Gary Speed's untimely death leaves us numb

The news of Gary Speed's death on Sunday was devastating.

As a Leeds United fan, I have extremely fond memories of Gary Speed and his contribution to the winning of the last Division One Championship before the Premier League in 1992.

Speed was one of those unassuming players who plied his trade with craft and application while always remaining calm and respectful of his opponents. Therein must lie some of the reasons for his career's longevity.

I remember Speed as one of the talented midfield also consisting of Gary McAllister, Gordon Strachan and David Batty. Speed was a player with poise and elegance and a knack for scoring headed goals that you really didn't expect him to manage.

Amazingly, Speed played until late 2008, with Sheffield United, in his fortieth year. It was a magnificent career of 677 games and 103 goals.

His recent role as Wales manager looked to be turning into a success with four wins in the last five games. We'll never know where Gary Speed might have taken Wales.

The high regard in which Gary Speed was held has been demonstrated by the reaction of neutral fans in the games since his death. Watch out for reactions at Leeds United, Everton, Newcastle United, Bolton Wanderers and Sheffield United when their first home games come around.

We are left with a numbing death of a marvellous player, and the sad mystery of why he chose to take his own life when things were apparently going so well for him.

Tough World Cup draws for home nations

The World Cup in 2014 in Brazil seems an awfully long time away. In Europe qualification for next year’s European Championship hasn’t even reached the business end of operations. Yet the draw for the qualifying groups for the 2014 World Cup took place on Saturday.

England found themselves in a pretty tough group, with tricky trips to Eastern Europe in Ukraine and Poland, as well as Moldova, together with Montenegro, who are proving tougher than expected in the Euro qualifiers, and minnows San Marino. If Fabio Capello though his stint as England manager was awkward, then he’ll be delighted that he’s leaving the hot seat before those trips come up!

As well as facing each other, Scotland and Wales have another pair who’ll have their own neighbourhood squabble – Croatia and Serbia – as well as Belgium and Macedonia. Qualification looks unlikely.

Northern Ireland have a couple of teams that they should beat – Azerbaijan and Luxembourg – but with Russia and Portugal heading the seedings, they’ll need something like a miracle to qualify. Israel make up the six.

Spain got the toughest non-top seeds in France, but there’s nothing at the moment that will worry the Spaniards.

Qualification goes directly to the eight group winners, and the eight runners-up are paired (no doubt on a whim by FIFA) in four play-off matches.

Home nations fail to trouble the scorers

All three home nations in action on Friday night in the Euro 2012 qualifiers failed to score.

Scotland lost 1-0 in the Czech Republic, and now sit second in the group. Already qualification looks difficult with Spain in command, and the Czechs looking a threat.

Northern Ireland got a creditable 0-0 draw against Italy and remain unbeaten after two games. The Italians - in a state of change, with several youngsters now in the team - have made a good start, with seven points from their first three games.

In England's group Wales followed up their 1-0 loss to Montenegro with another 1-0 defeat, this time at home to Bulgaria (their first points). The surprise package in the group, however, seeems to be Montenegro, who have now won their first three games, all by the scoreline of 1-0, and are now, with nine points, three points clear of England.

Tuesday's game at Wembley has suddenly gained a whole lot of significance.

World Cup - eleven qualifiers

Now eleven nations have qualified for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Three nations were added to the list last night (9 September 2009).

These were England and Spain from Europe (both with eight wins out of eight games) and Paraguay from South America who beat Argentina 1-0, which leaves Diego Maradona's team in peril of failing to qualify.

The other eight are:
South Africa
Japan
Australia
South Korea
Holland
North Korea
Brazil
Ghana

Sadly for the UK, Scotland lost 1-0 to Holland and failed to qualify; Wales were already out, and Northern Ireland still have a chance of making a play-off place.