Official World Cup 2014 Qualifying Thread (Blame It On RIO)

[GirlySports]

The rankings discussion doesn't really fit in the World Cup bid thread so let's start a WCQ thread. Believe it or not some matches have already been played.

World Cup Spot Allocation: 32
Hosts: Brazil
Europe: 13
Africa: 5
Asia: 4.5
South America: 4.5
CONCACAF: 3.5
Oceania: 0.5

Europe

8 groups of 6 and one group of 5. 9 group winners advance to the World Cup. 8 best runner up play-off for 4 remaining spots.

Africa

24 lowest teams playoff to get down to 12. These 12 teams join the best 28 teams in 10 groups of 4. The 10 groups winners will playoff to get the 5 qualifiers.

Asia

16 lowest teams playoff to get down to 8. These 8 teams join the next best 22 and playoff to get down to 15. These 15 teams join the best 5 teams in 5 groups of 4. Top two in each group advance and get redrawn into 2 groups of 5. Top 2 advance to World Cup, The two third place teams playoff and winner has to playoff against another region.

South America

9 teams play in a double round robin. Top 4 teams go to World Cup, 5th placed team has to playoff against another region.

CONCACAF

10 lowest teams playoff to get down to 5. Those 5 teams join the next best 19 teams in 6 groups of 4. The 6 group winner join the top 6 teams in 3 groups of 4. The top 2 teams in each group get put into 1 group of 6 (THE HEX!). Top 3 advance to World Cup, 4th placed team has to playoff against another region.

Oceania

4 lowest teams playoff in a single group to get down to 1. That 1 team joins the other 7 teams and plays in a tournament. The semifinalist of that tournament will then enter a group and the winner has to playoff against another region.


Got it?

Let's have a small challenge

A) Pick a team who has never qualified for the World Cup who will make it this time. My pick is the aforementioned Burkina Faso from Africa.

B) Pick a cinderella team that has no chance to make the World Cup but you'll be rooting for and may spring a surprise. My pick is Jordan from Asia, I think they can make the final 10 teams.

We'll see how everyone does by 2014!

-------------------------------------

First results

CONCACAF

First leg
Monserrat 2-5 Belize
*Belize is current suspended and may be thrown out

ASIA

First Leg
Malaysia 2 - 1 Taiwan
Bangladesh 3 - 0 Pakistan
Cambodia 4 - 2 Laos
Sri Lanka 1 - 1 Philippines
Afghanistan 0 - 2 Palestine
Vietnam 6 - 0 Macao
Nepal 2 - 1 Timor-Leste
Mongolia 1 - 0 Myanmar

[GirlySports]

And to continue the rankings discussion, how is Norway ranked 11th!?
I agree that ELO rankings are much more accurate. There's no way Cuba should be ranked ahead of Canada. In FIFA Rankings they are.. in ELO Canada's 59th and Cuba's nowhere.

[Locke]

Does anyone seriously look at those rankings anymore? Theyre a complete joke.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

I've never been a huge travel guy. In fact, I've only been outside of BC three times in my life. Once to Cancun, and twice to Calgary. So, my brother and I are planning a trip and want to go to a major tourney and follow Portugal. What should we do WC2014 in Brazil or Euro 2016 in France??

Oh and for the qualifying, I'll say Israel. They've looked dangerous in EURO qualifying so far and have an outside chance of qualifying.




edit....damn, they've already made one WC.

[NBC]

Logistically France would be easier. I'd suspect intercity travel to be simpler and possibly cheaper. Plus they have the infrastructure to handle huge sporting events. I'm not sure how well modern Brazil is going to handle hosting a World Cup.

[GirlySports]

I would say France as well. It's a better tournament (especially with the expansion to 24 teams) and as NBC says, it's logistically easier to get around. Brazil is a huge country and they will have matches scattered everywhere from North to South.

The easier trip would be if Portugal wins Euro 2012 you could see them in the 2013 Confederations Cup

Originally Posted by Locke

Does anyone seriously look at those rankings anymore? Theyre a complete joke.

Yes unfortunately the seeding for the World Cup and WCQ are based on those crappy rankings. For example Cuba got a bye to the semifinal round ahead of Canada. In Europe, France, Russia and Sweden will be unseeded while Norway and Greece are. That's very important in a format that allowed only one automatic qualifier from each group.

[vennegoor of hesselink]

I actually think the expanding of the euros to 24 teams is not a good thing as it will water down the tourament and it will make qualifying games for the tournament pretty dull especially for the big teams.

I am going to go with Venezuela for my never made the world cup pick

[d_phaneuf]

I wish they would trim it to 14 european teams, invite the argies and Brazil to make 16, and have that tournament every 2 years

[d_phaneuf]

for the questions

A. hard to say until the groups are drawn but Montenegro (kind of a cheat answer)
B. Canada

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by NBC

Logistically France would be easier. I'd suspect intercity travel to be simpler and possibly cheaper. Plus they have the infrastructure to handle huge sporting events. I'm not sure how well modern Brazil is going to handle hosting a World Cup.

poorly

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

I wish they would trim it to 14 european teams, invite the argies and Brazil to make 16, and have that tournament every 2 years

That's no fun. Other than Brazil, I don't like those other 15 teams

[Lee of Red]

Originally Posted by NBC

Logistically France would be easier. I'd suspect intercity travel to be simpler and possibly cheaper. Plus they have the infrastructure to handle huge sporting events. I'm not sure how well modern Brazil is going to handle hosting a World Cup.

No one gave South Africa a chance. I went and it was fantastic. I'll keep an open mind about Brazil.

[valo403]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

I wish they would trim it to 14 european teams, invite the argies and Brazil to make 16, and have that tournament every 2 years

FIFA would throw an absolute fit if that was ever proposed. No chance it ever happens, it would make the World Cup so obviously second tier.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by valo403

FIFA would throw an absolute fit if that was ever proposed. No chance it ever happens, it would make the World Cup so obviously second tier.

makes it even better

invite Brazil and the Argies to Uefa

get rid of Fifa completely

win-win

[GirlySports]

You'd have to add URGAY. They have 2 World Cups

[GirlySports]

Timor-Leste are officially the first team eliminated from the 2014 World Cup.

Too bad, they probably had high hopes!

[Maritime Q-Scout]

I'm excited for the Brazil World Cup, first time ever a major world sporting event will take place in the CORRECT time zone! (Atlantic Standard Time)

[GirlySports]

AFC First Round 2nd leg

FT Philippines 4 - 0 Sri Lanka (Philippines advance 5-1)
FT Myanmar 2 - 0 Mongolia (Myanmar advance 2-1)
FT Laos 6 - 2 Cambodia (Laos advance 6-4, after ET)
FT Macao 1 - 7 Vietnam (Vietnam advance 13-1)
FT Taiwan 3 - 2 Malaysia (Malaysia advance 3-3, away goals)
FT Palestine 1 - 1 Afghanistan (Palestine advance 3-1)
FT Nepal 5 - 0 Timor Leste (Nepal advance 7-1)
FT Pakistan 0 - 0 Bangladesh (Bangladesh advance 3-0)

And I know you all have him in the pool. Vietnam's Le Cong Vinh leads all 2014 World Cup scorers with 8 goals.

2nd round matchups (July 23 & 28)

Thailand-Palestine
Lebanon-Bangladesh
China-Laos
Turkmenistan-Indonesia
Kuwait-Philippines
Oman-Myanmar
Saudi Arabia-Hong Kong
Iran-Maldives
Syria-Tajikistan
Qatar-Vietnam
Iraq-Yemen
Singapore-Malaysia
Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan
UAE-India
Jordan-Nepal

The 15 winners will join Australia, Japan, S. Korea, N. Korea and Bahrain in the 3rd Round.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout

I'm excited for the Brazil World Cup, first time ever a major world sporting event will take place in the CORRECT time zone! (Atlantic Standard Time)

Vancouver 2010 was just fine time wise, thank you very much!

[KTown]

Originally Posted by vennegoor of hesselink

I actually think the expanding of the euros to 24 teams is not a good thing as it will water down the tourament and it will make qualifying games for the tournament pretty dull especially for the big teams.

I am going to go with Venezuela for my never made the world cup pick

Having no Euro 2008 without England, wasn't in exactly UEFA's back of tricks. A lot of lost revenue there in my opinion. It will also be nice to see other countries who are as good as the other 16 involved. I disagree that it will make it a water downed tournament.

It my opinion it makes it better.

Lets look at teams that made the world cup and didn't make Euro last time. Teams in Bold made Both

Euro2008
Portugal
Turkey
Czech Rep
Swiss (Host)
Holland
Italy
Romania
France
Croatia
Germany
Austria (Host)
Poland
Spain
Russia
Sweden
Greece

World Cup
Spain
France
Greece
England
Slovenia
Serbia
Germany
Holland
Denmark
Slovakia
Italy
Portugal
Swiss

How can you say a tournament needing to add 8 more teams will be watered down

When to that 16 above you add Denmark, Slovakia, Serbia, England, Slovenia. Making it now 21 teams. Now you only need 3 teams to choose from lets say Ukraine, Norway, Ireland, Montenagro, and Scotland

I think it opens it up nicely, because you have your elite 8 countries or so. Followed by the next 16 countries who are almost equally as strong as each other but fail to miss out because of a knockout home and home.

Revenue goes up, popularity in all the fringe countries will go up. Everything is a positive.

Not sure how they plan on doing the knockout stage though, 24 teams down to 12 with the first 4 having a bye? or do you stick with 8 out of 24 making it.