How so? With the exception of the last games of the group stage possibly (if you get one of those 6-6-0-0 groups) or the last games of the Hex (which is no different than now) pretty much every game should be meaningful.
I love that meme. Especially when it's... Nobody: Absolutely nobody: There's also... Current system: exists CONCACAF: Let's change it because why not CONCACAF: Where's that glue I was sniffin
Honestly it'll probably be in Miami or LA. Azteca would be fun, but there's too much money to be made.
I'm hoping I get the chance to see Costa Rica v Honduras at Soldier Field with 9,000 of my closest friends.
Does it really matter? If you throw out the initial WC in 1930 when the US got to the semis, CONCACAF teams have only got as far as the QF on 5 occasions in the history of the tournament: Cuba (1938), Mexico (1970/1986 when they were hosts), USA (2002) and Costa Rica (2014).
Which, BTW, is as good as the AFC, CAF, and OFC combined. North Korea '66, Cameroon '90, Senegal '02, South Korea '02, and Ghana '10 are the total quarter-final appearances for those three confederations (unless I missed one).
That's true in the sense of teams who don't have a realistic chance at qualifying, but less so in terms of teams being eliminated before their last game. If you declare many teams not having a realistic chance at qualifying, there are many meaningless games in every confederation. A 6-6-0-0 distribution with one game left can happen in a single round-robin group, not a double round-robin group.
With the exception of CONMEBOL, the WC qualification process is so tedious and convoluted, not to mention the countless dead rubbers. Just get rid of qualifying all together and reduce the number of international dates for the regional tournaments (so you get more meaningful games). I think the WC should be a 128 single elimination tournament with seeded teams. You will still have to play 7 games to win the thing and nobody will care that teams 129 and up are not invited.
Don't count your Catracho chickens before they hatch. Lets see what their Gold Cup result did to their FIFA rankings.
This may be a better shot at making the Hex then the previous system. They are in striking distance of #6 spot.
This is not a defense of the new system. I prefer the old one. As stated before, FIFA's ranking have been used for two previous cycles in seeding teams into Concacaf qualifying tournament. In 2014 cycle the six highest FIFA ranked teams wound up in the hex. In 2010 cycle 5 of the six highest FIFA ranked teams wound up in the hex. Still -- previous system was better.
My point was that those teams would probably have an easier time scheduling friendlies which can help their rankings than say El Salvador or Guatemala or Haiti.
The only opportunity for FIFA-date friendlies are two dates during the Nations League (if they're in a 3-team group) and the March window (if they don't make the Nations League playoffs). They can also do out-of-window friendlies, but those are weighted for half the value of friendlies on FIFA dates. Even friendlies on FIFA dates are weighted low enough that at best you can gain a single-digit total of points in the ranking formula.
Using FIFA rankings to seed teams yet still making them play there way into the final round is a very different thing than using them to put 6 teams into the final round of qualifying for 3 of 3.5 spots. I honestly don't know how putting all other teams in a tournament to see who plays hex #4 for the intercontinental playoff fulfills FIFA open to everyone requirement.
Wasn't it Wales or some other UEFA team a few years ago that scheduled a bunch of friendlies designed to boost their FIFA ranking, and it totally worked? Got them into the top 10 or something like that. The likes of Canada and Jamaica and Honduras and Panama and all those other #4-12 teams totally need to hire some mathematicians immediately to figure out how to optimize their schedule to improve their rankings.
Ahh. I see. Elsewhere I asked whether this system would encourage that sort of gaming and authoritative voices assured me it would be very hard to have much of an impact on your standings with friendlies.