NZ goal hero Rory Fallon
In case you missed it, two important soccer things happened overnight. In LA, America’s premier soccer venue went dark twice before the Galaxy defeated Houston 2-0 in Overtime. Secondly, in a game which started three hours later, but finished about the same time, New Zealand defeated Bahrain 1-0 to punch their collective ticket to South Africa. As Georger pointed out in the comments last night, Twitter then saw All Whites explode as a trending topic, leading to some consternation due to incorrectly presumed racism. Imagine if the NZ Badminton team had won something at the same time. The internet may have imploded at that.
Anyway, there are plenty more matches today, some of great importance, some not. Look at the list, then join us in the comments to make laugh on them (Borat reference! It’s 2006 all over again!)
World Cup Qualifying
While most of the world focuses in the two-legged playoffs below, African qualifying also enters its last day with three of the five groups up for grabs. One of those groups will be decided on the pitch (mostly, there’s a scenario where that could end in a further one game playoff), while the other two groups will have plenty of scoreboard watching going on.
All times EST
Group A
10.30 Morocco-Cameroon (10 pts, +5 GD)
10.30 Togo-Gabon (9, +3)
Group B
8.00 Mozambique-Tunisia (11, +4)
8.00 Kenya-Nigeria (9, +4)
Group C
12.30 Egypt (10, +3)-Algeria (13, +7)
Playoffs
11.00 Russia-Slovenia (Setanta)
1.00 Greece-Ukraine (Setanta)
3.00 Ireland-France (Setanta Premium)
3.30 Portugal-Bosnia Herzegovina (Setanta)
9.00 Costa Rica-Uruguay
Friendlies
10.00 Slovakia-USA (FSC)
10.00 Wales-Scotland
12.00 Brazil-England (FSC)
2.45 Italy-Netherlands (GolTV)
4.00 Spain-Argentine (ESPNDeportes)
Where did he hit him, can’t tell in the replay. He just buckled as soon as he rolled over, geez.
To me it seems that Chiellini steps right on his ankles with his studs. Check out around the 22 second mark.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haoGpaWMaww
I wonder if this is reverse kharma for watching “Mafioso” last night and not liking it that much?
In reality, Georger, it wasn’t a dirty tackle by any means. But I’m bitter, drunk, and sick of the rain in Boston. So f**k that guy.
Cant fault that attitude at all.
Alright…who’s the UF tweeter? It’s not enough I have to hear about RVP from every other person I follow? You have to add insult to injury?
It’s PR…I just know it.
Looking forward to this evening…Costa Rica pretty much needs a clean sheet tonight to have any chance to move forward to SA.
Eladio: it was me. It’s tweet-worthy, and we’re a soccer blog! Should we look the other way bc of who’s involved?
I apologize for adding to your pain.
And anyways, Arse are laden with offense-minded talent. They’ll weather the storm. It’s not like you’re Liverpool or anything.
@James: in the immortal words of Cam Neely: You want to kick my dog while you’re here?
So seriously:
It seems that Uruguay getting through to the WC is now a foregone conclusion (cue David Brent), and while FIFA may want to keep their seeding process private, I don’t think there’s any way the pots/seeding WON’T work like this:
Pot 1:
Spain
England
France (too soon?)
Argentina
Germany
South Africa
Brazil
Italy
With 5 UEFA teams in Pot 1, that conveniently leaves 8 UEFA teams in pot 2.
Stupid enter button.
So that leaves:
Conmebol: 3 teams
CAF: 5 teams
Concacaf: 3 teams
AFC: 4 teams
Oceania: 1 team
JESUS! I’m not THAT drunk.
So i don’t think there’s any doubt that Pot 3 will include the remaining 3 Conmebol teams plus the 5 African teams, leaving Pot 4 with Concacaf, AFC, and New Zealand.
I still think we’ll see the group of death as:
England; Portugal;
England, Portugal, Ivory Coast, USA.
And that’s it for me. It’s obvious my ability to post without hitting the “submit” button is only equal to Sarkozy’s ability to monopolize the French media.
Jesus, you ARE that drunk, but I appreciate the effort. I flamed out last night without fighting for that last possible post…
What I tell myself so I can sleep at night:
What incentive does FIFA have left to screw the US? We’ve bought the most tickets for the tournament, so you’d think Sepptic and Jackass Warner would at least want all those free spending Yanks around until the round of 16.
Plus, Ryan, you’d think Sepp would recognize one of his own kind in Sunil
Also, what kind of logic was used to pick Sudan of all places for the Egypt-Algeria playoff?
Was the logic something along the lines of, “Well it’s not like an all out war between two countries’ supporters could make conditions any worse.”?
So, I’m going to see The Damned United this afternoon. That is all. I just thought you should know.