~Soccer Thread~

[ELA]

Plus you probably would like to avoid Brazil as your next match.  Likely get them now.

[ELA]

Not to mention, if Brazil and England win, there's a shot of having Renaldo-Messi and Neymar-Kane as your July 6 quarterfinals.  I might have to figure out how to work from home for that.  Stupid Wednesday Independence Day

[rolltidefan]

with brazil likely winning, the left side of the bracket now has:

uraguay
portugal
france
argentina
mexico
brazil

and if colombia and japan both win, colombia would be in this group.

belgium and england are playing for the WINNER to join that group. with both assured to advance, could we see some shenanigans from one of them to avoid that death row?

right side includes (as of now):

spain
russia
croatia
denmark
sweden
likely swiss

much easier path, from a blue blood/name standpoint.

[utee94]

Yeah, I've really been looking forward to Belgium-England, but I'm not sure how much drama there will be.  It could be, who takes the harder dive?

[Brutus Buckeye]

.

The Ottawa Fury won the first leg of the Canadian Championship play-in round, but only 1-0. Leg 2 is Wed June 27th.

...and another 1-0 victory for the Fury in the second leg. 
The first leg of the Canadian Semifinals will be July 18th, with the second leg on the 25th. 
The match ups again will be Toronto-Fury and Impact-Whitecaps. So three MLS with a USL. 

[ELA]

Yeah, I've really been looking forward to Belgium-England, but I'm not sure how much drama there will be.  It could be, who takes the harder dive?

And just wait til 2026 when they really screw the whole thing up with the 3 team groups.

Should be fun, to basically eliminate fun qualifiers and group play in the name of what boils down to a 32 team single elimination tournament every four years.  IMO, this is one of the greater format screw ups of all time, in any sport.

[ELA]

So Japan and Senegal finished tied in points and goal differential, but Japan advances based on Fair Play because they had 4 yellow cards to Senegal's six?  What kind of weird ass rule is that?

[MaximumSam]

They have to pick something - after that it's coin flipping time.

England v. Belgium is interesting.  Would you rather play Japan in the first round but likely face Brazil in the second?  Or face Colombia in the first round but then get either Sweden or Switzerland in the second?

[MaximumSam]

My quote button isn't working, but yes, the new format is ridiculous.  The World Cup is nearly perfect as it is - the group stage creates some of the most compelling drama in any tournament.  So disappointing that they would change it.

[Entropy]

What is the official why behind the change?

[ELA]

What is the official why behind the change?

Same reason behind the format change to every sport ever, money.  More money to be made on 48 teams vs. 32.  But I think it destroys the qualifying rounds, and makes the group play part wonky, and ultimately not that interesting. So many of those groups you are going to know in advance which 2 will get out.

[Entropy]

That might be the reason.. I was just wondering if there was an official statement I missed.

Initially when I heard this I assumed they'd keep the 8 groupings, but expand to 6 teams.   Even if they only moved on 2 from each, they'd have more games and more inventory to sell.   If they moved on 3, that would expand it even more.... 

[rolltidefan]

They have to pick something - after that it's coin flipping time.

England v. Belgium is interesting.  Would you rather play Japan in the first round but likely face Brazil in the second?  Or face Colombia in the first round but then get either Sweden or Switzerland in the second?

tbh, i think i'd rather a coin flip than the subjective whim of the refs. some of these refs won't pull a card for blood, other will kick the grass out of the match for tripping if they could.

[rolltidefan]

That might be the reason.. I was just wondering if there was an official statement I missed.

Initially when I heard this I assumed they'd keep the 8 groupings, but expand to 6 teams.   Even if they only moved on 2 from each, they'd have more games and more inventory to sell.   If they moved on 3, that would expand it even more....

the 'official' reason given:
Fifa’s expressed ambition for this expanded tournament is that it will allow less celebrated footballing nations – think China and India – to join “the world’s greatest party” or whatever they call it nowadays.