Australia most likely saved their World Cup campaign, they were losing 1:0 to Iraq with 10 minutes to go but turned it around and won 2:1. With 3 of their final 4 matches at home they should qualify now, but this is an average Australia team, haven't replaced the "old guard" yet.
Asian qualifiers were played today, no real surprises but a 10-man Iran beat Korea at home, next set of games from them are in November. Key wins for Uzbekistan and Australia who opened up their campaigns poorly
Wtf is going on with uruguay? Losing 0-2 to bolivia already.
This always happens in Bolivia, but I think Uruguay have a greater problem. It seems like teams have figured out that Uruguay can't play a style where they have to control the game, they're at their best defensively when breaking up the play. Letting Uruguay have most of the ball and hitting them on the counter has been a pretty effective strategy for Colombia and Ecuador.
Polish players are not happy about the game being moved to Wednesday. AS the announcers pointed out it was the Polish FA who decided not to close the roof
__________________
trying to fend off exwife number 2
45000/010113
GO SHARKS GO
Venezuela dropped points at home to Ecuador so Uruguay and Chile can breathe easy, but it hasn't been a good month for those two teams. They need to re-group in the next 5 months
Asian qualifiers continued today (only continent to do so, other than 2 smaller UEFA games). Japan have practically qualified for the World Cup while Uzbekistan top the table for now despite only earning 2 points in their opening 3 matches. Key away wins have them back in charge to qualify for their 1st World Cup
Very tight group but South Korea have a game in hand. Iran are in some trouble as two of their final 3 matches are away from home. I think the advantage for second place is with Uzbekistan
Group B
Oman - Japan 1:2
Iraq - Jordan 1:0
1. Japan 5 13 +11
2. Australia 4 5 0
3. Iraq 5 5 -1
4. Oman 5 5 -3
5. Jordan 5 4 -7
This is a more straight forward group, hard to see anything but a Japan-Australia 1-2 finish. Japan in fact will qualify already in March as long as they beat Jordan away. They would become the first team from qualifiers to qualify
CONCACAF was the only confederation to have their World Cup qualification matches held on this date. The big surprise is Jamaica getting a draw at the Azteca against Mexico.
Mexico – Jamaica 0:0
Honduras – USA 2:1
Panama – Costa Rica 2:2
Honduras 3 +1
Costa Rica 1 0
Panama 1 0
Jamaica 1 0
Mexico 1 0
USA 0 -1
Rest of the confederations resume their qualifications in March
Jamaica could be interesting, decent at home and they have recruited some English born players with Jamaican roots, some of them even EPL players but mostly Championship caliber.
yeah forgot to mention that, the Mexican fans totally turned on their team and were actually cheering for Jamaica. This should give Jamaica some confident in their future matches, but they have to finish better. Also to consider outside of their English based players, most of them are still in winter break (MLS guys and Scandanavian based players) which makes it more impressive.
I still think at the end of the day Mexico and USA will qualify without problems, but it shows there is a little more depth in CONCACAF, whether or not these teams can be competitive in the World Cup is another story
too early for anybody to panic, if anything better to get a bad result out the way early. I still think CONCACAF will go to form (Mexico, USA, Honduras/Costa Rica) only that it will probably come down to the last 1-2 rounds
too early for anybody to panic, if anything better to get a bad result out the way early. I still think CONCACAF will go to form (Mexico, USA, Honduras/Costa Rica) only that it will probably come down to the last 1-2 rounds
Yeah, I see this coming down to the wire. Hopefully people (in Europe/Africa) will start to recognize that CONCACAF is not that bad.
Peru-Chile will be a big game, chance for Peru to get into the qualification picture or Chile to jump ahead of Uruguay/Venezuela fighting for that final playoff spot
Argentina and Colombia should qualify without too many problems.
