The first World Cup in Africa starts in only 9 months! We should have some fun with this tournament given the international affiliations of the group.
Most countries have only 2 or 3 matches left to qualify; some have already finished qualifying.
The 28th through 32nd teams will make it to South Africa on November 18, when the fifth place South America team (currently Colombia) hosts the fourth place Concacaf team (currently Costa Rica) in the return leg (first leg Nov 14) and the 8 best UEFA [Europe] 2nd place teams play their second legs.
There are very key matches coming up this Wednesday:
In South America, Brazil has qualified and Chile and Paraguay are on the doorstep. Argentina lies fourth just ahead of Colombia and Ecuador, with only 5 to qualify, and one via playoff. Uruguay and Venezuela still have outside shots, but Uruguay very hurt by their 1-nil loss to last place Peru Saturday (sorry, Arturo). Uruguay hosts Columbia Wednesday (tape-delayed on Setanta at 1:45 am Thursday night) while Argentina visits Paraguay (live on PPV, 7pm).
In Asia. Australia, Japan, South Korea and North Korea have all qualified already. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia meet on Wednesday (tape-delayed on FSC Thursday at 3pm) for their second leg play-off. The winner will then play-off against New Zealand (Oceanian zone) for the final Asian side.
In CONCACAF, no one has qualified yet. The best 4 should be Honduras (13pts), USA (13), Mexico (12) & Costa Rica (12), with only 3 automatically qualifying and the fourth having to play-off against a South American side. While Mexico struggled early, they should be in the driver’s seat having already played both matches against the US & Costa Rica, so only have to play Honduras, El Salvador & Trinidad. Wednesday’s matches find the US in Trinidad (live @ 7pm: ESPN Classic and espn360.com), Mexico hosting Honduras (9pm: Univision), and Costa Rica in El Salvador.
In Africa, only one match this week (Cameroon v Gabon). Only Ghana and host South Africa have qualified. In the four remaining groups, Cote d’Ivoire are the prohibitive favorites in Group E (needing just one more point from 2 matches), Algeria ahead of Egypt in Group C, Tunisia ahead of Nigeria in Group B, and Gabon ahead of Togo & Cameroon in the Group of Death.
Finally, Europe. 13 teams qualify: the 9 group winners and four play-off winners from the 8 best second-place teams. Only Holland has qualified. Denmark is the surprising leader of Group 1, with Hungary in second, and Sweden and Portugal (!) further back. Portugal go to Budapest for the featured match Wednesday (live on Setanta at 2:40). In Group 2, Switzerland has a 3 point lead on Greece & Latvia. In Group 3, Slovakia is the leader, Northern Ireland 2 points back, then Poland, Slovenia, and finally Czech is 7 points back. In Group 4, it looks like Germany (19) or Russia (18) as group winner, with the two meeting on October 10 in Moscow. Russia go to Wales Wednesday (live on Fox Sports Espanol and espn360.com at 2:30; tape-delayed on FSC at 5 pm). In Group 5, Spain have dominated (7 wins in 7 matches) but still haven’t qualified. They will with a home win against Estonia Wednesday. In Group 6, England will qualify with a home win against Croatia Wednesday (live on PPV 2:45 Wed, and tape-delayed on Setanta at 6:45 pm Friday night). In Group 7, Serbia has a 3-point lead over France, with the teams to meet Wednesday in Belgrade.
In Group 8, Italy or Ireland should qualify, with the sides meeting October 10 in Dublin. Italy host Bulgaria Wednesday (live on GolTV at 2:45) with a game in hand. Finally, in Group 9, Holland has already won the group, and Scotland are fighting with Norway and Macedonia for the play-off spot. Scotland host Holland at 2:45 Wednedsay (live on espn360.com).
Related posts:
As you may recall from the US-Mexico TV debacle, all Mexico home games are on Telemundo, not Univision.
Costa Rica in El Salvador is on PPV
Who is Arturo?
ITALY RULE!!!!
I bet its’ gonna be Argentina or Uruguay who will win!
Cause… Uruguay seems to have recovered its power that they had 50 years ago and Argentina evolves powerfully since Maradona is their coach.