OMG Just saw the DRCongo - Tunisia highlights... abhorrent defending by Congo... Wow! Both goals by Cape Verde world class strikes from Rodrigues (who the hell is this guy?)
All in all, I guess it's not surprising that Algeria laid an egg at home considering that they'd all but conceded the previous match by allowing Mahrez to return to England. Cameroon put up a better fight. Zambia intends to be pesky to the last, but at least Algeria looks like a push-over for the final match. Even a loss to Zambia would probably lead them to still lose on goal-dif, but Nigeria should be able to get a result at home and put this group away. Zambia has really shown up in these qualifiers with only the opening loss to Nigeria as their only blemish.
Nigeria vs Zambia next month in Uyo will be of utmost importance. I often root for the underdogs, but Nigeria looks like it could do great next WC too.
Idk, that still is the tightest group by quite some margin. SA, for example, is closer to first than Zambia is despite being in last place. The only thing against them is how they've gotten here. A questionable home win and two straight losses to the same team. Not a good endorsement, but it's also the same team that has two straight positive results against Nigeria in AfCoN qualifiers, granted without their full WCQ roster. So if they were to,say... fire the coach and make the right moves by next month they could be back in it after a home win. Granted, switching managers during the run of qualifiers usually isn't smart imo, but... in some cases it's warranted to save your efforts. Mexico, for example, was saved from an embarrassing elimination four years ago (though even then they needed help in the final match from the USA winning away to Panama in the final minutes of a match they were losing. We were 5 minutes away from Mexico not going to the World Cup...). So if a change is in order, do it but do so wisely and with a clear strategy in mind bc wholesale changes aren't possible. You need someone who can take what is there and win with tactical adjustments that the personnel can handle.
Exactly. I'll take Croatia as example - world class players, CL winners, top leagues' winners, no decent coach, no results. It's in everyone's book too. You can't, with all due respect to Cape Verde, qualify to WC with two loses to the before mentioned islanders. I really hoped Mamelodi's title will push NT too, but seems like it won't.
Big news: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/y...ifier-to-be-replayed-in-november-2907241.html South Africa - Senegal to be replayed (remember the phantom goal? well, apparently the referee was full on corrupt). That means Senegal stand to gain 1 pt or 3 pts, while South Africa stand to be eliminated altogether, as this was their only win. Senegal back in control of their destiny here, especially with South Africa is such disarray.
A lot of people upset here coz it seems SA are being punished for something they didn't cause. But I guess match manipulation (even it was just one decision) is enough cause for a game to be replayed. But FIFA haven't given the details of how they came to the conclusion yet
Indeed. It's such a shock how different the team is under Stuart Baxter to the time under Shakes Mashaba. I dont even credit the victory over Nigeria to Baxter as honestly That was Shakes Mashabas team and his influence was still there. But they won't fire him though. The bosses of the South African football association didn't like Mashaba much and sought for any excuse to fire him. The got their man in and gave him a 5 year contract of which it hasn't even been a year in charge yet. So I say I qualifying campaign is over. Nah Sundowns players aren't heavily present in the team. The talent is strong all teams in SA and our European based players. But the team is ridiculously talented. But with a bad coach that all means nothing sadly
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This sets up a crazy precedent following up an even more shambolic manner of procedings four years ago. I don't know why this always seems to get rooted out in Africa. I am absolutely certain that the Gold Cup from three years ago was fixed, for example, but bc it happened in the US you will not hear hide nor hair from it. Could it be that noone in Africa can pay anyone enough to hold their tongue from FIFA? Idk. Good for Senegal, but I'm tired of FIFA doing things in CAF that they wouldn't dream of doing anywhere else... maybe I'm wrong and it has happened before but I've yet to hear of it...
This happened before in Asia, so its not a first. Albeit one would question whether for example the infamous Henry handball game shouldn't have been replayed in this case?
I guess I'm including this year as the third year since it's almost over; yes the one which helped Mexico and set up the Gold Cup-Super Cup match between the US and Mexico and Mexico got three calls over the course of two matches which where incredibly timely with a bogus red card and a pair of invisible stoppage time penalties (one being stoppage time in the second overtime about to go to pks). It's so insulting that anyone even is expected to hold any suspension of disbelief or that noone on Fox Sports had the guts to even allude to the possibility that CONCACAF corruption might have held sway on what happened there that it makes me want to spit. About as blatant a fix as you can get; clear motive coupled with obvious incompetence by the officials that was corroborated all three times by video evidence and all taking place under suspicious circumstances (stoppage time). If this was a police investigation there would be more than enough smoke to warrant a grand jury, but we'll never have a real investigation bc people are expected to assume that such things simply cannot happen in the US... https://www.si.com/planet-futbol/20...-controversy-corruption-referees-fifa-scandal http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_spot...cacaf_corruption_comes_to_the_fore_after.html http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com...mexico-panama-corruption-2015jul25-story.html https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/201...015-concacaf-gold-cup-corruption-match-fixing https://www.sbnation.com/soccer/201...015-concacaf-gold-cup-corruption-match-fixing
Sorry for going off-topic, it's always somewhat annoying how CAF's competition seems to always be a trial ground for FIFA's or individual confederation application of its rules when others seem to hold to their own lines of justification just fine. Not that Senegal doesn't deserve to have the game replayed, but we all know how seriously FIFA considers the integrity of it's competition sacrosanct in other instances around the globe to the point that referee decisions are considered beyond reproach and unworthy of even following up on while African referee corruption gets followed up on and uncovered in short order. CONCACAF literally had grounds to have it's entire confederation licensing revoked after that sham of a tournament,... yet nothing even approaching any significant level of inquiry was taken in this instance despite far more suspicious circumstances being evident to any interested viewer. Despite multiple articles which outlined the clear motive and beyond suspicious turns of events, CONCACAF was still allowed to basically investigate itself for wrongdoing... and this isn't to slight the Mexican national team who proved themselves the better of the US in the subsequent CONCACAF "Super-Cup", but it's a slap in the face to every other member of the federation who could have won that competition on a down year for both the US and Mexico and changing the face of what has become a joke of competition. I have my issues with CAF's WC qualifying setup and some of their choices in international competition formats (mainly the qualifying rounds being separate from WC qualifying forcing national teams to choose between the two competitions and increasingly showing the AfCoN to be the afterthought) but nothing they've ever done even approaches the joke that the Gold Cup has become to the point that I've taken to boycotting the competition entirely; I don't watch or follow it nor do I post on the tournament in any meaningful manner since the tournament's wonky rules also fails to lend itself towards any sort of meaningful estimate of form or progression of the national teams in question. The manner in which the US was able to win (I can't avoid coverage since it was news that was disseminated by the soccer media here) was devoid of any meaningful prognostication regarding the form of the team since they were able to bring on their A-side for the finals which other teams could not. It fooled us into a false sense of security regarding our ongoing issues in qualifying. Yes, Senegal deserves the replay, but why now and why again CAF or even AFC. Surely other such instances could have been uncovered in CONCACAF,or even UEFA and CONMEBOL. It's too bad that this is yet another irregularity in our qualifiers which would never see daylight in front of American or European cameras and media. It's a bit annoying and condescending. Okay, I'm done ranting about this.
I can respect that the difference would be whether that play was an honest mistake vs an actual result of criminal impropriety. Henry's handball was an omission of a call rather than an active effort to manipulate the game taken by the ref. In this instance, had a ref been tasked with fixing the match it would be more likely to be a result of a call taken rather than one not taken. The ref had no clue that the handball would occur beforehand and leaving it to such a random turn of events rather than pulling a Matt Geigeresque convolution of the game left him at risk of upsetting his hypothetical benefactors. More relevant to such a comparison might be the '09 UEFA CL semis between Barca and Chelsea where they repeatedly denied Chelsea reasonable penalty calls which on the sum of all the non-call could be construed to become a suspect pattern. But even then I wouldn't go so far as to call that match a fix but moreso a possible leveraging of the competition similar to the manner that the NBA did for their chosen teams who had marketable stars. I feel just as galled by that (especially during David Stern's run as NBA commish) and come close to viewing such weighted scales in a similar light to actual match-fixing with only the methods of the two being dissimilar. With the NBA and possibly UEFA, the goal was similar in the aim for setting up desired matchups that would play well for selling a product (Holyfield-Lewis I also comes to mind) but in liew of actual bribes, the league likely simply "incentivized" refs who towed their line by continuing to place them in important matches.
You also think Geiger was bribed to sell the Nigeria - France game? I can't explain it any other way. Either that or Geiger has a thing for the French and has a hear no evil, see no evil attitude towards them.
Geiger is either a terrible or corrupt referee, he bungled that Nigeria France game as well as the ridiculous Panama v Mexico match. Absolutely disgraceful, and the guy is still allowed to be in charge of important matches. Isn't he touted as the best ref in the US ? What a joke.
Oh, so he was behind that mess as well? One bad game at this level can happen, but two games makes it iffy to the extreme. If the guy was African FIFA would have dumped him ages ago.
There's a saying among American fans which is "getting Geigered". Before the Panama match he seemed fairly competent, but since then he's become more and more erratic. Either he simply became incompetent overnight or something is on his mind every time he steps on the field... He either took a bribe or was coerced somehow and that's eating on his conscience. Either way, he should resign or be fired. He presided over the last MLS Cup Final which was widely considered to be very poorly officiated resulting in a chippy and sloppy match to watch.
What would happen if a confederation had its license revoked? CONCACAF had started World Cup 2018 qualifying by then.
First off, FIFA would never want to cut themselves off from the ever-increasingly lucrative N. American market, even if their hand was almost seemingly forced to by an out in the open match-fixing scandal being uncovered... which is probably why they didn't step in and investigate the issue further. But, by all accounts, I'd imagine that FIFA would try to step in and manage the CONCACAF directly under a sort of probationary governance until new chiefs could be found. Rock meets Hard Place here as shutting out an entire confederation is something that I don't believe is even possible considering that it has so many voting members who helped put the current leadership in power, but FIFA cannot afford another scandal in the wake of the previous indictments. In the end, the governing body would have no choice but to step in in some significant capacity. Fortunately for CONCACAF right now, they've since changed their president (currently the former Canadian head, having broken the stranglehold that the Carribean and Central America had previously had on the presidency for many years which seemed bound to continue even after the indictments of the former leaders) which means that the current leader is so far removed from the former leadership that it would be almost ridiculous to punish him for the crimes of his predecessors since, to all outward assessment, the man seems very clean and had managed his own federation very credibly. The man doesn't seem to tolerate match-fixing either, he shut down the country's former highest domestic league entirely over a match-fixing scandal being discovered shortly after he went into office there and now his former deputies are in the process of creating an entirely new league with proper foresight and an eye towards even promotion and relegation. So at this point, FIFA could comfortably go back, discover that there actually was match-fixing involved and do nothing about it to the current leadership. Either way, I think that FIFA is just happy that the entire affair sort of floated away into nothing. If either it had been Mexico being screwed or especially the US and it's exploratory federal judiciary, there would have been some ppl all over the world sweating bullets over another potential grand purge. With the victims in this case being two "insignificant" nations from Central America, there was always going to be a short investigation, a charming new and squeaky clean new president from the safe, polite and totally unsuspicious nation of Canada, and a media redirect to World Cup Qualifying. Even with all of the Uefalona calls over the years in Europe, even they might have found a similar confluence of events geared towards a particular outcome too much to ignore as we ended up doing. Fortunately for Europe there are numerous enticing matchups and a much more competitively compelling tournament for them to need to engineer a particular one year after year they way that CONCACAF does with the US and Mexico. In fact, going back to 2015, Mexico did not even win their group and shouldn't have been on the opposite end of the bracket from the US to begin with. The fact that CONCACAF repeatedly aligns their knockout stage bracket to support a US-Mexico final every year is telling, along with the fact that the tournament has been played in the US every year with no end in sight. Mexico has, by far, the largest contingent of followers here followed by the US by a wide margin which makes every game the two sides play in this tournament essentially home field for them. Soon both sides along, with other CONCACAF sides, will be regularly playing in the expanded Copa America every four years opposite the Euros, and with that I can only hope that they will do away with the biennial Gold Cup and move towards a quadrennial edition timed just before World Cup years, allowing better rosters to be selected for it and less emphasis to be placed on it soley for Confed Cup purposes. The Copa Centenario was a far better tournament than any Gold Cup I've ever seen and I'd frankly be happy to see the end of the farce entirely. I won't get my wish there, but at least we'll have Copa Americas to look forward to...
Senegal with an impressive strategy as to calling up foreign-born players. They don't try to convert anyone, they only seem to aim for the best talent. So far they have converted Kalidou Koulibaly, arguably good enough to start for France and Keita Balde, who arguably could have been playing for Spain come Russia 2018. Three new callups, including two former French youth players (all three have been called up for the October games): Youssef Sabaly - on loan from PSG at Bordeaux and who is having a stormer of a start to the season, easily one of the best defenders in France so far this season. Also 2013 U20 World Cup winner. M'baye Niang - still in the 'developing talent' category, but highly regarded, sub-elite, but would be an immense addition to the stature of the Senegalese team. Alfred Gomis - lowest profile of the three, but given lack of depth in the goalkeeping department getting a starting goalkeeper in a Serie A side is quite a catch. Goalkeepers: Khadim Ndiaye (Horoya, Guinea), Alfred Gomis (SPAL 2013, Italy), Clement Diop (LA Galaxy, United States) Defenders: Moussa Wague (Eupen, Belgium), Lamine Gassama (Alanyaspor, Turkey), Fallou Diagne (Metz, France), Saliou Ciss (SCO Angers, France), Kara Mbodj (Anderlecht, Belgium), Kalidou Koulibaly (Napoli, Italy), Youssouf Sabaly (Bordeaux, France), Adama Mbengue (Caen, France) Midfielders: Idrissa Gana Gueye (Everton, England), Pape Alioune Ndiaye (Galatasaray, Turkey), Cheikhou Kouyate (West Ham United, England), Cheikh Ndoye (Birmingham City, England), Alfred Ndiaye (Wolves, England), Salif Sane (Hannover, Germany), Assane Diousse (Sainte-Etienne, France) Forwards: Diao Balde Keita (Monaco, France), Moussa Konate (Amiens, France), Moussa Sow (Al Ahly Dubai, UAE), Ismaila Sarr (Rennes, France), Opa Nguette (Metz, France), Diafra Sakho (West Ham United, England), M'Baye Niang (Torino, Italy), Sadio Mane (Liverpool, England)