World Cup Round Up: South Africa Qualifying, Match fixing Poland, Kyrgyzstan Cruise

After a busy day of international football, we are left with a lot of stories to digest today. We’ll start with the World Cup qualifying in South America where after two rounds Argentina is on top followed by Brazil and Paraguay. No surprise there. Those three countries have been mainstays at the World Cup. Where things really get interesting is the battle for the fourth and final automatic spot.

Ecuador have been consistently one of the better teams in South America but they are off to a dodgy start. After losing at home to Venezuela, they were absolutely pasted by Brazil 5-0. There are still many games to go, but needless to say their form spells trouble. If you were to wager right now, which four countries would you have advancing from South America? I’m going with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Chile (just pipping Uruguay).

There was a World Cup qualifier on Thursday and they are dancing in the streets of Bishkek (probably not, but they should be happy). Kyrgyzstan knocked off Jordan 2-0 in the first leg of their Asian qualifying contest. This result qualifies as a surprise. Jordan entered the contest ranked 99th in the world. The Kyrgyz were ranked 149th. The second leg will be played on October 28.

Considering all the turbulence that has been taking place in Myanmar, it comes as no surprise that the second leg of China’s World Cup qualifier has been moved to Malaysia. The first leg will take place in China on Sunday.

Serbian midfielder Nenad Kovacevic has pissed off officials in Poland after accusing that country of fixing their match against Kazakhstan. Said Kovacevic: “We hope that Poland will trip over [their next game with] Belgium. If they hadn’t made arrangements with Kazakhstan, the match would have ended in a draw”. The match he is referring to is Poland’s 3-1 win over Kazakhstan. Seriously, Poland doesn’t need to fix matches to beat Kazakhstan. I say that as someone who supports the Snow Leopards. They are getting better but are not in the same class as Poland.

The words on the street is that Nike could be purchasing Umbro, which would mean that the Swoosh’s shit uniforms will continue to spread around the football world. That is unfortunate.

Umbro are the supplies of England’s kits and they, as well as many other businesses, are set to lose a ton of money if England fail to qualify for Euro 2008.

Here’s a novel solution to the whole clubs versus country debate that will never actually be implemented. Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo believes that in the future all international matches should be played in a single month so that they don’t disrupt the precious club schedules. Nice try, but that logistically would be a nightmare.

The seeds are out for the 2008 African Cup of Nations in Ghana. The top seeds: Ghana (hosts), Egypt (champions), Nigeria, Tunisia. The depth of African football gets stronger each year.

Finally, World Cup Willie will not come back from the dead without the help of the FA in England.

Spanning the Blog
* Thank you, Georgia. Thank you (Italy World Cup Blog)
* The fans are rowdy in the Great White North (Canada World Cup Blog)
* Not so happy with the win (Netherlands World Cup Blog)
* 13 minutes of fame (USA World Cup Blog)
* A record for TH14 (France 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.