An Early Look at World Cup 2010 Qualifying

Qualifying for the South Africa World Cup 2010 is underway around the world and several big games took place over the past week.  Here is a look around the world at what has happened so far.

Europe
Opening round group games got underway as most teams played twice with a few surprises.  Most notable upsets belonged to Luxembourg putting Switzerland in a bad spot and Portugal going down to Denmark at home.  England went to Croatia and left with an impressive 4-1 win while France stumbled and lost to Austria.  Germany were unable to take a win in Finland drawing 3-3.  Other teams starting 2-0 on the campaign were Italy, Greece, Spain, Ukraine and Lithuania.

South America
Big boys Brazil and Argentina have climbed to the top of the table sitting 2nd and 3rd respectively behind group leaders Paraguay.  The Paraguayan squad has been very impressive thus far only losing once in 8 matches.  Chile sits 4th a point ahead of Uruguay.  Meanwhile, Columbia will need to grab some wins to get into the top 4 who get automatic bids into World Cup 2010.  The 5th place squad will face New Zealand in a home and home for a spot.  Bolivia, Peru and Venezuela are at the bottom of the table and look to pretty much be out of the running at this point.

CONCACAF
The big 3 are all sitting pretty atop their groups and look safe to progress to the final round of qualifying.  The United States, Mexico and Costa Rica are all 3-0 thus far.  The real battle is in Group A for 2nd place as Guatemala and Trinidad are tied on 4 points.  The teams will face off in Guatemala next month in a huge game.  In Group B, Honduras looks safe to grab the 2nd spot as they lead Canada by 5 points and have alrday won in Canada.  In Group C, El Salvador is in the same position holding a comfortable 5 point lead over Haiti.