So, we finally know our full list of 32 teams that will take part in the 2010 FIFA World Cup, deep breath, South Africa, Algeria, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, North Korea, South Korea. Denmark, England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay, Honduras, Mexico, United States and New Zealand, phew, breathe out. There are a few teams that stick out at first glance, one of those coming from the North, Central America and Caribbean qualifying zone as it is Honduras who finished third in the final round four group. Honduras having finished top of the group two table in round three qualifying, ahead of Mexico, Jamaica and Canada. Mexico though finishing second in the round four group behind the United States to qualify automatically for South Africa. You need a maths degree to work out how some of these qualifying zones work but suffice to say Honduras have had to play a mammoth 18 games overall. You can just imagine what some of the countries, and more likely the club managers in the UEFA zone, would have to say on the back of that kind of fixture list. Although you do wonder if some of those Honduras matches were played at the same time as we were taking part in pointless friendlies. The record of Los Catrachos over those 18 games shows up as ten wins, two draws and six defeats. Which does rather beg the question of whether a side deserves to go to the World Cup when they have only won a few more games than they have lost over such a long qualifying campaign. Especially when Costa Rica don't go to the World Cup despite them winning 12, drawing two and losing four games. To me there should be some kind of "super six" situation involved where points picked up in previous rounds are partly carried forward to the next round if you are going to have a staggered qualifying competition. Costa Rica gaining no advantage whatsoever from their six wins from six in round three while El Salvador for example began the fourth campaign round level with them despite only picking up ten points of a possible eighteen from their six matches. Honduras don't care though and they go to the World Cup for the first time since 1982, a tournament in which the Hondurans finished bottom of group five despite only losing one game. A dour group seeing Los Catrachos score two of the paltry nine goals in a four team table that also contained hosts Spain, Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland. Three of the six matches in the group finishing as draws while the other three games were all won by a one goal margin. For Honduras, while 1-1 draws against Spain and Northern Ireland came and went in their opening two matches it was a 1-0 defeat against the former Yugoslavia in their final game that saw them crash out of the competition. While that match was going on in Zaragoza though a much more well remembered game was going on at the Estadio Luis Casanova (now the Estadio Mestella) in Valencia in front of 49,562 spectators. Arconada…….Armstrong was the cry from John Motson as Nothern Ireland went 1-0 up against Spain in the 47th minute, the home goalkeeper palming a cross straight into the path of the then Watford player Gerry Armstrong who gleefully thumped the loose ball into the net. The Northern Irish starting eleven that night featuring former Carlisle player and manager David McCreery and current BBC Radio Cumbria co-commentator Tommy Cassidy who came on as a second-half substitute for Sammy McIlroy. That was as far as the tournament went for the Northern Irish though as they ended up finishing bottom of their Group D table in the second round. The Ulstermen's 2-2 draw against Austria meaning that they needed to beat France in their last game. Bordeaux midfielder Alain Giresse ran the show in that game however and he scored twice as the French won easily 4-1 to top the final table. France eventually losing out in after a penalty shootout to West Germany in the semi-finals in a remarkable game that ended 3-3 on 120 minutes. That match another memorable tie in an entertaining World Cup, and one in which I am sure those of who are old enough can remember German goalkeeper Harald Schumacher almost decapitating French defender Patrick Battiston only for the challenge to somehow go unpunished. Italy would beat West Germany 3-1 in the final of a tournament in which England crashed out in the second round after beginning things with a bang and a 3-1 win over France. Bryan Robson scoring after just 27 seconds in that game - the second fastest World Cup Finals goal in history. It won't happen like that in 2010 though, we'll lose on penalties in the quarter-finals to Portugal. |