From 204 to 32; South Africa here we come

The qualification for the 2010 World Cup is over, 32 teams will now fight it out in June and July to become the World Champions. There are a few surprises but most the big teams made it through, just. In July, I made my predictions for who would qualify (Here) and I was pretty accurate getting 28 of the 32 (Costa Rica, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Croatia were my guesses that missed out)

For me, Russia going out to Slovenia was the biggest upset of the whole qualification period followed closely by the African Champions Egypt going out to Algeria. Obviously most of the talk will be about France and Ireland. It was a hand ball, nobody doubts that, the game should of gone to penalties. Looking at it, the referee couldn't see it because of the amount of players in the way, I'm surprised the linesmen didn't see it. It's easy to blame Thierry Henry but if it was the other way round would the Irish players have owned up. We see it week in week out in the premiership by all nationalities and only once or twice have you ever seen a player own up (Arshavin and Fowler I think). Not that I'm saying it's acceptable. Should there be a replay? No. It would create a situation that whenever someone is unhappy about a decision we would have replays. It would be farcical. I am though on the video replay bandwagon in it's support. I think you could allow managers to challenge a decision at the cost of a substitution, if they are wrong.

The whole 'should they be seeded' argument is something I have mixed views about in one hand the seeded system is what ensured Ireland had Georgia, Cyprus and Montenegro in their group rather than England, Spain and Germany. I do think though that seeding gives the bigger teams an unfair advantage. Ireland can have few complaints about getting France in the playoff, out of the second place teams they were last. So you either let the top 4 qualify without a playoff (Russia finished top but yet didn't qualify, is that fair?) or you give the better teams an advantage. Robbie Keane suggesting FIFA is against Ireland is sour grapes I feel, was is bias that helped Slovenia beat Russia or Croatia knock England out in 2008.

Anyway back to the world cup. I'm really looking forward to it. I think there are a handful of teams that think they can win Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany, England, Portugal, Argentina (they won't) and France. I'm looking forward to seeing Ivory Coast, Ghana and Australia. The underdogs North Korea, Honduras and Algeria I think will all struggle although I think Honduras may surprise a few.

The draw for the world cup is in a couple of weeks and I'll write more then.