This weekend in the world of Soccer, a lot of national Teams faced each other since it was "International Break" otherwise known as "snoozefest". Some of them were friendlies and as usual, England's national team showed off how overrated they are by losing to Chile 2-0. But there were also some World Cup Qualifying Matches going across the globe on Friday and Saturday. Here is a quick roundup of those matchups from each continent (except Antarctica of course)
Europe
(Qualification Play-off Matches) 1st Leg
Portugal vs Sweden: 1-0
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| Ronaldo scored a Crucial Goal for Portugal |
In the game of Cristiano Ronaldo vs Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo scored the only goal for Portugal to seal a 1-0 win in the first leg of the series. Portugals team which consists of Pepe, Fabio Coentrao, Ricardo Costa, Meireles, Ronaldo, Nani, Postiga and Almeida seem to be far more superior than Sweden's team that heavily relies on Ibrahimovic's talent. Although Sweden plays the second leg at home and although Zlatan's goalscoring record in Stockholm is pretty impressive, I see Portugal going through on a 1-0 aggregate score.
Ukraine vs France: 2-0
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| Koscielny's Red Card proved costly for France |
Im obviously not Irish, but ever since the incident where Thierry Henry's handball against Ireland helped France qualify for the world cup in 2010, the gods decided to punish the French. Whats worse, they absolutely stunk up the joint in the world cup in 2010 with fights in their training camp and some awful performances in the group stage. Ukraine showed in this game that they were no pushovers whatsoever and Ribery looked a shadow of himself for the entire match. koscielny's red card didn't help things either. With a fresh breed of players and some really good football, Ukraines team will be a treat to watch in Brazil at 2014. I dont see France making a comeback in the second leg despite playing at home.
Other playoff matches:
In the other two qualifying matches in Europe, Greece beat Romania 3-1 and the tie between Iceland and Croatia ended 0-0. I cant really comment much on these matches but my prediction will be that Croatia and Greece will book their flights to Brazil after the second leg.
Africa
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| Didier Drogba |
In Africa this weekend, the Ivory Coast and Nigeria qualified for the World cup after beating Senegal and Ethiopia respectively. The Ivory Coast, who have long been known to be chokers when it comes to the big matches (see: San Jose Sharks), managed to hang on to defeat Senegal after Senegal nearly came back with a aggregate score of 3-2 in the second half. The Ivory Coast obviously have Didier Drogba, who will be a force no doubt for the team in what will probably be the last world cup for the Chelsea legend. Ivory Coast also consists of Kolo Toure the Liverpool man, Salomon Kalou and the force in the midfield that is Yaya Toure. Nigeria also have a good core of players which includes Victor Moses, John Obi Mikel, Victor Obinnia and Shola Ameobi (Just kidding on the last one).
Other Notable Friendly matches
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| Sanchez nets a goal for Chile against England |
There were quite a number of friendlies that were going around this weekend which included England losing to Chile at Wembeley where they were booed off (since everyone knows what to expect in the World Cup).The best that anyone can expect from England is a place in the quarterfinals, and even that might be quite lofty. The Netherlands played Japan for a 2-2 tie, Wales and Finland also drew 1 a piece and the United States drew with Scotland in Glascow.
Upcoming World Cup Qualifying Matches
Africa will have another representative for the World cup at the conclusion of Cameroon vs Tunisia which is scheduled for Sunday. Egypt and Ghana square off along with Algeria vs Burkina Faso on Tuesday for the last 2 berths for the World cup from Africa. In Europe, the second leg matches will be played on Tuesday (November 19th) to wrap up the last 4 representatives from the European region. And for a berth between the Asian and North American region, Mexico will square off against New Zealand on Tuesday in the battle for sealing a berth for the 2014 World Cup, the first leg being in Auckland, New Zealand (how Mexico did not qualify directly in the easiest qualifying region in the world, I really dont know). I will have more on that, and on all the other friendlies after Tuesday.
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| Zlatan vs Ronaldo. Who will prevail in the Second Leg? |
Looks like the Portugal - Sweden game was anything but a 1-0 aggregate final score, brilliant game seeing two of the world's best going at it. I must say that I'm very sad to see Ibra not part of next year's World Cup :(
ReplyDeleteYeah really, I did not see such an epic match coming at all. And it was a all ronaldo vs Ibra show throughout just like it was promoted. This was probably Ibras last chance to get into a world cup, unfortunately.
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