CONCACAF has been the low man on the FIFA totem pole for quite a long time. There has been talk of taking away one of their World Cup spots and giving it to a region "more deserving."

That is why I am pretty pleased with the CONCACAF results so far. Of the fur CONCACAF teams in the tournament, three (Costa Rica, Mexico, and the USA) advanced. Costa Rica beat Italy and Uruguay and tied England. Mexico tied Brazil and beat Croatia and Cameroon. The US probably performed the weakest, but they still made it through.

I hope this is a sign of things to come.

Good point. Meanwhile, number of games won by all Asian teams including Australia: 0

Anyhow this regional stuff is just part and parcel of enriching Fifa and spreading its graft and culture of corruption. If it were *actually* a World Cup, and if world football were *actually* a sport, they would simply have a full worldwide tournament. Start with 128 teams and use knockout for the first two rounds, home-and-home games. One round reduces the number of teams to 64. The next round reduces it to 32. Then start your festival round, with groups as now if you must.

Teams ranked from 124 to (as of today) 207 would hold a pre-tournament knockout tournament for the last four ranked spots, number 125-128. Almost every actual sport, as opposed to a gangster conspiracy, has proceeded that way since the invention of the passenger airplane.

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I think the qualification rounds for WC are rather well devised. Take, for example, the dozen significant island nations in the Pacific or the Caribbean. Often, they go through their own preliminary series of eliminations, before they face the bigger countries. It makes sense on several levels, including transportation costs.

I hate to say it, but Asia (including middle east) under-performed, at only 3 points cumulative, for all 3 qualifiers in the nine games they played.

Perhaps an Asian spot should be given to CONCACAF, in fairness, though my gut feeling is Asia should retain 3 spots - in order to encourage Asians to improve their prowess at the game. ...to be more inclusive.

Those Latin Americans are sure good, though.