WORLD CUP 2010 QUALIFYING: Round 2 Roundup

A quick roundup of some notable scores from round two of the qualifiers.

Finland 3-3 Germany: Miroslav Klose saves the Germans from a shock loss in Helsinki with a trio of goals. Why is it that Klose and Lukas Pololski step it up for the national team. As opposed to, I don't know, Landon "lost in the midfield" Donovan.

Russia 2-1 Wales: Time for another wonderful quote from my buddy Josh, "Gareth Bale is Welsh? I honestly didn't know that. But he looks so English.". Gold, Josh, gold. Anyway, Bale's penalty miss opened the door for a subsequent Roman Pavlyuchenko penalty strike and a 2-1 Russia win.

Lithuania 2-0 Austria: Another step forward for the Lithuanians, who move to the top of Group 7 with two surprise wins over Romania and Austria. World Cup qualification may help us remember the Lugans for something other than those god-awful tie-dye uniforms their basketball squad wore in the '92 Olympics.

Iceland 1-2 Scotland: The Scots hold on for a 2-1 victory after going up two goals. Eidar Gudjohnsen scored for Iceland. While Iceland lost the game, they are right up there with Finland for best player names. Gretar Rafn Steinsson, what a name, it sounds like a law firm in a movie set in some kind of strange metallic future.

France 2-1 Serbia: Thierry Henry and Nicolas Anelka each bagged a goal, either saving or prolonging the torture of, depending on how you look at it, their coach, Raymond Domenech.

Switzerland 1-2 Luxembourg: Tired of being known as the place where Europe goes to buy cheap cigarettes and alcohol, Luxembourg notched a late winner to shock the Swiss.

Portugal 2-3 Denmark: Goals by Nani and Deco weren't enough as the Ronaldo-less Portugese fell in a surprise home loss to Denmark.

Spain 4-0 Armenia: Striker David Villa continues his great international form with 2 goals in a rout of Armenia.

Croatia 1-4 England:
One more thing about the England game. Apparently Emile Heskey was subject to racist monkey chants during the game. I will spare you the political rant on small minds and lack of progress in society, and cut straight to the point. This type of behavior needs to be rooted out. Forcing teams to play in front of empty stadiums doesn't seem to be enough of a deterrent, and it punishes the other teams traveling fans. Point deductions from Croatia may not do it either. I think a reasonable solution is to take away the home games for Croatia, or any team's fans that engage in this type of behavior. Take away two or three matches, and with the threat of a year ban from home games with another incident.