Football (Soccer) Thread

[Jacob]

Pretty solid Scandinavian representation with Denmark, Sweden, and Iceland all in.

[Josephus]

ICeland qualified for the world cup?

I know they had that monster Euro a few years ago, but I wouldn't have thought they'd continue with that kind of success.

In a year with no Italy and no US, the fact that Iceland made it really stands out.

They won their group iirc. And I like that you didn't mention Holland's absence.

I was pretty sure there was another big soccuer country that didn't make it, but couldn't immediately pick out who it was from looking at the countries.

Canada.

[Valmy]

Rather than Iceland Panama making it is the bigger shock given North America has fewer places

Not really.

[Duque de Bragança]

 Benfica

6 games, 6 defeats. If it did not impact Portugal's UEFA club ranking, this would be hilarious.  Worst performance ever for a Portuguese club.

No remontada for Paris Saint-Germain this time, 3-1 for Bayern so Paris ends first of the group.

[Gups]

Rather than Iceland Panama making it is the bigger shock given North America has fewer places

Not really.

Yeah. They got a bye to the fourth round of qualifying with 3.5 places available from 12. And Concacaf really isn't the most competitive of the associations.

Iceland had to qualify from a group of 6 with 1.5 places available

[celedhring]

See how tiny Panama is? Well, it still has 10x the population of Iceland. That puts it in perspective.

It's the equivalent of a team representing, say, Cleveland making it to the WC.

[Valmy]

Tiny Central American countries and Caribbean Islands making it into the WC is what CONCACAF is all about.

[alfred russel]

Tiny Central American countries and Caribbean Islands making it into the WC is what CONCACAF is all about.

Yeah---basically it generally works out that Mexico and the US are in, and then the remaining 1.5 spots to whatever shit teams are the best. It isn't that unlikely that Panama would take a spot.

[Duque de Bragança]

Tiny Central American countries and Caribbean Islands making it into the WC is what CONCACAF is all about.

Yeah---basically it generally works out that Mexico and the US are in, and then the remaining 1.5 spots to whatever shit teams are the best. It isn't that unlikely that Panama would take a spot.

Costa Rica is above shit team status though. 

[The Larch]

My team is selling our starting striker to a Chinese team for 20+ million € this winter. The kid is a 21 yo Uruguayan who just arrived this summer. It's great business but it really saddens me from a sporting perspective, as he is doing great and we could have in our hands a talent for a generation (or at least a couple more years until some big bucks english team came to buy him).

[alfred russel]

Costa Rica is above shit team status though. 

Maybe at this precise moment they are mediocre, but in the long run they are a shit team.

[celedhring]

One of my fondest videogame memories was winning the World Cup with Costa Rica in the Italia 90 videogame.

[Liep]

Gruppe A: Rom og Baku
Gruppe B: København og Sankt Petersborg
Gruppe C: Amsterdam og Bukarest
Gruppe D: London og Glasgow
Gruppe E: Bilbao og Dublin
Gruppe F: München og Budapest

If both we and Russia qualify for EC2020 we get to be in a group we might advance from! Lots of uncertainties there.

[Duque de Bragança]

Costa Rica is above shit team status though. 

Maybe at this precise moment they are mediocre, but in the long run they are a shit team.

They qualify regularly for the World Cup, thanks partly to the generous CONCACAF slot allocation. 
They made it to quarter finals last time.

[Jacob]

I for one am happy to see the smaller teams - like Iceland and Costa Rica - represented in the World Cup. Cinderella stories are much more interesting than the usual heavy-weights battling it out.