The Road to Qatar.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

On 1/16/2022 at 11:13 AM, cornerkick said:

interesting that while the Honduras game is in the States, the Panama game is in Lima.  That's a long journey for a friendly..

It's one direct flight of under 4hrs. 2400km. Not bad by Canadian standards!

 

 

On 12/20/2021 at 11:19 AM, Soro17 said:

I think it also had something to do with the airport in Tegucigalpa.

That airport is tricky but the true reason why San Pedro Sula is chosen over Tegucigalpa is because the FHF must justify the building of the Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano. This big stadium was opened in '97 and isn't the home stadium for any club.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Olímpico_Metropolitano

Without the National Team matches it would be a white elephant.

 

On 12/18/2021 at 11:06 PM, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

That's it for CONCACAF for the year!

El Salvador 1  Ecuador 1
Mexico 2  Chile 2
El Salvador 0  Chile 1
USA 1   Bosnia & Herzegovina 0

The Panama vs Paraguay friendly never got off the ground

↑↑↑ Those were the December friendly results.

Here are the January results ↓↓↓

Jan 16
Colombia 2 Honduras 1
Peru 1 Panama 1

Jan 20
Peru 3 Jamaica 0

 

[CanadianSoccerFan]

On 1/21/2022 at 10:13 AM, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

FHF must justify the building of the Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano. This big stadium was opened in '97 and isn't the home stadium for any club.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estadio_Olímpico_Metropolitano

Without the National Team matches it would be a white elephant.

Stadium looks like it was built  in 1897

Edited January 22, 2022 by CanadianSoccerFan

[ADP10]

Egypt vs Senegal

Cameroon vs Algeria

Ghana vs Nigeria

DR Congo vs Morocco

Mali vs Tunisia

This is the result of the final CAF WCQ draw. Mali has a great chance to make their debut, i’ll be rooting for them

[SoccMan]

12 hours ago, CanadianSoccerFan said:

Stadium looks like it was built  in 1897

You mean like Tim Hortons Field ?

[king1010]

16 minutes ago, SoccMan said:

You mean like Tim Hortons Field ?

THF looks bare bones but not like its 100 years old. 

[SoccMan]

8 minutes ago, king1010 said:

THF looks bare bones but not like its 100 years old. 

And yes we all know the reasons it was built like that , it’s just unfortunate that that was the end product , but it is what it is .

[RS]

30 minutes ago, king1010 said:

THF looks bare bones but not like its 100 years old. 

Exactly. THF looks modern, but unfinished.

[Free kick]

PS.: the sharpness of the photos may distort the perception

Edited January 22, 2022 by Free kick

[Free kick]

3 hours ago, ADP10 said:

Egypt vs Senegal

Cameroon vs Algeria

Ghana vs Nigeria

DR Congo vs Morocco

Mali vs Tunisia

This is the result of the final CAF WCQ draw. Mali has a great chance to make their debut, i’ll be rooting for them

ALG and CMR are both very good.  Its a shame one of them wont make it to the WC.  I have never liked the way they qualify teams in CAF and that's going back for many WCQ's.    It doesn't always ensure the best teams qualify because it has no margin for error.  One bad call from the ref in a game (eg.: South Africa a few weeks back) and your out.  Plus your always at the mercy of the "luck of the draw".

PS.:  here is how they rank in the FIFA rankings:
20..Senegal    
28..Morocco    
29..Algeria    
30..Tunisia    
36..Nigeria    
45..Egypt    
50..Cameroon    
52..Ghana    
53..Mali
64..Congo DR

Edited January 22, 2022 by Free kick

[JamboAl]

2 hours ago, ADP10 said:

Egypt vs Senegal

Cameroon vs Algeria

Ghana vs Nigeria

DR Congo vs Morocco

Mali vs Tunisia

This is the result of the final CAF WCQ draw. Mali has a great chance to make their debut, i’ll be rooting for them

That’s rough!  And a West African derby too.  If you make it to the WC from CAF, you gotta be pretty good (and lucky).

[An Observer]

6 hours ago, Free kick said:

ALG and CMR are both very good.  Its a shame one of them wont make it to the WC.  I have never liked the way they qualify teams in CAF and that's going back for many WCQ's.    It doesn't always ensure the best teams qualify because it has no margin for error.  One bad call from the ref in a game (eg.: South Africa a few weeks back) and your out.  Plus your always at the mercy of the "luck of the draw".

PS.:  here is how they rank in the FIFA rankings:
20..Senegal    
28..Morocco    
29..Algeria    
30..Tunisia    
36..Nigeria    
45..Egypt    
50..Cameroon    
52..Ghana    
53..Mali
64..Congo DR

Senegal v. Egypt is a great match up as well. Mane v. Salah with only one going to the World Cup

[Unnamed Trialist]

So with the results yesterday the top three have a bit of distance from the fourth. The classification is not done yet, however, it is tough to be in first spot and still worried: very similar to winning a national league. I figure we still need 7 more points to stay above Panama.

Panama's next home match vs. Jamaica is key, a must win for them. If they don't take points they could see Costa Rica rivalling them for the 4th spot. As Panama play Mexico the last day of the window that is a much harder chance to get 3.

Indeed, as it is highly likely Panama come out of the window with just three points, no matter what happens we will still be a few points up on them.

With the Panama loss, Jamaica sees that a win there will put them back into the fight for the fourth spot. Jamaica-Costa Rica is the third match, another where the fourth spot could get tighter. 

Basically: Panama, Costa Rica and Jamaica getting into a dogfight for 4th is good for us.

I have no idea how the US match will go; the only comfort I get is hearing Herdman say they deliberately chose to play as they did last night, careful to control the Honduras attackers on the counter, not overly concerned to press high to not overstretch our defensive shape. We renounced more ball control, as indeed we did not line up with a very technical midfield. I suspect with home crowd and prior experiences, we'll go back to a high press and see from there.

 

 

[archer21]

3 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

So with the results yesterday the top three have a bit of distance from the fourth. The classification is not done yet, however, it is tough to be in first spot and still worried: very similar to winning a national league. I figure we still need 7 more points to stay above Panama.

Panama's next home match vs. Jamaica is key, a must win for them. If they don't take points they could see Costa Rica rivalling them for the 4th spot. As Panama play Mexico the last day of the window that is a much harder chance to get 3.

Indeed, as it is highly likely Panama come out of the window with just three points, no matter what happens we will still be a few points up on them.

With the Panama loss, Jamaica sees that a win there will put them back into the fight for the fourth spot. Jamaica-Costa Rica is the third match, another where the fourth spot could get tighter. 

Basically: Panama, Costa Rica and Jamaica getting into a dogfight for 4th is good for us.

I have no idea how the US match will go; the only comfort I get is hearing Herdman say they deliberately chose to play as they did last night, careful to control the Honduras attackers on the counter, not overly concerned to press high to not overstretch our defensive shape. We renounced more ball control, as indeed we did not line up with a very technical midfield. I suspect with home crowd and prior experiences, we'll go back to a high press and see from there.

 

 

You think we still need 7 points? So you’re expecting Panama to get 11 more points then? Against Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras, USA, and Canada? Seems like a stretch…

[Cblake]

The road to Qatar is getting shorter by the day , keep your eyes on the road and don’t slide off at this point, the goal is in sight. 

[TOcanadafan]

Gotta keep getting ‘er done.  Another 4 points combined with other results will make us breath even easier.  

[frattinator]

While I think we are almost a lock, I don't want to celebrate until we are mathematically guaranteed a spot. We all remember when the US lost at T&T in 2018 and couldn't qualify, but the thing was that US didn't need a result that night, they just needed both Costa Rica AND Mexico to not lose that night against inferior oppositions. Even one loss by either team would've got them through at least to the playoffs spot. Instead both results went the other way and the US were out. So until we are guaranteed a top 3 spot I hope the boys don't think the job is done yet, and I'll keep on crossing my fingers. 

[narduch]

6 minutes ago, TOcanadafan said:

Gotta keep getting ‘er done.  Another 4 points combined with other results will make us breath even easier.  

I"m predicting the home match v Jamaica will be meaningless for us.

It will be a going to the World Cup celebration.

[theaub]

Probably mentioned somewhere above but we are now 38th in the FIFA rankings, which I believe is our new record high.

A draw or win Sunday moves us to 36th, a win combined with an Australia draw/loss at Oman would place us 35th heading into El Salvador.

[Redpunkfiddle]

14 minutes ago, theaub said:

Probably mentioned somewhere above but we are now 38th in the FIFA rankings, which I believe is our new record high.

A draw or win Sunday moves us to 36th, a win combined with an Australia draw/loss at Oman would place us 35th heading into El Salvador.

A year and a bit ago before games with the US we were doing calculus to figure out how to scrape FIFA points to get into the Hex. 

 

Now we are tracking Pot 3 possibilities. Times. 

[Unnamed Trialist]

1 hour ago, archer21 said:

You think we still need 7 points? So you’re expecting Panama to get 11 more points then? Against Jamaica, Mexico, Honduras, USA, and Canada? Seems like a stretch…

If we get just 6 more, we risk having to get a result last day in Panama. 

Scenario: we win two more, 6 points, or win one and draw the next three, does not matter. 

Then, Panama beat Jamaica, probable; say they lose to Mexico away. Then they go into the last window and win their first two, 9 in total. Yes, why not, beating the States. They do have a precedent.

That puts us at 25 points, they are sitting at 23. If they beat us at home, they qualify directly and we go to the playoff. 

With one more point, sitting at 26, even if they beat us at home we are drawn on points. Only if they beat us by more than 3 do they win the goal average, all the tiebreakers are favourable for us. 

We need to finish with 26 points.

 

[archer21]

8 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

If we get just 6 more, we risk having to get a result last day in Panama. 

Scenario: we win two more, 6 points, or win one and draw the next three, does not matter. 

Then, Panama beat Jamaica, probable; say they lose to Mexico away. Then they go into the last window and win their first two, 9 in total. Yes, why not, beating the States. They do have a precedent.

That puts us at 25 points, they are sitting at 23. If they beat us at home, they qualify directly and we go to the playoff. 

With one more point, sitting at 26, even if they beat us at home we are drawn on points. Only if they beat us by more than 3 do they win the goal average, all the tiebreakers are favourable for us. 

We need to finish with 26 points.

 

I mean, they could be going into the last match on 23 points, but I don’t think that’s very likely. I think it’s more likely that they have 18 than having 23. Somewhere in the middle is probably most likely.

[Stryker911]

We are currently rated at 38, which is where Serbia was in 2018 to be the highest rated pot 4 team. Iran was 34 to be the lowest rated pot 3 team. For us to be pot 3 we need to finish above 8 teams. This is a summary of who we will likely be above. I also assuming that the winners of the intercontinental draw will be placed in pot 4 since their identity won't be known at the time of the draw.

In CONEMBOL Ecuador is almost a lock to qualify and we are ranked ahead of them. Small chance that Bolivia qualifies who we are well ahead of, but they would need to overtake Chili, Peru, and Columbia which is unlikely

In AFC Saudi Arabia will likely qualify and we are well ahead of them.

In UEFA the teams that are in the final round which we could conceivably be ahead of are Russia, Scotland, Turkey, and Macedonia.

Alot depends on Africa as all 5 draws have 1 team ahead of us and 1 behind. If some of the underdogs win it will be huge for us.

So to summarize the only teams we would currently be ahead of are 2 intercontinental winners, Ecuador, and Saudi Arabia. We need at least 4 underdogs to qualify from Europe and Africa.

Edited January 29, 2022 by Stryker911

[Cblake]

I saw this online, gives you a good feel moving forward in this qualifying cycle. 

- With CRC beating Panama last night, I think both teams are going to push even harder to qualify. That being said, both of these teams have to play us (Canada), the Americans and the Mexicans.

- For us Canadians, that means 3 of the last 5 games are going to be super tough - Usa, Pan and Crc

- The Mexicans have it as hard as we do having to play the Americans, Panama and Crc.

- For the Americans, it's even tougher as they have to play us, the Mexicans, Pan, and Crc.

[Ngravs]

I have a somewhat controversial question. If Canada was to qualify at home in March, what are the odds that fans would rush the field after the final whistle? I see this being done in College but never or very rarely in professionals sports. I was just watching the 86 clinching game and people rushed to celebrate with the players (obviously things were different back then). I also realize that the game was not in a "stadium" and it would be more difficult/"dangerous" to get on at BMO or wherever the game is.  

[narduch]

Just now, Ngravs said:

I have a somewhat controversial question. If Canada was to qualify at home in March, what are the odds that fans would rush the field after the final whistle? I see this being done in College but never or very rarely in professionals sports. I was just watching the 86 clinching game and people rushed to celebrate with the players (obviously things were different back then). I also realize that the game was not in a "stadium" and it would be more difficult/"dangerous" to get on at BMO or wherever the game is.  

We probably would get fined by FIFA if we did this