Who Else Will Join Australia In South Africa?

October 23, 2009

23 teams have now qualified for the World Cup. Only nine places are left for sport’s biggest show.

Australia will be feeling some empathy for Costa Rica as they face a playoff against Uruguay for a spot. Uruguay finished fifth in South American qualifying while Costa Rica finished fourth in CONCACAF qualifying. It could have been Honduras forced to play-off for a spot, but the Costa Ricans conceded a very very late goal against USA which cost them dearly. The first leg will be in San Jose with the return match to be in Montevideo four days later.
When Uruguay had its playoff with Australia it was successful the time when it played away first so will be confident now.

Australia will also be keenly following the second leg of the playoff between New Zealand and Bahrain. The first leg finished in a 0-0 draw. New Zealand have the advantage of playing the return leg at home but on the flipside if Bahrain scores a goal, then the Kiwis must win the match because of away goals. This cost Australia dearly in their 1997 playoff against Iran. Soccer betting isn’t quite sure what to do with this match.

There are four European playoffs. The Republic of Ireland is playing France, Portugal is up against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece will tackle Ukraine while Russia will lock horns with Slovenia. All four of these ties pose an interesting match-up.

You would expect France to be too strong for the Irish but the other ties could go either way. Portgual did well in taking second place in its group, but Bosnia also did very well to take second in its group ahead of Turkey and Belgium.

Ukraine pipped Croatia for second place and will prove a handful for Greece. Slovenia were just behind Slovakia and ahead of the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland and Poland in its group so will give Russia a good fight. The two were in the same group for qualification for the 2002 World Cup so the two know each other well.

There are still three places up for grabs in Africa. Cameroon is competing for a place with Gabon. Tunisia and Nigeria are battling for the spot from Group B while Algeria has the inside running ahead of Egypt. The Desert Foxes haven’t been back to the World Cup since 1986 so this would be a big deal for them if they could make it.

When not thinking about the World Cup, David Wiseman is following the Melbourne Cup.

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