FIFA International Match Calendar: Proposed Changes & General Discussion

I am not sure about Uruguay. While pedigree is important,and helps teams and players exhibit the kind of confidence that affects split second decisions and overall performance, football isn't merely about names and past form. Uruguay, at least in the form they had shown in qualifying games, would be liable to even get thrashed by some of the sides you mention. The current Uruguay team has too many players who are both past their prime and unable to do the kind of running and pressing that is important to the success of a team as a whole. Colombia, on the other hand, would merit being among the teams you mention.

 

Sorry I completely disagree

League A currently has the following teams

Austria, Czech Rep., Hungary, Poland, Wales

The likes of Colombia, Uruguay are better than ALL of those teams. Not even close IMO. Ecuador, Chile, Peru could be better as well.

Heck there are teams in Africa, Concacaf, and Asia that are better than those teams and could compete at the top level.

 

I had previously ranked the top 50 teams in the world as follows. While I would make a few adjustments to those rankings, in general this is how I would rate the top 50 including the teams being discussed.

The Best (A)
1- France
2- Brazil
Next Best (A-/A)
3- Italy
4- England
5- Germany
6- Spain
6- Argentina
8- Belgium
Almost with the Best (B+/A-)
9- Switzerland
10- Denmark
11- Portugal
12- Holland
Not Quite among the Best (B+)
13- Croatia
14- Morocco
15- Sweden
16- Colombia
17- USA
18- Serbia
Very Good (B/B+)
17- Mexico
17- Algeria
19- Senegal
20- Iran
20- South Korea
22- Ukraine
23- Ecuador
23- Czech Republic
25- Nigeria
26- Peru
26- Wales
28- Uruguay
29- Japan
30- Poland
31- Canada
32- Saudi Arabia
Good (B)
33- Australia
33- Chile
35- Turkey
35- Austria
35- Scotland
38- Tunisia
39- Russia
40- Egypt
Almost Good (B-/B)
41- Ivory Coast
42- Bolivia
43- Ghana
44- Greece
45- Hungry
46- Norway
47- Romania
48- Venezuela
49- Cameroon
50- South Africa

 

Fair enough if you believe that.

I personally don't look much at names or at the pedigree of a nation.
I look at what do they offer on the pitch.
Gosh did I see some terrible finishing by Colombia against Paraguay in their last qualifier.
Uruguay has been piss-poor.
They got manhandled by Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia in La Paz.
They hope to turn it around with a managerial change. Let's see if it works.
I'm critical of CONMEBOL. But I have my reasons for that.

Some people on this board I feel are blinded by names and past merits of teams like Uruguay, Chile and Colombia.

 

I can name 2 minnows right off the top of my head. They play each other next January 28th.

If football success was associated with national population, then please somebody remind China and India to pick up their WC trophies.

 

Yes. Uruguay has the same population as Connecticut.

 

Rightly so. A lot of ageing squads in that continent at this time.

They have done badly in replacing their veteran players with quality players. Very short time to turn it around for November 2022.

 

"Too many players", like 3: Godin, Suarez and Cavani. And the latter two are rarely being played together lately.

It's not about "pedigree" either, they literally have better players overall than any of those european teams I mentioned.

Yes, if they play like in the last 3 matches they will get thrashed by many but they won't play forever that poorly. And these teams are not exactly Brazil or Argentina, nor they have bolivian altitude.

 

Chile is not in the same boat. Uruguay and Colombia have a lot more depth and youth in their squads. I have not much of a hope of Chile being able to compete evenly with league A teams in 2 years time.

The criticism is legitimate but you guys are exaggerating a bit. Now because Uruguay and Colombia had a few bad (in the case of Uruguay awful) matches, they now can't even compete with teams that have objectively inferior individual quality wtf

 

You named 53 teams.
From USA to Senegal you made some mistakes with the ranks.

 

You are right, I just copy/pasted from a previous post of mine and didn't remember correcting it partly because the numerical rankings to me are less important than the grades and categories.

 

I believe no side can effectively compete against good teams over any length of time even with 'just' 3 (2-3) over-the-hill players. If its just one such player, and his name is Messi or Ronaldo, maybe. More than that, and it will start showing. For instance, take Ronaldo at Manchester United? Despite scoring plenty of goals since his return, there are those who feel he hurts the team overall because of his age and inability to fully help the team otherwise. Regardless of where you sit on that issue, he is just one player -- and he still scores a lot of goals. 2-3 over-the-hill players, and I don't think a side can remain competitive.

 

They have Darwin Nuñez (I'm sure you know him) but he's extremely unlucky with injuries when international windows come. They also can play a CB duo of Araujo and Gimenez but Tabarez was too nostalgic about Godin to bench him.

You can perfectly have one "passenger" player and still do well. Argentina has Messi doing nothing without the ball but the other 9 guys run like crazy in his place.

 

Messi is my favorite player (despite his goal against Iran) since my all-time favorite, Diego Maradona. But even Messi, while helping Argentina in ways that only Messi can, still hurts Argentina in other ways because of what you mention. That then goes into why I like the top seed in Iran's group to be Argentina. But I could be wrong about Argentina, because Messi is Messi. Uruguay, on the other hand, can't afford what are increasingly extra baggage, on the team more for name, fame and nostalgia than the balance between what they add and subtract. IMO, against European teams, even more than South American ones, this kind of extra baggage will be severely punished. They won't need the altitude in La Paz to do so either. Just 10 players who will run and press more than 7-9 players can handle, picking all the holes left to exploit.

 

It is to be seen what their new coach will setup. I reckon Cavani when fit still has some legs in him unlike Suarez.
But I think Uruguay had bigger problems in creativity rather than at pressing lately. In fact, in the second match against Argentina the uruguayan pressing was ridiculously good. You can watch the highlights and see that they stole the ball from the opponent's defenders numerous times.

But regardless of that, I must add that talking about european teams globally as if all of them played high-line aggressive pressing and have talented enough players to punish opponents is... questionable. Poland or Hungary play completely different football from Germany. The view that the other user was trying to argue was they can't even compete with the 16 teams that are currently in League A, not that they just can't beat the powerhouses.

 

I am certainly not going to make definitive statement, or draw iron-clad conclusions, about teams which I haven't been following regularly. My point was limited to the basic proposition that until Uruguay does show better on the pitch, and gets better results than they have, it isn't unreasonable to rate them below teams in League A in UEFA. And, along with that, my general and tentative hypothesis regarding trends in football and what those trends portend both as it relates to the role of #10 players and, more broadly, carrying too many 'passengers' along with too much luggage on your team.

 

In the meantime, and in the absence of what I have always wanted (namely, more intercontinental matches), I like to see others to chime in with their own rankings/grades for say the top 50 teams in the world right now.

 

Ok...top 50 it is.

(Teams under each rank/tier are just in alphabetical order, no internal rank)

Disclaimer: it's particularly difficult to rate the top african teams since they haven't played each other in serious games since 2019 and also haven't played anyone outside the continent in a long time.

Rank S (WC title favorites)
France

Rank A (WC title contenders)
Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain

Rank A- (outside WC contenders)
Belgium, Netherlands

Rank B (Not contenders yet world class)
Colombia, Croatia, Denmark, Serbia, Switzerland, Uruguay

Rank B- (border world class )
Algeria, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Sweden, USA

Rank C (world cup competitive)
Austria, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, Czechia, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Ivory Coast, Japan, Peru, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Turkey, Ukraine, Wales

Rank C- (ocasionally competitive)
Australia, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Mali, Norway, Paraguay, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Tunisia

 

I find it very tough to come up with a top 50 list and give every nation a grade.

The World Cup draw is on 1 April.
So we'll know the identity of 30 teams by end of March leaving only two sides to determine through the intercontinental playoffs.
I'll rank before the draw takes place the 32/34 nations with grades.
I'll also come up with early predictions for the entire tournament say on 3 April.

I have already an idea who will do well and who not so much. The draw will hopefully sharpen the picture.

 

Interesting. I would definitely put S. Korea on the list somewhere (rank C). Uruguay, on the other hand, doesn't deserve rank B right now. Maybe, if Darwin Nunez is healthy and lives up to your expectations, if Cavani can still contribute as a super-sub, Godin and Suarez gracefully retire, and the younger players also show better than they did against Bolivia, and Uruguay rebound and qualify, then maybe. But that's too many ifs.

 

its hard, won't be IMHO any more accurate than FIFA/ELO, but do give it a try...I like to see your ratings

 

Uruguay and Colombia regularly turn up at world cups.

Please tell me what Wales, Poland, Austria, Hungary have done.

I agree with you that most conembol teams other than the top 2 are on downward trajectories, but I still think they are better than those teams I mentioned above, who are also stagnant at best if not on downward trajectories themselves.

 

Top 50 is too much for me.
Especially CAF and UEFA are hard to assess right now. We'll have AFCON in January/February and then in March the playoffs. Same for UEFA.

I want to wait some months and see these teams in action in high stakes games.

By the end of March I'll have watched almost every team that is in the World Cup or can still get there.
Then I'll feel confident about making a list.

 

So I recapitulate and give also for comparison how FIFA and ELO have it right now.

-----------------------------------FIFA------------------ELO

24x UEFA--------------------26x--------------------28x
10x CAF----------------------7x----------------------4x
8x CONMEBOL------------8x---------------------10x
5x AFC-------------------------5x----------------------5x
3x CONCACAF-------------4x----------------------3x
0x OFC-------------------------0x----------------------0x

 

it’s C O N M E B O L not conembol

I’m sorry but it’s been affecting my blood pressure for a while now, somebody had to say it…