World cup talk, groups at the WC and international matches this summer/prep. WC

[Peter King]

Well, the last UEFA match for a qualifying match is going to happen tomorrow, Wales is going to play Ukraine in Cardiff, winner takes all.

From Europe the qualifying countries are:
Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Portugal and Poland. Wales or Ukraine is going to be the 13th and last country from Europe.

Greece, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Hungary (defeated England today) and Czech republic (among others) have failed to qualify.

Biggest surprise of course was the defeat of Italy by North Macedonia.


All in all 29 of the 32 teams are now knows, besides the European teams, Qatar (as host). Mexico, US, Canada, Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Ghana, Uruguay, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Argentina and Brazil are all qualified.


The draw has also happened and in group A is my country, the Netherlands and it seems we have lucked out there. Our group consists of:

Qatar (51), Ecuador (46), Senegal (20) and the Netherlands (10)

With 2 countries advancing to the knockout stage the Netherlands seems to have lucked out


Group B.
England, Iran, US and Wales/Ukraine

Which should be a good thing for England and possibly the US.


Group C.
Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Poland

Good odds for Argentina and possibly Mexico


Group D.
France, Denmark, Tunisia and UEA/Australia or Peru

Good chances for France and Denmark


Group E.
Spain, Germany, Japan and Costa Rica or New Zealand

Excellent odds for Germany and Spain


Group F.
Belgium, Canada, Morocco and Croatia

Belgium is odds on favorite here, Croatia beat our Russia to first in the group and is ranked 18th in the world, Canada likely will not advance as they are ranked 38th and Morocco is 24. But Morocco is playing without several of their best players so who knows.


Group G.
Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon

Brazil is 100% favorite in this group and it will be a tussle between Serbia and Switzerland for 2nd place


Group H.
Portugal, Ghana, Argentina and South Korea

Portugal and Argentina are favorites to advance


I expect only African country will advance, Senegal. For the rest it will be the Americas and Europe who will advance to the knockout stage

 

[Rexedgar]

Well, the last UEFA match for a qualifying match is going to happen tomorrow, Wales is going to play Ukraine in Cardiff, winner takes all.

From Europe the qualifying countries are:
Germany, Denmark, France, Belgium, Croatia, Spain, Serbia, England, Switzerland, Netherlands, Portugal and Poland. Wales or Ukraine is going to be the 13th and last country from Europe.

Greece, Turkey, Russia, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Hungary (defeated England today) and Czech republic (among others) have failed to qualify.

Biggest surprise of course was the defeat of Italy by North Macedonia.


All in all 29 of the 32 teams are now knows, besides the European teams, Qatar (as host). Mexico, US, Canada, Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia, Senegal, Ghana, Uruguay, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Argentina and Brazil are all qualified.


The draw has also happened and in group A is my country, the Netherlands and it seems we have lucked out there. Our group consists of:

Qatar (51), Ecuador (46), Senegal (20) and the Netherlands (10)

With 2 countries advancing to the knockout stage the Netherlands seems to have lucked out


Group B.
England, Iran, US and Wales/Ukraine

Which should be a good thing for England and possibly the US.


Group C.
Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico and Poland

Good odds for Argentina and possibly Mexico


Group D.
France, Denmark, Tunisia and UEA/Australia or Peru

Good chances for France and Denmark


Group E.
Spain, Germany, Japan and Costa Rica or New Zealand

Excellent odds for Germany and Spain


Group F.
Belgium, Canada, Morocco and Croatia

Belgium is odds on favorite here, Croatia beat our Russia to first in the group and is ranked 18th in the world, Canada likely will not advance as they are ranked 38th and Morocco is 24. But Morocco is playing without several of their best players so who knows.


Group G.
Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland and Cameroon

Brazil is 100% favorite in this group and it will be a tussle between Serbia and Switzerland for 2nd place


Group H.
Portugal, Ghana, Argentina and South Korea

Portugal and Argentina are favorites to advance


I expect only African country will advance, Senegal. For the rest it will be the Americas and Europe who will advance to the knockout stage

Thanks for the post, I think you have Argentina in both ‘C’ and ‘H.’

 

[Peter King]

At the moment several UEFA teams are playing in the Nations League.

In the Highest group there are 16 teams, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, England, Poland, Switzerland, Croatia, Wales, Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary. The last 4 were promoted to group A after Bosnia & Herzegovina, Iceland, Sweden and Ukraine relegated to group B.

Croatia v. Austria 0-3
France v. Denmark 1-2
Czech Republic v. Switzerland 2-1
Spain v. Portugal 1-1
Hungary v. England 1-0
Italy v. Germany 1-1
Poland v. Wales 2-1
Belgium v. Netherlands 1-4

Most interesting matches here were France v. Denmark, Spain v. Portugal and Belgium v. Netherlands as these matches had 2 world cup qualifiers against one another.

France surprisingly was defeated at home by the Danish Dynamite. France is ranked 3rd in the world and Denmark ranked 11th but the Danish surprised the French at home.

Spain v. Portugal is the number 7 in the world against the number 8, but more importantly 2 neighboring countries, but it ended in a draw.

Belgium is the number 2 of the world and their neighboring country is ranked 10th and as said it is a derby between those countries which is a very old rivalry also called the Derby of the Low Countries. This was the 128th time that the 2 played against each other. Belgium has won 41 of these matches, 31 were a draw and the Netherlands won 56 of these 128th matches.

Belgium has been very good the past 10 years or so but this time it was all Netherlands. The only Belgian goal was scored in the 93rd minute but by that time the Dutch were up 0-4.

The return match will be interesting.

 

[Peter King]

Group H.
Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay and South Korea

Portugal and Uruguay are favorites to advance


I expect only African country will advance, Senegal. For the rest it will be the Americas and Europe who will advance to the knockout stage

 

[Peter King]

Thanks for the post, I think you have Argentina in both ‘C’ and ‘H.’

You are right, I made the correction.

 

[Peter King]

Well the World Cup dreams of Ukraine have been dashed by the Welsh who is the last European team to qualify.

On the 7th of June Australia will play an away again against United Arab Emirates for the last spot on the final qualification matches which will be played on the 13th and 14th of June.

June 13
Winner of UAE/Australia will play against Peru

June 14
Costa Rica will play New Zealand

 

[Peter King]

Well, we all know that Wales locked their place into the world cup finals but there are still a few places up for qualifying. Today the Australians took on the United Arab Emirates and the Australians WON! Yeah, let's go Australia, just one more match to win to become a world cup finalist. But Peru isn't a weak football country and the Australians will have to up their game and crush the Peruvians (sorry Peruvians but I have more sympathy for Australia than for Peru).

I also hope New Zealand will defeat Costa Rica, now I know little about their soccer team (I know much more of the Rugby All Blacks as I am a fan of them) but I hope they will win.

 

[Peter King]

We are going to look at the match results from the last few days in the A group of the Nations League (the highest ranked teams)

group 1
Croatia held France to a 1-1 draw
Austria was defeated at home by Denmark 1-2

Denmark leads the group with full points, Austria is second and France and Croatia are bottom of that group


group 2

Portugal, playing at home, defeated Switzerland 4-0
The Czech republic, playing at home, held Spain to a 2-2 draw

Portugal and the Czech republic lead this group, Spain is third and Switzerland is last with 0 points so far


group 3

Italy, playing at home, defeated Hungary 2-1
Germany, playing at home, drew with England 1-1 (The English doing a German, scoring a goal just before the end of the match)

Italy (who will not go to the World Cup) lead the group, Hungary is second, Germany is third and England is last in this group


group 4

Belgium, playing at home, crushed Poland with 6-1
Wales, playing at home, were defeated by the Netherlands 1-2 (The Welsh thought they had saved their streak of not losing at home when in the 92nd minute they scored the equalizer, but one minute later the Dutch scored the winning goal in the 93rd minute.

The Netherlands leads the group with full points, Belgium and Poland are second and third and Wales is last.

 

[Peter King]

The last 3 teams for the world cup in Qatar are known, Australia is in, Costa Rica is in and Wales have been the last 3 to qualify. Sadly New Zealand lost to Costa Rica but at least Australia beat out Peru.

 

[Peter King]

At the moment the Nations league is playing again and there are 2 big surprises:

Italy at the moment is playing away in Germany and with about 5 minutes to go the score is Germany 5 - Italy 1

Second surprise is Hungary who is playing away in England and the score at the moment with about 5 minutes to go is England 0 - Hungary 3

And the Netherlands is playing a bit of a training match and being a bit disrespectful towards Wales. They started with the bench players being Dumfries , de Vrij, Depay, Bergwijn, Blind, Davy Klaassen and Berghuis on the bench. A bench with way more than 100 million dollars of transfer value and other players like van Dijk (another 50 million) not even selected.

 

[Peter King]

In the highest division, Division A, group 1 on Monday:

Denmark defeated Austria 2-0
France lost at home from Croatia 0-1

With 2 games to go the standings in Group A1 are:
1. Denmark 4 played 9 points
2. Croatia 4 played 7 points
3. Austria 4 played 4 points
4. France 4 played 2 points

Division A, group 2 :

Switzerland defeated Portugal 1-0
Spain defeated Czech republic 2-0

With 2 games to go the standings in Group A2 are:

1. Spain 4 played 8 points
2. Portugal 4 played 7 points
3. Czech republic 4 played 4 points
4. Switzerland 4 played 3 points


Division A, group 3:

England lost at home to Hungary 0-4 (red card Stones, 2 yellow cards sent off in 82nd minute)
Germany defeated Italy 5-2


With 2 games to go the standings in Group A3 are:

1. Hungary 4 played 7 points
2. Germany 4 played 6 points
3. Italy 4 played 5 points
4. England 4 played 2 points


Division A, group 4:

Netherlands defeated Wales 3-2
Poland lost at home to Belgium 0-1

With 2 games to go the standings in Group A4 are:

1. Netherlands 4 played 10 points
2. Belgium 4 played 7 points
3. Poland 4 played 4 points
4. Wales 4 played 1 point


The 4 winners of the Division A groups will play semi-finals and finals among each other to crown the winner of the Nations League (current champions are France). At the moment the group leaders are Denmark, Spain, Hungary and the Netherlands. In the race for the first spot are Croatia (just 2 points behind Denmark), Portugal (just 1 point behind Spain), Germany (just 1 point behind Hungary) and Belgium (3 points behind the Netherlands)

The 4 losers of the Division A groups (the ones ending up in 4th place. At the moment these teams are France with just 2 points out of 4 matches, Switzerland with 3 points out of 4 matches, England with 2 points out of 4 matches and Wales with 1 point out of 4 matches.

France and Switzerland clearly have their fate in their own hands, but England is in real trouble, the next 2 matches are Italy away and Germany at home. Wales needs somewhat of a miracle as they have to play away in Belgium and at home against Poland. They could win a spot at the world cup and then relegate out of Group A at the Nations League.

 

[Rexedgar]

Is football at any risk for over exposure?

UEFA Champions, Europa, Nation
FIFA World Cup
Top Leagues, England, Germany, Spain, Italy
CONCACAF (these have some contests including teams that aren’t in the Americas)
Most nations have what three more leagues under their top tier?

It’ an awful lot to keep up with; then the greed took over even more with the Super League proposal. Is that still in the ash. In?

 

[PeteEU]

Is football at any risk for over exposure?

UEFA Champions, Europa, Nation
FIFA World Cup
Top Leagues, England, Germany, Spain, Italy
CONCACAF (these have some contests including teams that aren’t in the Americas)
Most nations have what three more leagues under their top tier?

It’ an awful lot to keep up with; then the greed took over even more with the Super League proposal. Is that still in the ash. In?

Nope. When the season is over, then we have international games until the pre season... So we are never without football in any larger length of time. I remember the old days, where you had no football for months... Horrible.

 

[Peter King]

Is football at any risk for over exposure?

UEFA Champions, Europa, Nation
FIFA World Cup
Top Leagues, England, Germany, Spain, Italy
CONCACAF (these have some contests including teams that aren’t in the Americas)
Most nations have what three more leagues under their top tier?

It’ an awful lot to keep up with; then the greed took over even more with the Super League proposal. Is that still in the ash. In?

IMO not, because most just support either their own club and the national team.

 

[Peter King]

Nope. When the season is over, then we have international games until the pre season... So we are never without football in any larger length of time. I remember the old days, where you had no football for months... Horrible.

Yup, you cannot live really without soccer. Normally we would be enjoying the world or European championship but due to them deciding to hold it in that stupid Qatar, we are not having to wait until winter to see our National teams fighting for the championship.

 

[Higgins86]

Is football at any risk for over exposure?

UEFA Champions, Europa, Nation
FIFA World Cup
Top Leagues, England, Germany, Spain, Italy
CONCACAF (these have some contests including teams that aren’t in the Americas)
Most nations have what three more leagues under their top tier?

It’ an awful lot to keep up with; then the greed took over even more with the Super League proposal. Is that still in the ash. In?

This almost non stop 2 year run of football to me says we are at risk of over exposure and the " Nations League" format is a prime example of that.

You have a tournament that UEFA are really trying to push that no one really cares about. I mean we have see Germany vs Italy, England vs Germany, Spain vs Portugal, Netherlands vs Belgium etc in the last 10 days and no one has blinked. Lackluster performances across the board from most of Europe's elite, tired legs and constant line up shifting. They are asking players to play 4 games in 10 days all over Europe after a long season and a shorter pre season because of the absurd Winter World Cup.

Its quickly becoming all about money vs quality of product.

 

[Rexedgar]

This almost non stop 2 year run of football to me says we are at risk of over exposure and the " Nations League" format is a prime example of that.

You have a tournament that UEFA are really trying to push that no one really cares about. I mean we have see Germany vs Italy, England vs Germany, Spain vs Portugal, Netherlands vs Belgium etc in the last 10 days and no one has blinked. Lackluster performances across the board from most of Europe's elite, tired legs and constant line up shifting. They are asking players to play 4 games in 10 days all over Europe after a long season and a shorter pre season because of the absurd Winter World Cup.

Its quickly becoming all about money vs quality of product.

It seems to me that many people are killing the various “golden geese,” in many different fields.

 

[Higgins86]

It seems to me that many people are killing the various “golden geese,” in many different fields.

Yeh the 2026 world cup extends to 48 teams.
16 groups of 3 teams with two teams going through from each group and rumours right now that they are going to get rid of draws. Just gutting a product that imo was perfect.

 

[Roadvirus]

Infantino says soccer to be top U.S. sport by 2026 World Cup

FIFA president Gianni Infantino says he expects soccer to be the biggest sport in North America in time for the 2026 World Cup as the host cities for the tournament in the United States, Canada and Mexico were announced on Thursday.

www.reuters.com