Could a Thailand loss be the Socceroos' dream scenario?
Australia should defeat Thailand on Tuesday night but the important question to ask is "how much?". Of course, 'how many' goals do they need…
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Yes
A good alternative.
Instead of having a Round of 16
Just go straight the quarter finals
I like it a lot.
How to make a 40-team FIFA World Cup work
No …. exactly the opposite. You are talking about USA missing out on making the WC right?
Think a qualifying match – USA v Brazil in New York or Los Angeles and you get the picture of the potential. Then you have this scenario every 4 years.
Football in the USA will grow from this.
*High profile matches
*The need to develop your youth better to compete against Brazil/Argentina
The current big matches in CONCACAF for USA is USA v MEXICO
that’s it and it is repeated every 4 years.
CONCACAF is stagnating.
How to make a 40-team FIFA World Cup work
Yeah the Americas should be joined together.
Imagine USA v Brazil in a qualifying match in New York.
or Mexico v Argentina at the Azteca.
That whole idea is a potential gold mine for USA TV deals and if money makes the world go round (which it does) then I am sure that the Americas will be joined soon.
How to make a 40-team FIFA World Cup work
Stronger and weaker groups happen all the time. That part is the luck of the draw
Weaker teams progress sometimes and strong teams like the Ivory Coast have suffered tough groups and lost out it twice in a row now.
This kind of things happens.
In any case, 2 out of 3 will guarantee you progression in my suggested format. Out of all the groups in South Africa 2010, there were only 2 teams that won 2 out of 3 and finished 2nd. The rest had 4 or 5 points and progressed with that.
How to make a 40-team FIFA World Cup work
Since when is the World Cup about being fair?
The England-Germany 2010 ‘non-given goal wasn’t fair.
Fabio Grosso diving and winning a penalty wasn’t fair.
In 2002 England topped their qualifying group with Germany in it, then in the finals in Japan/Korea we saw England placed in the Group of Death then met Brazil in the quarters. Germany had the easiest group and run to the final ever. That doesn’t seem fair.
My argument is to try and create a system where the only sure way of progressing is to win or score plenty of goals trying.
Your argument about the final round “might have meaningless games” is an invalid point. There are already meaningless games.
The idea that a team fighting for a ‘stronger’ 2nd place is an exciting one. “Right we need to win by 2+ goals to ensure we progress.”
Can you imagine the sort of games those type of scenario’s would produce.
I think eventually they will add an extra 8 teams. No doubt the TV executives are already lobbying for it in the backgrounds.
How to make a 40-team FIFA World Cup work
Do you mean bring Oceania into East Asia? Geographically it makes no sense for NZ to join the Middle East region.
How All Whites can learn from Socceroos' mistakes
I have never understood why these old school mentalities exist.
NZ should play Mexico in the freezing cold is what you are saying right?
It’s not like the entire NZ team is playing its football in NZ clubs and they are used to the cold weather and it will be this huge advantage.
The current NZ team has players from all over the world. Shane Smeltz plays in Perth. It is is currently 30 degrees here. He might not appreciate the cold. The cold weather will affect NZ (or not affect them) just as much as Mexico. If Mexico had played their European players instead of “Club America” then they would have European players like Javier Hernandez coming from chilly Manchester.
Altitude is a different story though. I understand home teams trying to take advantage of altitude. I remember China trying it against Australia in 2008.
How All Whites can learn from Socceroos' mistakes
Since France 98 which was the first 32 team WC there have been 64 “Round of 16” spots up for grabs
Here is the break down of confederations making the Round of 16
Africa – 4/64 = 6%
South America = 14/64 = 22%
Europe – 35/64 = 54%
Asia – 5/64 = 8%
Central America – 6/64 = 10%
Based on those results you can see by basing it on performance then Africa is well over represented. They really have performed poorly.
But it doesn’t even tell the full story of how badly Africa has performed.
Of the World Cups since 98 Africa has had 21 teams qualify and Asia has had 16 teams qualify.
In that Africa has entered 21 teams into the World Cup finals and has only had 4 of those teams make the Round of 16. Asia has entered 16 teams and made the Round of 16 a more impressive 5 times.
Even better than Asia, Central America has only entered 13 teams into the finals and gotten out of their group 6 times.
So basing it on performance
The breakdown for a 32 team World Cup should be
Europe = 17.5 (54%)
South America = 6.5 (20%)
Asia = 2.5 (8%)
Africa = 1.5 (5%)
Central America = 3 (10%
Oceania – 0.5 (1%)
Africa produces great players but poor teams. What gives? An article for another day I think.
How All Whites can learn from Socceroos' mistakes
why would this increase the clamour for NZ to join AFC?
How All Whites can learn from Socceroos' mistakes
Yeah.
I thought the same thing.
We lost in Jordan and so did Japan.
Uruguay just rock up and roll them 5-0 with some pretty easy goals.
Concerning indeed,
How All Whites can learn from Socceroos' mistakes
Fold Oceania or bring the best Oceania team into the 3rd round of Asian qualifying. It really is a no-brainer for FIFA. It would give NZ a host of home games like Australia gets in it’s Asian qualifying campaigns. NZ dollar is a stronger currency which means more dollars for FIFA. I have a feeling that the middle eastern nations lobby against it because they know NZ is a threat to them qualifying. Japan, Korea and China don’t fear NZ and know that it adds another highly lucrative match up.
How All Whites can learn from Socceroos' mistakes
The World Cup should always be about having the best teams play. All this noise about having more Asian teams or more African teams is just a load of hot air at the moment.
I mean the “5th best Asian team” just got demolished at home by the “6th best South American team”. I use those tags loosely because Jordan are more of a lesser Asian team on a charmed run and Uruguay are the current South American champions.
Having said that they both deserved to play each other. With that being a positive statement for Jordan and a negative statement for Uruguay. Jordan have been great and THE story of World Cup qualifying. As good as Jordan has been, Uruguay have been as equally bad.
Which hi-lights how far behind Asia really is.
If things were designed for the best to always make the World Cup then FIFA would always have OFC v CONCACAF (Americas) and AFC v CONMEBOL (South America). This way you would almost certainly see South America and Central America qualify for those extra spots. As it stands, the ties are rotated. Last time its was OFC (NZ) v Asia (Bahrain) which ultimately allowed mediocrity into the 2010 WC.
I think TheRoar readers are smart enough to realise the posturing for more spots by AFC and Africa is not currently fair based on recent results.
2 AFC teams got out of their group in 2010 WC and only 1 African team (Ghana).
As the old saying goes “Put up or shut up”
How All Whites can learn from Socceroos' mistakes
10 groups of 4
although it doesn’t look good mathematically, is a sure fire winner for creating memorable games filled with attacking intent.
Top team goes through… best 6 runner’s up
Put simply… you have to win and if every team has to win then there is not faffing about for a draw.
And if you can’t win, you have to bang in goals trying.
Should the World Cup expand to 40 teams?
A 40 team cup doesn’t go into 16 so easily but still does in a semi convoluted way. The only way that would be plausible would be to have either 10 groups of 4 or 8 groups of 5.
8 Groups of 5 would be the easiest way mathematically.
Round robin group with 4 games for each team and top 2 go through.
However for pure football excitement. 10 groups of 4 would have to play out as — 10 top teams go through and the best 6 runner up place getters. What this situation creates is the need to win. You have to shoot for top and to do that you have to win. Added to that is the need to get goals because goals for and goal difference are a big factor in deciding the table.
Think about it everyone… Anyone trying to pull a Pim Verbeek and send out a Sci-Fi team to scratch a draw against Germany is going to look even more stupid.
Put simply… going for the drawn match will not suffice = therefore teams will attack each other.
40 TEAM WORLD CUP FOR THE WIN! (with 10 groups of 4)
Should the World Cup expand to 40 teams?
Just replying to your message Qantas so that I am near the top and visible.
“Sir Alex Ferguson, for example, has never coached a national side.” … is the statement made by the author of this article.
Mr Ian Brenner please get your facts right. It can instantly destroy your argument if you state the completely incorrect.
Not only did Alex Ferguson coach the Scotland National Team. He did so against the Socceroos and successfully knocked us out of the 1986 WC qualifying race.
No more Socceroos coaches with ''L-Plates''
This is the best solution I have heard of for our current predicament.
Players in Europe and players in the A-League.
Guus can manage the European side of things and Ange can collaborate with him about the A-League side of things.
Ange can learn a ton from Guus and then take over directly after the World Cup and lead the team for the Asian Cup 2015 and beyond.
This way… Ange can coach Melbourne Victory and has a close up of all the players he is coaching against as possible World Cup Squad players.
The more I think about this partnership, the more I love the idea of it but it must be contingent on Ange continuing on for the 2018 Campaign.
A perfect pair of coaches may be the Socceroos' answer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMsa_CBZ3Os
BREAKING: Holger Osieck sacked as coach of Socceroos
give us a short description of Bosnich right now?
Socceroos vs France: International football live scores, blog
Rhys Williams looks capable
Lucas Neill – your time is up
Carney – can go back to backpacking
Holland – Feel sorry for him
Mckay – he can nope the f.ck off
Jedinak – if he tried to pass wind, he would still f.ck it up
Socceroos vs France: International football live scores, blog
HOLGER OUT NOW!
Bright spots = Bresciano (looks right at home amongst the best) and Langerak
Socceroos vs France: International football live scores, blog
Yeah
I was thinking at the time that he should have taken off Og or Lucas Neill.
There was no risk in losing the match because it would have been the same as drawing the match (A loss or draw meant relying on Oman to lose).
An all out assault of attacking players would have had no counter risk and, in the cold light of the day, his substitutions can be seen as conservative.
Guus Hiddink against Japan showed the tactics and substitutions to attack in the last 15 mins.
He substituted Craig Moore and Luke Wilkshire for Joshua Kennedy and John Aloisi. He then moved Brett Emerton back to Right Back and went for the goals. 3-1 from 0-1 down.
Redemption all round as Jesus sends the Roos to Rio
I remember when Guus took over. He went so far as cancelling a scheduled friendly so he could implement his game plan through training first.
1 game was plenty. What Ange needs is a long “pre-season” with these guys to get them playing like Brisbane Roar.
Ange keen to build a bubble of belief after first up win