Segun Oluwaniyi

Cameroon held on to beat CIV after a Toko-Ekambi goal, so the teams in the CAF playoffs till be as follows:

Seeded: Senegal, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Nigeria

Unseeded Egypt, Cameroon, Mali, Ghana, and DR Congo

Draw is in December. Will be a very tough round, No weak teams at all, might just be the ten best period, imo.

1 hour ago, Yorkie said:

 

I know the new format post-Qatar will open it up but it seems very harsh only five African nations making it into the World Cup. Some (what I assume are) very good teams will miss out. 

 

Was curious about how Nigeria might get on against Cape Verde. Heard that they were poor in their other recent game against Liberia so it sounds like you guys have snuck into the play-offs but will have to improve a lot to actually make it! 

It is a bad combination of fairly diffuse talent and bad performances at World Cups. We can't claim more teams, the only time more than one made it out the group was 2014, and 0 made it out last time as Senegal and Nigeria both wasted good chances. At the same time there are also significantly more strong teams than in Asia or North America, so it is difficult. Better qualifying will be the only benefit of the bastard 48 team World Cup. Nigeria has been awful in this qualification, but to be frank muddling through with mediocrity, despite an array of talent and resources, is the Nigerian way in all walks of life. The team is strong in terms of talent, I think we have a good chance still.

African qualifying is always heart-attack inducing. Every team guaranteed to face pressure matches because of this format, plus the usual factors that make playing on the continent difficult in general. The playoff teams will be set today. Nigeria barely survived to make the playoff after a terrible draw against Cape Verde at home, same for Algeria surviving with a 2-2 draw at home against Burkina Faso. Ghana advanced over South Africa based on this phantom penalty, who are appealing to FIFA:

Cameroon v. Côte d'Ivoire starting now, one will go to the playoff round and one will go home, CIV just need a draw.

2 hours ago, Ameritoon said:

 

I would take it, at the very least a draw. On top of the conditions, Canada are young and hungry and Mexico are old and facing a lot of adversity right now.

From what I've seen of the two, Canada may just be better at the moment. Mexico are laboured and seem poorly coached, while Davies, David, and Buchanan are all extremely fast and dangerous players.

1 minute ago, Conjo said:

 

Free header? Did you see how Clarke was literally pulled away?  

This was posted before it was disallowed on my slow stream of the match, tbf.

How many times is the best aerially dominant forward in the league going to be allowed free headers at the goal. Luck of this team today is incredible.

Apologies to those with a natural disdain for Sunderland through life experience, but the club I hate most will always be Manchester United. I despise them.

2 minutes ago, HTT II said:

Just a hunch, but I think Leicester will have a poor season by their recent standards in the league, defensively they look all over the place and should have invested in a top CB IMO. 

 

 

 

Their best central defender had his leg snapped in preseason, tbf. But agreed if Soyuncu doesn't regain form they'll struggle to get top six despite all the attacking talent.

Class goal by Osimhen, we have a real player if he can just calm down a bit and stop snatching at this chances, boy has everything you would want physically in a striker.

Leicester have so many exciting players going forward, the biggest problem they might have is just keeping all of them happy. It has to be tough for the likes of Iheanacho, Daka, and Soumare to be substitutes most matches, even though there are good players in front of them.

Woodman is a watsepipe. Complete rubbish in this match. Two goals from two simple saves.

Almiron has been incredible.

6 minutes ago, Froggy said:

 

We've had 15 shots, 3 on target and 69% possession. 

 

I'm well aware you're allowed to defend but you're not going to keep us out for 90 mins and you have plenty of pace to target Maguire.

 

Hoofball isn't the answer. 

Keeping you out and targeting with pace is exactly what Newcastle did for 45 minutes. This is a side without any serious striker available and a keeper entirely unproven at this level that consequently hasn't taken it's chances and conceded from a keeper error. Don't confuse being a rubbish side with some football philosophy.

Just now, thomas said:

was the deflection really that bad i feel like that was horribly spilled

Probably bad enough that he couldn't hold the shot, but he should have been able to parry it away and not slap it across the goal for a tap in.

11 minutes ago, KaKa said:

Zaha is so overly sensitive man. Never seen a player take a tackle so personally. You'd think he was the only skill player that gets kicked. Ridiculous guy.

I agree with the sentiment about Zaha, but that was very poor and rash from Tanganga. Guy spent the last few minutes playing like an area boy and fully deserved his red. Was not a normal challenge at all.

7 hours ago, Dokko said:

If it gets rid of the acon I'm all for it. 

I don't know why you are focusing on Africa, it is hard to see how this can pass without essentially ending every major continental competition. It would ruin the international calendar as we know it.

Speaking of internationals, the decisions from the UK government are understandable, I suppose, but it is still madness that we are going through with massive international matches, given the competitive imbalance of Premier League players not being allowed to play in certain nations. Many Brazilians, Argentinians, and Colombians are going to miss big matches in this window, Egypt had to play without several top players and CIV will be doing the same, all at the entirely arbitrary whim of the UK government. South Africa's reward for letting a variant run out of control is to play a weakened Ghana at home and Cape Verde's reward for bring arbitrarily red-listed is to host a Nigeria side that will have to drop 8 players, 6-7 of whom would probably start. I am amazed a resolution to this was not worked out and we are just proceeding since this is not a problem with any other country.

Something is fundamentally wrong with the sport of football in that you can play that way for a third of the match and be level in the score. Genuinely one of the worst performances I have ever seen; all the players look confused or half-asleep. The reality is that the match is still there to be won, Southampton are not a good side and have been wasteful.

56 minutes ago, triggs said:

Thought Kolasinac was long gone

Feels like most of the time I see Arsenal teams, someone who I assumed was already gone or on the way out is playing, due to their poor squad management, bloated wages to average players who become difficult to move and continual Bruce-level injury crises.

Arsenal are a midtable side, a level below the likes of Leicester, West Ham and Tottenham. Eighth for two consecutive seasons and will be fortunate to reach that again this year.

1 hour ago, ManDoon said:

Yeah, I mean it’s an opportunity that few people get. I don’t understand why they choose to end up playing lower league football here.

Not exactly the same thing, but I have a couple of friends who went professional in basketball, but were not good enough for the NBA or the absolute top level in Europe, and spent careers playing in lower tier leagues across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. The riches you get are not what you hoped for as a young prospect, but the guys are spending their 20's and early-mid 30's traveling the world, experiencing a variety of different cultures and women, and will still retire with enough that they will have a strong financial buffer when it is time to make the next move (assuming they are not reckless in that regard). If I was a young British player, a life like that seems more appealing than toiling in Accrington or some place for your career.

It is mad how the Premier League and a few other financially giant clubs are simply impervious to the economic reality of the world in this moment, especially given the situations in some of the other leagues across Europe. I really did not expect the finances of the game to change so little when the leagues first restarted in summer of 2020, but here we are discussing if Real Madrid will spend 200 million on Mbappe or if Manchester United/City will pay Ronaldo 30 million per season.

I understand why a manager would love Ayoze, hard worker, technically sound, and takes up great positions, but it just seems crazy to me that Leicester cannot find a spot for Iheanacho and Daka over him in the preferred 11. There is just a significant talent gap, for all of Perez's positive traits.

That cannot possibly be the way this debacle ends, with a 3-0 victory for Nice because OM would not come out after being physically attacked by fans. I cannot believe LFP would truly try to force this match to finish, with all of the fans still in attendance behind the goal, after the scenes that happened here.

Osimhen seriously needs to calm down. Guy was playing great for 20 minutes and looked a good bet to score, only to get himself sent off for no real reason. I thought the red card was excessive, could have been yellow, but this is what happens when you have a reputation for being a violent player. This is not Olusosun anymore, you cannot go around hitting people.

Abraham looked fantastic in his debut as well, two great assists. There is no reason Roma cannot compete at the top of the league this season, tbf, feels like there is a chance it is quite close among 7-8 teams.

8 minutes ago, Flip said:

Horrible from the fans, but you rarely see a player lose it and start throwing the stuff back at them like Payet and Alvaro were doing. Quite unprofessional behaviour from both. This while Nice players at first tried to calm the fans down.

Sure, it is not professional (Alvaro is a lunatic in the best of times anyway ), but the players are humans. Nice fans have thrown rubbish at Payet all match during the corners, with no action by the ref. The last away match they played, only two weeks ago, Rongier was hit in the face by a bottle and injured. No one has to let random people attempt to injure them repeatedly, you have to react at some point.

5 minutes ago, Wullie said:

Absolute scenes at Nice. Fan throws a bottle at Payet, he loses his rag and throws it back, then the fans go crazy and burst onto the field.

Behaviour by supporters in Ligue 1 this season has been disgraceful. OM has played two away matches this season, Montpellier and Nice, both of which have needed to be suspended in the second half for violence from the stands. Sampaoli and Payet looked ready to fight the Nice fans, just madness.

4 hours ago, Optimistic Nut said:

I thought the opposite when he came on v Chelsea in the Final, like. He came on and just shut the game down. Was more his positional play and intercepting rather than flying around as you suggested that day.

That is fair, I do not recall, he probably did play well on that occasion, but we should remember he came on late and sat next to the best purely defensive midfielder in the country and a class player in Tielemans. He will be next to Shelvey here I have watched Leicester a fair amount fair amount the last few seasons and the guy strikes me as a typical headless chicken, average midfielder type. Good physical profile, but not really technically or positionally strong. Guy is a utility type player at Premier League level and there are already two of those here in Hayden and Longstaff, imo. They need a clear improvement over these players.

Choudhury is rubbish., imo. He is one of those players that people think is good defensively because he looks fairly imposing and flies into some tackles but in reality has little effect on the match at all. He would be well-served to go somewhere and actually play consistently to learn his craft. Guy is 24 soon, and is treated like a youth player at Leicester.

Messi leaving Barcelona is one of those things I will be skeptical of until he is seen on the pitch wearing a different kit. Just find it hard to believe that a marriage like this ends with no fanfare, just some rumblings in the media, then a Tweet. 

Honestly, Newcastle have not spent anywhere enough money in recent years for this thread to be interesting. The Obafemi Martins signing was relatively more expensive (compared to the rest of the market) than anyone signed under Ashley, outside of the outlier and/or blatantly corrupt Joelinton signing, and this was nearly fifteen years ago. The problem with the club is certainly not value for money. The answer is Joelinton, but it is somewhat by default, tbh, it is not as though this is a club that takes risks with big money signings.