Day -806. WorldCup2018
With reference to my James Lawton of the Daily Express mention the other day, here I am writing about World Cup qualifiers while matches in the CONCACAF and CONMEBOL regions are going on right now. The USMNT (read back a few days) are comfortably making up for their surprise defeat to Guatemala last Friday. They are 3-0 up, well into the second half. At the same time Trinidad and Tobago are winning 4-0 against St. Vincent and the Grenadines. There's no real significance to that match other than I wonder if it makes for the most space taken up on a scoreboard in an international match. In South America, Argentina are beating Bolivia 2-0. The man-who-is-not-Maradona, the player who goes walkabout at World Cups or most times he plays for Argentina, has scored a penalty. In an attempt to play up his super-stardom, I can already see the headlines in England tomorrow: "Messi inspires Argentina to crucial World Cup win". He scored a penalty against Bolivia.
The more interesting, or amusing to the cynics, story of the day is that it seems Harry Redknapp's three hour stint as manager of Jordan has come to an end. The former manager of almost every team in the English Premier League battling relegation, or in need of redemption in the English Championship, agreed to take on the manager's job in Jordan for their last 2 matches in this round of Asian qualifying. After an emphatic 8-0 win against Bangladesh in his debut/penultimate match, his team were brought back down to earth by a 36 year old player who spent a lot of his career in England at a club in a stronger position than most of Redknapp's teams. Tim Cahill scored twice in Australia's 5-1 win which left Jordan to rely on other results to see whether they would move on to the next phase of qualifying. It was not to be and it looks like Redknapp's dream of metaphorically (or actually doing it) sticking two fingers up at the English FA for not giving him the England job a few years ago by leading another team to the World Cup is over. So his second match was also his farewell. I wonder if Prince Ali, President of the Jordanian FA and a friend of Redknapp's, held off on organising a welcome party for his new manager and is now going to combine it with the farewell party. Redknapp can return to England safe in the knowledge that he has a secure position as adviser to the Derby County manager; a position created by the club when they realised that sacking an experienced former Real Madrid assistant manager and replacing him with the former Academy Director of Derby County was maybe not their best move, especially as they expect to be promoted the Premier League. Good luck, Harry. Club chairman desperate for the riches of the Premier League, or a rich FA President with no fear of a lack of riches? I wonder who he would rather work for.
The Syria World Cup story carried on today. Despite losing 5-0 to Japan they secured their spot in the final round of qualifying. Regardless of the internal and international political disputes over Syria, it is quite amazing that their football team has manged to come together and be this close to qualifying for their first ever World Cup. It is going to get very tough from now on. Out of the twelve teams remaining only 4 are guaranteed a spot in the finals.
Harry Redknapp might have added some colour to today's qualifying and Syria a touch of the near miraculous, but the quirkiest events of the day must have been what happened in Iran. I will let somebody else check the history books (or google) to find out if this was a first. Tehran hosted not only Iran's match against Oman today but also 2 other qualifiers played in three different Tehran stadiums; Iraq-Vietnam, Afghanistan-Singapore were the other two matches. Three World Cup qualifiers, six different countries in one city in one day. Sadly, it is a reflection of the environment in which teams from these countries have to compete. And what they go through to be able to play a football match.
And as I end, so have a couple of the qualifiers. The USMNT won 4-0, and the T&T beat SVG 6-0. Brazil are losing 2-0 early in the second half in Paraguay and as it stands are 7th in the qualifying table, out of which 4 teams qualify and the 5th team goes into an inter-continental play-off. I'll say it again: it is not beyond belief that Brazil may not qualify. Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay are all ahead of them, Ecuador are top and with this win Paraguay are also in a stronger position. This is going to be interesting.
From the Late Night Desk: Paraguay-Brazil 2-2. Equalizer in stoppage time. Does it change my last paragraph? Barely. Brazil still 6th.
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