“Miroslav Klose (… born as Mirosław Marian Kloze on 9 June 1978 in Opole) is a German footballer who plays as a striker. He plays for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga in Germany, and for the German national team. He is known for his goalscoring instincts, aerial ability, and unselfish play.” Miroslav Klose, YouTube, (1)
“Shockwaves were sent around planet football this week as some of the powerhouses of the world game fell to unexpected defeat. Take Argentina and Mexico, for example, who are currently licking their wounds after Wednesday’s setbacks.”
(FIFA)
Resurgent Saudis eye automatic World Cup spot (ESPN)
“Saudi Arabia’s new coach is confident of securing automatic qualification for the 2010 World Cup finals after instigating a stunning turnaround after only two games in charge.”
Egypt and Nigeria in shock draws (BBC)
“Egypt and Nigeria have been held to shock draws at the start of their campaigns for a place at the World Cup in 2010. Egypt, who are reigning African champions, were held 1-1 at home by Zambia. Nigeria played out a goalless draw with Mozambique in Maputo.”
Ngassa tries for Tanzania history (BBC)
“As in each round of the South American Qualifiers, the coverage of the continental and international press of these last 10 matches of the race toward South Africa has been of massive character, occupying the front pages of each newspaper and specialized. media. Here is a review of what was expressed by the media in the countries of South America.” (CONMEBOL)
Coping with high altitude (BBC – Tim Vickery’s Blog)
“Outside South America there is little recognition of the difficulties of the continent’s World Cup qualification campaign. Carlos Alberto Parreira and Luiz Felipe Scolari are agreed – the pair coached Brazil to World Cup triumph in 1994 and 2002 respectively, and came to the same conclusion. Winning the competition was relatively straightforward. The hard part was qualification. Both of their teams lost in Bolivia.”
Six reasons for Argentina’s 6-1 defeat to Bolivia (Reuters)
“Argentine media allocate dozens of pages to football daily and the country has two 24-hour cable channels almost exclusively dedicated to the sport. Quite often it’s a struggle to fill all that paper and airtime — so much so that one of the TV channels passes away the afternoon with a programme in which the presenters play foot-tennis.”
World Cup Qualifying – CONMEBOL Qualifying Stage Results (ESPN)
“Sven Goran Eriksson’s personal manager Athole Still believes that the Swede should never have taken charge of Mexico. The former England manager was sacked as head coach of Mexico after the 3-1 defeat to Honduras in midweek.” (Sky Sports)
Eriksson sacked as Mexico coach (BBC)
Sacked Eriksson eyeing move back to England – agent (Reuters)
Scissors Kick 