2014 World Cup Qualification Preliminary Draw

[Seaton]

Okay, so today at around 20:00 GMT, we will discover the qualifying route of which most of the worlds footballing nations will have to traverse in order to qualifying for the most prestigious tournament of them all, the FIFA World Cup, set to be hosted in Brazil in 2014.

Lets have a wee look at the pots, hopefully I'll find all five conferences pots...

Europe

POT ONE: Spain, Holland, Germany, England, Portugal, Italy, Croatia, Norway, Greece.

POT TWO: France, Montenegro, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia, Turkey, Serbia, Slovakia.

POT THREE: Switzerland, Israel, Rep of Ireland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary.

POT FOUR: Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia, Lithuania, Albania, SCOTLAND, Northern Ireland, Austria, Poland.

POT FIVE: Armenia, Finland, Estonia, Cyprus, Latvia, Moldova, Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Faroe Islands.

POT SIX: Wales, Liechtenstein, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Malta, Andorra, San Marino.

Asia

Pot 1: Japan ,Australia, South Korea, Iran, China PR

Pot 2: Uzbekistan, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait

Pot 3: Bahrain, Syria, Oman, Iraq, United Arab Emirates

Pot 4: North Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Lebanon

Africa & North America

This will not be these continents final draw, still need to 'weed out the minnows'

Oceania & South America

No 'draw' as such with either of these conferences


The one thing that mystifies me, is how Norway managed Pot 1?
Ooof, and Wales in last pot, hmmmm...

 

[SelimNiai]

Wow, we're worse at football than the Faroes, Moldova and Armenia.......I don't even know where Armenia even is.

 

[Seaton]

By the Caucaus mountains

Oh, and due to political tensions, Georgia and Russia can't draw each other

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Norway
Montenegro
R.Ireland
Lithuania
Faroe Ils
Leichtenstein

would be a handy group, but Ireland still wouldn't get through

 

[Seaton]

Lichtenstein have got some pretty handy footballers, about half the team play in either the german or french top two divisions, certainly not the weakest team of the lot

An ideal group for Scotland would be:

Norway
Slovenia
Hungary
Scotland
Estonia San Marino

Please te **** don't let us be in the group with 5 again, doing serious harm to our co-effecient not being able to play small teams qualification after qualification.
And seriously, for the last 3 tournaments (WC and Euro) we have been draw with at least 1 WC finalist from the last two tournaments, our luck has to change sometime

 

[LittleGuy]

By the Caucaus mountains

Oh, and due to political tensions, Georgia and Russia can't draw each other

I know they have been playing the rugby contests at neutral venues, still somethign about rugby that at least unites the players, part of the reason I like the sport better than Association Football. I'll try and find a link to the North America and Carribean qualifying system.

The very first round of CONCACAF(NA and the carribean) qualifying is already done these are the extreme minnows being eliminated eg. Montserrat

Here is the draw for the 2nd Round.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_FIFA_World_Cup_qualification_%E2%80%93_CONCACAF_Second_Round

 

[Seaton]

Here is the draw

AFRICAN ZONE

A: South Africa, Botswana, Central African Republic, Somalia/Ethopia
B: Tunisia, Cape Verde, Sierra Leone, Equatorial Guinea/Madagascar
C: Code D' Ivoire, Gambia, Morocco, Chad/Tanzania
D: Ghana, Zambia, Sudan, Lesotho/Burundi
E: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Niger, Sao Tome E Principle/Congo
F: Nigeria, Malawi, Seychelles/Kenya, Djibouti/Namibia
G: Egypt, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Comoros/ Mozambique
H: Algeria, Mali, Benin, Eritea/Rwanda
I: Cameroon, Libya, Guinea-Bissau/Togo, Swaziland/Congo DR
J: Senegal, Uganda, Angola, Maritius/Liberia

Matches to be played between June 1, 2012 and Sept. 10, 2013. Group winners advance to third round, paired into five home and away series between Oct. 11-15 and Nov. 15-19, 2013. Winners qualify for World Cup finals.

EUROPEAN ZONE

Group A: Croatia, Serbia, Belgium, Scotland, Macedonia, Wales
Group B: Italy, Denmark, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Armenia, Malta
Group C: Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Austria, Faroe Islands, Kazakhstan
Group D: Netherlands, Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Estonia, Andorra
Group E: Norway, Slovenia, Switzerland, Albania, Cyprus, Iceland
Group F: Portugal: Russia, Israel, Northern Ireland, Azerbaijan, Luxembourg
Group G: Greece, Slovakia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lithuania, Latvia, Liechtenstein
Group H: England, Montenegro, Ukraine, Poland, Moldova, San Marino
Group I: Spain, France, Belarus, Georgia, Finland

Matches to be played between Sept. 7, 2012 and Oct. 15, 2013. Group winners qualify directly; eight best group runners-up take part in four two-leg playoffs with the winners

ASIAN ZONE

Group A: China, Jordan, Iraq, Singapore
Group B: South Korea, Kuwait, United Arab Emirate, Lebanon
Group C: Japan, Uzbekistan, Syria, North Korea
Group D: Australia, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Thailand
Group E: Iran, Qatar, Bahrain, Indonesia

Matches to be played between Sept. 2, 2011-Feb. 29, 2012. Group winners and runners-up proceed to next stage. Those 10 teams will be drawn into two groups of five teams. Matches to be played from June 3, 2012 to June 8, 2013. The two group winners and two runners up qualify for the finals. The two third-placed teams play off against each other and the winner advances to the intercontinental playoff.

OCEANIAN ZONE

Round 1: American Samoa, Cook Islands, Samoa and Tonga to play in a single group at a tournament in Samoa from Nov. 21-26. Winner advances to the second round

Round 2

Group B: Fiji, New Zealand, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea

Second round matches to be played at a tournament which will double as the Oceania Football Confederation Cup between June 1-12, 2012 with Fiji the proposed venue.

CONCACAF ZONE

Round 2

Group A: El Salvador, Suriname, Cayman Islands, Dominican Republic
Group B: Trinidad & Tobag, Guyan, Barbados, Bermuda
Group C: Panama, Dominica, Nicaragua, Bahamas
Group D: Canada, St Kitts & Nevis, Puerto Rico, St Lucia
Group E: Grenada, Guatemala, St Vincent & Grenadines, Belize
Group F: Haiti, Antigua, Curacao, US Virgin Islands

Matches to be played between Sept 2 and Nov 15, 2011. Group winners proceed to third round.

Round 3

Group A: United States, Jamaica, Winner second round Group E, Winner second round Group F
Group B: Mexico, Costa Rica, Winner second round Group A, Winner second round Group
Group C: Honduras, Cuba, Winner second round Group D, Winner second round Group C

 

[Seaton]

Group A in Europe is a real mutt of a group for Scotland

Despite being gash against everyone else, Wales humped us 3-0, when was it?, in 2009. Under decent management, could be far above where they are now, certainly have the players.

Belgium have got some good senior players, and a host of very classy young players. Players like Kompany, Vermualen (sp.), Fellaini, Hazard and Defour spring to mind.

Macedonia, tricky team to play against, especially if we agree to do it in the middle of summer again. Got one star in Goran Pandev.

Serbia, class outfit who, were it not for one bad game, would have progressed to the semis in the last world cup.

Croatia- Apart from Norway, probably the easiest team of pot 1. We can beat them but it would be mightily difficult.

Overall, from this group we will have the Balkans War 2, with some tasty matches between Serbia and Croatia. We have an islands derby with Scotland vs. Wales, and the dark horse of Belgium. If Wales get their act together, it is a group in my opinion, where any of the top four seeds can finish top, or similairily 'bottom' (not bottom bottom, but bottom of the challengers if that makes any sense), and either of Wales/ Macedonia can upset any of the teams at home

So in my opinion, groups A and E are the groups of death. With the former being the group of stronger teams, whilst the latter can be close because there are no particularily strong teams in the group, whilst there are 'strong' teams from pots 5 and 6

 

[Thingimubob]

I was expecting a far more horrific group for Wales! Doubt we'll get through still, but would be nice to notch up a couple of wins.

 

[LittleGuy]

No room for error in Concacaf have to finish first in those pools, realisitaclly Canada has the talent to clean house but the way things are run by the CSA I could actually see us not even advancing to round three, we are at are lowest ever FIFA ranking at the moment.

 

[TRF_Cymro]

Group to good for Wales to qualify sadly.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Germany uhhhh... I'd rather have Spain. We could beat Sweden to 2nd and have a crack at the play offs.

 

[big ginger 8]

Well apparently Germany will bring 8m to the economy and we wouldn't bbeat Spain either so not so bad.

 

[TVH11]

The welsh group is quite interesting i think. Its possibly the nicest qualifying group we've had in a while, i guess the biggest problem is every team is quite evenly matched. I can see the teams all beating each other.....

 

[Seaton]

Aye, something that I'd stake a fortune on now, is that none of the 'best runners-up' will come from group A

@ TVH11

Is your avatar/ signature/ whatever not a case of jumping into the tackle?

 

[DorceOutSide]

the english got an easy group AGAIN! ireland to come secound in their group.

 

[Feicarsinn]

********.

 

[TVH11]

Aye, something that I'd stake a fortune on now, is that none of the 'best runners-up' will come from group A

@ TVH11

Is your avatar/ signature/ whatever not a case of jumping into the tackle?

Haha um shane didnt get penalised for it, but did get munched soon after jumping over the tackle =P

Should be interesting to see how these groups pan out tho!

Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk

 

[ridzy]

European (UEFA) qualifying involves eight groups of six and one group of five teams each playing a round robin. The matches will be played from September 7, 2012 through October 15, 2013 and the nine group winners will qualify for the 2014 World Cup. The eight best second-place teams will advance to play in four two-legged playoffs against each other with the winners of those playoffs also qualifying for the World Cup.
Football Highlights

 

[LittleGuy]

Even though the CONCACAF Round Two still has a round of games to play the teams advancing to Round Three have already been determined, the real surprise being Trinidad and Tobago not advancing, here are the teams that advanced

El Salvador, Guyana, Panama, Canada, Guatemala, Antigua and Barbuda.

The groups for Round Three to be played from June to October of next year are listed below, the top two in each group will advance to Round Four.

Pool A. United States, Jamaica, Guatemala, Antigua and Barbuda.
Pool B. Mexico, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guyana.
Pool C. Honduras, Cuba, Canada, Panama