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It was a delightful crop of players that stormed the 1994 World Cup, brushing aside Bulgaria and Greece 3-0 and 2-0 respectively before succumbing to the superior power of the Argentinian 2-1.

The Super Eagles however topped their group and qualified for the second round where they played former world champions Italy.

Nigeria was within one minute of qualifying for the Quarter finals of the 1994 world cup in the game against Italy, when Roberto Baggio scored to take the game into extra time. He also scored the winning goal for Italy.

In 1998 France hosted the World Cup, with Nigeria qualified alongside Cameroon, Morocco, Tunisia, and South Africa for a second consecutive time.

With optimism running so high due to the return of most 1994 squad members, the Super Eagles created one of the biggest upsets in football history in their opening game, by defeating Spain 3-2, in a pulsating encounter at the La Beaujoire stadium in Nantes France, where creative midfielder Sunday Oliseh scored one of the best goals of the tournament through a blistering 45 meters cannon from outside the 18 yard box, to beat veteran Spanish goalkeeper Zubizereta, who was forced to go into retirement. That victory propelled the rating of the Super Eagles World wide, and Sunday Oliseh goal was celebrated in major television stations worldwide as a classical masterpiece.

The Super Eagles then went ahead to qualify for the second round with win against Bulgaria 1-0, despite losing their last group match 3-1 to Paraguay.

Their hope of making it to the last eight was shattered by Denmark who walloped the Super Eagles 4-1 in the second round encounter.

The 2002 FIFA World cup co-hosted by Korea and Japan saw Nigeria Qualifying for the third straight time with great optimism.

With a brand new squad and a new indigenous coach Onigbinde Adegboye, Nigerians back home had so many reasons to be hopeful of a good outing.

The Super Eagles were drawn in group F that was then regarded as the «group of death» alongside Sweden, Argentina, and England.

It was an early flight home for the Super Eagles after successive defeat in the hands of Argentina 1-0 and Sweden 2-1.

A scoreless draw against England was not good enough for a second round ticket.

The Super Eagles narrowly missed out on qualification for the 2006 World Cup.

The group’s sole ticket was grabbed by Palancas Negras of Angola, which had a superior goal difference than the Super Eagles.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup which was hosted by South Africa did not go as expected, as Nigeria was humbled 1-0 by a resilient Argentina side which was inspired by Lionel Messi. The goal margin would have been more, but for the heroic of goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama. In their second match, the Super Eagles were once again defeated by an under performing Greece 2-1 before they managed a 2-2 draw with South Korea. The solitary point was not sufficient to take Nigeria to the second round.

The Euro 2012 Championships will be co-hosted by Poland and Ukraine. The tournament is the last one to be 16 teams as the following one in 2016 will expand to 24 teams. Poland and Ukraine defeated Italy and Croatia/Hungary for the right to host the tournament.

The matches will basically be split 50/50 between the two hosts. Polish cities to have games will be Warsaw, Gdansk, Wroclaw and Poznan. The Ukrainian venues will be Kiev, Lviv, Kharkiv and Donetsk.

The final will take place in Kiev which will also have a semi-final. This will be at the Olimpiysky National Sports Complex which after construction will be one of the premier stadiums and sporting complexes in the world. The new stadium in Warsaw is also under construction and promises to be a start of the art venue.

The draw for the tournament has already been conducted and qualifying matches will begin following the 2010 World Cup. Each of the nine group winners and the best runner-up will receive direct entry into the tournament. Following that the other eight runner-up will be drawn into two-legged playoffs.

From Group A you would think Germany and Turkey would be too strong with Austria and Belgium being the contenders.

Group B looks to be a three way race between Russia, Slovakia and Ireland.

In Group C it looks like it will be easy for Italy and Serbia. France is the favorite from Group D with Romania looking at the one to take second.

There is a northern European feel to Group E where it should be Netherlands and Sweden.

Croatia and Greece are the favorites in terms of Group F as are England and Switzerland for Group G.

From Group H it looks like Portugal and Denmark and finally from Group I it would appear to be Spain and the Czech Republic.

Qualifying ends in October 2011 by which time excitement and anticipation for the Euro 2012 tournament will be well and truly underway.

The best is supposed to be what we want, right?

I mean, no one would settle for Detroit when he could have Paris. Only a fool (or a world-class miser) would hold on to his Chevy Metro when he could afford to plunk down $1.7 million for a Bugatti Veyron. And before today I had never heard of Noma, but a lot of people swear this Danish restaurant is the finest in the world and if I had the opportunity to dine there for free, I certainly wouldn’t say, sorry, I’m full.

So why are so many college football fans so darn upset over the LSU vs. Alabama rematch that will conclude the 2011 season on Jan. 9 in the National Championship Game?

Okay, on a very obvious level I get the rancor. Their first meeting – Nov. 5’s breathlessly overhyped «Game of the Century» that ended in a 9-6 LSU win – did not exactly deliver pulse-pounding action, unless you consider the punting game to be the height of athletic thrills.

And there’s no denying that SEC fatigue is a very real condition in non-red states. The conference is guaranteed a sixth straight national champion and, depending on the outcome, LSU will win its third or Alabama will capture its second title in the last eight years. The good ol’ boys have become monotonously monstrous, and their fans love nothing more than reminding the rest of the country of how superior their brand of football is.

Despite all that, there is no escaping this simple fact: LSU and Alabama are the two best teams in college football right now. They have proven that conclusively over the course of the last four months. In short, they have earned the right to play for the crystal football.

The bitter complainers out there – namely Oklahoma State and Stanford – simply don’t have a case. Either could have earned a spot in New Orleans on Jan. 9 but they failed at key moments. Oklahoma State inexplicably lost to Iowa State while Stanford was handled easily by Oregon at home. Sure, Bama lost too – to the best team in the nation, in overtime, by a measly three points, in a game it would have won if their field goal kicker didn’t have the aim of Helen Keller.

Yes, you’re probably thinking, but what about a playoff? If our goal is to have the best, surely that would top having some computers and human voters decide who plays for the crown, right? Well, not necessarily. A four-team playoff would be great. Stanford vs. LSU and Oklahoma State vs. Alabama in the semifinals, with the winners to meet for all the glory – sign me up for that. Any playoff setup larger than that, however, would really start to lessen the importance of the regular season.

Do we really need Arkansas, which got reamed by both LSU and Alabama, competing for the right to say it’s the best team in the land? Or Kansas State, which lost by 41 points to Oklahoma and barely escaped Eastern Kentucky – EASTERN KENTUCKY?! – by three points? Or Boise State, which faced fewer quality teams in an entire season than LSU or Alabama did in a couple of weeks?

It may seem somewhat early to select teams for the FIFA 2010 Grand Soccer World Cup in the beautiful land of South Africa as there are almost six teams which still need to qualify for the event. The teams from Africa who already have qualified are South Africa itself, Ghana, Cameroon, Nigeria and Ivory Coast. The teams from Asia are Japan, North Korea, Australia and South Korea. The teams which qualified from Europe are Switzerland, Denmark, Slovakia, Spain, Germany, England, Italy, Serbia and Netherlands. The countries that still need to qualify are Mexico, United States and Honduras and some matches are still needed to be played in order to get the teams to qualify.

For those people who are really devotees of betting in soccer, you must get as much information as you can regarding the teams so you can have you’re best shot for betting on the FIFA 2010 games. At the moment Brazil can be a wonderful option to place bets on as they are considered to be a talented team for the Soccer World Cup and they always qualify for the World Cup. They also have a strong line up of players which guarantees a strong play from their team in the FIFA 2010 Grand Soccer World Cup. On the other hand if we look into the list of 16 best teams from FIFA then there is Australia whom you can have a lot of hopes from as well.

If you want to be successful in your betting then all you need is information about your team. You cannot be successful unless and until you are getting all necessary information about each and every aspect of the team like injured players, substitutions,etc. This way you can actually predict the winning chances of any team.

You can choose from different types of traditional betting systems like win bets, lay bets and each way bets. People who really take betting as their hobby are the most successful ones in this field of making most out of any kind of event and right now World Cup 2010 is the most important event to make money from.