Fifa World Ranking

[Mahsaa]

Pot 2 would be a dream come true but in reality in todays football you can beat any team, we have good players, imagine we would have a plan like european teams ( training camps, fitness coaches, friendlies, all support of IFF and goverment) .... then we could beat any team.
I say better than pot 2 would be a real campain, i hope we dont get surprised again like always, lack of friendlies, no money ........

[Malkay]

well this is true in theory but in reality BIG difference between pot 2 and 3

We'll we wont know until we know all the qualifiers but I suspect there will be plenty of pot 3 teams who are as good as the likes of Croatia, Mexico and Uruguay who are all on the decline with their best players ageing or retired. Also, we might need a good draw for pot 4 as there will be a few wildcards in that who could scare us, namely Canada.

Also, the way the fixtures land, it might be better to be in pot 3 as we would play the most beatable team (pot 4) first. It would be a must win game regardless and give us a spring board to work on qualification from the group. Much like our group in 2018... let's just hope it's not as difficult.

[Malkay]

Iran breaks into top 20: https://football-ranking.com/fifa_rankings

Winning all the remaining games still gives a chance for WC Pot 2 depending on other results.

Peru beat Columbia yesterday and move ahead of us.

Top 20 was nice while it lasted.

Let's see where we are when rankings are actually published on 10th February

[Iran Doost]

This idea of aiming for pot 2 negatively overshadows our preparations and plans.

Coaches will aim to win at all cost, choosing to play our best players all/almost all the time, resulting in poor preparation of the rest of the squad.

Managers will aim to pick and choose friendlies in a way to not hurt our chances, so likely resulting in even poorer friendly avenues than what is otherwise possible due to the bad IRI's reputation.

And at the end we are unlikely to make pot 2 anyways.

Forget it.

[Farzadfarhangni]

Peru beat Columbia yesterday and move ahead of us.

Top 20 was nice while it lasted.

Let's see where we are when rankings are actually published on 10th February

Peru won't likely to stay fourth in South American race... They play Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay... Fifth place right now is Uruguay (1 point behind Peru) and they will play Venezuela, Peru and Chile. All winnable games for them.

I think Uruguay will end up fourth and fifth which has to play an AFC team in playoffs will be between Peru and Colombia...

So no guarantee that Peru is going to make it and even if they do that they stay ahead of us. They will probably for sure lose to Ecuador...

[milad_b]

Peru won't likely to stay fourth in South American race... They play Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay... Fifth place right now is Uruguay (1 point behind Peru) and they will play Venezuela, Peru and Chile. All winnable games for them.

I think Uruguay will end up fourth and fifth which has to play an AFC team in playoffs will be between Peru and Colombia...

So no guarantee that Peru is going to make it and even if they do that they stay ahead of us. They will probably for sure lose to Ecuador...

Even if they win 2 more games and draw one game we will be on top of them if we win the remaining 3 matches. As long as colombia or uruguay don't make it we will be fine.

I have a feeling Portugal , Sweden , wales , Colombia and peru won't make it.

[Malkay]

This idea of aiming for pot 2 negatively overshadows our preparations and plans.
Coaches will aim to win at all cost, choosing to play our best players all/almost all the time, resulting in poor preparation of the rest of the squad.
Managers will aim to pick and choose friendlies in a way to not hurt our chances, so likely resulting in even poorer friendly avenues than what is otherwise possible due to the bad IRI's reputation.
And at the end we are unlikely to make pot 2 anyways.
Forget it.

Your post makes no sense, my friend. Pots will be determined when the end of this round of qualifying finishes at the end of March and 30 of the 32 qualified teams are known. It will be the FIFA rankings posted in late March / early April, ahead of the WC draw on 3rd April, that determines which pot we'll be in.

Most teams, let alone Iran, still have qualifiers to play so there will be no friendlies you speak of... Just the qualified European teams will play friendlies on official international match days but friendly games aren't really that great for rankings compares to competitive games.

As for the 3 games we have left to play before our pot is decided, coaches should be aiming to win competitive football games regardless of pots or rankings... Not testing random uncapped players. That can come after qualifying and the draw is made, if the IFF are able to arrange credible friendlies.

I do agree that we are unlikely to make pot 2 (the permutations required have us at a very low percentage) but a few members are just keeping other members informed of where we stand

[Malkay]

Peru won't likely to stay fourth in South American race... They play Ecuador, Uruguay and Paraguay... Fifth place right now is Uruguay (1 point behind Peru) and they will play Venezuela, Peru and Chile. All winnable games for them.
I think Uruguay will end up fourth and fifth which has to play an AFC team in playoffs will be between Peru and Colombia...
So no guarantee that Peru is going to make it and even if they do that they stay ahead of us. They will probably for sure lose to Ecuador...

Who knows what is gonna happen in those games... This has been a strange round of CONMEBOL qualifying. Besides Brazil and Argentina doing the usual business, Ecuador are a surprise package at 3rd and even Bolivia stood a chance to qualify until their loss the other day.

There will be at least 2 other S American teams above us in the rankings when the draw comes around, whoever they are they'll have likely qualified.

One thing that isn't clear is what pot the 2 teams that will be decided by the intercontinental playoffs in June will end up in.

For example, Uruguay or Colombia could finish 5th (playoff) but still be ranked high enough to be a pot 2 team and play against an AFC who will be ranked pot 3 or 4... Where do these TBD teams get placed in the groups?

[Ab-Gosht]

Who knows what is gonna happen in those games... This has been a strange round of CONMEBOL qualifying. Besides Brazil and Argentina doing the usual business, Ecuador are a surprise package at 3rd and even Bolivia stood a chance to qualify until their loss the other day.

There will be at least 2 other S American teams above us in the rankings when the draw comes around, whoever they are they'll have likely qualified.

One thing that isn't clear is what pot the 2 teams that will be decided by the intercontinental playoffs in June will end up in.

For example, Uruguay or Colombia could finish 5th (playoff) but still be ranked high enough to be a pot 2 team and play against an AFC who will be ranked pot 3 or 4... Where do these TBD teams get placed in the groups?

good point. likely would be any team not qualified for WC when the draw takes place, will be placed in pot 4

[Iranianarsenal11]

This idea of aiming for pot 2 negatively overshadows our preparations and plans.

Coaches will aim to win at all cost, choosing to play our best players all/almost all the time, resulting in poor preparation of the rest of the squad.

Managers will aim to pick and choose friendlies in a way to not hurt our chances, so likely resulting in even poorer friendly avenues than what is otherwise possible due to the bad IRI's reputation.

And at the end we are unlikely to make pot 2 anyways.

Forget it.

I thought of that too, but then I realized that we would realize which Pot we are in anyways after March qualifiers... So its not like the friendly matches we would play in April onwards have any impact of whether or not we are Pot 2 or 3 or whatever...

So yes, we should finish these qualifiers as best as we can, preferably winning all three remaining matches and hope for the best!

[Medzdidz]

So which teams are we wishing the bad juju on 😂

[Malkay]

I think for the next couple of days we are Panama fans. Come March, we are Scotland, Russia and Turkey/North Macedonia fans.

Also congratulations Burkina Faso. Fingers crossed for Egypt and Equatorial Guinea.

[Malkay]

good point. likely would be any team not qualified for WC when the draw takes place, will be placed in pot 4

Yeah man, FIFA have not been very transparent at all about a draw happening in two months.

Putting high ranked playoff sides in the lowest pot makes sense because they've not been good enough to qualify automatically and if they were to lose the playoff, you'd be unfairly awarding a poorer ranked nation a higher seeding.

[Ab-Gosht]

Yeah man, FIFA have not been very transparent at all about a draw happening in two months.

Putting high ranked playoff sides in the lowest pot makes sense because they've not been good enough to qualify automatically and if they were to lose the playoff, you'd be unfairly awarding a poorer ranked nation a higher seeding.

yes but only way to even conclude the draw to not make it super complicated should be to have all unfinished business in pot 4.

its going still to be with a * because 2 afc teams cannot be in same pot, and probably not any other continent either except for europe and even they cant have 3 so..

[Farzadfarhangni]

yes but only way to even conclude the draw to not make it super complicated should be to have all unfinished business in pot 4.

its going still to be with a * because 2 afc teams cannot be in same pot, and probably not any other continent either except for europe and even they cant have 3 so..

Aren't they going to have the intercontinental playoff games done in April before the draw??? They must. the 32 teams must be knows before the draw.