World Cup 2010 Round-up

We know it's been a week or two since the most recent round of World Cup qualifiers took place, but we never quite got round to summing up all the action from outside Europe, so here's our whistle-stop tour of all you need to know, starting with…

South America
It seems we were a little hasty to cast our judgement on Brazil after the September 6th/7th matches. Brazil's surge up to second spot in the table came to a crashing halt when they could only draw 0-0 with bottom-dwellers Bolivia. With Argentina also drawing against the lower-placed Peru 1-1, Paraguay were able to extend their lead at the top by beating Venezuela 2-0.

Cristian Riveros and Nelson Valdez put the game out of reach before half time in Asuncion to leave the Paraguayans four points clear of Brazil, Argentina and a Chile side that bounced back from their 3-0 drubbing against the Brazilians by beating Colombia 4-0.

That result sees Chile push the faltering Colombians out of the automatic qualification places with Uruguay occupying the play-off spot following their goalless stalemate against Ecuador.

Oh and one other piece of late breaking news: Colombia's head coach Jorge Luis Pinto has been fired after his team's recent run of poor form. His replacement's first game will be next month against Paraguay… nice.

Yes, the CONMEBOL section resumes with another double-header programme between October 11th and 15th where the top three all look to be facing (supposedly) weaker opposition. In this part of the world, however, don't be surprised if the likes of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay all slip up somewhere along the line.

North and Central America
As predicted by us (and probably most of you, to be fair), each of the three Third Round groups in the CONCACAF section are all being led by the strong favourites in each one.

The USA have a 100% record after three games in Group 1, the second of which was the historic meeting with Cuba in Havana on September 6th. Clint Dempsey's first half goal proved to be enough in what was a slightly uninspiring performance in front of a partisan crowd of 8,000, and with a more convincing 3-0 home win over Trinidad and Tobago taking place four days later, the States look almost home and dry already in their group. Guatemala are their nearest challengers some five points behind, and despite beating Cuba 4-1 at home they could only earn a 1-1 draw with the Soca Warriors.

In Group 2, Mexico have a maximum nine points to their name and look totally at ease against all-comers thus far. Earlier this month, they beat Jamaica (who this week announced former England star John Barnes would be their new head coach) 3-0 before a narrow 2-1 win over Canada ensued. Honduras almost matched the Mexicans goal for goal after beating the Jamaicans 2-0 four days after their own 2-1 win away to Canada on September 6th. Honduras are now second in Group 2, three points behind Mexico.

Finally in Group 3, Costa Rica lead the way with three wins out of three. In their pair of games this month they managed to score ten (seven at home to Suriname) and concede just one in their away win in Haiti.

El Salvador are doing their best to stay in touch but find themselves three points behind. They managed to notch up a 5-0 win at home to Haiti along with a 2-0 away win in Suriname.

The next double header's played on October 11th and 15th and sees a reversal of the previous two fixtures taking place. That means Cuba go to the USA looking for their first win, Mexico go to Canada hoping to avoid another scare and Costa Rica look to inflate their +10 goal difference tally with a repeat performance against Haiti and Suriname.

Africa
We've much to get through here as there's just one fixture remaining for most teams in each of the twelve groups. That means if you're not one of the countries still in with a chance of finishing top, you're probably stand a fair chance of getting one of the eight best runners-up places which also guarantees entry to Round 3.

A few months ago, we told you that Nigeria had become the first team to confirm their place in the next stage of the African qualifying competition, and this month three more managed to join them - Cameroon and Benin.

In Group 1, Cameroon got the vital win they needed by beating the Cape Verde Islands 2-1 but the islanders could yet grab one of those valuable second place finishes if they can get at least a draw against Tanzania next month.

In Group 3, Benin beat nearest challengers Angola 3-2 this month leaving the Angolans and Uganda to fight over the runners-up spot. The final round of games in the group see Uganda play at home against the already qualified Benin while Angola are at home to bottom-placed Niger. An intriguing finish to that group looks to be on the cards.

In the other groups, there are more permutations surrounding who could go through than there are English words in Juande Ramos' vocabulary. In Group 10, any of the four teams involved could yet progress, although leaders on goal difference Mali had to suffer a recent defeat against second-placed Congo. They'll be grateful to face bottom-of-the-group Chad next month while a resurgent Sudan play hosts to the Congolese.

Group 12 is almost as tight with the top three all still looking to go through to Round 3 in October. Egypt have a three point lead at the top and should be all set to confirm their place when they play Djibouti next month as their opponents are yet to pick up a point thus far. But it's the teams in second and third place, DR Congo and Malawi that will battle it out to go through when they meet in Blantyre in three weeks' time. DR Congo won 1-0 in their first encounter in June but may be feeling less than confident after their recent defeat by the same score at home to the Egyptians.

Only one point covers the top three in Group 6, so that means Algeria's slender lead of one point may yet prove insufficient as Gambia and Senegal follow on in hot pursuit. As it is, Algeria may be the more relaxed going into the final fixtures on October 11th and 12th as they play the only team in the group that can't go through - Liberia. Senegal play Gambia in Dakar needing to win if they're to reach the Finals again after a six-year absence.

In a tight Group 7, Ivory Coast find themselves leading the way despite drawing three of their five matches so far - the most recent being against Mozambique a fortnight ago. The Ivorians' final game comes at home to their only challengers, Madagascar. A draw will be enough for Ivory Coast to go through, but a win for their opponents by four clear goals will see them swap places. At that point, The Elephants will have to suffer the lottery of the runners-up placing system, but to be honest, we don't think it'll come to that. Both sides drew 0-0 in Antananarivo back in June, and a similar result may yet prevail.

By way of a sum-up, here's the need-to-know on the remaining groups. Libya need just a draw against second-placed Gabon in Group 5 while a slip-up for Gabon could let Ghana through to take one of the top two spots if they can beat lowly Lesotho.

Morocco play host to Mauritania next month looking for the win that will secure their place in Round 3. They currently lie second in Group 8 behind Rwanda, but a win will put the Moroccans top on goal difference. In Group 9, however, Tunisia look as though they'll have to qualify as one of the best runners-up. They're currently three points behind leaders Burkino Faso with a much inferior goal difference. The two sides recently fought out a goalless draw in Burkino Faso leaving the hosts as good as qualified for the next stage.

Finally in Group 2, a draw between Kenya and Guinea will be good enough to see the former go through, and perhaps the latter too if they turn out to be one of the best runners-up while in Group 11, Zambia will be watching on helplessly as Togo play at home to Swaziland. A draw or a win for Togo will see the Zambians make it to the third round while a win for Swaziland will mean they're knocked off the top and entering the runners-up lottery.

Asia
It's still early days here in the fourth and final round so there's not too much in the way of excitement at the moment. In Group 1, Japan got a win in their first and only match so far, 3-2 away to the Bahrainis while Australia also got their campaign underway with a 1-0 away to the Uzbeks. Qatar top the group, though, after beating Uzbekistan 3-0 and drawing 1-1 with Bahrain.

Saudi Arabia are top of Group 2, picking up four points out of their first six with a draw at home to Iran and a win in the United Arab Emirates. North Korea join them on four points following an impressive 2-1 win in the UAE and a 1-1 draw with their South Korean counterparts.

The top two in each group are guaranteed a place in the 2010 Finals while the two teams finishing third play each other in a play-off, the winner of that going on to another play-off with the winner of the Oceania section. If only we knew who that might be...

Oceania
New Zealand are the winners of the Oceania section after a brace of victories over closest challengers New Caledonia. That means with one match left to play against Fiji, the All Whites are assured of a high-profile showdown with one of the Asian elite as well as a place in next year's FIFA Confederations Cup.

Well done to them on a competent qualifying campaign and let's hope they can go one better by reaching South Africa in 2010, if only to silence those people who snigger about the Oceania section being a waste of time.

World Cup 2010 Qualifying Update (Part 4)

And so to the fourth and final part of our round -up of the May and June World Cup 2010 qualifiers. Today we cover the Asia and Oceania sections...

Asia

Overview
A complicated process here. In Round 1, thirty-eight teams faced each other in nineteen home-and-away matches. Of the nineteen winners, the eleven highest-ranking teams (and by that we think FIFA mean those teams that won by the biggest margins) received a bye to Round 3 while the other eight played out Round 2 as a series of four home-and-away ties.

The winners of those games advanced to Round 3 where they went into the hat with the eleven biggest winners from Round 1 and the top five seeded teams overall who were given a bye (among whom were Australia, Japan and South Korea). These 20 teams were then drawn into five round-robin groups of four where the winners and runners-up go through to Round 4. (Just for the record, Round 3 has just finished - more of which shortly - and Round 4 gets underway on September 6th).

Finally in Round 4, the ten remaining teams are split into two round-robin groups of five. The winners and runners-up from both groups will qualify for World Cup 2010, while the two third-placed teams go into a home-and-away play-off. The winner of that play-off... does NOT qualify for the World Cup Finals, oh no - for them there's the agony of one more play-off against the top team from Oceania.

Then and only then will we know all the Asian teams going through to South Africa 2010... by which time qualification for World Cup 2014 will probably be underway, but never mind...

News
So as mentioned before, Round 3 came to an end towards the end of June and of all the five groups involved, Group 1 was easily the toughest fought. In it were Asian champions Iraq, Australia - relative newcomers to the Asian zone and one of the favourites, 2002 World Cup finalists China and the never-to-be-overlooked threat of Qatar.

If we say that none of the four teams managed to win any more than there of their six games, that should give you a measure of their collective lack of consistency. Australia seemed to make the best start with wins over Qatar and Iraq and a draw against China, but defeats to China and Iraq were to follow soon after and the Aussies were by no means certain of finishing in the top two going into the final round of games.

Fortunately for them, the threat from Iraq fizzled out in the last game of the group as Qatar gained a vital three points to snatch the runner-up spot in the group. Though they'd lost in both matches to the Australians, Qatar did well against the other teams in the group, and with China's only win coming in their last game against Australia, it was the Aussies and Qatar (above right) that booked their place in Round 4.

Group 2 had one clear favourite in the shape of Japan, and they didn't disappoint, topping the group with thirteen points from a possible eighteen. That meant there'd be a bit of a surprise in finding out who would take second spot in the group, and it would eventually go to Bahrain.

For them, the battle was won in the first half of their campaign, winning their opening three games against all of their opponents. The only team likely to stop them were Oman, but their challenge was never a strong one so Bahrain were home and hosed going into their last match against Japan who had already qualified. Thailand finished last in the group with just one point, picked up from their home match against Bahrain.

Group 3, similarly, had two front runners of its own and with a pleasant sense of symmetry and international accord, both qualifiers came from either side of the Korean border. Shoot, they even finished on the same amount of points in the end. Beat that, Ban Ki-moon.

Yes, it was a Korean one-two in the end with the South blazing their way to the top of the group unbeaten and scoring ten goals while conceding only three. The North matched them point for point, winning three and drawing the other three of their games, but they had a much more economical approach. They scored just four and didn't concede any. I think that's what's known as a 'mean defence', isn't it?

The other two teams in the group, Jordan and Turkmenistan, could hardly get a look in and had to make do with trying to score points off each other. This turned out to be a fruitful exercise for Jordan who beat the Turkmen 2-0 on both occasions, but neither could get any more than a single point off the two Koreas.

And so it ended with South Korea top and North Korea second, split only on goal difference, with Jordan finishing third, five points behind and Turkmenistan last on just one. And you might be wondering how those peace-loving Koreans faired when they played each other? The answer: both games ended goalless. How very amicable.

There was another two-horse race in Group 4, this time won easily by Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan, well ahead of Singapore and Lebanon. The two favourites made light work of their opponents, both winning five out of their six games. Their only defeats would turn out to be against each other.

Singapore's six points came from both their wins over the hapless Lebanese team who ended their campaign with a big fat zero in the Points column, but at least they can rest assured they didn't suffer the biggest humiliation of the competition. That undoubtedly went to Singapore who lost 7-3 at home to Uzbekistan despite being level at 2-2 just half an hour into the game.

Finally to Group 5 where Iran and the United Arab Emirates were expected to be the runaway favourites, but only Iran lived up to their reputation. Despite a slow start, Iran finished their campaign with three draws and three wins and comfortably topped the group on twelve points.

The UAE, however, were less sure of themselves. They had to fight off the attentions of Syria who were also struggling to gain any consistency and as the competition wore on, the daylight between them grew less and less. It was with considerable irony, then, that both teams met each other in a do-or-die game to decide the final qualifying spot in the group.

Syria needed to beat the Emirates by three clear goals to go above them on goal difference. Adopting a predictably offensive strategy, Syria went 2-0 up thanks to a goal either side of half time from Jehad Al Houssain, but with just seven minutes left on the clock, any hopes the Syrians had of winning came to an abrupt end. UAE striker Ismail Matar converted a penalty to pull the score back to 2-1, and though Syria picked up a third through Firas Al Khatib a minute from time, it was not enough. The United Arab Emirates were through to the next round by a single goal and the gallant Syrians were out.

With the ten qualifying teams known, the draw was made for the two Fourth Round groups, and here's how the teams fell into place:



At first glance, Group 2 appears to be the toughest, containing three of the five group winners from the previous round. It also features the inseparable pairing of North and South Korea along with the tough Uzbekis, although Group 1 will see a fascinating re-enactment of the Australia / Qatar tussle with Japan thrown in for good measure, too.

By way of a prediction, we're going for Uzbekistan, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia as the four automatic qualifiers with Australia and the United Arab Emirates entering the Round 5 play-off. If that's the way it all pans out, you can expect some great games and some shocks along the way...

Oceania

Background
Easy-peasy, this. Nine teams started out in Round 1 (ten, if you include the non-FIFA affiliated Tuvalu), and from them, three progressed to Round 2 to join the seeded New Zealand.

In Round 2, all four teams play in a round-robin group and the winning team goes through to a play-off against the fifth best team from Asia.

News
As you'd expect, New Zealand are the hot favourites to represent Oceania in that Asian play-off and so far they've won all three of their games to lead the group. New Caledonia (seen right against Tuvalu) are only a point behind them at the moment, but they've played an extra match and the other two teams, Fiji and Vanuatu trail way behind with just a point each.



So the big question is 'when do New Zealand and New Caledonia play each other next'? Well as luck would have it, that's on September 6th in Noumea and if the All Whites win, they'll have virtually booked their place in the Asian play-off. Only a win for New Caledonia in the second match against New Zealand four days later and a loss for New Zealand against Fiji in November will provide any opportunity for the New Caledonians to succeed.

And that's that. All the qualifiers thus far have now been covered, but there are more on the way during the next month or so and you can bet we'll be back to give you news of those when they happen. Hopefully this time you won't have to wait so long for them, if you're lucky...