Date: 19th November 2009 at 9:23 am | Filed under: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Football Blogs, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, United States, Uruguay, World Cup 2010 | Author: Tom Jones | Tags: Diego Maradona, Jozy Altidore, Kaka, Lionel Messi, Luis Fabiano, Rafael Marquez, Roque Santa Cruz | image © Action Images
Maradona4 automatic places were up for grabs at the FIFA 2010 World Cup finals in the South American qualifying section, which contained football giants Brazil and Argentina. Each nation in the 10 team group played 18 matches in one of the longest qualifying campaigns anywhere. Brazil, Chile and Paraguay all qualified with relative ease, whilst Argentina had to struggle to claim the 4th spot ahead of Uruguay who finished in 5th and therefore earned a play-off match against Costa Rica.
Brazil will head into the tournament in South Africa next summer as one of the favourites, as a team of skilful players is led by one of the world’s greatest footballers, Real Madrid’s Kaka. Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano was their top scorer with 9 goals, and most of their players either play in Spain’s La Liga or Italy’s Serie A. Chile, who feature a lot of footballers that play in South America, won 10 of their matches and were helped by top scorer Humberto Suazo. Paraguay also won 10 of their matches and one of their players to look out for is Manchester City’s Roque Santa Cruz. Argentina only qualified after a 1-0 win in their final match in Uruguay. Despite an abundance of talent, most notably Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, they were far from impressive but will still be a major threat next summer led by legend Diego Maradona.
Uruguay were the 32nd nation to secure their place in South Africa after a nervy 2-1 aggregate playoff win against Costa Rica. Costa Rica finished 4th in CONCACAF section of the FIFA 2010 World Cup qualifying, which features teams from North and Central America and the Caribbean. In the 4th and final round of qualifying, 6 nations were battling it out for 3 automatic 2010 World Cup spots. USA finished top of the group, thanks to 6 goals from their top scorer and Hull City striker Jozy Altidore. The other spots were claimed by Mexico who are captained by Barcelona’s Rafael Marquez, and Honduras who last qualified for a FIFA World Cup back in 1982.
Tags : FIFA World Cup, USA, Maradona, Brazil, Football
Comments