Monday, May 25, 2009

CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying - The Road to South Africa 2010

With the World Cup now only 380 days away it is time to look at the qualifying situation in CONCACAF. For those of you who don't know CONCACAF is the North America, Central America, and Caribbean qualifying zone. At present the United States are leading the group with 7 points from three matches. The only real anomaly is Mexico who are currently sitting in fourth place with 3 points from 3 matches. Their next match will be their first without Swedish Coach Sven-Goran Eriksson, who I think it is fair to say enjoyed a less than stellar reign as Mexico boss. With Mexico currently sitting in a play-off place they will look to catch Costa Rica & Honduras who are sitting above them with 6 & 4 points respectively. There are also two teams on two points: El Salvador who are a bit of an upset to make it this far, and FIFA Vice President Jack Warner's Trinidad & Tobago. I did my best to try to forget that Jack Warner was associated with T & T when I was predicting the matches. Unfortunately for fans of the Soca Warriors and El Salvador I see them remaining the bottom two teams. I also think that Mexico will rediscover their form under new leadership and I have them winning the group, followed by Honduras, and the United States. That puts Costa Rica in the playoff against Ecuador and I think that the South Americans will take the playoff and go to South Africa.

In case you wanted to laugh how wrong I was 9 months ago when I predicted what would happen I had Mexico, Canada (oops), & the USA advancing with Cuba (oops again) in the playoff spot ahead of Costa Rica & El Salvador. Next up in the Qualifying Preview Tour is Africa.

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