World Cup Qualifying

[jdl22]

Today is the final day for qualification to the world cup finals. There are five matches played, all second legs of home and home series:
Australia - Uruguay (first leg 0-1)
Bahrain - Trinidad (first leg 1-1)
Turkey - Switzerland (first leg 0-2)
Slovakia - Spain (first leg 1-5)
Czech Republic - Norway (first leg 1-0)

For those unfamiliar they play one match in each country. At the end the two scores are added together. If one team is ahead they win and qualify. If they are tied then the team scoring the most away goals goes through. If they are tied with the same away goals then they play extra time followed by a shootout. In the above list the home team for the second leg is listed first.

I'm going to be boring and pick Uruguay, Bahrain, Switzerland, Spain and the Czech Republic. Biggest surprise is Switzerland I would say. I was talking to a couple Turkish professors today and they said that they were completely dominated in the first leg and could easily have gone down 4 or 5 nil. Spain going through is obvious. Bahrain I'm only choosing based on getting an away goal and hence having a nil-nil draw get them through. Similarly I'm picking Uruguay over Australia, though Australia are easily the most likely to overcome the first leg deficit. I have problems going forward and have to score 2 so I don't think they have much of a chance.

In case you don't know here are those countries already in, along with date qualified. This info comes from fifaworldcup.com

African Zone (5 Teams)
Angola (ANG) 08-Oct-05
Cote d'Ivoire (CIV) 08-Oct-05
Togo (TOG) 08-Oct-05
Ghana (GHA) 08-Oct-05
Tunisia (TUN) 08-Oct-05

European Zone (14 Teams)
Germany (GER) Host
Ukraine (UKR) 03-Sep-05
Netherlands (NED) 08-Oct-05
Poland (POL) 08-Oct-05
England (ENG) 08-Oct-05
Croatia (CRO) 08-Oct-05
Italy (ITA) 08-Oct-05
Portugal (POR) 08-Oct-05
Sweden (SWE) 12-Oct-05
Serbia and Montenegro (SCG) 12-Oct-05
France (FRA) 12-Oct-05

North, Central American and Caribbean Zone (3.5 Teams)
USA (USA) 03-Sep-05
Mexico (MEX) 07-Sep-05
Costa Rica (CRC) 08-Oct-05

South American Zone (4.5 Teams)
Argentina (ARG) 08-Jun-05
Brazil (BRA) 04-Sep-05
Ecuador (ECU) 08-Oct-05
Paraguay (PAR) 08-Oct-05