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[rone]

Liechtenstein managed to tie Portugal 2-2 at Vaduz in a World Cup qualifier match on Oct 9.  Even though it's noted chokers Portugal, it's still a stunning result.  Couple that with Andorra's first ever victory in qualifiers versus Macedonia, and it's been a good week for minnows.

In the CONMEBOL zone, Ecuador is tied for fourth place, amidst a clump of 8 countries who have between 16 and 10 points; put simply, nobody's out of it (the top four teams qualify and #5 plays a home-and-away with the Oceania leader) and there's still 8 games to go.  So, even after their Copa América debacle, Ecuador has as good a chance as any country, besides Brazil and Argentina, to go to Germany `06.  Go Ecuador!

Comments

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I didn't even notice. How the heck did you poor suckers end up with Berti Vogts? Still, the results thus far aren't horrible, and trying to get at least 2nd place over either Italy or Norway will be tricky.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Aren't horrible? One point from our two home games against the main rivals for second, and a draw against the weakest team in the group, who were stuffed 4-0 (I think) by Belarus? How bad do they need to be? When I saw the draw for this qualifying tournament I predicted that Scotland would finish 4th of 6 inthat group. Now, even that is starting to look optimistic.

As for Berti, I think someone must have remembered him managing Germany to victory in the '96 European Championships, because he's done bugger-all since. IIRC he was fired by Kuwait, among other places, before we got him. I'll cheerfully admit (OK, maybe not cheerfully, but I'll still admit it) that Scotland isn't exactly blessed with top-quality players at the moment, but it should still be possible to get them to play like a team, instead of some eejits who met each other 15 minutes before kick-off.