The Road to Qatar.

[kacbru]

NZ has a lot of good young players that play an attractive game. There are also tough to break down. They took Japan to penalties in the quarterfinals of the Olympics. So definitely should not be underestimated. That being said, drawing OFC is clearly the favourable match up.

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

6 minutes ago, Xavier. said:

Yea you guys are greatly underestimating New Zealand, remember this isn't a Home/Away... 

Sure accidents can happen but it would be much easier than facing an opponent like Australia or Uruguay under similar circumstances. Rugby dominates there and a player like Stephen Hoyle who was next to useless with the Valour in CanPL can excel in their domestic semi-pro league. They haven't had anything like the magnitude of soccer friendly migration patterns that boosted soccer in Canada and Australia.

[kacbru]

3 minutes ago, kacbru said:

NZ has a lot of good young players that play an attractive game. There are also tough to break down. They took Japan to penalties in the quarterfinals of the Olympics. So definitely should not be underestimated. That being said, drawing OFC is clearly the favourable match up.

Just to add to this, I think Jamaica will snag the 4th spot and NZ will beat them in penalties (on a VAR review of the winning kick). 

[footballfreak]

I remain cautiously optimistic, but I’ve played too much XCOM to trust a 96.7% chance.

[beachesl]

Apart from NZ drawing all their matches against Paraguay, Italy and  a very good Slovakia team at the 2010 WC in South Africa, I saw the matches with Peru in the ICs in 2017, and they outplayed Peru for much of the 2 matches and werer very tough to play against. They would be a very good team, and have easily outperformed Canada when it counts, so far. We cannot underestimate them, they are a top  nationality in any sport.

Edited November 27, 2021 by beachesl

[Xavier.]

6 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Sure accidents can happen but it would be much easier than facing an opponent like Australia or Uruguay under similar circumstances. Rugby dominates there and a player like Stephen Hoyle who was next to useless with the Valour in CanPL can excel in their domestic semi-pro league. They haven't had anything like the magnitude of soccer friendly migration patterns that boosted soccer in Canada and Australia.

Oh yea, I wasn't arguing what region was the best draw, obviously OFC is the weakest. I just had different opinions on who New Zealand could beat/favourites in the Octagonal.

[kacbru]

5 minutes ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Sure accidents can happen but it would be much easier than facing an opponent like Australia or Uruguay under similar circumstances. Rugby dominates there and a player like Stephen Hoyle who was next to useless with the Valour in CanPL can excel in their domestic semi-pro league. They haven't had anything like the magnitude of soccer friendly migration patterns that boosted soccer in Canada and Australia.

?? No one in their right mind would try to compare the CPL with the now non-existant national league in NZ. It is more amateur than semi-pro. 

[TGAA_Star]

8 minutes ago, kacbru said:

Just to add to this, I think Jamaica will snag the 4th spot and NZ will beat them in penalties (on a VAR review of the winning kick). 

Jamaica's chances at 4th right now don't look all that great especially when Panama are currently 4th and Panama have been winning games or staying on pace with us Canada

[kacbru]

2 minutes ago, TGAA_Star said:

Jamaica's chances at 4th right now don't look all that great especially when Panama are currently 4th and Panama have been winning games or staying on pace with us Canada

OK thanks for letting me know. 

[jonovision]

1 hour ago, Free kick said:

There is a risk actually.   we are not accustomed to being a favoured.  Hence how do we handle a sitaution where a team parks the bus against us and tries to play for 0-0  game and go to penalties?

 

Every team we faced in the octo has played us like they believe they can beat us and are better than us.   Have we ever faced this kind of situation where we face a team that plays like Cincinnatti did in the MLS Bubble.  ten men behind the ball,   two lines of 4 and 5 moving in synchronicity?   

And if it goes to penalties,  its anybody's game.  This is the only risk that i see about playing Oceania

Both Costa Rica and Mexico played very negative, park-the-bus, football in Edmonton. 

[Free kick]

1 hour ago, dyslexic nam said:

There is something almost surreal about this qualifying campaign and the way it has unfolded.  We have absolutely played well but the good fortune we have had along the way has also been helpful.  This draw is just one more in a string of things that are working together to get us to Qatar.   

And I can still barely believe but it really, seriously, almost unbelievably, looks like we will be at the next world cup.  Crazy.  

The biggest fortune we had is the pandemic.   which forced a chnage to the qualifying process

[SpursFlu]

31 minutes ago, finchster said:

It is PC gone mad- it's non-sense.

It's actually something far more disgusting than just PC gone mad. The Queen Puppet is currently running the show in NZ. 

[TGAA_Star]

Just saw the Draw for UEFA European playoffs for Qatar 2022

 

Path A- Scotland vs Ukraine, Wales vs Austria

Path B- Russia vs Poland, Czech Republic vs Sweden

Path C- Italy vs North Macedonia, Portugal vs Turkey

[SthMelbRed]

2 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Think they are talking about changing it. Watched a clip of some right wing crank on Sky Australia complaining about it as PC gone mad recently:

Made me happy about getting my choice of country to emigrate to so I could escape from Maggie Thatcher right by opting for Canada.

I turned off the clip as soon as I saw it was Andrew Bolt. He's got nothing to say on any topic that's worth listening to. 

[Lurker]

Great news for Concacaf… I’d love to see a USA vs New Caledonia playoff where half the players in France try to figure out how they can switch to New Caledonia during the build up to the match.

On a more serious note, these two single match do or die matches are exciting but I think a fairer approach would have been to go with one group of 4 where the top 2 advance.

I realize that would hurt Concacaf chances but it would provide a nice test for Qatar and fairer format for all the teams in the playoff.

[MtlMario]

I can not believe some people here are worried about N.Z. if we end up in fourth place. Then how more fucking worried will they be if we end up in Qatar ( top 3 ) and have to play better teams than them!!!

[Obinna]

2 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

Think they are talking about changing it. Watched a clip of some right wing crank on Sky Australia complaining about it as PC gone mad recently:

Made me happy about getting my choice of country to emigrate to so I could escape from Maggie Thatcher right by opting for Canada.

It's just an attempt to veer away from 'whiteness' on the journey to inclusivity.

Makes sense if you're living in the framework of "white is bad" due to colonialism, oppression, slavery, etc. 

Step out of that framework, or at least put it aside, and you can see the problem with changing the All-whites name without changing the All-blacks. 

If you want equality to the letter, you either change both or you change neither, otherwise you open yourself up to such criticism.

[dyslexic nam]

I don’t want to the the one to point out that they are, in fact, all white.  
 

Sorry.  I’ll sit back down.   

[Obinna]

Just now, dyslexic nam said:

I don’t want to the the one to point out that they are, in fact, all white.  
 

Sorry.  I’ll sit back down.   

[theaub]

36 minutes ago, dyslexic nam said:

I don’t want to the the one to point out that they are, in fact, all white.  
 

Sorry.  I’ll sit back down.   

[Hawkguy]

3 hours ago, kacbru said:

NZ has a lot of good young players that play an attractive game. There are also tough to break down. They took Japan to penalties in the quarterfinals of the Olympics. So definitely should not be underestimated. That being said, drawing OFC is clearly the favourable match up.

If we can't beat New Zealand (assuming we play them), we don't deserve to play the Spain's and Belgium's of the world. 

[Treppy2]

5 hours ago, ShaneC06 said:

WE'RE GOING TO THE WORLD CUP! 

Hmm… Don’t know if I’d go that far yet. But we can almost certainly say that - one way or another - WE’RE GOING TO QATAR!

[Joe MacCarthy]

19 minutes ago, Hawkguy said:

If we can't beat New Zealand (assuming we play them), we don't deserve to play the Spain's and Belgium's of the world. 

I think some people should get in their head that this could all go to shit just as easily. We have four of six games on the road left.  One little break of confidence and she could all be over.  We could easily lose to the US and lose a couple of those road games.  I don't think it will go that far because they have displayed a lot of mental character but you never know.

A bunch of people thought just because we had a bunch of high profile NBAers we would have a cakewalk to the Olympics, didn't happen

[TGAA_Star]

5 minutes ago, Joe MacCarthy said:

I think some people should get in their head that this could all go to shit just as easily. We have four of six games on the road left.  One little break of confidence and she could all be over.  We could easily lose to the US and lose a couple of those road games.  I don't think it will go that far because they have displayed a lot of mental character but you never know.

A bunch of people thought just because we had a bunch of high profile NBAers we would have a cakewalk to the Olympics, didn't happen

Yeah but against Honduras and El Salvador who both have been disappointing in qualifying thus far...I think I like Canada's chances on the road a lot more than you do obviously 

Whereas against the USA at home, in our backyard, in Hamilton we could easily grind out a win or even a draw at home

[trc2014]

I’m surprised no one has mentioned yet that if Canada plays NZ, Herdman will play against a country he coached for to get to the WC.