Teams that wouldn't have qualified for a 32-team World Cup*. Based on this info, what do you think of the expansion?>Sweden>Czechia>Bosnia and Herzegovina>Curaçao>Haiti>Panama>Paraguay>New Zealand>Iraq>Jordan>Saudi Arabia>Uzbekistan>Cabo Verde>Democratic Republic of the Congo>South Africa>Tunisia*I excluded teams that qualified via 2nd round and notorious intercontinental play-off losers. Other than that I just used my own judgement since most of the new teams are winners of their own groups
>>155582289I like it because there’s an extra knock out round. It’s like bitching that the World Cup went to from 24 teams to 32 teams in 1998.
>>155582289The extras are pretty much all jobbers and clone characters but that's ok
>>155582321>It’s like bitching that the World Cup went to from 24 teams to 32 teams in 1998.well no because that didn't introduce any new stages. Finalist plays same number of games, there's just more groups. and that change was for the better because no 3rd place teams qualifying which is really arbitrary
>>155582289>no 1-1 DR Congo v Portugal>no 0-0 Curaçao v Ecuador>no 0-0 Spain v Cape Verde and Vozinha>no 1-0 Paraguay v Turkey kino>no 4-0 Nippon v Tunisia beatdownLots of fun matches that wouldn't have happened were it not for the expanded group stage.
>>155582366I mean, Portugal and Spain jobbed against these jobbers, and honestly I'm enjoying this Curaçao run, despite their many errors.
add turkey and south africaunwatchable garbageremove paraguay and sweden
>>155583019sweden finished 3rd in their qualifying group, they'd be the first UEFA team to go
64 teams with more groups would unironically better because at least the group stage would have meaning
>>155583045About that...
>>1555830593rd place teams wouldn't proceed further, only the top 2 out of every 4 team group
>>155583059Nah, the group stage matches would be horrid to watch with 64 teams. 48 is already pushing it with how meme-y some of the teams have been. There's only so many tactical errors and missed shots you can watch before it stops being funny and starts being tiring.
>>155583059why stop there
>>155583059shut up you retard
>>155583101this>aww look at the tiny sao tome and principe parking the bus to finish 0–0 against mexico>Lithuania might have lost 0–4 but they won our heartsfuck off. I want to watch people who are actually good at their sport. There definitely aren't 64 countries who play good enough football.
>>15558305964 teams with no groups
>>155583179Eeeeh I think there's room for *some* meme matches. Like portugal and spain are never living down their draws against literal whos, and the turks getting sent packing by a 10 man paraguay after all their arrogant posturing was pretty entertaining. It doesn't have to be 100% serious
>>155583136>>155583101>>155583118Yeah obviously 32 teams is better but I just hate it when advancing isn't entirely decided by what happens within your group.>>155583094Yes
>>155583294Tournament should start with round of 128
>>155582289The Doc and Curacao have been kino
>>155583304no one cares about those group stage games.lots of world cup winners struggled in group stages but no one remembers.it's just more games that make the important games worse due to tired/injured/banned players.
>>155583406>>155583294
>>155582289The World Cup should just go back to 16 teams
>>155583087>>155583019damn even worse than I remember.
>>155582321Some people did bitch about it back then
48 brought soul64 might go overboard
>>155582289The old format was perfect. 8 groups of 4, half of the teams get eliminated, and then you start the KO stage with the most logical pairings: firsts against secondsNow we have cross-group comparisons for third-placed teams, the group stage is more or less meaningless since 2/3 teams survive, and some group winners play third-placed teams while others don’t + some second-placed teams play other second-placed teamsThat alone means the new format sucks. In terms of quality, it is still barely alright. A few of these teams really are quite bad; but it could be worse. Still, I would go back to 32 teams and the old distribution in a heartbeat. It was the best you could have. 24 teams has the same problem as 48, and it’s too harsh on the smaller continents‘ representation. 64 is just ridiculous and would lead to too many boring blowouts, plus it would make hosting impossible for 99% of the world
What if WC qualification is region based instead of confederation based? like Iberia gets one spot every time but they have to play for it (too Iberian teams is too much since they do nothing but slurp) and apply that to every region, I think it's a pretty good idea
>>155582289Should haveade the groups larger. 6 teams top 2 qualify.
>>155582289Look like anime filler
still too many shitters left
>>155582289I want 64 teams desu, at least then we have a chance to always playnobody forces you to watch all gamesalso shitters often have more will to fight at big tournaments e.g. kurakao
concacaf was a meme this year because the 3 best teams were also hosts
I think its been great so far. The tournament has highlighted the floor has risen a lot. We have seen lots of upsets and competitive games..yeah there wre blowouts here and there but there were also blowouts in the 32 team world cup
>>155587276Pakistan wants to be in as well. And no one forced you to watch all the games if you’re not interested. And they would be motivated. Do we expand to 128 now?
>>155583059We can go to 512 teams at least
>>155582321The group stage sucks now thoughbeitAll these new shitters and as long as you don't finish last you'll still probably get through
>>155582289Uzbekistan finished above Qatar in qualifying
>>155587536Also, Africa would only get five slots (I'd remove Ghana) and CONCACAF would get at least one more (which I'd guess would go to Panama) plus one playoff slot
>>155587367kinda stupid how that works. 3 hosts is a lot, the 2030 world cup will have 6 hosts with half of them hosting a single group match for a really stupid reason The worst part? They're all guaranteed to qualify.UEFA Euro 2028 does is slightly better. it will have 4 hosts playing qualifiers with just 2 spots reserved for hosts who couldn't qualify normally
>>155587107With 64 you would still have shitters getting draws from the big teams. Football is just too popular.
64 team tournamentNo groupsSingle elimination with replays for draw games
>>155587424yes
>>155582289Well, without the PARAGODS we wouldn't have gotten the funniest WC game of all time, Paraguay vs. Turkey.
>>155587578I can see them going with the same setup as the CL for Saudi Arabia. Will make it even worse.
>>155582289How bout the World Cup is just Croatia and England plying a best of seven?You know it would rule
