Official 2010 World Cup Qualifying Thread

[alldaws1]

With England's World Cup qualifying campaign getting under way next week I think it's about time we had a thread to cover the games. Talk about any and all World Cup qualifiers in here.

Fabio Capello will be without Steven Gerrard and Owen Hargreaves for England's first two games against Andorra and Croatia. I think it's a big blow, to me they're our two best central midfielders but if Capello was planning on playing Gerrard on the left again it may be a blessing in disguise. Will Capello resort to the familiar and go with something along the lines of Beckham, Lampard, Barry and Joe Cole in midfield or will he pull one out of left field or come up with an entirely different formation altogether?

Hopefully we can grab 3-4 points from the first two games but I can't imagine us getting 6, we may struggle to even get 3.

[Pesci]

I'm glad we've got a team like Andorra first. We may not play well but we're likely to beat them however we play, so at least the players will be high on confidence when they go to Croatia. If they play the way they've been playing since Capello took over they'll probably be trounced unless Ferdinand can put on a masterclass or something, but if they beat Andorra convincingly they might fancy themselves. I'm not convinced by Rooney for England either, especially not as a lone striker. He's in his own half far too much and we'll just end up relying on Lampard and Joe Cole for goals.

[Baddar]

Wales-Azerbaijan is where it's at. No other game matters. >_>

[IAceI]

3 or 4 points. I can't see us getting any more than 4, but certainly no less than 3.

The Croatia match is going to be particularly painful to watch though. I don't know if I can stomach it or not.

[Clawson]

Canada fucked up in their first match...again.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Indeed. When Mexico's in your group, you can't afford to be drawing Jamaica.

[TheArsenal]

It don't get much better than Macedonia vs Scotland.

[The Future]

I think the fact that we are playing Andorra first will fire up the players because the last time around they struggled against Macedonia which is not the best way to prepare for the toughest match in the group. Hopefully Rooney grabs some goals against Andorra and he will probably be more selfish from now on going by his performance in the Portsmouth match and the comments by Capello/SAF.

I think the team is going to look like:

James

Cole Terry Ferdinand Brown

J.Cole Lampard Barry Beckham

Rooney Defoe

[King Ellis]

Super Jimmy Bullard!

It must be a cold day in hell, Owen doesn't get in based on the fact he's scored a lot of goals not including the last 2 years and Robert Green has risen from being our 12th best goalie!

Edited August 31, 2008 by King eLLis

[Dan]

Wasn't Bullard going to play for Germany at one point?

[FireDoughnut]

Walcott over Owen?

[ZJ Penn]

Was hoping for Young and Agbonlahor to get a shot, particularly after the seven minute hat trick. Worrying lack of pace for me, especially against a team like Andorra who'll just sit back for 90.

[FireDoughnut]

Robinson (Blackburn), James (Portsmouth), Green (West Ham)

Lescott (Everton), Bridge (Chelsea), A Cole (Chelsea), Terry (Chelsea), Brown (Manchester United), Ferdinand (Manchester United), Johnson (Portsmouth), Upson (West Ham)

Barry (Aston Villa), J Cole (Chelsea), Lampard (Chelsea), Bullard (Fulham), Beckham (Los Angeles Galaxy), Downing (Middlesbrough), Bentley (Tottenham), Jenas (Tottenham)

Walcott (Arsenal), Rooney (Manchester United), Defoe (Portsmouth), Heskey (Wigan)

[The Third Dukes]

We got ourselves a trip to Cuba coming up. I have no idea how good they'll be -- although I think we can get three points out of it. We need to stay focused, and after our play against Guatemala, things could get a little hairy.

You know, do you think UEFA should adopt a multi-tiered qualifying process like CONCACAF, CAF, and AFC have? England/Andorra is a waste of time, if you ask me. Since Europe gets 13 out of 53 in, they could do something like: play in games to cut it from 53 to 48, then 12 groups of 4 to make it from 48 to 24, then 4 groups of 6 in which the top two (and the best #3) advance. That way, the best teams would play each other more and a team like San Marino or Andorra that has no hope in hell is out of the picture early.

[King Ellis]

But how will the lesser nations ever progress if they're stuck playing against each other and not better teams?

[IAceI]

They wanted to do that, but Luxembourg and teams like that didn't want it because they want to play against England, Italy, Spain etc. and the money is a massive part of their income and stuff, so I figure they'd just decided against it and are leaving it in the current format.

[Dont Fear The Reaper]

One day...Andorra will win a game

[Lineker]

Jimmy Bullard. Nobody dislikes Jimmy. It is impossible to. But what a remarkable recovery by him. So pleased for him.

[IAceI]

Especially after those kids got to spend time with Jose Mourinho, Lionel Messi, David Villa, Lukas Podolski (although to be fair he done fuck all, how dare they reduce him to talk to a kid about studs) and Arjen Robben.

I'm sure they'll help them to a victory one day!

[Scott McFly]

You know, do you think UEFA should adopt a multi-tiered qualifying process like CONCACAF, CAF, and AFC have? England/Andorra is a waste of time, if you ask me. Since Europe gets 13 out of 53 in, they could do something like: play in games to cut it from 53 to 48, then 12 groups of 4 to make it from 48 to 24, then 4 groups of 6 in which the top two (and the best #3) advance. That way, the best teams would play each other more and a team like San Marino or Andorra that has no hope in hell is out of the picture early.

You say that, but England (and other big nations) have drawn with smaller nations before, and they will again.