You know, in life there is really only one constant. And that one constant in change. Change is football, football is change, especially if we are talking about international football. The two are interchangeable and who really can argue it. Teams rise up higher than they ever thought imaginable, they fall, players rise to glory, and then the one again fall. Over the last couple of days I've been thinking about a few things. Like big international cup finals. Do you know what I have learned? I hate finals. No, I'm not talking about the UEFA Champions League Final or a Premier League match or an FA Cup Final. I'm talking about the World Cup Final and now the Euro 2008 Final.
The reason for this hatred is pretty simple. No matter who wins, I never feel good for them. Spain, congrats but I'm sorry it's not about you. I hate watching the final of a big tourney because someone had to lose and of the people of that team at least one will never get the chance to win a trophy again. That's what kills me. Now I thought about getting really personal but I won't because I'm already off-topic. Now, since I started having goals for my footballing career, I've noticed one huge resemblance that I have to those players on the field. I don't want to lose. This is what I notice way too much in the world and it scares the crap out of me. These players (and myself) don't think about completing their goals and living the dream but they instead think all about not losing. This can't be healthy and it just kills me to see it in all these players.
Now, why in the world would I bring this up? It's very important (at least to me) because oftentimes you will see a losing team bring back older players (hmmm, Ballack) to the team. Players like him, who have never won a cup final, are the guys I'm talking about. This blog is important to identify the changes in the landscape and it will also tell you all about FIFA World Cup Qualifying.
AFC Qualifying
Asia is one of the most diverse places on earth and it's no exception for the football teams here. In Asia, you have the Middle East, the Far East, and then you have a little-known island called Australia thrown in their with them for some odd reason. In AFC Qualifying, we now are down to 10 teams. Only 4 will get an automatic slot and then the number five will get to take one the winner of the OFC. Here is the current groups:
Group A
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Group B
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Now, remember only the two top teams from each group will make it automatically. After the top 4 have been decided then both number 3 teams will face off in a home-and-home aggregate score tie to determine who will be Oceania's wonderful champion. Now, let's talk about the very large confederation known as Africa.
CAF
Currently the African nations are in the second qualifying round. In this round, we have a total of 12 groups of 4. After this round, only the 12 group winners and 8 runners-up will advance. That will leave us with a total of 20 teams for the Third Round.
In this round, the teams will be split into 5 groups of 4 teams. Only the winner of each group will qualify as well as South Africa. The top three teams from each group will also qualify for the next African Nations Cup. Because there are so many teams left, I'll name you a few big-name teams that can still qualify. They are: Cameroon, Kenya, Angola, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Tunisia, Mali, Togo, and Egypt. Those are the heavy-hitters I guess that could make it. Now, let's move on to the best confederation in the world, North America!
CONCACAF
I'm not even going to tell you that CONCACAF is one of the three strongest overall but I will tell you that it is the toughest region to qualify out of. You want to know why? It's all because you have to go to some of the smallest, worst kept stadiums in the world and you have to contend with fans that have to have a fence up just so they can't get in on top of you. This makes for a very interesting time and I personally love it. CONCACAF, for those of you that don't know, is a large acronym meaning that the confederation is made up of North American, Central American, and Caribbean teams.
CONCACAF is currently in the Third Round of qualifying. Before, the games were all big jokes and were more or less just for fun. But now it's go-time and you don't have the luxury of sitting there and clowning around. It's do-or-die time in CONCACAF, so let's take a look at the groups.
Group 1
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Group 2
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Group 3
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The top two teams from each group will advance to the final round of qualifying. This is where dreams will be made and crushed all at one quick time. The fourth round will be contested between six teams in a double round-robin, home-and-home series. The top three teams on points will automatically go to the World Cup and then 4th placed team will play the 5th placed team for the right to face the 5th place team from South America. Now, let's go on and talk about South America.
CONMEBOL
Well, this is a huge relief. I love the South American qualifiers because they are so simple that anyone can understand it. There are 10 teams in South America and it's pretty simple to understand. Each team plays each other twice and the top 4 teams qualify for the World Cup. The team that finishes in 5th place must face the heavy-hitter that finished a whopping fourth-place in CONCACAF. So let's look at the current table so you can get a good feel for what might happen.
Standings
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Just remember that we are only 1/3 into it, but this is a decent teller. I still think Brazil will catch fire and kick people's *** but that's a different story. Now let's talk about the toughest confederation in sports, the OFC.
OFC
Well, this will be a whole lot of fun. Since the departure of Australia, the OFC pretty much is crap and let's see which one of these teams will get a chance to play in a play-off match. The first phase of qualifying starts at the Pacific Games. The top three teams from that got the right to advance to the second phase. The teams then played a group stage and now we are in the final round.
There are only 4 teams left in a group stage and only two really have a chance. Here are the current standings:
Standings
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The winner of this group (New Zealand, duh) is going to get the chance to play the 5th placed-team from Asia. Next up is my look at Europe.
UEFA
Well, this confederation is not only the largest in the world but it's also probably the toughest in the world. You have a lot of unknowns in this tourney (Israel, Serbia, etc.), but I still say that traveling is harder in CONCACAF. Now it's pretty simple for UEFA's qualification system. In Europe there are 9 groups of teams. 8 of these groups have 6 teams and 1 group only have 5 teams.
The winner of each group automatically qualifies for the FIFA World Cup and then it gets very interesting. Then, the 8 top second-placed teams will compete in a home-and-home series to determine who goes to South Africa. Just to give you a feel for the teams (which you should know if you watched Euro 2008), here are some of them: Portugal, Czech Republic, Spain, Germany, France, England, and the Netherlands are all expected to get through.
OK guys, now I'm going to put together a dream World Cup. This is my opinion of the dream WC and I'll tell you a little about each team's best player and their biggest concern. Btu first, who won the Play-off ties?
1. CONCACAF (Trinidad & Tobago) vs. COMEBOL (Colombia)
2. AFC (Saudi Arabia) vs. OFC (New Zealand)
FIFA World Cup 2010
Group A
1. South Africa- Steven Pienaar
2. Trinidad & Tobago- Stern John
3. Brazil- Alexandre Pato
4. Croatia- Luka Modric
Storyline: South Africa gets a win against T&T in the first round really gets the home fans into it. Eduardo takes on the country he was born in.
Group B
1. Portugal- Cristiano Ronaldo
2. Iran- Javad Nekounam
3. Romania- Adrian Mutu
4. Nigeria- Nwanko Kanu
Storyline: Portugal rampage throughout the group and Romania/Nigeria really put on a show in their match.
Group C
1. Germany- Lukas Podolski
2. Greece- Angelos Charisteas
3. Cameroon- Samuel Eto'o
4. South Korea- Park Ji-Sung
Storyline: Ballack wants revenge and comes out gunning for everyone. Cameroon led by Eto'o down the Greeks and South Korea.
Group D
1. Italy- Gianluigi Buffon
2. United States- Freddy Adu, Giuseppe Rossi
3. Paraguay- Roque Santa Cruz
4. Australia- Mark Viduka
Storyline: Italy get a rematch with the US and Australia and they want to both make a huge impact. If Rossi does decide to play for the US, then it would be huge for this because he would be taking on the country that he was born in. Santa Cruz plays well, but just can't get then out of the group.
Group E
1. Spain- Fernando Torres
2. Czech Republic- Petr Cech
3. Canada- Dwayne De Rosario
4. Ghana- Michael Essien
Storyline: Ghana are against the wall again and try to get out of the trap. The Spanish attackers take on an improved Petr Cech who doesn't drop crosses anymore. DeRo and Canada play well but don't have a shot at moving on.
Group F
1. England- Steven Gerrard
2. Turkey- Nihat
3. Ivory Coast- Didier Drogba
4. Uruguay- Diego Forlan
Storyline: England make the tourney and find themselves trying to stop Drogba who is someone they all know. The Cardiac Kids are back and cause trouble.
Group G
1. France- Franck Ribery
2. Argentina- Lionel Messi
3. Egypt- Mohamed Zidan
4. New Zealand- Chris Killen
Storyline: New Zealand get crushed every match but they were there. The other three teams all fight it out and Egypt actually comes close but the others are too strong.
Group H
1. Mexico- Carlos Vela
2. Netherlands- Klaas Jan Huntelaar
3. Russia- Andrei Arshavin
4. Japan- Shunsuke Nakamura
Storyline: All four teams are very good and something has to give. The Russians meet the Dutch again and Mexico get a shot at one of Europe's best.
Round of 16
1. A1 Brazil vs. B2 Nigeria
2. C1 Germany vs. D2 Italy
3. E1 Spain vs. F2 Ivory Coast
4. G1 Argentina vs. H2 Mexico
5. B1 Portugal vs. South Africa
6. D1 United States vs. C2 Cameroon
7. F1 England vs. E2 Ghana
8. H1 Russia vs. G2 France
Quarter-Finals
1. Brazil vs. Germany
2. Spain vs. Argentina
3. Portugal vs. United States
4. England vs. Russia
Semi-Finals
1. Germany vs. Spain
2. Portugal vs. England
Third-Place Game
1. Spain vs. England
Final
1. Germany vs. Portugal
Who would you like to see win? Tell me. Thanks and I hoped you liked it. It's been Keeper and I'm out.
Comments (27) Add A Comment
South Africa beat T&T? I loved the blog until I saw that Keeper. My Soca Warriors would at least draw South Africa.
Great blog, and I am happy to see that you believe Trinidad will go back to a World Cup, but damn can we at least get a point?
J. HOVA: PLAYS NO…
Brooklyn, NY
Total Comments (12941)
Hey, the reason for that is the fact that South Africa need a first-game win and T&T just aren't as good as they were. Stern John will have to play his pants off for them to get a point.
Keeper
La Fayette , GA
Total Comments (1449)
Wow group of death in CONCACAF G2...Mexico better not trip..
Ghost.
Miami, FL
Total Comments (14560)
Yeah that really is a group of death. Jamaica are a lot better than you think and they could sneak in to the Final Round.
Keeper
La Fayette , GA
Total Comments (1449)
Costa Rica may be a little down right now, but by the end of qualifying they will whoop up on Canada and T & T. Not even USA can go into Saprissa stadium and get a result.
Thugmeister
State Of Jefferson, CA
Total Comments (2575)
Yeah, I'm not counting them out but I don't see them coming out of it at this point. They are a good side, but they are a little rough around the edges.
Keeper
La Fayette , GA
Total Comments (1449)
True Keep - they have some work to do.
Thugmeister
State Of Jefferson, CA
Total Comments (2575)
You honestly have the U.S. finishing first in a group that contains Italy, Australia, and Paraguay? That's a tad optimistic at this point, don't you think?
I think there is a real possibility England won't qualify for the 2010 World Cup. They are in one of the toughest qualification groups. Being in the same group as Croatia, they are unlikely to finish first. They will have to beat out Ukraine for second place, which they are certainly capable of, but that means a two game playoff against a potentially really good team such as Russia, Sweden, Romania, or Turkey. Potentially even a playoff against Scotland for the final UEFA World Cup spot. Now that would be a fun match to watch.
j11forbes
Denver , CO
Total Comments (383)
No, I said that this was a "dream scenario". The reason for the US winning the group is because it would really help us grow as a country. And England will make the World Cup, I assure you of that. They won't miss two straight big competitions.
Keeper
La Fayette , GA
Total Comments (1449)
To early for predictions my man, good blog though and I understand it is a dream scenario
thebasketballguru
Total Comments (663)
Yeah, I just want to make it clear that I the World Cup predictions was more of a dream scenario for everyone, mostly US soccer fans. Just wanting to make that clear.
Keeper
La Fayette , GA
Total Comments (1449)
Gotcha, must have missed the dream scenario bit first time through. But doesn't a dream World Cup for U.S. fans end with the U.S. lifting the trophy?
j11forbes
Denver , CO
Total Comments (383)
AFC - Australia and Japan, Both Koreas, and the Iranians beat the Uzbeks
CAF's too soon to tell
CONCACAF, the US and TnT advance from group A, Mexico and Canada from B, and El Salvador and Costa Rica from C
COMNEBOL- Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay finishes fifth
OFC is New Zealand, who will lose to Iran
Your group F is the GoD
The Germans were destroyed by midfield creativity, so the Brazilians would knock them off *sigh*.
England won't make it that far, the big old bunch of choke artists. Gotta take the Russians over them.
I'd put Spain over Brazil, and over the Portuguese as well...
thehemogoblin- Gone
The University Of, OR
Total Comments (29510)
Also, can Americans stop dreaming that Rossi will contradict every single thing he's said his entire soccer playing life and join the U.S. national team? It is not going to happen. He'll be cap-tied to Italy by the 2010 World Cup and we can stop having this non-argument.
j11forbes
Denver , CO
Total Comments (383)
Whoa whoa whoa, we just got done with EURO 2008! I know you feel bad for Ballack, but hey, it'd been a while since Spain had won anything, and well, Germany had hoisted a few trophies between 1964 and 2008 X-D
As for the qualifying, I don't expect to really be bothered until sometime next autumn, as the make-or-break games roll around. In the meantime, though, there's the Confenderations Cup in 2009. That should be interesting for two reasons: (1) the 8 teams are all but set (unless New Zealand chokes against New Caledonia), so we know who's going; and (2) FIFA will judge whether the World Cup stays in South Africa in 2010 based on the level of readiness next year, in 2009. This might be the first World Cup since Colombia 1986 (yes, that's right) that changes venue.
So, although it's a glorified exhibition, perhaps you could do a few predictions for that, Keeper, such as who will be in the USA squad, and whether Spain and Italy will have a "grudge match"... ;-)
KansasToonami
Lawrence , KS
Total Comments (738)
I was gonna blog on CONCACAF. Oh well. With Group 2, I doubt Canada will qualify. Canada has a poor away record. And Honduras is tough to beat in San Pedro Sula. Not to mention that Honduras has a great offensive trio in Guevara, Palacios (from Wigan) and David Suazo.
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1168)
Also, Jamaica got Rene Simoes, who led them to WC 1998, but I doubt Jamaica will get it done this time around.
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1168)
Finally, El Salvador will return as a surprise this year. If people think Honduras and Costa Rica are tough places to play, then you haven't seen el Cuscatlan. Ask Mexico, they hate playing there! ARRIBA CON LA SELECCION!
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1168)
Trinidad&Tobago getting the fourth spot? A lot of the players from 2006 refuse to play again from the pay dispute
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1168)
Correction, Guissepe Rossi was born in New Jersey
Big Chaco
Los Angeles , CA
Total Comments (1168)
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