I beg to differ. I'd like to see the best teams and the best players in the world. If I wanted to see football of the New Zealand caliber, I'd go watch Cardiff City.
Oh hang on...
NZ qualifies for World Cup
- Thread starter gabi
- Start date
I beg to differ. I'd like to see the best teams and the best players in the world. If I wanted to see football of the New Zealand caliber, I'd go watch Cardiff City.
Oh hang on...
twistedAM
Left Of The Dial
Yeah fuck it you're right. Do away with qualifying groups and instead have 1st round, second round etc just like the FA Cup until you get to the last eight and you could have two groups of four.
Gingerman
Is a great bunch of lads.....
George Best another one,blimey Im old enough to remember when NZ reached the 1982 finals,did'nt they lose to Scotland 5-2 in the group stages? think the USSR were in that group as well.
Good players can come from shit countries. Look at George Weah
That's more to do with Wales being useless. Plenty of nations of similar size to Wales have appeared. For instance, Slovenia. Even croatia is a pretty small country in terms of population.
What about George Weah?
I think the World Cup should include all continents. I strongly disagree with your comments.
And if giggs had played for england as he ought to have done, he'd have been in a world cup anyway
not-bono-ever
meh
so what do you propose ? Wales have away games in Honduras & Japan as part of their qualification group to ensure that everyone has a chance ?
logistics fail
FIFA have a vested interested in keeping both the small countries interested but more in keeping the big names in the finals for purely economic reasons, hence the seedings in the play offs, which give the big teams a helping hand - how many people would tune on for the WF final between say Kazakhstan & Guatamala
how would you assess merit ?
not-bono-ever
meh
those 2 goals - as ever - were significant in Scotlands failure to progress ( again ) IIRC
ericjarvis
give a feck for the feckless
I'm devastated. Bahrain were robbed. Apart from the penalty miss, which is their own fault, they also had a perfectly legal goal ruled out for no apparent reason. They were the better team for most of the game, and as in the first leg, only a good display by Paston prevented them being slaughtered.
It's a shame. Bahrain were worth watching in their own right. New Zealand don't have a lot to offer other than Rory Fallon and Chris Killen being large and able to head the ball quite well.
It's a shame. Bahrain were worth watching in their own right. New Zealand don't have a lot to offer other than Rory Fallon and Chris Killen being large and able to head the ball quite well.
That said, I'm still fuming about Bahrain robbing Uzbekistan in the last World cup's qualifying campaign
TrippyLondoner
Well-Known Member
That said, I'm still fuming about Bahrain robbing Uzbekistan in the last World cup's qualifying campaign
Me to.
I think the idea mentioned by another poster above is a good one.
Make it like the FA Cup, except that all the teams begin the competition at the same time. Sudden death knockout all the way, fixtures determined by drawing lots. The logistics wouldn't be any more complicated than the Olympics, and it would guarantee some brilliant games.
I suppose the drawback would be that, for instance, Brazil might draw Argentina in the first round, so one of the world's leading teams would be eliminated. But so what? It would be a fantastic match.
kyser_soze
Hawking's Angry Eyebrow
YAY! Go Kiwis!!
Gingerman
Is a great bunch of lads.....
The only Kiwi football player Ive ever heard of is Wynton Rufer,bloke had a pretty long career
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynton_Rufer
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynton_Rufer
Me to.
It was a proper stitch up. Uzbekistan won the first leg 1-0 and FIFA made them replay it cos of a dodgy penalty decision or something and then they drew it and lost on away goals.
I can't believe no-one's written "fuck off Dwyer" on this thread yet.
The tournament is called the World Cup. It has representation from all parts of the World. That's why it's called the World Cup. New Zealand may have the first part of qualification easy, but they still have to get through the play-offs in order to qualify.
As for the two examples given, Uruguay had every chance to qualify in front of a dire Argentina but managed to lose 1-0 at home to them in one of the worst games of football I've ever seen. And France, with the vast array of talent available to them, have absolutely no excuse for finishing behind Serbia in their group.
The tournament is called the World Cup. It has representation from all parts of the World. That's why it's called the World Cup. New Zealand may have the first part of qualification easy, but they still have to get through the play-offs in order to qualify.
As for the two examples given, Uruguay had every chance to qualify in front of a dire Argentina but managed to lose 1-0 at home to them in one of the worst games of football I've ever seen. And France, with the vast array of talent available to them, have absolutely no excuse for finishing behind Serbia in their group.
Lo Siento.
Second As Farce
what else are NZ supposed to do? They´ve put out a team that finished 5th in the AFC group, which is realistically the qualifying tournament you could put them in.
So the other options are basically (a) tell that part of the world they don´t get to be in the w/c ´cause it´s inconvenient (b) give that fed a place of its own, and have Aus basically get their own place.
It´s difficult because it´s an international tournament and everyone should have a chance, but Oceania has mostly terrible teams and is too far away to be put in a different qualifying group. So it´s a compromise.
More to the point to talk about the free pass for the US and Mexico that is CONCACAF, which is far more ridiculous.
So the other options are basically (a) tell that part of the world they don´t get to be in the w/c ´cause it´s inconvenient (b) give that fed a place of its own, and have Aus basically get their own place.
It´s difficult because it´s an international tournament and everyone should have a chance, but Oceania has mostly terrible teams and is too far away to be put in a different qualifying group. So it´s a compromise.
More to the point to talk about the free pass for the US and Mexico that is CONCACAF, which is far more ridiculous.
Yeah Trinidad could very easily have had three draws. Were unlucky to lose to England, could even have beaten England on another day, and paraguay were unlucky to lose too
Lo Siento.
Second As Farce
didn´t the lose all 3 of their games?
Gingerman
Is a great bunch of lads.....
Drew their 1st game with Sweden
Drew with Sweden, and we had a goal against them that should have been disallowed (crouch pulling the player's hair when he scored) and they nearly went 1-0 up earlier in the game... Gave all three teams a good game.
Lo Siento.
Second As Farce
the thing is, there´s realistically what, 10 teams competing to actually win a world cup? If that. The other 22 we can make up either with the next best 22, none of whom have a chance of challenging the best sides either. Or you can try and make it a global tournament that maintains a bit of illusion for everyone.
For that it´s more important that NZ have a chance of qualifying than that Uruguay have the luxury of qualifying badly.
Yeah, it's a bit different from France 98 where South Korea and Jamaica both got proper spankings.
Gingerman
Is a great bunch of lads.....
Strangly enough the only spanking at the last finals was when Argentina put 6 past a decent Serbian team
Lo Siento.
Second As Farce
the game, and more importantly the scouting networks are so extensive that to get to the point of qualifying, the vast majority of your players have to be pros.
Any group of 11 pros should be able to give the best in the world a game.
It should be pointed out though that of the 4 teams to qualify from CONCACAF. Only 1 won a game. The other two got 1 point between them, one of them didn´t score in 3 games, and the other managed to ship 9 goals whilst losing all of their 3 games.
(actually I´ve been too generous there. The US didn´t win a game either!)
Lo Siento.
Second As Farce
on the first plane home in ´06:
bottom of their group: 3 CONCACAF (of 4), 3 AFC (of 4), 1 CAF (of 5), 1 UEFA (of 14).
It should be noted that the UEFA side that finished bottom was Serbia, who were in a group with Argentina, Ivory Coast and Holland.
The other AFC side didn´t qualify, but the other CONCACAF side did.
bottom of their group: 3 CONCACAF (of 4), 3 AFC (of 4), 1 CAF (of 5), 1 UEFA (of 14).
It should be noted that the UEFA side that finished bottom was Serbia, who were in a group with Argentina, Ivory Coast and Holland.
The other AFC side didn´t qualify, but the other CONCACAF side did.
Oh yes, had forgotten about that
Every man and his dog thought Argentina were certs to win after that.
Gingerman
Is a great bunch of lads.....
The definite 'Group of Death'
Lo Siento.
Second As Farce
that was a world cup in Europe though. Same stats for ´02 as follows:
2 CAF (out of 4), 2 AFC (out of 4), 3 UEFA (out of 12) 1 CONMEBOL (out of 5)
2 CAF (out of 4), 2 AFC (out of 4), 3 UEFA (out of 12) 1 CONMEBOL (out of 5)
