Rumours of CONCACAF being reduced from top 3.5 to top 3. (Thoughts & Poll)

[saheedabdool]

What you guys think?

You may have already heard the rumours, but apparently there will be a vote to determine whether the CONCACAF qualifying group, will be lowered to top 3 spots instead of top 3.5. The reason for this possible vote is that the CONCACAF teams aren't strong or skilled enough to deserve 3.5 places for the World Cup. (Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Before you vote, let us consider the variable that could change or leave alone the qualification standards.

Trinidad was the ".5" team that had to play a playoff with Bahrain, if that .5 spot wasn't there we wouldn't have made it. However we did put on quite a show and shocked the world with a 0-0 draw with Sweden and we held England to nothing for 82 minutes. I believe we definitely deserved to be there.

USA had a quite unexpected World Cup with a 1-1 draw with Italy, but they still failed to qualify for the second round. USA ended in second place in the CONCACAF division and ended with the same amount points and the same record as TNT in the world cup, maybe they did deserve to be there, they fought hard against a "dirty" Italian side and pulled off a huge upset.

Costa Rica failed to win or tie any of their games in the World Cup and left with 3 losses. They did create quite a shocking display when they tied Germany, however they lost at 4-2. They played hard, but Equador was also too strong for them, maybe they didn't deserve to be there.

Finally, Mexico, a team that lived up to their expectations and beat Iran in their first game, then they tied Angola and lost a close game against Portugal 2-1. They were the only CONCACAF team to qualify for the second round, but after a enduring extra time finish, they lost 2-1 to the Argentines who are a obvious World Cup favorite. For fighting hard, comming close to pulling off a huge upset and their creative attacking play, Mexico definitely deserved to be there.

My opinions may be biased, but I tried to use results to back them up.

I beleive that we do deserve the current 3.5 spots of qualifying for the world cup. These teams can only build from here, especially Trinidad and Tobago with their impressive debut. And isn't this what the World Cup is about? To show diversity throughout the styles of play when the top 32 nations of the world get together for the greatest tournament in to the world? I would like to think so.

Lemme know what you think

[dwn]

Have you heard who the half spot would go to?
I think if anyone loses a spot it should be Asia. They have 4 and half spots. Let the place off be between 4th in concacaf and fourth in Asia.

[andre samuel]

concacaf did well

we had one team in de last 16

aisa have 4.5 spots and they had none

africa had 5 spots and they had one!!

and trinidad and the usa had competitive showings.

even costa rica gave germany a scare in the opening game

[Tenorsaw]

To give it to whom? None of the other emerging regions have made a substantial showing to warrant a reallocation of spots.  Asia has been even more disappointing than us and Africa only had one team that made it out of the group stages.  If anything, Australia's performance would have led to a full spot for Oceania, but the lack of competiton and the fact that Australia are moving to Asia means that argument is now null.  Things should stay the way they are, and it is thebest way to allow the other regions besides Conmebol and Uefa to progress and get the opportunity to show the developed footballing nations that we can play too.

[trinfax]

Even though we benefitted from this, being as objective as i can be Im not too sure bout Concacaf retaining that .5 spot but I dont think ASIA deserves more spots than us. To my knowledge no Asian team has ever beaten a Concacaf team head-to-head so there is no reason for them to have more than us. Japan and S Kora did go deep, but remember it was they were at home. On the other hand Mexico, enhanced with their performance on Saturday, demonstrates that our region has depth and quality.

Guys, lets be honest here, we don't really believe that at this stage we are world beaters. We had a great World Cup and a lot to build on. But Concacaf does not need more than 3 spots. I think its going to raise the standard of our region tremendously. With a good program in place I am certain we can overtake the US as the 2nd team in this region so there is no reason for us to be scared.

Africa is the region that is struggling most in the World Cup spots. All their teams are of better quality then both Asia and Concacaf and that is without Nigeria and Cameroon. Europe is on the decline with boring tactics non creative players, however they benefit from higher numbers. Imagine Germany and Spain and other European teams having to resort to 'importing' players from Africa and South America to play for them. Nothing new is coming from Europe and they are still benefitting from FIFA.

So i think.. take back our .5 take back .5 from Asia, (cause Australia is going to be in Asia from after this World Cup). Give that one to Africa plus another 1 that should be taken from Europe. I know this may be contradictory but what the hell its FIFA related :-)  

          

[pioneertrini]

The only place I can see that half spot going to is Europe. Asia is weak and they have 4.5 spots already, largely due to Population and the number of teams in that confederation. Oceana Will never get a full spot and that has been made 100% certain by Australia goin to Asia. Infact Oceana should be incorperated by asia as a sub confed because its only 9 teams all who are very weak I cant see them puttin new zealand or soloman islands to play uraguay columbia etc that half spot may turn into a quarter spot.. South America has 4.5 but only 10 teams so its hard to make a good argument for half of a Confed qualifying especially now that Uraguay lost to Australia. Africa has 5 spots which is the most any confed has outside Uefa. So they wont get any more and they dont deserve it anyway. as the 5 groups have 2 good teams in them now so giving more spots may give too many teams easy qualification just like iran, Saudi etc. So if its taken from us it almost definatly goes to europe where they will play asia just like when Ireland beat Iran in 2001. Personally I think we will get to keep that spot but who knows.

[SHOTTA]

the spot is we own to keep

fifa i beleive dont just give spot one cup take it back an d give to someoneelse

we aint go need that spot next yr anyways talk to jamrock or guat or ona dem side

[vb]

Let the winner of the Oceana group enter an Asian qualifying round along with Aus.

We keep our half a spot.
Asia keeps their half
Give a half to Africa
and S. America keeps their half.

The Asians and the Africans battle it out.

And we and the Latinos battle it out.
My only prob with that is we end up somewhere in high altitude and cah breathe and get automatic cut ass....like in the Azteca.

Peace,
VB