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19 confirmed for World Cup 2010
Published by Ian John on October 14, 2009
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As of the results of the past weekend, there are now 19 countries who have confirmed their place in South Africa for the 2010 World Cup Finals. Joining the hosts will be, Mexico, United States of America, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Australia, North Korea, South Korea, Japan, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Spain, England, Italy, Serbia, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay.
The remaining 13 places will be decided over the next couple of months, many tonight which sees a full programme of international fixtures across the globe with many big sides facing an uncertain time as to whether they will qualify.
The biggest story comes from South America where Diego Maradona’s Argentina need a point from their visit to Uruguay to secure at least a play off spot and most likely automatic qualification. A defeat however, combined with a win for Ecuador in Chile, would eliminate Argentina and deprive the finals of the mercurial talents of Lionel Messi amongst many others.
European giants France, Portugal and Russia may have had some good news in that FIFA are set to seed their play off ties against the other play off qualifiers in the European section, however with teams like Slovakia, the Republic of Ireland, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Turkey & Israel all fighting for play off berths, it may not be such an easy ride for the bigger guns of European football.
The finals certainly have a cosmopolitan feel with FIFA keen to introduce more teams from other areas of the world alongside the traditional superpowers of European and South American football. Whether the notion that having say New Zealand or Costa Rica at the finals, while perhaps France, Argentina or Portugal may miss out is a point worth considering. However it does seem harsh to deny younger footballing nations the chance to learn and develop on the world stage, simply because they lack the illustrious history of some other teams who may miss out. Qualification has been earned over a two year period, so any team who is struggling now, really has only themselves to blame.
Brazil and Spain will undoubtedly start the competition as favourites but both have shown frailties of late and the finals next summer look like being, not only the first ever hosted in Africa, but perhaps the most open and evenly contested finals in a long time.
Roll on next summer!
Image curtesy of ***Ib75Darth*** on Flickr.com
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Nabyl Charania on Wed, 14th Oct 2009 6:27 pm
The miracle of Saint. Palermo was unbelievable, Maradona’s celebration afterwards was even more unbelievable…Argentina are hanging on to world cup hopes by a thread….