A crazy day of World Cup Qualifiers saw the first four teams join South Africa at the big party next summer. Japan was the first to qualify followed by Australia, South Korea and the Netherlands. No real surprises in that group, all were pretty much expected to go through to South Africa, but past failures have shown these qualifiers always throw in a few shocks.
My day of World Cup Qualifiers took place entirely on one channel, Justin TV. I've canceled Setanta for the summer now that the Premier League season has ended so I had to look online for the games this weekend.
I woke up early and the only game on was Zambia vs. Rwanda. Zambia ended up winning 1-0 with an impressive performance. I was surprised at how good their passing was, it may have come down to just Rwanda giving them too much time, but they looked very good. I have a feeling Zambia may surprise a few leading to the World Cup (just to make sure you don't get fooled into saying anything stupid, that was the first of the African Qualifiers I've watched, so I wouldn't put any money on that opinion).
The next game I watched on Justin TV was actually available on TV in Canada. So why did I watch it online you may ask? Because I didn't want to pay Setanta $24.99 to watch England vs. Kazakhstan. It really infuriates me that Setanta charge so much for England games. Not because I mind watching them on Justin TV, but because it is arrogant, and unfortunately not going to change. Almost all of the people interested in the England game, probably already have Setanta for the Premier League. So they have nothing to gain if they put it on Setanta, but they say that is nothing to lose if they charge a ridiculous price for the game. For a football starved country (Canada), they should reward their limited viewer-ship instead of sucking every dollar out of them.
The actual England game was a typical Capello led England performance. Very slow build up, wait for the opportunity to present itself, usually from a set piece, and go from there. It may not be exciting to watch but it works and England has had plenty of managers who employ styles that don't work, so they'll take it anyway they can right now. From a United perspective it was nice to see Rooney chip in with a goal and finish a brilliant season in style.
The big shock of the night right here in CONCACAF Qualifiers. El Salvador beat Mexico 2-1, which puts them El Salvador in third and pushes Mexico down to fifth. It is still early, with six games left to play for Mexico, but things aren't looking good for them. As for El Salvador, they have a very difficult schedule coming up and I doubt they'll qualify, but they certainly are raising a few eyebrows.
So this wraps up another day of World Cup Qualifiers and we are now only 369 days away from the tournament.
2 comments:
Zambia are one of my upset picks to make it to South Africa. I have watched a fair amount of African football in the past few years. You obviously have a good eye.
For the first time, I spent the whole day watching WC qualifying.
I got up a bit later than you & watched England match also. Plus, Australia/Qatar, a bit of Serbia/Austria, Sweden/Denmark, Ireland/Bulgaria, a bit of Wales/Azerbijan, a bit of UAE/South Korea, Brazil/Uruguay until 3-0, Argentina/Colombia, Costa Rica/T&T, USA/Honduras and finally Mexico/ES.
I used Veetle, bet365, justinTV & a couple of Chinese p2p sites.
After watching about 12 hours, I believe this a TV opportunity being missed in Canada. It's a way to leverage the popularity beyond the actual tourney. And watching it on Saturday was a similar experience as watching Olympics or NCAA basketball tourney - casuals will watch just for the spectacle.
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