Yeah it's true! But I personally believe that Mexico still has a slight edge over both Canada and Honduras.I can see Mexico dropping some points along the way but not enough to miss out!
should Mexico qualify to the final round along with USA, Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and El Salvador, going to central america and play is gonna be very hard and very difficult for mexies to atleast squeeze out 1pt. this isnt gonna be like other qualifying years for mexico, they aint gonna qualify walking through this group, they gonna suffer.
I have faith in Canada. At least all our players are professionals now And for the most part we can field a team of european based players and mls all stars. In terms of quality i don't think we're far from Honduras-El Salvador-Costa Rica. But we probably have the worst soccer federation in the world
Of the 122 remaining teams, 52 have never qualified for the World Cup: AFC (3) Bahrain Qatar Uzbekistan CAF (23) Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Cape Verde Chad Congo Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Guinea Kenya Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mozambique Rwanda Sierra Leone Sudan Swaziland Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe CONCACAF (2) Guatemala Suriname CONMEBOL (1) Venezuela UEFA (23) Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia Cyprus Estonia Faroes Finland Georgia Iceland Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro San Marino Slovakia
Of the teams on this list, Qatar hammering Uzbekistan at home and Lithuania mauling highly touted Romania on the road (both 3-0 scorelines) stand out as the biggest upsets from September 6th.
Uzbekistan are traditionally good at home and poor away - so the result wasn't too much of an upset. 3-0 was more than expected though.
I would put Bahrain, Venezuela, Mali, Uzbekistan, Guatemala, Slovakia and Finland on my watch list, but I wouldnt be surprised if there isn't a newcomer this time around. Yes most of the UNCAF countries have gotten off to a good start but if/when we meet I would expect Mexico to come away with all 3 points from each Central American country, Honduras and Costa Rica being the only exceptions.
Of the 121 remaining teams, 51 have never qualified for the World Cup: AFC (3) Bahrain Qatar Uzbekistan CAF (22) Benin Burkina Faso Cape Verde Chad Congo Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Guinea Kenya Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mozambique Rwanda Sierra Leone Sudan Swaziland Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe CONCACAF (2) Guatemala Suriname CONMEBOL (1) Venezuela UEFA (23) Albania Andorra Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Bosnia Cyprus Estonia Faroes Finland Georgia Iceland Kazakhstan Latvia Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macedonia Malta Moldova Montenegro San Marino Slovakia
probably will. update it after every round dude... not just after one team is mathematically left out. they'll be knocked out officially soon enough.
It's too early but BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA is makin' a case for themselves. They held Spain well even though they lost, and they destroyed Estonia. Belgium has been weak for a while and Turkey while favorite to finish second might be on their way to a letdown if they aren't careful... In Asia, Qatar missed a chance againt Bahrein but might still break through.
I think the team in Europe right now is Lithuania. However, sadly I just think that group might be a little too strong for them with France, Romania, Austria and Serbia all in that group. Remember they have to win the group to automatically advance or else get a playoff as an unseeded team. It's always hard in Asia because the 'big 5' have such a dominance there. The last time anyone outside that group broke through was the UAE in 1990... oh yeah and China of course in 2002 but they didn't have to play any of those big 5 teams to qualify so they don't really count.
I don't think that officially there is "regular Congo" or just "Congo". What used to be Congo-Brazzaville is now the Republic of the Congo. What used to be Congo-Kinshasa (also Congo Free State, Belgian Congo, Congo-Léopoldville, and Zaire) is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The two Congos... DRC (purple): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo RoC (yellow): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_the_Congo
I think if Albania continue to play well and pick up points then they have a good chance to qualify. Of course Portugal and Sweden are also in that group so it will be tough for them.