Showing posts with label World Cup Qualifying. Show all posts
Showing posts with label World Cup Qualifying. Show all posts

Thursday, April 2, 2009

World Cup Football 2010 in South Africa

Posted by Hirok at 6:20 PM 0 comments
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Wednesday, April 1, 2009

South America

In South America there is one large group with Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. The top four teams qualify for the World Cup and the fifth place team will play off against the fourth place CONCACAF Qualifier. They have already played 6 of the 18 matches in this group, and there have been a few surprises to date. The largest has been how Brazil have struggled under Dunga: they are currently sitting in fifth place and facing criticism in the media after being beaten by a 10 man Paraguay. Paraguay have been the other surprise story in this group, as they currently sit in first place. FIFA has also repealed its ban on high altitude games, which should benefit Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, and Ecuador, who play some or all of their home games at high altitude. This leads to a lot of home wins and away losses for these teams. I can not imagine a scenario in this group where Brazil and Argentina do not qualify… though the way Brazil are going, they could end up in fourth. Colombia have been playing well; I see them qualifying for the World Cup. For the last two spots, I see a battle between current front-runners Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Ecuador, and Venezuela. I don’t think that Bolivia and Peru are in contention. I think that Chile has enough strength to hold off the others, and Paraguay will ride their early success to secure the playoff spot. This would set up a playoff between Cuba and Paraguay, from which I see Paraguay coming out on top.

World Cup Qualifying Round Up

To wrap up the World Cup: the only team currently qualified is South Africa, as hosts. The five other African spots will go to the winners of the five groups of four teams that have yet to be drawn. It will be exciting to see which teams are drawn together. The twenty teams that I think will be in these groups are: Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Cote D’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Mali, Zambia, DR Congo, Guinea, Angola, Morocco, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Egypt, Tunisia, Swaziland, Libya, and Cape Verde. Europe has thirteen places up for grabs, 9 for group winners, who in my opinion will be Portugal, Israel, Czech Republic, Russia, Spain, England, France, Bulgaria, and the Netherlands. The eight best second place teams will be drawn in playoffs against each other. Here are my picks for the nine second place teams: Denmark, Greece, Poland, Germany, Turkey, Croatia, Romania, Italy and Scotland. Asia is down to two groups, and the top two teams from each advance. I think these will be Australia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea. Then the two third place teams will meet in a playoff; I see this as Japan against Iran, with Japan winning. Japan would then meet the Champion of Oceania, whom I see as New Caledonia, with Japan winning again to qualify for the World Cup. With the Americas, in the North the top two teams from the three preliminary groups make the final group. I think these will be the USA, Cuba, Mexico, Canada, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. The top three teams from this final group will then qualify for the World Cup. My prediction is Mexico, the USA, and Canada, with Cuba finishing in fourth to obtain a playoff spot against the fifth place South American team. I predict this being Paraguay, who will defeat Cuba to qualify for the World Cup. Now that you know my fifth place pick from South America, I view the top four, who all qualify automatically, as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Colombia. So there you have it: a clearer view of the World Cup qualifying, complete with the teams to watch. I hope that you enjoy the matches - I know I will!
Posted by Hirok at 11:32 AM 0 comments
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Asian champions

This brings us to Asia, the land of upsets, where the 2007 Asian champions, Iraq, have already been sent packing along with China. The focus of this final stage of Asian qualifying has to be the presence of the small nations from the Arabian Peninsula: Qatar, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates. They have been playing some good football to date, and are deservedly in the last ten teams. These ten teams are divided into two groups, with the top two teams from each group qualifying for the World Cup. The two third place teams will play each other in a playoff, the winner of which will take on the Oceanic Champions for a spot in the World Cup. In case you missed it, after the last World Cup Australia joined the Asian Football Conference.

Group 1 – Australia, Bahrain, Japan, Uzbekistan, and Qatar
Japan is the top ranked team in Asia at the moment, but I am worried about them in this group. They had some disappointing results on the Arabian Gulf, losing in Bahrain and drawing in Oman. With two of their opponents from that region, Japan are going to have to find a way to get results in the Gulf if they want to make it out of this group. That is something that I don’t think the Aussies will have a problem doing; they have been playing well, though a side filled with reserves was defeated by China in the last round. I see the Aussies winning the group and making their second straight World Cup. Uzbekistan have had a strong campaign thus far, suffering only one away defeat to Saudi Arabia. It remains to be seen how they will deal with teams like Japan and Australia, or how those teams will deal with travelling to Uzbekistan. I think that the fight for second place will be between the Japanese and the Uzbeks, with Qatar in 4th and Bahrain in 5th. I was impressed by the Uzbeks in the last stage and I think they have what it takes to knock Japan into third.

Group 2 – Iran, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North), Republic of Korea (South), Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates
Iran, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea are the teams to beat in this group. It will be a big upset if North Korea or U.A.E. qualify. I think that South Korea and North Korea will draw both of the matches between them just as they did in the previous qualifying round and in most of the matches that I can recall between them. If South Korea are able to get a result from one of these games, then I see the Taeguk Warriors winning the group; if they are both draws, as I predict, then I have South Korea advancing in second place behind Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia are playing well at the moment and I see them making it back to the World Cup for the fifth time in a row. I think that Iran will draw too many matches and end up in 3rd place, setting up an exciting playoff with Japan. North Korea will finish 4th, with UAE in the last spot. Frankly, I think UAE will be lucky to get more than a few points in this group.

Asian Summary
I have Australia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, and South Korea advancing to the World Cup, with Japan and Iran competing for the playoff spot against the winners of Oceania. I think that Japan will emerge as the Asian playoff team and most likely defeat the team from Oceania, but in a playoff anything can happen.
Posted by Hirok at 11:28 AM 0 comments
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