The Free Kicks Report: World Cup Update

We've concluded another week of World Cup qualifying for 2010 and have 5 new teams booking travel plans to South Africa next summer.

- Brazil & Paraguay clinched top 4 spots in CONMEBOL (South America) with victories this week.
- Ghana won Group D in CAF (Africa) with a 2-0 victory over Sudan. Ghana has been a perfect four for four so far in the group play.
- Spain won UEFA Group 5 with a 3-0 win over Estonia. The Euro 2008 champions took all 24 points from their first 8 games scoring 21 goals and only conceding 2.
- England won UEFA Group 6 with a 5-1 victory against Croatia (who knocked England out of Euro 08 qualification). England also held a perfect record throughout qualification and scored 31 goals in 8 games.

Wednesday night all 6 teams from CONCACAF were in action and produced the following results:
US vs. Trinidad & Tobago: 1 - 0
El Salvador vs. Coasta Rica: 1 - 0
Mexico vs. Honduras: 1 - 0

Based on last night's results this is what we know:

The US & Mexico have guaranteed a 4th place finish at worse, in which the team would enter a home and away series with the 5th place team from South America (current Argentina).
Following their 1 - 0 loss, Trinidad & Tobago have officially been eliminated - the first team from CONCACAF Round 4.
The US & Mexico can both qualify for the World Cup with victories in their next game.

So while the United States' last two performances have been sub-par they have gotten the results they needed in their games, as well as throughout group play. It's nice that the US has a 4th place finish at worse, but right now 4th place is not a place any team from CONCACAF wants to be. At this moment the team that falls into that spot will get the lovely gift up getting to play away in Argentina. The US had a great week overall, but can now spend the next month preparing for the final push toward South Africa which should include finalizing the starting line-up, figuring out which 2 central mid-fielders to pair together, and getting the team to play at a more consistent and higher level.

What are your thoughts on World Cup qualifying so far? How about the USA's games this past week?