World Cup 2010 Qualifying Draw

November 27, 2007

The 2010 World Cup qualifying draw was held and some interesting matchups will take place. The United States has a first-round bye before they play the winner of an opening-round series between Barbados and Dominica. The U.S. team will be heavily favored to make the semifinals, where they will probably face Cuba.  Cuba will play the winner of the Aruba-Antigua and Barbuda opening series.

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Mexico leads CONCACAF Group Two and will play the winner of Belize vs. St. Kitts and Nevis in the second round. Six teams will make the CONCACAF finals, with the top three in round-robin play during that round moving into the World Cup field. The fourth-place team from the regional finals will play the fifth-place club from South America for another spot in the tournament.

In Europe it will be Croatia and England in the same group.  "Everyone in Croatia was saying 'Give us England again,' but I wanted to avoid England," said Croatia coach Slaven Bilic, "It is a very, very hard draw because they are by far the best team from the second pot. The only team I wanted to avoid was England. We are not afraid of them, but they have got a terrific team and brilliant players. They should jell and they are going to jell." Other Soccer Betting teams in the World Cup Group 6 are Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra.

Italy has an easy grouping of Bulgaria, Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia and Montenegro. "Bulgaria, Ireland, Georgia and Montenegro are countries that do not have a great soccer tradition, but they are difficult teams," Italy coach Roberto Donadoni said. "On paper, Bulgaria could be the one that competes with us for qualification. Like all countries from the former Yugoslavia, Montenegro is a stubborn team. Let's not even talk about Ireland. We are familiar with Georgia, having faced them in qualifying for the European Championship."

Germany has Russia, Finland and Wales in their group. France is in a tough group with Romania and Serbia. Only the winners of each of the nine European groups are guaranteed spots in the finals. The eight best runners-up will move on to playoffs for the other four spots. Greece has Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia and Luxembourg in Group Two.

The Asian part of the draw has the five winners and five runners-up moving to another stage of group games to decide four Asian qualifiers for the tournament. Host South Africa doesn't have to qualify, but was still in the draw because it qualifies for the African Cup of Nations. Five African group winners will advance to the championship.

Australia and China were not happy with the World Cup 2010 qualifying draw as they were put together with Iraq and Qatar in a "group of death".
Only the first and second in each group from the third round make it to the fourth and final round which means one of those three will not advance. "It is one of the toughest groups but at the same time we have enough information of these countries so we can prepare well," said Australia's coach Rob Baan.

China's manager Wei Shaohui said the grouping was "the worst in the history of the China team." He does not believe the group is impossible.
"I don't accept the idea of a 'group of death' -- one can only say the China team is facing a lot of difficulties," he said. "I believe our team members will see this as a force of motivation."

Japan has qualified for the last three World Cups and will take on Bahrain, Oman and Thailand in Group 2 when qualifying starts on February 6. Japan Football Association official Junji Ogura said they were very pleased with the draw. "We have experience against Oman and Bahrain so they are very familiar to us and we are very lucky. This draw is very good for us," he said.

South Korea has qualified for the past six World Cups and will face arch-rivals North Korea in Group 3. The good news for South Korea is that the other two in their group are Jordan and Turkmenistan.

Saudi Arabia looks to have an easy group as they face Uzbekistan, Lebanon and Singapore.  Another grouping has Iran the favorite against Kuwait, United Arab Emirates and Syria.

The winners and runners up from each group move to round four where they will be split into two groups of five with the first and second placed teams qualifying for South Africa.

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