CBC-Sports

Intrigue builds in World Cup qualifying

September 25, 2009 12:36 PM | Posted by   Jason de Vos  

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa is just around the corner, and the race to qualify is tighter than ever. There are some fascinating matches coming up in the month of October to whet your appetite.

South America is where you will find the biggest surprise, as Argentina is struggling to clinch an automatic qualification berth. With Brazil and Paraguay having secured their tickets to South Africa, the focus turns to the race for the two final automatic places.

Chile looks like it will secure third place, while fourth-place Ecuador has two difficult games to finish - the first at home to Uruguay and the second away to Chile.

Argentina, which currently occupies fifth place, should beat Peru at home, which sets up a mouth-watering final game away to Uruguay. That match could determine the final qualifying order in South America, and with Argentina presently sitting outside the automatic places, they will hope for a slice of good fortune that has so far proved elusive for Diego Maradona's men.

Closer to home, the CONCACAF qualifying campaign is as close as ever. The United States, Mexico, Honduras and Costa Rica all have an excellent chance of securing one of the three places up for grabs, while the fourth place team will go into a playoff with the fifth place team from South America.

Mexico looks to have the easiest run-in, with a home game against El Salvador and a visit to Trinidad and Tobago. The United States, meanwhile, has the most difficult remaining games of the four teams still in contention. A tricky match in hostile Honduras is followed by an equally challenging home game against Costa Rica. I expect it to come down to that final game in Washington to decide who is going to finish in the top three.

The Asian qualification is done and dusted, with Australia, Japan, Korea Republic and Korea DPR all having managed to fight their way through to qualify. Bahrain will play the winner of the Oceania group, New Zealand, in a two-leg playoff for an extra place in the World Cup.

There were no real surprises in Asia, apart from the Bahrain-Saudi Arabia match to decide who qualified for the playoff place. Saudi Arabia looked to have won it in injury time, but a late equalizer from Bahrain saw them advance at the expense of the Saudis. It was a fantastic game to watch, and hopefully a precursor to some of the excitement we'll see next summer in South Africa.

Ghana is the only African team to have clinched a World Cup place so far, apart from the hosts. They cruised through their qualifying group, and they look likely to be joined by Ivory Coast, who have an almost insurmountable lead in Group E. Cameroon and Tunisia are in pole position in Groups A and B, while in Group C, it will likely come down to the wire. Egypt currently trail leaders Algeria by three points, but the two teams will meet in their final qualifier in Egypt in what should prove to be a fascinating match.

Europe has once again provided us with some fantastic stories, among them the emergence of England as a possible World Cup contender, as well as the dominance of Spain and the Netherlands. All three countries have gone through qualifying with consummate ease.

There have been some real surprises as well, most notably the teams who have struggled. France and Portugal are both looking up the table at their group leaders, while the Czech Republic currently sit fourth with only two games to go.

Keep an eye on the Czechs though - although they sit in fourth, they could end up in second place after the next round of games. If Group 3 leaders Slovakia beat second-place Slovenia and the Czechs overcome Poland, they will jump up two places in the table.

That is crucial, as the second place team will qualify for the playoffs. Only the group winners go straight through to South Africa, with the eight best second-place teams advancing to the playoffs to determine four more qualifiers.

Group 4 also has a fantastic game coming up, and we are pleased to be able to show it on CBC.

On Oct. 10th, we will have a festival of football for you. It all starts at 11 a.m. ET with Germany's World Cup qualifying match in Russia - a match that could determine the group winner - followed by a one-hour show focusing on World Cup qualifying around the globe.

After that, we will bring you one of the quarter-final matches from the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt. We then end the day closer to home, with Toronto FC's crucial MLS game at BMO Field against the San Jose Earthquakes. All told, it will be seven hours of non-stop soccer action for you to enjoy. I can't wait!

Check this out: Sony Ericsson, the official mobile handset of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, wants to get soccer fans in Toronto excited about next summer’s World Cup. They are holding a scavenger hunt around the city, with 32 soccer balls hidden in various locations around the city.

There are some great prizes to be won, including a Sony Ericsson C510 handset, as well as a morning playing soccer with yours truly! For clues to the locations of the hidden soccer balls, and your chance to win, log onto http://twitter.com/SonyEricssonCA. The competition ends on Sept. 29th, so get out there and start searching.

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