This thread is inspired by, most recently, the thread from @TimB4Last entitled 2014 WC Brasil - CONCACAF WCQ opponents watch [all R's]. That thread eventually broadened to include non-CONCACAF teams as well; for organizational purposes, therefore, I've started two threads, one CONCACAF-0nly, and one for all other teams around the world. This is the thread for all other teams around the world; here is a link to the CONCACAF-only thread: http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/2018-wc-russia-concacaf-opponents-watch-all-rs.2008960/ To start things off, here is an early projection from @Edgar of the final 2018 draw: http://www.football-rankings.info/2014/07/2018-fifa-world-cup-final-draw-seeding.html Right now, the teams in position for a seed in the 2018 World Cup are: Russia, Germany, Argentina, Netherlands, Colombia, France, Uruguay and Brazil. A lot will change in the next three and a half years, of course. Of interest as well may be Edgar's early projections for the qualifying draw in AFC and CAF: http://www.football-rankings.info/2014/07/2018-fifa-world-cup-qualifying-draw_45.html http://www.football-rankings.info/2014/07/2018-fifa-world-cup-qualifying-draw_17.html Of particular interest is that Australia has currently slipped out of the projected Pot 1. Australia will need to do well in the 2015 AFC Asian Cup to avoid the possibility of being drawn into a group with another strong AFC team in which only the group winner is guaranteed to advance to the final round of 2018 AFC World Cup Qualifying. Fortunately for Australia, they're hosting the 2015 AFC Asian Cup.
Wow my 2nd national team Philippines could maybe be drawn into Pot 3...something I never thought I'd ever hear...
Seriously way too early, you got the worm for sure. Funny you jumped to WC when we will have the "total AMERICAS tourney" and Olympics before we even get to qualifiers for this.
Well the Crimea, Donetsk, and Lugansk are going to be interesting from a grand strategic perspective. Does Russia answer the call of the separatists? Does Putin want a quagmire of instability to undermine the new government in Ukraine? What does the exponential muslim birthrate in the Tartar and Caucus regions mean for the sharp decrease of Slavic birthrate? Will it mean a fundamental change in Russian identity? Is this all just western propaganda?
Given current events, the World may be involved in something much bigger than soccer in 2018, and not in a good way...
Qualifiers start less than a year away. So in a way this is closer than the Copa or the Olympics. The CONCACAF first round will likely start in June 2015, with the smaller Caribbean teams playing home and away matches, to reduce the field to only half of the minnows. By the end of June, Asia will start their own home-and-away minnow thinning first round. Right away, in July, the AFC starts their second round, with the 22 second-tier teams, plus the eight third-tier that survived the first round. Half of these teams (15) will move on to face the first-tier teams (5) in 2016. In September, the CONCACAF second round starts, still missing the Top 6 teams (usually the guys from the previous Hex). So we have six groups where only the winner marches on. Likely seeds will be Salvador, Guatemala, Cuba, T&T, Antigua, and Haiti or Canada, depending. So six teams move onto the semi-final round in 2016, where they'll join the Big 6. The first good matches are in October, when CONMEBOL has their first round in their usual Battle Royal. Even the order of the games is always the same, since the South Americans are sticklers for tradition. So the first date will have the usual Uruguay-Bolivia opener, followed by Argentina-Chile, Ecuador-Venezuela, Peru-Paraguay, and closing with Brazil-Colombia. In November, Africa starts their qualifiers, although we don't know what the format will be this time around, since it's expected to revert to the old format. If so, we'll have a first round between minnows to thin the herd in early November, followed by the first group phase in 2015. The year ends in late November, when the Oceania islands start their qualification, another minnow-herd-thinning affair, around the Winter Solstice. Traditionally, only one of those mini-minnows makes it to the next round, that won't be played until the summer of 2016.
AFC have merged the Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers. See Wikipedia. They will have a preliminary round to trim the number of teams to 40. Then 8 groups of 5 with the winners and 4 best runners-up advancing to the final 2 groups of 6. Oddly, they have the first 2 match dates of the first group round before the July draw. I think FIFA will push them to change the dates.
Ah thanks. Didn't know they had gone through with that change. The dates must be similar though. Prelim round in June, with a prelim draw before that. They need to know how many entrants there's going to be first, though. That should be solved by May, I guess,
2018 World Cup qualifying itself has not started, but some meaningful matches have started in qualification for continental tournaments, and some interesting results have occurred. Results in meaningful matches significantly affect FIFA rankings. FIFA rankings affect not only seeds at the World Cup itself, but also seeding for World Cup qualifying, which can easily determine which teams qualify and which teams don't. Here are some surprising results from these meaningful matches. In UEFA Euro 2016 qualifying, Greece somehow contrived to lose 0-1 at home to Romania, and Portugal suffered an embarrassing 0-1 home defeat to Albania. In 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying, Ghana was held to a 1-1 draw with visiting Uganda, Egypt couldn't score in a 2-0 away loss to Senegal, and Nigeria shockingly lost 2-3 at home to Congo (Brazzaville).
During England's 2-0 win over Switzerland in Euro 2016 qualifying, travelling English supporters gave their amusing view of the Scotland independence referendum in 10 days
The Qatar keeper pulling an Ochoa against Peru today. Looking forward to the Czechs vs. Dutch later today.
so is this basically an overall "other teams thread" as WC 2018 is quite some time away?.... I'm quite enjoying watching the Euro qualifying openers with so many possible qualifying scenarions given the tournament's expansion... atm, Wales being held by Andorra, while Bosnia drawing with Cyprus...
If anyone wants to see what a terrible NT looks like, watch the Norwegians. WTH happened to them? They were decent, now they're probably Guatemala level.
Looks as if the USA did a good job preparing the Czech Republic for games that matter, as they were 2-1 victors at home over the Netherlands. In other surprising news, Iceland won 3-0 at home over Turkey, and Cyprus won 2-1 in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Chile barely beating Haiti 1-0. Haiti found the formula to calm down the speedy Chileans: foul them hard enough to get 'em scared.
BTW, Croatia looked pedestrian against humble Malta today. They only managed to score after the Knights got reduced to 10. And that in Zagreb.
I thing Manzukic is my new least favorite player after his antics got a Malteser sent off... Hilarious scenes in Andorra as Wales fans invade the pitch to celebrate getting "Baled" out by a late ditch goal from you know who..... oh well, now matter how badly things are going for the USMNT fans, at least everyday when we wake up we can thank the lord we're not Welsh... what about Iceland though, great win vs. Turkey.... that group has really been turned on its head with Iceland thrashing the Turks, and Holland getting Czech-mated by the erm, Czechs
India, jealous of the Chinese brand new success in Asian competition, have decided to revamp their soccer league (which was mainly a regional thing), and is launching the Indian Super League. For it, they're bringing some famous old players to help with the PR campaign: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/19/soccer-india-del-piero-idINKBN0HE1K420140919 The Big Eight for this India-wide superleague will be: Delhi Dynamos Atletico de Kolkata NorthEast United Kerala Blasters Mumbay City Chenaiyin FC FC Goa Pune City "Marquee" players (each team is supposed to have one): Elano, Pires, Del Piero, Ljungberg, James, Garcia, Capdevila and Trezeguet. Past big-ish names, now in their mid-30s. But at least it's a start. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Super_League
some interesting coach names in India too... Marco Materazzi, Peter Reid, Riki Herbert, Zico, etc.... no Indian coaches though....
FYP Guangzhou Evergrande FWIW is the shining beacon of hope in a steaming pile of crap that's the Chinese Super League Hopefully the founders of the Indian Super League can not only duplicate their success, but with more than one team as well
It's going to be a long road, looking at the list of has-beens over there. Except Elano, all the others were virtually retiring before they got called for this.
That's being generous. The average age of those guys is 38. Talk about retirement league, the ISL is going to be where retired players go to retire AFTER going to MLS.