World Cup 2018 Qualification Gets Under Way

[AIrani]

Back to the top. Guru's give us a link to watch. Yallah....

[bozghaleh]

I can't find a free link, anyone else?

[AIrani]

New Zedaland Peru started 9:15 pm Eastern time. Any good or easy link to watch it?

[Afat11]

No game in the world cup will be easy, even against Panama or potentially New Zealand. Every team wants it like we do, and CQ will be sure to remind the players of this.

That being said, there are certain teams we match with better than others. For example, I personally prefer Argentina or Russia as our top seed. Iran has problems against physically dominant teams like Sweden, Bosnia, etc.

I hope one of our "top" seeds from pot 1 or 2 will be South American. We play best against teams that struggle against solid defense. Some would prefer croatia, but guys like Mandzukic and Perisic would cause us a lot of trouble, and that's not even including their world class midfield.

People fear a team like Columbia based on their ranking, but who do they really have? An overhyped James Rodriguez, old man falcao and a fairly average Carlos Bacca? This team is the perfect team that will be beaten by our TM. It will essentially be Argentina again with a worse team quality overall, and no Messi.

Ideal group will have Peru or Columbia as our second seed, and Russia or Argentina as our top seed. We match up against those teams well and can nick points from them. We do not match well against Poland, or other physically dominant teams. Lewandowski is the type of player that alone can cause us damage. Portugal is more preferable in my mind than Poland, as they are fairly shit if Ronaldo is kept under control. Seems to happen more often these days as he ages.

First Seeds: Russia, Argentina, Portugal
Second Seeds: Peru, Columbia
Fourth Seeds: Panama, New Zealand

With any combinations of these teams, we match up very well. The fourth seed is the most important in my mind. Nigeria, Morocco and Serbia are all teams that are physical and we don't match well with. A game with Morocco would be difficult as they are similar to us, and the result could be a toss up.

Panama is our best match in the fourth seeds by far, even over New Zealand who plays a fairly good defensive game.

[KC McElroy]

The original comment was that some poxy tournament involving these crap sides who may or may not be slightly less crap than Saudi Arabia will somehow apparently make it comparable to the world cup which is absurd.

The original comment was referring to the participating teams and the level of competition that one would witness when watching them (a point you were fully aware of due to me naming some World Cup teams as goozi and you countering by calling Italy and Holland "complete and utter trash"). I'd rather watch Italy take on Holland rather than Panama take on Egypt. How about you?

[DR Strangemoosh]

I am amazed at how everyone wants to avoid Serbia. They're the type of team we would up our game for.
Its the easy teams we take for granted and underestimate.

I think it's the bad memories...

Running out of gas and having nothing against Bosnia (despite the fact that we had outperformed them in friendlies) in WC14, perhaps also the pain of the misplaced Nakisa conceding that goal from Mihajlovic in the 98 iran v yugoslavia game too.

Both times against these Balkan sides we haven't really shown much in WC competition. I hope that CQ manages to chop and change if fitness remains a problem for this world cup (which it is likely to be, given that many of our star players aren't getting much competitive game time)

[Nokhodi]

I am amazed at how everyone wants to avoid Serbia. They're the type of team we would up our game for.
Its the easy teams we take for granted and underestimate.

[naderb94]

Hoping for a New Zealand win tonight somehow in order to avoid Serbia and bring in an extra Pot 4 "easy" game.

[KC McElroy]

You seem to be a little confused, Saudi Arabia are in Asia and Italy and Netherlands are in Europe hence, they were kept separate during qualification. If you're wondering why those two teams didn't qualify it's because they were struggling against the likes of Bulgaria and Macedonia which I believe meet the criteria to be considered 'goozi'.

You seem to be confused about the point I was making. The different continental qualification can explain why a team can be goozi and in the World Cup while another team could be not so goozi and not in the World Cup. Also having too many not so goozi teams in the same group will inevitably eliminate some of them and their elimination will not indicate that they are goozi but rather too many not so goozi teams competing for limited spots.
Perhaps if the 8-0ers defeat Holland or Italy my argument may not be as solid.

[KC McElroy]

Come again?
The only reason they're not there is because they were inferior to the 'goozi' teams. Chile I'll maybe accept as a good team but the other three you named are complete and utter trash and deserve nothing more than to go play some glorified friendlies in Miami and pretend it means something.

Yes Italy and Holland were eliminated by the 8-0ers which is why the 8-0ers are in the World Cup and Italy and Holland aren't.

[Nokhodi]

2022.

They do have some solid youth players upcoming.

Their squad against Portugal yesterday looked alot better than their usual teams. They actually played way better than Portugal. It was only a friendly, but a good test.

[perspolis#1]

Believe it or not, USA will be stronger after missing the WC this time.
They are going to go all in for 2014 and bring in new players and coaches.

First things first, go after a top notch coach.

2022.

They do have some solid youth players upcoming.

[naderb94]

Believe it or not, USA will be stronger after missing the WC this time.
They are going to go all in for 2014 and bring in new players and coaches.

First things first, go after a top notch coach.

[Damavand]

This is actually the first time ever the AFC will have 5 teams at the World Cup (unless you corrunt 2006).

It was 4 AFC teams in 06. Australia had not yet joined AFC and qualified through inter continental playoff against Uruguay.

[KhodadadAzizi]

This is actually the first time ever the AFC will have 5 teams at the World Cup (unless you count 2006).