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!
The dream situation is picking a Pot 1 host team. An opportunity to get revenge against Mexico from 2014, or pick apart Canada again like in 2022, or grouped with USA for the first time, which could potentially be the opening stand alone game, to kick off the 2026 world cup.
I still haven’t seen an official article or FIFA link showing this is happening.
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
It would be good because Croatia would be the heavy favorite to top the group.
I would prefer the East Coast though.
This World Cup expansion is so messed up that we could literally be in a group of…Canada, Egypt, and New Zealand…or in a group of Argentina, Norway, and Ghana.
If we were lucky enough to draw one of the hosts, I think Canada would be the easiest of the three. US is probably slightly more difficult, but Mexico could be challenging at home. Either way, we would escape a Brazil, Argentina, Spain, etc.
I didnโt realize they are already drawing for tickets
I missed the early draw
Iโm happy to see a couple games in the group stage
I thought we wouldnโt really know till the group draw
Iโm 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.
Kotarski opens his mouth and now looks stupid after playing horribly after that.
Hopefully Livakovic moves to another team next month to get into game shape for the World Cup, as we still desperately need him.
Semper and Pandur are playing regularly, so hopefully they can take the opportunity to get some callups in the future, but it’s highly unlikely we can get anyone else integrated before the tournament (unless Pandur suddenly makes some death-defying saves in these next couple of games against Faroes and Montenegro).
If Iโm Girona Iโm doing the Spain NT a solid and have their #1 keeper (Gazza?) pretend to be injured for a game and tell Liva he needs to play
Can Liva really refuse to play?
Not sure how that works
There is also Letica I guess their monitoring (on standby list)
Think itโs the opposite
Dalic is covering his ass by calling Pandur to hedge if Hull get promoted to the PL
Imagine how dumb Dalic would look if there is a Croatian keeper on a PL team that doesnโt even have a cap for Croatia (given lack of other impressive keeper options available for Croatia)
Good thinking and thought process Bartolec !
No benefit for announcing the team so early – Dalic is just stubborn in continuing to do it – it’s just dumb – some players (like Kotarski) played an extra 4 games after announcement to NT gathering
Other facts we know
Pandur gave an interview to VL Monday a.m. – I saw it on their website – so for the interview to happen VL must have found out (I doubt Pandur arrived late Sunday, VL contacted him immediately and then Pandur woke up Monday a.m. early to give the interview)
In the first press conference Dalic gave – he only mentioned Erlic’s injury and said we’ll know more when he arrives – then later on that day (or the next day) he said Erlic has arrived and is okay – at no point has Dalic mentioned Kotarski’s “injury” to the press (this whole week) – that’s obviously strange (and not sure why journalists aren’t asking him unless they’ve been told don’t ask about Kotarski) – if the “injury” wasn’t bad (see below) than logically Kotarski would have arrived to the NT (like Erlic) for assessment
There is zero news on Kotarski as e.g. in Denmark that Kotarski has picked up an injury (obviously they (i.e. Copenhagen FC) would say something if there was in fact an injury of any substance)
The other weird thing is Hull City nor any of the Hull press had any idea that Pandur was called-up to the NT and was at camp until they announced it Monday evening (by seeing Pandur post on IG and HNS post pictures on X) – so seems they were caught by surprise too
All facts lead to the conclusion that Dalic dis-invited Kotarski – but is saving his own (and Kotarski) faces – by making up there is an injury