Africa announces seedings

1. Cameroon
2. Nigeria
3. Côte d'Ivoire
4. Morocco
5. Ghana
6. Tunisia
7. Egypt
8. Guinea
9. Senegal
10. Mali
11. Angola
12. Togo

13. Zambia
14. South Africa
15. Cape Verde
16. Democratic Republic of the Congo
17. Algeria
18. Burkina Faso
19. Benin
20. Mozambique
21. Libya
22. Ethiopia
23. Congo
24. Zimbabwe

25. Uganda
26. Botswana
27. Equatorial Guinea
28. Tanzania
29. Gabon
30. Malawi
31. Sudan
32. Burundi
33. Liberia
34. Rwanda
35. Eritrea
36. Namibia

37. Gambia
38. Mauritania
39. Kenya
40. Chad
41. Lesotho
42. Mauritius
43. Niger

44. Swaziland
45. Seychelles
46. Sierra Leone
47. Madagascar
48. Comoros
49. Central African Republic
50. Guinea-Bissau
51. Somalia
52. Djibouti
53. São Tomé e Príncipe

Tahiti 1 - Tuvalu 1; Samoa, Vanuatu, New Caledonia win

Tahiti suffered a monumental setback to its campaign with a stunning 1-1 tie to Tuvalu. This sole point puts Tahiti at one point with two games left to play. They are chasing Fiji, who have six points with two games left. Tahiti must win both of their games and hope that Fiji lose their final two in order to advance. Tuvalu, despite being the tournament's surprise team, have been eliminated from the South Pacific Games.

In the other Group A match, New Caledonia punched their ticket to the semifinals with one game remaining with another routine victory, this time 3-0 over the Cook Islands. The winning coaches take was that "there was a lot of satisfaction tonight because we played a good match."

In Group B action, Vanuatu dismantled American Samoa, sending the American territory out of contention for the World Cup. Vanuatu put 15 past their opponents and came out with a clean sheet. Sinapati was sent off for American Samoa with the score only 3-0, leaving his mates helpless to contend.

Samoa continued their slim hopes of survival with a closely fought 2-1 win over Tonga. Samoa had a lead of 1-0 at the half only to see the score knotted early in the second before knocking home the go-ahead goal late in the contest. The Samoan captain Chris Cahill and his teammate Papani will be unavailable against the Solomon Islands due to two yellow cards in the tournament.

Goal scorers:
Tahiti: Williams 45+1

Tuvalu: Sekifu 88

Vanuatu: Poida 19; Mermer 24, 45, 45+1, 68; Sakama 43, 79, 90+1; Chichirua 56; Soromon 62, 81, 84, 86, 90+2; Tomake 72

New Caledonia: Kabeu 37, 86; Wajoka 51 PK

Samoa: Faaisuaso 45+1, Taylor 83

Tonga: Feao 53

New Caledonia 1 - Tuvalu 0; Fiji, Solomon Islands, Samoa win

New Caledonia survived a scare against Tuvalu. New Caledonia had rested their main players for this match against the tiny non-FIFA nation, and they almost paid the price for this tactic. Still, New Caledonia escaped with a win and held on to their margin over Tahiti, who had the day off. The only goal of the match came on a mistake from the Tuvalu keeper Timo, who while attempting to clear the ball, instead kicked it into an opponent's chest and watched the ball roll behind him into the net. Speaking after the match, the New Caledonian coach said that the use of the second-string players "should be no excuse. We played with a new team but it was bad. We did not have any respect for our opponents."

In the other Group A match, Fiji displayed a less stellar performance than in their opener, but were able to cruise past the Cook Islands 4-0 after Cook Islands player Shepherd was sent off in the first half.

The Solomon Islands had a less solid performance than two days prior as well, but they extended their Group B lead with a good defensive showing, downing Tonga 4-0. "We had a lot of chances to finish them off but 4-0 was not really satisfactory," said the Solomon Islands coach.

Samoa got back on track with a 7-0 win over neighboring American Samoa in the nightcap.

Goals scorers:
New Caledonia: Kabeu 52

Solomon Islands: Menapi 5, 13; Fa'arado 51; Maemae 66

Fiji: Vakatalesau 18 PK; Waka 40; Bukalidi 62; Kainihewe 83

Samoa: Tumua 24, 51; Faaiuaso 29; Cahill 43 PK, 67; Fonoti 61; Michael 76

New Caledonia 1 - Tahiti 0; Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu win

In a minor opening match upset, New Caledonia beat Tahiti 1-0 in Samoa to open the 13th edition of the South Pacific Games, despite having midfielder Hmae sent off in the first half. The victory puts New Caledonia into a good position to qualify for the semifinals if they put up a good result against Fiji and hold form against Tuvalu and the Cook Islands.

The Tahitians now have to scramble and show good form against Fiji and put up large goal differentials versus Tuvalu and the Cook Islands in order to avoid elimination.

In the other Group A match, Fiji destroyed Tuvalu 16-0 and sent a message to New Caledonia and Tahiti that they came to win.

In Group B, the Samoan hosts tried to pull off a surprise against Vanuatu, but despite the home field advantage were unable. The surprise of 2006 qualifying, Vanuatu now simply needs a good result against the Solomon Islands as well as victories against lowly American Samoa and Tonga to advance. The final score was Vanuatu 4, Samoa 0.

The Solomon Islands had an average showing against American Samoa, but they still came out with a large amount of goals in a 12-1 victory. Regardless, American Samoa had to be delighted, scoring their first ever goal in World Cup competition.

Goal scorers:
New Caledonia: Wajoka 9 PK

Fiji: Krishna 6, 14, 22; Rabo 11, 34, 45; Baletoga 17; Tiwa 28, 30; Vakatalesau 42, 46, 65, 73, 82, 89; Finau 68

Solomon Islands: Totori 12, 15; Menapi 20 PK, 41, 75, 82; Fa'arodo 43; Waiti 58, 85; Beubeu 69; Molea 77; Takayama 90+2

American Samoa: Ott 55 PK

Vanuatu: Iwai 25; Naprapol 45; Poida 66; Soromon 90+2

CONCACAF announces five rounds of qualification

Just as in qualifying for the 2006 World Cup, CONCACAF will begin with two rounds of home-and-away ties in order to trim its field down to its top twelve teams.

Round three will once again divide the dozen teams into three groups of four teams. Every team in a group plays all of the other teams once at home and once on the road. After six matches, the top two teams from each group move on to the fourth round.

Round four will keep all six teams in one group. Each team will visit and host all of the other teams once. After the teams have played ten games each, the top three teams will automatically qualify for South Africa, with the fourth-place team headed to the fifth round.

The fifth round will be the CONCACAF-CONMEBOL interzonal qualifier. The fourth-place team from North America will play home and away fixtures with the fifth-place team of South America for one of the last two spots in the 2010 World Cup.

CAF combines qualifying for World Cup and 2010 African Nations Cup

The fact that the qualification for both tournaments is combined means that South Africa will become only the second host nation to go through qualification, (1934 Italy vs. Greece) although their performance does not influence their chances of going to the 2010 World Cup. South Africa is attempting to qualify for Angola 2010. With Angola needing to qualify for the World Cup but not for the Nations Cup, a few more interesting stipulations are tossed in to the mix.

There will be three rounds of CAF qualifying. The fixtures for the first round involve only the lowest-ranked ten teams in Africa and have already been announced.

The second round will place the 48 remaining teams into twelve groups of four teams. The four teams all play each other as hosts and as visitors. After six games, the twelve group winners and the eight best second-place finishers advance to the final round.

The final round will consist of five groups of four teams. Again, each team will play home and away to all other teams in the group, resulting in a total of six matches.

The winner of each final-round group goes to the World Cup and the top three in each group go to the 2010 Nations Cup. If South Africa win their group, then the second-place team in the group goes to the World Cup. If Angola get to this stage, then all four teams in their group qualify for the Nations Cup.

Pots Made for CONCACAF Draw

There are four pots in the CONCACAF region, with St. Vincent and the Grenadines being the only member of pot 2. Pot 1 holds the 12 highest-seeded teams in the region, all of whom are automatically through to the second round of qualifying. St. Vincent and the Grenadines also advance clear to round two, but they will be thrown into pot 2 along with the eleven winners of the first round matches, waiting to be drawn against the top twelve squads.

For the first round there are two pots, Pot A and Pot B. Eleven home-and-away ties will be played between the countries to determine who moves on to round two. The draw to match the teams in these pots will occur in Durban in November.

The following are the seedings for the CONCACAF draw:

1. México
2. United States
3. Costa Rica
4. Honduras
5. Panamá
6. Trinidad and Tobago
7. Jamaica
8. Cuba
9. Haiti
10. Guatemala
11. Canada
12. Guyana

13. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Pot A
14. Barbados
15. Suriname
16. Bermuda
17. Antigua and Barbuda
18. Saint Kitts and Nevis
19. Dominican Republic
20. El Salvador
21. Bahamas
22. Nicaragua
23. Grenada
24. Saint Lucia

Pot B
25. Turks and Caicos Islands
26. Netherlands Antilles
27. British Virgin Islands
28. Dominica
29. Cayman Islands
30. Puerto Rico
31. Anguilla
32. Belize
33. U.S. Virgin Islands
34. Montserrat
35. Aruba

Africa Preliminary Qualifiers

This is no longer conjecture, it is hard fact. FIFA has announced the home-and-away qualifying ties that will cut down the number of African squads from 53 to 48. Niger escaped this phase as the 48th-ranked African side. As always, the current ELO ratings will appear next to the team names.

October 12, 2007
159 Swaziland “at” 192 Somalia (Djibouti)

October 13, 2007
200 Comoros at 154 Madagascar
162 Central African Republic at 183 São Tomé e Príncipe
209 Djibouti at 177 Seychelles

October 14, 2007
146 Guinea-Bissau at 138 Sierra Leone

November 17, 2007
Madagascar at Comoros
Somalia at Swaziland
São Tomé e Príncipe at Central African Republic
Sierra Leone at Guinea-Bissau
Seychelles at Djibouti

My bold prediction is that none of these teams will qualify for the World Cup.The ELO rankings have Lesotho at 169 and Eritrea at 162. Those countries must be glad that the FIFA rankings are used to make the draws. Niger is ranked 137.I find it interesting that the two highest-ranked teams by the ELO ratings are facing off head-to-head in this preliminary round. In truth, picking any of these five winners would be a crapshoot, so I won't even try except for one. Madagascar over Comoros is the pick since they played in a friendly in August and Madagascar won 3-0.

The African Ten

As best as I can tell, Africa will eliminate five teams before the November preliminary draw in Durban in order to get its membership down to 48 teams. In order to do this, there would have to be a series of home-and-away ties between Africa's worst 10 teams according to FIFA rankings. I would assume that the draw for these five ties would take a form similar to Asia's first round. Pot A would have the higher-ranked teams, and they would randomly be parternered with a team from Pot B.

Pot A: Swaziland/Niger, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Madagascar, Comoros
Pot B: Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Somalia, Djibouti, São Tomé e Príncipe

Niger and Swaziland are only two ranking points apart in FIFA's rankings. Both teams have games on September 8 which may influence their rankings enough to alter Pot A. Swaziland plays Eritrea and Niger faces Uganda. Currently, Niger is ranked high enough to move straight through to the draw at Durban.

Indonesia get a free pass

The Indonesian football association has announced that it has received a notice of withdrawal from Guam. With Indonesia seeded as the 17th-best first round competitor, they seem unlikely to be one of the top eleven victors, so Guam's forfeiture would appear to give Indonesia a bye to the second round and not to the third.

Second Round Draw:
Seed 17 vs. Seed 14
Seed 16 vs. Seed 12
Seed 19 vs. Seed 15
Seed 18 vs. Seed 13

AFC Round One Schedule

The current ELO ratings for each team are provided. TBD indicates that the site is not yet determined.

October 8, 2007
212 Macau at 105 Thailand
85 United Arab Emirates at 128 Vietnam
200 Afghanistan at 88 Syria
106 Tajikistan at 181 Bangladesh
203 Nepal at 67 Oman
131 Singapore at 141 Palestine (Jordan)
169 India at 127 Lebanon

October 11, 2007
114 Turkmenistan at 207 Cambodia

October 13, 2007
185 Taiwan at 60 Uzbekistan

October 18, 2007
77 Jordan at 165 Kyrgyzstan

October 19, 2007
179 Maldives at 147 Yemen

October 21, 2007
87 Qatar at 189 Sri Lanka
160 Myanmar at 65 China
167 Malaysia at 92 Bahrain
150 Hong Kong at 218 East Timor (Indonesia)
82 North Korea at 210 Mongolia

October 22, 2007
47 Iraq at 194 Pakistan

October 26, 2007
Syria at Afghanistan (Tajikistan)
Yemen at Maldives

October 28, 2007
Pakistan at Iraq (Syria)
Uzbekistan at Taiwan
Thailand at Macau
Sri Lanka at Qatar
China at Myanmar
Kyrgyzstan at Jordan
Vietnam at United Arab Emirates
Bahrain at Malaysia
East Timor at Hong Kong
Bangladesh at Tajikistan
Mongolia at North Korea
Oman at Nepal
Palestine at Singapore
Lebanon at India
Cambodia at Turkmenistan

The most compelling ties are UAE vs. Vietnam, Maldives vs. Yemen, Singapore vs. Palestine, and India vs. Lebanon. If any of the lower-ranked teams win in the other 13 ties, they would be monumental upsets. These three duels seem to offer the only opportunities for drama.

Vietnam defeated UAE in Vietnam 2-0 during the Asian Cup 2007 and would seem to be the pick here, with a recent win over Bahrain also on their record.

Yemen isn't exactly a powerhouse, but they have a favorable draw in Maldives, who haven't played an international since December 2005. Based on that alone, I'm siding with Yemen.

Palestine always face a tough test because they have no true home games. Most likely, these "home" games will be played in neighboring Jordan. Palestine's last victory came eight matches ago against Cambodia. Singapore boasts a recent victory over North Korea. I'm going with Singapore.

India have not played an international match since late in 2006, but will host a five-team all-Asian tournament at Delhi in order to prepare for the upcoming tie with Lebanon. This Nehru Cup will allow India to be well-prepared to pull off an upset of Lebanon. Lebanon has lost both of their matches this year, one to Syria and one to Jordan, but I believe that Lebanon will find a way to advance.

AFC Seedings

Before I post the schedule, here are the seedings of the 43 Asian nations:

1. Australia
2. Korea Republic
3. Saudi Arabia
4. Japan
5. Iran

6. Bahrain
7. Uzbekistan
8. Kuwait
9. DPR Korea
10. China
11. Jordan
12. Iraq
13. Lebanon
14. Oman
15. UAE
16. Qatar
17. Syria
18. Palestine
19. Thailand
20. Turkmenistan
21. Tajikistan
22. Indonesia
23. Hong Kong
24. Yemen

25. Vietnam
26. Kyrgyzstan
27. Maldives
28. India
29. Singapore
30. Sri Lanka
31. Malaysia
32. Chinese Taipei
33. Bangladesh
34. Macau
35. Pakistan
36. Afghanistan
37. Mongolia
38. Guam
39. Nepal
40. Cambodia
41. Bhutan
42. Myanmar
43. East Timor

AFC announces six-round qualification cycle

Of the 43 entrants into the AFC qualifying tournament, the top five seeded countries advanced straight into the third round of the four-round qualification process. This means that Australia, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and Iran will be starting their campaigns on February 6, 2008.

The other 38 countries, including the AFC Nations Cup champions Iraq, will begin their quests will 19 separate home-and-away playoffs. Game ones will take place on October 8, 2007. Game twos will take place on October 28, 2007.

Regarding round two, the eight round-one winners with the lowest ranking will be pitted in four separate home-and-away playoffs, while the eleven other round-one victors proceed to the third round. These four ties will take place on November 9, 2007 and November 18, 2007.

Round three will feature Asia's twenty best teams. They will be divided into five groups of four teams, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the fourth round. The matches will take place between February 6, 2008 and September 10, 2008.

Round four will be the final proving ground for the final ten competitors. They will be divided into two groups of five. The top two in each group advance to South Africa. This round starts on October 15, 2008 and ends on September 9, 2009.

Nevertheless, the two third-place teams will compete in a last chance home-and-away series.

The winner of this advances to yet another home-and-away series (are you sick of them, too?), this time with the winner of the OFC qualifying process on November 14 and 21, 2009. The winner of this tie receives one of the final two bids to the 2010 World Cup.