nail in the coffin for Ethiopia. They had a great run, but looks like Nigeria will be our first team from Africa.
oh well, so it looks like we've lost Ethiopia - one of the few FTQs still in contention, who lost 4-1 on aggregate to Nigeria. We've pretty much also lost Jordan who lost 5-0 at home to Uruguay, meaning they need a 6 goal win in Montevideo to qualify. So the hopes pretty much hinge on Iceland and Burkina Faso. Both teams play on Tuesday. Iceland drew 0-0 at home with Croatia so will need either a win, or scoring draw away to go through, while Burkina Faso won 3-2 at home, but need to get at least a draw in Algiers to seal qualification and join Bosnia & Herzegovina as our first team qualifiers next year.
Technically, Burkina Faso could also lose by 1 and qualify, provided they get 3 away goals (i.e. minimum is a 4-3 loss, and that would send BF through on away goals), but the chances of that happening are slim.
not going well for our remaining FTQs at the moment with both Burkina Faso and Iceland down a goal. Burkina Faso has 2o minutes to get a goal to get themselves back into the world cup.... going even worse for Iceland, down a goal but can't even get teh ball out of their own half...
oh well, Burkina Faso go out... so I guess our only hope now for another first time qualifier to join Bosnia is...
They only need two actually as a 2-2 draw puts them through on away goals but yeah I agree, it looks over... but hang on... there's still Jordan - they only need 6 in Uruguay!
So the qualifiers are over and Bosnia & Herzegovina are officially our only first time qualifiers... however, hold the phone regarding Burkina Faso: http://www.supersport.com/football/article.aspx?Id=2211564
They seem to have a legit case that could send them to brazil.. What's the likelihood FIFA does something about it, or in other words, sends Burkina Faso to the World Cup?
I don't know they eliminated Cape Verde in similar fashion after they won in Tunis so if FIFA is consistent, this may happen
Thing is that there is no such yellow card for Bougherra registered. Possibly the referee made a mistake, but then worst case scenario it will be a rematch.
A legit case, maybe... but isn't there a FIFA rule somewhere in the laws of the game which suggests they can't cancel a game simply because of refereeing errors? I mean if they can do that, then the away game should be voided as well. Coz BF got a bogus pk + i think they also got an offside goal. Cape Verde's case was different. The player was suspended & still fielded. That is vastly different from a layer who is eligible to start but stays on coz a ref missed a foul he committed. The most that will come out of this is, FIFA will suspend the player for 2 - 3 games. The guy will probably miss the world cup, but Algeria won't.
No and that would be crazy to rule the match in favor of BF because of refeeing decisions when they had a phantom call for them in the first leg. What they are protesting is that goalscorer Madjid Bougherra shouldn't have been playing as he'd already picked up 2 yellow cards from previous matches, one being the 1st leg and should have been suspended for the 2nd. I think the standard punishment is a 3-0 loss for the accused team.. see the link below: http://www.supersport.com/football/article.aspx?Id=2211564
I recall a match a couple of years ago in the AFC Champions league, where an Iranian club (Sepahan) beat the eventual champions of the CL (Al Sadd) home and away in the quarterfinal, but were subsequently disqualified because their keeper had a yellow card from another AFC CL match playing for another club before his transfer to Sepahan in the middle of the AFC CL season. The same happened to our U23 team, which had defeated Iraq in a match but saw the result overturned and replaced with a 3:0 loss due to a confusion regarding whether one of its late substitutes (who came into the match around the 80th mark and had no impact in the result) had 2 yellow cards. The point is that if Bougherra indeed had 2 yellow cards, regardless of whether he was the goal scorer or not, the result will be overturned and the match will be declared 3:0 in favor of Burkina Faso. On the other hand, if had not been shown a yellow card, regardless of whether he should have been shown one or not, I don't think there is any remedy that affects the result. I don't even a rematch would be warranted.
I just read an article. The ref for the first leg said the information on the FIFA website is correct (Madjid Bougherra wasn't carded) and that he did not card any player in the tunnel or after match.... etc. so unless someone watched the game and flat out remembers that he was carded, I doubt anything will come of this. The only thing I could see is if some foul occured by Madjid Bougherra and the wrong player was put in the book, I could see FIFA actually put forth a replay of the game. Also a replay because of bad referreeing isn't unprecidented, didn't it happen in the AFC 5th place game last cycle?
Oh snappppppppppp! I didnt not know that! All along I thought they were just bitching about the ref & the "no-red" decision!.. FIFA's website only shows the card against Mali though. I've gone through all of Algeria's games since the group stages & he only has 1 booking, which is the one against Mali. I suppose I can find a video of the BF game (Algeria away) to see if he got a booking; but if that is the case & the ref just missed to put it on his report... what happens?
According to the FBF - Bougherra received a yellow during the Burkina Faso - Algeria game that for some reason wasn't recorded as official after the game. According to Bougherra himself the players are mistaken and the yellow card was given to someone else, but they may have been confused because Bougherra was talking to the referee when he showed the card. Sikazwe, the referee for the game, says everything is in order. I guess this can be easily solved by rewatching the game and pinpointing the situation in question. Here is the game: And here are the yellows shown - I watched those moments and the only thing I can say is that the yellows were shown to the right people: (7') Djamel MESBAH (42') Essaid BELKALEM (65') Adlane GUEDIOURA
Well, I watched those incidents and didn't see the ref wield the yellow card at all, the footage was busy showing replays of the fouls. Clearly those were the perps who needed booking, but I couldn't tell from the images whether they actually did. Bougherra could easily have talked himself into a yellow card during any of those incidents or some other time, without the video showing it. I'm not saying that he did, just that the coverage is a bit crap.
yeah, but the ref has said that the info on the fifa website is correct, which means he didn't give another yellow.