The idea is that potentially, we could come up with a group of Russia, Australia and the Ivory Coast. Or Portugal.

So, below is a quick look at the expected seeding according to his post, and our best and worst case scenarios.

Copied verbatim from that Telegraph article:

Expected World Cup seedings

Pot 1 (seeds): Argentina, Brazil, England, Germany, Italy, Spain, hosts South Africa and France/Republic of Ireland.*

Pot 2 (rest of Uefa): Denmark, Greece/Ukraine, Holland,Portugal/Bosnia, Russia/Slovenia, Serbia, Slovakia, Switzerland.

Pot 3 (AFC + Concacaf): Australia, New Zealand, Honduras, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Mexico, United States
.
Pot 4 (CAF + rest of Conmebol): Algeria/Egypt, Cameroon, Chile, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Paraguay, Nigeria, Uruguay/Costa Rica†

*If Ireland win, Portugal would probably step up and the Irish would go into Pot 2.

† If Costa Rica win, they may go into Pot 3, with New Zealand in Pot 4.

So, England probably will be seeded, which means we avoid Brazil, Spain, Italy, Germany and erm South Africa.

So we’ll get one team from each of the other pots. Pot 2 does look a bit scary. Assuming Russia and Portugal make it through, i fancy neither in the first round. Both have done for us in too recent memory, and both have good sides, despite the fact that Portugal appear to be struggling a bit at the moment. Really don’t want Holland either, and Serbia might go a bit further in this tournament as they have a few good players.

Switzerland would possibly be the best case scenario. I think we could deal with Greece, or despite that qualifying result, Ukraine, pretty well as well.

In Pot 3, I think New Zealand are the weak ones we can hope for. They’ve made their first World Cup since the 80s, and have a Championship striker up top.

Australia tend to do alright at tournaments, and would be fired up to beat England at anything. South Korea and Japan too, usually have a tricky energy at tournaments, Mexico eventually qualified alright and have a few good players, and the USA have beaten Spain.

Not gonna pretend I know loads about all the countries in Pot 4, but I do think that the Ivory Coast might make a break through for African Sides this summer. If they can keep them fit they have Drogba to get them goals, and the two Touré’s, Yaya and Kolo to shore them up behind. They’re a bit unlucky that they are going to get a pretty tough group though, but I hope its not England’s.

Apologies for the predictable headline. But Mr. Ferdinand’s moment of Sunday league defending madness, which led to Robert Green’s sending off and should have led to Ukraine’s first goal (poor Shevchenko put the pen wide) seems to have more or less cost us this game.

As I say seems to, because I didn’t watch. Due to the fact that this game didn’t matter, and wasn’t easy to watch, I decided to catch the hastily arranged Match of the Day highlights. But Sky+ didn’t record it, and so that was the end of that. All I’ve seen is the highlights above, which seem to be from Ukrainian TV and so are understandably very Ukraine biased. Such is life.

So I can’t really offer any opinion about what happened in the game, but can offer this: Maybe it’s not a bad thing that we lost. Bare with me on this…

Our World Cup qualification campaign is still a massive success. To qualify with two games to spare is about as good as it gets for England. But if we’d gone though the group with a 100% record, then we’d probably have fallen under the very English spell of World Cup over-confidence. A spell that’s never broken until we play someone half-decent (like say Portugal) and get knocked out.

So maybe this defeat is a much needed reality check. Yes, we’re good. But we’re not Brazil 1970. We’re a team with a lot of positives, but we’re not perfect.

Still, would be nice to beat Belarus and finish with a win.

For those who weren’t lucky enough to see it live, or for those who did but want to watch it again. Or even for those who want to see what it looked like on Croatian TV (I’m assuming HR2 is Croatian).

Happy days.

It’s the big one. England vs Croatia, and a win means we’ll be at World Cup 2010. A draw wouldn’t be the end of the world, but would be perfect to get it done this evening so we can all start getting excited about South Africa.

No LiveBlog I’m afraid, as England WCB resources are stretched a bit thin today. But please feel free to leave any matchday comments on this post.

Kickoff is 8pm GMT. If you’re in the UK then it’s live on ITV (which is of course a mixed blessing). Outside of the UK, you may have to search the internets. If you’re looking to watch England vs Croatia online then I recommend checking with the good people at myP2P as they usually have a healthy list of sources.

Starting lineup is yet to be announced, but think we can safely expect to see Robert Green in goal (and not Scott Carson, thankfully), Glen Johnson at right back (and I wish him the best of luck vs Ivica Olic) Ashley Cole at left back (no booing) and John Terry paired with Matty Upson in central defence.

Gareth Barry and Frank Lampard will surely be our central mids, with Steven Gerrard doing his “left mid but also drifting inside” thing that’s been working very nicely so far.

Up front I’m hoping/expecting to see Emile Heskey as the target man, with Wayne Rooney enjoying all that space behind him. Jermain Defoe will emerge from the bench at some point and underline the fact that he’s twice as useful as Michael Owen.

Which leaves right midfield. No Theo Walcott, so it’s between Shaun Wright-Phillips, Aaron Lennon and David Beckham. Based on what happened against Slovenia (SWP disappointed, Beckham watched from the bench, Lennon set up Defoe’s goal) I wouldn’t be too surprised to see Lennon get the shirt.

Predictions? I’m feeling optimistic about a 3-1 England victory, and a confirmed place at World Cup 2010.

The short answer is: No. The long answer is: No, at time of writing we haven’t, so stop asking.

But we’re very very close. With seven wins from seven games and a +22 goal difference, something would have to go spectacularly wrong for us not to win this group and go to South Africa in 2010. Steve McClaren himself couldn’t mess this up. But it’s not official. Not yet.

Here’s why: We’re 10 points clear of both Croatia and UKraine, but they both have a game in hand. Everyone plays ten games, so both Croatia and Ukraine have four games (worth a possible 12 points) to go. Put simply, until our lead at the top is greater than the number of points available to the second place team, we’re not officially qualified.

So, how do we get that done then? Simple. Sort of. We play Croatia at Wembley on September 9th and could seal qualification with a win there. But we could even qualify before then, without so much as kicking a ball.

Croatia play Belarus away on 12th August and Belarus at home on September 5th. If they don’t get at least four points from those games, then they can’t catch us.

Ukraine play Andorra at home on September 5th and Belarus away on September 9th. They also need at least four points from those two games if they want to catch us.

So if neither of those teams get at least four points from those two games, we qualify.

If Croatia or Ukraine do take four points from those two games (and they probably will), then we can still secure qualification with a draw vs Croatia at Wembley.

If Croatia or Ukraine take six points from their next two games (which is very possible) then we can qualify by beating Croatia at Wembley on September 9th, which would give us have an unassailable seven point lead. Failing that we’d need points vs either Ukraine away on October 10th (tough game) or Belarus at home on October 14th (not so tough).

So, in the short term we qualify if: Both Croatia and Ukraine get less than four points from their next two games, or
They get four points from their next two games but we get at least a draw vs Croatia at Wembley, or
They get six points from their next two games but we beat Croatia at Wembley.

Here are England, Croatia and Ukraine’s remaining fixtures, just so everyone’s clear.

England:
vs Croatia (home) September 9th
vs Ukraine (away) October 10th
vs Belarus (home) October 14th

Croatia:
vs Belarus (away) August 12th
vs Belarus (home) September 5th
vs England (away) September 9th
vs Kazakhstan (away) October 14th

Ukraine:
vs Andorra (home) September 5th
vs Belarus (away) September 9th
vs England (home) October 10th
vs Andorra (away) October 14th

UDPATE: I completely forgot about Belarus (see comments). They’re currently two points behind Ukraine and Croatia, but with a game in hand. Still all to play for. Here are their fixtures:

Belarus
vs Croatia (home) August 12th
vs Croatia (away) September 5th
vs Ukraine (home) September 9th
vs Kazakhstan (home) October 10th
vs England (away) October 14th

Which makes qualification a little more complicated. Seems the best thing for us would be if Croatia and Belarus draw against each other twice in August and September.

Despite the London Transport strike, nearly 58,000 were at Wembley to see England put six past Andorra.

Unlike vs Kazakhstan, this game had the performance as well as the scoreline. Rooney was impressive as he notched twice, as did his halftime replacement Defoe.

Gerrard was lively in the first half, as was his replacement Young in the second.

Respect also due to Frank Lampard and Beckham, who both kept us ticking in the middle (still a few too many long pingy passes for my liking, but plenty of smart short ones too). Lampard sidefooted home a nice goal though.

Glen Johnson did himself the world of good down the right, and was arguably a bigger threat than Theo Walcott (who did OK, but would probably like to have this match to do over again).

Up front, Peter Crouch gave a decent acount of himself (and scored easily the worst goal of the night), but no doubt that Emile Heskey will claim his place back when qualifying resumes at home to Croatia on September 9th.

[video via 101GG]

It’s the big one! The game we’ve all been waiting for! What’s that? Oh.

OK, so it’s vs the international minnows of Andorra and they’ll almost certainly sit 10 men behind the ball and wait for us to break them down (which sort of worked when we played them in Barcelona). And it’s a game that’s going ahead in the middle the three day Tube strike. The FA are even offering to refund ticket costs for anyone who can’t make it. So don’t expect a big crowd.

But it’s still England, and it’s still a proper international. So we’re still going to LiveBlog it. Join Rob and myself below for blather and banter from 7:45pm (UK time) onwards. Kick off is 8:15pm.

If you’re in the UK it’s on ITV (never thought I’d greet that as good news, but at least it means everyone can watch for free) and if you’re in the USA it’s on Setanta Premium (read: only in pubs) or PPV ($10).

Team news: Apparently Walcott will start, and Glen Johnson might be rested because he’s one booking away from a suspension and Capello wants him available vs Croatia. So the G-Nev himself (Gary Neville for those not hip to how the kids talk these days) could very well get a game.

As for midfield, hard to say what will happen with Gareth Barry suspended and Michael Carrick injured. We could see Gerrard and Lampard re-united in central midfield (garr!, although that could mean Ashley young gets a game on the left) or maybe Beckham playing centrally (hmm?). All will be revealed closer to kickoff.

Predictions? I’m saying 5-0 (to us of course) with Rooney adding to his increasingly impressive international tally (currently 22 goals in 51 appearances, look out Sir Bobby!)

Here’s the video of England’s 4-0 win over Kazakshtan today, with goals from Gareth Barry, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard.

Not a very memorable performance, but it was never going to be an easy game. As Donald commented on the LiveBlog: “Kazakhstan aren’t exactly bad, not Andorra/San Marino/Luxembourg etc bad anyway”. And the pitch was none too pretty.

Quick player ratings (no numbers, just words).

Green, Terry and Upson did nothing wrong, but didn’t really have much to do.

Glen Johnson made that horrible mistake and nearly cost us a goal early on, but also got forward and crossed for Rooney’s goal. Mixed bag.

Ashley Cole looked assured without doing anything too decisive.

Barry and Lampard both got on the scoresheet but didn’t do a great job of keeping possession/setting the tempo. Probably hard to play lots of short passes on a dodgy pitch though.

Theo Walcott look fast (no surprise there) but didn’t create anything. Subbed at HT for SWP (who did OK, even playing 20 minutes or so at right back).

Gerrard did OK from the left and was involved in Heskey’s goal. I think sometimes we expect too much from him though. Rooney ditto. Nice acrobatic volley for the goal though.

Emile Heskey did plenty of work up front, flick ons etc. Hit the post and also finished the second goal with surprising composure (but not really surprising, he does play centre forward for a living) .

So 4-0 away? I’ll take it.

A win at home vs Andorra on Wednesday (which should be much easier) won’t make qualification official, but it should put us damn close.

Only question about the team for Wednesday… with Barry suspended (he was booked today) who partners Lampard in midfield?

The short answer is that Kazakhstan vs England is on Setanta in both England and in the United States.

In England it’s on Setanta Sports 1 (so you’ve either got a subscription, or a friend does, or at the very worst you’ll live near a pub that will have the game on). It’s not ideal, but you should be able to find it with a bit of effort.

And Setanta are at least trying something a bit different with the commentary for this game. According to FrankPR, commentators John Champion and Chris Wadde will be deliberately avoiding the 10 most annoying following clichés (as voted by Setanta.com users)

1. “At the end of the day” (18%)
2. “On paper…” (16%)
3. “A game of two halves” (14%)
4. “This game needs a goal” (12%)
5. “There are no easy games in international football” (10%)
6. “For a big lad, he’s good with his feet” (9%)
7. “A funny old game” (8%)
8. “This free-kick is in Beckham-range” (7%)
9. “Setting out their stall” (4%)
10. “End-to-end stuff” (2%)

Setanta are making a £5,000 donation to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, but with £100 deducted from the total every time Champion or Waddle use a cliché.

Also, following on from their FA Cup Final “Commontweeter” experiment, they’ll have Dan Roan working as a “Reportweeter”, offering tweets from the touchline and tunnel via http://twitter.com/Touchntunnel.

If you can’t find Setanta, there’s always the radio. BBC Radio Five Live will have commentary, but probably only for UK residents.

In the US of A, it’s on Setanta too. But only on Setanta Premium or Pay per View. So you’ll need to find a football friendly pub/bar or cough up the $9.99 PPV fee to watch it on i-Setanta. Not endorsing Setanta in any way, but right now I’m tempted by that latter option.

Still not sure how I feel about streams (are they legal, are they not?) but if none of the above options are feasible for you, then you should also be able to find the game via www.myp2p.eu or www.atdhe.net

And last but definitely not least, Rob and myself will be LiveBlogging the game right here on England WCB: