You can probably have SGE sometime in the near future. 
The 4th place team in North America has a playoff with the 5th place team in South America for the last World Cup spot. This could very well turn into Mexico v. Argentina.
It was a very bad week for former star players. Maradona’s idiocy has been discussed, but Iran’s Ali Daei also took it on the chin. Probably the best player in Iran’s history, Daei took the helm of the national team after the Spaniard who was supposed to lead the team was fired because he refused to live in Iran. Daei was selected just because he was a hot shot player. The team continued to suck under him, however. Their home loss to Saudi pretty much puts them out of the running. The crowd was chanting for Daei’s firing during the game. He was fired after the match.
Well. yeah. But what coaching decisions did he make that caused this loss?
Well, apparently not doing any sort of altitude preparation was amongst them.
(That’s quite a nice article in general, incidentally.)
FWIW, Mexico have replaced SGE with Javier “El Vasco” Aguirre, who had already coached el Tri in 2001/2002, taking over after a 3-0 loss to Honduras. Mexico made it to the knock-out stages in the 2002 WC Finals, where they were eliminated by the United States, dos a cero.
Sorry, thing have been chaotic, and I missed a few rounds of qualifying, but thought it would be a good time for an update, starting with Asia, since that’s the simplest group at the moment.
Asia
Australia, Japan, North Korea and South Korea have all qualified for the finals.
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia play a home and home series for the right to play New Zealand (Oceania winner) for a place in South Africa in 2010.
Africa
Five group winners advance to the finals. Below are the standings at approximately the half way point. Unless otherwise noted each country has played 3 matches and has 3 matches remaining.
Group A
Gabon 6 points (2 matches played)
Togo 4 points
Morocco 2 points
Cameroon 1 point (2 matches played)
Group B
Tunisia 7 points
Nigeria 5 points
Kenya 3 points
Mozambique 1 point
Group C
Algeria 7 points
Zambia 4 points
Rwanda 1 point (2 matches played)
Egypt 1 point (2 matches played)
Note: Egypt are the current African Nations Cups champions.
Group D
Ghana 9 points
Mali 4 points
Benin 3 points
Sudan 1 point
Group E
Côte d’Ivoire 9 points
Burkina Faso 6 points
Guinea 3 points
Malawi 0 points
In Africa, only Ghana have created enough distance to become an odds on favorite. Still a lot of football to be played here.
Europe
In Europe only the Netherlands have qualified, although Spain, England and Serbia are almost there. I’m going to leave out the bottom dwellers here and just mention the sides that are still in the running.
Group 1
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Denmark 6 5 1 0 13 2 16
Hungary 6 4 1 1 8 2 13
Portugal 6 2 3 1 8 4 9
Sweden 6 2 3 1 6 2 9
Group 2
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Greece 6 4 1 1 12 4 13
Switzerland 6 4 1 1 11 6 13
Latvia 6 3 1 2 10 6 10
Israel 6 2 3 1 10 8 9
Group 3
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Slovakia 6 5 0 1 17 6 15
N. Ireland 7 4 1 2 12 6 13
Poland 6 3 1 2 18 7 10
Czech Republic 6 2 2 2 6 4 8
Slovenia 6 2 2 2 5 4 8
Group 4
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Germany 6 5 1 0 18 4 16
Russia 6 5 0 1 12 3 15
Finland 6 3 1 2 8 10 10
Wales 7 3 0 4 5 7 9
Group 5
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Spain 6 6 0 0 13 2 18
Bosnia 6 4 0 2 18 7 12
Turkey 6 2 2 2 6 5 8
Belgium 6 2 1 3 10 11 7
Estonia 6 1 2 3 5 15 5
Group 6
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
England 7 7 0 0 26 4 21
Croatia 6 3 2 1 12 6 11
Ukraine 6 3 2 1 9 6 11
Belarus 5 3 0 2 14 7 9
Group 7
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Serbia 7 6 0 1 15 5 18
France 5 3 1 1 7 6 10
Lithuania 7 3 0 4 6 6 9
Austria 6 2 1 3 7 9 7
Romania 6 2 1 3 7 10 7
Group 8
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Italy 6 4 2 0 9 3 14
Ireland 7 3 4 0 8 5 13
Bulgaria 6 1 5 0 6 4 8
Cyprus 6 1 2 3 6 9 5
Group 9
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
**Netherlands *** 7 7 0 0 16 2 21
Scotland 5 2 1 2 4 6 7
FYR Macedonia 6 2 1 3 4 7 7
Note: All teams play a total of ten matches (home and away) against the other teams in their group, except for Group 9, which only play 8 total matches. The winner of each group advances. The eight best runners up then play in a two legged playoff with the four winners advancing. Games against the bottom team in each group are not taken into account for purposes of determining the runners up, since one group doesn’t contain six teams. Criteria are then total points, goal difference, goals scored, away goals, card accumulations, and then lots.
Both American federations have a single table format.
CONCACAF
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Costa Rica 5 4 0 1 9 5 12
United States 5 3 1 1 10 6 10
Honduras 5 2 1 2 6 6 7
Mexico 5 2 0 3 6 8 6
El Salvador 5 1 2 2 6 7 5
Trinidad and Tobago 5 0 2 3 6 11 2
Costa Rica and USA are in the best shape right now, but no country is totally in or out at this point, halfway through qualfications - each side has five more matches to go. Trinidad and Tobago will soon be eliminated if they don’t start to win some matches.
With only four matches left to go, CONMEBOL is close to being decided.
CONMEBOL
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Brazil 14 7 6 1 25 6 27
Chile 14 8 2 4 23 14 26
Paraguay 14 7 3 4 20 13 24
Argentina 14 6 4 4 19 15 22
Ecuador 14 5 5 4 18 20 20
Uruguay 14 4 6 4 23 16 18
Colombia 14 4 5 5 7 11 17
Venezuela 14 5 2 7 17 24 17
Bolivia 14 3 3 8 19 30 12
Peru 14 1 4 9 7 29 7
With only the top four teams advancing automatically - fifth place has a playoff against fourth place from CONCACAF - Bolivia and Peru are all but eliminated. Brazil and Chile are inching toward safety, with the remaining teams in a dogfight.
Thanks, ShibbOleth!! Interesting that the current holders of the Asian and African championships are either eliminated (Iraq), or close to being eliminated (Egypt)! :eek:
It would be funny as hell if Ireland managed to pip Italy for the automatic spot… 
Very unlikely that we can do that. Italy have a game in hand and have several easy home games. We have a very tough game away to Cyprus who battered us there the last time traveled. Then home to Italy and home to Montenegro. So second place is our best bet and then hope we get an easy draw in the play-offs…if we make them.
Times like this I really hate the US’ easy road to qualification.
Maybe you could join CONCACAF the same way Australia opted out of Oceania and joined Asia. Ireland is a separate island, after all, and one of the closest stopping points on the way to North America. Plus, there’s loads of folks here who consider themselves, at least partially, Irish.
Tell you what, let’s trade places. I’ve long said that the US national team would be much better if it wasn’t lumped with the small fish of CONCACAF. Put us in with CONMEBOL or UEFA and we’d get better damn quick.
Or get beaten and beaten badly. The issue isn’t so much the international competition but the players playing in the top leagues. You really don’t have that many players playing regularly in the top flight. So while I see your point and agree with it I don’t think it’s the fix you think it would be.
I think part of the point was, if our players had access to play in some of the leagues without work permit issues, plus the steady diet of better competition, given our size and resources, we’d quickly become a top power. At least that’s how I read it.
If we just swapped group places, without the other bits, then Ireland would qualify every cycle and typically go out in the first round, just as we do. We’d only qualify every 3rd or 4th cycle and almost never win our group, but probably almost always come in second in our group and end up in a play off.
I guess the grass is always greener somewhere else. We have plenty of cultural and development issues to overcome before we’re anywhere near a world power. Not likely to happen in my lifetime.
Perhaps but I don’t think work permits alone are the issue. The issue is cultural etc. That’s a discussion for another day. I, for one, have no interest in the US becoming a real football power. The rest of the world does just fine without the US as a power and, quite frankly, the US does just fine with a lot of their own sports that are uniquely American.
CONCACAF
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
United States 8 5 1 2 14 9 16
Mexico 8 5 0 3 12 9 15
Honduras 8 4 1 3 14 8 13
Costa Rica 8 4 0 4 9 13 12
El Salvador 8 2 2 4 8 10 8
Trinidad and Tobago 8 1 2 5 8 16 5
It’s still a tight race, with only TnT eliminated with only 2 matches remaining. What’s worse, it’s shaping up that the fourth place team in CONCACAF could face struggling Argentina in a home and home for the Cup Finals berth. Mexico are probably on the best run of form right now (winning 3 straight and only allowed one goal in those three), but USA only need 2 points from their next two matches to clinch, and could even go through with less than that due to goal difference.
With just two matches to go, Brazil and Paraguay have clinched and Chile, while slipping to third, are close to being the third CONMEBOL to book their spot in the Finals. Ecuador have climbed over Argentina into the “safe” fourth spot and
CONMEBOL
**Team MP W D L GF GA Pts**
Brazil* 16 9 6 1 32 9 33
Paraguay* 16 9 3 4 22 13 30
Chile 16 8 3 5 27 20 27
Ecuador 16 6 5 5 21 23 23
Argentina 16 6 4 6 20 19 22
Uruguay 16 5 6 5 26 18 21
Venezuela 16 6 3 7 22 27 21
Colombia 16 5 5 6 10 14 20
Bolivia 16 3 3 10 20 34 12
Peru 16 2 4 10 9 32 10
So far only Bolivia and Peru are eliminated, with Ecuador, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia all with one win of one another. The last two match days could be quite something. If I have time I’ll post the final match pairings.
Next up will be reviews of play in Africa, Europe and Asia, where several teams have now clinched a move to the next round.
Neither Portugal nor Argentina are looking too hot right now. Not sure how well a WC without Messi or Ronaldo will fly. Not that I’ll miss either of them myself, but still.
Meh. A great team is always left at home and some great players never made the WC finals (Best, Weah).