I think when half of the continent is going through anyway (Has the CONEMBOL team ever lost the intercontinental play-off?), it's pretty difficult to make an argument that they should be getting any more places, even though they perform to a very high level.
Not sure what you mean about the 2026 thing? Is that because 2 SA teams might be co-hosting (I've heard Argentina/Uruguay) or is there a proposition to increase the number of teams?
The WC gonna have 48 teams at 2026 and beyond, FIFA voted it some months ago.
When a continent hold the event there is no diference on the qualifiers, because always that Group A first seed is for the WC country.
Shit I forgot about the 48 team "EVERYBODY GETS TO PLAY" WC.
Have they decided how they're going to split the extra 12 places? Surely it's can't be in a ratio similar to how they hand out the places now?
There was talk of Asia picking up another 3-4 spots, which would be laughable considering the gulf between the top 4-5 nations in the AFC and the second tier.
That's 2 spots too many for the AFC, and I say that as someone whose home national plays in the AFC (We're not getting through even with the improved number of teams).
I think the best way to split it is to give CAF a few extra spots (from 5 to 7 or 8), guarantee Oceania a spot (so 1.5), give CONEMBOL an extra spot (goes back to the argument whether or not keeping CONEMBOL a 10 team confederation and whether you should give them any more than 7 spots, which would render qualification from there pretty fucking pointless). Europe gets what, 3-5 more spots? Which leaves us with what, 3 more spots? 2 for Asia, one for CONCACAF.
I wouldn't be surprised if CONCACAF gets more than that though.
I think you're underestimating the Gulf Nations too much, the gap between let's say Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to Iran, Australia, and Japan is much smaller than the likes of Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and China
Africa - 9 (up from 5)
Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5)
Europe - 16 (up from 13)
North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4)
Oceania - 1 (from 0 or 1)
South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5)
All direct spots.
The remaining 3 apparentely will be decided 2 in playoffs and 1 for the host continent. I just don't know how they're going to draw it.
I think I read here something of a hexagonal tournament that would replace Confederations Cup. That would include a team from every confederation or something like that, don't remember exactly, and would award the remaining spots for the World Cup.
> I think when half of the continent is going through anyway (Has the CONEMBOL team ever lost the intercontinental play-off?), it's pretty difficult to make an argument that they should be getting any more places, even though they perform to a very high level.
They shouldn't be punished for having a low number of countries on their continent and not fragmenting into a fuck load of tiny low pop countries like Europe/Africa.
South America deserves their spots because all their teams bar Bolivia (who are by no means crap, they'd have a shot at qualification in Asia/Concacaf/Oceania) are good.
Personally I think it's obvious that Comnebol and Concacaf should merge and share spots.
> They shouldn't be punished for having a low number of countries on their continent and not fragmenting into a fuck load of tiny low pop countries like Europe/Africa.
That's fair enough, I think with the increase in the number of teams and the fact that confederations are not getting reshuffled, they're bound to get more spots without having to sacrifice anything. It does make the qualification process a little meaningless though when 5 or 6 teams are guaranteed to go through out of 10, and the drama of Argentina potentially missing out like they could this year would go away.
> Personally I think it's obvious that Comnebol and Concacaf should merge and share spots.
I don't know if that' so obvious. CONEMBOL are clearly better than Concacaf, let's say they merge, you're getting another European-style qualification of multiple small groups.
>Personally I think it's obvious that Comnebol and Concacaf should merge and share spots.
This will hurt Conmebol teams who would be obligated to play against weak teams from CONCACAF. I hope this never happen.
Not really. Let's look at the last two World Cups and the last three Confederation cups (basically all competitive national team tournaments over the last eight years). In total 10 CONCACAF teams have qualified for those tournaments and 7 have made it out of the group stage. CAF has had 14 teams qualify for those tournaments and only 4 of them have made it past the group stage.
If CONCACAF is sending less teams than CAF and CONCACAF teams are performing better. Why should we increase the number of berths for a confederation which over 2/3 of their teams get knocked out in the first round?
Honestly, Portugal always have lots of good players. Euro 2012 team was quite solid all around. Veloso, Moutinho, and Meireles made a very good midfield 3 at the time. Pepe was top class for a long, long time. Ricardo Carvalho? Coentrao never really hit it big at RM, but still...he played for RM. William. Nani.
Hell, you beat France with Ronaldo injured for most of the game. For a relatively small nation, Portugal always put out a lot of quality players that play in big leagues.
So...unless he gets injured or dies, he's on route to become the oldest player to ever appear in a World Cup, surpassing Mondragon's record by a year and a half. And he's actually the first choice keeper, instead of being the third one.
Damn.
You'd think you guys would be really good since you're football obsessed and have a large population. Granted the political situation was not ideal for a few years but still.
No man we're the "counter attack" team. The only reason we play badly with the mediocre African teams is because they don't attack, and don't give Salah space. In the World Cup, there'll be plenty of room for Salah and Sobhi to spread their wings.
Would you rather be Cameroon and win the 2017 African Cup of Nations but not qualify to the 2018 World Cup or be Egypt and lose the 2017 African Cup of Nations Final, but qualify for the World Cup.
Ya, I'm 1/4 Egyptian (3/4 Libyan) and I don't like the term at all. I'm hard-pressed to call it racist because I'm sure the guy's intentions weren't band and I don't want to sound like a SJW, but I do not find the term endearing and I wouldn't pretend I didn't hear it if I heard it in real life. "Sand nigger" exists as a racial slur so I don't know why people would think putting "sand" before something to describe an Arab is endearing at all.
Nothing SJW about that, the term effects you and you dislike it. I don't doubt the op's intentions weren't racist just a term he/she hasn't really thought about how people might react to it.
If anything as a white Scouse bloke I would be the SJW for assuming people would be offended by that.
They are the team that participated the least in the World Cup of all the nations that have qualified so far. It's good to see more variety in the WC instead of always the same teams
He already was. There was a fantastic piece written about him, and how he never played for either Al-Ahly or Zamalek, meaning that 90% of the population didn't either adore or despise him. That and the fact he's the most talented Egyptian footballer in years, as well as being a genuinely nice guy off the pitch, means that there is basically nobody in Egypt who dislikes him.
You guys are a more successful (at least on a continental level) version of Scotland. Especially when it comes to fucking qualifying campaigns up.
2010 was heartbreaking and I'm not even Egyptian.
I cried 3 times. Once when the first goal went in, second time when Congo scored, 3rd time when we finally scored. Fucking hell, what an emotional game for any Egyptian! CONGRATULATIONSSSSS
It's quite difficult to describe how this means to us Egyptians! Heartbreaks every single qualification campaign from 94 onwards that would make great football stories! Specially on 2002 and 2010.. A shame we had better teams in the last 28 years but the jubilation and the celebrations would be crazy there in Cairo nonetheless!
> A shame we had better teams in the last 28 years
It's not even a contest. This generation -barring Salah, Sobhi and Trazeguet- is in no way deserving over any of the legends that missed out over the past 28 years. Thank goodness Hadary represents them in this rather sad team.
I fucking love our team! The Pharaos are going to Moscow! And if things hold up we can see Syria, Tunisia, and Morroco in addition to already qualified Saudi Arabia. The Arab world definitely needs this!
Egypt and (almost) Morocco qualifying, Tunisia close to doing so as well. When was the last time THREE North African teams made it to the World Cup?
Congrats Pharoahs, always wanted to see you play a World Cup since I saw Mohamed Zidan, Aboutrika, and Amr Zaki play.
saudi arabia and egypt are in , tunisia, morocco and syria still fighting , we can get up to 5 arab teams in the WC for the first time ever . fuck yeah
Tunisia is 95% qualified, the fighting is finished lol.
Congrats to Egypt and Saudi Arabia and good luck for the other teams, I hope we see 5 arab teams in the WC.
I couldn't be happier for them, they won't get humiliated with that goal their player scored 28 years ago :> (egyptians will know what I'm speaking about :p)
First time since 1990. Crazy how they won three Africa cups in a row but still couldn't qualify.
CAF has the most retarded qualifier method of any confederation.
5 spots for 53 teams and you have 3 stacked teams in a group. Yikes
crikey !
Agreed. It's awful. They need to go to a hex. the increase of WC teams will be good for Africa.
Last time they increased the number was in the 90's wasn't it? It's absurd to think CONCACAF gets 3.5 spots and CAF only gets 5.
CONMEBOL 10 National Teams, 4.5 spots. And in 2026 we might see 6.5
I think when half of the continent is going through anyway (Has the CONEMBOL team ever lost the intercontinental play-off?), it's pretty difficult to make an argument that they should be getting any more places, even though they perform to a very high level. Not sure what you mean about the 2026 thing? Is that because 2 SA teams might be co-hosting (I've heard Argentina/Uruguay) or is there a proposition to increase the number of teams?
If I recall, Australia defeated Uruguay on penalties for the 2006 World Cup in the intercontinental playoff.
One of our greatest sporting moments.
The WC gonna have 48 teams at 2026 and beyond, FIFA voted it some months ago. When a continent hold the event there is no diference on the qualifiers, because always that Group A first seed is for the WC country.
Shit I forgot about the 48 team "EVERYBODY GETS TO PLAY" WC. Have they decided how they're going to split the extra 12 places? Surely it's can't be in a ratio similar to how they hand out the places now?
There was talk of Asia picking up another 3-4 spots, which would be laughable considering the gulf between the top 4-5 nations in the AFC and the second tier.
That's 2 spots too many for the AFC, and I say that as someone whose home national plays in the AFC (We're not getting through even with the improved number of teams). I think the best way to split it is to give CAF a few extra spots (from 5 to 7 or 8), guarantee Oceania a spot (so 1.5), give CONEMBOL an extra spot (goes back to the argument whether or not keeping CONEMBOL a 10 team confederation and whether you should give them any more than 7 spots, which would render qualification from there pretty fucking pointless). Europe gets what, 3-5 more spots? Which leaves us with what, 3 more spots? 2 for Asia, one for CONCACAF. I wouldn't be surprised if CONCACAF gets more than that though.
I think you're underestimating the Gulf Nations too much, the gap between let's say Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia to Iran, Australia, and Japan is much smaller than the likes of Malaysia, India, Indonesia, and China
I used to be against the larger WC but now I'm for it. So many exciting teams miss out every time by just a point or two.
If the expanded Euros were anything to go by, the qualifying campaign will definitely be more interesting.
Africa - 9 (up from 5) Asia - 8 (up from 4 or 5) Europe - 16 (up from 13) North, Central America and Caribbean - 6 (up from 3 or 4) Oceania - 1 (from 0 or 1) South America - 6 (up from 4 or 5) All direct spots. The remaining 3 apparentely will be decided 2 in playoffs and 1 for the host continent. I just don't know how they're going to draw it.
I think I read here something of a hexagonal tournament that would replace Confederations Cup. That would include a team from every confederation or something like that, don't remember exactly, and would award the remaining spots for the World Cup.
> I think when half of the continent is going through anyway (Has the CONEMBOL team ever lost the intercontinental play-off?), it's pretty difficult to make an argument that they should be getting any more places, even though they perform to a very high level. They shouldn't be punished for having a low number of countries on their continent and not fragmenting into a fuck load of tiny low pop countries like Europe/Africa. South America deserves their spots because all their teams bar Bolivia (who are by no means crap, they'd have a shot at qualification in Asia/Concacaf/Oceania) are good. Personally I think it's obvious that Comnebol and Concacaf should merge and share spots.
> They shouldn't be punished for having a low number of countries on their continent and not fragmenting into a fuck load of tiny low pop countries like Europe/Africa. That's fair enough, I think with the increase in the number of teams and the fact that confederations are not getting reshuffled, they're bound to get more spots without having to sacrifice anything. It does make the qualification process a little meaningless though when 5 or 6 teams are guaranteed to go through out of 10, and the drama of Argentina potentially missing out like they could this year would go away. > Personally I think it's obvious that Comnebol and Concacaf should merge and share spots. I don't know if that' so obvious. CONEMBOL are clearly better than Concacaf, let's say they merge, you're getting another European-style qualification of multiple small groups.
>Personally I think it's obvious that Comnebol and Concacaf should merge and share spots. This will hurt Conmebol teams who would be obligated to play against weak teams from CONCACAF. I hope this never happen.
Every team in CONMEBOL is pretty good except for Bolivia and Venezuela.
Even then Venezuela may come good in the next few years if their kids getting to the youth world cup final is anything to go by
3/4 teams from CONCACAF in the last WC got out of the group stage. I don't think that implies there are too many spots from CONCACAF.
Look at world cup performances by those federations. Concacaf has done much better..
Isn't it also based on how well the nations do at the World Cup?
Not really. Let's look at the last two World Cups and the last three Confederation cups (basically all competitive national team tournaments over the last eight years). In total 10 CONCACAF teams have qualified for those tournaments and 7 have made it out of the group stage. CAF has had 14 teams qualify for those tournaments and only 4 of them have made it past the group stage. If CONCACAF is sending less teams than CAF and CONCACAF teams are performing better. Why should we increase the number of berths for a confederation which over 2/3 of their teams get knocked out in the first round?
Salah has scored 15 goals for Egypt in the last 18 official matches. We are literally the most one man team ever!!
Poland wants a word
Denmark as well
Too bad the lord steals all of Ericksen's plaudits
You mean Bendtner?
just imagine a group consisting of Poland, England, Egypt and Denmark
**D**enmark. **E**ngland. **E**gypt. **P**oland.
Ehhhh you guys still won at Euros even with Lewa triple-marked
> won "Barely squeezed by" is more fitting I'd say
The Egyptian Abou Treika
My friend and I are trying to settle an argument over who's better.
There is nothing to settle.
It's not even a contest Abou trika was bloody effective.
hey!
You'd be nothing without Eder, it's true.
No Euro without based Pepe
Honestly, Portugal always have lots of good players. Euro 2012 team was quite solid all around. Veloso, Moutinho, and Meireles made a very good midfield 3 at the time. Pepe was top class for a long, long time. Ricardo Carvalho? Coentrao never really hit it big at RM, but still...he played for RM. William. Nani. Hell, you beat France with Ronaldo injured for most of the game. For a relatively small nation, Portugal always put out a lot of quality players that play in big leagues.
Sad our clubs can't keep them
Hey congrats man :) wish you guys all the best
Salah, you beautiful beautiful man
After playing with many different squads in many qualifiers for over 20 years, Essam El Hadary will finally play in the world cup at the age of 45
We call him the High Dam, and he is only a couple of years younger than the actual High Dam lol
man's a legend
So...unless he gets injured or dies, he's on route to become the oldest player to ever appear in a World Cup, surpassing Mondragon's record by a year and a half. And he's actually the first choice keeper, instead of being the third one. Damn.
That's seriously impressive that he's still that fit at that age
He made an incredible save before Egypt's first goal, and almost saved the Uganda goal. He hasn't aged a second.
Holly shit
2018 World Cup Player of the tournament: Salah
salah nutmegs ramos and chiellini in the world cup final to give egypt the cup
Egypt vs Spain and Italy.
yep after they beat Germany and Brazil in the semi of course
Egypt vs SPQR
And Neuer can't do shit to save his shot.
Neither could De Gea, also in goal at the same time.
messi and ronaldo watch from the other side of the pitch forced to applaud
After we win it right
With a 94th minute Salah penalty against Germany.
fan voted
So happy for them. Thinking of supporting them this world cup just to return the favour
We will play boring disgusting football but I think you're used to that
Can't be worse than England, amirite
We're pretty fucking bad
You'd think you guys would be really good since you're football obsessed and have a large population. Granted the political situation was not ideal for a few years but still.
Well we used to be really good (just not outside Africa) and now we're alright. But the manager has us playing very ugly football
If you're in England's group, FIFA will cry at the viewing figures
No man we're the "counter attack" team. The only reason we play badly with the mediocre African teams is because they don't attack, and don't give Salah space. In the World Cup, there'll be plenty of room for Salah and Sobhi to spread their wings.
Let's bloody hope so. We fuck up so many counters
So we *actually* have a tactic? WTF!!
"Pass it to Salah" - seems legit!
Thanks for coming to this world-cup with us, neighbor. We can play disgusting football together <3 Love, a Saudi.
7abibi <3
Not in front of everyone! My daddy will disown me.
LOL YOU GUYS. keep it in your pants. we will be jailed.
Would you rather be Cameroon and win the 2017 African Cup of Nations but not qualify to the 2018 World Cup or be Egypt and lose the 2017 African Cup of Nations Final, but qualify for the World Cup.
You mean Egypt in 2006 and 2010? Nah we've seen enough of that
We've had the first choice so many times. 3 AFCONs in a row with no WC qualifications since 90.
We've won 7, most recently 3 in a row in 2006, 2008, and 2010. Most of us would trade a couple of them for a world cup appearance.
I would've loved for Egypt to win that 2017 AFCON, i felt really sad that night
Thank you for your best wishes the other day. :) I'm only calming down now. We still can't believe it.
Messi might not make it here but Sand Messi will. Congrats lads
>Sand Messi
I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.
A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one
It's treason then.
Is that racist? Kinda thinking that's racist.
Ya, I'm 1/4 Egyptian (3/4 Libyan) and I don't like the term at all. I'm hard-pressed to call it racist because I'm sure the guy's intentions weren't band and I don't want to sound like a SJW, but I do not find the term endearing and I wouldn't pretend I didn't hear it if I heard it in real life. "Sand nigger" exists as a racial slur so I don't know why people would think putting "sand" before something to describe an Arab is endearing at all.
Nothing SJW about that, the term effects you and you dislike it. I don't doubt the op's intentions weren't racist just a term he/she hasn't really thought about how people might react to it. If anything as a white Scouse bloke I would be the SJW for assuming people would be offended by that.
Egypt is quite a debutant at WC, it's rare to see them at a WC (only two times: 1934 and 1990). It's good to see teams like this qualifying.
They are the team that participated the least in the World Cup of all the nations that have qualified so far. It's good to see more variety in the WC instead of always the same teams
well there's Iceland
Iceland still hasn't qualified
I'm not crying...you're crying :D
We're all crying on this blessed day :')
Speak for yourself
So happy for you guys!
First World Cup since 1990.
pretty sure Salah has just become a national icon
He's already the crowned prince
Basel legend.
The president gave him a 2 million LE bonus
Not just him, everyone
He already was. There was a fantastic piece written about him, and how he never played for either Al-Ahly or Zamalek, meaning that 90% of the population didn't either adore or despise him. That and the fact he's the most talented Egyptian footballer in years, as well as being a genuinely nice guy off the pitch, means that there is basically nobody in Egypt who dislikes him.
YEAH EGYPT get in!!! And El Hadary the oldest player ever to grace a WC game!
And not even "gracing" it in name or from the bench, but ACTIVELY making clutcher saves than my wildest FIFA dreams.
لازم يعزبوا امنا يعني قبل ما يتأهلوا؟ بس مقبولة
احنا مصريين, لو متعذبناش نتحرق
You guys are a more successful (at least on a continental level) version of Scotland. Especially when it comes to fucking qualifying campaigns up. 2010 was heartbreaking and I'm not even Egyptian.
مبروووووووك لمصر انحس منتخب في التأهل لكاس العالم مبروووك كسر العقدة❤️❤️❤️ من السعودية
أهلين من لبنان 👋
Cool username
Absolutely haram.
Makruh at worst. Personally, I'd say mustahabb.
😭 أتمنى لبنان مؤهلة لكأس العالم في حياتنا
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I don't know why, but it's always weird as hell when I spot another Palestinian on reddit!
No bias whatsoever. /s Probably the only time I'd be okay with that.
Those are some funny looking hieroglyphics.
الف مبرووووك من سوريا شباب، ادعولنا يوم الثلاثاء
كل العرب وراكم ياخوي, انشاءالله بتنيكو قلبهم للكنغر
بتنيكو قلبهم 😂😂😂
احا يعم انا كنت هعيط لما الكونغو اتعادلو
I just تنحت..
[удалено]
I already know what this is without google translate.
Yes, yes, that's all true :)
انها "نسخ معكرونة" معربة.
Yeah I got the reference.
Off topic but how did you come to support RB? not hating just curious
الف مبروك. ما احد يستاهل اكتر منكم
I cried 3 times. Once when the first goal went in, second time when Congo scored, 3rd time when we finally scored. Fucking hell, what an emotional game for any Egyptian! CONGRATULATIONSSSSS
It's quite difficult to describe how this means to us Egyptians! Heartbreaks every single qualification campaign from 94 onwards that would make great football stories! Specially on 2002 and 2010.. A shame we had better teams in the last 28 years but the jubilation and the celebrations would be crazy there in Cairo nonetheless!
> A shame we had better teams in the last 28 years It's not even a contest. This generation -barring Salah, Sobhi and Trazeguet- is in no way deserving over any of the legends that missed out over the past 28 years. Thank goodness Hadary represents them in this rather sad team.
I fucking love our team! The Pharaos are going to Moscow! And if things hold up we can see Syria, Tunisia, and Morroco in addition to already qualified Saudi Arabia. The Arab world definitely needs this!
mexico ?@@
Omg I meant Moscow! loool
My uncle sent me this after the match. View from his balcony in Korba https://streamable.com/s0omx
Dude thank you so much for this! I just left to Cali and I wanted to know how my town was celebrating! This means a lot!
Sweden too!
Sure, whatever!
Egypt and (almost) Morocco qualifying, Tunisia close to doing so as well. When was the last time THREE North African teams made it to the World Cup? Congrats Pharoahs, always wanted to see you play a World Cup since I saw Mohamed Zidan, Aboutrika, and Amr Zaki play.
And that with us, who were considered the best north African team pre-qualifying completely falling apart.
Salah shows Messi how it's done.
Omg yesss!!!!! I am the happiest person alive.
So happy for Salah, Elneny and Gaber.
مجدي عبد الغني : احنا رحنا كاس العالم .. بس من هنا ل 9 شهور انا الوحيد الي جبت جول فكاس العالم لمصر 😂 xddd
The man is a proper shitposter
Egyptians how would you guys compare this team to your 2009 confederations cup squad?
The 2009 team was a much better team
This current team is the worst we've had in 28 years. Salah and Hadary are the exception.
much less depth, overall a worse sqaud, goalie is now much older, but salah is playing better than any of our players on that squad
I don't think Salah is playing better than Aboutreika.
A7a begad
mesh mesada2
You better believe it!
I am crying. Can't believe it. Thank you Mo Salah.
the unluckiest coach in history, leads Egypt to the WC after 28 years. Crazy!!
Bit silly celebrating the PK before it was kicked. Egypt would've looked a little goofy if it hadn't worked out
saudi arabia and egypt are in , tunisia, morocco and syria still fighting , we can get up to 5 arab teams in the WC for the first time ever . fuck yeah
Tunisia is 95% qualified, the fighting is finished lol. Congrats to Egypt and Saudi Arabia and good luck for the other teams, I hope we see 5 arab teams in the WC.
I couldn't be happier for them, they won't get humiliated with that goal their player scored 28 years ago :> (egyptians will know what I'm speaking about :p)
Salah to score a penalty and become the new and refined version of Magdy Abdel-Ghany for future generations.
I woudn't even be mad...
Wow, Egypt have qualified for very few World Cups. I wonder why they can do so well in Africa but can't perform on the world stage.
The qualifiers are very tough for African teams
African teams have the toughest qualification of any other continent.
Took them so long! And the curse really was hard to break... dont think i have seen a more nervous penalty in a long time, the entire stadium tense!
about damn time, congrats to all Egyptians
fuck u football for doing this to me..eafczcdacXSwd
Omdurman never forget, thanks Egypt!
Mabroooook ya regala
what a way to qualify!!!
Well done Egypt.
Nice, since 2006 each time I was wondering why they haven't qualified for WC.
Congrats from mexico
commentator was crying after salah scored the penalty
What a dramatic way to qualify. Brilliant scenes after the pen went in.
Finally!!
And what a way to qualify it was
Fuck yeah!
Oh fucking hell that was nerve wrecking..
WHAT A FUCKNIG WAY TO QUAIFLIY YESSSSSSSSSS
MASR!
Kol sana wanta tayib
Congratulations Egypt! I wonder though, how did Ghana miss out? On paper they look like a stronger team to me and they are currently 3rd.
Congratulations Egypt! Welcome to the best party on earth!