After a dull and ill-tempered first half, Australia got a goal of a set piece in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Honduras just need one to advance, but they are looking pretty gassed with 20 minutes to go.
Вперёд! 2018 World Cup Qualifiers
- Thread starter Titans Bastard
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Honduras gets called for a handball (could have gone either way as far as hand-to-ball or ball-to-hand), and it's 2-0 after the penalty kick with 17 minutes left. Honduras looks done and may resort to the dark arts very soon.
A second penalty and 3rd goal for the Aussies wraps it up with 5 minutes to go.
OK, I'll say it...the US would have put up a better showing in this playoff.
OK, I'll say it...the US would have put up a better showing in this playoff.
Couldn't have been worse. Honduras were fucken shit. We were also shit. Well, onto to Russia to make up the numbers!
Honduras struggles when they leave CONCACAF and they can't get away with their brand of martial arts soccer.
OK Kiwis, kickoff time. Bring this sucker on home.
By Elo this is #12 vs #71, although the scoreless draw the kiwis managed at home only netted them 12 points and 1 rank, so maybe the difference isn't as stark as I feel like it is.
By Elo this is #12 vs #71, although the scoreless draw the kiwis managed at home only netted them 12 points and 1 rank, so maybe the difference isn't as stark as I feel like it is.
The second half, when they were down, they stopped being down, so to speak. The falling over shit (that Mike warned me about) stopped miraculously and they looked dangerous with the ball. An incredible change.
CONCACAF owes Australia a debt for preventing Honduras from embarrassing the region on the world stage one more time.
Bah, wait till you see us give up 7 goals to whoever is the dominant team in our group. But at least our guys will give the old 100 %
My girlfriend is from Peru and she is so emotional right now. She has friends at the game and the videos they've sent are unreal. Pretty sure Peru's population is gonna increase substantially in nine months.
Yeah, if you end up in a group with Brazil, Spain, and Denmark it might not be much fun for you.
I know the answer is going to be "because FIFA rankings are dumb," but how did Poland (ELO #18) get into Pot 1 over Spain (ELO #3, 9-1-0 in qualifying with a 36-3 GD)?
From what I've read, it's because Poland doesn't play a lot of friendlies (which provide fewer points than qualifying matches) and the ranking is based on average points, not total. So, bizarrely, if I'm understanding it right, if you played the same team twice (once as a friendly, once in a qualifying match) and won 1-0 both times, your ranking would actually be worse than if you beat that team 1-0 once in a qualifying match and never played them in a friendly. Also, goal differential doesn't factor in at all.
So, yeah - FIFA rankings are dumb.
So, yeah - FIFA rankings are dumb.
Yeah and certain other countries have been gaming the system too, like Wales and Romania.
https://thesetpieces.com/world-football/beating-system-wales-planned-seeding-success-calculator/
So we need a blog which shows how many points a team has through competitive matches and "dropped through friendlies". I would expect some teams lost points in the last weeks friendly matches.
When I see that Conmebol+Uefa matches are worth more than other confeds, than I guess Poland did not play any team from another confederation (,if they played at all)...and it pays off, so why not.
When I see that Conmebol+Uefa matches are worth more than other confeds, than I guess Poland did not play any team from another confederation (,if they played at all)...and it pays off, so why not.
Benedetto may be out for Argentina come world cup time. He ruptured his ACL and likely won't be ready in time.
None of the Argentinians I know are upset about this, unless they're Boca fans.
None of the Argentinians I know are upset about this, unless they're Boca fans.