Qualifying is now almost complete for the FIFA 2010 World Cup, and the play-off draw was made on Monday for the final four European play-off spots. Infact 23 of the 32 countries participating in South Africa have already been confirmed. The remaining nine places being - those four from Europe, three African group winners yet to be decided and the winners of the Asia/Oceania and CONMEBOL/CONCACAF play-offs that feature Bahrain or New Zealand and Costa Rica or Uruguay respectively. Los Charrúas coming fifth in the South American qualifying zone after losing 1-0 at home to Argentina in their final fixture, that win for Los Albicelestes coming through a late Mario Bolatti goal in Montevideo. The Argentinean victory prompting a hefty tirade by manager Diego Maradona who basically told their national press where it would be best to insert a part of their anatomy into another part after criticism over a very poor qualification campaign by their standards. One part of his rant that we can print being : "I would like to thank the team for giving me the privilege to lead Argentina to the World Cup. Thank you to the Argentinean people who had faith. This is for those who did not believe in the team and treated me like dirt - but we still qualified with honour. They will now have to accept this. I want to thank the players and the fans - no one but them. I repeat to all those that said anything against me, keep eating your words." Costa Rica meanwhile finished fourth of six teams in the final round of the North, Central America and Caribbean qualifying zone, the United States, Mexico and Hondarus taking the three automatic spots for South Africa. Perhaps the biggest fall from grace in that section being Trinidad and Tobago finishing bottom of the table four years after they qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. El Salvador finishing one place higher in fifth, that despite La Selecta having hammered Anguilla 16-0 on aggregate in the opening qualifying round. Elsewhere Bahrain and New Zealand played the first leg of their play-off tie two weeks ago, with the reverse fixture remarkably taking place over a month later than the opening game, in mid-November. With the scores level after a 0-0 draw at the National Stadium in Manama it promises to be a tight affair next month at the Westpac Stadium, Wellington. New Zealand hoping to qualify 27 years after their one and only World Cup Finals appearance in Spain in 1982. The All Whites looking to take advantage of a weaker Oceania zone after Australia decamped to the Asian Football Federation as long ago now as April 2005. New Zealand's efforts in finishing top of a final table that contained New Caledonia, Fiji and Vanuatu hardly being much to crow about. The All Whites also exempt from round one which was contested at the 2007 South Pacific games in Samoa, Vanuatu just sneaking past American Samoa in one group game in that competition with a 15-0 victory, eight of the goals coming in the last 22 minutes. As for Bahrain, round four of the Asian qualifying section was split into two groups of five, Bahrain finishing third behind Australia and Japan in table A. While Saudi Arabia came third behind South Korea and North Korea in the politically sensitive table B, that group also containing Iran in an axis of evil table that would have George W Bush frothing at the mouth. The two third-placed teams therefore had a two leg play-off, although they didn't exactly have to travel far with the tiny island of Bahrain connected to Saudi Arabia by the 17 mile long $1.2 billion King Fahd Causeway which was opened in 1986. The Red finishing off The Green Falcons on away goals after a 0-0 draw in Riffa and then a 2-2 thriller in Riyadh four days on. Saudi Arabia thinking it was all over when they went 2-1 up a minute into injury time only for Bahrain to equalise with almost the last kick of the game three minutes later. So back to the start and the 23 countries currently qualified for the 2010 World Cup are South Africa obviously, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Denmark, England, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain and Switzerland. Then from across the Atlantic Ocean - Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, Argentina, United States, Mexico and Honduras. With November the 18th being the date of the last qualifying game to come we'll have a further update on who has made it through and into the last nine spots in the Hartlepool matchday programme. We'll also take a closer look at a couple of the more surprise packages who are going to South Africa, one of those being North Korea. |