England became the first team to qualify for France 2016 and
were followed by the Czech Republic, Iceland and Austria a day later with
several teams teetering on the brink of qualification after 6 days of European
matches. The Netherlands were left in the cold after losing 1-0 at home to
Iceland and being humiliated 3-0 in Turkey and now face an uphill battle to
reach the playoffs ahead of the Turks who will rue their 1-1 home draw against
Latvia if the Dutch prevail. The Czechs earned narrow 2-1 wins at home to
Kazakhstan and away to Latvia while Iceland celebrated their first ever
qualification to a major tournament after a disappointing goalless home draw
with Kazakhstan. Wales kept their fans waiting after drawing blanks at home to
Israel while Northern Ireland, who won 3-1 away to the Faroe Islands, endured
the same outcome in group F after drawing 1-1 at home to Hungary. Romania are
only 3 points ahead of Hungary after a disheartening 0-0 draw at home to bottom
team Greece who had earlier lost 1-0 at home to Finland. Scotland suffered a
huge blow losing to a single goal in Georgia while in group G, after picking up
3 points in a weak 1-0 home win over Moldova, Austria travelled to Sweden who
were reeling from a 1-0 loss in Russia to hammer their hosts 4-1 and qualify for
the Euros. In the same group Montenegro won 2-0 in Moldova and Russia
slaughtered Liechtenstein 7-0 in Vaduz. In group H Norway were victorious 1-0
in Bulgaria before celebrating a 2-0 win at home to Croatia who had earlier
drawn 0-0 in Azerbaijan while Italy could only manage a 1-0 home win over
Malta. Albania held their Danish hosts to a goalless draw before returning home
and losing to a stoppage-time goal against Portugal who had earlier lost a home
friendly 1-0 to France. Slovakia lost their unbeaten record 2-0 in Spain and
Macedonia lost 1-0 in Luxembourg while little San Marino came close to picking
up an unlikely point but lost 2-1 to a stoppage-time goal in Lithuania.
In World Cup qualifiers in Tonga, American Samoa who had
been seemingly permanently rooted to the bottom of the football rankings,
defeated their hosts 2-1 before turning overt he Cook Islands 2-0 and narrowly
missed out on qualifying for the next round of the Oceania section having been
edged out 3-2 by Samoa in their first match, but relinquished their unenvied bottom
spot in the process. Hosts Tonga completed a miserable campaign also losing 3-0
to the Cook Islands and Samoa. In Asia China and Jordan fired blanks at home to
Hong Kong and Kyrgyzstan respectively while the United Arab Emirates mauled
Malaysia 10-0 in Abu Dhabi and Kuwait spanked Myanmar 9-0 in Qatar. Japan could
only manage a 3-0 home win over Cambodia and Uzbekistan scraped 1-0 past Yemen,
but enjoyed a 5-1 win in the Philippines five days later while the Yemenis lost
4-0 to Bahrain in Qatar. Guam continued to impress with a goalless draw against
their visitors from Oman while there were 4-0 and 3-0 wins for Jordan in
Bangladesh and South Korea in Lebanon respectively and Iraq could only draw 2-2
in Thailand. In the CONCACAF section Jamaica were stunned 3-2 at home to
Nicaragua, but prevailed 2-0 in the return match while Guatemala continued
their dismal form with a 1-0 defeat at Antigua & Barbuda but turned the tie
around with 2 goals in their home match. El Salvador could only manage a 1-0
home win over Curacao but progressed to the next round as did Canada who drew
1-1 in Belize and St Vincent & the Grenadines who lost 2-1 in Aruba.
In the Africa Cup of nations qualifiers Tunisia were
humiliated 1-0 in Liberia and Equatorial Guinea suffered the same outcome in
South Sudan while South Africa were embarrassed 3-1 in Mauritania and Niger
lost 2-0 in Burundi. The Central African Republic shocked their visitors from
DR Congo 2-0 and the Ivory Coast were held to a goalless draw at home to Sierra
Leone while Mozambique fell 1-0 away to Mauritius and Zambia won 2-1 in Kenya.
Congo triumphed 4-2 in Guinea Bissau and Burkina Faso lost
1-0 in Botswana while Nigeria fired blanks in Tanzania and Ethiopia drew 1-1 in
the Seychelles. Senegal won 2-0 in Namibia while a single goal gave Cameroon
victory in Gambia and Egypt enjoyed a 5-1 win in Chad. Angola drew 0-0 in
Madagascar while Guinea drew 1-1 in Zimbabwe and Malawi shared 4 goals with
their hosts Swaziland.
In the Indian Ocean Island Games hosted and won by Reunion,
Madagascar failed to show up against the Seychelles, but finished fourth after
losing 3-1 to Mauritius who had been awarded a 3-0 win against the absent
Comoros in group B. The Maldives finished bottom of group A despite a 2-1 win
over Seychelles having lost 3-1 to Mayotte. In the East Asian Cup North Korea
beat Japan 2-1 in China.
In friendly matches Honduras were 3-0 victors in Venezuela
while Peru suffered a 2-1 loss in the USA. The American later hosted Brazil and
were thumped 4-1 while there were 1-0 defeats for Uruguay away to Costa Rica
and Senegal in South Africa.
Earlier in the summer the United States and Canada hosted
the God Cup. The Americans won their
group but were less than convincing, having began with a 2-1 win over Honduras
and ended their group matches with a 1-1 draw against 3rd in the group Panama
who also progressed to the knockout stage having drawn 1-1 with Haiti in the opening
match. The Haitians finished 2nd in the group with a 1-0 win over Honduras. Jamaica
and Costa Rica advanced from group B having drawn their opening match 2-2 with
the Jamaicans finishing above Costa Rica who drew 1-1 with El Salvador. Guatemala
finished bottom of group C losing 3-1 to group winners Trinidad & Tobago
and 1-0 to Cuba, but earning a shock 0-0 draw against Mexico who finished 2nd
in the group after sharing an 8-goal thriller with Trinidad & Tobago. In
the quarter finals Jamaica put Haiti out with a single goal while Mexico needed
extra time to achieve the same against Costa Rica and Panama needed a penalty
shootout to get past Trinidad & Tobago. The Americans lost their semi-final
match 2-1 to Jamaica and finished 4th after losing to Panama on penalties while
Mexico Defeated Jamaica 3-1 in the final to lift the cup.