I'm fine with North Africa sending 1 team, their best team. But anything more and they stink up the joint. I do agree that CAF really needs to sort out their qualifying. And like I said - I can cut Morocco some slack. Unlucky.
After drawing Spain (though they basically won the match) Morocco have proven themselves more than worthy of qualifying today. Terrific preformance. Let's see how Nigeria and Senegal finish the tourney, but it's probably not fair to say that Nigeria has had a stronger tournament than Morocco, unless they can put on a convincing preformance against Argentinia. It would be fabulous to see them win. With the pathetic showing Argentinia has had in the tournament to date, a draw at the lesst is even odds. One spot really doesn't make much sense since Algeria is a loaded side as well. If their team hadn't disintegrated in the cycle since 2014, one could easily argue they remain on par with Senegal, Nigeria and Morocco (and probably Ivory coast) as the best sides in Africa.
Morocco did not have a better world cup. Simply because they lost to the key team they needed to beat: Iran. But yes - they are the only Arab side that can hold their head up high and count themselves unlucky. And Ghana. I also expect Mali to be the next team to join the elite: Diadie Samassekou, Yves Bissouma and Amadou Haidara will all be killer players. And if Monaco's Adama Traore finally gets out of his injuries this will be Africa's best and most complete midfield. Up front they have Abdoulaye Diaby and Moussa Marega, both proven goalscorers. The backline looks pretty meek for now, but this team will move to the African elite in the next couple of years and challenge for a 2022 debut. Will be also interesting to see what happens to Guinea once Naby Keita is joing by Amadou Diawara.
I agree. If Nigeria at the minimum draws Argentina tomorrow. As you say, Morocco did end up losing (though undeservedly so to Iran). I'd say nigeria similarly needs to prove it with a draw vs argentina tommorrow. If not, I would contend Morocco had a more impressive tournament. Especially in light of the fact that Poland is an abysmal side. Not sure how Nigeria didn't get a draw from Iceland. As an side, I'm not sure that Moroccans are "Arab" in an ethnic sense. (Not sure I'm not Arabic / noth african myself) Ghana is in a bit of a state of flux these days. Not sure they are right at the elite. Mali has been promising forever from a purely talent perspective, though that hasn't yet translated to great preformances. As you say it will be interesting to see how things play out with guinea. I'd include Zambia in that group myself and would love to see an east African team finally be competitive at the bigger stage, (is Uganda close?).
Ghana is getting there. Mali never had as much promise as now. If they had two top players at once it was great but this is a whole generation or two. Their recent successes are at the 2015 and 2017 youth events so they should be on key for 2022. Zambia is South and East Africa's top dog and they have some great players on the up albeit their careers seen to have stalled a bit. Very entertaining football though. The rest is simply not good enough.
Very saddened to see Nigeria go out in what was a highly winnable match. Yes, as in many other matches in this tournament legitimate questions can be asked about VAR and some decisions that were made that seem to continuously favor the bigger teams, but all in all Argentina remained barely impressive and a finished chance or two would have seen Nigeria move on.
Ridiculous. Finishing third on the basis of cards awarded is outrageous. What an arbitrary criteria. They should have decided based on shots against or corners.
How are those any less arbitrary than cards? I mean this is the 5th tiebreaker (points, GD, goals scored, head to head, fair play, lots), anything they choose is going to be pretty arbitrary at that point.
All in all a roundly disappointing WC for the African teams: Egypt. They should have drawn Uruguay. After that late goal from Uruguay it seemed like the wind came out of Egypt's sails. They didn't do much vs Russia and the loss to Saudi was pathetic. I dont think Salah should have played any of the matches even though (I think) he scored all the goals Egypt had in the WC. Morocco. All in all probably did well for there reputation. Should have beat Iran and Spain and drawn Portugal. In the end they were unlucky and had a difficult group, but played very well for the most part. Nigeria. Had a wide open group because of Argentina looking as poor as they were. They should have gotten a draw from Argentina and played Iceland very well. Really didn't even show up against Croatia. I'd call it a reasonable showing everything considered. The team did have many question marks around it. Tunisia. The rich irony is that Tunisia should have been on the brink of qualifying. Just missed out drawing England (though losing to Belgium would have killed their goal differential). Perhaps injuries changed the way they game planned (i.e. sat in defense too often against England), but they should have done better. Senegal. All in all were hard done by. Fair play is a terrible way to lose out on advancing. That draw against Japan was the real dagger to the heart.
I agree. My dad proposed using statistics like shots, but I don't know of any competition that uses game statistics other than scores to break ties. I'm fine with Fair Play being the last on field tiebreaker.
Realistically what would change with a different qualifying system? Morocco, Senegal, Nigeria would still have qualified. Egypt had a healthy Salah and qualified ahead of Ghana... Maybe Algeria or Ivory Coast would qualify ahead of them. But that's a big maybe. The only really suspect team is Tunisia and put back their injured players and they likely still qualify ahead of Ivory Coast/Ghana/Algeria. To me regardless of talent you have to show it on the field and none of these teams were able to be successful during qualifications.
Senegal is second in Africa in the FIFA Rankings and leads Africa in the ELO Ratings. I don't think an African team that didn't qualify would have done better in Senegal's group.
A different qualifying system like Asia would give the teams 10 high quality matches that would prepare them well for WC and CAF would be represented by the best teams over these 10 matches, as opposed to 6 matches where two or maybe even four of the matches is against mid-level teams of Africa. But i do think that with the exception of Tunisia, CAF had their best teams in this WC. WC 2014 gave CAF three victories and three draws with two teams through to the knockout stages while this WC gave CAF three victories and two draws and no team through. Luck was simply not on the side of the African teams this WC.
When will Africa be ready to take home the GOLD? Peter Paul Freelance Journalist https://africanbettingguide.com
You're probably right, but the qualification system is still ridiculous and somehow indicative in even deeper structural problems not only within the confederations as a whole, but also the mentality of the federations as well. None of these federations seem to see the concept of improvement as a footballing nation as something that requires more than minimal effort. It requires structural planning and engagement from the ground up. Long-term thinking, not just tournament to tournament. It seems like each federation only thinks about planning when there's tournament that needs to be qualified for and then they expect to win the World Cup when it comes around without having done any of the foundational groundwork the four previous years. Nigeria wasted much of the year prior to qualifying trying to fight it's own president on a coaching hire and the hire was finally made just in time to qualify for the World Cup. Then we basically deep-six the final portion of our domestic league season to fight over that very same president's job in the courts, knowing full well that FIFA would never have allowed a government official to remove him in the first place. Where did that get us? A wasted league season, an illegitimate league champ and further aways from getting much needed investment in the national league? Then the media complains because Rohr won't put domestic players in the national team, calling it a "slight" when the real slight is the lack of investment and coordination put into the running of that league. This is the same issue being debated in the US and the answer here is the same as the one I have for MLS fans who think all of the best American should play in MLS, and granted that league is much better run right now: the domestic league exists to prop up and support the national team, not the other way around. A quality league can help support the growth of the player base and become an asset for the national team coach, but a poorly run league will do neither. It isn't sufficiently coached, the players' sports science nutrition isn't sufficiently monitored or monetized to develop elite athletes etc. To say that Rohr has stunted the growth of NPFL players while ignoring the fact that that isn't his job, it's the job of those who run the league is an understatement. Now maybe giving them a run in friendlies etc is warranted to give them exposure, but relying on them isn't his job. If the league was better run, then they'd push that door down themselves. He didn't fail them, the league and the federation did. And Pinnick isn't exempt from criticism. The millionaires in Nigeria not named Ifeanyi Ubah aren't exempt from criticism. I've said in the past that, yes, for the time being and probably into the future, the epicenter of most countries' talent will be centered on Europe and that's true. But the foundation must be built domestically. How they play, and how much they're allowed to express themselves before the rigid over-coached product becomes ingrained in Europe. How Nigerians can be expected to play and what tactical ideas we might have. Even better coaching must be developed in a competitive and competent league. Instead we rely on developing our coaches through the youth national team coaching ranks as though that is sufficient. If we had a better league, our coaching prospects would be overflowing with prospects to the point that a foreigner would only rarely become an option... This isn't to say that Nigeria can't be successful even at the next tournament, but if that happens it will only be by happenstance that we stumble upon a fortuitous mix of talent rather than by any plan that makes it happen and sustains it on an increasing scale going forward. It all starts with the league...