Thursday afternoon musings...

Where to begin, where to begin...

-Real Madrid apparently isn't feeling the recession. Just 3 days after breaking the world transfer record with a 59 million Pound (yes, that's roughly $100 million!) deal for Kaka, Madrid President Florentino Perez has secured Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United for 80 million Pounds ($131 million!). Perez has decided to prey on teams, in these cases, that are quietly having serious financial difficulties (the depth of Milan's aren't fully known, but the Ronaldo transfer fee would barely cover the interest that Man U has collected on its debt this year). Add in a reported 37 million Pound offer for Valencia striker David Villa (another club that is having very public financial troubles), and it's easy to say that Los Golacticos are back. It was in Perez's first reign at Madrid that the initial version of the Golacticos came to be---the roster included Brazilian striker Ronaldo (bought for 23.2 million Pounds), David Beckham (24.5 million Pounds), Luis Figo (37 million Pounds), and Zinedine Zidane (bought for a then-record 46.7 million Pounds---a record broken by the purchase of Kaka).



-World Cup 2010 is only a year away, a mark that was celebrated in South Africa today. With that in mind, here's a quick look at some of the qualifying regions:
-CONCACAF: Halfway through, and Costa Rica (4-1-0, 12pts) leads the US (3-1-1, 10 pts) by 2 points, with Honduras (2-2-1, 7 pts) in the final automatic qualification spot. Both the US and Costa Rica are in good shape to qualify, while Honduras will be in for a fight if 4th-place Mexico (2-3-0, 6 pts) ever regains its form, which has been woeful of late (including scraping out a 2-1 win over last-place Trinidad (0-3-2, 2 pts) AT HOME last night). El Salvador (1-2-2, 5 pts) will make it an interesting 3-way race for 3rd-place (automatic qualification) and 4th-place (playoff vs 5th-place in South America).
-Europe (UEFA): Some shocks and some runaways as the nine groups reach their halfway point (the winner of each group advances, while the top 8 2nd-place teams advance to a playoff for the final spot). In Group 1, favorites Portugal and Sweden are tied for 3rd, 4 points behind 2nd-place Hungary (7 behind leaders Denmark), and are in serious danger of not qualifying. Greece and Switzerland are tied atop Group 2 on 13 points, with Latvia (10) and Israel (9) both in a position to fight for a chance. The Group 3 favorites, Poland (10 pts) and the Czech Republic (9 pts), are also not likely to qualify---they both trail leaders Slovakia (15) and Northern Ireland (13). Group 4 is nearly settled, though Russia (15 pts) is right on leaders Germany's heels (16)---Finland (10) and Wales (9) are both likely already out. Groups 5 and 6 are settled, with leaders Spain (Grp. 5, 18 points) and England (6, 21 pts) both unbeaten and un-tied (Bosnia (5, 12) is settled in 2nd, while Croatia and Ukraine (6, 11) are tied for the playoff spot). Group 7 leaders Serbia (18 pts) lead France by 8 points, while Group 8 is a two-horse race between Italy (14 pts) and Ireland (13). Group 9 features the only team to clinch qualification in Europe, with the Netherlands (21 pts) leading Scotland and Macedonia by 14 points.
-South America: CONMEBOL has 4 games remaining for each team in the final 10-team table (top 4 automatically qualify, 5th-place plays CONCACAF 4th-place for a berth). Argentina (22 pts) is still holding on to the final automatic spot, despite having lost back-to-back qualifiers (given, they were on the road AND at high altitude). Brazil (27), Chile (26) and Paraguay (24) are all in good shape, as is Argentina. Ecuador (20) sits in the playoff spot, with Uruguay (18), Columbia (17), Venezuela (17) all within shooting distance.
-Africa: The final round is only 2 games old for each team, so there's still a long way to go. The winner of each group (5 groups, 4 teams each) automatically qualifies. In Group A, the two favorites (Cameroon and Morocco) each only managed a point out of their opening games. Better results down the line should make it an interest race to see which team qualifies (Togo and Gabon round out the group). A similar race should develop between Group B leaders Tunisia and 2nd-place Nigeria (Mozambique and Kenya finish out B), as well as Group C leaders Ghana and currently-bottom (but African Cup of Nations champion) Egypt (Zambia and Rwanda also reside in C). In Group D, leaders Ghana should qualify (against Benin, Sudan, and Mali), while Ivory Coast shouldn't have any problems qualifying out of Group E, which includes Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Malawi (sorry, Madonna).
-Oceania: New Zealand has already qualified for a playoff against the 5th-place finisher from Asia.
-Asia: Japan, Australia, and South Korea are all nearly clinched for South Africa, while either North Korea or Saudi Arabia will qualify, with the other facing either Bahrain or Qatar for the right to play New Zealand in an aggregate home-and-home series for a berth in South Africa.



-Another week, another 2 losses for the Red Bulls...still no coaching change. You have to wonder what's going on in the front office at this point---this is now 8 road games, 0 goals...not to mention the league-record 16-game road winless streak. This is a team that backed into the playoffs last year with a sub-.500 record, and is now the worst team in MLS. A combined 6-0 scoreline over 4 days against key Eastern Conference rivals should've been the last straw...now Juan Carlos Osorio gets Saturday night's game at Toronto FC to cement the disaster that this team has become.

On a semi-related note, Toronto has released Canadian National Team 'keeper Greg Sutton. If this guy stays on the market long, I'll be shocked---yes, he's older, but he's got great size and is still a solid goalkeeper. Unfortunately for him, rookie Stefan Frei has been a sensation (so much so that the US is trying to get him to consider playing for the US National Team instead of his native Switzerland). If an MLS team doesn't pick Sutton up soon, expect a USL-1 team to get him under contract.