Algeria defeats Egypt to qualify for soccer’s 2010 World Cup

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Algeria qualified for soccer’s 2010 World Cup in South Africa today when it defeated Egypt, 1-0, in a winner-take-all playoff game in Khartoum, Sudan.

The decisive goal was scored by defender Antar Yahia five minutes before halftime.

The playoff at a neutral venue was necessary because the teams ended their qualifying group tied on points and on all subsequent tiebreakers.The background to Wednesday’s match was marred by fan violence. Algeria’s team bus was pelted with rocks when the team arrived in Cairo for the final qualifying game last week, and several players were cut by flying glass.

After Egypt’s 2-0 victory on a goal five minutes into stoppage time that forced the playoff, Algerian fans in France staged a riot in Marseilles that included the smashing of shop windows and the sinking of two boats in the French harbor.

Sudanese authorities, expecting trouble today, put an additional 15,000 police on duty, with security especially tight in and around Khartoum’s Al Merreikh Stadium, where capacity was reduced to 35,000.

Algeria last qualified for the World Cup in 1986, when Mexico staged the quadrennial world championship.

The match in Sudan was the first of six decisive qualifiers today that will complete the field of 32 for the June 11-July 11 World Cup, the first to be played on the African continent.

Check back here for the results of the Ukraine-Greece, Bosnia-Portugal, Slovenia-Russia, France-Ireland and Uruguay-Costa Rica matches as they come to an end.

-- Grahame L. Jones