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FIFA WC 26 - Other Nations LIVE Match Thread ⚽

Argentina have WON their last ten.

The slip on the banana peel is coming, I just hope it against Australia.
If Lucas Herrington has a field day and manages to run riot round Lionel Messi defensively then the Socceroos should definitely be able to get the job done over Argentina.
 
The rest of East Asia just isn’t good enough and we know that. Maybe Indo but China and pretty much all of SEA are terrible. What that shows is that Japan, South Korea and us are the best nations in Asia (with Iran and Saudi behind them).

Similarly I could argue that CONCACAF must suck because none of the Caribbean or Central American countries qualified.
I’m just saying by keeping Asia as one pool gives the best chance for the top sides to qualify. Being totally selfish, I’d wait until East Asia was performing better beyond the top 3 before pushing for the separation. Then again, I quite like the idea of East Asia combining with Oceania (and consuming their spot) while West and Central Asia remain together. So all of Asia and Oceania might get 10 spots. 4 for each and two up for grabs/shared. So you could have 5/5, 6/4, or 4/6 split depending on the strength at the time.
 
DR Congo paying $14 for win or $5.50 for draw. Easy money.

England haven't had their choke game yet.

Thankfully I don't gamble much on football or my family would be living in shopping centre car parks. Is a draw in a knockout stage game after 90 minutes or after extra time ?
 
I’m just saying by keeping Asia as one pool gives the best chance for the top sides to qualify. Being totally selfish, I’d wait until East Asia was performing better beyond the top 3 before pushing for the separation. Then again, I quite like the idea of East Asia combining with Oceania (and consuming their spot) while West and Central Asia remain together. So all of Asia and Oceania might get 10 spots. 4 for each and two up for grabs/shared. So you could have 5/5, 6/4, or 4/6 split depending on the strength at the time.
That's how I would imagine it too

I harp on about it a lot - but there's a post from like.. a year or two ago I made where I did hypothetical qualifiers for the World Cups splitting the regions this way, (was 4 + 1 for both I think) and for East Asia/Oceania, the rankings still had Australia, Japan, Korea Republic and New Zealand as the automatic qualifiers (maybe it was 5+1 and NZ was 5th and I'm missing someone?).

But essentially, the minnows in East Asia (according to FIFA Rankings) are on par with the upper echelon (sans NZ) of Oceania.

I might try and find, and then re-do/link here using current FIFA Rankings (and/or maybe ELO rankings as well)
 
Thankfully I don't gamble much on football or my family would be living in shopping centre car parks. Is a draw in a knockout stage game after 90 minutes or after extra time ?
I think a draw in a knockout stage game would likely be after extra time because it's possible for teams to get results in extra time if they draw at the end of regulation time.
 
I think this is getting better traffic than the General thread, so am posting here - but full Round of 32 kits/matchups announced - and certainly a couple choices in there.


This is the one that's most baffling to me (despite how nice the Japan away kit is)
1782705941570.png
Why is it baffling? Well, Japan's home kit is Blue/White/Blue and doesn't clash.
1782706011842.png

in fact, it's essentially what's being used/allowed for France v Sweden
1782706045997.png

In away kits are:
Canada, Paraguay, Morocco, Japan, Norway, Belgium, Portugal, and Croatia.

The other intersting choice is Ecuador going banana against Mexico, despite Navy Blue shorts not clashing with White?
 
You have to feel sorry for Japan, they were in maybe the worst spot in the draw.

Beat Sweden by 3 goals and you face Morocco, the best African side.
Draw Sweden and you play Brazil.
Lose to Sweden and you're up against France.

No good options here.
 
On top have North Africa, Turkey and the Orient play in West Asian. The Gulf teams would never allow it. They have the Arab Cup then they can all get together.
I think I had that as my split too - Whatever are deemed as the "West Asian" nations of AFC (and there are official regionalised groups to make that distinction) plus any nation that regularly plays in the Arab Cup
 
20 European teams
12 African teams
12 Asian teams
8 North American teams
8 South American teams
2 Oceanian teams
2 Intercontinental Playoff spots (between Africa, Asia, Oceania and North America)
This would give (italics indicates new teams):

UEFA (20):
  • Austria
  • Belgium
  • Bosnia
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Denmark
  • England
  • France
  • Germany
  • Italy
  • Kosovo
  • Netherlands
  • Norway
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Scotland
  • Spain
  • Sweden
  • Switzerland
  • Turkey
AFC (12):
  • Australia
  • Indonesia
  • Iran
  • Iraq
  • Japan
  • Jordan
  • Oman
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • South Korea
  • UAE
  • Uzbekistan
CAF (12):
  • Algeria
  • Cameroon or Gabon
  • Cape Verde
  • DRC
  • Egypt
  • Ghana
  • Ivory Coast
  • Morocco
  • Nigeria
  • Senegal
  • South Africa
  • Tunisia
CONCACAF (8):
  • Canada
  • Curaçao
  • Haiti
  • Jamaica
  • Mexico
  • Panama
  • Suriname
  • USA
CONMEBOL (8):
  • Argentina
  • Bolivia
  • Brazil
  • Colombia
  • Ecuador
  • Paraguay
  • Uruguay
  • Venezuela
OFC (2):
  • New Caledonia
  • New Zealand
Playoffs (4):
  • Cameroon or Gabon (CAF)
  • Honduras (CONCACAF)
  • Palestine (AFC)
  • Peru (CONMEBOL)
  • Fiji or Tahiti (OFC)
For the AFC I did the best fifth-placed team from the third round groups. Palestine had 10 points, China had nine and Kyrgyzstan had eight, so it was very close.
 
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