The WCP Cup keeps getting better, and this year was no exception. The groups were all very entertaining to watch and it was great to see so many fans out to watch. This tournament is really great for soccer in Saskatchewan and so many people who knew nothing about soccer came to see what all the excitement was about.
It will only continue to grow in the coming years, but in order to make it even more exciting, the rules will have to be formatted to the expanding amount of teams and the quality of play.
A couple things I was thinking about:
1. Maybe seeding more than the top 4 teams. It worked out fairly good this year, but there's no denying that any team that was left out in group D could have made another pool quite a bit more exciting. This year there were a lot of good teams, so it wasn't too big of an issue. Just a thought though.
2. Changing the way tiebreakers are made. Norway's pool and Jamaica's pool both had issues with this. It goes head to head, then goals for, then goals against. In Northern Ireland's final two games, they were blown out of the water because Norway and Ukraine were trying to score as many goals as possible. It's embarrassing to the team, and it would be better if it went goals against ahead of goals for, that way rather seeing how bad you can embarrass the other team, it's how well you can keep the ball out of your net. No one likes watching a 10-0 blowout.
All in all, the WCP Cup is very well handled and these are just suggestions.
Any others?
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11 comments:
I like the random draw the way it is. This way there is a bigger opportunity for an underdog to win it. If you seed more than one team in a pool, then that is just making it more likely that the top 8 teams in the tournament will come out of their pool. And though that seems to make the most sense, I find it far more exciting to see a pool where some of the best teams play eachother in a dog fight for a play-off birth. Plus, the real World Cup randomizes the tournament and I think that because this is called the mini-world cup, we should try and keep it modelled after the real thing as best as we can.
But I do completely agree with the tie-breaker rules. Either put goals against ahead of goals for, or put goal differential first. Either way, I think more emphasis should be stressed on a solid defense so it is less likely to end up with a weaker team being driven into the ground and completely embarrassed.
One more thing, which I don't know what could be done to better the situation, but there is such a huge gap between some of the teams and it would be nice to see a little more equality in terms of skill. I commend Kevin and Gladwin and the rest of the organizing committee for the efforts they have put in so far for the tournament and hopefully as it moves on we will see a few more key players move to their heritage teams rather thean stacking a team with all the best non-heritage stars.
I think a good idea would be to require the teams to play all their players, including and especially their players of heritage. There is a rule that masters players have to play at least 1 minute or something like that, why not the same rule for players of heritage? This would encourage the national spirit of the tournament and would probably make more players go to their country of origin. I acknowledge that it would be a hard rule to enforce but we would have to rely on each team being honest. We rely on each teams honesty when filling out the forms for their nationality so why not for this as well? Perhaps it could be monitored during the semis and finals at least.
itd be cool if everyone who had significant heritage with a country had to play for their heritage team, unless they had no heritage with any team. previous commenter is right, making people play on their heritage makes it a lot more exciting.
BUT...if you make a rule like that it needs to be a little lenient in the case of different race countries.
Ex. Laos- a lot of their players come from many asian countries, but laos is just a combination of those countries and makes the asian representatives in the world cup. If there are many asians that want to play, and they can form two teams, then go ahead and make two teams from any asian country. Same with Jamaica, Nigeria and Botswana. Those teams are alright too because you're not going to find an overwhelming population of jamaicans, nigerians or botswanians(maybe thats how you say it) in saskatchewan.
The teams i just mentioned and others are fine, but it's just when teams recruit players that have absolutely no affiliation with a country makes it a little less exciting.
P.S. Canada should be disbanded
Please help us recognize good defence ! It is a important part of the game and your idea is a good one.
Maybe there should be a qualifying round for new teams entrying and teams that are below par
How could you say it is fine for Laos/Jamaica/Nigeria/Botswana to have more lenient rules? I could say that for any team but they picked that country to represent and it is noone elses fault if they cannot find enough people of that heritage.
Maybe Norway or Ireland could just add a couple people who aren't of that heritage because you know, there aren't enough!
Think that sounds okay?
crack heads
fuck man team laos had over 15 players from laos............... watch out for team laos there back and ready to take it
i think that there should be some sort of wild card for a team or 2. That way for the good teams that end up in a difficult pool still have a chance at making it through. You always want the best teams to make it to the end and this way would make it more exciting in the knock out round... just a matter of figuring out how it could work. just a thought, let me know how you feel about this.
your idea is stupid
I think the format works.. It is the same as the real World Cup.. The top two teams make it out of each pool, and if you get unlucky and end up in a tough pool than you have to work harder to be one of the top two. It's not like Northern Ireland or Botswana or Poland are likely going to make it to the next round anyways, but even if they do and it's because of a weak pool, people love to cheer for the underdog and they will still have to beat the best of the best in the playoff round anyways if they wanna move on.
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