World Cup Qualifying Weekend - Bad day for the Arabs

by Dave Clark on Mar 28, 2009 8:16 AM PDT in US National Team, World Cup and Other International Soccer

While most MLS blogs that touch on the topic of how the World Cup Qualifiers will effect league play, considering that a dozen players will be missing matches, I will not. We know the problems, and the reasons for this. Quite simply it is because our nation likes soccer on the weekends and so does FIFA.

For me there is an intriguing storyline forming, particularly considering my past as an Arabic linguist. At one point it was possible that more than five or more Arab nations would make the World Cup in South Africa, but as Qatar , UAE and Bahrain falter the only hope out of the Asian-Arab nations lies in Saudi Arabia (currently locked at nil-nil v Iran on FSC.

The African Arab nations still have chances in Tunisia, Egypt and Algeria, but only two could come out with Egypt and Algeria in the same group. Tunisia started their final qualifying round with a win against Kenya today.

It could get even worse for the Arab world and its soccer fans later today though as Israel is playing at home in a match that could put them in the driver's seat for their group. Israel has only one loss at Ramat Gan in the last decade. A win over Greece today would put Israel two points up over Greece halfway through the final group stage.

So while the USA looks to hammer T&T, and Sounders FC hosts RSL, there are a few other storylines out there in the world's game.

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Saudi came back from a 1 goal defecit to beat Iran in front of 100,000 persians with only 12 minutes left.

So it wasn’t all bad for the Arab world, but still there most likely scenario is now 2 or 3 teams rather than up to 7 that they had at one point.

by Dave Clark on Mar 28, 2009 10:49 AM PDT reply actions

Dave,

do you not feel that once more FIFA would bend over backwards to accommodate Arab nation’s hostility towards Israel should they qualify?

But I agree, this could be the big storyline of the weekend unless Lithuania beat France.

by Prost Amerika on Mar 28, 2009 11:00 AM PDT reply actions

Prost!
We will talk about this much more. Israel needs a win for it to have any meaning.

by Dave Clark on Mar 28, 2009 11:16 AM PDT reply actions

Some of these matches and the ordeal the players have to go through, either forced on them or brought on by them selves really underlined the significance for me. I watched the Iran vs. Saudi Arabia match last night and while the level of play may not be what you would be looking for in a marquee matchup of some of the bigger squads, this was a compelling match. This was there world cup. This was the match they were training for. In a stadium filled with 100, 000 people they played hard for 90mins. This is what the World Cup is about. It reminded me allot of a great documentary from a few years ago called The Other Final which I highly recommend about the match for last place between Bhutan and Montserrat. Try watching one of these qualifiers that you would not normally find yourself watching…you might be surprised, I know I was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Final

by Doug on Mar 30, 2009 8:22 AM PDT reply actions