Yep. Also, I always assumed that 3 points were awarded for a win to encourage teams to play for the win. But that's not the objective here. If we want to assess how good teams are it makes sense (imo) to use 2 points for a win. But looking ahead, what do we do for PK wins?
No. I disagree. Teams play and adopt their tactics based on the points that are awarded. They should be judged accordingly. As for knock out rounds, however, I think 2p for pk winners and 1p for the draw by pk losers would be appropriate.
FIFA Points Ranking after MD2 (32 games). If 2 points per win and 1 point per draw were given. CONMEBOL: 10/4 = 2.5 UEFA: 31/13 = 2.38 CAF: 9/5 = 1.8 AFC: 9/6 = 1.5 CONCACAF: 5/4 = 1.25
Here are the standings with 3 points for a win, including UEFA/UEFA matches: CONMEBOL: 14/4 = 3.50 UEFA: 42/13 = 3.19 Africa: 12/5 = 2.40 Asia: 13/6 = 2.17 CONCACAF: 6/4 = 1.50
Somebody brought this up before. But how can you have a 3.5 and a 3.19 average when you can't get more than 3 points per match. Something is really off.
I hope I haven't made any mistake but here's how I calculated it, excluding both games between UEFA countries (France/Denmark and Spain/Germany).
I think he divided the total points by the number of teams involved rather than by the number of matches played (including both games opposing UEFA countries). It seems to work outside 42/13 = 3.23 rather than 3.19.
3 UEFA vs UEFA in final match day 4 AFC vs UEFA 3 CAF vs CONMEBOL 2 AFC vs CONCACAF 1 UEFA vs CONCACAF 1 UEFA vs CONMEBOL 1 CAF vs UEFA 1 CAF vs CONCACAF
There's only 1 UEFA vs CONCACAF (Germany vs Costa Rica) and I think you're missing 1 UEFA vs CONMEBOL (Poland vs Argentina)
Yep, which is the correct way of doing it. Otherwise, confeds will end up getting punished for their own success (send more teams to the KO stage ==> more difficult games ==> fewer points per game).
Something interesting as far as the starting times for UEFA matches. So far, UEFA has done generally better in the evening than in the afternoon in matches played against other confederations.. In the afternoon UEFA teams have been 3-3-3, while at night they've been 7-2-3. (I excluded the two UEFA v. UEFA matches). In fact the only two evening losses for UEFA have been against Brazil. UEFA in afternoon matches (12pm or 4pm start times): 1. England-Iran (W) 2. Denmark-Tunisia (D) 3. Germany-Japan (L) 4. Croatia-Morocco (D) 5. Switzerland-Cameroon (W) 6. Wales-Iran (L) 7. Poland-Saudi Arabia (W) 8. Belgium-Morocco (L) 9. Serbia-Cameroon (D) UEFA in evening matches (7pm or 10pm start times): 1. Netherlands-Senegal (W) 2. Wales-USA (D) 3. Poland-Mexico (D) 4. France-Australia (W) 5. Spain-Costa Rica (W) 6. Belgium-Canada (W) 7. Portugal-Ghana (W) 8. Serbia-Brazil (L) 9. Netherlands-Ecuador (D) 10. England-USA (D) 11. Croatia-Canada (W) 12. Switzerland-Brazil (L) 13. Portugal-Uruguay (W) Now that the afternoon matches have concluded and we only have evening matches remaining to be played, if this form holds the UEFA teams should do fairly well in the upcoming Matchday 3 matches. We shall see.
Also interesting if correct .. ## The Belgian squad sounds like it is totally divided. Eden Hazard apparently had a massive row with Vertonghan and Lukaku had to separate them. Hazard and Trossard also hate each other and Courtois and De Bruyne have never liked each other
My understanding is that the second matches of the day started at 16:00, not 15:00. Anyway I included those matches in the afternoon column. Or are you referring to the early matches starting tomorrow? Those will start at 18:00. Sun has totally set.
Yes, I do it that way, the same as UEFA. Thanks for pointing out the calculation error, I will correct it after today's games.
Shocking results for Conmebol at this point. If Argentina loses to Poland, it could only see Brazil advancing of all teams.
Senegal over Ecuador is only CAFs second victory over Conmebol. The other being the famous Cameroon win over Argentina.
Would love to see an update of this if anyone has it handy (otherwise, I'll probably take the time to compile).
OK, I just went to that updated twitter thread, and after the Group A matches this morning: ELO net +/- CAF +213 CONCACAF -28 CONMEBOL -53 UEFA -53 AFC -79
Yeah because ELO ranks African teams horribly so they will obviously gain a lot of points showing how useless those rankings are. I like FIFA rankings much better.