Trinidad & Tobago - Bahrain (CONCACAF/ASIA Playoff)

I wish I could lose the way Bahrain's players 'lost...'

See the "Royal gift" insert caption at the bottom of this:

http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/source/XXVIII/242/images/page1.pdf

 

To hell with that...read the "Drama at Saudi Exectution" insert. Man, my life boring in comparison!

 

Yeah I saw that too. Madness...

 

Oh well, If Bariam chooses to make themselves look bad then its there decision. TNT are clearly the prefered team because of their game and attitude.

TNT in my heart

 

To be fair, CONCACAF had a very solid WC in 2002...Mexico was the last team to qualify, and it won its group. Costa Rica was the only team not to advance, and they lost on GD to semifinalists Turkey. And Honduras was unquestionably the best non-Euro team not in the World Cup. They had a great Copa America in 2001. So at the time the decision was made, it was a defensible decision to predict the CONCACAF #4 would be better than the SA #5 or the Oceania #1.

Defensible.

Obviously it didn't work out that way. But that's hindisght.

 

and for myself that is a totally acceptable argument.

 

I still think CR 2-5 Brazil was the match of the tournament. The score easily could have been 5-8!
http://www.planetworldcup.com/CUPS/2002/groupc_crc_v_bra.html
http://worldcup.espnsoccernet.com/report?match=48848&lang=en
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/matches_wallchart/costa_rica_v_brazil/default.stm

 

Congrats to T&T! Way to represent the conference.

 

Bad Day for Asia (Near Eastern) then. Bahrain and Turkey (though a part of UEFA) behaved like idiots. Do these countries have the same ban on women attending games as Iran had/has? Not to make it political, but it seems as if a lot of countries where women are second class citizens, or the culture is drenched in machismo tend to showcase some really apalling behavior in the stands (I imagine sometimes (not always), the more revolting and violent behavior of men may be stifled by the presence of wives, sisters, girlfriends and even mothers). That being said, Philly and Oakland and Detroit have registered pretty revolting fan displays over here as well, but not as commonly as we seem to hear elsewhere. Any thoughts on why we might be seeing this?

 

Meh what u gonna do T&T will just get beat

 

I could have sworn someone said the "cake" arrangement Concacaf and Asia got for a playoff compared to Australia's matchup was based on some voting shennanigans that stole the '06 cup from South Africa and gave it to Germany. Supposedly South Africa had it in the bag until some confed screwed them, and the playoff brackets were a sort of political pay back for that. Anyone know if that was true?

 

That was the metaphorical equivalent of Opie getting his first experience of Prison Love, needless to say. I can't say I know what would've been fair, but what actually happened sure as hell wasn't. A 1-0 home win is automatically better than any kind of replay. Like they say in the NFL, "you never take points off the board when deciding whether to accept a penalty".

 

....boy...talk about opening a can of worms....as I recall (and many others on these boards with better memories/internet savy can certainly elaborate on) it was some addle headed really old fcuk from New Zealand who either forgot to vote/abstained/pissed his pants/had a heart attack, whatever, who screwed South africa out of 2006....

 

Now this is the kind of writing any former English Lit major could love, talk about "showing rather than telling," in writing . Thanks for explaining that. I couldn't remember what confed/country it was, but I could've sworn there was a screw job, and that the horrendous playoff Oceania got was a direct pay back for it. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Germany got the World Cup because Asia went against FIFA and voted for Germany instead of South Africa. Apparently they did it because UEFA played a major role in voting for Korea/Japan to host in 2002, and obviously UEFA would prefer to see Germany host than South Africa. Asia had 4 votes, and cast all of them for Germany. UEFA, Africa, South America, and North America... I dunno how their votes went (I would assume all UEFA to Germany, all Africa to South Africa, and the majority of the Americas to South Africa), but after they had all voted, Germany was up by 1 (South Africa would have clinched it if Asia had voted for them like they were suppose to).

So Germany was up by 1 vote, but Oceania still had theirs to cast. All Oceania had to do was vote for South Africa (which they were going to) and it would have been a tie, and the tiebreaker was that FIFA got to hand pick, and they were going to pick South Africa.

Instead, Oceania "forgot" to vote, and didn't... so Germany won outright, by a single vote. So basically it was both Asia and Oceania's fault.



Also the Moroccans claim that the Americas screwed them out of 2010 because the Moroccan FA paid a ton of money to play matches against American teams with votes, but instead the "Americans just took the money and kept their vote", and all American delegates voted for South Africa.

I read about it over on an Egyptian message board. I don't have the link anymore, but I saved some comments in a notepad, if anyone is interested here they are:

Sorry to go off topic though.

 

Sounds like typical politics to me.

 

...thanks....you'll love me book...out early next year...

 

USA will do the best in the WC again. Costa Rica will get past the 1st round. Mexico will choke. T&T will regret they participated

 

Yes indeed.

 

No they won't. At least, not any more, or less, than Bahrain would have.

I've posted the more important, longer-term regrets that may emerge from this occasion, in this thread.

 

I just hope that they aren't satisfied with just making it to the Finals and that they bring their best game possible. Really I don't expect very much from them, perhaps nobody does, so they may sneak up on some people.

Best of luck to them and here's to hoping that this appearance creates a bit of a financial boom for them.

 

Absolutley.

 

Way to go T&T I'll be rooting for you guys at the WC.