Regarding World Cup Qualifiers

[~Insider Trader~]

Aussies are in. England are in. Sth Africa are in by default. Imagine if the Kiwis bet Bahrain and all 4 get the same group. Would love to see the colonies kick the motherland out.

Good to see Maradona finally knows what it's like to have the hand of God shoved up his wrong end. He'll be shot if the team can't make it. Sth America is always a circus isn't it?

[Juliette]

Still.. ours is the best qualifier run so far.
*grin*

[Legendary Apophis]

:lol: Still.. ours is the best qualifier run so far.
*grin*

I envy your country's performances in qualifications... <_<

[Q Man]

Ireland aren't doing so bad

all we need is one more win and we're pretty much safe.

[Quina Quen]

:lol: Still.. ours is the best qualifier run so far.
*grin*

How so?

Let's look at the 3 groups that have a team with a hundred percent record in qualifying. (The asterix denotes guaranteed qualification).

Groups 5

Code: Select all

 Spain * 8 8 0 0 21 2 24 
 Bosnia-Herzegovina 8 5 1 2 21 8 16 
 Turkey 8 3 3 2 11 8 12 
 Belgium 8 2 1 5 11 18 7 
 Estonia 8 1 2 5 7 22 5 
 Armenia 8 1 1 6 5 18 4 

Group 6

Code: Select all

 England * 8 8 0 0 31 5 24 
 Croatia 9 5 2 2 17 12 17 
 Ukraine 8 4 3 1 14 6 15 
 Belarus 8 3 1 4 15 11 10 
 Kazakhstan 8 2 0 6 10 23 6 
 Andorra 9 0 0 9 3 33 0

Group 9

Code: Select all

Netherlands * 8 8 0 0 17 2 24 
 Norway 8 2 4 2 9 7 10 
 Scotland 8 3 1 4 6 11 10 
 FYR Macedonia 8 2 1 5 5 11 7 
 Iceland 8 1 2 5 7 13 5 

There's a few ways to evaluate the quality of each group, and the difficulty the leading team was charged with to begin with. We can look at the official FIFA World Rankings. The comphrehensive list can be found here. If we are to agree that each group (based on the initial seeding process) has two strong teams, and one other that could with a little luck and extra effort upset the top two we should have the following lists with the teams' respective world rank.

Groups 5
Spain (2)
Turkey (27)
Bosnia-Herzegovina (48)

Group 6
England (7)
Croatia (9)
Ukraine (25)

Group 9
Netherlands (3)
Norway (43)
Scotland (30)

By law of the numbers, group 6 is clearly the most difficult on paper. Whilst 5 and 9 appear similarly less difficult.

The Netherlands were also drawn in a 5 team group, giving them one less team than everyone else to slip up or not win against. With all three teams having played an equal number of games, you may also consider each of the three teams' goal difference.

Spain *+19
England *+25
Netherlands *+15

The Netherlands have the lowest goa'uld (oops) difference of the three from the worst group.

[Juliette]

So, they are the most efficient. Why would you need 3 goals a game on average, if 1 suffices?
Most efficient = best.. so yes, our qualifier run is the best so far. (On that note, I did not participate, so it would not really be 'ours', but since you're mostly guys you understand and make the same error as I do with this.)

[Quina Quen]

You're Dutch, and proud of your national heritage. It's quite obvious that you would select your own nation as the 'most efficient'. Not taking anything away from the Netherlands, they have been fantastic in qualification, but no better than England or Spain.

[~Insider Trader~]

We seem ot have fallen in love with the Dutch in Australia. It started with Guus Hiddink and then carried on with Pim Verbeek. Half the coaching and technical staff around the country is now Dutch too.

As long as they don't teach us to dive like those prissy precious Italians I'll be happy. We're better than that in Australia.

[Ron Burgandy]

come on ireland!!!

[Q Man]

come on ireland!!!

this!

[Ron Burgandy]

as long as we dont meet someone big in the play offs we'll probally go through

[facepie]

Kiwis beat Bahrain then they have i think 5th placed of the south american teams to get in... not going to happen

and Japan have also qualified again

other then that, Go the socceroos!

[Juliette]

You're Dutch, and proud of your national heritage. It's quite obvious that you would select your own nation as the 'most efficient'. Not taking anything away from the Netherlands, they have been fantastic in qualification, but no better than England or Spain.

*grin* I was so relieved when I heard England qualified.. another knockdown and you guys might just take up baseball.

[~Insider Trader~]

Kiwis beat Bahrain then they have i think 5th placed of the south american teams to get in... not going to happen

and Japan have also qualified again

other then that, Go the socceroos!

Nope, this is how it works:

UEFA (Europe): 13
CAF (Africa): 5 (+ South Africa so it's 6)
CONMEBOL (South America) 4.5
CONCACAF (North America) : 3.5
AFC (Asia) : 4.5
OFC (Oceania): 0.5

Teams qualified so far:

South Africa, Ghana, Nth Korea (there's a surprise!), Sth Korea, Japan, Australia, England, Netherlands, Spain, Brazil and Paraguay.

The Czech Republic are struggling and France looks like it will miss direct qualification and have to play-off because of Serbia. Portugal look gone too. Finally these European teams have to start qualifying the hard way like the rest of us!

Asia get 4 places directly, 5th place plays the winner of Oceania (NZ)
South America get 4 places directly, North America get 3. Team 5 from SA and Team 4 from NA playoff for the last spot.

FYI CONMEBOL stands for Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol and CONCACAF stands for Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football

[XenoX]

Netherlands!!!!!!!!!!!! Enuff Said

Now we need to get Van der Sar back in the goal and were all set. Eljero Elia FTW.