Filed under: European Soccer, FIFA World Cup, International
UEFA World Cup qualifying yielded a major upset Saturday when Austria rocked France 3-1 in Vienna. After a winless Euro 2008 how much more rope does Les Bleus coach Raymond Domenech have left? France hosts Serbia Wednesday in need of a result. Andreas Ivanschitz is your hero for Austria, scoring from the penalty spot and playing a part in the other two goals.
Elsewhere, England needed two second half tallies from Joe Cole to spare the blushes against Andorra in a game that the Guardian described during its live blog thusly:
"Dear God. England are awful. The team are booed off by their own fans. In Andorra. Again. That it's come to this."
England fans might not out-and-out hate their team, but it's getting close. three Lions captain John Terry saying, "There's a fear of failure," before the match doesn't help things.
Other noteworthy results include Scotland losing 1-0 at Macedonia. Israel coming back from a two-goal hole to tie Switzerland 2-2. Italy needed an injury time tally by Antonio Di Natale to win at pesky Cyprus 2-1 and Spain got a goal from Euro 2008 Golden Boot winner David Villa winner to beat Bosnia 1-0 at home after missing a penalty kick earlier in the match. The biggest pure upset might have been Lithuania romping 3-0 over Romania.
In terms of politically charged games, it was hard to top Turkey winning 2-0 at Armenia. Doubtful a sporting event is going to patch up the ramifications from this event in the 20th Century.
Outside of Europe, Paraguay remained atop the South American table with a 1-1 draw against Argentina in Buenos Aires thanks to a first half own-goal by Gabriel Heinze.
The U.S. plays at Cuba in a couple hours. If you're stuck in front of a computer like me, ESPN 360 is airing the match.
