Quote:
Originally Posted by Arsenal14
Well, I guess we're going to have to do this the hard way. With El Salvador & the US winning yesterday the hex is pretty much locked in.
Code:
Mexico 1621
USA 1540
Costa Rica 1442
Jamaica 1438
Honduras 1377
El Salvador 1346
----------------
Canada 1331
Curacao 1313
Panama 1304
Haiti 1285
T&T 1202
The only remaining international match windows before the draw is done are at the end of March and the start of June. So, we can theoretically play a maximum of 4 friendlies. Assuming that El Salvador does nothing which seems reasonable as they don't want to lose any points we need to get to at least 1346 points. To get an idea of what that takes, 2 wins against the US who are currently ranked #22 in the world would almost do it but wouldn't quite be enough. Beating Belgium who are the world #1 twice would just barely push us over the top.
So that leaves us needing to do the following:
1. Win a group stage with either 2 or 3 other teams ranked 7-35 in CONCACAF
2. Beat one of the other group winners in a 2 leg quarter-final
3. Beat one of the other quarter-final winners in a 2 leg semi-final
4. Beat the other semi-final winner in a 2 leg final
5. Beat the 4th place team from the hex over 2 legs
6. Beat a team from one of the other confederations (Asia, South America or Oceania) over 2 legs.
Good news is we should have lots of games to play for a change. Bad news is it's going to be at least 14 games to get to the World Cup with most of them being must-win. |
I'm not saying you're wrong, but didn't we get something like 17 points when we beat the US in Toronto? I definitely could be wrong on that!
But what a crazy system. You would think that if we were somehow to beat Belgium (and really, why would they bother setting that game with us just to smash us 8-0?) that this would be enough to pass El Salvador. But it's a giant moot point. We can qualify when we host and/or the tournament has 48 teams...hopefully!