Segun Oluwaniyi

The current jaded, rich China versions of Ba, Cisse, and Oba are comfortably better than any striker on the books, especially as Rafa seemingly does not trust Gayle or Mitrovic to be on the pitch for any extended period of time.

Any formation with one striker is going to be interesting given their personnel. Obviously, they have Vardy, who will generally start when available, but also title-winning Okazaki and 55 million pounds of goals in Slimani and Iheanacho on the bench. All four of them are out and out striker that cannot play anywhere else. It seems a poor way to allocate resources.

I'm sure the people in my son's generation will just consider video review as part of football and essential to the game, but I absolutely hate this rubbish. Red card for RB Leipzig. I'm not sure about. Yellow probably sufficed in my opinion.

Personally, I am quite eager to see how this group performs when they are on loan to Championship clubs in four years time. Congratulations to England for taking the trophy from us!

French refs haven't got a clue what's going on. The ref was standing a yard a way and looking directly at the players when Ocampos dived and still sent Neymar off.

:lol: What a terrible dive and what beautiful schadenfreude. Ocampos should be ashamed of himself.

He has been brilliant. Conversely, Payet has been lazy and rubbish.

It looks like the new policy of Ligue 1 officials will be to caution anyone who contacts Neymar. Sakai did nothing wrong. Casual handball by Amavi.

17. Palace 18. Brighton 19. Huddersfield 20. Bournemouth

The fact that you called goals points entitles you to less sympathy. People are flustered. Give these people time. The teenage version of me swore at a random Zambian woman when we missed 2006.

This is genuinely shameful It is Trinidad and this is not a roti or Soca contest.

It is really hard to imagine that the most powerful nation on Earth is fighting to the death on a mud patch in front of any empty stadium in the Carbbean just to make the tournament. (the photos on Twitter make it look as though no one is there) It seemed like they had progressed to a point that this would be routine.

New Zealand are a winner tonight. If they had to pick one team to play, I'm sure it would have been Peru, who have little experience at the World level and are young.

too many countries in europe Africa has 56 teams and it is nowhere near as boring. Eliminate the rubbish.

If Panama score, the United States will be home while the world is in Russia.

People who call international breaks boring are clearly only watching Europe. This is complete madness.

Alexis Sanchez and co. are now dependent on Venezuela holding out away to Paraguay if they want to see Russia.

Costa Rica scores to help them out. Mexico as well. Mexico returning the favour from four years ago, when America saved them. Goals for Brazil, which puts nearly everyone other than Uruguay on the precipice of elimination. A goal anywhere changes everything.

2-0 Trinidad :lol: I actually want the Americans to qualify, but they are really working hard to avoid it.

I respect Messi as much as any athlete, but I won't cry for any nation that doesn't qualify. No one cried for us in 2006, no one is crying for the Netherlands now. Egypt is a wonderful football nation and hadn't qualified in 28 years. You have to earn your way to this tournament. If Argentina don't make it they won't have earned it. Why would this possibly concern me?

You are incorrect. A win assures a playoff place.

Usually the more it progresses, but as Gabriel Jesus said in Bolivia they're tired during the warm up already. There's basically a complete lack of oxygen in Bolivia at 4000m . As for Quito it's not the same as it's on a more human altitude (2900m), but they'll get tired the more the game progresses. I still do not understand why FIFA allows this idiocy to continue. Without exaggeration, they are putting the life and health of players at stake in Bolivia and to a lesser degree in Quito. Messi may need to get a third here, btw. Ecuador seem pretty up for the match.

Argentina are in extremely serious danger now. Quito should not even be a legal venue to hold a top level international football match. It is genuinely a danger to the players. Winning there will be extremely difficult, Messi or no Messi. CONMEBOL is held up as the most difficult qualification region, but the truth is that is the most just format of all. There are no demons waiting in a random draw, if they don't qualify, it will be the result they truly deserve. What a bizarre stance, to enjoy a sport and not follow the single most popular event in that sport.

The qualifying schedule is already fairly tight as it is. The World Cup draw is in sixty days, and there currently twenty-four more spots to fill, with only eight countries qualified and there are only two more international breaks to decide everything. It seems sensible to have a few more breaks than normal for a World cup year. There is an issue with the unnecessary friendly breaks that happen even when we are far from tournaments.