Yeah, it confused the hell our of me and I assumed it was a mistake.

It’s the most popular sport on the planet so naturally we will have “the most” of any type of fan.

Hate the new format. We have no business having a chance to quality sitting 8th… imagine how more exiting this would be with Brazil having a legit chance to miss a World Cup. It’s never gonna happen now.

Its not really a decline more so back to the norm tbh.

No, it’s worse than the norm. Before we would at least semi-regularly get out of the group stages in Copa Libertadores… every now and then a club would make a run to quarter-finals and on rare ocassions semi-finals.

Now we can’t get out of the group stages of ANY competition, including Sudamericana which my club won in the 2000’s and Colo-Colo reached a final. It’s absurd. That was never the norm. Football has been left to die.

And somehow Peru and Bolivia are still below us on the qualifying table.

It was already bad back then.

Pre-1990’s I’d say Venezuela would have been THAT team. But today’s Venezuela is scoring bicycle kick goals in Brazil and getting out of there with a point. I believe football is catching up to, if not surpassing, baseball in popularity for the first time.

With the expansion they will most likely make it to the next World Cup. Should be amazing to see those players singing the national anthem of their country for the first time in a World Cup.

…and still counting.

Wow.

I agree. It spoils a lot of the drama. It should have stopped at 6 direct spots. Forget the playoff nonsense.

Great surname.