Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Wednesday's World Cup Qualifying

Here are the World Cup qualifying matches which will be played today.

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying
HOW IT WORKS
They are currently in the first round of qualifying. Winners advance to the second round of qualifying which is just a two legged affair against another country. The third round contains 3 groups of 4 teams. The two best teams from each group advance to the final round. In that final round 3 of the top 6 advance to the World Cup. The 4th place team plays a team from South America in a two-legged affair to see who goes to the World Cup.
TODAY'S MATCHES
There are 10 matches today. They are mostly second legs and the numbers in parenthesis is the score of the first leg. Some of the teams are only playing one leg because they skipped the first leg for some reason. Those matches obviously won't have scores in parenthesis.

Barbados (1) vs. (1) Dominica: The winner faces the United States in the next round on June 15 in California. The second leg will be sometime between June 18 and 21 in out opponents country.
Belize (3) vs. (1) Saint Kitts and Nevis: The winner takes on Mexico in the next round.
St. Lucia (1) vs. (2) Turks and Caicos Islands: The winner faces Guatemala.
Netherlands Antilles (0) vs. (1) Nicaragua: The winner faces Haiti.
Antigua and Barbuda (3) vs. (0) Aruba: The winner faces Cuba.
Bahamas vs. British Virgin Islands: This is the first leg and the second leg is being played on March 30. The winner faces Jamaica.
Grenada vs. US Virgin Islands: There was no first leg played. The winner plays Costa Rica.
Puerto Rico vs. Dominican Republic: No first leg was played. This will be interesting. The winner faces Honduras.
Montserrat vs. Suriname: There was no first leg played. Montserrat is the lowest ranked team in the world. The winner faces Guyana.
Anguilla (0) vs. (12) El Salvador: That is not a typo. El Salvador won the first leg 12-0. The winner (gee, I wonder who that will be?) face Panama.

So to simplify it the US has to:
1. Beat Barbados or Dominica.
2. Finish top 2 in a group that is likely to have the US, Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba.
3. Finish top 3 in a group that will probably include the US, Guatemala, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama.

Asian Football Confederation World Cup Qualifying
HOW IT WORKS
They are currently in the third round which consists of 5 groups of 4 teams. You play each team in your group twice and the top 2 teams advance. They will then go into 2 groups of 5. You play all teams in your group twice and the top 2 from each group qualify for the World Cup.
TODAY'S MATCHES
All of the teams are in action today.
Group A
China 0 vs. 0 Australia: In the 89th minute Australia's keeper Mark Schwarzer fouled Qu Bo in the box and a penalty was called. But the Middlesbrough keeper saved Shao Jiayi's penalty kick and the match ended in a draw.
Qatar vs. Iraq
Group B
Thailand vs. Oman
Bahrain vs. Japan
Group C
North Korea 0 vs. 0 South Korea: This must have caused a lot of controversy.
Turkmenistan vs. Jordan
Group D
Uzbekistan 3 vs. 0 Saudi Arabia: I am happy to see an Arab absolute monarch lose to a country I have trouble spelling.
Singapore vs. Lebanon
Group E
Syria vs. UAE
Kuwait vs. Iran

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