FCBARCELONA.CAT

02.09.2008 12:24

Objective: World Cup 2010

Jesús Carrillo

The fifteen Barça first team players on international duty are now with their national squads. Most of them have World Cup 2010 qualification matches ahead, the exceptions being Piqué and Pedro, who have European Under 21 Championship matches.

The country with the greatest Barça representation is Spain, who have taken Iniesta, Puyol, Xavi and, at the last minute, Bojan Krkic, and who take on Bosnia in Murcia on September 6. Bojan, following his late call-up by the Federación Española de Fútbol, trained alone and will definitively be joining Vicente del Bosque’s squad on Tuesday. The Under 21 side will play Kazakhstan and Russia.

Europe

The other Barça players are comfortably settled with their own teams. Henry and Abidal will be involved in the start of France’s attempt to win a place in South Africa in 2010 as they face tricky opponents in Austria and Serbia. Eidur Gudjohnsen, meanwhile, will play for Iceland against two other northern European countries, Norway and Scotland. There is an optimistic mood in the Icelandic camp since Olafur Johannesson was named as their national coach. Iceland have never qualified for a major tournament, and with Holland also in their group they have a difficult task ahead of them, but recent Icelandic form has been good, and the Nordic side have a good outside chance of springing a surprise.

Meanwhile, Alexander Hleb’s Belarus start their campaign against Ukraine and Andorra in a group that also includes Croatia and England.

Africa

Keita, with Mali, and Touré Yaya, with Ivory Coast, have just one game each. The former Sevilla man is up against Congo, while the ‘Elephants’ face Mozambique. Both the sides with Barça interest have started their campaigns solidly, and are expected to be among the teams going into the final African group stage.

South America

Having won Olympic gold, Argentina now return to focusing on their marathon World Cup qualifying campaign. The ten-team group continues on the 6th, with Argentina facing current leaders Paraguay first. Messi’s side then play Peru. Martín Cáceres and Uruguay have got off to a poorer start in the group, and will be in desperate need of points against Colombia and Ecuador this week if they wish to keep their qualification hopes intact.

Central America

Rafa Márquez also has games this week as Mexico play back to back games against Jamaica and Canada. The Mexicans got their campaign off to a winning start against Honduras.