Football Blog: World Cup playoffs

On it who can forget Ray Houghton's goal against Italy in '94 and Robbie Keane's last minute equaliser against the Germans in 2002.

Not to mention off it, John Aldridge's ruck with a linesman in '94 and Roy Keane's bust-up with McCarthy in 2002.

But after being drawn with France, and losing the first leg, they look set to miss out, and South Africa will be a poorer place without the team and their fans.

Even if they pull off the unthinkable in Paris and win, the World Cup will then miss out on some of the world's best players, with Henry, Benzema, Anelka et al all missing out. It couldn't happen could it?

A World Cup needs the big names, Holland left a big gap in 2002, and if Portugal fail to get through then Cristiano Ronaldo could miss out altogether too. What's a world cup without the world's best player?

But for Portugal to go through, it means Bosnia would not, but if Bosnia made it, a country which was in the throes of war a decade ago, with Dzeko, one of Europe's most coveted strikers, it would really potentially be one of the greatest World Cup stories of all time.

Now of course all the teams are where they are on merit, but I just feel the draw for the playoffs has robbed us of some real World Cup enjoyment next summer, and looking at some of the teams likely to make it- Ukraine, and those that already have, Slovenia, and call me partisan, but I just can't get as excited as I would if Ireland and Portugal went in their place.