TFC player leading the league in frequent flyer miles....

[ensco]

....is not Carlos Ruiz

Jarrod Smith played 89 minutes yesterday in New Caledonia in the South Pacific, and New Zealand are now the Oceania region champions.

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/oceania/matches/round=250488/match=300035732/index.html

Jarrod has a terrific chance to get to South Africa, now that Australia play in Asia (for FIFA purposes). NZ will play the 5th place Asian side for a spot in WC2010.

Way to go, Jarrod.

[Keegan]

How bullshit is that?

ASIA gets 4 guaranteed spots with basically a 5th because New Zealand is garbage and would get killed in CONCACAF.

We get 3 with our 4th place team playing 5th from South America....

BS

[LucaGol]

I think the CONCACAF region gets the shaft big time from FIFA. We should at least be getting 3.5 spots.

What have asian countries ever accomplished on the international stage?

[werewolf]

We do get 3.5 spots....

[LucaGol]

We do get 3.5 spots....

Do we?

Who played for the half spot last World Cup?

[werewolf]

USA, Mexico, Costa Rica with TnT beating Bahrain in a playoff

[LucaGol]

USA, Mexico, Costa Rica with TnT beating Bahrain in a playoff

Right.

Well good. I guess that's all we deserve then.

[flatpicker]

^ hahahaaaa....

[werewolf]

Now that Austrailia is out of Oceania, its kind of really weak. I think they should be somewhat marginalized into Asia. But the distances between a place like Samoa has no business or resources to play Bahrain or Saudi.

[ensco]

Jarrod's definitely going to feel to love when he reads this thread.

NZ vanquished the mighty sides of Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu, to win Oceania. They will have a shot against the Asian team - Asia's not deep

Once you get past Australia, Japan and South Korea the teams fall off drastically - all NZ have to do is beat a Bahrain or a China to get there. It's a lot tougher in CONCACAF. The fourth Asian team, and the fifth (or NZ), are going to be the patsies of WC2010.

It is amazing that maybe 5 or 7 past and present MLS players will get to South Africa, and Jarrod and Andy Boyens could easily be two of them!

(I guess we learned with Collin Samuel that some of the unlikeliest players get that chance, while other far more deserving ones never do.)

[werewolf]

:lol:

Good for him, a lot of hassle to go through to represent his country. Same with Andy Boyens.

[arbogast]

I think the CONCACAF region gets the shaft big time from FIFA. We should at least be getting 3.5 spots.

What have asian countries ever accomplished on the international stage?

hmmm...Korea did pretty well in 2002. Let's face it Asia is a bigger market.

[ensco]

What, you think FIFA might prefer China to Guatemala or Canada at WC2010? ;)

[SilverSamurai]

How bullshit is that?

ASIA gets 4 guaranteed spots with basically a 5th because New Zealand is garbage and would get killed in CONCACAF.

We get 3 with our 4th place team playing 5th from South America....

BS

New Zealand is also on the other side of the planet of us pretty much.
CONCACAF should get 4 permanent spots. Why should Europe get like 12 or 13 that they get? We should get 4.5 here.
Their are probably more countries in CONCACAF and the African region (don't know their name for FIFA footy region) and they get 5? 6 this 1 time.
WTF?!:mad:

[ensco]

New Zealand is also on the other side of the planet of us pretty much.
CONCACAF should get 4 permanent spots. Why should Europe get like 12 or 13 that they get? We should get 4.5 here.
Their are probably more countries in CONCACAF and the African region (don't know their name for FIFA footy region) and they get 5? 6 this 1 time.
WTF?!:mad:

They want balance geographically, and it's also about money (see points above)

btw, with respect, I think you're wrong, if you look at Elo, Europe has 18 of the top 32 spots. Euro teams get screwed in terms of WC spots.

http://www.eloratings.net/world.html

[King Tut]

All the best to Jarrod Smith in the confederations cup, unless New Zealand faces the mighty Pharaohs! ;)

http://profile.ak.facebook.com/object2/29/24/l8221687389_3975.jpg

[nimamalek]

How bullshit is that?

ASIA gets 4 guaranteed spots with basically a 5th because New Zealand is garbage and would get killed in CONCACAF.

We get 3 with our 4th place team playing 5th from South America....

BS

bullshit? did you see Canada play? and we're one of the better teams in CONCACAF, Japan, Korea, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia all perform better than the 3rd place CONCACAF team in the world cup usually.

[werewolf]

Japan and Korea surely. While Iran and Saudi did get 1 point to Costa Rica's 0, its not a large difference last time around. And China was awful in '02, the only team being worse was Saudi, Costa Rica only missed out on the knock-out stage based on goal differential.

[RealG-TFC]

Jarrod's definitely going to feel to love when he reads this thread.

NZ vanquished the mighty sides of Fiji, New Caledonia and Vanuatu, to win Oceania. They will have a shot against the Asian team - Asia's not deep

Once you get past Australia, Japan and South Korea the teams fall off drastically - all NZ have to do is beat a Bahrain or a China to get there. It's a lot tougher in CONCACAF. The fourth Asian team, and the fifth (or NZ), are going to be the patsies of WC2010.

It is amazing that maybe 5 or 7 past and present MLS players will get to South Africa, and Jarrod and Andy Boyens could easily be two of them!

(I guess we learned with Collin Samuel that some of the unlikeliest players get that chance, while other far more deserving ones never do.)

Not really, Iran and Saudi Arabia are up there. Uzbekistan and N. Korea have been playing pretty well lately too.

[ensco]

Not really, Iran and Saudi Arabia are up there. Uzbekistan and N. Korea have been playing pretty well lately too.

I know Iran are up there in Elo....I just don't see them as in the same category as the others, for me I need to see teams like Iran and Saudi Arabia do better at World Cups (although Saudi did make some noise at USA 94)

[Strikers]

I would just like to say there is a rotation system for the half spot. For 2010 CONCACAF faces South America. For 2014 CONCACAF faces Asia.

[ensco]

The Saudis did score one of the greatest ever WC goals in 1994...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8w89sl7Grc