wait 1-2 Uruguay.........sh!t, come on Venezuela, let`s see a comeback draw!!!! PLEASE!! YIKES I can`t keep up, 2-2 Venezuela!!!!!!!!!!! and...Mexico just went up 2-1 on Trin and Toba
2-2 final Ven - Uru........couldnt have askd for a better day really realistically( boliva beating chile?? lol), sol possesion of 5th and 2points out of 4th, with argentina playing brazil for their next game, Looks bright for ecuador .
hahaa, yea, didn`t have too much faith in the gods helping today, but no need to get into religion or gods...but things are looking up, the way I see it looking at the next four games these teams are out: Colombia (for sure after a loss or draw to Ecuador), Venezuela (tough games ahead), Bolivia (DONE), and Peru. Soo pretty much a battle between ARGENTINA hahahahaaha, Uruguay and Ecuador for 2 spots, I hope I don`t eat my words with Colombia, but that game today against Peru was sad.
7 points from 1st and 4 from 2nd... Our goal diff is going to hurt us if this really comes down to the wire.
If WCQ were to end today we would have to play the repechaje against Honduras. Our goal should be to win the rest of the 4 games.
agreed. we can not rely on goal difference if it boils down to that. we control our destiny assuming we win out...the other results simply don't matter, especially when we put into context argentina realistically having a rough battle against brazil and paraguay.
More than anything, a decent result v Colombia will both benefit our goal of acumulating points as well as depriving them of catching up. With the remaining game schedule, it is very probable that Argentina find themselves in 5th at the end of the day.
Yup, I called that too....We should have won 3-0....DAMN Valencia's last PALAZO should have gone in...It would have definitely helped up even more. Now we gotta PRAY that we can atleast get a tie in Colombia, ATLEAST. It's going to be very hard since Colombia tends to always have us under control. The only good thing is that Colombia has the worse goal deficit in this Qualifiers. But It will be hard for us to score since their defense is strong. The game in Bogota is gonna be YET ANOTHER FINAL since it determines if Colombia has a shot at a 5th spot or not. A tie or loss from Colombia's part would mean elimination for Colombia and a Win or Tie from our part in Bogota would be HUGE plus points for us as long as we defeat Bolivia and Uruguay. 7 more points in our pockets plus the 20 that we have ALONG with results playing a bit to our side can really get us that 5th spot assured. Just like it wasn't impossible to defeat Argentina, it's not impossible to defeat Colombia. Their elevation will obviously not affect us like other teams that go to Bogota and to top that off our attacking half is better than theirs is. 3 times better and more effective. The only thing we have to becareful with is #1 who is going to be our keeper now that Elizaga can't play next game? and #2 should Ayovi continue to play Left Back? He leaves too many open spaces as well as Reasco and doesn't get back to defense on time. These 2 reasons, on top of Castillo and Noboa moving forward away from their defensive positions in the first half caused Messi to take charge from our midfield and so on everytime Arg. had a counter attack.
It is amazing Colombia are were they are having only scored 7 goals in the whole campaign. To my surprised, Bolivia have scored 19 (6 v Argentina) so far. Colombia have also only allowed the oppositions ball to hit their net 11 times - only Brazil has a better record with 6 goals against. Rather than having 20 goals against us, we should have 12 or so if it werent for those goliadas in Brazil and Paraguay. Another interesting stat is that we have only scored 5 times away from home while scoring 13 in Quito. Did you know that all teams in the top 6, except leaders Brazil, have lost 4 games? Everyone!! Uruguay are doing poorly because they have amassed a total of 6 ties. While Brazil has that same number, they also only have a single loss.
Well this Qualifier has had every single team have their results all over the place. Consistency in a team was rare in this Qualifier...Paraguay was the only one that had it and now even they put their seat on recline. the goleadas that Brazil and Paraguay had on us don't count in my book....at that time there was something strange going on b/t Suarez and our players, there was no connection anymore and certain players seemed to have grudges towards the FEF...Hence, Suarez leaving the NT. The win against Colombia is possible but would be really hard for our NT. I have always thought Colombia is one of our hardest if not the hardest opponent for Ecuador to beat. The game against them in Quito kind of proves it. It's the only game were I can say our attack was SHUT DOWN by our opponent. (with the Benitez & Tenorio duo up front).... Benitez should not be a starter in this game....ESPECIALLY, not with Tenorio. That's like bringing the old jinx back.
I say in this game there is EVERYTHING at stake! we will also have to rely more on long range shots such as Ayovi's and even Noboa who I noted has a good long range shot although he missed.. and I hope Antonio can pull off a long range shot like the beauty he pulled off in Wigan this season. Colombia will not be forgiving and pave the way for us to the area, nope, they will try and shut us down with their D. It will be harder than ever, because Colombia knows us well and vice versa. They know how to play us and their defense is a step ahead of ours. We will have to beat them with what we are 3 times better at than them- our offense and with an attacking midfield. Colombia will be tough because it will be played in Medellin, and they won't compromise.. WE HAVE TO GO FOR THE WIN. Dude I created a thread for this .. go and post this there.. great input.
Good point - which is why I think sometimes these qualifiers should be played over a shorter time period. Right now we're being heavily penalized by 3 matches that took place back in 2007. If CONMEBOL is interested in having the best 5 teams represent in the WC, the qualifying process should be a bit more focused on the teams that are performing best over the previous 1 or 2 years before the tournament.
That would mean going back to the "two group" format. Though we have never done well with this old format, we might be able to challenge it now - still, the "todos v todos" is still the safest way to go.
i dont know about u guys but the game that wories me more is agisnt colombia...bolivia for some reason arent even close to being a threat..and seem to have ran out of steam without joaquin botero..and as far as colombia goes they may not be able to score but are a bigger threat than bolivia ..and for some reason i know i dont want to touch the topic about historically speaking..but la paz feels like a second home for the tricolor because weve beaten the bolivaian s there by a large margin before so it doesnt really frighten me as much as the colombia game especially looking at bolivia now that they are out of qualifying for good and havent scored a goal in there last two games
But then we'd have more WC's....either that or we'd have 2 years where we don't see our NT perform at all.
Europe simply has it cut short since they are qualifying for 2 competition rather than one (Euro and WC). They are still playing ocntinuously as practically the whole world has a team playing during FIFA dates.
Not necessarily, they would just have to squeeze more games into a 2-year period. I can't see why it can't be figured out. I mean seriously, at the end of both 2007 and 2008 there were 6-month breaks without any games(!), which seems unnecessary and also it's not really good for the ability of the teams to gel. Another example is right now - why such a big break until September for the next 2 matches? They could easily squeeze in at least 6, maybe even 8 matches during the June - September break, even giving the guys a few weeks off to rest. I think we should have a similar approach to UEFA, where the first 2 years after the World Cup is preparation for the Copa America, then the final 2 years is qualifying. We all know the issues with Copa America, because it's the year after the World Cup, everybody is trying new players and the big stars often don't show up. The Copa America should be a preview of the teams that will be playing the qualifiers and the World Cup.
I think we all agree this could be our most difficult match to get points. Especially because Colombia will come out fighting hard. Bolivia is playing for pride, but we match up well against them because of our guys' size and speed. Uruguay will be tense, but we are heavy favorites at home, and hopefully with any luck we will only need a tie against them. Chile is the hottest team on the continent, unless they totally collapse over the next few games, they will certainly be qualified by the time we face them, which could work to our advantage.
Yea also considering there's just 10 countries, a group format or spliting into elimination rounds wouldn't make much sense.