World Cup Qualification - Brazil 2014

[Barry the bird boggler]

England's group currently stands like this after last night :

1. Montenegro 7 14 +7
2. England 6 12 +18
3. Ukraine 6 11 +6
4. Poland 6 9 +5
5. Moldova 7 5 -5
6. San Marino 6 0 -29

Remaining games

6th September

England v Moldova
Poland v Montenegro
Ukraine v San Marino

10th September

San Marino v Poland
Ukraine v England

11th October

England v Montenegro
Moldova v San Marino
Ukraine v Poland

15th October

England v Poland
Montenegro v Moldova
San Marino v Ukraine

Ukraine are the biggest threat, particularly if England screw up their visit to Kiev in September

[Unbelievable Jeff]

Poland really messed up last night, should have been a routine win at Moldova. A win there and there are four teams of which any could get the top two spots.

[From Despair To Where?]

England's group currently stands like this after last night :

1. Montenegro 7 14 +7
2. England 6 12 +18
3. Ukraine 6 11 +6
4. Poland 6 9 +5
5. Moldova 7 5 -5
6. San Marino 6 0 -29

Remaining games

6th September

England v Moldova
Poland v Montenegro
Ukraine v San Marino

10th September

San Marino v Poland
Ukraine v England

11th October

England v Montenegro
Moldova v San Marino
Ukraine v Poland

15th October

England v Poland
Montenegro v Moldova
San Marino v Ukraine

Ukraine are the biggest threat, particularly if England screw up their visit to Kiev in September

and with 2 of Ukraine's 4 remaining games against San Marino, every game for England is looking like a "must win" if they want to win the group anyway.

[St. Brynjar]

South Korea virtually guaranteed qualification, needs a 6 goal swing in Uzbekistan's favour to change that. If Uzbekistan beat Qatar at home and Iran lose away to South Korea then the Uzbeks qualify, pretty much any other result will mean Iran qualify.

Australia's last game is at home to bottom of the table Iraq, and their nearest opponents Oman are away at Jordan, it's fairly likely the Aussies will qualify too, probably resulting in an Uzbekistan/Oman play off and then another play-off against the 5th placed CONMEBOL team, currently Venezuela but might well be Uruguay.

[soggy biscuit]

Mexico really doing a good job of screwing up their qualification after drawing with Honduras yesterday

Next week:
USA Vs Honduras
Costa Rica Vs Panama


Team MP W D L GF GA Pts
USA 5 3 1 1 6 3 10
Costa Rica 5 2 2 1 5 3 8
Mexico 6 1 5 0 3 2 8
Honduras 5 2 1 2 6 6 7
Panama 5 1 3 1 5 5 6
Jamaica 6 0 2 4 2 8 2

[Wax Jacket]

not exactly a load of goals in that group

[just some bloke]

Yet another draw for Mexico last night puts them in a bit of a spot, but ultimately even if they come 4th in the group they get to face New Zealand in a play-off. Basically, Mexico have been all-but guaranteed a World Cup spot for years and I can't see them not making it this time.

Watched USA 2-0 Panama last night and Team USA go top of the group. A good game played in Seattle, which is fast becoming something of a soccer hotbed. The atmosphere (as far as I could tell from the TV) was fantastic and the place was pretty full.



I think the tired old canard that Americans 'aren't into football' needs putting to bed to be honest.

Australia and South Korea also now look like making it through, with Uzbekistan and Iran looking to grab the final automatic spot. There will then be a play-off between one of those teams and likely Oman to see who gets to likely lose to the South American 5th place team.

[just some bloke]

Mexico really doing a good job of screwing up their qualification after drawing with Honduras yesterday

Next week:
USA Vs Honduras
Costa Rica Vs Panama


Team MP W D L GF GA Pts
USA 5 3 1 1 6 3 10
Costa Rica 5 2 2 1 5 3 8
Mexico 6 1 5 0 3 2 8
Honduras 5 2 1 2 6 6 7
Panama 5 1 3 1 5 5 6
Jamaica 6 0 2 4 2 8 2

Mexico drew with Costa Rica yesterday m8

[stealthpapes]

Interest in football in the US is really down to geography and local factors, isn't it? Pacific north-west was always a hot spot and there's 3 established MLS clubs (with some extended history) in the region.

It's in the middle and the south where football isn't popular at all, iirc. It's also reasonably unpopular in the black community.

[Hoop Blah]

....and the place was pretty full.

Apart from those empty sections in that photo?

America is large enough that even if it's a minority sport it's going to attract a decent number of participants and they're not all going to be sissy's and girls who can't make it in the mainstream sports. They're not to be underesitmated these days.

[just some bloke]

Apart from those empty sections in that photo?

There was a 42,000 limit, so some sections were closed. Apart from that, it was a sell-out apparently.

[just some bloke]

Interest in football in the US is really down to geography and local factors, isn't it? Pacific north-west was always a hot spot and there's 3 established MLS clubs (with some extended history) in the region.

It's in the middle and the south where football isn't popular at all, iirc. It's also reasonably unpopular in the black community.

The MLS I think has done a pretty good job in putting together a geographically diverse league. In the middle and the South, Real Salt Lake, Sporting Kansas City, Houston Dynamo and FC Dallas all enjoy decent support. Dallas and Salt Lake currently top the standings in the Western Conference. And you've got David Beckham talking now about Florida.

In terms of average attendances, it's up there with say, the English Championship or the French League. That's not bad considering all of these cities have 1, 2, or even 3 other professional major league sports teams from Baseball, American Football, Basketball and Hockey.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Leag ... attendance

[Ark Royal]

Youth football - in which I coach - is massive and there is a lot of resource thrown at it. Very well-financed clubs and qualified, paid coaches.

There are more youth football players playing in the US than baseball, basketball and egg-throwing COMBINED and I have even seen people watching MLS games in bars!

[Wax Jacket]

There are more youth football players playing in the US than baseball, basketball and egg-throwing COMBINED

[soggy biscuit]

Ivory Coast training

[Pepe the Horseman]

Lol. Who is that?

[soggy biscuit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2341034/Manchester-City-youngster-Abdul-Razak-sent-home-Ivory-Coast-fighting.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

[MouldyRoyal]

Love Toure's "Oh FFS guys" face.

[stealthpapes]

Australia vs Iraq - win sees the Socceroos through

What could go wrong?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog ... qualifiers

oh.


Iraq also missing Younnis Mahmood who is basically shit hot but retired from football last week and Nashat Akram who I think was one of the first Iraqis to play outside of the Middle East.

[stealthpapes]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/20 ... etnam-1967

is also a good read. I read another article, from a few years ago, where two of the players had a mate serving in the SASR in Vietnam and they went on the sort of bender you'd see in films starring Christopher Walken and a few sacrificial snakes.