When speaking to colleagues and friends who like their football it is not always easy to find agreement, but in the last few weeks there has been a general unison over one topic in particular. Unless you are French, Portuguese or dare I say a little too diplomatic, almost all football fans were supporting the Republic of Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina for last weekend's 1st leg World Cup play-offs.
The overly diplomatic of you will naturally say that the World Cup would be much poorer for the absences of Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry, Deco, Franck Ribéry, the list goes on. That is a fair point, but it's far from unusual for a World Cup to be missing the odd 'major' international side. Some country that is expected to participate always messes up their qualification.
At least the players I've listed have played in a World Cup, it will always be a great shame that George Best, Ryan Giggs or Alfredo di Stéfano never got such an opportunity. Add to that the fact that Eusébio only played in the 1966 finals and you could say that the French and Portuguese have been quite fortunate in recent times!
More to the point, a lot of football fans will see the absence of the 2 nations as a major bonus for the prospects of their own national teams. With both of them out of the equation before a ball has been kicked in South Africa next summer, any sane supporter will mischievously be thankful.
On top of that is the not so secret revelation that Cristian Ronaldo is far from the most popular player in the World. Aside from those that follow him for Real Madrid and Portugal, it can't be said that Ronaldo has ever really enamoured himself with rival supporters.
Any player who can be so dangerous on the pitch is bound to be greeted with some hostility at away grounds, but Ronaldo has courted the occasional controversy. It was after he got over the habit of being soft on his feet that he developed into the person who is the current FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d'Or holder.
His move away from Manchester United to Real Madrid may have been pre-ordained but it still caused some resentment. The Spanish club is infamous for the way that it often uses the media to manufacture transfers of the high-profile players it wants. Whilst Ronaldo may not be the first footballer to make contradictory declarations of loyalty, there have been some sportsmanship that caused widespread anger.
The obvious example came at the last World Cup and Ronaldo's part in the sending-off of Wayne Rooney during England's quarter-final with Portugal. The Englishman, like others before him, had not helped himself in the slightest with his actions, but Ronaldo's wink filled the criteria of distasteful motivation.
It's the sort of thing that rightly draws ire from football fans, much like the horrendous dive of Rivaldo in the 2002 World Cup. If you don't remember it then just look for it on YouTube. What is most telling is that for all of the skill that Rivaldo has displayed in his ongoing career, when searching for his name on the Internet- that dive comes fourth in the results listing. That perhaps says something for how such incidents can mar or besmirch a player’s career.
Still, this isn't all about the personalities of certain players who play for France or Portugal, it more simply comes down to the competitive edge. The rest of the world had a chuckle when England failed to reach either the '74, '78 or 1994 World Cups, although we really weren't to be that feared!
Plus it's always more fun to be cheering the underdog, although again that has too often been the millstone of an England fan when reaching a tournaments latter stages. The World Cup seems that much more positively bizarre now that we know next summer will see North Korea, Honduras and New Zealand in it, amongst the usual suspects.
You certainly can't begrudge Honduras having their day in the sun, goodness knows the population could do with something to take their minds off a turbulent history. The country has had more than it's fair share of upheavals when you consider hurricanes, floods and political instabilities. I hope that they can match their resolute 'success' of their only previous appearance in 1982, when 2 draws and a 1-0 loss to former Yugoslavia ended their progress beyond the group stage.
Alas after France and Portugal came away with 1-0 1st leg wins, the optimism that 1 or both of them will not make the World Cup is looking flimsy. As fantastic a manager as Giovanni Trapattoni is, France rarely lose at home and the chance of the Republic of Ireland doing so isn't great. Nonetheless it has been done, Scotland demonstrated it at the Parc des Princes during the Euro 2008 qualifiers, and look at them now.
The more likely upset remains to be Portugal. In some respects (like France) they were lucky to secure the 1-0 victory, Bosnia-Herzegovina managed to hit the Portuguese woodwork an extraordinary 3 times as they pressed for the all-important away goal. The return leg will be far from easy to negotiate, Bosnia-Herzegovina are far from shy at scoring at home, their 5 home qualifiers thus far have yielded 16 goals.
Either way these return legs are the final point of no return, the last chance saloon as it were. Let's hope that we see some matches that demonstrate that mentality and generate at a thunderous pace. Most of the world will watch the 2010 World Cup and what it has to offer, but there will be some nations next summer where it will feel strangely quiet, choose your destinations wisely!