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World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

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Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Would the small Caribbean teams be able to afford the extra travel? Also what happens when a US/Mexico player blows out a knee because they're playing on a field that most US high schools would consider subpar?
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

bigmrg74 said:
12 pools of 4 teams. Top team in each pool get an automatic spot into the Round of 16. The second best teams in each pool have a playoff to get the final four slots into the Round of 16. Maybe have it be double elimination as some teams there would have to play at least 2 games while 4 teams would only get one game in a single elimination tournament.
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I agree with the majority opinion that 32 teams is perfect for the World Cup and should not be changed. However, there is too much money dangled in front of greedy eyes to leave perfection alone.

One thing that works well is that only 2 teams advance from each pool of 4 teams. Can we keep that layout, at least?

12 pools of 4 teams.
- top 8 first-place finishers get first-round bye in knockout round.
- remaining 4 first-place finishers plus 12 2nd-place finishers: first knockout round, 16 teams in 8 games.
- next knockout round, those 8 winners play the top 8 first-place finishers in another round of 8 games
- we then proceed as we normally would.
 
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RaceBoarder said:
Would the small Caribbean teams be able to afford the extra travel? Also what happens when a US/Mexico player blows out a knee because they're playing on a field that most US high schools would consider subpar?
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Those are going to be the two obstacles. Imagine Pulisic blowing a knee (Emrakul forbid) on some crab grass field in the Caribbean and how Dortmund would react?
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Jimjamesak said:
Those are going to be the two obstacles. Imagine Pulisic blowing a knee (Emrakul forbid) on some crab grass field in the Caribbean and how Dortmund would react?
Click to expand...

Going back to the 2014 qualifying style seems like the answer, top six get introduced the round before the hex, avoiding too many games on horrible fields throughout the confederation. It also allows all but 5 of the 10 worst teams teams to participate in a group, although it does eliminate all but the group winner.

Those 10 teams would have been:
Barbados (169)
Bermuda (173)
Nicaragua (175)
Turks and Caicos Islands (181)
Curaçao (182)
U.S. Virgin Islands (191)
Bahamas (193)
Cayman Islands (197)
British Virgin Islands (201)
Anguilla (207)
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Shirtless Guy said:
It would address the current problem by allowing countries like Suriname to participate in some kind of group stage which results in at least 3 home games. I know the reason they didn't do it was because of the lack of quality opponents to help with things. Maybe the answer is a bigger gold cup?
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That's a good point. In that case, why not just add a group stage on the front end and leave the back end alone with 1 final group. If it elongates or condenses the schedule for the smaller nations, so be it.

But they have to keep that final single group to insure significant opportunities for the WC qualifying teams to play meaningful games against quality competition. That has to be paramount.
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Shirtless Guy said:
Going back to the 2014 qualifying style seems like the answer, top six get introduced the round before the hex, avoiding too many games on horrible fields throughout the confederation. It also allows all but 5 of the 10 worst teams teams to participate in a group, although it does eliminate all but the group winner.

Those 10 teams would have been:
Barbados (169)
Bermuda (173)
Nicaragua (175)
Turks and Caicos Islands (181)
Curaçao (182)
U.S. Virgin Islands (191)
Bahamas (193)
Cayman Islands (197)
British Virgin Islands (201)
Anguilla (207)
Click to expand...

Why not pull the World Cup of Hockey and create "Team Caribbean". Maybe they'll have a "C" logo with a soccer ball inside the "C" as homage to this.
 
Jimjamesak said:
Like the West Indies in cricket? An absolute nightmare politically and very much against FIFA policy.
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WI used to be the most feared cricket side in the world. However the Cricket Board is a mess and screwed the pooch.

But there is hope. The WI won the World T20 titles (M&W). Their test and ODI teams continue to be in disarray.
 
joecct said:
WI used to be the most feared cricket side in the world. However the Cricket Board is a mess and screwed the pooch.

But there is hope. The WI won the World T20 titles (M&W). Their test and ODI teams continue to be in disarray.
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The state of a West Indies FA wouldn't be any different than the Cricket Board to be honest. I doubt T&T and Jamaica would want to participate anyway, they are competitive enough on their own and without them the whole thing is rather worthless.
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Well if they blow up to the absurd 48 country tournament, we're probably the only **** country on the planet that can handle it on our own.
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Jimjamesak said:
Yet we'll still have to cohost with at least Canada because reasons.
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yeah, I thought the co-hosting thing was a bit of a disaster before? Now they want it? I mean, it does make sense for USA/Canada to co-host and it would be great for Canada to automatically qualify, although under the 48 team format, not sure they deserve to be seeded. Can you imagine the sh-tstorm if they do cohost with canada and the same WC stadiums have grass for the men?
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

The Portland Timbers managed to lose the Cascadia Cup and get eliminated from the playoffs all in one game.

Seattle goes from last in the West to 4th to make the playoffs.

Dallas wins the Supporters Shield, has a shot at the Treble.
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

This doesn't bode well for Minnesota United:

Over/under on Minnesota United wins? (@4rest4thetrees)

Part of me wants to wait until we see the players Minnesota United puts out on the field next spring. But I make a lot of calls around MLS, and I can’t tell you how many coaches, GMs and agents there are who are saying Minnesota in its first year might be one of the worst teams in MLS history on the field. It doesn’t help Minnesota that it’s being compared to Atlanta, which looks set to be competitive in season one on the field and perhaps near the top of the league in terms of attendance and atmosphere. One thing that people in Minnesota do say, however, is that in a couple years they’ll be playing in their own stadium on grass at a time when Atlanta is playing in an NFL stadium on artificial turf. And that’s a pretty good point. Anyway, to answer your question, Chicago and Houston have the lowest number of wins in MLS at seven. Over/under for Minnesota in 2017 is five.
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Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Jimjamesak said:
This doesn't bode well for Minnesota United:
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Whatever, what is he suppose to say? They're still playing in the NASL right now and they've always been tight lipped. What is he basing that on? the speculation that they have done nothing? What are they suppose to do? Announce coaching interviews while still having a current coach attempt to lead them in whats left of their season? I'll hold everything until they're saying something like that after the expansion draft, because that will mean MNUFC will have had plenty of time to announce a coach, player moves, etc. Granted part of the reason they could likely be awful is because they are stuck in the West...

http://fiftyfive.one/2016/10/will-minnesota-united-fc-worst-team-history-mls/
 
Shirtless Guy said:
Whatever, what is he suppose to say? They're still playing in the NASL right now and they've always been tight lipped. What is he basing that on? the speculation that they have done nothing? What are they suppose to do? Announce coaching interviews while still having a current coach attempt to lead them in whats left of their season? I'll hold everything until they're saying something like that after the expansion draft, because that will mean MNUFC will have had plenty of time to announce a coach, player moves, etc. Granted part of the reason they could likely be awful is because they are stuck in the West...

http://fiftyfive.one/2016/10/will-minnesota-united-fc-worst-team-history-mls/
Click to expand...
I read that article as well and I know MNU is still playing in the NASL. I think the biggest thing is that they've kept quiet about plans while past and current expansion teams at this stage have already announced player signings and such. Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver had already announced that certain players had signed, Atlanta already has a coach, a known signing, and multiple homegrown signings from an already successful academy. Comparing that to MNU, it just looks like MNU has no idea what it's doing. Add in the fact that they're going to be in a ridiculously difficult Western Conference and I can see the reasoning.

BTW, for me the telling thing is the GMs part. Players, coaches, agents is whatever but if GMs are saying something I think there's smoke there.
 
Re: World Soccer XXVII: The REAL Football

Jimjamesak said:
I read that article as well and I know MNU is still playing in the NASL. I think the biggest thing is that they've kept quiet about plans while past and current expansion teams at this stage have already announced player signings and such. Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver had already announced that certain players had signed, Atlanta already has a coach, a known signing, and multiple homegrown signings from an already successful academy. Comparing that to MNU, it just looks like MNU has no idea what it's doing. Add in the fact that they're going to be in a ridiculously difficult Western Conference and I can see the reasoning.

BTW, for me the telling thing is the GMs part. Players, coaches, agents is whatever but if GMs are saying something I think there's smoke there.
Click to expand...
Minnesota, especially Manny Lagos, has always been tight lipped about things. I would not be surprised if United doesn't get the results necessary this weekend that we hear 10 things before next Wednesday. Atlanta isn't a fair comparison. They don't have a current team, they need to do things to get in the news and make waves with their market. MNUFC has a coach, and a full team right now. The fact that we don't know who is going with to MLS isn't a surprise because it isn't really fair to the current players to be talking about that and distracting them from the job they are trying to do right now. GMs have no idea what Manny Lagos has completed in the background because thats the way he is. The fact that there is skepticism around MLS GMs about what Manny is doing isn't surprising, because they have nothing but that absence of facts to judge him on. While I agree that United is in a tough spot because they were not official until very recently, who really knows what that means?

What do you want them to do? Announce that these 6 players are coming along next year while telling the other 20 guys they'll need to find new jobs, while still trying to complete this season? I could see that they might have announced a DP by now but I don't seem them being a very splashy team anyway in that regard.

I will admit that I really didn't pay attention to this process for previous expansion to know how different United is acting, but I will admit that I am not at all surprised that they are acting differently than most others...
 
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