What's to come in next round of qualifying

Day -264 WorldCup2018

My standards are slipping. Or I'm running out of brain power on my last few miles of the marathon. This morning I could not remember what I wrote last night. I remember what I was thinking but did I write it? It almost felt like I was sleep 1000-day-world-cup-countdowning. And I had to do some editing. How did I post that?

On October 5th, if I had it on TV or if I happen to come across a live online stream with no knowledge of whether it is illegal or not (if I click on a link that opens up a new window with a live football match that I want to watch, who am I to judge the morality of it?) then there are two matches I would love to watch: Argentina-Peru and Nigeria-Zambia.

Argentina are level on points with Peru in the South American qualifying group but Peru are in the automatic qualifying 4th spot on goal difference. Peru have sort of come from nowhere to all of a sudden have a very good chance of making it to Russia ahead of Argentina and Chile. A win in Argentina could put them in second place. A defeat for Argentina and a win for Chile could leave Messi and co. in a very, very tough position. On the other hand, if Argentina and Chile win it would leave Peru on the outside. That's how close it is.

The last time Peru were in a World Cup was 1982, the first one in my memory. I heard they were amongst the favourites. I had no opinion about that label but I loved their white shirts with the red sash. On the pitch all I know was that they were in the group of draws, where Italy qualified for the second round with three draws our of three and only because they scored one more goal than Cameroon. There was only one win in the group. Poland beat the favourites, Peru, 5-1. And right there is probably where I sub-consciously learned my lesson that "favourites" means nothing until you get to the World Cup and start winning matches.

Nigeria and Zambia. Cameroon have, over the years, been the neutral's favourite African team. A "neutral" here can mean people who only follow football when the Word Cup is on and Cameroon are cool, and disgruntled England supporters. I like Nigeria because they have the flair but always seemed to have a bit more organized substance. And they had Jay-Jay Okocha. It's incredible to me when I realize that Nigeria first qualified for a World Cup in 1994. I feel like they've been around forever.

Zambia are one of those teams that I have a footballing soft spot for. I was half watching their Olympic team beat Italy 4-0 in the Seoul Olympics in 1988. By the end of the match, which I came across by chance early one morning, I was fully engrossed by what I remember as a very different kind of football that completely un-did their tactical polar opposites, Italy. And in 1993, I was saddened to hear of the loss of most of that team, and almost all their current team, in a plane crash. They didn't make it to the the 1994 and with the loss of probably their most talented team ever, the World Cup seemed like a very distant dream. Now they are two wins away. A win in Nigeria would see them possibly needing a healthy win and a boost to their goal difference against Cameroon in their final match.

In Europe there are a lot of close battles but the one that I am looking at now is the France/Sweden/Netherlands group. When the last round of matches are played on October 10th, Sweden could be very well be in first place, 2 points ahead of France and the Dutch might be a point behind France. On Oct 7th France are in Bulgaria, where nobody French is allowed to mention David Ginola, and Sweden and Holland have the two easier matches against Luxembourg and Belarus respectively. If the worst possible scenario for France plays out then they will have to hope for a Dutch win against Sweden in a huge match on the 10th. France will then grab first place with a home win over Belarus. All suppositions and guesses, but a real possibility.

And just because I'm feeling in a fun mood here's another look at one of the most memorable David Ginola, and French football, moments. I never said it was something Ginola wants to remember, or French fans. (Ginola, in his defence, has received a lot of his stick for his terrible giveaway in the last minute, but what about the actual French defence?)