While winning a WCQ in Moscow is daunting (no one has), a draw would see you through. And even if you fail, you are still the best team in the playoffs, though many tough teams could find themselves finishing 2nd: France, Portugal, Croatia, etc.
Mexico has a lot of home games left including USA, Honduras, and El Salvador. They also get an away game vs T&T. They are sitting good. The USA still has to travel to Mexico, T&T, and Honduras. Mexico has a pretty easy schedule. They have only lost something like 1 home World Cup qualifier and USA has only tied them once in Mexico City.
I think you take it the wrong way. We're not saying (or at least I'm not) that Germany is the worst of these teams, but if they didn't qualify, it would be a FAR bigger shock than anyone else (including Argentina). And with the playoffs looming if you lose in Moscow, it has to be considered a possibility, but not necessarily probability.
Even if you have to qualify through the play offs you'll probably be fine and will be considered one of the favourites again to win the whole thing. Much as it pains me to say this, the Germans always know how to bring it on when it really counts.
Germany have never failed to qualify for a world cup. In fact I don't they have ever finished outside the top eight side at a WC (in which they competed). So yeah, would be the biggest shock of all. (EDIT: Actually looked it up - only once outside the top eight - in 1938)
They only played games in African zone. It's too early to tell. Nigeria is only 2 points behind Tunisia. Tunisia has qualified for the last three Finals. So either Tunisia or Nigeria will be consider a big team to fail.
The magical "kiss of death".....IIRC Germany had "never lost a world qualiyier at home"....until England blistered them 5-1 in Munich... Croatia had "never lost a competitive game in Zagreb".....until England blistered them 4-1... Early last season I'm watching an EPL game and Robbie Keane steps up to take a penalty...the announcer says..."He's never missed one before".... .....Keeper saved it. point is....there's a first time for everything.
Zaki's injury certainly isn't helping them right now. I always feel like the African teams are such a crapshoot. Nigeria should go through and probably Ivory Coast and Ghana, but you just never know who will get the other spots.
After they had already qualified so there was nothing on the line for them. Different story in the Munich game.
Amazingly nobody has mentioned Russia yet! One of the top 8-10 teams in the world at the moment, but may not qualify. Fifth is definitely a possibility for Argentina. But 5th is also an almost certain qualification for Argentina. Just don't see El Salvador or Honduras even hanging within Argentina in the playoff, even Mexico is a stretch. That said, Ecuador will probably have more than 23 points entering the final day of qualifying so things could get dicey for the Argies if they don't beat Brasil. Especially since Uruguay have a superior goal difference.
But just imagine this best worst case scenario. Mexico finishes 4th and Argentina 5th. That would be an amazing playoff game.
Well, if you want to narrow it down to home games in World Cup qualification that actually meant something you get a pretty small total for Germany. 1986 was the first time ever Germany actually had a somewhat tough group in qualifying. In 1990 the Netherlands were a very strong opponent of course, but the games didn't mean much as you only had to come in second in a 4 team group with Finland and Wales. 1998, with Ukraine and Portugal, could be classified as a tough group too if you're generous, I guess. So, prior to 2002 you can count the number of qualification games were something was on the line for Germany on one hand.
In which case they haven't done too well then when "something was on the line"......got battered by England in Munich in 2001 "when something was on the line"....didn't have to qualify in 2006 and now gotta get a result in Russia "with something on the line" for 2010.
That's not quite right. Only the two best second placed teams from the three 4 team groups qualified. Germany nearly failed to qualify that time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_(UEFA)
Well, I actually think Germany's record in World Cup qualifying is somewhat overrated (although it isn't bad by any means of course, it's just that they often had pretty lucky draws. However, I don't think that a single not so good game makes a trend either way . I had actually forgotten about that - still, Germany already knew after 4 out of 6 games that they would qualify no matter what happened in the other groups if they won their remaining home games against Finland and Wales. Biggest problem was the draw in Wales, if they had won there Germany would have won the group. Not losing their two games against the Netherlands was certainly a very good result, and exactly what they needed, don't want to put that down.
BigSoccer has trouble with links with brackets at the end, add one at the end of the link and you'll get the page .
That's true, it's tough to predict. Especially in the last two campaigns, many African nations seem to have improved greatly and the likes of Cameroon and Nigeria can't sleepwalk through qualifying anymore.