The 2023 finalists

Already when we had the four semi-finalists we knew one team that had never won before would be World Champion. And now we have a final with two sides who have never been there before: Spain versus England.

Spain has been a rising power for many years, and the rising power of FC Barcelona (defending CL champions) and Real Madrid has become to transfer to the national team. That said, internal disagreements and their 0-4 loss to Japan in the first round cast some doubt on how far they could get. There is no doubt that they could go all the way now: they defeated Sweden 2-1 in a close-fought match. Only in the 81st minute Spain went ahead by the young Barcelona striker Salma Paralluelo, and while it seemed that they were on their way to victory, Sweden striked back in the 89th minute by Rebecka Blomqvist, and it appeared to be extra time. But one minute later, following a corner kick and poor defending by Sweden, Olga Carmona had a strike from outside the penalty kick that went over the Swedish goalie.

All in all Spain has shown that they are never beaten and will keep fighting, and that is a strength when going into the final.

England are defending European champions and went into the tournament as favourites, but have not looked strong throughout. But that may also be their strength: they have won matches where they have not necessarily looked as the best side. 

This was not the case against Australia. Despite massive home support, the English kept their head cold and looked stronger most of the match despite Australia's brave fight. It was Ella Ann Toone who brought England ahead in the first half on a great strike from inside the penalty area, following the buildup by a strong Alessia Russo. Australia went forward in the second half and it was a fantastic strike by Samantha Kerr that brought them the equaliser (perhaps one of the best goals of the tournament), and renewed hope for Australia. But seven minutes later Lauren Hemp won a clumsy duel with the Australia defender Ellie Carpenter, and pushed the ball past the goalkeeper.

Australia pressed forward and Samantha Kerr had two big chances to equalise, but in the end it was the Arsenal striker Alessia Russo who scored England's third and put England definitively in the final.

It will be a great final with two teams that both have chance. Also the first all-European final since 2003 (when Germany defeated Sweden), and the first final since 2007 without the USA. The poor showing of the USA is witnessed by the fact that this is the first World Cup ever when USA are not among the top-3.

A unique World Cup already!

Colombia out and other results

 With time difference and limited coverage, it continues to be difficult to follow the World Cup in Australia/ New Zealand. That said, results and matches continue to be very exciting as we have now reached the semifinals.

The first big news was the elimination of the defending champions USA by Sweden in a tense penalty knock-out. It was in fact refreshing: the North Americans were a bit too cock-sure, bordering arrogance, in what they should have known would have been a difficult tournament.

Sweden on the other hand are a team to support (my favourites at this point), and showed their great potential when they eliminated Japan 2-1 in the quarterfinals. Japan, who were looking as potential champions.

Sweden will face Spain, in their first semifinals ever. Spain have been improving throughout the tournament and must be considered a candidate, specially as they defeated a strong Netherlands 2-1 in an exciting quarterfinals, with late goals, and a splendid victory strike by the young Salma Paralluelo (this match I did watch).

England, defending European champions, should be considered favourites as well, although they have not looked that strong. They were outright lucky to defeat Nigeria on penalties (I watched this match); not to say the bad taste they left with Lauren James ugly and deserved red card. In the quarterfinals they also struggled to defeat an exciting Colombia 2-1 (another match I watched wearing my Colombia shirt), whose fans have been the best of the tournament. Colombia largely lost to their own mistakes after Leidy Santos had brought them ahead on a splendid strike. But Lauren Hemp and Alessia Russo gave England the victory, and a semifinal where they will face the hosts of Australia, who are there after defeating Denmark and the favourites of France.

Thank you Colombia!

Surely some exciting semifinals:

• Spain-Sweden
• Australia-England
  

The Greatest World Cup ever

 Today the World Cup has started in New Zealand/Australia. It will be the first women's World Cup with 32 teams competing, and with the immense growth of the women's game in the past decade, it all points to it being  the best World Cup ever.

In the opening match, the hosts from New Zealand pulled a somewhat surprising 1-0 victory over Norway, while the other hosts, Australia, defeated Ireland 1-0.

So good start for the hosts as the World Cup kicks off. 

Living in El Salvador there is scant interest here for the tournament, and although I have so many TV channels, two cable subscriptions, as well as two online TV subscriptions, and still nowhere shows the Women's World Cup in a country as passionate about football as El Salvador. This is very disappointing, but I hope I will be able to watch some of this great tournament!

The World's 16 best footballing nations

The Qatar World Cup continues to be an ugly political event that has come to symbolize ugly nationalism, disrespect, inequality, abuse and greed.

But I think this is just a symptom of our world.

In footballing terms the group stages have been interesting. After Brazil sensationally lost to Cameroun (and frankly this is as surprising as Argentina losing to Saudi Arabia or France losing to Tunisia) it is the first tournament since 1994 during which no team has gone through with maximum points (the same happened in 1958 and 1962, so it is not a common occurrence). But more interesting is that this is the first World Cup where all continental federations (except Oceania) are represented with at least one team (CONCACAF 1, CONMEBOL 2, CAF 2, UEFA, 8, AFC 3). 

The eight matches are as follows:

• Netherlands-USA: The Dutch got through with two victories and one difficult tie to Ecuador, and are surely not as strong as they should be. USA is the only representative from CONCACAF and looked well-organised to defeat Iran and tie England. It will surely be difficult for the Dutch, but I hope they prevail
• Argentina-Australia: Despite their opening loss to Saudia Arabia Argentina won the group and remain favourites. They are surely huge favourites against Australia. The Asian representatives went through on hard work but winning against two poor sides, Denmark and Tunisia. They were overrun by France and should be on their best to defeat Argentina (but certainly not impossible). I support Argentina wholeheartedly.
• France-Poland: The defending champions are looking strong, but lost to Tunisia in a match with many substitutes. They are surely favourites against the Poles, who look delighted just to have gone through. That said, no expectations could be Poland's strength as they still have quality players who could hurt France. But I expect France to prevail.
• England-Senegal: England will underestimate Senegal, that is a given, and I will surely support Senegal, where other players have stepped up in the absence of Sadio Mané. Koulibaly was spectacular against Ecuador and will face English players he knows well. It will be a close match I think, with England as weak favourites.
• Japan-Croatia: Japan winning the Group of Death is one of the surprises, and Croatia have surely seen that Japan defeated both Germany and Spain, although also that the Japanese do have weaknesses. If Croatia can take advantage of their quick passing then they could hope for a repeat of 2018. Japan I think are slight favourites though.
• Brazil-South Corea: The Corean victory against Portugal means that they prevented us from a repeat of the "Maracanazo" classic between Brazil and Uruguay. Don't mind that though. Corea and in particular their fans are the best side through. Brazil are enormous favourites, but the Coreans do and should not fear anybody, and could cause a sensation!
• Morocco-Spain: This is probably the clash I look most forward to. Neighbouring countries; the African upstart with a great team and confidence, against the European giants with some truly fantastic players. It has all the ingredients to be a fantastic match!
• Portugal-Switzerland: The Portuguese went through on first place with two wins and one loss, but appear not to have been tested yet. Switzerland will surely be a test. They showed their quality already in last year's Euro when eliminating France in an extraordinary match, and in this tournament have shown themselves solid in the back, but also strong in attack when it counted against Serbia. This match could go to either side!
  

Dumb Danes

I did not watch Denmark's debacle against Australia as I was working. It was surely for the best as Denmark played like shit and were surely arrogant (before the match I heard Danish commentators referring to the Australians as "a second division side"). Matthew Leckie scored a great goal where he made fun of Denmark's apparently star-defenders.

The painting was on the wall in the first two matches already; Denmark played without taking a risk and without passion. Maybe it was because of the whole armband controversy; they decided never to confront FIFA and Simon Kjaer, who was afraid of getting a yellow card for taking a stand, did not even play the last two matches.

After the great Euro 2021, when the Danish team managed to create passion, expectations were high (Mine as well), and this is surely the biggest disappointment any Danish national team has given me. A poor performance and a complete lack of cojones.

Go home.

It wasn’t jetlag

I have just traveled for 22 hours from El Salvador to Denmark. I arrived a few hours before the Denmark-Australia match. I fell asleep during the match. It was not because of the jetlag, but more because this was perhaps the match with the lowest quality of the entire tournament. Two very poor sides with low levels of technique and organisation.The only good thing in the match was Eriksen’s goal. And while Australia’s penalty can be said to be controversial (in my view it was), it is not the reason Denmark did not win. Denmark did not win simply because they were crap.
And I will sleep again.

The use of technology

France deserved to win against Australia; they are clearly a better team than Australia (Bert van Marwijk has made them a solid, boring, physical team, which works better than what he did to Netherlands in 2010). But what this match will be remembered for is the use of technology by the referee, for good and for bad....
I am not in favour of using VAR for penalty situations or off-sides. It should only be used for outright violence or for goal situations. And in my view France's penalty was such a case: maybe it was a penalty (I do not think it was), but it is clear that VAR does not take the controversy away, but just adds to it. Such a call has a high degree of subjectivity that VAR does not eliminate.
The second French goal clearly showed the good use of goalline technology, and I can think of other situations where this goal would not have been called (think Germany-England 2010 or Brazil-Spain 1986). It is great that the message that the ball is in goal, goes directly to the referee, avoiding the use of VAR. This is a huge improvement, but the way VAR is being used is no improvement, but just serves to further create controversy.
I look forward to a faraway Star Trek future where AI Androids are refereeing. At least they will be immune to temptation, if not to hackers!

Top 10 Best Football Teams of 2015

There have been many great football teams in 2015. The following is what I consider the ten best teams of 2015:

10) Australia: Although not heard much about, Australia took the Asian football championship at home this year.
9) Sevilla: Again the south Spaniards took the Europa League title. They are among the best in Spain, although far from contesting the title. In the Champions League they ended trailing behind Manchester City and Juventus, but that means they will be defending their Europa League title in 2016.
8) Bayern Munich: The south Germans continue to be among the best in the world, leading in the Bundesliga and favourites to go all the way in the Champions League.
7) Juventus: They dominated in Italy in the first half of the year, and upset Real Madrid to make it to the Champions League final, where only mighty Barcelona stood on the way. They have been weaker after the great Andrea Pirlo left for the USA, but continue fighting for the Italian title and the Champions League title.
6)  River Plate: The winners of the Copa Libertadores also made it to the final of the Club World Cup, where Barcelona defeated them. That said, they showed that they have some of the best fans in the world!
5) Serbia U-20: The Serbian youths were surprise winners of the 2015 u-20 World Cup in New Zealand, defeating Brazil in the final. It augurs well for the future of Serbian football!
4) Cote d'Ivoire: The Ivorians finally won the Africa Cup of Nations that has been eluding them for many years in a final against Ghana.
3) Chile: Chile hosted a highly competitive Copa America and for the first time ever took the title in a final against their Argentine neighbours.
2) FC Barcelona: The Catalonians have only become better in 2016, winning everything in Spain, the Champions League, and lastly the World Club Cup. They are leading the Spanish league at the end of 2016 with a scoring record of 40 goals, 35 of which have been scored by their attacking trio of Suarez, Neymar and Messi.
1) USA: With a fantastic World Cup in Canada women's football showed that it is fully at the level of Men's football when it comes to national team football (there may be more differences at Club level). The tournament was at least as good as the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, culminating in a splendid final between USA and Japan. USA were amazing, winning 5-2, and in particular Carly Lloyd's performance should pass into World Cup History. With this, USA's Women's side is in my view, the best football team of 2015!

Del Bosque's final disgrace

I am of the firm opinion that the only one to blame for Spain's disgraceful exit is Vicente del Bosque. In yesterday's match against Australia he showed himself as inept again. David Villa finally started instead of the hapless Diego Costa, and left the impression that he could have helped Spain in the previous matches, fighting hard and scoring a nice heel goal for Spain. This was to be the last match for David Villa on the Spanish national team, and del Bosque took him out amid Villa's tears. And what was Mr. del Bosque's comment? 

"I did not know it was his last match for the national team".

Does this coach even talk to his players? 

Del Bosque has proven incompetent in tactics in this tournament, and apparently also in player management. 

Day 7 of the World Cup: s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands

After the amazing victory of the Netherlands over the World Champions, I thought I would visit a friend in the Duke's Bush, or s-Hertogenbosch, in the Netherlands, to watch the match that the orange side would play against Australia. Taking the train from Brussels, it is often not immediately obvious that you are changing country, but for the fact that the colours displayed on windows suddenly changed from red to orange.

On my way to s-Hertogenbosch I decided to do a bit of exploring, and went off the train in the small and lovely city of Breda, where I visited the Gothic church of Grote Kerk, where the ancestors of the house of Nassau-Orange are buried. The football connection is undeniable, as this is where the use of orange for the Dutch national team comes from. Indeed, the beautiful Grote Markt in front of the church was decorated with orange colours in preparation of the match.  And you could feel the World Cup fever getting higher as more and more people dressed in often creative orange garments would appear on the train to s-Hertogenbosch.

Another lovely Dutch city, I was received by a great Dutch friend who gave me an orange shirt and a cape adorned with the Dutch lion. I blended completely into the orange sea of people who we joined at one of the lively pubs showing the match in downtown s-Hertogenbosch.

The Dutch are committed; the national anthem was sung with loud national pride. And I must mention that Dutch ladies are the most beautiful football fans I have come across. The Netherlands wins on almost all fronts, if not on their tiny beers.

But the Dutch suffered. And here I must be honest; I was caught on by the Dutch, and celebrated their every goal (how could you not with beautiful Dutch girls celebrating all around you?), but at the same time I was happy they were suffering a bit, as the match then got much more interesting for... me.

In the end, it is all about me.

Australia are no pushover. They have proved that again and again, and therefore it is amazing to see that some countries, notably arrogant Europeans and South Americans, are again and again taken by surprise. I do not know if this was the case of the Dutch, who were a shadow of themselves in the first half. They were slow, imprecise and uncommitted. It was not deserved when they went ahead, but Tim Cahill's equalizer was fully deserved. And how ironic that a goal so fantastic that one would have expected to come from the feet of the great Dutch, came from an Australian!

The Dutch improved a lot in the second half, but had to suffer more when Australia went 2-1 up. In the end Van Persie and the young Memphis Depay gave them a deserved victory, and depending on the result between Spain and Chile, the Dutch could be the first team to qualify for the last-16.

Chile won 2-0 over the defending World Champions. Spain joins France in 2002 and Italy in 2010 as World Champions who have been eliminated in the first round. This Spanish golden generation gave the world of football a lot, but fell from greatness due to lack of preparation and respect for their opponents. I am sorry to say this, but the responsible is not Iker Casillas, Xavi, Diego Costa, or any of the players, but Vicente del Bosque. He did not set a team according to the opponents, whom he did not bother to study. Had he, Mr. Del Bosque would have known that Chile were a team to be reckoned with. Just being Spain is not enough to win a match; this is also to disrespect your opponents. As much as the Spanish team will be remembered as one of the greatest side ever, Chile did the world a favour.

Chile and the Netherlands will be playing for first spot in the group in what will be a great match. 

The last match of the day was Croatia-Cameroon. Cameroon proved to be perhaps the poorest side of the World Cup. They do not play like a team and are as committed as a cock to monogamy. Croatia's victory was too easy, and not too small. I guess we have all been expecting a lot from Cameroon since 1990, but truth is that since then they have gone out every time in the first round, and suffered some humiliating defeats. Of all those bad Cameroon sides, this is surely the worst of the lot.

Croatia will face Mexico in the last group match, a clash that will decide who goes on to the next round.

In my orange cape I have celebrated the Netherlands, and hope they get far, just because of this great day I had amid the awesome (and stunning) Dutch fans! Hup Holland Hup!

Viva Chile!

The World Champions are out. After the trouncing they received from the Netherlands, the story was perhaps foretold. Chile played a great game, and all credit to this achievement. They have proven they are a world class team, something that anyone having watched their development over the last four years should have seen.

Apparently the Spanish do not watch football.

No matter the degree to which the Spanish underestimated Chile, their degree of commitment to a match that was so crucial was appalling. The Spaniards had no pace, marked poorly and scandalously missed their few chances to score. Diego Costa was so useless that the Brazilians must be delighted to see that he did not join their side. The central defense looked a bit better without Pique, but still lack quality. Casillas had another bad day. However, he remains the best in the world, and the degree of criticism he seems to be getting in Spain is simply too much. 

The one that should be blamed is Vicente del Bosque. Not to know a thing about your opponents is bad enough, but to choose your players seemingly at random is poor to say the least. Against Chile he decided to play with no midfield; leaving Xavi and Fabregas out was to take away the needed offensive creativity, and only rely on the brusqueness of Busquets and Javi Martinez. Besides this poor lineup, his lack of choosing any of the many young and upcoming Spanish stars in the squad (perhaps except Koke), was without vision of the future.

Names do not win matches. Mr. Del Bosque forgot that.

Australia and Spain are the two first teams to be eliminated from the World Cup. They will now face one another in the last match. Australia proved to be no pushover, but I do not think that the Spaniards have taken note of this. With zero points and a score of 1-7 against Australia's 3-6, Spain needs to win the final match if they are not to suffer ultimate humiliation and end last in the group.

In the meantime, Chile are looking with optimism at their next match. Excellent fans and good players have justified that they now have great expectations. If anything: VIva Chile!!!!

Congratulations Japan

Japan won the Asian Cup final against Australia on a 1-0 victory in extra time. Tadanari Lee scored the winner to give the Japanese team its fourth continental title.

Congratulations to Japan and all their fans!

The Asian Cup final

I must admit that due to time difference and media coverage in this part of the world, I have not seen any matches of the 2011 Asian Cup in the future World Cup hosts of Qatar. However, I will have to try to watch the final this next Saturday against two giants that I have found excellent to watch in the last two World Cups: Australia was great in 2006, barely losing to Italy, and fought well in a difficult group in 2010. Although they only recently became part of the Asian football Federation, I think this has only made Asian (and Australian) football stronger.
Japan has been in every World Cup since 1998, and been steadily improving, this last World Cup beating Denmark and playing an intense match with Paraguay in the last-16, only being eliminated on penalty kicks.
In fact, the two teams faced one another in the 2006 World Cup, with a resulting 3-1 victory for Australia.
Japan is in the final after an intense match with another of Asia's giants and their close rival, South Corea. The match ended 2-2, with a last minute equalizer from the Coreans, but the Japanese were coolest from the penalty spot, where South Corea missed every single kick! Australia on the other hand trashed one of the surprises of the tournament, Uzbekistan, 6-0.
The final between these nations should be a great match, and I hope to be able to watch it!

Greatest World Cup matches: Italy-Australia (2006)

Football has reached the entire world, but some parts have been reached later than others. Oceania has been a region dominated by rugby, and football has been peripheral and largely dominated by the region’s largest country, Australia. However, due to the region’s poor performance in world cup history, Oceania has historically only had a play-off place to play for, usually against an Asian or South American country. It was usually Australia that had to play it, and usually they lost, although they were steadily improving as some Australian players were getting experience in Europe and the game slowly grew in popularity. For the 2006 campaign the Australian football federation hired the outstanding Dutch coach, Guus Hiddink, to lead the team to the World Cup. And over two matches against the number five of South America, Uruguay, Australia managed to qualify to its first World Cup since 1974 (incidentally, also in Germany).
The team was a healthy mixture of players of diverse backgrounds and with experience from European leagues: this included an experienced defence with the Middlesborough goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer on goal, Crystal Palace defender Tony Popovic, Blackburn right back Lucas Neill, and Craig Moore from Glasgow Rangers. The team also had very skilled strikers in the form of Millwall’s Tim Cahill, Osasuna’s John Aloisi and the Leeds United strikers Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell (the latter was nevertheless injured for this match).
The Australians had surprised everyone by unexpectedly going through on second spot in a rather difficult group: they had opened by defeating Japan 3-1, and had in the second match put up an excellent fight against the Brazilian world champions, but still lost 2-0. In their last match they managed 2-2 against Croatia in a dramatic match, which effectively put them in the second round, where Italy was awaiting.
Italy was looking strong without forcing it. They had won their group by defeating Ghana and the Czech republic and tying the USA. As usual, the team coached by Marcelo Lippi did not play any exciting football, but had some outstanding players on all positions, particularly in defence that included Inter’s Fabio Cannavaro (that year to be given the prize as World Player of the year) and Marco Materazzi, Juventus’ Gianlucca Zambrotta and the excellent defensive midfielder from AC Milan Gennaro Gattuso. In midfield Italy had the elegant AS Roma player Francesco Totti, although he surprisingly did not start in for this match, but was replaced by Juventus’ Alessandro Del Piero.
The first half of the match was very equal with both teams standing well in defence. The best chances went to the Italian strikers Luca Toni from Brescia and Verona’s Alberto Gilardino. Toni came very close to scoring on a header after only three minutes, and an excellent turn-around shot that was well saved by Schwarzer. Gilardino had a good volley that the Australian goallie also saved. With 0-0 at halftime Italy should probably have been in the lead, but Australia had not played badly.
Five minutes into the second half things changed: Marco Materazzi was given a very harsh red card by the Spanish referee Luis Medina Cantalejo for a tackle on Marco Bresciano. One man down, Italy lost some of its power going forward, and Australia started to dominate possession. However, it proved difficult for the Australians to create chances confronted with the excellent Italian defenders. The FC Basel midfielder Scott Chipperfield had a good shot that was saved by Gianluca Buffon, but otherwise the Asutralians seemed afraid to risk more in attack by opening too much in the back against deadly Italian counter-attacks. Thus, the match went into a relative stalemate and everyone was expecting that the match would end goalless. But in the fourth minute of added time, Fabio Grosso got through on the left side, and entered the Australian penalty box. Lucas Neill tried to tackle rather clumsily and Fabio Grosso immediately let himself fall in the area. Perhaps it was to compensate for the harsh dismissal against Materazzi, but the Spanish referee gave the Italians the penalty kick from a situation that would not normally be given.
Francesco Totti, who had come in to replace Del Piero in the second half, kept his head cool and scored. The referee blew the whistle to end the match a few seconds later. Italy was in the quarter-finals.
Australia was out, but Italy in fact went on to become world champions, after defeating Ukraine, the German hosts, and France in the final. Australia’s feat was in the face of this all the more impressive, and perhaps a premonition of things to come for the “socceroos” (and may I add that they should change this stupid name).

Match Stats:

• 26th June, 2006, Fritz Walter Stadium, Kaiserslautern
• Attendance: 46,000
• Referee: Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain)

Italy-Australia 1-0
Goals:1-0 Totti (pen) (90+5)

Teams:
Italy: Buffon; Cannavaro, Grosso, Gatuso, Zambrotta, Perrotta, Pirlo, Matterazzi (RC, 50), Del Piero (Totti), Toni (Barzagli), Gilardino (Iaquinta)
Australia: Schwarzer; Neill, Moore, Cahill, Culina, Viduka, Grella, Chipperfield, Wilkshire, Sterjovski (Aloisi), Bresciano

On the way to South Africa 2010

After this weekend's interesting qualifiers for the World Cup i South Africa, we had more countries qualify, so that we now know eight of the nations that will surely be in South Africa next year.

The Asian countries qualified in June , and the only pending issue is the match between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, about who will get a play-off match against New Zealand:

• Australia
• Japan
• South Corea
• North Corea

In South America, after defeating Argentina away 1-3 (Argentina's only second home defeat in World Cup qualifiers ever), the five-time champions have qualified:

• Brazil

In the meaintime, Chile and Paraguay are just one step away from qualifying: Chile will be playing Brazil next, while Paraguay will face Argentina. Argentina is still in fourth place, but is increasingly being threatened by the fifth place, where four teams are nevertheless contesting the post: Colombia, Ecuador, Uruguay and Venezuela. The ending of the South American qualifiers will be a drama!

In the CONCACAF region no team has qualified for sure yet. USA defeated El Salvador 2-1, Honduras trashed Trinidad and Tobago 4-1, while Mexico defeated Costa Rica 3-1. After this results, the three teams going to South Africa will surely be either Mexico, USA, Honduras or Costa Rica, while one of these teams will get a play-off match with South America's fifth.

In Africa, the hosts are of course qualified, by one team qualfied this weekend after defating Sudan 2-1, namely the great West African nation of Ghana, who will be going to its second consecutive World Cup:

• South Africa
• Ghana

In the meantime, Ivory Coast is just one match away from qualifying, while Tunisia is also very close to booking their tickets.

In Europe only one team has qualified, as they have been awesome in their group:

• Netherlands

In the meantime however, other teams have been as awesome as the Dutch! The European Champions of Spain have won all their matches, lately 5-0 against Belgium, but are still theoretically not certain to qualify directly. However, with one more victory they will book their tickets. England has also won all matches, and a victory against Croatia on wednesday will put them in South Africa.

France tied 1-1 with Romania in Paris, and it is looking difficult for them to catch Serbia, who can qualify if they defeat France in Belgrade on wednesday.

Going to the World Cup

The weekend has been full of World Cup qualifying action, and we now have some of the first teams who can book their tickets to South Africa: Australia and Japan have won their group 2 of Asia with points against Qatar and Uzbekistan respectively. In UEFA Group 9 the Netherlands 1-2 victory over Iceland means that they are sure to win the group.

In the meantime, other teams took gigantic steps towards South Africa. In group 1 Denmark defeated Sweden, and is now all but certain to be in South Africa. England, under Fabio Capello also looks udefeatable, and took its 6th victory in a row in UEFA group 6.
In the Asian Confederations' Group II, North Corea, who is trailing their southern neighbors in first place, only managed a 0-0 against Iran, and may be looking worried at Saudi Arabia behind them by one point.

In South America the top four teams have taken a solid lead over the fifth team. Brazil took over first place from Paraguay after trashing Uruguay 0-4 in Montevideo, while Paraguay lost at home to Chile. In the meantime, Chile is increasingly looking like a team to watch; with the victory over Paraguay they are solidly on third place, ahead of Maradona's Argentina, who managed a hard-fought and important 1-0 victory over Colombia in Buenos Aires.
The fifth place gives a play-off match against the fourth placed of the CONCACAF region, and is currently held by Uruguay, but closely followed by Venezuela and Ecuador.

In the CONCACAF region Costa Rica and USA (who played last week, with Costa Rica winning 3-1) have taken the lead on first and second place respectively, and seem like the sure teams to make it to South Africa. In the meantime Honduras and El Salvador are fighting for 3rd and 4th places, with Mexico increasingly facing one of its most disappointing qualifications ever after losing to El Salvador 1-2.

The World Cup is underway. Can you feel it?

Yawn!!!

Italy-Australia and Switzerland-Ukraine get the price for the most amazingly boring matches in this World Cup, and certainly score high on the list of all-time most boring matches. What a waste of time!

Italy played boring as usual, and even one man up, the Australians were as much a threat as a lazy koala. In the end, the Italians had their usual luck, scoring on a non-existant penalty, properly taken care of by "Snotti".

Switzerland has become the first team ever to be eliminated from the World Cup, without conceding a single goal. Don't know how much I'd be proud of that one after last night. I counted two chances in the whole match, including extra time! And the Ukranians were no better, pointelssly playing the ball around. I have no idea how deserved it was for the Ukranians to win, but the fact is, that the Swiss certainly do not aim like Wilhelm Tell.

Italy-Ukraine are playing their quarterfinal next Friday evening. Another bore probably - I can't wait to be doing something else...

By the way, below is a very accurate description of the Australia-Italy game (courtesy of http://users.on.net/~billt/italianjob.gif):

Congratulations to Australia, but...

I am a fan of World Cup history. I love when history traditions largely continue - clashes between former foes, and the games of present and former football giants. I even find this much more important in these times, when the quality of many games in the World Cup's are mediocre to say the least - when the really high quality football is played in the top European and South American leagues.

Because of this, I believe there are some teams who simply belong in the World Cup: Brazil, Germany, England, Italy, Argentina, France, Spain... One of the teams belonging to this exclusive group missed their qualification for the 2006 World Cup today: Uruguay lost on penalty kicks in Sydney to Australia, who will be playing their first World Cup since 1974 (in Germany as well).

The Uruguayans have not always been the most entertaining team in the world. Nevertheless, this little country of 3 million is a giant when it comes to football: World Champions in 1930 and 1950, 10 times participants, and mass producer of great players. The last thing is even valid today, and players such as Alvaro Recoba, Marcelo Zalayeta, Diego Forlán, Darío Rodriguez, Marcelo Sosa and Pablo García will all be missed next summer.

In the end however, it is of course the better team who wins. Australia was better after an intense fight over two matches. They deserve to be in Germany - and are probably the more delighted after the arrogance displayed by the Uruguyan coach Fossati before the match. He should be ashamed of representing such a great football nation.

In any case, a Football Giant will be missed.

World Cup 2006 Qualifiers

Three more teams qualified for the World Cup 2006 after yesterday’s qualifiers:

• France: The French destroyed Cyprus 4-0, and with a tie in Switzerland’s match against Ireland, the French swept to top of the group, after much difficulty. First time since 1986 France qualifies “by itself”… (in 1998 they qualified as hosts, and in 2002 as defending champions).
• Serbia-Montenegro: Defeating Bosnia-Herzegovina in the last match, gave the Serbians the top spot in the group in front of Spain.
• Sweden: It was very unlikely that Sweden would not qualify before yesterday's match, even if losing to Iceland at home. However, the strong Swedes won a 3-1 victory, and are now ready for Germany.

With these, 27 teams are now ready for Germany 2006. There are five more teams to go, and they will be found among the following:

• Trinidad/Tobago-Bahrain: This will be the play-off game between the Asian play-off winner and number 4 in the North- Central America zone. I bet Uzbekistan is disappointed it was not them instead of Bahrain, after their victory in the first match was annulled. Instead Bahrain made it through by tying 1-1 away, and getting 0-0 at home.
• Uruguay-Australia: Uruguay made sure they would get the fifth spot in South America, by defeating Argentina 1-0 in Montevideo in their last group match. Australia has never won a play-off against a South American fifth before, and will again have a hard time against the seasoned double-World Champions.

The draw for the European play-offs will be tomorrow (Friday October 14th), but there will be the following teams in the bowl:

• Spain: Will be a hard team for anybody to defeat, but hardly impossible. A 6-0 win over San Marino only gave them second spot after the Serbians.
• Czech Republic: With a resounding 3-0 victory against Finland in their last match, the Czechs squeezed past the Romanians on the second spot.
• Turkey: With a difficult 1-0 away-victory against Albania, the silver-medallists from 2002, grabbed the second spot in front of a disappointed Danish side.
• Slovakia: After a nerve-wrecking 0-0 at home against Russia, the Slovakians got the second spot, and will have another chance at qualifying for their first world cup.
• Switzerland: 0-0 in Ireland was enough for the Swiss to get a play-off match.
• Norway: The Norwegians were in a group which was easily won by Italy. They will surely have their hands full against any coming adversary in the play-off.

The first three teams (Spain, Czechia and Turkey) are all top seeded, and can therefore not draw one another. Any of the three other teams will surely have a hard time against either of them, but it is certainly not impossible!

By November we should know the final list of countries who will fight for the trophy next summer!

Argentina-Tunisia and Germany-Australia

The 2005 Confederations Cup in Germany has just started with two matches.

In the first one, an unconcentrated Argentina side won 2-1 against a Tunisian side that dared too little. However, Argentina has started well, and if they concentrate they should be able to defeat both Germany and Australia. In spite of Germany winning at home, they looked very shaky, particularly in defence; a non-impressive Australia managed to make 3 goals against the hosts. Still, with some beautiful goals by Kuranyi, Ballack, Mertesacker and young Lucas Podolski (according to German TV, the new young pop-star of German football), Germany managed to get their expected victory.

In spite of many goals however, none of the teams were looking overly impressive. Actually, most goals were defence mistakes. Things will have to improve if any of the teams hope to win the tournament. At least it has started well for Argentina and Germany.