The schedule for the first round of North American qualifying has been set.February 3, 2008
Cayman Islands at Bermuda 3 PM Hamilton
February 6, 2008
El Salvador at Anguilla Washington D.C., United States of America
Antigua and Barbuda at Aruba Oranjestad
Saint Kitts and Nevis at Belize Guatemala City, Guatemala
Barbados at Dominica Roseau
Netherlands Antilles at Nicaragua Diriamba
Saint Lucia at Turks and Caicos Islands Providenciales
March 26, 2008
Anguilla at El Salvador San Salvador
Aruba at Antigua and Barbuda Saint John's
Belize at Saint Kitts and Nevis Basseterre
British Virgin Islands at Bahamas Nassau
Dominica at Barbados Bridgetown
Dominican Republic at Puerto Rico Bayamón
Nicaragua at Netherlands Antilles Willemstad
Turks and Caicos Islands at Saint Lucia Vieux Fort
U.S. Virgin Islands at Grenada Saint George's
Suriname vs. Montserrat
March 30, 2008
Bermuda at Cayman Islands 7 PM George Town
Bahamas at British Virgin Islands Nassau, Bahamas
Round two will take place on June 14 and June 21.
June 14, 2008
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines at Canada
June 21, 2008
Canada at Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Here is the date of the postponed New Zealand home match against Fiji. The match is being played on neutral ground.
June 23, 2008
Fiji at New Zealand 11 PM Apia, Samoa
The list of fixtures for the African first round has been announced, but the dates for each individual match have not. When they are announced, they will be posted here.
The first round of matches will take place on May 30, 31, and April 1. The second rotation will occur on June 6, 7, and 8. The third cycle will happen on June 13, 14, and 15.
The fourth round of matches will take place on June 20, 21, and 22. The fifth rotation will occur on September 5, 6, and 7. The sixth cycle will happen on October 10, 11, and 12.
Group G fixtures were the first to be determined on December 8, 2007 in Vienna. Group I fixtures were determined on December 14, 2007 in Amsterdam. Group I will finish in September 2009, but Group G will finish in October 2009.
The fixtures begin in February with the top seeds hosting the lowest seeds in each of their groups. The meat of the qualification cycle takes place in June 2008. There is a home-and-away series in early June for match days three and four.
We will get to see how worthy South Africa are of hosting the World Cup by their results in the first round of qualifying against mighty Nigeria. Three of the top four African seeds (Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco) are looking to validate their rankings by qualifying for the World Cup finals after missing out in 2006. Togo and Angola are looking to prove that they were no flukes last qualification cycle by marching into South Africa 2010. A * denotes a Germany 2006 participant. A # signifies a Ghana 2008 qualifier. The numbers are the teams' current ELO ratings.
England just cannot catch a break. Less than one week after being eliminated by Croatia from Euro2008, the two foes are drawn against each other again. Denmark and Sweden are also drawn together again, giving the Danish fans a chance to redeem themselves as a civilized audience. The toughest groups appear to be Groups A, C, F, and G. A * denotes a Germany 2006 particapant and a # represents a Euro2008 qualifier.
The top seeds in each group are the United States of America, México, and Costa Rica. The second seeds in each group are Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, and Panamá. The other seeded teams were Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica, Canada, Guyana, and Haiti. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines received a first-round bye. Note that Guadeloupe are not members of FIFA and therefore cannot participate in the World Cup despite their semifinal appearance at the 2007 Gold Cup.
Australia were the top seed coming into the draw, but they left with the toughest group of any of the top five Asian countries. Group E will certainly put southwest Asian braggin rights on the line and will have the least travel time required for its contestants. South Korea appear to have been given the easiest route to round four, but none of these labels matter once the games begin.
New Zealand looked to distance themselves from the rest of their group by adding another three points to their haul with a win at home against Vanautu. They did just that, taking a 3-0 lead into the half and finishing with a 4-1 win at the final whistle. Unfortunately, the New Zealand captain Tim Brown picked up a second yellow card in second half stoppage time and was sent off the pitch. He will be inelgible for New Zealand's next qualifier. They will still have Shane Smeltz, who with four goals in three games is the top scorer in Oceania's second round of qualifying.
In perhaps the most back-and-forth affair of World Cup qualifying so far, Venezuela came back from being one goal down three times to obtain a home victory against Bolivia. The man to save Venezuela the first two times was forward Daniel Arismendi, a beneficiary of Venezuela's decision to start a second forward for the first time in qualifying. Tied 2-2 at the half, Bolivia took a commanding 3-2 lead with only thirteen minutes left in the match. Venezuela managed to tie the game at three and then caught a break when Bolivian goalie Carlos Arias suffered a leg injury with no substitutions remaining. The Venezuelans received two goals from forward Giancarlo Maldonado, who took advantage of Arias's inability to jump for his first strike. His second goal and his team's fifth came against a stand-in goalie who was out of position.
Chile went into Montevideo looking for crucial road points against Uruguay. They got the job done with a 2-2 tie. Both Chile and Uruguay have earned four points so far in qualifying. Chile managed a tie despite being outshot eleven to four; in fact, Chile actually held a 2-1 late in the second half after being down 1-0 at the break. The game became very heated, though, as both teams picked up four yellow cards apiece.
In the first match of the day, Singapore took its 2-0 aggregate lead to Tajikistan. Tajikistan got off to the best possible start with a goal in the first minute and were looking desperately to tie the aggregate. What they got instead was a tie game at the half. Neither team was able to hit the back of the net and Singapore came out with a 1-1 tie and a 3-1 aggregate victory. Singapore goes on to round three after pulling consecutive upsets.
Argentina started off match day three of South American qualifying with a shutout victory at home to Bolivia, 3-0. Juan Riquelme netted two more scores, including one on a free kick, and pushed his tournament total to four, leading CONMEBOL in scoring. Bolivia did its best to slow Argentina's attack by any means, committing nineteen fouls to Argentina's eight.
In the first FIFA World Cup qualifier ever in Comoros, the home territory was overtaken by Madagascar's attack. With a 6-2 lead in the aggregate coming in, Madagascar were all but guaranteed a slot into the final 48, yet they came out looking to win. A 1-0 lead at the half grew to 4-0 by the end of the match, and now Madagascar will await their fate in Durban.
New Zealand, the favorites to win the OFC Nations Cup, started off their home-and-away qualifier with Vanuatu in the underdog's capital city, Port Vila. New Zealand had a 2-0 in Fiji last month, and today ran their point total in qualifying to six with a 2-1 victory. Vanuatu certainly had to have been pleased with their halftime lead of 1-0, but the New Zealanders answered early in the second half and put away a back-breaking goal in stoppage time to topple Vanuatu.
Djibouti put their name into the pot for the preliminary draw on November 25 by winning their one-off tie versus Somalia. Because Somalia was deemed unsafe for play, FIFA decided to shorten this tie to a single game in Djibouti. In fact, Somalia have not played at home since 1986. With the shutout victory, Djibouti have become team number 46 to qualify for Africa's second stage; only two more spots remain.
The AFC seedings have changed among the top five teams.
In the first of two legs, the final two teams to begin second round play in Asian qualifying played a scoreless draw. Turkmenistan saw four of its players draw yellow cards, but no one for Hong Kong was booked. The return leg will be in Turkmenistan on October 18.
