Who's the favorite to win this group ?

That said: Given Cardona will at best play in one friendly, if any... that would probably delegate him to a bench role?

 

Saudi Arabia qualified for the same World Cup, 'the coach who oversaw losses to the Saudi Arabia', What's that supposed to mean?
Lol BigSoccer specialists
Before you comment you need to get some information my friend.
It's not the first time that Saudi Arabia beat Japan in asian competitions.
And UAE, Haiti both are considered second tier teams on their continent, any second tier team from any continent/domestic league or whatever can logically beat any of first tier teams due to convergence of level, the first tier team have the largest percentage to turn this around in their favour of course but still the second tier team have a chance to beat any of them.
Look at the head to head results for example between UAE and Japan.
By the way, Japan beat both Saudi Arabia and UAE in return and qualified as the group leader which give the Japan's coach credit despite the two losses.

 

Still in 2017 and the level of ignorance is beyond words for some not only about lack knowledge of the teams in this universe, it seems there difficulties in understanding the game as well, still many prefer to put asian and african teams in the same basket!
The major difference between the two is that most asian teams at the world cup will be outcasts in the group stage while most african teams at the world cup group stage will be very competitive in order to advance.
Iran's physical style will put a decent performance overall without getting too exposed an embarrassing defeat, but their performances at the World Cups before were nothing special.
South Korea, Japan and Australia are all decent teams with more strength plus a better mentality compared rest of Asia, they produced some memorable performances against major teams eg Australia against Italy 2006/Holland 2014 or Japan's heroic performance against the Italians in the Confederations Cup.
South Korea even go as far as achieved good results against top opposition like they did it in 2002 and against the eventual runner-up french team in 2006.
But sometimes the top asian teams got humiliated and heavily defeated conceding four goals on more than one occasion.
Saudi Arabia really garbage according to their previous world cup appearances, awful defending cant shoot on target poor mentality diving waste time terrible team on the world stage.
Asian confederation it's still weak overall, the top teams qualified every time because most of top asian's main rivals have always been from countries that had small populations (the bunch of Middle-Eastern teams) that means lacked consistency for those particular teams, it's joke confederation.
At the world cup, they seek a good fight and worthy challenges vs Africans & Concacaf teams but again they will fall way short against a much stronger opposition, most times they will choose to park the bus laden with 10 defenders and counter.
Now, the top teams of Africa so clearly a different class to the likes of Asia's eltie, they are a very good teams that can also play good football and rarely humiliated.
African confederation (are often underrated) is of much higher quality than any weak confederation (Asia, Concacaf and Oceania) for simple reason their second-tier teams are also respectable teams.
Multiple examples for entertaining matches between the Africans vs World's giants at the absolute highest level of football.
Ivory Coast vs Argentina & Holland
Egypt vs Brazil & Italy
Ghana vs Germany 2010 & 2014
Senegal vs France & Uruguay
Nigeria vs Argentina & Italy
How many times have you seen an asian team that can pull off this kind of performance?
Having said that, Africa and Asia still behind Europe and South America but Africa definitely the ones confederation who closest to the Europeans and Conmebol teams.

 

As for the group, I Know that Poland living up to the hype but still the best team in the group that would have the slight advantage here.
Poland is the kind of the team that plays an incredibly safe dull system, they are very well organized with phenomenon attacking player in the mix.
Poland kept this performance consistently through three years and failed only three times that can be forgiven, losing to Germany in Frankfurt (no shame in this game), outplayed by Switzerland at the Euro and suffered an embarrassing defeat in Denmark.
So I expect Senegal and Colombia will fight for second.
Japan least favorite in this group but have a shot of course because of the way the group.

 

I don't see people arguing that Asia's teams are better than Africa's. Most will agree the CAF teams have the better players.

 

The ranks is pretty much like this:

1. UEFA
2. CONMEBOL
3. CONCACAF
4. CAF
5. AFC
6. OFC

CONCACAF vs CAF could be a toss up, but you can thank Mexico for me putting CONCACAF above. Mexico has put up great fights with strong UEFA and CONMEBOL teams before, and almost always gets out of their group. Costa Rica made quarters last season, and USA is inconsistent but they are likely the same level as Egypt.

 

Concacaf is not better than CAF.

Any way you slice it.

If you want to compare top teams.

Is Mexico better than Nigeria?

Ive seen no evidence of it. Both teams have recently maxed out at the 2nd round. Both teams have played each other 3 times in the last decade and all 3 were draws with heavily Mexican dominated crowds whether in Mexico itself or the US.

Cafs depth is far greater, far far greater.

If concacaf can boast of 3 2nd round reaching sides, CAF has 6 and that's not including sides like CIV, Egypt, who are certainly 2nd round calibre teams.

Caf 3 quarter final reaching sides same as concacaf, yet Mexico was only able to achieve this as host.

The only thing concacaf has over caf is that Mexico is a consistent 2nd round qualifier. They can build on consistency because they are virtually gauranteed participation in every WC because the Federation is very weak. No team in CAF has such luxuory.

 

I would put CAF ahead of CONCACAF for the fact that after you go past Mexico and both Costa Rica and the US (when they're playing well), the confederation's level becomes abysmal. CAF at least has much more competitive sides.

 

Yes. Nigeria has only made Round of 16 three times, and missed out on many world cups in the past. Mexico have only missed out on 3 world cups that they chose to participate in and have made Round of 16 most of the time. Made quarterfinals twice. Mexico has beaten quite a few tough teams from UEFA in the past and did well in confederations cup. I'd say they have the best chance by far to win the World Cup outside of CONMEBOL and UEFA.

It depends on how you look at it. I agree that the majority of CAF teams are better than the majority of CONCAF, however Mexico is better than any CAF team.

 

What about the confederation cup?

Again u are looking at ONE TEAM, not the entire confederation.

Worldcup is where it counts.

Cameroon, Senegal, and Ghana have all been to the quarter finals more recently than Concacafs king Mexico.

Think about that again.

CAMEROON.

That was a long time ago.

 

Yeah, but Mexico is not THAT much better than the best Africa sides to ignore how putrid the rest of the confederation is (specially now that Costa Rica has regressed back to the norm and the US sucks so much they couldn't even make it to the World Cup).

 

Yes concacaf certainly had a better WC than CAF in 2014, I'm not gonna argue against that, you could also make a claim they had a better overall tournament than uefa because they did send a higher percentage of teams to the knockouts than uefa did. So now is concacaf better than uefa?

however 3 teams still does not make a confederation.


Any way u slice it overall CAF is a better confederation overall, taking into account ALL of the teams.

 

Panama would generally be considered #4 in concacaf

Tunisia is probably not even in cafs top 10.

 

I have no idea where to put Tunisia... FIFA has them in the top 5, but honestly yeah... Ghana, Egypt, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Cameroon, Zambia, Senegal, Burkina Faso are 11 teams I would put ahead of Tunisia.

This discussion is pointless though: CONCACAF obviously is the most consistent of the two confeds at World Cup level, whereas CAF obviously has more depth. The difference between the two is in the eye of the beholder. But one thing is certain - CAF paths to perform better at the World Cup is way more likely than CONCACAF finding some depth.

 

If Panama manages somehow to qualify they could meet in the 1/8 final with Senegal. But apart from that the earliest any Mexico or Costa Rica can meet an African team is in the 1/4 final, while Morocco, Egypt and Nigeria can only meet them in a 1/2 final.

Funnily enough its very likely the final game between Panama and Tunisia will be for confed pride, unless one of the teams scrapes something off of England or Belgium...

So yeah... ain't happening.

 

I have posted my views on how Concacaf, CAF and AFC compare in another thread. To sum up my view, I definitely see CAF as having the best depth, followed by the AFC, then Concacaf. The top 16 from a theoretical 32 team World Cup involving just these 3 confederations (no UEFA or CONMEBOL) would have a lot more CAF sides than sides from the AFC and Concacaf, while most of the last place teams in such a World Cup would come from Concacaf IMO. The top 8 would probably see a proportional like representation between the 3 confederations. The top 4 and the final and winner would probably be mostly (not exclusively) between CAF and Concacaf.

 

You know I really wonder what has happened to Algeria. With the talent they have, they could be the best CAF team, and yet they did not even qualify.

I mean they have Slimani, Mahrez, Soudani, Ghoulam, Fegholi, and many more players. My guess is they are not managed very well, but they seriously have the most talent. Algeria 2014 was the best African team I have ever seen play. They were playing so well and really frustrated Germany. I think a lot of their talented players are better now than in 2014. Shame we are not seeing them in the World Cup.

Algeria definitely is not the best CAF team at the moment, but on paper Algeria is the best followed by Nigeria and Senegal. Such a shame we are not seeing these talented Algerians in the world cup. Any idea why Algeria has been failing since the 2014 World Cup? My guess is bad management, but is there something else as well?

 

Algeria is not the best team on paper. Their defence isn't the greatest.

Senegal, Nigeria, and even CIV all have better teams on paper.

Algeria got too cocky I think. They got to a point where they thought they could just show up to matches in Africa and simply win because of names. It doesn't work like that, teams in Africa will scrap for victory.

Most of the Algerian team are born in France, perhaps they are not used to the African game and its no surprise they have had more success internationally in the worldcup than in African competition. They failed woefully at the recent 2017 ANC, failing at the group stage.

As for the worldcup failure, they found themselves in the group of death and simply didn't have the mettle to get through.

A home draw against a scrappy Cameroon who would become African champs wasn't the best start. Then when they lost to Nigeria in the next match they essentially gave up. 1 point after 2 matches while Nigeria had 6. They folded at that point mentally and were then swept aside by a revamped and young Zambia squad pulling from their U20 team that did so well in the recent WC.

It is a shame to not see them at this WC especially considering that for the first time ever there are 3 north African sides. The WCQ group they were in should never have happened.

 

I would say this is the real ranking

1. UEFA
2. CONMEBOL
3. CAF
4. AFC
5. CONCACAF
6. OFC

Concacaf has only a Mexico and the rest are below both AFC and CAF level.