World Cup Corner

Reuters - Manchester United captain Roy Keane will miss Ireland’s do-or-die World Cup qualifier away to Switzerland next month after breaking a bone in his foot.

The midfielder injured his left foot during United’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday with the club saying on their official website that he was expected to be out for two months.

Keane may, therefore, have played his last match for his country since he had said he would retire from international football after the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany or before if Ireland failed to qualify.

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Reuters - Striker Wayne Rooney says stopping his club team mate Ryan Giggs will be the key to winning Saturday’s World Cup qualifier against Wales.

The Manchester United pair will face each other in a Group Six game in Cardiff, with Rooney expecting England to be given a hard time after beating Wales 2-0 at Old Trafford last October.

“He’s a great player,” Rooney told reporters after training on Wednesday. “I work with him every day, so I see what he can do. If we can keep Giggsy quiet then we should win the game.

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“A genuine leader is a man for hard times,” says Fatih Terim and upcoming fixtures against Denmark and Ukraine certainly fit that description for the coach recently restored to the helm of the Turkey team.

When Terim replaced Ersun Yanal following Turkey’s goalless home draw with Greece in June, he was under no illusions about the task ahead. Turkey lie second in their qualifying group but with leaders Ukraine all but out of sight, they face a three-way battle for the runners-up spot and a play-off berth.

A 3-1 loss against Bulgaria in a Sofia friendly on 17 August was hardly a happy start and defeat by Denmark in Istanbul on 3 September would leave them just a point ahead of both Greece and their Danish opponents, with away fixtures against Ukraine and Albania to come. Little wonder Terim tells FIFAworldcup.com: “We do not have the luxury to lose. We have three difficult games to get to Germany. We must win all these games and that’s what we are working towards.”

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If we exclude the traditional strongholds of Italy and England, Western Europe has spawned just one world champion. Winners of the 1998 FIFA World Cup™ on home soil, France are the only team from this area of the continent to have raised the supreme trophy aloft.

In 1974, playing their unique brand of ‘total football’, Rinus Michels’ magnificent Netherlands side featuring Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens and Jonny Rep did make it to the final, but more often than not, the region’s teams have been little more than outsiders. To make matters worse, countries such as Andorra, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg are all habitually clustered around the bottom ten rungs of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking. Join us as we examine the qualification prospects of the region’s teams this time around.

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In Group 4, Cyprus collected maximum points for the first time thanks to a 3-0 win in the Faroe Islands, despite playing half the match with ten men following Eleftheriou Lufteris’s dismissal.

Held to a frustrating 1-1 draw in Latvia on Wednesday, Russia were nonetheless handed an unlikely reprieve in their bid for a place at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany. Instead of dropping out of the race for places in Group 3 of the European Zone, the surprise goalless draw between second-placed Slovakia and Liechtenstein in Vaduz keeps Russian hopes alive.

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Of this week’s six European qualifying matches for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany, it is the fixture between Latvia and Russia that stands out.

Elsewhere in Group 3, Slovakia will be looking for maximum points when they face Liechtenstein in Vaduz, where the Portuguese were previously held to a famous 2-2 draw.

In Group 4, the Faroe Islands meet Cyprus in a mini-competition to avoid last place, with both teams on a single point as things stand.

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