2014 World Cup Qualification Thread

June 3 & 7, 2011

Montserrat v Belize
Anguilla v Dominican Republic
US Virgin Islands v British Virgin Islands
Aruba v St. Luca
Bahamas v Turks & Caicos Islands

goooooooo US Virgin Islands

awesome

and not before time i add

In Case You Missed It, the 2014 World Cup Just Started

it's the road to rio baby

about ricardo teixeira, president of cbf (brazilian confederation of football)

It's live now. It's happening here: http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminarydraw/draw.html

Seems somewhat complicated.

i sure hope this grouping occurs

England
France
Ireland
Scotland
Faroe Islands
Wales

Japan will undoubtedly be looking to fly the flag for freedom in the face of a group containing Uzbekistan, Syria and N Korea.

Damn. T&T will play Mexico and Costa Rica if i'm reading this right.

Yep. Don't fuck with Sepp, right.

yay fatnaldo

Oh christ. Germany

yeah that'll be painful

lol france

England finally get San Marino again - should be ok after the first minute

Decent group otherwise. Brian Kerr reunion should be a laugh

Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland, Macedonia, Wales
Italy, Denmark, Czech Rep, Bulgaria, Armenia, Malta
Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Faroes, Kazakhstan
Netherlands, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Estonia, Andorra
Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, Albania, Cyprus, Iceland
Portugal, Russia, Israel, N Ireland, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg
Greece, Slovakia, Bosnia, Lithuania, Latvia, Lichtenstein
England, Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, San Marino
Spain, France, Belarus, Georgia, Finland

Greece are going to stay top seeds forever, the draws they get

Greece, Slovakia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lithuania, Latvia, Lichtenstein

before that gets to Liechtenstein it looks like a plausible Pot 4.

*Obligatory "we're fucked" post*

However, we're better than Wales, so that's a thing.

Actually looking at the rest of the groups ours is pretty shit

ah we could've been fuckeder, i think that means this is a cause for celebration.

would def rather England had to play France

well at least until that generation of superstar Belgians blossoms. xp

Croatia - not as strong as usual atm
Serbia - always the possibilty of crowd trouble & consequent 3-0 win
Belgium - haven't clicked yet
Macedonia - might catch them on an offday
Wales - genuinely are total rubbish

Should be a walk-through for Holland. Bit annoyed at this outcome tbh, would rather have drawn Belgium or France for some good cracking games.

Spain vs France and vice versa is the best one here though, will defo watch if I get the chance!

Lots of positive thinking in the office this morning like "thing is, these are all teams who can take points off each other" until The Cloud of Doom (me) chimed in with "these are all teams who can take points off Scotland."

I'm getting to the point where all draws for all competitions bore the arse off me - the constant reinforcement of seedings/rankings makes the whole thing a boring charade. We should get rid of the concept of seeding altogether - I'm all for a free open draw where anyone can play anyone.

"Fat France Lamps: I want to go to 2014, I hear we all get a free McDonald's for taking part."

Bloody autocorrect.

Seeding in this one was particularly weird. Greece top seeds? And don't get me started on Norway, I have NEVER seen a good Norway team, even the team that gubbed us 4-0 (probably their record international score) were crap. Thing that strikes me is just how many mediocre teams there are in Europe, seedings 3-4 are pretty much interchangeable (I mean, for example, are Hungary really better than Scotland?)

yes

Hungary are shite though surely? Oh... OK...

seedings 3-4 are pretty much interchangeable

Totally. Bump France up to top seeds, drop Norway and Greece back down, and pot 2 downwards is mostly just a tedious mass until you get to the minnows. Even when they do qualify, very few of these sides are ever going to improve a tournament. The 24-team Euros are going to be pretty dire.

I don't understand the Norway thing at all.

Greece and their relatively recent trophy and churningly consistent antifootball I can understand but why are Norway in there again? Even over teams like Russia or Switzerland or whoever.

even the team that gubbed us 4-0 (probably their record international score) were crap

Yeah, but we had a pair of Caldwells at the back (until one got sent off).

We are never going to stop our slide down the world rankings ever, are we?

No idea, they must be above France in the FIFA rankings somehow. Scotland matched them in 2010 qualifying though.

Ha, the 0-4 apart.

recent results v Scotland is probably the ninth tiebreaker

They have bored us to death on quite a few occasions I must admit

We should get rid of the concept of seeding altogether

Don't know about that but it needs to be loosened up a bit in some way. I hate these unwieldy 6 team groups, I'd rather have 4 team groups then a series of play offs.

I hate the seedings thing too, but I bet if they abandoned it we'd be the cannon fodder in a Spain/England/Germany/Holland/France Group of Death. Chances of getting a group featuring us, Wales, Norn Iron, Faroes, San Marino and Malta quite remote (and we'd still contrive not to qualify out of it, tbh).

how are montenegro a second seed? just cos they're like, great players and stuff? they've never qualified for anything and finished below ireland last time around...

were they given a shared ranking points with serbia or something?

Pretty sure it's because they're doing well in Euro 2012 qualifying, they are joint top of their group with England, one of the world's most feared footballing nations

It's based solely on the current FIFA rankings, which must be incredibly short term because Mexico have dropped from 9th to 20th in one go when all that's happened is they sent the youth team along to the copa america.

I've always figured the rankings are calculated using something similar to this method
http://media.avclub.com/images/articles/article/55943/SPimage11_jpg_300x1000_q85.jpg

Januzaj's made the Belgium squad

Goalkeepers: Courtois, Mignolet, Casteels/Proto.

Defenders: Alderweireld, Vanden Borre, Ciman, Kompany, Van Buyten, Vermaelen, Lombaerts, Vertonghen

Midfielders: Witsel, Defour, Fellaini, Dembélé, Chadli, De Bruyne.

Forwards: Lukaku, Origi, Hazard, Mertens, Mirallas, Januzaj.

Standby players: Nainggolan, Pocognoli, Hazard, Gillet, Batshuayi, Van Damme.

atletico madrids central midfield in the european cup final will be two players (gabi and mario suarez) who didnt even get in that provisional squad

Keep finding myself thinking this might be a tournament too far for Spain, but then I look at that squad again.

Van Buyten can't be starting for Belgium anymore surely? Vermaelen hardly in form either.

Cazorla unlikely to make the final 23 I'd have thought although Del Bosque is v loyal.

Naingollan had a better season than Fellaini certainly.

Lol saw standby players - Hazard and was all WTF??!! Then realised it was other Hazard.

So Isco didn't even make the 30.

For all the worries about England's defence they would have to go some to match the ineptitude shown last time round by Terry/Upson trying to deal with a Manuel Neuer punt.

Question for Dan M. Is John Brooks likely to make the final 23 for USA? Every time I've seen him play he's been rubbish. Also is it true that he's missed a few games this season because he got some massive tattoo in the middle of the season which need time to heal??

They're thin in central defense, so it's anyone's guess if he makes it or not. I'm guessing probably not because the times he has played he's been lousy. I remember hearing about the tattoo thing, yes.

GOALKEEPERS (3) : Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)

DEFENDERS (11) : DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Timmy Chandler (Nürnberg), Brad Evans (Seattle Sounders FC), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Clarence Goodson (San Jose Earthquakes), Fabian Johnson (Hoffenheim), Michael Parkhurst (Columbus Crew), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)

MIDFIELDERS (10) : Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Joe Corona (Club Tijuana), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Maurice Edu (Philadelphia Union), Julian Green (Bayern Munich), Jermaine Jones (Besiktas), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)

FORWARDS (6) : Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), Terrence Boyd (Rapid Vienna), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Landon Donovan (LA Galaxy), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

Surprises are Brooks, Chandler, Yedlin, Corona, Green... of those, Chandler is probably most likely to make the final 23. I'd say Davis, Edu, and Wondo are also tossups.

Okay thanks. I like Fabian Johnson even if the Hoffenheim defence is ropey as fuck in general he always looks like he knows what he's doing and uses the ball sensibly as well. Seen him play either full-back position as well so has some versatility. Jones was great last season for Schalke but had a difficult first half of the season this time round before leaving in January. Never seen Green play.

I don't think anyone has seen Green play aside from the cameo he made against Mexico a couple months ago. afaik he's never seen first team action for Bayern.

he played for about 5 minutes in the CL game against CSKA

Argentina 30 man squad

Goalkeepers: Sergio Romero, Mariano Andújar, Agustín Orion

Defenders: Ezequiel Garay, Federico Fernández, Pablo Zabaleta, Marcos Rojo, José María Basanta, Hugo Campagaro, Nicolás Otamendi, Martín Demichelis, Gabriel Mercado, Lisandro López

Midfielders : Fernando Gago, Lucas Biglia, Javier Mascherano, Ever Banega, Angel Di María, Maximiliano Rodríguez, Ricardo Alvarez, Augusto Fernández, Enzo Pérez, José Sosa, Fabian Rinaudo

Forwards: Sergio Agüero, Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Rodrigo Palacio, Di Santo

no Bebe in the Portugal squad. Fuckers

they were going to pick him but they didnt have anywhere to send the letter to

argentina always pick a certain amount of goons with no athleticism or composure

mercado is a short, fat, combative domestic cb, rinaudo a landfill dmid on loan from sporting, di santo is a notional forward who scored four goals last season

none of their gks are worth shit

they are the only team i want to win the world cup

brazil-argentina final not unlikely & would love to see them do it

will they play a front 3 of messi higuain aguero?

its a sort of lopside 4312 with messi as playmaker

di maria is the most important player after messi, has to shuffle along the left flank while also keeping the midfield solid, mascherano as dmid and probably gago on the right

although he was shit there four years ago, after this season di maria probably has to be considered one of the best midfielders in the world, his combination of tactical intelligence, ludicrous workrate, lightning speed and very good technique is singular

the defence is alright, zabaleta and garay the only first rate players there

i don't think they are more than third or fourth favourites because their system is unproven against elite european teams, they are nonetheless potentially great in a way germany and brazil probably are not

Sylvain Distin
‏@sylvaind15tin
I m retiring from France team. It was a wonderful experience and after a record of #0 cap it's time to say goodbye and focus on my club

http://metrouk2.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/nasri.jpg

Nasri's missus not taking the selection as well as Distin :)

Distin only has #0 cap tho tbf

he earned every none of them

even Boško Balaban managed the odd 35

nasri's a little shit who has never shown anything good while playing for france, no reason for him to be on the team. as deschamps himself said, nasri's level of play for france has hardly been convincing so were he to select him it would have been as a bench option and he knows that nasri would not have been able to deal with that. but those tweets did make for a few goood jokes last night.

also looking at that argentina squad seeing lisandro lopez in the defenders, for a second i thought it was good ol' licha (used to play upfront for lyon)

that lisandro lopez is playing in arabia now but hes still surely better than di santo

yeah, lyon sold him to al gharafa last summer. tbh his last season in lyon he started showing signs of decline, but since i don't know di santo i have no idea if he's any better

does Messi hate Tevez or something?

Henry Winter ‏@henrywinter 14h
Spent bit of time with @SamNasri19 recently. Thoughtful if complicated. France technically poorer sans Nasri. Admire @_Anara_ loyal reaction

yeah

argentina don't need him anyway, he never did shit for them, time to move on

i look forward to hearing what nasri told henry winter, it's definitely the first time i've seen the words thoughtful and nasri together.

the interview was a couple of weeks ago. He doesn't come across too badly tbf

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/10788594/Samir-Nasri-I-wanted-to-make-history-at-Manchester-City-in-my-first-year-I-won-the-league.html

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/14/world-cup-2014-luiz-felipe-scolari-brazil-group-a

we were about to play Australia in the Asian qualifier for the World Cup and I asked the Iraqi football federation to find me an opponent with similar style. I suggested Wales. Instead, they brought me Brazil

I assume "similar style" went through a translator to "someone who wears yellow".

Deschamps can't seriously be sueing Sami Nasri's gf? For telling him "fuck you" on twitter?

Suarez out??

seems to be a good chance

think how much more humiliating it'll be when they gub England

welp, seeya lando

2014 FIFA WORLD CUP – U.S. ROSTER BY POSITION
GOALKEEPERS (3): Brad Guzan (Aston Villa), Tim Howard (Everton), Nick Rimando (Real Salt Lake)
DEFENDERS (8): DaMarcus Beasley (Puebla), Matt Besler (Sporting Kansas City), John Brooks (Hertha Berlin), Geoff Cameron (Stoke City), Timmy Chandler (Nürnberg), Omar Gonzalez (LA Galaxy), Fabian Johnson (Borussia Mönchengladbach), DeAndre Yedlin (Seattle Sounders FC)
MIDFIELDERS (8): Kyle Beckerman (Real Salt Lake), Alejandro Bedoya (Nantes), Michael Bradley (Toronto FC), Brad Davis (Houston Dynamo), Mix Diskerud (Rosenborg), Julian Green (Bayern Munich), Jermaine Jones (Besiktas), Graham Zusi (Sporting Kansas City)
FORWARDS (4): Jozy Altidore (Sunderland), Clint Dempsey (Seattle Sounders FC), Aron Johannsson (AZ Alkmaar), Chris Wondolowski (San Jose Earthquakes)

no donovan but u still have the conceivably wonkiest looking squad in brasil

http://nbcprosoccertalk.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/1532023_10152341017093941_7497240197832943140_n.png

Well yeah Kyle Beckerman alone is enough to claim that

so many crunchy frisbros

have we a euro qualifiers thread yet

pointless. everyone qualifies iirc

heh

Is there a World Cup thread yet? If not, this can go here:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/may/27/world-cup-25-stunning-moments-patrick-battiston?CMP=EMCFTBEML853
The injustice is my most enduring memory from the first World Cup I remember watching.

just bossed Italy. We're going to win the World Cup*

*in 2018

FIFA World Cup 2014

Alex pearce broke montolivio's leg wtf?

totally innocuous challenge