World Cup Round Up: Sevens are Wild in Asia, More Jack Warner Mischief

The early rounds of World Cup qualifying usually feature their share of mismatches and this tournament’s go around seems to be following the rule. In qualifying in Asia, China beat Myanmar like they were a bunch of defenseless monks and Iraq took the whip to Pakistan. The final score in each contest: 7-0.

Asian qualifying this weekend also saw North Korea lay the smackdown on Mongolia 4-1, Bahrian boot Malysia 4-1, Hong Kong edge Timor-Leste 3-2 and Qatar squeak out a 1-0 win at Sri Lanka. Nary a surprise in any of those results.

Ireland manager Steve Staunton is reportedly on the hot seat, but he does have the backing of at least one fan. Archbishop Sean Brady, the leader of Catholics in Ireland, said he supports Staunton. “You have to stay and be a faithful supporter and not a fair-weather supporter. You have to stay through good times and bad times,” he said. It takes a lot of faith to stay by Ireland these days.

England’s boss Steve McClaren could also be hitting the unemployment line, especially if his country fails to qualify for Euro 2008. They’ll need some help and one side that might be up to the task is Israel, who seemingly play their best football when they have little to lose.

Brazil’s president will be in Switzerland next week when FIFA announces the host country for the 2014 World Cup. Considering the fact that Brazil is the only candidate for the competition, I think it is safe to say that Lula will walk away a happy man even if he doesn’t eat any Toblerone.

Our good friend Jack Warner is back in the news and guess why? He is involved with another scandal. According to former chairman of the Scottish FA, John McBeth, the FIFA VP asked him to add to his ever growing personal bank account. He said: “Trinidad and Tobago came to play Scotland at Hibernian’s ground in Easter Road in Edinburgh. And after the game he asked me to make a cheque out to his personal account for the game. And I said ‘We don’t do that, it should go to the association’. I then found out later that he’d approached several other staff in my organisation – to do exactly the same thing.” Gee, why would Warner ask for a check for his own bank account?

The South African rapper Lucky Dube was an unlucky dude, ending up on the losing end of a drive-by shooting. What does this mean for the 2010 World Cup?

Spanning the blog
* It is all about the young guns (Mexico World Cup Blog)
* Take aways from the World Cup qualifiers (Argentina World Cup Blog)
* Captain Carlos (USA World Cup Blog)
* It is a mess in Canada (Canada World Cup Blog)
* Adios coach Culina (Australia World Cup Blog)

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