Midweek WCQ's

Since many of the games have actually already started I'll hold off on doing any predictions and instead just post a quick little roundup of what's going on with the matches today.

Europe

Not too many marquee matchups today but plenty of importance nonetheless. England v. Ukraine and Italy v. Republic of Ireland are two of the most intriguing games and probably the two I'm actually most interested in. Quick turnaround return matches in Greece v. Israel and Turkey v. Spain could also be interesting. There are also teams that can distance themselves from the rest of their groups (including Italy and England) and Denmark and Hungary, the top two teams in Group 1, play bottom two Albania and Malta respectively, leaving middle two and perennial World Cup participants Portugal and Sweden biting their nails. Scotland v. Iceland could be a hotly contested match for 2nd place in the small group 9. Northern Ireland take on a game Slovenia squad and a win could greatly help them in their bid to reach the big tournament. Rounding it out is the always fierce meeting (in any sport for that matter) between the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Asia

Many of the Asian matches are already finished or underway. Australia have virtually qualified with a win over Uzbekistan, aided by a PK from my old Liverpool favorite Harry Kewell. The Move to the AFC is looking more and more like a good one for Australia. South Korea also dispatched their Northern rivals 1-0 in Seoul.

CONCACAF

All three matches in the CONCACAF zone should be good ones. I love T&T but the US should dispatch them pretty easily. El Tri face a stern test going into Honduras and I also expect Costa Rica to take care of El Salvador at home although the away side showed great fight against the Americans in the last round.

South America

Colombia already lost to Venezuela away last night tightening a very gripping South American qualifying zone. Brazil should be back to their winning ways as they host Peru and I also expect Argentine to take care of Bolivia. Ecuador v. Paraguay in Quito and Chile home against Uruguay could be the most exciting matches in any zone and while I tried to refrain from calling anything I'll single out the red-hot Forlan to net at least one for Uruguay.

No African qualifiers today. Lots of coverage on FSC and GolTV. Enjoy everyone!