Yes ! South Korea and Japan don't have the best generation this time. Iran and Australia looks quiet good. Also hope Canada and USA qualifies this time. will add fresh colors to this world cup
Quite a lot of Canadians living in Qatar too so they'll be well supported should they qualify. Too bad Turkey have imploded after that great start cause they'd have been very well supported, as will any team that makes it from the Arab / Mid East world...
Canada is a good position right now. Long way to go of course, but they got their 2 toughest fixtures in the OCT out of the way already and still hold a top 3 spot.
yes you're right on Brazil. Sao Paulo had a glut and there were tons of available rooms at very reasonable prices for standard 3-star business hotels. Rio was the hard one, but I got a sweet AirBnB near the beach. Natal had hotels but they were priced literally over 5x the normal rate. I paid US$275 for a room that normally goes for $43. My review is still up on booking.com. I was able to find hotels in Moscow and St. Petersburg but not the big US brands, but smaller places were available and just fine. I know Marriott had next to nothing (despite having about 20 properties) because me and a few other Marriott guys were coordinating and literally looking several times a day and contacting each other. A day or two would pop up occasionally but I was never able to book anything I needed on my dates. There are 12 Marriott/Bonvoy properties in Doha, I guess we'll see but my guess is the dates will be 100% blocked off, that I won't be able to book a room at any price. that's what happened in Tokyo, from the very first day that rooms are supposed to come available (330 days in advance on Marriott), they all show sold out. The various federations and other VIP groups and probably high end travel agencies book everything before they are available to the general public.
While Japan are clearly in jeopardy of not qualifying directly, S.Korea is doing alright. If you find them 2nd in the group behind Iran, you have to recall they also finished 2nd behind Iran in the last 2 World Cup qualifiers as well. Overall, despite the fact that S Korea have not defeated Iran in a decade, losing 4 of their last 6 encounters, including twice in S Korea, with their 2 draws also at home in Korea, and although Iran has never in its history lost to S Korea in Tehran (7GP, 5wins for Iran, 2 draws, 0 losses), I am actually feeling a bit nervous about our next match against them in Tehran on Tuesday. (This will be overall the 34th match between Iran and S.Korea, with Iran having lost only 9 times , the last in 2011 in extra time in the Asian Cup. In World Cup qualifying, on the other hand, South Korea have not defeated in ages (since 1993), despite the two being paired together in the same group repeatedly).
I watched their game against Syria and while they ended up being fortunate beating Syria so late in the match after Syria had equalized a few minutes earlier, I wouldn't say they were awful. Their finishing, however, was indeed awful, missing 3-4 excellent chances in the 1st half. The biggest disappointment was Hwang HC, who came into the game with a lot of buz and hype after doing well in the EPL, scoring a brace against Newcastle recently. The guy was terrible against Syria, missing all those chances. Son HM, on the other hand, did well IMO -- better than he often does for S.Korea. He too was guilty of missing a decent chance, but he was very good orchestrating S.Korea's attacks around Syria's box and scored their late winner.
Qatar's form of late has been just piss poor. Its too bad because they were a really exciting and good team back when they won the Asian cup. How the times change. I dont think they will get out of their WC group, even with a favorable draw.
Yeah.. I really hope they don't do anything silly like ya know... sack the coach that's got them this far, but teams in this region tend to be pretty trigger happy when it comes to that. Let's see how they do at the Arab Cup next month, but I think a poor showing there and he could be under pressure. One thing I was thinking about the other day, talking about a team from this region who's form has not been piss poor is Saudi Arabia. They look like they may very well qualify and if they do, I reckon they will come to Qatar in droves... I wonder what affect that will have on accommodation and things like that should they qualify. I remember going to AFC Champions league matches when Al Hilal fans would drive up and would be all over the city even on weeknights, I can only imagine what it'll be like for the World Cup.
Already the Gold Cup didn't really meet my expectations on them. I thought they should have reached the final. I didn't pay much attention to the Gold Cup but I was basing my expectation on their performance at the Asian Cup 2019. They were great at that tournament. That's why I consider losing to a B/C US team dissappointing.
Well like Kamtedrejt said I dont really consider their Gold Cup showing a success, unless you really have a poor opinion of Asian soccer. The Asian champs struggling against sides like Panama and El Salvador really isn't a good look. Neither is losing to a B/C US team. But then look at their results post Gold Cup Losing 4-0 to Serbia drawing 0-0 with Luxembourg and losing 4-0 to Republic or Ireland. Republic of Ireland is another team who is currently suffering piss poor form, so that only highlights had bad Qatar currently is.
Qatar's performance in the Gold Cup was on par with my expectations, as despite their well deserved Asian Cup trophy, they would still have rated only the 5th best team in the AFC in my book. They finished on top of their group, being better than Honduras and Panama and, in the knock out stage, were cruising to a 3:0 win against El Salvador when they almost squandered their lead but held on to win 3:2. Their narrow loss to a second string US team in the quarterfinal was disappointing but that same US team beat all its opponents and won the tournament. What they have shown since then has been horrendous and getting progressively worse. They lost 4:0 to Ireland the other night, a team they had tied 1:1 a couple of months earlier. They had defeated Luxembourg but now they managed only a draw. And they looked much worse losing 3:0 to Portugal last week than they did in a similar (3:1) loss earlier. These are friendlies but put together, it really looks like something has happened to them.
from what I've seen they deserve to go Top 3. I think their weakness may be squad depth but if they stay healthy they are dangerous. Outplayed both Mexico and the US away and unluckily only got a point from each.
what book is that ? the book of subjective feelings ? They were easily the best team in Asia after that tournament. They won that tournament only conceding 1 goal and scoring 19. they beat Saudi Arabia 2-0 beat South Korea 1-0 beat hosts UAE 4-0 and beat Japan 3-1 in the final the only 2 big guns of asia they didn't beat/meet were Iran and Australia, but they whipped both teams that eliminated those 2, so I can confidently say they were the best team. I've rarely seen a tournament that is so deservedly won by one team, as was the case with Qatar. Something has clearly gone wrong since then, they surely aren't the best team in Asia now, but they were back then.
the depth is pretty good, but obviously Davies is irreplaceable. That guy would start for any national team in the world.
No, in the book of objective results that look beyond one tournament. Which is why no ranking system, FIFA, ELO or whatever else that would use any sensible methodology, would rank them much better than I suggested. Qatar, as I mentioned, won the tournament deservedly, but they match up differently against different type of opponents. For instance, Qatar has (somewhat like Saudi Arabia) often struggled against UEFA teams, even teams ranked very low in UEFA. But they match up better against South American sides with some good results against them. Anyway, we just see the game differently, but until there is a more credible and widely accepted ranking system, Qatar rates 5th in Asia according to FIFA behind Iran, Japan, Australia and S. Korea and 6th according to ELO behind Iran, S. Korea, Australia, Japan and Saudi Arabia.
Having a great tournament doesn't necessarily make you the best team overall. We won the Asian Cup in 2015 and I never thought we were the best team in Asia (I just referred to us as Champions). A tournament over a window finds out the best team in that window. Different factors can affect tournament results such as injury or illness to players in that window, an environment that doesn't suit a particular team, factors that suit a particular team (home advantage was a big factor in us winning in 2015). Iranian Monitor never said Qatar didn't deserve their Asian Cup win, they were clearly the best team in that few weeks. I agree with him that when talking about the best team in a confederation you need to factor in more than one tournament. I haven't been following Qatar's recent friendly form and was surprised to see that it was so poor. They won their second round group in Asian qualifying easily enough and performed creditably at the Gold Cup so whilst I didn't necessarily rank them as the best in Asia, they are amongst the top 6 and can beat (or lose to) any of the other top teams on a given day.
My own view is that no team in the AFC is dominant enough within the confederation to be regarded as the "best". But if an Asian side had to face a UEFA team for some sort of intercontinental playoff, I would be a lot more comfortable if the AFC banner was carried by Japan, Iran, Australia or South Korea -- and quite worried if it were carried by either Qatar or Saudi Arabia.
I expect the Teams in Pots 2-4 will all be hoping it’s Group A! (subject to the draw restrictions obviously)