World Cup Qualification Recap-Countdown

You know what's better than the World Cup-- World Cup Qualification. If there wasn't no qualification, there wouldn't be no World Cup. So we can't afford to fall asleep watching those late night games, guys-- or those super early games if you live on the other side of the world from me. It's like falling asleep at tryouts. Agree?

If you don't agree, I got 11 reasons why you should've been awake for the full coverage of the CONMEBOL and CONCACAF qualifying games yesterday.

The most talked-about thing from yesterday is Lionel Messi scoring his 50th goal for Argentina, I'm going to start with that goal but I don't have time to do a countdown with 50 numbers, so...

11. Messi scored his 11th penalty kick goal for Argentina against Bolivia.

10. 10/10 for Mexico. They won all the games they played so far without having conceded a single goal and scoring 10 goals in four games.

9. Nine for Venezuela's midfielder Romulo Otero ninth minute amazing free kick goal against Chile. Fourth best goal from yesterday by the way.

See, even his coach thought that was a nice goal.

8. Eight for Uruguay for having eight goal difference, that's the only reason why they're in first place over Ecuador, who has the same amount of points with them.

[show]2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tiebreakers

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Uruguay	6	4	1	1	12	4	+8	13	Qualification to2018 FIFA World Cup		—	MD11	MD15	3–0	3–0	MD13	MD8	1–0	MD18	MD9
2	Ecuador	6	4	1	1	12	7	+5	13			2–1	—	MD18	MD9	MD14	MD7	2–2	MD16	2–0	MD12
3	Argentina	6	3	2	1	6	4	+2	11			MD7	0–2	—	MD13	MD12	1–1	MD10	MD17	2–0	MD16
4	Chile	6	3	1	2	12	10	+2	10			MD12	MD17	1–2	—	1–1	2–0	MD15	MD10	MD8	MD14
5	Colombia	6	3	1	2	9	8	+1	10	Advance tointer-confederation play-offs		MD10	3–1	0–1	MD11	—	MD16	MD17	2–0	MD13	MD7
6	Brazil	6	2	3	1	11	8	+3	9			2–2	MD15	MD11	MD18	MD8	—	MD14	3–0	MD9	3–1
7	Paraguay	6	2	3	1	7	6	+1	9			MD16	MD13	0–0	MD7	MD9	2–2	—	MD11	2–1	MD18
8	Peru	6	1	1	4	6	12	−6	4			MD14	MD8	MD9	3–4	MD18	MD12	1–0	—	MD15	2–2
9	Bolivia	6	1	0	5	7	13	−6	3			0–2	MD10	MD14	MD16	2–3	MD17	MD12	MD7	—	4–2
10	Venezuela	6	0	1	5	7	17	−10	1			MD17	1–3	MD8	1–4	MD15	MD10	0–1	MD13	MD11	—

Wikipedia

7. Seven for Colombia's number seven Carlos Bacca for scoring the third best goal yesterday against Ecuador.

Carlos "Spinning Top" Bacca.

6. Argentina only scored six goals in the qualifiers so far, that's the least goals scored by any team in the CONMEBOL (come on, Messi). How in the world is Argentina in third place? Well they conceded the least goals.

5.  Sorry about that five goal difference Ecuador, you're in second place now.

4. Four for Dario Lezcano 40th minute goal against Brazil. That was the Paraguayan's fourth goal for his country.

3. Three for the three minutes of added time the referee gave after Mexico vs Canada's first half. Mexico's number 10 Jesus Corona scored the second best goal yesterday in the 48th minute. Thank you, referee.

 

2. Chile's number 22 Mauricio Pinilla scored two goals against Venezuela. The striker hadn't scored for his country for two years before yesterday.

1. One for the best goal from yesterday, Sebastian Perez's "karate kick" goal against Ecuador.

If you're going to score from inside the six-yard box, don't make it look boring.

0. Zero for all the friendly games, it's all about World Cup Qualifiers.

Lansdowne Remains Undefeated After a 4-2 Victory Over United F.C.

                 vs             

G. Chirgaze 28', 67'                                                          Roche 17', 21',  Foster 31'
                                                                                                              O. Oakley 44'                  

                   Statistics

                                                                                                                                                                  2                    Goals                  4

                  10 (7)              Shots (on target)    16 (9)   

                                   2              Corners                 5
                                                     6                        Fouls                 6
                                                      2                   Offsides                5
                                                     3                      Yellows               0
                                                      1                          Reds               0
                                                              

Stephen Roche's double led the way in Lansdowne's win against United F.C., while Giorgi Chirgaze also had a double of his own but in a losing effort.

Lansdowne Bhoys stay unbeaten in the Cosmopolitan Soccer League as they defeated United F.C. 4-2 Sunday night in the first round of the second half of the season at Aviator Sports Complex.

Stephen Roche scored the first two goals of the game for the visiting side before Giorgi Chirgaze cut the lead in half for United F.C. Lansdowne added two more goals to their account to close the second half through Shaun Foster and Ovan Oakley respectively.

After the interval, Chigarze took advantage of the Irish-based club keeper Abdoukarim Danso's mistake to score his second and last goal of the game.

This loss drops United to sixth place. To make matter worse, Nuno Sousa's side will be without their starting goalkeeper Vadym Sanzharevsky due to injury. The 17-year old is expected to miss six months-- more than the rest of the season-- after dislocating his left leg.

Meanwhile Lansdowne draw level on point with NY Pancyprian but still remain in second place due to goal difference after bagging three points away home. 

"It was a good workout, first game of the season," head coach Austin Friel said. "I'm happy with the tree points." 

Sanzharevsky was carried off the field after dislocating his leg inside the opening six minutes, giving the game a twenty minute delay. Cyclones head coach Sousa believed that Sanzharevsky's injury played a major role in the outcome of the game.

"We lost our goalkeeper in the first 10 minutes of the game," the manager said. "It was very difficult." He later added: "But it's part of the game."

With 30 minutes left in the first half, Daryl Kavanagh was brought down by a United defender, setting up a free kick for Roche. The Irish midfielder hit the free kick past the opposing keeper to the lower right corner of the net.

"When I'm coaching [children] everyday, that's when I get my [free kick] practice in," Roche said after the game. "But to be honest it wasn't the best strike, I think the keeper might've  done a little bit better but it was nice to score the first goal."

The 28-year old completed his brace four minutes later. Roche caught the home keeper off his line and struck from about 25 yards out to double the Bhoys lead.

"I'm very happy," the captain said of his two goals. "I've been hurt quite a while with an injury so I'm happy to get on the score-sheet."

The Cyclones initiated a comeback with a goal in the 28th minute. Igor Bykanov hit a screamer from midfield, that Danso failed to hold on to. Chirgaze burried the rebound in the net for his first of the night.

Just three minutes later, Lansdowne re-doubled their lead as Foster lobbed the ball over the United keeper. The Bhoys added another one one minute before the break, when Oakley played a neat one-two with Craig Purcell before speeding past the home keeper to net an open goal.

The Cyclones came back more determined after the restart but they only managed to touch their guest's net once. Danso's clearance dropped straight at Chirgaze, who didn't think twice before scoring a beauty from midfield in the 67th minute.

After this victory coach Friel was fully convinced that his side can defeat any team in the CSL and go on to lift to trophy.

"We won the league the last two years in a row," the Irishman said. "And we're undefeated, it will take a good team to beat us. So as I said, we don't fear any team in the league, we're looking to win three in the row so we don't fear anyone really.

Goodbye Round of 16

Round of 16 is finally over! The thing lasted like a month, aren't you guys glad it's finally over? I started to get tired of this round 16, round 16 every champions league fixture day. We're already in the year of 2016, so we see the number 16 quite often-- I'm tired of it. 

Well, thinking about it, there's actually one 16 I never get tired of seeing and that's the back of defensive midfielder  Daniele De Rossi's jersey (sorry about the loss to Real Madrid, De Rossi). 

Roma captain Daniele De Rossi. Soccer-infos Image.

But anyways,  goodbye round 16. Hello, quarter-finals. 

Okay, before we say our goodbyes to round of 16, it would be fair if we take a quick look at the best of this first knockout round. I know you like goals, we're going to start with the best goal.

Best Goal

We gotta give it to Luis Suarez kun fu kick against Arsenal. 

Shoalin soccer ain't got nothing on this.

Top Scorer

Yeah-yeah nice goal, Suarez. But it's never about quality in scoring, it's always about quantity. The topscorer of the round of 16 is Suarez's teammate Lionel Messi with three goals. 

 Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Reuters Image.

Best Performance

The best performance also goes to the Argentine forward. Messi scored two second half goals, giving his side a crucial victory over the Gunners away from home in the first leg.

Best Game

Enough of individual performances, let's go collective. Let's talk about the best game. You don't even gotta think about it twice, the best game of this round was the second leg between Bayern Munich and Juventus. Bayern midfielder Thomas Mueller's 90th minute goal sent the game to extra-time after Juventus went ahead by two goals in the first half. 

The German side completed their turnaround in extra-time with two more goals in the span of two minutes. What a game, feel like watching the highlights again just writing this.

               Bayern Munich's Thomas Muller (4th L) celebrates after scoring                                                against Juventus.* REUTERS/Giorgio Perottino, yahoosports.

Sorry, champ

I don't like knockout rounds too much, it's always hard to see good teams leave. One team that it really hurts to see leave this round are the Italian champions and last year's finalist Juventus. If you have players you can score goals like this against Bayern Munich...

... it sucks that you have to leave the tournament so early.

Most memorable moment

Last but not least, the most memorable moment was when Atletico Madrid celebrated Juanfran's game winning penalty kick against PSV Eindhoven at home. The two sides played three hours and 30 minutes of goalless football-- can you believe that? Three hours and thirty minutes! Lord!-- before the penalty shootout.

Take a look at a picture of the Atletico players sprinting towards Juanfran to celebrate. What happened to those extra-time cramps?

Atletico Madrid players celebrate penalty kick victory over PSV Eindhoven.
Getty Images

After looking at the best of round 16, I guess it wasn't that bad, right? It was actually pretty good. But we don't regret it, there's better things ahead. The quarter finals!