Football Americana Week 30: Chivas grab a spot

Next summer, Major League Soccer will break for the group stages of World Cup 2010 in South Africa. It doesn't sound much, but it's a start. In Week 30 the league was down to just four matches as the football world focused on World Cup qualifying. Well done to the US national team who clinched their World Cup spot with a hard-fought victory in Honduras, and to Chivas USA who qualified for the 2010 post-season on Saturday.

The LA club hosted Kansas City Wizards at HDC and clinched their playoff position thanks to two goals in two second half minutes. Justin Braun put Preki's boys ahead in the 72nd minute, turning in a loose ball before Sacha Kljestan doubled the lead at the end of a lovely solo run in the 74th. The Wizards will be unhappy with their defending on both occasions.

FC Dallas gave themselves a fighting chance of qualification with a win on Wednesday. They defeated San Jose Earthquakes at Buck Shaw and are now ahead of DC United and Toronto FC. David Ferreira opened the scoring in the 49th minute after rounding Joe Cannon. Quincy Amarikwa finished from a tight angle to level matters with 18 minutes left, but Jeff Cunningham tapped in the winner ten minutes later. FCD can thank goalkeeper Dario Sala for keeping them in the game with a string of impressive saves.

The Quakes were in action again on Saturday, travelling to playoff hopefuls Toronto FC. TFC led early in the second half thanks to Nana Attakora's great run to the back post for a simple finish, but Cornell Glen dented their playoff hopes with a scrappy finish two minutes into stoppage time.

Columbus Crew are home and dry, and returned to winning ways with a victory over New England Revolution, themselves struggling for playoff qualification. Gino Padula scored the only goal of the game in Foxboro, winning it for the Crew with a free kick from a good 45 yards out. It floated into the middle of the goal and eluded Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis whose error was unforgivable. The official MLS site described the shot as "sneaky", which is altogether too generous. Emmanuel Ekpo was wrongly sent off for an elbow with 25 minutes left on the clock.

With that, Columbus stay atop their conference ahead of Chicago Fire. LA and Houston have guaranteed their playoff spots and are currently the top two in the West. Chivas USA are through and lead the wildcard spots ahead of Seattle Sounders, Colorado Rapids and New England. The Revs are just two points ahead of FCD, DC United and TFC, and four ahead of Real Salt Lake who have a game in hand.

In short, it's tight and it's beginning to get very exciting.

Full results and standings here.

For more great writing by Chris Nee, visit TwoFootedTackle.com.

Sound Of Football Podcast 10

This week, Chris, Graham and Terry travel the World in 40 minutes as we cast out eye over last weekends round of World Cup Qualifiers.

We ask if Rio Ferdinand has had it's day, ponder the vagaries of FIFA's seeding system for the UEFA region, consider a World Cup without Argentina and doff our hats to the US Men's National Team.

All of that plus listener feedback too. Who are you to resist?

You can listen to the podcast by clicking here. Or if you right click on the link, you can download the mp3. Alternatively, you can subscribe via the your reader of choice or via iTunes. Dont forget to check out our Facebook Fanpage page as well.e

World Cup Update Part 1: Europe

The good ship World Cup is almost ready to set sail for South Africa and the penultimate round of qualifiers ensured eight more countries secured their berth for 2010. Here's how they got there starting off with our first update from

Europe
Reigning champions Italy confirmed they'll be defending their title next year, but only thanks to a last-minute equaliser by Alberto Gilardino in Dublin. Ireland almost took all three points against the Italians when Middlesbrough's Sean St Ledger put his side 2-1 up with three minutes to go, but the Juventus winger slotted the ball home in the 90th minute to see his side go through to the Finals automatically.

All is not lost for Ireland, however. With a little assistance from Cyprus who amazingly beat Bulgaria 4-1 (Dimitar Berbatov getting the goal for his team), Giovanni Trapattoni's men are now assured of a play-off place, if not a place in the Finals.

Germany, hosts last time around, showed they hadn't forgotten how to qualify the hard way when they beat Russia 1-0 in Moscow. Aiming to protect their record of never having been beaten in a World Cup qualifier away from home, the Germans were matched stride for stride by the Russians - the only other realistic qualifier from Group 4. In the end, a 35th minute goal from Miroslav Klose proved enough to send the Germans through and the Russians into the play-offs.

In Group 1, a goal from Jakob Poulsen eleven minutes from time gave Denmark a 1-0 win over Sweden and assured the Danes of a place at World Cup 2010. Sweden's defeat means they slip to third place in the group after Portugal moved up to second on the back of a 3-0 win over Hungary. Cristiano Ronaldo picked up an ankle injury in the match and looks set to miss their vital last match against Malta which they'll need to win to confirm a place in the play-offs.

Serbia are the other surprise qualifier from Europe. They're confirmed as Group 7 champions after a 5-0 thumping of Romania while France took their place in the play-offs by beating the Faroe Islands by the same scoreline. Andre-Pierre Gignac of Toulouse scored two of the goals, the others coming courtesy of Karim Benzema, William Gallas and Nicolas Anelka.

Elsewhere, Slovenia put Slovakia's party celebrations on hold in Group 3 by beating the leaders 2-0. With the Czech Republic doing likewise against Poland, it means Slovakia are assured of a play-off spot at the very least while the Czechs must beat Northern Ireland in their last match and hope Slovenia lose to San Marino if they're to go through. 'Unlikely' doesn't even come close.

Switzerland and Greece maintained positions one and two in Group 2 having won their respective games at the weekend. The Swiss cruised to a 3-0 victory over Luxembourg and the Greeks smashed Latvia 5-2 (four of their goals coming from Bayer Leverkusen striker Theofanis Gekas). Israel moved up to third in the group after beating Moldova 3-1, which effectively snuffs out any chance the Latvians have of qualifying in realistic terms.

All of that means Switzerland will get at least a play-off place although a draw against Israel in their last match will secure automatic qualification. If the Swiss lose and Greece beat Luxembourg, the Greeks will take top spot instead. We could go on talking about the numerous permutations, but needless to say a defeat for Israel will see their chances of qualifying end right there and then.

The remaining news from Saturday's action concerns teams aiming for play-off places. Ukraine's 1-0 defeat over England in Group 6 puts them in the best position for securing second spot with only a win against Andorra on Wednesday needed to stop Croatia getting it instead. In Group 5, however, Turkey lost the chance to get a play-off place after a 2-0 defeat away to Belgium. Second place instead goes to Bosnia-Herzegovina who beat Estonia 2-0 in Tallinn.

Full results and tables available here. More from the weekend's World Cup qualifiers coming soon...

Midweek TV Preview: 12 - 14 October

Monday 12th October

19:45 Tranmere Rovers v Stockport County, League One, Sky Sports 1/HD1
Rovers are now John Barnes-free after a pretty awful start to the campaign. County are only a few places above them. Needless to say both teams are skint and don't have much to work with, squad wise.

Wednesday 14th October

17:00 Germany v Finland, World Cup Qualifier, ESPN
Rendered somewhat redundant after Germany's lucky victory in Russia. Germany have qualified and Russia will have to play off. Everything else is settled in this group.

19:30 Czech Republic v Northern Ireland, World Cup Qualifier, BBC2 Northern Ireland/Red Button
The Czechs have a slight chance of overhauling Slovenia for second place if they beat the dogged Ulstermen. However, the Slovenians will have to draw or lose to San Marino for that to happen. Unlikely.

19:45 Republic of Ireland v Montenegro, World Cup Qualifier, Sky Sports 2/HD2
The last minute heartbreak at Croke Park against those moustache-twirling Italians has condemned the Republic to the "lottery of the play-offs" as they are inaccurately called. Thus we have another dead rubber to avoid.

20:00 England v Belarus, World Cup Qualifier, ITV1/HD
Much like this one. England's failure in Ukraine has added a modicum of spice to a pointless affair. The biggest question is what will Rio do next? Yes I'm afraid it really is that bad.

23:00 Uruguay v Argentina, World Cup Qualifier, Sky Sports 1
Finally. A game worth watching. Argentina were seconds from oblivion against Peru last Saturday before the evergreen Martin Palermo popped up at the far post to send the Argentine fans into rapture and Maradona on one of the greatest belly-flops in world soccer. So it's off to Uruguay then. A win for the home side and they're through automatically. Combine that with a win for Ecuador against Chile and Argentina are out of the World Cup. No play off, no nothing, just lots of recriminations.

(All times - UK)