't know that. I thought the Hex began in February or March, like it had in the past. They didn't start the final round in November of 2012, did they?

 

They ran the Hex from Feb-Oct 2013. They ran and third (additional) round in June to avoid August. The 3x4 ran from June to Oct 2012. 2 rounds each in June, Sep, and Oct.

 

The opener was in February, which is a friendly window. I believe the international friendly windows in February and August have been scrapped. I could be wrong about February, nevertheless, CONCACAF wants the full international windows...and for whatever reason (could be anything), most of the members don't want any chance of playing in the US in February.

 

Aruba back in, Barbados becomes the new number 185 after fielding an ineligible player.

http://www.fifa.com/governance/news...al&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

 

Of course, the US being a big ass country with all kinds of weather yet the USSF still managing to schedule their home opener in the mountains in the middle of a blizzard might have something to do with that.

 

Because he's a Scot?

 

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/archive/brazil2014/matches/preliminaries/nccamerica/#258372
The idea was to play their home match of the double-date'r (March 22) at altitude, so they got acclimatized to the
thin air for the match at Mexico (March 26). If they get lucky enough to get the same draw (i.e. Mexico as the second date), I would see the same "mountaineering" thing happening.

 

After the drawing, it seems that Romania has more chances to reach the world cup via the play-off because with tthey landed in a quite easy group as Denmark and Poland don't look so scary.
Austria, too, has quite a lot of chances after being drawn in the same group of Wales (maybe the easiest European group).
Bulgaria is virtually already eliminated against the Netherlands, France and Sweden.
Norway could hope to reach the play-off as Germany will win the group for sure.
Scotland is a big question mark because both England and Slovakia do not appear to be so much strong.

As far as Jamaica and Morocco are concerned, it is too early to write anything about.

 

Sweden are not very good and Bulgaria has once eliminated France already. Never say never unless dealing with a tiny minnow.

 

The thing is that:
Bulgaria is a pale remnant of the mighty team eliminating France (that incidentally finished absolute fourth at WC1994).

It is true that "European minnows" with the exception of San Marino and Gibraltar may always serve some unpleasant course but it is also true that unless the Netherlands suddenly crush, France commit suicide and Sweden decide that it is better to play handball, present-day Bulgaria do not stand a chance to finish second. First place is a priori excluded.
Of course, I will be pleased to be proved wrong. I like Bulgaria as a country: I worked quite a lot there. It is sad to note how a very good team became so weak in a very short amount of time..

 

ugh.. Bulgaria vs. France was over 20 years ago mate .... means zilch nowadays!
Neither Spain nor France had ever won a world cup back then either....

 

The point is not what happened 20 years ago. The point is that it could and does happen.