These nations could debut at the 2026 World Cup

All I'm saying. It's nothing new for Bolivia to beat ANY TEAM (no matter how good they are) on top of the mountain.

This isn't uncharted territory.

 

Bolivia will need to do a bit more away from home to qualify. They have had a good run but they only have 4 more home games and have two rough ones in Uruguay and Brazil. I expect them to get wins at home against Paraguay and Chile but that will only get them to18 points. They need to find points elsewhere to directly qualify. Away at Argentina, Colombia and Ecuador do not look promising. Need to grab points away at Venezuela and Peru.

Also that away win by Peru wasn't just rare, it was historical. That was there first away win in qualifying ever since CONMEBOL went to the league format in 1998. Prior to that win the most points they've gotten in a cycle away from home is 2.

 

The Paraguay v Venezuela game next tuesday is massive. A loss would leave either team in a very precarious position. A draw would probably satisfy Venezuela.

 

We should know what's going on in CONMEBOL by the November window. If Peru and Chile fall the wayside, it turns into a 3 team group between Bolivia, Paraguay and Venezuela where the group winner qualifies, 2nd goes to the playoff and 3rd is out.

 

Bolivia have a lot more work to do, no doubt. But just looking at it in a very simple way, they will be no worse than 7th-place after 10 matches (5 home, 5 away) despite getting zero points on their travels so far. IOW, they are on track for the playoff spot despite doing nothing away from home to this point and getting 12 points in their first 5 home matches was probably more difficult than getting 9 in their last 4 (when you consider 2 of those matches were against the top 2 C'BOL teams, including one playing a man down).

But, yes, getting something in one of their remaining away matches will give them a nice margin for error in their home games, even if its just 1 point (especially if its in Venezuela)

 

All of Bolivias Wins havnt Been at home. They won away against Chile 2-1, just for the record

 

Surely a much better indicator than North American Copa America stats from 4 months ago. Or should we trust player performance over bent synthetic rugs covering concrete (CA 2024) ?

Whenever a team is empowered to trample their visiting rivals, then you have a found a route towards competitive form.
On Sep 2024, BOL moved its home venue to an even higher location. All La Paz prep+research done by its rivals went out the window.

Another BOL misconception: *always get shockingly good* results at home.

La Paz was never a safe bet for BOL (home points earned; biggest home wins):

1998 WC: 16 of 24 ; 6-1 VEN
2002 WC: 16 of 27 ; 3-1 BRA, 5-0 VEN
2006 WC: 14 of 27 ; 4-0 COL, 3-1 VEN
2010 WC: 14 of 27 ; 4-2 PAR, 6-1 ARG, 3-0 PER
2014 WC: 10 of 24 ; 4-1 URU, 3-1 PAR
2018 WC: 17 (14 after sanction) of 27 ; 4-2 VEN, 2-0 ARG
2022 WC: 13 of 27 ; 4-0 PAR, 3-0 URU
2026 WC: 3 of 9 ; 2-0 PER

BOL home matches have moved to El Alto recently. The sampling size is small so far, yet promising:
2026 WC: 6 of 6 ; 4-0 VEN

 

Indonesia will add another Dutch player and former Orange Squad youth international to their selection pool.
Kevin Diks (28) is busy finalizing his nationality process.

 

Kevin Diks has had a good career at FC Copenhagen. That is for sure a good addition to the Indonesia squad. Im surprised he didnt transfer to a bigger League this summer

 

Just realised that we are quite literally at the halfway point of the Conmebol qualifiers. UEFA qualifying hasn't even been draw yet, but we will be starting the 2nd half of Conmebol's marathon campaign. This of course means all eyes on Venezuela, whom after a great start seem to have gone back to their usual selves unfortunately. Venezuela collected 7 points from their first 4 games which included a draw in Brazil and an impressive 3-0 win over Chile. However, they haven't won since then (that's 5 games now). Al lot of draws and a disasterous 4-0 loss to Bolivia, who could crash Venezuela's place as the minnow qualifier from this group.

Indonesia were seen largely as no-hopers in their group of death debut campaign at this stage (well at least for a very, very long time) but have proven anything but pushovers - drawing all 3 of their games. This includes against Australia but even more impressively away to Saudi and Bahrain. There was some controversy in their last game as Bahrain got an extra 3 minutes to equalize leaving the Indonesians fuming. The next game is away to China and this will be a huge test for them as for once, they will probably be considered favorites to win this game especially after China's disastrous start.

Still the near win against Bahrain shows how far Indonesia have come since the last time these 2 teams met in World Cup qualifiers...

 

Indonesia furious about equalizer in 99th minute, while officially extra time was 6 minutes.
Indonesia draws again in World Cup qualification, debut Hilgers and Reijnders
Indonesia drew 2-2 against Bahrain in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. Two Dutch-born Eredivisie players made their debut: Mees Hilgers and Eliano Reijnders. Bahrain's equalizer came in the 99th minute. There were actually only six minutes of extra time, so the fact that the game went on for so long caused great anger among the Indonesians. Indonesia had eight Dutch-born players in the starting line-up. Maarten Paes was in goal, Jay Idzes, Calvin Verdonk and Hilgers in the back. In midfield, Ivar Jenner and Thom Haye formed a block, while Rafael Struick and Ragnar Oratmangoen were up front.
With Nathan Tjoe A On, Eliano Reijnders and Shayne Pattynama, there were three more players from the Netherlands on the bench.

Debut Hilgers and Reijnders
For Hilgers (FC Twente) and Reijnders (PEC Zwolle) it was the first time at Garuda, as the nickname of the Indonesian national team goes. With Malik Risaldi, there was one Indonesian-born footballer in the starting line-up. This is the result of the policy that the Indonesian Football Association has implemented under chairman Erick Thohir - former owner of Internazionale. Under him, the rules around naturalization of players with roots in Indonesia were relaxed.

 

Crazy stuff, that's its infamous 10-0 defeat, where BHR needed 9+ goals: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain_10–0_Indonesia
FIFA promised to investigate it due to match-fixing allegations.

Even IDN's veteran goalkeeper jumped ship: red card, minute 3... IDN fielded 8 starters vs BHR, with 0 NT matches under their belt.
Prior to that match, IDN banned multiple regular NT players whose clubs joined a break-away league, now its top-flight pro tournament.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonm...n-soccer-side-faces-inquiry-into-10-0-defeat/

A year earlier, FIFA took over IDN fed operations, after a convicted embezzler and his cronies were running it into the ground:
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2011/4/5/fifa-step-into-indonesian-football-crisis

 

Indonesia kind of threw away all that good work tonight. Getting at least 4 points against China in this phase of qualifying seemed like a minimum requirement for them to finish top 4.

 

The people have spoken. The 66+% voters who thought Uzbekistan would qualify are looking very good right now.

 

They still have 2 matches vs Qatar though. That will be the big test. Qatar's next window is really do or die for them. Uzbekistan and UAE. It will decide if they are fighting for direct qualification or if they are heading to the playoff.

 

Good prediction if made before the group draw. After the group draw it was like predicting you'd get wet in the shower.

 

I think most of the votes were made before the draw. I remember it being huge in Uzbekistan's favor back when this thread was first created.

 

??? Qatar are asian champs and Iran a big dog in Asia. Even after the draw it wasn't a given.

 

Good point, but given that Qatar has never qualified for a World Cup or even come close while Uzbekistan has played in playoffs I think it was safe to say they were favored over Qatar.

 

No they weren't? the past is irrelevant and Qatar haven't participated in WC qualifiers since 2017, when they were considerably weaker.

Obviously it's not some big favoritism, mostly a 51/49 for Qatar but saying Uzbekistan were favorites with their history of choking every single important game?
They haven't even played each other yet btw.

 

It is not choking when you lost to better teams from CONMEBOL or whatever.
Qatar has played well recently I will give you that but Continental championships and Qualifying are different animals.

 

They've never actually made it to intercontinental play-offs I believe. They choked before that every time.

 

Ah. Well, their choking is still further than Qatar in qualifying.

 

I don't think they ever choked, I just think a lot of people over estimated their abilities in the past. They have always had inconsistent results, looking like champions against weaker teams but not really being up to the standard of the best teams in Asia. They are a bit more consistent over the last few years and with 3 more direct spots available they should qualify. If they fail to qualify from their current position we can probably call this one a choke.