Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down: World Cup 2010 Qualifying On Oct. 15

This edition of thumbs up, thumbs down won't have too many casualties in the down section. Most of the matches turned out as expected. Congratulations go out to Northern Ireland for beating San Marino 4-0 and earning their first win in qualifying.

That's still not enough to get you in the thumbs up section though.

Thumbs Up

You have to give credit where credit is due. Albania held on for a scoreless draw in Portugal. What's even more impressive is the fact that Admir Teli was sent off for the visitors before halftime.

Switzerland narrowly defeated Latvia a few days ago to keep their qualifying hopes intact. Yesterday, they followed it up with a win in Greece. The feat itself is nothing special since Greece's only real weapon is Angelos Charisteas. Group Two is rather weak, but the Swiss did a fine job knocking off their toughest opponent.

Two goals in as many minutes for Stanislav Sestak erased a 1-0 deficit and turned Slovakia into 2-1 winners at home against Poland. The Slovakians now sit on top of Group Three with nine points.

Passing and set-ups are what he's known for, but Andrei Arshavin displayed his goal-scoring abilities against Finland. Already up 2-0, the Russian sealed the deal by going through two defenders and putting it past Jussi Jaaskelainen.

You can add Piotr Trochowski to the list of Poles that play for the German squad. His first international goal was one to remember. He blew a right-footed shot into the top corner to give Germany a 1-0 win at home against Wales.

Is there any stopping this Spain squad? For the first time in quite a while, things looked bad for the Spaniards when they were down 1-0 in Belgium. Cesc Fabregas sprung Andreas Iniesta by two defenders and the midfielder made a nice move around goaltender, Stijn Stijnen before firing upstairs from just about the goal line.

Then, in the 88th minute, David Villa did it again. He got on the end of a Daniel Guiza cross and headed in the winner for his country.

Props go out to Belgium, who were unlucky to not finish tied with Spain. The goal they scored was the first the Spaniards had allowed in 717 minutes of action.

Liverpool fans all know Steven Gerrard's long range efforts too well. The England colours were on him this time when he struck a vintage goal from outside the box.

Group Seven is wide open, and Serbia grabbed top spot this week. Following a win against Lithuania, the Serbs won 3-1 in Austria yesterday.

Holland isn't dominating matches like they should be, but the classy finishes are still there. Mark Van Bommel fired in the lone goal in Norway to give the Dutch a 1-0 win. The ball was coming down and Bommel just smashed a hard low shot into the net.

Thumbs Down

Portugal's struggling campaign continued with a 0-0 draw at home to Albania. Unsurprisingly, Cristiano Ronaldo drew the red card from Admir Teli, but he wasn't able to draw a goal for his side.

Words can't even express what I'm feeling about my squad. Poland looked set to take a 1-0 win in Slovakia, and first place in the group. Once again, they managed to mess it all up allowing two goals in two minutes. The mistakes that led to the goals were just ridiculous.

Two matches with Spain are still to come for Turkey. They may live to regret the fact that they couldn't find a way past Estonia, and only earned the one point. It's been a struggle for the Turks so far, but they should move on with Spain in this group.

I expected a little more from Armenia in this qualifying campaign. This is a team that defeated Poland, tied Portugal, and Serbia in Euro 2008 qualifying. Four games in, four matches lost.

It looked bright for Austria when they defeated France in their opening match. Since, it's been two losses and a draw. The latest was a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Serbia.

Italy needed an own-goal from Montenegro to come out 2-1 winners. This group is unbelievably easy, and the Italians haven't impressed much in it.