greenockraver Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 On a serious note. Ive watched scotland since 1998, this is the worst qualifying campaign i can remember. Is it a reasonable albeit, inconvenient argument to say, that by continuing this awful form and Dropping to division D, it could actually accidently create our most realistic chance of seeing scotland at a major finals in the near future? (should we drop to division d) In short... Could a future unintended consequence of failure actually end up with us qualifying through the playoffs in group d of the nations league, albeit being through competing in the poorest division (division d) ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 NL 2020 = Division B... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenockraver Posted September 9, 2019 Author Share Posted September 9, 2019 2 minutes ago, HibeeJibee said: NL 2020 = Division B... We wont be div b/c for long at this rate. especially if the players dont want to be there/ have more important matters down south Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marshmallo Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 16 minutes ago, greenockraver said: We wont be div b/c for long at this rate. especially if the players dont want to be there/ have more important matters down south We won't be playing sides like Belgium in Division B or C. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdhafc1874 Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 For this to even be a possibility we'd have to finish bottom of a B section next time, assume we fail to qualify for 2022 WC in Qatar, finish bottom of a C section time after that, assume we fail to qualify for Euro 2024, then be looking to use winning a D section as an easier way of qualifying for 2026 WC again assuming we fail to qualify via the normal groups.f**k that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenockraver Posted September 9, 2019 Author Share Posted September 9, 2019 Just now, cdisaaccie said: For this to even be a possibility we'd have to finish bottom of a B section next time, assume we fail to qualify for 2022 WC in Qatar, finish bottom of a C section time after that, assume we fail to qualify for Euro 2024, then be looking to use winning a D section as an easier way of qualifying for 2026 WC again assuming we fail to qualify via the normal groups. f**k that! actually, we would need to wait till euro 2028, world cup playoffs are not part of NL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 23 minutes ago, Marshmallo said: We won't be playing sides like Belgium in Division B or C. Croatia... Germany... Poland... Russia... Serbia... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigkillie Posted September 9, 2019 Share Posted September 9, 2019 None of them are as good as Belgium, which is why they're in Division B in the first place. We literally played Russia on Friday night and while they were better than us there wasn't some massive unbridgeable gap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenockraver Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 there wasnt ? you must have been watching a different game from me . took them 20 minutes to negate us as a force. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JTS98 Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 Football fans love a bit of drama-queenism, but the truth is that we can basically disregard results against Belgium. They don't really matter. It's like Hearts taking the odd skelping off Celtic - it won't define our season. While Russia were better than us the other night, the gap is not insurmountable. While we won't be the best NL-B side, there's no reason why we won't be competitive. Croatia just drew with Azerbaijan, the Czechs lost to Kosovo, Wales lost to Albania not long ago. Teams like Poland have a slither of quality players carrying a side full of utter dross. There's no reason we can't compete at that level. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenockraver Posted September 10, 2019 Author Share Posted September 10, 2019 theres also no reason we cant be northern ireland yet here we are... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JTS98 Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 56 minutes ago, greenockraver said: theres also no reason we cant be northern ireland yet here we are... I think there's a danger in over-doing the NI comparison. Euro 2016 they got more or less a dream draw in the qualifiers. While they still deserve credit for actually getting out of the group, it was the only kind of draw that was going to give them any chance and it's a draw that I think would also have seen us qualify. Once at the competition, the obvious headline is that they made the last sixteen. But that was down to the format. The bald facts are that they played four games and lost three of them, failing to score in three of their four games. While it's a nice story and one that we can be jealous of, it was something that fell into their laps as much as anything else. There's no reason we wouldn't have managed the same with the same draw. That obviously gave them a huge boost and they carried it into a good campaign for 2018, but again with a decent enough draw. Since then they've hardly been fantastic. 0 points in the Nations League and a good start in the Euros which has seen them pick up narrow wins against very poor teams (like we may well do to close out our campaign) and lose to good sides. They started with back to back home games against Estonia and Belarus. Winning them put them on a run and they've done well to pick up the points away from home, but it's a great run of fixtures to start a campaign with. They probably won't pick up another point. Our last three games have been against a World Cup quarter-finalist and semi-finalist. It's not apples with apples. They're doing ok, but the idea that they are somehow miles ahead of us and putting us to shame is one that is overly simplistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charger29 Posted September 10, 2019 Share Posted September 10, 2019 actually, we would need to wait till euro 2028, world cup playoffs are not part of NLApparently that's about to change. It was reported in the associated press three or four months ago. That's one of the reasons why the WC quali draw hasn't been made yet. In normal circumstances it would have been made in July 2019, now it looks like it'll be made in November 2020 after the NL has finished to allow the NL finalists to go into 5 team groups and 6 team groups for everyone else.Uefa are meeting in two weeks so we'll likely know for definite by then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 We actually might have played a bit of a blinder here. I expect in a couple of years, we're going to get absolutely hounded in our Division B fixtures. Then two years later, it's Euro 2024 time, and we'll be back in Division C, certainly capable of winning one of those groups again. Back up to B, back down to C, etc etc. If we can keep that cycle up, we should have a decent chance of winning the raffle for each Euros. On 10/09/2019 at 09:26, charger29 said: Apparently that's about to change. It was reported in the associated press three or four months ago. That's one of the reasons why the WC quali draw hasn't been made yet. In normal circumstances it would have been made in July 2019, now it looks like it'll be made in November 2020 after the NL has finished to allow the NL finalists to go into 5 team groups and 6 team groups for everyone else. Uefa are meeting in two weeks so we'll likely know for definite by then. Was that not kind of known though? I'd still expect them to make a space for the Nations League finals, but there will still be questions about whether there's the same playoff system. I can't see it happening, needing them to make all groups have just one spot, and the potential of a super diddy getting to the World Cup. But then stranger things have happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
charger29 Posted September 12, 2019 Share Posted September 12, 2019 Was that not kind of known though? I'd still expect them to make a space for the Nations League finals, but there will still be questions about whether there's the same playoff system. I can't see it happening, needing them to make all groups have just one spot, and the potential of a super diddy getting to the World Cup. But then stranger things have happened. It probably was expected. The WC taking place 6 months later than normal could have had an affect on the dates though. They didn't have to overlap the NL and WC qualifiers (for 2022 anyway) if they didn't want to. Supposedly its only two from the NL going to the WC playoffs. They'll be joined by 10 runners up from the standard quali. The 12 will be split into three and then it's just the same semi then final format as the euro places. Premumably it'd just be the A and B leagues who get a place. That way you avoid FIFA complaining and it helps slightly with stopping teams settling for relegation to improve their chances next time around. Edit: not confirmed yet though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
forameus Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 15 hours ago, charger29 said: It probably was expected. The WC taking place 6 months later than normal could have had an affect on the dates though. They didn't have to overlap the NL and WC qualifiers (for 2022 anyway) if they didn't want to. Supposedly its only two from the NL going to the WC playoffs. They'll be joined by 10 runners up from the standard quali. The 12 will be split into three and then it's just the same semi then final format as the euro places. Premumably it'd just be the A and B leagues who get a place. That way you avoid FIFA complaining and it helps slightly with stopping teams settling for relegation to improve their chances next time around. Edit: not confirmed yet though Ah, completely forgot this was the Qatar one that throws everything out. Second part is interesting, hadn't heard anything about that. In that case, I'd be all for it. Taking away that second spot from main qualifying would essentially render the whole process pointless for a number of teams (if you get a traditional giant in your group, then you're pretty much done), and I wouldn't imagine there's appetite to hand a C or D team a spot in the World cup from those that are going to miss out. This seems like the best of both worlds if it happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thisal Posted September 13, 2019 Share Posted September 13, 2019 On 09/09/2019 at 22:22, greenockraver said: On a serious note. Ive watched scotland since 1998, this is the worst qualifying campaign i can remember. Is it a reasonable albeit, inconvenient argument to say, that by continuing this awful form and Dropping to division D, it could actually accidently create our most realistic chance of seeing scotland at a major finals in the near future? (should we drop to division d) In short... Could a future unintended consequence of failure actually end up with us qualifying through the playoffs in group d of the nations league, albeit being through competing in the poorest division (division d) ? If you have been watching Scotland that long you should know this is just another method of building our hopes up only to end in more failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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