The Official "COME ON CONGO" Thread - Fight for Pot 3

[sarbaz]

By the way there are still 9 more unqualified teams who are yet to be decided till November playoffs

So far 23 teams have qualified for the 2018 WC

[AminGP]

I remember last world cup they put USA in pot 4 even though their ranking was higher and they were eligible for Pot 3. I think ultimately it's up to the organizers. They usually put all the asian teams together in one pot.

[teammelli91]

It's a very interesting mentality of most forum members here, you guys seem to fear physical dominance a lot more than actually football game intelligence. That's the reason US/England will never be good, but Spain/Germany/Brazil dominate international football. They have smarter players.

Last WC: Nigeria was undoubtedly physically fitter and stronger than our players, but Bosnia had a few players with extreme game intelligence in midfield, even if he was 5'7 at best. We struggled much more agains the latter, compared to the former.

For all the fear of African teams, they seem to be the only teams we get points from.....whereas we consistently lose to European sides in WC.

Much rather have Nigeria in our group, as opposed to Denmark. I trust TM a lot more trying to combat Iwobi's pace or Ndidi's physicality, than trying to figure out Erikson

Yeah I don't get it either man. Great post.

[teammelli91]

Possible scenario at the World Cup:

Iran plays attacking football against the World Class opponent of the group. Azmoun scores. Iran parks the bus. They attack like Argentina did in 2014 but we win 1-0.

Then Iran goes on to face a Panama/or a Honduras team that so many people think are easier to defeat. We play them and we lose 3-1. Iran played a good match.

The last match is a do or die against a top European team. We score first az we did vs the World Class team and are ahead 1-0. We park the bus and towards the end we concede a goal. The match ends 1-1 but we are eliminated in the group stage with 4 points.


The whole world saw what we are capable of in the match vs Argentina. That was 4 years ago. A lot has changed since then. But let's not dwell too much on thinking we would 100% defeat these "lower-calibre" teams. It's the World Cup and the next team is just as ambitious to get out of the group as our Team Melli.

[elnino99]

It's a very interesting mentality of most forum members here, you guys seem to fear physical dominance a lot more than actually football game intelligence. That's the reason US/England will never be good, but Spain/Germany/Brazil dominate international football. They have smarter players.

Last WC: Nigeria was undoubtedly physically fitter and stronger than our players, but Bosnia had a few players with extreme game intelligence in midfield, even if he was 5'7 at best. We struggled much more agains the latter, compared to the former.

For all the fear of African teams, they seem to be the only teams we get points from.....whereas we consistently lose to European sides in WC.

Much rather have Nigeria in our group, as opposed to Denmark. I trust TM a lot more trying to combat Iwobi's pace or Ndidi's physicality, than trying to figure out Erikson

[Nokhodi]

I think this is certainly interesting, but in the end Pot 3 or 4 doesn't matter that much. Everyone will bring their A game and best players. Each game will be difficult.
Remember last time we thought Bosnia would be our easiest game? Yet they ended up challenging us the most.

[Bessos]

I was actually starting to hope for Iran to be in pot 4.

There are some deadly teams in pot 4... I am speaking of the African teams. Especially Nigeria.

Let's hope we get Panama/Honduras

[Shayan_91]

We should not underestimate ANY team at this stage. No one qualifies by luck.

At the same time, some teams should not be overestimated. I've read Serbia's name very often in the last few pages. As Serbia was playing in the same group as Austria and Ireland (I'm currently living in both Vienna and Dublin), I watched some of their games live and all I can say is that Serbia is a bit overrated. Croatia is much stronger and also 2014's Bosnia was definitely stronger than today's Serbia. Their games against Austria (especially the one last week where they could have qualified with a win against already eliminated Austria who played it's almost B-side) were not convincing at all. Austria won that game last week BTW.

IMO, we play decent against South-East-European teams. We showed that a few times in the last years against Montenegro, Bosnia (except 2014), Croatia (before 2006), Macedonia and Albania. I would rather like to play Serbia over Nigeria or Morocco.

[naderb94]

I want to be in a group where we dont park the bus

[ameri]

Germany
Spain
Iran
Nigeria

nooooooo!!!