CONCACAF's Road to South Africa 2010 begins next month

[Karl]

From:
Subject: CONCACAF's Road to South Africa 2010 begins next month


For Immediate Release
www.CONCACAF.com

Contact: Steven Torres, Media Officer


CONCACAF's ROAD TO SOUTH AFRICA 2010 BEGINS NEXT MONTH


NEW YORK (Friday, 11 January 2008) - The road for CONCACAF (Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football) teams to the FIFA World Cup ™ South Africa 2010 begins next month after the official unveiling, today, by FIFA of the first-leg encounters in the Stage 1 home-and-away elimination series.

The CONCACAF World Cup Qualification kicks off on 3 February 2008, with Bermuda hosting Cayman Islands at the National Sports Centre in Hamilton.

The first-leg encounters continue on 6 February with six more match-ups starting with Dominica taking on Barbados at the Windsor Park Stadium in Roseau, while Aruba face Antigua & Barbuda at the Centro Deportivo Guillermo Trinidad in Oranjestad.

Elsewhere, Turks & Caicos Islands will be hosting their first ever CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying game at the Providenciales’ National Stadium when they meet St. Lucia, while Belize will be the home team when they play against St. Kitts & Nevis at the Estadio Mateo Flores in Guatemala City.

Also on 6 February, El Salvador and Nicaragua will be hosting Anguilla and Netherlands Antilles at San Salvador’s Estadio Cuscatlan and Estadio Cacique Diriangen in Diriamba, respectively.

Rounding out the first-leg Stage 1 encounters will be the British Virgin Islands who visit the Bahamas at the BFA National Centre in Nassau on 26 March.

FIFA also announced that three originally scheduled Stage 1 Match-ups will no longer be played as a home-and-away series but as a single elimination game due to several National Associations not meeting the new FIFA Stadium standards and being unable to secure a home venue.

The single elimination match-ups between Puerto Rico – Dominican Republic, Grenada – US Virgin Islands, and Montserrat – Surinam will take place during the second-leg encounters for Stage 1 in late March.

The remaining fixtures for the second-leg encounters for Stage 1 of CONCACAF World Cup Qualification scheduled for 26-30 March will be unveiled in due course. The winners of Stage 1 will join the remaining 13 teams in Stage 2 of CONCACAF Qualification set for June.

The top three teams from the CONCACAF Final Round in 2009 will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. CONCACAF’s fourth place finisher will play off with CONMEBOL’s fifth-place team in a home-and-away series for one of the last berths to the FIFA event.





About CONCACAF
CONCACAF “The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football” is one of six continental confederations of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) and serves as the governing body of football in this part of the world. It is composed of 40 national associations, from Canada in the north to Guyana, Surinam and French Guyana in the south.

[Brush]

"The top three teams from the CONCACAF Final Round in 2009 will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. CONCACAF’s fourth place finisher will play off with CONMEBOL’s fifth-place team in a home-and-away series for one of the last berths to the FIFA event."

Basically CONCACAF only have three spots because I don't see the fourth place finisher from our region beating the fifth place team out of South America.

[Hortical]

As dem sey, the ball is round. Anyting is possible, and we shall, and we will be in the top three when the smoke is cleared.

[T.K.]

"The top three teams from the CONCACAF Final Round in 2009 will automatically qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup™. CONCACAF’s fourth place finisher will play off with CONMEBOL’s fifth-place team in a home-and-away series for one of the last berths to the FIFA event."

Basically CONCACAF only have three spots because I don't see the fourth place finisher from our region beating the fifth place team out of South America.

If we can avoid playing one of those countries in the high altitude we should be fine. Who are the 5th place teams going to be? You have to figure that Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay are locks. The 4th place would be between Ecuador and Uruguay. In that case we would root for Ecuador to win because playing at the altitude of their home field is a guaranteed loss. We can compete against Uruguay. They would be favorites but we can get 3 points from them at home and escape with a draw I feel.

The funny thing about the high altitude and how it affects the integrity of qualifying was never so clear as the last qualifying go round when Argentina had to play Ecuador away on a Saturday and Brazil at home on a wed. The argentinian coach decided to play his 2nd string players in the match with Ecuador because he said that if he had tried to play his first team they would not have been able to recover in time for the Brazil match. So he had a decision to make. Play his first string in Ecuador in a match they are most likely not going to get points out of or rest them and take on Brazil at home and get your 3 points there. He ended up looking like genius as Argentina went on to beat Brazil 3-0. Needless to say FIFA was not pleased that Argentina essentially threw the game to Ecuador but what else could the coach do? The altitude simply gives the home team an insurmountable advantage. - T.K.

[No Mercy]

We need some speedy defenders or else we are out of 2010

Our players have to get serious and fight every game for at least 100 minutes . We have to try and win every game. We also have to aim for the number one spot so make sure we beat mexico and usa this time. Our main goal is teamwork now because all of our players are very active in their respective league so fitness shouldn't be a issue. Speed on our defence line is a problem presently and we need to find some faster better tackling defender.