The Top Five Players Who Won't Be Playing At The 2010 World Cup

There's no doubt there will be some incredible talent on show at South Africa 2010, but - as with every World Cup - there are some players who are going to miss out. And here are our top five, complete with the obligatory YouTube videos showing how fantastic they are.

5: Edin Dzeko

Because Bosnia lost their play-off match against Portugal, the 2010 World Cup will be without Europe's top striker. Dzeko knocked in an amazing 26 goals in 32 games and helped propel Wolfsburg to the Bundesliga title. He would have been my each way bet for the Golden Boot if Bosnia had made it. They didn't. And here's why it's a real shame:



4: Luka Modric

I may be a little biased as Modric plays for my team, Tottenham, but the Croatia playmaker is a stunning footballer : the ideal combination of skill and creativity. I don't think it's any coincidence that his absence from the Croatia national team due to a broken leg contributed to their failure to reach the finals. Here's a little snippet of Modric genius :



3: Frederic Kanoute

At Sevilla, Kanoute has shown what he always threatened during his injury plagued years at West Ham and Tottenham and that is: he is a consistently dangerous forward. 63 goals in 133 games for the Spanish side is a testament to this. Unfortunately, he decided to represent Mali rather the country of his birth, France. Had he made a different choice, he would almost certainly be at the 2010 World Cup Finals in South Africa.



2: Andriy Arshavin

Russia and Arsenal playmaker Arshavin is currently one of the best players plying their trade in the English Premier League. He combines balance, pace and skill and has an eye for goal. And even better, you can spell his first name a different way every time you write it down. Which makes Andrei Arshavin's absence from the 2010 World Cup all the more disappointing.



1: Mohamed Aboutrika

Another guy whose name you can spell lots of different ways. For those who don't know, Aboutrika is Egypt's playmaker and is an unbelievably skillful footballer. Egypt's loss to Algeria in the play-offs means that, once again, the world won't get to see just how good this guy is. So just check out the YouTube video below and marvel :



Agree? Disagree? Let me know your thoughts.

It's Time To Reorganise Qualifiers

This week, three days before the Scottish Premier League season started, Scotland had to play a World Cup 2010 qualifying match against Norway. They got hammered. 4-0 to Norway.

Also in World Cup Qualifying action were France, Croatia and Germany, not to mention San Marino. I said : not to mention San Marino.

The leagues in France and German started the week before, while the new Croatian season had started three weeks previously.

Norway? Their season started in March and while I accept that a number of their top players play outside of the country, this still gives them a significant advantage.

Surely, FIFA can organise important international matches that don't start a week or two into the new season or even, in Scotland's case, before the season has even started. At international level, there needs to be a level playing field. This isn't it.

Russia Looking Strong, Portugal Pretty Much Gone

Today's European group qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup football tournament taught us a few things.

Firstly, that Carlos Queiroz, the current Portugal manager, is not up to the job. Yeah, OK, it was a friendly and Queiroz rested a few players, but 0-0 against Estonia indicates the man is not capable of leading a talented squad of players to South Africa 2010.

Sweden's 4-0 victory over Malta makes the situation even worse as the two sides are both now on 9 points and well behind Denmark and Hungary.

Secondly, Fabio Capello's England are going to be at the Finals. A 6-0 thumping of Andorra means 7 wins out of 7 and they aren't likely to be caught by either Croatia or Ukraine.

Thirdly, Macedonia's victory over Iceland gives some hope to Scotland. They're going to have to pull it out of the bag to even be in with a chance of the play offs. Now, however, they do actually have a chance and should - hopefully - grab it with both hands.

Fourthly and most importantly, Russia's 3-0 away victory over Finland puts them one point behind Germany in Group Four. And, as all us punters know, betting against a Guus Hiddink side in tournament competitions is a mug's game. Russia could even win this group.