El Salvador is actually currently in third in the live standings! Everyone is talking about Canada and Panama, but perhaps we shouldn’t sleep on El Salvador too.
Romania are a goal up vs Armenia, so should Germany scope out a winner in Skopje vs North Macedonia, they will become the first qualifiers to the World Cup 2022
Russia topping their group winning 1-2 in Maribor, but that loss in Slovakia is likely going to cost them the direct ticket. They have to play in Croatia yet.
Germany become the first team (other than Qatar) to punch their ticket. Denmark can join them tomorrow.
If Senegal hold on, they'll punch their ticket to the next round. Morocco can do so as well today, as they play the rescheduled fixture against Guinea, being played "away" at home
Germany qualified. Lebanon's Mohamad Kdouh did the rare feat of scoring two goals in first half stoppage time, as Lebanon beat Syria 3-2 in Jordan. Syria is in last with 1 point in 4 games, so it looks like they will be eliminated quicker than last time when they finished third and lost a playoff to Australia. 104 teams are left. Senegal won 3-1 at Namibia, which eliminated Namibia, Congo, and Togo. Senegal has the best FIFA Ranking in CAF, so if that is used to seed Round 3, Senegal will be in the better pot. The closest CAF group is Group J, where nobody is eliminated, and Tanzania, Benin, and DR Congo all win the group if they win their last two games. Madagascar is in last.
Kind of an example of the limitations of VAR in Scotland’s 1-0 nail biter in the Faroes. It looked like the goal might have come off the scorer’s arm, but the replays were too blurry to be conclusive it seemed. Anyway, the Scots can now clinch the playoffs with a win in Moldova or at home against Denmark in November. Israel beat Moldova today to keep the pressure on.
Even Austria in 4th place still got a chance of reaching the play-off's from this group, with them being one of the Nations League group winners. But considering that Austria lost narrowly AET to Italy after having held them to a 0-0 draw at the Euro-20, they have done terrible in the WC-22 qualifiers.
We have seen that most of the Euro-20 participants are either doing outright poorly or looking a bit shaky in the WC-22 qualifiers, losing games or points here and there, though obviously not counting Denmark, that seemed a bit mentally tired vs England in the Euro-20 Semi-Finals, but has been absolutely on fire since then. Thinking back, it's quite usual that players who recently played at a WC or Euro, then seem kind of mentally and physically fatigued, when they almost straight away are playing qualifiers for the next big tournament. It's only natural, not least when the players then both have to focus on their club team and have to play 2-3 qualifying games in a row within a few days. Not least the teams with less depth and who are not used to qualify and play at every Euro or WC will get struck by this for sure, but there is kind of a "cure" as can be seen when looking at the Denmark results and mental "rejuvenation" in the WC qualifiers, some would postulate that it's the "Eriksen" effect with the players, supporters and even the whole country pulling closer together and adding some extra mental strength and energy, which probably is partly true, but it's also due to an NT coach who has not been afraid of resting and replacing no less than10 regular starters in the games they are "easily" suppose to win, like Denmark having been at full strength (minus injuries) at home vs Scotland, then replacing just about the whole team in the away vs the Faroes a few days later, then again to be at full strength at home vs. Israel a few days later and so forth. But obviously you need quite some depth to a team to be able to do this with no real worry if it will work and pay off, and most NT coaches do not feel that they have that luxury and are not quite that confident in their reserves, so they will only make a few changes here and there to their starting 11, if any at all.
In fact, one Euro 2020 team (Slovakia) has already been eliminated. Granted their group wasn't exactly going to be a cakewalk.
Though I was an advocate of heavy squad rotation, fair dues to Canada. They kept a fairly consistent first XI and cleverly switched formations. They collected 2 road draws and a home win.
So far, doesn't really look like there are going to be any real surprises. The only big name in Europe in danger of not qualifying directly is Spain, and all the other confederations are pretty much going to form. Barring an upset in the final round of African qualifying, it's possibly that the only newbie will be Qatar, with Canada the only other country at Qatar 22 that has not qualified in the past 20 years.
Oman currently sitting in 3rd and Japan in 4th in group B Asian qualification. Something to watch. Japan has not looked good offensively and Oman already won h2h in Japan.
Been watching Brazil-Uruguay — very important game for the latter….Brazil destroying them. One of the most impressive performances I’ve seen in awhile. 3-0 in the 70th min and could be 5 or 6 easily.
La Paz is 11,000 feet above sea level, correct? So basically like playing on the moon in terms of oxygen. In all seriousness, I have no idea how any athlete can function at that elevation.
11,932 for the Hernando Siles stadium. But Natives of the Andes have special biological adaptations for the height, like higher hemoglobin concentration and saturation, and increased lung capacity --same as Tibetans. Thing is, those adaptations for extreme altitude may affect them at sea level, which may be bad for countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Tajikistan, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador when playing at low altitudes. Since 90%+ of humanity are adapted to sea-level, nearly all research has focused on how high altitude affects us, but no one has seriously investigated the reverse.