Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: World Cup 2006 Blog

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

If World Cup 2010 Qualifying Ended Today…

Posted: 06 Apr 2009 10:00 AM PDT

World Cup qualifying is a long and complicated process. A lot of quotas and playoffs are involved in get whittling down every nation on earth into the 32 teams that will go to South Africa and shake paws with Zakumi (pictured) in 2010.

We’ll know the lucky 32 are when qualification ends in November 2009. But if qualification ended today, the following teams would qualify for World Cup 2010:

CONMEBOL:
Paraguay, Brazil, Chile, Argentina

CONCACAF:
USA, Costa Rica, Honduras

Playoff: Uruguay (5th place CONMEBOL) vs Mexico (4th place CONCACAF)

ASIA:
Australia, Japan, S. Korea, N. Korea

Playoffs: Bahrain (3rd place Asia Group 1) vs Saudi Arabia (3rd place Asia Group 2 team)
Winner of that plays New Zealand (Oceania winner) for World Cup spot.

AFRICA:
South Africa (hosts), Gabon, Tunisia, Egypt, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire

EUROPE:
Denmark, Greece, N. Ireland, Germany, Spain, England, Serbia, Italy, Netherlands

Playoffs: France, Bosnia, Russia, Slovakia, Hungary, Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland
(Eight best second placed teams, who will be drawn into four two-legged play-offs. Winner of each playoff game goes to the World Cup).

Some pretty big upsets there. Honduras have been to just one World Cup before, going winless in the group stage of the 1982 World Cup. The Mexico vs Uruguay playoff game could go either way, but if Mexico don’t make it then the Mexican football federation have some tough questions to answer.

Australia’s “move” to Asia looks like paying off, and the presence of both Koreas would be a first.

African qualifying is only one game old, but if Gabon makes it then they’ll be the underdog story of the whole tournament. Nigeria and Cameroon will be shocked if they miss out.

Northern Ireland arguably deserve a spot at the World Cup after their close but no cigar heroics in Euro 2008 qualifying, but the big story would be who didn’t make it. Right now France could face a tricky playoff game, while Portugal wouldn’t even make the playoffs. Can you imagine a World Cup 2010 without Cristiano Ronaldo? Could very well happen.

Of course there’s are still plenty of games to go and all to play for. But when all is said and done in November, don’t be too shocked if the 32 teams with golden tickers aren’t the 32 we all expected.