Where the football world teaches you wrongly, saying Australia are from Asia, also Kazakhstan being European.

I expected someone to mention the Australian thing

If the rest of Oceania were any good Australia might not have moved to the Asian qualifying, but right now being Kings of Oceania doesn't make you feel that good, even Scotland or Belgium would probably be the best from there

I think the Asian qualifying is actually easier. A group of four or five where you need to finish in the top 2 (or 3 for a playoff), compared to Oceania who in recent years the winner would play 5th from South America. Now it's changed with Oceania winners playing an Asian side, and the Americas competing against each other.

Kazakhstan is an interesting one. A few countries there are mixed and you can't tell what ones are European or Asian. The majority of Russia is in Asia but the team plays in Europe. Turkey is also a big split, and I'm sure Israel is in Asia.

i thought that the winner of the New Zealand v Bahrain play the 5th runner up in the South American section.

The Oceania thing, well the aussie thrashed solomon islands 30-0 (i think?), so i don't blame them for changing to the Asia one!

They beat Tonga 22-0 and then beat American Samoa 31-0 although were debates of whether it was 32-0. That said, unsure if American Samoa had their first team for the Australian game or if their team weren't allowed to play for political reasons and they had a makeshift side

Are you talking football or rugby lol that seems like an unrealistic score for a football game.

I'm talking football, American Samoa had most of their team missing because of passport problems, and had to draft players in to play against Australia, they lost 31-0 with Archie Thompson scoring 13 times and David Zdrillic, a former Walsall player, scoring 8 times.

But American Samoa are a poor team anyway, this year's qualifying campaign, they had defeats of:

12-1 against Solomon Islands, 7-0 to Western Samoa, 15-0 to Vanuatu, and 4-0 to Tonga.

Their overall record in FIFA ranked games is, played 26, lost 26, scored 12, conceded 207

31-0 is just crazy lol
record is 149-0 though, all own goals
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2002/nov/01/newsstory.sport5

England have coasted through.

COME ON ENGLAND.

not really and actual game, seeing as they scored the own goals in the process of protesting the ref!

Here's a youtube link to the Aussie's 31-0 humping of American Samoa. I think this was back in 2006.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wg9ox9F7Vw



I don't blame Australia for moving either

New Zealand or Bahrain will go to the World Cup. The team who ends 5th in South America will play the team that ends 4th in North America. The 5th placed team used to play the Asian playoff winner, but it has changed now.

So much for sportsmanship...

lol, it was 2001 yoda, so you are slightly out

warnipedia strikes again

fair enough, because i remember for the last three WC qualifier (excluding this years) Australia always had to play 5th place South American team and it always was Uruguay.

Belgium finally win again with a good 2-0 win against Turkey a home.

Qualified Teams: 16/32

Europe

Denmark
England
Germany
Italy
Netherlands
Serbia
Spain

Asia

Australia (Yes, I know they are not Asian!)
Japan
North Korea
South Korea

South America

Brazil
Paraguay

Africa

Ghana
Ivory Coast
South Africa

Bosnia-Herzegovina, France, Republic of Ireland and Russia will be involved in the European playoffs.

Bahrain drew 0-0 with New Zealand in the first leg.

Its quite funny for Australia.

We waited over 32 years to qualify for our second world cup, and all that time we had to qualify through Oceiania (if thats how you spell it).

But we enter through Asia and we get there at our first go - and now we are ranked 14 in the world or something...quite remarkable when soccer is not as highly rated professionally as Aussie Rules, Rugby Union or to a certain extent even Rugby League.

Some fascinating stuff in prospect for the playoffs

History of intercontinental play-offs for FIFA World Cups

1958
Israel 0-2 Wales, Wales 2-0 Israel

1962
Morocco 0-1 Spain, Spain 3-2 Morocco
Yugoslavia 5-1 Korea Republic, Korea Republic 1-3 Yugoslavia
Mexico 1-0 Paraguay, Paraguay 0-0 Mexico

1970
Australia 1-1 Rhodesia, Rhodesia 0-0 Australia; Australia 3-1 Rhodesia
Israel 4-0 New Zealand, New Zealand 0-2 Israel
Israel 1-0 Australia, Australia 1-1 Israel
Note: Israel was grouped into the Oceanic qualifiers anyway for this qualification campaign

1974
USSR 0-0 Chile, Chile w/o vs USSR

1978
Hungary 6-0 Bolivia, Bolivia 2-3 Hungary

1986
Scotland 2-0 Australia, Australia 0-0 Scotland

1990
Colombia 1-0 Israel, Israel 0-0 Colombia

1994
Canada 2-1 Australia, Australia 2-1 (aet) Canada; Australia won 4-1 on penalties
Australia 1-1 Argentina, Argentina 1-0 Australia

1998
Iran 1-1 Australia, Australia 2-2 Iran; Iran qualified due to the away goals rule

2002
Republic of Ireland 2-0 Iran, Iran 1-0 Republic of Ireland
Australia 1-0 Uruguay, Uruguay 3-0 Australia

2006
Uruguay 1-0 Australia, Australia 1-0 (AET) (4-2 PSO) Uruguay
Trinidad and Tobago 1-1 Bahrain, Bahrain 0-1 Trinidad and Tobago

2010
Bahrain vs New Zealand
CONCACAF 4th place v CONMEBOL 5th place

chile also through in south america yoda

any1 watch argentina last nite?

if argentina go through they need to get rid of maradona as he ad sergio aguero and carlos tevez on the bench probs the best two strikers argentina av got at the mo

also he left out players like

maxi rodriguez(thing thats how u spell it)
juan roman riquelme
walter samuel
fabricio coloccini
fernando gago

list is endless

i reckon uruguay(not sure on spell) will win argentina and beat them to the last place for auto qualification to world cup

I believe Mexico and the USA are also through now.

Maradona has been terrible, I think the 6-1 defeat to Bolivia earlier this year tells it's own story. A narrow 2-1 home win against Peru wont help their confidence. I think Uruguay will beat them.