I watch Ederson ply his trade so I’ve mostly gotten over the sinking feeling on the back pass but it all comes rushing back even with Steffen. It may be a necessary evil for what they are trying to do but man is it terrifying in real time.
Yep that was a brain fart. We would have to score. So it is 6 no matter what.
Yup, but part of me almost expects it. Or at least to have Costa Rica get a couple early.
Yeah. It is a weird game though. When do you ever play a team that has no reason to do anything but play for a goal difference win. Costa Rica has no need for three points. They are irrelevant. They can lose without consequence so they can throw everything forward. I guess you sometimes see stuff like that at the end of the group stage in a World Cup or Euro or something. I suppose there is some chance Costa Rica could catch Mexico but very small. It is basically six goals or bust.
Or conversely.. when has a team gone into a game knowing they have to win by 6 and succeeded?
In the second group stage of the 1978 World Cup, Argentina had to beat Peru by at least four goals to advance to the final, and won 6-0. That match has been dogged by rumors of bribes and match-fixing but nothing has ever been substantiated.
Well, I mean, if you were playing a strategy to score 7, I can't think it's changing much to score 8.
That's the problem for Costa Rica. You start the game saying that you have nothing to lose and playing aggressively to try to score even if it leaves you susceptible to the counter. But let's say they go up 2-0. What then? You're really caught in the switches.
It's a compelling idea but my view is . . . screw that. What is this enterprise all about? It's about footie. We care about whether the team qualifies because we love footie and we want to see our team play in the world cup, which is a competition they have no real chance to win. There's a game on the schedule. Go play it. Go try to win it. If CRC wins 6-0, fair play to them. We go on and try to beat Solomon Islands.
Of course they *can* forfeit. However, it would mess with the integrity (HA FIFA, INTEGRITY) of the competition and FIFA/CONCACAF could assess additional penalties, including forfeiting a WC spot.
Thanks. That's what I figured. If they did it, some retroactive punishment just because.
I wonder how a forfeit affects rankings. Right now the cutoff between pots 2 and 3 for the draw is world ranking 15. I think the USA is projected to be pretty close. A result in Costa Rica may actually be important, and the difference between pots 2 and 3 could actually be significant.
No, there's direct bonus to where you finish; you either qualify or you don't.
That's interesting. FIFA actually granted an exception for the UEFA playoffs to say that yellow cards would not accumulate so that a yellow in the semi would not be a second toward a suspension for the final. I guess they are nothing if not pragmatic.
Accumulation reds do not carry over. Suspensions however do carry over. So if you get a direct red or you get two yellows in your last qualification round game then you do in fact have to serve the suspension in the world cup. It used to be that there was a loophole where you could schedule a friendly or something to clear suspensions but FIFA eliminated that. Here are the regulations. It's page 18. The key language is that an suspensions from accumulation in more than one game clear but suspensions from discipline in a single game do not clear.
I'm not sure who knows exactly what they are talking about with the FIFA rankings math, but this is the picture from what I've seen/read (I'm a second hand source at best here).
The first thing that stands out to me is CRC’s 17.26 xGA and 8.00 GA. Keylor Navas is still the best goalkeeper in Concacaf (at least until Matt Turner gets healthy) and is basically single-handedly dragging a squad to a playoff one cycle past their expiration date.
Draw is Friday at 11:30 I believe.
Not to pile on but while forfeiting is a great twitter idea but IRL, the TV networks would demand a significant repayment for lack of having a broadcast that there would be significant repercussions.
