The Official 16/17 Various National Soccer Team News Thread

[nemanja2306]

Interesting draw for Serbia. It's always fun to play Brazil (I mean, isn't it the point to play against the world's best teams?) and we still have a decent chance to make it out of the group.

[Matty81]

Wow Russia got a super easy group, what a huge surprise. They just need to stay on their injections and they're well on their way to round 2.

Seriously if I was going to be playing against Russia I'd be bringing my own chef, food and water.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Wow Russia got a super easy group, what a huge surprise. They just need to stay on their injections and they're well on their way to round 2.

Seriously if I was going to be playing against Russia I'd be bringing my own chef, food and water.

The hosts almost always get a sweetheart group.

But yes, if the Russians could get Trump Elected then their nefarious abilities know no bounds.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Wow Russia got a super easy group, what a huge surprise. They just need to stay on their injections and they're well on their way to round 2.

Seriously if I was going to be playing against Russia I'd be bringing my own chef, food and water.

Pretty sure Germany built their own facilities and brought in their own staff in Brazil because staying at the FIFA/host country provided facilities was below them.

I suspect they'll do the same this time. Unlike in the 40s, they can realistically expect an extended stay in Russia. Heyooo

[Locke]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Pretty sure Germany built their own facilities and brought in their own staff in Brazil because staying at the FIFA/host country provided facilities was below them.

I suspect they'll do the same this time. Unlike in the 40s, they can realistically expect an extended stay in Russia. Heyooo

Oooh....fair.

The facilities in Brazil were apparently a nightmare which is why they made their own, and Sochi during the Olympics were not a ringing endorsement of Russian workmanship but I'm still not sure Russia will let the Germans build a compound....

[browna]

Originally Posted by Locke

Oooh....fair.

The facilities in Brazil were apparently a nightmare which is why they made their own, and Sochi during the Olympics were not a ringing endorsement of Russian workmanship but I'm still not sure Russia will let the Germans build a compound....

It’s a 3h flight from Moscow to Munich or less to Berlin.
Could a team like Germany simply fly home between matches of which there are 4-6 days between at least, train and eat sleep and whatever else in a compound on home soil, then fly back the day before a game?

Keep a support team in Russia for the over night stays and game day logistics and deal with whatever practices facilities they may have but may never use there, but not bother with staying a month on Russian soil.

Though there may be international press and promotional requirements around the WC as well which wouldn’t make it feasible.

England, assuming get through, have potentially Germany or Brazil in the QF.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by browna

It’s a 3h flight from Moscow to Munich or less to Berlin.
Could a team like Germany simply fly home between matches of which there are 4-6 days between at least, train and eat sleep and whatever else in a compound on home soil, then fly back the day before a game?

Keep a support team in Russia for the over night stays and game day logistics and deal with whatever practices facilities they may have but may never use there, but not bother with staying a month on Russian soil.

Though there may be international press and promotional requirements around the WC as well which wouldn’t make it feasible.

England, assuming get through, have potentially Germany or Brazil in the QF.

Yup, but they're not going to. Its a bad idea.

You want to keep the team together as much as possible and going home is a bad plan.

[VladtheImpaler]

Amazing how easy the groups look without Italy and Holland to mess things up...

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by Matty81

Wow Russia got a super easy group, what a huge surprise. They just need to stay on their injections and they're well on their way to round 2.

Seriously if I was going to be playing against Russia I'd be bringing my own chef, food and water.

The Ruskies are the lowest ranked team in the tournament, even lower than the Saudi's. Yes they are likely to be roided out of their minds, but even that might not be enough. Suarez and Cavani are better than their entire team combined, and Salah is obviously on another planet right now. Just don't see them getting a result out of either game.

[The Familia]

This appears to be the weakest World Cup draw in years. Lots of bottom feeding teams and little in terms of intriguing matches (other than Spain/Portugal). This tournament is going to suffer without Italy/Holland/USA creating intrigue.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by The Familia

This appears to be the weakest World Cup draw in years. Lots of bottom feeding teams and little in terms of intriguing matches (other than Spain/Portugal). This tournament is going to suffer without Italy/Holland/USA creating intrigue.

Why is Portugal/Spain an intriguing matchup? Both teams will rightfully believe they will progress the group so they will lollygag during their match to save players for the knockout stage. You should be looking forward to a team like Peru or Denmark upsetting France and throwing the group wide open. Or if Korea manages 0-0 vs Germany.


Also, earth to Familia: Italy, Holland and USA suck. Their teams are in shambles and them being present in the WC wouldn't add any "intrigue" to anything. Iceland is in fantastic form and will produce better football playing balls to the wall than a listless Italy would have if they limped into the WC.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by The Familia

This appears to be the weakest World Cup draw in years. Lots of bottom feeding teams and little in terms of intriguing matches (other than Spain/Portugal). This tournament is going to suffer without Italy/Holland/USA creating intrigue.

Yeah, I dont really know what you can ask for. High-Seeded teams are given every advantage to qualify and then every advantage to progress through the group stage.

I dont really care if its Italy (albeit thats hilarious) or Holland or the US, they couldnt qualify. I dont think thats any guarantee that they'd have dialed down the suck once they got to Russia.

They are just deeply flawed teams at the moment.

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Locke

Yeah, I dont really know what you can ask for. High-Seeded teams are given every advantage to qualify and then every advantage to progress through the group stage.

I dont really care if its Italy (albeit thats hilarious) or Holland or the US, they couldnt qualify. I dont think thats any guarantee that they'd have dialed down the suck once they got to Russia.

They are just deeply flawed teams at the moment.

Italy had a tough group to qualify and it was a joke that they were even in the same group as Spain. The fact that Romania and Wales were seeded above them in the stupid FIFA co-efficient was ridiculous and was a clear flaw in that system.

They lost a single game in qualifying (against Spain) and had the second highest points among 2nd place teams, and had more points than Iceland and Serbia who won their groups.

They should have been able to beat Sweden but to say they had every advantage to progress to the groups stages is just false, the seeding for the tournament was horrendous.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Does each confederation choose their own qualification guidelines or does FIFA?

If UEFA is responsible for the stupid format then they only have themselves to blame that some of their biggest nations didn't make it.

You'd think UEFA would rig it so that the biggest teams have a clearcut advantage but that hardly ever seems to be the case.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Does each confederation choose their own qualification guidelines or does FIFA?

If UEFA is responsible for the stupid format then they only have themselves to blame that some of their biggest nations didn't make it.

You'd think UEFA would rig it so that the biggest teams have a clearcut advantage but that hardly ever seems to be the case.

It's determined by FIFA. They used the July 2015 rankings to seed the qualification.

Italy were ranked 12th in Europe. Lower than Austria!

[devo22]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Italy were ranked 12th in Europe. Lower than Austria!

which was perfectly reasonable at the time

Italy has been on the decline for a while and it's really only their name that is going to be missing from the tournament. In terms of actual football, they haven't been nearly as good as you'd expect from them. Obviously not as embarrassing a decline as in the Netherlands, but still.

The only team I'll actually miss is Chile.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

It's determined by FIFA. They used the July 2015 rankings to seed the qualification.

Italy were ranked 12th in Europe. Lower than Austria!

Just using the FIFA rankings isn't the (only) problem though. Are they forced to use the rankings? If they are, couldn't they find a better format? Who chooses the format?

Other confederations use way different qualification formats. Why not UEFA? I know they have more good teams so missing out is more likely, but I never seem to hear about anyone complaining that the CONCACAF system is dumb and favors minnows. So why would FIFA set up the UEFA qualification system that way? Or if it is UEFA, why would they set up their own system that way.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger

Just using the FIFA rankings isn't the (only) problem though. Are they forced to use the rankings? If they are, couldn't they find a better format? Who chooses the format?

Other confederations use way different qualification formats. Why not UEFA? I know they have more good teams so missing out is more likely, but I never seem to hear about anyone complaining that the CONCACAF system is dumb and favors minnows. So why would FIFA set up the UEFA qualification system that way? Or if it is UEFA, why would they set up their own system that way.

They are forced to. Because it's for the World Cup. That's all FIFA for all confederations.
For Euro 2016, UEFA used a weighted combination of rankings from 2010 to 2014. Gold cup well... it's the Gold Cup, it has Martinique!

Remember in the Euro 2016 final draw, Italy was also in Pot 2 and would have been in Pot 2 had they qualified for Russia 2018. They've been struggling.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

They are forced to. Because it's for the World Cup. That's all FIFA for all confederations.
For Euro 2016, UEFA used a weighted combination of rankings from 2010 to 2014. Gold cup well... it's the Gold Cup, it has Martinique!

Remember in the Euro 2016 final draw, Italy was also in Pot 2 and would have been in Pot 2 had they qualified for Russia 2018. They've been struggling.

That's great and all but none of that answers any of my questions. I'm aware this is for the WC. I'm aware that they use the coefficient for seeding. I'm aware that Euro is different and I'm aware that Italy struggled (sort of, as has been mentioned they were still much better in the round robin than teams who actually made it).

But none of that has anything to do with why none of the confederations use the same qualifying format and why UEFA uses theirs, why UEFA nations haven't changed it so it favours the big teams.

[CroFlames]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Italy had a tough group to qualify and it was a joke that they were even in the same group as Spain. The fact that Romania and Wales were seeded above them in the stupid FIFA co-efficient was ridiculous and was a clear flaw in that system.

They lost a single game in qualifying (against Spain) and had the second highest points among 2nd place teams, and had more points than Iceland and Serbia who won their groups.

They should have been able to beat Sweden but to say they had every advantage to progress to the groups stages is just false, the seeding for the tournament was horrendous.

Why was it a joke they were in the same group as Spain? Does Italy just get to ride its reputation on its way to every major tourney?

They go through qualifying process, same as every other country. They have no one to blame but themselves for not qualifying.