Huge news in FIFA rankings. With Croatia winning both of their September qualifiers and Germany losing to Slovakia, the Vatreni move into the all-important top-9 spot. Remember, the top-9 ranked countries will join the United States, Mexico and Canada as Pot 1 seeds for the World Cup draw December 5th.
That is huge to avoid any ‘Group of Death’ combinations early in the tournament.
Morocco have already qualified and only have one qualifier left. It would be near impossible for them to catch Croatia if the Vatreni win out. Germany still has two tough qualifiers vs. Slovakia and Northern Ireland — who have already given them trouble. Italy is not going to win their group. Norway has a “goal differential” chokehold leading Italy. Even if Italy win out, expect them to be playing in the World Cup playoffs in March. You heard it hear first!
Marko Pjaca is a bit out of shape, but he is definitely back. Came off the bench at halftime with the match tied 1-1, assisted the game-winning goal and his team scored three more after that to win 1-5. Very valuable player, and Twente is giving him the respect he deserves, trying to get him the ball as much as possible. Good move for Marko.
Wow
Quick turnaround
Nov 1st
UFC110 in Vegas
Delija vs Waldo (6th HW rank)
Let’s make sure we fill half the arena with Croatia jerseys and flags
Per Vincent Kompany…
“It’s probably not that bad for Stani. It’s just a short-term injury. We’ll deal with it with the guys we have.”
“He’ll miss a few games. We hope he can be back after the international break,” he added on Stanisic’s injury
Pot 1 doesn’t eliminate a Group of Death
Eg could pull Germany (Pot 2), Italy (Pot 4) and a Pot 3 (eg Australia, Norway, Egypt)
Italy cannot be in Pot 4, at worst pot 2.
I still say let’s qualify first and then worry about the Pots.
PO teams who qualify are ALL put into Pot 4
Doesn’t eliminate it, but define reduces the probability.
We’ve been in too many difficult groups in recent tournaments.
2018 was brutal, especially since the 2nd place team had to face France right away.
Winning your World Cup group gives you a third place team in the Round of 32. I definitely want us to be a top seed in our group.
Like gvardiol and sucic, stanisic is injury prone
I’m going to give one of my analysts the task of running the simulations of fifa rankings
Will be back
From what I’ve read stanisic is out with knee injury. not good. Some websites says 2 to 3 weeks other months.
The diagnosis is partially raptured medial knee ligament. We’ll be lucky if he is available for the November matches ?
October matches are gone, but he apparently should be back for November (according to what Vincent Kompany said).