While Europe is at the start of the Nations League campaign, the World Cup Qualifying competition in South America is close to the halfway stage. Tonight sees the 8th round of fixtures.
Argentina continue to justify their number 1 in the world status. A 3-0 win over Chile solidified their place at the top of the league, and have a 12 point cushion over 7th already.
The chasing pair of Uruguay and Colombia both dropped 2 points. Suspension hit Uruguay couldn't score at home against Paraguay, while Colombia needed a late Luis Diaz equalise to get a point in Peru. While Argentina have 18 points, Uruguay are on 14 and Colombia on 13.
Brazil ended a 4 game run without a win by beating Ecuador 1-0 thanks to Rodrygo. They are now 4th on 10 points and the seemingly impossible possibility of them not qualifying is even more seemingly impossible.
Venezuela are chasing a first World Cup qualification, but their hopes were hit at altitude by Bolivia, who won 4-0. They stay ahead of Ecuador, who were hit by a 3 point deduction at the start of Q but still sit top 6 with eight points, one point adrift of Venezuela.
Top 6 qualify, while 7th is an Inter-confederation play-off spot and Paraguay currently sit in that place in 6 points. Bolivia also have 6, Chile are on 5 and Peru sit bottom on 3 - but everything to play for for all.
Tonight sees a big game on at a decent time for European viewers (if you have the means, it isn't televised by a UK broadcaster):
Colombia 2-1 Argentina - 21:30
Ecuador 1-0 Peru - 22:00
Chile 1-2 Bolivia - 22:00
Venezuela 0-0 Uruguay - 23:00
Paraguay 1-0 Brazil - 01:30
AFC QUALIFICATION
At a much earlier stage, the Asian qualification is looking like it could throw a few surprises. With 6 direct qualifiers from the current stage of 3 groups of 6 teams, and then a further 2 from the next stage and an inter-confederation place also then up for grabs, it is a long winded route for many.
In Group A Qatar have suffered a bad start to their bid to qualify, losing 3-1 to United Arab Emirates. Uzbekistan and Iran also got day 1 wins. North Korea and Kyrgyzstan make up the group.
Group B saw South Korea held by Palestine in game 1. However, Iraq were the only winners, beating Oman. Jordan and Palestine are chasing a debut WC, while Kuwait and Oman are the outsiders.
Group C is arguably the toughest, and Australia are already struggling. Defeat to Bahrain and a draw with Indonesia without scoring in either means they are already playing catch up. Japan and Saudi Arabia are the other big hitters, with Japan winning their opener and Saudi getting 4 points from 2 games. Bahrain and Indonesia will be hoping to build on their good starts but China have a lot of work to do after 2 defeats.
Todays games - Results:
China 1-2 Saudi Arabia
Indonesia 0-0 Australia
North Korea 2-2 Qatar
Kyrgyzstan 2-3 Uzbekistan
Oman 1-3 South Korea
Palestine 1-3 Jordan
Bahrain 0-5 Japan
UAE 0-1 Iran
Kuwait 0-0 Iraq
Well done to Samoa who beat American Samoa and Tonga to progress to the second round in the OFC.
Also congratulations to San Marino on their recent win
CONMEBOL WCQ Update
posted on 11/9/24
5 teams scored 12+ in their 3 group games ?? 😂😂
Fiji conceding 29 in 3 games 😂😂
posted on 11/9/24
Yeah, but N Korea caught my attention because going on Costa Rica's results, it doesn't really seem they were actual 'whipping girls'. All the other CONCACAF sides made the knockouts too, and they're fairly competitive within that region.
I noticed Fiji had shipped a bucketload, but that's pretty much par for the course at this kind of tournaments, whether it's their men's or women's teams.
I was surprised to see the Aussies did so badly: 3 defeats, no goals scored.
In fact, the overall showing by Oceania teams was god-awful:
9 games, 9 defeats, 2 goals scored, 48 conceded!
posted on 11/9/24
Seeing as I went to the trouble, I'll report the following as I think at least DJ might find it of interest:
I've taken a quick look at their entire history of results (it's much easier than it sounds, tbh), and along with a few 3-in-5s and 4-in-6s, they've also somewhat surprisingly had similar L4-W1 streaks before, albeit not in World Cup qualifiers.
The L4-W1s include one in the South American Championships of 1920 & 1921 (the earlier version of the Copa America), albeit all 4 defeats were against either Uruguay or Argentina.
Another one back in 1940, also all against Argentina and Uruguay, in a series of regional cup tournaments I'd never heard of ("Copa Julio Argentino Roca" and "Copa Rio Branco".
Interestingly enough, their worst ever 5-game streak of the 20th century came just a year after they'd successfully defended the World Cup in 1962. They went 4L-1D across the 1963 Copa America and one of those Copa Roca games. Interestingly too, this streak also featured defeats to Paraguay and Ecuador, and a tie against Bolivia.
That was also part of a longer 8-game streak in which they lost 6 and won only 1.
You might also be interested to know that their longest ever winless streak spanned 7 games between 1983 and 1984, albeit only two of them were defeats - one of them a 0-2 loss to England in a friendly played at the Maracanã.
As far as I could see, the only time they've actually lost 4 straight was in 2001, across WCQ, Copa America and Confederations Cup.
All four of those defeats came at the tail-end of a 6-game winless streak, and an overall streak of just 1 win in 10 games, which is arguably their worst in history if you consider of the level of opposition. The only win came in a Confeds Cup game against Cameroon, and the streak included defeats to Ecuador, Australia and Mexico (among others) and draws against Canada, Japan and Peru. All of the matches were in official tournaments, with the exception of the game that kickstarted the streak, a 3-3 tie in a friendly against Mexico.
The final game of the streak was a 1-0 Copa America defeat to Mexico. The streak was broken by Copa America wins against Paraguay, although they followed those up by crashing out of that edition of the Copa in a humiliating 2-0 defeat to Honduras.
Quite crazy to think that less than a year later they lifted their 5th and to date last World Cup.
(Incidentally, I have know found out the Copa Roca was a trophy help intermittently between Brazil and Argentina between the 1910s and 1970, and revived in the 2010s as the currently also discontinued Superclásico de las Américas.)
I hope someone's interested in that ultimately pointless information, as it took me a hell of a lot longer to write that than it did to research it.
posted on 11/9/24
Yeah, before this year their qualification record outside of WC2002Q was
Played 109, Lost 6
In WC 2002Q they played 18 lost 6
Now this WCQ it is played 8 lost 4.
As you say, mad they went to WC2002 and won 7 out of 7 on the back of their worst qualifying.
posted on 11/9/24
Crazy the stats football can throw up at times. To lose only 6 in 109 games, and then lose just as many over a single qualifying cycle for a World Cup you then go on to win...even bearing in mind that Ronaldo had been out for what I presume was most if not all of that qualifying tournament, then came back and killed it at the WC proper.
posted on 11/9/24
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 10 hours, 39 minutes ago
Brazil lost 😂
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wth is up with them, awful form atm?
posted on 11/9/24
Not watched a lot of them but it seems to me they lack a true striker. Maybe a bit of inexperience as well, Endrick was terrible last night by all accounts, Joao Pedro not much better.
It is kind of a transition period for them, lots of 23 and unders in the squad. Paqueta and Bruno G are good midfielders but they lack a bit of true class in creativity in there. A lot of pressure on Vini Jr too.
posted on 11/9/24
It can't help that they're on their third manager since Tite stepped down less than 2 years ago.
Their win % under Tite was close to 75%. None of his successors so far come close to 50%.
posted on 15/9/24
comment by it'sonlyagame - in Springfield they're eating the dogs (U6426)
posted 4 days, 12 hours ago
Yeah, but N Korea caught my attention because going on Costa Rica's results, it doesn't really seem they were actual 'whipping girls'. All the other CONCACAF sides made the knockouts too, and they're fairly competitive within that region.
I noticed Fiji had shipped a bucketload, but that's pretty much par for the course at this kind of tournaments, whether it's their men's or women's teams.
I was surprised to see the Aussies did so badly: 3 defeats, no goals scored.
In fact, the overall showing by Oceania teams was god-awful:
9 games, 9 defeats, 2 goals scored, 48 conceded!
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N Korea into the semis now after beating Brazil
posted on 23/9/24
North Korea are the Women's U-20 World Champions!
They get to eat steak!