Second shot at South Africa

Contributor Written on November 12, 2009

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Eight Europe countries have another shot at qualifying for South Africa 2010. Portugal faces of with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Russia takes on Slovenia, Greece battles Ukraine and France face Ireland on Saturday November 14 with the return leg on November 18.

The first leg will take place in Portugal, Russia, Ireland and Greece.

Lets look at the teams involved:

Portugal: Ranked 10th in the world according to FIFA have struggled in qualifying. They finished second in a group with Denmark (automatic birth) an edge Sweden for the playoff spot. Key Player Christiano Ronaldo.

Bosnia Herzegovina: Ranked 42nd in the world according to FIFA finished second in their qualifying group beating out Poland for the playoff spot. Key Player: Edin Dzeko

Russia: Ranked 12th in the world. Lost out on automatic qualifier to Germany. Key Player: Roman Pavlyuchenko

Slovenia: Ranked 49th in the world. Suprising second place team that lost out to Slovakia for automatic qualifier but eliminated Czech Republic . Key player: Milivoje Novakovic

Ireland: Ranked 34th in the world. Tough rugged group that just missed out on the automatic qualifier in Group 8 to Italy. Key Player: Shay Given

France: Ranked 9th in the world. Had a subpar qualifying as it lost out to Serbia for the automatic spot. Key Player: Frank Ribbery

Ukraine: Ranked 22nd in the world. Out fought Croatia for the second place qualifier in Group 6. Beat England to get to the playoff against Greece. Key Player: Anatoliy Tymoschuk

Greece: Ranked 16th in the world. Finished second to Switzerland in qualifying. Looking to qualify for the second time in their history. Key Player: Georgios Karagounis

Portugal

Portugal faces a tough challange in Bosnia-Herzogovina without Christiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo will miss both fixures as Portugal attempt to qualify. Who will pick up the slack for Portugal who have struggled in qualifying?

First leg in Portugal. Game time 3:30 EST.

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Can the Bosnians continue their run to the World Cup through Portugal? Will Edzin Dzeko continue his hot goal scoring streak against Portugal? Can they score a crucial away go in Portugal?

Russia

Can Guus Hiddink lead yet another team to the World Cup? Can this Russian team repeat what it accomplished in the Euro championship this year and qualify for South Africa?

Game Time 11am EST

Slovenia

Can the Slovenias pull the monster upset over Russia? Ranked 33rd in the FIFA rankings and ousting Poland will this team be up to the task? Can they survive the cold up in Russia?

Ukraine

Will the Ukraine defense keep Greece Theofanis Gekas in check from adding to his goal total? Which Andriy Shevchenko will show up and play for the Ukraine national team? Will the team miss Andriy Voronin goal scoring touch in Athens?

Game time 1pm EST

Greece

How healthy is captain Georgios Karagounis? Will these be the last games for King Otto? Who will coah Otto put in the back line?

Game time 1pm EST

France

Can the French put it all together in time to qualify? Who will provide the spark with Ribbery missing the series? Is this is for Henry?

Game time 3pm EST

Ireland

Can Trapattoni get the team into the Finals? Will the team back all the talk? Can Robbie Keene find holes in the French defense?

Game time 3PM EST

Winners

The winner get a shot at this.

My predictions: Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Russia Advance

Losers

The losers will get to spend their summer doing this. After spending 12 months trying to get to South Africa its doesnt look as bad.

Enjoy the games!!!

GREECE IN SOUTH AFRICA 2010

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