Lots of World Cup Action
June 11th, 2009 at 10:06 amBy Chris
We’re about a year away from the 2010 World Cup, and with the various international leagues completing their schedules, World Cup qualifying is the new hotness right now. With that in mind, there was an absolute ton of action yesterday as just about every World team of note was in action. Teams like England, The Netherlands, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, and so on. However, perhaps the highlight of all these matches was Ecuador’s 2-0 upset of Argentina. The loss dropped Argentina to the fourth spot in the qualifying table with a 6-4-4 record. Ecuador’s second goal was a thing of beauty. As Argentina struggled to defend their penalty box, Pablo Palacios snatched a loss ball and tucked it away into the upper left of the goal.
As for Diego Maradona and his Argentine squad, they might want to improve their play, because with yesterday’s win, Ecuador is in a position to take the coveted fourth spot if Argentina continues to falter.
In Europe, England and The Netherlands improved their qualifying records to 7-0 with solid wins. The Dutch had the tougher opponent in Norway, and won 2-0. As for the English club, they absolutely smashed Andorra, 6-0. That’s similar to beating someone 63-0 in college football. Oh, and highlights, too:
From the looks of the qualifying tables, Spain, England, and The Dutch have a strong resemblance as the teams to beat. Of course, it would be unwise to forget teams like Germany (5-1-0) or Serbia for that matter who ran their qualifying record to 6-0-1 after beating the Faroe Islands, 2-0 (Who?). Then there’s the matter of Russia, who crushed Finland, 3-0, while moving to 5-0-1. Evidently, the Slavic block of the world is going to be well represented next summer.
And I haven’t even mentioned teams like France or Italy.
Granted, there’s a lot of time before next summer, but just looking at the recent qualifying scores, it looks like the 2010 World Cup is going to be a damn competitive affair with a number of teams having a legitimate chance to win it — however, it looks like the majority of those teams will be from Europe. The early results for teams from the Americas (North and South) don’t look too promising when compared to Spain, the Dutch or any number of Europe’s finest.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:43 pm
Russia looked pretty impressive in their win over Finland yesterday. That’s about all I got to see. Ecuador?! That was definitely a shocker. I may be speaking too soon but England looks like the team to beat right now. John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Peter Crouch to name a few-NASTY!!