Advance, Australia, Advance!
Oof Tunisia.
Oh… They are going to look at that foul in the box. And offside.
Sad for Tunisia was that winning would give them just 4 points in total, not enough to surpass Australia
What is ridiculous about it? When I watch a WC, I want to see world class football. If I want mediocre games, I rather watch my local Oberliga club (5th German league) than a Malta-San Marino group stage game in a WC.
I somewhat agree with you, but the WC differs from league play in more than just quality of teams. The opportunity to watch two countries that don’t often play each other counts for something. Look at all the drama between Iran playing the US, totally outside of the actual game.
That’s true, but I’m talking about quality, and both the US and Iran are/were totally qualified to play the WC and showed good performances. I don’t want to belittle smaller nations, but naturally a team from a country with only a few hundred thousands of citizens cannot compete with the bigger nations in the long run. Of course, sometimes there are exceptions like Iceland, but it happens very rarely.
Presuming that they will necessarily be of lower quality?
That has the we will dedicate the seventh goal to our wives and the eight to our dogs feels.
48 teams in the tournament causes problems simply because it isn’t a power of 2. No matter how you slice it, to get to a knockout bracket requires some kind of messing around with groups with an odd number of teams, or having 3 teams progress from some groups, or something. The current format is pretty clean and fair, with fairly small chances of dead matches, like France today or Canada tomorrow.
Having said that, another option for 48 is to have 12 groups of 4, with only the top 2 going through to a 24-team knockout. The top 8 first-place teams get a bye to the round of 16, and the other 16 knockout teams have to play a “round of 32” match. This would mostly maintain the group stage as it is now, and would give incentive for teams like France today to play fully in the last group match. One downside is that it’s an advantage to play in one of the later groups, since the results of earlier groups inform what you need to progress. That’s true of any system where there’s inter-group qualifications, like the “best third place” formats.
No, I did not presume that. Algeria in 1982 qualified deservedly for the 16 nations attending and proved that they had the quality to play a WC. I’m not at all for preempting any nation from qualifying for a WC, but the more attendees you have, the lower the quality will be (at least the group stage). That’s why I think 48 starters are overblown.
ETA: I just thought of another crucial aspect: with 48 or even 64 starters, the Panini album would become a doorstopper…
We aren’t selecting top 48 teams by ranking. We are doing so by continent. Chances are the teams which make it through will be the best.
A 48 team tournament is a bit silly but there isn’t that much of a drop off from 32 to 48 in international football. Some really good teams have missed out this year including the European champions. Although I’m not sure if that stands for the extra teams we’ll get from every region.
The two Group C games are just about ready to kick off. Each one of the four teams still has a chance to advance, although Mexico is a longshot. Poland plays Argentina: Poland advances with a win or draw; Argentina advances with a win. Saudi Arabia plays Mexico; Saudi Arabia advances with a win; Mexico must win by 4+ goals to advance, but must win the game to have any chance.
Mexico go through with any win if Poland win. They also go through if Argentina and Mexico win and the combined GD for Mexico/Argentina is 5 or more. On a combined GD of 4 it would come down to goals scored.
Correct. But also, according to ESPN, Mexico:
Must beat Saudi Arabia to have a chance; and a win by four or more goals guarantees qualification.
As it stands right now Poland/Mexico are tied right through to goals scored. Does anybody have the fair play stats?
Poland would advance, per Fox.
7 yellows Mexico, Poland 4.
Make that five.
Mexico about to take a free kick Right at the box. ETA Terrible set piece
Hey @Frodo, how you’re doing now? 