Good ‘ol FIFA. Changing the rules whenever they deem it necessary. Originally, all nations who needed a March playoff to get into the World Cup would automatically be placed in Pot 4 of the December 5th World Cup draw; regardless of world ranking. That’s all about to change in the upcoming weeks when FIFA makes it official.
For the past two months, Croatia and Germany have been going back and forth for the coveted #9 spot in FIFA rankings which would earn the last spot in Pot 1 for seeding: hosts United States, Mexico, and Canada will all be Pot 1 + the top-9 ranked nations in the world. If Croatia win their last two matches and Germany slip up once this weekend, the Vatreni would leap frog Germany for the #9 spot.
What about Italy??? Italy have never been in the equation because they are going to finish behind Norway in their group (99%) and will be headed to a March World Cup playoff to get into the tournament. But now FIFA will be giving Italy (or whomever wins out of the 4-team Italy playoff) an automatic Pot 1 seed. This was never the original format and FIFA literally came up with this dumb idea to try and get Italy in this month. Remember, Italy have missed two straight World Cup tournaments.
Will it matter in the long run? Probably not. But what a joke coming from FIFA. Croatia will be drawn out of Pot 2.
BLESSING IN DISGUISE! Give CroatianSports the USA group with all matches played on the West Coast!
It could be a blessing in disguise…It would be great if we draw Canada, and have some games in Toronto. Huge Cro community here in the GTA.
Yeah no kidding to get Canada This time would be awesome
Break the bank a bit on tickets bur it would be awesome
I didn’t realize they are already drawing for tickets
I missed the early draw
I’m happy to see a couple games in the group stage
I thought we wouldn’t really know till the group draw
I’m assuming they will have a draw at that point?
World Cup or die for me this go
@Anonymous
https://croatiansports.com/the-weekend-water-cooler-128/#comments/521370
Maybe there are advantages to announcing the squad early that I don’t know of, but personally I’m not a big fan of Dalic doing that.
Btw, did you say Pandur was in Zagreb by Monday Croatia time? If so, that would make Kotarski’s injury even less plausible. Consider the timeline.
1. Sunday afternoon, Kotarski played the full 90 in the Danish league.
2. Sunday night, Kotarski informed Dalic he’s injured and unfit to play
3. Dalic proceeded to call up Pandur
4. Pandur flew out of England and arrived in Zagreb Sunday evening/night.
Isn’t everything moving too quickly for the timeline to be realistic? And if the injury isn’t flat-out serious, wouldn’t Kotarski have waited until Monday before confirming his withdrawal?
Maybe it was Bog prompting me to prompt you. I dunno, haha.
I doubt Kotarski is actually seriously injured physically (but definitely is psychologically), but the timeline is plausible simply because of the volume of flights that leave the UK at weird hours. If Pandur turns out to be the most in-form keeper and plays these matches, that could get him interest from clubs in higher leagues. Interesting development.