Confirmed qualified for 2nd Round so far:
Holland, Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, South Korea.
Confirmed knocked out so far:
Cameroon, North Korea, South Africa, France, Greece, Nigeria.
The talks of towns are all about the unusually scrappy and patchy European performance as European countries constitute about half of every World Cup tournament. But as the first World Cup to be held in Africa, and for the first time that Africa have more representatives than South America, Africa are doing even worse than Europe.
The hosts South Africa are already out, as are Cameroon and Nigeria. Algeria and Ivory Coast would need miracles to stay in. Only Ghana is still in it with a good chance. All the talks about host country and host continent advantages seem to go up in smoke.
For South America, Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina are already in. Paraguay and Chile are in driving seats. Looks like all South American countries will qualify.
For Asia-Oceania, South Korea are in and North Korea are out. Australia are merely mathetically still in it. Japan and New Zealand still have a fair probability.
For North America, Mexico are in, USA are in a very favourable position to qualify and Honduras are all but out awaiting formality.
