Football World Cup Qualifiers for SA 2010

[Zidane]

Ukraine v England on Saturday but not been shown on TV.....only the internet !
One game that could be worth watching,though......Russia v Germany for who qualifies automatically for South Africa.
Germany need only a draw whereas the Ruskies need to win......could be interesting.

[stattointhailand]

Ukraine v England on Saturday but not been shown on TV.....only the internet !
One game that could be worth watching,though......Russia v Germany for who qualifies automatically for South Africa.
Germany need only a draw whereas the Ruskies need to win......could be interesting.

Monsewer Zid ........ are you 'avin' a larf or what!!
The Gerries will pack the midfield with about 9 players, stifle every attacking move the Ruskies make and probably bore the pants off their own supporters as well as everyone else .......... your probably better off watching grass grow, or American Rounders, or paint dry.

[BobHelm]

England fans will have to subscribe online to watch Saturday's World Cup qualifier in Ukraine via the internet.

It is being streamed on a pay-per-view basis, with the cost having risen from £4.99 earlier this week to £11.99 on the day of the match in Dnipropetrovsk.

All previously broadcast England fixtures have been available on TV.

Kentaro, the company behind the web-only match, has declined to reveal how many subscribers have signed up to see the game at www.ukrainevengland.com.

But digital sport specialist Perform, which is providing the technology to stream the match on the internet, claims the internet first for England is heading for success.

Interesting....TV News Companies have suffered at the hands of their internet rivals. Now an attempt at sport....not a 'happy bunny' at the cost implications indicated in this first game as I always believed the Government said these type of sporting occasions should be shown free to the public.
I would imagine that this will be a ranging failure, as England have qualified it will be of academic interest only. Maybe face of things to come though.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/footbal ... 299672.stm

[BobHelm]

Couple of friendlies first up tonight.
Scotland lose 2-0 to Japan away. Gather there was only 1 side in it (& it wasn't Scotland ) but held on right till the end when they conceded 2 rather (un)lucky goals - although the result was fair.
Australia held Holland (or whichever name they wish to go under) to a nil/nil. Not sure of the composition of either team but a creditable result on paper for Australia for the side that qualified first out of Europe & held England to a 2-2 in a friendly...
More important (for WCQ) up in about an hour...although, as Zid pointed out, little to set even the European part of the world afire...

[beer monkey]

TV companys didn't want to stump up the cash.....as its a nothing game.

check out iraqi goals or justin TV...hopefully it will be live and 'Free'...good connection needed, and i would imagine it will be chock-a-block with viewers.
worth a go though.

http://iraqgoals.net/

[BobHelm]

Well England lost 1-0 away to Ukraine. Goalkeeper Green sent off for a foul (no complaints there). Ukraine then missed the penalty but scored a goal later on. Ukraine looked the better side in the first half - although Green did go off after about 15 minutes - with Englands' defense often looking very shaky.
Cole & Johnson look good going forward but pretty amateurish when actually called upon to act like defenders. An issue that England need to solve before the World Cup where the defense will be tested to the extreme.
Goalkeeping is also an issue. Green certainly has not impressed me (the sending off yesterday was justified & a poor decision from him), 'calamity' James?? well he had a good enough game when coming on (the goal took a massive deflection) but he didn't earn that nickname for nothing. Foster doesn't exactly look impressive either - United defence have looked shaky (& conceded too often) this year.
Thanks to South African Channel I was able to watch the game live (I don't know if I should complain or not ). First half was a very bad picture & sound but got their act (or the link) together in second half.
Other results..
France had an easy win....Russia got beat 1-0 at home by the Germans....The Republic managed a 2-2 at home to Italy...Portugal eased to a 3-0 at home against Hungary....

[Zidane]

Goalkeeping is also an issue. Green certainly has not impressed me (the sending off yesterday was justified & a poor decision from him), 'calamity' James?? well he had a good enough game when coming on (the goal took a massive deflection) but he didn't earn that nickname for nothing. Foster doesn't exactly look impressive either - United defence have looked shaky (& conceded too often) this year.

The fact that James is even mentioned as Englands no 1.shows the complete lack of options for that position.
James was Englands goalkeeper at Euro 2004 and had a poor tournament flapping at everything.He wont have improved six years down the line.Green,Foster and Carson appear error prone as well.
I'm just wondering if the time has come to give Paul Robinson another chance ? After his howler against Croatia,a couple of seasons ago, he lost confidence and was dropped but he did OK for England in the 2006 World Cup and was well regarded by Spurs fans.

Anyway last night.....Peter Crouch scored a couple as England eased past Belarus 3-0.
Switzerland,Slovakia and Argentina also booked there places for the 2010 World Cup.

[beer monkey]

Up and coming keepers...? Up and coming players..?.......could be trouble ahead.

[Zidane]

Tomorrow 14/11 and Wednesday 18/11 sees the play off matches for the final places in South Africa 2010.
The 4 European matches (over two legs) are:

Republic of Ireland v France
Portugal v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Greece v Ukraine
Russia v Slovenia.

Good luck to the Irish.Hope they join England in the finals.My gran is from Cork so I have a bit of Irish blood in me.
I think the Irish have a chance as France are no longer the force they were and hardly set the world alight in the qualifiers.

Two other interesting games are Uruguay v Costa Rica and New Zealand v Bahrain.
Best of luck to the Kiwis.

[BobHelm]

Yes good luck to The Republic. France pose a threat up front & Ireland must hope to keep them goalless in Dublin. All the European games are really too close to call.
Will echo the good luck Kiwis, although I don't think many finalists will be too intimidated facing them or Bahrain.

[wazza]

Go the Iresh, and Kiwis in a world cup, ummmm . Sure to be a sell out crowd if they are allowed to throw the ball,

[BobHelm]

Greece 0 Ukraine 0
Portugal 1 Bosnia-H 0
Ireland 0 France 1
Russia 2 Slovenia 1

So' Ireland must be disappointed. Although all the games are still anybodies.

[stattointhailand]

Can't see the second legs being much different. There's too much at stake for anyone to be "adventurous".
Predictions:-

Ukraine 1 - 0 Greece
Bosnia H 1 - 1 Portugal
France 1 - 1 Ireland
Slovenia 1 - 1 Russia

Congrats to the Kiwi's on making the finals .............. but it just goes to show what a "poor" standard there is in that particular qualifying region ....... It explains why the Aussies won most of their matches when they played in that group.

[Dublin Tony]

Its going to be different for the Irish now but there is still a small chance we can do it.....2-1 will be enough to send us through.
The most interesting game will be Bosnia v Portugal.By no means assured Portugal will qualify.

[Zidane]

A glaring error by the match officials cost Ireland a place in the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.
Ireland were full value for their 1-0 lead,courtesy of Robbie Keanes 33rd minute strike,when the match entered extra time with the aggregate scores 1-1.
Thierry Henry clearly handled before setting up William Gallas to equalise for France.It was a clear handball which it seems only the match officials failed to see and adds further to the calls for camera technology to be used in football.

Other qualifiers last night were Portugal who beat Bosnia 1-0 (aggregate 2-0),Greece who won in Ukraine 1-0 (aggregate 1-0) and Slovenia,surprisingly,who beat Russia 1-0 to go through on away goals with the aggregate score level at 2-2.

[Dublin Tony]

We were cheated,no doubt about that !
The ball was going out of play before Henry controlled it with his hand !
We deserved at the very least a penalty shoot out.
Once again terrible refereeing spoils a big game.How long will this be allowed to continue ?
It was a blatant handball.A man with a white stick could have seen it ! Absolutely disgusted.

[wazza]

Its the same old story i think, the minows who actually look like winning against the top 10 teams always seem to get a bad run.

look at Australias last game in 2006 against Italy, all over them, and 1 piss poor refs decision with mins to go, allowed Italy back into the game and they went on as we know. Im not saying Oz would have been giant killers, but its the same with this irish game.

Until video referees are allowed to rule, the question of corruption and favourtism will always be there.

Where and what is the resistance ?

Other international sports have it, rugby, cricket and other national competitions

[BobHelm]

The resistance seems to come from the highest levels of the game - where they have this ridiculous idea that adding MORE officials to the game is the way to go. Hell, they cannot find enough competent officials now..how are they going to find twice as many??
I know football needs to "flow" but there must be a set of rules that can be created & agreed. Look how 'involved' tennis crowds get with the 'line call' replay decisions.

[Galee]

The biggest grudge match last night was the play-off between Algeria and Egypt. Guess what country the referee came from.?

The Seychelles!!!!! How many football pitches do they have?

How can FIFA put a referee in charge of a potentially explosive game like this. How could he have the experience to deal with it. Another example of FIFA being run by a load of idiots.

[wazza]

But as their nominated best ref,. the Sea Shells participate and they have VOTING rights !!

They have to have impartial refs right.

maybe he lives in Europe and works full time from there ???

BUt i do undertand your frustrations