Subject: [WC]Qualifications

Ah ok, thanks ...
I was thinking the draw will be based on the national teams ranking ... ;-)

Good news ... :-)

Nederland won ^^
We're in the first basket! Hip hip houray ^^

Russia still to play. Will edit after their match. :)

Nation...Group...Points...Goal Differential

1st Place Finishers
-----First Basket-----
Polska Group C 30 +128
Suomi Group E 30 +67
Italia Group F 28 +99
Hrvatska Group J 28 +67
Nederland Group I 27 +73
España Group A 27 +52
Lietuva Group B 27 +47
Deutschland Group H 27 +42
---------------------------------

-----2nd Basket-----
Peru Group D 25 +21
België Group K 24 +53
Ceská republika Group G 22 +28

2nd Place Finishers
Schweiz Group I 27 +44
France Group F 25 +83
Slovensko Group A 25 +43
England Group H 25 +29
Argentina Group E 24 +50
-------------------------------

-----3rd Basket-----
România Group K 24 +24
Canada Group J 22 +30
Norge Group B 22 +18
Danmark Group G 21 +34
México Group C 19 +11
Scotland Group D 19 +10

3rd Place Finishers
Brasil Group K 22 +33
New Zealand Group J 21 +34
---------------------------------

-----4th Basket-----
Australia Group B 21 +21
Chile Group A 19 +27
Belarus Group G 19 +19
Colombia Group I 18 +26
*Rossiya Group F 15 +2
Eesti Group C 18 -4
USA Group D 16 +11
Portugal Group E 15 +36
-----------------------------
Cymru Group H 15 -15
(edited)

I made a miscalculation and thought that Argentina was sentenced for the 3rd basket. You don't know how happy I feel right now after seeing (and checking it out, because I refused to believe it was true :P) your table [he]
(edited)

Heehee. Glad to bear good news. :) I think it's fairly accurate (I was sipping a beer while I compiled it).

There are some fairly nasty teams lurking in the fourth basket. Some serious "group of death" permutations. :S

I know... Eesti is there, Russia it's difficult to deal with... But I assume that being in a higher lot always helps to reduce risk... though everything is possible. As usual, luck helps... or hampers [angel]

I have a suggestion regarding the world cup and would like to leave here for discussion.

Why doesn't Sokker do the same as FIFA? I believe it's unfair to have a qualification against European or American teams when Nippon (for example) is from Asia.

I propose the same approach as RL from next qualifications on: Asian teams play against Asian teams, American teams against American, African against African, and so on.

Obviously, the number of openings for the qualifications would have to be proportional considering the level of the national teams: more openings for Europe and south America.

The upcoming world cup will have no teams from Africa or Asia.

What you think?

I think that in WC may play the best teams

Then the group phase isn't enough. To realize the real best teams everyone would need to play everyone.

I bet there are teams in 3rd place that won't get in better graded than teams that qualified for having to play in a weaker group on qualifications.

Furthermore, a cup with the best teams is not a World Cup, but a Best Team Cup, with mostly European an American teams.

Let's call it Darwinist Cup.

Belarus for the first time passed the first round of qualification for WC, we are very very happy for this great achievement ;))
Last two matches was impressive for us ;)
(edited)

Next season's World Cup:

European teams - 22
North & Central American teams - 3
South American teams - 5
Oceania - 1
Asia - 1 (Australia is in AFC in RL)

The only region that is getting the shaft this time is Africa (and there is often a representative from Africa).

Division by region would make it much more likely to see the same teams year after year. The current system provides much more variability (IMO).

Edit: made a mistake with Australia's RL region. No disrespect intended. :) I thought they were Oceanic. Turns out we do have an Asian representative.
(edited)

Then the group phase isn't enough. To realize the real best teams everyone would need to play everyone.

Everyone does play everyone else in the pre-qualifiers or off-season and the groups are based on that.
I dont think it's an unfair system. There is no issue of geography in this game unlike in the real world.
I also dont think it would be fair on the better teams to miss out on the world cup because a team like Nigeria qualified through an easy African group. If you want to get to the world cup, do what Ireland are trying to do. Build your userbase and train your young players.

I counted that there are 7 Asian nations and 4 African nations in sokker. That situation varies a lot from the situation with FIFA. Making, for example, an African qualification would be pretty unrealistic.

Seca: Asia is also out.

Nin: I don't agree with you. There are regions here too. Appearantly, the world in Sokker has 6 regions:

- Africa
- Asia
- Australia and Oceania
- Europe
- North America
- South America

In my opinion, the upcoming cup would be a World Cup only if representatives from all of these regions were present.

I do want Nippon on the World Cup, though we wouldn't probably have qualified even if the qualifications were only among Asian teams. I'm just proposing a more "worldwide" cup, that's all.

And talking about better teams missing a world up, that happens in RL - or you'd say Togo and Angola are a strong teams? :P

domatunga: just give Africa one opening and Asia another one. That's also one way of setting up a reasonable proportion: the smaller the number of nations, the smaller the number of openings for the region (in RL it's also like this).

I disagree.

The reason why in RL we have a regional system is in part politics (big part) and in part financial.

1) Politics: the FIFA is dominated for American and European countries, and they make sure that their interest is preserved. That's why we have, for instance, South America qualifying 4 out of 10 teams (40% !!!) plus an extra chance against Oceania. The places for Africa, Asia, and other regions have been more to "content" those countries and preserver the "peace" rather than a true and real intention to have a more fair system.
It has, anyway, a good side: by guaranteeing that countries that, in a more competitive qualifications system, would never qualify get to the Cup anyway help those (and other countries that see they have a chance) to develop their football (there's hope at the end of the tunnel).

2) Financial: costs of a qualification played limited to a regional area are lower, coordination easier.

We do not have (and shall not have) those things in SK.

Here, we do not have regions that dominate because of history or politics. At the most, those countries that began first have more developed players, but there is nothing that prevent other countries from growing and becoming powers too. It's not like real live, where even with money, you cannot create a new Brazil or a new Italia in Singapore or Indonesia just like this. In SK, that's perfectly possible.

We do not have cost: it's the same to play a qualification match against Australia, Germany, USA or South Africa.

Thus, if something has to be changed, is the FIFA system. There are other sports where systems have been developed not to limit qualifications to regions and, at the same time, preserve chances for everybody. For instance, the Davis Cup system: there is a "World Group" and then there are "Regional Groups", and by doing that you guarantee that the best teams have the opportunity to play for the Cup but, at the same time, you do not create a burden for low teams forcing them to play around the world when they know they do not get to the final stages anyway.

But here, in SK, again, nothing prevents Japan or Argentina from becoming superpowers. It's a matter of getting more users (the bigger the community, the better the chances of promoting lots of talented youth players who will be trained around the world) and waiting until the work with youth players shows its results.

Let's leave this system as it is: the best teams to the WC, and the rest to work on better players for the future.