World Cup Round Up: A Canceled Qualifier, Aragones Rips Raul

A World Cup qualifying match between New Zealand and Fiji is usually a low-key, anonymous occasion where the All Whites win and the rest of the world hardly hears about it. Not this go around. Politics have entered the fray and as a result the overloads at FIFA have decided they’ve had enough. They’ve canceled the tilt just one day before it was scheduled to take place because of a visa row. That should make the second leg in Fiji on Wednesday rather interesting.

He is the master of the outspoken and often misguided opinion. Spain boss Luis Aragones has somehow managed to hold onto his job despite delivering poor results on the pitch and despite making many enemies. Today he targeted his country’s forward Raul who hasn’t been called up for Spain for over a year. Aragones is right to leave Raul off his list, his country simply has better players at the position than the Real Madrid player, but he shows an incredible lack of tact insulting a guy who has busted his ass for his country over the years.

Sepp Blatter is hellbent on changing the way the locales for future World Cup competitions are selected and he reiterated that point on Friday. The Seppster knows that if countries get into bidding wars that can only further line the pockets of himself and his FIFA cronies. He won’t mention that, of course.

History will be in the making on Saturday when two teams square off knowing full well they ain’t going to make the World Cup in 2010. Madagascar play host to the Comoros Islands, who are making their World Cup qualifying debut. The return leg will mark the first international football match ever played in Comoros. If you give me a plane ticket, I will cover it for you. I hear the beaches are quite lovely there.

It is more than time to get the party started in South America.

Spanning the Blog

* Who will start against the might Faroes? (France World Cup Blog)
* And who will start against the tricky Chileans? (Argentina World Cup Blog)
* Georgia is a state of mind (Italy World Cup Blog)
* Who will feature for Canada in 2010? (Canada World Cup Blog)
* They’ll need to pull out all the stops against my beloved Kazakhstan (Poland World Cup Blog)

Hey, we’ve got a new look to World Cup Blog and the capacity to add more blogs. If there is a national team that you are passionate about and you think it would be fun to blog about them, get in touch.

Upcoming Games
Cambodia v Turkmenistan
-Sat Oct 13
Uzbekistan v Chinese Taipei
-Sun Oct 14
Madagascar v Comoros
Macau v Thailand
-Wed Oct 17
Kyrgyzstan v Jordan

CONMEBOL World Cup Qualifier
-Sat Oct 13
Uruguay v Bolivia
Argentina v Chile
Ecuador v Venezuela
Peru v Paraguay
-Sun Oct 14
Colombia v Brazil
-Tue Oct 16
Venezuela v Argentina
-Wed Oct 17
Bolivia v Colombia
Paraguay v Uruguay
Brazil v Ecuador
Chile v Peru

African Nations Cup Qualifier
-Fri Oct 12
Togo v Mali
Sierra Leone v Benin
-Sat Oct 13
Mauritania v Burundi
Egypt v Botswana
Sierra Leone v Guinea-Bissau

Oceania World Cup Qualifier
-Sat Oct 13
New Zealand v Fiji
-Wed Oct 17
Fiji v New Zealand

Euro 2008 Qualifier
-Sat Oct 13
Poland v Kazakhstan
Belgium v Finland
Azerbaijan v Portugal
Armenia v Serbia
Italy v Georgia
Faroe Islands v France
Moldova v Turkey
Hungary v Malta
Slovakia v San Marino
Croatia v Israel
Iceland v Latvia
Slovenia v Albania
Romania v Netherlands
Scotland v Ukraine
England v Estonia
Belarus v Luxembourg
Liechtenstein v Sweden
Cyprus v Wales
Ireland Republic v Germany
Denmark v Spain
Greece v Bosnia-Herzegovina
-Wed Oct 17
Kazakhstan v Portugal
Belgium v Armenia
Azerbaijan v Serbia
Ukraine v Faroe Islands
Georgia v Scotland
Turkey v Greece
Malta v Moldova
Bosnia-Herzegovina v Norway
Macedonia FYR v Andorra
Russia v England
Ireland Republic v Cyprus
Liechtenstein v Iceland
Denmark v Latvia
San Marino v Wales
Luxembourg v Romania
Sweden v Northern Ireland
Netherlands v Slovenia
Germany v Czech Republic
Albania v Bulgaria
France v Lithuania

International Friendlies
-Sat Oct 13
El Salvador v Costa Rica
Switzerland v Austria
-Sun Oct 14
Mexico v Nigeria
Honduras v Panama
Senegal v Guinea
-Tue Oct 16
Qatar v Iraq
-Wed Oct 17
Mexico v Guatemala
Finland v Spain
El Salvador v Trinidad & Tobago
Estonia v Montenegro
Morocco v Namibia
Poland v Hungary
Japan v Egypt
Costa Rica v Haiti
Austria v Cote d’Ivoire
Switzerland v USA
Italy v South Africa