2010 World Cup Qualifying - Most popular for 2009
Viewing all posts which authors have tagged ‘2010 World Cup Qualifying’.
You can also subscribe to this tag's feed.
We're almost to the 2010 World Cup in Africa, as the continent is now half way through their last
phase of Cup qualifying.
Where do we stand? Let's take a look at the standings for the five groups.
Remember, the five group winners go to the 2010 World Cup. The top three in each group advance to
the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola.
Interesting article over at the World Cup Blog today, asking the question, 'If 2010 World Cup
qualifying ended today, who would make the trip to South Africa?'
32 nations will make the cut. Who would be in? Let's take a look ...
CONMEBOL:Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Argentina
CONCACAF:
USA, Costa Rica, Honduras
Playoff: Uruguay (5th place CONMEBOL) vs Mexico (4th place CONCACAF)
ASIA:
Australia, Japan, S.
Africa's road to the 2010 World Cup heats up this weekend with a full slate of action as countries
compete for the 5 available spots in South Africa.
There are already some teams in trouble.
Like Cameroon and Morocco, who have collectively qualified for nine previous World Cup finals.
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dvsbBl7nnLY/Scz6Y2GJHtI/AAAAAAAABuo/wEHS6IvgVYI/s1600-h/mikel_14392t.jpg"img
style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 294px;
height: 399px;" src="http://3.
Kenya's coach Antoine Hey boycotted the team's trip to Abuja, Nigeria for Sunday's World Cup
qualifying match against the Super Eagles, a day after Kenya's players protested over non-payment
of their allowances.
Hey arrived at the airport 30 minutes after the plane had taken off, saying he'd been held up in
the traffic.
This is not a joke. England are all but qualified and can book their trip to South Africa with a
win over Croatia Wednesday. Northern Ireland can win their group with victories in their last two
games and a little help. Their neighbors to the south, the Republic of Ireland, have an outside
shot of winning their group but should at least finish second.
Thought you'd never ask. First let's take a look at the teams that are already through as of
Monday, Oct. 12, 2009 (in no particular order):
South Africa, Germany, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Holland, Denmark, England, Mexico, USA, Brazil,
Paraguay, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Australia, Japan, South Korea, North Korea.
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dvsbBl7nnLY/Sczuhv_L1PI/AAAAAAAABuY/WJkQTAkS7vI/s1600-h/wctrp_751_general.jpg"img
style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px;
height: 400px;" src="http://4.
To echo our host's views on this, what took place between France and Ireland on Wednesday night
really was a travesty. And lo and behold, here to rub salt in still-fresh wounds is soccer's top
authority, FIFA.
For those who don't know, FIFA is about as honest, fair-minded and interested in bettering the
world as your average African dictator -- and even that's probably an insult to African dictators.
While much of the world watch Spain defeat England and Diego Maradona's Argentina floor France, the
African continent saw a slew of international friendlies.
How did the African teams fare? Let's find out!
Egypt 2 Ghana 2
Probably the match of the list, African champions Egypt played out a thrilling to-and-fro encounter
with visitors Ghana.
a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"
href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_dvsbBl7nnLY/ScpRPgiF1UI/AAAAAAAABuQ/gmOZNG6LNA8/s1600-h/2010wc_poster.jpg"img
style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 235px;
height: 301px;" src="http://4.
We inch closer and closer to finding out which countries will represent the African continent in
the first World Cup on African soil.
This weekend shed some light on which countries will make it - and which won't.
For a complete run down of the group standings, please click here.
The U.S. Men's National Team took an early lead, then gave up a quick equalizer before succumbing
to the winning goal eight minutes from time in their World Cup qualifier at Estadio Azteca
yesterday. The win by Mexico puts its national team back on track to qualify for the 2010 World
Cup. The Yanks will probably still qualify anyway, but they would have loved to have managed a
victory (or at least a draw) at the Azteca, a place where they have famously never won in 19
attempts.
It's been some time since my last post so let's catch up on some news from the 2010 World Cup and
African football, shall we?
First off, some self-promotion ... my post on Africans in the UEFA Champions League from earlier
today ... don't you dare miss it!
- Are you interested in the upcoming African Cup of Nations in Angola?
The final spots for the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be determined within a few
days. One of them includes the playoff between the AFC (Asia) and OFC (Oceanic) regions. The first
leg was at Bahrain and ended in a 0-0 draw with New Zealand hosting the second leg on Saturday,
November 14, 2009.
The international break will be a moment of truth for several national teams, with two matchdays on
the calendar over the next week. We have taken a look at the group standings and calendar and give
you the following ranking of most crucial games (in order):
1. Portugal at Denmark, Sept. 5
It may lack the "sexiness" of some of the other match-ups, but Portugal v.
With a 5-1 victory at Wembley, the English national team was able to exorcise the ghosts of its
last meeting with Croatia and advance to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. 5-1? Against
effectively the same Croatia side that gave England fits in their 2007 meeting? You could write off
last year's 4-1 England victory in Zagreb as a fluke, but this suddenly makes England look pretty
good.
That was bizarre. But it ended up being bizarre with a good ending, so whatevs.
With a shocking last second goal from Jonathan Bornstein off a corner, the US came back to draw
2-2 with a time wastey Costa Rica and finish atop the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying group.
Atrocious defensive play marred the first half for the US and put them in that 2-0 hole, but their
tenacity down the stretch was admirable and perhaps a credit to their desire to put a smile on
Charlie Davies' face.
Wow, what a game. For all the stick we've given him here, Conor Casey came up shockingly huge
and deserves a lot of credit for his performance. Landy again left his mark. And holy crap did we
get lucky after Stu Holden's handball.
More to come on this match later, but we're in the World Cup!
Hey, remember when the US MNT finished second at the Confederations Cup? Me too. And so does
Charlie Davies, who is still holding onto that moment as reason to believe in this team once the
big dance (screw the NCAA tournament, this is bigger) rolls around in the summer:
"I think we showed we have the potential to really make an impact at the World Cup.
First things first, the US MNT has added another friendly to the November schedule by announcing
their stop in Slovakia four days before playing Denmark, which will make for a good pair of
measuring stick matches against a couple of fellow World Cup qualifiers on European soil. Both
Slavakia and Denmark finished atop their UEFA qualifying groups, so these matches should provide a
good show of where we stand against quality competition several months removed from the
Confederations Cup.
(Just in case the thousands of others weren't doing it for you).
Thierry Henry's despicable handball in today's deciding World Cup qualifier against the Republic of
Ireland was probably the biggest soccer fraud since Diego Maradona's infamous "hand of God" act in
1986. The stakes, then as now, are massive: a quarterfinals berth at the World Cup then, a spot in
next year's South Africa tourney now.
Here are the long awaited and much talked about pots for the World Cup Draw on Friday.
Pot 1 (Seeded teams): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Holland, Italy, Germany, Argentina and
England.
Pot 2 (Asia, Oceania, North/Central America): Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New
Zealand, the United States, Mexico and Honduras.
