So, 32 spots for the World Cup, and already 23 of them have been taken.

Africa

• South Africa
• Ghana
• Côte d'Ivoire

Asia

• Australia (they're in the Asian confederation)
• Japan
• South Korea
  
• ***North Korea***

Europe

• Netherlands
• England
• Spain
• Germany
  
• Denmark
• Serbia
• Italy
  
• Switzerland
• Slovakia

North America et al.

• United States
• Mexico
• Honduras

South America

• Brazil
• Paraguay
• Chile
• Argentina

The red teams seem to me like surprise entrances. Also, please all welcome Dear Leader's national squad, North Korea, ranked 90th in the world by FIFA, into the tournament. Discuss.

Denmark? Not too surprising, they've always fielded reasonable teams. Although North Korea is... well, wtf?


And sad that Argentina made it through without having to go to the play off against Honduras or Costa Rica.

Just further proof that FIFA is a ebil communist organization who wants to destroy America.

I only wtf at North Korea.

Italy sucking hard lately. Lippi = idiota atm.

Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il, sun of the nation, shall personally lead his team to victory over the imperialist swine!

Ugh, Argentina sure sweated the last couple of matches. I would've preferred Maradona to leave the team, but I guess the World Cup ain't bad either.

Honduras is in, no? Or maybe ESPN is just wrong.

Amazing game tonight... US tied it up in the 95th minute. If soccer was like that more often, I'd watch it more.

-Bama

Likewise, a bundle full of joy awaits that National Team

Imagine if North Korea won the cup.

All hell would literally turn loose...


I only hope that they aren't "re-educated" too harshly if the team loses.

Also, Turkey didn't make it?
Well I guess I'll have to root for Germany then.

Indeed. They beat El Salvador today. I missed it.



Nope, they're definitely out. Bosnia & Herzegovina got the play-off spot in the group.

Hehe, and guess who stole six points from your beloved Turkey?

That's really sad, we were so good in the EU Cup last time too... Turkey is always like that, sometimes great and then other times terrible.

Also, Spain.

Oh, and from the European side, apart from Turkey we'll notably be missing Croatia, Czech Republic, Sweden and Poland.

Strong teams that got kicked out.

Agreed, though Turkey could kick Croatia's butt any day of the week. (just kidding, those guys are actually pretty damn good, surprisingly enough)

North Korea.. wow. Well, we'll see how they cope. If they lose, we all know what's going to happen... maybe a few players shot dead (especially the ones who scored goals against them), maybe an accidental launch over the opposing team's hotel...

Hopefully Australia will put in a good showing, maybe this time we won't be denied by some frigging Italian diving !@#$%^&.

N Korea do have one of the most famous matches at the WC to their credit - beating Italy 1-0

And then leading portugal 3-0 before losing 5-3 thanks to one of the greatest displays ever by eusebio

Last time Italy played Korea (South, mind you) was at the 2002 WC, and the refereeing was the absolute worst I've seen in my entire life. Spain got screwed over by the same thing against the same team. So, it's not impossible that N. Korea could do something similar. Fortunately, the games aren't taking place in Korea this time.

Kim Jong-il personally scored 16 goals all with bicycle kicks in the final qualifying game. Hail the Dear Leader!

Should North Korea make it to the finals, Eternal President Kim Il-Sung shall return to play with Dear Leader Kim Jong-Il. All other players will sit on the bench and the duo shall sweep all before them!

Might be something very new to the NK players themselves, to once be out of the Big Brother world they live in.

Would NK players be eligible for defections?
Would South Africa take them?

Decisive game of Egypt and Algeria to be played on November 12th. Egypt was off to a wretched start in the World Cup by tiying Zambia 1-1 at home and then losing 3-1 to Algeria in Blida. Further dampened by Algeria's very impressive 2-0 result of Zambia in Chiliambombwe. Since then Egypt has defeated Rwanda 3-0 including two back-to-back road wins in both Kigali and Chiliambombwe beating both Rwanda and Zambia respectively. Ahmed Zidan, Egypt's striker whom you saw in the World Cup score 2 goals, will be back to the team after missing the Egyptian friendly with Guinea and not telling anyone including the coach. Link.

Egypt plays Algeria at Cairo stadium for a decisive match. Egypt needs at least 2 goals to force a playoff or casting of lots. Goal differential is not accounted for and neither are away goals. A 3-goal margin for Egypt takes them straight to the World Cup. Anything less than that has the Algerian side prevailing to South Africa.

Rabena yostor

I'm sorry, defections? How exactly does one become eligible to desert one's loyalty to your country, and in what way is that related to South Africa taking them?

Also, let me also list the teams that still have chances of getting one of the remaining 9 spots.

Africa (three spots left)
- Cameroon or Gabon
- Tunisia or Nigeria
- Algeria or Egypt

Asia and Oceania (one spot left)
- Bahrain or New Zealand

Europe (four spots left) (who will play whom has not been determined yet)
- Russia
- Greece
- Ukraine
- France
- Slovenia
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Portugal
- Ireland

North America and South America (one spot left)
- Costa Rica or Uruguay

lol france

I hope USA takes it all.

Well, athletes from the former Soviet Union, Warsaw pact countries, and Cuba have defected to countries like the US and western European countries in the past and I was just wondering what the odds are of any North Korean players claiming asylum or trying to defect.

That seems like a common theme around the world. We never get a fair shake in Mexico or Central America because the refs are scared to death of the fans ("death, taxes, and Azteca", to quote Alexi Lalas). I used to think we Americans were crazy sports fans... Then I started semi-paying attention to world soccer. It's absolutely jaw-dropping to see how influential soccer is on so much of the world. I'll definitely be tuning in for the World Cup.

-Bama

We coulda won the bloody thing if it wasnt for them stupid idiots.

I'd like to see Ireland, France, Portugal and Greece make it.

I think it's more likely Russia than Greece.

Death to the Russians.

Imagine if France doesn't make it. That'll be weird.

Would be amusing though.

France doesn't deserve to make it. They haven't played well since like 2000.

It's so refreshing to see France being laughed at.

First Team: England
Second Team: North Korea!


Last time NK got to the World Cup they got to the Quarter Finals in 66' , and that happened to be the year we won the world cup

Dear Leader is giving us a sign!

Jacked these off some board I lurk on:



Abou Treika



Zaki



Zidan

And so we wait.

They were in the WC Final in '04. Lost to Italy.

You mean '06, but yes. Italy had it relatively easy in 2006: Australia and Ukraine before facing Germany in the semi-finals. In all fairness to France, they stomped over everyone on their way to the finals: first Spain, then Brazil, then Portugal.

However, yes, lately, they've been playing pretty badly. I'd be strange to have a World Cup without France, but I'm not sure they deserve to be in it.

D'oh. Yes, I meant '06.

A poor choice in words.

How did Italy have it easy? If it wasn't for that diving !@#$%^& - we would've gone on to extra time and capitalise on the Italians having only 10-men. Or of course, beat them on penalties. Buffon showed in the final how crap he is at saving them...

Buffon gets a lot of criticism for that. But let's consider this: the French keeper didn't save any either. The crossbar did.

Yeah, people are pretty pissed here in Sweden. The manager has after years of ups-and-downs in criticism left his post, so people are looking forward to more entertaining games if not better results.

There is no World Cup without Argentina.

In the words of our esteemed coach: "keep on sucking it!"

The game against Germany was the game of the tournament. France played big-name teams, but those teams underperformed (Spain was still in its choking spree at this point). Brazil was extremely weak in 06, and the game against Portugal was decided on a free kick if I'm not mistaking.

Also lol @ the guy who said it takes skill to save penalties. Usually the goalies just guess.

It wasn't a dive, I maintain. Regardless, it makes up for the utterly ridiculous red card.

More likely we'll do well and then lose in the semi-finals on penalties >_>

More like lol @ you. The guy's right. Can you imagine the level of concentration and the agility you must have to save a penalty?

A well taken penalty simply cannot be saved.