Who the Socceroos can expect to meet in South Africa

May 14, 2009

Australia’s World Cup qualification seems like nothing more than a formality. It only requires a single point from its final three matches. Given this, they can begin to look towards the 2010 soccer World Cup and anticipate who or what they can expect when they make it back to soccer’s biggest stage?

For the most part, it’s more of the usual suspects. Paraguay, Brazil, Chile and Argentina sit on top of the soccer league which is South American qualifying.

Over at CONCACAF, United States, Costa Rica and Honduras are in the top half of the ladder. Mexico fired Sven-Goran Eriksson, but while fourth spot doesn’t grant them automatic qualification, they would still find themselves in a play-off with the fifth South American side.

The final stage of African qualifying has just begun so it is too early to tell who will progress and who won’t. Most of the soccer betting is on the teams like Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and the Ivory Coast getting through.

Europe is where the action is – 13 spots are up for grabs over there. In Group 1, Denmark is looking great with Hungary the surprise packets. Portugal and Sweden still have a number of games left in hand and could make a run for it, but they would want to do so quickly.

Group 2 looks to be between Greece and Switzerland.

In Group 3, Northern Ireland and Slovakia are the frontrunners with Poland and the Czech Republic lurking.

Germany has Group 4 sewn up with Russia having second place just as comfortably locked down.

Soccer betting on Spain qualifying is closed. They are undefeated after six games in Group 5. Bosnia and Herzegovina looks to be the favorite ahead of Turkey for second spot.

In non-typical fashion, England is flying high. They have won all five of their Group 6 matches and look to have left Croatia and Ukraine to fight over second place.

Group 7 is tight with Serbia, France and Lithuania all contending. Italy is the team to beat in Group 8 with the Republic of Ireland a near certainty for second place.

The Netherlands are top of Group 9 with Scotland behind in second spot. Norway have been surprisingly weak.

The truth of the matter is that every one of the other 30 teams who qualify for the World Cup are going to provide a stern challenge. No longer can you expect easy games at the World Cup Finals.
David Wiseman is a sports journalist, who also writes about cricket and tennis for Betfair Australia. He is still excited that Australia are ‘almost there’ in their World Cup qualifying bid, and can now concentrate on preparing himself for the Ashes cricket this spring.

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