WCQ: Third Round - Window 4 (January 27- February 2, 2022)

[jonovision]

If Panama is going to win, might as well pull for Costa Rica in this one.

[The Beaver 2.0]

Wild perdiction: By the end of this window it'll be only a four-country race for three automatic spots. 

[The Beaver 2.0]

Huge save by Navas! (I mean, he's no Borjan, but still)

[rydermike]

What's amazing is that with us playing Panama in the last match, depending on what happens in the next few matches we could be in a position to hugely impact the Americans fate by whether we play a legit squad in that match or a who cares squad 

[jonovision]

1 minute ago, The Beaver 2.0 said:

Wild perdiction: By the end of this window it'll be only a four-country race for three automatic spots. 

If that comes to pass (ie: Mexico doesn't beat Panama on Wednesday) then in reality it will be 3 teams fighting for second and third.

[narduch]

The only good thing about this Panama result is Jamaica will have nothing to play for when they visit us in March 

[rydermike]

2 minutes ago, narduch said:

The only good thing about this Panama result is Jamaica will have nothing to play for when they visit us in March 

The great thing about doing so well, even the worst case scenario is more of a "meh" than an "oh crap"

[rydermike]

Jamaica scores. Panama  3-2  Jamaica

The tie and qualification is still in play

[SthMelbRed]

Put the 3 points in the bank against El Salvador in a couple of days, and let the others fight it out amongst themselves to see who's joining us in Qatar. I don't care about mathematical certainties. At 25 points, we're in.

[narduch]

Jamaica pull one back

[scullion44]

El Salvador i’m pretty sure barely rotate. Let’s hope they continue that tonight.

[jonovision]

Panama has Mexico and USA left. Costa Rica has Mexico (today) and USA left. Mexico and USA have each other. Tough to imagine a scenario where Panama and/or Costa Rica make a run without knocking Mexico and USA out of the picture.

[narduch]

4 minutes ago, jonovision said:

Panama has Mexico and USA left. Costa Rica has Mexico (today) and USA left. Mexico and USA have each other. Tough to imagine a scenario where Panama and/or Costa Rica make a run without knocking Mexico and USA out of the picture.

Panama are 1 point behind USA if they hold on v Jamaica 

[Wayverider]

We have four games left, 50% of which are against teams who are DONE! By comparison Panama have to play us, at USA and at Mexico. I think the appropriate descriptive word here is FINITO!

Those Qatarian babes better be smokin hot cuz I'm bringing my thong and a bottle of maple syrup!

[rydermike]

Panama wins. The Qualification will have to wait until March

[jonovision]

Just now, narduch said:

Panama are 1 point behind USA if they hold on v Jamaica 

Yeah, that's what I mean. There's not a lot of scenarios where Panama gets ahead of USA that also involve USA getting ahead of us.

[rydermike]

[jonovision]

So what do we like in Mex-CRC? A Mexico win and the tiny chance of Costa Rica passing us is gone. On the other hand, a Costa Rica win leaves us 4 points clear at the top of the table with a healthy GD advantage.

[SthMelbRed]

Just now, jonovision said:

So what do we like in Mex-CRC? A Mexico win and the tiny chance of Costa Rica passing us is gone. On the other hand, a Costa Rica win leaves us 4 points clear at the top of the table with a healthy GD advantage.

I'm down for a draw in that one, and a Costa Rica win against Jamaica in a few days. Sure, it'll mean that we'll face a very motivated CR side in San Jose in March, but it'll clog up the table below us while we remain aloof of the bare-knuckle brawl for spots 2-4.

[rydermike]

10 minutes ago, jonovision said:

So what do we like in Mex-CRC? A Mexico win and the tiny chance of Costa Rica passing us is gone. On the other hand, a Costa Rica win leaves us 4 points clear at the top of the table with a healthy GD advantage.

Mathematically, Mexico winning is best - would basically guanatee us top 4

Psychologically, Costa Rica winning is best - even though mathematically I know a CR loss is better, I'm pulling for them watching it

Realistically, a draw would be fine. We're basically going through already and I don't think CR can pull off a win

Edited January 31, 2022 by rydermike

[rydermike]

Navas got lucky. Misjudged that and it hit the bar.

Costa Ricans look gassed

[JohnnyFranchise]

12 minutes ago, jonovision said:

So what do we like in Mex-CRC? A Mexico win and the tiny chance of Costa Rica passing us is gone. On the other hand, a Costa Rica win leaves us 4 points clear at the top of the table with a healthy GD advantage.

I guess a Mexico win would be best, basically eliminates CR (as a threat to us, at least). Mexico - Panama on Wednesday is a big one for us.

[Gian-Luca]

Jamaica ES and Honduras can’t catch us, a Mexican win would officially guarantee 4th place for us.

[rydermike]

2 minutes ago, Gian-Luca said:

Jamaica ES and Honduras can’t catch us, a Mexican win would officially guarantee 4th place for us.

A Mexico win over Costa Rica wouldn't officially guarantee us 4th yet, it'd just get us pretty damn close. Costa Rica would still have the potential to hit 24. It's a Mexico win over CR and a Can win over El Slavador that guantees 4th

[Neil R.]

Panama is sure making it interesting, only being 1 point behind the US with 4 matches remaining. The US probably increases the gap Wednesday (home to Honduras as opposed to away at Mexico), but it could get interesting considering they face each other in March.

I don't know if yellow cards from qualifying carry over into the World Cup, but if they do, another nice thing about having everything wrapped up before the final match is we could get those cleared by the time qualifying is over. It wouldn't matter who was missing for the Panama game. It would be better to get more players back on a clean slate for the start of the tournament.