World Cup 2022

[hollodero]

(12-01-2022, 06:49 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: My personal opinion? The USA has had a good first team for over 20 years now but the rest of the world HATES that it's happened so they refuse to openly accept it.

I wanted to protest that, but after further consideration, there might be something to that. It's admittedly nice to see the powerful US of A be mediocre in something for a change, like in soccer. In other sports Americans usually are less courteous. Like in skiing, something only Austrians take seriously probably. All of a sudden an American like Bode Miller comes along.... being like what is it you do here, a slalom you call that? Alright, guess I will just become better than everyone else in that. And what is that, downhill? OK, guess I can do that better as anyone too. And oh, women do this skiing thing too? OK, let's create gals like Lindsey Vonn or Julia Mancuso and let them be superior. Ah, and we also make them more gorgeous than anyone else for good measure. Yah, that's annoying, and there's indeed a part of me that wishes that at least when it comes to soccer things don't turn out that way.

And in soccer, yeah, you're still not that good. As you said, good enough to make it past the group stage, but that's it.

(12-01-2022, 06:49 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: The growth of MLS is crucial to breaking that cycle. It's far from a retirement league . . . it's a feeder league full of young players and has been for about 10-12 years now. You need to be fit to play in MLS, ask any Designated Player(big contract).

Yeah, not merely a retirement league for sure. Then again, it's still not a magnet for world-class players. Hardly anyone that can play in one of Europe's top leagues would change to the MLS instead. And the same goes for young international players. If they have an offer from a decent European club, they won't join the MLS. Imho the league still suffers from a lack of overall quality.

(12-01-2022, 06:49 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: As far as CONCACAF getting one spot too many . . . 2002 World Cup, the one you disliked the most, they had three spots. After the USA surprised Portugal 3-2 by just going after them from the start, Mexico won their group over Italy and Costa Rica just needed a draw against Brazil to advance. Everybody in the world knew that Costa Rica was going to park the bus and just bunker in . . . but instead, right from the first whistle it was one of the most end to end matches in World Cup history with Brazil winning 5-2. Costa Rica missed two uncontested headers right in front of goal and hit the bar a couple of times. The press was abuzz about the exciting back and forth match and Sepp Blatter said afterwards something along the lines of "We should reward the regions that play attacking football instead of having so many teams with one lone striker and five defenders."

Here's highlights of the match
Brazil 5-2 Costa Rica

And that is how CONCACAF earned 3.5 spots in the World Cup 20 years ago. Remember, 2002 was only the 2nd 32 team World Cup, so they were still finding out the depth to the lesser confederations. I think that they got it right with the 3.5 spots.

I am in no way questioning that the US and Mexico are worthy WC participants. But behind those two, the cliff is steep. All those third and fourth teams like Costa Rica or Honduras or Trinidad or Jamaica or whatever team I forgot now.... they usually were nice underdogs to root for, but usually stood no real chance. There might be an exception or two that I might not think about here, but in general, bottom teams. I am pretty confident there are around 10 European teams that are not participating at this WC and are distinctly stronger than Costa Rica is. That's not meant to be presumptuous, it's just what I consider true, past and present.
Your 2002 Costa Rica example is duely noted, but then again, it's also an example of a team that in the end lost distinctly. That it was an action-packed game imho doesn't factor into it. This is a competition, not an exhibition. And Sepp Blatter seeing it differently usually does not motivate me to rethink things. That guy also suggested to give women tighter clothing to make women's soccer more attractive.

That being said, it's also other regions, Africa and Asia, that probably often had one spot too many. I do however understand the goal of bringing soccer to the world instead of narrowing it down to teams from mostly just two continents. I'd probably say 3 spots is fine for concacaf, but the additional 0,5 spots imho are uncalled for.