International sports bar

[Hastur]

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 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, that is dumb.

You have no idea what you’re talking about, right? Sweden ended 2nd in a group with both France and the Netherlands. It was one of the hardest groups.

[StCapps]

You have no idea what you’re talking about, right? Sweden ended 2nd in a group with both France and the Netherlands. It was one of the hardest groups.

If you go 7-2-1, you shouldn't have to play a playoff, especially when teams that go 3-4-3 in qualifying are getting World Cup births, because they play in region where other nations suck at soccer, no playoff required.

That's stupid, how about admitting that, instead being a knee jerk World Cup Qualifying defender?

How is it that you can't imagine a better system for qualifying for the World Cup than the idiotic setup they currently use?

A monkey could do that, it's like they are intentionally making dumb rules, so how about acknowledging this? You know, instead of arguing against something I never said, so you can easily clear the goalposts, that would great, thanks.
/shrugs

[Hastur]

You have no idea what you’re talking about, right? Sweden ended 2nd in a group with both France and the Netherlands. It was one of the hardest groups.

If you go 7-2-1, you shouldn't have to play a playoff, especially when teams that go 3-4-3 in qualifying are getting World Cup births, because they play in region where other nations suck at soccer, no playoff required.

That's stupid, how about admitting that, instead being a knee jerk World Cup Qualifying defender?

It depends on the group. Did you look at Italy’s group? The only threat was Spain and that’s the team that won the group.

[StCapps]

It depends on the group. Did you look at Italy’s group? The only threat was Spain and that’s the team that won the group.

Right and I'm saying, more than one team from that group should have an automatic playoff birth, because more than one team had a really good record in that group.

Panama qualified with a 3-4-3 record, no playoff required, even though Italy won more than twice as many games during qualifying, just because CONCAF sucks. South Korea qualified for the World Cup with a 4-3-3 record, in a weak group, no playoff required, because the AFC sucks at soccer. Syria had a chance to make the World Cup after going 3-4-3, in a weak group, playoff required, because the AFC sucks at soccer.

Yet Italy (7-2-1) doesn't qualify without a playoff, just because Spain is in their group and not enough EUFA teams are allowed to make it.

Do you get how lame that is and how dumb rules allowed it happen? Because it seems like you don't get it, at all.

[LVH2]

It depends on the group. Did you look at Italy’s group? The only threat was Spain and that’s the team that won the group.

Right and I'm saying, more than one team from that group should have an automatic playoff birth, because more than one team had a really good record in that group. Panama got through with 3 wins, no playoff required, even though Italy won more than twice as many games during qualifying, just because their group sucked and the rules make it easier for shitty North American nations to qualify. That is clearly retarded.
.

It's clearly retarded if your goal is to have a tournament of the best teams.

It's clearly not retarded if your goal is for every region to bring their best teams.

Like I said in the other thread, people start to think of sports as international relations or something like that. That's retarded. It is nothing more than a little drama staged for entertainment. If anybody should understand this, it should be a combat sports fan. Why do we watch women fight? Why do people watch Tito Ortiz fight Frank Shamrock, or Floyd fight Connor? Why is Tank Abbot a legend?

Maybe to you, it would be more entertaining to watch a tournament of only the best teams. Though people can be grossly wrong about that. I remember years ago, people thought Ohio State and Michigan should have a rematch for the national championship (college football) even though they were both from the big 10 because CLEARLY they were the 2 best teams. But, this didn't happen and they had to play teams from out of conference in their bowl games. Guess what? They both got fist fucked because they weren't so good after all.

Anyway, for an event like this, a lot of people are entertained by the idea of every region being represented and having lots of potential cinderallas. It's fun to imagine a little country like Panama sending their boys to the big stage, and how ecstatic people there will be if they pull a big upset. No, they aren't going to win. But if they upset a big boy, or get out of their group, people in Panama and elsewhere will remember it for decades. That's a story line you don't really have if the event is all big boys.

On top of that, we have the story line of Italy failing to qualify. Which is fine with me because they are always the most negative, boring team in the event. But anyway, that's drama. That's a narrative for people to talk and argue about. That will also be remembered for decades. More drama, more entertainment, more for people to talk about.

I guess from FIFA's perspective, they want to engage fans around the globe as much as possible.

So, is this the part where all of the good players on Italy suddenly discover that they have Portuguese great grandmothers?

[StCapps]

It's clearly retarded if your goal is to have a tournament of the best teams.

Which is what it should be. Shitty regions should be subsidized with easier qualification, lame. Sports as politics, lame. Trying to engage fans around the world by leaving really good teams with a chance to win out, just to include cinderalla teams from all regions, lame.

[LVH2]

No it shouldn't.

[StCapps]

No it shouldn't.

Fuck you, you hate quality sports. The best against the best is what it's all about, or should be. Fuck this global engagement nonsense. There is no big international tournament to crown the best national team in the world, because idiots like you want to hijack the world cup and make sure all regions have their best teams represented, even if one region has no good teams, and another has a plethora.

You're the real sport killers, not Greg Jackson and Jon Jones. Shitty teams don't get anywhere near a national championship in NCAA football, but they sure do when it comes to qualify for the World Cup. When you're worse than college ball, when it comes to arcane chicanery deciding who make your big tournament at the end of the year, then you really need to get your shit together for the most prestigious tournament in the sport, because that's embarrassing.

Communist one world hippie bullshit has to hijack the biggest, most important, tournament in all of soccer, for the sake of equality among nations that suck at soccer, to get them more engaged in the sport? Just go away, stop ruining international soccer, would be much appreciated. Such faggotry.

[Montegriffo]

Italy were in a group with Albania, Israel, Macedonia and Liechtenstein.
7-2-1 means very little against that opposition.
Switzerland had 9-1-0 and still finished 2nd and had to qualify in the play offs.
Italy had a chance to qualify, all they had to do was beat a team 10 places below them in the world rankings. They couldn't even score a goal, the world cup moves on without them.
13 teams go through from Europe already, how many more do you want?

[StCapps]

Italy were in a group with Albania, Israel, Macedonia and Liechtenstein.
7-2-1 means very little against that opposition.
Switzerland had 9-1-0 and still finished 2nd and had to qualify in the play offs.
Italy had a chance to qualify, all they had to do was beat a team 10 places below them in the world rankings. They couldn't even score a goal, the world cup moves on without them.
13 teams go through from Europe already, how many more do you want?

More if they are better than chump teams from shitty soccer nations. Obviously. Switzerland shouldn't have to had required a playoff to qualify either, that just further proves my point about the rules being shit.