Seven non-Titi related posts you may have missed during the last seven days... Japan sound the horn. For silencing the horn. Tell us who your biggest international rival is. What they'll all be wearing in Philadelphia next year. Who deserves the golden trashcan? Nothing like an international break to recharge the old batteries New Zealand headed to South Africa thanks to [. Click to continue reading...

Who can wait a month? I had to speculate the pots and make my own groups:

GROUP A -- South Africa, Greece, North Korea, Paraguay
GROUP B -- Brazil, Slovenia, Honduras, Nigeria
GROUP C -- Germany, Denmark, New Zealand, Uruguay
GROUP D -- Spain, Slovakia, USA, Ghana
GROUP E -- Argentina, Netherlands, Mexico, Cameroon
GROUP F -- Italy, Serbia, South Korea, Chile
GROUP G -- France, Portugal, Australia, Algeria
GROUP H -- England, Switzerland, Japan, Ivory Coast

How about that Group E, eh? Click to continue reading...

Will we see an All Whites Haka? The World Cup will be richer for the experience.
I had been keen on seeing Bahrain qualify. Bahrain were the sort of quick counter-attacking outfit capable of the odd 3-2 upset.
New Zealand inspire less confidence as Giant Killers.

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Belated respect to the All Whites. New Zealand represent!
Bahrain's unexpected defeat leaves the Arab World with only one representative in South Africa. Sayef Mohammed Adnan's penalty miss in Wellington will have done more than just dampen the spirits on the Emir's beach.

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With Uruguay seeing off Costa Rica, the field for World Cup 2010 has been completed.Africa - Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, South AfricaAsia - Australia, Japan, North Korea, South KoreaEurope - Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, SwitzerlandNorth America - Honduras, Mexico, United StatesOceania - New Click to continue reading...

The announcement of the draw for the FIFA Club World Cup was actually last week, but got buried in my run-up to the first leg of the CONCACAF/CONMEBOL playoff. Atlante, the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League winners, received a beneficial draw when they were paired with the winners of the Al Ahli (UAE) - Auckland City (New Zealand) match. Click to continue reading...

A great jump on a corner and a marvelous header. This is by no means a surprise coming from Plymouth striker Rory Fallon. But until few days ago, those kinds of attempts didn't bring a lot of attention. His club are struggling in Coca Cola Championship, while Fellon himself is far from the desired form.

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According to Spanish daily MARCA, the bowls for the World Cup final draw have already been arranged. Now, the arrangements are pending approval by the FIFA Executive Committee, and MARCA tends to be wrong quite a bit, so take this with some grains of salt. Given all that, the composition of the bowls is the following: Seeds (Bowl 1): South Africa, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, Argentina, England, France (if they beat Ireland) Bowl 2: the remaining UEFA teams Bowl 3: the CAF/CONMEBOL teams Bowl 4: the AFC/CONCACAF teams (Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras) The. Click to continue reading...

They Think It's All Over... is chuffed that NZ are going to the World Cup, but is hoping we won't get carried away... Click to continue reading...

Three more countries are going to South Africa!!!Cameroon, Nigeria, and New Zealand have booked their tickets to the 2010 World Cup. Nigeria and Cameroon have won their respective groups in the African qualifiers while New Zealand beat Bahrain in the 2nd leg of their playoff match.Results from the 1st leg playoff matches:Costa Rica 0 – 1 UruguayIreland 0 – 1 FrancePortugal 1 – 0 BosniaGreece 0 –

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Welcome to the World Cup party New Zealand, Nigeria and Cameroon!
Egypt scored a goal in the 5th minute of extra time against Algeria to keep its W.C. dream alive, it needed a 2-0 result. The rematch between the two teams is Wednesday in Sudan.
Here are the results of the UEFA playoff first legs: Russia 2-1 Slovenia, Ireland 0-1 France, Portugal 1-0 Bosnia, Ukraine 0-0 Greece. Click to continue reading...

by Saxon DurrantNew Zealand have done it, a 1-0 win against Bahrain booking their passage to the prime time event on all football calendars, the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Click to continue reading...

New Zealand's qualification for the 2010 World Cup is the direct result of 2 actions by the FFA.
1. The move of the Socceroos from Oceania to Asia, thereby giving New Zealand its 5th spot. Also the '5th spot' moving from South America to Asia.
2. The A-League lifting the performance of players who otherwise would only have achieved local experience on the small NZ scene. Click to continue reading...

New Zealand and Nigeria qualified for the World Cup yesterday, but other countries also either made sure they are going to be in South Africa, or took steps to it.In Africa Cameroon finally qualified with a 2-0 away victory over Morocco, and are now the African nation that has participated in most World Cups. Click to continue reading...

Before I put my two cents worth in for the Socceroos last night, can I extend a congratulations to the New Zealand football team; affectionatley nicknamed the All Whites, in qualifying for their first World Cup since 1982 overnight? Speaking on behalf of all Australian fans, we experienced the same . Click to continue reading...

New Zealand, Nigeria and Cameroon all joined the list of qualifiers today, whilst Russia, France and Portugal all won the first legs of their UEFA region playoff games. The only stalemate was the goalless draw in Athens between Greece and Ukraine; Costa Rica play Uruguay in the first leg of their playoff at 02:00 GMT on Sunday so we'll have news of what happened in that one bright and early tomorrow morning.

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After 27 years of living in the shadows of their most successful national team and many years of being pipped by their more experienced trans-tasman neighbours Australia, the New Zealand's All-Whites have finally qualified for the World Cup finals in South Africa after a hard fought win over Bahrain. Click to continue reading...

Video Goal highlights from the first leg Russia vs Slovenia European FIFA 2010 World Cup Playoff game on Saturday, November 14, 2009. Game kicks off at the Luzhniki Stadium, Moscow at 16.00 UK time. Half time score :- Russia 1-0 Slovenia ( Diniyar Bilyaletdinov 40′) Russia 1-0 Slovenia ( Diniyar Bilyaletdinov 40′ goal) Fantastic strike from Bilyaletdinov. Click to continue reading...

With five playoff first legs beginning, we now have 25 teams already qualified for next summer's World Cup in South Africa.Early today, New Zealand finished of Bahrain in the Oceania/Asia playoff. Rory Fallon became a household name in his land forever by nodding home the lone goal of the tie to send the Kiwis back to World Cup for the first time since 1982. Click to continue reading...

After 0-0 in Bahrain, New Zealand had all the advantages to progress to their second World Cup ever. 35,000 spectators in Wellington were an all-time record for a football match in New Zealand, and they were not disappointed as New Zealand managed to pull a narrow 1-0 victory on a goal by the Plymouth Argyle striker Rory Fallon. Click to continue reading...

This really isn't a CONCACAF-specific post, but congratulations to New Zealand on qualifying for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa this morning. And an even bigger congratulations to fellow Stanford alumni Ryan Nelsen and Simon Elliott who were key players of the All Whites' qualifying campaign. Click to continue reading...

You can forget Brazil v England or Ireland v France, the most outstanding game of the weekend was the World Cup qualifier between New Zealand and Bahrain. It is the smaller footballing nations who qualify for the World Cup that make it a truly wonderful occasion. The most memorable game ... Click to continue reading...

For the first time since the last time in 1982,New Zealand have qualified for the World Cup Finals.It will the first time that both the Kiwis and the Socceroos will both be going to a World Cup finals.New Zealand beat Bahrain 1 - 0 in the second leg to make history.

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New Zealand is headed to the World Cup.

After a scoreless first leg, New Zealand booked its passage to South Africa 2010 by defeating Bahrain 1-0 on Saturday in front of their home crowd at Westpac Stadium. It took a 45th minute goal from Rory Fallon and a penalty save from Mark Paston to give New Zealand the victory on aggregate, and a place in next year's World Cup.

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New Zealand is headed to the World Cup.

After a scoreless first leg, New Zealand booked its passage to South Africa 2010 by defeating Bahrain 1-0 on Saturday in front of their home crowd at Westpac Stadium. It took a 45th minute goal from Rory Fallon and a penalty save from Mark Paston to give New Zealand the victory on aggregate, and a place in next year's World Cup.

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New Zealand have secured their place at next year's finals in South Africa with a 1-0 aggregate win over Bahrain in their two legged Asia/Oceania play off. Following a 0-0 draw in Bahrain, a nervy match at the Westpac Stadium was settled by Plymouth Argyle striker Rory Fallon. It will be ... Click to continue reading...

Before the largest crowd in New Zealand football history, New Zealand beat Bahrain 1-0 to qualify for the 2010 World Cup, Over 35,000 fans packed into Wellington's Westpac Stadium to see the All Whites reach the World Cup finals for the first time since 1982. Plymouth Argyle striker Rory Fallon headed the decisive goal just before half time and Wellington Phoenix keeper Mark Paston saved a second half penalty five minutes after the restart from Sayed Mohamed Adnan. Click to continue reading...

Going against what this writer wanted, New Zealand became the 24th nation with a ticket for South Africa by beating Bahrain at home. The only goal of the match was scored by Rory Fallon in the final moments of the first-half. The first-leg of this playoff ended 0-0, which gave Bahrain the chance of qualifying with a draw different from the nil one.

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A solitary header from Plymouth Argyle striker Rory Fallon sealed qualification to South Africa 2010 against Bahrain in this World Cup play-off second leg.

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On a weekend like this one it is nigh on impossible to choose a mere 3 To See. We are at the sharp end of four years worth of toil and gruelling hard work, which all culminates over the next few days... Click to continue reading...

Goal video highlights from the New Zealand vs Bahrain second leg OFC/AFC FIFA World Cup 2010 playoff. Final score :- New Zealand 1-0 Bahrain ( Rory Fallon 45′ ) Result:- New Zealand win the two legged playoff 1-0 on aggregate, and qualify for their first World Cup since 1982. For Bahrain, it is another case of [. Click to continue reading...

(*it's the opposite of Offside Rewind)

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty

Rather than looking back at the week that was, let's look forward to this weekend's World Cup qualifying games by linking up all the WorldCupBlog previews.

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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.

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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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The last entries for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa will be decided this week, and there are some very interesting encounters.In Europe, FIFA changed the rules on seeding teams shortly before the play-off draw, giving the "big" teams a better chance at qualifying. The power of money and politics, but hopefully the underdogs can manage some upset in some of the following European play-off Click to continue reading...