Island!! hehe i'll keep dreaming and praying for them,Maybe one day they will suprise me and the world
I'll wait until I see how the big teams perform over the next few years and what groups they are drawn into before I make any decision. However, I can imagine that France, Italy, Holland, Portugal, England, Spain, Brazil, Argentina, USA, Mexico and Japan. I have a feeling Germany will be there too.
costa rica will once again beat Mexico in the Azteca! Costa Rica, USA, Honduras, all 3 three will advance very far
Ianman... The game against New Zealand for the Confed cup berth was ludicrous. There were several reasons why we lost that game: 1. None of our starting-15 players were called up for the match; It was made up of local NSL players who hadn´t played competitive soccer for almost 2 months (it was the off season). 2. Soccer Australia was involved in a legal dispute with their sponsers and if the result in the court went against, Soccer Australia would not have had the money to put up a team. 3. The courts allowed S. Australia to field a team while the legal battle was ongoing. They were given 10 days before the match to call up a squad. That is not enough time to become match fit, especially when all the players hadn´t kicked a footy in such a long time and most of them were on holidays. Given that, we still only lost 1-0. Lastly, the deal to give the OFC a berth in the WC is to be decided next month. I wouldn´t be counting chickens till they hatch. All i have to say is that for the past two attempts to qualify we´ve had a very raw deal. in 98 we didn´t lose a qualifier yet still didn´t qualify, and in 02 we lost one game, getting conditioned by playing spastics like american samoa. end rant.
The Ocenia champion will automatically qualify for the World cup, and that will most likely be Australia. You must remember Australia were without Harry Kewll and Mark Viduka when New Zealand beat us (Australia) a few months ago.
Australia basically played their 2nd side in that match with most of our big name players like Kewell and Viduka unavailable. We'll be there in 2006... I hope!! SeinDude
ASIA Korea, Japan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Communist China will not have the luxury of not having to play Japan and Korea (Korea, which China has still never beaten in 22 matches) and may find themselves stuck with two superior teams at the very least in qualifying. There are some other intriguing sides like Iraq, whose youth talent is pretty good, but I'm not placing any bets on their asses after they get bombed around by the U.S. I don't think Thailand is good enough yet, since they really haven't had an "explosion" of sorts since everyone has started tabbing them as the team on the rise. Some of the Arab states like UAE or Kuwait are at the China level, definitely there, but not quite up to par with the top 4 Asian sides. On another note, woe be the Taiwanese team, who is not allowed to play any friendly matches with other nations because their thug Goliath to the west threatens economic sanctions against anyone who tries to play a freaking SPORT with Taiwan.
I'll have to disagree with that!4 spots is enough for Asia! While Korea Republic and Japan played very well at the World Cup,the other 2 nations were quite poor,especially Saudi Arabia.China were not that disapointing knowing that this was their first ever World Cup and they were drawn in a group containing the Champions and the third place team.But both China and Saudi Arabia failed to score a goal....
Top Teams by Confederation The following are IMO the strongest sides in each of the confederations right now. Of course, the picture could look different by the time of the qualifiers for 2006. AFC 1. S.Korea (B) 2. Japan (B) 3. Iran (B-/B) 4. Saudi Arabia (C+/B-) 5. China (C+) (The AFC has plenty of other teams that rank just below China or thereabouts, but as a whole, the confederation has probably only 3 teams that are clearly international level, i.e. B- or better). Concacaf 1. Mexico (B) 2. USA (B) 3. Costa Rica (B-/B) 4. Honduras (B-) 5. Jamaica (C+) (Concacaf has improved a lot, but in general, presents a picture IMO somewhat analagous to the AFC) OFC 1. Australia (B-/B) 2. New Zealand (C+) (The rest of the OFC teams are worthless) Conembol 1. Brazil (B+/A-) 2. Argentina (B+/A-) 3. Paraguay (B) 4. Uraguay (B) 5. Columbia (B) 6. Ecuador (B-/B) 7. Chile (B-) (After Brazil and Argentina, IMO there is a lot of parity in Conembol, with most of the other sides decent but not more) UEFA UEFA essentially has 4 type of teams, and plenty in each category. Hence, I won't rank them sequentially, instead mentioning that the first category sides (B+) include France, Holland, Germany, Spain, Italy, recently Turkey as well as England. The 2nd category trail close behind (B/B+) and include sides such as Denmark, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Ireland, etc. The next category drop somewhat and include sides such as Russia, Scotland, Austria, Belgium and others with experience but very little serious accomplishment in the larger scheme of things. The 3rd tier sides are mediocre (C+ or below), including some such as Greece or Slovenia that have qualified from UEFA to the World Cup. UEFA also has its share of real minnows as well. CAF There are many African sides that are decent. But while there is a usually one African team since Cameroon in WC90 that does well, the typical pattern is for the rest of the representatives from Africa to merely show themselves competitive while exiting in the first round. Among the African teams, the first tier (B/B+) IMO right now still include Cameroon and Nigeria, with Senegal adding its name to the list. The 2nd tier include S.Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia, and several other such sides ranging from (B-) to (B).
CONCACAF (3.5) 1/Mexico 2/US 3/Costa Rica 4/Honduras AFC (4.5) 1/Japan 2/S. Korea 3/S. Arabia 4/Iran 5/Thailand CAF (5) 1/Cameroon 2/Nigeria 3/S. Africa 4/Morocco 5/Egypt COMNEBOL 1/Argentina 2/Brazil 3/Uraguay 4/Paraguay UEFA 1/France 2/Netherlands 3/Spain 4/Turkey 5/Italy 6/England 7/Demnark 8/Belgium 9/Ireland Republic 10/Yugoslavia 11/Russia 12/Sweden 13/Romania OFC 1/Australia HOST 1/Germany
Sorry. That's won't happen with them going to 4 spots just so the flippin' Aussies can go to the World Cup.
Okay here is my assesment... CONCACAF: 1) Mexico 2) USA 3) Honduras 4) Costa Rica (play off Vs Asia) Canada might get by however I think their youth needs to prove it on the field before I can put them on the list. Ofcourse this is a list from 2003 a lot can change. CONMEBOL 1) Argentina 2) Brazil 3) Colombia 4) Uruguay Paraguay has been slipping, however Colombia has a habit of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. It wouldnt surprise me if Paraguay snuck in with Colombia coming out... from the rest I dont know what to think of Ecuador, if they have some young up and coming talent they might be able to do it again. UEFA 1) France 2) England 3) Holland 4) Italy 5) Spain 6) Ireland 7) Denmark 8) Portugal 9) Bulgaria 10) Russia 11) Romania 12) Belgium 13) Sweeden Host) Germany This one I didnt put in any specific order I am simply going by what I know about the Europeans (which is not very much) Croatia might be able to sneak in... Slovania and Greece might get in on account of the uneven groups.... I know I neglected to put Yugoslavia and Chech Rep. I know that they are decent teams however they also have a nack of not making it. CAF 1) Nigeria 2) Cameroon 3) Morroco 4) Egypt 5) Ghana I confess I dont know much about this region neithere however I have heard a lot of good things about Ghana, they never seem to get over the hump so I pick next WC as the year they do it. My noticable omission from the list is Sengal who might very well get in, personally I loved their WC run however I dont know if its legit or just a case of playing grate soccer douring that one month. AFC 1) Japan 2) Korea 3) Iran 4) China 5) Saudi Arabia (Playoff Vs CONCACAF) This is a hard region to call since there are plenty of teams that can do well vs certain teams in the region yet lose vs others... Iraq and Thiland might easily overun Irand or Saudi Arabia... China will probably be considerably better in 4 years. OFC Australia will pass go and collect free WC spot. Playoff Costa Rica Vs Saudi Arabia-------> Costa Rica Unless Saudi Arabia has some young gun I dont know about I would say Costa Rica runs them down... Although they are our big rivals in CONCACAF, I really enjoy Paulo Cesar Wanchope... If Saudia Arabia can withstand the attack of Costa Rica, they might pull it off as the big weakness in CR is their deffense.
England probably, I dont think Wales will and Ireland are struggling as it is in the euro qualifiers, depends who they have managing them I suppose. I think Scotland will be in much better shape by the time we get to world cup qualifying actually (i hope anyway) wether we qualify depends on the group, i think a play off would be much more likely if they are still working it that way, god knows anymore.
I can't believe that there are 4 pages of posts on this. You cant even begin to guess this crap UNTIL THE DRAW IS OUT Although it's nice to have read perhaps the stupidest post ever on BS Lay off the sake dude...
I'm surprised that from the CONCACAF teams,no one mentionned Trinidad & Tobago. They have a huge crop of players like Arnold Dwarika and Stern John.They were poor at the end of the qualifiers in which they finished last in the final round of the region.But at least they got there!They will probably do better next time!
Playoff Costa Rica Vs Saudi Arabia-------> Costa Rica Unless Saudi Arabia has some young gun I dont know about I would say Costa Rica runs them down... Although they are our big rivals in CONCACAF, I really enjoy Paulo Cesar Wanchope... If Saudia Arabia can withstand the attack of Costa Rica, they might pull it off as the big weakness in CR is their deffense. i agree that Costa Rica will go, but weakness in defense? Did you watch Gilberto Martinez during 2002? how cares if they lost a game allowing 5 goals against, but stil run the tapes of CR vrs Mexico in the Azteca, see how well he was there, and even against USA in Saprissa
America: US, Mex, Costa Rica, Canada, Arg, Bra, Col, Par Africa: Senegal, Nigeria, Cameroon, S. Africa, Morroco Asia, OFC: Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Australia UEFA: Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, England, Netherlands, Czech Rep., Sweden, Turkey, Ireland, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Croatia
Re: Top Teams by Confederation Nice post but what on earth makes you think that Argentina is stronger than any of the European (B) teams? I can agree with Brazil being just a bit above everyone else, but Argentina? They fit in with Europe's top. Not better, not worse.
From what I hear Gilberto Martinez is an exceptional talent however I dont think one player makes a defense overall I think they are a little below average in the "D" and The CR goalkeeper doesn't exactly inspire grate confidence, these factors combined are what make me seee CR's deffense as their weakness however I think they can light up the scoreboards with the rest of them in order to compensate.