Before I begin, I have to tender my apologies to all readers of my blog articles for the long silence. I have been extremely busy. I will try to be more regular and consistent. Thanks.
The International breaks never go down well with me and a lot other soccer fans all over the globe because it temporarily halts the excitement of club football. But what must take place, must definitely take place.
The last couple of games were very pivotal for a host of prestigious countries who aimed to qualify automatically for the various tournaments that concerned them. The three lions of England were faced with a daunting task of taking at least a point off a determined Montenegro side in Podgorica. The Turks and Belgians were also in a battle to take second spot in a group that had already been won by Germany. Scotland also had the unenviable mission of taking all three points against Spain in Alicante. Serbia had to win against Slovenia in Maribor to have any chance of claiming a play-off spot. Sweden had to win their last 2 games to qualify at worst for the play-offs,or as best runner-up.
Nigeria , Cameroon, South Africa and Egypt were all in precarious situations with regards to qualification for the AFCON 2012 in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea. Also, the 2014 World cup qualifiers kicked off in the American Region without Brazil as expected--------naturally because they are the host nation.
I am going try to elucidate what transpired over the past one week or so...... region by region....sit back and enjoy reading.
AFRICA
One would have thought that teams like Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt, and South Africa who have a lot of talented players plying their trade in some of the biggest Leagues in world football, and considering the number of national and international titles they have accumulated in years gone by, will qualify easily. But as they say, football is not mathematics. Nigeria needed to defeat Guinea to qualify and they had the advantage by virtue of the fact that the match was to be played at Abuja. Cameroon and Egypt on the other hand, were all but certainties to miss out of the draw ceremony which is slated for 29 October in Equatorial Guinea.
The Super eagles of Nigeria and the Bafana Bafana of South Africa had it all to play for in their respective make or mar encounters with Guinea and Sierra Leone. Coach Samson Siasia stuck to his guns, with regard to the non-invitation of asst captain and number one goalie, Vincent Enyeama.....asides this, the squad was full strength. The fans and supporters of the West African nation were in high spirits and very optimistic about their nation's chances of reaching the group stages of the biennial showpiece.
The match began with Nigeria expectedly piling pressure on the men from Conakry, hoping to stamp its authority on the match from the off. It was not to be as the well marshaled defense of the east African side, coupled with the inexplicable misses of Osaze Peter Odemwingie, and his compatriots ensured that the scoreline still remained goalless. At this time there was some unrest in the Nigerian camp and coach Siasia wasn't at all pleased with his side's mediocre performance. The supporters were seen in the terraces soaked in disbelief and utter shock. But it was only 45 minutes and there was still time for improvement........so they thought, or rather wished.
Ten minutes into the 2nd half, Former Dynamo Kyiv hotshot and Dubai based versatile player,--- Ismael Bangoura silenced the already devastated Abuja crowd with a goal that all but made matters worse for the Eagles. Victor Obinna Nsofor restored parity minutes later, and IK Uche put Nigeria ahead......a lead that would have been enough to see them in yet another football fiesta. At this time, the entire Nigerian populace had found their voices, singing and raining praises on the entire team for a job well carried out.....but the Syli Nationale (nickname for the Guinean National team) had other plans.....with just a few minutes to the final whistle, Ibrahim Diallo put a very sharp dagger through the hearts of the most populous black nation in the world with an all important, qualification clinching goal. That was the end of the NIGERIAN DREAM. It came as a shock to everyone in and out of the National Stadium. The failure to qualify represented the 1st time it had happened for 25 years (since 1986, although the country did not participate in the 1996 and 98 tournaments due to political disagreement and suspension).
South Africa on the other hand was a story of unprofessionalism and ignorance of CAF rules for qualification. It was inscrutable when Pitso Mosimane, the coach of the Bafana Bafana and the governing body (SAFA) came out to say they were unaware of the qualification requirements. The southern African nation were held to a draw by the Leone stars of Sierra Leone and it was purely intentional, when instead Pitso and his boys should have gone out to win outright. FUNNY, isn't it? I found it gut-busting.
After the last round of qualifying matches, it was astonishing to find out that 8 of the last 9 winners of the previous AFCON tournaments and 4 of the 6 representatives of Africa in the last World Cup finals will not be present in next year's football party.
The 16 PROFICIENT teams that will fly their countries flags are:
GABON, EQUATORIAL GUINEA (Debut appearance)--both co-hosts, MALI, GUINEA, ZAMBIA,MOROCCO, SENEGAL, NIGER, LIBYA, BURKINA FASO, GHANA, COTE D'IVOIRE, ANGOLA, BOTSWANA, TUNISIA, and SUDAN.
For the draw ceremony in about two weeks time, the POTS will be like this:
POT 1-Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Ivory Coast
POT 2- Angola, Tunisia, Zambia, Guinea
POT 3- Mali, Senegal, Morocco, Burkina Faso
POT 4- Sudan, Libya, Botswana, Niger
EUROPE
Before the penultimate qualifying match-day, Germany, Italy, Spain and Netherlands had already sealed their places in the football festival to be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. Nations like England, France, Denmark, Portugal, Czech Republic Sweden etc were looking to join them.......But they had to negotiate past some very tough matches to achieve their objectives. It had all the makings of a great show.
England flew to Podgorica knowing that only a draw will cement its position as group winners and secure automatic qualification, rather than go through the avoidable heartache of the play-offs. Capello' team reached their aim, but not without a price. The three lions took a 2-1 lead into half time courtesy of Ashley Young and Darren Bent......at this point, they were home and dry and could even have added more in a half that saw them dominate for long periods, until a very costly error led to Montenegro pegging one back on the stroke of half time. It proved very detrimental as Talisman and Super star Wayne Rooney rolled back the years by inexcusably kicking out at an opponent (Miodrag Dzudovic) 14 minutes from time.... which resulted in Wolfgang Stark---the match referee sending him off. There was no challenging or criticizing the decision as it was spot on. UEFA on Thursday piled more misery on the Merseyside born striker and dented England's slim hopes of performing well in the Euros by announcing that he will sit out the entire group stage. The FA hope to get a reprieve when they appeal. Montenegro secured their own place among the play-off teams by scoring a late equalizer to make it even more annoying for Fabio Capello and England. 2-2 it ended.
Mesut Ozil is a turkish-german but chose to play for the DIE MANNSCAFT. El Cuervo or der-rabe (which means the raven)as Ozil is affectionately called, was in for a very nasty reception because of his Turkish roots, but luckily for him, he was hampered by a slight injury. The German National team had a 100% record alongside the Oranje (Holland) and the la furia roja (Spain) and weren't in any mood to repudiate it. Istanbul is an electrifying and intimidating stadium with all its vociferous fans and they also had Guus Hiddink ....easily one of the best managers in the History of the sport. It promised to be a masterpiece. Joachim Loew has over the years built a fantastic team only second to Spain in terms of performances in the last two international competitions. If not for the Spanish team, Germany would probably have raised the '08 European trophy and the '10 World Cup. Players like Bastian Schweinsteiger, Lukas Podolski, Manuel Neuer, Philipp Lahm, etc have made them too difficult to play against, talk more of defeating them.
They started in customary fashion in Turkish soil, scoring the first two goals courtesy of in-form Mario Gomez and Thomas Muller, Hakan Balta replied for the Turks, but Bastian's penalty made sure of the victory and continued the near impeccable record of 9 out of 9 for the German machines. 3-1 it ended.
Del Bosque's Spain defeated Czech Republic in Prague by 2(Mata and Alonso) goals to nothing, Sweden defeated Finland 2-1 in Helsinki and France trounced Albania by 3 goals to nil.-----Remy, Malouda and Reveillere on the score sheet.
Craig Levein's Scotland put themselves within touching distance of a play-off slug out with the Czechs with a slim 1-0 win at Liechtenstein all thanks to a Craig Mackail-Smith goal in his 1st competitive start. They then had the 'very difficult' job of beating Spain to at most, make the play-offs. Wales and Gareth Bale easily swept the Swiss team away. Nani scored two goals en route to the Selecao's (Portugal) 5-3 win v Iceland. As for Bosnia,......-Dzeko, Missimovic, Pjanic and co scored five past a hapless Luxembourg side to set up a gran stand finish in Group D.
The last match day had many FINALS. Denmark-Portugal, France-Bosnia, Germany-Belgium (crucial for Belgium), Turkey-Azerbaijan, Slovenia- Serbia (a Serbia win essential), Spain-Scotland, Lithuania-Czech Rep, Sweden-Netherlands, Rep of Ireland-Armenia.
Denmark, inspired by Ajax wonderkid, Christian Eriksen outshone Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal's own Christian) and the Portuguese team.........the teenager put in a phenomenal performance in midfield where more established stars like Meireles and Martins were present, but out of sorts. The match ended 2-1 with Arsenal cast away, Niklas Bendtner scoring once again against the Bento propelled team. Brondby's Krohn-Dehli opened scoring in a match that the Danes dominated from start to finish. The World's best player (alongside Messi)----Ronaldo sent a thunderous trademark set piece past Sorensen in the Danish goal in the dying seconds of the encounter, but it proved to be nothing more than a consolation for the fans who came all the way from Portugal only to witness such a forgettable performance. Nani again was the only player worthy of praise in the entire team....Ronaldo inclusive.
Germany made light work of Belgium with Ozil, Schurrle and Gomez again on the score sheet in a 3-1 win. Everton's Fellaini scored a consolatory goal for the opponents. The mannscaft finished the qualifying phase with a perfect 10 in 10 record. The best in the whole of Europe if you consider the fact that they played 2 more matches than the roja. -----(Spain 8 out of 8). Turkey were saved from a disappointing campaign by a Yilmaz second half goal v Azerbaijan
The French national team were for the second consecutive qualifying campaign helped by bad refereeing decision. Bosnia's tall and dangerous forward----Edin Dzeko stunned the les blue faithful by putting the underdogs in the lead with a brilliant curling shot that went past Hugo Lloris.. and it lasted until about 15-20 minutes to the end of the match when Samir Nasri tumbled quite easily under the challenge of Emir Spahic and the referee undoubtedly pointed the spot. The Manchester City playmaker dusted himself up and scored to send France into EURO 2012 as Group D winners.
Sweden knew that to defeat the 'flawless' Oranje, it had to take something special and that they did in Stockholm. It wasn't a smooth ride though they started brightly....Kim Kallstrom, the man widely known as the <Swedish Gerrard>. scored a wonderful free kick to put his side in the lead...The Netherlands equalized via the deadly Klaas Jan Huntelaar who scored his 30th International goal in 48 appearances and his 12th of the qualifying race. The first half ended with both sides at par.
IN the second half, the Oranje stepped it up a level and it was no surprise when Dirk Kuyt scored after good work from RVP and Strootman. The lead lasted two minutes as Seb Larsson restored parity with a well taken penalty after a handball in the box.It did not end there.......OLA TOIVONEN, the PSV attacking jewel sent the fans into frenzy by scoring the winner. Sweden went through as best runners-up, but in doing that, ended Holland's winning record in Group E.
The AVIVA Stadium in Ireland was buzzing- It was a do or die affair between the hosts (Rep of Ireland) and Armenia. Armenia had to win to qualify for the play-offs....Advocaat's Russia had already secured their place in next year's sporting feast by thrashing minnows Andorra by six very good goals. Dzagoev of CSKA MOSCOW was the star of the show. The Irish began brightly and even had the advantage of playing against 10 -men early on when Armenia goalkeeper, Roman Berezovsky was wrongly given the marching orders for coming out of his restriction to handle the ball. Replays showed that it was even Cox (The Rep of Ireland player) who used his arm to control the ball and the ball didn't actually hit the goalie's hands...the deed had been done. Defender Aleksanyan made matters worse when he diverted Doyle's back heel into his own net..talk about adding fuel to a furnace and you won't be far from the truth. Richard Dunne found the opponents net this time with the second goal for his country and that all but sealed Ireland's place among the play-off countries. Armenia got a goal through Henrikh Mikhitaryan who was very fortunate to have benefited from a rare Shay Given error. That ended the Irish record of 8 successive clean sheets and more than 800 minutes without conceding a goal. They end someday, don't they?
Alicante was a hostile atmosphere, especially for away sides and Scotland found that out early enough when a David Silva first half double made it almost impossible for them to find a way past the red army of Spain. The Spanish armada did not end there...David Silva on his mission to prove to Del Bosque that he has the ability to stake a claim for a starting role, was doing just that with an unselfish pass to David Villa ten minutes into the second half.....typical of 'EL GUAJE', he didn't waste time before slotting the ball easily past Allan Mcgregor. The goal marked his 50th in national colours. Scotland grabbed a lifeline midway through the second half when David Goodwillie slotted a penalty passed Victor Valdes, after the Barcelona shot stopper had impeded the Blackburn new boy. It would have been 3-2 if Goodwillie had just been a little bit unselfish....he was in a good position to pass the ball to fellow striker, Mackail-Smith, who was two yards away from Valdess' goal,.... but chose to chase personal glory, which ultimately failed. The Xavi captained side sealed a perfect 8 out of 8 record in Group I and thus became the 2nd team (Germany as well) to complete the stage with a stainless winning record.
Nemanja Vidic pledged to give his all to the Serbian cause. The gritty defensive stalwart hadn't played since mid-August, but was determined to help his country qualify for its 3rd major tournament in 5 years. Life is a bitch and a wicked one at that. After Dare Vrsic scored a very very 'lucky' goal to give Slovenia the lead, the Captain of Manchester United had a chance to level the score from 6 yards out, but his tame spot kick was saved by 'penalty expert' Samir Handanovic in the Slovenia goal. It ended in Maribor 1-0 to the home team. Serbia unfortunately couldn't make the cut.
THE QUALIFIED TEAMS TO THE EUROS NEXT YEAR ARE:
POLAND, UKRAINE---co-hosts, GERMANY, SPAIN, HOLLAND, ITALY, FRANCE, ENGLAND, DENMARK,SWEDEN, RUSSIA,GREECE.
Four teams will join the privileged 12 after the play-offs in November (11th/12th and 15th)--
PLAY-OFF DRAW:
BOSNIA-PORTUGAL
CZECH REP-MONTENEGRO
TURKEY-CROATIA
REP OF IRELAND-ESTONIA
Some few STATS from the QUALIFICATION RACE
- Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored 12 out of his country's 37 goals to proudly sit on top of the goal scorers chart, three more than the next highest, Miroslav Klose
- David Weir of Scotland was the oldest player to feature in the competition at 40 years of age
- The 'divine' Jari Litmanen was the oldest scorer at the ripe young age of 39.
- Chelsea's Romelu Lukaku (then of Anderlecht) was the youngest player at 17 years.
- Czech's Vaclav Kadlec was the youngest scorer at the age of 18.
- Mesut Ozil and Kim Kallstrom of Germany and Sweden shared the award for highest assists with 7 apiece
EMERGING PLAYERS
- ALAN DZAGOEV-RUSSIA, JACK WILSHERE, PHIL JONES, DANNY WELBECK AND CHRIS SMALLING -ENGLAND, MARCO REUS, THE BENDER TWINS (SVEN AND LARS), ANDRES SCHURRLE, ILKAY GUNDOGAN AND MARIO GOTZE - GERMANY, JORDI ALBA AND THIAGO ALCANTARA-SPAIN, ROMELU LUKAKU-BELGIUM, etc.
In other reports, The World Cup Qualifiers kicked off in South America with Copa America champions, Uruguay, Argentina and co hoping to start off on a good note. The Celeste (nickname for Uruguay) defeated Bolivia in the first match by 4 goals to 2 with Suarez and Cavani among the goals. The second match for Uruguay was a re-match of the COPA AMERICA final-----this time it ended 1-1 with Richard Ortiz denying Forlan and co a 2nd win in 2 games. The La Celeste goal was scored by DIEGO FORLAN CORAZO----a goal which made him the highest goal scorer of all time for the South American team, adding that to his increasing cap record.
Alejandro Sabella started life as Argentina boss on a dream note...in his 1st competitive match, he put Claudio Borghi's Chile tot he sword.... bashing them by 4 goals to one with Gonzalo Geraldo Higuain (El Pipita) scoring his second hat-trick in a week (the first was against Espanyol in la liga for Real Madrid). The best CLUB footballer in the World and new albiceleste skipper, Lionel Messi---finally broke his international duck dating back to 4 months. Mathias Fernandez scored Chile's only goal. Sabella's world came crashing down in Puerto La Cruz. Once again Leo Messi failed to find the extraordinary form he shows for the Blaugrana (Barcelona) week in, week out. Higuain was like a lost sheep in the garden. Cesar Farias's side claimed Argentina's scalp for the first time in 19 meetings------everything that has a beginning , surely has an end. Chile fared better than their previous outing as they just did enough to edge past a determined and talented Peru side that shocked many in the Copa America months ago. They were still missing injured Alexis Sanchez, but the gifted midfield anchor, Gary Medel returned to the fold to boost their chances of taking all the 3 points. The match ended 4-2 with Medel and Suazo (pk) among the scorers. in-form Werder Bremen finisher, Claudio Pizarro and Schalke's Farfan were on the score sheet for the Peruvians, but it was not enough to take even a point.
Mano Menezes's Brazil are not involved in qualifying games by virtue of their status as tournament hosts......Despite the exemption, the samba boys still took part in some friendly games v Costa Rica and Mexico in the US and Mexico. They won both games,1-0 and 2-1 although not comfortably. The positives taken from both games was the performance of returning LEGEND, Ronaldinho Gaucho and the hard work of Fernandinho. stand in goalie, Jefferson, also saved an Andres Guardado penalty which was among the many fabulous saves he racked up in the Mexico match........It was also a send-off match for Mexican goalkeeper, Oscar Sanchez who was also in that kind of form where nothing just wouldn't go past him, until Ronaldinho delivered one of his truly special masterclass set pieces which flew past the veteran keeper like a missile.He had earlier saved from the buck toothed attacking wizard's right foot, but this wasn't going to be stopped. Neymar also put in encouraging displays crowned by his well taken goal v Costa Rica which won the game for the Selecao. The big surprise was Lucas Moura who was not as spectacular as he usually is.......It is a learning curve for the 19 year old and he will come good.
Done and Dusted.
OHIS
Follow me on twitter @ohiskaka1990
