Jarrin' Jay said:

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Costa Rica is usually a competitive squad, this WC team barely qualified is not nearly as good as the last few Costa Rica teams in the WC.

Having said that, generally CONCACAF teams do OK at the WC. Regardless, it is more difficult for the top CONCACAF teams to qualify for the WC than many Euro teams, which not many people realize.

To qualify for the WC, here is who several Euro teams had to compete against in their groups:

England: Poland, Albania, Hungary, Andorra, San Marino
Germany: North Macedonia, Romania, Armenia, Iceland, Lichtenstein
Netherlands: Turkey, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, Gibraltar
Denmark: Scotland, Israel, Austria, Faroe Islands, Moldova
France: Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia & Herz., Kazakhstan

Those are all an absolute and complete joke. Name me ONE of those groups that US or Mexico would not win and qualify out of. There aren't any. Looking at the reverse, sure those teams that won those groups are good, but the away games to all those spare teams/countries are MUCH easier than playing @ Mexico, @ Costa Rica, @ Panama, @ Honduras, @ Jamaica. If Germany had to play a CONCACAF qualifying campaign I don't think they would be in the WC at all, and I say that as a Germany fan.

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Spain had 81.3% possession in their 7-0 win against Costa Rica, the highest in a World Cup match since 1966.

They also out passed Costa Rica 976-165. DOMINANCE! 😳 pic.twitter.com/3ScKf72oMt

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) November 23, 2022

Jarrin' Jay said:

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This WC cycle, if the teams reversed qualifying campaigns, USA wins that Euro group, and Germany does NOT qualify for the WC at all. I am a huge Germany fan, live there many years, it's where I learned to play, with Germans not Americans.

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Japan have won a World Cup game while having the second-lowest possession figure in history (26.2%)

The record?

South Korea's 26% possession against Germany in 2018 😲#FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/tK0oRarwgT

— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) November 23, 2022

Quote:

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This is class from the Japan fans 🇯🇵👏

Cleaning up in the stadium after the Germany game.#BBCFootball #BBCWorldCup pic.twitter.com/TavpGQSX4N

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) November 23, 2022

The magnitude of their win over Germany could have seen them go off into the night in celebration but Japan's fans demonstrated that the best manners and habits are ingrained, no matter the situation.

Come full-time, the stands of sporting stadia are usually littered with used food trays and wrappers and empty drinks cups, left behind for someone else to clean up.

But not when the Samurai Blue are in town.

Their players, fresh from a 2-1 victory over the four-time champions in their World Cup opener, had barely left the pitch when the Japanese in the crowd pressed pause on the party to tidy up after themselves at Khalifa International Stadium in Qatar.
. . .

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Jarrin' Jay said:

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To qualify for the WC, here is who several Euro teams had to compete against in their groups:

England: Poland, Albania, Hungary, Andorra, San Marino
Germany: North Macedonia, Romania, Armenia, Iceland, Lichtenstein
Netherlands: Turkey, Norway, Montenegro, Latvia, Gibraltar
Denmark: Scotland, Israel, Austria, Faroe Islands, Moldova
France: Ukraine, Finland, Bosnia & Herz., Kazakhstan

Those are all an absolute and complete joke. Name me ONE of those groups that US or Mexico would not win and qualify out of. There aren't any.

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Jarrin' Jay said:

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I'm sure they will beat this CR team in Qatar. That is beside the point. My comments were to reflect the relative ease with which most Euro teams qualify for the WC. That group for Germany is a joke, and there are always 2 or 3 UEFA groups that are a joke expect for the power on top.

This Germany team may or may not have qualified out of CONCACAF, but 100% all of USA, Mexico, and this iteration of Canada win that UEFA group with ease, just as Germany did.

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Jarrin' Jay said:

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This WC cycle, if the teams reversed qualifying campaigns, USA wins that Euro group, and Germany does NOT qualify for the WC at all. I am a huge Germany fan, live there many years, it's where I learned to play, with Germans not Americans.

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Faustus said:

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PatAg said:

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What about the years where all 3 concacaf teams advance to knockout rounds?
Its never as simple as "this region deserves more slots".
We'll never know how European countries would do in Concacaf qualifying. Obviously they are very talented, but they never play in those sorts of road environments either.

I think us and Mexico are probably punished the most by every region having Nations league now. We are rarely, if ever, getting to test ourselves against top European countries. Or at the very least, getting gametime against them.
Its why its so important we keep getting more and more players over to those top 5 leagues in Europe, to get those reps in. MLS has its place, and the quality is much higher than certain people would like to believe, but ideally we get our players over to Europe between 18-22 (earlier the better, assuming its somewhere where they can get playing time and develop).
As MLS, and its academies, continue to develop, our young players will continue to increase in value and will be more readily played at young ages at these top clubs in Europe. The only way I see MLS truly becoming Top 5 worthy, is finding some way to get representation in Champions league.
I think both MLS and Liga MX deserve a spot, maybe 2, but it would be very hard to do it logistically.

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It might even require relocation to Europe to qualify.

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YokelRidesAgain said:

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PatAg said:

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What about the years where all 3 concacaf teams advance to knockout rounds?
Its never as simple as "this region deserves more slots".

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The "years"? You mean 2014, which is literally the only time CONCACAF has had three teams make the knockout round.

And fine, that was cute. Any given matchday, or whatever.

But the fact remains, only four teams from CONCACAF have EVER made it out of the first round in a WC, and one of those was Cuba in 1938.

If you want to advocate for the US, Mexico, and the next tallest midget to always make the World Cup, fine. On the basis of the current results and world rankings, that's arguable.

The fact remains, however, that Costa Rica got into this WC by finishing fourth in the region; then beating New Zealand (who have a bye to whatever the hell stage of the competition FIFA lets them into, which will be the actual, freaking World Cup next go around), and then got pasted 7-nil.

And next time there will be two, and possibly three, CONCACAF teams that are WORSE than them in the competition.

If you wanted to have a fair selection process that allowed for a certain amount of local flavor, you would give each confederation a certain number of slots for group winners or whatever and then have a much larger playoff where "runners up" like Italy got to play "runners up" like Costa Rica. It's impossible because the domestic leagues would riot at all the extra match days, travel, etc.

But we all know what would happen.

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Dre_00 said:

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And I'm assuming when you say "first round" you mean out of the first knockout round because many CONCACAF teams have made it out of the group stage. Or rather the CONCACAF teams often make it past the group stage. If you look back the last 20 years, there's quite a variety of teams who have made it to the QF stage.

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YokelRidesAgain said:

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Dre_00 said:

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And I'm assuming when you say "first round" you mean out of the first knockout round because many CONCACAF teams have made it out of the group stage. Or rather the CONCACAF teams often make it past the group stage. If you look back the last 20 years, there's quite a variety of teams who have made it to the QF stage.

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Mexico and the United States have advanced to the knockout rounds multiple times. Costa Rica has done so twice, and Cuba made it in 1938. No other CONCACAF side has advanced past the group stage.

The fall-off in quality past the tope two teams in CONCACAF has, historically, been massive. And when you get down to the 5th and 6th teams you are looking at non-comeptitive sides in top level international football.

Look at it this way: UEFA gets 16 slots for the next WC. The 16th team in the world rankings from Europe is #27, Ukraine.

CONMEBOL gets 6 slots for the next world cup. The 6th team in the world rankings from South America is #29 Chile.

CAF gets 9 slots for the next World Cup. The 9th team from Africa in the current world rankings is Ivory Coast, #48 (this is the only confederation where the number of slots allotted is pretty close to where it 'should' be if your goal is to pick the top 48 teams.)

And CONCACAF gets 6 slots, with the number 6 team in the rankings being #64, Jamaica.

Honestly, you sound like a Big XII fan complaining about the SEC getting too many teams in the football playoff. If your goal is 'equity', or something, or if you think it would be fun to watch Jamaica play France, good news, you're going to get your wish.

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MookieBlaylock said:

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what do this has to do with this bracket?

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