Apologies and Remainders

It’s been far too long since my last post and the world as we know it has changed a little bit. Mine has been a tale of woe in the interim (whatever the opposite of serendipity is, that’s what happened to me). Still, bright spots abound and many excitements lie ahead, so we must press onward. Here follows a trio of things to be and remain excited about.

1. Nigeria stay perfect through round 2 of qualifiers
2. The final qualifying group has been chosen, and I cautiously optimistic (see here for explanation)
3. I can now make a list of likely favorites for the African berths in SA2010: Cameroon, Nigeria, Egypt, Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire in addition to the automatically qualified hosts, South Africa.

I qualify my third point by stressing the word likely ahead of favorites. Over the next week, I’ll review and choose the teams that could challenge this list. Off the top of my head, I’d put them at Togo, Tunisia, Algeria, Mali and Guinea; however, in depth analysis of these will have to wait till next week.

Of course, if you think I’m completely off my rocker, feel free to chime in below.