Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: Jan 22, 2011

Saturday, January 22, 2011

World Cup 2010 Blog: “Teams are Set for the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup” plus 1 more

Teams are Set for the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup

Posted: 22 Jan 2011 12:54 AM PST

Today, in the Copa Centroamericana (one of approximately 80 international tournaments currently in progress around the world), the 5th place match was won by Guatemala over Nicaragua. Why, you may ask, should those outside of one of those two countries pay any mind at all to that fact? The answer is that 5th place in that particular Copa came with a bonus – the final invite to the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The teams are now set, and here they are:

Automatically Qualified (3): United States (host), Mexico, Canada
Qualified through the 2010 Caribbean Championship (4): Jamaica, Guadeloupe, Cuba, Grenada
Qualified through the 2011 Copa Centroamericana (5): Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, El Salvador, Guatemala

Now that the teams are set, we’ll have group stage fixtures very soon.

Oh, The Drama: The Ten-Man Japanese Late Show

Posted: 21 Jan 2011 07:37 AM PST

Japan looked down and out, down 2-1 and a man halfway through the second half, the clear momentum shifting to the hosts. And then Qatar met Shinji Kagawa.

Well, they’d already met him since he technically nodded in Japan’s first goal too, even if it was going in anyway.

One of Europe’s brightest new stars, absolute terror of the Bundesliga, scored the first goal while Japan was down a man, then created the winner in the 90th minute while, sending Japan into the semifinal to face the winner of South Korea and Iran. Arguably the game of the tournament thus far, and perhaps even 2011.