Mexico Vs Panama

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/16/mexico-panama-world-cup-playoff-new-zealand

They were lucky to finish 4th, two injury time goals by America saved their *

 

It is a joke. The region is so weak. Then on top of that the 4th place team gets a playoff against Oceania. What a joke. Personally I think FIFA need to do away with Oceania as a region. They let Australia move into Asia already. Just merge the whole region into Asia and be done with it.

 

Your not kidding. I watched the Panama v USA game and the Mexicans were basically done and dusted with Panama up 2-1 as the game headed into injury time. Then the USA scores not once but twice in injury time to win 3-2. Unreal. Talk about blowing your big chance.

 

It's actually not. FIFA grants places historically by how a federation performs at the World Cup. Ideally, they'd like the same rate of progression from the group stages (50% for each federation). Last World Cup, those are as follows:

CONMEBOL - 5/5 - 100% progression
CONCACAF - 2/3 - 67% progression
AFC (Asia) - 2/4 - 50% progression
UEFA - 6/13 - 46% progression
CAF (Africa) - 1/6 - 16% progression
OFC (Oceania) - 0/1 - 0% progression

So, based on this, the only real federations that need change are CONMEBOL, who clearly deserve more, and CAF, who clearly deserve less. I also think that the OFC qualification cycle should not grant somebody a playoff spot, but rather a spot in Asian qualifying.

People often miss the point in qualifying, thinking that it's about qualification itself. It's not. It's about the World Cup. If you want to argue that the World Cup should be cut from 32 teams then fine, but since it has that many, CONCACAF, Asia, and UEFA appear to actually be the only ones that are at equilibrium and send as many teams as they should.

 

Well Diegan I guess we will have to agree to disagree. Sure the tops teams in this region USA and Mexico have top sides. Well at least the Mexican's used to. But there is no stregth in depth of any note in the region beyond maybe Costa Rica and a large chunk of the region is a joke.
South America is a small region numerically as it is and really already has about half of the regions teams qualifying which is about how deep they really are.

In my opinion the 2 regions should be merged and qualification done on seeded groups as it is in UEFA. I think this would be a big boost to the USA as they would actually have to earn qualification rather then at presant when it is a stroll in the park.

 

I agree, but I never see any side outside of Costa Rica, Mexico, US, or Honduras ever getting close to qualification. In any case, even if it were those four sides along with Martinique and Barbados I still think the slots work fine because we're close to the 50% mark. Federations should not be rewarded for weak performance in the WC just because they have a hard qualification cycle.

It's not a stroll, but I agree with this. I'd like it. But it'll never happen due to the political clout that the Caribbean countries have in CONCACAF. The US and Mexico would love this but it's only two in a region of about 30 or so. Once you follow CONCACAF you get really familiar with guys like Jack Warner.

 

Sadly from a USA standpoint your probably right in that it won't happen. But there is no question it would be in the USA's and also Mexico's best interest.

 

Doubtless. I think it would be good for public interest as well. As snobby as many Europeans and South Americans are toward US soccer, Americans can be even worse. Constantly being able to battle against Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile et al along with Mexico would be a good thing because it would allow us to always see where we're at in the bigger picture. As it is we only get that once every four years. It'd help Mexico even more I think.

 

It's fairly simple. Teams from the North and Central wouldn't get near to the amount they qualify if they were up against the South.

 

Neither would Europeans. CONMEBOL is the most underrepresented federation given their progression rate.

But using your logic, the new "American" category would get (assuming you're in favor of 2.5 for CONCAF) 7 slots. Since I already proved that CONMEBOL itself should get more slots, let's put it up to 8 or 9. I think the US could easily get 8 or 9 in a unified confederation. I even think they could get 7th pretty consistently. The US has an incredibly strong home field advantage (last four home qualifiers against Mexico, the strongest opponent, see us go 4-0-0 with 8 goals for, 0 against) and that would help in a unified confederation.

 

Not at all.

I would have 19 teams from Europe. If North and South America combined which it should, 5 from there. Africa - 3. Asia 4. Australia - 0 but qualify playing a European side.

I think that's fair because in recent years Asia have at least made the SFs.

 

You think Asia should receive only one less slot than a combined North and South American confederation? Over half the competition as Europeans? And Australia are in Asia, you want to kick them out?

 

Yeah, two teams have done their bit for South America with a tiny little help from Uruguay. Absolutely.

I know where Australia are. I was thinking of their continent.

 

Basically, Mexico made up the numbers for years and years. I remember Canada, El Salvador etc just embarrassing the tournament. Put USA, Jamaica, Canada etc in with Brazil, Peru, Colombia etc and then they'll earn my respect for reaching the finals.

 

CONMEBOL have a higher progression rate than UEFA and you want to punish them? It just doesn't make any sense. It's not like UEFA have 10 sides that have won recently. In the World Cup it's always Germany, Spain, France, and Italy. There are really only 10 sides that will challenge and, if we're being honest, a 12-side World Cup could fit all the sides we want. But it's 32 sides, so therefore a lot of the "not top" sides will go. You're just wanting to fill in UEFA so that Scotland have a better chance. As it is, if you deserve to go, you'll go. 32 is more than enough, you don't get any prize for being 19th best in Europe, I'm sorry.

 

El Salvador have qualified for the World Cup twice, last in 1982. Canada have qualified once, in 1986. How does that have any relevance to 2014? I likely would have agreed with you in 1990... but it's 2013.

 

Europe has had a finalist in every World Cup since 1950! In the last two Winners and Runners Up. It's clearly the strongest continent and deserves 80% of the teams in the finals. Take away Uruguay, Brazil and Argentina and the rest just make up the numbers.