The star studded draw is tomorrow at 12 on Big Fox. Get ready to sing YMCA and hope USA dont get drawn against European Playoff 1 and Intercontinental Playoff 2. This is the general thread to talk all things WC. Team specific comments should probably go into the Fire Poch thread.
Begged and pleaded to get out of the office from 12-2 tomorrow. With 4 pots of 12, and 1of 3 hosts, we won’t be drawn against any of the 9 top nations in the world. Or Mexico. (See what I did there?)
My understaning is IC playoffs cannot be drawn into a CONCACAF Group. They count as all 3 confeds in the path. The DR Congo + Jamaica/New Caledonia cannot be in a group with another CAF or CONCACAF team. Or Oceania, but NZ is also Pot 4, so it is impossible regardless. Iraq + Curacao/Bolivia cannot be drawn with another AFC, CONCACAF, or CONMEBOL team. And Curacao & Haiti are also Pot 4, we cannot get them, either. We have 8 possible. The 4 Euro PO spots, Jordan, Ghana, Cape Verde, or NZ. I believe they draw in order,,so we go 4th as Group D. Mexico & Canada will go before us. Group C could either suck up a Euro spot, or one of the other 4, or have 2 UEFA spots already.
Ok I and L seem to be groups of death. All games for US to been good ones but do-able potentially at least on paper. Could have been a LOT worse
Group J might be the "we have too many teams" group. I'm now listening to Alexi talk about Group L being the Group of Death. He's probably right.
Taylor Twellman brought up a good point on PTI: Argentina is in the easiest group. Leonel Messi says he's 50/50 on if he'll play. With that said, it'd be easy for Argentina to call him up, rest him (aka play him minimally) for the group stage, then bring him out for the later rounds. I'd hate to be a Messi fanboi with a ticket for a group stage game to see Argentina play.
Of course. Now is he going to play every minute of every game? I'm getting shades of David Beckham here. Some Crew fans complained frequently when he didn't show up to Columbus. They thought he was required/obligated to. Just because any particular player is on any specific roster doesn't mean that player is required to appear during the game.
Haha. Ask the Cavs about that. Just fined $250k by the NBA for sitting Darius Garland on a national TV game. Of course, Garland has been hurt with an injured toe, and has missed a number of games. Fine was totally ridiculous.
1) david beckham is 1% of the player Messi is and 2) messi plays every minute of every game now, is that changing in 6 months in his final world cup? I don't think so.
There's a bit of a difference playing every minute of every game with the Pink Phony Club, sauntering around the field and being at the right place at the right time (like when defenders or keepers essentially pass it directly to him), and playing in the largest sporting event in the world with players nearly half his age who have much more speed and pace. I know you know the international game is faster. He'll undoubtedly play, but will he play 90 minutes every match? Absolutely not. If Argentina has 1st place in their group sealed up after two matches, will he sit the third match? You betcha. Then there's always the injury bug that likes to bite older players...
The international game is actually slower. International teams don't have the tactics and chemistry that domestic teams do, and very few international teams press due to said lack of cohesion and time to fine tune the tactics. There's a lot more bunkering and counterattacking, especially when a top team plays a relative minnow. Also, I'll just ask how many times he was subbed out this year, and if you really think that will change when he plays for the team he really cares about, defending his title, in his final world cup? Does he have his legs like he used to? Of course not, but if you surround him with runners he doesn't need them. I'm not saying they should play him every minute btw, just that there is 20 years of evidence (including from the most recent world cup and this year in MLS) saying he'll play every minute.