DownSwinging.com

We are one year away, almost to the day, from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa; the South African team, affectionately referred to as ‘Bafana Bafana’, has only qualified for two World Cups (1998 and 2002) in the nation’s History. However, as per the rules requiring the host nation to take part, the South Africans will be in action one year from now. The Asian qualifying section, one of the easiest regions, has already filled three of its four qualifying slots; with, Japan, Australia and South Korea having already qualified. Meanwhile in Europe, the attacking-minded, Holland have taken advantage of an easy group and qualified themselves. That leaves 27 other nations, currently taking part in their geographical regions’ qualifying round, left to make their summer of 2010 plans official. Lets take a look at which teams should and will qualify, which teams will surprise us when they qualify, and which teams will shock us when they don’t qualify