Saudi Arabia played their game away to United Arab Emirates a couple of days early and lost 1-2. So if you were rooting for a Saudi Arabian return to the World Cup things got a whole lot more dicey now.

 

Everything lies on the match between Australia and Japan in Saitama tomorrow. Australia wins or draws and the 9/5 match between Saudi Arabia (16) and Japan (17) becomes winner take all. If Japan wins then things become even more dicey. Even though Saud Arabia would be ahead on goal difference, they have a far tougher match (hosting Japan) than Australia does by hosting Thailand.

Edited August 30, 20177 yr by DJHazey

Got my tickets for Amsterdam on Sunday evening for Holland vs Bulgaria and then back to Dublin Tuesday for Ireland vs serbia - excited!!

Everything lies on the match between Australia and Japan in Saitama tomorrow. Australia wins or draws and the 9/5 match between Saudi Arabia (16) and Japan (17) becomes winner take all. If Japan wins then things become even more dicey. Even though Saud Arabia would be ahead on goal difference, they have a far tougher match (hosting Japan) than Australia does by hosting Thailand.

 

It has indeed panned out the latter way! I'm pleased, as it means Japan is now home and dry, and it still looks pretty good for Australia to make it as long as Japan can help them out against the Saudis.

It's perfectly feasible to see a 1-0 Saudi win against Japan and if that's the case Australia would need to win 3-0 vs. Thailand. They are two goals behind right now.

 

Saudi Arabia is lucky to be home and will want that home crowd rockin' against a Japanese squad that won't be playing for anything.

A bit of a shocker as Uganda downs Egypt 1-0 in Kampala today which means Egypt no longer has an easy road and if Ghana gets their footing, well we've all seen this scenario play out before...

 

Uzbekistan's loss to China was a heartbreaker but they can still qualify by beating South Korea at home in the final match and hope Iran takes care of Syria (who are now tied for 3rd place in the group and ahead of Uzbekistan on goal diff.)

Japan always flatter to deceive at the finals, but well done to them. Australia looked limited at the Confed Cup so might be good to see the Saudis back... they're good value either way!

Which countries are looking to book their qualification over the next week? I'm normally not a fan of international breaks but this break and the one after that will have more purpose behind it than usual.

Comsumary finish for Egypt as usual then!.

 

Impress at the AFCON, flop in WC Qualifying!. Always the same old teams from Africa also!. This is like the UCL with the same familiar semi-final line-up year in year out due to the formatting never changing (CAF qualifying has been the same format since France 98 qualifying also).

 

Is there a chance Uganda can make it instead?. I hate a World Cup in which every single team have been there before, its what made the 2014 tournament so cr@p (plus a few other reasons), although it was on a technicality involving Slovakia continuing on Czechoslovakia's record.

We'll have at least two different African teams as 3 of 2010/4's 5 (not counting South Africa) are in the same group and only the winner makes it. And I think it's still going to be a long road back for Ghana, but I couldn't say which of the three in that group will make it.

 

Group A will give us a team that hasn't shown since at least 2006 no matter what.

 

I feel like this week will mainly just confirm most of Asia if I'm reading my maths right. Maybe Mexico and a couple of the Europeans that are pulling ahead, Poland with the biggest gap between them and their chasers looks likely.

Looks like both AFCON finalists won't qualify!.

Uganda qualifying is still a long shot as their remaining matches are at Egypt, home vs. Ghana, and away to Congo. I'm betting Egypt will throttle them in Alexandria.

 

 

Right now if you had me choose the five African teams that will qualify based on the current standings and remaining matches, they would be: Congo DR, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Egypt

 

 

As far teams that can clinch this week (mathematically but some are long shots):

 

 

Africa: Nigeria, Ivory Coast

Asia: South Korea, Uzbekistan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, Australia, UAE

CONCACAF: Mexico, Costa Rica

South America: Colombia, Uruguay, Chile

Europe: Switzerland, Germany, Poland, Belgium

 

 

 

Thanks again for doing this, DJHazey.

 

Holland in real of danger of missing out on the World Cup, now 4th in the group and behind Sweden and Bulgaria after a 4-0 defeat.

It's all to play for nowadays Holland have to win on Sunday - the Amsterdam Arena could be a bit down!!

England's match was a bit of a chore to watch until the last 5 minutes, not a great match but they could have scored more, need to win on Monday

Eh, it was a job well done in the end. Only turned on the last 10 minutes mind so I got lucky! Added a bit of gloss to the scoreline,

 

Win on Monday & that's the group sewn up.

Eh, it was a job well done in the end. Only turned on the last 10 minutes mind so I got lucky! Added a bit of gloss to the scoreline,

 

Win on Monday & that's the group sewn up.

I can safely say that you missed almost nothing. Overall, the match was truly dire.

Good idea that competition, gets rid of the pointless friendlies. Bet England will still draw the joke teams in qualifying rounds for the WC, seeing the NL also is used for Euro Champs qualification.

It is undeniable that England have had some pretty easy draws in recent qualifiers. Unfortunately, I think that works against us when we get to the final tournament. After breezing through the qualifiers it comes as a real shock to come up against some decent opposition. A more testing group might make us better prepared for the finals (as long as we still get there).

At least England qualify for every tournament, not every national team can say that I suppose, although the following summer we get laughed at by the media as soon as we are out.

 

Totally awful tonight, made the scoreline flatter us, Southgate says Hart is England's best goalkeeper (let in 11 in 3 games and not one save to make tonight), while an idiot tweets "What's wrong?, easy-peasy England". Its attitudes like this that cause delusion and no forward progress in improvement. The passing in the first half was almost non existent in terms of being actually any good.

Edited September 1, 20177 yr by LadyLea

Glenn Hoddle talking absolute nonsense as usual when asked if we should try and play a team similar to that we'll use against better opposition. "No, you play the team that gets you the three points".

 

We've had such a problem in the past that we expect the England team and squad to be automatically comprised of whichever English players are in good form at the time. I understand that big team bias is still very much in effect, but establishing a regular side and making sure they get used to playing together is absolutely essential for international football these days.

 

Not that any of this has much impact on the Malta game.

When will ITV stop using that ancient Verve/Rolling Stones rip off song as break bumpers and the intro?. Their stubbonness not to change it is just like the FA's stubborness in employing Yes-Men to the England job all the time.

Edited September 2, 20177 yr by LadyLea