As a Colombian, undefeated has never felt so underwhelming. Can’t help to feel we should have had at least 2 more points easily.
What an incredible job Lionel Scaloni has done for Argentina. Made them practically unstoppable.
Uruguay followed by Brazil away. Next month will be a true gauntlet.
Hay que dar el golpe histórico en el Maracaná
de nuevo
Para Brasil es un trauma historico Para Argentina otro día en la oficina
Venezuela the 4th power of Conmebol, Bocha conducción
It’s kinda crazy, there is a realistic possibility that Venezuela finishes 2nd by the end of the year. If Argentina wins vs Brazil and Uruguay, Colombia doesn’t win both of their games (they have to play Brazil and Paraguay) and Venezuela wins vs Peru and at least ties with Ecuador.
It sounds like a lot, but none of those results are crazy at all lol.
anulo mufa
Cheee tranqui es Brasil y Uruguay. Con cuidado
Argentina are winning back to back Copas, I’m convinced
Anulo mufa 2 Electric boogalo
Anulo
Anulo mufa v2
Hand I have faith
So, there’s now 90 qualifying games a cycle, to fully eliminate 3 teams?
Seems a little excessive
We are the worst country of Chile bro!
☠️ Vuelven las malas vibras de las eliminatorias a Corea-Japon ☠️
Brazil has no right to lose to any team from America, which regrets this shameful defeat to Uruguay
They should’ve changed the format of this. 7/10 qualifying is a bit silly. Perhaps two groups, north and south or something like that.
We should just join the qualifier with the rest of the Americas imo. But they probably don’t want that…
But the travel distances would be insane
Argentina is the best team in the world right now
France?
Segundos
What’s happening with Brazil?
Last two games were awful from them. Even the one before they just about managed to win at the end
They have a new coach.
People have short memories. They had plenty of qualifiers with similar starts before.
Fe vs Anulo Mufa
Since the World Cup expanded to 32 teams (in 1998), CONMEBOL qualifiers have consisted of 18 match days in a round robin home and away format. Previously, the top 4 finishers qualified directly and the 5th place qualified to the playoff/repechaje. With the 2026 expansion, CONMEBOL slots increased to 6 direct and 1 playoff.
Here is some data regarding the 7th place finisher in every qualifier since 1998 (except for 1998 and 2014 as Brasil was auto-qualified as previous winner and host in those years and only 16 matches were played):
The average 7th place finish earned 21.2 points. The most points for a 7th place finish occurred in the 2018 edition by Paraguay with 24 points (GD of -3). The least amount of points for a 7th place finish occurred in the 2002 edition by Bolivia with 18 points (GD of -12).
Additionally, you can look at how many points it would’ve taken to tie the 8th place finisher - as you could advance with a goal difference above the 8th place finisher but with the same amount of points.
The average 8th place finish earned 18.4 points. The most points for an 8th place finish occurred in the 2010 edition with 22 points (GD of -6). The least points for an 8th place finish occurred in the 2002 and 2022 editions with 16 points (GD of -11 and -14 respectively in those years).
25 points would seem to be the goal to nearly ensure at least a playoff spot, but as low as 16 points could be enough in a cycle where the bottom teams struggle. Now obviously, mathematically these ranges could be much higher and lower.
One additional note for anyone interested: In the 1998 and 2014 qualifiers (16 matches without Brasil), the 6th and 7th place finishers averaged 1.28 and 1.13 points per match. Compared to 1.18 and 1.02 points per match from 7th and 8th place finishers respectively in “normal” 18 match qualifying cycles.
Rewarding mediocrity by auto qualifying 6th place.
I think Conmebol and Concacaf should merge into a giant super qualifying region.
USA v Brazil in Sofi Stadium LA in a WCQ would get some attention from the USA public for sure.
Honestly, I would’ve been fine with 5 direct and 1 (or 2) playoff spots.
As for your second point, most of South America wants nothing to do with concacaf (me included). It would provide nothing to our region except for more money to the executives. It sure would help the top concacaf teams though.
This pipe dream will never happen, and it will only give more power to UEFA
Very crazy that every 7th and 8th place finisher that you mentioned had negative GD. I wonder what all time 5 number summary for GD on 6th to 8th place CONMEBOL countries would look like. Is the max even greater than zero?
How is that crazy? I would think that 7th and 8th out if 10 in most competitions would be expected to have a negative goal differential.