2018 World Cup Qualifiers

[gunnar hendershow]

Gulati's head better be delivered to me on a silver platter tomorrow morning.

We finally have a great young player and the entire ship catches fire and sinks just as he gets on board. Of course this would happen.

[9 to 5]

1 hour ago, Adam said:

Bastard. Messi hat trick means Argentina probably through, Peru gone behind meaning they're out as it stands and Panama losing despite USA going 2-0 down in Trinidad. Not the night for the underdog so far.

Peru making the play offs is a big deal in the Niner house!

[Meacon Keaton]

22 minutes ago, damshow said:

Gulati's head better be delivered to me on a silver platter tomorrow morning.

We finally have a great young player and the entire ship catches fire and sinks just as he gets on board. Of course this would happen.

Bruce Arena needs to go. Bringing him back was a terrible decision. At least we had plateaued under Klinsmann. Under Arena we've regressed. 

[gunnar hendershow]

3 minutes ago, Meacon said:

Bruce Arena needs to go. Bringing him back was a terrible decision. At least we had plateaued under Klinsmann. Under Arena we've regressed. 

Someone already got to work on Gulati's Wikipedia

 

[Adam]

Just to say, having seen the equalising goals scored by both Panama and Honduras, you have to feel the Gods were just against USA. Panama's leveller never came close to crossing the line, and Honduras equalised when a shot hit the post, bounced off the back of the goalie's head and into the net.

Of course that doesn't negate the fact that USA managed to lose in Trinidad, or the winning goals scored by Panama and Honduras either. I'm delighted for tiny nations like Panama making it, but at the same time it is damaging for USA during a time when their league is on the up and the national team seemed to be too. Five years now until Pulisic and co. can play on that World Cup stage.

[gunnar hendershow]

MLS has its niche and many Panamanian and Honduran players are in the league and many are great players. It draws well and has a lot of fans. But it's been pointed out before, and will be pointed out again, our players develop better when they're against better competition over in Europe. So it creates this problem where who should be the most marketable stars can't be in the top domestic league because of better competition elsewhere. Normally this won't be an issue, plenty of smaller countries have smaller domestic leagues and then their best players for lack of a better word graduate to a bigger league. Unfortunately the US is a huge country with a ton of money into the MLS, it won't treat itself like a smaller league. And it improves the quality of play in the league for sure, but it exacerbates problems the US has in nurturing young talent. 4 million kids play the sport here and many of them are extremely good at a young age and they just don't go anywhere. They play it in rec league, and then high school, and if they're lucky go to a national team camp and hope for the best. Ethically it's probably better this way, but it hurts the US from a competitive standpoint. There has to be some middle ground for what to do with these players when they're of high school age. It can't just be this high school to college and/or MLS pipeline.

[GoGo Yubari]

Congrats to Panama! Condolences to the actual players on the USMNT, some of whom will never get a chance at the World Cup again. But Roman Torres is a beast and deserves to play in the World Cup next year.

And a big old "good, fuck you" to Sunil Gulati, Bruce Arena, and US Soccer.

[Bobfoc]

I'm glad for Panama after they came so agonisingly close last time. We'll be seeing at least two debutants at the World Cup, which is nice.

[Baddar]

I know they've had an indifferent campaign but I'm glad Argentina are back on track. The World Cup without Messi, Aguero etc. just wouldn't be the same.

[FestiveJack]

The World Cup without Argentina would've been fine, same as it'll be fine without Holland, despite coming 3rd and 2nd in the last two.

[Colly]

It would have, but there is a bit of me that's glad that Messi and Ronaldo have both qualified for what could be the last one for at least one of them. I'm all for the qualification process (there were some right divs on a BBC comments thing yesterday. As usual obviously) and teams deserving to get there, but that doesn't stop me wanting to see the historical 'big' teams there. They had a naff qualifying campaign but still made it, so hey ho. 

[gunnar hendershow]

I am always happy to see the world's best play in the World Cup, so having the chance to see Messi and Ronaldo in their possible final World Cups is wonderful. Argentina is such a strange team as they were listless throughout qualification and then Messi last night just put everything on his back. Then again they looked kinda disorganized in 2014 and still came tantalizingly close to winning the whole thing because of how good Messi is.

My ideal World Cup is all-time great players, a few big-name nations, and as many Icelands as possible.

[MDK]

They should have a best-of-the-rest XI wildcard team of the best players to not make the World Cup. 

[The Buscher]

American interest in soccer had been gradually increasing and the 2010 and 2014 World Cups were a big part of that.

Failing to qualify for the 2018 World Cup could wipe out over a decade of progress.

[Roster Depth Sicko No. 2]

Hopefully they'll instead see it as a need to give things another boost. Pulisic is a top talent and he'll carry them for years but they aren't going to find more of him if they suddenly stop.

[Your Mom]

Well I guess I wont be watching this next year  

[Adam]

I have a feeling England are going to draw Iceland in the group stage. I hope we get some different teams instead of the standard Sweden, Uruguay, Nigeria or Denmark draws.

[Colly]

Buy an Iceland shirt and enjoy. USA 94 is one of my favourite World Cups despite no England representation. 

[9 to 5]

Same, but 1994 was the first World Cup I was interested in so it's bound to feel special to me no matter what.

[MDK]

I still remember Ray Houghton's wonder strike against Italy.

What. A. Goal.

Since no England I supported Ireland and was gutted when they went out against the Dutch.