Soccer - Qualification Round for the Football World Cup 2010!

The drawing for the World Cup qualification groups took place at the end of November 2007 in the South-African city of Durban. The ceremonial event was inaugurated by the South-African president Thabo Mbeki and the FIFA-President Sepp Blatter. The 53 participating countries from Europe were allotted in eight groups of six teams each and one group of five teams. The winner of each group will automatically qualify for the upcoming World Cup. The eight best second-placed teams will play in four duels with a first leg and a return leg to play off for the last four European starting places.

Amongst the German National team in group 4 are: Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan and Lichtenstein. Germany has taken place in a Football World Cup already 15 times during which they became champion 3 times (1954, 1974, 1990). After two away games Germany keeps the first place of the chart with four points. In front of a small number of spectators of around 7.850 people, the first game against Lichtenstein took place on September 6th and it ended with a score of 0:6 victory for the German team.

At the second qualification game, it was quiet different when Germany had to face the Finn team. The game took place in front of a quintuplicate number of spectators at the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki. The Finn national team took the lead with one goal within the first half hour but Germany’s skipper Miroslav Klose managed the tie in just five minutes. After another few minutes Germany fell again behind but as well as the first time Germany’s skipper was at the spot and scored for the tie. Then came the half time. Just a few minutes of the second half Finland managed the 3:2 goal and it seemed like this would become the final score. But short time before the final whistle, Klose scored and tied the game. This is how he kept his team from the first defeat.

Germany’s coach Joachim Löw said before the game that it would be an easy game because the Finn team was very strong in the defensive. Still, he expected his team to ensure the second victory in the qualification round. So far the two teams have faced each other 20 times, whereby Germany achieved 15 victories and four games ended with a tie. Just one time the German team was defeated, this was 85 years ago.

The next opponent of the German team will be the Russian team coached by Guus Hiddink. Russia grinded out a 2:1 victory against Wales last Wednesday. This coming up game will take place in almost one month next October 11th, in Dortmund.

Not as much luck, on the other hand, had the Swiss national team who is headed by former Bundesliga-coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. The team lost after a balanced first half at the end by 1:2 against Luxemburg. Along with the tie from the previous game against Israel, Switzerland is now in the fifth place of their group. There are still eight games to go for Hitzfeld’s team so we will see if they will be able to ensure themselves a ticket to Africa.

Defending champion Italy can breathe again. After the elimination in the quarter finals of the European Cup, the team leads now their group chart.  With two victories against Cyprus and Georgia they accumulated six points.