Group E's General Discussion Thread

Yes, but even then they would still advance.

 

Game's momentum was picking up, so the "hydration break" comes at terrible time.

 

Some relevant Curacao results or maybe, somewhat relevant Curacao results to illustrate how they can be a minnow "that could" as well......

2019 Gold Cup:
This was the first time I became aware of Curacao and it was for a distinct reason, they outplayed my US, as it was transitioning from the Couva Abomination squad of 2017, into the Pulisic/McKennie/Adams generation side, the reason they stick out is that we played them in the quarterfinals and they outplayed us, or, perhaps a better way to express it, is that a fair result would have been going into extra time/penalties, instead an early first half goal held up against the run of play and we knocked them out in the Quarterfinals. During that tournament they beat Honduras 1-0, tied Jamaica, lost to El Savaldor, and were unlucky to lose to us 1-0.

2022 WC Qualifying:
They knocked Guatemala out in the first round of qualifying group stage, and then were beaten in a home and home win or go home playoff with Panama, 1-0 away at Panama, and 0-0 draw at home. Again, no mean feat. This isn't to argue that Guatemala is good, they aren't, but they are historically a top 10 side in our cruddy region who typically finish between 5th and 8th at worst. They knocked them out, and then gave Panama, a side that has risen to pretty consistently top 4-5 in our region level, a serious run.

2025 off year Gold Cup:
They tied El Salvador (a 2022 WCQ Campaign final stage squad), tied Canada, and then lost to Honduras on an injury time goal to knock them out of the tournament 1-2.

2026 WC Qualifying:
They qualified basically because they held Jamaica off on the road and beat Jamaica at home, pushing them to the playoff which Jamaica would lose in extra time to DR Congo. The particular results: 2-0 win over Jamaica at home, and 3 draws with T&T and Jamaica otherwise. Enough to win the group by 1.

I'm not trying to persuade anyone they're good. They're not. But they have generated results against sides that are decent for our pretty meh region: good performances against Honduras, Jamaica, the US, Canada, El Salvador and T&T the past half decade plus isn't too bad, but yeah, they absolutely belong in the tray with the weakest of the minnows in this tournament: Qatar, South Africa, Haiti, New Zealand, probably Jordan (I'm not sure how good Jordan is), probably Saudi Arabia too, but they have shown the capacity to throw together a performance from time to time, and have climbed in our crappy region to somewhere between probably 8th-12th best generally, not good, but not completely hopeless either, especially since they started recruiting Dutch Dual Nats with Curacao roots.

So, yeah, its pretty nuts, otoh, once you remember that Ecuador for half a decade now have an elite defense, and probably the worst attack in the world for a team of that scale of defensive quality (probably top 3-5 defense world wide). People talk a lot about the other worldly 5 total goals they allowed in 18 WCQ's in South America, even more impressive, they pitched shut outs in 13 of 18 games, so why only 8 wins in 18 games w/that kind of record? Simple, they can't score. They finished tied in 8th place amongst the 10 South American sides in goals scored in qualified. Their offense is in a word, total ---. It was unusual that they looked so good for a half against Ivory Coast, even though they were held scoreless.

For me the big joy and takeaway in this is that the 48 team nature of the tournament keeps giving us moments. In Round 1 we had the heroics of Cape Verde, DR Congo, and Qatar, with heroic efforts in defeat for Haiti, and to a lesser extent Uzbekistan and Iraq, in round 2 now we've seen South Africa bounce back, Paraguay w/their heroics, and Curacao tonight.....

I find it bizarre how much some hate the idea of 48, a WC that is finally representative of the world and has given the continents and regions of the Caribbean, Near East Asia, Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa much to smile upon w/these greater opportunities, and for me anyway, that's what the WC should be about. It shouldn't simply be the Euro's, the South Americans, and some other squads making up the numbers, we have the Copa America, and the Euro Championships in between each WC for that.

 

Yeah I was well aware of Curacao back in 2019. I was more in disbelief with all the point blank saves. Just incredible.

And yeah totally agree. The 48 team WC has brought us all these moments for teams who would never see a WC.

And no they arent out of their depth. Germany beat Brazil 7-1 too. I dont expect to see 3 horrible matches from any team.

 

Very few smaller teams played smart this world cup. Ivory coast bruh you need 1 point you have it you are playing Germany why are you attacking in injury time put 10 behind the ball and get the point. These gen z's have no discipline. It is like middle school everybody wants to go up to score. It is good for the observer in that it creates more goals but at the same time it is an unprofessional style of football.

 

They didnt need a draw against Germany, they needed a win. They've pretty much got a lock on 2nd, they needed to win to get 1st.

 

Absolute masterclass! Eloy Room genuinely turned into a brick wall out there

 

Good for you, lol, I knew ---- all about Curacao before they scared the hell out of us in that Gold Cup.

We are definitely on the same page about that, and I have zero qualms or concerns about it. This is much closer to a real WC, even if its still too heavily weighted towards UEFA, and Conmebol, at least the rest of the world gets plenty of allocations to give more countries with big dreams and no the greatest means, to make it and show their people what they can do.

It's already been even better than I expected both for the minnows, as well as sides wrongly considered minnows (like DR Congo, and maybe to a lesser extent, Cape Verde).

 

I also remember Curacao beating Qatar in Doha in the run up to the World Cup.. actually mau have been 2017 but Qatar was still preparing for the World Cup.

 

People claiming Ecuador as dark horses were probably just looking at the roster and saying man they have a good guy at Chelsea and Arsenal, etc. They finished second in qualifying so they must be good.

Just does not work that way. When you are relying on Enner Valencia to be your main goal scoring threat you are pretty much screwed.

 

I told people qualifying and tournaments are 2 entirely different beasts.

Managing home and away matches, where home cooking plays a major factor is totally different than having to go get wins on neutral territory.

Some countries manage qualifying better than tournaments. Others the opposite. Unfortunately my Nigeria team is a tournament team that always struggles in qualifying series.

I never thought Ecuador was a serious dark horse. I had quite a few teams ahead of them in that regard, including the CIV who I picked to finish ahead of them. I wasn't impressed watching them play Canada in a friendly where they played against 10 men for virtually the entire match and Canada had the best scoring chances. The best ive seen them was against Morocco. They looked good there, and they showed glimpses of that against CIV, but ultimately their attacking talent doesn't match their defensive side.

I mean sure they could have pulled a Costa Rica 2014 and made a deep run, but I think it was more unlikely than happening.

 

Yeah, I heard this crazy stat:
Counting this WC and its qualifiers, 15 of Ecuador's last 17 matches ended 0-0 or 1-0.

 

Felix Nmecha's pass for Deniz Undav's winner for Germany yesterday will be very difficult for anyone to beat at this WC: what an assist!

 

Diaz had a nice one for Colombia’s first goal.

 

I think if Ecuador could have made it to the KO stage, they'd be difficult to beat. But we'll probably never find out.

 

They still might. They could beat Germany because Germany have already won the group and might rest a lot of players. Similar to Tunisia beating France last World Cup.