2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup Qualifying Country Groups
As we know, there are total 32 teams or 32 countries from all over the world will compete for the FIFA World Cup and only the best 32 teams will be chosen to participate in this world 5-class Soccer Match. Below is the complete list of 32 countries who are qualified to join this prestigious FIFA World Cup event.
FIFA World Cup Group A: South Africa, Mexico, Uruguay, France FIFA World Cup Group B: Argentina, Nigeria, South Korea, Greece FIFA World Cup Group C: England, United States, Algeria, Slovenia FIFA World Cup Group D: Germany, Australia, Serbia, Ghana FIFA World Cup Group E: Netherlands, Denmark, Japan, Cameroon FIFA World Cup Group F: Italy, Paraguay, New Zealand, Slovakia FIFA World Cup Group G: Brazil, North Korea, Cote d’lvoire, Portugal FIFA World Cup Group H: Spain, Switzerland, Honduras, Chile
2010 FIFA Match Schedule
To make sure you will not miss any single of the 2010 FIFA match, the complete list of 2010 FIFA Schedule can be downloadedhere.
So the USA were back in the World Cup. However, this was the period between the death of the North America Soccer League and the birth of Major League Soccer, a period detailed very nicely by Benjamin Kumming on Pitch Invasion. Most of Bob Gansler’s squad was made up of recent college graduates and players from the America Soccer League, which wasn’t granted Division One status by FIFA.
Drawn into Group A, the USA lost 5-1 to Czechoslovakia in the opening game:
(Decent goal from Caligiuri though)
Gansler’s men went on to lose 1-0 to Italy and 2-1 to Austria. Not a complete disaster (if you ignore the first game) but the US finished bottom of the group with zero points. The upside is that several future USA World Cup stalwarts got valuable experience in Italy, including 23 year old John Harkes and Tab Ramos, 22 year old Marcelo Balboa, 21 year old Tony Meola, and the 20 year old pair of Kasey Keller and Eric Wynalda.
1994 World Cup in USA lalas star jumpQualification was not a problem in 1994, as the USA had been selected as hosts. Major League Soccer was still two years away, but the US had a handful of key players like John Harkes, Roy Wegerle, Tab Ramos and Eric Wynalda playing for European teams, and many more in the squad who soon would be. Like 24 year old defender Alexi Lalas, of playing guitar and orange beard fame (pictured above left in the famous denim and stars home kit the US wore that year).
Serbian coach Bora Milutinović had been drafted in to deliver a respectable performance. Very much the Guus Hiddink of his day, Milutinović had already coached Mexico at the 1986 World Cup and Costa Rica at the 1990 World Cup.
The US opened strongly, with a 1-1 draw against Roy Hodgson’s Switzerland, the goal coming from an impressive Eric Wynalda free kick:
Did I say “impressive”? Clearly I should have said “masterpiece”. Still, good free-kick, good result.
The US went on to win the second game 2-1 against Colombia, who many fancied as potential tournament winners. That game is now best remembered for Andres Escobar’s own goal, and subsequent murder (read the full article: Andrés Escobar’s Own Goal vs USA) but at the time it was a huge huge victory for the USA, with Earnie Stewart scoring the second, and ultimately decisive goal. The USA lost the final group game 1-0 to Romania and finished third in Group A, going through to the Second Round as one of the four best third placed teams. The opponents in the last 16 were Brazil.
Wearing their much less hideous away kit, the US gave Brazil a decent game before losing 1-0 to the eventual champions through a 72nd minute Bebeto goal. The one complaint some US fans have is that their team had a one man advantage from the 43rd minute onwards (after Leonardo was sent off for street-fight style elbowing of Tab Ramos, which you can see in the video above) but failed to take advantage. Still, an excellent performance all around, and a gigantic improvement on 1990 (which itself was a gigantic improvement on the 40 previous years of non-qualification). The other long term effect was that players like Claudio Reyna and Alexi Lalas impressed enough to earn moves to Europe with Bayern Leverkusen in Germany and Padova in Italy respectively. The future looked bright. But then came…
1998 World Cup in France
It was supposed to be the World Cup where the US continued the progress of the last two tournaments, especially now Major League Soccer was up and running. Instead it was the World Cup where the USA finished 32nd out of 32 teams after losing 2-0 to Germany, 2-1 to Iran in a politically charged game and finally 1-0 to Yugoslavia. Brian McBride scored the US’s sole goal of the tournament in the 87th minute of the game against Iran. But it wasn’t the cleanest thing you’ve ever seen:
Coach Steve Sampson took most of the blame for the USA’s terrible terrible showing in France. One of the problems was the radical 3-6-1 formation, a formation which left no room for cult hero Alexi Lalas.
The much bigger problem was the absence of midfielder John Harkes. Midfielder Harkes had played for Derby County and Sheffield Wednesday in the English top flight, and had just won the inaugural MLS title with DC United in 1996, then successfully defended said title in 1997. Sampson named Harkes “captain for life” of the US national team. And then left him out of the squad for the 1998 World Cup, handing the armband to 37 year old defender Thomas Dooley.
It seemed an insane decision to leave Harkes out at the time. However, early in 2010 Eric Wynalda alleged that Harkes had had an affair with his Wynalda’s wife in the run up to 1998, and that this was the reason Harkes was dropped.
So maybe Steve Sampson’s not as culpable as thought at the time. But 1998 was still a disaster.
2002 World Cup in Japan & South Korea
After dominating MLS with his DC United team, Bruce Arena replaced Steve Sampson as USA coach after 1998. He’d go on to lead the USA to its best World Cup performance of the modern era. Not much was expected of the US after their 1998 performance, especially after being drawn into a tough looking Group D with Portugal, Poland and South Korea. But all that changed when they beat Portugal 3-2 in the first game.
Arena’s men raced into a 3-0 lead with goals from John O’Brien, a Portugal own goal forced by a 20 year old Landon Donovan, and a diving header from Brian McBride. Portugal came back, and that 71st minute comedy own goal from Jeff Agoos made things nervy, but the US held on for a shock win. Clint Mathis and his mohawk scored early in the second game, against South Korea, but the co-hosts came back to draw 1-1. The US lost the final game 3-1 to Poland, but went through in second place because Portugal had lost to South Korea. There should be a spot reserved in the US Soccer Hall of Fame for Park Ji-Sung, who scored that Korean goal. In the Round of 16, the US faced CONCACAF rivals Mexico. If you know anything about this rivalry, then you’ll know it basically means everything.
Brian McBride and Landon Donovan scored the goals as the USA beat their rivals 2-0 to move on to the quarter-finals. As I understand it, that game was something of a turning point in the history of the USA vs Mexico rivalry. An important victory on the world’s biggest stage that did wonders for US confidence both in CONCACAF and in the wider world of football. Quarter-final opponents were Germany, who were kept in the game by Oliver Kahn’s performance, took the lead through a Michael Ballack header, and somehow got away with Torsten Fring’s handballing on the line.
Commendable effort by the US, and some definite bad luck with the Frings handball, but it finished Germany 1-0 USA. Still, a quarter-final appearance was the best US performance since 1930, and the emergence of young talents like 20 year olds Landon Donovan, DaMarcus Beasley, plus the performances of Claudio Reyna, John O’Brien, Clint Mathis and Eddie Pope, seemed to confirm that the USA was rapidly improving and 1998 was just a blip.
2006 World Cup in Germany
Bruce Arena was still in charge, and the youngsters from 2002 like Donovan and Beasley were now four years older (and balder). So the USA went into the 2006 World Cup with high expectations. Maybe unrealistically high. They’d been drawn into a rough looking Group E with Czech Republic, Italy and Ghana. But the bigger problem, at least in my opinion, was that Arena had too much faith in the same players that had performed for him four years previously. For example, DaMarcus Beasley was hopelessly out of form, and 32 year old captain Claudio Reyna was clearly no longer physically capable of competing at a World Cup, while in-form but less experienced players like Clint Dempsey started the tournament on the bench. The Czech Republic demolished the US 3-0 in the first game, with Tomas Rosicky scoring a memorable long range goal. That meant a result against Italy in the second game was crucial.
In an absolute battle of a game, the US went one down, but equalized through an Italian own goal, before the game went mental with three red cards. A 1-1 draw against the eventual champs was a very very good result, but it left the US needing a win against Ghana and a bit of luck. Instead they got a Claudio Reyna mistake for Ghana’s first goal, a thumping Clint Dempsey equalizer, and then a mysterious penalty called against Oguchi Onyewu to give Ghana a 2-1 win. Despite the misfortune the US didn’t deserve to progress, and exited World Cup 2006 bottom of Group E with just one point.
"The secret of football is the ball", as German legend Uwe Seeler so eloquently put it, and billions of fans will certainly agree with him. Football is by far the more popular sport on the planet, making the FIFA World Cup™ one of the most important sporting events around the world.
Sporting goods manufacturer adidas have been responsible for the official FIFA World Cup ball since Mexico 1970, but what did they play with before then? Different balls were used for the first and second halves of the first ever FIFA World Cup Final in 1930, since the two finalists insisted on using "their own ball". From then onwards, the host country was allowed to supply the balls.
To begin with, the ball was generally made out of 12 parts, before an 18-piece ball was used at the 1954 FIFA World Cup Final, various versions of which were then in service until 1966.
The development of the football over the next few decades carried on with experts constantly trying to invent the "perfect ball". The adidas era began in Mexico 40 years ago, and this was when the balls were first given a name. The "Telstar" was made up of 32 special leather panels which made it the roundest ball of its era.
After the "Durlast" came the "Tango" which was way ahead of its time in 1978 – so much so that it was used as a model for the ball at the following five FIFA World Cups. "Tango Espana" in 1982 saw the advent of the synthetic ball – still made primarily of leather, but its water-resistant polyurethane layer made it a true product of the high-tech age. "Azteca", "Etrusco" and "Questra" were in the same mould.
The "Tricolore" in 1998 was the first coloured ball to be used, whilst the 2002 and 2006 tournaments were treated to the revolutionary "Fevernova" and "+Teamgeist" balls which were rounder, more accurate and more durable.
In South Africa, it will be the "Jabulani", made up of a mere eight synthetic panels, which the teams will have to put in the back of the net. This is the 11th official FIFA World Cup ball which adidas has created, and this one is the most stable and accurate football of all time, proving that impossible truly is nothing!
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Hamburg defender Marcell Jansen is on course to win a FIFA World Cup™ place with Germany despite his foot injury, the German Football Federation said on Saturday.
The 24-year-old was named by coach Joachim Loew in Germany's 27-man FIFA World Cup squad which will be reduced to 23 just before the competition starts on 11 June.
Jansen is at the squad's training camp in Sicily and is making good progress on a rehabilitation programme having picked up a foot injury in March. "Marcell has made fantastic progress. If he continues like this, he will be fit in time for the tournament," said Germany's fitness coach Shad Forsythe.
Jansen has not played since 21 March. He has won 30 caps for Germany and was in the squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and UEFA EURO 2008. He has not played for the national side since August 2009, but has put in consistent performances for Hamburg in the Bundesliga.
Fabio Capello believes David Beckham's love for his country can prove invaluable at this year's FIFA World Cup™.
Although Beckham will not be able to play in South Africa due to the achilles injury he picked up on AC Milan duty earlier this year, it still looks likely Capello will find a meaningful role for the 35-year-old.
As Beckham outlined at the FIFA World Cup bid handover in Zurich yesterday, he is not entirely sure what job he is going to be given. However, in his two-and-a-half years in the job, Capello has noted an enthusiasm for the England cause which is not easily replicated.
"David played a short time in a lot of games for me," said Capello. "He could have gone on holiday or stayed at home with his family but he preferred to be with us. That is the reason why I always selected him.
"He is a role model. There was no obligation to stay with us but he always did. That was really important. He has a love for the shirt."
It could be claimed Beckham will become a non-coaching equivalent of Stuart Pearce, perhaps not quite a tub-thumper, by transmitting a hunger for the England cause that will be required when things start to get tricky.
One of those occasions could arrive at England's training camp in Austria next week. Whilst the inclusions of uncapped duo Adam Johnson and Michael Dawson are easily explained away by their outstanding club form in the second half of the season, it might be less easy for Capello to sell the selections of Ledley King and, more pertinently, Jamie Carragher.
Neither man played as much as a minute of the 18-month qualifying campaign, remaining at home as England were trekking their way to outposts such as Belarus and Kazakhstan.
King's absence was purely down to his chronic knee problems. Carragher though had retired, which could create some resentment given he has now performed his spectacular U-turn.
"The spirit will not be damaged," said Capello. "We have time for players who have not been with us to understand what to do in every moment. What I will ask them in meetings is to understand this.
"The fans also have to remember they must support England, not only one player. I hope they won't boo him. During the World Cup I want the fans to help us.
"Carragher had to think about it because when we started he said 'no'. We tried to convince him four or five times because he is a leader on the pitch."
Having spent so much time at the start of his reign insisting he would only pick players in form, by definition players who could get into their club sides on a regular basis, Capello seems to have bent his own rules a little to include the likes of Emile Heskey and Peter Crouch.
The Italian rejects this train of thought, insisting the reasons why specific individuals have not been in their club sides is due to tiredness after an arduous campaign.
Such a statement can clearly not be made about Johnson, who appears to be in direct confrontation with Joe Cole for a place in the 23-man squad Capello will confirm on 1 June, 24 hours before departure for their date with destiny.
"Johnson has improved a lot because he played Championship in the first half of this season. Then played a lot of games for Manchester City and played well," said Capello.
"He had improved a lot and had confidence, not just in easy games but also against Manchester United and Tottenham, and other really important games. It is an important sign for me because it means the confidence of the players is really good."
