The major problem with increasing the amount of bad teams in the World Cup is you’re gonna get some insnanely tilted matchups in the group stage. This means that let’s say if an Elite team plays an extremely poor team a player can win the golden boot in pretty much one game. Many groups will be decided by how many goals are scored on the clear weaker team in each group. It’s not fun to watch, I don’t want to see a team like India get pounded by multiple teams in the group stage. I don’t think it will grow the game, what grows the game starts at the ground root level and developing talent properly and creating affordable leagues so every child can play football.
I want to see the best countries play each other throughout the entirety of the tournament. If a country wants to make the World Cup the current qualification methods are more than fair and makes international football interesting the two years preceding the World Cup. Qatar is gonna be a complete #### show.
I’m not even a fan of regional qualifying, but I guess you can’t change it. It’s stupid that Saudi Arabia is in the tournament and Italy is not.
Last edited by Beninho; 06-14-2018 at 04:26 PM.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Beninho For This Useful Post:
The major problem with increasing the amount of bad teams in the World Cup is you’re gonna get some insnanely tilted matchups in the group stage. This means that let’s say if an Elite team plays an extremely poor team a player can win the golden boot in pretty much one game. Many groups will be decided by how many goals are scored on the clear weaker team in each group. It’s not fun to watch, I don’t want to see a team like India get pounded by multiple teams in the group stage. I don’t think it will grow the game, what grows the game starts at the ground root level and developing talent properly and creating affordable leagues so every child can play football.
I want to see the best countries play each other throughout the entirety of the tournament. If a country wants to make the World Cup the current qualification methods are more than fair and makes international football interesting the two years preceding the World Cup. Qatar is gonna be a complete #### show.
I’m not even a fan of regional qualifying, but I guess you can’t change it. It’s stupid that Saudi Arabia is in the tournament and Italy is not.
Its never going to be perfectly fair.
Saying that Saudi Arabia shouldnt be there because Italy and Holland arent there just flies in the face of the entire 'trying to grow the game' discussion.
Italy were not sufficiently good to win their spot in Europe, they had every chance but lost to Spain and Sweden. It happens.
The Dutch campaign was an unmitigated disaster.
But expanding the tournament is terrible. Its going to get far too diluted. Its like when they expanded the Euros because that one time England didnt qualify.
Some teams take the qualification process for granted. And some teams can get away with it.
Take Germany, they arguably havent played their strongest XI yet but still qualified without breaking a sweat.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
The Russians are better than I thought they would be. I was expecting a boring 0-0 draw. I guess playing at home helps.
Regarding the expanded tournament I like the idea in theory, and it pretty much guarantees Australia a spot, however I do not like how Europe is being pretty much ignored in the expansion. I'd much rather see Italy, Netherlands, and Austria over New Zealand, Syria, and Uganda.
__________________
The masses of humanity have always had to surf.
The Russians are better than I thought they would be. I was expecting a boring 0-0 draw. I guess playing at home helps.
Regarding the expanded tournament I like the idea in theory, and it pretty much guarantees Australia a spot, however I do not like how Europe is being pretty much ignored in the expansion. I'd much rather see Italy, Netherlands, and Austria over New Zealand, Syria, and Uganda.
Heres an issue though:
When major countries fail they tend to stop and re-evaluate their programs.
Germany totally revamped their development process.
Brazil after 2014 took a radical shift in their approach realizing that just sheer raw talent wasnt enough.
And maybe Italy and Holland will do the same, but if you make 'just getting in' so easy then doesnt the overall health of the game suffer?
We want to see the big teams because they're the ones with the best players, but at some point you dont get the best until they're challenged, if its all just given then it seems to cheapen things.
__________________ The Beatings Shall Continue Until Morale Improves!
This Post Has Been Distilled for the Eradication of Seemingly Incurable Sadness.
If you are flammable and have legs, you are never blocking a Fire Exit. - Mitch Hedberg
Dammit I couldn't get the TSN site to log into my Telus account so I could watch the game at work...
I'm having the same issue; tells me my password is incorrect even though I can login to my Telus account website just fine.
Let me know if you figure it out.
__________________ I am in love with Montana. For other states I have admiration, respect, recognition, even some affection, but with Montana it is love." - John Steinbeck
The major problem with increasing the amount of bad teams in the World Cup is you’re gonna get some insnanely tilted matchups in the group stage. This means that let’s say if an Elite team plays an extremely poor team a player can win the golden boot in pretty much one game. Many groups will be decided by how many goals are scored on the clear weaker team in each group.
Nothwithstanding the larger skill gap, the situation is similar now. The scenario you've occurs when the top two draw their match. The equivalent scenario now is where that happens and they both beat the bottom two, except it's who runs up the score more over two games. As for the golden boot goes, that's mitigated by an extra knockout game.
How much did Russia pay to play the worst team in the tournament in their first game?
The price they paid for the games. The host gets to pick their opponent for the first game from within their group. It's a major reason why the host has only once lost the opening game. (2010).
The host also gets treated as a top country when forming the groups, giving them an easier path to the playoff stage. FIFA wants the host to stay in the games for as long as possible. It's good for the atmosphere of the games.
It's also not just a FIFA thing. Treating the hosts favorably is traditional in I would suspect all sports where that's reasonably possible.
The price they paid for the games. The host gets to pick their opponent for the first game from within their group. It's a major reason why the host has only once lost the opening game. (2010).
The host also gets treated as a top country when forming the groups, giving them an easier path to the playoff stage. FIFA wants the host to stay in the games for as long as possible. It's good for the atmosphere of the games.
It's also not just a FIFA thing. Treating the hosts favorably is traditional in I would suspect all sports where that's reasonably possible.
That was a draw:
But South Africa were of course the first host that failed to advance from their group. Being drawn in Pot A is a huge advantage for the hosts for sure.
