Because it's part of the World Cup, ldo. lolcasuals only following the final tournament.

I, for one, would love an in-depth breakdown of the Timor-Leste v. Malaysia match.

Fatal Checkraise confirmed the SMUTTTT of international football.

For those needing their sunday football fix, a bunch of 2nd leg concacaf qualifiers are streaming:

Saint Lucia v Antigua

Belize v Dominican Republic

And, currently in a rain delay, Cuba vs Patrick Kluivert's Curacao

Japan held to a draw at hlme by Singapore

Australia up 1-0 at HT vs Kyrgyzstan but tbh we have been the worse side so far on a **** pitch

Australia eventually gets it done 2-1.

Fun game, looking forward to the integrated Asian Cup/WC qualifiers allowing us to play more games across Asia and develop a full squad.

Canada 4-0 Dominica. Canada advance 6-0 on aggregate.

Check marks in all the boxes. Score some goals, advance to the next round, cap tie Tesho Akindele and Mallan Roberts.

the **** is a Mallan Roberts!?

Decent display despite not being a big test but I'm happy with the result. Some decent upsets in CONCACAF for this stage with Cuba going out to Curacao and Dominican dominated by Belize. Draw for the next legs is July 25th with the ties played Aug 31st to Sep 8th so hopefully Canada can ease through that round as well and into the first group stage.

Pots for the UEFA qualification draw on July 25:

Pot 1: Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, England, Wales(!) Portugal, Spain, Croatia

Pot 2: Italy, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, France, Iceland, Denmark, Bosnia-Herzegovina

Pot 3: Poland, Ukraine, Scotland, Hungary, Sweden, Albania, N Ireland, Serbia, Greece

Pot 4: Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Estonia

Pot 5: Cyprus, Latvia, Armenia, Finland, Belarus, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldova

Pot 6: Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Georgia, Malta, San Marino, Andorra

So... France are gonna draw Wales

LÖL italy

in before romania/iceland/albania/faroes/moldova/andorra group

Barbados is out after getting puinished by FIFA for fielding an ineligible player in the second leg against Aruba, which they originally won 1-0. The match has been called 0-3 now and Aruba advances to Round 3 instead with a 3-2 overall result.

/SMUTTTT

Bump for tonights draw

Hulk was meant to participate in the draw but isnt going to after saying russia is full of racism. lolrussia

inb4 Germany + Italy/France

With 1052 days to go until the first kick-off of the final tournament, we'll see the preliminary draw for most of the qualification groups.

CAF (Africa)

53 teams compete for 5 spots. The 1st round will be played between 26 lowest ranked teams (home-and-away). The second round will feature the 13 winners and the remaining 27 teams, and have another home-and-away round.

The remaining 20 teams will be drawn in 5 groups of 4, the Group winners qualify for 2018.

Pots for Round 1:

Seeded: Niger (96), Ethiopia (101), Malawi (108), Sierra Leone (111), Namibia (112), Kenya (114), Botswana (120), Madagascar (122), Mauritania (128), Burundi (131), Lesotho (131), Guinea-Bissau (133), Swaziland (138).

Unseeded: Tanzania (139), Gambia (143), Liberia (161), Central African Republic (170), Chad (173), Mauritius (180), Seychelles (186), Comoros (187), São Tomé and Príncipe (189), South Sudan (195), Eritrea (204), Somalia (205), Djibouti (207)

Pots for Round 2:



Round 3 will not be drawn today.

CONCACAF

The first two rounds of CONCACAF qualifying have already been played, today, the third and fourth round will be drawn. Round 3 will be a home and away tie, Round 4 consists of three groups of four teams.

Pots for Round 3:

Seeded: Jamaica (85), Haiti (117), Canada (122), Aruba (124), El Salvador (127), Guatemala (134)

Unseeded: Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (134), Grenada (142), Antigua and Barbuda (149), Belize (162), Nicaragua (175), Curaçao (182)

Pots for Round 4:

Pot 1: Costa Rica, USA#1, Mexico
Pot 2: Honduras, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago
Pot 3: Third round winners

UEFA

Standard procedure: Seven groups of six, two groups of five. Group winners and best second-placed team go to Russia, 8 other second placed teams battle it out in the playoffs.

Pots

Pot 1: Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, England, Wales(!) Portugal, Spain, Croatia
Pot 2: Italy, Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, France, Iceland, Denmark, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Pot 3: Poland, Ukraine, Scotland, Hungary, Sweden, Albania, N Ireland, Serbia, Greece
Pot 4: Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Republic of Ireland, Norway, Bulgaria, Faroe Islands, Montenegro, Estonia
Pot 5: Cyprus, Latvia, Armenia, Finland, Belarus, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Moldova
Pot 6: Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Georgia, Malta, San Marino, Andorra


AFC will have no draws today, while CONMEBOL will only draw the schedule for their 10-team-group.

Originally I wanted to run this as quiz, but given the traffic ITT might be a bit low, I'll just post it this way (some random WC qualifying facts):

- Most games played: Mexico, 159
- Most games won: Mexico, 102
- Most draws: Colombia, 40
- Most games lost: Luxembourg, 113 (of 124 played)
- Top scorer: Ali Daei, 35 goals in 51 matches (1994-2006)
- Most attempts at qualifying without qualifying once:
AFC: Syria, 13
CAF: Zambia, 12
CONCACAF: Curacao, 15
CONMEBOL: Venezuela, 12 (only CONMEBOL team to have never qualified)
OFC: Fiji, 8
UEFA: Luxembourg, 19. Finland 18.

Wales in pot ONE ...

Just let that sink in for a second ..

How are Faroe Islands in pot 4 when they barely have enough residents to field a team?

I guess it's because they beat Greece twice in the qualifiers iirc, who used to be in pot 1.

preemptive

"just draw the ****ing balls!"

before all the complains about how long this is taking.

PUTIN and BLATTER.

Only thing missing is Mugabe storming the stage and protesting against the expulsion of Zimbabwe

so much corruption on one stage

FIFA warming their balls backstage.

Who will Russia place in the group of death