By SBI SOCCER
While qualification into Europe’s biggest competition winds down, CONMEBOL qualification into the world’s largest stage kicks off Thursday.
Across the pond, qualification for Euro 2016 nears its end, and a few intriguing battles can help some nations claim advancement. Portugal and Denmark face off in an important Group I game. A win for the Portuguese can see them claim the top spot in the group, while the Danes are trying to secure the second automatic qualification spot with Albania right on their tail.
Germany and the Republic of Ireland also meet. The Irish currently hold the third spot in Group D and will want to stay there or improve their position, as Scotland trails closely behind.
In South America, CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying action kicks off, and a monumental battle takes place in Santiago, Chile, as La Roja looks to continue its winning ways against heavyweight Brazil. Many of the region’s best players may miss out on opening day, though, as multiple stars are holding knocks and injuries.
If you will be watching today’s action, please feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Click here for today’s soccer TV schedule):
SOCCER THURSDAY
EURO QUALIFYING
Noon — ESPN3/ESPN Deportes TV — Georgia vs. Gibraltar
2:45 p.m. — ESPN/ESPN3 — Republic of Ireland vs. Germany
2;45 p.m. — Fox Sports 2/Fox Sports Go/Fox Soccer 2Go — Scotland vs. Poland
2:45 p.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go — Hungary vs. Faroe Islands
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3 — Northern Ireland vs. Greece
2:45 p.m. — Fox Soccer 2Go — Romania vs. Finland
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3 — Albania vs. Serbia
2:45 p.m. — ESPN3/ESPN Deportes — Portugal vs. Denmark
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING
4:30 p.m. — beIN Sports en Español — Colombia vs. Peru
5 p.m. — beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español — Venezuela vs. Paraguay
7:30 p.m. — beIN Sports USA — Chile vs. Brazil
8 p.m. — beIN Sports USA/beIN Sports en Español — Argentina vs. Ecuador
NCAA WOMEN
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Syracuse vs. Notre Dame
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Boston College vs. Pittsburgh
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — NC State vs. Florida State
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Virginia vs. Clemson
7 p.m. — ESPN3 — Duke vs. Miami
7 p.m. — Big Ten Network — Ohio State vs. Purdue
7 p.m. — SEC Network + — Auburn vs. South Carolina
10 p.m. — Pac-12 Network — Stanford vs. Oregon State
Wow! Ireland with an epic win indeed! Pity Scotland could not have held on to beat Poland then Ireland would have only needed a draw in Poland. That said,…the boys in green will be fired up going to Warsaw. Sunday,…wow!
Was Scotland’s keeper injured? He looked like both of his hands were broken. The defense on that last free kick was non existent but still he should have been able to get to that “shot”.
Of course, there was a clear handball by a Scottish defender on the play so Poland probably had a penalty anyway.
What a waste of two awesome goals.
don’t forget, a Sunderland player scored a goal… 🙂
EPIC win for Ireland.
How on earth do you guys mess up today’s CONMEBOL qualifiers when you wrote about it just a few hours ago?? http://www.sbisoccer.com/2015/10/qualifying-intriguingly-underway.html No mention of Uruguay v Bolivia. I feel like every week there’s a sloppy mistake here
Virginia v. Clemson is women’s game.
As is the Florida State game. We don’t even have a Men’s team.
ESPN reporting Sunderland not interested in Bradley.
in hindsight, this will be good news
Just playing hard to get
You guys dempsey is 10 goals away from beating donovan’s nT scoeing record
Saturday night would be a good time to pick up his first against Mexico.
It’s mind boggling that for all the scoring that Dempsey had done he has never scored against Mexico. Interesting that LD was always successful against Mexico, I guess speed has always been Mexico’s Achilles heel.
That might because just about every time the US played Mexico LD was there.
I haven”t checked but I’ll bet Dempsey, playing in Europe, has probably missed a few Mexico games . Jozy also missed quite a few.
I would agree. Donovan has played in tons of matches against Mexico and CONCACAF nations
I wonder if teams like australia or japan or south korea have this same problem that we did 5 years ago. Calling in our domestic players for games against our regional competition and allowing our European based players a day off
You are probably correct with friendlies, but I’m sure both Demps and Jozy have been around for the qualifiers at least for the last 2 cycles.
He did miss that penalty.
Agoos,
So what do you think? Was that on purpose to preserve the historic 2-0 dos o cero scoreline?
I can’t believe a scoring freak like Clint would ever intentionally miss a penalty.
Honestly…. I can’t believe any player would intentionally miss a PK for that reason.
That’s what I’m going to tell my future kids.
In reality, he missed, because great players miss from time to time.
I hope Clint breaks Donovan’s record because he’s good and deserving of that. But the Donovan haters need to understand that with assists, Donovan has contributed to more than 100 U.S. goals, an amazing feat that will not be easily surpassed.
and Jozy is only 29 goals away with 7 years to catch up, lol 🙂
although I’m just being silly here, Jozy is technically on pace to just barely beat him if he plays til he’s 32 like LD and CD. roughly 4 goals a year for the next 7 years and he’ll do it.
Lets go Poland. LEWADNDOWSKIA
CAN ANYONE actually remember a time when Scotland was good at football or had actually good players?
Not since “Heed” was blocking his dad,s view of the television during the best scene in the movie”So I Married an Axe Murderer.” “Heed, turn off the Bay City Rollers, the soccer match is starting.”
I’m not kidding, that boy’s head is like Sputnik; spherical but quite pointy at parts! Now that was offside, wasn’t it? He’ll be crying himself to sleep tonight, on his huge pillow.
It’s like an orange on a toothpick.