I'll assume the 3 you're talking about are Switzerland, Portugal, and Poland.

We can beat all three, but they are all better than us. We should have beat Portugal last World Cup and ended up advancing out of the toughest group. But in terms of betting, we would be least favorite to come out of a group with those three. They're not all top to bottom incredible teams but we just don't have the top end talent that each of them have.

Lewandowski
Milik
Krychowiak
Xhaka,
Shaqiri
Lichtsteiner

I didn't even get to Portugal. Basically, their entire squad plays for a Champions League club and they just won the Euros last summer without Ronaldo in the final. Outside of our 18 year old best player, we just don't have a lot of dudes that can compete at that level.

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Posted by GoldenGuy

Member since Oct 2015

12782 posts

Posted on 7/12/17 at 5:03 pm to mynamebowl

quote:
I don't see what the big fuss is all about. Seems pretty cut & dry to me. Logical, concise, not overly complicated. A perfect framework for ranking all the nations of FIFA fairly and ultimately deciding which nations have the advantage of being a top 8 seed for the most important tournament in sports.

Because Poland, Portugal, and the Swiss are not benefiting from how well they do against tough Top 20 competition, but from how well they've spanked tiny teams like the Faroe Islands.

Basically a 2.5 weight on World Cup Qualifiers is too large.

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Posted by Tigerstark

Parts unknown

Member since Aug 2011

7008 posts

Posted on 7/12/17 at 5:11 pm to GoldenGuy

quote:
Because Poland, Portugal, and the Swiss are not benefiting from how well they do against tough Top 20 competition, but from how well they've spanked tiny teams like the Faroe Islands. Basically a 2.5 weight on World Cup Qualifiers is too large.

Yep, now you figured out how EUFA rigged the system.

If you're the big team in one of the groups without many other big teams, or you're matched with a Poland type country in a down cycle in your group, you'll run right through your group and shoot up the rankings.

Meanwhile, in the CONCACAF, COMNEBOL, etc. we have to play all the best teams from the regions twice each qualifying cycle, ensuring more losses, etc.

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Posted by mynamebowl

Houston

Member since Jun 2012

1712 posts

Posted on 7/13/17 at 5:22 am to GoldenGuy

quote:
Because Poland, Portugal, and the Swiss are not benefiting from how well they do against tough Top 20 competition, but from how well they've spanked tiny teams like the Faroe Islands. Basically a 2.5 weight on World Cup Qualifiers is too large.

I was being sarcastic dude.

I'm well aware of FIFA's well earned reputation regarding these things.

This post was edited on 7/13/17 at 5:32 am

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