by GIANFRANCO PANIZO
Brazil and Ghana were the latest teams to book their place in next year's World Cup, posting wins over the weekend to make the picture of which teams will be in South Africa a little clearer.
Brazil became the first team from CONMEBOL to secure its place by disposing of arch-rivals Argentina, 3-1. Luis Fabiano's brace coupled with a Luisao goal were enough for Brazil to reach its 19th World Cup.
Ghana also earned a berth by becoming the winner of Group D in CAF's qualifying campaign. The Black Stars defeated Sudan, 2-0, courtesy of goals from Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari on Sunday.
Brazil and Ghana join hosts South Africa, Japan, Australia, Korea Republic, Korea DPR and the Netherlands in the already-qualified group.
But with another round of qualifiers set to be played Wednesday, more teams are expected to clinch their spots this week.
Just some of the teams on the brink of clinching spots are England, Serbia, Chile and Paraguay. A win for any of those teams and they will secure passage to next summer's prestigious tournament.
Who do you see qualifying next? Is Brazil the favorite to lift the World Cup trophy? Think Ghana has a shot to go far?
Share your thoughts below.
How has Germany not qualified yet? They usually wrap that up in fairly short order.
I think they will be a ‘sleeper’ team in the WC. They were European runners up and think they have a few tricks in the bag.
Plus they are Germany and always seem to find a way into at least the semis where anything can happen.
Ives, wut happened to your south american summarys. You missed some good games.
Imagine if Yugoslavia was still a country. Good thing for everyone else they broke up. Serbia, Bosnia and Croatia are all pretty decent teams.
I think England and Serbia will clinch this week, while France will be in second place and qualify through the playoffs.
I hope Scotland can find a way to beat the Dutch and get to the playoffs…I remember the Scots in 1998 and World Cups are better when they’re there.
In Africa, Ghana and the Ivory Coast seem to be the head of the class…I believe they are the two African nations who will make some noise. I believe an African team will definitely make it to the quarterfinals, likely farther, and I believe one of these two teams will do it. Not to say Cameroon/Gabon, Algeria/Egypt, or Tunisia/Nigeria won’t…
Ivory Coast has an awesome squad.
CONMEBOL is the best to watch – exciting games everywhere – several teams have must-wins in order to make it. oh man i hope Colombia makes it, and of course Argentina to see Messi (after sacking Maradon the Maniac).
Brazil. wow. i must say i can see now what Ives said in his recent Soccernet article about how Boca got schooled in 2 recent games, but he was playing against the best in the world i.e. Maicon. that puts it into perspective cuz i wasn’t happy at all with Boca’s performance. still, i’d like to think Gooch would have done better.
Oh, New Zealand possibly as well. That would be a full forth of the bracket. Unlikely, but possible.
It really pains me that Scotland and Norway can’t both go through.
Still, I it’s quite welcome that several of the home nations are looking like qualifying. England, both Irelands AND Scotland going through would be pretty wild. Throw in the host, USA, and Australia and you’re looking at a regular party of English speaking nations.
Also, Ivory Coast is in. Burkina Faso isn’t mathematically eliminated, but for all intents and purposes, they are. They are 6 points behind with 2 matches to go. First of all, Ivory Coast won’t be losing to both Malawi and Guinea, but if that miraculously happened, Burkina Faso also has a 15 goal differential to make up in those final two games. That ain’t gonna happen.
The only thing left in that group to play for is the battle between Malawi and Guinea for third place and an African Cup of Nations spot.
“England Denmark will both qualify this week.”
Not Denmark. Not on Wednesday, anyway. They should beat Albania, but Sweden should also beat Malta, keeping Sweden 5 points behind Denmark with 2 matches to go. Also, if Hungary beats Portugal, they will still be within 4 points of Denmark, and within 6 with a tie, leaving them still mathematically in the chase for top spot (though with no realistic hope of getting there). Denmark will likely win the group, but not on Wednesday.
UEFA Group 1 is immensely fascinating. Three teams have a legitimate shot of getting that second place spot, but all three are in danger of being the odd team out of the play-off spot. If qualifying ended right now, Hungary would be the 9th ranked team of all of the second place teams, and therefore eliminated. Portugal has as many “meaningful” points right now as Hungary. Sweden is in slightly better position, but still low (they’d be the 8th ranked runner-up right now if they held second place in Group 1).
Basically, all three teams are not only fighting for second place in the group, but also desperately need to pick up as many points as possible in the final three games. Hurting Sweden and Portugal’s chances is the fact that they BOTH play Malta one more time, a game which does nothing to help stake their claim as one of the top 8 runners-up.
Like I said, immensely fascinating group. Group 3 is very similar, too. More than likely, the runner-up in either Group 1 or 3 will be the odd team out.
Yeah, Egypt and Nigeria are in major trouble. Their positions are immensely worse than the US’s.
Don’t feel too bad U.S. fans. There are a lot of usually strong teams in serious danger of not qualifying for the World Cup.
Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, France, Argentina (in better shape with Ecuador’s loss but can’t afford to slip up again), Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt
maradona is going to bring in an assistant coach that worked with basile before. So it should help with the tactical side of things for this wednsdays match and upcoming matches.
DC Josh, it’s not hard to imagine just because France has one of the oldest national team in the World and because Portugal has just Cristiano Ronaldo, and just him. The others are median-level, and combined with a poor coaching, they won’t be in South Africa.
Argentina have good talents, but a very very poor coach. Maradona doesn’t know nothing about tatics.
France and Portugal may not be in next year’s World Cup. That is very hard to imagine.
Ives, you can also put the US on the list of teams booking their trip. They have at least 6 points in the bag.
I agree Tevez is crap. Aguero and Higuain are what Argentina needs.
@julio, Ghana has the talent to at least make the round of 16.
It’s also time to give up on Tevez at the national team level. While you have to appreciate his work rate, his strike rate is what counts and it’s simply not good enough when he’s playing for the national side.
Don’t know how good Ghana is to be a serious Contender but I can bet you F. Adu wishes he was with Ghana. Last WC, the coach guranteed him a starting role on the team (more for publicity and $$$ Ghana jerseys) but I know he would not be good enough to hold a starting role with the black stars (no pun intended).
@Jig,
Perfect lineup. Aguero and Higuain up top. Little man and big man. But i’m sure Higuain won’t get a look until they miss out of the World Cup. How can the guy score nearly 20 goals in his last 2 seasons at RM and still not get a call up?
I don’t understand why Maradona has gotten away from the mascherano-gago pairing in central midfield. play those two in the middle with maxi and messi on the flanks, and aguero paired with higuain/milito up top.
Hey Ives so you watch NCIS? Fabulous tv show.
@peterhomer
They play a 4-4-2 and it really is down to maradona being a bad manager.
I wish Fernando Torres is the top scorer in the next World Cup. Let’s say 6 goals.
No Ronaldo for the World Cup.hahahaha yeahhhh 😀
No Messi for the World Cup makes me sad. They have 1 of the best teams, so whats the problem? Messi, Tevez, Aguero, Lisandro Lopez, Higuain.
anyone know their preferance? 1 striker up top with 2 wingers or 4-4-2?
World Cup final – Spain vs Brazil.
I predict it now. Best final since the 1998 World Cup.
USA, England, Denmark, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain, Australia and Ghana will all make the quarter-finals. I’m taking bets right now.
Any chance France may not be in this World Cup? They will have to go through the play offs. Ireland for sure will qualify. They are playing great football.
England Denmark will both qualify this week.
The US let Brazil win the Confederations Cup so that they would have a chance of winning the World Cup (no team winning the Confederations Cup has ever won the following World Cup).
I think England will qualify this week and the English fans will have too much time to raise their expectations way to high and they will succumb to some body part of god and be disappointed.
ussoccer tweet: “Jay DeMerit is returning to England after #USMNT staff determined a groin strain meant he would not be available for Wednesday’s game…”
looks like it’ll be Gooch and Boca in the middle with Dolo and Spec out wide.
The US are clearly favorites to win the world cup.