Soccer

» JCofBH - Australia

I'd be interested to know how long the Greeks had in Oz before playing that game, and apparently they started with an unfamiliar formation and improved second half when they reverted to type.

Anyway, I don't see it as Fifa's job to shuffle countries between continents in order to try to improve the standard of a country's national side. In any case, I'm not sure they'll be that much better off shuttling between Pyongyang, Riyadh and the like, and I await the club versus country row when the Australian Premiership contingent fly off for a midweek tie in Beijing.

Certainly, England and any of the top European sides would be fools to want a 2-legged tie as opposed to group qualification. Over the course of 10 or so games, they should fancy themselves to finish top or secure one of the best runners-up spots.

Alas, there are a number of reasonable sides in Europe who know they can't secure top spot, so are in effect left hoping to secure a play-off spot at best. I'm thinking here of Romania in the last set of qualifiers, when they were up against the Czechs and Dutch. I'm sure they would have lapped up a chance to get to Germany over 2 games.

-- posted by JCofBH