I truly thought we had this thread already, but I couldn't find it. Please delete/merge this if needed! Qualifying is ongoing, though largely done. What we have so far: France is in as host (1 total) USA and the DR are in from CONCACAF (3) Spain, Israel and Ukraine are in from EUFA (6) Morocco, Egypt and Mali are in from CAF (9) NZ is in from OFC (10) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_at_the_2024_Summer_Olympics_–_Men's_qualification CONMEBOL is happening now. Two more teams will get in from Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and host Venezuela. Who knows, but it might get interesting, based on the first set of results. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CONMEBOL_Pre-Olympic_Tournament AFC starts in April. Three teams will get in. Qatar is host. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_AFC_U-23_Asian_Cup Then the last team will come from an AFC/CAF playoff. We have a few threads going for U.S. team chatter. I guess they are theoretically meant to do different things -- maybe this is for ongoing pool discussion: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/the-2024-u-23-player-pool-thread.2121748/ And this is for roster predictions and arguing: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/summer-olympic-roster-discussion.2128131/ Or something!
Tournament regulations: https://digitalhub.fifa.com/m/754585c92a6f25a8/original/OFT2024-Regulations_EN.pdf I haven't seen dates for the timing of these things, but there is a requirement for provisional lists of at least 35 players, with 4 GKs. The document doesn't mention a maximum. FIFA says they won't publish them, but of course federations could still release theirs. Final rosters are 18 players, at least 2 GKs. The provisional lists are seemingly binding for the purpose of the final rosters.
By the way, I see at least three Americans on CONMEBOL rosters based on a quick skim of Wiki: Draper (Ecuador), Rios (Argentina) and Reyes (Chile). I probably missed some. And there are quite a few U.S.-based guys, too. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CONMEBOL_Pre-Olympic_Tournament_squads
Like Alvarez and Castilla with Colombia. But these were for the pre-tournament, to be clear. I'm not sure offhand about squads for the final four.
Final round of qualifying for Conmebol halfway done. Currently Argentina picked itself up off the floor with a late goal to grab an equalizer in the 84th, only to give up the winner in the 91st, except it wasn't because Argentina grabbed another equalizer in the 97th!!! After half the games have been played the standings (w/the top 2 qualifying for the Olympics): 1. Paraguay: 4 Points +1 GD 2. Argentina: 2 Points +0 GD 3. Venezuela: 1 Point + 0 GD (with a game in hand on the 1st/2nd place teams) 4. Brazil: 0 Points -1 GD (with a game in hand on the 1st and 2nd place teams) Final Matches: Matchday 2: Brazil @ Venezuela in an hour. Matchday 3 on Sunday Paraguay @ Venezuela Argentina vs Brazil Pretty crazy, Paraguay was qualified for the Olympics a few minutes ago, barring a 97th minute equalizer, except, they gave up a 97th minute goal, and now qualification is wide open yet again.
Brazil defeated Venezuela 1-2, so we have ... 4 (+1) Paraguay 3 (0) Brazil 2 (0) Argentina 1 (-1) Venezuela Next/last up: Venezuela v Paraguay - Venezuela must win, Paraguay will advance with just a draw. Head-to-head results count first, so Venezuela will advance (v Paraguay) with a win. Argentina v Brazil - Argentina must win, Brazil will advance with just a draw. Argentina and Brazil cannot both advance, which is good news for us. One of them will advance. Unless ... Paraguay, Brazil, and Venezuela all end up on 4 points, necessitating further tie-breaks.
Brazil knocked out by Argentina. Paraguay currently laying the finishing move on tournament host Venezuela.
Yep, this ended with Paraguay and Argentina qualifying. Congrats to Paraguay, who were unbeaten with a +3 GD and tied for both most GF and least GA. They beat Brazil and tied Argentina. They were also strong in the preliminary stage. Not a bad run. I won't claim to know much about their squad but it appears to have been largely domestic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_CONMEBOL_Pre-Olympic_Tournament_squads#Paraguay
Asia's tournament is next up. Three teams get in with a fourth going to a play-off, so it's one of those rare instances where the third-place game has meaning. I skimmed the groups and it seems to an inexpert eye like the teams you'd expect to perform are set up pretty well to reach the knockout stage, but perhaps someone more knowledgeable about the region could let us know where the upsets might come from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_AFC_U-23_Asian_Cup#Group_stage
Looking at the Pot System, it will be interesting, at least to me, in how this plays out because historically, it looks a little fatter than usual in newbies, and rare-be's. Team's that haven't played in tournament in the past 20 years or longer, or ever: Israel Ukraine Dominican Republic Mali (actually they played in '04) Paraguay That's 5 of the current 12 qualifiers, and you have the US who have missed 4 of the past 5 tournaments. Making it 6 of 12 who've either not been there at all or barely. AFC usually sends 1 or both of Japan and South Korea, and then either Australia or Iraq a bunch of the times, so maybe its predictable, we'll see, and if Guinea qualifies in the playoff with AFC, that will be a 6th team that hasn't been there this century. I'm not sure historically how much turnover there is confederation by confederation but some teams have historically been regulars like Spain, Nigeria, Mexico, Japan, South Korea, Brazil, and Argentina, but generally CAF and UEFA really throw different nations in cycle to cycle, so I'm not sure what to think of this, but it definitely feels superficially like an unusual cup. Mexico failed to qualify, Brazil failed to qualify, traditional CAF powers like Nigeria and Egypt failed to qualify, UEFA is a bit too weird so other than Spain, there seems to be a lot of volatility there (for instance Germany and Italy had runs for a while, but Italy's been MIA for a while). So to my eye anyway, this thing looks kinda open, UEFA sent some weird teams: Israel, and Ukraine? Brazil got booted by Paraguay. That's basically 2 or 3 traditional European powers that are out. Otoh, traditional powers in France, Spain and Argentina are back but even Argentina, at least at the U20 level has been sketchy lately, and its Paraguay, and not Argentina that won the Conmebol tournament for the tickets. In CAF, Nigeria did not make it, neither did Ghana, Cameroon, or Ivory Coast. So how scared should we be of Egypt, Mali and Morocco? Not sure. I'm just fascinated with it. I've got no idea how it will play out other than France, and Spain probably making the semi's unless they play each other earlier in the knockouts.
Draw incoming! The draw for the Olympic Football Tournaments Paris 2024 will take place on 20 March at 20:00 local time.➡️ https://t.co/LiD4XCReSmInformation for media accreditation to the draw can be found on the FIFA Media Hub: ➡️https://t.co/rx0KPax13T pic.twitter.com/VDmnkKsAPY— FIFA Media (@fifamedia) February 23, 2024
Sigh. I suppose this thread title should more accurately say "Paris" stedda "France." @TheFalseNine, @bungadiri or @dark knight, you mind making that tweak?
Belatedly realizing: I guess the draw will happen before Asian qualifiers or the playoff take place? It looks that way.
I wonder how much weight that gets. The fact that they're going to do the draw before the Asian Confederation even starts their qualification is utterly baffling to me. The AFC is loaded to the gills with teams that could be Pot 1 or Pot 2 sides. Japan: 5/5 qualifications: '04 Group Stage, '08 Group Stage, '12 Semifinalist, '16 Group Stage, '21 Semifinalist South Korea: 5/5 Qualifications: '04 Quarterfinals, '08 Group stage, '12 Semifinalist, '16 Quarterfinalist, '21 Quarterfinalist Misc: Iraq: '16 Group Stage, '04 Semifinalist Australia: '21 Group Stage, '08 Group Stage Saudi Arabia: '21 Group Stage UAE: '12 Group Stage Look at that, and Japan and South Korea appear to 100% be Pot 1 sides, especially South Korea. So how are they deciding Pot 1 sides for these purposes? It's quite odd to me. Regardless I think we're probably a Pot 3 side, w/a chance at being as low as Pot 4.
That would seem to apply to Asian people as well. We qualified ages ago, and I thought CONMEBOL cut it close by waiting until January. Why is Asian qualifying happening so late in the day?
You'd have to ask the Asian confederation. I really don't know anything about them at all -- but I agree, it doesn't seem hard to have a U20 tournament a little bit earlier. It's worth noting that CONCACAF just punted all together this time around and doubled up the qualification from the U20s, so I'm not sure they had any more shit together except being realistic.
I tend to think that basically covid was still pretty crazy, and we had the WC in winter '22, NL and Gold Cup summer of '23 and the U20 WC in May/June of '23, so it kind of made sense. When would they squeeze it in? U17 WC in October '23 etc. Basically it would have had to be fall '23, or the same time we're doing NL in '24. So it kinda seems to have been a nice example of foresight for once.
Well that's a wrap with the draw, and it's a mixed bag, I'm a bad news first guy, so here's the bad news: The Bad News: 1. We drew the toughest assignment possible out of Pot 1 sides, and the likely worst case scenario if we advance to the knockouts. We drew France for our Pot 1 opponent..... 2. and if we advance, we're paired with a group where we'd likely play Argentina in our knockout match unless we manage to win our group. Yikes. The Good news: We drew the weakest Pot 2 side possible, New Zealand, and probably the weakest pot 4 side possible, the winner of the AFC-CAF playoff, Guinea vs, somebody from the AFC who finishes 4th. So to me anyway, fun little group stage, and we are going to play, more than likely, the two toughest teams, or two of the three toughest in the tournament if we make the knockouts. Not bad, but I was hoping for a more reasonable path to the knockouts, group C and D had weaker Pot 1 sides, and better scenario's for a QF matchup. But hey, we get to play France (again), New Zealand, Guinea or some team from the AFC, and probably Argentina. Not bad.
It's actually the fault of the regional federations who handle their own qualifying, not FIFA or the IOC. I never give FIFA a pass, but they need to get the draw done. The teams who have qualified need to know their own path, venues, etc. Teams need to get logistics, hotels, security, training facilities set. The IOC needs to know where most of the team are going to be. This humble reporter needs to get a room in Marseille. If the Asian federation is going to be slow, that's their problem.
Apparently France is discussing take Mbappe, Giroud, and Griezmann as their overage players. https://theathletic.com/5358519/202...nce-thierry-henry/?source=user_shared_article