[dfwgator]

Interesting that Israel didn't miss WC participation by much this year, finishing third behind France and Switzerland in their European preliminary group

When did Israel become part of Europe?

[Tolik]

Soccer-wise? Always.

[kevkrom]

43' YELLOW CARD 13 BOUAZIZI Riadh (TUN)

2nd Tunisian caution puts a second man out for the round of 16 if Tunisia manages a win today...

Spain is up 1:0 right now, no info on who or when.

[RodgerD]

Israel's neighbors don't play well with others.

So for international soccer, basketball, and pop-music contests...Israel is part of Europe.

[scrabblehack]

Yes, could someone explain the preliminaries?

According to http://eur.i1.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/i/eu/fifa/do/sloen.pdf

Europe gets 14 slots
S. America gets 4.5 slots
Oceania gets 0.5 slot
Africa gets 5 slots
N. America gets 3.5 slots
Asia gets 4.5 slots

Now there was a playoff between Australia and Uruguay before the tourney...and I assume one between a North American team and an Asian team as well. But for 2010, Australia is switching to Asia? (Will Oceania still get 0.5 slot? I would hope so.)

Also, I understand that the number of slots in the next tourney depends on how teams do this time...when Cameroon did so well back in '90, Africa got another slot for '94...

I see that Guyana, Surinam, and French Guiana (French Guiana is colored North America, but it is not listed as actually having a team) are considered "North America," while Kazakhstan (part is east of the Urals, so I'm OK with that), Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkey (part is attached to mainland Europe, so I'm OK with that as well), Cyprus, as well as Israel are considered Europe as well.