(Editors note: This entry is from Richard Farley, who will soon have SB Nation's new World Cup blog up and running. Here's a great example of what you can expect regularly)

Wednesday, we will see the field for the 2010 World Cup field completed, with invitations to be handed-out after the six matches spanning Africa, Europe, South America and (by extension) Central America. Each contest is a rematch of a game played on Saturday, and with the except of the Algeria-Egypt playoff in Khartoum, each is the second of a two-legged tie.

While consumed with the drama of these matches, the weekend prologs have me confused about the role of coaches. We see legendary names (Ireland's Giovanni Trapattoni and Russia's Guus Hiddink) and highly criticized figures (France's Raymond Domenech and Portugal's Carlos Queiroz) but this weekend, there was no correlation between those reputations and results.

France beat Ireland, but it is not that Domenech was better than expected or Trapattoni lacked acumen. Both managers performed to expectations on Saturday, yet France leaves Ireland with an improbable lead, one of many results that has me wondering how much influence the managers - the figures we draft as main characters in these dramas - actually have on the final scores. Let's start at Croke Park, where Raymond Domenech got his set-up wrong.

When planning for Ireland, you know that their back line (with players like Richard Dunne and John O'Shea) will be disciplined and stalwart, yet lacking in skill, speed, and athleticism. Without the individual brilliance of Franck Ribéry (absent because of injury), France's best approach would have been to use the wide play of Florent Malouda and Sidney Govou to stretch the back and find Karim Benzema, Thierry Henry and Yoann Gourcuff in front of goal. Instead, Domenech started a very narrow lineup that play to Ireland's strengths.

France started Henry along with fellow strikers Nicolas Anelka (on the right) and Andre-Pierre Gignac (pushing the line), keeping Malouda and Govou on the bench. The result was an inept attack that created no real chances despite holding the ball for upwards of 70 percent of the match. France leaves Croke Park up 1-0 on a low percentage shot that beat Shay Given thanks to a fortuitous deflection off Seán St. Ledger's ankle. Domenech's mistakes were rewarded while his opposition's tactical superiority will be forgotten. 

Trapattoni's set-up not only kept France at arms length but also created three great opportunities to get a goal. The best of those was a Liam Lawrence shot on an open net (in the first half) that was blocked at the last moment by Patrice Evra.

You can argue that without quality finishers (save Robbie Keane), Trapattoni should not have relied on so few opportunities, but Ireland was still the better (though more unfortunate) side. Trapattoni and the Irish were hard done.

You also have to feel for Matjaz Kek - Slovenia's coach. Grossly out-manned against a quick and skilled Russian side, Kek has his team ahead of the game in the first ten to fifteen minutes. Then the Russians settled-in and dominated most of the match despite some curious decisions from head coach Guus Hiddink. The Dutch boss elected to start Yuri Zhirkov at left back even though Zhirkov has been unfit to play for Chelsea.

Roman Pavlyuchenko got the start at striker although the lanky marksman has rarely played often Tottenham while Aleksandr Kerzhakov, nominally Hiddink's first choice, was available. Hiddink also sat right wing Vladimir Bystrov, who has scored six goals in his last eight domestic matches for Zenit St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, Kek had his team playing hard in defense while showing willingness and aptitude on the counter. It's what you want to see from an out-manned side: that their coach has convinced them that playing hard will be worthwhile.

Kek received satisfaction when a 87th minute goal got the Slovenes within one, gave them a critical away tally, and doled out a measure of retribution for a coach that got the better of his opposition. But while Kek got some reprieve, Trapattoni received none, and both of their sides are down a goal for their second legs.

And yet, Raymond Domenech and Guus Hiddink made questionable decisions and see their teams in front. Of course, France and Russia are vastly more talented than Ireland and Slovenia, so do we make too much out of coaching, tactics, and preparation? How can Domenech and Hiddink get it so wrong while their results end up right? Consider some other observations about coaches who will be at the touch line on Wednesday:

• Portugal's Carlos Queiroz is no Luis Felipe Scolari. We all knew that when the former Metro Stars coach took over for the Brazilian last year, but Queiroz spent the entire qualifying cycle giving us more reason for doubt. He took a team with the attacking talents of Cristiano Ronaldo, Deco, Nani, and Simão and turned them into plodders - truly one of the most boring teams in the region. Against non-Malta foes in UEFA's Group 1, Portugal averaged 1.1 goals per match. Against a suspect Bosnia and Herzegovina defense, Portugal got only one goal and notably pulled their attackers early from the match (despite this being a two-legged affair). Queiroz's suspect decisions throughout qualifying have been forgiven by this playoff birth and a 1-0 lead headed to Zenica, but against a Bosnia and Herzegovina side that averaged 2.5 goals per match in a group featuring Spain, Turkey and Belgium, it was a mistake to manage as if one goal could be enough.
• Egypt's Hassan Shahata underestimated Africa's Group C and thought he could get through qualifying without his best attackers. Whether it was to discipline them or to exclude them for fitness concerns, Shahata went out of his way to make sure Amr Zaki and Mohammed Zidan were left out of the team. But as qualifying went on, Egypt searched in vain for goals, and Algeria took control of the group, Shahata relented, calling Zaki in for Round 5 and Zidan in for Saturday's dramatic win in Cairo (where Zaki had the first goal). Shahata misjudged his group, yet he was bailed out on Saturday (getting unfortunate help of an attack on Algeria's team bus before the match). With Wednesday's playoff being in Khartoum, Sudan - what is likely to be a pro-Egypt venue - Shahata is on the verge of being bailed out by the same players he tried to exclude from the team. The only silver-lining is that Ahmed Hassan - the 34-year-old old midfielder who captains this team - could get to the World Cup, a reward for helping to carry this team through an unnecessarily difficult qualifying.
• Oscar Tabárez was out of coaching for four years before re-taking the reigns for Uruguay. He was the coach who led the Uruguayans to the World Cup in 1990 and was brought back into the program after the avoid a repeat of 2006, when Uruguay lost to Australia in a playoff that went to penalty kicks. Early in qualifying, Uruguay looked destined to avoid the same fate as they consistently sat in the region's top three (with four nations getting automatic births). Then came an embarrassing loss at Peru in Round 15 that put qualification in doubt. Though the Uruguayans would get an inspiring result in Round 17 at Ecuador, they would lose the win-and-in match in Montevideo against rival Argentina. Now Uruguay, possessing one of the top strike-duos in the world (Diego Forlán and Luis Suárez) are in a playoff with Costa Rica, and although they took a 1-0 lead out of Saprissa on Saturday, the inconsistency of the talented Uruguayans forces me to wonder if Tabárez can make them relevant in South Africa.

Is it any mystery that players determine results? France won. Russia won. Uruguay won. These are all very talented sides, particularly when compared to their playoff opponents. Sometimes analysts like myself try to look through the cracks and find a jewel of wisdom, but there may be times we try too hard.

We think if we put enough shine on a rock, we can make it look like a diamond.

But it's one thing to see how Giovanni Trapattoni is superior to Raymond Domenech and another to think that difference will be decisive. Portugal versus Bosnia and Herzegovina? I don't know who is more talented, so maybe Carlos Queiroz's conservative approach will be decisive.

Greece versus Ukraine? Who knows what will decide that. There are matches where the little things will make the difference. Other times, you need to focus on what will happen when the ball is put on the dot, the whistle is blown, and the feet of the players are in control.

Tomorrow, I'll look at some of those players, focusing on players like Ahmed Hassan, Deco, and Robbie Keane - the players who will be most critical to their teams' South Africa aspirations.