Back up and running today - full set of fixtures in Asia and South America.
Australia v Tajikistan the only match underway; 6-0 with 15 minutes to go.
Japan v Afghanistan about to kick off.
Seems like Klinsmann might not make it to the Hex, even if the US do.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
Back up and running today - full set of fixtures in Asia and South America.
Australia v Tajikistan the only match underway; 6-0 with 15 minutes to go.
Japan v Afghanistan about to kick off.
Not sure what's so unbelievable about that; the last World Cup surely showed Brazil are a relatively ordinary team now.
In Asia, Thailand have made the final stage for only the second time -the other time was 2002, when Japan and South Korea had already qualified.
China likely to be knocked out even if they beat group winners Qatar on Tuesday - they're currently sixth of eight group runners-up, with only four going through.
In North America, the US are struggling again - a draw away to Trinidad and a loss in Guatemala. They're currently missing out on the Hex with three games to go - though with the two main ones at home (and St Vincent away), they should still scrape through. But if they don't beat Guatemala on Tuesday, they're in trouble.
So China did beat Qatar, and it looks like they might sneak through at North Korea's expense, who conceded twice in the last five minutes to lose in the Phillippines.
Jordan, who made the play-offs against Uruguay last time, are out after a hammering in Australia.
Meanwhile, Bhutan have just ten minutes to hang on for a famous win away to the Maldives; currently 2-1 up.
Edit - as I type, the Maldives equalise...
Undecided on Kuwait as yet - but either way, they can't qualify.
If they win both their games, they'd be on 16 points. Take off the points gained against Laos - results against the bottom teams are discarded as one group has one team less - and they drop to 10 points. Cut-off is 11 points.
So the last 12 are -
Saudi Arabia
UAE
Australia
Qatar
China
Iran
Japan
Syria
Thailand
Iraq
South Korea
Uzbekistan
Bit harsh on Jordan, who lost home and away to Australia, surely the best team in the continent, and dropped just two other points - but out they go.
3-2 to the Maldives against Bhutan now...
Last minute.
Maldives managed by ex Wolves player Ricki Herbert, who coincidentally featured in the most recent issue of When Saturday Comes.
4-2 Maldives.
Bhutan end an 8-match group with 52 goals against.
I had Qatar and NK in an acculturator. Shot to pieces so it was.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Didn't think that many people would be betting on NK. And they wonder who bets on the LoI!
Anyways, the US won 4-0 overnight, which was rather disappointing. They should go through now, unless Trinidad lose to Guatemala but beat the US and edge them on goal difference, and goal difference is a thing, and everyone beats St Vincent.
Mexico are already through by contrast - 4 games, 4 wins, 10 scored, 0 against.
Brazil came back from 2-0 down with 10 minutes to go away to Paraguay to take a draw - but they're out of the qualifying places entirely at the moment, though they've only lost one game. Going to be a very tight group - the last World Cup showed there's some very good teams in South America, and it wouldn't be a huge surprise to see Brazil miss out (though I think they'll scrape through as they've done before)
What happens to you if you defect to North Korea?
Second Round has kicked off in Oceania - will be all over in a week.
New Zealand beat Fiji 3-1, which look sto be their toughest game.
PNG 1-0 up on New Caledonia at the moment, with Tahiti v Samoa on in an hour.
Top two from each group go through to the knock-out semi-finals, with the eventual winner then playing fifth in South America.
The qualifying for the world cup will continue into next year.
This is the nation's cup which doubles as WC qualifying round two. Top three in each group advance to the next round. Where there will be two round robin groups of 3. Group winners play off then to get hammered in South America
Yeah; I meant this round will be over next week. Then further rounds later.
Something I completely missed - Gibraltar and Kosovo have been added to the 2018 World Cup qualification. There were two 5-team groups, so Gibraltar have been added to Group H (Belgium, Bosnia, Greece, Estonia and Cyprus), while Kosovo have been added to Group I (Croatia, Iceland, Ukraine, Turkey and Finland). Gibraltar's first World Cup match will be home to Greece, while Kosovo's first competitive match will be away to Finland.
Kosovo v Croatia will be tasty in an anti-Serb kinda way.
DID YOU NOTICE A SIGN OUTSIDE MY HOUSE...?
Be interesting to see whether those of Kosovan extraction that currently play for Switzerland for example decide to play for Kosovo (if allowed). I see that a few minor players have already switched, most notably Samir Ujkani & Albert Bunjaku. They would be a decent team if all players that could play for them decide to do so.
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