More Socceroo hatred After Monday's Bahrain video and last month's effort from Uzbekistan, Japan are the latest of Australia's World Cup qualification opponents to turn to alternative training methods in their quest to see off the mighty Socceroos. At first we suspected Nike were behind this, but the final shot in this video is a bit of [.

4×4 reactions This Nike (?) viral follows hot on the heels of the crazy Uzbekistan training video we brought you. And it follows the similar narrative of Australia's World Cup qualification opponents going to great lengths in their training to keep the Socceroos at bay. In what could prove to be an effective training technique for Premier [.

There's a full set of 2010 World Cup Qualifiers on Saturday, October 10, 2009 and Wednesday, October 14, 2009. There's a few differences for the upcoming matches for the United States against Honduras. The match will not be available on regular tv but instead on close circuity tv. A reminder that in the UK, the England match against Ukraine will be broadcast strictly online at http://www.

On Sunday morning at 4.30am New Zealand time, New Zealand's national football team (known as the 'All Whites', in stark contrast to the 'All Blacks') will be kicking off the first leg of their World Cup Qualifying Play-Off against Bahrain in Manama. This is, quite frankly, a huge deal for football in NZ.

USA - Slovakia on Fox Soccer Channel and Galavision at 10am. MLS Eastern Conference final on World Cup Qualifying: New Zealand - Bahrain on Fox Soccer at 2am, Russia - Slovenia at 11am on Setanta, Greece - Ukraine at 1pm on Setanta, Portugal - Bosnia at 3:30pm on Setanta (8pm on ESPN Deportes). International friendlies: Brazil - England at 12pm on Fox Soccer, Argentina - Spain on ESPN Deportes at 2:30pm, Italy - Holland on.

.World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 1) Denmark 1 1 Portugal Hungary 1 2 Sweden World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 2) Moldova 0 0 Luxembourg Israel 0 1 Latvia Switzerland 2 0 Greece World Cup qualifiers Europe (Group 3) Poland 1 1 Northern Ireland Slovakia 2 2 Czech Republic World Cup qualifiers [.

Zakumi awaits
We have a month before world cup qualifying concludes its final group stages, so I thought it would be fun for the next few weeks to look at each continental zone that is still in play.
November will have playoffs in Europe for their four remaining spots, the CONCACAF/CONMEBOL showdown (which can be either a dullard like Costa Rica- Venezuela, or a blockbuster like Argentina-USA – stay tuned), and the world-stopping Bahrain-New Zealand tilt.

Nationally Russ, Paddy and two of the Socceroos biggest fans, Jezza Butler and Matt MacDonald talk Qatar, Bahrain and what it means to qualify again. And Jezza already has three tickets for all the Aussie games.
And apologies to Young Matildas fans, CD didn't work so we'll play that interview with Alen Stajic next week.

Socceroos have qualified for the third time at the biggest tournment in World sport and the Daily Telegraph's Ben English is criticising the attendance at tonights game.
Now that is a bigger crowd than the League Centenary test, promoted just a tad, bigger than the Wallabies v Baa Baa's, promoted widely with SBW and co, and bigger than the AFL v Ireland, but the guy wants to have a go.

New Zealand stands on the verge of their greatest footballing achievement as a nation since they last qualified for the World Cup Finals in 1982. All that is preventing the All-Whites from achieving their goal is a two-legged tie against either Bahrain or Saudi Arabia which will take place in ...

Good weekend for the USA, as none of Argentina/France/Portugal could win.
1) In Africa, this weekend's results mean that Cameroon and Tunisia should now be considered clear favorites to qualify. If Gabon can't beat Cameroon at home, then how they can hope to get a result on the road? Togo let in a last second equalizer against Morocco which probably ended their hopes.

All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

Is Maradona untouchable as Argentina's manager? [Reuters Blog]

How West Ham persuaded Jermain Defoe to leave Charlton. [The Spoiler]

Sir Alex says everyone is jealous of United.

New Zealand came back from a difficult trip to Bahrain with a draw ahead of the second leg.

Don't forget to check out Online Football Manager!

‘If they (New Zealand) can come back from Asia (Bahrain) with anything better than a two goal deficit then they can sneak a victory on home soil' is what I wrote in my first article. Over the weekend, New Zealand duly obliged. As with some good goalkeeping, solid defence and ...

Probably not...which is a shame. It's got a really good goalscoring record against one of the top teams in the Premiership.

Anyway, here's the line up for the UEFA playoffs: all of them kick off at 7pm GMT on Saturday November 14th 2009.

Greece v Ukraine

Ireland v France

Portugal v Bosnia & Herzegovina

Russia v Slovenia

It's also worth noting that on the Saturday the second leg of the New Zealand/Bahrain (0-0) playoff kicks off at 7am GMT that Saturday and the first leg of Costa Rica v Uruguay kicks off an hour later than the European games.

They Think It's All Over... presents a WDKF Wednesday column which looks at the sinister motives behind FIFA's peculiar decision to change the workings of the away goals rule for the upcoming Asia/Oceania World Cup Playoff.

They Think It's All Over... is disillusioned with NZ football.

While most MLS blogs that touch on the topic of how the World Cup Qualifiers will effect league play, considering that a dozen players will be missing matches, I will not. We know the problems, and the reasons for this. Quite simply it is because our nation likes soccer on the weekends and [...]

While things have momentarily slowed down at my end, they seem to be moving along quite nicely for the now qualified Socceroos... so I'm hoping that they actually come out and kick the shit out of Bahrain tonight and put on an entertaining performance for the home fans, who will want nothing more than to see a truck load of goals scored.

They Think It's All Over... presents his latest Salient article whihc looks at NZ's upcoming World Cup Qualifier against Bahrain and its significance in the wider context of NZ Sport.

While Omar and his boys from Bahrain were shooting down the Saudis in the Kingdom, New Zealand were in that other Kingdom kicking it with the Hashemites. It was an experience. New Zealand won the friendly 3-1. The Hashemites ain't got game no mo'.
New Zealand fancy their chances now.

Congratulations to Switzerland, Slovakia, Honduras and, drum roll please, Argentina on clinching World Cup berths Wednesday!
So that's 23 of 32 teams down.
And, of course, it means Maradona is vindicated. It didn't take him long to slam his country's journalists and even name a couple guys (not Messi) to the final World Cup roster.

23 nations are in the World Cup. That leaves 9 spots. And by November 18th, we will know who is going to have fun next summer and who only be playing friendlies. 19 nations are still alive. They are:

New Zealand, Bahrain, Costa Rica, Uruguay, France, Ireland, Portugal, Greece, Slovenia, Russia, Bosnia, Ireland, Ukraine, Cameroon, Gabon, Tunisia, Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt.

After the first leg of the World Cup Qualifying Playoff between New Zealand and Bahrain ended in a 0-0 stalemate in Manama, the New Zealand media all but hapless when it comes to the rules of the beautiful game have ben struggling to come to terms with the workings of the actually-quite-simple away [.

Corrigan Brothers love Trappatoni almost as much as we love Soccer Pro
What's better than free footie gear right before the holidays? Almost nothing, that's right. So we've teamed up once again with our favorite online soccer shop Soccer Pro to run a brand new Butt Buddies World Cup Play-Off Prediction Contest this week.

World Cup play-offs dominate the week. It's squeaky bum time for several countries around the world. We have the second leg in the Asia vs Oceania play off, the CONCACAF v South America showdown, and the games that will decide which European sides will join those already qualified. Our guest this week is Lilika, a Liverpool fan living in Japan.

With 23 nations already qualified for World Cup 2010, there are just nine places in South Africa still up for grabs. Three of those will be decided when African qualifying concludes next Wednesday. But that's a separate post. The six other qualifiers will be decided by playoffs, starting tomorrow.

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Spanish two time World Formula 1 Champion FERNANDO ALONSOfinished in 8th position today in the Bahrain F1 race. Alonso´s teamhave´nt as yet increased the speed relative to their competitors whoare well ahead in the horsepower area, not to mention theaerodynamics.Race winner was J.BUTTON, followed by Vettel & Trulli(Fernando Alonso)The Top three World Championship Table cuurently looks like this:1

Pian piano il puzzle si ricompone. Passa il tempo e si allunga di nomi la lista degli atleti che sono risultati positivi ai controlli antidoping del Cio, effettuati di nuovo sui campioni relativi alle Olimpiadi di Pechino 2008. Dopo il nostro Rebellin, tra i coinvolti in questi gravi fatti illeciti ci sarebbe un altro ciclista e, a quanto rivela l'agenzia tedesca Dpa, dovrebbe essere il tedesco Stefan Schumacher.

This time 4 years ago, we Aussies had already clinched the Oceania group and were eagerly watching the South American qualification group. Who would we play in November? Uruguay again? Paraguay or Columbia? It went down to the wire and history shows that we played Uruguay and showed Reccoba that his "Divine Right" was to put his head up his arse.

I was lucky enough to watch the Socceroos train in Dubai a couple days ago, before flying they flew over to Qatar to potentially qualify for 'Seth Efrica' 2010... and while I quietly watched the intensity of their training drills from the empty bleachers, in no less than 35-40 dergree Celsius heat mind you, all I could think was that the Qataris are in for one hellofa night come Saturday.

With Qatar and Qualification out of the road, the boys landed in Sydney today to prepare for our next assignment against Bahrain on Wednesday Night.

No Let Up

I don't expect any let up from the players this Wednesday. Although we have qualified I feel we will want the psychological edge over arch rivals Japan.

Arsenal announced yesterday that they will be opening their first store in the Middle East in Bahrain. This appears to be the first in a series of stores due to be opened in the Middle East, with other stores due in Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in addition there will also be an official Arsenal online store aimed at the Arab speaking market.

I'm really excited by the propsect of Australia hosting a World Cup. It's one of those things you wonder about as a kid, never actually thinking that your country will be in the running to host one day. Well, I guess the time is now and it's important everyone get's behind this bid.

The move into the Asian confederation has created so many possibilities for the World Cup-bound Socceroos, but it has unexpectedly robbed them of something - a proper climax to qualifying.
Few punters will forget that November night in 2005 when a bare-chested John Aloisi wheeled away after scoring the decisive penalty in Australia's shootout victory over Uruguay, a goal, which combined with Mark Schwarzer's heroics, confirming only the country's second appearance in a World Cup finals.

Group 2
North Korea have become the fourth and final team from Asia to win an automatic qualification spot for World Cup 2010.
The North Koreans went into yesterday's final round of matches in Group 2 already occupying second place behind South Korea and only needed a draw to confirm their place in South Africa next year.

Shazam! This goal won the match for Bahrain in their recent World Cup qualifier against Uzbekistan. A strike fit to win any game, even one against Uzbekistan....

October has a full slate of World Cup Qualifiers on the schedule, a fact I set out in my Octoberfest post back in September. It is time for the top teams to secure their spots in South Africa in 2010, and it is time for the inferior squads to be sent home to start dreaming of 2014.

They Think It's All Over... looks forward to NZ's World Cup Qualifying Playoff with Bahrain.