If any of you have been following the World Cup qualifiers over the past week or so, I’m sure some of you may have been wishing the Premier League was on. After all that drama, I hardly think so.
The past week was the penultimate round of matches across the world to see which teams with question marks would qualify to go to Brazil next year. In Europe, the major story coming out is that Bosnia and Herzegovina qualified for the first time in their history in style by scoring 30 goals during the group stages and pipping Greece for the top spot. They did so with a 1-0 away win at Lithuania. With an attack force of Edin Dzeko and Vedad Ibisevic, they might just ruffle some feathers in Brazil.
To the delight of many soccer connoisseurs, Belgium, touted as one of the challengers for next year, qualified (first time since 2002) with a 1-1 draw at home against Wales. Belgium is a team packed full of quality players including the likes of Lukaku, Hazard, Kompany, Vertonghen, Mirallas and Dembele; a team that would frighten the pants off any opponents. What may scare fans even more is a World Cup without Portugal and France. This is because they both finished in the playoff positions (second in table) and would have to be drawn against other European teams to see who qualifies in two-legged playoffs. Elsewhere, England made sure of qualification with a 2-0 win over Poland with goals from Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard.
In South America, Uruguay managed to keep themselves within a whisper of qualifying by winning a thrilling match at home against Argentina 3-2. Goals from Cristian Rodriguez, Edison Cavani and a Luis Suarez penalty cancelled out a brace from Argentina’s Maxi Rodriguez. They will have to play an intercontinental playoff against Jordan (qualified from Asia) to decide who goes through. Uruguay could potentially join Argentina, Colombia, Chile and Ecuador among the crop of South American teams.
Africa saw the first round of the two-legged playoffs to decide who qualifies to the World Cup. The best result of the first legs would undoubtedly be Ghana’s 6-1 win over Egypt in what was a master class in attacking soccer.
The Egyptians would find it very tough to overturn that deficit despite impressing in qualifying when they finished top of the group with a 6-0-0 record. Elsewhere, Nigeria won a hard fought away game in Ethiopia thanks to two late goals from Emmanuel Emenike after falling behind earlier in the match. That result leaves them on track to the qualify with the second leg coming up in a month in Nigeria. The Ivory Coast are in pole position as well, thanks to a 3-1 home win over Senegal with goals from Didier Drogba, Ludovic Sane and Salomon Kalou. In other games, Burkina Faso edged out Algeria 3-2 while Tunisia and Cameroon played out a goalless draw.
Possibly the most dramatic story comes from CONCACAF (the North American and Central American Region). Panama faced off at home against the U.S. (who have already qualified) needing a win to even have a chance of qualifying. They would also need Mexico, who played Costa Rica in San Jose, to lose at the same time.
Panama ended up taking the lead in the first half when they dominated and held that until halftime. U.S. boss Jurgen Klinsmann clearly wasn’t satisfied, and the U.S. came out firing in the second half as they equalized through Michael Orozco. The game then came alive as Panama (who started the half slowly) came out of their shell and eventually took the lead in the 83rd minute. It seemed Panama was about to make history, since Mexico were losing 2-1 to Costa Rica, and qualify for the first time to go to the World Cup.
Little did they know the U.S. had fight in them. Two injury-time goals from Graham Zusi and Aron Johansson sealed their fate. Panama was eliminated but put out a brave effort in the end. In the end, the U.S., Honduras and Costa Rica qualified. Mexico, who had a poor group stage, will settle for a play off against New Zealand to determine who qualifies.
Richard Duh can be reached at richard.duh@spartans.ut.edu.