A World Cup with no Argentina and no France

It's looking rather probable

A home win against the Faroe Islands should be a gimme, the last time these two teams met the French eeked out a 1:0 win

A win at home in St Denis against the Austrians in doubt.
While it has been a little more than a year since they played the first game of the qualifying round, the French got manhandled 3:1 by the Austrians in a game that was pretty much over by half time.

A Serbian win in any of the final two games would give the Serbs Group 7 outright and force the French to try and get in as part of the runner-up qualifying games.

As to Argentina...I'll let www.fifa.com supply the analysis

Which teams are already through? Brazil and Paraguay
The permutations: Only Chile and Ecuador can book their place in the finals in the next round of games.

Argentina (22): La Albiceleste cannot qualify until the final day but could move back up to fourth if they beat Peru at home in their next match and Ecuador lose or draw against Uruguay. Three points against the Peruvians will also ensure them a place in the play-off if Uruguay, Venezuela and Colombia all lose their penultimate engagements.

Who's chasing the Argentines and their 22 points...Uruguay 21, Venezuela 21 and Colombia 20

Next games:
October 10
Argentine H vs Peru
Colombia H vs Chile
Ecuador H vs Uruguay
Venezuela H vs Paraguay

October 13
Uruguay H vs Argentina
Brazil H vs Venezuela
Chile H vs Ecuador
Paraguay H vs Colombia

On edit:
At 5th place Argentina will have to play a playoff round against the fourth place team from CONCACAF -- Right now that's Costa Rica

We have an indication that great players do not always make great managers or coaches.

Maradona has much work to do indeed. I still think Argentina will qualify; not so sure about France, there seems to be a fair bit of disharmony in the squad.

As for the British home nations: England stroll to qualification, Scotland miss out, as do Northern Ireland,

Another failure to get anywhere near qualification for Wales :cry:

The ultimate insult; Maradona shown wearing Brazil's jersey. This photo was published by the Argentine press after the loss to 3-1 loss to Brazil in Rosario Argentina. Media said it had been photoshopped, but in reality it is a photo that Maradona did promoting a Brazilian soft drink.


Maradona took off a fews days ago to a fancy health spa in Merano, northern Italy, to lose, so he said, five to seven kilos of weight. Argentines are outraged, it seems that his losing a few kilos is more important than trying to come up with a solution so that Argentina can (at this point) sneak into the World Cup.

Maradona ran into a legal problem in Italy and his ear-rings worth 4,000 euros were confiscated. It turns out that Italy says Maradona owns 37 million euros in unpaid taxes when he played and lived in Italy years back. An Italian deputy today (Sept. 18) called for Maradona's arrest.

The Argentine Football Association last week ratified him but with conditions: one is that the match against Peru be in the River Plate Monumental stadium in Buenos Aires. Maradona had wanted the game in a smaller stadium in Rosario because, he said, the fans "are closer to the pitch." The other condition was that Maradona call up Riquelme, considered a team leader in previous years but left out this time because of a personal conflict between him and Maradona.

Argentina should have no problem Oct. 10 against Peru, which is last in South American qualifying. This match also brings up unpleasant memories of the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. In the semifinals, Argentina needed to beat Peru by at least four goals to finish ahead of Brazil in their group and go on to the final match.

The final score was Argentina 6, Peru 0. It did not help Brazil that the Peru goalkeeper (naturalized Peruvian citizen) was an Argentine-born named Quiroga and there were reports (never firmly confirmed that I know of) that the Argentine military dictatorship paid the Peruvian players 50,000 U.S. dollars each to throw the match.

The dictatorship was under world condemnation for its "Dirty War" and badly needed something positive. Argentina went on to beat Netherlands and win the cup. Brazil to this day has never forgotten and as Dunga said the other day, "With Argentina, there are never any friendly matches."

Conclusion: I tend to agree that Argentina will go to South Africa, albeit through the back door. Look for a victory against Peru, than at least a tie with Uruguay. That should be enough for a fourth-place ticket to SA, or fifth place for a home-and-away series with the fourth place team in CONCACAF.