WC 2010 Qualification Weekend Preview

After a brief hiatus, World Cup 2010 qualification is about to swing back into action. With the exception of Asia, every confederation will be holding matches in the next week. Most teams will play two games, with the first generally this Saturday and the second on Wednesday.

While all the qualifying games are important, the African qualifiers have perhaps the most significance. These two games represent the last two games of the semi-final round, which will ultimately eliminate over half of the remaining teams and leave five groups of four. Cameroon and Nigeria are virtually assured of advancing, but nearly every other African nation is still fighting for the right to move to the next round. Notable teams looking especially precarious are Angola (WC ’06), Tunisia (WC ’98, ’02, ’06; ’04 Africa Cup of Nations winner) and Egypt (’06, ’08 Africa Cup of Nations winner). Given the convoluted method that the African confederation has chosen for its qualification process, it is virtually impossible to tell which teams will advance until all the games are completed.

CONCACAF is also in action this weekend, and is highlighted by the United States trip to Cuba. USA will also host Trinidad & Tobago. Two other Group 1 games (T&T – Guatemala, Guatemala – Cuba) should serve to provide some separation for the likely second-place finisher, whoever that might be. Expect the teams that performs the best in those two games to ultimately advance to the CONCACAF final round. Other key games include Mexico v. Jamaica (9/6) and Honduras v. Jamaica (9/10). Honduras will need to win at least one of its games (the other is at Canada) if they want to stay alive, after dropping a tough game at Mexico. Costa Rica should easily wins its group, and whoever else advances out of Haiti, Suriname, and El Salvador will certainly finish in last place in the final round.

The majority of soccer fans will be most excited to see the European qualification process get underway, as all teams play two games this week. With a large number of weaker teams and most teams playing ten games, each game has relatively less importance. Barring a few upsets here and there, I expect that the European qualification will proceed as it has for the last several decades. Only two Saturday games are worth mentioning: Israel-Switzerland and Austria-France. A win by Israel would give them a huge edge towards qualification right off the bat (Switzerland and Greece are the only other viable competitors) while France will look to avoid embarrassment on the road against a decent opponent. Wednesday (9/10) offers a little bit more excitement, as France will once again face a tough test, this time on its home soil against Serbia. Croatia hosts England, and you can bet that the English will be eager for some revenge after Croatia eliminated them from Euro 2008 qualifying. Portugal hosts Denmark, which is the only other highlight among a rather drab group of games.

Lastly, CONMEBOL (South America) has a few key games of its own. Argentina-Paraguay is probably the most exciting, but since it’s highly likely that both teams will advance regardless, it shouldn’t impact the overall standings. All eyes will be on Brazil, given that they are currently sitting in fifth place (which would require they to have a play-in against a CONCACAF team) and travel to face Chile on Sunday. Chile currently sits one point ahead of the Brazilians in the standings, so Brazil will be especially anxious to score some points. Another key matchup will be Colombia-Uruguay. Both teams seems to be in a constant battle to be South America’s fifth-best team, and this game could provide some needed separation for one of the sides. With Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil typically dominating South America, Colombia and Uruguay are often left to duke it out for one the remaining slots. Colombia is currently third while Uruguay sits in sixth place, but only two points separate the teams in the standings.

Well, now that you now all the games, good luck trying to watch them on tv. As far as I know, only the USA games will be televised here, unless you get some crazy satellite channels I don't know about. USA-Cuba (9/6) will be on ESPN Classic at 8:00 and USA-T&T (9/10) will be on ESPN2 at 8:00. Enjoy!