The 3 matchdays is so they can fit in the euro playoffs. The teams that dont have euro playoffs can either play a friendly or just play the 2 matches.
Then, that should be it: UEFA members are free to use expanded dates, if needed. I see several UEFA members have scheduled 3 international matches for October. Some have 3 competition matches going during October (3 matches within 6 days). Yikes.
https://www.the-afc.com/competition...on-upcoming-fifa-world-cup-qualifiers-in-asia "originally scheduled to take place during the international match windows in October and November 2020, will be rescheduled to 2021" In this situation I see the best option: the third round will be 3x4, not 2x6 (groups x teams). This way they will be able to complete their qualification even if there are still some rescheduling and resume their matches in June 2021 or even September 2021. However, then they will have to use the window in January 2022.
They also need to save some time for playoffs. I would hope so at least given that 3 groups and 4.5 qualifying spots really begs for playoffs after the final group stage round. I think this will make it a bit more challenging for Australia to qualify. In the old format they would have been the #2 seed in their group where the top 2 qualify directly. But now they will be the #2 seed in a group where only the first-place team qualifies directly.
Which leads to a corollary question: with 2021 now chock-full of important AFC matches, might Australia get cold feet about the Copa América (or perhaps send a B-team)?
wow big news today on the CONCACAF WC qualifying draw. I'm a bit surprised they're going to do the draw for the Octagon too obviously with placeholders for the last 3 teams that make it thru the knockouts. https://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/...p-qualification-pathway-towards-fifa-world-cu
so by Wednesday next week, us USMNT supporters will know what FIFA window the two Mexico matches (as well as CRC, JAM, HON) will take place in, and also the potential winners from the knockouts.
The first thing I'll look for is the pairings for that 6-team, two-legged knockout round. I don't see too many intriguing groups materializing from this draw but those 3 pairings will have a fairly big impact on the composition of the Octagonal.
it seems to me that the Pot-1 teams are all well ahead of the Pot-2 and below teams. Plus, the Pot-1 teams are guaranteed to be home when they face the Pot-2 team in their group. There's probably going to be upsets especially when they only play each other once, but I'll be penciling in those Pot-1s into the Octagonal to see the potential matchups. Note that the Pot-1 v Pot-2 matches are on the final matchday of Round 1, so that could make for some exciting matches.
I don't think you can pencil them into the Octagonal, but you can pencil in "Canada/Haiti v US" for example. (That's probably what you meant)
yeah that's exactly what I meant. When I look at Pot-1 I think it's a toss up across the board. For me the gap is between Pot-1 and Pot-2. Those knockouts are going to be intense! So much at stake. Either go home and play meaningless friendlies for the next 2 years or guarantee 14 more qualifying matches. Huge difference.
Just out of curiosity: what do you mean by this? Since the second-round matchups are set...unless you're looking at where Guatemala or Suriname could break through and end up with a blockbuster R2 matchup. e.g. El Salvador would probably much rather deal with Guatemala in the R1 group than watch as Guatemala upset Trinibago and then have to face the chapines home and away.
not to put words in @BocaFan's mouth but to me it means we know the 2nd round is 1A v 1F, 1B v 1E, 1C v 1D, so making the assumption that all Pot 1 teams go thru, then once we know which Pot 1 teams goes into which Group on Wednesday, we can project ahead to likely/possible Round 2 matchups. Of course I realize that upsets are possible but people do this with World Cup groups too where there are always upsets. I think the chances are less here but not saying it's a done deal that all 6 Pot 1s go thru.
That's the thing: we already know. Concacaf informed us that the top teams in the Round 1 groups were pre-seeded based on FIFA Ranking from the start; and to my surprise, FIFA has accepted this. From the draw procedures: So, as follows: A1 - El Salvador B1 - Canada C1 - Curaçao D1 - Panama E1 - Haiti F1 - Trinidad and Tobago For R1, what remains to be drawn are the other members of each group.
ahh, right! My memory is shit as I've already had this discussion! Plus it's right on the graphic they distributed when they announced the new format. So making the big assumption that all Pot 1 teams advance, we have this in the knockouts: El Salvador v Trinidad and Tobago Canada v Haiti Curaçao v Panama EDIT: Fixing my own mistakes...d'oh! - Paul Calixte
because CONCACAF wants to manipulate things to try to get the chosen teams into the Octagonal. It's worse for the Gold Cup where they don't even have a draw, they go into a locked room and come up with the groups. That's why 100% of the time the US won't face Mexico before the Gold Cup final as they rig it that way.
ok so it's by actual ranking as of now, they're just trying to be fair because it's a 2-leg head-to-head knockout after Round 1. Here are the current FIFA rankings which exactly match with the pre-draw Group assignments: 69: El Salvador 73: Canada 80: Curaçao 81: Panama 86: Haiti 105: Trinidad and Tobago so assuming these actually show which team is better (subject to discussion for sure) if u did a straight draw and El Salvador drew Group A and Canada drew Group F they'd have to play each other in Round 2 with only one team having the chance to go thru, even though they could very well be the best 2 teams in this part of the competition. So using seeding, the highest ranked team would play the lowest ranked team in a 1/6, 2/5, 3/4 format . So actually IMO it's about as fair as they could do it when you have this head-to-head 2nd Round. I guess it could be argued that they could do a reseeding based on updated FIFA rankings after Round 1 and then match 1v6, 2v5, 3v4.
If 2020 went ahead as planned we would have sent a squad with a lot of under 23 players in it along with the over aged players playing in Tokyo and some senior players who didn't get a lot of game time in the June qualifiers.
Not sure why 3 groups would be more challenging. We had to go the double playoff route last time so it's simply a case of if we are good enough we qualify, if not we wont. You're also making a big assumption that the rankings stay the same. We have an easier draw to finish this group stage than some others, there are not many points between 4th and second in the rankings, and one of the teams above us can't afford another slip up or they wont even make the top 12.
Oh dear. Only in CONCACAF. So the main part of the draw has already happened (in secret ), all that we learn next week is which months US plays Mexico. A tad dodgy.
Fair enough. Just replace "Australia" in my post with "whoever is ranked 4th at the time of the draw".