World cup qualifiers

[LUX]

I've just worked out that if we win at home to Andorra and Belarus, we cannot be caught, allowing us to lose in Ukraine and at home to Croatia.


(I do realise that the matches are not in that order, my point is that those two victories are definitely enough.)

[I was there at Elm Park]

I've just worked out that if we win at home to Andorra and Belarus, we cannot be caught, allowing us to lose in Ukraine and at home to Croatia.


(I do realise that the matches are not in that order, my point is that those two victories are definitely enough.)

That seems to be suggesting that those two are the two easy games. Whilst that is certainly true with Andorra, I'm not so sure about Belarus. They're one of the up and coming nations. They beat Kazakhstan 5-1 away (similar to England), their U21s qualified for the finals, etc. Saying all that England should beat them on paper, but seeing how hard Ukraine made it for them I doubt it will be easy as Belarus are at a similar level to Ukraine these days.

[LUX]

all true, but I am just thinking of how we can qualify. If we beat Andorra, we might end up needing no more points, as Belarus still have to play Croatia twice and Ukraine. A couple of draws in those (or one win for each of the three in the three games. Basically we don't want Belarus winning all three) and it would be all over.

[Dirk Gently]

Croatia 2 Ukraine 2.

Best result for us, I think?

When you've played 6 and won 6 the other results are pretty irrelevant.

[TBM]

Watching Simon Church play for Wales >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Watching England.

I never understand why people say things like this, yes I know he's a Reading player but I have no ties with him, should he sign for another club I wouldn't watch him play international football. Whereas I will always watch and support England no matter how poorly we play - I'm English so they always come first.

I support Reading/England as a club not the players

[OzBiscuit2004]

Straya through.

[soggy biscuit]

France V Turkey had to be stopped for a few minutes while the Turkish players were asked to appeal to their fans to calm down having started throwing flares etc onto the pitch.

[soggy biscuit]

LOLz @ the Albanian fans

[TBM]

as Barry is suspended for Wednesday what team would you put out?

[cmonurz]

Same team as Saturday, but Huddlestone for Barry.

[rabidbee]

Is this one going to be on the telly?

[papereyes]

Is this one going to be on the telly?

ITV

Disappointed I didn't try to watch the U-21s

Joe Lewis got played up front.

[TBM]

Same team as Saturday, but Huddlestone for Barry.

- why Huddlesstone?

Personally i would put Beckham in and move Gerrard into the middle

[cmonurz]

Same team as Saturday, but Huddlestone for Barry.

- why Huddlesstone?

Personally i would put Beckham in and move Gerrard into the middle

Because it's Andorra at home, Huddlestone is a promising young defensive midfielder, and we are without a defensive midfielder.

[Silver Fox]

Same team as Saturday, but Huddlestone for Barry.

- why Huddlesstone?

Personally i would put Beckham in and move Gerrard into the middle

'greed, well that or give me a game

[swansea jack]

Aussie 'Socceroos' and their cwazy Dutch coach are through to Saff Affrikka with 2 games to spare after a draw against Qatar last weekend. Only Japan provided any real opposition in the second phase of qualifying with the others being Uzbekistan, Qatar and Bahrain.

Can't wait for the Bahrain game tomorrow with the Prawn sandwich posse

[papereyes]

They split the groups into two. Theres about 4 decent Asian sides other than Australia - those perennial qualifiers Japan and South Korea plus Saudia Arabia and Iran.

You'd expect 2 or 3 decent teams and the rest to be sides you've never really seen in action. Uzbekistan got as far as the Asia vs CONACAF playoff last time.

This time round its 5th vs New Zealand


Oh, and its Confederations Cup time soon.

[Dirk Gently]

For anyone going tomorrow, don't forget that there's a 48-hour tube strike that starts today, so getting to and from Wembley will be more of a nightmare than usual!

[papereyes]

My thoughts on the micronation issue.

The 11 worst countries in UEFA consist of the least populous nations (every country with a side with a population of less than 1 million (Montenegro, Luxembourg, Malta, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Andorra, San Marino) with two exceptions*; the next most populous country (Estonia) and three countries that lie to the East of the Black Sea (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kazachstan)x.


On the basis of this, it seems that one could easily predict the weaker nations. A qualifying tournament could be held in the end of summer/autumn fixture windows or when nations have a friendly window (there's always one about a month into the season) to reduce the current number of 53 countries to a more managable figure such as 45 (9 groups of 5) [so 12 down to 4, for example - 4 groups of 3, winners qualify, hold a semifinal and a final to give them something to fight for#]. Qualification should mean that pre-qualification is not required in the next tournament, so sometimes more established nations might have to qualify.

You can all roll out the WaLOLes jokes at precisely that point.



*Iceland and Cyprus.
xGeorgia is the only other UEFA nation to the East of the Black sea
All three of these countries are in the next 6 of the FIFA rankings system - the bottom 17 nations in UEFA consist of the 10 smallest and 4 of the poorest.

#If we were to organise a Thought Tournament, the 12 sides entering would be San Marino, Andorra, Faroe Islands, Liechtenstein, Malta, Azerbaijan, Kazachstan, Armenia, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Estonia, Moldova.

italic - less than 1 million population
bold - east of Black sea
underline - former Soviet state

[TBM]

England Manager, Fabio Capello, has highlighted the importance of an early goal against Andorra at Wembley on Wednesday night.

And the Italian says his side must attack a team that was stubborn in defence when England beat them 2-0 in Barcelona back in September.

"If we score quickly that will make it easier for us," said Capello, who has guided The Three Lions to a perfect record of six wins from their opening six games in World Cup qualification.

"I remember the game we played in Barcelona - the first-half was hard, and we have to win this game. We have to attack, and we have to play in the opponents' area of the field."

And Capello has hinted that either David Beckham or Shaun Wright-Phillips will be asked to step in for Gareth Barry, with the Manchester City midfielder suspended after being booked in Saturday's 4-0 win in Kazakhstan.

"It's possible that we will play David or Wright-Phillips," Capello explained. "They are our two midfielders. Or you can put Steven Gerrard in midfield, but I prefer Steven nearer the box because he can shoot from long distance."