2018 FIFA World Cup Qualification

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We actually lost 2-0 and it was a brutal game. The last three games are must wins now, especially against Honduras.
 
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We actually lost 2-0 and it was a brutal game. The last three games are must wins now, especially against Honduras.
So...we are actually on the edge of being knocked out of the World Cup?
 
@Famine has the details in the 4th post of this thread, the CONCACAF section. These are the current standings:

1. Mexico - P7 - W5 D2 L0 - G+10 G-2 - GD+8 - 17pt
2. Costa Rica - P7 - W4 D2 L1 - G+11 G-4 - GD+7 - 14pt
3. United States - P7 - W2 D2 L3 - G+11 G-10 - GD+1 - 8pt
4. Honduras - P7 - W2 D2 L3 - G+8 G-15 - GD-7 - 8pt
5. Panama - P7 - W1 D4 L2 - G+4 G-5 - GD-1 - 7pt
6. Trinidad & Tobago - P7 - W1 D0 L6 - G+4 G-12 - GD-8 - 3pt

Mexico has already qualified and only the top 3 teams move straight to the World Cup. The 4th place team has to play a playoff game in order to qualify. The US play in Honduras on Tuesday (critical to at least earn a draw) and then they finish the qualifiers in early October; home to Panama and then the final game is in Trinidad & Tobago.

If the US lose this Tuesday in Honduras, they will need to win the final two games just to grab the 4th spot and make a playoff game.
 
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I had a nice surprise last night, I was visiting family in South Wales and was supposed to be watching the Wales game down the pub with my dad whilst having a few drinks and a catch up. I was staying at my aunts house and was there when he picked me up but he said he had a surprise for me and that we were going to Cardiff to watch the game itself, he managed to get free tickets but there was a catch.

And that was that in-exchange for those freebees we had to look after and be carers for two disabled fans during the night, I looked after a blind man called Keith who was a very nice man who despite being blind liked to take pictures on his camera(??!!) I had to help him take pictures by telling him when it was a good time to take one whilst he listened to the radio commentary of the match. I also helped him to and from the ground by him holding my arm.

It was a great night, we badly needed the win and we got it through young debutant Ben Woodburn who scored a wonder-strike right in front of us with only his second or third touch after coming on, and it came at a good time with as it was all Austria in the minutes beforehand, the game wasn't a classic but we got the three points we needed.

I found the whole experience quite rewarding and we all had a good time, great atmosphere!
 
Was watching the game against Bulgaria, and even though we won, there is no way in hell this squad will beat Sweden comfortably. Which probably is needed because Sweden scored quite a lot more goals.
 
I've been indisposed for the last couple of days, but I've updated to the most recent matches. Speaking of which:
03/09/2017 - France 0-0 Luxembourg
 
The usual Wikipedia edits have been made.

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I still think it's a big ask for Wales to qualify for the World Cup, and I won't be particularly upset if we miss out, but can I just say how wonderful this video is?

No commentary, crowd singing the anthem, 17 year old scores a screamer 4 minutes into his debut.

 
I'm going to Hampden Park tonight for the Scotland v Malta game, assuming it is not cancelled due to a water-logged pitch - it's been raining in Glasgow all day :ill:
 
@Liquid I was there......it was incredible!

As we all know it was France 0-0 Luxembourg last night, France had a starting XI that had a total valuation of just over £400 million, the valuation of the Luxembourg XI? £27,764.....
 
England go 1-0 down after 2 minutes. How can they be that bad? Oh wait...
It could be worse. Like, 1-1 for 70ish minutes in Tiblisi with the energy and excitement of a boiled cabbage worse.
 
England just manage to scrape a win, but still look clueless as to what to do in and around the penalty box
 
England got better as the game wore on but their performance wont inspire confidence.

Comfortable wins for Scotland and N.Ireland, N.Ireland are now guaranteed to finish second in their group.
 
Devastated for Slovensko. Vladimir Weiss one-on-one with Joe Bloody Hart right on the stroke of half time and it turns out his boots are made of concrete. England not up to speed at all. Only Alli and Rashford look handy for them.

Could have been very different but never mind.
 
I went to Hampden last night, and it was a fun evening, if a little bizarre.

We had to pick up tickets at the ground, and so we arrived at 7.20 - in hindsight, this was a bad idea, but it was made considerably worse by the idiotic ticket collection scheme at Hampden Park, which consists of three portacabins, each designed to a section of the alphabet. But, the three categories were 'A-L', 'M-Mc' and 'N-Z'. We were in the 'A-L' queue with hundreds of other people, while the M-Mc and N-Z cabins were queue-less. It took 40 minutes to collect our tickets, and we missed the first 12 minutes of the game, including the first goal. But we were relatively lucky - when we got our tickets, the queue was still at least 25-30 minutes long, and there were a lot of unhappy people. Ironically, the ticket sales booths had only 10-15 minute queues, so it would have been much better to have not bought tickets in advance.

Once we got in, we were sitting in the front row in line with the 6 yard box, which is not the best place to sit since you cannot really see what is going on, although it was a good view of the goal Scotland were shooting towards in the first half. But fortunately, perhaps due to the ridiculous debacle at the gates, they were not checking tickets inside the stadium and so you could pretty much sit anywhere - so we moved to the other end for the second half and had a great view for the majority of the action.

With England doing us a favour by beating Slovakia (eventually), it turned into a good night for the Tartan Army, and now it may come down to a decider for 2nd place between Scotland and Slovakia, although Scotland need another favour from England in the form of a win over Slovenia, and we also have to beat Slovenia away to stand any chance of progressing, since Slovakia's final game is against Malta. At least, however, we are still in with a shout.
 
With England doing us a favour by beating Slovakia (eventually), it turned into a good night for the Tartan Army, and now it may come down to a decider for 2nd place between Scotland and Slovakia, although Scotland need another favour from England in the form of a win over Slovenia, and we also have to beat Slovenia away to stand any chance of progressing, since Slovakia's final game is against Malta. At least, however, we are still in with a shout.
Win our next 2 games against Slovakia and Slovenia and we're in 2nd. Easy.
 
New Zealand have beaten the mighty Solomon Islands in the OFC play-off, and will now go forward to the interconfederation playoff final against the CONMEBOL fifth place team.

The remaining qualifying teams for AFC - and the AFC play-off teams for the AFC/CONCACAF play-off - will be determined in around 8 hours' time, although Australia - Thailand has just kicked off.


Edit: That means that the Solomon Islands were knocked out of World Cup Qualifying after the Czech Republic, Norway and Romania...
 
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OFC shouldn't play CONMEBOL teams. As it always used to be, it should be OFC vs AFC.
 
Big game for the US tonight in Honduras. I caught about half of the Spain v Italy game on Sunday and Italy looked terrible, losing 3-0 when I turned it off. I still haven't had the heart to check the final. :(

They weren't closing down at all defensively and Isco was ridiculous with a brilliant free kick to open scoring and then a great finish from the top of the box for the 2nd goal.
 
OFC shouldn't play CONMEBOL teams. As it always used to be, it should be OFC vs AFC.
I don't know how far back it goes/went, but I remember as a kid that it was a quadrennial tradition that Australia (still OFC at the time) got knocked out by the 5th place South American team. I was looking the other day - there are 4 conferences involved in playoffs, and the pairings were drawn by lots, not decided by people.

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Australia beat Thailand 2-1. That means that a Japanese win/draw puts them in. A Saudi Arabia win puts SA in and sends Australia to more playoffs.
 
I don't know how far back it goes/went, but I remember as a kid that it was a quadrennial tradition that Australia (still OFC at the time) got knocked out by the 5th place South American team. I was looking the other day - there are 4 conferences involved in playoffs, and the pairings were drawn by lots, not decided by people.

Perhaps I was wrong in assuming it 'always' was like that but on at least a few occasions the play-off was OFC/AFC. Most infamously when Australia played Iran in 1997 and Terry Venables 🤬 it all up. A lot of taxpayers' $$$ was wasted on that...

But point being, I don't think it is a fair standard of competition for an OFC team to play a CONEMBOL team. New Zealand, or the Solomon Islands, don't have much of a chance against say, Chile, Uruguay or Colombia. It would be fairer and more relevant for those teams to play say, North Korea or Bahrain in play-offs. A closer game would foster better competition and future competitiveness.

A Congo DR, Senegal or Nigeria from an African conference has a better chance in a play-off up against Chile, Uruguay or Colombia, the teams most likely to be in the CONEMBOL play-off position.
 
I don't know how far back it goes/went, but I remember as a kid that it was a quadrennial tradition that Australia (still OFC at the time) got knocked out by the 5th place South American team. I was looking the other day - there are 4 conferences involved in playoffs, and the pairings were drawn by lots, not decided by people.
You didn't always get a South American team. We played you in a play off to see who got to go to the 1986 World Cup.
 
You didn't always get a South American team. We played you in a play off to see who got to go to the 1986 World Cup.
His confusion is understandable since Scotland can easily be mistaken for Brazil at times.
 
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