The UNITED STATES won a dramatic match 3-2 against home team Honduras. A fantastic save by Tim Howard (stopper for Everton) and a missed penalty by the Hondurans in the latter stages of the match secured a place for the Americans in South Africa with one game to spare. U-S-A! U-S-A!
PORTUGAL, predicted to blast through their group and be booked to the Cup with several games to spare, have performed horribly in the first matches and needed a miracle and a bit o' luck today. With Denmark topping the group and Sweden tied with Portugal for second place, the Portuguese needed a loss by Sweden at the hands of the Danes...they got that. Now, they needed to beat Hungary, who were on their heels in their group...and they got that. Winning 3-0 at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, this match was the first one I've watched where they didn't look like they'd been given Thorazine. Much drama had been in the air since their star, Cristiano, had limped out of a Real Madrid match last week with an ankle injury. He played for 27 minutes against Hungary, assisting on Simao's first goal, then asked to be taken off. He sat on the bench with an icepack on his ankle....hmmmm....I wonder if he will play on Wednesday against Malta? Team Portugal must beat Malta to secure a place in the playoffs. Forca Portugal!!!!
ARGENTINA. Well, they are still alive. I was hoping Peru would end their World Cup bid, as I am NOT a fan of the Three Trolls, Maradroga, Messitroll, and Trollvez. Unfortunately, the Albicelestes pulled off a win against the Peruvians and their Cup hopes have a pulse, albeit a threading one. After the match, which was played in a torrential downpour, the Argie's "leader" Maladroga (as his countrymen call him) slid on his stomach in the mud. He's already dragged his name and his country's national team through the mud, so it was a fitting end. If they fail to qualify, or even if they escape by the skin of their teeth, he may be shown the door by a country tired of his antics.
CAUTION: A SUSANA RANT!
FIFA, the governing body for World Cup soccer, is like every governing body...trying to make a profit. Seeding for group-stage play in the runup to the Cup was done based on past performances of each team. In theory, the number one team in each group should have "given a clinic" to the other members of the group, booked their place long before it became a five-alarm fire situation, and all would be well in the world of soccer. BUT...many of the teams did not leave their underlings crying in pain. Quite the opposite. The likes of Germany, Portugal, France, and Argentina, left it late and find themselves scrambling to make the plane to South Africa. It should be noted that two of the top players in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo (the reigning World Player of the Year) and...*coughs* MessiTroll (yawn) play for teams who have yet to make the finals. With the prospect of a World Cup without "high profile" players like Cristiano and His Royal Shortness, FIFA got a knot in its panties. So what did they do? They decided to change the rules in mid-stream. *rolls out the long-nines and prepares to blast*
THE WORLD CUP SHOULD BE ABOUT THE WORLD, NOT A SELECT FEW DEEMED "WORTHY" BY FIFA. I'm beginning to think FIFA stands for Freaking Inadequate For governing Anything.
They've announced that they will now seed the remaining teams who have failed to qualify on merit and need the playoffs to secure a berth. Portugal, France, Russia, and Greece fall into this category. Exactly what does this mean?
The World Cup qualifying is broken up into groups. UEFA (Europe), Africa, Asia, CONCACAF (includes the US), Oceania, and South America. Within these lie subgroupings. Europe has 53 teams in the final grouping (8 groups with 6 teams each and 1 group with 5). Because of that only the top team in each group is assured an automatic berth in the World Cup. The second-place teams are then put into a playoff for the remaining spots. The second-place team from Group A would play Group B, Group C would play Group D, etc. But with so many high-profile teams now finding themselves in the second spot, FIFA took action to change the rules and say that the teams will be seeded based on their world rankings as of October 16. *shakes head in disgust*. This means that Portugal (WC 2006 semi-finalists and Euro 2004 finalists), Greece (Euro 2004 winners), Russia (Euro 2008 semi-finalists...losing to eventual winner, Spain), and France (World Cup 2006 finalists) will be assured that they don't meet each other in the playoffs. They will instead be pitted against lower-ranked teams. *shakes head in disgust*. This ruling was not instigated before a single team began qualifying for the Cup, but was decided upon at FIFA's meeting on Sept 29th. They were so afraid at losing out on the capital gains of having Cristiano Ronaldo and other notables in South Africa that they panicked. But they panicked at the expense of fairness.
To me, the entire purpose of the World Cup is for each country to field their best team, vie for a place in South Africa and then represent their country well. One need only to watch the Gabon vs. Morocco match (as I did today) to see that their fans think they are just as worthy of a berth as perennial title-contenders Brazil, France, Argentina, and Germany. To these countries, like Gabon, Rwanda, and Sudan, the World Cup presents a chance to forget their daily struggles, which consist of war, famine, and fatal diseases and affords them the hope and pride of competing against and possibly beating a giant like Brazil, or France.
But FIFA, despite their outward goal of bringing the world together, doesn't care if Gabon, Rwanda, and Sudan make it to South Africa, because they don't have notable players on their rosters. The only teams who really matter are the Brazils, Spains, Portugals, Netherlands, etc.
*shakes head in disgust*
Will Cristiano be in South Africa?
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