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Road to Russia 2018
- Thread starter Furball
- Start date
the big bambino
International Captain
Cahill is my favourite player. Love him so much for the goals he scores for Australia. Just keep picking him. Hope he never retires. Keep a spot for him forever.
Our group is the hardest of the 2 in the Asian zone. The team Australia beat last night beat Japan away recently and you'd think the Japanese would be one of the top 2 teams in the group. Add the Saudis and you can see our road to qualifying is fairly tough.
Our group is the hardest of the 2 in the Asian zone. The team Australia beat last night beat Japan away recently and you'd think the Japanese would be one of the top 2 teams in the group. Add the Saudis and you can see our road to qualifying is fairly tough.
Scaly piscine
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Yep it's very depressing, the one guy who should be starting up front on performances is Rashford. Barely going to get any game time for Manure and not even in the squad for the main England side. People who go parrot the experience mantra should be shot on the spot. Does anyone seriously think Walcott is better than Rashford because of 'experience'?
Kane has looked like his shoes are wearing concrete overcoat for the past 4-5 months. Then you've got Sturridge who's constantly injured and Sterling who's extremely random.
sledger
Spanish_Vicente
No, but I don't recall anyone actually saying this, so this sounds like a straw man.
Magrat Garlick
Global Moderator
substandard opposition
Magrat Garlick
Global Moderator
Says something about the Asian zone when the team topping its hardest group lost all its matches at the last World Cup.
Winner should have to be sent to be a play-off with a middling South American side.
vic_orthdox
Global Moderator
I like using the World Cup for rebuilding though.
social
Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Been there, done that and kicked their arse
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Ah how can you not love it. It's great for the same reason it'd be great if every Olympic event contained one random person for scale.
On a semi-serious note, if shite teams were excluded there wouldn't be a World Cup. They may as well accept that all international football will be extremely low-standard for the foreseeable future and turn it into a massive festival.
sledger
Spanish_Vicente
I agree with the general sentiment, but I'm of the view that we see enough of this type of "festival" during the qualifying rounds.
andruid
Cricketer Of The Year
5 slots for a 54 nation Confederation is hardly pandering when UEFA's 46 members take damn near half of the qualification slots.
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I think I might be missing your point. I can't think of anything less festival-esque than a World Cup qualifier. They're grim as **** and seriously need a rethink.
the big bambino
International Captain
Says nothing about the Asian confederation at all. SK and japan have done all right. Australia not bad either. You have to remember soccer was a minnow sport here until fairly recently and the Asian zone is still developing in relation to Europe and South America. Frankly I think Europe is over rated and should lose a few places they get simply bcos of the old boy network.
Magrat Garlick
Global Moderator
GIMH
Norwood's on Fire
RE Rashford, even if Kane is out of sorts - which obviously he is - no way does Rashford get ahead of Vardy (who should be ahead of Kane). Would rather him spend time developing in the U21s than sitting on the bench, especially given he's not playing first team football. Far too often we put a stigma on a player going back to the age groups just because they've played for the full side. So despite feeling dirty for agreeing with an Allardyce decision, I think this one was absolutely correct.
Furball
Evil Scotsman
I've always been an advocate of Oceania getting one automatic place at the World Cup, I'm just not a fan of the growing representation of Africa and Asia when they've done **** all to deserve it.
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Is it increasing that much? I thought if anything CONCACAF was the over-represented region.
Really we're probably talking about the 31st or 32nd best teams at the tournament here. I don't think it even slightly matters which of Slovenia or Angola are the better team. At that level it's all about how to spread the game globally and bring together cultures that would never otherwise meet.
sledger
Spanish_Vicente
Sorry, it was your more shite teams = festival point that I was musing over. Like you say, the World Cup qualifiers are terrible. My concerns are primarily that allowing more dross into the tournament itself would effectively render the early stages of the tournament proper an elongated version of the qualifiers. Accordingly, they'd be no more festive than the qualifying rounds themselves (i.e. they'd be pretty dire).
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