Ted's Polish-Mexican Page

I watched the embarassing match between the US and Costa Rica last night. Geez guys...

By way of excuses, the US qualified over a month ago, so Bruce Arena decided to play people that don't play for the national team that often. The team that played last night had not played together very much, and is probably not the one that will have to face down England or Brazil.

But geez guys...

Our boys demonstrated yankee ingenuity by showing new ways a defense can totally break down and a midfield can be totally ineffective. Rev attacker Taylor Twellman did not help his prospects with the national team. Then again, no one's prospects were helped by that game.


As I said, the US qualified way back in early September. There are three and a half slots, the US, Mexico and Costa Rica have all been qualified to go. The "half slot" could go to Trinidad and Tobago or Guatemala, who then would have to beat either Uzbekistan or Bahrain to qualify. I am not making that up. Uzbekistan.


The North American "half slot" is shared with Asia, who have qualified four teams, Japan, Iran, South Korea and Saudi Arabia.


Europe has 14 slots, with only eight teams sure to qualify at this point: Germany and Ukraine qualified some time ago, with Netherlands, Poland, England, Croatia, Italy and Portugal qualifing after victories yesterday. Romania, Czech Republic, Turkey, Denmark, Greece, Slovakia, Russia, Israel, Switzerland, France, Norway, Slovenia, Serbia-Montenegro, Spain, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Sweden all still have a shot at qualifying.

Yes, Israel is in the European group. If you were an Israeli player, would you rather play a qualifier against Ireland or would you rather play it against Syria?

Note to Eric: Scotland is out because they were defeated by Belarus. Belarus.


The African qualifiers ended yesterday too. The standings were so close that no teams qualified before yesterday. The usual suspects, Nigeria, South Africa, didn't qualify, but Angola, Togo, Ghana and Tunisia did. Ivory Coast defeated Sudan 3-1, and Cameroon played a tight game against Egypt. Cameroon was awarded a penalty kick in extra time, which should have been a sure winner. However, Pierre Wome hit the post. This gave Cameroon a tie and meant they ended up one point behind Ivory Coast. Cameroon is always a great team to watch, and it's sad that they will not be in Germany next year. But, it's great to see them along with Angola, Togo and Ghana there, since they have never been to a world cup before.

I'll have to commiserate with my friend Justin Finyom, who used to play for the Cameroon Indominitable Lions back in the 1970's.


South America has four and a half slots, with Argentina and Brazil qualifying last month, and Ecuador and Paraguay qualifying after wins yesterday. Uruguay, Columbia or Chile could still make it, whichever of those three finishes with the most points plays the winner of the Oceana group, either Australia or the Solomon Islands, for the right to go on to the world cup.


Hasta la Proxima. Do zobaczenia.