Yeah you're probably right that if someone like France or England ended up in league b and won their group that they should be in pot two but I guess with the South American teams joining the next Nations League, we don't know for sure how things will set up.
Same coach that flopped with Venezuela... You're right, mentally it's completely different when everything is down to a match or two.
I agree that it is surprising how poor France and some of the other top UEFA teams have looked. I think the inconsistency is even more surprising. Didn't Croatia lose 0-3 at home to Austria and then turn around and win at France? And Belgium lost 0-4 at home to Holland, then turned around and won a couple of games? Point being that many of the results look to be just random. I watched part of France's game the other day, I think it was at Austria, and France pretty much rolled out what looked like a B team, without Mbappe, Benzema, etc. I just think they are not taking these games seriously. But maybe you are right, and they should be taking them more seriously than they are.
Australia's average age for this playoff (the entire squad) was actually even lower. I calculated 27.55 Years.
Brother, I feel ya. I understood you perfectly. But for me, every game leading to or at the world cup itself is a single-elimination one. Go big or go home. Win when it matters or stay home watching other people play. Case in point, Australia. A Single-elimination game against a theoretically stronger opponent. They did what they had to do and made it to the big party. Good for them. The Peruvians will be watching my team lift the trophy for the 6th time, from the comfort of their own homes. Same for the CONMEBOL haters in this forum
There are no CONMEBOL haters in this forum. I couldn't detect at least any of them. People are reasonable and talk football here. That has nothing at all do with hating CONMEBOL.
he failed with both Venezuela and Saudi Arabia and many in Nigeria who are against hiring foreign coaches used that to raise questions, and his appointment was delayed. Venezuela had a crappy record BEFORE AND AFTER Peseiro left. Saudi a bit different, I guess a good coach should do well with Saudi at least in Asia (Renard seems to have done at least in qualifying) But so far Peseiro is doing great with us. Our chance creation is up 4 or 5 fold.
Btw shout out to the peruvian keeper, who won the coin toss but chose for his team to kick second... result: Peru had to take 3 consecutive "do or die" pens with maximum pressure.
Jordan, Bahrain and Israel have all lost inter-confed playoffs in the past. Do you hold those failures against AFC / OFC?
As far as I know, no one considers Bahrain and Jordan to have been part of past World Cups. Certainly not part of the field of qualified teams. When qualifying began CONMEBOL were awarded 4.5 slots. 4 were guaranteed. At no point did CONMEBOL ever have 5 teams going to the World Cup. It was possible, but not guaranteed. 32 teams will be in Qatar in November. 4, and no more than 4, will be from CONMEBOL. If 3 advance to the Round of 16, that's 3/4, or 75%. Simple math, really.
I was surprised at this decision. It almost paid off after we missed our first one but it’s much better to go first and score as there is more pressure on the player following.
it wasn't guaranteed because they had to EARN IT. Its basically anybodys to win or lose. and they didn't. Not good enough to qualify, you can't just forget that and boost your "2nd round qualifying percentage" because of that. You failed to qualify for the world cup, you also failed to qualify for the 2nd round. That's part of the failure. the whole point of those "percentage" arguments is to prove Confederation strength. You can't just ignore a direct intercontinental playoff and artificially boost your average. That goes for all the previous AFC/Oceania/Concacaf losers as well.
Longer term trends do not favor Conmebol's 2nd tier sides at all. If a global NL, all the fading comparative advantages of Conembol will evaporate quickly. Right now, Conmebol will be represented in Qatar by Brazil (A), Argentina (A-), Uruguay (B+), and Ecuador (C+/B-). Even if all 4 of these teams happen to advance, it won't change my view of the longer term trends in football. Besides that, I consider the very small sample of games at the World Cup, and the role of coincidental factors in deciding which teams advance, as something makes the "statistical analysis" based on ratio of teams "advancing" not about analysis but fans being fans.
We've heard about how the UEFA nations league will improve 2nd tier UEFA sides. While I consider this a possibility, I'm not so sure about it tbh. Conmebol essentially has a type of nations league with their marathon qualification series. You get to play teams like Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay twice, even the worst teams like Venezuela are a decent quality. Despite Peru having a much tougher qualification path than Australia and should theoretically be much more prepared and "battle tested" they looked poor against Australia who played a much weaker set of teams in qualifying to prepare them for the final playoff. If the marathon 18 game Conmebol qualification cannot help Peru past the 5th best Asian side, I have serious doubts that the UEFA nations league will do anything significant for 2nd tier Euro sides in terms of their improvement. We will see.
What a horrendous performance from Peru - they can definitely play better than that. I actually bought the ticket for the 3rd group phase match between Denmark vs Australia/Peru - hoping to see a game where both teams would be attacking. Guess that won't be happening anymore. On the positive side: (i) Australia normally also brings a decent fan base and (ii) Argentina will now for sure be playing Denmark/France in R16, which is a more difficult matchup than Peru.
No comments on the Aussie keeper in the shoot-out? Must be the ultimate in football shithousing. The dancing about on the line obviously, but the fact that he also took the Peruvian keeper's water bottle, which had notes about the Aussie penalty takers, and dropped it behind the advertising hoardings.
Yeah, it smells like a massive inferiority complex without any reason to have one. My all time favourite players are two wingers and not the best players of all time. One of them is Feyenoord left winger Coen Moulijn and the other one is Brasilian Garrincha. The funny thing is that they think people even contemplate an opinion on other confederations, while people care shit about it and even know less about those confeds. If anything people in Europe have an opinion about UEFA and of FIFA, because these affect their clubs and national teams. The rest is irrelevant for them to have an opinion about.
oh i didn't see that, that's fantastic tho. in regards to nations league, I feel it actually benefits minnows more than anyone else. More like quality games automatically set up. I lived in the US Virgin Islands and had friends who played for them and knew the head of the federation. Getting any friendly was like pulling teeth. Now they get built in mini competitions to really improve. I assume the same is for UEFA as CONCACAF.
I never believed that. The only thing that makes you "battle tested" is the stakes your players are facing week in week out at their clubs. In that specific item there's not much of a difference between Peru and Australia.
We all get what you want to do. You want to pile on CONMEBOL as much as possible. Nothing more. But everyone, including you, understand that once today ends the qualifying stage will be done andall focus will turn to the final 32 at the group stage. CONMEBOL will have 4 of those 32. And if 3 advance from the group stage to the Round of 16, that's 3/4, or 75%. Just like in 2006. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A global NL won't change anything, it's just a few games a year. What does change the balance of power between national teams is the talent development. Right now in Conmebol there are 3 countries that until years ago were constantly producing elite level players that have stopped doing so (Chile, Paraguay and Colombia). Even Peru, who never had a great youth system, produced some top level players like Guerrero, Pizarro, Farfan, Vargas 15 years ago. Now they have nothing coming up. That's why south american football is struggling. Meanwhile some countries like USA, Canada, Korea and Japan have gotten much better in this department. And the africans too by taking the leftover dual nationals from west european countries.
Conmebol has the potential to put 5 teams into the knockouts. One is already eliminated and thus didn't make it. You have 4 of 5 left. Concacaf has the potential to put 4 teams into the knockouts. We will see if one of them fails today. That's how I see it. Could have but FAILED. You don't get protected for FAILING. So if Peru qualified for Qatar but failed to make the knockouts, Conembol takes the hit, but if they do even worse and fail to make it entirely, Conmebol gets their average boosted. Nah dude makes no sense. One out of FIVE already down. Maybe Concacaf loses one today as well.
The key phrase, right there. Rest assured that if all four CONMEBOL teams manage to advance to the Round of 16 every media source will mention that confederation’s 100% success rate at the World Cup.