0 Messi score a brace in Brazil 2014 World cup qualifier against Uruguay.

Lionel Messi netted a brace and Sergio Aguero score the other in Argentina 3-0 victory against Uruguay in Brazil 2014 World cup qualifier. The Barcelona star scored his 6th goals and level the score with Argentina team mate Gonzalo Higuain and Luis Suárez. Sergio Aguero scored the other goal following great effort by Angel Di Maria. Messi have been in great form for international game and was delighted with another three points: "We mustn't forget that Uruguay are the last Copa America champions, therefore this was a big triumph………" He said.

Argentina National Soccer team 2012. Credit to football galleries

Oscar Tabarez was without injured Diego Perez and suspended Alvaro Pereira but Argentina were strong to avoid threat from top strikers Diego Forlan, Luis Suarez and Edison Cavani. Argentina leads the group with 17 points ahead of Ecuador and Colombia by one point. Ecuador beats 9 men Chile 3-, Felipe Caicedo score twice. Colombia hit man, Radamel Falcao scores both 2 goals in 2-0 victory against Paraguay. Loss to Argentina means, Uruguay seat on final automatic qualification position with 12 points same as fifth placed Chile. 

The results means in 222 competition and international friendlies, Argentina have won 100 vs 66 for Uruguay. But the trophies counts is still on favor of Uruguay with 19 trophies (2 world cup, 15 Copa America and 2 olympic) vs Argentina’s 16 trophies (2 World cups, 13 Copa America and 1 Olympic).  

Argentina vs Uruguay Video Highlights all goals 3-0 

 

0 FIFA world football ranking: England move to 5th, Colombia back to top 50.

The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking for October edition has been released today. The edition had 136 matches played including Brazil 2014 world cup qualifiers and international friendly games.The world cup and European champions Spain and Germany still leads in FIFA ranking as world cup finalist Netherlands keeps dropping.

England climb to 5th after two Brazil world cup qualifiers.

England 5-0 win over Moldova and 1-1 draw against Ukraine saw them climb to 5th. There is nothing for Roy Hodgson to celebrate as the move is more due to bad performance of other top five teams including 2011 Copa America champions Uruguay which drawn 2 and beaten 4-0 by Colombia.

Atletico Madrid's hitman Falcao and coach Jose Pekerman impact.

Colombia under Colombia managed to climb back to FIFA ranking top 10 after earning highest points than all the teams (259), first appearance since 2002. The team is under Jose Pekerman coach and their squad has Atletico Madrid hitman Radamel Falcao whose performance has been incredible both at club and national team. So far has scored 3 in World cup qualifiers including in 3-1 win over Chile and 4-0 against Uruguay. 

2014 World cup host worst ranking could affect 2014 performance.

Brazil, the world cup 2014 host had three consecutive wins in international friendly games. As friendly game has less weights/points, hosts have dropped even more to reach record lowest level, 14th. Of the three wins, only 2-1 win against Argentina was convincing but a narrow win against South Africa and 8-0 win over China would not count that much. Not participating in really competition before 2014 could have a negative impact on Brazil performance in the world cup or Mano Menezes need to pick strong teams for friendly games. 

Superb FIFA cocacola raking progress by Central African Republic

The continuous surprise package in the FIFA ranking is Central African Republic. They rise to 49th and in top 50 for the first time, this time up by 15 places. The African Country has been on successive up move for 7th month in a row. One would like to dig and know what is the secret behind. 

FIFA COCACOLA world football ranking October 3rd 2012

Rank	National team	Points	+/- Pos
1	Spain	1611	0
2	Germany	1459	0
3	Portugal	1259	1
4	Argentina	1208	3
5	England	1196	-2
6	Netherlands	1141	2
7	Uruguay	1140	-2
8	Italy	1106	-2
9	Colombia	1102	13
10	Greece	1029	1

2 Argentina's Di Maria, Higuain and Messi sink Paraguay 3-1 in South American - CONMEBOL World cup 2014 qualifies

Angel Di Maria score the opener with well taken kick just outside penalty box after good combination with Messi and Higuain. Paraguay’s consolation goal came through after penalty kick by midfielder Jonathan Fabbro after hand ball by Rodrigo Bran. Di Maria goal was followed by another Real Madrid players goals, Higuain who displayed fantastic finishing ability. Lionel Messi score the third goal with a well taken free-kick, the goal which adds to his recent good performance for the Argentina national team. Messi has rose his goals tallies to 28 for national team, 10 in the last 6 matches.  

Lionel Messi celebrate after scoring third goal for Argentina against Paraguay. Photo by REUTERS

Argentina topped the CONMEBOL group for FIFA world cup 2014 with 12 points after 6 matches, one point ahead of Chile and Ecuador, two more than Uruguay and 3 more than Colombia.
Argentina vs Paraguay goals summary
Ángel Di María - Argentina (2')  1-0   
Jonathan Fabbro - Paraguay (penalty 17')  1-1
Gonzalo Higuaín - Argentina (30')  2-1   
Lionel Messi - Argentina (63')  3-1

South American world cup 2014 qualifies: Argentina vs Paraguay video highlight of all goals  
Video by ShivDes357

CONMEBOL
No	National	P	GD	Pts
1	Argentina	6	9	13
2	Chile	6	1	12
3	Ecuador	6	1	12
4	Uruguay	6	4	11
5	Colombia	6	4	10
6	Venezuela	7	-3	8
7	Peru	6	-4	6
8	Bolivia	7	-5	4
9	Paraguay	6	-7	4

	1st , 2nd , 3rd , 4th - Qualifies for World Cup
	5th - Play-off with a nation from Asia

0 2014 Brazil World Cup: Argentina thrashed Ecuador 4-0 as Lionel Messi shine again

Lionel Messi national team form is improving as he helped Argentina climb to the top of the South American World Cup qualifying group gathering 10 points in 5 games after a 4-0 victory over Ecuador. Argentina is in one group with Chile with 9 points, Uruguay and Venezuela both with 8 points. Two Real Madrid players Sergio “El Kun” Aguero and Angel Di Maria, Barcelona and Manchester City players all scored once in the game.


Lionel Messi impressed by performance as Aguero celebrate his birthday
Lionel Messi had his contribution to two others goals by direct assist and superb run which then lead to assist by his team-mate. Looking satisfied by national team performance Messi said   "We've always searched for the connection with the fans. It was a hard game, but we came through it well. Now we have to use every game to improve as a team.'' And Sergio Aguero was happy to celebrate his 24th birthday with a win ''I'm happy because we won on my birthday,'' said Aguero.

Lionel Messi in Argentina vs Ecuador match Photo newhopper

Messi broke European club goal record of 67 by Bayern Munich striker Gerd Mueller in 1972-73, and a world club goals record of 70 set by Archie Stark of Bethlehem Steel in the American Soccer League in 1924-25 by finishing the season with 73 goals. It is a record which will take a long time to be beated by any player including himself.


Argentina is now on course for the 2014 Brazil World Cup with a new coach Alejandro Sabella after Diego Maradona failed in 2010 World Cup and Sergio Batista had disappointing results in Copa America.


Argentina vs Ecuador goals summary
Sergio “El Kun” Aguero (19′)
Gonzalo Higuain (29′) 
Lionel Messi (31′)
Angel di Maria  (75′)


Argentina vs Ecuador video highlights of all goals



Argentina squad
Sergio Romero; Pablo Zabaleta, Federico Fernández, Ezequiel Garay, Clemente Rodríguez; Fernando Gago, Javier Mascherano, Ángel Di María; Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuaín and Sergio Agüero. Coach: Alejandro Sabella.


Ecuador squad
Alexander Domínguez; Gabriel Achiller, Jairo Campos, Geovanny Espinoza, Walter Ayoví; Antonio Valencia, Segundo Castillo, Cristian Noboa, Fernando Saritama, Cristian Suárez; Cristian Benítez. Coach: Reinaldo Rueda.

0 FIFA World Cup qualification draws for 2014 in Brazil

The FIFA 2014 World Cup has been scheduled to feature 32 national teams from FIFA six continental confederations. Only the host, The 5 times world cup champions, Brazil will be allowed to participate in world cup finals without competing in qualification draw.. Spain, World cup and European Champions will join other 30 national teams in competing for their place in World cup finals.
The preliminary draw of the 2014 FIFA World Cup draw was made on 30 July 2011 at the Marina da Glória in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The 32 world cup place distribution
1. Europe (UEFA): 13 places
2. Africa (CAF): 5 places
3. Asia (AFC): 4 or 5 places
4. South America (CONMEBOL) 4 or 5 places (Brazil host)
5. North, Central American and Caribbean (CONCACAF): 3 or 4 places
6. Oceania (OFC): 0 or 1 place

2014 FIFA World Cup qualification for European zone-UEFA
The road to 2014 world cup for European zone teams will kick off on August 2012 after the Euro 2012. 53 national teams will compete for 13 allocated places for this zone. 9 group winners will automatically enter the world cup finals and eight best runners-up will face play-off for the remaining 4 places.

France recent poor performance pushed them to 15 in FIFA World Rankings world wide and have been drawn with World cup champions, Spain. In the last world cup play-off, France won a controversial play-off win over Ireland to qualify for the 2010 World cup inals in South Africa. France coach Laurent Blanc speaking to French FA's website, he said "At least we won't receive the tag of favourites with the world champions and European champions in our group. It's extremely exciting to compete with the best. It's through such matches that we can improve.''
''It'd be a lie to say that we're in an easy group. But we will focus on our task and France will take its chances as usual.
''Spain will definitely be our toughest opponent in the group. But I have confidence in our team and the goal will be to advance in first place.''