By DAN KARELL
World Cup qualifying springs back into action on Friday, with no less than 34 matches to be played around the world.
Many of the big powers in European soccer face some of the minnows, including England hosting Moldova, France visiting Georgia, and the Netherlands visiting Estonia. However, there are a few intriguing matchups on tap, with Scotland hosting Belgium, Germany facing their neighbors Austria, and Finland, who drew Spain, 1-1 in Gijon, hosting La Roja.
In South America, Argentina get the matchday off but that doesn’t mean there aren’t good games to watch. AS Monaco duo Radamel Falcao and James Rodriguez look to take Colombia joint top of the table when they face Ecuador at home while Luis Suarez plays his first competitive match since the Confederations Cup, due to his suspension with Liverpool.
Later in the evening, CONCACAF draws the spotlight, especially with a crucial match between Mexico and Honduras at Estadio Azteca, with Honduras threatening to become the first team to beat El Tri in a World Cup qualifier in the famous stadium.
Enjoy the action (Today’s TV schedule is after the jump):
11am – Russia vs. Luxembourg – ESPN3
12pm – Czech Republic vs. Armenia – ESPN Deportes/ESPN3
12pm – Jordan vs. Uzbekistan – One World Sports
2pm – Macedonia vs. Wales – ESPN3
2pm – Malta vs. Denmark – ESPN3
2pm – Turkey vs. Andorra – ESPN3
2pm – Romania vs. Hungary – ESPN3
2:10pm – Latvia vs. Lithuania – ESPN3
2:15pm – Georgia vs. France – ESPN3
2:15pm – Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Slovakia – ESPN3
2:30pm – Finland vs. Spain – ESPN Deportes/ESPN3
2:30pm – Switzerland vs. Iceland – ESPN3
2:30pm – Slovenia vs. Albania – ESPN3
2:30pm – Estonia vs. Netherlands
2:45pm – Republic of Ireland vs. Sweden – GolTV USA
2:45pm – Germany vs. Austria – Univision Deportes/ESPN3
2:45pm – Liechtenstein vs. Greece – ESPN3
2:45pm – Poland vs. Montenegro – ESPN3
2:45pm – Serbia vs. Croatia – ESPN3
2:45pm – Northern Ireland vs. Portugal – ESPN3
3pm – England vs. Moldova – Fox Sports 1/Fox Deportes
3pm – Scotland vs. Belgium – ESPN3
4:30pm – Colombia vs. Ecuador – beIN Sport en Español
6:30pm – Paraguay vs. Bolivia – beIN Sport en Español
8:30pm – Chile vs. Venezuela – beIN Sport en Español
8:30pm – Queretaro vs. Puebla – ESPN Deportes/Azteca America
9:30pm – Mexico vs. Honduras – UniMas/ESPN News
10pm – Costa Rica vs. USA – beIN Sport USA
10:30pm – Peru vs. Uruguay – beIN Sport en Español
Heartbreak form Bulgaria in Palermo today. In a typical fashion, the Italians scored from their only chance on goal and then defended to preserve the lead. Go on youtube and see for yourselves, Buffon made a couple of sick sick sick saves to preserve the 3 points for Italia.
Now: all hell ensues in this group: with Armenia winning consecutively in Praha and Kopenhagen, Bulgaria has nightmarish last 2 games (assuming we win in Valeta, Malta on Tuesday): in Erevan/Armenia and then v. the Czechs in Sofia.
4 teams stuck within 1 point as it stands.
I am devastated about losing to the Italians. Bulgaria deserved at least a point there…
Playing Italy hurts, it always does. I can guess what kind of game it was. They just chipped and fouled and poked their way until time was out. The good news is.
Bulgaria’s future is in their hands. Its not easy but you still have control. Winning 3 is hard though.
Someone singing the national anthem in Colombia. Don’t know if I’ve ever seen that outside the USA and Canada.
In other news, Serbia was eliminated. I wonder is Subotic is rethinking that decision.
Somebody tell me that they watched the end of that Poland – Montenegro match!!!
Nope, but you convinced me to watch the last 5 min. When its on replay.
That was absolutely horrible..I feel bad for Poland.
Yes they did!
It was probably how Ireland felt 4 years ago!
Holy hell, maybe he was off. The keeper moved up but… wow. That’s horrible.
Wait… ref said it was a high kick? Seriously?
van Persie ties it at 2 at 90′ with a PK
Nice to keep the loss off, maybe their heads aren’t really in it now. They are basically qualified at this point but no one wants to lose.
Iceland was down 4-1 to Switzerland and came back to tie the game 4-4. Johannsson’s partner at AZ, Gudmundsson, with a hat trick.
OMG. Iceland with an improbable comeback. Just tied the game up at 4 in exra time. They were down 4-1.
Gudmundsson with a bent in shot from outside the box in extra time.
It was an amazing shot. I think he is on AZ too. Used to play with Jozy.
Portugal is trying to lose to North Ireland too… wow. Red cards can really screw your team…
Northern Ireland felt bad, and got their own red card.
And there we go; CR nets two to put Portugal ahead.
3
Apparently, he had only 1 goal in qualifying till now?
Well he fixed that stat.
what a sick goal by kroos!
Yup, Germany looks like they have a groove now. Have some issues in the box. Reus keeps getting in close and getting blocked out but then again… he had the assist for Kroos.
Dirk Nowitzki and Schweinsteiger are sitting together heh.
Dang, I can’t decide on just 1 game to watch on espn3.
You could use the wraparound: quest to qualify show. It goes from game to game.
It’s been good so far.
Some Alexander guy got 4 goals for Russia. Right Right? Who reads last names?
Armenia leading Czech Rep 1-0 on the road. The frmer MLS player whiffed on a clear chance to go up 2-0.
Where in Houston are people watching the match?
Has anyone ever streamed directly from BEIN network for the US away games?
It is an option?
Ghana just scored to go up 1-0. Final game of that group. Zambia needs a win.
Zambia really blew it by drawing with Sudan at home a few months ago
Was really hoping for some help from Zambia to avoid another potential Ghana debacle next year. Still, they have to win their playoff tie so there’s still hope.
Maybe Bob Bradley and Egypt can do us a favor.
I thought they were out of it. The top team from each group moves on, right?
I did not realize that Jamaica replaced their coach in July and brought in a journeyman German, Winfried Schäfer. He has made some major personnel changes to the team, giving pardons to some guys the previous coach had kicked off the team and bringing in some guys who play in England’s second league, who inexplicably the previous coach had not called up. I had basically counted Jamaica out, but who knows. If they would pull of upsets the next two games, this could get very interesting.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=2155418/
this piece from a Jamaican newspaper is kind of interesting, shows how much they want a miracle.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/Reggae-Boyz-must-fight-for-Jamaica_15008056
Our German is better than your German!
Also
They would have to win every game from here on out… Possible but like… I think they burned most of their home games already.
i haven’t done the math on that, but they are going for 4th place and one article I saw says 3 wins and a draw would maybe guarantee it and with the right equation possibly two wins and two draws, which would only be 10 points. This story shows how tough Panama will be tonight. they want the win bad also.
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/sport/Boyz-training-disrupted-by-explosions-at-stadium
Acutally in that case, its not hugely impossible. Panama will have it tough tonight. Both need to win.
Go Zambia. Would like to see the US’s Kryptonite not make the last round of CAF Qualification.
At 2pm EST, there is “FIFA World Cup Whiparound: Quest To Qualify” show on WatchEspn that’s supposed to be similar to the NFL “Red Zone” show. Should be interesting to check out.
‘world cup whiparound’? that’s the best they could come up with? unless a ‘whiparound’ is some soccer term (sounds british) that i’ve never heard of?
NFL Network called their preseason coverage “NFL Whiparound” also. It was when they tried showing a little bit from each simultaneous game.
Why not keep the “red zone” vibe and call it FIFA “Final Third?”
This definitely sounds better than “whip around”!!!
It is a shame that ESPN3, for whatever reason, is not showing Italia v. Bulgaria from Palermo. This is 1st v. 2nd game. Well, I will watch it on Bulgarian tv…
You mean Italy?
Were you really confused by him using the native name for the country or was your trolling quota falling short?
Was looking at the Concacaf WCQ table and saw that something very interesting could happen for the final game in October when the USMNT plays Panama. If Panama collects some points the next three games and Mexico stumbles, it could end up being a situation that going into the last game Panama will be ahead of Mexico on points with the USMNT already safely qualified. That would mean Mexico would be praying for a USMNT victory over Panama in order to qualify for the World Cup. Can you imagine Mexico cheering for the USMNT?
In this situation I would normally pull for the US to win regardless, but if it means dumping Mexico from the World Cup… Go Panama!!!
If that scenario played out, it would be strangely weird not caring that US lost a WCQ game!!!
I did not realize that Jamaica replaced their coach in July and brought in a journeyman German, Winfried Schäfer. He has made some major personnel changes to the team, giving pardons to some guys the previous coach had kicked off the team and bringing in some guys who play in England’s second league, who inexplicably the previous coach had not called up. I had basically counted Jamaica out, but who knows. If they would pull of upsets the next two games, this could get very interesting.
http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/news/newsid=2155418/
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/editorial/Reggae-Boyz-must-fight-for-Jamaica_15008056
Anyone know a reliable online feed for the game?
Just to be clear The Game I am referring to is USA V Costa Rica.
I always use this site: http://www.frombar.com/
Kazakhstan & Faroe Islands about to kick off!!! Sacrificing a goat in 5….4….3….
last.
Didn’t qualify.
Not even close