Sound Of Football Episode 16 - World Cup Wigans

With Terry experiencing technical issues, it is left to Graham and Chris to struggle through this week's Sound Of Football podcast. Mercifully the wonderful world of football has thrown up plenty of talking points including Spurs thrashing of Wigan 9-1, Liverpool's impending Champions League exit/dramatic recovery and of course, there's that World Cup Qualifier to talk about... plus France v Ireland. Didn't see that coming did you?

You can listen by clicking here. Or if you right click on that link, you can download the MP3. Alternatively, you can subscribe via the your reader of choice or via our iTunes feed.

Please leave us a comment and let us know what you think. You can do so on the comments section below or on our Facebook Fanpage.

Midweek TV Preview: 23 - 26 November 2009

Monday 23 November

19:45 Preston North End v Newcastle Utd, Championship, Sky Sports 1 / HD1
These two sides haven't played each other in the league since 1981. That season, Preston went down to the old Third Division and if they maintain their current form (one win in their last seven games), they might just replicate that. Newcastle, however, have won their last three and a win here at Deepdale will see them return to the top of the Championship table.

Tuesday 24 November

17.30 Rubin Kazan v Dynamo Kiev, UEFA Champions League Group F, Sky Sports 2/HD2
Group F is the tightest of all the Champions League groups with only two points separating Inter at the top from Kiev at the bottom. The interesting thing to note here is that all four teams have won just one game, and Dynamo Kiev's was in their opener against Rubin Kazan. A chance for the Ukrainians to get their revenge here then, we feel.

19.45 Rangers v Stuttgart, UEFA Champions League Group G, Sky Sports 3
Rangers finally managed to double their points tally with a draw against Unirea Urziceni last time out and they'll be heartened going into this fixture by the fact that (a) they're back on top of the Scottish Premier League table, and (b) Stuttgart aren't playing much better than they are in this group. Could be an interesting encounter, on that basis.

19.45 Barcelona v Inter Milan, UEFA Champions League Group F, Sky Sports Xtra Interacive (Screen 4)
The previous encounter between these two teams ended 0-0 back in September. Barcelona were denied a late winner that night when Dejan Stankovic was said to have handled the ball in the area but the referee didn't give it. So that's where Thierry Henry got the idea from.

19.45 Fiorentina v Lyon, UEFA Champions League Group E, Sky Sports Xtra Interacive (Screen 5)
Lyon missed the chance to go top of Ligue 1 this weekend after drawing 1-1 against Grenoble, and as readers of our Jeu Du Jour feature will know, Grenoble are about as much use as a plastic oven. And Grenoble played part of the match with only 10 men! Lyon looked like they were saving some of their best players for this match, though, and perhaps that was Fiorentina's excuse too. Let's hope so for both their sakes...

19.45 Arsenal v Standard Liege, UEFA Champions League Group H, Sky Sports Xtra/HD3
Arsenal fans will remember the Belgians took a 2-0 lead five minutes into their previous encounter before coming back to win 3-2. If Wenger's men can convert their chances better than they did against Sunderland on Saturday, there's no reason to suggest they won't do the double over Liege and confirm top spot in the group.

19.45 AZ Alkmaar v Olympiakos, UEFA Champions League Group H, Sky Sports Xtra Interactive (Screen 7)
A win will see Olympiakos to the next stage, assuming Arsenal don't lose to Liege. AZ need a result and favours to progress.

19.45 Debrecen v Liverpool, UEFA Champions League Group E, Sky Sports 2/HD2
The plucky Hungarians haven't won a match yet in their campaign, but they could make Rafa's life that bit more uncomfortable tonight by salvaging a draw on home turf.

19.45 Unirea v Sevilla, UEFA Champions League Group G, Sky Sports Xtra Interactive (Screen 6)
Sevilla are already through, if Unirea win this then they join them in the next phase.


Wednesday 25 November

17.30 CSKA Moscow v Wolfsburg, UEFA Champions League Group B, Sky Sports 2/HD2
Wolfsburg comfortably beat CSKA 3-1 back in September but having lost in disappointing fashion to Nurnberg at the weekend we wonder whether this'll be the match where they seal their qualification to the next round. CSKA need to win this to stay in the hunt themselves.

19.45 Manchester United v Besiktas, UEFA Champions League Group B, ITV1/HD
Elsewhere in the same group, Man U are home and dry after their 3-3 draw against CSKA last time out. Besiktas may as well start planning for a new Europa League campaign at best.

19.45 Porto v Chelsea, UEFA Champions League Group D, Sky Sports 2/HD2
Group D's even more sewn up - Chelsea are top with ten points, Porto are second with nine. Both are through to the next round. Dead rubber.

19.45 Real Madrid v FC Zurich, UEFA Champions League Group C, Sky Sports Xtra
Real are caught in a Milan/Marseille sandwich at the moment. Their first priority will therefore be to beat the Swiss and hope Milan and Marseille draw elsewhere tonight to give them their best chance of progressing beyond the group stage.

19.45 AC Milan v Marseille, UEFA Champions League Group C, Sky Sports Xtra Interactive (Screen 3)
Game of the night, a win for Marseille really mixes it up going into Matchday 6 when they host Real. A win for Milan sees them through, making the Group of shock results end up as everyone expected it would.

19.45 Bordeaux v Juventus, UEFA Champions League Group A, Sky Sports Xtra Interactive (Screen 4)
The French champions are through, for Juve a win will give them passage to the knockout phase and a Europa League spot to Bayern.

19.45 Bayern Munich v Maccabi Haifa, UEFA Champions League Group A, Sky Sports Xtra Interactive (Screen 5)
Surely Bayern can't mess this one up, can they? Maccabi haven't scored in any of their four group games - but maybe being in Munich can give added incentive to the Israelis. Bayern are relying on Bordeaux not going on cruise control tonight, and then beating Juve at the Stadio Del Alpi on Matchday 6.

19.45 APOEL v Atletico Madrid, UEFA Champions League Group D, Sky Sports Xtra Interactive (Screen 6)
Ok, which one of you wants to go into the Europa League? Anyone, anyone...

Thursday 26 November

19:30 Palermo v Reggina, Coppa Italia, ESPN
Arguably one of the most complicated formats to a Cup competition you'll ever see pits these two teams together in the Third Round Section 2 Final. Aside from sounding like something from an episode of The Krypton Factor, we can tell you that the winner of this goes through to the mercifully straightforward 'Round of 16'. Well done ESPN for introducing us to this strange, undiscovered netherworld of Italian football.

World Cup 2010 Draw Seedings

With 32 names in the bag (regardless of how they got there) thoughts can now turn to the subject of the draw for the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.

The first thing to be decided is which countries to seed. This is calculated just before the draw and is based on past performances in recent World Cups and the FIFA World Ranking. Controversially though, the same calculation never seems to be used twice and the choice of calculation is only decided once all the figures are available, leading to allegations that the whole system is rigged.

For 2006, past performances in the last two World Cups were considered with the performance in 2002 carrying twice the value of 1998. This was added to the FIFA ranking over the last three years. Both figures carried equal weight.

In 2002 and 1998 though, the past three World Cups were considered, and in 1998 the past World Cup performance carried 50% more weight in the final totals than the Ranking score.

Confused? It's easily done. Anyway to save you a headache, we've calculated the scores for each country using the same method as 2006 and the results are shown on the left (click to enlarge)...

The good news is no matter which system from the last three World Cups you use, the seven seeds selected are the same every time. However, should FIFA cook up a new formula between now and the draw, everything could change.

Do the seeds deserve their placing? Well it's almost impossible to argue with the inclusion of Brazil or Germany, with Italy as holders and Spain as European champions and ranked number one in the world their places are secured. England make it by virtue of their consecutive quarter final placings and France have reached the Final in two of the last three tournaments.

Argentina are there despite recent form and they only just manage to nudge out Portugal who also failed to impress during qualification. The team it's hardest on is the Netherlands - ranked third in the world for over a year, they're suffering from failing to qualify in 2002. If the new system of calculation puts more weight on ranking rather than finals performance, England could be in trouble.

One thing is for sure - if Netherlands aren't seeded, they're guaranteed to be drawn in the "Group of Death"...

Likely draw Pots:

Pot A: Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, England, France, Argentina, South Africa
Pot B: Paraguay, Ghana, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Uruguay, Chile, Algeria
Pot C: Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland, Greece, Serbia, Denmark, Slovenia, Slovakia
Pot D: Mexico, USA, Australia, South Korea, Japan, Honduras, New Zealand, North Korea

The draw takes place on Friday 4th December, with the seeding being announced two days before.

The Friday List of Little or No Consequence #140

Why are we waiting...
The 17 Clubs Around The World Who Have Been Waiting The Longest To Win Another Championship Title Despite Holding The Record For The Most Championship Titles In Their Country

1. Club Colonial, Martinique (18 titles, last one - 1972)
2. Horseed, Somalia (8 titles, last one - 1980)
3. Santos FC, Jamaica (5 titles, last one - 1979/80)
4. Saint Etienne, France (10 titles, last one - 1980/81)
5. Enugu Rangers, Nigeria (6 titles, last one - 1984)
6. Hafia FC, Guinea (15 titles, last one - 1985)
7. Górnik Zabrze, Poland (14 titles, last one - 1987/88)
8. Millonarios, Colombia (13 titles, last one - 1988)
9. Vitória FC, São Tomé and Principe (5 titles, last one - 1989)
10. Liverpool, England (18 titles, last one - 1989/90)
11. ASC Police, Mauritania (7 titles, last one - 1991)
12. Tokyo Verdy, Japan (7 titles, last one - 1991/92)
13. Ministry of Defence, Cambodia (3 titles, last one - 1993)
14. Shamrock Rovers, Ireland (15 titles, last one - 1993/94)
15. Gor Mahia, Kenya (12 titles, last one - 1995)
16. Saint Louis Suns United, Seychelles (13 titles, last one - 1995)
17. SV Dakota, Aruba (15 titles, last one - 1995)

(With thanks to FourFourTwo for giving us the idea for this Friday List.)