Soccer Goals Safari

Well after last night’s soccer goal shocker, the forums and soccer blogs are glowing today with expletive-riddled diatribes and assorted calls for Thierry Henry to have, ooooh, unspeakable things done to his legs, and various other body parts. I shall leave that to them, except to say to Ireland, “Tough luck guys. You were robbed.” We also saw the shock of Russia failing to qualify last night at the hands of Slovenia; and Ukraine get knocked out by Greece. Portugal, as predicted, successfully steered their way to South Africa 2010 by beating Bosnia-Herzegovina. The last game of the qualifying campaign saw Uruguay book their place from the South and Central American group, beating Costa Rica. So that’s it then folks. Thirty-two teams, the best in the world (best at what though?!) off to play on the biggest soccer stage in the world.

Here’s how it looks, by group.

Host Country – Automatic Qualification

• South Africa

Africa Group

• Algeria
• Cameroon
• Cote d’Ivoire
• Ghana
• Nigeria

Asia Group

• Australia
• Japan
• North Korea
• South Korea

Europe Group

• Denmark
• England
• France
• Germany
• Greece
• Italy
• Netherlands
• Portugal
• Serbia
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Spain
• Switzerland

North and Central America

• Honduras
• Mexico
• USA

Oceania

• New Zealand

South America

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Paraguay
• Uruguay

So unless France get disqualified – but they’ve got money so they won’t – I’ll update again after December 4 when the Final Draw is made by FIFA to decide which teams go into which World Cup Groups. Until then, get your soccer goals out so you can get some practice in, and don’t forget to practise those basketball skills as well; you never know when they’re gonna come in handy, eh, Thierry?