October 12, 2009
Wednesday is the last day of qualifying games for the World Cup. Here’s a breakdown of the major games that took place this weekend.
EuropeSpain continues to be unbeaten in the qualifying round, defeating Armenia 2-1. Cesc Fabregas and Mata scored for Spain, who has already qualified for the World Cup. Portugal’s defeat over Hungary pushed them up to second place in their table, meaning that if they stay there they will have to play a playoff game in order to qualify for South Africa. They are followed closely by Sweden, who lost this weekend 1-0 to Denmark. Dimitar Berbatov provided Bulgaria’s only goal in their 4-1 defeat to Cyprus this weekend. They have no hope of qualifying for the World Cup. They have 11 points and right above them is Ireland with 17. Oh well. France had a fun 5-0 win over the Faroe Islands and Italy tied Ireland 2-2.
South AmericaArgentina continues to hang on by a thread- they defeated Peru this weekend 2-1 after Martin Palermo and Gonzalo Higuain were able to meet the net once each. They are now in a position of qualify for the WC but have to win on Wednesday or Uruguay could be in a position to bump them out of their spot. Brazil suffered defeat at the hands of Bolivia 2-1 this weekend. Teams visiting La Paz always have problems with the altitude, and that was on Dunga’s (coach of Brazil). Captain Gilberto Silva, Kaka, and Luis Fabiano were absent from the roster due to their inability to deal with the altitude. Brazil has already qualified for the World Cup.
ConcacafThe United States qualified for the World Cup this weekend after defeating Honduras 3-2. Conor Casey had two goals and Landon Donovan had one for himself in this nail-biter.
AfricaChelsea’s Didier Drogba saved the Ivory Coast from defeat today after equalizing Malawi’s goal in the 68th minute. The Ivory Coast are sitting on the top of their table with a comfortable lead over 2nd place Burkina Faso. Cameroon, also in first place in their group, beat Togo 3-0 this weekend.
