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Old 09-05-2010, 12:23 AM   #187
Radii
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
--Reserve ML Josh Coke is released, he's 22 years old, he has some limited skills but would never play for us unless we were in big trouble. He started making noise this week about wanting first team soccer, so I give him his walking papers and wish him well.

World Cup Qualifying

With two games played last week the US have very slightly improved their standing. On 9/7 they beat Guatemala at home 1-0 as they needed to do. On 9/11 they were only able to manage a draw at Costa Rica. Costa Rica has fallen apart and is 0-2-6 in this qualifying, needed to win there.

The US was 1 point behind Canada, who beat Costa Rica and lost to Mexico. So the US gains a point and is now tied, but Canada leads by 3 in goal differential.

With 8 out of 10 matches played:

1. Mexico - 22 points - clinched world cup bid
2. Honduras - 13 points - clinched 4th for a playoff spot
3. Canada - 11 points, 14 goals for/11 goals against
4. USA - 11 points, 10 goals for/10 goals against
5. Guatemala - 6 points
6. Costa Rica - 2 points

The good news is that the US is at home for their final two matches. The... other news... is that the two matches are against the top two teams, Honduras and Mexico. Perhaps the US won't get a top effort from either since they've already reserved spots.

Canada travels to Guatemala and then hosts Honduras.

With 5 points on Guatemala and 2 matches to play, it would take an epic failure to not at least finish 4th which earns a playoff with a south american team for qualification. It'd sure be nice to somehow bump ahead of Canada for 3rd though.




Over to Europe, only 3 teams have qualified with one month to go, Croatia, France, and England.


Other notable teams:

Group 2:

Slovakia 19 points
Spain 17 points
Turkey 13 points

w/ 2 matches left, Spain needs some help to win their group but looks fine for the playoffs.


Group 3:

Russia 17 points
Czech Republic 15 points (+11 GD)
Slovenia 15 points (+3 GD)


Group 5:

Portugal 19 points
Greece 19 points

both teams have a +11 differntial. Awesomely enough, Portugal hosts Greece in the next match.


Group 6:

Italy 18 points
Switzerland 14 points

Italy should be fine.

Group 8:

Holland 19 points
Belgium 18 points
Scotland 15 points

Holland should be ok too but there is the danger of a slip.


Group 9:

Germany 16 points
Serbia 11 points

This is the 5 team group so they only play 8 matches. Germany is 5-1-0 with 2 left, they are in great shape as well.




In both North America and Europe, World Cup Qualifying finishes around October 16th.
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