Footy Speak

The overly-hyped World Cup draw takes place later, with Ingerlund seeded first but that doesn’t mean they’re guaranteed an easy ride to the second round.The traditional Group of Death could prove haunting for Capello’s men, with a possible line-up including Mexico and Ivory Coast, plus either France or Portugal.

Likewise, the Group of Durge is an option; we’re sure ‘JT’ and ‘Lampsy’ would be grinning from ear to ear with a group schedule including New Zealand, Algeria and Slovenia.

The draw takes place at 5:15pm British time.

Pot 1: (seeds)

South Africa, Germany, Brazil, Italy, Spain, England, Holland, Argentina.

Pot 2: (Asia, Oceania and North/Central America)
Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Mexico, Honduras.

Pot 3: (Africa and South America)
Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria, Algeria, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay.

Pot 4: (Europe)
France, Portugal, Slovenia, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovakia.

Big game tonight guys! I’m really excited – it’s going to be a goal bath, I’m sure. SO sure infact, I’ve placed a £50 bet on there being over 2.5 goals scored, i.e 3 goals, throughout the entirety of the match. That should return me a healthy profit. Anyway, back to the football!?

The main questions being asked before the match kicks off, is, who will start up front for England? Yahoo Eurosport put up a poll the other day, and take a look at the resutlts.

So, Defoe should be starting right? I wish there was a bookies which would take bets on this NOT happening, I’d bet my whole life savings on the fact that Heskey starts. England need someone like Heskey up there, or Crouchy. Why? Because the second Croatia put any pressure on us, we’re going to be blasting the long balls ALL night. I must say, Heskey is rather good at keeping the ball up there. Defoe, on the other hand, is a whole other can of beans.

Anyway, thats it for now. I’m planning on writing my next article on why I think Owen should at least still be in the squad. C’MON ENGLAND!

For me, the most important results of the weekend came in at: Scotland beating Macedonia 2-0, James Mcfadden with a superb goal, Egypt, comming away with a 1-0 win over Rwanda to put their world cup dreams back on track and Portugals 1-1 draw with the up and comming Denmark. Bendtner of Arsenal scored an absolute cracker – viewable below. For Portugal, a late equalizer means they still need to beat Hungary, at home, and away and hope that Denmark falters against lesser opponents.  I really doubt Portugal will make it to the world cup – its a double wamy for England. Cristiano Ronaldo. One of the greatest players of our time, will NOT play at the world cup! On the other hand, England will not go out to Portugal! Score??

I placed £100 bet on Egypt to come through on the night at decent odds. I’m a happy man, although, if Portugal had come through with a win, I would be a MUCH happier man, raking in over £2k in accumulator bets. Frustrating…aye!

Anyway, you can see the updated group tables here:

Africa – http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/africa/standings/index.html

Europe – http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/europe/standings/index.html

Bendtners goal:

Only 10 teams were competing in the Oceania zone, and have only been allotted 0.5 tickets to SA. The winner from this zone will compete with the 5th placed Asian zone team over two legs, for the ticket. The play offs are scheduled to be played on the 10th October and 14th November.

6 tickets have been allotted to the 54 participating teams in the African zone. But only 5 will be up for grabs, as one has been allotted to the host team, South Africa. Of the 53 teams, 33 have already disqualified through round of qualifying. The remaining 20 teams have been divided in five groups and the teams that finishes top will get a ticket to the 2010 finals.

North, Central American and Caribbean zones have a total of 35 teams who will compete for 3.5 tickets to SA. The top 3 finishers will get a ticket to the 2010 finals, but the 4th placed team will contest in another two legged playoff against the 5th placed team from the South American zone. The South American zone has been allotted 4.5 tickets for the 10 teams that fall into the zone. The top four finishers will qualify for the 2010 finals automatically.

A total of 53 teams are in the European zone which is allotted 13 tickets. These teams have been divided in 9 groups. 8 of these 9 groups consist of 6 teams, and the 9th group consists of 5 teams. The top 9 finishers of the 9 groups will qualify for the 2010 finals, the 2nd placed teams from the first 8 groups, will play in a two legged play off with a designated team, the winner of which will qualify for the 2010 finals. As of now only Netherlands has qualified from the European zone.