The weekend wrap-up: Internationals!

By: Isaiah | October 15th, 2007

The Barca boys were in action all over the world these past few days and here’s a brief rundown of what happened:

France defeated the Faroe Islands 6-0, with Henry scoring the second goal, an act which brought him level on the all-time France international list with Michel Platini. Eidur Gudjohnson did him two better by scoring twice in Iceland’s 2-4 loss to Latvia and in so doing became Iceland’s all-time leading scorer. Congratulations to two great players who have achieved so much, internationally. And just for the record, Henry has 41 goals while Guddy has 19.

Here is a list of players who are on international duty and the results of their games:

Spain: Iniesta and Xavi both started and went the distance against Denmark in Spain’s 1-3 away victory. Iniesta got the assist for the first goal, scored by Raul Tamudo, while Xavi played a nice 1-2 with Sergio Ramos (boo) to grab the assist on th second. Spain is now second to Sweden, tied on points (22) having played an extra game than the Swedes. They’re 6 points up on second placed Northern Ireland and go to face Finland in a friendly on Wednesday. Video.

Portugal: Deco played all 90 minutes against Azerbaijan and got an assist on the first goal, a header by Bruno Alves. Portugal take on Kazakhstan on Wednesday in an attempt to get within 1 point of group leaders Poland. Portugal is tied with Finland on 20 points, but have a game in hand. Video.

France: Both Abidal and Thuram started and finished France’s match with the Faroe Islands, along with the aforementioned Henry. The team won 0-6, naturally enough, but they’ve got a ways to go to secure a place in Euro2008. They’re 3rd in Group B, 2 points behind Scotland and one point ahead of Italy. The good news is that they’re 9 points head of 4th placed Ukraine. They have another match on Wednesday against Lithuania. (I couldn’t find a good video of the France game, but Henry’s goal was very slick)

Iceland: Gudjohnsen scored twice against Latvia and will face Lichtenstein on Wednesday. Iceland is well off the pace swet by Spain and Sweden in Group F and I’m pretty sure they’re out of it. Goal.com quotes Guddy as saying, “This record was going to be broken sooner or later but I would rather have got three points for the team than beat it,” which is a pretty good thing of him to say, I suppose, but congrats to him anyway, even if he doesn’t want it.

In Spain’s U-21 match against Poland, Ray Hudson’s “little baby,” one Bojan Krkic, scored the second of Spain’s two goals, his being in second half extra time. Sweet. He’s already back with Barca, by the way. Video of the goal.

Moving on to World Cup qualification in CONMEBOL…

Argentina: On Saturday, Messi and Gabi Milito took part in Argentina’s first WC2010 qualifier. Juan Roman Riquelme scored both goals in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Chile at Estadio El Monumental. Messi was apparently good and hit the posto nce, but Riquelme’s freekicks were absolutely brilliant. Good to see the albicelestes off to a good start. Check out Linda’s brief post on the game here and a video of the goals here.

Brazil: Ronaldinho played against Colombia on Sunday, but even with a man advantage Brazil couldn’t come up with the goods, drawing 0-0. Brazil was even outshot by Colombia 6-5 and Pinto’s red card came in the 20th minute. Wild. Brazil play Ecuador at home on Wednesday.

Mexico: Gio Dos Santos played in Mexico’s 2-2 friendly draw against Nigeria. Kevin Zalaya gives you the low down. On wednesday, Mexico has another friendly, this time against local rivals Guatemala.