Honduras, Chile and Ecuador Qualify For World Cup 2014, While Mexico Scrape Into Playoffs: Nightly Soccer Report

On a surreal night of CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers, Mexico lost 2-1 to Costa Rica but still managed to qualify for the World Cup playoff match against New Zealand after the United States came back from 1-0 down to beat Panama 3-2. To put it mildly, Mexico are extremely fortunate to still even be in consideration to play in the World Cup next summer after being outplayed by Costa Rica.

In the other World Cup qualifying news tonight, Honduras, Chile and Ecuador qualified for FIFA World Cup 2014 next summer. Uruguay, meanwhile, despite beating Argentina 3-2, will play in a playoff match against Jordan to try to qualify for World Cup 2014.

Honduras qualified for World Cup 2014 with a 2-2 draw against Jamaica, getting the point they needed to cement third place in the CONCACAF group.

In the Panama-USA match, it appeared that Mexico would be out of the running for World Cup 2014 when Panama were 2-1 ahead, but the US Men’s National Team grabbed two late goals from Graham Zusi and Aron Johannsson to gift Mexico a trip to New Zealand next month to keep their dreams alive of qualifying for World Cup 2014.

The countries who have qualified for World Cup 2014 are now Brazil, United States of America, Iran, Australia, South Korea, Japan, England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colombia, Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Spain, Italy, Russia, Honduras, Belgium and Germany.

Here are tonight’s world soccer news headlines:

International soccer

• Mario Balotelli and Italy squad banned from Twitter at World Cup after striker called an ‘imbecile’ — Telegraph
• Switzerland seeded for World Cup draw, Sweden woe — ESPN FC
• England’s Michael Carrick the anchorman who set Three Lions free — The Guardian
• World Cup 2014: All you need to know about finals in Brazil — BBC Sport
• England fans in rush to buy tickets for 2014 World Cup in Brazil — Telegraph
• Egypt coach Bob Bradley says he hasn’t been fired after 6-1 defeat to Ghana — Planet Futbol
• FIFPro will urge members to boycott the 2022 World Cup if it is not moved to winter — The Mail
• The Impact of FIFA World Rankings — The Politics Of Football
• Wales make Harry Wilson their youngest ever player and prevent England pinching him — Telegraph

Premier League

• Thibaut Courtois not interested in returning to Chelsea to deputise for Petr Cech — The Independent
• Premier gains: the English Premier League’s international rights haul — Sports Pro
• Swansea give John Toshack’s son Cameron a coaching position — The Mail
• Malky Mackay has won a power battle over transfers at Cardiff City — The Telegraph
• Darron Gibson faces months on sidelines after injury in Ireland win over Kazakhstan — The Mail

La Liga

• Gareth Bale to play for Real Madrid against Malaga in La Liga — The Mail

The Nightly Soccer Report is tomorrow’s news today. It’s often tomorrow morning’s worldwide newspaper headlines that are published the night before. We do all the work for you, combing the Internet and aggregating the news for you. Read The Nightly Soccer Report on World Soccer Talk every night before bed, so you can stay on top of all the news that matters.