The United States won’t play its friendly against Honduras in Miami until Saturday night, but a lot of important games are on the calendar before then. World Cup qualifying begins in South America on Friday, and Euro 2012 qualifying will be over by Tuesday .
The schedule of this weekend’s biggest games is below, but here are a few teams with a lot to gain, lose or worry about:
Argentina gathers under its new coach, Ajeandro Sabella, for the start of South American World Cup qualifying on Friday. Lionel Messi returned to Argentina this week proclaiming that he could not be expected to win games all by himself. As inspiring speeches go, it wasn’t exactly the first five minutes of Patton,” but he had a point. Still, Argentina could use a little from its pocket Pelé: Messi hasn’t scored a goal for his country in its last 16 games, including a shutout in this summer’s Copa América and another at last year’s World Cup. Friday’s opening qualifier against Chile in Buenos Aires would be a good spot to end that drought, and ease the country’s nerves before the fans start grumbling again. “The days of simply pulling on the shirt and getting a victory — they are gone,” defender Pablo Zabaleta said. In that case, extending a different streak will be helpful: according to FIFA.com , Argentina hasn’t lost a qualifier in the Estadio Monumental, the site of Friday’s game, in 18 years.
Germany heads to Istanbul with little at stake but some things to worry about. It has already clinched its group , and now can play spoiler as Turkey and Belgium battle for second place. But it may have to do it with the playmaker Mesut Özil and strikers Miroslav Klose and Mario Gomez, who have been in and out of training. “We are not at their level,” Turkey Coach Guus Hiddink said. “However, we believe we can cause upsets at home.” Turkey is two points ahead of Belgium, so an upset would produce an important cushion, especially since Belgium closes against the Germans on Tuesday.
France is a point ahead of Bosnia Herzegovina in its group, and the teams will meet in Paris on Tuesday. But the French could take a lot of the pressure off that game by beating Albania on Friday. On its face, that does not seem to be too much of a heavy lift, but that was before Coach Laurent Blanc learned that Karim Benzema (groin), Franck Ribéry (calf) and Bacary Sagna (broken leg) would all miss the game. Eric Abidal is also hurting, so France may have to reach deep into its player pool to field a lineup, especially on defense.
England can win its group in Euro 2012 qualifying with a win at Montenegro in its final qualifier, but a loss there could really muck things up for them. Montenegro is six points behind but has a game in hand. If it can beat England, it will be in position to win the group — and send the English to a playoff — if it wins its final game, against Switzerland.
Croatia will visit Greece in Piraeus in the teams’ penultimate qualifier with a one-point lead in their group. The referee Howard Webb will be there to make sure the losing team has something to complain about.
Russia is two points ahead in its group in Euro 2012 qualifying, but three three teams chasing it — Ireland, Slovakia and Armenia — are still close enough to win the group, depending how the results go in the final two games Friday and Tuesday. Coach Dick Advocaat and Russia remain in the driver’s seat, however, since the team hasn’t lost a home game, and it can put things to rest with a win at Slovakia on Friday. Advocaat is hoping that an attack led by Andrei Arshavin, Roman Pavlyuchenko and Pavel Pogrebnyak will produce enough to get past Slovakia, which has struggled to score at all. If not, the Russians have an escape route: their final qualifier is against Andorra on Monday.
Here’s the weekend’s schedule (most teams have another game on Tuesday):
EUROPE
EURO 2012 QUALIFYING
Friday
Group A
Austria at Azerbaijan
Germany at Turkey
Kazakhstan at Belgium
Group B
Macedonia at Armenia
Russia at Slovakia
Ireland at Andorra
Group C
Estonia at Northern Ireland
Italy at Serbia
Group D
Luxembourg at Bosnia-Herzegovina
Belarus at Romania
Albania at France
Group E
Sweden at Finland
Moldova at Netherlands
Group F
Malta at Latvia
Croatia at Greece
Group G
Switzerland at Wales
England at Montenegro
Group H
Denmark at Cyprus
Iceland at Portugal
Group I
Spain at Czech Republic
Scotland at Liechtenstein (Saturday)
SOUTH AMERICA
WORLD CUP QUALIFYING
Friday
Bolivia at Uruguay
Venezuela at Ecuador
Chile at Argentina
Paraguay at Peru
Tuesday
Colombia at Bolivia
Peru at Chile
Uruguay at Paraguay
Argentina at Venezuela
NOTABLE FRIENDLIES
Friday
Brazil at Costa Rica
South Korea vs. Poland
Saturday
Honduras at United States
Tuesday
Ecuador at United States
Ghana vs. Nigeria at Watford, England
Brazil at Mexico
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