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Road to South Africa – World Cup 2010
Published by Andrew Reilly on March 30, 2009
Are you a soccer fanatic? Do you have strong opinions about the game? Think you have the chops to write about it? Contact Us then...International double headers come thick and fast with some of the national teams regretting the lack of time to reshape their team after injuries, suspensions or morale sapping defeats.
England may have lost Emile Heskey and Carlton Cole with doubts remaining over the fitness of Peter Crouch but still there is no room for Michael Owen. This has immediately got the English media worked into frenzy about the possibility of Owen’s international career being over but given that David Beckham has battled back from the soccer wilderness of the USA, it is too early to rule anyone out of the England set-up. Andriy Schevchenko will no doubt be hoping to return to London and cause some pain in the country where he failed to settle but Wayne Rooney will be hoping to continue the fine form he showed at the weekend to maintain Fabio Capello’s winning streak in competitive matches.
Scotland may have suffered an expected defeat in Holland but George Burley will be cheered by a number of issues. The match against Iceland could well see Alan Hutton and Stephen McManus return to the starting line-up and the trip through Duty Free on the way back from Holland would have allowed Burley to replenish his ever diminishing drinks cabinet. It is just as well that Burley gets this opportunity because regardless of the positive talk emanating from the Scottish camp, they are unlikely to be going to South Africa in 2010 but where there is hope, the Scottish fans will keep on believing. Scotland have already defeated Iceland in this campaign so another three points is crucial to any slim hopes the Tartan Army have to take their unique sense of “fun” to South Africa.
England and Scotland may share the oldest rivalry in international football but it would take a brave or foolish person to indicate it was the greatest rivalry on the world stage. English fans will cling to the belief that their battles against Germany are watched the world over with intrigue but for the majority of fans, the fortunes of Argentina and Brazil are the most interesting confrontation. Before both teams played their matches, the rivalry between Pele and Maradonna was kicked-off again with both having a little bit too much to say for themselves. Maradonna got the better of the argument with his insinuations about Pele’s interesting history and the modern great had the better of things on the park too.
Argentina finally returned to winning ways in qualifying competition with a thumping 4-0 victory over Venezula with Lionel Messi once again running the show. A potentially hazardous trip to Bolivia awaits Argentina on Wednesday but if they manage to retain the form from the weekend, they should take a large step to booking their trip to South Africa next year. For many people, a World Cup isn’t the same without Argentina or Brazil and although Brazil will likely still be there, they yet again struggled on the road.
Brazil have never looked comfortable at altitude which means that a trip to Ecuador is never pleasant for the football greats. Things looked like changing as Brazil led with a minute to go but yet again, the same old failings struck as the home team snatched an equaliser to slow down Brazils path to the World Cup and heap more pressure on national coach Dunga. A home match against bottom side Peru should give Brazil the opportunity to get back to winning ways but if they don’t, expect the calls for Dunga to be replaced to ring out all across Brazil.
** Picture courtesy of Scarlet Rose**
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Nabyl Charania on Tue, 31st Mar 2009 2:12 pm
Argentina’s thumping of Venezuela was impressive as was the play of Messi, Aguerro and Tevez. Brasil as usual was mediocre as they usually are in qualifying, Dunga must be worried
Andrew Reilly on Tue, 31st Mar 2009 5:20 pm
Brazil really struggle at that altitude though, its probably a psychological thing now given the amount of moaning they have done in recent years about it.
If they fail to beat Peru on Wednesday then Dunga probably won’t last much longer. They should win though…
Nabyl Charania on Thu, 2nd Apr 2009 2:31 pm
I guess we spoke to soon about Argentina, the 6-1 drubbing by Bolivia put an end to the praise we were heaping upon them for beating Venezuela…