WC 2010 qualification - CONCACAF draw!
Il raccattapalle
Guatemala vs (Turks and Caicos Islands vs St. Lucia)
Trinidad and Tobago vs (Bermuda vs Cayman Islands)
(Aruba vs Antigua and Barbuda) vs Cuba
(Belize vs St. Kitts and Nevis) vs Mexico
Jamaica vs (Bahamas vs British Virgin Islands)
Honduras vs (Dominican Rep. vs Puerto Rico)
Canada vs St. Vincent/Grenadine
(US Virgin Islands vs Grenada) vs Costa Rica
(Suriname vs Montserrat) vs Guyana
Panama vs (El Salvador vs Anguilla)
Haiti vs (Nicaragua vs Netherland Antilles)
Ciao!
Bruce Scott TOK
>Guatemala vs (Turks and Caicos Islands vs St. Lucia)
>Trinidad and Tobago vs (Bermuda vs Cayman Islands)
>(Aruba vs Antigua and Barbuda) vs Cuba
Should be doable to finish top 2 or top 1 out of this one
I would expect the USA to win all the home games.
>(Belize vs St. Kitts and Nevis) vs Mexico
>Jamaica vs (Bahamas vs British Virgin Islands)
>Honduras vs (Dominican Rep. vs Puerto Rico)
>Canada vs St. Vincent/Grenadine
Similarly easy for Mexico
>(US Virgin Islands vs Grenada) vs Costa Rica
>(Suriname vs Montserrat) vs Guyana
>Panama vs (El Salvador vs Anguilla)
>Haiti vs (Nicaragua vs Netherland Antilles)
Would be more open except CR seems to have been handed it on a plate.
Assuming the favourites make the first K/O step first of course.
--
ciao,
Bruce
drift wave turbulence: http://www.rzg.mpg.de/~bds/
PB
Again, the draw proves critical. Mexico, Canada, Honduras, and Jamaica
are four of the region's five most talented teams, but because they're
all in the same group, only two of them will reach the Hex. If El Tri
were to slip up in Azteca, it'd be in trouble. At the opposite
extreme, Costa Rica and Panama have a remarkably easy path. The other
group is deep enough to be interesting, although the US shouldn't find
it too threatening ... and because Mexico's group will thin out the
field, the Hex looks like it'll be weak again.
Having drawn an easy route to qualification, the US should be glad
that it qualified for the 2009 Confederations Cup. Otherwise, there
would be a huge risk of showing up under-prepared again.
P
PB
> So, you're saying CONCACAF needs to fix its qualification setup? ;-P
No, I'm saying Concacaf needs better teams! :-)
P
Jim Goloboy
> USA vs (Dominica vs Barbados)
> Guatemala vs (Turks and Caicos Islands vs St. Lucia)
> Trinidad and Tobago vs (Bermuda vs Cayman Islands)
> (Aruba vs Antigua and Barbuda) vs Cuba
This could be a little tricky for the US if we get the tough road
matches first, but Trinidad and Guatemala never score against us.
Unfortunate draw for those two.
> (Belize vs St. Kitts and Nevis) vs Mexico
> Jamaica vs (Bahamas vs British Virgin Islands)
> Honduras vs (Dominican Rep. vs Puerto Rico)
> Canada vs St. Vincent/Grenadine
If all these teams play their best, it's the semifinal group of death,
but hey're seeded where they are because they usually don't. The only
group with just one team from the previous hex. Mexico's toughest
semifinal group in a while, and could be interesting for them given
their mediocre record against Honduras and away in the Caribbean.
> (US Virgin Islands vs Grenada) vs Costa Rica
> (Suriname vs Montserrat) vs Guyana
> Panama vs (El Salvador vs Anguilla)
> Haiti vs (Nicaragua vs Netherland Antilles)
Scandalously easy group. Clearly Jack Warner has always favored Costa
Rica and hated Trinidad.
MH
True enough, but a seeding based on FIFA rankings after the Gold Cup
would also have led to a more even distribution (I think).
Fair for the semifinal group stage would be something like:
USA
Trinidad
Guatemala
Guyana
Mexico
Jamaica
Panama
Haiti
Costa Rica
Honduras
Canada
Cuba
>
> P
MH
PB wrote:
> On Nov 25, 7:55 am, Il raccattapalle <xian.rai...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>USA vs (Dominica vs Barbados)
>>Guatemala vs (Turks and Caicos Islands vs St. Lucia)
>>Trinidad and Tobago vs (Bermuda vs Cayman Islands)
>>(Aruba vs Antigua and Barbuda) vs Cuba
Is there a potential problem with the US playing in Cuba ? Not sure how
the boycott rules work.
CONCACAF should consider mvoing to a qualifying system where previous
results carry over - so two groups of six for semifinal round,
(10 games), results carry over, top 3 move on from each group. Play six
more matches to decide final table. Total = 16, exactly the same as now.
Jason Maxwell
news:4749C4F9...@ucalgary.ca...
>
>
> PB wrote:
> > On Nov 25, 7:55 am, Il raccattapalle <xian.rai...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>USA vs (Dominica vs Barbados)
> >>Guatemala vs (Turks and Caicos Islands vs St. Lucia)
> >>Trinidad and Tobago vs (Bermuda vs Cayman Islands)
> >>(Aruba vs Antigua and Barbuda) vs Cuba
>
> Is there a potential problem with the US playing in Cuba ? Not sure how
> the boycott rules work.
>
Miami or Jamaica or something?
Jason
Jason Maxwell
news:0hojk35gb18kapkc1...@4ax.com...
> Quoting Jason Maxwell in rec.sport.soccer:
>
> >I had the same question. Will Cuba's "home" match have to be played in
> >Miami or Jamaica or something?
>
> understanding, but why should USA be allowed to not play against Cuba in
> Cuba? I do know (some) about the /politics/, but what is actually the
story
> re /soccer/?
>
Well issues like this are why Israel competes in Europe and not Asia,
correct? Seems that FIFA has been willing to work around political issues
in the past. Don't know about this situation though.
Jason
MH
In this situation FIFA should insist that the US play in Cuba or forfeit
the game 3-0. There has been no trouble with Cuba coming to the US to
play in the gold cup (apart from defections). There is no security risk
to US players or fans travelling to Cuba. In other words, there is no
reason, other than the current US government's ideologically based
boycott, for the US not to play in Cuba.
I don't see the analogy to Israel being all that apposite. I think there
would be a real danger to Israeli players and fans travelling to certain
asian countries to compete.
This is a bit more like the situation with the USSR refusing to play in
Chile (though the reasons for that were more understandable)- which led
to disqualification of the USSR from the 1974 WC.
>
> Jason
>
>
Jason Maxwell
> Quoting Jason Maxwell in rec.sport.soccer:
>
> >Well issues like this are why Israel competes in Europe and not Asia,
> >correct? Seems that FIFA has been willing to work around political
issues
> >in the past. Don't know about this situation though.
>
> being allowed to play at home? Perhaps USA should join Conmebol, or UEFA,
> instead of FIFA letting Cuba suffer?
>
True (Well except that part about changing confederations ;) ). A better
solution, given FIFA's willingness in the past to set rules for draws, would
have been to not allow the U.S. and Cuba to end up in the same group.
Wouldn't solve the problem should both advance to the hex, but I think the
odds of that are pretty unlikely.
Of course, there are exceptions to the U.S.'s Cuba policy already, perhaps
the U.S. - Cuba game will be allowed to take place in Cuba and all of this
will be moot.
Jason
PB
> Is there a potential problem with the US playing in Cuba ? Not sure how
> the boycott rules work.
Athletes representing the US are exempt from the ban. A grayer area
would be athletes who reside in the US but represent other countries.
If they didn't work the system correctly, they could easily end up
with a headache.
P
Jim Goloboy
> Is there a potential problem with the US playing in Cuba ? Not sure how
> the boycott rules work.
I don't think so, the US plays baseball events there all the time. The
big question is whether our home match against them will be first,
ensuring that their team will be a couple players short for the
rematch :)
Huw Morris
> Again, the draw proves critical. Mexico, Canada, Honduras, and Jamaica
> are four of the region's five most talented teams,
Agreed that Costa Rica are in the CONCACAF top 5, but personally, I'd put
USA higher than sixth...
Huw
PB
Haven't followed things much since 2001, Huw? :-) When it comes to
Costa Rica, that's not a big deal, though, since they don't have any
new players.
P
gisel...@gmail.com
i think that the US-Team could play in Cuba, perhaps in Santiago!!
OJALA!!
Mark V.
> Quoting Jason Maxwell in rec.sport.soccer:
>
> >Well issues like this are why Israel competes in Europe and not Asia,
> >correct? Seems that FIFA has been willing to work around political issues
> >in the past. Don't know about this situation though.
>
> being allowed to play at home? Perhaps USA should join Conmebol, or UEFA,
> instead of FIFA letting Cuba suffer?
>
games in Cuba in 1991. Cultural and academic exchange travel isn't
that rare.
Mark V.
Funny!
PB
> If El Tri were to slip up in Azteca, it'd be in trouble.
As it turns out, Mexico definitely won't slip up in Azteca before the
Hex, because it has decided not to play there until then. One of the
likeliest sites for an early game is Tijuana. A new stadium will be
completed there soon, and it's the first soccer facility of any note
near the US-Mexico border. Traditionally, the Mexican side of the
frontera has been very baseball-oriented, and of course, the US side
has been into football, baasketball, and baseball.
P
Yo Merito
> One of the likeliest sites for an early game is Tijuana. A new
> stadium will be completed there soon, and it's the first soccer
> facility of any note near the US-Mexico border.
Surely you know that Mexico played a friendly against Nigeria last
October in Ciudad Juárez, where they have a somewhat succesful
professional team?
PB
> Surely you know that Mexico played a friendly against Nigeria last
> October in Ciudad Juárez, where they have a somewhat succesful
> professional team?
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indios_de_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rez
Nope, missed that game. From what I understand, though, Indios are a
pretty rough team to play for ... all the same, thx for the correction
about the stadium there.
P