Official 2010 World Cup Qualifying Thread

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I'd love nothing more than to see Edin Dzeko put Bosnia into the finals of the World Cup, sadly through the skin of their teeth we're going to see Portugal and Argentina when we were so close to seeing neither. Gutted for Slovenia as well, they have to go through Russia which will be no easy task.

There was a nice balance, we had the 9 qualifiers - out and out the best to go through. They're strong enough to represent Europe, so if they just made it non-seeded and we maybe got France vs. Portugal and then Greece vs. Bosnia & Herzegovina then maybe that would be a good thing. We have the 9 best, surely seeing a Slovenia and Bosnia & Herzegovina make the finals of the World Cup isn't going to embarass anyone. I want to see the best countries on show but at the same time not have it so repeated.

The World Cup is a great event, but it isn't the showcase of the best players in the world. That's the Champions League, so personally I wouldn't be against seeing Slovenia slip into the World Cup at Portugal's expense.

Well I'd personally love France and Portugal to miss out.

Why? Cos they're two of England's rivals and have historically bettered us in some international comeptitions so of course I wish them bad fortune on the football pitch. I wouldn't expect the French to be cheering England on to qualify.

[The Kraig]

Good news I suppose. New Zealand beat Bahrain in the intercontinental play-off to qualify for the World Cup!

I hope we see New Zealand vs Australia at the finals. That would be awesome.

[ONO]

Hopefully the Irish can pull this off and stick two fingers up to that fat bastard Blatter.

[Dan]

Way to go NZ!

[Slogger]

Good news I suppose. New Zealand beat Bahrain in the intercontinental play-off to qualify for the World Cup!

I hope we see New Zealand vs Australia at the finals. That would be awesome.

First of all, I believe I called NZ to make it to the finals, I think it was in one of those "Pick the teams that will be in South Africa threads"

Just to see Australia vs New Zealand in the World Cup would be so epic, Here's hoping NZ and Aussie get drawn into the same group.

wow, Even though I wanted it to happen, I never thought I'd see the Kiwi's in the WC, Holy Shit...

[9 to 5]

I am very happy for Nelsen.

[TCO]

I'm still fuming by the decision to suddenly seed the Playoff drawing, but I can't help but feel hopeful we'll do the French at Croker. It's without doubt the biggest game in 7 years and if we don't qualify this time, I fear for future World Cups, without Keane, Given and Dunne, as they'll either be retired or shit. It's now or never.

C'MON IRELAND!

[Thrilla]

If England play in the World Cup as they are currently doing against Brazil we'll go out in the group stage, shocking performance.

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

If England play in the World Cup as they are currently doing against Brazil we'll go out in the group stage, shocking performance.

With basically all of the main players missing, bar Rooney and Barry. Having no Gerrard, Lampard, Terry and Ferdinand makes a hell of a difference really. Played well in the first half and only lacked in the final third, then just went to sleep in the second, yet still only lost by one. It's crazy if anybody judges England from that performance/game. Of course they will though, claiming England aren't 'good' enough or something.

[therockbox]

I have to admit, I quite enjoyed a 'defensively solid' right back like Brown getting a good going over, and essentially giving away an utterly ridiculous penalty. I don't expect the amount of vitriol that Johnson gets for misplacing a pass to be sent his way though.

I don't know why we can't admit that, occasionally, Rooney doesn't play well. He was poor tonight, kept on giving the ball away in decent positions and yet the commentators kept on trying to make out like he was cutting Brazil apart at will. At one point Tyldesley even said "he's looked as dangerous as anyone on either team so far!" - bollocks. There's nothing wrong with admitting that he'll play poorly once in a while, it isn't going to damage England's fan-dabi-dozi white hope reputation.

Jenas was anonymous, felt a bit sorry for Barry basically having to do the work of two central midfielders, especially when he also had to try and contain Kaka as well. Milner worked hard but had nothing to aim at in the box, SWP can't pass for toffee (or cross 99% of the time), Bent and Defoe never had a hope of doing well, and really highlighted what an awesome job Heskey does for the team on his own. Say what you want about his goalscoring record, but he'd have at least put himself about a bit and freed up some space for the others. Was surprised at how well Lescott and Upson did, normally they look out of their depth at this level so I expected Brazil to give them the run around, but for most of the game they were solid.

[Hobo]

Ireland/France has been pretty good so far.

[DFF]

Egypt and Algeria will have to have a play-off at a neutral venue to determine which of them goes to the World Cup. Basically, in their final group game it came down to the following permutations:

If Egypt won 1-0 (or by any single goal), Algeria qualified.

If Egypt won by 3 or more, then Egypt qualified.

If Egypt won 2-0 then they would have been level in all ways and a play-off held.

After leading 1-0 for most of the game, Egypt scored 5 minutes into injury time to force the play-off! You couldn't write some of this.

[Adam]

Someone should bump that 'guess who will qualify' thread after this weeks last games.

England were poor, yes, but like has been said most of the first team was out. But these guys should've played out of their skins, most of them were awful. Wright-Phillips shouldn't be anywhere near the World Cup squad, I can name 4 right midfielders I'd rather take than him, he was awful. Wes Brown as well, Upson made some silly mistakes. Jenas was anonymous, I think Capello should've played Huddlestone from the start, and I feel sorry for Bent, taken off after 50 odd minutes when he had had no service all night. Bringing Defoe on made no difference as it was the midfield that wasn't working, not the front line.

[Whisper]

I am by no means a fan of seeing Jermaine Jenas anywhere near an England squad, but he was no worse than Gareth Barry. Why is everyone insisting that Jenas was awful (which he was) and claiming that Barry was "on his own" in the middle. Barry was woeful, Kaka looked disinterested for the most part and still ran the Midfield. Hell, Elano of all people got the better of Barry/Jenas on countless occasions. For a guy whose major strength is keeping the ball, Barry's passing was dire. It just seems that ever since the McClaren days of "OMG PLAY BARRY", he has been immune to criticism.

Personally, I hope to god that Lampard, Walcott, Beckham and Gerrard are fit next summer, and that Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole get themselves back to where they were before their respective injuries. I'm not saying that Barry shouldn't be in the squad, clearly he should be. I'd just much rather see a Midfield consisting of Cole, Lampard, Hargreaves and Walcott (or Beckham), form and fitness allowing, with Gerrard playing off Rooney. That line up would make me far more confident against the Brazils and Spains of this world, than any lineup containing SWP and co.

[therockbox]

I'd be incredibly shocked if Barry doesn't go to the World Cup as a starter. Having a left footed midfielder in there, especially when chances are we're going to have a right footer on the left, will make a big difference.

[ONO]

Keane ya beauty.

[Adam]

Come on Ireland

With Algeria & Greece through, and Slovenia now leading Russia on away goals, a Bosnia goal now might just set this up to be the perfect night!

[The Quasi Juice]

Awesome that Algeria won, I love seeing unusual teams qualify for the World Cup Woot, woot Ireland 0-1 up as well, hope they can keep it up.

[ONO]

Should be 2-0. O'Shea with a shocking effort.

[Adam]

Looks like Bosnia are going out, 2-0 down on aggregate to Portugal now The Portugese are damn lucky to be going to this tournament.