November 2005 in Sports - 16 November 2005 (Wednesday)

16 November 2005 (Wednesday)

• Football: 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification (qualifying countries shown in bold):
  • Intercontinental playoffs, second leg:
    • Bahrain 0 – 1 Trinidad and Tobago: Trinidad and Tobago win their first-ever appearance at the World Cup Finals via a 2–1 aggregate score, though neither side looked like that they would be anything but easy targets for the major nations.
    • Australia 1 – 0 Uruguay: Australia wins the penalty shootout 4–2 to reverse their play-off defeat by Uruguay four years ago. Mark Schwarzer saves two Uruguay shots, and John Aloisi fires in the clincher to send the Socceroos back to the World Cup for the first time since 1974.
  • European playoffs, second leg:
    • Slovakia 1 – 1 Spain Spain advances on a 6–2 aggregate scoreline.
    • Turkey 4 – 2 Switzerland: In a pulsating match, Turkey almost recover from their first leg two-goal deficit and conceding a second minute penalty, with a hat-trick by Tuncay Şanlı, but Switzerland qualify on the away goals rule. Things turn ugly after fights break out between players in the tunnel leading to the locker room at match's end.
    • Czech Republic 1 – 0 Norway: Petr Čech's clutch goalkeeping and Tomas Rosicky's 35th minute goal leads the Czechs to bounce the Norwegians from the competition and clinch the final spot for Germany 2006, winning 2–0 on aggregate.
• Canadian football: The Canadian Football League and Canadian Interuniversity Sport announce that Toronto's Rogers Centre will host the 2007 Grey Cup and Vanier Cup. It will be the first time since 1973, when the Vanier Cup was known as the Canadian College Bowl, that the two Cup games will be hosted in the same city on the same weekend. (TSN)