WORLD CUP 78 QUALIFIER PREVIEW
Written By: Walker Sun and Ellen Bolabore
GROUP DRAW
GROUP 10:
Anthor (78)
Dutch Semarland (UR)
Cassadaigua (UR)
Drawkland (48)
Kaidō (234)
Republic of Kaboomlandia (104)
Greater Vakolicci Haven (192)
Red Blackiland (22)
Pasarga (15)
KICK CORPS FIXTURES:
Drawkland vs Greater Vakolicci Haven @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
Red Blackiland vs Drawkland @ Red Blackiland
Drawkland vs Pasarga @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
Anthor vs Drawkland @ Anthor
Drawkland vs Dutch Semarland @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
Cassadaigua vs Drawkland @ Concord Heights Stadium (72,000); Cassadaigua
BYE
Drawkland vs Kaidō @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
Republic of Kaboomlandia vs Drawkland @ Republic of Kaboomlandia
Greater Vakolicci Haven vs Drawkland @ GVH
Drawkland vs Red Blackiland @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
Pasarga vs Drawkland @ Stade de Torgos (90,000); Pasarga
Drawkland vs Anthor @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
Dutch Semarland vs Drawkland @ Dutch Semarland
Drawkland vs Cassadaigua @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
BYE
Kaidō vs Drawkland @ Kaidō
Drawkland vs Republic of Kaboomlandia @ Drawk City Stadium (175,000); Drawkland
After such a long and yet short time, the World Cup is back! After what we consider a mildly successful Cycle 77 campaign, the ladies of the Kick Corps are back at it and hoping to recapture the glory of qualifying on their first go by qualifying on their second go. Wouldn't that just be great? Well, just like last cycle, they're going to have to play their asses off to get there, but at least the road will be better-paved, considering that they're ranked 48th rather than 127th or whatever ungodly rank they were after Baptism of Fire 64. Speaking of the road to World Cup 78 proper, held this time in Bonesea and Cosumar, let's see who populates that road and stands between us and another whipping at the hands of much more talented teams.
QUALIFYING PREVIEW
Before we start anything regarding the schedule, let's just do a quick overview of each of these teams, shall we?
Anthor is a team which is pretty mediocre on most levels. They're decent at hockey and beat the Grid Corps once. Once. They will not defeat the Kick Corps though.
Dutch Semarland is like Semarland but ... Dutch? They missed on the Baptism of Fire this cycle for letting their membership lapse, or something. Easy.
Cassadaigua kinda spanked the Elite Eleven in the WBC. They've won the Cup twice, actually they've won everything of note, but we'll see how their ladies do against ours.
Kaidō was just in Drawkland for BoF 65! I'm sure they'd love to return, despite the fact that they missed out of the playoffs. Unfortunately, we won't be showing them much hospitality.
Republic of Kaboomlandia is like Kaboomlandia but ... a Republic? They're not even in the Top 100, so we're just gonna not worry about them. They've never been very good.
Greater Vakolicci Haven is a name that any true Grid Corps fan will curse till their dying day. They may've beaten us in the World Bowl XXXII semis, but they won't be getting away easy here.
Red Blackiland is ranked 22nd in the world and is famous for being red, and black, and having the craziest, most raving fans out there, the Infamous Ultras. We'll be sure to give them a show.
Pasarga are former World Cup Champions and still a powerhouse. However, they're one of the lowest Pot 1 teams, ranked 15th. I'd say we have a shot on them.
This was in the order officially given by the host nations, but it's not the order that we'll be facing them. That's probably one of the most crucial elements to our qualification goals, and hence we're gonna walk you through that as well.
Day one, we'll be going against the despised Greater Vakolicci Haven, at home, no less. We expect our ladies to do their job and start the campaign with a bang by smashing those pesky Vakolicci. 3 points to start would be absolutely wonderful. However, it'll have to go from 0 to 60 from there, as the Kick Corps will have to travel out to Red Blackiland to face the Pot 2 opponent, and one of the biggest teams standing in our way of World Cup 78 qualification. Facing them Away and on matchday 2 is going to be a really tough one to pull. We predict a very hard and semi-high-scoring bout, which we hope to God ends up in a draw. After that, we have to face off against the hardest opponent, Pasarga. Now, they are indeed a Pot 1 team, and a former champion. But they're only ranked 15th, and with us being at home for this match, I think we can pull off a draw to keep our hopes alive. They go on the road again for the next match, this time against Anthor, who we've become quite well-acquainted with as of late, what with our Ice Corps getting embarrassed on their turf (er, ice) in the WCoH and the back-and-forth action we experienced playing them in the World Bowl XXXII Group Stage. However, Anthor is not a powerhouse in soccer, and thus we expect to get a win or at least a draw, even when playing in their home stadium. Then Drawkland's ladies travels back home to the capital and takes on Dutch Semarland. We don't know much about them, mainly due to the fact that they're new and missed the Baptism, but we can assume they won't put up much of a challenge, especially when the Kick Corps plays with the home crowd advantage. Then another road trip as the ladies take on the other ladies, this being Cassadaigua's national team, the two-time champions now returning from a long hiatus. In the past they might've been a force to be reckoned with, but now they're unranked and unknown again. And while the Dagans might think of the Elite Eleven when they think of Drawkland (which is tbh a mistake they should be burned at the stake), they don't seem to know about our other eleven. That being the Kick Corps. And the Kick Corps takes no prisoners. Good luck, Cass. Right after that 3 points, the Corps will have their bye, a good time to relax, before taking on another 2 easy opponents, this being Kaidō, who were recently in Drawkland for the Baptism of Fire, but will now be in Drawkland to face our national team. Another win for the Corps, and to cap off the first half, they'll hit the road to the Republic of Kaboomlandia, where they'll take on Kaboomlandia's less cool little brother and probably spank them around a little bit. All in all, after the first half, we'd ideally have 20 out of a possible 24 points, which we hope would get us in a top group spot. However, realistically, we'll peg it at 17 points, due to untimely losses or draws which will inevitably occur.
The second half is the same but reversed, of course. This time the half starts off with Drawkland facing Greater Vakolicci Haven at their house, but honestly, it won't make much of a difference. We expect a win here to keep momentum rolling for the Corps. Next up is a match versus our red and black friends, Red Blackiland. This time they'll be playing in Drawkland, however, so it'll instead be our ravaging fans giving us the advantage rather than the tough Infamous Ultras (although we still expect a presence from them even on the road). By this point in the season, with the nerves settled, we expect the Drawkians to be able to pull off a slim win, although a draw or a loss are certainly not off the table. Unfortunately, this brings us to the next game, likely the hardest of the campaign, where the Kick Corps will take on Pasarga in the venerable Stade de Torgos, which has played host to a multitude of matches that many have watched. We know many will watch this match. We highly doubt the Corps will even pull off a draw, although it's not off the table. Still, a win or a draw here we think could clench qualification for the Corps, assuming they keep everything else in check for the rest of the matches. Don't bank on points coming out of this one, though. Then Anthor comes to visit, which we think could be a win, or maybe a draw in a worse-case scenario. Ultimately though, after this it should be smooth sailing. Taking on Dutch Semarland in their home field will be slightly tough but ultimately should be 3 points. Same with Cassadaigua, unless they really hit the qualifiers hard, we think our ladies can best theirs in Drawkland, no problem. A bye day to rest the nerves, and hopefully by now the Corps will just need to stay above water and qualification will be on the table. Kaidō will be the destination after the rest, but we still know we'll pull off the win. Finally, to cap the campaign, the Corps gets a wonderful home matchup against the mediocre Republic of Kaboomlandia to wow the fans and keep spirits up, qualification on the table or not. Our most generous realistic guess pegs the Kick Corps at around 39 out of 48 points. We don't know if this'll be enough to have Drawkland into World Cup proper. After all, they will have to outplay both Red Blackiland and Pasarga, although honestly we can't say we can't do it. After all, Pasarga is only one rank slot higher than Barunia was last cycle, and we managed to slip past them to travel the QUE&SJG. Ultimately it'll come down to how clutch the girls can play, and we think that ultimately they can pull it off.
AFTER QUALIFYING
So what happens if we do qualify? We'll travel to Cosumar and Bonesea. By our probably extremely incorrect math and our wildly generous guesses at our qualifying record, we think the Corps will be sitting pretty at around 40th in the rankings. This isn't much better than they were last cycle, and we all know what happened then. Ultimately, we'd be lucky to get a single point as we did last time, but we could honestly care less if it meant we still qualified. If we do qualify, we will likely get fourth in the group again, only garnering a point or two. However, if we do get said points, we estimate our ranking will be about in the #30-#33 range once the cycle is done and accounted for, and thus the Corps will be sitting quite pretty for the next cycle, and qualification would certainly be a very sure bet, especially in a 15-group format that we've experienced these last 2 cycles. If we qualify, we think we'll be set for a long time.
What if we don't qualify, though? It's certainly a possibility. After all, mathematically, we shouldn't qualify. So what happens then? Well, we assume that hopefully we get a berth to the Cup of Harmony. After an expected great effort all qualification, we'd honestly be pretty disappointed if we didn't make it to the World Cup Cycle's consolation prize. So, even with a less-than-ideal qualifying performance, it looks like Drawkland will still be sitting around 40th or 41st in the world due to a small drop in the rankings after 40. Of course, it's hard to predict the rank movement of other nations, but we can still expect to be at least 5 or 6 ranks higher in the ladder by the time this campaign is over. We don't know how many nations will end up being in the Cup of Harmony, but if we end up falling to the Cup, we'd hope to be favorites to make it to the playoffs. At that point it will all be the luck of the draw, but making it to the semifinals would be the ultimate goal. If we can make it to the semis, with a decent group stage record, and make it to the final or win 3rd place, we can expect our rank to still get up to the mid-30s by the end of the cycle, but most likely not as high as it would've been if we qualified. Thus, our goal is to either qualify or make it to the semifinals of Cup of Harmony 70. This will set us up for future success and luck further down the road.
But before we can even think about all that, we have to make it through this campaign. So be sure to cheer on our girls on the Kick Corps! We know they have the toughness in them to qualify, and so we know they can do it again. So let's do it! On Corps!