~Soccer Thread~

[TyphonInc]

Columbus Crew final Game at Historic Crew Stadium is this Saturday. I'll be there. 

[Brutus Buckeye]

What are they doing with the old one? 

First soccer specific stadium in the US. 

[ELA]

Watching this Wales vs. Turkey match...this might be how a foreigner would describe Thanksgiving

[rolltidefan]

bale had one of the best games of the tournament so far and simultaneously one of the worst penalties i've ever seen.

de bruyne will be playing tomorrow, belgium just getting stronger.

[TyphonInc]

What are they doing with the old one?

First soccer specific stadium in the US.

It will be the new training grounds for the Crew and a community sports park.


https://www.dispatch.com/news/20181205/plan-calls-for-new-crew-stadium-with-mapfre-repurposed-as-sports-park

[Brutus Buckeye]

Nice. I remember when the Columbus Clippers moved into a new ballpark, they said that they were going to put a dirt track in the old one. But instead of doing that, they allowed it to fall into a tremendous state of disrepair. 

[MaximumSam]

I enjoy the fact that the ref let the Czech guy take a penalty shot while he was bleeding and tears were coming out of his eyes

[ELA]

Nice. I remember when the Columbus Clippers moved into a new ballpark, they said that they were going to put a dirt track in the old one. But instead of doing that, they allowed it to fall into a tremendous state of disrepair.

There's a giant hole in Ann Arbor that has been needed to get filled in for nearly a century

[MaximumSam]

Some bangers today

[utee94]

Yup, crazy.  That Spanish own-goal in the first game was pretty shocking.

[MaximumSam]

Man, Frenchies go down. I was rooting for Switzerland, but dag it is fun watching Pogba and Mbappe

[ELA]

I do like the continental championships, but I wish the WC qualifying was more of a global event.  Then you wouldn't need this dipshit finals format now, and the entire qualifying process would allow for meaningful international competition during the entire cycle.

[ELA]

I do like the continental championships, but I wish the WC qualifying was more of a global event.  Then you wouldn't need this dipshit finals format now, and the entire qualifying process would allow for meaningful international competition during the entire cycle.

So you keep the World Cup every 4 years, and lets call that Year 0.  In Year 2 you have the continental championships.

Year 1 and Year 3 are World Cup qualifying tournaments.

Spring of Year 1, you do as many 2 leg home and homes (using FIFA rankings) as you need to get down to 150 teams.  So #150 vs. #151, #149 vs. #152, and so on up to however many FIFA members as you have.

Once that gets you down to 150, you get 30 groups of 5, determined by FIFA rankings, the highest ranked team hosts each group in Summer of Year 1, with a full round robin.  All 60 1st and 2nd place teams advance.

Then in Summer of Year 3, those 60 teams are divided into 12 groups of 5, for another full round robin.  Top 2 in each group qualify.  The 12 3rd place finishers are entered into home and homes, which take place in the Spring of Year 0, for the final 8 spots.

You make the qualifying tournaments an event, I think that trumps adding teams to a dumb format to get to 48 in the "final"

[ELA]

Man, Frenchies go down. I was rooting for Switzerland, but dag it is fun watching Pogba and Mbappe

They seemed fairly listless this entire tournament.  The US earning a draw with the Swiss prior to this tournament, is certainly playing a lot better right now