World Cup Blog

End of Pacific Games 2007- Football

admin — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 20:46:42 +0000

Football at the pacific games has ended with New Caledonia grabbing victory with a 1 -0 defeat over Fiji.I had bet my bottom dollar that Solomon Islands would win the tournament…but surprise surprise. Solomon Islands not only lost in the semi-finals but went on to lose in the Bronze medal match effectively dropping out of the race to the 2010 finals in South Africa.

New Caledonia, Fiji and Vanuatu remain in the contest for a place in the World Cup Final of 2010. The three teams will join New Zealand in the 2008 OFC Nations Cup. The overrall winner of this tournament will have to beat a team from the AFC zone for a place in the 2010 finals (See OFC Qualifiers)

End of Group Stages

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:34:19 +0000

The group stages of the South Pacific Football games have drawn to an end .The group stages have been quite extraordinary because of the astronomical goal differences clocked by some of the teams in this tournament.

In Group A New Caledonia drew 1- 1 against Fiji whilst Tahiti defeated Cook islands ,1-0. In Group B Solomon Islands defeated Samoa 3-0 and Tonga was trounced by Vanautu, 4-0.

Teams advancing to the Semi Finals are Solomon Islands New Caledonia, Vanautu and Fiji.

The Semi Finals will take place on the 5 September , with the two following matches

Solomon Islands vs New Caledonia

Fiji vs Vanautu

Samoa and Tonga join Tuvalu , American Samoa and Tahiti as the teams that have been knocked out of the OFC 2008 Nations Cup as well as the World Cup Finals of 2010.

technorati tags World Cup 2010,South Africa

Match Schedule for CONMEBOL World Cup 2010 Preliminaries

admin — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:00:25 +0000

CONMEBOL qualifiers for the World Cup are in a league format.

All the CONMEBOL countries play in home and away matches against every participant of the qualifiers. The top four teams automatically secure 4 of the 5 places reserved for the CONMEBOL Federation. Team number five will compete for the fifth spot against a team from the CONCACAF zone.

The matches take place on selected days such that all ten confederation teams play simultaneous matches on the same days.

Below is the schedule of match days in the CONMEBOL region for World Cup 2010. Also included are the results of the respective matches.

(At the time of publishing these were the available dates. These might change)

Round	Date	Match			Result
Round 1	13 Oct 07		Argentina	Chile
			Peru	Paraguay
			Colombia	Brazil
			Ecuador	Venezuela
			Uruguay	Bolivia
Round 2	17 Oct 07		Paraguay	Uruguay
			Brazil	Ecuador
			Bolivia	Colombia
			Venezuela	Argentina
			Chile	Peru
Round 3	17 Nov 07		Paraguay	Ecuador
			Uruguay	Chile
			Peru	Brazil
			Argentina	Bolivia
			Colombia	Venezuela
Round 4	20 Nov 07		Venezuela	Bolivia
			Brazil	Uruguay
			Ecuador	Peru
			Chile	Paraguay
			Colombia	Argentina
Round 5	14 Jun 08		Peru	Colombia
			Uruguay	Venezuela
			Paraguay	Brazil
			Bolivia	Chile
			Argentina	Ecuador
Round 6	18 Jun 08		Ecuador	Colombia
			Venezuela	Chile
			Brazil	Argentina
			Bolivia	Paraguay
			Uruguay	Peru
Round 7	6 Sept 08		Chile	Brazil
			Colombia	Uruguay
			Ecuador	Bolivia
			Argentina	Paraguay
			Peru	Venezuela
Round 8	10 Sept 08		Brazil	Bolivia
			Paraguay	Venezuela
			Chile	Colombia
			Uruguay	Ecuador
			Peru	Argentina
Round 9	11 Oct 08		Colombia	Paraguay
			Bolivia	Peru
			Ecuador	Chile
			Venezuela	Brazil
			Argentina	Uruguay
Round 10	15 Oct 08		Chile	Argentina
			Paraguay	Peru
			Brazil	Colombia
			Venezuela	Ecuador
			Bolivia	Uruguay
Round 11	28 Mar 09		Ecuador	Brazil
			Argentina	Venezuela
			Peru	Chile
			Uruguay	Paraguay
			Colombia	Bolivia
Round 12	1 Apr 09		Brazil	Peru
	(fools day)		Ecuador	Paraguay
			Venezuela	Colombia
			Chile	Uruguay
			Bolivia	Argentina
Round 13	6 Jun 09		Argentina	Colombia
			Paraguay	Chile
			Peru	Ecuador
			Bolivia	Venezuela
			Uruguay	Brazil
Round 14	10 Jun 09		Brazil	Paraguay
			Venezuela	Uruguay
			Chile	Bolivia
			Ecuador	Argentina
			Colombia	Peru
Round 15	5 Sept 09		Argentina	Brazil
			Chile	Venezuela
			Peru	Uruguay
			Paraguay	Bolivia
			Colombia	Ecuador
Round 16	9 Sept 09		Uruguay	Colombia
			Brazil	Chile
			Bolivia	Ecuador
			Paraguay	Argentina
			Venezuela	Peru
Round 17	10 Oct 09		Venezuela	Paraguay
			Argentina	Peru
			Bolivia	Brazil
			Ecuador	Uruguay
			Colombia	Chile
Round 18	14 Oct 09		Uruguay	Argentina
			Brazil	Venezuela
			Paraguay	Colombia
			Chile	Ecuador
			Peru	vs. Bolivia

OFC -Final group Matches

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:58:11 +0000

The group stages of the 2007 South Pacific Games -Football draw to a close on the 3ird September.
Teams qualifying to advance to the semi finals from Group A are Fiji and New Caledonia.
Cook Islands , Tahiti and Tuvalu have been knocked out of the competition.

In Group B ,Solomon Islands has an unassailable lead and will be advancing to the semis. American Samoa is clearly out having lost all four of its matches. Samoa, Tonga and Vanautu are still in the running for the Semi Finals.

This means Cook Islands, Tahiti and American Samoa are also out of the 2010 Cup Final.(Competition forms part of WC-2010 qualifiers for Oceania) Tuvalu is not a FIFA member and was never in the running for the World Cup of 2010.

Matches to be played on the 3ird September are

Samoa vs Solomon Islands

Tonga vs Vanuatu

New Caledonia vs Fiji

Cook Islands vs Tahiti

The significant matches to watch for are Samoa vs Solomon Islands and Tonga vs Vanautu

technorati tags World Cup 2010, Semi Finals,South Africa

Teams Knocked Out Of 2010 World Cup Final

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 13:14:07 +0000

There are only 32 places in the 2010 World Cup finals.
Below is the list of the teams that have taken part in the qulifiers and have been knocked out.

This list DOES NOT include teams that chose not to participate in the 2010 Qualifying rounds.
Thegoalzone wishes the teams(and fans) better luck in the 2014 qualifiers, and beyond.

Teams that have been knocked out so far are far are:

Team	Confedaration	Summary
American Samoa	OFC	The worlds worst soccer team in the world lived up to expectations. They lost all 4 games of the first round ,running up a astronomical goal difference of -37 and scoring only one goal
…

technorati tags World Cup 2010, Teams Knocked out 2010,South Africa

Final 32 Teams - 2010 World Cup

admin — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 11:55:51 +0000

32 teams in total will compete in the 2010 finals in South Africa.

TheGoalZone.com will keep you up to date by bringing you the teams that have qualified for the 2010 World Cup Final, one by one as they qualify.

Teams that have qualified so far are:

Team	Confedaration	Summary
South Africa	CAF	South Africa is hosting the event and hence will participate in the Finals irregardless of their perfomance in the qualifying rounds.
…..

technorati tags World Cup 2010, Final 32 Teams 2010,South Africa

2007 South Pacific Games -Football

admin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:22:11 +0000

The 2007 South Pacific Games form the first stage of the Oceania Foootball Confederation(OFC) Nations Cup.The Nations Cup in turn serves as the World Cup 2010 qualifying round for nations in the Oceania Confederation

The top three teams (Gold,Silver and bronze ) will qualify for the next stage of the OFC Nations Cup.

They will be joined by New Zealand which qualifies by default.
Australia is now a member of the Asian Footall confederation hence will not take part in the 2008 OFC Nations Cup

This years the teams are are placed in two groups as follows.

Group A	Group B
Fiji	Solomon Islands
Tahiti	Vanautu
Tuvalu	Tonga
Cook Islands	American Samoa
New Caledonia	Samoa

See the Match schedule/Results For South Pacific Games here

See OFC Log Standings

technorati tags World Cup 2010, South Pacific Games

Match Schedule /Results For OFC Nations Cup

admin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:10:03 +0000

The tournament begins on the 25th August 2007 and ends on the 7th of September 2007.
Up to four matches will be played per day in the initial round. OFC- Nations Cup also serves as qualifying matches for World Cup 2010 for nations of Oceania.

The participating teams have been placed into two groups , A and B
Match schedule and results for the Oceania Confederation are as follows:

Group A

Date / Time	Match		Result
25 Aug, 2007	Tahiti .	New Caledonia	0-1
25 Aug, 2007	Fiji .	Tivalu	16-0
27 Aug, 2007	New Caledonia	Tuvalu	1-0
27 Aug, 2007	Fiji	Cook Islands	4-0
29 Aug, 2007	Tahiti	Tuvalu	1-1
29 Aug, 2007	New Caledonia	Cook Islands	3-0
1 Sept, 2007	Cook Islands	Tuvalu	4-1
1 Sept, 2007	Tahiti	Fiji	0-4
3 Sept, 2007	New Caledonia	Fiji	1-1
3 Sept, 2007	Cook Islands	Tahiti	0-1

Group B

Date / Time	Match		Result
25 Aug, 2007	Solomon Islands	American Samoa	0-1
25 Aug, 2007	Vanautu	Samoa	16-0
27 Aug, 2007	Solomon Island	Tonga	1-0
27 Aug, 2007	American Samoa	Samoa	4-0
29 Aug, 2007	American Samoa	Vanautu	0-15
29 Aug, 2007	Samoa	Tonga	2-1
1 Sept, 2007	Tonga	American Samoa	0-7
1 Sept, 2007	Vanautu	Solomon Islands	0-2
3 Sept, 2007	Samoa	Solomon Islands	0-3
3 Sept, 2007	Tonga	Vanautu	1-4

Semi Finals

The Semi Finals take place on the 5th of September 2007. It places the winners of each groups against the runners-up of the other group.

Date / Time	Match		Result
5 Sept, 2007	Solomon Isl.	New Caledonia	2-3
5 Sept, 2007	Fiji	Vanautu	3-0

Third Place Match- Bronze Medal.
The winner in this match up qualifies for the next OFC Nations Cup Round.

Date / Time	Match		Result
7 Sept, 2007	Solomon Islands	Vanautu	0-2

Final Match - Gold and Silver Medals.

Date / Time	Match		Result
7 Sept, 2007	New Caledonia	Fiji	1-0

See Log Standings

technorati tags World Cup 2010, OFC, Qualifiers Oceania

Group Log Standings (OFC Nations Cup)

admin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:31:36 +0000

Last Updated (Sept 7 2007)
Below are the latest group standings for the OFC Nations Cup first stage.

Group A.

Country	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GD
Fiji	10	4	3	1	0	+24
New Caledonia	10	4	3	1	0	+5
Tahiti	4	4	1	1	2	-4
Cook Islands	3	4	1	1	3	-5
Tuvalu	1	4	0	1	3	-20

Group B.

Country	Pts	Pld	W	D	L	GD
Solomon Islands	12	4	4	0	0	+20
Vanuatu	9	4	3	0	1	+20
Samoa	6	4	2	0	2	+1
Tonga	3	4	1	0	3	-4
American Samoa	0	4	0	0	4	-37

New Caledonia Proceeded to win the tournament and will advance together with Fiji and Vanuatu to the OFC Nations Cup of 2008.

See Match schedule/ results

technorati tags World Cup 2010, OFC Nations Cup,OFC Log Standings

World Cup 2010 - The Telecomms Issue.

admin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:53:48 +0000

The World Cup in 2010 is going to be an awe-inspiring event. The visiting teams and fans are going to be serenaded in true African hospitality.
The opening ceremony will be huge and hopefully include an African touch …maybe an animal parade with elephants , lions and other wildlife.

Ten large and beautiful stadia are already being built for this event.
So what is the problem, you ask ? South Africa can build all these stadia and even feature alien spacecraft during the closing ceremony but one thing everyone seems to be neglecting is telecomms .

Telkom(AKA. HELLkOM) the national telecomunications company has plans to provide expanded network capacity for the event but these plans seem to cover only the event broadcasters. As quoted in an article on a local site

…Telkom will enable the interconnection of important event venues, including the ten FIFA World Cup stadiums, broadcast compounds, media centres, the International Broadcast Centre and FIFA headquarter locations.

They seem to neglect the fact that thousands of fans are going to hit South African networks and each of them will expect an internet experience like that back home.
Networks will be flooded with fans updating their blogs, uploading videos of their African experience to youtube e.t.c.

A tremendous volume of voice, video and data will be generated by this event and in a country where 384kbps is considered broadband this might create problems.

Unless ‘fan villages’ feature high speed connections , our visitors will have to contend with local internet speeds.
Considering the way westerners are obsessed with cyberspace all they will remember when they go home how is “how slow the internet was”!

technorati tags World Cup 2010, Telkom