04/09/2009

Will Cameroon bring Roger Miller out of retirement?

Looking ahead to World Cup qualifiers in September

South America

The top 4 teams qualify for the World Cup. The 5th placed team enters a home-and-away playoff with the 4th placed team from the North, Central America & Caribbean group.

Brazil currently lead the group by one point from Chile (26), Paraguay (24) and Argentina (22).

The real surprises are the Chileans, who have managed to overcome the handicap of ex-Liverpool winger Mark Gonzalez to score 23 goals. We can expect to hear more about the trio which has contributed 13 so far - Alexis Sanchez, Humberto Suazo and Matias Fernandez - next year.

Expect a late surge from Argentina, who’ve been a bit inconsistent so far. They play Brazil and Paraguay in early September, while Chile take on Brazil in the second of their scheduled September games.

Forthcoming fixtures:

September 5th

Argentina - Brazil

Chile - Venezuela

Colombia - Ecuador

Paraguay - Bolivia

Peru - Uruguay


September 8th

Uruguay - Colombia

Venezuela - Peru

Paraguay - Argentina

Bolivia - Ecuador

Brazil - Chile

North, Central America and Caribbean

Three sides qualify directly for South Africa 2010 and the fourth-placed team takes on the fifth-placed finisher in South American qualifying.

This one looked almost done and dusted for Costa Rica until a recent heavy defeat in Honduras put their plans on hold. Now four teams are vying for the three automatic places: Costa Rica (12 pts), Honduras and USA (10) and Mexico (9).

The US has the easiest of the September fixtures, facing El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago in the space of four days. They should win both.

Costa Rica and Mexico also square up in early September. This and the US – Costa Rica clash in October are the remaining key games.

Forthcoming fixtures:

September 5th

USA - El Salvador

Honduras - Trinidad and Tobago

Costa Rica - Mexico


September 9th

Trinidad and Tobago - USA

El Salvador - Costa Rica

Mexico - Honduras

Africa

One team qualifies from each group.

Ghana and the Ivory Coast are looking good in their respective groups. If the latter beat Burkina Faso in early September they will be six points ahead with two games to play.

Cameroon clearly need to bring Roger Miller out of retirement. They have one point from two games and must now beat Group A leaders Gabon to stand any chance of going through.

Forthcoming fixtures:

September 5th

Group A

Gabon - Cameroon

Togo - Morocco

Group B

Mozambique - Kenya

Group C

Rwanda - Egypt

Group E

Malawi - Guinea

Ivory Coast - Burkina Faso


September 6th

Group B

Nigeria - Tunisia

Group C

Algeria - Zambia

Group D

Ghana - Sudan

Benin - Mali

September 9th

Group A

Cameroon - Gabon

Asian play-off

The winner plays New Zealand in the Asia/Oceania Inter-Continental Play-Off

September 5th

Bahrain - Saudi Arabia in Manama

September 9th

Saudi Arabia - Bahrain in Riyadh

Keep an eye out for the scores and results at World Cup Bafana Bafana 2010 from this Saturday.

2 comments:

John said...

I'll agree with you on this being the game of the moment. Please check out the latest podcast from our blog, as we discuss on the main topic which is the Super Clasico. Give us thought on this mega blockbuster game.

Mike Towers said...

Thanks John!

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