(*it’s the opposite of Offside Rewind)

FRANCK FIFE/AFP/Getty

Rather than looking back at the week that was, let’s look forward to this weekend’s World Cup qualifying games by linking up all the WorldCupBlog previews…

Previewing the six World Cup playoffs…
… and the World Cup qualifying finale in Africa
Egypt gets ready for Algeria
While Algeria gets ready for Egypt
Richard [...]

It’s the World Cup 2010 qualification finale in Africa this weekend, with three spots at the big show still up for grabs. South Africa are qualified as hosts. Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire join them having already won Groups D and E respectively.
That leaves three groups undecided with just one round of games to go, and [...]

With 23 nations already qualified for World Cup 2010, there are just nine places in South Africa still up for grabs. Three of those will be decided when African qualifying concludes tomorrow. But that’s a separate post. The six other qualifiers will be decided by playoffs, starting tomorrow.
There are eight European teams competing for four [...]

ESPN has taken more than their fair share of stick for their football/soccer coverage, and for good reason. They’re American (despite dubbing themselves The Global Leader) and, by and large, they do American sports well. Others: not so much.
But they’ve gone off-script with their latest venture, the Soccer Power Index, designed to render World Cup [...]

This seems almost impossibly unimportant following the sad news of Robert Enke’s passing, but Cristiano Ronaldo will now definitely miss both legs of Portugal’s World Cup 2010 playoff vs Bosnia-Herzegovina (November 14th and 18th). The story had been steadily building into the club vs country smackdown to end all club vs country smackdowns, with Real [...]

Move aside Bafana Bafana. The world has a new favourite South African team, and their name is Vakhegula Vakhegula, which means “Grannies” in the local Xitsonga dialect. Why? Because they’re a team of grandmothers of course, ranging in age from 40somethinng to 80something and competing in an eight team local league in around the Nkowankowa [...]

There was a time when the names Diego Armando Maradona, Carlos Bilardo and the Argentine National team were synonymous with success. The magical run to the 1986 World Cup made both men house hold names in the sport, and heroes back home.
Boy, does that seem like a life time ago.

Big day for the big guns today. Italy booked their tickets to the big party in South Africa next summer, with a draw against the Republic of Ireland (who now are guaranteed a spot in the playoffs). A late, late Alberto Gilardino goal denied Ireland a famous victory, and gave Italy [...]

That goal could prove to be pretty important in terms of World Cup Qualifying. Egypt needed a win to stay in the hunt for 2010, and they got that win thanks to that fabulous strike. What it means, is that there will be a HUGE match between Egypt and Algeria on Wednesday. [...]

So a lot of the talk this week has been all about how we might be witnessing a World Cup in 2010 without Cristiano Ronaldo, or for that matter Lionel Messi. Its pretty unthinkable to imagine a World Cup without the two best players on the planet, but it could happen.
And while both Messi [...]