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bairney

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Just bought tickets for Malaysia v UAE on Tuesday night. Should be a good atmosphere after the win in Indonesia last week. We'll soon find out if Malaysia have any chance of making an actual go of it.

Doubt it, but you never know.

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Malaysia shot themselves in the foot tonight against UAE. Scored in the first minute and had UAE on the back foot for most of the first half. Missed a run of chances, two very good ones in particular.

UAE got level before half time with a powerful header from Ali Mabkhout that the keeper should probably have saved. Second half was more even but then Mabkhout scored again after a defensive mistake and UAE won 2-1. Malaysia pressed a lot late on, hit the post and were unlucky to lose, but they missed too many chances when on top early on in the game. Should have been over in the first 25.

I was pleased to see Mabkhout and Omar Abdulrahman play in the flesh for UAE. Two fantastic players and I'd been keen to see Abdulrahman in particular for years.

Really enjoyable game with a great atmosphere. UAE, as you'd expect from a Van Marwijk team, used every trick in the book. Mabkhout especially was a great pantomime villain. Some textbook gamesmanship from UAE throughout. Showed good experience to constantly disrupt the game and add needle when they were on the back foot to throw Malaysia off their stride. It worked.

A good night at the football.

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Thailand swept aside Indonesia 0-3 all goals coming in the second half. Could have been more. Unbeaten in two games after 0-0 with Vietnam, who are a sticky team now. So pleased with the start of the campaign for us.

Up next UAE at home in October.  Should be a good one. 

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Following have bowed out from Africa after 1st round of qualifying

Lesotho
Somalia
Burundi
Eritrea
Estwani
Botswana
Gambia
Sierra Leone
Mauritius
Sao Tome & Principe
South Sudan
Comoros
Chad
Seychelles

Djbouti (195th) are the lowest ranked nation to make it to the next stage

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CAF's lowest ranked team Somalia (202) beat Zimbabwe (112) 1-0 last night. Zimbabwe are the highest ranked team at this stage of CAF qualifying. This is Somalia's first win in any qualifying since beating Kenya in 1984.
 
 


One for the people who look at suspicious betting patterns there.
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On 06/09/2019 at 10:12, GNU_Linux said:

CAF's lowest ranked team Somalia (202) beat Zimbabwe (112) 1-0 last night. Zimbabwe are the highest ranked team at this stage of CAF qualifying. This is Somalia's first win in any qualifying since beating Kenya in 1984.

 

 

Somalian team had a bit of hunger in 1984

 

Just rembered Band Aid was about Ethiopia but IMO still a decent joke if geographically incorrect 

Edited by invergowrie arab
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  • 2 weeks later...

Does UEFA's addition of relegation playoffs to Nations League Division C mean 11 groups of 5 in WC 2022 qualifying... as you'd need 8 groups with odd numbers to play the 4-team NL Finals Tournament and 4-team relegation playoffs in June 2021?

Could they keep 10 groups by also putting relegation participants into 4 of 5 odd-numbered, and hold playoffs in March 2021?

Edited by HibeeJibee
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Does UEFA's addition of relegation playoffs to Nations League Division C mean 11 groups of 5 in WC 2022 qualifying... as you'd need 8 groups with odd numbers to play the 4-team NL Finals Tournament and 4-team relegation playoffs in June 2021?

Could they keep 10 groups by also putting relegation participants into 4 of 5 odd-numbered, and hold playoffs in March 2021?
They confirmed in the press conference that it'll be 10 groups.
I suspect you're right on the other part. There's not many ways around it.

It's getting more messy every layer they add to these competitions. Will be changed again for the 2026 WC no doubt too.
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9 hours ago, charger29 said:

They confirmed in the press conference that it'll be 10 groups.
I suspect you're right on the other part. There's not many ways around it.

It's getting more messy every layer they add to these competitions. Will be changed again for the 2026 WC no doubt too.

Agreed especially when you add keeping certain countries apart due to animosity and extra stuff like limiting travel distances, not scheduling some countries at home in Mar/Nov, etc.

Also if a game is ever postponed it'll be almost impossible to reschedule unless Wed-Sat-Tue.

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6 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said:

Agreed especially when you add keeping certain countries apart due to animosity and extra stuff like limiting travel distances, not scheduling some countries at home in Mar/Nov, etc.

Also if a game is ever postponed it'll be almost impossible to reschedule unless Wed-Sat-Tue.

 

I wonder if they're potentially going to move towards smaller groups where the entire group is played in one location over a single "week of football", like what happens at some of the youth levels. Probably the only way they could fit three matchdays into the same international break. You could have half the groups playing Thursday-Saturday-Monday and the other half playing Friday-Sunday-Tuesday.

 

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Don't think authorities - or clubs - would want players having 2 games in 3 days (or 3 games in 5 days).

That said they currently risk 2 games in 3 days if the first game of a double-header is ever postponed and has to retry the following day.

Their real issue will be if you ever get a bad European snowstorm in November, or another volcanic ash issue grounding air travel, or another 9/11 seeing a whole week's ties cancelled.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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