...just 2 days from now the last of the 32 teams to punch their tickets for South Africa will be known, and the field will be set.
Over the weekend, 3 more teams clinched their spots in the World Cup---Cameroon and Nigeria joined already-qualified Ghana and Ivory Coast with automatic spots in the Africa confederation, while New Zealand won the 2nd leg of their playoff with Bahrain, picking up a 1-0 home win in Wellington after a scoreless tie last month in Asia. This will be the All Whites first appearance in the Finals since 1982 World Cup in Spain.
Add one more match to Wednesday's docket of playoffs---Egypt's win over Algeria on Saturday in Cairo created a very rare tie atop their qualifying group. With the 2-0 win, Egypt and Algeria are tied in all categories: points, goal differential, goals for, goals against, head-to-head... The logjam will be settled with a winner-takes-South Africa playoff in Sudan (the neutral venue picked by FIFA). The good news about an unexpected playoff in a neutral venue announced only 4 days before the match??? Plenty of tickets available, and they're cheap. So if you just so happen to be in the neighborhood (because we know SoccerJunkie does (not) have a band of followers in Sudan), grab some seats and enjoy the match...
The remaining playoffs will see their 2nd legs played out on Wednesday as well. Every match-up is wide open, as none of the 5 final fixtures is separated by more than a single goal... Here's a look at the results from Saturday's opening leg (Home team in CAPS):
Europe
RUSSIA 2-1 Slovenia
France 1-0 IRELAND
PORTUGAL 1-0 Bosnia
GREECE 0-0 Ukraine
CONCACAF/CONMEBOL
Uruguay 1-0 COSTA RICA
Ireland and Costa Rica could be in worse shape after having lost their home legs, as---being that away goals are the first tiebreaker---any win in the away leg will guarantee that they will not be knocked out (without, at least, extra time (a 1-0 win would bring extra time, a 2-1 win or greater would bring qualification based on away goals)).
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The US was one of a number of already-qualified teams to play a friendly on Saturday, falling to fellow qualifiers Slovakia 1-0 on a first half penalty. Lessons learned from the game? The US can't produce well when it's missing its top 'keeper (Tim Howard), defender (Gooch Onyewu), midfielder (Landon Donovan), and one of its top forwards (Charlie Davies). Brad Guzan had a strong performance deputizing for Howard, strengthening his spot as the Yanks #2 'keeper, while Jonathan Spector had a surprisingly great game filling in at center back. Having spent his international career as an outside back, injuries to Onyewu, Jay DeMerit, and Chad Marshall left US coach Bob Bradley to experiment with Spector, who did not disappoint. Whether he is seen as an answer at left back---where Jonathon Bornstein had a disastrous game, which included the foul that gave Slovakia the game-winning PK---or whether he supplants Steve Cherundolo at right back, Spector should see playing time in South Africa.
Another positive from the loss was the central midfield partnership of Michael Bradley and Benny Feilhaber. They controlled the center of the field, limiting Slovakia's chances through the center and distributing well going forward. The name of the game for these two now will be consistency---regular performances like this one will lead to spots in the starting 11 this summer.
The US team has flown on to Aarhus (club home of midfielder Benny Feilhaber, and former club home of injured forward Charlie Davies), where it will face South Africa-bound Denmark on Wednesday afternoon. The game, set to kick-off at 2:30pm ET, will start off on ESPN Classic, and will air on ESPN2 at the conclusion of the Greece/Ukraine playoff, which will air starting at 1pm.
The roster for Denmark sees a few changes, as Ricardo Clark and Stuart Holden join the team (following Houston's loss to LA in the Western Conference Final), along with left back Edgar Castillo from Mexico's Tigres. Castillo has played for the Mexico National Team, and is the first player to join the US squad following FIFA's new rule that allows players to change allegiance once, provided they have only played in friendlies for the team they are leaving (and meet the standard eligibility requirements for the nation they're joining). German holding midfielder Jermaine Jones has also been cleared by FIFA to join the Yanks, but continues to recover from knee surgery.Leaving the US squad are Clint Dempsey, injured back Chad Marshall, and Steve Cherundolo. Cherundolo flew straight to Germany after Saturday's game, where he served as a pallbearer at the public memorial service and funeral for Hanover 96 teammate Robert Enke. Cherundolo serves at Hanover's captain, and you can read the latest on Enke's suicide a little later in this entry.
(photo from UK's Guardian...Cherundolo is on the far R)
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MLS Cup 2009 is set, as Real Salt Lake will meet the LA Galaxy at Seattle's Qwest Field on Sunday, November 22nd at8:30pm ET. For the second consecutive year, the MLS Cup Final will feature 2 teams from the same conference, as Real Salt Lake (of the Western Conference) beat the Chicago Fire in the Eastern Conference Final, thanks to a stand-out shoot-out performance by RSL's GK Nick Rimando. Last year, the Red Bulls were the Western Conference champions, thanks to the wild card seeding the MLS uses for the playoffs (the top 2 teams from each conference qualify, followed by the next 4 teams (regardless of conference) in overall points (the lowest seeded team crosses over to the other conference, if necessary).If SoccerJunkie hasn't made it clear enough in the past that the Red Bulls have serious personnel issues in the front office (who help make personnel decisions on the roster), just take a look at the list of former Red Bulls/Metrostars appearing in this year's playoffs:
Bruce Arena- Coach, LA
Todd Dunivant- Def, LA
Edson Buddle- Fwd, LA
Dema Kovalenko- Mid, LA
Mike Magee- Fwd/Mid, LA
Clint Mathis- Fwd/Mid, RSL
Zach Thornton- GK, CHV
Jon Conway- GK, CHV
Eric Brunner- Def, COL
Eddie Gaven- Mid, COL (Metrostars)
Danny O'Rourke- Mid/Def, COL
Ricardo Clark- Mid, HOU (Metrostars)
Dominic Oduro- Fwd, HOU
Brad Davis- Mid, HOU (Metrostars (yes, in 2003))
Tim Ward- Def, CHI (Metrostars)
Terry Boss- GK (Seattle)
If you think about it, you could start a 4-4-2 of Thorton (GK), Ward-O'Rourke-Brunner-Dunivant (Def), Mathis-Kovalenko-Clark-Davis (Mid), Magee-Buddle (Fwd), all coached by Bruce Arena...and they'd have to be among the favorites to win the MLS Cup.
In Red Bulls news...
-'Keeper Bouna Condoul (patella tendon tear) and forward Mac Kandji (adductor/groin) have both gone under the knife and are expected to be ready for preseason training.
-If he returns to the team for the 2010 season, Andrew Boyens has a chance to become just the 5th player in franchise history to make a World Cup roster after New Zealand's win on Saturday. He would join Tab Ramos, Alexi Lalas, Marcelo Vega (1998) and Clint Mathis (2002) on that list.
-Reports are out that the Red Bulls have interviewed Curt Onalfo for the Sporting Director position, while the Washington Post reports that Richie Williams has interviewed for the DC United coaching opening. Onalfo failed miserably in KC, while allowing Richie to go to hated rival DC would spell two disastrous moves for the NY franchise. In related news, reports are out that Preki is set to sign on as the head coach at Toronto FC, taking another viable coaching candidate off the board for the Red Bulls.
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(photo from ESPN)
More than 45,000 fans turned out for a public memorial service in memory of Germany National Team 'keeper Robert Enke on Saturday at his club's home stadium. Among those in attendance at Hanover's AWD Arena were German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as the entire Germany National Team (who had been due to play Chile that afternoon...the match was cancelled after Enke's death). Enke's teammates on the national team have asked the DFB (the German federation) to schedule a memorial match, possibly against Hanover in the lead up to the World Cup, in the goalkeeper's honor.
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