International sports bar

[StCapps]

But the best teams ARE in the cup. Just not "all of the best teams".

Which makes the tournament worse than if they let "all of the best teams" play. Giving a spot to team with no chance at all, at the expense of a team with a legitimate chance, who is vastly superior to the team that has no chance and still qualified, all just to fill a regional quota, and be more inclusive of all the regions of the world, so dumb. At least automatically including the host nation makes some sense, even if they suck, but the other 31 spots should not be filled by regional quota.

More shitty teams does not equal better soccer, or more legitimate soccer, quite the opposite. Setting up the rules so that Panama gets in with a 3W-4D-3L record, while Italy doesn't when they had a 7W-2D-1L record, it's hard to make the rules worse than that.

Italy and Sweden fighting it out for one spot in the World Cup, that's stupid, both should have easily qualified without having to play for a spot, but the qualification rules are retarded.

Come on guy, clearly it's dumb to let a team that was .500 in qualification, qualify for the World Cup, while a team who lost only 1 game out of 10 somehow doesn't qualify. Italy had four more wins in qualifying, more than twice the amount of wins than Panama had, against tougher competition, and also had a way better goal differential, yet somehow Panama is in, and Italy is out.

That's a joke, and not a funny one.

Seriously, you guys have to be trolling, there is no reasonable way to defend these bullshit qualification rules. So stop dancing on Italy's grave, for half a second, and admit the obvious reality.

[SuburbanFarmer]

But the best teams ARE in the cup. Just not "all of the best teams".

Which makes the tournament worse than if they let "all of the best teams" play. Giving a spot to team with no chance at all, at the expense of a team with a legitimate chance, who is vastly superior to the team that has no chance and still qualified, all just to fill a regional quota, and be more inclusive of all the regions of the world, so dumb. At least automatically including the host nation makes some sense, even if they suck, but the other 31 spots should not be filled by regional quota.

More shitty teams does not equal better soccer, or more legitimate soccer, quite the opposite. Setting up the rules so that Panama gets in with a 3W-4D-3L record, while Italy doesn't when they had a 7W-2D-1L record, it's hard to make the rules worse than that.

Italy and Sweden fighting it out for one spot in the World Cup, that's stupid, both should have easily qualified without having to play for a spot, but the qualification rules are retarded.

Come on guy, clearly it's dumb to let a team that was .500 in qualification, qualify for the World Cup, while a team who lost only 1 game out of 10 somehow doesn't qualify. Italy had four more wins in qualifying, more than twice the amount of wins than Panama had, against tougher competition, and also had a way better goal differential, yet somehow Panama is in, and Italy is out.

That's a joke, and not a funny one.

Seriously, you guys have to be trolling, there is no reasonable way to defend these bullshit qualification rules. So stop dancing on Italy's grave, for half a second, and admit the obvious reality.

Well, it depends on what your goal is (as a sport). If you just want to find the best team in the world, you have the Olympics.

If you want to promote your sport, and sell t-shirts to African kids, you make sure that there's always an African team in your "championship".

You could use a system like the NCAA football scheme, ranking teams by record and strength of schedule, but nobody's happy with that - ever.

[StCapps]

Well, it depends on what your goal is (as a sport). If you just want to find the best team in the world, you have the Olympics.

You don't know how soccer works on the international stage do you? The Olympics are under 21 only, Soccer doesn't have an alternative tournament to crown the best national team in the world, that's what the World Cup is suppose to be. That's the goal. The qualification rules in soccer are even dumber the NCAA football scheme, and that's saying something. Don't get me started on how terrible the FIFA rankings are either. Soccer has the shittiest tournament rules of any sport, and the shittiest rules for qualifying for those tournaments, it's like they are out to do a shitty job, they truly take the cake. If you think the way the NCAA does shit is corrupt and backwards as fuck, just pay attention to major international soccer tournaments like the World Cup and the Euro Cup and qualification for those tournaments, and the things going on behind the scenes, it's no comparison, soccer does a far inferior job. Soccer is truly in a class of it's own, when it comes corruption and ineptitude, especially on the international level.

If a region can't compete at soccer, maybe they should step their game up, instead of watering down the tournament that is suppose to crown the best national team in the world every four years, because of shitty qualification rules.

[Montegriffo]

Italy played 180 mins against Sweden without even scoring a goal. Tell me again why the World cup is weaker without them.
The competition is already weighted in favour of European teams.
Italy just weren't good enough this time around, get over it.

[SuburbanFarmer]

If you think the way the NCAA does shit is corrupt and backwards as fuck, just pay attention to major international soccer tournaments

Well, presumably, soccer players are actually paid, and allowed to make endorsement deals....

[StCapps]

Italy played 180 mins against Sweden without even scoring a goal. Tell me again why the World cup is weaker without them.
The competition is already weighted in favour of European teams.
Italy just weren't good enough this time around, get over it.

By the stupid rules of World Cup Qualification, yeah they weren't good enough. Yet they were still far better than many of teams who did qualify, so how does that make for a better tournament again? Seems like that makes for a worse tournament to me. You want to subsidize shitty national teams, at the expense of markedly better national teams, or you wouldn't be defending the qualification rules, like the fag that you are.

"The rules are the rules" isn't a rebuttal to anything that I've argued. I've been arguing that the rules are the rules, but their dumb rules, and the tournament is not as good as it could be, because of those shitty rules.
/shrugs

[Hastur]

Italy played 180 mins against Sweden without even scoring a goal. Tell me again why the World cup is weaker without them.
The competition is already weighted in favour of European teams.
Italy just weren't good enough this time around, get over it.

By the stupid rules of World Cup Qualification, yeah they weren't good enough. Yet they were still far better than many of teams who did qualify, so how does that make for a better tournament again? Seems like that makes for a worse tournament to me. You want to subsidize shitty national teams, at the expense of markedly better national teams, or you wouldn't be defending the qualification rules, like the fag that you are.

"The rules are the rules" isn't a rebuttal to anything that I've argued. I've been arguing that the rules are the rules, but their dumb rules, and the tournament is not as good as it could be, because of those shitty rules.
/shrugs

So what should we do? Just look at FIFA rankings and hand out the trophies? This is how the game works. This is what everyone wants. I get it can be hard to understand for a North American. You have your fixed leagues and no peril. That’s just flat out boring. The heartbreak is part of the sport. The lows make highs feel better.
Besides, the national team tournaments are just a spectacle. The last arena where open nationalism isn’t frowned upon. It’s a party and everyone just try to have fun. If you want to see the best teams watch Champions league.

[StCapps]

So what should we do? Just look at FIFA rankings and hand out the trophies? This is how the game works. This is what everyone wants. I get it can be hard to understand for a North American. You have your fixed leagues and no peril. That’s just flat out boring. The heartbreak is part of the sport. The lows make highs feel better.
Besides, the national team tournaments are just a spectacle. The last arena where open nationalism isn’t frowned upon. It’s a party and everyone just try to have fun. If you want to see the best teams watch Champions league.

It could work much better without handing out trophies based on idiotic FIFA rankings. I want to see the best national teams, I don't give a shit about Champions league. The World Cup should have the best national teams in the world, and if your team sucks and did shitty in qualifying, you shouldn't beat out a team that won twice as many games and did not qualify, just because your country is located in a region that is shittier at soccer, that is dumb.

[Hastur]

Denmark Is ahead 1-2 after the first half. Was a bit unnerved when Ireland took the lead in the sixth minute. Fun to see a game with some goals for a change. Go Denmark!

[StCapps]

Denmark isn't better than Italy, nor did they play better during qualifying, yet the can still qualify when Italy can't, that's just dumb. Especially when they are letting 3-4-3 teams qualify without a playoff and forcing a team to play a playoff when they go 7-2-1, that fucking asinine, get better World Cup Qualifying.