Each week a region of the world has it's qualifying matches for the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The teams have a allocated number of placements and chance to have a play off with a team from another country for an extra placement. The Caribbean and North American teams are dueling for these spots, the best teams will contest in S.A for the finals.
North American and Caribbean qualifying region for 2010:
By: Paul Stubbs
This week we're looking at the North American and Caribbean qualifying region as we continue to follow the likely candidates for 2010 FIFA World Cup inclusion. This region started out with 35 teams, and there are only 3.5 places in the final competition in South Africa. That means that three teams will automatically qualify, while the fourth place team will have to contest a playoff with the fifth-placed finisher in the South American for a spot. Considering the oodles of talent that dwell in the South American region which we looked at last week, this is extremely undesirable!
So, there are four rounds to this qualification struggle, bear with me. The first and second rounds are two-leg knockout matches, where it appears that teams with lower FIFA rankings were pitted against teams with higher rankings. During these two rounds there were a couple of 8-0's and such scorelines with the major teams such as USA and Mexico coming through this round with relative ease. In Round 2 of qualification, the teams were split into three groups of four, where they played each other twice and the two teams with the most points went through. Jamaica were unlucky to miss out here, being booted from qualification on goal difference having racked up the same amount of points as Mexico.
That brings us to the final round of qualification, where three of the remaining teams will qualify, and one, as mentioned above, will be involved in a playoff against South American opposition. So of the six teams left, two will certainly be going home, and the remaining teams are Costa Rica, USA, Trinidad & Tobago, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico. At this point only one game has been played, with nine remaining, so hope is still alive for every one of these teams, who must surely all fancy their chances of competing in 2010. At this point I'm only willing to back USA as a sure thing, and I would also fancy Mexico, but on current form, they are not as safe a bet. Here's how it stands, with the next qualification round to be played at the end of March.
Team MP W D L GF GA Pts
Costa Rica 1 1 0 0 2 0 3
USA 1 1 0 0 2 0 3
Trinidad & Tobago 1 0 1 0 2 2 1
El Salvador 1 0 1 0 2 2 1
Honduras 1 0 0 1 0 2 0
Mexico 1 0 0 1 0 2 0
