Soccer Pie - World Cup dream is fading away (part 1)

South Africa fans FIFA World Cup in South Africa is due next summer and we can already feel the excitement everywhere. This year’s Confederations Cup proved South Africa was ready for the biggest tournament in sport and football fans around the world are looking forward to hearing the famous vuvuzuelas again. Decisive qualification battles are around the corner and there are some big names that could miss out on the World Cup. This article is all about them.

I will start with the European Zone where some major surprises are on the horizon. Portugal are one of the big guns that are in extremely difficult position. Things haven’t been going well since Carlos Queiroz took over from Scolari and the European Brazilians have already missed out on the first place in the group, which is reserved for Denmark. However, with just four games to go, Portugal are four points behind second-placed Hungary, although they will have a chance to change this as they are yet to play Hungary home and away. Nevertheless, unless Ronaldo and co. show big improvement in the closing stages of the qualifying campaign, the Portuguese will stay empty-handed.

Then there’s Czech Republic. This national team have endured some tough times after Karel Bruckner left the post and there has been a lot of controversy surrounding the national team. Some notable players were banned from the national team after being caught on the night out with ladies of the night, following World Cup qualifier against Slovakia, which they lost in Prague. Then football association president Ivan Hasek proved there was a truth is saying ‘love yourself before you love another’ by appointing himself as the national team coach. Do you need more reasons why Czech Republic will not make the final tournament?

Turkey are another of the big teams that are in big problems. They failed to repeat the good performances from the Euro 2008 in this qualifying campaign and are now four points adrift of second-placed Bosnia with just four games to go and on top of that, Fatih Terim’s side are yet to play Bosnia away. Knowing the Turks, they are unlikely to give up on the World Cup dream as long as there is even a remote chance they will make it, but they have a real mountain to climb in order to make it to the play-offs.

Croatia are the team that have progressed a great deal over the last few years but things are not looking positive for Slaven Bilic’s side at the moment. England have already secured the first place in Group 6, having won all seven games including the one in Croatia, while the Croats face a tough battle with Ukraine for the place in the play-offs. The teams are tied on points after six rounds and have almost the same opponents in the remaining games, thus the last round will probably decide who will finish second.

I will end the first part of this article with France, who are doing fairly well given the fact domenech_947309 they are led by mad man Domenech. Nobody can guess just why the national football association is still reluctant to give him the boot, but maybe they are just waiting for Les Bleus to miss one big tournament. Well, maybe they will not have to wait for long. France are currently second-placed team in Group 7 and they are 8 points behind Serbia, but even though they have two games in hand, Les Bleus are unlikely to finish top of their group. They will probably enter the play-offs after achieving second-place finish, but nobody can guarantee they will win the play-offs, not with Raymond Domenech in charge.